EP 22 | Investigated by the Navy to Mental Health & Fitness Advocate - Austen Alexander - The QNAMY Show

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
I was completely OK and satisfied just cutting grass and
making pizzas. And I ran into a Marine
recruiter at the mall one day. He's like, why don't you join
the Marine Corps? And they said OK.
I said I have a big fear of the water.
Maybe this will help me conquer my fear of the water.
I became obsessed with posting on YouTube.
I had always loved creating video.
I did a little video for my highschool, so it was always an
interest for me and a passion. I just loved showing people my

(00:22):
work in my videos and having them either laugh or cry or
smile or whatever and just evoking any type of emotion.
Show us your feet. I'm like.
I'll pull out my feet if you pull out yours.
Are we showing feet? Yeah, we're showing feet.
Oh my gosh. So find something that you're
absolutely passionate about. For me, fitness is my passion.
Everything that I do, everythingthat I make content about is

(00:44):
about fitness or mental health. Welcome to the Amy is show.

(01:09):
Today's guest is the one and only Austin Alexander.
He is from Florence, AL and jointhe Navy in 2013.
He spent seven years defending the United States as a Master at
arms, specializing in Harbor patrol.
He joined YouTube in 2016 and today has a whopping 1.4 million
subscribers. He focuses on military fitness,

(01:29):
lifestyle and mindset and his content has over 3 billion
views. He is the Co founder of
Operation Good Boy, the battle Bus which is fitness on four
wheels, the battle bunk bunker and Hypercon games.
Austin Alexander welcome to the AMIA show.
Thanks. For having me, Amy, I'm super
excited to be here. I am pumped to have you.
We have so much to talk about. I've been just like going
through all your content and binge watching it for the last

(01:51):
couple of days and it is literally stalking.
I I will admit at this point it is absolutely stalking you.
Research, We'll call it research, it's.
For research purposes, yeah, yeah.
So don't look at anything that'smy phone because you are now my
wallpaper. Yeah, you're, you're my idol.
You are so impressive, though. On a on a real note here, you
have just been doing so many cool things over the last few

(02:11):
years and you're actually really, really incredibly
inspiring. And I encourage everybody to go
follow you. Thank you.
Just a few fun facts that I wrote down that I just feel like
we need to talk about and unpacka little bit.
So you've been tased by the Pennsylvania State Trooper
Academy, could tell me about this?
Like how did you even get in touch with the Trooper Academy?

(02:34):
So a lot of my videos now are challenge videos and I, you
know, going through boot camp and then going through different
A schools and then C schools in the Navy.
I love the training aspect of it.
So I said, why don't we go through state Trooper Academy?
So we get there and they said, all right, we got driving for
you. We got handcuffing.

(02:55):
We have shooting, we have tasingwe have and I said, wait, what?
They said we're going to tase you and I said, all right, let's
do it. So we go through a hole and like
instructional about being tased.You know, this this full one day
instructional. The worst part is is the build
up before it because like all the anticipation And then
finally they said Taser, Taser, Taser and shot the Taser at me.

(03:17):
And you have two of these sharp kind of like bolts, prongs
exactly that that go into your your back and your glutes and it
just folds you. Wait a second, did they have to
shoot you in the in the butt? They had to.
Well, it's either so they call it splitting the belt because if
they don't like if it lands on your leg then it'll only be your

(03:38):
leg that's paralyzed. So it has to go on your back
somewhere and on your below the belt somewhere.
So it folds your body, so you'rekind of like paralyzed.
Wow, did you fall like when thishappened?
So you got hit by the Taser. What happened?
So you have, of course, in a regular scenario, they just fall
to the ground, but you have two state troopers on the side,
training instructors that hold your arm and guide you to the

(04:01):
ground. So you break your teeth.
Oh my gosh. Well, you have this on video,
right? Yeah, it's on YouTube, so you
guys got to go check this out. You guys can use it for the show
too if you want, OK? Cool.
I I may do that. I may cut it in that.
That would be hilarious. And then you've been OC by the
Navy, which I had to have you describe to me as pepper spray
on steroids. So tell me about this.
Experience. So OC is Ola resin capsicum and

(04:23):
it's the strongest form of pepper, the most concentrated.
And it's developed in a way thatit's a gel.
It's not a liquid. So when it sticks on you, it
sticks on your your face. They sprayed across the brow.
It's a level 1 exposure and it lasts for probably the worst of
it is like 3 hours. And then you have another three

(04:44):
hours of like medium to severe pain and another three hours of
like intense medium pain like it's, it lasts a long time.
Do you have any tips for someonethat gets pepper sprayed in that
fashion? Yes, don't freak out, OK?
People tend to, you know, just go physically crazy and like
scream and and all this stuff because they're panicking

(05:04):
because it hurts so bad. It's the probably the worst pain
ever. And as long as you can just take
your mind off of that and focus on what you have to do.
I mean you have to go through anentire mock move, mechanical
advantage, control, hold scenario while being under the
influence of that OC on your face.
So for people that are not in the military that are watching

(05:26):
the show, what do you mean by that?
Like break that down. So I was a master at arms in the
Navy, Naval Security, and you have to be trained and take down
maneuvers just so you can take someone down safely if they're
being rowdy or if they're drunk on a ship or whatever.
So there are 4 mock move. We call them mock, but it's
mechanical advantage control holds that you have to learn to

(05:47):
perform in order to take someonedown safely.
You have to do in order to be qualified, in order to pass your
your initial A school training. So they said, OK, well we don't
want to just have these sailors qualified in mock moves.
We want to have them do it underthe influence of OC.
Oh my gosh. So you got to keep your mind

(06:08):
right. Exactly, exactly.
Because if you are in a situation you have to OC someone
and it gets level 2 back at you or it gets exposed, you're going
to be used to that feeling because you've gone through
before and you're able to carry out the mission and and take the
person down if you need to. Got it.
Wow, this is just so crazy. OK, And then you also just ran
your first marathon, which you said I think was in the Catalina
Islands. OK, tell me about this.

(06:29):
You said you didn't train for it.
I didn't train for it. We work closely with a company
called Brooks Running and, and they said, hey, we have a new
shoe that we'd like to to have you promote.
And I said, sure. So I got the shoe, loved it,
wore it a little bit. And they said, OK, present us an
idea. And I said, I'm going to run a
marathon. And they said, Are you sure?

(06:50):
Like you don't have to, You don't have to do this.
And I said, no, I'm going to, I'm going to run a marathon.
So I Googled marathons near me and Catalina Marathon pulled up.
I signed up for it and I did it.And when I got there, the
elevation was a lot more than I anticipated.
It was like up 4300 feet of of total elevation gain across
these 26 miles. Felt like every single mile was
just up in the air. It was no Catalina wine mixer

(07:13):
that no it. Was under just under 6 hours
which is kind of slow, but firstmarathon I I survived.
I didn't die well. You're not a you're not a small
guy either. You're pretty tall.
You're big. Are you pretty comfortable
saying how tall and heavy you are?
Of course, I'm 64, about 2:40. Wow, yeah.
I I can't even imagine going around 2 blocks.
That alone, 26 miles. That's amazing.

