I wrote this up because I couldn't find any reviews about it online. There was one post in this subreddit asking about it about 5 months ago, but no information as to whether it was worth it or not. This is not a super organized review, just some thoughts as I was trying to get through the program, so hopefully it will give you a little bit of perspective as to what you would be buying if your were thinking about buying in.

Wake Up Warrior - Kings Kit - Kings Challenge: My experience

If you're on Facebook or Instagram, you've probably seen ads for the Wake Up Warrior or Kings Kit. If you're unfamiliar with it, there's basically an hour-long inspirational video pitch talking about life's tough realities of being a man, especially with regards to money, family, and business and how the Kings Kit is a guide to understanding yourself and figuring it all out as a game and using science. It seems like this program is basically a lite version of their in-person program because there's a lot of shakey footage (on-purpose?) of guys going through this program and talking about their experience.

It's targeted towards MEN (which is unique) who are experiencing burn out, boredom, and/or brokenness. I signed up because I was/am feeling the burn-out and boredom of everyday life.

It costed me about $120 and they shipped me a "212 page" book called BE THE MAN. This "book" is double spaced after every sentence and has giant bolded quotes on every page, so it's probably closer to a 50 page book that took me about an hour to read. It was really confusing because it kept saying to go to warriorbook.com and invest in the book and join them in the Warrior Brotherhood. Man, I thought this WAS the book I was supposed to get; they even say I'm going to get the book as part of the program when I signed up for it. I did not get the Warriorbook as far as I know.

Anyways, the main themes and stories of this book are:

  • Stop fucking lying. Tell the fucking truth.

  • Your desires don't align with your belief system because you lie.

  • This guy was building a mortgage empire before the housing bubble burst, and when it did, his marriage ended up in shambles and his wife kept saying, "I didn't sign up for this," and ,"Be the man!" So he became an alcoholic and he calls this the pit, nobody around him could help him, and he blamed his wife for his problems.

  • A brief non-academic history of the industrial revolution, war, and feminism and how it shaped men into believing they had to make money and hide their feelings to Be The Man, but even that wasn't enough because now women are/were equal due to feminism.

  • Change requires change, which requires Expansion, which requires the WarriorBook. You also need commitment, and the rocket fuel to change is their "stack system" and "core 4" routine in the WarriorBook I thought I was supposed to get.

Whew! Made it through the book and tossed it straight into the garbage.

Next up I was invited to a Facebook Workplace site at wakeupwarrior.facebook.com. This is where all the content was hosted.

Next up was a 10 minute video introduction. It was very well put together. Some nice music and graphics, with the main guy talking to you and telling you $100 investment wasn’t enough to get you out of your hole, rather it got you to raise your hand to participate and that people have paid $250,000 to get the Warrior Training. Really the point of this video is to impress on you that you need commitment of time, energy, do the homework/assignments, show up, etc. If you do this, “you’ll get results, guaran-fucking-teed.” (But there’s no refunds … just sayin’). This also explains that there’s 7 days of on-boarding and then the 30 day challenge and that this is the trial to get into the brotherhood and that there will be a percentage of people that they’ll invite into the core of the brotherhood.

By now it’s pretty obvious they’re butterin’ you up for the upsell.

There was a 23 minute video talking about a nice little picture-graphic they made called the Drift and Shift. Lots of repetition and swearing in this video, talking about triggers and trauma keeping you trapped in the karmic cul-de-sac. This is reminiscent of the downward and upward spiral of Buddhism. To get out of this downward “drift” you “shift” out of it by learning yourself into a new path. So much repetition in this video; it was hard to watch.

Next up was another 13-minute explanatory/instructional video for the Kings Briefing part with more heartfelt emotionally charged videography about this guys experience with the “virus of scarcity” and how he started the Warriors Way by discovering the formula and process. The videography and presentation is well done, except for some of the intentionally shakey videography that is meant to give it a real-life feel. I have to say, I like the guy, the main guy, Gharret; he speaks with a tone of stern encouragement and education, like a father-figure. There was a 27 page PDF called the Kings Briefing, which was basically a nice powerpoint presentation in a PDF. This includes a self assessment where you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 12 in the areas of Food/Fitness, Spirituality, Relationships, and Money.

Next was a video about ground rules. Again, more stern education and encouragement about transformation 5 laws that are basically trust the program, specifics matter, be present / show-up, don’t quit, and take care of your compadre. More heartfelt footage of the real in-person program, on a beach doing navy seal style shit, in a boxing ring crying, etc.

Next up was a 7 day sprint. This may be out of place in the timeline because I’m just looking back at the program. This part was to make sure you activate your Facebook Workplace account (a private FB group), download a work chat app on you phone, watch the videos, post a 2 minute video introduction of yourself, and do the self assessment. There was a nice powerpoint style 37 page PDF that went along with this, which reiterated the rules, etc.

Next up was an hour long live video webinar with a 2 minute disclaimer in the beginning. The point of this was to help you change your mindset, I guess, talking about respect. There was a new heavy-set Mexican-ish coach named Sam that tells you he doesn’t have to be here because there’s guys paying $10k and $50k for a week long and 90 day long program. Another new coach is introduced named Isaih. Lots of F-bombs, rambling, etc. Honestly, I thought this was almost unwatchable and delivered zero value in the first half hour I watched it.

