The Athlete Entrepreneur

Lt. Col. Frank Savarese | Flying an F/A-18 Hornet, Playing Baseball at the Naval Academy, and how he Co-Founded Hero Barbell Co.

December 02, 2021 Greg Spillane
The Athlete Entrepreneur
Lt. Col. Frank Savarese | Flying an F/A-18 Hornet, Playing Baseball at the Naval Academy, and how he Co-Founded Hero Barbell Co.
Show Notes Transcript

This episode of The Athlete Entrepreneur features my good friend and co-founder of Hero Barbell Co.Lt. Col. Frank "Squiggy" Savarese

Lieutenant Colonel Savarese was born the son of a Marine attack pilot.  He graduated the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelors of Science in History and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in May 2002.  

In June 2006, Lieutenant Colonel Savarese finished his initial training at VMFAT-101, and reported to the Death Rattlers of VMFA-323 for follow on training.  He also deployed aboard USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) in support of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (II) in 2007 and again in 2009 in support of theater security operations in the western pacific.  He was designated Air Combat Tactics Instructor in December 2008. 

Departing from the Snakes in July 2009, Lieutenant Colonel Savarese received orders to become a Fleet Replacement Squadron Instructor and reported to VMFAT-101.  While with the Sharpshooters, he was selected to attend the United States Navy’s Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) and was designated a Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor in June 2011. 

Lieutenant Colonel Savarese received orders in August 2012 to report to Marine Aviation Training Systems Site (MATSS) Iwakuni, and relocated his family to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan.  While assigned to MATSS Iwakuni, he served as MATSS operations officer and as the MAG-12 standardization evaluator.  In July 2013, he received orders and reported to the Bats of VMFA(AW)-242 and serve as the pilot training officer.  He attended Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course 1-14 was designated a WTI in October 2013.  For his efforts as training officer, he was recognized as the 2015 1st Marine Aircraft Wing Aviator of the Year. 

Subsequently, Lieutenant Colonel Savarese reported for duty as Air Officer, 11th Marine Regiment in April 2015.  Upon graduating Tactical Air Control Party School and being designated a Forward Air Controller (FAC), he attended WTI again as an air officer.  While at WTI, he received the India 14 award, distinguishing him as top FAC.  During his tour with 11th Marines, he was responsible for Joint Terminal Attack Controller training throughout 1st Marine Division.

In October of 2016, Lieutenant Colonel Savarese reported to the Death Rattlers of VMFA-323 for his department head tour.  During this tour, he served as the maintenance officer in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, and deployed with Carrier Air Wing 11 aboard USS Nimitz (CVN 68) in June 2017.  He returned in December of 2017 and served as the executive officer until his departure in March of 2019. 

After departing the Death Rattlers for a second time, he reported to Commander Naval Air Forces (CNAF) to serve as the Tactical Aircraft Integration (TAI) officer.  For his continued efforts to integrate both the Navy and Marine Corps, he was recognized as the 2019 USMC Tailhooker of the Year.

His personal awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal (Strike/Flight), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (gold star in lieu of third award), and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (gold star in lieu of second award).  Throughout his flying career, he has accumulated over 2300 mishap free F/A-18 hours, over 150 combat hours, and 364 carrier-arrested landings.

LtCol Savarese is happily married to the former Jamie Alameda of Yuma, Arizona.  They have four children, Charlotte (10), Reid (8), Frances (4), and Margot (1).

Greg Spillane:

What's up everyone and welcome to the athlete, entrepreneur. I'm your host, Greg Spillane. This week, my guest is Lieutenant Colonel Frank Savar. Reese from the United States Marine Corps. Frank is an absolute stud has an unbelievable resume of what he's been able to accomplish in his career to this point, we talk a lot about high achiever mentality, we talk a lot about grit and grind, and people who are able to, you know, compete in a highly competitive world and and sort of overcome, like, Who are these people that are able to be successful in a world where everybody wants that particular role. And, you know, I think Frank's a guy that every step of his career is a great example of that. So give you a little bit of perspective. Frank was a division one, college athlete played baseball, I play baseball at the Naval Academy, one of the most prestigious universities, really in the world. Getting into the Naval Academy's is very difficult, very different than, than most universities, you need some type of recommendation, or whatever it may be, you know, from from higher ups. In Frank's case, he was able to get a congressional recommendation from a congressman of his home state. Very competitive, a lot of people looking for that recommendation. And when he was at the Naval Academy, went through that we talked a little bit about what life Naval Academy was like. But you know, when when you get out of school, and it's time to pick your career in the military, you know, flying jets is probably the most sought after job you can have. Everybody wants to be a fighter pilot, right? It's, it's, you know, you grew up watching Top Gun, you know, you know, what's cooler than than flying supersonic and a fighter jet. So, you know, Frank was able to get that he was able to get that job in that role in the military. spent, you know, 18 plus years flying F 18 Hornets, two tours of duty, I think 37 combat missions or so. And, and it culminated with him taking command of a squadron. He's currently the the commander of a squadron at Camp Pendleton, leading a large team and a large group of Marines. And we dive a little bit into that, I think something like, you know, 65% of his Marines that are currently under his command, have only known the Marine Corps in a post COVID world, and what that's like. And then finally, a Frank's Frank is an entrepreneur. He is co founder of the hero barbell CO. We talked a little bit about that company. We talked about what you know, and full disclosure, I'm also a co founder in that company with him. But it's a super fun conversation. You know, I think a lot of people out there will will geek out on certain things like I did myself. You know, we talk a little bit about what it was like flying a supersonic fighter jet for the first time on your own. Talk a little bit about the real life UFOs that have, you know, been disclosed by the the US military. Frank is a super gregarious guy. This was a really fun conversation. He's humble, but has had an amazing career. So without further ado, here is my good friend, Lieutenant Colonel Frank savaris. 20 years. What do we what do we? What do we got? Coming down like The Final Countdown

Frank Saverese:

nights in 19 years? Almost seven months?