(07:35):
Well, I do run a little bit liketwo or three miles.
Like I've worked up to a 10K theother day, which is 6 miles.
The most I've ever run in my entire life is 10 miles, and 26
1/2 is more than double, obviously.
Wow, that's so impressive. Well, I just wanted to to kind
of bring out some of those fun facts to get the conversation
going here and just basically demonstrate for the audience

(07:56):
here how impressive you are. I mean, you've done some really,
really cool stuff. I mean, as I was going through
your content, I was just so enamored just by like the the
fact that you've gone to some ofthe hardest schools in the
military. So even though you were in the
Navy, you also went and tested out several different schools
for other branches such as the Army, etcetera.
Give it, give us some examples of some of the schools that
you've been to. Exactly.
We usually do to between a like 2 to 5 day exposure in these

(08:19):
schools. The majority of them being, you
know, weeks and weeks and weeks long.
Like we last year went through special forces assessment and
selection experience. We were there for, for four
days. Normally it's, I think it's
about a two or three-week exposure for the actual
students, but we went and got a taste of some of the events that
the students have to do, like the STAR course, the obstacle

(08:41):
course, the PT test. I won't talk about it too much
because a lot of the informationis kind of up in the air.
But it is a navigation course where you go, I believe
individually or with a partner, and you have to navigate around
the wilderness for until you finish.
And it's a very, very long ruck.You're carrying lots of gear,

(09:02):
probably 45 lbs of dry weight, plus your food and your water
and your clothes, everything. You're navigating through swamps
and you're having to manually navigate and use Land Now
techniques to get yourself there.
Wow. I mean, this is just so, so
crazy. So I want to just quickly get
into like a little bit about whyyou joined the military in the

(09:24):
1st place. So you were pretty young, right?
You were early 20s, Yeah. Yeah, 20.
So what made you join in the military?
At the time, I had just dropped out of college.
I was cutting grass and just picked up a part time job making
pizzas. And I said, oh, I was at the
mall one day. And you know, being from a very
small town, you're not really exposed to like being successful

(09:47):
or like wanting more. I was completely OK and
satisfied just cutting grass andmaking pizzas.
And I ran into a Marine recruiter at the mall one day.
He's like, what do you do for a living?
I said, I cut grass for the cityof Florence.
Like it was this big like ordeal.
And he said, dude, you're never going to amount to anything.
Why don't you join the Marine Corps?
And I was offended. I would be too, you know, and.
You are not going to amount to nothing.

(10:08):
I was a recruiter for the military.
A recruiter for the Army? Yeah.
So you used to say that 6. Years.
I would never, I would never saythings like that.
No, no. I thought it was like a
recruiting tactic. No, I mean, I, I, I went to a
recruiting school and I can tellyou they definitely don't tell
you to make people feel terribleabout themselves to.
To get in, maybe they're doing the Marine Corps.
This guy was going hard. He's like, you need to join the
Marine Corps. You're not going to amount to
anything. And I said, dude, what are you

(10:30):
talking about? I work for the city of Florence.
I'm not joining the Marine Corps.
But then after that, I started thinking about it.
You know what? Damn I I make pizzas and I've
cut grass. I kind of am a loser.
No offense to people that cut grass and make pizzas.
Out. Thank you very much.
Thank you. I mean, I love cutting grass.
It was simple. It was low responsibility, you
know, it was never life or deathsituations.

(10:52):
And it was a very relaxed job. But I started thinking about it
at the time. My parents were going through a
tough divorce as well. And just the stars aligned, my
friend Taylor Austin. He said, dude, I'm, I'm going to
join the Navy. Why don't you come in the office
with me and we'll just hang out.We can go eat or something
after. And I said, all right, went to
the Navy recruiting office. And the chief, Chief Thornton

(11:13):
looked at me. He said, hey, dude, you going to
join the Navy? I was like, Nope, I don't want
to, don't want to join the military at all.
He's OK, cool. And that was it.
He didn't say anything else to me.
Before I left, he handed me a pamphlet, was a Navy SEAL
pamphlet. And I looked at it.
I walked away. Two or three days later, I'd
done research on the Navy and everything.
And I, I went back to the recruiting office.

(11:34):
I said sign me up, Get Me Out ofhere.
Let me join the Navy. That is a recruiting tactic, by
the way. The the fact that he gave you a
pamphlet that had a Navy SEAL onthe front, that's what they do.
Like, you know, when I was recruiting for the Oregon Army
National Guard, you know, we would basically give all of the
kind of scrawny looking guys like the coolest looking
pamphlet possible. Like you could be a special
forces guy, you know, and it's like this guy's never going to

(11:57):
cut it. He can't even carry his own body
weight, you know what I mean? So, but so that's a recruiting
tactic just to make people kind of give a picture, a North Star,
if you will, something that theycan achieve.
It worked. So it worked for you, but you
actually could be all of those things.
Well. So I, I said I, I researched
Navy, so I don't even know what it was.
And I was like, well, this lookscool.

(12:17):
I went to Chief Thorne. I said, hey, I want to be Navy
SEAL. He said OK.
He sent me to MAPS military entrance processing station and
they said you don't qualify for your eyesight.
What do you, what else do you want to be?
I said I want to be a Navy diver.
And well, actually they gave me like two or three options and
they're like, which one looks the coolest?
And I was like Navy diver. And they said, OK.

(12:38):
I said I have a big fear of the water.
Maybe this will help me conquer my fear of the water.
So I signed up for Navy Dive, and for the next seven months I
took the physical screening tests probably two or three
times a week to try to get scores high enough to to qualify
for Navy Diver. And November 2013, I did.
I shipped off to boot camp. Wow, that's amazing.

(12:59):
I mean, I think right before we started filming you also told me
that you just said a swim right across a large body of water.
That was, it was a pretty large body of water.
It's 20 and 2021 I believe it was a Navy SEAL swim, swim
across the Hudson Bay. Wow.
They're about anywhere between 100 to 200 Navy SEAL, former
Navy SEAL or service service guys that do the swim and I was

(13:22):
one of of many that completed the swim.
I got a dive certified a few years ago and I had to take the
course twice because I was chicken.
Because you know, when you like they go through an exercise
where you knock your mask off and you're obviously underwater
at this point, right? And then you have to like bring
it back around, clear it. That was so hard for me to freak
me out. I mean, I literally would like
jet up to the surface to get airinstead of just being calm and

(13:43):
keeping my mind right and clearing out my mask like I was
supposed to. You know that was hard.
It's one of the toughest things,like water is the great
separator. When you take away people's
oxygen, they don't like it too much.
Yeah, that's, that's how you really know you're getting your
mind right. So you're in the military, you
go through all your cool schoolsand and you're in.
Tell me what life was like for you, You know, were you local?
Did you go overseas? Yeah, I started out, I went

(14:05):
through Navy dive. I didn't pass through the
pipeline and I was re rated to master at arms.
And from there I was on hold in Chicago.
And then I went to Lackland, Texas for about 7 or 8 weeks and
went through MAA school. That's where I got to see
sprayed, you know, trained with the the mock moves and and a
little bit of different naval security things.

