EP425: Lt Col Todd Perry - Courage In Every Chapter

In this powerful episode, Kris sits down with veteran Lt Col Todd Perry to explore a life shaped by service, sacrifice, and resilience.

Todd shares his journey through the military, the lessons he’s carried into civilian life, and the ways leadership and discipline continue to guide him today.

Their conversation highlights the weight of service, the importance of brotherhood, and the ongoing mission to support veterans as they transition into new chapters of life.

FOLLOW FOR MORE:

www.linkedin.com/in/todd-perry-5069379/

@kristopherpace

www.kristopherpace.com

Episode Transcript

(00:11):
I am positively Chris Pace and you are actively listening to
Conversations with Chris. So we're back again.
It's me, Chris and Conversationswith Chris.
And I am here with a very, very special guest today who
surprised me with the opportunity to talk to him.
His name is Todd Perry, and actually he is Major Todd Perry,
and he's going to tell us about his story because if I tried to

(00:33):
sum this up, it wouldn't make any sense.
So I'm going to go ahead and lethim do it for you.
And then I'm going to help decipher all of these
terminologies that we have here.Todd, how are you, brother?
Good, good son. Not to be whatever, but I'm
Colonel Perry. But.
Colonel Perry, No. No, you're good.
I think you got my bio for majorpromotable, but no, no, I'm
doing well. It's good to see you man.

(00:54):
It's good to talk to you. Man, Colonel Perry, I got to go
ahead and salute that. I mean, that's, yeah.
I was like, you shouldn't say anything, but I was like, Oh no,
I'm a Colonel Perry. No, you have to.
It's like, be what I'm telling, you know, it's not master
anymore. I was grandmaster.
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Yeah, yeah. You got to get the ranks
corrected, OK? And not a lot of people.
Yeah, Colonel. So tell how everything happened,
man. You came from Where and when did

(01:15):
you? And what?
How did you? You've been in the military
forever. You.
Went long time, yeah. And I've been out.
Yeah, yeah. 97, Yeah, Yeah. No.
So I was, it's funny, I was thinking about that.
So I'm from Atlanta and I was a skater punk in the 80s all
through high school. My one of my main goals from
what I remember was just to get AVW Bug and go out to California

(01:35):
and live on the beach and surf. Tony Hawk.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, I wasn't quite that skill level, but you know, the
whole thing because it's just kind of funny looking back,
like, I wish I was more studious, you know, made
straight A's, maybe gone to one of the service academies and,
and ended up here. But so ended up going to
University of Georgia, graduatedthere, thought that I was going

(01:59):
to go to like a Embry Riddle or a flight safety down in Florida
like Vero Beach or that area. And my, well, the truth of it is
my dad wasn't going to pay for it.
So I ended up moving down to Sarasota, was taking flight
lessons. We're going to go to the
airlines, decided to enlist. And it was the classic story.

(02:19):
Not to say, you know, the, the recruiters are like the used car
salesman, but I said, listen, I want to be a Warrant Officer.
And they said, well, we've already had two people try this
year and they had over 1000 hours.
Why don't you just enlist? And so it was kind of appealing
to me. I thought maybe I'll do like
infantry or something. And the funny part of the story
since I'm telling everything wasI was a Cav Scout, which is a
19D armored reconnaissance specialist, which is about

(02:41):
essentially the same as infantry.
But they showed me the videos ofthem riding on motorcycles.
And apparently the Cav Scouts haven't ridden on motorcycles
since like the 1970s. And so I get the basic training.
Like, you idiot, you're not, youknow, there's no motive.
And so, you know, I enlisted just to become a Warrant
Officer. So, and I'm glad I did it.
You know, I often joke my, my resume, sort of my military

(03:04):
resume sort of briefs. Well, but it basically means I
was just kind of clueless, just kind of stumbling along.
But I was enlisted, did two years, made E5 or Sergeant and
then became a war and then went to Warrant Officer candidate
school was a Warrant Officer, two Apaches, did Korea and then
did the initial invasion of Iraqand O 30 with backing up a

(03:28):
little bit. So the funny part of the story
is I was always a closet Black Hawk guy at UH-60 Black Hawk
because I'm sure the Air Force is the same and I know a little
bit of just being around so long, you know, different Marine
stuff served with and and Air Force clouds and stuff.
But the fighter I would imagine the fighter jet community has
their own distinct sort of a bravado or or ethos or

(03:50):
mentality. The Apache gun we call it gun
pilot. It was a gun pilot.
That community is is distinct. But all through flight school, I
I worked my tail off made decentgrades was OK pilot not not top
of the class, but near, near to get Blackhawks and I end up
getting Blackhawks to Honduras. But they had right before we

(04:12):
were assigned. We graduated and it was a couple
months before we went to our ouradvance different.
They had a shortage of Apache pilot.
So I had to go to Apaches and I went to Korea and I was always
like joke, like a closet Blackhawk guy.
So near about mid mid through going through my six year
commitment, I was looking at either getting out trying to go
to the airlines or going to Coast Guard and I came across

(04:33):
the direct Commission to medevacand I thought, and right around
the time I was reading in the company heroes by Michael
Durant. And if you're familiar with
that, I recommend it. It's a great book.
It's he's a Blackhawk dancing, you know, he was shot down in in
Mogadishu in 93161 sixty specialoperations aviation regiment

(04:53):
master, you know, a pirate. So he wrote a book, but the
beginning of the book is he's ina snowstorm in Korea by medevac
before 160th. You know, he was a conventional
army guy. And I was kind of, that wasn't
the whole reason why I went, butI was kind of taken back and not
taken back. But I'm kind of inspired by
that. And then, you know, we were in

(05:15):
sort of the thick of the two wars, you know, it was the, the
mid 2000s. And I thought, no, I want to,
I'd rather save soldiers and save, save our, our brothers and
sisters on the ground than destroy them or whatever
they're, you know, shoot back guys.
And so transitioned. And that's what I've been doing
ever since. Right now I'm actually in a
soldier recovery unit. I have a, a medical condition

(05:38):
that I'm medically retiring. So I'll be kind of doing both.
I'll be medically retiring and then, you know, doing the
official retirement sometime this early spring.
So you went in and listed was a Warrant Officer and then became
an officer and made Colonel? Yes, like Colonel, but yes,
yeah, yeah. So you're like your little
plaque thing is going to have a whole lot of stuff.

(06:00):
The whole thing. Yeah.
Like I joked it in the military,it was a enlisted warrant and an
octavicious officer. All three, yeah.
Well, it's funny because a good friend of mine, Eric Anderson,
he, he actually did it kind of he he's one of the only other
ones that I've known. I mean, I've known a few, you
know, the he was an Air Force refueler.
He's a, he's a remarkable guy. And then we were warrant

(06:22):
officers together. He was a Apache Guard guy.
And now he's a Naval experimental test pilot about to
make O6. So he he's, he's really great.
But yeah, you know, it's funny. And like I joked about, I mean,
it, it, it breathes well, but itjust means that kind of like
fumbled through. And you know, they say the whole
God bless the broken road or whatever.
So who, you know, kind of like your story, you know what I'm

(06:43):
saying? Like it's funny where where, you
know, you plan a certain way andthen it doesn't work out.
And here we are. And it was, I'm a believer and,
and Christ specifically, but in God and like, I believe there's
a plan, whichever belief system you might have, you know what I
mean? I believe strongly that there's
a, there's a plan there. We just sort of have to just

(07:05):
gladly accept it. Because you and I are still
here, and we didn't come this far just to come this far.
Right, right, right. Here we are.
Yeah, yeah. There's no reason we should
still be here. Let's be honest.
How many times have we? Oh yeah, spot where we were
like, OK, here we go. This is it.
Yeah, and sorry to keep cutting in, but it's funny because just
a quick story. So where was my mom?

