163. [Replay] STEP INTO THE FRAY: From Addiction to Advocacy: Ben Owen’s Mission to Rescue the Lost

​In this compelling episode of the Fire Forged Leader Podcast, host Steve Baumgartner engages in a profound conversation with Ben Owen, co-founder of We Fight Monsters. Ben's journey from battling personal demons to becoming a beacon of hope exemplifies the transformative power of resilience and purpose.​

Who Is Ben Owen?

Ben Owen is a father of eight (sometimes ten), a humanitarian, and a relentless advocate against addiction and human trafficking. His past struggles with addiction, alcoholism, and homelessness have fueled his passion to assist others facing similar challenges. As an Army Infantry Veteran and serial entrepreneur, Ben's mission is to return to the depths he once knew and guide others toward a path of recovery and hope. ​

About We Fight Monsters

Founded by Ben and his wife, Jessica, We Fight Monsters is dedicated to combating opiate and fentanyl addiction and sex trafficking, particularly in the mid-south region. The organization comprises a diverse team, including former special operators, law enforcement professionals, and recovery champions, all united to confront and eradicate human and narcotics trafficking. ​

Key Discussion Points in This Episode:

• Personal Transformation: Ben shares his journey from addiction and homelessness to founding a nonprofit that revitalizes communities and supports recovery.​
• Community Revitalization: Insights into how We Fight Monsters transforms former drug houses into safe, supportive homes for individuals and families seeking a new beginning.​
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• Collaborative Efforts: The importance of uniting various community stakeholders, including former gang members and law enforcement, to create a collective force against trafficking and addiction.​
• Innovative Approaches: How leveraging personal experiences and entrepreneurial skills can lead to effective strategies in combating societal issues.​

Support the Fire Forged Leader Podcast:

• Website: www.fireforgedleader.com
• Facebook: @FireForgedLeader
• Instagram: @FireForgedLeader
• Twitter: @Steve.FFL
• YouTube: Fire Forged Leader

Disclaimer:

The opinions expressed in this podcast and on www.fireforgedleader.com are solely those of the presenter and guests and do not reflect the views of Steve Baumgartner’s employer.

Transcript

Ben Owen: [00:00:00] And I think if you look at, at businesses in particular, servant leadership is making a huge resurgence, uh, across so many industries right now where even in a business context, we're looking at every interaction is how can I be of service to this person? Take that outside the boardroom, man, take that outside of the office, take that to the streets.

Have that same mentality when you're out there because you can do something for literally anybody. I don't care how well off or how bad off they are, there is something you can do for everybody you come into contact with. And look, man, life's just a lot more fun when you approach it in that manner.

Narrator: Leaders are not born in a womb, born in a womb. They're forged through heat. Pressure and a whole lot of sweat. The Fire Forge Leader Podcast serves the audience through exploring leadership at work in the community, and with the family, using a practical perspective and real life experiences. From the host, Steve Baumgartner and [00:01:00] his guests in the Forge.

Now it's time to enter the Forge with the Fire Forged leader.

Steve Baumgartner: Hey y'all. Welcome back to the Fire Forge Leader podcast. I. Today we have a frontline hero. I'm gonna call him Ben Owen. Uh, Ben is the founder of Black Rifle Company. Of course, in parentheses, we always gotta say not coffee. Uh, I'll let him explain to you what that is here in a little bit. He's also the founder of a couple of, uh, wonderful organizations called Flanders Fields, as well as we fight monsters.[00:02:00] 

He's a United States Army veteran. He's also been homeless, an alcoholic addicted, lived on the streets and has quite a pass that I'm gonna let him tell you because I wouldn't do it justice. But welcome to the show, Ben. Uh, really pleasure to have you here, sir. And, uh, if you could just give us a little bit of background.

Ben Owen: Appreciate it, brother. It is a pleasure to be here. Um, so on that, that army vet part, I always like to put that in parentheses two, uh, because I'm barely even a vet, never deployed. Um, the short version, I lied about a whole bunch of pre-existing injuries to get into the army after nine 11. And within a year those injuries had resurfaced and I was more or less, you know, asked to leave the army honorably, of course.

But I did my best. I was willing to wear a uniform, but never actually did anything cool in the military. Um, everything cool I've done, uh, has been as a civilian in the years since. Uh, where do you want me to pick up? 'cause we could talk for [00:03:00] literally hours about just a week in my life. 

Steve Baumgartner: Oh, I, I understand that.

I got a little bit of a history myself. So let's, uh, let's really talk about, you know, where you went from being in the army, uh, what you did for the years after, and what brought you to homelessness. 

Ben Owen: Sure. So I struggle with alcoholism, um, and, and really addiction too, since my teens, the first time I got locked up for it, I was 14.

I turned a, a 10 day stay in a treatment center in California, uh, into 90 days, and then ended up not graduating that program and was sent to residential treatment in Utah. Um, got out of that when I was 16. Uh, we moved to Alabama. My dad took a demotion to get to get us outta California, um, and really did it right for basically the rest of high school.

Graduated honors, got a scholarship to Auburn. It was not a full [00:04:00] scholarship, but an academic scholarship. And ended up starting ROTC there in 2000. Um. I was wavered into ROTC because I did not have an ACL. I lost that when I was 13 playing football. Um, and, and was there under the understanding that before I commissioned and could go active duty, I had to get the ACL repaired.

So obviously, uh, as I mentioned, I lied to get into the army. So when the towers came down on nine 11, I was struggling again with alcoholism and, uh, and realized I was drinking my way outta college. Um, and, uh, I went across the street, I think it was September 12th, and talked to a recruiter, um, and, uh, and learned at that point in time that the right hand had not talked to the left.

So they had no idea I was wavered into ROTC from their perspective. I was a, a sharp kid in really good shape. Uh, got a 99 on my ass, vb, and lied about literally everything when I got to nuts. So, never done drugs, never had a drinking problem, never been on anxiety meds, never [00:05:00] broken a bone in my life.

Meanwhile, I just told you I was already locked up at 14, 15, 16. Um, and had been on all sorts of medication, uh, to treat really symptoms of drug use that my parents thought were mental illness. I'd probably broken 15, 20 bones at that point in time. So, uh, the, the stint in the Army did not last long. I was, uh, honorably discharged for preexisting medical conditions, threatened with Jagger referrals and all sorts of shit when they figured out that I'd lied at meps, but none of that ever, you know, came to fruition.

So I got outta the Army, um, went back to Auburn briefly, but rapidly drank myself out. Um, and then ended up essentially squatting in an apartment in Atlanta. And it would take hours to tell you how I, I got from Auburn to Atlanta. But, uh, just to kind of condense this a little bit, um, was struggling with meth addiction, again.

