Transacting Value Podcast - Instigating Self-worth

What if your life's greatest setback turned into your most profound transformation? Join us as we explore the incredible journey of Robby Groover, president of the Florida Veterans Coalition, whose military career was tragically cut short by an injury in Afghanistan. Robby's story is one of resilience and reinvention, shifting from a soldier to a leader dedicated to serving veterans and the homeless, turning his personal trials into a beacon of hope and healing for others.

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Transacting Value Podcast

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What if your life's greatest setback turned into your most profound transformation? Join us as we explore the incredible journey of Robby Groover, president of the Florida Veterans Coalition, whose military career was tragically cut short by an injury in Afghanistan. Robby's story is one of resilience and reinvention, shifting from a soldier to a leader dedicated to serving veterans and the homeless, turning his personal trials into a beacon of hope and healing for others.

Throughout our conversation, Robby and I share the complexities of transitioning from military to civilian life, underscoring the parallels between mission planning and life planning. Having navigated these waters myself after leaving the Marine Corps, I reflect on the unexpected connections and opportunities that shaped my path. Together, we highlight the critical role of adaptability and positivity in overcoming life's challenges, drawing insights from our military experiences and translating them into tools for civilian success.

Finally, we dive into profound themes of emotional resilience and the challenges of parenting in a tech-savvy world. Robby reveals how teaching values of self-reliance can be transformative for both veterans and their families, especially in the face of adversities like natural disasters. From supporting disaster-stricken veterans to community-driven initiatives like Operation Toy Soldier, Robby's relentless dedication to spreading hope inspires us all to look beyond our struggles and make a lasting impact. Join us to uncover these powerful lessons and discover how you, too, can contribute to making a positive difference.

To learn more about Robby you can visit any of the link below:

https://heavendropt.org/
http://ourveteransalliance.org/
https://www.facebook.com/VeteransAllianceClearwater
https://www.instagram.com/heavendropt/?hl=en
https://www.facebook.com/robert.groover.779
https://www.facebook.com/heavendropt
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzIa44o81aaWyqLa4Bw6ggw/featured
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-groover-6b2b99bb/

Or to contact Robby, you can email him at: Robby.Groover@evergreenls.org

Veterans Florida helps ease the transition into the workforce with a broad network of employers, trainers, and partners eager to hire veterans in high-demand fields, or boost their journey into starting or building their own business. To learn more, click here: https://veteransflorida.org/

If you want to listen to other episodes of Transacting Value Podcast visit https://www.transactingvaluepodcast.com/

You can check us out more on Wreaths Across America radio Wednesday evenings, Thursday mornings and Sunday afternoons. Listen to the show here: https://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/pages/16036/News/1011/?relatedId=167754

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An SDYT Media Production I Deviate from the Norm

All rights reserved. 2021

Chapters

00:00 - Redefining Sovereignty

09:15 - Navigating Life's Complexities

18:54 - Coping With Post-Traumatic Stress and Resilience

28:13 - Teaching Values for Self-Reliance

39:20 - Discovering Lessons Through Adversity

46:18 - Supporting Veterans After Natural Disasters

Transcript

WEBVTT

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The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast host and guest and do not necessarily represent those of our distribution partners, supporting business relationships or supported audience.

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Welcome to Transacting Value, where we talk about practical applications for instigating self-worth when dealing with each other and even within ourselves, when we foster a podcast listening experience that lets you hear the power of a value system for managing burnout, establishing boundaries, fostering community and finding identity.

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My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and we are redefining sovereignty of character.

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This is why values still hold value.

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This is Transacting Value.

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I can't help everybody, and that's the hard reality of my industry is I can't help everybody, but I can help everybody that is at that level.

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If they have some hope and they're looking for purpose, I can help them find purpose.

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Today on Transacting Value.

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When you have nobody but yourself, your service ends, your contract ends and you're trying to figure out what your identity is, when your role changes, there's really only one thing you can stand on, especially when it comes to veteran service and it's servant leadership.

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It comes down to a lot of factors, but to every individual person it's how do you give hope to somebody else and how do you strive to create purpose for other people?

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Today's contributor we're talking to Robbie Groover.

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He's the current president of an organization called the Florida Veterans Coalition.

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They're a nonprofit out of Florida and we're going to hear all about exactly what he's doing, why he's doing and how it's helping him instigate purpose and hope and clarity for other people.

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So, without further ado, folks, I'm Porter, I'm your host, and this is Transacting Value.

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Robbie, what's up, man, how you doing?

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I'm doing well, I appreciate you having me on, Absolutely.

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You know there's a lot of cool things too that I want to make sure we have time to talk about, but I think it would really be a short sale of you and your experience if we didn't just start with you.

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Okay.

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Right, so let's just start at the beginning here.

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Take a couple minutes, man, who are you?

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Where are you from?

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You know what sort of things have shaped your perspective on life.

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Yeah so, born and raised in Florida and one of those fifth generation Floridians, always wanted to be in the military.

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Since I was eight years old, always want to be in military, joined at 17, right when I can get there infantry guy.

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spent my 20s invested into going in third world countries, seeing how the world worked and operated on different horizons.

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It really gave me a very broad approach on humanity, Eventually ending up in war-torn countries and ultimately, in 2012, I was injured from an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

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I lost a bunch of my guys and it really painted a whole different perspective of what war was.

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My career was cut short right after that due to some of these wounds and in 2014, I started my exiting my ETS process through the army and looked at what's next.

00:03:13.367 --> 00:03:19.564
When you have a military career that just stops so abruptly, you're just like well, what is next?

00:03:19.564 --> 00:03:30.774
So exactly what you were talking about I mean the transition, the hardships of kind of looking at civilian world is this complete unknown, especially for me?

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I mean my 17 years old.

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Going through the military raised me at that point and being thrusted into civilian world and trying to figure out, well, what am I going to do with my life?

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You know, coming from an environment of the military where purpose is around every corner, and then all of a sudden losing that, that idea of purpose, that idea of service to my country, service to my people, my fellow comrades, and so that's where it kind of all started.

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For me was that day going back into the civilian culture started.

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For me was that day going back into the civilian culture, From there just bobbing and weaving with the day-to-day struggles of just VA healthcare to private sector resources, to figuring out, you know there's a lot, of, a lot of issues going on for our people and how can I help myself but also help others?

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And so that that environment kind of thrusted me into building my first nonprofit in 2014, which was mainly around transitioning veterans.

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So you know I'm going through my struggle of transitioning out of the military and so I wanted to focus my ventures on helping others trans, you know, transition.

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Yeah, play to your strengths.

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And that's the thing is you is.

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I look back and I'm like I was probably having a lot more issues than the people that I was helping, but in kind of this weird twist of things, like my service to these people actually helped me find purpose in my life, which then helped me with my struggles, and so that was kind of that move that set that path forward for the rest of my life up until today, to where I have just dedicated my life to that nonprofit world, because it just feeds my soul, it helps me look at tomorrow as a gift through other people and helping people find hope and find purpose in their lives.

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It has become my hope and my purpose and that's kind of in a nutshell of where I kind of started with this.

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It's been a venture.

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My first nonprofit was really targeted towards transitioning and helping people reintegrate back into society and it was an overwhelming push for the homeless community.

