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Warriors & Watchmen: How to Find Your 'Next Mission' with Ted Adair · The Warriors & Watchmen Podcast

• 0:19
  Watchmen, presented by Raven Tech and Negative Bounce Productions,
• 0:23
  hosted by CJ3 Foundation and No Boundaries.
• 0:26
  I'm your host, Eric Thomas, director and founder of CJ3 Foundation.
• 0:30
  With me is the senior advisor for CJ3 Foundation for the state of Virginia,
• 0:36
  Big Roger Singh. What's up, guys? How are you today?
• 0:40
  Roger, welcome back. Yes. Yes. And who do we have behind us?
• 0:45
  The usual, the, the, the voice, not on camera, the guy in the sky. We'll just call me Dub.
• 0:53
  G Dub. I'm going to stick to a guy in the sky. I appreciate that though. G Dub.
• 0:58
  He's George Washington. It's fine. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,
• 1:01
  whoa, whoa. I don't want to be on the same level as him.
• 1:05
  So Roger, busy weekend, man. It was again. We had another busy weekend.
• 1:09
  You hosted a pretty phenomenal event this weekend.
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  Would you like to bring that up? Yeah, we brought a veteran that went through the facility in Iowa.
• 1:17
  You make it sound like a mental health ward.
• 1:21
  Went through the retreat in Iowa. How about that? Who was saying that?
• 1:25
  That was Mikey. Mikey called it the retreat. Why don't you just call it a picnic?
• 1:28
  Picnic, yeah. We just went through Iowa. Just drove through it.
• 1:31
  I'm going to use its formal name. The CJ3 Foundation Mental Health and Wellness. There you go.
• 1:35
  That sounds even more like a psychology ward.
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  CJ3 Foundation Mental Health. Warrior's Retreat. Oh, here we go. There you go.
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  And Rob Wood from a local. Rob Hood. Rob Hood, sorry. Yes. He's from Woodbridge.
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  Yes, there you go. Make that a tongue twister.
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  Rob Hood from Woodbridge and his dog River that he was paired with this weekend.
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  We had an event out at one of our, I don't know if we want to name it or not, but we. You can.
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  We had Spanky Shenanigans, a partner of ours.
• 2:01
  They set us up out there so people could come by, meet him, his wife, and his dog.
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  Bro, that was one awesome looking lab. Oh, he's super cute, man. That dog.
• 2:11
  Such a cute face, yeah. And was already hooked on Rob. Yeah.
• 2:14
  Already hooked on the- It's fun watching the bonding process between one of
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  our recipients and the service dogs. And think about this.
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  So I think if I remember my days, he went out on a Tuesday, flew back on a Thursday.
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  We had him meet us on a Saturday.
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  So realistically, he's only had the dog at home for what? A couple of days. A couple of days.
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  Yeah. And shows up to a full bar restaurant. Right.
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  And that dog literally laid right at his feet. The entire time.
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  Yep. But he got him out a couple of times just that we wanted to socialize the dog as well.
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  And we brought people over to the table and everybody came. Everybody,
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  I mean, it's a dog. No one's going to not come by.
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  So people are coming by trying to get the dog out and he would not leave Rob's
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  side. I was like, okay, wow.
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  I mean, that's, and explain to people, because they might not know,
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  where did you send them to, to train together?
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  Yeah. So we have two different kennels. And if you don't understand what the
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  CJ3 Foundation does, we chose not to inherently have this thing inside, right?
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  In other words, I don't own the kennel. I don't staff the kennel. I don't.
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  What we did was kind of our motto and our mantra, I guess, is to partner with organizations, right?
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  It's kind of like a brewery. Just because you can open one doesn't mean you
• 3:26
  should. There's skunk beer out there.
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  Just because I'm a veteran doesn't mean I should start a kennel.
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  So we have a kennel in Monmouth, Illinois, and a kennel down in Georgia, Camilla, Georgia.
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  And they're both staffed by guys that have been doing it for 30 plus years.
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  And candidly, They know more about, even though I have a service dog,
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  they know more about service dogs than any one of us.
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  They train law enforcement dogs. They train military dogs.
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  And as a service, they train and do our dogs at cost, which is a lot more economic
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  than me trying to run a facility.
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  And then have to worry about volunteers and staff and pay for trying to maximize
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  the dollar. Because the one thing, Roger, you've always heard me say,
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  if I have to pay something, that's another dollar away from support.
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  Well, not just veterans, wounded heroes, right? No, wounded heroes, right.
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  So, no. So, he went through Monmouth, Illinois, which is cool because it's only
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  an hour from our Iowa facility. And...
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  Met Matt and Kayla there, our two trainers, and he fell in love with them very
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  easy and yeah, came home Thursday with him and we saw him Saturday.
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  Yeah, he came out Saturday. He sat with us for what, about three or four hours, something like that.
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  And everybody came by and met the dog. It was very, like I said,
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  watching that dog just already take to him was fantastic.
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  And the dog was not leaving him for anything. If it was anywhere,
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  his foot or his tail or something was always touching Rob, which I thought was spectacular.
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  And what was neat was, so a lot of people don't understand, so we helped the
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  wounded hero with the dog. And a lot of spouses, I brief a lot of spouses on
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  what to expect with a service dog because it's not the same as having a pet.
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  A service dog is trained to look after the wounded hero. One person,
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  right. And it's a one-person dog.
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  Don't get me wrong. The dog's going to love on the other people in the family,
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  going to do all those things.
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  However, it could be a little awkward because I've seen some spouses get jealous
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  of the attention that the wounded hero gets with that dog.
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  Right. Well, I mean, listen, I think his wife was great.
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  She was super ecstatic about the dog as well and didn't have,
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  didn't, she was just very happy he got one.
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  He was extremely happy to be there. He was super just talking about your parents.
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  But he's a nicer guy than both of us, bro. Oh, God.
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  And like I said... You guys are assholes. Yeah, no, whatever.
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  It was just... He was... It's true. Hey, I'm going to tell you this,
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  though. He sent a real nice text the next day.
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  He just said he had a great time being out there. Because I will tell you this.
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  One of the things, not to tell his business here, but one of his things was...
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  He wasn't becoming a complete recluse, but was kind of recluding himself from some things. Right.
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  And so that was a tough thing for him to come out there. And what I explained
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  to him getting a dog is it's interesting.
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  You'll get more attention with the dog than you got before, but it's a proud dad moment.
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  Cause you're excited that the dog is getting all the positive attention, not you.
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  So it's, it actually turns a bad thing into an okay thing.
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  And so he got home, he said, thank you for putting that on. I felt the love
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  and even even made a comment that he found another family out in Long County
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  based off of that, which was pretty cool.
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  That was awesome. Which, you know, a lot of people said, oh,
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  how much money did you raise?
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  This was about celebrating him. We weren't out raising money.
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  I mean, we're a charity. We're always raising money. Don't get me wrong.
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  But this was about asking. Right. This was about celebrating him and that dog.
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  And and I mean, for the next, what, a dozen years, he's got a battle buddy looking
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  out for him. And now, not that he didn't have a purpose before,
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  but now he's got a very specific purpose.
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  What's going to get him out of bed in the morning? What's going to get him out
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  to that? He's got to take care of his battle buddy. And so now he's got a purpose.
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  And River was absolutely just the cutest damn dog I've ever seen.
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  And I'm pretty sure, Jen, my girl would have stolen him if she could, but he would not leave.
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  Well, let me tell you this. I will say a lot of people didn't realize it's kind
• 7:21
  of like Havoc, how docile they can act in uniform.
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  That dog's trained like on an ESPN level to do duck hunting and do all that stuff.
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  Oh, shit. So, yeah, he could take that dog out tomorrow because it's trained.
