Fire Fast or Fail Slow: Kevin Brittingham Reveals the One Rule That Built a $100M Empire

The most important thing for us as the core group that own this company is don't make stupid rules. So get rid of stupid people or the people that cause you to make stupid rules. When you get really good people, they appreciate that.

Welcome to Big Hitters. I'm Larry Weidel, and this show is for people who are done playing small. Each week we break down what it actually takes to win at a high level. The decisions, the discipline, the adjustments that separate those who almost do it from those who do it. No theory, no fluff, just straight talk from someone who spent 50 years building winners. If you're serious about momentum, you're in the right place. Let's get into it.

Good morning, everybody. Today's guest is Kevin Brittingham, one of the most innovative, unapologetically unconventional entrepreneurs in the firearms industry. Kevin started his suppressor company, Advanced Armament, Corporation while he was still in college and built it into an industry leader and a defense contractor working with special operations. After eventually selling AAC and spending time with Sig Sauer, Kevin did what entrepreneurs like Kevin tend to do. He started over and built something new. Today, he's the founder of Q, the company behind products like the Honey Badger and the Fix, and a team built around one basic philosophy: don't follow the industry, Change it. Kevin has spent more than 30 years challenging conventional thinking, betting on ideas other than that people thought were crazy, surrounding himself with talented people, talented team, and turning those ideas into products that have influenced an entire industry. Welcome to the show, Kevin.

Thank you, man. Quite the introduction. I appreciate it. It's good to see you.

Yeah, well, it's quite the introduction, but I feel like it's not even touching on magnificent thing you've done with your life, with your entrepreneur skills, and what you've done for the firearms industry in general. I told somebody the other day that I was— they were asking me, I said, in my opinion, he's basically the Thomas Edison of the firearms industry. He's come up with thousands of inventions. Some of them have completely changed it and not always given a lot of credit, but everybody's chasing after what you guys are doing. But talk Talk a little bit about your beginning, where you got your first gun, how you got started. I mean, what a story.

It was unexpected. I grew up in a city. My family weren't into firearms. They didn't hunt. I wasn't exposed to it. About halfway through college, I had the opportunity to shoot some guns and machine guns with a Navy SEAL team, which was just kind of a demonstration I just happened to be lucky to be at. And I got to shoot all of their guns, and one of the guns had a silencer on it. And I couldn't believe how quiet it was, and I didn't understand why all guns didn't have silencers on them. And that's just sort of sparked an interest that, you know, eventually— well, soon after that turned into my first company, Advanced Arma, and a career where I sort of dedicated my life to making silencers mainstream, bringing them to, you know, this century, basically updating the manufacturing of them and the technology. And I was fascinated and I found a passion, you know, which is fortunate and was fortunate to be able to make a living at it. I tell you, I'm just, this is 33 years later and I'm just as passionate and can't wait to get to work every morning, just like when I was 19 years old. So I feel very fortunate.

So what were the steps? You got the gun, you were fascinated by the silencer. Who wouldn't be, you know, at that stage? But then at what point or what gave you the audacity to think you could start your own company? How did that take place? You know, a lot of people are fascinated with stuff and tinker with stuff, but you went out in college and started your own company. Talk about that.

Well, I think it's probably not that uncommon for like real entrepreneurs, right? Like I was in college, wasn't sure what I wanted to do, knew I didn't want to work in a factory like my parents did. That didn't seem like a life I was interested in. You know, kind of watching their struggles and seeing people not excited to go to work. You know, it's easy when you're young because you don't have anything to lose. And I was naive enough and young enough and dumb enough, frankly, to not understand how difficult it was. No one had told me it was difficult, so I didn't know. So I just did it. And I think when you have a passion, that's a beautiful thing because all work, no matter how much you love it, is going to be difficult at times. But I think when it's a passion, you find the grit to get through the hard times rather than just moving to a different career or different job. And so I tell you that I've only— I felt like I've worked 2 years in my life, and 1 year was the year after I sold to Remington, and 1 year was my second year at Sig before I left and started Q. So, I mean, like a lot of entrepreneurs, I'm probably just unemployable, so I have to do my own thing.

So how does that start, starting a company like that? Did you buy a silencer and cut it apart and figure out how to work, get some, you know what I mean? Did you buy a building? You started in your garage?

