From Special Ops to Storytelling: Mike Taylor’s Journey from the Battlefield to Business

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Become a Global Ambassador for Self-Worth. Text us your feedback! After 22 years in special operations, Mike Taylor traded the intensity of combat for the world of creative entrepreneurship—and the transformation is nothing short of remarkable. In this candid conversation, Mike opens up about the unexpected twists that shaped his post-military life, from the quiet revelations of COVID lockdowns to the identity crisis that followed his retirement. Now the founder of Taylor Life Digital Marketi...

Become a Global Ambassador for Self-Worth. Text us your feedback!

After 22 years in special operations, Mike Taylor traded the intensity of combat for the world of creative entrepreneurship—and the transformation is nothing short of remarkable. In this candid conversation, Mike opens up about the unexpected twists that shaped his post-military life, from the quiet revelations of COVID lockdowns to the identity crisis that followed his retirement. Now the founder of Taylor Life Digital Marketing and the gaming label Chaotic Chronicles, Mike shares how discipline, resilience, and a creative spark helped him rebuild purpose beyond the uniform. His story is raw, insightful, and a testament to the power of reinvention when structure meets imagination.

(10:46) https://porthouse.kw.com/

(23:06) https://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/Newsroom/WreathsAcrossAmericaRadio

Mike's LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/mike.taylor357?subscribe

Chaotic Chronicles: https://linktr.ee/Chaotic.Chronicles?subscribe

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An SDYT Media Production I Deviate from the Norm

00:00 - Introduction to Transacting Value

01:44 - Mike Taylor's Background and Businesses

06:19 - Building a Marketing Agency and Mentorship

11:50 - Gaming Passion: Chaotic Chronicles

17:58 - Finding Purpose in Community Service

23:11 - The Challenge of Military Transition

29:39 - Values Shift: From Work-Centric to Life-Focused

39:42 - Creating Opportunities For Others

50:00 - Episode Wrap-Up and Contact Information

WEBVTT

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The views expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast host and guest and do not necessarily represent those of our distribution partners, supporting business relationships or supported audience.

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Welcome to Transacting Value, where we talk about practical applications for instigating self-worth when dealing with each other and even within ourselves, where we foster a podcast listening experience that lets you hear the power of a value system for managing burnout, establishing boundaries, fostering community and finding identity.

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My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and we are redefining sovereignty of character.

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This is why values still hold value.

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This is Transacting Value.

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You have to reevaluate yourself, like I said, and look inside and see what you really want in life, and I think what you really want is what your heart is going to do and how you're going to follow it Today on Transacting Value.

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What is it about?

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A high intensity operational tempo, like in the special operations community, that drives us afterwards to try to find some way to escape, some way to create purpose or, more importantly, some way to self-express.

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Ideally, those opportunities also come with bringing our family and friends together.

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Now, in today's conversation, we're talking with the founder of Taylor Life Digital Marketing, mike Taylor, all about how he's done it and what he's done and how he's used it to build his businesses and his brands throughout the last year and the few years prior.

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My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and from SDYT Media.

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This is Transacting Value, mike.

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What's up, man?

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How you doing.

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I'm doing great man.

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Thanks for having me.

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It's been one long wait for here, huh.

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Yeah, yeah, but you know what I got to say, dude.

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Everything that I have heard you do over, especially the last year, let alone up to that point, sounds like it's taken you a lot longer to get into a position where you can piece it all together and make sense of it.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's definitely uh, doesn't happen overnight.

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You know, that's a, that's something that a lot of people, a lot of people I didn't realize they don't, they don't really um, they don't grasp, they think it's all the good stuff.

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They don't see how hard and the time and definitely all the effort that goes and goes into it.

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So it's definitely not something that happened overnight, that's for sure.

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Yeah, well, that's sort of the downside of social media, I guess.

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You know.

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When Zuckerberg stormed onto the scene, everybody was like, hey, life's pretty good for everybody.

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I guess Pretty much, you can't capture all the effort.

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Let's start here, man.

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So you've got a lot of things going on, and so for everybody else who's unfamiliar with the show or unfamiliar with your brand and your businesses, let's just open there, okay.

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Uh, who are you?

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Where are you from?

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You know what sort of things are shaping your perspective on your businesses and on life right now well, I'm uh, mike taylor, as you said.

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Uh, usually right now you can.

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Actually, I found out about a week or so ago.

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You can google me.

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I didn't know that.

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I was kind of surprised, but you can google uh, mike taylor, life and I pop up all over the place.

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So it was, uh, it was, it's actually felt really good for all the hard work.

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Um, yeah, so I uh I'm actually retired after 22 years in the military and I now I'm south of San Antonio and you know pretty much a full time dad and I started my own marketing agency probably right before I retired, probably about two years before I retired.

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I started kind of like building the foundation of it and since then I have had a lot of adventures to kind of get where I'm at now.

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The marketing agency is doing well, we have clients.

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We're actually at the part now where we're starting to.

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We're in the planning stages and about to execute next year about expanding, we're working on a program and mentorship for kind of a mission based internship.

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So the interns mostly people sit here interns they think of, you know you don't pay them, they treat them like crap and they just, you know, free labor.

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And my thing is more of like I want it to be more of a mentorship, where I'm training them, they get hands on, they do get, you know, a small pay.

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So you know you get permission for whatever they do, and then they stick with us and we kind of mentor them and kind of train them and then when their time is done I think we're working on a 24-week type process and when they get done, they get to have two choices they can sign on with us full-time or they can go somewhere else so we can write them a letter recommendation, you know, and kind of vouch for them and stuff like that.