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So learning about homelessness and helping somebody that's been living on the streets succumb to try and find opportunities and hope and purpose in their lives, it's been a venture.

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It's been a long running venture of mine.

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Yeah, yeah, I bet and that's something that's pretty wild too that I think is maybe understated, maybe even underrated conversation topic.

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But servant leadership, I think, gets often branded as things that we can do to fulfill other people, to help other people.

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But there's an awful lot of people that learn and grow by helping other people as a way to cope, as a way to process, as a way to reason and figure out the world, and so in helping all of these other people, like you said, helping yourself along the way that's exactly what podcasting did for me or has done is doing For me.

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Broadcast media probably writ large to talk through whatever issues and whatever baggage I had because I just got off my active contract a year ago and so trying to process my life.

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I just got off my active contract a year ago and so trying to process my life my divorce, long distance relationship with my son, getting out of the infantry and figuring out how do you carry any of those skill sets into Costco you know, like you can't do anything with that has been kind of a leap.

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But now talking to people, just having conversation, discourse, makes the biggest difference and it's all generally from a point of well, curiosity, not judgment.

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So I guess that brings me to my next question.

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Since you started out all of these nonprofits, you said seven.

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Now right.

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I've started seven different nonprofits over the years.

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A lot have been buddies that came to me with their ideas and helping support their finding hope and purpose through their nonprofit resources and helping them do that navigate those treacherous waters of Department of Agriculture forms and filings and IRS 990s and getting all that stuff accomplished.

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But you don't have a background in those things.

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You took it on and started it from the ground right.

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That's how you learned it out.

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I mean, just like we do, you know, in the military, we figure it out right.

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We take on objectives and we figure it out and we do the best we can with the tools that we have.

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Yeah.

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So let me ask you this From an individual perspective.

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You said you were in the infantry, okay, so I'm going to throw out a couple things to you real quick, just for a baseline here.

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When I say area of operations, what does it mean to you?

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My area of operations is exactly where I'm trying to put my objective towards.

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This is what I own, this is my area, this is where my people work, this is what we have to.

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You know, this is our mission orientation.

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Right there, sweet.

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Okay.

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So then, when you started framing out some of these concepts, once you got off active duty, when you started framing some of these concepts, did you view that area of operations first from a public lens or from yourself as an individual lens, and then focus it outward?

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What do you think was your initial AO to transition?

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That's an interesting question.

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Never thought about it like that, but I think I may have done twofolds.

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You assess, obviously, what my area of operations is is where I'm best suited.

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So where can I make a difference?

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That was kind of my first step into it, which is where what are my needs?

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Maybe I can mirror off of those people that need the same needs that I do.

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Maybe I can use my expertise to help that as an area of operations.

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But then I think it was retargeted very quickly.

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So like starting out and reintegrating back into society was kind of like my fortitude of like, well, if I'm going to figure it out, I'm going to bring other people in to help figure it out as well.

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But then it transgressed into homeless veterans which I had absolutely no idea how to work with.

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But that was that societal was pushing me towards.

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My new area of operations is helping homeless people reintegrate back into society as well and helping them find their purpose while I'm trying to work towards mine.

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Very interesting thought pattern, though.

00:09:47.490 --> 00:09:56.546
So I got one more, maybe one better, for you then, when you're talking about mission planning, and also for the sake of clarity here, let me back up, because anybody who's new to the show you may not be familiar.

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Most of my career professionally has been in the Marine Corps infantry, and so that's where a lot of my perspective comes from.

00:10:01.745 --> 00:10:22.085
And similar to the point you just brought up, robbie, is that you got to play to your strengths, and I'm not necessarily the most original thinker, I don't generally have the bandwidth for it, but I'm a systems guy, I'm a patterns guy, and so to stand on a foundation I am familiar with that, I happen to have some strengths in like, for example, infantry mission planning.

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I now generally view the world through the same lens and so for me, transitioning to the point you just brought up, it sounds like for you transitioning initially as well, if you were to think from a mission planning perspective, mission target analysis, whatever you want to consider, you've initially assuming you've got a target and an objective and some degree of intent or intention.

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First.

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You want to bring other people along with you for the ride to teach and educate and so on, for example.

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What did you recon?

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There's so many possibilities, there's so many options and opportunities.

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You want to go to school and you want to use your GI Bill, or you want to get a job and go to the Department of Labor, in the workforce or whatever.

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On top of I want to be a surfer and learn how to skateboard and I also want to make roses out of tomatoes.

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You know whatever you could have done.

00:11:07.864 --> 00:11:10.384
Yeah, how did you narrow down what?

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you got and prioritize

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I've always been a guy that kind of gets drawn towards things.

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You know, I've just my entire life I've always been.

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You know, planning always comes into that effect, but I've always been less of a planner, more of a, you know, go with the flow, what direction the world is going to take me.

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So when the world throws me curveballs, I don't plan for what the curveballs are, but I react to what those curveballs.

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And that point has made changes in my life and taught me things that are the most valuable, that I can't learn from school or anywhere else.

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You know, those curveballs, those issues, that turmoil has actually been the greatest thing in my learning ventures.

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And so I've just kind of always been that like I got out of the military I'm like I have absolutely no idea.

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I mean, I went to college after the military and I started out in business and then went, went marketing and then did a political science degree.

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I went all over the spectrum and really it was because business was something I was interested in.

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And then, you know, painting a picture of what that business could do through marketing was something I was very interested in.

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And then the world going through turmoil, the United States government going through weird times.

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You know that we were, we've we've just, you know, haven't experienced a long time and looking at patriotism on a whole different spectrum.

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It made me want to learn the political system so that maybe I could influence that political system or at least understand it and build some kind of knowledge gap between my peers that may have looked at it in a whole different way.

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So, just like you know, once again I didn't plan to go through anything that I've ever done.

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You know it's almost like seeing and spotting an opportunity, but it's far more than that.

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It's being pushed into something else.

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You know I've toyed with all these different conceptual realities of like energy levels and how people that have been the biggest in attributing to my life's success are the ones that just kind of came out of nowhere, like yourself.

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But we've just had this kind of weird energy connection towards like we both have a positive energy outlook on life and you know that may be the secret to connecting pieces that really just help build futures.

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All right, folks sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

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that really just help build futures.

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You know it's a very conceptual way of thinking but yeah, I wish it was as easy as just crawling over a berm and spotting a target and assessing if that HVT is, the last known location was in that town and we're just like going to go on a whim and say we're going to hit that house, that house and that house.

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That'd be great to be able to do that in a civilian world and going out and be like you know, I want to get into real estate because that's a profitable area.

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I want to get into maybe doing some marketing for companies because then I could build a portfolio and then drive successes for other people and then eventually drive it towards mine.

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But that never worked for me.

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Yeah, it is strange to think, especially in kinetic environments, despite all the complexities, life is so much simpler.

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This is it.

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You've literally trained for one purpose maybe two, maybe three, depending on your skill set and your occupational field and specialty and you just do it.

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But you can't in life.

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For example, samuel Clemens, I think, was his real name, but Mark Twain he said I never let schooling interfere with my education Because, exactly like you said, you're not going to learn this in high school.

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You can't.

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To a certain degree, I guess you can play sports and you can learn some sense of self-reliance and confidence and teamwork and these other sort of traits and qualities, but it's just not the same as enduring exposure to a high stress environment and you're just redlining your bandwidth every single second.

