PGA championships, World Series rings, and the Navy SEAL coached them to it

Ryan

Moe: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. I am Ryan Moe, subbing in for our fearless leader, Chris Barron, who is on stage right now at the Ag View Solutions Executive Conference. Just want to let everybody know that next year you're going to have an opportunity to attend this conference and want to make sure that everybody gets that on their calendar because there's a lot of great stuff here at this conference. And I have a great opportunity today to talk to our keynote speaker at the conference, Jason Kuhn, who is coming to us from his company Stonewall Solutions. So welcome to the Ag View Pitch.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah, thank you, Ryan. Thanks for having me.

Ryan

Moe: Yeah, this has been a lot of fun catching up with you here just beforehand. Lots of great stories, lots of great insight and knowledge that we can gain from you. But I think it's going to be really important for the audience to realize just how cool the dude is sitting next to me here is. And if you can give us a background as to how you got here today, because it's a pretty awesome story.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah, well, I don't think anyone who knew me growing up would think I was too cool, but I appreciate that. Some of the things I've been blessed to do in my life have been pretty cool, and I've learned a lot from them. I started— well, all I ever wanted to do was play baseball. I played baseball at Middle Tennessee State. We were a mid-major, had a top 25 ranking, and we're really proud of that. Won our conference. I was a closing pitcher and well on my way to getting drafted and playing professionally. Wasn't a high round pick or anything like that. I would have been drafted late.

Ryan

Moe: If you could have picked your team to play for, who would it have been? Like, when you grew up, you wanted to be a Atlanta Braves, 100%. Yeah, you're going to be the next Greg Maddux.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah. And I got to speak to him in spring training last year, so that was pretty cool.

Ryan

Moe: That's super cool.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah, a few of them are clients now, so it's neat.

Ryan

Moe: Oh, that's awesome. Wow. So this is coming full circle.

Jason

Kuhn: Oh, absolutely.

Ryan

Moe: You never got to take the mound, but you might be in a better spot now.

Jason

Kuhn: Well, remind me, I got a story about that. So I was playing there and then I developed the YIPS, and some people are really familiar with it, probably nodding their head already, and some have never heard heard of it. But essentially, I could not throw a baseball anymore. I threw 6 wild pitches in an inning. It was the most ever in the NCAA in 2001, and it still is.

Ryan

Moe: Everybody wants to have a record.

Jason

Kuhn: That's right. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing.

Ryan

Moe: There you go. This is— hey, you know what, there's something to be taken from that.

Jason

Kuhn: Well, see, in the SEAL Teams, they say it's about anywhere from a 10 to 25% graduation rate. But when it came to baseball, I'm the only guy in the world who's ever done that.

Ryan

Moe: So the one and only, you know, there's one in 7 billion right here, folks.

Jason

Kuhn: Uh, motivated by that failure and the World Trade Center attacks at the time, I decided to join the Navy to become a Navy SEAL.

Ryan

Moe: And you were how old when that took place?

Jason

Kuhn: Uh, 21 years old when that happened, and then I finished school. I got into the Navy at 24.

Ryan

Moe: Yeah, yeah, so you're the same age I am then.

Jason

Kuhn: Okay, awesome. And went straight through a class and Did about a decade in special operations, and when I got out of special operations, friends and colleagues who were coaching or continuing on with their baseball career into the pros started asking me questions about how to focus, how to be mentally tough, how to process failure. And I would take examples from, or lessons learned, thinking back of experiences that I had from gunfights to helicopter crash to swimming through shark-infested water and how we were able to— how we were trained and taught and able to perform effectively in life-and-death situations and then translate that to the environment of the competitor. That soon led into the corporate world, and I started coaching and teaching performance to corporate people and organizations and heavy emphasis on leadership structures and principles there.

And been doing that for a decade now.

Ryan

Moe: Oh wow. So the really interesting part about the personal development space that I've experienced is there's people that want to go out and promote personal development. I think it's wonderful that everybody is working on trying to be better, but there are also some people that are out there coaching that have never done that, and there's things about being a leader. If you are trying to lead a team but your team doesn't believe you've ever done something, there's some of those things that are just hurdles that are too large to overcome. Considering what you've done and what you've been through in your life, and when you're talking to people that need to lead a group of people, what are some things that you can tell to somebody that's an inspiring lead, that is aspiring to be a leader, but they want to just run straight to the leadership role without going through the muck first?

