“Volcanoes, Survival &Shark Tank: The Extreme Life of Dr. Rob Yonover”

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Hey, how you doing, Doc? All right. I knew I was gonna forget today, man. I'd get tongue-tied at times, man. That's just me. So, Doc, man, I appreciate you coming on today, man.

My pleasure, my pleasure. I'm glad to be here. Thank you.

So, Doc, let's jump into this, man. The making of an adventure. What sparked your passion for volcanoes and extreme science?

Well, as a kid, my parents used to take us all around the country and traveling and seeing things. They didn't have much money, but we always went to parks and things. I would wake up at 5 in the morning and they would throw me outside, so I was always messing around outside. And then I just did well in science, and my family's whole credo was, you know, fix it yourself. You don't buy anything new that you can fix yourself. So we're always rigging things, and that's kind of where it all started. And, you know, there's a lot of pride in building stuff yourself. Building stuff yourself. And also, we had a sign on our wall in the house that said, "Just say no to real jobs." So my family, if you took a real job, you were like a failure, even if you were really successful. You want to be self-employed with everything.

Oh man, that's great. And I like volcanoes.

I grew up in Miami, and the waves are flat, and the land was flat, and I would study books and they'd see volcanoes and tropical islands and beautiful women and waves. I'm like, I gotta get there. So I did well in school and I eventually got into volcanology and I traveled the world working on volcanoes and got to Hawaii. And I've been in Hawaii for 40 years and there are beautiful women here and good waves and good volcanoes. So it has it all for me.

Hey Doc, I'm gonna take you for your word, man. I believe, I believe.

You gotta come on out one day.

Hey man, when I get there, I wanna, I wanna do the, you know how you go under the thing, you know, you dance up under the little thing where you go all the way down or what? I can't think of the name. Oh yeah, they got the little bar, then you gotta dance up under.

Yeah, that's a Caribbean thing, but they do it in Hawaii too. Yeah, that's hard. If you can do that, you're more flexible than I am.

No, no, I'm not saying I can do it. I just want to try it. Yeah, the limbo. I always thought it was pretty cool. I just want to try it, man. I just want to try it.

You gotta learn the hula here.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh man, I don't know. I don't know about putting on the grass skirt, Doc. I might just put on the, you know, yeah, they go on top of you, whatnot. So let me ask you, man, how did your early years prepare you for life of risk and discovery?

Yeah, well, you know, again, my family, we're all about making our own way. And even as a little kid, I always had businesses. We didn't have any money, so we were encouraged to make money. So we used to have a pet alligator, and we used to take it around the neighborhood and show it to people for a nickel, you know, and stuff like that, stupid shit. And then I became a pool boy, and I would set up the pool chair, lounge chairs for the tourists in Miami, and they go diving for lobster and fish and sell them to the tourists. So I was always entrepreneurial. You know, that was everything for us, is just scrambling. When you need money, you scramble and you make money the best way you can. And you know, you don't want to take a real job, you do it, you know, by scrambling and being entrepreneurial. And you know, buying something, you gotta look for the angles and say, oh, this thing. In fact, remember Blow Pops? When I was like 5 years old or 10 years— not even 10, 5 I found out a place I could buy a whole box of Blow Pops, so I took them to school and resold them. So I bought them wholesale and sold them retail. You know, I was netting like $2 a day.

I thought I was a millionaire. And that entrepreneur mindset at a young age. But I tell you what, Doc, if I was staying in your area back in that time and you come around me with an alligator, I don't think you would have got paid too much, man. I don't know if I would have just stood up there trying to pet an alligator. It was a little one. Hey, Doc, little, big, medium size, not for the kid, man. But I gotta give it to you, you are— you're a very adventurous guy going chasing that. You know how people chase after, um, what they say, wind chasers, storm chasers? Chasing after volcanoes, man. I got a lot of— I got a lot of heart right here.