Kind of started at home. And back then, this is pre-internet, so it was reading a lot of books and a lot of Army documentation on the history of silencers and their testing. And I had a local gun store that I started to go shoot at and become friendly with the owner, and I just rented out 300 square feet from him and sort of opened a little store, and I started dealing in silencers at a retail level. And then shortly after started designing and manufacturing with all the stuff I'd learned. So it's really, I mean, it happened quickly, but it seemed slow at the time. But, you know, it's just kind of, you know, it's like you eat a cheeseburger or an elephant the same way, right? Just one bite at a time. And that's what it was, you know, before, you know, before I knew it, I had employees and it was a company, you know, I was in, it's just one day at a time, one step at a time. And, you know, 10 years later had dozens of employees, was making a lot of money, had military military contracts. You know, in hindsight now at 52 and employing a lot of people and a lot of people younger than me, you know, all I did was work 24 hours a day. But, you know, I didn't work in a factory, so it never seemed like I had a job. So I loved what I was doing, so it didn't bother me to sacrifice when I was young. You know, when I talked to— I've been part of a couple entrepreneur studies at universities, and it's interesting talking to young people. You know, like, I didn't drink until I was 30. I didn't really, I didn't chase women. Like all I did was work. And it's amazing how much you can get done when you work 100 hours a week instead of 40 hours a week, you know?

And if it's something you're really interested in putting your elbows into, because like you said, if it's something you're excited about, you want to improve. So you started out, you started selling silencers retail. You look at them, you know what you started thinking? You know what? These are great. But I think I could probably make these better. Is that your thinking?

Exactly. Because one of the largest silencer companies at the time, which there was only 2 or 3, we're talking, you know, early, mid-'90s. Yeah, I felt like I could do better. And even before I started my own, I started designing stuff for them, you know, my own ideas. And I was learning a lot. And, you know, it's just a natural progression. It's like, why am I doing this for them? Why don't I just do it for myself? And I probably still would've done it for them, but it gets to be, you know, Things aren't happening as fast as I want. You know, it's kind of the same old story, I think, with a lot of businesses.

Did you run into problems in the beginning or in the past where when you were working with them designing stuff, people ripping off patents from you? I know you and I talked about a couple years ago, but ripping off patents or ideas, taking it as their own. And I mean, a lot of people run into that when they're working for other companies in there, then that creates a lot of animosity.

But yeah. I mean, I think there began to be a fear. With the company in particular that I'm thinking of at the time was called Gemtech, and they had several owners. And I think some were afraid, you know, what I wanted to do was buy into that company and be a part of that team and make that, you know, the silencer company of the future. And, you know, it rarely works with multiple owners, you know, and having partners and there's jealousy and, you know, who did this, who gets paid for what. And it just made a lot of sense to me just to do my own thing.

Talk about your two, you got The Fix and The Honey Badger. Are those your two main platforms?

Not really anymore. You know, when we started the company, it was interesting. We started this company in 2016, so 10 years ago. So it was during the election with Hillary, and we thought she was gonna win, which I think most people did. And so we decided to focus on We like innovation and we like bringing new capabilities to the market, whether it's the government, military, or commercial market. And I had never made anything in my, you know, 17 years prior or whatever with Advanced Armament that I could sell in California. And California is actually the largest gun market and people don't know that. Most people don't know that. More than Texas, more than Florida, more than Georgia. Those are the next 3. So we decided to focus on the bolt-action rifle because there hadn't been much innovation whether it be technology, materials, manufacturing, in 100 years, basically. And we thought it was a place where we could make a change in the market. And it was a bolt-action rifle, so it was legal in California. And that was sort of what drove the first product. And then the Honey Badger, because I originally did the Honey Badger for a special operations group, a US special operations group, after I developed the .300 Blackout cartridge at my old company. Most people in the industry know, but I did the technical consulting for Call of Duty, Infinity Ward. For a couple years, and that's how I actually got the Honey Badger into the game. And so because of Call of Duty, the Honey Badger became one of the most famous guns in the world. In the commercial market, there had never even been one. So we decided to do that gun next. There was probably a demand for 1,000 or so of those guns on the commercial market, you know, and as of now, we've probably sold 50,000, and it's still going. The Honey Badger's a brand of its own. Um, it's still our number one selling gun. So then we came out with different versions of the Fixer bolt-action rifle, different versions of the Honey Badger, and we We recently launched a gun called the Boombox, which is a larger version of the Honey Badger and improved in a lot of ways for a new caliber, 8.6 Blackout, that we've developed this past few years. And that's been the biggest launch we've had so far, and it's doing great, and it'll end up surpassing the Honey Badger for us.