(07:27):
Oh, yeah. Well, no, no.
They asked my mom if she was afraid during my first
appointment and she said Todd survived high school.
I think I'm OK. So.
So probably like you, you know, we are lucky to be here.
Exactly the same. I was like, wow people, I think
I was voted most likely to succeed and most likely to end
up dead. I think I won two senior

(07:48):
superlatives and they were like polar opposites and so I'm glad
that I went this route. Yeah, exactly that you weren't
here. Yeah.
You know, like you said too, I mean, I I knew what I wanted to
do and then once one incident happened, it ruined that.
And then at the time, it was theworst thing that ever happened.
To me, yeah, yeah, it's. The best thing that ever
happened to me because had it not happened, I would have never
found yoga. I would never be right now.

(08:10):
So it's like that whole like story that, you know, they tell
about the Chinese farmer, you know, the maybe the maybe, yeah,
maybe. You never know what the long
term. And so here you are 28 years and
you get the light Colonel, you get E5.
You know how many? You covered all the warrant
officers, I'm sure. Yeah, well, just CW two.

(08:32):
I was a junior, but yeah. So then what happened after
that? What did you do with that?
I mean, that sounds like a lot of a lot of excitement for a
very short. And so then you've had 20 plus
years since then and you've justbeen running through the through
the ranks, huh? Yeah, and it's been medevac
since 2006, so I guess that's funny.

(08:53):
And actually it'll be 20 years, but yeah, just remarkable.
I it's funny. I was listening to the Tim
Ferriss or No, it was a learningleader.
I forgot the guy's name. I think it's Ryan Holiday.
He was interviewing Tim Ferriss.And at the end he said, hey,
Tim. I think it was related to like
he was asking him. Well, no, he, he wasn't asking

(09:16):
them how he's such a wise investor because you know, he
got in on like Spotify early andUber and this, but he asked
them, how do you, what do you sort of, I guess a broad spoke
like recommend to people like how did you sort of achieve?
And he said something, the effect of when you hang around
great people, like, let's say you hang around with like some
expert yoga people or expert jujitsu, whoever, they also

(09:40):
coincidentally tend to hang around like other great people.
And I mean that and, you know, everybody's great, right.
But like expert people, high, high Cal people.
And yeah. And I can't remember what.
Oh, the reason why I wanted to tie that back to, to, to sort of
my thing is, you know, I feel like being in the military,
you're, you're really lucky because you're, you're, you're

(10:03):
already in a, a, a group of people who sort of signed on the
line and they're in it. You know, obviously it's like
they say to militaries, a cross section of society.
So you get your, you get across the board.
But for the most part, I've beenreally lucky just to just to not
just even across mainly the Army, right, But we've done so
many joint and combined operations out the years.
It's just I've been really lucky.

(10:24):
That's kind of one thing I wanted to throw in just so it's
my story. But you know, been lucky to hang
around with some heroes you know.
Yeah, when you're hanging aroundpeople like you have and warrant
officers and pilots and you knowmake them rank that quickly,
you're going to be around some of the best of the best.
And I tell you, you are the cumulative some of the five
closest people in your life. So if you write down those

(10:44):
people's. Positive.
That's who you are. So if you're always elevating
your game by hanging out with better people, Zig Ziglar said
it best. In order to reach the top, you
have to help others reach the top because.
Then that. Pushes you there.
So you know, it's like if you'rehanging out with five smokers,
you're going to become the 6th 1:00.
If you hang out with five millionaire, you're going to

(11:05):
become the 6th 1. Yeah, yeah.
It's funny because I was just talking to my parents about
like, the stuff with our siblings.
And when they say like the things that seem so rudimentary
and so aside, because, you know,when your parents tell you
stuff, it just goes one earn outthe other, like do chores, get a
job early, work, earn your pay, you know, work hard and then

(11:29):
you'll kind of see how that helps you later on in life.
And I was given a little bit of a silver spoon early on.
You know, I joined the Army and I feel like that's where I kind
of like had to had to like earn my keep and stuff.
But you know, I guess what I wasgoing to head back to you was
they always tell you too, like your parents don't hang out with
those kids. You know, those kids did the

(11:49):
best. They hang out with the good, you
know, the kids that study or theband or the cross country,
whatever. And there's truth to that.
You know what I mean? You.
It's sort of like that Mark Twain quote.
Mark Twain quote. What does he say?
Where when I was 18, I couldn't believe how how dumb my dad was.
I'm completely botching it. And then when I turned 28, I
couldn't believe how much he learned in 10 years.

(12:10):
Like you're like, as you get older, you're like, oh, it's the
same concept. It's whether it's kids in high
school or even now, like. And yeah.
And one of the things about hanging out with great people is
part of greatness is exactly like you're saying.
I think it was a bigger quote that they're selfless and that
they're they're not toxic. They're all about building other
people up. Maybe they also created whatever

(12:32):
it is, like they're general or they created Uber or they
Grandmaster, whatever it is, they've also they get there.
It's like the by building othersup, you know, like they're
saying 100. Percent, man, all the best
people I know. They live their life for other
people and for themselves. And honestly, that's what well,
I surround myself with. That's the people.
I've reached. Just like our previous guest,

(12:54):
Allison, your sister. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tell me about that. What was childhood like with
her? Which one of you?
Guys, yeah. So it's great.
She's she's phenomenal. So it's funny.
I was saying like I was a skaterpunk.
She was kind of like a bit of anemo chick like in in high school
and then she stayed in Atlanta did Georgia State.
I went up to Athens for school still Georgia, but for and then

(13:16):
she moved to to Portland to do her marital and family
counseling Portland State University and get her amazing
story, which we talked about, which I'm often just in awe of
right after 9/11. She was in start of all of the
soldiers so you're sorry with members and so she worked for
the VA and VA is awesome. So I can say, oh, she was her

(13:40):
experience in the VA maybe wasn't the best and so that's
when she was inspired to kind ofGod on the lands helped
soldiers. She had a vision of sheet farm
and a Hospice and ended up just staying an Austin family
documentary. I'm sure she talked about cover
Central Oregon veteran branch. And so yeah, she's
coincidentally in Denver now, which is great because I'm down

(14:00):
in Colorado Springs and it's in a retiring state.
We're so we're in the same same AO or they saw.
Yeah, she talked about you a lotand so and then she's got a book
coming out soon. And yeah.
Got cooked and now she's on my Advisory Board.
But she's been so kind. She's literally just, yeah, help
me in any way she could, any chance she could.

