Twisted Remedies - Episode 12 - Professor Garrett Hartley

Garrett Hartley, a Jiu-Jitsu black belt and owner of Revolution Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Fairbanks, Alaska, shares his journey in martial arts and the impact it has had on his life. He discusses how martial arts provided him with a sense of control and autonomy, as well as a supportive community. Garrett also talks about the challenges of running a martial arts business in a remote location like Alaska and his involvement with the Army Combatives Program. He highlights the importance of jiu-jitsu in addressing trauma and building resilience. Limitless Advance is a nonprofit organization that uses education and jiu-jitsu to support current and former military members dealing with physical, mental, and emotional struggles. The organization provides free training, gear, and placement in vetted schools for disabled service members with 50% disability or greater. Trauma-informed jiu-jitsu is a key aspect of their program, focusing on coaches who have experience working with trauma survivors and creating a safe and supportive environment. The organization relies on social media and personal connections to spread awareness and reach potential participants. Garrett Hartley, the founder of Limitless Advance, also emphasizes the importance of spending time alone and surrounding oneself with a positive community as twisted remedies for personal well-being.

https://www.limitlessadvance.org/
https://revolutionalaska.com/
Limitless Advance IG
Revolution BJJ IG

Thank you for listening.  Please don't hesitate to contact me at Twistedremedies.com

Take care of yourselves, and each other.

Transcript

Justin (00:02.632)
And here we are back on Twisted Remedies podcast. My guest today comes is the farthest away guest I have had. My guest is Garrett Hartley from Fairbanks, Alaska. So for those of you paying attention, I've had a couple of in -studio guests and the rest have been remote, but nobody probably as remote as Garrett comes to us today. So Garrett is a Jujitsu black belt, karate black belt.

garrett.hartley (00:24.237)
Hahaha.

Justin (00:31.554)
trains and a whole bunch of different martial arts. The owner instructor at Revolution Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in Fairbanks. He runs a nonprofit called Limitless Advance, which was not that hard to say until I just tried to say it just now. He is a U .S. Army combatives coach and instructor, MMA referee. And like he has any spare time at all, he's also a contractor.

garrett.hartley (00:32.141)
you

Justin (01:02.308)
which I think a lot from what I what I saw is a lot of that is like also rehabbing kind of old houses in Alaska and the challenges that come with that and and a former bush pilot, which apparently is a prerequisite if you're going to go anywhere in Alaska. So I just encapsulated a whole bunch of Garrett's life and experience into

garrett.hartley (01:14.264)
us.

Justin (01:30.122)
a few sentences. So Garrett, welcome to the podcast and it's good to have you on.

garrett.hartley (01:35.183)
Thank you very much. I really appreciate the invitation to be here. And I have to say that I'm also very honored to be here. I've listened to the podcasts that you've recorded up to this point and I feel humbled and honored to be amongst some of the guests that you've had on so far. So thank you very much for having me here today. Yeah, you pretty much covered a...

Justin (01:56.408)
Great. Yeah.

garrett.hartley (02:03.182)
about 20, 25 years worth of my life in a very eloquent sentence there. So yeah, I started the martial arts back in 1997 when I was 15 years old. It's kind of an interesting story there, but you know, I just never found it in me to say no to an opportunity to learn and train. And that's really ultimately culminated in bringing me here to Alaska where I know.

Justin (02:04.298)
Ha ha.

garrett.hartley (02:32.544)
run a couple of different businesses and, and, and work with our, our military using the martial arts to aid and assist them the best that I can.

Justin (02:44.83)
awesome. Now if I understand your story right, your start in martial arts was basically, that was your act of rebellion because you were sneaking over there and it was costing you a dollar which is a pretty, that's a pretty cool, if you're gonna rebel you might as well go do some martial arts.

garrett.hartley (02:55.128)
Yeah.

garrett.hartley (03:04.017)
Right, right. Yeah, that's pretty much accurate. I grew up in a very strict home and environment. And we lived off grid in Northwest Montana, about 30 miles out of town. given the circumstances, I ended up having to ride my bicycle in the town twice a week for tutoring and things like that.

So was getting my cardio in, getting my exercise on my bicycle, and I did. I secretly started taking martial arts classes on my ride home. That was one of those things I wasn't allowed to do. So I was definitely an act of rebellion, but ultimately I got caught and was grounded for a little while after that.

15 years old is when I started training in karate. It took me about four years to get my black belt in karate. And then ultimately ended up teaching karate and being very active in the karate arts for about 13 years. So from that point forward. So owned and operated a karate school here in Fairbanks, Alaska for about five years.

until I decided to take my martial arts career a different direction.

Justin (04:34.444)
Yep. And then at some point, jujitsu comes along and that, that, that had an appeal that, you know, reading your bio, were like, I had to, I had to do this, this thing that was, you know, that was out there. What was it about jujitsu that, got your attention?

garrett.hartley (04:38.654)
Mm

garrett.hartley (04:54.586)
Well, I think, you know, I grew up in the nineties and born in the eighties, grew up in the nineties. So I was always very interested in the martial arts from a very young age. was kind of a major part of my interest from some of earliest memories. So when, when hoist Gracie and,

UFC one came about, you know, that captured my attention just as much as it did, probably most of the martial arts world at that point in time. And, you know, it was kind of one of those things that was so revolutionary. It was this new idea that had had just arrived on the scene in the United States only a years prior. So as I started to grow older and had seen that,

developing in the U .S. It was still illegal in most states. It was still kind of the underbelly of the martial arts society. so, you know, I was very interested in this art that seemed to be superior and having four years of karate and a black belt.

I decided it was, I really wanted to round out my self -defense knowledge by learning something that would defend, that I could defend myself on the ground. at that point in time, there were some people in my own age group that were high school wrestlers and, you know, kind of the feared bullies in my community that it scared me that.

They could potentially take advantage of something I didn't know, which was grappling. So I started taking jujitsu. In October of 2003, there was a school that had opened up in my hometown in Kalispell, Montana. It's long since closed now, but it was called the Ultimate Submission Academy. And they were teaching Nogi, jujitsu, and belly Tudo.

garrett.hartley (07:11.455)
And so, you know, I started training there about six months into my training, had a terrible mishap on the mat and ended up breaking my neck. And that put me out for about a year and a half. During that timeframe, I moved to Alaska. As you mentioned before, was a bush pilot and that's what brought me up here to Alaska. I was flying for a charity organization out into the bush and

Justin (07:12.112)
wow.

garrett.hartley (07:41.18)
as my healing journey progressed, decided it was time to get back into this art that was legitimate enough to take my life and, even in training. So I've kind of always had a flair for, I guess, extremism. So, that kind of drew me back knowing that it was something that was legit and dangerous and that I had the ability to continue training here in Fairbanks.

