Latest / Veteran Wellness Podcast / Green Beret to Global Entrepreneur | Travis Rolph

Transcript

Green Beret to Global Entrepreneur | Travis Rolph · Veteran Wellness Podcast

• Travis Rolph: I had more stress in business than I ever had in the military. And then combat has its own stressors that you deal with. But in business, especially when you own the business, the only person to blame if it fails is the guy in the mirror. ERIK LAWRENCE: Travis, how the hell Travis Rolph: Yes, sir. ERIK LAWRENCE: are you? Travis Rolph: Good. Good. How are you, Eric? ERIK LAWRENCE: Well, you're wearing my favorite shirt, but I would have it on also, but it's in the laundry right now. So somebody who made Travis Rolph: Okay. ERIK LAWRENCE: those only gave me one blue one. Travis Rolph: We could have twinsies. ERIK LAWRENCE: So I know, yeah, well we could only be so lucky. I'd be the good looking one. But Travis Rolph: Yep, for for sure. ERIK LAWRENCE: so what are you doing? What's going on? Travis Rolph: right now, yeah, I transitioned out of velocity a couple years back and became a silent partner in that and transitioned offshore and got into international logistics. And it was an ERIK LAWRENCE: Nice. Travis Rolph: easy jump. I say easy, nothing's easy in the international business world. but it was an easier transition because I had done international for velocity for fifteen years. So ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: understanding, you know, import export, ITAR, Department of Commerce. those types of issues and because there's always issues with them, there's always something you have to figure out. it made it a a good transition. And so those businesses are all based in Panama right now. And for a multitude of reasons, but the Panama Canal is there. So and we're in a free trade zone. So when you look at 74% of all US import and export goods went through the canal last year. we're in a position on the Pacific side of the canal to, send and receive stuff, especially in a free trade zone where we can bring it, hold it, ERIK LAWRENCE: Mm-hmm. Travis Rolph: assemble it, then kick it out without paying duties on it until it hits its landing spot. So it's a we're we're in progress of ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, no, that's that's a great plan, great idea. But it takes a long time to set up. People think it's a light switch. No, it takes a long time to organize all that and get your connections tightened up. Travis Rolph: For sure. Finding the right employees, finding employees that that wanna work. it's a different culture down there. Panama has four independence days that they celebrate and they celebrate them all in November. So for the entire month of November, nobody works more than three day work weeks. So if you cut out the first one being technically Monday and the last one being Friday, that means they'd work one day a week. So ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: yeah, it's it's a different, culturally different environment and it's not as easy as, you know, just going and And starting an L L C is in the US. It's a little bit more ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: involved. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Well let's start with where you grew up and how you got in the army there, 'cause it it's an entertaining tale. Travis Rolph: so I was all over the map. my father was both Army in Vietnam and then got out of the Army after Vietnam. And he had gone into the Army with two years of college, was a warrant officer, a pilot, got out in the Marine Corps at the time, took two years of college for a full commission. So we went in the Marine Corps and flew for another 18 years for the Marine Corps. So that being said, you know, I was born in San Diego, but I don't think I've ever lived in San Diego more than like a year or two at a time. Lived in Oceanside California, Southern Texas twice, the panhandle in Florida once. I went to high school in Okinawa. So I I grew up around the military and having the benefit of seeing it firsthand, even as a teenager, knowing I wasn't gonna go in the Marine Corps, because the Marine Corps at the time ERIK LAWRENCE: Ha ha. Travis Rolph: wasn't a guaranteed contract either. It was, you know, you get your needs of the core. And I was like, no, I want to be special operations downstream. And I'm not gonna go needs of the core. So, you know, when you go to the army, you get your contract. And so I went in on an airborne infantry contract and and did that for five years. And then, you know, selection Q course and everything following that. So I kind of had a an atypical childhood going from location to location. Some of them I did twice, like Oceanside, I did twice and South Texas, I did twice. So going from going to elementary school with kids, then you don't see them for four years and then you come back and now you're a bunch of grades forward and you're like, I remember you. But the the opposite of that too is you're always the new kid going into school. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: until you go to a department of defense school like in Okinawa, then everybody's a new kid because everybody's transitioning there. Nobody grew up there. so I it kind of a different childhood that probably led into made it a little bit easier for some of the things I did later in the military. I I grew up like I flew home from Okinawa by myself. I flew to other countries in the Far East by myself in as a teenager. So, leaving basic and AIT and jump school all back to back and sitting there with guys going, I need to fly home, but I don't know how to make a ticket. And I'm and back then there's no internet. So it's like, pick ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: up the phone, you pick at the yellow pages, pick which airline you want to fly on and call them or call multiples and, you know, price compare. And you're like, that's how you do it. And I'm like, yeah. But growing up in that environment, it's just doesn't everybody do this? And then you realize later on that ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: no, everybody doesn't do that. And everybody doesn't go to foreign countries as a teenager, not on vacation, but to go see them and and live in them. So yeah, kind of a atypical childhood, I guess. and then that led going into the military. And I spent five years in the eighty second. And including the first Gulf War and you know, from private through E five P in the same platoon and then went to selection ERIK LAWRENCE: Wow. Travis Rolph: from there. So yeah, kinda ERIK LAWRENCE: What year did you go to selection? Travis Rolph: ninety two and ERIK LAWRENCE: For me, yeah. Travis Rolph: so ninety two popped out of the Q course in ninety three and then fifth group at the end of ninety three. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. that's after they'd figured Travis Rolph: Mm-hmm. ERIK LAWRENCE: out selection a little. I think I went ninety or ninety one and it was still a little a little vague on what what's going on, you know. Travis Rolph: I think back then it might was it even selection yet or was it S F O T? Okay. ERIK LAWRENCE: It just was. No, it just was. It was like two or three. And I'm telling you they had brown bags with sometimes nasty sandwiches in and stuff. And I'm like, this this has gotta be part of it, you know. Yeah. Well they Travis Rolph: Yeah. Yeah. ERIK LAWRENCE: smoothed it out, so it's much nicer now, I'm sure. And that new Chow Hall they got a McCall, I mean people dream of that. So Travis Rolph: Yeah, I went the first time I went to McCall to the compound out there was 1989. I went to Sear School then. And that was back when the tar paper shacks were still there. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yep. Travis Rolph: all the food came out in mermite cans. There was no chow hall. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: the big magic shitter out there was just being built, but we couldn't use it yet because the the plumbing wasn't right. so yeah, it was I I think both of us were lucky enough at our timelines, especially early SF. But there was still a lot of Vietnam era guys there. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: I I know when I got to my first company, well, A in the 82nd, I still had like first sergeants, sergeant majors, battalion commanders were all Vietnam era guys. Then when I got to SF, I think I had six Vietnam Air guys in the company still, from company sergeant major down. So I think four Maxog guys. ERIK LAWRENCE: gosh, yeah. Yeah, the early nineties, yeah. Travis Rolph: Yeah. So there was still, and then you went up from there, and it was, you know. Every sergeant major almost was a from company level up was a Vietnam era guy through, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: you know, some of your really senior majors, your all your lieutenant colonels. It was just, yeah, kind of a different environment than it was later on. And but those guys were all at like the twenty five year mark in their careers and the guys who'd stayed for a while. So they they rapidly transitioned out of there. Like within a year or two, most of all of them were gone. So ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, but there some of them were legends. I remember when I left nineteenth to go to first, one our active duty advisor was an old SOG guy, and he's like, hey, meet up with this sergeant major out there and he'll hook you up. It was Walt Hetzler. Travis Rolph: Yep. ERIK LAWRENCE: So I walked into Walt's company and I'm a new kid. I never, you know, I I I'm like 21, dude. And there's this old guy with his Gore-Tex on asleep at the the B team desk with his feet up on the desk. So I I slap his feet and I'm like, hey, where's where's Sergeant Major? And he he looks around confused and he stands up and he sticks his head down the hallway. He goes, Where's that fucking Sergeant Major at? And the guys stick their head out and they're laughing. And he unzips his jacket, he goes, that's me, son, how can I help you? I'm just like, fuck, what am I into? He took Travis Rolph: You're like, shit. Yep. ERIK LAWRENCE: me over to the battalion sergeant major, said, I've known Eric his whole life. He looks at the team board, he says there's an opening on four three for a combo guy, he'd be great over there. And Pennington knew it was fucking lying, wrote me on the board and I was on a team. It's like you can't do that Travis Rolph: Right on. ERIK LAWRENCE: anymore, man. These guys were legends. Funny guys. Travis Rolph: Yeah, I rolled in. I'd same thing. Company Sergeant Major was a Mac Sog guy named Ernie Jensen. And we called him Combat Ernie. And 'cause he was by that point in his career, he was already having a little bit too much TBI probably. And and would forget mid sentence what he was talking about. But he I sat down with him, it was me and my friend Todd Wilhite, we'd come out of the Q course together and we sit in his office and he goes, Which one of you could swim? And we were like, Well, we both can't, Sergeant Major. And he was like Which one of wants to go to dive team? And I put my hand up first and he goes, All you're going to dive team, you're going to a mounted team. Todd was like, fuck, that's bullshit. And he ended up going to a dive team later on. but yeah, it's day one, straight down the hall to a dive team. Two weeks later, I was in pre-scuba. A week after that, I was in scuba school and I wasn't in group, you know, two and a half months and had a bubble already. And I just thought, ERIK LAWRENCE: Wow. Travis Rolph: you know, I was young and and dumb. It was like, you know, coming out of the 82nd of the out of the infantry. It's like go do this. Yes, Sergeant. Go do that. Yes, Sergeant. I didn't realize that that shit was supposed to be hard and that everybody wasn't going to do it. I just thought, okay, this is freaking normal. You know, these this school really sucks. But okay, I did it. And that put me on the path. You know, I dove for my entire SF career and capping it out as the group dive officer at fifth group. And but I, you know, went into SF, you know, knowing what it was, obviously it'd been around, you know, in the eighty-second. And at that time that Fort Bragg was the epicenter for fashion, music, and everything special operations. but you know, seventh group was there, third group had just stood up at ERIK LAWRENCE: Mm-hmm. Travis Rolph: later on. Swick was there. So you saw SF guys every day. I'd gone to PLDC and B knock with SF guys, and so it was a you knew what we're getting into, but still when you get into the game, then it's just like go and do it, go and do it. It was like, Yes, Sergeant, okay, and go. So Yeah, and different too when you're you're talking to dudes who my dad was in Vietnam, and I'm all guy across the hall was a a ranger company guy in Vietnam. And he's imparting words of wisdom and you're like, Yes sir, yes sir, just soaking it in. not ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: questioning whatever he's saying. It's just a different environment than it is now, I think. Pre social media, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: pre everything. So ERIK LAWRENCE: I think we were very fortunate. I I think. Travis Rolph: Yeah, for sure. ERIK LAWRENCE: Very fortunate. We we we there's some great guys. And back then when SF stood for self financed and there was no budget and you know, you had to kinda like self entertain, you know. get really, really inventive on on getting something done team wise. Travis Rolph: I remember my first team sergeant was a guy named Steven Jacobowski, trusty guy, great guy, but we would go do stuff like nothing on the training schedule for the day, and this is pre-computers. So we'd take out a yellow legal pad, write a note to the sergeant major that, hey, we're gonna go train in this training area, and tape it to the sergeant major's door. And we'd go out there and it was I was a junior weapons, my senior weapons was a guy named Randy Rhodes. And team starting to come to us and go, hey, we're gonna go to this training area. You guys know where it's at, right? Well, yeah, we know about where it's at. We're good. It's like, but we didn't coordinate that with with post or range control. He's like, I don't give a shit. People see us, we're not doing our job. But it was like, okay. So it's like, throw your web gear on, grab the rubber ducks out of the can and and pass them out, and we'd hop in our in our cars and park offsite a little bit so there wouldn't be a cluster of vehicles sitting at this training area and walk in and just go patrolling. And practice team SOPs and stuff like that. no coordination, no nothing, not knowing if, another unit's actually out there training. And there was a couple of times we bumped into some people, but it was like, well, just stay hidden, let pass, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: but those days are, you know, long gone. Now you get fired and wasn't on the training schedule twelve weeks in advance. What do you think you're doing? So ERIK LAWRENCE: Did you do a risk assessment? who who who approved this, Remember when those came around? Travis Rolph: Yeah. Yeah, we did. We looked at each other and it was like, Yep, this is good. Keep going to ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, I remember when they star when we got that first laptop in the team room, we're like, what the hell do we need that for? Yeah. Travis Rolph: Blue and black screen and you're like, what how do how does this thing work? ERIK LAWRENCE: Well, you hit print three hundred times and then sooner or later it'll all come out of the printer, you know. Oops. Yeah, we're a bunch of chimps. Yeah, but you did like twenty Travis Rolph: yeah. ERIK LAWRENCE: six years, didn't you? I mean, something like that. No. Travis Rolph: No, I did 20. twenty and some change, but ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: I and then you know I did some work later on too. But if you total all of it out, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, yeah. That's what I was lumping in there. Travis Rolph: yeah, if you total it all out, it's probably close to 30. But no, I did I did the five years in the 82nd Q course language school, and then I was in fifth group for 13 and a half years and or just under 14, I guess. And I was lucky enough I was only on two teams my entire career. ERIK LAWRENCE: Wow. Travis Rolph: one as an MCO, never went to SWIC. and those were the days where they took into account that guys were getting burned out, getting divorces, and guys could volunteer to go to SWIC. It wasn't, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: you but you've been here three years, it's time to go. ERIK LAWRENCE: Kick you out. Travis Rolph: so I spent my entire career at fifth group and never left. And a lot of my peers did the same and unless they asked to go or they went off to a special mission unit or something like that. And But I did seven years straight on as an NCO on a dive team. Then I went to A15, which at that point was no notionally the CIF. I rolled in, we were still a dive team, and I went to the warrant course and and came in as a team leader. I was a W1 team leader. and then did another six and a half years there. And I was there when the the charter was actually signed, making us a CIF under JSOC. And then ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, to go into a unclass explanation of a CIF Travis Rolph: basically your SIFs are regionally orientated. first group, Okinawa, C one one. seventh group kind of bounced around. They were C three seven was in Panama, then they were at Rosie Roads in Puerto Rico, and then now I believe they're based in Florida. And then third group has a sif. tenth group is C one ten is in Stuttgart, wasn't Bad Tolts and moved to Stuttgart. But they're all regionally orientated. So if something happens in the region, say when C three seven was in Panama, if something happened in Latin America, they would be the first response because they're hours of flight time. And as the National Mission Force is standing up and it takes them, you know, they assemble, they fly, but they have the tyranny tyranny of distance. You know, they're they're limited by flight ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: hours, how f how quick they could get there. So as the CIF, you were first on scene. containment and then hold for the National Mission Force to come in. And then there was a a procedure that happened in the middle there and they either kept you around or or kept you in certain roles or said, hey, no, we got it. And then you'd back ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: off. The the main mission that happened all the time though was all of the regional engagement with all the host nation counterterrorism units. So a a constant so being in the Middle Eastern CIF, we engaged, you know, with a I think I've been to every country in the Middle East except for three. And we would go there and engage with their national mission force. And, you ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: know, everything from, you know, simple marksmanship, depending on their abilities, all the way up through, you know, multi-level, multi-structure, explosive breaching, you know, multiple in entry points, you know, the whole top to bottom. It just all depended upon their abilities, how well they were funded, how well they were maintained, their attitudes. and also there's political considerations in there too as ERIK LAWRENCE: yeah. Travis Rolph: to what we would train, what we wouldn't train. was that was that nation on the bubble? Was it a hundred percent on our side? which, that stuff can change quickly, so worldwide. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Well, I was on the in the CIF in Okinawa and with the Pacific, it takes people forever to get there. So, Travis Rolph: yeah. ERIK LAWRENCE: based in Okinawa, you're a couple of hours from everywhere. So that we had some that was back in the day that was the best missions to be on for sure. it was actually, you know, during a peacetime, it's like the only thing that's even fairly realistic, to be, you know, actually you might hax have to do it. Now you had to ride the pager and all that bullshit, but but it stands doesn't it stand for commanders and extremist force or something? Travis Rolph: It it did. It it originally ERIK LAWRENCE: And they've changed all that now. Travis Rolph: Yeah, it stood for Combatant Commanders in Extremist Force. Then they changed ERIK LAWRENCE: Okay. Travis Rolph: it to Commanders in Extremist Force. Then they changed it to Crisis Response Force, the CRIF. Then it changed I right now I'm not a hundred percent. It it changed name and they have a different mission now, similar but different that I don't know how open that mission is. And then I think they're gonna go back to a hybrid of that current mission as well as the C team mission. there was some political maneuvering within the different commands as to why things have changed. but they were long after I retired. So now it's just ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, I can't keep track. Travis Rolph: talks with friends. Yeah, it's hard to keep track of it not being in it. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah they Travis Rolph: it was a kind of a that was a great mission set to be in. I actually I probably did more deploying in the nineties on a dive team than I ever did after the GWAT though. the GWAT became very regimented because now they're deploying the majority of the force and it got on a very rotational basis. where we were doing 120 days in, 120 days out, which wasn't bad, unless you had to go to a school that took up the most of that 120 days in the middle, and then you were just gone, gone, gone, gone. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: but in the nineties, during the Clinton era, and and not to get political about it, but you know, that the Democrats don't want to tell anybody that we're in countries, the Republicans will tell you right up front we're going to kill people. When ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: Clinton was in office, we were deployed nonstop. And in ninety-five ERIK LAWRENCE: yeah. Travis Rolph: and ninety-six, I went 20 months straight tax-free and combat pay. And we weren't at war. So but those were three weeks here, four weeks there, six weeks here, three months in Kuwait, back. three weeks in Bahrain back, just a constant grinding. And I wasn't complaining because I was single and I was just banking the money. So and and ERIK LAWRENCE: I was gonna say you're stacking coin, buddy. you're stacking coin there. Travis Rolph: a large proportion of those were all per DM trips too. So it was just banking the cash. ERIK LAWRENCE: Boy, that that was hard to do back in the day. You you'd fight for per diem, yeah, we just didn't have a lot of money. But I guess, you know, the certain elements did. but with that, when GWAT started, you were pretty much balls deep in the start of it. You beat me by a about a half a year or so. Travis Rolph: We were I was in Kuwait when it happened. back in the late nineties, up until about two thousand one, we had an embedded package because fifth group sift didn't have a forward element. So at any given time we had two teams embedded in Kuwait on the parallel to the the standard fifth group Kuwait rotation for cause from the first Gulf War until OIF kicked off, there was always at least one company in Kuwait. And We were over there as the embedded package separate from that company in case something happened CT wise in the in the region. So ERIK LAWRENCE: Got it. Travis Rolph: we re-deplo it happened. at the time we were working with the Kuwaiti Counterterrorism Force and we were doing everything from CQB and tube targets to diving with them because they also had a maritime mission because they only had one force. And so we we wrapped that up a couple of weeks, came back to the US and a month later we flew moved forward and The fifth group SIF was the only one in fifth group that didn't go with Task Force Dagger in the North. we went ERIK LAWRENCE: Really? Travis Rolph: with Task Force K Bar and we based out of Masera Island with JSOC. And so JSOC went off, did their own stuff. myself and one other guy were the first two from the company on the ground. And we went into what was at that point objective rhino before it became Camp Rhino. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, Rhino, yeah. Travis Rolph: that was in the first couple days of December. So we were As the CT element, we we weren't a a UW team going in and working with the guerrillas. We were going in specifically to set up a base of ops to do direct action special reconnaissance task. So me and another friend of mine, we flew in two trucks, we did the ground movement up the next day from Rhino into Kandahar, and one of our UW teams had taken it that day. And we rolled into Kandahar Airport when it was still broken glass everywhere. you had to sweep the glass out of the so it wouldn't pop your thermorast when you went to bed. So and then, you know, over about a month period we flew in the coalition. So on that that trip worked with everybody from NZSAS to Australian SAS, the KSK, the Canadian JTF2, kind of a menagerie, the Danes, the Norwegians. and we had like this little multinational element. off to the side at Kandahar. And this is when it's still, run down buildings. It wasn't what it turned into years later. And, ERIK LAWRENCE: yeah. Travis Rolph: you know, if if the say the Kiwis went out on target, then we would be the QRF. If we were out on target, maybe JTF2 was the QRF. You know, we we did some joint stuff. We did some, you know, mutually supporting stuff and and did that for several months there. And and then we redeployed from that. And I say redeployed loosely because we went back to Asira Island and then we launched everybody out from there. We put guys in Yemen. We put guys in, we put a full troop into Qatar in case they were going to redirect and go somewhere else. we put myself and one other guy went to Djibouti and we did the initial stand-up for Camp Le Monnier, which at the time was a sleepy French D mining and UN D mining camp. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Mm-hmm. Travis Rolph: then, you know, that exploded into what it is today in a massive, you know. presence there. But I think my friend and I went in there and stayed in the Sheridan Hotel and that was a bizarro too because I took French in high school but learned farsi and Arabic for work. And they would speak in a mix of English, French, and Arabic all in the same sentence. Because they, you know, French colony forever, but you know, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: a lot of Arabic influence, it's you know, Eastern Africa, to you know, English thrown in there as well. So I'm kind of bizarre. And that led, that it was the kickoff of the GWAT and it went. so you know, stupid facts. I was one of two guys, first guys on the ground from the company in Afghan. I was the first ground force commander as a W one for the first mission A one five got in Afghan. Then fast forward to going into Iraq, I was the first ground force commander for the first mission that A one five got into Iraq as well. W two at that point. And then and then that co of course kicked off Iraq of I was in Iraq in three, four, five, and six, and then throw in a couple extras in there back in Djibouti in O three. I was in Yemen for three months in three, just kind of a a menagerie of nonstop. So ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, you were definitely busy. Ground force commander is a WO one. I bet Moholland loved that, huh? Travis Rolph: Yeah. Big John, you know, you you worked with him in Oakie, I think, and ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: you know, he either loved you or hated you and you knew it right up front. He's not ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: the kind of guy that you know, if he doesn't talk to you and ignores you, he doesn't like you. So yep. Yep. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, all totally. Yeah, you knew where you stood with him. Yeah, he w he he's good at ass chewing though, but he'll he'll he'll bring you back around if he still likes you after the ass chewing. Travis Rolph: for sure. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. I I'm sure he's getting a little dated, but I think he's still around. Travis Rolph: I saw some pictures of him yesterday. He was at the twenty fifth anniversary at at World Trade Center. And yeah, he's he's ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, I did see that. Travis Rolph: he's walking with a cane now and yeah, he's I mean he's got a few years on us, so ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, that's true, but he he was always he always had knee issues back in the day too, so I'm sure that's gotten no better. now while you were doing all this stuff, I mean w what I I loved that you you were the gear guy, man. You you you you're my seamster, you know, when when I need something seamed. Travis Rolph: Yeah. so you know, backwards in time, when I went to the Q course, I went with a guy named Neil Ivory. And Neil you know, he finished Q course, he went to seventh group, he ended up getting out. He was one of the two guys that formed Paracleete. And ERIK LAWRENCE: I didn't know that. Yeah. Travis Rolph: so, you know, I had already knew how to sew. And then every time I would go back to to Fort Bragg for a school. if it was possible, I would stay at Neil's house. And because we had been roommates when I went to language school, we'd been roommates. And I would go crash at his house in a spare bedroom. And then whenever in the school, if we had a four-day weekend or a three-day weekend, I'd roll out to Paraclete in the early days and see what they were doing. And, you know, basically kind of refined my skills because sewing's easy. You just sew in a straight line and you're fine. It's the conceptualization of putting a pocket on top of a pocket on top of a pocket and not sewing it all together so it works. And, you know, understanding the dimensions, the steps, the tolerances. if you're going to put something in it, it can't be exact. Otherwise it's so tight, especially if you have any shrinkage. but conceptualizing all that, and I learned that out there with Neil, because it was it was Neil and a guy named Tim D'Nuzio, which Tim when he sold Per Paraclete later on, he owns the the Paraclete wind tunnel. Up in Rayford, which I believe ERIK LAWRENCE: okay. Travis Rolph: is a a very lucrative business for him. So ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, I would think. Travis Rolph: but so fast forward a bunch of years, you know, as I'm going back and forth, I'm seeing everything that they are doing for other units, especially you know, the national mission units that that's at Fort Bragg, because they were doing a lot of work for them. And, you know, especially when I rolled into the CIF and you know, similar mission sets in the CQB side. that I had the benefit of seeing equipment that they were working on. And then I could roll over there and either we would purchase it from Paraclete, or if we didn't like that we had something specific because of the desert, then I started, I got a sewing machine and I started making custom kit for guys in the truth, making my own stuff to start with. And then guys would be like, I like that. Could I want that. And, that mutated into okay, I'll make 24 of these, but I've got a day job. So 24 of them you'll see in a month, because I'm basically ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: making one or in a sequence of them and this step tonight, this step tomorrow night, you know, kind of spacing it out. which of course then that rolled into I was designing kit for a couple of other companies. And then when I became the at the end of my career, I was the force modernization officer for fifth group, which I was the first warrant NSF to take that position. It had been a major's position. ERIK LAWRENCE: Nice. Travis Rolph: they wanted to transition that major back into the group staff. in his primary role. And so I stepped in and I think Doug Bell, who was tenth group force mod, him and I were within a week or two of each other. So I claim I was first. He might have beat me to it, but we were within a week or so of each other. but that when I hit that job, I cut ties with it with industry just so there couldn't be any claims of, you know, you know, nepotism or or conflict ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Conflict. Yeah. Travis Rolph: of interest or anything like that. So Which then that rolled into forming a company later on. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, Mayflower. I I've got some of the original stuff i somewhere in my storage. you've always taken care of me on that and I've got so many different versions. I it's it's kinda like, you know, going through your closet to see what you're gonna wear. Travis Rolph: Yeah, it everything started off with Mayflower of very purpose-driven. It was all stuff that I'd been asked to do. Like the very first product I did was a refinement of a product that I had done earlier. I had made them custom and then I'd made them for another company. And I didn't like how they came out in production, but I didn't have control of production because it was another company. And excuse me. I then refined that. because i everything in in manufacturing is a is is a compromise between, you know, you can make it perfect and then the cost goes higher. Or you ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: can aim for a cost and get it the best you can within those parameters. Because you can have the best item out there, but if nobody's gonna buy it because of cost, then you're kind of ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: you're not you yeah, they're cool, but you're not selling any. So I refined my initial UW chest rig that I think my first sale was when they stood up fourth of the fifth and they bought four hundred or four hundred and fifty of them was ERIK LAWRENCE: Wow. Travis Rolph: my first sale. And then that followed up with JTF two. I did a custom chest rig for their recce element guys through a guy who at the time was the the NCYC of their Recce element for their national mission force, which you I'm not gonna say his name, but you know him. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: him and I worked together on it and they ended up they bought fifty of them right off the bat. And so my first two sales, I was like, man, this shit's easy. you make some kit and you sell it. And and then, you know, then reality sets in and you're like, ERIK LAWRENCE: Whatever. Yeah. Travis Rolph: yeah, okay, it's a slog for every, you know, sale. And when I formed my company, I didn't take anybody's money. So one, because I wanted to retain a hundred percent creative control and direction control and everything. And so when I would run out of money, I just went back into the system and I taught in a special access program like thirty-five days at a time. would take that money, dump it back into the company coffers, and then move forward on some stuff. And and then it just that after about a year, year and a half of, work a little bit, work company, work a little bit, work the company. Then it grew out of that where I was turning enough volume that I didn't have to supplement it. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: and that then it kind of took off from there. And I think the the reputation grew early on, I think because all of our products were very mission focused. And at that point ERIK LAWRENCE: Mm-hmm. Travis Rolph: there weren't a couple companies out there. You know, you had Eagle, London Bridge, Paraclet, of course, and ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Eagle. Yeah. Blackhawk. Travis Rolph: all Blackhawk, you know, and most of those at that point, like London Bridge and Eagle, were focused on the big contracts. You know, they were turning out all the SFLCS, the the the Naval Special Warfare load carriage systems. some of the other special mission units stuff, they were turning out bulk. So there wasn't we were kind of the niche company that slid in and we're turning out very purpose driven stuff. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, near custom. A and you you you brought the denier down too. 