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And then how do you thrive?

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It's weird, because then you can't translate it, so then you can't teach it.

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It's just hands-on the whole way through.

00:16:02.546 --> 00:16:05.674
Have you ever read a book called Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill?

00:16:05.674 --> 00:16:14.971
No, so it's an old book, I think over 100 years old now, and it's been reprinted millions of times, tens of millions of times, but if you get the opportunity to check it out.

00:16:14.971 --> 00:16:18.836
You mentioned vibrations and this sort of magnetism as well.

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I used to think, especially in broadcast media my role, if you think about, like an operations cycle and an intelligence cycle, how they sort of feed each other in a war zone, right In, I guess, intelligence preparation aspect.

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I used to think in broadcast media we or people in roles that I have filled more of this cognitive sphere and maybe on occasion we could influence this behavioral sphere that people had.

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And then I started thinking people, for example, like you, that are running organizations and hosting events and doing in-person things almost solely existed in this physical sphere.

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Hosting events and doing in-person things almost solely existed in this physical sphere.

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But we don't.

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Everything is like this giant Venn diagram and we're all trying to figure out what's the middle where we can ideally coalesce with some degree of peace and maybe cordiality.

00:17:12.665 --> 00:17:23.057
But in that book, think and Grow Rich, napoleon Hill, the author, talks about different aspects to get in the right headspace.

00:17:23.057 --> 00:17:28.355
And if I learned anything from working with machine gunners, headspace and timing will change the world.

00:17:28.355 --> 00:17:29.397
Oh, yes.

00:17:29.397 --> 00:17:38.256
So when it comes to headspace, two of the points that he brought up, one is about thought, one is about faith, and he said, as it applies to thought, it's a vibration, that's all it is.

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And then your ability to interpret it comes from your perspective and your experiences, your biases, your outlook, whatever culture you're exposed to in the moment allows you to interpret that vibration or that thought into something.

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But it's your faith that gives you the frequency of that thought and if, over enough time and with a high enough frequency, you can start to interpret those thoughts with a positive slant, generally speaking, success is coming.

00:18:07.215 --> 00:18:15.439
And then, as you increase frequency and vibration with enough resonance, you get magnetism Absolutely.

00:18:15.439 --> 00:18:17.872
And then you can't help but see it anywhere else, everywhere else.

00:18:17.872 --> 00:18:20.385
And I think that's a lot of what you've been describing, man.

00:18:20.385 --> 00:18:47.132
And so, as you've gone through these experiences, starting these organizations, working your those types of people, or are you still seeing there's differences in opinion and perspective and benefiting from that kind of a contrast and chaos as well?

00:18:47.313 --> 00:18:47.875
Oh, absolutely.

00:18:47.875 --> 00:18:49.451
I mean, I think it goes both ways.

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I mean I think we're always growing, we're always learning, we're always building.

00:18:53.530 --> 00:19:12.669
On the other side, it's like how do you teach that mentality, of that positive mentality, of looking at something in a positive light, looking at something as you know, even in the worst times, looking at something as positive because you'll overcome it and you'll learn something and it'll be better, like life will always.

00:19:12.669 --> 00:19:14.535
Life will always be better.

00:19:15.017 --> 00:19:16.804
Um, and it's like, how do you teach that?

00:19:16.804 --> 00:19:39.662
Because on the flip side of that, on the on the nonmagnetism side, you have so many people that are just unlucky, they live a life that's almost like unlucky, and these are the people that we all know that, just like they have the flat tire on the way to work and then they got a call and then they've got kids, or this happens and got kids are sick, this happens and the kids are sick.

00:19:39.662 --> 00:19:49.775
It's just like a trickle effect and they're just always the people that are kind of moping around and you try to look at it through their lens and you're like, yeah, I mean, if I was experiencing that, I'd probably be mopey as well.

00:19:49.775 --> 00:19:52.053
But you're also like, how do you teach that?

00:19:52.053 --> 00:19:57.994
It's almost like if you fake it till you make it mentality, it like if you fake positive energy.

00:19:57.994 --> 00:20:07.614
You know, and I don't know how you fake positive energy, but I mean, like that's where, like you look at it, like if you could fake positive energy, will things eventually just work out down the road?

00:20:08.395 --> 00:20:12.188
And to your question, like I think it's continual.

00:20:12.188 --> 00:20:18.952
So I think you always have to keep looking at the future as some kind of positive force.

00:20:18.952 --> 00:20:21.428
You have to always continue to grow.

00:20:21.428 --> 00:20:25.116
That I think it's something that can be lost as well, especially in cultures these days.

00:20:25.116 --> 00:20:30.938
I mean, it's hard sometimes to look at society and be like, wow, this weren't a bad situation.

00:20:30.938 --> 00:20:43.250
It's hard to keep up that mentality of it'll all get better, but it's important to continue that growth and always look at that.

00:20:43.250 --> 00:20:45.996
In my opinion, I don't know, yeah.

00:20:46.036 --> 00:20:48.169
There was a saying, and I wish I could remember who said it.

00:20:48.169 --> 00:20:50.821
I do this every time I have a conversation on the show.

00:20:50.821 --> 00:20:53.269
Somebody inspires me to think of something and I can.

00:20:53.269 --> 00:20:54.573
I'm never prepared to talk about it.

00:20:54.573 --> 00:21:07.477
This is one of them, but there was a saying I read, and it was was the sun's rays surf on the back of every tsunami, and it was such an interesting perspective to me, exactly the point you just brought up.

00:21:07.477 --> 00:21:15.317
Sometimes it looks like you're about to get crushed by this wave and then you forget you could also ride the top or the bottom.

00:21:15.317 --> 00:21:31.297
I'm not a surfer, but the analogy is there right, and so I think there's a lot of unique opportunities for that, like, for example, you had mentioned earlier that you learned basically at 17, as the military was raising you into adulthood, what war was.

00:21:31.297 --> 00:21:33.405
What did you think it was?

00:21:34.228 --> 00:21:38.617
I mean even when you're experiencing warfare, I mean when you're in kinetic combat.

00:21:38.617 --> 00:21:41.301
You know, especially when you're in the infantry mindset, like it's your call of duty.

00:21:41.301 --> 00:21:42.190
I mean when you're when you're in kinetic combat.

00:21:42.190 --> 00:21:43.957
You know, especially when you're in the infantry mindset, like it's your, it's your call of duty.

00:21:43.957 --> 00:21:46.651
I mean, it's your, it's your wheelhouse, it's what you've been training for.

00:21:46.651 --> 00:22:00.496
It's literally what I've seen people that were trained infantrymen, that never saw combat, that are almost having, you know, mental health issues because they never got to use their trade, like it's.

00:22:00.496 --> 00:22:15.989
There's an excitement to combat there is until you lose somebody, you know, until it becomes real, and it's like you react to contact and you move and assess and you take out that threat and that's what you're trained for.

00:22:15.989 --> 00:22:17.574
Those are successes, those are wins.

00:22:17.594 --> 00:22:22.276
You get back to your cop, you know, after the mission and you're like dude, that was great.

00:22:22.276 --> 00:22:24.834
You know we went in, we crushed it, like everything was great.

00:22:24.834 --> 00:22:26.228
You know we found that that.