(14:26):
And then I went over to Bahrain.Bahrain was a different story.
It was like I got there in the peak summertime.
It was like 130° when I stepped.I was like a hair dryer and
standing gate for 12/13/14 hours.
I mean, there are sailors still over there right now standing
gate. And it was, it was miserable and
it was brutal. Bahrain was a lot of fun,

(14:49):
though. I was experiencing different
cultures and different ethnicities.
You know, I'm from Alabama, primarily 99% white people over
there. And I was meeting, you know,
people from Kenya and the Philippines and India and
Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia. And it was.
It was awesome. Yeah, I would say it's one of
the coolest things about being in the military is even like

(15:10):
just going to boot camp. When I went to boot camp, I went
to South Carolina. I was in Fort Jackson.
And I mean, I grew up in England.
And then when I moved to the United States, I was really
young. I was like 1617 and I went to my
mom, moved to Grants Pass, OR, which is like this really tiny
little town in Oregon, and it's all white people.
And so my first experience beingin mixed cultures, diversities,

(15:32):
etcetera, was going to basic training.
And that was a big shock for me just in terms of people's
cultures and styles are so different, communication styles,
leadership styles, it's just a lot all at once.
But I was so thankful I had thatexperience when I was 17 because
it kind of set me up for for like just being more of a global
citizen growing up. But that's what I love about the
military is you get these reallycool experiences.

(15:53):
So you moved to the UK, You moved to the US when you were
17. You don't have any of your.
Accents I know, I know so well, I To be clear, my mother moved
to the United States when I was 6 because my parents split up.
She moved to the US and married an American guy.
And I'd been back and forth as Iwas growing up.
So I would like come here for summers.
I did a little bit of school here as well, but I went to
school as well in England. And then I I officially finally

(16:15):
moved here formally and got my American citizenship through the
military after joining when I was 17.
OK, cool, cool, cool. Yeah, so back and forth.
So what was the worst part about?
Worst part of the Navy? Worst part?
Of the Navy, yeah. Oh goodness, having your friends
die. Way to go.
Like I'm like, what's the worst part?
I just had to. Go right for the I.

(16:36):
Don't like to. I don't like to fluff it up, I
mean. Yeah, that is, that is a
terrible, terrible part. That aside, which of course is
traumatic in itself and warrantsa whole deep dive conversation
on its own. Besides that, besides losing the
people to your left and right for you, what were the hardest
parts? Because you went through some
crazy stuff. The hardest parts on on a more

(16:59):
lighter note would probably be you're you're constantly moving
around and having to adapt like all the time.
Like you could think that you'regoing on a deployment or staying
like in Lemoore, CA, for example, and the next two days
later, oh, you're going to deployment on a ship for seven

(17:20):
months. It constantly like being tossed
and turned and thrown around andgoing needs of the Navy.
It's it's a hard lifestyle yeah everything from from every
single day like sleep like OK you're somebody didn't show up
for watch while we need you getting a call at 02 having to
stand the the 02 to six watch interfering with your sleep

(17:41):
that's. 2:00 AM to 6:00 AM for non military folks, yeah.
The worst. The worst shift?
Two to six, Yeah. Did you have a relationship
while you were in the military, the girlfriend or anything like
that? I did.
Was that hard? I had about 15 of them and.
That's the way to deal with though, I mean, well, all jokes
aside, I mean, it is so hard. This is definitely a really

(18:02):
common theme of conversation like, you know, just trying to
have like a normal life of any kind.
To your point about getting tossed around needs of the Navy,
you know, when you have a a partner, wife, spouse, whatever,
it's really, really hard to maintain that.
And yeah, I mean, the military spouses are so important and of
course we're also grateful for them.
But that is so hard on families.So it's probably a good thing

(18:22):
that you were so young when you joined and I hadn't quite
settled down. I had, I believe I was in three
relationships in the Navy at thesame time.
No, I'm just getting out at the same time.
So I I. Hope that they all watch this.
Girls watch. Me, I'll spill the tea with you.
So I'm I'm single now so I guessit doesn't really matter, but I
was with primarily two women over the course of seven years

(18:45):
and one was a five year relationship, one was a two year
relationship when I first. Joined.
Those are long for being in the military.
Those are long. Yeah, I'm not.
I'm not the type to just like, bounce around everywhere, you
know? I mean, everybody has their own
individual pres, you know, preference.
But I was with a woman named Sarah for the last five years.
We recently broke it last year. No, it's OK.

(19:07):
I'm, I'm over now. I'm sorry your your producers
laugh in the background. But yeah.
So five years. We met when I was on an
assignment in Fallon, NV and we were together for pretty much
the last 3-4 years of my military career and then a few

(19:28):
years after and then now I'm single guy.
Well, you're getting it, that's for sure.
In terms of crushing your goals and dreams and and doing amazing
things, what was the best part about being the Navy for you?
Best part? Just meeting some of the best
people I've ever met in my entire life.
Just anybody that I can, you know, if I haven't spoken to him
in three or four years, I could call him right now and they

(19:49):
would answer. I did it the other day to a
friend of mine named Wes Solinsky.
Just being there and having to suffer through just typical
military things is it builds a whole new bond.
Yeah, Brotherhood. Brotherhood.
Yeah, yes, yes. And it's just some some very
some relationships that I'm verythankful for.

(20:11):
Well, in terms of getting out, what made you decide at 7 years
you were going to get out? Was that the length of your
contracts? I know they have different
lengths, but seven years is kindof an oddball number.
When I signed off as Navy diver,I had a six year active
obligatory service date and whenI signed on, when I reclassed
his MA, they didn't change that date.
So I basically had, you know, went from a six to potentially a

(20:34):
four, but still it was written on my paperwork to be a six.
So my last duty station in So Beach, California, I did 2
years, which put me at six years.
And they said do you want to extend?
So when I extended for that oblaserve or whatever it was
then that put me at seven years.And so Beach was my last, my
last command. And now I'll go into why I got

(20:57):
out. That's OK.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, please. Perfect.
Transition I got out because in 2018 I started posting on
YouTube and just creating videosand instructional like how to
increase your push ups, how to get a faster mile time, how to
increase your your sit ups, how to get abs for the summer time.
A lot of a lot of fitness and military type videos.

