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Tracer Rounds Welcomes Jason Steiner · Military Broadcast Radio | MBR Talk

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Welcome to the Tracer Rounds podcast.
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And I'm your host, Terry, and you're on MBR where we're giving
2:42
veterans a voice. And tonight's veteran is Jason
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Steiner with Hero Stock. Welcome, Jason.
2:47
Tracy here. Terry, thank you for having me
2:49
on. You're welcome.
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I'm so excited to have you on because I've been doing some
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research on your organization and I'm really excited about it
2:57
because a lot of the people that you have in your Hero Stock
3:03
performances are people that we've had on the station and
3:07
there are some of my favorite bands.
3:08
So I'm really excited to talk to you about that.
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But first I thought we'd talk about your military service
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because I know you're a veteran as well.
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And so if you want to tell us a little bit about what you did in
3:18
the military, your time and service and maybe some
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deployments or some of the best assignments that you would say
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you had it while you're in the military.
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Sure, sure. I, I served in the Marine Corps
3:29
from 96 to 2000. I was, as I say, I'm one of the
3:33
lucky ones. I, I got to miss everything.
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So I served all Garrison. I went in as a 1833 amphibious
3:42
assault vehicle driver. So I got to play with the tanks
3:45
that floated and went from chip to shore and hauled around the
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crunchies with us. And you know, we, we went to
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Okinawa was our, was the only deployment that I did.
3:57
We were over there in 97 and went to, you know, the rock, did
4:03
the did the time there and then actually went up to mainland for
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a month and a half. And on my 21st birthday, my
4:11
whole section climbed Mount Fuji.
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And that, that was pretty cool to say.
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On my 21st birthday, I got to climb Mount Fuji and we came
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back and, and me and a buddy went down to the enlisted club
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and of course we're broke. You know, we're we're E twos and
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E3. So we had no money and, and I
4:31
had $5 to my name and, and over there they have slot machines.
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And so I had five bucks and I went up and bought a pitcher of
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beer for $2.00 and put the other three in the slot machine and
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got just about out of money and it kicked out another $5.00.
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So when I bought another pitcher of beer and went back to the
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slot machine and put it in and kicked out another $5 and it
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gave me enough to get really, really drunk that night and, you
4:55
know, crawl back to the barracks and, and that was, it was, it
5:00
was a pretty cool deployment. You know, our, our section or,
5:05
or group that went over with, with the Alpha company.
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We we were kind of the guys that you didn't use the mechanics
5:13
unless you absolutely had to. You you didn't use the COM
5:19
unless you absolutely had to. We we were very self-sufficient
5:23
with the group that we had. So it was kind of fun to be in
5:26
that group to where you had guys that were specialties with COM
5:29
and you had guys that were specialties with the the motors
5:32
and the tracks and guys that were special leads with the
5:34
actual tracks. And, you know, and that kind of
5:36
stuff to where we can keep our own stuff going and didn't have
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to rely on somebody else. And taught me a lot of
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leadership and a lot of good pieces like that that I could
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carry into the rest of my military career.
5:52
You know, we got back from Okinawa October 31st, actually
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Halloween. We came back and the next day
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they dismantled our platoon and they split sent everybody
6:05
different directions. What's up?
6:07
H train. So we got to go, you know, to
6:11
different places and and they sent me over to the landmine
6:14
cleaning platoon with the amphibs.
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And that was probably one of the coolest jobs I ever had.
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It was an amphibious assault vehicle in the back where the
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troop carrier portion is. They could fit three 500 lbs of
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C4. And it was LinkedIn rope in the,
6:35
in the blocks and, and it had a rack that would hydraulically
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raise up and it had three rockets on it.
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You'd tie the rope off to the rocket.
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You'd hit a button, and that rocket would take off and drag
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all that rope out. And it'd lay it over top of
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Constantina wire or land mines or, you know, whatever it might
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be, whatever obstacle there was, And then you detonate it.
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And the tracks were 36 tons. And the closest block was about
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60 yards away, I would say. And there was enough force that
7:05
it would actually set the track back on its heels.
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Oh. My.
7:10
Goodness, you could feel it, rock it back.
7:11
There was that much explosion, explosive force in front of it.
7:14
So you know, we got to play with that for a while and, and I
7:19
think I did that for about 5 months or so.
7:23
And the the staff Sergeant that was in charge of us when we were
7:26
in Japan, he actually pulled me up from there to be the
7:30
battalion marksmanship instructor.
7:32
And so I got super lucky. My last two years I got to do
7:37
nothing but play with guns. All I did.
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That was my whole job. Good.
7:41
Day. Yeah, he's like terrible time.
7:44
I hate doing, you know. Right.
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Don't put me out on the range, please.
7:48
Please don't do that. Right, right.
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We, we would train about 1100 Marines in Coleman a year.
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You know, we, we took care of the the muse, the the 13th and
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15th MU. We took care of all the the Navy
8:05
Coleman that were on our base at Camp Pendleton and put them on
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our ranges and stuff. So we, we went through a lot of
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lot of individuals that we would put on the raffle range, you
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know, per week and it was one week snapping in classroom
8:20
training and then the next week we were out on the range.
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And I think in the 52 weeks in the year, I believe we only had
8:29
four weeks off total. Wow, that's not much.
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Yeah, so, and it was, it was 3:00 AM in the morning to get up
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and get the chow and get everything ready and, you know,
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get out to the range before it was light out and get everybody
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set up and into the pits, you know, one group into the pits
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and one group online. And and but that was probably,
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it was probably my favorite duty because not only did I get to
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play with guns, get to instruct, but we never did anything with
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the battalion. So we never had to go on
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battalion runs. We never had the PT.
