Leadership, Sacrifice, and Service: Lessons from Special Operations with Josh Daniel

On this episode of The First Responder Playbook, I sat down with Joshua Daniel—20-year Army veteran, retired special operator, and founder of Hero Games charity and Counterculture Solutions. We dove into his incredible journey from small-town Virginia to leading elite teams in combat, the power of leadership without titles, and turning hardship into empowering others. Josh’s story is packed with hard-won lessons on resilience, building community after service, and leading with integrity. If you’re looking for inspiration, actionable leadership tips, and a reminder of the impact we can have serving others, this episode is a must-listen.

Want to be a guest on The First Responder Playbook: Insights on Leadership and Training? Send Brent Colbert a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1748037097521814b71b1b454

 

Josh's website:

https://www.counterculturesolutions.com/

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Guys, welcome to the first responder playbook. It's my pleasure
to have Joshua Daniel with me tonight. He's the founder and president of Hero Games
charity and the founder and CEO of countercultures,
Counterculture Solutions. It's close to Friday, I'm sure,
And with over 20 years in special operations and nine deployments,
I'm gonna let Joshua give himself a proper introduction now. Josh,

(00:23):
the floor is yours. Dang, man, that's. That's rough. All
right. Hey, I'm Josh.
I. Yeah, just retired after 20
years, eight months, and eight days in the army,
and, man, I'm only 39, you know, so I feel
pretty blessed to kind of be here. Good

(00:45):
chunk of my life was doing dangerous stuff
in far off places and wasn't sure I'd ever
make it to this point, so. Pretty stoked about that.
Married, four kids, live up in the mountains, you know,
came back home where it all started in Virginia,

(01:05):
and, man, I think, you know, I'm
sure we'll dive into a little bit of my career here in a little bit,
but nowadays, I. I
hang out up here, man. We're homesteading. I, of
course, have a couple companies that I run
with. Tight knit circle, really good group of people,

(01:26):
man. I'm doing what I love, and in literally every
aspect, I. I don't do
anything that I don't want to do nowadays, and it feels good,
so that's awesome. Tell me. So you're
originally from Virginia? We're at Virginia from. Originally.
Yeah, man. They call it Central Virginia, but, you know, we're right here on the.

(01:49):
The east side of the Appalachians. You know,
it's called Bedford. We're a tiny, little patriotic
town nestled between Roanoke and Lynchburg, Virginia. Of course, we
have a national D Day memorial here because Bedford
lost more boys per capita on D Day,
specifically Omaha beach, than any other town in the country,

(02:12):
so. Wow. Didn't know that. Bedford, we have done
our part well. And was. There was a big Civil
War battle in Lynchburg, too, Correct, Wasn't there? Yeah, actually,
you know, you could call it Lynchburg. Appomattox was the surrender.
Yes. Lita Grant. Yep. Yeah,
there's a. There's a long line of military history in that area,

(02:35):
like from the Revolutionary War onward. Yeah, no doubt,
man. Yeah. I mean, I. I would say the app. Maddox
Courthouse, where the war ended. It's about 45 minutes from my house.
That's awesome. That's. That's a long line of
military history, folks. And, you know,
that's. That's a lot of patriotism, just through

(02:58):
the generations for sure. So how, how
did you decide that you wanted to get in the military? And why
the Army? Yeah, man, when I was a
kid, I just, I wanted to be a
hero, man. And you know, I just, I wanted to
put my neck out there for other people and, and that scared the

(03:20):
out of me, to be honest. You know, I remember being
maybe 8, 10 years old and probably 8 years old and thinking,
dude, I'm gonna do it, but I'm scared.
You know, I remember thinking that, which is kind of wild. And.
Honestly, what landed me towards the military rather than like

(03:42):
firefighter, law enforcement, first responder was
movies, man. Good movies. Blackhawk
Down. We were soldiers, dude. Yeah, I was sold,
man. You know, watch old Mel Gibson called Broken Arrow. I was
like, I want, I want that. I want to get overrun.
And so that's what locked it in for me. And

(04:05):
like most young men, the Marine Corps was really
appealing. Really appealing. You know, they have
beautiful uniforms, they had the best commercials back
then. The, the
propaganda that existed around it all was
that the Marine Corps was the best. And they are, they are

(04:26):
amazing, amazing war fighters. So I don't want to
take away from the Marine Corps in that sense, but
that, that was the stick. And so I remember a 10th
grade Marine Corps recruiter in the
cafeteria of my high school, I went and spoke to him and said, hey,
you know, I want to be Marine Recon. You know, I had

(04:48):
read Carlo Carlos Hathcock's book, he was a
Vietnam era sniper. And, and I had read
a bunch of other sniper books too. And I was like, yeah, I want to
be a Marine Recon sniper. And he's like,
yeah, man, of course you can be Marine Recon, but first you have to join
the Marine Corps and do the regular Marine thing. And I'm like, no, no, no,
dude, like straight to recon. It's like, sorry, we don't have,

(05:11):
we don't have that. So I went to the army, said, hey, do you
guys have Marine like, equivalent?
And Staff Sergeant Kelly,
female, she's like, yep, they're called Rangers.
I was like, sign me up. Literally, sign me up. And I
joined the army my 11th grade year of high school,

(05:35):
17 years old. And I thought, I thought I could
not do 12th grade, you
know, because I had read books, man, about young kids joining the military
in larger scale wars and being able to get out
of high school. And I was like, yeah, high school is ridiculous. I don't want
to finish this. I want to go to Iraq because this Is I

(05:58):
joined the army about eight days after the war in Iraq started.
I had just turned 17, and I was like, hey, I want
that. And I remember I tracked the war through
newspaper clippings on my wall in my bedroom.
Yeah. And then I still, you know, finish high school

(06:18):
reluctantly, and, you know, it's important.
And then did you go to boot camp, like, before your
senior year, or did you go, like, right as soon as you graduated?
No, they wouldn't allow it. So I was in the delayed entry program, and
I. Yeah, I was just doing it for. Because I
wanted. I wanted to do it. A lot of people

(06:42):
suggested that that would count as time towards my retirement. It
did not. You know, so actually,
I spent, like, 14 months in the delayed entry program just
waiting to graduate high school and then graduated high school, and
I left less than a week after graduating
as soon as I could. That

(07:06):
did. When you do the delayed entry program, did. Was there, like, regular meetups and
workouts for, like, people that may want to join the military? Like, how does it
work for somebody that wants to do that? Yeah,
that's what it was back then, man. I can't vouch for what they're doing
nowadays, but, yeah, we. We would meet up about once a month.
I remember we did some basic land nav. A lot of pt.

(07:29):
PT is an easy one, Right. Physical training. You can
organize a good, you know, workout just about anywhere.
So we did a lot of that. And, you
know, for me, it was just being
around soldiers. I wanted that. I wanted to
see what they were about. I wanted to learn from them. I wanted to have

(07:51):
an edge so that when I went to basic training, I was
prepared. And, you know, all of that was really important to me.
Yeah. And I'm not military, so I'll. I'll start out with that.
But, you know, being a police officer is very
paramilitaristic. And, you know, when you first get
in there, you're just like. You're trying to fit in, to fit in, but

(08:13):
then, you know, you get a couple years in, you're like, man, I hate. May
hate that, but God damn it, I can hate him, not you. You know
what I'm saying? And I, I. It's. It's a brotherhood. It
really is. Yeah. That's fair, man.
I do believe that because at the end of the day, you're still
in a very small percentage of Americans who said,

(08:36):
hey, I want to. I want to serve. I want to give
back. It's a small
percentage. And there's something, you know, not looking
at myself, but looking at others, I think there's something special there.
You know, when someone's willing to. To do that.
Absolutely. Where did you do your

(08:57):
basic training. At Fort Benning,
Georgia. Yeah. Yeah, I believe what I. I'm not sure
what's going on with the name stuff. I think they changed it to Fort Moore,
which is honestly awesome, you
know, named after Colonel Hal Moore. Legend. I just talked
about him. Right. Yeah, we were soldiers. Battle of the I.

