WEBVTT
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Warriors fall in.
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It's time for formation.
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Joining us today is Rob Martinez.
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He's the founder of All Clear Gear, a company on a mission to protect the health and readiness of those who serve by eliminating harmful bacterias, mold and odor from our everyday equipment.
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Rob, I want to thank you for joining me on the podcast today.
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Thank you so much, KP.
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The honor's all mine.
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Man, you know, honestly, it's hard to catch up with a man like you.
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You're running a business and you're a dad, and I know you're training jujitsu as well.
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So thank you for giving me the opportunity to finally, you know, get in front of you and get to know you a little bit more.
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Likewise.
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Thank you so much.
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Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity.
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So, rob, I just want to kick it off, man, and I want to let you share a little bit about your background and what led you to start All Clear Gear.
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Yeah, so just touching base real quick on how busy we are, I mean, straight into the podcast from soccer practice.
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So, coaching my son's first year, it's like I told my wife.
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I was like, are you sure?
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Are you sure I can take this on right now?
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And it's one of those things, you know, opportunities come and go and being able to take that opportunity as a dad, you know, and first year of coaching, like you know, first year playing hour, it's one of those things that families still can't subside, you know.
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They still have to become a priority.
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The kids still have to be a priority.
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So I just wanted to start with that.
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But yeah, so just jumping straight into it.
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This is a part of the business that it's a heavy part.
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It's a heavy aspect and it's tough for me to just dive into and without glazing over anything, I got out of the Marine Corps in 2017.
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I was active duty, I was stationed in 29 Palms with 1-7, 1st Battalion, 7th Marines.
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Throughout my enlistment, you would have thought that the discipline and the structure and the organization and everything would have set in and this transition would occur and I would come out into the civilian sector and everything was boom, boom, boom, ready to go.
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You know, and unfortunately this wasn't the case, and I'm not going to speak for everybody, but a lot of veterans that I speak to on a weekly basis are in the same boat, and so for me it took a year and a half to ultimately rediscover purpose, and when I transitioned, I transitioned very abruptly.
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So what that means for me is when I had gotten back to my unit from Special Forces Selection, from MARSOC, I had passed the assessment selection program but wasn't selected.
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So before I had left, I told my girlfriend at the time who's my wife now, jenna?
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I told her I said look, you know, I left on her 21st birthday.
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I said if I don't get selected, because there's no, there's no way I'm going to quit.
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I'm just, that's just not in me.
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If I don't get selected, I will get out all and end of active duty service and we'll create a life.
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And I didn't think that I wasn't going to be selected.
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So you know, anyone puts 110 percent into anything and it's not reciprocated into one way or another.
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And you're kind of left with all these questions.
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Self-doubt rises up, your self-confidence takes a little bit of a ding and you start to wonder like, okay, if this isn't accepted here, where else has it not been accepted to?
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And so, for me, I got out with a million questions as to if I'm one of the top performers in X, y and Z.
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Where did I go wrong?
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And you're just not given anything, and sometimes just to annotate.
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That's life.
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You know, like life isn't always going to give you answers.
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Sometimes it takes weeks, months, even years before you get a glimpse out.
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Man, that's why that happened.
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You know I was being protected, or, you know, being kept from making a mistake too soon and it ruining.
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Or, for me, family had tried to assure me by telling me maybe you would have died in a training accident.
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Think about our family and friends.
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Everyone's always scrolling.
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And hey, this osprey went down over here in the ocean, this CH-52 went down over, and it's like these birds are dropping left and right, dying in training accidents, and it's like you know that could have been.
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It could have been something.
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So, regardless, I chalked it up to not having been kind of more diligent in my previous seasons.
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What I mean by that is as a mechanic, as a diesel mechanic when I was in the Marine Corps, there were times where tasks were asked of me instead of just shutting up and coloring like you're supposed to do.
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I always had an issue with that authority.
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That didn't demand respect, it was more so.
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It's like hey, you know, shut up and shut up and do this.
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And for me, I didn't want to be a mechanic when I went into the Marine Corps, so I already had that going against me.
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And when it came time to head back to my unit from assessment selection was one day.
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You know, I'm doing my checkout process.
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And there was one day where I was like you know, this one doesn't close for a little while I'm going to head to the office isn't closed for a little while I'm going to head to the office and I get there and I'm like hey, just just curious, when does my terminal?
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Like when does terminal come up?
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Sorry, one second.
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I was like what, how much terminal leave do I have saved up?
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Somebody told me that if I have a certain amount, I could sell it back If I didn't make it in time.
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You know how it goes.
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And um, they ended up telling me they're like you have the max leave day saved up and I was like and what is that?
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Do you know?
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I don't even remember.
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It's like 60 days.
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I have no idea.