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We never like, it was always up to us.
9:04
What's up, Jay Kent? You know, it was, it was a lot
9:07
of fun to be separated from the battalion.
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We were still part of it, but it was we kind of got forgotten so
9:15
we didn't have to do all the BS that a lot of the guys had to do
9:18
in the military so. Doesn't sound too bad, but 3:00
9:23
AM does sound not so much fun sometimes because you're
9:26
probably working till late into the evening too.
9:29
We would run till about 5:00 in the afternoon or five in the
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evening. That's a long day.
9:34
Yeah, yeah. And then part of that, I was
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actually living in Downey, CA, so I was about 50 minutes from
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base at one O clock in the morning.
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It was about 15 minutes. Now when I was going home, it
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was, you know, I'd leave it at 1700 and I get home at, you
9:50
know, 8 there. It'd be a 22121 hundred 2200 by
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the time I got home because of the traffic.
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But you know, so not a whole lot of turn around time and, and but
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yeah, the, the 3:00 AM, I'm not a morning person anyway.
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And then yeah, when having that drive thrown on top of it is not
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fun. So.
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No, not at all. I can't imagine that doesn't
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sound very I mean the gun part yes, that sounds great.
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The range and the rifles, OK, no problem.
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But the drive and the get up time, the wake up call, No, I
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don't think so that. Doesn't sound like very much.
10:25
Fun at all? Yep, exactly, exactly.
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Actually, that right there is my pith cover that I wore out on
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the riff room. That was my staff Sergeant when
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I got out. He he made that plaque for me
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with my three highest ranks of people that I qualified as
10:39
expert. And yeah, I thought that was
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pretty cool that that he did that for me.
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And and it's it's come with me everywhere I've moved so.
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So it's pretty important, pretty special.
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Yes, yes, for sure, for sure. So what do you think your
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biggest take away is from the service?
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What do you, what would you say, you know, like if you had to
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like encapsulate your service and you had to say, well, you
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know, this is what I'm taking with me when I leave the service
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because, you know, this has been something that's kept me going,
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sustained me or taught me to to just be, you know, persevere.
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Is there anything that you would say that of your military time?
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You know, I think probably the biggest thing is to never quit.
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Like you, you were never allowed to quit, you know, and, and
11:25
going through boot camp, there were times where you're like,
11:27
why am I doing this? This is the dumbest decision
11:30
I've ever made. But at the end of the day, it
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shows you, you know, that, that if you don't quit, there's good
11:37
things on the other side. And so it has taught me with
11:42
everything I've done, whether it's owning my own business or,
11:45
you know, running nonprofits, whatever it might be, that
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you're going to run into speed bumps.
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There's going to be tough times. There's going to be things that
11:52
gets thrown in your way. And you have to figure out how
11:55
to keep grinding and keep going to push through that time,
12:00
because there's always something better once you get past it.
12:03
Yeah. You know, it's, it's kind of
12:05
like a snake sheds of skin for something bigger than something
12:08
better, so. True, that's true.
12:11
So what did you do after you got out of the military?
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So when I got out of the military, we, we took about, I
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was married, I got married in 98.
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And so we took about a three to four week drive to get back from
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California back to Nebraska. And we went up and stayed with
12:31
her mom in San Luis Obispo for a little bit and went to Vegas in
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the Grand Canyon. And, you know, just kind of did
12:36
a trip, you know, down through there and we got to Vegas and,
12:40
and my wife wasn't feeling well. And she's like, I think I'm, I'm
12:43
not going to drink. And we got to Tombstone and
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she's like, I think I might be pregnant.
12:50
So Nebraska was supposed to be a temporary state for us.
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You know, we, we got back here in 2000 and we're still here in
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2025. So, you know, because once we
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got back home, it was confirmed, yes, she was pregnant.
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And so we, we got back here and both of my brothers did flooring
13:11
and, you know, whether it was carpet or, or wood floors or
13:14
whatever. And so I started working with
13:17
one of my brothers to learn the trade.
13:19
I was planning on going to school to be auto body, auto
13:22
mechanic, something like that. And with the new baby on the
13:26
way, I couldn't, you know, I couldn't afford it.
13:28
So I went right into work with my brother and worked with him
13:32
up for about 9 months, kind of learned the tricks of the trade
13:37
and then started my own business in 2001, January 2001.
13:42
And I've been doing flooring since January 1st of 2001.
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So yeah, my own business and it's again, a lot of struggles
13:51
and a lot of good, good times and bad times with it, so.
13:54
Yeah, well, I think we'll take a quick break and then when we
13:57
come back, we'll talk about when you how you got the idea to
14:01
start a nonprofit and why you started it and just kind of talk
14:04
about those types of things. So right now we're going to play
14:06
Lynnwood King. Don't walk away.
18:17
Military broadcast radio, the station that's giving veterans a
18:22
voice. Find us on the web at MB radio
18:25
dot. Opinions expressed in this
18:28
programme are those of the speakers and do not necessarily
18:33
reflect the views or positions of any entities they represent.
18:38
OK, welcome back to Tracer Rounds and this is your host,
18:41
Terry. I'm with Jason.
18:43
And that was die tired, so-called complex.
18:46
So I had an itchy trigger finger.
18:49
I don't know what happened. It just decided it was going to
18:51
go first. So sorry, die tired.
18:53
That was die tired. So just so everybody knows, that
18:56
was not Lynnwood King. Sorry.
18:58
Well, it's funny because Die Tired is one of our artists that
19:02
will be taking the stage. I know, I'm so excited.
