Guardians of Growth: Policing, Parenting, and Purpose

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is Charlie Mike the podcast Veterans helping
veterans.
Talking about things happeningin the veteran community, Things
we've experienced and overcome,such as addictions, PTSD,
depression, legal trouble, andwe also promote veteran-owned
businesses.
If you're talking about it,we're talking about it.

(00:24):
This is Charlie Mike thepodcast.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yo, what's going on everybody?
Welcome back to another episodeof Charlie Mike the podcast.
As always, I'm your host, Raulman man.
Today I got two special guestsin the house.
All of you know my good friendmatthew from shit.
What does he not do?
Yeah, he's a navy veteran,houston police officer author,

(00:58):
uh, executive director, and afoundation you're.
You have your own non-profityes, sir and you do a, you do a
podcast.
Yes, sir man you got a littlebit of everything man.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Trying to man, Trying to hit all angles, man.
How's everything been what youbeen doing, man, man it's been
great, yeah, yeah, man Spendinga lot of time with the princess,
my daughter.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
I saw you, man.
I saw you at the.
Where'd I see you?
At the rodeo right?

Speaker 3 (01:21):
yeah I was like seeing your stuff with your
daughters man, oh yeah, manwe're crazy I like that father
daughter bond.
He's my boy, donald.
He has the same thing with his.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
Yeah, yeah, man, I brought them in here, like maybe
two weeks ago oh yeah becausewe wanted to do a podcast.
Just like, you know, just shootthe shit just to to.
You know, my daughters andmyself we recorded for two hours
, man just talking, just talking, and it came out good, I'm not
gonna release the whole thingbecause, you know, we talked a
lot of personal stuff so yeahyeah, I was like I'm just gonna

(01:51):
get different reels and justrelease it that's awesome that
you're exposing your baby girlsto you.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
Know what you do, yeah man, they love it.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Man, any chance they get, they come here, put these
headphones on.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, for sure, yeah yeah, but before we jump into
that man, let me introduce myboy, donald brown.
We went to school together,kind of pretty much grew up
together.
He's a beast on the footballfield back in the day, beast in
the weight room, you know he hada hard upbringing, you know, so
he knows how it is to to grindit out.
You know he had a lot ofpersonal issues, you know, back
in the day.

(02:22):
And so now he's dedicating hislife to helping underprivileged
children be able to play sports.
He raises funds to get themuniforms and they have their own
football tournaments.
And I think you're getting intocheerleading and all that stuff
too, right?
Oh yeah, go ahead, talk aboutit.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
So you know, I've dedicated my life to you know,
helping families underprivileged.
You know, I grew up in Alvin,texas, and I was one of those
underprivileged kiddos and now Ihave an opportunity to give
back to the community and I havea football program, cheer and
dance program.
I have singular programs thatI'm pushing through, the Donald

(03:00):
Brown Developmental League,which is now a nonprofit 501c3.
And just excited I haveD ineducational leadership and
really I'm just excited aboutuplifting the community.
You know, anything we can do tomake a difference in the lives
of those who matter most, whatgot you into that man?
So what really?

(03:21):
You know, when I go back and Ithink about my journey into
education, I remember going tothe University of Arkansas and
the counselor asked me whatwould you like to do?
And I said to her I'd like todo what my coach did, coach Bass
and at that moment she told methat OK, well, we're going to
put you in kinesiology.

(03:42):
Okay, well, we're going to putyou in kinesiology.
And so that started my pursuitinto education through
kinesiology.
But really what brought me toit was the impact that the
coaches had in my life.
You know, I grew up singleparent home.
My father was in prison for awhile and it was those coaches

(04:02):
you know who were my dad and nowI'm really blessed to be able
to for lack of better words,father other kids.
Yeah, be, a father to those whoyou know who are fatherless.
So you know, in education, yeah, I'm just no, that's amazing
man, especially helping theyouth.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
I hats off to you.
I know it's, uh, you know what.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
So you're born and raised in alvin yeah, born and
raised in alvin, you know whathe's.
I moved to alvin during my thirdgrade year oh, that's born, I
still pretty much born andraised, you know my mom asked me
hey, we're thinking aboutmoving this place called alvin
and and I was like, does it haveany horses?
Next thing, you know I was herein Alvin but you know I have so

(04:50):
much to just to thank Alvin forthe public education system.
I was a kid that was early onin life struggled in education.
You know, due to some of themovement and you know, through
the struggle came somethinggreater.
I was in special educationearly on and fortunately Alvin
ISD had some great programs thathelped me to overcome the

(05:11):
educational deficits that I wasfacing.
So I took the ACT 10 times, theSAT 10 times before I was able
to gain admittance into college.
I was able to gain admittanceinto college.
So for that kid that isstruggling, I have a story to
connect with them, to help thembuild confidence and just

(05:31):
believe that you can you know,any, anyone can become more, but
you just have to believe it.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
You know you gotta plant those seeds.
Yeah, that's dope, especiallybeing able to relate to the
youth saying that I've beenthere.
Yeah, that's dope, especiallybeing able to relate to the
youth saying that I've beenthere, I've done that.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
Look at me now.
You know what I mean, andthat's an amazing thing to
accomplish my kid to become abetter student.
Hey, there's all types ofprograms out there.
There's, you know, lots ofresources and hey, you can reach
out to me or Matt.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Yeah, you know we can help get it done.
Let them know your handle's onsocial.

Speaker 4 (06:18):
Okay, yeah, you can follow me on social at
DrMotivate.
I do leadership development inthe summer, leadership workshop
programs for kids in the summer.
You can also follow me bytyping in wwwdbdleaguescom, and
on that page you'll see all ofmy youth programs.
So I have volleyball, I havebasketball, I have football.

(06:43):
Track will be opening up in2025.
Nice, I'm getting ready to goall in.
I mean, um, I'm literallygetting ready to go all in.
This will be my last yearfinishing out an educational
contract and now I'm gettingready to go into business for
myself full-time how long hasthe non-profit?
So I've had the nonprofit for 20years.

(07:05):
So no shit.
The first nonprofit, believeIncorporated Inc.
You know it was started back inDecember of 2003.
And here recently I've startedthe Donald Brown Developmental
League so that people canunderstand.
You know what the nonprofitstands for and you know how
everything works.

(07:25):
I started Dr Motivate LLC.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
As you know, I'm a major sponsor to the programs,
to the nonprofits that I'mworking with, so yeah, and just
to clarify something I know thisis, you know you mainly have,
you know military and stuff.
He's not military.
Something I know this is youknow you mainly have you know
military and stuff.
He's not military.

(07:48):
But the reason why I felt theneed to because there's other
people that I grew up with thathave their own thing going right
the main reason why I felt theneed to connect with him and
partner with him and I actuallyhe can't, he can't get rid of me
, right?
So uh, yeah, we have a lot oftalks, man, but but yeah, the
main reason why man is because,like, I see, like where his
heart is.
You know what I mean.
So, like this is genuine, yeahyou know what I mean so that's

(08:12):
rare to find, you know that'samazing because I mean, I'm all
about helping, right, yeah, butwhat it boils down to is he's
helping children in thecommunity and there's a lot of
veterans out there that havekids, right right, and they have
kids low income, you know,living off the VA benefits that
can really benefit from thisyeah, you know, so for what he's

(08:33):
?

Speaker 2 (08:33):
doing that can in turn help our veteran community
a lot, so I'm all about that no,I definitely been changing it
up a little bit, man, and nothaving so much just focusing on
the veteran aspect.
I've been bringing in morepeople that I see that are doing
good in the community.
Man, and that's dope.
You know you can't give themenough praise.
You can't give yourself, youknow, because, man, it could be,

(08:54):
it could be shit.
You could be the exact opposite.
I know exactly what you mean.
Yeah, or I mean you could bethe.

