Sean Burnett is a Special Forces veteran transitioning into the world of entrepreneurship. Sean, who will soon retire from the Special Warfare Center and School, has started his own woodworking business, Barking Blade Design Co., as he navigates his way from military service to civilian life. With a background in engineering and a passion for creating custom wood and laser-engraved items, Sean's journey is both inspiring and instructive for aspiring entrepreneurs.
This episode has a distinct feel as we refelect on Sean’s background, the skills he gained from his military career, and how he turned a woodworking hobby into a growing business. Sean shares how the COVID-19 pandemic and social media influenced his decision to purchase a CNC machine, leading to the creation of custom products that resonated deeply with his customers. We also explore the mental health benefits of woodworking and how it has provided Sean with a therapeutic outlet during his transition.
Listeners will gain valuable insights into starting a business, the importance of community support, and leveraging technology for creative endeavors. Sean’s story emphasizes the significance of finding a therapeutic and productive hobby, understanding the intricacies of creating a custom product line, and balancing personal satisfaction with business growth. For those interested in entrepreneurship, especially veterans transitioning to civilian life, this episode offers practical advice and motivational strategies.
References:
Three Potential Listener Questions:
https://www.visioninmotion.co
Sean Burnett is a Special Forces veteran transitioning into the world of entrepreneurship. Sean, who will soon retire from the Special Warfare Center and School, has started his own woodworking business, Barking Blade Design Co., as he navigates his way from military service to civilian life. With a background in engineering and a passion for creating custom wood and laser-engraved items, Sean's journey is both inspiring and instructive for aspiring entrepreneurs.
This episode has a distinct feel as we refelect on Sean’s background, the skills he gained from his military career, and how he turned a woodworking hobby into a growing business. Sean shares how the COVID-19 pandemic and social media influenced his decision to purchase a CNC machine, leading to the creation of custom products that resonated deeply with his customers. We also explore the mental health benefits of woodworking and how it has provided Sean with a therapeutic outlet during his transition.
Listeners will gain valuable insights into starting a business, the importance of community support, and leveraging technology for creative endeavors. Sean’s story emphasizes the significance of finding a therapeutic and productive hobby, understanding the intricacies of creating a custom product line, and balancing personal satisfaction with business growth. For those interested in entrepreneurship, especially veterans transitioning to civilian life, this episode offers practical advice and motivational strategies.
References:
Three Potential Listener Questions:
https://www.visioninmotion.co
Because when I walk into those interviews one of the first things on my mind is he's just gonna provide me the flexibility to spend time with my family Welcome to motion matters where we shine a light on the entrepreneurial journey sharing real stories of triumph and challenge Guided by Jamie Tilka we connect inspire and educate This is motion matters Hello, and welcome to motion matters This is the entrepreneurial podcast where we talk about the trials and tribulations of entrepreneurship today, I have a fellow military service member here Sean Burnett and We're gonna take a little bit of a different angle today. He's still in the process of Transitioning out of the service He's began to his own business on the side but still Discovering exactly what it is that that he wants to do as he transitions out. So Sean thanks for coming on and being on the show with us. Yeah, I appreciate you having me look forward to awesome Yeah, man, I'm super excited for this one, too. If you don't mind, can you give us a little bit about your background and Kind of what's led you up to this point and then you know, you can cut we can from there You know take we'll ask some questions and delve into the you know, you're your business that started Yeah, I think a few things kind of led into this one. There's there's a whole joke about Special Forces guys when they get out a lot of them just go straight into woodwork because we're so used to working with our hands and it seems to be a popular thing, especially you know when you live around the Fort Liberty area you go out there and I Swear, you throw a stone and you'll hit a special force guy with Sometimes the woodshop dude for real. I Think I think it all kind of started when I was younger. I didn't grow up playing a lot of sports My father was older. So I grew up, you know learning a lot of the the necessary skills to I guess survive, right? So he He would always have me tag along when he was remodeling the house. He was always fixing stuff He was always tinkering with something and I kind of gained a lot of that mechanical technical knowledge and like hands-on work Right, and my mother was more the technology side. So in a way I got the best of both worlds Once I joined the military became an engineer. So, you know, everybody likes to blow stuff up and Then later on my career transitioned over went to selection ended up in third special forces group worked my way through there And then I ended up at the Special Warfare Center in school where I'll be retiring out of here in about a little less than five months so During that time period, you know it right in the middle of a lot of that around 2020 is when you know Kovat started off, you know, and everybody found themselves very bored and a lot of people got tired of sitting at home