Contact Details
- Owner at Blodgett’s Car Cleaning and Reconditioning
- Co-founder at Menace Productions Worldwide, LLC
- Contributing Writer at The CUT
- Personal coach at Gold Thread Coaching
- Co-owner at Adventures To Nowhere
- Galen’s Facebook
- @adventurestonowherevt
- @sartorial_vermonter
- @ham_and_a_sandwich
Interview Details
Date: Wednesday November 20th
Location: Colchester
Length: 01:47:57
Episode Number: 49
Show Notes Link: vermonttalks.com/galen-blodgett
Short Link: vermonttalks.com/49
Transcript
Becca: Welcome everybody. Hello. This is Galen Blodgett.
Galen: I’m Galen Blodgett. He is an entrepreneur and he’s got many businesses. I’m gonna list a couple gold thread coaching and blodgets, car cleaning and reconditioning.
Becca: He’s also the co-founder of Menace Productions Worldwide LLC.
Galen: Yeah and I don’t know. I there’s a security company that’s kind of in the works and there’s another one that’s been kicking around for a while that needs a whole rebrand so I just blame all of this on my horrible ADHD and randomly deciding that I’m good at something. I made a cake for the first time the other day. Yeah decided I was gonna start a bakery. I didn’t get past my insurance agent but anyway.
Becca: Which business, I know you officially started your car cleaning and reconditioning business a few months ago. Which business takes up the most of your time right now?
Galen: Mostly car cleaning. I mean I have a background in that. I have been doing it for about two decades so I’ve got a pretty long list of clients that know me and I got to pay the bills. So while everything else is kind of in the works, I brought some, I told you I brought some water. I brought brown water. I brought a fifth of benchmark old number eight brand Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey.
Becca: Nice. And now I don’t know if you drink bourbon whiskey or not but I did bring you a glass. A very cool glass.
Galen: Tell me about this. With a bullet in it. Where did you find this? Okay so these are my special glasses. I had gotten some from a friend for being the best man in his wedding and they shattered and then a coworker Gina got me a replacement. Just I posted about it on Facebook and I was sad I was about it and Gina got me a replacement set of glasses so yeah these are my special glasses.
They’re very cool. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Now I haven’t had this bourbon before but the guy at the counter at the liquor store said that it should be good and don’t feel obligated to drink
Becca: as much as I give you or anything. I will definitely have a tasting.
Galen: We’ll see how good this is. But you know it’s like almost six o’clock on a Wednesday.
Becca: Yes. Oh yes it is the 20th of November in 2024. In 2024. I’ve been trying to state that because my podcast now stretches five years so it’s easy to lose track of when I did these.
Galen: I also brought some sliced baguette. It was pre-sliced which seemed like a good idea.
Becca: Some sliced chicken and you were not joking about having a lot of stuff. No no I doubt this is not even the end of it when I finished. Some raspberries those are on sale
Galen: and some recently freshly reduced brie which makes you think that maybe this is some sort of flavoring dynamic. No they put it on sale and I found it on sale and I purchased that for
Becca: this podcast that we have going on.
Galen: Oh my gosh. I should have grabbed a plate. I can do that. No no no no it’s okay. I’ve got it all under control. I thought about bringing a plate. I didn’t do that but I do have a somewhat clean pocket knife. Excellent.
Becca: Yeah excellent. So this takes me back to my youth.
Galen: Yeah well hopefully the bourbon is better than the bourbon that at least I was drinking when I was younger because that was some bad bourbon.
Becca: Oh yeah yeah I didn’t drink bourbon as a young in. I drank flavored vodka from the bottom shelf.
Galen: Yeah not good.
Becca: No I know. Burnets. Oh yes exactly that’s how I feel when I think about eating that.
Galen: There’s also sped cough. Have you ever had that?
Becca: I think I have but I might have blocked it.
Speaker 3: That would have been a smart move. I feel like the name rings a bell but I don’t think I want to remember the flavor. Well help yourself to the freshly reduced brie.
Becca: I will definitely try some. I mean I really love when they stick those stickers on everything. This one actually was reduced quite significantly.
Speaker 3: Yeah it was a significant reduction in the brie. Like half off practically. I feel like three dollars and fifty cents.
Galen: Also by the way I realized on the way over here that one of my favorite things to do for new environments is to eat and I feel like the people who listen to your podcast will really appreciate listening to us eat.
Becca: They do this on many podcasts. Okay good.
Galen: Good well hopefully I don’t make too many gross noises.
Becca: No I probably will be honest.
Speaker 3: Good this is going to be the podcast of the century. Anyway cheers. Yes yes cheers sorry.
Galen: No no you’re good I’m rushing it. I know I know it’s lucky that I didn’t do a whole charcuterie.
Becca: Yes if you pulled an entire charcuterie board out of that bag I would have been a little shocked. I’m a little shocked anyway thank you for all this. I know this this felt like oh my god I also have
Galen: a Macintosh apple that was picked in Vermont and six sugar-free rock star energy drinks just if we want to get real weird with it.
Becca: Six of them specifically.
Galen: Yes exactly and don’t worry I didn’t pay for these but I did acquire them. Should I ask where they came from. No it’s not an interesting story. Okay fair enough. Yeah they gave them to me at the gym.
Becca: Very cool. So you go all over the state doing all of this work. Yeah you do. You’re on the move every day.
Galen: I had to taste the bourbon. That’s actually. That is good. It’s a really good bourbon. You ready for this? Less than thirteen dollars.
Becca: Nice benchmark old number eight brand.
Galen: Absolutely I’m going to go back I’m going to buy six. Actually I can’t drink that much brown water.
Becca: No that actually is really not.
Galen: It enhances my body dysmorphia.
Becca: I don’t okay here we’re going to get real weird immediately. Let’s do it. Explain to me how that works. I’ve googled it.
Speaker 4: I’ve been trying to understand this and I’m like I don’t
Becca: get it like my concept of my body is probably so morphed that the old concept of body dysmorphia I’m like I don’t understand what this means like what does this actually mean.
Galen: I don’t think it’s actually body dysmorphia. Well I mean maybe a little bit for me like I I constantly think that I’m really skinny right but like you are pretty darn skinny.
Becca: No I am skinny but you’re not skinny skinny but you’re not like heavy.
Galen: No I know but like I like I look at my arms in the mirror and I’m like I need to go do some more bicep curls and it’s like like everything’s fine right like you know my partner is constantly telling me that I look great and everything and I’m very appreciative of them for that but I don’t have the same connect so like if I have too much brown water I’m like oh it’s going to my midsection. That’s fair.
Becca: That’s a fair concept. It’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. Right well you’d have to drink many like this would have to be your every day. I drink the entire bottle or a lot of beer. It tends to be the people who drink a lot of beer who put on the weight for the alcohol.
Galen: I was I had surgery in the middle of the year and I was doing bourbon and Guinness for a little while and that may have contributed a little bit to the just there’s my body dysmorphia. It’s constantly needing to go to the gym and really not needing to go to the gym at all.
Becca: Okay that’s it’s good to stay healthy though. That’s honestly if you’re going to go one way or the other stay healthy. It’s always better right no matter what.
Galen: At the same time this is the issue though right so like a good friend of mine is he’s a meathead right. He’s just he’s a meathead and he knows what he’s doing at the gym and he’s like I’ve known him for eight years right.
We graduated the Correctional Academy together back in time ago and he’s like oh man like I’ll get you a workout routine and all this stuff and I’m like I’m not going to follow it. I can’t do it. I can’t so instead what I do is I go to the gym for six years or four years or seven years or whatever along was and wind up needing surgery at the end of it so you know sliding scale of you know.
Becca: Yeah oh yeah though I mean that’s always fair enough if you’re going to hurt yourself at the gym go easy.
Galen: Well that’s the nice thing about Planet Fitness is that I can look around and there’s usually somebody hurting themselves worse than I’m hurting myself.
Becca: Oh yes yes I mean I go to the gym and I’m like oh and I know nothing about the gym so yeah 100% there’s a lot of people there who don’t know how to use equipment and this is every gym I’ve ever been to. I look at people and I’m like I don’t think that’s how that machine works.
No it’s not. But what are you going to see? You’re not going to go over there and you know interject unless they’re literally going to drop the weight on their head.
Galen: Well this is the thing about Planet Fitness which is like the Walmart supercenter of gyms.
Becca: Right what do they call it? What’s their tagline? It’s like everybody’s welcome or whatever.
Galen: Yeah it’s a judgment free zone which is good. Yeah there you go yeah. I like to make sure that they know it’s a judgment free zone too by the way that I behave. So you know recently I was gone for a while and I came back to the gym and I walked in and it was some new folks there and I told them immediately I said I’m normal which is
Becca: not something that any normal person would ever say. I really like that. It’s kind of a power move though because you make them question immediately.
Speaker 3: What’s wrong with this dude? He’s clearly not normal.
Becca: No one normal would come in and say that.
Galen: So now I’m known as a normal guy. Actually the person that I said that to was at the drag show that you and I were at recently at Monkey House. There were so many people there. That was a good one. That was really good. That was a great show.
Becca: Yes I didn’t know what I was in for. I have never been to a burlesque show. There was more stripping than I’d ever seen which I was totally okay with. It’s artsy stripping. It’s artsy. Yeah 100% it’s not just just stripping by any means.
No I do not take me wrong. It’s definitely not just stripping. It’s like a dance. There’s a routine involved. It’s specific. It’s just a lot of butt cheeks that I wasn’t expecting.
Galen: I want to do burlesque. I want to go but the body dysmorphia gets in the way. No I just haven’t done it. I feel like I need to take classes and stuff like that. I just haven’t done it yet.
Becca: There was serious talent there too. Serious talent. The ass tassels blew my mind. I will never be the same again.
Galen: Nothing wrong with some ass tassels. I was so shocked. I was not ready. Yes. Assles. Yes 100% that was like the moment where I’m like my people. Yeah well Monkey House the shows at Monkey House, the Untap shows at Monkey House are like they’re a little bit they push the boundary a little bit more. It’s a little bit more like I don’t know it’s just the vibe is a little bit more low key. It’s a little bit more like you know anybody’s going to bring what they got and everybody kind of does. They just kind of bring what they got. They do the thing whatever in the audience. I have never had a bad crowd at Monkey House.
Yeah. Never seen a bad crowd at Monkey House. I’ve never performed there but I’m consistently impressed with the talent. It’s usually there’s somebody new there and something like that. Somebody new from Berlesque or Drag or whatever but it’s always really cool.
Speaker 3: Yes. I’m still eating raspberry.
Becca: I was just going to eat one as well because they look really good as you should. Okay. So you are currently cleaning a lot of cars. Yes. I clean cars. You were down in Rutland. I saw because I follow you on social media so occasionally I’ll see your check ins. You’ll be like way over in St. Jay and then you’re down in Rutland and then you’re up here and you’re just all over the entire state.