Made contact with an old girlfriend that I've known since I was [00:06:00] 12, got her pregnant, uh, ended up moving to North Carolina. Um, and got sober, um, just called Turkey. Quit drinking. Ended up with pancreatitis, almost died from alcohol withdrawal. Um, but in a roundabout way, it ended up working out okay. We moved back to Alabama.

Um, I went back to college. Finished, uh, struggled, you know, with the drinking a fair amount. Uh, like 2005. I drank my gallbladder out. I had to remove it. I completely obliterated it. Uh, I created so many GI problems that I was the youngest person in the state of Alabama to have a procedure called a fund application to try to mitigate some of that damage.

I'd done drinking and it, it didn't work. Um, but I graduated college 2006 from University of Alabama. Uh, I went from there, uh, to Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, uh, as a sales rep. Um, my dad had been with Pfizer at that point. I. Since he left the army in 1984, so 30 year career at [00:07:00] Pfizer at that point, or I guess 20 then he, he's retired now.

Um, but anyway, I got on with Pfizer and, uh, the drinking culture in the pharmaceutical industry is immense. So right back to drinking. And I went, uh, and Easter Sunday, 2007, we were actually here in Georgia visiting my parents. We lived in Memphis, Pfizer had taken us to Memphis. And uh, we got into a huge argument by we, I mean, me and my parents, my wife, I had two kids by this point in time.

And, uh, I was like, fuck this, can I cuss on this or are we gonna, yeah, you're 

Steve Baumgartner: fine. 

Ben Owen: Okay, cool. Sorry, I've got a potty mouth. I'll do my best to control it. But if you want an authentic bend, it's gonna have some bad words. Um, so I was like, fuck this. I got the car and left my parents' house and started driving back towards Memphis and, uh, and I was drinking, um, not while driving, but I would stop and drinking.

Uh, ended up in a single car accident going 130 miles an hour just outside of Scottsboro, Alabama. Uh, I was ejected from the car, um, went through the rear [00:08:00] windshield and, uh, and almost died. I broke my pelvis in three places. The leg that I had demolished in the Army, um, ended up getting infected with MRSA again, uh, almost lost it.

Um, so I got sober that day. Uh, and I stayed sober for quite a while. We went on to have, uh, oh, so I left Pfizer because I knew I was not gonna go to stay sober there. Um, went into the medical device industry, which was, in theory a lot more profitable, and in practice it was too. But, um, I was not satisfied or fulfilled in that I had wanted to be an entrepreneur my, my entire life, and had several hustles throughout college that were actually fairly profitable.

So. Um, ended up starting my own business in 2009. By 2011, uh, I had a big warehouse, a dozen employees, um, and, uh, [00:09:00] it was 2011 or 12. Sergeant Deaton came across my desk as a, a vet amputee addict that needed some help. He was homeless coming outta treatment and, uh, you may have crossed paths with him on, on LinkedIn, but, um, I'm still sober at this point in time.

So I had just gotten another one of my employees through alcohol treatment, um, and decided to take Deaton and, and get him through treatment, hire him, moved him onto our couch, gave him a job. Um, he was kicking ass. Became probably one of the best friends I've ever had, and, uh, was eventually able to rent the house next door to us.

And, and I tell you that story because it kind of comes full circle here, a.

Somewhere around 2012, I start thinking like, you know, I'm a big shot. I've got five kids. You know, I'm, I'm getting guys off the streets. Like, look at me. I'm a badass. I'm printing money. Um, not literally. That's figuratively. Like, [00:10:00] business was very good, right? You know. Um, and so I decided, I guess we decided me Deaton, my wife, ex-wife, that Ben could drink responsibly.

And so that's what I was gonna do. Uh, and that started that slippery slope back up. Um, I ended up back in, in like full blown alcoholism, um, very quickly. Well, I say very quickly. I probably made it a year drinking responsibly. But by 2012, I set the Tennessee State record for ambulatory, BACI walked into Baptist East with a 0.45 blood alcohol content, totally coherent and denying that I'd been drinking at all.

Um, didn't moved back to Maine. But not before, uh, that MRSA infection came back in my leg and the docs were prescribing me heavy, heavy amounts of narcotics, which I was taking as prescribed, but they were probably over prescribed. I have a really [00:11:00] high tolerance to literally anything I take and look, I've never been addicted to opiates, so like I didn't see this as an issue.

My, my addiction back in my teens, that was meth. Um, and so the combination, I guess of, of alcohol and opiates, I started being a real asshole to customers. Uh, and I realized like, I'm gonna lose my business. I just cussed out a guy that has spent, you know, close to six figures with me in the last year and a half.

Um, and so I flushed all my pills down the toilet and I looked over at Deaton and he is like, what the fuck did you just do? And I was like, what? And then it hit me like, I've been on these things for six weeks. I'm probably addicted and I'm probably about to get really sick and, uh, sure as shit, that's exactly what happened.

Mm-hmm. Um, but he had a solutions, little blue pills he'd been getting from the VA that I didn't know about. Uh, and they were, uh, Roxy, so 30 milligram oxycodone. And, uh, that started a slippery slope of [00:12:00] addiction there. Um, that spiraled with just unfathomable rapidity. Um, you know, my timeline's a little fuzzy back then, but it was not long at all from a prescribed, you know, va opiate habit to heroin.

Uh, and once heroin entered the picture, which I think was right around Halloween of 2013 from the day I first touched it, uh, to an $800 a day habit was. A week maybe at most. Um, and, uh, everything started falling apart, you know, it just, I mean, so quick and I hate needles, which might come as a surprise 'cause I'm covered in tattoos.

But, uh, I hate needles. I hate them. Uh, and somehow I, I'm here sticking $800 worth of dope up my arm, you know, many, many times a day. [00:13:00] So, um, we get to July 4th, 2014, and I'm moving really fast just so that we can cover as much as this as possible. But I had a 1968 GTO that me and my kids had restored, and it was, I mean, that thing ran like a scalded dog.

July 4th, 2014. Aaron, my ex-wife, uh, she took the kids and left. She's like, I don't know where I'm going, or I. I guess she didn't know where she was going. She's like, I don't know how long I'm going for. I'm gonna, my dad's, I'm done. Like, we're not doing this. She'd found my dope. So I get in the GTO and I'm on the way to the Dope man, and I run a red light and T-Bomb it F three 50.

And, uh, I ended up pinned underneath the steering wheel, like my front teeth went through my lip, um, had to pull my lip off of him. Um, smashed my right foot and I'm, I'm pinned inside the car because I'm in a five pointer restraint. Um, and uh, and the [00:14:00] car burst into flames and like, I'm, I just remember, you know, my life kind of flashing before my eyes in slow motion.

It was probably seconds, but it seemed like 15 minutes. I'm just sitting there thinking like, I'm not done. This is, this isn't it? And, uh, uh, I had a fire extinguisher in the car, so I pulled that out thinking, you know, thank God now I'm not gonna die. And the fucking thing did nothing. Like it did not work.

