Donna and Jay reflect on some of the most memorable interviews of 2023 and touch on what is new for 2024. Tune in to find out about the Brand New CHW Streaming Radio channel launching in February and some of the amazing upcoming guests on Beyond The Frontline.
Tune into our CHW Streaming Radio and the full lineup at cominghomewell.com
Download on Apple Play and Google Play
Online-Therapy.com ~ Life Changing Therapy Click here for a 20% discount on your first month.
Donna’s Links
Website: www.rebel-llc.com Consulting/Coaching
Book: Warrior to Patriot Citizen (2017)
Blog: Taking Off The Armor
IG: @thetransitioningwarrior
Twitter: @wtpc
FB: The Transitioning Warrior
Jay’s Links
Website: https://j2servantleadership.com/
Book: Breaking Average (2020)
Thank you for listening! Be sure to SHARE, LIKE and leave us a REVIEW!
Donna and Jay reflect on some of the most memorable interviews of 2023 and touch on what is new for 2024. Tune in to find out about the Brand New CHW Streaming Radio channel launching in February and some of the amazing upcoming guests on Beyond The Frontline.
Tune into our CHW Streaming Radio and the full lineup at cominghomewell.com
Download on Apple Play and Google Play
Online-Therapy.com ~ Life Changing Therapy Click here for a 20% discount on your first month.
Donna’s Links
Website: www.rebel-llc.com Consulting/Coaching
Book: Warrior to Patriot Citizen (2017)
Blog: Taking Off The Armor
IG: @thetransitioningwarrior
Twitter: @wtpc
FB: The Transitioning Warrior
Jay’s Links
Website: https://j2servantleadership.com/
Book: Breaking Average (2020)
Thank you for listening! Be sure to SHARE, LIKE and leave us a REVIEW!
Welcome to Beyond the Frontline podcast, where your hosts, us Air Force veterans Donna Hofmeier and Jay Johnson, will help you transition from the front line to the home front. Listen every other Wednesday, as they will bring great conversations, resources, tips and feel good stories that will resonate and relate. Now here's your hosts, donna Hofmeier and Jay Johnson.
Speaker 2:We are back for another episode session. Listen to me like we're in a therapy session here. Maybe it is.
Speaker 3:Anytime you're with me, my friend, anytime you're with me.
Speaker 2:We're here with another episode of Beyond the Frontline and I am doing the intro. I'm stepping in for a change because you always hear Mr Polish voice, so I thought you could hear the other voice for a change. And I'm here with my brother from another mother, mr Jay Johnson.
Speaker 3:What's happening? Yeah, I don't know that. I always step in and you say polished. It's a little bit like sandpaper and gravel.
Speaker 2:No, you are. You have that. I always told you if somebody could visualize us talking and they didn't know what we look like, you are this robust, full voice. And then there's me, and so I'm like it would be like the fat kid and the skinny kid. No, that's not true, oh, my Lord, every time I hear your voice, I'm like man. If I could do that, I don't. I have my voice.
Speaker 3:You do just fine and we're good in this space together. You know what's funny, don? I'm getting ahead of us. Probably Forgive me, but I got to meet your parents.
Speaker 2:You did get to meet the parents.
Speaker 3:Yeah, over the Christmas break, and it was just funny when I shook your mother's hand and said, hi, I'm Jay, and she immediately had a reaction and said oh, you're the face behind the voice and you sound in person just just like you sound on the podcast.
Speaker 2:That's a compliment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, when I listened to our podcast Don I've right time back to you just talking about voices and tonality and all that I think I sound totally different when I listened to myself.
Speaker 2:We all do so anyways, it was funny that your mom said oh she was all excited because I said, hey, we're going to go up and and for the audience, just so. You know, jay and I are always have our fingers into something and we always help each other out. So this podcast that's where some of this started was me calling him when I got offered the job, so to speak, and I said, hey, do you want to do a podcast? He's like, sure, why not? And then he decides one day hey, I'm going to manage a firework store twice a year. Want to help? Sure, why not. And we what? Third season right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, do I fit season third year.
Speaker 2:And yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3:The things we get involved in. Don, it's true, I mean, you've always been there for me, number one. So yeah, I get myself into some situations and then you're usually the one that comes in.
Speaker 2:And I throw my kid out. You, my kid's all excited. Brady's just totally pumped. Now that he gets to make some bucks off of Mr Jay. He's like, yeah, can work for him yeah, first job.
Speaker 3:That maybe not his first job, but you know it's good to have his job.
Speaker 2:He mows lawns and does that stuff. But this is yeah, he liked it, boy. When that, when that check came over, he was like oh yeah it was fun having him.
Speaker 3:I look forward to having him in the future. Yeah, that'll be for future, future conversation. Again, we'll talk about some of the the crazy little things we do on the side. What's happening in your world, though? Donny? You got a lot cooking right now Everything's cooking.
Speaker 2:Holy cow, if you could visualize it, I'd had every pot on the oven on full and boiling.
Speaker 3:I'm like damn In the oven running in the rain.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, and the smoke, alarms going off and it's just wild right now and I love it. I mean, you know, you and I kind of run a little bit with our hair on fire and and that's kind of what you know. We're a little bit of adrenaline junkies.
Speaker 3:So little bit.
Speaker 2:We're probably too broke to jump out of a plane, but we can do it otherwise.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't mind today. Today I don't mind jumping off a tall curb, but I don't even that's risky sometimes. Well, for me that's true.
Speaker 2:So yeah, so I've got. Let's see what's going on. We launched transitioning Warring veteran breakfast.
Speaker 3:That's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was the biggest one that took off and so we did that as the first of hopefully many. But we're you know we're starting small, we're starting with one. It was very successful. We got the second one coming up the 9th of February. Just put some advertisement out and then kind of getting all that going, getting sponsorship, getting you know speakers and getting nonprofits engaged and all that good stuff, and then if that isn't enough to take up most of my day, then I'm helping out launching what's coming next for coming home well, which is the coming home well or the CHW radio stream.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that'll be launching in February, so you'll hear our voices a little bit more yeah that we did.
Speaker 3:You and I tinkered a little bit right on that. I mean, we thought it was a really smooth, easy and the sound quality is really good so if our listeners is going to be great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there's an app that is out. If you're listening, I'll tell you a secret. You actually can download it right now on Google or on Apple and you can listen, but it's only in beta right now. It is not officially launched. We're just testing it out, getting schedules up, seeing how it's going, so it's not the final anything, but if you want to listen to it, it's there.
