October 23, 2025 • 13 mins
When life’s darkest moments threaten to break you, what if they’re actually preparing you for your greatest comeback? In this powerful episode, Ryan Reichert reveals the raw truth behind his journey from military hero to rock bottom—and the spiritual tools that gave him a second chance. Discover how faith, resilience, and real-world strategies can help you walk through the fire and come out stronger.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hey is Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Talk show People of Distinction.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
The talk gives you an in depth view of some
of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises dot com for more info.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Email me through.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com if you'd like to
get involved with what we have going, and as always,
please continue to like and follow our broadcasts. People of
Distinction is internationally syndicated solely due to the love and
support that you all continue to give. We're available across
all major distributors and as long as you keep following,
we're going to continue to put out the content. Now,
(00:47):
sit back and strap in because on the line with
us today we have the impressive Ryan T. Write Card
and we're going to be discussing his incredible book God
only knows when the devil comes for you a second
chance at life. It's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble, it's
a lot of other places, man, but do yourself a favor.
Head on over to his personal website, our Protectordevelopment dot com.
(01:11):
There gather more information on Ryan on his book. Hyperlink
set up to take it to the purchasing pages. I'm
telling you so one stop shop again. That's our protector
development dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
And listen Melee people, what if your lowest moments they
weren't a sign of failure, but actually a preparation for
a spiritual battle that you actually saw coming. Our guest today, Ryan,
He's written this book for anyone who feels the heat
churning up in their lives. And this isn't a story
(01:48):
about avoiding those flames. It is a field guide for
walking through them with a second chance and a real
world protector's toolkit. Ryan, first and foremost, welcome to the network,
and thank you for being a guest man.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
How you doing today, Hey, Benji, thank you so very
much for having me today. This is just such a
blessing and super excited to dive into a little bit
of my life and those tools just like you described
that got me through it and continue me down the
road here to have a very successful career in the
writing business, the speaking business, and just helping people in general.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, listen, Ryan, it is a pleasure to have you here.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Man.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
All praise goes right back to you. I've recognized instantly
how beneficial this book would be for our listening audience.
So it really is an honor to have you here
in a pleasure to jump into it. Let's start off
at the foundation. Man, tell us a little bit more
about your book and what to expect.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah. Absolutely, it's one where it jump right in talks
about I grew up in a small town in North Dakota,
three hundred and fifty people. I graduated with eleven kids
in my class. I suffered right from the beginning, and
I grew up Catholic, so a lot of rules. So
for me, I was getting in a lot of trouble.
I got hurt in high school football, which kind of
(03:07):
started my drinking career. And I joined the Army when
I was in college and basically went on a massive
up and down over twenty three years in the Army
as an airborne ranger, jumping out of airplanes and spending
about four years in the Middle East and along that way.
I had a family, I had a spouse, but when
I retired from the military, I ended up about a
(03:30):
year and a half after retirement, burning it all to
the ground. I had a alcohol problem, a prescription drug problem,
and I just wasn't there at present for my family,
and I was just running from all the fears that
I had in life and wasn't taking any accountability and
so on the twenty sixth November twenty twenty three, I
(03:50):
had my last drink and I've been sober ever since,
and a good Lord that's taken me on a journey.
The book really gets into the fire details of after
sobering up, my spirituality that I put on the shelf
for a number of years came back. I started going
to church regularly about a month into my sobriety. At
(04:12):
about that same time the divorce process of a twenty
five year relationship that I had with my poem Wow,
I was laid off from my Fortune five hundred job
so that I had done for almost three years after
my retirement in the military. And in that the Good
Lord said, just be patient, I have something for you,
(04:34):
and I started Our Protector LLC, which is now turned
into Our Protector Legendary Leadership Company. But in December of
twenty twenty four, I started writing God only knows from
the Devil country a second chance at life.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
First and foremost congratulations on the sobriety.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Man.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I know that every day is a journey. Every day
is a battle, right, but you have come so far
it is an amazing thing. So I'm going to start there. Secondly,
let's lead now into inspiration, like for you, you didn't
have to do this, like you could have verbally told
those around you.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, it's wild. When I really reflect on it, it
was a divine appointment. And I just know that there's
so many of us that suffer from these same anxieties,
these fears. I was Captain America. On outside, I retired
as lieutenant colonel, airborne Ranger, multiple Bronze Stars, Mariatures, Service Medals,
(05:27):
high accolades over twenty three years. But on the inside,
like I was just on fire. I was just mass
chaos in my mind where every single day I would
get up and be afraid of what people thought of me.
