Supporting Veterans in Transition: Veterans, First Responders & the Challenge Model Changing Lives

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. Well, all right, you guys, here we go. This is the ultimate do the Thing moment, because this is based off of an idea and being able to put something into action. So for those of you that have been following along on the journey, I have uncovered a way to help raise a lot of money for meaningful causes, actually. And I have this thing I'm doing right now called the Billion Dollar Activation campaign, where I've basically put it out there that this is happening. We're doing it for meaningful causes all around the world. And one of the meaningful causes that we're talking about today is veterans and first responders and being able to support them through their rediscovery of who they are after they leave or even during the process of currently being enrolled. And so that's what we're actually going to be doing today, is talking about using the do the Thing challenge framework, which is rooted in collective action and deep connection and helping people actually follow through on the things that they're wanting to do by doing it with other people. Because who wants to do the thing alone? Right? We want to do it with my people, as we call it here, do the Thing. And so that's what we're basically doing is we're going to be brainstorming different ways, different actions that we could be helping support veterans, first responders transition. And then also this is potentially going to be something that could also go into corporations. And we brought even a person that's an expert in courage and helping people overcome courage, super excited to have insight on things. And so each of these experts that we have gathered are going to help us open a different part of what we are about to talk about today. So you guys, I'm gonna go ahead and start with having you each introduce yourself and just even why you're excited about being here, why you showed up on this panel. And I just wanna also just honor each of you and just appreciate you for being here. So, Fred, would you like to start?

Yeah. How are you, Stacey? It's really thankful to be here because I thought I had the only voice on the planet, the only one who was having problems transitioning out. And just to make a long story short, as you heard, I got stuck out in the desert by myself in a real world combat operation. As a combat vet, very challenging, especially considering I was a public affairs guy. Next to, you know, I'm extremely shy and bashful. So I had to make the challenge myself. Coming out of that environment, getting My mental health cleaned up and then I took my trauma a different way. Instead of feeling that survivor's guilt and a lot of stuff that some of us experience in combat situations, I actually scaled up several companies to a few billion dollars and they're still in existence to this day. So I'm just now landing after all of these years from my trauma. But more specifically now I'm focused in on helping veterans get through that transition as well with their mental health. And I'm super excited to be here. So thank you so much.

Wow. Thank you. Thank you. And Katherine.

I'm Katherine Severns Avery. I am the founder and executive director of Restoration Ranch Colorado, which is a nonprofit that provides respite and recreation opportunities for first responders and their family. I had nothing to do with the first responder world. Five years ago, my husband Chris went out to go get groceries during COVID and never came home. He was T boned by three robbery suspects who were fleeing from police. And that was my first introduction to the first responder world. When I asked to be able to celebrate Chris's milestone birthday the following April with the Lakewood Police Department, they were absolutely incredible. And I went to roll call for the very first time where I listened as the agent first on scene talked about the day before when a 14 year old boy had stabbed his mother 30 times, including through the skull. And I kept on asking, I don't understand why is he at work? And I was told he may not want or need mental health counseling at this time. He sure as heck doesn't want to be sitting at home by himself thinking about this. And there's no other place for him to go. So I made it my mission to change that. Shortly after my husband was killed, my father passed away. And rather than choosing to use my inheritance to buy a Lamborghini and become a cougar, I decided to purchase a 40 acre ranch which now is the first of its kind in the country. Because of our stakeholder group, we serve, dispatch fire and ems, law enforcement, including park rangers and corrections, frontline medical, victim advocates, coroner's office representatives and members of the judiciary, all extremely underserved groups. And I think the reason why Stacy asked me to be here today is that so many first responders have have military backgrounds and the trauma that they experience in the military carries right on in to the trauma that they experience on the job as a first responder. I'm also very proud to say that we started the first in the nation day camps for teenage children of first responders because they didn't exist, and now that program is growing. Ashley Brond is the therapist who facilitates that, so she'll talk about that later. But that's why I'm here, and I'm very happy to be here.

Thank you, Katherine and Michael.

Hello.

My name is Michael Wood, Marine Corps veteran. I served over 15 years on active duty and the reserves. I was working with wounded warriors, learning that media arts is an employable skill set. And I saw my pivot point because I transitioned twice, I realized that even twice you think you have it down. And no, it's just as hard the second time. But the reality is that getting vets on set opens up new doors for those that don't fit all the other models that are out there. So I started a production company called Never Forgot Media. We're a live streaming and documentary production company. We just got back from Atlanta from the MICK Conference, so it's been quite busy. It opens doors for those veterans as a stepping stone. It's a horrible business model because my turnover is pretty high. But outside of live streaming, I'm a first AD Award winning DP Award winning editor, technical director for large conferences, and president for San Diego Media Pros. And I have a documentary called Turning Steel. It's about two brothers. Both struggled after the military. Only one survived suicide. So we follow Bill as he helps veterans find a purpose in American manufacturing with the goal that they save each other, American manufacturing and veterans.

So thank you. And Ashley.

Hey, everyone. I'm Ashley Braund. I'm a licensed professional counselor in Colorado and Wyoming. I work with Catherine. I facilitate the first responder Teen day camps and have been facilitating these groups for over three years. And we're just really trying to push to also take care of the teens and their unique stressors of being kids of a first responder. And my husband is now a cadet with Fort Collins Police, so I am now a spouse of a first responder. Yeah. So just growing that way.

Wow.

I didn't even think about that from a impact standpoint of how whatever we end up creating today could potentially be something that the families are able to utilize too. So really good. And Ryan Berman, first of all, y' all are amazing.

It's like, I'm like, well, I don't want to follow any of you. I don't have my introductions. Name is Ryan Berman. I am a last responder. I've never been in your arena. I see myself as an observationalist and I've been studying the concept of courage now for over a decade. I have a Company called Courageous. We are a courage company. If I'm a first responder at all, it's with helping corporations that are stuck, scared, or playing it safe figure out ways to move and to pivot what comes with that. Is a lot of keynote speaking, but I don't see myself as a motivational speaker. I see myself as a conversational speaker, and we're just having a conversation, which is kind of what the company needs. I do have a podcast, which is why I have a Step and Repeat in my house, which my wife loves highly recommend not doing that. And I wrote a book called Return on Courage, where I got to basically add up for three years and interview people way smarter than me. Now I call it the Brave, the Bullish, and the Brainiac. And on the brave side, I learned a lot about your world side with Navy Seals, army infantrymen, firefighters that navigated nine, 11 tornado chasers. I was just more fascinated why you do what you do and how you do what you do. And then when I looked at the choices that I was making in my life, granted, it was more with corporations, I was like, wow, that was courageous of me to start a company. My mentors were all Mad Men, actual mad men in New York City. So, Michael, we probably should get together and talk, because I ran agencies for the last 25 years, and what I learned from writing my book pretty much gave me the courage to fire myself and to start this business. So that's my story.

Wow. Amazing. Oh, Katherine, I love your dog.

And then, Courtney, are you able to. Are you. Are you on a call or are you okay? I'm okay right now. Oh, yay. Okay, Courtney.

Hi.

Courtney Lawless. I think my partner, H, is on as well. We have a company called Revy. We have a contract right now for military recruiting, specifically in the Marine Corps. So the one side of our platform is dealing with finding recruits to start to fill the ranks of our military, and then the other commercial side is helping transitioning veterans find opportunities and jobs and helping them get better adapted after their years of service. And Courtney will be popping in and out. She has a funding call she's working on, but I wanted to let you guys know, too. The other piece of this, which is why I'm really excited about Courtney and H being here, is potentially these challenges could also be used to help veterans get jobs after they leave the military. Because my background is in staffing, and by partnering with them and being able to then have employers hire veterans, that's actually another kind of way where the challenges can give them Personal and professional development skills while they're looking for a job. And so it's super exciting. Lots of different ways that this is going to go spidering out. So this is the first kind of incubation of all the voices, which is great. And with that, H, hello, everyone.

Elysio here, everyone calls me H. First and foremost. It's a pleasure to be here. Just be part of this great group. Just retired. I'm a veteran from the Marines. 24 years, the last 19 years has been spent on recruiting duty. So been doing that for a long time. Anything sells. Been part of that at every single level within the Marine Corps. Done two combat deployments, one during the invasion, went back in 2005. And then the Marine Corps felt the need to send me on recruiting duty, which I stayed out here because I loved how we have an opportunity not only to change lives, but change generations to come. And the reason why I'm passionate about this project and what we're doing is as a service member, first responder, and like Ryan said, last responder, which I didn't know it was last responders. Right. We're all casualties of war in some point, in some way. And coming into the military, going into just the first responder world, there's a lot of resources, a lot of individuals that can help you navigate the entry point. But as you transition, there's really no information out there that helps you deal with those demons. Because once the silence hits, that's when your thoughts start coming back and haunting.

So just part of the deployment, I enlisted a lot of kids that paid the ultimate sacrifice for their country and those were things that I was dealing with. I did fall in that pit for a couple months and I had to figure out a way how to dig myself out of it and climb out. And eventually I did. It took me some time, but I did it alone. So if we could come up with resources or just ideas that are going to help our brothers and sisters navigate the difficulties of transitioning, just any service or just occupation, I'm here and I'm glad to be part of it. So thank you.

Thank you so much. And Stacy.

