Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
Beyond the Trek: Chad Ballestrazze on Military Leadership, Mentorship & Resilience
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In this inspiring episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with Chad Ballestrazze—a seasoned military leader and purpose-driven entrepreneur—to unpack a journey shaped by adversity, connection, and transformation. From overcoming a tough childhood to cultivating leadership in uniform and beyond, Chad shares how mentorship, community, and resilience became the foundation of his growth.
The conversation dives into the importance of fostering meaningful relationships, creating positive cultural change within teams, and balancing ambition with well-being. Chad also introduces his passion project, Beyond the Trek—a program designed to empower veterans and civilians alike through holistic training, shared experience, and intentional leadership.
🎙️ Whether you're navigating transition, building a team, or seeking purpose post-service, this episode delivers powerful takeaways you don’t want to miss.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Advocacy and Personal Stories
01:46 Military Background and Deployment Experience
03:49 The Impact of Blast Exposure
06:37 The Aftermath of the Blast
10:56 Navigating Recovery and Symptoms
13:34 Returning to Duty and Mental Health Challenges
19:37 Facing Vulnerability and Mental Health Challenges
21:25 The Journey to Diagnosis and Treatment
24:39 Struggles with Medical Professionals
28:31 Finding Hope and Alternative Treatments
31:54 The Impact of Hyperbaric Treatment
35:41 Advocating for Veterans' Health
40:28 Breaking the Stigma of Asking for Help
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LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
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Website: beyondthetrek.co
Join us for the 1st Annual Lazzaro Legacy Classic Golf Tournament — a day of community, competition, and impact. Every dollar raised helps fund skills training, mentorship, and athletic opportunities for underprivileged high school athletes striving to reach the next level.
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Produced by Security Halt Media
Security Odd Podcast. Let's go. The only podcast that's purpose-built from the ground up to support you Not just you, but the wider audience, everybody. Authentic, impactful and insightful conversations that serve a purpose to help you. And the quality has gone up. It's decent, it's hosted by me, danny Caballero, chad Balistraze from Beyond the Trek. Welcome, brother. How you doing Good, denny? How are you Doing well, man, I love connecting with folks that are in the same mindset, trying to do big things, and you and your team are doing some awesome stuff. So today, man, I want to explore not only what you're doing, but your journey, man, from all the way, from where it all began. Dude like pre-military.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I well, first, I appreciate the opportunity and I always like to tell people, especially when I've been honored to come on to a couple podcasts and tell people that they'll listen to shows like yours or look at followers and listen to the caliber of people that you have on, and, uh, they feel like these things are completely out of reach. And uh, what I find super funny about that is is it was just a simple message that went out. You, you know, you had time in your day. You responded to it. We're able to connect and I like to just explain that to people that we're all just people, right?
Speaker 2:We're all just normal people trying to get by, and you know I was super happy to be able to talk to you. Man, I get to learn a little bit of your background and what you guys are doing.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, man, there's a misconception that you can't reach out. And again, like I'm not sponsored, not affiliated, the Honor Foundation gave me the insight of like the importance of like reaching out and connecting with people and just asking for that virtual cup of coffee, um, I've I've yet to be turned down by somebody to sit down and like get some insight as to like how to do this entrepreneur thing, or or how to like gain some insight on how to like do a conference, all these things that you know you start thinking about, that you want to do in life. There's somebody out there that has a game plan, that has an outline, uh, some cheat codes to you, just be willing to reach out, dude. And I have, like I said, like I've reached out to a lot of fucking people and nobody's ever like well, there's been a few, there's been a few cool guys that are like I'm a little bit too busy. Um, and you know, hey, that's, but that's very rare Like if I literally have reached out, cold emailed, reached out on LinkedIn or got connected by a friend of a friend, and then like it's in a oh, in the number of hundreds now, and out of those hundred, there's only honestly, like one that sticks out like a yeah, I take everything with a grain of salt, but one person who's a fucking douche I won't name them, but they're like a pretty well-known creator in the space, a veteran and they gave me the cold shoulder, like I'm never too busy being fucking cool, I'm just too cool man. I can't do it.
Speaker 1:But I think that the thing that really stuck with me was like my mentor through the Honor Foundation was like dude, don't be afraid or be scared of a no, like reach out to people. And one of the first people that I got like a solid no, but it was really quick and like personal was I reached out to ice t. I reached out to him because he was a veteran. I wanted to hear his story and I was like I and I forget how I got the fucking email to begin with.
Speaker 1:But, um, I reached out to him and it was like almost within like 30 minutes got an email back and it wasn't like a quick no, it was like, hey, man, I appreciate it, but yeah, no, I this part of my life I don't really want to dive into, but I appreciate it and I was like, holy shit, I got a note from iced tea. So yeah, still pretty pumped about it. It's a, someday I'll print it out and I'll frame it, I'll put it on my wall. But yeah, man, like more often than not, even if it's a no, it'll be fucking, it won't be like a hurtful, like fuck you.
