In this episode of the Tactical Empire podcast, Jeff Smith reunites with Shawn Rider to discuss balancing busy lives, the importance of over-committing to understand limits, and shifting gears from military to civilian life. Jeff shares the lessons he learned from his military service, including grit, tenacity, and mental toughness, and how these have fueled his business success. They delve into the significance of perspective, dealing with identity transitions, and the pervasive impact of settling for mediocrity. Jeff emphasizes the importance of seeking better models for achieving higher levels of success and criticizes the government's management of the military. The episode concludes with a motivational message to veterans, encouraging them to continue striving for greatness beyond their service.
In this episode of the Tactical Empire, host Jeff Smith reunites with Shawn Rider to discuss transitioning from military service to civilian life. They delve into the challenges and lessons learned, such as grit, tenacity, and mental toughness. The conversation covers personal anecdotes about balancing family activities and the importance of resilience and consistency in both military and business settings. They also explore societal issues, the role of patriotism, and the disproportionate impact of military service on different communities. Shawn emphasizes the need for veterans to adopt new identities post-service and continually pursue their true potential.
00:00 Introduction to Tactical Empire
00:31 Reuniting with Sean Ryder
00:50 Balancing Family Activities
04:23 Lessons from Military Service
13:03 Transitioning to Civilian Life
22:13 Critique of Government and Military
29:59 Closing Thoughts and Veterans Day Message
How do you find the will to fight back against a world that wants to keep you sedated, averaging, stuck in place? Join us for the tools and strategies you need to create a life of abundance, discipline, and high achievement. This is the Tactical Empire, with Jeff Smith.
Welcome to another episode of the Tactical Empire. I am joined by Sean Ryder today, and we are reunited. What's up?
Alright, alright, alright. I've been running, I've been running this podcast with some guests, and ran a solo episode, and it's You know, we don't have a consistent intro, so it's always fun to see what, uh, word vomit comes out of our mouths.
I'm real good. Uh, kids, fall activities. Ended this weekend, which means we get one, two, two nights, two weekday nights and a basically full eight hours on Saturday back to ourselves. So, uh, that's good. It's good feeling. It was a busy fall for sure.
Sure. I love that. I, yeah. And that's, that's,
yeah. Well, the lesson there is like when I mentor people and we're working through like.
Whether it's their schedule audit or the activities they do, like for themselves, for their spouses, for their kids. It's like, and it's not just activities. Like we talk about this with money and, and, and time with spouses and time alone. And it's like, in order to know what enough is, you have to have too little of something and then you have to have too much of something.
This was our season to have too much of something to realize we did too much. Cause the, the big thing was this was the first time we had kids in an activity, a sport activity. Where we didn't drop the one night of gymnastics per week, like, cause we like them in gymnastics. It's not, it's not competitive.
It's not sports gymnastics. It's just, it's going to help them with balance and moving their bodies. And they've done that basically since they were a year old and we normally drop it for the sports season. We didn't. And so it just added to that extra night and it was just one night too much through the week.
So we, we, we will, we will hold back come spring and we will drop gymnastics. When they sign back up for soccer and, and whatever the boy wants to do. How are you guys? You, you were in Sedona. I don't know if you're still there.
Palm Springs now. So we're in California. Oh. Cali for a minute. Maybe cause that election went good.
So we were like, we should get in and to California before anything else happens. And
you're still here. You, they let you in that state. Wow. Wow. They didn't have a tracker on you yet. Well, Jeff
visiting us from California right now. So they came in for a few days and so we're going to be spending a couple of days with them, cousins, uncles, aunts and stuff.
And then, uh, so that's been good.
You have family members that live in that state?
Yes. They've been there for, 40 years. Oh, real dug in
dug in. How are those, uh, Thanksgiving dinner table conversations then? Oh, I mean, we, we share all the same views. They just can't leave the ocean. So I know the weather, the weather is something if, if I could have 75 degree weather all day, every day, where I could wear a hoodie at night and shorts during the day, t shirt during the day, I am jealous of that for sure.
Yep.
Absolutely. My man today, today, if you didn't know. And if, if you didn't know you're a veteran, I am not a veteran. Um, I, I always tell people it may be in my next life. I will be, uh, because for the first three weeks of every college semester, when you, when, when I had to get back in that like shitty college schedule grind.
And I would get like mini depressed. I would always find myself at the library on the airforce. com website. Just like, I'm quitting, I'm quitting. I'm quitting college and going into the air force. It never happened. And so, um, you know, I'm, I'm not going to join the military, but I say in my next life, but you, my man, good, sir, uh, served this beautiful country.
