206: Keep Your Feet Moving with TShane Johnson

Welcome to the Heroic Investing Show. As first responders, we risk our lives every day. Our financial security is under attack, our pensions are in a state of emergency. A single on duty incident can alter or erase our earning potential instantly and forever. We are the heroes of society. We are self reliant and we need to take care of our own financial future. The Heroic Investing show is our toolkit of business and investing tactics on our mission to financial freedom.

Welcome to the Heroic Investing Show, a podcast for first responders, members of the military, veterans and anyone looking to improve their financial future and gain some freedom with their time. We teach America's heroes and how to build passive income, build their startup business and safely grow wealth through real estate and other alternative investments. We help current and prior first responders put protections, systems and a team in place to help them build a life where they can focus on their passion, that service or product that they are uniquely gifted to share with others, making the world a better place for all of us. My name is Gary Pinkerton and I co host this show with Jason Hartman. This is episode 206. Today's guest is T. Shane Johnson. T. Shane was enlisted Marine serving four years before leaving and starting college, he says for one day. And then he started work in the mortgage industry where he made over a million dollars his first year in the business at age 23. Went on to earn millions more for his companies. He started three companies and then in 2008 it all came crashing down around him like it did everyone else who was tied to market. Living out of his car for a while, he restored everything again, went on in that industry to other great heights and then got inspired to do things for veterans out there and for homeless. And he has hiked, ran across the country multiple times, set records with ultramarathons and has become also a motivational speaker, corporate sales coach and best selling authority. You've got to know that an individual who's done all of that has a chip on his shoulder. And T. Shane has plenty of chips on his shoulder and one of which is proving that he can come back. And he was put in the hospital when he was riding his motorcycle while still an enlisted Marine, was taken out intentionally by a gang and slammed into a brick building. He lost four of his six pints of blood, flatlined three times after walking to a fire department to get assistance. This is a man that doesn't quit. You're really going to enjoy this interview. Please check out T. Shane at his websites and get a copy of that book. Well, heroic investors wait Till you hear this one, I've got Tchain with me. Tchain Johnson, a former Marine, or I guess always a Marine. So a Marine who served four years on active duty. He has some amazing stories. And so we started, as I always do, talking about this off air, and I said, whoa, whoa, T. Shane, stop. I need to get this on air. So here we are. First and foremost, welcome my friend. Thanks for joining us.

Yeah, my pleasure, sir. Thank you.

Absolutely. So, T. Shane, take us back to. You can go before Marine Corps if you want, but at least go back to Marine Corps and walk us through the craziness that is your life.

Yeah. So for one, thank you for having me on the show. I'm really excited about it. Always love to connect with other veterans and share our perspective. So it's very exciting to be able to do that. Probably pretty typical for an enlisted Marine. So I had the. I grew up in a small town in Gulf coast of Florida, Arcadia Rodeo, cow town. I'd love to tell you that I had that true patriotic want to serve my country. I just don't think that was the case. I had to get away from my dad. He had worked me entirely too hard growing up. So I thought the Marine Corps would be easier than working for my dad. Grew up on a 365 acre cattle ranch and, you know, was one of Those, up at 4 in the morning building fence, working cows, you know, all day, every day hustle.

So far, we're flowing on parallel lives here on a dairy farm. And my goal, one goal to join the service was to get out of Illinois.

