Let’s Tell some Stories of Recovery

0:00Let's tell some stories of recovery. Let's do it.

0:07Hey, Brandon. Dude, thanks for dinner last night, man. I I think I said this and somebody else said it, too, but uh

0:14by far the best hamburger I've eaten in like years. No, come on,

0:19dude. You don't have to say that. Everything was done to perfection. all of the right toppings, the perfect cook

0:26on it, like right down to the buns being like perfectly toasted. Um, you're the

0:31man, dude. If anybody ever gets a chance to go over to Brandon's house for a a get together or a dinner, he's got the

0:37whole backdoor area like perfectly set up like three different grills, a drink

No Sleep Story

0:43cooler, great places to sit. Like you take pride in your outdoor living space.

0:48Well, I am uh it is one of my hobbies and I am a tailgate champion. Uh I I got

0:56a big trophy. You guys did win the tailgate, didn't you? Well, yeah, I did specifically. I mean,

1:02I I we did a cooking competition and uh guess what I made?

1:08Um you'll never you'll never guess. I I have no clue. I was up against like ribs and brisket.

1:15Yeah. Your typical like jalapeno poppers, stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Your typical meets, you know, and

1:20I just And it was me against all these guys. And uh this was up at the University of Utah.

1:26Yeah. Where we tailgate. They did a competition. They were giving away this big huge like fire pit like cast cast

1:32iron thing. Um I did a pastrami burger and it it took

1:39the took the uh Hey. Yeah. You're you're a master of the burger, man. I guess so. Yeah. I I should open my own

1:46restaurant. You You could, man. You could. It was that good.

1:52Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're nice, Tyler. So, I'm glad you enjoyed it. You're always You're always welcome to come

1:58down for a burger at my place. Thank Thanks, man. Yeah. Um, but I won't be cooking at

2:06Rising Sun. No, no, we've done that before, like in the in the old days. Remember our very first retreat where we

2:12were like trying to do like all of the cooking on top of all of the programming and it was just like a total dumpster

Family & Business

2:18fire. How could I forget those burgers? I'll never I'll never forget those.

2:25They they were more like hockey pucks. Yeah, they were straight black. Just

2:30charred char burger. That's what they were. A char burger. Yeah, those were those are good. I think

2:37that was one of the first things like after we get done with that it was like our that was like our very first retreat ever and we get done and we're like all

2:44right let's break it down what went well what didn't go well and I think everyone there was like we got to do something different for the food

2:52it was bad the food is much better now it's come a long long way now it's

2:58actually really good yeah that was bad yeah the more I stay away from it the

3:04better off everybody is you're not a bad cook. So,

3:12um, but speaking of Rising Sun, we, uh, we're going to share some pretty

3:17awesome, um, stories. I hope you don't turn us off because you're tired of hearing us talk about Rising Sun. Um,

3:23we're going to we're going to pull the curtain back a little bit and just show you or talk to you about some of the

3:30things that we've seen, some of the miracles that we've witnessed. um some some just incredible experiences that

3:37we've had. Yeah. We just wanted to maybe tell a few stories and you know um we talk about

3:44this all the time, Brandon. People are probably sick of hearing about it, but it's because it's so important to us

3:50because of the stories we're going to tell today. like the the hearts that we see change, the outcomes that we start

3:56to see that are different in people's lives, all as a result of the kinds of

4:02experience that are had at at the Rising Sun Retreat. Yeah,

4:08it's uh one thing it's uh we use the word experential um but that's like a

4:16therapy speak word. In other words, you get to feel something while you're there. And in real time with real people

4:24in the present moment, you experience emotion, you experience God, you

4:29experience all kinds of things. And um it's all surrounded around this this

4:34perfect time of year where nature is just so perfect and beautiful and and so

4:42it's just incredible the setting um that that is there for healing.