Galen: I drive a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I so yeah I do. I clean cars. I own Blodgett’s car cleaning and reconditioning which I’ve been doing for 20 years. It’s kind of my trade and I’ve built some successful businesses and and you know detailed shops and stuff like that. Listen there’s a cat on the table.
Speaker 5: There is a cat.
Becca: There’s I’m happy to hang out with the Miss Fiskake but we have Brie and I
Galen: know Oh that kitty would want some exactly. If it wasn’t for that she she would hang out there. I’m really glad I’m keeping this podcast is on topic.
Becca: This is how most of my shows go. I love it.
Galen: Yes. Sorry. Continue. So you know so I’ve been doing cleaning cars for about 20 years and left my job or as the general manager of a detail shop in the middle of summer to do my own thing and you know I have folks who they’re interested in what I’m doing and they’ll say you know oh you know you’re building this business and I’m really not I’m building a brand. I I enjoy I’m passionate about cars. I enjoy cleaning cars. I want to do what’s best for my customers but I’m getting older and it’s a hard job to do with a back that’s recently had surgery.
Becca: Cleaning is not easy and that’s like in depth cleaning. That’s not like oh I’m going to swiffer your house real quick and walk out. This is like bent over scrubbing with toothbrush.
Galen: The amount of pet hair I have pulled out of Subaru’s in my life is really ungodly. It’s a huge I could make a fleet of dogs.
Becca: Yeah probably. Yeah. I mean it’s from everyone has a subie and everyone has a dog in the back of the subie.
Galen: So the hair. What is the car cleaning thing because it you know if you know me from shows or you know me from hosting or you know me from you know the variety of other things that I do kind of seems a little bit off brand. It’s really not. It’s what I’ve been doing for so long and where I learned a lot of very weird things to how ways to behave was in shops in Vermont coming up but it pays the bills while the other businesses are growing. So the other business is being you know gold thread coaching which is kind of a catch all offering coaching and consultation organizations and individuals and individuals starting businesses and emergency management consulting which is the weird additional thing that gold thread coaching does which really comes across as more of a style advice thing which we can get into in a second.
Becca: Yeah no I’d love to hear more about this the whole coaching thing fascinates me. I’ve actually done coaching classes. I had this dream seven eight years ago of teaching young software and electrical engineers and kind of like coaching people into their you know their role they wanted to be into more of like a business aspect of coaching. It’s such an interesting field though like I’m really I’d love to get in depth on how you got into that why you got it.
Galen: It’s a catch all that’s really well so okay there’s a variety of things right. So when I was younger I wore suits to school at high school I was known as a suitcase right and at some point I just stopped and that was it and actually I’m working on a book because a couple people wanted me to write a book and I was like the chapter for that is called I used to be fabulous right so and it was this transition point and when I finally started to get back into who I am and you know was about to come out of the closet I started wearing suits again which was this precursor of like feeling good in myself and feeling good in what I wear and you know using myself as a canvas and and using colors and and patterns and and fabrics and different things to really portray how I was feeling in the day and all of this really kind of like nitty gritty emotional tone to all of the outfits that I was doing and so I came out and at 34 and realized how important fashion was for me in defining who I am in the world so hence what was then the sartorial vermoner which was a little play on nobody in Vermont was sartorial until very recently became gold thread coaching which was really a catchall for everything of you know folks who need some help with marketing to you know doing emergency management consulting for some nonprofit organizations to really just being able to chat with whoever and have it be in a more structured environment right as as folks go through a hard time so it was you know I’ve had by last count I think it was 35 jobs in my life I’m 37 years old so I’ve had almost a job for every year of my life other than the businesses that I started and they all come with their own niche and kind of area of expertise which can hopefully aid whoever in figuring out what the next steps for them are right
Becca: there’s so much to coaching that’s such an interesting field because that’s it you can talk there’s people who literally are just kind of like there to chat and that’s their entire business like they’re a coach but they’re just kind of there to chat and the whole accountability concept like oh yeah I’m actually gonna try and hold you accountable but not mean about it I feel like that’s kind of where people end up following it if we’re gonna have a conversation every day the business coaching aspect is so fascinating and you brought up emergency response when you say that what do you mean exactly because I’m business world I work as a software engineer which is very corporate right emergency response is this massive thing in data security because we need to have like a plan all of these things so when you say emergency response is it like per individual or per company either or honestly um
Galen: so in addition to cleaning cars for about two decades I also had a brief foray into security contracting and law enforcement so yes you said you an academy of some sort so I’m sorry I’m eating a piece of chicken to those who are listening to the podcast as we’re discussing this it’s very important you need to stay maintained food wise this is my biggest coaching advice eat well um so uh most recently I was a correctional officer in the state of Vermont um and I did that for a little over a year before that I was a active shooter defense contracted by the state of Arizona for a high-risk state agency um and worked in like gangland and all these kind of crazy places um
Becca: right that’s kind of if you’re gonna work in that field you’ve got to be in places that are high risk which I mean probably not Vermont for high-risk shooter hopefully
Galen: well I mean I think the thing with like active shooter specifically is it’s it’s something that in the security industry or folks who are hiring security agents it’s a lot of what folks are concerned about and the reality is that it really doesn’t happen that much I mean it’s infinitesimally small that that happens but it is an area of concern um and the the place where I did work in Arizona was you know it had been shot up and somebody had put a pipe bomb by the back door and it has some really high-risk state agencies there’s also chicken on the table now so the cat’s very interested in both the chicken and the breed
Becca: I took her ball away I was worried about how cool and now she says well I’ll eat your cheese
Speaker 3: and absolutely well I’m fine with the cat eating the cheese just so you know um so
Galen: is there a risk of that in Vermont you know I’ve been having a lot of conversations about that recently um
Becca: I feel like the job title the specific like we’re high risk shoot you know that whatever you just said for your job right I feel like you probably couldn’t line a job with that exact job title in Vermont it is a risk though like 100% my sister works at the Woodstock Inn and they had an incident two years ago I think and that is the most ritzy beautiful you know I would I was shocked when she called me and said that she was like locked in a closet she’s a massage therapist at their spa I was like oh that’s not what I expected you to say at all so I mean it does happen it’s very that’s a very rare and I think that that incident ended up he wasn’t attacking people right it was just he had a gun in a public area that everyone freaked out because they saw a gun in a public area he wasn’t shooting people up at the spa but they immediately go into like active shooter mode like that has become the go-to as soon as anyone sees a gun anywhere
Galen: well I mean it’s been sensationalized a lot by media too I mean not to take away the seriousness of the the situations that have happened but it’s something that we just kind of consistently talk about and it is it’s it’s like the zombie apocalypse you know it’s you know what we do in that situation and it’s interesting because like if you take these from a security contracting perspective if you take these large events an active shooter a zombie apocalypse even though it’s completely fabricated and false and not possible if you work your way backward from there you find that that worst-case scenario prepares you for a lot of the other little things that come along the way yes so you know active shooter defense was it was it was the training was really cool it was not worth the amount of money that I was making you know I learned a lot of really cool stuff while I was there and is there a risk of that in Vermont I think is kind of at the Corbett I think there’s a risk of that anywhere in the United States unfortunately I think that you know you get into what is the culture surrounding uh not even necessarily guns but just violence in general and stuff like that and you know ideology
Becca: people stressed out enough to the point that snaps which full disclaimer because I think we’re probably on the same page on this you don’t need a gun to do this shit because in China they have knife attacks
Galen: where there was a guy who stabbed what is it just a killed a
Becca: bunch of people with a sword yeah yeah and this happens very often actually where the the guy will kill everyone in the elevator or in a train car or whatever it is like this this kind of thing happens when society is where people are stressed out on happy and have very very poor mental health services
Galen: poor mental health services and I mean I think the big part of it too is in in the United States I mean we’re you know there’s a culture of like you I mean even with hustle culture it’s like you know you got to be moving you got to be shaking you got to be doing you got to you know there’s there’s a lot of religious extremism there’s you know even take that out of it you don’t have it be religious just have it be you know ideological extremism we have that and I mean part of it is in our DNA and our culture we’re built on you know we’re gonna rebel against the British yeah and having been in the gun community for a long time too everybody needs training yes you know that’s the other thing is just you know like just just be well trained so I like well trained civilians I like being a well trained civilian and you know I think that that
Becca: yes if you want a gun please take a gun safety course I the amount of my friends talking about buying guns right now is
Speaker 4: mildly overwhelming but interesting thing about it is every single person who’s told me that they want to buy a gun right now says I want to take a gun safety course like they’re immediately pairing that together well where I grew up which is rural Vermont and everyone had a gun no one took guns so you don’t do that courses like the attitude of between you’re not going to take my gun and I want a gun for safety is so interesting because the people want a gun for safety tend to be the ones who say I want to take the safety course because I don’t want to shoot myself with your gun yeah it’s interesting that the whole climate right now is so weird around violence the rhetoric the ideologies yeah I mean I think that like as because I’m a dad of two
Galen: I have a three-year-old and a seven-year-old and you know like we talk about safety like you you you are the first responder you’re the if there’s a situation you’re the first person there if it’s against you you’re the first person there and you know safety really is a personal responsibility and you know whatever tools you feel are necessary to make sure that you’re staying safe I support it I believe in de-escalation and communication before everything I think communication solves 99.999 percent of problems and sometimes it doesn’t and you know that’s that’s an unfortunate reality in our world and not just the United States but the world in general so
Becca: yeah yeah they break down communication that tends to be when because you can try and communicate with someone who’s going insane and that’s what it gets real scary right like are they even open to communication
Galen: is I like to go down the deep end with them right I like to get weird with it man you want to talk about the blue men peeking around the corner whatever I’ve listen I have had some weird conversations with some people who have gone way off the deep end I don’t know if I want to say this or not but I once had an hour and a half conversation with a gentleman who was strapped to a chair completely naked and covered in feces and it was one of the most normal conversations I’ve ever had in my life about how they’re expanding federal street in St. Albans and this and the other thing I’m like
Speaker 5: what planet am I living on man but
Galen: you know sometimes you got to drink the Kool-Aid a little bit in order to get to the other end of the thingy dang it’s all good you know whatever man I think that like part of that culture that we’re talking about of like come and take my gun out of my cold dead hand you know all that all that sort of stuff is like I and I’ve been a victim of this mentality in my own past is this idea of like macho bravado if you’re going to be able to solve any situation blah blah blah and all this stuff and like no like guns don’t solve that