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So we want to give them experience and stuff.

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I uh, I came up with that just because a lot of people or a lot of businesses, they want somebody fresh out of out of college and they want freaking 10 years of experience and like this is possible.

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You can't, you can't do like what the hell?

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So that's where I kind of I wanted to do that uh, forum, uh.

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So while we do that, we're kind of expanding.

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We're doing that, uh, in the process of kind of shifting our focus.

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We've been in a lot of um big corporations and we did um like big businesses, medical facilities and then music artists and things like that but now we're trying to be more of the technical side, or technology side and gaming type stuff, mostly because that's what I like, I enjoy it the most and it's something that I don't want to look five years from now, ten years from now, and I dread going to work.

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I'm retired, I don't need to work, this is something I want to do.

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So I sat there about six months ago and I'm like why the hell am I even?

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I want to do something that I like I'm the boss, I should be able to do this.

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So that's where that came from, and now we're kind of in that shifting phase.

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It's a very slow process, but that's where I want to be.

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Yeah man and you said gaming.

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I assume by that wall behind you you're talking board games.

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Oh yeah, yeah, that's, that's just one wall right there.

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I actually have a whole row over the ceiling and I got things over here.

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So, yeah, I do a lot of board games.

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We actually have a label.

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Here we go Chaotic Chronicles is our gaming label.

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I started that this year and um now I went from myself and then I had a friend kind of like was helping me along, and then he kind of signed on, and then now we have eight people.

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You know, um, so we're all working towards this and like, got this huge Kickstarter coming up in March.

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And we have, uh, people that are well known in the industry actually was actually saw us online and saw some of the stuff that we did and they were just like, hey, like we want to jump on your label, like we want to be with you, and I was like, oh yeah, so it was really cool.

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Um, yeah, we, we had that and you know, working with them.

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And then then, along with that, we have a guy that actually wants to write a book series on our, you know, adventures and world and things that we did.

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On that.

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Like the lore of the game.

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Yeah, like the modules that we write and the adventures and the lore, the backstory, like they want to write a whole book series on it.

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That's cool.

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Yeah, so he's working on that.

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Did you think it was going to be something like what it's becoming, or was this just a hobby?

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it was a hobby, like I started actually started playing.

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Uh, it was kind of like a dungeons and dragons type thing with the kids because of covid um, we like board games.

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I have three little girls um, I have four kids total, uh, but this my son's already was already out of the house, and then I have three little girls and so we started getting miniatures, we started getting board games and we started playing.

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It went from playing almost every day because they were in COVID, so school was in the morning and then couldn't really do much in the winter, so we just did our thing.

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So it went from there to two years later I had three more kids.

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So there's six kids around my table, you know, ranging from eight years old to 18 years old and uh, so I was just putting on these huge parties for these kids, uh.

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And then I had some, you know, some older friends that I would game with as well.

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But finally one one of my friends was like man, like you write all of this stuff, which backstories I used to write all the way from high school until now.

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So I have tons of material that I just write constantly.

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And I was like, yeah, I would definitely write these things and I come up with the story.

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So he's like man, we should publish them on some stuff.

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So he kind of pointed me in the right direction.

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I did a few things and I got published on the website and I was selling them, you know a little bit.

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And so then I was like man, I should probably make this something more serious.

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And a friend was just kind of doing it and I was, I was out of the military already and I was in and out of that.

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That.

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That loophole, you know.

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You know you got your highs and lows and this kind of kept me driving forward.

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You know you're, you know you got your highs and lows and this kind of.

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This kind of kept me driving forward.

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You know when, uh, when I was starting to get stuck in the mud, and so it just, you know it kind of fueled me to keep going and I did it.

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And this year, um, I kind of just amped it up and it kind of just blew up.

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Like I wasn't ready for how big it got, like I'm learning, I'm learning, I'm still learning as I go and I tell my team like, hey, guys, like I'm still learning, like we are growing way too fast, you know, for me to kind of I'm trying to keep up, you know, because on top of that, I have a marketing agency that you know that I'm running and I go, now that we have this and I also have like other endeavors on the side that I that I'm also doing as well um, yeah, which, yeah, it's a good.

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And on top of that we have a podcast uh, I'm one of the one of the two posts for a podcast called side quest, which also deals with gaming and all of the stuff in that realm.

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Uh, we had narrow divergent uh uh, team come on and they were like kind of telling us how, like they used to use it for counseling and, you know, board games and stuff like that.

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And we had another one for like education purposes.

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We've had some with like just the business.

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So people, if they wanted to learn how to like get into the business, you know, instead of just hearing me every episode, they can, like, you know, come on and you know we have other people uh, talk about it and they have.

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You know, we have one guy that has a game show on youtube which is really big and he, um, he was on the show and he talked about some of the stuff that he was doing, and so I mean our, our show is doing quite well.

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We're booked until april now of next year for you yeah, so, uh, so, yeah.

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So now we had to kind of slow down on getting guests because I'm like we, you know we're booked, like before you know we'll have the rest of the year booked out and what are we?

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Going to do.

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All right, folks, sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

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Where values start in the home.

00:11:42.256 --> 00:11:47.985
Yeah, so now we had to kind of slow down on getting guests because I'm like we're booked, like before you know, we'll have the rest of the year booked out and what are we going to do?

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It sounds like you traded one high op tempo for another.

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Yeah, I did.

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Was that just sort of fortuitous and it just happened?

