Rally Point 68

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Rally Pointers Fun.

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Once again, folks, it's us at the Rally Point Show.
Your host, uh Serge James Himaway, and my co host I'm.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
In a Macane and our guest host we have with
us today, Introduce yourself.

Speaker 4 (00:17):
I'm Justin Leadford from a Warrior Wellness Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Very cool, and Justin is going to be joining us
from time to time as a guest host here on
the Rally Point Show. So, now that we've introduced the gang,
everybody doing good.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Feeling good?

Speaker 5 (00:31):
Hey man, living, breathing?

Speaker 3 (00:33):
Oh yeah, right on, well, let's jump right into the show.
Welcome to today's episode of Positively Caffeinated with Dane Boyle
Coach Dane, how's it going doing fantastics?

Speaker 6 (00:46):
How's everybody today?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Can't complain living the dream?

Speaker 6 (00:49):
Doing great every day?

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Okay, that sounded like an your kind of reson.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Right, So pop postively positively caffeinated, justin little pep in
that step.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
I'm awesome, guys.

Speaker 6 (01:06):
How are you take another sip?

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Right? No, just kidding.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
We don't ever want anybody to fake it till they
make it. That's a complete and total farce. Face it
till you make it. So how are you this marine justin.

Speaker 4 (01:19):
Oh, I'm doing great. How are you guys?

Speaker 1 (01:22):
Baker?

Speaker 3 (01:25):
So anyhow, so on this episode of Positively Caffeinated, what
are we discussing today.

Speaker 6 (01:30):
Coach, so, well, before we start that, can I kind
of piggyback on the e or idea?

Speaker 5 (01:37):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (01:39):
Run with it?

Speaker 6 (01:40):
So I always well, I didn't know consciously, I guess,
but that's kind of the house I grew up in.
I was very blessed. You know, my dad was active duty.
You know, I had food, I had a bed, but
it was always like, hey, it's a nice day. Well
it could rain tomorrow, you know, or hey, we paid
our bills, I could lose my you know, I Debbie

(02:02):
down on SNL and I think that's old, right, you
remember that, Y know what that is. And if you don't,
go on TikTok and watch because they had the SML
had their fiftieth anniversary and you will just crack up.
But anyway, it wasn't I didn't like it at all.

(02:23):
You know, again, I was very blessed. I was loved,
I was cared for, provided for. But I think that's
really where this all came out. But positively caffeinated to
look at the half owl versus half empty, and that's
where it came from. So if you look for your
origination story, right, So every superhero the crap kicked out
of them before they became the superhero. I don't know

(02:45):
if I'm a superhero, but this is how I became
positively caffeinated. My podcast has turned positivity into possibility and
it really is. So if and this is where we'll start.
So when you ask Justin how he's doing, and he's like,
I'm okay. Are you've asked saying how he's doing? I'm okay,
it's a it's a mindset and that's what comes first.
And for me, when I became a middle school high

(03:07):
school coach, that was already thirty or thirty one, so
I was young in experience as man a football, basketball,
track coach, but I was a little older and longer
in the tooth than most of the coaches. But I
had a guy that was there and every single morning
I would go to the field house, drop my bag off,

(03:28):
put my lunch in the you know, community refrigerator, and
I'm like, morning, coach Z, how are you you go?
Every day's a great day And I'm like, dude, there's
no way every day, you know. But that was the
point in my life when I had really just finished school,
become a certified educator in the Santa Texas, three kids
in elementary school, cars Bill's life, et cetera. But I

(03:52):
worked with him for so long and he never changed
his tone. He never did an every day every day
that's what he said. In one day. I just decided, Oh,
if he's always happy or at least says every day
is a great day, maybe I should try it. And
now that's one of my key rules. And you just

(04:12):
bread that ingrain that in your self talk, and that's
the key. And that's there's a question. Let me ask
and we can go around what is your self talk?
Is your self talk you know I have potential, I'm
going to do a great thing, or might yourself talk
life kind of sucks? Hey, it's the rally point show
I have to go today? Oh it's Monday? Or are

(04:34):
you excited to be there? So? What is your self talk?

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Indeed, I will say that one of the things you
just touched on and I think kind of resonate with myself,
is that what is everyone's backstory?

Speaker 5 (04:46):
And as we all know.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
I'm not gonna be a geek here, but comic stories,
all heroes have a backstory. They'll have trauma and then
somehow as they become a superhero, that's their their battle
with their their trauma and living moving forward. And I
kind of envisioned that all veterans are I say, superheroes
of some sort because in some way or another, we

(05:08):
have our trauma moving forward and that's what makes us
super And that's why I think, not to say like
the League of Nations or anything, but it's a matter
of identifying veterans, helping veterans find their superpower. And that's
why I think having positively caffeinated is like you're like

(05:29):
Professor Xavier, helping us kind of find our way and
find our superpower and accepting what we have and in
our difficulty. So I'm blessed to say that we're glad
to have you on a rally.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
Point Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (05:42):
Ahead, Amanda, No, I was just agreeing with Jay absolutely,
And I mean I think you touched on something important
that a lot of us don't really think about, even
though subconsciously we do.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
It is self talk.

Speaker 3 (05:53):
So I catch myself all the time like it because
it's not just self talk necessarily it's all so how
you inwardly think that. You know, you can self talk
just by your subconscious or your conscious thoughts. So you
just have to be very careful with you.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
Know, what are you thinking? What are you saying to yourself?

Speaker 3 (06:13):
Are you catching yourself when you kind of start to
maybe spiral or get negative and kind of double check yourself,
like who says that's true? You know what proof is
there to to make evidence of that? And then when
you realize there is no evidence of whatever negativity I'm
telling myself, then you can start turning it around and

(06:34):
making it more positive. But I absolutely agree with you
that you know there has to be some degree of
positive self talk, self belief. You know that that has
to be there, Like I think you've even said it
to me before, Dane, Like, if you don't believe in yourself,
who's going to And probably one of my favorite questions
that you ask is what's the best that could happen?

