Sevan Matossian (00:02):
Hey, I’m more live Kenneth what’s up way to get a million subscribers, TikTok reels, hours of hard work and dedication, probably morning friends. We had this, uh, we had this radio show at, um, we had this radio show at CrossFit. Uh, I forget what it was called. I even forget who the host of it was. It was two guys. I, I can’t remember their names. I wish I could remember their names. Only guys, I think was a high school wrestling coach. Hey, Kayla. What’s up point and they had a, Hey Jeff, what’s up? Uh, they had a, they had a, uh, a show there. It was called a radio show. It was long. I think it was God. This thing had been around since like 2000 4, 5, 6. I can’t even remember, but basically they, maybe it was, you could even call it a podcast. I don’t even know where they published it, but basically the point that I took over media, I kind of, um, I moved them along.
Sevan Matossian (01:04):
I tried to get them to be a little more high energy and say, good morning, Athena. Good morning, Austin. I tried to get them to say a little more, um, to be edgier, to be more provocative, not forced, but, but just, just give it, um, ask questions that maybe otherwise they would feel uncomfortable asking, or they didn’t think were appropriate for the platform. Maybe it was Justin Junkins. Was that the guy’s name? Anyway, the show never got off the ground. I, I wanna say they did an episode every week for fucking like 10 years and it never had more than like 200 viewers unless they had like Dave on, then it would have like a couple thousand viewers, Adam, good morning. And so then that went away and then we started the, uh, CrossFit podcast and then that went away. But uh, to get to a million, um, subscribers like this guy did Austin Alexander. It’s pretty, uh, it’s pretty crazy. It’s pretty damn crazy. Good morning. Good
Austen Alexander (02:03):
Morning.
Sevan Matossian (02:04):
I love it.
Austen Alexander (02:06):
Thank you.
Sevan Matossian (02:08):
Wow.
Austen Alexander (02:09):
I know I’m I’m two minutes late.
Sevan Matossian (02:11):
No, I just, this, this in this scene. It’s so hardcore. It’s crazier. It’s more, it’s more chaotic than my background.
Austen Alexander (02:17):
Oh my, yeah, my garage. Yeah. My girlfriend, uh, pushed me out to the garage. So this is my studio, but at least I get the whole space. There’s my puppy in the background right there. Licking random stuff.
Sevan Matossian (02:26):
Yeah. Hey, what’s that white box in the corner? Which one? That coffee. No. Oh, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Over there. Yeah.
Austen Alexander (02:33):
That’s an air fryer.
Sevan Matossian (02:35):
Oh,
Austen Alexander (02:36):
My girlfriend streams live on Amazon. It’s like a live home shopping network. Uhhuh. We’ll send her shit all the time.
Sevan Matossian (02:42):
So do you actually use that air fryer?
Austen Alexander (02:45):
Uh, no. Do you want it?
Sevan Matossian (02:46):
<laugh>
Austen Alexander (02:48):
She has four of them.
Sevan Matossian (02:49):
Okay. Uh, I that’s really cool. You, I, I love you already. And I really like the, um, turquoise luggage above your head. Yep.
Austen Alexander (02:58):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (02:58):
Easy to pick out when it comes over the conveyor belt. Uh that’s mine.
Austen Alexander (03:02):
Yep.
Sevan Matossian (03:02):
But what really Chubbs me up is the gile. I see.
Austen Alexander (03:09):
Oh yeah. You’re a video guy.
Sevan Matossian (03:10):
Oh my God. Yu. Oh, way too
Austen Alexander (03:12):
Way to see all of this stuff right here.
Sevan Matossian (03:14):
Yum. Lito. I love
Austen Alexander (03:15):
It. All video gear.
Sevan Matossian (03:16):
Oh, I love a gile.
Austen Alexander (03:18):
Some cannon, some black magics over there. You can’t really see ’em but
Sevan Matossian (03:21):
Yeah. What, what Austin, what is your do, are, are you, do you handle the camera a lot yourself? Yes. Or did you used
Austen Alexander (03:27):
To? Yeah, I, I started off vlogging and then I got into lenses and cameras and started, uh, making more cinematic stuff, but I never used to have a camera guy until about two years ago. And then now, instead of me doing the filming, I’m getting filmed. So it’s pretty great.
