Episode Title: The Late For Changeover Show 20 Dec 2023
Date: Dec 20, 2023
Special event alert. Get out of bed and run! This is Late for Changeover, your weekly space news and variety show. I’m your host, Marty Smith, and I’m joined by Mr. History, Eric Perot, and our own Big Bird, Mike John.
How’s it going everybody? We’re here to bring you the latest headlines and updates pertinent to all Guardians and to the other lesser branches as well. So take your seats, get informed, and have a laugh as we present Late for Changeover. You like that? That’s the service comment, didn’t you? I like that as well.
Any other lesser branches? Can I be fake laughing more during the intro, like Eric always is? Any motivation you can give us would be a better show than not. Mike, tell me that get out of bed comment, it’ll make you laugh. Get out of bed and run! That shit cracks me up every time.
I think Mike still treats this podcast as a mandatory meeting he has to go to. Does it look like that? Yes, it looks exactly like that. All right, gentlemen, joining us today is former Navy Petty Officer Second Class and current owner of Leaply Enterprises, Stephen Leapley.
Stephen, thanks for coming on, man. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on, Marty.
Thanks for having me on, guys. Now, Stephen and I just did a long-form interview over on the Swearing In podcast, so look for that here shortly. I’m going to give him one more chance to send me a picture, and then I’m publishing it because it’s a good interview.
It’s fun, you know? But I’d love to see what you look like when you were swearing in in 1991 or so. A lot younger. A lot younger.
The photo I put up every year for Veterans Day on my Facebook page, my wife says it makes me look like I’m gay, so I’ll send you that one. What are you doing? It was my Sailor of the Quarter picture, so I’m kind of like… Yeah. Are you, like, talking to one of your shipmates provocatively or something? Whoa, we only do that publicly, okay? That’s right.
That’s right. That’s not like you’re in Congress or anything like that, so… No, no. You’re not live-streaming any events over there, so that’s fine.
And by the way, in today’s world, it is okay to bouquet. Well, and it’s okay to live-stream it, apparently, too, so… Anyway, Stephen, you came in in 1991, right? Tell us how you settled on the Navy. I thought that was a great story.
I just called them up and said, I want to go in, and they said, okay. Isn’t that how everybody’s story goes? No. Now I’m putting you in Mike’s category.
Now both of you guys are on my shit list, so… You know, hey, that’s what I do. So I had my uncle, growing up, my uncle was in the Marine Corps, and he was my hero I always looked up to. And you remember that in boot camp, you know, we get the books.
And back in the day, in the 70s, they used to put the books, all of your boot camp, in the book with all the colored photos. And so when he got out of boot camp, he had one for my mom and one for his other sister, and at the house. And I would carry that book around when I was a teenager and try to emulate the oak horse in my backyard, because he was my hero.
He taught me about music, he taught me how to play drums. We would spend hours in the basement with a stereo system and just listen to music and tell me stories. And so I wanted to be him.
When it came time for me to… When I was making my decision to join the military, which was out of going to junior college for a semester and thinking this is like high school with smoke breaks. So I wanted to do something different. My uncle, I was in Chicago, my uncle was a recruiter in Detroit at the time.
And so we started to work this thing out. Like I was going to come in, he was going to be able to swear me in. And that was going to be really kind of a cool thing.
And we got to just to the point where we’re getting ready to and the staff sergeant and the Marine Corps said, sorry, your uncle’s not going to do it. I’m going to be the one that does it. He’s not going to get any credit for it.
You know how the military works that way. And I got really pissed off. And I’m like, so my uncle’s not going to be able to do this.
They’re like, no, but I’m saying fine. Bye. I’m out.
Got stood up and walked out of the… …of the office. And of course, like any… And he’s like, you can’t do that. I’m like, I haven’t signed anything.
I’m bye. And so I walked out or walked across the hall into the Navy’s greeting office. So now I didn’t want to join the Navy specifically because my dad was in the Navy.
It’s not that we had a bad relationship. I was just like, I just don’t want to do that. I’m not a… I didn’t want to kind of follow in his footsteps kind of thing.
And so I walked over mad and my fun side thing, the other part of me being, of my uncle being my hero and teaching me about music, is I wanted to be a DJ, a radio DJ. And so I was like, wait a second. Radio.
I’m like, my dad was a radio man in the Navy. And I just saw Good Morning Vietnam. So obviously I could be… disc jockey in the Navy.
This would be amazing. And obviously that’s not how… There is no disc jockey, you know, billet in the Navy in 1991. You know, maybe in 1967, but not… That’s right, too.
And so I was in there and he’s like, well, we don’t have that. And I’m like, okay, well, I’m not… You know, of course, any 17, 18-year-old kid knows how to, you know, manipulate anything. So I was like, you can’t sell me on anything.
My dad was in the Navy. He tells me, you guys lie to me all the time. You know, I was still, you know, mad.
And the chief there was like, hey, just come sit with me. Come talk to me. He’s like, I’m not gonna lie to you.
You know, blah, blah, blah. So he just sat down and just kind of talked to me. And I was telling Marty, like, he was a really, really good salesman because he’s like, well… He goes, if you’re not a disc jockey, what do you want to do? I’m like, I don’t want to be a doctor.
I’m like, yeah, that’s kind of cool. I thought about that. And he’s like, well, he goes, you could join the Navy and be a corpsman.
And I was like, well, what’s that? And he was like, well, you know, it’s kind of like a doctor, you know, out in the field. Out in the field, they call you Doc. And I was like, in the field.
And he was like, yeah, he’s like, he’s like, he stops. He’s like, well, what brought you in? And I said, well, I was across the hall at the Marine Corps because I was going to join the Marine Corps and told him the story about my uncle. And he’s like, well, if you become a corpsman, you could get stationed with your uncle and be his… That’s so clever, man.
Ooh-wee! Yes. I was swimming the other way and he was like, no, you didn’t. That was a good bait.
Perfect. And so I ended up joining the Navy and being a corpsman. Never got to be stationed with my uncle, but… No, right, right.
Well, here’s the fun fact. I think it was one of the first things you told me, Stephen, was that he went to the Navy boot in Great Lakes, right? His A school, which was our tech school, was in Great Lakes. Yes.
That’s where his first assignment was. Great Lakes. Great Lakes.
See the world, I said. That was my recruiting for the first two years. I joined the Navy to see Great Lakes.
Yeah, right, right. And I was from Chicago, so I knew exactly where I was. But at least you got to see your buddies, right? That’s a tough two years.
I did. I did, which we had some amazing stories about that from his first two years there. Yeah, wait for his interview to come out and listen to the part about his house party and everything else.
It’s pretty funny. Yeah, we had a good story there. So, but Eric, he got, after he went to Great Lakes, he went to Guam.
Yeah. And they’re done that game. Spent three years in Guam and got what my wife and I love and they refer to as my first deployment.
Some people call it the first marriage. You know, I met a beautiful buck sergeant in the Air Force. Oh, she outranked you too, huh? Well, you know.
Dating up. I love it. Dating up.
Somebody had to. And, you know, it’s, I tell my voice, I have eight total kids and my first wife and I have one and then my current wife and I have seven and we’ve been together 25 years. So, but I, my boys, my older boys asked me dating advice and like, never marry a girl you sleep with on the first date.
So it was the military. It was the, you know, it was the, you were overseas. Like, you know, it was like, wow, right, right, right.
But I will say this. Anderson Air Force Base in Guam was one of the prettiest Air Force bases. I think my pretty, the coolest bases I’ve ever been to.
I agree. You agree with that, Eric? I do. Steven, I was there for a investigation into the death of an Air Force Security Forces woman named Lori Lucas.