(09:19):
Drain Valley, but yeah, for Fort Benning.
Awesome. How did you. You went during summertime? How.
How was the weather? It's hot, man. You know,
it's like, Virginia's reasonably hot.
And I got down to Georgia, I'm like, oh, yeah, man, this is the real
deal. It's. It's. It's smoking down here. And, you know, that's a point of pride.

(09:41):
You know, we get to talk about how hot it was when we did this
or when we did that, and, yeah, it was hot, man.
So you always hear the horror stories and. And you kind of touched on it
already, but they. They kept their promise
of letting you get into special operations
fairly quickly, you know, and you always hear people,

(10:02):
like, they'll change. They'll sign them up for something, then they change their mos.
Do you felt like. Like they were pretty up forward with you. Like, hey, like,
they kept their word on, like, letting you go that route pretty quickly.
Yeah. I mean, look, man, it's a contract.
Yep. So from my experience, anyone that says,

(10:24):
oh, well, you know, I got screwed and they did this or
that, they're. They're not taking accountability, man. I was 17
years old. I signed a contract. I looked at the contract and saw
Ranger on there. All right, cool. This seems to be what
you're saying. Check. Let's do it, right? Like, it ain't that
complex, dude. Look, man, from. From my experience,

(10:46):
people love having excuses
as to how they got screwed. And
I just haven't seen it, man. Like, you know, almost 21 years in
the army, I net. I never actually saw
that in a factual sense. Love it.
Yep. I love it because you see it a lot in pretty

(11:09):
much every branch of first responder service. You know, they'll be like, man, they were
out to get me, like, and they just don't want to own up that maybe
I really. It was. It was me, not them. You know,
tell me about going to Ranger school. Like, tell me, like, the experience
with that and how that went.
So the first thing that you do in order to get into the Ranger

(11:32):
regiment is. Is now called Ranger Assessment and Selection
Program. RASP When I went through, it was called the
ranger indoctrination program rip and they
changed that around 2010. So that's.
That's your first barrier, Right. You go through basic training, then you go to airborne
school, learn how to jump out of an airplane, and then you go to RIP

(11:54):
again, this was 2004, so I'm not speaking on what it is
now. Um, and, yeah, you. You. We went
to rip. RIP was four weeks long, and it was just, hey, we're gonna.
We're gonna kick the crap out of you, man, for four weeks.
And we started with over 300 dudes, and I'll never
forget that we graduated 65. Right. So it's a

(12:16):
very. Yeah, it's just physically demanding. Right. A lot of running,
a lot of rucking, a lot of
mind games, and just a lot of people quit.
Yeah. I watched Attention to Detail. Right. We're doing a layout
prior to going out to a coal range, as they call it.
And I watch dudes get dropped because they didn't have two watches. You know, two

(12:39):
watches is on the packing list. Well, we want
individuals with a high level attention to detail. You have one
opportunity to attend RIP and you forgot to
pack a watch. Man, I must have packed my packing
list a hundred times. Why? Because that. That was not going
to be the reason I didn't make it. Right. So, yeah, hey, it might

(13:01):
be silly. We look at that, we're like, oh, it's just a watch. It's like,
okay, well, maybe five years from now, you're on the
objective, and maybe it's just the initiator to the charge to blow
the door. Right. It's a problem.
So, yeah, made it through R.I.P. i graduated December 22,
2004. It was freezing, man. It was. So Fort

(13:22):
Benning also gets very cold.
Yeah. And then I made my way to first Ranger Battalion. Now, you
don't get a chance to go to Ranger school until yourself in the
Ranger Regiment. For me, you know, it was wartime,
so I was in Afghan. I'm sorry, Iraq by
August of that year. So I got to the battalion in January,

(13:44):
and I was in Iraq in August. Baghdad.
And, you know, that was quite an experience.
But came back from Baghdad, and I had a
very high PT score, so I was able to pass my peers
in the. What we call the Order of Merit list, oml.
And so I was at the top of the OML and went to Ranger School.

(14:08):
Ranger school was a
blast and also horrible. I think the worst part about
Ranger School again. I went in the summer. I think I
was there from May to
August because I recycled Florida face. I did Florida face twice. I
loved it, but it

(14:31):
so smoking hot, right? You walk forever,
you live outside. It's. It sucks, man. It
sucks. You don't eat much, you don't sleep much.
But, you know, I was proud to be there. I was stoked. I knew
I would get one chance to do it, and. And I went there and I
gave it everything that I have or that I had and

(14:56):
went through phase one, which is called
Darby phase, reasonably well, I think. You
know, didn't have any hiccups there. Got into mountain phase,
and I'm from the mountains, dude. Like, when
I. I nav. I navigated us everywhere. I was always
the. The point man in mountain face if I wasn't a team leader. And

(15:18):
I. So I really built a reputation in mountain face
and alongside a really close buddy of
mine at the time, Matt Best from Black Rifle Coffee.
We were okay, straight up bros
in Ranger school so much that we recycled together, but,

(15:38):
yeah, and then, you know, so we crushed through mountain phase, get
to Florida phase, and I recycle Florida, man. Just
some bad decisions on patrols. I was 19
years old, dude, just doing my best. So
I recycled Florida phase, which, you
know, the worst part about that was not doing Florida phase again because,

(16:01):
I don't know, man, I. I knew the script, right? We're just gonna do that
again, but better. The worst part was that I had told my
girlfriend at the time, who's now still my wife. It's like, listen,
when I. When I come back, I'm gonna marry you. And that was
the worst part, bro, was you get. You get phone calls
after, and I, you know, she's expecting a,

(16:23):
hey, I passed. I'll see you in four days.
Now, hey, I failed. I'll see you in, like, 26
days or whatever it was.
So, yeah, man, did Florida phase again and
came back and I married her like, two months later. I held up that promise.
That's awesome. Where did they. Where

(16:46):
do they put you? Like, once you got done, you got done. You get. You
finished school up, you get married. Did I give you some time off for marriage
at least? I actually
graduated Ranger school right in the middle of
a deployment for the rest of the platoon. So they had
deployed, and I came back from Ranger

(17:09):
school, and the rear detachment commander was like,
hey, man, we're not going to send you. It doesn't make sense to send you.
These are short trips anyway. We're talking about four Month trips. So, like, we're gonna
send you. By the time you get there, you might have a month left. So
he kept me back, which was really nice, man. I got to enjoy my new
wife, get an apartment, get everything established, you

(17:31):
know, right in time to deploy again in. That would have been
07. To deploy again in April.
That's awesome. So you end up doing nine deployments. Yeah.
What. I mean, what. What. What's. Some things that you can
talk about that you could. You enjoyed or, you know,
dealt with, like, while on these deployments. Yeah.

(17:55):
So my career was
split between the Ranger Regiment and Special Forces. I spent
five years in the Ranger regiment and did four deployments with
them, plus Ranger school. So literally, you know, every year I was
at. With deployed or at Ranger school, plus all of our other
training, man. Like, when we talk about dudes like

(18:18):
me, we have to remember the.
The spouses on the backside, bro. Like,
think about that. You know what I'm saying? In that five
years that I was in the Ranger Regiment, Like, I said, I was deployed every
year or at Ranger school, and I also had two
kids during that time. So, like,

(18:40):
stud of. Of a wife, man. She's
amazing. Yep. But, yeah, and then I
went to special forces in 2010 and did another,
I guess, five trips after that,
so. It's a lot,
dude. It's a lot. You

(19:03):
know, I love. I loved
war, fighting it. It's what
I was put here to do. You
know, that little boy that wanted to be a hero. I got to do the
things that heroes do. You know what I'm saying? And
that. That was my purpose on this Earth, man.

