Defy The Norm with Cody Alford (Part 2) - 094

In this episode, I'm joined by Cody Alford. Cody is a father, entrepreneur, motivational speaker, author, and retired MARSOC Raider who served 15 years in the military with a handful of tours overseas. He holds the title of the youngest leader to ever reach the enlisted rank, E8, in the Marines.

Since retirement he has expanded his endeavors including becoming a self-help coach, leading his mindset mastery community called Defy Tribe, motivational speaking, and growing his apparel brand called, We Defy The Norm. 

Defy Conformity is the tagline behind his clothing brand, but serves as the ethos for his coaching group, Defy Tribe.

By challenging people to refuse mediocrity and refuse to settle for normal or a simple life, he empowers others to push through their limiting beliefs.

If you enjoyed part 1, you are going to really get a LOT out of part 2. Buckle up and enjoy.

Inside Part 2:

• How plant medicines really work
• What it really means to Defy The Norm
• How your mindest directly affects every result you have in your life (good or bad)
• Why your ego might be holding you back from everything you want in life
• How to access and take back the power you have when most people give it away
• Why most people die with regret, remorse, sadness and how not to
• How to tap into the quantum realm 
• How to know exactly what you need to do to grow and evolve

Connect with Cody

• Instagram
• Defy Tribe

Connect With Bradley

• Bradley's Instagram

Transcript

Bradley Roth: 0:31

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the, not most people podcasts. This is your host Bradley, and this is the show for those allergic to mediocrity, croup. Think and following the status quo. And quickly before we get right into part two of this special two part episode with Cody Alford, I would just like to remind you guys listening. Of my one, ask or quote unquote kind of unofficial fee for the show. And that is if you get value out of the show, if you learn something, whether it's your first time listening or you are a regular repeat. Listener. Just say you helped me continue to grow the show by sharing it with a friend by sharing it on social media or leaving a rating or review on apple podcast or Spotify or wherever you're listening. That all really goes a long way. And really, really, I appreciate it. We're growing the show one by one organically. And, can't do that without you guys. I will continue to keep the show ad free. I do put a lot of time, energy and money into this show. So just really would appreciate it. If you guys are enjoying the show. That you would help me out by doing that. And, uh, you know, if you don't enjoy the show, don't share it, but that's, uh, that's my one ask. and then other than that, We are just going to get right into today's episode. If you listen to part one, you already know who Cody is, you know, a bit of his backstory and you're gonna be set up really well for part two. Which in my opinion, really ties things together and is, I don't want to say better than part one, but a more impactful in a sense in that. This will leave you ready to go and make the changes that you need to in your life to become who you need to be. while. Providing a, a heavy dose of motivation, inspiration. So, you're going to really enjoy part two. I know I did. If you haven't. listen to part one, you can listen to part two without it, but it's going to make a lot more sense if you go back and check out part one first. But,, either way you're going to enjoy. One of the best, just most spot on monologues that's ever been featured in this podcast. So without further ado, Here is part two with Cody Alford. You went from like super high speed to like you said, the opposite of that essentially. And did you slowly wean yourself off kind of the medications or whatever it was that you needed? Or did you go cold Turkey? Like what was that like?

Cody Alford: 2:59

Yeah, I went cold Turkey. My wife I got this gold tooth, not because I'm awesome. I mean, I'm pretty awesome but I got this gold tooth cause I, I. Cracked my teeth, grinding them all the time. My butt was clenched 24 7. I didn't even know these things. And my wife started to research all these pills that I was on. She's like, you're literally killing yourself. And I almost taking Tylenol, Motrin, drinking tap water. I was doing all these very average, normal things cause I didn't know any different. Right. And he starts seeing what these ingredients are like, oh, that produces cancer. This produces high blood pressure. This can cause X, y, and Z. She's like, why are you taking this shit? I'm like, I'm fucking done. So I just cold Turkey all and I, I told my command or my doctor, I'm like, I'm not taking this shit anymore. To the point where the guy, the civilian doctor that was prescribing me all these uppers, when I told him that I wasn't taking them anymore, he was pissed cuz I told him like, Hey man, that's just not working for me. And this is like after months doing it. He wanted to give me more, he wanted to put me on Ritalin. Now, in addition to all these other things, I'm like, no. and he didn't understand. He was pissed off. And then I found out like, yo, every prescription he makes, he gets a cut. Yeah. So of course he's pissed because I'm an easy target. I'm a fucking helpless veteran, or I'm active duty guy that is clearly desperate. If they would've said, lick this turd and you'll be cured, I would've licked a whole pile of shit. I was that desperate because I was mm-hmm. dying, dude. I was literally fucking dying. And so, yeah, just quitting cold Turkey and that really set me up in the trajectory to start doing all these other healthier things in my life to, to take my power back cuz I, I, I was powerless. I gave it all away depending on medication, depending on, you know, other people to come help me out when I needed to just take a hard look at what I was doing with my life, where it was going and what I wanted it to become. Yeah.