Do you ever see any information on that? She was killed during a joint exercise with the Marine Corps. That name sounds familiar. What year was that? Oh, it had to be probably 86.
He got in at 91. I know, but I’m, you could still read the, I mean, it’s still there. Just like.
That’s a pretty prominent story. And there was a robbery. An Air Force cop tried to rob the bank.
I do remember that. Everybody heard that. Same timeline.
But I was there. I was six, I was there six months for that little show, which was pretty cool. It was, yeah, it’s a beautiful base.
Michael, are you retired? He’s still active duty. I’m retired. Okay.
It was, I mean, I don’t know if you remember Eric, but you know, those, some of those things in life that you remember. And I remember like it was on the north end of the island and we would have to drive down a hill to get to the base. And it was like, it literally.
I mean, it was like just beautiful. It had the best beaches. Air Force.
Were you a diver? Because there was, we dove the dive. Oh yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. I missed that spot. I, I, you know, I was landlocked growing up and I saw the ocean once in, in Miami, you know, for a brief period.
And, and the only other time I ever saw the, or the first time I really swam or it was even in the ocean wasn’t long, you know, and that’s like bathwater. You could close your eyes and see two lines. Yeah.
And then, and then you come, and then I came to San Diego and. And I was like, my buddy was like, Hey, you want to go diving? I’m like, yeah. He’s like, it’s not as warm as it was in Guam.
Yeah, right. That’s what he said. I literally, I geared up.
I took a step into, into the wall. I don’t know. It was like September, October.
Oh, so the water was cold. And I was like, Nope, not going to do it. Yeah.
I mean, you had a website and stuff, right? Yeah. Not there. Oh, yeah.
In San Diego. I didn’t. Yeah, that’s what I mean.
That’s what I mean. But it wasn’t, it wasn’t, it wasn’t thick enough for sure. No, it was like, it was like culture shock.
I don’t know how, I don’t know how surfers get used to it, but I guess you do. And that’s all you got. I suppose out there.
I’m used to it now after being out here for 20 plus years. And my son was one of my sons is a surfer. He’s he’s searched literally.
He serves every day. Oh, really? Yeah. He lives in his van down by the ocean.
Well, he’s following his dad’s footsteps, right? That’s right. So I guess we lost Eric. I hope he’s dialing back in.
But after Guam, you came out to you were up in Oakland. Right. Yep.
Mayor Island. Yeah. Shipyard in the back of the bay.
And then from there, you went to San Diego. Yeah. So.
My apologies. So I got knocked off. Yes.
No problem. No problem. I was just saying that after Guam, he went out to Oakland.
Mayor Island out there. And then he came down to San Diego. And then when you got out of active duty, you joined a reserved tank battalion for the Marine.
For six months. For six months. And as a corpsman or as a corpsman.
As a corpsman. As a corpsman. Yeah.
And I mean. Money. I think.
Did you say that you were reserved for a while? I can’t remember. I was. Yeah.
I was an active reserve. Before I retired. So I had.
Okay. Being. Being on.
Being on active duty, like my whole. My whole. View of reservists were these guys that would come in once.
Once the weekend and like try to take over everything that we did. Right. You know, and just.
And they knew nothing. Totally. So that was kind of like my, my view of being a reservist.
And then one of my good buddies became one. And I was like, okay, if you can become a reservist, maybe I can. And so I got, I got out.
You can too. I get. Well, and I got out in 2001.
Join the tank battalion. And, and was there. And, and left the tank that battalion on.
Like early September. Like, was it September? I think I said something like that. Before the September 11th attacks.
Yeah. Like a week before. Right.
Week before I was completely done. And so. Were you glad you were out when that happened or did a piece of you go, Hey, I want to get back in and I want to go do something.
Yeah. At that time I, I, when I got out, I, my transition from active duty to civilian, I got offered a job. I was at the foreman.
I, my last, my last bill. It was running the, the 911 ambulance system for, for the Navy medical center here in San Diego. That’s cool.
So when I got out, I got offered a position at the, at the county, the county government. And I was doing it, doing basically what I was doing there, but managing, managing all of the. And it was companies.
All of the training companies. So cool. School schools.
So that was great. So, so when that happened, I didn’t have, I didn’t have a desire to, to go back in at that time. Cause I was, I was already, you know, need even in all that, all that other stuff here.
Basically doing the same thing, but making 17 times as much and can go home at five o’clock. Right. Right.
How did you this may be a dumb question, but did you how did you avoid like going out on a ship as a corpsman? You just like, OK, I’ll take this assignment here. I take this assignment here. Or did they offer that to you and you turned it down? Or it’s just like they did that in luck of the draw.
I am because they they treat overseas duty. Like like ship, like ship duty. So if you go.
So typically you go shore duty, sea duty, shore duty, sea duty. Yeah. Yeah.
And so overseas can also be considered considered sea duty. Yeah. Because because you’re you’re semi forward deployed is with me.
I forget. I forget the official term that they use. So they as I just.
And then when I went to Maryland, I was only there for a year and they closed the they closed it down. And so. Oh, OK.
So that’s how I got. That’s how I came down to say that was that was like the fork in the road because I had just gotten divorced or just ended my first deployment. What a divorce in the military that never hurt.
I know. I know. I’m I’m I’m a small percentage of the population.
Right. And and and so I had I had the opportunity to go to Bethesda to work at the Naval Medical Naval Medical Research Institute, which had I gone there, it would have set me up to become a doctor or go to San Diego. And being from Chicago, I was like, and being being born and raised Midwest, really conservative, Christian, you know, Southern California, the land of fruit and nuts kind of thing.
I wanted to literally wanted to avoid San Diego at all costs. And but when I got the duty assignment or the choice, I was dating a girl in Northern California that was like, well, you know, six hour drive to where she’s at is a lot easier than marriage. So, you know, once again, I decided to.
Take B over a. And no, but they’re done that. And had I not done that, I would not have met my wife and had seven beautiful kids. Well, that’s amazing.
So good stuff, man, good career. So let’s let’s jump to because I know you had you did many things there. And like I said, we captured that in the interview we did.
But let’s go to Leapley Enterprises. How did you find your way to to was it straight? I mean, was ghostwriting the catalyst for you or were you doing some things? And then you just kind of stumbled on to ghostwriting. I kind of stumbled into it, really.
I’ve been, you know, in high school, I wrote articles for the for the you know, the newspaper, the news, you know, the monthly newsletter that comes out in schools. And so then when I got into my first duty station at Great Lakes, we had like a clinic newsletter that I used to write for, kind of edit and manage. How really? Yeah, it was kind of just a cool little thing.
And so and then I had opportunities throughout my career to write curriculums and a couple couple of really I think I think I share with this on the interview. I think I had a I had a nurse at one of my duty stations who had a master’s degree in education specifically in curriculum and instruction. So she really let me kind of just taught me how to write curriculum.
So that was great. So I learned how to I learned how to write. And then it wasn’t until I was in my say early 40s that my wife and I decided to go back to school and use my GI bill.
So we went basically we went and I did my associate’s degree and my bachelor’s degree and my master’s degree over like a four year period. Nice. And and so and she had already had had her associate.
So she we did our bachelor’s program together. Then we did a master’s program together. But during during the thing was the bachelor’s.
She had just asked me to edit her papers for her. And I remember this is remember this. Yeah, yeah, this is good.
This is where she came to me once and she had a she hands me four pages. She goes, can you edit this? I have a I have a paper I need to turn in. And I had done a similar paper.
I was like, how many pages is this supposed to be? And she’s like, 10. I’m like, you have four. And she’s like she’s like, yeah, well, I’m done.
I’m like, you can’t I like you can’t turn in a full page paper. She’s like, I’m going to work. I’m like, that’s not going to work.