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  If he wanted to go- When you say ESPN- Like it's that good. Like-
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  Havoc can hit a three-pointer? Well, no, I'm talking about river.
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  He was talking about ESP, but that's fine.
• 7:46
  He said ESPN, damn it. I mean, that's the whole way to do it.
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  So, actually, Havoc will hit a deer because for some reason he loves deer.
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  I don't know what that is.
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  The problem is he waits until we shoot him, and then he bites him on the neck
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  and humps him. I don't know what that is. I want to see Havoc in the combine, damn it.
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  So, hey, brothers, that was a phenomenal thing. Once again, it wasn't meant
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  to be a fundraising event.
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  It was meant to be a celebration of our wounded hero.
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  But, dude, we're in the throes of charity season. I mean, once we roll into
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  spring, we're in a sprint. There's no marathon.
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  We're in a sprint. We are. Talk about some things we got coming up.
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  We've got nothing this weekend until Monday. What? Nothing this weekend.
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  Big golf tournament. We got a big golf tournament on Monday,
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  April 27th. We start out with that.
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  Well, not even start. This is just kind of the middle of the spring right now.
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  Most patriotic golf tournament in Loudoun County right here.
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  It is. It is. It's, I've been to it twice now. It's great tournament.
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  Great. Just watching everybody at the event. Can I ask you guys this?
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  It's my first time playing in this, this, this, this tournament.
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  You'll be playing with me too. I know.
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  What should I wear? Arm twisting. What should I wear?
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  Like, do I need to wear like a red, white, and blue? I want to see those legs, first of all.
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  So I want to see those short, short golf shorts. Oh, you're going to see those legs, bro.
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  You're going to see them. With knee-high socks. Oh, my Lord.
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  I can't do knee-highs. They don't fit. I'm out there in cargo shorts and a polo
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  shirt. Have you ever seen my retarded calves?
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  No. They're not. They're retarded. You've always worn jeans.
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  Yeah, I know. There's a reason for that. Dress down for us, sweetheart.
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  Are you telling us you have chicken legs or they're monstrous?
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  It's the other direction. You got fat girl calves?
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  Oh, I got real fat girl calves. Do you shave your calves and tan them?
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  Hold on. Hold on. I hide them. I hide them.
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  This is kind of funny because you're from Ohio, right?
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  Oh, he is from Ohio. So you got Midwest calves. That's what that is.
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  Really? with that. You've been throwing hay bales.
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  Yeah, man. Riding bikes and throwing hay.
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  He learned not to use his back. Hey, don't let the guy in the sky derail you.
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  What else we got going on? So we got, on May 30th, we're doing a split event
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  at the Ashburn and Percival Pub.
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  Eric's taking on Ashburn. I'm taking on Percival. And Kevin Bednarz,
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  who's the owner of both locations, has been kind enough to basically,
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  he's doing a rocky 50th event.
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  And he is, it is benefiting the CJ3 Foundation. So he's like,
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  guys, bring a table out, talk about, talk about the foundation all you want to.
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  He goes, but this is, this is really, he goes, you guys bring your people in,
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  we're going to close them.
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  So he's being, he's. So two, two things about that. One, and I don't even know
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  how much Kevin even remembers, but in his very early days of opening up Percival
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  and in our early days, he invited us out to his grand opening and supported, which was awesome.
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  So kudos to him. And I appreciate the hell out of him. So number two,
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  this absolutely is a competition of who brings in more at Ashburn location and Percival location.
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  Percival's a little larger. That's all I'm going to say. Well,
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  that'll look real bad when you don't beat me, won't it?
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  Oh, I was going to say, I've won. Challenge accepted. I'm 2-0 right now for
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  winning. No, you're not, bro.
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  Challenge accepted. We're going to see. Guy, which one are you going to be at?
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  Are you going to go to the Ashburn or Percival one? I got to go to Ashburn.
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  It's like two miles away. so i will tell you
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  this so roger and i have a friendly competition which is great in the charity
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  community but he'll put out a cash box and i put out a cash box it's like it
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  goes to the same place but it's a friendly it's at the end of the night though
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  we're we're intently counting the money so are we dressing are we are we dressing for the occasion,
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  I mean, you better wear a CJ3 shirt. No, no, no. I'm talking about Rocky.
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  Oh, yeah. So the event, yeah, you can come. You can come. I mean,
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  they do encourage you to dress up.
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  As Clubber Lang, you can come as whatever you want. Hey, hold on.
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  How flexible are you? I am not. I'm old. I want to see how flexible.
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  Can you put a foot up at the table? No.
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  Yes, you can. Put a foot up. Nope. You can't do that. Oh, hold on.
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  Guy, guy. He wants me to do it. Have you seen these things? I'm going to help
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  you out. Take your shoe off.
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  Take your shoe off and put it on the table. There's a fucking bear's foot.
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  First of all, that's a size 16. What the hell is that?
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  Oh, my. And no, ladies, it's not true.
• 12:20
  You saw me in the shower one time. It was cold. It was cold. Second of all.
• 12:24
  It was cold. It was cold. So my fiance actually did those shoes for him, which is awesome.
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  One, it's not easy to find size 16. No, it's not. And not even easy to find.
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  Size 16, dude? Yes. not easy to find good
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  looking ones so the fact that we found them and then michelle did
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  all the work to him and put cj3 on him dude it took
• 12:43
  him forever to even wear him because he's so afraid i don't want
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  to screw i didn't want to screw him up and he's like when are you going to wear your shoes
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  and i finally wore him out one night and now i wore him to the event this weekend
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  i was like i'm wearing it here why not i gotta stretch him out some but after
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  so we have the may 30th event at the split event with uh ashburn percival and
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  then on june 7th i'm sorry i missed one we have May 16th,
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  clays for a cause in Wisconsin. Yep.
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  Because we are more than just in Virginia. Yep. So you're going to have to talk
• 13:13
  about this one because I don't know a whole lot about that one.
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  Because I'm the Virginia guy. What are clays?
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  Shooting clays. Shooting quidgets, right? Yeah.
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  Shotguns and clays. So I don't know enough about the event, though.
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  I don't know if there's more to it than that. No, Tamara Key runs it,
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  our ambassador for Wisconsin. She puts on a phenomenal, this is.
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  I'm remiss in remembering it's a third year, I think. But no,
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  in Wisconsin, this thing gets a lot of attention.
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  She does a phenomenal job and brings people together.
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  And dude, shooting clay is fun. I didn't start it till later,
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  after Army, after everything.
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  And it's literally a blast. I mean, and it's pretty low cost to do too.
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  I was amazed how cheap it was to do that.
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  So thank you for bringing that up. What else we got here? And then June 7th,
• 13:52
  we have Toss for a Cause. We're throwing bags. We're throwing bags.
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  We're throwing we're throwing bags around for a toss for a
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  cause it's being run by irish rose cornhole tournament
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  cornhole irish rose cornhole rc and it's paired up with ashburn village yep
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  paired up with ashburn village where we're gonna have they're gonna have professionals
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  out there they're gonna have kids out there we're in the dome and everything
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  we're in the tennis dome out there right next right right next to the ashburn
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  pub are you gonna so are You're going to pair up with no boundaries this year,
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  too. It didn't fall, right? I don't know.
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  I don't. That hasn't been talked about yet. We'll see what happens.
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  Maybe we need to try you out and see if you can.
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  How good are you at playing the bags? The Virginia chapter needs to hook up
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  with no boundaries on this.
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  Oh, shoot. That's a good call. Where's my senior advisor to put that together?
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  I mean, I got to see Mike again at some point to figure that out.
• 14:46
  He's golfing. He's golfing next week. You're actually getting him out?