4:49Yeah, I think that's it, Brandon. We we're big we're really big on the concept and we talk about this a lot in

4:54our podcast but excuse me of having some of the some of the biggest most

5:01impactful things that go on in our lives happen in moments and sometimes we have to plug away consistently over time and

5:08then inside of that consistency there's these little moments that break open that are even extra impactful

5:15and we believe in the power of a moment to have an emotionally corrective experience. And we spend a lot of time

5:21figuring out what are the elements that help that help give us the best shot of cultivating these kinds of experiences

5:28or moments that can have a shift a fundamental shift in us. Whether it's a a shift in the energy that we're living

Pushing Through

5:33from or a shift in the belief systems that we've been carrying for so long, a shift in relationships, a shift in like

5:39the way we take care of ourselves, um a shift in a behavior.

5:45And we've found some things that really help. And in a lot of ways, the set and

5:51setting really does matter. You know, it's everything. Yeah. There needs to be a context. There

5:56needs to be a set. There needs to be a setting. And when that all comes together, all of a sudden, it's like

6:02things things are ripe for for that change to take place. And and a lot of times as as the facilitators, we just

6:10need to like get over ourselves, get over our ego and get out of the way.

6:15And it's been really interesting, Brandon, with that because like we feel this like call to do this work

6:23and then we throw our heart and soul into doing the work. And more often than not, when we get to like our meetings

6:28and we're talking about what's next, what's next, what's next, it always ends with we just need to get out of the way.

6:33Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we need to almost like set help set the the intention and the the

6:39context and then we need to actually get out of the way. And that's that's what's been so amazing to me is the more that

6:45I've learned the right ways to get out of the way. This is my own personal relationship with God and and other

6:50things, the more I've just been a witness to like the beauty of the

6:55changes that take place in these people that we get to be a witness of. Yeah. Yeah. We It's It's really awesome.

Lessons Learned

7:03So, let's share some specific stories. Um, if you do do you have one to start

7:09with? Yeah. Um, I was just thinking about that with uh the set and setting part of it

7:14that you were talking about being the fall like this this rising sun retreat that's coming up in the next, you know,

7:20just over a month or so is um is set in Bear Lake, Utah. And there's a portion

7:28of that like it's right at the time of year where the the tourism part of Bear Lake has died down. So it's almost like

7:34a ghost town. So you have this massive lake to yourself that's bas that's kind of buried in the the Rocky Mountains

7:41and it's in the in the fall. So you start to get all the fall colors.

7:47And I I remember one particular instance with this and you know I we won't I

7:52won't say names but there was a man that I was working with that was having a real wrestle with um his identity and

8:01particularly with his relationship with with God or his higher power. And he was

8:06just kind of feeling like kind of bouncing back and forth this place of like feeling

8:12abandoned and feeling not seen and then also feeling kind of like and and unimportant and then feeling kind of

Struggles & Wins

8:18angry as a result of that. And he came with that weighing heavily on his heart

8:24to the retreat. And we we do all sorts of things. We have this program that kind of helps move through things. But

8:30at a particular place there was this activity where we we spent some time out in nature and you

8:36had to kind of climb up to the top of this mountain and then right when you get to the top it actually opens up to

8:42like the view of a whole bunch of other mountain range and just the fall colors

8:47just blasting off this beautiful sunlight kind of coming through the clouds and I watched as this man who I

8:55know the wrestle he was having he kind of just like sectioned himself off away from everybody and he went over and he

9:01sat down on a rock and he just started sobbing. He just started crying and I

9:09was like, "Oh man, like what happened? Is he, you know, like what's going on?" Um,

9:15and I went over there and I kind of like just watched him for a minute and then I kind of came up next to him and sat down

9:21next to him and put my arm around him, gave him a hug and he just started crying again. And he said, "I can't put

9:28it fully into words right now, but what I'm experiencing right now is the

Growth Moments

9:33deepest form of God's love I've ever experienced in my life." He's like, I can't get over the thought that as

9:40beautiful as this is right now all around me, as beautiful as this is, is

9:46the world around me, God loves me more than these creations.

9:54And it was just like bam. Something in him in that moment shifted.

