Latest / Passing The Torch with Martin Foster / Ep. 132: Vet Tix CSO - The Seats We Leave Empty | Steven Weintraub on Vet Tix, Belonging & Veteran Purpose

Transcript

Ep. 132: Vet Tix CSO - The Seats We Leave Empty | Steven Weintraub on Vet Tix, Belonging & Veteran Purpose · Passing The Torch with Martin Foster

• 0:00
  Martin Foster: A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself, Joseph Campbell.
• 0:06
  Martin Foster: My guest on this episode of Passing the Torch is the Chief Strategy Officer at Veteran Tickets Foundation, aka VetTicks.
• 0:14
  Martin Foster: Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome Marine Veteran and a man who was inducted into the Arizona Hall of Fame.
• 0:21
  Martin Foster: Passing the Torch with Stephen Weintraub starts now.
• 0:24
  Martin Foster: First and foremost, welcome to the show and thank you so much for joining me.
• 0:28
  Steven Weintraub: Well, thanks for the uh the kind introduction and uh thank you for having me.
• 0:33
  Steven Weintraub: So I'm very, very honored and appreciative that you reached out to me and and asked me if I would be on your podcast.
• 0:41
  Steven Weintraub: So I'm I'm really excited to uh to be a part of it because you've I'm in some great company.
• 0:49
  Steven Weintraub: Some of your previous, well, a lot of your previous guests are quite uh you're very quite uh accomplished.
• 0:57
  Steven Weintraub: So to be in that company, I'm honored.
• 0:59
  Steven Weintraub: So thank you very much.
• 1:00
  Martin Foster: Yeah, of course.
• 1:01
  Martin Foster: Well, I'm grateful that you gave me and everyone else like field passes for the Falcons Buccaneers game, Thursday night football, a couple years ago uh in Atlanta.
• 1:10
  Martin Foster: That was and it ended up being like a like a highlight real game where both Kirk Cousins and Baker Mayfield threw for four or five hundred yards and it was just a total shootout.
• 1:20
  Steven Weintraub: But yeah, well, that I mean, we we requested that.
• 1:24
  Steven Weintraub: We were like, hey, we got some vet tixers with field tickets, so we want to make sure that it's a good game.
• 1:29
  Steven Weintraub: So, hey, you know, Baker, you know, if you can do this and do that.
• 1:34
  Steven Weintraub: So um, you know, and he the both of those guys, Baker and Kurt, are solid cousins, are solid guys, so they uh they went with the script, so we were appreciative of that.
• 1:43
  Martin Foster: Yeah, so yeah.
• 1:44
  Martin Foster: Like, hey, can you throw four touchdowns tonight?
• 1:46
  Martin Foster: Like, uh, not only are you my fantasy team, but I just uh I'm I'm trying to impress all these other veterans here.
• 1:52
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah.
• 1:52
  Martin Foster: Hey, one question I'd like to start off each podcast with is why is life great right now?
• 1:57
  Steven Weintraub: Why is life great?
• 1:59
  Steven Weintraub: You know, it's because everybody has their struggles.
• 2:05
  Steven Weintraub: And if you can sift through the positive and find the positives, and I have a lot to be grateful for.
• 2:14
  Steven Weintraub: And that's it hasn't always been that way.
• 2:17
  Steven Weintraub: And we've all gone through adversity.
• 2:20
  Steven Weintraub: And so for me, I I really focus on you know where I am and and where I've come from.
• 2:27
  Steven Weintraub: So for me, life is great because of that.
• 2:31
  Martin Foster: Uh, congratulations, by the way.
• 2:32
  Martin Foster: I saw that you recently celebrated 10 years with VetTix, is that right?
• 2:36
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:37
  Steven Weintraub: Thanks.
• 2:37
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, it was uh it's 10 weeks, uh 10 years like this this month, like this week.
• 2:42
  Steven Weintraub: So um, yeah, it's been a decade.
• 2:44
  Steven Weintraub: And it's just like everything else, it goes fast.
• 2:47
  Steven Weintraub: But um I I remember first starting and and we were still kind of a startup back then, even though it had been around for eight years and uh it was a grind, and it's been it's been great ever since.
• 3:01
  Steven Weintraub: It's so much fun.
• 3:02
  Martin Foster: Do you remember your first day?
• 3:04
  Steven Weintraub: I do, yeah.
• 3:05
  Steven Weintraub: And it was funny because um before I it was like my first day or before the first day, I got this like slew of vet ticks t-shirts that you know that my boss, our founder, yeah, you know, gave me.
• 3:24
  Steven Weintraub: And um he's like, hey, here's your gear and everything.
• 3:28
  Steven Weintraub: I was like, okay, cool.
• 3:29
  Steven Weintraub: And like I, you know, I think like the first day I showed up in slacks and a collared shirt or something like that, and he looked at me like I had something grown out of my forehead.
• 3:39
  Steven Weintraub: You know, he was like, no.
• 3:42
  Steven Weintraub: He's like, and he's it him, and we had a small staff back then, everybody else, because it was this, it was you know in May, so it was warm weather here in Arizona, and so everybody else in the office is in shorts and t-shirts.
• 3:57
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, so he looks at me and goes, Don't like, in essence, don't ever wear that again into the office.
• 4:02
  Steven Weintraub: And I so I I mean I wear that kind of stuff when I'm you know out and about, maybe at the military influencer conference or something like you know, things like that, but daily daily uniform is shorts and t-shirts or whatever.
• 4:16
  Steven Weintraub: So I do remember my first day, and like I was like, wow, this is so cool.
• 4:22
  Steven Weintraub: Um, so yeah, 10 years ago.
• 4:25
  Martin Foster: What were some of your favorite memories about those like we'll say that first year working at Vet Ticks because everything is so new and so fresh to you at that time?
• 4:33
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, well, what was so cool was that, and I had worked for a uh nonprofit.
• 4:40
  Steven Weintraub: I came from a different nonprofit, and nonprofits the way they operate and things can be very different because they're not, you know, they're not like structured corporate thing.
• 4:50
  Steven Weintraub: But I was like, I was so it was like so cool how things were just so chill and so flow.
• 4:56
  Steven Weintraub: And you know, my got my boss again, he was like, when we when he interviewed me, I asked him, I'm like, what's all right, chief strategy officers are a job wreck?
• 5:06
  Steven Weintraub: And he's like, no, it's like you figure it out.
• 5:09
  Steven Weintraub: So I had I had a lot of freedom and latitude to create the position and build it.
• 5:16
  Steven Weintraub: And so that was uh 10 years ago.
• 5:19
  Steven Weintraub: Okay, so we didn't have AI, right?
• 5:21
  Steven Weintraub: Uh yeah, so exactly it wasn't doing a search on, you know, what is a chief strategy officer does?
• 5:28
  Steven Weintraub: Uh you know, I mean we had Google, right?
• 5:29
  Steven Weintraub: So you can do that, but it it wasn't tailored towards what we do in our mission.
• 5:34
  Steven Weintraub: So for me, it was figuring out what, you know, I I was obviously familiar with the organization, but it's like where do we want to go, what direction and growth and how do we get there, and things like that.
• 5:48
  Steven Weintraub: So for me, it was absorbing the the the culture and really figuring out what and how we where we wanted to get and how we were gonna get there.
• 6:00
  Steven Weintraub: And what's really cool that so going back to your question is shortly after I came on board in uh uh May of uh 16, uh maybe about four or five months later, we had a big milestone and it was very big to us because we had Eclipse distributing our three millionth ticket, which was huge for us.
• 6:23
  Steven Weintraub: And so it was like, wow, three million tickets, that's that's tremendous.