Sevan Matossian (03:43):
Yeah. Congratulations by the way. Um, thank you. Did, did you, did you have a favorite? Were you a cannon guy or a Sony guy or an iPhone guy? Or did you have a favorite?
Austen Alexander (03:52):
I started off with a cannon, so Cannon’s always gonna have a place in my heart, but we use all Sony now.
Sevan Matossian (03:57):
And, and which cannon did you use?
Austen Alexander (03:59):
I started off with a T five. I wow. It was
Sevan Matossian (04:02):
Excellent to good job.
Austen Alexander (04:03):
It was called it. Thank you. It was called a 700
Sevan Matossian (04:05):
D I mean humble. I mean, humble. Sorry. Not yet a humble, very humble of
Austen Alexander (04:08):
You. Yeah. I mean, I bought, it used for $300. I bought it when I was overseas Bahrain rain. It was called a 700 D but it’s equivalent to the north American T five. I yep. There, there it is. Right there. Brings back. Good memories. Look at that. 2,105 star.
Sevan Matossian (04:24):
God, I’m loving you. And then, and then in Sony, are you, uh, what Sony are you guys using?
Austen Alexander (04:29):
I started off with the 6,400 mm-hmm <affirmative> I just loved the versatility. It did 10 81, 20 man. That’s great. No other camera did 10 81 20 at the time for the price point of the 6,400. I mean, I’m sorry. 6,300.
Sevan Matossian (04:43):
Yeah. Look at you. Hey, you know that, that whole line, I mean, OB obviously, you know, now it’s kind of nice that it kind of went. I mean, it was, it was a great line, small, easy killer slowmo, but now we, now we got the a seven S three and it’s like done.
Austen Alexander (04:59):
I love the a seven S we have a,
Sevan Matossian (05:01):
A seven, like
Austen Alexander (05:02):
We have a, a seven R three for photo and a Sony FX three for video.
Sevan Matossian (05:06):
Oh, wow. Okay. Wow. I, I never, I, one time I got an FX that that’s like the actual video camera proper right. That’s
Austen Alexander (05:16):
Accounts.
Sevan Matossian (05:16):
Yeah. Yeah. It was two. It was, oh, I got overwhelmed. I, but, but I, but the whole, a seven line that RS, the a seven S but I ended up like, my go-to is, uh, I have a couple, a seven S three S and, and, and because the same reason, like you, you like the 6,400, because it does that, um, not 10 81 20 now, but now it’s 10 80, 2 40.
Austen Alexander (05:35):
Yeah. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (05:36):
Crazy. Right.
Austen Alexander (05:36):
It’s it’s crazy. Yeah. This is an a seven S two. We picked up probably like three years ago.
Sevan Matossian (05:42):
Yeah.
Austen Alexander (05:42):
Our FX three is over there in the corner.
Sevan Matossian (05:44):
What do you have on that? Is that affix like,
Austen Alexander (05:48):
Yep. This is a Zeis 55 millimeter. One
Sevan Matossian (05:50):
Point. Yes. And, and the two people don’t know this ladies and gentlemen, the two best lenses maybe ever made. And I’m a huge, like a fan. And I’m a crazy, is that lens, that 55 fixed it. Is it bouquets like a mofo? And do you have the 24 also the cheapy? I shouldn’t say cheapy. It’s still expensive, but its what the pancake,
Austen Alexander (06:12):
Not
Sevan Matossian (06:12):
The pancake.
Austen Alexander (06:15):
We don’t use a lot of wide stuff because I love the, the Bocas in the background.
Sevan Matossian (06:21):
This one it’s it’s in that same. It’s not the G master series. It’s this one. It’s like this actually lemme it’s like the 55. It’s a one eight. It is so cool. I mean it’s not even a special lens, but nothing shoots better than this. Nothing shoots better. I am nerdy now. Here’s what’s crazy. He did all of this.
Austen Alexander (06:45):
Let’s see what we
Sevan Matossian (06:45):
Got. He got his hands. He got his hands dirty.
Austen Alexander (06:48):
Oh here’s the old, uh, 6,300 nostalgia. This is what I started my YouTube channel on. Dang.
Sevan Matossian (06:54):
Hey, do you have just like 20 of those batteries laying around that? You’re like, what am I gonna do with these? Yep.
Austen Alexander (06:59):
I gave ’em to my, my, uh, video video guy. He does a lot of video stuff on his own. And I just said, here, you can have all this. I gave him the lenses for the APSC lenses and everything.