Bradley Roth: 4:43

That's crazy. And so combining, getting off of that stuff with spending all this time outdoors with yourself, with your own mind, I think that's something that a lot of people avoid.

Cody Alford: 4:56

I mean, people wanna have a conversation with themselves. You know, people can't even sit fucking silent, bro. You know, people can't even barely have a conversation with a significant other anymore. Or like a friend, they're on their fucking phone. Mm-hmm. what makes you think they can go sit in silence? I asked, you know, I'm a huge proponent of journaling. Journaling changed my life gave me an opportunity to, to talk to myself, to allow myself to speak, allow myself to tap into consciousness. Right. And people won't do that. Mm-hmm. not everybody, but a lot of people don't want to cuz people don't want to heal themselves. Yes. They were their bandaid on and continue on. Well, when you do that, you just end up with a life full of fucking half-assed involvement and then you die with regret. Cause there's always that one thing you wanna do. And it doesn't have to be massive. It could just be that one. It could be something that's so. that you have full power of. People will just deny themselves that because it looks like work and it's uncomfortable. And being in this fan in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone service, just my fucking thoughts, doing plant medicine, doing journaling, doing breath work, meditating, you know, doing all these things, were comp. I made fun of all that shit. I was never about that stuff. You know, I remember back in like 2008, So 10 years-ish before all this, I remember marsoc, I'm at the schoolhouse now. We just started the schoolhouse pipeline and to train future special operators and I was one of the first set of instructors there. And I remember we brought in this like samurai warrior meditation lady. She came in to talk about like the old samurai practice and in ways they, they found their cheat, their balance and like found their peace and all this type of stuff. And we're doing this meditation exercise and I'm fucking laughing dude. She's like, she wants me to touch my belly button, touch my temple and breathe. And I'm just like laughing dude. Like I do not have the cognitive capacity to comprehend what she's trying to say. I didn't give a shit about that. I was like, yo, we gonna go party later or what? We gonna go shoot some guns or what? Mm-hmm. And I was so immature cause I was scared cuz it was something new and it was very uncomfortable for me. Years later, decade later, to be exact. I'm open to all of it. because I realized my narrow-minded mindset, even though I was a higher performer, high chief in the military, well, no wonder I suffered when I got out. Cause I was so narrow-minded. I was staying within a niche and not an environment. You know, an environment has grown with an evolution and I was just so focused on this one simple task at hand. And you know, opening myself up, all these different things, it gave me so much insight. It showed me like, dude, you are a real dickhead. You got a lot of issues you need to work out. And it gave me tangible things to actually pursue in life. And that's what I did the whole time in the van. I, I kept on pursuing that next step. I felt like I, you know, my body's jacked up. I need to go invest in my body. You know, my, my, my form. I had falling arches. I had all sorts of back issues and fucking shoulder issues. And my, my mind, dude, I wouldn't even self-reflect, you know, I had to do all these things and journaling helped me with. My soul, my spirit. I never gave myself time to just ask me like, bro, what's going on? Never gave my space to, to cry and to vent to off gas and to let out to process all these things that happened to me, right. That I've been part of, not happened to me, like against me, but I, that I was a part of that happened for me. Mm-hmm. I never processed all those things wondering, why, why am I sucking my head? Why am I depress it? I never even took a time to look at that shit and analyze it until I did. And when I did, everything changed for me. Everything just began to look differently. And, you know, we kind of asked before we started the call, like that's, that's what defying the norm is. Mm-hmm. It doesn't have to be my level of defy the norm. You know, it doesn't have to be this fucking black and white textbook. If you don't follow this to a T, you're not defying the norm, you know, inside what you're not defying and that you. and that's your per, that's your journey. That's your fucking calling. Go do that. Do the thing that scares you the most. Do the thing that is absolutely traumatizing you to fucking pursue. Because, you know, if you were to do that, you would become something completely different. And people in my experience, don't want to become the completely different, they'd rather die at an old ass age with fucking regret, anger, hatred, sadness, remorse. They'd rather die than, than cry to face themselves to do the work, to actually see what is triggering them, what's suppressing them. And it blows my mind. And I will not live that way. I'm not this perfect water walker, but I know what I must do in life to grow and evolve, and that shit's absolutely terrifying and it scares me and all these types of things. And, but that's what I pursue. Mm-hmm. because if. I'm not defying anything. And it's not like I only live to Defy. No, I live to live. I want to experience, I don't wanna just exist anymore. I don't wanna be part of an institution. I wanna create my environment. I wanna be, you know, be functional in the world that I want to live in. You know, if I create hell and here my world out here is gonna be hell, why do I want that? People are worried about this place called heaven and hell when you die. I'm like, bitch, you're living in it right now. By your state of mind. You're worried about some shit you can't even put a finger on, but you'll put faith in that. But you put no faith in yourself to to, to rectify, to resurrect your own life, to change your life, to fucking face yourself and do what must be done. And just to accept, to not do that, it blows my mind. And that's okay. Cuz that's their choice. It's not my choice, it's not what I stand for. It's not what I believe in.