Speaker 3 (09:01):
You know those.
I mean, you could be thosenonprofits that say they're
helping out the community andthey pocket the money.
You don't ever see anydifference, you don't see any
changes, you don't see anyprograms, you don't see nothing.
But with him, he's open, withit on Facebook, on Instagram,
all that stuff, and you canactually log on to his stuff and
see everything they're doing.
And another good thing that Ithink that he does is he shines

(09:23):
a light on the individualplayers or athletes when they're
young, right.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
And that in turn, will help them get scholarships
later in life, because thesecolleges nowadays they look at
their past.

Speaker 2 (09:35):
Right, right right.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
And from just pulling up their name, you know that
video might pop up and thatschool might be like oh well, he
started young.
You know so, yeah, yeah, man,that's truly pop up and that
school might be like oh well, hestarted young.

Speaker 2 (09:44):
Yeah, you know so, yeah, yeah, man, that's truly
true.
I don't have words.
And it's not often that I'mspeechless, bro, yeah, but you
know like and the thing is like,I've never I haven't.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
I might be wrong, but you know I've never seen that
before whenever they shine theline on the athlete individually
right and he interviews eachathlete as they're coming up.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
I see, and you know, that's awesome, that's awesome,
you know, because a lot ofpeople are different, man.
They're different.
By when I say that, I mean like, if it's not about them, they
don't want to be involved.
So to be able to make itsomething about somebody else is
dope, and that's what you know,a lot of us try to do,
especially as veterans and firstresponders and leaders in the

(10:30):
community that are out theredoing it.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Man and shit you know kids need that opportunity for
exposure and to be able to workon those soft skills.
soft skills and you know whatbetter opportunity than to
interview a kid that'sshowcasing his talent and
helping him to build him or herto build that confidence that
they need to become the bestversion of themselves.

(10:54):
So I really enjoy putting thespotlight on our student
athletes, as well as ourfamilies, and we really are
doing a great work.
Last football season we gaveout over $8,000 in scholarships
to kiddos that are on free orreduced lunch, families who
truly have a need.

(11:15):
So you know, I'm vested in thecommunity.
They're our future.
Those kids are the future.
Those are the kids, are theones who are going to be taking
care of us, who are going to berunning the programs that we're
currently have been charged with.
So exposure is a huge piece ofwhat's needed.
You think about it.

(11:35):
Some underprivileged kids don'ttravel more than one to two
miles outside of where they live, miles outside of where they
live.
So when I'm able to get a kidwho's on free or reduced lunch
or who is low socioeconomic andput them in my program, we're
traveling.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
Now they're getting a chance to do something that
they may not get to do often andwe have a village family
mentality.
I mean we're helping each otherout.
It takes a village man.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
It takes a village Through a struggle becomes
something greater, right?
oh yeah, oh yeah, that's what'sup man yeah and so like, with
our event this weekend it's onsaturday, it's a hometown heroes
event.
Um, he has a 5k that we've beendoing now for this.
This will be our third year.
This will be our third year.
We had to skip last year.
I had to take some time offpersonal time off for family,

(12:26):
but we're kicking it back upthis year and, yeah, so his 5K,
all proceeds that he makes fromthe 5K will go towards his
foundation.
We won't take any of that atall.
That's his own thing and Idefinitely want to give him that
platform for however many yearshe wants to stick with me.
You know that kind of thing,raffles and stuff like that.

(12:48):
Like I want to eventually do itto where, especially at the
event, you know, we can splitsome raffles.
That way he can take home someprofit for his kids too.
So, yeah, man, it's going to bea good day.
Man, it's supposed to be clearskies Saturday, hopefully.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Yeah, it's raining right now, man, but you know,
yeah, I just noticed that Ididn't even.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
I see everybody talking about some eclipse.
Yeah right, I was like, okay,yeah, so so yeah, the event is a
saturday man and it's familyfriendly.
No alcohol will be served there.
There will, there might be somealcohol, like involved in the
raffles type thing, but no, noconsumption at the event what's
the event?

Speaker 2 (13:26):
tell me what the event is.
What's the purpose of it,what's the mission yeah, for
sure.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
I mean the mission's always, you know, combating the
suicide rate, right right soamong veterans and first
responders and the community alltogether.
so my the birdwall foundation.
I'm the executive director forthem.
We specialize in specialize inPTSD among veterans and first
responders.
We have a hotline.
If you go tobirdwellfoundationorg, we have a

(13:52):
hotline, 24-7 crisis line.
There will always be somebodyon the other end of that phone
call to walk you through, calmyou down, see what the issues
are.
If you have an addiction, we'llget you help.
If you need a facility, a30-day facility, 60-day facility
we'll find it for you.
You know we've had it to wherewe've first responders, it's

(14:16):
really hard for them to reachout because they have that
mentality of the stigma, youknow.
So we have to be very carefulwith that and luckily there's
some laws that came out to whereit protects them now and
they're able to take off, workand get the help that they need
and not skip a beat when theycome back right, so they can get
off, they can recover at afacility, come back and jump

(14:39):
right back into, you know,serving the community.
So we're taking full advantageof that, as you should yeah, man
so and then the main thing isis like spoken word, written
word.
It's going to eliminate thatstigma.
The more knowledge is outthat's out there about the
symptoms, red flags to look atright you know and and um.
Awareness saves lives, bro.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, man 100 because of you, I was able to be
involved in a documentary.
You introduced me to joe and oh, how'd that go?
Man and being able to sit backand listen to to.
Well, I had to piece all of ittogether.
So sitting back and listen tolike 20, 25 stories, like at one
point I had to stop and I Icould feel myself heavy.

(15:23):
Yeah, it's a lot.
I felt it in like depression inmy own shit I haven't heard it.
Man, oh man so I had to stop.
But we finished it and I'veheard stories from police
officers, veterans, nurses,doctors and man.
It was deep as deep he did.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
He's good at that he is really good at interviewing.
Yeah, man, he definitely, hedefinitely is.
Yeah, he did awesome.
Yeah, I think I have to likeredo mine.

Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (15:49):
I think he's going to put you on a second season.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
Okay yeah, because something happened with the
audio or something.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
Well, there was a lot of audio issues.
Oh man, yeah.
That was actually a good onetoo.
Yeah, it took a lot longer thanI wanted to, but being able to
piece, oh man, it was a pain inthe ass.

Speaker 3 (16:05):
Nice, it was cool.
I bet yeah, yeah, yeah, becauseI guess the guy that he had
before he said he knew what hewas doing, but in reality he
really didn't.
Oh, yeah, yeah he did.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
He was like no, we've never met anybody like that
before, right no right, he liedon the resume, Bro.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
I was like, did he even turn the microphones on?
Man?

Speaker 2 (16:24):
It got pretty sketchy .

Speaker 3 (16:26):
Yeah, man.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yeah, but I was able to save a lot of it too.

Speaker 3 (16:30):
But like stuff like that opens the public's eyes bro
.
Oh yeah, especially like mypodcast, the Battle Bud podcast.
When I interview trauma victims, I interview everybody, like
military first responders,regular civilians, and the point
of the whole thing is anybodycan get it right right anybody
can get ptsd.
Anybody can go through atraumatic event.

