Empowering Veterans: Coaching for Life After Service
This podcast episode serves as a poignant platform for veterans to share their narratives, emphasizing the significance of community and camaraderie among those who have served. We are privileged to welcome Brandon Jenkins, a distinguished United States Naval Officer with an extensive 24-year career, who shares his compelling journey from the Naval Academy to commanding a squadron. Jenkins articulates the profound impact of mentorship and coaching, both in his military career and in his subsequent transition to civilian life. Our discourse delves into the nuances of leadership, the importance of personal development, and the vital support systems available for veterans navigating their post-military experiences. Through this episode, we aspire to foster connection and empowerment within the veteran community, reinforcing the notion that no one fights their battles alone.
Takeaways:
- Combat Vet Vision serves as a vital platform for veterans to share their experiences and connect with one another.
- The episode features Brandon Jenkins, a retired Naval Officer with extensive experience in military leadership and coaching.
- The importance of mentorship and coaching within the military community is emphasized throughout the conversation.
- Brandon discusses his journey to the Naval Academy and how it shaped his values and leadership philosophy over his 24 years of service.
- The podcast underscores the significance of personal development and self-awareness for veterans transitioning to civilian life.
- Listeners are encouraged to engage with resources like Tier One Coaching to enhance their personal and professional growth.
LINKS
Chief - https://linktr.ee/aqseibert
Warrior Built Foundation - https://warriorbuilt.org/
PTSD Foundation of America - https://ptsdusa.org/
Veterans Transition Resource Center. - https://vtrc.us/
Recon Chief Inc. - https://reconchief.com/
Transcript
Hey, welcome to Combat Vet Vision.
Speaker A:This is a place, a platform for us as veterans, sponsor, supporters, volunteers.
Speaker A:Combat veterans get a chance to really kind of talk about things that are going on in our lives.
Speaker A:It's a great place to kind of find some, you know, something that you can relate to, something that you can kind of figure stuff out.
Speaker A:I'm Aaron Siebert, retired Navy chief, lucky to be alive after being hit with a mortar round.
Speaker A:This is my co.
Speaker A:Host, JB Brown, world renowned chef and hall of famer in the chef industry and Coast Guard vet.
Speaker A:You know, great, great.
Speaker A:You know, out of all those kudos, Coast Guard vet, but he, he does a lot of cool things and helps me with everything.
Speaker A:We are at the Veterans Transition Resource center studio conducting this, doing all this great things.
Speaker A:And uh, I got a great guest on today, Brandon Jenkins, United States Naval Officer.
Speaker A:He served at the Naval Academy, retired from that, I mean, graduated from that and went into the Navy.
Speaker A:24 Years of service, commanding officer of a squadron, a whole bunch of other cool stuff.
Speaker A:CH60 pilot.
Speaker A:Good to have you, sir.
Speaker A:How you doing,.
Speaker B:Aaron?
Speaker B:JB Good to be here.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Well, we're glad you're here.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Beautiful downtown Las Vegas.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Hey, you got a lot to talk about.
Speaker A:You know, I know you got some really cool thing in the coaching industry of stuff, and I want you to get into that, but, you know, we want to hear your story.
Speaker A:You know, what, why you served, what was it that inspired you and, and, and talk about that and, and it's just such a really cool thing, especially coming off of Memorial Day.
Speaker A:You know, we, we go out there, we serve, we, you know, we've, we've lost buddies in, in different situations and our freedoms are free because somebody's still, somebody's still watching the line, watching, watching the watch, guarding the gate, you know, and making sure everything's good to go.
Speaker A:So, you know, it's great to have you on, on deck, sir.
Speaker B:Yeah, thanks, man.
Speaker B:What inspired me, dude, it's a long story, so I won't, I won't make it that long for the audience, right?
Speaker B:But my mom was a Navy corpsman, and when I was about 10 years old, I was on a, we was a summer vacation and she talked to me about this thing called the Naval Academy.
Speaker B:And I had, up to that point, you know, I'd never even heard of that.
Speaker B:And being a 10 year old kid at the time, I was like, I, I, you know, I don't know that I'm really even interested in going into the military.
Speaker B:But what she did there was she planted a seed.
Speaker B:And then fast forward a few years, the kind of the Naval Academy.
Speaker B:The local Blue and gold officer came into the high school and talked about this thing called summer seminar.
Speaker B:And it's a.
Speaker B:It's a thing where you can go to the Naval Academy for a week during the summer before your junior year, and you get to be there for a week and you get to get just a little bit of a taste of what it might be like to go to the Naval Academy.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, that when I did that, my love of the team, and I don't know that I could have articulated.
Speaker B:Articulated it like this back then, but it really energized this possibility in me to continue being on amazing teams that are together with a common purpose, like all of the sports teams that I played on growing up.
Speaker B:And I really love the camaraderie of those teams.
Speaker B:And I looked at this as a way to continue doing that, to go.
Speaker B:To go to a school where I could continue to be on a team.
Speaker B:And we're all working towards a common purpose, common mission.
Speaker B:And so I would say that is the story of how I was inspired to enter the Navy.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker A:And Naval Academy, you know, this is, this is a school for the military, for, for the Navy.
Speaker A:And, you know, talk about that because it's a, it's a little bit different.
Speaker A:The disciplines that have to be, you know, it's.
Speaker A:You're not, you're not going there and you're just, you know, it's not like the frats that you see in, in colleges and normal, normal colleges, although it, it has some intense moments.
Speaker A:I mean, to, to watch the Navy army game every year is one of the most impressive, you know, games to watch.
Speaker A:December 12th, usually.
Speaker A:And it's one of the most awesome things to see.
Speaker A:So, you know, brings the academies together.
Speaker A:The uniforms just looks prestige.
Speaker A:The stadium's full of nothing but, you know, pride of the military, and it's just hugely awesome.
Speaker A:So, you know, talk about why some would want to go to the Naval Academy and why that, why that ended up being such a cool thing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Not your plans of it all?
Speaker B:Well, I mean, yeah, it's not your typical college experience.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:I, you know, I did 22 years active after the academy, but I like to say I did 26 years because you go to the Naval Academy and, you know, it's called summer, the summer before you.
Speaker B:You get started there.
Speaker B:And it's essentially our boot camp, and we're kind of treated like that, right.
Speaker B:We're stripped down of, we're stripped down of like, you know, you come from being a senior.
Speaker B:Most of us come from being seniors in high school where we had all, you know, we were at the top and now we get stripped down and we're kind of the bottom.
Speaker B:We get our head shaved and we are just.
Speaker B:That's our boot camp, right?
Speaker B:We go through boot camp and then, you know, it's pretty intense.
Speaker B:The first year is pretty intense with the restrictions.
Speaker B:I remember not being able to leave, leave the yard, they call it the yard there, but I couldn't leave the yard except for Saturdays for about 10 hours on a Saturday my whole freshman year, except for some holidays where they let you go home.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, it's a, it's pretty intense.
Speaker B:It's a different experience.
Speaker B:But from the very beginning, like I talked about why I wanted to go there, from the very beginning, you are in squads and you're working together on teams to accomplish things.
Speaker B:And even during the academic year, everybody has to do some kind of sport.
Speaker B:So whether it's varsity sport or if you're not on a varsity sport, you're doing intramurals, it's a requirement.
Speaker B:And so it's just this idea of team is we start there and it's ingrained in you the whole time you're there.
Speaker B:And you know, it's no wonder that after four years that how special it is to, to the team aspect of it.
Speaker B:And so that's exactly what I wanted when I went there.