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah, to do something to get a baseline of credibility. Outside of the university textbook. Yes. All right. That was one of the biggest gripes I get when I have— I work a lot of PGA Tour guys and MLB guys, and one of the biggest gripes that they get from the sports psychologist or that they have about the sports psychologist that is provided to them at the team is that he can't apply what he's asking me to apply. They have never really— they've never really done it.

Ryan

Moe: So go do something hard, right?

Jason

Kuhn: Show that you can apply the things you were asking, because that's also going to show you what's practically effective. There's a lot of taglines such as trust the process that are used completely out of context and aren't— don't help the player in certain situations and understanding what that all means. I tell people all the time, if you want to learn how to do something, go learn from someone who's been where you want to go. And that's what we did is we took experiences and started extrapolating what were the lessons learned. How was I able to be mentally, mentally tough in this situation? What is mental toughness? Why does the team-first mind matter and how does that apply to other environmental, you know, competitive environments and does it? And how relevant is it? Leadership principles the same way. How do we maintain composure in high pressure?

But all that's based in real-world experience through me and my instructor staff when we engage these athletes to give them, or corporate executives, to give them practical solutions that are going to produce effective results, not just nice-sounding taglines that sound like they should sound nice, right?

Ryan

Moe: And that's something the, the listeners here are going to be overwhelmingly involved in agriculture. And agriculture is looking like it's gonna be a pretty tough environment for the next 18 months. And looking at the mental toughness that it's going to take to get through this grind of a low margin environment and going to work for several months that might not be that fun, what are some tips that you can give to the average everyday Joe to help make them just 1% better here to start with? Because you don't have to be a Navy SEAL, right, to be mentally tough, or you don't have to be a Navy SEAL to just try to work on improvement every day, because there's going to be some things that need to be worked on every day because it's not going to be a ton of fun in a lot of this environment. So how did you get through some of those things?

Jason

Kuhn: Well, I think being driven by meaningful purpose is the step one. Do something that's meaningful, or know the meaningful factors that are driving the reasons why you are doing the work that you do.

Ryan

Moe: And get very clear on those, right? What the— what is your why, correct?

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah, exactly. And in your identity, you know, who am I, what am I trying to accomplish, why am I trying to accomplish it, and take some pride in that. And that's going to drive us through the weak moments when things get difficult. But more tactically, I would say understanding, having a solid perspective on adversity and how things work. You know, as human beings, we're hardwired for challenge. There's something called the power of limitation, where if you could have anything you ever wanted with magic, it sounds appealing at first, but if you think about it over time, you'd get bored because there'd be no challenge to anything. So struggle creates opportunity for reward, and the greater the struggle, the greater the reward. And there is no struggle without the— you know, or there is no reward without the struggle, right?

So when you get through Hell Week, you know, we started with 135 men and came out of Hell Week with 20. Wow. And it's one of the most rewarding things I've ever experienced in my life to be standing there at the end of that day. But it's because it was so hard, right? So I think what mental toughness is, is it's an ability to interrupt that cause and effect cycle. Circumstances are going to make us feel disappointed, resentful towards the entity that helped create it, frustrated. That's natural. So everyone feels that. Navy SEALs feels that. It's how fast can you shift your focus off of that and into something effective. So we understand that, you know, our response— we can control how we respond and what we do next. And what we do next will have value or no value in an effort to win.

And combat eliminates the clutter because when you're in situations that are life and death, a way of thinking, a way of acting, the execution of action, or a way of interacting with a teammate is either effective or it's not. And all that matters is effectiveness. So we start to figure out what works and Mental toughness is an ability. The way to have a valuable response is to shift your focus. Doesn't matter how I got here. What matters is what I'm going to do about it. And we focus— we shift it into the execution of action and into our teammates. We get our mind off of ourselves and into the others. And we don't just get through it. We lead the others through it. Yeah, we're very fear-based, self-preserving creatures. So the more we focus on ourself and woe is me, the more fear we develop. That's why we want to shift it into others.