(16:51):
Anybody can suffer from thesesymptoms right now.
The angle of which you helppeople are different, but it's
all the same traumatic eventsright.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
Severity differs a little bit, but all in all it's
the same thing and the symptomsare either very high, with some,
or very low.
One may have a high anxiety,the other one may have severe
depression.
Some of them might not even knowthey have it, bro, I didn't
know I had PTSD for the firstfour years and I was drinking
myself to sleep man.

(17:26):
I didn't know I had PTSD forthe first four years.
Yeah, and I was drinking myselfto sleep man, like I literally
would drink myself to pass outand I'd get in fights for no
reason, I just my temper washorrible.
Yeah, it was weird, man.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
I understand.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
But and that's another reason why I wrote I
started writing my books BecauseI mean, if I could save one
life from my story, you know I'ddo my job.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
So let's talk a little bit about your books.
I know about Silent Screams,the original one, the part one
man, so you just dropped twobooks back to back.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Oh yeah, one's a journal and then the other one
is a poem book.
So Silent Screams is my firstone.
That's my first one.
That's my first one.
It's on Amazon.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
This one right here man.

Speaker 3 (18:05):
I poured my freaking heart into that.
There's a lot of stories that Icouldn't put in there because
I'm still a police officer, butwhen I retire I'll make another
one with other stories.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
So once you retire, that cap is no longer out there,
you can share whatever you want.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
Yeah, I'll be able to share whatever I want.
That's what's up Right now.
I just gotta keep my job bro.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
You know who cracks me up though man.
I'm not gonna lie.
I follow the Houston.

Speaker 3 (18:34):
Police Officers Union , gamaldi Bro he cracks me up
with them.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
comments, man, they always got me laughing my ass
off.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
Yeah, so now the president is Doug Griffith.
Yeah, he's awesome too, butyeah, joe's awesome, he's
actually the fraternal policeorder.
Oh, yeah, yeah, he's good withit, middleman, he's good with
the camera.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Yeah, yeah, so tell us more what you got there.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, man.
So the one that just came outis Silent Screams, part 2, poems
from the Frontline and, believeit or not, I created the
freaking images and everythingon AI.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (19:10):
I just learned how to do that.
Man and man.
They came out so good.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
That's what's up.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Yeah, so that saves a ton of money.
But, yeah, I created some poemsin there and some of them are
geared towards first responders,Some are military and I have
one poem in there directlyrepresenting the Birdwell
Foundation and people who likepoems.
You know that's a good deal forthem.
This one right here is ajournal and it's a free writing

(19:35):
journal.
It's a Unmasking the Warrior, ajournal for military and first
responders, and all these are onAmazon if you want to get them
on Amazon.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
And if you're watching this or listening to it
, you're going to see the linksbelow.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Yeah, for sure.
And, yeah, man, so with thatjournaling saved my life, bro,
and I have another journal thatI'm going to release, probably
in a few more months, but thisone's a free writing journal, so
this one will help you keeptrack of your recovery while
you're seeking help through peersupport and then through a
regular therapist.
This will help you determine,like, if your symptoms are

(20:11):
getting better or worse, andwhere you got to adjust, what
you got to tell your therapist.
Hey, you know, I was doingreally good controlling my, my,
my, sleep, right, and now, allof a sudden you know it's
starting to get out of whackagain.
Yes, wake up swinging, wake upsweating, wake up crying.
Sometimes I don't know what thehell's going on.

(20:32):
You know, and I wasn't doingthat, you know, last month, or
right two weeks ago, right.
So that helps your therapistand whoever you're talking to
for peer support, your battlebud kind of revamp your, your

(20:54):
therapy.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Yeah, in a different path.
I like that man.
Y'all be sure to check out thebooks unmask the warrior and
silent screams, part two.
And if y'all haven't heard hissong, silent screams, be sure to
check that out too.
And oh yeah, yeah, soldier Hard, man, soldier Hard, he's a
beast.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
You know what?
Actually, if you go on mypodcast on Spotify, I made its
own episode.
It's called Silent Screams.

Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
I think it's just called Silent Screams, but it's
Soldier Hard.
He's a well-known artist and hepicked it up and ran with a man
and he made it over the bookand it's it's pretty darn good
it is, I like it, I jam it.
Yeah, I jam it man I noticedyou've been doing a lot of
raffles lately bro, what you gotright here said yeah, so we got

(21:37):
a raffle.
Actually we got two raffles andthe winner will be announced at
the event on Saturday.
So one raffle is the Yeticooler and it comes with a
Battle Bud hat that's my othernonprofit and then it also comes
with one of each of my booksand then the two cups, the
matching cups, and this is a newcolor that came out from the

(21:58):
Yeti, so this is a new thing.
It's going to be $10 for oneticket, for three tickets $20,
and for 10 tickets, 50.
If y'all want tickets, contactraul or myself and he'll have my
contact information on there,yeah and just hit me up and I'll
fill out y'all's uh, y'all'stickets and everything for y'all

(22:19):
, and I take payment in venmoand you know that kind deal.
But our other raffle is I justgot this today the shotgun.
Hold it up, bro.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
I don't know how to handle guns.

Speaker 3 (22:31):
I know bro, I'm scared.

Speaker 4 (22:33):
It's been a while right.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
So this shotgun right here, I'm going to keep the
tickets the same as that, soit's the same thing $10 for what
I say, three for 20 and then 10for 50, and that's that shotgun
is mr birdwells.
He's the founder of thebirdwell foundation and he just
he gave it to us to do a raffleoff of, and all the proceeds
from this goes towards.
I gotta pay the.

(22:57):
There's an exotic zoo that'sgonna be at the.
I thought you were goingsomewhere else with it, bro.

Speaker 2 (23:02):
You said exotic and I was like oh, it's that army.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, that's the whole exotic zoo, and then we're
going to have a live auction at3 o'clock at the event, and
there's going to be some badassstuff for the auction.
Yeah, oh yeah.
I'm picking up everything onFriday and then on top of that,

(23:26):
everybody that's there as avendor is going to donate.
They're going to donate oneitem per vendor and then we're
going to make a differentbaskets and stuff to auction
those off too, yeah, and so it'sgoing to pay off the bidder,
the guy who's doing the biddingand then also the DJ.
So we got to pay those three ohaxe throwing.
So there's three oh axethrowing, so there's going to be

(23:47):
an axe throwing.
I didn't even know there was abusiness.

Speaker 2 (23:51):
They're popular now.

Speaker 3 (23:52):
Yeah, it's its own company, and I guess they redid
a trailer, a big trailer.
Oh shit, I didn't know.
Yeah, it's a mobile axethrowing.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
And so I got to pay for that too.
But yeah, that's where thesefunds are going to go.
And just to you know, wash ityeah.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
Man.
That's what's up, man, andthat's going to be Saturday.
We're at yeah what time.

Speaker 3 (24:13):
Yeah, so it's going 11 to 7 pm.
So the Exotic Zoo will be from5 to 7.
And the axe throwing will befrom 3 pm to 7 pm.
But we'll have over 60 vendorsthere for shopping.
We'll have different rafflesthere, we'll have a DJ, we'll

(24:36):
have two live singers ShaneBarron He'll be out there
singing.
But yeah, it'll be a good thing.
We're going to have bouncehouses for the kids.
Houston Bounce it's a companyout of Houston that 100% free
two bounce houses and a dunkingbooth and we can make money on
the dunking booth.
So we're going to do $5 forthree balls for the dunking

(24:58):
booth and on top of that, Ibelieve the Hooters from
Galveston, the girls, are goingto go out there and be in the
Duncan booth.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, man, how about you, you getting?

Speaker 3 (25:07):
in there, no man, I'll be running around.