Now talk about that a little bit. You're the one that developed the 8.6 Blackout round, right?

Well, Q did. Our company did, yes.

I want you to brag on yourself a little bit because it just blows my mind. You come along all these years later, There's a handful of people that have done, done what you've done, but you created— because of Kevin Brittingham, you created the 8.6 Blackout and .300 Blackout, right? Talk about the reasons you're doing— the reasons you did both of those. And also, uh, after that, I want to talk about a little bit about your hunts, because you'd probably do more R&D than all the other gun companies combined, I would guess, in all your— how many animals do you say you shoot a year in Africa?

Close to 1,000 a year.

So you shoot 1,000 a year. And people are like, oh, he's just out. No, that's distances, that's penetration, that's ballistics, that's bullet expansion, that's everything. But we'll get into that in a minute. But talk a little bit how you came up with the Blackout, the 8.6 and the .300. What caused you to want to go down that route?

When 9/11 happened, we already had a lot of military contracts for silencers and worked with the special operations group very closely. And as the war continued on, and then I sell the company to my my company to Remington and continued to work for Remington Defense. The head of the Naval Special Warfare Group, they were wanting a cartridge they could shoot out of their M16s, which was a German version of it, but that would have the power of the AK-47 with a short barrel, but also subsonic capabilities. And you can't put the AK-47 cartridge in an M16, and it's just because of the case design. It doesn't fit in the magazine, and the magazine well. So we did a round that ends up being 300 Blackout. This is basically the shortened 5.56 case with an AK bullet in it, and that became .300 Blackout. And so it gave them better capabilities with supersonic ammo out of the short barrels, which the military was running, because we were, you know, during the war there was a lot of combat in urban areas, so tight quarters, so a lot of short barrels. And the Navy has always been very progressive with signature reduction, like silencers and night vision, thermal, all this stuff.

Right.

And so the subsonic cartridge was very effective, and that was a program for them. They requested that we do the cartridge, and that's how we did .300 Blackout. It was at the Navy's request. And right away afterwards, we started working on what's become 8.6 Blackout, so for larger guns. So the difference in it and .300 Blackout, you get a much bigger bullet, and basically you get 3 times the energy on target and 3 times the range. with super and subsonic capabilities out of gas-operated guns. So that means you can have a silent, completely silent gun, or you can have a gun that suppresses the sound at the shooter to where he doesn't need to use ear pro. And that would be with a supersonic cartridge. And, you know, as time's gone on, there's new alloys that allow us to make traditionally bigger and heavier guns small and lighter. And so the timing became good for 8.6. And that's also— was started out as a government military program, and now it's available the commercial market, and we build guns specifically for it. They're ultra compact and lightweight but deliver energy on target and distances of larger, heavier guns.

One of the major— you talk a lot about the military, and I know you got a lot with them, but for people that don't know, that, that Fix is almost— is basically the ultimate actual hunting rifle. You got the foldable stock, it's short, and how much lighter is it, would you say, than the average light deer rifle?

Probably on average about 40%. So it's significant, you know, and here's the thing that I learned over time and me not ever being in the military and me not growing up hunting or shooting, but what you learn when you start developing stuff, whether it's for hunting deer or hunting dangerous game or hunting men, it's all kind of the same thing when it comes to being effective and efficient at hunting. It's all the same. If it kills a whitetail, you know, it kills a 200-pound man. It's all the same thing. We're very proud of this country and very supportive and appreciative of the troops. And if we can ever give these guys a capability that they don't have, and it's really to be more efficient and have a better opportunity to get their job done and come home alive, that's what we want. And over time, I just got into hunting Because I was testing bullets that we were doing for the military. And that started with me, you know, shooting deer on my farm and doing autopsies. And when I say I shoot 1,000 animals a year in Africa, about 700 or so are culls. Like, I cull a lot on farms near where I live in South Africa.