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I certainly didn't have it.
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It's like, it's like too much, Dude, with how much I took leave like every chance I could, you know, back to Florida, those $900 plane tickets, Um, but yeah.
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So I got confirmation that I had max leave day saved up and I was ready to bounce.
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And I was like you're telling me that I could get out today.
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And they're like, well, you know, well, uh, you know, technically, yeah, you could.
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And I'm like sign the paper, man.
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And then somebody's alarm goes off in the office and it's 1600.
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And the guy's like, oh, like, sorry, dude, like you're just going to have to come back tomorrow morning.
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And that probably saves me from sleeping on the street that night.
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Because I went back and packed up my room, I called my buddy and my buddy, Jordan, who was a 31 with Suicide Charlie, he's like yeah, man, I'll come pick you up in the morning and you can stay with me in Moreno Valley until you get on your feet.
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And I was like done, Like I had my motorcycle and I think I had my Jeep at the time, but anyways, I was done.
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I was gone the next day that I found out that I could go, and so that's pretty abrupt.
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I was gone the next day that I found out that I could go.
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And so, um, that's pretty abrupt.
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You know, I, I got out without any money saved up.
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I got out with no plan.
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You know I hear it all the time, yeah, yeah.
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And so, um, fast forward.
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You know, without giving too much detail, a year and a half goes by, multiple jobs, and I even got to the point where I was receiving pay raises Like I received four pay raises in a seven month period when I was doing construction and got into a really cushy spot just still grinding, and I just didn't like you couldn't pay me enough, and that's where I'm at today is like you can't pay me enough to do something that I don't want to do.
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So, with that being said, I just kept going from the next thing to the next thing and in this year and a half I had lost a lot of people that I knew, Close friends, people that I shook hands with at some point in time, and the majority of it was to suicide and some of them were freak accidents.
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You know people die car accidents and whatnot, but the number of people that year and a half, it like it's hard.
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I don't even like saying it out loud and I got to the point where the notifications were coming through on my Facebook feed and I wasn't even reaching back out to their families.
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I kind of would just try to ignore it.
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And it was tough.
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Because that year and a half, you know that's, that's one person's too many, Right, let's just start right there.
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One person is too many.
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I have conversations with people not often, but you know we talk purpose and it's something that everybody seems to struggle to find to an extent, and it's all rooted in like hey, man, like why'd you wake up today?
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And if your question is like and if your answer is because my mom and my brother and my dad would be sad if I didn't, that's not good enough.
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You got to find your own reason to wake up and get after it.
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So I told my wife, I said you know, this was after, or this was during, a week where I had a couple notifications come through of people passing and I was just like this is, this is crazy.
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I'm literally like I, like I can't.
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I can't explain that feeling of frustration, sadness.
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Kind of made you reflect, huh.
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It made me question if I was going to be another one of these people, because I couldn't catch on.
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It was just this wheel supposed to have grooves, to catch on to the system and to just get back into society and to get rotating again and to be a contributor, and no matter.
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I was laying tile in the morning and I was doing security at night and I wasn't making enough money to barely.
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I was barely paying my bills.
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And you reach a point as a man.
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You know where you're like.
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I'm a provider and even after I don't want to get ahead too much, but even after four years it's been six years, but the first four years in this business, the fact that I wasn't the breadwinner, I wasn't the provider for my family, I just you feel it.
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You feel it deep and it's like man.
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I wish I could feel it.
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You feel it deep and it's like man.
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I wish I could be doing more.
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I wish I could be doing more.
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So, yeah, I went on a walk this day with my wife and we just need to get out of the house and we're talking, and I was getting emotional about it again and I asked my wife and she's like well, have you prayed about it and I was like you know, you know what a woman, or when your spouse or when your wife tells you to pray about something, they're being talked to, somebody's talking to them, they're giving you the good word.
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And in that moment I didn't hesitate, I was just like God.
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You know, like as one person.
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What can I do to help set up my friends, my brothers, for success, so that when they transition?
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Going back to your reflecting point, they're not in my position?
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Because I feel like everybody over this last year and a half was experiencing what I was.
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I just didn't know how to quit, like they did.
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You know what I'm saying.
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Yeah, and maybe that was ignorance on my end, like the first four years of business, or God just instilling in that moment purpose for me, and what I mean by that is, as soon as I asked that question, I caught this 10-year vision KP, I'm not even shitting you.
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He downloaded something and like, not even into my brain, like it went straight to my heart and I had this vision of Jesus washing the disciples' feet and, to be frank, like it doesn't matter if you're religious or if any of the viewers are, I had this vision of Jesus washing the disciples' feet, and I saw in that moment that if somebody of that stature is able to get to this level and to serve somebody in that capacity, he didn't need to do that.
