602: Remembering Gary Collins (1970-2022) - Do the Right Thing, Even When Everything Seems Wrong

Brian Nichols  0:00  
Instead of focusing on winning arguments, we're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics, teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Doing the right thing is always harder than doing the wrong thing. A folks Brian Nichols here and The Brian Nichols Show. Thank you for joining us on I want to say a fun filled episode. It's not really a fun filled episode. It's actually a little bit of a sad episode. And we're gonna talk about that in a second. But first, I am as always, your humble host, Brian Nichols. Thank you for joining us on Yes, today's episode, I am joining you from the Stratus ip Studios here in lovely, lovely Eastern Indiana, please have the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash Stratus ip don't let slow and outdated technology slow down your business and don't let those dangerous cyber attacks put your company at risk. Head The Brian Nichols show.com forward slash Stratus ip and get your free Business Technology consultation today. One more time, Brian Nichols show.com forward slash Stratus ip All right, so on to today's episode. Yes, it is a sad episode. But also an episode I think it's important for us to listen to because it's important for us to hear the words of one of our good friends here Gary Collins, and today we are remembering our friend Gary Collins. Still can't believe I mean saying this right now in this episode. So receive word last night from one of our good friends here on the program as well, Renzo Martinez that he had heard, and he's you know, he does a lot of work with Gary, but he had heard after not hearing from Gary for a number of weeks that Gary Collins had passed away back last month, and leaves behind a legacy, you know, of not just 1000s of people that he has helped but a treasure trove of of information and resources that we can continue to leverage today. And I was thinking about what what can I do to honor Gary and to remember Gary, because Gary was just, just just such an awesome person. I mean, someone I considered a mentor, someone, I looked up to someone who I took his teachings, and I put into my trainings for my team, and things I put into my own life. And when I was trying to think about what to talk about today, in terms of trying to remember an honor Gary, I went to his last episode that aired of the last day of August, Episode 182 of the simple life doing the right thing, even when everything seems wrong. And that's Gary. That's who Gary was. And that's Gary's legacy is always doing the right thing. Even though it's almost guaranteed, the more difficult of the options that you're given. And I got the opportunity to join Gary on his amazing podcast back a while ago to talk about my personal story of losing 180 pounds. And you know, just being able to share that with Gary and to have that the opportunity to feel that Gary was more than just a guest. And in that case, he was more than just a host but he was someone who genuinely cared about my success and was proud of me. And and I always want to make him proud. And I'm I'm just really shocked and stunned to hear the news that Gary Collins passed. But with that, I wanted to at least use this as an opportunity to share some of the great things that he shared with us over the years. So please, for today's episode, I'm sorry, I'm certain things out a Monday a little somber and sad. But, you know, I want to take a moment. Share some laughs share some memories. And more importantly, remember our good friend, Gary Collins.

Today I am joined by Gary Collins now Hey, have you found that life is a little stressful? Or maybe a little more complicated than needs to be? Or do you feel like you're on this treadmill of life going to nowhere grinding in life each day and every day thinking that there's something wrong with me for feeling this way about myself? Well, look no further than today's episode is I'm joined by Gary who is not only an Amazon Best Selling Author, a simple living advocate and educator nutrition and health expert, adjunct college professor and professional speaker but most importantly, creator of The Simple Life Gary spent almost a decade investigating our food and drug and healthcare systems and has a unique perspective into what is making Americans obese stress. And overall just ill today, Gary joins The Brian Nichols Show to discuss his two best selling books off the grid and the simple life to share his story and to help others in pursuit of a better life. So listen as we discuss his background, his own venture into living off the grid and enjoying that simple life. And yes, his foolproof three step plan to personal success. So with that, on the show, Gary Collins from the simple life here on The Brian Nichols Show.

Gary Collins  5:32  
Thanks for having me on, Brian. I really appreciate it.

Brian Nichols  5:34  
Absolutely, Gary. Well, it's a pleasure to have you on and I had the pleasure of getting to hear you first and foremost, on front of the show, Caleb Franz is wonderful podcast and the Liberty podcast. And if you haven't had a chance yet, folks to go and check out Caleb's work over liberty, he's doing a fantastic work, not only from a podcast perspective, but also from the organization. He's doing it the limit Liberty Initiative, a lot of great work. So make sure you go ahead and check out the episode and Caleb was on here to discuss them a Liberty initiative. But today, Gary, I'm having you during the show, because I got a chance to listen to you on on kale. But I was thinking, You know what, Caleb did a really good job of getting a guest I'm going to steal a guest. And I'm going to I'm going to ask him some of my own questions because I was really engaged with your interview with Caleb primarily because I see what you're doing in the simple life, which we'll obviously dig into more in depth in the interview. But I'm seeing this idea of kind of getting off the grid, getting rid of the excessive fluff in life really getting rid of that kind of stuff and focusing more on the stuff that truly matters. And actually back about a month and a half or so ago, I had Tim price from straight, no chaser on my show, who really that's what he's doing right now is going on in America. He's meeting people all across the United States and asking them the fundamental question, what makes you happy. And it was a really exciting episode for me to TED to talk to Tim to learn more about what he discovered. So I'll start off with you, Gary, kind of what makes people happy. And And with that, we'll kind of go into who you are and how you got to where you are today over at the simple life?

Gary Collins  7:03  
Well, I think that's the problem is I don't think people know, what makes him happy today. I think we're confused. I think we're so so far down that are on the treadmill for so long, or the rat in the cage that I think people are lost. And it's we'll talk about that a little more. After I go to my background of what I talk about life purpose, and how I think that's lost today, and how we have to recapture it to gain happiness and a few other things. But for me, I'm a little odd bird. I by quick, I'll give you the nitty gritty group in a very small town, very rural, very poor town, less than 1800 people. I live 20 miles, 25 miles from that town, less than 100 people. First kid to graduate from college and my family. Parents didn't put any pressure on me. I excelled at athletics, did well in school, but had to work at it. I'm not gifted by any stretch, maybe touched. Some people would say, you know, odd way. But I had to work for all this, you know, and in, went to college went from my little town to a college of 38,000 people on campus. So you know, big eye opener experience of the big world that I grew up in the 70s and older than people think and so I grew up without cell phones without even pagers, pagers were new when I was in college. You know, so there was no cable TV cable was kind of new, it came around later on. You know, computers were brand spanking new, there was no internet. So I grew up in a totally different age. But I also was, you know, I've also lived through all the kind of technical technological kind of, you know, advances and so many things have happened. So did that went to college, I started out as a mechanical engineer, I was a math guy got a scholarship from Bank of America and mathematics. Ironically, today, considering how I look at the financial industry. In Yeah, I ended up having to work through college. So I couldn't I couldn't do engineering, it was just too hard. I wasn't that I wasn't a genius. I couldn't work 30 hours a week and get through mechanical engineering courses at the same time. So I ended up going looking through the catalog and I went, you know, this was sounded good. But now let me think about it. And I rolled through the whole catalog and I picked criminal justice. I went you know, I think that looks good. And ended up being a criminal justice major minored in health science and also sociology. ended up graduating, going into the private sector for a little bit and then went in the military and went in enlisted because I'm a rocket scientist. I'm really bright in that sense, considering I got accepted to the Naval Academy prep school, turned it down. And now I'm an E three with a college degree enlisted in the Navy. It was good though. All these were good lessons that were ended up being a cryptologist Intel's kind of field in wanting to be a federal agent got my master's degree at night. So I was in the Navy, and had many 36 hour straight days, couldn't see straight going to school, worked really hard. Got out when in the private sector again, ended up finally getting a job. It Back then it took a long time, nothing was automated. So you when you turn in your application to the federal government, we used to call it right stack Ron's wrong stack, you have gotten the right stack. And you hope that the person processing them that day wasn't really pissed off because they were known to shred applications. And I knew this firsthand, once I got into the government how hiring really worked. We used to call it just, it was just pure luck. Sometimes it just right day, right place, right stack, right and took a couple years, got to get ended up in the US State Department Diplomatic Security Service traveled all over the world. Terrorist investigations, visa, passport fraud, all kinds of good stuff, I worked on the border for a while. And then from there, ended up transferring in the US Department of Health and Human Services, then went to the Food and Drug Administration. So I went from our military traditional law enforcement to white collar. And it was just an eye opener. I mean, I got to see so many different facets of how dysfunctional the government was, basically. And so I ended up long, a lot of things had to happen. But I'd spent half my life working for the government. By the time I left between state,