Speaker 2:No, you made a. There's something you said last time. We, uh, we spoke and it it resonated hard with me and I've told it to multiple people and I throw your name out there. Every time I say it I'm like hey man, this came from Danny, it didn't come from me. Thank you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I tell him I'm like so when we were talking, you said, hey, the team room is bigger on the outside, yeah, and that stuck with me and I was like man, he's so right. Like right Cause it's hard for me, right Cause I'm institutionalized I've been doing this for almost 20 years. It's like this pot of people seems very big, but it's really that small. You know, and it goes back to what you said man, how many people are you going to reach out to? Like, the team room is really big on the outside? And I, again, I always go.
Speaker 1:hey man, I got this really cool saying came from Denny over at Security Hall. Yeah, man, but dude like how did you?
Speaker 2:come up with your concept and what you guys are doing now. So I think a lot of it drives from how, how I was raised. So I grew up, you know, in a. I like to think it wasn't a terrible childhood, right, I had. I had mom, dad. They ended up getting a divorce. Both my parents were. My dad was hard of hearing, my mom was deaf. So I grew up in what was known as the deaf community. Um, so I can go one of two ways, right.
Speaker 2:Some people adapt really well to that when they have a disability, just like any disability, right, and then others, you know, they use it as a hindrance and it's because, like, when you lose a sense, especially your hearing, right, you tend to pick up on the other ones. And the one that you typically gets picked up on is body language. So if you say things, if you're moving your hands like I talk with my hands all the time because I did sign language growing up but if you say a thing, you move your shoulders a certain way, it can be taken out of context. So I kind of grew up in that space and my dad was an alcoholic and he was allergic to alcohol, so when he drank. It was never like, hey, I'm just going to have one drink, and wine was always his choice. So it was always going to be a bottle or two and you never knew because he was allergic to it. You never knew what you were going to get, right you could get, I mean, it would flip the one minute be really happy, next minute, you know, angry. And then my mom was never really present.
Speaker 2:So, especially after they got divorced, I lived with my mom for a little bit, who had a very Catholic upbringing, very strict six siblings. They had a certain way of life. So I lived with her for about five years and then I moved in with my dad, who was living with his parents at the time, who drastically different right, had kids at 15, 16, dropped out of high school, worked three jobs as support. You better have a work ethic or you ain't worth nothing, right, hey, make sure you get an education, but it's not as important as work. Ain't worth nothing, right, hey, make sure you get an education, but it's not as important as work. So growing up as a kid I was like, let's go there, they don't care about school, right? So I learned. I learned about a hard, hard work ethic. Um.
Speaker 2:So again though, you know, growing up there, it was vastly different, because everything was hey, how do I show you affection? It was never like I do with my kids. Now, right, like, hey, I make sure I say I love you, I make sure I give you a hug. It was very like, hey, I bought this for you. Like, okay, I took you on this trip. Like that means I care about you, you know and there's tons of country songs out there about that right, dad shows how much he loves his kids because he changed their oil, right, um. So, yeah, yeah. So I ended up I said, hey, I kind of want to do something different. There's no way I was going to make it through school. I always give a shout out to my wife that sent you my junior year of high school. They said I could take college classes, I could leave school, I don't have to go to school two days a week. Did that? Flunked out all of them. She took all my classes, got me to graduate. So hats off to her.
Speaker 1:That's keeper yeah man, you know.
Speaker 2:And then I took the ASVAB twice but they were like, hey, man, you're only really built for one thing let's move on stuff on your back. And you know I said, perfect, that's all I need to do. So I decided to come in the army. I had a really good time now, but with that background and growing up, I learned to stay away from things that made my dad angry or family members angry. Right, body language is a huge thing. So as I came in the army, it served me well for quite a few years of hey, this guy does not like this, just don't do that, do what he likes, right. And you seem like you're high speed, right, which, looking back at now, I was like, god, dude, what is I could have? I could have been so much more better right, if I had a little bit more mentorship. So I carried that with me and I rode a high for a very long time because I did those things and I ran into the right people. It seemed like I was always hitting the right mark. You know, figure out what they like, do what they like.
Speaker 2:I went to selection, got selected, and I was like, oh man, like nothing's ever I'm not knocked off. My horse man, right Punching the cue course, went to a team, was on a team, was just getting all the deployments I wanted was just crushing life. And, um, I decided to go green to gold. I had a buddy that uh talked me into it. I uh wanted to go try out for some other things and got got injured. So I said, all right, let's, let's go do this.
Speaker 2:Um, again, carried that mentality and things with me and, uh, I always like to tell this story because, as I was going through this program, uh, my grandmother, my grandmother ended up passing away my dad's mom, who was like a huge, huge influence on me, right, and so I started to carry a lot of that. And this is where it really goes into what you said about the team rooms bigger on the outside, because I've been crushing. I felt like, right, crushing it for so long. And then I go to Green to Gold and I'm like man, what a great break. Right, this is going to be great. Like I'm away from everything. Until I was around a bunch of kids that weren't in the Army right, they weren't in the Army. I was removed from the text chains the emails, the.
Speaker 2:The team goes on the guys go on right and you're like oh, it won't be like that, it it will be like that?
Speaker 2:oh, it do be like that it do be like that and nothing against them, right, like I got, they got stuff to do and uh. So after I rode that high for a couple months I was like this feels great. And then I started feeling kind of secluded. And I started feeling like, you know, and that was probably year 12 in the army and I had, you know, and that's between 2006 to 18 ish, you know what I mean. So all I had done my whole career was just let's just train and keep going, right, keep keep deploying.