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Or by design?

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Or are you finding?

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Maybe it was by design in hindsight?

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I think both you know.

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I think, yeah, I am one of those people where I cannot sit.

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Still, you know, not just you know, I have like crazy ADHD where I'm constantly moving, which was great when I was in the army because I was doing like a million things but you can be behind a desk or make me sit down.

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That's when, like you know, that's that that's when you start falling in that hole.

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You know, you start, you know, trying to trying to creep out of it.

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And um, so a lot of times I have to keep myself busy.

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And then, um, in the past I found keeping myself busy wasn't always good.

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You know, there's always stuff.

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You know always did some dumb stuff and I was like, oh God man, like so now, uh, my, my goal, as I was, as I hit, uh hit COVID, and we were stuck at home and I was getting ready to retire, I thought I was going to be like contracting.

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I thought I was going to be like every other guy that I worked with, contracting, going overseas, doing personal security.

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I'd already got my personal security license certificates and all that stuff.

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I already had made contacts for going overseas for contracting.

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Um, but as covet hit and I was sitting there with my girls every day and being able to eat dinner with my wife and stay up and watch tv or even go to bed with the same time as her, um, you know, those six months or nine months, however long, it was like kind of planted a seed where I was like, man, this is, this is nice, like this is what this is, what a normal life is, and, uh, that was.

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I was just really.

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It kind of kept me thinking and, as as as time got closer, I had two years left, um, and half of that was during COVID.

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I kind of was just like you know what I think I don't think I'm going to.

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I think I'm going to do that anymore.

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I told my wife I was like I don't, I don't think I'm gonna do that.

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Man, like I want to, I think I'm gonna make the because I had the marketing agency running.

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It was more part-time, I had a couple people you know and uh, it was just more of like a hobby that kind of kept me busy on my free time.

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And I told her I was, I think I'm just gonna kind of amp it up, you know, kind of just work on this more and uh you know, she was just, she was great.

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She was like okay, you know, see what, see what happens, you know what's gonna, what's the worst gonna happen, you know, and that that kind of kind of helped me push a little bit more, because I was like man, I tell people like what are you gonna do is like I won't be a soccer dad, you know, I think I want to be like like a full-time soccer dad, you know, for my girls and be there for my wife, uh, and kind of you know there, and every guy that I worked with like that's a horrible idea guy, like you know, I'm going to be reading your obituary like within six months of you get now like there's no way that you, of all people, are going to be able to sit still in a house, you know, babysitting three little girls, and I was like no, there's other things I can be doing.

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I know, you know they they have to go to school sometime.

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So that's where a lot of that kind of came from.

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And I, I was very lucky because I got onto a program.

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I, I, uh, I retired out of Fort hood, which Fort hood is has one of the best retirement programs out there.

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Um, it was phenomenal the program and I was, um, I kind of was doing like a small internship, uh program with this, with this company, uh, it's medical training facility.

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They were small at the time and I helped them grow.

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I used my marketing agency and I was their number.

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I was like their, their official marketing agency that they used.

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So, um, as we were doing it, I was in that type of work program and soon as I signed out and retired then they got me on full time.

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Then I was getting like a full paycheck because I had all the work done with them.

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So then I went right into full time army, to full time, you know, doing that, which was great.

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I did that for about nine months.

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Great for money?

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Was it great for, like your, your, your mental space, to like decompress?

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I think partly it was good for me because I was able to stay busy, um, but I don't think I was really fully like realizing that I was out, like I was done, until, as I was kind of amping down um with them, is when I kind of it just really hit me.

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I was like, oh man, like I don't really have anything to do, like I don't have a, I don't have a job per se.

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You know, yeah, I still got up with the girls every morning, I kind of still kind of kept my workout routine, and then the rest of the day was okay, I work a little bit for a couple hours and then what do I do?

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And the kids didn't get home till five.

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So a lot of times I have four or five hours and I'm just like I don't have a routine, I don't have, and slowly I just kind of started coming around.

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I was unraveling yeah, that's when the problems come in.

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Yeah, and this this month, actually this month I hit three years.

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So I've only been out for three years after 22 years.

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Um, so by that time I hit my second.

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Yeah, it was like year two of me being out right right around.

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I was hit.

00:16:44.724 --> 00:16:45.105
I already hit my.

00:16:45.105 --> 00:16:45.666
I think I hit my second.

00:16:45.666 --> 00:16:46.849
Yeah, it was like year two of me being out Right around.

00:16:46.849 --> 00:16:52.068
I think I hit my first year and that's when I started kind of unraveling and that was a big one.

00:16:52.068 --> 00:17:04.500
That's when it really hit me and I was struggling and my business started kind of it wasn't growing, it was barely keeping itself going because I had no momentum, I didn't have anything.

00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:05.823
I couldn't push anybody.

00:17:05.823 --> 00:17:23.250
I, you know I'd contracted out you know some marketers or whatever that you know I would hire some people here and there and they would kind of keep it going for me and but I had no momentum to have it growing or, you know, I wouldn't be able to invest back into it or anything like that, and it just kind of just stayed afloat.

00:17:23.250 --> 00:17:24.913
I didn't have anything else going for me.

00:17:24.913 --> 00:17:28.208
You know it was problems with me and my wife because I was going stagnant.

00:17:28.208 --> 00:17:33.984
And then you know, when you have, when you have it, you know it starts spreading throughout the house.

00:17:34.685 --> 00:17:35.248
Absolutely.

