Interview with William Branum of "Naked Warrior Recovery"

Okay, if you're a frequent listener of the Dad Starting Over podcast and you find yourself saying, "Yeah, that sounds like me," well, you don't need another podcast episode. What you need is support. The Help for Men Brotherhood is where men go when they're done pretending that they got it all handled. You know, your dead bedrooms, your divorce, your loneliness, your rebuilding life. We have private forums, frequent live Zoom meetings, one-on-one coaching, courses, all my books at no additional charge. And yes, we get together in person. Real men and real conversations. So stop doing this alone and join the Help for Men Brotherhood today at help4men.com/join. I look forward to seeing you in the next member meeting. Hello everyone, DSO here with dadstartingover.com, and my guest today is the founder and CEO of Naked Warrior Recovery. It's a CBD-based company focused on the recovery of veterans and first responders. William is a retired Navy SEAL with 26 years of service. He has served on both traditional Navy SEAL teams, taught as a SEAL sniper instructor, and served on teams that specialized in undersea operations whose missions must be approved by the President of the United States. He led major combat operations ranging from protecting the interim Iraqi elected officials to direct action missions in Baghdad and across the Anbar Province. Uh, after retiring from the military in 2018, he realized that he was suffering from physical and psychological symptoms that negatively impacted his well-being and quality of life. Including migraines, severe anxiety, chronic pains, difficulty focusing, difficulty sleeping and falling asleep, and depression are some of the symptoms that he struggled with on a daily basis. And like so many others, and I got guys listening to this that can relate to this, William, he used alcohol and prescription drugs to mask the symptoms that he had, and then he discovered CBD and it changed his life. It had such an impact on him that he started The Naked Warrior Recovery to bring the highest quality products to the market and teach his Get Naked Mindset. So welcome, William Branham.

Thanks for having me on here. Very, very excited to be here.

Absolute our pleasure. So where to begin, man? What a story. We— boy, a lot of different directions we can take this conversation. Such an interesting character for sure. What, what is it that, uh, I guess Where were you from and how did you get from a kid to the Navy SEALs? Let's start there.

Okay, that's a fine place to start. So I grew up in a little town outside of Meridian, Mississippi, and, you know, heavily involved in the Boy Scouts. I was— we were very poor, had almost no money. My dad was retired Navy, and I swore I would never join the Navy because I didn't want to be in the Navy. But I always knew I wanted to be part of some sort of like elite military organization. But I didn't even really know what that meant until I went to a national jamboree. The Boy Scouts actually paid for me to go because I was, you know, very involved in the Boy Scouts. I wasn't an Eagle Scout yet, but I went there. I was thinking like maybe Army Ranger, maybe Marine Corps Scout Sniper, something like that that was cool. And you know, I met this other kid and he was like, "So yeah, I'm going to be an F-14 Tomcat pilot." Top Gun just came out. You know, based off the first Top Gun, and a Navy SEAL. And I'm like, what's a Navy SEAL? And he said, it's— they're the most elite military, you know, unit in the world, the hardest military training. They jump out of airplanes, they scuba dive, they shoot guns, they blow stuff up. And I'm like, yeah, that's— I like all of that. All that sounds cool. And so I came back from that event and the Navy recruiter called my house. And this was the summer between 11th and 12th grade of high school. And he was like, hey, have you ever thought about joining the Navy? And had he called me 6 weeks earlier, I would have said, not on your life. But he called me right after that trip. And I was like, well, yeah, I kind of want to be an F-14 Tomcat pilot and I want to be a Navy SEAL. And he was like, well, come on down here to the recruiting center and let's have a conversation. So I went down there. He showed me this super cheesy movie about, you know, Navy SEALs. And I'm like, where do I sign? Pretty much. Wow. Pretty much it.

So how does that work? Did you go through basic first through the Navy and then into the SEAL training or?