(14:20):
That's the kind. Of yeah, it's awesome.
That's what she when she told meabout you, I was like, I would
love to talk to him. And she was like, well, he's he
made. I wanted to do the show right
away and I was like, he's got a lot going on.
And I was like, I want patience.So I'll just wait around.
Yeah, that was good. It was great too.
Like, I mean, I have kids and stuff, but it was more just
like, because I trained out to my kids and it's funny when it's
happening to you. I was like, you know, they say,

(14:41):
like moms, what is it? Protect their children from the
world and dads threaten their children with the world and not
literally, but meaning like we're the ones that kind of push
them off the diving board or youdon't want to do baseball.
You're going on the team. And whether you said the bench
or and it was funny because whenyou said I was like, Chris, can
you can we meet up? I've never done a podcast.
Can we talk? I was like no man, just dump in
and do it. Always feed first.

(15:04):
My buddy dove in the water and snapped the CTC.
Yeah. And I'm sure it's like that.
When you started, it was like, what am I doing?
Oh my. Gosh, it was so bad.
The first time. I had a $20 lapel mic that I
cooked on my hat and it had so much static.
And if you go listen to like thefirst episode ever and I was
being made to do it. I didn't want to get on the
Internet. And see.

(15:25):
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
And I was like, I'm so vulnerable, so vulnerable.
You know, I was nervous, but like, hundreds and hundreds of
people listened to it. And so I was like, OK, I'll do
another one. More people, more people, more
people. And I was like, well, if people
are going to listen, I'm going to keep talking, you know, like.
Good for you, man. Yeah, but there's some saying
about like, you'll never be ready, right?

(15:47):
You'll never be. It's never perfect.
You just got to start. Prepare for this.
It's just a conversation. That's why I called it
conversation with Chris. Not like that, yes, or podcast
with Chris, because it's not really that.
It's just a conversation We justget together to.
Talk. Yeah, yeah. 55.
Yeah, yeah, 15 to everything, tothe post, Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

(16:10):
How many girls and boys? Three girls and two boys and
they like they ended up like thefirst three are girls and then
the younger 2 are the boys so. So you get to finish up with the
easy ones. Yeah, well, yeah, harder when
they're younger, but in theory easier when they're older.
We'll see. They got three boys, 2717 and
13. Let me tell you what no.
Way dude not. Easier when they get older.

(16:32):
OK, OK, so that you know how they always say, oh, boys are
harder when they're OK, great. They get into this whole
manipulative, I don't want to bein my dad's shadow.
I wanted to do my own thing and be my own man.
And I guess I get the same thingtoo, you know?
Like, no, I know, right? It's like that was sounded by
the kid, the stories, your parent or whatever the thing you
were talking about earlier, likewhen your parents tell you stuff
and just don't, it's sort of like here.
Like a thing I always say is this, I was on a ski slope years

(16:54):
ago and this guy was telling me that.
Yeah man, we were talking about teaching our kids and he's like,
I'm an expert here or whatever. He's like I tried like 5 times
to teach my kids. Let him have a lesson, 1 lesson.
They're good. It's just something with like
your parents voice. It's like you, you just probably
we still do the same thing, right?
Like, yeah, you just don't. Yeah.
So you have three boys. Just the three boys.

(17:16):
Yeah, three boys. That's cool.
That's cool. I'm doing stuff now.
So it's like, you know, they're on there.
And to me it's like once you hit18 or even before that, like a
parenting is a part time job. You should be trying to get your
kids to be able to function in society as quickly as possible.
Quickly. Yeah.
Yeah. You know, so if you can get them
out by 18, it's like I told my sons, I said, look, I'll always

(17:38):
be your father, but I'm no longer your daddy.
So figure it out. You got to go live, you know,
you got to go do your thing. And I encourage and support
whatever they decide to do as long as it's positive and not
hurting anyone. But.
You know, they're good kids, They've got good head on their
shoulders. And my oldest tried to go in the
Army, but he couldn't get in dueto, you know, whatever

(17:59):
reasoning. But you know, he gave it a shot.
And so that's cool. But you know, he's happy and
he's doing his thing. And then to have their own
little, little spins on life. But I swear, if you took me,
split me into three pieces, there would be those three boys.
Like that's how much it's like. That's cool.
So how old is 13 and how old is the middle one?
17. Oh wow, so about to graduate

(18:22):
this year or wow, that's. A graduate.
So it's a it's an interesting time.
You know, it's like everybody's scattering, but same time my own
stuff to take care of so I'm offand running and doing all my
things and, you know, got Olympic stuff and world
championship and etcetera, etcetera.
I was just doing podcasts and teaching yoga mostly and then

(18:44):
all of a sudden out of nowhere Iget flown to India and then I
get followed and told that I'm going to bring America to India
for the World Championships and I was like, Oh yeah, cool, cool.
Yeah, I guess I'll do that because I'm not.
So you know, it's been, it's been fun, I'd like to say that,
but it's also been extremely difficult.
Like I've been through astounding challenges that were
been. The travelling and family and.

(19:07):
Beyond that, I was exploited by my caretaker.
I was a domestic violence victim.
Just about a month ago my younger brother died, 44 years
old and so oh. Man, I'm sorry.
My only little brother, my only blood, and.
Only a month ago. Yep.
It's been fresh. So it's been a lot of good
things, a lot of great things, and then a lot of really bad

(19:28):
things. But I don't call them good or
bad. I just say healthy, unhealthy
because like I said, God's got aplan and God knows.
What to do? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's all there to teach us. Sometimes it's all like, why?
God's life. That's why just keep going.
Just keep moving. I have a firm belief an object
stays in emotion until it's met with an object of equal or more

(19:48):
force. I don't believe there's anything
out there that can stop me, so as long as stop moving, I'm
going to keep going. And that's.
What? I like that man.
So that's what I keep doing. I said just keep going.
Even if you're in the wrong direction, you can always move
to slightly. Yeah.
Tell me, what's your favorite was in the military?
What's been the best highlight moment of your entire career?
I won't ask what the worst one was because I don't want to know

(20:10):
because I already know. Kind of.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now it's funny, I just do the
thing that comes right off the top of my head, which is which
just whatever, because I'm sure if I thought and researched that
it'll be more. But it was a medevac mission we
had in the Haditha Dam during the surge.
It was an Iraqi police officer That was that was, that was he

(20:34):
ended up being killed his bloody, you know, disgust.
And, and as we're racing to the,to, to get him to the combat
support hospital, it was so intense that I forget his first
name because you know, I'm big on first names, even the Army,
when like, in fact, I'll ask, Hey, can I call you your first
name instead of Sergeant Somers or whatever?