Justin (07:53.58)
Right.

Justin (08:00.075)
Hahaha

Justin (08:10.05)
Yeah, so I'm curious, you made me think of this while you were, so you get to the point in karate where you've got a black belt, which, you know, that takes time to achieve, it takes work and all of the things that come with it. And I'm wondering when you start doing jujitsu, it, I've met people over the years who are, you know, maybe have a black belt in another art, like a standup art, know, Taekwondo or something. And,

garrett.hartley (08:36.253)
Mm

Justin (08:37.214)
and start jujitsu and are surprised by, wait a minute, this is, you can't just step into it. know, like a black belt from another art doesn't translate the same is kind of my read on it. And I'm curious if you had the same, the same kind of feeling when you started.

garrett.hartley (08:56.455)
I did. I did. You know, I don't want to say that I had a false sense of security from my karate black belt, but I kind of had a false sense of security. You know, I realized during my first class after the second time I went to the bathroom to throw up that there was a huge world that I was missing and that what I knew and what I was actually fairly good at and proficient in

both in the dojo and out of the dojo, was not enough. It was not enough. And that there really was something out there that was much more dynamic than what I have experienced. Yeah.

Justin (09:40.78)
Yeah. So then you, you start training and you get this, what sounds like a severe neck injury. and a lot of people that puts them off the mat. And I know that you, you know, it sounds like in the brief time that we've talked, your, and from reading kind of your, your story, you're, you're not somebody that shies from adversity. but.

garrett.hartley (10:05.01)
No.

Justin (10:06.604)
That's a significant injury to come back from. was that? it mindset? Was it a combination of things? What got you through that healing process and rebuilding and getting back on the mats?

garrett.hartley (10:21.61)
Yeah, that's a good question. It was a significant injury. All but three millimeters of my odontoid vertebrae was broken. that is the vertebrae for those who don't know that your brainstem actually slides through a bone ring in the odontoid vertebrae and all but three millimeters of that broke. had that other three millimeters broken, would have severed my brainstem and I would have been dead.

Justin (10:30.583)
Wow.

garrett.hartley (10:50.454)
So that is a significant injury. did take about six years to fully recover from. I don't have any problems with it now, but recovery from that was long and slow. It took a lot of patience that I didn't have at that time being an untempered, you know, 20 year old man. I can't say that I really relied on any one like philosophy or

belief other than the fact that by nature, I just don't know how to quit. And that's both good and bad. You know, as I get older, I realized that I should have let go of things much sooner, certain things in life. you know, jujitsu has taught me some of those lessons that holding on to something is not always the right decision. But it just that, I guess I didn't know that I had the option of quitting.

Justin (11:43.234)
Yep. Yep.

garrett.hartley (11:49.761)
to be real honest with you, at that point in time, I moved forward because that was where my interests lie. my personal philosophy has always been, as eloquently stated by the Stoic philosophy, that the obstacle becomes the way. And when we run into these obstacles in life or in business, in training, the obstacle becomes

the obstacle becomes the path that we have to follow. It's not an option to stop and turn around and go back. It becomes the way, it becomes the object and the next goal to achieve. So that's my personal philosophy. And I think I didn't understand that fully at that time in my life, but in retrospect, I believe that's what was happening.

Justin (12:43.564)
But you knew that for whatever reason you, there was no, this was not going to take you out of, out of that path. were, you were just going to have to, you were sidelined, you're delayed, you're just going to overcome this and you're just going to keep driving forward. So, I mean, there's a definite, you know, whichever philosophy that is, there's a definite mindset that comes with that, where you're like, I'm just not quitting. That's, that's not an option. and.

garrett.hartley (12:59.83)
Mm

Justin (13:10.902)
you know, regardless of if you knew what to call it at the time, I think it's clearly like I'm not this is not going to stop me. So that's that's commendable.

garrett.hartley (13:18.144)
Yeah, yeah. Thank you. you know, as I, as I get older and I learn more about myself and have gone through counseling and things over the years due to life events, I've really learned that unconsciously at that point in my life, I was really trying to gain control. And I didn't, it's something I didn't have growing up was control of my own life. So,

You know, the martial arts really gave me the confidence to be able to carry myself and to approach life head on. knowing what I know about myself, quitting would have been giving up on that sense of security that I was gaining through the martial arts. So, you know, if we're going to boil it down to what was the mindset, I think that would probably be the unconscious reason that was not really understood at that point.

And it's really only come to light in my life over the past five or six years that some of the things that I was chasing that I didn't really understand and the holes in my life that the martial arts have filled.

Justin (14:30.834)
I fully understand that in so many ways. There's a lot of similarity there. So, you know, I mentioned at the top of this that you're from, you're out in Fairbanks and that, you know, just for people listening, we went through a whole, we started this thing and had some technical difficulties because Garrett's in Alaska. And I think about, you know, it drives home the point that

garrett.hartley (14:35.96)
Okay.

garrett.hartley (14:55.146)
you

Justin (15:00.128)
Alaska is a different place and really to drive that point home this struck me as I was getting set up today like you think about like when I send my scheduling emails out typically it's you know, yep, I'll respond and

And you had the most unique and most Alaskan response of anybody so far. And I think you said something to the effect of, yep, I got the link, but I'm gathering fish this week for winter. So I, so I'll look at it when I get a chance. And I was like, that's, that's some perspective that you just don't have sitting down here in the comfortable conus, you know, like, he's out gathering fish for the, for the winter.

garrett.hartley (15:31.149)
Ha

garrett.hartley (15:42.635)
Right.

Justin (15:46.196)
and we'll get to my scheduling email at some point. I just thought that was fascinating. And on that line, you know, I think about the challenges of people I know who have opened or who run or have opened a Jiu -Jitsu academy or really any kind of martial arts business. And it's difficult in most places, but I imagine that is compounded being where you are given

garrett.hartley (15:46.348)
Hooray, hooray.

garrett.hartley (15:54.072)
you

Justin (16:13.772)
population density or all of the factors that are Alaska. how, as somebody who has their own school, how was that a challenge?

garrett.hartley (16:22.744)
Yeah, it's actually a really good question. To give people a little bit of perspective, right now, you're on the East Coast, I'm in Fairbanks. We're about 4 ,500 miles apart right now. So that's a long distance for our signal to bounce off satellites and relay back to you. So my apologies about the technical difficulties on my end.