Bradley Roth: 10:32

Yeah, I mean, you said it very beautifully, like. your inners gonna dictate your outer things. Energy emanates outward. It doesn't just like come from outer to inner, right? Like everyone looks outward to try and change the, the inner part and what you said, I think about closed-mindedness and how it blows your mind that people like, and I always say the same thing I tell my wife, like my biggest pet peeve is like seeing wasted potential in people. Or to take it one step further. People who don't have no desire to live the potential life that they could. Like, I just can't understand it. And you mentioned close-mindedness, like most people are very close-minded. Like the average person, if you're like, Hey, you gotta journal, you gotta read, you gotta meditate, you know, bring up something. Even like, you know, plant medicine people are like, oh no, like that's not me. I'm not, I don't need that. And a lot of that comes from ego, right? And like having this ego and. Kind of a pride thing, right? Just like you, like you were laughing at the meditation in the military, and I think a lot of people are like that, but it's just a fear mechanism, right? And it's just this ego and unwillingness to like strip away from that. And I know you've done a lot of work with plant medicine, and a big part of what I believe that's supposed to do is kind of strip that ego or that sense of self, like break it down and almost create a room to rebuild it. Is that how you would liken it? Or what would you say to people? Because I know psychedelics are kind of a hot topic right now. They're becoming more mainstream, but a lot of people I think, still have this like, oh, that's, that's like hippie stuff.