(21:18):
And, and throughout 2018-2019, 2020 it really grew.
And in 2020 the Navy said, oh, it's time to reenlist.
And I said no, I don't think I want to.
I think I'm going to get out. Were you monetizing at that
point on YouTube? Yes, in 2018 I became obsessed
with posting on YouTube. I had always loved creating
video. I did a little video from a high

(21:39):
school and created little stupidaction figure videos when I was
like 11 or 12, my mom's camera. So it was always an interest for
me and a passion. I just love showing people my
work in my videos and having them either laugh or cry or
smile or whatever, just evoking any type of emotion.
So I started creating videos in 2018 to do that and by the end

(22:01):
of 2018 I got my first paycheck from YouTube and it was $31. $31
Don't spend it all in one place,would you?
$31.00 it was, I looked at it and said oh that's cool and I
can I put in the bank and that'sit.
I never really realized that youcan make a living from YouTube
at all and I just kept posting them because I loved it and in

(22:22):
2019 I believe I matched my Navysalary and in 2020 I think I.
In one year you went from $31 tomatching your Navy salary,
because that's amazing. My Navy salary was probably 5
grand a month, like 6065 thousand I.
Mean that's incredible. Thank you very much.

(22:43):
Yeah, it's if you can really snag the YouTube algorithm and,
and learn how to do it and then just repeat it with different,
different videos, you can do very well.
I was getting paid about four to$5000 for every million views.
And every month, you know, it was different.
One month was half a million views in 2019, one month was 4
million views. One month was I think my top

(23:04):
month and in 2019 was like $16,000.
And for me, like seeing this money that I'm earning part time
doing something that I absolutely love, it was crazy.
I didn't touch it. I was scared.
I was like, this has got to be not my money.
This is either belongs to the IRS or I don't know, maybe

(23:25):
YouTube is just paying me accidentally.
But I just kind of left it and Ididn't have any expenses at all.
Like I was doing everything myself.
Did you? You.
So you taught yourself to edit? Yes.
How did you learn to edit? I just said I'm going to make
this video and I pulled up Premiere Pro.
My first video I made was in 2017.

(23:46):
I was very inconsistent with it back then. 2018 is the year I
became consistent, but 2017 I got a pirated version of Adobe
Premiere Pro. Hopefully the FBI is not
watching this. Adobe, you better come get this
guy. I pay for it now Adobe and and
me and you guys are cool but I pirated version because we
didn't have Internet on the on the ship and I edited my first
video on the ship just teaching myself really basic cuts and

(24:11):
music and everything. So you weren't really a sailor,
you were a pirate at this point.Basically, yeah.
Yeah, that was pretty good. Yeah.
Thank you. That was a pirate.
That's my that's my mom joke forthe day it.
Was really. Good.
Thank you. OK, so you're editing, you're
doing your whole shtick on your own, completely self-taught.
Did you have anybody in your circle that was doing this or
did you just decide I'm just going to try out YouTube or did

(24:32):
you like, did you watch YouTube?I watched YouTube all the time.
They were two to three primary Youtubers that were doing it
also in the Navy, JT Suits, Donnie Klein and Nikki MGTV and
we were all kind of like starting at the same time.
And JT had, you know, over 100,000 subscribers.
So I looked at his content for inspiration and because I said,

(24:53):
you know, this guy's active. If he can do it, then I can do
it. And I remember when I passed,
5000 subscribers actually went down to San Diego to, to meet
Donnie. He was the other YouTube, you
know, so I did have people to tokind of bounce ideas off of.
That's something very important about like if you're in a niche
or if you're doing something in business or whatever, finding
someone that you can lean on andrely on for information.

(25:15):
And that's what I that's what I realized early on.
That's what I did. Wow.
And so you know, one of my questions for you just in terms
of how the Navy felt about this,did they, did they know you were
doing this? So.
I was investigated by NCIS. That's what I was going to ask
because I mean, when I was in, which I think it's different now
because social media is so much more accepted.
In fact, there's several people have you seen?

(25:36):
I've been to butcher his name and I'm going to feel really bad
about it, but but Buttersworth or whatever.
Tyler, Tyler, Tyler. Yeah.
So like, he just got reassigned from being a recruiter to
working full time in social media for the military, which is
amazing. But that's not always how it
used to be. Before it was like, you better
be clear that you're not associated with the Department
of Defense. You have to be really careful.
You have to have your videos reviewed, all of that.

(25:57):
So what was that like for you? So it all started with I reached
out to a ship in San Diego and Iwanted to to play hide and go
seek on it. It was going to be an
infotainment video where we would show the inside of a Navy
ship, but still the same time wewould be playing hide and seek
on it. I had been on tons of ships and
aircraft carriers and whatnot, but I just wanted my viewers to
see it. When I reached out to them, they

(26:19):
said no. And then they reported my
channel to the the command or atSeal Beach, you know, naval
upstate Seal Beach or something like that.
And then I get a call from Lieutenant said, Hey, my name is
Lieutenant so and so name redacted for, you know, that's
how I got that purposes. And he said, hey, I don't want

(26:42):
to do this, but I have to put you under investigation for your
YouTube channel and additional monetary gain.
Were you freaking out at this point?
I was, I said I was like, I'm going to get investigated.
I'm going to get thrown in the Brig.
They're. Going to take all your money?
Well that wasn't the worst part.Like I happen to think when if
something happens, I attached mybrain to worst case scenario.
That way if something else better happens, I feel better.

(27:04):
So I was like, I'm going to get thrown in the Brig and they're
going to take me down to Guantanamo Bay and lock me up.
And, and so that's what I was thinking.
The way he made it sound, it waslike you're going down with the
US government, like it was bad. So.
And of course, if anybody's getting investigated by NTIS,
it's they're not going to be happy about it.
It's very uncomfortable feeling,you know, them having to go back

(27:27):
in your history and your, I guess your Internet search, your
everything. And I was, I was very confident
that I wasn't doing anything wrong.
You know, I mean, I was like, take whatever you need.
Like my computer editing bank account details like and they
took all of it. What's so crazy about this is
that it's you were posting thesevideos, they can see exactly

(27:50):
what you're up to. So it doesn't make any sense why
they needed to have a behind thescenes looked.
I mean I I need to know more like whatever you can share like
this is crazy. I remember so they they
retracted just items like what is this in the background and
what is this like it was me holding a tub of protein and
like where you receiving additional funds for these and
what were you making on YouTube?Like everything.