I think we're even lucky to get sunlight pumped to us up here. So I appreciate your patience. It's a, it is definitely a, it's a very interesting way of life. And it's not something that I think a lot of people really could understand unless they experience it. Our population here is here in Fairbanks is largely military, military and blue collar.

there's not a lot of white collar here, although it exists. it's, it's very much a down to earth community of people who are independent and they kind of want their elbow room. And, with that being said, there's a lot of hunting and fishing and subsistence lifestyle that is still extremely prevalent and, you know, come here in about a week. It's, we're at the end of August right now. So.

here next week and beginning week of September, our hunting season starts and life pretty much shut down for a lot of the industries here while people go out and get their meat for the winter, things like that. we're very connected to the land here. And with that being said, to segue into your answering your question is that the community here is, it is very independent.

We are very much about helping our neighbors, but at a distance. so opening a school here was to me, it was a labor of passion. I had been going to another school locally where I ended up for various reasons needing to leave. And I didn't want to stop training. I was a four stripe blue belt at the time. So.

Justin (18:21.036)
Yeah.

garrett.hartley (18:43.931)
The best thing that I knew how to do was create a group of grapplers that could keep me on the mat too. So I started Revolution Brazilian Jiu -Jitsu in 2013. The concept actually was born in end of 2012. We opened our doors in 13 and just started training. And quite honestly, my goal was just to be on the mat. So it didn't really matter to me if people showed up or not. I needed to be on the mat.

And that kind of grew, I think that that type of, I guess, do or die passion grew and became infectious. and so, you know, I had already had a name in our community. a small community. We're about 80 ,000 people. I'd already had a name in the martial arts here because of the previously mentioned karate school, as well as my jujitsu training and competition.

By that time, my MMA career was coming to a close. So I'd had that reputation as well. But people just started coming and training and we turned into a core group of students that I still have many of them on the mats with me today. And I don't really know what I would say about the difficulties of it so much as the mindset was.

I'm gonna do this regardless of whether or not I have a big school or a little school. It's not about the money, it's not about the business, it's about the art and what it's doing for me personally, as well as being able to share that passion and love for jiu -jitsu with other people. So that just kind of led me to where I'm at now. Maybe it was a war of attrition, but we're here. And you know, I've...

Justin (20:37.462)
Ha ha.

garrett.hartley (20:40.701)
gone from having two or three students back in that day to having almost 80 students now in a community where there's three other jujitsu schools in town. you know, that's, I don't believe a pat on the back. think it's just strictly the fact that we're here to serve our community, to teach people about jujitsu and just spread that passion of the art with them.

Regardless of their reasons of training here, I appreciate each and every one of them and just do my best to try and invest back into them.

Justin (21:20.48)
Yeah. I mean, this is that same, that same kind of drive and mindset that got you through the, you know, it, this is just, it's something you're going to do. And you, mentioned a couple of times that. That a lot of that is because of what you get out of jujitsu and like what it, what it does for you. And, you know, you mentioned, I think you mentioned confidence earlier. but I'm, curious what.

There's, obviously a deep, a deep connection that jujitsu that you have with jujitsu that is, is driving a lot of this, you know, this passion and this, this mindset and what, I don't know if you can go deeper on that as far as like what that is and, and what, why it means so much to you, because like you and I talked on the phone a while back, like my, my kind of journey through trauma is, you know, I was, trauma was

beat me up and I was in a, you know, some, pretty bad spot mentally. And then I found jujitsu and it was like, and I, part of this podcast is me trying to figure out why it's such a powerful thing. And, and, and it was for me, it's, it was this thing that I, you know, I, and I, again, I don't fully understand why, but it, for me, it was this powerful force that helped get me through some dark times.

garrett.hartley (22:46.269)
Mm

Justin (22:47.242)
So I'm curious, there's obviously a deep rooted thing about jujitsu that you connect with.

garrett.hartley (22:58.779)
Yeah, yeah, I think that's an accurate statement and you know and referencing our previous conversation You know, you've been through a lot yourself you've expressed that as just stated the connection that jujitsu has given you to healing and You know, I think if I'm gonna be real honest looking

back at my career, didn't really, again, I didn't really understand what Jujutsu was doing for me. I just knew that it was helping. And now that I've been in the art now for 21 years and counting, I begin to discover what a lot of those benefits are. In brief, I grew up in a very abusive home.

We were overly controlled. lived off the grid. We didn't really have any autonomy. And it was a very physically abusive scenario. So I didn't feel that I had any control over my life. My destiny was subject to other people. And that wasn't strictly subject to my parents. It was subject to a

a higher governing structure about that as well. you know, I didn't have any control over my future, my autonomy, my feelings and beliefs weren't valid. You all of these things play into the freedom that I began to gain through the confidence that Jujitsu gave me. I feel like I kind of got a taste tester, maybe a

a sample flight of what the martial arts could do to me when I started training in karate. Jiu -Jitsu really, I think what it ultimately did was it gave me an outlet that allowed me to connect my mind and my body and to know that regardless of how bad it gets, I'm still okay. I'm safe.

garrett.hartley (25:15.929)
I have answers. Nobody can do something to me now that hasn't already been done, apart from maybe shooting me. I haven't been shot and I haven't been stabbed, so there's that. But, yeah, exactly. But, you know, as I gain more experience and more understanding of myself and the art,

Justin (25:24.171)
Right.

Justin (25:28.918)
Let's keep that trend moving in that direction.

garrett.hartley (25:44.648)
I'm now realizing that what jujitsu ultimately did subconsciously or unconsciously was to teach me that the problem solving skills under pressure and under duress. And I think that that's where jujitsu comes into play for me as far as, and we'll get into it eventually, limitless advance in using jujitsu in therapy is...

that it ultimately gives its subjects and its students a mind -body connection in teaching people how to address their problems head on, as opposed to maybe fawning from them or fleeing from them. You know, there's all of these responses that we can have to our trauma.

it kind of gave me this ability to be able to address that problem now, knowing that if I don't, the problem gets worse. Those are probably the difficult lessons that I see in retrospect were the most useful for me. But, you know, jujitsu has this draw of community as well. having come from the lifestyle in the past that I had, the community was not a healthy one. And

When I left that community, I didn't feel the freedom to go home. I didn't leave that community until about a year or two years after I got to Alaska back in 2004. So Jiu -Jitsu kind of replaced that community. It gave me a sense of belonging with the group of people that I struggled with daily through training and.

people that came from all different walks of life who accepted me for who I was because I was there as a partner, not as an adversary. And I had never experienced that before. And so I think there's a lot of ways that I could answer that question for you that we probably don't have time in this podcast for, but those would probably be the highlights was, you know, community, the unconscious ability to face

Justin (27:54.208)
Hahaha

garrett.hartley (28:02.113)
problems and stress and the mind -body connection that I hadn't been taught growing up.

