I'm Alec lace. Welcome to First Class fatherhood. Welcome everybody to put so 245 and a podcast. I am happy as always to be here with you. Thank you for stopping by if this is your first time listening to the podcast. Please get over there and bang that subscribe button. You do not want to miss all the action that is coming your way right here on First Class fatherhood. All right dad's it is time for another frog man Friday edition of first-class fatherhood. I have a great guest for you guys today former Navy SEAL Chris Gomez is here with me today and Chris is also a former Navy SEAL instructor who Did trained and mentored hundreds of Navy SEALs true to most difficult military training on the planet. He is now crushing things on the civilian side of life. Chris. Gomez will be here with me in just a few minutes. So please stick around for the interview. It has been such a great week of content here on the podcast if you missed any of the action be sure to catch up over the weekend. I had world-class speaker Chris Norton here on Monday Tuesday the immortal UFC fighter Matt Brown Wednesday was just an incredible honor Black Hawk Down pilot. Mike Durant was here with me and yesterday of course and Fell wide receiver TJ hutchman Zada. All right, so some really good stuff going on here next week. I'm going to be smacking you guys with five fresh episodes including major league baseball player Dustin garneau entrepreneur, Matt cipolla artist Robert Patterson All-Pro NFL Center, Nick Hardwick and Navy SEAL. Tom. Shea will all be joining me. So locking in for that is going to be another great week here on First Class fatherhood celebrating fatherhood and family life, right and on a personal note here. I got some great news yesterday. I will be the head class parent of my daughters. The garden class I couldn't be more excited. She is the last of our four children's to hit the kindergarten grade here, and I plan on soaking up all the van and I will now have a first class seat to enjoy it all. All right, so, let's jump into today's action here and be sure you guys have following me over on Instagram at Alec on the school lace because I have some guests announcements that I'm going to be dropping soon. That is just going to blow your mind. It is shaping up to be just an incredible October here on first glance fatherhood. So please make sure you telling every father in your neighborhood or in your contact list about to show that is celebrating fatherhood and family life. Bye. Fatherhood rocks Family Values Rule and every day is Father's Day right here with me and I'm going to be right back with former Navy SEAL Chris Gomez. I'm Alec lace and you're listening to first glance fatherhood. 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He spent years as a Navy SEAL instructor forging hundreds of men into hard and warriors. It is a big honor for me to say Chris Gomez. Welcome to First Class fatherhood. Hey, thanks so much. I like I really Shit, you take your time. Let's start here. How many kids do you have and how old on it? So I have three three daughters. They call it the Frogman curse it kind of funny in that regard because it seems like frogmen have a tendency to to have a plethora of dongers. I myself have three. I've got a 15 year-old a ten-year-old and a five-year-old all spaced out five years apart. So it's surely makes an interesting home Dynamic. Yeah. God bless you with that. And what type? Both of us sports or activities of the girls into boy my oldest now, she's kind of concentrated herself into volleyball which is which is awesome because she's really I think five foot two, so she's one of the shorter girls out there, but she really loves it. We just got back from the game last night. It's she's really doing well loves it a lot and it's been fun. As far as the ten-year-old goes. She is still trying to figure out what she wants to concentrate on. She's been in basketball. She's in softball which my wife Coaches she's done. She's that she's in track. She'd there's just this wonderful program called Girls on the Run which she has done now for the last two years, which is a really good affirmation for young girls in sport. And so she loves to run she's in dance. She kind of does it all and then my wild card or my little five-year-old. She has she's tried a little bit of soccer. Not a big fan. She does love to dance. She doesn't love. Ants, so it's interesting. We're just trying to figure out she's strong as an ox though, and she's tiny little thing. So I keep pushing my wife toward considering gymnastics in some way or another but right now she's just in dance and she enjoys it most of the time but she's our little dancer. Yeah. Yeah, my five-year-old girl were on the same in the same boat. There were on the fence about gymnastics dance and going back and forth between the two so we'll see what happens here. A lot of buddies that put their daughters into gymnastics and it is certainly a long-term investment and it's a long mean it's that is probably one of the toughest Sports to put your child in because it's so time-consuming and there's so many people that are so invested in that. It's quite crazy. Yeah, definitely now, are you all donors or a shot that you going to go for the boy here, you know at 40 for nearly 45 years old. I think my wife Roxy, I'm 44 45 my wife just Turn 40 she is as no way she wants another one. We haven't made an official through any sort of surgery or any type. But yeah, no, I'm good. I'm good with my three girls. I guess having a teenage daughter for 19 consecutive years is going to be enough for me. Yeah. Well said they're all right Chris. If you could just take a minute here to hit my listeners with a little