June 27, 2025 • 48 mins
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In this inspiring episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with Chad Ballestrazze—a seasoned military leader and purpose-driven entrepreneur—to unpack a journey shaped by adversity, connection, and transformation. From overcoming a tough childhood to cultivating leadership in uniform and beyond, Chad shares how mentorship, community, and resilience became the foundation of his growth.
The conversation dives into the importance of fostering meaningful relationships, creating positive cultural change within teams, and balancing ambition with well-being. Chad also introduces his passion project, Beyond the Trek—a program designed to empower veterans and civilians alike through holistic training, shared experience, and intentional leadership.
🎙️ Whether you're navigating transition, building a team, or seeking purpose post-service, this episode delivers powerful takeaways you don’t want to miss.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Advocacy and Personal Stories
01:46 Military Background and Deployment Experience
03:49 The Impact of Blast Exposure
06:37 The Aftermath of the Blast
10:56 Navigating Recovery and Symptoms
13:34 Returning to Duty and Mental Health Challenges
19:37 Facing Vulnerability and Mental Health Challenges
21:25 The Journey to Diagnosis and Treatment
24:39 Struggles with Medical Professionals
28:31 Finding Hope and Alternative Treatments
31:54 The Impact of Hyperbaric Treatment
35:41 Advocating for Veterans' Health
40:28 Breaking the Stigma of Asking for Help
Instagram: @securityhalt
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LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
Follow Chad and Beyond the Trek on Social media!
Instagram:beyondthetrek
Website: beyondthetrek.co
Join us for the 1st Annual Lazzaro Legacy Classic Golf Tournament — a day of community, competition, and impact. Every dollar raised helps fund skills training, mentorship, and athletic opportunities for underprivileged high school athletes striving to reach the next level.
Saturday, June 28th, 1:30 PM – 9:00 PM EDT
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Produced by Security Halt Media
Mark as Played
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 podcast that'spurpose-built from the ground up
to support you Not just 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, it's hosted by me,danny Caballero, chad
(00:27):
Balistraze from Beyond the Trek.
Welcome, brother.
How you doing Good, denny?
How are you Doing well, man, Ilove connecting with folks that
are in the same mindset, tryingto do big things, and you and
your team are doing some awesomestuff.
So today, man, I want toexplore not only what you're
doing, but your journey, man,from all the way, from where it
all began.
Dude like pre-military.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I well, first, I appreciate the opportunity and
I always like to tell people,especially when I've been
honored to come on to a couplepodcasts and tell people that
they'll listen to shows likeyours or look at followers and
listen to the caliber of peoplethat you have on, and, uh, they
feel like these things arecompletely out of reach.
And uh, what I find super funnyabout that is is it was just a
(01:13):
simple message that went out.
You, you know, you had time inyour day.
You responded to it.
We're able to connect and Ilike to just explain that to
people that we're all justpeople, right?
We're all just normal peopletrying to get by, and you know I
was super happy to be able totalk to you.
Man, I get to learn a littlebit of your background and what
you guys are doing.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So, yeah, man, there's a misconception that you
can't reach out.
And again, like I'm notsponsored, not affiliated, the
Honor Foundation gave me theinsight of like the importance
of like reaching out andconnecting with people and just
asking for that virtual cup ofcoffee, um, I've I've yet to be
turned down by somebody to sitdown and like get some insight
(01:59):
as to like how to do thisentrepreneur thing, or or how to
like gain some insight on howto like do a conference, all
these things that you know youstart thinking about, that you
want to do in life.
There's somebody out there thathas a game plan, that has an
outline, uh, some cheat codes toyou, just be willing to reach
out, dude.
And I have, like I said, likeI've reached out to a lot of
fucking people and nobody's everlike well, there's been a few,
(02:22):
there's been a few cool guysthat are like I'm a little bit
too busy.
Um, and you know, hey, that's,but that's very rare Like if I
literally have reached out, coldemailed, reached out on
LinkedIn or got connected by afriend of a friend, and then
like it's in a oh, in the numberof hundreds now, and out of
those hundred, there's onlyhonestly, like one that sticks
(02:45):
out like a yeah, I takeeverything with a grain of salt,
but one person who's a fuckingdouche I won't name them, but
they're like a pretty well-knowncreator in the space, a veteran
and they gave me the coldshoulder, like I'm never too
busy being fucking cool, I'mjust too cool man.
I can't do it.
(03:07):
But I think that the thing thatreally stuck with me was like my
mentor through the HonorFoundation was like dude, don't
be afraid or be scared of a no,like reach out to people.
And one of the first peoplethat I got like a solid no, but
it was really quick and likepersonal was I reached out to
ice t.
(03:27):
I reached out to him because hewas a veteran.
I wanted to hear his story andI was like I and I forget how I
got the fucking email to beginwith.
But, um, I reached out to himand it was like almost within
like 30 minutes got an emailback and it wasn't like a quick
no, it was like, hey, man, Iappreciate it, but yeah, no, I
(03:50):
this part of my life I don'treally want to dive into, but I
appreciate it and I was like,holy shit, I got a note from
iced tea.
So yeah, still pretty pumpedabout it.
It's a, someday I'll print itout and I'll frame it, I'll put
it on my wall.
But yeah, man, like more oftenthan not, even if it's a no,
it'll be fucking, it won't belike a hurtful, like fuck you.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
No, you made a.
There's something you said lasttime.
We, uh, we spoke and it itresonated hard with me and I've
told it to multiple people and Ithrow your name out there.
Every time I say it I'm likehey man, this came from Danny,
it didn't come from me.
Thank you?
Yeah, I tell him I'm like sowhen we were talking, you said,
hey, the team room is bigger onthe outside, yeah, and that
(04:31):
stuck with me and I was like man, he's so right.
Like right Cause it's hard forme, right Cause I'm
institutionalized I've beendoing this for almost 20 years.
It's like this pot of peopleseems very big, but it's really
that small.
You know, and it goes back towhat you said man, how many
people are you going to reachout to?
Like, the team room is reallybig on the outside?
And I, again, I always go.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
hey man, I got this really cool saying came from
Denny over at Security Hall.
Yeah, man, but dude like howdid you?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
come up with your concept and what you guys are
doing now.
So I think a lot of it drivesfrom how, how I was raised.
So I grew up, you know, in a.
I like to think it wasn't aterrible childhood, right, I had
.
I had mom, dad.
They ended up getting a divorce.
Both my parents were.
My dad was hard of hearing, mymom was deaf.
So I grew up in what was knownas the deaf community.
Um, so I can go one of two ways, right.
Some people adapt really well tothat when they have a
(05:24):
disability, just like anydisability, right, and then
others, you know, they use it asa hindrance and it's because,
like, when you lose a sense,especially your hearing, right,
you tend to pick up on the otherones.
And the one that you typicallygets picked up on is body
language.
So if you say things, if you'removing your hands like I talk
with my hands all the timebecause I did sign language
growing up but if you say athing, you move your shoulders a
(05:47):
certain way, it can be takenout of context.
So I kind of grew up in thatspace and my dad was an
alcoholic and he was allergic toalcohol, so when he drank.
It was never like, hey, I'mjust going to have one drink,
and wine was always his choice.
So it was always going to be abottle or two and you never knew
because he was allergic to it.
(06:08):
You never knew what you weregoing to get, right you could
get, I mean, it would flip theone minute be really happy, next
minute, you know, angry.
And then my mom was neverreally present.
So, especially after they gotdivorced, I lived with my mom
for a little bit, who had a veryCatholic upbringing, very
strict six siblings.
They had a certain way of life.
So I lived with her for aboutfive years and then I moved in
(06:30):
with my dad, who was living withhis parents at the time, who
drastically different right, hadkids at 15, 16, dropped out of
high school, worked three jobsas support.
You better have a work ethic oryou ain't worth nothing, right,
hey, make sure you get aneducation, but it's not as
important as work.
Ain't worth nothing, right, hey, make sure you get an education
, but it's not as important aswork.
So growing up as a kid I waslike, let's go there, they don't
care about school, right?
So I learned.
(06:50):
I learned about a hard, hardwork ethic.
Um.
So again though, you know,growing up there, it was vastly
different, because everythingwas hey, how do I show you
affection?
It was never like I do with mykids.
Now, right, like, hey, I makesure I say I love you, I make
sure I give you a hug.
It was very like, hey, I boughtthis for you.
Like, okay, I took you on thistrip.
Like that means I care aboutyou, you know and there's tons
of country songs out there aboutthat right, dad shows how much
(07:11):
he loves his kids because hechanged their oil, right, um.
So, yeah, yeah.
So I ended up I said, hey, Ikind of want to do something
different.
There's no way I was going tomake it through school.
I always give a shout out to mywife that sent you my junior
year of high school.
They said I could take collegeclasses, I could leave school, I
don't have to go to school twodays a week.
Did that?
Flunked out all of them.
(07:32):
She took all my classes, got meto graduate.
So hats off to her.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
That's keeper yeah man, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And then I took the ASVAB twice but they were like,
hey, man, you're only reallybuilt for one thing let's move
on stuff on your back.
And you know I said, perfect,that's all I need to do.
So I decided to come in thearmy.
I had a really good time now,but with that background and
(07:59):
growing up, I learned to stayaway from things that made my
dad angry or family membersangry.
Right, body language is a hugething.
So as I came in the army, itserved me well for quite a few
years of hey, this guy does notlike this, just don't do that,
do what he likes, right.
And you seem like you're highspeed, right, which, looking
back at now, I was like, god,dude, what is I could have?
(08:20):
I could have been so much morebetter right, if I had a little
bit more mentorship.
So I carried that with me and Irode a high for a very long
time because I did those thingsand I ran into the right people.
It seemed like I was alwayshitting the right mark.
You know, figure out what theylike, do what they like.
I went to selection, gotselected, and I was like, oh man
(08:42):
, like nothing's ever I'm notknocked off.
My horse man, right Punchingthe cue course, went to a team,
was on a team, was just gettingall the deployments I wanted was
just crushing life.
And, um, I decided to go greento gold.
I had a buddy that uh talked meinto it.
I uh wanted to go try out forsome other things and got got
injured.
So I said, all right, let's,let's go do this.
(09:02):
Um, again, carried thatmentality and things with me and
, uh, I always like to tell thisstory because, as I was going
through this program, uh, mygrandmother, my grandmother
ended up passing away my dad'smom, who was like a huge, huge
influence on me, right, and so Istarted to carry a lot of that.
And this is where it reallygoes into what you said about
the team rooms bigger on theoutside, because I've been
(09:25):
crushing.
I felt like, right, crushing itfor so long.
And then I go to Green to Goldand I'm like man, what a great
break.
Right, this is going to begreat.
Like I'm away from everything.
Until I was around a bunch ofkids that weren't in the Army
right, they weren't in the Army.
I was removed from the textchains the emails, the.
(09:50):
The team goes on the guys go onright and you're like oh, it
won't be like that, it it willbe like that?
oh, it do be like that it do belike that and nothing against
them, right, like I got, theygot stuff to do and uh.
So after I rode that high for acouple months I was like this
feels great.
And then I started feeling kindof secluded.
And I started feeling like, youknow, and that was probably
year 12 in the army and I had,you know, and that's between
(10:12):
2006 to 18 ish, you know what Imean.