So I threw it out the window, which was both a good idea and a bad idea. It broke the window, which let everybody that was standing around watching know there's somebody alive inside that car. But it also introduced oxygen. So this huge fireball goes up. Um, I've still got the debit cards and pistol permit and all that, that were in my pocket, and they're melted, I mean, charred edges.

And somehow I did not have a burn on my body, but they pulled me out of the car and, uh, here's, here's how bad my addiction was, dude. Um, I have bones sticking outta my foot. I literally had to [00:15:00] pull my lip off of my teeth, and I start walking because I realize I'm only a mile from the dope man's house. I'm like, I'm, I'm just walking.

So the ambulance drivers had to tackle me. They get me to the hospital. And, uh, you know, they could tell this guy's definitely opiate addicted. So they gave me pretty much nothing for the pain. Stitched me up, put me in a boot, and, uh, and discharged me that night. I called her and told her, and she's like, well, I'm definitely not coming back.

Um, so, uh, I end up getting a ride back home somehow. Um, got like 35 grand in insurance money for that car, which I blew through in nine days. Uh, and I just went on a binge, a complete and total, you know, I'm gonna burn it to the ground to kind of b and uh, July 28th, 2014, [00:16:00] um, I'm coming back home from my binge and, uh, and I get pulled over for, I don't even know what, uh, I.

I had been at my warehouse, which we had a little fire marine shut up behind the warehouse. So I've got in my truck at the time, a sub gun, an SBR of three suppressors, and just an ungodly amount of ammunition. Um, and, uh, so the cops immediately thought like, these are all stolen. Uh oh, and by the way, you have a lot of drugs on you.

So they charged me like I was Pablo Escobar. Um, right. And so that was the first time I, I ever went to jail. Uh, and that case it was, I think they charged me with 14 felonies, you know, possession with intent, I mean for multiple substances plus the guns. Um, possession of a firearm during the, uh, commission of a dangerous felony times.

I don't even know how many. But look, it, it, I was not committing a felony and it was personal use [00:17:00] drugs and everything eventually got pled down. So once that happened, all the gun charges were gone. So I ended up on drug court and um. Uh, drug court ordered me into a halfway house, uh, which is called Rebos.

And it's coincidentally, if you're paying attention, it's the halfway house we on now. I made it eight days there before I got kicked out because I was incapable of following the rules at this place. I didn't, yeah, I didn't, I didn't wanna be there, you know, I have my own house. I have a business. I'm still a big shot.

You can't tell me what to do. Uh, well, I was wrong. As it turns out, Joe Dwier could definitely tell me what to do. Um, so he put me back in jail. Um, and, uh, you know, I just, I wasn't gonna get it. And, and I think we want to focus more on what we're doing today than, than Ben being a dumb ass out there. But the short version is I ended up getting, I get kicked out of the halfway house that we own now.

I get kicked [00:18:00] off of drug court that we work with now, like we're housing people for drug court in that halfway house today. So it did come full circle, but it took a very long time. Um, I ended up meeting Jess during that period of time, um, Christmas of 2014. The judge let me outta jail and, uh, they, they were like, you know, you've been going to AA meetings.

I think you need to go to Narcotics Anonymous 'cause you're clearly a junkie. Like, well, yeah, I know that I could have told you. And they're like, okay, so you're going to NA now. And I was like, okay. And uh, and so I met Jess at na. Um, and for anybody watching, like that's the worst place you can meet a prospective spouse.

I do not recommend that, and Jess will tell you the exact same thing. Um, but it worked out okay for us. Um, it worked out like really good for us in the end. Um, in the middle it did not, so I get kicked off drug court, you know, I get a $200,000 bond because I pissed the judge off. Uh, I earned that. [00:19:00] Um, I'm surprised he ever spoke to me again, but I.

I guess when you're a drug court judge, like you, you get redemption. You know, you, you understand some people need second, third, 43rd chances, um, just not necessarily in your diversion program. So that was terminated. Um, and uh, Jess and Aaron actually worked together to, to make that bond for me, selling the belongings I had left, I guess.

And, um, we started the TV parts business back up. That was the business I was running at the time. We were essentially buying truckloads of story turn, televisions, taking them apart and selling parts through repair industry. So 2015, Jess and I started that back up, um, and uh, ended up just with a business partner situation from recovery, also from na.

Don't ever do that. I went into business with my sponsor, like, don't do that. It ended just like you predicted it would. Uh, we all relapsed. [00:20:00] Um. He is a great dude. Just don't go into business with your sponsor. And I mean, to be totally honest, dude, I, I wasn't done fucking up, you know, and I knew that in the back of my head, like, I'm, I'm not done yet.

I have not suffered enough from this addiction. Um, which sounds crazy because I lost my marriage, I lost my home, I lost my business. You know, I lost my freedom. But, uh, addiction's a fickle beast and it doesn't discriminate. And it was not done with me. So, um. Jess got pregnant. I seem to have a habit of getting women pregnant very quickly.

Um, and just for clarity's sake, me, Jess and my ex-wife Erin, all have a great relationship. We talk literally every single day. And even though, you know, I ran mine and Erin's life into the ground, if she'd handled it anything any differently than she did, I probably would be dead. And Jess will tell you the same thing.

Erin's played a huge part in my recovery. Um, like I said, I've known her since I was 12. I mean, she's my best friend for 20 years. [00:21:00] So, uh, you know, we, we had the business back up. We all relapsed, lost the business. Jess has James. Um, I go back to jail when James is two weeks old, uh, for dope yet again. Um, and, uh, they keep me for a month.

That time I get back out. I'm still somehow miraculously not a felon, despite pissing off every cop in judge in Memphis. Uh, thank God. Um, and, uh, you know, we ended up losing the house that Jess and I were in, which was mine and Erin's house that I bought when I worked at Pfizer. We lost it and just through a stroke of, I don't know if you wanna call it luck.

I, I, I would say it was God, but we did such horrible things with it. I don't wanna say it was God. Jess ended up in a much bigger, much nicer house. We were running from a rapper, uh, out in Arlington. Um, and we started the tactical business back up. Um, you [00:22:00] know, I'd gotten rid of all my legal cases. The chance of, of me being, you know, convicted of a felony is out the window.

It was all misdemeanors. Everything was pled down to what it actually should have been charged as. And uh, so we started our tactical businesses back up. Um, black rifle, which I had originally started, um, back when I had the TV parts business in 2011. And it was basically gun e-commerce. We were just selling gun parts, ammo.

In apparel. Uh, and obviously when I got arrested in 2014, that all shut down. I mean, it was over with, but we started it back up in 2016 or 17, I don't even remember. And, uh, ended up becoming like just serendipitously one of the largest distributors of slide fire stocks, the bump stock. Well then that jackass in Vegas shot everybody with one.