bit about your background and what you do. So right now I am in software sales. I work for a great company called VMware. I Switched over a couple of weeks ago VMware is based out of Palo Alto. I live in Houston Texas my background as far as the reason you're talking to me is I was a I was a Navy SEAL for a number of years throughout my Naval career. I joined the Navy in 1993 went through SEAL training with class 198 graduated with cost $1.99. And then after five years at sdv team one out Hawaii, I was called up to be a seal instructor. And is it that point in? One went over to buds as an instructor. I was there from basically 2001 until 2005 when I got a commission in the Navy and so the commission was really odd. I put in the package to become a seal officer. That was my number one goal. The reason I really applied to become an officer and they were full of Junior officers in the field teams. This is 2005 kind of draw down time frame. And so I said, oh, I'm alright. Let me go Tod then. Let's put a you know, check the block for EOD. Maybe that'd be a it's something really cool. Really special they didn't take any EOD officers that year. So I had a choice I could either go in as a intelligence officer or as a supply Corps officer, which is essentially the mbas in the Navy. I chose a supply Corps route because I did have a finance undergrad and kind of coincided a little bit with my background with some of my schooling and so I chose that with the full intent to lateral transfer once I made O3 when the seal officer bill it's kind of opened. Tup, but as fate would have it that wasn't going to be in the cards. I had a couple of dollars of that point and really decided that going back into the teens at that point after having sat on the sidelines for the last four plus years just wasn't wasn't for me and so finish my career as a as a naval officer did nine years as a as an officer 12 years isn't listed. So about 21 years all told Navy retired in 2014 my MBA at the She's Texas in Austin, which was an amazing experience and then again retired and I've been Consulting for about four or five years and then I just did a quick stents in oil and gas and now I'm back into the into the software space with VMware. As I said earlier. Yeah, what an incredible career Chris and thank you for your service of course, and so pleasure. And so how old were you then when you first became a father and how did becoming a dad kind of change your perspective on life? You know, I became a father when I was about 30 years old. So 29 is whenever I had my first daughter and it absolutely floored me because this is this is an experience that I didn't, you know, certainly I never really thought much about his as a kid growing up. You always heard how much your parents told you they loved you, but you never really understood you kept hearing things. So you understood it. Sure mentally you understood. Yeah, my parents love me. It's great. So you had that first child, you're holding something that you had a part in making it was just really open that aperture opened my eyes up to to what it is and what it was it my parents really meant when they told me how they love me so unconditionally and it was it was just a filled this part of my heart that never knew was was missing and it's kind of a I always I always say that you have no idea what it's like, you know. Have no idea how much your parents love you until you have a child of your own and that was it at that point. It kind of stops becoming about me and what my dreams were and what I wanted for myself and hopefully maybe a little bit less selfish. Although some might argue that case but it really just made it all about my family and my child that point it wasn't she was absolutely most important person in my world. Yeah, very well said and and and since you do have the master of Business Administration are from the University of Texas, what was the college experience like for you because I got to tell you Chris. I drive a lot of uber and especially now that the kids are back in school and I drive them around a lot and it's kind of sad to see how many of these kids have no idea why they're even going to the school why they're majoring in what they're doing and they take it as kind of like a like a joke and it makes me kind of concerned about sending my kids to college. So what was it like for you at the University of Texas? So I I was in a Executive MBA program. So I was surrounded by people that are around my age. However, I did have a good glimpse into the university life, you know this point. I was 37 38 years old while I was going to school. And so again being a father this point. I had two children and my third on the way it it certainly made me appreciate one the educational opportunities that are offered to us, but I think the question you're asking is how important these days. Is college and you know, I listen to micro a lot because I think he's just a phenomenal person again, wonderful Storyteller and I love a lot of the the approach that he's taking because I came into the Navy straight out of high school. And so I didn't have any college. I went to college. I did my undergraduate degree while I was a field instructor. So I was going to school part time as well as working as an instructor and it helped me to appreciate it because I was there for a purpose my purpose was to to To receive an undergraduate degree because that's what I felt. I needed in my life to to accelerate my career path and really looking back and seeing what kids are experiencing today. And and the that people are almost funneled into this program one. They're incurring so much student debt. There's there's so much that's being placed on