Sevan Matossian (07:09):
God, you’re a good dude.
Austen Alexander (07:11):
Thank you. I appreciate it. Um,
Sevan Matossian (07:14):
Are you a Zin? Are you a Zin guy?
Austen Alexander (07:16):
I am.
Sevan Matossian (07:18):
Yeah, but you don’t swallow.
Austen Alexander (07:20):
I don’t.
Sevan Matossian (07:20):
Yeah. Good on
Austen Alexander (07:22):
Burns. My throat makes me dizzy. I started the nicotine. I was prepping down for a body building show in 2019 Uhhuh and I became so lethargic because the dieting was so aggressive. I was falling asleep at the wheel. Yeah. And I said, I need something to wake me up. So I was consuming excessive amounts of caffeine. I was drinking like two bangs a day and
Sevan Matossian (07:46):
Wow. That is hardcore.
Austen Alexander (07:47):
My heart would would palpitate. I was like, I’m doing this show one way or another. I need a way to, to stay awake and stay energized. So I went straight for the grizzly winter greens and after probably about a year of doing it, I was like, I cannot do that. But I love the feeling of nicotine. I don’t do a whole lot of caffeine nicotine. It doesn’t speed. My heart rate up. It just allows me to stay focused. And so that’s why I’m glad a product came out like Zen it’s tobacco free and I don’t spit it. I just get the, uh, the focus of the nicotine.
Sevan Matossian (08:19):
Uh, are you a two? A four or a six?
Austen Alexander (08:22):
I’m a six.
Sevan Matossian (08:24):
Oh,
Austen Alexander (08:25):
They do threes and sixes. Yeah. Six.
Sevan Matossian (08:27):
Oh, oh. Who does the twos?
Austen Alexander (08:30):
It’s probably rogue or, I’m not sure.
Sevan Matossian (08:36):
I was, uh, I, I, um, used to smoke a lot of cigarettes and then I stopped. And then I, when the vape, a long time ago, I stopped when I’m 50 now I stopped when I was probably like 34 mm-hmm <affirmative> and then, um, when vape pens came out, I fucked with them. Wow. Wow. Like the Juul, I fucked with the VI Juul for just a minute. It’s like, uh, I almost feel bad for anyone who picked it up. Not almost, I do feel bad for you. It’s like it, it is a fucking, it was so crazy. And then I fucked with the, the, those Zins or whatever the, and, uh, that was, those were I’m so glad. Those were really hard to quit, but I, but nicotine is like gotta be one of the most amazing drugs ever that people don’t really realize how amazing it is.
Austen Alexander (09:18):
Mm-hmm <affirmative> I don’t, uh, I don’t feel any negative effects from the nicotine. I don’t feel like it’s hindered my performance. I feel like I just use a focus. I get great sleep about seven, eight hours a night. I monitor my rim sleep, my diet’s home point and I feel great.
Sevan Matossian (09:35):
And you have great skin.
Austen Alexander (09:37):
Thank you very much. Well, I used to break out a little when I was a kid and I was so self-conscious I would just carve it my face. I would get mad that my face was breaking out. I would just fucking carve my face.
Sevan Matossian (09:47):
And was that, was that your spot up here for yours?
Austen Alexander (09:50):
Yeah, right here. And then along my chin line. Yeah,
Sevan Matossian (09:53):
I got ’em around my lip.
Austen Alexander (09:55):
Oh yeah. Those are painful. Yeah. I hate those.
Sevan Matossian (09:59):
Or how about the ones that I call is underground? Uh, volcanic activity. I still get one of those every year. No one can see it, but it feels like there’s a marble under my skin and it fucking hurts.
Austen Alexander (10:09):
Yeah. That’s like a cyst, right? <laugh>
Sevan Matossian (10:12):
No. Oh, call it a pimple.
Austen Alexander (10:14):
Oh, okay. Well you said underground lava activity. And I was like, yes,
Sevan Matossian (10:21):
You’re probably right. Um, so yes. Hi, I’m Seon.
Austen Alexander (10:28):
Uh, that’s meet you. Savan
Sevan Matossian (10:30):
Uh, you’re Austin Alexander. We met through, uh, hunter McIntyre. Yes.