Speaker 6 (06:54):
Like I love I love that.

Speaker 3 (06:56):
It's a good way to flip it around on people,
especially because you you've know me long enough to know
that I do tend to spiral, So sometimes you catch
me and you're like, what's the best thing that could happen,
and then I'm like, oh, we're thinking about good things now, Okay.

Speaker 4 (07:12):
It's kind of funny that Amanda picked up a negativity
this morning because like, I woke up tired, completely unmotivated because.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
You don't sleep, sir. This man is like an energizer bunny.
Him and his wife like they don't. There's there's zero
slow on their their's dial. They don't have a slow
button at all.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
We have full plates. But uh yeah, no, So I
missed a personal training of client this morning. I let
him know, like, hey, sorry, we'll try to do it tomorrow.
I rolled into the studio here about twenty minutes late
this morning, so I've been dragging, so all right, now
now I'm focused. Though, Now y'all called me out on it,

(07:53):
you got me back, all right, I'm ready to go.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
And remember you're humans. So stuff happened, So hopefully your
client understood that too, that like it happens, and as
long as it's like a one off kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Oh yeah, she's awesome, everything should be cool.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
But yeah, I mean I think everybody kind of has that,
and sometimes life will throw stuff at you where it
forces you to hit the brakes. Like for me, last week,
I started feeling I went out of town, went to Boston,
and when I came back, it was like my sinuses
were not my friend, and I got really sick. And
so all of a sudden, I went from having like

(08:25):
last week, I had like my Monday and Tuesday were
very full days and I ended up having to hit
the brakes hard and cancel everything because it was just
kind of like sometimes your body will tell you, like
if you don't slow down, don't slow down, don't slow down,
your body will finally be like I'm tapping out, like
you're here, you go lay down.

Speaker 5 (08:45):
To slowing down. I'm slowing it down.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
Correct.

Speaker 3 (08:47):
They like yeah, they like your body will pull that
lever on you. And that's that Like not only did
that happen recently, but I mean, but gosh, back in
twenty seventeen, I was like running mock one with my
hair on fire.

Speaker 1 (08:59):
I had like I was getting ready to deploy.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
I had a major certification that I had to get
in order to deploy that was really difficult and complicate.
It was a radiation safety officer job, which is very complex,
very and for me, it was just frustrating because Some
of it came very easily, but then some of like
the execution, like doing some of the calculations, was really hard.
My job was really busy. I was a flight chief.

(09:23):
I had like thirteen people under me, just a lot
going on. But I kept pushing, push and pushing. I
was going to boot camp every morning at five am whatever,
and then all of a sudden, my body was like,
that's it, We've had enough. I was in PT I
was playing flickerball with my troops. If you don't know
what that is, imagine playing ultimate frisbee, but with a

(09:43):
football on a basketball court, and the way you score
is you get the football in the basketball Who don't
look at me like that, guys, they're like freaking air
Force people anyway. So that's that's what my airman wanted
to play in PETE. I had a whole boot camp
session ready for them, almost like this workout is going
to be great. They were like, could we please blave

(10:04):
liquor ball and we were I was like, there's no
reason for me to say no. To do so would
just be a jerk move. So I was like, sure,
why not, So we go and play. I ended up
breaking my leg what during that. Yeah, So I I
like lunged to kind of play defense against one of
my airmen and then he zigg guyzagged, and when I

(10:25):
tried to come back, oh my leg. Yeah, my leg
was not having it and I fell just so that
I snapped the bone in my legs. So yeah, so
like my body was basically telling me, like, you have
way too much going on and you got to slow down.
And I had about six weeks to sit and think
about what was I you know, what was I doing,

(10:46):
like kind of reassess. It gives you time to kind
of reassess when stuff like that happens, whether it's you know,
missing an appointment and having a rough morning, or whether
it's you know, maybe something that puts it down for
like six to eight weeks, it does give you time
to kind of regre and rethink. So it's yeah, kind
of crazy how that happens.

Speaker 4 (11:04):
And the mind is a powerful thing. So like, you know,
this morning, I had personal training clients, I had the
radio show here, I have via appointment, we got the
Veteran Council meeting today, and it's like, hmmm, something's going
to fall off the plate. Let's just not do any
of it.

Speaker 5 (11:22):
And veg out.

Speaker 4 (11:24):
I understand, because that's that's what happens when when you
get too overwhelmed, it's like you have all these things
weighing you down. It's like, all right, well, let me
just stay stuck here, right and do none of it.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Whether it's storm, yeah, coach. One of the things about
the add on that self talk I want to say
that I want to say thank you for is that
I And this is why I think you're invaluable to veterans,
is that you're able to take something that we do
on an omal basis and it's normalized, I think for
veterans or people in service, as opposed to people who

(11:57):
are civilians and do not understand and some of the
some of the trials and tribulations we go through psychologically
and emotionally, and they ask, I think it's all unphrasing.
They'll ask what's wrong with you? As opposed to you'll
ask what's going on with you? And it's all positive,
and you help us kind of feel non shame that

(12:17):
we have external thoughts and sometimes I'll say, some thoughts
are not meant to be aired at still on your head,
but you add an air of ease and comfortability to
the point where we're this is our new normal that
some civilians will never understand what that means. And you
make it so easy pasy one two three, z's that

(12:38):
it's it's it's part of our new life and just
to embrace what we are and what we do.

Speaker 5 (12:42):
So I want to say thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
And that's why, like I said, every time you, every
time we have you on the show, it's a learning experience.
I want to say thank you again a thousands of time.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
So there you go.