I’m like, you got you, it has to be maybe nine. Like you can get away with nine. She’s like, well, I’m done.
So if you want to do whatever you got. And so I did. And and so that was the first time that I really like did any kind of ghost writing because I had to write her tone, you know, and obviously since she’s my wife, like I knew how she would speak and talk and things that she thought about.
So so I was able to kind of expand on on her thoughts. See, that’s interesting. That’s a good point, because I thought you were just trying to expand the topic out to 10 pages, but you actually tried to write in her voice.
So yeah, yeah, that’s pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah.
So I think that’s where. So that was really, you know, and that was still a few years before I actually got into doing any kind of copywriting. I was writing like officially, you know, as an official thing.
So I. And so I was like, oh, this is kind of cool. So I did that for her, you know, helped her with her, you know, through through through the Masters of Master program now for anybody listening at those schools, if by chance you go to those schools and you know who we are. She brought most of it.
I just edited everything for her. Strictly an edit. Strictly, strictly content.
Don’t worry, no one’s listening to it. That’s too late now. It’s all done.
It’s all awarded. Right. So you’re good.
Yeah. Talk all you want. And so and then so fast forward a few years and I had gotten out of the medical field and did some other jobs and and we had made a decision to to leave our house by a by a 36 foot travel trailer with four slide outs.
And at the time we had six kids. What year was this? 2017. So since so since 2017, we’ve been living full time in our in our travel trailer, which has been great because we’ve moved.
We’ve done a cross country trips. You know, obviously, those kids traveling with homeschooled and well. And so the kids have had an amazing, you know, experience living that.
The coolest thing about that is even, you know, moving in different places, the inside of the house never changed. So there was always this semblance of home no matter where we went. Yeah.
Yeah. Which was which was really cool for the kids. And so and so in that I as we’re getting ready to embark on our first trip, I was talking to a buddy of mine.
And and he you know, he wanted needed some writing done that I was doing some a little bit of editing or had done a little bit of editing, you know, in the past. And he just kind of hired me to do copywriting for him and helped me fund my trip, my cross country trip. And so that was what got me into copywriting.
So I did that. I’ve done so I’ve been a full time copywriter since 2017. And then and then this year, I decided to kind of try to get rid of and shed all of the copywriting piece and just do ghostwriting and focus on helping helping primarily veterans actually write their books and then blogs and articles, you know, some special projects here and there that I that I think are interesting and fun to do.
So an amazing transition from medical to let’s go literature or writing, you know what I mean? Right. Well, the transition. It was, you know, interesting was when I was making the initial transition out of medicine, I was interviewing for an HR position at Kinko’s and and I don’t know if we talked about this or not.
I don’t know if we talked about that. And I was sitting down and the interviewer who became my boss, she said, well, why are you changing careers? And we did talk about that. Yeah, that’s a good story.
It was it was like the second time in my life where the first thing that popped into my head was I’m not changing careers and changing venues. And she was like, I don’t understand that. And I was like, well, as a paramedic, I roll up on a scene.
I have 30 seconds to kind of determine if the scene is safe, what’s going on there. Right. And it was like same thing when a customer walks in the store.
We have 30 seconds to determine if they’re happy, sad, mad at us and how we’re going to respond. And she was like, that’s brilliant. You’re hired.
Yeah, that’s a good response. Yeah, that was I don’t know how you come up with those. Right.
What was the other one you told me that? Uh, uh, was that the sailor, the quarter board? Yes. Yes. You want me to share that story? Yes.
Tell that story real quick. OK, guys will love it. So I was at Mare Island.
It was nineteen ninety five. Women were already on ships. And that’s when they were.
That’s when the hot topic was women going into combat. And so I was sitting at the at the sailor of the quarter border. I guess Airmen in the quarter for you guys.
Right. And and my chief said, you know, this question is going to come up. And I’m like, well, how do I respond? He’s like, I can’t tell you.
You have to come up with it on your own. And after trying to think about my responses, I was like, I’m just going to wing it and go with whatever is the first thing that’s on my mind. And, you know, because I figured that would be the most authentic answer.
And that’s kind of what, you know, when you’re sitting on those boards, like, really, you want somebody to be authentic and tell you what they really think. And so. Kind of wait, it was the last question, and I had three old salty guys.
And the oldest, I think it was like I’m twenty six, twenty seven years. Yeah. This looks me as like, she’s like, petty actually, please, like, I got one last question for you.
What do you think about women in combat? And I was like, it’s like, there it is. And, you know, I’m all of 24, maybe 25 years old at the time. Right.
But I have a valued opinion. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I’ve lived life.
And and so I was like, OK, I know this is a hot topic, hot topic. I took a deep breath in and I was like, well, I was like, that’s it. I think women in combat are a good thing.
And he could just see him like, you know, sitting back and oh, boy, this is not going to end good, sir. And he said, well, why the first thing that came to my mind and said, well, the more women we send into combat, the less chance I have to go. That was the exact response that they gave.
Like, oh, I stood up laughing. And I actually ended up winning the sale of the quarter board because of that response. They were like, that is the most like politically correct asinine authentic answer we’ve ever heard.
Yeah, I don’t have to go. That works. Like, I’m like, I’m like, none of us want to go, you know, but it’s like, you know, I mean, if you want to go, you probably watch Full Metal Jacket one too many times.
You want to go. You’re going to find a way to go. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, Steven, I’ll give you a credit on one more thing, man. Throughout my career, cops were partiers.
Cops could party like no other man, you know, three days off. You could party from the time you got off three days. You’re under the couch alcohol.
The only organization or squadron that I found that could hang were you medic people, medics. Yeah, medics, man. They knew how to party because I was dating this girl from the medics.
I was always at their parties and they knew how to do it, man. I know it’s common. Medics had this weird little I mean, in the army, too, because I was in the army for a while.
All the medics, they were like the smart ass guys. They were the funniest guys and they were the loosest guys. I don’t know what it is about that profession, but that’s who you want to drink with.
Oh, man. No doubt. Access to the drugs.
That’s why. Yeah, it could be. It could be legal.
Something’s going on. And yes, I I can either confirm nor deny that statement, Mike. But yes, I’ve been there before it.
Well, now they’re looking in. They’re looking into micro dosing for, you know, for the military. So there you go.
You got that going for you now, too. Hey, Korman, can I get a little hit from you? Just a little. Just a little bit.
Yeah, yeah. So when did you go to ghost writing full time? So. I would say like full time, full time without doing any kind of copywriting, because there’s a little bit of difference between copywriting.
Oh, OK. Well, but but OK, when do you when were you able to separate from doing a nine to five with the boss and be self-employed? 2007, 2017. That is awesome, man.
That is awesome. So you you’re ghost writing. You’re doing a little bit of copywriting.
You’re into some other some other endeavors. You’re in a travel trailer. And we have seven kids.
How many kids are with you and your wife still in the trailer? Four. How many chickens do you have? 75. 75 chickens in the travel trailer.
I don’t have the chickens in the travel trailer. Well, let’s let’s be clear about this. They’re in a slide out.
All right. They got their own slide out. No, we we live on a private land.
So like so we rent land and we’re on we’re on 20 acres. Oh, awesome. And so I’ve got 75 chickens.
We have five goats. We have two dogs and our female dog just gave birth to 13 puppies. All in the family, brother.
What he told me this in the interview, I was like, so you just must hate downtime. That’s all you do. Yeah, I know.
He was like, I’ve got to go from sun up to sundown, man. Yeah, I should have stopped like 10 years ago, but that’s OK. There’s always time to stop.
You’re good. Yes. So now what? You’re just you’re just moving to another private landowner or do you have? So we moved out.