Speaker 2:It's got rock and country music, like something more veterans kind of relate to, and then it's got all our podcasts. They'll be coming on throughout the week and the weekend and they'll have podcasts from our sister network, which is whole care network. Whole care network is all towards caregivers and so we cross podcast on their stream. They're going to cross podcast on our stream and then we're bringing on all kinds of shows, even people that we've interviewed, believe or not. Do you remember Alicia Brown, when we had that interview and federal resumes?
Speaker 2:Well, she's actually going to be doing a short piece on the radio on this, that federal resumes and little, small bites that people can utilize. We have a cooking show coming on, like some kind of history of cooking. We have legacy shows coming on for, like Vietnam veterans, we're doing specialty music hours, like there's going to be one that's going to be is it Rock, mayhem, or they haven't named it yet, but basically it's all going to be geared towards like all that heavy metal, death metal or heavy rock. There'll be an hour like that. There's going to be a little of everything.
Speaker 3:That's taken me back to my youthful years as a teenager in the 80s.
Speaker 2:Right, right. That's because that's the average age of all the veterans.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was like dang, you like this. She's like, yeah, like, okay, that's fun, you go.
Speaker 3:So yeah, I mean, and it's just wild, I mean I dude, I was a nurse here, I am helping set up a radio stream so yeah, look, you've run branches, deeper roots, and you've got a lot of people that are involved in a lot of things and it kind of goes back down, I think, to that conversation you and I've had before, which is just, you know you got to keep moving Right, because when you're moving you're giving yourself opportunities to have more kind of come into your field of view. You know, when you're just starting anything out, you know you're just starting to get into your field of view. You know when you're just starting anything out, the, the vision or the, the forward looking aspect of it is pretty narrow, but the more you, the wider it gets, the more you take in, the more you become aware of and and it's much easier to keep moving than to start moving. So the key is to start and then keep moving and not be afraid.
Speaker 2:I mean that probably my bane and my asset is that I'm not. I don't have a lot of fear, like I'm like I'll try it, but why not? You know, I mean, you know, a couple of times I'm like, oh, that's crazy, I couldn't do that. And then you know, here I am podcast two years later, you know, and I'm like, oh, what's the worst? That's going to happen Doesn't work very well. Maybe I step away from it. You know, let me know he's dying.
Speaker 3:Compared to this We've done that. That's relative right compared to things we've done. We've done things that truly carried risk of life, and so the things we're talking about now, when we really just you know, put it in clarity and think about it, there's not much we're doing today that is putting us in harm's way or anyone else in harm's way.
Speaker 2:It's funny. Two things came to my head. I'm like, yes, because like the day I'm on the plane and all the circuit breakers pop and we don't know why, and we're stuck in Bosnia and we got to take a 130 home and then the gears lock. I mean like we can't get them up. And so and I remember that day so distinctly I had injured soldiers from a motor vehicle accident. I had a true psych patient in a straight jacket, like no kidding, I had all this stuff.
Speaker 3:There wasn't me.
Speaker 2:No, I wasn't you. No, not that one. And anyways, I just remember we were getting ready to land and the load looks at me and she comes over and says ma'am, I just want to let you know that we had gears that didn't come up last week too. I wasn't on the flight, but it was another 130 and they locked it the best they could, just for the audience. Just so you know, on a 130, if you just think of like a screw, like the wheels, kind of like screw up into the plane and kind of screw down, and sometimes they get stuck and so they have to put locks on and that if it gets stuck to make sure it doesn't fail. And she said we're going to put the locks on and she goes at belly flop down the runway. That's not what you want to hear. When you're coming in for taxi and you got sick people and equipment everywhere and you're like Okay, is this the end for me? Just make it quick.
Speaker 3:Well, I'm not a pilot, of course, although I did sleep at a holiday and express as a flight nurse on the pilot. To me. It seems like I would much rather have the wheels stuck in the down position. I realize that creep and the opposition. Yeah, for actual flying, but but for the purpose of landing I kind of would like them to be there and not stuck in the up position.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agreed, agreed, and so I was like damn. So yeah, right, if you compare your Life to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's.
Speaker 2:You know, I actually I go to acupuncture and I had the the therapist. I said to her like God, I'm migrating for two days, I cannot figure out why, and she goes, well, any stress. I'm like, no, I mean not, I didn't feel any stress. And I had an all-day basketball game for my daughter that I was at like a tournament, and we didn't get home till late and and then the next morning I had the launch of the veteran breakfast. So I had to prepare late and it was just like this ongoing thing. But I said it was just stuff. You know, it wasn't stressful. And she laughed it means she goes. Okay, listen, she goes. Your life in the military was high, high, high stress 24-7. And she said it doesn't mean what's going on now isn't stressful. You just don't compare it to what you think stressful is.
Speaker 2:She goes so your body still can respond it. Of course I'm like, oh please, but she probably had a point there's relevance in that.
Speaker 3:You know, honestly, I've done acupuncture before too and I'm not a needle fan. These are really thin.
Speaker 2:I love acupuncture.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it did well for me, not something I do actively like you do, but I. Yeah, I think that's true, Donna. We all experience stress and process it differently, and be for veterans have come out of these high Stress situations like you're describing. I think it.
Speaker 2:yeah, it's, you still have stress, you just don't process it in the same way and you know I here's a I had this conversation with somebody and I said you know, in the military we don't have stress, we embody stress, like that's, that's what we live in, like we live in.
Speaker 2:Breakfast, lunch, dinner constant right it's, and we are on 24-7, like if you know, when the news starts kicking and things aren't going well and you're like, oh boy, in the back You're had, am I gonna be called? Do I have you start looking at your bags? You're kind of preparing.
Speaker 3:Yes, spinning up your constant.
Speaker 2:You're constantly that, so we embody it. So when we step away and we get away from that, then a stressful event happens, we feel it even more, and this just happened to me the other day. I was in a meeting. I was kind of dreading the meeting it was. It doesn't even matter who it was with, because I'm not out to shame anybody, but it didn't go well and and we had this meeting and I was feeling like one of the people in there was being pretty aggressive in Conversation. It was like their way or the highway, they're the boss, you're all gonna be, you know, and this is nonprofits. So I'm like Geez, like I work with a lot of nonprofits and executive directors and board members and nobody acts like that, you know, settle down.
Speaker 2:Well, I made the comment like hey, since we've started this meeting, I feel like you've been pretty aggressive towards me immediately hung up Whoa like whoa did not expect that and I Just sat back for a minute. I talked to the other person that was there. They had a different view than I did and I said you know they're like, well, I don't think maybe this is a match. And I said I would probably agree. This probably isn't a good match, you know, but I wish you guys the best. I hope it all goes well. Etc, etc. You know I did make the comment. I'm like it concerns me that that behavior is not gonna lend to you guys being successful.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I and, and they didn't take that well, they were not happy with it. Well, anyways, get off the phone, boy. It took me an hour or two to just kind of Settle down. Normally I would have, in the military, been like fuckers, something like that, and I would have just walked off. This actually, like me, took me a little while to Chill out from.