Speaker B:And I certainly got a lot of that while I was there.
Speaker B:But yeah, I mean, it's, there's a lot of discipline involved, heavy course load, 16 to 20 credits.
Speaker B:I mean, 16 is the minute minimum credit requirement per year.
Speaker B:Like everybody there, you graduate in four years.
Speaker B:There's no, you know, red shirt, redshirt freshmen.
Speaker B:There's no five, six year seniors with very, very few exceptions.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, it's pretty rigorous.
Speaker B:What else, what else would you like to know specifically about it?
Speaker A:No, you know, that's, that's cool.
Speaker A:I mean, it's such an amazing thing because you don't, you know, as much as you see or you hear about the academy, you know, to hear it from your, your, your vision, from being there, from, from being, you know, going there and graduating and everything, that's just, just something I wanted to just, just pick your brain on a little bit.
Speaker A:That's just such a cool little like piece of the military's history.
Speaker A:I mean, it's just awesome.
Speaker A:So to be a Naval officer is like one of those really incredible things.
Speaker A:And the reason, I mean, I joined the Navy because I watched Top Gun.
Speaker A:But you know, my, my girlfriend's father graduated from the Naval academy.
Speaker A:David Albert McCray, F4 fan, F4 and vigilante pilot, Air boss on the Coral Sea.
Speaker A:You know, just, just a lot of different things.
Speaker A:I think he, he flew the, the, the, the opposite of the President's plane or he didn't fly, but he was the commanding officer of the, of that squadron that flew out of, I think it's kneecap out of Nebraska.
Speaker A:Some big thing, you know, it's, it's this, it's the battle plane.
Speaker A:When the President has to switch over from, you know, Air Force One to the battle plane, that's what, that's what he did.
Speaker A:So just some incredible things, you know.
Speaker A:So, I mean, I hear about these naval stories and it's just such a, such a cool thing.
Speaker A:So to get it from your eyes is just awesome.
Speaker A:And then you got out in the fleet and talk about how that went for you and, and all the cool stuff that you had to relearn after the Academy.
Speaker B:Oh, man, so many.
Speaker B:Dude, how do you, how do you collapse?
Speaker B:22 Years of active duty.
Speaker B:So got out, went to flight school in Florida.
Speaker B:Everybody starts off in Pensacola and then we kind of get scattered off from there depending on what track we go to.
Speaker B:Flight school for me took about two years, so anywhere from a year and a half to two and a half years, depending on your platform.
Speaker B:And then I went to Jacksonville, Florida and started flying the SH60 Bravo, which is primary mission.
Speaker B:There's anti submarine, anti surface.
Speaker B:So essentially, you know, for the listener, if you're unfamiliar, we're hunting subs.
Speaker B:And we are also kind of painting, painting the surface picture of surface combatants, surface ships out there on the water.
Speaker B:We, we're good at like painting a picture of that for the rest of kind of our teammates, right, to be able to see, see the overall picture there.
Speaker B:So we're really good at that.
Speaker B:We're really good at hunting subs.
Speaker B:And so, yeah, started that and that's, that was my primary job, right, for a long time.
Speaker B:So much so that I just kind of progressed through that pipeline and was fortunate enough to be able to command a squadron.
Speaker B:By that time I had transitioned to the new variant, the MH60 Romeo.
Speaker B:Same mission, just updated systems capabilities and then was fortunate enough to be able to command a squadron.
Speaker B:And then after that I came up to the Naval War College up in Newport, Rhode island, where at first I was a graduate student at the Naval War College, and then after I graduated there, I was able to get a position on staff there, and I was facilitating leader development classes for the last two years of my active duty time at the Naval War College.
Speaker B:And that is kind of where somewhere in there, and I can tell you exactly, and we may or may not get to this, I don't know, but somewhere in there, I fell in love with coaching.
Speaker B:And just the development, I mean, developing my teammates was for the longest time was really what kept me in the Navy.
Speaker B:Those opportunities to be with the team and especially the higher I went and was fortunate enough to be in those positions to develop my teammates, at least be a big part of that, was why I stayed in and so I could continue doing this at the War College for all of the officers coming through.
Speaker B:And it just, I've just developed a love of coaching there and decided that I, I wanted to take that with me outside the uniform.
Speaker A:Yeah, you, you, you hooked up with a coach yourself, right?
Speaker A:When you, when you got to a leadership position, you wanted to, you know, like, hey, I need to hire a coach that's going to help me kind of navigate.
Speaker A:I mean, and this is the cool thing about leadership, you know, you, you know, it's, it's, it's always changing.
Speaker A:It's always adapting to whatever the situation is.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:But it's great to have good people with you that will lead you along the way and give you some pointers and, and somebody you can bounce those questions off of and get those answers.
Speaker A:And I think, you know, that's such an important part.
Speaker A:And I definitely want to get into this, this coaching part, because after you left and this is where you're at now, and I want to get into that.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:One thing's for sure, you know, I remember coming up through the ranks of, of being a great chef and, and mentorship was so important.
Speaker C:And, you know, I, I wanted to be that mentor and eventually I got to the level where I could be, and there's nothing more fulfilling.
Speaker C:Let me tell.
Speaker C:I, I know that from personal experience.
Speaker C:Just if you mentor somebody and they're doing really great, it just makes you meaningful.
Speaker C:Having a meaningful life is always so rewarding, you know, and the feelings, you know, I just can't.
Speaker C:I get goosebumps even thinking it's great, you know?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Oh, I mean, yeah.
Speaker B:100.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And so you got out after 26 years.
Speaker C:And what was your, your rank then?
Speaker B:Commander.
Speaker C:You were a commander.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:And you decided you time was up.
Speaker C:But you didn't want to give away the.
Speaker C:Or give up the coaching or the mentorship other people.
Speaker C:So yeah, I'd like to hear about how you're achieving some of that.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Or how you're taking it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:100.
Speaker B:So I'll tackle.
Speaker B:I'll tackle both those.
Speaker B:Aaron mentioned something about, you know, me hiring my own coach at some point as well.
Speaker B:Maybe I'll start there.
Speaker B:It's very significant as to why I'm now coaching others.
Speaker B:I was getting ready to assume command.
Speaker B:So I was in naval aviation, at least most naval aviation squadrons.
Speaker B:The XO fleets up to be the co.
Speaker B:Assuming you did a good job as XO and you didn't get fired, essentially.
Speaker A:Yeah, Right, but.
Speaker B:Right, so.
Speaker B:So XO for listeners.
Speaker B:Xo, second in command of the squadron.
Speaker B:CO is the first in command.
Speaker B:And so I was the xo and I was about three months ish from the change of command where I would assume the duties of the CO commanding officer.
Speaker B:And I had always been pretty introspective.
Speaker B:Had always.
Speaker B:Maybe not always, but at least for the last five to ten years prior to that, had just, you know, was interested in personal development.
Speaker B:Start with why by Simon Sinek was a very influential book for me.
Speaker B:And so I was just really interested and introspective on what mattered to me, my values and this idea of we're all on the planet with a unique purpose.
Speaker B:And at the time, I didn't call it a blueprint.
Speaker B:Now I kind of use the term blueprint.
Speaker B:My coach introduced me to that.
Speaker B:Maybe we'll get to that in a little bit.
Speaker B:But I hired a coach to help me see that stuff more clearly.
Speaker B:Because all the leaders that I most respected, most admired throughout my career up until that point, they seem to just be very comfortable in their own skin.
Speaker B:They seem to know kind of who they were, what their strengths and weaknesses were and what their unique role was in our.
Speaker B:In our command, in our team, you know, whatever command that may be.