And as we act in accordance with that selfless or service-based narrative, we create respect, trust, and love within our team. And those are the greatest motivators of action and aggression and the things that we need to win.

Ryan

Moe: Yeah. And when I heard this put very well a couple of years ago when I was listening to a speaker and they were talking about, you know, leading a team of people and how important it is to, maintain composure. And they asked the guy, well, do you ever have a bad day? And he goes, well, yes, but I don't allow myself to have a bad day because if you have a bad event, that then creates a bad minute. You don't want it to turn into a bad hour, which then turns into a bad day because your whole team sees that.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah.

Ryan

Moe: And that reflects then on their performance because— but if you can stop as quickly as you can and recognize that this happened, What do we do about it now to create positive progress? That's very— that's a— that's what you're focused on with the athletes and just businessmen and women as well.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah. And then using real-world credible stories as a proof of concept or to support the assertions that I make as true. So there was a situation once where I ended up— a call over the radio came out from a teammate that I was pinned down and we were taking fire from two different directions at a fairly close range for modern combat standards anyways. And when he called in that I was pinned down, I remember thinking, the action I take next is going to determine whether I live or die. But the thing in a performance perspective is the only thing that I had absolute control over in the world in that moment was the action that I take next. Yes, I can control that and the legacy that I leave behind through it. I remember thinking about my little girl briefly, and it was like, oh, hell no, man. I mean, if you're going to take me out, you're going to have to earn it.

You're going to pay the full price, and she's going to know who her daddy was in this moment. At the very least, I could control that. So we're using real-world stories to support this as truth. It's undeniable. Now just translate it and apply it to the situations that you find yourself in. And sometimes I'll ask myself, because it's the habits we have as a human being are not what is conducive to elite performance. It takes intention and effort to change our default response to adversity and things like that, right?

Ryan

Moe: Because that was going to be my next question. Were you born this mentally tough, or was this something that you learned and built and grew for yourself over time?

Jason

Kuhn: Learned and built and grew for myself over time. I was kind of goofy, shy, and awkward growing up. My dad was a good mentor. He was hard on me. But I have some really cool stories about the Little League field, how he would help me face situations. There was an umpire that was— I had a kid on the other team or something. I can't remember. And this team I hated the most, and they always beat us. And so I'm walking guy after guy because I— and I'm throwing pitches clearly over the plate, and I think he's going to take me out of the game. So I'm crying, and he shoves me back on the rubber and he says, listen, everybody knows what's going on right now, but I have no control over it. Neither do you. And if I put in someone else, they're going to have to deal with the same problem. So do you want to go in the dugout and cry, or do you want to pitch?

And I realized in that moment that sometimes there is no easy way out. There— there's— you're going to suffer either way. I can go in the dugout and I can cry. I'm going to suffer.

Ryan

Moe: Right.

Jason

Kuhn: Or I can stay on the mound. I can continue to compete. And I think that's what toughness is, an ability to engage and take pain and suffer well. And it's virtuous when we do it for others. When we suffer well, we grow in character and our growth in character makes us more capable. And more capable people can achieve more. Then we can turn around and help others as mentors. And that's what provides fulfillment in our lives. And that actually leads into the Braves, if you want to talk about that for a minute.

Ryan

Moe: Yeah, I did. I was— I wanted to make sure we got to that story before we got— before we got too far in here.

Jason

Kuhn: But yeah. All right. So Tyler Matzek was out of baseball for 5 years. He was a former first-round pick. I started doing this performance training, and at first it was just grinding it out, going to high schools, talking here and there, putting some money on the table because I couldn't get a— or get some money in the bank to put food on the table because I couldn't get a job. I had a really rough transition out of the Navy. As I'm developing these relationships, I meet a friend, Michael McHenry, who had played with Matzek at the Rockies, and I told him my story about the Yips. And the YIPS is a very unique problem. If you want to learn more about it, you can go to yipsfree.com, which is another website that I've built with a ton of information there. And Michael says, you've got to talk to Tyler, because I taught myself how to throw again over the course of years.