Austen Alexander (10:33):
Yes we did. Yes we did. He just, um, he’s like, Hey, this is my guy. So, and so this is my guy, so and so, and he like confused me with the, the scheduling. So, uh, I was supposed to be on, when was it? Sun? It was Sunday. Yeah. And I last
Sevan Matossian (10:46):
Sunday.
Austen Alexander (10:48):
Yep. No, this week, like beginning of the week,
Sevan Matossian (10:50):
Right? Yeah. The, um, the shows are live
Austen Alexander (10:55):
Mm-hmm
Sevan Matossian (10:56):
<affirmative> so when, when the guest doesn’t show up, I, I, I just, I just curse your name for like 20 minutes, just nonstop. And I, I have a doll. I, I, I have a doll and I start putting pins in it.
Austen Alexander (11:06):
Yeah. I, you know, I’d notice, like I started bleeding randomly on Sunday. <laugh> maybe that’s what it was from.
Sevan Matossian (11:12):
I always have a, um, a live call in show. Ready? Mm-hmm <affirmative> so I got this note of just crazy shit I see on Instagram. And then, and then basically it’s like a, uh, low rent version of Tosh point. Oh
Austen Alexander (11:27):
Nice. I like it.
Sevan Matossian (11:29):
And instead of just being, instead of being, um, funny stuff, it’s really just all just me just pointing out my hatred, hatreds too strong. Let’s use a different word, point out my disappointment in the, in woke culture.
Austen Alexander (11:42):
Yeah. I like it.
Sevan Matossian (11:43):
Thank you. Uh, but you can’t do that on your YouTube account. I mean, I, when you have a million subscribers, you have to be careful. Right.
Austen Alexander (11:53):
You know what? I don’t, I don’t think I’m people don’t wanna cancel me cuz I’m not super controversial. And I think I’m in that median point where like, people just don’t care about me, which is great.
Sevan Matossian (12:08):
Yeah.
Austen Alexander (12:10):
Um, you know, big, big people, like, you know, 10, 20, 50, a hundred million subscribers. They may go after them. But with me, no.
Sevan Matossian (12:18):
What did you think? Um, well I got, I got a buddy who’s um, got, uh, three, 3 million plus YouTube subscribers. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and a big production, uh, facility and a bunch of fucking homes. He’s loaded off his YouTube page. He didn’t wanna come anywhere near me. Like when talk he’s like, stay back, stay back, buddy. Who is it? I can’t, I don’t wanna say, I don’t wanna like put, put him under the, I’ll tell I’ll tell you afterwards. I think probably everyone knows who he is, uh, who watches the show, but um, he wants nothing to do with me. I mean we’re and I don’t blame him. I don’t say shit up.
Austen Alexander (12:52):
He can just refuse to answer stuff that you ask. I guess. I mean it’s not, not too hard.
Sevan Matossian (12:59):
True, true. Right. I
Austen Alexander (13:02):
Just now subscribing I appreciate that
Sevan Matossian (13:06):
Austin Alexander, I could, when, when, um, when hunter told me that he has this buddy who has a million of subscribers on YouTube, I seriously thought he was exaggerating.
Austen Alexander (13:14):
Really? Cuz hunter don’t have friends.
Sevan Matossian (13:17):
Oh, that’s a good question. <laugh> you know, it’s um, I work my ass off, probably just jealousy on my part in denial that, that anyone could be better than me and my um, 19,000 I’m exaggerating 18,976 subscribers. Mm-hmm <affirmative> you know what I mean? Like no way. Does anyone have a million?
Austen Alexander (13:40):
Well you’re mine had been picked up over the last, I don’t know how long you’ve been doing this show, but over the last four years.
Sevan Matossian (13:46):
Yeah. You’re dope.
Austen Alexander (13:48):
So that’s why I have these bags under my eyes. You can’t really see ’em but I don’t get a, I used to not get a lot of sleep. Like when I was in the Navy, it was just work for the Navy and then make videos sleep two hours. Repeat
Sevan Matossian (14:02):
There’s a guy I have on the show. Um, uh, period. Well, there’s a guy in the background here, Caleb, who works for the air force and he’s deployed right now. I tripped that he comes on every show. Maybe you’ll see him periodically. He’s in, he’s running the back end. Did you see him on he’s
Austen Alexander (14:15):
One that yeah, yeah. Yeah. Like as soon as I came in he was like dipped.