I've been on a lot of them. I've been up the one— I was on one on the Big Island. My friend who's a crazy volcanologist said, "Don't worry, you can run under it. All the lava dries before it hits you." I'm like, "What? That's 2,000 degrees." So I've been in some pretty heavy things. The best thing I ever did in terms of risk was for my PhD, I went down to the bottom of the ocean in the little submersible that found the Titanic. So I went down a little ball 2 miles deep in the ocean for 8 hours with no bathroom or anything. That was heavy.

Oh man, that's some heavy stuff, man.

I give it to you. I surf big waves, I surf big waves, like 30-foot face waves, so mountains of water, and I'm out there alone with just a board and a leash and just some shorts, and that's pretty heavy. But you know, you got to train, just like anything. I train for stuff. I train for work, I train for volcanoes, I train for surfing. You gotta be ready, man. You can't just jump into things without you being prepared.

I tell you what, Doc, man, when I come kicking with you out there in Hawaii, man, we just gonna go to the resorts, you know what I'm saying? To the little island. I ain't doing no surfing. I can't swim. I ain't, I ain't prepared for all that yet, man. You know, we just go have some, uh, coconut drinks, you know, things of that nature, man. We go, we gonna be chill, man. We gonna be chill.

So, Doc, I don't force people to do stuff they're not comfortable with.

Yeah, like the alligator. I'm sorry, man. Hey, so Doc, let me ask you, man, solving problems in the extreme. How did you invent the Sea Rescue Streamer? Yeah, Streamer. My neighbor—

I mean, my— I was a PhD student and another student had a pilot's license and he rented a plane and it was like a Cessna in the air, and it was like, you know, rented plane. It wasn't running real— running rough. And I looked down all that water, go, if this plane goes down— I thought it was gonna go down— they'll never see us. And I started looking into it because the plane will sink and then we'll be out there. And they have smoke signals, flares— what else? Flare, smoke, sea dye, that stuff they put in the water. They even have electronic devices. But the bottom line is, your head is so small They can't see you. So a couple weeks later, I flew back to Miami to visit the family, and the Cristo, this artist, wrapped the islands in pink plastic. And when I flew over that pink plastic, I'm like, that's it, all I need is a piece of that plastic and they'll see us. So I invented this long orange tail. It was pink originally, but the Navy thought it was, it was not good. They don't like pink. So I invented this orange tail I patented struts on it so it's like a centipede. It won't twist up. It gives you a long orange tail. So when they fly over you, your head's not a little coconut floating in the water. You're a coconut with a 20-foot, 25, or 40-foot long orange tail. And the military loved it because it was a continuous signal. You could put it out there, flare, smoke, and die all goes away. The streamer stays there forever. And if the enemy comes around, you can pull it in and then redeploy it. So that's how I got— it took me years. This is— I'm talking 30, 40 years ago I thought of it. And you know, I never give up. You know the tortoise and the hare? You know that story about the turtle going slow? Yeah, yeah, that's— I'm the turtle. I keep going. They run by me, they laugh at me, say you can't do that, and I keep doing it.

So hey, I hear you sound like Noah in the Bible, man, building that, uh, ark with everybody looking at him like he was crazy, you know what I'm saying?

Absolutely. I'm used to— I'm used to people thinking I'm crazy. I kind of like it that way.

Oh man, hey, going around the neighborhood with a pet alligator, man. Uh, Doc, I don't know if I'll be able to forget that one, man. That's— that's a good one. Hey, so Doc, let me ask you, man. I think this is the one I want to know, and I know the audience wants to know about this one, man, you know, because you're a superstar. What was it like being on Shark Tank and getting military approval.

