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From Navy SEAL to Wall Street: JJ Parma on Transition, Purpose, and Protecting the Next Generation

• Deny Caballero • Season 8 • Episode 416

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JJ Parma shares his journey from Navy SEAL to Wall Street and beyond. He discusses military transition, mental health, networking, and building technology to protect schools.

In This Episode:

• Military transition challenges
 • Mental health and healing
 • Entrepreneurship lessons
 • Wall Street experience
 • School safety innovation

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Fear, Identity, And Leaving Uniform

SPEAKER_00

Your journey can give us so much insight into not only what it means to not be scared to go for big dreams, but what it was like getting in there because the career is great. Being an AV SEAL is hard. Bro, how did you find the will and the drive to go into the business world and to achieve success again?

SPEAKER_02

So, gonna be super honest with you, I was scared shitless, right? To go. True story. You look at my resume, you'd think I'd have like no trouble stepping out of Harvard University, went to HBS, all through the teams, got my MBA through the Navy, was took advantage of that, did every everything under the sun. I was scared, scared out of my mind when I transitioned. I just felt even with all the preparation, all the education, I'm over-educated, underprepared, is what I thought. I stepped out of uniform. The bottom line is we're trained to survive. Everybody seems to forget that when they get nervous, and myself included, forget that when they step out of uniform. And they're like, well, what do I do next? You survive. That's what you do. You will find your way, just like I found my way to the SEAL teams, like you find your way to the Green Beret. Just maintain what you get. You've already had that. So this is the in the trick between the civilian world and the military world.

SPEAKER_00

JJ Parma.

SPEAKER_02

Welcome to Security Hub Podcast, brother. Dude, awesome to be here, man. Uh uh, your energy is awesome. I'm just gonna tell you right the map of all these podcasts that I've done. This is like, I'm already looking forward to it and having met you. Dude, it's it's awesome.

SPEAKER_00

What a gift it is to be able to reach across through the interwebs and connect with another brother, man. It is truly one of the gifts that I want people that, and and you know, this show is all about talking about the things that are hard, the obstacles, the the major key points in our careers where we just weren't feeling like a seal or a green beret or a ranger that took the wind out of our sails, but then how we got back, how we persevered, and how we kept pushing forward. So it's a gift, Ben, to have you today to share your insights. Because, man, you've got quite the the friggin' bio, man. You've done some amazing things in the service and after. Paper tiger.

SPEAKER_02

Paper tiger, that's what I tell everybody. No way. So humbled. I mean, you nailed it, you hit the nail on the head because every time it's no matter, look, I was a SEAL, you were a beret. Like, there's there's something there, right? I can just jump on a call from a guy from the 20 years past, and it's like you never skipped a beat, right? It's you're always there. Um, and it's great. It's humbling. It's humbling to see to see guys. So I get the question all the time, right? I did public speaking, uh, worked on Wall Street for a long time, um, seven years right after retirement. And you just in just in passing, right now with Zero Wise, I I get the you know, do you miss it? Right? 21 years in the teams, all combat, like the nightmare. Um I'd say my standard answer is I miss the guys. I do not miss the institution, right? I miss the guys. There is no having having done this now twice and being in the civilian world so long, there's no better group of of guys than team guys, right? So operators are, I mean, just think about it from start to finish. Now, when we burned the candle from both ends, I don't miss that anymore now that I'm 51 years old, right? I I'm like you. I'm like you. The drinking tapered off and kind of disappeared into the sunset. Um, I love a glass of wine with my wife every now and then. But uh yeah, the there's there's no substitute for that that campfire feeling, right? That fireside touch stuff with the boys.

SPEAKER_00

The warrior tribe, man. And that that's a beautiful thing about when you finally exit, it doesn't have to be scary, it doesn't have to be that thing. I always compare it to like this is this is going way back. If you listen at home, just prepare yourself for this walk down nostalgia road. There's that scene in Judge Dread where the old judge gets ushered into the wasteland and everybody's lined up and they're they're handing him his book of law, and they say, All right, dude, you're you're leaving now. You're being excommunicated out and go into the wasteland. And he's, you know, shaking everybody's hands and they open the great door and he's like, oh God, so desolate and scary out there. And he fucking walks off and they close the door. That's what it feels like to leave special operations. But that's what it feels like. That's not what it truly is. Because, dude, we're doing this. This is the brotherhood's always been there. It's going to continue being there. And the beauty of it, when you get on the outside and you tap into the other gifts that you've been given, your ability to lead, your ability, your ability to be the decisive leader, your ability to analyze, your ability to read and get in that third layer of understanding what's really going on in this doctrine and this textbook, no matter what the profession is, you're gonna find that you're a go-to person. You're gonna find that. And I guarantee it, I talked to so many guys who are like, man, I didn't want to believe in myself. And then I got, I got into where I belonged. I got into this career field, and then I realized I was a friggin' force multiplier. People reached out to me. And you know, and and it's not just at work, it's not just in business, in academia, when you're going to college, when you're going to that master's program, dude, don't be scared. It's that next phase. And I think JJ, your journey can give us so much insight into not only what it means to not be scared to go for big dreams, but what it was like getting in there. Because, you know, the career is great. Being an AV SEAL is is hard, but bro, how did you find the will and the drive to go into the business world and to achieve success again?