Speaker 2:And so I got to this sense of like having a break actually, and I fell lost, um, so I found any opportunity I could and I I finagled the deal to go to, uh, go serve in a position in Europe during a summer rotation which actually ended up being with like an old ops arm major that I had, um, and to my wife she was like, why are you doing this? And I was like, oh, you know, it's just, it's, it's an opportunity. But looking back at it now I was like I was trying to seek, you know, feel, that sense of feeling again or purpose, and uh, so I went and did that and this is kind of where it all came crashing down is, uh, a former medic of mine OD right and ended up killing himself. An old uh teammate that I had right before I went to the selection the only wedding I've gone to in the army and that's just because it was convenient to go to right. It was, uh, he ended up getting out and him and his wife were going through some difficulties and he ended up murdering her in an apartment parking lot. Oh geez, and is there anything you could have done about that? No, right, like there's not.
Speaker 2:But when, when I got, when you get, you feel like man, why couldn't these guys reach out? Why wasn't you know why? Why wasn't I able to? You know, um, but it's reciprocal. Um, I, you know I wasn't reaching out to them either, and just, I think everything else started piling on Right. I was, I was back away from home again. My wife was wondering, like what the hell? Why are you in Europe doing this thing when you know you should just be in school hanging out for summer?
Speaker 2:And then the really the cherry on top was one of the guys I had known. I was was with, you know, in the army, he was serving in Europe and I could tell he was drinking a lot, Right. And one day he just didn't come to work and I get a phone call from the sergeant hey, man, we got to go pick him up and we're not going to like a U S hospital, we're going to like the German crazy work. And I was like, yeah, right, and like if you go there, it ain't. You know what I mean. And I was like man, why did this guy reach out? You know, like I was sitting right next to him. Why wasn't I doing these things? Um, so, for the remainder of the time I was there probably another two and a half months he ended up staying with me.
Speaker 2:And uh, they have what they call the USA career starter loan when you're getting ready to commission. And uh, it's like a dude, it's like a less than 1% interest rate. You can get like 30 grand on it. And prior to coming green to gold, my wife and I had gone to a Dave Ramsey seminar. I was like man, I should do that, but I'll do that when I get promoted.
Speaker 1:You know what I mean.
Speaker 2:Like hey, all the pro pay, I'll take care of it. You know, when I get my bump and the tale is old as time. So I was with a bunch of other guys that I'd been on teams with and everything else, and they're there, um, and I had a couple of guys who are in green to gold. They were out of here, out of Campbell right, the typical tradition. They're just going to step across the street and then come back and they're like hey, man, don't worry about it. We signed our own, our own paperwork.
Speaker 2:And I tell this story. It's like it's not my only failure, but I this is where everything kind of came to light for me. So I was like, man, this just doesn't feel right, but I'm going to right your date. And I was like she, probably, I probably shouldn't do this. And I was telling myself, hey, that's okay. Like you know, I'll get this, I'll, we'll finish putting our daughter through preschool, I'll take care of whatever and I'll, I'll get it paid off. Meanwhile I wasn't telling my wife about it. Long story short, submit it it gets.
Speaker 2:Uh, the guy who was supposed to sign it was like the head of the program where I was at. They were like oh, these signatures don't match, so it became a big thing. So, before I even came back from Europe, they were like, hey, man, essentially you're about to get kicked out of this program. You're going to have to go back and figure it out in the army. Um, and I started blaming everybody else and, uh, I was like, oh well, I had emailed you guys. And I was like, oh well, I had emailed you guys. Nobody got a hold of me, nobody cared. And the funny thing is is the night before they called me and said, hey, did you sign this paperwork? The head of the program sent me a social media message and he's like how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I look back at that now and I'm like that was the ticket, right. That was like him saying hey, man, I want to check on you, you know, cause he was like how are you doing? How's the family? So, anyway, I come back, man, and again, right, I'm back around these kids that aren't in the army. They had a unit shirt that they wore. They made me wear a gray army PT shirt and they like they blasted me everywhere. Hey, look at this guy who's active duty came from soft can't even do the basics. He's about to get kicked out of this program. Meanwhile, the thing that hurt the most was my wife was like why didn't you even, why didn't you even talk to me about it? Why didn't you even tell me? And uh, again, man, everything that I expected from other people, right, why didn't you reach out when you were in trouble?
Speaker 2:It was a pride thing to them and I, it ended up becoming the same thing to me, um, so it ended up really really moving through that and, uh, started calling people. I. That was the hardest thing was having to retell. That story is to all these people that I had served with and they all came to bat for me. All of them they said, hey, man, we're going to come to bat for you one time, at one time only, so you better make this one count.