• 6:28
  Steven Weintraub: So we were really excited about that, and it was a big deal, and fast forward, now we're at, you know, I checked the numbers this morning, we're at over 37.5 million we've distributed.
• 6:42
  Steven Weintraub: So we've come a long way since then.
• 6:45
  Steven Weintraub: But it was we were still again eight years as an organization, but we in some ways we were still a startup because we were so small and such so unknown in the military and veteran space.
• 7:00
  Steven Weintraub: And that was that was my job was to go knock down those doors and and introduce us.
• 7:07
  Martin Foster: You've done a fantastic job, and I've been someone that has benefited from vet ticks, and I and I brag.
• 7:12
  Martin Foster: And I do remember like 2016, 2017, first hearing that's when I first actually heard about it.
• 7:18
  Martin Foster: Who was kind of who was like the first athlete that you met uh with your role?
• 7:23
  Steven Weintraub: You know, it's fun it's we we really got into the sports piece of that later on.
• 7:33
  Steven Weintraub: I mean, because a lot of the events, believe it or not, were were more concerts.
• 7:39
  Steven Weintraub: I mean, we had like the Arizona Diamondbacks, which are it is in our backyard because we're based in Phoenix, was our first donor.
• 7:46
  Steven Weintraub: Uh, and they're they've been tremendous donors since.
• 7:49
  Steven Weintraub: And so um they what they would do is uh during the season, like once a season or something, invite you know, our leadership onto the field during the the pregame and and um they recognize us and things like that.
• 8:04
  Steven Weintraub: And so it was like teams, but some of the athletes were you know that that came after a while, and you know, one of them was really Kurt Warner.
• 8:14
  Steven Weintraub: Um, he's been a tremendous supporter of our organization.
• 8:19
  Steven Weintraub: Obviously, he's been on you know your your show uh and just such a giver and so humble.
• 8:28
  Steven Weintraub: Him and his wife, uh our Brenda, are just such you know great people.
• 8:33
  Steven Weintraub: And they live in our community here in Arizona, and sometimes I see him out and about, and I'll I'll say hi to him.
• 8:40
  Steven Weintraub: And he's just such a such a solid down-to-earth guy, and and I'm like, thank you so much for what you do for us and everything.
• 8:47
  Steven Weintraub: And he's just like, yeah, he doesn't poo-poo it, but he's like, it's the least I could do.
• 8:52
  Martin Foster: Yeah.
• 8:52
  Martin Foster: You know, when he's I like to remind everybody of this, and since you brought him up, and I did tell him this during when he was on my show last year that he's my second favorite and what I consider the second best quarterback of all time.
• 9:04
  Martin Foster: And of course, he's like, well, who he's competitive?
• 9:06
  Martin Foster: He was like, Well, who's first?
• 9:07
  Martin Foster: And he's thinking it's gonna be Brady or or you know, Montana, LA or whoever.
• 9:12
  Martin Foster: I'm like, it's Uncle Rico, man.
• 9:14
  Martin Foster: It's not even close.
• 9:14
  Martin Foster: Like Kurt Warner, like you know, like Kurt Warner doesn't have the arm strength of uh Uncle Rico, but anyway.
• 9:20
  Martin Foster: Yeah, right.
• 9:23
  Steven Weintraub: Yep, yep, good company.
• 9:25
  Martin Foster: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:26
  Martin Foster: Uh I want to take a detour, uh, just more personal, fun uh story about you.
• 9:31
  Martin Foster: Then we'll come back to vet ticks.
• 9:33
  Martin Foster: But before we go deeper, please discuss the story about Rob Riggle attending your retirement party.
• 9:39
  Steven Weintraub: Oh, he that was a complete tongue-in-cheek.
• 9:44
  Steven Weintraub: But but there's there's a backstory there.
• 9:46
  Steven Weintraub: Okay.
• 9:47
  Steven Weintraub: Rob Riggle and I were classmates in the Marine Corps.
• 9:51
  Steven Weintraub: We were going through this what it's called uh command and staff course, and we were both reserve officers at the time.
• 9:59
  Steven Weintraub: And we were going through the like reserve command and staff, so it was one weekend a month, and it was at Miramar, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, and it was you're not in uniform.
• 10:10
  Steven Weintraub: It's because it they want it to be like, you know, very casual, and because there was, you know, officers from different ranks, so they don't want the rank to be you know, kind of a, you know, you can't speak freely, you know, to this higher ranking officer, whatever.
• 10:28
  Steven Weintraub: So day one of the class, the instructor's like, hey, go everybody go around, we're gonna go around the class and state your name, your rank, uh, your military occupational specialty, and what you do in the civilian world.
• 10:42
  Steven Weintraub: So we're going around, and this was before he was popular, before he was like really famous.
• 10:47
  Steven Weintraub: And he's like, Yeah, my name's Rob Brigle.
• 10:50
  Steven Weintraub: I'm, you know, Major Rob Riggle.
• 10:52
  Steven Weintraub: You know, I'm a public affairs officer in the Marine Corps and a civilian side.
• 10:56
  Steven Weintraub: Uh I'm I'm a comedian.
• 10:58
  Steven Weintraub: Just like that.
• 10:59
  Steven Weintraub: And there's a pregnant pause, and everybody just starts busting up, laughing.
• 11:04
  Steven Weintraub: And and you know, you know Rob's direct delivery, right?
• 11:08
  Steven Weintraub: And it wasn't trying to be funny.
• 11:10
  Steven Weintraub: It was just, and everybody just laughed for the most part.
• 11:13
  Steven Weintraub: And he was like, no, no, seriously, I'm I do stand up and I I write.
• 11:17
  Steven Weintraub: I'm a I'm a comedy writer.
• 11:18
  Steven Weintraub: I write for the daily show and this, that, and the other thing.
• 11:22
  Steven Weintraub: And so he was writing for the daily show at the time.
• 11:26
  Steven Weintraub: And uh, so he was he we were classmates for like I think a year or two in this command and staff course.
• 11:32
  Steven Weintraub: And I've seen like we see each other from time to time passing.
• 11:36
  Steven Weintraub: So he wasn't at my retirement uh party, but um, and I was a parody on that you know, on that commercial.
• 11:45
  Steven Weintraub: Um, but he's uh yeah, I mean he's he's a solid guy.
• 11:49
  Martin Foster: That's awesome.
• 11:50
  Martin Foster: No, he's so yeah, I uh love his work and what he does.
• 11:53
  Martin Foster: He's he's hilarious and uh and extra bonus since he's a uh a veteran.
• 11:59
  Martin Foster: One other celebrity encounter I did want to ask you about what was your experience like being on Master Chef and meeting uh chef Gordon Ramsay?
• 12:09
  Steven Weintraub: That was Gordon Ramsay's such a cool guy.
• 12:12
  Steven Weintraub: Um, and he in some ways different from the on-screen persona, and again, genuinely nice guy.
• 12:19
  Steven Weintraub: And what happened there was I was on active duty in the Marine Corps, and this was like 20 maybe 12, 12-ish, and I was I was stationed at Camp Pendleton, and uh I was colonel at the time, and this email went out to the distro list for just for like Marine Colonels throughout the the base, and it said, Hey, um Master Chef is gonna film an episode on Camp Pendleton.
• 12:44
  Steven Weintraub: If you're interested in being a judge on the show, put your name in.
• 12:49
  Steven Weintraub: And so I'm like, Yeah, okay, right, you know, and so I put in, and a couple days later, nobody must have put in for it because they picked me.
• 12:58
  Steven Weintraub: I don't know how they picked me or why, and probably because I was the only one.