We moved. I don’t know if you guys are familiar with San Diego at all. The gaslight district.
I’ve been there a couple of times, but up and up and like the North County, Fallbrook area is what it’s called. It’s just like inland from Canton, which is the Marine Corps base up there. OK.
And so that’s which is in Fallbrook is huge. So so we moved from like the west end of the hills in the middle of nowhere to the east end, almost in the middle of nowhere. But but it’s a half hour closer to everything that we do.
So. Oh, OK. And you’re still in the RV.
Is that correct? We’re still in the RV. There’s actually we have we have the RV and then the landlords put this old like retro travel trailer mobile home like like if you go into a trailer park and you see grandma lives in a single wide home park, that’s right. That’s on the land.
So we’re like, whoa, check out all this room we have like, you know, a full like full on stove and oven now instead of like the trap. Oh, yeah. So so we’re kind of there’s a there’s a there’s an off grid couple in Missouri called has a YouTube channel.
They do like all this homesteading kind of stuff. And it’s called Off Grid with Doug and Stacy. And they have they have like two homes.
They have they have like two vlog cabins. One is their kitchen and dining room. And then the other one is their living, their living space where they sleep.
And so that’s kind of what we have. We have our our living. So the travel trailer is now where we sleep at.
And then we may be able to make a room for the for the kids, like a little play area. That’s amazing. And then we just use the, you know, use the room and use.
We call it the retro is what we call it now. And and so we use that to like to, you know, cook and eat and kind of hang out in. But the coolest thing is I finally now have an office.
That’s like, oh, nice. I select yourself. So we had an out.
We had so the travel trailer came with a like an outside kitchen. It’s we converted the outside kitchen into my office. So I would, you know, can stand up and and have my bookshelf up.
And it was it was kind of cool. But I’m I’m grateful to to sit down now and and be able to close the door and do a little bit of work. We’re in this.
Well, one last thing. Let’s say let’s do a little. Role play here, not a formal role play.
So Mike Johns wants to tell you his story, right? So he gets in contact with you, he finds out about you. How does that whole process go where Mike comes and goes, hey, I I want to tell you my biography, right? Hmm. I kind of sit down.
I have I have like a 21 question questionnaire that I walk through with people about why you want to write a book, you know, kind of what your audience is, what your, you know, what your purpose is, who, what audience you want, what’s the goal that you have for it? And and so that’s kind of the initial, the initial consultation, if you will, is just to sit down and like walk through the like a 30,000 foot view of what it would look like to have a book done. And just kind of get an idea of, you know, stories. You know, a lot of people, a lot of people like to use their books.
They’ll use their books to help to help elevate their business. And especially, especially, you know, there’s there’s the niche I’ve kind of fallen into has been has been with special operations forces that have turned vets that have turned into into entrepreneurs. And it’s something that’s fell into this year, which has been really cool.
And so I’ve been I just sit down and kind of walk through, because it’s usually if you go into business for yourself, and, you know, there’s in the entrepreneurial world, you know, there’s the whole like your message, your message, you know, like the whole like where you’ve come from in the stories that you have have made you who you are today. And that’s that’s what makes you, you know, a better entrepreneur. Because you’ve gone through all these challenges.
And so you can kind of, you know, be resilient and walk through them. And a lot of people, especially in the coaching. A decent amount of consultants, but especially in the coaching business, the coaching world, speaking world.
There’s a lot of people who, you know, like come out of addiction, you know, and life coaches and kind of things like that. So it’s so there’s a you know, we all have we all kind of have our story. And so and so that’s really the first piece is just like, what is your story, finding out about your story and and what you want to do with it.
And sometimes people don’t know. Even even in that. I’ve kind of I’ve kind of moved into this helping helping vets just tell their story in general.
Not necessarily, it’s not necessarily for business, some of it just as legacy to pass on to the kids. If you found have you found that you’re able to help some of these guys work through some of that, some of maybe the issues they had while they were in the military. Yeah, yeah.
I’ve I’ve one of one of the guys I’m working with right now, like he’s like, you know, this this is like help me get my story out on paper is help me more with my PTSD than therapy ever has. Wow. That’s big.
It’s huge. And so when he said that, that was like this. It was almost like a divine appointment, you know, for me of like, there’s, you know, I love, you know, I love helping people write their books, you know, help their businesses thrive and kind of relate that that that nonfiction kind of half storytelling memoir, half half business kind of thing.
But but hearing that from that guy was was really like just this moment of like, yeah, wow. Like, I didn’t think about that. Big stuff.
It’s very cathartic. And you know, some people think when they think of ghostwriting, they think somebody going, hey, I want a book, you know, Marnie comes to me says, you know, write me a book on insects and I just write a book on insects and put your name on it. And you get all the credit for it.
And there are some of those out there like that. But but for me, it’s like it’s a it’s a very personal experience. Like I’m blessed that because we live in the trailer and even though we have a farm, so it’s kind of changing a little bit.
But for the most part, I think it’s very minimally. And so because because of that, I don’t have to take every job that comes my way. I don’t have to.
I can so I can spend a little bit more time with people. Yeah, the most important. Yeah, I mean, the ones you really feel, you know, yeah, connected to.
And and so like it’s just it really hit me. Like, I think even since since you and I chatted last time, Marty, like it’s just a couple more people that have reached out. Like, I just I just want to tell my story.
Like I want somebody, somebody called me the other day and said, can you help me write my story for my kids? I was like, yeah, that’s great. So awesome. Yeah.
Isn’t that those legacies that we leave, you know, don’t always have to be like your names on a plaque on a wall in, you know, Utah somewhere. It’s, you know, sitting on the sitting on a on a table in the living room. Sure.
I mean, my my both my great uncles flew in World War Two. That’s all I know about. I know the plane.
They they flew C-47s. And that’s kind of all I know about them with some selective pictures. If they had met you and done something like that and to pass it two generations later, we’re like, OK, huge.
Yeah, that’d be awesome. Yeah. Well, you know, as stupid as it sounds, this podcast for me, my son said, hey, you know, if I do ever have kids, he’ll be able to hear his grandpa when his grandpa is gone and what his opinions were.
And I mean, even that simple stuff. It’s got to be as stupid as it sounds. Every time you and Mike, you’re like, it’s stupid.
No, no, no, no, no, no. I know everything I say is growing. And actually, I do have a question.
Is there is there like a question you ask, you know, the various veterans you work with that kind of cracks the code and helps them to like actually open up and that’s a good one. You know, is there is there something, you know, think about any of us sitting around and randomly walking into somebody that’s actually having a bad day? Is there a question that you found that you can ask over and over again that just kind of opens up that heart shell we all have. No, but, but nothing specific as a go-to question.
But as I think about it, a question that will come up, that tends to come up, you know, almost every time is the legacy question. Like if you, like who and your family you know, would you like to have this most be impacted by, or be most impacted by your story, or who would you like to see this translate down to? I’m asking that more and more, as a prevalent question, but it just kind of always seems to come out, and you know, at some point I’m just like, because I’m a big legacy kind of guy, which is like wanting to create something to last, you know, past me. I think that’s important for most men, I really do.
What did I leave beyond? Yeah, like what you were saying, Marty, I didn’t find out until after my grandfather died, like so my uncle, who was my hero, his dad, my grandpa, his army uniform hung in the garage for like 30 years, and I would see it every time that the door would open, and I never noticed it until he passed away, and I looked at it one day, and I was like, wait, he was a medic in the army. No way. Yeah, and my grandma was like, well yeah, he was, and here’s the kid, he was like, he was at D-Day, he was starting to show up in the first episode, and I was like, whoa.