Did I look apart, did I talk apart? You know?
Was I providing the right life for my family and
(05:50):
my children? And it was just it is. That's the
easiest way I can put it, that Captain America persona
that everything looks amazing on the outside, checking all the boxes,
and I was just destroyed on the inside. And I
still suffer from certain fears and I just know I
have to pray over it, I have to ask for help.
(06:12):
And really that's what this book is. It's just the
simple tools that have been successful for me in my journey. Ryan.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I love the title. The phrase when the Devil comes
for you is something that Listen, we all spend our
lives running from the devil, right, Like we're dodging these potholes,
We're trying to avoid these landmines. But your title almost
suggests that this is an inevitable circumstance, like it's going
(06:46):
to happen sooner or later. In being prepared for it,
I think is so key to all of this, right,
and it frames this spiritual struggle in a way that
really follows up into my next question for you. What
does it mean to be prepared for that moment rather
than just trying to avoid it?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah? Absolutely, it's something today that I can see in
everything around me. Now I've made it out of the valley,
I have more tools in my toolbox. But it's preparing yourself.
I call it the war of purpose built to break,
and we're all going to have moments in life that
(07:31):
are going to break us. And just like you said, Benji,
like if we're not prepared for him. It's one Here's
an example, I guess for everybody listening out there, you
live next to a river, and nineteen out of twenty
five years that river floods. I'm pretty sure you got
like a crate of sand bags, right, and so on
(07:52):
and so forth? Right? Or are you just hoping that
twenty five percent of the time that it doesn't flood.
You're good right now and I'm gonna move by the
time the next happens or whatever. That looks like, I'm
going to prepare for battle because I don't want to
get blindsided. I know the devil is coming for me,
So like I'm going to go out and buy that
pal to sand bags because every year this time, like
(08:14):
seventy five percent of the time in floods, and I'm
going to be prepared this time around. He's not getting
in those flood waters, aren't going to come destroyed at
the house that I've built many memories with my family.
Having the preparation allows us not to be defeated, or
we can take a few losses, but it doesn't destroy us, right,
(08:35):
And I think that's the biggest piece about it is
knowing that God hopefully it'll give you a second chance.
It doesn't destroy, it doesn't completely take you away from things,
but it's our preparation that truly lessens the loss.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Ryan, you said something that I think is such a
pivotal component to all of this. You came across someone
where you had to shift your perspective, and I think
that is it's so poignant, right. Can you describe a
moment where in your journey there was something that while
you were going through it, it almost seemed like a
devastating failure in a pond shifting perspective, you were able
(09:14):
to see how great of a moment that was. Talk
to us a little bit more about that moment for you.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
So I'm going to establish like the framework of why,
just like you interpreted like it's so hard and it's
writ in chapter one and funny that you brought this
up and unscripted here, but how I looked at it's
just my entire life, like growing up in a small town,
being the Catholic kid in the Protestant community. My dad
(09:40):
was a business owner versus a farmer, and all these
things that I always had, like this negative I'll just
get into it. It's the three areas. It's perception, introspection,
and retrospection. Yeah. So for those out there that just
understanding these three areas, the perception is a result of proceeding, perceive, detain, awareness,
(10:01):
or understanding. Introspection is a reflective look inwards, an examination
of one's own thoughts and feelings, and retrospection is the
act or process or an instance of surveying the past.
So all of this comes from where we only see ourselves,
and we only see the good, the bad, or the
ugly that's happened to us. And I'm gonna talk about
(10:26):
the divorce because that was such a large portion the
tools that I learned from, like I said, my alcoholism
and my prescription drug addition, and where it doesn't erase
all those years of hurt, the pain, the suffering that
both of us inflicted, and realizing then that just because
(10:49):
you love them so much, like me getting sober, you
can't do it for anybody other than yourself.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I had to look at it everything in a positive perspective.