00:17:35.849 --> 00:17:36.672
So that that was.

00:17:36.672 --> 00:17:38.906
That was a real, real kick in the pants.

00:17:38.906 --> 00:17:50.671
You know, for me, um and around that time, like I was doing, the VA had already got me into a lot of like the different type of sessions that they had going um here in san antonio.

00:17:50.671 --> 00:17:56.982
Man, they had this great program it's the peer counselors and they're it's amazing, um or is that like therapy or rehab?

00:17:57.324 --> 00:17:59.888
yeah, kind of um, I don't I.

00:17:59.888 --> 00:18:11.509
So when I tell the other guys, I tell them like it goes, like a counselor going to go to a therapy session, I go, these peer counselors are actually veterans, they go through the VA and get certified and they can actually talk.

00:18:11.509 --> 00:18:17.673
So a lot of times my peer guy he's actually he's from one of the groups that I was in.

00:18:17.673 --> 00:18:23.949
I didn't know him, but we know the same people or know of the same people, so we actually know the lingo and we can talk to each other.

00:18:23.949 --> 00:18:34.286
Oh, like software know of the same people, so we actually know the lingo and we can talk to each other.

00:18:34.286 --> 00:18:45.030
Well, like yeah, yeah, oh sweet, so he was there, so he was in uh and he had retired and he went to work for the va and um, so he, after he went through through his counselings and all that stuff, he was like man, like I want to kind of give back because he was, I think he retired, retired probably five or six years before me.

00:18:45.030 --> 00:18:46.855
So he had already gone through.

00:18:47.780 --> 00:18:51.471
Yeah, so he had already been through a lot of the stuff that I had gone through.

00:18:51.471 --> 00:19:05.865
So he was really in, like he really knew what he was talking about and a lot of times it's good just to go once a month, twice a month, whatever our schedule is, and just to go there and just to talk to him, because it's good to have that.

00:19:05.865 --> 00:19:11.104
You know, I remember, like you know, being being in the unit and in the team room or whatever.

00:19:11.104 --> 00:19:14.092
Like you have that, uh, camaraderie, you know you have that.

00:19:14.092 --> 00:19:18.173
You know you can decompress with your, with your dudes, and you're just like.

00:19:18.173 --> 00:19:20.320
You know you can bounce ideas or you can just.

00:19:20.320 --> 00:19:21.924
You know, you know how guys are.

00:19:21.924 --> 00:19:24.430
We just need to vent and get our ideas out of our mouth.

00:19:24.430 --> 00:19:28.228
You know and you know, and the rest, everybody else can just nod and that's all you need.

00:19:28.921 --> 00:19:32.411
You know, as I told my wife, my guys don't need conversation.

00:19:32.411 --> 00:19:36.430
All I need to do is say you know my paragraph of words and that's it.

00:19:36.430 --> 00:19:39.147
Like I feel better, like I saw the words coming out of my mouth.

00:19:39.147 --> 00:19:46.392
I'm like, oh, I just solved my problem right there.

00:19:46.392 --> 00:19:46.625
Yeah, it's just a pressure release.

00:19:46.625 --> 00:19:49.435
Yeah, talking with him a lot of times he doesn't really have to really guide me too much.

00:19:49.435 --> 00:19:52.288
There's times where he's like well, why don't you step back and look at it?

00:19:52.288 --> 00:19:55.828
He's like outside, looking in, this is what I see.

00:19:55.828 --> 00:19:58.348
I'm like oh yeah, you're right, I was a jerk.

00:19:58.348 --> 00:20:03.221
Other times he's like what do you think I'll tell him he?

00:20:10.227 --> 00:20:26.269
maybe conversational depth or some of that critical thought that you had with this guy or in hindsight, on your own, throughout your career, makes its way into your characters or into the storylines that you guys create with you know, chaotic chronicles or, um, I don't know, tell life, did you anything?

00:20:27.311 --> 00:20:30.678
uh, yeah, I think so, man um one.

00:20:30.678 --> 00:20:31.318
You know for my.

00:20:31.318 --> 00:20:35.075
For the marketing for date for taylor life, I have dealt with several veterans.

00:20:35.075 --> 00:20:36.659
You know, for the marketing for Taylor Life, I have dealt with several veterans.

00:20:36.659 --> 00:20:45.327
You know, definitely, in the music industry there's an artist right now he's actually really getting pretty big Shannon Book.

00:20:45.327 --> 00:20:53.836
He's born in the rock and roll style and he was a disabled veteran, combat veteran.

00:20:53.836 --> 00:20:58.916
He does a lot of veteran outreach programs, does all these types of things.

00:20:58.916 --> 00:21:07.711
He was actually in a group beforehand called Vetted, and that group was all disabled veterans as well and they did a lot of outreach.

00:21:07.711 --> 00:21:10.854
So I worked with him and we became really good friends.

00:21:11.605 --> 00:21:29.332
I worked with this other Christian label, Hip Hop and Stuff, impact Records, and the owner is Mike Miner and he also is a veteran and does a lot of you know, reaches out and do these things On top of other veterans that I've worked with.

00:21:29.332 --> 00:21:39.026
So I'm able to kind of, you know, relate to these guys and we kind of, you know, relate to these guys and we kind of, you know, earn that trust and that bond One.

00:21:39.026 --> 00:22:03.638
Because, like just business, wise people are horrible people in business and I learned that in a very hard way several times, and so I just try to, you know, kind of be real with them and I'll tell them, you know, if their stuff sucks, or you know like, hey, it needs to be better, or we got to kind of work with it, and them, you know if their stuff sucks, or you know like, hey, it needs to be better, or we got to kind of work with it, and you kind of like, and then I can kind of relate to some of the stuff that they're going to.