Explain the culling to people. A lot of people won't know what that means.

Culling animals is different than hunting. For instance, most people in South Africa farm. And so they might farm crops in some areas and other areas of citrus and some, in a lot of areas it's farming stock, livestock. There's such an abundance of wild game, especially in South Africa, they compete with the livestock for food. So a certain amount of land, let's say 100 acres, you can only have 100 lamb on it. That's the carrying capacity because of the bush and stuff that you have the feed for the animals.

Okay.

So if you have springbuck on there, They eat the same bush as the sheep and the lambs. So if for every springbuck, that's a sheep that you can't have. So farmers, what's valuable to them are livestock. So they really limit the number of wild game on their property. And that's considered culling. Like, uh, there's a couple farms where I'll shoot 200 springbuck a year. And that we go and sometimes in a helicopter and sometimes they're driven hunts or sometimes We just go in on foot and hunt. But it's to kill as many springbuck as we can at all ages and of both sexes. And South Africa is cool with this. It's nice because you can eat— serve wild game at butcheries and in restaurants. And so every part of it gets used. We sell the hide, the leather, and then we sell the meat that's not used to feed the staff and to feed us. And we support the orphanage in the closest town to where I live in South Africa. It's Bedfordside. South Africa. And so we feed the orphanage. So with animals that we cull or animals that we shoot, and everything gets used, and then the farmer is happy, he can have more sheep. And that's how, you know, he provides a living for himself and his staff. So animal populations have to be managed and a lot of people don't get it, but, you know, if you don't manage the population, there's not enough food, they starve. It's a terrible death for them.

Switching gears real quick, because you and I talked about this I guess yesterday or day before when I was up there. Being the entrepreneur that you are, it's not just how important your mindset and your passion is for what you gotta get done, but it is insanely important to build a team with the same mindset like that. And you've got a crack team up there. Everybody's passionate, everybody's on the same track, got the same goal. That doesn't happen by itself. That is not an accident. That's a lot of the captain steering the ship. So Talk about how you got that in place, how you have everybody's vision the same thing, and then what you do when you have somebody come in there that's got some kind of a negativity in the group or something like that, how you either get rid of them or have a talk with them.

By the way, if you're still listening right now, you're different. You don't just consume content, you're actively looking for an edge. And that's who I built the Big Hitter Community for, not people chasing motivation, people chasing Momentum, not theory. Proximity. Proximity to operators who are actually in the arena making real decisions and winning at a high level. Inside Big Hitter, you get conversations we don't have on the podcast, direct access to people who build what you're trying to build in a room that holds you to a higher standard every single week. This isn't a hype group. It's not networking for the sake of networking. It's where serious people go to sharpen thinking and compress their timeline. If you're done just listening and you're ready to be in the room where it actually happens, head to joinbighitters.com or click the link in the show notes. The right room changes everything. I'll see you inside.