This didn't happen overnight, trust me, Benjie. This was not
something that was like flipping a light switch on and
if yes, electricity, we're good.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
We're all done.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
This was one where, you know, the mornings of I
learned before I went to bed, I had to be
grateful for the day I just had. It might have
been terrible, but I was still alive, I was still kicking.
I hadn't drink, I hadn't druggs, and so on and
so forth. And I'd go to bed and everything would
be okay, and then the next morning would come and
be like oh. But before I got out of bed,
(11:29):
I would tell myself, You're live. You have the opportunity
to go be a change in your life someone else's life.
And it was just this positive attitude of gratitude and corny, right,
but it is that simple of being grateful for what
you currently have. It happened to me for the good,
(11:50):
for the betterment. So, just like you said earlier, I
could create this book to help others, but it was
just my story of coming out of the valli and
knowing that we all have these type of valleys.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
People trust me when I say like, I have so
many other questions that I could ask. There is a
long discussion that we could be having. The message has
been received. You got it, and I'm gonna first and foremost.
Start off by saying, remember it's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble,
it's our protectordevelopment dot com. You gotta purchase your copies today.
(12:25):
One thing that I want to close out by saying
is following through and buffering what he was just going through.
Like we live in a world now where like we're
filled with all this next day delivery, right and this
instant downloads that we can get. We're taught through this
technology and through the advancement of things like transformation should
be just as fast. And it doesn't work like that, right.
(12:49):
Faith isn't an algorithm. It's a journey and you have
to go through it. Understand it doesn't happen overnight. That
I think is such a profound mesa. It starts with
this book, but I promise you it doesn't end there.
We didn't get an opportunity to discuss it, but I
just want to quickly point out and mention this isn't
(13:10):
the only book that Ryan has written. You're also going
to want to check out The Icarus Effect, the highs
and lows of our emotions. Head on over there, purchase
your copies today, stay involved, keep the conversation going because
it's going to move mountains for you and for those
around you. Ryan, this has been an absolute pleasure man,
such an honor.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Keep up the fantastic work and once again thank you
for being a guest.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
People of Distinction, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Benji amazing platform and just let
Hey is Benji col Son of Alcohol from CBS Radio
and host of the syndicated.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Talk show People of Distinction.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
The talk gives you an in depth view of some
of the most dynamic, intelligent, and successful people on the planet.
Run to our website Alcohol Enterprises dot com for more info.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Email me through.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Benji at Alcohol Enterprises dot com if you'd like to
get involved with what we have going, and as always,
please continue to like and follow our broadcasts. People of
Distinction is internationally syndicated solely due to the love and
support that you all continue to give. We're available across
all major distributors and as long as you keep following,
we're going to continue to put out the content. Now,
(00:47):
sit back and strap in because on the line with
us today we have the impressive Ryan T. Write Card
and we're going to be discussing his incredible book God
only knows when the devil comes for you a second
chance at life. It's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble, it's
a lot of other places, man, but do yourself a favor.
Head on over to his personal website, our Protectordevelopment dot com.
(01:11):
There gather more information on Ryan on his book. Hyperlink
set up to take it to the purchasing pages. I'm
telling you so one stop shop again. That's our protector
development dot com.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
And listen Melee people, what if your lowest moments they
weren't a sign of failure, but actually a preparation for
a spiritual battle that you actually saw coming. Our guest today, Ryan,
He's written this book for anyone who feels the heat
churning up in their lives. And this isn't a story
(01:48):
about avoiding those flames. It is a field guide for
walking through them with a second chance and a real
world protector's toolkit. Ryan, first and foremost, welcome to the network,
and thank you for being a guest man.
Speaker 3 (02:04):
How you doing today, Hey, Benji, thank you so very
much for having me today. This is just such a
blessing and super excited to dive into a little bit
of my life and those tools just like you described
that got me through it and continue me down the
road here to have a very successful career in the
writing business, the speaking business, and just helping people in general.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah, listen, Ryan, it is a pleasure to have you here.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
Man.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
All praise goes right back to you. I've recognized instantly
how beneficial this book would be for our listening audience.