Speaker 2:And again, it's not my biggest failure that I've ever had, but everything was like put out on full display and it made me stand up in front of people that were getting ready to come into the army. It made me come in front of my kids, my wife, the people that I had bid with that you look invincible to right when you're just, you're just trusting it. Um and uh, man, it all all came to a head that to a point they had to make their decision. And this guy calls me in his office, the head of the program, the lieutenant colonel. He grabs my packet and he's like, hey, man, there's something about you that I believe in. And he threw it in the trash and he's like you better, like, keep it square the entire time you're here, otherwise I'm going to cook you. And I was like, okay, and for the first time in a long time not that it was direct mentorship, but I couldn't evade, I can just do what this guy likes. I couldn't evade that. Everything was on full display. You got called out and I couldn't ride success anymore. So I had somebody that actually believed in me and all these guys that came to bat for me that wrote all these letters of recommendation, I mean it showed me like, all right, man, you have an opportunity, you need to be able to change it.
Speaker 2:So I leave there, I go back to the big army for a very short, short amount of time and I took everything that I learned from that experience and everything I had learned while I was in soft and I started applying it to the people that were there, which was a great environment because it was back in the infantry right. So great, like, great, great spot to like try to impact people who didn't score high on the ASVAB and all they're going to do is walk with heavy stuff. Um, and I got so fortunate that I had a command at the time that sat me down and they were like hey, man, check it out. I don't know what it is about you, some of the tank men, I don't know what it is about you, but you're able to get a large amount of people to move in one direction. So, whatever you're doing, do it. And whatever you need from me, I got it.
Speaker 2:So I was able to take all these creative ideas that we have, and you know we do. We just we experiment with right, like I don't have a team and I just did it there. I didn't have red tape, man, um, and for some people that are listening, like red tape and the army is like draws. They didn't make me do any of that, man, nothing, they let me just go. And I really sat down with people and got to know them and say, hey, how are you doing? Oh, I'm doing good. Like, no, really, how are you doing? Um, something that nobody had ever asked me. And they, well, I'm not doing well, right, I'm struggling my finances.
Speaker 2:And I started slowly with the group of people I was with, breaking the stigma of like, hey, it's okay to ask for help, man, it's okay to say, like, we have these things, like let's sit down together and let's figure out a plan. Um and uh, I I had an awesome time doing that and they gave me an opportunity to to go be a an HHCXO and I did that and like now, now I had access to 200 plus people that I was able to try this on and I started doing it. I started making people like, come to PT, and I was like, hey, you need to meet this person, you need to solve your own problems. Right, you got to do this Like, let's get together. At first it was, it was really pushed back upon among the, you know, among people, but they really people grew to love it honestly and again, I had no red tape. So I was these guys' dream was like, oh, we can go swim in a lake, right.
Speaker 2:Like I know a lot of some people that aren't in the military listen to this and like, well, that doesn't seem like it's a big deal. Well, for the army, the conventional army, it's a big deal to do a lot of that, right. So, bringing those ideas and getting them to connect and grow and talk and start building like fellowship was was huge, and I think that's where this whole idea was was born and, um, I sat down one day this is probably like a month into you know, being an XO, and I said this commander I had came from regiment and he was another guy. I was like hey, man, I don't know what you're doing. And it was crazy to hear people say he's like I don't know what you're doing, but whatever you're doing, it's working. So I'm going to give you the floor today and I kind of want you to like tell people why you, why you're doing what you're doing, you know.
Speaker 2:So I sat down for a minute and I wrote out these, these five phrases that I've essentially carried with me to really build this, this organization, out. And I sat down, I look back at my childhood. I looked at, you know, the failures, successes I had. I said what are five things that I wish I would have known right off the rip? And the first one was attitude, attitude's, everything right. And I tell people all the time like, hey, you always have pretty, at least in a military sense. You always have a sour taste in your mouth before you do something and then when you get done, you realize it wasn't as bad as you thought. So try to look at everything, every aspect, with that right. Whatever you're dealing with in your life. Try to have a positive attitude, try and change the outcome of it, if you can right.
Speaker 2:The second one sounds cheesy is hey, be the leader you would follow. And I say that to people and they go oh, yeah, okay. And I'm like hey, man, just pull out your iPhone, go in the mirror and ask yourself these questions Would you want to be your own dad? Do you want to be your own friend? Do you want to be your own spouse? I mean, the list goes on and on and on. Would you take advice from yourself when it comes to finances, alcohol, drinking? If the answer is no, you already know what you need to work on. Right, you already have a framework for what you need. I don't need to sit here and tell you.
Speaker 2:The third one was be the change you wish to see, and I I can say, I think with every generation, that that tends to happen. I know, like with me and my kids, I don't really drink anymore. Right, I went through a spout where I did a lot, but I think back to how my dad was and I was like I don't want to be that for my kids. So I'm being, I'm consistently making the choice each and every day to be a change that I want to see in myself, that I want them to grow up and be proud of that. I would want to be the dad that I'd want to follow, be at the games, be present with them there.
Speaker 2:Then the fourth thing was is find something hard to do every day, and I don't mean well, I got to get up and I got to go run 20 miles, I got to go lift the heaviest weight. Sometimes just getting up is hard for people, just putting your feet on the ground or rolling out of bed. But find something hard, whether that's spiritually, to sit down and take time and read Maybe that's 15 minutes, whatever it is to that individual. Find it, it'll make you better, for it, right, it'll start building that resilience in your life and give you a purpose. And the fifth thing which I struggle with for a really long time is find something every day to have fun with, whether it's a conversation, whether it's spending time with your kids, whether it's being present. And man, I said that to a group of people and a lot of the younger kids right, we're like, oh, yeah, okay, you know what I mean. Like, but it was the older guys like that mid that mid crowd that were like hey man, I actually I really liked that, you know, and I'm I I'm vulnerable enough now to to say like I'm struggling with things, so I started that there.