We were doing a lot of telework. I Was an instructor at the time so we were struggling to figure out how to you know, work with our students still there was a lot of like lag time You know trying to figure out how to adjust the content of our course To make it, you know still viable for student consumption, right? Yeah In that time period, you know social media kicks off, you know, you start getting million ads and I Had just bought, you know a new house that I had more room than I knew what to do with at the time I'd never had a garage before all of a sudden. I have a garage. Well, I might turn it into a shop Started doing some small stuff and then you know an Instagram ad popped up, you know for a CNC machine I did did a little bit of research not nearly as much as I should have And I bought kind of an entry-level CNC machine and I've been working with that ever since and that just kind of created you know, it started a domino effect and As I started making more money and you know investing in things and you know profiting off of different products You know, I bought more and more tools and expanded my capabilities for people that don't know what it is Can you tell them what a CNC machine is? So see see machines, so they've got different variations. Mine's a CNC router So what I'll do is I'll go into the online program for me. It's easel I'm gonna be upgrading to Vectric and Aspire that way I can do a lot more with it but I'll Put a design into a program Hit a button and as long as I've got the speeds and feeds right and got the right bit Ideally on the back end of that, you know, the design will pop out on wood. Okay And then, you know, I've also got an industrial laser engraver. I've got a small fiber laser That started off super small time and then I was like, well I need to get bigger and so I went big You mentioned that you you can do it on wood. But like What end items do you typically produce off of that? So a lot of what I've been doing is I do a lot of plaques a lot of flags I have the capability. I've got a rotary two different types of rotaries So I have the capability to do full tumbler wraps a lot of laser engraving on you know cups glasses I can do images on wood. I can do stuff on steel. I can do stuff on aluminum different acrylics I can cut out templates you name it. I can probably figure it out. Oh, that's pretty cool So we talked about this a little bit so you started off because it was While you were bored and you wanted to have a hobby you had the space and everything lined up But but you had mentioned that there was multiple people that had said to you is like bro like you should Start a business and do that. So talk a little bit about how that went from you know I'm just gonna do one or two to you're like, you know what? Maybe I will do something with this like how did that transpire for you? So it's more like a series of experiments, I guess and I started, you know playing around with the CNC machine and Once I started to kick stuff out, I just bring it into work and guys like oh man Hey, can you make me this and I think one of the big? Moments there was there was an individual that I worked with And his son was killed some years ago And so I had come up with a design using a tattered flag. It was really cool it was all wavy and I used a combination of my CNC machine and You know a very very basic diode laser really tiny thing To put his son's picture on there. Okay, and I ended up making two different versions of them as like a gift to him and He looked at it and he almost broke down and he presented one to his daughter At her baby shower and this whole family essentially like cry It was a really good gift and just hearing that is kind of what made it worth it to me And so from then on I try to You know add some type of personal touch to each Product that I push out and then once people, you know started getting hold of it And you know word-of-mouth kind of got around like hey this this guy's making some real good stuff You probably want to check it out. I started getting more and more, you know influx of orders and ideas and everything else To where I just kind of took off and before I knew it I decided, you know, I talked to a few folks That you know had started their own business or they're they were very savvy with you know Taxes regulation stuff like that. So like hey man, you need to get an LLC Yeah, you need to straight-up make this a business that way, you know, you've got your tax write-offs and Then you know, it also protects you in the end. I'm like, okay It sounds to me like you're It's the poster child for a labor of love, I mean Yeah, and one of the the big things I found was especially during that whole kovat time frame there was There was a whole combination of things that happened, especially within the military not just the special operations community So with the whole Afghanistan shutdown there was a whole shift in kind of the environment and we also We're working through an identity crisis because without the global we're on terrorism Everybody was kind of like what what do we do with our hands? Mm-hmm, right? And mine was quite literally. What do I do with my hands? Yeah, so There was also, you know a mental health struggle that I went through at that particular point in time as well And I found that having that outlet Helped me it helped me concentrate helped me. Calm down. You know, I always tell people sanding is my meditation For a lot of woodworkers sanding is the bane of our existence because you do so much of it Yeah, I I have drawers and drawers of sandpaper and it goes really quick But for me, it's just it's super calming and if you ever watch me sand, it's literally it's like the karate kid It's wax on wax off. I'm sanding and I'm feeling how smooth it is. I sand and I feel how smooth it is But it's it's Definitely a creative outlet and it helps on that that mental health journey, and I think