Speaker 3:Yeah you know, maybe in those situations you just say can I have your mailing address? I'm gonna send you a copy of Emotion Intelligence 2.0. There's an assessment in there. That's passive aggressive.
Speaker 2:It's just crazy.
Speaker 3:Pointing out to them dude, you got some emotional maturity to a lot of it. You're a current who don't need to know, but no, no, no, it's just a point. They're completely unaware of the way they come across the people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was, and it was kind of a test for me, because when I knew what I was saying and I was kind of pushing back a little and I wanted I was interested in the response and I Didn't expect the complete hang-up, I did expect the excuse me, but yeah, it was more and I was like okay.
Speaker 2:Well, the hang-up piece is another sign of emotional immaturity immaturity, yeah, but, but for me I hadn't been in any battles for so long because when I'm working with people, I have people that are like, yes, how do we make it happen? And yes, it's always yes. For me, like, which is so opposite of what I felt like in the military. It was my first hard no and I was like, whoa okay.
Speaker 3:Then I felt that stress.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, moving on. I mean I, I moved on, but it was interesting to actually feel.
Speaker 3:Stress Versus my normal would be like whatever and not feel well, and, and you know, not knowing anything else and we can move beyond this you know we had less to do with you and more To who they are.
Speaker 2:Oh yes.
Speaker 3:Manifest itself in many other places in their life and many other Relationships. And what a shame, because they're really stifling Opportunity and the ability to make an impact. Yeah they'll, they'll learn or they'll they'll get out of the, they'll get out of the industry and business of whatever it is they're they have a great mission, I mean it's all, but yeah, it's unfortunate, so anyway.
Speaker 2:but the point was just like now feeling stress, right, I'm like, ooh, now I feel that versus now, so all Right, so we just look back. I think we should kind of just look back a little bit speaking. Yeah, can I?
Speaker 3:can I maybe share one last thing? Yeah, please just wait on my spirit. I don't know why you probably saw this too, but chief master sergeant of the Air Force number five, gaylord yes, gaylord passed away yesterday respect.
Speaker 2:Yes, I.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I saw that the best Speaker I've ever heard in my life, bar none. Now, look, I'm a less brown fan and you know, simon, sinek, maxwell, tony, we can just throw all these right. You know, bob Gaylord was the best communicator Speaker I ever saw in my life in the room with him on several occasions listening to him speak and, of course, long retired and you know, in his 90s, was still hosting these online Facebook sessions as the chief and sharing wisdom, and he would do that every Wednesday night, wednesday night with the chief.
Speaker 3:I think he called him anyways, I just saw that and so I just thought I'd say to our Air Force, brethren right, men and women, whoever crossed past with that amazing man, he was.
Speaker 2:I heard him speak once and I agree he was pretty yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, lived a full life, but just wanted to honor his memory by giving a shout out to him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, lots and thoughts and prayers to his family too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny when you said that, I was like, yeah, I just saw that I'm living under a rock lately, I feel.
Speaker 3:See the news, it was just yesterday. It was just yesterday it was it was.
Speaker 2:But yeah, yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 3:So good to remember those that came before as you were getting ready to you.
Speaker 2:Well, speaking of remembering, I think I think we should look back on the year a little bit, because I think that we had an incredible year and we met a lot. We always meet a lot of people, a lot of people, yeah yeah, your social butterfly. Now I mean oh lord, nothing compared to you.
Speaker 3:I'm with excitement, j, you won't believe who I just met. This this person will be amazing for the podcast and can't wait for us to talk about it. And no, you're right, we had some really really cool Stories and speakers and sessions over the last year. And I asked you, as we were just prior to stepping into this session, donna? I said what, how long we've been doing this now like a year and a half and you said, jay, it's been two years and.
Speaker 3:I years and I looked at myself in the camera and I thought, oh, I look every bit of that.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna look this up, I'm gonna pull.
Speaker 3:you do not, oh lord big bags under my eyes and you got to sleep. Yeah, how much time we put in to try to bring our listeners, you know, compelling stories and inspirational, inspirational stories. What are you looking up? What are you pulling up here?
Speaker 2:So I am pulling up right now. I was looking at our stats I'm a little stat nerd and I Was looking at the number, like our most popular podcasts that we had, and I'll tell you the one that surprises me, not in a bad way, but just surprised me the veteran treatment court wrap up.
Speaker 3:Oh it was such a good series, but you're saying to me what you're looking at right now. The wrap up has been one of the more engaging Sessions that would yeah.
Speaker 2:We had the most downloads from of all time, of all our podcasts. We are yeah, that was our big and that actually surprised me because I was like, well, who just wants to hear Jay and I? Yeah, I thought I'd.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what we're doing right now, so maybe we're setting ourselves up for our next big download. People tuning in, going Dorks like oh not, I shouldn't call you a dork. Have you listened to Donna? And the dork, the dorks, it's okay, we're dorks, but If I tell by now, donna, listening into this one, they're like these two are just freelancing today. They are like reservation, and whatever's coming to their heart and mind, they're bringing it forth.
Speaker 2:So stay tuned, keep listening, because there's more silliness to come God knows right, We'll come up with the two of us. Yeah, no, I was actually surprised. So we did this series and it started very randomly.
Speaker 3:It did.
Speaker 2:So it started with a breakfast out in Spring Branch and I had a service member that I met and I had him come out and he spoke. He was a Marine and when I learned about what he did, he worked for the Veteran Treatment Court in San Antonio. All right, short version is that we ended up connecting with Veteran Treatment Court in Comal County and just for our listeners, it's just the county above Bear County, which Bear County is where San Antonio is, so it's one county above there and started working with them. I started working with them and we did an entire we were blessed to do an entire series. We got to interview Judge Stevens, who runs it, and we got to interview Mike Fogarty, who was in charge of all the mentors, and Laura Baylow, who's a court coordinator, and then Yenneveve who was the probation officer, and then we got to interview which was probably one of the funniest damn interviews we did George Wolfe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was a lot of fun this trip.