So it really is an honor to have you here
in a pleasure to jump into it. Let's start off
at the foundation. Man, tell us a little bit more
about your book and what to expect.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yeah. Absolutely, it's one where it jump right in talks
about I grew up in a small town in North Dakota,
three hundred and fifty people. I graduated with eleven kids
in my class. I suffered right from the beginning, and
I grew up Catholic, so a lot of rules. So
for me, I was getting in a lot of trouble.
I got hurt in high school football, which kind of
(03:07):
started my drinking career. And I joined the Army when
I was in college and basically went on a massive
up and down over twenty three years in the Army
as an airborne ranger, jumping out of airplanes and spending
about four years in the Middle East and along that way.
I had a family, I had a spouse, but when
I retired from the military, I ended up about a
(03:30):
year and a half after retirement, burning it all to
the ground. I had a alcohol problem, a prescription drug problem,
and I just wasn't there at present for my family,
and I was just running from all the fears that
I had in life and wasn't taking any accountability and
so on the twenty sixth November twenty twenty three, I
(03:50):
had my last drink and I've been sober ever since,
and a good Lord that's taken me on a journey.
The book really gets into the fire details of after
sobering up, my spirituality that I put on the shelf
for a number of years came back. I started going
to church regularly about a month into my sobriety. At
(04:12):
about that same time the divorce process of a twenty
five year relationship that I had with my poem Wow,
I was laid off from my Fortune five hundred job
so that I had done for almost three years after
my retirement in the military. And in that the Good
Lord said, just be patient, I have something for you,
(04:34):
and I started Our Protector LLC, which is now turned
into Our Protector Legendary Leadership Company. But in December of
twenty twenty four, I started writing God only knows from
the Devil country a second chance at life.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
First and foremost congratulations on the sobriety.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Man.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
I know that every day is a journey. Every day
is a battle, right, but you have come so far
it is an amazing thing. So I'm going to start there. Secondly,
let's lead now into inspiration, like for you, you didn't
have to do this, like you could have verbally told
those around you.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Yeah, it's wild. When I really reflect on it, it
was a divine appointment. And I just know that there's
so many of us that suffer from these same anxieties,
these fears. I was Captain America. On outside, I retired
as lieutenant colonel, airborne Ranger, multiple Bronze Stars, Mariatures, Service Medals,
(05:27):
high accolades over twenty three years. But on the inside,
like I was just on fire. I was just mass
chaos in my mind where every single day I would
get up and be afraid of what people thought of me.
Did I look apart, did I talk apart? You know?
Was I providing the right life for my family and
(05:50):
my children? And it was just it is. That's the
easiest way I can put it, that Captain America persona
that everything looks amazing on the outside, checking all the boxes,
and I was just destroyed on the inside. And I
still suffer from certain fears and I just know I
have to pray over it, I have to ask for help.
(06:12):
And really that's what this book is. It's just the
simple tools that have been successful for me in my journey. Ryan.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I love the title. The phrase when the Devil comes
for you is something that Listen, we all spend our
lives running from the devil, right, Like we're dodging these potholes,
We're trying to avoid these landmines. But your title almost
suggests that this is an inevitable circumstance, like it's going
(06:46):
to happen sooner or later. In being prepared for it,
I think is so key to all of this, right,
and it frames this spiritual struggle in a way that
really follows up into my next question for you. What
does it mean to be prepared for that moment rather
than just trying to avoid it?
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah? Absolutely, it's something today that I can see in
everything around me. Now I've made it out of the valley,
I have more tools in my toolbox. But it's preparing yourself.
I call it the war of purpose built to break,
and we're all going to have moments in life that
(07:31):
are going to break us. And just like you said, Benji,
like if we're not prepared for him. It's one Here's
an example, I guess for everybody listening out there, you
live next to a river, and nineteen out of twenty
five years that river floods. I'm pretty sure you got
like a crate of sand bags, right, and so on
(07:52):
and so forth? Right? Or are you just hoping that
twenty five percent of the time that it doesn't flood.
You're good right now and I'm gonna move by the
time the next happens or whatever. That looks like, I'm
going to prepare for battle because I don't want to
get blindsided. I know the devil is coming for me,
So like I'm going to go out and buy that
pal to sand bags because every year this time, like
(08:14):
seventy five percent of the time in floods, and I'm
going to be prepared this time around. He's not getting
in those flood waters, aren't going to come destroyed at
the house that I've built many memories with my family.