Greg Spillane:

19 years? Seven months? Yeah. And you are? You've already left the Marine Corps know that you will be retiring? Yes. And it's like officially like the 20 year mark.

Frank Saverese:

Yeah, just just think, two ish weeks. Two weeks afterwards. So funny years, two weeks? Yeah. You ready? No. But, but I gotta grow up somehow. But so I guess. I guess we'll take it from there. You know. Yeah.

Greg Spillane:

So you're sir. I got this question. You're having a chance to to attend I guess the version of this year's Marine Corps ball. Yeah.

Frank Saverese:

Not not ball not not

Greg Spillane:

close to a ball, which by the way, was a super honor. So amazing to be part. One of the things I sensed is, you know, your as a CEO as a commanding officer, you spent 18 years of your tenure in the Marines is not necessarily a commanding officer Squadron and then you know, you're seeing it and other commanding officer doing things and it seems like something to strive for. I want to be in that role. You It is especially something you have to earn. And, you know, there's a lot of cool stuff that comes with it. And then of course, you you get that opportunity you become a commanding officers here. And it's cool. I know, I know, coming out of COVID, but not necessarily reads Right. Like it's, it's, it's, there's a lot more going on in the Marine Corps COVID Probably is it just the world? How's this last year of entry?

Frank Saverese:

Alright, so I'll preface this by just saying that this is not institutional, institutional policy and official word, the Marine Corps kind of thing. But yeah, so I mean, let me let me start off by saying, you know, you're, you're absolutely right, you know, you kind of you kind of set goals for yourself, in the military. And certainly, like, you know, you have your role models and mentors, and I mean, commanding officer, that that's like your second dad, especially when you get into your first squadron, and you just, you look up to these guys, you want to, you know, kind of model your life after them or you know, they're not so good. Maybe not. So it's like, well, that kind of sucks. So, yeah, I mean, never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would have to kind of work around an invisible enemy, you know, like a global pandemic. And, you know, the Marine Corps, it was, it was kind of weird. And I don't know whether this was maybe just DoD writ large. And I think other services kind of did it different ways. But on the marine side of the house, it was like when California was on, like, worldwide locked down. We didn't have a mask policy necessarily instituted yet. So we're kind of you know, we're kind of behind the times. And then as California like, eased up, and the vaccine became available, more and more people were vaccinated. And, you know, we dropped into the yellow or orange T or whatever, and eventually opened back up and mass policy was no longer in fact, in the state. That was like, right around the time where the DoD instituted was like, okay, cool. We are doing all masks, regardless of vaccination status, period, that so it's like, alright, well, yeah. And then the vaccine mandate came out, too. So it's kind of like, we're, we're, we're, we're not not pushing. It's just, it's just a thing we got to do. We got to follow orders, right. So the order was given by the Secretary of Defense, like, get vaccinated, and we we get vaccinated, it would just it would be really cool to kind of, maybe make these policies geographically dependent, versus just, you know, a blanket coverage kind of thing. So a lot of the Marines, you know, they, they put the trust in their command, they put the trust in their senior leadership, they go out and they get the vaccine and like, Okay, well, is it just to be ready? Or can we just, can we kind of just get over the COVID, or at least adapt to local to local state policies, you know, and again, California, I think we're at like a 90 to 93% vaccination rate right now in the county. So yeah, it's a it's, it's a struggle. And then like, the hardest part is like as the commanding officer having to stand up and explain why we still have the mass policy and in why we couldn't have a Marine Corps ball this year. And it's just it's frustrating, because the Marines see through that they're smart, you know, they're, they're super smart. And it's just like, I wish I could give you a better answer than I'm giving you right now. And, and, you know, and that's the generation too, right? That millennial, XYZ or whatever generation that we're dealing with, like they're awesome at a lot of things, as long as you at least give them an answer, right? They want to know why.

Greg Spillane:

Let me let's talk about that. him up at, at the NOC Marine Corps ball. I forgot what the number was. But it was a staggering percentage. You can probably tell me what it is of Marines current Marines that have only known the Marines during COVID. Oh, yeah. Right. Yes. Because it's organization, what was the percentage? So

Frank Saverese:

I don't know the percentage. And don't make me do math in public right now, but it's probably around 60%. So we have 251 Marines in the squadron. And I, and when we were kind of discussing whether or not to do one cake cutting ceremony as a squadron, or do five or six. I said, Well, what if we do this? Or maybe what if we, what if we just do a full on cake cutting ceremony for the Marines that just have never witnessed and wrinkle balls? Like take take the first two year time in service? You know, how many movies we have 50 ish or so he's like, 167 Oh, my God. Okay, well scratch that idea. But yeah, blew my mind. Right. 167 out of 251. Marines have never actually been to a Marine Corps ball. Yeah. So, you know, I

Unknown:

the the millennial thing, I tell you,

Greg Spillane:

Gen z's. You know, you're technically a millennial, but

Frank Saverese:

that's not true. That is a full statement.

