January 19, 2025 • 50 mins
Joshua Wathen's extraordinary journey from a young man in Katy, Texas, to becoming a Green Beret is unlike any other. Our episode dives into the life of this exceptional individual, exploring his initial leap from automotive studies to the arduous path of Special Forces training, influenced by the adventurer's heart and a friend's encouragement. Joshua takes us through his first deployment in Afghanistan, sharing vivid memories of maneuvering through perilous terrains and encountering Taliban forces. His story is one of courage, adaptability, and the relentless pursuit of excellence amidst the chaos of war.
Transitioning from military operations to civilian life presents a unique set of challenges, and Joshua’s experiences shine a light on the complexities of this shift. Joshua recounts his time training special forces police in Peru and the cultural adjustment as he moved to Austin for college. He candidly shares the struggle of reconciling the disciplined, team-oriented mindset of a Green Beret with the more individualistic civilian world, offering listeners valuable insights into the importance of managing expectations and finding common ground with those who have walked different paths.
As Joshua reflects on his post-military journey, themes of purpose, faith, and healing take center stage. Battling PTSD and overcoming substance abuse, Joshua's story is a powerful testament to human resilience and the transformative power of community and storytelling. From leadership challenges in Iraq to his redemptive journey with the support of Lone Star Cowboy Church, Joshua’s narrative is one of rising from darkness, embracing faith, and ultimately finding a renewed sense of life and purpose. Join us as we uncover the lessons learned and the profound impact of sharing one’s story with the world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Scott McLean (00:00):
Welcome to the podcast.
I'm Scott McLean.
My guest today is Joshua Wathan.
Joshua is now.
He has a few things he does.
I kind of like his description.
He's an expert team builder.
He's a veteran, a Green Beret.
He's a leadership professional,serial entrepreneur.
(00:22):
I want to know what that is.
So we'll get to that.
Cybersecurity guy shootinginstructor and I like
entrepreneur.
I want to know what that is.
We'll get to that.
Cybersecurity guy shootinginstructor and I like this.
I like this because I happen tobe one of those guys.
He is an.
I got a guy for that guy whichis, I think, out of all his, his
, his titles here, that's themost important the.
I have a guy for that, becauseeverybody needs a guy who has a
(00:45):
guy.
Right, joshua, that's right.
How you doing, buddy?
I'm doing well today.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing good, all right.
So let's get right into it.
Man, where are you from?
Originally From Katy Texasright outside of Houston.
You went in the Army right.
What year did you go in theArmy?
Joshua Wathan (01:02):
2000 2004.
Scott McLean (01:05):
What made you go in?
What was the catalyst?
What's the story why youdecided to go in the Army?
Joshua Wathan (01:11):
You know, I didn't really know what I wanted
to do with my life, so I waskind of searching around.
I had tried going to UniversalTechnical Institute and learning
how to work on cars, which Istill enjoy doing, but I'm not
very good at it.
I didn't want to make it mylife's work once I got there and
figured that out.
So I was kind of just bouncingaround figuring out what I
wanted to do, and one of my highschool friends had joined the
(01:33):
army and came back on leave andhanded me this packet that said
you could try out for specialforces, right off the streets.
So you know, like anyegotistical 20 year old-old, I
was like oh, yeah.
I can do that Went and talked tothe recruiter and four months
later I was on a plane going.
What did I just do?
I probably should read the fullcontract, and that's how I got
(01:53):
started.
Scott McLean (01:54):
And where did you go?
To basic Fort Benning, georgia,fort Benning.
Okay, all right, so you gothrough basic and then take us
to your next step, go throughbasic and then take us to your
next step.
Joshua Wathan (02:05):
So for the, it's called the 18 x-ray program If
you're signing up for specialforces right off the bat and you
go to Georgia because that'swhere the infantry school is.
So you do your nine weeks ofbasic and then the drill
sergeant same drill sergeantscome in the next day and say
okay, congrats, you graduatedbasic, welcome to infantry
school.
(02:25):
And you just stay there foranother five weeks.
So you get your blue cord, youget infantry qualified and then
you go just down the street tothe airborne school there in
Georgia.
And after you pass that, thenyou go to Fort Bragg, you do a
special operations prep course,then you go to selection and
then you're out with the bigboys.
(02:46):
Then you deploy.
No, you've got to go throughthe qualification course.
So that's anywhere from ninemonths to about two years,
depending on the job andlanguage you get.
Then you go get assigned to thegroup.
After that and, depending onwhat their rotation is, you may
go to a school or be sleeping inthe hallways till you get
assigned a team or whatever itis, and then you'll get deployed
(03:08):
.
Scott McLean (03:08):
Let me ask you this While you're in and while
you're going through all thistraining, there's a war going on
, right?
What's the mindset of, say you,what was your mindset, knowing
that there's a war going on andyou're probably going over there
?
What was for a 20-year-old,right?
Joshua Wathan (03:27):
You look back now and you're like, oh man, like,
but as a 20-year-old, you know,I think honestly, when I was
going through all that trainingand everything, I wasn't so
worried about the war as much asI was worried about not making
it, because, like I remember, Iwould come home for Christmas
break, right, and my parentswould get me like a t-shirt or a
(03:49):
hat or something to hang on thewall that said special forces,
and I was like I hadn't evenearned my tab yet.
What if I don't make it?
And they're, you know, they'retelling all their friends that
I'm going to be a green beretand all this stuff.
So that was going through myhead a lot.
And then in the difficult partsof training it was just awkward
tomorrow, like, just not today,just make it through today
(04:11):
would they use that as amotivational tool?
the uh, the drill instructors,the instructors in general you
know I'm sure I was told thatsomewhere along the line because
I'm not smart enough to dosomething like that on my own,
but I don't remember it being acommon thing that they would say
.
I do remember getting toldquite a bit that just because it
says special forces, what itreally means is that you're not
(04:33):
special and you know that andthat's why you're on the team,
and that there are private firstclass guys over at the 82nd
that are on their thirddeployment right now and you
haven't done anything.
So shut your mouth and behumble, especially for the guys
like me that were coming off thestreet trying to go through.
That was what I rememberhearing a lot of was just be
quiet and do what you're toldand try and be of service to
(04:56):
those around you that's actuallya great philosophy to take into
life with you, as I'm sure youdid, because you still remember
it yes right.
Scott McLean (05:04):
So all right.
You, uh, you go through allyour training, get all your
certs, and now it's time to doover yeah I got.
Joshua Wathan (05:16):
I was, uh, when I graduated so funny story.
I um, everybody that graduatesthe q course is supposed to be
promoted to a sergeant.
There's no Green Beret, that'snot a NCO.
Well, they lost my paperwork.
So I'm the only special forcesqualified specialist that I know
of.
So anyway, I was like I went togo check into seventh group,
(05:40):
which is located there for brag,and they're like oh yeah, I got
any tab paperwork, yourgraduation paperwork.
I don't have your sergeantpaperwork.
And I was like already wearingmy sergeant rank because it was
like, well, just assuming it gotdone.
So I was walking around wearingsergeant rank without papers for
like a week and the sergeantmajor and the whole company was
(06:00):
deployed to South America at thetime.
So I was on the B team gettingtold like, hey, go get these
orders.
And I have no idea who to call.
I was trying to figure thisstuff out and Sergeant Major
calls and he's like hey,Specialist Wathen.
I was like, oh crap, he goes.
Are you in the team room rightnow?
I was like, yes, yes, sergeantMajor, he goes.
(06:25):
Well, why don't you put yourfeet up on the desk while I talk
to you?
Put me in the pushup positionwith my feet up you know three
feet high on a desk and was justproceeded to chew me out for 15
minutes on this, that and theother, and it doesn't matter
whether it's my fault, it's myresponsibility.
So I had to go put specialistrank on and go around the base
for a week straight wearingspecialist rank and of course
everybody's looking at me likethis guy just put a tab on and
he's lying Right, cause nobodywould looking at me like this
(06:47):
guy just put a tab on and he'slying right, because nobody
would.
Yeah, it was a very humblingexperience, to say the least.
I was sweating everywhere Iwent, thinking I was gonna die,
right, right, yeah, yeah soeventually I got put on a team
and then we went to afghanistanthey got.
Scott McLean (06:58):
Evidently they got the paperwork yeah because
you're green.
Joshua Wathan (07:01):
You were green, beret, yeah yeah, but yeah, that
was like it doesn't matter ifsomebody else fails, you better
go fix it correct.
Scott McLean (07:09):
So where was your first uh deployment?
Joshua Wathan (07:14):
uh, the firebase cobra in afghanistan firebase
cobra.
Scott McLean (07:18):
In what year was that?
Joshua Wathan (07:20):
2009, 2009 okay yeah, into 2010.
I think we left before the newyear.
Yeah, we were like there forfour months, then new year there
for five months, something likethat how many deployments did
you?
Do?
They went to afghanistan andthen, when we came back, I went
down to peru for three monthsokay, all right.
Scott McLean (07:41):
Anything uh in afghanistan that stands out, any
stories, any particularincidents yeah, I mean there's
definitely.
Joshua Wathan (07:48):
We lost uh, we lost my captain over there.
We lost a bunch of our fkcounterparts, but the one of the
most I don't know if it fundsthe right word memorable
definitely experience I had wasthe first time that I saw combat
.
So we've been there maybe aweek and a half.
I was part of the advanced team, which for your listeners means
that they send kind of half theteam there first to kind of go
(08:12):
get used to everything and therest of the team comes in behind
.
So if there's stuff you needfrom the main base, they can
grab it and show up with it.
But anyway, we went out withthe other team and I was the
youngest, youngest, lowestranking guy on the team and our
intel guy, who had had 15 yearsexperience or whatever, was like
hey you're, you're coming withme, get on a four-wheeler.
It's like oh okay, sure, sowe're.
(08:35):
The trucks were kind of up on aridge line pulling security, but
they had to stop all the timeto clear ieds and we took the
four-wheelers down into the ricepaddies.
So the way they irrigate thereis they just dig big ditches two
feet deep, two feet wide andthey pile the dirt on the side.
So the only way to get past theditches was to hit it, going 20
miles an hour and use the dirtas a ramp to get over.
(08:56):
So we go over five or sixditches and we end up pausing
because we're waiting on all thetrucks to catch up to us.
And we end up pausing becausewe're waiting on all the trucks
to catch up to us and then westart seeing little heads pop up
wearing black turbans.
My intel guy was like yeah,that's all Taliban, we should
leave.
We have absolutely no support.
We're like okay, so we get onour four wheelers, we hop one
(09:17):
ditch, we pause for a second,we're getting ready to get back,
get back on, get on the fourwheelers to go do another one.
And we're getting ready to getback, get back, on, get on the
four wheelers to go do anotherone and just start bounding back
to the team.
And you start seeing thecornfields, just kind of part,
because RPGs were starting tofly at us.
(09:38):
And so I turn and I'm like whatis that?
You know, being a new guy, Iwasn't really sure what was
going on.