Brotherhood Over Institutions

SPEAKER_02

So gonna be super honest with you, I was scared shitless, right? To go. True story, right? Even like like I said, paper tiger. Um, I I think one characteristic of all of us, right, that go into special operations. I'm not gonna go into the trauma piece, like unless you want to talk about that down the road. Because that's a piece of it. Um but we end up there and we are we're such high performers. Um, I think one of the you look at my resume, you'd think I'd have like no trouble stepping out Harvard University, went to HBS, all through the teams, got my MBA through the Navy, was you know, took advantage of that, um, did every everything under the sun. You can't I I only went to Harvard because I felt underprepared with an MBA getting this is a true story. It's like pressure. I'm not prepared. I look at my resume, unroll it, look at it, and I say, I I need more. But I need more. I'm just not, I'm not. This is a true story. And and just like everybody else, I tell I I tell folks, the military is a pump, man. It the you're a you're a cog in the wheel, and that machine keeps on moving. And and people are surprised when I tell them, you know, naval special warfare didn't provide you a Rolodex. I because I tell this this story a lot. It's I was getting out through one of the transition programs, not sanctioned by the Navy. Um, you know those well. And so I was told by one of the mentors, like, do you know that there's a Navy SEAL billionaire? And I said, No, I uh I I actually did not know that. Like it would be nice to know who that person is and maybe make a connection. And then he went on to say, this particular mentor, there's a dozen or so multimillionaires that were SEALs. And I'm like, well, that that's also interesting. I wonder if I can get that Rolodex just to make contact. But Naval Special Warfare doesn't provide you that. You know, 21 years of service, thanks for coming. Here's a pat in the ass, and and here, oh, here's your meritorious service award. Um, which is all great. Like, I'm not one of those guys that downplays my service. Uh not not in a not a day goes by, but I do understand how I got there. And I did understand that that was not gonna be my identity that I could hide behind for the rest of my years, right? When I got out. So I like to, I I told somebody one time, uh, how do you describe what's going on in your life when you transition? I said, Well, I was a young boy who became a seal who had to learn to become a man again. That's exactly how I describe it. Um, in fact, that might be the title of my book. So don't spoil it. Um it just came out of my mouth. It seems so fitting because it's not that you have to relearn to be a person, but you have to learn to mature, take your experience, and realize that's not my whole identity. That was a uniform I put on for 21 years um and performed because I met the minimum standards and and excelled in what I did. And so yeah, I was scared, scared out of my mind when I transitioned. I just felt even with all the preparation, all the education, um, I'm overeducated, underprepared, is what I thought. I stepped out of uniform. Uh and again, I didn't, I never had to. So this is the the message is we are all the the the bottom line is we're trained to survive. Right. And everybody seems to forget that when they get nervous, and myself included, uh, forget that when they step out of uniform and they're like, Well, what do I do next? You survive. That's like that that's what you do. You will find your way. Just like I found my way to the SEAL teams, like you find your way to the Green Beret. We will find you'll find your way. Just maintain what you get. You've already had so this is the in the trick between the civilian world and the military world. It's like a civilian. I I I tell people, look at it the inverse, right? Imagine a civilian after 21 years in on Wall Street or in banking, um, investment bang, PE, uh, wanting to go into the military, and that you just throw them in the mix day one without any boot camp or anything, put a uniform on, go to the seal, go to the team room, and then just listen to the conversation. What's gonna blow the blow them out of their mind is what are they talking about? All this military jargon, acronyms, and lexica, it's the same thing going the other way. So the trick for the civilians is they have their own language, right? It's lexicon. And once you break that, and this was a mentor that told me this, he goes, don't let them fool you with all their, you know, the all the bottom line, and you got to look at all these financial spreadsheets and this and that and EPA. Like, forget it.

SPEAKER_00

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SPEAKER_02

And your skills will fall right into place. And that that was the truth, right? I didn't know what the hell I was doing on Wall Street. I got that job through a SEAL network. Um no shit. I never had to fill out an application uh in my entire life. And quite frankly, you know, special operators, uh military, I would say military writ large, but you've seen the variety that we have in the services. So maybe that's not I can't accurately say that across the board, but I can tell you that special operators, they they should have a special that there should be a special interview process. I mean, they just they have the skills. You just have to figure out where to put them. Yeah. And once you, once you get that fit, uh, you're gonna see an individual that's a high performer and uh cut above.

Transition Shock And “Overeducated, Underprepared”

SPEAKER_00

Man, one of the one of the best resources for for our soft guy is Dan Rayburn, uh, industry media just guru. The guy is the go-to voice for the industry, and uh happen to be the producer of his show. Shameless plug for the Dan Rayburn podcast. If you need any info on what's going on in the streaming world, that's where you go. But he always says the same thing. It's not about getting your resume, making it perfect. Yes, resume is important. I'm not trying to downplay it. But he, when he goes to help get a special operations guy into the job, he goes to the people. He goes to the network, not the piece of paper, because that's the most important thing, because he understands what it takes to become that guy in that profession. He knows how to explain it directly to the person who's gonna be in charge of the hiring process. That's one of the most important things is understanding who you are, but understanding the value of your network. Um, I didn't understand that either until I went through um the Honor Foundation. I was the first people that were like, hey, got to work on your network, you gotta work on getting on LinkedIn. You know, you spent your entire time thinking you had to be this silent professional. No, be be a quiet professional. Get on those those platforms and start connecting with people and talking about the industries. Like, how did you come up with the idea of Wall Street being a viable option for? I mean, I I get the similarities of high stress, but with more financial gains, but where did that concept come out of?

Survival Mindset And Civilian Lexicon

SPEAKER_02

So it like I said, it came out of nowhere, right? So here's here's a good, here's another good takeaway, another pearl that I'm gonna drop. Um, not my quote, heard it somewhere along the line, can't remember where, but you are the average of the five people you hang out with the most. Okay. So this one, and that never that resonated with me so much. And it's turned out that that couldn't be more true. So all I did was elevate um my way to it started with the SEAL Foundation. I'll give them credit. This the Navy SEAL Foundation had a bunch of benevolent donors after the wars broke out, right? It was great. Um, again, not sanctioned, supported by, but not sanctioned by Naval Special Warfare. But the SEAL Foundation opened doors to us early with high net worth donors, high net worth people. All you do is go up and introduce yourself. That the hardest part is right there, right? So you break the ice and you get a nice conversation with one of these people. You're genuine, you're you're honorable, and you meet these people and you start getting invites. Hey, come for dinner up, you know, in San Diego or um here in Texas, in Austin. Uh come have come join dinner and you start taking advantage of those, right? Don't say no. Um, unless the person's a real jackass, which also happens from time to time. But uh more often than not, people with money that don't flaunt it are the the the most genuine people that you'll ever meet. Um, and so you you just take I took advantage of those. So I took advantage of some. And and look, eight out of ten of them, you know, that's a milk run, but they're worth every penny of time, like every minute of time. And so eventually you're gonna get one or two that will open a door for you. And then you realize just by hanging out with these people, under, you know, asking them what they do, even if you don't understand, because I didn't understand a lot of it, private equity and and investments. I wasn't trained in any of that, right? But I managed a budget when I was, you know, in the Navy. I managed Buds the Buds budget when I retired. And so I I knew we're we're actually frugal, uh fiscally conservative people to have on your on your team, right? Because we don't get a lot of spend in the military. And there's always like, oh, we can't afford that. We got to cut budget here, we got to cut budget there. Um, so we're used to that and the finance piece of it. But once you start realizing, they start opening doors and then maybe they'll invite you to a project, which is what happened to me. Um, everybody's story is gonna be a little different, but I had a family office guy that was a donor for the SEAL Foundation, uh, greatest guy in the world. Won't say his name out loud. He probably doesn't want me to. He likes his private life, but he was wealthy and uh very early Walmart guy, if that gives you a clue, and then started his own businesses. He opened a door and said, I want a SEAL to be my project manager for my family office. I didn't even know what a family office was. Like I had to go to Harvard to learn what a family office was. And the funny thing is, when I was at Harvard Business School, all these jobs, all these things that I know today, I was so new. I was active duty when I went. So I went for a year and a half over time. We went back and forth to Harvard, still didn't know what I was gonna do when I got out. Had I known about this world and then went to Harvard, I would have been way better. The contacts there would have been better off. But I started to pick up the lexicon at least when I was at HBS. And then when I got into this world, he said he wanted me to run a family office as a project manager. And that's what I did. That's what that was my start. First six months of terminal leave was go driving up and down from San Diego to to Carlsbad and um Oceanside and doing doing family office stuff. And so the it's like a fire hose of learning because on the job training, we are that's the other skill that we have. We share in common. All you can OJT, that's the way to show a special operator, then we'll figure out how to fix it, right? Maybe it's good, maybe it's bad, we'll figure it out. Um, but I excelled at at that job, at least according to him, and um it just wasn't for me. Uh, I did it for six months, learned a lot, ended up getting another offer because I was already that little stint was enough of a resume to with the 21 years behind it to s for another guy to say, Oh, you should come out to Wall Street, we'll fly you out and and and see what happens. And I said, Oh, okay. Like, yeah, let me go, let me go play the play my prospects. And so I actually put put them off for a year, this particular hedge fund. Oh really? So yeah, and I didn't know what the job I when you hear Wall Street, I just you know, the movies we saw were. The movie that's all they're down in my head, right? With the papers, like oh, trading and trading and running. I just pictured the Wall Street floor, trading floor. So I'm not a trader, right? These guys are these young 20-year-old something's you know, burning the candle at both ends. But I thought it was a trading job for about a year. And then when I found out the family office thing wasn't really my gig, I didn't want to commute 40 five minutes in a car. I called, I called the hedge phone and said, Hey, you guys still looking for somebody? And they're like, Yeah, we'll fly you out. Tickets in your inbox. Bing. This is how they operate, right? So I'm like, oh, a little bit quicker than the Navy like getting my getting my ticket. No DTS. Yeah, yeah. So I flew, no DTS, yeah. That's that's traumatic in and of itself. Um so I flew out there, they flew me out first class. It was it was high society, and I I wasn't used to that, and um negotiated my salary at a bar in New York. Like that it's true story. True story. Well, it was one of these slide the sticky over, and then not having that's the other thing, not having a mentor by your side negotiating on the spot. What it what's I look back and I laugh, but that mo in that moment I was like afraid I was just gonna fail, like screw it up, right? I was gonna fail. I'm gonna fail this negotiation. Come find out. You learn so much from that, right? So I wrote a number that was just in my military mind, just like crazy. This is a crazy number. I just want to see what they say. Slid it over, the music's playing, you can barely talk in the book. Slid it over, and I got the nod. I got the look, and then I got the look, and then yeah, we could do that. We know what do you think? Denny, what do you think happened right at what do you think happened right at that moment in my in my soul? I could tell there was two versions. The internal one was losing its shit. The internal one goes, God damn it, I just undersold myself because it was so easy. I should have upped it by a couple hundred grand.