Becca: no they definitely don’t
Galen: it’s it’s more of how do you communicate through whatever situation and then how do you keep yourself safe when communication fails and uh you know I hate for guns to be a reality in that but I mean that’s the world that we live in it is what it is
Becca: yep yep and that’s that’s the thing I wish I wish anyone who really was and I like guns that’s the crazy thing to me I’ve had I’ve had such weird conversations with both of the far sides because there’s a lot of people around Burlington or die hard no one needs a gun ever
Galen: but growing up someone gets shot outside Red Square
Becca: right right right like I get the attitude but I also growing up in you know farming communities where people hunted and everyone just had a gun I also don’t think and Vermont has the most guns per capita or we did at least a decade ago I don’t know about the current stats most guns per capita and at least gun crime everybody has guns multiple guns and no one was shooting each other which is gun safety and just the you know communication and not being insane and respecting the gun all of these things it’s really hard to hear people in Vermont get that attitude that they’re come and take my guns because
Galen: that’s been there though I know it’s always been there and that’s that’s the thing is a lot of the stuff a lot of the conversations that I have nowadays are like things that we in Vermont just don’t talk about yeah okay of like the isms right so I’m driving back from I did a show in St. Johnsbury and I’m stayed at the Lake Moray Resort and I’m coming back up on root whatever the hell and I’m taking a left and I see the big red barn with take back Vermont written on it
Becca: in 2024 like like you know which didn’t they like repaint it
Galen: oh yeah like this is trust me it has been kept up for sure I’ve got a selfie of me in front of that thing and it looks fresh um you know I that’s probably the most direct ism in the state of Vermont but when it comes to homophobia and racism and sexism oh I don’t care I don’t care but they won’t piss on your house if it’s burning yeah right it’s it’s we often Vermonters don’t even identify these issues ourselves in ourselves and then it takes additional work to get it out so it’s like um you know when you’ve got somebody sitting across from you they say I’m a racist okay but you know like okay you’re a racist right which is more common in the south and in Vermont we don’t really do that we just kind of say oh I don’t care yeah move in next door you know whatever I don’t care about those gay boys live in next door as long as they don’t come over and hit on me well
Becca: you know Mo I feel like that’s the majority I know a hundred percent straight up a racist oh sure Vermont I’m like sure absolutely did you really just say that oh absolutely absolutely they’re out there
Galen: oh they’re out there and I mean on the other side of that is you know this culture of kind of like alt right militia group etc that has grown in the last 10 15 years I would say 15 years especially yeah and I mean even to the point of when I was heavily involved in gun culture I had somebody call me this was early teens and was like hey do you want to head up a chapter of the three percenters in Vermont and I was like I don’t know that that’s exactly my speed right and it was a good thing that it wasn’t my speed because then six months later it comes out of how racist this organization’s militia group is yeah awful you know the things that they were doing patrolling the border etc etc things that are just intrinsic intrinsically don’t believe in right but because I was well known in the state of Vermont so this this does exist here yeah it all exists and I think that you know when it comes from a safety and security perspective to ignore that it exists is that’s when you’re gonna have a problem I had yes I had somebody yes I had somebody tell me you had a day that were like what did I say um he says his e-jams are raspberries in his mouth uh thinking food yes thinking food and I’m gonna take the position of the thinker I’ll put my fist underneath my chin really get it out here um had somebody tell me what are you so worried that’s gonna happen well that is that statement or that ideology is the precursor of every horrible thing that’s happened that’s been man-made for a long time yeah World War one
Speaker 5: World War two right the titanic sinking yeah
Galen: vietnam we’re both yeah it’s unsinkable and
Becca: yet right here we are right well even early what 2001 with uh the whole patriot act and what oh my god what are you scared of with them stealing all of your phone call audio oh my god god knows what is on nsa’s servers like they’ve got
Galen: phone calls going down the deep end oh my god
Speaker 5: i’m so happy you’re bringing this up
Becca: no like I got i mean i was eight eight years old when the twin towers fell i was not very old right like but i remember that so vividly and the whole culture shift everything changed right like suddenly you couldn’t go in the airport without being scanned and like we got kicked out of canada because my dad got drunk in florida once whoops and suddenly was now not allowed in
Speaker 5: canada somehow getting drunk in florida can’t
Becca: you pant for panada that’s a huge story i will not i feel like i’ve told that no my dad was a Yankee in the 70s and got
Speaker 3: drunk in florida right like no he was an idiot like he wasn’t smart but didn’t steal anything but his one phone call from the florida prison was no long distance calls slam so he got stuck in the slammer as an 18 year old Yankee with long hair in florida for like six eight weeks or something like he couldn’t call home they wouldn’t let him do anything his one phone call was no you’re not calling home nice right and it was like the day he showed up in florida too like
Galen: well my boyfriend and i we tried doing a drag photo shoot shoot on the beach in bonita springs we passed three houses that were occupied on the way from where we were at our air bnb to the beach to do this photo shoot multiple people heckling and trying to call the cops on us because it’s illegal it’s illegal you can’t you can’t do drag in public in
Becca: florida no i forgot about right that’s recent right
Galen: that’s oh that that was february
Becca: right that was disantis’s winning
Galen: moves don’t say gay in school yes and his whole yeah god we we could go on bunny trail on that anyway anyway the whole culture shift around guns is so weird especially right now like going from 2000 twin towers falling the weird shifting attitude the freedom fries do you remember oh my god freedom fries like i feel like i want to just start calling them that for satire
Becca: yes no we should
Galen: again i’m at the mcdonald’s drive-through and they’re like do you want fries with that i’ll be like
Becca: you mean freedom fries right oh they didn’t they like cancel the dixie chicks over this
Speaker 4: bullshit big there’s yeah right there’s so much stuff that happened where suddenly you were not allowed to dissent the government and what are you scared of and what do you think’s gonna happen and all of our rights being stripped away for 25
Galen: years okay so right so so we said at 9 11 i’m sure you remember this we can’t let it change your way of life it can’t change your way like yeah well and then you’ve got the patriot act right the patriot act it anyway i’m not i’m not even gonna go there let’s get right into the meat of this thing which is the nsa facility that you’re talking about which is in i think utah which is if i remember right and this is like 10 years ago that i did my research so i could be totally wrong it was like 40 000 square foot facility that cost billions of dollars that just strips away the entire fourth amendment yeah like that doesn’t even exist anymore
Becca: oh and nobody’s protesting it right and well that was it the whole gas lighting around snowden and oh god because that was it the whole phrase of what do you think’s gonna happen why if you got nothing to hide you shouldn’t be scared of this that whole thing came out with snowden let’s call him a traitor like we didn’t know the nsa existed until he came out and had the proof and suddenly everyone was like well obviously that existed like the gas lighting was so insane because we talked about that and you got called a conspiracy theorist no the government’s not listening to your phone calls you conspiracy theorist where’s your tin foil and then we just pretended like we all knew that like
Galen: yeah this this is just happening the whole time and of course they were doing it because it’s it you know okay so my friend’s like oh something about the aliens and i’m like i don’t even care dude like i don’t care i don’t care about the aliens but at this point you could tell me the weirdest shit is going on and i’d be like all right cool like am i getting a paycheck tomorrow like is life going to continue as we know it if not then like i got some contingency plans we got to look into otherwise like let’s just carry on
Becca: well that was everyone i’m sorry so overwhelmed with the amount of bullshit
Galen: that and it’s just spiraled and it’s spiraled and it’s gotten worse and worse
Speaker 5: tell me one person of insanity four years
Galen: i mean serious life event i came out of the closet got a divorce right you know like friends you know parents died and the dad that all this the covid blah blah blah it’s just insanity it’s constant bombardment and everybody in my opinion from what i glean talking with people everybody feels like it’s everything all at once
Becca: yes yeah very much
Galen: it’s it’s the major stressors of life it’s career changes and family dynamic changes and income and politics and war and yeah food and it’s everything all at once and it’s funny because you know back at the beginning of the pandemic everybody was like well you know we’re staying at home there better get your side hustle going you know like yes you’ll ride that horse you gotta keep moving well okay it’s been three years four years
Becca: that’s it depends
Speaker 3: where you count the end of the pandemic because i still feel like it’s 2022 i’m just old now like when did five years pass because that doesn’t
Galen: line up in my brain it’s it’s looking back like you’re talking about you know just now what was it that that was just a totally different world and the world has shifted so much like every six months it feels like we’re in a different okay now we’re in ukraine now we’re this crazy thing is
Becca: yes and everything gets just tampered down because the media can only talk about one thing at a time right and it’s whatever’s the most important thing so we’ll forget here’s the insanity of the day and tomorrow you’re desensitized to it because today here’s a new fucking insane thing to be terrified of yeah it’s like the song dirty laundry
Galen: yeah pretty much which has a great intro
Speaker 5: anyway riceberries
Becca: um anywho we got off topic a little bit you were a defense contractor in arizona is that
Galen: was uh i was active shooter defense in phoenix metro yeah contracted by the state of arizona which is interesting because like the department of economic security at the time was trying to build a private police force and it was like stockpiling guns in the bottom of the the department of economic security offices and it
Becca: was really weird this comforting oh
Speaker 3: it’s arizona
Speaker 4: so i mean fair all the things that they got right no daylight savings time very smart um
Becca: yes i agree if anything we take from arizona that so um as
Galen: so you know the car cleaning whatever that’s a paycheck the security contracting emergency emergency management consulting through gold thread is kind of a catchall to make sure that you know folks are setting up events that are safe um and it really started to become a more serious thing because i was retired from doing security i was like i’m not doing this anymore and then it was like six months later it was like okay i’m doing security again um it became a real need it was like you know law enforcement understaffed and whatever other opinions are with law enforcement i’m not going to go down that road right now but yeah
Speaker 3: you know law enforcement was
Galen: understaffed they weren’t able to do events in the way that they were before
Speaker 3: private security contractors were just they just did not care i mean
Galen: just you know they’re there for a paycheck and whatever and it was like well you know i know some folks and i know myself and i know that we do care and i know that we’re capable of all of the things that you need to do we’re capable of de-escalation we’re capable of these other stuff so you know it really became a need and then you know as the climate in the world changed um you know with the lgbtq events the drag shows etc it was like okay now we like there needs to be a real focus on security here and you know and in vermont too i mean the if you look at you know emoji and catniss who are doing shows and all throughout the state doing drag story hour throughout the state which is amazing by the way yeah i brought my kids to it it’s all about body acceptance so that you don’t wind up like me in your mid 30s you know finding a sense of belonging it’s okay to do you like all it’s just wonderful for kids and they’re getting death threats
Becca: yeah you know which is
Galen: horrible and people showing up with guns i’m sorry but if you send death threats to people fuck you i will say that openly on my podcast like fuck you i don’t care what your death threading about fuck you unless this person killed your family member maybe i’ll i’ll give you a pass because yeah but then they know you’re coming
Becca: right right like you’ve got a reason but if you’re just like hating random fucking people like fuck you yeah absolutely anywho okay aside done please continue because i had just seen that they did was that in st j