I turn and look at my Intel guyand he's four feet off of his
atv because he had just realizedthat we were taking contact and
had jumped off of it.
So I had had my radio onthrough my headphones but I
didn't have my speakers on, so Ididn't hear any of the gunfire
that was coming right at us.
(09:58):
All I saw was the corn movingand like some smoke, and saw him
jump and he's like we'regetting shot at.
Take cover.
Scott McLean (10:05):
I get behind the four-wheeler, he all right, we
got to get out of here.
Joshua Wathan (10:09):
I'm going to lay down cover fire.
You get on the four wheeler, go, hop a ditch.
You lay down cover fire, I'llcome meet you and we'll just
found back, like okay.
So I get on the four wheeler,hop a ditch, good to go.
Go laying down cover fire.
Tell him go on, let's go catchup to me.
He's like okay, on the way.
And then, I don't know, 15seconds later I get a message
(10:32):
right here, the radio click on.
I hear his voice going I'mstuck in the ditch.
It's like okay, great, so he's.
He had dumped his four wheelerinto the ditch and we had
winches on the four wheeler.
So I drive over to him whilewe're getting shot and I'm
backing up and in my head I hearthat beep, beep sound.
You know cause it's going soslow.
And I'm like okay, how do Ipull you out?
(10:55):
He's like use the winch.
So I I had never used a winchbefore in my life, but I found
out real quick that you have topress a button and the thing
just.
But I found out real quick thatyou have to press a button and
the thing just.
So it felt like four years ofjust sitting there waiting for
this winch to come all the wayout, hook it up, go, bring it
all the way back in, get himunhooked.
(11:16):
And then we finally made it upto the top.
And the funny thing about thatwas, before we left he was
chewing me out, just like tryingto make sure that I could keep
up.
Don't get stuck in a ditch,don't get left behind, don't you
know?
And I'm new guy, right?
Yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir,yes, sir, yes, sir.
And the whole time.
And then he gets himself stuckand we get all the way to the
(11:36):
top and he's like good job, yeah, really, that's all you gotta
say.
He's like let's go, okay, butit was just.
The reality of combat was likeit was not what I expected, with
Rambo and throwing grenades andshooting and all that.
It was more just, there's justa lot of stupidness.
That happens in everyday life.
Scott McLean (11:56):
That happens just the same in combat and you just
say I would assume it'smagnified in combat.
It's just magnified, right?
Yeah?
Joshua Wathan (12:03):
I mean, but it was, it was funny we were taking
rounds, but the only thing Icould think about was how slow
the stupid winch was going.
Yeah, like it didn't.
Okay, like I'm gonna stay low,I don't want to get hit and it's
kind of weird, but it was just.
I couldn't focus on all theguys shooting at us because I
was worried about this stupidwinch and this guy that got
stuck in a ditch after hescreamed at me for not making
(12:24):
sure to do the same thing hejust did.
Scott McLean (12:26):
It's amazing what the brain will do to keep you in
the moment.
Right, yeah.
Yeah, and that's all like itjust took over that.
It's like we're going to focuson this, because you're probably
going to lose your shit if yousee what's coming Right.
Joshua Wathan (12:41):
Yeah.
Scott McLean (12:44):
So you left Afghanistanghanistan,
fortunately intact, at leastphysically, at least physically.
And then you said you went tosouth america yeah yeah that was
vacation, that, yeah, thatthat's.
That's a.
That's a big dichotomy rightthere.
Afghanistan to South America,like, yeah, anything down there
(13:08):
that stands out.
Just the vacation, like yousaid.
Joshua Wathan (13:12):
Yeah, south America was trying to keep guys
out of trouble.
We were down there to train thespecial forces police how to
deal with all thenarco-terrorists right.
So it was just a lot ofteaching them react, contact,
ambush, marksmanship, thingslike that um you said peru right
, yeah, down in lima so they'vegot some red, a lot of red zone
(13:33):
in their jungle areas where,like, the regular population
doesn't go.
But the cool thing there was weended up getting a joint service
achievement medal as a team forthe course that we put on, and
it was just a testament to howmuch you can learn how quickly
when you've got a good teamaround you.
Because they asked me to putthe course together and so I was
(13:56):
like all right, you, you guysteach demo, you guys teach radio
.
Here's your section.
We're just going to run them todeath and have them shoot a
bunch of rounds and all that.
But you know, in my head it wasI'm just trying to be creative,
I'm trying to be helpful.
And then to see the colonel'sreaction that was running the
embassy down there when he cameout was just like we've had.
I've had a dozen teams downhere.
I've never had anything likethis.
(14:17):
It was just I don't know it was.
It was cool from a confidenceperspective, but it was just.
I remember smiling and lookingaround at all of my teammates
and just being feeling verypeaceful.
Yeah, like you guys got my back.
You asked me to do this thing,I put it together and they're
(14:37):
the ones delivering on all of it, right, and it was just awesome
to be a part of something likethat.
Scott McLean (14:43):
Yeah, it's like a, it's like a paratrooper, you
know who packs your chute.
Joshua Wathan (14:48):
You know what I mean.
Scott McLean (14:49):
It's those people that make your jumps successful,
even if you, you know, maybethey pack their own chutes,
maybe they don't, but in the endyou know it's the people behind
you that make it work, thatmake it happen, right.
So how long did you stay in for?
Joshua Wathan (15:06):
I was in for six years.
Scott McLean (15:07):
Six years, all right.
So six years comes up.
It's time for Joshua to bug out, right?
So what was the transition like?
It's weird.
Joshua Wathan (15:20):
So I got out, immediately moved to Austin,
went to Austin Community Collegefor a couple of years with
designs to go to UT, and then Imet a girl worked for the VA, so
we came back to Houston becausethat's where she was in Waco
and driving was crazy.
There was no office in Austin,so I transferred to the
(15:41):
University of Houston insteadand ended up in the Wolf Center
for Entrepreneurship there andlearned how to start businesses.
But I would say, you know,first getting out, it was six
months of, I got money stackedup, I know how to party.
I've got a good routine Likethese.
Classes are super simple and itwas amazingly simple because my
(16:03):
high school experience waspretty horrible.
I hated school, I didn't wantanything to do with it.
I had a crappy GPA and then Iwas thinking college was going
to be really hard and I showedup and with the discipline that
I had from the military, I waslike this is a joke.
But what I really had to learnwas stop treating everybody
that's in my class like Itreated my teammates, because
(16:24):
they don't have, they haven'tbeen through the same stuff and
they're worried about themselves, not worried about the team,
even when it's a team projectexample of what, how you were
treating them well, just hey,this needs to get done.
You're gonna do it, right?
Okay, cool, I don't need tomanage you after that.
You're a big boy, right?
You know this.
(16:44):
This kid either doesn't want tobe here, it doesn't know what
he's doing, or he's doesn't havehabits, right?
He's a 20 year old, like I waswhen I got in and hasn't had all
of that.
Well, on this, this, like this,the military does a good job of
beating that selfishness rightout of you.
You know, like you just can'tact like that, you're not going
(17:08):
to survive.
So I put a lot of trust inpeople that hadn't earned it and
that cost me both, both on ajust an organizational level and
like a personal.
I was just mad at everybody,you know, and it wasn't because
of necessarily what they did, itwas because of the expectations
I put on them.
Scott McLean (17:22):
Yeah, unfair expectations right yeah, yeah,
absolutely.
Joshua Wathan (17:24):
Yeah.
How long did it take you tofigure out you were doing that
wrong?
Because of the expectations Iput on them?
Yeah, unfair expectations,right?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Scott McLean (17:26):
Yeah, how long did it take you to figure out you
were doing that wrong once youwere already done?
Because usually you don'tsketch it when you're in the
middle of it.
Right yeah, you're caught up inthe moment, you're just doing
what you do, you're doing whatyou know, and then is this an
afterthought or I would saythere was phases of it.
Joshua Wathan (17:44):
You know, learning oh, I'm not going to do
that again, but not from astrategic level, more like a
tactical type of thing.
And then, once I got into theWolf Center, that was 60 to 80
hour weeks.
Only 35 kids 36 in our classwere let in per year.
It's the number one school inthe nation.
So, like your, go all the time.
And so I was able to actuallyput some of those same
(18:07):
expectations on those studentsin my class, because we were
expected to move at the samepace and be have the same level
of responsibility, and I reallylearned, learned a little bit
better how to blend that,because it's not the same but
it's very similar.
You need to be a big boy, youneed to be a professional, but
(18:29):
at the same time I had learnedat that point.
These people are younger than Iam, they don't have the same
experience, they're more nervousabout certain things because
they haven't done it before, andso a lot of coaching, guiding
and just carrying people whenneeded helped until I lost my
patience At a certain point.
I just no, I'm not.
(18:50):
I'm like, I'm not your mother.
You know what I mean.
I got other stuff to do and Iwas trying to run three
businesses and go to school anddo all kinds of stuff there.
So it took a long time.
And even after that I wasn'tcontracted in Iraq for a couple
of years and there was a coupleof times where I chewed the head
off of a teammate.
That was unnecessary, you know,because these guys were in it
(19:11):
for the paycheck and that's notthe same thing.
And it's been a process, man,to just learn that I need to be
me and let other people be themand figure out what seat they
need to be on the bus instead oftrying to force them into the
seat that I have planned for.
Scott McLean (19:25):
So you went over there.
You went over to Iraq civilianstyle and you took it as another
deployment where other peoplethat were there were taking it,
just because the money wasreally good, Is that?
Joshua Wathan (19:38):
what you're saying.
Kind of I think it falls intoexpectations again.
Like I had a guy who came inSEAL qualified dude, so it was
from Team Life, this, that, andthe other came in seal qualified
dude, so it was from team life,this, that and the other, and I
remember I was advising kind ofthe.
The whole group of all theteams that came in had kind of a
headshake meeting once a weekor so and I'd go over there and
(20:00):
so they were using us like theground guides because they'd
come in every three months or soand we had been there for a
year.
So you know, I didn't take intoconsideration that the guys
that had been there longer hadthe place wired and got to know
people.
And so the SEAL was dealing withone of the colonels, one of the
Iraqi colonels, and I was likehey, can you go get X, y and Z?
I need it for some other teams.
(20:21):
And he just went yeah, noproblem, I said, are you sure?
Yeah, I got it.
So I went to the meetingbriefed yeah, we can get that
for you Came back two days laterand was like, hey, did you get
that stuff?
And he's like the colonel toldme no and I lost it.
Like we were at the dinner tablewith the team and he had been
there maybe two or three weeksand I just lit him up right in
(20:42):
front of everybody, alienatedhim from everybody on the team,
and so I think that was a.
That was a fault in leadership.
Right, though he needed his asschewed, but he didn't need it
chewed in front of everybodyelse, right.
He also needed a better, inbrief, and he needed somebody to
walk through, and I should havegone over there with him and
confirmed that we could havegotten it before I told somebody
(21:05):
else that we could have done itright.
So there's things like that,that the nuances and the details
are what made a huge difference, not necessarily the overall
concept so you get done withthat.