(20:56):
But it was Sergeant Albright. And then anyway, our crew
chiefs, he was a medic. He, he was doing CPR so and so
for so long because it was abouta 45 minute play that our crew
chief ended up having to do it. And then I marvelled on if we
found could sound dumb or whatever, but I just remember,
thanks for a second. I wasn't on the controls and

(21:18):
Kevin Aikens was the the guy on the controls.
And I just remember looking out and thinking, man, this is
awesome. All three dudes.
I'm fine with her. But you know, I mean it just for
seven. And that has and I've always
been one of the things I say about the Army.
I'm not got to be careful. I'm a white male, but like I
say, hey, man, we're all green like it does.
None of this even matters. Like one thing that I wasn't I

(21:38):
kind of wanted to mention for our thing, like that's one thing
I've been maybe I've just been lucky, but that come across
virtually 0 racism or prejudice and military career.
It's just been and does that mean the military is promotes
that or is like that? It's been that way for me.
But anyway, I just thought, you know, this is awesome, man.
We're busting our ass. These guys are three of the top

(21:59):
most professionals and we're busting our ass for these people
in this country. And kind of the reason why I
think that all comes to to lightis I'm sitting with Sergeant
Albright. We were a very tiny sort of
combat office. And it was really cool with the
Marines. We were sporting the Marines and
the Iraqis were it was like a fence that separated us because
they were there during the sort of, you know, the training room
and do all this. And I say that to say it was so

(22:21):
small that we had to monitor ourown radios.
Like if you were either not on duty, typically, you know, you
have like a flight OPS kid. And so we're sitting there
sipping coffee and, and if Sarn Albright said he never calls to
check on his patients, that's kind of a thing a lot of medics
do. Like they're the first
responder. So they do their thing and they

(22:42):
leave and they don't want to like get caught up on the maybe
nurses. I mean, nurses are there
typically, but like, they don't want to get, I don't know, like
emotionally, they said, you know, I called the cash and I
had a feeling this guy didn't make it because he said that he
he had a dream that night. So I know, but where the guy
walked up to him and thanked himand walked back into like the

(23:03):
great beyond. And I was like, I was like, wow,
man, I'm sitting there sipping coffee.
It's just like one of those sortof, if you'd say Zen moments.
But you know, it was, it was really touching.
And it's just stuff like that, you know, and it'd be like, you
don't have to be in the military.
We all have our different, our different career paths where
certain things happened. But that wasn't.
Yeah, it was the first thing that came to mind.

(23:24):
So it certainly is the thing that I, I remember and I would
say is the best part of the military as well, is that there
is no race. We're all green.
Yeah. And everybody's to watch
everybody's back. And that's what the Brotherhood
is about. The community is strong.
And you know under any doubt that whoever was watching my 6
Right every time. It'd be, yeah, man, woman,

(23:45):
doesn't matter, orientation and all that.
Like dire straits. So like, you've got to be
everyone. 'S on top.
No, Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's complicated enough.
It's not like you're like, oh, wait, wait, Sir, no, man.
It's like, OK, let me see you rank your competence.
Let's do this. Yeah.
And it's funny because one of the things that comes to mind is

(24:06):
I'm actually doing my MBA now upat Boulder, like a hybrid
program. And we're covering executive
presence for, like, communication.
And they one of the studies saysthat the first two things people
notice about you are warmth and competence.
I'm sorry. They say the two biggest things
they notice are warmth, incompetence and warmth is 1st.

(24:28):
And it kind of just made me think about that.
I was like, dude, even OK rank sure, right, Because it's not
for this rank mates organization.
But like now man, if you have that warmth and really the
competence and that's one thing.Or maybe I have some sayings
because like if people didn't have competence, maybe I was,
you know, a bit, you know, unforgiving or whatever.
But that's kind of your basic 2 criteria.

(24:50):
Warmth is with the human phone, but like, yeah, if you, if you,
you either can do the job or youcan't.
And so, yeah, so that's. A That's a really good way to
put it. I mean, I've never heard it in
that terms, but if I like that alot, Warmth and incompetence I.
Mean yeah, yeah, I kind of suck a lot of.
Warmth, even the competence could be less and you'll let it
go. But if you don't have more than

(25:11):
your confidence, better, yeah. You know, like, yeah.
That's the only way I can. Say it.
Yeah. And you and you might have had
this experience like specifically in the military,
maybe even what you're doing nowand throughout your thing.
But I used to say when I was younger, because I feel like my
experience was the leaders that I had or people were either
really like a total jerk and really, really good at their job

(25:33):
or a really nice person but stuck to their job.
And then as I as I got older andstated, I was like, no man.
I was like, we're good with people who are both like they're
good dudes and they're but yeah,because you know, we had that
whole thing where we talked about toxic.
That was a big theme in the military, like 20 tens.
And we'd always say like, I can't define it, but I know it
when I see it. Yeah, Yeah.

(25:55):
Well, I think as you make rank, you end up getting down to those
top notch people, you know, the ones that have both and.
Probably, yeah. You know.
The difference but also I don't know.
I've had some commanders that I was like.
How that? Yeah.
There was like a crack in the system.
Yeah, yeah. Who did your daddy know?
Because you are not supposed to be here, you know?

(26:16):
Yeah, yeah. Whether it's competence or like
you're saying or they're human relation.
Far between, Colonel. So tell me about all these
metals, man. You probably have a nice little
rack on your your dress uniform that's.
Good. No, not really.
I have. The metals are funny because

(26:36):
they kind of, they kind of. You remember the scene, I think
it was from trains, Trains and automobiles where Danny DeVito
is showing it's either Steve Barton or junk or one of the
other guys, his coin collection.It's a scene where it's funny
where and I remember he says this quarter, because the guy's
looking like that quarter's likea 1983.
It's like this is the one I got from my father at Staten Island,

(27:00):
you know, whatever. And the medals are kind of like
that. Like I, I don't have the Medal
of Honor. I don't have a silver star or a
distinguished fine clouds are. But it's like the the Navy
Achievement Medal is one of my favorites because it was like,
well, because you know how in the military too, it's something
that not, not a lot of Army people have, but it was just for
like a six month deployment. Army achievement Metal also

(27:23):
right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But it's just sort of like the ones where you look at it and
you're like, even if it's just like it would be different
things for you in the Air Force,but like a certificate of
achievement, it's like, but if it was something from when I was
like those that was enlisted, I was like, man, this means as
much to me as like whatever thisair metal or whatever, you know?
Nobody I ever knew that served did anything for metals or for

(27:46):
most of the time, right. We don't even wear.
We wear what we have to and we don't change our racket.
I know. Yeah, exactly.
Very. Cool, do I have to have this one
on? Nope.
Okay, great, in a drawer. Yeah, you're like, and
everybody's always like, one of the things with me is like, Sir,
just give me the thing I don't want.
I was like an hotel, the same HPor like Home Depot.
This is the military. We're doing the ceremony and I'm

(28:07):
going to have you in front of everybody and I'm recognizing
you because you know, they don'twant they don't want it.
They're surges. Give me the thing.
Just hand it to me. I'll put it in my file.
I'm like, no, man, this is the military dude.
We we recognize our. I went to tech school at Keesler
Air Force Base and I was, I got one day I was a yellow rope.
You know, they have the ropes and tech school and the ropes
and the, the leaders. And I'll never forget it because

(28:30):
my, my Sergeant calls me in to meet with him in the, in the
basically the break room. And I'm like, what?
You'd never call anybody to the break room, you know, But they.
Said yeah, no, no, yeah, I. Walk in, everyone is in there.
Everyone. And I walk in and he calls me up
front and he's acting like I'm in trouble.
Next thing I don't know, the base commander walks in and I'm
going Oh no, what did I do now? Yeah, right.

(28:55):
The base award and then they promoted me to red Robe and gave
me A and so I was like, but I'm here I am, you know, like I
don't. I'm just doing my thing, man.
I'm not trying to like win things.
I'm just trying to do my thing. You know, it's in the military
is don't get in trouble to stay on.
You know, it's like, and if you can do your golden, you don't

(29:15):
want to be, you don't want to goto Leavenworth and you don't
want to be Article 15. Oh, that's the goal.
It's like the guy, the guy, theysay.
I think there was one guy in my base training class where the
drill star didn't even know he was the day of graduation or
something. And it's like, you want to be
that guy, right? Right, too.
That's what my just keep your nails down, she said.
She goes you did a great job of everyone Pace, I have no idea

(29:36):
who you are. Yeah.
Yeah, there's a yeah. Thank you.
So, and they say, like, whether it's good or bad, instead of
everyone don't volunteer. You know they tell you that
early on, Yeah. That's a big deal, boy.
Which of course I would tell my kids like, you know, volunteer
or, you know, you want to be there, but it's like might not
be so bad if you don't. You see that?
So you've been in multiple branches.