19:05
They're here too. They they just put a shout out.
19:09
Hold on. Where did it go?
19:12
Yes, right here. There we go.
19:15
Yeah, yeah, right. We love Die Tired.
19:19
They are great dudes. They are.
19:20
They are the best, absolutely. Yeah.
19:23
So I'm glad it worked out good that we played that one.
19:25
My finger just like went to that one.
19:27
I don't know what happened. What's the magic button?
19:31
It is, it is. So I'm so excited to welcome you
19:34
back to talk about your nonprofit.
19:37
So your nonprofit is hero stock. So how did and that's the name
19:41
and that's also like it's kind of like a Woodstock where you
19:45
have performers come right. I mean, that's kind of the
19:48
impetus behind the name, maybe. Yep, Yep, Yep.
19:51
So, so this actually goes clear back to 2019.
19:55
I was the founder of another nonprofit, the Nebraska Warriors
19:58
hockey program. It's part of USA Hockey and they
20:04
started this Warriors program to work with disabled veterans to
20:09
put them on the ice, to give them the home, the camaraderie,
20:11
the being back on the battlefield, the whole, the
20:14
whole 9 yards for, for depression and anxiety and, and
20:18
all that kind of stuff. And I was one of the, the
20:22
founding members of that. There was four of us and we, we
20:26
started that up 2022, No 2121 we had an incident where money had
20:38
come up missing and it kind of blew the organization apart.
20:42
And me and another Marine grabbed the reins and we kind of
20:46
kept it together and, and pushed through all the negative stuff
20:49
that was going on and, and tried to filter out everything to get
20:52
it to where we understood where the money went at least so that
20:56
we could show, hey, you know, this is what happened.
20:59
And now we, we're putting in the stop blocks to make sure that
21:02
this doesn't happen again. During that time, you know,
21:06
there was a lot of, a lot of nasty stuff going on within the
21:10
organization with people and, and that kind of thing.
21:12
And, and I decided, well, I had another guy reach out and he's
21:16
like, man, you guys just need to do something other than hockey.
21:20
And I was like, you know, maybe a night out, just having a night
21:24
for veterans to hang out. That might be something kind of
21:27
cool. And I've got a Marine that lived
21:30
up the street from me and he came down one night.
21:32
We were having a beer in the front yard.
21:33
And I was like, man, I'm trying to plan this night out.
21:36
And the only thing I can really come up with is like going axe
21:39
throwing. And he's like, oh, man, that'd
21:42
be fun. And I'm like, but veterans,
21:45
alcohol axes. How many trips are we making to
21:48
the ER like this? This is really not a great plan.
21:51
Life flight on standby. Exactly, exactly.
21:55
So he's like, well, I got a buddy that he might come in and
21:59
play some music if you guys want some music involved.
22:01
And and I've always been huge with music.
22:04
I've always relate with music that's a huge piece of who I am
22:08
and I can't play and I Can't Sing, but I love listening to
22:11
it. So I was like, yeah, man, you
22:14
know, that might be kind of fun. So I contacted the kid and or
22:17
the guy and he's like, yeah, you know, I I can come in October
22:20
22nd. But in Nebraska it could be 80°
22:25
or it could be a Blizzard in October.
22:27
Like we have no idea. And I said, you know what, screw
22:30
it, we're going to do it. Yeah, we want you to come in.
22:33
So we locked him in and about a day or two later, he comes down,
22:37
my buddy comes down again and he's like, I got another band
22:39
that wants to come in and play. And I'm like, OK, then we're
22:42
going to do something with it. Like if we're going to bring in
22:44
two bands, we're going to make this something.
22:46
It's not just going to be a little hangout thing.
22:49
And I had 45 days from the day of the idea to the day of the
22:52
event. And we ended up putting
22:54
together. There was about 60 different
22:57
baskets that we gave away as door prizes.
23:01
We had a food truck come in. We had a cornhole tournament
23:03
going on. We had two bands playing.
23:07
We had a helicopter fly over during the national anthem and
23:10
like in unexpected that it flew over during the national anthem,
23:14
but it happened and it was cool. So I'll take credit for that.
23:19
But but it was just really kind of a cool night.
23:21
And and the first name was actually vet stock.
23:24
That was yeah, it was the the veterans Woodstock is basically
23:29
what we were trying to plan and, and what's up, Tony?
23:35
You know, and, and. Yeah, right.
23:40
But it, it was it was such a cool night.
23:43
And so many people came up to me or emailed or texted after the
23:48
event and they're like, you have to do this again.
23:52
And I'm like, my daughter's going to be graduating in 23 or
23:58
24. You know, I'm like, I just got
23:59
so much going on and I got I own my own business.
24:02
I'm like, I don't know that I really want to start my own
24:04
nonprofit. And the more they kept hitting
24:08
me, they were like, man, you got to do it.
24:10
You got to do it. You got to do it.
24:11
This is what the veteran world needs.
24:12
You got to do it. And so we went to file for
24:15
paperwork in April of 23. And the lawyers, like, there's
24:20
actually of that stock already on the East Coast.
24:23
And I'm like, OK, well, we can't use that name.
24:26
And one, somebody out of her group was like, how about hero
24:29
stock? I was like, that's a great idea.
24:32
But instead of just limiting to veterans, let's open this up to
24:37
first responders and Gold Star families.
24:39
You know, our first responders, they see trauma and PTSD and all
24:43
that every single day. Like they, they don't get a
24:46
break, You know, they get their, their little bit of time off
24:49
here and there, but outside of that, they don't get a break
24:51
from it. And I said then, you know, you
24:54
throw the Gold Star families in and they're the ones that lost a
24:57
love, you know, so let's, let's pull them into the fold too.
