How a USAF Combat Pilot Built GTG Energy After Flying the F-22 Raptor

Nicotine can feel like a cheat code for focus, but the bill shows up later in stress, cravings, and a rising baseline you can’t outrun. We sit down with Josh Gunderson, a US Air Force combat pilot who has flown F-15s and F-22s, to talk about what “performance” really costs when your go-to tool is a chemical that spikes cortisol. From 12-hour single-seat missions to long hours studying tactics, Josh explains why nicotine became normal in high intensity communities and why becoming a dad forced a hard reset on health, energy, and longevity.

That reset turned into GTG Energy, a nicotine-free pouch built to fit the same real-world habit pattern without chasing a buzz. We dig into what the pouches feel like, how nootropics and adaptogens can support mental clarity and stress resilience, and why “smooth awareness” beats caffeine jitters. Josh also walks us through formulation thinking, dosing for everyday use, and the practical steps he took to prioritize safety, including physician reviews and manufacturing in a facility certified for quality standards.

We also zoom out into service and leadership: the different ways to serve in the military, what fighter pilot training and evaluation actually looks like, and why veteran mindset translates so well to entrepreneurship. We close with a blunt take on balance, a simple definition of priority, and a challenge to invest in the next generation with stories that empower instead of divide. If you’re trying to quit nicotine, improve focus, or build a healthier performance routine, hit play, then subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review.

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, Pocky and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success, and culture. And this is our platform to showcase the people in our city who are making it happen. And today we got just that, man. We got a real maverick Tom Cruise with us for sure, man. So we're welcome into the circle of special guests, a United States Air Force Combat Pilot who's flown F-15s, F-22s, and recently launched uh his new company called GTG Energy. So we're gonna get into that today. So let's welcome to the circle, Mr. Josh Goodnesser. Oh, thank you for the first time.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

You are, yep. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate being here.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Yeah, man. So man, you literally Tom Cruise in the flesh, man. I'm doing my research on you, man. You uh got an amazing background, amazing resume. But let's jump right in,

Why Nicotine Became The Problem

SPEAKER_01 0:42

man. So first let's start up with the GTG. So 15 years addiction with tobacco. Yep. How did this solution come available?

SPEAKER_00 0:49

I I think you hit on it, right? So it kind of begins with earlier in life. I grew up playing baseball, then I joined the military and started flying airplanes. And in both those communities, tobacco, nicotine is very common, whether it's Redman, Levi Garrett, Copenhagen, all that stuff. And I just kind of got lumped into that group, and it gives you this mental focus and boost, and especially flying fighter jets when you're studying for long hours in our like classified facilities or you're flying long missions. The longest one I've flown is over 12 hours in a single-seat airplane.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

I stopped a second. 12 hours?

SPEAKER_00 1:21

12 hours, yeah. Yeah. So you you find things that you know, whether it's caffeine, nicotine, whatever, people use things to stay focused and sharp because ultimately in in those scenarios, you're the only person in the airplane and you're making life and death decisions sometimes. So you need to be sharp when you're doing that. And I'll be completely honest: like nicotine gives you a boost in focus for sure, but it comes at a big cost. And to me, after you know, my as my son was getting ready to be born, I was kind of reevaluating my priorities in life and what was I doing? Like, how am I going to be here for his lifetime? How am I going to be there for my grandkids and be present and give them the full level of energy that I want to? So I thought about that problem and I was like, well, what am I doing in my life health-wise? And nicotine was one of those things that I just found as something that I needed to cut out and find a better solution for. So you have lion's mane, cordyceps, all these things. And I'm like, man, why don't we just have better ingredients? Like the delivery mechanism up how it has been used. People are crushing up shoots and trees and leaves all across the globe and using it uh between their cheek and gums. So why don't we just give them better ingredients? At the time, we'll get probably get into it, but I was doing the air show thing and I was on the road probably 250 days a year just traveling, so I didn't have the time to dive into it. And that idea really resurfaced when I was like, Oh, I'm gonna be a dad. Like, I need to really reevaluate my priorities and and how am I gonna show up every single day with full energy to be there for him?

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Man, there's so many really I know you want to jump in. There's so many layers we can go in from 250 days to go in.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

Initially, I think what stands out to me, right, is like the the the comparison to trying to really create that focus, right? But I think also there's the addictive piece to it, right? When you kind of have the the part where you need to act to do this, and you kind of over time to kind of transition, you know, do you kind of get that same euphoria in a sense or same connection, like navigating with these different ingredients that you do get from traditional tobacco?

SPEAKER_00 3:13

I yeah, I think it's uh it's a great point, right? And I think the addictive piece is something I really wanted to make sure we weren't doing. I I want people to have a choice. We see young people across the country making decisions to say, hey, I'm not gonna drink alcohol as much, I'm not gonna do these things, I'm eat better food. I wanted people to have their own like sovereignty over their own body and what they're putting into it. So I didn't want to use anything that's addictive or or gonna make them reliant upon this product. This is simply just to give you better, enhanced focus and clarity. And you know, compared to nicotine, like you were asking about, it's it's not a nicotine buzz, it's not caffeine jitters. If you look at most energy drinks on the market right now, many of them have 300 milligrams of caffeine, which is crazy.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

It's like two servings of crap. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

You know, a black cup of coffee is around 60 milligrams of caffeine, and you're talking 300 milligrams in one energy drink. So when you look at that, I wanted to not give people jitters that they would get from caffeine. I didn't want to give them the negative impacts of nicotine, which spikes your cortisol. And we're sure we can go into all the science and all those things. I'm happy to talk about those pieces. Most people do it have described it, and myself included, uh, you know, friends that are Navy SEALs, friends that are fighter palots, all sorts of walks of life. And they're like, it just feels like a very smooth ramp in focus where my awareness of the world around me is better. So it's not this punch in the face caffeine, it's not this nicotine buzz. It is just like I feel a heightened sense of awareness of the world around me. I can focus on things better, more effectively for longer periods of time. Uh, and that's what people have kind of unanimously been saying about the pouches, and that's just based on the science of the ingredients we're using for the pouches.