So all I had done my wholecareer was just let's just train
and keep going, right, keepkeep deploying.
And so I got to this sense oflike having a break actually,
and I fell lost, um, so I foundany opportunity I could and I I
finagled the deal to go to, uh,go serve in a position in Europe
(10:36):
during a summer rotation whichactually ended up being with
like an old ops arm major that Ihad, um, and to my wife she was
like, why are you doing this?
And I was like, oh, you know,it's just, it's, it's an
opportunity.
But looking back at it now Iwas like I was trying to seek,
you know, feel, that sense offeeling again or purpose, and uh
, so I went and did that andthis is kind of where it all
came crashing down is, uh, aformer medic of mine OD right
(10:59):
and ended up killing himself.
An old uh teammate that I hadright before I went to the
selection the only wedding I'vegone to in the army and that's
just because it was convenientto go to right.
It was, uh, he ended up gettingout and him and his wife were
going through some difficultiesand he ended up murdering her in
an apartment parking lot.
Oh geez, and is there anythingyou could have done about that?
(11:20):
No, right, like there's not.
But when, when I got, when youget, you feel like man, why
couldn't these guys reach out?
Why wasn't you know why?
Why wasn't I able to?
You know, um, but it'sreciprocal.
Um, I, you know I wasn'treaching out to them either, and
just, I think everything elsestarted piling on Right.
I was, I was back away fromhome again.
(11:46):
My wife was wondering, likewhat the hell?
Why are you in Europe doingthis thing when you know you
should just be in school hangingout for summer?
And then the really the cherryon top was one of the guys I had
known.
I was was with, you know, inthe army, he was serving in
Europe and I could tell he wasdrinking a lot, Right.
And one day he just didn't cometo work and I get a phone call
from the sergeant hey, man, wegot to go pick him up and we're
(12:09):
not going to like a U S hospital, we're going to like the German
crazy work.
And I was like, yeah, right,and like if you go there, it
ain't.
You know what I mean.
And I was like man, why didthis guy reach out?
You know, like I was sittingright next to him.
Why wasn't I doing these things?
Um, so, for the remainder ofthe time I was there probably
another two and a half months heended up staying with me.
(12:31):
And uh, they have what they callthe USA career starter loan
when you're getting ready tocommission.
And uh, it's like a dude, it'slike a less than 1% interest
rate.
You can get like 30 grand on it.
And prior to coming green togold, my wife and I had gone to
a Dave Ramsey seminar.
I was like man, I should dothat, but I'll do that when I
get promoted.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Like hey, all the pro pay, I'll take care of it.
You know, when I get my bumpand the tale is old as time.
So I was with a bunch of otherguys that I'd been on teams with
and everything else, andthey're there, um, and I had a
couple of guys who are in greento gold.
They were out of here, out ofCampbell right, the typical
tradition.
They're just going to stepacross the street and then come
back and they're like hey, man,don't worry about it.
We signed our own, our ownpaperwork.
(13:10):
And I tell this story.
It's like it's not my onlyfailure, but I this is where
everything kind of came to lightfor me.
So I was like, man, this justdoesn't feel right, but I'm
going to right your date.
And I was like she, probably, Iprobably shouldn't do this.
And I was telling myself, hey,that's okay.
Like you know, I'll get this,I'll, we'll finish putting our
(13:31):
daughter through preschool, I'lltake care of whatever and I'll,
I'll get it paid off.
Meanwhile I wasn't telling mywife about it.
Long story short, submit it itgets.
Uh, the guy who was supposed tosign it was like the head of the
program where I was at.
They were like oh, thesesignatures don't match, so it
became a big thing.
So, before I even came backfrom Europe, they were like, hey
, man, essentially you're aboutto get kicked out of this
(13:51):
program.
You're going to have to go backand figure it out in the army.
Um, and I started blamingeverybody else and, uh, I was
like, oh well, I had emailed youguys.
And I was like, oh well, I hademailed you guys.
Nobody got a hold of me, nobodycared.
And the funny thing is is thenight before they called me and
said, hey, did you sign thispaperwork?
(14:12):
The head of the program sent mea social media message and he's
like how are you doing?
I look back at that now and I'mlike that was the ticket, right.
That was like him saying hey,man, I want to check on you, you
know, cause he was like how areyou doing?
How's the family?
So, anyway, I come back, man,and again, right, I'm back
(14:33):
around these kids that aren't inthe army.
They had a unit shirt that theywore.
They made me wear a gray armyPT shirt and they like they
blasted me everywhere.
Hey, look at this guy who'sactive duty came from soft can't
even do the basics.
He's about to get kicked out ofthis program.
Meanwhile, the thing that hurtthe most was my wife was like
why didn't you even, why didn'tyou even talk to me about it?
(14:54):
Why didn't you even tell me?
And uh, again, man, everythingthat I expected from other
people, right, why didn't youreach out when you were in
trouble?
It was a pride thing to them andI, it ended up becoming the
same thing to me, um, so itended up really really moving
through that and, uh, startedcalling people.
I.
(15:14):
That was the hardest thing washaving to retell.
That story is to all thesepeople that I had served with
and they all came to bat for me.
All of them they said, hey, man, we're going to come to bat for
you one time, at one time only,so you better make this one
count.
And again, it's not my biggestfailure that I've ever had, but
everything was like put out onfull display and it made me
stand up in front of people thatwere getting ready to come into
(15:36):
the army.
It made me come in front of mykids, my wife, the people that I
had bid with that you lookinvincible to right when you're
just, you're just trusting it.
Um and uh, man, it all all cameto a head that to a point they
had to make their decision.
And this guy calls me in hisoffice, the head of the program,
the lieutenant colonel.
He grabs my packet and he'slike, hey, man, there's
(15:57):
something about you that Ibelieve in.
And he threw it in the trashand he's like you better, like,
keep it square the entire timeyou're here, otherwise I'm going
to cook you.
And I was like, okay, and forthe first time in a long time
not that it was directmentorship, but I couldn't evade
, I can just do what this guylikes.
I couldn't evade that.
Everything was on full display.
You got called out and Icouldn't ride success anymore.
(16:23):
So I had somebody that actuallybelieved in me and all these
guys that came to bat for methat wrote all these letters of
recommendation, I mean it showedme like, all right, man, you
have an opportunity, you need tobe able to change it.
So I leave there, I go back tothe big army for a very short,
short amount of time and I tookeverything that I learned from
that experience and everything Ihad learned while I was in soft
(16:46):
and I started applying it tothe people that were there,
which was a great environmentbecause it was back in the
infantry right.
So great, like, great, greatspot to like try to impact
people who didn't score high onthe ASVAB and all they're going
to do is walk with heavy stuff.
Um, and I got so fortunate thatI had a command at the time
that sat me down and they werelike hey, man, check it out.
(17:06):
I don't know what it is aboutyou, some of the tank men, I
don't know what it is about you,but you're able to get a large
amount of people to move in onedirection.
So, whatever you're doing, doit.
And whatever you need from me,I got it.
So I was able to take all thesecreative ideas that we have, and
you know we do.
We just we experiment withright, like I don't have a team
and I just did it there.
I didn't have red tape, man, um, and for some people that are
listening, like red tape and thearmy is like draws.
(17:29):
They didn't make me do any ofthat, man, nothing, they let me
just go.
And I really sat down withpeople and got to know them and
say, hey, how are you doing?
Oh, I'm doing good.
Like, no, really, how are youdoing?
Um, something that nobody hadever asked me.
And they, well, I'm not doingwell, right, I'm struggling my
(17:51):
finances.
And I started slowly with thegroup of people I was with,
breaking the stigma of like, hey, it's okay to ask for help, man
, it's okay to say, like, wehave these things, like let's
sit down together and let'sfigure out a plan.
Um and uh, I I had an awesometime doing that and they gave me
an opportunity to to go be a anHHCXO and I did that and like
now, now I had access to 200plus people that I was able to
try this on and I started doingit.
(18:12):
I started making people like,come to PT, and I was like, hey,
you need to meet this person,you need to solve your own
problems.
Right, you got to do this Like,let's get together.
At first it was, it was reallypushed back upon among the, you
know, among people, but theyreally people grew to love it
honestly and again, I had no redtape.
So I was these guys' dream waslike, oh, we can go swim in a
lake, right.
(18:33):
Like I know a lot of some peoplethat aren't in the military
listen to this and like, well,that doesn't seem like it's a
big deal.
Well, for the army, theconventional army, it's a big
deal to do a lot of that, right.
So, bringing those ideas andgetting them to connect and grow
and talk and start buildinglike fellowship was was huge,
and I think that's where thiswhole idea was was born and, um,
(18:57):
I sat down one day this isprobably like a month into you
know, being an XO, and I saidthis commander I had came from
regiment and he was another guy.
I was like hey, man, I don'tknow what you're doing.
And it was crazy to hear peoplesay he's like I don't know what
you're doing, but whateveryou're doing, it's working.
So I'm going to give you thefloor today and I kind of want
you to like tell people why you,why you're doing what you're
doing, you know.
So I sat down for a minute and Iwrote out these, these five
phrases that I've essentiallycarried with me to really build
(19:17):
this, this organization, out.
And I sat down, I look back atmy childhood.
I looked at, you know, thefailures, successes I had.
I said what are five thingsthat I wish I would have known
right off the rip?
And the first one was attitude,attitude's, everything right.
And I tell people all the timelike, hey, you always have
pretty, at least in a militarysense.
You always have a sour taste inyour mouth before you do
(19:39):
something and then when you getdone, you realize it wasn't as
bad as you thought.
So try to look at everything,every aspect, with that right.
Whatever you're dealing with inyour life.
Try to have a positive attitude, try and change the outcome of
it, if you can right.
The second one sounds cheesy ishey, be the leader you would
follow.
And I say that to people andthey go oh, yeah, okay.
And I'm like hey, man, justpull out your iPhone, go in the
(20:01):
mirror and ask yourself thesequestions Would you want to be
your own dad?
Do you want to be your ownfriend?
Do you want to be your ownspouse?
I mean, the list goes on and onand on.
Would you take advice fromyourself when it comes to
finances, alcohol, drinking?
If the answer is no, youalready know what you need to
work on.
Right, you already have aframework for what you need.
I don't need to sit here andtell you.
(20:21):
The third one was be the changeyou wish to see, and I I can say
, I think with every generation,that that tends to happen.
I know, like with me and mykids, I don't really drink
anymore.
Right, I went through a spoutwhere I did a lot, but I think
back to how my dad was and I waslike I don't want to be that
for my kids.
So I'm being, I'm consistentlymaking the choice each and every
(20:42):
day to be a change that I wantto see in myself, that I want
them to grow up and be proud ofthat.
I would want to be the dad thatI'd want to follow, be at the
games, be present with themthere.
Then the fourth thing was isfind something hard to do every
day, and I don't mean well, Igot to get up and I got to go
run 20 miles, I got to go liftthe heaviest weight.
(21:02):
Sometimes just getting up ishard for people, just putting
your feet on the ground orrolling out of bed.
But find something hard,whether that's spiritually, to
sit down and take time and readMaybe that's 15 minutes,
whatever it is to thatindividual.
Find it, it'll make you better,for it, right, it'll start
building that resilience in yourlife and give you a purpose.