Sevan Matossian (14:18):
Yeah. Yeah. That guy. Okay. Then there’s another guy on Fridays. I do a, um, he probably loves it when guests don’t show up. Cuz that means it’s me and him do the show together. Yeah. I should ask him that, Caleb. Hi. Are you stoked when guests don’t show up? You’re like, yeah, fuck. Yes. I’m star some camera time. Terrified, terrified. <laugh>
Austen Alexander (14:40):
All right. Are you, are you in like a medical, uh, facility? Yeah. Where you, can you say where you’re deployed right now? No, no, eh, must must decent internet. Is it Bahrain? No, it’s not Bahrain Bahrain sign deployment. Okay. I won’t, I won’t ask any questions. We can talk afterwards. Okay, cool. I like
Sevan Matossian (15:02):
Your audio is fucked today. Uh, Caleb, I don’t know what that was.
Austen Alexander (15:05):
Well, he’s deployed. Give me a break.
Sevan Matossian (15:07):
I know, but usually it’s so good. Uh, so, um, there’s this, uh, there’s this, do you know who Copa is Francis for Coppola in the movie apocalypse now mm-hmm
Austen Alexander (15:22):
<affirmative>
Sevan Matossian (15:23):
Um, it’s a old movie and uh, Marlon Brando was in it’s a war movie. Anyway, when, when COA made this movie, he spent every single scent he had and he had a, he had a farm and a vineyard and he mortgaged them and he spent every scent. He had to make this movie. That’s crazy. And uh, I, I heard you recently say that you are using your life savings to do battle bunker.
Austen Alexander (15:48):
Yes.
Sevan Matossian (15:50):
So that when I heard that, I was like, wow, this is badass. And you don’t have kids yet,
Austen Alexander (15:54):
Right? No kids.
Sevan Matossian (15:55):
Yeah. You’re doing it right.
Austen Alexander (15:57):
An expensive girlfriend though.
Sevan Matossian (15:59):
I understood. Understood. Tell me, um, I guess we have to go back just a little bit, one more. Oh, one more quick thing where I was going. So there’s another guy on this show who has five, who comes on the show on Fridays. He has 5 million tops, TikTok subscribers. Mm-hmm <affirmative> his name’s Justin Nunley and he’s in the air force. Caleb and I don’t did they ever, and I just can’t believe they haven’t kicked him out yet. Like he’s too famous.
Austen Alexander (16:28):
Justin danger or Nunley
Sevan Matossian (16:30):
Yeah, that guy.
Austen Alexander (16:31):
Okay. Um, he’s
Sevan Matossian (16:33):
Got like half a million on Instagram and like 5.2 million on TikTok.
Austen Alexander (16:37):
He’s in the air force now, are you sure?
Sevan Matossian (16:39):
Yeah.
Austen Alexander (16:41):
He’s got a beard. He must have a shaving shit.
Sevan Matossian (16:44):
Uh, and he’s killing it financially. I mean, it’s, it’s like rain for him. It’s I know. Isn’t it great to hear that it’s raining cash on him. Um, did, when you were building this YouTube station and you were in the Navy, did, did you ever get a talking to?
Austen Alexander (16:58):
I got more than talking to, I was investigated by N C S
Sevan Matossian (17:02):
N C
Austen Alexander (17:04):
Uh, they criminal investigation services or something like that. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (17:08):
Was it something like you were using their cameras and shit or like you borrowed one of their microphones or? No,
Austen Alexander (17:12):
It was, there’s still a big gray area in social media. A lot of the branches have calmed down now because it’s bringing them exposure. But when I was starting, I would do, um, like if I was at work and I showed up an hour early, I would say, all right, we can film a video. And I, I was doing videos like military pay and I was wearing the uniform and there was a gray area. I was never sponsoring products or saying, Hey, buy this in uniform. That’s where the gray area is. You can’t use uniform to sell services, but I was monetizing on the same channel that I was wearing the uniform. Ah,
Sevan Matossian (17:52):
Ah, ah,
Austen Alexander (17:52):
And which is still not in any regulation. And I had familiarized myself with the regulation, like the back of my hand. And so I knew all the, all the rules and regulations, but I asked a ship. I said, can I come on and, and make a video? I think would be cool to show the audience and give more information to the audience about certain Navy rates and jobs.