Hi everyone. It's such a blessing to be here with you all. I'm so excited to hear about each of your visions and missions and what you've been able to accomplish thus far and will be pushing forward in the future. For me, I am a up and coming everything. I started a business in speaking to the mental health, which is why Stacy invited me. And thank you so much. I am just thrilled that we're all, I think, moving towards models of care or content and service to help people who have been a veteran or currently possibly serving or in addition to first responders, to have the trauma recovery care that they need to help them foster a firm foundation of recovery within themselves. So that when they are getting into the different programs that people are talking about, like that's on sets or transitioning into their actual new employment positions, that they will have that recovery firm in their embodiment so that they are going to be able to have that within themselves, but also to carry that forward into their communities, that they're a part of their families, their friendships and everything. So my background from the mental health perspective, I did a lot of training in psychology. I was going to get a PhD, but what I figured out is that with my business in being a TV film producer and director and screenwriter, is that I can reach a whole lot more people with the arts than I can as just only a trauma recovery center model. So I can do both. And through the movie that Stacy and I were talking about, that I actually, I want to make a lot of movies. I've already made some.

Right.

So.

But one of the war movies that I want to make is for the first African American Medal of Valor winner, and that's from the Vietnam War. Now, there's still a lot of Vietnam vets that are not being served who still go to celebrate recoveries and all these things because they're so traumatized by their service and duty that they performed honorably to our country and they got back and they were thrown tomatoes at them and just horrible things, people calling them names. And people are still scarred by that. I mean, it still haunts them today. So just like a few of you already mentioned, you get haunted by when you're in silence. So the avenue of the film in reaching people through the arts is that it directly hits and resonates and relates in your emotional being self, in your heart and your spirit. So this is a way to help people get on board with, oh, hey, my mental health matters too. And for all the men and women who serve who are in the Marines, in the Navy, the Air Force, even in the first responders, you all get shamed, harshly, made fun of for wanting to help your inside person. I know this is a reality because in my training of what I've seen and heard. So I think it's really imperative to utilize all these avenues that we're all talking about to reach people and help also not just reach them, but have a funnel of Places that they can go for transition, trauma, recovery and actually have that all laid out so that they actually are getting service in the way that they need, that is actually transformative and really help helps the rest of their life and all everybody's communities.

It's so great because we're bringing in these stories of movies. Several of the people on the call are making movies to showcase the power of veterans. Right. And first responders and what they're doing in the world. And the power of that is the movie is actually sometimes the thing that helps someone go, oh, I get it now. Right. And so I'm just glad that I have this next level kind of thinking here as well. So thank you. And Ryan Montes, you're up.

Okay.

Thank you so much, Stacy. I'm going to echo what Ryan Berman said earlier. Wow, this is a very, very deeply impressive group of people you've assembled here, Stacey. So I'm also very grateful that you invited me as well. I am myself an ex private detective, ex Canadian military.

I was in the army.

These days, I am a skills trainer for coaches and a business mentor for coaches. I have a background in neuro, linguistic programming and hypnotherapy. The big headline there is helping people to relate to what's going on in their unconscious mind, change what's going on in their unconscious mind for the better, so they can have those changes reflect in their outward reality, which can be a very, very positive thing. I also have had the pleasure of being side by side with Stacy while enhancing the programs that she's describing for you guys and working on getting them into more people's hands. And I can definitely vouch for the power and the efficacy of what Stacy is providing to the world. And I'm just excited to help get that in more people's hands whenever possible. So glad to be here.

Thank you. So glad you're here. Okay. And then we have George and Lance. We're going to introduce them in a minute. So one of the things that kind of ignited this whole thing was I actually went to this ranch in San Diego. It's in Descanso, actually, called Saddles In Service. And that was when I got to meet Lance and many other amazing veterans and first responders there who have served and then were basically getting reacculated through equine therapy and community and got to hear the stories of the people. And that's when I just raised my hand. When I got to see the power. I don't know what that was. It was like a magic moment of Just oh my gosh, I raised my hand and I was like, I'm all in. At that point, I didn't even know what that meant other than I knew I wanted to do something. And so one of the things that's happening is we're making this movie, it's called At Liberty, and we're creating a custom challenge specifically surrounding that movie. And we'll be talking about that amongst other things, because I know Michael Wood and I were talking about also potentially creating a custom challenge around what he's doing. And so that's kind of the idea is creating all these different challenges around what we're doing and then being able to do it in the way that supports people the most. And I'll explain what that means in a minute. Cause I have this actual comfort circle framework that we're going to be designing them based off of. And so with that, I'm really excited. First of all, introduce you to Lance, who he's actually one of the. Are you the main writer for this short film?

No, I'm a part of the writing team. But you have to give yeah, most credit to Tom and George. And now Riley's a part of that too. But yeah, kind of a dream come true to be able to be a part of the writing team for the film, the short film, at least for now, and to also be able to be in the film as well, starring none other than myself, which should be easy to do hopefully as a first time actor, but we'll see. But yeah. So I met you that day at the ranch. A lot has happened since that day we met, but I am a combat wounded veteran. I was wounded in 2007, pretty severely. Lost seven guys. I was in the 82nd Airborne in a. I was infantry, but in a reconnaissance surveillance target acquisition unit doing high value target time sensitive target raids and ended up being wounded really bad. You can hear kind of my whole story on that Teamhouse podcast. Yeah. If you want. I won't go into everything, but basically one of the things that has helped me in my healing the most has been saddles in service and working with horses and other veterans and other first responders who are wranglers and trainers and teachers out there. So kind of that whole community aspect which you're in finding a new tribe once you leave one. Finding purpose is huge for US military is how do you leave the military and then find purpose again? Brother Ryan talked about courage. Right. It takes a lot of courage. You think that that comes in spades, but with US war fighters. But that Kind of wanes maybe a little bit on the home front with asking for help with looking for things that are going to benefit you, your family and all that kind of stuff. And after I was wounded 10 months recovering in the hospital, medically retired and I kind of did a disservice to my family. My wife didn't have kids at the time, but not reaching out, not looking for those benefits, whether they come from federal or state or the thousands of nonprofits out there that help veterans, it wasn't something that I was taking advantage of and really did a disservice to myself. Luckily I've had so much support with family and other veterans and organizations, so many organizations along this journey, but being able now I work for Cal Vet. I've been working for Calvet, which is the California Department of Veteran affairs for over seven years. And I'm down in San Diego as the kind of that San Diego rep, the face for Cal Vet. And I go to all the military installations and I talk about transition. Right. I talk about all the things I did wrong and the things that I didn't take advantage of. And I get to know as many non profs, mostly in the San Diego area and all the different benefits and things and groups that are out there that can benefit the veterans and really just try and plug people in and really try and do that at the very beginning before me becomes more of a crisis. Maybe want to try and stop that as much as possible. Yeah. But yeah, getting involved with Style Service a little over two years ago was a lot like coming home for me. I grew up, my grandfather was a cattle rancher, so he was a first responder. He was a LA City fireman and then retired at a young age like most firemen do. And then he started cattle ranching. So I only knew him as that kind of hero cowboy on a horse and got to help him all the time growing up. And he was, he retired from that probably when I was about 10 or so. And that lifestyle, that way of living, that vaquero life, the cowboy life really left and kind of even at that point there was a void kind of maybe in me that didn't know how that would ever return. And then everything that happened to me with in the military coming out, another void of purpose, community, all that kind of stuff. So silent service was one of many, but definitely the most significant in my life as far as refining that purpose. I had good job and I had done so many different therapies and all that kind of stuff. There's just this Missing piece. And for me, that was really founded on the ranches at silent service, working with the horses, working with the other veterans and first responders. And then that led to meeting George, who I shared my story and everything we do at the ranch and how helpful that can be and how working with horses in the environment, in nature is kind of like a lot of different therapies all wrapped into one and how it touches on so many different things that veterans need. From being in a meditative state, you really can't be if you're on a thousand pound animal that is a prey animal that is fight or flight is. Flight is really its basic desire and you're a predator and it kind of knows you are and you're. You're going to be on its back or working with it on the ground. It can get pretty dangerous pretty fast or what we call getting western. And so you have to be in that meditative state. You have to be regulating your brain waves, your cortisol levels, your heart rate, your breathing, all that kind of stuff. And so it kind of forces you into that. And the more you do that, the more healing you're going to have as well. And just being in nature and all that. The dopamine releases serotonin, all that good stuff. So I meet George, who, he'll talk about his story, but he wanted to do this project and kind of create this, starting with a short film based on what we do out at the ranch. And after kind of sharing my story and I said, hey, I've. Over the years I've written a few things mostly for myself, but I'll send them to you. That way you kind of have a good idea of what it's like to be in my mind at least the different battles and things that depression and suicidal ideation, all that kind of stuff that you might face. And he read those and then he reached back out and he said, hey, I want you to be part of the writing team and help bring some authenticity to the group. Then shortly thereafter that was like, hey, you should also be in the film. And I was like, oh my gosh. And really kind of full circle. Growing up on the cattle ranches, looking at my grandpa as a hero that really not only did I want to always be a cowboy and that kind of sounds sillier the older you get, but being able to find saddles and service and get to do that. I was just in montana Herding about 1500 Head of cattle and doing that whole thing for about a week and really living my dream. My childhood dream. And one of the other things, if you're wanting to be a cowboy is you would probably want to be in a cowboy movie. Right. And so George is fulfilling another childhood dream of mine, getting to be in a. In a cowboy movie, and one that's really near and dear to my heart, which hopefully inspires and helps many other veteran and first responders dealing with these kinds of things that I've dealt with personally and. And help others deal with on a daily basis, unfortunately. But, yeah, that's why I kind of signed onto this in one way, to give back and breathe life from the veteran's perspective and then also to fulfill a personal dream to be writing and acting and, yeah, getting to be a cowboy.