(19:25):
And, I
mean, I don't even know where to start
with. With things, you know,
which deployment. Like, I don't know, man. I think that
having the opportunity to say goodbye to

(19:45):
everything that you love, get in a bird,
fly, you know, way too
far for way too long, open
up the back of that ramp, walk out into
the freezing air or the air so thick that
you can't breathe, and go, okay, this is home for the next

(20:09):
four months, six months,
and then every single night, climbing the back of a
truck, climbing the back of a helicopter, and
go after the enemy and then
survive that and then repeat that over
and over and over. Dude, it

(20:31):
is. It is living life,
like, one breath at a time, bro. One breath at a time.
For 20 years, I thought that, okay, this is my last one.
Not in the sense of, like, hey, I'm gonna hang it up, but, like, I'm
not coming back. Yeah. And
that that's, that's stressful, man. And I'm

(20:53):
open to talk about anything. By the way. I really, I don't pull any punches.
You know, we can talk about, you know, leadership
experiences. Whether that's dealing with leaders or me as a leader. We can talk
about combat. I've been in lots and lots
of gunfights and engagements over,
over my combat deployments and

(21:16):
I mean, close range engagements from
dudes right off the end of my barrel inside
houses wearing suicide vests. Like,
I've had those opportunities.
Also had the opportunity to deploy to some safer places as well. So
I have seven combat deployments and two non combat

(21:39):
deployments to Central and South America. So I've gone to
El Salvador, which was a very cool
deployment. Getting to go down there and work with Salvadorans
and, you know, combat. Some of the issues that they
were dealing with at the time, predominantly around MS.13.
I've worked with Chileans and Colombians,

(22:02):
Uruguayans, like lots of, lots of experience
with Central and South America as well.
I love that. I do want to touch on something though,
in such a structured system that the military is
especially, I mean, it doesn't matter, I guess, really what

(22:25):
your job is, but especially in special operations,
you're in smaller groups for the most part,
but you were always making varied life or
death decisions a lot of the time. And so can you kind of
touch on being a leader without the
title? Because

(22:49):
a leader, let's be honest, whether you're corporal,
sergeant, whatever your rank may be, that's great. But
a lot of times that can just be a title and the person without
rank can be a leader without having that title.
Can you kind of talk about that for a minute? Yeah. Leadership,
first and foremost is about presence. You know, when you walk in

(23:11):
a room, what does everyone feel? That that is the
number one element to leadership.
And
yeah, you can be in a formal leadership position, as I was at the end
of my career. Well, many times through my career, but especially at the end as
a master sergeant in Special Forces, in charge of a Special

(23:33):
forces team. Yeah, you're the dude,
right? Like you're, you are the man that
every, you know, the rest of those 11 look to and go,
this is the, this is the dude. This. I was gonna say platoon. Sorry, but
this is the team sergeant. Right.
But there are plenty of guys that sit in that position and they ain't

(23:56):
leading because they don't have the presence, they
don't have the experience. So,
you know, hey, it just is what it is. And
then you're Gonna have someone who is really in charge, who's
really leading things for
me. Yeah, I think that the. There's three levels

(24:19):
with leadership, right? We, of course, if we're in a formal leadership position, we
lead those below us. But even as a team sergeant,
I had adjacent team sergeants. So I.
If. If I was on my. I was influencing them.
And leadership is influence. That's all it. I mean, that's really what
it is. At the end of the day, the army says that leadership is providing

(24:41):
purpose, direction, and motivation to essentially
accomplish a task. That's influence, man.
And so, okay, so I'm leading the guys below me.
I'm leading my adjacent team sergeants through my actions, whatever that is.
Maybe I'm pushing my team hard, and we're. We're conducting
training that other teams aren't doing. Well, guess what I'm doing.

(25:03):
Those team sergeants are looking at me going, hey, his team is
super lethal. I want to be like that. Next thing
you know, they're doing similar things, or they're not, or
they're choosing not to, which is really bad. Right. And then
we are also able to lead our leaders,
and that comes from just

(25:26):
putting yourself in a position where you can use
your presence and your influence to help them make
decisions. If you're helping your leader make a decision,
you're. Are you not part of that leadership process?
Of course. You are so
understanding that leadership as you. I love that you said that, man. It's

(25:49):
not just a formal position. It's.
It's everywhere at all times, in every position.
And organizations are better when everyone takes
ownership and understands that they are leading in some
capacity.
Yeah, it's. There were

(26:12):
many times when I was
not in charge of things, but the
boys came to me and said, hey, you know, jd, what do you think about
this? Is this right? Are we doing this right?
Do you. Do you think the. The actual leader is doing this
right? And listen, that is a dangerous place.

(26:35):
And if you're in that position, you know, we used to call it like a
shadow governor. If you're that shadow governor,
you better have some integrity, and you better support your leaders
as long as they're operating within the parameters.
Right? So they're not doing anything that's illegal, immoral, or unsafe.
That was. That was it for me. Right. Hey, I might disagree

(26:58):
with my. My leadership, but as long as they're legal,
safe, and moral, they have my support. You
deviate from that, you're done. Dude, I'm
coming. Yep,
yep. I. I wholeheartedly agree, because
you're right. A lot of times, you know, you'll have those people that come to

(27:20):
you and they're like, hey, man, I'm trying to shake the pot a little
bit. And you got to be the person that says, hey, like, they are.
They're doing the best they can within their constraints. And,
you know, you can clamp down on that descent pretty quickly as
the unofficial leader and by saying, hey, listen, that's our. That's our chain of command,
and we're. Going to follow it 100, man. Yeah.

(27:43):
And I mean, that's. That's loyalty to the team, dude. You know,
you. You can dislike your leader. You better be loyal to this team.
Yep, absolutely. So
how do you feel that, you know, taking on this. These leadership
responsibilities, how do you feel like it helped you during your high
pressure situations that you were in?

(28:07):
Early on in my career, I was. I was just. I was
curious. I was hungry. Even to the point where when I was a young
E4, so I was not in a formal leadership position, my
squad leader used to make fun of me. You know, in. In a Ranger
squad, you have two fire teams, so you have your Alpha team
leader and your Bravo team leader. So I'm an E4.

(28:29):
I'm not a team leader at all. And my squad leader used to call
me the Charlie team leader. And.
And in a. In a degrading way.
And the team leaders,
from what I remember, they. They kind of felt the same way. And

(28:51):
it was because I was eager, man. I wanted. I wanted to be
the best dude in that squad, and maybe those team
leaders didn't. And so as I look
back, that curiosity,
that. That hunger, that determination,
it was expediting my learning

(29:14):
at a thousand times, thousand times faster than my peers.
I'm not saying that I was a thousand times better than my peers. I'm saying
that because I was curious and hungry. I was just
taking in thing, man, where, you know, other guys were
okay with just kind of dialing it back. I wasn't. And that's why, oh, there
goes the Charlie team leader again. Trying to do this, trying to

(29:37):
learn that. It's like, yeah, dude, I'm hungry. I want your job, bro. Not in
a bad way, but, like, I want your job, and I'm ready
to take it, by the way. And so
that mindset,
dude, it gave me a Rolodex

(29:57):
of lessons that when I did become a
fireteam leader, I was like, yep, I've seen this. Oh, well,
yeah, I've not been a fire team leader before, but I watched one do this,
right, and then it just kept going through my entire career. So by the
time that I was a team sergeant, I'm getting rated number one in the
company as a. As out of all