You got it. Yep. So pretty. Again, pretty stereotypical. So I went through high school. I wouldn't say I was a great student. You know, my father was a single dad. I had a blind handicapped brother and my younger sister. So my dad was trying to do all of that. He also worked for the prison system. So that was kind of his. His true day job to help support as much as I could to play a role in the family. But I think my time came and ended up joined the marine Corps at 17. And three days later, after graduation, I got out of there and went to Parris Island. So that was. I always say, you know, when I give a lot of my speeches, there's two times you were born. The one your mom gave you and the one your drill instructor gave you. So it was my second birth and I was, I was very fortunate. I was surrounded by. I was in 3rd Battalion Platoon 3064. And I graduated honor grad out of my class. I was number one out of my class, picked by my peers, which was pretty cool. And then my Marine Corps career did really well. I was, I was kind of the poster child. I was meritoriously promoted three times. I made it to the fleet. I was already a lance corporal by the time I even got to the fleet and ended up with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines and 29 palms first duty station. And I served about a year and a half there and then I went to Okinawa. I attempted to go for fifth Force Recon at the time, which was out in Okinawa. I think that was time during the military was kind of really downsizing and cutting funds quite a bit in the Marine Corps. So they wanted to go to battalion recon versus force and then I would have to stay in Okinawa. So I didn't want to do that. I wanted to go back to the States. So I'm back to the states with three 4, 29 palms and ended up joining, took the INDOC and passed and went to 1st Reconnaissance Battalion in Camp Pendleton. So I served with 1st Recon for about a year. Of course, you know, that was 9802, so 911 was right around that time. Just before, while I was going through with first Recon. They were part of a. It was an OJT program. So you didn't go to the normal BRC or ARS three month school at that time. They just didn't have enough funds and billets to do it. So they kind of did like an OJT program. So they were running us new guys through it. And I think they gave us three days off. And we were right in the middle of pre scuba. So the operators, a lot of the guys were getting ready to go to combat dive. So they were taking all those movies and running them with them. So we were doing pre scuba. So we just pool work all the time, you know. So just best shape of your life you could possibly be in. Yeah, they just put us in the pool every single day. So they gave us about three days off and it was either stay in the barracks and get hazed by a couple of corporals or you know, in a good way or get out and go hang out with one of my buddies for a couple of days. So I left the base, went off the back of the base and at the time there were some gangs that were targeting military off the back of the base and a car had hit me on my motorcycle about 45 miles an hour. I caught the corner of a brick house at 45 miles an hour across my Chest broke my collarbone, shoulder blade, ribs. All my ribs shattered, punctured all my major organs. Spleen, liver, kidney was sliced. The three 50s, whole pieces went into my lungs. They robbed me, kind of left me there for dead. My left bicep was lacerated and I ended up bleeding out four pints of blood out of six pints. I think your body totally holds. So they didn't help me. So I walked two blocks to a fire station, taken one full breath every minute. And I got there, got down on the knees, bleeding out all over the place. They happen to have a doctor on site. Anyways, long story short, they had a helicopter come in. I died three times flat, lined out three times. They brought me back three different times. Lost 54 pounds in two weeks. And then I was in CCU, ICU for probably four months on a civilian. They couldn't put me back on the military base because of my lung capacity. And then, let's see. So about six months of that, I actually went back to my unit, completely healed. About six to eight months later was back with recon, just kind of, you know, finishing up, healing up. And then of course, 911 happens, and my unit was deploying to Hawaii to get ready to get prepared to head overseas. I was sitting there and I remember the battalion general was in the gym all the time. So I was just trying to get myself back into shape. Doing the pool, hitting the gym, hitting the gym. And he started talking to me and he says, you know, you sound too smart to be a Marine. What are you doing in the Marine Corps? And I said, well, I wasn't smart enough in school, you know, I said. And he says, well, there's, there's a difference between IQ and eq. And he said, I think your EQ might be a little higher. He says, you know, you need to get out and go do something. He says, you could or either, you know, become an officer and lead Marines or do something more because I just think you're in the. In the wrong spot. So I figured, well, I'd beat death three times. It kind of earned my stripes for that. So I thought I'd give it a go. So he signed off with my paperwork to go to school. So I got out. I attempted to go to college for one day. I think the teacher at the time showed up late. I was kind of sitting in the room just looking at this, going, I don't know how I'm going to be able to do this. This doesn't work with my style. So I went and applied for jobs Back then, you'd resumes, you know, So I was just sending out faxes. Faxes. And my girlfriend at the time is like, you know, you need to get a real job rather than working at the gym or doing something. So I ended up landing a job working in the mortgage industry. I honestly had no clue what it was. I went to interview the first day, and they said, what are you doing now? So, well, I'm selling gym memberships, you know, working, like 100 hours a week, just doing my thing. I kind of like it. Not that big of a deal. And I liked it because I could wear a tie, you know, I could go and wear a tie, look nice. My account was negative, like 187 bucks, and whole lot of money. I spent the rest of money I had on trying to look decent for the interview. I remember my good friend, I was actually just chatting with him last night. My boss at the time, he said, you know what? He says, come in here and sit down for a second. All right? So he had another guy come in, and he puts this piece of paper down in front of me, and he says, you see that? And I said, well, yeah. And he goes, you see that number? And I said, yeah, it says $66,000. And I was like, man, you made that in a year. I was like, holy cow. You didn't go to college. You're here. You're making $66,000 a year. I was like, this is amazing. You know, what do I have to do? And he says, no, that was last month. And I was like, I don't even care if this is illegal at this point. I was like, for $66,000 a month, I was like, you guys are sitting in the air conditioning on the phones. I was like, I'll give it a go, you know? So he says, well, you know, we'll give you a shot. So I joined. I ended up actually making, like, $68,000, my first full month in that business after training. It was an interesting change for me because, you know, we grew up what people would consider relatively poor and struggling. And then I understood the concept of what I was defending for so long. You know, the ability to be able to be a part of this country that's so great that if you could work really, really hard, you can be compensated for it. Which the military, it's not like that. It's a little different of a platform. You can work really, really hard, and your paycheck still is the same. I enjoyed that. I enjoyed the aspect of putting in the work. So Then I just knew it was really simple. I just had to outwork everybody in the room. I didn't have to be smart. So that's how I felt like I made my first real money is I just kind of went after that vengeance. Look, when you've died three times and you've been through what I've been through, and I already know that the other side's good to go, right? I already know that I'm going to be okay, life's going to be all right, things are going to move on on that side. So why not take a little bit of risk out here in this world? So I just kind of live by that philosophy and went at it. And it was perfect timing, perfect opportunity. I did really well, and I was shoot 23, 24. I was probably managing at least 250 million a year in sales. And then over a course of quite a few years in the business, a few billion dollars. 26. I actually went out on first opportunity to be an entrepreneur for two years. And then 2008 happened, the recession happened, and I just got kicked in the teeth really well with that one. Good life lesson. Good humbling moment.