Speaker 2 (25:11):
Because, I'll pay for that.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
No, I'd rather the pretty girls get in there.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
But speaking of Hooters, mygood friend Anna Rodriguez,
she's a GM over there and theyhad a car wash for us to raise
funds and we raised about threealmost $400 selling tickets for
another raffle that we weredoing.
It was actually like an orangecooler, it was smaller than that

(25:35):
, but yeah, that one likefour-hour period.
We raised a little under $400just in ticket sales.
So that's awesome man.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
And it was a slow day because we did it Easter
weekend.

Speaker 2 (25:49):
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (25:50):
And I was thinking I was like man, it's going to be a
good busy day becauseeverybody's off.
Yeah, they're willing to doanother one, another weekend for
us, so we're going to have toget that up and going, yeah
that's what's up, man?

Speaker 2 (26:03):
I definitely.
I saw it.
I wanted to go out, but I wasdoing the family thing.
Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
And then this weekend .

Speaker 2 (26:09):
I'm going to miss it, man.
I want to be there with you,but I got dad volleyball thing
to do bro, family first man.
Give me a success story thatyou've seen, that you've
witnessed with your own eyesthrough your programs.
Well, I'll tell you, you don'thave to do no names.

(26:32):
Okay, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (26:33):
We've had, you know, single moms that have been in
our program, who have hadchildren I won't identify male
or female that were strugglingin school, not doing well and
after about two, three weeks inour program, behaviors improved.
You know you have the coachthere, male or female, that are

(26:55):
there to support and help guide.
And the biggest success story Ican think of was I want to
think of a nickname for this kid.
I can see him right now but hewas getting in trouble every
week in the principal's officein trouble and we had some
coaches that helped him to seethe light.

(27:24):
That's good, and so he went frombeing in trouble to being one
of those kids that was called onoften to, you know, to do
things.
I mean, the grandmother wasjust head over heels excited
about the program and all of theprogress that her grandson had
made.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
You know.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
So I think about that success story and I mean there
are many others.
So I think about that successstory and I mean there are many
others.
You know, sports can bringabout confidence in a different
way when you have the rightcoaches, when you have the right
leaders out there modeling.
You know they're seeing oursocial skills, how we interact

(27:57):
with each other.
So I really believe that one ofthe biggest success stories
would be that kid and I wish Icould say his name.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
No.

Speaker 4 (28:05):
He's a real cowboy.
That's what's up, man.
That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (28:09):
That's awesome to hear man, because sports can do
amazing things and I witnessedit in the little leagues and
things like that, but, like yousaid, with the right leaders
because I've seen it go bothways ways and you have to know
that fine line you have to knowand oh yeah, and some of the
things that we do.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
You know, we don't believe in cursing the kid out.
We believe in talking to them,teaching them and we build them
up.
You know, and those push-ups,believe it or not, bring about
confidence oh yeah, and thenwhen they come and strike you
and they do something well, wecelebrate in the moment.
But we're also real.
We give them real feedbackabout how they're doing and we

(28:50):
talk about the training that wedo.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
We can only be as good as we train, oh yeah, man
thank you, I just Not only that,like, it gives them structure
if they don't have structure athome.
Right right right, you know, ifthey don't have a father figure
at home.
It gives them a lot ofstructure, man, and it forms
their path in a way that youknow not being in organized
sports could do.

(29:12):
You know, so, like for me, ithelped me like realize, like,
how to get along with people.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, you know Well, you can build friendships and
partnerships how to get alongwith people.
You know you can buildfriendships and partnerships.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
Well, I mean you build a bond through competition
for sure.
You know you're going to warwith.
You know every game is.
You know a war.

Speaker 3 (29:29):
So you're relying on yourpartner to help you out and to
play for the you know the bestthat he can play, you know.
So, like when I went to themilitary, it was crazy Cause you
can tell, like, who was inorganized sports and who wasn't,
because the people that weren'twere kind of like socially
awkward, you know, and thepeople that were were like super
open and, like you know,willing to work with you.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Know, let's get it yeah, teamwork, teamwork, yeah,
yeah yeah, like what's yourstrengths?

Speaker 3 (29:54):
well, mine's this, this, this, you know.
So I mean that's yeah, that'sawesome yeah, man, that's,
that's that's.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
It's amazing to hear man Like I say man, my hat's off
to you because you know workingwith children is a difficult
task and you know I've seencoaches belittle, degrade and
scream and there's a couple oftimes where I'm like man, if
that was my daughter.
You know we fight, but you know.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
Hey, look, it starts at the top, and you know what
I'll say is, as I'm modeling andteaching through my
interactions and showing love toothers while they're out there
with us, others are soaking thatup too.
You know how I treat Matt as acoach and how he treats others.

(30:45):
We have a standard is what I'mtrying to get to, and our
standard is family first.
We're going to love on them.
You know, we tell the moms andwe tell you, know, our parents,
that we're going to be tough,we're going to be physical and
we're going to do it the rightway, with character, and we will
be disciplined, becausediscipline, we all know it,

(31:06):
equals freedom.
You can do so much more whenyour child is disciplined and,
if they need that, send them tous, right, right right and on
the motivational aspect, is it amotivational speaker?
Yeah, so Dr Motivate, Bro he'sbeen like this since man.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, so Dr Motivate, bro, he's been like this since
man look, oh you done, struck anerve.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
Now Teach me, man, teach me.

Speaker 4 (31:27):
Look, what is it that you cannot do?
I mean, I want you to look inthe mirror right now and tell
yourself that, yes, I can, andnot only can you will.
You see, the other day, whenyou were walking out, you didn't
know that you were going toconnect with somebody that was
going to uplift you and let youknow that there is nothing that

(31:48):
you can't do.
If you can see it, you canbecome it.
I'm Dr Motivate.
You will become the best thatyou've ever been.
Just give it a moment to sinkin.
Not every question that isasked is meant to have an answer
.
Sometimes you can just sit back, wait, relax and then you come

(32:13):
back with deep ferocity.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
No, I'm just joking, Shit bro, hey man.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Look.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
I'm all over here, nervous and stuff.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
I'm on the pod, I'm like but look, man, imagine a
little kid hearing that thoughwe can go.
That's what's up, man, he'sgetting hype.

Speaker 4 (32:25):
Hey.

Speaker 3 (32:26):
I mean man, this is our world.

Speaker 4 (32:28):
And if we're not interjecting us into it.
You know people are talkingabout what are you doing to make
a difference?
Right, they're saying all thesedifferent things, and then you
see a lot of people not doing it.
They complain about stuff, butthen you have Matt out here who
is making an incredible impactin our community.
Better yet the world, likesaving lives.

(32:50):
I watch him.
He doesn't know.
Well, maybe he does know.
Man, I love the example thatyou provide day in, day out.
I mean, he is a grinder.
I'm talking about a nailgrinder.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
He gets it done.
No, I'm like, when does hesleep?

Speaker 4 (33:06):
Because I could text him 1 am in the morning, you
know right back.
You know, but I just where Iwas going with that.
You know your inner circle, youknow you got to be able to lean
on it and I'm glad that I havematt in my inner circle because
I'm always strong.
When I'm weak, I can lean on mybrother yeah, he's a good dude

(33:29):
man.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
I really like him.
We we met a few years ago andwe've clicked man, so it's been
an honor to learn about him andhis stories, his struggles, his
triumphs, yeah, you know, andand watching him I don't want to
say develop, but watching yourdaughter get older and seeing
you be that father is dope.