Yeah, so the— it's, it's a little bit different now, but everyone goes through, you know, Navy boot camp, which is, I don't know, 9 or 12 weeks long. You go to Navy boot camp, you take the SEAL screening test, and then if you pass it, you go on to, um, sort of this, uh, prep program to get you ready to go to BUD/S. Well, when I took the Navy screen— the, the SEAL screening test, I failed it the first time I took it. I actually failed it the second time I took it also. But I failed it. I went to— and then back then you had to have a Navy job, like a very specific Navy job. So I became a Gunner's Mate, which I thought was cool, had to do with guns. It has nothing to do with guns. It has to do with these big gray things that float out there in the ocean that protect our shores. You know, it was about electronics, pneumatics, and hydraulics and these big gun systems that are on the ships. And I thought, I went to the school, it was 6 months long. My dad wanted to be involved in electronics because he thought that was the future. And so I went to the school and I was like, well, I could take the SEAL screening test now. I know I'm in pretty good shape. I'm sure I'll pass it. Or I could take this other school, and this is my internal monologue, this other school for 4 more months, get in better shape, and then go to BUD/S. That was my thought. Well, What I didn't know is when I took that school for 4 more months in Virginia Beach to get out of the cold of Waukegan, Illinois, north of Chicago in the wintertime, I had 24 months of obligated service that I had to pay back to the Navy for that school that I went to. And so I was like, what? I don't want to go be on a ship. And I was, you know, things didn't work out quite the way I had planned. And so I went and did my time on the ship in Yokosuka, Japan. I took the screening test the second time. I failed it. I failed the run. So I crushed everything. It was like this, you know, I was in really good shape, but I was taking the test with a bunch of other guys that were either— so in order to be a SEAL, a Navy diver, or an EOD guy, you take the exact same test. The scores are different for what you need to score in order to pass it. So the SEALs for to become a SEAL, you have to have higher scores or faster scores, bigger numbers than you do to be a diver or an EOD guy. And so I'm taking the test. I crushed everyone on the swim, the push-ups, the pull-ups, the sit-ups, and I was the first one across the finish line on the run. And I failed the run. Everyone else passed and I failed the run by like 12 seconds or something like that. I was like, are you kidding me? But some of that was my ego kind of got in the way of like, like I'm like, I'm just like, I'm good. I've, you know, I'm running in long pants and boots and I'm still beating everyone, but I still came across the finish line in not enough time. And so I took it again, I passed it. Like, we're not leaving anything out here on the field. And so I passed it, no problem. And then, you know, when it was time for me to, you know, rotate off the ship, I called the guy that says where you're gonna go next. And I said, hey, hey, Mr. Detailer, I'm putting a package in to go to BUD/S to become a SEAL. And I think I, you know, I'm, you know, I'm just letting you know. He's like, that's great that you want to be a SEAL, but I'm not going to let you go because that school that you went to for 4 months in Virginia Beach, that makes you too critical to the Navy. You're more critical than what Navy SEALs are. And I was like, that doesn't make sense because the re-enlistment bonus is like $4,000 and the SEAL re-enlistment bonus is $20,000. That was a lot of money back in the day. It's not very much money now, but, you know, I was like, and he said no. And so I still submitted my package and I kept asking, I kept asking, I kept getting nos. And I asked lots of people, "Hey, can you help me get to BUD/S?" And they're like, "Sorry, we can't help you. Your detailer has to let you go." And then the Chief of Naval Operations, the guy that's in charge of the Navy, the most senior guy in the Navy, there's no one more senior to him other than the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States, came to my little ship in Yokosuka, Japan. There's like 15 ships in Japan. He only came to my ship. He didn't go to any other ship. And he, He had CNOs call. He said, "This is my vision of the Navy. This is what we're gonna do." And then he said, "Does anyone have any questions?" And so I raised my hand. I was like, "Yeah, I got a question. I joined the Navy to be a SEAL. I think I deserve a chance to go. My detailer won't let me go, and I think I deserve a chance to go." And he turns to my commanding officer and says, "Is he a good guy?" And my commanding officer says, "Yeah, he was a Sailor of the Quarter," which is like employee of the month. This quarter. And so he turns back to me, he's like, check, you'll be in the first class after your PRD, which is planned rotational date. 6 weeks later, I'm off to California to start SEAL training. So that was my— it took me a short 3 years just to get to— after I joined the Navy to get to BUD/S.

So we're setting the tone early then in this story that you are no stranger to determination. Something like that. You don't like being told no. And, uh, if you got your mind on a goal, you're just like, get out of my way, get out of my way, get out of my way. So awesome, I love it, I love it. So there you are, you get to, uh, BUD/S, which stands for Basic Underwater Demolition SEAL training, BUD/S. And so is it true that, that, that, uh, pardon my ignorance, so that initial stage, what we see on television where the guys are on the beach and they roll around on the sand and carrying the logs Is that BUD/S? Is that what we call BUD/S?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

That's usually the first phase of BUD/S. That's like the first probably 8 weeks is a lot of that.

And what is the percentage of men that make it through that?

You know, I used to say it's like 70% attrition rate, but I think it's actually higher than that. It's— and it depends on the class. Not every class is the same. Some classes are harder than others, but Uh, you lose about— so Hell Week is week number— when I went through, it was week number 5. I think it's week 4 or 3 or something. I don't know what week it is now, but it was week number 5. And so you lost about 70% of the people from like day 1 up until Hell Week. And then throughout Hell Week, you lose 70% of whoever's left over. So whatever that turns into. And then, but some guys are— get injured and they get rolled back and they start over, or they start, you know, after a major Like, let's say I made it through Hell Week, but I got injured before I made it all the way to second phase. So I joined the, the class after— the next class after they graduated Hell Week, I joined the class and then, uh, and then continued on through, through training. So it's not a— it's, you know, original, original people. Like, if I start a class and I finish it, there's maybe like 3% of the people actually make it all the way through without getting hurt or rolled back or anything like that. Yeah, maybe, maybe 10 max.

Yeah, and so you made it through without being rolled back? You didn't have to go back for a—

No, I, I was, I was, I got, uh, I was— so BUD/S is 6 months long and I was there for a short 13 months. I got hurt several times. I was in 4 different classes.

Oh wow, but again this, that determination. You could have very well said, uh, to hell with this. I mean, what, I mean, what did you hurt? We talking like tendons and strains or are we talking like—

Yes. For my first, my first injury was a, a broken ankle. I rolled my ankle and I was like, I, it, it seemed it doesn't hurt, no big deal. But I was running the O course and I didn't have like the power to like jump, uh, like I needed to. And so I went to medical, I'm like, I don't really know what's wrong with me. And it was a, it was a female doctor. She was an EOD PA. And she was like, "Well, you probably just need to suck it up." And I was like, "Okay, whatever you say, but we're going to send you off for x-rays anyway." And so, I went and got x-rays and came back and she apologized to me. She's like, "I'm sorry. You actually have like an inch of bone broken off from the bottom of your ankle. And so, it's just floating around in there." So, and it actually is still floating around in there today. And she was like, "I'm sorry." So they rolled me back and then the next class, I started up in the next class. I don't know what the injury was there. We still don't know, but my knee just stopped working. And so they were going to kick me out and I'm like the first— so you go before medical board and they're like, "Okay, the first guy says—" and I still remember him today. I still hate that guy. As a matter of fact, he was a CO of SEAL Team 4 and I was like, "I will never work for you. I hate you." Not the best, you know, the best attitude. But anyway, um, he was like, you, I, you, you clearly were not prepared when you showed up here, so, uh, we're gonna— I'm gonna— I, I recommend you leave training. And I was like, no, no, I cannot leave. So I went to see the second guy, and the second guy, I'm like, I'm like, I'm crying. I'm like, I'm like, if you please don't let me go, don't kick me out. Like, if I leave, I may never get another chance to come back. I told him the whole CNO story, and he was like Go stand outside, I'll be back in a minute. And so I stood outside his office on the grinder and he left for like 3 and a half hours. And I was like, I'm not leaving. He said stand outside. And he came back like 3 and a half hours, like with the meeting and meeting and meeting. He came back, he's like, what are you still doing here? And I said, you told me to stand outside and wait. And so he's like, go check in over there and you'll be in the next class. So, uh, I never healed up from that. I limped all the way through First phase through Hell Week, I was fast enough to pass a couple of runs in order to— I passed the swims, no problem. Runs, the obstacle course, the 4-mile time runs was like the hardest thing for me because I didn't— I just didn't have any— like, my leg didn't work. But I gimped along fast enough on at least one run that I was allowed to go to Hell Week. I made it through Hell Week, and then I had stress fractures on the other leg while that knee started working again. And so I made it— since I made it through Hell Week, I was able to, you know, they kept me in training in order to graduate the following class.