Speaker 2:Just for the audience if you haven't listened to the podcast, you should go back and listen to it. I don't know if we said it in the podcast, but we were struggling to logistically meet with him. He had some health issues going on and so I reached out and said are you ready for the podcast? Today he goes. You know, ma'am, small problem, I'm actually still in the hospital with this infection and I went how are you feeling? Well, I feel great. I'm just getting antibiotics and stuff and I don't know what came over me. But I was like, hey, you were going to do this on your phone anyway, right, yeah, I was. I'm like you want to do it in the hospital?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we literally you and I are together and yet we've got him right there in his hospital room and we did the episode. That was very unique.
Speaker 2:It was hilarious. And then what caught my attention? And then I was like uh-oh, a nurse came in to the room and I couldn't see the nurse specifically, but I saw an arm come across the front of him and I saw them grab something and all I thought was like, oh my god, please don't say they're medicating them. Well, that's exactly what they did. They medicated him and I was like this is going to get interesting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was already interesting and then they quit. He was great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, unfortunately they didn't push anything very heavy. He was a very good interview and so if you have a chance go listen to George Wolfe, but what made him very interesting in his story is that he was a participant in the Veteran Treatment Court and then became a mentor afterwards and it's his story of that, so I thought that was pretty awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, even Judge Stevens, when we interviewed the judge and said we're gonna have you know somebody on, that's, actually stood before you and the relationship those two gentlemen share today at least the fondness of one another that they have. All of that it did. It made for a compelling little series of episodes we did, so I do hope listeners, if you're listening to this, you should go back and listen to that. I like to think, Donna, that we've brought a lot of really good stuff.
Speaker 2:Oh, we did.
Speaker 3:Two listeners. You know we always covet feedback. I feel like you, and I end our episodes asking Begging. Yeah, to smash that like button to share, to follow and to interact with us and share ideas. But that was a really, really fun series.
Speaker 2:That was. I learned a ton in it and then we ended it. I mean, we ended up with our wrap up, but just before that we got the opportunity to interview somebody that didn't have the opportunity for the Veteran Treatment Court because it didn't exist.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that was Carla. She would have taken advantage of it, she said, had it been there.
Speaker 2:But yeah, yeah. So Carla Bug. We interviewed her after George George was well, episode 40, I think, and then 41 was Carla and it was an interesting perspective and to see this woman that is thriving right now and to look at her and she's so graceful and she's so well put together. You can't even imagine that this woman did. Was it 20 years? I cannot remember the exact number, but she did. I think it was a total of 20 years incarcerated. She had five children.
Speaker 3:There's a while. Yeah, she was definitely in there a while. I don't remember the exact number.
Speaker 2:So that's her story on episode 41. And that that's incredible. I mean she now she's advocating for veteran justice and more advocation for Veteran Treatment Courts and helping these veterans and giving them a second chance, because a lot of times when they get in trouble it's coping right, they're coping with things they shouldn't be, and then they make some bad choices and then it can just spiral downhill from there. You know.
Speaker 3:Yep. Well, you know we've talked about this again. I don't want to stray too far off the path but again, our listeners are already in this with us, so they know we're all over the map. You know we think about homelessness, which I think today the proper way of saying that we call it being unsheltered people who are unsheltered. If we know that there's a veteran part of that as well, crisis is probably fair to say there's a lot of homeless vets.
Speaker 3:But the thing that that Sherry and I talk about often and I feel like you and I've had this conversation too, don, and this is where we could just have more compassion for people is no one wakes up.
Speaker 3:No one wakes up and says you know, I think I'm gonna be homeless, right? It's a series of choices this is how I tied the bow around it you were just talking about. We get in these states where there's something we're dealing with, we don't get it addressed and it can compound in our life and manifest as more you know. Challenging things and choices are, of course, a part of that but no one wakes up and says you know, I think I'm gonna make this bad decision today which is gonna alter my life. It's what we do on the back end of that choice, whatever it was that led us to do something out of character. And so, yeah, you and I had some really amazing, transparent people come, sit in the space with us and share their heart and share their story and own some stuff that was theirs to own, and then have this beautiful part on the back end of that as how it's changed them and how they're giving back.
Speaker 2:That you segue. Perfect, because that's what I was gonna talk about. Our second highest download was actually James Eastland. Oh, James is such a good human being and James is the embodiment of learning from other people's mistakes or other people's not so awesome choices.
Speaker 3:Yeah, true.
Speaker 2:He grew up in a household of abuse you know, and saw what it was doing and somehow was hands were reaching out and he took them and found his way and ended up in the Marines for a short time about six years I think and where he is now and what he's doing and I don't even wanna give it away, but you really need to listen to that one episode 29.
Speaker 3:Go back, go back, everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, episode 29, james Eastland. He's an ultramarathoner and you need to go listen and find out what he's doing with his really good fitness as an ultramarathoner. He's actually doing some fundraising for an amazing cause. And so, listening to him, because he straight up told us he's like I have a brother that made other choices and he's just going back to jail right now and I don't think it came out on the episode. He meant to say it and this isn't a sensationalized, but he was making the point of these bad choices. His brother got involved in drugs and whatnot and it resulted in the murder of his grandmother. And I say that just for an impact in the sense of like, think about that. Your choices just become so poor, your coping become so poor. You now are doing things that you're probably never, ever, in a million years, would do in a intact state of mind.
Speaker 3:Sure.
Speaker 2:So anyway, but yeah, James, amazing, I mean, we love him. He just lightens room when he walks in, doesn't he? You actually make me giggle. When we bring on guests, I always know, and I'll say most of the time, Jay loves the guests. But Jay will tell you that people energize him and I'll tell you you come on a podcast with us and watch him when we do interviews and I get it by the time we're done, Jay is like smiling and he's like that's really good, and he's all energized and like ready to go. And so it's funny, because some people could say that doing all this can suck the life out of you, but I would say the complete opposite. It's almost like therapy for you, and I would say for me too, because when you hear this stuff, I'm like, well, shit, I am a hot mess, but okay, I'm not doing so bad. You know, they did it, they're coming through.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, you get to see me, donna, in a way that our listeners don't write, I mean, you get to see me physically on screen, if you will All right now you know, even today, right, I step in, you're like dang dude, you're okay, you look tired and I'm like man, I'm tired, I'm old, I'm old, I'm grumpy, yeah, but you're right.
Speaker 3:And then you get in this space and you start sharing in. Something shifts, but certainly other people's stories of overcoming, of giving back that, yeah, I mean. There's this old saying, donna I bet this has come out in the previous episode. I just said this to one of my coaching clients this morning is it's hard to wallow in our own challenges when we are in servitude to others. Right, so we all face challenges and have things going on in our life, but when we get outside of ourselves and start doing for others, it's hard to sit there and be downtrodden about the things in our life that aren't going well, and it just changes us as a person. So me being the quote machine that I am, this literally also-.