county federal, just burned out just that had enough realized I wasn't making a difference that I was you're easily replaceable. No one really cared. And, you know, kind of come to that point your life and a lot of us if you I'm sure you've had numerous people on the government talk to him, you kind of always get to that point of going, Are we doing any good? Yeah. And it's hard for a guy like me, especially someone who's so patriotic, and given so much to my tree, and I believe in my country. It's a rough road. And we all kind of go through this weird transition in life of what have I done? Did I did I actually do the right thing. And I don't mean it up. I mean, in a big sense bars, life choices, the whole bit, you know, I just waste half of my life. And so I was pretty broken up at a lot of injuries had to go through, you know, multiple surgeries. When I left, I sold my house for a loss, massive loss, and had to basically restart my life. And I ended up selling most of my possessions. I had a house in San Diego, when I take take a hit. I mean, I took a $250,000 hit on last and harder cash. That was money I'd made. You know, we called it blood money in the State Department when we did all the overtime and travel overseas and protection. And just a bummer, right? Oh, well, the thing was, you know, I came to that crossroads where a lot of people come to have, do I hold on to this and let it drag me down? Or do I cut my losses? And I'm all I've never been laid on a bill in my life. What do I do? You know, but yeah, just reality a friend had to sit me down, go, dude, suck your pride up and be done with it. You're being an idiot. And I go, You know what, you're right. I'm paying for this. And honestly, the bank really screwed me. I put 20% down. I remodeled the house. I did everything right. I did everything right. And I got caught in the housing bubble. And I asked for, you know, a year if you could give me a year to get back on my feet. I told them, hey, my health is an issue. They just said sell your car and make your carpet or make your house payment. And I went, Oh, that's how we're going to play it. And it was JMac go figure finance, which is defunct now. I had some colorful words for the lady to say the least. And I went alright, served my country did everything. And your attitude is well, let's let's squeeze some more blood out of this guy. Let's get the last drops we can I went nah, nah, we're not going to do it that way. And so I ended up just selling it I short sold it, got rid of it, dumped it and sold everything sold all my most of my belongings about 14 hours on Craigslist. And just literally people came up with utility trailers and we filled it up. I said, make your best offer. It's like if you want it worse, I'm selling it on the ceiling fans sold my blinds to my neighbor. I sold everything. Everything I could without not you know, I didn't pull toilets out or anything. But everything that you could sell and it's all stuff that I had put into the house I said right the bank's not getting it even though they didn't they may ended up actually making money on my short sale. So technically it wasn't even a short sale. Okay, so ironically Yeah, go figure. They got me on the front end and the back end, perfect for them. And so I just started over I moved into a rental out in the sticks a little bit in San Diego and reduced my debt or my monthly You get lowered by two thirds, and said, You know what, I'm not this American Dream stuff ain't working out. I've done everything they told me to do. I've lived good, I've saved I've scraped, it's now for me, I'm going to do things on my own terms. And so I started a health business and because I've learned so much at the FDA news department Health Human Services that went people are missing the boat. I mean, we're getting a lot of bad information. So and I was always an athlete health guy and realized I was doing most of it wrong. And so we kind of invented myself and then taught other people got another degree in Exercise Science and started that and basically was training high end athletes guys who were trying to get into major colleges had a kid go to Purdue had a kid go to Kansas State play football any names we had. No, they the one kid I think, graduated last year the other kid ended up transferring during from Purdue. His dad these are all pro football players where this came from I know his dad was a professional football I

Brian Nichols  16:03  
was gonna say we're gonna we're waiting to like you're you're like you trained Aaron Donald or something like that for the Rams or what have you.

Gary Collins  16:08  
No, no, no luck. I played against a Rashid Salaam and some other people made it an NFL but no, no, no, no one ended up famous. Unfortunately for me, they're all good kids though. Really smart kids really had their act together. So football wasn't you know what they wanted to play but it was one of those they would do just fine without it. All right kind of thing. I really enjoyed working with them in their parents and family. So I was doing that working with private clients and stuff wrote a couple books and marketing guy said Hey, turn this into books all this stuff you teach your clients you've written it all down you give them these handouts so I did it threw it out there got picked up in the podcast circuit of all things I wrote an article on God this is getting long winded. But

Brian Nichols  16:54  
no no please don't please keep going.

Gary Collins  16:57  
In wrote an article in a podcast major survivalists pod, cast saw my rebuttal to this dumb, dumb article. And I said, no one would take this person on because they were afraid. And I'm like, no, no, you're being an idiot. And I'm gonna call you out on it. And so I did, I don't do that stuff anymore. Try not to and he liked it. He picked it up and goes, you know, says, Hey, you have a lot of knowledge we became friends. I ended up being the health guy, primal paleo health guy for this podcast, I still am to this day. This has been several years now. And, you know, had me on as regular guest was, you know, have my own supplement line and just helping people the best way I knew how to patron you know, chasing my passion this whole time I'm becoming debt free, got rid of, you know, downsize some more, bought a small travel trailer to move into ventually, four years after this transit moved into the Travel Trailer. Well, I had this dream of living more remotely living in the mountains. Again, I grew up in the mountains. And I'd hatched this plan probably a decade prior, you know, it started and I just friend got killed in a training accident. And I went, you know what, I'm done. I got if I got to do this today, I've been putting this stuff off. So I went up into Washington, I'd been through Washington quite a bit, spent a lot of time up here had a girlfriend up by where I live now. And fell in love with it and bought 20 acres, found a great lot cheap paid 22 grand for 20 acres. It's on the top of a mountain. It's brutal. Forests, you know, know hard to get in hard to get out right four wheel drive in the summer, and I love it. So I went on this podcast today. He goes, What are you up to? I just bought 20 acres and build a house off the grid. Like casual on the whole very casual. Yeah. Well, I it was a life choice. I wasn't planning on really telling anyone about it. I just wanted to do it. It was my personal life and got a ton of emails and I literally just started the project. I just started building the road and on the backside of the mountain and went Oh God, my I think my next book idea is kind of here. And so I documented it. Did some videos, you know wrote some blog post, just documenting the whole thing ended up publishing a book called going off grid it took off and not right away. It was a slow roller i I'm terrible at book launches. I actually had a book go live today. This morning.

Brian Nichols  19:22  
Well, there you go. Congratulations. Yeah, thanks.