SPEAKER_00

That's what yeah, uh you did a lot better than I did because I didn't negotiate. I just I was so excited someone was hiring me to produce, and I'm like, I just would have hung up. Yeah. And I called a friend, he's like, Well, how much are you getting paid? I don't know. I forgot to ask.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, you're right. There is some joy in that. There, there's some joy in like, wow, they see value in me, and I'm gonna make more than I ever did in the Navy. And and then you realize, but then you the lesson, there's always a less if you're not learning lessons, you're not you're not living, right? So you're learning a lesson every time, and I went in alone and unafraid, and you're the the the takeaway is you'll be fine. You're gonna be fine. You have the skills.

SPEAKER_00

Man, you gotta you gotta and lay it out for us. What was it like? Like it's like you said, a lot of us have that idea of what Wall Street is, and it's this this episode of Security Hall is brought to you by Dr. Mark Gordon and Millennium Health Store. If you've listened to the show, you know how seriously we take brain health, recovery, and long-term performance, especially for veterans and high performers. Dr. Mark Gordon is one of the leading experts in neuroendrocrinology and traumatic brain injury. He's just released his new book, Peptides for Health, both the Medical Edition, Volume 1, and the Consumer Edition, Volume 1, are available right now. The book breaks down how peptide therapy supports brain health, hormonal balance, recovery, and resilience in a way that's practical and evidence-based. You can get 25% off the book by using code PTH25 at checkout, valid through March 15th. And for Dr. Gordon's proprietary health products, Security Health listeners can receive 10% off if they use the code phase2P. Click the link in the episode description to find out more and visit Millennium Health Store today. Busy floor and the trading and people yelling. And it's for me, since I'm I'm I'm older now these days, it's still like the old 90s where they're they're hanging around with and running around with paper. Like I guarantee they don't do that anymore.

SPEAKER_02

But like Yeah, no, no. So the trading floor, the trading floor is all but dead. Like people running around in the pit. So everything is automated now. In fact, a lot of those trading jobs are going to be long gone with AI. Um it's a quiet, it's more with the Wall Street ringing of the bell and all that stuff is rat is really ceremonial at this point. Um, all the traders, uh all the big banks have trading floors and they're getting smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller. Uh there was a team guy who was the head of global trading for Bank of America, who, again, through a network, I did a little tour of New York and uh got to sit on the trading floor. Jimmy Ball. Shout out to Jimmy Ball, that was his name. Uh he was a he was a team guy at SEAL Team 8 back in the day and was head of global trading. So I got to talk to guys like that. But my the job I got hired for was not a, come to find out was not a trading job, thank God. Um, staring at a Bloomberg terminal. It was a sales trade. I had to go, my job was to raise money, and I'm like, huh. Okay. So then you get your role. You got hired without really understanding your role, but then you understand your role. And what how do you raise money? Relationships. And so if there's nobody better at relationships than special operations guys. And I don't even think half the guys realize it. I mean, how many times do you sit and have green tea with an Iraqi? All the friggin' time.

SPEAKER_00

All the friggin' time. Human domain. Right?

Sponsors: Wellness And Brain Health

SPEAKER_02

These are these are these you can't get any better training in relationship building across foreign lines and different languages and interpreters and negotiating, you know, even combat space, right? Negotiating combat lines in in theater. And so once I found out that was the job, I go, this, okay, I could do this. And so I did it and had huge success. Could be good. People sell to people they want to sell. This is the sales game writ large. People sell to who they want to sell. And then you have to be genuine, and you can't be somebody you're not. The problem with Wall Street, which I made a mistake, you get there, and it's Range Rovers and Ferragamos and three-piece suits. And you try image is important. You don't want to look like a dirtball. Um, but I got I got into that. I was like, wow, this is this is great. You know, then you you start playing this game, but you there's a fine line between turning into somebody that you're not and losing your genuine capable, you know, capability. When you try to be a personality that you're not, and that's the key, that was my key early on was I I wasn't the average banker out of college. You know, you had a story to tell, people wanted to talk to you. And when you told it, you were genuine about it. And that that went way farther than trying to be somebody, I feel bad for these kids 20 years old, going into going into Wall Street. They don't even have an identity, like they don't, they're just playing the game. And then guess who molds them? Wall Street molds them, and they turn into somebody they won't. They have a divorce and they're buying Range Rovers for no reason, and it just goes, it's a slippery slope. It really is.