SPEAKER_03 4:48

So is the intent to not necessarily be like a supplement, right? You're already kind of navigating this experience. This is kind of a way to do that, or is it more like somebody who wants energy and focus is a healthy way to do that piece of it? Or 100%.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah, I would say the answer is like D, all of the above, you know. Uh I've had friends who have used chewing tobacco who have completely gone off of that and use this instead, and they're like, this replaced it. I don't feel any cravings, no withdrawals, nothing. I just feel better. They're also getting better recovery because nicotine is one of the things it does. The reason we get that spike in energy and focus and all those things from nicotine is that it spikes your cortisol. And cortisol is your body stress hormone, so it spikes that, and your body's like, ooh, there's a threat. Yeah, I need to be focused right now. I need to be like heightened sense of you know, listening and seeing and all these things. And that's what it's doing, is it's chronically stressing you out. So your heightened sense of alert alertness and focus because your body's stressed. And over time, the reason one of the things that it does to you is that it's an addictive chemical and that your baseline continues to go up and up and up and up. So your body, body's cortisol level, your stress level goes up, and then it just stays at this baseline. And you need more nicotine to still feel the same level of focus, and that's why you have people you know becoming addicted to nicotine and tobacco products. So there's that element of it, and really, you know, it's been it's been really fascinating that people who smoke, who don't use chewing tobacco, people who vape. I mean, I've got there's a gentleman named Steven who I have no idea who Steven is, right? He just emailed me and was like, Thank you for making this product. That's the best. I've used you know cigarettes and vape for over 15 years. I've tried to get off of it. I've used the the nicotine gums, I've used the nicotine patches to like reduce nothing has worked until I tried your product. Yeah, and like to your point, there's an addictive piece there, right? Like smokers, the whole hand to mouth, like just smoking and whatever. There's an addictive thing with oral tobacco products as well. So yeah, it's just it's been really encouraging to hear so many stories from people that I don't even know, right? And obviously, my friends are my harshest critics, they're not gonna tell me nonsense, they're gonna be like, dude, this is terrible. And and none of them have said that. They've all been really happy with it. And we spent about a year and a half developing the formulation and going through four test trials. So I've talked, you know, I had some of my best buddies try it out, and over the course of those four trials, we've really honed in the formulation. And yeah, I'm just really happy with the product and really happy with the the feedback we've gotten from complete strangers. They're like,

How The Pouches Actually Feel

SPEAKER_00 7:14

this has changed my life in a really positive way.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

Forgive my ignorance. Is it is it like a dip? Yeah, exactly. So yeah, it's literally like a dip, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:22

Yeah, we can just open the can up here. It's basically a little pouch. Uh-huh. So you put that between your cheek and gums, and it just kind of sits there. So you're, you know, absorbs through your your gums and goes right to your bloodstream. We have 10 brain healthy ingredients in there. And and really, it's there, there are two main components. There's a nootropic effect, which is how do I enhance the mental clarity and focus of my brain? And there's the adaptogen piece, which really is allowing you to combat daily stressors. So everybody has stress the other day, whether your kids are late to school, you miss a deadline, you forgot there was a zoom call, and you're like, join in 10 minutes late, and everybody's like, Where were you? Like, I have no good reason. I'm just late, you know? And like these like stressors that happen every single day pop up, and your body obviously is going to release cortisol and you're gonna be stressed out a little bit. So the adaptogen piece is what allows your body to regulate the stress more effectively than not. And that's where you know the functional mushrooms and the functional ingredients of those components, the vitamins we put in there, the non-essential amino acids that are in there, these are all just brain healthy things that help you navigate your day, whether it's soccer practice, your kids, or work deadlines.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

I feel like this is super expensive to the capital to do the research and do all of this. What was that like, man, to come up with the full structure of trying to get you know all of that?

SPEAKER_00 8:37

You know, well, uh as a fighter pilot, I will be very transparent. You watch the movies, you watch Top Gun, you see all the cool things, and they be these big personalities, big egos, right? Yeah, yeah. I will tell you that anybody that is a modern day fighter pilot, they are 1000% a nerd on the inside for sure. Like, you know, all the technology, all the cool things that these airplanes can do these days, you have to be very just just intellectually interested in what these things do and how they operate to operate the airplane really well. And that kind of translated to this. I just started diving into white papers research, and it's like, what is nicotine doing to you? Okay, what are those effects? How is it impacting your life? I mean, there's cardiovascular issues that's shown to you know impact your endocrine function, so your test like testosterone is one big thing for men. It's shown to impact that in a really negative way, which then goes down to like energy, reproductive health, all these things that happen as a result. So I kind of went down the like the rabbit hole of researching nicotine. And then from there, I looked into the ingredients that I was already using in different ways, different mediums, and said, okay, what are these things doing for me? And what should I put in this pouch that's gonna really amplify people's focus and clarity?

SPEAKER_03 9:45

And as you, because new topics is a big thing now. I think I've seen I've seen it kind of all over the place, and I don't know a whole ton about it. So I think, you know, but you can understand that the positive experience or else it wouldn't be blowing up the way it is. You know, as you're kind of formulating, like how do you know what the combination of this and that does together various, you know, relative to you know five of these new tropics are better to then maybe two or vice versa for what you're trying to accomplish.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