Unknown:

You're right. You're right on the borderline, yeah. being emitted, evaded by about six months ago. I

Greg Spillane:

mean, it's really, in pop culture, there's, there's obviously a lot of criticism that can that can be pushed down to younger generations. I don't like to be that person in general, because I just I don't want to generalize things, period. Sure. But you are in a situation where you're working with Gen Y. I don't even need to know what this latest generation Yeah. Okay, what's a 20? What's a 21.0? We got that. We got that brief at the commanders course. Yeah, my generation. What is your been your experience? I mean, both both positive? And you know, maybe some of the negatives. I'm not here for shit on? Oh, no. We were all younger, at some point. I'm sure a bunch of fogies. topsheet about so that time,

Frank Saverese:

I will, I'll tell you right now, like, they're the, you know, they're amazing in their own right. If you give them a reason why, and again, you know, like your Marine, you shouldn't have to explain yourself and everything, and you don't have to, they'll go out and they'll execute orders without giving them a reason. But if you want to execute, if you want them to execute orders with like, just complete sincerity, or that, that fire underneath of them, you give them just hey, and you know what, like, I want to tell you this, but like this is this is the why behind it, they're gone, they're there, they're firing for gret. And they will just, they will bend over backwards to ensure that whatever you just ask them to do is successful. But yeah, that's, that's my, you know, that's, that's kind of been my experience the last 18 months. And I mean, again, you know, predominant. I mean, I think I think we're close to probably 90% of Marines and resqwater are 25 and below so, I mean, it's, it is that generation, you know, that that really young millennial and in that new generation, whatever cherish is called. But yeah, I you know, like downs you see, and this is not a, this is not a knock on them by any means. But you see the, you see the differences of just like, you know, Coach grabbed you by your helmet, right? And, and, and told you, you kind of screwed that play up and fix it and you're like, okay, cool, like, I got it. And there were often are many times where, in young in my career, I was never hazed or anything like that, but was talking talk to very sternly or maybe a hand was placed in and around my uniform. You know, and it was like, okay, cool, but I responded to that. That is, that is how I was brought up. And that was, that was how I responded to it. You can't do that this generation, you can't do it at all. They will. They will, they will. They will go internal very, very quick. That is not the way to reach them. And so it's like another little leadership challenge you just got you have to find ways to reach the youth. Yeah. And it's weird me being 41 years old. But yeah,

Greg Spillane:

Well, so So let's take a step back, you have a really, really interesting path to where you are today. And there's some other things that are going on besides just the Marine Corps. I want to talk to you later. But you know, first of all, podcasts called the athlete entrepreneur. You're obviously I've had a great military career, but we're not sure who I attended the Naval Academy that is a baseball player. Yep. So that's that. That's pretty cool. For those that don't know, and I always find this really fascinating. Getting to the Naval Academy is sort of challenging, right? There's a couple of couple couple couple hoops to go guys got to jump through. So maybe for anybody out there listening, it's not for me. What what are some of the things that were necessary for you to even be considered? Totally?

Frank Saverese:

It's, you're absolutely right, Greg, like, I think 1213 I don't know the exact stats on the amount of applicants applied here now, but I think around when I applied, it was like 1112 13,000 applicants each year, and only 10 ish percent of those guys are and gals are harder to

Greg Spillane:

get into is Notre Dame, oh, my God.

Frank Saverese:

I got I got accepted to Notre Dame when I was in eighth grade.

Greg Spillane:

Anybody else in this game in the Naval Academy? Get big,

Frank Saverese:

very big rivalry. And also for anybody else listening. I used to be a huge Notre Dame fan until I went to Navy. So but yeah, no, it is. It is it is difficult. It's it's a tough school. There's a certain amount of maturity that comes with it. And I will tell you right now, I was not there. My freshman year could have used a year of prep school, like really big. That being said, I kind of struggled and made it through. But yeah, so you have to you submit the application process that all colleges have, but then you have to petition for a nomination right. And so there's there's a couple different ways you can get nominations, if your family's an alumnus you can you can get an alumnus right, I was I was an alumnus nomination nomination. Thank you. So I completely lost my train of thought, yeah, so alumnus nomination there. Medal of Honor winners, you can you can get, you can get their own kind of separate nomination, you can get a presidential nomination, or you can get a congressional nomination, you can either go the senator, Congressman route, for whatever state you're applying it. But you have to get that nomination before you even go and finish the appointment process. Right. So it's like, it's like, you finished your application, you go interview for the job. And even though you may or may not get the nomination, doesn't necessarily mean you're still going to get accepted into school. So you still go through the full on boarding process.