So amazing. Thank you. Thank you, Lance and George.

Hey, everyone.

I am not a vet or a first responder, but I have infinite respect for all of you and for all of the people that serve us in all those ways. I'm here because I'm a writer, producer. I've had the luck of working with a number of Academy Award winners over the past 20 years. I started with Spike Lee, studied actually under Spike Lee, then worked with Guillermo del Toro for a while, and now I'm working with Stephen Schwartz, Mark Platt, and the whole Wicked team. So along the way, I've sort of developed these writing and producing skills that I've put together into this story system called deep story work. And that has helped me meet a person like Lance and tell that story as authentically as possible. And hopefully when we produce this movie together and along with Stacy, and it'll be something that represents what we're all trying to do here, which is to bring a message of a purpose post service. And so I'm really excited to tell that story. H said something that really resonated with me earlier. He said that we're all casualties to a certain degree. And I would say that what I'm bringing to this story is that my first cousin, after the Marines, he just wasn't the same. And in his mid-30s, he ended up committing suicide. So my family lived through that. We didn't understand what was happening. We didn't know how to speak with him. Things were. Words weren't working, therapy wasn't working, and we ended up losing him. And he was in his mid-30s. And so that lives with me every day. And that's what I'm bringing to this story. Together with Lance and Stacy, we're producing At Liberty, which is a short film, proof of concept for a feature film that'll be called the same thing at Liberty. And it tells the story of a vet named Cody who works with a wrangler named Lance. And if any of you get the chance of meeting Lance in person, Lance gives off real young Kevin Costner energy. I don't know if you could tell through the, you could tell through the screen, but he gives real Kevin Costner energy. So we casted him on the spot. You have to be the wrangler. So anyway, so we're moving forward. We're shooting the movie in December and then we're going to, after that, put it through the whole festival circuit. And then hopefully, luckily, we would like to create a feature film which expands on the story and goes into greater depth. So that's me and that's slim here. Thank you, Stacey.

Thank you so much. And so one of the ways that I noticed what would really help kind of support veterans and first responders probably as equally as personal and professional growth programs, is to help fund the organizations that are supporting them. Right. And to not have them be exhausted by the funding piece. And so part of what we're kind of doing today, it's also a new funding model that we'll be doing by getting these challenges into different organizations. So I'm going to give you guys just an idea of what the challenge is for those of you that have not seen it yet and for those of you watching that are not familiar. But this is one challenge where I've discovered the challenge model. It's a do the thing challenge. It's called find your voice, but we name it differently depending on what organization is running it. And this is one that basically we have this comfort circle framework where I help people kind of take action in a group. I did a TEDX talk last year on the power of community and how it helps you achieve your goals. And this challenge is the living breathing kind of version of that TEDx talk. So the TEDx talk is me inspiring people to understand why you need to join a group and actually even use the military as one of the examples of what I noticed is join a group after you're done the military.

Right.

Join a group after you've exited anything, any transition. And so I use these dares. They're basically these progressive micro actions. This is why this is so powerful because they're very simple. But it's getting people to share their goals and their dreams inside a community. And I've done this in all these different kinds of groups, from women who had just placed their babies up to adoption to high level mastermind Groups to just even the woman founders who have exited seven, eight figure exits. And so that's kind of the same idea of this challenge framework. It's going to be used to support veterans and potentially with the partnering with Courtney and H, potentially even helping them find jobs and maybe even entrepreneurial journeys. There's so many different things, but also it's going to be something from a corporation lens that they'll be able to partner with the nonprofit, feel like they're giving back or a meaningful cause, a movie, whatever it ends up being, feel like they're giving back. They're being a part of something, but they're getting activated by the message. And so, for example, with a movie like At Liberty, and potentially even with Michael's movie or with Stacy's movie, this is something corporations could even be involved with and watch the movie maybe and be a part of the challenge. And I'm going to show you guys one more thing and then we'll talk about what we're doing. And I'm going to get. I know exactly who I'm calling on first. So that's exciting. But the horse part of this comfort circle framework came out during my visit to Saddles and Service, which was where I noticed that so many people, when they're going through struggles, they come up to them and they say, what's wrong? How can I help? And what I noticed from being at Saddles in Service is you just don't want to even talk. Sometimes you just want to be, I'm calling it be the horse, but you actually also want to be with the horse. And that horse could be, in Michael's case, manufacturing or a bed on a set. It could be sailing, it could be anything. And then eventually that person can actually then find their voice and then be comfortable to do what Lance did, where he talked on a podcast with, I don't even know, a hundred thousand listeners or something like that. That takes courage, right? To be able to tell your story in that way. And so there's a circle framework to be able to open up your voice. And so I think the first thing I'd love to talk about, we're going to get into the veteran and the first responder part of this next. But I want to start with the corporation because I know, Ryan, you're going to be leaving soon. I want to get your insight on this is because, again, the corporation is where the funding is going to happen for the nonprofits, right? And so let's say we put these challenges inside a corporation and we're Creating awareness around it. I'm just kind of curious if you have any thoughts around anything and being able to help people find the courage to be able to see what's here essentially.

I don't know. I don't know if it's a find the courage. I don't feel like this is a spray and pray approach at all. I think it's. Sorry to use a gun metaphor that was probably and inappropriate for the topic but I think it's a very targeted. I look at the Fortune 1000 and look at military leaders who are leading those organizations. My first focus would be reaching out to those who've served who are now in positions of power in corporations because there's no convincing that's needed. They understand.

So I would put somebody, maybe AI can help you. I don't know, maybe there's Hunter is another one. But I would look to find your touch points. Maybe gov X has people by the way as well in companies. But I would immediately go George, with the movie to here's what we're trying to do. Give him a sneak peek. Come along for the journey. Give them the opportunity to co create it and just start there. I don't think the challenges is the lead personally. I think it's just like let them co create with you and then is there a funding opportunity? How can you guys get involved in what we're doing? I also, this is just. And forgive me because I got a roll in 11 minutes so here will be the most courageous thing that I say and George, you're probably not going to like this but I'm not sure you get the mission.

I don't think there's enough tension with At Liberty. The name versus what. The thing that I heard that had the hair sticking up on my neck was the Silence Project or Silence Breakers. There's something in the the mission has to be about breaking this cycle of silence. And so in this media abuse world that we live in, how do we get as fast as possible Or Operation Silence or maybe we're not changing the name of the movie. Right, but just. Well, nice to meet you George. I'm going to say you should change the name of the movie. Right, but my middle name is Christopher. Right, but I think there's something about Operation Silence that you heard across everyone and breaking the silence and how we can all do our little part. I think that's going to be really true if you get to the right leader who's been there, done that. They're just in corporations by the way, I would bet Also, they still feel silent and or lonely. Navigating corporate worlds with people that have no idea what it's been like to be them. And Fred's. The nodding is going, right, so you've lived that world. Permission granted. Can you give me a little bit how you felt or what you saw, Fred?

Yeah, 100%. That was actually one of the reasons why I stayed in corporate America, because I built. I had a secret clearance in the Marines. So when Lance was talking about his part of the Marine Corps, or I was in the Marine Corps, but part of what he did, that's exactly what I did in the Marines. And it was actually four to five separate units. And it was my job to aggregate that stuff. So I did that exact same thing in the corporate America. I just built my own moat to the point where I outsourced everything I needed to do with the team. My wife is like, you're home at 2pm but yet this company's making 10 to 17 million dollars per month. I'm like, well, because I outsourced it. I was in my own bubble. And I kept traveling so much to the point I was like, I'm gonna have to land. And to Ryan's point, the water's still cold. I gotta transition. I gotta figure it out. I'm suffering in silence. I'm crying in my mai tai in Hawaii, where my wife is at home in California. I mean, it's a real thing. And I wasn't the only one alone because my other partner happened to be an Army Ranger, and same deal. He was experiencing the same thing. And it wasn't until we talked where he was like, you feel the exact same way. So Ryan is spot on. It's one of those things where the silence is literally killing us on so many different levels. Spiritually, intellectually, emotionally, socially. And I had to really navigate those political landscapes in corporate America and also worked in multinational companies. So then you add that element into it where they don't even care. It's a big deal. I actually wrote down what you just said, Brian. That's that powerful.