And the fifth thing which Istruggle with for a really long
(21:26):
time is find something every dayto have fun with, whether it's
a conversation, whether it'sspending time with your kids,
whether it's being present.
And man, I said that to a groupof people and a lot of the
younger kids right, we're like,oh, yeah, okay, you know what I
mean.
Like, but it was the older guyslike that mid that mid crowd
(21:46):
that were like hey man, Iactually I really liked that,
you know, and I'm I I'mvulnerable enough now to to say
like I'm struggling with things,so I started that there.
He came back to North Carolinaand uh was having a conversation
with uh Mac, you met, you know,a guy who went with the course
with a long time ago and I saidhey man, I think I had this idea
(22:08):
, I'm going to go ahead and Iwant to do it.
And originally it was veryphysically fitness based and it
was completely transformed fromthere now to really teaching
people like hey, what is yourcapability?
First capacity, what can youactually take on?
What is your purpose?
Who do you surround yourselfwith Standards, man?
Do you have higher standardsfor other people than you do
yourself?
And it goes back to thosephrases man, are you that person
(22:30):
that you're going to follow?
And again, I say it's cheesy tosome people it might be, but I
constantly think of those fivethings every day when I go home
and I decide to pick up my phoneand either answer a text from
somebody or want to look at avideo they sent me and I got two
little ones that are looking atme and I go this isn't as
important as as it should beright now.
Right, like what I what I wantmy dad to spend time, um, so
(22:53):
that's kind of it like veryquickly, you know in nutshell.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, we'll, we'll unpack that a little bit more.
But I want to pause andsomething you hit on like, when
it comes to helping people outright now, whether it's mindset
coaching or just being a mentor,one of the things that we miss
and don't talk about enough is,like how much fun are you having
in your life?
Like how much joy do you havein your life and your day to day
(23:20):
?
And you know big goals, bigdreams require you to like work
and work really fucking hard.
You got to make things happen,but at some point, like you have
to be able to break away andyou got to find joy.
If you're a parent, like howmuch time are you devoting to
your family, like your kids?
Like the dream is important,the, the things you're chasing
(23:42):
professionally are important,but you have to add fun into the
equation.
You got to add recreation intothe equation.
There's a reason why there's aregular recreational therapist
out there.
Like it helps, it provides anarmor against the burnout man,
and that's something that a lotof individuals are dealing with,
even in the military.
Like when you look at your,your endeavors, like how are you
(24:04):
coming across?
How are you selling thatmessage to somebody that wants
beyond the track to like helpthem and advise them and to
provide value added to liketheir organization.
How do you sell the idea of hey, sometimes you got to walk away
from work.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, and I think that's one thing I didn't hit on
Right, it was, it was the namethat you mentioned.
So we came up with the name ofBeyond the Trek, because your
failures, your successes, allthese things are never going to
define who you are.
What you do from those lessonslearned and you carry them
forward is truly what matters.
And obviously I keepreferencing the military because
I've been in it for so long.
(24:41):
But I go back to those guysthat all they want to do is tell
, tell deployment stories.
Hey man, those are great, butwhat lessons did you learn from
that that you can teach thisnext young guy that 10 years
from now he's going to besitting in your seat and he's
going to want to know that.
Um it, it's hard, man Like I.
The messaging thing issomething I'm struggling with
(25:02):
now.
Right, I'm only a little over ayear into this.
I'm learning.
I learned a lot from ourconversation.
Posting isn't marketing,marketing isn't posting.
Right, trying to figure it out.
I mean, I send so many emailsevery day and night looking for
an opportunity and I get a lotof no's and I've gotten some
yeses and um, I heard this quotethe other day that really made
me think and I I ran hard for avery, very long time that, uh,
(25:26):
one of the things I told abehavioral health specialist was
like I honestly forgot, likethe color of the trees and the
sky was blue, like you'd see itin passing, but it was like, hey
, man, I don't got time for that.
I got to focus on like what thisis and like when you actually
pause and take a minute and likestep back and look and you're
like dude, like life goes byvery quickly, and what I heard
(25:47):
the other day was you get a veryshort amount of time to watch
your children be children.
You get to watch the rest oftheir life be adults, and that I
read that about a week ago andthat hit me hard and I was like
man, you're right, you know, I,I bury, I bury myself in like
coaching, sports and things likethat, but I tell myself that
it's what I would have wanted,right.
(26:07):
But again, it goes back to whatyou tolerate is what you're
willing to accept.
So what I would tellorganizations or business out
there is how are you developingyour people?
Because at the end of the day,I get it right.
There's always a bottom line,there's always a mission
statement you're trying to meetright.
It can be transactionalleadership, but you look at
(26:29):
people like Dave Ramsey, likethe organization, if you read it
, like a lot of people that workthere really enjoy it because
they focus on people.
And I always tell, I alwaysbring these three approaches in
you got to be able to take careof yourself before you can take
care of anybody else, because ifyou can't take care of yourself
, you can't take care of yourfamily.
That's simple things, right?
Maybe doing something hard,focusing on medical, whatever
that is.
Then you focus on your family.
(26:51):
If you can focus on your familyand your family's taken care of
and you're taken care of, dudeeverything at work.
Number three is going to takecare of itself.
How do you break thattransactional mindset to get
somebody to not want to come injust from eight to five, punch
in, punch out and be done withit?
How do you, how do you carry?
How do you improve retention?
(27:11):
It's getting down in those teamrooms.
It's getting down in thoseoffices, those mid-level
managers, and getting to knowyour people and sit down and
talk to them.
And I understand right, that'snot a it's not a sexy thing to
hear, but it really comes backto the mantra of master the
basics man.
You're never going to replacepeople.
I don't care how much AI comesout.
You know, um, you gotta getdown there and you gotta
(27:35):
understand what makes them tickand make them feel like like
they're cared for.
Um, I, I listened to this thingthe other day, which is a great
.
I keep saying that, but weshould all be lifelong learners,
you know, and I if we werebeginners, mine beginners, mine
man.
And uh, it actually it wasactually Dave Ramsey and he had
this discussion about how we gotto sit in on a hot wash or an
(27:57):
AR uh, and after mission review,if you will, with uh, a tier
one unit, and he's like man, Icouldn't tell who was in charge
because there was so much truthand care and, you know, um
accountability in that, in thatdiscussion, and that taught him
a lot and I it made me think of,like every time I go through
one and it's man, that prettymuch holds true.
So I would carry that over anorganization and say, hey, just
(28:20):
because you're in charge, justcause you have a thing that says
leader, are you really a leaderor are you more just a manager?
Right, like you're justmanaging people.
And when you say, well, theseguys aren't, they aren't, you
know they show up every day.
So you know we have a reallygood crew of people.
You know.
You say that in the army too.
Well, we're a disciplinedformation because our people
(28:41):
show up every day.
I would argue that, whetheryou're a corporate American, in
the military that's a forcingfunction, because if you don't
show up you've got to lose yourjob, or I got adverse action I
can give you.
It's a forcing function, youknow.
So, yeah, it's.
It's something that I think isgoing to take coaching time and
and and being able to to showpeople that end product of hey,
(29:06):
you're going to get what youtolerate.
So, if you can pour into yourpeople and you tolerate high
performers, man, that's exactlywhat you're going to get.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, it's tricky trying to provide insight and
guidance to other leaders, right, because as much as they want
to say, or we want to say thatyou're humble and you're open to
the criticism and change, likethere's always going to be
pushback man, there's alwaysgoing to be, you know,
hesitation to embrace somethingnew, especially when it comes
(29:33):
with, you know, advice and input.
That might not be go hard, itmight not be.
Hey, keep pushing harder.
You know we, I, I like uh,calling out this influencer dude
um, it's andy elliott.
Yeah, that dude's such aabsolute fucking boner dude like
this, this.
And it's that sales mentality oflike you, fucking, you're not
(29:54):
selling fucking five millionworth of product, you piece of
shit.
Like dude, like that's, that'snot your goal in life is to
cheat, hustle people out ofmoney.
Goal in life is to do good atyour job.
And I get it Like, if you're insales, like maybe you do have
to have that cutthroat attitude.
I don't know, I don't want tobe involved in that world, but I
(30:16):
do know that there's somethingto being the best version of
yourself and offering yourpeople the ability to work in a
good environment where it's notmet with a constant threat of
death and destruction if youdon't sell the latest product.
But I constantly go back tothis idea that you have to
promote aggressive and hardstructured, rigid timelines.
(30:40):
Dude a lot of times.
What people need to hear is thatyou can't have balance in life.
How do you optimize the abilityto just breathe?
No, that's not a thing.
You just need to tell people tobe present, be focused on today
, be focused on your mission andbe okay with walking away when
it's time to walk away, which issomething nobody ever told us
in the fucking military.
(31:00):
Like shit has to stay in theteam room, go home.
Like you're going to be moreproductive if you understand the
importance and value of walkingaway from your project.
Like if you're, if you'reworking in a creative endeavor,
like anything, like what we'redoing.
Did you need time away from thedesk, from the computer, in
(31:21):
order to come up with your nextgreat idea?
It's not going to happen whileyou're fucking staring at
deadlines.
It's not going to happen whileyou're reading and writing
emails all freaking afternoonlong.
They say it all the time Somedays, 70% is your a hundred
percent.
Some days, 65 is your absolutebest and you have to be able to
get to that mentality where it'slike, okay, this is what I'm
(31:42):
able to do today, but how do yousell that to people?
It's hard, like I struggle withit myself.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
A hundred percent Right, and I would.
I would argue with people toothat, hey, we need to look at
successes and built off of howmuch time you give a product
right, it should be product.
It should be product completedjust because this guy did it in
10 minutes and it meets.
You know it meets yourexpectations or exceeds them.
But this guy gave it threehours and I, man, he really
tried.
(32:08):
All right, man.
Well, there's, there's no a fortrying here, All right, that
just means he stayed longer.
But I think it goes back toculture no-transcript.
(32:44):
Last year they had a goodseason, look they.
And it's because it takes time.
You know you're not going toimmediately see a culture shift.
Like people got to buy into it.
I newsflash to organizations.
I've talked to one.
Like if people don't buy in,they're not going to care.
And you can say as much as youwant.
Like, well, they got to abideby us and they got to conform to
(33:04):
us.
Well, if all your people leavebecause you can't, you can't
talk to people, you don't have abusiness anymore yeah, you know
.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah, man, that is so true.
Um, fuck, I can't remember whatteam was the offensive
coordinator that came in, Iforget, but he planned out.
It was like you, let meimplement this and I'm going to
(33:38):
give you the best friggingoffensive line and you're going
to see it Like, you're not goingto understand it, but you're
not going to understand mymethodology.
But by this year you're goingto see it and sure enough, like,
let people implement thesystems that they know are going
to produce the desired and saydesired product, and trust them,
give faith and trust, just likeyou know, your commanders and
(33:59):
your officers above you gave youthat leeway and gave you the,
the, the pathway to success, toimplement what you knew was
going to work.
Like, when you trust the peopleyou empower to do what they're
good at, like, you're going tohave that result.
It might not be when you want it, like tomorrow, but trust the
systems, man, I've seen that somany times where it's like no,
this is the way we've done itbefore.
(34:19):
Well, obviously it's notworking.
