PDN Training Tour Kickoff 2024

And we're live as I just explained to the chat role over here, both on the PDN website and youtube and probably through social medias as well. This is the 2024 personal defense network training tour kickoff. And I appreciate you guys joining us for this announcement. I know that the vast majority of the people that see these lives don't actually see them live, you see them recorded, but if you are listening live, I'd love for you to throw something into the comments. Um Not only will I see them on a couple of the pages here as I look at my laptop. Um I also have some people here who can give me the information as it comes in if we have a question about sponsors or instructors or maybe locations, things like that. The idea is to, sorry, I'm getting off the off screen. Uh Oh, they want me centered up. Ok. Well, now I'm hidden so I'm gonna, I'm gonna stay here and you guys can look to the side a little bit. So anyway, that's the beauty of live broadcast even from the President's network training studio um where you see us do our clips, you see us through our training tips. Of course, we're out on the ranges as well and we do get to involve a lot of the instructors in bringing you this information. But if you go back 1213 years ago, because we had to take a year off, um, as we all did a lot of years off from training from ranges, uh, back in 2020 this is actually the 12th annual training tour and it's the 13th year we've been doing this and the reason we started doing the training tour was to bring training to you, um, in person with the instructors, with our contributors, you know, originally the DVD series and then moving to the online space. And of course, now we have our, our premium levels of content where you can, you can take online classes, you can get the exclusive videos. Um You see the previews at personal events, network.com. Um You know that it's not just me, it really as a team and, and no place, is it more obvious that PDN is a team of instructors than at the training tour? And let's talk about who's gonna be with us this year, who's gonna be back with us this year? Of course, you, you've got Derek Pool and Barrett Kendrick. They're the hosts of our training Talk Live. Uh Can't miss, can't have a tour without them. I don't think they would miss one. I don't think they let me do a tour without them. Uh We might be able to do a tour without me at some point and have those guys take over. Uh But those guys have been with us now. I think both of them have been contributing for a decade. Um And part of the tour, um ever since they started traveling um under their own company banners um along along with personal events network. Um Jason Cau is one of our new instructors this year. He's at Wyotech. Um He's also been contributing at PDN. Um He's been part of uh the social media world and inside of combat focus shooting intuitive defensive shooting. Um You've seen him out there with Derek and with Barrett, I'm sure um Jason specializes in longer range shooting almost all the time, but he also completely understands the close quarters, personal defense thing and really important with Wyoming tactical. He helps people understand where there's some crossover where the training that you would do at longer distances with your rifles also translates into helping you be better prepared to defend yourself. And of course, where he is out in Wyoming, you may find yourself uh in a defensive situation at much longer distances than we normally think about um out on your property. Um If you own a lot of it, uh the border, the fence line or the, the driveway, the street um out by the barn, from the barn to the house, from the house to the barn, to the shed. Uh, when you're out hunting, of course, in the back country, uh, you may actually find yourself needing to do something defensive at much further distances than we normally think. So, you're gonna wanna check out Jason stuff as well. Um, Ken Ortega and Maggie Mordant, um, Homeland Protective, uh, homeland Protective. What is that? HPP. Somebody tell me in the chat room, what HPP stands for because I'm suddenly blanking on it. Um, but they're out of Las Vegas and, and CCW. Maggie and Ken, um, have been good friends and really important instructors. Um, not only a big picture wise in the industry with everything they do. Um, and Maggie is now involved in, in helping contribute to, uh, Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman, another PDN contributors, latest book on hunting. Um, they work with Bass Pro. Um, they do everything from hunter safety all the way through very advanced training. And HPP based out of Vegas also travels. Um, and they travel internationally to teach and that's a big part of the tour, right? Bringing training to you. So it's not just, uh, going to Wyoming, Jason also travels and teaches. He was just in Southern California. I think with another one of our instructors, Mike de Saro, Mike's another name that's new to the tour but not new to personal defense network. Um, almost always the instructors that we bring out on the tour have worked with PDN, uh, or I've worked with them personally, maybe I've been a student of theirs, um, or we've taught classes together. And Mike is a guy who started as a student of mine and now uh contributes incredibly well to the intuitive defensive shooting instructor team. He participates in our instructor development courses that we have every year. Um He's mentoring a lot of people, he facilitates classes and he takes a lot of classes. Uh Mike has a really sharp mind. He talks about mental aspects of training and preparation for the not only the moment of defense, but also the aftermath of defense um and sort of recovering from that shock of being attacked. Um Even if you're, you're theoretically ready, you may not be anticipating it. And Mike does a great job of helping people bridge that gap. Um As we all try to do inside of the I DS program and it personal defense network, but Mike's mind and the way he explains it, I'm really keen on those aspects. So, so be looking for more and more contributions and opportunities to see him teach uh speak, work on the ranges. Um He also does a lot of unarmed stuff. Um and again, mental preparation stuff, lecture stuff. So uh he was just working with Jason down in San Diego um on an event that they put together which