June 16, 2025 • 53 mins
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Can Artificial Intelligence save lives? In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with wellness entrepreneur Josh Otero to explore the groundbreaking intersection of AI, mental health, and veteran care.
Josh shares his journey from fitness to tech innovation, unveiling Ilana.ai—a revolutionary AI-powered peer support platform designed to help veterans manage isolation, depression, and PTSD through real-time, empathetic interaction.
Together, they dive into the urgent mental health crisis facing our veteran community, the role of AI in suicide prevention, and how Ilana.ai is breaking barriers in therapy continuity, crisis response, and access to support. This conversation is a must-listen for anyone passionate about veteran wellness, mental health innovation, and the future of holistic care.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to the Conversation
02:50 The Role of AI in Veteran Mental Health
05:47 Josh Otero's Journey and the Warrior Gamer Foundation
08:51 Building AI with Empathy and Understanding
11:56 Addressing Daily Stressors and Transition Challenges
15:01 Accessibility and Engagement with AI
17:56 Overcoming Hesitations Towards AI in Mental Health
20:53 Competition and the Future of AI in Mental Health
24:10 Current Status and Future Plans for Ilana.ai
28:16 Therapeutic Continuity and Sharing Notes
30:00 Challenges in Mental Health Treatment for Veterans
32:50 Crisis Management and AI's Role
34:58 Building Community Connections
39:24 Integrating Technology for Holistic Health
44:53 Funding and Future Development of AI Solutions
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LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
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LinkedIn: Josh Otero
Email: Josh@elanah.ai
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Security Odd Podcast.
Let's go the only podcastthat's purpose-built from the
ground up to support you Notjust you, but the wider audience
, everybody.
Authentic, impactful andinsightful conversations that
serve a purpose to help you.
And the quality has gone up.
It's decent.
(00:21):
It's hosted by me, DannyCaballero.
It's decent, it's hosted by me,Denny Caballero, Don't feel
guilty, but certainly there'sthose big events but I'm like
man, I'd rather be home Family,I mean especially with kids when
they're young.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
you got to take advantage of that, because they
don't stay young forever.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
No, no, they don't.
Josh and Tara welcome.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Doing well.
How are you Doing?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
well, welcome.
How you doing, Doing well, howare you Doing well, man?
Advocacy and support for ourveterans never stops, man.
It's an ongoing mission and Iam excited to have you on today.
We're finally able to make ithappen to talk about the
intersection between mentalhealth, ai and our veterans.
(01:06):
This is a powerful, powerfultool that, certainly in the last
few years, has become soprofound in everything from
medical applications, certainlywithin the defense tech, but
everyday use.
We utilize AI.
Now, if you're not using chat,gpt to help you figure out how
(01:26):
to, best you know, optimize yourwork schedule at home or to
create meal plans, you're usingit for you know how to you know,
build your own business plans.
It's everywhere and everybody'susing it.
But when we start talking abouthow it can help us with
stemming the epidemic of veteransuicide, then we get to
(01:47):
thinking, which is often enoughand oftentimes the most
important thing right, I canconnect with you, bring you back
(02:08):
from the void, get you a stepback off that ledge, so to speak
.
But how do we get AI into this?
So today, man, I want to breakthis down, but also, let's start
off with your journey.
How'd you find yourself in thisspace, man?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh, that's a good question.
So you know, I've been in likethe health and wellness space
for pretty much my entire life,um, athlete and kind of um
always been not a veteran myself, but I've always, you know, had
a close tie to the military andveteran community Best friend
is still serving and so alwaysreally felt an affinity towards
(02:48):
that.
And when COVID hit, I wasworking in the gaming space.
I had a sports nutritioncompany and we were trying to
really develop a healthyalternative to the monsters and
Red Bulls and things like that,and I noticed this huge spike in
social isolation, loneliness,depression, leading to suicide
in my community, which was 18 to34 year olds.
(03:11):
But I also saw it big time inthe military, even like with the
cadets, and you know there wastwo cadets that took their life
at the Air Force Academy I thinkit was February of 2020.
And then six sailors ForceAcademy I think it was February
of 2020, and then Six Sailors, Ithink a couple months after
that.
So in August or October of 2020, I founded the Warrior Gamer
(03:32):
Foundation with a mission topromote health, wellness and
community shift through gaming,and so we did our first in
person event in August of 2021.
And we brought all the branchestogether, including Space Force
and Coast Guard, and playedthis game called Rocket League.
Because I'm not a gamer myself,I just know that gaming is a
tool to connect others.
So when we were isolated, youknow, the only way to really
(03:55):
connect us through this and Zoomreally wasn't that big, but
gaming was so we could play andyou could be in Afghanistan, I
could be here and we're as ifwe're alive, and so that was.
I knew that was a powerful tooland so we did that.
First event Uh, we didn'treally have veterans at the time
, it was just active duty, um,and we connected it with this
(04:17):
big international rugbytournament and it went really
well.
Uh, year two, we added aveteran component and, uh,
brought in some Gold Star kidsand it just accelerated from
there.
So, fast forward to this pastyear, we were hosting our mental
health summit, which we doevery year, and we had the
secretary of the VA there and hekind of spoke on what's the VA
(04:40):
doing to address the younger 40and under veterans, because it's
different, right, theengagement level with veterans
that are 40 and under is notthere, and so the VA was really
trying to change the way theyaddress them, and gaming was
obviously a tool to do that.
And then we did a town hallsession after that and one of
the things that kind of came outof that day was how do we?
(05:03):
You know, we've got a discordserver which, if you're not
familiar with discord, it's likea Facebook and a LinkedIn kind
of wrapped in one, and you havedifferent communities in there.
You could, you know, privaterooms.
We've got like 40 differentrooms.
So if you're into memes, you dothat.
If you're into pets, you coulddo that.
Ais or drones, you could dothat.
(05:23):
One of the channels we have inthere is called Peer Connect and
it's basically it'speer-to-peer support,
veteran-to-veteran or activeduty-to-veteran, and we're there
24-7.
The problem was it's allvolunteer.
We have like 10 or 12volunteers at any one time and,
if you know, darkness doesn'ttypically strike in the
(05:45):
afternoon at like 1230 in theafternoon, it strikes two
o'clock in the morning.
Well, how many volunteers arereally going to be up at two to
be able to staff the phones?
Reality is maybe one or two,and so it started.
A question came out how can wescale this?
And I'm a big proponent of AI.
I use ChatGPT almost the monthit came out.
(06:06):
How can we scale this?
And I'm a big proponent of AI.
I use ChatGPT almost the monthit came out and so I understand
AI and I've been using it inmultiple factors.
So I'm like, huh, maybe there'sa way that we could utilize AI
to kind of solve this problem.
So I called my, who is now myco-founder.
She is a AI expert.
She had worked at Google and abunch of other companies really
(06:28):
making AI smart, and I said, hey, here's what I'd like to do.
Can we do this?
And she's like, yes, we can.
So her and I came together andwe started Elanaai, really with
a mission to fill that gapbetween no care and health care,
to support the veteran andactive duty.
And what it is is.
(06:49):
It's basically it's a platformto connect, act as a peer
support battle.
Buddy wingman, you knowwhatever, you know your branch,
you call it, and we're there24-7.
It's completely confidential,private conversations.
We're there to talk you throughwhatever you're going through,
share experiences or talk aboutexperiences that you may have
(07:10):
had and how do you overcomethose.
And it's trained in CBT, whichis cognitive behavioral therapy,
positive motivationalinterviewing.
We've got a team of like adozen psychologists, therapists,
pathologists, you know, youname the spectrum.
And then we've also got aveterans advisory board, which
you're one of them, and we getinput from the military and
(07:31):
veteran community and then weget input from our docs and our
specialists to be able to trainIlana to be able to better talk
to and engage with the servicemember veteran and their family,
to and engage with the servicemember veteran and their family.
No, so that's kind of how ilanawas born and kind of what we've
we built over the last fewmonths.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, and it's, it's um, it's no easy task to.
The thing that I immediatelywanted to explore and talk about
today was the, you know, whenwe sit in a room or even on a
phone call, even something likethis, um, we can connect.
Even if I didn't, we justdialed in, not knowing each
other, we could talk, we canengage and learn about each
(08:15):
other and through our engagement, through our our you know,
through having an opendiscussion and dialogue and
through vulnerability, you cansense of, okay, this person's in
trouble, this person might needhelp, this person is coming
from this background and, eventhough you didn't serve yourself
, you can develop empathy.
You can sit down and hold spacefor somebody.
(08:37):
How do we build that into an AIsystem?
How do we build that sort of AIcompassion, empathy, to
understand.
And the complexity of militarytalk, the complexity of our dark
humor, because I know from myguys, our special operations
(09:01):
individuals they're cynical.
If they reach out for this toolin their darkest moment and
they do decide to use it,they're not the kindest
individuals, they're not theeasiest.
Shout out to my buddy, david.
We were just talking about thisa while back and he showed me
how he treats chat GPT and it'svery different than how I
(09:25):
utilize chat GPT Very different,in fact.
I came across an article sayingthat people that say utilize
manners and say thank you andplease with chat GPT is like
burning extra resources by usingthat sort of mannerism of being
kind to an AI system.
But how do we make it so theyunderstand the dark humor, the
(09:47):
negativity coming from somebodythat's in danger or in need of
help?
How do we possibly create thatsort of understanding within an
AI model?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
So the way AI works is you know it uses contextual
reasoning, right, so it's allcontext-based.
So what we're trying to do andwe're still figuring this out
right we upgrade it.
You know it uses contextualreasoning, right?
So it's all context based.
So what we're trying to do andwe're still figuring this out,
right, we're we, we upgrade it,you know, every day, every week,
um, and we constantly getfeedback from our team to
upgrade.
So this is not a static model.
So, just to be clear, this isan evolution and we're
(10:18):
continuing evolving it, but byputting in military language.
Um, we're, we want to teach somevideos.
We want to teach some videos,we want to throw in some movies,
because movies help to train it.
So we haven't done that yet,but we are going to do that,
we're trying to.
We got to make sure there's nocopyright laws and all that kind
of stuff, but that's one of theways that we can do it.
So, the more it understandscontext and meaning and that
(10:41):
type of language because, you'reright, it's not regular
civilian language and if we'retalking like a civilian which
we're working not to, becausethat's why we're it understands
like, where's your MOS?
You know you're, you know, wereyou an enlisted, were you an
officer?
What are the differences?
So we're really trying to trainthat by providing that
knowledge on books, on papers,and then, you know, ideally, on
(11:05):
movies, so it then couldunderstand.
Okay, this is where they'regoing, cause if we give it
context, then it couldunderstand what you're talking
about.
So we're not there quite yet,but we're on our we're, we're
better than average and we'rewe're getting there.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, you know.
The other thing that that it'simportant to talk about too is I
first the immediate.
The immediate thing that Iwanted to engage with and figure
out is how can it help somebodythat's in the middle of crisis
in a when you get that 2am call?
It's never something that it'smildly.
(11:43):
It's always been a serioussituation.