So what I went to I looked at that problem set and I kind of framed it in the way people use nicotine products currently. So if you use chewing tobacco, the pouches, et cetera, I've plenty of friends to include, you know, I this is I've done this as well, where you go through an entire can a day, and that's 15 pouches or 20 pouches, depending on the manufacturer. So I formulated this in a way that people could go through the same usage rate and not have any problems with the active ingredients in the pouch. So it's not you can have too much of this in one day, at least at that formulation, because I want it to be a one-for-one where people felt the same, if they had that habit of using oral tobacco products, they didn't feel like oh, I can only have one or two, and I don't have a craving to still have a pouch or something in. So it is 100% safe in that regard. And as I was kind of tweaking the formulation, really the core of it was how do I make this safe? Like full stop, this needs to be safe for people, it cannot be something that's gonna be sketchy. I don't know if you guys were around when like NO explode and all those pre-workouts hit, just like pulling from shelves, just like, oh, there's some stuff in here that we probably shouldn't have put in there. I did not want that. You know, if I'm gonna put my effort, my name behind it, all those things, I want it to be safe for people first and foremost. And then two, I wanted to help them cognitively with their, you know, their their days and like how their brain's operating. So I went through the ingredients list, found the things that I wanted the mental clarity, the stress resilience, all those things. And I also enjoy like working out, running, biking, all those things. And I included beta-alanine in there, which is a non-essential amino acid, helps carnosine, which basically allows your muscles to perform for longer periods of time without the fatigue. So those are all things that are in there in the pouch. And then I had a couple of physicians look at the formulation as well to kind of sanity check it and make sure that that was in line with what they recommended as well. I had a physician who is deep into NCAA sports, professional athletes, all these things. And he also made some recommendations. So we kind of tweaked the formula a little bit based on his recommendations. And like I said, I'm I'm pretty pretty happy with how we've, you know, how we've collectively as a team come together and come up with a great solution, I think.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

That's awesome. Would you talk about the name? Would you mind sharing what the name stands for? Yeah, the GTG.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

Yeah, so GTG, you know, there there is a psychological piece about three-letter acronyms, right? If you look at most government organizations, they're three-letter names, right? The Department of Defense or Department of War now, we talked about Tulsi Gabbard, Director Gabbard. So, you know, all these agencies have three letter names and it's very remember memorable. So I wanted a three-letter acronym, and immediately when I came to mind, I'm like, okay, well, nicotine is not helping us. Like, what makes us in in the military and first responders, police officers, firefighters, all those, you know, healthcare workers, if you were to say like good to go, it is a very common like, hey, we're good to go. And I was like, Great, good to go, GTG. So I came up with a GTG acronym because it's you know three-letter memorable GTG. It's very understandable from the community that I came from. And as a side benefit, you know, it's also my son's initials. And to me, that was really, really important to view life in a way that I'm I'm living a life and doing things that are not in service of myself, but in service of others, and I think building something really cool that's going to help impact a lot like tons and tons of lives in a really positive way. Doing that as like an homage to him is is I don't know, it was just cool, cool in my mind when I was thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

I'm excited when y'all have that conversation 20 years from now. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? That damn Pops did this for me, man. That's pretty awesome. Yeah, yeah, pretty good. That's really awesome.

Formulation Choices And Safety Checks

SPEAKER_03 13:37

And you're kind of navigating like the regulatory port aspect of it because I'm not assuming, I don't know if it's what it's considered, because mushrooms could be considered a food, could be considered a health benefit. You know, as you're navigating these like different supplemental kind of, I guess, combinations, you know, how do you what process do you go through? Is it FDA regulation? Is it you know, uh supplement like kind of how what's that project from a regulatory standpoint?

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Yeah, a great question. And from the regulatory standpoint, it's a supplement, so it's there's nothing in there that is regulated by the FDA. Got it. So we go to GNC, vitamin shop, or any of those places and you get supplements off the shelf. Many of those are not regulated by the FDA, you know, if they're in that supplement class, so we are not regulated by the FDA. However, much like I mentioned, you know, I want the ingredients to be safe first and foremost and effective for people, we source everything in the United States. We produce the United States. Many of these other companies, whether it's nicotine pouch companies or alternative pouches that use nootropics, whatever, they're produced overseas. I have no idea what quality control measures they have in place, nor does the American consumer. They don't know. And one of the things we did in addition to that was we partner with a manufacturing partner uh based in California. So they take that, you know, the American sourced ingredients, they produce here in the United States. And this facility specifically is an NSF and a CGMP certified facility, which means that that is like the highest level of certification in terms of quality assurance.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Yeah, way up there. Yep, yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

I mean, you look at NSF certified products and they demand a higher price because they've been third-party independent tested and they have all these quality control measures in place. Our company is is only uh you know maybe two months old now. So the next week. Two months, yeah. The so the the process to get the product itself NSF certified takes a long period of time. However, the facility we're using to produce it is NSF, NSF certified and CGMP certified. So we're very happy and proud of that partnership because they've been amazing for us and and been so collaborative in terms of wanting to you know make a great product for people and they they kind of see that vision. We've had amazing conversations about this and like the impacts, and shoot, it's just been really incredible to see them at work.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Yeah. Where where

Manufacturing Standards And Buying Options

SPEAKER_01 15:43

is the product at now? Can you get it on online? Can you get it in certain stores? Yeah, vitamin shops and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Correct. Yeah. So we right now we're online sales. The website is just gtg.energy. Okay. And you can go there, you can buy a single can to try it out if you want to. You can do bundles, like a five-can bundle, or you can do subscriptions. Obviously, there are benefits to doing you know a subscription because it's much cheaper per can. It's actually in some, especially in Nevada and other states, it is actually cheaper to buy a subscription can of these than it is to buy nicotine cans in the store. So we're giving you a better product at a cheaper price, which is I think is a win-win. And my wife Lisa, she has some independent shipping stores here in Las Vegas. So ship Las Vegas has three locations, and we're selling the cans in those stores as well.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Always figure out a way.