Galen: st j yeah which was one that was you know it’s a concerning area i’ve done shows in st j and security’s a topic of conversation by the way if you hear a a scuffing noise coming through your speakers that’s me preparing this macintosh apple which was picked in vermont by me and my boyfriend and i’m looking forward to putting some brie on but uh just a little bit more yeah a little more information about this apple before you decide to cut it with my somewhat clean pocket knife it has been rolling around in my car for about a week so uh is it good still
Becca: let’s find out it looks like it’s not bruised i it’s delicious see i grew up on a dairy farm so food food always makes me laugh people are so weird about their food i’m like do you have a clue what’s been on that like your tomato has been probably crawled on by god knows what animals like and it doesn’t matter where it came from like there’s animals there’s insects there’s tiny little microscopic things everywhere like on all of your food it comes from nature crazy i mean wash it but like don’t freak out about it it’s fine
Speaker 3: like you don’t already have a bunch of toxins in your system right um what was i gonna say um
Becca: i totally got you off track yeah that’s okay apple macintosh security event at the
Speaker 5: drag story our
Galen: food i there are not many things that i won’t eat right you see these peanut butter cups i’m gonna try to avoid it i’m not
Becca: they’re not made of good stuff
Speaker 5: thank you oh my god
Becca: everybody nobody agreed with me on this no every processed thing in america tends to be made of weird chemicals that like you would not want to eat if someone was like here is this chemical in bulk that we dump on your food as a preservative you’d be like that’s disgusting
Galen: why is the peanut butter that consistency
Becca: oh they do something weird i’ve looked this up there’s youtube videos about this they do something really weird to the peanut butter to make it i forget it’s some sort of like chemical process to make it more granulated ew why oh yeah like super weird and uh there’s also the weird chemical in all reese’s and hershey’s chocolate but basically all american chocolate that if you bring it to europe they’re like it tastes like vomit because there’s actually a chemical that’s like inhuman bile in our chocolate in america that’s why european chocolate tends to be a lot like different it just feels different and more like
Speaker 4: cultured and luxurious when you eat it yeah no it doesn’t have the puke chemical in it like and that’s some sort
Galen: of we could have a whole conversation about food well i’m i’m listen i’m i’m like halfway down that rabbit hole okay black licorice not a fan still gonna eat it it you know if there’s like a dead thing somewhere and it’s fresh enough and i’m hungry enough i’ll eat it
Becca: what the food in the grocery store the dead things in the grocery store are probably less fresh than what you’re yeah exactly
Galen: this is the problem in the united states is waste yeah yeah if we all just found some roadkill on the way home it’d be better it’d be
Becca: people hate on squirrels i’ve always i’ve never eaten a squirrel but i’ve always heard
Galen: squirrels not bad yeah i do squirrel
Becca: right dear’s good like why
Galen: i would say of the things that i have eaten the one that i’m not hugely keen on is uh sea urchin okay but i want i didn’t want to try it again and then i saw a documentary on sea urchin and now i want to try it again
Becca: interesting are they considered mollusks
Galen: i am gonna be honest with you i am not a sea urchin expert and the documentary whether it
Becca: are they would jewish people eat a sea urchin
Galen: i have no idea it seems like it’s a spiky rock with some goo on the inside
Becca: right i mean that’s a fair fair comparison
Galen: and i mean i would eat it i would eat it again yeah i wasn’t going to eat the gonads right which is fine who cares i don’t care about
Becca: that isn’t that like every like a scallop a clam every single
Galen: i don’t know i thought the scallop was just like the muscly thing that lifts the thing up and down i think
Becca: you eat all just like clams clams are weird right because you eat like the whole clam
Galen: have you had the like just a weight not clams what is it
Becca: i’ve had whole belly
Galen: clams the ones where you just like
Becca: yeah uh uh muscles is that
Galen: no not muscles no the ones that are different mussels are delicious the romance one people eat a lot of like valentines day for dzag yeah you know what i’m talking
Becca: about i do know what you’re talking about i can’t play back around the name i had them for the first time and everybody else’s gross oysters there we go that’s what it is is it
Galen: yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly yeah yes exactly thank you you know what the biggest memory okay so this is we’re gonna get worried some like this is some gay gay like trivia now right dick tracy the movie yeah okay okay Madonna Warren Beatty Al Pacino right and it’s i when i was little teeny tiny gayling all i wanted to be was dick tracy and little did i know i also kind of wanted to be Madonna too in that movie uh which now if you come to one of my shows i might sing you some Madonna songs from dick
Speaker 5: tracy once upon a time i had plenty of plenty
Galen: yeah anyway uh so i um in that movie there’s a scene where the bad guy is eating oysters and he’s suck them down okay
Becca: yeah i feel like that scene has been memed before it may have been
Galen: right and it’s like it’s like they’re so gross but i’ve always been curious about oysters so like two weeks ago i get some oysters let me tell you i thought they were good do they are they kind of the consistency of a big booger yeah right get over it and eat it it’s delicious
Becca: oh and it’s like in its raw form too i mean do you want the clam strip that has been yeah round mashed and then squeezed out of a tube and fried you know breaded and fried like
Galen: that’s a sliding scale they’re like they’re either bad the clam strips are either bad or they’re like okay
Becca: right i feel it feels like the hot dog of the seafood world oh well i have you had cuttlefish uh no i haven’t i’m not huge on seafood do people eat cuttlefish oh yeah interesting it’s real bad i won’t i didn’t know that was the thing i won’t do that one now i can’t believe people eat them oh yeah like yeah no i don’t think i can eat a cuttlefish same with i don’t think i could actually eat calamari i’ve tried it once the more what the more i learn about the octopus the more
Speaker 5: sad i know you can be
Galen: sad well it’s you realize it’s delicious and you’re sad at the same
Becca: time right right they’re just very intelligent
Galen: to the point where i feel weird about it maybe the smartness makes them even
Becca: better maybe i mean
Galen: that’s a sliding scale too though like if you get the rubbery calamari it’s a no
Becca: oh right well right
Galen: that’s all about how it’s prepared you get the good calamari the good calamari is good
Becca: right no that’s it i’ve tried it before and i was like oh this isn’t bad but at the same time now i feel more i understand the cuttlefish also super intelligent too that’s another
Galen: i don’t know about that i they’re like in mass quantities i
Becca: think they’re the one they did this weird study on them and they can delay gratification which is like a super high level of intelligence what they so they gave the the cuttlefish going on such weird tangents i’m sorry
Speaker 5: we’ll talk more about you my name is gaelyn
Galen: and i’m a business person now the
Becca: cuttlefish but the cuttlefish so they gave it like a shrimp or something but then they put this like intricate study together where if the cuttlefish did not take the shrimp for five minutes it would be given like five shrimp and it did it it was smart enough to figure it out and actually delay gratification like consistently it knew and most animals are not smart enough to even i’m not smart enough to do that now like yo even human beings really struggle
Galen: yeah i’ll just get mad because i’ll see you have all that shrimp over there and then i want the shrimp yeah and then i’ll try to con you into giving me the shrimp
Becca: that’s kind of what the cuttlefish did if you actually watched it it was real weird about it it’s like i’m not gonna touch it but i want to touch it but i want but i don’t but i do and it was very like focused but it waited and it was smart enough to like know how long it needed to it very intelligent really weird really weird intelligence is a weird thing
Galen: i still can’t believe we can’t talk to animals but anyway what we have come up with what we have determined if your cuttlefish story is true because we know the octopus is smart and we also know the octopus is delicious uh is that intelligence as i stated earlier is not not what makes something delicious
Becca: i yes i would agree i
Galen: don’t i don’t know i haven’t tried eating people yet
Becca: i was gonna say because they talk about long pork a lot in some books like it’s supposed to not be because they say it smells like bacon human beings are really close to pigs genetically so apparently if you cook human meat it smells like bacon i don’t know i have a go on that road at human beings and bacon that tends to be like the one that people struggle to not eat you know what i mean like oh i smell bacon
Galen: like are we having trouble not eating people well i mean
Becca: i think i
Speaker 5: don’t know if i’m not asking you that because like we
Becca: can go out of sleep i honestly think that’s like a thing because didn’t we eat a bunch of neanderthals i’m pretty sure we wiped out all of the other intelligent species
Speaker 3: by funding that we wouldn’t have written about it back then
Becca: all right right but we still ate them yeah i mean
Galen: you gotta eat something you know it’s what it is it’s an eat or be world out there really right right i mean we’re just getting closer and closer to that every day
Becca: now we live in a really weird world there’s that one serial killer do you know the story i’m about to freak everybody out there’s a serial killer from america in the midwest who ground people up and served them at inside like he had like side of the road food stand delicious they didn’t know they thought it was pork sure like what the other other white meat
Speaker 4: yes exactly well anyway anyway off of the cannibalism topic let’s not eat people oh god i’m gonna eat some raspberry
Galen: maybe we’ll have a slice of a chicken after that
Becca: yeah we’ve gone down a weird bunny trail here but but bringing it back to vermont the need for security
Galen: oh shoot is that what we’re talking about yeah we somehow got a kettlefish kettlefish and cannibalism not good not good kettlefish cannibalism not good frowned upon frowned
Becca: upon right from a security standpoint unsure whether it’s good or not can’t speak from experience here no experience in that but probably don’t eat people apparently tastes like bacon um right security and vermont um
Galen: i i everything’s fine until it’s not fine yeah right that’s all it boils down to and as soon as it’s not fine it’s really not fine i had this i was a on-site consultant for a non-profit organization and i was listening to the radio and they were asking the medical team to go to their tent and i go running over to the tent to see what’s going on there’s this four or five-year-old kid blonde kid with blood gushing out the side of his head nose little blonde ringlets and i’m gonna run around the corner and i’m like oh you just need a hug and i’m like no it’s security man and slap some cause on the side of his head yeah carry on so i think that like purple dude yeah i know i feel really bad for him i i held his hand and walked him down to the ambulance it was very cute i didn’t cry that whole time even though i’m an emotional basket case in my life now um no it it’s things happen we don’t know what we don’t know when but things happen and having folks who can kind of respond to that it’s good i think and i’m not chill so
Becca: yeah yeah having a plan see it’s interesting because uh we live in such a weird world full of uh i kind of have like toxic positivity in
Speaker 3: some ways oh my god don’t get me started like people just don’t expect things to happen which it’s a fine line right i feel like 90 percent of the time we need to be optimistic and you know assume things are gonna go fine but you still want in your back pocket that plan because like you said you’re the first responder you see something happen in front of you you are the first responder you are the first person you need to do something absolutely and this is exactly why people in like new york if they walk by someone having a heart attack they just walk by like everybody just like disassociates
Galen: like i have an interesting story from i’m gonna tell you two interesting stories right one is about I’m going to be talking about the drug guns and the other one is about heart attack in New York City, which was not a heart attack at all. There was a human whose name rhymes with. Palin, uh, who was on a city bike with his boyfriend. Of course.
Becca: Appreciate it. More bourbon. Yes. Enjoy. I’ll cheers you with my rolled up piece of chicken.
Speaker 3: Oh, and went along doing a tick tock for the city bike tour of Manhattan and oh my god, so cool.
Galen: That person whose name rhymes with Palin smashed into a concrete barrier at about 20 miles an hour. How? When ass over tea kettle smashed the front tire of that city bike all the way back to the frame and blasted all the spokes off the rear tire
Speaker 5: and so many people came up to ask me if I needed them, that person, if they needed help.