Dude, that wears me out just hearing that. Wow. Kudos to you, my man. That's awesome. Wow. And so thus began your— well, the rest of your Navy career. And just by reading the story, my God, it just started then, didn't it? That was the— that was when it really kicked into gear and all kinds of missions and wow. So, well, first of all, you know, you got to say thanks for everything you've done. That's amazing. And thank you for— thank you for continuing on in your journey, you know, post-military, that you're continuing to try to help others. That means a great deal to me and guys like me who are, you know, also devoted to helping guys in our mission in life. And there's one aspect to your story though that You don't say a lot in the public, and I asked you beforehand if this would be okay to dip into this a little bit, and it's one that a lot of my listeners can relate to. Um, when were you married during all of this? Was it while you were in BUD/S? Were you married or—

No, I wasn't married in BUD/S. I got married after I got to my first SEAL team.

And like a lot, a lot of military guys can attest to— Yeah, I don't know, I don't know what it is about military. I'm sure somebody has written books on the subject of why it is that military marriages tend to be pretty drama-filled. Not all, of course, there's some wonderful marriages out there, but it is not uncommon to hear a lot of not-so-good stories, as you know, and yours was one of those. Do you wanna go into as much detail as you're comfortable with sharing about what happened there?

Well, so I think I was, let's see, I was not quite the ladies' man. I guess. But, uh, I finally found a girl that was like interested in me and, and I liked her and she was smarter than me. And, and a bunch of my buddies were getting married and it seemed like the right thing to do. But I noticed things pretty early on that weren't quite right. And I was like, I was the guy that was like, I'm not a— clearly I'm not a quitter. I'm determined. I got, you know, you know, that that didn't always work out for me that well. And, uh, I noticed things early on and I was like, I— she wasn't always like this. It wasn't always like this, but it just became like this, you know, over time we became more separate and things started being more weird. And, uh, and but we got married anyway. And, um, because again, I'm not a quitter. We've already like committed to it. There's whatever money on the line. And yeah, and so, um, over time, like, you know, we were, we were married for— we were together for 12 years. And, uh, and it is like, it turns out that she's quite the narcissist. And, and I didn't— like, had I known what that was back in the day, maybe I would have made different decisions, but probably not. I probably would have just continued on with you know, I, I'm sure I can fix her. It's, you know, I was like the stereotypical woman, I guess, of like, I, she, I can fix him, I can fix her. Like, she wasn't like this before. Well, she was, I just didn't notice it. She just, she was keeping it suppressed. Yeah. And over time it just got bigger and bigger. And, uh, and, and it's weird how that just happens. Um, yeah, but, uh, and, and, you know, it's funny, I've, I I'm still going to court. We've been, we've been divorced for 12 years now, and I'm still going to court with her over child support, over silly shit like that. And, uh, yeah, and she's just like, give me, give me, give me money, money, money. Um, yeah, like the greed is out of control. The, um, the narcissism is out of control. She tells me all sorts of things that I've done that I'm like, I, I don't remember doing that. I must have cheated on her 800 times before we finally got divorced. And it wasn't until she was actually found someone that she wanted to be with that she was like, oh no, no, we're— I'm, you know, and don't worry, I'll find a good role model for our son. What? Like, that was like, what is that? Yeah. So yeah, I love the kids for both parents.

Yeah, that's the ultimate, uh, kick between the legs to any good man. Don't worry, I'll, I'll find somebody. Oh, that's exactly what that was. That she knew what she was doing, you know. Oh yeah, let's pause there because Yeah, a lot of guys listening to this story are just nodding their head going, boy, that sounds familiar. Yeah. So what is this? What does this go to show? So you guys listening to this, William Branham, Navy SEAL, we've already, we've already determined that by virtue of all of his actions up to this point in the story, here's a guy who's a very determined, take no prisoners, get out of my way, don't take no for an answer guy, but still When the pretty girl comes along, yep, and you don't have those life skills and maturity and experience in the relationship realm, you are very susceptible to these kind of things. And look where he can end up. Yeah, you're learning the hard way, as many of us have. And you want to go back to that dude, you know, you want to go back in a time machine and shake him and say, don't ignore all these little red flags. They're not so little. No. No, they're real, yeah. And you are an extreme example of a guy who says, "I gave my vows, I have honor, I have a mission here." You know, I said I do, whether it's in the church or in front of the judge or whatever, that means something. And you know, a lot of guys saying, "Yeah, damn right that means something." But it means something up to a point. Yep. And it's hard for a lot of men with not much relationship experience to identify that point. Where's the tipping point between a, you know, a relationship has its natural ups and downs, it's a roller coaster, it's never a smooth sailing, it's gonna have good years and bad years, that's the way relationship is. Where's the tipping point between that and, oh, holy shit, I better, you know, pull the ejection handle and get the hell out of here? That's tough for a lot of guys to determine, especially guys that don't have a lot of experience under their belt. So none of us are immune to this, guys. Um, sorry, William, that you joined the club, but it happens.