I'm curious, Lance, if you. This is now I'm playing off the horse as much as the human. Just so. And again, I'm. Again, couldn't be further away from anyone that should know anything about horses. But I think I've heard the term breaking a horse, right? And getting them to trust. And so community. I have this one keynote that I talk about. You're hearing this right. There's res and there's ers. So the res R E S When I'm working with a company, I'm like, the res sets you free. Do we need to re energize people? Do we need to re galvanize people? Do we need to reinvent tomorrow? What. What re do we need to set free for us to move forward? And then the ers was the labels. Labels can be good. When you put an er on something, they did a whole study on voting and they were like, we didn't tell you who to vote for, but we said, go be a voter. And it actually increased the amount of voting. So where I'm going with this is breakers. Are we breakers? Is there pride in galvanizing states of your group? This tribe of people that we come be a breaker. Help us break the silence with others, which is community building and it's tribal. Is there something like that that you can bring? Are we silence breakers? I mean, what I did, this is what I normally do. I'll go immediately to Network Solutions. Can I get the URL right. Which I don't think we can get. But the idea of what does it mean to be a breaker? Are you with us? I don't think if I'm in a corporation, I'm like, help us break the silence of silence. And when you do, you are. You're a silence breaker. You're helping people have those conversations and bringing people along could be something interesting to play with.

Yeah, I love this. And actually, Ryan Matis, I think this would be perfect for you now. So there's another. I'm going to show you guys. We're going to show you the At Liberty custom Challenge. Because that was what we showed it to H and that was when he was like, oh, if you're showing it to the military, if the military are going to use it, the veterans and the first responders, then we're going to have to do something else first. That's not a starting point. But the At Liberty challenge potentially could be the starting point. From the corporate part, again, this is the beginning of it. And then we're niching down these panels. So I appreciate you guys being on the first one where we're kind of talking about the whole vision of what we're doing. But Ryan, he's facilitated the Find your Voice challenge. He called it for his group. It was called Amplify youy Voice, but I almost think that's almost the easiest one. And maybe you could talk about it from your lens, Ryan, and what your thoughts are from that about the challenge.

It's itself.

Well, in terms Of. I mean, I. I even wrote down Stacey, I think said this from the beginning. The haunted by when you're in your own silence. And then it's interesting. That's kind of where we're at now. We're back to that. With silence breaking the cycle. Silence, Operation Silence. Suffering and silence. Find your voice is the antidote. Right. To that. If we did that. I'm volunteering Fred and Ryan for this. Just kidding.

Running that challenge and being able to. That's the one. But just maybe talk about how it integrates from a. Yeah.

From the perspective of breaking the silence, I think it's particularly relevant because when I ran the challenge and I had 50 something people in there, almost all of them have been sort of in my world in some capacity for years. And I know the names. Some of them I knew the faces. And many of them, though I knew their names, I'd never heard them speak. I'd never heard them talk about their challenges in the context that we're in, which it's mostly entrepreneurs in that group. But the interesting thing about the Amplify youy Voice Challenge, which is based on the Find you'd Voice challenge, is that it was for many of those people, within days of the challenge starting, they were breaking their silence. For some of them, it was the first time I saw their face. For many of them, it was literally the first time they spoke to a lens with a microphone. And many of them reported, I don't know what's going on in this group, but I'm producing behaviors I've never produced before. And I wasn't planning to produce. But the way the challenge works and the context that's created, where there's this balance of accountability but also safety, it just creates this context where people are willing and able to do what they just couldn't bring themselves to do before. And on top of all of that, what I observed was it had this resonant effect outside of the challenge, too. People were coming back to the challenge group and reporting. Well, I went and had this conversation with. With this person that I haven't been able to have for months or years. And I went and stepped out of my comfort zone in this huge way that I wasn't even expecting to do, and it just happened. And they're connecting it back to the energy of the challenge. So, yeah, if we're talking about creating a context where the silence can be broken, I think the Find your voice framework is definitely perfect for that. Is that kind of what you meant, Stacy?

Yeah, and I'm Curious George. Where'd you go, George? You're going to change the name of the movie?

No, no, we're not changing the name of the movie.

But what's great is the movie's At Liberty and then these challengers are going to be the thing that gets the energy and the activation around it. So I think that's really powerful. But Ryan Berman, Ryan Montes, anything before you guys leave, Just in terms of this conversation, it'd be good. It sounds like though, what you're saying. Sorry, I just want to make sure I'm hearing it because what I was looking for from the. And again, we still have more time. We're going to hear from everyone. But what I was looking for from this is when I show you guys the At Liberty challenge, I think that's the one that could be the starting point at a corporation. And then find your voice is actually the starting point for the veteran or the first responder. Does that make sense? That's what I'm. It sounds like I'm hearing is that's the beginning of what will help people kind of see each other. Break the silence. Because how do you break the silence? Well, number one, I guess depending on where you're at, you might need the horse first, you might need the horse, you might need the set, you might need the sailing, the non verbal communication. And then if you have already gotten met from the horse and you're like, okay, now what's next? Who am I now? What am I doing now? That's where we're ready to find your voice. So, yeah, curious if you guys have any kind of lasting thoughts before we.

Just one little thing, just really quickly, I think one element that I think made it easy and welcoming for people who needed to break the silence. To break the silence was what I call the principle of go first. They had the opportunity to observe others in the group who are a little bit further along in their journey of being seen and heard, going first and being imperfect and then seeing, okay, it's safe, this is a safe environment and doing that. So I think in the context for veterans and this particular context, just having an emphasis on having people in the group who are doing that, going first and who are a little further along in their journey to set that example that it's safe to participate here.

Yeah, I tend to agree with that, Stacy. I can just tell you from my own personal experience, people who have the arts in here, the media arts, I was trained in that back in 1996. I had 1200 hours of it, but it didn't matter. Once I was almost nearly. I was in a combat zone and nearly lost my life several times. And then coming out to corporate America and not knowing even who I should talk to. So I think we have to ask ourselves what the product really is going to be for the first step. And I like how you had mentioned actually having the horses there, because I think the key is being able to confront having something around you where we do. Like in a Marine Corps, in the military, everybody knows what an LZ is. It's a landing zone. That's what we have to do. We have to essentially create an LZ of security. I was a part of security forces. So I'm just putting in military terms. These are terms that the military can understand. And then we can soften it through time to give them the ability to say, it's okay, we understand you're making a transition. We've done it before. And then they can pick and choose to say, hey. Well, this person, to Ryan's point is, hey, a little bit ahead. I'm curious, how did you get there? And that'll open up more of those kinds of conversations. At least it did for me.

So.

Wow.

Thank you.

I guess my one last little. I mean, I don't mean to be the downer in the room, so I just think depending on what you're looking for from corporations right now, they're so overwhelmed. There's a million things that they're navigating right now. Right. There's. Is AI going to take everyone's job and is there the death of dei? There's an empathy erosion that's going on. There's what's coming out of Washington. So I think maybe it's not surprising that the brand guy wants to make sure there's enough tension in the branding that you can actually short circuit the decision maker. Right.

The topic is great. It's just penetrating through the messy maze of what leaders are navigating right now. Because if you can get. That's why I like them going, finding those who've served in those positions, then at least you're on your way. I have no doubt once you're in, it's almost like win the zero inning, the second inning through the ninth inning. I think you've got ways to position it. But if you don't win the zero inning, you're not on the field. That's my one worry.

Yeah.

Thank you, Ryan. Yeah. And this is what I want, this is why we're having this particular panel, is to have all the diverse Perspectives, and that's why this is the first one. And so from this, we're going to break this out eventually next. And there will be one specifically for corporations, one specifically for veterans, specifically for first responders, things like that. So thank you for your thoughts there.

Appreciate it.

Ryan and Ryan and George, I know you had to go too. Do you want to share kind of your thoughts and then we'll get to Stacey and then I'd like to get H. And Courtney next and then we'll kind of get to the others as well?

No, Ryan's point is well taken. I think we can call the challenge anything we want, right? It could be anything. And I think that each individual piece needs to have its own needs to work within itself. And I mean, Lance and myself and a team, when we put together the story for At Liberty, it needs to have its own internal consistency. It's needs to make sense in itself. And so whatever the challenge is called doesn't matter. We can call it whatever works for the corporation, but the movie is just.

A piece of that.

That's all it is.

And then you, having experienced find your voice, we'll talk about that right now. What are your thoughts in terms of what Ryan and Ryan were saying with this being the thing that could actually help break the silence from being able to help people kind of open up and be vulnerable in a safe space with others?

Yeah.

So I think that what find you'd voice enables us to do is to share our story. And that to me is the most powerful thing that humans can do, is share their stories. And so, I mean, that's how Lance and I connected instantly. I heard his story and I was like, wow, okay, I want to help tell a piece of that. At least the piece that finds its place, finds its community on the ranch. So find your voice for me is a way that we can share our stories with each other. And in so doing, we find connection, we find community.

Thank you. And with that, that is how I met Stacy, is Stacy shared her story with me last night. And then I was immediately like, oh, my gosh, this is exactly what I'm doing right now.

And so.

Yeah, go ahead, Stacy.

So I wanted to piggyback onto the question of where we're getting our funding sources and are going to be profitable and make a good monetized model.

Right.

So my other backgrounds, I have many backgrounds that I've come from business, very successful businesses. And one of that speaking agents, I've done executive enterprise or speaking engagements and things like that to corporations. There are A lot of funding sources other than Fortune 1000, where their board, their members, their high ranking officers have served Johnson and Johnson. There's also family managed corporations, ultra high net worth individuals, foundations who really want to pour into this space, have created relationships with many of them. And I think that that is a very lucrative, fruitful sort of relationship space to invest in on this sort of thing, not just Fortune 1000. So that was my input, I wanted to share.

Yeah.