So I wanted to get your insights on a few things. Uh, one, what's it like To be a veteran on the other side of the coin now, uh, back in quote, civilian life, I guess, uh, married, raising four kids. Um, and then also like, what lessons can you glean from your service to help high achievers? Business owners and
investors.
Man, the, the lessons, which is where we'll start, I guess. Um, they, they're, I learned a lot of things. I mean, I think I took in a lot of grit, tenacity, and like follow through, I guess, but, uh, like those were just really driven home. I mean, I've, I've said on multiple podcasts, I think that the thing that I was taught in the military more than anything is that like, I just have this capacity to never quit and and ultimately in business that is literally one of the most important, um, what most important, uh, I guess qualities you can exhibit and grow because I mean it's it's like a muscle like anything else like consistency is.
Mental toughness is, um, I think one of the most important lessons I learned was about mental toughness. I went into the military pretty galvanized, in my opinion, with mental toughness, and then we drove that home and whatever, 10x'd it. But then when I got out of the military and went back to the corporate world, what I didn't realize is that, like, that's a perishable skill.
And, and now I probably spent 10 years, like not understanding that and, uh, got into whatever all your mundane vices, liking football and whatever. Your, your weekend stuff, living the life of, like, Wednesday happy hour, Thursday happy hour, through, like, Monday morning, and, uh, like, cutting my productivity by, like, 67 percent or whatever the ratio is on that when you only work two or three days a week of, like, maximum effort, and then you fuck off the rest of the weekend.
Uh huh. So. I, it wasn't until I really dug into that, that I realized that I was kind of becoming a fucking pussy and not like driven to my goals because what I was doing is I was cycling through and not reaching the level of production I wanted to, which was driving me fucking crazy. Like there was no external force that was saying like, Hey, you're being a shit bagger.
You're not successful because I was, Moderately to like pretty successful, I guess, in a normal person's life at that point in time. But it was literally like eating me inside because I thought my potential was more. And I couldn't understand like why I wasn't putting it all together. But it was because I had bad models and I thought I could just be like everybody else that was around me.
I wasn't truly like everybody else. But I had to seek those models out and understand that people do things differently that are operating on higher levels than you. And so you, you go out and you seek those better models and you, your eyes are open to those things. So, um, from a standpoint of what the military taught me, it was like consistency, like grit and fortitude, like I'm saying, and, and in business, those translate into the, the life cycles of the rollercoaster of business.
Like Nothing's truly catastrophic. I mean, that's, that's the benefit. And like, I had a lot of that perspective, like, Hey, like if the worst thing that happens to me is a couple of customers are disappointed and they quit or whatever. Um, like I didn't get my legs blown off or I didn't fucking get killed.
So like my spectrum of perspective was huge because of what I'd already operated in. I'm like, this is not even. Like, these are not life and death stakes, like, people can manifest them into whatever they want and their bloodlust needs to happen over and over again, like, and, and, that's one thing that's truly disappointing about, like, what I see in society today, is that, These people are being, like, overtaken by negative results and, and manifesting them into, like, their own catastrophe.
And it's, it's really an insignificant issue. Like, I mean, you could, if you want to get controversial, you could say the results of the election, right? Like, people are taking this and, and, like, literally jumping off of bridges about
it.
And, and, and, if, and I, I blame a lot of that on the media. And I blame a lot of that on the pharmaceutical industry that like medicates these people and does all that shit.
But like, ultimately if you're raising kids, I think it's super important to build resilience in them and let them understand that like failure does happen, you're going to lose a shit load in this life and, and you have to have the perspective that like,
Eh,
like I, that's where gratitude is huge. Right?
Like you can recognize like, Hey, we're We're good. And maybe it comes down to like, Hey, I'm, I'm still, I woke up this morning and I've got some food to eat. And maybe that's all you can glean from the gratitude that you're looking for that day. But the reality is we're, we're all in a really good, most of us, for the most part, majority of people are in a really good situation and have the opportunity to make anything they want out of this life.
And so. I mean, I don't know that those are military lessons exclusively, but um, perspective was a huge one as far as like being put in high stress situations and being able to process information on a, on a quick basis and then like be able to compartmentalize as well, which is huge.
Well, I think the lessons aren't exclusive to the military.
They, they, but they're, They're exclusive to people that are actually looking for those lessons in hindsight. I mean, there's so many people that are, like, I can relate to every single lesson you just said in, in, uh, you know, I, I was never in a situation where my legs could get blown off. Um, but in like sports was like football was my thing and I had my junior and senior year of high school quote taken from me on the first play of the first scrimmage of both years and like football was my ticket to college, right?