(30:19):
eight team sergeants, or I guess six team sergeants.
That was rightfully earned, man. You know, you're competing against other special
forces, E8s. That is. Dude, that is high
heavy competition. And I'm getting rated number one.
Why? Because, dude, I was in that Rolodex. I've seen this before,
right? So,

(30:42):
yeah, it was the mindset that, dude, we don't. We don't have a lot of
time. This might be the last one. I'm gonna do it right.
And then, dude, you. You roll that up over 20 years,
and it's like, holy, this role I need. I got like
six Rolodexes. You know, it's funny you say
that. I was actually just having a discussion with my mom the other

(31:04):
day. Me and my bro, my brother's seven
years older than me, and he got every
athletic gene in the family. I got the brains. He was actually,
you know, and, you know, my brother was a college athlete. Like, I
topped out at like, 5, 10, you know, and so

(31:25):
even though I. That I. Those athletic genes skip me,
I did pick up on being super competitive. And
so it didn't matter if it was, you know, reading a book or
academic team or whatever it may be playing Madden with the
buddies. Like, I don't like losing, but I always
want to improve myself and whatever I'm doing to be

(31:48):
the best. And so then when I get into law enforcement,
I was blessed to have a very young
mentor that was out there shaking the bushes, man. He was always
writing search warrants and kicking doors in and chasing bad guys.
And I'll never forget, he's like, man, you're. You're too smart to be
here because I worked at my hometown. And I was like, no, man. Like,

(32:11):
I want to be a cop. And he's like, yeah, but you need to go
somewhere bigger. And he took me under his wing,
though, and showed me, like, how to do a lot of these things
that a lot of cops are afraid to do, like, write your own search
warrant or, like, you know, go kick doors in. And so that's what
I did all the time. Like, I would go make

(32:32):
contacts with these bad guys, and, hey, look, I found, you know, a gun with
some dope. And then that leads to a search warrant. And so I started building
that Rolodex up. And then I go to the next agency
a little bit bigger, and I'm doing the same thing. And, you know, I get
to a point to where, like, I'm like, okay, like, I want
that next challenge. And, you know, now I'm 10

(32:54):
years in and, you know, I'm fixing to actually be
surprise world. I'm fixing to be a police chief.
But it's not because
it comes without challenges, but I really am. I
want that challenge of, okay, now it's on me to run
a department. Like, I don't, I don't shy

(33:17):
away from that. Not saying I'm going to be perfect by any means,
but you know what? I'm going to show up every day and give it 100,
and we're going to get after it. And, you know, I just had
a talk with a buddy today about that, and he's like, man, you got a
good gig. You need to stay here. And he's not wrong.
But you know what? I'm never going to be satisfied until I get to

(33:38):
that position. Say it's not for me. But
you know what, There's a very good chance that I'm going to get in there
and be like, you know what? This is me. I'm built to lead people.
And we're going to go get an agency of, you know, butt kickers and go
catch bad guys. Like, and there's way more
to police work than just catching bad guys. Like, I'm actually a huge

(33:58):
proponent of community policing to go with proactive policing.
But if you don't, if you stay in that
small bubble of, like, what's comfortable in life,
you're never gonna grow. And
I'll wholeheartedly admit it. I. I left law enforcement
during COVID because I was burned out. I was in a street

(34:21):
level leadership role, but there wasn't any room
for advancement beyond that at the agency. There's the whole pandemic
going on. And I never forget somebody's like, hey, man, take over your
own insurance agency. Terrible decision to go to a fully commissioned
job during a pandemic for anybody that ever wants to listen.
But I failed. It went terrible.

(34:45):
They put, you know, Tulsa Metro is probably 2 million.
Tulsa itself's probably 200, 000. And they're like, hey, we're gonna put you in
Tulsa. Sweet, big town. I'm gonna sell tons of
insurance. Well, they put me in the part of town that probably has
people that has let, like, actually no insurance. And
then they expect you to sell like a ton of insurance. And it went terribly.

(35:07):
Like, I failed. But you Know what that did
is I get back in law enforcement, and I'm not
satisfied. Like, I. It's going good. Like, everything's fine,
but I'm not com. Like, I never want to get comfortable. And so I was
like, you know what? A buddy of mine's like, hey, I'm getting my master's degree.
I'm like, well, if he can do it, so can I. So I knocked

(35:28):
it out in a year and got my master's degree, and I finished that, and
I'm like, I'm gonna get my doctorate degree. Like, I don't got kids yet. I
don't have a wife yet. And a year later, like, I've got a year left
on it, and no more reason than,
you know what I want to, because I just. I'm
a lifelong learner. Like, it. There's so much you can take in,

(35:51):
in, like, these leadership classes that you take, because that's what I'm doing. My doctorate
in strategic leadership. Nice. And so when I saw your
profile, we'll get into that, of you doing mentoring stuff and, you
know, coaching, like, that's actually what my concentration is, is
leadership coaching. And I
will never tell somebody, hey, man, you need to

(36:14):
stay where you're at in your comfort zone. Like, you may fail at
something, but you're going to bounce back harder because you learn from that failure.
And you may go out there, knock out of the park and be the All
Star the first time, but you're never going to know if you don't take
that risk. And I. I
mean, I'm with you. I'm 100, like, on board with that, because

(36:36):
you get. You got to lead by example. And, like, if you're afraid to take
that next step, then, you know those people beneath you are going to do the
same thing. They're going to get comfortable. And that doesn't breathe. That doesn't breed
a good environment for, like, growth and development.
No, it doesn't, man. And we have a lot of. We
got a lot of dreamers in the world, dude. I don't know if.

(36:59):
If it's a generational thing. I think each generation has a lot
of similarities, but I'm. I'm really
seeing a. A lot of dreamers, bro. And.
And really, the 20 to 30 range, they have
these grandiose dreams and kind of
unrealistic expectations of themselves, and then they go out and they.

(37:21):
They try things and they fail, and then they. They just give up.
It's weak. It's disgusting, dude. I. I hate it. I hate
watching it, but then I have to remind myself, man,
like that's kind of the order of things. People
in general, the masses are
not exceptional. They're not. It, it

(37:43):
takes a lot to be exceptional. And
so I, I kind of stopped applying that,
that belief to everyone. And, and that helped me
because it, it would, it would blow my mind and it would honestly
would bother me dealing with people like that.
I couldn't figure them out. What's wrong with this person, man? They have all of

(38:06):
the opportunity in the world. They're 22 years old and they
have everything in front of them and they're just doing nothing with it.
Just. I, you know, actually, I know why it pisses
me off so much. It pisses me off so much because
I have buddies that died at 20, 21,
22, this year's honoree for the Hero Games, which is

(38:29):
our nonprofit. You know, Eric Cario was 19 years old.
So when I see a 22 year old person
just flopping, knowing that Eric
Hario came off the back of that bird and was ready to get after it
and you know, went all the way for this country. You,
man, you. And,

(38:52):
and yeah, and I really, I do feel that way. And there is emotion tied
to that because guess what, dude, you were not given this up
amazing blessing which is called life, so that you can just sit on your
couch. You weren't. And it's disgusting that you do.
Yep, I agree wholeheartedly. You. Yeah, it gets me fired up,
man. Yeah, well, and it, I think

(39:15):
I blame Call of Duty for a lot of this, but
there's no like extra life when you die in real life.
You know what I'm saying? Like, there's just not. And
I actually had this, like I said, I had discussion with my mom a few
weeks ago, what I do now, like,
it doesn't. I'm fully in the office now doing training full time,

(39:38):
but there's no guarantee, like I could stop a car on the
way home and that that guy might be like, you know what? I don't like
the police today. And it's a shootout and
there's no promise of tomorrow. And
I'm not going to be content just chasing my tail just to have a
safe job. I'm gonna go be the best part. Like, I'm