What are you gonna do?

What are you gonna— hey, make the best of it, right? Do what you gotta do. Do you guys have kids? You had kids together? Yeah, two, you said?

Uh, yeah, and they do not speak to me. They do not speak to me. They have been— oh, I'm sorry to hear it— extremely, uh, damaged by their mother. Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that.

The old parental alienation thing.

So my son graduated from high school last year, this time last year. So I flew to Virginia. I live in Hawaii. I flew to Virginia to— like, they didn't tell me when he was graduating or anything else. On my way to Virginia, I stopped in Atlanta for a layover. I got this really nasty email from her, like, you should have— you should be ashamed, like, your son is graduating today and you haven't said congratulations or anything else. She does not know that I'm coming. You don't know that I'm— and I land in Virginia, I go to the hotel, which is right across the street from the venue. Like, I Googled, like, where Granby High School graduation. Like, so I found out, like, when and where he was graduating. I got him a present. And so I'm waiting to go inside the venue, and there she is. I'm like, ugh! Hide, don't be seen by her. Like, I didn't want to be seen. I didn't want anyone to know that I was there. And so she goes in and I wait like 10 minutes and then I go in and she's standing right there. I do not make eye contact. I go in and I go and my phone starts blowing up with like email because she wants like, you know, written documentation. You should have told us that you were coming, blah blah blah blah blah, whatever, like all this stuff and control control control. And then my son graduates She leaves. I wait for the whole event to be over. It was like a 2-hour freaking graduation. It's a big school. And then I wait for him outside. He comes out. I give him a hug. I say I'm proud of him. I give him a thing. I'm like, hey man, do you like— what do you think about like maybe breakfast tomorrow or brunch or something? He's like, yeah, brunch sounds good. Um, you know, we got other family in town. And then he, you know, he goes to like an after-graduation party, and then he goes home, and he tells his mom And then she like starts blowing me up. We don't have time for you. You should have planned better. We have family in town. You're not a priority. La la la la la. Like all this, like, you can't— like, he, he's an adult. He's 18 years old and he has graduated high school. He can make his own decisions, but she will never let that happen. She will never, uh, let him make his own decisions or have a relationship with me. But there will be a time he's going to meet a girl. Something like this is going to happen. He's going to meet a girl and his mom is not going to be okay with it. And probably in the beginning he'll hide it and some other stuff, but at some point he's going to be like, oh, maybe Mom is crazy and maybe Dad's not as crazy as she says he is. So there I have time on my side. Eventually I will have a relationship with my kids, but right now it's just— it just is what it is.

Yeah, I was going to say the good news is that, um, after hearing so many of these stories The timeline seems to be, you're right, there is some kind of tipping point for your kid and his relationship with mom where he will finally wake up and say, "Uh-oh, I don't think everything is as it seems here. Something is up." And you'll get that, you know, that little text message or something in the middle of the night saying, "Hey, you want to talk?" And it all goes from there. And I've spoken to How to say this? I've spoken to guys who are in your son's position, who later learned after being in their 20s and 30s and so forth, wow, there's all this story I had no idea about, about my parents. And my mother was the narcissistic one and she kept me and I found all these letters from my dad and blah, blah, blah. And since then we've had an amazing relationship and I've cut my mom out of my life. Man, I've heard that more often than I would, you know, than I'd like to. Yeah, sorry to hear that, but the good news is that, yeah, give him time, it'll all come out in the end. Now the negative, the more cynical side of me hearing your story says, you know who he's going to end up with for a girlfriend and later a wife? Yeah, he's going to end up with— he's going to end up with your wife or a version of her.

Yeah, at some point, potentially. Yeah. And if I can do anything to stop that, I certainly will.

That's— yeah, because I've heard that again and again and again. That's another thing a lot of guys listening to this are nodding their heads saying, oh geez, if I knew what I knew, then my kid wouldn't be in the position he's in now with his current wife. And it's just— it's, um, it's not— it's a— what's the word— an epidemic kind of thing. It's just a disease passed from generation to generation. Um, yeah, I don't know if you looking back— and not to dig too further into this, but I don't know if you looking back at your father and grandfather and stuff? Were there similarities there in their stories? Uh, no, I don't think so.

I think I, I just got lucky. I, you know, I, I thought I was— I thought I was smarter than what I, what I really am. Or maybe— yeah, yeah.

Are you one of those guys that always seems you have to take the, the difficult route? Apparently, clearly I am, to get where you're going. Yeah, yeah, it's funny how that works. So going back to the story of military, and you're in the Navy SEAL, you made it Um, you're going on missions and, um, we could talk a lot about that, but let's jump past all of that to it's now time to leave that role in the military. Was there like an interim role from active Navy SEAL guy to more of an administrative type of role and then eventually out of the military, or did you go from action to real life? Boom, boom.

Uh, there's, there are admin, admin roles sort of built into the kind of life cycle of a of a SEAL, you know, whether it's training, you know, you're going from like being on a team to going to the training, you know, command and training people, or going to a headquarters and doing like the admin stuff and kind of back and forth. So I did all of those roles. My last job was an admin role where I went out and found $16 million of other people's money to help solve problems, you kind of technology issues that we had in the teams. So— Nice. That was my last job and I was kind of in denial about getting out of the military because they only let you stay in for so long and I was like answering emails on my BlackBerry the day before I actually retired and I was like, "Okay guys, maybe you want this back." And so I was like, "All right, last email. Ready, send." And then my transition, I would say, was the hardest military mission I've ever been on. You know, I had like my ex-wife, you know, and she— her using my kids as weapons. And that was like really the hardest part. But also I got this, you know, I call it baggage that I carry around. Some of— some of it's, you know, some of that, a lot of that, some of it's, you know, work-related baggage. And so So that was pretty much me, you know, drinking myself to sleep at night, every night, just to turn the noise down or dull the noise in my head.