uh went really, really well. Last weekend, last weekend was really the first set of classes on the tour. This year, the tour usually ends up going from March to September or August and this year, um, is no different and we're going all the way out to, I think the 22nd of September is the last course that we have. If you haven't already taken a look at the training tour page PDN training tour.com head over there and see what we have listed so far. There are still plenty of classes to be listed. Um As is always the case. Um None of us have our schedules fixed for the year, you know, magically by March 1st when we, we'd love to put them out on the calendar. Um So you'll see things updated and added as we go on. Um But you'll see it already. There's a great collection of courses that are posted. Uh My courses will be posted within the next few days. So by the end of the week, you should see uh the vast majority of the 150 courses that we're looking to offer this year on the PDN training tour. Um As if you can't get to the tour, all of the people I'm talking about. I've still got a few more on my list over here to go down. All of our instructors are also contributors. So of course, you can see the free videos, the premium videos and in some cases, even the reviews of the sponsors videos that we do here at PDN to bring you uh the most important aspects I think of new products, not just the features list or you know, what kind of metal something is made out of, but really what's important from a personal defense standpoint. Uh And again, all of these people are experts in their individual areas, but also specifically, I think it's important to know in the areas that we publish their content at PDN. Um We do occasionally go out and, and ask someone who's not familiar with the product to try it out and we, we see what their response is their initial response, especially at the beginner end of the student curve. Uh Maybe we have a training tool like the cert pistol that that's meant to help people uh acclimate to some of the the movements of the gun, maybe from the holster to the ready position or from the ready position to the shooting position without actually being on a live fire range. It's important to get a novice uh opinion or the experiences and share them with you, but always guided by an expert and the expertise that ranges across our instructor group for the tour um is really diverse. Not everybody's a gun person. Most people know how to handle a gun. Most people could teach a beginner something about a gun. Um But for example, with Jason, not everybody on the team can talk about extreme long range precision uh the way he can. Um And that's really his area, the other end of the spectrum, the, when you're touching another person when you're grappling, when you're wrestling, when you're being attacked, when you have to maybe even fight to have enough room to access a defensive tool, like a knife or a gun. Well, that's where fit to fight. And the fit to fight Republic come in and that's Ryan and Amber and they are both PD and tour instructors, uh, in their own rights. But they do most of their classes together based out in North Carolina. Uh But they literally travel to as well. And uh Ryan and Amber are back on the tour this year. I think it's probably the third or fourth year that they've been with us. And one thing I've talked to them about doing is more content. So a lot of the things that you see from them, um They have AAA great social media presence. They share a lot of stuff through their own channels, check it out through Fit to Fight or Fit to fight Republic at Instagram. Uh But we're gonna get more and more of their content in the coming year out on personal defense network as well. Um So it's great to have them uh with us. One of the places that I personally was a student of theirs was at the train and learn seminar which takes place at uh Memorial Day weekend every year. I think this is the fifth year, maybe even the sixth year of that event, which is run by Kevin Dixie. Kevin Dixie has been a long time contributor to personal defense network and a longtime member of the tour instructor team. So Kevin was based in Missouri and, and historically, that's where train and learn has been. I'm pretty sure train and learn is moving to Georgia this year, which is where Kevin is now based. So he's working out of the Atlanta area. Uh But again, traveling the country, um sharing the information that he has conflict avoidance, uh dealing with the actual events of the, the trauma that come with, defending yourself and the aftermath, worrying about the legal ramifications as well as the physical and mental ramifications. Um but especially the physical shooting skills, um working with pistols and rifles on rangers all across the country um based out of Atlanta, Kevin Dixie, no other choice training. Um Alejandro Padavan is another guy who's been around since the DVD days. Um You can still download his DVD S or see the videos obviously at personal defense network.com uh with his knife defense, um really focused heavily on, on that space within two arms reach where you're gonna be defending yourself with a knife with stick, uh maybe some unarmed, some grappling skills even to get to the point where you can get your knife out or fight while being grabbed or while being pinned to the ground. Um Alessandro also one of our ID instructors um knows his way around the pistol and the rifle as well, obviously. Um But especially working on um women's defense topics and using a knife to defend yourself um inside of his programs at safer faster defense. And then Jara Hutchins has been on the tour with us uh for several years as well. She's based out of Texas. She really focuses um on in an area that I think is incredibly important, but maybe we don't talk about as much in the training community, especially in videos like this or at PDN. And that's the beginner shooter. Um She does a lot of very small classes. Um one on one training or uh small friend groups. Uh mother daughter uh is a big thing that she works with in terms of getting people comfortable with shooting, comfortable with the idea of using lethal force to defend oneself or others that they care about. Um And Jara is based out of Dallas. Um But again, travels the country teaching, um not just at the low level, but really that is an area where she