SPEAKER_00

And how to do it. And I mean, you're going into this high stress, and you just like exactly what I was gonna ask. Like, there it is such an image is at the forefront of that profession. Because you it's the domain, it's a human domain. You're meeting somebody, and if they're gonna buy, if they're gonna sell, if you're gonna be able to sell them on something, they gotta see you as that final entity, that product they're gonna be willing to like go and and and shake on it and say, Yeah, this is our guy, this is our person. And there's so much to that, and you already had an entire career in the military. Were you able to mitigate the down, like all the negatives of that job, the stress, the at work hour, trying to find harmony and balance and all that, or was everything that you brought from the military already on like emotional baggage, things you were carrying on? Was that just added to or were you able to find ways to mitigate that stress?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so great question. I did not, I was not the right, I hadn't fixed myself when I got into that job. So that job kind of exacerbated. Yeah. And when I when I say exacerbated, it just kept the issues hidden. That job, all I did was just hide the issues. You know, I was making more money, I was able to travel. I actually, when I transitioned, I ended up in a seven-year nightmare California divorce. Um, and so really the money I made just kept me afloat to fight that battle. It was brutal. It was brutal on me, it was brutal on my kids. Um unfortunately, the the person that I was married to uh just was not a good person. And so it kind of took away. But I but I look back now, and if you want to be spiritual about it, I look back and I go, that job was given to me for a purpose. And that purpose was to survive the battle that I went through and be able to keep bonded with my children and made it through. So I am good now today at looking at retrospect. Like, why did I end up in that job? What why did I deserve that? It wasn't about deserving, it was about that time. And it was the right job for the right time. Um, it kept me afloat. Uh, but yeah, I was I was hiding. Um, I'll fast forward a little bit. I ended up going to Ibogaine, the Ibogaine treatment in 2023.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, dude.

Networks Over Resumes

SPEAKER_02

So that was a changing point in my life. I'll never be the same person that I was because I dealt with what I needed to deal with. And so um having looked, I have great clarity now looking back at my entire history, and I have answers to the way, the behavior, the um some of the sh what you thought were shortfalls, which really weren't, when you understand why the way you were the way you were. And so anyway, so yeah, so Wall Street covered up that. But performing at a high level is actually one of those things that keeps those, you know, those, I don't want to say faults, but keeps you from being aware of the true person you can be. And so performing with the way we perform, it's like, okay, I made a sale, I just raised$400 million, which actually happened. And so I was super successful there. But you use that as a cover, you're like, uh, I'm perfectly fine. I must be doing everything right, right? Like, yeah, of course, of course, you're the one with the problem, not me. You guys have problems. And that's not the truth. It's just another mask, like buying a Range Rover or buying Oragon. They're all fillers for useless stuff. Because when once you become detached to the materialistic way, you're a free person. Like you, you, you completely are free with unties. Did I answer your question?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But it's it's hard, man. It's hard because I I know I felt it. We serve in a profession that, hey, you know, we make decent money, but it's not fucking Wall Street money. And a lot of us get out and we're like, I suffered through all this. Yeah, I got to do some cool stuff, but now my hips are fucked, my knees are messed up, I've got torn labrums. I'm gonna get the fucking money, I'm gonna get the Bugatti, I'm gonna get the fancy suits and all that. It's hard to explain the guys that have sacrificed so much, lost, you know, they they're not ready to heal, and they're only seeing the pain. They're like, fuck you, fuck this. I'm gonna get paid. I'm gonna get mine. I deserve it. And it's like, bro, that's not what you need. Like, fuck you, that's not what I need. I need that penthouse. You don't have a fucking penthouse. Fuck you. I'm not listening to you. I don't need mindfulness or Iba gain. I need to get paid. It's hard to tell guys that it no amount of money is gonna ever heal that pain. No amount of money, no, no fancy car is gonna ever heal the wounds and help you recover and get back on that, on that positive journey until you face your demons head on, man. And it's hard because they're talented and they have they have other friends and they have other people that you know are enabling them saying, no, you're great, man. Keep drinking, keep moving on this career, keep doing it. Like when you look back at that life, I know you got a different perspective now because you you went and you explored the medicine. Like, like taking that step back, looking at who you were back then, what were some of the biggest things besides the divorce? What were some of the things that you were carrying with you that you were just so reluctant to let go of or face head on the heel?

SPEAKER_02

Um honestly, the the biggest one was accepting, like loving yourself. Sounds so simple. It sounds so simple, but it's not. It's not. We don't we don't love ourselves. That's what what that's why we keep looking forward. We never look in the present, we look forward. What's next? How can I mask? Like, what can I achieve? What can I do? And it when you realize it's not about that, it's about today. So just just to backend this story, last year, uh 2024, probably the worst year of my life, I think, up till yeah, I mean, there's no other, there's no other one whole year comparison, but at the same time, it's the best year I ever had. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

Dive into that. Yeah, yeah. So stories shape culture. They build trust. And when they're told the right way, they move people to action. That's what we do at Security Hall Media. We don't just produce content, we create authentic, impactful, and purpose-driven storytelling. Podcasters, nonprofits, brands, and leaders who are on a mission. For people who've lived real experiences and want their message to actually matter, from podcast production, and video to strategic storytelling and distribution. We hope you clarify your voice, elevate your brand, and connect with the audience you're trying to serve. You have a story worth telling and a purpose behind it. Security Hall Media is here to help you tell it the right way. Click the link in the episode description to learn more today.

Family Office To Wall Street

SPEAKER_02

Uh that the divorce was coming to still going, right? Like a hammering from 2008. Yeah, this is I'm not, I'm not kidding. Uh, we can I want to do you'll watch our podcast, which my wife and I are gonna do. Uh, she fought the battle. My new wife fought the battle with me. And so you if when you understand how bad the California divorce, divorce in general across the country, writ large, but California is sp especially evil, uh, especially when you're the man. And so that came to was coming to a head. Um lost a job on Wall Street, ended up having to go to bankruptcy. Like the bot the bottom of the bar, this house of cards that was held up for 40 some odd years that I've been achieving. And I knew, I'll be honest with you, I knew it was coming. I just knew it was coming that you couldn't you couldn't keep this house of cards up, and one one card fell, and it all happened in 2020. Totaled my Bronco, I got T-boned, like the Citrus. All if you look back at the whole year, if you look back at that whole year, it was it was absolutely on paper, like miserable. But guess what else happened? So I met my I well, I met my wife two years before that, 2022, right after I began, go figure. Um, so we ended up getting married in that April. In the in the the storm is around us and it's going and going and going. We take the time to uh take our vows, get married. And this is this is a message to everybody out there. If you meet a woman and you're at the bottom, what you think is rock bottom, and she stays with you, you have struck gold, my friend. Like you have you have won the lottery beyond any any money numerical value that you could possibly think of. And that that's what happened to me. And so I look back, and that's why I say 2024 was the best year of my life. Um, this and now we're building together. You start from scratch. You get it's almost like getting a start over. It's weird. It's weird because you're stressed out. I was a stress case. Um God, you're so not present in what you kept thinking, what's gonna again, even post-IB again, you kept thinking about what's gonna happen. Like, I we're not gonna survive. You're gonna survive. You're gonna survive anything as long as you're not dying with some disease or you know, get shot in the face. Like you're gonna have a life lesson. Yeah, really, if you don't experience it, you don't appreciate it. Yeah. And so I I think there's more than more people than you think experience it every day. Everybody's gonna go through it at some point.