Scott McLean (21:17):
You come back to the states.
Any demons start to pop up yeahI was.
Joshua Wathan (21:23):
So I came back, started a leadership consulting
company, did that until covidand then then, after COVID, I
stopped, and once I finallystopped and sat, I didn't move
for like three years.
I homesteaded, bred dogs, woulddo some woodworking and stuff
like that, but for the most partI sat on my back patio smoked
cigarettes and had a pity partybecause I didn't know what I was
supposed to do.
(21:44):
A big part of that was when Icame back.
I met my who's, my wife.
Now we got married and starteda family.
So I realized, okay, I'm notgoing to go back overseas, I
know how that ends.
Why start a family if I'm notgoing to be here Now?
I need to figure out what elseI want to do as far as the what,
and so it was a lack of purpose.
(22:04):
I didn't understand what I wassupposed to do and I'd worked
really hard for all thesedifferent qualifications and
none of them really fit for anywork that kept me home, even if
you do like Secret Service orFBI or something along those
lines, where we're stateside alot of the time.
So we're still not home, we'regone.
So yeah, I had to deal withthat.
(22:25):
I ended up having a wife calledthe PTSD foundation of America
after I was throwing a rage fitand went to a warrior group that
night and started working on myfaults.
Good for you, man, and you know, I think for me a lot of the
civilian friends and family thatI have tried to approach me
(22:45):
with a bunch of hugs going,it'll be okay.
And I just don't because I justdon't respond well to them, like
, okay, you're full of it, youdon't get it.
But when I started going tothose warrior groups, the
veterans there want, for firstthing, that a lot of the stories
that were there were way worsethan mine.
Like, come on, I'm living in anice house, I got a beautiful
(23:06):
family.
Like money isn't a problem, wegotta.
I still got.
I'm not a rich person by anymeans, but it's, I'm not
struggling to put food on thetable like what are you doing
with your life really?
But then they they would turnaround and just say that to me
like you're, how are you gonnasit here and call yourself a
green beret and not just go homeand go sit in your chair?
(23:26):
What are you doing with yourlife?
Get the fuck out of your chair,like that's.
When I was like oh, okay, I'mhome, like thank you, you know,
and that led to them giving me ajob.
So I was helping other guys out.
That was kind of like basictraining for life for me all
over again, just to get a littlebit centered and help other
people.
(23:47):
And then from there I ended upjust having a few friends call
me up that I had worked with inthe past or whatever, and go hey
, man, I'm starting thisbusiness, can you help?
And that's how I got where I amtoday with Triad.
Jason, the CEO of this company,was a former client of mine when
I was doing leadershipconsulting.
He had put on Facebook that hewas looking for a veteran to
(24:09):
help with sales.
And I said I know a lot ofveterans, I'll find a guy, send
me a job description.
And by the time all that wassaid and done, he said why don't
you just come help me build abusiness?
And so now we're partnered upand going to the moon, man, so
you were kind of a headhunter ina sense, right.
Finding people for jobs.
Yeah, I got a guy for thatright.
I was just like, hey, man, letme, I'll help you out.
(24:32):
You're a friend and you know.
I think the biggest thing thatI learned through that lack of
purpose, other than my faith,which is definitely number one
getting closer to back, closerto God, was what I do does not
motivate me for me at all, nordoes the money piece of it, but
who I'm working with and beingaccountable to somebody, to a
(24:53):
team that was depending on me,and money being the scoreboard
for that.
This is for, like thecompetitiveness that that gets
me up and gets me moving Right,and so, fortunately, I'm in a
place where I can choose who Iwant to spend my time with, more
than I have to worry about whatI'm, what I'm bringing home.
Scott McLean (25:14):
So were there any other demons drinking anything
like that, or did anything elsecreep in?
Joshua Wathan (25:20):
I mean I've, I've never, I've always been anytime
I would get smashed in themilitary.
It was because I was partyingwith friends, yeah yeah like,
and so no, I mean smokedcigarettes and dipped at the
same time like oh my god, yeahnicotine was a real thing real
(25:43):
quick.
Scott McLean (25:43):
I I've said this before I'm a recovering
alcoholic, 34 years.
This past, thanksgiving, andthey sent me to the three-week
inpatient at Travis Air ForceBase.
The first thing they said to uswas don't quit smoking.
Smoke all you want, smokeeverything that you can get your
hands on.
Just don't quit smoking whileyou quit drinking, which was
(26:06):
great advice.
Joshua Wathan (26:08):
That nicotine was our savior savior,
unfortunately, but I don't smokesince anyway yeah, I remember
we tell the guys of can't pokethe same thing right, like yeah,
if you're dealing with majorsubstance abuse.
Right now.
Don't worry about the nicotineand really worry about the
tobacco later because, like, Istill use the nicotine pouches
(26:29):
but there is just clean nicotine.
That's like a breath mint.
Scott McLean (26:33):
Yeah, I don't do the tobacco so we got introduced
by robin notton on linkedin.
She reached out to me about myyou know, she saw the one man,
one mic foundation where youknow the two pillars are
storytelling and podcasting,because the two go.
It's basically hand in glove.
And she said you need to talkto this friend of mine, joshua.
(26:57):
You need to reach out to him,reach out to Joshua.
So we finally connected and Ithink our conversation at first
was where is this common thread,like why she never really said
why I should reach out to you,right?
And we, we kind of stumbledinto that as part of the
conversation, like why she neverreally said why I should reach
out to you, right?
And we, we kind of stumbledinto that as part of the
conversation, like why did shehave me call you?
And you're like I don't, Idon't really know, but hey, I
(27:19):
love talking to you, right, wehad great conversation, but then
we found it.
We found it you mentioned thatyou wrote a little story about
your life, right, yourexperiences, and now to do that,
you really, really for somebodyto do that.
Number one, it takes reallygood insight, like you have to
(27:41):
have a lot of self-awareness tobe able to get honest with
yourself and write somethinglike this and you read it to me
over the phone about yourself.
Number two you need a lot ofhonesty with yourself.
And number three, you write thestory because you feel it needs
to be written.
(28:03):
A lot of people have the storyin their head and they'll tell
the story, but to really sit infront of it and put it down and
really kind of look into it,which was one of the things that
they I learned this when I wasgoing through that rehab I just
spoke of, and they said we wantyou to write down your drinking
history, right?
And so I started writing and Iwas like no lie, dude.
(28:28):
It was like 40 pages, 50 pages.
It was a lot, right.
And then you got to read it infront of people and that changed
everything, right.
So when you see your storywritten in front of you, that
really changed that andliterally it's like it changes
everything for you.
So you said you had this storyand I want you to, uh, if you
(28:50):
would tell the listeners or givethe listeners that story, is
that something you want to do?
Yeah, I'd be happy to do thatyeah, the microphone is yours,
my friend.
Joshua Wathan (29:00):
So I wrote this while I was still working at the
foundation about two years ago.
One of the guys I worked withtook me to man Camp.
It's basically a men's retreatfor a church and I just had
shoulder surgery and they weredoing skeet shooting and I love
to shoot and I couldn't do itand I rekindled sort of
rekindled my faith with God andin revelations, as well as a
(29:22):
couple other places.
It tells you you're supposed toshare your testimony and I
hadn't done that yet.
And then I saw in the itineraryat the man camp that they were
going to do testimonies thatevening.
So instead of shooting and justhanging out, I went and closed
my door to my room and spentfive hours and wrote this down.
So that's where this came from.
(29:45):
Just to give you a littlecontext, it's called who Am I?
My name is Joshua Watham, butthat's not who I am.
I grew up in Katy, texas, in amiddle-class family who loved
and cared for me From the day Iwas born until I turned 16, I
wanted for nothing andexperienced no suffering.
(30:06):
I was introduced to the churchby a friend, accepted Christ
into my heart and was baptized.
Life was meaningful and lifewas good.
Then the year 2000 smacked mein the face.
I lost six family members andmy best friend left a rose and a
note for his mother that guidedher to the swing set he had
(30:29):
hung himself from.
I became bitter as I watchedthe people who tormented my
friend and pushed him deeperinto his hole flow into the
church with tears in their eyesas we laid him to rest.
I can still remember theirvoices the next day at school as
they made jokes about his deathand displayed their hypocrisy
as a badge of honor, and Iblamed the church for accepting
(30:53):
it.
Then I turned my back on God.
Who am I?
I am angry.
After a few years of rebellingand searching for something
bigger than myself, I joined thearmy.
I signed up to become a memberof the Special Forces.
I completed 14 weeks of basictraining, three weeks at
(31:19):
airborne school and shattered myankle on my last qualifying
jump.
Ten screws, one plate, and ninemonths later I was running
eight-minute miles uphill with60 pounds in my butt.
Nothing was going to stop me.
It took me three years ofsuffering to earn my green beret
, and now no one can take thataway from me.
I was placed on a murderousteam with a mountain of a man as
(31:41):
our leader, and we went to war.
I came back glittered withshiny medals for dark days done
well.
Who am I?
I am tenacious.
After six years of service, Ileft the military in search of
another mountain to climb, and Iended up at Austin Community
College.
I quickly learned that beingaggressive and opinionated was
(32:06):
not the best way to survive inthat environment.
I transferred to the Universityof Houston and I set my sights
on their Tier 1 business programand the Wolf Center for
Entrepreneurship.
There I worked 80-hour weeksand I learned how to lead people
with different values anddifferent drives.
Working with students gave mysword the company of a shield.
(32:29):
Who am I?
I am learning.
Upon receiving my degree, Ipacked my bags and left for Iraq
as a civilian contractor.
I had grown tired of putting ona face, so I put my diploma in
a drawer and I joined some oldteammates overseas to help train
Iraqi soldiers how to fightISIS and old teammates overseas
(32:52):
to help train Iraqi soldiers howto fight ISIS.
We trained thousands ofsoldiers and each made hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
We did all this despite thefact that the Department of
State denied us access to theAmerican base and our only three
support personnel gotthemselves kidnapped and held
for ransom.
Who am I?
I am successful.
After one of my soldiers droppeda mortar tube on my wrist, I
(33:14):
came back to the States forsurgery.
This is where I met my wife.
She had me at her loan and hasbeen my guardian angel ever
since.
Her son is now our son and hekeeps my integrity in check on a
daily basis basis, becausewhere I lead, he follows.
My wife and I made anotherhuman together, and this little
(33:36):
daughter of mine is the light ofmy life.
Who am I?
I am loved.
The divorce rate for activespecial operations soldiers is
approximately 95 percent, and Ichose my family over my career.
So I had to find anotherprofession.
I leaned on my degree andfollowed my ego.
(33:56):
I failed business afterbusiness because I thought I
knew everything.
I got scammed and I got screwedbecause I trusted untrustworthy
people with the thought that Icould change them.
Then I stopped caring abouttrying because I was unfulfilled
and without a purpose biggerthan myself.
(34:18):
Who am I?
I am blind.
I was deeply embarrassed, mymind was torn and my ego was
shattered.
So I quit on myself, I quit onmy family.