I'm in the verge.
I'm actually thinking of doingthis.
It's a crisis moment, all handson deck.
But what about the day-to-daylife situations?
One of the biggest stressorsfor anybody is that transition
period coming out of themilitary.
How do we help address theeveryday stressors that you
(12:04):
might need support, thefinancial issues, the identity
issues, because these are allbig issues that maybe your
friend doesn't feel comfortabletalking about it with you.
But if they can utilize an AIplatform and talk about those
daily stressors, that could beextremely helpful too.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, and that's we've seen, especially, again,
this is with the youngergeneration, those 40 and under a
lot of them, and there's likethree studies potentially to fat
check that.
But there are multiple studiesthat show that under 40, they
are more comfortable talking toan AI chat bot than they are a
person.
(12:43):
Plus, if you're talking to aperson, you might be sharing
something that's embarrassingand you feel like you might be
judged or something that youmight feel shame and you don't
want to talk about it with aperson.
It's a lot easier to talk aboutwith a bot that's not judging
you, it's not critiquing you andyou know it's private.
Nobody could actually accessyour information.
So that's kind of our play is.
(13:04):
We feel like maybe the70-year-old's not going to use
it, but they might, but the35-year-old definitely will, and
that person may again not feelcomfortable talking to an actual
person.
Because, at the end of the day,we're not trying to replace a
therapist, we're not medical.
We're a wellness product, right?
We're that space between nocare and health care.
(13:25):
We're not trying to be a doctor.
We're a wellness product, right?
We're that space between nocare and healthcare.
We're not trying to be a doctor, we're not trying to be a
clinical psychologist.
We're trying to be that personthat you could talk to, share
your feelings and talk day today, because you also want to
have somebody that you couldtalk your positives with.
Right, I just got a promotion atwork or I just got my first job
.
I retired out of the militaryafter 21 years.
I just got my first job as acivilian, and it's like an
(13:49):
executive vice president orsomething.
So that's, and you maybe you're, you're single at the time, or
your wife is busy, or yourhusband is busy and you just
want to share it.
You could share that with Ilana, you could share.
I'm really stressed.
I've never had to do all thisstuff on my own.
I've used to the been in themilitary and I've never been
able to do this.
How do I do this?
How do I make a budget?
How do I plan?
I have debt, like what do I do?
(14:11):
I'm stressed.
I feel my spouse is going toleave me because I I don't know
how to manage stress, and sowe're there to kind of talk you
through that, whatever that.
You know that situation where Ijust broke up.
You know breakups or, like yousaid, transition.
Transition is a really hardpart and that's kind of the
purpose of the foundation isright to help you through that
transition finds a sense ofmeaning and purpose.
(14:32):
We want to be able to do that,too, through the ai.
So the ai is trained to kind ofhow do you, how do I find a
sense of meaning and purposewhen my identity was being a
green beret, and so I was at for15 years and now I'm just a
civilian.
So I just went from an A18 to aC civilian.
Nobody cares about me, nobody'stelling me what to do, I have
(14:54):
no community.
And so now, what this job thing?
So I'm going to be scrubbingtoilets, like I was just, you
know, a team lead, and now I'mscrubbing toilets Like how do I?
I don't even know how tocomprehend that.
And so those are some of thethings that we're really trying
to help people work through ishow do you deal with that Cause
that's a big transitionespecially if you come from an
(15:16):
elite unit and you're now just,uh, you know, bagging gross.
You know, like you're justgetting a regular job cause you
just don't know what to do.
That's a big transition.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Absolutely, and you touched on something that I
wanted to highlight for a momentAccessibility to something like
a software, an AI that can sitat your desktop, that you can
reach out to.
One of the biggest things thatI always heard and I experienced
myself when you're goingthrough something, when you're
lost in your own thoughts, withanxiety or depression, you don't
(15:51):
want to Google for a resource,you don't want to reach out.
But if you have something thatyou're comfortable typing into a
chat system that you'recomfortable with, that can give
you the resource.
That's one thing I realized bystarting this project the amount
of people that reached out justasking for a resource because
they didn't want to look it up.
Or they reach out initially and, through engaging through a
(16:16):
text message, you offer them theresource or you offer to look
it up for them.
It's insane.
One small inbox message leadsto a connection to the Cohen
Network, a connection to the TBITreatment Center that's nearest
to them.
Oftentimes, whether it's shameor guilt or you're just stuck in
(16:40):
your negativity, you don't wantto even look for the answers or
for the keys for your ownfreedom.
But if you connect withsomebody and they can do the
work for you, you'll receive it,and that's something that I see
that could be extremely usefulwith this platform.
You engage with it, youdescribe what you're going
through and it could prompt youthrough a series of questions
(17:03):
and dialogue.
Then you have a resource atyour fingertips, which I realize
a lot of people.
That's exactly what they need.
They just need to have thenumber to text.
I deal with it with a lot of myfriends.
I'm going through this.
Okay, here's the resource,here's the number.
Call them, email them, and Ifeel that our older generation,
(17:25):
like you said earlier, theymight not engage with it, but
our generation of GWAT veteransand the younger veterans, they
most certainly will.
They've been doing it alreadythrough video games and
connecting with their friendsthrough, like you said, discord
chatbots.
Like Craig, by buildingsomething that is already used,
(17:46):
that's already utilized foreveryday resources, can really
help save lives, because we'renot trying to create something
that will take over the job of atherapist.
It's connective tissue, get youto the next level of care.
But how do we get it to thepoint where society and
individuals that are, you know,maybe in the middle, see it as
(18:09):
being something worth investingor promoting or being, you know,
connected with Cause, you know,when we bring up AI, there's
always that that side of the theuh, the community and a
populace it's like well, no, Idon't really want to trust a
robot with my mental health,with my information.
I even have friends that arehesitant to try chat GPT because
(18:29):
they feel it'll scrape alltheir data and give it to China.
There's an incredible amount ofpeople that have a lot of
hostility towards an AI.
How do we begin to make it morepalatable?
How do we make it moreaccessible to individuals and
make it something that is ofvalue to everyone?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I think it's you know .
First, it's getting intoeverybody's hands for them to
use it and if we get a new youknow recruit to use it all the
way through, because boot campis a stressful time too, right?
We know there's a lot of thingsthat happen during boot camping
, going through your initialtraining.
So you know if we're using itwhen we start and we're
(19:09):
continuing to use it, it'seasier to use it during
transition and post-transition.
So I think that's one is reallygetting it pushed from the top
down.
Second is, I think the morepeople are in, you know it's
it's surrounding them, becauseAI two years ago was kind of
like a oh, you're using it, youknow it was kind of this odd
(19:31):
situation.
Now it's in everything likeevery single company uses ai
yeah everybody's marketing theirown different style, a
different one, yeah I don't careif it's a painting company or a
roofing company, like they useAI because they're marketing,
they're using AI to market, andso you know.
And then obviously, if it's atech company, they have to use
(19:53):
it, otherwise they're going tobe out of business.
So I think the more people feelcomfortable with AI and it's
just, they're surrounded by it.
You can't, there's no job.
I mean maybe if you're diggingditches, but if you're the
digger, maybe, but if you'reowning the company, you're
definitely using it.
So you know, I think the morewe're surrounded by it and the
more we see it actually worksand we see it actually can
improve our life versus takingfrom us.
(20:16):
I think that's you know, it'sit's breaking down those
barriers.
And the easiest way is startingthem right, when they are,
first, you know enlisting or youknow going into the military,
or second, is they're surroundedby it and they see it works.
So those are like two thingsthat we're well.
The first one is what we'rereally trying to push.
(20:37):
Second one is what ChatGPT andevery other company is doing is
they're just getting it out tothe general public.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, and you know at this point, you know we have to
imagine that there's, there'sgotta be, is there competition
in the space?
And, if so, how do we stay onthe leading edge of it?
How do we bring this to marketbefore somebody else gets out
there, gets ahead of it?
Because I've imagined, liketeaching and training an AI
model is not as easy as teachingan adult how to go through, get
(21:10):
peer-to-peer support andcertified.
This is tricky.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
It is and it's expensive.
I mean you hear, like, howChatGPD spent billions of
dollars training their models.
So the good news is we couldtake from a lot of those models
so we're not having to spendbillions.
Well, we don't have billions ofdollars, but we don't have to
do that.
For us, you know, for us tostay ahead, it's getting us
known, right, getting into theVA, getting to the DOD, showing
(21:35):
the value that we could bring,how we could help, you know,
solve that gap.
Right now the VA is 40,000mental health professionals
short.
That's not getting solved byhumans.
So we've got to figure out thatbridge of how we can take
somebody that maybe not doesn'tneed to see a psychologist, but
they just need to talk tosomebody and we can help be that
bridge.
So it's really getting us knownand in the right hands of the
(21:57):
right people that are thedecision makers.
So we stay ahead of thecompetition.
There is competition, right.
People use chat GPT, even thoughchatPT is not trained in mental
health and there's now reportssaying it just gives you what
you want to hear.
It tells you what you want tohear, which is not the right way
to do it.
Well, if you think about whatChatGPT is.
(22:17):
It's a horizontally trained AI.
So it's trained on everything.
They've taken every, scrapedall of humankind's information
and dumped it in there, sothere's trillions of data points
in there.
What we're building is more ofa vertical AI.
So you hear the termhallucination.
It just makes things up.
By building a vertical AI, we'retrying to avoid that.
So we're specifically trainingit with specific data like
(22:41):
mental health, buildingresilience, mindset, mindfulness
, all these types of practices,and then military culture,
military language, what does arank mean, what are the
different ranks?
And so all the military things,things from the VA.
So it's specifically trained todeal with that individual
versus.
Tell me about how to, what'sthe formula to build an atom
(23:03):
bomb, you know, whatever that'snot our, that's not.
But if it's mental or buildingresilience, that's what our
thing is.
So we're the only ones currentlythat are building in the
military and veteran space.
There's other companies, likeHeadspace, that is developing.
You know they've been in.
I used to use Headspace as amindfulness thing.
So there's companies that arein this space, in the
(23:26):
mindfulness, ai, mental healthspace but none specifically in
this vertical.
Now my guess is, as soon asthey see us being successful,
they're going to want to jump in, which is to your point.
Why do we have to stay aheadotherwise?
And so by being in front of theright people, attending
SoftWeek and trying to talk tothe right people, building the
(23:49):
best product that is out thereand having people like Sherry
help build it for us, andgetting the best and brightest
minds from the professionalcommunity, but also the military
and veteran community, to helpbuild it, because if it's built
specifically for them, by them,we're going to have the best
product, because it was builtfor the community, by the
community.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, and it's important to understand too that
we are, and we have been, in acritical shortage for mental
health professionals.
And as much as we think thatwe're going to solve our way out
of this problem by certifyingmore psychologists, certifying
more mental health professionalslicensed, you know it's not
(24:32):
going to happen fast enough andwe're never going to fill the
void.
What we need to do is startthinking outside the box.
That's why I always championpeer-to-peer support.
You get better, you starthaving progress in your life.