It makes me think another way to kind of get this in corporations is by having someone speak to the organization because they're always wanting people to speak, right? And then from there that's when potentially the challenge could be created. I'm going to show you guys and I don't know, George, if you want to kind of speak to this as I'm showing it, but the At Liberty challenge, just so you guys can kind of have an idea. Georgia, do you want to. Do you have time to go through it or a little bit, five minute high level kind of thing?

Yeah, absolutely. So we're calling this temporarily the five day find your new purpose challenge. Obviously totally cool with changing the name of the challenge because we believe that new purpose or purpose is the path to truly being at liberty. And at liberty has a number of meanings for us. One of the meanings is that the vet, Cody is at liberty from the trauma that kept him silent all this time. And another meaning obviously is when a horse is at liberty, they're at liberty to roam, basically. So Lance knows a lot more about that than I do. I'm learning it now. So essentially what we're looking at here is a plan for five days. Each day we will have a movie quote, a quote from the movie, and then we will explain it on video. So we'll explain that quote and why it's significant and then we will pose a question to the community. In the case of day one, it's what part of your life or work no longer feels fulfilling and why? And then we give them an action to take. Take action. So share one specific area where you feel stuck. Because naming that is the first step towards change. And we go through this for five days, it's a different movie quote, it's a different explanation, it's a different question, it's a different dare every time. And the idea is that we're moving people closer to identifying their purpose and we're moving them closer towards taking micro actions in that direction. Does that help, Stacy?

Yeah, really good. And so the idea is I have this formula that helps a group take Action. It mobilizes communities. And so as people are sharing, it opens up this space for vulnerability and confidence. And we'll be running this first with a community in a group. But anyway, just wanted to point out that's what that is. And then we met with H, who when we were showing him the challenge, we were actually about to record it. And then you had some really good feedback. And that's what actually got me to want to do this extra panel because I'm like, I really want to hear from you because from the corporation side of it, I feel like this feels really powerful. And I have a few ideas. And we'll bring on Courtney next to kind of share what we had been talking about potentially also, but also now we're talking about what do we want to do for actually veterans and first responders to be able to help them through that. And H, if you don't mind, just kind of sharing some of your thoughts. Cause I really loved what you were saying with we need to turn the page first. And maybe that's the horse, right? It's like we're in horse mode at this point.

Yeah. Thank you, Stacey. I think for me, with just finding closure, we all have different reasons why we transitioned. For some of us, it probably wasn't our time just yet. We had a little bit left in the tank. Other service members, injuries, family, work, life, balance just wasn't healthy. So that's why they decided to transition. So you kind of still have a void that you didn't really fulfill because it wasn't your time, if that makes sense. And that's where I was at. I felt like I still had a little bit left to give in the Marine Corps. Certain things happened where I had to retire and it was a hard pill to follow for me because I wasn't ready. I still wanted to serve. So, yes, I love everything we're talking about. The silence. And it wasn't until I watched the Cody Johnson documentary Dear Rodeo, where all he wanted to do was be a cowboy, be a professional bull rider. But it never really happened because life and God had other plans for him. And it wasn't until a certain point in his life and all the mistakes that he made that led him to become this world famous singer selling out stadiums now, where I was able to kind of put two and two together, where it's okay to close that chapter, where I was able to be at peace with closure. So even though the Marine Corps was my first love, I love being a Marine. I still do. I had to come to terms with the fact that I was no longer an active duty service member. And that was fine and I had to be okay with it once I came to that realization, which the science is, that's. That's huge. But if we never. If we never really accept the fact that where we transition and healed in a sense from it, you're always going to go back to the darkness, which is the pit, I call it the pit, right. And those demons come back to haunt you, like in the short film that you shared with me with Lance. So for me, it was finding that closure where now I'm happy again. I love being around Marines again. For a while, I was a little bitter, I was upset, I was angry. But it wasn't until I came to terms with it's okay to move on. There's nothing wrong with leaving that behind. It's still part of who you are. It's made you who you've been for the past 24 years. Because like all of us here, we grew up in the military. You know, we learned how to be men, we learned how to be fathers, we learned how to be husbands. This had been our life for the majority of our lives. So for me, it was more like, okay, how can we help service members make that transition? Close that chapter, which is, okay, let's turn the page and now let's help find that next purpose, whatever that looks like. I think that will be huge.

And to me, that's what's the most important thing, one of the most important things that we got, definitely the group here to be able to try to figure that out.

Thank you so much. And in your mind, because I know you did an amazing talk that you shared with me and I'd love to just hear your thoughts. What would be the first step to be able to find the next purpose and turn the page?

I think for me it was creating a new tribe. So I think somebody put on a chat earlier, somebody said earlier, and that was part of my notes, is because like I mentioned to you on my post, when you retire, the calls start coming in.

And the silence just gets louder. So your tribe that you had in the military starts fading away because I like to say you're no longer value added because there's really not a lot I could do for service members anymore because I'm retired. But the ones that stick around, like those are your friends, those are family to you. But I can count them in one hand, like who I constantly speak to on a weekly basis when I had hundreds of people at my retirement or My phone never stopped ringing when I was in. So it was trying to build my new tribe with like minded individuals. And I went to a reunion probably about three months after I transitioned where it just felt good to be alongside my brothers and sisters. And that's what I was missing. So that's when I kind of just. Okay. Decided that I needed to build my own tribe of individuals that I could tell my story to because that's what helps us and tell our story. Once we break that silence and we're talking about it, then you're able to deal with your emotions and what you're going through because your brothers and sisters are going through the same thing.

Yeah. It's basically being able to bond with a new set of people around a new goal.

Yes.

But we call it shared misery.

Yeah. That's actually why I would do the thing. And I noticed this cause I went through my own in a different way. And it's really easy to go into support groups and then have it be the shared misery. But when you have a goal that you're all trying to reach together, there's a common goal now it's like you're going towards something and so it allows you to go side by side and take action in a really cool way. Yes. So thank you for that. So, Katherine, I'd love to hear from you next because you're also familiar with the do the thing challenges and also with your experience with what you're doing with your amazing organization. And I mean, I'm loving where this is going, obviously, because it always comes back to find your voice as we know and do the thing world.

It does.

But yeah, just kind of curious what your thoughts are. In general.

I'm loving everything that I'm hearing because it dovetails so beautifully with our mission, what we're doing, and things that I'm looking to move into. And particularly I think find you'd voice will be an exceptional opportunity for Ashley's program with children of first responders and children of the military. Ashley's too humble to toot her own horn, but she created the first continuing education programs for therapists to certify them to work with children of the military and children of first responders. And so she's now teaching therapists their unique challenges and issues. But what I see with the whole find your voice challenge is it's about learning how to speak your truth. And it's particularly working with teenagers when they're in such a vulnerable period of life to be able to help them find who they are. Where they're going, what they want. I think that will be incredibly impactful. And then it's interesting because my other business is I'm a retirement readiness coach and have written books for first responders on making the transition beyond the badge. And everybody's talking my language, which is how do I take the skills and abilities that I have now and translate them into a different form of service, of giving and being able to still feel like I make a difference in the world? It's interesting that when you retire from the military, it's kind of like it is with first responders. Don't let the door hit you on the way out, and we've forgotten your name by the time you're in your car. And that, to me, is so fundamentally wrong because these are people who have given so much of themselves and have given so much to our community. And as a civilian, I mean, I can tell you I was blissfully unaware of the sacrifices of made for me every day by the first responder community until I had to make that call on December 4th of 2020. So I think that watching the ripple effect of this and the whole breaking your silence, it is about finding your voice. Another population that I really want to introduce this to are. I hate the word victim, so I won't use it. I'll call them a survivor of a traumatic event because they need to learn how to speak up to keep their offenders in jail. And it is a constant grind to do that. So there's so many different areas where this is appropriate, but more importantly, impactful and empowering. And that's why I think this is. It's an idea whose time has come. And I am thrilled to be able to speak about this. So thank you.

Yes. And, Courtney, I'd love to have you share, because Courtney has this platform that she's piloting right now with the Marines, and one of the things that she's doing is they're recording videos of themselves and basically able to already be showing up. And so we're talking about potentially using these challenges as a way to have them grow personally and then also professionally. And then maybe eventually there'll be a whole database of veterans that people can. We could bring to then corporations, and who knows where it'll go? But anyway, Courtney, I'd love to have you maybe share kind of your thoughts on this, too.

Yeah.