you'll find That if you talk to a lot of military folks that get into that business or any business in a way It helps them with that To the extent that you're comfortable like talking about it. What why do you think that is? I mean, there's the obvious that you're stating which is that the action in and of itself Somehow soothes you but I guess I'm just wondering like What type of Therapeutic, you know processing it. Is it is that what it is? So with me I went from a job to where you know, we were training all the time it was it was a very fast paced very kinetic environment and To slow down and realize like hey, I'm not as good as I once was anymore that shift Kind of it took a toll on my mental health and I had a lot going on in my my life at the time and and I think with a lot of individuals not just myself is it we we can't just sit there and Especially with kovat it was it was a nightmare for a lot of people you could probably look up a lot of the statistics And I guarantee you there were a lot like I guarantee you suicide rates jumped Because a lot of people were just completely unsure of what to do with themselves and so with a lot of military folks, especially we need to stay occupied our mind is always used to running and if we're able to run and You know have that outlet and be able to be creative at the same time. It gives us that feel-good feeling But we also we have that ability to give back. We're also doing something physical And it's kind of like a an all-in-one type solution without medication, which is great I'm listening to what you're saying And the first thing that came to my mind was is that it doesn't allow you to get inside your head. Mm-hmm yeah, it's you know, I'll generally put on some music in my shop and If I'm going to sand or if I'm working on some programming I generally take my computer out to the shop and I just I just hang out there Granted it's summertime, North Carolina. So I'm gonna be sweating. Yeah But a lot of the times it it takes your mind off everything else because you have a problem to solve and it's right there In front of you and it's tangible, right? Yeah with a lot of everything in our lives, especially as a transitioning individual out of the military You know there there's a lot of Uncertainty there and we don't deal well with uncertainty in the military, especially in soft We make our living on contingencies. We always have a backup plan. There's always a backup plan but when you're retiring or ETS thing out of the military There's a lot of uncertainty on the other side Especially if you spent the past 20 plus years in a career where you knew no matter what you're getting paid You know, you knew what was coming next generally and Then all of a sudden, you know, I've got a hundred like what did I tell you 145 days something like that 143? Yeah, it's there's something on the other that end of that line and I'm not sure what that is just yet I'm in the process of figuring you know, and I'm not too stressed out about it But there's still that level of uncertainty where is if you put a piece of wood in front of me You know the technology I need to you know, create a design it's it's a very singular focus and it's very it's very tangible and I can fix it and I can I can deal with it right there and It's it's mentally. I Don't want to say mentally exhausting, but it's mentally engaging enough to where at the end of the day I can just I can go back I can sit on the couch with my wife my stepdaughter my dogs and just Hang out and just be there Right, it takes that that busy brain and calms it down To where okay, I can relax for the night and tomorrow's a new day super interesting to sit there and listening and the reason why I'm saying that is because So many people as you've already alluded to earlier particularly within you know the military They struggle when it comes time for them to depart right they One of the words I talk about all the time is they they lose their sense of purpose Right and for many of us including myself. I had never Been in a situation where I was truly part of something that was bigger than yourself, right? And so that in conjunction with all the hardships that you go through I mean even recently, you know, I started working out with my wife and In part of our diet program that I mentioned to you before we came on the show is We have to drink this this awful tasting tea every morning And so when we get up at 4 30 in the morning, we drink the tea I look at her and I always smile and she's like it's not funny. Why are you laughing? I said listen If there's one thing that I learned from my 24 years in a military service is that hardship grows people tight Because we're both sucking together and this thing tastes like ass So I'm looking at you. I'm laughing because I know how bad you hate it But because we're doing it together and you know, um, it just is something as simple as that builds Closeness. Yeah, right because you're in the experience together. And so Anyway, my point I'm trying to get to is that when I'm listening to you talking about the uncertainty my first reaction was that's weird though because most of us there was so much uncertainty in order to be able to get to the level of performance in the Organizational unit that you served it and that's one of the things I think is part but then when I combine it with what we just discussed which is Losing that camaraderie and losing that sense of purpose and all of the combination thereof. I think that In the unknown probably makes it incredibly difficult, you know for a lot of process. Yeah Yeah and I've always told my soldiers for many many years and finally like I'm on the other end of it is When you get out of the military, you don't have just like you said, you don't have that anymore You become a number the majority of people forget about you and they only call you when they need something Yeah, right and you realize