10:02He went home and he no longer had to struggle as hard to like fight to stay

10:07sober from his addictions. He went home knowing that he was like had some kind

10:12of a and when I say knowing, I'm pointing at my heart. He had like a different knowledge of his own value

10:20as a as a human being, as one of God's creations. And then that manifested into

10:25his life, into the people around him, his family, his co-workers, you know, they they noticed the shift in

10:32him. And uh that was awesome. That was that was such a beautiful moment to be just

10:39kind of witness that that's awesome to hear, Tyler, to

10:45you know, and to have experienced those things. You know, these guys come and

10:50they come so at times shut down and defend it. They're defending against

10:58things in life. They're protect their protective parts are just going nuts. And um when they get to that vulnerable

Staying Motivated

11:07state and they open up and they feel those things, that's where the real miracles start to happen.

11:12Um yeah, and I think there's good reason for that, Brandon. Like a lot of guys are feeling pretty shut down right now.

11:18They've kind of been kicked around by their life experiences, by the world. They've kind of lost a sense of their

11:24identity and who they want to be, who they are. And uh and so then the way that we protect is we close ourselves

11:30off more and more. And then that's where we get into like like you said, being kind of shut down.

11:36And it kind of takes a weird kind of a weird safe place to learn to

11:41open that up again. Yeah. Um, can I share share one? This

11:47this is a little different one. Um, we

11:53I'm I'm trying not to let the cat out of the bag too much with with some of the stuff that we do. Um but uh it was it

12:01was we it was a night where we do something really intense and

12:09really vulnerable and really miraculous and um it was like the perfect night. I

12:18don't know if you remember that night was so incredible. Yeah, the moon was like I was a full moon.

12:24I just got the chills thinking about it. Um, I had a spiritual experience myself just being there with those men um in

12:33that forest under the moon and just that the clouds there was just enough clouds

12:40to to make it really beautiful. It actually almost made it light enough to see even though it was still dark.

12:47Yeah, it was exactly. So, we we were in the dark of the trees, but you could look up and see the brightness of the

12:54moon and the clouds and uh the music there's music playing and um a lot of men were having very

13:03profound experiences. And at the toward the end of that activity, I you know, I

13:09I started scanning around looking for uh everyone and just gathering people up

13:15and and I hear this, "Hey, help, help."

13:23I remember this and I'm like, "What is going on?" And so I I kind of wander

13:28over and I I look up and there's this massive pine tree.

13:35There's this guy at the top of it. Like the top of it. He's like, "Hey, I

13:40climbed up this tree and my head lampamp fell off. I don't have a light to get down."

13:49And uh you know, he got down and this guy actually became one of my good

13:55friends. And um at first I thought ah that's kind of hokey climbing a tree like well you know like what's he doing

14:01you know and then I I got to know this guy a lot better and um he had been

14:07through so much uh recently in his life and um he also has a pretty pretty like

14:15high pressure job and deals with a lot of difficult things and um you know he

14:21he said I just as I was having this experience I just wanted to be a boy

14:27again. And I love climbing. And the thing about him is he loves adventure. He loves just like exploring things,

14:35climbing things like and uh looking back on it, I just think it's so awesome that he actually went and climbed that tree.

14:42Um it was a little scare little little scary. Yeah, we didn't plan on that.

14:48Did not plan on that one. Yeah, that it was actually really profound moment for him though, especially given the

14:54backstory on what the significance of climbing a tree was to him. Exactly. Even in his childhood, in his boyhood.

15:01Exactly. And uh it was almost like a form of his own his own version of trauma

15:08therapy through experience to do what he did. Yes. And uh and it was so cool to hear the

15:15aftermath of that and and what had taken place for him. Yes. And and since then, like that was a

Handling Pressure

15:21few years ago. And what's so cool about that one is like

15:28there has been some real staying power to the changes that he experienced. No question.

15:33He's he's totally a different kind of changed like talk about being sort of born again, you know? Um

15:39Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Really really cool to see those changes stick.

15:44Yeah. So, here's another one. Okay, this is one I think we've referenced

15:50this before because we've had him on our podcast a couple times. People be able to to be reminded of this, but our our

15:58oldest ever participant came to the rising sun in his 80s. Uh,

16:05one of my favorite people in the whole wide world. Love this guy. He has got such a heart of gold. um such

16:13a desire to improve himself, to grow, and our our audience knows him. He's been on the show a few times.