It's obviously not giving youwhat you need.
So, trust this person, trustthe person you've been trusting
in this position.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah, yeah, don't worry about evals, don't worry
about if the boss says, hey, yougot to have so much turnover in
X amount of days.
Take care of the people, letthe people take care of their
family, and work will take careof itself.
Because if you can pour intothem, man and you need right,
you need a hundred percent for acouple of days, and they know
(34:49):
you're going to stand rightthere with them and do it.
Um, dude, they're going to giveyou your all.
And I think that's onecomponent when this thing all
started out was a very physicalportion, right, which I still
have.
I still have built out, and Imean there's a lot of great
organizations out there that dothese things.
But what I think is completelydifferent here is, given the
opportunity and a great examplewould be Bellarmine University
(35:10):
we got the opportunity to go outto Bellarmine University and
talk to a D1 wrestling teamPhenomenal kids and the coach
was like, hey, man, let's goahead and let's whatever workout
you got, whatever you can puttogether with them, like, let's
put them through it.
And what makes us differentfrom everybody else that I have
seen in my experience, right andI don't know everybody that's
out there is everything I askyou to do, I'm doing it right
(35:30):
there with you, right?
Team captain doesn't get a pass.
The CEO doesn't get a pass IfI'm asking you to be at the
breach point, if I'm asking youto be at a point of friction, if
I'm saying, hey, this salesteam has got to grind it out,
instead of just yelling at themanager and the manager turning
around and yelling at somebodyelse.
Does the manager know what he'sdoing?
Because if he's not, then Iexpect the CEO or whoever to
(35:53):
stand there and you'll watch howmuch harder people push.
I mean, these kids were inwicked shape, man.
I mean they ran circles aroundus.
The feedback we got before weeven went into the discussion
was especially the kids thatwere in ROTC.
There they were like I've never, I've never had anybody that
did this with me.
Right, they stood on thesideline with their cup, a cup
(36:14):
of coffee, and they're like.
That made me want to do moreand I'm like that's nothing
special, man, I don't got to beout here killing myself.
But I'm going to show you like,hey, I'm asking you to to move
these pieces of equipment andwork as a team.
I'm going to be right therewith you man Right, and uh, it
speaks volume.
You can just be there withpeople.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Absolutely, man.
That's.
That's a great approach to thisman.
Like if, if you're buildingsomething that's for empowering
and building up an organization,and you build them a product
and you bring them apresentation, like if it doesn't
involve some sort of like unitcohesion, some sort of like
doing something hard, man that's.
(36:51):
It's always made us betterdoing something hard together.
That's, that's a I think that'san attribute that's needed in
all these programs.
But I don't think I I don't, atleast I haven't seen enough
programs uh, integrate that.
I think it's part of likebuying culture.
We're all going to do this.
It's going to suck, but it'sgoing to make us closer and
better together.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Um, when you look, forward to, uh, the next few
years of Beyond the Trek.
What do you guys have on deck?
How is the program going toevolve and what's next for you
guys?
Good question, I'm trying tofigure out how to market with
the time.
I do have One thing that'sawesome on the horizon right now
is I've been working with acompany 27th Response who I met
through a shooting competitionout here that we went ahead and
(37:39):
did.
John DeCoursey and he's a formerNew York City Hostess Rescue
team member decided to walk awayfrom the profession and he
wanted to pursue something else,and so, anyway, he lives in
Georgia now and he teachesfirearm tactics CQB active
shooter and so we've decided tocome together and put a course
together in June, which would bethe first one that we've done.
(38:00):
This is going to be part one.
We're going to have two partsof it and it's going to combine
mindset training right, holisticapproaches between physical,
mental, emotional, right, and wecan talk about spiritual
fitness, if people want to dothat.
We're combining all that with aclassroom portion.
Then this would be a three daycourse, so day one will be
classroom, day two is going tobe flat range stuff, so he's
(38:21):
going to go out there teach him,hey, some manipulations of
pistol rifle.
And then day three, we'reputting it all together.
Uh, let me backtrack here.
I got one of the guys in theteam Ken Reed is a former
special operations medic, sohe's going to go out there.
He's going to teach them justsome quick combat casualty care.
Hey, how do you guys pack a bagfor your car, how do you do
certain things?
And then day three is going toput everything together.
(38:44):
They're going to get threefield training exercises.
Right, that's going to be CQBactive shooter.
I'm going to put some roleplayers out there.
They're all going to bewinnable scenarios, but it's
going to be things that you aregoing to see out there.
Hey, you're going to run up tothe house, right?
Hey, there's probablysomebody's got to have a phone
out there screaming at youvideoing something you're
probably going to see now.
Right, because people wouldrather tell you to go in there
(39:05):
and do it.
We're going to provide themwith unit solution rifles, all
their ammunition, everythingthat they're going to need.
They're going to work throughthis.
They're going to apply themedical things that they saw.
Right, this isn't.
This isn't an army FTX, if youwill.
It's very catered to thecivilian world.
But the most important thingoutside of the training is
giving you exposure to traumaand at the end of it, we are
(39:28):
going to do a hot wash withevery single individual and
we're going to talk through it.
What did you see?
What bothered you?
Did it trigger anything frombefore?
Let's break the stigma Like,hey, I'm just going to throw it
in my rucksack and I'm justgoing to I'll deal with it later
, no man Cause we're not goingto drink out here.
So good, let's, let's talkabout it.
(39:48):
What bothered you?
Well, man, it was like it wastraumatic seeing a person run
through the house like that.
Okay, where do we need to go toget help?
And I hope that, building outthis course, we're gonna have
one night where it's gonna be anopen fireside chat for people
to get to know Everything'sprovided for them food and
everything and I hope what thisis gonna do is these individuals
are gonna be able to go back totheir communities.
(40:09):
Hopefully, if we get anybodythat's in law enforcement EMS,
they can go back and when theysee those traumatic situations,
say like, all right, guys, comehere, I get it, this isn't all
foo, foo, foo, foo.
Like we don't need to act likewe're hard, like do you need
help right now?
And not like, oh no, I'm good,okay, no, no, do you actually
need help?
No, and hopefully change thatstigma.
And that's just one piece of it.
(40:30):
I'm also hoping, in the next twoyears-ish, that we'll get the
opportunity to start working ourway into corporate America and
start talking about the thingsthat we've talked about giving
organizations a sense of purposewith their people, and not just
focus on the piece of equipment.
The mind is a piece ofequipment.
The humans are more importantthan hardware.
How do we add that in there?
(40:51):
And I think the last space Iwould like to explore is some
sort of DOD option, because I dobelieve a lot of us that have
served during the GWAT period.
We have a lot to give back, andit's more than just war stories
.
It's hey, these are tools thatworked, these are tools that
didn't work.
So let's teach them, let's getyou guys to go through it, let's
(41:13):
inoculate a little bit ofstress and let's get you to talk
through it, work through it andfigure out why this tool works
outside of your normal trainingcycle.
That's where I'd like to seethis thing go.
Who knows right, if it doesn'twork out, I can go be a mailman,
I guess.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Hell, no, man, you got to have faith.
You got percent buy-in, man,yeah, um, and don't quit, keep
pushing.
Um, there's, there are morepeople than we think, out there
cheering us on.
Just got to connect with them,got to connect with them and,
and every, every connection is apowerful link to the next job,
(41:50):
to the next customer.
And that's the reality, man.
That's the truth, uh, and inour veteran, the truth, uh, and,
and our veteran space is filledwith fucking people that want
to support you and want to seeyou win, cause your win is my
win.
So it's, it's that fuckingconnected man, um it, and it's
like.
I take that directly from uh,aaron, love, uh, shout out to
ones ready.
You know, in this space, somepeople have the idea that it's
(42:13):
like oh, man's gunning for me,dude, you're.
No, it's not like that.
Their success is my success andso on, because if they can make
it, then I know there's apathway that we can make it, and
the ability to reach throughand connect with people and
offer a platform, connect themto a friend, like that's huge in
(42:34):
this space, man, uh, sodefinitely keep fucking grinding
, don't give up, man, likeyou're almost free from the man
and you'll be able to focus 100of your attention into this
endeavor and, uh, after, afterwe get done here, man, I'll I'll
try to link you up in theemails with uh some people that
I think would be greatconnections and then possible um
(42:55):
provide more insight on how toget those uh key meetings to be
able to connect with uh somemore customers, cause, uh, dude,
like you like I said when wefirst talked like you have a
fucking big team man.
Like you have a big fuckingteam.
That's something that's like,man, I'm jelly.
Like you got fucking.
You got a fucking roguesgallery of hitters man.
(43:16):
They just fucking sitting therelike just like a fucking
detachment man.
That's a power.
You already.
You already got that man.
Like that's, that's one of thebiggest things for anybody is
like looking across the room andseeing like who's going to
believe in you?
And when you got a team ofdudes that look at you and say,
hey, we're in, we're in thisthing Like bro, you can't lose,
(43:37):
we're in this thing like bro,you can't lose, you can't
fucking lose.
I mean, look at mac, thatdude's a fucking hitter man like
you.
Just, all you need is him, justyou and him, and you can take
on the world, so I know that youguys are going to be successful
.
If people want to learn moreabout you, where can they go?
Speaker 2 (43:47):
yeah.
So we've got a website rightnow.
We recently started a podcast.
We're a few months in, took abunch of tips from you and I, uh
, I'll say that that podcastdoesn't highlight warfighter gun
stories that you know a lot ofpeople intertwine with their
military service, but reallyfocus on what was our failures
in life and how they move beyondthat.
We've had some awesome pipehitters out there I mean John
Troxell, jc Glicks coming up.
(44:09):
We had Bill Oslin on there.
It was uh, just uh.
I mean Tom Satterly is going tobe a guest coming up.
I mean, hell yeah, dude, a lotof lessons learned that are
coming up on there.
We're on social media.
We're on Instagram, facebook,linkedin, and then we have a
website which is beyond thetrekco Um, and you can see some
(44:29):
of the stuff that we do there.
People can reach out on socialmedia.
All the guys on the team haveaccess to social media.
So if you want to reach out,just ask a question like hey,
man, we're normal people, we'rehere to help and that's all I
want to do, and I will leave itwith.
I've had a lot of people tell mehey, when you go into an
organization and you want theopportunity to teach.
You need to disassociate thearmy's mentality of like you
need to make sure that they getit right.
(44:51):
It's kind of transactional.
If they don't get it, theydon't get it.
I will say like I canunderstand that.
But because we are in a peoplebusiness, right, I want to make
sure that something I give youhopefully resonates right, like
if I'm talking to a brick wall,I'm talking to a brick wall, but
if I can help you out in someway that makes you go out and
impact somebody else and maketheir day better, their life
(45:13):
better, dude, it's an automaticwin and that's what those so
that podcast stories are allabout.
As long as somebody out thereis living your story, if I can
just give you a tool to be ableto get through it, man, it's a
win.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Hell, yeah, man, that's a powerful um.
You know medium right there, apodcast, and uh, you're using it
for a great purpose, man, so Iknow it's going to be successful
.
If you guys are listening, goahead and pause.
Go to the episode description.
All those links are going to beright there.
Head on over to Spotify,youtube, apple Podcasts.
Give their podcast a listen,Give them a five-star review and
(45:47):
leave some words in thecomments.