25:02
And so we filed the paperwork, got it back in May.
25:08
I went on a run from, I want to say it was April was my first
25:14
podcast and I did it with two drunk dudes in a gun room.
25:18
Donald Dunn. That was, that was my very first
25:21
podcast that I did. And from then it just kind of
25:25
exploded. And I was searching podcasts and
25:28
I'm like, hey, this is what we're doing.
25:30
Would you be interested in having me on?
25:31
And I had some of them come back and they're like, yeah, I'm not
25:34
sure that's really what we want to do.
25:35
And but I had other ones were like, yeah, come on, come on,
25:38
come on. And so we, I was doing a lot of
25:42
podcasts. I was doing two or three a week,
25:44
sometimes a couple a day. And as I started gaining
25:50
traction with it, those ones that were like, well, we're not.
25:53
They're they're emailing me going, hey man, would you be
25:56
interested in being on our podcast?
25:59
Right. You're like.
26:01
Yeah, yeah, let's go, let's go. I asked you, but yeah, let's go.
26:05
And then I did, I want to say I did 48 podcasts or 24 different
26:11
podcasts and like 48 or 56 something like that, interviews
26:16
in like 6 months. Wow, that's a lot.
26:19
It's a lot. It's it was, it was a lot.
26:22
My wife's like another one. I'm like, yeah, another one.
26:25
Here we go. But our first event under the
26:29
banner Hero Stock, we had over 1000 people show up to it.
26:33
Wow, that's good. Yeah.
26:35
We had over 44 nonprofits. We had 16 different states that
26:39
came into it just to see what we were doing.
26:43
Yeah. And the, the thing that kind of
26:46
tipped me with the nonprofits was our very first year, we had
26:53
12 of them show up to the event and only I only knew three of
26:58
them. And I've already been in the
26:59
nonprofit world for 2 1/2 years at this point.
27:02
And I was very immersed in the, the nonprofit world.
27:05
And I'm like, I don't know them. What does your veteran that's
27:09
been out a year or your veteran that's been out 20 years, it
27:13
isn't involved in the nonprofit world.
27:15
What do they know? You know, the VFW's, the
27:19
legions, the tunnels for towers, you know, you know, the big
27:23
ones, the big national ones. You don't know all these small
27:25
local little mom and pops, non, non profits that are doing great
27:29
things, right? So yeah, yeah.
27:33
And so that became kind of our main focus of what we do now.
27:38
The music is awesome. You know that we have music
27:41
involved with it, but our big reason for Hero Stock is to pull
27:47
together all of the local area nonprofits and have them all in
27:51
one spot. You come out to Hero Stock and
27:54
you can talk to a motorcycle group, A knitting group, a book
27:59
reading group, A gaming group, gardening group, like and it's
28:04
all that your nonprofit stuff. And you know, now we're getting
28:07
the first responder stuff starting to come in too, that,
28:10
you know, that we can cater to them a little bit.
28:14
But it's, it's really creating that community where you can go
28:20
to one spot and you can see all of these different nonprofits
28:24
and talk to them and understand what their mission is and what
28:27
they're doing and go, I really want to be a part of this.
28:32
And you know, we've had some amazing testimonials come out of
28:36
it. They're on our website that, you
28:40
know, people didn't know this stuff even existed.
28:43
And now it's right there in front of them.
28:45
They can touch it, they can feel it, They can talk to them, They
28:47
can hear the stories. So it's been really cool on the
28:52
resource side to be able to have access to all of these
28:57
nonprofits. And if we get somebody that
28:59
comes to us and says, hey, man, I'm really struggling.
29:01
Well, what do you like? Oh, well, I like cars.
29:05
Dog tags garage in Omaha. They bring in veterans vehicles
29:09
and they work on them. You know, they change their oil
29:12
and that kind of stuff. You can go up there and hang out
29:14
with car guys and you know, so it's and it's it's actually
29:19
spread farther than just Nebraska.
29:22
We've got Gunny with the Primal Outfitters up in what's up
29:26
Travis up in Michigan and he takes, you know, veterans
29:32
hunting and, or take, yeah, take some hunting and fishing up in
29:35
Lake MI and Upper Peninsula, Michigan.
29:39
We've got Deke Letson out in Colorado with the veteran
29:42
exploration therapy group and they do hikes and whitewater
29:46
rafting and just all kinds of stuff.
29:49
Eddie's Horsemanship in Wyoming. They do equine therapy out in
29:53
Sheridan, WY, where they ride up in the the Bighorn Mountains.
29:57
And, you know, so it's we have expand, I have expanded now
30:02
outside of the state of Nebraska with all these nonprofits and
30:06
getting to work and talk with them and understand what their
30:09
program is and know that if I have somebody from Wyoming that
30:13
needs help, go to equine therapy.
30:16
It's free. Yeah.
30:17
You know, it's pretty awesome. It is.
30:19
It's, it's been amazing and, and getting to getting to help
30:25
people that way has been really cool for me to be able to just
30:30
I, I, I can't help them personally here, but you're
30:32
because you're in Wyoming, but here you've got this contact and
30:35
this contact has 35 more contacts in Wyoming.
30:39
Yeah, That's very helpful. Yeah.
30:42
Yeah. Well, I think we're going to
30:44
take another quick break and this time, this time we're going
30:47
to play Lynnwood King and then we'll be right back.
30:50
Perfect. Thank you.
36:27
Military broadcast radio, the station that's giving veterans a
36:31
voice Find. Us on the web at MB radio dot.