16:18Yeah, he's been on a few times. He's been willing to put himself out there with some really vulnerable stuff on the show before. Um but one of his one of

16:26his parts of his journey, and I think he talks about this in his episodes, is trying to figure out his own masculinity

16:32and how he fit in with other men and boys. Um, and so it was a big big ask to

16:38even at his old age, especially at his old age, to come knowing there would be a lot of physical activity. There would

16:45be a lot of like kind of masculine types of things that would be being engaged

16:50in. And he wanted to come partly because he wanted to actually make peace with this wrestle he's had with himself his

16:56whole life. And he did. He came and gave full participation. And he I think he brought more and gave more in by way of

17:02like his heart and his goodness than he took than he took by coming. Um but one particular part of it, you know, he's

17:10got all these wounds like never feeling like he was masculine enough. And we had this one little activity where we were

17:16of all things we were playing dodgeball and uh there's one game I watched him.

17:22He picked up the ball and he like rifled this this throw as hard as he could and

17:28he like pegged this other dude who was like getting everybody out on the other side. And

17:33I love it. And the look on his face afterwards was the best part of it cuz you could almost

17:38you were like for me as an observer I was witnessing that emotionally corrective experience

Finding Clarity

17:45right there in the moment. You could see his whole countenance change. This big smile get on his face. He carried

17:51himself a little bit differently. picked himself up more. Um, and that was it was

17:56just awesome to watch that, you know, have an 80-year-old man go back to being

18:02a 12-year-old boy. That was awesome. I love it. Um,

18:10all right. Can I give a more kind of a serious one, actually? Yeah. Um, Rising Sun isn't just fun and games.

18:18uh we do some hard work and um one of the first steps or things that

18:25we do is we we start to just practice some vulnerability and some some honesty. And

18:31uh you know sometimes a lot of the a lot of the guys there have have been really

18:38practiced at being dishonest. Um and it's gotten them into trouble.

18:44Yeah. Yeah. And so we're not one of these like, hey, break you down then build you up type,

18:49you know, we're not like totally just in your face yelling at you and stuff. No, we don't do we're not we're not like

18:56what's it called? Impact training or something. I can't remember. Yeah. Yeah. They're famous for that. Yeah. I don't know what that is called.

19:02But but we do help each other get really clear with the way that we're showing up

19:08and and um it early on this uh guy got

19:15up and he asked for some feedback and this other guy from who lived across the

19:20country had never met him whatsoever. They had never talked to each other. Never talked to each other ever.

19:27And uh I I didn't know either one of these guys. Uh, I just I just met them a couple hours before and um they uh they

19:38got they get up and the one guy wants feedback and the other guy is kind of this older guy and he just starts just

19:45going. He's just starts like you're doing this, you're doing that. I can totally see through this. This is how

19:52you're showing up. And the dude is just like dumbfounded

20:00like, "Hey, have you have you been watching my life on a movie screen?" He's like, "How in the world does he

20:06know how, you know, he like broke down and he gave him, this is what's really cool about it is he gave him this

Small Wins Matter

20:12massive hug because he just was so appreciative of the love and the support

20:18that he got from him in that moment. And he he was just like, I don't how do you know? How do you know? And he got kind

20:24of specific, too. He's like, you're doing this with your recovery. You're trying to show up this way, but you're actually showing up that way instead.

20:32And uh it was awesome. The the awesome part of it is in that hard moment of

20:37honesty, you create there's a creation of connection. And I think those guys

20:43were buddies the whole retreat, the rest of the way. Um because it actually forged their brotherhood.

20:48Yeah. they experience some connection together. And um so that's just a little

20:55example of of uh just connecting and being honest with each other. The power the power of the ability and the the

21:02setting to be that honest and how how much it's it's so funny like especially

21:08like we we are funny as human beings because we try to avoid reality all the time and then when somebody speaks the

21:14reality to us, we get mad at it, but we're so grateful for it. Yeah. It's like the weirdest thing. Like I

21:21can't tell many times this door has been slammed behind me and the people are like and then like the next week they

21:27come back they're like, "Hey, everything you said was totally true." Like, "Thank you." I know. Like, "Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, let's let's

21:33keep going then." Like, there's something in us that that that like wants the truth. We even though it's hard for us to take it sometimes.