(40:00):
not doing the schooling just to be like, man, I'm content being like
a mid level person. Like, let's go ride it out.
Like, no, I, I want to be the best. And
I, and what's funny is, yes, I'm
competitive and I Think that breeds a good environment,
that competitiveness. But I'm not

(40:21):
jealous, if that makes sense. Like, I want my buddies to
be just as successful as me. Like, my shift mates, the people in
my shift. Like, I want you to go do badass things. Like,
if I go get a stolen car today, I want you to go get two
and a gun, you know, Like, I want you to go out there and
catch bad people and like, treat these people

(40:43):
like they're the bet, you know, in their worst times. Like, ma', am, your house
just got broke into and your whole house got robbed. How can I help you?
And I want them to go out there and shake them bushes, work these
informants, work these pawn shops and go get their stuff back.
Because that's what we do. We solve people's problems.
And it's not like, hey, we got to be bettering each other, but we got

(41:07):
to be competitive to push each other. Right? Yeah,
that. That's a great perspective, man, what you said there.
As law enforcement officers, you solve people's problems. Because that's not
the general consensus about what law enforcement officers do.
And I, I'm a huge supporter of law enforcement. I, I had a
meeting with my sheriff today, actually, with a tactical team.

(41:31):
We're gonna be putting in some work together and I can't wait to do that,
dude. Right? Really, really stoked about that.
But that's not the general consensus. I don't,
you know, it definitely what's in the news, and I haven't heard it
much out of law enforcement officers, mouths of, hey,
we, we help you, we get you through your worst

(41:54):
day, right? Like, most people's interaction with law enforcement officer
is getting pulled over for speeding.
And, you know, that's not a very friendly experience. I think
community law enforcement's huge, dude. When I see my buddies,
because I've got buddies around here in law enforcement, you know, when we were
at the gym the other day, because I coach at my brother's gym just

(42:17):
for, just for fun and to be part of what he's doing.
And look out in the parking lot and one of my buddies, law enforcement officers,
you know, right behind a car, and I'm. I'm investigating a little bit because I'm
always, you know, back in my head being a hero,
like, okay, if this dude pulls on, you know, my boy, then
I'm gonna support like this. And what's he doing? He's jump

(42:40):
starting the person's car. That's community policing,
right? Like building relationships, establishing
rapport, and then being able to Leverage that for a
safer community. Like that. That's there.
We need more of that. Absolutely. And I'll call a spade a
spade. I didn't get into law enforcement to write tickets. Like, I hate

(43:03):
writing a ticket. And so that's why I always crack up when people are like,
all these guys, dudes sit out here and write speeding tickets. Like, I can probably
count on, like, under 50 the total number of speeding
tickets I've wrote in 10 years. But I will tell you that I get out
there and stop cars for those violations, and
I speak to people and I find out, like, hey, like,

(43:26):
I see that gun tucked down there in between your thigh and the, you know,
your center console, like, once you go and hop on out, oh, you're a felon.
Yeah. Like, you can't have that, bro. And so, like,
those small traffic stops lead to bigger things.
Sure. But here's the deal. They
also, even without writing a ticket,

(43:48):
you can treat that person with a little bit of kindness and respect
and say, hey, sir, like, I know you're doing 10 over. Can you slow it
down a little bit for me? Like, there's kids that ride their bicycles around here,
whatever it may be. And you would be surprised how many
people will respect you more for giving them that little bit of
respect and kindness when they're probably going to have a bad

(44:11):
day, you know, whatever the reason may be, man, I've had a
bad day at work. I wasn't paying attention. I'm doing 10, 15 over because, like,
my day was just terrible. People don't forget those
small moments of interaction when you could have been a dick and
wrote them the speeding ticket. Hey, I'm gonna cut you a break today.
Here's a warning. Slow it down for me. People don't forget

(44:34):
that. And what. What cops need to realize is
treat those people respect and kindness. Like there's a time and place that you got
to handle business, but 95 of the time,
you should be a respectful person to these citizens. We're here to serve
you. And I will call people

(44:54):
out that like, you know, treat people like dicks, because
there's no room for that in this profession. But I also call
out the public that thinks we don't sit there. They think we go to Taco
Bell and sit there for six hours because
we're out here doing work that no one else wants to do. Every day
we're getting our hands dirty, we're shaking the bushes, and we're

(45:16):
letting you sleep safe at night, plain and simple. And I.
I'll Never forget, I was laughing. I did an episode earlier
this week of, like, why I'm doing a podcast.
And, you know, I had a buddy of mine interview me,
and I told the story of I let somebody get one over on

(45:36):
me when I was a rookie cop. I mean, the guy was bought and paid
for. Should have went to jail. And I let him, you know, yell and scream
and threaten to, you know, file a complaint on me. And I let him go.
And he shouldn't have. He should have went to jail. And I.
I hear buddies all the time. It's like, why would you tell that? Because I
don't want somebody to repeat that mistake I made. I'm not

(45:57):
too prideful to say, yeah, I Let 1 happen 10 years
ago, but it's never happened again. You know, and people
are commenting on those posts. They're like, oh, these guys are power hungry,
blah, blah, blah. He got tired of, like, you know,
out there doing stupid stuff. No, like,
you. You have this general opinion of police work, of that's not

(46:19):
true. And, you know, you. You have the right to say
that. But you know what? Still doesn't change the fact I think you're a for
saying it. Yeah. You know, and so
I. I love being a cop, but at the same
time, I love serving the citizens. And just like you said,
you got to go out there and be a hero. You did it because you

(46:41):
cared about this damn country. You know, you wanted to be
the hero for those people. And we've got to
remember that we're out here serving the public, too. And I love that. I mean,
that's just. That's a core belief in me. Yeah, dude.
Every single engagement matters, Whether
that's as a law enforcement officer or a business owner,

(47:03):
every single engagement matters. And if you think that your position
or your rank, your status means
anything, you're delusional. You're delusional,
and people see right through it, man. And. And that's why
a lot of people have frustrations towards law
enforcement or military even. Right?

(47:26):
And so, yeah, man, I. I've had great interactions with law enforcement.
I think the best one I ever had was I was
hauling ass, dude. And I.
The speed limit changed from 65 to 55, and I was actually
up here in Virginia, but I didn't live here at the time, so I wasn't
too familiar with the area. Doesn't matter. I was ripping ass. Like, that's

(47:48):
like, that was just the truth, dude. I think I was doing
80, 80, 85 and a 55, something like that.
State Trooper pulls me over. I pull right over. He comes up, I go,
hey, brother, I have a pistol on me. Concealed carry. Here's. I
already have my military ID and my concealed carry license out. I was like, here,
dude. I know exactly why he pulled me over. I was going

(48:11):
way too fast. He's like, yeah, bro, you. You were like. You were
doing this, you know, this speed. And I was like, damn,
55. Where was. You know, it was a genuine conversation. He's like, yeah, dude, you
were. He's like, where are you going, by the way? I was actually headed to
the airport to pick up a gold star family for the hero games,
and I told him. I was like, dude, I'm. I'll be honest with you. I'm

(48:32):
a little late, man. I'm trying to get to the airport. I gotta show up
for these people. And he's like, yeah,
look, man, no problem. And then he goes,
what kind of gun you got? And I was like, bro, it's a pretty sick
Glock 19. You want to see it? He's like, yeah, dude. I pull it out,
I clear it. I'm like, yeah, you know, he's looking at the optic on it,

(48:53):
the light we're talking about. He's like, oh, dude, that's a sick gun. The
fluted slide. Like, I'm like, we're talking
about my pistol. He's like, look, bro, just get to the airport, but
slow it down a little bit, dude. You know, if some. Like, you're going
fast. I was like, bro, I'm sorry, man. And. And you're
right. Like, I need to slow down. And that was it, dude.