00:22:03.638 --> 00:22:14.968
Now, the the gaming side, um, I can definitely relate to a lot of the characters and, like I, everything that we have I created myself before, like our world, our games, or you know, everything that we've done.

00:22:14.968 --> 00:22:17.516
I got put it all, it all and I think a lot of it.

00:22:17.704 --> 00:22:23.590
You know, as you say, like I put it on paper, like our world is a very grim, dark.

00:22:23.590 --> 00:22:37.568
Think of, like my I based it off of He-Man because that was like my childhood, you know hero back in the day, and but I took it and I and I I kind of warped it into like a very dark, sinister style.

00:22:37.568 --> 00:22:43.609
You know, if you take that colorful he-man, turn it, turn it, you know into, like stephen king, uh, would make it.

00:22:43.609 --> 00:22:49.606
And then I put hb love, more dc comics, yeah, like very, yeah, very dc comic ish.

00:22:49.606 --> 00:22:53.194
You know batman, you know very, uh gothic and grim, dark, you know.

00:22:53.194 --> 00:22:58.031
And then I took you know Call of Cthulhu or HP Lovecraft and put that on top of it.

00:22:58.031 --> 00:23:01.548
So our entire world is just this grim, dark, despair.

00:23:01.548 --> 00:23:04.936
And I think when I created that world, like that's where my mind was.

00:23:06.986 --> 00:23:09.434
Alrighty, folks sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

00:23:11.986 --> 00:23:21.057
Join us for Transacting Value, where we discuss practical applications of personal values, every Monday at 9 am on our website, transactingvaluepodcastcom.

00:23:21.057 --> 00:23:27.137
Wednesdays at 5 pm and Sundays at noon on wreathsacrossamericaorg slash radio.

00:23:30.305 --> 00:23:32.709
I think when I created that world, that's where my mind was.

00:23:32.729 --> 00:23:34.530
That's interesting, I think when I created that world, like that's where my mind was.

00:23:34.550 --> 00:23:35.172
That's interesting, yeah.

00:23:35.172 --> 00:23:40.778
So, as we have these characters, now I'm I kind of see you know, I'm like dang man like this is.

00:23:40.778 --> 00:23:41.880
This is really depressing.

00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:44.451
Like now we have to like kind of put some light into it.

00:23:44.451 --> 00:24:02.269
And thank God I have these really great guys Like these, these, these artists and these writers and and developers like they're amazing because they have constantly just they're on, they're on the ball man, like we have a discord, uh, team, and we are definitely like constantly my phone's pinging, constantly my wife's like are you serious?

00:24:02.269 --> 00:24:08.830
I'm just like, uh, they're brainstorming, I guess, like this is that's their thing and uh, so it's just really cool.

00:24:08.830 --> 00:24:14.839
Um, now, the, the, uh I don't know if I'm supposed to say this or not, but I will.

00:24:14.839 --> 00:24:33.808
So, like our book series that's getting developed for the gaming world, we have an author that's actually signed on to do a book series on it and his whole thing is which he's actually, he's also a veteran disabled and we actually met each other.

00:24:34.089 --> 00:24:39.994
Before I went to all did all the crazy stuff, my first deployment was in Korea and that's where me and him met when I was a private.

00:24:39.994 --> 00:24:51.894
So, uh, yeah, and then we kind of we kind of separated and then years later we contacted, you know, got back to uh together and kind of just, you know, we're just, we're just friends.

00:24:51.894 --> 00:25:00.894
So over the last five, six years we kind of just bonded again and and now he kind of reached out and I was like, man, you should probably, you know, join my label if you want to do that.

00:25:00.894 --> 00:25:03.170
And he was like, how about I just write for you?

00:25:03.170 --> 00:25:04.875
Like I want to write, and that was his idea.

00:25:04.875 --> 00:25:12.055
And he just kind of he laid out this huge idea that he had for me but he didn't want to tell me because he was embarrassed like.

00:25:12.055 --> 00:25:13.798
He was just like I don't know how to say it.

00:25:13.798 --> 00:25:17.864
And he told me and he was planning to ask me to write for our series.

00:25:17.864 --> 00:25:20.613
And I was like that's amazing, because you know you should probably join.

00:25:20.613 --> 00:25:24.906
So his whole thing, his whole thing, is called lit rpg.

00:25:24.906 --> 00:25:27.530
It's called uh, so it's literature rpg books.

00:25:27.951 --> 00:25:35.625
What it is is a book that kind of you're reading about a person inside of a video game or a board game or something like that.

00:25:35.625 --> 00:25:37.751
Think about reading the mumji book, I guess.

00:25:37.751 --> 00:25:53.114
Um, but their characters are are veterans, uh, and they're dealing with like ptsd and they're dealing with some type of trauma and they, what they do is the as they're bouncing from reality to inside these books.

00:25:53.114 --> 00:26:02.674
They're coping with their you know their struggles and they're dealing with their you know their struggles and they're dealing with their you know their PTSD or their trauma, and everything kind of coincides and it works.

00:26:02.674 --> 00:26:03.185
So it's them.

00:26:03.185 --> 00:26:11.586
Each book is a different veteran, you know, dealing with their struggles and that's kind of like how it kind of works, which you know.

00:26:11.586 --> 00:26:14.256
Half of my team for AI Chronicles are veterans.