And so I had these and they were leg injuries. So, but like to, to, to be put on crutches for two months and not be able to perform and get through. And reach the goal of earning a full scholarship. Um, but I, at the age of 17, 18, it was like, what can I learn from this? And what, how, how does my strategy change to get what I want?
And so I had to go walk on at a national championship football team and make team. So the lessons are there, regardless of the context that someone's in, in their life, military or not. If they're looking, I have, if I didn't go, first of all, if, if the football teams I was on were high achieving teams and we didn't have the coaches we had, we wouldn't have strove to be the best, like the quote, like, I'm sure every football, I would hope every football coach would say this back in the day, but like our coach from day one would say, we're, we're going to be the best conditioned football team on the field.
And, and we truly were like, they ran the, this was still when you could have three days, they ran the dog shit out of us. For two weeks and we never failed in the fourth quarter. So I went from one good team to the next good team and, and, and, and my college team, Appalachian state. And then when I graduated, became a high school teacher, I became a football coach.
So I was associated with like that aspect, but like to walk into a school with teachers that are 30, 40 years deep. And all they care about is making it to lunch so they could sit for 30 minutes and talk to each other. I was like, this is the most boring shit in the world. Um, and then for you, like another, as I said, about perspective, like, I didn't have to go to war to get it, but I, once I started studying Stoicism, and it was like, hey, most people, most people suffer in imagination than in reality, and it was like, control what you can control in the situation you're in, and it was like, okay, what do I have, what can I do right now, and so all these lessons Um, I can relate to in different contexts.
So how is it, how, how have you adjusted though to like, you're still a high achiever, but you're not going to downtown Fallujah when you're looking at real estate properties to go add to. So how do you, how, how have you put a governor and correct my words, if they're not the right, how'd you put a governor on yourself?
How have you settled down without losing that tenacity and grit?
Like that's it man, that's a good question. Uh, yeah, I think like I have a tendency to be Like high octane. I'm and and I do that at everything that i've done like, um, Like I literally like to go hard in every aspect of life And and so like what that translated to was like you're talking about Adrenaline spikes and everything like that.
So you're thinking like dopamine that You Is really, there's nothing on that level. Like you fight with other human beings and like, you have a really hard time meeting that level of adrenaline ever. Right. And so you, you have to process that and figure out like what that looks like. And, and a lot of guys don't do a great job with it.
I didn't do a great job with it for a long time. Like, what do you do? Do you, and, and so like you use drugs and alcohol or these other things to numb you. To like, I'll never achieve that feeling again. Or you really just process it in a way that you understand that that was a part of your life at some point in time.
And then you move on to like who you are now. One of the things that I don't know where it came from, but I'm very good at putting chapters behind me as far as like. I don't live into this persona of like who I am. And I think, or who I am today was defined by who I was for the last three years or five years or whatever.
And I think that's where people get lost and in special operations, especially like there's, there's a huge correlation. They do a lot of work from a psychology standpoint with like identity. And, uh, cause they have the same things happen to college athletes, to, uh, pro sports athletes. Because, like, when you're in that role, really, it, nothing else matters.
Like, people don't come to Thanksgiving and they're like, Hey, what are you doing with yourself? Like, we have an expectation of you to, like, go out and be an accountant or something like that. You are Who you are in that role. And that becomes your identity for that period of time. And so the struggle that people have is transitioning out of that to like, who am I now, and maybe they've never spent any time thinking about it.
Maybe they don't know what the next step is. Um, they, that's why it's easy to lose yourself in all these different vices, like just taking up time. And, uh, so from a perspective of how is that going to define you for me? Like, that's why I don't really, I talk about the military from Time to time, but it's not like, this is who I am.
Like there guys, you, I won't name people or branches of
bro. Listen, listen, there's teammates from my app state days that still have their profile picture on social media, their photo from app state days. And this was 15 years ago, my man. So I get, I get,
but, but when you think about that and you, you think about how small of a life that is, like that, not what I would ever like intending, like, I want to be this full.
Experiential life, and you realize, like, when I say I burned through 10 years or whatever, maybe I did, but like, when you think about the finite amount of time that you're here, maybe you're, maybe you're gonna live to 60, maybe you're gonna live to 150, who knows, but like, you might live to 60, and if you think about that, and you spend 20 percent of your time in this identity, And you're, you're not moving on and you're not growing and you're not like trying to have this full human experience.
And I think that part is the saddest part of it. And, uh, so for me, like the, the way I shifted out of it, I think is like, who, who am I going to be next? And who am I going to transition into next? Like, I'm a father, I'm a business owner, I'm an investor. Like, and then also like, I mean, it's, it's a cliche, but like pouring into other people.