SPEAKER_00 16:30

But you know, it's it's great because people go there for any mail pack, ship, P.O. box, whatever it is, and we're like, hey, here you need an energy boost in the middle of the day. Like, great, we have a product for you, and that's gonna help you. And one of the stores is actually right outside of Nellis Air Force Base. And one of the things that to me is important, I you know, I came from the military community, I'm still in the Air Force Reserve serving. And that community, you know, nicotine tobacco is rampant in those communities, and we we don't really talk about it as a society. And I would say what's really interesting is if you go back to the 1960s and you see the tobacco companies like, oh, Dr. So-and-so is smoking cigarettes, it must be good for you. Yeah, right? Yeah, kick it off. 100%, right? And then what happens now? Like tobacco like nickel like cigarette sales are down dramatically. So, what do these companies want to do? Well, let's use the same strategy with a different product. Let's tell people nicotine's good for you. No, I'm moving to vape. I mean, yeah, vape is you know, vape was the next thing, and now we're like, oh, nicotine's good for you. And you have all these influencers saying nicotine's good for you, nicotine's good for you. It sounds very similar to like sugar's good for you, sugar's good for you, eat ultra-processed junk food, it's good for you. You know, it's the same playbook. Yeah, they're just a different product time and time again. 100%, you know. So, but circling back to the locations here in Vegas, you know, the military community is one that I really care about. I like I said, I came from it. I've seen so many friends who've had so many downside effects from nicotine usage, and I want to serve that community. I want to give them a better product. Like there's they deserve it, like they deserve to be at their best, performing at the best. The same with our you know, firefighters. We did a launch event with the uh Nevada firefighters here on St. Paddy's Day, which was awesome. It was great to hang out with those guys, and and many of them are like, wait, you're telling me that I can just swap my nicotine pouches and my heart rate's like 10 to 15 beats per minute slower. So when I'm on shift, I'm carrying 60 pounds of gear and I'm going through a house going up you know stairs, like my cardio system is performing better. Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 18:33

It's just it's super cool, right? So one of Lisa's stores, ship Las Vegas is right outside the main gate at Nallis Air Force Base, and I want to have I want to have you know an ability for the service members there to be able to access the product as well. Uh, we are pursuing partnership with AFEs, which is the basically the gas station on base. Oh, okay, okay, okay. So they they service Air Force and Army bases, and then you have NEX and the Marine Corps Exchange, which service Navy and Marine Corps bases as well. And uh we want to make sure we we get it into those those avenues because once again, I just I deeply support our military and service members, and I want to make sure that they don't go through 20 years like I did of using nicotine in a product that's not good for them, and we find a better solution.

unknown 19:11

Yeah.

Serving Paths And Fighter Pilot Reality

SPEAKER_01 19:12

Did you serve so you're on the reserves now, right? So you serve 20 years active?

SPEAKER_00 19:16

No, I so I started, I went to the Air Force Academy out of high school, got my undergraduate degree there in Colorado Springs, started there in 2004, graduated in 2008, and then I joined active duty Air Force after commissioning in the Air Force Academy. I flew jets 15 years, then I left active duty, joined the Nevada Air National Guard. So I was actually in the Air National Guard here in Nevada, working at Nellis Air Force Base, and then I recently switched to the Air Force Reserves. It is very, if you're not in the military, it's a very convoluted, but there are three ways to serve really. There's the active duty, there's which which most people think about like full-time service. There is the Air National Guard, which is a state-funded entity, but can support national objectives as well. And then there's the Air Force Reserves or the Army Reserves or Navy Reserves, which is, you know, there are different ways to do that. You can be a part-time reservist, which is what I am, currently activated. So they the Air Force Reserves activated me on full-time orders. So I'm full-time now with the Air Force Reserves, and just multiple ways to serve, but you know, ultimately, service is important to me. I'm you know always happy to to support the nation, support, and serve. Uh and I think it's just as a as a personal aside. Yeah, before I you know met Lisa, we had Gabriel, that was you know, 20 years of my life that they have no idea about. And now, you know, it's it's cool that you know Gabriel's gonna grow up and he's gonna be surrounded by service, he's gonna be surrounded by airplanes and all those things. It's just it's a it's a cool win that I get to share that part of my life with him and my wife. We definitely appreciate your service there.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

That's uh that's a long commitment for for a lot of other people.

SPEAKER_01 20:45

Especially with what you do, man. Talk a little bit. What is a day like for a fighter pilot? Like, what does that look like? What does a training you know regiment look like?

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Every single day is different. Okay. So love. And the path to get there is a very long road. You have to be a commissioned officer in the Air Force, Navy, the Marine Corps, which means you have to go to college. Then you go to pilot training in the Air Force perspective. You're doing a little over a year of pilot training, which is just basic how to fly airplanes. And these are these are also like these are not just basic sesnos, these are high performance airplanes that are trainers. Um, so you fly those for a little over a year, and then you go to your advanced training, which is about two months in the T-38. That's a twin-engine jet trainer, go supersonic, the whole thing. And then from there you go to whatever airplane you were assigned. For me, when I left pilot training, I went to the F-15C, which is the the predecessor of the F-22. It's an air dominance fighter, which basically means its job is to keep the skies clear. So whether it's transport airplanes flying, army folks in to parachute them out the back, it's Navy ships, you know, sailing across the high seas and they need protection from airplanes. We make sure the skies are clear.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

And you've done all of that, I'm assuming, huh? I have, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

And uh and then from there, so you it's almost like you know, when you talk to an attorney or you talk to a physician. They're like, oh, I'm a practicing physician. I'm a practicing attorney. Like, well, what are you practicing, dude?

SPEAKER_02 22:06

What are you practicing? Right. And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

And I think they say that because, like, hey, I'm practicing medicine, I'm practicing law because it's constantly evolving, constantly changing. And the same thing with being a fighter pilot. There is no like I've made it point in flying fighters. You start off, you go through as a wingman, which means you're the lowest in terms of the responsibilities. You're responsible for you and your airplane, and then doing whatever the flight lead tells you to do and expects of you to do. And then from there you go through the upgrade process, which takes you all the way through instructor pilot, and you're now effectively teaching other people how to fly the airplane and evaluating them as well in their in their progression. So you're effectively teaching. And that's what I did in the F-22. So I was an instructor and also an evaluator, which basically means I was teaching people from the very newest guys to the guys who were experienced and now going through their own instructor pilot upgrade. And then also evaluating, we have we have cycles in which we evaluate just like the commercial airlines. Every so often you have to do a check ride to make sure that you are still proficient in the airplane. On the military side, we have an instrument check ride, which means you're qualified to fly the airplane day, night, bad weather. Then we have a mission check ride, which means you're legally authorized to use that airplane in combat. So we we evaluate both. And the and so I talked about a lot of stuff just then. And there's so many pieces of a of a fighter squadron. And as an instructor, you're constantly doing different stuff. I mean, one day you could be doing an instructional ride for the newest person in the squadron. The next day you could be sitting in the tower supervising all the flying operations for the base. The next day you could be in the vault, which is our classified work area, and just studying on new tactics, new threats, you know, new threats, new adversaries, what their capabilities are. The next day you could be doing simulators and doing emergencies, training for all the emergencies that potentially could happen in the airplane. It really just changes just to go to alert all this.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