Um, we had nothing to do with that transaction, but you know, the credit card industry came down on us and everybody else selling bump stocks, you know, like a hammer. As soon as Trump said he was outlawing those things, our credit card process or [00:23:00] essentially, you know, it was like, well, you're done. And I was way over leveraged in that product and I knew I was, but I wasn't prepared to deal with it because I was making money hand over fist.

Jess unfortunately, uh, had been back on pain pills since I went back to jail when James was two weeks old. So more or less I had been maintaining sobriety. Um, but she was not. And so when they took all of our money overnight, it was, I mean, some of the number of quarter million dollars that we had over leveraged and, and that it, it sank us, uh, instantly.

And, uh, this is why I say you don't want to meet somebody in Narcotics Anonymous. We both said, fuck it simultaneously. And when you have two addicts that are trying to do life together, uh, say that at the same time. Well, I mean, we can burn it to the ground very quickly. And we did, um, 20, the end of 2017, I think is, or maybe it was early 2018 when all [00:24:00] that happened.

Um, and you know, we both ended up back on heroin, back on crack, uh, and by January it was my mom's birthday, January 5th, 2019, I'm in the Tahoe that had been seized by Shelby County and Memphis Police on separate occasions that I had to buy back from them. January 5th, the Tahoe shit to bed spun a rod, slung it through the block.

Um, on my way back from getting dope and sitting there on the side of the road in front of Grace St. Luke's, it's a church in Memphis, which coincidentally was where I met the sponsor I went into business with. Um, and I called Justin, tell her where I'm at, what just happened. And she's like, well that's cool 'cause there's like three linebacker dudes that just showed up to the house to evict us.

So our only vehicle, uh, this is my mom's birthday too, by the way. Um, January 5th, 2019, our only vehicle crapped out. We lose our [00:25:00] home. And, uh, and I, I don't even remember how we got, I guess we Ubered or rented a U-Haul maybe. We went to the dope track. Aaron's got mine and her kids. Um, Jess's dad has Jess's oldest kid, and Jess and I have James with us, he's two.

Or not even two, he turned two on the dope track. So we basically just moved out to South Memphis and lived either in track houses or in our truck. And, uh, you know, I hate to say this, but James was with us for a lot of that. Um, and, uh, you know, I had been homeless in South Memphis before, um, between getting arrested and, and getting pulled into drug court, you know, and so between July and November of 2014 when I wasn't in custody, I lived on the dope track in South Memphis on the streets or in trap houses.

And, uh, we ended up right back out there, um, in 2019. [00:26:00] Um, and so, you know, our, our friends were prostitutes and murderers. Uh, the people that helped us make sure our kids stayed fed were some of, you know, most of the society would say are the worst people that society has to offer and in large part wouldn't argue with that.

Um. And I'm actually in the process of writing a book about all this. 'cause I know I'm just flying through this. It's like, oh yeah, yeah. Um, but, uh, you know, may came and, uh, I'd had enough dude, it was like just yet another murderer and I was the last person to talk to this person before they died. And I was like, I'm done, I'm done.

And I called my dad and, uh, I don't even remember the conversation, but I was getting shot at and he could hear it and he was like, dude, just come home. I'm, I'm gonna get you a, a Greyhound ticket. Just come home. And, uh, it took a few days for me to actually show up and do it. Um, I had, I had left Jess that [00:27:00] she didn't know if I was alive or dead.

We had gone separate directions on the dope track and uh, I think she ended up going back to her dad's house and I ended up going to Greyhound Station and got on the bus and came to Georgia. And uh, and that was it. That was the last time I did dope. Um. Uh, May 23rd, 2019, I think, uh, Jess stayed at in Memphis.

It was, she was not ready. And, uh, I guess a week later she's like, dude, you know what? I'm done too. Get me outta here. Hmm. So I went back on a Greyhound bus. We hit at some point, hustled up the $700 truck that, that we were living in. And so I got Greyhound back to Memphis, uh, because somehow I ended up in Atlanta with the keys to the truck and Jess was in Memphis with the truck and the kid.

Um, yeah, I can laugh about this now. It was a disaster at the time, but, uh, that $700 truck made it all the way to Georgia. And, uh, I slept on my couch with my parents because, I mean, they're, you know, they were nearing retirement at that point in time. They didn't have a house [00:28:00] set up for a bunch of people to come live with 'em sure as hell, not their 38-year-old son and his wife and kid.

Um, but we moved into my parents' house, Madison. She's 19 now. This is Jess's oldest daughter. Uh, her dad was the one that was murdered in May that I was like, you know what, I'm done. I'm leaving. I've adopted her at this point and, um, she had a room at my parents' house. Jess and James had twin beds upstairs and I slept on a couch.

Uh, took a a BS job at this data company and, uh, I called a BS job. I mean, I was thinking long game at that point because they're big data, like they sell data to huge companies. And so the short version of what I ended up doing was taking all of the. Consumer information I had from years of running Black rifle when I was clean enough to do it and overlay it essentially on the entirety of the web, uh, through the data company I was consulting at after I moved to Georgia.

Um, and so we relaunched Black Rifle as instead of, uh, direct to [00:29:00] consumer e-commerce gun brand. Now we can tell big gun brands, um, you think of the major gun manufacturers, major accessory manufacturers. We can tell them who is browsing the web today that looks like they're about to spend money on a gun purchase.

And we use AI and machine learning to do it. But it was all based on that data set that I had thanked God retained from, you know, the previous seven years and it works really well. So you said we're gonna talk about what Black Rifle does? That's what we do. We tell gun companies which devices on the internet Right now, there's one and a half billion of'em in the United States.

There's 17 million of 'em that are about to spend money on a gun product, and I know which devices they are. And so gun companies, accessory manufacturers and outdoors companies pay us to put their ads on those devices right before they spend money. And it works. Work works really, really well. So that's how Black Rifle came to be or how it came to be, kind of what it is today.

[00:30:00] Um, but I don't know, you want to go into how we got pulled into Afghanistan, all a other crazy shit. Like where do you wanna go next? 

Steve Baumgartner: Well, I guess, you know, just listening to all that, you hit a couple of bullet points already that I was gonna hit on, you know, how you and Jess got together and, um, you know, how you made it in and out of addiction together, right?

Because that's unheard of. Uh, it, it is unheard 

Ben Owen: of. And um, that definitely was God in action. We're both very stubborn. And, uh, if you've, if you've watched my podcast with Scott Mann, where we were sitting on the fire pit, uh, it, Jess has actually stabbed me. I deserved it. Um, but it, it's a miracle we made it.