But I knew this was not due to mental weakness, and sports psychology treats it as a conscious problem, like, like you're afraid of what's happened. And that's not it. I wasn't afraid when I went to throw, my arm wouldn't work right. It's a subconscious initiation of fear, like a like a startle reflex. Yeah. Okay. So anyways, that's as far as I'll go on the depth with the yips. I learned how to beat it, developed a system how to beat it. I called the big league clubs, mental skills coach. Hey, I've got this figured out, man. I got to, you know, I got to share it with the world. None of them are interested. Interesting. So Tyler calls. We trained together for about a year. It takes a minute to do this and we get the right pieces in place. We get to the right agent and things.

We had a mental skills coach call his agent and tell him that I should stop working with him because we were providing him false hope and prolonging his suffering. 3 years later, he's a World Series champion with the nickname, nickname Nutsack for his ability to thrive in high-pressure situations. He got back into the big leagues, won the World Series, pitched in almost every postseason game. And if you remember the NLCS, I think in 2021, he struck out 3 in a row in the 8th inning against the Dodgers, 2 of which were All-Stars. Yes. And it was, it was awesome. And I came down and, you know, they let me on the field and up on the stage with the team and—

Ryan

Moe: wow.

Jason

Kuhn: I go down, they treat me very well and had me speak to the team a couple of times. And so I was at the game though, at the World Series. He came in to pitch and he struck some guys out and I just bear hugged my wife with tears in my eyes. And I said, you know, at the time I thought the Yips was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I threw those record wild pitches, didn't know why or what was going on. Everybody thought I was mentally weak. I said, now I think it's the best thing that's ever happened to me because having lived the life that I've lived I'd rather be here watching him pitch in the game than pitch in the game myself.

Ryan

Moe: And, and that is something that I think is super cool because it's likely now that your legacy with the Atlanta Braves is going to last longer because of the number of people that you're working with and helping and growing than had you just taken the mound for a couple of years. You'd have been much more easily forgotten by the organization. And that is something that I think is, is, is even better because, um, Dan Gable, the great wrestling coach from the University of Iowa, said it's one thing for him to be a champion, it's another thing to train somebody else to be a champion. And he thought— and he believes that training somebody else to be the champion is far more rewarding than just being the champion for yourself. So your legacy is expanding.

So I mean, congratulations to you on that, and it's going to be really cool to see what the next decade looks like for you in these, uh, in these team type events and with the companies and stuff.

Jason

Kuhn: So thank you. Good for you. Yeah, that's— I, I would agree with him 100%. I mean, that was one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things I've ever experienced. Then we followed it up with Lucas Glover and PGA, so they— you know, I got the end with golf there. Yeah, same thing. All the king's horses and all the king's men, you know, couldn't put it back together again and I was like, Lucas, I know how to do this, brother. Yeah. And, uh, he won back-to-back PGA Tour titles, you know.

Ryan

Moe: Fantastic. And these things are— they're applicable for more than just professional athletes.

Jason

Kuhn: Oh, absolutely.

Ryan

Moe: I mean, for the, for the small business owner, for the, you know, the, for the struggles and the, the challenges that they're going to be coming through, the stuff that you're doing that you're, that you're applying for those professional athletes, it can work for just about everybody that's out there. That's willing to do the work.

Jason

Kuhn: Correct. Everything's a competitive environment. Combat's a competitive environment. It's just you have the, you have the maximum emotional attachment to the outcome because it involves life and death, and not only yours but those of your teammates. However, the central nervous system responds in the same way when there's a lot of money at stake, when your business is at stake and the decisions that you make matter, and you have limited information and it's hard to predict the future. It's the same thing. We're making decisions quickly with limited information that affect your life and your friends' lives, but we learn how to do it most efficiently. And over time, you know, it's not— we have a saying, it's not that we're that good, it's that everybody else sucks. So if we can master these fundamentals and take it to a level most— because everybody's experiencing the same thing.

Ryan

Moe: So many economic takeaways from what you just said. Now, like, oh, this is—

Jason

Kuhn: this is—

Ryan

Moe: it's all relative, right?