just who you're who your real friends are But you also have those individuals who you've gone through that trauma bonding with that You know for a fact I could not talk to there are some individuals. I hadn't talked to for years until recently and You know, we've gone through some absolutely, you know, not so good experiences but I know for a fact I'd call them they'll pick up we can you know bullshit with each other just like It was yesterday and not have a single issue I tell people all the time that one of the greatest things about having served within the special operations and in our case special forces community is I said The brotherhood is a real thing I said I could show up in virtually any country and probably almost any city And I could be in the most dire situation and a huge portion of those guys would let me in with zero to little to zero questions ask and then You know try to figure it out together in the next day And I said, I don't even know any other thing that replicates that except for maybe some guys would bond You know that bond through team sports playing but even then you know when you put the combat scenario in there or just the intensity of Non-combat But just the training portions that it's you can't replicate that kind of camaraderie, you know Yeah, and and I think what's great about you know, starting a business before you get out is Especially Dependent it doesn't necessarily need to be two years before you get out ten years before you get out or you know 30 days before you get out, right? I Think the good part about having something like this is it bridges that gap of uncertainty? Nice, so you always have that? that Like lag period I guess between You know the last day at your job tour they kind of let you go do your thing and retire you know, you just make sure you're reporting into work you're doing the right thing and then You're you're just working on finding that next gig But you know idle hands of the devil's play thing So this keeps me from having those idle hands. It keeps that uncertainty kind of that Bay and it'll bridge that gap Until I find my next purpose Yeah, I love that. You mentioned that because I'm hoping that some people that may be in a similar position where they're approaching the end of their journey, whatever that is Are Taking into consideration what you're saying? Because I think yeah, I think that's a huge nugget that you just dropped I went the other extreme which I in some ways don't know if that was super healthy either Which is that I never processed my exit from the military I had started the business about 18 months out and once I'd catched a little bit of momentum. I I went at it a hundred miles an hour to the point where I Didn't have a retirement ceremony I didn't do any of the stuff that I almost didn't even go through the process of getting some of the you know The VA benefits because I was so caught up and running so hard And it hit me one day. So anyway, well, I like where what you just said, which is a much more I think thought out and strategic approach to the transition. And in fact, I would like to use that to Transition and talk a little bit into So you you've got this business that kind of was formed out of You know boredom and then and then you've got some Gratifying fulfillment from from doing this for other people and so not then from there it turned into you building your LLC and so where you at with it right now like what are you doing typically and and and what's it look like within that business for you and and Where do you potentially see it going right now? so recently I I've invested in a lot more equipment than I originally planned on. I had this fly-by-night deal and That's where I kind of got, you know I went and invested in a full-blown industrial laser and just like I told you it's literally the size of a double mattress I can crawl into this thing if I want That's But it has opened up a lot of capabilities because my old laser it had so many Limitations compared to what I wanted to do and I I felt like I outgrew it But one of the things I realized once I was getting, you know, some of this fancier stuff was that I was really Great at figuring things out So it helped me realize a lot of stuff about myself at the same time Like hey, I'm really great with technology to the point where you know A lot of these different products are just lasers or CNC machines in general or even just woodworking They have a lot of communities online, so within Facebook Instagram What's great about them is they they support each other and I think that also helped me at a point in time During during kovat when you know, there wasn't a whole lot of human contact happening, you know, I had my group here We were still able to interact at certain points, you know, we all had our gathering places But it got very monotonous, but that those communities support themselves, which is great and they're also a great knowledge base to learn from and When I started getting more advanced stuff on my okay, you know, I've got all this fancy stuff But at the same time I also need to go back to the basics I've realized as many fancy machines that I can get every once in a while Something just doesn't turn out the way you need it. You need to go back to the basics. Mm-hmm, and you know, I'll bust out a chisel I'm not afraid of it. I'll bust out a chisel a little dremel little hand tool, you know I've got some really nice, you know block planes bench planes everything else, you know, I've built a couple tables and I've used them Why because I need to and it it's in join like I enjoy it It's it's great to actually get that that time with the tool and it just it feels like you know It sounds corny, but it's like returning to your roots, right? but with where I'm going with it is as I post more and more things on social media and learn the the ins and outs of hashtags and Advertising and all that I'm slowly