00:22:26.228 --> 00:22:29.797
You know that compound, we took that HVT like we.

00:22:29.797 --> 00:22:31.967
You know we, we did what we were here for.

00:22:31.967 --> 00:22:40.779
But when you do those same days where you go out and you have a retaliation mission because you lost a guy that was shot by a rocket on your cop.

00:22:40.779 --> 00:22:57.513
And you find that point of origin and you go out to that location and you walk into an ambush point and you lose two more guys and you know you're sitting up there for 12 hours while the rescue guys are trying to get in because you're 360 degrees of contact going in.

00:22:57.513 --> 00:23:03.894
You can't get birds because you're a complete black on air and you're just trying to get those bodies out of there.

00:23:03.913 --> 00:23:05.970
And then you get back and it's like a whole different world.

00:23:05.970 --> 00:23:11.171
You're now like now you've experienced like wow, this is that other side.

00:23:11.171 --> 00:23:12.991
This is when missions don't go right.

00:23:12.991 --> 00:23:14.710
This is when loss happens.

00:23:14.710 --> 00:23:19.874
This is when this is that turning point and I've seen it on my soldiers.

00:23:19.874 --> 00:23:26.115
I was a staff sergeant during these times and I had to be that person for my people.

00:23:26.115 --> 00:23:35.872
You gotta be strong-willed, you gotta be like I've been there in the fight telling people like emotions are not for now, emotions for after we get back, because right now we're still in the fight.

00:23:35.872 --> 00:23:47.234
So like this isn't the time to think about what just happened, this is the time to react to contact and then afterwards we deal with it, we cope.

00:23:47.255 --> 00:23:48.117
That's what people struggle with.

00:23:48.117 --> 00:23:49.280
That's that point of warfare that becomes, becomes real.

00:23:49.280 --> 00:23:52.227
I mean the fear of getting shot at, the fear of contact.

00:23:52.227 --> 00:23:56.369
You know, when you get back you have that fear.

00:23:56.369 --> 00:24:16.053
But that visual of losing people, that mission that went wrong, that thought of survivors' guilt, that mentality of just pure and utter loss of that mission, that's what lives with people, that's the real aspect of that's what war is, that's what you eventually find out, that's what war is.

00:24:16.053 --> 00:24:21.751
Those are the most trying periods of time On a humanistic side.

00:24:22.252 --> 00:24:23.817
We've been doing that since the dawn of humans.

00:24:23.817 --> 00:24:27.355
I mean, this is literally like warfare is a part of humanity.

00:24:27.355 --> 00:24:34.598
And that's where, you know, on the flip side of this is like General Petraeus spoke to Kansas State University while I was in the military.

00:24:34.598 --> 00:24:40.242
He talked about post-traumatic stress and he talked about how, like it's really not a disorder.

00:24:40.242 --> 00:24:43.791
I mean, it's a naturally forming part of the human mind.

00:24:44.513 --> 00:24:47.429
You know it's the fear of lions, because you know the lion is going to kill you.

00:24:47.891 --> 00:24:53.970
It's the fact that society doesn't have that anymore, because society doesn't need to have that, that trait anymore.

00:24:54.490 --> 00:25:13.395
So we become the oddballs of society, which then places that disorder aspect on it because you're different than us, when, in all rationale, society is different from soldiers, that experience that and awaken that humanistic side, that thing that we haven't had to experience, it's primal, exactly.

00:25:13.395 --> 00:25:21.390
And so, like that was a turning point in my life because, like you know, you get to look at it as like, well, I'm not broken, that's, it's the warrior mentality.

00:25:21.390 --> 00:25:26.267
I mean like this is something that is is normal for warriors to go through.

00:25:26.267 --> 00:25:35.526
And when you start viewing things like that and you start looking at it through that different lens, you start realizing like, well, I mean society's kind of tarnished in that situation.

00:25:35.526 --> 00:25:46.893
I mean like, really, when you look at like civilians that are running around, like they haven't had to live in that world, they haven't had to experience that trait and because of that they won't understand it.

00:25:46.893 --> 00:25:58.140
But it's not up to them to understand, it's up to us to understand, to help our people, our warriors, cope and then prosper, find hope and find purpose and prosper.

00:25:58.684 --> 00:26:01.866
See, I think that's where we're on two sides of maybe the same coin.

00:26:01.866 --> 00:26:22.979
I think it is also our role and I agree with your point to help other veterans, or even veteran families, anybody, as it applies to this sort of patriot mentality and psychographic you're talking about, but also because it's not just in the military I mean, there's cops, there's firefighters all same similar at least, circumstances where they also have to work with their families.

00:26:22.979 --> 00:26:33.309
And I think the other half of the coin you just brought up is also educating and encouraging, empowering the rest of the community to say, hey, folks, here's what we're bringing back into society.

00:26:33.309 --> 00:26:37.717
Alrighty folks, sit tight, we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

00:26:37.717 --> 00:26:49.680
Alrighty folks, if you're looking for more perspective and more podcasts, you can check out Transacting Value on Reads Across America Radio, listen in on iHeartRadio, odyssey and TuneIn.

00:26:49.680 --> 00:27:06.430
They also have to work with their families and I think the other half of the coin you just brought up is also educating and encouraging, empowering the rest of the community to say, hey, folks, here's what we're bringing back into society, here's who we are.

00:27:06.430 --> 00:27:18.617
We're not quite the whatever image you have of the military or of firefighters or of cops, whatever the vigilantes in uniform that maybe Batman ascribed us to, unfortunately.

00:27:18.617 --> 00:27:28.200
But there's a lot of things that also need to be talked about publicly and, like you said, not for the sake of a disorder, but just for the sake of insight and a knowledge base.

00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:31.999
And that's something that's interesting too, because it's a global subculture.

00:27:31.999 --> 00:27:40.597
Every military, every branch of every country, regardless of political affiliation, religious belief, ethnic makeup doesn't matter.

00:27:40.597 --> 00:27:55.002
Anybody, and I'd even say even the drafted two-year guys that are conscripted into whatever other branch at any other country, all included fit the same subcultural psychographic and are trying to figure out how to process the world through that lens.

00:27:55.002 --> 00:28:07.428
Some of us stay longer than others and find a way to reconcile the fog of war or the sort of cataracts on the societal lens, I guess, and others don't.

00:28:07.428 --> 00:28:12.691
They get glasses and move on, and that's fine too, but I think there's a lot of those opportunities that get missed.

00:28:12.691 --> 00:28:23.346
But the other point you mentioned which is pretty interesting is you developed it, you grew into it, maybe groomed into it, from 17 to what?

00:28:23.346 --> 00:28:24.755
26, 27?

00:28:24.755 --> 00:28:25.557
, yeah, 26.

00:28:25.557 --> 00:28:33.340
And then by then your brain's fully formed and you've literally been reprogrammed how to perceive the world.

00:28:33.340 --> 00:28:37.461
You can't unlearn it anymore, and so I'm curious.

00:28:37.670 --> 00:28:47.480
I think this is a good time for a segment of the show called Developing Character, and it's two questions Entirely vulnerable, as you want to be, and they're open-ended.

00:28:47.480 --> 00:28:53.262
But the reason for this segment for anybody new to the show you included is that comes from somewhere.