Jason

Kuhn: They're all making decisions under stress as well. I think so. So we developed a curriculum, we call it the Fundamentals of Winning. And depending on the competitive environment, whether it's corporate, whether it's agriculture, whether it's baseball, golf, com— you know, you name it, some are more relevant than others. All right, so the team-first mind may be less applicable to a PGA Tour player who doesn't have a big team. There's always a supporting cast of somebody, a caddy, for sure, which may be very applicable to a baseball team where leadership principles and structures may be more applicable to, say, people running large farming industries and things like that, right? But they all matter, but we certainly key in on the ones that have the most relevance when coming to a conference like this or something like that, right? So we get them the most value.

Ryan

Moe: Yeah, and it's, and it's important to be— from what I'm hearing again and again from you is it's just so important to be clear on your why. Like, why are you doing these things for your team? Why are you doing these things for your family? Why are you doing these things for your business? What, what is it? What is the why that you're doing it? And if, if people spend some time and get very crystal clear as to why they are going out and doing this every day, why are they going out and doing chores every day on a farm that's losing money for the last X months, and if they can get very clear on that, then they can start to develop that winning attitude again. And that's the other thing that's kind of lost right now in society is that there's this like, winning isn't cool.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah.

Ryan

Moe: And I'll be honest, like my son's had in his team and they've had some fantastic coaching and they've had some fantastic athletes that they've gotten to play with at a very early stage. And I've learned that wanting to win is great. And having the desire to win and having the desire to have fun and doing winning the right way, it is so much better than just being average, you know, and doing the things that make you a 500 team. And so, and once you kind of get to that, um, discovery that good winning is fun and it's good, um, it gets to be intoxicating so that you want to do more and more of it. And then that's when the self-improvement and that's when the mental toughness becomes more of an engaging— but you've got to go through some hard stuff first to get there.

And you also have to, you know, be clear as to your why, because that's going to get you through your hard times, because that's what got you through your hard times, right?

Jason

Kuhn: Absolutely. And, you know, consolidating all of the things that happened, there's a lot that happened in college that helped lead to the problem. I don't blame anyone else other than myself for what— for, you know, the problems that I had. But there were a lot of external contributors that that took place that I get into in more depth in the individualized training, less in public. But I think the meaningful purpose, you know, there's a phrase out there that's really popular when, when you don't have motivation or motivation doesn't last, all you need is discipline. But I disagree with it because I think that desire or motivation fuels discipline. Yes. Discipline is doing what you don't want to do when you don't want to do it is how it was put to me by the BUD/S instructors, SEAL training instructors.

So that begs the question, well, how do I convince myself to do what I don't want to do when I don't want to do it? How do I motivate that? Right. So the more desire I have, the more discipline I can apply. And I think desire comes from meaningful purpose. The more meaningful something is to me, the more desire I have to attain it, become it, or achieve it. Now, I may not always feel excited to do what I need to get to, get up out of bed and get out there in the cold and do the things that I need to do to get myself to where I need to go. But there's always a motivating factor behind why I do. Yes. Now, as a leader, if you can key in on each individual and what that is for them, because at the end of the day, if you have employees, if you stop paying them, they're probably going to stop showing up. It's not meaningful enough for them to come and not get a paycheck, right?

Ryan

Moe: Well, yeah, um, most times it just— sometimes you try to pay people, some people, to go away, but you can't, right?

Jason

Kuhn: But there's something that motivates them to show up every day, whether supporting their family, maybe they're trying to advance their experience level to maybe own their own farm one day or whatever it may be. Right, right. But if you can key in on what that is and the challenges, it may be different for each people or each person.

Ryan

Moe: Right.

Jason

Kuhn: Some people like empowerment. Others are like, why are you giving me all this responsibility?

Ryan

Moe: Right.

Jason

Kuhn: That keys into communication. Okay, another thing. But, you know, others, you know, whatever it may be, some want time off, some want more pay, some want whatever. But if you can key in on the incentive that is meaningful to this person to motivate them, then you can increase their discipline level, especially in those hard times, especially knowing that what, what that is within you and knowing that it can change too. Yes. You know, over time.

Ryan

Moe: Yeah. As people evolve, as you evolve as a leader, as you evolve as a parent, as you evolve as an employee. I mean, it's there that, that it's a, it's a constant piece of work. Yeah. Right. But then getting over the initial hard times and like you said, then that creates the discipline because you've taught yourself that you've done it once and then you can do it again. But you just got to go and do something hard and prove to yourself that you can do it.