these kids. It's like this. It's just an assembly line of people going through and I'm not certain that they're really going to college. For for what? The intention of college was you mean you're going to come out of college with a hundred fifty thousand dollars in student loans. Most of that is probably derived from them living off of this type of loan. It's just a I don't necessarily think that it's a requirement for everybody to go to college. I think the trade schools are so undervalued in our society. For some reason. I don't understand it. There's a lot of opportunities out there, you know if you're predisposed Has to go to college if you understand what it is that you want to do in your career. You're not just going to college to to say you went and you go get a creative writing degree not to say that those are altogether bad. But if you go in there and you get a degree that isn't necessarily going to advance your career and you wonder and you sit back you like. Well, I'm making $40,000 a year. I went to this Ivy League school and I took two hundred fifty thousand two hundred fifty thousand dollars in student loan. I think this is driving a lot of the conversation that we are having as it pertains to You the student loan debt crisis and I put that in quotations because I don't necessarily feel it's a crisis. But but again, very long-winded answer to say I loved the college experience. I loved what I did because my purpose was to go receive an MBA. I wanted to translate what I did on the military side to that private sector lice and and have something that would carry over it was important for me, but that was my goal it was Wasn't just going to check a block and say hey, I did it, you know it gives on mommy and daddy's dying or I did it because it was it was what I was supposed to do they sound again. All right, Dad. The NFL season is now upon us and the Major League Baseball season is winding down. There is no better time to take your kids to the Ball Game and first class fatherhood listeners can save $20 off their tickets on seat geek.com by using my promo code first class. That's one word first class. Maybe you want to see a concert or a Broadway show save 20 bucks on the tickets on seek.com use the promo code first class. It's a slam-dunk field dad's seat geek.com promo. First class fatherhood is the best seat in the house. All right, guys, many of you have hit me up saying that you would like to start your own podcast and I am telling you right now anchor is the easiest way to get this done. Number one. It's free. I have never paid a dime to publish any of my podcasts and their creation tools allow you to record and edit right from your phone or your computer anchored those all the distribution as well. So it can be heard on Spotify Apple podcast and many more also you can make money with no minimum. Listen to Ship its everything. You need to make a podcast in one place. What are you waiting for down? Load the free anchor app today or go to Anchored on FM to get started. It does and that's exactly what I was talking about. See what you have a defined purpose. It makes a lot more sense and and I never went to college myself. I mean I learned the trade early on as far as mechanics and that has supported me and my family, you know, my my entire life here and it's I know the opportunities are great. It's just it's just scary when you see it firsthand the results of the kids. Like you said it assembly line fashion going in there and getting these degrees in Psychology or philosophy and they have zero plan or a goals in As with any of it. Yeah, it's it's just kind of shooting in the dark again. I think it's there they're doing this because that's what Society or perhaps their parents think is what's important for them. Like you said learn a trade go there do something that you're passionate about you and joy, I was the first person in my extended family to go to college to get an undergraduate degree in subsequently a master's degree and it was because I had that that what I wanted to do work, Acquired that type of schooling my dad didn't go to college my mom actually finished College after I did which was crazy and she became a school teacher because that was her passionate took her years and years to figure out that that's exactly what she wanted to do. And so so that was again it was it was a major driving force for her, but it's to me it is not a major requirement if my daughter's don't feel predisposed to go to college or they don't necessarily have a current plan that involves College There I'm not going to push him down that path. I'm gonna hopefully they're going to do very well in school and they're going to continue to push themselves academically, but if going off to college isn't in the cards for them and that's not something they feel that they needed that moment go get some life experience go out there and learn this is I think that we have a lot of students that are coming out of college with a div in pretty sheltered. Maybe they're not being taught how to think they're being taught what to think rather than how I think and I thought that's what colleges were about. I thought that was what was so important. So I was lucky to have gone to get my undergraduate degree when I was about 26 to 29 years old or 30 years old. So I had a little bit more perspective than your typical college kid coming out of high school had I gone to college straight out of high school. It would have been a complete disaster. I would have failed out immediately. I was way too immature. I needed that. I needed something else to kind of put me on that right path. They really understand what it was. I was getting myself into. Yeah. I'm the same