Becca: Oh, right. Well, right. The accident happened in front of them. There’s some people right. Oh, there’s some weird thing. They did this whole study. See, I’m sorry. I keep going on these real
Speaker 4: brands, but they did this whole study with the same exact man and they put him in like a T-shirt and jeans and had him have heart attack and no one, no one gave a damn. Oh, I saw this. And then he put on like business clothes and everyone gave a damn. So it’s all about like your perception.
Galen: I was wearing a very nice pink sport coat.
Becca: Right. It’s all about perception. And the accident happened right there. Like it was very obvious what went wrong. I was wearing a pink sport coat and a black shirt and the lady who, the one lady who I wound up taking a selfie with and posting on my social media was wearing a pink vest and a black shirt underneath. And my boyfriend who was there at the time was like, oh, you guys are twins.
Speaker 4: Right. Oh my goodness.
Galen: So that’s my, that’s my New York City and people coming out. I don’t like New York City. I have a big point of contention with New York City, but. There’s so many people. The human element of New York has really, it’s there.
It’s present. It’s interesting the way the city ticks. I don’t understand it. I don’t need to, but it is what it is. Guns. You never know when you’re going to need a gun. Like let’s say hypothetically you decide to take your Toyota Land Cruiser off road to go look for some mushrooms as you do. Hypothetically. Hypothetically. Right.
Right. And you have to hypothetically host a hot pepper eating contest within the next couple hours. And you get stuck off road because what you’ve done is decided to do more than what you’re actually capable of. And then, you know, you maybe accidentally drop one tire off of this ledge. Oh no. And then you maybe accidentally jam an entire tree against the rear axle.
So you can’t go forward or backward in the mud puddle. This is an opportunity to use your 44 Magnum to blow the tree in half to then rip it out from underneath your truck to throw in the woods and then free yourself so that you could hypothetically go host the hot pepper eating contest.
Becca: Wonderful that you were able to get out of that situation because that sounds like it sucks.
Galen: I get out of the truck. I get out of the truck. I’m live streaming the whole thing. You can go to my Facebook and find the video, right? I’m live streaming the whole thing. And I’m like, I’m going to leave the phone in the car because what’s happened here is going to make me look really stupid, right? And I get out and I look at this tree like literally wedged exactly against the rear axle of the car. And I’m like, shit.
I like start is kind of a rotten logs about 18 inches around 20, 25 feet long, something like that. I mean, there’s no way I’m moving it, right? Right.
Like I’m reasonably fit, but I had spine surgery in the middle of the year. Excuse me. I’m spitting all over the place. You’re fine.
It’s the raspberries. So I’m I like I’m ripping it apart with my hands and I get a little bit of traction. And I’m like, oh, like do I have a knife in the car or like a saw or something? I open up the back hatch and you can see me in the back hatch like looking around in the back. I’ve got an air compressor and something on anything.
Right. Like I brought my magnum to this event. And it was a good thing too, because I was like, you know, I dropped my boyfriend off to go pick up his car and I was like, I’m going to go hunt for more mushrooms real quick. I’m like, I know this spot and I don’t want to go on foot.
My back kind of hurts or whatever. I’m just going to go off roading real quick. And I was like, I’m not going to wear my white sneakers to go look for the mushrooms. I’m going to go put on my boots. So I go to the house and I get my boots. I’m like, I don’t know if there’s bears and stuff up in the woods, which I’ve encountered before in the woods.
Right. I’m going to grab my magnum and just be safe. So I grab my magnum and my box of shells, which I usually don’t do. And it’s a good thing I did because I needed 12 rounds, not six in order to blow the tree in half to then free myself to get out in time to go host the hot pepper eating competition still covered in mud.
Becca: That is the tamest. I needed a gun story. I think I’ve ever heard, but that’s an amazing way to use this tree is a problem. This tree is a problem. This feels very like the solution that some rednecks would have. I mean, what else am I going to do
Galen: if I didn’t have the magnum with me?
Becca: Right. You would have had to hike it out of there.
Galen: I would have had to hike it out of there. Fine service. Well, I mean, okay, service going through. Hire some offroading company to come and pull me out of the thing, which would have been a whole headache.
Becca: Yeah. Oh, definitely. What a pain in the ass. No, the solution is to shoot through a tree, shoot through the tree and carry on. That’s amazing. Yes. Now there’s scary moments in life. That’s a very tame. I needed a gun. That’s a great I needed a gun story though.
Perfect. I have had those horrifying moments where you’re like not sure and not even a human being. Thank God I haven’t had, I’ve had horrible experience with human beings, but like not where I’m like, I’m going to shoot them. But I had a dog once that somebody had trained to, I guess they trained this dog for defense or something. I don’t know what the hell these people were thinking. These were not good dog owners. I’ll start with that.
I got that message. Not good dog owners. They lived probably a mile and a half from my house as a kid. I think I was 16 at the time and massive Rottweiler. Like this is the biggest Rottweiler I’ve ever met in my life. Its head was like this big. Got out in its chain collar and didn’t want to let me walk home. And I was like in the middle of rural nowhere and it’s on my lawn and I’m like, what the fuck do I do about this dog? I was fucking terrified. That was like one of the scariest things that I’ve witnessed where I’m like, I wish I had a good God to shoot this dog. Because I mean, I love dogs. I want to disclaimer. I love dogs, love animals, but like this frigging thing weighed as much as I did and was snapping at me
Galen: like as I walked on my own lawn. There’s like, because I’ve encountered bears in the woods and I’ve encountered.
Speaker 5: People in my life. Question. Dot, dot, dot.
Galen: And I mean, there’s a variety of ways to handle every situation. Right. I had one guy. I mean, so the bear in the woods was like, you know, I heard it. I was on a hike with my mom way off trail in the Northeast Kingdom. And I was going to the spot that I knew about up off trail in the J peak wilderness where you get this beautiful view and nobody goes there.
Becca: You know, it’s that’s my neck of the woods. Love it. Lots of moose. Mm hmm. Yes, lots of moose. Moose are terrifying. People don’t realize they are.
Galen: I would rather encounter a Vermont bear than a moose.
Becca: 100 percent moose are not scared. No, there’s an Vermont are terrified of you. All you have to do is go and wave your arms, which is what I did.
Galen: Right. So there’s the bear and I blocked off around into the rush and the bear went off and, you know, I was kind of like, yeah. No. And the dog story is I took my daughter hiking when she was like one and a half or two.
Becca: Little baby still toddler. Yeah.
Galen: And she’s walking along and there’s this long straight away before you get up to the trail and these dogs come peeling around the edge. I mean, there’s good 200 yards between us and the dogs and dogs are going fast. And I hear the owners screaming at the dogs. Stop, stop. No, no, no, no, no, no.
Becca: And I’m like, and I’m like, oh my God. Great start.
Galen: Get Jane up high. Yeah. And I’m ready to glock a dog if I have to because, you know, what is the alternative?
Becca: Is it they can be such assholes, especially the little kids.
Galen: The dog gets about 20 feet from me and I see that it’s body language is like good and whatever. The people freaked me out because of the way they were responding to the dog. So this is the communication piece, right? They’re not just communicating with the dogs. They’re communicating with me, but they’re not thinking about it. Right.
Becca: But they’re terrified.
Galen: They’re terrified of something with the dogs, which the dogs. The dogs wanted to come and say hi. Like worst case scenario, they would have knocked Jane over and like Jane would have maybe cried a little bit or whatever. Like it was just not. They weren’t right.
Becca: They were out to attack. Yeah. So I got up to the people.
Galen: I’m like, the way that you yelled at your dogs made me nervous. And that put your dogs at risk. And that’s scary because, you know, I don’t want to be put in a situation where, you know, that’s, that’s, but I mean, there’s a variety of ways to handle everything. You know, like communication solves 99.9 percent of the problems. The dogs body language is good.
I clocked one off and the bear ran off. Like all of this stuff. These are all lucky situations. And, you know, whatever works for the human being is what, what’s most important. But yeah.
Becca: That’s an interesting point, though. I haven’t really thought about that the way you’re talking your dog in front of other people, like, and honestly, most dog owners, if your dog runs off, you’re probably more scared about losing your dog. But if your intensity is like, you don’t know what the dog’s going to do.
Galen: That’s what that’s what it was. Yeah. That’s not a good vibe to put out because that’s the thing. If, if you’re scared of the dog actually attacking you, like, like that situation. Well, the duck can attack me. I don’t really mind so much. Right. I love a good fight with a dog.
Becca: Until it gets real bad. That’s a freaking out. The giant dogs who’ve locked their jaw. Yeah, I’m going to pass on that. That’s it. Like that’s that’s the way you’re like, OK, maybe I don’t know.
The dog doesn’t need to wake up tomorrow. I’d rather that than me not have use of my left foot or my right hand or like God knows what, like there’s a lot of scary situations.
Speaker 5: I have pushed people over the edge to the point where they snap.
Galen: I have been in a few houses that have some very large dogs and the dogs want to fight and I want to fight with the dogs. Friendly fighting, but fighting and
Speaker 5: I get, you know, like a good Saint Bernard fight. Yeah, I’m there. I’m with it. Right. Like let’s go.
Galen: And, you know, I got to reel it in a little bit from time to time. Make sure I’m not fighting people’s dogs. Right.
Becca: Where they get into that. Like I’m actually going to.
Galen: No, I haven’t done that. I haven’t done that. I promise I’m like there’s a good, you know, I was at the.
Becca: Well, they love to wrestle, right? Oh, well, I think there’s a.
Galen: I’ve walked away some with some some some bloody wounds.
Becca: Well, you’re very nice because most people can’t handle a dog putting their teeth. That’s even the friendly. You know, dogs like to like hold your arm. Oh, yeah. Dogs like to put their teeth on your arm and just kind of hold you. Yeah. Right. Like that freaks people out.
Galen: I’m good with it.
Becca: I’m good with it. Right. Oh, yeah. Yeah, no, they want to play for sure. They bite each other when they’re playing. Like that’s that’s what they do.
Galen: So security and Vermont.
Becca: No, we should we should definitely talk more about your businesses because like the coaching, who do you want to coach?
Galen: Oh, anybody. I the gold thread coaching was built as a catchall of like, you know, what are the variety of things that people need? Well, you know, I’ve got a variety of people asking me about. Keeping themselves safe now. I’m happy to have that conversation. Organizations doing the same thing, etc. To folks just asking for like what pocket square goes best with what shirt and suit combination.
Becca: So it’s a huge thing. I will say a variety. Style is so friggin hard in Vermont, especially in Vermont, especially. Have the stores. You don’t have the selection. You don’t have. We do.
We do. If you know where to look at your. See, there’s a there’s this point with fashion where you’ve got to be like willing to sacrifice the shopping day where you put the effort into the shopping and from like people like myself, which I think honestly, a lot of people are like me or I’m like, God, I hate shopping because I’ve whatever, right? Like it just doesn’t fit right. It doesn’t look right.