00:28:53.262 --> 00:28:58.313
It's got to be almost a genetic predisposition, and I'm not a geneticist, but it's a working theory.

00:28:58.313 --> 00:29:00.496
Got to be almost a genetic predisposition, and I'm not a geneticist, but it's a working theory.

00:29:00.496 --> 00:29:13.833
And so this is about value systems that you've adopted, because ultimately, that's where your character is grounded, where your decisions are made from, and even though they change as you get older, your values.

00:29:13.833 --> 00:29:15.415
They inform a lot of how you perceive any of these transitions.

00:29:15.415 --> 00:29:23.338
And so, in your case, growing up in Florida, the prevailing thought is that must be nice, unless you're a homesteader in the 1800s or something.

00:29:23.338 --> 00:29:27.221
But, like, my first question is about you growing up.

00:29:27.221 --> 00:29:34.584
What were some of the values you were raised on that you were brought up around to help introduce you, or 17 year old you into some of these things.

00:29:34.710 --> 00:29:42.498
I mean, you know, my dynamic with my parents was probably the most interesting because my my mother I grew up in the nonprofit world.

00:29:42.498 --> 00:29:47.778
My mother worked for American Red Cross and it was actually part of like my aftercare.

00:29:47.778 --> 00:29:55.912
So like I'd get off of school and I would go to the American Red Cross, interesting I would live in that, in that world and that mentality, and then I would.

00:29:55.912 --> 00:30:15.682
We would have hurricanes, and this is I'm eight years old at this point We'd have hurricanes and I would go mobilize with the emergency response vehicle and we'd go feed shelters and like I would go pal around with these emergency first responders and we'd go to houses that lost everything and fires and you know support that.

00:30:15.682 --> 00:30:18.034
So like that was probably one of the most.

00:30:18.273 --> 00:30:23.284
Like my mother is absolutely the most incredible giver.

00:30:23.284 --> 00:30:27.540
She just always has been giving her life almost too much.

00:30:27.540 --> 00:30:29.798
I mean almost like I'm witnessing that as a kid.

00:30:29.798 --> 00:30:34.977
You look at this, it's not sustainable for you to give everything to everybody else, and that's kind of that standpoint.

00:30:34.977 --> 00:30:40.431
And then my father, my father was, he's been a businessman his entire life.

00:30:40.431 --> 00:30:42.916
He's been a profitable engineer.

00:30:42.916 --> 00:31:07.662
I mean that's that thought process of engineering profits and building businesses and scaling technologies and looking at self-sustaining versus giving, and so my upbringing was kind of this weird realm of like of that how to give everything you have while also making it sustainable, while also being able to build mentalities to scale the growth of giving.

00:31:07.662 --> 00:31:10.959
That was kind of always what was interesting to me.

00:31:10.959 --> 00:31:16.643
But then, added to that, I grew up in a poor side of town.

00:31:16.643 --> 00:31:19.678
I was a survivor.

00:31:19.678 --> 00:31:20.730
At a young age, I mean.

00:31:20.730 --> 00:31:29.036
I remember I'd be out just like a lot of us used to do You're out of the house until the lights come on, you're back in the house Like you're out there on the streets.

00:31:29.673 --> 00:31:36.651
I remember taking a bus, you know, in summers, and taking the bus to the beach and that like I was an explorer, like I was always out there just doing something.

00:31:36.651 --> 00:31:37.991
And I was an explorer, I was always out there just doing something.

00:31:37.991 --> 00:31:45.917
I got into surfing at a young age and just enjoyed the water, I enjoyed the beach, I enjoyed Mother Nature and just kind of enjoyed that.

00:31:45.917 --> 00:31:58.586
But I never left the state of Florida until I joined the Army, and so there was actually a moment in my life where I had traveled more places outside of the country through the Army than I had ever been inside the country.

00:31:58.586 --> 00:32:00.367
Oh wow, which is bizarre.

00:32:00.367 --> 00:32:06.496
So it's just like you know this weird, you know.

00:32:06.496 --> 00:32:09.750
So it's like it's always interesting to like look back on my life and just kind of be like how did I get here?

00:32:09.890 --> 00:32:14.821
But, like I was saying earlier, I've always just tended to let the world tell me where to go.

00:32:14.821 --> 00:32:16.233
There's never been a plan.

00:32:16.233 --> 00:32:24.263
So like I just always let the world kind of guide me into what has kind of always worked out.

00:32:24.263 --> 00:32:24.925
I mean, it's always.

00:32:24.925 --> 00:32:36.737
I've always been very lucky in just things that I've I've done, because I I let the opportunities that are open, come about, you know it's, it's, it's interesting, I don't know Okay.

00:32:37.077 --> 00:32:42.240
Well, that explains a lot about how you got where you are, and it almost proves my point that it may be actually genetic.

00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:47.742
Then you seem to have found a pretty solid crossroads for almost all your interests.

00:32:47.742 --> 00:32:50.037
I don't know if you've ever helped homeless surfing veterans yet.

00:32:50.037 --> 00:32:51.079
Maybe that's next.

00:32:51.079 --> 00:32:58.480
Yeah right, so then my second question in spite of all of these experiences, what about now?

00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:01.173
What are some of these values you're teaching your kids and that you stand by?

00:33:01.173 --> 00:33:02.076
Now, if they've changed?

00:33:02.630 --> 00:33:09.579
You know, I've got two kids and that's my biggest thing right now is just how do I build survivors?

00:33:09.579 --> 00:33:18.714
You know, I look at the world we're at and we see so many that don't understand how lucky we have it and it's like, how do you teach that?

00:33:18.714 --> 00:33:26.598
So I try and use my perspectives to teach, but it's difficult when you don't show.

00:33:26.598 --> 00:33:30.684
You know, I don't really know what do you mean when you don't show.

00:33:30.684 --> 00:33:36.053
Well, when someone doesn't live that world, it's hard for them to understand the characteristics of that world.

00:33:36.053 --> 00:33:42.258
Like being able to see a third world country and like be in that environment with kids walking around barefoot.

00:33:42.650 --> 00:33:51.397
You know, I always tell the story of like kids in third world countries walking around barefoot in mounds of trash, kicking a soccer ball, are like the happiest kids I've ever seen.

00:33:51.397 --> 00:34:02.070
And then you come back here and you're like kids that were cut off the internet or even grownups that couldn't get to their Starbucks coffee, like it's.

00:34:02.070 --> 00:34:07.576
That's the problems they experience and it's like, almost by having so much you become so unhappy.

00:34:07.576 --> 00:34:27.240
By having almost nothing, you become so much more happier and that's where, like my childhood, having almost nothing I was so much happier and I built on that, so, like every day ahead, I've got more than I had yesterday, as opposed to like I'm trying to raise my kids that have a lot more than I had when I was a kid, but they have everything at their fingertips.

00:34:27.240 --> 00:34:36.623
And so you're trying to teach those characteristics of like human survival, just like techniques that we use to you know to just grow as, as people.

00:34:37.070 --> 00:34:41.079
Well, are you guys, you and your kids, for example, or your generation and the next?

00:34:41.079 --> 00:34:46.722
However you want to frame this, do you really think we're growing up in different worlds?

00:34:46.722 --> 00:34:51.476
Because ultimately it's targeted you said raising survivors, right?