Help the algorithm.
Boost your stuff to more people.
I know they would appreciate it.
I'd appreciate it too.
And then, while you're at it,do the same thing for Security
Hall.
Give us a like, follow or share.
Go to the comment section.
Write anything in there.
I don't care Dildo, fuck, weed,whatever you want.
As long as you put it in there,I'll see it and it'll make my
day and I'll be happy.
And, yeah, I appreciate you fortuning in and listening.
(46:08):
Brother, thank you for beinghere.
Name of the website.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Beyond the Trek T-R-E-K dot C-O.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
There you go.
Thank you all for tuning in.
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(46:38):
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(47:58):
Thank you.
Security Odd Podcast.
Let's go.
The only podcast that'spurpose-built from the ground up
to support you Not just 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, it's hosted by me,danny Caballero, chad
(00:27):
Balistraze from Beyond the Trek.
Welcome, brother.
How you doing Good, denny?
How are you Doing well, man, Ilove connecting with folks that
are in the same mindset, tryingto do big things, and you and
your team are doing some awesomestuff.
So today, man, I want toexplore not only what you're
doing, but your journey, man,from all the way, from where it
all began.
Dude like pre-military.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Yeah, I well, first, I appreciate the opportunity and
I always like to tell people,especially when I've been
honored to come on to a couplepodcasts and tell people that
they'll listen to shows likeyours or look at followers and
listen to the caliber of peoplethat you have on, and, uh, they
feel like these things arecompletely out of reach.
And uh, what I find super funnyabout that is is it was just a
(01:13):
simple message that went out.
You, you know, you had time inyour day.
You responded to it.
We're able to connect and Ilike to just explain that to
people that we're all justpeople, right?
We're all just normal peopletrying to get by, and you know I
was super happy to be able totalk to you.
Man, I get to learn a littlebit of your background and what
you guys are doing.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
So, yeah, man, there's a misconception that you
can't reach out.
And again, like I'm notsponsored, not affiliated, the
Honor Foundation gave me theinsight of like the importance
of like reaching out andconnecting with people and just
asking for that virtual cup ofcoffee, um, I've I've yet to be
turned down by somebody to sitdown and like get some insight
(01:59):
as to like how to do thisentrepreneur thing, or or how to
like gain some insight on howto like do a conference, all
these things that you know youstart thinking about, that you
want to do in life.
There's somebody out there thathas a game plan, that has an
outline, uh, some cheat codes toyou, just be willing to reach
out, dude.
And I have, like I said, likeI've reached out to a lot of
fucking people and nobody's everlike well, there's been a few,
(02:22):
there's been a few cool guysthat are like I'm a little bit
too busy.
Um, and you know, hey, that's,but that's very rare Like if I
literally have reached out, coldemailed, reached out on
LinkedIn or got connected by afriend of a friend, and then
like it's in a oh, in the numberof hundreds now, and out of
those hundred, there's onlyhonestly, like one that sticks
(02:45):
out like a yeah, I takeeverything with a grain of salt,
but one person who's a fuckingdouche I won't name them, but
they're like a pretty well-knowncreator in the space, a veteran
and they gave me the coldshoulder, like I'm never too
busy being fucking cool, I'mjust too cool man.
I can't do it.
(03:07):
But I think that the thing thatreally stuck with me was like my
mentor through the HonorFoundation was like dude, don't
be afraid or be scared of a no,like reach out to people.
And one of the first peoplethat I got like a solid no, but
it was really quick and likepersonal was I reached out to
ice t.
(03:27):
I reached out to him because hewas a veteran.
I wanted to hear his story andI was like I and I forget how I
got the fucking email to beginwith.
But, um, I reached out to himand it was like almost within
like 30 minutes got an emailback and it wasn't like a quick
no, it was like, hey, man, Iappreciate it, but yeah, no, I
(03:50):
this part of my life I don'treally want to dive into, but I
appreciate it and I was like,holy shit, I got a note from
iced tea.
So yeah, still pretty pumpedabout it.
It's a, someday I'll print itout and I'll frame it, I'll put
it on my wall.
But yeah, man, like more oftenthan not, even if it's a no,
it'll be fucking, it won't belike a hurtful, like fuck you.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
No, you made a.
There's something you said lasttime.
We, uh, we spoke and it itresonated hard with me and I've
told it to multiple people and Ithrow your name out there.
Every time I say it I'm likehey man, this came from Danny,
it didn't come from me.
Thank you?
Yeah, I tell him I'm like sowhen we were talking, you said,
hey, the team room is bigger onthe outside, yeah, and that
(04:31):
stuck with me and I was like man, he's so right.
Like right Cause it's hard forme, right Cause I'm
institutionalized I've beendoing this for almost 20 years.
It's like this pot of peopleseems very big, but it's really
that small.
You know, and it goes back towhat you said man, how many
people are you going to reachout to?
Like, the team room is reallybig on the outside?
And I, again, I always go.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
hey man, I got this really cool saying came from
Denny over at Security Hall.
Yeah, man, but dude like howdid you?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
come up with your concept and what you guys are
doing now.
So I think a lot of it drivesfrom how, how I was raised.
So I grew up, you know, in a.
I like to think it wasn't aterrible childhood, right, I had
.
I had mom, dad.
They ended up getting a divorce.
Both my parents were.
My dad was hard of hearing, mymom was deaf.
So I grew up in what was knownas the deaf community.
Um, so I can go one of two ways, right.
Some people adapt really well tothat when they have a
(05:24):
disability, just like anydisability, right, and then
others, you know, they use it asa hindrance and it's because,
like, when you lose a sense,especially your hearing, right,
you tend to pick up on the otherones.
And the one that you typicallygets picked up on is body
language.
So if you say things, if you'removing your hands like I talk
with my hands all the timebecause I did sign language
growing up but if you say athing, you move your shoulders a
(05:47):
certain way, it can be takenout of context.
So I kind of grew up in thatspace and my dad was an
alcoholic and he was allergic toalcohol, so when he drank.
It was never like, hey, I'mjust going to have one drink,
and wine was always his choice.
So it was always going to be abottle or two and you never knew
because he was allergic to it.
(06:08):
You never knew what you weregoing to get, right you could
get, I mean, it would flip theone minute be really happy, next
minute, you know, angry.
And then my mom was neverreally present.
So, especially after they gotdivorced, I lived with my mom
for a little bit, who had a veryCatholic upbringing, very
strict six siblings.
They had a certain way of life.
So I lived with her for aboutfive years and then I moved in
(06:30):
with my dad, who was living withhis parents at the time, who
drastically different right, hadkids at 15, 16, dropped out of
high school, worked three jobsas support.
You better have a work ethic oryou ain't worth nothing, right,
hey, make sure you get aneducation, but it's not as
important as work.
Ain't worth nothing, right, hey, make sure you get an education
, but it's not as important aswork.
So growing up as a kid I waslike, let's go there, they don't
care about school, right?
So I learned.
(06:50):
I learned about a hard, hardwork ethic.
Um.
So again though, you know,growing up there, it was vastly
different, because everythingwas hey, how do I show you
affection?
It was never like I do with mykids.
Now, right, like, hey, I makesure I say I love you, I make
sure I give you a hug.
It was very like, hey, I boughtthis for you.
Like, okay, I took you on thistrip.
Like that means I care aboutyou, you know and there's tons
of country songs out there aboutthat right, dad shows how much
(07:11):
he loves his kids because hechanged their oil, right, um.
So, yeah, yeah.
So I ended up I said, hey, Ikind of want to do something
different.
There's no way I was going tomake it through school.
I always give a shout out to mywife that sent you my junior
year of high school.
They said I could take collegeclasses, I could leave school, I
don't have to go to school twodays a week.
Did that?
Flunked out all of them.
(07:32):
She took all my classes, got meto graduate.
So hats off to her.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
That's keeper yeah man, you know.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
And then I took the ASVAB twice but they were like,
hey, man, you're only reallybuilt for one thing let's move
on stuff on your back.
And you know I said, perfect,that's all I need to do.
So I decided to come in thearmy.
I had a really good time now,but with that background and
(07:59):
growing up, I learned to stayaway from things that made my
dad angry or family membersangry.
Right, body language is a hugething.
So as I came in the army, itserved me well for quite a few
years of hey, this guy does notlike this, just don't do that,
do what he likes, right.
And you seem like you're highspeed, right, which, looking
back at now, I was like, god,dude, what is I could have?
(08:20):
I could have been so much morebetter right, if I had a little
bit more mentorship.
So I carried that with me and Irode a high for a very long
time because I did those thingsand I ran into the right people.
It seemed like I was alwayshitting the right mark.
You know, figure out what theylike, do what they like.
I went to selection, gotselected, and I was like, oh man
(08:42):
, like nothing's ever I'm notknocked off.
My horse man, right Punchingthe cue course, went to a team,
was on a team, was just gettingall the deployments I wanted was
just crushing life.
And, um, I decided to go greento gold.
I had a buddy that uh talked meinto it.
I uh wanted to go try out forsome other things and got got
injured.
So I said, all right, let's,let's go do this.
(09:02):
Um, again, carried thatmentality and things with me and
, uh, I always like to tell thisstory because, as I was going
through this program, uh, mygrandmother, my grandmother
ended up passing away my dad'smom, who was like a huge, huge
influence on me, right, and so Istarted to carry a lot of that.
And this is where it reallygoes into what you said about
the team rooms bigger on theoutside, because I've been
(09:25):
crushing.
I felt like, right, crushing itfor so long.
And then I go to Green to Goldand I'm like man, what a great
break.
Right, this is going to begreat.
Like I'm away from everything.
Until I was around a bunch ofkids that weren't in the Army
right, they weren't in the Army.
I was removed from the textchains the emails, the.
(09:50):
The team goes on the guys go onright and you're like oh, it
won't be like that, it it willbe like that?
oh, it do be like that it do belike that and nothing against
them, right, like I got, theygot stuff to do and uh.
So after I rode that high for acouple months I was like this
feels great.
And then I started feeling kindof secluded.
And I started feeling like, youknow, and that was probably
year 12 in the army and I had,you know, and that's between
(10:12):
2006 to 18 ish, you know what Imean.
So all I had done my wholecareer was just let's just train
and keep going, right, keepkeep deploying.
And so I got to this sense oflike having a break actually,
and I fell lost, um, so I foundany opportunity I could and I I
finagled the deal to go to, uh,go serve in a position in Europe
(10:36):
during a summer rotation whichactually ended up being with
like an old ops arm major that Ihad, um, and to my wife she was
like, why are you doing this?
And I was like, oh, you know,it's just, it's, it's an
opportunity.
But looking back at it now Iwas like I was trying to seek,
you know, feel, that sense offeeling again or purpose, and uh
, so I went and did that andthis is kind of where it all
came crashing down is, uh, aformer medic of mine OD right
(10:59):
and ended up killing himself.
An old uh teammate that I hadright before I went to the
selection the only wedding I'vegone to in the army and that's
just because it was convenientto go to right.
It was, uh, he ended up gettingout and him and his wife were
going through some difficultiesand he ended up murdering her in
an apartment parking lot.
Oh geez, and is there anythingyou could have done about that?
(11:20):
No, right, like there's not.
But when, when I got, when youget, you feel like man, why
couldn't these guys reach out?