That's incredible. So how much money had you made before 2008?

Oh, I don't know. A few million dollars, probably.

As you were a millionaire, you told me off rare by like 23. Right?

Right. After a year, that first year, I went at it pretty hard. I think I cleared just over a million dollars that first year.

And, you know, you made a point that I made just this last week when I was. When I was traveling. And speaking that for all of her faults, this experiment that we started 250 years ago with some really, really brave people and a few small built, it took four years actually to do it, but they created this thing called the Constitution that focused on life, liberty and property, and it enables us to go do exactly what you just explained. I learned the exact same thing, that the military is incredible. But a fixed income with a ceiling does not necessarily create the capabilities, the resources that we want to go out and actually do the huge things we're going to do in this world.

Yeah, that's a great point. And that'll take us down a completely different rabbit hole from the message I sent out. Because during my tour this year, I actually speak at Independence Hall. It's one of my stops to probably, I think, a few thousand people. And it's interesting to me the perception of America today. Right. Especially from the military community, I send a completely different message. So the narrative of the Veter community now is so weak it's ridiculous. And I can't speak for other branches because I didn't serve for them. But I know being a Marine was something that the day I got my ega, you know, I cried. I didn't cry because I was weak. I was cried because it was the first time in my life where I was able to work really hard and earn something that very few people will ever try. Not later in life did I understand what that meant right when I was old enough and went through and understood about, you know, God, core and country and really what it stands for until I had my daughter. What this great country provides and obviously making the money that I did and having the opportunity. I mean, these are all things I think you have to go through in order to appreciate what it is to be in America, not just serve your country. I think that's one small portion of it. But, you know, the narrative now is, is that, you know, everything is given to a veteran, you know, because they served. And I absolutely hate that thought process. I hate it with a passion because I think we're at an advantage. We're at a massive advantage. We, especially Marine Corps, you know, the 14 leadership principles of an NCO. You know, we've been given 270 plus years of one of the largest dominating corporations in the entire world of leadership, knowledge and training passed on to us. I mean we are laser focused. The fact that we're not out there and people aren't complaining that we're just not dominating the business sector or that we're not out there just crushing entrepreneurship or that every time you turn around it's another veteran doing another success. Instead it's another veteran that's I need something or give me something. And you know, there's a few small pools of leaders and nowadays that should be us, that should be the veterans be we should be walking out into the country and not pointing one finger and saying one person's going to make it right. We should be doing exactly what we do with our units and saying that we know that it takes all of us in order to do it and we have to lead from the front and we're just not doing that as a whole. And I blame that on the fact that if we're going to complain about it, we have to lead, lead, not lead, follow, right? So to me, the idea is that if I'm going to complain, I better do something. And if I can do something and at least show others it can be done, then at Least then I can stand up a little higher and say, well, if I'm doing it and I'm a knucklehead, then I know that you can get out there and do it with a lot more of the resources you have. So the military is an advantage, not a disadvantage. It's actually something that I was having this conversation with somebody and somebody says, you know, the veterans should get something free and everybody should get everything for free and everything. And I said, well, I said, actually that already exists. I said, you want free college, join the military. You want healthcare for life, join the military. You want a pension, join the military. I said, that program already been around for quite some time. It's actually a great program for four years. You know how much I get for that. And I couldn't go work for Verizon, tattoo Verizon on my arm and walk out to, you know, a pool somewhere and someone come up and says, oh my gosh, thank you so much for working for Verizon. I mean, they're not, you know, it's an amazing thing being part of the military and I just feel like we're not taking advantage of it as much. So anyway. Soapbox.