(33:53):
Every time I see pictures,every time I see y'all somewhere
, that shit gets me because thatthat's, that's what we need,
man.
You know what I mean oh, yeah,yeah, I mean excuse me my bad

Speaker 1 (34:07):
I take a lot of pride in that man yeah you should um
uh so it's a great example, man.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
It's a great example and I, I see it and we only get
one chance at it yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
We only get one chance at raising our kids and
it's up to us to make that, thatbond, strong, you know.
So you either make it strong oror you you don't and you're
gonna suffer later for that, andI've seen it happen plenty of
times.
Yeah so, and then the regretcomes in.
You know shit, I worked toodamn much, I didn't spend enough
time with her man.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
My, my shit revolves around her, bro I know, when I
get her I don't work.
You know, I don't work at all.
I might take when I get her.

Speaker 3 (34:41):
I don't work.
I don't work at all.
I might take phone calls andstuff, but I don't work.
I do double shifts.
I just did a double shiftyesterday and I'm doing a double
shift tomorrow, and then I haveher for Wednesday, thursday,
friday and then I have my eventafter that.
But yeah, I don't work when Ihave her bro.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
I make that a top priority.
You know, I saw a littleglimpse of her, her boxing
skills, man, oh, yeah, I'mslowly throwing her in it, bro,
and she's liking it too so yeah,and it's getting her a little
workout, a little video had melaughing yesterday, I think it
was yesterday, the day before,bro, I was like, oh I, little
eye of the tiger, yeah, yeah,that's what it was.
I was like, okay, I like that,that's like the.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
I think I got it for like 15 bucks on amazon yeah and
it's a blow-up one, but it like, whenever you hit it it lights
up.
Okay, yeah, and she loves it,she'll hit it.
She'll sit there and watch tvand just sit there and box it it
sounds fun, I might get one formyself.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Bro, put it in the living room.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
But yeah, man, I take a lot ofpride, man, and you know what,
man?
Honestly, you can tell a lotabout a person by the way they
are with their kids, 100%.
With you, you're super close toyour kid.
With him, he's super close toall his kids.
I try to align myself withpeople that are like that
because I know where their heartis.

(36:02):
Like that, if you don't seeyour kid, bro, and you have the
opportunity to, yeah, like Idon't understand it.
I always say that I'll be anacquaintance bro, but like,
don't expect you know I don'tunderstand that.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
That was one of the questions I always ask man, and
it's not.
It's just I don't ask, it'sjust a way.
I think is like I don'tunderstand an absentee father.
It doesn't make sense in myhead.
I can't comprehend it Like Iwant to know why.

Speaker 3 (36:30):
And real quick.
Veterans that come back fromwar, you've seen it.
They distance themselves fromtheir family, right, yeah.
And whenever I counsel veteranspolice officers too, sometimes
you know that happens to themtoo.
It's all about your perspective, man.
You could use that.
That.

(36:50):
Your kid is the reason why youneed to fucking get better,
right that you're.
That little kid is absorbingeverything that you're doing.
You're saying all your emotionsthat are coming out of you, all
your little smirks.
You know everything, bro.
You come home drunk.
They see that.

Speaker 4 (37:10):
Yeah, they do.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
You know, they're sponges, man, and they're
learning that learned behavior.
So you have to make sure thatyou show up respectfully.
You know what I mean, becauseyou're forming that mind, you
know.
So, yeah, man, For sure.

Speaker 4 (37:25):
And sometimes I believe it's about, you know,
breaking a generational cycle.
Oh yeah, you know you had hisfather's father wasn't present,
and so you start lookinggenerations down lineage and
it's just that they hadn't foundthat right person to come in
and pour into their life tobreak that cycle.
You know, and how do we?

Speaker 3 (37:45):
do that, yeah, by being present.
Oh yeah, be present in themoment, don't be afraid, and you
know what, and see what in mylife, my dad was there, he was
present.
You know, I mean, and I see thedifference in myself and my
homeboys that it wasn't likethat yeah their father wasn't
present and they're in jail.
They're dead.
You know it is what it is, butyou have a blueprint, you know.

(38:10):
I mean, don't be dumb, you knowstraight up and you know,
sometimes when I counsel peoplelike sometimes you have to be
blunt, bro.
Like you, you have to be bluntto open their eyes up and to
make them see what they're doing.
You know, and you're making itworse on you and the kid as well
, but you're making it worse onyour recovery as well, like you

(38:31):
see what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah yeah, and somepeople just have to be brought
down to earth and get spoken tostern.
You know, not disrespectfully,but you know.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
Yeah, sometimes you need to kick and kick in the
butt, man yeah, and that'sanother benefit, like when I
think about, uh, some of thethings that I do in the
community having the youthprogram, you know, for those
kids that are fatherless orwhose fathers are not, who are
absentee fathers, they have a.
One of the coolest things thatI saw last season was all of the
fathers that came out to help.

(39:05):
Yeah, that's awesome.
I had never seen so many menjust black, white, orange,
latino, asian.
We're the whole airport on thesideline.
It just was incredible to seeall of those fathers coming
together to put their handsaround the community.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
And iron sharpens.
Iron bro, I'm a firm believerin that.
That's why I align myself withstrong-minded men around me,
because I know that I have a lotof faults, and when I see him
in the community doing what heneeds to do, it just makes me.
I wanted to take a week off,but I'm not going to anymore.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
You know what.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
I mean, like I, when I see you pushing it, I gotta
keep going.
When I see my you know a coupleother guys that I align myself
with like they keep me goingRight, and you know we're not
immune to depression.

Speaker 4 (40:07):
We're not immune to all this stuff, right?
So so to have those strongminded men in your back pocket
to lean on, that's you know.
It's everything right there.
Charlie, mike, I have aquestion for you what keeps you
going, what keeps you motivatedto, you know, keep pushing in
and do what you do every day,every day, you know we hit walls
as men.
I mean, life is real.
How do you stay engaged?
Recharge I mean how do yourecharge?

(40:32):
And when you hit a tough wall,something difficult.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
What do you do to help yourself overcome that man?
There's a lot, you know,charlie.
Mike means to continue themission regardless.
You know I'm in sobriety.
You know I'm almost at fiveyears.
God willing, I'll hit fiveyears of sobriety.
But before that I was adifferent person.
I wasn't doing the things thatI'm doing now, but what I did
witness was, after I made thatchange in my life, I witnessed

(41:00):
God doing amazing things for meand bringing the things that I
once prayed for and asked forinto my life.
But if he would have given itto me years ago, I wouldn't have
handled it correctly.
Once I started doing the pathof Sobriety and working the

(41:20):
program and changing my ways iswhen opportunities and doors
started opening and peoplestarted coming to me.
And I know through my story,through my struggles, through my
addiction, I can help otherpeople.
And right now, with me being soclose to five years, I feel
like if I was to relapse, Iwould let everybody down.

(41:43):
Yeah, and that kicks me in thebutt all the time.
That's what keeps you.
Yeah, that one thing it doesBesides my family.
It's just I've come too far.
No, I have so much to lose.
I've gained so much,spiritually money, I'm in a
house.
You know just things that Inever thought could be possible

(42:07):
A couple of years ago.
If you would have told me, hey,raul, you're going to own a
podcast studio, I would havesaid man, you're stupid.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
What the hell is a podcast studio?