way and I think you hit the nail on the head there about teaching the kids how to think and that's why it's encouraging I speak to so many of these entrepreneurs like these guys like Grant Cardone and I led bedros keuilian. These are guys that have just went from being broken just smashed the game just through pure hard work and have been able to amass fortunes because of all the opportunities that are there online that are available to everybody now via the Internet. There are any it's interesting you say that because the the internet has really opened up that that education because again, maybe you're not going to walk away with a degree from from again Ivy League school. However, it's the same education. It's essentially that you're learning the same things whether you take it online or you take it in the classroom. Certainly the instruction may be better. Maybe there's some more anecdotes that help drive it in a little bit better, but if you don't have the time to go off Off to school for four years you can certainly pick up bits and pieces along the way through this through technology which is which is really helped to kind of level that playing field. I would have thought you would just have a tendency to drive costs down. However, I think we've gone the opposite way. Yeah, and on that with the technology that is a challenge for a lot of us dad's myself included here, especially with my older ones. How is the technology with you as far as social media video games or any of that type of stuff what your girls how do you kind of monitor all that? You know, that's a that's a tough tough question. So my background at my wife my initial my first wife who I have my fifteen-year-old with we got divorced while I was a film structure right toward the end of my career and I had subsequently remarried and had my other two daughters. And so we have a different kind of a different mix. The reason I'm back in Houston is because this is where my my ex-wife and my daughter moves. So we wanted to be as close to her as as possible. So her social media presence and The rules that she has for her her social media are primarily driven by my ex-wife and what her beliefs are. However, we do have to be on that same page. And so my fifteen-year-old does the Snapchat which I don't necessarily see the value in some of that. She hasn't done Facebook and she does have an Instagram account. So she's there she does have that social media presence, but you know, I've heard it said that when you put all these Kids and you still give them access to some of these things even though other people can't see them perhaps you're hiding them as a fifteen-year-old your height you're saying. Hey, we're not open to the public. You have to go through these wickets in order to follow or request my daughter. It doesn't mean that she is blocked from seeing what's out there and so, you know again she's been able to through her social media present see much more than perhaps. Oops, I certainly than I ever did as a kid coming up and even perhaps more than I would I would like but I don't know what that what that balance is. I don't know what that balance is from being completely restrictive or being completely naive and open to everything. So it's that's been it's been a tough challenge. My ten-year-old still doesn't have a phone. She's in fifth grade. She's one of her only friends, but she doesn't clamor for that. It's she comes home. She does have an iPad that she gets in does. Academic things on she plays a couple of games on it, but she's so busy with sports and she's so busy with extra tutoring that that hasn't really been a big driving factor for her and my five-year-old like to watch videos on YouTube, but we try to limit that to certainly less than an hour a day, especially considering the fact that she's in school for upwards of eight hours a day. So we want to have some family time. So we try to do that we try yeah, it's just amazing how quickly we the technology chain like I remember like growing up. I was like The Tech Guy in our family because I knew how to hook up to VCRs and pieces and I could never imagine. You know, I always looked at my father was like, ah, he's so outdated. You don't know how to use this stuff. And now I'm asking my 13, you're like you hooked us up for the TV for me like that. I don't know watch this, you know, so it's amazing how quickly it all turned around isn't it funny? It really does. I mean, I remember being able to hook up like you said hook up some speakers and and get some things now, we're having the stream this and go through to the cloud to get the majority of our It's really interesting. It certainly again has has opened up what we see think about our days growing up. I'm sure you're close to my age and maybe a little younger but we grew up with basically three to four maybe five channels on TV whenever we got cable. I believe I was in Middle School and even that cable only work had 20 or so channels now, there's so much out there. There's so much content. It's really scary as a parent and as As a dad to see what's out there and it's tough It's a tough ballgame. And I think it's certainly a little bit harder than than our parents had it as we were coming up certainly, you know, they had no way to keep tabs on us because we didn't have cell phones. We didn't have tracking devices on our kids. We didn't have these type of conversations that you and I are having today, but it's just a different type of challenge. Yeah, for sure and I see that you have that now future governor of Texas in your bio there. Is that something that you're actually shoot on I'm glad to see so many seals and Veterans getting into the political Arena. We definitely