36:37
Opinions expressed in this program are those of the
36:39
speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions
36:44
of any entities they represent. Welcome back to MBR, where we're
36:49
giving veterans a voice. And tonight's voice is to Jason
36:52
Steiner, who is the CEO of Hero Stock.
36:55
And we were just talking about the different events you were
36:57
putting on and how a bunch of other organizations from other
37:01
places have tried or have reached out to partner with you
37:04
so that they can help veterans in their area.
37:07
So you have an event coming up in August.
37:12
In. Nebraska and it how many bands
37:15
are going to be included and what all is going to go on
37:17
there? Our main event in August is
37:20
August 22nd and 23rd at Country Dr. Golf Course.
37:24
We'll have 8 bands over 2 nights.
37:26
One night rock, one night country.
37:29
We'll have camping on site. We will have stuff for the kids
37:32
to do. We'll have food trucks.
37:34
We'll have probably a parachuting team coming in again
37:37
to parachute in the American flag and the Gold Star family
37:40
flag. Raffles, Silent auctions, all
37:45
kinds of crazy stuff. It's it's a great time and we've
37:50
got a couple returners this year.
37:53
Rock night We'll have die tired coming back again year.
37:57
Yeah, yeah. Super excited to have them guys
37:59
back, man. They're, they're just, they're
38:02
salt to the earth guys. And they, they never thought
38:05
they'd ever come to Omaha, NE to, to do a show and, or, you
38:08
know, fly into Omaha. And the last year they flew in
38:12
and, and they got to spend a little bit of time up in Omaha
38:15
and their, their inside joke is they're actually looking for
38:18
houses here because they're ready to move here because
38:21
people are so nice. You know what?
38:25
It's I got to pick them up from the, the motel the next day and,
38:30
and bring them out to the event. And they were just like, man,
38:33
this is so surreal for us to be able to fly halfway across the
38:38
country and do a show. And so we got them coming in
38:42
again this year. We've got, we got Shannon Book
38:47
again this year, another Texas native.
38:50
He's been doing a lot of stuff with us and he's just an amazing
38:53
dude. He's one of the huge supporters
38:56
of hero stock and I can't, I can't think Shannon enough for
39:00
all he has done for us. And so he'll actually be coming
39:03
in August 9th for our smoke off event, and then he'll also be
39:07
here August 22nd and 23rd for our main event.
39:10
I may just end up just talking him into stand and doing some
39:13
power work with me or something, but come on.
39:16
I'll put you to work. Let's go.
39:18
Yeah, right. Great.
39:19
We got a got a local band named Gallivant.
39:22
They won the battle of the bands up here at the Whiskey
39:24
Roadhouse. They're a lot of fun to watch.
39:27
They actually will switch instruments in the middle of the
39:29
song and the bass is playing guitar and the lead is playing
39:33
rhythm and pretty wild to watch. And then the headliner for Rock
39:38
Night is Lockjaw. And these guys actually come out
39:40
of Texas as well. They're a heavy metal band,
39:44
sound a lot like, you know, if I had to describe them as a band
39:48
that everybody knows, Bad Wolves, they kind of got that
39:51
Bad Wolves sound. But Jeff, with Lockjaw, he
39:55
reached out last year and he's like, man, I want to play this
39:57
event. We had him slaughtered for one.
39:58
And then the invent ended up not going and.
40:01
And so I was like, well, we'll just move you to our main event.
40:04
He's like, my sister has a wedding that day.
40:07
So he decided he probably better not miss his sister's wedding.
40:10
So we got him locked in for this year.
40:14
We're really looking forward to having them guys coming up.
40:16
They've they've, they're loud, they're very loud and they're
40:20
good. So it'll be a lot of fun having
40:23
them in. And then our country night we
40:26
have South of Center coming back, which is one of our local
40:30
bands. They've got 2 veterans and one
40:32
that's still active duty, I believe, and their band.
40:36
We've got Kimberly Meyer coming back.
40:38
She's another local native. She's the commander for the band
40:42
in Omaha, chief Warrant Officer or Warrant Officer up in the
40:46
National Guard and the Army. She'll be playing with her full
40:51
band that night. We've got another great friend
40:55
of mine, Tony Trainers, the trainer band.
40:59
They have a veteran in their band that he doesn't like to be
41:02
talked about. He's like, I don't want any
41:04
notoriety. I I did my thing, but not
41:06
playing a band. So we don't talk about him.
41:08
But they're going to be the warm up band for Mr. LV Shane and LV
41:15
does not have any military ties other than his family.
41:18
He tried to go in when he was 20 years old, ended up having a, a
41:25
disease of some sort that that kept him from being able to go
41:28
into the military. So huge veteran supporter, huge
41:32
first responder supporter. So I was like, man, we just want
41:37
you, We want you to come in. And he's a super good dude.
41:40
He actually had a number one song on the radio charts in 2021
41:46
called My Boy. And so he's a he's a well known
41:49
artist, but probably one of the most down to earth people I've
41:53
ever talked to in my life, just a super nice guy.
41:58
So we're excited to have him in, you know, we've, we've, we try
42:03
to put together a good lineup, bring people out.
42:06
And as I kind of said earlier, the music's kind of the
42:08
secondary piece to it, but it's also a healing piece.
42:13
And you know, you get some of these, these bands like Die
42:15
Tired that you know, they, they are in the mental health
42:20
capacity in their work and it translates into their songs.
42:24
It does for sure. Yeah, it's just they, they did
42:27
one last year and I cannot remember the name of it right
42:30
now, but like you could see Jim. Better off alive.
42:37
Better off alive. Thank you.