(29:58):
If the kids decide to go in the military, where are you going to
steer from? Well, it's funny because my wife
Natasha says they're not joiningbecause she's, I want to say
smart, but like, well, I say, OK, well, maybe not.
I said, well, no, if they want to be Navy Seals or like, you
know, operators in the Army, Like I know.
But she she says no. But my joke before that was

(30:19):
like, I'd always say like, if you want to be an officer in the
Air Force, OK, just because, youknow, you want for your kids the
nicest, like even if you had it a little tougher, like you want,
you want to set it up. But yeah, it'll be, it'll be
funny to see because of course I'm hoping they're, you know,
accountants or you know, physician or whatever they don't
want. You.
To financial advisors. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(30:43):
And also, I mean, not that like,not that I'm not afraid of
combat, but like, life, man. I mean, we get out and we drive
on the Interstate or whatever, you know what I mean?
Like it's, it's that, you know, the, the, the guy with the
sickle or whatever can meet us at any time.
But the. But yeah, I don't know.
We'll see. I think, you know, the hardest

(31:04):
part of the military is getting out of the military.
Honestly, that's where we use those people and that's where
I'm trying to stop that from happening.
I've got the plan, I've got the solution.
I know exactly how to do it. I just got teaming up with the
right people and then get the proposal out there.
But I mean, we've got to stop this.
It's chaos. It's crazy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I wonder, you know, because
there's a lot of, yeah, I wonderif it's a lot of like, you know,

(31:29):
we have such a camaraderie and it's kind of what I'm going
through now is a joke that I wasable to have free retirement
because I'm in a soldier recovery unit.
So I'm, you know, it's virtuallynothing.
Like I go to appointments and I do therapy and I, I have what
they call adaptive things that we do, like games and things,
which I'm not going in when it'sdark, coming out when it's dark,

(31:50):
going to the field for 30 days, deploying like, but, but my
first six months I was here, I think I was almost miserable
just because I didn't have that and I didn't have that.
Like not only the camaraderie, which there's soldiers that I,
you know, I'm certainly, you know what I mean that I'm close
to and stuff, but I don't have the, the Commission, the sense
of importance. And I think that you hear those

(32:10):
stories, you know, whether it's true, the star major that does
30 years and then five months later they're or six months
later after your time or they'redead or whatever.
But you, you don't have or just have a heart attack.
Like not like what we're talkingabout, but I think, you know, I
wonder how much that plays into it that as much as as much as
especially the junior service members talk about how much they
ate it or whatever. It's like, OK, but but let's

(32:33):
talk about when you get out, youknow, whether whatever it is you
do just that, that just even outside of the military that,
you know, there's that loneliness epidemic now
apparently, but just, you know, not having the camaraderie or
the friends, It's the. Community.
It's the community. One day, you know these guys,
they got your back and they would die for you and do

(32:55):
anything for you. You know, you shower together,
you eat together. You won't go to everything
that's together. And then the next day discharged
and you're turned into society and nobody understands how you
talk. Nobody understands what you
mean. You don't have your brothers
anymore and sisters, and now you're staying here in the
middle of the society and you'venever paid bills.
You don't have no idea how to doit.
You don't know how to apply for a job.
You can't tell anybody you need help because that's a no no.

(33:17):
So you're now going to put a space where you can't
communicate. You don't know how to live and
you don't have your brothers andyou don't have anybody else.
So you feel isolated, you feel alone.
And the only way you can go to right now is the VA, which
honestly they do the best they can, but they're also lacking a
lot of areas, so. My.
Plan is to give build veteran villages actually not build

(33:38):
them. Take a base that's closed
already. Turn.
It against. Veteran Village where veterans
can come anytime they want and it's always open, have
counselors, have other vets, have all kinds of people there,
have the homeless vets running the facilities.
And that way there's a communityplace for them to gather anytime
they need to go there. They can get training there.
They can get, you know, whateverthey need.

(33:59):
And then, you know, we've got tostart evaluating and start
treating the soul that has been taken away from the body.
You know, that's big thing. They detach that to make you a
soldier. You don't feel that means when
you're in, when you get out. Yeah, yeah, you have to.
Put that back together. So there's ways to do that
through yoga, through breathing,through lots of different
modalities, and I think people like.

(34:20):
You. That's awesome, man.
Huge impact on those people because what you're doing right
now, if you step out of the military and you come help me
with that same thing. Do you know how many lives we
can save Because. You're really good at.
What you do, you've got the right personality, you've got
the training, you're relatable. Heck, it doesn't matter if they
were enlisted, warrant, or commissioned.
For two years, then, yeah. So it's like, you know it all.

(34:42):
You didn't start at the bottom, at the top.
But I mean, that's such a cool thing.
And you're also being a evac medic.
I mean, you're the perfect person, so.
I mean, it's like, now that's cool that you have that dream,
man. And it's such a vision I've had
for so long, and then living it,actually going through it and
then coming up with solutions toit as I was going through it.

(35:03):
I know that I can end it. I know I can end it completely.
I actually have an entire systemwritten down and I write it on
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Twitter page.
I have the solution to end the veteran suicide epidemic.
Contact me if you're interested in all caps.
I write it on this page. Every day.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe he contacted me.

(35:23):
Yeah. No, but last week I was supposed
to meet him. He was down here meeting my
congressman close to me, but he hadn't changed the plan, so I
didn't get. To Yeah, I was busy or.
Whatever. I mean, yeah, so my buddy Wiz,
who I had on the show, who's a Top Gun pilot, and he went into
Wall Street and now owns no Fallen Heroes Foundation.
A great guy, yeah. And he's the guy that's up

(35:47):
there. He's working with Secretary.
So Secretary Collins usually seems like he's he wants to make
some things happen. So yeah, definitely wants to
stop. Yeah, I heard him on, I think
Allison shared it on, I think itwas Shawn Ryan on his podcast.
You know he's that. That former made me seal.
But anyway, he sounds like a stand up dude secretary in VA.

(36:11):
Yeah, he seems really, really sharp, so I'm looking forward to
talking to him. I know that my proposal will be
accepted because I'm not asking for much to prove my point, but
I know that I can make it happen.
And I've figured out I'm tied inwith so many nonprofits that are
already helping veterans. And that's kind of what it's
going to take because we can't just funnel people back into
society. They've got to be sponsored

(36:31):
after they're done. They've got to take a test to be
a civilian. They've got to know how to do
certain fundamentally thing. Plus they've got to be mentally
healed, emotionally healed, spiritually healed, and then
physically healed also. And all that has to happen
before the VA. The VA is meant to be the repair
center to keep people going, butit's not meant to to heal them
when they come out. They got to transition them

(36:53):
properly. So I mean, I'm going to ask for
$15 million, one thousand troopsleaving the military in one
year. And I believe I can give you
back 1000 citizens who are well adjusted, well adapted and
living their best life. And that's kind.
Of Ah, man, I, I buy a dude not to say not to and I'm not, I'm
not being flipping like your pitch like it's, it's and you
know, I mean that most honorablemostly like it's good dude.