Cody Alford: 12:13

I mean, yeah, people, but you said it best. Dude, we, we talk shit about what we don't know. Mm-hmm. you know, and. You know, I'd say the best thing about plant medicine, one, it's not, people get this misconstrued where they're like, they think it's gonna like solve what problem. It's not right. You're gonna solve problems and plant medicine will show you what you could be, which you can be if you just let go. If you do the work that must be done. And what plant medicine does, at least in my experience, it frees you from your delusion of self. And it shows you that they're, you're part of something bigger. That each person, I, I truly believe this. Each person inside is truly called for more. Whether they want to admit it or acknowledge it or not, that's on them. Mm-hmm. every person. And it can simply be like, dude, I'm gonna be the best shoe shiner in the world. Like, I really love this. I'm passion about it. That's called for more. But people stop and they suppress that because they compare it against my calling. They compared against your calling. And thing is, you know, plant medicine strips this illusion a way that you cannot become. And it reminds you that you always were. And the true journey begins then. Begins once you realize, holy fuck, I do have the power. The power is in me. I am the medicine. It's just unlocked it so I can see it. It gives me the eyes to see and the ears to hear so I can move forward. But not everybody wants that because it, it is responsibility. Once you know, bro, once you know that you're in control of your life, once you know that you know the difference between right and wrong, no matter what you want to say, once you fucking know that, holy shit, that intuition, that gut feeling, that soul creation, that that consciousness, my, my connection to God, creator, whatever you believe in, once you know that you have actually access to that, and you're like, should I do this? And you're like, the an, the immediate answer is no, but you're like, I'm gonna do it anyway. You now know that you're fucking yourself. You now know that you are absolutely responsible for the fate and the path that you walk. Therefore, the results that you receive are the results that you put into it. If you put in nothing, you get nothing. And once you start tapping into the universe, tapping into this, this quantum field of infinite possibilities, you can start seeing life completely different. you know, and part of that is like, it doesn't just make you this like spiritual person. It makes you whatever you need to become, to rise to your fullest potential. Mm-hmm. it gives you access to things you never, maybe not even seen before. Like, why are you triggered? Dude, I just get triggered all the time. Even after doing plant medicine, I would see people that were successful on social media, I'm like, fuck them. They haven't done what I've done. Why are they getting that opportunity? They suck. What the fuck? And I'm like, it took me years even past that to realize, boom, triggers are an opportunity for me to learn and investigate. If it triggers me, I, there's something for me to learn. Yeah. But the common man gets triggered and shuts down because they want nothing to do with it. and that's the true tragedy in life because that's hell and you don't have to remain in hell. That's why I think people personally, personally, this is gonna trigger people. I don't really care. That's why I think people really rely on this religion aspect, these, these, these religious followings, cuz it gives them something to put their power into and to believe in bigger than themselves. When that does not exist outside of you, it is part of you. It's speaking to you every day. But if you don't give yourself space to actually tap into you to connect to whatever God beliefs you have, how else are you supposed to be involved? No wonder you would rather just give it all away and just, and reach out for guidance and help all the time. Vice taking a step back and asking yourself, fuck, is this really what I want to do? Do I have the power to actually change? Fuck yeah, you do. Mm-hmm. But it looks like work and it's so much easier to ask you to help me out than it is for me to help myself out. And that's the true trap of mankind I fill in society these days. People fucking forgot how powerful they are. Mm-hmm. I mean, so I mean, we, we live in a world where you can't even buy a structure is weak. Right. You can't even buy a house brand, a million dollar house without a fucking nail pop happening within the first year. You know, we lived in a time where man, woman created monumental structures that have lasted for centuries. Now we can't even replicate that. We don't even have that. Yeah. The mindset, the, the aptitude, the belief system to create such a thing. We had people that believed in so much war that everyone like so much, this is my truth, and that everyone rose. Now we live in a place where all we do is talk shit and pull out our phones and record the violence and tragedies that take place and expect someone else to go solve our problems. Mm-hmm. where the average man puts himself in a kingdom status and says, you know what? Fuck you, go do a peasant. When they're the peasants pointing the fingers. We live in a, a crazy loony bin reality. And so I try to tell people, if you don't not happy with where your life is going, if you're poor, it's cuz your mindset sucks. If you're fat and you're not happy with it, it's cuz your mindset sucks. If, if your relationship sucks, it's cuz your mindset sucks. You are the root of everything. And it's funny because plant medicine, all derivatives generally come from a root, a root source, a root of source. It comes from root, from the source, from mother Earth. This energy source, this hub, right? And this is root that you take, that opens you up, that says you are the source of your salvation. You are the source of all your fucking freedom that you're seeking. You're the source of all the growth and the prosperity and the abundance and the healing and the hell and the darkness and the devastation that you want in this life. But people, that's ownership. And when you take that level of ownership, you're like, fuck, I gotta do something different in my life. And people, not everybody, but most people don't want to do that. It's easier to work for a machine. A machine is a nine to five. A machine is something that is not elevating you. It's not really praising you. It's not bringing fucking fulfillment to your family. It's keeping you trapped, keeping you from your dreams, that calling that you have for more. And that's normal shit. That's normality. Dude. I cannot live that life. And I'm not talking a shit about the people that are like, cuz you get the rebuttal of like, Cody, I need my job, I need my nine to five. No shit. But I know people that work at nine to five that have two other side houses that are doing, cuz they believe in themselves. Mm-hmm So why don't you? Well, you don't understand. I have kids. I'm like, fuck you bro. Your excuses. How are you ever gonna tell your kid to go all in on life when you're not doing it yourself? There is no victory without sacrifice. There is no growth without evolving. But it all requires work. It all requires us to get raw and reeled ourselves to be like, fuck dude. I'm kind of a piece of shit. This is not the life that I want for me and just focus on the one thing at a time to move your life forward. Fuck. People look at me and they're like, how do you do it? I'm like, bitch, you work. That's how you do it. This is four and a half years in the making, man. Yep. Four and a half years. It's, it's not an easy route, but I don't want an easy route. I don't want the same path that you can walk or anyone else can walk. Cause that's not my route. We might be walking next to each other and that's fine. We might be going towards the same general location, that's fine. But I don't want someone to have the responsibility of my, of, of bearing my weight. That's my responsibility. Mm-hmm. that's where fulfillment comes in. We live in a world full of lack of fulfillment, lack of purpose, and you have to ask yourself, bro, what the fuck did you expect? You're literally moving further and further away from your. No wonder you're gonna feel disconnected. No wonder you're not gonna have this relationship with God or whatever you believe in. No wonder you're gonna be lacking these other areas of abundance and prosperity in your life because you're only worrying and stressing about the shit that you don't have in your life. So therefore, you're creating that. But the average man does not comprehend that because it's taboo and it's mm-hmm. Cody, there's some weirdos, spiritual shit. But is it, it's a universal law for