Speaker B:And I just, I think I related that to that situational awareness, that self awareness.
Speaker B:And so I really thought I was pretty good at that.
Speaker B:But I wanted some help taking it all from up, you know, jumbled mess up in my brain, kind of helping sweep away the gunk and helping me to see it in a way that would allow me to actually be intentional with using it.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:With using what I'm uniquely on the planet to use with using what.
Speaker B:Why they promoted me to be a commanding officer, with using that, like leaning into that instead of some other leaders in My past, who seem to always kind of be copy and pasting, not really knowing themselves as much, and just, you know, I used to call them book of the month leaders, where you didn't know if you were getting them or if they read the latest leadership book, and they were just trying to, you know, throw some of those things at the wall and see if they would stick.
Speaker B:And so that is what prompted me to hire my own coach, which at the time, for an O5 in the Navy Naval aviation.
Speaker B:I didn't know any of my peers who had done that, who had hired that.
Speaker B:And I only say that to say that it was kind of like.
Speaker B:I don't know, I felt like, am I, like, not.
Speaker B:Am I not ready for this?
Speaker B:Because I feel like I need to have a coach.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:Because I just hadn't seen anyone else at my level do that.
Speaker B:And so it's kind of a little bit scary.
Speaker B:And one of the reasons I hired the coach was because it's like, you know, him.
Speaker B:Did they get it right?
Speaker B:It was like she was, like, kind of shaking myself, like, did the Navy get this right?
Speaker B:I mean, I'm about to be a commanding officer, so I was like, heck, yeah, man.
Speaker B:I want some help.
Speaker B:And so I hired a coach.
Speaker B:I'll pause there just to see if that brought anything else up for you guys, if you want to take it a different direction or what.
Speaker A:No, you know, that's.
Speaker A:That's amazing.
Speaker A:You know, that's the way to, you know, kind of come to these ideas and articulate the thoughts and, you know, it's just.
Speaker A:It's amazing that you came to that.
Speaker A:And so in.
Speaker A:In doing that, obviously, you use these skills to help mentor all the people around you, fell underneath you and.
Speaker A:And across the board.
Speaker A:This helped you in your Navy career to continue on until you.
Speaker B:You.
Speaker A:You decided to retire.
Speaker A:But you still have these skills, and you want to use them now.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And how is that.
Speaker A:How is that working out?
Speaker A:And what is that doing for you?
Speaker A:And talk about it.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's tier one, tier one coaching, and it's a.
Speaker A:It's a.
Speaker A:It's a brand.
Speaker A:It's a.
Speaker A:You know, it's a process.
Speaker A:It's a.
Speaker A:It's a.
Speaker A:It's definitely.
Speaker A:It's you.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And you have a buddy involved in this as well.
Speaker A:Correct?
Speaker A:Feel free to talk whatever you want and throw it out there.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker C:All right.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:First off, the coaching changed my life, and it transformed me because I.
Speaker B:All of a sudden, not all of a sudden, I Mean through the process, which, by the way, I still work with my coach today.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So now at this point, we're talking almost six years of it, you know, but it changed the process, changed my life.
Speaker B:What it did is it just allowed me.
Speaker B:It was like confidence boosting.
Speaker B:It was like, hey, yeah, man, you're not great at everything.
Speaker B:You're great at some stuff.
Speaker B:Certainly you're competent.
Speaker B:You're an expert in your field, you know.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:And there's a whole bunch of crap you don't know yet.
Speaker B:And you're going to face a whole bunch of stuff that there's no manual written for.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And so what the process of working with a coach did for me is it let me know that, hey, I have a foothold here.
Speaker B:Like, I know me and I know what I bring to the fight, and I know that I can go out there and get those other things into the fight.
Speaker B:When I'm faced with situations where I don't really know the answer, which was a lot.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:It just.
Speaker B:It was.
Speaker B:I was very confident that I didn't have to know everything.
Speaker B:And that's all good because I know what I bring to the fight, and we can work together and we can adapt.
Speaker B:That's what that.
Speaker B:That process really accelerated my ability to do that.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:So one of the other things it did is it just gave me the confidence to finally be like, hey, I'm going to look at my future opportunities and I'm going to look for the alignment now in these future opportunities with that unique purpose, with my unique blueprint, versus when in the past I might have said, okay, well, I finished this tour and these are the three jobs that'll give me the best chance to promote to the next level.
Speaker B:And so I'm going to take those because that's what everybody says I should do.
Speaker B:Should, right?
Speaker B:No, it completely changed the way I look at those future opportunities.
Speaker B:And it gave me the Just the.
Speaker B:I just felt empowered.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:That's what.
Speaker B:It changed my life.
Speaker B:It changed my life.
Speaker B:And that is what led me to the Naval War College.
Speaker B:To get up here to be.
Speaker B:To have.
Speaker B:Ultimately, I wanted the opportunity to be either a professor, where I ended up the Naval War College, or to go to the Naval Leadership and Ethics center and kind of do a similar thing for all the prospective XOs and COs that are coming up through the Navy.
Speaker B:Like, I wanted the chance to help develop someone and maybe help them transform the way that I. Transform.
Speaker B:Transformed.
Speaker B:When I hired my coach, that's what led me up here.
Speaker B:That's where the little spark of the love of coaching came from.
Speaker B:And then as soon as I got to war college, I actually started practicing coaching myself as part of my studies there.
Speaker B:I was in a leader development concentration called the Stockdale leader development concentration.
Speaker B:And you practice peer coaching at first and you just get a taste of what real coaching is beyond.
Speaker B:Of course I had my own coach, but you know, I wasn't the one coaching at that point.
Speaker B:That was my coach coaching me.
Speaker B:And it just, I saw it as this, the number one tool or one of the most effective tools I had ever come across to help empower the person sitting across from me.
Speaker B:Because to me, coaching is all about partnering with the person across from me and helping them come to the realizations they need to for their unique situation, their unique blueprint, their unique context, their lives.
Speaker B:And helping them kind of sort through that and come to the best next steps for them, tailor made for them.
Speaker B:And to me that is ultimate empowerment.
Speaker B:And I made the decision that, man, I want to keep doing this in a more intentional way outside of service, outside of the uniform.
Speaker A:Right, right.
Speaker A:You could, you continue to serve in this, in this fashion and obviously bringing that, that, that, that with you without the uniform.
Speaker A:But now you're in the uniform of the minute.
Speaker A:You get to wear your, your hat the way that you want.
Speaker A:And I'm in the, I am too.
Speaker A:I'm always wearing Warrior Builder, the PTSD foundation and Veteran Transition Resource Center.
Speaker A:I mean it's great to wear these labels, but this is a uniform of your, your minute.
Speaker A:And now who are your customers now and how do you serve them and what's going on with, with, with that and how does somebody, you know, get involved with, with tier one coaching?
Speaker B:Yeah, my clients now are, they're shifting their arena.
Speaker B:I think back to when I first sought help, right.
Speaker B:I was, I was changing arenas.
Speaker B:I was making a shift from a department head or second in command to all of a sudden I was going to have the responsibility of, you know, a 300 plus Person 12 helicopter squadron on my shoulders.
Speaker B:And that's a different, it just takes something different in that environment than when I was say a young lieutenant and my main job was just strap that helicopter on and go fly it and fight it.
Speaker B:You know, I wasn't responsible for the entire command.
Speaker B:So it takes, it's different.
Speaker B:So that's a different arena.
Speaker B:Shifting from military to civilian, that's a huge shift in arenas that you're operating in.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So those are two examples of the kinds of people that typically that I Love to work with veterans who are shifting arenas, whether it's military to civilian or whether they're vets that are already kind of at.