I have, uh, definitely did, or in the early days, everything in my power to destroy that relationship. But you know, this, this podcast that we're doing right now is called Fire Forge Leader. That relationship was forged in fire. We would not [00:31:00] be who we are today, have we not endured what we endured together.

Um, it is a miracle. We made it out of it, but I, I think it was very much God ordained, uh, so that we would have that experience to carry into what he had in store for us now, um, which I never in a million years could have imagined any of this taking place. Um, but yeah. I interrupted you. Go ahead. 

Steve Baumgartner: Oh, no, you're good.

I, that was beautiful. And, uh, the Fire Forge, that's exactly why that's in the title, right? Yeah. Is from my background and where I came from and where I'm going. Uh, but then I wanted to reach out to other leaders that were forged in the same fashion. Right. Uh, the, some of my closest friends and everybody that I look at, look up to has gone through tremendous adversity.

You know, any of the strongest leaders out in the world, I'll tell you, have gone through hell and Beck [00:32:00] to get where they're at. Uh, so really where I guess I'd, I'd like to go next is, you know, you're, you're back. You're making money. You're an entrepreneur again, you're selling big data, uh, but that's not what you're known for.

I mean, you are, but that's not what you're known for. It's. Flanders fields, we fight monsters. All the work that you do out on social media, out in the 

Ben Owen: Yep. So I've always had a knack for social media. You know, we were talking before we started recording about me getting kicked off back in 2020. So, um, everything, and you cannot dispute the God ordained nature of all this, if I actually had time to go through all of it.

But, um, a couple of things happened that, that set us up to do what we're doing now. Um, one my best friend from when I was in jail on drug court and then actually on the [00:33:00] streets, um, overdosed and died right before Christmas of 2019, and we're still living at my parents when that happened. Um, and we'd always had it in the back of our heads that when something happened to him, it was gonna send us off the rails.

We were gonna relapse, like we'd accepted that we knew that's what we were gonna do. When that day came, that's not even close to what happened. Um, he had nobody left. He and I had actually found his mom's decomposing body, but a year and a half before that happened, before he died, and she was the last person he had in his life.

So there's nobody to bury him. Um, so I used that huge Facebook presence. I had to raise money, uh, to get my best friend cremated. And um, we ended up raising more than it. It cost not a ton more, but like maybe 2,500 bucks extra. Um, and you know, I've always been an entrepreneur. $2,500 does not sound like a lot of money, but [00:34:00] when you're living at your parents' house and you need seed money to start a business, that's plenty.

And that's not what we did with the money. Um. I gave every dime of it that was raised to the Shelby County Drug Court Foundation because drug court is where I met him. And drug court honestly gave him, he graduated drug court, uh, and then later relapsed. But, uh, drug court gave him really the best opportunity he had ever had in his life.

And even though I got kicked off drug court, I got kicked off because the system drug court had works. I was not ready for drug court. I wasn't ready to get clean. And their system weeded me out. He was ready and he graduated. Um, so anyway, we ended up giving the extra money to drug court and, um, when that happened, when we did that, you know, Jess and I went and reconnected with a lot of people from the Narcotics Anonymous, uh, and the drug court community around his memorial and, and his death.

And, [00:35:00] you know, we were welcomed back with open arms even though we had let a lot of people down and burned a lot of bridges. And that did something to us mentally, and it got our wheels turning. I got back into AA in Georgia. Um, all right, so that's, that's one thing. The other thing that happened that really set us on this path that really opened our eyes to it.

We enjoyed doing that. I enjoyed using my social media platform to raise money to do something good with. Um, I also realized at that point in time the power of social media to spread good messages. And I had always used it up to that point in time to stir the pot, and that's why I got kicked off. But, but, but, uh, a switch was flipped in my head when Brandon died.

And, and, and we did that. Now this is Brandon Kelly, not Sergeant Deaton. There's two different Brandons. All right. So let's fast forward just a little bit to, uh, March of 2021. Um, I get a message that, that my, my army buddy needed some [00:36:00] help again, and we'd already come out of pocket a decade before and many times.

And that guy, like I said, I just moved real fast to a lot of stuff. So even though we were addicted, we were still doing good needs to help people out. And so somebody suggested to me was actually Robert, the COO of Black rifle today. Uh, he suggested to me back then he was not my COO, he actually still worked for that data company that I had gone to.

He suggested we stand up a nonprofit to help homeless DIC vets. And we had actually wanted to do this for a very long time. We even picked up the name Flanders Fields because it's that, the poem about a field of poppies in World War I, uh, heroin comes from puppies, you know. So we went ahead and, and filed the paperwork, the IRS and, and I guess we completed it in April of 21, um, to, to stand up a nonprofit to help homeless and addicted vets.

So, uh. Then in July of 2021. Now remember, we're waiting [00:37:00] for paperwork to get approved. Like I had forgotten all about this. In July of 2021, a marine intelligence officer hits me up on the black rifle side and is like, uh, I wanna know more about what you guys do. And, you know, I was like, why? That's strange.

And we talked a lot and, and what we do, I mean, we, we have a lot of device level intelligence. Like we can tell what a device on, on the internet cares about. We can tell what kind of content they're consuming, not the human behind the device. I don't care about that. But the device itself, what he wanted to know was how much can we tell about the human behind the device?

And so that's a real gray area, and I didn't wanna get into that. Um, you start talking about privacy and all that, right? Well, July 15th maybe he calls me and he is like, dude, so let's what, what if it's not in America? And I'm like, well, if it's not in America, if it's not in Europe, then the privacy law, like, what are you talking about?

What are you getting at here? He is like, dude, let's get some people out of Afghanistan. [00:38:00] And I'm like, oh, what the fuck? So we got tapped into the evac out of Afghanistan on the black rifle side using device level intelligence. And what we were doing was, uh, essentially mapping safe ground routes between provinces by looking at where is there an absence of devices and, and if there's an absence, we can assume there's no people there.

So that's a safe route to move. Uh, so we're, before the Taliban ever made it to Kabul, we're mapping safe ground routes between provinces. Once the Taliban made it to Kabul, I start getting emails with. Lists of names and WhatsApp numbers from Lieutenant Generals in the Marine Corps. Uh, and there wasn't even time to think about how absurd this is.

Like I was homeless two years ago at that point. Now I have a Lieutenant General emailing me, asking me if I can get his people out of Afghanistan, a country I've never even been to. Um, and I mean, the short answer was, yeah, we can help. And so we did. We poured ourselves completely into [00:39:00] the evac out of Afghanistan.

And then as the, the evac started slowing down really after the bomb at Abby Gate, we pulled Flanders in because unbeknownst to me on August 15th, a letter arrived in our mailbox that our nonprofit had been approved to house homeless vets. I've now got country list vets. So we started just, I mean, we went, we went balls to the wall and that, and so this ops tempo really was set then.