• 14:49
  He's coming out. I gave him enough crap. I gave him enough shit that he's actually
• 14:52
  going to come out. So I'm golfing with these two.
• 14:54
  I mean, that's awesome. But so we got that coming out. I don't know if we're
• 14:57
  going to call it golfing, but we're hitting balls. We're smoking cigars and drinking.
• 14:59
  How about that? I'm pretty sure you guys will be done by the ninth hole.
• 15:02
  That's right. And we're going to see Eric on the ground, and then he has to
• 15:05
  give a speech at the end of it.
• 15:06
  So Roger's biggest concern every year of this golf tournament is,
• 15:09
  is Eric going to be lucid enough to talk?
• 15:12
  Listen, ninth hole last year, I get to the ninth hole.
• 15:15
  He's not golfing, right? So I get to the ninth hole last year and I couldn't
• 15:19
  understand a fucking thing coming out of his mouth.
• 15:20
  And I'm like, oh shit, he's got to give a speech at the end of this. I did it.
• 15:24
  And I'm not even involved. I'm not, I wasn't involved with the foundation like
• 15:27
  this at that point. Oh, you were buying stuff. I was buying stuff back then.
• 15:31
  And he goes in there and all of a sudden he gives his speech like it's on autopilot.
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  Cause like I said, he just has everything on top of
• 15:38
  his head and makes me look like an idiot when i take notes so i i don't
• 15:40
  take notes anymore and he so yeah i had a little little concern
• 15:43
  last year the golf tournament but he ended up pulling it out and
• 15:46
  then i looked at him this year i said can you can you manage to drink fewer
• 15:50
  beers and no liquor no well it doesn't help the alcohol and the food's free
• 15:55
  on this course it is there is there is a one where i don't even know what they
• 16:00
  call it but it's a hurricane he's drinking with me oh i see you're You're going out with those two.
• 16:07
  Yeah, he's going to be hurting. I'm not going to be hurting.
• 16:10
  Speaking of concerns and worries, we have a guest here I'd like to introduce. All right.
• 16:15
  I'm a little concerned and worried about this guy. Actually,
• 16:18
  this guy's become a good partner of ours pretty quickly.
• 16:22
  We have with us, Roger, we've got Ted Adair with The Oath and Oak.
• 16:27
  Welcome, Ted. Welcome, Ted. Where's the applause? The Oath comes first.
• 16:32
  Where's the applause? A lot of people ask me that. Why Oath? Why Oak?
• 16:36
  We'll get into that later. What I want to know is the Oath is more important than the Oath.
• 16:44
  And because the folks you serve have done that at least once, if not multiple times.
• 16:51
  Which was interesting because I just had to do that again in January and I think.
• 16:56
  It hits you in the feels the older and the farther you get along in your career.
• 17:00
  Because I will tell you, it meant, for whatever reason, more to me this last time.
• 17:04
  Not that it didn't mean anything to me the first time. But each time it hits
• 17:07
  you a little harder and becomes a little more, just a little bigger.
• 17:11
  Whatever reason. Ted, before you go any further, give us a real deep introduction of who you are.
• 17:19
  Your elevator speed. What you've done. Oh, my God.
• 17:22
  Deep, deep intro. Hold on, hold on. You. Hold on. I'm going to tell you this.
• 17:26
  Here it comes. I'm waiting for the torpedo.
• 17:29
  You want somebody that's going to rival me in the elevator speech and be able
• 17:32
  to, because this dude's learned really quick.
• 17:35
  You got to have, our biggest answer is when somebody goes, hey,
• 17:39
  Ted, hey, Eric, you want to come talk about your organization?
• 17:41
  Our next response is, how long I got.
• 17:45
  Because I will fill whatever one you got. Let me rephrase that.
• 17:51
  Don't talk about Oath and Oak in your organization. Talk about you. Who are you?
• 17:56
  Where'd you come from? I want to hear what they are first before he gets into
• 17:59
  it. I would just want to hear what the organization is so they know what they're
• 18:02
  getting into. Yeah. Boom.
• 18:05
  One, for folks that are watching this, you've got a phenomenal setup here.
• 18:10
  Negative bounce productions?
• 18:12
  Really, really, really solid. So, look at that.
• 18:16
  There it is. There it is. There it is. It only took you 20 minutes.
• 18:20
  It's fine now. He has been drinking since noon.
• 18:23
  Why can't I get that treatment at home? That's the problem. Because I know your
• 18:28
  wife and kids. Yeah. Hey, hold on.
• 18:30
  Havoc gets it when it comes around your family. Every time.
• 18:34
  My kids are drawing pictures of Havoc. They love Havoc so much.
• 18:37
  That was pretty awesome, by the way. How pretty good. Yeah. That was pretty cool.
• 18:40
  Ashton Adair, he's our artist. Quit stalling. Oath and Oak. Yeah. So Oath and Oak is a...
• 18:46
  Veteran-centric organization based and anchored in downtown Leesburg,
• 18:50
  and we are interested in helping veterans chart their next path.
• 18:54
  Whatever it is they want to do, post-service, they hang up the uniform.
• 18:57
  We're taking them through a curated list of, let's call it civic,
• 19:03
  social, and prepping them for the emergence of AI.
• 19:08
  And I know that our friend GW back there is big into to tech,
• 19:12
  I feel a kindred connection to his tech. False. I hate AI.
• 19:19
  How about this? Why AI today?
• 19:22
  I think that we're living in a moment where veterans should be able to chart
• 19:27
  their own path in a way that they haven't had the opportunity before.
• 19:30
  It's never been easier to flip open your laptop and launch an LLC and leverage
• 19:36
  artificial intelligence to go and do whatever your heart's desire is. Or eat anything.
• 19:41
  Create anything that's in your brain, you can take that and put it into your
• 19:47
  laptop and go and launch. And I think veterans, you know.
• 19:51
  For a lot of us, that feels and sounds like a very daunting thing, right?
• 19:57
  It feels daunting. And I know you like to simplify it and break it down Barney
• 20:01
  style and you do a good job with it.
• 20:03
  I think that veterans are primed for flexibility and adaptability.
• 20:08
  And when I think about that, I think that they can go into any organization
• 20:13
  and, you know, be an operator, right?
• 20:17
  Go and identify issues, challenges, and make things better.
• 20:22
  I think they should do that for themselves. And if they're not an entrepreneur
• 20:25
  at heart, well, then they can airdrop into a midsize or a small business,
• 20:30
  be pre-trained on artificial intelligence and go and, you know,
• 20:34
  seek out their heart's desire.
• 20:36
  Listen, a couple of things. One, veterans, when they get out of service,
• 20:38
  you guys know this, we've lived it, last maybe a year in that first job because
• 20:43
  they're missing out on that mission and purpose and that connection to service
• 20:47
  that was there when they had the uniform.
• 20:49
  You were mentioning earlier, right? The feels you got when you took that oath, right?
• 20:53
  And that's part of the history and the background of the Oath and Oak.
• 20:57
  So, you know, for folks that are listening, Oath and Oak, the name comes from
• 21:01
  two places. One, the oath that I took to the Constitution, and I served for
• 21:05
  five years, but I'm a fourth-generation combat vet.
• 21:08
  Hold on, hold on, rewind. Yeah. Served what?
• 21:11
  So, United States Army, I served five and a half years active duty as an artilleryman.
• 21:17
  Hey, guy in the sky, you're now outnumbered. Two army guys here.
• 21:23
  The guy in the sky. You're going to have to get some Marines out here.
• 21:28
  So we got how many Marines?
• 21:30
  Two? Yeah, how many Marines? How many Marines? I am not a vet.