42:39
That's what I was looking for. You could see Jim actually
42:42
tearing up, like choking back tears as they were playing it.
42:46
And he's like, it was so crazy to be playing this song for
42:52
heroes. Yeah, you know, and like I was
42:55
choking back tears while he while they were playing it as
42:58
well, you know, and I had 900,000 things going on that
43:01
day. But I, I did stop and catch that
43:04
song and, and it meant a lot to me that they played it because
43:07
the the meaning of that song is so impactful, so.
43:11
It is, yeah. There are lyrics.
43:12
I have really got a message deep, you know, it's not so deep
43:17
you can't understand it. But I mean, you, if you really
43:18
start listening to the music and dive into the into it lyrically,
43:23
you can hear the the positive message and the message of hope.
43:27
That's in those lyrics, I think. Right, right.
43:30
Yeah, for sure, for sure. You know, so that'll be, that'll
43:34
be our big event this year. We've, we've already done 1
43:36
smoke off this year as a fundraiser.
43:39
So we bring in Smoking RWE 8. So Smoking RWB is a company out
43:45
of Lincoln. He's a veteran that does smoke
43:48
salt, kosher salt and it is amazing.
43:51
So go online and check out Smoking RWB because you can
43:55
order it and he'll send it directly to you for free as
43:57
well. Shipping is free.
43:58
You got to pay for the stuff but great dude.
44:02
But sidetrack. Sorry, I'm a squirrel.
44:06
Me too, it's OK, I got it. All right, right.
44:10
But no, we've, we've, we've already done the smoke off this
44:12
year. We had about 150 people come
44:16
through that and we bring in that's good.
44:19
Yeah, it's it's professional backyard smokers that make the
44:21
meat. We sell it as a fundraiser, but
44:24
it's also about bringing in nonprofits and for profits that
44:27
are veteran known to get in front of the people to talk
44:30
about what they're doing. So it's another chance for the
44:33
nonprofits to kind of push themselves out and really try to
44:37
grow. So that's that's pretty cool.
44:41
We've got the golf tournament. I guess by the time this drops,
44:47
we'll have our golf tournament ready because it'll be this
44:50
Saturday, this coming Saturday, the the 31st of May.
44:54
We've got another golf tournament July 19th and then
44:57
another smoke off August 9th. So we've got a lot of stuff that
45:01
we do through the year to bring people out, bring them together,
45:04
do fundraisers. Because what we do cost a lot of
45:07
money to put together these events and pay the bands and pay
45:10
the sound and lights and the venues and insurance and
45:13
everything else that goes with it.
45:15
So we try to raise our own funds.
45:17
We do get sponsors that come in and sponsor money for us, donors
45:21
and stuff to help us out with the events.
45:25
But we've also done stuff like we've got stuff scheduled, the
45:28
Army Navy game. So we're doing a get together
45:31
December 13th for the Army Navy game and just bring, well, I
45:36
don't know about that. Let's go mom, you know, bring
45:42
people together, harass each other a little bit and have a
45:44
good time. You know, that's what we did
45:47
last year. We had about 60 people shoved to
45:49
our Army Navy get together. And we do it at Nebraska Brewing
45:52
Company, which is a veteran owned brewery in Omaha.
45:57
Paul and Kim, amazing people that own it.
46:00
We do a lot of stuff with us. And then we just this last
46:04
weekend we did the irreverent Warriors, Nebraska, they do a
46:09
volleyball tournament every every year on Memorial Weekend.
46:13
And so we were sitting there doing that and one of the guys
46:16
that runs, his name's Jake. And I was like, Jake, I want to
46:20
do something else in the winter because everything we do is
46:23
during the summer. I'm like, I want to do something
46:25
else in the winter around the holidays to get our guys and
46:29
gals together, have a good time, get them out of the house
46:34
instead of just sitting there and moping and and not wanting
46:37
to go anywhere. I want to do something fun.
46:39
And I looked at him and he looked at me and we both go
46:42
dodgeball tournament like that quick.
46:45
And, and it was like, yeah, we're doing a dodge dodgeball
46:50
tournament. And they're like, how we can get
46:52
these nerf balls? And I'm like, oh, no, no, no,
46:54
no, no, no. If we're doing a dodgeball
46:56
tournament, we are getting the red rubber balls that sting when
46:59
they hit you. Like that's the way we're going.
47:02
So we're, we're in the planning phase right now.
47:05
I'm doing a dodgeball tournament December 20th.
47:08
So it'll be the weekend following the Army Navy game,
47:13
and it's going to be us, the local Marine Corps League,
47:17
irreverent warriors. And then there's one other group
47:19
that's going to jump in with us and we're just going to do it as
47:22
a combined. You know, I don't care if we
47:24
make a dime on it. I just want people to get out of
47:26
the house and have fun and have something to look forward to
47:29
every year so. So you're doing all of this,
47:32
plus you're working full time? Plus I'm working full time.
47:36
Yep, Yep. Plus, my daughter is my
47:39
daughter's a singer and she just cut her first single that were
47:43
released June 6th, Briella Steiner Music.
47:47
So she's on all the platforms. You can go out and pre save her
47:50
song, but I'm also her manager, her booking manager, her roadie,
47:56
her chauffeur, her. So we got all that on top of
48:00
yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. So yeah, I'm sounding lights
48:05
when we don't have it. And I, I get to do all that too.
48:09
And I, I book a lot of of our bands for other gigs outside of
48:13
what we do. You know, we're going to
48:15
Missouri this year in September for my daughter to sing.
48:19
And we've got Brandon Hockett, which is a, a local veteran
48:23
that's Navy veteran. He's going down there to play.