You don't have to solve theproblems for your peer, you just
have to show them what workedfor you and be connective tissue
to the resources.
Now, with this AI model, it'sthe same thing.
(24:55):
We're building anotherpeer-to-peer support system, but
it's also helping in theday-to-day.
I always tell people it's notyour mental health journey
doesn't end one day, and thenyou claim victory over your
depression, your anxiety, thethings you're going through.
You learn how to live.
You learn how to manage thethings you're dealing with.
Put a lot of that trauma behindyou.
You solve it, but you're stillgoing to have bad days.
(25:17):
In those bad days, it's a loteasier to reach for that AI
model that you've come to use.
Come to trust, that can giveyou that box breathing exercise.
That can give you thatmeditation routine that you
didn't stick with, that hashelped you before.
Those are the things that I'menvisioning, because those are
the things that I needed, andinstead of looking at the sticky
(25:38):
paper, instead of digging backinto my workbook, if I want to
use the app, I can reach for theapp, and I think that's
something that a lot of peoplewant and can utilize on a daily
basis.
It's just a matter of getting itout there to them.
And the other thing that isimportant to understand is a lot
of people still have a lot ofhesitation getting into that
(26:01):
office and sitting down with atherapist.
No matter how much we talkabout it, no matter how much we
advocate for it, there's a lotof people that are still going
to say, no, I don't want to dothat.
This is something you can bringto somebody right now or in the
near future, and I think thatneeds to be talked about a lot
more.
My way to healing isn't goingto be their way to healing, but
(26:25):
if we have something that canease them into this, I think we
can start having theconversation, and I think that's
something that we need toremind ourselves.
It's not about pushingresources, but giving them
something that's readilyavailable, easy to download and
have on their person.
When we look at the stages ofbringing this out and finally
getting it out to the customer,where are we at right now with
(26:47):
Alana?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So we're currently piloting, so we're working to
get it out to our we're working.
So there's a big fundingmechanism called Face to Fight,
which USA put a bunch of moneyinto and it's helping nonprofits
.
So we're partnering with anonprofit to get it in the hands
of about 500 veterans to startusing it more.
(27:10):
We have probably about 140 betatesters now that are using it
and giving us feedback.
The next step is we're goingafter VA contracts, dod
contracts and partner contracts.
So we're looking at some primesto be a subprime to get into
there.
I'm trying to get in front ofCongress to help push it.
(27:32):
So we're at kind of the pilotphase and getting some adoption
and users through those areasand then we want to be able to
deploy it, you know, in the nextyear to whoever picks up.
You know, if the VA funds us atthe DOD, wherever we can get
the funding to pay for it.
So we're kind of in that pilotphase and you know, you know to
(27:55):
your point.
One of the things that we'veseen is I've spoken to, you know
, over the last five years I'vespoken to hundreds of veterans,
maybe more than that, and foryou to get service, to go see a
psychologist, depending on whereyou live.
Six to eight week wait.
If I'm in trauma and if I'm inneed, I can't necessarily wait
(28:16):
eight weeks to go see somebody,and if you're active on some
basis it's nine weeks and so,and then you wait another six
weeks and then it could be adifferent person.
So there's no continuum of care.
So nothing against what they'redoing, but if we can be that,
that again that bridge, so youtalk to that therapist.
(28:37):
We also have the ability toshare notes, right.
So you know you can havedifferent conversations with
chat GPT.
You may not want to share allthose with your therapist, but
maybe you share your one thatyou're talking about your
transition issues, and I couldshare that one with my therapist
that I'm going to see in twoweeks.
I've never met her, I don'tknow, she doesn't know me, I
don't know.
So I want to share my last sixweeks of conversations with
(28:59):
Ilana with her, so she can atleast know who I am.
And then you know when I go into see her I'm not spending.
If it's an hour session, I'mnot spending 45 minutes giving
her that information that shejust saw and read in five
minutes.
So that's one of the things too, is we're trying to make it
easier for the therapist andprovider so you could share your
(29:21):
notes.
Again, it's only on you becausethose are 100% private, unless
you decide to share those notes.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, it's one of the most common grievances that
I've heard from veterans thathave utilized the VA to go get
treatment with a therapist Ait's not always the same person
and it's constantly having torelive, like Groundhog's Day,
the same first interaction overand over and over again with
(29:50):
somebody new.
There's no continuity, there'sno handoff or warm handoff into
another provider and that burnsanybody out.
That's going to deflate you,that's going to constantly make
you feel like you're not heard,you're not validating what
you're going through.
Then nobody cares.
It's a little bit better whenyou are lucky enough to get you
(30:11):
know if you can get outsidetreatment and referral to a
civilian provider.
But still having to re-engageand share those same stories
from the same start point,that's frustrating.
But being able to have thathandover where, like hey, here's
my notes of everything I'mdealing with, if you can read
over those first, that way Idon't have to continue going
over it again for the fifth time, I'd really appreciate it.
(30:33):
But that's on you right, beingable to keep that stuff locked
in, stuff locked in.
But it does bring up one thingthat I that stuck out to me is
like okay, if we have a historyof self-harm, if we have a
history of hurting ourselves orhurting others.
We have that mandated reporter,somebody that's like hey, like
(30:54):
this is dangerous.
This person needs, you know, weneed to take the appropriate
level of care.
How can we make sure that, ifsomebody is reporting something
that's dangerous, potentialcrime, that our AI platform
knows what to do?
That's the scary part, becauseI know that's a reality.
(31:15):
That's a situation that,unfortunately, our mental health
providers find themselves in.
Unfortunately, our mentalhealth providers find themselves
in.
Somebody has now divulged thatthere's been a serious, heinous
crime that's occurred.
How do we navigate thosesituations?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
That's a really good point.
So because of the privacymeasures that we take, we don't
have the ability to report it.
But what we do have the abilityto do is to push them to get
help.
So like, right now we'reworking with other providers to
build this in, but right nowit's 988, right.
And then we also there's aveteran resource from the VA
that we put in there.
So right now, like if you'resaying I'm thinking about you
(31:52):
know I'm walking over to theliquor cabinet and I have my gun
in my hand it will say call 988, call 988.
You know, gun in my hand.
It will say call 988, call 988.
You know it'll continually tellyou call 988, push this.
It's a live link, you know.
So we push you to that resource.
What we want to build isadditional resources.
So if you're in Chicago, wecould push you to the local
(32:13):
provider in Chicago.
Or if you're in Detroit, wecould push you to Detroit.
So we we're not there yet.
By next year we will be.
But that's that's kind of ourway to kind of try to deal with.
That is really to urge you tosee somebody and to seek
professional assistance, causewe're just a AI chat bot.
We're not you know we can't do,you know we don't have the
(32:35):
ability to do certain things, asif your psychologist or your,
your therapist would be able todo so, pushing you to them hey,
you're in need.
Let's end our conversation andlet's talk to a professional.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
It almost makes you wonder if there's any way to
build in a dispatch system thatgets you into a live discussion.
Because that's one thing that Irealized thinking about this
the amount of times I've been onthe phone with somebody.
They divulge something whereit's okay.
Now it's escalated, Now it'slike okay, now I'm getting, now
I have to get in the vehicle, Ihave to go to you.
(33:09):
Um, because it is sadly thereality.
A lot of people will engage indiscussion and then, fortunately
, there's alcohol involved andpersonal firearms get in the mix
and it's.
How do we ensure that we cancontinue to provide a positive
resource and de-escalate thesituation?
(33:31):
How can we get that veteran orindividual on the phone to just
take a step back?
Think through it.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yeah, one of the things that we're doing and this
somewhat addresses that.
But if you're in crisis, crisisit doesn't.
But we're going to be buildingan affinity groups.
So the example is you like picka ball or you were a green
beret, we're going to build it.
Build in these groups.
They're anonymous groups, butyou'll be with actual people
where you could communicate andtalk to nice, like one of the
(34:01):
first via exits are going to belike going over to the warrior
gamer foundation discord serverand here's live people you could
talk to and here's a communitycan be a part of.
So we're we're trying to build.
It'll be probably next year,till it's launched, cause it's
not cheap, but we can see.
Okay, you were this, you werethis, you were this, you were
this.
We're going to put you in thisgroup.
You were this, this and this.
(34:21):
We'll put you in that group andor cause.
You have the ability to put yourdish, your likes and dislikes,
in the system.
So she knows more, a little bitmore, about you.
You've seen so um it by knowingyou and if you've been using it
for a few weeks, she'll get tounderstand some of the things
(34:42):
that you're you're maybe arelacking.
You know we're building inthese videos, right?
So then if there's a skill thatyou're missing, like resilience
, we'll be pushing you to take aresilience course.
But on the other side is yourbig soccer player.
You know, you played allthrough the military and now you
don't have a group, and sowe're going to push you part of
a affinity group for soccerplayers and then the next phase
(35:04):
would be okay, they're Phoenixsoccer players, so everybody you
know is based out of Phoenixand there's an app that we, the
foundation, partnered withcalled the Phoenix app.
That was traditionally for sober, for sobriety, but we're now a
part of it.
We're the first veteran gamingorg in there, and so the idea is
you, we put together localchapters where you, instead of
(35:25):
getting together online, we gettogether in person.
So there's there's vehiclesthat we're working to try to get
prevent you from getting to thepoint where you have your gun
in your hand, right, becauseonce you get that, it's very
difficult.
But if we could prevent youfrom getting there, because
we're providing you a safe space, really helping you build the
skills that you may be lackingmost likely coping skills and
(35:47):
then connecting with a communityof like-minded people, we're
hoping you're not going to getto that point where we, what
we're looking at, we're tryingto stay left of that and kind of
figure out how can we fixwhat's going on or not, but how
do we improve what you'redealing with and how you're
(36:07):
dealing with it?
So then we don't come to thatoutcome.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Absolutely.
You brought up a great pointthe community aspect.
We tend to focus, like I saidearlier, on the crisis
intervention, like the veteranthat's on the phone on the line
about to do something verydrastic.
We have to understand likethere's a whole bunch of other
parts and pieces to go into thisthat can keep you from being
(36:33):
there, and one of the big onesis that connection, human
connection.
The app is great to get you totalk and divulge when you're not
comfortable, when you're notready to be vulnerable with a
human, but at some point we haveto get you, the human being,
connected with other humanbeings in order to get to thrive
again.
And that's a huge piece that I'mexcited about, seeing how
(36:58):
that's going to look on the app,seeing those prompts of pushing
you towards that live event,pushing you towards the screen
messages that are going to tellyou like, hey, you've got a
soccer tournament next week withyour group.
Because in reality, all theseinterventions are great, all
these things that we learn andcan coach ourselves through
(37:20):
whether it's a breathingexercise or learning about
mindfulness and meditation,wonderful.
But the things that are goingto keep us alive in the long run
are the connections to ourcommunity and the people in our
lives.
And no psychologist can do thatfor you, no mental health
professional can do that for you.
Only you can do that.
How do we build that andpromote that in the app?
Speaker 2 (37:46):
And that's I mean.