need your voices. Is that something that you're considering? It's something that I've been talking about since since high school really and it was it was something I always had as a goal of mine. I was in 20 years as a CEO. I was going to 20 years in some capacity and I wanted to become a senator and work my would happen eventually become. Governor that was a long term goal as a kid. It's always something I kind of had in the back of my mind since my 20-plus years of service is up. I did realize that they don't elect poor people to office. So I have to go do something to make the little bit of money make a little bit of a name for myself on the in the local community and affect more change here locally, but my long-term goal and I'm going to continue to say it is to be the governor of Texas one day. I've talked about that a lot. I think my buddy Danny of Crenshaw is doing a phenomenal. Little job in Congress. He's a a real bright spot for the conservatives in that house. And I think you've done just a great tremendous job. I've talked to some local people here in Houston regarding getting into office in some capacity or another but at this point I'm really focused in on on my career professionally to make sure that I'm doing what's right for the company. I'm currently working for and doing as much as I can to them. But it always has been something in the back of my mind. Yeah, very cool. Yeah wait for Dan the Papik it out so I can get them on for a frogman Friday here. He's a he's a phenomenal guy. He and Tara are really well connected in the community and just done again a great job. He's such a great communicator of the messaging really distills things down to its simplest form, which I feel is really important for our government officials to be able to do rather than complaint and change and try to confuse everybody with this double talk. Yeah, definitely. All right. Well last thing I want to hear Chris. I love to ask all the dads I get on the podcast. What type of advice do you have for that new dad or for that about to be father who's out there listening? Is that is such a great question and it's funny. I was out for a jog the other day and my brother and sister-in-law recently had a child in July, but as it was coming up and I know that the baby was due. I sent them a text message and I said listen, you've got two three four weeks left as it's just you to enjoy it enjoy that time because it's that that's the foundation because if you and you're in and your spouse Are not doing well that that poor child's going to rate be raised in an environment. That's not necessarily conducive for them. So really build on that foundation for you and your spouse enjoy the time together because once that kid comes no longer about you two anymore. Now, it's this this you have this other entity. This life is person that you are now responsible for Holy and it's not about you. It's about that that kid in your family and so take a little time on the front end. If you can and do whatever whatever it takes to to take a break, you know kind of rekindle some of that love and passion because for the next four five six seven years while you're in it, it's not going to be so easy. Yeah, very well said I love the message. This has been an honor for me. I got to say Chris Gomez. You're a first-class father and thank you so much for give me a few minutes. You tie. My first class fatherhood. Like I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for what you do and I really look forward to this season. Back to wrap things up here on First Class fatherhood. I got to give a special. Thank you. Once again to Chris Gomez for giving me a few minutes of his time here at was such an honor. Please hit me up on Twitter guys or drop me that DM on Instagram. Let me know what you thought about today's episode. I always love to read your feedback and let me know what you thought about all the episodes this week. I drop some really great content there for you guys a lot of great advice given out by some season father's next week. I got five bangers Comin your way. Make sure you follow me on Instagram at Alec on the score lace to find out all the rest of the guests announcements that are coming your way. That's all I got for you guys today. I hope you enjoy your weekend out there. I'm Alec lace. You have been listening to First Class fatherhood. And please remember guys, we are not babysitters. We are fathers and we're not just father's we are first class fathers.
Episode 245 Chris Gomez is a First Class Father and Former Navy SEAL. He is a decorated veteran with twelve years in the Naval Special Warfare community serving as a medic and SEAL Instructor. Chris also has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Texas and is crushing it in the civilian world. In this Episode, Chris talks about his Fatherhood journey, raising three girls, his college experience as well as his thoughts on sending his kids to college, his plans for the future, he offers great advice for new or about to be Dads and more! First Class Fatherhood is sponsored by:  MANSCAPED Save 20% + Free Shipping   Visit - https://www.manscaped.com Promo Code - Father   SeatGeek SAVE $20 OFF Tickets by Visiting seatgeek.com Use Promo Code: FIRSTCLASS  First Class Fatherhood Merch - https://shop.spreadshirt.com/first-class-fatherhood-/we+are+not+babysitters-A5d09ea872051763ad613ec8e?productType=812&sellable=3017x1aBoNI8jJe83pw5-812-7&appearance=1  Visit my instagram - https://instagram.com/alec_lace?igshid=ebfecg0yvbap  For information about becoming a Sponsor of First Class Fatherhood please hit me with an email: FirstClassFatherhood@gmail.com   ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 