'Cause that stuff used to be bulletproof. It's like, okay, but it's heavy You know. Travis Rolph: Yeah, we Yeah. Yeah, we immediately went from a thousand D to five hundred D, which cut weight. And my goal and and as I was designing, kind of backtrack a little bit as I was designing more kit when I was still active, you know, when I when I hit my mid thirties to later thirties and I'm keeping up with guys who are twenty five, you know, climbing over walls and going through windows. Yeah, you can keep doing it, but it was like, okay, I'm cutting weight, I'm figuring out. how I can shed some weight off of what I'm wearing. And and that did it. I started making lighter, lighter weight equipment and cutting corners on pieces that didn't need it. You know, do you does this need to be three layers thick or can it be one layer thick? And looking at it like, you know, more holistically as part of, you know, we trademarked, I believe we still have the trademark on Tactical Athlete. And that was treating, you know, the the special operations forces as tactical athletes. And you know, that was before the Thor program came around and where they're holistically now nutrition, you know, training, everything being treated that way. But at that stage, I was treating it like your kit has to be ergonomic, it has to move with you. It has to, you know, complement you, not hinder you. And that then the brand grew. And then at a certain point, I'd already partnered with Velocity Systems for production. And We were partnered and if they sold armor, it had my carriers on it. If I sold a carrier, it had their armor in it. And it just made sense at that point to merge. And so I retained and I still own Mayflower for research and consulting outright, but we merged and I became a partner in Velocity for equal value of what my ownership or what Mayflower was worth at the time. And then ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: I'm still a partner in Velocity. And that lasted, or continued. I was an active partner up till a couple of years ago and then I stepped back and was just ready to to do something else. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Well, you know, this is health and wellness kinda angle we're working at, but you were kind of ahead the the military tactical athlete, you know, because we used to be a bunch of knuckle draggers and you just sucked it up and you carried the hundred and however much in your ruck. You didn't care how much your ruck weighed before you put anything in it. Same way with your LBE. I I mean we just did it. But when you Travis Rolph: Yeah. ERIK LAWRENCE: started doing it, via Mayflower's concept is to trim it down to go why do we need what? And what's the bare minimum we can get away with to bring the load down. And ounces matter. I used to cut my toothbrush in half, dude, We'd cut a pencil in half. you know you remember Travis Rolph: yeah. And it you literally when going to the Going to the field nonstop in the 82nd really was like, you know, you get handed your your 10 MREs and you're like, I'm not gonna I don't even like that one. ERIK LAWRENCE: Ha ha ha Travis Rolph: so you started trimming stuff then. And then, you know, three, four, five years into going to the field nonstop, you're like, Do I need that? Okay, packing list I have to have this, but do I need these things? No, let's freaking cut that stuff out. So ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, 'cause look at the wear and tear on us. I think y you have all your original joints, right? Travis Rolph: Yeah, I haven't had anything replaced. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, we're rare. think of all of our buds. They all got new hi knees, hips, shoulders, spines. Who knows? and you you were doing them mentally retarded ultra marathons. You know Travis Rolph: Yeah, I did a couple of years. I did about five years in a row of I was doing unsupported ultras where, you know, in the week long so ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Insane distances. Yeah. Travis Rolph: it's like you know, like the the 175 mile range where you're carrying everything for the week on your back. It's a set set course every day, but the only thing they would supply is the medical coverage, the route, and then water. And because they're all desert races. And but you're responsible for your food. your hygiene, your clothing, inclement weather, all of that. And that also the mentality of that also fit into because I always say those races were you could break it into thirds. There's a third mental, a third fitness, and a third planning, because any one of them would sink you. And you know, because if you mentally can't go out and do a 50 mile day, you you you can't just go. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: if you don't plan nutrition nutrition wise, that will sink you as well. And if you didn't have at least a base fitness level plus the mental ability to go do it, that'll sink you. but on the planning ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: phase, I got those week-long my racing weight, I think the last long one I did, what was I at? 15.8 pounds for a week, not counting water. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Brutal. Travis Rolph: so when you count in, you know, minimum 2,000 calories a day, and my body doesn't run on 2,000 calories a day. So I would have, you know, about 2,500-ish. But it was broken down to when I started the last day, I had enough for every checkpoint that I was going to hit and that was it. down to, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: you're taking electrolyte replacements and sodium replacements. And I had those counted out because there was a I had a a routine, you know, to trim time at checkpoints where, you know, when I could see the checkpoint, I'd have a goo, I'd take a couple S caps, which were electrolyte replacements, and they cut down on slosh in your stomach. slam whatever water I had left, roll up, dump my trash, refill my water, slam a half a bottle of water, refill it, and boom, I'm gone. And I was in and out in under ERIK LAWRENCE: Wow. Travis Rolph: two minutes. Because if you say you have six checkpoints on a on a marathon level day and you spend 10 minutes at each, that's an hour. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, I know. Travis Rolph: so everything about that was planning down to how you're gonna what your speed is, you know and it and it was no different than, you know, target mission planning or dive planning or business planning, it it all was the same thing. It was just super more refined into I'm gonna do these steps nonstop. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And that, you know, I I never didn't finish a race. I had my first one, I was completely eat up. My crotch was raw, my heels were gone. bad planning on my part, but it was not knowing exactly, you know, running through sand dunes in Utah is not the the most advantageous I think ran through the Pink Coral Sand Dunes State Park, about three or four miles straight of sand dunes. And and that was ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, that'll eat your feet alive. Travis Rolph: and that was about two thirds of the way into a fifty plus mile day. So, yep. ERIK LAWRENCE: Nice. Travis Rolph: And but so you know, understanding what the the route, you know, route or routes could be, planning around them, and then just planning out the day. And So that was just an extension of military planning, business planning, and it gave me something to do. And those are 10-day adventures. But they were also you know, no cell phone, no emails, no text, you know, all I had to worry ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, true. Travis Rolph: about every day was point A to point B. So it was basically a mental reset, a mental and physical reset. because going into those races, the prep time, you know, I would eat very healthy, I wouldn't drink. And then you you're basically you're sweating every single thing out of your body on a desert race like that. you're a ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: hundred percent clean and you your body keeps burning. Say I would only lose maybe five pounds on a race, but in the subsequent, ten days, fifteen days after, I would lose another five to ten pounds because your metabolism has spiked. Yeah, you just ERIK LAWRENCE: Well you cleaned it up, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Travis Rolph: you've you've spiked this and now your body's slowly getting back to readjusting. So but ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. That's an active detox. I didn't think of it that way. Travis Rolph: it's a hundred percent mental and physical. Cause you're literally burning ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, no doubt. Travis Rolph: everything in your body. as well as mentally, all you have to do is focus on one thing. yep. ERIK LAWRENCE: One thing. Go. Yeah. Travis Rolph: Yep. So it was ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, that makes great sense. I I didn't think of it that way. I just thought you were mentally unstable. Travis Rolph: Yeah, and it it was literally a it was a break from work, a break from everyday life, you know, break from stressors. And and you know, being in business because you've owned many successful businesses, the the I had more stress in business than I ever had in the military. You know, military wise, you ERIK LAWRENCE: in a heartbeat. Travis Rolph: you you deal with personalities, especially in SF, you deal with personalities. I had a my team going into Afghan, Iraq. And Iraq in 03 and 04, we're all extremely senior. going into the CIF is generally all senior guys. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, yeah. Travis Rolph: I remember being on the ground in 04. I had a new captain. I had a team sergeant E8. I had another guy who was an E8 who had gotten promoted right as we were deploying. And I had all E7s that were in the primary zone for E8. And I was a W 2. And there were times when If you have too junior of a team, you have to guide them, you have to teach them, you have to, navigate everything. With all senior guys, they've all every one of those dudes had four or five combat appointments. So they're all giving good input. But at the end of the day, as a leader, you have to ERIK LAWRENCE: Too much. Travis Rolph: step up and go, shut the fuck up. This is the way we're gonna do it. You know, yeah, that's a good idea, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah. Travis Rolph: but we're only picking one out of your 10 ideas. And and you you have those stressors, but those aren't really stressors, those are picking the right course of action and executing it. And then combat has its own stressors that you deal with. But in business, especially when you own the business, the the the only person to blame if it fails is the guy in the mirror. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: And and there are so many pitfalls in business that can sink you. You make the wrong decision like in our case of you overorder materials because if you lean forward, this customer's a sure thing. They've told you a hundred times it's going to happen. And you make the mistake of leaning forward for them and then they just quit calling and you call them and go, Hey, where's this your thing at? well, we're going a different direction. well, fuck you. I just ordered yeah, I just ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah, been there, done that. Yeah. Travis Rolph: ordered five hundred thousand dollars worth of fucking material for you that I'm gonna sit on now for the next five years. And so, business has its own. Yeah. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, yeah. And we're not trained to do it. W yeah, we were swagging all that stuff, man. You know, I mean we had, you know, good principles, but we had no specifics in dealing with stuff like that. Dealing with vendors, dealing with employees, you know, not having executions every Friday morning, you know. incredible amount of stress. So I c I could see your your mental detox and it's definitely I mean that's like more aggressive than water fasting, probably. because you're eating up anything Travis Rolph: yeah. ERIK LAWRENCE: your body doesn't need. so yep. Travis Rolph: Yeah, your intestines are clean, your stomach's clean, your pores are all wide open because you're literally sweating every it's like sitting in a sauna ERIK LAWRENCE: yeah, they're yeah. Yeah. Travis Rolph: all day. When you do a desert race and it's 95 to 105 out during the day, and you're doing a minimum of a marathon every day, you know, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: and then throw a double marathon in the middle somewhere. Yeah, you're you're sweating every single thing, everything you put in, you're sweating it out. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: and then there's you know, there's also other things, hyponitremia that can happen where You stop peeing, you're you're low on salt and you start bloating. There's all these other things that you have to be a aware of and stay on top of. And so you know the planning aspect of those, but it was also a planning aspect of that was a break from work reality of I can take my focus on something that's not work for you know, this month leading up to this race and then go execute this race. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: And So, and that's one of the reasons I stepped back in velocity was mentally I was just getting too stressed out. It was crushing ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: me. and and you know, you deal with personalities, people you work with. You also deal with, I think the the year before I stepped back, I had done 17 trips that year, and I think 12 of them were international. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, you're international, yeah. Travis Rolph: so I there were years, I think one year I went to the UK six times just because we had. And then throw on going to Nuremberg, Germany for the show there, going to ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: Australia, New Zealand, Colombia, you know, France, Sweden, just this non-stop litany of of travel after travel. And then throw in, you know, SHOT Show, A USA, being in the office quarterly, meeting customers when they come to the office. I remember one day, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, I don't miss it. Travis Rolph: no, not at all. And I remember one day I was in, I'd gone to Bordeaux, France for a special operations straight show there. I'd taken an overnight train to Rome, Italy, right outside of Rome and flew Messino for a special operations trade show there. I flew home to Nashville. I was in seat number two. I say goodnight to the flight attendant. And the next morning, my wife and I are flying to Fayetteville for a friend's retirement. And we were in seat number one, same plane, same flight attendant. She looked at me and goes, weren't you here last night? And I was like, weren't you? And she was like, touche, what would you like to drink? And and I was brain dead for that weekend because of ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: falling back eight hours in time, completely jet lagged, on a two weeks overseas. Well, now I'm on a completely on a different time schedule. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: it was for another friend, Eric's retirement. And I was just mush. I couldn't function because I was so tired. And and that's when you know it's too much. And then that was not too long after that. I stepped back and was like, Okay, I'm done. I I gotta take a step back on this. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Well we we've gotta self regulate that and and also I always say your buddies gotta call it too, going, Hey dude, w what the hell are you doing? i is a juice worth the squeeze, you know, and and we we burned it hard for years. But I think we also I mean and and speaking for myself at least, it was the distraction of dealing with other things, you know? And with the if you're in the CIF you're getting T B I's. There's no way around it. And Travis Rolph: Well, not even y it' every single day that you're training you're you're eating a charge. So ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, you're eating charges or getting muzzle in your face and and crashing cars, who knows what. But, you've known me through the through the years. there there's crash and burn times and then there's recovery times. And the different brain treatments we've both gone to. we've both been to a couple of the same ones, some retreats, and and I think Truthfully, my psychedelic retreats have done more for my mental and nervous system than any of these other modalities. I don't know how you did at the brain treatment center there. I I didn't get a lot of Travis Rolph: It was ERIK LAWRENCE: results there. Travis Rolph: I did. It it's been a combination of both for me, I think. So I went out to BTC in San Diego and you know I hadn't had a dream in probably 15 years. And you know, I ate some bombs. on my 04 trip, I dropped in four, 500 pounders danger close. two landed at 150 and two landed at 75 meters. And the only reason didn't kill us was we were in a little mud building that took run of the blast. But so I ate four 500-pound bombs within, you know, 30 seconds of each other. And ERIK LAWRENCE: my gosh. Travis Rolph: Then you throw on. I remember in O three in Djibouti doing breaching nights where, as a warrant, you floated between cells, whichever cell was lowest, you'd backfill into that cell to even their numbers out. And I remember one night we did five charges each, interior breaching, the entire cell. So we just rotated under knots, putting charges on doors, you know, flow into a room, next room, gonna blow it, and eating, you know, 20 charges in a night. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: in and that was training. So I know that micro concussion continuously, continuously, on top of getting blown up, you know, and eating you know eating bombs up close. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Five hundred pounders. Travis Rolph: And so when I went to BTC, they start off you, you know, you do your E E G, they read your brain waves, and then the first week, y well, they do a two week gap before they do the next one to see if if they're estimates because it's all ERIK LAWRENCE: Yes. Yeah. Travis Rolph: guesswork at this point. And I tanked. I went the other direction. I I ended up not sleeping. And so I go in for the follow-up after two weeks. And I'm like, I haven't slept since I've been here. You're killing me. And that's when I sat down, did a video because the the lady I was working with was in Newport in Newport Beach. And she goes, Okay, I I just looked at your second EEG. I know what's wrong and know how we're gonna fix it now. And she goes, I'm gonna at up to this point, they don't know your background. You could have been a car accident. You could have been an NFL player. You could have been a military guy. They don't know. And she looked at me and she goes, before I told her what I had done, she was like, Okay, looking at your the the screen here with how you're separated and you know these gray areas and whatnot. She goes, Your personality is it's flat. It takes extreme highs or extreme lows to get you excited, you know, or h extreme adrenaline events. To move the needle to get you moving on something. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: And I'm like, yeah, 100%. She's like, okay, what did you do? And I and I told her, you know, military background and you know, eating bombs and stuff like that. And she was like, okay, got it. and then they readjusted the treatment from a singular pulse on the front to one half of it, 50-50 on the front, 50-50 on the back. And at that point, boom, straight up. And by the end of the eighth week out there, I was sleeping for through the night, dreaming, feeling a lot better. And part of that too was Southern California, living literally on the beach through a a very gracious donor's home that allows guys to stay at his beach house. You literally walk out the back door and it's you know, rock, sand, water in Del Mar, no less. Yep. It's it's a complete decompression. Yep. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, that that's part of the therapy too. I I I very much appreciated that. Yeah. Travis Rolph: So doing that and then doing the psychedelic. regimen later on fixed other issues that you know aren't addressed by a physical, you know, treatment. so it was for me it was a combination of both that they worked hand in hand. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, no, I I've I've seen a lot of success out of that. And and the problem is you gotta triage guys, you know, you gotta get to one soonest. so they'll you know, they won't crash and burn, you know. So it's really how to how to triage a guy and go, Hey man, you need this ASAP and then we work down the down the list of prioritization. You know, and you you you know, you've been pretty steady on the whole thing and you're pretty solid. Anyhow, you're not I haven't seen you too far down, we all hide it well, but Travis Rolph: No, emotionally, yeah, emotionally I don't. what kills me is stress. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: especially right now, I mean with startup businesses overseas. I think at this point right now, either partnership or standalone, I'm involved with nine businesses. And it's a it's a lot and I'm juggling ERIK LAWRENCE: Jesus. Yeah. Travis Rolph: it well because some of them are have very specific purposes. and they're used for very specific instances. others are more stressful because they are startups and their money burns. And you know, we're at that tipping point right now where they're about probably three of them are gonna become profitable profitable all at the same time. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: you know, the the juice will be worth the squeeze. And I've already got an exit plan. both ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: one of my partners and I both have exit plans. And it's a you're knowing you know, you're not getting any younger and knowing exactly when you want to quit. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah. Travis Rolph: Going, okay, what are my goals in this? What is where do I wanna see myself? And and then knowing, okay, I'm gonna step back from this. So ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Well and as we get older and wiser on that. you know, I really didn't have that with some of the earlier businesses and what I thought was an exit wasn't a very smart exit, you know. but that's part of, you know, being a neophyte on some of the the processes. what what's your points to some of the guys? I mean, you know, w we're fortunate I think, joint body wise. most of the guys are much boogered up than we are. But I don't I didn't take that into account when I did anything really. I just, we didn't have good recovery back in the day. We really didn't have a good PT program. We had shit for nutrition. So I think we were just lucky. But the guys now, as you mentioned, the Thor program and all these different ancillary support elements they have, my gosh, they should be supermen. And I'm jealous a little bit. But hopefully they Travis Rolph: Yeah, they definitely ERIK LAWRENCE: should be better off when they're RH, Travis Rolph: I was lucky. I had some guys when I went on on my first dive team that were very much into nutrition and working out correctly. we did some very hard PT events, but we also did a very regimented workout. one of the guys I worked with, guy named Brandon Floyd, phenomenal runner, triathlet. he set us up, every one of us had our own folder with We started out, body mass index, height weight, not that we were targeting that, but just so we could track changes. and then it was a complete running program and workout program because being on a dive team, we mixed up days in the pools. we ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: mixed up, you know, long, slow distance sprint days, fart lick days, you know, where your ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: sprint and and run and you know, it it was a very regimented so. I I was lucky enough that I was on a team that didn't do push up sit-ups two mile run and and fucking go go to G's pancake house and have breakfast. there were teams that did that. Yeah. Yeah. There were teams ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, exactly. That was the norm. yeah. There was a lot of teams that did that. Yeah. Travis Rolph: that were done in 30, 45 minutes and at, you know, nine o'clock and we'd start at seven. You know, at nine, we're just rolling into the showers. And because you know, NSAF, we don't do formations and all that kind of stuff. So we would do PT as long as PT was necessary, especially going to the pool wall pool. full workouts could be two, three hours because of nothing's fast in the pool. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yes, well. Travis Rolph: and I was lucky enough to have that. The other side of that coin though is when, you know, I retired, there was no TBI. TBI was, you're not bleeding. What the fuck is wrong with you? Shut up. and when I retired, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yep. Yeah, quit sniveling. Travis Rolph: yeah, you know, VA physical wasn't even mandatory. It was, hey, do you want to get a VA physical? I retired in a week and Because I was working the force mod job, which I knew was going to transition me into business, I worked up until I started terminal leave and literally took a five-day work week and signed out. And so there was no TBI clinic. You know, nowadays, guys, it's a one-year process. You know, you go through, there's internships available. it's a very measured, you get every medical issue you have done before you leave. And there's certain things I wish I would have done that I didn't do. Like I didn't get hearing aids before I retired, and I should have. ERIK LAWRENCE: Mm, yeah. Yeah. Travis Rolph: and there were just things that you know we just took for granted. It was like, you can't hear? Nobody can hear. Shut up. They didn't have earplugs when we started. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah. Travis Rolph: earplugs are for pussies. And you know those things later on, you know, the loudest thing right now in the room is the ringing in my ears. So yep. ERIK LAWRENCE: My tinnitus, baby. Yeah, every day. Travis Rolph: So I think you know, when I retired, it was right after that was that transition point where Thor came in. the TBI clinics on each one of the bases were set up where you had to go to them. You had to l document all of the different exposures you'd had and ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: you went through the different testing. and that was just physically wasn't there. you know, I'm a hundred percent disabled now, but it's it it took me 15 years to get there. And at the end of the ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah. Travis Rolph: and because being on a team, your team medic hands you drugs, he doesn't document. So, That hurts when you run, then don't run for the next couple of days. Not why does it hurt or how can we rehab that? yeah. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Well the malarial medicine. that there's one of the guys has a claim or he has disability because of the methylquin we used to take or the larium, which caused a lot of nightmares in in families and and on teams. yeah, we kinda but you were you were fortunate Travis Rolph: I I remember going, ERIK LAWRENCE: there. Travis Rolph: yeah, I was lucky that I came out of it and I stayed healthy. I stayed, you d you know, the body in motion stays in motion. And I ERIK LAWRENCE: Yes. Travis Rolph: stayed healthy through some of the other work I was doing, as well as doing the ultras. That was forcing me to stay on top of it. And you know, depending on on those races, how well I did. The desert races, I did good. I think I came in my racing partner Molly and I, which Molly, I think we came in 34th and 35th or 35th or 36th out of 150 field, which put us, you know, just behind the elite class of racers. But like I did one race, I did the Trans Rockies out in Colorado. I came in dead last in my age group, but the base altitude was 8,400 feet and we went up to 14,000 and I live at 520 feet in altitude. ERIK LAWRENCE: Ha ha ha. Travis Rolph: Altitude is one of those things that I can't push through. that's ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: physiologically my body does not respond well to working at altitude like that, not without an extended stay and get an acclimatization. But you know, I was lucky enough that I did push through those things and kept that motion going. And and it also helped me mentally to push through certain certain things with work. and then now I've stepped back, you know, I'm out on the farm right now and you know. farm work and kind of separate some of the business stuff away from going out and working on the barn or going out. I've got eight fields that have to be cut. And you know, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: get on a tractor and you mow on a straight line and the only thing you have to worry about is not missing, not leaving racetracks. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: so it's there's different ways of mentally removing yourself from the stress. And not to say that I don't have a ton of stress right now, especially as we've got about three or four lines of effort all colliding at one time. in managing ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: those and I've got I travel again next week. last month I spent four weeks straight in Northern Virginia or DC, came home, went to Panama for a week, was home last week, was home. I'll be home Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Friday I'm in Northern Virginia again. So but those are all ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: working towards a goal and managing this collision of things that are happening. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: So it's which that will even out. once these things get in a more you know, even flow. So but then managing that stress as well. And that's everything ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: from I just bought a thousand dollar plane ticket last minute to fly to DC next week. Yeah, it is what it is. So yep. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Well it adds up, I I think you being on a dive team helped a lot too because, physiologically, you know, the the pool, the hypoxia, all that. I and that's why you probably couldn't handle the attitude too well. You know, your body was too tuned for the opposite actually. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, you're you've Travis Rolph: Yep. and dive and drag or a hundred percent O two therapy every time you and under pressure. Yep. ERIK LAWRENCE: got your own hyperbaric chamber there and you're in the water. So yeah, that's it's incredibly healthy. so that that's helped. Travis Rolph: I can remember being in Key West. I've been to Key West 15 or 20 times for work and then for fun. And I can remember being, out on DeVall Street at three in the morning, with a dive the next morning, going, rolling, getting up in a couple hours, pre-diving the rigs. Everybody's going, no way I'm going out tonight. Nope, not doing it. And then go do ERIK LAWRENCE: Bullshit. Travis Rolph: a 3,000 meter subsurface on bag with 100% O2 for, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: an hour and a half, getting out of that water, going, fuck yeah, woo. Get this shit cleaned up. We're going downtown. ERIK LAWRENCE: Let's go. Travis Rolph: Because a hundred percent O two resets you and cleans you out. So ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah, that that's I wish we all had a hyperbaric in our house. you know, just take a nap in that sucker every day like the rich people do. But well what's what's a good closing point, you know, health and wellness wise. I mean we're we've both been kind of fortunate, but we've had to work, you know, the last some times on things, you know, it's not all Travis Rolph: yeah. ERIK LAWRENCE: gravy. Travis Rolph: I think you pretty much you have to figure out what's gonna work for you. and that sometimes that's trial and error. And it's you know, like for you, BTC didn't work. other ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: stuff did. for me it did work. And I I've talked to some people have said, Yeah, I got a little bit out of it, or other people are like, it was life changing. And then others were ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: like, Yeah, didn't feel any change at all. And I think it's a matter of working through those different things. Like I one of my friends who passed through here yesterday, he had gone down and done the Eibogane. And it for him, he was like, yeah, it didn't really address stuff. He goes, Yeah, I felt a little bit better coming out of it, but it didn't really reset like I thought it was going to happen. ERIK LAWRENCE: I'm the same. Yeah. Travis Rolph: so I think it's just a matter of finding out what's going to work for you. and he's another one of those guys. He's a phenomenal athlete. He was the first guy ever to win best ranger two years in a row. It's been superseded ERIK LAWRENCE: wow. Travis Rolph: now. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, yeah. Travis Rolph: But he and did it as an E eight and an E9. I think he did ERIK LAWRENCE: wow. Travis Rolph: it twice as an E eight. But he he's a phenomenal athlete and for him it's that same kind of thing. He needs, I think that goal and that, you know, really pushing hard ERIK LAWRENCE: True. Travis Rolph: physically to reset his brain and and then you know, trying to adjust some things because he's got all the TBI and and everything like everybody else. But I think it's just a matter of finding what's gonna work for you and and figuring it out. I know for me what allows me to de-stress and and to relax. And then I know what doesn't. And ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: sometimes you can't get away from the what doesn't. Sometimes it's just, especially if you're in business, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: it is you have to deal with it. and other times you can go, okay, that I know that stresses me out. I'm just not gonna do it. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: sometimes you can't do that. Sometimes life is you have to deal with it. I think that at the end of the day, you have to figure out what. what's gonna work and what's not gonna work for yourself. And through that's trial ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: and error and going and trying all these different things and yeah, having an open mind when you go into them and realizing that, yeah, some of it might be life changing and some of it might not. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah, and and not, putting too much emphasis on it like that's the only thing that's gonna work, and then when you find out it doesn't, you're you you may be lower than when you started. So that that's man managing expectations. Correct. Yeah, exactly. And then they Travis Rolph: Yeah. Then saying fuck it, I'm not doing this anymore. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. ERIK LAWRENCE: go the total opposite. Yeah. Well I think Travis Rolph: Yep, go into it with an open mind and if if it works, it works. Everybody's body's different, ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Travis Rolph: so ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Well it's I think that's a great point to end on. But you know, you gotta keep moving, like you say. You know, you gotta keep busy. E even if it's not some grandiose you know, nine companies international business. You gotta find something to go well that's this podcast is giving me a little energy. you know, I I like putting a word out. And I'll give you some unsolicited advice all the time. You know that. So So thanks for your time and I know you got farm stuff to do. And you know, let's chat before you I I Travis Rolph: I've got somebody wait I've somebody waiting in the driveway right now to go unload some new solar panels. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah. Yeah, it's a nice day for that. So go knock that out and let somebody else wire it. Get you an echo. I know how you you bravos, stay away from anything with a battery, please. Travis Rolph: What what? Just twist the wires together and duct tape it, it's good, right? ERIK LAWRENCE: Yeah, yeah. It's just gotta touch. That's all it's gotta do. Well, Travis Rolph: Bla black and red. They go like this. Black and red. You're good, sir. ERIK LAWRENCE: if you're collarblind, it doesn't matter, you know. Travis Rolph: Yeah. ERIK LAWRENCE: So Well thanks Trav and let's Travis Rolph: All right. ERIK LAWRENCE: let's catch up next week before you do your big trip. Travis Rolph: Alrighty. Sounds good. ERIK LAWRENCE: Yep, see ya. Travis Rolph: Bye.