SPEAKER_00

The perfect quote that I that I always share with people that are struggling by John Cabotson. If you're breathing, there's more right going with you than there is wrong. Keep moving forward. Perfect quote. Dude, it it life might suck, and you've been there before. Dig deep and just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Something is going to break, and it's not gonna be you. And you know what it is, Danny?

SPEAKER_02

And you know what it is, Danny? It's not that you have to figure out how you're gonna get out of it. Like, you have to just accept it. Yeah, it's really that's what it is. You have to accept that this bad thing is happening. That's it. Don't worry about like, oh my god, what am I gonna do tomorrow morning? Like, who am I gonna call? Accept what's happening. Realize that you have no control, zero point zero control. And then just wake up the next day and start there. And that that's how you get that. That's how you get and if you have a good mate next to you, man, it's a good ride.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely, dude. And and I that's it's a there's the perfect place to transition into um how do you build something from the ground up? You lose the job at Wall Street, you're going through a hella divorce, which is one of the hardest things men will go through. Abso fucking lutely. Divorce is brutal with kids, without kids, young, old, divorce is fucking brutal. But then you start thinking about building something new, man. How do you do that? How do you craft something when you're looking at bankruptcy? You're looking at all these negative things, and and and but you have a wife, you have some good things, and you're starting to be on the right track. What was it like for you to say, you know what? I want to bet on myself.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And it takes a lot, right? It takes because you don't think you still doubt, right? You still have that self-doubt. Um, what am I worth it? And it and it's hard because we're all humbled. I people don't realize how oh, unless you're the bin Laden shooter, how humble. I had to throw that in there. I had to throw it in there because it's pissing me off. The whole thing's pissing me off. Uh anyway. Most of us, I would love to say, are humbled, right? And we I we do come from that generation. When did you get in service? What year? Uh 2003. When I started out in the I'm an I'm a pre-9-11 guy, so I'm 1996, right? I'm I came from the real quiet professionals, right? We didn't pre pre-s you know, ground force assault team and all that shit. So you I was I I've been humbled, and it comes with trauma too. You I I've been humbled since the day every time I meet another team guy, uh, another operator, a delta guy, like I'm always humbled. And so you're so humble though that you don't think that anybody's gonna really listen to you, which you know is not true. Um, but after this is the per to answer your question, right, when you hit rock bottom or what you think is rock bottom, because you can always go deeper, but there is a point where you can you take the pain and you're delivered as much as you can take. Um then you look forward and you go, you know what? I'm gonna rely on myself. I'm gonna, I don't want to use the the old phrase, pull yourself up by the bootstrap, all these cliches, right? You just you just really just got to believe in yourself. And then you've got to say, okay, it's time, right? The system has been punching me left and right, although I've had success. Um I we my wife and I looked at each other and go, we're gonna build our, we're gonna do this ourselves. We're gonna be responsible for our destiny. Nobody else is gonna be responsible for that. And so that's that was the motivation enough to just start getting, and I'll tell you what, I was like my hair on fire after that happened the last year. So we re we're rebuilding piece by piece. I went, I managed to take, I took a huge pay cut to go um be where I'm at now, which is around a bunch of military folks who started a company that has a pure purpose of detecting weapons and and preventing school shootings and stuff like that. So a bunch of team guys started this company. So I took that job and it allowed me to build what we're doing with fourth phase on the side. And I'm telling you, I just feel I feel butterflies when I talk about it because I don't think there's anything but upside now.

SPEAKER_00

Dude, absolutely. And let's dive into this because like AI is being used for so many different things right now. And it was not on my the the top of my mind to think of how to utilize it for, you know, detection of weapon systems, detection of individuals, dangerous individuals that could bring harm uh to people in in locations like schools, man. Like how did this come about and and take us through this, man?

SPEAKER_02

So first of all, it's these things. Yeah. This this right here was the worst thing ever developed in my mind. I'd second that.

SPEAKER_00

And I use it to make my living.

SPEAKER_02

Everybody, everybody thinks, you know, this is so great computer in a hand. Um, it has done nothing but destroy. So there are there there's very few positives that come out of having a phone in your pocket all day long. I mean, look what it's doing to society alone. Um, but it's also I and I say that because it's radicalizing these kids. These kids are now, I just saw a study yesterday. They're losing brain matter, right? These kids are the same study. They saw the same. Yeah. Um and that's just the first of thousands that are being done. And it started way back when. I mean, that your attention span, your social skills, all the things that are necessary to survive in a tribe, because that's what we are with tribal people, um, that's gone. It's yeah, it's disappearing.

Negotiating Value And Early Wins

SPEAKER_00

Well, dude, JJ, they told us, they told us long ago. The guys, Apple, Google execs, all these people, all of them, they've they've been quoted and they've already told people years and years ago, I wouldn't let my kids be on it. I don't let my kids be on it. I don't like if the people who created this tech don't allow their children to be on it, why do you? Like the the iPad kids uh syndrome is insane. Like that's as a new parent, you know, my my little one just turned one. Dude, two things we don't do. No iPad, and when we're around, when we're actually with our kid, like no cell phone, because that little one's gonna look up from when they're playing. And if he if they see you doing this, they're gonna start detaching. They're gonna start thinking it's gonna lead to a whole bunch of things down the road. Dead on. Dead on with that.

SPEAKER_02

They yeah, and it's been well documented that the the those companies they capitalized off dopamine addiction. And so that's basically what we're we're dealing with, which is almost impossible to get young kids off of. And it's like it's worse than a vape pen, it's worse than any of that stuff. And so these, yeah, these kids are getting radicalized. And I believe to tie into the the point, the school shootings, every one of them has posted some manifesto. They've pre-planned it on Facebook. They want people to know they want attention. This is a trauma-driven thing where they are coming from households that are broken or even that don't appear to be broken, but they are not, they are lacking something at the home and they are being radicalized by these phones. And then how can I get attention? Oh, I can go on Instagram or Snapchat. And guess what? I'm gonna film it, or I'm gonna tell everybody I'm gonna do it. And then the kids that do it, there you go. So unfortunately, ZeroAyS was born to go on already existing camera infrastructure so that our algorithm picks up a brandished gun and throws it back to our operations center, which is a military-like operations center. It's staffed by former military and former police. Uh, reason being they're the human in the loop. We don't let AI run rogue. And that's another thing I talk about all the time. That human in the loop is the one in three to five seconds verifies that detection photo, then we call 911. We're on the phone with 911, we're on the phone with the client. We run, it's behind a skiff door up there in Philadelphia. It's a no shit military operation. It's it's awesome. They flew me up there. I was done. I'm like, why is this not in every school? In the that was my first question, right? And then it becomes you start peeling back the layers of legislation while they sit there on Capitol Hill arguing about, oh, what can we do about school shootings and guns? Well, nothing. Second amendment ex stop with your entertainment and games and showmanship. There is a product out there that can go on cameras today across the country, across the world, and prevent we we we call it first we look for first sight, not first shot. And so we can detect that image and then launch the police, saving time, saving lives.

SPEAKER_00

Jeez, that is insane.

SPEAKER_02

That is it's crazy.