• 13:02
  Steven Weintraub: So they fill, you know, so given the backstory and everything, you know, I show up in the area at Camp Henalton, it's an open field, it's like you like a helicopter landing zone.
• 13:14
  Steven Weintraub: And um, I show up there and there's the Marine Public Affairs officer there.
• 13:18
  Steven Weintraub: It wasn't Rob, um, but somebody else and introduces me to the producer, and she's like, Okay, I'm gonna introduce you to Gordon, you know, in his trailer and the other two chefs, whatever.
• 13:28
  Steven Weintraub: And I was like, you know, and I'm in a uniform, and my camis, and I said to the producer, she's this nice little British lady.
• 13:34
  Steven Weintraub: I said, I said, okay, I'm gonna meet Gordon, but I've got one condition throughout this whole day.
• 13:40
  Steven Weintraub: I said, I can't have him yell at me.
• 13:45
  Steven Weintraub: I just can't handle people yelling at me.
• 13:47
  Steven Weintraub: And she just like laughed, you know, was like, Oh, you're so funny.
• 13:50
  Steven Weintraub: Um, so we went and met him.
• 13:53
  Steven Weintraub: Super nice guy, so supportive of the troops.
• 13:57
  Steven Weintraub: And but before then, and since fast forward, his he was telling he was telling me then that his son was gonna join the Royal Marines, which he did.
• 14:06
  Steven Weintraub: And since then, his son joined the Marines, and I think he's out now, but and so super supportive and patriotic of you know the US troops and things like that, and he was just such a super nice guy.
• 14:20
  Martin Foster: No, that's really cool.
• 14:21
  Martin Foster: I'm a big fan of his, and I love all the cooking shows, and uh yeah, it's he would go from calling someone a uh a hippo and then or something crazy, like he has the and then he'll be like so kind to them two minutes later, like, hey, you're doing great.
• 14:37
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, he can he he can uh you know click it off safe pretty quickly and uh and and uh you know no, just super, super nice guy, really personable.
• 14:48
  Steven Weintraub: So that was uh that was a fun experience.
• 14:50
  Steven Weintraub: And the thing is, is that when I told my wife about it, she lost her mind because um I'm a I'm the world's worst cook.
• 14:58
  Steven Weintraub: I'm I am terrible.
• 15:00
  Steven Weintraub: I don't even try, but I have a lot of admiration for people that are good cooks because it takes a lot.
• 15:07
  Steven Weintraub: And um, so she was like, I can't believe you're gonna be on Master Chef, you don't even know how to cook, da-da-da.
• 15:14
  Steven Weintraub: And I was like, Yeah, so yeah, no, that's great.
• 15:19
  Martin Foster: Um, I want to just uh take it back to you.
• 15:22
  Martin Foster: How did someone who wanted to be a fighter pilot end up with vet takes?
• 15:27
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, look, ever since I was a little kid, that's what I wanted to do, to be a fighter pilot.
• 15:33
  Steven Weintraub: And my dad served in the Marines, he wasn't a career guy, but he did he and he was a grunt.
• 15:40
  Steven Weintraub: He was he did three years enlisted, uh got out, stayed in the reserves for a couple of years, went back to college and had a professional career.
• 15:47
  Steven Weintraub: And you know, but he would tell me stories about the military, and I was so fascinated by it.
• 15:52
  Steven Weintraub: And and he never said, like, you're gonna join the Marines.
• 15:55
  Steven Weintraub: He never, like he said, if you want to be a you know, sanitation worker, do that, just be the best at it.
• 16:01
  Steven Weintraub: Uh so he never said you need to do this or do that.
• 16:04
  Steven Weintraub: And um, so I want to be a fighter pilot.
• 16:06
  Steven Weintraub: And you know, in high school, I, you know, career night, whatever.
• 16:09
  Steven Weintraub: I was talking to the Air Force guys because that's what you do, right?
• 16:12
  Steven Weintraub: If you want to, you know, you want to you know fly pointy-nosed planes, that's where you go.
• 16:16
  Steven Weintraub: And um they're like, oh, well, how how how good are your grades?
• 16:21
  Steven Weintraub: You know, are you taking calculus, this, that, and the other thing?
• 16:24
  Steven Weintraub: And I'm like, no, like what's calculus?
• 16:28
  Steven Weintraub: Uh, you know, I yeah, but I'm I'm not the great greatest student or whatever.
• 16:32
  Steven Weintraub: So I was like, okay, my dreams are crushed.
• 16:34
  Steven Weintraub: Um, but then there's like the Navy and the Marine Corps guys, and they're like, Oh, you want to fly with us?
• 16:39
  Steven Weintraub: All you need is a degree, you know, just college degree, you know, get through flight school and boom.
• 16:46
  Steven Weintraub: And I was like, wait a minute.
• 16:47
  Steven Weintraub: So if the Navy and Marine Corps pipelines are the same, uh, you know, yeah, I'll I'll go Marines.
• 16:52
  Steven Weintraub: I I went down to flight school and um and but before I went to flight school, there was a backlog uh to go to flight school after you got commissioned.
• 17:02
  Steven Weintraub: And I was able to go to a F-18 Hornet squadron and do some on-the-job training, and by design, they do that um so you can learn the ins and outs of a squadron and things like that.
• 17:13
  Steven Weintraub: And so it was got to see behind the scenes and this and that, and then I got down to flight school and I was like, I don't think this is really what I want to do.
• 17:21
  Steven Weintraub: Like peeking behind the curtains, I was like, I think I want to lead Marines on the ground more than I want to, you know, fly flight planes, and nothing wrong with that.
• 17:32
  Steven Weintraub: And a lot of my buddies are are aviators and you know, good on them.
• 17:38
  Steven Weintraub: But for me to drop out of flight school, that was like a super like tough decision for me, probably the toughest decision in my life.
• 17:46
  Steven Weintraub: And um, people when I my peers, when I was down there, they're like, wait, you're gonna drop out.
• 17:51
  Steven Weintraub: Like they were freaking out.
• 17:53
  Steven Weintraub: Like some of them were like, I can't believe you don't want to do this.
• 17:57
  Steven Weintraub: And uh, but other people were like, Wow, I can't believe you have the guts to do that.
• 18:01
  Steven Weintraub: Because if I did that, my dad would kill me.
• 18:04
  Steven Weintraub: Um, and I was like, wow.
• 18:06
  Steven Weintraub: Um, so that was a watershed moment for me, and and I I never had any regrets uh going going forward.
• 18:15
  Steven Weintraub: And again, like for those those aviators, those pilots, whatever, you know, hey, great, and and it's uh it's a necessary job, but you gotta follow your dreams.
• 18:25
  Martin Foster: Absolutely.
• 18:26
  Martin Foster: I gotta sneeze.
• 18:27
  Martin Foster: What oh man, my allergy's been going crazy, so I just uh Oh, I thought it was my cologne.
• 18:33
  Martin Foster: Uh I love that you said chasing your dreams because that's basically what I'm doing with this.
• 18:38
  Martin Foster: It's not basic.
• 18:39
  Martin Foster: I I'm more intentional with it is what I'm doing with my podcast.
• 18:42
  Martin Foster: So I've been I've had I've started podcasting uh in 2014, and then this podcast specifically started in January of 2018.
• 18:51
  Martin Foster: Uh I retired from active duty on November 1st, so a little over six months ago, after 23 years.
• 18:57
  Steven Weintraub: And when you reached out to me, like and and not to jump in, but you were like, you know, and I kind of forgot we met at Mick, and you're like, oh, I retired after 23 years.