I think over a lot of successful men, and I'm saying men on purpose, or entrepreneurs, I'm not a huge micromanager and I've always known I want to achieve things that I'm not going to be able to do on my own. So I really believe in the importance of a team. And let's face it, I never thought that I would have any wealth. I didn't grow up with wealth, so it wasn't something on my mind. What I wanted was to have a job that I didn't hate. So I think from a leadership standpoint, if you're real motivated, I'm a great leader for you. You can believe in what I do. And what I'm trying to achieve, you know, because you asked the question, you asked the thing earlier, like I was started a business. I didn't really know I was starting a business. I didn't know how tough it was. I didn't know these things. I was young, but I also had nothing to lose. I didn't have a mortgage. I didn't have car payments. I didn't have kids in private school. I didn't have anything to lose. So it's like, what's the risk? You know, the risk is I delay going to work at a factory. I mean, I think I lived the greatest life in the world. I wouldn't trade my life with anyone I've ever known. I'm very fortunate and blessed, but a lot of it has been hard work. But I think I think appreciating the team and how do you buy loyalty. Some people you can buy loyalty with money, but not most people. Most people, I believe, generally want great quality of life and positive leadership, positive reinforcement. And I'm just a serial entrepreneur. I believe the impossible and that I can do anything in the world. No matter how irrational and crazy it is, like, I genuinely believe it and you can't fake it. You know, like, I think I was telling you, I realized when my, my daughter was 5, I couldn't lie to her. She knew I was lying. She's 5 years old. So like, I don't think I can lie to my employees. And so I set forth the vision. We're gonna have great lives. I'm gonna share with you guys. We're gonna kick ass. We're not gonna do anything just for money. We're not gonna make stupid products that we wouldn't buy. We're gonna change the industry. We're gonna do something we're proud of. And more importantly to me, we're going to build a great team and a great place to work and a place that we want to come every day. My goals now are just not to get greedy, continue to share, continue to reinvest in the company, and to do everything I can to make this a place where you want to work the rest of your life. And it doesn't happen on accident. I mean, you see when you were here and most of today I've spent in the factory. Like, I don't even have an office. I'm in someone else's office right now doing this podcast. I don't own a computer. I don't sit down. This is the only time I'll sit down all day. I stay involved in everything here, but I don't undermine my managers or my president. I don't, or I try hard not to. I believe in people and we give them chances. And I think one thing that I've learned is you gotta fire quick because you get someone with a bad attitude or that can't adjust this kind of more big boy rules here. We don't, The most important thing for us as the core group that own this company is don't make stupid rules. So get rid of stupid people or the people that cause you to make stupid rules. I think when you get really good people, they appreciate that. People here have a lot of freedom to be creative, to make choices, to create their own luck here, to grow within the company. And it's a wonderful place. We celebrate the employees, we celebrate our wins, we celebrate individual successes here. We're not afraid to do that. This is not a participation trophy place, you know, but everybody's got a chance to make an impact here and to grow their careers and have the lives they want.

I don't think I've ever heard anybody say it like that, but that is really perfect. Instead of keep putting in rules that the stupid people are causing you to put in, just get rid of the stupid people. That makes a lot more sense.

And learn to do it quickly. Like, learn, like, you know, like we've got a lot of women in important roles at this company. And I say that again, pointing out sex, because they're generally more intuitive than us men. But, you know, when we don't have a good feeling or somebody's not doing something right and they're not responding correctly, you know, they start to develop an attitude which becomes a cancer at the company. Like, you are gone. Let me help you to find another job. That is just something I won't tolerate. I love coming to work every day, and that's where I pull out that ownership card is like, nobody is taking my happiness at my company. And there is no reason, if you got a personal issue, I'll do anything to help you personally if you're a loyal part of this company. But otherwise, you leave that bullshit at the door. This is a big ray of sunshine. Nobody's taking it from me. And, you know, and that's infectious. You know, it's a choice for most, most of us that don't have something just terrible, terrible in their lives out of their control. Like, happiness is generally a choice every day. That's just the way I look at it. And I think that made me feel great about how I lead this company. This was last summer. We, we had a new girl come to work here and, you know, you saw me, I stop, I speak to everyone every day at this company. And so if somebody new, I ask them some questions, try to get to know them. You know, they got a family, what they like, pets, whatever it is. And I'd talked to this girl a couple times, you know, I talked to her, spoke to her every day, had a couple conversations with her and stuff. And about 2 weeks into her employment, I'm walking through the factory one day and she's in packing. So she packs products, then would take it to shipping and the product go out the door. So she comes outta the packing room pushing a cart to go to shipping one day and I'm like, Sydney, hey, how you doing? How's the day going? And she's like, hey, great. She's like, I got a lot to do. She goes, you work in shipping, right? Would you mind taking this back there? And I said, Sydney, no problem. Yeah, of course. I'll come help you too if you want. And I said, Sydney, you know I'm the owner, right? And she's like, what? I said, I'm the owner. I don't work in shipping, but I'm happy to do this for you. No problem. And she just like, I don't even think she believed me. And that made me feel great about how I interact with the people here.

Yeah. You're just another one of the guys, another one of the guys, another one of the girls.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you know, it's like, well, also I think when you've grown a couple companies, you've had to do every job. You really appreciate every job and every employee makes it easier.

Talking about growing, that's what I wanna talk about next. Uh, you know, it's, uh, we're all, we're big on, you're doing 2 things in your life. You're either growing or dying. There is no stagnant. There is no, well, we're good here. If you're ever good here, you're gonna start going down. You've grown by leaps and bounds. And even when I was there, you got a fantastic place there, but even now you're already looking at someplace bigger, expanding. So talk about the importance in a, from a business standpoint or life standpoint, from entrepreneur or anybody, the importance of continuing growth.