excels at making people comfortable and capable with their defensive tools and then uh jumping back out to, to the intermediate and longer range, Don Edwards and particularly Don Edwards and Green line tactical. His whole team spend a lot of time in the dark, um so low light and no light shooting. And that doesn't just mean all the expensive toys and, and the lasers and the thermals and the night vision and all that. Although he can definitely educate you about how to use all of that stuff and which options are better than others when it comes to the gear where you're gonna have to spend a lot of money to get the stuff that's really the best. Um, but maybe he can also steer you in the right direction in terms of entry level things when it comes to low light, no light. Um We've talked a little bit about some of the training doctrine that goes along with things like red dot pistols and training for the use of white light even when you're not in the dark. And that's one of the things that don really brings to the table here at PDN, that's incredibly important to understand that you don't need to spend, you know, tens of thousands of dollars to be able to defend yourself and your family effectively in low light or no light situation. So, uh we're actually gonna be doing a live for our gold level members coming up at 2 p.m. central today and that live, we're gonna be talking about accessories and a lot of the things that you can put on your gun or you can have with you when you're carrying a firearm for defense so that you can stage in your home. And of course, weapon mounted light, handheld light. Uh Do you need both? Do you need one or the other, which should be your priority. That's a big topic of discussion and, and Don has some great and very well thought out opinions, um, in that area. Uh, so Don brings a lot to the table. He also does, uh, designated marksman stuff. Um, he has some really cool experience events, uh classes, uh that, that go on where, where he has his, his Night Fighter summit that happens and he also does some aerial engagement classes. So you can uh get together with some friends and, and Don and, and learn how to shoot from a helicopter, maybe not the most practical defensive. Um But like they say, when you push yourself into an extreme zone after understanding the fundamentals, um it is, it is true that you, you really do learn how to apply those fundamentals at a much higher level. And some of Don's classes really excel at putting people into those circumstances. So take a look at what he has from green line tactical. I think I jumped around a little bit on my list. Uh I think the last guy that we're gonna talk about is Clint Macro and, and Clint. Um you talk about save the best for last. This guy is one of the most active teacher of teachers that you can find in the industry. Um Clint holds instructor development certification. In other words, he can certify people to become instructors in a an incredibly wide variety of disciplines. Um, he works with us on the I Ds team. Um, he's on staff with US CC A and works on a lot of their program to certify and mentor new instructors. He has just about every instructor certification you can get from the NR A, um, as well as other organizations and other schools that he teaches with. And for, um, so Clint Macro at Trigger Pressers Union, um, is another guy that I'm really proud to have on the personal defense network training team, uh, in general with the tour and contributing as well. One of the other very cool things that he does during the tour as a, as a big event that you'll see on our schedule is National Train a Teacher Day where he asks any instructor that has anything of value, um, whether it's unarmed defense, uh improvised uh actions like barricading or evading. Um If you have the, obviously the tragedy of, of an active killer in your school teachers barricading and helping their students get away really incredibly important medical skills, really incredibly important and of course, the hard skills, um the unarmed defense, improvised tool, defense, knife defense and even firearms defense where teachers can have firearms in their schools. Um All part of National Training Teachers Day where he asks us to give one free day of classes or maybe just a free slot or two in any classes that were running um around that weekend, um to teachers all over the country. And that's a really cool thing that he's been doing. We're proud to be affiliated with that at uh personal defense network and have it happen during the tour months is even better because we get to help him promote it. Um So take a look at what he's doing with that. Shifting to the other side of the tour. A big part of the tour kickoff is the announcement of the tour sponsors. So you probably saw a logo floating maybe over here somewhere behind my laptop earlier. Um And that's the first time we've revealed the complete list of tour sponsors. Those of you who have been following the tour for a while, maybe including back to the, the gray shirt or even the black shirt a couple of years ago. And before that, I think we maybe had a blue shirt. Uh We'll notice that there's a lot of the same names on there. Some of these names have actually been with us. I think there's a couple that have been with us every year. I'm, I'm thinking of cert, I think uh next level training the cert pistol and the cert stick rifle. I think that they've been with us every single year of the tour. And a lot of the other names have been with us either for extended periods of time or from the beginning and maybe come and gone. Uh Over the years, I'm thinking of us CC A and Delta defense. Um, I think they're with us the first year. They may not have been with us every year, but they're back again this year. So when we look at this logo, which is, which is up there in front of you now again, um, almost everybody from last year is back and we've added uh one big name which really stands out in that logo as you can see. Um, we usually try to get everybody sort of on the same color scheme this year. We're going with a dark green and Hi Viz. Hi, Viz sites sneaks in there um with their very bright green because they have very bright sites and we thought that was uh fitting. So you may not see that bright green on all the logos as we go through the year. But today for the launch, I think that's an