• 19:07
  Steven Weintraub: I thought you were gonna be some old crusty dude, you know, and it's like I was like, oh man, like, yeah.
• 19:13
  Martin Foster: I'm 44.
• 19:14
  Martin Foster: I'm 43.
• 19:15
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, you you wear it well.
• 19:18
  Martin Foster: Stop.
• 19:18
  Martin Foster: I mean, keep going, Steve.
• 19:20
  Martin Foster: I mean, like, you know, like that could be another event that vet ticks could sponsor where it's a ticketed event where everyone's just giving me compliments about how I look.
• 19:28
  Martin Foster: You know, except Gordon Ramsey will come in and start yelling at me to bring me back down to uh reality.
• 19:35
  Martin Foster: Um, I appreciate that, but it's just just reading about vet ticks, you know, reading stuff about you, it just just revalidates, re it just cements the passion and on what I want to do because I feel like this is where I'm where I'm best.
• 19:49
  Martin Foster: This is where my heart lies and um yeah, where I thrive.
• 19:54
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, look, and and uh what you do, the you know, the ideology uh behind your podcasts is so like great and important because you know there's some podcasters, and and again, not not judging anybody, but you know, they want to tell like war stories and you know things like that.
• 20:14
  Steven Weintraub: And again, there's nothing wrong with that.
• 20:16
  Steven Weintraub: But uh, you know, if that's not your your cup of tea, then um, you know, and again, who who your guests are and and you have that military veteran piece of it and how some of that ties in.
• 20:29
  Steven Weintraub: So, I mean, again, you followed your I don't know, passion, or it's like, hey, this is something I'm interested in.
• 20:36
  Steven Weintraub: And to your credit, again, your your list of of attendees, I mean, you know, aside from those that we mentioned, I mean, you know, senior leaders in the military is like, you know, that's that's big leagues.
• 20:51
  Martin Foster: I appreciate that.
• 20:52
  Martin Foster: My very first guest was General John Jumper.
• 20:54
  Martin Foster: He was the 17th Air Force uh chief of staff, and he was actually the he was the four-star when I joined in in 2002.
• 21:02
  Martin Foster: Um, but then I also had Lee Ellis on, he's a retired Air Force Colonel, uh, 06.
• 21:06
  Martin Foster: He was a Vietnam Vietnam POW for five years, and he wrote the book Leading with Honor.
• 21:13
  Martin Foster: And I got, you know, and I got to do an in-person interview, he's one of the big reasons why I started this podcast, and I got to do an in-person interview with him five years after I started my podcast, and it was on 9-11 in Washington, D.C.
• 21:27
  Martin Foster: And I think about just how all that comes together, that wouldn't have happened without my podcast.
• 21:34
  Steven Weintraub: Well, and there's the saying, you know, you know, never meet your heroes.
• 21:38
  Steven Weintraub: Uh but in this case, it was the positive.
• 21:41
  Martin Foster: Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:42
  Martin Foster: Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:43
  Martin Foster: Uh, did you almost join the Coast Guard?
• 21:45
  Martin Foster: Did I read that somewhere?
• 21:46
  Martin Foster: Is that right?
• 21:46
  Steven Weintraub: I I jokingly say I should have joined the Coast Guard.
• 21:50
  Steven Weintraub: And and and be because, all right, so uh again, military anecdote.
• 21:57
  Steven Weintraub: Uh I'm an 06 um station.
• 21:59
  Steven Weintraub: I was mobilized reservist.
• 22:01
  Steven Weintraub: This is like probably 2012, 2013.
• 22:04
  Steven Weintraub: I'm stationed at Camp Hendleton.
• 22:06
  Steven Weintraub: I'm doing you know, my my job was kind of you know on the senior level, whatever, and we were doing some stuff with the Navy, like with the Third Fleet.
• 22:15
  Steven Weintraub: So I'm down Coronado at the sub base in in Coronado, and where it was a you know a planning conference with Third Fleet and the Marines are down there and this and that.
• 22:27
  Steven Weintraub: And so we're on the Coronado side of the bay, and it's gorgeous over there.
• 22:31
  Steven Weintraub: And there's this big, like so we're in this meeting room, and there's a big bay window that looks out across San Diego Bay to downtown, and it's a you know, just beautiful, you know, Chamber of Commerce Day.
• 22:43
  Steven Weintraub: And uh I'm looking out there and there's a Coast Guard uh little uh you know patrol boat.
• 22:49
  Steven Weintraub: It's like got four huge outboard engines on the back, it's like 32-footer or whatever, and there's like uh there's a you know mounted, you know, machine gun on the bow, one on the stern, and there's two coasties, you know, just cruising the bay.
• 23:06
  Steven Weintraub: And I was that's when I had the epiphany.
• 23:08
  Steven Weintraub: I'm like, man, I joined the wrong service.
• 23:13
  Martin Foster: That's awesome.
• 23:13
  Martin Foster: Thanks for sharing that.
• 23:14
  Martin Foster: I and that like just kind of like as a mental note question mark in my head.
• 23:19
  Martin Foster: I was like, did I read that right about Coast Guard?
• 23:21
  Steven Weintraub: But look, in all seriousness, the Coast Guard is the most overlooked of the like branches, right?
• 23:28
  Steven Weintraub: And there's the whole are they military or department of transportation or whatever.
• 23:31
  Steven Weintraub: Like, you know, you we can debate that, whatever, but their role is so vital, um, and again, so often unknown and and overlooked.
• 23:41
  Steven Weintraub: And again, like as a senior officer through my you know professional military education, I learned more about the Coast Guard's role in national military security and strategy.
• 23:53
  Steven Weintraub: So they they are it is such a vital role that that does get overlooked.
• 23:58
  Martin Foster: No, agreed.
• 23:59
  Martin Foster: Yeah, and I I feel like to your point, yes, uh over it has been overlooked.
• 24:03
  Martin Foster: I think probably in the past year they're starting to get more people realize the significance and the importance of the Coast Guard.
• 24:10
  Martin Foster: And um, yeah, so shout out to all the coasies out there.
• 24:13
  Steven Weintraub: And and and look, I mean, you know, this isn't a recruitment you know commercial here, but like look at the places they get stationed, right?
• 24:20
  Steven Weintraub: It's everywhere on the coast, right?
• 24:22
  Steven Weintraub: You know, it's um not there's not too many bad Coast Guard you know stations.
• 24:28
  Martin Foster: Yeah, no, yeah, yeah, uh exactly.
• 24:30
  Martin Foster: I want to transition uh to uh vet ticks.
• 24:35
  Martin Foster: So yeah, please discuss vet ticks.
• 24:37
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, and look, vet ticks, for those of you that aren't familiar, our mission is one mission and one mission only.
• 24:44
  Steven Weintraub: Give something to those who gave.
• 24:45
  Steven Weintraub: And how we do that is we distribute free event tickets to veteran service members and first responders and their families as a way to thank them for their service and sacrifice.
• 24:55
  Steven Weintraub: Because when you're in uniform, you're serving, and you know, you miss family events, you miss weddings, anniversaries, recitals, whatever, and because you're on duty.
• 25:04
  Steven Weintraub: And same thing for first responders when you're you know, when you're on duty, you're on watch.
• 25:08
  Steven Weintraub: So if we can send you to these events when you're off duty or as a veteran with your family and friends to make up for that lost time, to rebuild those relationships with your kids, with your wife, with your friends for an afternoon and evening at a football game or a concert or a festival or whatever, and just deep de-stress, unplug, and check out that's our mission, that's what we do, and that's how we give back.