learning that threshold of where I want to keep things Like I don't want to be full full-blown because I don't want it to be my primary source of income Because one thing I've learned about myself It's not all-inclusive to everybody, but if I make something that I love my primary source of income, I might learn to hate it Because at that point it's going to be stressing me out. I Would tend to agree with what you just said but One yeah I'm into mastermind programs and I've I have paid mentorship because I realized that at my age of 52 I need to expedite my timeline and although I can learn it on my own and I'm Happy with that to some extent. I would like to be around people that can potentially help me collapse in my time sector and so one of the things that they would say to me about things like that is Once you start creating a premium product and I don't know maybe this is gonna go against some maybe some internal instincts or beliefs for you, but well, then you can start charging a premium for them and so rather than maybe going in the area of max production or You know Overstimulating or like you said feeling like you have to produce a whole bunch shit. You get sick of it Maybe you refine your skill set so that you're just like really good at some of these things and and One of those projects just becomes more I would say even more intimate, right? Mm-hmm. Is that a possibility? yeah, and that's kind of where I've driven things like Almost everything I do is completely custom. I would say everything I do is completely custom to that individuals Okay, the largest I recently got an order for 20 flags From an organization and that's the largest run of flags that I've ever done Normally, it's like one or two and they're very personalized These are just like, you know, the basic flag with the organization logo on it. I'm like, all right cool. I can do this Or they're large runs of tumblers like I've done, you know, the most I've done is Like 85 I believe Wow Yeah, and with this machine I can knock them out super quick which is great Oh, that's what I was gonna ask. So how long did those 20 flags take for example? Oh the 20 flag So I just received that order a couple days ago So I've been all I've been doing is gathering materials prepping and I'm waiting for them to say hey go But the the tumblers that'll you know, that'll take me maybe an afternoon Wow Depending on what I'm doing. Yeah, it's it's I invested in better Machines so I could work more efficiently and more accurately and get a better quality product rather than sitting there I spent a lot of my time struggling with the setup In order to make sure it was perfect when the machine, you know, wasn't as calibrated as it should have been But it was just a limitation of the machine so but to your point of like having something custom and very very good like I look at some of the The individuals that you know, I started following on Instagram, there's you know, Jeff Mac and You know the the house of timber and everything else and they they produce very high quality products and they don't produce a lot of them But they they do charge a premium for them because if you look at their process everything is completely handmade the reason why I'm asking you this question Sean is And just to be very clear like I'm not saying that necessarily your strategy or The direction that you're heading is a wrong but I'm Admittingly telling you as well that I'm a huge proponent and constantly talking to fellow SF guys I've had quite a few dudes since since we Laugh that have reached out to me and said hey, dude I see you've had some mild success like I'd love to come over and ask some questions And so I'm a huge proponent and always advocating For the entrepreneurial world because I believe that yes, it's going to take a little bit more Now it's gonna take a lot of time and effort But I believe that ultimately it potentially could position you in a in a way where you have way more Freedom right in order to be able to determine your time. I know that you mentioned, you know, you have a family as well and Because we served in the same organization for extensive amount of time you and I both know that You know How many birthdays did we miss in special occasions and soccer games? right and all these things that we never got to be a part of and So I'm speaking for myself when I'm saying that one of those one of the things that really, you know has driven me is is wanting to be able to have the flexibility of being able to Take my wife in the middle of the day to a lunch versus having to ask permission from somebody yeah, and so I guess my question I'm asking for you and or if you've thought through it is like Do you feel like the the concern of being able to provide a certain type of lifestyle is greater than potentially you know financially, I mean greater than you know, maybe The prolonged outcome of being able to have More quality time I guess or control over that so I'm In that I've always found myself kind of caught between a rock and a hard place. Yeah, there's there's a lot of financial goals I am NOT switched on to investing real estate all that stuff that it is just not my jam I've tried looking into it But there are some people like yourself that are much smarter about things than that than I am. I am really great at like woodworking and laser engraving and all that and figuring that stuff out If it gets to a point to where I can charge a premium and You know produce those high quality items, you know in limited quantities and still have that free time That's great, but until that point in time like I'm still gonna be sacrificing a little bit of time but I'm also, you know during the transition one of the things that you know, we're always taught is that does this Organization's values line up with your own. Yeah are they gonna help you prioritize your family because when I walk into those interviews one of the