Yeah, so maybe so. I love the fact that, you know, clearly every veteran out there and every citizen out there would probably say that they love the attitude towards the military, what companies do for the military as compared to what it was in Vietnam.

Right.

Like I was around, I was a kid in Vietnam, world Vietnam era, and my boss at the Naval Academy was a three star admiral and he joined right near the end of the Vietnam War and it was still draft time. And he was like, this is horrible the way people treated him, but also the quality of the, of the people in the military, you know, so obviously much better. But I think what you're saying is as opposed to becoming entitled for it.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean it's, it's a gift, not something that I should owe. And people say thank you for your service. Like what should thank you? Just be the American worth serving. I mean, that's why I did it. I mean, I have the best, I have free college, I've got free health care, I've got free things. If I get hurt, I got workman's comp for life. I've got all of these things, you know, I've got free medical. I mean, it just blows my mind when you think about the things that I've done for just four years. That's a heck of an ROI for an organization. There's not one Corporation out there that's going to do that forever. And then what kind of person would I be, what kind of Marine would I be if I just sat on the sidelines and just said, well, that's it for me. I'm not going to contribute back to society or protect the civilian population or show more veterans that, listen, you don't have to be a product of that environment. You can do more.

Absolutely. So I would like to go back to the next thing. So 2008, little bit of it. You said it's a. It's a tough time in your life. I would say I would. Are you that it's a little bit more than a tough time. You dig a little more into that and tell that part of the story.

Yeah. So I think with anything, you have challenges. Right. So probably humbling is a little better. You know, I had two beautiful homes, had a nice car. I wasn't married. I didn't have any children at the time. But, you know, with money comes a lot of people out of the woodwork. So everybody needs help or everybody's got a story or something. So, you know, you're spending a lot of time and your money helping those people. And then when you don't have anything, you get a lot of time to reflect. So I spent about two years going through that and living out of my car. My sister, God bless her, I love her, but she was just going through some really tough, excuse me time. And she had my younger nephew. Her husband was an army vet. He committed suicide, ended up hanging himself with fish and wire in the back of the house in a little shed and left my nephew fatherless. And my sister, obviously couldn't handle it very well, went to a completely different direction. So here I was, pretty much homeless for the most part, hardly had any money and was taking care of an infant, trying to do the best I could with that. And again, one minute you're doing great, the next minute you're getting kicked in the teeth. At the time, I was pretty angry about it, but I just went back to. I think the things that taught me in the Marine Corps is embrace the suck and figure it out. And through some trials and tribulations, about two and a half years later, I ended up building three more companies that did about 40 million a year in sales out of the back of my car. Honestly, using free WI Fi at Dunkin Donuts. I always say if I ever get the opportunity to partner with Duncan, it's going to be the best thing in my life. Because you know that free Internet saved my life. You know, it wasn't just the dollar snack wraps, you know, and everything else. It was just the. The opportunity to be able to go in there and use my computer and use that resource to be able to do more with it. So. And then that was pretty much that portion of after 2008.

Wow, that's awesome. And so you were still in the mortgage industry, though, or did you exit from that?