21:41Um, so yeah, that that's a great story, man. Yeah. Here's another one for you. Um,

21:48another guy just pure heart of gold. Um, he spent a lot of his childhood like

21:56with some pretty severe bullying. Um, he, you know, got picked on a lot.

22:02He got ostracized a lot. He got made fun of a lot. And he never really quite fit in with like he felt like he never

22:09really fit in with the boys or with like with anybody really. Um, which is interesting because he grows into an

22:15adult man and he's highly successful in what he does, but he doesn't even feel like he's successful because he just

22:20never feels like he measures up. And there was one retreat, this was a few years ago, and I don't know that we're

22:27ever going to bring this activity back, but there was uh one activity where

22:32so you can talk about it since we're not doing this anymore, but

22:37but we we actually we've got other replacement activities for this, but uh

22:42we actually that particular year we had a friend of ours who's a rancher bring

22:48in some livestock and he brought us in like these little like I shouldn't say

22:53little. They were they were not little. I had one laying on like its butt was in my face.

23:00If I would have known that it was that close, I would have pushed it further just to just have it like that. That cow that cow was right next

23:07to your face and his his butt like had manure all over it, too. It would have been perfect just to like rub.

23:13That's what I get. That's what I get for taking it down. Anyway, so yeah. So that's what we had to do is we we

23:18brought in these year old kind of bulls and then we had the guys have like a it

23:26was a timed competition and you had to whoever brought down their cow the fastest like cow wrestling.

23:32It was like a rodeo. It was pure rodeo with amateurs.

23:39It was awesome. It was It was awesome. Well anyway, this guy like they get out there and their cow like is just

23:45dominating them. They're just dominating them and they got like a really spunky one that wanted to like chase him and

23:51fight them and stuff. So, they're like diving out of the way and like running away and stuff and their time just keeps

23:56ticking up and up and up and up and up and inside of this guy who's been bullied his whole life. He said, 'I'm

24:02standing there against the fence and the little bull like squares off face to face with me and he's like I'm sitting

24:10there and when that bull squared off face to face with me and he like looked like he was going to come at me, he said something inside of me snapped and he's

24:19like almost like the the moment on Christmas vacation when I'm not Christmas vacation Christmas story when

24:25Ralphie goes off on like the bully like he said something inside of me snapped and he's like I knew

24:31No more. No more. I'm not going to be pushed around and bullied by anybody or

24:37anything anymore. And then he went in and like took that pull down and they they finished it off and and he came up.

24:43I remember the week after the retreat, he came in to like visit with me at one of our appointments and he was just like

24:50he was like it was almost like a sacred experience for him and he's like, "Something has changed, Tyler. Like I'm

24:56not going to get pushed around by anyone anymore. not nobody. And uh he went in

Overcoming Doubts

25:01and that actually led to some big changes in his life. He ended up changing the company he was working for because they weren't treating him

25:06properly. And um he started his own business as a result. And uh

25:14man, that's awesome. It was It was so cool. It It was so cool. And it was way fun to watch, by

25:19the way. Yeah. Yeah. We could tell stories about that activity for for a while.

25:25Well, that was that was awesome. Yeah, it was fun. Um, but now what we do is even better. So,

25:31yeah, that was that was like several years ago. We You'll have to come to find out. We got We got a new one in store this time, so

25:38better sign up. Yeah. Um, yeah. Yeah. The the uh the brotherhood and

25:46camaraderie with that is so much fun. Um, and even the the just kind of the the aggression and the wildness of it

25:54all like is beautiful. um you know contained within you know a certain

25:59arena but um all right I got one here um so this guy

26:08uh great guy uh one of the best um but

26:15he struggled uh he was really struggling with his relationship with God um his

26:20relationship with God was very much about um performance

26:25It was what I call the contingency model where if I do the right thing then I get

26:31the right blessing and God will love me. God will there therefore love me and take care of me and give me what I need.

26:37If I if I act a certain way then then I'll earn God's love. Um and you know

26:45he'd kind of been under this model his whole life. He he didn't really

26:50recognize anything different. It was just automatic. That's how God worked for him.