(49:16):
Engagement done. I took
responsibility. I was. I treated him like a
person, and
he did the same. Yep. Look how it worked out. And
I've had plenty of engagements like that. I've also had some negative ones, man, where
law enforcement officers tried to flex on me, dude. And, like, I had

(49:38):
one tell me one time that I wasn't a special forces guy. I'm like, what
are you talking about? What. Hey, first off, how did
we get here to the point that you're tell. You know, you asked me
what I do. I told you. And then you tell me I'm lying to you.
You crazy, dude, this is.
Yeah, man. So anyway, I know it's. Hey,

(49:59):
there's good people and bad people everywhere. That's the truth of
it. And yeah, thank God we have law enforcement officers
that are willing to go out there and hold the line
for us because there's. There's a ton of criminals that want to do some really
bad things, and they ain't going to get away with it because of law
enforcement officers. Absolutely. So I want to kind of.

(50:21):
I want to talk about your charity and then counterculture in a minute.
But I want to ask you one last thing.
How have you handled
everything you've dealt with in the military? You know,
mental health is a huge topic these days, and
just being in seven combat deployments, like, I know you've had to dealt with a

(50:44):
little bit of that, and I'm sure a lot of
your brothers and sisters have too. How did you
handle that? And, you know, what are some good ways to
get help if needed? Yeah, that's a great question, man.
First, I guess, to build some context, because I can tell you how, you know,
my mental health experience, but if you don't know what got me there, then that

(51:06):
doesn't matter. Right. Like, you. It could just be that I had, you
know, like a bullet fly over my head one time. Yep.
You know, so I think context matters here.
So, you know, through those seven deployments,
I've. I've killed people at close range. I've watched

(51:27):
teammates die. And, you know, that's
not cool. I've been
in every type of engagement you can imagine.
I never did a deployment where I was not in direct
combat, every single one of those seven deployments. So, like,
some guys do a con. A combat deployment, and they go sit,

(51:51):
you know, on a fire base somewhere and are not engaging the
enemy. It's not the case, man. I engage the enemy every single deployment that I
went on. I remember sitting in my
dad's kitchen in, like,
2010 and telling him about my. Some of
my experiences up to that point. And I remember telling him, like, I

(52:13):
don't. I don't understand ptsd.
I don't. I don't know why guys have it. And I. I also don't know
why people don't talk about these things.
And then time passed,
and around 2016,

(52:34):
I was. I was sitting in
my team room. I'm a Green Beret at this point, sitting in my team
room. I'm on the computer, you know, responding some stupid email
about ammo or something. And all of a
sudden, I couldn't breathe. Just couldn't breathe.
And I just. I remember sitting there kind of looking around like, does anyone

(52:57):
see me? What's going on? I can't breathe, man. I'm lightheaded. Oh, man. What.
What's happening? Like, my chest is tight. It's like, dude, I'm having a heart attack.
So I got up, walked out of the room,
got in my truck, drove up to the tmc, which was, like,
one minute away from my team room, the Troop Medical Clinic. And
when there, I'm like, hey, I'm. I think I'm having a cardiac event.

(53:21):
And they immediately threw me on
an eeg. Ekg. And
they're like, oh, yeah, we got to get you the hospital.
I wasn't having a cardiac event, dude. I don't know why. They rushed me to
the hospital, got to the hospital, they clear
me. They did everything that. That, you know, is done.

(53:45):
They're like, hey. Panic attack.
No, they. They didn't say that. They just said, hey, your. Your heart is
fine. If this happens again, don't
hesitate to come in, because you never know, but your heart's
healthy. I went home that night, and I was convinced that I had a heart
attack. I mean, I was like, I was convinced, man. My

(54:07):
grandfather had his first heart attack in his 30s, and at the time, I was
30 years old. Yeah. I was like, damn, I got
a bad heart, Sarge. So I spent the next
year doing every test you can imagine
and believing that I was having heart issues,

(54:28):
stress tests. I was wearing, you know, prescribed heart rate
monitors from the hospital for weeks at a time,
trying to figure out what's going on with this young man's heart. Nothing wrong
with my heart, man. Nothing. It took me a year
and a podcast to
come to terms with the idea that I may be

(54:51):
experiencing anxiety. So
the podcast was another Green Beret
talking about having a panic attack. And I was like,
wait a second. That's exactly what
happened to me. Like, what.

(55:12):
How? I'm. Why would I have a panic attack?
I'm not panicking about anything. I'm not nervous. I'm not.
Not anxious. Like, life's good, man. I got a tough job, but, like, I
love it. You know, It's a good day to be a Green Beret.
And. But it clicked right there, dude. And

(55:32):
I still struggle with it. And there were a
lot of things that happened, really, over the next.
I would say five years. Took me five years
to come to terms with the whole anxiety thing. And then I started to develop
mechanisms to deal with it, dude. I had a. I had a

(55:54):
panic attack two nights ago in my sleep,
and I woke up, I took a big breath.
I said, no, I'm trying to sleep, dude. I'm.
I'm trying to get some Z's, baby. And I laid back down. I was done
with it. And that's my new approach. I Don't know why my body still.
I still experience panic attacks. And just for those out there

(56:17):
listening, you know, a panic attack for me
is simply that I just out of nowhere can't
breathe. I feel it center line of my chest.
I just can't breathe, man. And so I just.
I get through it and it ain't. Dude, I've never been on meds
for it, ever. That's not. Look, if

(56:41):
you need meds, take
meds personally. I've seen what meds
do. I've never been on narcotics for pain, and I live in pain.
I've never been on meds for depression and anxiety and
thank God nowadays, you know, I'm up here in the mountains, dude. I'm good to
go. Still having these damn panic attacks for whatever reason,

(57:03):
but it. It me up, dude.
And you know what the hardest part was? There was no one around
me talking about it, but there were other dudes experiencing it. That was
the hardest part. I just needed another dude like me to go, hey,
bro, this happens to us, man. It's okay. And. And it
wasn't, dude. I mean, I remember back during that time, dudes were like, hey,

(57:27):
don't go talk to. Don't go talk to anybody about this, bro. You
can get pulled off the team. It's like,
what do I do? Right? So the other
thing that really, really me up, man, was
the Afghan withdrawal. I have
some very close Afghan friends, one of which I helped get back here to

(57:50):
the US during the withdrawal. I also have a podcast that's called
the Catalyst Collective. In my very first episode, I started the
podcast for him because I wanted to get his story out there and raise money.
And we raised $17,000 for him. So when he. When we got him
here, I sent him. I venmoed him that money or however we got
it to him and gave him a good start here in the

(58:12):
United States. And now he. He just got his cdl. He's a truck
driver, bro. He's living the American dream. Just
amazing. But that withdrawal,
it fucked me up, man, because
I wanted to be there. I needed more. I needed, you know, I needed another
trip. And that trip was gone. And I'll never. And I, you know, I wasn't

(58:35):
gonna get any more. And coming to terms with that was tough. And all
of the loss surrounding it, the whole political situation, I
don't give a. About that, man. I don't put any faith in. In
politicians, of course they're gonna that up, right?
So that part. Whatever, dude. Okay.
But what really bothered me was knowing I was never gonna get to taste

(58:58):
war again. And coming to terms with that was tough.
And you know, that's actually when I started my non
profit, I, it was, I was on my second
to last deployment, Combat deployment.
And you know, our non
profit's called Hero Games charity and it's all about

(59:21):
giving back to the boys that we lost by bringing
their families here to Bedford, hosting them, paying for everything,
and then throwing a big ass fitness event and party
in honor of them. And we choose a new family
every year. So we're actually doing Eric Hario
this year. The young man that I referenced earlier.