I never knew that, you know, and then my other grandpa on my other side, he was an Air Force mechanic and during the Korean War, but I didn’t know until after he passed away, in fact, on our, we were, I would say 2018, we were on our trip, on our cross-country trip, that was visiting my mom in Ohio, and we were up in this town called Mansfield, and she’s like, oh, she’s like, we could take you by, I was like, oh, that’s where Shawshank Redemption was filmed. There’s a penitentiary outside of Mansfield, Ohio, and so we go there, and I mean, it was one of my favorite movies, so I’d like to see it live, it was like, oh, this is really cool, and then my mom was like just nonchalantly, she was like, yeah, your grandpa was a security guard here for 30 years. Oh my God, oh wow.
Like, oh my gosh, to have actually, like, yeah, had I known that when I was, even as a teenager, like, he died when I was, I think 28, 29, but like, man, had I known that earlier. What a story you could have written for him. Oh man, no doubt, D-Day as well.
The other day. Mike, do you have a family that was in the military besides you? I mean, you’re a father. Yeah, I mean, I have a completely blue family.
My dad was, he’s a retired master, and he was security forces. My mom did a couple of years. My mom did a couple of years at the get-go, and she went over to the reserve, she retired as a major, and then my little sister’s actually a current reserve chief, so.
Mike, if you need, I’ll be your stepdad, if you’d like. No, I think we understand the animosity that he shows you, Eric. That’s where it came from, that’s it.
Steven, what can we find yet? You’re on LinkedIn, right? That’s Steven Leapley, just search for Steven Leapley on LinkedIn, and you’re also at LeapleyEnterprises.com, right? Yes, yep. And I didn’t ask you this before, but if anybody who’s listening, is this videoed as well, or is it just audio? Yeah, I put it out on Facebook and YouTube, so. Oh, I should have wore something else.
You look good, Steven. Yeah, I like to make pizza great again. There’s nothing wrong with that.
For people who are watching this, if they hit any of my socials, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram. I didn’t wanna put your Facebook out there because I wasn’t sure. That’s okay, I’m an open, I’m an open book.
If they just shoot me a message that says, and just put late in the DM, and I’ll get it back to you, for people who are listening here, and I’ll even send it out to you guys too, once we’re off here, is I have like a template that I use, I call it the nine storytelling tips. So when I sit down with a client, and this is kind of a little bit deeper for your question too, Mike. When I sit down with a client, I go through these questions to kind of really formulate your story.
And so I wanna give that to anybody who’s listening, watching it, if they want it. And then in that, I also shoot everybody out, 21 questions to ask a ghostwriter before you hire one, because those are important questions. And then I have a, I actually have a special report that I just finished, after you and I talked and made me think about this.
And so I wrote a, like a probably 15 page thing on why it’s important for veterans to tell their story. Oh, that’s awesome. Absolutely.
I’ll send that over to you guys. And then- Good, and I’ll put links, to all of that in the show. And if I had a website, I would put it up on a website.
But- We’re technical. We’re pretty okay on this. You got enough computers behind you, Marty.
Oh yeah, you see all those RGBs? Look at those goddamn things, right? That’s the old work center we used to work at, Mike and I, and Jake, he’s not here. He’s out of the closet, we can’t find him. So, yeah, I just watched the war games the other day.
He reminds us what- Man, it looks like it, doesn’t it, right? Crazy war games. That’s what I think about with Space Force. That’s what, well, that’s, that too.
That’s behind Eric, that’s the Cheyenne mountain entrance, right? That’s where it’s all supposed to be. So, do you want to play a game, right? Do you want to play a nice game of chess? All right, Steven, you’ll stay on and crack wise with a few stories we got? 100%. Not too.
Awesome. All right, let’s go. The first one, I didn’t want to do the story, but I felt like we should.
So, they finally passed the National Defense Authorization Act, right? The NDAA. So, this story from airspaceforce.com, Congress passes the NDAA, provides 5.2% pay raise for every airman and guardian. So, I’m just going to hit a couple of highlights on this thing because it is massive.
It’s 3000 pages, okay? And interestingly enough, the NDAA only authorizes programs and expenditures. It doesn’t appropriate funds. So, they still have to go back and get the defense appropriations bill to fund any of this stuff.
So, it’s just, I’m not that adept enough to understand the NDAA is like, you will have this. And then they’re like, okay, let’s go ask for money and maybe they get it. Maybe they don’t.
I don’t know, it’s confusing. Did you check to see if that document was ghost written? Oh, I’m sure it was ghost written. I’m sure no Senator or Congressman put a pen to paper on that goddamn thing, right? It came from Sports Illustrated.
Oh, yeah, with an alias. The NDAA only mandates and directs policy, requires reviews and reports and establishes minimum and maximum numbers of personnel, equipment and spending. So, they don’t have the money for it yet.
They still got to do that through the defense appropriations bill. But included in this NDAA is a 5.2% pay raise which is the largest in 20 years and new rules governing the basic needs allowance. So, I guess BAH, BAS, which ensures service members with large families don’t fall below 150% of the federal poverty level.
I don’t know what that means, but that sounds alarming, doesn’t it? 150% of the federal poverty level. So, I guess we have service members falling underneath that, jeez. So, as a side note, here in California where you have, because they have the mandatory health insurance, right? So, we have this thing called Comfort California and you put in your- Oh, yeah, that’s the Obamacare light, right? Yeah, the Obamacare light.
So, you put in, like for me, I put in when I was making $70,000 a year as a base salary with six dependents. Yeah. The only thing I qualified for was state supported.
Holy shit, really? Oh my God. So, how’d you get to swing that? That’s California. I’ve knew some, I’m in heaven.
Yeah. Yeah, what are you guys? 60 million? How’d you get by? Like, what’d you do to the common? That’s what I’m talking about. Oh, you know what? I, the insurance from my last job, my last official job that I had was astronomical.
It was like 40% of my paycheck would have gone to healthcare. And so, I decided not to go with my business to go with Comfort California. It was the only thing that was provided.
So, I don’t have to pay for healthcare in that sense, which was nice. It’s very nice, but I think just getting by, generally speaking, like it’s, I don’t know how some people do it, but I just, I don’t buy my kid dogs. They, you know, I can go to a thrift store and get them a hundred dollars worth of clothes that anywhere else would be a thousand dollars and it’s brand new stuff.
So, it’s all about how you manage what you have. It is. And along that same lines we were talking about, I was talking with my wife the other day, and we were talking about our parents and how her set of parents and my set of parents both were never really great cooks.
They just cooked, you know, but there wasn’t anything flamboyant. And I was like, well, they had, they had depression there of parents. So, they learned from them and they’re just like stretch, everything’s stretch, right? I mean, one of our big meals in our house was what my mom and dad called marriage noodles, was just elbow macaroni, tomato sauce and ground beef.
That was it, right? And they just, they called it marriage noodles because that’s what they had on their wedding night. So, you have ways to cook that are, you know, you can stretch. More cost effective.
Much like clothes that you can stretch. And there’s techniques to do that. Especially with seven kids, I guess you kind of forced to do something like that, right? But, you know, that’s out of practice now.
You know, we don’t really do that. Now all our spoiled kids get door dash and they’re like, he said, right? I remember the hamburger stand where you go down and get four hamburgers for 25 cents a piece. And I was like, goddamn, this is great.
White Castle, baby, that was awesome. White Castle, that’s right. You can get them little mer sliders.
Oh yeah. Strow’s beer would give you 15 for 12, that’s right. Strow’s, you’re old, Marty.
I know, I know. I’m not as old as Eric, but I am old. That’s true.