Another video, 18 minutes long, about the WHY. This was mostly coach Sam walking down a path towards a beach relating the story of walking with God and when he looks backs, there’s only one set of footprints, and it’s because God was carrying him. I’m sure everyone has seen/read a version of that poem of Footprints in the Sand because it’s framed and put up in someone’s bathroom that you’ve seen while taking a piss and smelling potpourri. I guess this video was to get you to think about your deep WHY as to why you should see yourself as a king. I had a hard time watching this guy yell at me for 10 minutes, but made it through.

There was another hour long video about the pit and power. It was coach Sam on a beach in the night describing “the pit” and how you’re a prisoner trapped by the idea of worthlessness and comfort zones. He talked about his own experiences of being in the pit, being away from his family for ¾ of the year for his work. He encourages you to find your divine calling to find you way out of the pit. The assignment is to find a dark room and do some things to enter into the mindset of being in the pit, thinking about your pain points and lies you’ve told. Then, with a flashlight, you take a selfie as the representation of you in your pit and post it on the Facebook site with your feelings. Then you turn on the light as a representation or possibility of you finding the path out of the pit. Lots of repetition that could have been communicated in 5 minutes, but this was a live webinar and the last half was Q&A with members and they got some live video feed in of guys in the program talking about what their pit is.

At this point, I admittedly lost track of the program. I spent a weekend travelling and I was getting so many emails about people posting in this Facebook Workplace that I lost the signal from the noise. Just going back and counting it has been 24 emails about Kings Challenge, 81 emails about Kingskit, and a handful of others about Wake Up Warrior. In short, I got behind because I have almost no free-time during the weekdays, and was getting spam levels of emails from this program causing me to lose focus of what was next.

There was a video about another coach named Jeremy, and you see him a lot in a studio behind a mic talking about the program in many (maybe all) videos. His contribution to the program was good; didn't get annoyed with him. This went on to talk about the WHERE and they were trying to make an analogy about virtual reality and how your fantasyland is your virtual reality. You need to remove the fantasy to see your current reality. The assignment was to post a 2 minute video on the Facebook page about you in your garage and talk about where you are currently in your life.

The 30 day challenge finally begins. This includes a 7 minute video and a 28 page powerpoint style PDF with some okay graphics and instruction.

Mission 1 is about power, Mission 2 is about redefining purpose, Mission 3 is about igniting production, and Mission 4 is about unlocking profit.

There was some more hour long “live” trainings which was basically just the coaches talking about shit and talking to people who were able to make it onto the live webinar, and also some interspersed high-effort production video with more instruction about going into nature and finding a message from your 7 year old inner child, then write this statement on a piece of paper and carry it in your wallet. Then you take another selfie and post your statement on the FB group. I will say, I did not do this as I was finding it difficult enough to watch this video in the middle of doing laundry and trying to feed my kid a packet of applesauce while he sat on my lap and watched youtube cartoons on another computer screen.

Next was a 17 minute video about digging your coffin, but it’s just a box that symbolizes a coffin, and you put in all the things that symbolize your pit like sugar, processed food, remote controls (ie tv), pain relief vices, a piece of paper with your pit stories, etc. Then you bury this, however, you have to take your entire family with you when you bury this coffin and you explain to them what you’re doing and why. Of course, take a selfie and post it when you’re done.

The next protocol was to get into some water (ocean, river, lake, pool, shower) and “leap into it” and ask yourself who you must become and where do I want to go. Then you define your targets for the four dimensions (mentioned earlier). This is finally where the software comes into play where you create your 90 day challenge based on the inspiration you get while doing the water exercise. Then of course, you post a picture of your targets in the Facebook workplace group.

The software was basically a web app where you add a challenge and answer a bunch of questions like Where are you today with XXX, what is and isn’t working with XXX, what is your XXX challenge, what’re your obstacles/weakness/strengths, etc. There were about 15 questions in 4 different categories and they all repeated themselves; I got tired of answering them and feel this is better suited to a paper exercise where you can limit distraction and really think and reflect.

I must’ve missed it, but there was a video about about a power hour, but I saw another video where they explained it a little bit.

More video about getting into or joining the Brotherhood for $500/month; hey, that's only $16/day.

There was a bonus video about Garrett talking about himself wanting to be a pro football player, finding out he had cancer and was having a son at the same time, leaving his son and baby’s mama, all while getting undressed on stage (I guess as an analogy that he revealing himself, stripped down). Also, says guys grow a pussy and form a pussy posse as soon as they’re asked to give $500 to live the Warrior’s Way while calling calling everyone a motherfucker and saying fuck you a lot. He says he can respect a yes and respect a no, but that he’ll beat the fuck out of pussies in the middle.

tl;dr It’s an interesting program with a LOT of video that are somewhat instructional in a tough love kind of way. Some of it is entertaining and motivational, some of it almost cringeworthy and unwatcheable. There’s a Workplace Facebook where you participate by doing tasks and uploading videos of yourself. Lots of upsell hints and an opportunity to continue at the end for $500/mo. I lost track of the instruction because of traveling and too many damn emails (like WAY TOO DAMN MANY EMAILS), couldn’t follow along with the program, and ultimately didn’t get diddly squat from it. I still have no idea what the WarriorBook is as I never got and still not sure what I was supposed to do with the 30 day playbook that was sent to me.