(37:15):
And and and then secretaries of Commons, I think he talked about
tapping into the private sector,just very bluntly putting it,
meaning like it's not just VA and government funding and this
congressional thing. It's, it's, it's, they're all
there, dude. And like I in a very sort of
like cup is full fashion. Like, yes, we have the problems

(37:36):
and yes, our veterans be like, man, how amazing is that fancy
that they've got not just like me, but like my sister.
There's so many people. I can't remember Abraham Lincoln
said something in his speech. I think that might, even if it's
completely with me, you know, Lebrun, I think he said you can
judge the character of a nation on how well they take care of
their veterans. And it was something to that

(37:57):
effect. And it's and it's just so cool
saying like, like, it's, you know what I mean?
Like it's not 0 defect. Like we're human beings.
This is a foreign world. Like whenever, but the fact that
there's that there's just so, somany people like you even talked
about like sign into all the different nonprofits.
Like it's just so cool. We're saying like we're lucky,
man. Because even early on I would

(38:19):
feel almost guilty how we were like rock stars during the mid
2000s. People just love this man.
Like I think the, the person of the year was a was a military
member in time in 2000. I think it was 3 or 4.
And I would get like, thank you for your service.
You know, I was, I remember I was on a tram in the Atlanta

(38:39):
airport and this guy insisted ongiving me a $50.00 bill.
It was the day that Saddam was captured and I, I was no, no,
no. And I said, OK, fine.
This is going on the bar tonightwhen I meet, you know, but, but,
but I would feel guilty because I'd be like, man, I remember in
this kind of fight just blah. We're not, We got back to my
rack. I was like, we can finally go to
the, the VFW, right? You know what I mean?

(39:00):
Like we're, we're better. And so we'd go in and it was
almost like a movie where like there's only like 4 or five guys
there and the record stopped. And these old Vietnam guys, I
remember they kind of looked at us like I think it was, it was
like, at least in my impression,it was kind of an initial like
meeting of the thing because where I'm going is, and this is
my personal experience, but I would feel guilty just because

(39:22):
the way they were treated, you know what I mean?
Like these were guys that saw way worse probably than the
majority of us all and, and, andto turn it back around like
we're doing them. So we're finally I, I would
almost feel like our country wasgoing through like a like a
what's the word? Not repentance, but like a like,
man, we really screwed up how wetreat those guys in the 70s and

(39:44):
the 80s and and even now and nowwe're and now we're and then
just it's, you know, you can still say we need a lot of help
and we and making those people are hurting all that.
But we're doing awesome, you know what I mean?
We're doing. Yeah, I appreciate it, man.
Intended in the right direction.I think there's a lot of great
things going on and I think we are going to accomplish what

(40:05):
needs to happen. And I believe this
administration going to pour whatever it needs to into the
nonprofits to make sure it happens because the government
can't fix the problem. That's my problem.
Because it's like your recruiter, 20 years later you
get to go back in front of your recruiter and instead of him
selling you on the military the way he did the first time, now
he's going to try and sell you on the military after 20 years.

(40:29):
Yeah, on that. You're not buying.
You're not buying. You know what I mean?
I know what you do. So the government told you, I'm
getting in there. You sign that black check up
into and including your life forthe government waived your civil
rights. And so now it's like, Nope, I
know things are different. I know things differently.
So you need a whole new group ofpeople, but you need people like
you and I people who can relate,people who can talk to them,

(40:49):
people who can love them, but also people who can look up to
get guidance from. Because, man, so many people I
know left their parents home, went in the service, have never
written a check, never paid a bill.
They get out literally in the desert one day and two days
later they're back in the streets of their hometown and
they have no idea what to do with themselves.

(41:10):
And it's like, wait, scoop thesepeople up, man.
Bring them to one place where they can all learn skill, all be
deep out processed, deprogrammed, you know what I
mean? It's got to be so big passion of
mine that been about this for a long time.
I believe the Olympic opportunity that I have is going
to bring a lot of visibility, sponsorship and financial good

(41:32):
to to the nonprofit side of it. At first I was kind of like, how
are you going to work together, you know?
Yeah. Am I going to tie these two
together or whatever? Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. And now I'm kind of figuring it
out. But it's been, you know, people
like your sister, you know, she she's paved the road.
She's really been like a, you know, a pioneer for what's going
on there and Whiz and some of these people that have forever

(41:54):
that have been fighting the goodfight, you know, like I really
put it down every day and it wasn't easy for a long time.
But like you said, 2000, September 10th, 2001, nobody
paid attention to me in uniform.September 12th, 2000.
Everyone's holding the door picking up my tap every.
I mean, thank you, glad to see you blah blah blah it.
Was yeah all. Of a sudden appreciated, you
know and. It was, yeah.

(42:15):
I love this great feeling. But yeah, a short term member,
yeah, you know, like the kids. Yeah, I never a.
Tragedy in America? Yeah, yeah.
I love how you said that, though.
You're like, you're going to fixit.
That's it. It's true.
It's. Just it's not, it's not, I'm not
going to get 22 down. I'm going to get it gone because

(42:36):
there's no. Way I'm going.
To let go, walk out of there who's never going to not going
to have somebody by their side until they're ready.
And even when they're ready, they're going to have a sponsor
and someone who checks on them daily in that area.
And I'm going to position them in a nonprofit where they
something they love. If they're into surfing, I got
one of those. You're into equine.
I got one of those. If you're into whatever you're
into, I got a nonprofit for you.But that's where we run them out

(42:59):
to this community and like a a, you give them a sponsor that
checks on them daily. Now they've got somebody to talk
to. Plus they've got a place to go
if there's a veteran village in every state.
And we've got ourselves a good plan, we've got ourselves a good
system, so. And if there's like a Marine,
you know, they're a Marine and they like, they have that thing.
Oh, man, this guy was. Yeah.
And they just click, yeah, that's cool.

(43:20):
And. Then you've got the inter rival,
you know, because obviously we love to compete against each
other and we also like to talk trash about each other.
You know what's the joke is if you served, you can talk trash
about any other branch, but if you're not, you can't talk about
any branch ever in front of anybody because we.
Protect. You know, that's one of those
big things that we're very, veryserious about.

(43:42):
Yeah. And oh, I have been joke.
I was like, I think it's just a sort of like tribal nature of
human beings because I would saylike, OK, so we're all in the
Army and we were, you know, we know Air Force and then we're in
this division and we're against all the other divisions.
We're in this brigade and all the other brigades suck.
And then we're in this battalionand we're the best battalion.

(44:02):
And my company is better than all the other companies and my
squad is but. And it's like debate on how you
just, we want to have these like, and it, I guess it's
probably like it's the competition, right?
Or, you know, it's we want to better ourselves.
But it's like, yeah, yeah, it's funny.
So what are you going to do? Get out?
I mean, I know you're going. To come.
Yeah, Sorry. You guys matter.
You know, it's funny. I was, I was trying to not to

(44:25):
say recently I've been I need tohave a better answer because I
don't know is basically it. And then I'm kind of going, I
don't know. I thought about, you know, being
AGS, like I don't want to be negative about it, but you know,
you know that not to say that like wearing the U1 day and then
mocking the next day and just having a badge and throwing a
goatee and having a cargo pants.You know, being a GS14.