I quit on the world.
I decided that my VA disabilitywas good enough and that I
didn't need to work anymore.
So I got comfortable in mypatio chair, a load of cigarette
(34:42):
, and I stayed there for threeyears.
I emotionally abandoned my kidsand I put the weight of the
household on my wife Like theliving dead.
I roamed the property and Ispoke to no one.
Eventually, my guardian angelhad enough and called a friend
(35:02):
over to try and talk to me,after realizing that he wasn't
going to leave, even though Ihad locked myself in my shop and
told him to go away.
I fell into a rage.
I charged into my house, downthe hall and into the kitchen,
where I slapped a light fixturethat's the size of a church bell
and shattered it into a millionpieces.
(35:24):
I pointed my bloody hand at myfriend and yelled leave now or
you'll never leave.
And as he hustled out the door,I turned my head towards my
wife.
I called her names.
I told her that I hated her andthat I was going to divorce her
.
Who am I?
I am lost.
My wife could have left me thatday and I would not have blamed
(35:48):
her, but she is no ordinarywoman.
She is my guardian angel.
Instead, she picked up thephone and called the PTSD
Foundation of America and put meon the phone with a veteran who
understood how I felt.
That night I was in a warriorgroup with my brothers working
on my faults.
(36:09):
During this journey, a veteranbrother came out to my house
several times when I wasreliving my dark days and simply
sat with me as a brother whohad been where I was.
Eventually, he and otherbrothers pulled me out of my
home.
Then they gave me a job andwith that job came purpose.
Then they showed me Lone StarCowboy Church and with that
(36:32):
church came life.
Now I find myself leaning intomy faith and saving lives.
I find that the tears and thefabric of my family are mending
and here at Lone Star CowboyChurch I see my bloody trail
being washed away and I thankGod.
Not anger, tenacity, learning,success, nor love cure my
(36:57):
blindness, because faith is theonly map that truly leads to the
lost.
Who am I?
I am here.
Who am I?
I am his.
Who am I?
I am his.
Who am I?
Scott McLean (37:13):
I am home Beautiful man Beautiful, thank
you for sharing that.
That definitely runs the gambit.
Definitely Well done man, welldone.
So it took you five hours towrite that.
You said, yeah, I gave it acheck.
Yeah, yeah, that's a long fivehours.
(37:35):
Yeah, yeah, very good man, Iappreciate again, I really
appreciate you telling thatstory.
When we were first talking I waslike, okay, this would be a,
you know it's going to be aninteresting interview.
And then you know, on the phone, our first contact.
But then when you told thatstory, I was like, okay, this
(37:56):
would be a, you know it's goingto be an interesting interview.
And then you know, on the phone, our first contact.
But then when you told thatstory, I was like, ah, this is a
home run.
Yeah, yeah, this is what it'sall about.
This is what I want veterans tohear, this is what I want other
nonprofits to hear, this iswhat I want everybody to hear.
Things like that.
You know, just that story storyalone, I'm sure, is going to
touch at least one other veteran, which is that's the win.
Right, that's the win.
You know, and again, thank youfor sharing that.
(38:19):
Now that's a tough act tofollow.
My next question, but tell us Idon't usually do this, but this
is well-deserved in this case.
Tell us about Triad.
Tell us about what you do andwhat you are.
It's a veteran-owned business,correct?
Joshua Wathan (38:39):
Yes, it is.
Scott McLean (38:40):
Yeah, so what does Triad do?
Joshua Wathan (38:44):
We do strategic cybersecurity consulting.
Really, what that means is wedo a lot of compliance.
So cybersecurity is the newforefront of warfare.
The anonymity and availabilitythat's there to be able to get
resources from behind a computerseveral thousand miles away
(39:05):
takes away the need to have toput troops on a ground to secure
territory.
Because of that, the governmentis pushing down a lot of
regulations to businesses sayingthey have to do X, y and Z to
be compliant or they can getfined or worse.
So our job is to come in andhelp them become compliant.
That's usually a six to18-month process, depending on
(39:29):
what level of compliance they'retrying to be.
Beyond that, once a companygets a certain size, they need
to go from just having basicpassword protection and
encryption to having somebodythat's sitting with the C-suite
and talking to the board onbehalf of the cybersecurity
environment within their company, talking to the board on behalf
of the cybersecurityenvironment within their company
(39:50):
.
And so we do that on afractional basis, on a part-time
basis, and that way they don'thave to hire a full-time chief
information security officer, ananalyst and a software stack
that comes along with it.
We're a good bridge between,say, $2 million in revenue and
(40:10):
$25 million in revenue to getthem where they need to be.
My partner is the expert incybersecurity.
He's a Navy veteran, ran a ITcompany for 16 years and sold it
and immediately started thisbusiness with Triad, this
(40:34):
business with Triad.
My job, my role inside thecompany as the chief operations
officer, is to get everybody,get all the people moving in the
same direction, both withinside the firm and outside.
So, being a newer company, Ispent a lot of time doing
business development, sales,marketing activities and inside
the firm I spend a lot of timetraining the other employees,
helping and providing resources,strategizing things like that
(40:58):
All right.
Scott McLean (40:59):
How can somebody that might be interested that's
listening get in touch withTriad?
Joshua Wathan (41:05):
With Triad.
Triadinfosecio is our website.
If you want to get in touchwith me, I'm always on linkedin.
Linkedin backslash joshuawaffen.
Uh, shoot me a message.
I'm happy to connect and hopeyou're going to be helpful.
Scott McLean (41:21):
W-a-t-h-e-n.
Joshua Wathan (41:23):
Yeah, that's it I said at the beginning of this
episode, I want what is a serialentrepreneur and it's real with
an s, not with a c yeah, I wasgonna say I didn't make lucky
charms, although that might havebeen interesting you wouldn't
be on the podcast.
Scott McLean (41:38):
You'd be too rich for me for that.
Joshua Wathan (41:39):
Yeah, that's true , that's true.
Selling sugar is a goodbusiness.
It's cereal just means.
I've done it a bunch of times.
Yeah, I think triad is theninth business that I've helped
build or helped grow to varyingdegrees of success.
As you heard in my testimony, Ifailed a bunch of different
businesses, but I think most ofthe businesses that I would
(42:01):
consider a failure meaning thatthey didn't get where we wanted
them to go or they didn't havean exit was just because I
either stopped following throughor I didn't have a.
I didn't take the planseriously, right Like I.
I just leaned on my ego andwent, oh, I got this.
No, there's a lot of otherpeople way smarter than me that
(42:21):
have more money than me, and ifI don't get really granular with
that plan and execute on timeeffectively, then what am I
doing?
Um, but I mean that said.
But that said, we've had somepretty cool businesses.
I helped develop intellectualproperty from the University of
Houston to filter out sulfurfrom oil and gas drilling
companies and had a subscriptionbox company for vape juice back
(42:46):
when vaping was just starting.
We'd do a flavor profile andyou'd say, hey, I like
strawberries and I likechocolate, and we'd send you a
bunch of different flavors ofvape things that like met that
flavor profile.
So I'm much more of a lifestyletype of business, but we got it
running and had, you know,decent revenue and all that yeah
all the way to leadershipconsulting had a remodel company
(43:07):
for a little while.
Covid killed that thing.
Like everybody, went to homedepot and we're doing it
ourselves, right, right, yeah,there's no way.
Scott McLean (43:17):
Yeah, I get it I, I guess I could be then consider
the serial podcaster, since Ihave two, but I had three, that
that didn't get off the groundyou know, they just didn't it.
So of course we're talkingtotally different sides of the
spectrum with what you're doingand what you know this is, but
it's the same mindset Don't quit.
(43:38):
If you love doing it, keepdoing it.
You know what I mean.
Just make those mistakes andlearn from them, and when you
start your next thing, it mightnot get off the ground.
You know, and I think it's anindividual choice and it's a
mindset you got to love whatyou're doing and you'll keep
(43:59):
doing it and then you willeventually succeed.
Joshua Wathan (44:03):
Yeah, I know a lot of rock eaters that have
made really successful companiesjust because they wouldn't take
no for an answer and they wouldnot stop.
Scott McLean (44:11):
yeah, persistence is key absolutely, and I tell
people in this, in this businessI'll call it because you can
make money in podcasting, butnot everybody's going to be joe
rogan, like you're not going tobe joe rogan there's only one
joe rogan or tim pool you knowwhat I mean or someone like that
.
But you can be successful in it.
(44:32):
You know you can make money init if you really push it and try
, and I I respect that mindsetbecause I live it.
You know what I mean.
So well, all right.
Joshua Wathan (44:44):
Is there anything ?
Scott McLean (44:45):
else, anything else you want to?
Uh, this was a great interview,Thank you.
Joshua Wathan (44:49):
I did say to any veterans that are listening
right, like if you're waitingfor somebody else to tell you to
do something, whether that'sget help, start a business,
follow your dreams for lack of abetter term, you're doing it
wrong.
Get up out of your chair and gomake your life what it's
(45:10):
supposed to be, because there'splenty of people around that'll
help you do that.
But you've got to want it first.
I think that was a very hardlesson I had to relearn, you
know, after going throughsomething where they pushed you
and you had to want to be thereand then just kind of giving up.
I had to relearn that man,there ain't nobody else going to
(45:30):
do this for me.
They'll help me.
A lot of people will help me ifI ask for help, but I got to be
the one to take the first stepforward.
Scott McLean (45:36):
Absolutely, man, absolutely.
And no looking back once you dothat.
No looking back, man, just keepmoving forward.
That's it.
Well, joshua, this has been oneof those, and I have these
every once in a while and I'mdoing another interview tomorrow
with a nonprofit in Chicago.
That it just like timing justdidn't work.
(45:57):
But we got this done and Iappreciate your diligence.
I appreciate you reaching outto me saying, hey, are we doing
this?
You know what I mean BecauseI'm also running a foundation,
so I I got a lot going on, but Iappreciate that I and I do put
you on and I do put everybody onthe list and I do eventually
get to them.
But I'm glad you pushed thisand it was great talking to you
(46:21):
and it's always good, it'salways good to know that I have
a guy and now I now I have a guyright in Houston that if I need
something, oh, you're inHouston, I got a guy yeah in
South Florida.
You got a guy my friend awesomeyou got a guy.
(46:42):
Well, listen, joshua, thank you,stick around.
I'm just going to do my outroand we'll talk a little
afterwards.
Well, we built another bridgetoday.
This was a a great bridge.
They all are.
They all are and I appreciateyou listening, I appreciate you
following.
If you liked it, share it.
If you're on any podcastplatform, like and subscribe.
You know, basically, I say thisevery, every episode.
(47:05):
I appreciate your time, Iappreciate you listening to me
and you are the engine that runsthis machine.
If you want to get in touchwith the podcast, you can reach
me at vetsconnectionpodcast atgmailcom.
If you want to go to the websiteand see past episodes, which is
also a good resource page,because every interview becomes
a resource and it also has.
(47:28):
It's a unique resource page inthe sense that it has a podcast
episode, so you get to hear thepeople first before, instead of
just jumping to a website andreally not having any background
on it.