On the commercial side, one of the things that we found to be challenging was fitting a former service member into a resume, which does them a disservice and truly doesn't showcase the entirety of who they are and what they bring. So it was how can we help tell their story? And what we decided on was the TikTok kind of Instagram model. So built into our platform are up to 45 second videos where we kind of have coaching tips of questions that they can kind of prep. And it's tell us who you are and what you're about and try to get away from the static one page resume. That really doesn't give an organization the true breadth of what they're going to bring to the table, which is a lot. So Stacy and I have been talking about how what we're doing kind of dovetails or has a lot of synergies into the challenges because it's also them talking about their experiences and being able to also builds community. So within our app, service members can connect to each other, which is also important. Right. Because that's what they're looking for, is the new community that they're going to need to now entrench themselves in. So that has really been what we've been working on and then working with transitioning veteran organizations to really help show veterans how to present themselves in the workforce and beyond. And then just really excited to kind of keep talking with Stacy and everyone here to see how we can further help. And Stacey, I don't know if there's anything else you want me to kind of go into. I was kind of hitting the wave tops. Yeah, it just gets me so excited. Because you already get it because you're already doing it in a different way. And so it's just cool. And that's what's great about the challenge framework. It's the same model and so it helps people. Same model. It just has comfort circles and the formula to take action. And so what happens is what starts as someone just simply recording videos of themselves, it turns into any goal that they want. Whether it's recording, I don't know, I can't think of anything right now, but just push whatever goal they want to do. Then the challenge framework helps them do it. I mean, even if they want to, we'll go to get paid to speak. Let's say they want to start a podcast or they want to be a speaker. It's like every challenge builds on each other, right? Or if it's going into a corporation and we're getting them ready for a job, if we're wanting people to learn a job skill or something specific, then those, the challenges basically can be plugged in and added and continue to help people grow. Whether it's personally or professionally. So it's really exciting to me. Okay, so how about you, Michael? What are your thoughts? And I know we were sort of, when we were talking with your partner, we were already coming up with actions that would be great, and feel free to add those to the conversation, as well as some of the things that we kind of shared. And feel free to share anything else here too.

What I really like about it, and I think one of the things that even myself have to step outside of that box as a creator or filmmaker, your mind is focused on the craft and less about the business. And then when it comes to the business side, you're like, all right, well, just somebody give me a check, and I can go make this film. And so the two worlds sort of.

Clash with each other.

And I think Sony's presentation really talked about the business of pitching the business of filmmaking, the ROI to your investors. And so that's that challenge piece that I'm looking at is diving more deeply into that.

Yes, we are trying to help veterans.

And we're trying to spread the word to larger audiences, but then we also have to think about those putting the money, funding this. How can we also help them?

So.

Mm, yeah.

And, yeah, Michael and I were running a challenge for his nonprofit, San Diego Media Pros. It's not specifically for veterans, it's for filmmakers. But it's exciting because we're using the find your voice challenge, and we're calling it connect, collaborate, and unlock your finding. And people are really excited about it. When I went there last night, that's how I met Stacy, when people are really looking forward to having a space to take action as a group, basically, and then meet others. So it was really fun, Stacy.

All right, so in speaking with what Michael was bringing up, right. Corporations are in the business of making profit to serve their customers, listening to their customers, curiously, at least the innovative ones that are having products and services that are reaching their target audiences. So in what we provide is filmmakers or people that are creating transitional programs or people that are making and sustaining the beautiful recovery pieces, helping people to overcome what they've went through and are moving into, helping them have acceptance, breathe into that acceptance, and helping it be part of their integrated whole moving forward their whole life story, right? So part of the beauty of the arts of music and film and TV shorts or whatever is that it helps people connect emotionally, and it helps them then take inspiration, action. And that is what we're talking about in this whole funding take action while we're meeting and So I just wanted to dovetail on what you were saying that corporations need content. TV shows are broadcasting stations, channels. They need content streaming. So they don't make content. Right. They have to hire a advertising or marketing firm or a PR agency or something to make their content for them. So one way to partner with the corporations is to have these pieces of content be available to them. And let me tell you that it is incredibly valuable to a corporation in their HR services and their organization structure to have a healthy workforce, because that is where their resources are coming from to provide their services and products. And I think that Fred could really speak to this. And understanding business structures and having businesses is that that piece is highly valuable. So speaking to the corporations, or whoever it is that will be funding films, hearing them, what are their needs, what do they need their workforce or their people to have? Because this is not just for veterans. This is for the human race. Everyone goes through challenges. Everybody has that someone died or commit suicide they might have known or someone struggling with postpartum depression or a car took their leg off. I mean, we all, as human beings in this human journey have these sorts of things to contend with. So in the EAP programs at corporations in so many places, this content is highly valuable and very monetizable. So I think that there's many ways in which we can speak to people in the corporations, in other organizations, wherever people need to make a profit, but also reach their audience. These are highly valuable content pieces that they can use in many ways. So I think, Michael, that it's not just asking for money. And I would be happy to talk more about that in deeper ways and business plans that I've made and share what has worked for me. And I think that together as a community, we're a team. Together, everyone achieves more. So I think all of us pitching in on our own life perspective will help make a stronger leveraged content talk with the people who want to fund this sort of project.

Yeah, I love that. And you guys are kind of seeing this happen right now where, and I kind of mentioned this in the beginning, it's like this is going to spin off on different panels. So there'll be a specific panel on, okay, let's do it through corporations. Now there's another panel of let's actually support the veterans and help them go through the comfort circles. And then there'll be another one, specifically with Courtney and H, where we're talking about how do we get veterans jobs, right. And be able to get them into employable companies to basically Pick out of a database of people and so, so many different things. So thank you so much. So, Fred. Oh, and then I'm going to. After Fred, I was going to hear from Ashley and then I want to do a spitfire of. We're creating a challenge today just so you guys know. So I'm going to spit spitfire and have you guys kind of give me your action. So I'm, I'm excited. So just. That's next. But Fred.

Yeah.

I definitely want to add to what Stacy just said. The time is now to actually talk to the corporations. Like it's September 26th. I'm talking about literally October 1st because they're planning for their budgets for next year. And even for a lot of the things that I did in the Marine Corps, it was interesting how I would see the corporations that I work with because I several of them, it's like they have the budgets already pre arranged for this. Maybe it's a leadership thing or maybe it's cultural awareness. Whatever it is for that particular model, they're budgeting for it right now. And it's almost like the military where if they don't use it, they lose it. So sometimes they'll have, I hate to say it, mediocre people who took action and did the thing, but they got in front of us and it may be subpar, but they just literally had to just spend the money. And I'm talking about some very well known brand names that I don't want to, I can't talk about. But for the most part, you know who they are if you ever put your butt in the seat. But for the most part, that's what they're looking for. And even as an example, when I was, well, one of my clients, I do a lot of Legion stuff. So as an example, one of my clients this year took me into their association. It was the exact same thing. They brought a corporate speaker in. She made $25,000 for two days. So she could have donated that back to charity, but she had, she helped out this particular association collaborate and figure out just like what you're talking about with your specific model. So it's totally possible to make this into a model where it is corporate friendly but at the same time, literally right now you've got about four or five days if you want to start pushing stuff out, maybe run some ads, who knows, do some local stuff. But for the most part I see that as well what Stacy said. So just add to that.

I love your do the thing. It's like do it now.

Don't wait.

That's my whole thing.

Don't wait for opportunity and create it. Fred's like, we'll do it now. Yeah.

Speed is power was true.

So good.

I love it.

Carp dm, Carp Diem. Seize the moments. You see it, take it.

And Ashley, I'd love to hear from you.

Yeah, I would just want to piggyback off of everyone what they've been saying, especially the silence piece. Just working with teens the past three years of first responders, a lot of the. The biggest conversation we usually have is around how they don't necessarily even want to talk about what they're going through. Their stressors of what they're experiencing, their parents go through as they're. They're observing because they see their parents handling it in silence and doing what they need to do just to get by. And so I love that part of it because I think if you can really hit on that, it's going to just one, not only speak to the first responders, but it's going to speak to the families as a unit that they all at times, right. Experience the silence of how they can support their first responder and vice versa, how to navigate as a family unit. And then also just with navigating, I would say more like civilian life of having friends who can be like, oh, yeah, I was stressed and anxious about this too. It's like, well, are you actually stressed and anxious in the same way? Right. Because if they're talking about they're anxious that mom or dad is not coming home, that's a whole different, I'd say game changer point of. Yeah. Topic to. Yeah. And that's why they just rather not share with their friends what their parents do as well. And so I think it also just goes back into that silence. And also on the therapy side, we are obviously trained to help people, individuals through their trauma, but we're never, we have not been taught though, how to help someone through a trauma that's on repeat right. When they are living in that day in and day out. It's how do you actually help a first responder through that? And so just having like a different mindset with that. And that's why, like Katherine said, we created these trainings because we just want a better equipped therapist. Because the amount of times I've heard right. Of veterans and first responders just not having, I would say, a great experience with therapy because the therapist doesn't necessarily get it. It just then puts that bad taste in our mouth and again, creating the whole silent cycle.

Right.

Of. I'd rather just figure this out on my own.

Wow.

Oh my God. Please let me speak. Can I. Yeah, okay.

Breaking the silence. Breaking the silence.

Oh no, I'm breaking the sirens. Okay. I really want to have a breakout session with Ashley and Catherine and whoever did the here, the descanzo saddles thing. All those people who are doing the mental health piece because I'm really highly been trained in some things that I don't think maybe you might have not had training in yet. And there's a nine month training coming up in one of them. So somatically, right, we talked about you gotta be the horse, you gotta get, you gotta do that bilateral stimulation things, right? You have to do on a horse, you have to do sailing or something that's gonna help your nervous system, your whole autonomic and central nervous system from the bot up to be embodied, right. You gotta drop back down in your body cause you're stuck up in your head. Silence and maybe voices that you're like, oh, I suck. Everyone else died. Whatever it is that you're going through, right? So somatic. You have to get that somatic breathing. When you make tones and things like that, it helps to break whatever the pieces in your body. So all I'm saying is I don't know if you can facilitate that, Stacy, but I think that it would be a really important piece for them to possibly consider for their program.