Speaker B:They've already made that transition, but they're shifting arenas in another part of their life.
Speaker B:And I love working with them to just help empower them the way I was.
Speaker B:To just tap into your God given, your purpose, your blueprint, tap into that and lead and live only the way you can, the way that only you are meant to, because you're one of a kind.
Speaker C:That's what it comes down to.
Speaker C:I mean.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's so important.
Speaker C:I mean, I used to run casinos.
Speaker C:700, 800 Employees.
Speaker C:You know, you have so many different personalities that you juggle, you know, and still get the job done.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And, you know, the ones that.
Speaker C:That look inside to be better or.
Speaker C:Or do more, and it's important to them.
Speaker C:And those you kind of gyrate to or.
Speaker C:Or start to mentor more for, and then you watch them grow.
Speaker C:And then there comes a day when they gotta go do their own thing or go do what they're supposed to be doing.
Speaker C:And, you know, I still keep in touch, but, you know, thank God I can see.
Speaker C:I had a touch in that, you know, I had a part in them being who they are, and there's nothing more, you know, satisfying or rewarding.
Speaker C:Yeah, I got.
Speaker C:So.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Self development, power of communication.
Speaker C:I mean, it's.
Speaker C:There's so many things involved.
Speaker C:People have.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's like.
Speaker B:Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you, jb.
Speaker C:No, no, go ahead.
Speaker B:Well, I was just gonna say I have this saying that raise yourself, raise your team.
Speaker B:And it's actually the low.
Speaker B:The tier one logo is a T1, right.
Speaker B:And it's on a shield.
Speaker B:And the shield is the team.
Speaker B:The T1 is you.
Speaker B:And the idea behind it is raise yourself.
Speaker B:So, like, you were just talking about personal development.
Speaker B:Take an interest in your own lifelong learning and growth, because if you do that, you will naturally, not only will you rise up, you will naturally bring your team with you just by being around you.
Speaker B:If you have that kind of mindset just by being around you, you'll elevate those around you.
Speaker B:And the reason this is on the shield is because, hey, life happens.
Speaker B:And there's going to be times when you, as the individual, are going to need someone to lift you up.
Speaker B:And who better to do that than your team?
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker C:Gotcha.
Speaker C:You bet.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:You know?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:So I have a saying.
Speaker C:I tell a lot of people that I mentor.
Speaker C:I say confucius say, mind is like umbrella.
Speaker C:Only works when open.
Speaker C:So keep an open mind.
Speaker C:You know, I can teach.
Speaker C:I can teach, you know, how to become a good chef and how to be a good person, but I can't teach attitude, you know, you just can't teach that.
Speaker C:So, yeah, when you find them young and green, but great attitude and wanting to go the same direction you're going, it's.
Speaker C:It's great.
Speaker C:Doesn't happen every day, but it.
Speaker C:When it happens, it's great.
Speaker B:100.
Speaker B:I love it.
Speaker C:So you are on the East Coast?
Speaker C:What part of the East Coast?
Speaker B:Yep, I'm in Rhode Island.
Speaker C:Rhode Island.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Once we.
Speaker B:Once I retired, my wife and I decided, man, we love it up here so much, we want to stick around.
Speaker C:Lots of snow.
Speaker B:This.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B:This winter we got.
Speaker B:I don't.
Speaker B:Where are you at?
Speaker B:What part of the country are you guys in?
Speaker C:Las Vegas.
Speaker B:Las Vegas.
Speaker A:No snow here.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker B:No snow there.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:In the mountain, we got.
Speaker A:We got some good stuff once in a while.
Speaker A:Every once in a while, every six, seven years.
Speaker C:Minutes away, there's 20 or 30ft and.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:And ski resorts.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker C:We had 45 minutes.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:We had, like, 43 inches this winter, which I've been up here four winters now, and this winter was the first time we had anything more than a few inches.
Speaker B:And we had about a foot and a half in January, and then at the end of February, we had 43.3inches.
Speaker B:Where I'm at in.
Speaker B:In Tiverton, Rhode Island, Almost four feet.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker C:I can't do that.
Speaker B:Insane.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker C:Yeah, I'm insane.
Speaker C:I have copd.
Speaker C:So I can't do cold.
Speaker C:Cold is okay.
Speaker C:Absolutely a killer for me.
Speaker C:So I'm a desert rat.
Speaker C:I like the desert, you know?
Speaker B:All right.
Speaker C:You know, when it's 117 out and I'm grilling over a hot grill, I'm happy, you know, People say you're nuts.
Speaker C:I go, no, yeah, it's just.
Speaker C:I can't do cold.
Speaker C:Yeah, I. I used to love it.
Speaker C:I used to ski all the time, but, you know, it just doesn't work.
Speaker C:So you're in the summer then, huh?
Speaker B:Yeah, just visit me in the summertime then.
Speaker C:Or you can always come to Vegas.
Speaker C:Everybody comes to Vegas.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker B:I come to Vegas anytime.
Speaker C:Yeah, There you go.
Speaker B:Yeah, I love it.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker A:So you got.
Speaker A:You're helping guys transition out of the military as well.
Speaker A:You're helping the transition.
Speaker A:You're helping the civilian population.
Speaker A:You're helping guys, and you're able to help no matter where you're at in the country.
Speaker A:Is that.
Speaker A:Is that correct?
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Virtual, just like this.
Speaker B:Not on stream yard, but zoom.
Speaker A:We'll jump on a zoom call, all kinds of other things.
Speaker C:Right, Right.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Hey, and to let you guys know, you know, Brandon's one of the few guys that have came out of.
Speaker A:Out of.
Speaker A:Out of just the.
Speaker A:The side of just.
Speaker A:Hey.
Speaker A:Popped in, just said, hey, Aaron, I'd like to get to know you.
Speaker A:What's going on?
Speaker A:And we just met a couple weeks ago.
Speaker A:And so this is kind of a cool thing because most of the people I know about, 90 of the contacts that come in here have been on my podcast.
Speaker A:Your episode 293.
Speaker A:You know, I know, I know.
Speaker A:90, 95.
Speaker A:And you're just one of those guys that just kind of hit me up.
Speaker A:And it's great because, for one, it's cool to hear your story, and it's.
Speaker A:It's cool to know what your pathway is and what you're doing to help and support our veteran community or the civilian community, whatever it is, and you're inspired to continue doing what.
Speaker A:What you're doing.
Speaker A:So it's.
Speaker A:It's awesome.
Speaker A:So, you know, feel free to talk about that.
Speaker A:We got about five more minutes.
Speaker A:I want you to, you know, talk about how people might get a hold of you, whatever else you want to talk about in.
Speaker A:In there, you know, feel free to throw the brand out there as much as you want, or any other brands or any other, you know, how, How.
Speaker A:How guys could get a hold of you, obviously through me.
Speaker A:LinkedIn.
Speaker A:He's in LinkedIn.
Speaker A:You can look him up and talk real quick.
Speaker A:Jinx is your call sign when you were.
Speaker A:When you were flying as a pilot.
Speaker A:Correct.
Speaker A:Just so people can know that.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's kind of cool.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's aviation call signs, man, they die hard.
Speaker B:So I, I still, I. I like.
Speaker B:It's one of those things.
Speaker B:It's like I'm not tied to that identity, but it's a cool reminder of, like, it is a huge part of my life.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And that's.
Speaker A:You.
Speaker C:Come on.
Speaker B:It's something.
Speaker B:So it's, I think, as.