SPEAKER_00

And it again, why isn't this at every school? Why, why isn't this in every public uh place? Like this is this is a no-brainer, man. Yep. A no freaking brainer.

SPEAKER_02

One federal grant, one federal grant to the Department of Education, which is gonna get disbanded or disbanded. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. One federal grant that schools can apply to puts this in at least on 10 or 15 cameras, and then at least they're protected until something, the next generation of security comes out where something is better. Right now there's nothing better. So it needs to be. And what do we get from schools? We can't afford it. We're not on the budget. So and then you understand how frustrating it is to deal with lobbyists, right? So that's a whole nother pay me 600 grand and I'll get you to the decision maker. 600 grand as a lobbyist. These people make money off of bribing people.

SPEAKER_00

Bro, that's the thing that drives me nuts. How is this how is this a profession in our in our country? How how are lobbyists for every like we have lobbyists for for frigging candy?

SPEAKER_02

It is so out of control that I don't think people understand.

SPEAKER_00

No, they they don't. I mean, like we we had the only reason why I during COVID, during the lockdown, they were trying to do um, you know, who was an essential worker, who wasn't. And there's a lot that's when I found out there was a lobby for like big sugar, big candy, because they didn't want their factories to be shut down and their workers to not be able to go in.

SPEAKER_02

That was the funniest thing of COVID.

SPEAKER_00

Like, I'm not essential. I'm not essential. Yeah. So the guy working at the Hershey's factory is an essential worker because he's got to make sure that Jibby down in Texas gets his diabetes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Drive through, drive-through liquor stores, open, mandatory, essential.

SPEAKER_00

This doesn't make sense, James. Mind-blowing. Mind-blowing. Oh my God. So can you can you give us some more background on how this algorithm, how this AI is able to detect? I mean, is it proprietary cameras as well, or can it be plugged into any camera system?

Performance As A Mask And Ibogaine

SPEAKER_02

We go on the already existing cameras. So cameras, uh purchasing cameras from Zero Eye is not a thing. You don't have to we're we're making your investment you already made even better, right? We're putting it to work because most cameras are reactive. They can see who broke into the car last night, who stole the vape pen, maybe there was a murder, and they could see that after the fact, all reactive. And people don't understand. So we turn the cameras proactive. We put a small device in their operating room or their server room and basically just rip a feed. From their camera. We train our own proprietary algorithm up in Philadelphia. We have a Hollywood green screen studio. Everything is 3D printed. We use real weapons, modifications. Oh, that's how you teach it. It's constantly learning, getting better and better and better. We don't need to have a whole gun. I've got detection photos that I show on demos that the individual's got his hand over the trigger, um trigger well and the hand grip, and all you can see is the slide. Boom, algorithm picks it up. Black weapon on a black t-shirt. Boom, AI picks it up. And so yeah, we have very few false positives, if any at all, and they'll get weeded out by the human, which is the human in the loop, is so important. And these are all, you know, X ex-military and ex uh law enforcement first responders. And so they're all 911 trained. And yeah, the algorithm is is phenomenal. Some of the detections, if I if I showed you, blow your mind.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That just makes me it it a, I'm happy this exists and it's thrilling, but I'm now I'm really upset that we can't fucking implement this.

SPEAKER_02

Like, right? So yeah, bane of my existence now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

We can have demonstrations against everything, and we can be angry and yelling at each other and be at each other's throats, but we can't get together to make this a standard in every school.

SPEAKER_02

Make it mind-blowing. It's like, Rick, really, you sit around, you're like, what are we spending money on? Where's the money going? There's trillions of dollars that go out the door every day. And this is one call. And you don't even have to like just give the grant for the security protocol that exists, right? Let the companies, let the companies do their free market thing. Zero eyes is always going to win because we're best in class, but still, um, we really don't have anybody doing it at scale like we do anyway. Um, but yeah, uh no funds have been there's nobody talking about it. We've got guys that go to to Capitol Hill. I don't know how much progress they're making, but the more they go, the better it is. But the the fact that it's taking this much time, we've been around since 2019. And so, yeah, yeah. And so it's it's it's unbelievable. There's been a few states that have broke the mold. Kansas just recently, they do a grant. Pennsylvania was a leader in a grant for this stuff, and it's, you know, once they get the grant, there's no school. There's no demo that I've given to a school in Texas um or anywhere in the country that has said after I'm done, oh, we don't like we don't like what you got. The only answer I get is that's awesome. We have no money. Right? And that's it's sad because you're like, God, they want their kids protected, they want their staff protected. Um, and you know, you got corporations that can afford it, and we've got some of those as clients, but it's sad when they can rip off a check like overnight and the schools just battle for pencils and whatever. And then a school shooting happens and then it starts all up again. It exactly right back up.

SPEAKER_00

But it never comes full, it never comes to a point where they're like they put the money into it. It's like, God, we're it's just so dumb. It's so that there's just way too much theatrics around it. People that say they want to do something, they want to make a change. Well, here's a change. Here, here's something that can help this issue right now, today, if you're willing to make a change. But it's like, no. The more important thing is to have our lobbyists advocate for things like that.

SPEAKER_02

Let me let me tell you a quick, let me tell you a quick lobbyist story. What happened to me? So I go to a lot of small school districts out remote, you know, not unlike Uvalde, right? Where it well, it it's not a matter of if it's when. And so I go to a lot of small, I was out there uh last year talking with school systems, super interested. They're gonna allocate 30,000 to put some streams in, not a lot of money per year to do that. And so ginning them up, ginning them up, visit them. And I go back uh after the legislative session was over last year and went in the fall. And I sat down with superintendent and police chief in their office and I said, All right, guys, let's, you know, if you need to scale down a couple streams, we will let's just get you protected. Well, the money we allocated, superintendent starts speaking, money we allocated, we uh were forced mandated to buy ballistic shields. And I went, What? Ballist ballistic shield in a school for what? Yeah, for for that. So here's what happened. The backstory is some lobbyist in the Texas government uh got to somebody who created some some guy who created a wanted to sell his ballistic shield, got to the right lobbyist, paid the money, and got to the decision maker in the Texas State House and said, Hey, uh, I think this should be mandatory in every school. And so they went around, passed a law of the money they already had given the schools for their own safety and security, and mandated that they use that budget, regardless of the school size of the so you can go to Dallas, Texas and have one of those ISDs that are massive with a five ten five ton, you know, five-fold budget of a small school. The money was the same, 30 grand for these things. And I looked at the chief and I said, Chief, if somebody pulls out a gun and starts running around your campus and starts actually shooting, are you gonna run to the closet and wheel the ballistic shield down the hall? He just cut me off and he goes, Fuck no, I'm not gonna. Are you crazy? That thing will sit in the closet collecting dust, and meanwhile, they lost out on proactive security measures. It's just it's mind-blowing. Like you can't make it up. You can't. And I I just felt so bad for that school. I'm like, oh God, dude.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. The system is broken, man. And and and now I have to ask, like, how do you how do you guys a maintain spirit, stay stay focused on the mission? And uh, are you working on anything else? It's it's kind of hard to like, I would imagine, seeing the amount of, you know, the stark reality situation, that it's a money issue and who's got the better connection. Um, has that led you to think about other avenues, create other ways, uh, uh other entrepreneurial endeavors?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so we have a drone program. So we actually sell a drone kit. That's the that's the big thing for police departments, for events. We did we uh we protected a Formula One with our drone kit a couple years ago down in Florida.