first things on my mind is Is this gonna provide me the flexibility to spend time with my family? I mean, I don't know what your experience was, but there are so many times where if you would make a comment At work and I'm talking about in the military and you know in our organization There would be negative comments that were made about the fact that you may be putting your family's thing in front of the mission there were some times that that would happen not as often as I think a lot of people would expect and I think At least in my recent experience I've had a lot of really I've been lucky enough to have a lot of really great leadership that are very understanding So if I in the middle of the day just need to say hey like this is a this is not my day Like this is I'm having I'm having some serious mental issues Like I need to go see somebody and they're like, hey man, go take care of it or hey My dog is really sick. Go take care of it. My wife needs to be picked up. Go take care of it Hey, I just want to pick up my daughter from school today Go take care of it like but I've also been lucky enough to get those jobs where I have that flexibility There are a lot of individuals that don't so I totally understand where you're coming from with that, especially, you know being you know Regular in a regular army unit. They don't give you that kind of flexibility that normally they would give You know soft individuals because we're generally, you know treated like adults, right? Yeah Because of the skill sets that we attain and in the environment, which was unconventional warfare. I was like, I believe so many special forces dudes are Are keenly shaped and molded so that they could be incredibly successful For all you you've already touched on several of the points The adaptability, you know the problem-solving Perseverance tenacity So anyway As I said, it's not right wrong or indifferent. I would just as a friendly you know Nudge, I guess is I would just continue to pursue if if the business shape out in such a way that it provided the financial without the stress In fact, if you if you don't mind I would throw a couple things in there pointers that I learned really hard which was go for it Went too long and too hard by myself. I should have brought other people in the mix way sooner, right and if it even if it Meant that I wasn't gonna get paid which I wasn't getting paid Anyways, I was paying myself twenty three dollars and forty six cents a week And that's only because I stood up a corporation in my tax accounting person. So you have to pay yourself a reasonable salary That's questionable. But anyway Bringing on people to help you so that it doesn't become You know heavy burden and I mean I've got enough thought so I'm just gonna try to shut up real quick and leave you with this one last thing which is You know the e-myth which is a book that stands for the entrepreneurial myth isn't a phenomenal book about that exact thing If you've never read it, you know, and that's the whole thing is she makes great pies Everybody encourages her to start a pie store and then all of a sudden it doesn't become a labor of love anymore. It becomes Incredibly stressful and it's destroying her life and part of it is about knowing What is your strength what position, you know, if you're the visionary are you are you the operator, you know all these different things? so anyway, I Would just encourage you to you know as you see up here to be doing keep building your business But I would leave it open to consideration because the reality is if you are your own boss You are gonna absolutely have way more latitude. Yeah, and to your point they a Lot of what I've heard and seen if you just look at statistics, you know, there's there's virtually no way to stop You know a soft individual wants to get out of the military Like we will find it life finds a way But on the same on the same Track is that not to keep quoting Jurassic Park, but with my business I'm in this spot where I'm like just because I can doesn't necessarily mean I should So I'm I'm looking at it. Yes. I would love that that freedom and that capability. I'm not quite there yet In the future I may get there Until then, you know, I'll be pursuing other avenues where I still have that relative freedom But at the same time I think a little bit of us likes to be stressed out because I think we're just so used to it Dude, I tell my wife that I perform better that way Absolutely, if you look at a lot of the tests, you know, they may have done it for you But you know you go under you know, a stress a stress shoot Where they attach a heart rate monitor, they're taking blood levels. They're taking urine everything that they're testing cortisol and You track our heart rates and it's you know It's redlining while we're running and what we're trying to figure it out And all of a sudden as soon as we start shooting it drops and then it just kind of chills out because that's our comfy spot Yes, we're on we're comfortable being uncomfortable. Yes. It's that single point of focus that we have You nailed it, man. I recently was blessed or an opportunity. I went to New York City with 12 20 other SF guys To go before these CEOs of these billion-dollar companies. Anyway, they ran all these tests They did the whole put the hat with on you with all the sensors and stuff like that and all the other things But the lady at the she's like she's like dang. She's like She's like you're just you perform higher under stressful situations, right? And I said, yeah typically and then she's You know said a lot of things that you said so it's a blessing and a curse at the same time because we're right just so conditioned and part of transitioning out of the military and starting a business and all that is It's finding that that perfect Feng Shui of how you know You want to live the rest of your life because from then on it's it's your life. It's