Speaker 2:He came back to North Carolina and uh was having a conversation with uh Mac, you met, you know, a guy who went with the course with a long time ago and I said hey man, I think I had this idea, I'm going to go ahead and I want to do it.
Speaker 2:And originally it was very physically fitness based and it was completely transformed from there now to really teaching people like hey, what is your capability? First capacity, what can you actually take on? What is your purpose? Who do you surround yourself with Standards, man? Do you have higher standards for other people than you do yourself? And it goes back to those phrases man, are you that person that you're going to follow? And again, I say it's cheesy to some people it might be, but I constantly think of those five things every day when I go home and I decide to pick up my phone and either answer a text from somebody or want to look at a video they sent me and I got two little ones that are looking at me and I go this isn't as important as as it should be right now. Right, like what I what I want my dad to spend time, um, so that's kind of it like very quickly, you know in nutshell.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll, we'll unpack that a little bit more. But I want to pause and something you hit on like, when it comes to helping people out right now, whether it's mindset coaching or just being a mentor, one of the things that we miss and don't talk about enough is, like how much fun are you having in your life? Like how much joy do you have in your life and your day to day? And you know big goals, big dreams require you to like work and work really fucking hard. You got to make things happen, but at some point, like you have to be able to break away and you got to find joy.
Speaker 1:If you're a parent, like how much time are you devoting to your family, like your kids? Like the dream is important, the, the things you're chasing professionally are important, but you have to add fun into the equation. You got to add recreation into the equation. There's a reason why there's a regular recreational therapist out there. Like it helps, it provides an armor against the burnout man, and that's something that a lot of individuals are dealing with, even in the military. Like when you look at your, your endeavors, like how are you coming across? How are you selling that message to somebody that wants beyond the track to like help them and advise them and to provide value added to like their organization. How do you sell the idea of hey, sometimes you got to walk away from work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's one thing I didn't hit on Right, it was, it was the name that you mentioned. So we came up with the name of Beyond the Trek, because your failures, your successes, all these things are never going to define who you are. What you do from those lessons learned and you carry them forward is truly what matters. And obviously I keep referencing the military because I've been in it for so long. But I go back to those guys that all they want to do is tell, tell deployment stories. Hey man, those are great, but what lessons did you learn from that that you can teach this next young guy that 10 years from now he's going to be sitting in your seat and he's going to want to know that.
Speaker 2:Um it, it's hard, man Like I. The messaging thing is something I'm struggling with now. Right, I'm only a little over a year into this. I'm learning. I learned a lot from our conversation. Posting isn't marketing, marketing isn't posting. Right, trying to figure it out. I mean, I send so many emails every day and night looking for an opportunity and I get a lot of no's and I've gotten some yeses and um, I heard this quote the other day that really made me think and I I ran hard for a very, very long time that, uh, one of the things I told a behavioral health specialist was like I honestly forgot, like the color of the trees and the sky was blue, like you'd see it in passing, but it was like, hey, man, I don't got time for that.
Speaker 2:I got to focus on like what this is and like when you actually pause and take a minute and like step back and look and you're like dude, like life goes by very quickly, and what I heard the other day was you get a very short amount of time to watch your children be children. You get to watch the rest of their life be adults, and that I read that about a week ago and that hit me hard and I was like man, you're right, you know, I, I bury, I bury myself in like coaching, sports and things like that, but I tell myself that it's what I would have wanted, right. But again, it goes back to what you tolerate is what you're willing to accept. So what I would tell organizations or business out there is how are you developing your people? Because at the end of the day, I get it right.
Speaker 2:There's always a bottom line, there's always a mission statement you're trying to meet right. It can be transactional leadership, but you look at people like Dave Ramsey, like the organization, if you read it, like a lot of people that work there really enjoy it because they focus on people. And I always tell, I always bring these three approaches in you got to be able to take care of yourself before you can take care of anybody else, because if you can't take care of yourself, you can't take care of your family. That's simple things, right? Maybe doing something hard, focusing on medical, whatever that is. Then you focus on your family. If you can focus on your family and your family's taken care of and you're taken care of, dude everything at work. Number three is going to take care of itself.
Speaker 2:How do you break that transactional mindset to get somebody to not want to come in just from eight to five, punch in, punch out and be done with it? How do you, how do you carry? How do you improve retention? It's getting down in those team rooms. It's getting down in those offices, those mid-level managers, and getting to know your people and sit down and talk to them. And I understand right, that's not a it's not a sexy thing to hear, but it really comes back to the mantra of master the basics man. You're never going to replace people. I don't care how much AI comes out. You know, um, you gotta get down there and you gotta understand what makes them tick and make them feel like like they're cared for. Um, I, I listened to this thing the other day, which is a great. I keep saying that, but we should all be lifelong learners, you know, and I if we were beginners, mine beginners, mine man.