I've been going balls to the wall for two years now. Um, on. Humanitarian stuff. Um, and you know, it it, if you watch me on social media, it might seem like I'm just going at this insane pace and I am, and Jess is too. But if you know anything about trying to feed an addiction, it's not foreign to us. Um, and, and I'll argue with anybody that does not agree with me on [00:40:00] this, but the hustle required to stay high is harder than what we're doing now.

Um, mm-hmm. So I do feel like in, in every way, uh, our, our time on the streets, 100% molded us to be able to do the work we're doing today. Um, you know, since, uh, the Taliban took over Kabul and the evac and all that, I've been able to pull some pretty good human capital into black rifle. I. To run it, uh, more capably than I could.

Um, some people who are far more knowledgeable about ad tech and marketing technology and data and all that. So I am able, uh, thankfully to focus most of my time on the nonprofit side of things, which black rifle in large part funds black rifle funded getting, you know, Flanders off the ground. Um, you know, I told you we had restarted that TV parts business.

Well, when me and the sponsor got into it and both relapsed, it got sold to a third party. That third party ended up approaching me in the [00:41:00] spring of 2020, asked if I wanted it back. Like, just here, take it. I can't do this. They didn't give us any inventory or anything. But I'm telling you this story to tell you this, a year and a half go by goes by.

We had gotten a warehouse here in Georgia. That's actually how we afforded to get outta my parents' house, get into a home of our own. We ended up selling that business. Uh. I think Christmas of 2021, and that's where the seed money came from to do Flanders as big as we are. So, uh, spring of 2022, we're like, I'm done doing safe houses in Afghanistan, but check this out.

If I can run a safe house to keep the Taliban away, 8,500 miles away, pretty sure I can run a sober living house for these vets here in America and keep the dope man away. So we go back to Memphis and make peace, make amends, however you wanna word it with Judge Dwyer and Tony Shelby, the guy who owned the halfway houses, um, [00:42:00] and brought 'em up to speed on what we'd been doing globally.

Um, and we've lost over so much of it. There's, there's so much I've skipped, like, you know, Mexico, Ukraine, uh, Ecuador, like we've done all sorts of weird stuff in, in the last few years, but. We bring them up to speed on everything we've been doing and, uh, and ask them if they would be willing to, to maybe give us a letter of recommendation or something.

'cause we wanted to set up several living houses in Chattanooga. And, uh, they looked at me and they're like, dude, why don't you, why don't you just do it here? I'm like, well, I don't wanna step on Tony's toes. And Tony's like, well, don't you just buy Reba's? I was like, well, I had no idea it was for sale. He goes, it is now.

And so, right. Um, they had been wanting to retire and didn't have the right person to hand the reins to. And uh, and I guess God really put it on him and his wife, Stephanie, uh, that, that me and Jess were the right people to take the reins. And, uh, and you know, Tony [00:43:00] and Stephanie have had a huge impact on my life when they kicked me out, it.

Well, I, I could talk for years about that. Uh, they, they saved my life, uh, in, in many ways, many different times. But, uh, we ended up buying those halfway houses and we, we work with drug court now, uh, and veterans court and mental health court and probation and parole, um, to get vets and anybody else that's willing and ready off the streets into detox into treatment.

Because look, that's a path we've walked many times. I don't even know how many times I've been to treatment. Well over a dozen, um, in Memphis too. I mean, several traffic to every treatment. Silly there is in Memphis. Every detox there is in Memphis, I've been to 'em. So we've got relationships with all of those, both from a personal standpoint because we've been through those programs and from a professional standpoint.

So we're able to get people into 'em very, very quickly. Uh, and then we've got, you know, the capacity to house a lot of 'em if they're ready to, to work a solid program. [00:44:00] And that's something we're trying to take nationwide. And then we got into the sex trafficking side of things with trafficking survivors addiction and sex trafficking go hand in hand.

I know there's, you know, a lot of misinformation about what human trafficking looks like. Well, I mean, we deal with the reality of it every single day. You know, 99% of cases of sex trafficking involve addiction in some form or fashion, and so you can't fight one really without coming across the other. We just decided to go ahead and fight both of 'em.

So we're housing vets and survivors of sex trafficking free of charge at no cost to them. And then we, you know, we charge rent to the, the regular joes that, that are coming through several, several living programs. 

Steve Baumgartner: So that's, that's interesting how you say that, uh, sex RAF trafficking doesn't look like what most people think it does.

It's more in the addiction and that sort of thing. How is that, so 

Ben Owen: the, the legal definition of trafficking [00:45:00] is, you know. Forced fraud or coercion is used to get sex from, from a woman, typically. And it's almost invariably, at least in in Memphis, in in the areas we operate in, it's, it's addiction is used as a tool of coercion.

Um, so you see, uh, that addiction getting leveraged to get women to do things they wouldn't otherwise be doing. 

Steve Baumgartner: So they, it's basically manipulation, right? I mean 

Ben Owen: that's absolutely, they're exploiting the, the addiction. Look, I, I'll tell you an anecdotal story. We had, um, a couple of 15-year-old girls that got flagged to us a few months ago, uh, as being sex trafficked.

They were running ad prostitution ads on one of these Backpage type sites, and they were minors and they were both addicted, uh, to Fentanyl. And when they were rescued, they were pissed off because they were gonna get dope sick. Hmm. [00:46:00] And that, that's the majority of of sex trafficking you see, at least in where we operate in Memphis, is that it is addiction fueled.

And the addiction is used as leverage to exploit these girls to 'em, do something they don't wanna do. Because I can tell you from experience having been dope sick, I don't even know how many times it's, it is pure hell. You are living through hell. So once you get a female, I don't care how old she is, if you have a female that is addicted to opiates, she's gonna do whatever the hell you want her to, to keep her from getting sick.

Steve Baumgartner: So they offer the drugs, they receive the money these traffickers do, and use the money in the middle. Yep. Or use a woman in the middle, excuse me. That's exactly 

Ben Owen: right. And, and often they'll just pay these girls in dope. And look, you see this on the narcotics trafficking side too. Um, I honestly think it's just as bad.

You'll see addicts that get arrested for selling dope. It is not even their dope. They're, they're carrying the risk for the, the narcotics traffickers and they're getting paid in dope. So they're, [00:47:00] they're essentially being trafficked too. Mm-hmm. Their addiction is being used as a means of coercion to get them to take the risk and sell the drugs for the actual dope boy who is not an addict and is nowhere even near the trap house.

And he's not the one getting arrested either until we step in. 

Steve Baumgartner: It's interesting that you bring that up. I talked to Linda Harlow not too long ago and her daughter was trafficked. Uh, a little bit different situation, but it comes down to, to basic needs. Uh, you know, her daughter had a, had a son that needed taken care of and there was no other means.