important one to highlight because they are the one name that is brand new. So let's talk about why they're here. Hi, Viz has a new site which actually is, is sitting over here. Um You can, it's very easy to see if I move that box. Um They've got a site that they think bridges the gap between red dots and iron sites. And what it does is it tells you when you're aligned on the target. But unlike a lot of other solutions, uh like trench sites, for example, back in the olden days, um trench sites, let you know that your gun is aligned with your line of sight. But it's very hard to superimpose that alignment over a target because it's, it's set down into the gun what hives is doing. And, and I'm not gonna bother trying to convey how it works in this video right now because we have a great video. I think it's a great video explaining exactly how this new site works. Um At Personal Events Network. It was really one of the products that stood out at shot show this year. Uh at the end of January, it was one of the things that when you, when you went around the the the table with people who go year after year after year and what did you see that was new? Um This was an op a site, an optical solution that isn't a red dot um But is way superior in terms of speed to standard any version of standard sites I've seen that gives you uh basically a go no go. Are you aligned or are you not? But because you get more of a traditional site picture, it's easier to align that go over your target because it does sit in the same place that iron sites normally would. So check that out. Uh really impressive solution. I think for people that, that aren't quite ready to go to red dots or have other reasons they want to avoid red dots. Um But want something faster for close quarters defense than traditional iron sites. Um, and I'm really excited about having them on the tour this year. You know, as many companies I've worked with over the years and as many people as we've had as either partners, collaborators, sponsors advertisers, uh, at personal defense network, we've never had uh more of a traditional site company. And hi, Vis really bridges the gap, I think between a traditional site and an optics company um, with their new offering. So we'll be showing that off on the tour this year and we'll be showing it off as the tour goes on on our kick pistols. Let's move into one of our returning sponsors. So Kick is going to be back this year with the meta. Um, the SFT will primarily be the handgun that we feature on the tour this year and you'll be able to see the Hi biz sites on that kick as we move on. It's something that they're actually adding to their product line specifically because of the tour. So we don't have a sample here today, but we're hoping that very, very quickly you'll be able to see, um, all over the country, our instructors out on the range showing that site off, um, on the kick meta. And when you get a chance to take a class with them, that of course means we'll be passing that firearm around and letting everybody get the experience, the hands on experience with the kick pistol and the Hi Viz site and that's a big part of the sponsor relationship that we have for the tour. Uh, not only do you get to get the information from the instructors, you also get first hand experience with a lot of the products or you get to learn about the services provided by these sponsors that are, that are giving us the stuff to go out on the ranges and actually interact with you. You know, we say that um it's one thing to show somebody the video, but it's obviously something very different to let people in a guided structured environment experience, how these products are supposed to be used or how they might enhance your ability to defend yourself or to be better prepared to defend yourself. Um One of the other returning sponsors in the firearm, the only other firearm that we have. Uh we usually do category exclusivity obviously on the tour. So our handguns will be kick and our long guns will be Nemo. Now you've seen us with the battle light rifles or the battle light pistols with braces in some cases over the last couple of years. Um Nemo has been a great collaborator for us at PDN. Very high quality rifles. Uh Haven't had anybody complain about them having any problems out on the range. They just work. Uh Obviously, they're known for their, their extreme long range uh A Rs that shoot 300 win mag. Uh I love mine um the Nemo Oman absolutely an incredible machine um and been able to send rounds really far out really consistently. Um But up close inside of the home focused on that battle light um chambered in 223 wild uh both pistol configurations and rifle configurations. But later this year, you're gonna see us talking about the Mongoose, the new personal defense weapon or PDW from Nemo. Um that's available as, as a pistol that's available as a braced pistol. Uh More just hanging off a sling um techniques that we have videos on obviously a PDN of how to use pistols that are built out of uh personal events, weapon or even car be type platforms with or without a brace. Um But right now, um braces are obviously the way to go and you'll be seeing us showing off that Mres, you can check some of my social media, some of Nemo, social media, the nine millimeter platform, really unique operating system. Um very, very cool design. The ergonomics on it are great. Um I got to shoot a prototype and we'll be getting the production ones out on the range here during the tour as well this year. So we're excited about that right here. The reason I didn't wanna move over um and try to center myself perfectly in the screen is the Voltech Life Pod. Xr I just did a really thorough review video talking about the features of this yesterday. I'm on the range here in Minnesota and this is gonna be that video will be published probably within the next couple of weeks. Uh But this is something that I'm really excited about having. This is obviously not going to be holding the Nemo rifle, but when you talk about multiple handguns, um for everything you need to go to the range, I have mine set up in a range configuration. They have a couple of different configurations for the inside of the case, but I'll actually tomorrow afternoon for the first time, be traveling with this as my checked luggage. Um And I think I'm, I think that's great, you know, like I