Speaker 6 (12:52):
Oh, it's my pleasure. I mean, here's the thing. That's
the one thing I don't live in the past that
I want you to live in the past. I want
you to take those experiences you add and shape your future.
None of us can change the past, right well.

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Disney, instead keep moving forward.

Speaker 6 (13:06):
And it doesn't mean it doesn't mean we don't examine it.
It doesn't mean we don't look at it. But like
Amanda said, what's the best that can happen when you
realize that no one's coming to save you. We're here
to give you the tools to shape your future, and
you have to take action again, whether it is waking
up and saying hey, every day's a great day, or

(13:27):
even if you miss an appointment, apologize like, Hey, Susie
or John, I'm sorry, but I'm also human. Hey, let's reschedule.
And most of the time, like you said, Amanda, if
it's a one off, nobody holds. Can anybody on the
show today raise their hand because they've never been late before?

Speaker 3 (13:41):
I definitely can't. I'll be late in my own funeral.
I already know that, Like I've said it before too.
The people wonder, They'll be like, how did you make
it through twenty years in the military, And I tell
people the truth all the time. I did it by
constantly lying to myself about what time I had to
be somewhere. If somebody said my appointment was at nine thirty,
it got written in my plan or put on my
outlook calendar as nine am. That way, when I showed

(14:03):
up at nine to ten, I was still on time.
And I would set my clock in my car like
twenty minutes fast.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
So it'd be funny.

Speaker 3 (14:11):
If I was driving to a survey or something like
that and I had somebody with me, they'd be looking
at the clock and they'd be like, oh my.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Gosh, we're late, and I'm like, no, we're not. I
have to tell me like, twenty minutes fast.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
Hey, But through the magic of radio, we were all
on time.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Today, right, Yes, absolutely, that's because our producer is going
to make sure we are.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (14:30):
I would say Zay can be the punctual one in
our crew that works.

Speaker 6 (14:40):
But again, there's no shame in your game. If you
have to gamify your life to be successful by setting
me alarm for twenty minutes or late early, then do
it right. Hey, whether it's me or mel Robbins or
whoever is your twenty Robins two. My name's not Dame Robbins,
but maybe it should be. Anyway, gamify it. We're going
to give you tools that have worked for us. We're

(15:00):
going to give you tools that have worked for the
hundreds of thousands of people we've blessed to work with,
and then you have to shape and mold it for yourself.
So on the back of the nextly toll House Chips,
right chocolate chips, it tells you how to make a
chocolate chip cookie. You can follow that recipe exactly, or
you can modify the recipe and you'll probably still get
a good cookie.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
I must agree the room in there, and now I
was saying, now, y'all are making me hungry, and I'm
supposed to like not be that kind of stuff.

Speaker 6 (15:30):
Well, but okay, if we want to get it, if
I can go on health and die it all.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Day right now. But you're you're right now.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
I mean, there's so many different ways to make a
good tasting cookie. Maybe you add nuts, maybe you add butter,
scotch chips or peanut butter or whatever the case might be.
But like you said, they give you kind of the
baseline and you can go from there and build on
it and make it something different every time.

Speaker 6 (15:53):
And still you're you, and you're your own cookie, so
to speak, you know, so don't beat yourself up, none
of us. Go ahead.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
Wow, hey man, midlife comes at your heart sometimes.

Speaker 6 (16:08):
I didn't hear what you said.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
I said.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
I said, you said you are your own cookie, and
I said, well, I'm definitely round.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
So I got that part of it.

Speaker 6 (16:17):
Okay, So now that's right. Although my dad was overweight,
you know, at the end of his military career, but
he was a physician and we can talk about that.
And he was like, well, I don't care at this point,
but anyway, he would tell me round is a shape
which we also geometry. At some point he was he
was not wrong, but it isn't the shape we want

(16:38):
to be in. I mean, right, and then the idea,
So go ahead.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
I said, agreed, he say, it's not the shape we
want to be in.

Speaker 6 (16:48):
So what I what I want to coach you to
be Ultimately, it's that what have what we call a
super medium body, a body that can get up, get out,
get moving, do everything that they want to do. It
doesn't you don't have to have a six pack. If
you want one, go get one. But what if you
want to climb a mountain, if you want to rock
with Justin and Amana in southwest Florida. I get excited
now and I get loud, and I get fast. I

(17:08):
want you to have that body that whether you're twenty
five and just got out, or you're in your fifties
like me, it's been out for as the military for
thirty years. I want to make sure that you're on
the least amount of lifestyle medication possible. I'm not going
to tell you not to take them, because I'm not
the doctor. But if you can move your body on
a daily basis, if you can fuel your body with
healthier food. Most of the time, you'll be able to

(17:29):
do that. You'll be able to do that, And that's
what it's about. It's about So I don't know if
I said it on the show before. So one of
my goals is an eighty five years old I love
to travel. I love to create events all across the world.
I still want to be able to carry my bag
through the airport. I want to get on the airplane
and put my bag in the overhead compartment by myself

(17:51):
without help, not taking the little golf cart through the airport,
or traveling on my private jet. How about that.

Speaker 1 (17:56):
I'm down with the private jet idea.

Speaker 3 (17:58):
I would agree if it's money and time was not
an object, I would definitely have a private chat.

Speaker 6 (18:04):
Well, you're still young enough you can make it happen.

Speaker 4 (18:07):
True, Hey, coach, you brought up rocking with Amanda and myself.
So this is the last time we spoke to you.
We started the Legacy Rock Club Southwest Florida. So we
had our initial rock March a couple of weekends ago,
and so now the next thing that we're doing, we're

(18:28):
going to start a Sunday stroll series in April. So
our first one is going to be this weekend, this Sunday.
Amanda's taking charge of that one. I've I've got the
next week and then we'll see what happens from there.
Maybe we'll get maybe we'll get Jay out there leading one.