Speaker 1:Yes, you are.
Speaker 3:As my spirit, you know, I think there's Mother Teresa that said you know, people are hard to love, love them anyway, right. And so there's something magical that happens in that when you just love people the good, the bad, the sometimes not so pleasant just love people, and when you're in community with people, it changes us as human beings.
Speaker 2:People are always taking away. Consciously, subconsciously, they're always taking away from other people. I don't mean taking from them, I just mean learning something from them constantly right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I said if you go back three years and Jay was the one that would like drag me out and he would, he goes readily and met, he would see me sit in the corner. I'd be like, oh Jesus, here we go, a networking event. And he'd be like come on out and I'm like that's your thing and I'd go hide in the corner. That's too worthy, seriously. I'd be like God and I would. And I it's not that I wouldn't talk to people, somebody talk to me, I trip away. But for me to get in there I just had this like kind of block of like oh, what am I gonna say to him? Like, hey, I'm starting a business, you know? I mean, I didn't know, I was just kind of like everywhere. So I do what I do best. When I have no clue, I just sit and watch and just okay. For as much as I talk, I always kind of scare people to say I actually observe twice as much but says a lot cause I talk a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's scary. That's scary, I know, right, that's true. You're really good today, donna. That's true, you're really good at just. You know, forgive the way I'll describe it, I like visuals. Though You're in people's soup, like you, have no problem going up and you know, saying to someone hey, tell me about you, tell me about. I heard you say this. I'd love to know more about that. And yeah, you're much more proactive today.
Speaker 2:I just had a vision of me and a scuba gear coming out of somebody's bowl of soup.
Speaker 3:Going hi. That's a great vision that might be a future book cover for you Right, my next book. You and a scuba mask, a snorkel emerging from a bowl of soup.
Speaker 2:Coming out of the soup. Yeah, there it is.
Speaker 3:I like it. How about this, donna? I know I mean we only touched on a couple of things. I know there were a lot of really juicy is the word I'm gonna use. I like that visual too, right Juicy episodes that we got to do last year and, more than anything, if you're even one of our past guests listening to this, this is with you know, all affection and appreciation. I love the rawness, the authenticity, the willingness to just step into the space and have people share. We get some things we're trying to do for our listeners in 24 to continue to up the game right. What weighs on your heart and mind when I say that? What kinds of things are you thinking? You're really excited about getting people in the space with us here to share?
Speaker 2:I think it's more about getting them to realize that they have it within them, like all this stuff that we're doing and that we get involved in, like I joke all the time. I'm like my calendar looks like an LGBTQ flag. There's so many colors in it with my kids stuff and my stuff and my husband stuff, and we're always coordinating schedules, and so I'll hear people like, oh my God, how do you do all that? Well, I don't know, you just kind of do something and you tack a little something more on and you know, et cetera, et cetera. So we're not special. Maybe that's the bottom line of all that we're not special. I am nobody special. Donna Hoffmeyer, country girl raised in Northern New Hampshire. Population at the time 2100 and slipping quickly. I think they're at 1200. Farm girl, you know, I mean 2099 because you left.
Speaker 2:Right, right. And so there was, you know, went to college, did the military. I didn't do anything special, I just I'm curious. I wanna become a nurse because I want to see more of the world. I want to. You know, I joined the military so I could see more of the world. I was curious. Yeah, I think you and I have talked about that. We're just curious, right, and we don't have a lot of fear.
Speaker 2:And I understand, you know there can be some anxiety getting into something that you've never done. But when I taught college, I used to say the same thing to my students all the time If you can learn to make learning fun, it all becomes very easy. If you can always remember that you're just learning and that it's always fun to be the new person. I love being the new person because my favorite thing is I don't know, Can you tell me? It's okay because as you learn and you build and then you eventually Become more of an expert, you know, and whatever it is you're doing, but everybody has a starting place, Everybody. Tony Robbins has not always been Tony Robbins at his level.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, yeah, I heard John Maxwell say this once. You know he was talking about. He finished speaking at a conference and afterwards he's just kind of mingling around and he said you know, some much younger person came up to him and said, boy, I'd love to do what you do. And John said I just looked at him and said that's great, are you willing to do what I did? Yeah, right, meaning the way. There's no such thing as overnight success. It's, it's in the action, it's in the putting it into practice and learning along the way, and through that you evolve. And, yeah, you're right, donna. So, it's true, humble, humble beginnings and the work you're doing today isn't something you initially Saw to do, but then it kind of captured your heart and then now you'll, you're thriving in this environment of connecting people and connecting people to resources and getting people help. And, yeah, it's fun. It's fun for me, as as a friend you know Close proximity to get to see some of that and watch it take off.
Speaker 2:I haven't saw on your side when you, when you and I met, you were how many years into your job at that at your entrepreneur come for what the work I do today you mean like coaching and speaking and training that kind of stuff. Well, the training, you were doing the training.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, I'm ten years into my.
Speaker 2:So when we met, you were like probably five years, roughly Somewhere around there right. Yeah, and I didn't know you from Adam you were coming in actually doing I'd never met. Nope, we were doing leadership training. I nicely gave you a year full about my thoughts on things, and, and then we became friends and then I watched Well, let's see. Then I retired and then you watch me go through all that and and, and then we. Then you got me into things. Jay's very good at subtly.
Speaker 2:Bamboo, zling bam boo zling is a good word yeah, started these things and then at the time he was starting these things his and it was a lot of volunteer stuff, let me just make that clear. So we were doing stuff with the chamber, we were starting a veteran committee, there was all these things that was going on and he was leading these things. He was on a library board. He got me into these things. Right, I'm like, okay, and why did I do it? Because I knew Jay. Okay, jay will bop along right as a trusted person.
Speaker 2:And Then at that time I was watching him and I kept warning him. I said you better back off some of this volunteer stuff. Your job, your business is starting to take off. It was like I got a call, I asked to go here. I've been asked to do this and I'm listening and I'm like Uh-huh, and I'm pretty, I'm smart my own way. I could see what was coming and I kept saying Jay, and Jay is the person that wants to give 110% Everything he's doing. And I knew this about him and I'm just like Jay.
Speaker 3:And I'm trying to be without. I'm a firm believer, pour it out.
Speaker 2:Jiminy Cricket on his ear and I'm just like dude. And then finally he was like holy crap. But and he just dumped the stuff he needed to dump. And the stuff he happened to dump was the Crap I'll be nice. He landed it on me and I ended up having I took over. I didn't have to do anything. I chose to take over the stuff that he had started and we did. And that isn't even the point. The point was just that at At three years after I got out well, two years I guess after I got out your business start taking off and and it's not like you didn't have things going on, you were, you had steady stuff, but it just went up a level.