Justin (28:10.338)
Yeah, it's, it's, it's as you were, as you were describing that I, I've had several conversations where this kind of thought has, has come up and I've said this to a few people lately, but I look at like going through trauma is you kind of have two choices. can either ignore the trauma and end up with the consequences and the, and all of that, that comes with it. Or you do the work to.

you know, find your way out and get to recovery, but that can be messy and it might be messy and then not messy and then messy again. And that, that's a lot like jujitsu. Like it's not, you know, there's always like, okay, it's messy. and then, you've maybe, you know, you, grow a little bit and then, it's messy again, as you kind of figure this out. And it's, I think there's something in there where it is.

it helps with navigating that mess if you're working your way out of trauma or it forces you to navigate that and it makes you more comfortable, like you get comfortable in uncomfortable situations, physically anyway, and that, you know, the crushing and all of that. so I think there's some piece of that for sure, but.

garrett.hartley (29:21.163)
Yeah.

garrett.hartley (29:29.375)
I would agree. And that's, that's well said. I would agree a hundred percent with that statement. I, again, in my mind, it goes back to the obstacle becomes the way, you know, if I don't address these things that are, holding me back or restraining my life, then I'm choosing to turn around and go the other way. And, and the obstacle should become the way we're finding our way through that.

having that self -awareness to be able to address our faults, our mistakes, things like that. Jiu -Jitsu has taught me a way of doing that. I recall an old analogy I heard years ago. don't remember who told me this. It's been years and years ago, but facing our problems in life is a lot like rebuilding a road where if you're...

traveling down the highway and the road is bumpy, your car's gonna wear out real quick, you're gonna lose your shocks, you're gonna use your, you know, your undercarriage is gonna come apart if you're driving down a rough road, but you have to fix that road in order to have a smoother journey, but you have to tear the road up before you can make it better. And I like that analogy I've used it a lot throughout my life is that things kind of have to get worse and get ugly for it to get better.

Justin (30:46.775)
Yeah.

garrett.hartley (30:55.119)
and you have to tear things up in order to repair it. So I feel like that kind of goes longhand in hand with trauma and recovery as well.

Justin (31:04.044)
Yeah, absolutely. So you, you're in Alaska, then you start, you get connected somehow with the, with the army. mean, it's, it's obviously a big, like you said, a big military community. So maybe that wasn't as, maybe that was inevitable given, know, given, where you are, but how, how did that, that relationship come about with the army?

garrett.hartley (31:26.275)
Yeah. So, as I stated, Revolution Brazilian Jiu -Jitsu was, we opened our doors in 2013. I began teaching. had probably 15, 20 students by, by, 2014. the combatives program on Fort Wayne or we, we have, we have, two military bases right here.

within about 20 or 30 miles of Fairbanks. We've got Fort Wainwright, which is an army base, the northernmost army base in the US. We also have IELTS and Air Force Base. Same thing, it's now the northernmost Air Force Base in the United States. those two bases really provide a lot of population and support to Fairbanks.

After having started Revolution Brazilian Jiu -Jitsu, I started being contacted by the NCIC of the Army Combatives Program on Fort Wainwright. They were operating at a battalion level. They were not a garrison project. They were operating, teaching individual units, combatives. On the battalion level, they contacted me asking me if I would come to work for them and teach them Jiu -Jitsu.

And at the time I was a purple belt and I didn't have what I felt was the expertise to be able to fill that role, nor did I have the time. had just started this school and again, work in construction as well. So I kind of had a lot on my plate. My life kind of took an unexpected turn and went through a divorce at that time.

given the circumstances with the partnership that I had in the school, I ended up selling a lot of my portion of the business and, and, you know, our equipment, things like that off to the business partner that I had at the time, in order to kind of protect it. And, I took the army up on their offer. So end of 2014, I started,

garrett.hartley (33:43.493)
coaching on Fort Wayne, right? Teaching jujitsu to the combatants instructors. And, and that slowly evolved into beginning in, into becoming an army combatants, instructor as well. And, running through all of their, you know, the, Mac piece certification program. they took good care of me. did that for about three years during that time period.

General Shields at the time was the US Army Alaska or the USARAC. He was the general over the USARAC region, which encompassed all of Alaska, including the Aleutian Islands. And he commissioned a competition team, a combatants competition team, where we started to pull

Athletes from every base army and air force throughout the state. give you an idea of how large of a region that is. Alaska is approximately the same size as two thirds of the continental U S so, we're talking about a tremendously large region that we had to pull athletes from. population isn't as large as, as continental U S but, the, the landmass is so, during that time we had 36.

Justin (35:01.958)
Hahaha

garrett.hartley (35:09.189)
athletes, we had two 14 man teams and eight alternates that could step in at any time. If there was an injury, we would train six, eight weeks on six, eight weeks off and travel to travel the country competing in, in, combatives, army combatives tournaments. I ran that program. oversaw it and, was the head coach of that team.

which is what ends up leading us into limitless advance. If, if you don't mind me segueing into that conversation after so 2014, end of 2014 through, I guess it was about two and a half years through, early 2017, the combatives program was training here, coaching and, teaching combatives to the soldiers.

Justin (35:46.358)
Yeah, no, go for it.

garrett.hartley (36:09.934)
The, if you recall back during that time, President Obama at the time went through a sequestration and started cutting funding for a lot of programs that also affected the USRAC region as a whole and battalion on a microscopic level. So where we no longer were able to afford the combatants program as it was at the time.

funding got cut to the program. Therefore the coaching, the training, the competition teams, all of that got not got cut as well. as a result of that, of, of 36 athletes, another five or six coaches on top of that, out of just the athletes alone, eight of them ended up committing suicide within a year and a half. And.

Justin (37:06.248)
wow.

garrett.hartley (37:09.447)
It was an incredibly difficult thing for me to sit back and watch. Although maybe it wasn't necessarily close personal friends with all of them. I'd poured a lot of the time and attention into each one of those people. And as any other Jiu -Jitsu school would be concerned, you know, they become family. And I had to sit back and ask myself why and say to myself, you know, I,

Justin (37:30.028)
Right.

garrett.hartley (37:38.619)
I've had some of these thoughts and these struggles before in my own personal life. What made it different for me? How come I am able to overcome some of those thoughts, those intrusive thoughts and urges, and they couldn't? And I think the answer I kept coming back to was the community that I had around me through Jiu -Jitsu.