Greg Spillane:

So you have to work you have to get the nomination, which is which is an effort in itself. I think we talked about this. Yeah. You had a congressional congressional. And I don't remember the details, but it sounded like there was a number of people that were trying to get a nomination from this particular. Oh, yeah. And you were the one. I can't

Frank Saverese:

remember if it was like one or two. Right? I think I and I know for senators for Senators, two senators, each state kind of thing, but like, the senators only get two nominations. I can't remember what the congressmen get or what they don't get. But I reached out Jesse Holmes was was North Carolina Senator reached out to both of our senators at the time and they had already given him that I mean, they were they were already spoken for basically certainly. Oh, scratch that one off the list. Shake the Etch A Sketch away and try again. But yeah, no, Senator Well, our correction Congressman Walter B. Jones, may rest in peace. But yeah, give me a shot and forever forever thankful for

Greg Spillane:

and why you your rapist with

Frank Saverese:

had to event it? I think I think it just charm the pants off the interview team. But no, it was. It was it was a good interview. I felt you know we have these we have these kind of liaison guys. Former alumni in and around every single state and they call them blue and gold officers. And so as you're doing this application from loan officers, and so as you're doing this application, and he'll kind of take you through and prep you for the interview, and he'll be kind of the conduit between, you know, using that nomination for so he helped he helped me out a bunch and I mean, I again, but yeah, ultimately made it through baseball helps. And

Greg Spillane:

so what was you know, when you got to the academy, what was like, you're like, Okay, we're, we're not in Kansas anymore. Oh,

Frank Saverese:

man. But yeah, so this is, this is a good story. So I went right. I first visited my freshman year of high school. And it was a beautiful campus. It's right on the banks of the seven River up there in Annapolis, Maryland. Annapolis is a gorgeous town and you know, big, big just boats, called the boat school, but boats everywhere and just just absolutely gorgeous atmosphere, right. And, and so you just you kind of get like just low then this is, oh my gosh, this is so beautiful. And you don't really see what goes on actually inside the school. You know, fast forward now to my senior year. I go up to visit the baseball team, meet the baseball coach and hang out with the baseball team for the weekend. Right? Not the freshmen or the plebes, but just you know, one of the guys that was a senior on the team as a family friend, and just kind of hung out with him for a little bit. I think he dropped me off with the freshmen for like an hour and a half while he had to go do something and I just, you know, kind of hung out and talked and didn't really grasp the whole what it takes or what the leaves actually have to go through their entire freshman year. So I get I get the appointment, I get accepted. And get to plebe summer, I was just like, dude, what just happened? Like this is where, where's the baseball field? I gotta do all this. Baseball. Now, if you put your football player you can get away with that. Baseball guys. We didn't have that much cloud. So. Yeah, so it was definitely, definitely a rude awakening. I was I was very well prepared. And everyone kind of prepped me that that was what was gonna happen. But just you kind of have to see it to believe it. Right? There's just in there's just that that initial sticker shock. Like, oh, God, what did I just get myself into?

Greg Spillane:

So you're obviously a pilot, flew Hornets. That didn't happen until after graduated naval academy or those Correct? Okay, so you see you graduate. Yep. That lets you graduate and

Frank Saverese:

graduate. Got got one of the slots. So each year 16.67% of the graduating class has the opportunity to become Marines. Because some Marines or Department of Navy, yes. The men's department, obviously. But yeah, marines Department of the Navy. So the Naval Academy have a certain amount of slots for for guys to go marine option. So I got got one of those. And I was fortunate enough he had to take, you got to take this pilot aptitude test, basically, then if your grades are high enough, then you can get a pilot option. So otherwise, you're just you know, you're just run of the mill Marine Corps and you get on TBS, and you slug it out with 200 guys to figure out what your career is going to be in the Marines. But if you're fortunate enough to get a pilot option, you can just go to TBS and kick your feet up and relax and just watch everybody else like going out. Trying to get you know, great leadership grades and fitness grades and everything like that. Now that type A personality and all this, you're still going to go down there and give it your all and everything. But yeah, so you graduate, and then you go to the basic school and you learn how to be a Marine officer, right? You lead Marines for six months. Do a lot of peer leadership there. Lots of fitness, that kind of stuff. And then from there, we went to flight school, flight school. The best part about all of this is flight school was about a little over three years start to finish to get to your actual First Fleet Squadron and Fire First Fleet aircraft. And I have nothing to show for it but wings MHS there's no there's there's no graduate degrees or anything like that, that you get to take from there but you do learn a pretty badass trade that is absolutely marketable in the real world after after the military if you choose to go that route so so yeah, so flight school did Pensacola it was down in Pensacola for about six months and then went from Pensacola to Kingsville Texas or yeah Kingsville Texas so like a jet set of primary training so you like learn on a little tour turboprop? Yeah which was awesome to fly get to do aerobatics and go out and solo and scare the shit out of yourself and all the all the fun all the

Greg Spillane:

fun stuff from like, Okay, I'm sort of I'm selected I can be a pilot I can you know to I'm doing air aerobatics in a turboprop. Yes, that timeline?

Frank Saverese:

Um, four months, four months? Yeah. Four months of quit. Right. So yeah, I get I get to get the airplane in May. And probably by the end of August, early September. I'm in the aerobatic selves.

Greg Spillane:

So, you know, we were relatively seen, ah, we all grew up with, like, sort of a Top Gun sort of thing. I'm sure you're watching 100 times like I did. flying a jet. I mean, as a kid, it seemed like the absolute coolest thing in the entire world there would be like, I'm a rock star, you know, major league baseball player or it's like I fly jets, fly jets. What was that experience? Have you even remember that experience? The very first time you got on a cockpit of an FAA team? And we're like,

Frank Saverese:

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I remember that. So, first, first, let me and Tom Cruise would love it if I did this really quick. But just Public Service Announcement Top Gun to Memorial Day weekend. 2020. To go see the movie. It's gonna be awesome. I got a chance to fly fly a jet down while they're doing the movie. In the movie. Everybody knows.

Unknown:

Seriously, they did. Right?