don't need the padlocks. It's one of the, the panic moments. Um as you can imagine traveling around all the time when you're getting ready to leave and, and you don't know exactly where the key is or you don't have matching sets of padlocks or you only have two padlocks, but there's four holes and, you know, the TS A is gonna want everything filled um, on that case that you've got, as you head to the airport needing to find the padlocks and having the padlocks um, has definitely delayed my rifle on more than one occasion. Uh So now I've got my vault check with all the technology that I've come to trust. Um, biometric and their capacitive keypad. So I have codes put in, I've also got the manual key, um the backup and this is gonna be the checked luggage now, so I can put, uh, there's three padded pistol cases in there or pad padded pistol slots with straps that'll hold those down. Obviously, I can put inside of a, uh, like a gun rug or any other kind of soft case or maybe even just in a holster. Um, those of you who watched PDN for a while, know that I don't baby my guns. Um, I think I can get more than three in here. Um, but the way it's set up, I've got uh some great com compartments for the magazines for other accessories. Uh uh There's a little space in there. It's not really made for a suppressor, but I found that my new uh dead air suppressor fits perfectly and one little space uh tool pouch. Ok. There's a water resistant little pouch that comes with it and then there's places on the lid to keep all the normal supplies, like cleaning supplies, some Q tips, some oil, um, eye protection can go in there, all that kind of stuff, hearing protection. So that the range set up for the Voltech Xr, which you're gonna get a good look at in that video is also something that when people come to the range to take the classes they're gonna be able to see because all the instructors will be traveling around whether they choose to use the, the smaller life pod or the new life pod XR. Or even the slightly larger life pod XT. Um, you'll get the experience for yourself, uh, how these things work, how ruggedly they're made. And in our home defense classes, we actually have people go through the process of accessing their gun from one of the voltes, getting it into action. Um, right there on the live fire range, which is, which is always, uh, surprisingly enlightening, I think to people, especially people who own quick access safes, but don't practice with them and they find out why it's incredibly important like any other piece of gear to really practice with them. So we're glad to have Voltech back with us this year as well. Another returning sponsor is Freedom Munitions. We've always focused on the training tour on training ammunition as you can expect. Right? So what kind of ammo can I buy in bulk? It's gonna be reliable. It's gonna do what I needed to do on the range. I can practice my techniques, practice my shooting skills and, and move forward from there uh in terms of defensive ammo. Well, you'll see that we have a series of gel tests now, demonstrations again, looking at all the gel tests that we've done probably for the last decade, you know, using the same criteria. So shooting at about the same distance about the same uh for, for pistols, four inch barrel, right about the same barrel uh length. So we have the same comparative speed on the bullet um shooting through light clothing into the clear ballistic gelatin because it's easier to see, um, that gives you some, some apples to apples comparisons. And we know that no gelatin test is a 1 to 1 with how that bullet's gonna perform in any given human body in any given defensive shooting situation. But if you wanna see how bullets perform gel tests are, are the standard, right? We compare them to a known entity and then for bullets that are established, we can go and see what their their real world performance has been. See how that correlates to the data from the gel and then see how a new bullet compares to that bullet and, and start to get an idea whether we can trust it or not to do what we're gonna need it to do in that worst case scenario. And we have been checking out the X DE which is over here. I moved it around a little bit. Let me slide that in a little bit there. That ex de round from freedom munitions has been really impressive. Uh Honestly, you know, I I think of freedom munitions as a training mo a bulk AM O it's really affordable, it's reliable. Of course, that company a few years ago was reborn new facility, um new management and just a whole new style and approach and it's been great for training AMMO, but I'm becoming more and more impressed with what they're doing in the X DEF line as well. So you'll be able to see um at personal events, network.com, you can find nine millimeter 3 83 57 all tested. Uh, today, you can check out the nine millimeter rounds and we'll be posting the 380 the uh 357 relatively soon as part of our, our tour sponsor packages that will be coming out over the next couple of months as well. Uh One of the products or services, I guess that we have uh on the tour this year that I don't have out here on the table is the sponsorship with Cape Gun Works. Now, Cape Gun Works is one of the best range and retail facilities in the country. Uh I know the owners really well, the instructors there, the staff, they're all amazing. Um If you're in the Boston area, if you're anywhere in eastern Massachusetts, um head down to the Cape. Um just where the Cape starts around Hyannis is where you're gonna find Cape Gun Works. Cap Gun Works is an incredible facility both on the retail side, it's a really high quality store again, great service, great staff, fair prices for sure. Uh They also have some great range space. Um They have some reality based training areas. They've got incredible classroom space and uh multiple bays. So we can have a training bay and the bays can be open if you're in the area and you wanna become a member, they give you the 24 7 access with your own code. Um It's a really, really cool high end range and retail facility, but they also have an online presence and that's really where we partner up for the tour. Cape Gun Works online presence, their online retail store. They, they bring everything and more that they actually have in their physical store to you online and obviously they're carrying a lot of