No matter what I buy, people don’t think it looks great. So who cares? You getting that like it’s $2. I’m going to buy it and I don’t care. And that’s I think a lot of Vermonters are like that.
Galen: Absolutely. This green sport coat looks awesome.
Becca: By the way, I believe it was 499. Really? Where’d you find it?
Speaker 5: Goodwill.
Galen: That’s Virginia.
Becca: There you go. But I was driving back. I flew to Tennessee to buy my Lexus LX 470, which is basically a Toyota Land Cruiser because, you know, if you’re going to get stuck in the woods, you might as well do it in style. And I was like, oh, you know, I didn’t bring a suit for this
Galen: road trip where I’m going to sit in the car by myself and document my journey, right? So I had to stop at the at the at the Goodwill and buy myself a suit, which is the Goodwill’s in Vermont.
Becca: Suck because they send all of the good stuff to Boston and York.
Speaker 4: Oh, did you know that? That’s what they do. They take everything on a pallet and they send it to some like centralized sorting location and they send anything good to the cities. And we end up with trash. I mean, I’ve found a few good things. I don’t like it.
Becca: Right. I have found like the one or two, but the majority is like this T-shirt from this like event that happened. Yeah, exactly.
Galen: Like the graduation for the obscure high school celebratory party for anyway. So it’s possible to be done. It’s possible to be done on a budget. Fit and finish are the most important things and finding the right things that fit or somebody who can make a fit for you. That’s the most important part. Right.
Becca: And most people don’t have a clue. Most people get raised in a how to wear clothes.
Galen: Well, suits in Vermont is like that’s. Right.
Becca: Where do you go when you want to get a suit fitted? Do you have like a personal person who helps you out? Because that’s it. It’s like menswear. OK, so all right.
Speaker 5: All right. Number one. I will tell you my secret. Needleman’s for tuxes. Those are the two that I actually know of and you might find something at like coals now that Macy’s is closed. Well, maybe. Maybe.
Galen: If you know your size, finding clothes online is relatively straightforward. And if you have a tailor, which I do, then getting it sized properly is right. So this I’m lucky because I’m generic, right? I can go and I am like, oh, it’s a 40 regular or it’s a 42 slim fit. And I put that on and then I look good. But when you’re thrifting clothes, a lot of them have been tailored already to somebody else’s dimensions. So I have suits that I’ve spent $10 on and then spent $150 getting a tailor. They’re few and far between, but it does exist because clothes that fit are what make the difference. Yes. So you can find some really interesting unique pieces in Vermont. If you’re on the ball and you really know the right.
Becca: If you know what you’re doing and most people don’t go gold.
Galen: I’m giving a shout out to old gold right now. My God. I go in there and I’m like, oh, you bought this velour tuxedo and now I have to spend $250.
Thanks, Kari. But or I have this vintage leather coat. I didn’t wear it tonight. I found this one that I wore on Poshmark, but this vintage leather coat that I think I spent $60 on and it is gorgeous and it is amazing. And it’s a showstopper. Like I walk into the room and people go, that’s a nice coat. Old gold is amazing.
Becca: That’s interesting because I know a lot of people have the attitude that it’s for fancy costumes. So that’s interesting when you talk about, no, that’s very much the vibrant Burlington is like, oh, yeah. I mean, they can do that. Right. And that that’s kind of like the weird niche that people have associated them with is like really expensive Halloween outfits. The gowns. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I didn’t even quite have that click because what, where are they located? Again, remind me. Because they’re on the side street.
Galen: They used to be right on main cherry. Okay. All right. But they’re still with when walking distance, if you end up on church street, they’re on the right next to the garage. Yeah. It’s right. Yeah. Right. Okay. All right. That’s good. They’ve got double breasted suits and like all sorts of stuff. Their tuxedo jackets are fantastic.
Becca: People figure out what size they should be looking for. I think measurements or absolutely. I don’t think I don’t even know. You might be like the one or two or three men that I know that actually knows what size. That has a tape measure. Right.
Speaker 4: They should be wearing. No, because I have no idea how to measure a man. I have some idea of how to measure a woman because I’m a woman.
Galen: Which is convenient.
Becca: Right. But like if I’m right. Oh yeah. No, there’s a lot to know about that.
Galen: Neck, bust, shoulder, the inseam.
Becca: Like everything. Ding dong to knee. Exactly. Like there’s a lot to know about this. Yeah. Most people don’t have a clue. It’s not taught. It’s not, it wasn’t taught at home. No. I’m guessing. Definitely was not taught at home. I’m guessing your family probably fell into the baby boomer generation for your parent parents.
As mine did. Their parents taught them how to buy clothes. They didn’t teach us. Did they? My grandmother had everything to like, she made her own clothes. She was such a wonderful seamstress and it’s like that whole knowledge just died.
Galen: All of that knowledge from the 40s has just dissipated. And now people are 35, 30, 40 and have no idea how to buy clothes that fit. My mom taught me how to run a sewing machine. I tailor my own shirts. But yeah, I, no, no. That’s that this you’re going into a whole other thing that we could go on.
Becca: No, no, we don’t need to. But I want people to know how to do this.
Galen: So like wraps, munchip and care does not exist in the way that it did 20 years ago. In every industry, including making sure things fit the way that you want them to. Because I go out and I buy a 42 regular slim fit suit.
As an example. Well, somebody else is going to want who’s the exact same size as me is going to want a 40 regular slim fit suit or super skinny or something like that. Who’s the exact same size because they want to have a different presentation. Right. So finding somebody who can take the direction in the way that you want them to is really important and finding that one unique person is what’s challenging. Because when it comes to general contractors, you’re renovating your home. Right.
We were just having a conversation about a plumber who goes to do tailors, personal shoppers, detailers, security contractors, etc. The one big pervasive theme is that people just don’t give a shit.
Becca: Yeah, it’s all about the lowest dollar. Everything became about how cheap can I get it?
Galen: How cheap can I get it? And I don’t really need this. Right.
Becca: Oh, yeah. The whole attitude of it doesn’t really matter.
Galen: So whatever. It doesn’t matter. Whatever. That’s how we ended up with a world where no one knows how to cook. No one has to make their own food. Like no one knows how to make their own clothes.
No one has to buy clothes or wear clothes. Like I thought making your own clothes was like the peak. But now the older I get, I’m like, people don’t even know how to buy clothes. Let alone wear them or wash them. People don’t even know how to wash their clothes properly. Well, that’s the thing is that people I didn’t grow up in a world where going to a dry cleaner was normal. And now all the dry cleaners have closed in rural America.
You can’t even find. I got one. I got New York cleaners out in Essex. And I mean, the lady’s great. It’s awesome. I go in there and I bring some like drag stuff that, you know, Jacob was wearing somewhere and, you know, we talk about drag and then I’m like, yeah, I need you to clean my tuxedo because I got to go host a drag thing. Because all I do is talk about drag stuff with the dry cleaners. But yeah, it’s few and far between. And I mean, like delivery services and I mean, you name it, it just it just doesn’t there’s this kind of general attitude of not really caring. So when you show that you care and it’s not about being formal, it’s not about necessarily even being fashionable. It’s as simple as tuxedos are a great example of this. Okay. A tuxedo is the same.
No matter what tuxedo is black on white on black, that’s a proper tuxedo. Right. Okay. You look like a penguin.
So what sets apart one tuxedo from another one fit, finish a Kutramon. That’s it. Oh, 100%. Yeah. That’s it.
And if you have that tuxedo that fits just right, you will stand out from the crowd in a way that you didn’t know that you could. Well, it’s the same thing if you’re going to work it in the woods. Okay. If I’ve got a flannel shirt that fits right when I’m sitting at the bar at the end of the day, I’m going to feel good. I’m going to track people that realize that I care.
I’m going to present that I care. This was part of the security contracting too was one of the first things that I learned was you shine your boots, you press your uniform. Right.
Because the first thing that people, the first communication is what people see or what they hear. Yep. Right. So if they see and hear that you take yourself seriously, you’re going to diffuse 99% of the percent of situations. Right.
Becca: That respect is instantaneous. If you come out as someone who clearly respects themselves, I’m going to respect you subconsciously. Like I’m not even going to realize that I’m already elevating you to this like authority figure level. That’s interesting. Now that’s a great point.
Galen: So, I mean, like, so uniforms is one aspect. Right. Cause uniforms are always gray or blue or brown or whatever. La, la, la, la, the boring. Um, when it comes to how we dress on a daily basis, you can start to express things that are, you didn’t even realize you could express. Um, you know, if, if I’m choosing to wear, uh, any number of, of different attire, whether it’s casual or formal or whatever, um, I’m expressing a different thing that I’m capable of or a different thing that it’s a conversation starter. What is fashion? Fashion is a handshake before you’ve even walked across the room. That’s what good fashion is. So, um, that was the, the base plate for gold thread coaching, which evolved into all these other things.
Becca: Very cool.
Galen: So now when you edit, you can take that part and put it at the beginning.
Becca: No, no, no, no, no. Damn it. Everyone’s going to listen to the entire thing.
Galen: The entire thing, the ranting, jumbling nonsense.
Becca: This is how they get to know you.
Galen: That’s the end of the story. Do they want to? I don’t know. I wake up in the morning. I look at the mirror and I go, Oh shit, it’s this guy again.
Becca: Now, now, now, now you’re way too hard on your, see that this body dysmorphia thing.
Galen: Way too hard on yourself now. Cause you, you give off everything that you, you seems, you seem to be wanting to emulate, right? When you’re talking about how you give off this impression without saying anything. Now you seem like you’re very well put together and like I respect what you have to say. Oh, that’s very nice. And you seem to have great life experience. I’m very impressed about the whole. I didn’t quite realize the security contracting. I know you did security for show, but I had no idea that you were like trained in this.
Becca: This is a whole, that’s a whole world that’s very, very different from the drag world or detailing whatever it’s all of it.
Speaker 3: Right. No, it’s very, very different worlds. It’s really impressive. Well, thank you. That’s how you’re bringing this all together. I, it’s sheer luck.
Becca: No, you’ve got to just do it. It’s not like you have the gold actually do something. Why not? A lot of people don’t have the gold to do anything.
Galen: How many times am I going to spin around the sun on this fucking rock? I might as well make the most of it, right?
Becca: Exactly. Do what you want to do. People tend to lack on goals. That’s one of the interesting things I’ve learned with coaching and just talking to people. Asking someone what they want out of life is such a weird conversation. I think everyone should do that. What do you want out of life?
Ask your friends that. So many people have no idea what they want out of life. And therefore they don’t do anything because they never set a goal that they wanted to achieve.
Galen: Well, you want to be successful, right? You want to be successful, right? What is success?
Becca: Right. Like what do you define that as? What do you want?
Galen: You know, success having a lot of money, a big house, a great family. Is it having a nice car?
Becca: Right. Like what house do you see yourself in? Being happy. You ask people those questions and they just they’re like shocked that you just put that in front of them. Like what do you mean? What do I want? What do you mean? What house do I want to live in? I just want house. You know, right?