Speaker 4 (42:16):
You know what I mean, but it's just, it's amazing.
So one more, one more follow-upTalk about your faith in this
journey.
I mean because none of this washere, nobody could see it all.
I don't know if you went to atechnical program or you had
some type of school, someeducation.
So talk about the faith.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
You just got behind the mic, bro.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
Let me tell you man.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
Yeah, that was truly it.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
During COVID I was like I want to start a podcast.
And then I went to BarnesNoble's and I got a book how to
Podcast for Dummies.
That's how this all becamereality.
Real talk For real oneverything.
I didn't even do that how toPodcast for Dummies and I read
it and I used it as a manual.
You know, even when I openedthis place, I would still refer
back to it.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
You is a manual.
You know, even when I openedthis place.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
I would still refer back to it that you know it's,
it's insane.
And as far as my faith man, I'mgonna tell you what at times my
faith has been sketchy I'm not,I wouldn't say sketchy, maybe
as strong as it should be.
Yeah, and you know, I've hadsome things happen to me that
within maybe the last couple ofyears, you know, I lost my son
and it kind of derailed my faitha little bit.

(43:26):
It kind of did.
But I had to bring it all backtogether and find, because my
biggest question was why.
I wanted to know why and howcould?
You is what I figured.
If I blame somebody else, itwouldn't be as difficult on me
or my girls or his mother, youknow I.

(43:49):
But I had to getting my peaceagain and going back to church
and praying.
And my little one was the onethat kept pushing us into church
and was like, come on, dad, wegot to go back, we got to go
back.
So every Sunday she's the oneslike dad, we're going to church,
we're going to church you know,and man.
so with with God, man, anythingis possible.

(44:10):
You know, you just got to keepthe faith and don't blame God
when bad things happen and don'tforget to be thankful for the
things that you get.
When you okay, don't, what isit?
Don't forget to be grateful forthe things that come to reality
, that you were praying for, youknow what I mean, don't forget

(44:30):
that, those small things man.
You know, I sit back here a lotas I walk out the door in the
evenings and I look back and I'mlike damn, it's crazy.
You know, this is mine, youknow, this is what I'm doing for
a living.
My girls tell people like, hey,what does your dad do for a
living?
They say, oh, he's a podcaster.
They were like what?

Speaker 3 (44:50):
What is that yeah?

Speaker 2 (44:51):
I don't know man.
It's surreal Everything is justsurreal.

Speaker 3 (44:59):
But faith, man, faith that's my daughter's name, by
the way.
Faith, nice, and you know whatyour daughters are seeing.
You create your own path inlife too.
And don't mistaken it, bro,that they're seeing that and
they're gonna form their life onthat too, so if later on in
life they might venture out andstart their own business and you
know, do their own thing andthat's because they saw you do
that.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
I hope they do, man.
My daughters are crazy, and youknow it's scary because they
remind me so much of myself.
I see it in their smiles, theirsense of humors, their jokes,
their inappropriate laughtermoments that we probably
shouldn't be laughing, you know.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
I see it bro.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
It cracks me up.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
But I'm blessed bro.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
I'm blessed, bro.
I'm blessed, I'm really blessedto be in this situation.
I'm blessed to be across thetable from you guys right here
doing amazing things in thiscommunity.
Man and you know, you andyou're damn bro.
I don't even know people ask medescribe matthew marne.
That's shit, I don't know howyou're entrepreneur.

Speaker 3 (45:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know I'll tell you this, man, I
wasn't trying to do all that,really, Like I got tired of
seeing my friends commit suicideand there's nothing really out
there for us.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
You know you go to the VA and they load you up with
meds and be on your way.
You know, yeah, I feel you,brother, I feel you Likewise.
I experienced that part, youknow, through my addiction.
I was on the verge of suicideat one point, like literally on

(46:38):
the floor with the gun, drunk ascan be, I said, hey, after I
finish this bottle, I'm done.
I passed out and it started youknow, things, reality kicked in
.
I wouldn't say reality but, mymindset started to change.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
Yeah, I write about it in my book, man.
I drink until I passed out, man, and one night I woke up with a
glass of whiskey in one handand my gun in the other, and I
didn't even know how I got mygun.
So I had to change somehow, bro.
Yeah, man, and you know theBirdwell Foundation.
We have a camp in Conroe andwhat we do is it's an in-house

(47:15):
facility for veterans and firstresponders Mainly.
We have veterans there, though,but, man, that's where their
last hope.
They go, over there, and a lotof them coming off of addictions
.
And we have an awesome directorout there, john Bailey, and
he's a Vietnam war vet, and hisstory alone is crazy, man.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
I spoke with him Silver Fox.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we call himSilver Fox man because he has
long hair and it's all gray.
But he thinks he's flying withit.
He is man.
I wouldn't tell him nothing.
He kicked my butt.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
Yeah.
So he was in a helo crash andeverything.
Man, he's legit man and thething is like at the camp.
You get these guys in and, man,they're hoping for something
you know.
So during their time there theylearn how to deal with their

(48:09):
symptoms.
They have AA meetings there,they have prayer groups there
and on top of that, man, it's apeaceful environment.
It's on nine acres and we'vegot a big pond.
We've got a little prayersection near the pond.
They can go fishing.

(48:32):
We have a swimming pool there.
They do bonfires.
They connect with each other.
What a lot of people need ispurpose.
So, especially military guyslike mission.
When we're in the military, wehave our mission, we have our
purpose, we know identity, weknow what we're doing every day.
We know exactly what we'retrying to do.
We know how many okay we got tolaunch all these aircraft in
this amount of time.
Y'all gotta, you know every.

(48:54):
Everybody knows what we have todo.
When we get out, that sense ofpurpose is gone, right, and a
lot of times veterans don't haveschooling behind them already
when they get out, so they'reout in the workforce.
People won't hire them becausethey don't have school.

(49:14):
Some will because of themilitary background.
It's just hit or miss, you know, and some take a nosedive, you
know, some some it gets to, itgets to them mentally, you know,
and they need that pickuppurpose, yeah, and they need to
get set on a on a good path, youknow so.

(49:34):
And a lot of our books we arefaith-based man, so a lot of our
workbooks that we go over andthat they learn from at the camp
is based on the Bible.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
So that's what's up, man.
I was able to visit the camp.
I'm sure it's grown.
It was probably about a yearago.
I want to say, and I'm sureit's grown since then, how many?

Speaker 3 (49:57):
That's the same, it's the same.
Yeah, yeah, many.
That's the same, it's the same,yeah, yeah, it's the same as
last time.
So we were going to move downhere but it fell through the
building that we were trying toget the next door neighbor, the
people that own the wholeproperty next door to us.
We're going to turn it into alandfill and we're like man, we
can't have a rehab facility?
yeah you know what I mean.
We can't have that next door.
So we ended up backing out.

(50:18):
And that was really the onlybuilding man that had everything
together for a facility, alive-in facility.
It already had all thesprinkler systems, the sewage
system, everything for thatamount of people, and it's hard
to come across those now, man.
So I mean we're still looking,but I mean we're actually like

(50:40):
good.
I mean we're still looking butI mean we're actually like good
staying where we're at.
But we do need funds and that'swhy I do events like this and
you know stuff.
So a lot of these funds gotowards helping the camp out so
how do they find out more aboutthis camp?

Speaker 2 (50:51):
yeah, camp, valor right.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
So if you go on the website
birdwellwellfoundationorg, youcan find all the information on
there about the camp.
If you have any other questions, you can look under the camp
director.
John Bailey's phone number isunder there.
You can call him up.
If you ever want to help at thecamp, contact him as well, or
me.
My number is on there as well.
Under the executive director,but yeah, I mean, it's all the

(51:15):
information is on our website.
If under the executive director, but yeah, I mean, it's all the
information's on our website.
If you ever want to donate tothe Railroad Foundation, you can
donate directly through thewebsite and in a memo just type
in what do you want to use itfor.
Like you can just put in a memoput Camp Valor, support Camp
Valor, or you can put futureevents or whatever.
You want to use it for peersupport.
So we're in seven states now.