the products that we also have on the tour. So if you see something you like from, from Voltech head to Cape Gun works.com, and you're gonna be able to find it for a fair price delivered straight to your door um through their online presence all. Also at Cape Gun works, the media sponsor of the personal events network training tour. Again, this year is rapid Fire radio and rapid fire radio is, is broadcast right from the facility there. Uh Toby, one of the owners of Cape Gun Works is the host of Rapid Fire Radio and he will be checking in with all of those tour instructors that I listed a little while ago. Every one of those will be rotating in turn through rapid Fire Radio. Um, one per week all throughout the tour, giving the latest and greatest updates about where they're gonna be teaching. Uh, maybe the classes they've been running recently. Um They'll address student questions or student problems. That's one of the great things about our our relationship with rapid fire is that if I do three classes in a row, everybody's talking about some new gun or asking about a new piece of equipment or maybe there's a, a high profile event happens. Uh some kind of tragedy where someone had to use a gun to defend themselves in a public space. Everybody's talking about it on the ranges. Uh Then I get to bring to you through rapid fire radio. The discussions that we're having in the real classes out there on the ranges all over the country and all the other instructors will be able to do that as well. So we try to stay on, on topics that are not just tour related, but really what's going on on the ranges. What are the students asking, what are the problems we're dealing with? And how can we maybe put out some pointers that will help you um as a listener to rapid fire radio or a viewer if you're watching their live stream, uh get something out of the tour even when you're not coming to a class, you know, and, and we, we get it. Not, everybody can come to a class. We may, may have 1518 100 people be able to attend one of our classes this year. But we know that we are gonna reach tens of thousands through the efforts of rapid fire radio. And of course, what we put out at PDN every year gets us into the millions of impressions. Um So the digital part is incredibly important. Any of the media is important, but we do hope at one point maybe this year or next or five years from now, you get to join us in an actual class on the tour as well. Um If you do, you're thinking about personal defense, you're thinking about training, you're thinking about um using potentially lethal force to defend yourself or those that you care about. Well, then we have to think about what we always call fight three. coming out of the old spear system terminology, you know, fight one is, is watching this video coming to a class. It's, it's you versus you making sure that you're prepared. Um And realizing that you should be prepared, right? You are your own first responder kind of thing. Fight two was the actual fight with the bad guy. That's what we always really focus on. I think in the training world is, you know, how do I control the bullet? How do I get the knife out? You know, where do I strike somebody that kind of stuff? The actual physical fight. But even after you've won fight one and won fight two, you've got to deal with the aftermath and that's fight three and that's where the US CC A and Delta defense come in and again, they've been with us since year one on the tour. Um I've worked with them since 2004, 5, I think I wrote and published my first uh article with them in their magazine. Uh I've known that organization since it, it was formed. Uh Obviously, we, we had the defensive shooting fundamentals program, um which was uh our version, the evolved version for US CC A of our CFS and I DS program. Um It's an organization that I'm really proud to be affiliated with most of the instructors that I listed off earlier work uh in one way or another with US CC A or, or very supportive of the services that they provide and those services really kick in um from flight one, right? Um US CC A is really focused on training and education. Um They set a goal a few years ago of getting 1 million Americans through some version of a US CC A training program. Um I think if they haven't hit it yet, they gotta be really close. Uh And of course, they have hundreds of thousands of members who take advantage of the legal uh the financial services to support their legal uh needs after a use of defense or really any kind of involved firearm event where there's legal aftermath and that that might be a civil issue, might be a criminal issue. Um The details of the US CC A program and what Delta defense offer you can get over there at US CC a.com or the information will be provided during our classes. We always make sure that there's an opportunity if there's a, a regional rep, if one of the instructors on the tour isn't well versed with what US CC A is doing. You can expect at some 0.10 or 15 minutes, maybe during a lunch break or maybe towards the end of the day, um, someone's gonna show up, join the class and give everybody a special opportunity to become a US CC A member, maybe to renew their membership or ask some follow up questions and learn what they need to know about it. Now, we have some videos here at personal events, network.com. Also that explain us CC A, what it is, what it's all about. If, if somehow you're watching BDN, you, you've never heard of us CC A check out those videos, um check to see what I've said about them. Uh What the other instructors on the tour have said about them. Um As I said, Clint Macro is on staff with them on their training team. Um And like I said, as I go down the list just about everybody on that list. Not only has a relationship with PDN, but has a relationship with US CC A. There's probably a reason for that. Um So, so if you're looking for uh that help when it comes to fight three, US CC A is definitely a trusted source uh that list of sponsors. I, I wanna make it really clear as I said we're category exclusive and we only work with companies that we trust, uh, the instructors that are on the tour. One of the questions they ask me every year is, well, who's gonna be on as a sponsor? And it's not because, you know, they want a free shirt or a free hat or an extra set of sights or even a firearm is really