You know, this whole thingabout affinity groups was
Sherry's idea right, becauseshe's really the smart one, and
so you know it's.
And I knew connection right.
That's why I started thefoundation, right?
It's that connection piece.
And when people say, well, aiis going to replace people, no,
it's not.
You need connection.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
You need human interaction.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
What AI is going to do is the person that knows ai
will will replace the personthat doesn't know ai.
That's where what I always sayis ai is not going to take your
job.
The person that is proficientin ai will be 100 taking your
job.
So you know, that's, that's thevehicle.
So if we could be that again,that bridge right.
So instead of maybe instead ofa therapist, this time it's a
group of like-minded people,it's a connection, it's it's
(38:34):
building that.
So that's really what we'rereally focused on again,
probably for next year, becausethis takes a lot of money to
build it.
But we really want to be ableto identify your you know your,
what you're liking, maybe whatyou dislike, and try to help
find that connection piece.
And maybe this is where wepartner with that other group to
(38:54):
, you know, cause they've gotthey've got 50,000 people
already on their app and so it'sall right, go, go.
You, you're a soccer player inChicago, go to this soccer group
.
It's, you know we're notassociated with them, but it's
people and you play everyThursday and it's soccer and you
know, I know you love soccer.
So we're really trying to figureout ways that we could connect
(39:14):
people in person and it's mostlikely going to be through
partnerships with nonprofitslike Warrior, gamer and other
nonprofits, or apps like thePhoenix app, where you know
they've got you know chapters,live chapters all over the
country.
So it's definitely I think it'sneeded, it's important, and
just being an AI app is not thesolution.
(39:34):
We have to be whole health andwe've got a thing that we're
going to push, probably nextyear, is like this whole health
thing, because it's, you know,it starts with us.
Right, we could be, we couldhelp, but you there's not.
There's more to it than that,like connecting wearables we
want to be able to connect with.
I was just going to bring thatup.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
I was going to say you know, I've got this apple
watch and it is great and weknow we were talked about the um
, just brain sorry, brain fog isreal.
We just talked about theheadspace app and how great it
is being able to to take this aiand have it integrate in the
rest of your life and the restof your devices.
(40:13):
I know I'm hearing all thegripes already from people that
we need to disconnect from allthese apps and devices.
Well, that's great for you, butsome people enjoy them, some
people love them.
And if we can integrate Elanainto every device, in your Alexa
, into your Kindle, to help youstay on track, one of the
biggest things that I realizedthat helps people is positive
(40:37):
psychology, gratitude, habittracking, having it tied to
ensure and just be your honestbroker of hey, did you journal,
did you do your gratitude list?
These little reminders.
They're powerful and they serveto be part of the larger
ecosystem of what this AI modelcould be one day.
(40:59):
And let's talk about that rightnow.
If we just pause and daydream alittle bit into the near future
, where do you see this appdeveloping into?
How do you see it being part ofour everyday life, if we
download it, if we have it withus.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
What do you hope it grows into?
You're a sidekick.
You're there 24-7.
I'm having a crappy day here.
My girlfriend is, you know, andand then again the two o'clock
in the morning thing is is fine,but that's very hopefully.
It's rare.
Less and less so it's it's.
It's your vehicle.
You know we have that dashboardwhich you see.
We want to build that dashboardout even more so if you're
(41:44):
you're wearing a whoop or you'rewearing an aura ring or sleep
is off, we could trackphysiological data, put that
into our assessment.
As you're talking to me, alana,I've noticed the last couple of
weeks your sleep is off, oryour stress is high, or your HRV
is low.
What's going on?
And then we're adding thatjournaling component to it and
so we're bringing on amindfulness lady.
(42:04):
So she's going to help bring usinto there.
Obviously, you know we have thebreathing area and Ned has been
testing it and the journalingis actually pretty good already,
even though we haven't reallyfully built it out.
So I envision this buddy, yoursidekick, your battle buddy,
your wingman, that you're usingit every day.
(42:25):
You wake up, just I had a greatsleep or I had a crappy sleep.
Hey, just go see how the day is, and then at night, you check
in.
So just something that you'reusing it every day and it's your
friend, but it's also your,your, your coach when you need a
coach and your advocate whenyou need a little bit push, and
(42:45):
so that's.
We're adding goal setting inthere.
Right, I want to run a marathon.
I want to, you know, be abetter reader.
I want to learn Spanish.
I want to get a pay raise.
I want to go from an E8 to anE9, you know, whatever that is,
we want to be able to help youon that journey and you're we're
your support system.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
I love that.
That's exactly the things thatI was envisioning it's.
It'd be too easy to keeppushing and make it, like I said
, part of your everyday life.
It's on your phones, on yoursmartwatch.
You interact with it.
On your desktop it pops up,just like grammarly, when you're
writing.
It lets you know like, hey,you're pretty stressed out right
(43:24):
now.
Go outside, take a walk.
Yeah, the amount of times myloop has let me know walking
your step went from 10,000 to500.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Let's get you out there, yes absolutely all that
data yeah, the, the amount oflike.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
I've noticed it.
When I'm more mindful and I'mlooking at, like it knows it,
the.
You know being in a high stressenvironment, whether you're an
entrepreneur or in sales,whatever it is that you're doing
, you can start getting to thepoint where you're you're
breathing rate and being at, youknow, elevated moments of
anxiety and stress Like it canbecome your new normal.
(44:03):
It doesn't have to be like youneed to be mindful of those
prompts and when it pops up onyour phone, it pops up on your
watch.
That helps you out a lot.
It helps you realize like okay,I don't need to be distressed
out, it is nine o'clock in themorning.
I need to take a step back.
I need to look at my scheduleand realize that none of this is
really that important and Ineed to ground myself Like it is
(44:25):
vital to have these resourcesin the hands of everyday people
that don't have the tools, don'thave the years of going to a
practitioner yet.
I think this is a greatresource to be able to put in
people's hands.
When we look at funding, isthere any way that people can
contribute or is there akickstart or anything like that
(44:47):
in the near future?
Speaker 2 (44:49):
So we haven't gone that route.
We're more like going afterinvestors and invest.
You know venture capitalistsand all that kind of stuff.
So that's we really haven'ttried to crowdfund.
I've heard various stories onthat, so I've kind of stayed
away from that area.
So the way we're looking forfunding is either through like
angel investors or venturecapitalists and or contracts.
(45:12):
So if we get paid contractswhich is why we're talking to
like companies we want companiesto employ us.
Right, amazon's, the companiesthat employ large amounts of
veterans, we think they shouldbe employing us.
The DOD, the VA, you know,partnering with some nonprofits
that offer these types ofservices and then using grants
to fund it.
So those are the ways thatwe're looking to get funded is
(45:34):
on the investment side, it'sreally, you know, investors,
whether that's angel investorsor venture capitalists.
And then on the revenue side,it's it's going after government
contracts, commercial contractsand partnering with different
orgs to be an offering ontotheir system.
So that that's really the waysthat we've been going to market
and that we're continuing to.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, it's a.
It's a primary reason to go tothe the soft week right there.
There's a lot of big fish outthere.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Great network.
It was a great.
You know, the first day and ahalf I went there I knew nobody,
right.
I'm not from this we.
We deal with a lot of soft andlike I know, but I'm not, I've
never in soft, I don't know, youknow.
So I just know what I've beentold by all the stories and so I
didn't know a lot of peoplethere.
So the first day and a half Iwas there, I was just trying to
(46:24):
meet people and then, um, wejust um, onboarded, um, uh,
three star.
His name is Eric Peterson, hewas in soft and so he was a
night stalker for almost twodecades and then he left and so
he was introducing me to a bunchof people and so I met, you
know, over a dozen really goodpeople from him and him just
(46:47):
bringing me around andintroducing people.
I went to their party, theirprivate party, and, you know,
met a bunch of people at thatevent and so that was a really.
So I'll be back next year forsure.
And you know I stopped by tryto see if you were there and the
you know the I'm wearing taskforce, uh, or uh, yeah, so I'm,
you know, got some swag theremet some really amazing people,
(47:10):
and I'm definitely excited to goback next year.
But yeah, it's all about thenetworking and the meeting
people.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yeah, it's a great event for that, and there's tons
of important individuals thatreally need to get spun up on
this because that'd be ideally,that'd be a great target
audience.
Honestly, talk aboutindividuals that are very
hesitant to get in a therapist'sroom.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
We're trying to start with soft.
That's like our initial marketis soft because that's the tip
of the spear and we want to goafter that community.
So that is actually what we'rewe're going after.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yeah, it makes sense.
It's definitely a communitythat can utilize the resource
and will utilize it because,like I said, a lot of people
don't want to.
You know they want to keepeverything in.
They don't, they want to beremain private to a fault, but
if they have something they canutilize just a vent, just to
throw some stuff out there and,at the very least, when they're
(48:04):
ready, they can go directly tothe source and get it in their
phone.
Josh, I can't thank you enoughfor being here today and for
having me on your team to talkabout this stuff as it applies
to veterans, because it'sincredibly, incredibly,
incredibly honored to be a partof that, if I can contribute in
any way, shape or form, to thisfight in any avenue because,
(48:26):
like I said, there's alwaysgoing to be people that are very
, very much against it.
But, like we talked aboutearlier, there's a lot of us
that grew up and have been usingAI chat models for a long time.
Shout out to you, craig andDiscord for recording the first
three seasons of this podcast,because that's what I utilized.
I used Discord and Craig was achat bot that recorded the
(48:49):
podcast for us, so very muchused to using AI models to help
me through my day-to-day life.
And if you're out there andyou'd like to know more, hit me
up and we can appoint you toJosh, and I'm sure he could
utilize more input in this space.
Josh, if people want to connectwith you and want to find out
more about Elana, how can theyget a hold of you?
Speaker 2 (49:13):
So first, thank you for the opportunity to be on
here.
Really appreciate it.
It was an honor and I'mgrateful to be a guest.
So LinkedIn I'm very active onLinkedIn.
So Josh Otero on LinkedIn, andthen Josh at Ilanaai.
So it's E-L-A-N-A-H.
My daughter's name, so that'swhy I spelled unique, so you
could either email me or justhit me up on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Perfect Everybody right now.
Please do me a favor, go aheadand pause.
Go to episode description.
Check out those links.
Send Josh a LinkedIn invite,connect with him, ask him
anything If not about AI, abouttransition, how he got in this
space, because I know there's alot of you out there that are
curious about how to get intothis, and I know that he'll
(49:54):
react.
I know he'll send you an email.
I mean, we connected and I'mnobody special.
Truly a pleasure to have you onhere today, josh.
I am absolutely proud of seeingeverybody that you're engaging
with and how open you are tojust not only discussing it,
coming on the podcast, buthearing every little bit of
input.
That's something that I wasreally, really happy to see,
because a lot of times, peoplewant to bring you in to check
(50:16):
out their stuff and they're likeI don't want to hear the good
stuff.
It's like, no, you got to hearall the good and the bad.
So I know this is going to besuccessful.
I know it's going to save livesAbsolutely thrilled.