There was a movie, and I cannot remember which one it was, which depicted this phenomenon of a guy going from military to civilian life. And it shows in one scene he was, you know, in the middle of a big firefight and the stress and trauma of that, to now he's in a grocery store staring at an aisle full of cereal. What a transition. You know, a minor league version of that, a very minor league version of that is we talked about, uh, um, you and I talked before this, the rock stars. They go from being up on stage with tens of thousands of people screaming at them to real world, and we wonder why they trash their hotel room. So it's tough to make that transition from one extreme to the next. So I can imagine, you know, amplify that a millionfold from the, the trauma and hell of war to, hey, here you are back in Walmart, you know, trying to buy toilet paper. It's— yeah, no wonder it's such a difficult transition. Now, not to throw our government under the bus at all, but the VA and other, um, solutions that are out there, were they helpful in, in that transition at all?

No, I— you know, there's like a week-long program or class that you have to take before you get out And, uh, outside of that, there's no real resources. You know, there's like, you know, some medical stuff. So I went from like having a pretty good income to having no income. And then once my retirement kicked in, it was like retirement pay is not, you know, it's like beer money at the end of the day. It's not very many dollars, you know, even after 26 years, not, it's not that much money. Um, so, and then also your expenses go up. Significantly. Like, I never paid health insurance or anything like that. And so I'm still paying a lot of money in child support. I'm still paying a lot of money in private school. I'm still paying a lot of money in all these other things. And now I've got all these other— and I've got a mortgage on this side and a family on this side. And it's like, you know, I went from like good, like okay income, getting by, to almost no income, below the welfare line, and, uh, and no mission, no purpose, no team, no— have no idea what the hell I'm doing. With my life. I had a plan, it wasn't working out quite as well as I had hoped, and so there was a lot of, a lot of, a lot of struggle there trying to figure that transition out.

I can't imagine. So, and you did— you mentioned you did what a lot of guys do where you turn to alcohol and other things to help ease some of that transition and deal with a lot of that anxiety that you're experiencing as a result. Is anybody listening to listening to your story would experience some kind of anxiety. And so when was it that you were introduced to this world of CBD? It was—

so it was 2019. It was— I had— I flew to Virginia to go to court again with my ex-wife. And, and I had lunch with a former teammate. And I had heard about CBD while I was on active duty, but I wasn't going to try it because I was afraid You know, I'm a child of Nancy Reagan's war on drugs, just say no, and, uh, and drugs are bad, okay? And, uh, marijuana and all that other stuff. But I had heard about CBD, like, while I was on active duty, and, uh, like, I was listening to a podcast and the guy was like, everyone knows about, you know, medical marijuana, THC, but there's this other molecule that's super cool, uh, that I think will be the next big thing, and it's called CBD, and it helps with stress, anxiety, it helps with different kinds of— it helps people sleep better, it helps, um, with different kinds of pain, it helps, uh, you know, with certain kinds of, you know, childhood epilepsy. It's got all these other medicinal benefits. It's like, helps, you know, reduce chronic inflammation. And I'm like, see, I was driving and I'd like pulled out my notebook and wrote it down, CBD. And, uh, but it wasn't legal, like federally legal at all, and I didn't really know what to expect. So now I'm out of the military I don't have any issues, uh, with— I still have a top secret clearance, but I'm like, I, I need to do something. I need to change something. And I talked to my buddy and he was like, you want CBD? I've got a bottle at the house. And so we went back to his house, he gave me that bottle, and, uh, and I took it that night. And I took it for the next 30 days or so. And I didn't notice anything really dramatic when I took it. Like, you don't get high or anything from CBD. It's just You know, it's a molecule and they mix it with either an olive oil or an MCT oil to help, you know, kind of cross the blood-brain barrier. And, but what I noticed after I finished that bottle of CBD, I was like, did it do anything for me? And I kind of went back and I looked at myself and I noticed that, you know, my fuse got longer for some of the like stresses and things that would happen. And so what I like to say is water boils at 212 degrees and I was probably living at 210 degrees. So it didn't take much to like hit that boiling point. I was living in that red zone for, you know, many, many years. And what I noticed over time is I went from like 210 to 205 to 200 to 195 to 190, maybe down to 185. I got out of that red zone and got into more of an orange zone, maybe a dark yellow zone. And my fuse was longer. Like I could have those those things come in that would really set me off, especially from her. And, uh, and I noticed that I had a longer period of time to actually reply rather than to respond to, to that, those things, uh, those attacks that she would, you know, she would launch at me. And what was cool is over time she knew that the attacks were less effective, so she would come even harder which actually empowered me even more. And so I stopped taking CBD and I started getting closer to that boiling point again. And I took a different brand and I had similar results. So it had such a positive impact on my life. I wanted to be involved in the, in the industry. I just didn't know anything about it. I didn't know anything else. And so I was at this business conference and I met a girl that was in the CBD industry and really I wanted her to hire me. I'm like, I'm still looking for my new mission, my new purpose, my new team.. And I'm like, maybe that's the girl. Maybe she's, she's it. And she was like, well, why don't you start your own? Well, first she was like, so do you wanna do A to B, B to B, or B to C? And I'm like, I don't know the letters you're saying to me. I wanna do CBD. And she said, okay, well, why don't you just start your own CBD company? And I said, I don't know how to do that. And she said, you are a Navy SEAL. You can figure it out. So I asked her for my man card back and, and she gave it to me. She was, I, you know, put it away and never to give it up again. And, uh, and so she helped educate me a little bit on the, on the CBD industry. And then I went out and I researched the industry some more, and I found that it's an extremely dirty industry. So my goal was to produce the highest quality product, uh, in the industry. And then, uh, once I finally did that, uh, you know, I partnered with, you know, high, you know, the highest quality suppliers that I could find were still the highest quality that I have found because I still do research in different suppliers. Even the biggest names in CBD, our quality, uh, quality control is higher than, you know, the biggest names that you have probably seen in, in stores or commercials or anything else. Um, and so from there I was like, well, so lots of people have high quality or premium quality CBD. What's our actual mission? And I looked at, at myself, uh, and where I came from, and I found that, you know, 22 veterans take their lives every single day. And so our mission became 22 to 0, our, you know, eliminate veteran suicide. Like, I can't even imagine what it is for first responders because there's no like centralized, you know, database of like really what's going on with those guys. But I know the VA keeps track of veteran suicide and it's 22 a day. It's actually probably higher than that now after the whole COVID thing, lockdowns and things like that. You know, suicide became a, you know, really an epidemic across the board. And so for me, CBD was a modality that helped turn down the noise in my head so I could have more positive self-talk. So, you know, that's part of our mission. And the other part of our mission is like changing the way that people think about stuff. It's really about this get naked mindset. It's about, you know, taking your ego off and sitting in the corner to be a little bit vulnerable so you can find the healing that you actually need in order to, to, to really get better physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Yeah. So tell me more about the get naked. I love the, uh, I don't know how much in the world of marketing you've been, but I'm a marketing dude from my day job in the past. So when I saw that, I was like, smart, because you have that little sex appeal thing of there naked, right? Nude. And then, but it has a deeper meaning than that, obviously. So go into that a little bit more if you could.