(51:36):
We just formed a chapter inindiana, so you got locations in
every state.
Yeah, so yeah, and they're alllisted on the website as well.
Yeah, yeah, so we're in.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Yeah so be saturday.
What?
What's another thing?
Y'all got coming up or in theworks, or you see happening yeah
, so locally, um, I'm trying, Iwant to do a gala.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
I've never done one before, but but I definitely
want to spearhead one just knockit out of the way and then make
it better.
You know.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Yeah, that's what's up?
Man, there's a lot of see.
There's some organizations outthere that you could reach out
to that guide you and assist youin that.
I know it's a lot of work, butyeah.

Speaker 3 (52:13):
Well, this event I mean threw.
I just threw it together oneyear and I was like let's try it
out and then we just build it,built from it, you know.
So I mean it's easy to get ittogether.
It's just tedious and there's alot of stuff that you have to
make sure.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
You're better than me , bro, you're better than me.
I ain't got the patience for it?

Speaker 3 (52:31):
yeah, I don't either, but I'm making it work, yeah so
let's starting my emails to whoit concerns.
Yeah, yeah, and I want to saythis because apparently there's
a lot of businesses out therethat want to help, but they
didn't.
They don't know how they canhelp, right.
So when you're dealing withnonprofits, of course there's

(52:56):
always you know, monetary, youcan, you can donate, right, but
we also have in-kind donationsas well, right?
So that's what?
Another huge way that peoplecan help, or services.
You know providing services forthe nonprofit and you know we
can create for the business fortax deduction at the end of the
year, you know.
So if you charge, I don't know,two thousand dollars for a whole

(53:18):
day for bounce houses, right.
For instance, for the guy who'shelping us out saturday, he's
doing it completely for free,yeah, so we'll end up giving him
a tax letter and it'll help himout at the end of the year in
taxes, and not only that, it'llshow his you know the community
generosity that he's providinghelp for veterans and first
responders.

(53:38):
So it's, as long as it's a twoway street, like, we don't want
to just take a lot of times whenwe partner up with a business
or another nonprofit, how can wehelp?
How can we help each other,like, I don't want this to be a
one sided thing, right, becausethat crap don't last.
That gets overwhelming at times,man, it don't last, and when
you have a partnership to whereokay in your business you have

(54:02):
something going on this weekend,all right.
Well, I'm going to promote thaton my platforms and help you
out.
you know, generate somefollowers and stuff like that
for that one event or whateverright, or I'll create a show or
a podcast or something out thereat the event to draw in a crowd
.
It's just, you know, you've gotto work together because if not

(54:24):
, if it's a one-sided thing,it's not going to last.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
Yeah, 100%, man.
It would definitely mean you'vegot to do more work together.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
I feel like we don't do enough?

Speaker 2 (54:32):
Yeah, we don't, and we need to.

Speaker 3 (54:33):
Yeah, we don't, and we need to.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
Yeah, definitely, I feel like you're itching to say
something bro.

Speaker 4 (54:38):
Him too, though yeah, yeah, and you got a friend in
me.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
now, bro, you got a friend in me.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
I can't sing, I don't want.

Speaker 3 (54:46):
Paul to leave the podcast.

Speaker 4 (54:47):
But when we were talking earlier, you know, I
felt the words keeping God atthe center of everything that we
do, and this verse fell into myheart Philippians 4 and 13,.
I can do all things throughChrist.
That strengthens me, and whenyour faith is tested, just
believe that you can do allthings that he has called you to

(55:07):
do.
Man, this is just awesome.
I don't want to leave.

Speaker 2 (55:14):
Faith tested.
That's what I wanted.
That's how to word it.
Hey, you know what?

Speaker 3 (55:18):
It's kind of crazy because I've been through a lot
of dark stuff right Death youknow, seeing death in front of
me, seeing kids, you know,decapitated like all kinds of
crazy stuff.
Right I was in a shipwreck, youknow, in the military saw a
bunch of people die.
There's a lot of stuff thathappened right and I'm still
here.

Speaker 2 (55:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (55:39):
And so there's nothing that frightens me
anymore, right?
So I've seen it all.
Why wouldn't I help outeverybody else?
Why wouldn't I risk somethingand create an event?
Or why wouldn't I write a book,I mean, if fail?
Yes I'm still here, you knowwhat I mean?

(56:01):
I ain't failing, yeah like now,like the way I see life is.
We only have one chance at this, man, you know, and our purpose
on life is to set up the nextgeneration to be stronger, you
know.
So that's these things areforever, you know.
So that's, these things areforever, you know, and I'm going
to keep doing stuff like this.
So next generation, my kids,their kids, you know it's going

(56:24):
to.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
You know, one thing that I've noticed, man, about
the people that I surroundmyself with, is there's always a
picture that reminds me of ourfriendships and what we, we do,
and it's a guy on top of amountain or a hill, and he's at
the top, but at the same timehe's leaning back to pull the
next person up yeah and that'sthe type of things that I see

(56:48):
and I respect, man, I see thatin you, and I see that in you
and, and that's why I want to bearound you guys.
You know what I mean, and you'renot just oh I'm up here, let me
start dancing and forget abouteverybody else.
I'm up here.
How can I get you up here withme?
Tell me how I can do that youknow, I think about it.

Speaker 4 (57:11):
We I don't want the kids that we, that I work with
or that we work with, to be inan identity crisis and how do
you keep them?
Out of being in that identitycrisis.
You help them to connect withtheir why.
When they understand the why man, they can overcome any of the
hows that they're going to faceand just sitting here listening

(57:33):
to the two of you, I meanthere's been a couple of times
where I wanted to jump in, but,man, the information coming out
was so good I just didn't wantto, you know, stop.
But again, that identity crisisis a real thing when you think
about the younger generation andsocial media, instant access to

(57:53):
everything, the microwave weused to go outside and play
Stick ball, now they're.

Speaker 3 (57:59):
TikTok, you know.
So, man, I'll tell you this I'mglad we didn't have social
media when we were growing up.

Speaker 2 (58:05):
I'm glad we didn't have video cameras, bro.
If we would have, you wouldn'tbe a police officer right now.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
Yes, I would have.
I'm just kidding.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding I was onlykidding that was a joke, guys,
oh my god.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
Vhs tapes you had some kid with a VHS tape
cassette tape, oh man but youknow it's kind of crazy, man, in
our lifetime we had to whereour, from where our phones were
on the wall, to now we have awhole computer on in our palm,

(58:49):
yeah, you know, and our all theinformation we can ever want is
right here.
It's so crazy to me.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
You remember when our teachers used to say you're not
going to have a calculator withyou every time, everywhere you
go.
Oh yeah, she lied, yeah, shelied, oh yeah, you need to learn
this because and you know what,man, this is a double-edged
sword.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
Oh yeah, big time this evil lurks.
Oh, 100% Evil lurks, and I'lltell you this.
I used to be an officer,part-time, I was on a side job
for Passmore Elementary and, man, when I tell you, I walked up

(59:38):
on a kid watching a video of howto commit suicide.

Speaker 2 (59:42):
Oh shit.

Speaker 3 (59:43):
By some creep on YouTube.
That opened my eyes so much,bro.
I mean, you know we pulled himaside and we had to talk with
him and stuff like that, but ourkids are seeing this stuff, man
, a lot of kids are raised bythis bro, like hey the parents
want a little quiet time.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
Go play on your iPad.