Oh, I appreciate that. Well, I used to play basketball as a kid, and I kind of, you know, I played. I wasn't that good, I wasn't that big, but when you get into a game, you got to rev yourself up when you get against someone bigger and better than you. And when you get out to Shark Tank, they make you walk out that hallway and they make you stand there and stare at each shark for like 10, 20 seconds each. And it was very— and I'm really nervous. I want to start talking about my invention. So I'm looking at Mark Cuban, I'm like, okay, okay, I'm ready. And then I'm looking at Mr. Wonderful, I'm kind of revving myself up, and then I just go. And it was just like all these cameras and millions of people were going to watch it, and it was a lot, a lot of pressure. But once I got my couple first couple words out, I felt good. And then I realized just like anything, any, any industry you're in or any invention or business, you know the most about your own business. So as soon as I started talking, I realized that's like me giving a lecture to a bunch of students. They were listening to me. I was the expert. The only thing they could get me on is money and business, and they loved it. And Mark Cuban was just, you know, he got enthralled with my volcano background, so he kept asking me about volcanoes And finally, Mr. Wonderful said, stop talking about volcanoes, let's talk to him about streamers. Because I could talk to this guy all day. And, you know, I'm into women, and not that being into men's anything bad, but I kind of felt like Mark Cuban was flirting with me. Ah, so on the way out, I winked at him.

I told him to call me. Oh man, that's funny. No wonder you said you had a story to tell about Cuban, huh? Yeah, he's a good guy though.

He was a good guy. He totally respected me and my invention. So did all the Sharks. They all loved it. They all said, this is going to save lives. This is great, great invention. We just can't help you because you know more about the military and the government and selling. And I was shocked though still because I gave a lowball offer. I just thought there'd be a bidding war because I thought they'd want to save lives, you know, because I saved some lives. The guys thanked me. I've had military guys come up to me, man, you saved my life. Thank you. I'm like, you know how good that felt? And I tried to explain that to them. They don't give a shit. They just want money. And I kind of was disappointed. Ah, you know, it's not all about money when you have that much money. What the hell? Yeah, it's okay. It worked out better. It worked out better. And in fact, they keep re-showing my Shark Tank thing on CNBC, and they've shown like 100 times in the last 5 years. And someone picked it up on TikTok, and also right now On YouTube, it's on. It's got 35 million hits, 38 million hits as of this morning and counting. Wow, they love the pitch. So it's pretty cool. It's been good, and you know, it's led to some good sales. But I'm still— my main business is with the military all over the world. We have air forces, and the streamer, I designed one that pops out automatically. So if you're a fighter jet pilot and you eject out, you might be unconscious or dead, but when it hits the water little pouch ties dissolve and it goes out automatically. So like Singapore Air Force and other air forces carry that. So it's been a wild ride, but you know, you got— it's just like showing the alligator, man. You got it. You knock on the door and the guy closed the door in your face, you go to the next door. Yeah, stop knocking on the door.

Hey, you gotta have that mentality. Like you say, I'm stuck on the alligator. Cuban was stuck on a volcano. You know what I'm saying? And shame on you sharks. But not giving my man Dr. Ron a chance, man. It's not all about— you guys are filthy rich. It's all about saving lives. Hey, but absolutely.

But like you say, they supported it though on national TV. They said it was great. They all liked it. And that's really better than their money because if I took their money, then I got a partner and it wouldn't be Mark Cuban calling me. It'd be some 30-year-old administrator in his office telling me what to do. So I'm cool for that.

I hear you. And this way, hey, you can't beat the free publicity either. 35 million views, come on now, that's a little something to put aside to develop some more life-saving material, man. Exactly.

And I give people— everyone gives me hell about my social media. I'm not the best at social media, I'm old school, but I do it a little. And they say, oh, you do this, do this. Like, listen, asshole, I got 38 million views today, so you work on your social media. I hear you, man.

I ain't got nowhere near that, so I ain't got nothing to say about that. I stick to the alligator. Hey, so, so, Doc, man, let me ask you, man, deep dives in big ways. Tell us about diving into the Alvin, man, 2 miles deep. Okay.

