Josh is a former Navy SEAL and entrepreneur. After graduating from Wake Forest University, Josh passed on a scholarship to Yale University Divinity School to fight for our nation after the events of 9/11 and the commencement of the War in Iraq. He served as a SEAL officer for 12+ years and deployed overseas 11 times in support of the Global War on Terror. He is the recipient of three bronze stars and multiple medals. Josh left the service in 2018 and is today the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Angel Kids AI. In an internet environment where children are constantly exposed to inappropriate and addictive content, not to mention potential predators, daily, Angel Kids is a parent-created platform that provides guardrails for children to explore the online world safely. AngelQ: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/angelq/id6741329177 Cleared Hot audience offer 1 year free: EARLY365 Today's Sponsors: Montana Knife Company: https://www.montanaknifecompany.com/ LMNT: https://www.drinklmnt.com/clearedhot Get your free LMNT Sample Pack with any purchase. Also, don't forget to try the new LMNT Sparkling — a bold, 16-ounce can of sparkling electrolyte water.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic of this episode?
Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. Today, we're talking largely about internet safety. I've read that we have access to 98% of the known knowledge of mankind through our devices, laptop, tablet, phone, whatever it may be. How do we access that safely, though, with our children? How do we create a system an app, a portal that allows them to access it safely with barriers and boundaries.
Because if you have kids, you know, you do the absolute best that you can. You're not always there. And sometimes unfettered access, unsupervised access to the internet can lead to really, really dark places. My guest today is Josh Thurman. He is the co-founder and chief operating officer of a company called Angel AI.
I am not even going to begin to describe what they do because he does an amazing job and we actually walk through it in real time showing it. Before this though, before Josh got into the entrepreneurial world, he was a Navy SEAL. He served for 12 plus years, deployed overseas 11 times in the support of the Global War on Terror. I let him describe his career.
It's fascinating to me to see the people, where they come from, why, what they do while they're in, and then what they do afterwards. It's a fascinating story arc to me. It's inspirational. I always leave these conversations thinking, God, I know that I can do more and I need to. So before we get into episode 384 with Josh Thurman, let me pay the bills.
Today's episode is brought to you by Montana Knife Company. If you have been a fan of the podcast, you've probably heard the episodes I've done with their founder, Josh Smith. This brand, born, bred, raised, and is growing rapidly in Montana, about 100 miles south of where I am. Frenchtown, Montana is where they're currently operating.
They're building a massive facility on the western edge of Missoula. So the Montana Knife Company is Kind of makes sense where that came from. The state of Montana is also in the logo, but it's a global brand. These are some of the highest quality knives I've ever gotten my hands on. Beyond the fact that Josh is bringing jobs back into Montana, these are American made.
I literally have met the people that have made and sharpened these knives for me. This is a family business that is exploding globally. It hasn't changed who they are and what they stand for. Now, they release their knives on Tuesdays and Saturdays. They go very quickly. You can also sign up for their email list or a text. notification because sometimes they do surprise drops.
Their knives oftentimes when they do those drops Tuesdays and Saturdays will sell out within minutes. I highly recommend actually purchasing something like a sticker on their website so they have your payment information saved. I have literally had at least a half a dozen knives taken out of my shopping cart because I didn't do exactly that.
I was putting in my credit card information and they sold out before I could execute the transaction. It's very frustrating. Even though I know Josh, there's nothing that I can do about it. Head over to MontanaKnifeCompany.com. Check out what they have. I have their website in front of me. They have awesome apparel. Their knives, again, are second to none.
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Chapter 2: How did Josh Thurman become a Navy SEAL?
I was not seriously considering it at that point. And let me go back a little bit. I will say the seeds were planted, but we weren't at war. It wasn't super compelling to me at that point to go the military route. But when that happened, it was like, oh, man, our nations that are attacked, our freedom has been compromised. I mean, at that point, you could think about...
You know, people coming in and walking to McDonald's and blowing themselves up. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, that was like a thing that easily could have happened had we not been able to sort of dominate and keep terrorism at bay. But that made it just hit very home for me. You know, I... Growing up in Franklin, both my grandparents served in World War II.
I think that's common for a lot of people in our generation. My dad was drafted in Vietnam, but actually didn't see any action. And that probably was a good thing for just how that war went. And then... So my grandfather, he was a really big, like, strong guy, you know, 6'4", like, you know, probably 250, and, you know, played football. He was just someone I idolized and looked up to, and...