because they wanna make sure that they trust that company and that they can work with their students to represent how this company or this or how this product service, the company might serve them again in their preparation to be able to defend themselves or those they care about or in the fight itself or even in the aftermath. And that's incredibly important. So it's not just about uh you know, go the shot show and, and somebody's waving a checkbook and says they wanna sponsor the tour. Uh they may or may not get in. Um I'm very proud of the fact as, as I said earlier, that most of these sponsors are return sponsors and have been with us for, for multiple years. Um Some a decade or more. Um that's really important to the quality of the relationship we have with them as collaborators and to the information we're putting out the integrity of the information that we're putting out as instructors. One of the other things we always say is look, you may not have a product that fits the need of our students. So we're not just gonna talk about, for example, freedom mu munitions. If you're firearm of choice, your defensive firearm is in a caliber that they don't offer. We're not gonna tell you, you can't take the class or you're foolish and you need to get a new gun. You might be foolish and you need to get a new gun for other reasons, but it's not gonna be because freedom munitions doesn't offer the, uh, ammunition for it or G code Holsters doesn't offer the holster for it. Did I not mention G code? I probably should. Well, there's a synchron right there. Um, with a, with, with side car type, uh, set up for inside the waistband. Um G code is another returning sponsor that I, I guess I didn't mention I was just skipped right by them somehow, even though they're literally right here, peeking out from around the volte. Um G code is actually the whole string I carry every day. So of all the sponsors, um, probably one that, that is to me just kind of part of everyday life literally and figuratively, um, Scott Evans that founded G code is a good friend of mine. Uh, but it, it's really only been the last few years that they've been involved with personal defense network. I've been a fan of what Scott's doing and I'm very aware of the quality which his company produces holsters. Uh, again, I it's a trusted name that I recommended um for many, many years as an option for people and it's great to have had them join the tour last year. And of course, we're sharing a lot of information about the phenom, the synchron and their new paradigm holster, which is really a game changer for instructors. I know that just that every instructor I've talked to is excited about the paradigm because the paradigm is absolutely the best universal holster that I personally have ever seen. Uh I was very skeptical knowing the quality of product that, that, uh Scott and his team at G code put out when he told me he was coming out with a universal holster. Uh I was, I was afraid for, for him, I guess I was afraid that he might ask me to represent something or promote something or, you know, even say something nice about a universal holster, which has not always been easy to do quite honestly, most of the universal holsters out there, um, fail at least one of the three jobs a holster has, but the paradigm is different. And, uh I did a video, it's actually my personal, um, youtube, you can see a video where I just kind of randomly started grabbing stuff out of my safe, uh, in North Carolina and sticking it into the, the paradigm holster when I first got it. And it, it's, it's pretty impressive where, where we can go, um, all the way down from, um, tiny little subcompacts, uh, all the way up through. I think the, the EVO from, from Kimber was one of the tiny little single stack like seven shots that I put in there, you know, all the way up to some very big guns, including the, the big cannock and the, uh, the grand powers, some of the holster, some of the guns that don't have a lot of holster support, um, are supported by the paradigm. And that's why it's so great for instructors or for the person who, you know, it's not your carry holster, it's not your carry gun, but you wanna go to the range, you've got three or four different guns inside of your Voltech Xr set up for the range. You go there and the one holster you pull out is the paradigm and that paradigm is gonna fit everything you've got there. Um And, and again, it doesn't have to be tactical. It doesn't have to be your carry holster. But from a functional standpoint, uh the paradigm really is a game changer and in, in one egg, uh for less than 30 bucks, you get the holster which is left or right. Um It's ambidextrous set up and it's an inside the waistband, uh clip and an outside the waistband paddle all in one bag. Um Pretty impressive what they've done. Um We will have those holsters out on the range with us as well as synchron and phenoms now, one of the interesting things about it is the synchron and the phenom and the synchron is now inside or outside the waistband. Uh, the phenom is inside the waistband appendix. There's like 200 variations, right? And that's the reason you won't see them in a lot of stores. And you do have to go to G code's website almost all the time to get the holster you want is because of the incredible variety of colors and setups and clips and mo claws and uh it's amazing finishes, right? You get the, the fuzz or you get the, the slick plastic. Um There's a lot of very inside of both of those holster lines and then of course, right handed, left handed and which gun do you want? Because they're not universal. Um We're gonna do a couple of videos you'll see coming out again this spring where we actually uh probably on this very table in this studio will lay out. You know, here's all the options if you wanna order a synchron, for example, right? Here's all the things you have to choose from, go to their website and check that out, but to get started paradigm really impressive. Um So again, just, just one more example of, of why I believe in these sponsors and why these people are uh these products and people are involved with the tour. Um We're pretty selective about it. Um Again, we're category exclusive and we always hope that we'll get our sponsors from last year to come back with us in future years and we welcome Hi, Viz to the PDN training