So please, if you're listening,go out to all those links,
check them out, leave us areview, a like, a share, a
follow on YouTube, and we'll seeyou all next time.
Until then, take care, thankyou.
(50:37):
Thanks for tuning in and don'tforget to like, follow, share,
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If you want to support us, headon over to buymeacoffeecom
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Connect with us on Instagram Xor TikTok and share your
thoughts or questions abouttoday's episode.
You can also visitsecurityhawkcom for exclusive
(50:57):
content, resources and updates.
And remember we get throughthis together.
If you're still listening theepisode's over.
Yeah, there's no more Tune intomorrow or next week, thank you
.
Security Odd Podcast.
Let's go the only podcastthat's purpose-built from the
ground up to support you Notjust you, but the wider audience
, everybody.
Authentic, impactful andinsightful conversations that
serve a purpose to help you.
And the quality has gone up.
It's decent.
(00:21):
It's hosted by me, DannyCaballero.
It's decent, it's hosted by me,Denny Caballero, Don't feel
guilty, but certainly there'sthose big events but I'm like
man, I'd rather be home Family,I mean especially with kids when
they're young.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
you got to take advantage of that, because they
don't stay young forever.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
No, no, they don't.
Josh and Tara welcome.
How are you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
Doing well.
How are you Doing?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
well, welcome.
How you doing, Doing well, howare you Doing well, man?
Advocacy and support for ourveterans never stops, man.
It's an ongoing mission and Iam excited to have you on today.
We're finally able to make ithappen to talk about the
intersection between mentalhealth, ai and our veterans.
(01:06):
This is a powerful, powerfultool that, certainly in the last
few years, has become soprofound in everything from
medical applications, certainlywithin the defense tech, but
everyday use.
We utilize AI.
Now, if you're not using chat,gpt to help you figure out how
(01:26):
to, best you know, optimize yourwork schedule at home or to
create meal plans, you're usingit for you know how to you know,
build your own business plans.
It's everywhere and everybody'susing it.
But when we start talking abouthow it can help us with
stemming the epidemic of veteransuicide, then we get to
(01:47):
thinking, which is often enoughand oftentimes the most
important thing right, I canconnect with you, bring you back
(02:08):
from the void, get you a stepback off that ledge, so to speak
.
But how do we get AI into this?
So today, man, I want to breakthis down, but also, let's start
off with your journey.
How'd you find yourself in thisspace, man?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Oh, that's a good question.
So you know, I've been in likethe health and wellness space
for pretty much my entire life,um, athlete and kind of um
always been not a veteran myself, but I've always, you know, had
a close tie to the military andveteran community Best friend
is still serving and so alwaysreally felt an affinity towards
(02:48):
that.
And when COVID hit, I wasworking in the gaming space.
I had a sports nutritioncompany and we were trying to
really develop a healthyalternative to the monsters and
Red Bulls and things like that,and I noticed this huge spike in
social isolation, loneliness,depression, leading to suicide
in my community, which was 18 to34 year olds.
(03:11):
But I also saw it big time inthe military, even like with the
cadets, and you know there wastwo cadets that took their life
at the Air Force Academy I thinkit was February of 2020.
And then six sailors ForceAcademy I think it was February
of 2020, and then Six Sailors, Ithink a couple months after
that.
So in August or October of 2020, I founded the Warrior Gamer
(03:32):
Foundation with a mission topromote health, wellness and
community shift through gaming,and so we did our first in
person event in August of 2021.
And we brought all the branchestogether, including Space Force
and Coast Guard, and playedthis game called Rocket League.
Because I'm not a gamer myself,I just know that gaming is a
tool to connect others.
So when we were isolated, youknow, the only way to really
(03:55):
connect us through this and Zoomreally wasn't that big, but
gaming was so we could play andyou could be in Afghanistan, I
could be here and we're as ifwe're alive, and so that was.
I knew that was a powerful tooland so we did that.
First event Uh, we didn'treally have veterans at the time
, it was just active duty, um,and we connected it with this
(04:17):
big international rugbytournament and it went really
well.
Uh, year two, we added aveteran component and, uh,
brought in some Gold Star kidsand it just accelerated from
there.
So, fast forward to this pastyear, we were hosting our mental
health summit, which we doevery year, and we had the
secretary of the VA there and hekind of spoke on what's the VA
(04:40):
doing to address the younger 40and under veterans, because it's
different, right, theengagement level with veterans
that are 40 and under is notthere, and so the VA was really
trying to change the way theyaddress them, and gaming was
obviously a tool to do that.
And then we did a town hallsession after that and one of
the things that kind of came outof that day was how do we?
(05:03):
You know, we've got a discordserver which, if you're not
familiar with discord, it's likea Facebook and a LinkedIn kind
of wrapped in one, and you havedifferent communities in there.
You could, you know, privaterooms.
We've got like 40 differentrooms.
So if you're into memes, you dothat.
If you're into pets, you coulddo that.
Ais or drones, you could dothat.
(05:23):
One of the channels we have inthere is called Peer Connect and
it's basically it'speer-to-peer support,
veteran-to-veteran or activeduty-to-veteran, and we're there
24-7.
The problem was it's allvolunteer.
We have like 10 or 12volunteers at any one time and,
if you know, darkness doesn'ttypically strike in the
(05:45):
afternoon at like 1230 in theafternoon, it strikes two
o'clock in the morning.
Well, how many volunteers arereally going to be up at two to
be able to staff the phones?
Reality is maybe one or two,and so it started.
A question came out how can wescale this?
And I'm a big proponent of AI.
I use ChatGPT almost the monthit came out.
(06:06):
How can we scale this?
And I'm a big proponent of AI.
I use ChatGPT almost the monthit came out and so I understand
AI and I've been using it inmultiple factors.
So I'm like, huh, maybe there'sa way that we could utilize AI
to kind of solve this problem.
So I called my, who is now myco-founder.
She is a AI expert.
She had worked at Google and abunch of other companies really
(06:28):
making AI smart, and I said, hey, here's what I'd like to do.
Can we do this?
And she's like, yes, we can.
So her and I came together andwe started Elanaai, really with
a mission to fill that gapbetween no care and health care,
to support the veteran andactive duty.
And what it is is.
(06:49):
It's basically it's a platformto connect, act as a peer
support battle.
Buddy wingman, you knowwhatever, you know your branch,
you call it, and we're there24-7.
It's completely confidential,private conversations.
We're there to talk you throughwhatever you're going through,
share experiences or talk aboutexperiences that you may have
(07:10):
had and how do you overcomethose.
And it's trained in CBT, whichis cognitive behavioral therapy,
positive motivationalinterviewing.
We've got a team of like adozen psychologists, therapists,
pathologists, you know, youname the spectrum.
And then we've also got aveterans advisory board, which
you're one of them, and we getinput from the military and
(07:31):
veteran community and then weget input from our docs and our
specialists to be able to trainIlana to be able to better talk
to and engage with the servicemember veteran and their family,
to and engage with the servicemember veteran and their family.
No, so that's kind of how ilanawas born and kind of what we've
we built over the last fewmonths.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, and it's, it's um, it's no easy task to.
The thing that I immediatelywanted to explore and talk about
today was the, you know, whenwe sit in a room or even on a
phone call, even something likethis, um, we can connect.
Even if I didn't, we justdialed in, not knowing each
other, we could talk, we canengage and learn about each
(08:15):
other and through our engagement, through our our you know,
through having an opendiscussion and dialogue and
through vulnerability, you cansense of, okay, this person's in
trouble, this person might needhelp, this person is coming
from this background and, eventhough you didn't serve yourself
, you can develop empathy.
You can sit down and hold spacefor somebody.
(08:37):
How do we build that into an AIsystem?
How do we build that sort of AIcompassion, empathy, to
understand.
And the complexity of militarytalk, the complexity of our dark
humor, because I know from myguys, our special operations
(09:01):
individuals they're cynical.
If they reach out for this toolin their darkest moment and
they do decide to use it,they're not the kindest
individuals, they're not theeasiest.
Shout out to my buddy, david.
We were just talking about thisa while back and he showed me
how he treats chat GPT and it'svery different than how I
(09:25):
utilize chat GPT Very different,in fact.
I came across an article sayingthat people that say utilize
manners and say thank you andplease with chat GPT is like
burning extra resources by usingthat sort of mannerism of being
kind to an AI system.
But how do we make it so theyunderstand the dark humor, the
(09:47):
negativity coming from somebodythat's in danger or in need of
help?
How do we possibly create thatsort of understanding within an
AI model?
Speaker 2 (09:58):
So the way AI works is you know it uses contextual
reasoning, right, so it's allcontext-based.
So what we're trying to do andwe're still figuring this out
right we upgrade it.
You know it uses contextualreasoning, right?
So it's all context based.
So what we're trying to do andwe're still figuring this out,
right, we're we, we upgrade it,you know, every day, every week,
um, and we constantly getfeedback from our team to
upgrade.
So this is not a static model.
So, just to be clear, this isan evolution and we're
(10:18):
continuing evolving it, but byputting in military language.
Um, we're, we want to teach somevideos.
We want to teach some videos,we want to throw in some movies,
because movies help to train it.
So we haven't done that yet,but we are going to do that,
we're trying to.
We got to make sure there's nocopyright laws and all that kind
of stuff, but that's one of theways that we can do it.
So, the more it understandscontext and meaning and that
(10:41):
type of language because, you'reright, it's not regular
civilian language and if we'retalking like a civilian which
we're working not to, becausethat's why we're it understands
like, where's your MOS?
You know you're, you know, wereyou an enlisted, were you an
officer?
What are the differences?
So we're really trying to trainthat by providing that
knowledge on books, on papers,and then, you know, ideally, on
(11:05):
movies, so it then couldunderstand.
Okay, this is where they'regoing, cause if we give it
context, then it couldunderstand what you're talking
about.
So we're not there quite yet,but we're on our we're, we're
better than average and we'rewe're getting there.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Yeah, you know.
The other thing that that it'simportant to talk about too is I
first the immediate.
The immediate thing that Iwanted to engage with and figure
out is how can it help somebodythat's in the middle of crisis
in a when you get that 2am call?
It's never something that it'smildly.
(11:43):
It's always been a serioussituation.
I'm in the verge.
I'm actually thinking of doingthis.
It's a crisis moment, all handson deck.
But what about the day-to-daylife situations?
One of the biggest stressorsfor anybody is that transition
period coming out of themilitary.
How do we help address theeveryday stressors that you
(12:04):
might need support, thefinancial issues, the identity
issues, because these are allbig issues that maybe your
friend doesn't feel comfortabletalking about it with you.
But if they can utilize an AIplatform and talk about those
daily stressors, that could beextremely helpful too.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Yeah, and that's we've seen, especially, again,
this is with the youngergeneration, those 40 and under a
lot of them, and there's likethree studies potentially to fat
check that.
But there are multiple studiesthat show that under 40, they
are more comfortable talking toan AI chat bot than they are a
person.
(12:43):
Plus, if you're talking to aperson, you might be sharing
something that's embarrassingand you feel like you might be
judged or something that youmight feel shame and you don't
want to talk about it with aperson.