26:56And uh he came up to rising sun and we do different activities and things and

27:03he spent some time in silence. He talk to God. He was connecting with other

27:10men. Um and he realized like

Building Confidence

27:15God loves me no matter what, no matter what I do. And so on the last day, so

27:23this guy had never said a swear word in his life, ever said a swear word.

27:31So on the last day, all the guys gathered around like all of them and and

27:37uh I remember we were on a mountain. Well, so before even before that though,

27:43right, like he had kind of gone and in his own kind of downtime, he had done a lot of journaling and wrestling and he'd

27:49actually written a letter to to to God, the God he was worshiping

27:55and basically said, "Hey, I I realize that maybe I've been the one that's been worshiping a

28:00false god here because I believe in a God of love and I haven't been experiencing that."

28:06Right. Right. Right. So then yeah, this sounds backwards, but you got you

28:11got to picture this. He's never said a swear word in his life, especially in front of other people. And he's standing

28:19on this mount mountain and and there's all these men and sure enough, he just

28:24starts letting it fly and and you know, he's swearing at Satan and

28:29stuff and like uh it it was beautiful. Um, but but what was most beautiful

28:35about it was when he after he said it and all these men were listening to him,

28:40guess what didn't happen? He didn't get struck by lightning. That's exactly what I was going to say.

28:46Like he didn't like nothing happened except we were all cheering, hugging him, loving him in

28:54that moment. And so if it we we're not encouraging him to sin or anything like that, but it's like just understand that

29:01you're loved no matter what you've ever done. No, no matter what has happened, you are loved, you are seen, you are

29:07known. And it was a beautiful um experience.

29:12Yeah, that that was actually a really powerful experience. And I know that that's actually been another thing

29:18that's had lasting effects in terms of his own personal belief and his own

29:24peace of mind with his his relationship with with God. Yeah. I think it started him on quite a

29:30journey of firing his God and finding a God that does love him unconditionally.

29:38Yeah. Um this uh this one Brandon is more geared

29:44towards like the the actual brotherhood that takes

29:50place being there. You know when we get our feedback from the from past retreats, one of the most common pieces

29:55of feedback that we get is like I feel like I I feel like I made brothers or

30:00best friends with people in a matter of two days. And uh and and even to this day, there's

30:06guys from even our our very first ones back in like 20 whenever that was, 2020

30:12or 2019 or whatever, um that still get together and communicate with each other

30:18and love on each other and support each other and hold each other accountable independent of anything to do with like

30:24our programming. Um, and I think one of the things that is hard to put, it's

30:31like a it's hard to put your finger on is that when you bring a recipe of

30:37certain things together, you bring a setting where you're getting away from the rest of the world. You put your

30:42phone away, everything else that is now conducive to vulnerability,

30:48positivity, and empathy while also wrestling with some pretty

30:54hard things in your life. and it's met with support and love. There's something that

31:00is bonding about that. And it's it's similar to like what I think happens in the armed services when you put them

31:06through hell week like that. Like going through the hard things together actually forges them deeper into each

31:12other. And the guys who are really successful are the ones who are focusing on their brother and making sure that they're showing up for their brothers as

31:18much as they are being self-absorbed in themselves. Um, and

31:25myriad kinds of experiences of watching just from a distance as one guy is

31:30having a rough time and two or three other guys have the the sense to be able to go and be with

31:37another person or one guy finally opens up and is finally kind of this like you

31:42said with the swearing thing like u finally opens up and says guys I've never told anybody blank in my life

31:49before and I think my life might be over, but I got to say it. Mhm. And then they say it and three other

31:56guys go, "Dude, me too." Mhm. Um or, "Holy cow, like that took so much

Key Takeaways

32:03courage. I'm so glad you're here." And those kinds of powerful moments forge that depth of brotherhood. And

32:10man, this is where we go wrong as men sometimes, Brandon, is we try to go it alone too often.