a reason. But man is so jaded with fucking tainted eyes. They only look at laws written by man and not by God, not by universe, not by creation. And they limit themselves. They limit their full potential because they allow someone else to control them when it's them who must control themselves to rise to their fullest potential. And that is like a big, like, mind blowing concept to a lot of people. And that is sad, dude. That's why I love what I do, because I'm really good at tripping people and I know. That's what's required to fucking grow. I know not everyone's into plant medicine, and honestly, plant medicine is not for everybody. Most people can't even let go of their fucking ego to have a conversation to raise their hand for help. They sure as hell not gonna be able to let go when they're faced with themselves to let go when they're offered the opportunity to just melt away, to explode if you need to, to melt, if you need to, to release, if you need to, people won't even they. That is scary. That's so scary. I have years and years and years of practice of doing all this type of stuff and my last trip to Mexico, I just did iboga five m e o d m t i, I went down there with intention to just release all this trauma that I, I, I can't, I can't even pinpoint what it is. And as I'm doing this last experience, I'm. with even all these years of experience and knowing what I must do, I'm just wanting to relax and just let go. I'm just, why can't I, and then I just finally do it. And it's not, but it's not easy. It's not a button that I pressed, cleared help me. Mm-hmm. It's work. And it's hard. It's scary and it's unknown. It's uncomfortable. But fuck the feeling that I had of this decades of unprocessed trauma that I've disassociated from to just survive. Mm-hmm. leaves my body. Dude, I've never felt more freer. And I was operating at a high level with all that stress, with all that weight. So people tell me that they can't, but I'm like, you haven't tried. Mm-hmm. you know, I told you the story of how I was super successful in the military with such a linear ego mindset and, and that dominated. And I was a good dude. Like I took care of people That was. My accolades on all my other great shit. None of that means anything to me. How I treated people is like my true accomplishment in the military cuz what they did with their lives and what they were doing with the people around them. That was my biggest accomplishment. But I was an ego lunatic back then. Linear as fuck and accomplished all that. Being in the darkest I possibly could be in my van, hating myself, feeling like absolute dog shit. The lives I was impacting through this rectangular black device, transforming thousands of lives, giving them hope and passion back into their voice and their fucking existence to go create and live a life they want to. That that was at my lowest of life and that empowered me and I was still fucking miserable and I was able to do all that. So it's, the work is never done. We must always evolve. We must adapt and we must overcome cuz each new level of life requires a new level of you. It's the same shit you gotta deal with. It's just on a higher scale and it never ends. And that's the gift. Because when you stop evolving, you grow complacent. When you go complacent, you lower your standards. When you lower your standards, you lower your force field, your energy force, and you start subjecting yourself to low vibrational shit horn, Netflix and chilling, binge eating, junk food, alcohol, partying, getting distracted, deceptions, all these other things we bring into our life, which keeps us fucking down. But the same level it takes to fucking let your guard down is the same level it takes to move your fucking soul up, your, your elevation up, your energy up. But for whatever reason, the man has been diluted that says, work is hard. Stay away from it. Seek comfort. Seek comfort. You want the white picket fence? You want the 401k, you want the nine to five? I know you wanna start that shoe shine company, ma'am, but don't, it's, it's not secure. It's not even guaranteed. Don't you care about your family? Don't you wanna provide for them? I mean, just look at your brother. They went to college. Look at your sister. They're doing the thing. Why can't you? That's what society wants of you, because from your parents to your fucking neighbors, they're all programmed to live this cookie cutter life. And unless you want that life, you better fucking do something about it. And so how do you do something about it? Simple. Seek discomfort. Do something completely different. Defy the norm. Go against the grain. Not to reject. Not to revolt. Not to cause a scene, but to make change. When I wanted to go back to the gun and put on armor and fill that, fuck dude. Nothing is more powerful, bro, than putting on fucking gear armor, getting your gun ready. Put on your fucking helmet op. Checking your night vision goggles, doing your radio check, getting on a helicopter and fucking pitch Black Knight. And all you hear and feel is a rumble of the helicopter. Nothing is more powerful than that shit getting kicked off a helicopter. Dustin's shit is everywhere. It's pitch black and it's just calm as shit. But you're, you're literally armed to the teeth. You have enough ammunition, weapons, and explosives on your one person to raise war in a small country by yourself. Nothing is more powerful than that. It's fucking epic. Now you multiply that with other men that want to do the same shit, that are aligned with the same shit. They're disciplined, they're focused. They know what the mission is. They know what everyone has to do. That's intense, bro. I wanted that so bad in my life, but I knew if I went to go do that shit, I was gonna fucking die doing that job because that wasn't the calling for me. And I wanted to do it. I wanted to go against my calling. I wanted to just defy that shit, defy this urge to go this way. And I wanted to go back to what was comfortable, what the norm was for me, what was expected of me. And I know a lot of people can relate to that in their own lives, their own way. You don't have to have my past life to understand this relation. It's like a fucked up relationship. Oh, you wanna be happy, but you still go back to the same turd nugget and it's so hard to let that version of you go and have self-respect for yourself and to change. That's why people always resort back to the norm because they stop believing in themselves. They don't believe that they can. And if you could just, just fight like your life depends on it, if you could just say, fuck it, I don't know where this is gonna take me. I don't, I don't know where this, this path, this is even illuminated. But if I could just walk into the darkness and keep on fucking going, I have better chances. I have the 50% chance of changing my life. Where if I don't do anything, I have 0% chance of changing my life. 0% because I already know where this course takes me. I already know where I'm gonna end up at. But that unknown path is absolutely terrifying for people because it's not guaranteed. It's not the 401k, it's not the fucking black and white document that says, sign here and everything be fine. People want these guarantees in life. The only guarantee you have is you're gonna die. But people don't even take in comp comprehend that they think they're gonna live forever. Bro, I blinked and I'm 37 years old. What? I blinked and I'm 37. Yep. Well, looking back on my military career, dude, I was busy a lot. It was a lot of hard times. Not everything was great. I had a lot of great times. I, I'm grateful for my, I love my military career. I learned so much, but I blinked in 15 years, went by, blinked. But yet people have this illusion that they think they have this thing called time. And you don't, time is not your friend. It's also not your. it's your truth, but that's ownership and what we do with our time in this life. That is what defines everything about us. But the common man does not believe in themselves. That fucking stay-at-home mom. That 70 year old fucking woman at home, that dude shining shoes that wants to fucking open up that car dealer, they don't believe themselves. They don't. They think it's too late. It's never too late. Never, ever, ever, ever. There is no late because there is no comparison. And once you realize there's no comparison, then you'll never limit yourself. I heard this thing, it, it was thank you Instagram. It talked about how Morgan Freeman, I think it was Morgan Freeman, started his movie Career, acting Career at 41. Didn't get seen at 41. He started at 41, started the bottom of the. 41 years old. You never would've known that. I think it was Morgan Freeman. It could have been someone else, right? But it might've been Tim,