• 25:36
  Steven Weintraub: And you know, you and I being on having been on the other side of that, being deployed, whatever, we we know what that's like.
• 25:44
  Steven Weintraub: So when we go to these events and we experience that, and so a lot of people are like, well, I don't need vet ticks because you know they're free tickets and I can afford tickets and I don't want to take these tickets away from somebody more deserving.
• 25:58
  Steven Weintraub: Well, our our donors, our teams, leagues, performers, promoters, venues, private donors, seasoned ticket holders that aren't going to use their tickets.
• 26:07
  Steven Weintraub: So those are our donors.
• 26:09
  Steven Weintraub: And we talk about in our society, thank you for your service, right?
• 26:13
  Steven Weintraub: So, what does that mean?
• 26:15
  Steven Weintraub: It's a very broad and vague term, and you can't really put your you know, your finger on what that is.
• 26:20
  Steven Weintraub: But in our society, we talk about thank you for your service.
• 26:24
  Steven Weintraub: Well, our donors, they want to thank our veteran service members and first responders for their service.
• 26:29
  Steven Weintraub: And how do they do that?
• 26:31
  Steven Weintraub: They host them at their events through vet ticks.
• 26:35
  Steven Weintraub: It's like, look, yeah, you can you can afford these tickets, but we want to, this is how we can thank you and your family is by us, you you being our guest through vet ticks at these events.
• 26:45
  Steven Weintraub: So that's our mission.
• 26:47
  Steven Weintraub: That's all we do.
• 26:48
  Steven Weintraub: And you know, it was a brain, the brainchild of my boss, our founder and Navy veteran, uh Mike Focoretto.
• 26:56
  Steven Weintraub: Uh, it was it was his brainchild here in Arizona.
• 26:59
  Steven Weintraub: He had this concept and started thinking more about it.
• 27:03
  Steven Weintraub: It's because it was like, hey, I'm at this, he was at the Super Bowl in Glendale in 2003, and he's him and his buddy, who's a vet, they're sitting there, color guard marches on, they march off, and there's empty seats.
• 27:17
  Steven Weintraub: They couldn't, the color guard was in this the mezzanine standing room only, and there's empty seats, and he was like, he was working on this project already, and he was like, wait a minute, if there's empty seats at the Super Bowl, I've got to scale up my my project bigger.
• 27:34
  Steven Weintraub: And that was his his brainchild.
• 27:36
  Steven Weintraub: And fast forward 10 years, over 2.6 million members and growing and yeah, over 30 uh 7.5 million tickets distributed.
• 27:46
  Steven Weintraub: We distribute on average about tw over over 23,000 tickets a day, and that's where for us it every day is Veterans Day.
• 27:54
  Steven Weintraub: It's not a it's like it sounds corny, but it's not just November, right?
• 27:58
  Steven Weintraub: It's not just the month of November.
• 28:00
  Steven Weintraub: Every day we're distributing over 23,000 tickets, sending people to events throughout throughout the year.
• 28:07
  Steven Weintraub: So it's it's simple, but we're also the largest veteran service organization that nobody's heard of because people are like, wait, vet ticks, what's that?
• 28:16
  Steven Weintraub: You know, uh and our sister organization, because I talked about first responders, is first ticks, one S T T-I-X, and that's the same exact thing for police, fire, and EMS.
• 28:28
  Steven Weintraub: So the both organizations, uh, you know, it it's identical.
• 28:31
  Steven Weintraub: You you sign up, you create an account, it's free, we verify your status, and then you start receiving notifications about events in your local area.
• 28:41
  Martin Foster: It's great.
• 28:41
  Martin Foster: Like I said, I live in Dayton, Ohio, so Columbus is an hour away, Cincinnati's an hour away, Cleveland's roughly three hours.
• 28:47
  Martin Foster: Indianapolis is actually only two hours from me.
• 28:50
  Martin Foster: So uh for me specifically, there's tons of opportunities.
• 28:53
  Martin Foster: Yeah, the blue jackets.
• 28:55
  Martin Foster: The blue jackets, I mean, yeah, like yeah, there's so much going on here, and it's it's fantastic.
• 29:00
  Martin Foster: Um, you know, vet ticks is more than it's clearly more than about tickets.
• 29:04
  Martin Foster: It's about belonging, uh reconnections to your earlier point, um, and even sometimes uh saving lives.
• 29:12
  Martin Foster: When you hear stories like the veteran, I saw something about a veteran sharing who said the NASCAR event changed the uh trajectory of his life.
• 29:20
  Martin Foster: How has that changed the way you personally define impact?
• 29:24
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, thanks for bringing that up.
• 29:26
  Steven Weintraub: And that's where, okay, our mission, I explained it, but and and aft at the event, you can you know take a photo of yourself, upload it into our app, and thank our donor.
• 29:39
  Steven Weintraub: Hey, thanks, Ohio State Buck Guys, for these football tickets.
• 29:42
  Steven Weintraub: You know, my buddies and I, we had a great time at the game.
• 29:45
  Steven Weintraub: So we share these thank yous with the donors, and that way our donors can see the impact of their gen of their generosity, but they can see the gratitude that you, Martin, have for attending these events.
• 30:02
  Steven Weintraub: And it there it's not required.
• 30:03
  Steven Weintraub: You don't have to do that, but you get incentivized for doing it.
• 30:07
  Steven Weintraub: And so we have over 2.5 million of these thank yous that we, you know, I don't read them all, um, but we, you know, we they get approved.
• 30:17
  Steven Weintraub: Um, we have a staff that that approves them.
• 30:19
  Steven Weintraub: And some of these that we see are you know, are hey, thanks, my you know, my wife and I had a great time, or my bros and I had a blast, thanks, whatever.
• 30:29
  Steven Weintraub: But a lot of them are what you mentioned.
• 30:33
  Steven Weintraub: Hey, I brought my buddy to this event.
• 30:36
  Steven Weintraub: He wasn't firing off all cylinders.
• 30:38
  Steven Weintraub: I thought he could use you know some time off, whatever.
• 30:41
  Steven Weintraub: And the and the uh example you used, you you brought up was, yeah, this guy, he's a veteran, he was like you, young, you know, retired.
• 30:51
  Steven Weintraub: And he brought his buddy, who was a fellow vet, to a NASCAR race in um in uh Martinsville, Virginia.
• 30:58
  Steven Weintraub: And uh he you know, his buddy wasn't firing off all cylinders.
• 31:02
  Steven Weintraub: They go to the race, you're sitting with other veterans because they're sitting in a vet tick section.
• 31:08
  Steven Weintraub: And the guy on the on the ride home says, you know, hey, thanks for thanks for inviting me to to the race today, because my plan for today was I was gonna kill myself.
• 31:18
  Steven Weintraub: And because the guy was going through a divorce, child custody, and things like that, but he was like, Hey, you know, be sitting with other vets, this whole thing, it's kind of changed my whole perspective on life, and you know, I want to live, you know, you know, things like so.
• 31:35
  Steven Weintraub: We get a lot of these, those types of testimonials.
• 31:39
  Steven Weintraub: Thank you.
• 31:39
  Steven Weintraub: So not only is it giving back, but it's the wellness piece of what we do.
• 31:44
  Steven Weintraub: And a lot of times, because these tickets they get donated, they're in the same sections, rows, blocks.
• 31:50
  Steven Weintraub: So whether you realize it or not, quite often you're sitting among your tribe.
• 31:55
  Steven Weintraub: Um, it's like, hey, you know, that dude looks like me, kind of sound talks like me, whatever.
• 32:00
  Steven Weintraub: Well, yeah, you're sitting in the vet tech section.