Why wasn't you know why?
Why wasn't I able to?
You know, um, but it'sreciprocal.
Um, I, you know I wasn'treaching out to them either, and
just, I think everything elsestarted piling on Right.
I was, I was back away fromhome again.
(11:46):
My wife was wondering, likewhat the hell?
Why are you in Europe doingthis thing when you know you
should just be in school hangingout for summer?
And then the really the cherryon top was one of the guys I had
known.
I was was with, you know, inthe army, he was serving in
Europe and I could tell he wasdrinking a lot, Right.
And one day he just didn't cometo work and I get a phone call
from the sergeant hey, man, wegot to go pick him up and we're
(12:09):
not going to like a U S hospital, we're going to like the German
crazy work.
And I was like, yeah, right,and like if you go there, it
ain't.
You know what I mean.
And I was like man, why didthis guy reach out?
You know, like I was sittingright next to him.
Why wasn't I doing these things?
Um, so, for the remainder ofthe time I was there probably
another two and a half months heended up staying with me.
(12:31):
And uh, they have what they callthe USA career starter loan
when you're getting ready tocommission.
And uh, it's like a dude, it'slike a less than 1% interest
rate.
You can get like 30 grand on it.
And prior to coming green togold, my wife and I had gone to
a Dave Ramsey seminar.
I was like man, I should dothat, but I'll do that when I
get promoted.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
Like hey, all the pro pay, I'll take care of it.
You know, when I get my bumpand the tale is old as time.
So I was with a bunch of otherguys that I'd been on teams with
and everything else, andthey're there, um, and I had a
couple of guys who are in greento gold.
They were out of here, out ofCampbell right, the typical
tradition.
They're just going to stepacross the street and then come
back and they're like hey, man,don't worry about it.
We signed our own, our ownpaperwork.
(13:10):
And I tell this story.
It's like it's not my onlyfailure, but I this is where
everything kind of came to lightfor me.
So I was like, man, this justdoesn't feel right, but I'm
going to right your date.
And I was like she, probably, Iprobably shouldn't do this.
And I was telling myself, hey,that's okay.
Like you know, I'll get this,I'll, we'll finish putting our
(13:31):
daughter through preschool, I'lltake care of whatever and I'll,
I'll get it paid off.
Meanwhile I wasn't telling mywife about it.
Long story short, submit it itgets.
Uh, the guy who was supposed tosign it was like the head of the
program where I was at.
They were like oh, thesesignatures don't match, so it
became a big thing.
So, before I even came backfrom Europe, they were like, hey
, man, essentially you're aboutto get kicked out of this
(13:51):
program.
You're going to have to go backand figure it out in the army.
Um, and I started blamingeverybody else and, uh, I was
like, oh well, I had emailed youguys.
And I was like, oh well, I hademailed you guys.
Nobody got a hold of me, nobodycared.
And the funny thing is is thenight before they called me and
said, hey, did you sign thispaperwork?
(14:12):
The head of the program sent mea social media message and he's
like how are you doing?
I look back at that now and I'mlike that was the ticket, right.
That was like him saying hey,man, I want to check on you, you
know, cause he was like how areyou doing?
How's the family?
So, anyway, I come back, man,and again, right, I'm back
(14:33):
around these kids that aren't inthe army.
They had a unit shirt that theywore.
They made me wear a gray armyPT shirt and they like they
blasted me everywhere.
Hey, look at this guy who'sactive duty came from soft can't
even do the basics.
He's about to get kicked out ofthis program.
Meanwhile, the thing that hurtthe most was my wife was like
why didn't you even, why didn'tyou even talk to me about it?
(14:54):
Why didn't you even tell me?
And uh, again, man, everythingthat I expected from other
people, right, why didn't youreach out when you were in
trouble?
It was a pride thing to them andI, it ended up becoming the
same thing to me, um, so itended up really really moving
through that and, uh, startedcalling people.
I.
(15:14):
That was the hardest thing washaving to retell.
That story is to all thesepeople that I had served with
and they all came to bat for me.
All of them they said, hey, man, we're going to come to bat for
you one time, at one time only,so you better make this one
count.
And again, it's not my biggestfailure that I've ever had, but
everything was like put out onfull display and it made me
stand up in front of people thatwere getting ready to come into
(15:36):
the army.
It made me come in front of mykids, my wife, the people that I
had bid with that you lookinvincible to right when you're
just, you're just trusting it.
Um and uh, man, it all all cameto a head that to a point they
had to make their decision.
And this guy calls me in hisoffice, the head of the program,
the lieutenant colonel.
He grabs my packet and he'slike, hey, man, there's
(15:57):
something about you that Ibelieve in.
And he threw it in the trashand he's like you better, like,
keep it square the entire timeyou're here, otherwise I'm going
to cook you.
And I was like, okay, and forthe first time in a long time
not that it was directmentorship, but I couldn't evade
, I can just do what this guylikes.
I couldn't evade that.
Everything was on full display.
You got called out and Icouldn't ride success anymore.
(16:23):
So I had somebody that actuallybelieved in me and all these
guys that came to bat for methat wrote all these letters of
recommendation, I mean it showedme like, all right, man, you
have an opportunity, you need tobe able to change it.
So I leave there, I go back tothe big army for a very short,
short amount of time and I tookeverything that I learned from
that experience and everything Ihad learned while I was in soft
(16:46):
and I started applying it tothe people that were there,
which was a great environmentbecause it was back in the
infantry right.
So great, like, great, greatspot to like try to impact
people who didn't score high onthe ASVAB and all they're going
to do is walk with heavy stuff.
Um, and I got so fortunate thatI had a command at the time
that sat me down and they werelike hey, man, check it out.
(17:06):
I don't know what it is aboutyou, some of the tank men, I
don't know what it is about you,but you're able to get a large
amount of people to move in onedirection.
So, whatever you're doing, doit.
And whatever you need from me,I got it.
So I was able to take all thesecreative ideas that we have, and
you know we do.
We just we experiment withright, like I don't have a team
and I just did it there.
I didn't have red tape, man, um, and for some people that are
listening, like red tape and thearmy is like draws.
(17:29):
They didn't make me do any ofthat, man, nothing, they let me
just go.
And I really sat down withpeople and got to know them and
say, hey, how are you doing?
Oh, I'm doing good.
Like, no, really, how are youdoing?
Um, something that nobody hadever asked me.
And they, well, I'm not doingwell, right, I'm struggling my
(17:51):
finances.
And I started slowly with thegroup of people I was with,
breaking the stigma of like, hey, it's okay to ask for help, man
, it's okay to say, like, wehave these things, like let's
sit down together and let'sfigure out a plan.
Um and uh, I I had an awesometime doing that and they gave me
an opportunity to to go be a anHHCXO and I did that and like
now, now I had access to 200plus people that I was able to
try this on and I started doingit.
(18:12):
I started making people like,come to PT, and I was like, hey,
you need to meet this person,you need to solve your own
problems.
Right, you got to do this Like,let's get together.
At first it was, it was reallypushed back upon among the, you
know, among people, but theyreally people grew to love it
honestly and again, I had no redtape.
So I was these guys' dream waslike, oh, we can go swim in a
lake, right.
(18:33):
Like I know a lot of some peoplethat aren't in the military
listen to this and like, well,that doesn't seem like it's a
big deal.
Well, for the army, theconventional army, it's a big
deal to do a lot of that, right.
So, bringing those ideas andgetting them to connect and grow
and talk and start buildinglike fellowship was was huge,
and I think that's where thiswhole idea was was born and, um,
(18:57):
I sat down one day this isprobably like a month into you
know, being an XO, and I saidthis commander I had came from
regiment and he was another guy.
I was like hey, man, I don'tknow what you're doing.
And it was crazy to hear peoplesay he's like I don't know what
you're doing, but whateveryou're doing, it's working.
So I'm going to give you thefloor today and I kind of want
you to like tell people why you,why you're doing what you're
doing, you know.
So I sat down for a minute and Iwrote out these, these five
phrases that I've essentiallycarried with me to really build
(19:17):
this, this organization, out.
And I sat down, I look back atmy childhood.
I looked at, you know, thefailures, successes I had.
I said what are five thingsthat I wish I would have known
right off the rip?
And the first one was attitude,attitude's, everything right.
And I tell people all the timelike, hey, you always have
pretty, at least in a militarysense.
You always have a sour taste inyour mouth before you do
(19:39):
something and then when you getdone, you realize it wasn't as
bad as you thought.
So try to look at everything,every aspect, with that right.
Whatever you're dealing with inyour life.
Try to have a positive attitude, try and change the outcome of
it, if you can right.
The second one sounds cheesy ishey, be the leader you would
follow.
And I say that to people andthey go oh, yeah, okay.
And I'm like hey, man, justpull out your iPhone, go in the
(20:01):
mirror and ask yourself thesequestions Would you want to be
your own dad?
Do you want to be your ownfriend?
Do you want to be your ownspouse?
I mean, the list goes on and onand on.
Would you take advice fromyourself when it comes to
finances, alcohol, drinking?
If the answer is no, youalready know what you need to
work on.
Right, you already have aframework for what you need.
I don't need to sit here andtell you.
(20:21):
The third one was be the changeyou wish to see, and I I can say
, I think with every generation,that that tends to happen.
I know, like with me and mykids, I don't really drink
anymore.
Right, I went through a spoutwhere I did a lot, but I think
back to how my dad was and I waslike I don't want to be that
for my kids.
So I'm being, I'm consistentlymaking the choice each and every
(20:42):
day to be a change that I wantto see in myself, that I want
them to grow up and be proud ofthat.
I would want to be the dad thatI'd want to follow, be at the
games, be present with themthere.
Then the fourth thing was isfind something hard to do every
day, and I don't mean well, Igot to get up and I got to go
run 20 miles, I got to go liftthe heaviest weight.
(21:02):
Sometimes just getting up ishard for people, just putting
your feet on the ground orrolling out of bed.
But find something hard,whether that's spiritually, to
sit down and take time and readMaybe that's 15 minutes,
whatever it is to thatindividual.
Find it, it'll make you better,for it, right, it'll start
building that resilience in yourlife and give you a purpose.
And the fifth thing which Istruggle with for a really long
(21:26):
time is find something every dayto have fun with, whether it's
a conversation, whether it'sspending time with your kids,
whether it's being present.
And man, I said that to a groupof people and a lot of the
younger kids right, we're like,oh, yeah, okay, you know what I
mean.
Like, but it was the older guyslike that mid that mid crowd
(21:46):
that were like hey man, Iactually I really liked that,
you know, and I'm I I'mvulnerable enough now to to say
like I'm struggling with things,so I started that there.
He came back to North Carolinaand uh was having a conversation
with uh Mac, you met, you know,a guy who went with the course
with a long time ago and I saidhey man, I think I had this idea
(22:08):
, I'm going to go ahead and Iwant to do it.
And originally it was veryphysically fitness based and it
was completely transformed fromthere now to really teaching
people like hey, what is yourcapability?
First capacity, what can youactually take on?
What is your purpose?
Who do you surround yourselfwith Standards, man?
Do you have higher standardsfor other people than you do
yourself?
And it goes back to thosephrases man, are you that person
(22:30):
that you're going to follow?