(59:44):
That's awesome. How did you,
what made you decide to start that out of the blue? And how
do you do fundraising for that or you know, like, I want to help you
grow that. So like, yeah, how do you go about growing that?
It's grassroots, man. We have no big donors, we have no

(01:00:05):
big help or traction anywhere.
Nowhere. Everything is local.
Generally speaking. We, we have people that come from all over, man.
We've had people that come from Washington, California, Texas,
Florida, New Hampshire to come do this event.

(01:00:25):
And so it's not local in that sense, but
it's local in the sense that we built it here. Everything comes
from here. It's the local auto body shop that gives us 500
every year loyally. They never miss, you know, it's the
mom and pop farm that donates meat so that we're
able to feed the family and then throw our big party and feed

(01:00:47):
everyone. You know, it's. That's what it is.
You know. Why did we start. Started just between
myself, my wife, my brother and his wife, they own a CrossFit gym
here in Bedford called Sharptop CrossFit. And
you know, it started with actually me challenging their, their gym.

(01:01:09):
And then, you know, a couple years into doing it
just for fun, we, we lost
a, a company mate after
returning to Afghanistan. And it was devastating, man.
And I was like, hey, let's charge people
money for the Hero Games instead of just having

(01:01:32):
it free and open and let's take that money
and give it to her, give it to the surviving spouse. So we did,
we heard nothing from her, which we, we don't care. We wouldn't want to.
That wasn't what it was about until a year later and she wrote us a
letter. And dude, when we read that letter and
saw the impact we had on her, like, okay, there's

(01:01:55):
something here. So we just kept growing it and growing
it and growing it. We're running our 10th Hero Games this year.
That's awesome. Yeah. And last year we raised
over $24,000 and every single dollar
goes towards the hero games. We have never paid ourselves.
We've never paid anyone within the organization and we never

(01:02:18):
will. One of our core values is money is not a core
value. So everything is grassroots. We put in the
work for free. Of course we would. How the
could we. How could I pay myself to take care of
my buddies. Families? Exactly. Crazy. That
ain't philanthropy, dude. Then hell no.

(01:02:41):
Yep, that, that's an awesome cause. And I'm definitely
going to link that in the episode description for you
and give it a share on my Facebook page and stuff. So that way we
can help spread your message. For sure. I, I think that's a
great cause. So tell me. Hey, tell me about.
Yeah, I'm sorry. On that point, we

(01:03:04):
have a seven minute YouTube video that. Dude, this
local videography team put together last year for free
and seven minutes on YouTube. It
captures everything that I just said
a thousand times better than I just said it. I'm telling you, dude,
somebody's gonna be chopping onions in the room because you're, you're gonna be crying, bro.

(01:03:27):
I, I watch that thing. Every time I watch it, I tear up. I'm like,
all right, I gotta head out. I can't watch this thing anymore. It's called the
Hero Games origin story. Okay, I'll, I'll share
the video with it. I, I think that's awesome, man.
I'm a sucker for a good video myself. Yeah, I,
I want to talk about counterculture solutions. How did you

(01:03:49):
get go down that route? And you know, you got some entering, you got
some military, law enforcement training stuff. You get a little bit
of everything in there. So I want to talk about that for a minute.
Yeah, so with Hero Games,
we. I know you're like, Hero Games, what? It ties

(01:04:09):
in the hero games. With Hero Games, we were looking at ways to fundraise money.
And you know, we're looking around a bunch of green berets and
rangers and we had some MARSOC Raiders and you know, got a
pretty good team. And we're like, well, every one of us has been through
sear school, survival, escape, resistance and evasion. We can
teach survival classes and we can charge people money for them

(01:04:32):
and then take that money and use that to support hero games.
So that's what we did. We started running survival courses and
we had a blast, bro. First off, it's, you know, a bunch of
the, the dudes, you know, with our girls, our wives, and up in
the mountains and, and other people coming and paying for these courses. And

(01:04:53):
dude, the camaraderie is just. It was amazing. And
we started to realize that people weren't just coming to learn how to start a
fire. They were coming for other reasons, man. You know, more
intrinsic reasons. They, they, they wanted community, they wanted
mentoring. That, in fact,
one of my current mentoring clients came

(01:05:15):
to one of my survival courses four years ago. All right,
like, you know, so it all, it all ties together.
And so at some point I said, hey,
this, this is growing. This is. This is a
great thing that we're doing. But it can't be
hero games, because Hero games is.

(01:05:37):
Is all about the families.
It's all about the service member who gave everything.
It can't be clouded, you know, it can't be
pictures of us up in the mountains.
It just can't be. It can't be that, man. It's got to be about hero
games and. But I still wanted to do it. I still wanted to run

(01:06:00):
these survival classes. I still wanted to mentor people.
So last year, as I was actually sitting down watching the
super bowl, and I was like, man, this. This
game sucks. And I was like, I'm starting a company. I
pulled open my laptop and I started counterculture during the super bowl

(01:06:20):
form my LLC right there on the Internet. And the
same guy that does all the graphic design for hero games, dude,
literally all the same people that do everything for hero games, we
all built counterculture. And so it's the same team. It's the same
team, dude. But counterculture is for profit, right?
So we just basically

(01:06:43):
launched virtually last October
because I was still not retired yet. I didn't retire until March.
So last October, we launched virtually, we started doing
mentoring, we released a mindset ebook. Just got to get
our name out there, some apparel, getting people, repping the brand. And we started
to kind of sensitize people to who we were.

(01:07:06):
And then when I moved up here and finally
retired, we started to run courses. So we've run
a violent encounter survival course, which is open to men and
women, teaching you how to avoid violence because that's
really where you make your money, despite what all these kung fu experts are going
to tell you. We've run a women only course

(01:07:29):
as well called Walk without Fear. We're going to be doing more of these,
more of all of these. We're about to run our first
trek in the mountains, all men's trek, called the weight we Carry, where
it's just men in the mountains working through
a Simulated mountain rescue mission.

(01:07:50):
But we have tons of skill development in there.
Mentoring conversation. Dude, it's, it's sick.
We run a purpose track, so this is open to everyone,
men and women 16 and older in the mountains talking about, hey, why are
we here? Why are you here? And that
do. We've run, I think three of those and it's been amazing.

(01:08:14):
So we do, we do those courses and those tracks,
we mentor.
And now we're starting to get involved with local law
enforcement, which is
for me. I spent plenty of
time in the government. I kind of wanted to not be around the

(01:08:36):
government for a while. Yes. But I also
am passionate about the safety of this community.
And if there's one thing that I can teach my local
law enforcement and then back away, then, dude,
job's done, right? Like, good to go. I'm not, I'm not trying
to make a bunch of money off of them. Hey, is there something I can

(01:08:59):
share with you? Because I'm a 20 year
Green Beret Ranger. Like, hey,
let's do it right. And really
that's the, that's the bulk of our focus. I do speaking engagements too.
I, I've got some of those lined up. I, I enjoy
sharing my experiences. How could I not,

(01:09:22):
man? Because guess what? Someone sharing their experience about
panic attacks literally saved me, bro. So
I, I wanna, I wanna help. I want to do that, right?
So, yeah, a lot of things, dude. But you know,
it's funny you say that because I actually, I've had a panic attack
myself before and kind of like you said,

(01:09:45):
you know, I do all this stuff all the time and I'm sitting at home
playing. I'll never Forget, it's playing NBA 2K. And I called my
mom and I'm like, I'm 32 and I'm having a heart attack. She's like, no,
you're not. And I'm like, no, I really am. And like, I called
her. I was like, hey, this is like, I was like, come pick me up.
Take me to the hospital, please. And like, I get there and you know, they
run all the, and all I knew all the nurses at the hospital because, you