Speaker 5 (18:44):
I'll try And I still have my rucksack.

Speaker 4 (18:45):
So so so I'm having a I'm having a lot
of questions about a rucking and you know, what is
rucking and stuff like that? What what is your defin
this is? This is your brainchild here.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
This is this is we had a mentor of Legacy
Rock Club Southwest Florida.

Speaker 4 (19:04):
So yeah, so so from a founder perspective, what's what's your.

Speaker 6 (19:10):
Take on what? Okay? So, rucking in general, in the
very shortest context, is walking hiking with a weighted backpack.
So whether it's one pound or one hundred pounds. I
don't recommend one hundred pounds, by the way, but and
that's as simple as it is. And so if you
are willing to get up, grab a backpack. We've talked
about this, whether right justin did you have like a

(19:31):
pink Barbie backpack or something like that? This time I
kept that one in the closet right anyway. So it's
literally that simple. So you get a strength, you get
strength training, you get outside. There's so many val there's
value about carrying weight and using it as a metaphor
for life because life is hard.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
Shoot, I was going to say, we definitely had our
fair share challenges at our ruck on Saturday. We practically
got eaten alive by mosquitoes the spring, so we were
getting tore up, and it was a matter of like,
you know, pressing on, pressing on because we were like,
we want to make sure that we get through this.
But at the same time it was there were times
that was pretty uncomfortable, but we went through it anyway.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
Push through.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
That's not how you get people to want to join us.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
That's okay though, I know, but it's it's the truth.
Sometimes you're gonna find stuff, like you're gonna find mud
on the trail, or there'll be sand where you weren't
expecting sand. You thought it was just gonna be a
hard dirt trail and it's not. So then what do
you do. Do You stop and just be like, well,
this isn't what I signed up for and try to
backtrack and walk back to your car, or do you

(20:38):
just say, well, the only way out is through, let
me keep pressing.

Speaker 4 (20:42):
You know, perseverance is the key.

Speaker 3 (20:44):
I mean, we can't make it sound all, you know,
sugar coated cupcakes, lollipops and unicorns all the time, because
there will be there will be challenges with rucking, whether
it's you know, even if it's like a weather based thing,
like we're roucking. It looks great and then all of
a sudden it starts to rain and we weren't expecting that.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
What do you do? You know, do you scatter and
run to your car?

Speaker 3 (21:06):
I mean, good luck, because if you're rocking on a trail,
you might have to go through some stuff to get
back there. Or do you just keep moving through it anyways?

Speaker 6 (21:15):
Stuff like that. But don't you've lived long enough to
know that you're either going into a storm, coming out
of a storm, or getting ready for the next storm.
That's life, that's a fact. So we find strength through struggle,
we grow stronger, we embrace those struggles. So in my
personal coaching community, we use the bison as our mascot,
the buffalo, right, and that buffalo when the storm comes in,

(21:38):
will head into the storm head first. Therefore eliminating the
pain and suffering quicker. Whereas the cow when the storm
comes and instinctively they run away from the storm, which
then keeps them in the rain, the snow, whatever the
weather is. The storm is longer. So we find the
strength through the struggle. We learn by carrying the weight
literally and figuratively that we are stronger, we have more resilient,

(22:02):
and we can battle everything we do. Can I give
a personal note where I am right right today in
my life?

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Can I absolutely?

Speaker 6 (22:10):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Please do?

Speaker 6 (22:11):
Okay, So strength through struggle. So my wife and I
were in our mid fifties. In October of twenty twenty four,
she had a pacemaker put in, not because of unhealthy living,
just because she got the short freaking end of the
DNA stick. Okay, So she gets the pacemaker. She goes
through recovery, not super long, but recovery. Then on in
December she had a bone spur removed from her right

(22:32):
achilles tendon. That's six eight weeks recovery. And that's like
going out on the trail again. That's just to get
back to work in a boot. Well. During that recovery,
she's on a knee scooter and we have three dogs.
Two of them are Corgies, which makes them very little.
One of them gets under the scooter. She loses balance.
When you think you're going to eat food and go
face first into the ground, you just don't want to

(22:53):
fosse to put the foot down. And it was her
surgically repaired which was the finnisok and she retore or
the repaired tendon well, the story continues, So she had
her achilles tendon repaired against As of the recording this,
she's about two and a half weeks into recovery. It
probably won't be until this time next year where she's

(23:14):
in Florida or in Texas or somewhere where she's truly hiking, rocking,
just walking without pain. So we talk through tears. For
me be kind of a jerk sometimes because I get
a bit overwhelmed of I run everything in the house
at this point. But we sit back sometimes and it
is strength through struggle. Why did we used to run marathon,
be a marathon or half marathon or a rucker because

(23:37):
we learned that even though this kind of sucks, that's
being nice. It's just the season, and we're strong enough
to find that strength through our previous struggle to survive
today's struggle.

Speaker 3 (23:47):
I was going to say, you know, I have a
friend who she was in my career field in the
Air Force, and she used to say a similar phrase,
but I just I love the way she ordered it.
She would say together in the struggle. So when we
would be, yeah, when we would be dealing with something,
maybe a policy came down or something that was you know,
maybe we didn't agree with it, or it was difficult

(24:10):
to try to articulate to our airmen and NCOs why
this policy was good. You know, she would always point
out she'd be like together in the struggle, like and
that was her way of saying, like, we'll get through
this together. And I absolutely love that. I don't know
if she's listening, but if she is, at least she
knows it still makes a difference. It's something that I
will always remember about her. But yeah, that it was

(24:32):
just such a powerful what four words together in the
struggle and it says so much, It conveys so much,
but it also gives so much peace. And you know, positivity,
optimism even in a difficult time.