I mean, it's something that I say and believe in too. You're growing or dying. You know what I love is when the company's 30 people, And we all have 5 jobs and you're close and you know everyone. That's what I love. But you can't stay there, you're dying. And so we're doing everything we can. We're just holding on to everything we can about having small company culture as the company grows. So don't have stupid rules, be a great place to work, and you'll be able to attract the best talent and smart people. You can all get on the same page and agree on the goals of the company, and we got a direction to go in. Yeah, the growth for us too, and I tell you, I love what I do so much, and my core group of engineers do, the core team, the innovation side, that we've embraced the stuff that we aren't naturally drawn to or enjoy, the operation side, production side, because that's what funds the fun for us, the innovation. And innovation is expensive. I mean, we're not building spaceships, but when we develop a new gun, it's millions and millions and millions of dollars. So it's just a must because nobody likes to go back, right? You don't like to take a step back. Once you're growing up, you get a job, start making enough money to get a good new reliable car, you don't ever want to go back to that piece of crap that's breaking down all the time. It's unreliable. If you grow up in a trailer, you finally get a nice house, nobody wants to go back and live in a trailer. You don't want to go backwards. So it's the same thing with, I think, development. Every gun, every cartridge, everything. Every time we develop a new product, it's more complicated and it's tougher than the last one. And that's part of the challenge, right? We're getting older, we're getting better in our jobs, more experienced, so we want more of a challenge. Like I calculated a couple years ago, I have 100,000 hours doing my job. And in America, generally 10,000 hours, you're an expert. In Japan, 40,000 hours. I've got over 100,000 hours doing my job. And I want to be challenged, so I like the difficult problems. And so I think that's caused us to embrace a part of the growth of the company that we never really wanted. I never wanted a machine shop. I always wanted to source our components, but I find it's impossible now. And so now I'm so excited about growing our machine shop, you know, because that gives us more control, that gives us quicker response time. We can grow the company faster. We can get R&D development done faster. And so we just took a new perspective on it, you know, and that's probably with some business maturity. You know, wanting to go vertical. I think that for us is what kind of fuels it. You know, like I, you know, Adam, I think I told you, I actually don't, I pay myself the same as I did when I was 28. So I'm 52 now. So I leave the money in the company and, you know, the employees see that, they know that, and that actually inspires them more, I believe. You know, and when I, if I take money outta the company, everybody gets some money outta the company. It doesn't happen that often though, because those machines and stuff, new buildings don't buy themselves, unfortunately.

In your line of work and the people you, I know you're friends with Don Jr. and those guys, the Trumps and people like that, all the way across the board, all different industries. But what do you think, like, there's a lot of people that are listening to this that are entrepreneurs that are successful and building stuff like that and continuing to build. What would you say you've seen over the course of your life or the people you dealt that are entrepreneurs, that what are the biggest mistakes you see people make out there on their own that end up causing them to fail? And not, I mean, everybody's going to fail, but a catastrophic fail to where, again, what are the big mistakes that you see that they could have avoided?

I mean, you stop doing the thing that made you successful in the first place. Like you get risk averse or you get greedy or you believe your own bullshit, right? Like just because I think This is genuine. I think I'm the best person in the world at my job. I don't think— that doesn't mean I can't get a ton better, but I generally believe that. And whether it's right or wrong, I think it's important for me to believe it. But I don't think that means I could go into another industry or even something on the outskirts of my industry and that it means I'll be successful. I've been successful twice at my job doing what I do, and I think I'm the best in the world. But I think if I believe that means I'm going to be the best You know, guy at making motorcycles, it's probably a way to lose my fortune or lose my way. Or when people, you get risk averse because you have a lot to lose. You know, when I started out, I had $20,000, you know, and when you get worth a couple hundred million dollars, you got a lot of stuff to lose. I still have the same pirate spirit that I did, you know, like, I mean, I just moved into a 1,400 square foot condo, you know, like I don't even want a house. I don't ever want to own a house again. Like when I'm in New Hampshire, all I do is work. When I'm in Africa, all I do is test product and hunt my ass off. It's the most fulfilling life at this point in my life I could possibly have.

Yeah.