(01:10:08):
know, I take inmates up there to get checked out and they're like, what are
you doing here? And I'm like, I think I'm having a heart attack. And they're
like, and I'll never forget, the doctor came in and he
says, hey, you ever had a panic attack before?
No, why would I? And he's like, well, you did tonight.
And I was just like, you

(01:10:29):
know, and it took a while of me working through it to get better,
but it happened. And I don't want people to go through that. And
so if there's a little bit of me that can help other people out and
say, this is what I went through, I don't want you to go
through it. Talk about these things that, I mean, it really is, it
truly is like a damn. The things that a lot of

(01:10:51):
us see in military first responder world. You get to a
point that dam's gonna break whether you want it to or not. And
you kind of got to get some of that stress out beforehand, otherwise it's going
to break and it's not going to be pretty. And so
I'm all about that. Man, I
loved what you said. I'm actually working on my International Coaching

(01:11:13):
Federation certification right now. And
intrinsic versus extrinsic values. I pick
up on nerdy words, man. And I love that because
I might tell you that my extrinsic value is,
you know, I love going to work every day to be a
cop. That's cool. But my

(01:11:36):
intrinsic value is I love going to work every day to help people.
And in my current role, I love going to work and helping
officers get better with training.
Those are a little bit different if, you know, when people realize that, like,
yeah, it's cool to be, you know, and when you're wanting to help
people, you really have to get in those intrinsic values

(01:11:59):
of what their why. And
I love that you recognize that and are able to
reach into those with these different events. Because here's the deal. Those people
that show up to those events, those are the ones that want the help.
They're the ones that want to get better. And

(01:12:20):
I, I give you a wholehearted respect for that because
there, there's, I don't want to call it a market because I know that's not
your, your main goal. But like, there's a space out
there to help people. And, you know,
whether it's you on the military side or me on the first responder side, hell,
that's why I got the damn podcast. Like, I want to get these stories

(01:12:42):
out here to help people, whether it's training, whether
it's real life stuff that's happened, whether it's, you know,
leadership topics on like, I just interviewed a guy the other day
that was a, I think he was the president of like Sony International
and he was like, man, I just, I don't know how I'm gonna fit in
on a, a first responder podcast. I Said, you definitely will, because

(01:13:04):
I want to hear your leadership stories. Yeah.
And I said. And he's like, well, yeah, now you say that like, you know,
I. I can talk about that. And I said, exactly. That's going to translate over,
man. The First Responder Playbook is just a title, but
those ideas behind it, that's what people want to hear.
And, you know, I love what you're doing, man.

(01:13:27):
So if I can help out in any way to help share your message, I'm
here for you. Yeah. So let me. I want to touch on
one last thing, because I know we've kind of ran long, and I want you
to enjoy your time off the podcast,
man. Let's talk about your podcast. Oh, yeah.
It's called the Catalyst Collective. It's the voice of our three

(01:13:50):
organizations. So SharpTop, CrossFit, which is the
genesis of all of it, right? It's my brother and his wife's gym,
Johnny and Ariel Hammond's here in Bedford, Virginia.
You know, my. My wife and my brother and Ariel, like,
they're my best friends, and my kids, they're my best friends.
So, you know, we do everything together. I coach at their gym.

(01:14:13):
We are all four board members. The only board members of
Hero Games charity were also four founders of
four of the six founders of Counterculture.
So the Catalyst Collective is the voice for those three
organizations. Look, man, I
don't put any pressure on it on the podcast, right?

(01:14:36):
There's no, hey, I'm trying to hit these numbers. I'm trying to
get this many episodes out. It's a. It's a
forum. It's a. It's a way for us. It's. It's the voice, right?
So how it started is the essence of the podcast, which
was, again, helping my Afghan friend
get here, right? And using that podcast

(01:15:00):
as a way to spread that message, raise money. I also.
I would say this with that on that same
note. Excuse me.
The same. The same kind of thread
is the Gold Star family's story. So

(01:15:20):
every Hero Games, we pull the guilt. The Gold Star family in.
And, well, at least since we started the podcast, and
we go, hey, tell us your story. Tell us
your son's story, your husband's story, whatever. And,
man, those are. Those are powerful episodes, bro. I mean,
beautiful, beautiful stories, dude. And you can.

(01:15:44):
You can just. You're there. You're there. You can feel the
emotion. You get to know the name. You know, you
feel like you should. You should walk away knowing, like,
feeling like you know that person because you just listen to their Mother
talk about them for three hours.
And then, you know, aside from that, man, we. We use it to create awareness,

(01:16:06):
to share information, etc. Yeah. So the
Catalyst Collective. Love it. Where
can they listen to YouTube? Pretty much any streaming
platform. Exactly, yeah. YouTube. Any streaming platform.
We're on Facebook, we're on Instagram. That's about all we do is social media.
There's way too much out there with X and LinkedIn.

(01:16:29):
LinkedIn is mega whack. A bunch of people just,
like, you know, kissing each other's butts at the same
time. It's ridiculous, bro. I hate LinkedIn.
Someone told me, oh, you need a LinkedIn. I created a LinkedIn. I was on
there for, like, a month, and I was like, I'm out of here, dude. I'm
out of here. It's a bunch of people, just like I said. Yeah, echo chamber.

(01:16:49):
And no one's even helping each other. I don't know. That's
probably. That's probably wrong. I'm gonna
off air. I'm gonna get you in contact. I think there's a. A
big police trainers conference that you should look into for
next year to share your message. I think it would be very well received
with what you're doing. And I'm gonna get you in contact

(01:17:13):
with them because I've had a couple guests on there from there, and I go
every year. But they
have some people, like you that share similar stories there
and, like, how they can relate to law enforcement, and
I want to make that connection for you because I think it would be a
good. Good way to spread your message. No doubt, man.

(01:17:33):
Yeah. A lot of people were like, oh, how can a Green Beret help law
enforcement? It's like, I don't know. Do you serve warrants? Do you want to learn
how to survive a gunfight inside a house? Because I've. I've done that a lot.
Do you want to know those things, or do you not want to know those
things? Because I can. I can die up in here in the mountains with them
right here. I don't want to. That's why I'm trying to talk to you about
this. But you're resistant, dude. Trust me, I've. I've faced resistance.

(01:17:56):
I have faced resistance, which is crazy to even
think about, man. But, yeah, I mean,
that's awesome. That's awesome. Well, Josh, I don't want to tie you
up. If somebody wants to reach out to you, what's the best way to do
it? Yeah, man.
Best way to reach out is go follow

(01:18:18):
hero Games Charity on Instagram and Facebook. It's
at Hero Games Charity. And go
follow Counterculture Solutions. It's at Counterculture
Solutions. Don't just type in at Counterculture because
you're going to get a pretty big douchebag
company. That ain't us, man. At

(01:18:40):
Counterculture Solutions. Anyway,
I want you to go there, not to me, because I want you
to see our works. Let our work speak for us. If you like
that, then come find me.
It's at jdx,

(01:19:00):
HGC for Hero Games Charity.
XCCS for Counterculture Solutions. So again, that's
@JD, XHGC, XCCS,
Instagram, Facebook. I'm super responsive, man. I. It's a private
account, so DM me and let me know that you heard about me
on this podcast, because I don't a lot. I just don't want weirdos

(01:19:21):
following me, man. There's a lot of them out there. They just want to see
what a retired Green beret is doing, I guess, like in his free time.
So. Yeah, man, I love it. Josh, thanks
for joining me tonight and you're always welcome here. Yeah, thank you, bro.
Have a good night. Take care, man.