Gary Collins  19:24  
It had a couple staff whose they always do. But I'm a long term right I don't care too much about book launches. So I put it out there on I self published did all this on my own. And like I said, it just kept picking up steam and kept going and kept going and finally a distributor found me and he goes hey, we'd like to publish his book. I said no. And he goes well, how about we distribute it and I go, Okay, shoot you the contract. I almost actually deleted his email because I thought it was a quack. And we were good friends to this day. But that started this different journey. So everything in my life is kind kind of happened. I wouldn't, I wouldn't say completely by luck. But what's that John Wooden famous quote of? Luck is where we're practice is practice and perseverance meet something I'm sure yeah, you're close enough. Yeah, Big John man, big UCLA fan, John Wooden fan, I should know it. And so, you know, it took off and I went, Oh, God, oh, my health guy, my website's health. Now this going off the grid thing. Everything's getting a little confusing, even to me. Well, what I realized is I was on a path of life simplification, I was returning to my roots, I was going back to the things that made me the happiest and growing up being poor, not having a whole lot. And you know, what we didn't know. And none of us knew we were really poor, because we're all poor. You know, when you're around a bunch of poor kids, you don't know it. You're just kids, you're just having a good time. There are some rough times we will hard here and there. But I was saying no matter how hard you have it, someone else has it a lot harder. So stop whining. You know. And so, yeah, just kind of went, Oh, God, I better figure this out. It kind of was figuring out the direction of business, but I was also building this house. And so I put the business on the back burner to get this house done. I was teaching and a health company don't ever I couldn't pay bills and get the money together. Because there's no financing and building a house off the grid for all those people out there. Who think you're gonna go to your local bank, and they're gonna give you $300,000 Go build the house off the grid ain't gonna happen. You're gonna pay cash for everything. That's how it works. And so, you know, took me a couple years finally got caught up. And I'm, like, sad. I realized talking to another guy, and I was writing the RV book. And it was on George North Coast to Coast for going off the grid. He was really interested in that book. And I said, Hey, I'm doing this RV living book. I'm writing it right now. It's pretty close to being done. He goes, Oh, wow, that sounds really cool. And I go, Oh, yeah, he goes, where'd you come that I go? Oh, I do it. I've been doing it for years. I live in my RV. So I transitioned from that rental into my RV, and a small one and nothing glorious. I think I paid $9,000 for it. And yeah, so it ventured off. And next thing you know I'm writing created the simple life. The RV book was the first book in the simple life. In it's gone from there. Now I just published book four in the simple life. I've published two other books in the off the grid series, one done by Mother Earth News, traditionally published and another one called living off the grid, which is the post to my book called going off the grid because that was while I was doing it. And yeah, I just the business evolved into this. I'm primarily an author, but I'm going into some other things podcast is coming in the next couple days, getting ready to do some online courses that teach everything even further. But what I'm doing is I just put together the pieces of what I'm doing. I'm just teaching what I'm living in where I'm trying to pursue everything is based on freedom. You know, here we go. Yeah, people, the exact people who have long wanted to get freedom. But people would ask me go, why are you prepping? Why are you doing all this for I got I'm not doing that. But this is all about freedom. It's me living the life. I want, not what I've been told, because that didn't work.

Brian Nichols  23:22  
Yep, I think you'd actually get along very well with Congressman Thomas Massie. I'm not sure if you're too familiar with him. But I'm very, very similar.

Gary Collins  23:29  
We follow each other on Twitter. I don't Twitter, but I think he's on there somewhere.

Brian Nichols  23:32  
It's funny, because like Congressman Massey, this is kind of his shtick, he is easily one of the most staunch libertarian and also a Republican congressman in the house. And yet, he probably is single handedly the most environmentally conscious because he pretty much has everything that he needs at his home that he has basically made himself to be off the grid self-sufficient From the way his water is heated the way he's collecting electricity using the Tesla batteries to store it, you know, having the food source of all his chickens in his cow was and and everything he does at his home is all with the intention of trying to be off the grid for the sole fact that he's not beholden to some alternative force, be a government or likewise. And I think we're starting to see more and more of what you're speaking to, is this, this desire to get away from this nine to five, you know, pushing papers on the desk, trying to make it through the day, just like you said earlier, like running on treadmill and never getting off. People are looking for a way to get away from the norm. And I think, you know, if you go to like DIY or HGTV, you're gonna find all these living off the grid shows or, you know, building in Alaska or what have you. But I think there's a really strong desire for people to explore those alternatives. And I guess yours was kind of more along the lines of you're facing some tougher times, but it sounds like it's turned from being a not so conscious decision to go off the grid. But it's turned into something that really has is really helped you get to where you are, and it helps you find yourself along the way. Because I know we talked beforehand. You mentioned you kind of found yourself more on the left side of politics, but working not only in the government, but also just like in your your personal views. So kind of walk through if you could, Gary, what was it like to see your politics transition from?

Gary Collins  25:15  
Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, I was talking about you. Your politics being more left leaning, correct.

Brian Nichols  25:19  
Oh, no, I'm sorry. I misunderstood what you're saying your politics or left leaning? I'm sorry.

Gary Collins  25:24  
No, no, I thought I read something that used to be more on the left side. Libertarian I, I've always been a middle of the road guy. My first vote was for Ross Perot, my first vote. So I've always thought of things very differently in I've never been a big fan of two political parties. And the fact that I was on the inside, I did a lot of protection. I've stood I stood next to Anthony wiener and listened to his Idiocracy when he was a junior congressman, out in front of the UN, I knew the guy was an idiot from day one. Because I listened to the guy talk in an informal format, and I walked away from guy when there's something wrong with this guy. And I was around all these people and left or right, it did not matter. I realized we were nothing but tools in their game. And for me, I always, you know, I might have tended to lean a little more, right, because as you know, law enforcement military, but I always believed in you know, middle of the road, some you lean a little right here, lean a little left on these issues. That's where most of us live, right. And today, we're so polarized actually wrote a whole chapter about political tribalism in my decluttering, your life book. Yeah, not decluttering. Your house decluttering your life? Yes, that's the problem. And what I everything I teach is based upon on a three legged stool, it's about finding, and it's this is the tough one, I call him the elephant in the room, right? Your health, we're losing the health battle in this country, not by little bit, by a lot, because we'd like to be number one. Oh, we're the most obese country in the world. By far, we are totally number one, hands down on that one, we've got it. And if you take a look around, it's bad. I mean, it's almost to the point of I'm about ready to throw in the towel and say we can't recover from this, we're going to bankrupt the healthcare system, because people are so on healthy. And not only that, you throw in unhealthy and unhappy. That's a recipe for disaster. And we're already seeing these mass shootings, even though the odds of you experiencing one, you probably have a better chance of getting struck by lightning. But it's not that not to throw in a negative light on that or kind of brush right over it. Right. That's a problem. And we need to fix that.

Brian Nichols  27:42  
Nobody wants to, though, I mean, honestly, and like to that point, there. That's I think that's a huge part that a lot of people don't seem to address is that when we're watching these mass shootings happen, I think the the instinctual reaction is to go to Well, it's the guns, the guns are the bad thing. You just get removed the guns instead of looking at what's causing the action. I mean, you'd look back to not even 50 years ago, guns have always been a prevalent part of American society. Like, that's just a reality. That's what we were founded upon, even back at our founding back in the 1700s. And to assume that just because the guns had been around, they'd gotten stronger, makes them more dangerous. And they're being used more frequently, I mean, just statistically not shown by the data. But what has been shown as that the people who are using these guns tend to be either, you know, they're males, they tend to be white, they have no father figure in the home, and they have no sense of purpose. And they, almost every single case, red flags are all over the place, and they're often missed. So I think you're, you're hitting the nail on the head when it comes to there's a very fundamental lack of worth of self worth, but also a purpose of what am I doing that's providing to that not only to me and my greater community or my family, even, but to society as a whole, when people look back at the history books, what are they gonna say, you know, when they look at my name, and I think that's where we're seeing a lot of, especially in the cases of these mass shootings, these these lonely white guys who have had no real father figure in their lives and had no structure and they'd had no real guidance, they don't have that that sense of self worth, they don't have a sense of purpose and in their minds as they go online to the you know, the the fortunes of the world. And they get this this group of guys on online that they become friends and almost like family with, and they're, they're getting fed this mindset that if I do this horrific thing, I will be notarized. I will be someone that will be in the history books, and people will look up to me, who also have been facing the same struggles that I have. And it's leading to this detrimental society where we're not taking these people under our wing and trying to help them but instead, just say excoriating them saying, Oh, you're your basement dwellers, go do your thing. And then we know months years later, it swelters back up where they're doing something absolutely horrific. So what do you think we can do Gary to tell get a sense The purpose back to you not only these people who desperately need it, but just as a society where we desperately need some sense of, you know, house a collective, but just like this, this mindset that we're in this together, and we have to stop demonizing one another and actually do things that are for the greater purpose, just across the board for humanity. Well, and