48:27
I've got Shannon Book booked for that event to come up from Texas
48:31
to play in Missouri. I've got the trainer band going
48:34
down there to play. So I book kind of a booking
48:39
agent for multiple people, but I don't get paid to do it.
48:41
So I can't really call myself that.
48:45
But I get the, I try to get these bands exposure, you know,
48:49
because I know how hard it is, right?
48:53
I know how hard it is to to grow your brand and grow your name.
48:57
So if I can use my platform to grow these bands and singers
49:00
that are veterans of or first responders, I love being able to
49:04
do that too. So, and it's, it's been pretty
49:08
cool with a lot of the singers that we bring in.
49:11
They hear my daughter singing and she's 19 and, and they're
49:14
like, holy crap. Like she's really good.
49:17
So she's written songs with Rachel Harvey Hill, which is a
49:20
spouse of a veteran, actually still active duty.
49:25
She's written songs with Joel and Christie.
49:27
She's writing a song with Shannon Book.
49:28
And so she's getting that exposure to these artists that
49:32
you know, they're they're doing it right now and she gets to
49:36
work with them and write songs with them and understand how
49:38
they do it. So it helps her grow so.
49:41
That's awesome. What a great place to be in.
49:44
She's, you know, we've got your support and you know the that
49:47
business end of it and then she's got the expertise of all
49:51
the artists that are on the your platform and on the platforms
49:55
that you're around. So that's pretty awesome.
49:57
Good for her. I hope it goes a long ways with
50:00
her music. That's really exciting.
50:03
Me too, I hope I can actually start getting paid for being the
50:05
booking manager, the manager, the roadie, the.
50:08
One of these days you got to get a paycheck.
50:11
Right, right, Exactly, exactly. That's awesome.
50:15
But no, it's it's been a lot of fun and, and getting to know
50:18
these singers and bands has been really amazing, getting to hear
50:21
their stories. Shannon was just up here for our
50:24
smoke off the 1st of May and, and he stayed at my house with
50:28
us and me and Shannon are pretty good buddies.
50:30
And, and he, he was standing in the, the kitchen with us and,
50:34
and we had another veteran over Anthony, one of my board
50:37
members. And, and Shannon was standing
50:39
there and they were talking about war stories.
50:41
And there were a couple times like we got him really talking
50:43
and going. And there were a couple times
50:46
where you could see him really just kind of holding things back
50:50
because he just, he was like, he was ready to start crying, you
50:53
know, and, and I thought it was awesome that he felt that
50:57
comfortable with us to be able to just open up and let it go.
51:02
And that's, I think that's a huge thing to be able to talk
51:06
about those, those dark places where we, we get to sometimes
51:10
and have an outlet to work. Hey, you can come talk to me
51:14
anytime you want. Yeah, yeah.
51:17
It's, it's hard for veterans and 1st responders to from that
51:21
standpoint to talk about things that they've see or that they've
51:24
done because no, they don't think anybody will understand.
51:28
So it's easier when they have somebody that's been in those
51:31
boots or in those shoes that can relate to what they're talking
51:35
about, or at least can it. If they haven't been there
51:37
themselves, at least they understand that mission set and
51:41
you know, they're part of that world that kind of draws, you
51:45
know, that community back in for that person.
51:48
Because really it's it's losing that sense of community, whether
51:51
you're a firefighter, whether you're a police officer, whether
51:54
you're a military veteran, Losing community is losing sense
51:59
of self. I think really and truthfully,
52:01
we kind of talked before the show and when you put you hang
52:05
up the uniform and hang up the boots, you got to have something
52:08
that kind of kind of grounds you again, because if you don't have
52:11
that, you kind of lose yourself. Right, right.
52:13
For sure, for sure. Yeah, we've, you know, we've
52:18
we've now expanded out. We January 9th was our first
52:22
episode. We started the Hero Stock Nation
52:24
podcast. That's pretty exciting.
52:26
Yeah, you don't. And it's just another outlet for
52:29
people to come on and talk about stuff.
52:31
And, you know, it might be their military career, it might be the
52:34
transition out it it may be what they felt at hero stock the last
52:39
year or two years that they came to, you know, be able to talk
52:43
about those great experiences there and who they found and who
52:46
they've connected with. And I know with Die Tired, the
52:50
guys from the Dad's Man Cave podcast, they're, they're 2
52:53
veterans out of the actress and they were so excited when I
52:57
booked up Die tired. They're like, Oh my God, I just
53:00
want to meet these guys. And, you know, they spent a lot
53:02
of time with them guys hanging out with them and talking to
53:04
them and stuff and, and rocking their gear.
53:07
And, you know, so it was cool to be able to bring those two
53:10
points together and see that, you know, and, but you know,
53:14
with the, with the podcast we bring on, we focus mainly on the
53:19
nonprofit side. We want to bring on good
53:22
nonprofits that are coming to hero stock to talk about what
53:25
they're doing so that our our audience has a chance to kind of
53:29
know them before they go. But we'll bring on singers.
53:33
We, we brought on a guy that does a therapy dog through the
53:37
Omaha fire Department. And when they go out on a bad
53:41
call and, you know, they've got to do something ugly, he brings
53:44
the dog in for the debrief. And he was talking about how we
53:48
acquired the dog and what the dog does.
53:50
And, you know, so it's, it's really cool to be able to hear
53:56
those stories of what they've done and, and be able to relate
54:01
that back to an audience, but then be able to also go into our
54:05
event and how that's helped them and how that's changed, you
54:09
know, their mindset or who they found there to be able to talk
54:12
to. So.