Jason

Kuhn: Well, I tell you, if you want to be mentally tough, to simplify it, so if you want to be mentally tough, go do hard things. Yeah. You know, and if you want to build trust, go do hard things together and don't quit.

Ryan

Moe: That's fantastic. And that could be for the next several months here in agriculture.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah.

Ryan

Moe: And it's going to be something that's thrust upon us. So it's up to all of the producers out there to do the best they can with what they've got. And how do they, how do they have, and approach this in a way that in time this too shall pass. They're going to want to get through it, but they're going to want to get through it and not be bitter on the back end, right? So be mentally tough so that way you can, you know, still enjoy the process even though there's going to be a lot of challenges coming our way. But it's, you know, how is things going to look on the other end? And then if you can go ahead and dial into that meaningful purpose, even if it is a long slog through it, if you're key and you're just focused on that, and building and expanding that, there's going to be— there's going to be gold at the end of the rainbow. We just have to get there.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah, I think meaningful purpose can come from a couple of places. I think it comes from intrinsic passions and interests and how we're created. So people are interested— like, I use music every day and appreciate so much everyone who produces it. I don't have any desire to learn how to play an instrument or sing. It's just not—

Ryan

Moe: I have no talent for it, so I'm just like, how do you do that?

Jason

Kuhn: But some people do, right?

Ryan

Moe: Amazing, right?

Jason

Kuhn: It's naturally meaningful to to them and they're good at it. Yes. Right. So mine pushed me in a different direction and then life experiences. So helping people perform in the face of adversity is very meaningful to me because I know, you know, I was, I was spiraling out bad when I failed in baseball and I know what that feels like. Right. I think that, you know, to help based off what you said there, to try to provide some value to people who are listening now as they— with the upcoming inevitable adversity, it sounds like, is to start with defining performance. So the way I define it is it's an ability to execute fundamentals under stress. And that's what— that's all it was in combat. It's ability— an ability to relentlessly execute fundamentals under stress. Fundamentals are controllable actions of value and how we execute actions.

So how you do your daily operations, are those the most efficient possible, and refining them. And then how we choose to think, and then how we interact with our teammates. Yes. And those come together to to produce best possible outcomes, and then consistency. Consistency, separation. Separation is what makes us elite. And again, it's not like we have to have the same numbers if everything's down, but we can stay at the top of the pack by doing that properly. So I'll tell them often, you can't force the results, only influence them. And when I was young, if somebody had said that to me, I would have laughed at them and challenged them to come fight me or grab a ball and a bat or something. But what I mean is, if we had absolute control over winning, and the outcome we wanted to produce, and you and I competed against each other in chess right now or something, we would both win.

And that's not possible.

Ryan

Moe: No.

Jason

Kuhn: So it's nonsensical, right? So we can't force the outcome, only influence it. And if we know that to be true, then our aim ought to be to influence it to the greatest degree possible. And the way we do that is by demanding perfection of everything within our control. Yes. And that's what we focus on, and, you know, with conviction and purpose, so on and so forth. But that's that kind of, you know, so you gotta free yourself from the requirement of the outcome. And people are like, well, apathy? No, not apathy. That's what the sports psychologists teach. Just don't care so much. Literally, I've told athletes— have told me that's what they told them. Like, well, let me ask you something. Can you not care about what happens? Is that possible?

Ryan

Moe: It's not possible, right? With the family businesses that we're running, it's impossible to not care.

Jason

Kuhn: Nor should you not care, because then your motivation is gone. And even if you could produce, you wouldn't receive the joy, the reward and joy in the way everything's supposed to work properly. So let's honor reality for what it is and learn to work within it. Right?

Ryan

Moe: Right.