Speaker 6 (24:49):
And it's okay, we're talking about positivity. You know, it's
okay to look at the heavens and yell and screen sometimes, right,
it's okay to pound your chest, but it's not okay.
It's to say stagnet the algae girl on where you're standing.

Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah, yeah, to camp out, to camp out where you
are in your difficulty.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Yeah, I agree, coach.

Speaker 2 (25:07):
I have a question, given that that that perspective, would
you recommend for our listeners that have a I'll say
they have elements in their lives that counter what you
just said. Sometimes it's okay to scream at the heavens
and you might have a naysayer on the other side,
quit saying what are you doing? What's wrong with you?

(25:29):
In other words, they are I guess, not in approval
of what they're trying to do to kind of figure
themselves out. And again, I'm kind of going back to
the I have seen in my lifetime when people who
have not served in the military that don't know some
of the things that we struggle through look at you
like you have two heads on your shoulders, like what

(25:50):
are you doing? What would you say to a veteran
that's basically caught in that dilemma?

Speaker 6 (25:56):
So I think that you've got to stand figure tiaving
literally in front of the mirror and decide that you
have got to say it's time to something in my
life is not calling me. And what's the first action
I can take? And maybe that first action you take
is examining your friend group. Are they serving you? And
I don't mean that you're taking advantage of them? But

(26:18):
if you are in the position that you want to
grow and you no longer want to stay stuck where
you are, are they in the growth phase of life?
And will they hope and support you? I think that's
the first piece is ultimately is to just be okay.
So I love to tell stories. So I was married
for twenty three years, married to my high school sweetheart,
still have three beautiful now adult children, and we got

(26:42):
divorced after a horrific car accident and we once the
healing physical healing, never truly the emotional healing was recovered
after five years. We were lost and the only way
for us to figure out ourselves again was to no
longer be together. So I was very blessed. My my
parents were married for I don't know forty plus years

(27:03):
before my dad died. My grandparents were married for fifty
or sixty years. I didn't grow up in you know,
extended families or anything like that, so I was very lost.
And I literally was sitting at the National Cemetery in
Francisco at the Prestidio. You don't ever been out there,
by the way, it's amazing. So I'm sitting on one
of those you know, stone benches that are pretty common
in all the National Cemeteries. You're looking through the sequoia trees,

(27:25):
looking at the Golden gate Bridge, and I'm like, I
got to do something. I still have a big smile
on the outside. I thought I was, you know, hiding
all my pain, but people knew that I was not happy,
and I was literally like, what am I going to do?
And the first thing I did, I literally, because you know,

(27:45):
you can control the trollable. I went back and decided
I was going to get in better physical shape because
I can take action today. I can take action today.
Either moved more today than I did yesterday. There's only
two answers, yes or no. The first thing was where
I am is not wrong to be tomorrow like taking
action was to get my dog. There will be fourteen
next month. Dodger was a maybe a year and a half,

(28:06):
got another leash, another collar, and we started to go
on a run. And on that run, I could have
even though part of my iPod actually back then, or
I could write, or I could be in silent. But
when you're on the road and you're struggling physically, you
will find yourself at some level you're going to quit
and go home, or you're going to keep going. You
may bend over and put your hands on your knees

(28:28):
and cry or yell and scream, but the key is
to do it again tomorrow. I don't know if I
answered your question, but I think the first thing is
to decide where you are is not where you want
to be. The second thing is to take some sort
of action today. Whether it's a book, whether it's a walk,
whether it's a ruck, whether it's a run, whether it's
finding a coach, whether it's finding resources through your veteran

(28:50):
services something. That's where it's going to start.

Speaker 5 (28:52):
You nailed it. A call to action. I love it.

Speaker 6 (28:54):
Yeah, see, I'm too wordy. That's it. I could have
said a call to action.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
I've just been quiet now. That was that was good.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
We always appreciate having you on here, and we love
hosting Positively Caffeinated with you. So I think that's a
good positive, uplifting way and realistic honestly. To wrap up
today's segment, so thanks again coach Dane Boyle for being
on the show for Positively Caffeinated, and we'll see you

(29:21):
next month.

Speaker 6 (29:22):
Founds wonder if I look forward to it. Take action today.

Speaker 1 (29:25):
That's right, you heard the man, all right, and I'll
do better.

Speaker 4 (29:28):
I'm gonna I'm going to conquer the rest of the
day with positivity.

Speaker 6 (29:33):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
Calling all veterans. On May twenty fourth at the Franz
Ross YMCA and Port Charlotte, come out for our Veteran
Resource Fair, happening from eleven to two pm. There is
no charge. If you would like to set up a booth,
promote your veteran owned business, promote your veteran resource or
if you just want to come out and get that information,

(29:56):
that would be great. At nine point thirty in the morning,
we're going to start out with the Legacy Rock Club,
the Southwest Florida Rock around the Park. Come back at
eleven we're going to have our resource fair and then
special guest Michi Jefferies is going to have a veteran
financial planning class. Hope to see you all there. All right, everybody,

(30:18):
and for our next segment, we are glad to have
here in studio with us from Helping Hearts for Heroes,
Seana Willis and Kim Spencer. Hello guys, Hi everybody, and
of course, as always we've got Big Sarge here, Jay Hemingway.

Speaker 5 (30:35):
All right, all right, all right, all we're all doing today.

Speaker 7 (30:38):
Folks, been doing great, good good.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
Once again, can you reintroduce yourself to America again, folks.
I can't say this enough, and I said it in
our past shows at the amount of work that these
two have done and they run if they've brought into
our county in Charlotte, Florida, it's been immense and actually
I want to say kind of been reinvigorated the veteran
spirit and Sharotte County. But brother me talk about what

(31:06):
they do. Taught to Shauna first and Kim tell America
what you guys do.