Speaker 2:Yeah and that was how many years in.
Speaker 3:You know, probably. Six or things really. Just that the magic started happening without a great little effort.
Speaker 2:Seven years of you trying to not trying, because it's not like you were running around like desperate, you had business. I saw that people liked you, trusted you, they were, they were engaged with you and all that. But when it really Started taking off, it was about seven years and I was like dang and you said something to me early on and I I understood the words. I just Didn't understand it because I wasn't in the middle of it. You said I could have got my business going faster, but I really wanted to keep it organic. Do I understand the concept? Sure, but I didn't really understand it until I started getting my business going and I have stepped away from things that felt too fast, move or shaker kind of stuff that I was like.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let me put a visual in everybody's head. Right, it's like that Shyster that's coming up grabbing a hold of your hand and trying to tell you about this great thing and pull you in and, you know, asking you to throw some money down on the I.
Speaker 3:None of that appeals to me, donna at all, and I know that doesn't appeal to you. Yeah, just to quickly, you know, tie back to what you were saying. I know I could have built this much faster and bigger, but I was comfortable at the pace. I had the vision. I still want to control my schedule Because I think we tend to do the other thing, donna, right, and I'm not saying I'm doing this great yet, but I am getting better in some ways. But some people let their schedules control them and.
Speaker 3:I still, even at this point where I'm at, want to control my schedule. I just had this conversation with friends last night that Discernment is so important.
Speaker 3:Yes knowing, knowing who we are, what we're really looking to do, who we like to work with, right, what gives us life rather than drains us of life. So there's times when I really am exhausted mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, whatever it may be. A lot of times it may be because I'm starting to Get into some domains that I probably shouldn't be in right. So I do. I have a certain heart, but if you will go back and research some of the most successful people in life you think of, the Jack Welch is, and you know some of those guys they they say no to more than they say yes to yeah. They're kind of dialed in on what's important and what's not and they're unapologetic about it.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and.
Speaker 3:I try to do that in my business but it's good though.
Speaker 2:It's good too. That's, and that's when I started doing this. That's what I started learning. There were people that were like mover shakers, and I had somebody say to me like what's the focus of your business? And I said, well, you know, it's veteran focused on this half and, and I'm trying to, you know, bring communities together, etc. Etc. And I was like, oh, what's the focus of yours? And, just for context, we were both podcast and, and so I, he goes mines to make money. And I went, okay, and that's fine, right, but it doesn't resonate with me because I'm not doing all this for a dollar sign. Trust me, my CPA can tell you that I'm not doing it for the dollar sign but.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna. There's another. Something else I said to you, though, and this is what's weighed on my spirit again right now. And it's something I believe we've said on that one of our episodes in the past Zig-ziggler, right zig-ziggler. You can have anything you want in life, as long as you're willing to help enough other people right.
Speaker 3:He also said something to this effect which ties into what you were just saying. Somebody said well, they're goals to make money, man. I know we need to maintain a livelihood, I guess, and we have our own desires to have Nice things, and that changes in qualification depending on you're talking to. But zig said quit chasing money, you'll never catch it. Instead, chase helping people and money will chase you. So the whole point of it, don, is you know I was kind of saying to you stay consistent, stay on point with your heart, with what you're looking to do, because the rest of it will line up for you and the people will start finding you and along on the back end of that, through consistency, will come the other part, where your livelihood is being taken care of my, it's a passion, it doesn't feel like work.
Speaker 2:No, and my, my best friend said to me one time we were talking this was a couple months ago and it she goes. I am so proud of you. I'm like, oh well, thanks. And she goes you are creating this, I'm watching you create this authentic network. And she goes do you know how hard that is to do? And I was like what? And she goes I want to bring in people that want to do the work that you're doing. You know that they're passionate about this.
Speaker 2:And I said, well, maybe I'm selective, but I only want to work with people that really want to do what they're passionate about, I guess. And she goes you know, I try to do it in my community and it's just like it. I feel like I fail all the time. And I thought that was just such an interesting comment that and it was a huge compliment to me because I hope the circle that I keep In my close, close, close circle is pretty small. I mean you and maybe a couple other people Get to kind of see me when I'm moody or I'm annoyed, or you know like.
Speaker 3:I might evoke that out of you more than you do. Occasion maybe, brian.
Speaker 2:Yes, you all do, because you all got your own way. I'm like Lord, but we have a common core and that's where we relate, you know. So, yeah, yeah, I, I'm going to, I'm going to turn this back to the audience that we want you guys to understand that when we are doing these podcasts, or when Jay is getting up to do a training session or speaking, or when I'm out there doing a veteran breakfast or connecting people, there is a lot of intent behind it. It is not randomness, it is not oh, whatever I'll, I'll, maybe I'll get some perks from them.
Speaker 2:I just had someone find me on Instagram the other day and I found out where they were located and I said, hey, do you know about this other nonprofit? That's like right up the road from you. No, I don't. Well, they do this and you do that here. Let me send an email to both of you. Did it hurt me? But? No, took me five minutes and I don't care. I like they can go off and and do amazing things and I don't need credit for it. It's just good like you'll do better things.
Speaker 3:To that point, donna. You know some people want to monetize the very breath they take and it comes across I don't know any other word it comes across as disingenuous and sleazy. And and you know, donna, because you're in the room with me in these e-taps- yeah. I'm privileged to get to do for the local Air Force Command and and I say to those men and women, I don't just bring anyone in to put in front of you. Maybe I've straight off that path once or twice, but by and large I bet people really well.
Speaker 2:I want to know for the most part, you missed your mark. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I want to know that they're stepping into the room, not the sales pitch. These men and women are senior leaders who are getting ready to transition from active duty. I want them to have a heart, to want to come in and share, freely share what they know to these soon-to-be transitioning veterans. Betterment, that's what I want, and so To me, I think that's what draws the right people to us, because if someone's just looking to access a veteran to put their hand In their pocket, I'm gonna have nothing to do with that yeah, we're very protective of the veterans like we, you know Very.
Speaker 2:I'm bringing people in, they better be representing it. Actually, I think the way you vet them for the E-Tep is perfect and it's non-threatening, but it's kind of hilarious, and Jay will be if it's a new person coming in to speak. Hey, thanks for being here. Well, this is your first go, this is the expectation, this is the audience, and you know, if it goes good, you know and and everything works Well, maybe we'll have you back. And let me tell you, their response says everything.