Having the preparation allows us not to be defeated, or
we can take a few losses, but it doesn't destroy us, right,
(08:35):
And I think that's the biggest piece about it is
knowing that God hopefully it'll give you a second chance.
It doesn't destroy, it doesn't completely take you away from things,
but it's our preparation that truly lessens the loss.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Ryan, you said something that I think is such a
pivotal component to all of this. You came across someone
where you had to shift your perspective, and I think
that is it's so poignant, right. Can you describe a
moment where in your journey there was something that while
you were going through it, it almost seemed like a
devastating failure in a pond shifting perspective, you were able
(09:14):
to see how great of a moment that was. Talk
to us a little bit more about that moment for you.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
So I'm going to establish like the framework of why,
just like you interpreted like it's so hard and it's
writ in chapter one and funny that you brought this
up and unscripted here, but how I looked at it's
just my entire life, like growing up in a small town,
being the Catholic kid in the Protestant community. My dad
(09:40):
was a business owner versus a farmer, and all these
things that I always had, like this negative I'll just
get into it. It's the three areas. It's perception, introspection,
and retrospection. Yeah. So for those out there that just
understanding these three areas, the perception is a result of proceeding, perceive, detain, awareness,
(10:01):
or understanding. Introspection is a reflective look inwards, an examination
of one's own thoughts and feelings, and retrospection is the
act or process or an instance of surveying the past.
So all of this comes from where we only see ourselves,
and we only see the good, the bad, or the
ugly that's happened to us. And I'm gonna talk about
(10:26):
the divorce because that was such a large portion the
tools that I learned from, like I said, my alcoholism
and my prescription drug addition, and where it doesn't erase
all those years of hurt, the pain, the suffering that
both of us inflicted, and realizing then that just because
(10:49):
you love them so much, like me getting sober, you
can't do it for anybody other than yourself.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Exactly.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I had to look at it everything in a positive perspective.
This didn't happen overnight, trust me, Benjie. This was not
something that was like flipping a light switch on and
if yes, electricity, we're good.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
We're all done.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
This was one where, you know, the mornings of I
learned before I went to bed, I had to be
grateful for the day I just had. It might have
been terrible, but I was still alive, I was still kicking.
I hadn't drink, I hadn't druggs, and so on and
so forth. And I'd go to bed and everything would
be okay, and then the next morning would come and
be like oh. But before I got out of bed,
(11:29):
I would tell myself, You're live. You have the opportunity
to go be a change in your life someone else's life.
And it was just this positive attitude of gratitude and corny, right,
but it is that simple of being grateful for what
you currently have. It happened to me for the good,
(11:50):
for the betterment. So, just like you said earlier, I
could create this book to help others, but it was
just my story of coming out of the valli and
knowing that we all have these type of valleys.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
People trust me when I say like, I have so
many other questions that I could ask. There is a
long discussion that we could be having. The message has
been received. You got it, and I'm gonna first and foremost.
Start off by saying, remember it's Amazon, it's Barnes and Noble,
it's our protectordevelopment dot com. You gotta purchase your copies today.
(12:25):
One thing that I want to close out by saying
is following through and buffering what he was just going through.
Like we live in a world now where like we're
filled with all this next day delivery, right and this
instant downloads that we can get. We're taught through this
technology and through the advancement of things like transformation should
be just as fast. And it doesn't work like that, right.
(12:49):
Faith isn't an algorithm. It's a journey and you have
to go through it. Understand it doesn't happen overnight. That
I think is such a profound mesa. It starts with
this book, but I promise you it doesn't end there.
We didn't get an opportunity to discuss it, but I
just want to quickly point out and mention this isn't
(13:10):
the only book that Ryan has written. You're also going
to want to check out The Icarus Effect, the highs
and lows of our emotions. Head on over there, purchase
your copies today, stay involved, keep the conversation going because
it's going to move mountains for you and for those
around you. Ryan, this has been an absolute pleasure man,
such an honor.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
Keep up the fantastic work and once again thank you
for being a guest.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
People of Distinction, Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
Benji amazing platform and just let
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