32:16Yep. And when you have just a few guys in your corner that are there that can

32:21kind of understand what you're going through and what you're dealing with because they're living it too, but they're working at

32:26it. Like man, life gets life gets way way better when you have that team

32:32behind you. Yeah. It's beautiful. And and what's crazy is how we create

32:38our own isolation because we're worried that we won't be accepted. and get through that openness

32:45of admitting your your struggles and your faults. That's how you create connection. And and that's that's one

32:51thing that I think surprises a lot of of guys is like, whoa, like I I thought I

32:57was going to become a stronger man. And and you are, but you go become a stronger man by learning how to be

33:03vulnerable and owning who you are. Um and and then it creates all this connection and all the things you were

33:09just talking about. Um, but Tyler, I was wondering if uh we

33:15could, you know, I I guess I'm in the mood of good funny stories, too. So, if

33:20we could share a few bloopers or mishaps along the way. Um,

33:25we've taken hundreds of men. We've taken men to Alaska, Bear Lake. We've taken

33:31them up in the mountains. Uh the legit the logistics of it can get a little

33:36tricky when you're dealing with like 40 men at a time up in the mount mountains.

33:42It's like hurting cats. Um

33:47and so we we've had a few things, you know, happen um over the years. Um

33:55I'm just trying to think of a couple of them. one one uh I think we've told this story before about the the time that we

Closing

34:02uh we we did an activity. We went up in the mountains. It was like this one of

34:09my favorite things that we do is a cold a cold plunge is involved. Um we go up a

34:16ways like up a ways of these mountains. We're up there. We're up there a long

34:21ways. Yeah. Yeah. And then then everyone's kind of taking a moment and doing their thing, you know, and then it's like, "Hey, it's

34:26time to go." We like honk the horns. It's like, "Here we go. We're going." Well, we actually sent them off for a

34:32moment of silence and said, "Hey, you guys go find somewhere. Stay within earshot, but like go ponder this

34:38particular question, whatever." And then we kind of we get done and we like, "Okay, round the boys up. Let's

34:44go." And this this one guy this one guy went a little too far off on his own and

34:52we we drove the vans down the canyon and

34:58all the way back to the the house like all How far is that drive?

35:04It was It was probably like close to an hour drive. Oh yeah, it's an hour drive. It's miles and miles away

35:11up up this like little dirt road canyon. The canyon. And so he's he's up there having a moment. Then he realized like,

35:17"Wow, I'm really going to have a moment." He's like, "Whoa, this is a true vow of silence." Like it got really quiet all

35:22of a sudden. And what's funny about that when we were loading up like there was a backpack sitting in the parking lot and we're like, "Hey, somebody forget a

35:29backpack." And it was like, "Not mine." Somebody must have. We chuck it in. I know. And it was his backpack. So he was up

35:34there like by himself pondering the mysteries of everything we had told him to ponder and all of a sudden he comes

35:40back to the parking lot to nothingness. So, so the the crazy thing about that though is that he

35:48sometimes God speaks through cows, I guess. But he's like, "Well, I I don't know what else to do but to start walking my way out of here." So, he

35:54starts walking out. He doesn't have like all his clothes cuz we took his backpack. So, and we were cold plunging.

36:01We'd been cold plunging. So, he was in like basically a pair of like long spandex and that was it. And so he's

36:06like hiking out of the mountain in like long spandex and a pair of shoes and uh he runs into a bunch of cows on the road

36:13and he's like oh man like what do I do here? And one of the cows like squares up against him. He he named her Helen

36:20and uh squares up against him was like you're like almost like you shall not pass. So he's had another one of those

36:26moments where he's like I got to get out of here and he's like I'm gonna conquer this fear and I'm gonna get and luckily he got around and then he ended up

36:31hiking like I think it was like eight miles. Yeah. Yeah. He got down to the main road and then

36:37he's walking on the main road. And by the time that happened, we realized, hey, we we left a man behind.

36:44So, so we jumped in the car and went to go pick him up. And right as we were pulling up, we saw him on the road. A

36:49cop pulled over and was like thought he was like a homeless man like, "What are you doing?" Like, "What are you doing? What are you

36:55doing?" He was like harassing him. And he's like, "If you only knew what I just went through right now."

37:03So he ended up doing like an eight mile hike was supposed to be about a mile.