(44:47):
I kind of thought that, but thenI thought, no, no, I am like I'm
getting the NBA and I'd like to like you.
I just don't know what that thing is yet, but I want to do
it. I don't know, like I thought it
like whether it's great the next, not necessarily TikTok or
Facebook or whatever, but I justdon't know what it is.
Thought about opening up a smallbusiness like with my wife like

(45:07):
to do like we were in the triathlons and mountain climb
and also but then I thought, well, I also don't want it's a
business where I'm going to haveto be there every day or I don't
know, I'll have some 16 year oldrunning the cash register who's
Navy tech. I just, I don't necessarily
think I want to do a small business and nothing against God
bless the small business, but that's the long version to say I

(45:29):
don't know. And I think that what's going to
happen is I just end up taking abreak, you know, not taking a
need for a while, but helping out with the kids and, and
finding out. But yeah, I, I kind of wish I
knew. It's really, I'm sort of a
selfish physical part of it. There's nothing I'd love.
There's nothing much more I'd love than like getting in a

(45:50):
small jet or a bigger jet and just flying around the US or the
United States for work. But it's not happening just
because, I mean, I'm a little bit older.
So it would be sort of like, I don't know, for 15 years.
And then but also I don't want to be away so long.
So that's kind of one of those like, man, my trade doesn't
quite fit. And that's a lot of like we're
talking about like I'm veteran together, like I was an

(46:12):
infantryman. What you know I was a he'd be.
A bouncer. A cop.
Yeah, you know, I was a combat engineer, like what I can expert
explosive person or whatever. But anyway, yeah.
But my short answer now is, you know, I'm not sure.
Bridge. We'll we'll find out.
For for the time being, just tell people you're going to come
help that Fioga out, because that's.

(46:33):
Something nice. OK, OK.
OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Every time. No, we did, yeah.
I'd love to just continue on ourrelationship and stuff and talk
to you more about yoga just because we did that.
I was funny. I was at the it's part of the
vision served in the 82nd Airborne and the headquarters.
It's that might sound cool, but no, we were like, you know, we

(46:53):
weren't like AZ three staff or the OR the you know, this.
We were like the surgeon. So because I was medevac, but we
would do for our physical training, we would do, it was
either once a week or twice a week yoga.
And it was so good. It was like, because, you know,
you know, the thing with yoga, alot of us are like, wait, but
you know what I mean? Like my wife likes it, whatever.
But it was like, Nah, man. That's like, you know, it's sort

(47:15):
of like, it's not necessarily like how they say rest as a
weapon, but there's a thing withthat that's like whether you do,
you know, your hard weight or your cardio or whatever it is
you do that's, I don't know, man.
It's like a, it's sort of like athing that's sort of like Blues
it all together. You're the, the blue that holds
it all together. So.
Yeah, a lot. Of people don't realize that

(47:36):
yoga is a is an 8 limb path and stretching is only one piece of
it and the real purpose of stretching is only to make your
body not having any discomfort when you meditate.
So that's the whole point why they stretching yoga.
It's not about the physical aspect, it's about making your
body comfortable. But obviously nobody's ever
said, and I wish I didn't stretch like the other day,

(47:56):
'cause after stretching you feelamazing, right?
But, and you know, for years it was like, hey, man, you got to
do yoga for the girls. And I'm like, well, if you got
to pick a work environment, not about Jews, right?
So, but obviously it's taking mea lot further than I ever
thought. No one offered me yoga teacher
or Grand Master of yoga in high school as an opportunity.

(48:17):
I didn't know that that was a yoga teacher.
So, I mean, we don't know what'scoming ahead of us, but we do
know that if we keep going, well, it's going to be something
and it's. Something, yeah, You know, have
you thought about? Are you writing all your stuff
down? Like, have you thought about
writing a book? Sorry I keep cutting you off,
but no. No, I've got six of them.
I guess it's being written rightnow that I've I've got four of

(48:40):
them that I'm still putting together.
But good man, and. It came to me and they're
they're very, very, very different than anything that's
ever been written before. And I've got them, yeah, because
I love the. Yeah, I love the like the yeah,
cool. Yeah, I love the like the being
in motion, you know what I mean?Like name like the three laws of

(49:03):
motion or whatever. But yeah, just on a more like
relatable level. Like, no man, I'm just going to
keep going. Yep.
You know, keep going. That's cool.
And also I think that. You know, yeah, I think that you
can go ahead. You're so versatile and so, you
know, easy to talk to. You can do anything you want, so
why not do it all? And I mean really.

(49:23):
Yeah, cool. Cool is to do it through
something that's going to allow you access to all the things
that all the people that you really want to be around when
I'm not doing the nonprofit stuff I'm working for other
nonprofits and then I'm also go I live on base because I love
being around like the. Bills, I do you.
I volunteer at Macdill to teach special OPS meditation because I

(49:45):
think that those guys need it the most, you know, So it's like
I've done RWB commercials. I've done, you know, wonder
stuff. I just had Wounded Warriors
family and friends CEO on yesterday.
And so I mean, just, you know, Iam all for anything that anybody
wants to do to help veterans because we need it.
You know, there's not really a lot of systems in place.

(50:07):
And so, you know, your sister, Icalled her the other day because
I submitted an RFP to get a Wellness app for the VA.
They're looking for somebody to do it.
I'm like, well, who better than a grandmaster of yoga who also
is a disabled vet who found yoga.
They saved him. That's inspiration, right?
And I'm a guy's guy, so people they'll take my class.
So I call your sister and I'm like, hey, can you help me out

(50:29):
with this? She's like, what do you need?
I go just for you to run the company.
I'm like I have the ideas but I don't know the I don't know how
to be a CEOI don't want to be a CEOI just want build it and make
it successful. I'm a busy guy.
That's right, you have the visionary, but then you've got
people like her who I would giveher the company in two seconds
to run it because she could do it.

(50:50):
You know, she's a she's got it all the things.
And like she says, Chris, the reason why people jump on board
with you is because you've got so much passion and so much
heart for what you're doing thatit's so contagious.
You just can't help it. And I was like, she's not the
she's not the most complimentaryand like, you know, up when you
first meet her. And so when she said that to me,
I thought, wow, that's a really nice compliment.

(51:12):
So from a really. Yeah, that's cool.
Yeah. Reminds me of, like, one of my
sons. Like, he's not very
affectionate. And so I joke with the name
Nathan is like Nathan rations his compliments or his hugs.
And so when you get them, they're like that much better,
you know, like. They're special.
Yeah. Yeah, safe to say, based on this
little, first of all, you got upgrade.

(51:32):
You're a light Colonel now, so you're no longer major because
that's very important. Your shadow box is going to be a
big one. All the things around it, I
don't know. Is it a circle instead of a
triangle? Because you got so many drinks
just talking to you one time andseeing all this stuff.
You have so much to offer. Stay with me, dude.