Speaker 7 (31:12):
So I'm SHAWNA. Willis my day job. I work with
right at Home and I basically do all the marketing
and the assessing for in home care and then I
am one of the co founders for Helping Hearts for
Heroes and Kim also yes.

Speaker 8 (31:28):
So I'm Kim Spencer with Brookdale Senior Living. As Shawna said,
that's my day job and we you know, a co
founder with her on the helping Hearts for Heroes.

Speaker 7 (31:37):
So for you guys that don't know who we are
and what we do, we are a non for profit
that supports local veterans and need anything from household items
that they're looking to move into their first department, whether
it's after TVY or maybe they were suffering from some
homelessness and we can support them with some resources to

(31:59):
mental health, VA benefits, fitness, we have a whole wide
range of services. We're trying to be that hub to
connect them.

Speaker 5 (32:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
And one of the things that I love about them,
I mean to the point where I decided that they're
gonna be, you know, my parent company because I kind
of fall underneath them with Warrior Wellness. So it's all
a big network of just trying to help veterans, get
veterans what they need. For my piece with Warrior Wellness,

(32:28):
it's getting veterans up mobile, out the door, get them
you know, just active in their community, active, just active period.
We've got a rout club that we just started, Legacy
Rock Club of Southwest Florida.

Speaker 5 (32:48):
So yeah, so.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
We're branching out, and I think helping Hearts for Heroes
is really the network that's gonna be the one that
to connect all the dots. And so I'm glad, glad
to be a part of it as Warrior Wellness and
just doing anything and everything that we can to get
veterans healthy and whether that be physically, emotionally, physically, you know, mentally,

(33:18):
all all those things, just getting them where they need
to be.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
So yeah, and folks, give you an idea of how
this all started. I have a little bit of history
with Kim and shot him last year. I'll see it again.
I've said his story probably a million times. I got
invited to a meeting that was maybe two weeks old,
and it was a group of concerned organizations that wanted

(33:42):
to do something for veterans, more likely displaced veterans in
Charlotte count of. We have a home for veterans trying
to rebuild their lives during that holistic rebuilding of themselves physically, physically, mentally,
and spiritually. And I sat down for about an hour,
and I'm sitting there and I'm listening to what they

(34:04):
wanted to do, and they thought thought of a name.
It was Home Good for Heroes. Now that was I
want to say, if my math is corrected, I want
to say the last or the last week of oh goodness,
gracious of October. And then I'll say it again. I've
said it several times on the show that within nine

(34:24):
weeks we went from a concept to being fully functional,
to being fully funded, to have toiletries and other things
necessary for veterans moving into an apartment, you know, breadsheet, bedsheets, plates, forks, knives,
things of that nature, fully able, fully boxed, fully bagged,

(34:46):
had at least twenty three volunteer show up at the
location and a commissioner and have coordinated to have Wink
News show up, which is our local television station, within
nine weeks. And I've always said that if I had
those two Kim in Shauna in my platoon, the things

(35:08):
we would have done in the army. But needless to say,
I have the distinct privilege to have them on my
retirement side helping out veterans and continue our mission to
make sure our veterans are taken care of after the
mission's over. And I've always said kudos. I can ever
say enough of it, because if you want to stop
things like suicide and drug and substance abuse, it starts

(35:32):
with making the veteran or the individuals stable and content
in their own skin. And that day was nothing but special.
And for me that actually you have to revert back
to a sergeant for a fraction of a second and
tell people to fall in and get their child and
have them respond very so slowly was one of the
better days of my after military life. And I would

(35:54):
say thank you for that moment. But I will say
that one of the blessed things they both have connect
with the veterans in their family. And I want to
start with Kim because her father was in World War Two.

Speaker 8 (36:08):
He was actually in the Korean War.

Speaker 5 (36:09):
Korean War, and I believe he was the MP.

Speaker 8 (36:12):
Yes, he was an MP in the Korean War, you know,
and he's still to the He always talked about his
service never you know, was very blessed to have had
had that time, and that was some of the things
that he would say, I feel good because I actually
helped our country, you know, so it was really important
to him.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Well, and I will say this as a fellow, a
former MP, I will say that I am confident. And
when I say, is that your father knows that you
continue on his mission and his legacy to what you're
doing here today and what you're continuing to do in
to the future. And SHAWNA, I believe your father, your husband,
and a couple of uncles ars in the military.

Speaker 7 (36:52):
So my grandfather was Korean War, my father in law
was Vietnam along with several of my own, and my
husband was Iraq and Afghanistan. So we've we got a
long line, and I got a lot of younger early age,
twenty year old cousins that are now serving. So wow,

(37:13):
and again we proudly support all branches of the service.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Outstanding and one of the great things audience and people
in the studio I refer to as a legacy. We
have a bunch of people that are connected to the
military in one way or another that just expands our
community and our family and our fraternal kind of order.
And for me, I get really I hate using the
word paternal, but protective of my military family. And one

(37:40):
of the things that you'll find out in the real
life if you identify yourself as a veteran, a daughter
of a venion, spouse of a veteran. You automatically this
extra added security in that location for that period of
time and you're never out, You're never alone. And I
had that experience last night. But again, to see you
guys kind of step up to the plate that months

(38:00):
ago just get renews my faith that we as a
society haven't completely wrought it out and just hope for
us as long as you guys continue to good work.
You guys are still doing. So that being the case,
I wanted to kind of touch base about Justine program
Warrior Wellness, and I'm going to have you guys kind
of talk about that because you know, I'm the idiot

(38:21):
in the room, so educate the audience of myself while
you tell us what you guys do.