00:34:51.476 --> 00:34:56.161
I mean it's targeting the gaps to convert them into services.

00:34:56.161 --> 00:35:14.914
So if what they have, for example, is, let's say, superficiality, right, the consumer goods or whatever, to whatever scale appropriate here, developed or developing nations may have, but what they're lacking maybe is character, insight or self-reliance or self-confidence or communication skills.

00:35:14.914 --> 00:35:18.882
It's sort of just surviving through a different lens.

00:35:18.882 --> 00:35:22.311
It's still just addressing the gaps.

00:35:22.311 --> 00:35:24.217
I mean, is it really that different?

00:35:24.257 --> 00:35:31.902
No, I mean, it's the same reason that you have people that grow up with nothing that become world leaders and people that have everything.

00:35:31.902 --> 00:35:50.418
But there's also that's a rarity in its own, because you have so many people that grow up with nothing that end up following the same footsteps, and it's hard to paint a picture of a one size fits all mentality, so it's a difficult perspective.

00:35:50.958 --> 00:35:56.800
Well, it changes something too, because, part of every parent, you want to pass on some of that to your kids, whether or not they care to receive it as irrelevant.

00:35:56.800 --> 00:35:59.590
You will learn how to tie your whether or not they care to receive it is irrelevant.

00:35:59.590 --> 00:36:01.376
You will learn how to tie your shoes.

00:36:01.376 --> 00:36:03.094
You will learn how to ride a bike.

00:36:03.094 --> 00:36:04.018
I don't care if you ever own one.

00:36:04.018 --> 00:36:11.751
There's some things, at least to me, that I think are just non-negotiables, because one day, I don't know, you might need to get away from a dog on a bike or something who knows?

00:36:12.411 --> 00:36:22.278
Yeah, Learn to swim, but it's the characteristics of, like you said, it's self-sustainability, it's being able to do things on your own.

00:36:22.278 --> 00:36:33.166
I mean self-sufficient and that's, I think, the most important thing, because if you don't teach your child the ability to do things for themselves, then what kind of adult are they going to be?

00:36:33.668 --> 00:36:35.590
Well, that's a bit of both, isn't it?

00:36:35.590 --> 00:36:43.202
The action, the mentality, the maturity, the insight, all of those things, I think, require a certain degree of self-reliance.

00:36:43.202 --> 00:36:46.373
Maybe not in its entirety, but you can't always ask for help.

00:36:46.373 --> 00:36:50.913
You can't always rely on a team ideally sometimes, but not all the time.

00:36:50.913 --> 00:36:53.545
And so how do you build those things?

00:36:53.545 --> 00:36:55.030
I mean, you teach people all the time.

00:36:55.030 --> 00:36:57.735
You're an educator for nonprofits, you know what I mean.

00:36:57.735 --> 00:37:04.338
You host events or you consult with other people, you have dialogue, you do all sorts of things if not a formal teacher.

00:37:04.338 --> 00:37:06.215
So how do you educate people?

00:37:06.215 --> 00:37:08.713
I mean you said it earlier Without being in that world?

00:37:08.713 --> 00:37:13.277
It's tough to describe that world, but is it that necessary to describe it, to teach it?

00:37:13.940 --> 00:37:16.875
Yeah, I mean it's all about who's willing to listen.

00:37:16.875 --> 00:37:22.083
I think that's the biggest gap is in all of my career working with helping people.

00:37:22.083 --> 00:37:36.264
The most commonality to somebody that goes from being helped to then finding hope and then growing, is how well they're able to adapt and succumb to that help.

00:37:36.264 --> 00:37:48.384
I mean, like I said, I started out in the homeless veteran industry of supplying transitional housing and employment and food and just basic human essentials.

00:37:48.384 --> 00:38:02.936
But I realized quickly you can give somebody a job, you can give them a house, you give them money, but really until you inspire purpose in their lives, they don't look at that as like tomorrow is a gift, tomorrow is still a burden, no matter what.

00:38:02.936 --> 00:38:10.961
And so you almost need to help inspire that hope and that purpose which for many years I was trying to teach.

00:38:11.202 --> 00:38:21.722
Purpose, purpose is the main attribute to looking at tomorrow as a gift and building something good for yourself and building some kind of sustainable mindset.

00:38:21.722 --> 00:38:28.757
But really it's even before you find purpose you have to have hope, and I've kind of recently figured that out.

00:38:28.757 --> 00:38:31.063
Hope is like the building block to purpose.

00:38:31.063 --> 00:38:36.061
So you have to inspire hope into people, that they have hope that they can do well.

00:38:36.061 --> 00:38:50.166
I mean that's a side of confidence and that's the side of, like you know, societal constraints and that's you know, economic constraints, like that's them being able to be like, well, I want to do this, but I can't because of A, b and C.

00:38:50.166 --> 00:38:52.414
Well then, they don't have hope.

00:38:52.414 --> 00:39:07.219
So I've learned to kind of work towards I can't help everybody, and that's the hard reality of my industry is I can't help everybody, but I can help everybody that is at that level of they have some hope and they're looking for purpose.

00:39:07.219 --> 00:39:13.617
I can help them find purpose and that's I think that's the most rewarding thing is it's triage.

00:39:15.416 --> 00:39:17.836
All right, folks, sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

00:39:20.150 --> 00:39:28.085
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That's afvclubcom.

00:40:20.092 --> 00:40:36.539
It's looking at well, who's willing to listen, who's willing to adapt, who's willing to overcome, who is willing to take that initiative, these learning aspects that we're trying to teach and use them to the best of their abilities.

00:40:36.539 --> 00:40:39.059
I think that's the fundamental truths.

00:40:40.351 --> 00:40:47.402
Well then, teaching kids or whoever else to be adaptable, I think, just requires a fair amount of letting chaos happen.

00:40:47.402 --> 00:40:47.842
Yeah.

00:40:48.324 --> 00:40:52.413
And that's the side when you look at the kid aspect, the child aspect of that.

00:40:52.413 --> 00:41:00.882
I think teaching your children that, no matter how hard life gets, you will always have the tools to overcome it.

00:41:00.882 --> 00:41:15.961
And I think that's where that is what inspires hope at just such a young age, is the fact that, like I have, hope that I'm going to get home after a flat tire because I know how to do this, I know how to adapt and overcome, so it's not complete loss.

00:41:15.961 --> 00:41:23.181
You know, it's that mentality of like I run into a hurdle and I'm just going to quit and shut down and I'm going to be hopeless.

00:41:23.181 --> 00:41:24.744
No, you need to.

00:41:24.969 --> 00:41:27.777
You run into a hurdle and you adapt, you overcome.

00:41:27.777 --> 00:41:28.840
It's a puzzle to solve.

00:41:28.840 --> 00:41:37.594
And then you jump that hurdle and now you're stronger for that hurdle, and now you look at that hurdle as this life lesson that made you better.

00:41:37.594 --> 00:41:42.873
So now you look at every other hurdle in front of you as, wow, this one's really hard.

00:41:42.873 --> 00:41:49.139
So this one must be one hell of a life lesson, which means I'm going to be even better of a person on the other side of this.

00:41:49.139 --> 00:41:55.460
And I think that is what we lack sometimes in just society, of that mentality.