It's a lot easier to talk aboutwith a bot that's not judging
you, it's not critiquing you andyou know it's private.
Nobody could actually accessyour information.
So that's kind of our play is.
(13:04):
We feel like maybe the70-year-old's not going to use
it, but they might, but the35-year-old definitely will, and
that person may again not feelcomfortable talking to an actual
person.
Because, at the end of the day,we're not trying to replace a
therapist, we're not medical.
We're a wellness product, right?
We're that space between nocare and health care.
(13:25):
We're not trying to be a doctor.
We're a wellness product, right?
We're that space between nocare and healthcare.
We're not trying to be a doctor, we're not trying to be a
clinical psychologist.
We're trying to be that personthat you could talk to, share
your feelings and talk day today, because you also want to
have somebody that you couldtalk your positives with.
Right, I just got a promotion atwork or I just got my first job
.
I retired out of the militaryafter 21 years.
I just got my first job as acivilian, and it's like an
(13:49):
executive vice president orsomething.
So that's, and you maybe you're, you're single at the time, or
your wife is busy, or yourhusband is busy and you just
want to share it.
You could share that with Ilana, you could share.
I'm really stressed.
I've never had to do all thisstuff on my own.
I've used to the been in themilitary and I've never been
able to do this.
How do I do this?
How do I make a budget?
How do I plan?
I have debt, like what do I do?
(14:11):
I'm stressed.
I feel my spouse is going toleave me because I I don't know
how to manage stress, and sowe're there to kind of talk you
through that, whatever that.
You know that situation where Ijust broke up.
You know breakups or, like yousaid, transition.
Transition is a really hardpart and that's kind of the
purpose of the foundation isright to help you through that
transition finds a sense ofmeaning and purpose.
(14:32):
We want to be able to do that,too, through the ai.
So the ai is trained to kind ofhow do you, how do I find a
sense of meaning and purposewhen my identity was being a
green beret, and so I was at for15 years and now I'm just a
civilian.
So I just went from an A18 to aC civilian.
Nobody cares about me, nobody'stelling me what to do, I have
(14:54):
no community.
And so now, what this job thing?
So I'm going to be scrubbingtoilets, like I was just, you
know, a team lead, and now I'mscrubbing toilets Like how do I?
I don't even know how tocomprehend that.
And so those are some of thethings that we're really trying
to help people work through ishow do you deal with that Cause
that's a big transitionespecially if you come from an
(15:16):
elite unit and you're now just,uh, you know, bagging gross.
You know, like you're justgetting a regular job cause you
just don't know what to do.
That's a big transition.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Absolutely, and you touched on something that I
wanted to highlight for a momentAccessibility to something like
a software, an AI that can sitat your desktop, that you can
reach out to.
One of the biggest things thatI always heard and I experienced
myself when you're goingthrough something, when you're
lost in your own thoughts, withanxiety or depression, you don't
(15:51):
want to Google for a resource,you don't want to reach out.
But if you have something thatyou're comfortable typing into a
chat system that you'recomfortable with, that can give
you the resource.
That's one thing I realized bystarting this project the amount
of people that reached out justasking for a resource because
they didn't want to look it up.
Or they reach out initially and, through engaging through a
(16:16):
text message, you offer them theresource or you offer to look
it up for them.
It's insane.
One small inbox message leadsto a connection to the Cohen
Network, a connection to the TBITreatment Center that's nearest
to them.
Oftentimes, whether it's shameor guilt or you're just stuck in
(16:40):
your negativity, you don't wantto even look for the answers or
for the keys for your ownfreedom.
But if you connect withsomebody and they can do the
work for you, you'll receive it,and that's something that I see
that could be extremely usefulwith this platform.
You engage with it, youdescribe what you're going
through and it could prompt youthrough a series of questions
(17:03):
and dialogue.
Then you have a resource atyour fingertips, which I realize
a lot of people.
That's exactly what they need.
They just need to have thenumber to text.
I deal with it with a lot of myfriends.
I'm going through this.
Okay, here's the resource,here's the number.
Call them, email them, and Ifeel that our older generation,
(17:25):
like you said earlier, theymight not engage with it, but
our generation of GWAT veteransand the younger veterans, they
most certainly will.
They've been doing it alreadythrough video games and
connecting with their friendsthrough, like you said, discord
chatbots.
Like Craig, by buildingsomething that is already used,
(17:46):
that's already utilized foreveryday resources, can really
help save lives, because we'renot trying to create something
that will take over the job of atherapist.
It's connective tissue, get youto the next level of care.
But how do we get it to thepoint where society and
individuals that are, you know,maybe in the middle, see it as
(18:09):
being something worth investingor promoting or being, you know,
connected with Cause, you know,when we bring up AI, there's
always that that side of the theuh, the community and a
populace it's like well, no, Idon't really want to trust a
robot with my mental health,with my information.
I even have friends that arehesitant to try chat GPT because
(18:29):
they feel it'll scrape alltheir data and give it to China.
There's an incredible amount ofpeople that have a lot of
hostility towards an AI.
How do we begin to make it morepalatable?
How do we make it moreaccessible to individuals and
make it something that is ofvalue to everyone?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
I think it's you know .
First, it's getting intoeverybody's hands for them to
use it and if we get a new youknow recruit to use it all the
way through, because boot campis a stressful time too, right?
We know there's a lot of thingsthat happen during boot camping
, going through your initialtraining.
So you know if we're using itwhen we start and we're
(19:09):
continuing to use it, it'seasier to use it during
transition and post-transition.
So I think that's one is reallygetting it pushed from the top
down.
Second is, I think the morepeople are in, you know it's
it's surrounding them, becauseAI two years ago was kind of
like a oh, you're using it, youknow it was kind of this odd
(19:31):
situation.
Now it's in everything likeevery single company uses ai
yeah everybody's marketing theirown different style, a
different one, yeah I don't careif it's a painting company or a
roofing company, like they useAI because they're marketing,
they're using AI to market, andso you know.
And then obviously, if it's atech company, they have to use
(19:53):
it, otherwise they're going tobe out of business.
So I think the more people feelcomfortable with AI and it's
just, they're surrounded by it.
You can't, there's no job.
I mean maybe if you're diggingditches, but if you're the
digger, maybe, but if you'reowning the company, you're
definitely using it.
So you know, I think the morewe're surrounded by it and the
more we see it actually worksand we see it actually can
improve our life versus takingfrom us.
(20:16):
I think that's you know, it'sit's breaking down those
barriers.
And the easiest way is startingthem right, when they are,
first, you know enlisting or youknow going into the military,
or second, is they're surroundedby it and they see it works.
So those are like two thingsthat we're well.
The first one is what we'rereally trying to push.
(20:37):
Second one is what ChatGPT andevery other company is doing is
they're just getting it out tothe general public.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, and you know at this point, you know we have to
imagine that there's, there'sgotta be, is there competition
in the space?
And, if so, how do we stay onthe leading edge of it?
How do we bring this to marketbefore somebody else gets out
there, gets ahead of it?
Because I've imagined, liketeaching and training an AI
model is not as easy as teachingan adult how to go through, get
(21:10):
peer-to-peer support andcertified.
This is tricky.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
It is and it's expensive.
I mean you hear, like, howChatGPD spent billions of
dollars training their models.
So the good news is we couldtake from a lot of those models
so we're not having to spendbillions.
Well, we don't have billions ofdollars, but we don't have to
do that.
For us, you know, for us tostay ahead, it's getting us
known, right, getting into theVA, getting to the DOD, showing
(21:35):
the value that we could bring,how we could help, you know,
solve that gap.
Right now the VA is 40,000mental health professionals
short.
That's not getting solved byhumans.
So we've got to figure out thatbridge of how we can take
somebody that maybe not doesn'tneed to see a psychologist, but
they just need to talk tosomebody and we can help be that
bridge.
So it's really getting us knownand in the right hands of the
(21:57):
right people that are thedecision makers.
So we stay ahead of thecompetition.
There is competition, right.
People use chat GPT, even thoughchatPT is not trained in mental
health and there's now reportssaying it just gives you what
you want to hear.
It tells you what you want tohear, which is not the right way
to do it.
Well, if you think about whatChatGPT is.
(22:17):
It's a horizontally trained AI.
So it's trained on everything.
They've taken every, scrapedall of humankind's information
and dumped it in there, sothere's trillions of data points
in there.
What we're building is more ofa vertical AI.
So you hear the termhallucination.
It just makes things up.
By building a vertical AI, we'retrying to avoid that.
So we're specifically trainingit with specific data like
(22:41):
mental health, buildingresilience, mindset, mindfulness
, all these types of practices,and then military culture,
military language, what does arank mean, what are the
different ranks?
And so all the military things,things from the VA.
So it's specifically trained todeal with that individual
versus.
Tell me about how to, what'sthe formula to build an atom
(23:03):
bomb, you know, whatever that'snot our, that's not.
But if it's mental or buildingresilience, that's what our
thing is.
So we're the only ones currentlythat are building in the
military and veteran space.
There's other companies, likeHeadspace, that is developing.
You know they've been in.
I used to use Headspace as amindfulness thing.
So there's companies that arein this space, in the
(23:26):
mindfulness, ai, mental healthspace but none specifically in
this vertical.
Now my guess is, as soon asthey see us being successful,
they're going to want to jump in, which is to your point.
Why do we have to stay aheadotherwise?
And so by being in front of theright people, attending
SoftWeek and trying to talk tothe right people, building the
(23:49):
best product that is out thereand having people like Sherry
help build it for us, andgetting the best and brightest
minds from the professionalcommunity, but also the military
and veteran community, to helpbuild it, because if it's built
specifically for them, by them,we're going to have the best
product, because it was builtfor the community, by the
community.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Yeah, and it's important to understand too that
we are, and we have been, in acritical shortage for mental
health professionals.
And as much as we think thatwe're going to solve our way out
of this problem by certifyingmore psychologists, certifying
more mental health professionalslicensed, you know it's not
(24:32):
going to happen fast enough andwe're never going to fill the
void.
What we need to do is startthinking outside the box.
That's why I always championpeer-to-peer support.
You get better, you starthaving progress in your life.
You don't have to solve theproblems for your peer, you just
have to show them what workedfor you and be connective tissue
to the resources.
Now, with this AI model, it'sthe same thing.
(24:55):
We're building anotherpeer-to-peer support system, but
it's also helping in theday-to-day.
I always tell people it's notyour mental health journey
doesn't end one day, and thenyou claim victory over your
depression, your anxiety, thethings you're going through.
You learn how to live.
You learn how to manage thethings you're dealing with.
Put a lot of that trauma behindyou.
You solve it, but you're stillgoing to have bad days.
(25:17):
In those bad days, it's a loteasier to reach for that AI
model that you've come to use.
Come to trust, that can giveyou that box breathing exercise.
That can give you thatmeditation routine that you
didn't stick with, that hashelped you before.