• 32:02
  Steven Weintraub: So you're it gives you that sense of camaraderie.
• 32:06
  Steven Weintraub: Now you're sitting with other, you know, you may not be rooting for the same team, but you know, you wore the same, you know, uniform or patch or you know, the flag patch, whatever.
• 32:15
  Steven Weintraub: So it gives you that camaraderie that a lot of our brothers and sisters are missing.
• 32:21
  Steven Weintraub: Uh, they they they lose their sense of purpose when they get out and they're looking for something.
• 32:28
  Steven Weintraub: So by attending these events, and we again we see it.
• 32:31
  Steven Weintraub: It's like, hey, I sat next to a bunch of people that you know now we're we're hanging out, we're going to other vet ticks events, or we're doing these things.
• 32:40
  Steven Weintraub: And again, it's an unintended consequence of our mission, but it's a it's something that that happens.
• 32:49
  Martin Foster: Now I love that.
• 32:50
  Martin Foster: Thanks for sharing that story because that really caught my eye.
• 32:53
  Martin Foster: And I also I read the separately, I read the study that you had sent me, that vet ticks, uh, the vet ticks study.
• 32:59
  Martin Foster: And something else I took a note of of was with 90% reporting positive impact, but a clear gap in deeper relationships.
• 33:09
  Martin Foster: What's the next evolution of Vet Ticks moving from access to events to actually engaging conversations?
• 33:16
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, look, and and again, we're the fun charity.
• 33:19
  Steven Weintraub: Like, you know, we're the we're that, you know, there's a lot of veteran service organizations out there that are doing great things in the space, right?
• 33:27
  Steven Weintraub: Because they're addressing the the challenges of homelessness and suicide and uh employment and things like that.
• 33:36
  Steven Weintraub: And and that's great.
• 33:37
  Steven Weintraub: And we don't we don't get in the rice bowl on that, and we'll never, you know, miss, you know, screep, you know, scope creep into those things because there's great organizations that are doing that.
• 33:47
  Steven Weintraub: And for us, this is all we do, we focus on tickets, and that's all we'll ever focus on.
• 33:53
  Steven Weintraub: But what you're talking about is the you know, the thought leadership piece of our mission.
• 34:00
  Steven Weintraub: And even though, yeah, we're the fun charity, the things, the wellness of attending live events, being out in that space, and you know, in in our in our world, right, especially in the military and veteran first responder space, uh, sometimes it's being comfortable with uncomfortable.
• 34:20
  Steven Weintraub: And we live that in the military.
• 34:22
  Steven Weintraub: We were conditioned because there was times where we didn't know what was gonna happen.
• 34:27
  Steven Weintraub: We're on an exercise or a mission, you know, or you know, during the kinetic eras of our service, you know, you just never knew what was gonna happen, but you were comfortable with the uncomfortable, right?
• 34:40
  Steven Weintraub: We never we never gotten curled up in the fetal position and started sucking our thumb and saying, you know, you know, well, give me a hug, right?
• 34:47
  Steven Weintraub: We didn't do that, we persevered.
• 34:49
  Steven Weintraub: And so when we're out of uniform, it shouldn't be any different.
• 34:53
  Steven Weintraub: So being comfortable with uncomfortable, so if again, if you're struggling with the isolation or the depression or you know, making new friends or whatever, that this is old hat to us.
• 35:06
  Steven Weintraub: This is muscle memory.
• 35:07
  Steven Weintraub: So from a thought leadership perspective, it's like you know, attend these events, talk to the person next to you.
• 35:14
  Steven Weintraub: Then they're if you're they're at a Vettex event, more than likely they served.
• 35:18
  Steven Weintraub: Um, or they're the spouse of somebody that served, or they're first responder, and you're in that, you know, you're in that that club, and it's just so for us, I I mean, you know, again, we're not gonna we're not gonna change what we do, but uh you know, for me personally as the as the chief strategy officer of the organization, you know, I want to be at the table for these thought leadership discussions because what we do is so vital, and there's so many organizations that are chasing what you know, what is it, what's that thing that is going to flip the switch uh to make you know these people in a better head state, right?
• 36:02
  Steven Weintraub: And headspace.
• 36:03
  Steven Weintraub: And that's you know, we're not we're not the panacea, but we're an arrow in the quiver.
• 36:09
  Martin Foster: And these are some great, like clippable moments.
• 36:11
  Martin Foster: I love that.
• 36:12
  Martin Foster: This is gonna be uh, you have some great thoughts.
• 36:14
  Martin Foster: Like these this is this is good stuff.
• 36:17
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, and and you know, the other side of it is creating memories, okay?
• 36:21
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, you know, we're in a society, especially the younger generation, they're not so much materialistic, right?
• 36:27
  Steven Weintraub: Um, it's about experiences, and you know, whether you're you know blasting out on tic-tac, tick tock or IG, or but it's the experience, it's being at that event.
• 36:39
  Steven Weintraub: And that again, that's what we do.
• 36:41
  Steven Weintraub: And that's where you know those memories, creating those memories, they're up in here and maybe they're in your mobile device, whatever, but it's it's the experience of you know, and and again, we we get these testimonies.
• 36:54
  Steven Weintraub: I never would have been able to afford to go see, you know, pick up pick a show or a you know, a football game, a Colts game or whatever.
• 37:04
  Steven Weintraub: So we're creating these memories that last a lifetime that uh enrich the soul.
• 37:14
  Martin Foster: Obviously, for me, I'm still very young into my retirement, but just I've been around a ton of people who have retired or separated.
• 37:21
  Martin Foster: And you know, one of the things, one of the top three reasons I say that people what they commonly say they miss the most is just the connection, like just uh right, just being around there's just the random BS sessions or just joking around or going out to grab food with a group of co-workers and stuff and your friends that it's not, you know, the holidays, like yeah, I miss Christmas and Thanksgiving two or three me personally two or three uh years in a row.
• 37:49
  Martin Foster: And it's sad, but then I think about man, I but I I was able to eat that dinner with some pretty fun people too.
• 37:56
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, and and you're spot on because when we were deployed over the holidays, we weren't with our blood family or whatever, but we were with a different family, and I I remember those also, and I remember those, you know, those guys and and ladies I was with, and you'll never you're never gonna forget those.
• 38:16
  Steven Weintraub: So you created memories, and yeah, to your point, now that you're out find find your tribe, right?
• 38:24
  Steven Weintraub: And and and do that.
• 38:27
  Martin Foster: With regard to tickets, not just for uh a sporting event, could be for a concert or anything, has there been one kind of say a giant well that you've been trying to get uh for vet takes, like a certain uh show or uh venue, you're like, man, this is my my the one thing I've been trying to get for the past five years or so?
• 38:47
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, it's that's a great question.
• 38:50
  Steven Weintraub: And when we were a lot smaller, for us the brass ring was the Super Bowl, Super Bowl tickets.
• 38:58
  Steven Weintraub: Um and I remember when we got our first pair, and they were donated by a private donor who couldn't go, and he found out about our organization.
• 39:10
  Steven Weintraub: He wasn't a veteran, but he's like, hmm, this this organization looks pretty cool.
• 39:14
  Steven Weintraub: Uh donated them.
• 39:16
  Steven Weintraub: It was uh it was in Atlanta, it was the Super Bowl forever ago, but back in um in Atlanta, and you know, the the person that won was like, you know, actually I think we had two pairs that were donated.
• 39:29
  Steven Weintraub: We wound up getting two pairs.
• 39:30
  Steven Weintraub: So the Super Bowl was like, and now we we have such a great relationship with the NFL and a lot of the teams to include the Colts, um, that we're able to get NFL Super Bowl tickets.