to our family. Uh, I'm gonna take a quick look here and see, see what we've got going on in the chat rooms and maybe let's see any plans for Arizona classes. Yes, we do. Um, I don't know if I'll be in Arizona this year, but I know that we have a couple of tour classes be taking place in Arizona. Um We'll be adding I DS instructor courses to the tour. There will be an instructor course. I know there's one scheduled for Colorado right now. Um with guns for everyone. Edgar Edgar, did I not mention Edgar? See this is, this is how Rob's brain works. Edgar Antone is one of our instructors on the tour as well. Um He of course runs guns for everyone. He is the exclusive provider of content in Spanish at PDN Espanol. So we've got a collection of videos we started releasing last year. We, we're releasing some more of them. Um with Edgar talking about all the core fundamental concepts that we may have covered in other videos, but in Spanish for the Spanish speaking community, which is pretty cool. He does a lot of work with me down in Mexico to help develop instructors as well as here in the US. Um But he is hosting a instructor course in Colorado that I think I'll be, uh, participating in, but that Derek, uh, pool and Chris Gy who also be helping on the tour this year, he'll be out there teaching the instructor development course. Uh, let's see, what else do we have? And, uh, do we have any accommodations? Oh, accreditation. So, uh, the, when it comes to the tour, uh, each one of the classes is not run by personal defense network per se. Right. We're bringing the instructors together with you, our audience and with our products from the sponsors and all of the classes themselves while we're promoting them and, and certainly endorsing them in every way possible. They are run by the independent instructors. So if you're, if you're gonna go to an Edgar class, that's a guns for everyone. Class, you'll get your certificate, you'll get any accreditation that comes with that through him for taking a class with me, it's gonna be through I ce training company. And if you're doing instructor development class with me, then that certification or accreditation will come from I ce now, there are plenty of states, for example, that recognize I ce training credentials for concealed carry permits. There's other ways that, that might help you teach at a certain venue or be aligned with some other organization, for example, guns for everyone. Uh, but specifically every single one of the classes is run in that way as far as the bureaucracy and the administration, the providing of cer certificates and any of the other, uh privileges, I guess that get extended with completing those classes will come directly from the instructors. And that also means that you'll see, obviously all of these instructors are running their own businesses, they have their own relationships. In some cases, they have relationships with other companies that may or may not be affiliated with the tour, may or may not be affiliated with, uh personal events network at all. Um And then you may be getting some, some bonuses with them as well, some exposure to their products as well as uh some discount opportunities, maybe a discount code or something, the coupon code that comes with attending one of those classes, for example, I know Green Line Tactical has a lot of those relationships in areas that we don't talk about. You know, there's again, night vision, we don't do a lot of stuff with night vision and personal defense network. Um But those relationships exist through Green Line. So, um definitely very solid question and uh something that is part of the tour, but only directly through the instructors. Um So I appreciate those questions, appreciate you watching. Um And again, as I said, I know that not everybody watches live, it's always great to see that people are watching live and engaging with what we're doing. Um But if you are watching this as a recording, you know, you can hit the comments. Um If you have a specific question about a class, um, about a venue, uh, for any of the individual instructors, it's probably best to reach out to them through social media. Um, you can always send something into PDN and, and it'll go through a, probably a couple of hands before it gets to them directly. Um, but we're here to share the information with you as always. Um, we will answer whatever questions we can, we certainly will give our opinions on the products or the classes um or the techniques. Um But ultimately going directly to the companies or directly to the instructors, um That's the best way to get the answer from them. Um Use personal events network as the resource uh for the initial information for the initial introduction, come to the classes, meet the instructors, uh put hands on the product or uh talk to us about the services provided by the sponsors. That's what the tour is all about. Really excited about 2024. Um It will literally be our, our biggest year yet. Uh more instructors on the tour than ever before. More classes expected to be on the tour than ever before. And uh we'll be checking in through the uh uh Rapid Fire Radio, the weekly touches, we'll be releasing our videos, uh talking about the sponsor's product. We'll have a lot more content coming from the entire instructor team, uh both videos and articles and then of course, we'll do our wrap up at the end of the year and, and tell you how it all went. If you're not sure about the tour and what's involved, you can check out PDN training tour.com and learn more. You also can always go back through the history, going back to 2012 and look at the updates, look at the video, look at the social media posts, look at the tour wrap ups, some of the other live videos that we've done related to the tour and really get a feel for what it is we've been doing. Um the quality with which we do it and the value that our students uh continue to get out of those classes. Um Obviously not just from me but from the entire team and it is a team. I am very proud to work with both on the, the sponsor side and the instructor side. So thanks to all of them for being involved and uh you'll be hearing more from them and about them as the tour goes on. Uh PDN Training tour.com, that's where you're gonna get the rest of the information, including the frequently updated calendar of courses. Thanks for watching.