• 21:34
  I am not a vet. Do we have? I'm a D&D guy. I don't know. With a size 16 shoe, how are you not a Marine?
• 21:42
  I play college football. That's why. I play college football.
• 21:46
  It doesn't matter. We're all on the same team, man. He prestiged in Call of
• 21:49
  Duty. It's almost the same as being a Marine.
• 21:53
  Basically a sniper. One of the two things you ate, I almost joined.
• 21:57
  I did prestige in the call.
• 22:00
  Technically, I'm a Marine. Every episode, this happens. So hold on.
• 22:05
  So Army what? What MOS? What were we doing? 13 Alpha.
• 22:09
  Hold on. He was an officer, right? Yeah. I'm sorry. That's okay.
• 22:13
  Some of us say, look, I backed into it.
• 22:16
  No, good on you, brother. Now, appreciate you serving. Yeah,
• 22:20
  thank you for your service. That's phenomenal, bro.
• 22:21
  Thanks for the support. And one of the things I spend a lot of time with friends
• 22:25
  is that I either went to school with or people that I've worked with afterward.
• 22:29
  And a lot of folks feel like, hey, I, you know, I had this window of opportunity to serve.
• 22:33
  I didn't, whether it was a medical issue or family didn't want them to,
• 22:37
  or there's a whole host of reasons not to.
• 22:39
  I think there's a thousand different ways to serve in our country,
• 22:42
  in our communities, and it doesn't have to be in military service.
• 22:46
  Well, bro, I'm going to tell you this, because I've used this as the same example with him.
• 22:49
  So he gets annoyed and actually he gets embarrassed. And I appreciate the fact,
• 22:54
  I understand why he does, because people think, assume, because he's with us
• 22:57
  and what he looks like and the way he carries himself, that he was a badger. Hold on, hold on.
• 23:02
  What does he look like? That's a compliment. Yes, it was. It may be a little
• 23:05
  backhanded, but it was a compliment.
• 23:07
  It was definitely backhanded. But at the end of the day, it embarrasses him,
• 23:11
  right? Because he's like, I didn't and whatever.
• 23:13
  But at the end of the day, Roger and I will say my associate director down in
• 23:19
  Georgia, neither of them served. But I'm going to tell you, they're doing more
• 23:22
  for veterans than veterans are doing for veterans, right? And so my point, to your point—.
• 23:27
  Service comes in many forms. It doesn't have to be in uniform.
• 23:30
  It's what are you doing? You know, what have you done for us lately, right?
• 23:33
  What are you doing to improve the community, help them out, and take care of this group?
• 23:38
  And so kudos to you, Roger.
• 23:40
  Kudos to Junior, my associate director down in Georgia. That's private sector
• 23:44
  because you hit it right on.
• 23:46
  Service comes in many forms. Yeah, and one of the things I appreciate about
• 23:49
  CJ3 is it comes in forms and comes in action.
• 23:52
  And there's a lot of organizations out there that candidly, you know, talk.
• 23:57
  You and you know appreciate the uh the
• 23:59
  only reason we weren't with you guys at uh spanky's the other day is my my boy
• 24:03
  had a lacrosse game up in in maryland and family comes first and uh you know
• 24:07
  if the timing wouldn't work so you don't that's how i know the difference between
• 24:12
  a non-profit and not it family doesn't come first when you run a non-profit you just have to be there.
• 24:18
  He yells at me i have children he's like
• 24:21
  when are you going to give up your daughter's like 27 years old my daughter's 14
• 24:24
  yeah well she'll be okay she'll be
• 24:27
  fine i'm like she has an event i have to go to he's like you need to
• 24:30
  be here i'm like nope i will shame him i will
• 24:33
  he shames me constantly about it but not not shamed for not having served and
• 24:38
  i want to come back to that because it's an important point because i know there's
• 24:41
  a couple of things i want to point out one is folks that feel some sort of sense
• 24:45
  of regret for for not serving especially you know Post 9-11 era,
• 24:48
  I think there was this window,
• 24:50
  right, of folks understanding.
• 24:53
  I think we never felt more unified as a country in the years that I've lived here.
• 25:00
  I've been a lot. 9-12-2001 was honestly the best worst day ever.
• 25:05
  We were more unified as a country, patriotic and everything else than we've
• 25:09
  been in a long time. Right.
• 25:11
  Don't want to go through it again. No. But it was awesome to feel America.
• 25:16
  So, unfortunately, you're going to have to get used to this,
• 25:18
  Ted. We go off on tangents. We do. Sorry.
• 25:21
  So, we will let you get through it. I promise. We're done talking now. We're done talking now.
• 25:26
  A-OK. I love the stream of consciousness. I'm actually waiting for some good,
• 25:30
  you know, gentle sabo rounds coming my way.
• 25:34
  Maybe an RPG.
• 25:37
  I'd almost like rather rip the Band-Aid off. So, Eric. Are you ready for this? I will.
• 25:44
  Hit me in a second, but I want to get this out first. One focus.
• 25:46
  This one's going to hurt.
• 25:49
  I can't wait. I love how we've built the suspense for this.
• 25:54
  I wish I had a sound effect for him. What I'm going to do is I'm going to make
• 25:58
  Eric feel bad for shooting me. No, you're not.
• 26:01
  No, you're not. Okay, wait, wait. You should never make Eric feel bad.
• 26:05
  So one of the things I appreciate about Eric is he didn't know me from Adam.
• 26:10
  And I put out an APB and said, listen, I'm launching this organization with
• 26:15
  an oak. I'm going to do a kickoff.
• 26:17
  I'm going to bring my family. I'm going to bring every veteran that I've got
• 26:20
  arm's length distance to. and we are going to kick things off.
• 26:23
  And this was, oh, I think back in early February.
• 26:27
  It's all a blur, bro. Right, it is all a blur. We've been running so quick,
• 26:30
  dude. Seriously, sincerely. It's the malarkey bourbon.
• 26:34
  Brought to you by... Malarkey.
• 26:37
  We need to do a commercial. Well, if only there was a bottle with a label.
• 26:44
  Partners, the CJ3 Foundation. There you go. See, it all comes full circle.
• 26:49
  To that point, I'm going to tell you no BS. One thing I hope you found is in
• 26:54
  this area with our supporters and stuff, it truly does become full circle.
• 26:59
  How many mutual friends do we have?
• 27:02
  Like partners, supporters, friends, all that stuff. We met, and I would say
• 27:06
  we already had maybe 10 connections.
• 27:10
  It's a small world. And then credit to you. Thank you. You brokered many intros
• 27:14
  beyond that, and so now it's like 3x because of— Brother, I understand this.
• 27:19
  I appreciated who you were, what you were doing.
• 27:22
  I didn't want you to stumble over some of the same roadblocks,
• 27:26
  right? I came into this blind.
• 27:29
  We all make mistakes going through this. We all, if I could help a friend,
• 27:33
  if I could help somebody, you know, that I support and I get behind,
• 27:37
  if I can help them, I'm never the smartest guy in the room.
• 27:39
  I'm never, but I know what mistakes I made. And we've talked very openly about some of those.
• 27:44
  We've been to breakfast together and had discussions.
• 27:47
  It was, bro, you know, I've got what this thing started in 2020.
• 27:52
  So I've got that many years behind us.
• 27:54
  Here's some of the mistakes I made. Don't do that.
• 27:57
  Don't hear some people. Here's some, I'll just be candid.