Speaker B:As a transitioning.
Speaker B:So as someone who has just transitioned actually out of the military within the last year.
Speaker B:And so.
Speaker B:And I am somebody who has done a ton of work on the deeper level.
Speaker B:Values, passion, skills, purpose, all the stuff that has.
Speaker B:Doesn't matter what my rank was, doesn't matter that I flew helicopters.
Speaker B:None of that is tied to, like, me, the human and at the same time, all those experiences play a huge part in developing us.
Speaker B:And so, you know, it's one of those things that.
Speaker B:Am I going to tie everything I do now to, oh, I'm never going to be a naval aviator again.
Speaker B:I'm never going to fly the helicopters again.
Speaker B:I'm never going to.
Speaker B:No, I'm not going to do that.
Speaker B:And at the same time, take those little things like Jinx, like your call sign, take that with you, you know, and it's something you can take with you.
Speaker B:And it's a good reminder of all that you've experienced, man.
Speaker B:Our experiences, that's.
Speaker B:That's our lives.
Speaker B:It's like our experiences.
Speaker B:It shapes how we see the world.
Speaker B:And so there's nothing wrong with, you know, taking a little bit of that, a little bit of that with you, even when, you know, hey, it doesn't define me.
Speaker B:Naval aviator doesn't define me.
Speaker B:Infantryman doesn't define me.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:I am a unique person with a unique blueprint and a unique purpose.
Speaker B:However, man, some good memories, some really good memories come from.
Speaker B:From naval aviation.
Speaker B:So, yeah, so my call sign.
Speaker B:But I will say this, a lot of naval aviators get call signs because they do something really stupid and they're in their.
Speaker B:In their squadron.
Speaker B:Mates give them a call sign because of that.
Speaker B:Mine just comes because, you know, people were too lazy to say my whole name, so they just shortened my last name from Jenkins to Jenks.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And that's good because it.
Speaker A:It fits.
Speaker A:It fits your name.
Speaker A:You know, it's part of your name.
Speaker A:So it's like, hey, I. I have to keep part of it anyway, because it's part of my name.
Speaker A:I just gotta finish it out, right?
Speaker A:So it's kind of cool.
Speaker A:But it was.
Speaker A:It was cool, you know, when.
Speaker A:When I do show notes on guys, you know, you know, I was able to pull a lot off the Internet for you, so I could able, you know, read up on you a lot.
Speaker A:And that was.
Speaker A:That was.
Speaker A:That was good.
Speaker A:And, you know, you're doing some amazing work, and I think it's going to be incredible because a lot of our.
Speaker A:A lot of the vets that I associate with, they're always, you know, where.
Speaker A:Where can I learn how to do something?
Speaker A:What, you know, who can I talk to about this?
Speaker A:And I'm like, hey, this podcast becomes a library of support.
Speaker A:And, you know, it's.
Speaker A:It's like, hey, check out my podcast.
Speaker A:See if there's anything that relates to you.
Speaker A:If you need me to send you a contact to Any of those, let me know and we'll do it.
Speaker A:And you know, my, my mentor and my coach is Brian Colburn, who's running this sitradio.com.
Speaker A:So you talk about coaching.
Speaker A:This guy's always coaching me.
Speaker A:I wouldn't be a podcaster.
Speaker A:He's like, hey, you need to be a podcaster.
Speaker A:I'm like, what, what are you talking about?
Speaker A:He's like, yeah, I'm gonna do a podcast studio.
Speaker A:And you're gonna be a podcaster because you have many stories and you need to be able to tell them.
Speaker A:And I'm like, all right, so I'm not a podcaster, but I play one in real life sometimes because I have a coach that helps me understand that.
Speaker A:And then, and then I threw this guy under the bus with me too.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's really great.
Speaker C:Yeah, it's like, you know, you, you quit swimming, you drowned, and if you stop growing, you stop growing.
Speaker C:I'm 74, so.
Speaker C:Jen.
Speaker C:74.
Speaker C:And I still, I do the podcast with him.
Speaker C:I work with veterans, I work with chefs, I work with St. Jude's Ranch.
Speaker C:I'm all the time going, I. Yeah.
Speaker C:And I get to mention that, you know, I mean, yeah, that's what I do.
Speaker C:So it's great.
Speaker C:I, I understand why you do it.
Speaker A:Hey, but it's, it's awesome to get to know you, Brandon, and thanks for coming on the show and feel free.
Speaker A:Yeah, you know, throw it out there.
Speaker A:How can someone get a hold of you and where, where's your link to your, your, your coaching?
Speaker B:Yep.
Speaker B:So tier one coaching dot com.
Speaker B:You can go there, you can learn a little bit about the blueprint process.
Speaker B:You've heard me say the word blueprint a couple times throughout, but you can learn a little bit about what, what that even might be right there on the website, tier1coaching.com.
Speaker B:I am fairly active on LinkedIn, so that is a really good way to get a hold of me is to find me on LinkedIn and DM me.
Speaker B:And so it's just LinkedIn.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And it's Brandon L. Jenkins.
Speaker B:So if you find me on there, I'm very active and I will.
Speaker B:It's me responding to you.
Speaker B:It's not AI responding to you.
Speaker B:So, yeah, there it is.
Speaker B:So, yeah, those are probably the two best ways to one, get a hold of me and two, learn a little bit about a process that I bring into the tailor made coaching experience.
Speaker B:Blueprint process is a part of that, but everything is unique and tailored to the individual because I want to empower you.
Speaker B:Based on you, not based on what I think you should be doing.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:So it's very tailor made and to the individual.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:That's something that's really important to learn someone's pathway and look at it and be like, I want to see you, I want to know about your pathway and I just want to help you along that path.
Speaker A:Because it's not my path, it's not yours, it's theirs.
Speaker A:And that's really an important thing.
Speaker A:And that's, that's empowerment, man.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's empowerment.
Speaker A:Yeah, Brandon, that's what made me, you know, want to put you on the podcast because you're, you're that kind of guy and I appreciate your, your, your service.
Speaker A:I appreciate you just coming on the podcast.
Speaker A:I'm thankful that you're part of my, my, my, my Rolodex now of support that I might be able to throw your way sometime.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:You know what, what we might need someday.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah, exactly.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:But thanks, thanks for.
Speaker B:I know you gotta go, man.
Speaker B:But I just.
Speaker B:This is one thing that stood out to me.
Speaker B:A whole bunch of stuff stood out to me, Aaron.
Speaker B:But one thing in particular was, and I think it's good for your listeners to know that once we made a connection and you realize I wasn't AI now I was a real vet, like, just, you know, kind of wanting to connect, man.
Speaker B:When I reached out to you, like, I think I texted you and then we were on the phone in like 20 minutes or something like that.
Speaker B:I mean, it was correct.
Speaker B:That's the kind of guy you are.
Speaker B:Just.
Speaker B:And you told me you're like, I, I keep my schedule open for the, the vets that I need to serve and you back.
Speaker B:That wasn't just something you say.
Speaker B:Like, I mean, within 20 minutes I was on the phone with you and dude, I think that's amazing and I'm, I'm grateful to you for that and I think everybody should know.
Speaker B:That's why I had to say that.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker A:Thanks, Brandon.
Speaker C:I appreciate it coming from you.
Speaker C:That's excellent.
Speaker A:That's awesome.
Speaker A:That's awesome.
Speaker A:Hey, you're welcome to pop on here any, anytime if there's an event coming up or if you want to just rehash something.
Speaker A:There's 10 minute segments that I put on my show for that.