Sevan Matossian (18:16):
You mean like a boat when you say ship a boat, like it’s something in the water, you went on a ship.
Austen Alexander (18:20):
Yeah. Well, when I think boat, I think 30 foot or smaller, but this was, uh, a destroyer, a ship it’s like, right. Okay. How many feet it is, but yeah, this, these go on deployment and the open oceans where they’re 30, 40 foot swells, you know, like
Sevan Matossian (18:34):
Shark, ain’t got nothing on this
Austen Alexander (18:36):
Thing. Exactly. Yeah. And I guess the ship was like, who is this guy? A few of their people looked into my stuff and said, well, you don’t know if this is okay or not. Let’s, let’s bring this up to the Navy JAG. And then C NCIS got a hold of it. And they’re like, well, I guess they were thinking worst case scenario. We can learn something from this. We can kind of learn how this is working because we know there are, you know, two or three other people in the Navy that are doing it two or three people in the air force army, you know? And if you think about it, military members have been writing blogs for 30 years or 20 years doing the same exact thing. So that’s my thought process. Just because the blogs didn’t have the reach that my YouTube channel had, you know, they weren’t being investigated. So they put me under investigation. It was like, for me, I was freaked out because I was like, well, here I am getting investigated by NCIS. They could do anything. They could throw me in the debris. They could strip my PA for the next two years.
Sevan Matossian (19:41):
They could make you, they could inject you with something you don’t wanna be injected with.
Austen Alexander (19:44):
They exactly. Yeah. They can literally do anything. I
Sevan Matossian (19:47):
Couldn’t resist Caleb. Sorry.
Austen Alexander (19:49):
<laugh> poor Caleb. Um, and yeah, for like month and a half, two months, I was investigate. I was having provide reports and summaries. And even though I was checking in with the officer at the time, he’s like to be honest, inmate two or Alexander, my rate was in made two. He’s like, I don’t know why I’m having to investigate you, but I’m, I’m doing deep dive on all your channels. He said, not that I wanted to, but I had to watch 13 hours of your YouTube channel. He said, <laugh>, I can’t find he’s like, I can’t find anything that, that we should be investigating you for, but I still have to keep you under investigation for, you know, whatever.
Sevan Matossian (20:27):
How old were you?
Austen Alexander (20:29):
Uh, 26 or 27.
Sevan Matossian (20:32):
Okay. It’s it’s and it, did you tell your parents about this when this is going down?
Austen Alexander (20:36):
Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (20:37):
Yeah. And did you get a lawyer? Did you lawyer
Austen Alexander (20:39):
Up? No, I didn’t. I, I mean like this was for me, I hadn’t, I didn’t really have to do any defensive cuz it’s not like I was, it’s not like I murdered someone. Right. You know, it was just a gray area. That’s not written in the policy. And
Sevan Matossian (20:58):
So, and the thing is just to be clear. So the thing is, is you weren’t selling buck knives that you were making in your garage. The only thing you were doing is, is you were making these videos that might show like, Hey, it takes 3000 gallons of soap in four men, 17 hours to clean the deck of this boat. But you made some, a few pennies on it, monetizing it. Exactly. And so they’re like tripping, well, this is good that he’s showing this job. And these are it’s, it’s like a national geographic show with one of our own, but he, he made some money. Okay.
Austen Alexander (21:25):
Exactly. Yeah. And I love loveness story. I wasn’t speaking or talking about the products. Right. It was just, the content was on YouTube, which is monetized through YouTube’s ads.
Sevan Matossian (21:34):
You weren’t like, Hey, if I was the Chinese, I would just drop chewing gum on this ship. And it would go down like that.
Austen Alexander (21:38):
Yeah. I wouldn’t say anything contr like that. <laugh> right. Wouldn’t wouldn’t talking about the products, no political, no religious stuff. Like anyways, here’s where this story gets good. Okay. So about a month and a half into the investigation, whole command knows I’m under investigation for, um, or with NCIS and we get a call to the boathouse. It was me and about 20 people that work there. And they said, there’s an Admiral coming here, which is unheard of fors beach. So Beach’s a Naval weapon is a tiny command over in, so beach, California close to long beach. And so we start freaking out, we start, you know, checking the, the boat logs, making sure everything’s clean and tidy. Like people were just losing their shit cuz an Admiral, you know, which is an oh 8 0 9. Yeah. Oh 8 0 9, which is a massive rink in the Navy.