I That's why I run the Tactical Empire, because it fucking is self serving to me. Like, I, I, I, and, and not from a monetary standpoint, like, I want to show people that they have, like, way more potential. And, um, and that if they make, like, a two degree turn to the left here with this particular decision, their life can change in these ways over the next short period of time.
And, and I don't feel like I had a lot of resources doing that for me outside of like a few really specific people. And, um, and I think it's super important because people like we just get used to our perceived potential. And like that's what I see across that group for the most part. And like my, my job is to open everybody's eyes to their actual true potential, which is unlimited.
Like if you can dream it up. Like, we can go get it, because all it takes is reverse engineering that plan, like, what the fuck do you want to be? And, and, I think people, in general, do the same thing. They settle into that identity of who they are. And so, like, it, you can, you can use this example, and, and, put it across society in general.
It, it, from the special operator to the pro athlete. Everyone is suffering from the same exact thing, it's just on a scale that you can't identify. It's easy when you're the fucking quarterback of this fucking team and that's all you've done your entire life and then you come out like, you're like, oh, well that makes a lot of sense.
But it's not, it's not as fucking clear to Susie the secretary who sees herself as a fucking secretary. Nobody identifies that on a regular basis. And like, if someone else can come in and be like, Hey, you don't have to be a secretary, what else would you like to be? And, and then you put together a plan to do that.
Like, that's what I feel like I'm doing with the group and, and opening up possibilities and, and we're all just kind of on a journey together because I'm opening up possibilities for myself too, that I didn't realize before. So I have all these aha moments. Just like you guys do in the group. And, and my job is to just fucking keep everybody's foot on the gas.
And when they see things happen, they're like, Oh, Jeff can do it. Then I can fucking do it. Of course. And it's like, cause I'm not the smartest guy in the group. I'm not, I don't bring anything to the table that nobody else in the group brings to the table. It's just people that are looking to achieve more and they'll want more out of their life.
And like, that's why it's super important to me. And it's pseudo self serving. Because I've been able to facilitate That is my vice now. Like, making you guys do more. Yeah. That's my vice.
Well, if you guys have a secretary that you really love, keep her or him away from Jeff. Because he will fire her up to quit that job and do more.
Man, I mean, admins, secretaries, fantastic. Cause that my brain doesn't work that way. I am not, uh, organized, uh, controlling the email and scheduling. That's not how my brain works. So, uh, no disrespect to secretaries out there. It's very, very hard job. Um, so now that you're on the flip side of it, what, is there anything that, yeah, I'm trying to, I'm putting words in your mouth, so feel free to change them.
Is there anything now that you're on the backside of this, um, as a former veteran that basically infuriates you? With how people act, where people are, that lack of that lack of desire to be more than whatever they've labeled themselves as just being this person that does this job Monday through Friday.
Um, you know, obviously we have the Tegu Empire, so we find men that, that have some sort of desire to grow and change and, and learn, uh, but I would say that's, that's the minority, the type of people that we're looking for. Uh, but as someone who served our country, is there. Is it not a chip on your shoulder, but is, do you feel like there's, there's, there's things that you have to fight when you look out there into the masses and are like, fuck this, like, this is not what we do here.
Well, yeah, of course. I mean, like, you could, I, I thought that for a long time, but the military in, like, you asked if there's things that I don't like, I don't like the fucking government and, uh, I don't, I don't like the government at all. And, and I don't like what they've built our military into. Um, not that it wasn't, like, bloated and, uh, full of waste previously, um, because it was, a long time ago, and, and it always has been, and, and part of that is, like, situational readiness, so, like, you're gonna waste money.
When you don't know what's coming because like in business, we prioritize and we react as we can, but you're talking about a major machine that's a corporation that has to be prepared for fucking anything, right? So there's, there's going to be waste involved in that naturally. Um, ultimately, what I don't like more than anything, and, and my son and I talk about this every day because all he wants to do is be in the military, like, today, um, and, and I'm like, no, let's not do that.
And, uh, I was like, it, it. It's funny how my, my perspective has changed because if you talk to me in 2006, like, I wouldn't do contracting at that point in time because I said that I, I didn't really want to be involved in like the quote unquote like mercenary persona, if you will. And like, I also, the reason that I thought I was in the military, I thought I was fighting was like for patriotism and to defend our country.
And so for me, that was a moral dilemma to go make fucking 300, 000 in three months, um, to just do what I was doing. And now, I'm of the opposite mindset. And so my son is like, let's enlist in the military. And I was like, well, you've got to, you've got to be part of the machine. If you do that, I was like, let's go build our own army.