So, 

Ben Owen: you know. Yeah. And if you offer somebody, whether you are offering them dope or a roof over their head or food to eat in exchange for sex, that's trafficking. 

Steve Baumgartner: Right. That's coerced. But at this point in time, the addicts feel like this is a basic need as well, right? I mean, yes. 

Ben Owen: Well, it became, look, dude, it's, it's even more than a basic need.

I went, [00:48:00] I went without shelter. I went without food. I went without water because all that mattered was dope. It is wholly and fully consuming. It becomes your entire existence. You need dope more than you need anything, anything. I, I have been up more days than I can count. I have gone more days than I can count without food in lieu of a substance.

That's how you end up homeless, living in a truck with a 2-year-old. That doesn't happen by accident. All right? I mean, maybe one 10th of 1% of people that are living in a truck with a 2-year-old are there by accident or just by some tragic set of circumstances. 99% of the time it's because your money is going to something else.

And, and for us it was, it was drugs. 

Steve Baumgartner: I think that's important for people to hear too, right? I mean, it's, it's real easy to be a bystander and see, you know, someone addicted, someone prostituting themselves and think, oh, those are all personal choices. And they may have started out [00:49:00] like that. 

Ben Owen: It starts personal choice.

Absolutely. But like I told you with my addiction, it, I've struggled with alcoholism since I was young, but the addiction to opiates, it was actually prescribed for an, an army injury. Um, it, it starts like that. It starts innocently enough for a lot of people. And, and did I make bad choices? Absolutely. I chose to switch from prescribed meds to heroin because it was cheaper.

I chose that. But very quickly, and if you've ever struggled with addiction, you know this, that power of choice is removed, right? It is no longer a choice. It becomes a physical need. Um, and I don't expect your average American to go out there and, and help addicts that are homeless on the streets. You don't have the skillset for that.

You, there's no reason you should care. Other than you're a human and we're supposed to love our neighbor. That that used to be me though. So I do care about that, and I do have the means to actually make a meaningful difference in their lives beyond just feeding them today. You know, we can, we can actually bring them the hope [00:50:00] that, hey, I've been right there where you're at.

And in Memphis, especially on the dope tracks where we operate, I could tell these people, look dude, I used to live literally right here on this corner. I used to, I used to do dope in that house. Um, in fact, the, the dope houses that we're buying and renovating, they're ones I used to live in, they're ones I used to squat in.

They're ones I've been stabbed in or shot at in like this is very close to home. We didn't just pick Memphis and pick that street randomly. We started this mission right where we should have died. And I feel like it, it's our, well, I don't feel like we made a promise to God when I woke up in that empty lot next to the track house.

We just closed. I woke up in an nifty lot next to that house four years ago and made a promise to God, if you get me out of here, I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna save everybody 

Steve Baumgartner: I 

Ben Owen: can. And so what you see us doing today is us trying to keep that promise. 

Steve Baumgartner: Yeah, that's, that's awesome. Uh, beyond loving your neighbor, [00:51:00] right?

If everybody cares about the people that they don't care about today right. And brings everybody up, our whole society goes up. 

Ben Owen: Yeah, 

Steve Baumgartner: absolutely. If you just look at it at that basic sense, right? 

Ben Owen: Yep. We, we've gotta stop as a society, stop looking at things. There, there's two mentalities that I think are, are driving us further and further away from where we should be.

And it's, you know, one, it's the your fault mentality. And then this is where I hate politics comes into play. All right? Everybody wants to blame somebody else for every problem we've got. And then the other side of that is the not my problem mentality. So, you know, we all want to think it's not our problem when we see a junkie out there, but narcotics trafficking and sex trafficking are driving a majority of the violent crime that is affecting your city.

So it is our problem whether we want to admit it or not. It's all of our problem. [00:52:00] And it's nobody's fault. Like we can all work together and make a difference here. 

Steve Baumgartner: Agreed. And you know, I mean if you wanna bring it closer to home too, I have eight kids, you got a slew of kids. We all have kids, right? One of these kids is gonna have problems, you know?

Yeah. There's no doubt about it. And we can have that. I don't give a shit mentality, but at the end of the day, that could be one of our kids. Just your parents are good people, right? Absolutely. You still ended up there. 

Ben Owen: Yeah. Well, and I'm glad you bring that up because I, there's no logical reason for my life to have gone the direction it did.

I had an idyllic childhood. I have great parents. Um, they're still married. They're amazing. They did nothing wrong. I just, I chose a very hard life. Uh, and, and as you can see today, by what we're doing, my life was worth saving. I'm, I'm very glad that I'm still here. And I know a lot of other people are too.

You don't know where [00:53:00] that next Ben or Jess could be out there together. 'cause I promise you, at one point in time, I looked like somebody you would not wanna go anywhere near. Uh, just because I was, I was gross to shoveled, bloody, uh, dirty. And, and I see people that look just like that all the time in Memphis.

And, uh, you, you never know who that next rockstar is gonna be that comes up and saves a whole bunch of lives. And to your point, they could be the person that saves your kid, you know? And. I, I guess at the end of the day, life's just a lot easier when we start looking at each other, uh, in a, a more of a what need do you have that I can meet right now kind of way.

And I think if you look at, at businesses in particular, servant leadership is making a huge resurgence, uh, across so many industries right now where even in a business context, we're looking at every interaction is how can I be of service to this person? Take that outside the boardroom and take that outside of the office, take that to the streets, have that same [00:54:00] mentality when you're out there because you can do something for literally anybody.

I don't care how well off or how bad off they are, there is something you can do for everybody you come into contact with. And look, man, life's just a lot more fun when you approach it in that manner. 

Steve Baumgartner: Oh, agreed. Agreed. Well man, I know you're on a little bit of a time constraint, so just to, to wrap this up, uh.

Of course, we talked about a couple of organizations. The first one I'm gonna flash across the bottom is, of course, Flanders Fields. This is, and correct me if I'm wrong here, Ben, but this is really, uh, the 5 0 1 that you use to really help those addicted homeless veterans and get them off the street when they're ready, willing, and able.

Ben Owen: That's exactly right. We, uh, we try to be an ever present hand for vets who are struggling with anything to grab onto when they're ready. You can't make 'em get clean before they're ready, but when they're ready, we won't always be there. [00:55:00] 

Steve Baumgartner: So for the people who are listening to this on audio only, it's www.flandersfields.org and there's places where you can donate and help out the cause for veterans There.

Now the interesting thing is, is um, as Ben mentioned, he ran into a lot of, um, different circumstances when he got into this line of work. So that's when we get into the, we fight monsters and that. So, oh, go ahead, Ben. 

Ben Owen: On we fight monsters. You know, our mission started, we wanted to get vets off the streets of Memphis.