Austen Alexander (22:34):
So we start cleaning up all of our stuff around the, around the place, making it look tidy, um, brushing up on our, our safety briefs and everything. And he gets there, pulls up in a black SUV, two of em, roll up him and uh, few chain of command. And I think my commanding officer was there from the base and we’re all at detention. They call it attention on deck. We all stand at attention and he’s like, Hey, at eases guys, Eddie eases guys, I’m just here to see inmate two Alexander. My heart just starts. I thought they were gonna, you know, take me to the Bri or something. He’s uh, he said front and center in front of the whole boathouse. And he reached his hand out and he shook my hand. He said, I just wanna say, I’m a big fan of your videos. I, I love your videos. I love what you’re doing for the Navy. You’re shining a positive light. And then his hand was a coin, was the chief of information’s coin, which they control all content that goes out for the us Navy. And he said, I, I love your stuff. I think you’re, you’re doing a great thing. Keep it up. And they basically just left.
Sevan Matossian (23:41):
Wow.
Austen Alexander (23:42):
And an hour later, or like two hours later, I get a call from that JAG officer say, Hey Alexander, you’re, you’re good. You’re free and clear. You’re not under investigation anymore. You’re not in trouble. You know, keep up the good work. And then that was it from then on,
Sevan Matossian (23:55):
Was the case closed at that point officially or
Austen Alexander (23:58):
It’s closed? Yeah. So I think the Admiral came down and was like signed some paperwork and he was like, Hey, y’all quit investigating this guy a good dude.
Sevan Matossian (24:09):
So God, they sound smarter than, um, CrossFit Inc CrossFit, Inc. Should do that to me. They should call me and be like, Hey, we’re sorry. Uh, we fired you, uh, two years ago. Here’s uh, 1.2 million, ah, let’s say $1.5 million in back pay. Uh, you’re the greatest chief marketing officer that ever walked the planet. And uh, and here’s a check for 1.5 million and here’s a, I get a coin too, right. Or would that, can non-military people do coins?
Austen Alexander (24:33):
I, yeah, of course. I mean, that’s the,
Sevan Matossian (24:34):
I’ll take a
Austen Alexander (24:35):
Coin. That’s a lease I could do. Yeah.
Sevan Matossian (24:37):
Yeah, totally. And then maybe have Dave Castro fucking wash my car and a fucking, uh, bikini and I,
Austen Alexander (24:45):
And your feet
Sevan Matossian (24:46):
In a Speedo. Yeah. I don’t wish that on anyone. My feet
Austen Alexander (24:50):
<laugh>, that’s funny reminds me of the, uh, dumb and dumber where they’re having to get pedicures for their feet. And they, they they’re saw in his toenails that you’ve seen the movie. Right. I
Sevan Matossian (25:03):
Have, but I don’t remember. It can’t even remember yesterday.
Austen Alexander (25:08):
Um, so after that, my chain of command would kind of pick and pro at me for the videos after that I was invincible. They didn’t say a thing to me.
Sevan Matossian (25:16):
Wow. That’s awesome.
Austen Alexander (25:17):
Yeah. It was a good,
Sevan Matossian (25:19):
It was good. And, and then what, and then you were in for seven years and when, um, don’t you normally like you’re in for four years and then if you reenlist, you go for another four years. So four plus four is eight. How did you get out in seven that the numbers don’t add
Austen Alexander (25:32):
Up, right? Yeah. So I went, originally, went into the Navy as Navy diver and which was a six year term committed contract. And I went through dive training, went through the whole prep and everything, and I didn’t make it through the final in water procedures. When I did that, I had to rerate to a different job, which is mastered arms is Naval security. And that
Sevan Matossian (25:57):
You did that, which year that was in year two. You did that
Austen Alexander (26:00):
Pretty much in year two. Yeah. Okay. Like, so I was in that day,
Sevan Matossian (26:03):
I watched that video where you talked about that it’s fascinating video, by the way, if anyone wants to hear about his journey through, uh, going through diving, there’s a great video on his YouTube channel that talks about trying to become a Navy diver.
Austen Alexander (26:13):
Thank you. Yeah, it was, uh, it was tough for me cuz I had trained, you know, for a year plus in order to maintain those scores for Navy diver. And when I didn’t pass that, that test, they were like dip you’re out.