Those are the things that I'menvisioning, because those are
the things that I needed, andinstead of looking at the sticky
(25:38):
paper, instead of digging backinto my workbook, if I want to
use the app, I can reach for theapp, and I think that's
something that a lot of peoplewant and can utilize on a daily
basis.
It's just a matter of getting itout there to them.
And the other thing that isimportant to understand is a lot
of people still have a lot ofhesitation getting into that
(26:01):
office and sitting down with atherapist.
No matter how much we talkabout it, no matter how much we
advocate for it, there's a lotof people that are still going
to say, no, I don't want to dothat.
This is something you can bringto somebody right now or in the
near future, and I think thatneeds to be talked about a lot
more.
My way to healing isn't goingto be their way to healing, but
(26:25):
if we have something that canease them into this, I think we
can start having theconversation, and I think that's
something that we need toremind ourselves.
It's not about pushingresources, but giving them
something that's readilyavailable, easy to download and
have on their person.
When we look at the stages ofbringing this out and finally
getting it out to the customer,where are we at right now with
(26:47):
Alana?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
So we're currently piloting, so we're working to
get it out to our we're working.
So there's a big fundingmechanism called Face to Fight,
which USA put a bunch of moneyinto and it's helping nonprofits
.
So we're partnering with anonprofit to get it in the hands
of about 500 veterans to startusing it more.
(27:10):
We have probably about 140 betatesters now that are using it
and giving us feedback.
The next step is we're goingafter VA contracts, dod
contracts and partner contracts.
So we're looking at some primesto be a subprime to get into
there.
I'm trying to get in front ofCongress to help push it.
(27:32):
So we're at kind of the pilotphase and getting some adoption
and users through those areasand then we want to be able to
deploy it, you know, in the nextyear to whoever picks up.
You know, if the VA funds us atthe DOD, wherever we can get
the funding to pay for it.
So we're kind of in that pilotphase and you know, you know to
(27:55):
your point.
One of the things that we'veseen is I've spoken to, you know
, over the last five years I'vespoken to hundreds of veterans,
maybe more than that, and foryou to get service, to go see a
psychologist, depending on whereyou live.
Six to eight week wait.
If I'm in trauma and if I'm inneed, I can't necessarily wait
(28:16):
eight weeks to go see somebody,and if you're active on some
basis it's nine weeks and so,and then you wait another six
weeks and then it could be adifferent person.
So there's no continuum of care.
So nothing against what they'redoing, but if we can be that,
that again that bridge, so youtalk to that therapist.
(28:37):
We also have the ability toshare notes, right.
So you know you can havedifferent conversations with
chat GPT.
You may not want to share allthose with your therapist, but
maybe you share your one thatyou're talking about your
transition issues, and I couldshare that one with my therapist
that I'm going to see in twoweeks.
I've never met her, I don'tknow, she doesn't know me, I
don't know.
So I want to share my last sixweeks of conversations with
(28:59):
Ilana with her, so she can atleast know who I am.
And then you know when I go into see her I'm not spending.
If it's an hour session, I'mnot spending 45 minutes giving
her that information that shejust saw and read in five
minutes.
So that's one of the things too, is we're trying to make it
easier for the therapist andprovider so you could share your
(29:21):
notes.
Again, it's only on you becausethose are 100% private, unless
you decide to share those notes.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
Yeah, it's one of the most common grievances that
I've heard from veterans thathave utilized the VA to go get
treatment with a therapist Ait's not always the same person
and it's constantly having torelive, like Groundhog's Day,
the same first interaction overand over and over again with
(29:50):
somebody new.
There's no continuity, there'sno handoff or warm handoff into
another provider and that burnsanybody out.
That's going to deflate you,that's going to constantly make
you feel like you're not heard,you're not validating what
you're going through.
Then nobody cares.
It's a little bit better whenyou are lucky enough to get you
(30:11):
know if you can get outsidetreatment and referral to a
civilian provider.
But still having to re-engageand share those same stories
from the same start point,that's frustrating.
But being able to have thathandover where, like hey, here's
my notes of everything I'mdealing with, if you can read
over those first, that way Idon't have to continue going
over it again for the fifth time, I'd really appreciate it.
(30:33):
But that's on you right, beingable to keep that stuff locked
in, stuff locked in.
But it does bring up one thingthat I that stuck out to me is
like okay, if we have a historyof self-harm, if we have a
history of hurting ourselves orhurting others.
We have that mandated reporter,somebody that's like hey, like
(30:54):
this is dangerous.
This person needs, you know, weneed to take the appropriate
level of care.
How can we make sure that, ifsomebody is reporting something
that's dangerous, potentialcrime, that our AI platform
knows what to do?
That's the scary part, becauseI know that's a reality.
(31:15):
That's a situation that,unfortunately, our mental health
providers find themselves in.
Unfortunately, our mentalhealth providers find themselves
in.
Somebody has now divulged thatthere's been a serious, heinous
crime that's occurred.
How do we navigate thosesituations?
Speaker 2 (31:30):
That's a really good point.
So because of the privacymeasures that we take, we don't
have the ability to report it.
But what we do have the abilityto do is to push them to get
help.
So like, right now we'reworking with other providers to
build this in, but right nowit's 988, right.
And then we also there's aveteran resource from the VA
that we put in there.
So right now, like if you'resaying I'm thinking about you
(31:52):
know I'm walking over to theliquor cabinet and I have my gun
in my hand it will say call 988, call 988.
You know, gun in my hand.
It will say call 988, call 988.
You know it'll continually tellyou call 988, push this.
It's a live link, you know.
So we push you to that resource.
What we want to build isadditional resources.
So if you're in Chicago, wecould push you to the local
(32:13):
provider in Chicago.
Or if you're in Detroit, wecould push you to Detroit.
So we we're not there yet.
By next year we will be.
But that's that's kind of ourway to kind of try to deal with.
That is really to urge you tosee somebody and to seek
professional assistance, causewe're just a AI chat bot.
We're not you know we can't do,you know we don't have the
(32:35):
ability to do certain things, asif your psychologist or your,
your therapist would be able todo so, pushing you to them hey,
you're in need.
Let's end our conversation andlet's talk to a professional.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
It almost makes you wonder if there's any way to
build in a dispatch system thatgets you into a live discussion.
Because that's one thing that Irealized thinking about this
the amount of times I've been onthe phone with somebody.
They divulge something whereit's okay.
Now it's escalated, Now it'slike okay, now I'm getting, now
I have to get in the vehicle, Ihave to go to you.
(33:09):
Um, because it is sadly thereality.
A lot of people will engage indiscussion and then, fortunately
, there's alcohol involved andpersonal firearms get in the mix
and it's.
How do we ensure that we cancontinue to provide a positive
resource and de-escalate thesituation?
(33:31):
How can we get that veteran orindividual on the phone to just
take a step back?
Think through it.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
Yeah, one of the things that we're doing and this
somewhat addresses that.
But if you're in crisis, crisisit doesn't.
But we're going to be buildingan affinity groups.
So the example is you like picka ball or you were a green
beret, we're going to build it.
Build in these groups.
They're anonymous groups, butyou'll be with actual people
where you could communicate andtalk to nice, like one of the
(34:01):
first via exits are going to belike going over to the warrior
gamer foundation discord serverand here's live people you could
talk to and here's a communitycan be a part of.
So we're we're trying to build.
It'll be probably next year,till it's launched, cause it's
not cheap, but we can see.
Okay, you were this, you werethis, you were this, you were
this.
We're going to put you in thisgroup.
You were this, this and this.
(34:21):
We'll put you in that group andor cause.
You have the ability to put yourdish, your likes and dislikes,
in the system.
So she knows more, a little bitmore, about you.
You've seen so um it by knowingyou and if you've been using it
for a few weeks, she'll get tounderstand some of the things
(34:42):
that you're you're maybe arelacking.
You know we're building inthese videos, right?
So then if there's a skill thatyou're missing, like resilience
, we'll be pushing you to take aresilience course.
But on the other side is yourbig soccer player.
You know, you played allthrough the military and now you
don't have a group, and sowe're going to push you part of
a affinity group for soccerplayers and then the next phase
(35:04):
would be okay, they're Phoenixsoccer players, so everybody you
know is based out of Phoenixand there's an app that we, the
foundation, partnered withcalled the Phoenix app.
That was traditionally for sober, for sobriety, but we're now a
part of it.
We're the first veteran gamingorg in there, and so the idea is
you, we put together localchapters where you, instead of
(35:25):
getting together online, we gettogether in person.
So there's there's vehiclesthat we're working to try to get
prevent you from getting to thepoint where you have your gun
in your hand, right, becauseonce you get that, it's very
difficult.
But if we could prevent youfrom getting there, because
we're providing you a safe space, really helping you build the
skills that you may be lackingmost likely coping skills and
(35:47):
then connecting with a communityof like-minded people, we're
hoping you're not going to getto that point where we, what
we're looking at, we're tryingto stay left of that and kind of
figure out how can we fixwhat's going on or not, but how
do we improve what you'redealing with and how you're
(36:07):
dealing with it?
So then we don't come to thatoutcome.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Absolutely.
You brought up a great pointthe community aspect.
We tend to focus, like I saidearlier, on the crisis
intervention, like the veteranthat's on the phone on the line
about to do something verydrastic.
We have to understand likethere's a whole bunch of other
parts and pieces to go into thisthat can keep you from being
(36:33):
there, and one of the big onesis that connection, human
connection.
The app is great to get you totalk and divulge when you're not
comfortable, when you're notready to be vulnerable with a
human, but at some point we haveto get you, the human being,
connected with other humanbeings in order to get to thrive
again.
And that's a huge piece that I'mexcited about, seeing how
(36:58):
that's going to look on the app,seeing those prompts of pushing
you towards that live event,pushing you towards the screen
messages that are going to tellyou like, hey, you've got a
soccer tournament next week withyour group.
Because in reality, all theseinterventions are great, all
these things that we learn andcan coach ourselves through
(37:20):
whether it's a breathingexercise or learning about
mindfulness and meditation,wonderful.
But the things that are goingto keep us alive in the long run
are the connections to ourcommunity and the people in our
lives.
And no psychologist can do thatfor you, no mental health
professional can do that for you.
Only you can do that.
How do we build that andpromote that in the app?
Speaker 2 (37:46):
And that's I mean.
You know, this whole thingabout affinity groups was
Sherry's idea right, becauseshe's really the smart one, and
so you know it's.
And I knew connection right.
That's why I started thefoundation, right?
It's that connection piece.
And when people say, well, aiis going to replace people, no,
it's not.
You need connection.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
You need human interaction.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
What AI is going to do is the person that knows ai
will will replace the personthat doesn't know ai.
That's where what I always sayis ai is not going to take your
job.
The person that is proficientin ai will be 100 taking your
job.
So you know, that's, that's thevehicle.
So if we could be that again,that bridge right.
So instead of maybe instead ofa therapist, this time it's a
group of like-minded people,it's a connection, it's it's
(38:34):
building that.
So that's really what we'rereally focused on again,
probably for next year, becausethis takes a lot of money to
build it.