Gary Collins  30:18  
that's why I teach the three legged stool. So the health part people go, what's that have to do with anything and I tell him, first of all, everything go you're ignoring the main thing in your life that you should be focusing on right now. And not only that, but it's the easiest to change. But with, you know, big pharma, big food industry, I always say there's my favorite thing is there's no money in Healthy People. I've been in there, I worked on the inside of the biggest health agency in the country. I saw it firsthand. The pharmaceutical companies, your health is so far down the list on their priorities, it's probably not even on the first five pages. I mean, it's off the radar. And for people today, in order to these are all about gaining your freedom back, and I'll explain that more. But your health obviously, directly affects your cognitive function, your mood level, your energy levels, your ability to relate to others, communication skills, it's all there. It's all there. And you need to fix your health. And I just had a little go back and forth between someone on email who was asking for me to hold their hand and I told them, no, yes, it figured out, I gave you all the information figured out if he would have asked to hire me, and I've done this more than once, I would have said no. So I said, No, I'm not going to take your money. You need to figure it out. When you figure it out, come back, because you're asking, you're asking me to do it for you. Yep. And, and that's what we're in stuck in today is where we want the easy button. And we want the easy pill, it doesn't exist, health is a priority based on you. And you put in never, I can't tell you all the intricacies of your health, I can give you a baseline of what works, you got to fine tune it from there. It's on you, you have to understand your body. And people don't even care. They're all I don't want to know about that stuff. Why do I need to know health? Gee, I don't know. Maybe because it's your life, I just throw that one out there. And so I teach that one first. Obviously, I'm a health guy. But because it's the most important because once you get your health in order, and I've done this, I've watched the light come on, everything else starts to come together. So then I talk about, you know, you're getting your financial health together, too. So finding financial freedom, being debt free, getting out of the system, getting out of perpetual debt, the system has been geared and designed to keep you in perpetual debt. That is how it picks up the carcass. That's how the rich get richer, that's how the government gets bigger. That's how it all that's why we're here today. So you need to take that control back. The only way you can do it is to be debt free, and not live on credit. And people are like, I go Trust me, I own my house. I own my truck, I own my RV.

I can live off minimum wage, no problem, no problem at all. I live my life easy. You want to take stress out of your life. Do that. You know, I don't worry about paying my bills, I can pay my bills no matter what. And then obviously finding your life purpose. And always use that last which people wonder about but I go you have to take this progression. I want you to be thinking about life purpose while you're making these, these transitions. But you need to focus on these transitions. And I've tried to find life purpose and get all on that. Oh, yeah, it's overwhelming. Right. And life purpose is how I define it is you would do some doing something that you would do no matter what even if you didn't get paid. As a man put Yep. Yeah. And we've lost that. I mean, we're a cubical society, consumer economy, we have the only true consumer economy in the world, which will. What does that mean? It means that our country is based off perpetual economic growth, which is absolutely impossible. In real world circumstances, you cannot have continuous economic growth, without stagnation without it flatlining without a little bit of a dip. That's the natural way it goes. But we are we are basically addicted to greed in this country all over the world. I think we're based on a funny money system worldwide. There is no money and it's just it's it's something money today is backed by zero. The only reason it has value is because we say it has value basically. And that's where we're at. And by doing these things and finding your life purpose, what happens is you take the power from the entities that have taken it from you humans are meant to be free. If there's one thing humans are born with, inherently it's freedom. Free Will we have that We have allowed entities and government systems to take it away from us. And we've done it willingly. So how those are the three things once you take those back? Now you've taken the big pieces of control in our society. And you've given it back to yourself. And I look at money differently because people think money kind of, you know, in our worlds, they associate it with greed all the time. I say, No, no, no, no. Money equals freedom, you have to look at it differently. When I go and spend money on something I don't need, I'm actually taking freedom away from myself. And I'm returning it back to the big business, financial institutions, I'm giving it to him every time I do something like that. So the more money you have, or the more money you can obtain, the more potential freedom you have, the more freedom you have, the less money it takes to maintain that freedom.

Brian Nichols  35:52  
Make sense? It's interesting when I think about,

Gary Collins  35:55  
yeah, it's a little rhetorical. Maybe me and Socrates could get back together. But it's, it's based on principle, like set of freedom and returning the power back to the people. That's what I'm teaching. But I'm teaching it in a self help way. So I think it'd been a little unique with it. And people understand once they dig into me a little bit, they go, Oh, this is a self help guy that actually does all this stuff. Oh, that is insane to me, because I follow some people and I go, this guy has no background in any of this. None of it. They're just regurgitating other information. That's all they're doing. Yep. I live and breathe. Everything I teach. And I'm not. I'm not a life clairvoyant. I'm not the expert to end all experts. I'm just teaching what I've learned. That's it. Take it for what you will. And my goal in my books, because I write them short, sweet, concise, because I want you to implement what I'm teaching and teach it to other people. That's the only way we're going to change this micro to macro. You know, and people get in these long heated debates about the government and how we need to change it. I hate to tell people that 800 pound gorilla is out of the cage and it ain't coming back. We're not getting that gorilla back in with a with the 50 caliber. It's out for ya. only way you can do it is you have to take personal responsibility for the things you're doing that are inhibiting your freedom.

Brian Nichols  37:27  
Gary Collins from the simple life Welcome back to The Brian Nichols Show.

Gary Collins  37:31  
Thanks for having me on, Brian. Well, I hope they like me. It makes life very healthy for everyone hates you. That's not a good thing. There you swim hate mixed in there to know you're doing okay. But a lot of hate. Don't do that.

Brian Nichols  37:45  
Gary, you've been one of the most requested guests to return back to The Brian Nichols Show. So I think that that says something the audience does, in fact, love you and that Gary, they must adore you because I whenever I had you on the show, and not only do the numbers always seem to just skyrocket but also, folks always reach out to me say I really, really really liked that conversation with Gary. So naturally, life still weird. Since we last spoke COVID still happening the world still kind of on this weird big pause? How's life? What's been going on? Since you and I last connected?

Gary Collins  38:19  
You know, it's pretty much the same, same old, same old, you know, I built this house in my lifestyle to be able to deal with the kind of any crazy events and I'm not a prepper I'm not a survival sound category. Do I have those skills? Yeah, some of them but they're just life skills is what I call them. You know, knowing how to cook. That's just a life skill. But yeah, it's, it's interesting. You know, in my little town, there's really no cases. I think there's been a couple and those were months ago, I, you know, people were mass. I'm in a unique area because parts in Washington parts in Idaho, there's different rules, but I talked to someone in Montana yesterday. And they said Montana's flaring up because everyone from surrounding states is coming in trying to move there right now. And they're bringing all the COVID in, right? So it's, you know, but for me, you know, I'm up in the mountains. I wear a mask 24/7 Because I'm woke. I'm a woke person. But no, I mean, it's ridiculous. I don't even know what to think anymore. I go into Spokane, which is the nearest big city to me once a week usually. And the last couple of weeks, I've seen numerous people walking the streets and riding their bikes with masks on it's bizarre um, all we know is zero about health in this country. And that's why we have the worst cases is part of it or guest can

Brian Nichols  39:46  
I say question? I have a question for you. Because so this year actually, you didn't mean to but you're kind of stumbling into an area that I've actually been thinking about and now that we're we're talking I think who better to talk about this than with You. So you. So for folks who haven't had the chance to listen to your past episodes, you worked in the government, specifically in the health sector, if you will, focusing on health and wellness from a regulatory standpoint. So you've obviously you've been able to see, not only you know how the sausage is made, but you've been, you know, in the upper echelons, being able to look down and seeing the actual ramifications. So, I look at our public today, Gary, and I guess, to the what you just stated, our average person doesn't really know health and I think that's so apparent you look, our obesity numbers are through the roof in America, you know, we are leading the world in obesity related illnesses, heart disease, strokes, cancer as you go down the list. And, and we seem to be number one, which Americans always number one, but this is the categories, you don't actually want to be number one, and, and yet, now we have COVID, right? COVID-19 is around and I see everybody on Facebook, on Twitter, acting as if they have all received their seven to eight year medical licenses. And they all know exactly what is definitively, you know, true, what is definitively false. And they will tell you to make sure under no uncertain circumstances you are wrong if they think that your opinion is at all invalid. So where's the disconnect area, we see people who they I guess they pretend to be, you know, educated on on health and wellness. And yet, when we look at the actual, you know, the actual numbers, right, and you being someone who worked in the industry, you get to see it firsthand. It's not the case. Where's that disconnect coming from?