• 28:00
  Here's some places and people you want to avoid here's some things you need to get behind because,
• 28:05
  they are the movers and shakers in the community in the
• 28:08
  veteran community especially here's some so i hope
• 28:11
  you never took it as we were we were trying
• 28:14
  to act like we know everything but i didn't want to i
• 28:17
  didn't want you to repeat some of my mistakes no i
• 28:20
  one i didn't take it that way and two the fact that there are other veterans
• 28:25
  out there that are willing to you know reach out and broker connections especially
• 28:30
  when you're trying to do something that's outside of your strike zone which
• 28:33
  certainly this is a complete departure and it's outside my comfort zone because
• 28:36
  i don't know that world that well,
• 28:39
  And it's been a journey for the last year or so.
• 28:43
  But one of the things that I have a hard time with, I'm very good at conversations
• 28:47
  and making it about other people.
• 28:49
  But talking about myself is a rough proposition.
• 28:52
  That's not what your wife said.
• 28:56
  She's sick of hearing me talk. She's like, it's time to go.
• 29:01
  You don't just know the feeling. You know it for a fact because she's told you.
• 29:04
  I am actually sick of dead.
• 29:08
  So last night it was kind of funny so somebody
• 29:11
  came up to our table or not like the two nights
• 29:14
  ago at the celebration somebody came up to our table and
• 29:17
  was like what is this cj3 that foundation
• 29:20
  thing me roger jen all of us look to
• 29:23
  michelle trial by
• 29:25
  fire it's a good opportunity for you but to
• 29:28
  your point she's heard me say you talk it's it's
• 29:32
  the speech right it's we've got we were just joking you know when somebody says
• 29:37
  hey bro you want to come on and talk about your you know what you do and you're
• 29:40
  like the only question I have is how long do I have I can go two minutes I can
• 29:47
  go an hour and a half you tell me what I got right and and I know you're the same way because.
• 29:51
  It's amazing the different forums you go to speak in well let
• 29:54
  me ask you this because one of the things that I've had a hard time figuring out
• 29:57
  is explaining the organization in the context of who
• 30:00
  i am as a person so when somebody comes to
• 30:03
  you and asks you about cga3 how often
• 30:06
  do you start with your personal story i don't versus talking
• 30:10
  about the organization and the mission and the focus actually you know what
• 30:13
  actually i just lied to you so i actually i didn't say it at all because i wanted
• 30:19
  to leave me completely out of it what i found is that wasn't working and people
• 30:23
  actually want to be connected to the guy that owns havoc right and because havoc gets all the attention
• 30:30
  but they wanted to know the guy behind Havoc.
• 30:32
  Havoc's a badass. He is. And they wanted to know the why.
• 30:35
  And the only way you can get to the why is to know me and my story.
• 30:39
  So interesting enough, I went down to a golf tournament in Richmond.
• 30:43
  I was invited as a guest. They were like, hey, we're going to have you speak.
• 30:47
  I didn't know what I was going to say. Candidly, it was a bad night the night
• 30:51
  before. I'm in the hotel room. I said, screw it. I'll come up with something.
• 30:55
  So I wake up, go to the golf tournament. And for whatever reason,
• 30:58
  this thing came to mind. And now it's been my most successful speech that I
• 31:03
  give that I've actually given now in universities. I've given it at work.
• 31:08
  I've given it at churches.
• 31:09
  And it's called my pee-pee speech. And it's about my pee-pee.
• 31:12
  And it makes people really— I hate it when you talk about your pee-pee.
• 31:15
  It makes people really uncomfortable because I did it at a Boy Scout troop.
• 31:19
  These parents are like, what? Horrible. This ground man.
• 31:22
  And so—but it's about perspective and perseverance. and I tell my story and,
• 31:27
  and why I got him and why I do what I do.
• 31:30
  And so it goes through me getting injured and all that other stuff.
• 31:34
  And what moved me to this point? And it's called my pee-pee speech.
• 31:38
  I've seen him give that a few times. The pee-pee always draws attention,
• 31:42
  especially in adult crowds. It makes people giggle and they go quiet.
• 31:45
  And they do, they want to know why he started the foundation and how it came
• 31:49
  about. And he, he has to start that way.
• 31:52
  Ted, can i say this great hook it gives me and i'm
• 31:55
  not minimizing i'm not saying hook from a humorous way to get to people right
• 32:00
  and and if i didn't have that i i'm not comfortable telling right and so i like
• 32:04
  to make people laugh so what's the best way to make a laugh i make them uncomfortable
• 32:07
  because i'm uncomfortable and so i talk about my people come on in the water's
• 32:11
  fine i will i i will literally get in front of these people and go.
• 32:15
  Have you ever seen little boys playing with their junk? They got their hand down their pants.
• 32:19
  And people are sitting there looking at me going, what is wrong with this guy?
• 32:23
  I'm like, you know what? Hey, and I'm looking at people going,
• 32:25
  you know what I mean? They're like, don't look at me.
• 32:28
  I don't know what you're talking about, sir. Right. What is wrong with you?
• 32:31
  So I go down that road and make them just uncomfortable enough.
• 32:34
  And then I go, oh, you sickas. I'm talking about my pee-pee,
• 32:39
  perspective and perseverance. And then I give the speech.
• 32:42
  But I'm going to tell you, it works. It does work. Nates.
• 32:47
  It does bring people in. As you say, the pee-pee speech has got people. Yes, dude.
• 32:52
  We all do, for whatever reason, ever since we were boys and whatever,
• 32:57
  pee-pee. It automatically goes, what?
• 32:59
  You giggle. You giggle. But also, the human brain will go straight to the hook
• 33:04
  of any really good message or any compelling, I'll say compelling message.
• 33:09
  It may not be a good message because what they think they're buying into is,
• 33:13
  oh, this guy's going to go. But the place went dead silent. And one of my buddies
• 33:17
  recorded it, Steve Frazier recorded it.
• 33:19
  And he said, bro, don't do any other speech. This is what you got to do.
• 33:25
  And I was like, nah. And I had to go back and watch it. I was like, that's kind of cool.
• 33:28
  But it unlocked your ability to tell your story in a way that made you comfortable sharing it.
• 33:35
  Because I made him laugh. I want to ask, how do you tell your story and do it
• 33:42
  in a way where you don't feel like, oh, I'm projecting my. Now it's about me.
• 33:46
  It's about me instead of the mission.
• 33:48
  Because I talk about things and people that influenced me in the process that
• 33:53
  it's not so much about me. It's about the other things that influenced me during it.
• 33:57
  So I can actually answer a little bit of this for you. I'd love to hear your
• 34:00
  perspective. When you've given that speech, where it hits home the most is the challenges.
• 34:05
  And you're not bragging about it, but you're like, I have a master's degree.
• 34:08
  And going to the VA was such a challenge for me to understand.
• 34:12
  And not downplaying that they're too stupid to understand, but you're basically,
• 34:16
  if I can't figure out this paperwork that I have to do for this to get this—
• 34:20
  How many other people have this same issue? And that's how you bring it all
• 34:23
  in together. I'll say I have a master's degree. I work for the federal government.
• 34:26
  I'm a senior in the federal government.
• 34:28
  I, bro, the VA system was creating more PTSD than I had from the war.
• 34:34
  And then I resonated too, and nothing against my father, but he's got a high
• 34:39
  school diploma from V&O.
• 34:40
  Right. No wonder he's not going to go through the process. But you're doing
• 34:44
  it in a way you're not downplaying anybody, but you're basically saying.
• 34:47
  And I'm not elevating myself. You're not elevating yourself in that way.
• 34:50
  You're basically saying all these soldiers and all these wounded heroes coming back.
• 34:55
  If this is what they have to focus on, this is going to bring them more issues
• 34:59
  than it's going to have. Ted, I will tell you this.
• 35:00
  The most resonating moment I had was, and it pissed me off more than anything, to be honest with you.
• 35:06
  But I go meet a senator for lunch.