Speaker 2:And uh, it actually it was actually Dave Ramsey and he had this discussion about how we got to sit in on a hot wash or an AR uh, and after mission review, if you will, with uh, a tier one unit, and he's like man, I couldn't tell who was in charge because there was so much truth and care and, you know, um accountability in that, in that discussion, and that taught him a lot and I it made me think of, like every time I go through one and it's man, that pretty much holds true. So I would carry that over an organization and say, hey, just because you're in charge, just cause you have a thing that says leader, are you really a leader or are you more just a manager? Right, like you're just managing people. And when you say, well, these guys aren't, they aren't, you know they show up every day. So you know we have a really good crew of people. You know.
Speaker 2:You say that in the army too. Well, we're a disciplined formation because our people show up every day. I would argue that, whether you're a corporate American, in the military that's a forcing function, because if you don't show up you've got to lose your job, or I got adverse action I can give you. It's a forcing function, you know. So, yeah, it's. It's something that I think is going to take coaching time and and and being able to to show people that end product of hey, you're going to get what you tolerate. So, if you can pour into your people and you tolerate high performers, man, that's exactly what you're going to get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's tricky trying to provide insight and guidance to other leaders, right, because as much as they want to say, or we want to say that you're humble and you're open to the criticism and change, like there's always going to be pushback man, there's always going to be, you know, hesitation to embrace something new, especially when it comes with, you know, advice and input. That might not be go hard, it might not be. Hey, keep pushing harder. You know we, I, I like uh, calling out this influencer dude um, it's andy elliott. Yeah, that dude's such a absolute fucking boner dude like this, this.
Speaker 1:And it's that sales mentality of like you, fucking, you're not selling fucking five million worth of product, you piece of shit. Like dude, like that's, that's not your goal in life is to cheat, hustle people out of money. Goal in life is to do good at your job. And I get it Like, if you're in sales, like maybe you do have to have that cutthroat attitude. I don't know, I don't want to be involved in that world, but I do know that there's something to being the best version of yourself and offering your people the ability to work in a good environment where it's not met with a constant threat of death and destruction if you don't sell the latest product. But I constantly go back to this idea that you have to promote aggressive and hard structured, rigid timelines. Dude a lot of times.
Speaker 1:What people need to hear is that you can't have balance in life. How do you optimize the ability to just breathe? No, that's not a thing. You just need to tell people to be present, be focused on today, be focused on your mission and be okay with walking away when it's time to walk away, which is something nobody ever told us in the fucking military. Like shit has to stay in the team room, go home. Like you're going to be more productive if you understand the importance and value of walking away from your project.
Speaker 1:Like if you're, if you're working in a creative endeavor, like anything, like what we're doing. Did you need time away from the desk, from the computer, in order to come up with your next great idea? It's not going to happen while you're fucking staring at deadlines. It's not going to happen while you're reading and writing emails all freaking afternoon long. They say it all the time Some days, 70% is your a hundred percent. Some days, 65 is your absolute best and you have to be able to get to that mentality where it's like, okay, this is what I'm able to do today, but how do you sell that to people? It's hard, like I struggle with it myself.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent Right, and I would. I would argue with people too that, hey, we need to look at successes and built off of how much time you give a product right, it should be product.
Speaker 2:It should be product completed just because this guy did it in 10 minutes and it meets. You know it meets your expectations or exceeds them. But this guy gave it three hours and I, man, he really tried. All right, man. Well, there's, there's no a for trying here, All right, that just means he stayed longer. But I think it goes back to culture no-transcript. Last year they had a good season, look they. And it's because it takes time. You know you're not going to immediately see a culture shift. Like people got to buy into it. I newsflash to organizations. I've talked to one. Like if people don't buy in, they're not going to care. And you can say as much as you want. Like, well, they got to abide by us and they got to conform to us. Well, if all your people leave because you can't, you can't talk to people, you don't have a business anymore yeah, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that is so true.
Speaker 1:Um, fuck, I can't remember what team was the offensive coordinator that came in, I forget, but he planned out. It was like you, let me implement this and I'm going to give you the best frigging offensive line and you're going to see it Like, you're not going to understand it, but you're not going to understand my methodology. But by this year you're going to see it and sure enough, like, let people implement the systems that they know are going to produce the desired and say desired product, and trust them, give faith and trust, just like you know, your commanders and your officers above you gave you that leeway and gave you the, the, the pathway to success, to implement what you knew was going to work. Like, when you trust the people you empower to do what they're good at, like, you're going to have that result.
Speaker 1:It might not be when you want it, like tomorrow, but trust the systems, man, I've seen that so many times where it's like no, this is the way we've done it before. Well, obviously it's not working. It's obviously not giving you what you need. So, trust this person, trust the person you've been trusting in this position.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, don't worry about evals, don't worry about if the boss says, hey, you got to have so much turnover in X amount of days. Take care of the people, let the people take care of their family, and work will take care of itself. Because if you can pour into them, man and you need right, you need a hundred percent for a couple of days, and they know you're going to stand right there with them and do it. Um, dude, they're going to give you your all. And I think that's one component when this thing all started out was a very physical portion, right, which I still have. I still have built out, and I mean there's a lot of great organizations out there that do these things. But what I think is completely different here is, given the opportunity and a great example would be Bellarmine University we got the opportunity to go out to Bellarmine University and talk to a D1 wrestling team Phenomenal kids and the coach was like, hey, man, let's go ahead and let's whatever workout you got, whatever you can put together with them, like, let's put them through it. And what makes us different from everybody else that I have seen in my experience, right and I don't know everybody that's out there is everything I ask you to do, I'm doing it right there with you, right? Team captain doesn't get a pass. The CEO doesn't get a pass If I'm asking you to be at the breach point, if I'm asking you to be at a point of friction, if I'm saying, hey, this sales team has got to grind it out, instead of just yelling at the manager and the manager turning around and yelling at somebody else. Does the manager know what he's doing? Because if he's not, then I expect the CEO or whoever to stand there and you'll watch how much harder people push. I mean, these kids were in wicked shape, man. I mean they ran circles around us.