Yeah, so I exit for that for two years because the licensing changed because of Frank Dodd Act. So there was a lot of things that happened. Of course my credit got shot. So, you know, there were a lot of requirements and things that played that I couldn't get back in. I had to towards that. So it took me two years to. Because one of my companies was another mortgage company, and I had to actually sit in front of the NCCAOB in North Carolina with my nephew. You know, I had no transportation. It was. It was just some crazy stories. Crazy times. Yeah, it was crazy. I remember them saying, you know, well, in order for you to get your license, you're gonna have to pay back these collections. I'm like, well, I barely have enough food to eat, and if I don't have a license, I can't work. And if I can't work, how am I gonna pay back this stuff? It doesn't really make any sense. You know, the way this business is now. Just because I got hit doesn't mean I'm not good at my job. You know, it was really crazy time. But the lady, I think, felt some pain for me, gave me a conditional license, and then it gave me another shot. So I did what I did best. I, you know, went and hustled. And it was funny because, you know, there's. There's a lot to those stories. But I remember I just got my conditional license, and I had been working for this organization, and I was selling, and I think I had like a $35,000 check coming in me. It was, like, really fast. I got right back into it. It was like I never missed a beat. I was doing really well. And they were supposed to cut the checks. And I was starving, man. It was hurting. And the company went bankrupt. And they didn't cut checks. They kept my money. And I remember going, man. And I was having to walk everywhere at that time. I had lost my car, actually a girl to hit it. And I didn't even have my car. And I was walking everywhere. It was cold. I'm Florida, boy. I was in North Carolina. Snow was coming through. I barely had any clothes. I had socks over my hands. I was going down in really bad areas. Riding bus, you know, I got robbed one night, watched the guy get shot in the face. An entire apartment complex burnt down. And it was funny because it's not funny, but looking back on it, the whole complex was on fire. And the bus couldn't get to the next station to connect because the fire was blocking it. So I was like, I can't wait, I'm gonna run. So I got off the bus and my business attire and I'm running. So it looks like when the cops pull up that I'm running away from the fire, like I'm the one that lit it and ran off. So they chase after me and they catch me. And the guy's like, you know what? And I said, man, I'm just, I can't miss this next stop or I'm not going to get home till 2 in the morning. I've got my nephew I've got to try to pick up. It was just some crazy times, you know, a lot of the stuff, I don't talk about it much, but yeah, it's good times.

So now you're a coach and a large room speaker, a professional speaker, I guess, and a mentor. And so how do we get there?