00:26:14.944 --> 00:26:16.048
You know, we all kind of come, which you know.

00:26:16.067 --> 00:26:17.349
Half of my team for gala chronicles are our veterans.

00:26:17.369 --> 00:26:18.373
You know we all kind of come together and do that.

00:26:18.373 --> 00:26:31.613
Have you found that, I guess because of your it sounds like primarily your experience on working with small teams in the soft community, that it was easier to start getting traction once you built out your own small team over the last year or two?

00:26:32.375 --> 00:26:35.500
Yeah, actually it was pretty big.

00:26:35.500 --> 00:26:37.852
I mean it started out really small.

00:26:37.852 --> 00:26:39.730
So how all of this?

00:26:39.730 --> 00:26:45.653
From after this past year I had learned a lot.

00:26:45.653 --> 00:26:54.851
Starting in January, I had been asked to kind of join a nonprofit organization, this organization.

00:26:54.851 --> 00:27:07.231
I was asked by another soft member to come to this organization called Aerial Recovery and they are kind of like Underground Railroad.

00:27:07.231 --> 00:27:08.794
Have you heard of them?

00:27:08.794 --> 00:27:09.394
Like the movie.

00:27:10.115 --> 00:27:10.737
Human Trafficking.

00:27:11.218 --> 00:27:13.240
Human Trafficking yes, they do the human trafficking?

00:27:13.240 --> 00:27:14.286
They had that movie out.

00:27:14.286 --> 00:27:14.767
I forget the name.

00:27:14.767 --> 00:27:15.748
Sound of Freedom, sound of trafficking.

00:27:15.768 --> 00:27:16.849
Yes, they had that movie out.

00:27:16.869 --> 00:27:18.913
I forget the name Sound of Freedom, sound of Freedom.

00:27:18.913 --> 00:27:20.315
Yeah, so Ariel does the same thing.

00:27:20.675 --> 00:27:32.912
They're the other team that does it, and so they kind of take veterans and they take first responders, people that are kind of like they need a purpose again and they need drive and stuff.

00:27:32.912 --> 00:27:35.192
So they took my friend saw me in this rut last year.

00:27:35.192 --> 00:27:39.435
He was like, hey, man, I really think you need to come with me on this journey.

00:27:39.435 --> 00:27:42.834
He'd done it months before and then he told me about it.

00:27:42.834 --> 00:27:52.990
I did it and it really helped me connect with other people that were on the same level as me Through the 12 weeks that we went through.

00:27:53.009 --> 00:28:04.213
These little not really classes, but we did like these group type of meetings, you know, every week and we stayed in contact with WhatsApp and whatever, and we kind of all grew, you know, together.

00:28:04.213 --> 00:28:12.015
It really helped me kind of reach out because then when I did that, my friends had started me to write these games.

00:28:12.015 --> 00:28:14.631
I started working on networking with some of these business people that I started meeting through write these games.

00:28:14.631 --> 00:28:19.355
I started working on networking with some of these business people that I started meeting through the aerial program.

00:28:19.355 --> 00:28:22.594
So my marketing business started to pick up a little bit.

00:28:23.444 --> 00:28:25.986
And then, on top of that, I was like man, you know what I want to.

00:28:25.986 --> 00:28:34.295
You know, as I'm starting my chaotic chronicles, I was like I'm going to try to help some other independent artists and developers and stuff.

00:28:34.295 --> 00:28:47.671
So I created this small little group on discord and it was just a network for us and we kind of like bounce ideas we're supposed to brainstorm, and it became a worldwide community within the last nine months, I guess.

00:28:47.671 --> 00:29:05.148
Yeah, so a dungeon scribe society that I'm the founder of that and we now have a bi-monthly newsletter for independent artists, creators, developers, um, on patreon, and we put it all together and we have like over a hundred and so members.

00:29:05.148 --> 00:29:13.412
We had over 300 at one time, but we had to start cutting it back for the just because it started getting toxic, you know, and we were like trying to do like a more of a positive type thing.

00:29:14.313 --> 00:29:28.191
And so I have a group of admin or a board, however you want to say it, and we all run it together and we do this newsletter, we put things out, we talk on you know group.

00:29:28.191 --> 00:29:31.013
I try to make like weekly announcements and things like that for them.

00:29:31.013 --> 00:29:38.945
And while I did that, I was developing my team for Cha chaotic chronicles and people started seeing like little things that I was doing online and in the discord.

00:29:38.945 --> 00:29:49.890
And as that happened, uh, my friend for the podcast, he was he's like hey, man, like I need help with this podcast, you know, and like you know, we need a new one.

00:29:49.890 --> 00:29:53.916
And I was like sure, I've never done a podcast before, I guess I'll do that.

00:29:53.916 --> 00:29:53.977
So.

00:29:53.977 --> 00:30:02.005
So I kind of jumped in the deep, deep end, you know, both feet with that, never done it before.

00:30:02.005 --> 00:30:02.866
And I had no idea.

00:30:02.866 --> 00:30:07.766
He sent me a mic which I'm using right now, and uh, he was like all right, let's, let's try this.

00:30:07.766 --> 00:30:11.795
And I did it and we just kind of, from there, we, we, we took off.