Speaker A:Matter of fact, I'm going to go into one with William Estrella, a good buddy of mine, my biggest sponsor that really personally works with me on so many cool things.
Speaker A:So you're welcome to come on here anytime for that.
Speaker A:Just let me know if there's something going on that you want to pop up.
Speaker A:Just let me.
Speaker A:Let me do it for you.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker C:Our viewership is growing every month, so it's a good thing.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:I'm super grateful to be in your world, gentlemen.
Speaker D:Thank you, sir.
Speaker A:Until next time, strength and honor.
Speaker C:Yes.
Speaker B:Alrighty.
Speaker A:Hey, I'm gonna bring William Estrella on.
Speaker A:William and I.
Speaker A:Like I said, William's one of my biggest sponsor supporters.
Speaker A:He.
Speaker A:He helps me with so many things and gets a whole bunch of things going.
Speaker A:William, how you doing?
Speaker A:He's been on the show.
Speaker A:If you could, you can look back and see him.
Speaker A:He's Upland Group.
Speaker A:He's a.
Speaker A:He's a.
Speaker A:He's in charge of all kinds of security elements for.
Speaker A:For the Gray Star apartment complexes and beyond that, and so many cool things that he does.
Speaker A:And he promotes the ability for my veterans, if they need a job, to all kinds of other things.
Speaker A:He really helps me along the way to even include some really cool ideas.
Speaker A:He's always putting some cool promotions out there, and he's got me in golf tournaments and, you know, just raising money for the.
Speaker A:For the foundations that I'm part of, which is the PTSD foundation of America Awards Rebuilt Foundation, Veterans Transition Resource center, and Recon Chief incorporated in my podcast Combat Bed Vision.
Speaker A:Will, how you doing, brother?
Speaker D:Doing amazing.
Speaker D:I think I need you to rewrite my resume for me.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Hey.
Speaker C:Hey.
Speaker A:You're all over the place, man.
Speaker A:I see more pictures of you doing some incredible things than any anybody else that I run into.
Speaker A:You're always smiling.
Speaker A:You got.
Speaker A:You got all these people around you.
Speaker A:You're always.
Speaker A:You're always making people happy.
Speaker A:It's good.
Speaker D:I. I try.
Speaker D:I try to lighten the mood.
Speaker D:We live in a interesting world today, so anything I can do to help.
Speaker D:So I, I thank you for listening to all my crazy ideas along the.
Speaker C:The way.
Speaker D:So.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And this year you became an official sponsor for the PTSD foundation of America.
Speaker A:Instead of just going through Graystar in.
Speaker C:In the.
Speaker A:In that sponsorship, you.
Speaker A:You became your own own sponsor and you got your own QR code.
Speaker A:And, and the cool idea that you came up with with the QR code and this.
Speaker A:This QR code is basically so people can donate to the foundation directly, but it.
Speaker A:It goes through his organization.
Speaker A:It goes through Upland Group, your.
Speaker A:Your.
Speaker A:Your.
Speaker A:Your security company so that you get to be like, hey, we're.
Speaker A:We're an official sponsor.
Speaker A:We're doing this.
Speaker A:And this is how it works.
Speaker A:And the T shirt idea was so cool.
Speaker A:I set it up to.
Speaker D:I. I have an example, actually.
Speaker D:So I partnered as I talk.
Speaker D:Again, I thank you because I feel like when I share some ideas with my wife, she's like, how many boxes are you bringing home?
Speaker D:So I.
Speaker D:Again, if you don't ask, you'll never know.
Speaker D:For the last crazy idea I had, it was kind of like the sweatshirts that you see that have that just really strong message on the back about, hey, you know, you don't know their story.
Speaker D:I kind of want to have that same thing, but with PTSD version of a message on the back of a shirt.
Speaker D:So I reached out to my friends at Built, which is a amazing clothing brand in Irvine.
Speaker D:They're in every mall now, it seems like.
Speaker D:And I told them what my idea was, what it was for.
Speaker D:They donated, let's just say maybe a little over 14 or 15 thousand dollars worth of shirts.
Speaker D:To me, I'm a nobody.
Speaker D:They just listened in.
Speaker D:I love that they support.
Speaker D:My thoughts are veterans.
Speaker D:And then I went to a local printing shop in Oceanside, and this was the outcome of the shirt.
Speaker D:So it says, some battles are invisible, but no one fights alone, which is really cool.
Speaker D:It's on your back.
Speaker D:You forget you're wearing it half the time just because it's a really nice quality, expensive shirt.
Speaker D:So people are wearing this in the gym, they're wearing it to the office, whatever it might be.
Speaker D:And then, of course, on the bottom, I have my logo.
Speaker D:Your logo.
Speaker D:And in the middle, it is the QR code you were talking about.
Speaker D:We never touch it with us, but it does tag my name that, you know, the money did come from a specific source.
Speaker D:So thanks to you and that your support and direction, you know, PTSD is allowing me to kind of focus where those funds go to after they go to the PTSD foundation of America, so.
Speaker D:Oh, awesome.
Speaker D:I was gonna say.
Speaker D:So it's been really cool.
Speaker D:We have people in Texas.
Speaker D:We have.
Speaker D:I have a veteran that is in Texas.
Speaker D:He took a picture with the shirt on his farm.
Speaker D:So you have the cows in the background.
Speaker D:He was in the Navy, so it's just a really cool scene in different atmospheres areas.
Speaker D:All that good stuff people just wearing in their own own right.
Speaker D:You know, they might have family that were veterans or they're just supporting the cause, but if you looked on my LinkedIn page, it's literally all over every other story is someone with that shirt, whether they're wearing it or holding it up.
Speaker D:And I Guess that was kind of my idea is using my village and everyone else's village is how far can we get this message.
Speaker D:That's already spoken.
Speaker D:But as you mentioned, I don't just help during the one golf event mean you partner up throughout the year, which I love.
Speaker D:Thank you for your friendship and.
Speaker D:And just being a call both ways.
Speaker D:But, yeah, my whole thing was just to remind veterans and anyone dealing with ptsd, right, that, hey, we're.
Speaker D:We're here.
Speaker D:You're not alone.
Speaker D:I had lost three.
Speaker D:And I know you guys being in the service, I was never in.
Speaker D:You guys have potential to lose a lot more people than I do.
Speaker D:But I lost three.
Speaker D:Three people to their own, you know, thinking tomorrow is not good enough for them.
Speaker D:And one, the.
Speaker D:One of the last ones was a football buddy of mine that I played with in high school.
Speaker D:So it really hit close, this last one, but this was kind of my way of using energy and connections to try to make it a little better.
Speaker D:So did I use all my 10 minutes up, Chief?
Speaker A:No, you know, that's good.
Speaker A:Thanks, William.
Speaker A:And hey, I'm gonna be having dinner with you.
Speaker A:You on Thursday.
Speaker D:Yeah, absolutely, sir.
Speaker A:You're putting an event together that's, you know, it's gonna kind of.
Speaker A:Kind of highlight these shirts as well.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And not only.
Speaker A:I mean, it's.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker A:It's more.
Speaker A:Not for the shirt, but it's definitely for.
Speaker D:For the cause, though.
Speaker A:Absolutely for the cause.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker A:And I'm.
Speaker A:I'm coming down to California, so I'll end up seeing you for dinner.
Speaker A:And then they got Warrior.
Speaker A:Warrior built golf tournament on Friday and a whole bunch of other things going on.
Speaker A:So.
Speaker A:Busy week, busy week, busy week.
Speaker A:But hey, thanks for the invite.