SPEAKER_00

Oh shit.

Money, Pain, And Letting Go

SPEAKER_02

Uh so that technology with the combined with the Zoc can go on drones, police can fly them, pick up weapons in a crowd. Fantastic protocol. That belongs to our government solution side. Um so we do have that. The problem is yes, AI, we can create our team up there, they're a bunch of technologists, they're geniuses. They can create the AI to do whatever facial recognition, all these stuff, LPRs, license plate reader. Um the issue is you start losing your um expertise in that one field. So we do weapons detection and we do it best in class. Once you start providing this menu of stuff, uh, you know, because I get that all the time. Oh, do you guys do facial recognition? Can you tell when somebody's heart rate we're we're becoming like China now? Can you can you tell if they're gonna get in a fight? Like time, stop, stop, stop. You don't when it comes to a security protocol like this, where weapons are involved. We are doing bladed weapons now. That was a big thing. So we're in the weapons realm. So knives and guns. Um, but at some point you you can't provide an entire menu of stuff that you can't that just becomes unorganized. Because when you get these alerts, and this is the pro, you know, some of these camera manufacturers are boasting their their shiny object, which is hey, we have an analytic that will go on your camera and we'll we'll detect guns. Where do the alerts go? Well, they go to you, the user on the phone. I tell, I tell prospects, walk away. Just give me 20 minutes on the phone and I'll tell you why. Um, it'll be like I don't know if you have Nest camera at your house, but I have Nest camera.

SPEAKER_00

No, I got rid of I got rid of Nest. Uh I have a bone to pick with Nest.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, you're gonna have to tell me that story offline. But I've had I've had Nest just for the, you know, so I could tap into it, but I set the alerts and they've gone off. My house is probably getting broken into right now in Texas. Like the Nest goes off so much. You become desensitized to this stuff, right? Not like unlike combat, not like some of the missions we went on. Same thing. You become desensitized, like lockdown drills in a school. Look what happened at at you at Parkland shooting. That's exactly what happened. They thought it was a lockdown drill on the third floor. So you become desensitized to it and then you stop looking at them. And that's why I tell people we do one thing, we do one thing only. If you're looking for all that single pane of glass security that you can feel like the minority report where you're moving all your stuff around. Schools don't schools don't have time to deal with that. Nobody does. No one individual can. And so yeah, it gets out of hand. And so we focus on that right now and we'll just make the technology better. Um, eventually, there will have to be some transition when technology advances to a point. We'll see what that is. I don't'm sure what that looks like right now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think when you try to do everything, you do everything at about 20% or 30% capacity. And it's it's uh it's shitty for the customer. I think it's absolutely um if you're really good at this, that's what you should be doing. If you're uh absolutely the expert at this, focus, niche down, make it fucking undeniable that you're the number one. Uh and I I did it's it it can be said for so many different not for everything, I understand, but it can be said for many, many things. Focus on the one thing and be the absolute best person at it. Right. That's right. Because when you're bringing that that capability to the customer, he's gonna want, he's I would feel much better going for that product and saying, hey, um, maybe I can find a different vendor for X, Y, or Z. But for this, for this, I need this. I absolutely need the 100 best. I know I take that into account. I'm gonna look for a lot of tech. Like I want to, I want the number one, the best, the best one in the market, that's what I want. I don't want the the 70 or 60% solution. Even when you're like, oh, but Samsung is good at this, this, and this. Yeah. Samsung's good at refrigerator TVs and washing machines, but they're at a 40, 30%. I used to be a big Samsung guy. You want to know why I walked away? Because they got their fingers in fucking everything. I don't need to sell, I don't need to set a tweet for my refrigerator. I just need my washing machine to work. And my worker service is the worst on the planet. It's absolute garbage. I got to say, so changing. Yeah, I've absolutely I now started to walk away from a company that is absolutely on everything in that market. And then I'm gonna look at the one that it's the best known for washing machine or best known for this. That's just my way of doing it. I learned through trial and error because yeah, I got I got bit in the ass one too many times by Samsung.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, oh no. I spent the three hours, I'll never forget the three hours I spent on the phone with Samsung Canada, which was I'm still traumatized by the my asked my wife. Like, uh I was like, we're never to buy but I bought well, we bought one. I was like, I'm never buying another Samsung as long as you live. Same. I learned hard.

SPEAKER_00

I will say this LG, go to LG for TV, go to their premium, their premium tier for TVs is fucking phenomenal. But you weren't gonna think that I was gonna bring that up on this show, did you? Well, I already told you.

SPEAKER_01

That's the thing about Dan Rayburn.

SPEAKER_00

Every Friday I am recording with Dan Rayburn, and he's my go-to person for anything in tech or streaming media, and it's valuable. If I traded in in any stock or anything that had to do with streaming media, I'd be I'd be doing well because I get a lot of inside knowledge.

Acceptance, Presence, And Resilience

SPEAKER_02

That's great. I gotta meet this guy. You gotta turn him over.