Bradley Roth: 29:02

Ola, Jackson,

Cody Alford: 29:03

Samuel Jackson. That's it. Yep. Just a badass actor, right? So like, but who would've thought that, oh, it's too late in the game. How, when are we gonna start seeing these, these clues, these blueprints that exist in front of us? It doesn't matter when you start, it matters that you start. But so many people are just lacking that courage to just jump because they can't see where they're gonna land. And that's the gift. If you could see where your life was gonna take you, what the fuck's the point of living it, right? What would be the gift? Where would be the blessing? Where would be the challenge? What would be the battle of darkness versus evil, or darkness versus light, good versus evil? Where would be, where would be that opportunity to, to truly free yourself and stop looking at yourself as just a bag of skin and bones. To look at yourself as this limitless, abundant opportunity to rise to your fullest potential. No matter what it is. Be the best fucking lemonade stand owner in the world. Be the best boss for your nine to five job. There's nothing wrong with these things. What's wrong is people's mindsets going into these things. They want more yet to deny themselves the opportunities for more. That's the true tragedy of man. It's, it's horrible to watch. And so I use that as fuel to keep on moving forward in my life, to keep on working through my darkness, keep on working through my hurdles so I can keep on rising. Cuz I know there's people out there that want to, and I'm not gonna let myself down. And I'm sure as hell not gonna let them down. Cause they need to know it's possible. We're strength in numbers, duh. But end of the day, you have to know that. Listen, if you're on the island by yourself in the darkness, you gotta fucking start that fire, bro. You're gonna have to find a way. So this is how, and we do that by arming ourselves. We do that by. You know, bulletproofing, our mindsets becoming resilient, educating ourselves, finding new ways to tap into source, finding new ways to communicate and articulate, getting out of our comfort zones, not just so focused on fucking money or relationship, but an abundant life. I serve it two to life. All these other aspects that we know we want in return. Therefore, we have to give and, and hard work, hard work's. The key we were talking about, Annie Fra before we started recording, right? He talks about 10 years. He was zero profit. Now that dude's a fucking tycoon. He is the mf, c e o. 10 years. He had zero return on his investment, least into his pocket and his partner's pocket 10 years. So when I get on myself, I'm like, oh man, my coaching group hasn't blown up as much as I'm like, bitch, you've been doing it a year and a half and I'm crushing it, but that's a year and a half. What will 10 years look like for me? Mm-hmm. So how can I forget these principles? And I, and I, I remind myself, I'm like, boom, thanks Annie for, for putting that truth out there. Boom. I haven't forgot. I'm back on track, dude. I'm in this for the long haul, dude. I don't want it all. Now it's all coming to me. And it doesn't have to all happen now cuz the journey is what fucking makes me not the end result. You know? And people forget that's part of the process. The journey is the way that is the path. That is what defines you, not where you're going. Not the end state, not the accolades. It's what you fucking inquired and learned along the way. Not inquired as an external sense, but that internal sense. All the missing parts of your life that have made you feel inadequate and complete lonely, sad, fearful, all these low vibrational shits that you bring back into your life and you empower yourself to keep on pushing forward, because that's your duty in life. It's to fucking push forward. Remember your worth, and you can only remember your worth. Remember your power when you tap in. Because you have all the shit you need inside you. So you must do the work to cleanse this bitch. So you can tap in so you can find your higher power, you can believe in what the fuck you wanna believe in. And you can find those answers, find those nuggets, and find that level of love and compassion to illuminate the path with each step. But that's called work. And that's the differentiator between people who want and people who are. It's only it. This is the only thing. Work is the way you have to work. Damn