Galen: Well, I mean, in 2024, that’s understandable.
Becca: Yeah, granted. Very, very fair reaction to the house conversation. But like what do you want? Like do you want to be? What do you say is successful? What do you define that as?
And most people can’t do that. So that’s that’s interesting. If someone comes to you and ask you that kind of thing for your coaching, is that somebody who you’re going to say, yes, let’s talk about this.
Galen: There’s so many conversations that would happen on that. Yeah. I think that for me, when I look at success, that’s to do with conquering anxieties more than anything else. Yeah. And I think the reason why is because we get so bogged down in our anxieties in the world of like.
Becca: The fear, the fear controls so many people. And it’s like, it’s funny because it’s not like, oh, I’m scared. I’m going to get bit by the dog. Like that’s a very distinct fear. It’s more like the fear of embarrassment, the fear of failure, the fear of judgment, like these things that are so.
Galen: Well, it’s all valid because those are the things that that excommunicate us from society and they do it very quickly nowadays. You know, you’re on social media and you see, you know, there’s the viral tick tock of the person, you know, falling down the stairs, whatever. It doesn’t matter. I can’t think of anything about the top of my head.
Of course, I watch all of them because they’re hilarious. But, you know, there’s there’s all of this stuff that’s out there that’s that’s negative. And it’s a very easy to fall into that trap and you are being watched all the time.
And I think that there’s a degree of just kind of owning yourself fearlessly and going into the world and saying, this is who I am. Right. And take it or leave it. And it is what it is that that has a tremendous amount of value. So when it comes to the anxieties, I mean, you can have them. It’s important to listen to them. Right.
Speaker 4: Oh, right. They control us. Right. Now we’re now what are we doing? Right.
Becca: You don’t reject the negative. Like you’ve got to take it in stride and not like wallow in the negative forever. Because then you never get anything done. You never need to move forward. There is a lot of a lot of weird fear mongering and just like victim.
Galen: Oh, that’s because I’ve had two glasses of bourbon and I’m going for a third.
Becca: All good.
Speaker 3: But the fuck your coffee table.
Becca: Hey, the security contractor.
Speaker 3: The top lifts up. That’s why it rattled. So anyway, yeah, the anxiety ridden world and the victim culture really kills me. Everyone seems to be looking for the next thing to be the victim of.
Galen: Sure. Of course. Why wouldn’t we?
Becca: It’s so weird. Because it’s someone who’s been violently attacked in my life. It’s real fucking upsetting when people who’ve never like their diversity is like people were mean to me. That’s why I’m a victim in my life.
And I’m like, I love you like sweet child, sweet summer child. I’m so happy that you think you’re a victim. But like it’s a really weird thing to try and like reconcile in my own brain, in my own perspective of like there’s people in this world who’s like parents broke their arm as a child that like I grew up with like very like distinct obvious, you know, this is clearly someone who got born into a shitty situation.
That’s a victim of their own reality versus like the weird victim culture on social media where people do this like weird stretch that I’m a victim of this weird social construct.
Galen: I think that there’s there’s a combination of things there, right? One is we’re always looking for where a society built on attention. Like that’s that’s how we get things. And it’s interesting too, because it’s shifted a lot. So like my MO, if I want to go get a job, OK, I’m on which I hope I never have to get an actual job again. I’m very happy being self employed. I have no idea what I’m doing on a daily basis.
But things happen and they’re good. When it comes to getting a job, right? Submit your resume, call them that day, call them the day after that, call them two days after that, etc.
You bug the shit out of them until they hire you or get you in for an interview at the very least. We don’t do that nowadays, right? And I’ve tried doing that exact same thing.
Becca: And companies will be like, no, stop bothering.
Galen: Yeah, exactly. It actually ousts you, right? So you have somebody who’s interested in the job, who’s being proactive about getting the job, but you don’t want to get them. It doesn’t make any sense to me. You know, I think that how we get attention is very digitally oriented. I think that, you know, what I saw in younger populations having worked in that industry as a as something of a practitioner for a period of time as a counselor for a period of time is that we humans are good at isolating ourselves in the blanket of digital reality, where we feel like we feel like we’re getting the the social interaction that we need, but we’re not.
Becca: Yes, it’s not real social interaction.
Galen: And then we can’t get on the bus and then we can’t get to work and then we can’t put on our shoes and then we can’t put on our pants and we’re to get out the door. Well, hopefully you’re putting on your pants. Depending on how big your shoes are.
That’s another fashion conversation. We won’t worry about that one right now. So as we isolate ourselves more and at the same time put ourselves out there more, what do we wind up with? We don’t really know. It’s kind of the brave new world of and I mean that very much in the eldest Huxley sense.
Becca: Yes, this is the new world. 100% I love that book. I love that. Thank you. We’ll say. But you’re 100% right because the lack of community, the community has become social media versus people you actually sit down and have dinner with people you actually hang out with whatever the community sense used to be. It could have been like the local library.
People used to just go to a coffee shop and actually integrate with the other human beings versus I’m going to stare at my laptop the entire time and no one talks to each other. I mean, I do. I’m not saying that I’m not a victim to it. I absolutely am. I’m a social media here.
Becca: We all are. That’s the problem. The cell phones, everybody is addicted unless you don’t have a cell phone. Right. Which sounds really nice. No, it sounds amazing. But then the thing is you needed the cell phone to get the job.
Galen: Well, you also need it. I need it for my dopamine. Yeah, well, I gotta have my dopamine scroll before I go to sleepy town at the end of the night. Anyway, so, you know, yeah, I think that. That when it comes to like the victim mentality specifically. Yes, it’s easy to fall into that role. Yes, it’s easy to find a demographic of people who will do what was me.
But it’s really awesome conversation with this dude who spent like seven years in jail in Massachusetts and was affiliated with gangs and had some fucking gun crime murder charge thing. Who knows? It doesn’t matter, right? He goes to me. He goes, Galen, everybody’s worse. This is bad as the worst. That’s how it works, right? So your bad is as bad as my bad as the other.
I’m thinking in my head, I’m like, I didn’t spend seven years in jail. Right. Right. But but he’s not wrong. So as we isolate more, what we find that traumatizes us becomes greater.
That is really interesting. I don’t know if it was a podcast. I think it was a podcast. But it was about PTSD specifically and how the world that we’re conditioned to believe exists. When we find that that doesn’t exist or that there’s grave dynamic differences to that world is when we wind up with a form of trauma. And that can be a variety of different things. It can be, you know, you grow up in Smithville, USA and you’re everybody’s friends.
And, you know, you’re in the neighborhood and they go and see Betty Sue on the weekends and the preacher is really friendly and whatever. And then you wind up in war and it’s a war and it’s a war and it’s violent. That’s horrible. And it’s all the worst of things. And all of these horrible things that you see going on around you. And oh, my God, the world that as I knew it doesn’t necessarily exist in that way here. And then you go back and you say, I got all these issues.
Yeah, well, hopefully you have that conversation. It, you know, for me and my own traumatic history, it’s been when I’ve been in those environments and had to take a step back and really look at it, especially in security, contracting, corrections, etc. You have to take a step back and look at it and try to put things in perspective in a way. Right.
Becca: The objective about it because it’s not. The norm for most people to be in those situations.
Galen: No, it’s not happy. It’s not friendly. It’s not fun. It’s not it’s not even sad. It’s terrifying, you know, right? Right. You know, as we as we isolate down more and more, those little things that create what is trauma in our brain become bigger and bigger. Yes.
Becca: Yes. And a self perspective of being
Galen: in a bubble and communication becomes harder and harder because here I am sitting across from you, right? So I’ve got my outfit on that communicates whatever it is I’m trying to I’m going to be honest with you. I didn’t think too much about this outfit before I came down here, but it communicates what I, you know, I’m I’m not wearing a tie. I’ve got my green coat on my corduroy pants and my striped shirt. And I’m kind of casual with a little bit of color and flair and whatever.
Becca: Casual, but not athletic wear. It’s such a weird vibe.
Galen: I’m so fast. It’s unbelievable. OK. I’m communicating with you and making hand gestures and you can hear my tone and you can see my facial expressions and all these things that everybody on the other side of this podcast won’t see. So what they’ll hear is my words of my tone. And that’s it. So they’re not the full communication isn’t there. And we don’t get that when it comes to social media. We interacting on groups and discord and.
Becca: Yes, it’s all curated. Correct. To the public. Yeah. So.
Galen: I don’t know. We have to find this balance between like. Reality and reality. I mean, the reality is we live in a digital world, but you know, we have to have experiences in order to stave off anxiety in order to not become victims. Like what you’re talking about, you know.
Becca: Yeah, I think honesty is the big thing in social media. And it’s interesting because I mentioned before that I’ve I’ve been studying the internet space for years before I even ended up writing like web dev code, like looking at the whole perspective of this, we came from this weird, like, I’m only going to put the most aesthetic, beautiful things on my profile. Like we all do this, right? We all want to put our best foot forward. It’s just like going to a job interview.
Sure. You try and put your best foot forward, but the reality of the situation is vastly different than what you see on social media. And if people were just more honest about these things, I miss my space for this. Exactly.
Galen: Oh my God. It used to be I am brushing my hair right now. My dog just did this stupid thing. And it was like this weird play by play of people’s lives that was so real. And somewhere between my space and Instagram, the reality died and it became curated to your, you know, your Instagram perspective.
Becca: It’s the picture of you with your feet in the pool and blah, blah, blah.
Becca: And it doesn’t show you the on vacation screaming children from the family over there. Right. Right. Of the screaming children, the house situation, the job situation, like the amount of people who post such aesthetically beautiful things were absolutely miserable, like truly miserable people. And like they’re the victims of everything. But look how beautiful their life is. It’s so fake.
Galen: But what we’ve done is we’ve made it in the last, you know, you’re a millennial. I’m a millennial. We made it in our generation. We can blame the boomers and gen X to pass the buck a little bit here. But we made it so that we are even the victims of ourselves, right?
So if you, oh, you know, the year is 1998 and you can’t pay attention in school and let’s go get you some brittle in because you got ADHD. Well, no, like that’s not that’s not necessarily the case. And it wasn’t it wasn’t psychotherapists or psychologists that were, you know, giving this advice or putting people in this direction. It was pediatricians who were paid by pharmaceutical companies, the pharmaceutical companies, right?
Becca: The Band-Aid, the solution that is addressing the problem.
Galen: Absolutely. I mean, I look back on it, you know, I look at my whole life and I say, I’m just lucky over and over and over again. And it’s it really is a reality in my life. I’m lucky of like, I’m lucky I found this jacket for five bucks. I’m lucky that I, you know, when I came out that my ex was so willing to communicate through what was an impossible situation. And, you know, I’m lucky to have found the jobs I’ve had and success in the business that I’ve had and all of these things. It’s luck.
It really is. And, you know, I got lucky as a kid that I didn’t get put on all the pharmaceuticals because it would have been easy. Right. It would have been easy. And I mean, and it would have made sense to, and I even would have bought it.