And again, I say it's cheesy tosome people it might be, but I
constantly think of those fivethings every day when I go home
and I decide to pick up my phoneand either answer a text from
somebody or want to look at avideo they sent me and I got two
little ones that are looking atme and I go this isn't as
important as as it should beright now.
Right, like what I what I wantmy dad to spend time, um, so
(22:53):
that's kind of it like veryquickly, you know in nutshell.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
Yeah, we'll, we'll unpack that a little bit more.
But I want to pause andsomething you hit on like, when
it comes to helping people outright now, whether it's mindset
coaching or just being a mentor,one of the things that we miss
and don't talk about enough is,like how much fun are you having
in your life?
Like how much joy do you havein your life and your day to day
(23:20):
?
And you know big goals, bigdreams require you to like work
and work really fucking hard.
You got to make things happen,but at some point, like you have
to be able to break away andyou got to find joy.
If you're a parent, like howmuch time are you devoting to
your family, like your kids?
Like the dream is important,the, the things you're chasing
(23:42):
professionally are important,but you have to add fun into the
equation.
You got to add recreation intothe equation.
There's a reason why there's aregular recreational therapist
out there.
Like it helps, it provides anarmor against the burnout man,
and that's something that a lotof individuals are dealing with,
even in the military.
Like when you look at your,your endeavors, like how are you
(24:04):
coming across?
How are you selling thatmessage to somebody that wants
beyond the track to like helpthem and advise them and to
provide value added to liketheir organization.
How do you sell the idea of hey, sometimes you got to walk away
from work.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, and I think that's one thing I didn't hit on
Right, it was, it was the namethat you mentioned.
So we came up with the name ofBeyond the Trek, because your
failures, your successes, allthese things are never going to
define who you are.
What you do from those lessonslearned and you carry them
forward is truly what matters.
And obviously I keepreferencing the military because
I've been in it for so long.
(24:41):
But I go back to those guysthat all they want to do is tell
, tell deployment stories.
Hey man, those are great, butwhat lessons did you learn from
that that you can teach thisnext young guy that 10 years
from now he's going to besitting in your seat and he's
going to want to know that.
Um it, it's hard, man Like I.
The messaging thing issomething I'm struggling with
(25:02):
now.
Right, I'm only a little over ayear into this.
I'm learning.
I learned a lot from ourconversation.
Posting isn't marketing,marketing isn't posting.
Right, trying to figure it out.
I mean, I send so many emailsevery day and night looking for
an opportunity and I get a lotof no's and I've gotten some
yeses and um, I heard this quotethe other day that really made
me think and I I ran hard for avery, very long time that, uh,
(25:26):
one of the things I told abehavioral health specialist was
like I honestly forgot, likethe color of the trees and the
sky was blue, like you'd see itin passing, but it was like, hey
, man, I don't got time for that.
I got to focus on like what thisis and like when you actually
pause and take a minute and likestep back and look and you're
like dude, like life goes byvery quickly, and what I heard
(25:47):
the other day was you get a veryshort amount of time to watch
your children be children.
You get to watch the rest oftheir life be adults, and that I
read that about a week ago andthat hit me hard and I was like
man, you're right, you know, I,I bury, I bury myself in like
coaching, sports and things likethat, but I tell myself that
it's what I would have wanted,right.
(26:07):
But again, it goes back to whatyou tolerate is what you're
willing to accept.
So what I would tellorganizations or business out
there is how are you developingyour people?
Because at the end of the day,I get it right.
There's always a bottom line,there's always a mission
statement you're trying to meetright.
It can be transactionalleadership, but you look at
(26:29):
people like Dave Ramsey, likethe organization, if you read it
, like a lot of people that workthere really enjoy it because
they focus on people.
And I always tell, I alwaysbring these three approaches in
you got to be able to take careof yourself before you can take
care of anybody else, because ifyou can't take care of yourself
, you can't take care of yourfamily.
That's simple things, right?
Maybe doing something hard,focusing on medical, whatever
that is.
Then you focus on your family.
(26:51):
If you can focus on your familyand your family's taken care of
and you're taken care of, dudeeverything at work.
Number three is going to takecare of itself.
How do you break thattransactional mindset to get
somebody to not want to come injust from eight to five, punch
in, punch out and be done withit?
How do you, how do you carry?
How do you improve retention?
(27:11):
It's getting down in those teamrooms.
It's getting down in thoseoffices, those mid-level
managers, and getting to knowyour people and sit down and
talk to them.
And I understand right, that'snot a it's not a sexy thing to
hear, but it really comes backto the mantra of master the
basics man.
You're never going to replacepeople.
I don't care how much AI comesout.
You know, um, you gotta getdown there and you gotta
(27:35):
understand what makes them tickand make them feel like like
they're cared for.
Um, I, I listened to this thingthe other day, which is a great
.
I keep saying that, but weshould all be lifelong learners,
you know, and I if we werebeginners, mine beginners, mine
man.
And uh, it actually it wasactually Dave Ramsey and he had
this discussion about how we gotto sit in on a hot wash or an
(27:57):
AR uh, and after mission review,if you will, with uh, a tier
one unit, and he's like man, Icouldn't tell who was in charge
because there was so much truthand care and, you know, um
accountability in that, in thatdiscussion, and that taught him
a lot and I it made me think of,like every time I go through
one and it's man, that prettymuch holds true.
So I would carry that over anorganization and say, hey, just
(28:20):
because you're in charge, justcause you have a thing that says
leader, are you really a leaderor are you more just a manager?
Right, like you're justmanaging people.
And when you say, well, theseguys aren't, they aren't, you
know they show up every day.
So you know we have a reallygood crew of people.
You know.
You say that in the army too.
Well, we're a disciplinedformation because our people
(28:41):
show up every day.
I would argue that, whetheryou're a corporate American, in
the military that's a forcingfunction, because if you don't
show up you've got to lose yourjob, or I got adverse action I
can give you.
It's a forcing function, youknow.
So, yeah, it's.
It's something that I think isgoing to take coaching time and
and and being able to to showpeople that end product of hey,
(29:06):
you're going to get what youtolerate.
So, if you can pour into yourpeople and you tolerate high
performers, man, that's exactlywhat you're going to get.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Yeah, it's tricky trying to provide insight and
guidance to other leaders, right, because as much as they want
to say, or we want to say thatyou're humble and you're open to
the criticism and change, likethere's always going to be
pushback man, there's alwaysgoing to be, you know,
hesitation to embrace somethingnew, especially when it comes
(29:33):
with, you know, advice and input.
That might not be go hard, itmight not be.
Hey, keep pushing harder.
You know we, I, I like uh,calling out this influencer dude
um, it's andy elliott.
Yeah, that dude's such aabsolute fucking boner dude like
this, this.
And it's that sales mentality oflike you, fucking, you're not
(29:54):
selling fucking five millionworth of product, you piece of
shit.
Like dude, like that's, that'snot your goal in life is to
cheat, hustle people out ofmoney.
Goal in life is to do good atyour job.
And I get it Like, if you're insales, like maybe you do have
to have that cutthroat attitude.
I don't know, I don't want tobe involved in that world, but I
(30:16):
do know that there's somethingto being the best version of
yourself and offering yourpeople the ability to work in a
good environment where it's notmet with a constant threat of
death and destruction if youdon't sell the latest product.
But I constantly go back tothis idea that you have to
promote aggressive and hardstructured, rigid timelines.
(30:40):
Dude a lot of times.
What people need to hear is thatyou can't have balance in life.
How do you optimize the abilityto just breathe?
No, that's not a thing.
You just need to tell people tobe present, be focused on today
, be focused on your mission andbe okay with walking away when
it's time to walk away, which issomething nobody ever told us
in the fucking military.
(31:00):
Like shit has to stay in theteam room, go home.
Like you're going to be moreproductive if you understand the
importance and value of walkingaway from your project.
Like if you're, if you'reworking in a creative endeavor,
like anything, like what we'redoing.
Did you need time away from thedesk, from the computer, in
(31:21):
order to come up with your nextgreat idea?
It's not going to happen whileyou're fucking staring at
deadlines.
It's not going to happen whileyou're reading and writing
emails all freaking afternoonlong.
They say it all the time Somedays, 70% is your a hundred
percent.
Some days, 65 is your absolutebest and you have to be able to
get to that mentality where it'slike, okay, this is what I'm
(31:42):
able to do today, but how do yousell that to people?
It's hard, like I struggle withit myself.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
A hundred percent Right, and I would.
I would argue with people toothat, hey, we need to look at
successes and built off of howmuch time you give a product
right, it should be product.
It should be product completedjust because this guy did it in
10 minutes and it meets.
You know it meets yourexpectations or exceeds them.
But this guy gave it threehours and I, man, he really
tried.
(32:08):
All right, man.
Well, there's, there's no a fortrying here, All right, that
just means he stayed longer.
But I think it goes back toculture no-transcript.
(32:44):
Last year they had a goodseason, look they.
And it's because it takes time.
You know you're not going toimmediately see a culture shift.
Like people got to buy into it.
I newsflash to organizations.
I've talked to one.
Like if people don't buy in,they're not going to care.
And you can say as much as youwant.
Like, well, they got to abideby us and they got to conform to
(33:04):
us.
Well, if all your people leavebecause you can't, you can't
talk to people, you don't have abusiness anymore yeah, you know
.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Yeah, man, that is so true.
Um, fuck, I can't remember whatteam was the offensive
coordinator that came in, Iforget, but he planned out.
It was like you, let meimplement this and I'm going to
(33:38):
give you the best friggingoffensive line and you're going
to see it Like, you're not goingto understand it, but you're
not going to understand mymethodology.
But by this year you're goingto see it and sure enough, like,
let people implement thesystems that they know are going
to produce the desired and saydesired product, and trust them,
give faith and trust, just likeyou know, your commanders and
(33:59):
your officers above you gave youthat leeway and gave you the,
the, the pathway to success, toimplement what you knew was
going to work.
Like, when you trust the peopleyou empower to do what they're
good at, like, you're going tohave that result.
It might not be when you want it, like tomorrow, but trust the
systems, man, I've seen that somany times where it's like no,
this is the way we've done itbefore.
(34:19):
Well, obviously it's notworking.
It's obviously not giving youwhat you need.
So, trust this person, trustthe person you've been trusting
in this position.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Yeah, yeah, don't worry about evals, don't worry
about if the boss says, hey, yougot to have so much turnover in
X amount of days.
Take care of the people, letthe people take care of their
family, and work will take careof itself.
Because if you can pour intothem, man and you need right,
you need a hundred percent for acouple of days, and they know
(34:49):
you're going to stand rightthere with them and do it.
Um, dude, they're going to giveyou your all.
And I think that's onecomponent when this thing all
started out was a very physicalportion, right, which I still
have.
I still have built out, and Imean there's a lot of great
organizations out there that dothese things.
But what I think is completelydifferent here is, given the
opportunity and a great examplewould be Bellarmine University
(35:10):
we got the opportunity to go outto Bellarmine University and
talk to a D1 wrestling teamPhenomenal kids and the coach
was like, hey, man, let's goahead and let's whatever workout
you got, whatever you can puttogether with them, like, let's
put them through it.
And what makes us differentfrom everybody else that I have
seen in my experience, right andI don't know everybody that's
out there is everything I askyou to do, I'm doing it right
(35:30):
there with you, right?