Yeah, for sure. So, so naked, it's, it's, you know, this was after, you know, I got my brain right and I got better control of my, my own sort of self-talk. I looked back at my time in the SEAL Teams and I was like, so what, what can I do? What, what have I done that can help other people and can continue to help myself? And so I took Naked and I turned it into an acronym. And so the acronym is for never, you know, the N is for never quit. And I don't mean never quit smoking or drinking or getting out of being in a toxic relationship. Get out of that thing. But never quit on yourself. Never quit trying to improve your position, where you are in life. So, and I have like, you know, skills along the way to help you work that out. And so what I say is to create small victories. So for example, Hell Week in BUD/S, it's 5 and a half days of, you know, pain and misery and cold and wet and sandy and no sleep. But one thing is constant during Hell Week is they feed you 4 times a day. So all you have to do is make it to that next meal, no matter how much it sucks, make it to that next meal. And that's a small victory. So no matter where you are in your life, what you're doing, what you're trying to accomplish, chop that thing up into bite-sized pieces and create a small victory every day, and then eventually you will get there. The A is accept failure because failure has been, you know, the biggest teacher in my life. I've had to— like, I have to, I have to do things and I have to fail in order to actually learn the lesson. So the A is accept failure. The K is kill mediocrity because if, you know, let's be honest, we're surrounded by mediocrity every day. Technology makes us mediocre. It wants to hold us back. And so what I tell people is to, you know, maybe give up a little bit of technology and start to compete. Compete in kindness, compete in generosity, compete in gratitude, and most importantly, compete against that ego. The ego that's telling you that you don't need to work out today, you don't need to attack your goals today, you don't need to create that small victory today. Go beat your ego, compete against your ego, and create those small victories and, and compete. And win. And once you learn to do that, like, nothing can stop you. The E is expose your fears. This was the biggest one for me, is exposing my fears, because I'm a Navy SEAL. I can't tell you how many times I was physically assaulted by my ex-wife, but she's 110 pounds, 115 pounds. What— who's gonna believe that she really— like, I was like, boom, boom, boom, she's like hitting me and attacking me and like throwing stuff at me. I'm like, this is like— if it was reversed, it would be like, I'm going to jail. Like, I can't call the police and be like, yo, uh, my, my 110-pound wife is trying to like beat me up. They're gonna laugh at me and, you know, send me on my way. But had I done that, you know, that would have probably changed a lot of things. But, you know, I couldn't tell anyone that I was afraid of like whatever I was afraid of. Like, my— she, she's, she's controlling my mind and like making me crazy over here. But it was— it wasn't until I like actually exposed my own fears, those fears that, you you know, live in the back of your brain that you don't want to tell anyone about, that keep you up at night. The fears, the thoughts, the stresses, the anxieties that like, you know, you start having an argument while you're alone in your car for no reason at all, and you're just by yourself. Those fears, those are the things that I'm talking about. And so I look at fear to be like a vampire. A vampire, it lives in the darkness and it sucks the life out of you. These fears, they live in that dark part of your brain, deep dark part of your plane. You don't want to tell anyone about, and they suck the life out of you. Once you learn to expose those fears, then you will control the fears and the fears will no longer control you. And what I mean by that is, so I have a friend, he's in the billionaire category, and he says that fear does not exist on paper. And so what he does is he's driving along and he'll have these stresses and anxieties come out. He'll pull over, he'll stop at a Starbucks, he'll get a cup of coffee and he'll take a pen or a pencil and a piece of paper, not his phone, not his iPad, not anything else. And he'll write down every one of those fears, those stresses, those thoughts, those anxieties that are swirling around, and he'll write 'em down and he'll read 'em and he'll like, "That's really what's bothering me? That thing right there? That's the thing?" Like, fear does not exist on paper. So he gets control of that fear, those stresses, those anxieties, and so he's exposing that fear. And the D is to do the work because at the end of the day, we're kind of lazy. That mediocrity thing, you know, you can hit a button on your phone and have ice cream delivered to your house in 30 minutes or less. From Amazon. Well, we've kind of— we do that. We, we're just like, okay, one time is good enough. One time is not good enough. You have to do it over and over and over and over and over. You have to be relentless in the things that you're trying to do if you want to actually accomplish something. I mean, you've kind of heard in my story where I'm like, I just hit brick wall after brick wall after brick wall because I have to fail and I have to learn. If I had stopped after the first time, that I wouldn't be where I am today. You know, I would probably be even more miserable. I would be less successful. I would be less, less, be less and less and less. So it requires work. If you want to accomplish anything in life, it requires work. And that's, you know, there's a saying we have in the SEAL Teams. It says, earn your Trident every day. And when I graduated SEAL training, I didn't have that sort of mentality. I thought, I've graduated the hardest military training in the world. It's going to be easy from here. And I learned very quickly once I got to the SEAL Teams, that they expect you to perform better today than you did yesterday. And that's why they say the only easy day is yesterday. Because you— no one cares. Every one of those guys have been to BUD/S. They don't care. Every one of those guys show up every day and they put forth, you know, that much more effort. And the cool thing about being in the SEAL Teams, whether you're a junior guy or a senior guy, everyone has the same input. So, if I show up and I'm not performing, My junior guys are going to be up my ass and they're going to be like, yo, what's up? Your job is to perform today. And I'm like, yeah, you're right, because if they don't perform, I'm going to be up their ass. So we have to show up and do the work every single day. So NAKED stands for Never Quit, Accept Failure, Kill Mediocrity, Expose Your Fears, and Do the Work. And I, you know, I travel around and I give a whole big presentation about that at different events, and I get some pretty cool feedback from it. And if you want to read more about that, you can go to the website, the number 5sealsecrets.com, 5sealsecrets.com. Put your name and email in there and I'll send you a, like, a PDF of it. I wrote it all down. I just kind of went over it real quickly, you know, just right now. But you can kind of go in and you can, you know, download that and read it for yourself.