Gary Collins  41:26  
Yeah, and for me, it's a little interesting, because I've been in athletics and health for over four decades. And at the end, I was a special agent for the FDA and US Department of Health and Human Services, which was an eye opening to the whole medical industry, food industry and drug industry of the United States. And what it made me realize is, it's a total Sham, the whole thing. It's just ocean, that's what it is. And we've been duped. And I have that famous saying that I've said numerous times there's no money and healthy people. We spend the most money by far of any developed country. But we are the most unhealthiest by by leaps and bounds over any industrialized country, right in China's number two, which is an interesting one, because a large part of China's population lives in basically Hudson rice paddies. I mean, honestly, I'm not being a jerk. There's large parts of China that are third world literally. Yeah. Yeah. And we're, we're beating them. I mean, we're doing this wrong. And we're not only doing it wrong, we're doing it very wrong. The biggest disconnect for me today. There's a couple it is it's not complicated. But how we got here is a little bit because it's first is the lack of as libertarians, right. I'm now part of the libertarian movement. And I've thrown my hat and we talked about that welcome, but I will leave it. That's where I am. But I'm in I think we're I think this is the time. And I didn't join just because it's good and belong. It's I just realized I had to pick a side. I not a side guy. But this is the time to say enough's enough. But part of it is the lack of self responsibility. We have been coddled, in this country, we play victimhood, it's not my fault, someone else needs to hold my hand, someone else needs to take care of me. And when it comes to health, it is absolutely 100% on you. It's your health, it's your boss, you better take care of it. Now, obviously, we need doctors and a medical system, because things go wrong. That's the way it is. My dogs, my dogs have to go to the vet stuff goes wrong. We're organisms, we're animals, that's what happens. So, but to us, you know, to wait for everyone else to fix our problems in health is just that's part of our bigger problem of not being self reliant, not taking responsibility for our own actions. The second part is the food drug. Industry and health industry. Like I said, they know it's a moneymaker. And I mean, naturally talked about this today that the problem is that they know that to keep us on the wheel is how everyone becomes rich. I mean, think about our health industry in general, especially our medical industry and the drug companies. They have their number one responsibility is to shareholders. Number one, well, doesn't anyone see that as being a problem right out of the gate. And not only is it their number one obligation, it's a legal obligation, because they have a fiduciary responsibility to their shareholders. That's it. That is number one. Until we get that out of the health and health industry in general. It's always going to be a money making operation. It's going to put profit above everything else no matter what. So to kind of create a perfect storm a little bit there. But we've seen it even you know, back, you know, 100 and 150 years ago and 1800s of the snakes, snake oil salesman, he's come around and basically get you hooked on cocaine and opium. Sure it made you feel good for the first month, then you were an addict, and then you died. So it's kind of a It's not like it's new. It's just today. It's just it's it's run amok, Gary,

Brian Nichols  45:26  
what what do we need to do to wake people up that we can't keep doing the same thing, we can't keep smashing your head against the wall and expecting a different result?

Gary Collins  45:35  
Well, and we've talked about the three legged stool, right, that's why I created a part of it a part of it was because I had to, to kind of filter down the basics of what I teach in the simple life concept. Once I boiled it down, I also kind of realized that those were the three primary things that we were giving away to government and big business, which are our individual freedoms, our health, our financial freedom, and our life purpose. We're willingly giving these away. And the way that you want you do is you take those back, once you take them back, and health is the biggest one. It's the elephant in the room, literally today, that you take that back, you now have control. Now your life starts to take on a different direction, right? Because now you're in control. You don't have those worries a lot of people today, they're afraid of taking chances. That's what I've noticed. They're afraid to look at something that may be considered fringe, even though I say I'm so normal I'm considered crazy today. You know, it's bizarre, normal behavior and being a normal free human being today is actually looked down upon.

Brian Nichols  46:42  
I mean, Gary, Gary, I mean, you said people don't want to take chances. People right now literally, and I'm not trying to poke fun at Coronavirus, but like that. I have friends and family who are either they'd had Coronavirus or they know somebody who has or they themselves are terrified of it. But we have a population of people who are in I saw this is horrifying statistic. It was like of your average american they think that over 20% of the nation has gotten Coronavirus and 5% has died that was 5% or 9% have had perished. The numbers aren't even in the ballpark. It's like it's less than point 1% Or something like that. It's some ridiculous number. But we have been so like, we've been so conditioned to feel that if you were to go outside, you're gonna get the Coronavirus and you're gonna contaminate your entire family. And it's like, we have to live like you go out and do a car every single day you have a chance to get in the car action and die. But you make that choice. And it is a calculated choice. The same thing is true for like, but yes, to your point, people aren't making choices anymore because they're afraid and seems to make a choice because then it makes you actually make a definitive yes or no statement on something your life.

Gary Collins  47:47  
Well, yeah. And everything in life, like you said is a is a chance. You know, there's a chance that things could go wrong every single day. And I'm not saying that the Coronavirus is something just to blow off. But statistically, anyone who and that's part of the problem too is we've lost rational thought, right? We've become very tribalistic in our in our politics. And we're picking sides and drawing, you know, drawing our line in the sand say if you don't believe in what I believe in, you're wrong. If you don't wear a mask, you just want to kill grandma. I mean, it's always this sensational kind of, you know, virtue signaling and not only that, but almost sheen. Every time if you don't believe in what I believe in. You're just wrong. And I think that's what a big part of this Coronavirus. And it's a perfect storm, right? We hit election cycle, political divisiveness. And it's just all of its snowballing into one and I was talking to a friend yesterday. And he said he hasn't worn a mask once and he gets looks. And he goes Hey, man, I'm 35 I'm healthy. He's got he's all I'm just over it. I'm over it. And it's a tricky back because you're all okay. We can't continue to live this way. If this continues on, and this is the new norm, this is misery. If you're telling me every time I get on a plane, I have to wear a mask. If we take this attitude, we wouldn't be here today because Lewis and Clark would have never gone on their scouting mission across the country. I mean, honestly, we wouldn't be here for you to keep this. We're going nowhere. It's going to stifle you're going to have innovation stifled people are going to be miserable. And it comes to a point. If we were taking care of our health and we were healthy, this would be almost a zero issue right. Because the statistics say this, the people who are dying from the Coronavirus are almost all obese with multiple health conditions and or elderly in a certain age category. And the problem today is obviously if you're obese and elderly as you As your immune system starts to down, down regulate, it's not as strong. That's part of it and part of aging. So that's I mean, you're throwing all these pieces in and all the people I know who are healthy. They don't care. They're like, cough in my face. I don't care. You know, and I think it comes to that attitude. I told the front when this first started happening, and I was right. I mean, I'm not patting myself on the back, but I talked to a friend then I did an interview right after. And the host asked me goes, What do you think's going to happen with this Coronavirus? Thing I go, you're about to see the most massive redistribution of wealth you've ever seen.

And guess what we've done exactly that I said, you're going to see the government start shoveling money out, left and right, there's going to be no controls on it. No one's going to know where it's going. And it's going to make millionaires and billionaires out of schmucks out of people who are just a part of crony capitalism and part of the system. And that's exactly what it's done. Because what what have we done, it's put all the mom and pops out of business. And it's made all the big corporations richer. And now they truly they dominate the markets, Amazon, Walmart, you know, that they grew. And now and we're, that's I mean, we're in a strange place. But if that three legged stool, if we were all taking care of that, and doing that, it removes the power from these entities to be able to do this to us. Because if we're financially sound, debt, free, financial institutions don't really exist all that much. We borrow until we're eyeballs up in debt. And most Americans, almost all Americans die in debt, period. Well, that's no way to live your life. Americans die incredibly unhealthy. The last 2030 years of their life are on three medications or more, and they don't feel good. They're in and out of hospitals. You know, most people lack life purpose, the most, the statistics bear this out on most people's deathbeds, they have multiple regrets have that they didn't live the life they wanted to live, we got change that if we change those three things, it will drastically change the direction of us as a country, and change our government, it will change the big business attitude, it'll just change everything. And that's why I'm such a big fan of us being the innovators, right? We're the people who pay all the bills. Well, we need to be the innovators, we need to create the next tech company, you know, we need to be you know, like, you know, like parlors trying to do that, you know, create a social media platform that actually is free. You know, we need to create the next Apple, we need to create the next Microsoft, and do good with it. Because what we're seeing today is a lot of these companies are not doing better for mankind. Do they provide services that help us? Sure. But that's a small fraction of what they could do to make this a better place. Instead, they took this situation and decided it was time to just become a pure monopoly. Fix yourself, fix your community, fix your family, move it on, just keep moving. And as you fix everything around you, it has this effect. You know, it, it uses example, it's like a virus, it spreads, it starts to spread out. And I think that's what we've lost, you know, just 150 years ago, almost everyone was a farmer.