He ran for sheriff on our town. Like, everyone knew him. But he was a terrible storyteller. And I just mean, like, he just wasn't good at communicating. Would he just, like, start with the punchline? Yeah, exactly. That's what I'm going to lead in with. It's going to come around. I obviously love him to death. He had these stories, but I don't know what he did in World War II.
How much did he talk about it? I mean, almost not at all.
That's super common, too, of that generation.
For sure it is. And he's not an anomaly there. I do wish he could have told me some stories. He was in the North Africa element. And then but I'll bring that back to one of his good friends who he played football with there at Franklin High. His name was Jimmy Gentry and he turned out to be Coach Gentry. So he he's just a legend in our town. Just last year, we
We've got a statue for him, like on our five points, like in Main Street.
Like full size?
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Chapter 3: What lessons did Josh learn during BUD/S training?
I ask everybody this too.
Going through SQT, I put an East coast and this is cause I put it, I'm from Tennessee. I was thinking, well, maybe I can like pop home a little bit easier from the East coast. And that's what I put in. And then a couple months later I was like, Oh, that was dumb. Like the West coast, I'm loving in San Diego and I'm not sure it's actually that much easier.
And so then I went and changed it, and that was, I had no idea this was gonna happen, but it ended up being like a very good thing, so I ended up getting assigned to a West Coast team.
And then... I was not aware you could change your dream sheet.
Well, it wasn't... This must be the officer privilege.
This is Bud's officer privilege. Yeah, exactly. Because E2 Andy, they're like, we actually shredded your paper right after we gave it to you because that's a fucking joke. You're going where the Navy needs you.
Yeah, that's right. So... I rolled it to admin that was just off. I can't remember who was running it. This lady who was running it, and I think she was a civilian, she was not particularly happy that I wanted to do this, but she let it happen. And so the way it turned out, When I graduated SQT, got my trident and get assigned to my West Coast team.
Today's episode is brought to you by Element. It's spelled L-M-N-T like it is on the can. Don't be afraid to just say Element. What is it? It is electrolytes. I'm going to read right off of one of these little satchels that they have. You can hear this. 1,000 milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, 60 milligrams of magnesium. There's a couple of ways that you can get this.
You have these little satchets right here that I travel with. I keep them everywhere. I'm getting ready to go to Costa Rica for my wife's jujitsu seminar. I have an entire Ziploc full of these. I rely upon them. And now they have the sparkling water. 16 ounces, exactly the same thing. 1,260, a variety of flavors. I might be giving you some inside tea as well, but they just got a packet of
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Chapter 4: How does leadership work in the SEAL community?
So, uh, So did that rotation and then... Pull that mic a little closer. Yeah, yeah, sorry. You're good.
Take it with you when you lean back. Look at this.
Oh, man, it's good. Did that rotation and then... Volunteered to go over to Afghanistan right after that. We had just been back a few months, and we were going to go support another unit. Did that for a three-month deployment, which was an amazing pro dev. And then stayed at Team 5. That was also a good deal. So I got basically two...
I ended up doing three deployments, like, almost back-to-back, and then all in the, like, assistant platoon commander or third O role, which is a great place to learn a lot without having a ton of responsibility. And so, yeah, so then I finished there, and then I ended up going east coast after that, and...
I just did my platoon commander, troop commander, did some ops roles and ended up getting out 2018.
When did you start thinking about getting out? Wow. So you retired or got out, you did 12 years. So is that probably 04 knocking on 05? Yeah.
So I was just going to take the XO billet. Okay. Yeah. I'd picked that billet up and let's see. So I met my wife, she wasn't my wife at the time, but in 2011. And then we ended up getting married in 14. And we wanted to have a big family. And so we ended up having a kid right out of the gate, my oldest daughter, who's about 10 now. No, sorry, she is 10. She's 10 now. And
Being on that sort of intense operational cycle from like 14 to 18 in a troop commander role, it was just, honestly, it was just a lot of conflict in the home over, hey, you know, we had our second son during that time period as well. And it was one of those deals where Let me back up a little bit. My first daughter, I was deployed to Columbia. It was right in the middle.
I didn't love the way it was handled by leadership. It was like, you might get to go home kind of situation. I felt like just given... given the state of the mission and what was going on, it would have been reasonable to do so, but it turned out, I was a platoon commander at the time, my troop commander really stepped up for me big time. So my wife went into early labor,
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