Bradley Roth: 33:14

Dude, that was so good. That was, that was a masterclass. I could just pull that and like, make it its own thing and people, it would, you know, change people. So I mean, you touched on literally everything that Namos people is about. So that was, that was great. And what it kind of, I'm like, how can we, how can we summarize or kind of simplify part of that and make it like, right? People, like, if you're gonna do one thing, here's where to start. It's, I think it comes down like modern society, right? We see like all these rises in mental health issues and all this stuff, and society's supposed to be getting better and better, right? And advancing in all this stuff. But what this whole system has done as it's just made it easier and easier and easier to kind of like, rely on the system, just kind of sit on it, let it support you. Like back in the day for most of human history, if you didn't work, if you, if you weren't in shape, if you didn't, couldn't defend, if you weren't skilled, like you were dead pretty quick. You know, now you could, you could sit around and just eat, you know, Doritos all day and, you know, waste time playing video, like whatever it might be. And like, you're probably gonna be okay or you're gonna survive, right? And so it's like this. It's almost like a, it's almost like we're going backwards, in a lot of ways, right? And it, it makes it so easy for people to just give up their power to hand it over to like the system because they don't have to exercise it. Or at least it may not appear that way. But then guess what? You're gonna be miserable, you're gonna be unfulfilled. You're gonna look back and be like, oh shit. Like things aren't going the way that they should be going. And so it's like we say defy the norm. We say not most people, we say kind of like reject the system. And it's not cuz everything in the system's bad, but like when it takes it away from you and you give up your own power, your own responsibility, nobody like your own individuality, nobody ends up happy from that in the long run. And so it's just a matter of like putting it back on you. And that's empowering and like we talked about, everyone gives. the ability to be leaders and like, you don't have to go lead a whole group of people, but like you gotta lead yourself in the right direction at the end of the day. And so I think it's just, like you said, putting it back on you, realizing you're powerful more than you think you are. Autonomous, even though a lot of us don't act like it a lot of times. And and really it's almost like we need to go back to how things were for so long. Right? When you went back to Van Life, you connected with nature, you found kind of all like the wisdom and the beauty and that, and it gave you the space that so many people lack. Like, you know, for most of human history, people had issues. They had no choice but to sit with themselves in their head and work through it, you know what I mean? Like, if you were waiting in line, you couldn't pull out your phone and like scroll through Instagram and think about something else at night. You couldn't watch the tv. You had to lay there and deal with it. And so it's getting back to that and like create, letting yourself have that space that so many people did because. You know, that's, that stuff takes time, as you know, to