00:41:55.460 --> 00:42:02.498
So if that was the one fundamental thing that we should teach our children, it's that as just a character trait.

00:42:03.309 --> 00:42:05.722
A lot of that can come into conversation.

00:42:05.722 --> 00:42:17.422
Just talking and I don't necessarily mean the more I guess common adage over, say, the last 20 years, video games are bad text, ruining the world sort of metaphor, because I don't think that's the case.

00:42:17.422 --> 00:42:19.034
I used to, but I don't think that's the case anymore.

00:42:19.034 --> 00:42:28.916
All we've really done is, I think, digitized society yeah, it's just a different medium to communicate in, but I don't think it's really a foreign medium.

00:42:29.416 --> 00:42:29.416
,

00:42:33.420 --> 00:42:34.282
No, we just like anything.

00:42:34.282 --> 00:42:36.344
We just need to not be over-reliant on things as our main function.

00:42:36.344 --> 00:42:37.565
It's the hurdle.

00:42:37.826 --> 00:42:39.210
Yeah, exactly it is.

00:42:39.210 --> 00:42:53.036
But then finding similarities because now, like in my case, my son's 10, I don't speak video game, I don't have the same reliance on it for entertainment or friendship circles or anything that he does, even to the degree that he does.

00:42:53.036 --> 00:43:01.411
But trying to find ways to communicate with him about things in ways like you said, that he's willing to learn and understand, I think is the biggest thing.

00:43:01.411 --> 00:43:11.775
And we're the adults, you know, we're the ones that should be holding the ownership of that, not putting that on the kids, like why don't you understand what I'm saying?

00:43:11.775 --> 00:43:15.833
Well, obviously I'm the one not saying it in a way you should understand or that you could understand.

00:43:15.833 --> 00:43:17.396
Yeah, I'll take that one dude.

00:43:17.396 --> 00:43:20.715
My bad, you know, and it's on us to fix it and try to reconcile it.

00:43:20.715 --> 00:43:36.876
But again, that's just another aspect of this human existence that, as we're growing through, technology may be outpacing our current generational bandwidth to parent effectively, I don't know, history books will show, but it definitely gives us a different platform to be able to perceive the world.

00:43:37.530 --> 00:43:39.456
I've never had to reason with a cyborg before.

00:43:39.456 --> 00:43:40.260
Now I do.

00:43:40.260 --> 00:43:42.876
I've never talked to a robot before.

00:43:42.876 --> 00:43:43.559
Now I have.

00:43:43.559 --> 00:43:46.152
Everything changes, now I do.

00:43:46.152 --> 00:43:47.155
You know, I've never talked to a robot before.

00:43:47.155 --> 00:43:47.376
Now I have.

00:43:47.376 --> 00:43:48.077
Yeah, you know, everything changes.

00:43:48.077 --> 00:43:48.960
It all just happens to be in the same kid.

00:43:48.960 --> 00:43:50.003
But you know, I'll learn as I grow.

00:43:50.003 --> 00:43:54.945
I guess, just like you said, you do as well, and then ultimately, yeah, tomorrow becomes the gift.

00:43:54.945 --> 00:43:59.697
It's another opportunity to learn or to grow or to overcome a challenge or whatever the trigger is.

00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:20.942
But I think those are the, the things that we can bring back from experiences like war or loss or well, I guess, any of these other examples that maybe we've been protecting society from by virtue of our positions in any sort of frontline, civil servant position, that, like you said, nobody's really going to understand the environment.

00:44:20.942 --> 00:44:22.550
You can't recreate it necessarily.

00:44:22.550 --> 00:44:24.472
It's certainly not to the same effect if you could.

00:44:24.472 --> 00:44:37.351
But what we can take out of it is the character traits and the stability and the self-reliance and the value systems and the perspective, and there's resonance there.

00:44:37.351 --> 00:44:42.550
You know I'll tell you this and this may not be a secret, I don't know, but I've never told you this.

00:44:42.550 --> 00:44:45.800
I've never met one talking lion in my life.

00:44:45.800 --> 00:44:50.521
Do you have any idea how much insight I've gained from the Lion King Crazy?

00:44:50.521 --> 00:44:53.259
So if I can do that from an animated lion cub.

00:44:53.259 --> 00:44:56.798
Why couldn't I do it from a real person, in a situation I've never been in?

00:44:57.039 --> 00:45:06.802
Yeah, you know, and circumstances to that extent too, where you go to different cultures, different villages, different places, different cultures, different villages, different places, different languages, and you're still learning different aspects of humanity.

00:45:06.802 --> 00:45:08.523
You mentioned the trash piles in the soccer ball.

00:45:08.523 --> 00:45:19.277
I don't know if it's all rooted in the fact that they got a soccer ball and there's trash, or if that there's a lot less distraction and they can focus on a human existence and their own character building or whatever.

00:45:19.277 --> 00:45:26.304
I'm not sure what it is that works, but it is a drastic difference and it's noticeable, especially coming back stateside, I guess.

00:45:26.304 --> 00:45:28.831
For the sake of time, I really have two other questions for you.

00:45:28.831 --> 00:45:34.784
One of them is all of these experiences now as it applies to you as an individual.

00:45:34.784 --> 00:45:41.452
What has it actually taught you about your own self-worth, not as it applies to other people, but you being your own baseline?

00:45:42.213 --> 00:45:55.590
Well, my self-worth and what I have succumbed to and finding my gifts and my talents and my purpose and all these attributes that kind of keep me going.

00:45:55.590 --> 00:45:59.940
It's made me understand that I just I very much enjoy helping people.

00:45:59.940 --> 00:46:04.800
I really just enjoy and like truly helping people, not like casually, just helping people.

00:46:04.800 --> 00:46:18.458
I have learned that helping people gives me the most meaning in life On a deep side, a deep side of help, even for the hurricanes that just happened.

00:46:18.458 --> 00:46:45.621
I mean being on the island and delivering just basic human essentials to people that are in peril and just being able to push through all of the hardships that they're experiencing and give them some kind of a little hope of humanity for like a moment of time that there are still good attributes in humanity that have been lost maybe in their lives.

00:46:46.282 --> 00:46:47.291
That's what I'm like.

00:46:47.291 --> 00:46:48.916
It's become kind of my addiction.

00:46:48.916 --> 00:46:50.579
That's what kind of gets me going.

00:46:50.579 --> 00:46:58.273
I mean that's what keeps me alive and keeps me flourishing is just being able to almost prove to people that humans are good.

00:46:58.273 --> 00:47:01.458
I think that's probably the root of it all.

00:47:01.458 --> 00:47:22.891
It's just I've seen such bad sides of societies that I just I think once again giving people hope that there's good out there and being able to be that person that's able to give that hope to people that there is good out there is what keeps me going, yeah.

00:47:23.653 --> 00:47:24.237
Yeah, I get that.

00:47:24.237 --> 00:47:35.762
It is an interesting point of resonance too, because theoretically, anybody that enlists or joins I guess, at least the US Department of Defense you get an all expenses paid trip around the world.

00:47:35.762 --> 00:47:45.380
But the catch is you can only see countries and people, generally speaking, at their lower points, like, well, I guess I'll take the trip, you know.

00:47:45.380 --> 00:47:49.300
But then you get there and it's a totally different.