And, you know, getting greedy or trying to be something you're not, I think stop doing the thing that made you great. You know, it's a problem a lot of times, I think, with maybe private equity or When companies get big and there's a lot of money on the line and people get nervous, you stop doing what you're doing. Like the company's gonna stop being great. That's my personal belief.

Well, and also what you said about, I'm just gonna clarify for you what you said about being the best at what you do in the world. You 100% believe that. The thing you mean by that is not only are you the best at what you do, but the reason you're the best at what you do is because You know, if you hire the best engineers, the best whatever assistants, the best packer, you might not be the best engineer yourself on the CAD, but what makes you the best is hiring the best, knowing who the best is, and knowing how quick to get rid of somebody. Just because you, now you're the best in your industry and that gun thing, that doesn't mean you know every little part of the thing, but you're smart enough to know who to hire and get in a place and then not micromanage it.

I think it's where I'm better than some other entrepreneurs. And I'm definitely not the best or the greatest, and probably not even within our industry, but my job specifically, like picking products, you know, I am passionate about our industry and I'm good at that. I'm good at picking niches. I'm good at picking spots no one else is, where there's not been innovation or innovation in a long time. I'm good at understanding our capabilities and how to push my team. And I'm good at picking people. I'm good at not micromanaging, and I'm good, I think, at picking people who want to be awesome and have the capability and potential, but haven't had the opportunity. I think that's where I'm really good. And then I'm really good at treating my people good. Like, I want all of my core people to get to live my life without having to do the first 20 years of what I went through. I mean, I guess if I wanted to own a lot of jets and big mansions and yachts and stuff, I'd have to keep the money. But for me, I get more enjoyment out, and I've had a lot of that stuff, but I get a lot more enjoyment and fulfillment out of what we're doing at this company than I do out of those personal things. I noticed years ago when I was married and started making good money, My kid's mother, my ex-wife, there was this house on Lake Lanier in Atlanta, the biggest house on Lake Lanier at the time. Beautiful place. That was her dream home. And, you know, I loved that woman. And so I bought it for her. It was ridiculous. I bought it for her. She was about 10% happier for about 6 months and then would complain about how big the house was and stuff. You know, so I was like, well, Okay. That taught me a really good— in hindsight, I'm very happy that it happened because it taught me a really good lesson. And figure out where your fulfillment and your happiness comes from and you pursue that. It's hard to not live a good life and it's hard not to attract good people because you come here and I think most people are blown away with how happy I am at work and how much I love the employees and I love the company. I love what we're doing. And that's where when I've had offers on the company and I think about it, It's like, what am I gonna do? Like, my work is so fulfilling. We've done such a good job with this company. Like, sell it and invest in mini storage? No interest to me. I would lose my passion.

Well, without giving too much away, where do you see going in the future? What stuff— and if you don't wanna say it, you don't have to, but what kind of things are you guys working on now trying to improve, or where do you see the vision going forward? I know you're always trying to make things stronger, lighter, More efficient, longer lasting.

There's another cartridge that we're starting to work on that'll give a capability that doesn't exist. I really love, you know, now like silencer laws are very, they're relaxing for the first time in 100 years for civilians. So I'm very excited about that, you know, because a gun's the only thing that makes a lot of noise that the government doesn't mandate come with a muffler. You know, it's like the opposite with guns. And that's ridiculous because of hearing damage and noise pollution. So that's starting to go away. So we're focusing heavily on subsonic cartridges for shooting and hunting. So, you know, you can shoot without disturbing your neighbors. You can hunt without disturbing the rest of the game. Got a lot of military applications as well. So that's exciting for us. And there's still lots of guns for us to do. You know, there's not a great— I don't want to do everything just for the military because I love, you know, recreational shooting and sport shooting and the Second Amendment and all these things that I'm real proud of. I want to do the greatest American .22 rifle ever. We've never had a great one. There's a couple of great ones in Europe, but we traditionally as Americans don't place value on .22 rifles. And it's the most shooting we do and it's the most fun. So that's a project, a passion project for me. I think also a silencer with integrated shotgun, because as we get older, me and the core group of guys here that hunt, well, eventually I'm not going to be hunting buffalo probably every day the rest of my life. It's hard and it's difficult and it's dangerous. As we get older, we're probably going to get more into bird hunting. So we would kind of like to revolutionize that because bird hunting is a very social thing. And I think it's a wonderful thing in this country. And you have to wear ear pro, but you know, you think when you go play golf with your dad, you know, the real joy of golf is you do it with your friends, people you care about, or your buddies, or even if it's a work golf, you talk and it's a social event. You're not having to wear ear protection. So if we can revolutionize that to where people don't have to wear ear protection, bird hunting and stuff like this can be a little bit more of a social affair. And I have a passion for that. You know, the rest of it is when we come up with capabilities for the military, we want to work on that stuff. And then I just think, you know, for me to some degree, like when I was a kid, I wanted to be a pirate, Adam. And so like, I want the winds to kind of take the sails in some degree. And let's, we can be reactive to some things or when there's an opportunity, when we see it, no matter what it is. If it's a new capability or innovation, then we want to try to do that. So that's probably the best answer.