You know, before my son got into fence building, he was on his own and he started a website doing the whole Poshmark thing. Where he would go. I know a Poshmark, but what is it? It’s websites that sell other, other wares stuff.
Oh, okay. So my son started a website, really wasn’t a website. It was an Instagram and some Facebook stuff where he would go to the bins.
They call them the bins where people would throw old clothing and just everything. And he’d get permission from the site. They’d let him go in.
He’d pay a small, small premium on T-shirts. You know, bags, purses, all these high-end things that people were just tired of, but were in still good shape. He’d turn around and sell them on his Instagram and make it, make it creepy.
Yeah, clean them up if they had to. It was really big for some of the hardcore rock and roll shirts that were sold at concerts that people had no longer, you know, your. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
He’d find those things and people would jump out of the wagons to buy that thing, man. Really? So yeah, so he, he still does that. Still gets his work clothes from him.
Yeah, there’s a little place in a town out here. I’m in Arizona in town called Bisbee. And they sell those rock and roll T-shirts to girls for like $225.
I was like a few gifts for my wife for Christmas. And you know, this is a little shop. They’ve got a bunch of little nifty things that she would like and stuff like that.
I looked up, I was like, oh man, Guns N’ Roses T-shirt, that’ll be cool. And I clicked on it, it was like 225 bucks. Jesus Christ.
You know, this thing sold maybe 25. It was way overpriced at the concert. But yeah, I mean, people go up and get that stuff and put it in a box and save it.
Do they bill them as like actual concert shirts or something like that? Yeah, vintage, vintage clothing and stuff like that. Vintage clothing. Wow, wow.
He would do the most on those and like Louis Vuitton stuff. Even if it was just like a kickoff of a real one. People love that stuff, man.
Eric, you seem more like a Gucci family. No, no Gucci here, baby. Eric, if you had known now, back when you were in Korea, you would have cleaned up on Coach and all the other stuff that they make up there.
I would have been lining up. I remember whatever. What was it, Mike? What was the exercise that all the space guys went to? Was it ultra focused? Yeah.
And they would go out there and people would give them money and they’re like, hey, my wife wants this coach purse or somebody wants this. Cause it’s dirt cheap over there, right? Well, it’s no, it’s fake. I’ve been in the, I’ve gone through the door that they open up to show you where all the fake shit is.
And yeah, it’s actually pretty cool. I’ve got pictures on my cell phone. I can find them and send them over, but, but yeah, it’s interesting.
Cause I went in, you know, I went into one of these purse stores and I was like, Hey, you know, I’ve got a friend that wants some, you know, Gucci purse or whatever it was at the time. I showed him a picture. I mean, he was like, follow me.
And then we went down these sets of stairs and he literally pulled off all the purses that he had against the wall and opened up a false wall. And behind that, they had all the fake shit all back there. And he’s like, okay.
And he pulled one out and he was like, oh, that’s not it. And he went through like three of me. He looked at my phone.
He’s like, this is the one. And as opposed to being, you know, like $2,000 or $3,000, it was like 225 bucks. He wanted American cash.
Wow. Moral of the story is you can certainly live off a dollar if you know how to do it. Yeah, that’s true.
I can remember that there was a tailor out there that made really good suits. I had my my mess dress made out there. Yeah, I’ve heard.
I’ve heard a lot of people who did that too. Yeah. Yeah.
That’s hilarious. But yeah, bring it all back to what Stephen was saying. So is that pay raise just for for soldiers and airmen? They say it’s everyone.
So I understand how they say it’s everyone, right? Because there was some talk earlier. Hey, it wasn’t talk. I mean, there was discussions about like, hey, we should raise the junior enlisted’s pay.
Well, but you can only go so far before you got an E4 making what an E5 is making, right? Now it’s like, OK, shit. Now you’ve got to raise the next tier. And then you’ve got to raise the next tier.
And all of a sudden, that ripple is like billions of dollars or whatever, whatever it turns out to be. It’s going to be a 5.2 across the board, which is good for us to retire because that base pay is what we get paid off of. Yep, right.
But what they can do, I mean, they’ve already done it, right? They have already said 5.2. But I think in those conversations what they could do, they can compensate you on BAH, BAS, all that stuff, housing. They can give junior enlisted more for that without disrupting the scale and causing a domino effect all the way down the scale. So yeah.
Those other parts of the party. They really need to look at the page tiers all together and really have it come to Jesus meeting about the whole thing because it’s not comparable to the real world. Oh, I agree.
And when they raised minimum wage, and now you got a guy at Robin Hood sandwiches who’s making more than the E2, you know, who’s serving. And you’re like, fuck you, dude. I’m not going to go in.
I’m going to stay at Robin Hood. I’ll just go to APs. I’ll make more at APs.
And I will sign in on the dotted line. So I still have a credit card from APs. I probably should pay that off.
You know, I think my star card is still, if I ever wanted to use it, I think I could go use my star card if I ever wanted to. Because I remember buying a computer on that thing about 30 years ago. And I paid forever on that.
You just paid off on it for like 10. Yeah, I know I did. I paid forever on that thing.
The star card. So it’s through. They got to wait for the appropriations bill.
There’s a couple of items in there on the NDAA that were pertinent to us. So aircraft moves, which is weird. This is odd because they’re like other provisions in the NDAA includes slowing aircraft attrition.
So Congress imposed new limits on Air Force plans to retire the F-15E and F-16 fighter jets. So it took Congress to tell the Air Force, stop retiring your planes. And the Air Force was like, no, we want to get rid of them.
It was like, why? Yeah, that F-15 can still do the job, baby. I don’t understand. Now, when they get in the F-22s, they have some limitations on the F-22s because I guess the F-22 is like one of the most expensive.
It’s almost like, what was the old spy plane that was so? That was so expensive. SR-71. SR-71, right? That was so expensive to maintain that they were like, wasn’t it? It needed to be pressurized at altitude.
Otherwise, it leaked or something like that. Yeah, when it took off, it would leak fuel. Yeah, yeah.
And then after it got off the altitude, it would seal up. That was the way it was invented by the CIA, the A-12. The A-12 design, right? So I get that.
And I get that they’re saying the F-22 is one of the most expensive planes to maintain. But for the United States Air Force, which is weird, because all the war gaming, if we go to war with China, we don’t have enough shit. They outnumber us forever.
And here’s the Air Force that’s like, yeah, get rid of the F-15, get rid of the F-22, get rid of some of these A-10s. We don’t need them. Well, the problem with the F-22 is the supply chain.
You can’t build new ones now because they shut it all down. Right, right, right. So interesting that Congress had to say, stop retiring these planes.
OK, they told the Air Force that, right? Well, they got to get the money from somewhere. OK, so let’s get as far away from Steven Leapley as we can. And let’s talk the Space Force provision in the NDAA.
All right, and this is interesting. I only touch on this because this is an interesting fight what they want to do. For the Space Force, the bill mandates a single personnel management system essentially doing away with regular and reserve members in favor of a system that allows for both full-time and part-time guardians.
This just sounds like a cold wordsmith thing. That’s all it sounds, right? Told you it was written by somebody else. So instead of regular and reserve, we’re going to call you part-time and full-time.
That sounds like the dumbest thing ever. Well, I’ve got a little bit of insight into this. And what they wanted to do was, as they were trying to get into how they partitioned off the Space Force with a reserve component and a National Guard component, they tried to kind of fuse it all into one.
And then the idea was that a lot of the people you would hire into the Space Force would have skills that would go beyond just the military. And they’d want to show up. And, you know, advance her skills, get her to get some stuff like that, and then move back to the private sector.