That's not like the coolest thing. It is a lot of work for sure.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

It's a lot of work, a lot of fun. And obviously, you know, you mentioned Top Gun and Tom Cruise and all those things. And the movies portray something obviously very glamorous and cool. And there are moments for sure. It's super cool. Uh when I was the air show airshow pilot, I was flying downtown Chicago over the river, and I'm looking up at people and buildings looking down at me, and I was doing like 700 miles an hour, and I'm like, this is rad. Like, this is super cool. I thought when I landed, somebody's gonna take me away in handcuffs. Well, they just did, and I they didn't, they just were like all high fives, and I was like, Great, this is awesome. But there are days where you're just you're literally in a room with no windows, just studying on a computer, readable. Right? Like that's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

What Super Bowl was that?

SPEAKER_00 24:33

Super Bowl 22 in 2020, so the one in LA. Oh, okay. Yeah, awesome. Which was which is awesome. I mean, we part of the air show world. I was the F-22 demonstration team pilot and commander, and then we also have other teams that demonstrate the other airplanes in the Air Force. We all got together. So we had the F-22, we had the F-16, F-35, A10, and then we also had a P-51, which is effectively the F-22 version in World War II. It was the preeminent air-to-air fighter in World War II for the United States Air Force. Most successful plane in World War II. It sounds amazing. It's beautiful. Tom Cruise actually has one and he still flies it. He's he's a very, very competent pilot.

SPEAKER_03 25:08

And yeah, so Tom Cruise really flew of all the stuff he does in the movies.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

Yeah, he's a very accomplished pilot and uh has a Mustang. So we had that airplane leading it with a gentleman who is probably the most experienced. When I say warbird, I mean like these are like antique vintage aircraft. Probably the most experienced warbird pilot in the world, Mr. Steve Hinton. He's just a phenomenal human, incredibly knowledgeable. He led that formation, then the four of us were flying uh on his wing as we flew over the stadium.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

That's awesome. You know, just out of curiosity, so obviously you can fly these F-15, F-22s very high and very fast. Can you fly like a commercial plane? Is that kind of like do you have access to be able to do anything like at that point at that level?

SPEAKER_00 25:49

So there are there are definitely transition tests and evaluations you can do to take your military experience and transfer it over to the civilian world. So I I did do that. The highest rating you can get as a as a commercial pilot would be the ATP airline transport pilot certification. So I have that as well. Oh wow. And I did for about three years fly business jets as well. Interesting. So I've flown those kind of business jets and and as well as you know what I was doing in the Air Force at the time.

SPEAKER_03 26:12

Is there a huge difference? Like I this I'm so used to going this now. I don't know what to call it. Lamborghini all the time.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Now I'm in like a it's like you know, F-150 or you know, like a uh an F-1 car to like an F-150. I mean it's it's a very uh let's just it's called a G-Wagon, it's really nice. You know, but it's I always go back to why, like what am I doing, why is it important? And in the Air Force, when I was doing my mission at that point in time, and now that I'm back activated on full-time orders, I look at the mission, why is it important? What am I doing? Who am I serving? And that is what allows me to stay focused and and keep it relevant in my brain. And on the corporate aviation side, same thing, right? There are people that you're flying around that are that are potentially employing thousands of people. The decisions they make in the back of the airplane or when they go to a meeting are gonna have impacts that are gonna dramatically impact people's families and lives and and all those things. So it's like it is a different mission set, it is not the upside-down flying that I prefer. Yeah, um, but you know, it's it's nonetheless, it's important, and and obviously you're responsible for those people's lives and you take that very seriously. So we appreciate that. We definitely want you to keep us safe. So because uh I can't do any of that stuff.

Veteran Fund And Founder Resilience

SPEAKER_01 27:21

I would I would assume you know being an air for an Air Force pilot is way harder than building a business. You know, you always hear about people with entrepreneur challenges and things like that. How would you compare the difference between launching a business and going through all of that compared to being a fire pilot?

SPEAKER_00 27:34

I may be misquoting this person, sure. So, but I'll just take a stab in the dark. I'm pretty sure Alex Ramosy calls them entrepreneurs, and I feel like I'm in that category right now. I'm just starting, you know. So I I don't know if I can accurately compare the two. As an aside, one of the things that Lisa, my wife, does, and I'm an investor in as well, is the veteran fund. It's a venture capital fund. And we invest in dual-use kind of critical technology companies that are that have a veteran on the leadership team. So it doesn't need to be the founder, it could be a veteran spouse that's on the leadership team, it could be the operations officer, it could be you know the technical officer. But we really believe in that in that construct because in the military, you you have to deal with plenty of circumstances that are just not fun. You know, like they're just things that are not fun about being the military. Yeah. And what I've seen, at least in the very short period of time, we've had GTG Energy running, and then I've seen from some of the amazing founders in our in our portfolio of investments, they always have to deal with things that are not fun. They deal with curveballs, they deal with all these things that happen, and their resilience to the the changes, right? It's like imagine if you have a like a ship that's unstable in rough waters. Like you want the ship to be stable and it returns back to like right side up. You don't want it to flip over. And their ability to like minimize the like shifts in the waves and get back to right side up is just really remarkable. And I think a lot of military folks, I think they have that skill set, they have that resilience. I would say the biggest thing that they need to unlock, like just like a mental unlock for them, is really like you have those skill sets, you don't know you have them, but when you get in the civilian world and you're out in the marketplace and whatever industry you're in, you have to realize like you have some amazing skill sets, and a lot of times we downplay them. And the example I share is like if you are a professional athlete, let's say you're a wide receiver on an NFL team, and all your buddies are NFL players, you're like, well, man, everybody must be just in great shape, super fast, super athletic, great hands. You know, like everybody must be like that. And then we step out of your NFL team, you're like, okay, not everybody's like that. Yeah. And I think there's some really high-level military folks that have amazing skill sets and have done some amazing things and have built a you know a resilient mind over their career. And if they apply that to life and business outside the military, they're going to be incredibly successful. And that's really the bet we're making. Uh, we're we're betting on them because we believe in the background, we believe in the structure. And yes, they need to understand business, business terms, and they understand how you run a business and all the components that go into it. It's a different, it's a different language, right? It's a different language. But the mindset teach discipline, like yeah, but you know, the mindset is what's the the big difference maker. And I think we we just like said, we are deeply committed to betting on veterans.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