Frank Saverese:

Yeah, they filmed they filmed a bunch of it down in North Island. I am most likely I'm not in the movie. I do that? I do. I do. Definitely, definitely could be my good couple of my buddies. I got to do some of the flying for talking too though. It was really it was really cool. But yeah, so you get so you get in there and it's just, you know, you think about it, just like you're a 40 something year old. But you just get to get into a Lamborghini every single day. And there's no speed limit. And there's no cops and it's just go you know and you go sometimes till you scare yourself and then you pull back a little bit you know, and then you just you just kind of keep keep pushing. Keep pushing the limits are the envelope for for the top gun enthusiast you can you redline. What's up? Can you like, oh, yeah, every airplane has a key limit. You absolutely can't get close

Greg Spillane:

to it isn't like you have that moment.

Frank Saverese:

I mean, yeah, but at the time, you're just like awesome. Like, you know, I ever Alright, like so I know, my time in the Hornet is very fleeting. And every single time that I get a chance to go back up in it again. It's just you're like a kid in a candy store, man. It's yeah, it is. You just walk out to the airplane with a smile on your face and you leave an airplane with a smile on your face. Yeah, it's awesome.

Greg Spillane:

And you know, obviously fine. Like you saw some shit, right? What 30 We talked about the other 37 combat missions. Yeah, something like that.

Frank Saverese:

Around in around that I got to do to combat deployments. So I got to do as a very young captain, I got to go support our economic guest in in 2007. And then, you know, again, like you guys train their entire careers and some just the timing doesn't work out and you and thank God right? They they'd never they never get to see combat. I was fortunate enough to go back 10 years later and and serve my country and support inherit resolve and help you guys out in Iraq and Syria as well. So yeah, it's a it's it's it's good. You know, I gets you think about it's just like, playing football, you're training for the you train for that bowl game. And you finally get to that bowl game and it's like, hey, it's game time. And that's, that's exactly what it is when you get the combat so you train your entire life just to own your craft and get as good as you could possibly be in the aircraft know your procedures ins and outs. All the all the things right air to air to ground. That's the the hard part about being a hornet pilot is you got to be good at everything. And and yeah, I mean you never know when you're going to be called upon to to use it. So

Greg Spillane:

yeah. Yeah, that's a that's heavy right. You definitely experienced some real stuff. Um, so I, we talked about this once I want to talk about it again. sort of interesting, off off subject, but relative. There's a 60 minutes that there's recently done talking about these unidentified flying. Yeah. I guess really, we sort of government released some stuff basically say, no, no, no, this is real. There's real stuff out there. Now. They're not saying this are these are aliens, right? They're just things that existed. I know. One of the big cases they point to happened off the coast of San Diego. And you know, did you know, I

Frank Saverese:

know, I know of guys that were a part of that. Group. That's

Greg Spillane:

your what's your take?

Frank Saverese:

I mean, it was it was as clear as day now is the story obviously, because we're we're fighter pilots, we can tell a good story, right? It has probably morphed into, you know, a lot but bigger than it actually was. But the story that was told to me by by very reputable source, a good friend of mine, multiple friends. Was that no kidding. They're flying off the coast. They pick something up in their, in their FLIR? Right, they can see it on the radar at all. But they're just kind of, you know, doing a little dig around flight out out in the ocean. They see this what they call a tic tac, you know, just kind of hovering above the surface, and then it just starts moving like erratically and it's gone. Right. So what we have to do, every time you land back on an aircraft carrier is the first thing you have to do in your flight gear and everything, you can't go change or anything like that. You have to go to civic right, or the carrier Intelligence Center. And you just you get debriefed by the Intel officers on the ship. And so it's like, hey, you know, what you go out and do most most of them are just like young JGS or ensigns, right and the Navy, and they're just doing what they're doing what they're told. And so you answer the questions and everything. But in this case, one of the questions you know, is like, hey, anything, anything significant occur? And like, Well, hell yeah. And it did check these tapes out, right. So when we record all of our displays for every single flight that we do, they just so happened to be recording? Well, well, they picked up this tic tac

Greg Spillane:

video, is tic tac, something that you use that term?

Frank Saverese:

No. Candy, it looked like it is not a comparability term, are also comparable. But yeah, so they really showed the Intel guys these tapes are like, Oh, it's pretty interesting. They, you know, kind of shot it up the chain. And I don't know, maybe less than 24 hours later, men and black showed up on the ship. Yeah. Men and black the tapes disappeared. And that was the last the guys ever saw. Right.

Greg Spillane:

Do you think they decided to finally declassify?

Frank Saverese:

Um, I don't know. And obviously, the what actually happened is still classified. They just, you know, the, they could they can declassify the event that that occurred. And, and yeah, I mean, the government hasn't said like, it's ours. Like, this is what this does. And or the government, you know, they didn't even say that. It is, quote unquote, ours. Who knows? It could have been could have been something else could have been an alien. You know, like, good, man.

Greg Spillane:

Are there any, like credible theories on what it is? Or not? Everything from our experimental planes? China's experimental play? Yeah.

Frank Saverese:

You hear at all I think it's, you know, somebody knows somewhere. But yeah, I got I got nothing.

Greg Spillane:

You're talking unofficial passing? Yeah, no, totally.

Frank Saverese:

I mean, hey, look, they made a Netflix documentary on it. So I mean, I'm not saying anything that isn't isn't public knowledge.

Greg Spillane:

So the last for when Yeah, I know you haven't they transitioned flying King airs right now you're the plans to get out was part of taking command dependent on you not actively flying like jets like and kind of take on a new role it was your decision to move to the King Air was more of like a preparing you for the next chapter?