(28:11):
And I just gave it all to him and it was two or three weeks,
weeks later with just radio silence.
And I was waking up every day like open, don't go to jail
today, open, don't go to jail today.
And finally it went from in my head worst case scenario to best
possible scenario, like ever. We get a call at the harbor
patrol that were we have a surprise visit from from an

(28:35):
Admiral, which, you know, in a command or harbor with like 35
people getting a visit from an Admiral usually not a good
thing, right? So I'm saying I'm thinking, OK,
he's coming here for me and he they're going to take me off and
take me to, you know, you're probably sweating bullets at.
This I was, I was nervous. Because, you know, normally,

(28:57):
like, everyday life, it's kind of like about survival of the
fittest, like, unless you're notbreaking the law, you're good.
But if the military has you and something doesn't go your way,
it can be very wrong. They can literally restrict your
food and water, you know, and just give you bread, right?
Throw you in the Brig, make you do EMI like and I've seen some

(29:17):
crazy EMI extra military instruction.
So if you get punished, you could like go mop the rain off
of the sidewalk or like something stupid while it's
raining, you know, and they can dock your pay.
They can literally take your money.
Away we talked about this in an.Episode in one of my other
episodes about UCMJ. So Uniform Code of Military
Justice. Yeah, it's so different to the

(29:39):
civilian side law enforcement process.
And yeah, they can they do they can do some wild things with
you. So I'm sure you were just so, so
worried. So what happened?
So you go meet this Admiral. Yes.
So the Admiral comes. Here and we're getting, you
know, boat logs ready, we're cleaning the boats, like we have
to come in like 06 for all this stuff.
And then he rolls up in a few black suburbans and you know,

(30:02):
attention on deck. We all call attention on deck.
Even my chiefs and my are Seco was there and a bunch of warrant
officers and every everybody came down from landside and he's
a hey, hey, calm down, everybody, relax, everybody,
everybody chill out. He said I'm just here to see MA
to Alexander. He's like front and center and
I'm like, here we go. So I'm coming out in front of
you're like just go. Ahead and take me.

(30:23):
And he said, dude, I've been watching your videos for the
past year or so and I I love your videos.
Oh my gosh, for the past year. So you.
Had been under investigation fora few weeks.
They have been watching you for a year.
I guess he didn't know that I was.
Investigation until it was passed up to to chin FO office,
you know, chief of information for the Navy.
How many subscribers did you have?
At this point I think I probablyhad.

(30:45):
That's not a small deal. That's a.
Big deal, it was getting some reach I was talking about.
Military pay. I was talking about fitness like
I was, I love the Navy and I wasshining a positive light on the
Navy, like saying, hey, the Navy's changed my life and it's
a reason why I'm out here in California driving a boat, just
having a great time, you know, serving my country.
And it was never I'm I always like to think positively in my

(31:08):
videos reflect that I I was never like, oh, it's time to get
up 'cause I'm in the Navy. You know, it was, it was
basically marketing the Navy. And he said, keep doing what
you're doing. I love what you're doing.
He shook my hand and he gave me the chin foe coin from Admiral
Admiral Brown. And so for those of you at home
that. Don't know this.

(31:28):
Challenge coins are something that a lot of leaders will give
out to service members when they're being recognized for
something, when they've achievedsomething.
So it sounds like you got a challenge coin.
Yes, I got a challenge coin. It's amazing.
And there had been, you know, a few chiefs in the command and
the security saying, Hey, you don't need to be posting that.
And, and after that, nobody could tell me anything.

(31:49):
Wow. I remember he gave me his e-mail
and he said, if you have any issues with anybody, tell him to
send me an e-mail. And, and 2-3 weeks later, I was
down in San Diego and I had thisguy, the chief approached me.
He said, hey, I've, I've seen your videos.
Like, how are you able to like he said, you know, you're

(32:10):
wearing a tan belt. You weren't oversea.
I mean, technically I was, I wasin Bahrain Expeditionary
command, just all these small things like just getting picked
apart. And I said, Chief, you know,
with all due respect, if you have anything that you would
like to, you know, talk to me about, then just send Admiral
Brown an e-mail and and let him know when I said that he was
kind of like, what the heck. So it felt very empowering to

(32:33):
have Chin foe and the Admiral onmy side.
Wow. So, OK, so.
All this time passes, you've done your seven years, you get
out, you at this point had created income for yourself.
So it was probably a little bit of an easier transition.
So what was it like leaving actually like truly taking off
the uniform, setting it aside and exiting?

(32:54):
What was that like for you? It was it was tough.
It was very tough. I went from, you know, putting
on this great uniform for the United States of America every
single day to getting out and making videos.
You know, videos sometimes is not the most fulfilling thing
ever. I had a very fulfilling job.
I went from like not fulfilling.It didn't matter if I was making
$2,000,000 a month. I just felt a sense of

(33:17):
purposelessness, you know, beinga part of this great team and
now just being a team of 1. And on the finance side, I was
probably making, I don't know, 10 grand a month from YouTube
and sponsorships. When I got out, I realized that
I had to pay myself from that and I, as well as I hired an
editor. I had business expenses and I

(33:38):
just leased a parcel of land in which we'll talk about here in a
second. It was Battle Bunker.
So I'd taken on like 10 + 1000 dollars of expenses.
I had a little money in the bank, but I was in the red the
first 5-6 months that I was out of the Navy, just because I
didn't know how to properly manage cash flow and expenses.
I got another. Mom joke for you?

(33:58):
Yes. Let's hear it, Mom.
You are a fish out of water. Yes, I was.
Because I was in the Navy. Yeah, yeah.
Maybe a bad one. Look, I'm going to try them out.
OK? We're just going to roll.
Then if they stick, it's like spaghetti.
We'll see if it sticks. OK, the first one stuck.
Thank you. That was a little OK.
Well. You were fish out of water.
So I think one of the things that people don't prepare for
when they leave the military, which is what I'm trying to help

(34:20):
change for them, is getting yourself right while you're in,
taking advantage of all the programs and services and things
like that and the planning tools.
So when you actually leave the military, you're you're landing
on your feet because when you'rein the service, sounds like in
your scenario too, you're getting your housing paid for,
your clothes are paid for, right?
You you're wearing the same thing every single day.
You can go down to the chow halland you got your meals right.
I mean, so everything's kind of done for you.

(34:41):
And so when you leave the service, you're leaving that
safety net, you're leaving career development, leadership.
And I think probably in your case, you went from having this
is like a side gig where it's like almost a hobby for you to
it now becoming your full time thing where you are 100% reliant
on yourself. So going back to that moment, is
there anything you would have done differently to set yourself

(35:01):
up for success? Yeah, there is a.
There's a difference. In in doing something for fun
and doing some because it's yourjob, like you could absolutely
love it, but when you turn into your job, it's sometimes it's
not the most enjoyable. And I experienced the same with
YouTube. Like I never attached myself to
the views. I kind of just made videos that
I liked. But now being out and full time,

(35:22):
you, you have to perform or you're going to go homeless, you
know, simple as that. And and that's something I
didn't probably prepare my prepare myself for, I don't
think. In my opinion, you can't.
Perfectly prepare yourself for the outside world.
It's going to, it's going to sting and it's going to burn a
little bit and some days are notgoing to be the best.