Cody Alford: 36:30

get through it, and it's just an investment, right? Mm-hmm. people, people invest their money, their, their life savings for that glimpse. They'll get that, you know, 3% change, but they won't invest in themselves for the same time, for that same percent, you know, of growth. That 3% change. Yep. You know, 1% growth change will change the trajectory of your life. You know, I was a, I was a di combatant diver in, in the military also, so did a lot of nighttime diving, and I remember at dive school. you are, you know, you're un underwater, you're diving, you have a compass, little Kim light illuminate it, and you just kick it in the darkness. And before you go subsurface, you gain your heading. And for the school, you're, you're aiming towards a pier. And at this pier there's these other mile, these other markers that say like, 90, 80, 70, 60, and so on. And ba Essentially what that meant is that based off where you pop up, once you reach your limit of advance, if you weren't on target, you would get scored by your time and the distance off your mark. Hmm. Well, if my heading is too, you know, is my heading is, you know, 45 and underwater, I go to 46. Dude, my, my, my whole thing is gonna be thrown off. That one degree shift will change everything. Everything. And yes, in a, in a very bad way for that example, but that one degree shift in your life, maybe, you know what, I'm gonna quit porn. You know what? I ask people this, I don't even give fuck what you do. But everyone knows that one thing they're doing right now that is just so loud in their head and their heart that it's just, it's gotta stop. It gotta change. It could be simply, it could be the smallest thing. Like, ah, I really gotta fucking paint the steps outside. Oh my God. You know, it doesn't have to be this like life, life-changing thing. Mm-hmm. it could be the simplest shit, but if you don't address that one thing, how can you expect change to happen? That one degree change, and I'm gonna go paint the steps. You have no, you, you might go outside painting the steps and the love of your life walks by. You might go outside and paint the steps and someone that you're there to save is outside. You might go out there and paint the steps and come back in and your wife is smiling at you and that relationship that you thought was ruined is, it was just in your fucking head. You have no idea. But people want to sit still and their whole universe change. And that's not how it happens. We use the stillness, the calmness to to create the space to go execute, not to receive. We create the space to go execute not to receive. And I think people get it so wrong and that's why they limit themselves to their true full potential because they just won't go do that one thing. Because I think it's stupid. They think it's so small and irrelevant when it's absolutely the most profound, powerful thing they possibly could ever do in their life. Yep. A hundred percent

Bradley Roth: 39:27

Go do. I mean, everyone, if you're listening right now, I'm sure that one thing is top of mind. Maybe it's a couple things. Write it down, go do it. Stop putting it off. I mean, that's even for me and Cody, we still have those one things, cuz that one thing always shifts, right? You take care of that first one thing, now it's something else that you're like, all right, this is the next thing that needs to be done. Absolutely. So it's a, it's an ongoing thing and you're just uncovering layers and stacking wins and stacking progress and. You know, people always say in finance, compound interest is like the most powerful thing in the world, most powerful force. And that's not just in math or in, you know, money, it's with you like with your growth and that kind of thing too. So, man, that was, again, I feel like if we just got a masterclass in define the norm and in doing the work and changing your life, make sure you guys go back and like re-listen to a part of that. I know I will. And man, we've been going a while, but, and I know I, I had a feeling this would happen cuz again, there's just so much alignment in crossover between Defy the norm and not most people. But I gotta ask you the one question before we wrap up that you kind of already answered in some ways, but I always ask, what is your definition of not most people or what does that

Cody Alford: 40:44

mean to you? Hmm. What is my definition of not most people? Mm-hmm. My definition of not most people would be pave your path or be paved. Mm-hmm. You know, we have, we have the opportunity to, to be our own individual selves, to, to use our superpower to help so many people, not just ourselves, not the selfish servitude, but to step outside of her comfort zone and actually go into a place of servitude where we're, we're helping people just by sharing our voice. And people that is not, most people, most people don't share their voice. They think their life is so stupid and boring, and they wonder why they're just getting paid by emotions, by regret, by remorse. Just getting fucking paved over. Yep. And that's not the life you want to fucking pave the way That's, that is the way pave the way.

Bradley Roth: 41:38

Love it. Great answer. And you know, one, one other thing we c we've touched on a little bit, but I know you got your defied tribe, but people are, you know, they listen and they're like, all right, I want some more. Where can they find you? What else you got going on?

Cody Alford: 41:52

Yeah. Most people, I do most of my communication on Instagram, which is the Cody Alfred defi tribe.com is my online coaching group to help you unleash your superpower. And wey the norm as my, my mindset apparel brand. Those are really the main platforms that I utilize. And this is just the beginning. Just the beginning

Bradley Roth: 42:12

for sure, man. I love it. I, I know based off of this, I mean, I already had an idea, but I think you're you're making a huge impact on people and I'm excited for you to get your podcast back up and running too, cause I know there's gonna be a, a lot of value bombs in that as well. So thanks man. Yeah, man. Thanks. Thanks so much for coming on today. I really appreciate it. And I know. You know, you know myself and everyone listening got a lot of value.

Cody Alford: 42:35

Awesome. Well, thanks for having me, bro. Yeah, of course.

Bradley Roth: 42:38

Well, that's it for today guys. Thank you for tuning in. As I said in the beginning of the episode, like I know that just like we said, there's that one thing that you can think of that needs to get done. I know you could think of that one, maybe two people who need to hear this episode, right? They don't have to be ex-military or anything directly, but if they need a little bit of a wake up, if they need that push to change their life, to take back their power to heal, whatever it might be, know that this is an episode that can really help do that. And so I just ask that you think of that person and please share it with them. But that's it guys. Thank you for tuning in. We'll see you in the next one. And always remember, don't be most people.