Speaker 3 (01:00:02):
Yeah, you know.
Yeah, but you know what.
And on the other edge of thesword, if you ever need help,
that's on YouTube too, You'reright.

Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
You're right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:13):
You can do anything.
You can do anything, you canfind anything on.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
YouTube how to fix anything.
That's how I went to collegeyeah.
Youtube University.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
That's how I started my podcast.
I binge-watched YouTube videos.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:25):
And I started my podcast, battle Bud and I just
anything how to fix your car.
Everything is on here.
Yeah, you know how to handledepression, like different ways.
You know that help other people.
Like how to handle anxiety,different techniques, like
there's a lot of stuff that youcan learn on online, right?

Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
You just got to control what you're doing.
Yeah, you got to control, ohyeah, yeah man Fellas, this has
been an amazing conversation.
I don't want it to end, but letme ask you how can someone
reach out to you and do you haveany closing?

Speaker 4 (01:00:59):
comments.
Well, if you want to reach outto me, you can reach out to me
at 832-264-0122.
If you're, if you have kids oryou have, you know someone that
has a child between the age ofthree through 12 and they're
looking for youth sports tobecome a part of, I definitely

(01:01:20):
can get them connected or findsomeone within their community
that they can connect with.
You can also connect with me onsocial media at Dr Motivate or
at Iowa Colony Junior Pioneersor at the Donald Brown
Developmental League.
Any of those ways you can getin contact with me.
I'd be happy to talk to you.

(01:01:41):
You can also visit the websitewwwdbdleaguescom, and there are
programs there that you can putyour kids in, and I'm working on
getting a link there.
So if you want to donate oryou'd like to give of your time,
you would be able to submitthat through the website.

Speaker 3 (01:02:05):
And until then, until he gets that up, just contact
him directly for donations andstuff.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
Yeah, amazing, awesome.
I'm going to be sure to put allthat contact information so
everybody can reach out to you.
Matthew, what you got, man.

Speaker 3 (01:02:17):
Yeah, man, you can always reach out to me
832-561-9593, 24-7.
If you went through a traumaticevent if you're dealing with
somebody that's been through atraumatic event.
If you have a family member inyour household that's suffering,
reach out to me.
If I don't know the answer,I'll get it.
And if I don't know the answer,I'll get it.
You know so.
And if I, if I don't have thefacility, I can get one.
If you don't have the money togo to the facility, you know,

(01:02:39):
sometimes I'm able to getscholarships for people through
facilities that will take themon free of charge.
It just depends on on how manypeople are in the in each
facility, but usually I'm ableto get people in there.
I actually just got an officerin a facility in Florida a few
months back.
It wasn't a few months back, itwas Christmas Eve actually,

(01:03:01):
yeah.
So on Christmas Eve his wifereached out to me and I went and
got him, shipped him off toFlorida within two hours and he
was in a facility for threemonths.
Came back a different man, bro,that's what I'm saying.
Yeah, yeah, and he's doing welland taking care of his family
right now and living life goodand closer to God at the same

(01:03:21):
time, and he's, he's doingreally good.
But yeah, on my website isbirdwellfoundationorg.
All the numbers are on there.
All the information for theBirdwell is on there.
If you want to look up CampValor, you can also look that up
on the website as well.
All my books will have a linkunderneath and the Battle Bud
Project Incorporated.
That's also a 501c3 andbattlebudprojectcom.

(01:03:43):
You can look that up and that'sdealing with mental health
within the community, and wealso raise funds for kids that
can't afford, like if they're atuxedo for a dance or you know
stuff like that know, yeah, yeahschool supplies you know stuff
like that.
Well, that all ties into mentalhealth, right right so so, yeah,
so we do fundraisers for themas well and for that non-profit.

(01:04:05):
And I have one of my cousins,eric edwards.
He lives in alvin and he's ateacher and coach at alvin
junior high, but he's on thenon-profit with me and he's
awesome and he's helping meraise funds for different things
and he's kicking butt doingthat too.

Speaker 2 (01:04:21):
So so saturday april 13th 13.
Tell the people why they shouldbe there and what are you
supporting?

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
yeah, so, um, april 13th 11 am, uh, there's right
after the we're gonna have aprayer and the national anthem
and then right after the we'regoing to have a prayer and the
national anthem and then rightafter that there's going to be a
MC ride that's going to leavethe park right after that and
then the event starts.
But we are supporting therebonding of the community and

(01:04:49):
first responders and veteranshere.
Over the last 10 years or so,you know that bond has been
slowly separating and it'll be agood deal to bring that back
together with the community ortheir people in uniform.
So they're here to serve us andwe need to be there to help
them as well, because they'rethere helping us overseas.

Speaker 2 (01:05:09):
Can they find the information online?

Speaker 3 (01:05:12):
Yeah, so on Facebook there's an actual event page for
it the Hometown Heroes eventand you'll see all our sponsors
and stuff there.
There will be a I think Imentioned the live auction.
Yeah yeah, yeah, so that'll beat 3 o'clock.
That's going to be huge.
If y'all can make that, make it.
Invite your whole family outthere.
There'll be food out there,different kinds of food, tons of

(01:05:34):
vendors for shopping, bouncehouses for the kids, different
raffles and a lot of informationout there for people that need
help.
Or if you know anybody thatneeds help, you can go out there
and we can load you up withsome info on where to get help.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Dope man, I appreciate you both for being
guests on the show today.
It means a lot and thank youfor dropping knowledge.
Man, always giving back to thecommunity, taking care of our
youth, our veterans, our firstresponders.
I look forward to working withyou guys and learning you know
as we grow.
You got a friend in me now.

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
Look, oh my, oh wait, I'm not supposed to talk right,
you got it talk.
One thing that I left out isI'm doing leadership development
for the youth between the agesof 5 through 14 during the
summer months, and I'll also bedoing some summer programs for
kids.

(01:06:27):
So, parents, if you're lookingfor opportunity for your
children to be engaged inleadership development,
relationship, skill building,social skills, you know, again
connect with me and it's goingto be special.

Speaker 2 (01:06:41):
Awesome.

Speaker 4 (01:06:41):
Amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
Be sure to buy some tickets for the raffle oh go
ahead and be sure to check infor the run to recovery.
So the 5k that's going to be atthe event.
At 10 am we're going to bedoing sign-ups, so just show up,
and at 10 am we'll havesomebody out there taking
payment.
And what do we want to do?
$20 a person.

Speaker 4 (01:07:04):
Yeah, so for kids that are between the age of zero
through, you know there couldbe some crawling out there.
Zero to 17 is 15.
And then 18 and up is 25.
Okay, 25.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
Yeah, 15, and then 18 and up it's 25.
Okay, 25, yeah so, and then youknow, and we'll take venmo and
everything else too, or in cashas well, but but yeah, that run
will be, we're gonna do what.

Speaker 4 (01:07:25):
10 to 11 yeah, it's gonna be 10 to 11.
Please show up by 9 15.
There you go, 9 15 and then wewill.
We'll get going and if you beatme or Matt, you might get a
donut.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
You driving in the car, you driving the car, you
running the room.
Matt got to work.
Excuses.

Speaker 3 (01:07:50):
I heard excuses I might walk.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Yeah, baby, as always , if you're in crisis, be sure
to call 988 or text 988.
If you're a veteran, press 1.
And if you're uncomfortable, besure to just man reach out to
somebody, as always.
You know we love you.
And Charlie Mike, Yo yo yo.

(01:08:12):
What's going on?
Everybody, it is me, SouljaHard Hardwell, Redcon1 Music
Group and thank you forlistening to Charlie Mike, the
Podcast, Yay.

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