00:47:49.300 --> 00:47:50.967
Well, depth is a good word.

00:47:50.967 --> 00:47:58.092
I think you phrased it pretty well yeah, totally different depth of humanity, and yeah, that'll, that'll change people, that'll change people.

00:47:58.092 --> 00:48:13.679
So, Robby, for the sake of time, my last question if anybody wants to follow along with what you've been doing or what you intend to do in the future, any of these other nonprofits or Florida Veterans Coalition, any of the events, anything you guys have going on, where do people go?

00:48:13.679 --> 00:48:14.521
How do they get involved?

00:48:14.521 --> 00:48:14.931
What do they do?

00:48:15.612 --> 00:48:20.612
Well, I mean, our website, floridaveteransorg, is our main hub for the organization.

00:48:20.612 --> 00:48:26.003
You know it's become a passion of mine to be a part of an organization that's been around for 20 years.

00:48:26.003 --> 00:48:39.282
It was kind of a perfect fit for me because it's kind of been this clearinghouse of veteran resources, of building the best of the best, the most wholesome of the industries in one realm.

00:48:39.282 --> 00:48:43.280
That's an amazing opportunity that we need a lot of support.

00:48:43.280 --> 00:49:06.268
I mean we're building and growing and we want to look towards the next 20 years of what our opportunities are and really grow this network of just good, wholesome people that are in the network of helping people find hope, helping people find purpose and giving them the connections that they need to get by until they find that hope and that purpose.

00:49:06.268 --> 00:49:21.755
You know, and then me, I mean I'm all over the board of just all my stuff is on social media and I just I'm out there trying to just help people and give people some hope back into society that humans can be good.

00:49:22.911 --> 00:49:23.856
What a wild calling.

00:49:23.856 --> 00:49:25.489
Well, I wish you the best of luck, man.

00:49:25.489 --> 00:49:40.411
I hope everything goes smooth for you or smooth as it can, I guess in getting these initiatives off the ground and, from what I remember, real quick before we close out here, you guys are also doing stuff for Veterans Day right, or Memorial Day, or what do you guys do so?

00:49:40.490 --> 00:49:49.244
This organization has done the exclusive events in the city of Clearwater, a large regional event for Veterans Day and Memorial Day.

00:49:49.244 --> 00:49:51.818
So we've got November 9th, veterans Day weekend.

00:49:51.818 --> 00:49:52.639
This year.

00:49:52.639 --> 00:50:02.849
We've got a big event going on and we've actually moved our event mission into supporting those that were affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

00:50:02.849 --> 00:50:09.952
So we're actually going to have a bunch of disaster relief assets that are going to be on site for anybody that needs them.

00:50:09.992 --> 00:50:46.764
This is people that have been pretty much displaced from their houses because of debris going into their roofs and leaks and floods and just ruining all of their stuff, and so we're going to have an array of services, from legal services to, you know, companionship to VA benefits, to an organization called Operation Toy Soldier, who is out there gathering up toys and supplies for children that woke up and got back to their rooms the days after the hurricane and realized that they lost all their childhood toys.

00:50:46.889 --> 00:50:58.840
They lost everything that was in their lives, and trying to now inspire hope in a child that just lost everything that they've ever known, that's a whole other whirlwind of issues.

00:50:58.840 --> 00:51:06.757
Operations like Operation Toy Soldier are out there now collecting that, so we're going to have collection points there.

00:51:06.757 --> 00:51:11.222
We're also going to have areas that we can deliver toys to the kids that were displaced.

00:51:11.222 --> 00:51:33.358
We've got financial grant opportunities that are going to be out there for people to get Visa gift cards to help with just feeding their family, some bills, some things that just are, you know, kind of on the back burner now, because when you've lost your house and you're living with a loved one, you're like I don't really know what my next move is, and so that's our goal.

00:51:33.418 --> 00:51:34.360
Our goal is to build.

00:51:34.360 --> 00:51:51.954
You know, we have a celebratory event honoring those who serve this great nation, but we're also going to give back to those who serve this great nation that have been affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton and the families of, and so I encourage everybody to come out and show your support for this patriotic community.

00:51:51.954 --> 00:51:55.547
But also, you know, if you need any support, come on out.

00:51:55.547 --> 00:51:56.791
We're going to be there to help people.

00:51:57.434 --> 00:52:00.081
You know, for everything that you've done and everything you accomplished.

00:52:00.081 --> 00:52:08.371
You somehow have made it full circle to transitioning veterans, so it's good to see that.

00:52:08.371 --> 00:52:11.159
I suppose you're still playing to your strengths, man.

00:52:11.159 --> 00:52:15.498
I hope you don't burn out and your light just keeps spreading.

00:52:15.498 --> 00:52:16.920
I think it's super inspirational.

00:52:16.920 --> 00:52:21.320
I love what you're doing, I love your message and, all things considered, I love the opportunity to see you and talk to you.

00:52:21.320 --> 00:52:22.771
So thanks for your time.

00:52:22.771 --> 00:52:24.434
I appreciate it Absolutely.

00:52:24.934 --> 00:52:29.059
To everybody else who's tuned into the show, thank you guys for tuning in, especially those of you that are new listeners.

00:52:29.059 --> 00:52:30.260
Thank you guys for joining us.

00:52:30.260 --> 00:52:33.965
Check out our other conversations at transactingvaluepodcastcom.

00:52:33.965 --> 00:52:53.677
And, if you're unfamiliar with the show, depending on the streaming platform you listen to this conversation on, you can click see more, or you can click show more and in the dropdown explanation for this conversation you will also see links to floridaveteransorg, to Robbie's website for Florida Veterans Coalition, and we'll have information on there as well for any of their other events and event calendars.

00:52:53.677 --> 00:52:58.117
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00:52:58.117 --> 00:53:06.358
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00:54:21.481 --> 00:54:23.132
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00:54:23.132 --> 00:54:24.956
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Robby Groover Profile Photo

Robby Groover

President and CEO of the Florida Veterans Coalition

President and CEO of the Florida Veterans Coalition, working towards bringing more resources to
Veterans in the state of Florida.

Prior US Army Infantry Staff Sergeant with multiple combat tours and 10 years of leadership experience.
I run my own consulting operation that helps Veteran-owned businesses and Non-Profits build and
sustain an increased revenue while also becoming more socially conscious.
I am a building developer and real estate investor.

I am also a part of Boards and Partnerships in the community including Director of the Unincorporated
Seminole Sports Association, Chairman of Bauder Elementry School Advisory Council, Presedent Elect of
the Seminole Rotary Club, Board Member of the Tampa Bay Social Enterprise Alliance, Board Member of
the Non-Profit Leadership Alliance.

Florida Veterans Coalition is a 501 c3 Non-Profit organization that brings financial, emotional, and
regulatory assistance to Veterans and their families throughout the state of Florida. We host annual
Memorial Day & Veterans Day events to raise awareness and support for the Veteran community.
My Story

I joined the United States Army in January 2006 following my graduation from Sarasota Military Academy.
I attended Fort Benning Georgia’s Infantry Basic Training school and was stationed at Fort Riley Kansas
part of the 1st Battalion, 28thInfantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. While I was stationed at Fort Riley I
successfully advanced through the Infantry Mortars Leaders Course (IMLC), Warriors Leaders Course
(… Read More