Speaker 4 (38:27):
So for Warrior Wellness. So one of the main things
that I want to do or that I am doing,
is providing gym memberships, so up to twelve weeks for
a veteran, preferably a veteran that's that's older. But you know,
if you're a veteran and you don't have the means,

(38:50):
whatever the case may be, financially or you know, whatever
then what I what waror Wellness does is we pay
for twelve weeks of gym membership at the location of
your choice, along with twelve weeks of personal training. So
that's twelve one hour sessions of personal training addition to that.

(39:14):
So we will meet up once a week. We'll call
it Freedom Fridays, and we just talk and we'll do
a group workout. Or if we don't make it that far,
if it's just stretching in coffee, that's fine. If we
start talking and we pill off a band aid, you know,

(39:35):
we pill a scab. Then we've got continuum of care
to make sure that your mental health needs are taken
care of as well as your physical needs. And it's
designed to stop the veteran from living alone. So no

(39:56):
matter how many people were around, we still live by ourselves.
In a lot of cases, you you come home from
deployment or you retire, and maybe you never deployed, but
you still spoken acronyms. You were around your military family
your whole career and now you're not.

Speaker 5 (40:17):
So you have shared.

Speaker 4 (40:21):
Experiences, You've seen things, you've done, things you know about,
things you've had people tell you horrific stories of the
things that they've done, and you go home and people
don't understand what you're talking about, and that's just a
bond that you know, the civilian side doesn't necessarily see.

(40:43):
So rather than talk about it, what a lot of
veterans do, we shut down and we just go about
the rest of our days in silence. I mean, you know,
we talk, but your your shelf.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
What you could be.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
So what we what we do is get those veterans together,
get them out on a hike, a rock march, get
them in a group exercise class and share stories, share experiences,
let people know that other people have been where they

(41:20):
are and that you're not alone.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
That's awesome, and I can I can. I will say
that the warrior wellness, that that task that you've taken
on is such a big task. But with the assistance
of a fellow veterans and like people with Shauna and Kim,
that should be that task has easily taken care of.
Now I'm gonna ask that question Shauna and Kim. Apparently

(41:49):
that warrior wellness is underneath your umbrella. Can you explain
to our audience how that kind of correalis is with
your core mission?

Speaker 7 (41:55):
So our core mission really is to serve as many
veterans as possible. We started off with the focus of
being in Charlotte County because that's where we were primarily located,
but the reality is we're looking to service as many
veterans as possible in southwest Florida, being so that bringing
in Justin under Warrior Wellness that gives us an opportunity

(42:16):
to get that mental health piece and also get that
physical fitness piece. You know, we're tapping into the veterans
who may be displaced in getting them the support services
or the items needed to regain that independency. But once
they get to that point, they're going to need more
and this is where we can continue to connect them,

(42:36):
fill in those pieces of that puzzle and get them
to know that they are not alone, that there are
many other veterans that are serving or have served, that
are looking for that sense of community. So we are
trying to bridge that gap and connect those dots.

Speaker 8 (42:50):
Anything from you klint no, and I love what Justin
is trying to do because and some of the people
that I meet at work through what I do, they
don't don't want to be recognized, They don't feel that
they deserve to be recognized. I don't feel like they
deserve any support. So, you know, so through what I
even just being at Brookdale, I'm able to say, well,
we've got this program going on and letting them know

(43:13):
that they do deserve anything we can give for them. So,
but this is a much needed piece, the mental health
part and the physical part.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
So one of the things that that I've talked about
before is you can't measure someone else's sacrifice. You can't
measure someone else's trauma. And you know, just because you
haven't been in Iraq, Afghanistan or wherever we're at in
the world these days and been in a firefight, you know,

(43:43):
or back in the day, you know, were you in
Vietnam or were you sitting at your desk, you know,
stateside during Vietnam. There are sacrifices. You know, you don't
have to have been in a firefight to have sacrifice.
How many birthdays did you miss? How many anniversaries did

(44:04):
you miss? How many you know, grandparent funerals did you miss?
Parent funerals did you miss? You know, all these things
are sacrifices that you were in the field, you were deployed,
whatever the case may be. You you didn't necessarily see
textbook combat. However, you still sacrificed something. Everyone who raised

(44:31):
their hand and was in the military sacrificed something missed,
a significant life event that they can never get back.
And so when veterans say, oh, well, I don't deserve it,
that's completely untrue. If you were in the military, there
was something in your life that you missed, and it's

(44:54):
okay to accept that, and you know, to accept the
camaraderie of others, to be in a partnership, a brotherhood,
sisterhood of those who served.

Speaker 7 (45:11):
I know I can contest as a certified key spouse.
When my husband was deployed and his unit was activated,
it was a whole base wide activation. I was that
surviving spouse at home, calling their loved ones and checking
in with them. So I know I had those same
worries and you know, hopes and prayers every night that

(45:34):
my husband and his troops were safe. But I was
also calling their moms, their sisters, their wives, and trying
to give them that additional support from the familial side exactly.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
And one of the things I think we can all
concur with is when one person's deployed, the whole family's
deployed because there's an absence of a father or a mother,
or a brother or a sister, and that has to
be filled by who's left behind. And one of the
things that had I had a little solace in is

(46:06):
that I had the I had. I'm thankful to have
those who were my community law enforcement first responders that
looked after my family just a little bit extra while
I was away from home. That gave me peace of
mind to be function somewhat functional down down range. But
I will say that one of my most valuable things

(46:26):
of our country, and I'll say it a thousand times,
is are willing to step up to the plate when
our troops are deployed. We tend to kind of congregate
and rally around those who need it. Wink wink, No,
not dryly point, but the whole point of the matter
is we must be thankful for the assets that we
have and the resources that you provide. And we all

(46:46):
know we all had.

Speaker 5 (46:47):
A bad day.