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He should have had that done to him.
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If you, if he could do it for them, what could I, what level could I get to to be able to serve to where it's so fulfilling?
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You know that reward of of allowing somebody to focus on themselves with any amount of time, 30 minutes even, you know.
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And so I was like God, you're telling me you want me to clean SIF gear for these guys that are transitioning.
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And I still geek out about it because it's like what, oh my gosh.
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So, yeah, I had that vision come through and I saw myself scrubbing sift gear and it was like I got fired up.
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I was like I, you know it's.
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It's one thing.
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If you're like my birthday's coming up, I can't wait to celebrate, but if you're like I just saw the next 10 birthdays and what I get, you're going to be fired up.
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You know what I'm saying.
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That's exactly how I felt and I went straight home, got to writing down we didn't have chat GPT yet Got to writing down.
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You know as many legalities as I could, which, if you're an entrepreneur and you're watching this, how many times have you started something or started something and you immediately bought shirts, you bought hats, you bought stickers.
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You just wanted to tell the world no, don't do it, stop wasting your money.
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I made the same mistake.
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Everyone, everybody has.
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Yes, and if you haven't, I don't know, maybe we need to haven't.
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I don't know, maybe we need to talk offline.
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You know, maybe I need to get some advice from you.
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But, um, yeah, I just went straight into okay, what could screw me over?
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How do I make money?
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And I just thought because, marine, I thought driving to 29 palms, which is two and a half hours, one way for one pack, and back to clean it back at my house, was the way to go, when in reality, pendleton was an hour from me.
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And I did that for probably four months before I realized, man, there's no money.
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I was initially charging $150.
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And that's gas, that's gas, they're back, they're back.
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That's four times.
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I mean, hands down, that's fuel.
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And so if you could just imagine the last four years or, I'm sorry, the first four years of business was me somewhat unknowingly because I wasn't a business guy Like like now, I, I, I, I love business, like it makes me tick.
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But I was just doing it because one these guys need this done.
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Somebody has to do it.
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If your buddy wants to do it on the weekend for beer money, and this still applies if your buddy wants to do it for you on the weekend for beer money and you trust him not to screw up your stuff, do it.
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This is a matter of the resources being available and the military, marine Corps, specifically in this scenario, isn't doing it.
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And don't get me wrong, sergeant Major Ruiz, that man he might've just been sent from heaven just because of how much he's doing, and I know he's doing a lot of publicity stuff.
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Do your thing, kiss your babies, do your stuff.
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He's doing a lot of work behind the scenes, but the other day, when he commented back to me on social media and he said that they're working on the issue with sif I, I commented back and I said that's incredible.
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I have an idea after six years of attacking this head on.
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This is what I do.
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I would love to have 30 minutes of your time to talk about solutions.
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You know what I'm saying.
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Like who wouldn't bring in subject matter experts.
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You know what?
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I'm saying when you go to a brain doctor after getting an MRI, I think that's what happens for the brain.
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You're not gonna go to go to somebody who does dental stuff.
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You know?
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I'm saying you go to, you go to specialists, and so I'm pretty sure we got off topic there, but nonetheless, that's that's how it goes, that's that's how it was, that's how I was born, man that was beautiful, honestly, that I was not expecting that.
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I was not expecting that story at all.
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That's amazing.
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This, this podcast, this podcast and those past conversations I've had and the conversation I'm having with you right now, man, I mean because I haven't reached wherever I'm going yet.
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So I love doing these podcasts.
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For this reason, I like hearing the stories, I like hearing the reasons why, I like to hear why you're doing this and whether you're doing this for the right reasons or not.
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And I like hearing about people falling on their face and then getting back up again and brushing yourself off and, you know, driving on.
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That's that's what I love.
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That's what I love about all this.
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And I the curve ball that you talk about in life like I tell a lot of people that go into the military to be prepared.
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The best place to be is to have that lateral mobility to move left and right and to manage your career properly.
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And you have the same story that so many others have, including myself too.
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I mean, when I got out, I was like you know I was.
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I did four years enlisted uh, uh national guard.
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Then I did four years activity as an officer, I resigned and I could not get out of there fast enough.
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I was like I just won out.
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I don't want any.
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What service connection?
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I don't, what's that.
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I don't even know what that is, I don't want it.
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Just fucking sign my papers.
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Like since I was an officer, I was able to walk through, like when I, when I, on that last day, I was able to get everyone to just sign my stuff like taps, it was completely I didn't know what the hell I was doing.
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But you also mentioned, too, how your wife was with you.
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Well, your girlfriend back then, but now your wife.
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She was with you during those times in the military, so she saw the ups and downs and she had to deal with things that most spouses don't have to deal with, which is you being away, you having to make all these hard sacrifices, and kudos to her man for like supporting you and giving you that advice to pray on this.