That's a for profit army and you can make it a fuck ton of money and do what you want to do. So like, we've got to figure out how we can meet there because. At the end of the day, what I didn't realize at 25 years old was that, like, I was the asset for the machine. And I knew that at the time, because they spend millions of dollars training me.
Like, we're really expensive. Like, and we're tethered to fucking, at the time, beepers. And, uh, then on to cell phones, where we had to be available at all times. They'd know your proximity from the base, and Your readiness rate. And like, so there was a lot that goes into it because we are expensive athlete or athletes assets is what we are.
And, uh, so what I don't like is the fact that now that money machine has been turned on for businesses and corporations and the, the government as well, and, and there's no consideration for, um, people as people. And so the, the interesting thing was, and I have been. toying about a social media post about this, but I haven't been able to put it together.
We traveled around the Midwest in, um, so, like, it's very well known in the military that the people that fight the wars are from the fucking Midwest. They're from Texas, Florida, and California. You can argue me all day long. If you look at the fucking data, that's it. Like that's where the boys are from that go fight these wars.
And you can, you can extrapolate where that comes from. It's socioeconomic. It's also a level of patriotism that's instilled in people across the Midwest. They're the Southern California bent is a lot of. Hispanics that are very patriotic and, um, Texas is kind of the same way. They're just huge States. And so they, they all contribute to it.
But the, the fact is the people making the decisions aren't sending their sons to fight these wars. A hundred percent. It doesn't impact their family. They don't know anybody. But what I was telling you about traveling around the Midwest, There's in every little town you go to you'll see a war memorial.
We'll see. Can you hear me? Oh,
is it your internet or mine?
You're good. Keep going When you when you travel around you in these little towns, you'll see a war memorial, right? And so i've been in a couple towns that I have family in And I knew the the population density and so I would go look at these war memorials in Downstate illinois, right?
And then you look at the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war, and you, and you look at the other wars, but I didn't know as much information, having not served in Vietnam and all these other ones, right? But these towns are fuckin 1, 300 people. Population of 1, 300, and they've got 21 KIAs in this war. From, from Iraq, right?
So you look at the number, and, and if you, if you're a data guy, or have the ability to process any data, the, the disproportionate sacrifice made by that town compared to, say whatever you want, Arlington, Virginia, like fucking Delaware, anywhere in the Northeast, was incredible. And I saw this in multiple towns because then it struck me and I wanted to go see what was going on.
My cousins live in a town that's 3, 600 people. I think they had a similar amount, 14, 16 people killed in one single war. There's only 3, 000 people there. Why the fuck do they, and that includes everybody, 3, 000 people, babies, geriatrics, like why did their 18 to 25 year old men go at such a rate that they could be fucking involved in these type of KIA activities.
And so, I don't know, I'm just like, I, I don't like what we're doing, it is not defending America, and I, I just don't think any of it's justified. Like, if we're attacked, like, fuck yeah. Let's roll out and do it. Like, I, I think there's a ton of people that have the appetite for that. But, again, like, there's been so much shady shit go on that, like, I don't know that anybody believes any of it.
Like, if we were gonna get attacked, I think we would've got attacked in the last fucking four years. We're as dumb and as weak as we've ever fucking been. Yeah. And, go ahead.
No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna wrap this thing up. I'm like, I'm excited for all the lessons you shared, but before you got on the, the next topic, which was what, what does the next four years look like?
I mean, that's, that's what the next episode is going to be. So, um, I don't want to cut you off short. But I do want you to use your platform as a veteran and someone who's, um, you know, uh, progressing and still performing at a high level to teach the people listening to our podcast, uh, the lessons that you extrapolated and how you view things.
So if there's anything else you want to say, Jeff, get it out. Um, but we're gonna, we're gonna wrap this up and hit up the next four years. What do you want to, what do you want to send the people out on?
Well, I think to all the veterans, they need to understand, regardless of how they feel about their services, that like, they did a tremendous job and answered a call that they, that was important to them at that time.
And whatever they were pulled into based on leadership, based on like the, the country that commanded you to follow those orders, whatever, like it doesn't actually define who you are, it doesn't define where you're going. And, uh, And everybody should be proud of their service regardless. I mean, not a lot of people did it.
Only 2 percent of people serve these days of the overall population. And a, a minute percentage of that 2 percent has actually gone to war for it. So like it going back to data like you should be proud of your service regardless and and like but you should be looking to move your life forward because who you were yesterday is not who you are tomorrow and you can be anything you want to be so there you go have a great veterans day eat some free food fucking grab a free beer do whatever we love you see you guys