Speaker 2:So if they're like oh okay, Probably on the good side, but there's been the.
Speaker 3:There's something I haven't brought back Right.
Speaker 2:There's been something that's been like wait what?
Speaker 3:There's an expectation there man or woman, man or woman. Doesn't matter, anything they may have wore on their sleeve or collar is rank. I want them to know that they're getting an opportunity to come, share wisdom and equip, and if they can't do that without throwing down sales pitches or trying to put themselves in some kind of light that Is intended to draw them to them, they probably won't get an invite back. Right now, I the the opposite side of that, though, donnie. You've heard me say this to to every one of them.
Speaker 3:I do hope that there's connections made, though, by these speakers sharing their time there absolutely their expertise and, what I hope is on a break or Something, they're connecting with them and saying I'd love to stay in touch. I'd love to learn more about what you're doing. I feel like I could use your services or your help. Fantastic, I want that for everybody. I just don't want any hard sales pitches.
Speaker 2:No right. Well, we don't even I mean, we're at e-tap and we don't so what we step forward with and and when we do say what we do, because I have two sides of my business. Yep it's quick, right behind it to say we're not sales pitching you, this is just what we do. If you want no great, we're not gonna come after you, we're not.
Speaker 3:Yeah no, they need to know what we do. That's true. Yeah, I'm in complete agreement.
Speaker 2:So hey.
Speaker 3:I was looking at a short list. I wrote down Donna. I don't know if it's appropriate to do so. I want to keep it really high level and not attach names to it. Can I share, yeah, just kind of, some insights on people we think we're gonna have? Yeah, so so if we still got a captive audience, you read my mind.
Speaker 2:I was gonna do that as we wrap it up. This is a good one, yeah, if there's.
Speaker 3:If they're still listening, I want them to be hungry. I gotta come back and catch these. I've got a guy who is a retired army officer that you know had aspirations for what he thought he was gonna do, yep, but then serendipity Settled in. He went to take a class. The class he was gonna take, something fell through, but there was another one, another course available, and it was an acting course, an acting class, and he was like, I guess I'll, I'll check that out. And what he ended up finding was something in him, though, you know, compelled him to want to be an actor.
Speaker 3:And now he's been out there auditioning and getting picked up for, you know, some smaller bit roles. He, he professes, but he says I love everything about it, jay, it's just fun for me, and my my wife, as it's, you know, embraced it and she is enjoying watching that journey. And he's a two-time cancer survivor too. He's just got a compelling story, yeah. So he's already said yeah, I, I want to be a part of that. Got another guy that you and I both know, who's a retired Air Force pilot, yep, who owns and operates a restaurant. I was at his restaurant last night, by the way, playing tribute, and Is that where you were doing it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, he leads it. Good food, good drinks, good food, but but he's phenomenal. Yeah, that's space and he carries himself with just such humility. He's great person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then?
Speaker 3:he happens to also serve as an interim president of of a really large chamber.
Speaker 2:He's been an interim for a long time, but anyway long time.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, he's so permanently interim. Yeah, we're gonna get. We're gonna get him on. Yeah, spend some time with this. I gotta franchise Recruiter another one.
Speaker 2:We did one last year.
Speaker 3:He's never been a huh.
Speaker 2:Remember we did for it. I mean we do it again because I think it's a good thing to bring up. We did a franchise recruiter our first year.
Speaker 3:Did we bring him in? Man, I can't believe.
Speaker 2:I don't know if it's the same one. The first one. We did was Gary oh.
Speaker 3:Now, this guy's name is Kyle Different. I wanted, I wanted to withhold, but, but he's neared us, but I really like his view and approach on things and I only say this to to the people listening, because whether you're a veteran or not Listening to this, I think sometimes we have this grandiose idea that you gotta have a ton of money available to you to jump into the franchise Space and there certainly are some there that come with a higher end Investment point, but not all of them, and some of them are pretty cool deals and and you can create legacy to pass on to somebody.
Speaker 3:I've got a friend who was a Former office of special investigations agent.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, with the.
Speaker 3:Air Force who just wrapped up his career and and he willingly stood and just shared some really tough things down.
Speaker 3:That's good shared his heart, things he's seeing, things he's personally had to do, be a part of, and he said and finally, I just realized one day I needed help and I don't know. Just listening to him and looking him in the eyes, I Just thought you know what I'd love for you to come on and share your story, because people need to be reminded of that. I got a friend, donna. He is a retired Air Force officer who, very talented Individual, could have probably gone on to find a leadership role in any company and today he is Detailing cars.
Speaker 2:I remember this guy You've told us we need to bring him on.
Speaker 3:We do. He wraps vehicles and he said, jay, I'm responsible only for me. It's Monday to Friday, so nice. It's nine to five. I get to be home with my family every night. I get to tap into my creative juices when I'm there figuring out how to brand somebody's vehicle. You know, bring the life what they want. Anyways, he's a really good dude. And then I mentioned to you a Friend of mine who's a motivational speaker, former army black pilot. Yeah just a good lady and listening to her story.
Speaker 2:So that's some that's some we also have. We have a couple Potential if it if I can get this committed a former White House stuff.
Speaker 3:Oh, bring some, some things in there for me to try out.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I don't think we're gonna get that Lucky.
Speaker 3:That's cool, that's we have.
Speaker 2:I'm in works right now with a Non-profit that's actually preserving the Japanese American World War. Two veterans.
Speaker 2:Oh and the preserve they've preserved them, sue Some writing and they actually reached out to us. I, you know there's so many. I said, well, my goodness, yeah, so we're gonna be meeting. There's a non-profit that rescues Bulldogs and then they partner them up with various populations, including veterans. Yeah, I'm actually gonna be meeting with them in the near future. So, and there is there is a laundry list coming. Oh, there's a veteran spouse that's doing a lot of amazing things will be doing a recording with her really excited for that one, yeah.
Speaker 2:That's gonna be a really good one, um Are a big part of the journey.
Speaker 3:Right, you know talked about the in the back bone spouses on but big part of the journey and we need to Make sure we're capturing some of their views on.
Speaker 2:I've been on both sides and I'll tell you, I Sometimes felt like I'd rather just be the military person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you shared some of that with, that's true.
Speaker 2:That's. That is. I'll tell you, that's some fortitude right there, like there was many Trips to the bathroom to just shed a tear or two, like what hell? Yeah, so, yeah, so we. I mean there's a lot in the works right now.