00:30:11.795 --> 00:30:45.748
And he's in charge of the technical stuff and I'm more of like the, the face, the networking, kind of, from there, we, we, we took off and he's in charge of the technical stuff and I'm more of like the the face, the networking, kind of getting people on and uh, so we, we kind of tag team it and we're doing you know pretty well I think, um, and as that, all that was happening, my chaotic chronicles team started getting bigger and I'm managing these people and now I have them like everybody has their role and like everybody has their role and like everybody has their job and their sector, and I'm like, okay, like hey, I was like hey, guys, I know some of you haven't been in the military, but we're going to have a chain of command, like there's going to be me and it's going to be somebody right underneath me and that person is going to be in charge of these guys.

00:30:45.748 --> 00:30:46.871
And you guys are in charge of these.

00:30:46.871 --> 00:31:04.574
You know these sections and, as we writing these agreements or contracts, uh, however you want to say it, each person is assigned for their you know their section and we kind of do it like a business, but in like a more of a team open space area and you know it runs very smoothly.

00:31:04.914 --> 00:31:20.731
We don't work as fast as like a, I guess, a professional style business, because we're more of just like a bunch of guys goofing around, like we bounce ideas off each other and every now and then I have to step in and be like, okay, we have to get this work done, like, but a lot of times it's, you know, it's like to me.

00:31:20.731 --> 00:31:22.635
I'm just like, I want to have fun, I want to do these things.

00:31:22.635 --> 00:31:22.997
I want to.

00:31:22.997 --> 00:31:26.034
You know I'm like, but we have a deadline and we just have to get to the deadline.

00:31:26.034 --> 00:31:39.057
You of times that's usually what happens and it did like a lot of the, the small team stuff or just learning to deal with those types of environments.

00:31:39.057 --> 00:31:40.781
It definitely did help me a lot.

00:31:40.781 --> 00:31:48.569
You know, um, running a business and talking to people or running a group or especially the community, um, yeah, you know, it's just a.

00:31:48.569 --> 00:31:49.090
It's just a.

00:31:49.090 --> 00:31:57.172
It was definitely a step up than a lot of other people all righty folks, sit tight, we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

00:31:59.244 --> 00:32:06.136
Imagine losing everything your country, your marriage, even your ability to speak the language.

00:32:06.136 --> 00:32:14.791
On Transacting Value, we meet Sudebay Mokri, who fled the Iranian revolution only to face an unexpected betrayal in America.

00:32:14.791 --> 00:32:23.550
Picture arriving with two young children, no money and struggling with English, forced to completely rebuild her life from scratch.

00:32:23.550 --> 00:32:31.432
But here's the shocker After achieving everything a home, career, family Sudebay realized she was still empty.

00:32:31.432 --> 00:32:35.940
Her identity had shifted and she needed to rediscover who she truly was.

00:32:35.940 --> 00:32:43.970
She shares how, at rock bottom, facing physical illness, she chose to pray for guidance, leading to an incredible journey of transformation.

00:32:43.970 --> 00:32:55.354
Now an author, registered nurse and transformational coach, sudebay's books Angel, nightingale and Emerging you reveal her journey of healing and rediscovering purpose.

00:32:55.354 --> 00:33:04.215
Find out how trauma led to a deeper understanding of self at SudebayMokricom and learn how to shift your perspective and find your own inner peace.

00:33:04.215 --> 00:33:08.075
Tune into Transacting Value to rewrite your story and learn more.

00:33:09.645 --> 00:33:12.736
It was definitely a step up than a lot of other people.

00:33:13.846 --> 00:33:26.759
So let me ask you this then, because I think there's something that you have in common with a lot of other people as well, and my I guess, general prevailing theory is that a lot of people actually have this next point in common.

00:33:26.825 --> 00:33:31.839
So this is a segment of the show called Developing Character D-D-Developing Character.

00:33:31.839 --> 00:34:04.934
Now it's two questions for anybody who's new to the show, obviously, mike, you included and my theory is that whenever somebody's identity, how they view themselves, and their role, what they actually do in any given society, don't match anymore, there's always going to be some conflict and some degree of well, uncertainty and complexity and all the same sort of fog of war considerations, I guess, where you try to feel it out, like you said, the first year or two, you're just sort of a jellyfish in society, learning your way again.

00:34:04.934 --> 00:34:19.427
So my theory is that when those moments happen, everybody can stand back on their value system to find some degree of worth or awareness and at least build back from there as a continuity or a constant.

00:34:19.427 --> 00:34:27.152
And so my two questions are what were some of your values growing up or that you remember being raised on that you think got you to this point?

00:34:27.152 --> 00:34:32.052
And then my second question is if any of them have changed over time or since then.

00:34:32.052 --> 00:34:33.456
What are some of your values now?

00:34:34.704 --> 00:34:35.206
Well, one.

00:34:35.206 --> 00:34:36.875
I grew up in South Texasas.

00:34:36.875 --> 00:34:45.784
Uh, so we definitely a lot of it's very old-fashioned um, we did, uh, you know my grandpa was his thing was you know the handshake.

00:34:45.784 --> 00:34:46.646
You know the handshake that's.

00:34:46.646 --> 00:34:48.592
You know, that's just, it's a seal the deal right there.

00:34:48.632 --> 00:35:19.070
And uh, you know, you don't, you know, don't lie, don't you know don't cheat things like that um, which you know I was a young boy in like the 80s and 90s, so I definitely lied and cheated and uh, but you know, our families kind of kind of still like that kind of very old-fashioned style and and the big one that was is the one that that is now that I tried not to kind of pass on to my son was, you know, like the men work, like you know that's that's your whole role in life.

00:35:19.070 --> 00:35:20.717
You work until you die.