Speaker 2:The feedback we got before we even went into the discussion was especially the kids that were in ROTC. There they were like I've never, I've never had anybody that did this with me. Right, they stood on the sideline with their cup, a cup of coffee, and they're like. That made me want to do more and I'm like that's nothing special, man, I don't got to be out here killing myself. But I'm going to show you like, hey, I'm asking you to to move these pieces of equipment and work as a team. I'm going to be right there with you man Right, and uh, it speaks volume. You can just be there with people.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man. That's. That's a great approach to this man. Like if, if you're building something that's for empowering and building up an organization, and you build them a product and you bring them a presentation, like if it doesn't involve some sort of like unit cohesion, some sort of like doing something hard, man that's. It's always made us better doing something hard together. That's, that's a I think that's an attribute that's needed in all these programs. But I don't think I I don't, at least I haven't seen enough programs uh, integrate that. I think it's part of like buying culture. We're all going to do this. It's going to suck, but it's going to make us closer and better together.
Speaker 2:Um, when you look, forward to, uh, the next few years of Beyond the Trek. What do you guys have on deck? How is the program going to evolve and what's next for you guys? Good question, I'm trying to figure out how to market with the time. I do have One thing that's awesome on the horizon right now is I've been working with a company 27th Response who I met through a shooting competition out here that we went ahead and did.
Speaker 2:John DeCoursey and he's a former New York City Hostess Rescue team member decided to walk away from the profession and he wanted to pursue something else, and so, anyway, he lives in Georgia now and he teaches firearm tactics CQB active shooter and so we've decided to come together and put a course together in June, which would be the first one that we've done. This is going to be part one. We're going to have two parts of it and it's going to combine mindset training right, holistic approaches between physical, mental, emotional, right, and we can talk about spiritual fitness, if people want to do that. We're combining all that with a classroom portion. Then this would be a three day course, so day one will be classroom, day two is going to be flat range stuff, so he's going to go out there teach him, hey, some manipulations of pistol rifle. And then day three, we're putting it all together. Uh, let me backtrack here. I got one of the guys in the team Ken Reed is a former special operations medic, so he's going to go out there. He's going to teach them just some quick combat casualty care. Hey, how do you guys pack a bag for your car, how do you do certain things? And then day three is going to put everything together. They're going to get three field training exercises.
Speaker 2:Right, that's going to be CQB active shooter. I'm going to put some role players out there. They're all going to be winnable scenarios, but it's going to be things that you are going to see out there. Hey, you're going to run up to the house, right? Hey, there's probably somebody's got to have a phone out there screaming at you videoing something you're probably going to see now. Right, because people would rather tell you to go in there and do it. We're going to provide them with unit solution rifles, all their ammunition, everything that they're going to need. They're going to work through this. They're going to apply the medical things that they saw. Right, this isn't. This isn't an army FTX, if you will. It's very catered to the civilian world.
Speaker 2:But the most important thing outside of the training is giving you exposure to trauma and at the end of it, we are going to do a hot wash with every single individual and we're going to talk through it. What did you see? What bothered you? Did it trigger anything from before? Let's break the stigma Like, hey, I'm just going to throw it in my rucksack and I'm just going to I'll deal with it later, no man Cause we're not going to drink out here. So good, let's, let's talk about it.
Speaker 2:What bothered you? Well, man, it was like it was traumatic seeing a person run through the house like that. Okay, where do we need to go to get help? And I hope that, building out this course, we're gonna have one night where it's gonna be an open fireside chat for people to get to know Everything's provided for them food and everything and I hope what this is gonna do is these individuals are gonna be able to go back to their communities. Hopefully, if we get anybody that's in law enforcement EMS, they can go back and when they see those traumatic situations, say like, all right, guys, come here, I get it, this isn't all foo, foo, foo, foo. Like we don't need to act like we're hard, like do you need help right now? And not like, oh no, I'm good, okay, no, no, do you actually need help? No, and hopefully change that stigma. And that's just one piece of it.
Speaker 2:I'm also hoping, in the next two years-ish, that we'll get the opportunity to start working our way into corporate America and start talking about the things that we've talked about giving organizations a sense of purpose with their people, and not just focus on the piece of equipment. The mind is a piece of equipment. The humans are more important than hardware. How do we add that in there? And I think the last space I would like to explore is some sort of DOD option, because I do believe a lot of us that have served during the GWAT period. We have a lot to give back, and it's more than just war stories. It's hey, these are tools that worked, these are tools that didn't work. So let's teach them, let's get you guys to go through it, let's inoculate a little bit of stress and let's get you to talk through it, work through it and figure out why this tool works outside of your normal training cycle. That's where I'd like to see this thing go. Who knows right, if it doesn't work out, I can go be a mailman, I guess.