So go to vets connectpodcastcom.
All the episodes are there.
This one will be there andlisten to the end.
(47:48):
There's a.
There's a good public serviceannouncement.
It's 30 seconds.
It's good for veterans,families of veterans, friends of
veterans and civilians ingeneral.
It's about 988 and 211.
And there's a lot of resourcescovered in 30 seconds.
So give it a listen and Iappreciate that.
And happy new year to everybodyout there.
I look forward to a bigger,better year for the Vets
(48:10):
Connection podcast and the Oneman, one Mic Foundation.
That's my cheap plug, and so goto onemanonemicfoundationorg to
see what that's all about.
And again, as I always say, youwill hear me next week.
Welcome to the podcast.
I'm Scott McLean.
My guest today is Joshua Wathan.
Joshua is now.
He has a few things he does.
I kind of like his description.
He's an expert team builder.
He's a veteran, a Green Beret.
He's a leadership professional,serial entrepreneur.
(00:22):
I want to know what that is.
So we'll get to that.
Cybersecurity guy shootinginstructor and I like
entrepreneur.
I want to know what that is.
We'll get to that.
Cybersecurity guy shootinginstructor and I like this.
I like this because I happen tobe one of those guys.
He is an.
I got a guy for that guy whichis, I think, out of all his, his
, his titles here, that's themost important the.
I have a guy for that, becauseeverybody needs a guy who has a
(00:45):
guy.
Right, joshua, that's right.
How you doing, buddy?
I'm doing well today.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing good, all right.
So let's get right into it.
Man, where are you from?
Originally From Katy Texasright outside of Houston.
You went in the Army right.
What year did you go in theArmy?
Joshua Wathan (01:02):
2000 2004.
Scott McLean (01:05):
What made you go in?
What was the catalyst?
What's the story why youdecided to go in the Army?
Joshua Wathan (01:11):
You know, I didn't really know what I wanted
to do with my life, so I waskind of searching around.
I had tried going to UniversalTechnical Institute and learning
how to work on cars, which Istill enjoy doing, but I'm not
very good at it.
I didn't want to make it mylife's work once I got there and
figured that out.
So I was kind of just bouncingaround figuring out what I
wanted to do, and one of my highschool friends had joined the
(01:33):
army and came back on leave andhanded me this packet that said
you could try out for specialforces, right off the streets.
So you know, like anyegotistical 20 year old-old, I
was like oh, yeah.
I can do that Went and talked tothe recruiter and four months
later I was on a plane going.
What did I just do?
I probably should read the fullcontract, and that's how I got
(01:53):
started.
Scott McLean (01:54):
And where did you go?
To basic Fort Benning, georgia,fort Benning.
Okay, all right, so you gothrough basic and then take us
to your next step, go throughbasic and then take us to your
next step.
Joshua Wathan (02:05):
So for the, it's called the 18 x-ray program If
you're signing up for specialforces right off the bat and you
go to Georgia because that'swhere the infantry school is.
So you do your nine weeks ofbasic and then the drill
sergeant same drill sergeantscome in the next day and say
okay, congrats, you graduatedbasic, welcome to infantry
school.
(02:25):
And you just stay there foranother five weeks.
So you get your blue cord, youget infantry qualified and then
you go just down the street tothe airborne school there in
Georgia.
And after you pass that, thenyou go to Fort Bragg, you do a
special operations prep course,then you go to selection and
then you're out with the bigboys.
(02:46):
Then you deploy.
No, you've got to go throughthe qualification course.
So that's anywhere from ninemonths to about two years,
depending on the job andlanguage you get.
Then you go get assigned to thegroup.
After that and, depending onwhat their rotation is, you may
go to a school or be sleeping inthe hallways till you get
assigned a team or whatever itis, and then you'll get deployed
(03:08):
.
Scott McLean (03:08):
Let me ask you this While you're in and while
you're going through all thistraining, there's a war going on
, right?
What's the mindset of, say you,what was your mindset, knowing
that there's a war going on andyou're probably going over there
?
What was for a 20-year-old,right?
Joshua Wathan (03:27):
You look back now and you're like, oh man, like,
but as a 20-year-old, you know,I think honestly, when I was
going through all that trainingand everything, I wasn't so
worried about the war as much asI was worried about not making
it, because, like I remember, Iwould come home for Christmas
break, right, and my parentswould get me like a t-shirt or a
(03:49):
hat or something to hang on thewall that said special forces,
and I was like I hadn't evenearned my tab yet.
What if I don't make it?
And they're, you know, they'retelling all their friends that
I'm going to be a green beretand all this stuff.
So that was going through myhead a lot.
And then in the difficult partsof training it was just awkward
tomorrow, like, just not today,just make it through today
(04:11):
would they use that as amotivational tool?
the uh, the drill instructors,the instructors in general you
know I'm sure I was told thatsomewhere along the line because
I'm not smart enough to dosomething like that on my own,
but I don't remember it being acommon thing that they would say
.
I do remember getting toldquite a bit that just because it
says special forces, what itreally means is that you're not
(04:33):
special and you know that andthat's why you're on the team,
and that there are private firstclass guys over at the 82nd
that are on their thirddeployment right now and you
haven't done anything.
So shut your mouth and behumble, especially for the guys
like me that were coming off thestreet trying to go through.
That was what I rememberhearing a lot of was just be
quiet and do what you're toldand try and be of service to
(04:56):
those around you that's actuallya great philosophy to take into
life with you, as I'm sure youdid, because you still remember
it yes right.
Scott McLean (05:04):
So all right.
You, uh, you go through allyour training, get all your
certs, and now it's time to doover yeah I got.
Joshua Wathan (05:16):
I was, uh, when I graduated so funny story.
I um, everybody that graduatesthe q course is supposed to be
promoted to a sergeant.
There's no Green Beret, that'snot a NCO.
Well, they lost my paperwork.
So I'm the only special forcesqualified specialist that I know
of.
So anyway, I was like I went togo check into seventh group,
(05:40):
which is located there for brag,and they're like oh yeah, I got
any tab paperwork, yourgraduation paperwork.
I don't have your sergeantpaperwork.
And I was like already wearingmy sergeant rank because it was
like, well, just assuming it gotdone.
So I was walking around wearingsergeant rank without papers for
like a week and the sergeantmajor and the whole company was
(06:00):
deployed to South America at thetime.
So I was on the B team gettingtold like, hey, go get these
orders.
And I have no idea who to call.
I was trying to figure thisstuff out and Sergeant Major
calls and he's like hey,Specialist Wathen.
I was like, oh crap, he goes.
Are you in the team room rightnow?
I was like, yes, yes, sergeantMajor, he goes.
(06:25):
Well, why don't you put yourfeet up on the desk while I talk
to you?
Put me in the pushup positionwith my feet up you know three
feet high on a desk and was justproceeded to chew me out for 15
minutes on this, that and theother, and it doesn't matter
whether it's my fault, it's myresponsibility.
So I had to go put specialistrank on and go around the base
for a week straight wearingspecialist rank and of course
everybody's looking at me likethis guy just put a tab on and
he's lying Right, cause nobodywould looking at me like this
(06:47):
guy just put a tab on and he'slying right, because nobody
would.
Yeah, it was a very humblingexperience, to say the least.
I was sweating everywhere Iwent, thinking I was gonna die,
right, right, yeah, yeah soeventually I got put on a team
and then we went to afghanistanthey got.
Scott McLean (06:58):
Evidently they got the paperwork yeah because
you're green.
Joshua Wathan (07:01):
You were green, beret, yeah yeah, but yeah, that
was like it doesn't matter ifsomebody else fails, you better
go fix it correct.
Scott McLean (07:09):
So where was your first uh deployment?
Joshua Wathan (07:14):
uh, the firebase cobra in afghanistan firebase
cobra.
Scott McLean (07:18):
In what year was that?
Joshua Wathan (07:20):
2009, 2009 okay yeah, into 2010.
I think we left before the newyear.
Yeah, we were like there forfour months, then new year there
for five months, something likethat how many deployments did
you?
Do?
They went to afghanistan andthen, when we came back, I went
down to peru for three monthsokay, all right.
Scott McLean (07:41):
Anything uh in afghanistan that stands out, any
stories, any particularincidents yeah, I mean there's
definitely.
Joshua Wathan (07:48):
We lost uh, we lost my captain over there.
We lost a bunch of our fkcounterparts, but the one of the
most I don't know if it fundsthe right word memorable
definitely experience I had wasthe first time that I saw combat
.
So we've been there maybe aweek and a half.
I was part of the advanced team, which for your listeners means
that they send kind of half theteam there first to kind of go
(08:12):
get used to everything and therest of the team comes in behind
.
So if there's stuff you needfrom the main base, they can
grab it and show up with it.
But anyway, we went out withthe other team and I was the
youngest, youngest, lowestranking guy on the team and our
intel guy, who had had 15 yearsexperience or whatever, was like
hey you're, you're coming withme, get on a four-wheeler.
It's like oh okay, sure, sowe're.
(08:35):
The trucks were kind of up on aridge line pulling security, but
they had to stop all the timeto clear ieds and we took the
four-wheelers down into the ricepaddies.
So the way they irrigate thereis they just dig big ditches two
feet deep, two feet wide andthey pile the dirt on the side.
So the only way to get past theditches was to hit it, going 20
miles an hour and use the dirtas a ramp to get over.
(08:56):
So we go over five or sixditches and we end up pausing
because we're waiting on all thetrucks to catch up to us.
And we end up pausing becausewe're waiting on all the trucks
to catch up to us and then westart seeing little heads pop up
wearing black turbans.
My intel guy was like yeah,that's all Taliban, we should
leave.
We have absolutely no support.
We're like okay, so we get onour four wheelers, we hop one
(09:17):
ditch, we pause for a second,we're getting ready to get back,
get back on, get on the fourwheelers to go do another one.
And we're getting ready to getback, get back, on, get on the
four wheelers to go do anotherone and just start bounding back
to the team.
And you start seeing thecornfields, just kind of part,
because RPGs were starting tofly at us.
(09:38):
And so I turn and I'm like whatis that?
You know, being a new guy, Iwasn't really sure what was
going on.
I turn and look at my Intel guyand he's four feet off of his
atv because he had just realizedthat we were taking contact and
had jumped off of it.
So I had had my radio onthrough my headphones but I
didn't have my speakers on, so Ididn't hear any of the gunfire
that was coming right at us.
(09:58):
All I saw was the corn movingand like some smoke, and saw him
jump and he's like we'regetting shot at.
Take cover.
Scott McLean (10:05):
I get behind the four-wheeler, he all right, we
got to get out of here.
Joshua Wathan (10:09):
I'm going to lay down cover fire.
You get on the four wheeler, go, hop a ditch.
You lay down cover fire, I'llcome meet you and we'll just
found back, like okay.
So I get on the four wheeler,hop a ditch, good to go.
Go laying down cover fire.
Tell him go on, let's go catchup to me.