And then to be able to pull from the private sector back into the military, some of these guys, so you could come in, get an initial skill set, go to the private sector, do some things, then move back into the military sector to do even cooler things, then move back to the private sector. That was the idea behind it. Whether it would actually work, who knows? Well, the way they described it, and give you credit for what you’re saying, because I think that’s what you’re talking about is the concept that started it.
But the way they described it is they still, I mean, even if you’re part time, you still gotta do your one weekend a month and your 14 training days. That’s like, that’s a reservist, right? Yeah. But they’re calling them part time.
So that’s why I say, it sounds like this massive, just wordsmith thing. And then when you get into the National Guard, they are totally screwed up on the National Guard, because National Guard is sponsored by the state, you know, that kind of thing. And they wanted to be all federal, so they don’t know if they’re gonna have a National Guard.
So that’s the next fight that they’re gonna have. It’s amazing when shit is not broke that we have to try to fix it. Well, things are broke.
I mean, you look at the recruiting sector, recruiting is broken right now. I know that, but I’m talking about things that have been placed for years. When has it been broken? Well, that’s true.
I mean, but when you were talking about recruiting, I made this comment in our interview, is that you went in with some kind of, you talk to the recruiters, unlike most people who go into the recruiters. Most people are just like, okay, I guess if that’s all you have, if I gotta be a security force, I guess that’s what I’m gonna do. That’s true.
And he walks out, right? And you were like, stick it up your ass, I’m not gonna do that. Which is amazing. But you had your uncle, you had your dad, you had some people talking into you.
I’m sure they were like, don’t let this guy snow you, right? Yeah. So that’s huge. I mean, that makes such a big difference.
But yeah, getting back to this NDA, I don’t know how they’re gonna do it. It just sounds like a mess with the Space Force piece. And I don’t really know if anybody will really be able to tell the difference if they do this whole, okay, we’re not gonna have reserves, we’re just gonna have part timers.
Okay. Good luck with that. I mean, there’s a significant amount of people who work in space that take off the uniform and then they go work for Lockheed, or they look for Northrop, or they work for Raytheon, or Parsons, or whoever else.
So they’re working in the space industry. And then they come back on the weekend, they put the uniform on. Okay, that’s how the reserves currently works in space right now.
And now they wanna call them, yeah, those guys are just part timers. It’s dumb. Well, if they do part time, if they go with this part time, then would they even have to pay for their medical benefits? Wow, that’s what I’m saying.
Unless they rewrite all that stuff, because you gotta be on orders to get the medical stuff. So yeah. I don’t know.
I mean, I think they like the reserve piece. I don’t know why they’re trying to call it a different thing because the reserves are all federal. The National Guard, that’s state.
And so they’re like, oh, we don’t know if we want Space Force to be on the state. And I don’t know why. I don’t know why.
It sounds like a congressional fight for no other reason than funds. Probably, it’s probably funding. Is that like when they made the post office a private company instead of a government organization? Yeah, probably.
Yeah, yeah, I think so. That makes sense. So it’s all tied to money, all the other stuff.
But there are several, I think there’s, I think I read there’s 16 National Guard space related units across the US. Not many. But what do those guys do? And they’re like, we want to get rid of the Space National Guard.
And these guys are like, maybe I should leave now. They think they got a recruiting problem now. They’re gonna have a big- Ross train quick.
That’d be a cop, it would be the security forces. Yeah. Okay, let’s, I don’t want to talk about GPS.
Even it’s a good story. You know that GPS story I sent you? You know who wrote it? Did you read it? I know you guys didn’t read it. I send them stories every week.
And they’re all like, I’m prepared. I like, do you read it? And they’re like, I do. It’s almost like an assignment to them.
That’s why they don’t want to read it. Now, maybe if we hired you, you could ghost read it. And then send them cliff notes.
Ghost reading. Send us auction points. That’s why I use chat GPT.
Oh man, have you played around with that yet? I have. Really? Yeah, actually, I actually use chat GPT as my assistant. But I- We use it quite a bit too in our business.
Oh, you do? No kidding, really. We use it to help us start proposals just to give us a baseline to run through. Yeah, if that makes sense.
You know, we go back through and read at it. Do I have something? It’s a good layout of a starting point. Because you can go insane.
I’m a senior level electrical engineer. I need you to write X, Y, and Z for this thing. And then it’ll go through and search the internet for everything you’d search the internet for anyway.
And then lay it all out and then we go back through and put the nuance into it that we need to. And it’s, I mean, I would say the chat GPT at the end of the day probably provides 30% of what we actually push forward. Sure.
But it definitely gives us paragraphs and it lines our thoughts up in a better way than what would take us hours and hours if it breaks it down into a few more hours or a few less hours, but it’s still, you know, yeah, you just got to go through and translate it. Always easier to create than to edit. I mean, always easier to edit than to create it, right? What’s the name of the sub button? If it just pulls a bunch of GPT.
Say it too fast. Slow down a little bit. Chat, GPT.
It’s what all the kids are using these days, right? They’re of course on, you know. We cops are slow. I needed you to just slow it down a little bit so I could understand.
It’s the AI piece, right? It’s the AI piece of general. Yeah, it’s your general. Is that available in Netscape? I think it’s only available via AOL as a messenger.
So can I add it onto my prodigy? You know, if I wanted to, I dialed up what was that? What was the first Eric? What was the first internet service you ever signed up for? AOL. Was it AOL? Mine was Prodigy. I signed up with Prodigy because everybody was on AOL.
Fuck AOL. I’m going with Prodigy. I was on AOL.
Because they mailed you a disk. I brought a GPT. Yeah, I remember that.
What was the first computer? AOL was brilliant because they mailed you out the disk. And they were like, here we go. There you go, right? My first computer I bought came.
It was a Hewlett Packard. And six months after I bought it, I got the Windows 95 disk. I can put the operating system in.
64 Commodore. Yep. And I played Pong.
Bing. That’s all I played on that thing, man. Anyway, there was a good article.
And this is the second week I’m skipping it. So but it was an opinion piece in USA Today. And you know who wrote it? Lieutenant Colonel Robert Ray, who’s the current commander of the Second Space Operations Squadron, or Tucson, who actually flies GPS.
Now, how relevant is that? Yeah, that’s a good article. It’s a decent article. It’s pretty good.
Talking about how valuable GPS is, and how we’ll never turn it off. You know, we’ll never turn off, what’s the damn thing called, Selective Availability, or M code. I don’t even know if we can say M code, because it doesn’t exist anymore.
Yeah, I was from up here in the Clinton administration. Yeah, Clinton is like, forget it. Because GPS came up with an option that we could turn it on, and just military could use.
That was M code, or whatever you want to call it. And Clinton was like, ah, we’ll never use that. He was like, ah, F it.
And so, OK, I guess it’s for everyone now. Well, the best part, let me talk about GPS real quick. The best part about GPS, Unavailability, was myself going through this course called Space 200.
It was one of those courses you had to go through as a space professional that helped enlighten you to the other satellite systems and all that stuff you’d have to deal with in the Air Force. And one of the big things they would always say was that if GPS went out, you would lose timing across financial networks and all that stuff. Well, one of the instructors goes by rails.
He would always bring up the fact that there was never a GPS receiver in any ATM machine. And he had schematics of ATM machines that did not have GPS receivers. And he was like, dude, if GPS goes out, you will still be able to get money out of an ATM.
It’s not going to take down all these financial networks. And the argument was always on timing and that all these things were used by timing, but there was nothing ever proven. So it was, I can’t prove it right now.
And he did bring up a good point that there is not any GPS receiver in ATM machines. And this whole nonsense of all these GPS guys going, dude, GPS goes down, the whole world’s going to go this way. The banks will collapse.
Yeah. Financial transactions will cease. It’s bullshit.