Very good. I love it, man. I gotta— I'm going to the gym here later and I have a feeling after hearing that I'm gonna have a really good gym session. And it's leg day, so I need all the help I can get, right? There you go. So, the Naked philosophy, which is awesome, love it, perfect. I mean, you hit a home run with that one, from a marketing guy, you know. Thank you. Dude, that's awesome. So, you've applied that. Now, does that apply to the CBD world? Does that apply to branding-wise? And I see you also have like the Naked Warrior, Naked Warrior Recovery, that's part of the CBD world. So, explain like how all that intermingles with all your different worlds.

So CBD was my primary modality. Naked Warrior Recovery, so it was about, you know, me recovering first of all. CBD was a modality that helped me kind of turn down the noise. The Naked Warrior is a head nod to my lineage as a SEAL. So if you have ever seen the movie Saving Private Ryan, that first assault on Normandy, Yeah, prior to that assault, the Navy went out and found guys that were really good at swimming and they were good at demolitions, uh, who volunteered. And they would go in prior to that assault, and this was actually the planning of the assault on Normandy. They would go in, they would swim into the beach from these big gray ships out in the ocean, uh, take little rubber boats in, and then they would swim into the beach. They would take— do a reconnaissance of the beach of like fighting positions, obstacles in the way, um, and, and then, you know, and take notes. And they would swim back in the water, get back in the water be about 25 yards apart. They would measure the depth of the water with a, like, a rock and a string, and they would, you know, measure the depth of the water right down the depth, and then swim underwater about 25 yards, uh, looking for obstacles underwater. If they ran into an obstacle, they would mark it on the slate that they wore around their neck, and then, you know, continue, you know, measuring, you know, uh, doing reconnaissance of the beach and the, and the water, you know, several thousands of yards a night. Go back to the ship, draw a big chart, and that was the chart that they used to assault Normandy. And so just before that Saving Private Ryan assault on Normandy, these guys went back in under the COVID of darkness, getting, you know, shot at from the beach, put up, you know, demolition charges on the obstacles on the beach as best they could, swim back in the water, put demolition charges on the obstacles in the water, get out of the water in a little boat and then blew, you know, blew the obstacles as the, you know, the assault force was coming in. So after that assault, they— the Navy just disbanded that unit. But then, you know, as the war moved to the Pacific, you know, these Marines would be going ashore during this island campaign and the landing craft would hit the barrier reefs and the Marines would run off thinking they're in 3 feet of water and then, you know, fall off on the other side of the reef and drown in like 30 feet of water with like 60 pounds of kit on. And then so the Navy recommissioned these guys. They were called Underwater Demolition Team, also known as Naked Warriors, because they would go into combat. They would go and do these hydrographic reconnaissance and reconnaissance of the beaches, um, basically wearing like, you know, little shorts, uh, a mask and fins and a Ka-Bar knife and a lead line and a slate. And so they were, they were known as the Navy— the, the Naked Warrior, later known as Underwater Demolition Team. And in 1962, JFK renamed them from Underwater Demolition Team to US Navy SEALs, US Navy SEAL Teams. And that's the naked warrior. That's where the name came from.

There's some history behind it. I love it. Yeah. Yeah, that's very cool. And so you talked about the work in regards to lowering the rate of, or eliminating rather, the rate of suicide amongst Veterans. Wow, what a shocking number. 22 per day.