Okay, well, first of all, they test you. I worked on an ocean floor lava off Galápagos, and we had to get down there with a submersible, the Alvin. The Alvin is— you saw the movie Titanic? It's that red and white sub at the beginning of Titanic. You're in a metal ball, it's tiny, and they test you to see if you're claustrophobic. Like, you got to get in the submarine while it's still on the ship. And I'm a little claustrophobic, but I said, I'm not missing this opportunity. I got in there and just pretended like I was relaxed. But once you go in, you start diving down, it's like 100 degrees on the surface. I went in with no shirt. By the time I got to the bottom, I had a jacket on. It was freezing down there. It goes from blue water to green to gray to black, and then on the bottom there's all these floating weird creatures that are fluorescent green. And it was wild. You get— each scientist gets a little window to look out of, and the pilot has a bigger window. And I just said, the only way I'm going to survive is to put my eyeball on that window. So I'm not looking at how small this sub is, I'm looking at how big the ocean is. I'm out outside, and it was just incredible. I saw the weirdest things. Like, I'm not a biologist, but I saw what looked like a monkey's skull on an eel's tail, and you could see right through it, and it was translucent. There was just crazy stuff down there. And it was just wild. And then we just took lava samples with— it has arms, like robotic arms. So I tell the pilot, yeah, get that piece of lava, that looks good. He puts it in the basket, we take it up, and that's what I did my PhD. I worked on those lava samples. I studied them, the geochemistry, studied them at University of Hawaii, MIT, and at NASA. I worked at NASA Johnson Space Center too. So I got to do some great, great things. And I thought those two dives 2 miles down. You know, only like 1,000 people in the world have been down that deep. The regular military subs only go like half a mile. I went down 2 miles. And this is a little off-color, but who cares? I used to tell people, I'm the only human you'll ever meet that's in the Mile High Club and was in position to be in the Mile Down Club. But she was not into me, and, you know, I was married anyway. Nothing's gonna happen. But the point is, I went up there, I went down there. And it was unreal. It was one of the incredible things in my life.

Hey, Doc, let me ask you, man. So I can't believe you claustrophobic, uh, as you say, you know, with all these things you did going to volcano chasing. Hey, but, um, let me ask you, man, you said something about seeing a monkey skull. So like, when you looking outside, you know what I'm saying, of the submarine, and you, you know, you looking through the thing or whatever and you see this monkey skull. Have you ever seen anything would just make your heart beat fast, like, whoa, you know what I'm saying? Like, it's shocking and scary.

I mean, it wasn't scary as well as much as amazing. It looked like an eel, like an eel. You know what an eel is? Like a long eel, but its head looked like a monkey skull. You can look on the internet, there's a name for this creature, but I didn't know that they were going to be down there. When I saw it, it was pretty shocking. It wasn't scary, it was more amazing. I, you know I'm not scared of the natural world. Nature doesn't scare me. You know what scares me? Like, humans scare me more than nature.

I can bet, man. Sitting around here carrying around a pet alligator, Doc, I know you ain't scared of too much things humanly. That's cool, man. I'm comfortable with animals. Hey, so Doc, man, let me ask you another question, man. Okay, on the same level, how does surfing big waves— you're talking about surfing earlier— how does surfing big waves sharpen your survival instincts?