Frank Saverese:

No, no, it wasn't. So you know, like when you when you put your name in the hat for command and again, it's just it's, it's a whole nother screening process. And if you think about it, like, when you get to that point, it's like, trying to start for an NFL team, right? You can, you can be a starter on a college team and be a very good starter on a college team. But it takes it's, it's gonna be hard to get to that level. So in my case is the Hornet starts, you know, started to get phased out lots of very, very qualified people on the board that I was on. And there are only four, four squadrons available. And I counted the names and you can you can kind of ask the, the command slate before the board, you can you can ask them to be rvr or remove by request. And so I kind of you know, you know, the guys that are eligible for command, and you look at the names you're like, Okay, I mean, it's such a small community, you know, like whether or not they're going to put in for it. So I mean, there was there was a good probably close to 40 people that I was like, All right, 5050 shot, right. Their careers were such where they've, they've done everything that they needed to be competitive for come in. And then out of those guys, over half of them, at least went to one tactical school. And another, you know, kind of stepping stone to the competitive for command. So it's like, oh, God, all right, now we're throwing it away. All right. I was the youngest guy on the board, the youngest guy on the board. And I got some really good feedback from from one of my mentors. And, you know, unfortunately, I did not get Hornets because everybody wants to be a gun squadron CEO. But I did get my first choice of supporting command. And from what I was told, there was no way I was going to be alternated, or put on the alternates list, right in the in the ladies room for on the alternates list and screen next year, because the guy deserves a command right now. And he's going to get a commander on this board. So silver lining, you know, in that, yeah, it sucks. I'm not not flying Hornets day in and day out anymore. But at the same time, I got to stay in California. I got I'm a I'm a commander of a base within a base, which is awesome. So Marine Corps season Camp Pendleton is is its own kind of just home within a home. And it has some benefits there. And, and it's very, it's very small. And one of my, one of my good friends. Judy Hauser, she has command of Miramar. Her commands almost 1200 Marines. I mean, that's like that's, you know, I have tutor and 50. Right, like, so I have that I have that personal relationship with with a lot more my Marines,

Greg Spillane:

which I can only imagine the amount of issues you're dealing with on a day in day out basis. 1200 There's a lot of pizza. Yeah. So, I mean, look, I want to talk about the entrepreneurial side of this. No, totally some some really, really cool parts of that. But I think one thing you know, for anybody who is listening, because it was new to me, you know, coming up in our Top Gun era, right, we talked earlier, Top Gun air generation, you get like you know, Maverick in Iceman is like, super cool. callsigns so, you know, you have this thought of like, you know, Viper I'm gonna, like go into the Navy and Marines are gonna be a pilot. It's like I get to pick the super callsign it's not quite out word. No, no, no. Your callsign is squeaky squeaky. So how did he get squeaky?

Frank Saverese:

Well, my first CO was was big Laverne and Shirley fan. One and two. I kind of I kind of personify this character that was on this, you know, late 70s. Early 80s sitcom. Yes, of course my Italian descent, right seven is a so I wrote Again, like they tell you when you first get to your fleet Squadron, you know, it's like, hey, look, big ears, little mouth, you know, for for a nice way of putting it. And, and I just I come in like, Yeah, got it. Like that's not my personality that's not me at all. And I come in guns blazing and I just I just over the top of noxious. And so there was another one of my buddies who came in a couple of months before me. And you go to this, what we call a kangaroo court, right? Shenanigans ensue. But it's that it's all good times. But at the end of the kangaroo court, that comes time for callsign review, and that's where all the all the guys in the squadron gals in squadron they stand up and they get a callsign review. So if they already have a callsign they review it, see if it's good to go. And you know, if it's good, they leave it alone. Next guy stands up, they do it by seniority. So we get down to get down to me and my buddy, he's ahead of me. So he stands up and they're like, alright, well, this one's gonna be part of a duo. Right and we got we got Lenny, and then Savary stand up popped up, you know, salaries it'd be sweet lady and squeeze the cornbread white dude. And the obnoxious Italian guy can't keep his mouth shut. So that's yeah, so that's where that source code comes from?

Greg Spillane:

Yeah, there were there's so many amazing ones that we talked about. Probably not not necessarily appropriately here um, but yeah, that's that that was one of the most interesting thing is how it's the it's almost like a like a contest outdo yourself to come up with something that's like, yeah, subtle enough that it's not obvious that this is really deep, deep burn. Oh,

Frank Saverese:

yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, there's a there's there. You can you can get acronyms involved and just kind of in turn the acronym into a story that happened, you know, that's just completely embarrassing. And then, you know, the wife may or may not know the story. Yeah, you got a big, you got a big side story to tell, you know, so you don't tell her the real story. It's just, it's, I mean, it's, it's, again, it's good. It's good fun. The call signs kind of have taken a hit the past couple of years, you know, just political. Yeah, the political isation of everything. And, but, but at the end of the day, it's, it's one of the traditions that needs to continue because it's, it's good.

Greg Spillane:

Well, just that that little snapshot that I was able to see at the the NOC Marine Corps, right is is is the amount of like just traditions there are totally, they're really cool. To see to be a part of. Yep. And those types of things. So are we able to talk about the the company that your your wife started?

Frank Saverese:

Yes, absolutely.

Greg Spillane:

As you co founded with with a couple buddies, yeah. One in particular be nice. Yes. Yes. Ah, little fitness company.