Team captain doesn't get a pass.
The CEO doesn't get a pass IfI'm asking you to be at the
breach point, if I'm asking youto be at a point of friction, if
I'm saying, hey, this salesteam has got to grind it out,
instead of just yelling at themanager and the manager turning
around and yelling at somebodyelse.
Does the manager know what he'sdoing?
Because if he's not, then Iexpect the CEO or whoever to
(35:53):
stand there and you'll watch howmuch harder people push.
I mean, these kids were inwicked shape, man.
I mean they ran circles aroundus.
The feedback we got before weeven went into the discussion
was especially the kids thatwere in ROTC.
There they were like I've never, I've never had anybody that
did this with me.
Right, they stood on thesideline with their cup, a cup
(36:14):
of coffee, and they're like.
That made me want to do moreand I'm like that's nothing
special, man, I don't got to beout here killing myself.
But I'm going to show you like,hey, I'm asking you to to move
these pieces of equipment andwork as a team.
I'm going to be right therewith you man Right, and uh, it
speaks volume.
You can just be there withpeople.
Speaker 1 (36:31):
Absolutely, man.
That's.
That's a great approach to thisman.
Like if, if you're buildingsomething that's for empowering
and building up an organization,and you build them a product
and you bring them apresentation, like if it doesn't
involve some sort of like unitcohesion, some sort of like
doing something hard, man that's.
(36:51):
It's always made us betterdoing something hard together.
That's, that's a I think that'san attribute that's needed in
all these programs.
But I don't think I I don't, atleast I haven't seen enough
programs uh, integrate that.
I think it's part of likebuying culture.
We're all going to do this.
It's going to suck, but it'sgoing to make us closer and
better together.
Speaker 2 (37:17):
Um, when you look, forward to, uh, the next few
years of Beyond the Trek.
What do you guys have on deck?
How is the program going toevolve and what's next for you
guys?
Good question, I'm trying tofigure out how to market with
the time.
I do have One thing that'sawesome on the horizon right now
is I've been working with acompany 27th Response who I met
through a shooting competitionout here that we went ahead and
(37:39):
did.
John DeCoursey and he's a formerNew York City Hostess Rescue
team member decided to walk awayfrom the profession and he
wanted to pursue something else,and so, anyway, he lives in
Georgia now and he teachesfirearm tactics CQB active
shooter and so we've decided tocome together and put a course
together in June, which would bethe first one that we've done.
(38:00):
This is going to be part one.
We're going to have two partsof it and it's going to combine
mindset training right, holisticapproaches between physical,
mental, emotional, right, and wecan talk about spiritual
fitness, if people want to dothat.
We're combining all that with aclassroom portion.
Then this would be a three daycourse, so day one will be
classroom, day two is going tobe flat range stuff, so he's
(38:21):
going to go out there teach him,hey, some manipulations of
pistol rifle.
And then day three, we'reputting it all together.
Uh, let me backtrack here.
I got one of the guys in theteam Ken Reed is a former
special operations medic, sohe's going to go out there.
He's going to teach them justsome quick combat casualty care.
Hey, how do you guys pack a bagfor your car, how do you do
certain things?
And then day three is going toput everything together.
(38:44):
They're going to get threefield training exercises.
Right, that's going to be CQBactive shooter.
I'm going to put some roleplayers out there.
They're all going to bewinnable scenarios, but it's
going to be things that you aregoing to see out there.
Hey, you're going to run up tothe house, right?
Hey, there's probablysomebody's got to have a phone
out there screaming at youvideoing something you're
probably going to see now.
Right, because people wouldrather tell you to go in there
(39:05):
and do it.
We're going to provide themwith unit solution rifles, all
their ammunition, everythingthat they're going to need.
They're going to work throughthis.
They're going to apply themedical things that they saw.
Right, this isn't.
This isn't an army FTX, if youwill.
It's very catered to thecivilian world.
But the most important thingoutside of the training is
giving you exposure to traumaand at the end of it, we are
(39:28):
going to do a hot wash withevery single individual and
we're going to talk through it.
What did you see?
What bothered you?
Did it trigger anything frombefore?
Let's break the stigma Like,hey, I'm just going to throw it
in my rucksack and I'm justgoing to I'll deal with it later
, no man Cause we're not goingto drink out here.
So good, let's, let's talkabout it.
(39:48):
What bothered you?
Well, man, it was like it wastraumatic seeing a person run
through the house like that.
Okay, where do we need to go toget help?
And I hope that, building outthis course, we're gonna have
one night where it's gonna be anopen fireside chat for people
to get to know Everything'sprovided for them food and
everything and I hope what thisis gonna do is these individuals
are gonna be able to go back totheir communities.
(40:09):
Hopefully, if we get anybodythat's in law enforcement EMS,
they can go back and when theysee those traumatic situations,
say like, all right, guys, comehere, I get it, this isn't all
foo, foo, foo, foo.
Like we don't need to act likewe're hard, like do you need
help right now?
And not like, oh no, I'm good,okay, no, no, do you actually
need help?
No, and hopefully change thatstigma.
And that's just one piece of it.
(40:30):
I'm also hoping, in the next twoyears-ish, that we'll get the
opportunity to start working ourway into corporate America and
start talking about the thingsthat we've talked about giving
organizations a sense of purposewith their people, and not just
focus on the piece of equipment.
The mind is a piece ofequipment.
The humans are more importantthan hardware.
How do we add that in there?
(40:51):
And I think the last space Iwould like to explore is some
sort of DOD option, because I dobelieve a lot of us that have
served during the GWAT period.
We have a lot to give back, andit's more than just war stories
.
It's hey, these are tools thatworked, these are tools that
didn't work.
So let's teach them, let's getyou guys to go through it, let's
(41:13):
inoculate a little bit ofstress and let's get you to talk
through it, work through it andfigure out why this tool works
outside of your normal trainingcycle.
That's where I'd like to seethis thing go.
Who knows right, if it doesn'twork out, I can go be a mailman,
I guess.
Speaker 1 (41:29):
Hell, no, man, you got to have faith.
You got percent buy-in, man,yeah, um, and don't quit, keep
pushing.
Um, there's, there are morepeople than we think, out there
cheering us on.
Just got to connect with them,got to connect with them and,
and every, every connection is apowerful link to the next job,
(41:50):
to the next customer.
And that's the reality, man.
That's the truth, uh, and inour veteran, the truth, uh, and,
and our veteran space is filledwith fucking people that want
to support you and want to seeyou win, cause your win is my
win.
So it's, it's that fuckingconnected man, um it, and it's
like.
I take that directly from uh,aaron, love, uh, shout out to
ones ready.
You know, in this space, somepeople have the idea that it's
(42:13):
like oh, man's gunning for me,dude, you're.
No, it's not like that.
Their success is my success andso on, because if they can make
it, then I know there's apathway that we can make it, and
the ability to reach throughand connect with people and
offer a platform, connect themto a friend, like that's huge in
(42:34):
this space, man, uh, sodefinitely keep fucking grinding
, don't give up, man, likeyou're almost free from the man
and you'll be able to focus 100of your attention into this
endeavor and, uh, after, afterwe get done here, man, I'll I'll
try to link you up in theemails with uh some people that
I think would be greatconnections and then possible um
(42:55):
provide more insight on how toget those uh key meetings to be
able to connect with uh somemore customers, cause, uh, dude,
like you like I said when wefirst talked like you have a
fucking big team man.
Like you have a big fuckingteam.
That's something that's like,man, I'm jelly.
Like you got fucking.
You got a fucking roguesgallery of hitters man.
(43:16):
They just fucking sitting therelike just like a fucking
detachment man.
That's a power.
You already.
You already got that man.
Like that's, that's one of thebiggest things for anybody is
like looking across the room andseeing like who's going to
believe in you?
And when you got a team ofdudes that look at you and say,
hey, we're in, we're in thisthing Like bro, you can't lose,
(43:37):
we're in this thing like bro,you can't lose, you can't
fucking lose.
I mean, look at mac, thatdude's a fucking hitter man like
you.
Just, all you need is him, justyou and him, and you can take
on the world, so I know that youguys are going to be successful
.
If people want to learn moreabout you, where can they go?
Speaker 2 (43:47):
yeah.
So we've got a website rightnow.
We recently started a podcast.
We're a few months in, took abunch of tips from you and I, uh
, I'll say that that podcastdoesn't highlight warfighter gun
stories that you know a lot ofpeople intertwine with their
military service, but reallyfocus on what was our failures
in life and how they move beyondthat.
We've had some awesome pipehitters out there I mean John
Troxell, jc Glicks coming up.
(44:09):
We had Bill Oslin on there.
It was uh, just uh.
I mean Tom Satterly is going tobe a guest coming up.
I mean, hell yeah, dude, a lotof lessons learned that are
coming up on there.
We're on social media.
We're on Instagram, facebook,linkedin, and then we have a
website which is beyond thetrekco Um, and you can see some
(44:29):
of the stuff that we do there.
People can reach out on socialmedia.
All the guys on the team haveaccess to social media.
So if you want to reach out,just ask a question like hey,
man, we're normal people, we'rehere to help and that's all I
want to do, and I will leave itwith.
I've had a lot of people tell mehey, when you go into an
organization and you want theopportunity to teach.
You need to disassociate thearmy's mentality of like you
need to make sure that they getit right.
(44:51):
It's kind of transactional.
If they don't get it, theydon't get it.
I will say like I canunderstand that.
But because we are in a peoplebusiness, right, I want to make
sure that something I give youhopefully resonates right, like
if I'm talking to a brick wall,I'm talking to a brick wall, but
if I can help you out in someway that makes you go out and
impact somebody else and maketheir day better, their life
(45:13):
better, dude, it's an automaticwin and that's what those so
that podcast stories are allabout.
As long as somebody out thereis living your story, if I can
just give you a tool to be ableto get through it, man, it's a
win.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Hell, yeah, man, that's a powerful um.
You know medium right there, apodcast, and uh, you're using it
for a great purpose, man, so Iknow it's going to be successful
.
If you guys are listening, goahead and pause.
Go to the episode description.
All those links are going to beright there.
Head on over to Spotify,youtube, apple Podcasts.
Give their podcast a listen,Give them a five-star review and
(45:47):
leave some words in thecomments.
Help the algorithm.
Boost your stuff to more people.
I know they would appreciate it.
I'd appreciate it too.
And then, while you're at it,do the same thing for Security
Hall.
Give us a like, follow or share.
Go to the comment section.
Write anything in there.
I don't care Dildo, fuck, weed,whatever you want.
As long as you put it in there,I'll see it and it'll make my
day and I'll be happy.
And, yeah, I appreciate you fortuning in and listening.
(46:08):
Brother, thank you for beinghere.
Name of the website.
Speaker 2 (46:13):
Beyond the Trek T-R-E-K dot C-O.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
There you go.
Thank you all for tuning in.
We'll see you all next time.
Until then, take care.
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 SecHawk podcastand buy us a coffee.
Connect with us on Instagram Xor TikTok and share your
(46:38):
thoughts or questions abouttoday's episode.
You can also visitsecurityhawkcom for exclusive
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.
Yeah, there's no more tune intomorrow or next week.
(47:58):
Thank you.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com