Well, I think whenever you're out in nature and deep, I don't— that's what I do my best thinking, when I'm alone and I'm at risk. So I fish also. I fish like 20 miles offshore in rough water, and I tie myself to the boat. So whenever there's a risky situation in nature I think about contingencies like, what if the board breaks? How do I get in? So what if the boat starts sinking? What if I cut my hand and I'm bleeding bad? All these things. Or what if I get lost at sea? Then I invented a streamer. So I have all these other inventions too. I have a pocket flotation device, a pocket desalinator, an inflatable paddleboard, a video search and rescue, and they're all around survival. Because that's what I do. I train to surf big waves and then I do it. So I'm always thinking and I'm always getting ready for it. And when you start using your body in deep nature, it's almost zen-like. That's when, to me, your mind opens. And to be an inventor, I like to work with minimal equipment. And I've read a lot of survival stories and you hear about these guys lost at sea in a raft and they're able to figure out a way to stab a fish with a butter knife. You know, they have all these crazy stories. And it's like, these are real stories. So I'm always interested in, in how people survive things. And that's why I try to apply my mind. And my mind is a very— like I said earlier, we were encouraged to fix stuff in our house, fix stuff out of what you have, never buy something in the store. I used to cause a problem with my little wife. She wanted to buy new stuff, and I'm like, no, we can fix that, we can fix that. What do you have at hand? If you're in a life raft, you'll have a couple things. I used to go to Home Depot just to look at stuff that I could buy and break apart and use pieces from. So, wow, that's kind of— I'm into materials. It's like, you know, it's just being creative, you know. And even as a kid, the thing for all you parents out there, stop— your kid doesn't need another violin lesson or another, you know, math. Your kid needs to do art and ceramics and go to parks, get into nature, and do arts and crafts. And think wildly and think with an open slate. And also, inventing can be anything. You can invent survival gear, but you can invent poetry, writing, music, art. It's all invention to me. And kids are the best inventors. So I, I keep trying to think like a kid because kids have— they don't have the predisposition of, oh, you can't do that, you can't do that, we were taught you can't do that. No, you can do anything, you know, and anything's possible. And a tree doesn't have to be green When you paint a tree, it could be purple. You could be any color you want. You know, that creativity is the key thing that we're losing. And I'm a big hater, if you will, of smartphones. I think they're the worst thing. And in 2007, when that first iPhone came out, oh, it said how great it was. I go, this is bullshit. This thing's horrible.

And I was right then and I'm right now.

Those things, because then you're just a watcher. You're not a doer. You're just watching. People. And if you have idiot friends, you're just watching idiot shit. And when you go out in nature or in public, you need to talk to people, look them in the eye, talk to them, learn about skills of interpersonal skills. If all you got is this phone you're looking at— and hey, I like doing it, I got an iPad, I scroll around, it's great— but you can't be dominated by that. I mean, that's— and here's my phone, okay? That's what my phone looks like.

Dawg, what kind of phone is that, man?

It's just like military commercial kind of— I don't know, Verizon makes it and I love it. It's like a fat BlackBerry. Remember BlackBerrys?

Yeah, I remember that. See, I can phone—

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I don't want the apps when I'm in public. I don't want to be scrolling.

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Doc, you on some of that G14 classified stuff right there, man. That's right, that's right, that's exactly what that is, man.

People give me hell for my phone, but my phone's harder to crack than your phone.

I bet it is, I bet it is.

I'm not online. Hey, you did it.

Hey, you dealing with the military, man, and going into this next question, man, you know, you the man, you know what I'm saying? You the man. So let me ask you, man, space science and staying alive— how did your tech end up on SpaceX flights?