(35:45):
But as long as you keep optimizing that and your daily
schedule, like for me, it was ananchor.
If you establish an anchor pointin your day, like my anchor is
walking my dogs and drinking water.
It's the first thing I do every single morning I want to wake
up. Even when I'm traveling, I don't
walk the dogs, but I, I go drinkwater.
It helps establish that routine.It helps keep up that momentum

(36:06):
to keep going forward. So that's what I would recommend
to a transitioning service members.
Find your anchor. It can be the gym.
It can be walking your dogs. It can be calling your mom.
It can be saying hello to your spouse or your partner.
It can be drinking water. It can be going for a walk in
the sunlight. Establish an anchor and
everything else tends to line upafter that.
Yeah, I love that. I absolutely love.
That So if you were back at youryou said you were 20 when you

(36:30):
joined the military, 20, Yeah. Would you do it again for sure,
100? Percent.
I love that. Not a, not even a question.
Wow. Mental health wise.
Obviously it's a really big topic.
It impacts a lot of service members, especially that
transition period you're talkingabout.
Did you struggle at all in any way, shape or form?
I did tell me a little bit aboutthat.
There's this weird. Feeling where you're, you know,

(36:53):
when you're in the military, youfeel like a a part of something.
You're on this train and you have a common mission and common
goal in, in your command and in your branches.
And when you get out, you kind of just hop off this train and
it feels like you're, you go from 200 miles an hour to zero
mile miles an hour and you're kind of just sitting there.
Sometimes you feel purposeless. Sometimes you feel like you

(37:14):
don't have a goal or an objective.
And if it's one thing that's notgood on the human brain is the
feeling of worthlessness. So you I I experienced that.
For me. When I was getting out, I was
building an obstacle course. I built it on terminal leave.
I called it the Battle Bunker and I didn't know the time, but
I was using that as a way for tofeel like I had purpose.

(37:36):
I would go out there every single day and drop 2 1/2 hours
from Anaheim, CA out to this obstacle course and build it.
And to be honest, it took me 44 days, but most days I went out
there and I would just sit in mytruck.
It was like, you know, I would just sleep.
I didn't, I was like, I don't, Idon't want to be here.
I don't want to do this. But I, I made that drive because
it felt like I had to keep beinga part of something.

(37:58):
For me that was Battle Bunker. What about community?
Did you you know? Obviously we, we talked a little
bit about this already with you kind of going from having a, a
full time job where you're around other people, your side
gig and then now you're doing your side gig full time and it's
a, it's a one man show. So what about community?
How did you rebuild that on the outside?
I was lucky enough. To to make some really good

(38:21):
friends around in the Californiaarea in so Beach and Camp
Pendleton. And when we when I got off of
Terminally, we produced our first video at the Battle Bunker
obstacle course. It was with a few of my friends,
Matt McDonough, Angel Francis O Camarse was out there, Sean
Fitzpatrick, just involving myself with them.

(38:42):
And it gave me a sense of purpose.
I said, we're going to do this. We go out there and film videos.
And my good friend and videographer now, Ivan Ivanov
was out there with me. So I did have a little bit of
community, some that didn't knowwhat I was going through, some
that didn't know what I was going through, but that you
know, every single day and and having a finding a common goal
and common purpose, just like inthe military help me out a ton.

(39:04):
Are there any you've? Worked with so many branches at
this point and you know, definitely different
partnerships through your content that you've created.
Is there any nonprofits or anything like that that you
found that you feel are helpful to service members?
Yes, for sure. Children are fallen.
Patriots is 1 and then we have the rolling remembrance campaign
every year for PepsiCo. We support a lot of a lot of

(39:26):
nonprofits and a lot of charities and and with that, you
really have to do your research and like the actual funds that
are going towards the actual purpose of the nonprofit, the
charity and children of fallen patriots is is a great one.
Amazing. So if.
You were not going to be this amazing content creator that you
became. What would you have done?
Definitely. I would have went into.

(39:47):
LAHD, What's that? Los Angeles Harbor division I'd
be driving. Oh, I love that actually.
So when I got out the. Stress from having to create and
be this entrepreneur was so great that I had established
contacts over there and I said, if this doesn't work out, I'm
going to get a job at LAHD, makethis amount of money and just be
on the harbor. I had all the experience
necessary to to be that. But so far it's it's working out

(40:11):
great. Nice.
Do you live by the ocean now? No, I live in east lake in IN.
Chula Vista, San Diego. It's about 20 minutes.
Wife knows. Yeah, I I feel like there's so
many. People that are in the military
down in Southern California thatjust never leave, like being
that close to the water, you know, it's kind of comforting
for so many people. OK, so tell me a little bit
about. You've got some really cool
things that you're working on. So you've mentioned the Battle

(40:31):
Bunker a little bit. I want to know more about this.
Operation Good boy. Yes, Operation Good boy.
I've. I've been becoming well
acquainted with the company and the founder Tom over the last
year and in December I came on to the I came into the company.
Isn't that crazy how your brain just kind of stops for a second?

(40:51):
I came into the company as a chief branding officer and Co
founder and operation Good Boy has this incredible mission.
I love dogs. Everyone over there at the team
loves dogs and we sell treats, gear and toys and supplements
for catered towards military canines, military veterans.

(41:12):
And we we give back to lots of nonprofits and charities,
including the Atlanta Canine Foundation and probably about 12
or 13 others, military working dog kennels and charities across
the United States. And I love it.
I love the team over there. And it's it's we have a great
mission. Wow, OK, incredible.
And then? Hybrid con games, Am I saying
that right? Yes.
Hybrid con. Hybrid Con.

(41:33):
So it's, I know I'm, I'm everywhere here.
Like no, I love this pet brand. The.
Most hardcore hybrid fitness competition in the entire
planet. That's the hybrid con games.
OK, tell me more about it. What do you guys do?
So I'll backtrack. A little bit when I was building
Battle Bunker guy named Hunter McIntyre he's you know, done the
World Service marathon. He's current high rocks world
record champion. He's he's got I think he got

(41:56):
world record for fastest marathon for anyone over 210 lbs
that he's crazy. I'm actually going to his house
after this he approached me saiddude, I love the obstacle
course. Let's find some way to partner
and him and I established the hybrid con games.
Hybrid con stands for hybrid conditioning.
Hybrid is a new, not new, but it's a it's an evolving wave of
fitness that does not include gymnastics or handstand walking.