Sevan Matossian (26:26):
Yeah. You were a badass though. You, you, sorry. I know I’m I’m derailing the story, but you were the, there were, there were kind of like two scores, like on the S a T English and math. There was like in the water and outta the water. And in your, in your class you had the highest outta water scores of anyone, right?
Austen Alexander (26:40):
Yeah. I was, I was the best land PT person in my dive class. For sure.
Sevan Matossian (26:45):
Yeah. That’s dope. Okay. Sorry. I derailed your story.
Austen Alexander (26:48):
No, it it’s so good. After that, I, they sent me back. They said, okay, you have to choose what you’re gonna do for the next four to six years. You can either be a corpsman, the medical field. I didn’t really wanna do that. Sorry if you’re, uh, in the medical field, Cal Caleb’s
Sevan Matossian (27:02):
Shaking his head like this
Austen Alexander (27:03):
<laugh> but I just in the Navy, it’s, it’s hard to make rank as a corpsman cuz there’s so many of them. And then they gave me, okay, you can be on a ship as an UND designated, which is not a job that you wanna have. And they said, you also have ma I said, what’s ma they said, it’s Naval security. I said, give it to me. So I went to Texas,
Sevan Matossian (27:23):
Sorry, drive around in the Jeep and grab drunk dudes and bring from bars and bring ’em back
Austen Alexander (27:27):
Overall
Sevan Matossian (27:27):
Movies
Austen Alexander (27:28):
Overall. Yes. But after mastered arm school, I penciled my way into the Harbor unit, which is a great, a great job. I loved it. We got to go fast in boats in the Harbor, just drive around, act like bad asses with a
Sevan Matossian (27:43):
Machine. And, and which Harbor, which state
Austen Alexander (27:45):
Started off in Bahrain overseas in the middle east. It was pretty, I won’t say pretty intense cuz other service members may compare it to Afghanistan or something like that. It’s like, um, it was a little heated over there. That’s when Iran was acting up still are. But um, they were, you know, capturing our dudes off the coast and the coast guard cutters would get threatened all the time. They bombed the HSV two swift. Like they were doing a lot of stuff over there, but we were protecting the Harbor. Yep. There it is right there. Right beside Saudi Arabia. And if you look up top, you’ll see,
Sevan Matossian (28:20):
That’s a country Bahrain.
Austen Alexander (28:22):
It’s a, it’s a kingdom. Okay. Yeah. The Saudi it’s actually manmade Saudi Arabia, the king of Saudi Arabia. His brother was gifted that island and I guess they, they built it out.
Sevan Matossian (28:36):
And when you say manmade that’s landfill
Austen Alexander (28:38):
Yep. You see a bridge that goes across that’s that’s made and it’s they dredge out the ocean and just dump a bunch of rocks and dirt and they made, they made that island.
Sevan Matossian (28:48):
Wow. You see how it’s recognized? As in the UN Bahrain, like they got like a dude there who’s like women are equivalent to cattle. They cannot vote.
Austen Alexander (28:58):
It’s not, it’s not as bad as like Saudi Arabia or like Afghanistan, Iraq. It’s I believe it has some ties with the UK, but it’s pretty, um, it’s pretty neutral over there. I would say lots of, but
Sevan Matossian (29:15):
It, but, but it’s its own country and shit.
Austen Alexander (29:17):
It’s its own kingdom. Yeah. I don’t, I don’t know how they identified as a kingdom, but yeah, it’s a kingdom.
Sevan Matossian (29:25):
Yeah. Pull, pull out even more. Caleb. I still don’t know where we’re at. I know we’re on earth. I need to just see a little bit more.
Austen Alexander (29:32):
See south of Iran and Afghanistan.
Sevan Matossian (29:35):
Okay. Oh, I see India over there. Oh, okay. There we are.
Austen Alexander (29:38):
It’s the most four deployed base that America has. That’s close. That’s in the middle east.
Sevan Matossian (29:45):
So, so basically the middle east is just the, the chunk of land that between uh, India and Africa
Austen Alexander (29:51):
Pretty much. Yeah. Never thought of it like that. Uhhuh.
Sevan Matossian (29:55):
Yeah. Middle east. And uh, um, the middle east is part of the.
The above transcript is generated using AI technology and therefore may contain errors.
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