Oh, that's a good one. Well, first of all, I love and hate trade shows. Everyone knows what a trade show is, right? I learned a long time ago that if you go to a trade show and you shave and put a suit and tie on, you can interact with the powerful people. They don't know who you are. And the most powerful people— I can go to the Lockheed or the Boeing booth and go right up next to some CEOs or tech people. So over the years, I've learned that that's kind of hard to do because you're kind of like trying to steal away people from someone else's booth. So ultimately, I got my own booth. And people come by my booth. And the other thing I learned, a good— I learned a great lot. I created one of my great inventions is 4 words for any of you people that have booths. I'm going to share this with you. You don't say hello to someone walking by your booth. You don't say, can I help you? No one— if they— if you say hello, they'll say hello. If you say, can I help you, they'll say, I don't need help. What you say is, have you seen this? And if they say— have you seen this? If they say yes, say, well, I don't— you haven't seen the new auto deploy streamer. So that way you start a conversation. If they say no, you show it to them. So either way. So that's how I did it. I work with the military. I'm part of the association. It's an international survival military groups all over the world. And people come by there and from just— you keep showing up, man. How do you do things? You keep showing up. You keep working it like the tortoise and the hare. People come to my booth. I don't care what they look like. And some young kids come by my booth And they go, oh, we're from SpaceX. I'm like, oh, you're full of it. They were, you know, engineers for SpaceX. And they saw my whole booth and I talked to them. I talked to everyone like I, you know, the same way. You never know. One time an older lady came by my booth. Most people would have ignored her. I talked her up. I told her all about my invention. She came back in about 10 minutes with her husband, some macking general, you know. So you never know who you're talking to. Yeah. So same thing, these kids were at SpaceX. My kids, they were 30-year-old engineers. And it turns out they liked what they saw. When the capsule goes and drops down in the water, they might get lost getting out of the capsule. It's a rough landing, so they need a streamer so they can find them. The streamer works on land and water. And ironically, the first patent I got on it, I said the streamer's for water, land, and space. Because if you got— like, you're doing a spacewalk and you get lost, it's hard to see. But if you had a 25-foot-long orange tail flying through space, maybe you'll see him. But that's not what they wanted it for. They don't want it for the spacewalk, they wanted it for splashdown. So now it's under their ass of every astronaut, it's in their survival kit. So yeah, I'm pretty proud of that. I mean, that's— it's funny because it's a $100 piece of plastic on a billion-dollar aircraft. I love that part of it. With my wife saying, get a real job and stop playing with a piece of plastic. She used to say that to me back in the day.

She ain't know you used to carry a pet alligator around, man, chasing volcanoes. She ain't know who she was talking to, did she? Look at me, look at me now. Oh man. So, so let me ask you, Doc, man, just off the record. So although your invention is on SpaceX, have you ever been inside of one of the SpaceX shuttles just to look and look around? No, no.

I have not. I'm waiting for the invite. And in fact, I asked them if I could get back the one that went to space, you know, because I'd like to put it in a little case and say, this invention went to space. But they wouldn't do that. But I've been in Smithsonian. You can get into the Apollo capsules. I've been in those before, you know, not while they were going to launch, but the old ones are in Smithsonian in D.C. You can go and get in. And that's what I think— that was the time I realized I'm claustrophobic. Those things are tiny. I'm not that claustrophobic. Tell me to go into something, into something, I'm not going in there. But if you say you go in there and you're going to the bottom of the ocean or going up in space, I'm going. And then I get over it quickly.

Yeah, yeah, I bet you do, man. I— you more mad than me, I'll put it that way, because I'm claustrophobic all the way. I'm not getting— I don't even want to— no, I can't do that. But, but if I'm making money like you, I would, you know what I'm saying? So, Don, let me ask you one more question, man. This is my last question. Sure. Then I got a quickfire round. Why? I've been playing this game on the Moneyway Show for the— since the beginning of the year. I ask you 5 questions. Okay. Just tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. But I got one more question before we get there. What's your approach to invention and staying relevant in tech?

Well, I do look at social media. I do look at media. I look at what's going on. And I am part of the groups and I walk the floor of the trade shows I go to, to see what other people are going, what are other people doing. And I look at what the problems are. I read a lot. I read about what are the problems in technology. And then I take what the problem is and I try to approach it from my simple mindset instead of their overly tech mindset. What can I do simply to solve a problem? And I just have a notebook and I take notes and I just keep thinking about stuff. And the thing about being an inventor is I might have like 100 ideas every, every month, but only 2 or 3 are good. So you have to keep producing ideas and try to kind of— it's like mining for gold, panning for gold. Some of them are good. The streamer idea was a great idea. I've had some really bad ideas. They're good for me. Like, I put like sunscreen— I had to get something burned off my back because I was dermatologist. And I can't reach the back of my back, and that's where the little spot was. So I said to my friend— I'm alone a lot— but I went to my friend, I go, hey man, put some sunscreen on me. So he's putting it on me, and I don't like guys touching me, and he did it. He goes, hey man, and I've had a pretty, pretty woman do that to me. So he goes, okay, your turn, so I could put it on my back. And he had this nasty hairy back, and I'm like, oh shit, I don't want to put— so I invented a little, uh, a little paint roller. I use a paint roller and I roll the sunscreen on my back now. That's one of my best inventions. It's not going to make the light of day. You're not going to see that in the store, you know. Oh man, you got to keep inventing it. And some of them are— in fact, when I was 5 years old My first invention, this is what my parents knew I was whack. They had these little motors that you connect to the battery and they spun this little motor. I put a drinking straw on it and I shoved it up my nose and it goes like this. Oh shit, that's the electric nose picker. That was my first invention, the electric nose picker. Oh man, the other thing about being creative, you got to be happy, you know, when you're laughing You're open, you're open to— yeah, so when I do lectures to kids, I try, I try to get people to loosen up and relax. You know, this, this is— creating is about being happy and loose and being open to creativity and letting it flow. So that's how I try to do it. You know, some of these ideas aren't great, but some of them are.