nobody else's It's your life and you get to choose your own destiny at that point yeah, and You know taking taking a business from you know, a small two-car garage to you know, hopefully You know God willing, you know have a nice, you know, at least 80 by 30 shop You know on a nice little piece of land and at that point then I can expand my business and bring other people in That'd be nice. Yeah My friendly encouragement to you is that it if you want that if you want that It's going to happen. But I feel like listening. There's a little bit of again. You're just trying to Feel out what things are happening. So again, I understand it's a process for everybody but I have zero doubts knowing where you came from and and what you've shared with me thus far that if you Made it a priority to ultimately get to that shop you're going to get there and and And even though there's a bunch of dudes that do word working because I laugh because I think there's some truth to what you just said I Feel like it's it's one of those things that more and more people want now, right? I don't want the manufactured thing from China. Like I want something that's customizable that has More meaning to it, right? It's just yeah, it's been crafted and that was one of the the points that I was thinking about prior to us getting even on here is If I have a friend or somebody which is why I love doing a lot of word-of-mouth business rather than you know going on Etsy or starting an Amazon store or anything is I have people that I know or friends of friends Like I was referred to you originally because you're looking for a sign But there There's just a whole level another level of personal so, you know exactly it's like farm to tape It's like a farm-to-table restaurant, you know exactly where that cow came from, you know exactly the process it took to get to your table You know, and if I can provide something like that with a very personal touch that brings a tear to some people's eyes Every once in a while and I get that personal satisfaction. It's not necessarily the money for me It's that personal satisfaction that I get of delivering something that's high quality and I can stand behind it. That's what I love Yeah, and I believe with that leading with that. I really think that eventually the money comes It's inevitable is what I'm saying. I really I really think that because again People sense that and they want to pay you what the value is I mean, there's always gonna be some people out there that don't but I'm saying most of the time people will So, yeah, and I wanted to say one other thing and I didn't want to forget it because you mentioned earlier about This is your comfort zone. This is what you like, but you're not necessarily savvy about investing your stocks or real estate and stuff like that another thing You know that You know being special forces Just drilled into me was the power of the network right or we like to say relationship capital And so as you have probably already heard a hundred times You are the total sum of the five people that you hang out with the most So I'm simply saying to you you can still be in your space But you can connect yourself with other people that that have the strengths that you don't know And in fact when we get off, I'll talk to you about it But I actually just interviewed another fellow Retired military guy who served in the soft community In a different capacity, but he now has a financial advising company and I told him I said, dude I'm like, I'm serious like I'm very comfortable in the real estate stuff because that's what I've been predominantly in but when it comes to socks on I'm Like a no bro, and I was like, so I'm gonna reach out to you so anyway I'll pass you his information as well. It might be something you want later. Oh Yeah, so just kind of closing and winding this down. I just want to ask you well I want to offer you an opportunity and then I want to ask you a question so the first thing is I'll ask you the question which is is is there one particular piece of Like a book or a piece of advice or anything. That's that's really helped like Inspire you as far as potentially wanting to build some type of business on your own that you could share. I Don't think it's been a Book or any one thing truthfully. I Honest, I honestly think it was my parents Okay, I honestly think it's what they you know They they had their differences and I didn't realize it till I was older But the the combination of both my mother and my father Honestly made me Exactly the person I needed to be to do this Nice, that's awesome, man. Thanks for sharing that. Yeah the last thing I want to give you an opportunity before we part ways is How can people get a hold of you? Do you have a website? What's your email? So they can find you and potentially, you know, you can still create some organic business So my website is barking blade design co.com and from there you can go to my instagram It's at barking blade design co. It's also on Facebook. Just look for this logo Okay, so Nice. Yeah, I try to include stickers when people buy stuff too. So yeah, no, that's a good idea I need to get some of those made too. Yeah, but do you do stickers? No, I order them through a company. They actually do a really great job. So sticker meal Absolutely, okay So a Sean thanks for taking the time to come on. Thanks for talking about your story I've been able to do a couple Podcasts recently with other fellow militaries and veterans and and so of course I'm that's always near and dear to my heart and I love Sharing that story and hopes that somebody else is listening to you know Your journey and that in some way shape or form it helps them on theirs. So Thank you for being on and I appreciate your time brother. I Appreciate you taking the time to have me on and connecting with me and you know, we'll continue to work together in the future Awesome. Thanks Sean. Talk to you later