Speaker 2 (46:48):
I'm thankful for those who had covered meat, had had
my two hundred from pound self, and I had my
bad days. But it's a matter of appreciating that the
efforts being taken care of the carrier of this forward
And one of the things that you guys all kind
of helped me acknowledge is I'm going geek out for
a quick second. Is like I've always had this vision

(47:09):
of my head on like quantum leap correct the problems
of the past to improve the future. Well, unfortunately we're
not there with that technology. But with our veterans from Vietnam,
I think it's imperative that when we say thank you
for your service, it can be bittersweet depending on who
you tell it to, until they have an opportunity to
kind of embrace the sweetness of their service. It's already

(47:32):
it's bitter to them and they have some have misgivings.
And I cannot correct the wrongs of the past, but
we can start today to say thank you. And what
we can't go back in time, but we can fix
it today, move forward and forge ahead. And what you
guys do for the both separate occupations that you both
have outside of healing, hoping, healing hearts.

Speaker 5 (47:56):
Is invaluable.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
And I say thank you because you give the veteran
the dignity of making a choice. And that's the one
thing I think we feel the most is that as
we get older, we lose our control over ourselves. And
that's something that you guys do outside your fields. And
please tell us what you do outside of your organization

(48:17):
that provide those people veteran and non value the opportunity
to control their fate. Why they still can? They still
got choice? So, Seana, what do you do outside of
you're not?

Speaker 7 (48:31):
My background's in clinical psychology, so that's kind of where
I started, and so I the holistic well the mental
well being, you know, the mind, body, and souls is
really my background. So I kind of fell into the
elder care senior care industry while I was caring for
my elderly grandparents. So I really found that, you know,

(48:56):
as we get older, we're afraid to ask for help,
We're less trusting, you know, we hear about scams, we
hear about all these different things. So I'm that voice
that goes in and I meet with these individuals or
their loved ones and let them know what resources they
have as a senior. Do they want to stay at home?
If so, what services do they need to do that safely?

(49:17):
Or do they need to transition into a living community
and what does that look like? And how can we
support them during that So that's really my goal with
right at Home, and it's spreading the news as much
as possible to everybody in the community to make them
aware that these services are there.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
And folks, I will say that that's the most important
part of I just said, you're giving the veteran the
opportunity to make a choice of their equality of life.
And I say, Sean, and thank you for that.

Speaker 8 (49:44):
And now, Kim So, I work for a senior living
industry for LASH twenty nine years now and I get
to meet with the resident or perspective residents and their
families and help them through that journey because it's overwhelming,
it's scary. They're giving up what they feel as independence.
We're trying to keep them as independent as possible. But
we help them, you know, as they need, you know,

(50:05):
the basics, the food, the meals, the housekeeping, their laundry,
but more importantly is the age. You know, we can
keep them, keep them aging in place by adding in
med management or showers or dressing assistance, whatever they might
need in order to still keep some of that independence
and be able to live a viable life and have
fun with the activities and stuff that we provide. So

(50:28):
one of the things I would do want to mention is,
like with Brookdale, and we're in forty one different states
throughout the throughout the United States, we do offer our
veterans seven and a half percent off the rate for them.

Speaker 2 (50:40):
And I'll say thank you because I met one of
your residents at one of your events and she was
one hundred and three yeah, and she was a hoot.

Speaker 5 (50:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:49):
And those are the things that we have to worry about,
not worry about. I feel that as veterans we age,
but we say mine's still sharp for the most part,
and the worst part is knowing that our quality of
life is maintained. And she was a gas I mean going,
she's going she cracked a joke about her right, I'm like, going, Wow,

(51:10):
she's so humorous about it.

Speaker 5 (51:11):
Yeah, I hope I'm that way while but uh, I
thought on that justin Oh No.

Speaker 4 (51:18):
So one of the big things just to tie everything
back in so for warrior wellness, So going to Brookdale
and you know, taking one of the the senior veterans
around the block on a walk or.

Speaker 5 (51:35):
Right at home.

Speaker 4 (51:36):
We've talked to or I've talked to Sean and and
Heidi about if they have any home bound residents, you know,
coordinating with the r O t C at the high
schools and just going over there and just like helping
them out for the day, cleaning up the yard and
stuff like that. So that's the that's the tie ins

(51:56):
that that Warrior Wellness and helping Hearts for here ros
have with the community is just bridging the gaps for
any any and everything that they need so they feel
like they are respected and taking care of.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
All right, all right, folks, before we go here, I
want to see to make sure that we thank our
guests for being on a show. And let me correct myself.
They will be hosting a segment on our radio program
once a month, So prepare for impact, folks. Intense stuff
is about to come out your way. Anything what the
folks know about in the radio land and America. Got

(52:36):
any events from the know about or you want to
participate in.

Speaker 8 (52:39):
Are one of our events coming up at the end
of this month. We have BINGO and raising fund so
that we can continue to assist our veterans. So you know,
we've given them the product, but now if they need
help with the light bill or something like that, deposit
we have also a golf tournament coming up in October.

Speaker 7 (53:00):
And we are working on with Justin with Warrior Wellness
a fundraiser at a local hotel in Panagorda to raise
some funds to get those veterans those twelve PT sessions
and gym memberships.

Speaker 2 (53:12):
And where can they do donations? Where can I email
or where can they contact you at?

Speaker 7 (53:17):
You guys can reach out to us at www dot
helpingheartsfourhrooes dot com and all of our events are on there.
There's a donation site if you live afar and you
can't participate in person and still want to support our cause.
And we also have a Facebook page Helping Hearts for.

Speaker 5 (53:33):
Heroes outstanding in folks.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
Like I said, I'm not going to say goodbye to
these two people because they'll be in your living rooms,
in your cars and upcoming days and months, we'll see
you then.

Speaker 5 (53:46):
Take care and happy trails, folks.

Speaker 1 (53:49):
Thank you, Thank you, guys,