• 39:44
  Steven Weintraub: I mean, and back again when we were smaller, like Hamilton was the hot ticket.
• 39:52
  Steven Weintraub: We were able to get Hamilton tickets.
• 39:54
  Steven Weintraub: And look, we will never procure tickets on the secondary market.
• 39:59
  Steven Weintraub: Um, our tickets are through donors.
• 40:01
  Steven Weintraub: Our fourth largest donor is Vet Ticks.
• 40:04
  Steven Weintraub: Um, and that's where the money we bring in, over 99% of the money we bring in goes to buying more tickets to create more supply to meet demand.
• 40:13
  Steven Weintraub: So we were able to actually buy tickets, Hamilton tickets, through somebody at in the production of Hamilton.
• 40:21
  Steven Weintraub: So, and now I mean, you know, that you know, Hamilton is Hamilton.
• 40:26
  Steven Weintraub: Um, so that was big.
• 40:27
  Steven Weintraub: Um, but the only thing really that we haven't been able to get tickets for um is the masters, um, and understandably.
• 40:38
  Steven Weintraub: Um, and so yeah, whatever, like it would be nice, but again, that's not you know, we're not that's not the hill we're gonna die on.
• 40:48
  Steven Weintraub: Um and but but you would be surprised because some people were like, um, they would write in and they'd be like, hey, um you know, I'm trying to get, you know, do you have tickets?
• 41:01
  Steven Weintraub: Like any, do you think you're gonna get tickets for like the SpaceX uh flights, you know, things like that?
• 41:07
  Steven Weintraub: So some of the some of the requests we get are are pretty pretty out there.
• 41:12
  Steven Weintraub: Um so yeah.
• 41:16
  Martin Foster: I might start writing like just I might create fake email accounts and just email you random requests, like can you give me a ticket to the shake out of it?
• 41:23
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, it's you know, but when we get those, we you know we share it with the staff and uh we're jokingly, it's like, hey, so-and-so, get on that.
• 41:31
  Steven Weintraub: You know, see what you get.
• 41:33
  Martin Foster: Yeah.
• 41:33
  Martin Foster: This one, this person wants to go to the Wonka chocolate factory.
• 41:36
  Martin Foster: Like, yeah.
• 41:37
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, hey, sign me up for that one, man.
• 41:39
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah.
• 41:39
  Steven Weintraub: I'm gonna I'm gonna pull an Augustus gloop.
• 41:42
  Steven Weintraub: I'm I'm going right to the river.
• 41:43
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah.
• 41:46
  Martin Foster: That's good.
• 41:47
  Martin Foster: I love that.
• 41:48
  Martin Foster: Uh just wrapping up with some final uh questions.
• 41:51
  Martin Foster: If there was a giant billboard with your picture on it for the role to see, what would you want your leadership message to say?
• 41:58
  Martin Foster: And where would you want that billboard to be located?
• 42:01
  Steven Weintraub: Oh wow, that's a great question.
• 42:02
  Steven Weintraub: I mean, look, I'm a humble guy.
• 42:04
  Steven Weintraub: I mean, I'm pretty, you know, I'm the kind of the face of the organization uh by the way.
• 42:09
  Martin Foster: And you look very young.
• 42:10
  Martin Foster: How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?
• 42:12
  Steven Weintraub: Uh 60.
• 42:14
  Martin Foster: You don't look 60.
• 42:15
  Martin Foster: You look great.
• 42:16
  Steven Weintraub: Thanks.
• 42:16
  Steven Weintraub: Appreciate it.
• 42:17
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, I'm I'm old.
• 42:18
  Steven Weintraub: I'm old AF.
• 42:20
  Martin Foster: I was doing the math.
• 42:21
  Martin Foster: No, you're not like you look young.
• 42:23
  Martin Foster: So when I was I saw like when you joined, so I was kind of doing the math and I had a guess, but I was like, man, you don't look you don't look anything close to it, so good for you.
• 42:32
  Steven Weintraub: Oh thanks.
• 42:32
  Steven Weintraub: Appreciate it.
• 42:33
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, and I I test that to good genes.
• 42:35
  Steven Weintraub: Thanks, mom and dad, and you know, all that stuff.
• 42:38
  Steven Weintraub: Um, so okay, billboard with my uh AI generated face.
• 42:44
  Steven Weintraub: Um but um I you know I think the message would be like you know, it would be something about resiliency, right?
• 42:53
  Steven Weintraub: Like you know, it's in you.
• 42:56
  Steven Weintraub: You know, that that there's great things that are in you that you have to find.
• 43:04
  Steven Weintraub: And you can't you can't chat GPT that.
• 43:07
  Steven Weintraub: It's it's going back in there and like what what what did you do?
• 43:11
  Steven Weintraub: Like what when you were a kid, like what got you excited, or you know, and and again, the military beats us down uh mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, right?
• 43:24
  Steven Weintraub: But you gotta like we gotta be like you know, like like snakes and shed that skin and and again find what it is that and and sometimes it it might be something that you never did, right?
• 43:38
  Steven Weintraub: So it's finding something new.
• 43:39
  Steven Weintraub: So, you know, my message would be find find what makes you happy.
• 43:44
  Steven Weintraub: You know, that find your happiness.
• 43:48
  Steven Weintraub: And and so that would be my message because again, I I've you know, there was times where I wasn't firing on all cylinders and and I was in dark places and I didn't like being in there.
• 43:59
  Steven Weintraub: And and I got help and nobody threw me the ring bird, buoy.
• 44:04
  Steven Weintraub: I had to go find it.
• 44:06
  Steven Weintraub: And I did.
• 44:07
  Steven Weintraub: And it wasn't hard to find.
• 44:08
  Steven Weintraub: Help is not hard to find.
• 44:10
  Steven Weintraub: So you have to have the will.
• 44:13
  Steven Weintraub: And again, us that served in uniform, again, we're like we're studs, right?
• 44:18
  Steven Weintraub: Like, you know, when and and I tell people, it's like, hey, when you're in uniform and somebody knocked you down, what did you do?
• 44:25
  Steven Weintraub: You put yourself up, you dust yourself off, and you continue to march.
• 44:30
  Steven Weintraub: So when you're now that you're not in uniform, you know, you get knocked down emotionally or or whatever, reach back in there, pick yourself up and and and you know, carry on and and find what it is that you know gets you at, you know, increases your airspeed and altitude.
• 44:50
  Steven Weintraub: So that that's you know, that's kind of my message.
• 44:53
  Martin Foster: No, that's uh that's great.
• 44:55
  Martin Foster: I that's a that's a good message.
• 44:56
  Martin Foster: I I needed to hear that, so that's really good.
• 44:58
  Steven Weintraub: Well, I mean, uh, you know, I'm Moonlight as a life coach, so no, I'm kidding.
• 45:03
  Martin Foster: Um, you know, for the billboard picture, we'll just put Ryan Gosling's picture up there.
• 45:09
  Martin Foster: We'll say Steve Weintraub.
• 45:10
  Martin Foster: Yeah.
• 45:11
  Steven Weintraub: Uh and then uh you you had me, you had me at Ryan Gosling.
• 45:16
  Steven Weintraub: Okay.
• 45:17
  Martin Foster: So uh a couple episodes ago, I had Andy Reese on.
• 45:21
  Martin Foster: He's an Army veteran, um, but he's also uh mental performance coach for the Chicago Bears.
• 45:26
  Martin Foster: Uh you should check out that episode because I think some of the stuff that you we talked about mental fitness, right?