Yeah, good question. So I started my other companies, they started doing really well. I got back in the mortgage business again and again was doing. Doing really well with that, started diversifying my business model, learning from my mistakes. Being a speaker is something I think that's just always kind of came natural to me. I've never been scared in front of rooms. I've went through so much leadership and sales training that, you know, I was just put in uncomfortable situations and a lot of stuff that I did in sales all the time on the phones, paying attention to people and I don't know, you know, I'm beginning to think it. Maybe it was just a knack I had and it just. People would want me to come speak here and speak here and speak here. And I started utilizing it more. But I realized that, you know, people never remembered anything I said. They always remember how I made them feel. And I remember, you know, telling my story, my experience of my motorcycle accident and everything I've been through and just people connecting so much. I thought, gosh, what a powerful way to help change people. You know, they'd come up and say, man, your story. And. And I never wanted to be a speaker because I never thought my story was good enough. You know, I didn't think I was a Zig Ziglar or Les Brown or an Earl Nightingale. You know, I just figured I was just some regular sales guy that could probably, you know, spit words a little better than someone el. And it wasn't until probably about four years ago I was running my mortgage company and we were doing a lot of business up in Eglin and Tyndall because I was an all military mortgage company, just specifically working with military, only hiring military direct family members of military. I wanted to change the way the business was done because it's still not done correctly. You know, the way that's charged and the way it's sold. I wanted to change that model. So I really started focusing on that. And it was weird. You know, the first thing I did is I established a company chaplain because my conversations turned more about mortgages into, you know, guys that were going to commit suicide or guys needed advice or how do they do this? It was really weird. It wasn't like just mortgages. It was all these issues that weren't being addressed. So I'm working with a real estate agent up in Panama City, a phenomenal lady, and she comes to me and tells me about this Vietnam vet that had his, I want to say his left leg amputated due to the fact of lack of transportation. He had gotten gangrene in it at the time there. They would take a shuttle bus from Panama City to pensacola, which was two hours to the VA and they had to walk anywhere between eight and 15 miles, sleep on park benches, and if they missed the bus, you know, you know, the va, they would get another appointment for three to six months at the time. So it was just lack of transportation. He was, you know, salty Vietnam vet. He didn't want to ask anybody for help and ended up having his leg cut. He's just like, the heck with it. Cut it off. I don't want to feel the pain anymore. It kind of blew my mind. It blew my mind because Navy Federal at the Time had done $1 billion worth of business in Pensacola, had about 3,000 employees, and there was homeless vets on the side of the street. I just thought even if you didn't care, it was just really bad marketing. You could clean it up and turn that into a good PR story, you know, and if you actually care, that's a plus, too. So I thought, man, a little brokerage, I'm going to do something. So I go back, I reach out to a couple of Marine Corps buddies of mine, and I said, hey, you know what? And this was before Running across the country or hike across America was a commodity. It's almost like everybody's doing it now. But I said, why don't we hike for awareness and, and let's start there. Like in any business, we'll market it. So the first year I did 22 days at 22 miles a day. Obviously, 22 veterans committed suicide was a branded number. So, you know, we wanted to raise awareness about that and I wanted to connect with the communities. I wanted to really find out what the issues are, what's going on with the VFWs in American Legions, you know, where's money going? What are people doing with it? It was what I guess would be considered a success. You know, we got to understand a little bit more about what's going on. But it was right around election time, right? I think right before Trump had gotten elected. It was just a crazy time through the panhandle. And I was, I don't know, I was probably about a week away from finishing up the hike. And I was like, you know what, I think we need to go across the country with this. I think we need to connect with different cities, different peoples, different people, different groups. So I fortunately partnered with a couple of great organizations and I put together a 20 city, nine state speaking tour where I ran over 3,000 miles across America handing out and helping over 10,000 homeless veterans and hygiene kids with hygiene kits. I slept in homeless shelters. Along the way, we filmed a documentary so that we can engage and find out exactly what's going on. At the time, the whole project was self funded by me and my mortgage company. We went into it with an approach of just trying to really understand what's going on. Traveled through all those cities. I ran marathons on Saturdays to engage in a bigger audience while I did that. So every morning I'd get up, I'd run 22 miles. I ran all three of my businesses, made time for my daughter, give back to the homeless. Every day we were speaking or, and I was helping feed or engage or give away or do something within the community. I was also going to speak to large corporations. That was part of our CSR platform. So we, you know, I talk, tell them about my story, and then afterwards we put together hygiene kits and then we would go and distribute to the shelters and then also talk with them. It was a huge success. It was interesting to see different states, different counties, different people, and then get a good story of what truly is, what's wrong with the country's, you know, problems. I always say, you know, social media is a mirror. It's a mirror of what you want because it's a retargeted platform. The concept is to make you buy more things you like, not something different. So it doesn't allow you to open up your views like you do when you actually go and communicate with people and going across the country in different places, talking to the homeless, you know, and understanding who is homeless. You know, homelessness is something that hasn't even been rebranded. It's just, just insane. It's a market segment that hasn't been even approached from a marketing and branding standpoint. Because when you think homeless, everyone thinks drugs, alcohol addiction and panhandling, you know, when in fact it's middle class, you know, and it blows your mind. Because in the actual homeless, the ones that aren't middle class have it easier. You know, they can go somewhere and get their teeth fixed, they can go somewhere and get healthcare. They can go somewhere. If they're really struggling, there is some great person out there willing to help. But if you're middle class, if you're actual working class parent, whether you're a single parent or a two family home, and you're out there paying your taxes and paying your health care and paying your childcare and paying your car and paying your mortgage and living what is considered the marketing platform of the American dream, you're drowning. You're one crisis away from being truly homeless. You're one crisis away from losing your children or one crisis away from a divorce. You know, one financial hit, one medical hit, one job loss, one hurricane, one problem hits you, One divorce and you're out on the street and they're, you're.

Saying that you're kind of, you're saying that there's a lot of people that are almost homeless. They have no savings, they have expenses that equal their income. And it just takes one even low level hit to make them homeless.