Speaker 1:Hell, no, man, you got to have faith. You got percent buy-in, man, yeah, um, and don't quit, keep pushing. Um, there's, there are more people than we think, out there cheering us on. Just got to connect with them, got to connect with them and, and every, every connection is a powerful link to the next job, to the next customer. And that's the reality, man. That's the truth, uh, and in our veteran, the truth, uh, and, and our veteran space is filled with fucking people that want to support you and want to see you win, cause your win is my win. So it's, it's that fucking connected man, um it, and it's like.
Speaker 1:I take that directly from uh, aaron, love, uh, shout out to ones ready. You know, in this space, some people have the idea that it's like oh, man's gunning for me, dude, you're. No, it's not like that. Their success is my success and so on, because if they can make it, then I know there's a pathway that we can make it, and the ability to reach through and connect with people and offer a platform, connect them to a friend, like that's huge in this space, man, uh, so definitely keep fucking grinding, don't give up, man, like you're almost free from the man and you'll be able to focus 100 of your attention into this endeavor and, uh, after, after we get done here, man, I'll I'll try to link you up in the emails with uh some people that I think would be great connections and then possible um provide more insight on how to get those uh key meetings to be able to connect with uh some more customers, cause, uh, dude, like you like I said when we first talked like you have a fucking big team man. Like you have a big fucking team.
Speaker 1:That's something that's like, man, I'm jelly. Like you got fucking. You got a fucking rogues gallery of hitters man. They just fucking sitting there like just like a fucking detachment man. That's a power. You already. You already got that man. Like that's, that's one of the biggest things for anybody is like looking across the room and seeing like who's going to believe in you? And when you got a team of dudes that look at you and say, hey, we're in, we're in this thing Like bro, you can't lose, we're in this thing like bro, you can't lose, you can't fucking lose. I mean, look at mac, that dude's a fucking hitter man like you. Just, all you need is him, just you and him, and you can take on the world, so I know that you guys are going to be successful. If people want to learn more about you, where can they go?
Speaker 2:yeah. So we've got a website right now. We recently started a podcast. We're a few months in, took a bunch of tips from you and I, uh, I'll say that that podcast doesn't highlight warfighter gun stories that you know a lot of people intertwine with their military service, but really focus on what was our failures in life and how they move beyond that. We've had some awesome pipe hitters out there I mean John Troxell, jc Glicks coming up. We had Bill Oslin on there. It was uh, just uh. I mean Tom Satterly is going to be a guest coming up. I mean, hell yeah, dude, a lot of lessons learned that are coming up on there.
Speaker 2:We're on social media. We're on Instagram, facebook, linkedin, and then we have a website which is beyond the trekco Um, and you can see some of the stuff that we do there. People can reach out on social media. All the guys on the team have access to social media. So if you want to reach out, just ask a question like hey, man, we're normal people, we're here to help and that's all I want to do, and I will leave it with.
Speaker 2:I've had a lot of people tell me hey, when you go into an organization and you want the opportunity to teach. You need to disassociate the army's mentality of like you need to make sure that they get it right. It's kind of transactional. If they don't get it, they don't get it. I will say like I can understand that. But because we are in a people business, right, I want to make sure that something I give you hopefully resonates right, like if I'm talking to a brick wall, I'm talking to a brick wall, but if I can help you out in some way that makes you go out and impact somebody else and make their day better, their life better, dude, it's an automatic win and that's what those so that podcast stories are all about. As long as somebody out there is living your story, if I can just give you a tool to be able to get through it, man, it's a win.
Speaker 1:Hell, yeah, man, that's a powerful um. You know medium right there, a podcast, and uh, you're using it for a great purpose, man, so I know it's going to be successful. If you guys are listening, go ahead and pause. Go to the episode description. All those links are going to be right there. Head on over to Spotify, youtube, apple Podcasts. Give their podcast a listen, Give them a five-star review and leave some words in the comments. Help the algorithm. Boost your stuff to more people. I know they would appreciate it. I'd appreciate it too. And then, while you're at it, do the same thing for Security Hall. Give us a like, follow or share. Go to the comment section. Write anything in there. I don't care Dildo, fuck, weed, whatever you want. As long as you put it in there, I'll see it and it'll make my day and I'll be happy. And, yeah, I appreciate you for tuning in and listening. Brother, thank you for being here. Name of the website.
Speaker 2:Beyond the Trek T-R-E-K dot C-O.
Speaker 1:There you go. Thank you all for tuning in. We'll see you all next time. Until then, take care. Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to like, follow, share, subscribe and review us on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to support us, head on over to buymeacoffeecom, forward slash SecHawk podcast and buy us a coffee. Connect with us on Instagram X or TikTok and share your thoughts or questions about today's episode. You can also visit securityhawkcom for exclusive content, resources and updates. And remember we get through this together. If you're still listening, the episode's over. Yeah, there's no more Tune in tomorrow or next week. Yeah, there's no more tune in tomorrow or next week. Thank you.