Frank Saverese:

Oh, yeah. It's a it's a what man talk about talk about a passion project. That was awesome. And it is and it continues to be awesome. And as we as we continue to see the growth and you know, kind of athletes reaching out and, and the feedback that we're getting from everybody but yeah, I mean, it was it was it was three guys three sewer three suburban legends I'm wearing wearing the shirt today. And it's kind of clustered together. In turn the the COVID doldrums and I thought it was you know, as cool because a company came out of it, but I thought, you know, like, our families kind of got really close and we all we all kind of grew together as as as friends too. So yeah, but I mean, it started right here in the casita or over beers and, and the thought process like what if we did this ourselves and it was I mean, it was awesome like we all you know, it sucks like barracks, CrossFit barracks, it May it rest in peace closed down, we lost our gym. We all collectively started building out our garage gyms looking for you know, obviously the most important piece in the gym is going to be the barbell that you use. And I think all of us were kind of frustrated with the options on the market and didn't want to pay out or you know, but for for kind of a bar

Greg Spillane:

dog barking

Frank Saverese:

and unregarded But yeah, they didn't want to pay, we don't pay like an absorbent amount of money for for a bar that was just going to be kind of substandard. So, you know, we, we sat around and talked about it and thank God that I'm just I'm just the good looks of the operation. You guys are the brain. You guys are the brains

Greg Spillane:

with wicked rate this week

Frank Saverese:

you got dude. I mean, like it was it was great like your vaalco was born right here. I think we have over I mean over 10 bars that we're selling right now and looking to looking to expand from there. So,

Greg Spillane:

yeah, yeah, no, look, it's, it's been fun. And it really has been an experience putting the whole thing together as you're writing it good come out of COVID Partially, but really was more of, you know, all of us. Our third partner was Mike who's not here right now. But yeah, we're avid CrossFitters. And the thing about CrossFit, and you know, I've talked a little bit of people about this company, and it's like, you've never done CrossFit, it's, it's hard to understand why there's a company so focused on creating premium barbells. But when you do do CrossFit, or you're in any type of function of fitness, the barbell is like the most important piece of equipment, the centerpiece of the gym, you need something that that feels good, that that that is capable of doing, you know, all the different types of Olympic movements that are necessary that feels good move hands, not going to tear your hands up when you're doing high rep. Um, you know, that, that they're functional for doing heavy, you know, cleans and snatches and different type of Olympic movements. But then like, it's kind of cool, right? Because most CrossFitters are working out four or five times a week, and this kind of becomes part of who you are in your identity, you want to be able to grab your bar that you feel good about. So having a little bit of a style to it. Yeah. You know, I think that's, that's where we came from. And that's, you know, what, what it came from? are, you know, how it sort of evolved. But I think one of the things that's been really fun to hear your thoughts is, you know, I think when we came up with this concept, and this idea, we thought, well, maybe we'll be this direct consumer brand, and we'll find some video channels. But we quickly like, got kind of a following in there in the community, and and have these professional athletes and these high ranking people reaching out to us and wanting to be a part of our company, and really getting into the authenticity of the brand. And it's actually in many ways morphed into much more than I even bought it when we were sitting around having talks about the idea that

Frank Saverese:

we we need a team. We can't pay you right now. But we need a team if we're if anybody is listening. Yeah, no, you're I mean, you're absolutely right. You hit the nail on the head, and we, you know, we talked I think in our first quarterly, first first quarterly meeting, and it was like, hey, like, what? What is your old barbell? What is our brand? What is our identity? Like, you know, is is this going to be like the direct to consumer Amazon special bar? Or is this thing going to be the next dollar shave club, this is going to be the next Harry's manscaped whatever, where you can just take a product slap a brand, a story a following behind it, and go right sky's the limit kind of thing. And I think I've you know, and again, hopes not a course of action, right? But I cross my fingers bigger than shit. I, I really believe that, that we're, we're on the precipice of something here. We're, we're, we're doing graciously. He said, we got some phenomenal athletes. We have a CrossFit Team Games champion, Andrew Nestler. Andrew, if you're listening, nice work. But I mean, you know, like, reached out we designed her own barbell and now like, her bars are selling like hotcakes. I mean, it's just, it's phenomenal. I mean, it's great. It's it's awesome to see female athletes. Like, you know, just get behind her and support her and, and purchase her bar, but at the same time, it's like, oh, man, this is like this. This is actually growing. And I think, you know, the, the fun part for me, other than managing our Tic Toc, that was a joke by the way. The fun. The fun part for me is the actual bar designs. Like that's the that's the cool yeah, total Like, you know, I

Greg Spillane:

think that you know, one of the true like, cool parts about entrepreneurship and commercial for, for our fitness console, right? One of the cool parts of entrepreneurship is, and I think what drives me much more than money ever has is, is the creativity, the creation, the starting with a concept and an idea, working through the steps to fruition. And, you know, at the end of the day, the product is that it's an end result of that idea. I mean, you know, like you said, we sat around a CD together, I drink and a couple beers had this concept and idea, we all thought, is this a good idea? Do we really want to do this, you kind of take that next step forward, right? Like, well, let's maybe look at this, like, hey, let's see if we can find manufacturers? Well, we were gonna do this, like, how would we design it? And then, you know, before you know it, you have a finished product. And it I think that part just in entrepreneurship, in general, is the most fun part.