You got it? Yeah, that's what I mean. It's. I mean, I saw it in the mortgage industry every single day, you know, you would review someone's income and you would see it all the time, that they were just barely trying to buy a home, which is technically a liability, not an asset. They're just racking up more liabilities because of, of perception of what it should be and lack of financial understanding of what to do with your money. So anyways, we really connected. It just, it turned into a big thing. I ended up running a couple ultras, a couple 40 something, half miles. I did 30 hours straight and 100 miles down the PCH towards the end, I mean it was just, it was a great campaign. We connected with a lot of people. Year three I started really wondering. I saw a lot of children, a lot of homeless children, a lot of homeless teens. Started peeling it back the layers, you know, realizing that just here in Orlando and Orange county There was almost 4,000 homeless teens and 1.7 million on any given night throughout the US and over 935 attempt suicide a day, which is way bigger numbers than the veteran community. And it was just amazing. So I partnered with a great organization here in Claremont, Pink bow. I did 1700 miles carrying a 100 pound pack every day raising awareness for homeless teens and helped that organization raise some funds. And then now this is my fourth year and this one is, is basically the byproduct of the last three years. And what I've noticed is that I was just recently on Fox Business with Stuart Barney. It's been an amazing last two years. I wrote two number one best selling books. I just finished my third book which comes out in January. I was able to effectively run my companies, speak across the nation. Forbes, USA Today. A lot of things that we're building because it seems like people want to hear more about leadership. And it's such a dying breed in our country today. It's gone. It's gone in our household, it's gone in our work environment, it's gone in the military community. So this year we put together an event, a grassroots event. We have about 180,000 people that we speak to. We speak in Norfolk on the USS Truman to about 4000 sailors there, about another 1200. Old Dominion, a couple football games, Virginia Tech on the halftime show there, Halftime in Old Dominion. We speak to NYPD, FDNY on the kickoff of 9 11. We have NAS Mayport, Camp, Lejeune, Parris Island. We have the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon. Well, Pentagon's pending and quite a few other places. And Independence hall again, probably about 180,000 in total and a closed event venue, you know, so they're here to hear my story and what I have to say, which is pretty cool. The idea this year is to truly bring back leadership, you know, bring back leadership in all aspects of everything that we do.

You mentioned kickoff in 9 11. Are you talking about the Tunnel of the Towers race? Is that what you meant?

No, this is our independent event. So we partnered with Rotary International and the Gary Sinise Foundation. All funds that we're raising this year will go towards the Gary Sinise Foundation Rise Project. And then of course we partner. I'm a Rotarian so we partnered with Rotary International to work with all the rotaries along the east coast to help support and talk about service before self. This is a 1100 mile run where I will carry a 100 pound pack every day and attempt to break two world records. One being the fastest one mile carrying a 100 pound pack. And that'll be in the middle of the old DU game. And then I will run the fastest marathon carrying a 100 pound pack after I've completed the 1100 miles at the end in NASA Space Coast. So yeah, in a nutshell that's.

When does it start?

It starts on 9 11. So it'll be from 911 all the way until I think December 14th is when I finally finish with that everything.

That's amazing. And so your 1100 miles just runs down the east coast?

Yep.

Awesome. Wow, that's amazing. So, so much to circle back on and talk about here. But we're already out of time so please give contact information. You know, just mention your book if you would.

Yeah, absolutely. So anything social media is at tshane Johnson. So LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, all you gotta do is type in that handle. If you want to view any of our website is tshaneinspires.com and hike across America.com very cool.

And your most recent book is that.

It'S done by 2:30. The name of the book is done by 2:30. It's about my daughter and I. The context of the book is talking about how to develop your life and business balanced where you can be done by 2:30 every day to pick your little one up from school.

That's awesome. That's awesome. And the previous book that got a lot of notoriety was hike across America 3,000 miles for your why Awesome. T. Shane. Oh my gosh, we got to have you back for about six more episodes. Dig down every one of those rabbit holes. I really appreciate what you're doing out there. It's incredibly inspiring. So any parting words? I'm kind of speechless for one.

Thank you so much. I mean this is what it takes is conversations like ours between our groups and organizations and know that there's no divide and that we get out there and show them that listen, it doesn't have to be as woe as me story. You know, we can turn this around and be the foundation of what our country really should be. You know, just great hardcore veterans and Americans committing to a lifelong service before self platform man.

Everybody get out there, meet T. Shane and find out what his website and the man is all about thank you so much and Godspeed down the east coast, my friend.

My pleasure, sir. Thank you.

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