Brian Nichols  53:35  
My family too, ya know, my family, my family are farmers. It's it's amazing to see because like, all the families up in my home area, like they were all farming families. And it's funny, even back, I think back, Gary, just, you know, back in the 90s, right? I remember, you'd have multiple, multiple family names. My family we would do cropping for different families is like a custom hire business. We go out and plant their corn and mow hay and stuff. And you'd have, you'd have dozens and dozens of local families. And now Gary, here we are in 2020. I think there's like four or five families that are left up there that are farming.

Gary Collins  54:10  
That's it. Well, understanding that micro economy and macro economy, right? The micro economy, the way it stays strong and, and works the best way is by small business, which is the backbone of this country. This is how this country the whole economy was built. Don't get me wrong. We had our Rockefellers and you know, our mortgage chases and all that. Don't get me wrong, man. It's not like it's new. It's been around. But with the local small economies, I always give this example to have the money stays local. If you continue to shop at that big store in your small community, or shop online at this big store that sells you know has 100 Or a million skews or whatever, that money goes out. And it never comes back. When you support your community and you stop Aren't small businesses and you buy from small businesses in your community, it's the money stays in that community. It builds the tax base it, you're able to fix the roads, you're able to, you know, clean up your city, you're able to, you know, build bridges, fix bridges, infrastructure, you're able to do that. The problem now is over money goes to places big business and the federal government and state governments to I mean, our state governments are following the exact same direction of the federal government. In a lot of cases, it's just as corrupt. Right? And matter of fact, I'm going to have a guest on a PhD psychologist who I'm a friend with him, we're going to talk about the interrelation between a sociopath psychopath and criminals and politicians. We're going to talk about that. Because I think there there's a big disconnect to with our with our politicians. I mean, they're broken. The system's broken. No one wants no one wants to be a politician today. No, what no one with a rational mind, right. So it attracts the worst of the worst, right out of the gate. I mean, look at Thomas Massie, the probably the nicest guy in the world. You know, that's the guy you want. As president. He never has a snowball's chance in hell of being President. Those are the rational minds. You know, though Ron Paul's, they're never going to make it never going to happen, because the system is inherently corrupt. And it goes from the top down. So that's why I say the way you fix it is bottom up. You just take it from the bottom, and you just slowly push them out. Gary Collins,

Brian Nichols  56:33  
welcome back to The Brian Nichols Show. How are you?

Gary Collins  56:37  
Good. Good. Thanks, Brian. It's a good chat beforehand.

Brian Nichols  56:40  
Oh, yeah, we get talking. And then we look at the clock. And we're like, we're we've been talking for 10 recorded that that was brilliant. It wouldn't hit the record button, which is, that's what happens here in the greater podcasting world. Because I think we've all started to realize this, you become very good friends off air. And then as soon as you start talking to conversations, just start going, you're like, oh, shit, we missed the record button. And then you have 10 minutes of content. But it was really, truly just us catching up. And it ended up being a conversation. And I tease this before we even hit the record button of transformation. And that was something I wanted to be the theme today, because for the longtime listener, they've heard you on the show back, I think the last time you were on is actually the beginning of 2020. And no is being I'm sorry, it's being in 2021. Or, and now I'm second guessing myself. And it's 2020. Beginning 2021. We'll have all of our our awesome audience double check. But with that being said, when you were last on, Gary, the world has changed a little bit, shall we say? And it's forced a lot of people to take a step back, and really have to recalibrate where they are, where they want to go. And truly what what have they done to help themselves get there. And that's why I want to focus on transformation today, because it all comes down to who you are as an individual. And if you are truly even in the balance that is your three legged stool. I teased this on yesterday's episode for the audience. But I said, Hey, we're gonna have Gary back on and for those of the folks who are either new to the show, or maybe they just need a refresher, this will be a great chance to refresh them on the three legged stool. But Gary, before we get there, I put the cart far behind ahead of the horse here. Let's rewind because, again, the show has been growing left and right. Since you were last on, let's re introduce yourself to The Brian Nichols Show audience and what's been going on in the world of Gary Collins and the simple life.

Gary Collins  58:26  
Yeah, just you know, a simple dumb redneck who grew up in the middle of nowhere, who made something out of it himself, put himself through college, worked for the government for 20 years and military intelligence and as a federal agent, left dismayed, and absolutely dumbfounded by humanity and people in government, and started my own business left, rebuilt myself from scratch, and completely just started a new and and created a business called the simple life but built the house off the grid on 20 acres, which eventually turned into 50 acres. And then I sold it. I recently sold it after having that property about a decade in August and rebooted my entire life. Washington got crazy weird during COVID. And I said I'm out here, even though I was on the northeast side, literally almost in Idaho, right on the border. It just got strange in property prices, bizarre, just the zonkers and I went, I'm an idiot if I don't try and sell right now. And I bought a property in Arizona, prior COVID and got a good day on 20 acres and built in my new studio office here that I built and luckily, had a place to go and just restarted my life again just pivoted and rebooted everything all over. But if it wasn't for living the three legged stool that I teach, which is pretty odd that people live what they teach these days. I couldn't have done I mean, I pivoted within probably 60 days by the time I decided to sell the house. Got Back Up there got it prep Got it on the market, it's sold in three days. And escrow closed in about 30. So I was scrambling because I hadn't intended to move. So I had to pack all my stuff, sell all my crap again, because I hate moving crap. It's the move, the move all that stuff is pointless furniture and all that I just get rid of it. And yeah, it's been nuts ever since. Yeah. And building my fourth house, this is the fourth house I've had built from scratch. And I will say we maybe wouldn't get into this, I will never do it again. We'll ever do it again. Well, we'll definitely dig into that why a workhorse is absolutely dogshit Oh, there

Brian Nichols  1:00:40  
you go. So never do it again, I hear that. And actually, it's funny I was just having this conversation with. So my wife and I are also moving. And this is also why the conversation of transformation came up today. Because I'm seeing our mutual friend Mark Claire, he just went on an entire journey from California down to Mexico. So we're seeing this across the greater I would dare say let's just kind of give us the general theme of the Liberty world, right? People are currently in this big state of flux me from Philadelphia, like you, we got weird here in Philly. Moving from here to Indiana, you getting out of Washington down to Arizona, we're seeing this across the board. And I think it speaks to why we need to why we needed to start changing the conversation back when you and I really focused on changing the conversation focusing on bettering the individual. And this is something when you joined the liberty movement really, in trying to ingrain a little bit into you know, not only who we had as our network, but also the people like the underlying themes. And this is something why I've I've kind of branched out as well, I talk more to the Sales Marketing entrepreneur crowd, because I think we're seeing that at the end of the day, what's going to win, Gary is you have to be the best version of yourself, regardless of what you want to do what your vision is. Because I mean, I was saying autonomous, the Terminator II guy, like you see around there is such a lack of motivation. And I think a lot of it has been exacerbated by this, that not just COVID, but the government responses to COVID. And and this is where we're seeing the movement kind of split right now, you have one side of the movement, who is in this very, you know, very strongly focused personal development mentality of making yourself the best version of yourself, which I agree with. And then there's the other side of the movement, who was saying we need to focus on policy, specifically local, state elections and focus on that, like exclusively all over everything else. And I agree with some of those ideas. And I'm at this point where I'm thinking, Can we please do both, because the whole reason that you had to move, the whole reason I am looking to move, the whole reason Mark was moving is is because of what the policies were happening around us. Now thankfully, we have the means to move. But it speaks to I think, why we have to play both games, we can't have it be one or another because for every Gary mark, or Brian who can make the trip and make the move, you know, there's somebody else out there who they're stuck. They physically have no means for whatever purpose that may be to make the transition. But government policies are changing around them, whether they like it or not, and they're going to be hurt negatively. We're seeing this in Australia. We're seeing it in Austria, Germany. I mean, goodness that we expect to see Germany, going so quickly back to 1930s. Again, Gary, what has happened in there. But dig into that, Gary, the importance of maybe and I'd love to hear your thoughts on that of bridging both those worlds together.