(42:20):
It's kind of like CrossFit meet meets, OCR, lots of heavy
events, lots of endurance events, swimming, biking,
running, and that's what Hybrid Con Games is geared towards, is
geared towards the the hybrid athlete.
We give away of around $30,000 in cash every year.
This is our third year running it and we have some, some of the
best athletes from across the entire world, Mexico, France,

(42:41):
Australia, United Kingdom, United States.
It's a lot of fun. This is an international
endeavor. It is they they all fly over
here. To go through a two or three day
competition in Chula Vista, we house them, we feed them and
then we we challenge them like no other.
Wow, wow, that's so incredible and so if.
Is just getting started on theirfitness journey because one of
the things I love about your content is that you're so

(43:02):
motivating you know how what waswhat's your advice to people
that are just getting started I would say.
You. Don't.
Don't try to start all these variables at one time.
You have to claim a process thatis repeatable and consistent.
So if I was like, oh, I want to run a marathon, I'm not going to

(43:26):
go run a marathon. Typically I've I've done some
running before, but like if I was going to recommend someone's
came to me and said I want to run a 5K, I'll say build up to
it. Implement small things in your
day that you can do every singleday consistently that are going
to build up and lead you on the path to run that 5K.
Same thing with lifting or getting stronger.
You can't just say, OK, go to the gym 45 minutes, do 10

(43:48):
minutes of cardio, eat 200 gramsof protein, drink a gallon of
water. Like as as soon as you put all
these variables in people, it's going to get mixed up in their
head and they're they're not going to complete it.
So implement 1 variable. After you've made that
consistent, add another. After you've made that
consistent, add another. I love that I've been talking to
so many people. Recently about just like not

(44:09):
eating the whole pie at once because and that applies to
everything, right? I mean, at work, you got a big
project, you know, at your house, you got it your whole
house to clean, right? Like you just do one room at a
time. If the room is overwhelming,
just do one counter or one corner at the time, right.
So just break it down into a a bite sized kind of thing, you
know, and on on that front, you know, you've been through so
many courses with so many of thedifferent military branches

(44:33):
where you've kind of gotten a flavor for how all of them
operate. Some really tough courses.
I mean, the special Forces trialthat you did that alone, I think
that the mindset kind of plays into that as well.
For sure. Yeah.
You you'd coach and you'd teach on mindset all the time.
Is there any kind of broad or main theme that you instill in

(44:55):
others that you want to share with audience?
Yeah, it's, it's breaking it down into.
Things that are mentally digestible.
If you can mentally digest it, chances are your body will
follow. And just like on the marathon,
like my mentors, they said just one foot in front of the other.
It's kind of the same thing. If I'm thinking about the entire
thing, like at the start line, if I'm thinking about every

(45:18):
single mile that I have to complete, it's very
overwhelming. So I just kind of tune that out
and I said just focus on the next mile marker.
For me, it was the next mile marker.
Made it to one, made it to two. Before you know it, you're
looking at 16171819. They just keep coming.
So whatever you're doing, if you're if you're on your fitness
journey or if you're starting a business, break it down into

(45:39):
very digestible pieces that yourbrain can understand and you can
stay consistent with love that one of the things that.
Made me laugh when I was checking out some content for
you over the last two days. Was that what about never mind?
No. Oh wait wait, no, I'm going to
put a pin in my question. What about the feet?
OK, so I censor. My feet all the time on on
Instagram you do just because I think it's funny we need to like

(46:02):
pull them out right now and likeI mean we.
Can pull them out. Pull the.
Curtain back and like show people your.
Feet. That's your.
I have a saw. Yeah.
I can't do feet. You can't.
Just expose me like that, Amy. Well, I was hoping, you know,
that maybe you'd let. Me be the first to OK, after the
podcast I'll I'll show you. I'll show you the feet if if you
guys see a photo inserted in. Here it's because I got a sneaky
1 and I'm going to I think that's like the that's like the

(46:24):
TMZ story of the year right hereis what are your feet like?
Well, I mean, I just. Started posting it because it
was funny and I like I would censor him 'cause I thought it
was funny but then people started freaking out and they're
like dude where are your feet? Ohh my gosh dude, show us your.
Feet. I'm like.
I want to do like a I'll show you mine.

(46:46):
You show me your thing, I'll pull out my feet.
If you pull out yours. OK.
OK. You ready?
Let's do it. Wait.
It's OK. Charlie's down here too.
Why? OK.
I'll show you my mistletoe. You're.
Wait, what's? A mistletoe.
It's a. Tattoo that I have on my foot.
OK, are we? Showing feet?
Yeah, we're showing feet. You legit?
Have Oh my gosh, that is so cool.
Yeah, show it. Can we get it on that team?

(47:08):
OK, if you look to the side. Can't believe I'm doing this.
This is like, well if we can zoom.
In on the main camera. This is groundbreaking.
We're getting a real view of the.
Feet here. You've got mine.
Can we get? Are we good?
I'm looking at the producers. Thistle right there, baby.
There we go. Wow, did that hurt getting a
tattoo right there. Yes, it was on my bone.
Oh my gosh. Well, OK, now.

(47:29):
Now zoom in on Amy's. Yeah, I got cute feet.
Actually listen. I actually I got a really funny
story to tell you really quick. This piggy went to market.
That was a good one. I liked that that was a.
Good joke. It is a it is a close to a dad
joke. Yeah.
Can you see my feet over here? Wait, does tickle?
Tickle I actually have. Cute feet.
I'm not going to. Lie I go to There we go.
We're going to screenshot those.Thank God I got a pedicure

(47:52):
recently. Can you imagine?
If I had not like, I would be embarrassed.
I don't know that I would have challenged you to a foot off if
not just had a pedicure. We'll have a foot wrestling
match after this. Have you seen those photos
roaming around? Where?
It's like people like interlacing their toes, like if
we are not this close, I don't want that kind of relationship.
There are a lot of vibes I'm bringing right now.

(48:12):
There are a. Lot of like.
People have foot fetishes and. Some people hate feet, some
people hate toes. Like I'm just like, whatever.
No. So I have to tell you, this is a
real a real story. So about two years ago, I was
doing some like casting stuff and on Facebook, I'm part of
this casting group here in LA for like commercials and things
like that. And this guy reached out to me
and was like, hey, you totally give me Margot Robbie vibes.

(48:35):
That's his word. It's not mine.
Oh, by the way, everyone, this is Charlie.
Meet Charlie dog. Thank you for your appearance,
Charlie. So glad you could make us make
the make the show today. This is my dog Charlie.
My dog now. Yeah, Apparently he.
Chose you. I love that he.
Chose you and not even me. I'm sitting right here and he's
completely abandoned me traitor.But so this guy reached out to

(48:56):
me was like, hey, I want you to test out for this commercial.
You're going to be Margot Robbievibes.
This one. I know.
Here's a script. And so I like go into like full
on prep mode. I have my girlfriend come over,
we film like a test for it, the whole thing.
And I go to submit it and he's like, OK, great, you're going to
get the part. Here's another script.
And what I need you to do is I need you to have your feet up on

(49:16):
the couch, no socks on. I started getting like red flag
flag vibes, right? This guy was straight up like
just trying to get videos and photo of my feet.
He wasn't a real casting guy. He was just trying to get
photos. Of my feet wow, he's that's
smooth it is smooth, but that's.A real thing here in LA, people
do Weird. Weird stuff, Charlie.
You got to sit down the foot thing.
Like what? A foot?