Jason

Kuhn: But by freeing yourself from the requirement of the outcome, an analogy I'd make in baseball, and I told a baseball player this, was I said, your job's not to get a hit every time, it's to be the best hitter you can be every time you go to the plate. So I got to get a hit every time or my career is going to be over. Threat is very real. Yes. He's playing for the Yankees. And I said, buddy, .300, you're in the Hall of Fame, which means—

Ryan

Moe: right, one of three.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah. You're placing a requirement on yourself that I guess theoretically is possible but has never been attained and probably never will be. No. So that's creating pressure and stress. It's making you tight. Yes. So in his— that's— that tightness is coming through in his action at the plate. But it also comes through in our decision-making. And, you know, the cortisol and the stress is affecting all of everything that we do, our interaction with our managers. And, you know, and then that energy is contagious. So they're bringing that down, all the things, all the things. So your job isn't necessarily to produce what you have in the past in the face of this adversity, but to be the best you can be at what you do. Yes. Right. And being gratefulness is huge. You know, we're getting ready to swim through sharks with the infested water of blood poured all over us.

And we were telling— it was like my buddy started.

Ryan

Moe: How do you become grateful for that?

Jason

Kuhn: Well, it was weird. So it's— we were running down to the beach to do this. Everybody, every class does it at the end. And it's not like you see the sharks out there or anything.

Ryan

Moe: You were choosing to do this?

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah, it's part of training. You got to swim a mile at night through a great white shark breeding ground., and they poured fish blood all over us. And then we got to get out there and do the swim at night. And as we're heading down to there, down to the beach to get into the water, my buddy, who's kind of our class joker, he throws his hands up and he just starts shouting out the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. So we all start saying it. Well, I started laughing just like you are because, like, man, nobody even really knows where I'm at right now. Like a handful of friends, you know, they're all off doing whatever. But I thought, there's nowhere I'd rather be right now because the work I was doing was meaningful. Yes. The missions we were going to go on was meaningful, the relationships were meaningful. And I was in this state of gratefulness.

And you know what I was, even though I was getting ready to go do this? I was calm. Wow. Thankfulness is the tactical nuclear weapon to negativity in the mind. And if— and so I try to take a little pause. I don't always get this right. You know, my wife's like, you got to practice what you preach. And I know, right? But, you know, when I get it right, it goes better. Yeah. And so just taking a moment before you start engaging, because the day is going to have all of its problems and problems we don't even know about yet. To just be grateful. Hey, I've got to fight, and that gives me purpose and meaning.

Ryan

Moe: And, and if you— and if you— okay, the event happened. If you can stop— okay, I can't change it. I have to, you know, I have to move on. My team needs me to move on. My family needs me to move on. Answer it with just a couple seconds of gratitude, and then that way a bad minute doesn't turn into a bad hour, doesn't turn into a bad day.

Jason

Kuhn: Well, exactly. And so I just remind myself of who I am, like, man, you're a fighter. Yeah. So fight. And if you're too worn out, if the grind has worn you down, take a break, step out for a minute, reset. Yeah. And then come back in guns blazing, ready to take it down, man. Whatever that means. You know, I don't mean like literally.

Ryan

Moe: I mean, still, still, right? I mean, yeah, I think there's a few members of the audience here that they're going to love to hear that. That's the— yeah, this is fantastic. I could go on for about another 6, 8 hours, but I think you've got other things that you've got to get going on. Yeah, this has been, this has been fantastic. I tell you what, I'm going to get you on stage at a Stonex event here because everything I'm hearing is exactly what the rest of our team and the rest of our customer base needs to hear. So this has been a ton of fun for me, Jason. What's the best way to go ahead and find you at Stonewall Solutions?

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah, info@stonewall-solutions.com or just Google Stonewall Solutions or look me up on all the social medias. I'm not super active on social media, but I am out there and shoot us an email. My assistant Tanya will respond.

Ryan

Moe: And give us that one more time here.

Jason

Kuhn: info@stonewall-solutions.com. Excellent. Yeah.

Ryan

Moe: Well, hey, thank you very much for your service. Thank you very much for everything that you're gonna impress upon the few hundred members of the audience today. Thank you for spending the time here with me today. I, I'm incredibly grateful for it. This has been a great thing for me. Hopefully the audience has enjoyed it as well. Um, and yeah, we look forward to hearing from you. And, uh, yeah, looking to see in the Braves Hall of Fame here coming up soon in the next several decades.

Jason

Kuhn: Yeah, well, I appreciate you having me. Thank you, Ryan.

Ryan

Moe: Hey, thank you.