Since then, there've been multiple attempts and, you know, suicide attempts, things like that, amongst that same exact group of people. Thankfully, none of them have succeeded, but it really shined a lot of light on a really massive problem. Now, I'd like to back up and say that the Fort Wainwright has the largest suicide rate in

the entire United States Army. And it's all combined in one small base in the middle of Alaska, outdoes the suicide rate in the rest of the Army worldwide. Conditions here are very harsh and difficult. And I think when you couple that with the isolation that we have here in Alaska, it's difficult to get anywhere.

We've got long flights and layovers to get out of state to see family. A lot of these people are, are in fact isolated from their family. Plus our cold environment in the winter time where it might be 30 to 50 below zero for weeks on end. you don't want to go outside. There's not a lot to do. Plus the sun doesn't come up for a couple of months. You know, it's dark and all of these things combined, I think.

Justin (39:28.205)
Yeah.

garrett.hartley (39:32.488)
create the perfect storm, you would, that really induce a lot of these intrusive thoughts. And I believe ultimately that's that combined with the combat experience that most of our soldiers had at that time, being involved in two separate wars during that time.

Justin (39:35.309)
Yeah.

garrett.hartley (39:55.932)
just, you know, they just didn't have that support structure that they needed that I had through Jiu -Jitsu in the community that I'd created around me. So that's where Limitless Advance really took, that's where that seed got started. That's where it started to take ground. Myself and one other instructor that I had worked with on Fort Wainwright,

had agreed that something needed to happen, something needed to change. The VA wasn't helping these guys. The Army has not done enough to set up accountability or community amongst these soldiers to be able to help them. We decided that we wanted to make some change for ourselves and we were tired of watching our friends die. so we...

Justin (40:49.846)
Yep.

garrett.hartley (40:52.515)
started what we were calling limitless advance, which is a play on military terms or tactical terms of the limit of advance, which is kind of that barrier, I guess, that watch line between the enemy and your encampment in combat. It's typically a very unique landmark of some type, whether it be a river, stream, a field, something that's easily identifiable, but it's that safety barrier between you and the enemy.

And what we chose was to name the program Limitless Advance and hope that we can use education and jujitsu, the martial arts to show and be that barrier between the enemy and the darkness and our home camp, our soldiers and current and former who are dealing with.

these same struggles, whether they be physical, mental, emotional, or any combination thereof.

Justin (41:57.986)
So how does that manifest? mean, obviously that's the big goal. What does that look like on a day -to -day, on street level, getting that help out there?

garrett.hartley (42:13.035)
So we're a fairly new organization. So we're still working on getting our name out there. Ultimately, what we've been able to do so far is through the presence of social media, which is where I also met you. love social media or hate it is a great way to reach large numbers of people and spread awareness for causes like this.

Justin (42:30.389)
Yep.

garrett.hartley (42:42.955)
Social media has been a major player for us. My own personal experience or reputation here in the state of Alaska in my martial arts career has also led me to be able to spread that word a little bit quicker through the many schools here in the state who are also very well connected. And in addition to that, we've got a lot of contacts from 20 plus years of experience between myself and some of my coaches.

All over the country, we've got contacts who are chipping in and helping and helping spread the word. What we do and what the foundation does is, excuse me, the nonprofit does is that we vet current and former military members who have 50 % disability or greater. We vet them in their disabilities. We vet schools around the country.

in order to find a good fit for these, these applicants and these athletes that are applying. We try to find a school in their region who is safe to be able to, to coach and instruct disabled service members, preferably somebody who has military experience and are also trauma informed. So.

once we find those schools, we're able to place the athlete into that school and give them a year of free training. a gi, a rash, garden, belt, and, in order to hopefully introduce them to the same type of, the same type of community, mind, body awareness, and healing that I've also been blessed with in my own life, as well as the lives of many of my students and friends that have.

also express the same thing that you and I have both experienced. So that's kind of how we operate. We're trying to introduce people to the world of Jiu -Jitsu. We're not taking existing athletes, blue belt and above. We're strictly sponsoring folks who are white belts or have never trained at all in order to give them that experience.

Justin (45:05.302)
Yeah, I like that you I'm glad you brought up trauma informed because and as somebody who's been doing this significantly longer than I have, I'm curious what what does what does trauma informed jujitsu look like in your in your mind?

garrett.hartley (45:20.845)
That's a real broad question in my mind. That's a big answer. You know, when I'm looking for a coach or a school that's trauma informed, I'm looking for somebody who has experience in either personally experienced or has experienced coaching people who have suffered trauma and knowing

Justin (45:23.638)
Yeah.

garrett.hartley (45:46.579)
knowing what the telltale signs of these traumas are, what the triggers can be and how they can actually work with those triggers. And instead of forcing people into making decisions they're not ready for. I think in a lot of schools, I wouldn't say all of them certainly, but in a lot of schools, coaches can kind of be hard ass and they don't really care if you're.

want to do something or not, you're going to do it because they said so. And, you know, that can be really difficult for certain trauma types where, you know, unfortunately, a lot of trauma comes with a feeling of really not having control over your life. And our goal is to give people the confidence and control back. putting them into a trauma -informed school sometimes

means that the coach is less pushy and willing to work with somebody on their level, whether it be mental and emotional or physical, and is willing to and able to identify with that person and teach them in a way that's most beneficial to them individually.

Justin (47:05.922)
Yeah. I think for a broad question, you summed it up pretty well. So well done. I, I, remember I was, I was looking, just kind of looking around online for like trauma informed schools to see what, was out there. And I found one in Australia of all places. I don't know. It just came up in the search and it's this woman opened it. I don't remember her name, but

garrett.hartley (47:10.014)
No, thank you.

garrett.hartley (47:26.018)
interesting.

Justin (47:31.626)
she's kind of describes what the trauma informed part was. And there was a lot to it. But one of the things that stuck out with me that is super simple is as you're leaving the mat, you give a thumbs up and everybody's kind of just the group is paying attention. And if you, if you leave the mat and you don't give an affirmative that you're, good, somebody just discreetly checks in with you. I was like,

garrett.hartley (47:46.699)
Mmm.

Justin (47:59.17)
Boy, know, something that simple can really, you know, if somebody had a tough role and it, it, you know, triggered something, something as simple as just giving a thumbs up when you leave can really like make a difference. And I thought I was like, there's, you know, these, talked about kind of the broad scope of it, but it's like little, there are so many little nuancey things that a, that a coach or an academy or whatever can, can Institute that can make such a huge difference with somebody, you know.

garrett.hartley (47:59.587)
I like that.

Justin (48:29.152)
in that situation.

garrett.hartley (48:31.221)
I really like that. like that. know, checking in with our partners is so crucial, not only during training, but after training as well. You know, and it also helps build that sense of team and that sense of family and community is knowing that your partners, whether your friends off the mat or not, are checking in on you and care. And I actually, I really like that. And I need to...