00:35:20.717 --> 00:35:21.420
Like that's it.

00:35:21.420 --> 00:35:26.637
Like you know, if you're not working then you're not worth anything, and that was like a huge thing.

00:35:26.637 --> 00:35:29.827
And I work and I I did that all the way up until I retired.

00:35:29.827 --> 00:35:30.891
That was my thing.

00:35:30.891 --> 00:35:32.134
Like I was just like, well, I gotta work.

00:35:32.134 --> 00:35:32.764
You know, that's it.

00:35:32.804 --> 00:35:41.458
You know I'm working and I constantly work and I constantly deployed and I constantly, like that was my thing, like if I wasn't, if I had a day off, then I need to be doing something.

00:35:41.458 --> 00:35:59.268
You know, um, and now, uh, it took me, took me quite a while especially these last three years, uh, with the help of my wife, to kind of like slow down, to realize, like hey, like you know, you can't just work all the time because you're not going to enjoy anything that you're working for.

00:35:59.268 --> 00:36:09.949
That was a it's like a big eye opener for me is now, like I say, like I tell people like I'm not working to be a multimillionaire, I don't cause I don't need to work.

00:36:09.949 --> 00:36:15.775
I'm, you know, I'm disabled, as if I'm getting a paycheck.

00:36:15.775 --> 00:36:16.496
That's the way.

00:36:16.496 --> 00:36:23.489
I need to have it in my head, because if not, then I feel like I'm getting money for no reason and I need to constantly do something.

00:36:23.489 --> 00:36:24.733
So I'm trying to help people as well.

00:36:25.474 --> 00:36:26.317
There's some purpose.

00:36:27.507 --> 00:36:28.010
Yeah, definitely.

00:36:28.010 --> 00:36:41.916
That was a huge thing this past year that I learned and now I tell people I'm trying to be able to be well enough that my bills are paid off and I can take my family out for a ribeye steak dinner for the rest of my life without worrying about.

00:36:41.916 --> 00:36:43.199
You know, looking at the checkbook.

00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:51.248
A lot of times growing up was like money was a huge thing, everybody was working for money and that no one really had a reason why.

00:36:51.248 --> 00:37:00.878
And I think you know with me kind of realizing that I don't have to work as hard or as much or you know, hyper focus on that.

00:37:00.878 --> 00:37:08.572
That, you know, because money was the, was the object as well, like I don't need to to kind of be greedy with it.

00:37:08.572 --> 00:37:09.815
I don't need, I don't need it.

00:37:09.815 --> 00:37:19.367
I need to be able to afford to take care of my family and maybe, you know, help somebody out every now and then, but I don't need to have all of this.

00:37:19.367 --> 00:37:38.793
You know all these things and that was that's, that's a huge thing that I had to kind of reevaluate myself and kind of reposition my thought process and like where I want to do um, I I had told a friend you know he was, he saw me, how fast I was kind of rising and he was um, he kind of keeps me grounded a lot.

00:37:40.148 --> 00:37:42.556
He was the one that got me into the nonprofit organization.

00:37:42.556 --> 00:37:48.916
He was just like you know, he always tries to drill me, make sure I'm always grounded and keeps me going.

00:37:48.916 --> 00:37:50.119
And he's like what are you going to do?

00:37:50.119 --> 00:37:56.492
Like he was like if you have all, you know you get famous or you get popular, you know your businesses do.

00:37:56.492 --> 00:38:01.077
Well, he's like you know I'm like I don't need, I don't need to do all that man, I go what I go.

00:38:01.679 --> 00:38:02.740
He has a nonprofit as well.

00:38:02.740 --> 00:38:13.411
His nonprofit is the veteran archery project and it helps special operation veterans kind of deal with their stuff and he takes them out archery, shooting and stuff.

00:38:13.411 --> 00:38:18.766
So I was like if I, if I, make that much money, then I can definitely help out your nonprofit.

00:38:18.766 --> 00:38:19.469
That's for one.

00:38:19.469 --> 00:38:21.173
You know I can pay off all my bills.

00:38:21.173 --> 00:38:22.516
Help out your nonprofit.

00:38:22.516 --> 00:38:43.516
I go and I would love to be able to go to Walmart or grocery store and look behind me and see three or four people with their carts and tell the cashier like, hey, these next three people put it all on my tab and don't tell them and just kind of wait until they're done and then go back and pay that I told him that has been one of my dreams for, you know, for a little while now, because I'm like man that'd be great.

00:38:43.536 --> 00:38:56.472
You know how can I give somebody Christmas in July, you know but I don't want, yeah, but I don't want to be the guy that's, like you know for myself.

00:38:56.472 --> 00:39:03.259
You know I'm just, like you know I help somebody thing and I don't need to share it or anything, but that's just something that that you know.

00:39:03.259 --> 00:39:08.726
Kind of like I wouldn't I don't think I would have done that a few years ago yeah, and that's something that you know.

00:39:08.726 --> 00:39:15.175
You have to kind of get to reevaluate yourself, like I said, and look inside and see what you really want in life.

00:39:15.175 --> 00:39:21.913
And I think what you really want is what your heart is going to do and how you're going to follow it.

00:39:23.347 --> 00:39:30.793
So definitely, my thought process changed from when I was a kid until now, with all of that, because I don't want to work, I want to step back.

00:39:30.793 --> 00:39:34.315
I want to manage all of these businesses and communities.

00:39:34.315 --> 00:39:35.931
I want to have somebody else run them for me.

00:39:35.931 --> 00:39:44.431