(51:53):
Stay with me. We need to keep working together
and keep things happen. I could use your expertise, your
knowledge, your skill sets, everything you got and believe
me, we can make a difference in the world and we could still
help the same people you were saving before, but now we can.
Do yeah, yeah, yeah, man. And I hope you go far, dude.
And like people that are listening, hope you all are
getting something out of this cause what Chris is doing is

(52:16):
awesome. And it's just cool listening to,
you know, listen to some of yourpodcasts.
Just listening to the conversation where you get like
you get Nuggets out of them and whatever that thing is, maybe
that something needs that someone needs.
Hopefully they're getting out ofthis, you know?
Yep. And that's, I mean, I like to
believe that I can connect people to the right people.
And if I can do that, I can findSomeone Like You and I find

(52:37):
somebody who needs Someone Like You, connect you and bam,
solution, you know. And so I've been getting out
usually to make money. I think they call it a broker.
But now I've, you know, kind of let all that go now.
And now it's all about connecting people for better
'cause, you know, solve problems, fix solutions.
They say Elon Musk, the thing hedoes best in the world, as he

(52:59):
walks into his company, he says,what's the biggest problem we
have? He finds a solution to it, move
on. And then he goes to the next
company he owns and does the same thing.
So to me, it's those solution, those problem solving people are
the ones that keep things in motion.
And as we just discussed, as long as it's in motion, it'll
stay in motion. Yeah, right.
So we've got. Some, yeah.
And like you're saying, probablythe biggest problem we have is

(53:20):
is suicide, right. As far as I mean, there's not
the problem, but that would thatwould probably be the for
obvious reason, the biggest one.Yeah, man.
So yeah, you're tackling. That's cool. 700 to 1400 troops
a year. Yeah, crazy.
Yeah. One of the things this is kind
of just we're out there, but like we recently had a he was a

(53:40):
staff Sergeant soldier that thatcommitted suicide.
And and I was telling some of myfriends like, you know, it just
dawned on me that I've had a lotof even active duty people I've
known that like committed suicide.
And I think almost every single one, it was a surprise.
And that's tricky, right, Because, you know, you go
through the training, especiallyin the military, wherever like,

(54:02):
Hey, if somebody asks, what is it?
Like we have an act and I don't figure to stand for, but it's
something like ask and then seekand then be tired or something.
But I was like, man, even and I guess I wanted to bring that up
here just because it's like evensometimes just sort of have like
almost have the image of not to say it'd be it'd be counter
thing, but like an automatic firing weapon, like just just

(54:23):
have to spray that kindness and spray the help and the the the
the opportunity, like your village you're talking about,
because sometimes you just don'tknow man.
Like I said these and they rightthere.
I think they're all guys, one woman, like they just I was
like, and they just seem like the happiest people.
Like what? You know what I mean?
Like it's almost like a target that you don't even know to
target. Like how do I help them when I

(54:44):
don't know? And so I guess you didn't have a
specific thing to say, but just like if you just start helping,
then like maybe maybe you don't know how much you help somebody.
They never showed up. That's what I tell people
because I'll tell you for a fact, Todd, I, every time a
phone rings, I'll answer my phone because I never know when
it's someone calling me for helpor just someone to talk to.
And I answer it no matter what I'm doing, no matter where I'm

(55:07):
at, because just last night somebody called me and they were
in a bad spot. I didn't they didn't tell me
that, but I sensed it. And so I stayed on the phone
with them for an hour, gave thempositive, encouraging words and
just kept talking to them until I knew that they were going to
be OK. And then called them first thing
this morning. Check in on it, make sure
they're. OK, that's the.
Kind of thing you got to do is because you got to be available
and I don't care how busy you are, you're never too busy for

(55:29):
your brothers you've got and everybody, anybody who needs
help to answer the phone. I'm sure last night it was like
you had dinner or some Netflix show on or blah, blah, blah,
like and other things to do. And I was like, Nah, man, it's
ringing. Yeah.
I tell everybody, if you, the one who needs someone, tell them
to call me, I'll do the phone every time and I'll talk to

(55:50):
them. And for some reason people tell
me that I have a nature about methat makes people feel calm,
makes them feel comfortable, makes them feel so I think I'm
doing the right, I'm in the right place, doing the right
thing. You know what I mean?
Like that's, that's great for what I'm doing because obviously
that's a key factor for making. And that's awesome.
Festival stories so. Yeah, And one of the things that
just throwing it out there. So it's funny, I had to do a we

(56:14):
had to interview people for one of my classes and present, you
know, and they said industry leaders.
So a good friend of mine, Gary Flowers, the Lieutenant Colonel
down at Fort Polk, LA, as like ainfantry battalion.
And it was funny because I I emailed Gary and I was like,
hey, our subject was relational competence.
And I was like, hey, Gary, here's these 16 questions or
whatever I need answered. Would you mind, you know, saying

(56:37):
like 2 Mondays ago, I was like, would you mind answering my
Friday? So he just calls me on FaceTime
on Friday morning. We spoke for an hour and 40
minutes. But the reason why I wanted to
say this was like, I was like, Gary, why do we not do this more
often? Not necessarily just him and I,
but like, I'm doing this interview.
So I called you because we text all the time or whatever.
And I'm saying that to say like people like pick up the phone

(56:58):
more, even just FaceTime like every got a good friend of mine
called me random out of the blue.
I barely knew him from before Bragg assignment And I was like,
well, what's going on brother? And he goes, hey man, I call one
of the guys I served with once amonth.
I just pick random in my phone. And I was like, I think if we
did that more and I just circling it all back to like the
loneliness thing and these poor people that, you know, that we

(57:19):
that get out and don't have thatsense of thing.
Like I think like you're saying like there's not necessarily
being where I reacted like when you answer, but just wake up the
phone. I try and do that.
Like if I'm on a quick like a 30minute car ride or something to
say, hey, man, why don't I call?Well, I don't do it, but what I
say is that I want to do it. You know what I mean?
And I think that's I think that's important just because we

(57:41):
don't remember back in the day, like you're the same age I am
Ish, you're right. Like remember when we used to
like have to like talk to peopleand like we get really bored
because we didn't have our, our phone to stare at or whatever.
But I don't know man, I just or remember we'd like actually call
people on the phone. Yeah, you left the answering
machine since they got it a weeklater, called you back.

(58:01):
You got that a week later. By the time you touched base,
you didn't even remember what you were going to talk about.
And it's like. Now it is like, oh wait,
somebody's calling right now. I got a text coming through too.
And Facebook, man, that's exhausting.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So.
I think we're going to work workwell together.
I have the utmost respect for you for getting on here today,
because I did. Not I'm mad.

(58:21):
Thank you. So.
Thank you. You help me, Chris.
Yeah, I felt like, I mean, cheesy, whatever.
Like is like I was like, my God,I've never did this.
My very first podcast is that I can't, I gotta talk to Chris
about the structure and what we're going to talk about.
And it's like no man, because maybe if it was like a political
podcast and we had an event, maybe, but no man, this is

(58:41):
conversations. And thank you.
This helped immensely. Thank.
You. It's been an honor and honestly
an unexpected surprise for me today, so I'll be smiling ear to
ear all day because I got a. Chance.
Nice. Face.
Yeah, thanks man. Me too.
And. We'll do this again soon.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. All right, brother.
We'll stay in touch, man. I got your contact info and
stuff. So we look forward to to just

(59:02):
having a a new brother. Colonel Berry?
Yes, Sir. All right, man.
Thanks Chris. You.
Later, man all. Right brother, take care.