Becca: Yeah. And you would have been a victim of your own reality. My own reality. Your entire life because you’ve got this problem. It’s really, that’s such a weird thing.
Galen: I’m not saying that I shouldn’t be medicated. I probably should. He says having brought, oh, excuse me, having brought a fifth of bourbon to the podcast interview, you know.
Becca: Hey, I also growing up has been real weird because I was a straight A student, but I have a hundred percent of ADHD.
Galen: I have something like there is a lot of crack cocaine. But that’s it. If had, if I had been a D student, had been learning disabilities, got that label slapped on me as you’ve got learning disabilities.
Becca: I would still be like the victim. I will never be normal. I’ll never strive for my goals, which most people haven’t even come up with a goal. But like, I would never even bother because I can never do it because I’m a victim of this, that and the other. It’s real weird. Like we have such weird perspectives in our lives because some people who in my mind haven’t been a victim of much. Like, yeah, you’ve been a victim of people being mean to you or whatever.
But like, not much compared to some people, but like their whole perspective is I’m a victim. I can never and these are the reasons why I could never versus. I don’t know, at least for me, it seems like you as well. Like you’re not going to take life as I’m a victim and give up and just be like, good enough.
Galen: I mean, I think that overcome. I think that, you know, the victimhood, depending on what we’re talking about, there’s a sliding scale there, right? Of like, there are plenty of times in my life, I can think of when I have been a victim of somebody else’s behavior, of somebody else’s own. And I mean, when we’re talking about, OK, so in order to be a victim, somebody else has to be malicious, right? There has to be a malicious person and, you know, somebody who’s who’s getting taken advantage of. So how many malicious people are there out there in the world? This is this is an interesting question.
Becca: Because from their perspective, they’re not exactly.
Galen: So in my opinion, there are three types of people in the world. There are people who fucked up. Oops, I made a mistake. There are people who are fuck ups and get caught in repetitive behavior patterns. I think this is the firm majority of the world. We have some sort of repetitive behavior pattern that we fall into. And there’s people who are fucked up.
Yeah. OK. And the people who are fucked up are really, really, really few and far between. Usually it’s folks who just haven’t had the opportunity to receive the tools that they need to navigate society in the way that they need to navigate society.
So, you know, so in order to be a victim, there has to be a little bit of a process there, right? So if we look at Gavin DeBecca, right, wrote this book called The Gift of Fear. And he, which I never read, but I find him fascinating.
And I’ve watched some of his YouTube stuff and things like that. So I’m going to make it sound like I know what I’m talking about. So there’s two things. There’s instinct and intuition. These are instinct and intuition are things that we’re born with. They’ve been developed in us through hundreds of years of learning. And and we learn to ignore them as we get older. I do it. You’ve done it. I’ve watched my kids do it.
Becca: Very sure every human being ignores these things. We learn to ignore them of like you’re on the dark road, driving down the creepy dark road and you’re like, this is creepy.
Speaker 5: I’m not going to worry about it.
Galen: And you keep going.
Becca: Right. And then the logic says, right, the logic says, I shouldn’t be nervous right now. I’m overreacting or whatever it is.
Galen: Absolutely. Yeah. The logical human brain. I should worry about the situation. Well, if we start listening to that thing again, if we start listening to that little voice that says, you need to run away now. Right. Right. You do it.
And even if you look ridiculous, well, at least you didn’t wind up in a perilous situation. Yep. You know, I think that there’s a pretty wide variety. It’s few and far between that you’re, you know, standing at the bus stop and you get smoked in the back of the head by somebody. It doesn’t happen that much.
Right. And, you know, when it does, I mean, it’s horrible. It’s horrific. And I’m not saying that victims don’t exist in the world. They absolutely do. And there are horrific people that have done horrific things. Right.
Becca: And for no reason, like for no reason or for self gratification or whatever. I think when it comes to I’m a victim of
Galen: society as a whole, now we’re running into a little bit of a, OK, well, how are we navigating society in order to constantly be a victim? And I think that’s a hard conversation to have.
And I think that, you know, when it comes down to it, even in situations where we are victims, it’s hard to have conversations of saying, well, what could I have done differently?
Becca: Yes. Yes. Because that’s that’s it. Like most most assault victims will say the same damn thing. They’re immediately like it was my fault. No. X, Y, Z. I could have done the logical brain says these reasons I’m stupid. And at least for me and most people I talk to who’ve actually been the victim of a violent assault or something like that, they don’t want to be victims. Like, oh, my God, the separation from like, no, no, no, I’m not like it. It was my fault. These are the reasons why it was my fault versus the people who are my. I’m a victim of society. That’s such a weird thing to reconcile.
Galen: It’s a different thing. Right. I mean, I think that we also like I’m from the perspective of I would give anything to never see myself as a victim versus people who will spend over backwards to explain why. How did you get your attention when you were a kid? I mean, that’s what it boils down to, right? So like if that’s, you know, if if you were, you know, if that’s how you got your attention was by being a victim as a child, then yeah, I mean, that’s how you’re going to learn how to do it as an adult.
Becca: It is interesting. I never really thought about that. That’s very true. That’s not necessarily, that’s not necessarily wrong. You’re not wrong for thinking that way or doing things in that way.
It just exists in your reality and, OK, let’s try to find a way that’s productive for you and for society. You know what I mean? As opposed to, you know, when I am, what’s a good example?
Galen: When I am working security, right? And I’ve got the drunk guy who comes up and starts poking me in the chest. Right. I’m not really a victim here. You know what I mean? I’m not a victim of this guy poking me in the chest. He’s in the wrong, but I’m not a victim of it. And what can I do differently to communicate myself out of this situation? Or is it are we at that point where I got to twist this guy up? Hopefully not. Right.
Becca: Hopefully you can de-escalate it.
Galen: Hopefully you can de-escalate it. Oh, that’s fascinating. I love that example so much. Well, it happened.
Speaker 3: So. Oh, yeah. No, and that happens to so many. Like how many bouncers have experienced the same exact thing, but like the victim mentality, are you instantly the victim of the situation? And now you’re going to approach your conversation as the victim. Because if you’re the security guy in the security outfit and you turn in a victim mode,
Galen: well, victim mode, when your security guy can go one of two ways, they get the advantage or you get the advantage. Right. And you’re getting the advantage when you’re in victim mode. Looks like you messing somebody’s day up. And that’s not, that’s, that’s not a good day for anybody.
Becca: Right. That’s not the goal.
Galen: No, it’s never the goal. And like the fucking weird thing is, it’s like, I’ve been in so many situations in my life and I’ve been in ones where it’s like, I did everything wrong and everything turned out great and I did everything right and everything turned out bad. So like there isn’t a playbook on how to handle these sorts of situations, but like, you know, there is a few key things which is like being in tune with how you’re feeling. Well, I mean, that applies to everything. That’s not just, you know, you can take these things and call them security or victim or whatever you can call them these specific categories of thing.
Or we can take them and apply them to everything. How I feel about my relationship with my mom. You know, how I feel about, you know, the interaction that I had with my kids. Um, just kind of cluing into how we feel on a daily basis and trying to take that and navigate it and work through it.
And I think that that’s where things are really challenging right now today as, as, as millennial adults teaching the next generation how to communicate when, you know, we’re doing things like the victim mentality that you’re talking about. I bet you I’m going to pinpoint it right now. Post it on social media, right? How are you feeling today or whatever social media, what’s on your mind? Hate everyone. Post. Right. Yeah. This sucks. Post. No clarity. Yeah. Clearly attention seeking nonsense, you know, whatever, right. But, uh, right.
Becca: And oftentimes they don’t recognize the attention seeking aspect of it. I think it’s a hard, this is a really interesting conversation. I’m glad we’re having this conversation. It’s really fascinating for me. Uh, we are at an hour and 40 minutes. Oh my God. Which is insane. So we should probably wrap it up.
Galen: I gotta go home and sleep at some point. Yes.
Becca: And, but, but this is fascinating to me. I love your perspective on things. This is really interesting. You see, you seem very like steady and you, you have a good perspective.
Galen: I’ve just had enough bourbon where I seem like I’m, I know what I’m talking about.
Becca: But the coach, I can see why you’d be a good coach though. Like people could come to you and like express.
Galen: Also clean the shit out of some carpets. Literally. It’s happened before.
Becca: Very clean cars. I’ve seen these pictures.
Galen: So I don’t post the dirty ones.
Becca: You should.
Galen: The before and afters are the money social media, right? Well, the after shots when I’ve really messed it up, you know, yeah.
Becca: Is there anything else that you’d like specifically to share before we start listing off everything about you in terms of links and things? Cause we’re going to start rambling those off. Okay. So is there anything else? Conversationally that you want to touch on? Oh, no.
Galen: Oh, no. No, that’s not. I wouldn’t even ask myself that question. Is there anything else?
Becca: Yeah. There’s so much. Yeah.
Galen: I think there’s two things that I want to say and both of them aren’t mind. But one is if you want to get to heaven, you got to raise a little help, right? That’s that. I love that. So I was thinking about that on the way here. I was like, I was
Speaker 4: like, if she’s going to ask me what my favorite song is, I’m going to say this one.
Galen: It’s not my favorite song. But I was like, this is a great answer. And we’re here for a short time, right? Not a long time. So let’s make it a good time.
Becca: I love that very much. Thank you so much, Caleb. We’re coming on the show today. So obviously we can find you on Facebook. I’m on Facebook. You do you have an actual website to point people at? All right. Sounds like a lot of work. Gold thread coaching. Look that up. Blodges car cleaning and reconditioning. Look that up. Menace Productions worldwide, LLC.
Galen: We didn’t even talk about that.
Becca: We didn’t even touch on that one, which I feel a little bad about. Yeah. I have welcomed people on the show multiple times before when we got in long conversations, you might have to come back on the show and we can talk more. Give it a year. I do have a whole, yeah. Give it a year and you’ll have six more businesses that we can talk about.
And we also didn’t really talk about the cut at all. But is there any other names that you want to list for people to Google? No, no, no, let’s not.
Speaker 3: Let’s not confuse these four people. Let’s stop. I’ll just give them a break. Caleb Blodgett, thank you very, very much for coming on the show. The show notes for today are going to be at VermontTalks.com forward slash 49. It was. Oh, no, I should be 47. Damn it. I’m sorry. Then I could do a presidential thing.
Galen: I don’t want to do that.
Speaker 3: So sorry.
Speaker 4: No, I’m so sorry.
Becca: There’s that rhyme at all. No, we could go down many rockaholes, but any who. OK, VermontTalks.com forward slash 49. That will have all of Galen’s links. Thank you so much. Thank you. This is really fun. Thank you for bringing food to me. Yeah, absolutely. And thank you all for listening.
Galen: Have a good one. Next time I’m going to bring spaghetti and you can hear us slurping in the background. It’s great. All right. Thanks, everybody. Have a good one.