• 45:31
  Martin Foster: Like he got hired specifically this uh this past season by the head the new head coach Ben Johnson and to work with Caleb Williams, and Caleb Williams had a great turnaround, you know, uh a great second year.
• 45:42
  Martin Foster: But aside from that, there's a lot of Uncle Rico jokes in that, and he photoshopped my face on Uncle Rico's Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 45:49
  Steven Weintraub: So look, and Uncle Rico, clearly one of the most overlooked athletes in in sports history, and I I think someone equally as overlooked is Rod Tidwell.
• 46:05
  Martin Foster: I mean show me the money, right?
• 46:07
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, show me the money.
• 46:08
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, yeah.
• 46:09
  Steven Weintraub: Jerry, you show me the money.
• 46:12
  Steven Weintraub: You're my quan.
• 46:13
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, I'm I'm a son devil.
• 46:15
  Steven Weintraub: Jerry, I'm a son.
• 46:15
  Steven Weintraub: I need I need money.
• 46:17
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah.
• 46:18
  Steven Weintraub: So yeah, Rod Tidwell, same thing.
• 46:23
  Martin Foster: Nice Rod Tidwell.
• 46:24
  Martin Foster: No one ever talks about him.
• 46:25
  Steven Weintraub: So No, because he's again, because he's he was so disrespected until Jerry McGuire, Troy Ickman wanted that kind of relationship with his agent.
• 46:34
  Steven Weintraub: Just never happened.
• 46:35
  Martin Foster: Man, that's great.
• 46:36
  Martin Foster: That's great.
• 46:37
  Martin Foster: So since episode 100, I started a podcast tradition where I want to pass the torture between episode and guest.
• 46:44
  Martin Foster: So what's a question I can ask, or what's a question or a quote I can use in a future episode with a future uh guest?
• 46:52
  Steven Weintraub: I mean, a question would be at the lowest point of your life, what was it that got you out of that?
• 47:02
  Steven Weintraub: What was your you know, what was your torch that that led you out of that, you know, the the the the turbulence?
• 47:11
  Steven Weintraub: And and again, I think when people can share those anecdotes, because again, like your your your guests are freaking a team, you know, a like Mr.
• 47:21
  Steven Weintraub: T level.
• 47:22
  Steven Weintraub: I appreciate that, you know, people, right?
• 47:25
  Martin Foster: But that includes you, that includes you.
• 47:27
  Steven Weintraub: Thank you, thank you.
• 47:28
  Steven Weintraub: Um, but and but we've all been, you know, we've all been there in some way, shape, or form, and finding out what what their challenges were and how they got out of it is what led them out of it.
• 47:44
  Steven Weintraub: And again, sometimes it's friendship, sometimes, you know, whatever.
• 47:48
  Steven Weintraub: But I think that, you know, that kind of question is uh, you know, is thought provoking and and uh would would you know I think your your audience would appreciate.
• 48:02
  Martin Foster: I appreciate that.
• 48:02
  Martin Foster: Uh yeah, thank you for those uh for those kind words.
• 48:05
  Martin Foster: Before we close out, is is there anything you want to share about vet ticks or if people how do you want them, where's the best place for people to find uh vet ticks and how can people best support vet ticks?
• 48:16
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, look, I mean if if you're not a member already, go you know, vet ticks v e-t-i-x.org.
• 48:23
  Steven Weintraub: If you're a first responder, you know one, first ticks one s t-i-x.org, and check it out.
• 48:30
  Steven Weintraub: And because again, it's like some people, people I know are like, you know, my colleagues in in the veteran space, they're like, yeah, you know, I uh no, I I don't need it, like I haven't signed up.
• 48:41
  Steven Weintraub: And then they sign up and they're like, oh, I went to uh, you know, uh XYZ event or my my wife took her girlfriends to so whether you can afford it or not, it's because you never know what kind of events there's some really cool stuff that we get other than the obvious stuff.
• 49:01
  Steven Weintraub: But like for me personally, I mean, I went and and I went as a vet tixer because I put in for the lottery just like a like a normal person, and I saw like you know, the red hot chili peppers and some like really cool shows.
• 49:16
  Steven Weintraub: And and it's funny because like when I go to these events, my wife and I, you know, we're in the vet tick section and we're sitting there going, okay, which one's the like the veteran, you know, like we're we're hiding in plain sight, you know, and I don't tell anybody's energy drinks, yeah.
• 49:32
  Steven Weintraub: And we're like, okay, which one served, you know, whatever.
• 49:35
  Steven Weintraub: So check it out.
• 49:36
  Steven Weintraub: Like just just just do it.
• 49:40
  Martin Foster: I check out their website often, and there's there's so many oper, there's so many different things, uh, great, cool things going on.
• 49:46
  Martin Foster: Not just it sports is a big focus, but there's so many different there's plays, and I I've yeah, I mean it's countless things.
• 49:53
  Martin Foster: Steve, last question.
• 49:55
  Martin Foster: What can I do for you?
• 49:57
  Martin Foster: How can I best serve you?
• 49:59
  Steven Weintraub: Look, I mean, this in itself was tremendous.
• 50:02
  Steven Weintraub: So I mean, just you know, and and that is, you know, tell your friends, you know, of like, you know, hey, do you know about vet ticks?
• 50:12
  Steven Weintraub: And not like you gotta do that to everybody, but I mean, kind of the de fac de facto evangelism piece of that.
• 50:18
  Steven Weintraub: And that's where, you know, that's how people sign up.
• 50:22
  Steven Weintraub: Like when when we when people sign up, it it it says, How did you hear about us?
• 50:26
  Steven Weintraub: And a lot of times it's through a friend, you know, through a referral.
• 50:30
  Steven Weintraub: Um, you know, things like that.
• 50:31
  Steven Weintraub: So what you can do is just kind of you know help us, you know, send a message.
• 50:37
  Steven Weintraub: And and again, it's the wellness piece of it.
• 50:39
  Steven Weintraub: It's how we give back.
• 50:41
  Steven Weintraub: It's it's you know, it's paying it forward.
• 50:44
  Steven Weintraub: And and that's why I'm so passionate about our organization, because I was we both of us were on the other side of it.
• 50:51
  Steven Weintraub: So thank you.
• 50:52
  Steven Weintraub: Thank you for for having me on it for reaching out.
• 50:57
  Steven Weintraub: I'm glad we connected at Mick.
• 50:59
  Steven Weintraub: I'll be at Mick this year.
• 51:01
  Steven Weintraub: Um, hopefully you'll okay.
• 51:03
  Steven Weintraub: Are if are you gonna be there?
• 51:04
  Steven Weintraub: That's the question.
• 51:05
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah.
• 51:05
  Steven Weintraub: Oh, sweet, yeah, awesome.
• 51:07
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, all right, yeah.
• 51:08
  Steven Weintraub: So we will be able to face to face there.
• 51:12
  Steven Weintraub: Um looking forward to it.
• 51:14
  Steven Weintraub: Yeah, so thank you so much for for having me on and for reaching out.
• 51:19
  Steven Weintraub: This was awesome.
• 51:20
  Steven Weintraub: I I I love it.
• 51:22
  Martin Foster: Steve, yeah, thank you so much for those kind words.
• 51:24
  Martin Foster: And I look forward to just talking again in person later this year in Tampa.
• 51:29
  Martin Foster: And honored that you were gracious enough to be a guest on my podcast.
• 51:33
  Martin Foster: I'm trying to grow this thing and uh certainly honored to have you and uh vet ticks uh on the show.
• 51:40
  Martin Foster: So I appreciate you.
• 51:41
  Martin Foster: Keep up the great work.