He's like okay, on the way.
And then, I don't know, 15seconds later I get a message
(10:32):
right here, the radio click on.
I hear his voice going I'mstuck in the ditch.
It's like okay, great, so he's.
He had dumped his four wheelerinto the ditch and we had
winches on the four wheeler.
So I drive over to him whilewe're getting shot and I'm
backing up and in my head I hearthat beep, beep sound.
You know cause it's going soslow.
And I'm like okay, how do Ipull you out?
(10:55):
He's like use the winch.
So I I had never used a winchbefore in my life, but I found
out real quick that you have topress a button and the thing
just.
But I found out real quick thatyou have to press a button and
the thing just.
So it felt like four years ofjust sitting there waiting for
this winch to come all the wayout, hook it up, go, bring it
all the way back in, get himunhooked.
(11:16):
And then we finally made it upto the top.
And the funny thing about thatwas, before we left he was
chewing me out, just like tryingto make sure that I could keep
up.
Don't get stuck in a ditch,don't get left behind, don't you
know?
And I'm new guy, right?
Yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir,yes, sir, yes, sir.
And the whole time.
And then he gets himself stuckand we get all the way to the
(11:36):
top and he's like good job, yeah, really, that's all you gotta
say.
He's like let's go, okay, butit was just.
The reality of combat was likeit was not what I expected, with
Rambo and throwing grenades andshooting and all that.
It was more just, there's justa lot of stupidness.
That happens in everyday life.
Scott McLean (11:56):
That happens just the same in combat and you just
say I would assume it'smagnified in combat.
It's just magnified, right?
Yeah?
Joshua Wathan (12:03):
I mean, but it was, it was funny we were taking
rounds, but the only thing Icould think about was how slow
the stupid winch was going.
Yeah, like it didn't.
Okay, like I'm gonna stay low,I don't want to get hit and it's
kind of weird, but it was just.
I couldn't focus on all theguys shooting at us because I
was worried about this stupidwinch and this guy that got
stuck in a ditch after hescreamed at me for not making
(12:24):
sure to do the same thing hejust did.
Scott McLean (12:26):
It's amazing what the brain will do to keep you in
the moment.
Right, yeah.
Yeah, and that's all like itjust took over that.
It's like we're going to focuson this, because you're probably
going to lose your shit if yousee what's coming Right.
Joshua Wathan (12:41):
Yeah.
Scott McLean (12:44):
So you left Afghanistanghanistan,
fortunately intact, at leastphysically, at least physically.
And then you said you went tosouth america yeah yeah that was
vacation, that, yeah, thatthat's.
That's a.
That's a big dichotomy rightthere.
Afghanistan to South America,like, yeah, anything down there
(13:08):
that stands out.
Just the vacation, like yousaid.
Joshua Wathan (13:12):
Yeah, south America was trying to keep guys
out of trouble.
We were down there to train thespecial forces police how to
deal with all thenarco-terrorists right.
So it was just a lot ofteaching them react, contact,
ambush, marksmanship, thingslike that um you said peru right
, yeah, down in lima so they'vegot some red, a lot of red zone
(13:33):
in their jungle areas where,like, the regular population
doesn't go.
But the cool thing there was weended up getting a joint service
achievement medal as a team forthe course that we put on, and
it was just a testament to howmuch you can learn how quickly
when you've got a good teamaround you.
Because they asked me to putthe course together and so I was
(13:56):
like all right, you, you guysteach demo, you guys teach radio
.
Here's your section.
We're just going to run them todeath and have them shoot a
bunch of rounds and all that.
But you know, in my head it wasI'm just trying to be creative,
I'm trying to be helpful.
And then to see the colonel'sreaction that was running the
embassy down there when he cameout was just like we've had.
I've had a dozen teams downhere.
I've never had anything likethis.
(14:17):
It was just I don't know it was.
It was cool from a confidenceperspective, but it was just.
I remember smiling and lookingaround at all of my teammates
and just being feeling verypeaceful.
Yeah, like you guys got my back.
You asked me to do this thing,I put it together and they're
(14:37):
the ones delivering on all of it, right, and it was just awesome
to be a part of something likethat.
Scott McLean (14:43):
Yeah, it's like a, it's like a paratrooper, you
know who packs your chute.
Joshua Wathan (14:48):
You know what I mean.
Scott McLean (14:49):
It's those people that make your jumps successful,
even if you, you know, maybethey pack their own chutes,
maybe they don't, but in the endyou know it's the people behind
you that make it work, thatmake it happen, right.
So how long did you stay in for?
Joshua Wathan (15:06):
I was in for six years.
Scott McLean (15:07):
Six years, all right.
So six years comes up.
It's time for Joshua to bug out, right?
So what was the transition like?
It's weird.
Joshua Wathan (15:20):
So I got out, immediately moved to Austin,
went to Austin Community Collegefor a couple of years with
designs to go to UT, and then Imet a girl worked for the VA, so
we came back to Houston becausethat's where she was in Waco
and driving was crazy.
There was no office in Austin,so I transferred to the
(15:41):
University of Houston insteadand ended up in the Wolf Center
for Entrepreneurship there andlearned how to start businesses.
But I would say, you know,first getting out, it was six
months of, I got money stackedup, I know how to party.
I've got a good routine Likethese.
Classes are super simple and itwas amazingly simple because my
(16:03):
high school experience waspretty horrible.
I hated school, I didn't wantanything to do with it.
I had a crappy GPA and then Iwas thinking college was going
to be really hard and I showedup and with the discipline that
I had from the military, I waslike this is a joke.
But what I really had to learnwas stop treating everybody
that's in my class like Itreated my teammates, because
(16:24):
they don't have, they haven'tbeen through the same stuff and
they're worried about themselves, not worried about the team,
even when it's a team projectexample of what, how you were
treating them well, just hey,this needs to get done.
You're gonna do it, right?
Okay, cool, I don't need tomanage you after that.
You're a big boy, right?
You know this.
(16:44):
This kid either doesn't want tobe here, it doesn't know what
he's doing, or he's doesn't havehabits, right?
He's a 20 year old, like I waswhen I got in and hasn't had all
of that.
Well, on this, this, like this,the military does a good job of
beating that selfishness rightout of you.
You know, like you just can'tact like that, you're not going
(17:08):
to survive.
So I put a lot of trust inpeople that hadn't earned it and
that cost me both, both on ajust an organizational level and
like a personal.
I was just mad at everybody,you know, and it wasn't because
of necessarily what they did, itwas because of the expectations
I put on them.
Scott McLean (17:22):
Yeah, unfair expectations right yeah, yeah,
absolutely.
Joshua Wathan (17:24):
Yeah.
How long did it take you tofigure out you were doing that
wrong?
Because of the expectations Iput on them?
Yeah, unfair expectations,right?
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Scott McLean (17:26):
Yeah, how long did it take you to figure out you
were doing that wrong once youwere already done?
Because usually you don'tsketch it when you're in the
middle of it.
Right yeah, you're caught up inthe moment, you're just doing
what you do, you're doing whatyou know, and then is this an
afterthought or I would saythere was phases of it.
Joshua Wathan (17:44):
You know, learning oh, I'm not going to do
that again, but not from astrategic level, more like a
tactical type of thing.
And then, once I got into theWolf Center, that was 60 to 80
hour weeks.
Only 35 kids 36 in our classwere let in per year.
It's the number one school inthe nation.
So, like your, go all the time.
And so I was able to actuallyput some of those same
(18:07):
expectations on those studentsin my class, because we were
expected to move at the samepace and be have the same level
of responsibility, and I reallylearned, learned a little bit
better how to blend that,because it's not the same but
it's very similar.
You need to be a big boy, youneed to be a professional, but
(18:29):
at the same time I had learnedat that point.
These people are younger than Iam, they don't have the same
experience, they're more nervousabout certain things because
they haven't done it before, andso a lot of coaching, guiding
and just carrying people whenneeded helped until I lost my
patience At a certain point.
I just no, I'm not.
(18:50):
I'm like, I'm not your mother.
You know what I mean.
I got other stuff to do and Iwas trying to run three
businesses and go to school anddo all kinds of stuff there.
So it took a long time.
And even after that I wasn'tcontracted in Iraq for a couple
of years and there was a coupleof times where I chewed the head
off of a teammate.
That was unnecessary, you know,because these guys were in it
(19:11):
for the paycheck and that's notthe same thing.
And it's been a process, man,to just learn that I need to be
me and let other people be themand figure out what seat they
need to be on the bus instead oftrying to force them into the
seat that I have planned for.
Scott McLean (19:25):
So you went over there.
You went over to Iraq civilianstyle and you took it as another
deployment where other peoplethat were there were taking it,
just because the money wasreally good, Is that?
Joshua Wathan (19:38):
what you're saying.
Kind of I think it falls intoexpectations again.
Like I had a guy who came inSEAL qualified dude, so it was
from Team Life, this, that, andthe other came in seal qualified
dude, so it was from team life,this, that and the other, and I
remember I was advising kind ofthe.
The whole group of all theteams that came in had kind of a
headshake meeting once a weekor so and I'd go over there and
(20:00):
so they were using us like theground guides because they'd
come in every three months or soand we had been there for a
year.
So you know, I didn't take intoconsideration that the guys
that had been there longer hadthe place wired and got to know
people.
And so the SEAL was dealing withone of the colonels, one of the
Iraqi colonels, and I was likehey, can you go get X, y and Z?
I need it for some other teams.
(20:21):
And he just went yeah, noproblem, I said, are you sure?
Yeah, I got it.
So I went to the meetingbriefed yeah, we can get that
for you Came back two days laterand was like, hey, did you get
that stuff?
And he's like the colonel toldme no and I lost it.
Like we were at the dinner tablewith the team and he had been
there maybe two or three weeksand I just lit him up right in
(20:42):
front of everybody, alienatedhim from everybody on the team,
and so I think that was a.
That was a fault in leadership.
Right, though he needed his asschewed, but he didn't need it
chewed in front of everybodyelse, right.
He also needed a better, inbrief, and he needed somebody to
walk through, and I should havegone over there with him and
confirmed that we could havegotten it before I told somebody
(21:05):
else that we could have done itright.
So there's things like that,that the nuances and the details
are what made a huge difference, not necessarily the overall
concept so you get done withthat.
Scott McLean (21:17):
You come back to the states.
Any demons start to pop up yeahI was.
Joshua Wathan (21:23):
So I came back, started a leadership consulting
company, did that until covidand then then, after COVID, I
stopped, and once I finallystopped and sat, I didn't move
for like three years.
I homesteaded, bred dogs, woulddo some woodworking and stuff
like that, but for the most partI sat on my back patio smoked
cigarettes and had a pity partybecause I didn't know what I was
supposed to do.
(21:44):
A big part of that was when Icame back.
I met my who's, my wife.
Now we got married and starteda family.
So I realized, okay, I'm notgoing to go back overseas, I
know how that ends.
Why start a family if I'm notgoing to be here Now?
I need to figure out what elseI want to do as far as the what,
and so it was a lack of purpose.