Yeah, you got me. That's the hard part. Yeah, you got me. That was funny. That man, he said, hey man, put some of this on my back. He did it. He said, okay, your turn, put some on my back. Wait a minute, man, you got this hairy back. I don't like touching men like that. I'm gonna get a paintbrush. Now that was funny, man. That's a classic. No wonder you wowed the, uh, Shark Tank, uh, crew, man. You're a funny guy. Very adventurous and funny. And so, so Doc, man, as we get ready, man, to end this round, man, let me do this quick fire round real quick, man. Favorite place you ever explored? Africa.

I went to the Serengeti and saw lions and cheetah and leopards. That was my favorite place, but I've got a lot. I mean, the submarine was still number one, but it's just favorite place, Africa. And Iceland is unreal. And I went to India and saw tigers recently. I'm more impressed with what nature has than what humans have. I don't want to see a church that was built by a bunch of slaves, you know. All these poor people are forced to build things for the, for the king or something. That doesn't impress me, that makes me sad. But when I see a lion chasing the wildebeest in Africa, that was it, man. That was the place.

So let me ask you, man, when you did that, see, because you're a very adventurous guy, so like, you know, I've seen it before, uh, like people be in the cars and stuff and, you know, they'd be riding through with animals out or whatever. So was y'all like riding through and you seen these tigers and lions and stuff, man?

Yeah, I was like an open Jeep and the leopard was right above us in a tree. And another time, a big— two elephants were fighting with their big tusks, and this crazy guy we were with said, let's go right up to him. And he backed the Jeep right up to him, and the elephant got pissed and he started charging after us. And I, you know, the guys were laughing. That wasn't funny. We almost got killed because an elephant could just flip over the Jeep and just crush us, just sit on us.

Man, that's crazy.

That was That was scary. That was scary. But, you know, yeah, driving on a highway without a seat belt is scarier to me than that. So, oh my God, everything's relative. Oh my God.

Hey, next question, Doc.

What invention you wish you created? Velcro. You know Velcro? Yeah, that guy, you know, we invented that. This is my favorite story because The guy kept getting stickers in his socks. So, he took the sticker in the sock, looked under a microscope, and he saw the sticker's a point and the sock's a loop. So, it's a hook and loop. That's what Velcro is. So, that's the ultimate biomimicry when you mimic nature. And Velcro is one of my favorite inventions. And, you know, it's low-tech. I'm a low-tech guy as you can hear. I'm not going to say like a computer or a rocket ship. I don't care about that. That's cool. But I like the basic stuff, and the guy observed in nature the sticker sticking to your sock and go, oh, this is hook and loop. And now, you know, this was 50 years ago, and Velcro's everywhere now.

Yeah, everywhere, sticking to everything. So let me ask you, man, what's scarier, pitching on Shark Tank or diving 2 miles deep?