Justin (48:41.218)
Right.

Justin (48:53.462)
Right?

garrett.hartley (48:59.993)
think about how I'm going to implement that myself. I like that idea. Yeah.

Justin (49:04.3)
I'll try to find, I'll try to find where I got that from and send it to you. if I can find it again, cause there was a lot more to it, but that was the one thing that just kind was like, wow, that's so simple, but, profound. Yeah.

garrett.hartley (49:09.689)
Thank you. Please do.

garrett.hartley (49:16.625)
Yeah, it's really interesting when you really start looking into these trauma -informed schools and ways to become more conscientious and aware of trauma. And it's really interesting how those just very seemingly insignificant details like that can make such a huge difference.

in creating an inviting environment or one that is comfortable for someone to train in. And I think where my personal difficulty, I feel like I've found a good balance, but a personal difficulty in coaching and being trauma informed has been finding the balance between giving the entire school a good solid class with

good, competition, but good, you know, making sure that everybody is getting what they came for, but not pushing them too far or not pushing those people who may have indicated some other internal struggles they're going through. And it really takes somebody who's, who's aware and paying attention to body language and you know,

maybe some maybe actual audio language, like there's audible languages. There are things that are obvious triggers that really takes an aware instructor to dial in on. But there's a balance there and I think it's a learned skill like anything else. I've certainly not arrived at anywhere, but I'm learning and I think that a little nuance and a thumbs up like that, I really like that. That's one of those small things that we can do to help.

Justin (50:45.165)
Right?

Justin (51:10.89)
I think, you you mentioned the community. think the healthier the community, then probably striking that balance is a lot easier because you're not having to bring the entire, you know, the entire Academy to this, you know, we have to all make concessions. Like when it's a healthy community, the understanding is, Hey, you know, if somebody wants to just flow or whatever, or for whatever reason, they just want to start like.

When you have that level of community and whatever that, you know, is built there, I think that that probably is an easier balance to find. It's probably still difficult, but it seems like the healthier the environment, that easier it is to get somewhere close to that.

garrett.hartley (51:49.211)
Mm

garrett.hartley (51:56.305)
I would agree. It's much easier to manage that and make sure that you stay as close to the balance line as possible. Yeah, I would agree. In my own school, I've been blessed with a doctor of psychology who's practiced for 20 plus years, who's also former military. so he understands trauma very well and both being

you know, on both sides of the fence realistically when it comes to combat and soldiers. So he is a, he's a Brownbelt in my school. He's been with me for about 10 years now. And he runs all of my fundamentals classes. So I opened up a fundamentals class that we put all of our limitless advanced sponsored athletes into. And, you know, it's not a competitive class. It's an introductory class and it's, it's designed to be a three month course.

that gives them a full overview of all of the basic positions, transitions, sweeps and defenses, and get them to about that first strike level. And then at that point, our hope and our kind of what we're discovering is that these folks who come to us with these traumas are going through this fundamentals class with somebody who is very well trauma informed.

who's able to help them through these situations that they're uncomfortable with. And by the end of that roughly three month period of time, then they get to choose whether they stay in that fundamentals course or join the general population of miscreants and the rest of the adult class.

Justin (53:43.221)
What a great asset to have with somebody with those credentials to give people their, you know, their start and give them a good roadmap, both, you know, from the trauma informed side and the jujitsu side. That's a what a wow. That's a great asset.

garrett.hartley (54:00.644)
I absolutely am blessed beyond reason with that. Yeah, it's an invaluable asset.

Justin (54:04.013)
Yeah.

Justin (54:07.778)
So for somebody who is of that population you talked about where they're either still in or post service or whatever their situation and they're trying to get connected. And maybe that first step is always a hard

Justin (54:31.41)
hard one, right? So maybe they're struggling with taking that first step to reach out and, you know, do I want to start training? And what do you say to them to try to get them over that initial step to get in the door?

garrett.hartley (54:45.192)
You know, I haven't quite unlocked the rubrics of that, to be real honest with you, because it's so hard, especially when we are dealing with something very personal and intimate, deep down inside, it's very hard to be vulnerable and to admit that I need help. you know, I find that in a lot of these situations, just simply having a conversation and hearing people.

Justin (54:49.554)
Yeah.

garrett.hartley (55:13.06)
usually softens them up or allows them to know that they're safe, that it's not gonna be a pissing contest on the mat. You're here for your benefit. You move at your pace and it doesn't really matter to me if that pace is a rabbit's pace or a snail's pace. Being on the mat is more important than anything else as far as I'm concerned, because that's where I get to help and that's where my passion lies.

I don't think that jujitsu is the only form of therapy if they're not interested in jujitsu and they're not comfortable with that. I have resources that I point them to. But to answer your question honestly, I don't really have an answer to that. Everybody has been different. Most of the people that approach us have been recommended by another friend and

You know, if they're not being personally encouraged by myself, my coaches or other coaches from our vetted schools, then they're being approached by friends saying, hey, you you should really try this out. It really helped me or I know someone that helped a lot. Go talk to limitless advance, you know, go talk to the We Defy Foundation. There's quite a few programs like ours that also do the same thing.

on board with all of them. So I think, I feel like people don't value their personal relationship with those friends or family members. They tend to not place enough value on their own relationship with that person when it comes to encouraging them to get help.

you know, and pointing them into in another direction, say, jujitsu or, you know, we want our friends and family to get that help and we don't want to see them suffer. But oftentimes we have a proclivity to tell people just to pull themselves up by their bootstraps or deal with it or read this book or well, how about maybe giving them another community instead? Give them a healthy community of people to become involved in who care.

garrett.hartley (57:33.283)
and aren't going to tiptoe around problems, but we care, you know? So I wish I had a better answer for you. I'm sorry that I don't, but it gives me pause for thought on that.

Justin (57:38.454)
Right, right. Yeah.

Justin (57:45.088)
I mean, you're I think you're figuring it out like everybody else is figuring it out because it's you know, it's it's the same with, you know, with law enforcement trying to get cops to take that first step is is also a challenge. I, know, everybody I've talked to, nobody's really cracked that code either. So it's it's I think you're right, though. I think it is. Everybody has a different. A different thread.

garrett.hartley (58:06.078)
Interesting.

Justin (58:15.084)
that is the right thread to pull on. And it's a matter of figuring out what that is and meeting them where they're at and trying to, you those conversations, you know, I think showing that being vulnerable is not the end of the world and some good can come from it because both of those, you know, both veterans and law enforcement, that's a, you know, it's a high functioning, high.