• 35:10
  He called me to talk about the charity, and I appreciate his support and what
• 35:13
  he's doing. We'll leave it at that.
• 35:16
  And he asked me some questions, heard my story, and said, hold on.
• 35:19
  He calls the old VA director. He doesn't tell me who he's calling.
• 35:23
  He said he'll be here in a minute. I was like, who?
• 35:27
  I didn't know who he called. Well, here comes the VA director or administrator,
• 35:32
  whatever they're calling that person, whatever, administrator I think is their position.
• 35:35
  The boss. So he shows up, and he was kind of an a-hole, right?
• 35:40
  And so he sits down wondering why he's there and whatever, and the senator starts talking to him.
• 35:45
  He's like, hey, I want you to meet Eric, and he kind of gives me the half-ass, hey, whatever.
• 35:49
  And he said, tell him who you are and what your organization does.
• 35:52
  I did and you could tell he wasn't interested and was annoyed he was even there
• 35:56
  and he said he he looked at me he said well I don't even know why you guys exist
• 36:01
  and so I got crass and looked at him and I said because you're not doing your
• 36:06
  job if you were doing your job I wouldn't have to,
• 36:09
  and that's how I and I got up shake the senator's hands I thank you for your time and walked out,
• 36:15
  part of me wants to know whether or not that was about the relationship between
• 36:19
  the senator and the secretary of VA and you just found yourself in the midst
• 36:24
  of a... But probably both.
• 36:28
  I mean, ultimately, you know, and this is not just crapping on the VA because
• 36:32
  they do some phenomenal things. I will tell you this. I've had 18 surgeries.
• 36:35
  They did an awesome job at that, right? There's some things they do really well.
• 36:39
  They put Humpty back together. Your nose looks great. Thank you.
• 36:41
  And my breasts are just awesome.
• 36:43
  No, they put Humpty back together again really well. But there's some things
• 36:48
  they're still trying to figure out mental health.
• 36:50
  They're still, because let's face it, it's still a government organization that's not nimble, right?
• 36:54
  And I got it, right? so there were some problems
• 36:57
  and it takes legislation to approve these it
• 37:00
  takes time i get it but at the end of the
• 37:03
  day if you're gonna give me attitude i'm gonna give it back you know because the
• 37:05
  funny thing for me is i'm sitting there going well the va is referring people
• 37:08
  to me all the time i'm not referring them to you just saying true so and and
• 37:14
  and i and i don't hate on them because there's some very good services and there's
• 37:17
  some phenomenal va facilities but my problem is how are you going to have a
• 37:22
  phenomenal one in one location and not one in the other, they need to be standardized.
• 37:26
  They need to be standardized. Let me ask you this. When you served in the Army, was every unit perfect?
• 37:32
  Doesn't matter. They need to be standardized. Okay. I don't disagree with that.
• 37:36
  I guess what I'm trying to say is that,
• 37:39
  We're all human beings and every organization has its flaws and not all organizations
• 37:44
  are going to be the same. Do you count that as an excuse though?
• 37:47
  Mm. Thank you. That's fair.
• 37:50
  That's fair. I was never, I was never in the debate society.
• 37:55
  Ted, I've heard you give your speech a few times too. And honestly,
• 37:58
  there was even, there was a time we were, was it the Loudoun County Veterans Board?
• 38:02
  The LC? So, so we invited, I wanted to make sure. So part of what I was telling
• 38:08
  Ted was in Loudoun County, we have the Loudoun County Community Veteran Engagement Board.
• 38:13
  And out of Loudoun County, that brings together all the VFWs,
• 38:17
  the legions, the DAVs, the VSOs of the area into one forum.
• 38:22
  And what I told Ted was, I said, brother, I want you to come here with me.
• 38:25
  You know, we've got a seat on it.
• 38:27
  Here's why. Here's what it does. It prevents you from having to go out to all
• 38:31
  these individual places.
• 38:32
  You can go to one location and kind of get your information out.
• 38:35
  And so yeah Ted showed up to that which thank
• 38:38
  you for showing up honestly there was a part you were
• 38:41
  talking about your father to somebody that used to be under him and
• 38:45
  I'm that was a little surprising I'll be honest I was
• 38:47
  listening I was like holy crap that's fantastic but hearing your history
• 38:50
  and I was asking Eric I'm like what what did you do in
• 38:53
  the military and he's like I you need to go ask him I was like well
• 38:56
  I gotta leave right now because it's like nine o'clock at night and it's a weeknight on
• 38:59
  a Tuesday you run you're with a charity sir you
• 39:02
  have no personal that's true but no hearing
• 39:05
  you talking there and even hearing the story beforehand i thought that was going
• 39:09
  to be all a part of your story just you talk about four generations but talking
• 39:12
  about your father and you were talking about that gentleman i was i was listening
• 39:16
  intently even though i wasn't i was eavesdropping like a champ but i thought
• 39:19
  that was so the story is ted walked in and somebody was like.
• 39:24
  Knew the name and your dad isn't and
• 39:27
  that's where it went right it's exactly where
• 39:30
  it went so i gotta i guess
• 39:33
  try to and this is why i asked you about when people ask you about cj3 how do
• 39:38
  you separate that from who you are as a person or not like how do you mesh it
• 39:42
  together but you've got you've got you gotta throw it out you've got the pp
• 39:45
  and you gotta be you gotta pp conversation but you also gotta you dude it's
• 39:49
  difficult because you gotta be vulnerable because i don't dude i'm I'm sitting
• 39:52
  there thinking all the time,
• 39:54
  nobody gives a shit about who I am. Nobody cares.
• 39:56
  They like the dog. They like the play stuff.
• 39:59
  But I'm going to tell you this. When I find when I don't post,
• 40:02
  when I don't do stuff, when I don't, people hit you up all the time and go,
• 40:05
  are you okay? What's wrong?
• 40:06
  Dude, more people are following than it's, it's, it's a little humbling.
• 40:10
  Right. And I appreciate the hell out of it. And it's awesome.
• 40:13
  You do have to be vulnerable. You do have to open yourself up.
• 40:16
  And if you're not candid about it, people will know.
• 40:18
  So I will challenge you to be real careful, but you do have to get into it. Yeah.
• 40:22
  So, Ted, Oath & Oak, man, you've delved into little pieces. We've interrupted you a number of times.
• 40:28
  But, brother, let's delve into this thing. Tell us more about Oath & Oak.
• 40:33
  So, Oath & Oak came from a couple of different places. I've been thinking about this for about 10 years.
• 40:39
  And Oath & Oak is a veteran-focused organization.
• 40:42
  We want to help veterans chart their path. After they hang up the uniform,
• 40:47
  we take them through civic, let's call it, you know, social events,
• 40:53
  but we also train veterans up on artificial intelligence.
• 40:57
  And that's a touchy subject these days because I know that there are a ton of...
• 41:00
  Do you consider that a trait?
• 41:02
  I think that— Because I think I kind of—I've heard your speech a couple times,
• 41:06
  and I kind of associate that to a trade.
• 41:08
  Even though it gets in the tech world and whatever, it's a specialty.
• 41:12
  So tell me your thoughts. Here's how I feel.
• 41:16
  Veterans already have a hard time transitioning from the military. You ain't kidding.
• 41:19
  When veterans came back from World War II, 47% of veterans started a business.
• 41:25
  And that could have been landscaping all the way to, let's talk about famous
• 41:29
  names, FedEx, right? Because they have the ability. Right.
• 41:33
  I mean, they've been bred since we were already, what, two up,
• 41:36
  one down. Isn't that what the thing is, right? That's it. You're bred for leadership.
• 41:39
  You're bred for, so from day one, you're always bred for the next level of leadership. Next person up.