And so in that work we encountered a whole lot of people that wanted help that were not vets and were not even, never even considered serving. And I'll be damned if I'm gonna step over the dead body of somebody just 'cause they don't have a TD two 14. So Jess and I started personally doing, and then it was like, okay, [00:56:00] 95% of the people that are ready for help are not vets.

We can't afford this. So we stood up, we fight monsters, uh, to stand in that gap for the non-veterans. Uh, since then, monsters has taken more of a lean towards sex trafficking survivors, uh, and their kids. So we, we do a lot to fight human trafficking, uh, to fight sex trafficking, to get survivors clean, sober, uh, to give them purpose so that if, if you look at Flanders Fields and we fight monsters, our teams are essentially the same.

Um, the mission is very much the same. We even use the same several living houses. It's just when we filed the, the 5 0 1 for Flanders Fields, it had that veteran qualifier in there. So we needed something that's the, basically the exact same. That doesn't say they have to be a vet. And so that's what we fight monsters is.

Steve Baumgartner: And for both of these organizations, for all the, all the listeners here, I wanna let you know if you go and you follow Ben or Jessica online, you will find out [00:57:00] really quickly. That every human matters. They're not sitting at a boardroom table making decisions, you know, where money goes, things like that.

They're out there, you know, they're, uh, tearing down houses, you know, uh, working with people one-on-one, you know, on the front lines. It's not, uh, you know, just a foundation donation station. Right. 

Ben Owen: Yeah. And, and I'll add to that. We, we may have screwed ourselves a little bit in making it that way. None of us take checks from the nonprofit.

All of the fundraising is grassroots. We don't have paid fundraisers, we don't have development directors. We don't hold expensive fundraisers, you know, galas or any of that, which. Part of me wishes maybe we had done it that way. 'cause we'd have more money. Both of these organizations stay broke. Like, I'm, I'm not even joking about that.

It is a, it is a monthly battle to make sure we make the mortgage payments on those halfway houses, which myself and Robert personally guaranteed, uh, like Sparrow house, the, the trafficking [00:58:00] survivor house for trafficking drivers and their babies that we just stood up. I personally signed that lease. I personally made, made the first, uh, first month's, uh, rent on that because both orgs stay broke.

We, we spend money on recipients and people in need as quickly as we can raise it, and it's all grassroots done.

Steve Baumgartner: So I, I'm just gonna ask everybody, you know, if, if you're capable, this is an outstanding mission in both of those organizations, but there's a third option as well. 

Ben Owen: Yes. So I had a stroke of. I wanna say brilliance and, and it did turn out to be that way. Once american.com, we sell apparel on there. Uh, so you can get t-shirts supporting the mission of We Fight Monsters of Flanders Fields.

Uh, yep. There we go. There's my favorite one right there. You're wearing it today. Um, Elon Musk actually retweeted a picture of me holding a sign wearing that shirt that went incredibly viral. So the shirt's still there. It's available. It says Hunt your [00:59:00] local pedophile. Uh, disclaimer, we are not promoting, uh, vigilantism or inciting violence with that shirt.

We are specifically talking about helping build target packages on, uh, human traffickers, narcotics, traffickers, to hand off to our law enforcement partners. Um. So once american.com, if you buy a t-shirt from there, every uh, ounce of profit from those shirts is going directly to, we fight monsters to Flanders fields or, uh, to, uh, trafficking survivors that we employ to design these shirts using basic AI tools.

So that's, that's a very cool thing you can do. You can support the shirts, uh, and support a good cause at the same time. Um, and one thing we didn't get into that I do wanna talk about, so, you know, I mentioned we ended up homeless in South Memphis, and I mentioned, or may have mentioned two different streets, Melrose Street and Wilbur Street.

Those are the streets where Jess and I essentially lived squatted or lived in a vehicle, saw, I don't even know how many people murdered. Um, just [01:00:00] shootings, car thefts, rapes, robberies, all sorts of horrendous things happened on these two streets six months ago. Just six months. I mean, we, this has moved very fast.

I had the crazy idea that we were gonna start buying and closing the trap houses, the dope houses out there. And that's what we've been doing. Um, and so in six months time, they have gone from two of the most violent streets in South Memphis to not having a single crime reported on 'em in the last 90 days.

That's insane. Like I really like just think about that. So we're not only helping the people who are out there struggling, this literally is helping the entire community. And yeah, I know that the crime has just gone somewhere else, with the exception of one of 'em who's in federal prison now. Thanks. In no small part to those target packages I just mentioned.

Um, but if we can get the funding, so I'm hoping somebody like Elon Musk is listening to this, if we can get the funding, what we're doing is replicable and it's scalable and it absolutely has demonstrable [01:01:00] results fighting crime. I mean, that's, we're saving lives and fighting crime at the same time and we can prove it.

Steve Baumgartner: That's awesome. I. Just push it out, get it, push it all the way to the ocean, right? 

Ben Owen: Yeah. Look, here's my goal, and this is gonna sound insane, okay? But six months ago, closing a trap house sounded insane. My goal is to get Memphis, Tennessee out of the top five most violent cities in America, because ever since Memphis came across my radar as a kid, it's been there.

It's usually number one. I wanted that at the top five. 

Steve Baumgartner: You know, there's something interesting in that too, Ben. Uh, I would imagine that people who live that lifestyle can imagine living any other lifestyle until they see it, 

Ben Owen: right? Yeah, a hundred percent. And, and more than once. I've had women that are out there on, on what's known as the ho Track.

Tell me, the only [01:02:00] reason I got out is because I'm white, and that hurt me to my core. Mm. Not because I felt insulted, but because they don't believe, just like you said, they can't imagine anything else for themselves. This is how they grew up. This is the only life they've ever known. I'm happy to report that the chick that said that to me is now sober, uh, working, uh, and is in a place of her own now.

But we've had more than one dope boy, an actual drug dealer, narcotics trafficker, like I'm talking moving weight flip to our side now. We're not trying to put people in jail. The only time we ever, unless they're, you know, pedophiles on the narcotics side. We don't wanna see addicts going to jail. We wanna see 'em get better.

We've had multiple dope boys come to our side. We actually had one drug dealer and former pimp get seven women off the street in a five day period of time. That's insane. Our number one refer for rescues of trafficked women is a former pimp who decided he did not wanna be that person anymore. [01:03:00] 

Steve Baumgartner: Wow. Wow.

Well, we are definitely gonna have to get back together again then. Oh, yeah, yeah. Uh, you and Jess both. I'd love to have you on at the same time, but, uh, I really appreciate your time today. Uh, God bless you brother, and uh, thanks for coming on me. Uh, you too, brother. Thank you so much.

Narrator: You have just experienced the heat and pressure of the forge. Remember, words without action are meaningless. Now, after the heat of the forge shape, your thoughts quench your brain. Then put your new tools to use adding to your leadership. Tune in next week for more lessons from the.