Oh God, I guess, well, going 2 miles deep is scarier because you can actually die. Shark Tank, the worst thing that could happen to me is I got embarrassed, you know. I didn't really care because I felt like I know my stuff. If they're not interested, they're not interested. What are they going to do? My son's like, uh, just, you know, you better not cry, because my wife had passed away earlier. She had MS. She was in a wheelchair. I took care of her. And my son and daughter knew I was going on, and they were, you better not cry on national TV. I'm not gonna cry. So that was what they were worried about. But it was scary. It was One is scary, going in a submersible without a— no tether, 2 miles down, 500 miles from any other person or human or ship or land, versus Shark Tank was nervous scared, but it was more revved up. I wasn't scared about anything bad happening, I was just nervous. And, you know, you got to put all that aside and just say— just calm yourself and say, I know my shit, I'm going to show you guys what this is all about. And as soon as— just like any talk you give, as soon as you get out the first couple of words or sentences, and if you've done your preparation, you feel good.

So, yeah, yeah, I take number 2, too. Diving 2 miles deep. So the number 1 survival tip you've given anyone?

Okay, the number 1 survival tip for anyone in any situation is to use the number 1 tool you have. And we all have this, and that's your brain. Whenever you're in any situation, don't react quickly. Step back and think about it. Your brain is your number one survival tool. Just like, look at— assess the situation. I have a phone, I have a car jack, I have this, I have that. How can I solve this problem? I'm in a raft, I have a butter knife. How can I stab this fish? Whatever it is, I'm lost at sea. There's a bunch of plastic. I can make a streamer. So you use your mind. That's the number one tool for survival. And in business too, in any aspect of life, relationships, anything. Your brain is so much more powerful. We don't even use most of it. We use only a piece of it.

So I remember my father used to tell me that all the time. You only use so much percentage of your brain. That's right, that's a fact. So Doc, man, my last question, man, uh, okay, quick fire round. Volcano, ocean, or space? Which calls do the most?

What do you mean which cause? Which would I like to do the most? Where would I would like to be the most?

Now which calls to do the most? Calls, C-A-L-L-S. Which one do you have to do the most, whether it's going out to the volcano? Yeah, uh, surfing in the ocean. It's absolutely—

the ocean is the one because the volcano, you're watching it and going down a submersible, you're watching. In the ocean, you're active. When I'm surfing big waves, you're active and your mind's wide open. And when I don't surf, I paddle 2 miles a day on a lay-down paddleboard just to train for surfing. So, I'm always in the ocean. And even my father used to tell me his best ideas came when he was in the shower wet. I'm like, okay, that's— I can relate to that. My best ideas come when I'm wet in the ocean. So I want to be in the ocean wet as much as possible. So that's kind of an easy one, man.

You know what, I'm kind of like your father, man. I think my best ideas come when I'm in the shower. I have a lot of thoughts when I'm in the shower. I say that all the time, man. So man, you survived the volcano— the volcano round, the quickfire round, man, as you did. Shark Tank. Uh, hopefully this get 39 million views, but yeah, well, let's kill it.

Yeah, you never know.

Be so lucky. So Doc, man, I really appreciate you, man, coming on the show today, man.

Thank you, it was my pleasure.

You know, that's the proof that the line between science and adventure is razor thin. From life-saving inventions to wild ocean journeys, he's a walking master class in resilience creativity, and courage. Be sure to follow Dr. Ron at cRescueStreamer.com and tap into more of his world. Until next time, keep building brick by brick, ocean by ocean, and alligator by alligator. Hey, this your boy CJ Moneyway Johnson with my man Dr. Ron Johnson. We outta here. Peace.

Hey, before you go, let me leave you with this. Every story shared here, it's a reminder that your story matters too. Keep your faith sharp, keep your focus steady. Keep your vision clear. And if this episode gave you wisdom, hope, or a push forward, share it with somebody you love. Tap in with me on all platforms @corwincjmoneyway and stay locked into the movement because God's not done writing your chapter. This is the CJ Moneyway Show. Brick by brick. And always. Moneyway Johnson.

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