37:10I love it. But but the cool thing is is like when we got back and we're doing the rest the next piece of our content, he raised his

37:16hand and he said, "Hey guys, I want to share with you what happened for me." And he said, "I actually feel like I

37:23needed that time to be completely alone in the mountains." And like he said, the

37:28most impactful part of the whole experience for him ended up being those few hours of

37:34walking out of the canyon. Yep. Um so that was kind of a cool thing for to to have him be able to have an

37:41experience like that even when uh when that happened. Here's here's another one. This was at

37:47the same place. It might have been a different year, but there's one place in the cold plunge where we go where there's the potential to either jump off

37:54cliffs or do a rope swing or something. And everyone's going off the rope swing.

37:59We're like, "Guys, okay guys, you got to hold on tight because it's like the rope is out over the top of like the ground

38:05and the rocks and then it goes out over the water." And we had one guy

38:11who went to go on the rope swing and he actually he he like let go before he actually was fully above the water and

38:17he landed in like like he landed like face first in like 4 in of water

38:25by the by the grace of God. Like he made it

38:30barely. He made it barely. The skin of his teeth he made it.

38:35Just enough cushion. Like just enough cushion of water. Oh my gosh. But yeah, that was that was crazy.

38:42I I got one last one. And this is like one of the one of the greatest moments

38:47of my life. Um uh oh. No, this so this was our Alaska retreat

38:52actually. And uh right at the end we So you got to you got to understand the

38:58setting. We're sitting on like this deck kind of on a on a out in the middle of the ocean, a remote island that the only thing on

39:05the island is the the lodge that we're in. And so we're looking across, you

39:10know, to the to the land and the different like forests and the the ocean. It's just it's Alaska. It's

39:17beautiful. And we had just had a week-long retreat and it was awesome. And everybody was

39:24feeling wide open and just alive and good. And um we need to do a retreat in

39:30Alaska, Tyler. We need to do it again. Yeah, we got to do that again. Uh if if you're interested in that, let us know because

39:36we can set that up and we got a a perfect place for it. Um but this guy,

39:42one of my favorite one of my favorite clients of all time, he's like, "Hey,

39:47before we end the I love that. That was such a great moment.

39:52Before we end the retreat, can I do a song?" and he stands up and he's like

39:58you're looking at him and then past him is this view of all this nature and and he he happens to bust so I love Gar

40:05Brooks. Yeah, he's your favorite artist. He happens to bust out like one of the best Gar Brooks songs that I I love and

40:14uh just belts it. He goes all in. He just goes all in. All in. just goes and and like

40:22everybody's getting the chills just like yes on a prayer

40:29song. I hear your voice and it keeps me hanging on.

40:38Oh, I'm feeling it again now. Just out of the blue impromptu.

40:44He's like, "Hey guys, I just want to offer this. I really feel like I need to sing this." And it's like a bunch of

40:49like It's actually a pretty bold move to do this in front of like 30 other dudes. Yeah. And and he doesn't just walk up there

40:55and be like, "Okay, guys." And he's like hunched up. He opens himself up, arms wide open, and then he just lets it rip.

41:02Oh my gosh. Yeah. It was awesome. I got the chills, too, just reme remembering that again. Yeah, it was a great moment.

41:07I love him. I haven't talked to him in a long time. Yeah. Good man. He's the best,

41:13you know. So, well, this was fun, Tyler. Yeah. Um, man, I love that. I I'm right

41:20now I'm so like just right now all the way like my whole being is just so full of like love for all the guys that we've

41:28been able to be with during those experiences over the years. It gets me excited to for it for it

41:35coming up like Yeah, man. How how lucky are we to have the kind of job or career where that gets to be a

41:42part of it that uh that we get to to interact with such amazing people,

41:47wholehearted people who are wanting to continue to improve and grow and what a gift. So,

41:52it's awesome. Yeah. Um anyway, hopefully this was helpful uh in some way. If you you are

42:00somebody you know would benefit from this, please feel free to share. We'd love to have you share and uh yeah, love

42:08every single to every single rising sun guy who's ever come. Even from the very beginning when we were really really bad

42:13at it, man, I love you guys. You guys are all awesome. Yeah. So, have a great one.

42:19All right. Keep on keeping on. Uh