(49:36):
Feet do for people. No offense to people with foot
fetishes off. Yeah, I mean, everyone got their
flavor, right? Everyone.
Got their flavor. Yeah, well, I love that we just
were able to let everybody in onour feet, but your feet
absolutely look like I I can't promise that I'm not going to
take screenshots of that and Placid all over social media.
You can use that now. People think there's something
wrong with my feet. There's.
Really not. I just do it because people ask

(49:58):
and it kind of weirds me out. But you actually have like to
say that you have done so much rocking.
You just ran a marathon. Your feet are in pretty good
Nick. Thank you very much.
You got great. You got great feet.
I have. I take care of them.
I wear great shoes. So what I was going to say
though is I. Watched your some of your
content. For those watching this later on
in the year, right now it's Saint Patrick's Day and there's

(50:19):
a marathon going on outside and people have been celebrating all
week. You drive around in a van, which
is called the Battle Bus. Battle Bus?
Yeah. Tell me about the Battle Bus.
So the battle. Bus we started.
About 2 1/2 years ago I noticed the rise in popularity for short
form content and me as a contentcreator having to constantly
like monitor that. I said, you know what?

(50:42):
I think it would be cool if I bought a van, a creepy van, and
wrapped it green and just drove around and let people do pull
ups on the back of it. So that's exactly what I did.
I bought a van, I wrapped it green.
We put a pull up bar on the backand we started going to local
gyms and like hey, I'll give youa dollar for every pull up.
Has anyone called you a meatheadbefore?
Oh all. The time every day.

(51:03):
I'm just kidding. That's awesome.
So like what is the? Motivation for doing that so we
share the videos online. And I'm always constructive.
I'm never making fun of people, never putting people down.
Like I'm like, please, if you, if you come try like you're
showing people out there that they can step out of their
comfort zone. Love this.
And in front of the camera with a performance and the stakes

(51:25):
involved, like it's a lot. It's a lot for people to come
out of the comfort zone. For some people it's it's easy.
I just bang out 10 pull ups, butwe share the videos online.
It's a really inspiring series and we've now we've gone to
Marine Corps bases and Navy bases and one of the most
popular gems in the in the world, Gold's Gym Venice.
And we have met some very interesting characters and it's

(51:47):
been a a very successful series.About almost 3 billion views
total. Wow on the entire series.
Wow, that's so amazing. So you have so many.
Adventures going on, I mean between Operation Good Boy, the
Battle Bus, Battle Bunker and your hypercon games, what is the
goal for you? Like where are you trying to go?
I like to stay busy and I like to have my hands.
Involved with the community and especially veteran community,

(52:10):
everything I do is in the veteran community space, whether
it's Operation good Boy or battle bunker bus.
I mean our van is wrapped camo green the battle bunker in the
hybrid con games I. Just want to continue enjoying
what? I do, I mean, obviously a lot of
entrepreneurs like, oh, I want to build and scale to $100
billion. I don't really have a plan for

(52:30):
that. I just kind of I would love to,
to build out in franchise battlebunker gyms, which is what we're
currently looking at right now. But I'm just, I'm just happy to
be alive and I absolutely love what I do every single day.
Wow, that's so powerful. Well, where can people find?
You. Well, right now I'm in your
studio. Literally right now.
Come find us, we're at the studio place so they can find me

(52:52):
on. Only fans, if you just go really
have an only no, I don't know. Oh, it was going to be like this
is. Amazing.
Take me serious. Yeah, signing up right now.
Take my credit card details after the feet stuff.
I might, I may. Have an only.
You should have an only feet like that's a thing.
I there's literally like like foot fetish
websitesfeetfinder.com if you see your.
Content. And your feet on there, it's not

(53:14):
me profiting off of your feet. I promise I'll keep that's
wildly specific, but. I'll keep that in mind.
OK, yes, Excuse me, So YouTube is Austin Alexander.
Instagram's at Austin Alex Battle bus is at battle.
Bunker. Bus and we have run and manage
11 or 12 pages every single day so chances are they can find me

(53:36):
somewhere but my main Instagram is Austin Alex Austen OK amazing
and then just because I know I'mgoing to have so.
Many people messaging me about this after.
What is 1 tip that you would give somebody who wants to
create content just like you oneday find some that you're let.
Me redo that something. My Alabama accent is coming out.
No, no, no. From now on, we're both going to

(53:57):
talk with. Country accents.
All right, so find something. That you're absolutely
passionate about and create on that.
Some people say, oh, a lot of money is in the food space and
they start creating cooking videos and they suck at it and
they can't stay consistent because they don't enjoy it.
That's what a lot of content creators run into.

(54:17):
For me, fitness is my passion. Everything that I do, everything
that I make content about is about fitness or mental health.
So find something that you're that you're passionate about.
When you're passionate about creating it, you don't look at
the numbers. It's tough when you spend 2025
thirty hours on a production andnobody watches it, But if you

(54:39):
enjoy the final product, that's a variable that you can mentally
latch onto instead of the viewership.
Love that. OK.
And then one last question. If somebody's in crisis
mentally, what's 1 tip you wouldgive them to help pull
themselves out immediately, I would say.
Take a deep breath in 810 seconds in, 810 seconds out.

(55:00):
This will help you methodically think about what's happening and
think about best case scenario. Think about worst case scenario.
A lot of times if you're going through anxiety, like if I'm was
sitting here and I was anxious about something, what is the
worst case scenario that can happen right now?
Maybe you like you throwing a microphone at me.
It's not life or death. So that helps me when I was

(55:25):
going through tough times last year, that helped me a lot.
Kind of what's the word? I'm looking for methodically.
Think about why I'm anxious and how to steer away from that
Anxiety, anxiety and depression,it comes in many different
forms. It can be It can be you're

(55:46):
anxious about meeting someone oryou're anxious or depressed
about someone in your life leaving.
So everybody's situation is different, but the first thing
that I do is try to take a deep,deep breath in and then a deep,
deep breath out. Some things that I did
additionally is cold plunging. Like if you can create a feeling

(56:09):
in your body that's calming or relaxing, like rub your
fingertips together, rub your legs, rub your head, have
someone else rub your shoulder. I mean, it's a, it's a very,
very calming feeling. Rub your feet, rub your feet.
Yeah. I was trying not to be.
Funny during this serious conversation, but that's OK.
You know the little humor aroundhere, Yes.
So that's something. That I would do immediately.

(56:30):
OK, amazing. Well, thank you.
Thank you so much. For coming on the show today,
obviously our goal around here is to help veterans and I think
we're going to definitely do just that today.
So really appreciate you everyone go follow like
subscribe to Austin Alexander. He is so amazing and go and like
and subscribe on my page share hit that subscribe button.
Cannot wait to see you in the comments section and engage and

(56:52):
see you on the flip side. Have a great day.
See you guys later. Bye.

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EP 22 | Investigated by the Navy to Mental Health & Fitness Advocate - Austen Alexander

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;} EP 22 | Investigated by the Navy to Mental Health & Fitness Advocate - Austen Alexander