Frank Saverese:

And for the guys that know that I'm a part of this company, via my friends in the military, at least, you know, that was, that's the part that I share with them that I that I liked the most about it, because, you know, you, you learn in the military, especially on the pilot side of the house, you learn aviation operations, you learn aviation maintenance, you learn leadership, one on one, obviously, regardless of your job as a Marine, but you don't learn the business part of it, you don't learn consumer supply chain, you don't learn return on adspend that, that you typed me up on and all the time, like you don't you miss all of that stuff. And and I think, you know, just just wrapping my head around that or at least letting you wrap your head around that and me just going yeah, okay, good. It's, it's super cool. It's something I haven't done before. And I just really kind of enjoy doing because it's a, it's a new thing for me. So,

Greg Spillane:

yeah. So what is, you know, having, you know, been part of the military or a career and then moving into sort of this entrepreneurial world what was like the biggest like, I awaking, like, Oh, God, like, what is this? Or this is new? Or is it different? Or, I mean, I from from a distance, I feel like you've handled everything amazingly well, and, you know, whatever rule we've had to step into, and I think that that's sort of the key with any good partnership is we all have kind of found things on our roles you and you know, being really like explicit with them. But I, you know, have you felt like there's been times where completely different I'm trying to figure this thing out, or I'm like if somebody else in other marine can do who's like, hey, you know, I really want to do something. Let's start something, buddy. Yeah. And you were like, in they asked you for advice. What would you tell?

Frank Saverese:

I think I can I think I get at least some I educationally talk them through the process. Yeah. Like, I really, I really do. I mean, I couldn't point them in the dirt. Like, like, I don't really know of any manufacturers, but you could probably hop on Upwork or asana and look for, you know, kinda Yeah, exactly. Like, I could point them in the direction to where they need to go to at least find that information. Right. We talked like third party logistics. I mean, we, we dug down that rabbit hole for for a couple months. And yeah, I mean, now we can actually, okay, cool. This is this is this is how to set up a supply chain. This is how far out you need to plan depending on where you're getting your product from. In order to bitch oh, my God, I fly over to lunch every day passing the Embarcadero up in LA. But yeah, man, that's, that's, I think I get I think I could point them in the direction whereas you know, if they asked me in May of 2020, how to do that. Like, you should probably go to business school.

Greg Spillane:

When I went to business school, there were a lot of a lot of Persona. Yeah. I don't know how the GI bills and all that stuff works out. They were changing. Even this was 10 years, 12 years ago now that they were doing it but like, that was an option for you is an option for you. You could go back to

Frank Saverese:

it is I gave my GI Bill to my kids because I have so many of them. Do you have a letter? But But yeah, no, I could I could use my GI bill for business school and you have you have four years of it. So I could use it for two years and then give the other two years to my kids. If that was you know, something that I wanted to do but yeah, that's that's a cool thing about the GI bill but I could use it if I wanted to. If I wasn't a pilot I wanted to learn how to fly I could put my GI Bill towards my entire flight program. Yeah. You know, up to however many years it takes for me to, to learn to fly and get all the the type ratings and the FAA certs that you need to kind of try and make a bid for the airlines. So, yeah,

Greg Spillane:

well, I'll tell you why now, the hero barbell, I think passion projects, a good way to describe it. I mean, you know, I think I think it all started off as sort of the side hustles and this week, and now it's morphed into something, we're like, oh, this is potentially even bigger than then, you know, any of us thought. But, you know, I think we all sat around talking business and you thinking about our business partner or somebody I'd want to go into business with, you know, look at your background, you know, obviously, college athlete, you know, being able to get into the Naval Academy, get to the Naval Academy, be able to get through flight school, get be able to fly jets get into commanding officer, like, you have this track record of, quite honestly, just overcoming the odds and winning. So, you know, my perspective, selfishly, like, those are the kind of people that I would want to associate with. And so it's complex know that publicly with everybody else.

Frank Saverese:

Well, thanks, Greg. I piss excellence, you know, in the words of Ricky Bobby, no, man, when you when you when you pitch it to me, I was the same way. You know, a lot of people say like it I'll mix like friendship and business and probably which is true, I think, yeah, like, but I think but I think for us, particularly our friendship. It's, you know, like we can and I mean minus Mike, obviously, but I was a joke like, but I mean, all of us can clearly delineate the lines are not blurred, nothing is personal. If it is a business discussion. It's a purely business discussion. We bust guys balls if we need to bust guys balls, and at the end of the day, we're still like, great friends. And you know,

Greg Spillane:

it's your expense receipts and get my expensive

Frank Saverese:

I may have gotten my balls busted this morning.

Greg Spillane:

versus getting your balls busted on Texas. Oh, man. No, no contact. No, no. No, God really in trouble.

Frank Saverese:

I really wanted to send you that Texas. Awesome.

Greg Spillane:

I appreciate you coming into this again. So for those who don't know, it's actually the second time we've recorded one of these take two. The first time we had a complete technical disaster. But it was still fun. Yeah, it was still fun. And for those people listening to this conversation, you know, for the the 1112 of you out there unbelievable. You totally

Frank Saverese:

Yeah, you did. This is this is the same thing. Thanks for having me, man.

Greg Spillane:

Yeah, man, anytime. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the athlete, entrepreneur. You enjoyed the show. I'd greatly appreciate you leaving a rating. You could follow me and the show at athlete entrepreneurship.com Thank you so much for listening. Have a great day.