Speaker A:And I. I did invite a couple of the veterans to join us.
Speaker D:Awesome.
Speaker A:And all that good stuff.
Speaker A:But yeah, we'll do you got any last words?
Speaker A:If somebody wants to get a hold of Will, they can definitely do it through me.
Speaker A:But feel free to put any other information out there.
Speaker A:Will?
Speaker D:Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn.
Speaker D:Just William Estella.
Speaker D:Pretty easy to find me.
Speaker D:I help a lot of people and I know Aaron sent me individuals prior.
Speaker D:Hey, looking for this?
Speaker D:Hey, I need help with this.
Speaker D:Even if it's not a job specifically or directly, just the connections of our village.
Speaker B:We.
Speaker D:We want to help each other out.
Speaker B:We.
Speaker D:We want to help others.
Speaker D:Nothing in ask in return just to help a leg up a contact, whatever it might be.
Speaker D:So me and Chief have definitely worked on that throughout the years, just making those connections and connecting Those dots for individuals that might not even need help, might just need a source or, you know, help on their resume, whatever it might be.
Speaker D:So feel free.
Speaker D:Like I said, reach out to Chief and we can go from there.
Speaker D:But thank you again for the friendship and the partnership.
Speaker D:Greatly appreciate, sir.
Speaker D:And I will see you Thursday.
Speaker A:Appreciate you too, brother.
Speaker A:Strength and honor.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:Hey, now it's Chef JB's kitchen and all the good stuff he's got going on.
Speaker A:Chef, hey, thanks a lot for being here with me, as always, and what a great, great show we're having.
Speaker C:It's my pleasure.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I mean, both guys, I mean, give them back all the time.
Speaker C:And I know you speak of, of William all the time.
Speaker C:And you know, the, the golfing tournaments for Warrior Built and the different ones that he's sponsoring.
Speaker C:And that's great.
Speaker C:I mean, all this all comes together, you know, it's like one little.
Speaker C:Every day we work just a little bit, and then at the end of a period of time, it's a lot, you know, and that's how it works.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's all, it's all part of the Veterans Transition Resource center, because the resources that exist that, you know what, it's a force multiplier to everything that we do.
Speaker A:And we spend a lot of time reaching out to so many other non profits.
Speaker A:We want to highlight those things.
Speaker A:We want to highlight people that are doing great things, coaching.
Speaker A:You know, we just had the coach on and, and Chef, you're all the chef stuff you're, you're doing.
Speaker A:And I mean, it's great.
Speaker A:We got so many other, other veterans that are doing incredible things that we get invited to and we partake in and we, we want to say, hey, yeah.
Speaker A:The honor flight is 22 warriors.
Speaker C:I mean, here at the VTRC, we're, we're growing, you know, and that.
Speaker C:This podcast certainly helps us do that.
Speaker C:And it's important.
Speaker C:You know, I'd like to put out a call.
Speaker C:If you're a veteran, you want to do a little bit of service work, I don't care a little or a lot.
Speaker C:Give us a call.
Speaker C:We're always looking for volunteers.
Speaker C:And you know, we're not going to kill you with a 40 hour work week, but, you know, if you got four to eight hours a week, we could use your help, you know, with the more hands, the easier the job, you know, and constantly I'm, I'm a chef.
Speaker C:I'm an executive chef, and I'm, I'm a well documented executive chef, but it's like I'm always giving back.
Speaker C:And, and nothing makes me more happier or it enriches my life by giving back to young chefs that want to come up through the ranks and want to get, do better for themselves and to learn, you know, and that's, that's that, that doing that, then I'm rewarded.
Speaker C:And whenever you outgive God, he's not going to let you.
Speaker C:You can't out give God, you know.
Speaker C:And so I, I teach them and then I get blessed back because I'm learning also.
Speaker C:And, and that's where it's at.
Speaker C:Running the vtrc you're helping run, this is, is a blessing in itself.
Speaker C:I was awarded finally 100% on my disability that I, I acquired in the Coast Guard.
Speaker C:And so it changes your life.
Speaker C:You know, it's life changing and, and that's important.
Speaker C:So on the chef scene, we went and had dinner the other night together, you and I, at the Chef of the Year dinner out at the College of Southern Nevada.
Speaker C:Had a great time.
Speaker C:You know, they, they bless me with Chef of the Year award.
Speaker C:So I get a nice, real huge, big trophy all year.
Speaker C:And I was looking at it the other day and, and the first one that they actually, a meat company donated the trophy to us.
Speaker C:It stands about five and a half feet tall, so about my size, and it's a huge trophy.
Speaker C: But it started in: Speaker C:Well, that's 56 years ago, and I've only been in 52 years.
Speaker C:So it's like, it's a great award, and it's not the award you get.
Speaker C:It's nice to be recognized.
Speaker C:But what are you giving back?
Speaker C:You know, that's, that's the main thing.
Speaker C:Are you networking?
Speaker C:Are you teaching young ones?
Speaker C:Are you bringing them along so that they can take over for you?
Speaker C:Because, you know, it isn't about us today, you and I.
Speaker C:It's about young people, you know, and if we're not helping them, then how are they supposed to take over?
Speaker C:How are they going to learn?
Speaker C:How are they going to be adapt at taking over and showing them how you gave it to them so they can give it to somebody else, you know?
Speaker C:And my friend, you have a servant heart like I do, and it's nice to when people with servant hearts get together, because then things get done and things grow, you know, and it's like our garden, you know, it's.
Speaker C:You want it to grow and produce, and that's what we feel like and that's what we do.
Speaker C:So it's great.
Speaker C:And that's my Two cents, my brother.
Speaker A:Hey, thanks.
Speaker A:Thanks, Chef jb.
Speaker A:I appreciate you and it's great to have you on deck.
Speaker A:And hey, we'll, we'll go to Brian Colburn and we'll go to Feed Drops.
Speaker A:He's gonna drop in here hopefully and just do a quick little feed drop.
Speaker A:Because Feed Drops, it's designed to kind of coach us through our, our podcast and give us pointers and, and kind of cut us down from what we.
Speaker A:We, we were doing if we.
Speaker A:We shouldn't be doing and what we should be doing.
Speaker A:So, Brian Colburn, how you doing, brother?
Speaker A:United States Marine and producer of the show with such radio and our good friend.
Speaker A:And good friend.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker C:Love you both, man.
Speaker A:Hey, we need your sound, bro.
Speaker A:I know you're pushing all the buttons, but I'm gonna feed drop you right now.
Speaker A:You just zero sound.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:No.
Speaker C:How's that?
Speaker C:Is that any better?
Speaker A:I was down.
Speaker A:No, I'm still down.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker C:Do you want to type it to him?
Speaker A:You have no sound.
Speaker A:Hey, so he, he's gonna figure out the sound.
Speaker A:How about now?
Speaker C:I'm getting green lights on my end.
Speaker A:No, can you hear us?
Speaker A:Okay, good.
Speaker A:Hey, well, we'll let, we'll let Brian try to fix that.
Speaker A:But in the, in the meantime, there's a couple, you know, I always want to thank a lot of things, and one of those is, is Darts Only Golf.
Speaker A:Darts Only Golf is working really hard right now to run a lot of golf tournaments in Southern California.
Speaker A:One for Warrior Built foundation.
Speaker A:One.
Speaker A:One that's coming up for the, the Patriot American Patriot Music Project.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:As well as the PTSD foundation of America.
Speaker A:So he's, he's putting together a lot of things.
Speaker A:He's got one that's coming up on Thursday.
Speaker C:Where's that at?
Speaker B:I.
Speaker A:You know what?