SPEAKER_00

Dan's one of the best, man. He's one of he's one of the best dudes I have met. And uh I found myself, even if that's the one thing I love about the the when we get out of the military, you're no longer restrained by your service, by your small group of individuals. You can be friends and you can have mentors for different walks of life. Guys, like I want you to reach out to JJ. I want to reach out and to individuals from vastly different experiences because it's gonna make you better, man. It's gonna make you a better person. And it's gonna give you the idea and the understanding that you don't have to continue going down the same line line of effort. You don't have to get out of the military and be a contractor. You don't have to go work for the CIA. If it's your thing, please go do it. If it, if not, think. Go to school, be willing to go work for an AI company. Like it's so to me, it's get out of that comfort zone.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. So many master chiefs, so many talented team six guys I work with. Uh, you know, the the pinnacle of pinnacle, these guys were like my mentors and the teams. You see them at transition time, they go right back to the community, and you know they don't want to. I can feel it. Like I can tell you they don't want to. They've been doing it for 28 years. That's a long time to be burning in a in a in a job occupation like special operations. And then they go, yeah, they go work for the ground branch, or you know, what do you do? And then they're done two two years later. They're like, Jesus, that's worse than of course it is. Um, and it's so sad. It's sad to see that because they stayed in that comfort zone. And you you just gotta, it's just like the story I told you about transitioning into Wall Street. Like, what the hell was I doing? But after you take that step, it's the same as everything. You just gotta take the leap. Go to school, right? Sit in a classroom. Well, I don't like classroom. All right, well, at least you tried it and figure it out. You'll meet people through that, and you'll meet people through experiences, and you're out there. And yeah, you were talking about resumes before, and oh God, man. That they're almost irrelevant now because AI I think so too. Yeah, AI is scraping them for companies. Companies no longer have recruiters looking at it, they're getting scraped, and now there's keywords. Now you have to beat the system. This happened to my wife, who just got hired for a tech company in San Diego, and she was she's so diligent. I'm I'm just telling you, this person, if you want something built or done right, she is so methodical to the point where yeah, like paralysis by analysis type thing. But she is so methodical that she had she must have filled out, and she's Canadian. So when we got her green card and now she's down here, she was able to work. And so she must have filled out, I'm not kidding, over a thousand applications indeed in LinkedIn and and changing it all the time to try to get in there. Like what, and then frustrated because she's like, what am I not doing right? What am I not getting? And I at some point I was like, dude, it's AI. Like, you're not, you're not, they're gonna weed you out, you know, if you didn't have the right experience. One key word, weed it out. Let me tell you how she landed the job. We had talked about it. Um, she agreed with me, and I'm always an in-person, I'm an in-person guy. Like, I would rather be in your studio right now doing this interview, but unfortunately we we're not. But um, and I tell people when I do demos like this online for zero eyes, I go to see the school because once I'm in person, that's my superpower. Like, you got to connect. It's connecting with you, even on a computer. You don't really, well, sometimes you need you can tell, but it's not as genuine as in-person. You're seeing the body language, you're, you're, you get a feeling. There's an energy, there's an energy that comes from individuals. And so I said, You need to go live. I know it sounds stupid. Go just walk in. Walk in the damn offices with your resume in hand. Guess what? She fucking landed the job. She walked in. Serendipity, right? The the CEO was from out of town. He just happened to be in the San Diego office at the time. Uh, dropped his resume off. He saw her through a window, asked the girl at the front, because that girl was gonna ditch it. They told her, we were gonna ditch your thing. And he goes, What was that? You know, it's a true story. And he said, Well, let me see the resume. And why would you just she came in person, right? And she ended up getting hired for the fucking job. Fuck yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's awesome. That is awesome. Yeah, it it pays to be bold, it pays to do the uh do the unconventional thing. Yeah, be willing to try. Well, JJ, we're getting close to winding down. Uh, before I let you go, man, what are you doing today? What's what's on the dock in? And uh, do you have any projects are on the on the you know about to be released?

Rebuilding From Rock Bottom

SPEAKER_02

Yep. So we are about to launch, we're year delayed, right? Because of our because of our year in uh our year in Babylon. So um we uh we're about to launch the fourth phase podcast, which what I told you is a play on buds, three phases, the fourth phase, the all-encompassing phase, we call it. Um it's gonna be about it's gonna be that that piece that's missing for first responders, guys like us, type A personalities, high performers who just look to the next achievement instead of being present in connection. In connection, it's gonna be my wife and I co-hosting, we're gonna have guests. Hopefully, we'll have you on, love to have you on. Um, and we're gonna talk about that because I think it's a missing piece that every day when you watch our podcast, our goal is that you look back at our podcasts, which will start weekly, we'll drop one a week. And once you it's something for you to go back and check, am I doing, am I losing focus? Can I set focus back on me, on loving me, on loving myself, on health, on welfare, and most importantly, connection. Because I I think we suck at it when we come out of the military for sure. Um, and most guys never look back to see how to repair that. They're always trying to drive that way instead of living in the present. It makes your days that are limited and they're numbered. It makes your days that are numbered um look a lot better. Man, you're actually living in the moment. When you can actually achieve that, it's mind blowing. So that's coming out. I'll uh let you know as soon as we we launch it. The what the website's jjparma.com. My wife built it because she can do anything, she can build a house she has from with her own feet. I'm not making this up. Like, and she's so she's so emotionally intelligent that she's perfect for for co-hosting that. She wrote her own book just recently. So these are all the projects we started. She got me motivated to write a book. Again, it has nothing to do with bin Laden. Um, I'm gonna write it's it's all about me. And the purpose of this thing is to get my notes on paper, my life story for my kids. The only reason why I want to produce a book, uh publish something. Um, I am on the cover of a book, though. If you want to look on tell us a true story, if you look at Team Secrets of the Navy SEALs on Barnes and Nobles or Amazon, I'm on the cover of that book. I didn't even get asked, got no royalties, like nothing. Just use my combat picture. See if you can figure out which one I am. Who wrote that? Some business, some team guy that was like a four-year team guy wrote it way back. I can't make it up, right? I never even read it, but my mother had it on her desk, my mother forever had it on her desk and thought it was the greatest thing to slice bread. I was like, mom, I didn't write that book. Like you could take it down. It's like it has nothing to do with me, except my image was used.

SPEAKER_00

At least have the decency to be like, hey, bro, I like to use your image on the book. No, I know fuck that. Me and my glory. Think about that you dudes.

SPEAKER_02

Think about that. My face isn't blacked out. I got camo paint, thank God. But stuff like, and it and they let him publish this book. It's supposed to be a business book. Uh yeah, whatever. Um, it's funny to have a copy of it.

SPEAKER_00

Chat, but anyway, yeah, that's why Yeah, you gotta have a copy.

SPEAKER_02

Yes. Yeah, so we're on you can find us on Instagram, Fourth Phase uh podcast, and same handle on Facebook. JJ Parmer.com is the website. You can book public speaking. So I want to do more of that because that's fun and people need it, and it's good to I love connecting with the crowd. I just love it. Um, love that stuff.

SPEAKER_00

And so that's technically that's what's on the horizon for us. Dude, awesome. Well, guys, you know the spiel. Do me a favor, click that pause button, go to episode description. I'll wait. All right, you're there. Click those links, send a friend request, share it with a friend, let people know what JJ's up to, and uh, of course, give him a follow, give him some words of encouragement. And when he drops that podcast, head on over there and give him a like, a follow, share, and subscribe. And while you're at it, hook your brother up. Give me a like, give me a share, give me a follow. Leave me a review on Apple's and uh Spotify podcast, please. I don't care what you put in there, but Denny's awesome. JJ, what a hell of a story. But just make sure it's five stars. Not my thing, but my editor, he needs to get paid. And the only way we get paid is if those sponsors get some cash. So help help the boy out, buy some great stuff. And right now, back on the docket, Pure Liberty Labs. Get some good protein that's good for you, tastes good, and won't give you bubble guts. Pure Liberty Labs is made in the best possible format, the best possible way in a top secret scientific lab that I won't give you the uh directions to, but maybe if you talk to them, they will. Some good stuff. I like it. I'm actually out of the pre-workout because I consume that shit like a fiend since I start waking up at uh 3 a.m. for the 100 day challenge. That's right. 100 Day Challenge is still on. We are officially, as of recording, day five. When this publishes, it'll probably be like 10 or 12. But if you want to get on the challenge, you know where to go. Go to securityhalt.com. Check out the blog. It's right there, the very top one, or third or fourth, depending on what I'm writing. Or just go to the episode description. There'll be a link there. Join us, get fit, work on your mind, body, and spirit, and give yourself a hundred days to find the best version of yourself. It's about community too. Join us on Woop. You'll see the code down there. I'm Denny Caballero. That's JJ Parma, and we'll see you all next time. Till then, take care.

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Deny Caballero

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