Yeah, we've lost more veterans to suicide than we have in 20 years of sustained combat in two theaters of war. We lost more, more veterans to suicide in the last 20 years than we have in 20 years of sustained combat in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

My father was a Vietnam vet and he was an Air Force guy, a career, and he, like I've learned since, a lot, a lot of military men. About not even 2 years after retirement, he passed away. Um, so what's going on there? Don't know. What's the mechanism at play? Did he lose his sense of self, his sense of mission? His, you know, did the stress of all of that culminate over, you know, decades of being in the military? And he saw active duty in Vietnam, Iraq, and Kuwait and everything else. Did that just take its toll on him? And are we seeing, um super ramped up amplified version of that in today's modern day soldier. Obviously we're not taking care of these young men. What is it that we can do as just dudes listening to this podcast? Is there something that we could do to help out and help those men in need? I think so.

There's a lot of, um, organizations out there that help veterans with transitions and things like that. If you know one of those organizations, reach out and, and see if you can assist in some way. If you have a company, maybe hire a veteran. Help give them a new mission, a new purpose, a new, you know, a new team to be a part of. And I think that's a big part of it. I know it certainly was for me. You know, when I left the SEAL Teams, I lost my mission, I lost my purpose, and I lost my team. And so now I have a new mission, a new purpose, and I'm building what I like to call my new SEAL Team. The people that I surround myself with are part of my new SEAL team. And so I'm very picky in who I allow on my team. Somewhat— I have like enablers and I have actual team members. So kind of like the SEAL teams where I have, you know, people that I bring in, uh, to be not specifically on like Naked Warrior, but they're on my William Branham SEAL team. Like, you're, you're part of my team. Like someone that I can rely on. Like I can call and be like, yo, I need help with this, and, and, and then they will help me. Or I— they call me Hey, I need help with this, and then I go and I can help them. And so, you know, be there for veterans that need help.

And are you seeing much headway as far as our government is concerned with recognizing the issue and putting together programs for these men?

I think the government's pretty fucked up right now, personally.

Is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not seeing much in there. Isn't that sad and interesting at the same time that it's media-wise, if you didn't know any better, You would think that our soldiers returning from war would just be up on a pedestal, so to speak, and we will help them and do whatever we can for them, right? But I tell you what, they come home from war and they are shit all over left and right. And, um, it's sad. Uh, I don't know why that is. Um, and we saw that to, you know, the nth degree for our guys returning from Vietnam, where we saw all these people saying, you know, you're just a child killer, get off. You know, people would refuse to sit next to a Vietnam vet on an airplane. You know, they'd see him in uniform. So it kind of started from there. I don't know where that mindset is, where it comes from. I can't personally relate to it, but it seems like we haven't been able to shake that necessarily. It's one thing to go up to a guy and say, "Hey, thanks for your service," and so forth, but we need to bump that up a few degrees, I think. And we're seeing what happens when we don't help those guys out in need. That transition, that's huge to go from wartime to regular life, as we're seeing. That's difficult for any regular human being to cope with. And I, you know, kudos to you, and thank God for guys like you putting together these programs and companies and with this vision and this mission in mind to help these gentlemen out, because you've lived it, and that's amazing. So thank you so much for everything you're doing. Thank you. For guys that want to learn more, let's start with— it was at 5— tell me again the name of the website to get the information.

It was 5sealsecrets, the number 5, seal, S-E-A-L, secrets.com, 5sealsecrets.com. And your company, the CBD company, is Naked Warrior Recovery, so it's nw-recovery.com, or you can type in Naked Warrior Recovery, all one word. But I made it nw-recovery because, um, you know, maybe people don't want to write naked in their search engine. Yeah, I'm not sure why, it just, you know, something weird could happen. I'm not sure, you never know. Uh, but it'll get you there. But if you, if you don't put the dash in You're going to go to like Northwest Recovery, which is like alcohol rehab something. That's not me. Yeah, nw-recovery.com.

Gotcha. nw-recovery.com. Or you could probably Google me.

I'm pretty Googleable now. I've been on enough podcasts. There's—

I'm pretty easy to find. Yeah, when, uh, we have a mutual friend, Christy Vaccaro from Fit LV, and she was at our Bro Fest and she pulled me aside and said, I got a gentleman you need to speak to. I need to get— this dude is right up your alley. He's same kind of mission, same kind of vision, and he's just a really go-go-go kind of guy. So of course I Google you, I'm like, well, holy shit, dude, it's just like YouTube, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube, and articles and your social media. You are keeping busy. So you still got— I mean, you went through the shit for sure, but you have recovered and you have brought back that warrior spirit of go-go-go and get the hell out of my way and where's— what's the next thing I can accomplish and That's awesome. We need more guys trying to figure it out over here.

There's no, there's no like, uh, like real clear path on entrepreneurship, so you just got to figure it out.

Exactly right. And I tell you what, and, uh, being an entrepreneur myself, and it really is— are you willing to do those things that the average Joe just says, dude, I'm not doing that? That's like 90% of it right there. It's just willing to put in the work. Are you willing to stay up till 4 in the morning to figure something out? Are you willing to jump on an airplane and travel across somewhere to go talk to somebody who's been there, done that, you know, all those kind of things. Yeah, the average Joe doesn't. And that's, like I say, it's 90% of it. So we have a lot to learn from William Branham with Naked Warrior Recovery CBD company. I have— I'm ignorant of the CBD world. I need to give it a try, I think. I think you can do nothing but help me as an entrepreneur guy. This head is always filled with something. And it's always spinning. Go, go, go! Think, think, think! You know what?

You know what? I— let me, let me give you guys a, a discount code. Uh, let's do DSO20. DSO20. Okay, to save 20% on all Naked Warrior Recovery products.

I love it! Awesome! So Naked Warrior Recovery products, DSO20 is the coupon code, guys. Try that out. Uh, let's help out William and his mission because it is a noble one. William, thank you so much, brother.

I appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Thanks for having me on here.

All right, you have a good one.

Thank you. All right, you as well.