• 41:44
  Next person up. If somebody goes down, you're ready. A hundred percent.
• 41:48
  So, you know, part of this goes back to, you know, the United States of America
• 41:52
  has always been entrepreneurial.
• 41:55
  It's been a place where, you know, we've bought into this concept of.
• 41:58
  Roger, USA, that's where we're at, right? Is that what we are?
• 42:01
  As a brown person, I didn't know of you.
• 42:04
  Sometimes we forget. What do you mean? Sometimes we forget.
• 42:08
  But I feel strongly that veterans already have a hard time transitioning from the military.
• 42:13
  I think that it's going to get exceptionally or exponentially harder with the
• 42:17
  rise of artificial intelligence.
• 42:19
  I got to rewind. Hold on. I got to rewind real quick.
• 42:23
  What do you think is the biggest problem with transitioning?
• 42:26
  Is it finding a purpose? Yeah. Is it finding...
• 42:29
  You had me at Is it finding purpose It's the disconnect What did you do when
• 42:35
  you got out Not to put you on the spot What did you do when you got out Hornstar.
• 42:42
  Listen No No,
• 42:46
  There's a whole lot. I believe you may have caught him off guard. He caught me off guard.
• 42:53
  So I did the stereotypical. So did I, by the way.
• 42:57
  I went from the easy, doing the exact same thing I did in the green suit in
• 43:03
  the civilian world. Right.
• 43:04
  So I did counterintelligence, human intelligence, and I got out and did the
• 43:08
  government job that's exact.
• 43:09
  Like literally I could have moved seats and became a civilian.
• 43:14
  And if you live in the dc metro area i've heard a lot of people say this you're
• 43:18
  on one or two sides of the equation you're either creating a proposal for somebody
• 43:21
  to respond to government,
• 43:23
  or you're responding to a proposal contract that's what i said right no 100
• 43:27
  those are those the easy moves right bro i'm going to tell you this from running
• 43:32
  a charity i'm not like i said well i'll go back to i'm not the smartest guy
• 43:35
  in the room ever but what a lot of people ask me what resonates,
• 43:40
  what doesn't resonate, the why.
• 43:41
  And I'm going to tell you, we talked about this at breakfast, Ted,
• 43:45
  there needs to be, there's so many variables of this thing, right?
• 43:48
  One, there's a lot of people that start things because they're interested in
• 43:51
  it. Well, that's great. You're interested.
• 43:53
  It doesn't mean the world's interested in it, right? It doesn't mean that's
• 43:55
  what other people are looking for.
• 43:56
  That doesn't mean, you know, you gotta, you gotta build something that you have
• 44:00
  a capability for, right?
• 44:01
  I've seen a lot of people for in charity world build things that they didn't have access to.
• 44:05
  I had access to the doctors for the mental health facility. I had access to
• 44:09
  the kennels because, so I had placement and access, right?
• 44:13
  The two words that are very important to me in my career, Phil, placement and access.
• 44:17
  But you also have to have the desired need, right? And so it's not always about,
• 44:22
  I want to start this because I think it's real important.
• 44:24
  There has to be a supply and demand, right? There has to be a demand for that.
• 44:29
  And so depending on all the variables, the where you're offering it,
• 44:34
  the when you're offering it, the contacts you have, it may not necessarily resonate.
• 44:39
  Now I will tell you, as bougie as this sounds,
• 44:43
  we are in Loudoun county we we we are
• 44:46
  in the data center mecca of
• 44:49
  right the country we are in the stars
• 44:53
  are the world the stars align for what
• 44:56
  you're offering on top of being a veteran here so why
• 44:59
  doesn't it work in one place versus the other well it
• 45:02
  just it just is the way it is with all the variables
• 45:05
  it just happens to be and it also
• 45:08
  depends on what else did you have right it's no offense
• 45:12
  against somebody that wants to just provide that help or
• 45:14
  that assistance you may not have the other things i will applaud ted in that
• 45:18
  he understands the relationship aspect it's not just about bro i mean here's
• 45:24
  the candid part right i didn't understand how this was going to work when we
• 45:27
  we became partners but you're a for-profit i'm a not-for-profit how does this
• 45:30
  work don't know doesn't matter we're going to partner up.
• 45:34
  Who do you partner up with that you can mutually lift each other up and bring
• 45:40
  those services together and show that not only am I providing a service,
• 45:44
  but I actually give a shit.
• 45:45
  And I actually am out doing these other things. Because what's one of the other
• 45:49
  things you're doing in Loudoun County the first Friday of every month,
• 45:53
  which doesn't make you any money? It does not. It does not.
• 45:57
  So one of the things we're interested in is building community.
• 46:02
  Which is hugely important. Especially, I mean, think about this.
• 46:05
  How much of our community is veterans right now in Loudoun County?
• 46:08
  We've got 3,000 veterans in just Leesburg, 3,000 veterans. Which is crazy.
• 46:13
  22,000 in Loudoun County. That's crazy. Wow. North of 700,000 in Virginia.
• 46:20
  And, you know, every veteran organization knows these numbers.
• 46:24
  Bro, and these veterans, dude, the days of just going to a bar and doing whatever
• 46:29
  and smoking and doing nothing, those are over, bro. So they want to get involved.
• 46:35
  They want to network. They want to connect. They're not stupid.
• 46:39
  They're connected on the internet. They're educated. I mean,
• 46:42
  you get enlisted guys now with master's and doctorate degrees, right?
• 46:47
  The dynamics have changed from the old days. So at the end of the day,
• 46:51
  they're looking for something new and different.
• 46:54
  And so one of the things I challenged Ted when he started out with us,
• 46:57
  I said, bro, I don't have the bandwidth, but here's a great way to get your
• 47:00
  name out. And he had some really good ideas of it.
• 47:03
  And so first Friday of every month in Leesburg, because this is where he's at,
• 47:08
  which is awesome, because that just happens to be where CJ3 Foundation is headquartered out of.
• 47:13
  And we vehemently support him and we're out here with him.
• 47:17
  He provides the first Friday of the month Oath and Oak. Talk about that, brother.
• 47:21
  Yeah. So one of the things we're really interested in is forging and building
• 47:25
  community, especially for veterans who are sitting in a corner. They're at home.
• 47:31
  Get off your asses. Yeah, get out and about.
• 47:34
  And I think that, again, with the rise of AI, we're going to see jobs shift.
• 47:40
  I think we're going to see some loss of jobs. and that's going to impact veterans,
• 47:44
  especially those veterans who are already going to have a challenge with that
• 47:47
  transition that we talked about, that mission and purpose, right?
• 47:50
  I can talk to that a little bit. College, and I'm not saying it's irrelevant,
• 47:55
  but I'm going to tell you I got a master's degree, and what I took away from that is,
• 47:59
  right, I got a couple of nuggets of, okay, that's great, but it wasn't worth
• 48:02
  what it cost to the government because I didn't pay for it.
• 48:05
  Thank you, Army. I appreciate it, and the GI Bill.
• 48:09
  But realistically, I was the wrong number. I was the wrong button.
• 48:14
  Thanks. I don't know what that did. But trades, AI, those are, dude, those are, bro.
• 48:20
  Look, trades are always going to be there. We're talking about AI.
• 48:22
  That's getting into my world. But I kind of put that in the, dude, I don't know why.
• 48:27
  I don't know why you do that. And I'm not a technology guy, but I put that in
• 48:30
  the trades because at the end of the day, it's just its own thing.
• 48:35
  So AI is going to take, it's going to take a lot of jobs.
• 48:38
  Oh, I think so. and it's going to take a lot of technology jobs.
• 48:41
  But it won't take trade jobs. It will not take trade jobs. It will not take people jobs.