I think the biggest piece is like you said, like you're doing stuff that you do not want to do, but you're doing it literally at the top, like best, best amazing level is amazing, you know what I mean, to be able to do so teach that.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

You you can't, you know, and then there are there are other things, you know. I think sports are a great, a great teaching tool. And I think people learn resilience and and they're you know, I'm using sports as an example because I think there's a lot of analogies to to flying fighter jets or doing those things in the military as sports, but there are a lot of amazing things out there that teach those resilience resilient skills, and we just think that you know, obviously, the military folks that we've come across in the in the veteran fund have displayed that like in spades, and we're like, we bet on you.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

That's awesome. How long has the veteran uh fund been been around? I know Lisa was doing that for a while now.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

About five years now. So we yeah, so we have we we've closed fund one, we're on fund two now, and yeah, the the feedback has been really well, really well received. The portfolio companies have been doing really, really well. So it just helps our traction and really when we show those examples of people doing well and succeeding in this model of veterans on the on the leadership team and they're developing things that hey, like shoot, I wish I would have had that. When I was in ABCEA, I wish I would have had that in the field, or when I was a fighter pilot, I wish I would have had that in the cockpit. And they're they're solving these problems.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Yeah, we can connect you with Frank Fatita. Remember when we had Frank Fatita on with the vet, you know that family, obviously a fatita family, maybe, but they're doing some amazing things with the veterans. They need to know about this product for sure if they're awesome. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, venture capital partners. So yeah, you guys need to know them.

SPEAKER_00 31:51

Well, I think that their family's originally from Houston, right?

SPEAKER_01 31:53

Yeah, I that's a good question. I know one of them lives there. I know one of the brothers and cousins, Tim, yeah, Tim Fatito. Okay, rockets and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:02

I don't know where where they came from. I know they've been in Vegas for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

Yeah, for sure. And I just I think Texas, because obviously chewing tobacco is huge in Texas. Yes, yeah. And yeah, obviously, you know, I I just think this is a much better product. You know, on the can our logo is better health, better focus. Yeah, right. We want to give people better health, better focus. And when you look at places like Texas, like chewing tobacco is everywhere. It's a thing, it's everywhere. That's all it's called.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

It's everywhere. My dad's lived in Dallas before, so yeah. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:28

So yeah, I mean, obviously, if if yeah, if they want to learn more about it, I'm happy to chat.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

That's awesome. Yeah,

Balance As Sprints And Non Negotiables

SPEAKER_01 32:33

so uh, I do want to ask you a couple more quick questions about balance, right? Yeah, you and your wife are probably extremely busy from what you guys do with businesses and all that, how you have a newborn. Is balance even real for for you? Like, what's your perspective on balance just in life and and business and personal and the whole night?

SPEAKER_00 32:51

It's a great question, right? This is a personal question for me. Yeah, no, no. You know, I think there are some people out there who will tell you, like, if you don't wake up at 4 30 in the morning and you're not in the gym at 4 30 in the morning, and if you're not super disciplined about everything, like then you're a failure. Or like, you know, that's the goal, and you're like, it a hundred percent is the goal. Like, you know, there are so many things you have to balance between family, yourself, and that could be physical, mental, spiritual health. There are just so many things you have to balance, work, and you're not gonna bat a thousand every single day. It's not realistic. And as as you get older and you have your life becomes more and more complicated, it's not realistic to say I'm gonna just crush everything out of the park every single day forever. Like you're gonna have bad days in business, in life, you're gonna have setbacks. So to me, the balance piece really, when I when I think about that, I almost think of it as like sprints. I'm like, okay, today or tomorrow, I'm gonna, or whatever the day happens to be, I'm really gonna focus on this thing and I'm gonna sprint. The things that for me like are non-negotiable, I I really try to do physical activity every day, with this gym, walking, running, biking, whatever it is, those are things that like to me just kind of recenter me. And that allows me to give more time to the things in my life. So yeah, balance is really it's not a daily balance, it may be more like a it more be like a you know, like are I balance throughout the day of things. It may be like this day I'm really focused on this thing, or this day I'm focused on this thing, or hey, there's a really important event with family. I'm gonna do, I'm gonna like put everything else aside for this, or yeah, I guess it's more like a sprint, not a a you know, a marathon of like you know, I just think it's what something will break. If you forego everything else, because you're like, I need to have no balance, I need to be 100% on this one thing, it is sustainable for a period of time. Yeah, it is gonna break, yeah. Then it will break. Yeah, that's true. And to me, you know, my family, my my mom's side of the family, my dad's side of the family, uh, parts of my dad's side of the family are Cuban in origin. My mom's side of the family all was born in Cuba, they came over here in 1966, they you know, they waited seven years to come over to this country, everything was taken away from them. And my parents were married, they got divorced when I was two years old. So, like, aside from like working out all those things and trying to be healthy, which has obviously led me to this product. One of the non-negotiables for me is simply I am not gonna sprint so hard that what breaks is my family, what breaks is my relationship with my wife, my relationship with my son. Like, I'm not I flat out. I mean, there may be some of these women like I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna sacrifice all these things. Yeah, more power to you. You can literally scroll through Instagram, YouTube, whatever social media platform you want to find, and you can find tons and tons of billionaires who are like, I have a lot of money, my personal life is a disaster.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Yeah, I agree. We've talked to a lot of them.