(22:04):
I didn't understand what I wassupposed to do and I'd worked
really hard for all thesedifferent qualifications and
none of them really fit for anywork that kept me home, even if
you do like Secret Service orFBI or something along those
lines, where we're stateside alot of the time.
So we're still not home, we'regone.
So yeah, I had to deal withthat.
(22:25):
I ended up having a wife calledthe PTSD foundation of America
after I was throwing a rage fitand went to a warrior group that
night and started working on myfaults.
Good for you, man, and you know, I think for me a lot of the
civilian friends and family thatI have tried to approach me
(22:45):
with a bunch of hugs going,it'll be okay.
And I just don't because I justdon't respond well to them, like
, okay, you're full of it, youdon't get it.
But when I started going tothose warrior groups, the
veterans there want, for firstthing, that a lot of the stories
that were there were way worsethan mine.
Like, come on, I'm living in anice house, I got a beautiful
(23:06):
family.
Like money isn't a problem, wegotta.
I still got.
I'm not a rich person by anymeans, but it's, I'm not
struggling to put food on thetable like what are you doing
with your life really?
But then they they would turnaround and just say that to me
like you're, how are you gonnasit here and call yourself a
green beret and not just go homeand go sit in your chair?
(23:26):
What are you doing with yourlife?
Get the fuck out of your chair,like that's.
When I was like oh, okay, I'mhome, like thank you, you know,
and that led to them giving me ajob.
So I was helping other guys out.
That was kind of like basictraining for life for me all
over again, just to get a littlebit centered and help other
people.
(23:47):
And then from there I ended upjust having a few friends call
me up that I had worked with inthe past or whatever, and go hey
, man, I'm starting thisbusiness, can you help?
And that's how I got where I amtoday with Triad.
Jason, the CEO of this company,was a former client of mine when
I was doing leadershipconsulting.
He had put on Facebook that hewas looking for a veteran to
(24:09):
help with sales.
And I said I know a lot ofveterans, I'll find a guy, send
me a job description.
And by the time all that wassaid and done, he said why don't
you just come help me build abusiness?
And so now we're partnered upand going to the moon, man, so
you were kind of a headhunter ina sense, right.
Finding people for jobs.
Yeah, I got a guy for thatright.
I was just like, hey, man, letme, I'll help you out.
(24:32):
You're a friend and you know.
I think the biggest thing thatI learned through that lack of
purpose, other than my faith,which is definitely number one
getting closer to back, closerto God, was what I do does not
motivate me for me at all, nordoes the money piece of it, but
who I'm working with and beingaccountable to somebody, to a
(24:53):
team that was depending on me,and money being the scoreboard
for that.
This is for, like thecompetitiveness that that gets
me up and gets me moving Right,and so, fortunately, I'm in a
place where I can choose who Iwant to spend my time with, more
than I have to worry about whatI'm, what I'm bringing home.
Scott McLean (25:14):
So were there any other demons drinking anything
like that, or did anything elsecreep in?
Joshua Wathan (25:20):
I mean I've, I've never, I've always been anytime
I would get smashed in themilitary.
It was because I was partyingwith friends, yeah yeah like,
and so no, I mean smokedcigarettes and dipped at the
same time like oh my god, yeahnicotine was a real thing real
(25:43):
quick.
Scott McLean (25:43):
I I've said this before I'm a recovering
alcoholic, 34 years.
This past, thanksgiving, andthey sent me to the three-week
inpatient at Travis Air ForceBase.
The first thing they said to uswas don't quit smoking.
Smoke all you want, smokeeverything that you can get your
hands on.
Just don't quit smoking whileyou quit drinking, which was
(26:06):
great advice.
Joshua Wathan (26:08):
That nicotine was our savior savior,
unfortunately, but I don't smokesince anyway yeah, I remember
we tell the guys of can't pokethe same thing right, like yeah,
if you're dealing with majorsubstance abuse.
Right now.
Don't worry about the nicotineand really worry about the
tobacco later because, like, Istill use the nicotine pouches
(26:29):
but there is just clean nicotine.
That's like a breath mint.
Scott McLean (26:33):
Yeah, I don't do the tobacco so we got introduced
by robin notton on linkedin.
She reached out to me about myyou know, she saw the one man,
one mic foundation where youknow the two pillars are
storytelling and podcasting,because the two go.
It's basically hand in glove.
And she said you need to talkto this friend of mine, joshua.
(26:57):
You need to reach out to him,reach out to Joshua.
So we finally connected and Ithink our conversation at first
was where is this common thread,like why she never really said
why I should reach out to you,right?
And we, we kind of stumbledinto that as part of the
conversation, like why she neverreally said why I should reach
out to you, right?
And we, we kind of stumbledinto that as part of the
conversation, like why did shehave me call you?
And you're like I don't, Idon't really know, but hey, I
(27:19):
love talking to you, right, wehad great conversation, but then
we found it.
We found it you mentioned thatyou wrote a little story about
your life, right, yourexperiences, and now to do that,
you really, really for somebodyto do that.
Number one, it takes reallygood insight, like you have to
(27:41):
have a lot of self-awareness tobe able to get honest with
yourself and write somethinglike this and you read it to me
over the phone about yourself.
Number two you need a lot ofhonesty with yourself.
And number three, you write thestory because you feel it needs
to be written.
(28:03):
A lot of people have the storyin their head and they'll tell
the story, but to really sit infront of it and put it down and
really kind of look into it,which was one of the things that
they I learned this when I wasgoing through that rehab I just
spoke of, and they said we wantyou to write down your drinking
history, right?
And so I started writing and Iwas like no lie, dude.
(28:28):
It was like 40 pages, 50 pages.
It was a lot, right.
And then you got to read it infront of people and that changed
everything, right.
So when you see your storywritten in front of you, that
really changed that andliterally it's like it changes
everything for you.
So you said you had this storyand I want you to, uh, if you
(28:50):
would tell the listeners or givethe listeners that story, is
that something you want to do?
Yeah, I'd be happy to do thatyeah, the microphone is yours,
my friend.
Joshua Wathan (29:00):
So I wrote this while I was still working at the
foundation about two years ago.
One of the guys I worked withtook me to man Camp.
It's basically a men's retreatfor a church and I just had
shoulder surgery and they weredoing skeet shooting and I love
to shoot and I couldn't do itand I rekindled sort of
rekindled my faith with God andin revelations, as well as a
(29:22):
couple other places.
It tells you you're supposed toshare your testimony and I
hadn't done that yet.
And then I saw in the itineraryat the man camp that they were
going to do testimonies thatevening.
So instead of shooting and justhanging out, I went and closed
my door to my room and spentfive hours and wrote this down.
So that's where this came from.
(29:45):
Just to give you a littlecontext, it's called who Am I?
My name is Joshua Watham, butthat's not who I am.
I grew up in Katy, texas, in amiddle-class family who loved
and cared for me From the day Iwas born until I turned 16, I
wanted for nothing andexperienced no suffering.
(30:06):
I was introduced to the churchby a friend, accepted Christ
into my heart and was baptized.
Life was meaningful and lifewas good.
Then the year 2000 smacked mein the face.
I lost six family members andmy best friend left a rose and a
note for his mother that guidedher to the swing set he had
(30:29):
hung himself from.
I became bitter as I watchedthe people who tormented my
friend and pushed him deeperinto his hole flow into the
church with tears in their eyesas we laid him to rest.
I can still remember theirvoices the next day at school as
they made jokes about his deathand displayed their hypocrisy
as a badge of honor, and Iblamed the church for accepting
(30:53):
it.
Then I turned my back on God.
Who am I?
I am angry.
After a few years of rebellingand searching for something
bigger than myself, I joined thearmy.
I signed up to become a memberof the Special Forces.
I completed 14 weeks of basictraining, three weeks at
(31:19):
airborne school and shattered myankle on my last qualifying
jump.
Ten screws, one plate, and ninemonths later I was running
eight-minute miles uphill with60 pounds in my butt.
Nothing was going to stop me.
It took me three years ofsuffering to earn my green beret
, and now no one can take thataway from me.
I was placed on a murderousteam with a mountain of a man as
(31:41):
our leader, and we went to war.
I came back glittered withshiny medals for dark days done
well.
Who am I?
I am tenacious.
After six years of service, Ileft the military in search of
another mountain to climb, and Iended up at Austin Community
College.
I quickly learned that beingaggressive and opinionated was
(32:06):
not the best way to survive inthat environment.
I transferred to the Universityof Houston and I set my sights
on their Tier 1 business programand the Wolf Center for
Entrepreneurship.
There I worked 80-hour weeksand I learned how to lead people
with different values anddifferent drives.
Working with students gave mysword the company of a shield.
(32:29):
Who am I?
I am learning.
Upon receiving my degree, Ipacked my bags and left for Iraq
as a civilian contractor.
I had grown tired of putting ona face, so I put my diploma in
a drawer and I joined some oldteammates overseas to help train
Iraqi soldiers how to fightISIS and old teammates overseas
(32:52):
to help train Iraqi soldiers howto fight ISIS.
We trained thousands ofsoldiers and each made hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
We did all this despite thefact that the Department of
State denied us access to theAmerican base and our only three
support personnel gotthemselves kidnapped and held
for ransom.
Who am I?
I am successful.
After one of my soldiers droppeda mortar tube on my wrist, I
(33:14):
came back to the States forsurgery.
This is where I met my wife.
She had me at her loan and hasbeen my guardian angel ever
since.
Her son is now our son and hekeeps my integrity in check on a
daily basis basis, becausewhere I lead, he follows.
My wife and I made anotherhuman together, and this little
(33:36):
daughter of mine is the light ofmy life.
Who am I?
I am loved.
The divorce rate for activespecial operations soldiers is
approximately 95 percent, and Ichose my family over my career.
So I had to find anotherprofession.
I leaned on my degree andfollowed my ego.
(33:56):
I failed business afterbusiness because I thought I
knew everything.
I got scammed and I got screwedbecause I trusted untrustworthy
people with the thought that Icould change them.
Then I stopped caring abouttrying because I was unfulfilled
and without a purpose biggerthan myself.
(34:18):
Who am I?
I am blind.
I was deeply embarrassed, mymind was torn and my ego was
shattered.
So I quit on myself, I quit onmy family.
I quit on the world.
I decided that my VA disabilitywas good enough and that I
didn't need to work anymore.
So I got comfortable in mypatio chair, a load of cigarette
(34:42):
, and I stayed there for threeyears.
I emotionally abandoned my kidsand I put the weight of the
household on my wife Like theliving dead.
I roamed the property and Ispoke to no one.
Eventually, my guardian angelhad enough and called a friend
(35:02):
over to try and talk to me,after realizing that he wasn't
going to leave, even though Ihad locked myself in my shop and
told him to go away.
I fell into a rage.
I charged into my house, downthe hall and into the kitchen,
where I slapped a light fixturethat's the size of a church bell
and shattered it into a millionpieces.
(35:24):
I pointed my bloody hand at myfriend and yelled leave now or
you'll never leave.