Gary Collins  1:03:42  
Well, and I've always said, life's about action. And we have too many talkers today, a lot of people with social media with you know, 24/7 news cycle, everyone loves to talk and chat and talk about things. They have no idea what they're talking about. Even journalist I love listening to people, the talking heads on new shows, and I look in their background, and they have no background in anything. They're just talkers, regurgitate errs, that's where we've come is people just go out and they regurgitate. And then they go play video games and watch the Kardashians for the rest of the day and play on their smartphone. Those are the people getting their ass handed to him. Because they don't understand that by sitting around watching the world go round and not doing that is going to inhibit your ability to do the things you want. If R is when things go bad, when things are good. You're like, hey, everything's great. You know, I'm, you know, I get to live in my three bedroom two and a half bath house in the hills that I that I can afford right now. When things go bad, then you can't afford it. Then you're stuck. Now you can't move because you're upside down. And I always tell people the three legged stool, optimal health, financial freedom by being debt free, find your life purpose. You do those things. You can do anything you want. And that's what we were able to do you know I'm debt free. I didn't have any inhibitions. Just left, I sold my place and I left. And because I control my income to be it, but the reason I can do these things is because I do things. That's the point. I don't sit around talking all the time telling people what they should do. And don't do it myself. What people learned by this transition, I got a lot of emails once people I announced what I was doing, because I kind of kept it quiet until it all went through. And they're like, holy cow, that was fast. And I go, Yeah, I saw the writing on the wall. And as I was leaving Washington, I had to go to Home Depot before I left in Spokane. All the major tools and expensive items were all locked up. That's when I realized, wow, time, no, I'd already sold. I was just going there to grab a couple things I needed to as I was leaving. And I was like, wow. And I left California 10 years ago, because I saw the writing on the wall in California. I was born and raised there. But I was born and raised in a tiny poor town. But I was living in San Diego and I could see where everything was going. I'm out of here. This place is this place is buffoonery. And so, but I was able to do those things, because I downsized and got rid of everything, which I wrote about my book called going off the grid. But I think more people need to take responsibility. And we talked about that all the time about being self reliant. You know, don't be a victim, you know, you're never going to have the crappiest life in the world. You're never going to rank number one, even though you think you do. Stop being that way. Stop complaining, get your put your head down, work hard, get your crap together, and everything will work out. And when it doesn't work out, you have the ability to fix it. That's the key. And today, we just have a lot of victims, a lot of people are poor me, I am entitled, I shouldn't have to work. And the problem today, what's really got me is the unskilled labor market. And they literally think they deserve $25 an hour. And a mall. I started at 335 an hour you want you want the same wage in one hour, that it would take me a full day of busting my ass to make you want to make it an hour. And you're unskilled. You're terrible at what you do. You don't even show up on time. And we got to get out of that mindset. Because I think it's crushing this country. I really do.

Brian Nichols  1:07:25  
You're you're actually very similar in terms of the approach you have to different to the show, Jason Stapleton. Now, Jason, he started his show, it was the Jason Stapleton program. And it was entirely focused on politics. And about this time last year, he kind of went through this rebranding, and he turned it into wealth, power and influence with Jason Stapleton. And the real focus of the show shifted from being about politics to wealth, how you accumulate it, and then how you can use it to not only help promote your ideals, but also to really be financially secure. And that's really just my time listening to Jason to hear that kind of transition. And to hear very similar echoing back and forth between both yourself and what Jason is promoting on his show is really, it comes down to the same thing, personal responsibility, getting your life and where you're healthier, and then going to financial freedom, you know, whether it's trying to make more money, make yourself most indispensable person at your company, or what have you. And then finding that purpose. I mean, that it's very similar to the message that Jason's promoting, but you're doing it much more from I think you're the individualistic standpoint, and just the small, tiny things we can do on a day to day basis that then turn the big things. I mean, I for myself, I used to weigh 385 pounds, I was huge. And I went through pretty much an entire your life change where I ended up dropping, you know, 180 pounds, just because I realized that that I was unhealthy I knew I wasn't on a path to positive positivity just in general, I was going to be short living my really hopefully long and happy life, because my heart was gonna get out. So like things like that in you want you to get your health in order. I think that's the most important pillar you mentioned is because once you get your health in order, it does open up so many more doors and so many more avenues that you can explore, be it the physical aspect, but also the truth. It does coincide with financial aspect. I know it sounds a little cliche to say but people do judge and that's just one of the realities of our world is you know, when you're a heavier set person or you're not in debt, that kind of status quo of what we consider to be a healthy looking person, you might not have the opportunities that other people would have. So you are putting yourself at a distinct advantage when you're taking your health in consideration because it does allow you to do more things, be it applying for different jobs that require that face to face connection that somebody of larger stature wouldn't be able to necessarily do as well not because they couldn't do the job but because the perception of them from the other side of the table isn't as positive. So I think just when we get to the realities of how our world works, what you've lined up being that the hell financial freedom and finding life's purpose. Those not only are are super important for an individual to be successful. But I mean, I know for myself just kind of walking through them in my own mind, I can kind of see you know how I've taken that path to getting health better trying to get your finances in order and then trying to find out what you'd like to do. What would you do, like you said that you would do for free? Regardless if you're getting paid or not like that. That's, that's something I think we all need to try and figure out. So I guess we're already getting short on time, which kind of caught me off guard because already at 35 minutes, but what would you say, Gary, to someone out there who just they're listless, and they're looking for that spark to kind of give them a little bit of energy and just rejuvenate their life, kind of get them back on track? What would be a good starting step for them to find themselves and hopefully get their lives turned around?