You know, it's, it's a field where vulnerability is not always a good thing and that overcoming that is a challenge. And I think that if you can get over that initial hump, then you can start, you know, making some progress, but it's certainly a challenge.

garrett.hartley (58:55.38)
Do you mind me asking what was the catalyst that brought you to Jujitsu? Was it somebody recommending it to you? Was it your own research? What was it that got you into Jujitsu?

Justin (59:07.906)
So I had been a fan of all the same stuff. I liked, you know, I watched, I liked the UFC. I knew what a triangle was. I knew what an arm bar, like, you know, I knew enough nomenclature to watch and kind of, he's arm barring and he's about to, but had never experienced it. And I was in a admin position, supervisory position at my PD and my recruiter.

garrett.hartley (59:26.423)
Okay.

Justin (59:37.484)
who worked for me, who I'd known for years, we worked together for years in various capacities, was a brown belt at the time and had just gotten the approval, which I fully supported as his immediate supervisor. Like he had just gotten approval from the chiefs to do a, like a blue belt program for the PD with partnering with a, partnering with a gym that, that the PD was, was connected with.

garrett.hartley (59:59.671)
Hello.

Justin (01:00:06.582)
So he was like, you know, he was in my office all the time. We're talking about work stuff and we would talk about that. And he was like, you should come to class. And, you know, I was doing a great job of disguising the mental shape I was in. Like I could put on, you know, like everything's great. And, you know, you wouldn't know that I was struggling. And, but he just was like, yeah, you should come check it out. And it was just the right timing. And I was like, yeah, you know what?

I should do that because I got, I had a really good flexible schedule. I could make that work. So I went and you've, you've listened to the episodes. You've heard me say this, but I went to my first class and, my instructor now, because this other guy retired and moved away, but my instructor now was a purple belt at the time. I outweigh him by at least 30 pounds and he got on top of me and it was, I was like, I, I can't do anything about this. Like what is happening?

And I mean, I'd been a cop at that point for. Probably close to 20 years, and I had been in some scraps here and there and did all right, but I never went looking for a fight and, I could talk my way out of them most of the time, but I was like, I can handle myself. And then and now I'm under this hundred and like 55 pound guy just. Helpless, I'm like, this is stupid. And then I just finally like I left there like, well, I have to keep doing this. It was kind of like, you know, the.

the obstacle was became the path because I was like, can't, I can't, I can't live knowing that that can happen. Like, and, there was, again, there was some, I think that mind body connection was part of it where I left there, like every, and still I leave the mat, like no matter how hard roles are, and I'm 52 years old. So everybody I roll with is younger than me in where I train. Like I'm the old guy.

garrett.hartley (01:01:36.034)
became aware.

garrett.hartley (01:01:58.295)
you

Justin (01:02:00.34)
Everybody's younger than me. Some of them are half my age. So every role is a hard role. And but I leave there like feeling like I was in a car crash, but just euphoric. Like I love this and it's bizarre. It's like my knees. I'm having knee issues in both knees now. Like, I don't know why. I do know why. But it's it's just there. Yeah. So it was somebody just the right timing, you know, that. it wasn't like it like you said, it wasn't

garrett.hartley (01:02:12.106)
Yeah. Yeah.

garrett.hartley (01:02:19.074)
Hahaha

Justin (01:02:29.282)
Jiu -Jitsu is not the only thing out there. also around that time got connected with my therapist who is great. Like I had been going to somebody else and it just wasn't a good fit. And I took a break and I recognized that I needed to go talk to somebody again and found this person. that, so the combination of the right therapist, EMDR therapy and Jiu -Jitsu just was like the checkbox to get me back on track and, toward recovery. So.

garrett.hartley (01:02:55.767)
Awesome. Awesome. That's really interesting. I appreciate you sharing that. That's a real interesting approach and story in how you got into Jujitsu. I did listen to the episode of the EMDR episode that you put out a few months back, but I don't recall the details of how you got into Jujitsu. And it's really interesting to me that those two things worked in tandem.

Justin (01:03:13.42)
Yeah.

garrett.hartley (01:03:24.833)
and we're beneficial to you in that way. Yeah, that law enforcement is one of those things that I don't know very many people who can survive as long as you did in a community like your own that can't, you know, are walking away with these same type of traumas that really should be addressed. And congratulations to you for,

Having that desire to see your way through it, that's a big step.

Justin (01:03:58.562)
Yeah, it's the goal of this is to help more people find their way out because it is it's messy and it's, know, if again, if you don't if you don't do something, it eats you alive. And, you know, similar to I mean, it's just I think the difference, the glaring difference is the the trauma is different. And I think, you know, cops like we don't deal with the same.

physical trauma that like that's you know coming back injured and stuff deal with that's certainly a whole different level of you know of challenges to overcome so

garrett.hartley (01:04:32.115)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. I think there are some similarities, you know, high stress similarities, you know, that we deal with, but you're on a physical level, I would agree. yeah, very interesting.

Justin (01:04:47.724)
So the question I always kind of wrap up or work toward wrapping up with is, you know, this is called Twisted Remedies for a reason. Mine is obviously jiu -jitsu. I do cold plunges. I have a sauna now that I'm figuring out. That's kind of fun.

Music is one of my things as you look behind me, but I ask everybody and yours clearly is jujitsu. So you can't use that answer. What, what, what other twisted remedies, if any, do you have that help you stay on track and stay well?

garrett.hartley (01:05:14.606)
Ha ha ha.

garrett.hartley (01:05:24.514)
You know, it's a, that's a real good question. honestly, he said, I'm not allowed to use jujitsu, but, jujitsu. Okay. Jujitsu really has been that, that thing that has always brought me back to normal. I say normal in quotation marks. It's that thing that's always kept me grounded.

Justin (01:05:34.845)
make an exception. You can. You can use Jiu -Jitsu.

Justin (01:05:48.278)
Right. Right.

garrett.hartley (01:05:53.825)
You know, between my work with the military, continued work with the military on Fort Wainwright and with the airmen on Eielson, my business and construction, you know, and just the environment and surviving in this location in and of itself, there's a lot that goes wrong on a regular basis. And I'm a professional problem solver that is in

constantly in a high state of stress. So, regardless of what's bringing that stress in, the response, the body still has the same response with, chemically speaking, and it does really create a trauma. Jiu -Jitsu has always brought me back down. It's that thing, that one thing that I can just have the worst day.

ever on so many levels and

I might not want to go to training. I might sit in my car. I'm the coach. I have to be there. I'm not allowed to let anybody know that I'm having a bad day once those doors are open. I now have to go in and lead by example and be a positive force and environment for everybody else on the mat and then be able to teach them and coach them and mentor them not only in Jiu -Jitsu but in

Justin (01:07:04.524)
Right.

garrett.hartley (01:07:26.814)
and just being a good partner and a good person. And it's not always an easy thing to do. Sitting there at the doors after a bad day, just not even wanting to unlock that door, just wanting to go crawl under a rock somewhere. Jiu -jitsu has always been that thing that just makes everything okay. And I would say that, since you told me I wasn't allowed to use Jiu -jitsu as an answer.