Speaker 3:There's another one real quick. Now I got one more. Go for it. It's somebody we met through our e-tap Kind of escapades last year. He is now in Tennessee and he is working In a whiskey distill. He just sent me a lengthy email saying Jay, you know, never thought that it would actually come to fruition, even though I kind of teased and said I wanted to do it. And he said I cannot even begin to tell you how much I love, why I'm he's doing it.
Speaker 2:I remember him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, he's doing it and loving it, and he said anything. You need me for right. You want to get me on to speak to e-tappers, you want to, you know, talk to me about my journey.
Speaker 2:So I think we should get him if he comes out, he needs to bring a sample for us.
Speaker 3:So I was trying for food from the White House chef and you're going straight to the lineup of shot.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean that one's a heart. Maybe he'll send it to us, who knows right. I mean it's, it is that you know Modern times here, oh and we're bringing on our one of our friends from Big Brother, big sister.
Speaker 3:It's true.
Speaker 2:He has in.
Speaker 3:That's the way I describe him Infectious.
Speaker 2:Infectious is a good word. Yeah, and it's funny because he's gone to all your E-tap. He does and we talk to him every time he's there. And then finally, this time I was like hey, and so he was game.
Speaker 3:And then hopefully he's a retired master chief.
Speaker 2:He's hilarious too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean just an amazing human being, but yeah, he's really good energy and funny.
Speaker 2:And, if we're lucky, this is going to be your job. You have two jobs. This is your job for the season. One is to get our buddy that works for the foundation. No, no, the other foundation in San Antonio.
Speaker 3:Oh, oh, oh, I can. Yeah, that's an easier one for me.
Speaker 2:Easier because, yes, but he is a man on the go. So Jay's lucky he has the sticky hands to get him, because the rest of us can't get him. And then, yes, gary Sinise Foundation, if you're listening out there, we would love, love, love to talk to Gary Sinise Planting to see.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Gary Manifesting. Gary, you're my friend at a minimum. That is Jim.
Speaker 2:Jim can come on too.
Speaker 3:We've talked.
Speaker 2:We had ginger, we had his wife.
Speaker 3:We did. We had Jim's amazing bride and my dear friend.
Speaker 2:Can I tell you that that is the only podcast that I literally had no words for. At one point you actually wrote me a note as well and you're like, hey, I don't want to take over the whole thing, and I'm just like, and I'm not even going to get into why, I'll let you guys go listen. You'll figure it out quickly, she's amazing. But I just wasn't, for weirdly, I'm usually pretty prepared. I did not know her story.
Speaker 2:Sometimes we do blind podcasts, one of us will have an interview and the other person will only know very general stuff which I kind of like you get to learn. That was the case I knew generally about ginger. I didn't know the details. I probably should have checked the details on that one to be better ready, because that's the one that put me at no words for a short time.
Speaker 3:It definitely hurts the heart.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if that it has a beautiful ending, she's amazing, yeah, so if you guys get a chance, Her late husband Troy Trojan. Yes.
Speaker 3:Gave his life to her country and great story and that story?
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly so yeah. All right. Well, I think that we probably could talk forever. Oh, you know who the other one was. That was really good to listen to. There was two others that I thought were really, or three others Matt Cables.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's a whole story by itself. You need to just go listen. This man's a beast and I mean this in size, wise, he's the kindest person you met, but he's a beast in his size. But by all stats, this man should not be on this earth right now.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:So you all need to go find Matt Cables podcast and listen to it. And then two other ones was Mike Wyatt's when we were talking about veteran benefits. He knows, that guy is so intelligent and he knew, knows the micro. He's a VSO, a veteran service officer, and he knows everything there is to know about veteran disability and things that you wouldn't even know. Like he's saying words on that. I'm a nurse. I'm like I got to go look that up. Like Lord that man can. He's smart, but he really gave good information.
Speaker 2:And then the other one was my friend, tim, and the Patriot Art Foundation and I did a couple of those solo just because of scheduling conflicts. And Tim is a long, long, long time friend and he has a master's in fine arts and he's an incredible artist and he just launched his book called the Illumination. I'm totally plugging him on this and if you are Christian faith and you read a Bible, he actually did, took the Bible, did artwork to it and it is throughout this book called the Illumination. It incredible work that he does. So anyways, he was just, he's a great, he's a character anyway, great, great, great. So we had a lot of good people and we have a lot of good people to come. And, yeah, I think we just wanted to mark the new year and just say, look, this is where we've been, this is where we are and this is where we're going.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and many thanks to all of you, you know, not only for making it through this episode. We're, Donna and I were just playing tennis, lobbing things, Spitball, but truthfully, I mean again, whether you're a veteran or not, and you're finding value and listening to these episodes. We're thankful for that. We're thankful for each and every one of you. We want you to know we're not resting on laurels. We are still out there having compelling conversations and finding people with compelling stories and we want to bring those to you because, you know, we want to open the aperture. We want to open the aperture really wide. We want to get you considering, thinking there may be something that you've been looking for. You don't know what it is and then all of a sudden you tune into us. You hear an episode and something grabs a hold of you and you've got your next. You know niche passion in life to pursue.
Speaker 2:And we want to be connectors.
Speaker 3:It's who Donna and I both are. We are connectors. She's taking it to a whole new level.
Speaker 2:That's my title, donna's.
Speaker 1:Fun yeah.
Speaker 3:Chief connector. Yeah, that's true, it's your title, but look, this is who we are. That's what we want to do. We always are going to want to hear from you. We would love to hear your ideas. We'd love to have you say this is something I'm interested in you know, if y'all could do a future episode on X, not X as in what was formerly known at Twitter, like whatever topic.
Speaker 2:We don't know anything about X.
Speaker 3:Yeah, let us know that and we'll do our diligence to try to bring you that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Donna, a whole new year in front of us and excited for the journey ahead. My friend A whole new year.
Speaker 2:All right, everybody, you want to take us out, Jay?
Speaker 3:Look, just I kind of gave it all to you. I said earlier, hit the smash button and like us, follow us, share us, keep tuning in, engage us in some way, as we continue to try to engage you. But more than anything, donna and I just want you all to have a prosperous new year filled with bountiful opportunity. And look, I ended a session last week with some veterans and Donna and I say this to you now remember who you are, remember who you are. You faced many things in life up to this point and you've overcome them all. You're going to overcome this one too. We love you, we appreciate you. We look forward to, at some point in life, cross and past with you, we hope. But until the next episode, on behalf of our parent podcast company coming home well, thanks for tuning into this episode of Beyond the Frontlines.
Speaker 2:Have a great week everybody.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to Beyond the Frontline, a podcast of Coming Home. Well, Join us every other Wednesday and if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with others, post about it on social media or leave a rating and review.