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She was with me the last seven months that I was in, so she wasn't with me, my entire service and we we talk about, you know, the time that she was with me.
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Um, often, and it was some of the best times of both of our lives Like he would come and she'd I can say this now but she would stay at the barracks with me Like it was our little hotel.
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You know what I'm saying Duty, duty, log book, what, yeah, yeah, and um, no, I just without her.
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You know anybody with a spouse that they're 100% committed to and love with, like you're always going to give that credit to where it's due, and for me she's been the rocks.
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But I appreciate, I appreciate the kind of words.
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You know, and another thing you mentioned too, too, that really resonates with me is the difference between I have some siblings that aren't doing so well, they're older than me, and I always tell people, I always tell family members, friends, I know, like kids that are coming up.
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The only difference between me and them is that someone, somewhere along the lines, somebody, told them that they weren't good enough and they agreed and they settled for where they are now.
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And I say that as an inspirational thing, because there's so many times in our lives we can just quit, hang it up, fuck it.
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Like this is way too much work, I'll just go get a nine to five bucket.
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Like this is way too much work, I'll just go get a nine to five, it's too much.
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And so I I that definitely resonates with me.
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And before we go on, man, I want you to talk about your business, like what exactly is it that you do?
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And talk about what, like?
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What exactly inspired you to do this?
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Because why not a subway?
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Why not something else?
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Like, what challenges inspired you to create this business?
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And talk about all clear gear so you know.
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You know now why the idea came to me, the concept, the concept wouldn't be even where it's at now for six years.
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In that time, lots of trial and error, lots of trial and error, lots of money lost, blood, sweat, tear like actual blood, sweat and tears.
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When people talk about I put my blood, sweat and tears into this.
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You know what I'm saying.
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We've got some blood, sweat and tears in this game and so okay.
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So what we do here at all clear gear is essentially we take the burden of you having to clean your own gear, your own tactical gear.
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If you're not in the military, I'm gonna explain this plainly for you.
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When you join the military, when you join the marine corps specifically here, you're issued out a set of gear.
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After basic MCT or ITB, you get to your unit and you're issued a set of gear.
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This loadout is equivalent to $6,600 right now.
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With that being said, you're responsible for maintaining that equipment throughout the duration of your service.
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Now, after four years, five years, throughout the duration of your service.
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Now, after four years, five years, however long they have you with either that unit or billet or whatever then you are now responsible for cleaning and turning that gear into a facility called SIF, now known as IF Individual Issued Facility, previously Central Issued Facility.
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This entity, this organization, organization, is contracted outside of the government and they dictate how clean an item is when you go to transition.
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And transitioning isn't just getting out of the military, it's also transitioning to your next unit, your next four.
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With that being said, there's been an expectation, somewhere set along the lines that is unrealistic beyond all measure, from this entity that holds up Marines and sailors when it comes time to make that transition and to get that signature on their checkout sheet that says hey, this Marine, this sailor has all their gear clean and accounted for and it's in our possession now to go ahead and turn it around next to the next person that's coming in.
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What I've done is I've created a system and a process and a small team of individuals that are crazy enough, like me, to scrub for hours a week to be able to give you, whether it be that three days, which is our shortest turnaround right now, or that seven days, to focus on yourself, focus on your transition and everything else that needs to happen during that time, such as the move across country, college, care for your kids when you're moving, whether you're buying or renting a property God forbid.
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You have multiple properties and you have to figure out how you're managing everything.
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The list literally goes on.
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But, to sum it up, we clean this gear so that you can focus on your transition and, essentially, what we believe is that, while you're in and you're serving whether it be four years, six years you are responsible for maintaining your equipment.
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You're responsible for accountability.
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Everyone knows that leaders lose their jobs, their careers, because of a lack of accountability, whether it be through a radio, a weapon system, a Marine.
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You know like, accountability is very important, almost as important as trigger discipline in my eyes.
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And so, with that being said, this gear that needs to be turned in is often turned away, and the average turn away rejection rate, I would say, is you get rejected three out of four times, and so I've got guys that are coming to me every week that it's not even just a simple case of like hey, I don't want to clean it, here you go.
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Of course we get that, you know, just because I don't want to change the oil in my car, I take it to Valvoline.
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You know like, let's be honest, there's always going to be a variation of the reasons why people use certain services.
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But, with that being said, the rejection rate is incredible and it's almost like a double-edged sword for us, because we clean the gear so meticulously where it spotlights any small stain, and so it's almost like I said, that double-edged sword aspect to where now, if these guys decide to clean it on their own, they're not doing a clean job like all clear gear.
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So in their eyes, they're like, oh, this could be cleaner.