Gary Collins  1:10:48  
Sure. And first of Jason Stapleton I need to have a talk with him because I think he's been stealing all my material. It's funny, though, you're right. We have found similar paths, Jason focuses more on the business side. And he's great at it. And I listen to his show as well. And I know he reads all my books. Kidding. But no, it's it's interesting to see that two people, we both have military backgrounds. He worked in the I think he worked in prison for a while. Yeah. And it's interesting, I'm more of a little more of a holistic guy, you know, because I do have an extensive health background, you know, I have an extensive, you know, I live off grid, I've lived in my RV, I run my business remotely, I've run it out of my RV, I've written many of my books in my RV. So yeah, we're a little different. I'd like but I look at us as a team. You know, I don't look at Jason as competition or anyone like that I look at as we're all trying to do the same thing. 100%. And that's what we need to do, you know, it's not going to be one of us, that's going to do it, it's going to be many of us who do this has to be honestly right has to be has to be, we got to get rid of that, you know, competition mentality. in it. I'm very competitive. You know, when I played sports, I didn't want to beat you, I wanted you to quit the game and never, ever play it again. That's how competitive I was. So it's been a metamorphosis for me to have understanding that we're in this together, I run a business, but it's a business of passion, it's a business of change. So it changes how you look at, you know, competitors and other people, I look at him as friends, I look at him as CO conspirators in a way, you know, we're all trying to put our pinch up positive in the positive change pie is what we're doing. It's a big pie, there's plenty of pie for all of us. If I was gonna give people a starting block, it is health. And here's why I wrote an entire chapter in my new book, which is called the simple guide to financial freedom. It's a different book, I like to write things a little differently. It is not based on investing. I look at all of our personal decisions with money that we make through our life that the system is set up. And how it takes a piece of us each step of the way. And it's just a chunk here, a chunk there. And what it does is it gets us on this road of debt. The whole thing is to get you in debt. Right? Well, health so big part of it. And most people kind of gloss right over that one I go. It's much, much cheaper to be healthy. And here's how and because the argument I always get with clients is oh, I can't afford that healthy food. It's just so expensive. This and that. And I've ran it cost analysis with them and I prove them wrong. Every single time I ever lost this bed. I go here's our bet you go drive to the your favorite fast food restaurant. I'm going to go home because I already have my food. It's already in the refrigerator. It's already there. I've already bought for the week, I'm going to prepare a 100% organic healthy meal. And you go get your food, pay for it. Tell me how long it takes you to get there, how much gas you spent, get home. And then we're going to compare notes on whose meal was more expensive, and whose took more time on my dishes done everything. I've won every bet. I've never lost that bet. And even people go to McDonald's. I go no, it's still cheaper. And not only monetarily Is it cheaper in that short piece, the overall length of your health, you're going to have more likely to live longer we can't I can't say that with 100% certainty. But statistically you will live longer and you will live healthier you will have better years it's no good to live to ad if the last 25 years of your life were pooping in a diaper and taking five prescription drugs to try and stop the pooping in the diaper which had our inherently makes worse right right. Every I laugh I'd say every prescription to side effects are you either go blind or poop your pants or it seems like you know it seems like there's something always in there. And and for that to change health. It's something that you can do right now. Like literally you go Get into your kitchen, prepare a better meal, start getting rid of the bad foods you have, you can start this second, it's on you. And you can change it right now. Now the initial cost, get to get rid of your crappy food and to buy new food. There's a little cost associated with that, but it's not like 1000s of dollars, you know, a couple 100 bucks, you know, and you're gonna get that money back. And I always tell people to I go, here's the thing, I may not be the smartest guy in the world. But I'm a healthy guy. And I'll outwork you every day of the week, I'm up at 530. Every morning, I get it on, I get to work, I work out, I get through my day, you know, Heck, I've

published four books already this year. This is my year of I dedicated to one year of working on the company without any vacations, breaks or anything. And that's an interesting one for a guy in the simple life too. Because that doesn't sound very simple, right? I love what I do. This isn't as painful as you would think it to be. I'm not going to do it again. But it's not nearly as bad as if you told me here you got to work nine to five in a cubicle, punching widgets or, you know, you know, doing what was it reports every day, that would be a slow death. For me,

Brian Nichols  1:16:16  
it's been so long since you've done it that you completely forgot what they're called.

Gary Collins  1:16:18  
I don't even if you're in a cubicle, I wouldn't even know what to do. I'd be like, I don't know, I'd probably pass out you'd have to come resuscitate me. But you know what I mean, the health part is essential. The only reason I give a lot of a lot of the, I guess credit to what I'm doing and how I've been able to progress in my business and my motto my life to my health. Without my health. This would not be possible. I would not be here today, hands down undeniably. And people go Well, Gary, I have health conditions. Do you? Let's let's take a deeper look at this. Are those health conditions? Are you going to tell me you have type two diabetes? Because that's lifestyle that's not genetic? And they go What do you mean, I go type one is genetic. Type Two is not. And they're all you know, like you just deflated their balloon, or excuse blown? Yeah. It's excusable in in health is the best one, you will hear some of the most ridiculous excuses you've ever heard. If you work with clients, one on one I've heard I've heard them all. And so with that, I tell people stop the excuses. And get a plan in action. I wrote a health book, I've written a couple. They're very basic. And people go well, it can't be that easy. I go, actually, it is there. Again, I'm an enemy of the health world because I teach you how to be healthy without making people rich. That's the key. getting healthy does not cost a lot of money. What it does is it takes dedication and a different focus of life.

Brian Nichols  1:17:53  
All right, folks, thank you for sharing these great, just awesome memories that we had with Gary. Definitely some words of wisdom here on today's episode. And these are just some of my favorite times that I got to hang out with Gary. And you know, I really wished we had all of our conversations recording. Just because while we we had some fun talks, Gary was one of a kind, truly a remarkable human being. And I'm going to miss him. I'm going to miss him a lot. So thank you for for joining us today. And remembering our good friend here, Gary Collins, and please do me a favor. If you got some value from what Gary brought to the world, please do me a favor, and that share some of Gary's work. Share your stories with Kerry, the things you you found most valuable from Gary. That's that's how we can most effectively, appropriately and respectfully honor, his memory, I believe is keeping alive the things he taught. So thank you for for sticking around for this yet rather long episode of The Brian Nichols Show. I know you're not used to these longer episodes, but I thought it was important for us to share a lot of these good times

laughs but also very important values and messages that Gary brought to our audience here. And I hope you got some value again, if you're new here in the program from today's conversation, conversations that we had with with Gary Collins. So I'm gonna wrap up here and really quick as we do go towards the end of today's episode, I want to give a quick shout out to one of our awesome, awesome new sponsors. And by the way, if you're running for office, and I cannot recommend this sponsor enough and this also goes for anyone who's out there in the world of entrepreneurship. If you're running your own business and you're looking for a little help in the digital landscape then And today's sponsor is for you. And that is right strategies The reason being so right strategies has a proven track record of focusing not just in the world of political campaigns, but also helping small businesses in our digital landscape here in 2022. So if you're looking to help with winning your elections, or if you're looking for help in growing your business using smart strategic digital marketing, right strategy is going to be a perfect partner to help you reach your goals. They have an amazing team of experts are gonna help you save time, money, but also do so while helping amplify your message. And it's gonna help you win your elections but also help you win in the marketplace. Great SMS texting features from right strategies gives you a really efficient, affordable and smart way to focus your marketing budget, and it will help you reach 1000s of customers and voters right strategies will help you make a powerful impact on the outcome of your elections and your business growth. from social media management to awesome awesome graphic design work to marketing your product or campaign, right strategies can put together a plan that makes sense for your goals and do so within your budget. So you want to learn more about how right stripes can help you win your elections and grow your business. Well, if so had the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash R S and oh, by the way, you'll go ahead and get your free campaign or free marketing plan report card by heading over the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash Rs. All you have to do is let Morgan and the awesome team at REI strategies know that I sent you so one more time. It's Brian Nichols show.com forward slash RS amplifying your message where voters and customers spend their time. Alright folks, that's all I have for you. So tomorrow, I promise we're gonna pick things up tomorrow. It's going to be a much more uplifting and fun episode, as we're going to be joined by Connor boy, Jack, I'm really looking forward to that conversation. Make sure you hit the subscribe button in your podcast catcher. So you're not missing all five episodes we have here every single week. Also, did you know that we are over on YouTube on Odyssey and now officially over on rumble. So if you head over to one of those three respective platforms, search for The Brian Nichols Show, do me a solid, go ahead and hit that subscribe button there as well. But also make sure you hit that little notification bell. So you're not missing a single time. We have a new video drop there. And then also folks one final ask if you are getting value here from The Brian Nichols Show. Having on guests that leave you educated, enlightened and informed. I'm going to ask you to do me a favor, head to the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash support. And if you'd be so kind give us either a 510 2030 I don't care whatever it may be dollar donation over on PayPal, or you can go ahead and become a supporting listener $5 A month that's less than a cup of coffee with a shot of espresso, peppermint, and a little bit of cream at your favorite cafe, which is usually my go to drink of choice that comes around like 582 or so. So if you're able to go ahead and sacrifice maybe one drink at the coffee shop a week to support The Brian Nichols Show, I would greatly appreciate it. So again had the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash support to go ahead and do that. Other than that, guys, again, thank you for joining us on today's episode. It's Brian Nichols signing off. You're on The Brian Nichols Show for our dear friend Gary Collins. We'll see you tomorrow.

Gary Collins  1:23:31  
Thanks for listening to The Brian Nichols Show. Find more episodes at the Brian Nichols show.com

Brian Nichols  1:23:38  
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