SPEAKER_00 35:45

And like, and those people are very smart people. And I'm not naive enough to think that I'm smarter than them. Like, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

But you know a little bit of the riddle. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

So it's like, you know, I I when I look at that, I'm like, what is the priority of my life? And and priority when you look at the origins of the word, it's singular, it's not like a list of priorities. It's like what is the priority? Yeah, the priority unquestionably is my family.

SPEAKER_01 36:08

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

Everything else, I will absolutely sprint and do all those things and and and do my best and give my best effort and give it time and everything, but I none of that matters if I can't if I can't keep the priority.

SPEAKER_01 36:20

Yeah. Well, you've proven the point by naming the name. So that makes sense back in what you're saying. Last question for you as far as just business and life advice from serving the country, building your own company. What's one

Faith Detours And Keeping Eyes Open

SPEAKER_01 36:31

lesson that's guided you through both journeys? And what would you want every entrepreneur or service member to hear?

SPEAKER_00 36:36

A great question. Thank you for asking it. Some people may not agree with this, and that's okay. I I believe in higher power, I'm spiritual, I'm religious, you know, I was raised from a Catholic, and that is part of me. Some people obviously have different religions, and and after my experience in the military, I think people probably need to realize there are a lot more there's a lot more, you know, crosstalk and and cross concepts that bridge all religions. I agree. And that is that's I just the best way to describe it would be like all these things that make us different, it's like salt and pepper, right? What do you use salt and pepper for? You use it for the steak. Sorry, vegans. But you use it for the steak. You make the steak more tasty, make it delicious. You would never eat a spoonful of salt or a spoonful of pepper. Ever. Like, don't forget the steak, right? So, anyways, that's just a side tangent of like there are some things that are that are core to all of us that we can find commonality in, and we should celebrate those commonalities as opposed to the differences that to the point where we like are divisive. But from that religious context, I would I believe that things in life happen in certain ways, and we don't understand why they happen that way. For example, when I was in pilot training, my initially assigned airplane was an A-10, which is an amazing airplane. Excuse me, I had that assignment for 10 for four months, and then I got reassigned to the F-15C. Had I not had that initial assignment, I would have gone off and flown another airplane, I would have never flown the F-15C, right? Because that opportunity would have never happened. At the time when I got assigned the A10, I was like, What? I don't understand. I wanted the F-15C. The A10 A10's amazing. I'm not chucking spirits at that thing. It's an amazing airplane. But I was like, I don't understand why I got the A10, but it's okay. I did well in pilot training, whatever. But I got the A10 because in four months I got the airplane I actually wanted as number of my list. And fun fact, I actually got that assignment on my birthday in 2010. The guy came up to me and gave me this birthday card. I'm like, why is he giving me a birthday card? He's like, congrats, man, you got your eagle. I'm like, I don't know anybody else. I got a $55 million birthday present.

SPEAKER_03 38:33

That's pretty cool. That's pretty helpful. $55 million. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

That's a pretty cool birthday present. You know, and you know, there are other things in life that have happened where it's just like it's taken me on a detour. I didn't understand why I was doing this or why things unfolded the way they did. But later on in life, I was like, Oh, that's why.

unknown 38:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:47

So I think, you know, regardless of the religious context of it, I think the lesson in that whole story is keep your eyes open. Right? Because there are opportunities that pass us by every single day. And if we're so focused on something or we're so set in our ways and our heels are dug in, and we're like, man, if I if I don't get this job, if I don't get this promotion, my life's over. Like, well, maybe you didn't get the promotion because there's actually this really awesome job for you coming up you to know about that you didn't know about, you know, and we go through life with blinders on sometimes. And if we trust that, you know, things are happening that we don't understand potentially, and that's that's the core of faith, right? Is that we we don't know everything. We have to trust in something that things are happening as they should. So I would just I would encourage people to keep their eyes open for opportunities because the more focused you are, the more blind, you know, blinders on you have that you have on it, it just really limits your growth as a human being, limits your growth in business and whatever endeavors you want. So that was a very long-winded answer, but I think it's a very great question.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

And it's left out with a bang, man. Leaving eyes open. That's that's real. Yeah, that's very real. I appreciate you saying that. Just transition a little bit.

Favorite Vegas Restaurant And Why

SPEAKER_01 39:54

We always ask everybody about this. What's your favorite restaurant in Vegas? Oof.

SPEAKER_03 39:59

Oh man. Yeah. Sometimes that question's harder.

SPEAKER_00 40:02

Yeah. Yeah. Uh I, you know, I don't know. I'm uh I like to think at least that I I think about things in a in a I try to think about things in a deep way. Sure. And probably my favorite restaurant in Las Vegas is Bizarre Meats by Joseandre.

SPEAKER_01 40:19

This is great food. Yeah. Phenomenal food. It did, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

So we actually went there and had dinner in the new location. It's beautiful. Yep. And the reason I say that is like, one, I love steak, love meat. It's great. And they do a phenomenal job. I really appreciate the fact that Chef Joseandre, he does a lot for the world that people don't realize.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

Yasin at Barry's Downtown Prime shared a lot about that when he was did in Africa. He was able to just call him and his group is all there, man. So he's he's an amazing guy.

SPEAKER_00 40:47

So yeah, it's it's it's you know, it's it's from like the service level. I don't I don't really like to just have surface level conversations or thoughts. And yeah, like I love the food, but I I love what he is building and how he's taking his platform and helping other people. That's really impactful.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

Man, you a sharp dude, man. I like hearing what you're saying because there's a lot of people behind that thought thought behind it. So that's good stuff, man. I don't know what else to ask you, man. Anything you've we forgot that you want to leave us out on, man.