Which, which I get, I understand. I think probably my biggest thing that keeps me grounded and safe is spending time alone with myself and learning to be, I'm a very busy person. I've always been a very busy person and I'm realizing that that was a result of some of the things that I've also.

suffered through my life in not addressing myself and learning to be alone and to be happy and love myself on that level completely alone has been a real big part of my personal growth. I maintain that by making sure that every so often, typically every, if I'm letting it go much more than a month, I'm running the edge.

I need a few days to myself, whether that's traveling or just shutting off the phone and the TV and staying at home. For me, I need to go inside my mind and clean out the cobwebs. And that personal time of facing myself, looking myself in the mirror and dealing with those thoughts that creep up when I'm in silence has been a really big part of my own recovery.

And then surrounding myself with a real solid and positive community of people. You know, I don't have some diet plan to throw at you or some deep philosophy of saying like, this is what I do is I run 10, I'm not David Goggins. don't, I don't run a hundred mile marathons or things like that. I find that peace through.

Justin (01:09:33.858)
Ha ha ha ha.

garrett.hartley (01:09:48.638)
through facing myself inside my own mind and then surrounding myself with a solid group of people. They say that we are the average of our five closest friends and I believe that. And I have really been blessed to find a very small core group of people who are my closest friends and confidants.

and spending time with those people, bouncing ideas, talking about struggles, talking about goals and opportunities and those, that small cellular level of core friends has really helped me through a lot of the struggles and has landed me where I'm at now. So maybe not so much a twisted remedy, but that's been my go -to.

Justin (01:10:48.364)
That's fascinating to me that you like that introspective alone time that that's one of your go -tos because that is so for like, that's where the, for me, the dark clouds start to roll in and the negative voice is like, so it's like, that's fascinating to me that, that that's your solace because I'm not there yet. I'd love to, that sounds great, but like that's, that's so contrary to like,

where I, where I am when I'm like, I, I try to fill space. So I'm not, you know, not there. And I mean, I've come a long way with that from, from before, but like, that's so fascinating to me that, that you can, you can be like, you seek that out. Like that's, that's so cool. That's awesome.

garrett.hartley (01:11:25.065)
Yeah. Yeah.

garrett.hartley (01:11:35.371)
Yeah, thank you. And I understand where you're coming from too. I've also been there. think that's one of the downsides to our smartphones and tablets and our social media is that it gives us this mindless droning that we do. we can sit there with, you know, turn on Netflix and scroll on our phones for hours and lose hours of our day that way.

while not really being alone with ourselves and addressing those inner thoughts. And it's an escapism. It's kind of a drug in and of itself. And I'll send you a link. I can't recall the book, the name of the book off top my head. I'm really sorry that the name is slipping my mind, but essentially the book is about facing.

Justin (01:12:16.653)
Yeah.

garrett.hartley (01:12:31.764)
facing the demons face in the darkness. you know, I don't want to say befriending them, but kind of befriending the darkness and befriending the demons and understanding them. that's, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I'll send you a link if you're interested and yeah, that's.

Justin (01:12:43.384)
Yeah, it's that shadow work. Yeah. Yeah.

Justin (01:12:54.444)
Yeah, definitely.

Justin (01:12:58.55)
I can put that in the show notes too when you send it. then people listening can look for it as well. How do people find Limitless Advance or Connect with You online or any other things that you want to kind of put out there for people to look up?

garrett.hartley (01:12:59.124)
I think.

garrett.hartley (01:13:18.59)
Yeah. So, just that question coming on the heels of bashing social media. I am on Instagram. I'm on Facebook under Limitless Advance. You can find us there. You can also find us online and look at our website where you can apply to be an affiliate school or an athlete. You can donate on the website. And that's at limitlessadvance .org. It's all one word.

Justin (01:13:25.287)
Hahaha

garrett.hartley (01:13:49.045)
you know, I, I have never, I always have a hard time self promoting or asking for money, that sort of thing. It's been so foreign to me. I'm a doer. I'm the guy who wants to go just get it done. but unfortunately in this situation, and maybe this is the next step in my journey is learning how to rely on other people and, and, and put that out there and knowing that, and allowing

people to see that these type of things can't happen. We can't help these lives and these soldiers. We can't help these people who've protected us and our country and given us our life without without help. And whether that be help financially or help becoming an affiliate member or there's many roles that can be filled. You know, we need grant writers. We need admin and

There's so many things that we need help with that, regardless of the skill level or, or, experience in life, there's so many ways to help. And, we would love to be able to work with anyone who's interested in helping and would love to be able to be in contact with anyone who might be interested in utilizing the, nonprofit for their own personal interests. If, you know, veterans and, and current.

current military service members. And real quick, this didn't get mentioned before, but I would like to throw it out there. One side of this nonprofit, due to the way that the nonprofit was conceived really with my work with the combatants program and the loss of the athletes, things like that. One of the things that we do that I failed to mention earlier is

If you are an active duty combatives instructor in the army, in any of the military branches, I'm sorry, it's not just the army. This is open to all services. If you are part of a combatives or any hand -to -hand combat program with any of our services, we will also sponsor the instructors.

garrett.hartley (01:16:14.784)
so that we know they're getting proper training that they can then pass on to the soldiers. And hopefully through that way, be able to add value to their training and the lives of other people. So throwing that out there as well, if you're a current service member and you're listening to this podcast, please reach out to us. We'd like to help you in that way as well.

Justin (01:16:20.418)
That's great.

Justin (01:16:36.716)
That's great. stuff. Garrett, I appreciate your time. Thank you for as I mean, I was I'm a veteran, but that was a brief. was a brief period. actually used to fly over Alaska on the way to Korea and back. But but I yeah, thank you. think the work you're doing is important. And as you know, as a veteran who made it out.

garrett.hartley (01:16:52.035)
okay. All right. Thank you for your service.

Justin (01:17:01.502)
unscathed, know, there's certainly a lot of people who need who need what you're doing. So thanks for coming on. It's been it's been great talking to you and maybe we'll do this again. Thank you.

garrett.hartley (01:17:12.321)
my pleasure. I would love to do that. Thank you very much for the honor.