Well, I want to say this right here too, just so people know, because, you know, I'm a big archery guy. I do have a lot of guns. I probably got— well, I won't say how many, but I got a lot of guns and learning more about them. But as far as the hunting and stuff, more archery guy. Just so people know, because I didn't know this, probably everybody with me knows, but I didn't know it. A supersonic round is, if you put a silencer on a gun with a supersonic round, it's still going to be loud. It's just not going to be so loud that it can damage your ears. But a subsonic round, those are the ones, the subsonic rounds, you put a silencer on, those are the ones that are about like you're shooting a BB gun.

With the proper silencer and everything, yeah, it can be as quiet as your bow. So I had a, we were out pig hunting a few years ago.

My buddy Adam, he had a suppressor on his gun and I saw it was on the end of it and he shot and it was still real loud. I was like, wait a minute, how do you have a suppressor on your gun and it's still loud? And that's when I learned just because you got a suppressor on doesn't mean it's subsonic and it's going to be super quiet. So the different rounds on that, and I think I could be wrong, but I think a lot of people don't, didn't, aren't aware of that.

I think you're right. I think People don't realize there's 2 sounds generally when you fire a gun. There's the explosion at the muzzle of the gun, which is what hurts your ears. Generally why people flinch and can't shoot well. It's bad for marksmanship. And that is the— once the firing pin hits the primer that ignites the powder in the case, turns to a gas, it's high pressure, pushes the bullet out of the barrel. And when those hot gases hit the oxygen in the atmosphere, there's an explosion. That's why you have a fireball. And that's what hurts your hearing. The second sound is when the bullet breaks the sound barrier. And that depends on some environmental conditions, but it's generally around 1,050 feet a second. And like a .223 rifle, that bullet's like 2,700 feet a second. But when that bullet breaks the sound barrier, there's a crack, but it's usually away from you and doesn't damage your hearing. And that's the same thing when someone cracks a whip. Actually, the tip of the whip is breaking the sound barrier. That's why it's so loud. And that's why you would never hit an animal with a whip. Right. 'Cause you split it open. You know, you just use the sound to direct the cattle or the animals. And those are the 2 sounds. So you can— the silencer can only mask the explosion at the gun. The ballistic crack, that's just God's physics. You gotta slow the bullet down or it's just gonna break the sound barrier. Either way.

Kevin, I appreciate you taking the time, man. I know you're a busy guy. This was a lot of fun. Hopefully we can do it again. Now you can go to @KevinBrittingham on Instagram or at The Impossible Q. And then what's your website? Live Q or Die?

LiveQorDie.com.

Forgive me, I don't know the answer to this question, but do you have any books out?

No. Yeah, I was in the process of writing a silencer book, but it's not come to fruition yet.

But anyway, you can go to either of those websites— I mean, Instagram sites, all over social media, YouTube. You've got your podcast there. That experience yesterday, seeing those guns, building those guns, seeing that stuff firsthand— I told somebody and I told you, but But in my opinion, everybody that's listening, this here we have today is basically the Thomas Edison of the gun industry. This guy's got so many inventions, so many good ideas, so much just passion and constantly improving and changing the firearms industry. We are sitting in the presence of a true legend and genius living and right in front of us today. This guy is unbelievable. Kevin, I appreciate that. I appreciate it, brother.

Thank you. I appreciate it, Adam. Thanks so much.

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