And I’m on rails side. Rails, if you happen to be listening to this, buddy, I’m with you, dude. You convinced me.
And yeah, the loss of GPS has not been some simplistic event. I’m glad I didn’t go through that story. I’m glad I didn’t go through that story because I was going to bring up his point, not my point.
Her own raise, her own raise point, which was just what you just disputed or dissuaded me though. So he’s a victim of propaganda is what that is. But they did say that if we lost GPS, that even the digitally imposed first down line on televised football games, that would go away.
Oh my God, the end of the world. Oh my gosh. Oh shit.
Oh shit. Because we’re too stupid now to know whether it’s. I know.
I watched it for fucking years without that line. I could tell you made that first down or not from the freaking TV screen. And show me the GPS receiver in the in the end zone.
Pylons. Well, show me the GPS receiver in the hockey puck. Remember when they used to do that? When they tried that for a little while, they tried to highlight the hockey puck that was going around.
Yeah. It was really like for a couple years. That is that level.
Yeah, it’s ridiculous. Well, GPS going out would be a huge problem, but the catastrophic thing that everyone, or that everyone that all these guys have been propagandizing has been ridiculous. I’m not going to go.
All of the tractors now need GPS to go. So the 10,000 years that we’ve been farming before this, now the tractors won’t be able to follow the route. Well, it looks like this is the wide area network here on the ground that’s downloaded from the satellites that doesn’t, it relies on the satellites for updates.
And that will eventually degrade over time. But it won’t be an instantaneous loss. So… Good point.
Backyard chickens are actually the gateway to conspiracy theory. You know that, right? Well, how’s that? I’ve been talking about chickens my whole life. Well, see, once you go to chickens and you start eating eggs from your own chickens and you’re like, why is the yolk different than a regular store-bought yolk? And then you go to the internet and you start looking at it, you know, because of how you raised your chickens, they’re more natural versus, you know, this and then that, the food system.
And then you get it back into GPS and farming tractors is because they want to know who’s farming what and how much, and that’s my conspiracy theory. So… Makes sense. That’s pretty good.
So you’re saying that the guest signal was degrading the yolk in my store-bought eggs? No, I’m saying the GPS signal they use in tractors is put there so that they can figure out how much farming is actually being done. So they know how, so… So they can… Yeah, so they can shift how we eat. That’s good.
That’s pretty good. I like that. Now that’s right up your alley, Marty.
That’s another one. I don’t believe that. What do you mean, right up my alley? You’re the conspiracy guy, man.
Everything is a… I’m not a conspiracy guy. Let’s be clear, I’m the conspiracy guy. I was telling you… I’m just saying, how can a plane hit two towers on the north side of New York and on the south side… Building seven, baby, building seven.
Tell me how building seven came down. That’s all I want. Wait, are you saying chickens took out building seven? That’s what I’m hearing right now.
Chickens were flying the planes. It was the chickens flying the planes. They were flying pigs.
That’s what it was. I was just gonna say that. Have you ever seen that birds aren’t real? Have you ever gone to that? Oh, dude, I love that shit.
That is some of the funniest stuff. I know. Eric, I’ll send you the website for that.
Birds aren’t real. Never heard of it. They’re all robots.
They’re all watching. They’re drones that land on power lines to recharge. It’s great.
The pigs that thought that shit up were brilliant. Yeah, it’s really good. But finally, we found the use for weed because these guys produce a brilliant website.
It’s awesome. Yeah, yeah. You know what, Eric? Let’s go to this day in history.
Oh my goodness. Picture, if you will. It’s very dramatic.
Wait, say that again. Sorry, I walked over. December 19th.
December 19th. All right. 1777.
Oh, we’re going way back. We’re going way back. General George Washington’s Continental Army has just severed a string of defeats that fall, including losing the capital of Philadelphia to the British.
The Americans made- Was it the capital of Philadelphia? That’s correct. The capital of Philadelphia. No, Philadelphia was a nation’s capital.
The capital of Philadelphia to the British. Okay, to the British. Okay.
The Americans made camp for the winter outside of the city. Forget it, he’s rolling. Everybody knew what that city was? Valley Forge, baby.
Valley Forge, baby. So on December 19th, Washington moved his forces into Valley Forge. The army endured a chronic supply crisis but largely remained as well-fed and clothed as it did during the previous campaigning season.
The reason I bring that up is because a lot of people are under the assumption that Valley Forge was nothing but a frozen tundra and they were starving and they weren’t clothed. Some of that was correct. But under the direction of the army’s engineers the men began constructing over 2000 log huts laid out along military streets.
These were erected using lumber from the region’s abundant forest and typically took a week to build. With the arrival of spring, Washington directed that two windows be added to each hut. In addition, defensive trenches and five readouts were built to protect the encampment.
So they had housing, supplies. Though far from ideal, the conditions of the encampment were generally on par with the Continental Soldiers routine day-to-day activities. During the early months of the encampment, supplies and provisions were scarce but available.
Soldiers may do with substance meals such as fire cake. It was a mixture of water and flour. This would sometimes be supplemented by pepper pot soup, a stir of beef tripe and vegetables.
The situation improved in February following a visit to the camp by members of Congress and successfully lobbying by Washington. There were a lack of clothing caused suffering among some of the men. Many were fully uniformed with the best equipped units used for foraging and patrols.
Those guys went out and found stuff. During the earlier months of Valley Forge, Washington lobbied to improve the army supply situation with some success. So the bottom line here guys is Valley Forge was ugly from 77 through the early 78, but it was sustainable and for the most part, everybody was good to go and ready to fight the British.
So on the 19th is when they loggered into their winter headquarters. And moved into winter headquarters at Valley Forge. Ah, shit.
Big event. But it was tough because he had just lost a number of battles prior to moving in. So they were suffering, but the troops morale, they were ready, man, was ready to go.
That was 77? 1777, December 19th. Good one, Eric. That was a good one, man.
Cool. All right, I think we’re, we’re at shift change then. You know, we’re at the, we’re at the end of the episode here.
So on behalf of all of us here, I’d like to thank you for listening today. A special thanks goes to you, Steven. Steven, thanks for coming on the show, man.
Right on. Thanks for having me. That was fun, man.
That was fun. And like I said, I’ll get his interview out here shortly so you can hear all about strippers. You can hear about all the real good stuff.
That we didn’t really get to here. And then we’re going to bring you back on and reengage. Yeah, no kidding, man.
We can bring you back on, definitely. Remember, you can find Steven on LinkedIn. Just search for Steven Leapley.
Also on Facebook, right? Just search for Steven Leapley. And at LeapleyEnterprise.com. Enterprise is. Enterprise is.com, sorry about that.
That’s all right. But I know if I, if I went to Leapley Enterprises, LLC, it brings that website up, so. It should, yes.
Not directly, but. And I look forward to those, the links that you have for some of those questions and stuff. That’ll be interesting.
So please like, share, subscribe, and let us know how we did in the comments. Oh, I didn’t coach Steven up for this part. All right, we get it.
There’s a reason to coach, just let it happen. Ghostwriting 101. He’s got to know what’s going to happen.
I come up here and we’re going to say late for changeover. And I won’t take so long this time. This time, this time.
That was a problem last time. It took too long. So late for changeover.
Perfect case, right there. All right. We’re going to get this, I’m sure.
So. Say it at the same time that we were saying. Yes, we’re doing it.
All right. So please like, share, subscribe, and let us know how we did in the comments. And make sure next week that you are not.
Late for changeover. Oh, no. I did the snaps, he fucked it up.
You went slower than you said. Mad thanks for the week. And I’ll see you next week.
Thanks for joining us, Steven. I appreciate it. Thank you, guys.
Thanks for listening and we’ll see you next week.