54:15
Yeah. Just having all those people in
54:17
the same place at the same time. I mean, you're going to connect
54:20
with somebody. You may not connect with
54:22
everybody, but you're going to connect with somebody that's
54:24
going to really help you to ground you again or to allow you
54:28
to kind of have that sense of somebody that understands.
54:33
And then you, you know, you can start to heal that way because
54:37
you've got to have somebody that you can talk to, like you said,
54:39
or that understands your world and you understand theirs.
54:43
And you can kind of connect on that level and then, you know,
54:46
tell each other whatever you want to say.
54:47
But just having that sense of somebody that has that same
54:52
background is what's so important.
54:55
Definitely, definitely. And that's, that's what we found
54:57
is if you can, if you can, you know, and we're, we're, we're
55:01
dealing with a hard group because most veterans, they
55:05
don't want to come out and be around a group of people.
55:08
You know, most, most of us are like, no, I'd rather just stay
55:11
home than be in a whole group of people.
55:13
Yeah, be out with 20,000 people. No, thank you.
55:16
Yeah, I'll just stay home. Exactly.
55:19
Yeah, you know, and, and I've got a buddy that was in, in the
55:23
EOD and, you know, he saw a lot of bad things and, and our 2023
55:28
year, he came out to the event and he, he called me ahead of
55:31
time. He goes, man, I'm probably only
55:33
going to be there 5 minutes. He goes, you know, I hate
55:35
crowds. He goes, but I want to come out
55:37
and support you. And I appreciate that.
55:38
Troy, come on out. I, I just want to see your ugly
55:41
mug. Like that's all I want.
55:43
And he showed up, they were there for 5 1/2 hours and he
55:48
sent me a text the next day. And he goes, I have never been
55:52
more comfortable in a room full of killers than I was that day.
55:56
And I was like, that's awesome, you know?
56:01
So that's the kind of environment that we want to try
56:05
to create for everybody is everybody fits and everybody has
56:08
a spot. Everybody has somebody that they
56:10
can meet and understand them. And, and you know, he talked
56:15
with this guy with the service dog for probably 3 1/2 of those
56:18
five hours and, you know, when they were talking about service
56:21
dogs and that kind of thing. And so it was cool to see that
56:24
connect. And that's what we're trying to
56:25
build is that community of. Like minded people.
56:30
Yep, exactly like minded people so.
56:34
So how would a band or an organization or somebody that
56:38
wanted to engage with you, how would they do that?
56:40
What's the best way? Honestly, probably the best way
56:45
is to reach out to me through e-mail.
56:46
It's jason.herostock@gmail.com. Pretty simple.
56:52
You can hit our website. I run all the social medias.
56:55
So if you Facebook message us through Hero stock page or
56:59
through my Jason Steiner page, my personal page, I will get
57:03
back to you as soon as I see it. I'm usually pretty on top of
57:06
that and my e-mail. But yeah, those, those are
57:10
probably the best ways to get all of us. www.herostock.org is
57:15
actually the website for us. We have a link on there, but
57:19
it's sometimes it doesn't, doesn't get monitored real well
57:23
because I don't monitor that one.
57:24
So you know, if you e-mail me personally or or hit me up on
57:29
Messenger or Instagram or Tiktok or any of those, I'm pretty
57:34
quick at getting back to you on the messages, so.
57:38
Is there anything you'd like to say that I didn't ask or
57:41
anything you'd like to just tell the audience, or just anything
57:44
you'd like to say before we have to leave because we've got about
57:46
3 minutes left? All right, probably the biggest
57:50
thing for me is never give up. If you're running through that
57:53
dark time and you don't have anybody to call on 988, push
57:57
one. It takes you to the veteran
57:59
suicide hotline. Find somebody to reach out to
58:01
you, find somebody to talk to. We just lost one of the guys
58:05
from my unit. No reason.
58:10
There was, There was no reason at all.
58:12
He didn't, he never left a note. He never left anything.
58:14
Never. Life was good.
58:17
And one day on his way to work, he pulled over and ended it.
58:21
And you know that the, the wife kept asking why and there's no
58:27
answer, you know. So please reach outreach out,
58:32
ask for help, find a battle buddy, find a civilian buddy,
58:35
find somebody that you can talk to and make sure that that
58:40
you're checking on your buddies too.
58:43
I think I sent about 200 texts yesterday.
58:47
You. Know for Memorial Day just hey
58:50
man you good and that's all it was and I got replies back on
58:54
98% of them so. Yeah, sometimes that's all you
58:57
need, just somebody going, hey, what's up thinking about you.
59:01
I mean, sometimes that makes all the difference in the world.
59:03
You don't even know sometimes what somebody's going through.
59:06
And just that simple like hello is just enough to change the
59:10
whole mood or change you know what that person was thinking at
59:13
the time. So exactly, exactly so.
59:17
But yeah, let's let's build a community.
59:20
Let's bring our heroes together. Let's have fun and come to Hero
59:26
Stock. It's a great time.
59:28
Yeah, let's do that. Well, thank you, Jason, so much
59:31
for being on the podcast tonight.
59:32
And I want everybody to reach back out to Jason and help
59:36
support his organization. And then if you can get to
59:40
Nebraska to be a part of the Hero Stock concert series and
59:44
all the other events going on, I think you should.
59:46
So thank you, Jason. I appreciate it.
59:48
Terry, thank you very much for having me on.
59:50
Absolutely. Well, we wish you much luck.
59:53
Thank you very much. All right, bye.
59:55
Bye. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you
59:59
for tuning in to Military Broadcast Radio.
1:00:04
As we wrap up today's show, we want to remind you that the
1:00:07
podcast of today's episode will be available right after we go
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