Yeah, I love that. That would be a challenge. That would be a do the thing challenge where we would work it in and.

Or at least I want to give them the information so that they could look at the way.

Yeah, for sure.

Either way, I want to make sure that they get that.

Yeah, no, that'd be great. I love that. Okay, so who's ready to create a challenge right now? So this, Yay. This is part of the brainstorming part of this, which is what this whole thing is. So thank you guys so much for entrusting me in this process. I'm just getting so much out of this, have all these notes for myself also that I'm keeping track of. But we talked about corporations, we talked about veterans, we talked about first responders. We actually talked about the first responders families too, which is great. So we're definitely having a lot of different subsets of people. But now I want to specifically focus on the veterans and the first responders and being able to support them through their journey. So we talked about one of the things that we could do to support is the breaking of the silence. Helping People rediscover their purpose, helping them find a new tribe. And so those are really good starting points. And now we're just gonna brainstorm different actions just like that. That could be something that could be good to. And actually the embodiment piece as well. I don't wanna skip over that having some kind of embody piece. So let's just kind of just have a. We'll popcorn. So kind of like we'll do one person and then we'll just kind of go to each person around the room. And it could either be based on what would be your biggest piece of advice that somebody could do tomorrow that could really help them, or it could just be a simple action. And feel free to name a few things here, but I'll start with Fred.

Well, one of the things that I have on my desk, I don't know if you can see this, but there's, there's something that. Yeah, but this is, this is actually a token for one good drink. That's currently. That's the other alternative that we don't want to have. Which is the reasons why I keep it on my desk. But for the most part. And that's actually from a military organization. But what I've actually been working on right now is actually starting a society up here in the LA Orange county area just for this reason. Because what I discovered, because literally I didn't feel like I talked to anybody. I just asked myself, hey, where was I last doing well? So I went back to people's asvabs. I'm like, wait, I was great at this, I was great at that. I was great at this. I got paid on the 1st and 15th to just do my superpower. And as small as that was, it started triggering other veterans memories as to what they were doing as far as their zone of genius. Because what happened was I got disconnected coming out of the military completely. I did all this high level stuff and then when I took my test, oh, you can be great at CHP because you did this or you're really good at photography. Here's a good crime scene job. It's like, I don't want to do any of that stuff. What else am I good at? So just having people go back to their vocational capabilities from a very technical standpoint, it triggered my emotional self again. To be able to really connect with the human condition. That's what worked for me personally. So that's what I'm showing people how to do.

So it's like, what else am I good at? Going back to Yourself. And then can you explain the token piece of it? Is it. Yeah, sure.

Well, the thing about it is all everybody here who's been in the military has taken the Armed Service Vocational Aptitude Battery Test, also known as the asvab. It's your zone of genius. It's your range of career professions you can do when you're military. And no matter how hard you work, you're going to get paid on the 1st and the 15th of every single month. So just reminding people that they already have a zone of genius in the first place. They can anchor as they're stepping down. It's almost like playing the Olympic, being in the Olympics or playing professional football. And then now you're going back to learning how to throw a ball again because. Just a different audience. Right. So as far as the tokens go, instead of just having a drink token, what I'm working on right now is something like this. It's a little bit of a military token just for the guys and the people. This one happens to be a marine one. But I'm just working on just that camaraderie because we're used to having that. But I'm trying not to ramble. But here's the other thing that I have as well. I have my people look at themselves as being linchpins because we are the connectors of the community. So that's what I'm showing people right now. As small as that is, it works. It helps people remember that they are a part of a larger community. So let's go ahead and find people who resonate with you, but you have to be able to communicate first. So that's what I've been doing.

I love that. Yeah, that would be really interesting to work that into the challenges also as part of.

Yeah. Something that's tangible. Because military people used to like challenge coins and all the other stuff. And it doesn't have to be anything expensive. I got this off of eBay for 12 bucks. Hey, you're the linchpin in your community. Be the linchpin of your community now. Go out there and find other people. If you can't find them, we'll make them. There's a process. Remember you went through boot camp?

Yeah.

So, yeah, that reminds me of. Totally not at all relatable. But I'll just tell you, I sold bookstore to door in college. Oh, you did? Was this with Southwestern?

Yeah, Southwestern, our competitor. I was Chapel sales.

Oh, that's so exciting. So, yeah, I did that. And I would carry a coin around as I'm knocking on doors. And the coin was actually the thing that I would feel and touch and it would help me get through the day. And I don't know what it is about it, but it was so powerful. So, yeah, I'm loving this. And H, where are you going to go next? I was feeling you.

For me, I got to constantly challenge myself. So as a Marine, there are certain challenges that I just put on myself to just see if I still have it. I think that's just the Marine in me. So I can relate a lot. With Fred, actually, when you said coin, I got mine right here. I keep it here. That's mine. The one that I give out to people or kind of.

I want one.

I got you, brother. And I'm into mecla, so I'd love to link up with any of you guys that are in, in the area anytime. I'll put my contact on the chat so you guys can reach out. So I do personal challenges just to see if I still have it. So I'll do like a 72 hour fast. I just challenge myself because when I was depressed, I was down. When I was in that pit, I got up to about 245 pounds.

So I, I woke up one day and I gave myself a challenge. Can I get under £200?

This morning I was 199. So there's, there's always something. So now that I've. I reached that challenge, like, what's next?

Right?

That's huge. H, because when you're going through it, right, by the time you leave, you're at the top of the thing, right? You're at the top of it. And then when you leave, you're almost going through this whole new identity of who you are. And so, yeah, you have to do. I still have it. This is again, not relatable, but it's the only thing I'm relating to from my own experience. I ended up, I owned a business and then I. When I sold my half and then I was on my own. I'm like, can I do this again? It's like you almost have to rebuild who you are by showing yourself that.

You gotta reinvent yourself. You gotta pivot, you gotta remind yourself every once in a while that you do still have it. I feel like just as human beings, those are things that we need to keep us moving forward and just keep us motivated.

Thank you. Okay, Lance, you're up. What do you think?

Yeah, I liked what everyone said. Stacy mentioned the Hollywood movie thing with Michael Wood as well. That's what kind of first motivated me to join, obviously 9, 11 and those kind of things. But watching films, veterans, even though they're fictional or reenactments, movies, they hold on heartstrings, that really made me feel things for the country, for all those that served before us and we were soldiers, was a big part of kind of me joining in that kind of thing. I think it's powerful. Also kind of what Catherine was talking about, and Ashley touched on as well, is therapy doesn't have a the best connotations in this community. Right. I was fortunate enough after several therapists and counselors to finally find one that was amazing for me for about 12 years, but that's few and far between. One of the things I like about sows and service is when you show up, there's really no mention of therapy. And probably at Catherine's ranch as well, right? She's probably not going to come with, hey, we're gonna fix you. This is gonna be therapy and all that kind of stuff, right? So that's the biggest thing. There's no strings attached. This isn't therapy. I'm going to learn horsemanship. And a byproduct of that is healing. Right. And I think that's the biggest thing. I was actually talking about the more therapists that understand that they don't have to lose their profession because it's really valuable, but how do they meet the veteran with where they're at with no strings attached without putting a label on it and heal them in an environment that veterans and first responders are feel safe in. And then going back to kind of the silence comments and stuff. Silence is kind of a unique thing because there is the silence of not wanting to talk about it and those kind of things. But for me, for the longest time I couldn't handle silence. So I would find anything and everything to keep it really loud and keep my brain super busy and not do the healing and not face the silence and not face the demons and that kind of stuff. And there are times where you're not ready to face those demons, but running from them isn't always helpful as well. So.

Whether or not you feel comfortable talking about all that stuff, you do have to get to the point where you can find healing and community and those kinds of things and get to a place where you can face those demons and eventually those demons aren't going to have the same teeth that are able to wreak havoc on your life. And through therapy, through horsemanship, through whatever purpose that you find in community that you can build and be a part of. That's what's going to ultimately make those demons less effective at hurting you or eventually taking your life. And then going back to what Ashley said with the families and the collective trauma. It took me nearly 20 years from being wounded to realize that.

Yeah, I went through a lot of trauma. And when you go through a lot of trauma, you become very focused on yourself and your own trauma. And what I didn't realize was that all the trauma that had happened to my family and the loved ones around me, and then that continuing as I'm not dealing with that trauma, it's adding more trauma to the house, spouse, kids, that kind of stuff. But as a dad now of three, if my experience happened to my kids, that would be extremely traumatic. And I never gave space for my family to.

Really even understand that I had put them through trauma. Right. And now how do we collectively heal? And that's kind of where I'm at now, is trying to figure out ways that I can help heal with my mom, dad, grandparents, brother, sister, wife and kids too. So kind of just echoing on everybody's comments, but trying to tap into this a little bit here.

Yeah.

And George, this makes me feel like. So George and I created a do the thing challenge together based off of his deep story work framework. And it's called find you'd story. And that is actually where it actually helps you find your demons. And actually, when I'm doing the challenge, you'll hear me actually uncovering things that I was avoiding for years. And so anyway, that I don't know if you want to share anything, but I feel like that could be a potential one as part of this. I mean, after we're to the point where we can use it.

Yeah.