And as he hustled out the door,I turned my head towards my
wife.
I called her names.
I told her that I hated her andthat I was going to divorce her
.
Who am I?
I am lost.
My wife could have left me thatday and I would not have blamed
(35:48):
her, but she is no ordinarywoman.
She is my guardian angel.
Instead, she picked up thephone and called the PTSD
Foundation of America and put meon the phone with a veteran who
understood how I felt.
That night I was in a warriorgroup with my brothers working
on my faults.
(36:09):
During this journey, a veteranbrother came out to my house
several times when I wasreliving my dark days and simply
sat with me as a brother whohad been where I was.
Eventually, he and otherbrothers pulled me out of my
home.
Then they gave me a job andwith that job came purpose.
Then they showed me Lone StarCowboy Church and with that
(36:32):
church came life.
Now I find myself leaning intomy faith and saving lives.
I find that the tears and thefabric of my family are mending
and here at Lone Star CowboyChurch I see my bloody trail
being washed away and I thankGod.
Not anger, tenacity, learning,success, nor love cure my
(36:57):
blindness, because faith is theonly map that truly leads to the
lost.
Who am I?
I am here.
Who am I?
I am his.
Who am I?
I am his.
Who am I?
Scott McLean (37:13):
I am home Beautiful man Beautiful, thank
you for sharing that.
That definitely runs the gambit.
Definitely Well done man, welldone.
So it took you five hours towrite that.
You said, yeah, I gave it acheck.
Yeah, yeah, that's a long fivehours.
(37:35):
Yeah, yeah, very good man, Iappreciate again, I really
appreciate you telling thatstory.
When we were first talking I waslike, okay, this would be a,
you know it's going to be aninteresting interview.
And then you know, on the phone, our first contact.
But then when you told thatstory, I was like, okay, this
(37:56):
would be a, you know it's goingto be an interesting interview.
And then you know, on the phone, our first contact.
But then when you told thatstory, I was like, ah, this is a
home run.
Yeah, yeah, this is what it'sall about.
This is what I want veterans tohear, this is what I want other
nonprofits to hear, this iswhat I want everybody to hear.
Things like that.
You know, just that story storyalone, I'm sure, is going to
touch at least one other veteran, which is that's the win.
Right, that's the win.
You know, and again, thank youfor sharing that.
(38:19):
Now that's a tough act tofollow.
My next question, but tell us Idon't usually do this, but this
is well-deserved in this case.
Tell us about Triad.
Tell us about what you do andwhat you are.
It's a veteran-owned business,correct?
Joshua Wathan (38:39):
Yes, it is.
Scott McLean (38:40):
Yeah, so what does Triad do?
Joshua Wathan (38:44):
We do strategic cybersecurity consulting.
Really, what that means is wedo a lot of compliance.
So cybersecurity is the newforefront of warfare.
The anonymity and availabilitythat's there to be able to get
resources from behind a computerseveral thousand miles away
(39:05):
takes away the need to have toput troops on a ground to secure
territory.
Because of that, the governmentis pushing down a lot of
regulations to businesses sayingthey have to do X, y and Z to
be compliant or they can getfined or worse.
So our job is to come in andhelp them become compliant.
That's usually a six to18-month process, depending on
(39:29):
what level of compliance they'retrying to be.
Beyond that, once a companygets a certain size, they need
to go from just having basicpassword protection and
encryption to having somebodythat's sitting with the C-suite
and talking to the board onbehalf of the cybersecurity
environment within their company, talking to the board on behalf
of the cybersecurityenvironment within their company
(39:50):
.
And so we do that on afractional basis, on a part-time
basis, and that way they don'thave to hire a full-time chief
information security officer, ananalyst and a software stack
that comes along with it.
We're a good bridge between,say, $2 million in revenue and
(40:10):
$25 million in revenue to getthem where they need to be.
My partner is the expert incybersecurity.
He's a Navy veteran, ran a ITcompany for 16 years and sold it
and immediately started thisbusiness with Triad, this
(40:34):
business with Triad.
My job, my role inside thecompany as the chief operations
officer, is to get everybody,get all the people moving in the
same direction, both withinside the firm and outside.
So, being a newer company, Ispent a lot of time doing
business development, sales,marketing activities and inside
the firm I spend a lot of timetraining the other employees,
helping and providing resources,strategizing things like that
(40:58):
All right.
Scott McLean (40:59):
How can somebody that might be interested that's
listening get in touch withTriad?
Joshua Wathan (41:05):
With Triad.
Triadinfosecio is our website.
If you want to get in touchwith me, I'm always on linkedin.
Linkedin backslash joshuawaffen.
Uh, shoot me a message.
I'm happy to connect and hopeyou're going to be helpful.
Scott McLean (41:21):
W-a-t-h-e-n.
Joshua Wathan (41:23):
Yeah, that's it I said at the beginning of this
episode, I want what is a serialentrepreneur and it's real with
an s, not with a c yeah, I wasgonna say I didn't make lucky
charms, although that might havebeen interesting you wouldn't
be on the podcast.
Scott McLean (41:38):
You'd be too rich for me for that.
Joshua Wathan (41:39):
Yeah, that's true , that's true.
Selling sugar is a goodbusiness.
It's cereal just means.
I've done it a bunch of times.
Yeah, I think triad is theninth business that I've helped
build or helped grow to varyingdegrees of success.
As you heard in my testimony, Ifailed a bunch of different
businesses, but I think most ofthe businesses that I would
(42:01):
consider a failure meaning thatthey didn't get where we wanted
them to go or they didn't havean exit was just because I
either stopped following throughor I didn't have a.
I didn't take the planseriously, right Like I.
I just leaned on my ego andwent, oh, I got this.
No, there's a lot of otherpeople way smarter than me that
(42:21):
have more money than me, and ifI don't get really granular with
that plan and execute on timeeffectively, then what am I
doing?
Um, but I mean that said.
But that said, we've had somepretty cool businesses.
I helped develop intellectualproperty from the University of
Houston to filter out sulfurfrom oil and gas drilling
companies and had a subscriptionbox company for vape juice back
(42:46):
when vaping was just starting.
We'd do a flavor profile andyou'd say, hey, I like
strawberries and I likechocolate, and we'd send you a
bunch of different flavors ofvape things that like met that
flavor profile.
So I'm much more of a lifestyletype of business, but we got it
running and had, you know,decent revenue and all that yeah
all the way to leadershipconsulting had a remodel company
(43:07):
for a little while.
Covid killed that thing.
Like everybody, went to homedepot and we're doing it
ourselves, right, right, yeah,there's no way.
Scott McLean (43:17):
Yeah, I get it I, I guess I could be then consider
the serial podcaster, since Ihave two, but I had three, that
that didn't get off the groundyou know, they just didn't it.
So of course we're talkingtotally different sides of the
spectrum with what you're doingand what you know this is, but
it's the same mindset Don't quit.
(43:38):
If you love doing it, keepdoing it.
You know what I mean.
Just make those mistakes andlearn from them, and when you
start your next thing, it mightnot get off the ground.
You know, and I think it's anindividual choice and it's a
mindset you got to love whatyou're doing and you'll keep
(43:59):
doing it and then you willeventually succeed.
Joshua Wathan (44:03):
Yeah, I know a lot of rock eaters that have
made really successful companiesjust because they wouldn't take
no for an answer and they wouldnot stop.
Scott McLean (44:11):
yeah, persistence is key absolutely, and I tell
people in this, in this businessI'll call it because you can
make money in podcasting, butnot everybody's going to be joe
rogan, like you're not going tobe joe rogan there's only one
joe rogan or tim pool you knowwhat I mean or someone like that
.
But you can be successful in it.
(44:32):
You know you can make money init if you really push it and try
, and I I respect that mindsetbecause I live it.
You know what I mean.
So well, all right.
Joshua Wathan (44:44):
Is there anything ?
Scott McLean (44:45):
else, anything else you want to?
Uh, this was a great interview,Thank you.
Joshua Wathan (44:49):
I did say to any veterans that are listening
right, like if you're waitingfor somebody else to tell you to
do something, whether that'sget help, start a business,
follow your dreams for lack of abetter term, you're doing it
wrong.
Get up out of your chair and gomake your life what it's
(45:10):
supposed to be, because there'splenty of people around that'll
help you do that.
But you've got to want it first.
I think that was a very hardlesson I had to relearn, you
know, after going throughsomething where they pushed you
and you had to want to be thereand then just kind of giving up.
I had to relearn that man,there ain't nobody else going to
(45:30):
do this for me.
They'll help me.
A lot of people will help me ifI ask for help, but I got to be
the one to take the first stepforward.
Scott McLean (45:36):
Absolutely, man, absolutely.
And no looking back once you dothat.
No looking back, man, just keepmoving forward.
That's it.
Well, joshua, this has been oneof those, and I have these
every once in a while and I'mdoing another interview tomorrow
with a nonprofit in Chicago.
That it just like timing justdidn't work.
(45:57):
But we got this done and Iappreciate your diligence.
I appreciate you reaching outto me saying, hey, are we doing
this?
You know what I mean BecauseI'm also running a foundation,
so I I got a lot going on, but Iappreciate that I and I do put
you on and I do put everybody onthe list and I do eventually
get to them.
But I'm glad you pushed thisand it was great talking to you
(46:21):
and it's always good, it'salways good to know that I have
a guy and now I now I have a guyright in Houston that if I need
something, oh, you're inHouston, I got a guy yeah in
South Florida.
You got a guy my friend awesomeyou got a guy.
(46:42):
Well, listen, joshua, thank you,stick around.
I'm just going to do my outroand we'll talk a little
afterwards.
Well, we built another bridgetoday.
This was a a great bridge.
They all are.
They all are and I appreciateyou listening, I appreciate you
following.
If you liked it, share it.
If you're on any podcastplatform, like and subscribe.
You know, basically, I say thisevery, every episode.
(47:05):
I appreciate your time, Iappreciate you listening to me
and you are the engine that runsthis machine.
If you want to get in touchwith the podcast, you can reach
me at vetsconnectionpodcast atgmailcom.
If you want to go to the websiteand see past episodes, which is
also a good resource page,because every interview becomes
a resource and it also has.
(47:28):
It's a unique resource page inthe sense that it has a podcast
episode, so you get to hear thepeople first before, instead of
just jumping to a website andreally not having any background
on it.
So go to vets connectpodcastcom.
All the episodes are there.
This one will be there andlisten to the end.
(47:48):
There's a.
There's a good public serviceannouncement.
It's 30 seconds.
It's good for veterans,families of veterans, friends of
veterans and civilians ingeneral.
It's about 988 and 211.
And there's a lot of resourcescovered in 30 seconds.
So give it a listen and Iappreciate that.
And happy new year to everybodyout there.
I look forward to a bigger,better year for the Vets
(48:10):
Connection podcast and the Oneman, one Mic Foundation.
That's my cheap plug, and so goto onemanonemicfoundationorg to
see what that's all about.
And again, as I always say, youwill hear me next week.
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