But we really want to be ableto identify your you know your,
what you're liking, maybe whatyou dislike, and try to help
find that connection piece.
And maybe this is where wepartner with that other group to
(38:54):
, you know, cause they've gotthey've got 50,000 people
already on their app and so it'sall right, go, go.
You, you're a soccer player inChicago, go to this soccer group
.
It's, you know we're notassociated with them, but it's
people and you play everyThursday and it's soccer and you
know, I know you love soccer.
So we're really trying to figureout ways that we could connect
(39:14):
people in person and it's mostlikely going to be through
partnerships with nonprofitslike Warrior, gamer and other
nonprofits, or apps like thePhoenix app, where you know
they've got you know chapters,live chapters all over the
country.
So it's definitely I think it'sneeded, it's important, and
just being an AI app is not thesolution.
(39:34):
We have to be whole health andwe've got a thing that we're
going to push, probably nextyear, is like this whole health
thing, because it's, you know,it starts with us.
Right, we could be, we couldhelp, but you there's not.
There's more to it than that,like connecting wearables we
want to be able to connect with.
I was just going to bring thatup.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
I was going to say you know, I've got this apple
watch and it is great and weknow we were talked about the um
, just brain sorry, brain fog isreal.
We just talked about theheadspace app and how great it
is being able to to take this aiand have it integrate in the
rest of your life and the restof your devices.
(40:13):
I know I'm hearing all thegripes already from people that
we need to disconnect from allthese apps and devices.
Well, that's great for you, butsome people enjoy them, some
people love them.
And if we can integrate Elanainto every device, in your Alexa
, into your Kindle, to help youstay on track, one of the
biggest things that I realizedthat helps people is positive
(40:37):
psychology, gratitude, habittracking, having it tied to
ensure and just be your honestbroker of hey, did you journal,
did you do your gratitude list?
These little reminders.
They're powerful and they serveto be part of the larger
ecosystem of what this AI modelcould be one day.
(40:59):
And let's talk about that rightnow.
If we just pause and daydream alittle bit into the near future
, where do you see this appdeveloping into?
How do you see it being part ofour everyday life, if we
download it, if we have it withus.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
What do you hope it grows into?
You're a sidekick.
You're there 24-7.
I'm having a crappy day here.
My girlfriend is, you know, andand then again the two o'clock
in the morning thing is is fine,but that's very hopefully.
It's rare.
Less and less so it's it's.
It's your vehicle.
You know we have that dashboardwhich you see.
We want to build that dashboardout even more so if you're
(41:44):
you're wearing a whoop or you'rewearing an aura ring or sleep
is off, we could trackphysiological data, put that
into our assessment.
As you're talking to me, alana,I've noticed the last couple of
weeks your sleep is off, oryour stress is high, or your HRV
is low.
What's going on?
And then we're adding thatjournaling component to it and
so we're bringing on amindfulness lady.
(42:04):
So she's going to help bring usinto there.
Obviously, you know we have thebreathing area and Ned has been
testing it and the journalingis actually pretty good already,
even though we haven't reallyfully built it out.
So I envision this buddy, yoursidekick, your battle buddy,
your wingman, that you're usingit every day.
(42:25):
You wake up, just I had a greatsleep or I had a crappy sleep.
Hey, just go see how the day is, and then at night, you check
in.
So just something that you'reusing it every day and it's your
friend, but it's also your,your, your coach when you need a
coach and your advocate whenyou need a little bit push, and
(42:45):
so that's.
We're adding goal setting inthere.
Right, I want to run a marathon.
I want to, you know, be abetter reader.
I want to learn Spanish.
I want to get a pay raise.
I want to go from an E8 to anE9, you know, whatever that is,
we want to be able to help youon that journey and you're we're
your support system.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
I love that.
That's exactly the things thatI was envisioning it's.
It'd be too easy to keeppushing and make it, like I said
, part of your everyday life.
It's on your phones, on yoursmartwatch.
You interact with it.
On your desktop it pops up,just like grammarly, when you're
writing.
It lets you know like, hey,you're pretty stressed out right
(43:24):
now.
Go outside, take a walk.
Yeah, the amount of times myloop has let me know walking
your step went from 10,000 to500.
Speaker 2 (43:34):
Let's get you out there, yes absolutely all that
data yeah, the, the amount oflike.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
I've noticed it.
When I'm more mindful and I'mlooking at, like it knows it,
the.
You know being in a high stressenvironment, whether you're an
entrepreneur or in sales,whatever it is that you're doing
, you can start getting to thepoint where you're you're
breathing rate and being at, youknow, elevated moments of
anxiety and stress Like it canbecome your new normal.
(44:03):
It doesn't have to be like youneed to be mindful of those
prompts and when it pops up onyour phone, it pops up on your
watch.
That helps you out a lot.
It helps you realize like okay,I don't need to be distressed
out, it is nine o'clock in themorning.
I need to take a step back.
I need to look at my scheduleand realize that none of this is
really that important and Ineed to ground myself Like it is
(44:25):
vital to have these resourcesin the hands of everyday people
that don't have the tools, don'thave the years of going to a
practitioner yet.
I think this is a greatresource to be able to put in
people's hands.
When we look at funding, isthere any way that people can
contribute or is there akickstart or anything like that
(44:47):
in the near future?
Speaker 2 (44:49):
So we haven't gone that route.
We're more like going afterinvestors and invest.
You know venture capitalistsand all that kind of stuff.
So that's we really haven'ttried to crowdfund.
I've heard various stories onthat, so I've kind of stayed
away from that area.
So the way we're looking forfunding is either through like
angel investors or venturecapitalists and or contracts.
(45:12):
So if we get paid contractswhich is why we're talking to
like companies we want companiesto employ us.
Right, amazon's, the companiesthat employ large amounts of
veterans, we think they shouldbe employing us.
The DOD, the VA, you know,partnering with some nonprofits
that offer these types ofservices and then using grants
to fund it.
So those are the ways thatwe're looking to get funded is
(45:34):
on the investment side, it'sreally, you know, investors,
whether that's angel investorsor venture capitalists.
And then on the revenue side,it's it's going after government
contracts, commercial contractsand partnering with different
orgs to be an offering ontotheir system.
So that that's really the waysthat we've been going to market
and that we're continuing to.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, it's a.
It's a primary reason to go tothe the soft week right there.
There's a lot of big fish outthere.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Great network.
It was a great.
You know, the first day and ahalf I went there I knew nobody,
right.
I'm not from this we.
We deal with a lot of soft andlike I know, but I'm not, I've
never in soft, I don't know, youknow.
So I just know what I've beentold by all the stories and so I
didn't know a lot of peoplethere.
So the first day and a half Iwas there, I was just trying to
(46:24):
meet people and then, um, wejust um, onboarded, um, uh,
three star.
His name is Eric Peterson, hewas in soft and so he was a
night stalker for almost twodecades and then he left and so
he was introducing me to a bunchof people and so I met, you
know, over a dozen really goodpeople from him and him just
(46:47):
bringing me around andintroducing people.
I went to their party, theirprivate party, and, you know,
met a bunch of people at thatevent and so that was a really.
So I'll be back next year forsure.
And you know I stopped by tryto see if you were there and the
you know the I'm wearing taskforce, uh, or uh, yeah, so I'm,
you know, got some swag theremet some really amazing people,
(47:10):
and I'm definitely excited to goback next year.
But yeah, it's all about thenetworking and the meeting
people.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yeah, it's a great event for that, and there's tons
of important individuals thatreally need to get spun up on
this because that'd be ideally,that'd be a great target
audience.
Honestly, talk aboutindividuals that are very
hesitant to get in a therapist'sroom.
Speaker 2 (47:31):
We're trying to start with soft.
That's like our initial marketis soft because that's the tip
of the spear and we want to goafter that community.
So that is actually what we'rewe're going after.
Speaker 1 (47:41):
Yeah, it makes sense.
It's definitely a communitythat can utilize the resource
and will utilize it because,like I said, a lot of people
don't want to.
You know they want to keepeverything in.
They don't, they want to beremain private to a fault, but
if they have something they canutilize just a vent, just to
throw some stuff out there and,at the very least, when they're
(48:04):
ready, they can go directly tothe source and get it in their
phone.
Josh, I can't thank you enoughfor being here today and for
having me on your team to talkabout this stuff as it applies
to veterans, because it'sincredibly, incredibly,
incredibly honored to be a partof that, if I can contribute in
any way, shape or form, to thisfight in any avenue because,
(48:26):
like I said, there's alwaysgoing to be people that are very
, very much against it.
But, like we talked aboutearlier, there's a lot of us
that grew up and have been usingAI chat models for a long time.
Shout out to you, craig andDiscord for recording the first
three seasons of this podcast,because that's what I utilized.
I used Discord and Craig was achat bot that recorded the
(48:49):
podcast for us, so very muchused to using AI models to help
me through my day-to-day life.
And if you're out there andyou'd like to know more, hit me
up and we can appoint you toJosh, and I'm sure he could
utilize more input in this space.
Josh, if people want to connectwith you and want to find out
more about Elana, how can theyget a hold of you?
Speaker 2 (49:13):
So first, thank you for the opportunity to be on
here.
Really appreciate it.
It was an honor and I'mgrateful to be a guest.
So LinkedIn I'm very active onLinkedIn.
So Josh Otero on LinkedIn, andthen Josh at Ilanaai.
So it's E-L-A-N-A-H.
My daughter's name, so that'swhy I spelled unique, so you
could either email me or justhit me up on LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Perfect Everybody right now.
Please do me a favor, go aheadand pause.
Go to episode description.
Check out those links.
Send Josh a LinkedIn invite,connect with him, ask him
anything If not about AI, abouttransition, how he got in this
space, because I know there's alot of you out there that are
curious about how to get intothis, and I know that he'll
(49:54):
react.
I know he'll send you an email.
I mean, we connected and I'mnobody special.
Truly a pleasure to have you onhere today, josh.
I am absolutely proud of seeingeverybody that you're engaging
with and how open you are tojust not only discussing it,
coming on the podcast, buthearing every little bit of
input.
That's something that I wasreally, really happy to see,
because a lot of times, peoplewant to bring you in to check
(50:16):
out their stuff and they're likeI don't want to hear the good
stuff.
It's like, no, you got to hearall the good and the bad.
So I know this is going to besuccessful.
I know it's going to save livesAbsolutely thrilled.
So please, if you're listening,go out to all those links,
check them out, leave us areview, a like, a share, a
follow on YouTube, and we'll seeyou all next time.
Until then, take care, thankyou.
(50:37):
Thanks for tuning in and don'tforget to like, follow, share,
subscribe and review us on yourfavorite podcast platform.
If you want to support us, headon over to buymeacoffeecom
forward slash set call podcastand buy us a coffee.
Connect with us on Instagram Xor TikTok and share your
thoughts or questions abouttoday's episode.
You can also visitsecurityhawkcom for exclusive
(50:57):
content, resources and updates.
And remember we get throughthis together.
If you're still listening theepisode's over.
Yeah, there's no more Tune intomorrow or next week, thank you
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