I would say that my zone of expertise is storytelling, as I said. And this system that I created called Deep story work, which Stacy was talking about, we use this system that I created, Deep story work, to create this find your story challenge, which essentially is I run people through the archetypes of story that I've discovered over the last 20 years. Why super powerful stories are super powerful is because they point to the elements of our subconscious that are hidden until we use story to excavate and expose and investigate and then ultimately integrate them. And so we did that with a group of people, and it was so powerful where people were going places. So one of the archetypes that I use in Deep story work is an idea of the id, which is how your basic impulses and instincts and you see that in the greatest stories of all time, in characters that we think are the antagonists or the villains. So Darth Vader, for example. Darth Vader really is Luke Skywalker's id. He's not the bad guy. The bad guy is Chancellor Palpatine, the emperor. So, anyway, so I realized this stuff after studying movies for 20 years and working with all these Academy Award winners. I wrote it all up, and Stacey, we turned it into find your story. So I think the best thing that I can contribute is just to keep doing that with people where we are able to, like I said, go into their basic impulses and instincts at one level, and then what are their ideals at another level. And what you'll find is that in the best stories in the world, characters that are often called the mentor characters. So going back to Star wars, it would be Obi Wan Kenobi. Those are the ideals of the main character. So an ideal of trusting, having faith in yourself instead of in technology. That's what Star wars is about, by the way. It's about having faith in yourself instead of technology, whereas Darth Vader represents technology. Anyway, so I would say that that's my zone of expertise, and my contribution to this would be storytelling in a very deep way.

Yeah. Mention the other thing too, with that. Was it unconscious detachment? There's something about when you're able to connect it to a movie. So part of that challenge, we're connecting each piece to a movie, which helps you actually relieve it and uncover in a way that you wouldn't have ever thought about before, which is why it is so powerful.

Yeah. So when we do deep story work with people, we practice what's called conscious detachment. So essentially, you. You're looking at characters in your life as characters in a movie and how those characters are externalizations or manifestations of your own psychological elements. We go into this is powered by Jung and Freud at a very basic level. So, yeah, it's proven to be very powerful with people. And it really is just my storytelling.

System applied to everyday people, people's lives.

Yeah. Okay, we're gonna do rapid fire. Any more actions? Katherine, you wanna go next? Sure.

So a couple of things. Restoration Ranch, Colorado. We don't do therapy at all. It's strictly. You're the only people on site other than our two live in caretakers at the ranch. So that's a unique experience for people to come and have 40 acres to themselves, almost 4 miles of hiking trails, a hammock area over the creek so people can just chill. But what Stacy knows I've already done one challenge with her called Ask youk Way to Anything. But what keeps on coming up intuitively is this is about keeping promises to yourself. Because we are really good at keeping promises to other people and we suck at keeping promises to ourselves. And that when we can keep that consistency of I told myself I was going to do this and I did it, which is the whole do the thing concept. You are building your self confidence and you're building a better relationship with who you are as a person, as a spouse, as a sibling, as a parent, as an employee. And that to me, is what's really key about this. And then just that's the power of spending time in nature. Mother Nature is our best healer. Mother Nature is able to hold our pain when we can't hold it ourselves. And that's why I think that the ranch is so powerful, is because we give people a beautiful place to come. We have no expectations on them. We tell them, if you want to just stay in your jammies all day long, that's great. You do whatever you need to do to take care of you. And watching the cycle of what happens when someone shows up at the ranch, of course they're suspicious and skeptical because we're civilians.

You know, it's like we don't know what we're doing.

And then by the end of their stay, they are totally transformed and their relationships are deeper and more meaningful. And I remember one firefighter mom was just bawling her eyes out and I went up, I said, I don't mean to intrude. Do you need anything? And she said, these are tears of joy because I have not seen my husband laugh and relax and interact with our children this way in five years. So I know what we're doing is really powerful.

It's amazing. So for those of you that don't know, next week I'm actually doing an event at Alex Sheen's ranch and he's the founder of the movement because I said I would. And we just agreed an hour ago. So, Katherine, you don't know this yet where we're going to create a do the Thing challenge out of. Because as I said I would. His TEDx Talk message and what you just said about keeping promises to yourself, his challenge is actually going to be perfect for this challenge. It's basically going to be a collection of challenges that we're going to be able to utilize to help support veterans, first responders, and also help companies create awareness. And then the company part is where the funding comes in. So isn't that crazy? That's so cool. Yeah. I didn't even think about. Yeah, obviously, his challenge makes sense in this. Okay, you guys, I want to honor your time. I'd love to leave this open. Michael, do you want to add an action for us?

Maybe. I'm not sure if.

Yeah, just a thought process. So from a military perspective, we are trained to address challenges. We know what a challenge is. We know in our mind that we could do it alone, we could do.

It as a team, but it's really.

To push us to that next level. When we're given a journey like transition out of the military, it's an ongoing process. It's never done. So when we're handed that and say, hey, now it's time for you to transition, we fail at it so much. Sort of like the aspect of go be a warrior. It's steps. It's multiple challenges. So I love this format because it really takes us and those that we help others in a veteran community breaks it down. Here's your next challenge. Here's your next block. Here's your team to go. Take that hill. You fall down, get picked back up, do it again.

Thank you. If you have thoughts for the. If it's still a dare, or do you like the action being called something else? Just curious. We have some challenges. It's called a dare. Some challenges. It's a nudge.

It's a action, basically, is what it is.

Yeah.

I mean, the action framework I like. I mean, because if I. When I hear dare, it's something more personal with friends, which isn't bad, but it's also could mean. Yeah, a lot of shenanigans.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Instead of a thing. I don't know.

But that's.

That's back.

That's no longer around.

But I love the action because reality, that's when a veteran takes action, there's a community around that there's forward movement.

So.

Yeah. Thank you. And, Ashley, do you have an action for the group?

I would say, because this has stuck with me since I saw it. There was a first responder where that had a tattoo that says, I am second. And I think the action call to action would be actually putting themselves first, doing something for them, because I feel like even at work, off work, they're constantly putting other people, their needs before them, so that'd be mine.

And, Stacy, did you have one? You said the beginning one, but I'm curious if there was another one.

Me, I said a beginning one.

Well, in my mind, I have yours as the embodied piece. But.

Oh, the embodied piece. Oh, yes.

So.

Because Ashley was saying that they don't have a method yet right now to help the people with. Who have the trauma, and it's ongoing. So this method helps for both that and something that already happened in the past, and it helps facilitate that stored active emotion and sensation to release, and then they can drop down back into an integrated self, and it's no longer there. So. And I mean, it's no longer there because it's been released. It's been somatically exposed. Released. Right. So that was just one piece that I wanted to.

Sure. Thank you. So, okay, guys, you have officially finished the do the Thing expert panel. This is the first kind of activation of what it is. And. Oh, my gosh, how crazy was this? I'm like, I literally have a whole thing of notes that I'm just dying. And then the timing of it is great because we're doing the. Because I said I would retreat next week, and that's where the Billion Dollar Activation is starting, which is where we're taking these challenges to corporations and partnering with nonprofits and meaningful causes and being able to do a whole revenue share. So the timing of this was great, especially because I'm creating that challenge next week. But, yeah, I'd love to hear. Last thing is just. Fred, I don't know why I feel like you should close us out. Do you want to close this out? Oh, my God.

Can I ask a question before we close out?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I would like to get involved in these. This is the first time I heard about this. You just invited me. Yeah, yeah. But I wonder if we can get involved. I would love to try Michael macrino's deep work. I would actually like to do it myself. I would like to go in the Billion Dollar Challenge retreat with you. I would like to help in. I would actually like to go to Kathryn's ranch. Can I go?

I mean, yeah, I'll message you. All the things I want to do.

I feel like these would enrich my ability to be a better filmmaker and actually relate, resonate with more people and transform more people's lives, not just in film, but in all these other awesome things and actually programmed the therapy thing. So thank you so much, Stacy, for inviting me and everyone for being here and letting me be here, too.

Yay. Yay.

I'm so glad.

Yeah, I'll message you after. Okay, Fred, take us home.

Well, I definitely appreciate it. I think the biggest takeaway that I would challenge everybody into today is to remember That, I mean, the future does belong to people who prepare for it. And I think we've gotten to this point in our lives because we've seen what happens when we don't take control of it. We don't do things with intention. So I know for me personally, it's a mountain of privilege to actually be on this kind of panel because I know what it's like to actually not only be in my own demons, but hold meetings with them and battle plan the wrong way versus actually having people who for a fact, really do care. And I know and I've seen it for a fact that this world is transforming into a culture of caring. Do not let this noise get in your head. That's what I was trained on in the Marine Corps. It was a high level propaganda specialist. We're seeing all of this stuff in lifetime. That means that something else is going on that's usually positive. So I tend to say that we have a choice now. And that's what I just want us to go away with today, is to just really realize that we're connected here. Thank you, Stacy. For an amazing reason. And I know we all have enough horsepower and we're high IQ people to really just blast this planet off in the right direction. That's my Fred talk for today.

Thanks you guys so much for coming. I'll be keeping in touch with you. For those of you that, yeah, are listening and you want to be part of the do the Thing community, just go to do the thing collaboration.com and I'll be reaching out to you guys and we'll be playing again. So do the thing. Don't wait for opportunity.

Create it.

Bye, everyone. Thank you. Thank you so much.