Speaker A:I can't remember, but I'm gonna say check out Darts Only Golf.
Speaker A:Look at it.
Speaker A:And if there's golf tournaments that you want to do in the Southern California area, get involved with that.
Speaker A:He really tries to put the non profit organizations out there making things happen.
Speaker A:That's Tom Gibbons, who I'm gonna get him on the podcast to do do us do a couple things here in the.
Speaker A:In the future.
Speaker A:But Friday I'll be down there at the Warrior Built Golf tournament in, in San Diego.
Speaker A:And so I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker A:And then, uh, so I wanted to put that thanks out there.
Speaker A:And obviously I want to thank, uh, the PTSD foundation of America.
Speaker A:Warrior Built Foundation Recon Chief incorporated my podcast Combat Vet vision, Brian Colburn.
Speaker A:Sitradio.com the Veterans Transition Resource center for really making this podcast happen.
Speaker A:And there's so many other organizations out there, Tier one coaching.
Speaker A:Thanks for being on deck with, with, with, with everything you got going on with Brandon Jenkins.
Speaker A:Thanks for, thanks for coming on deck.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:Jinx.
Speaker A:Jinx.
Speaker A:Yeah, but, but unfortunately we couldn't hear Brian because I love feed drops.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:I love having him come on and do this.
Speaker A:This is kind of a really cool segment of, of the podcast.
Speaker A:But hey, next week we'll have him come on.
Speaker A:We'll have a feed drop some more.
Speaker A:But, you know, I got some other guests coming on.
Speaker A:I got Colonel Matt coming on next week as far as I'm gonna double check to make sure he's good with it.
Speaker A:He's the one that was in the book book club.
Speaker A:He's, he's doing the military books.
Speaker A:He's got a whole bunch of books and he's, he's dropping a couple other books he wants to talk about.
Speaker A:So we'll see how that works out.
Speaker A:RJ will be on two weeks from now.
Speaker C:Okay.
Speaker C:You know, you already talked to him.
Speaker A:Yeah, I did.
Speaker A:He said he should, he should be able to come on.
Speaker A:So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker A:RJ is here at the vtrc Air.
Speaker C:Force pilot Core co founders.
Speaker A:Co founders.
Speaker A:So we're looking at that and just a lot of really cool things on the show.
Speaker A:So hopefully you enjoy these segments as I broke, as I break them up and go through these processes and with, with me and jb.
Speaker A:So, jb, what you got?
Speaker A:You got anything else?
Speaker C:That's it.
Speaker C:You know, everybody, we celebrated, you know, Memorial Day weekend and a lot of barbecuing.
Speaker C:I was at three different parties and, you know, just ate too much and like most of us.
Speaker C:But it's great to go out and, you know, you know, I'm always talking about veterans.
Speaker C:You know, I talked to a veteran yesterday and he's going through some trouble and he needs to do a claim, you know.
Speaker C:Well, I mean, there's a lot of guys that really need it.
Speaker C:I said, hey, you're walking with a cane.
Speaker C:You had a lot of problems.
Speaker C:Some of it's due to the military service.
Speaker C:If you don't take it, somebody else will, you know, and, and there's a lot of vets out there.
Speaker C:Well, when I got out, I don't want to have anything to do with them ever again.
Speaker C:Well, that's pretty stupid.
Speaker C:You know, you think when you get older, you're going to go to the hospital Wouldn't you like to go?
Speaker C:I mean, here in Las Vegas, we're in the top.
Speaker C:Top three in the country.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker C:You know, and every room out there in the hospitals is suite.
Speaker C:It's got bathrooms, lounge chairs, couches.
Speaker C:You know, your family can stay with you.
Speaker C:It's.
Speaker C:It's unbelievable.
Speaker C:You know, I mean, I. I like it better than any other hospital I've ever been in, and I've been in a few.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Well, thanks, Jeff.
Speaker A:I mean, you know, talking about Memorial Day, you know, I was thinking about, you know, I got hit up by a vet I was dealing with, with a situation that became very apparent on.
Speaker A:On most news situations.
Speaker A:But when you talk about, you know, disagreements in this country come across so many different ways, but there's no reason why those disagreements could, you know, ultimately end up in violence and death.
Speaker A:That's a sad situation when any of that ever takes place.
Speaker A:But you know what?
Speaker A:You're free in this country to make great ideas and things happen, but you're also free to be an.
Speaker A:And that's the sad part.
Speaker A:I mean, if you really want to be an, go ahead and be one, you know, but you're.
Speaker A:You're so free that you're free to be an.
Speaker A:You're free to be, you know, a jerk.
Speaker A:Jumping on the flag, given, you know, all the hell that you want to do.
Speaker A:You're free to do it.
Speaker A:Doesn't mean you have to, but why you would want to.
Speaker A:But, you know, you're free to like whoever you like.
Speaker A:You're free to vote for whoever you want to vote for.
Speaker A:And if you hate voters that vote a certain way, that's not the way to be.
Speaker A:You can disagree all you want.
Speaker A:I'll disagree with you all day long, but I will always talk to you and consider you my friend.
Speaker A:If you disagree with me on most issues, I do not hold grudges.
Speaker A:I do not hold those discontents.
Speaker A:But I understand that you're so free to do whatever you want.
Speaker A:If you look at my emblem and along the flag line, it says, the burden of combat is mine.
Speaker A:So America can.
Speaker A:And that sentence is not finished for a reason, because it can do whatever it wants because we're free to do it.
Speaker A:And those freedoms came on the blood of service members and people that stood the line and.
Speaker A:And guard your freedoms every single day.
Speaker A:So you can walk down the street with some sense of, hey, I'm pretty secure here, but there's always going to be some that might not make.
Speaker A:That wants to impose his freedom on your freedom and that's the, that's the sad part.
Speaker A:So I'm not here to impose my freedom on anybody, but I am here to exercise my freedoms when I want and how I want.
Speaker A:So you are too.
Speaker A:And thanks to those that, that paid.
Speaker C:That price and, and our freedom means we'll help you.
Speaker A:Yeah, I'm here to help you.
Speaker C:We're not here to tear you down or, or put you in a category.
Speaker A:We're just.
Speaker A:No, get involved in.
Speaker A:You get involved in warrior groups, get involved in, in, in, in battle buddies and somebody that you want to talk to, to relate.
Speaker A:You need to be able to bounce something off that's really bothering you.
Speaker A:You need to be able to do it whether that's your therapist.
Speaker A:You know, it doesn't have to be all the time.
Speaker A:Your peer to peers are out there, they're doing things too.
Speaker A:But be open minded, be, be available too.
Speaker A:You know, I, I had to spend 90 of my time in the military doing all kinds of things that were not even on my plan of the day for me.
Speaker A:But now I'm the opposite of that.
Speaker A:I spend 10% of my time doing things that I have to do and the other 90% of my time pretty much open for those that need my help and support if that's necessary.
Speaker A:And I don't want to fail anybody.
Speaker A:So if I've let you down, if I forgot to get back with you on something, remind me, remind me, remind me.
Speaker A:Because I don't want to do that on purpose, but I'm not very good at planning all the time because I kind of keep that free freeness always available.
Speaker A:So I take the day as it comes until jb.
Speaker A:Go ahead and sign off, brother.
Speaker C:Hey, I wish everybody to have a great week, an awesome week and remember, bon appetit.
Speaker A:Until next time, Strength and honor.
Speaker C:Out, out.
Speaker A:The only way and we need nothing more.
Speaker A:The only way.
Speaker A:Together forever.
Speaker C:That's for.