SPEAKER_00 41:13

I

Empowering Young People And Closing Plugs

SPEAKER_00 41:14

would just say that I'm, you know, for the folks that are that are listening right now, the military, you know, and this is this is important to me. So I'll quickly talk about the air show world. I did that for three years, traveled around the rook globe for about 250 days a year, doing airshows in different locations. And every single study we went to, we talked to about two to three schools and talked to the students, explained what our story was. And it really wasn't like I mean, obviously, there's there was an implicit like recruiting piece of it, and I'm not trying to negate that. But uh we had an amazing group of people from different parts of the country that came together to work on this team to create this like magical time for people at air shows, and we wanted to share our stories and just say, like, hey, this is where we came from, this is what we wanted to do, this is how the military opened these doors for us. And whether you want to be in the military or not, it it doesn't, it's no skin on my back, right? And I I feel I felt compelled to serve leaving college or leaving high school. But if you want to be a physician, you want to be a teacher, you want to be a mechanic, you want to be whatever. One of my youngest brothers is a long-haul trucker, he loves it. Like he actually was in Vegas and we had to hang out with him for a couple days, which is great. You know, like whatever your calling is in life, don't let self-limiting beliefs stop you from those things. That's that's one thing I saw in the airshow world when I went to schools and talked to students was that there were a lot of young students who felt that based on their circumstances, based on their family background, based on culture, ethnicity, whatever it was, that they were given this bad hand in life. Like we've all been just given a hand at life. Like, I I don't know, you know, rhyme or reason. I don't know how you started, where you came from, it doesn't really matter because this country, like it gave my family an opportunity with nothing from Cuba, gives people such an amazing opportunity. And what I'd leave the what I leave you know you guys with in terms of thoughts is simply as adults, how are we empowering the next generation of people? Because if we are so self-centered and like, hey, what is it what is it, what am I getting out of life? How is my life better? And we view it that way, we're not investing in the next generation of people. And that's super important to me as it's just like overall, like I really like helping young young folks because if we don't, I guess the the risk reward there to me is we are not it's like it's wasted talent. There's so many amazingly talented, intelligent, articulate young kids who are going through school right now. And if we don't encourage them to see, like, hey, you can do this, you can do that, you're capable of this. Somebody told you somebody told you you can't do this, like who are they? Don't matter, right? Like, you can do all these things. If we don't show them that, how are they supposed to know?

SPEAKER_03 43:54

Somebody has to encourage them. They can't listen to them.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

I would love to come come. Back and talk to you guys in a couple years. There's another project I'm working on as well that hopefully I can you know pick up in the future. But it's really focused on helping empower young folks. And you can go on like go back to social media, right? And you can see a 60-year-old billionaire who came from nothing, and they're gonna have an amazing story, and you're like, wow, you came from nothing, and you built this amazing you know world uh and helped so many people and all that stuff. Like, is that message gonna resonate with a 15-year-old kid? No, like they spent two-thirds of their life without the internet, yeah. Right? Like, if you're 15 years old right now, how is that message gonna re like resonate with the kids? Yeah, so so you know, the pro the the project I'm talking about later on is really how do we how do we find amazing, exceptional young students or young adults 18, 25 or so? How do we find those people who have whether they've you've been dealt with a bad hand, whether it's family issues, whether it's substance abuse issues, whether it's like language issues, whatever it is, right? How you know find the people that have overcome those hurdles that are closer in age demographics to these young folks that we want to really help in shape? Was it faith, was it family, was it the military, was it working out, was it academia, was it what was it, right? Was it sports? What was it that helped them get past that hurdle in their life? And how do we tell how do we get them to share their story? Like stories of empowerment. I don't really care about the people that are preaching negativity and divisiveness. It doesn't do anything for us. You know, so how do we empower them? So I guess once again, long-winded answer, but you know, for adults, like how do we help encourage young young folks to to pursue and achieve their full potential? And for young folks, don't let one person tell you you can't do it.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

Yeah, especially that person be yourself.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Yeah, that is like 100%. That is like that is the biggest critic, right? Yeah, and I'll give my buddy, my buddy Brian, a shout out. When I started the air show job, we had a really great conversation for a couple hours, and he was like, Man, it's like majority of your family's from Cuba, your parents got divorced, both of your parents have passed away, you lost a sister, like all these things have happened. He's like, You've managed to be successful still. Like, you should think about that. You should think about what is it you want to when you're 80 years old looking at the mirror, like what is it about life that you want to be proud of? So and this is I'm shrinking this conversation down. But it was a long conversation, it's a really good one. And uh, I sat up all night just typing away like on my Apple notes and my phone, thinking about all the things I care about, and and came to this kind of idea of what I want to develop in this program. And that was just such an important thing for me. Like, I don't I don't really care or believe in the legacy thing of like who's gonna know my name, like nobody's gonna care. You know, in two generations, nobody's gonna care my name, who I who I am, my name, they're not gonna care. But like the lives you impact will then cascade and impact other lives and other lives. And as long as you're doing it in a way that like you don't care if you get the credit, it's great.

SPEAKER_01 46:48

That's awesome, man. You end up running for president down the road. You powerful, man. That's that's good stuff, man. I salute what you're doing, man. Appreciate you, thank you. Keep killing it, and what's the social handles people can can check out uh the GTG?

SPEAKER_00 47:00

Yeah, everything on social is so for Instagram is at gtg.energy. Okay. Same for TikTok. I think X is a little bit different because the way they name things, but it's just GTG.energy. And then for my personal one, it's uh at Cabo Gunderson, Cabo C A B O. That's your name. Okay. That's my call sign. Yep. Okay. Uh at Cabo Gunderson, G-U-N-D-E-R-S-O-N, and then the website for GTG. Yeah, if people are interested in in finding an alternative to Zen, nicotine pouches, all that stuff, gtg.energy.

SPEAKER_01 47:28

So check them out, man. Josh, appreciate your time, man. That's true. Yeah, that was awesome. So, top gun of the building, man. So I appreciate you, man. Uh, check us out, the biggest circle.com and subscribe with us, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Fantastic stuff.