• 48:46
  But when you're talking about technology, like right now, for my company that
• 48:52
  I work for. Where do you work?
• 48:53
  Oh, yeah, we're not talking about that. No, we're at Riverside Research Institute.
• 48:57
  Who are partners of the foundation. Thank you very much.
• 49:00
  And we have an intel side and we have research and science side.
• 49:03
  So I hire a lot of people in that vein that are now working.
• 49:07
  I use AI every day, but I use it as a rewrite tool and I use it to create which is the basic.
• 49:13
  Which I use it for graphics for the foundation which
• 49:16
  is the base level whatever so but what they're doing
• 49:19
  in the next 10 years like we're talking about now how we can revamp
• 49:22
  our jobs because you're not going to need software developers to write code
• 49:26
  anymore because code's going to be written through AI right so half the time
• 49:29
  that has that has a shelf life it does yes it does so it's a matter of trying
• 49:35
  to figure out especially with the vets coming out and what Ted's trying to do
• 49:38
  why I like this so much is, yeah, if it's something that you take to,
• 49:42
  and you can learn it now, you're going to have a much better opportunity in the future.
• 49:46
  I won't say all, but on the number, and Guy in the Sky, you talk about this all the time,
• 49:52
  With the discipline of a veteran, the ability of a veteran, what they've been
• 49:56
  through, what they're capable of, because they've already shown their capabilities
• 50:01
  of what they're willing to persevere through.
• 50:04
  This is such a small feat. If they just pick up the rucksack and run with it,
• 50:10
  the amount of knowledge you can impart on them and how long is the program?
• 50:15
  How long is your program, brother?
• 50:16
  It's a great, great tee up for, we're running a program called Mission Ready.
• 50:20
  And it is a veteran-centric cohort.
• 50:24
  We've anchored in person in downtown Leesburg.
• 50:27
  Got 15 veterans, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps.
• 50:30
  You had quite the swath. We got folks from Vietnam all the way to present.
• 50:34
  And we've got faculty. I've got faculty from, let's call it,
• 50:37
  some pretty known commercial.
• 50:41
  I was impressed with who you had. The names of the folks that we were able to
• 50:44
  recruit. The who's who in the zoo.
• 50:47
  I've got some great mission partners in Strategy at Work and Mika Cross and
• 50:51
  then- Private sector, government, all of it. Private sector, government.
• 50:55
  We've got folks that are on our faculty that have worked for Warner Brothers
• 50:58
  and- And they like Ted. I don't know what's going on.
• 51:01
  Listen, one of the things I did figure out early on, like you,
• 51:04
  never the smartest guy in the room, but likability I know was my superpower
• 51:09
  at some point along the line.
• 51:11
  But listen, we're running this cohort now. It's a pilot. It's a pilot initiative.
• 51:15
  Candidly, Oath & Oak is funding this similar to the First Friday events.
• 51:19
  We're funding that as well. We want to build community.
• 51:22
  We want to create a space for veterans where they can come, convene,
• 51:26
  network, interact with other veterans who have been hyper successful in their
• 51:30
  post-military careers.
• 51:32
  And I have no idea what those percentages are, but the ones that figured out
• 51:36
  how to crack the code and go be entrepreneurial and build something –.
• 51:40
  Those veterans have something to impart. And so we're building a mentor circle.
• 51:43
  There's... But yeah, the thing I... So here's the cool thing about this,
• 51:47
  especially in this area. I'm just, I'll brag about this area.
• 51:49
  One of the reasons CJ3 Foundation, I'm not going to lie with taxes and everything
• 51:54
  else, we've considered moving and we've considered, you know, whatever.
• 51:58
  But the connections in this area, you can't replace some of the connections.
• 52:01
  Let's say between government and contract organizations, everything else here.
• 52:05
  So the cool thing is, not only do you get what Ted and his cohort are imparting
• 52:13
  on you for knowledge, right,
• 52:14
  and the training and the experience and all that, but make no mistake,
• 52:19
  the network that you obtain by going through Ted's program, by having access to his friends,
• 52:27
  his colleagues, his network is,
• 52:30
  It's not just the knowledge, it's also that networking that also gives you opportunities.
• 52:35
  I'm not going to say it's going to get you a job, but it gives you the opportunities.
• 52:39
  So it sounds like you're looking at entrepreneurs for the most part.
• 52:43
  Are you also looking at people just for the workforce?
• 52:45
  Great. So we think that there's three paths. One, a veteran who is inspired
• 52:50
  and wants to go build something for themselves.
• 52:52
  We think AI can be the horsepower behind that.
• 52:55
  And I'm glad that you're bringing up the trades, because I think that we are
• 52:59
  in a moment in time where anything that's human centric, whether it's health
• 53:03
  care, it is you are in, you know, manufacturing.
• 53:07
  If you're into if you wanted to go be a plumber, those are all things that you
• 53:11
  can go do and get trained up.
• 53:13
  AI is going to be able to take away the friction out of those jobs.
• 53:16
  And what I mean is, is customer calls in, needs to understand,
• 53:19
  you know, hey, when are you available for services?
• 53:22
  You can automate all of that. Right. Well, bro, I'm going to tell you this.
• 53:25
  What that could do from what I have to do for the charity right now.
• 53:29
  I mean, the amount of out man hours that takes that could take away and get
• 53:33
  it right every time versus the human error portion of that.
• 53:36
  Well, Ted, let me add in this.
• 53:40
  Oh, here we go. Sorry.
• 53:43
  Don't be sorry. This is kind of my realm.
• 53:46
  Guy in the sky. Are we going to nerd out here? Is this what we're doing? I can't wait.
• 53:52
  We might have to take a pee break. Yeah. Yeah, me and Roger go step out and smoke.
• 53:57
  We're not going to nerd out. Who wants to talk about JSON and MD files and skills?
• 54:04
  I know Jason and Mandy.
• 54:07
  But what people do want to know, like they want to have confidence in what they're doing.
• 54:13
  And what they need to know is like, look, man, there's more education for you.
• 54:20
  Minimal education. Minimal education with AI.
• 54:24
  That you could learn of,
• 54:27
  beyond chat cheapy guy you know this dude they've
• 54:30
  already done harder things i mean because i'm going to tell you this even
• 54:33
  as an old guy i'm 50 years old came from the veteran
• 54:36
  community bro i'm scared to death of it and and
• 54:38
  don't get me wrong ted offered me the opportunity and i really wanted to do
• 54:42
  it unfortunately took a new job i was very upset he turned you down ted i was
• 54:46
  like dude took it took a job in the federal government and i and i couldn't
• 54:49
  and and i still want to go do one but At the end of the day,
• 54:54
  dude, it's scary. But here's the funny thing.
• 54:57
  Veterans have already done things way worse than this. This is not that scary
• 55:00
  of a thing. No. They break it down.
• 55:03
  He's got the right people here to teach it. The right people are going through
• 55:06
  this. The perspective is this, Eric. The perspective is this. There's two.
• 55:11
  There's really two. Well, you're a nerd, so you don't have perspective. No.
• 55:14
  There's a very good perspective. I thought geek. Geek or nerd.
• 55:18
  It was one of the two. I can't remember.
• 55:19
  But if you take the definition of geek, they bite the head off.
• 55:23
  If you get laid, nerds don't.
• 55:24
  You know, I'm a geek. Hey, come to my house for a minute, brother.
• 55:29
  But there's a couple of perspectives to really look at this, right? Please.
• 55:33
  So in our generation when we were growing up, we didn't have any of this shit. No.
• 55:39
  We didn't have video games. We had pagers and we had a television or a toy.
• 55:44
  We didn't have fucking television.
• 55:46
  I mean, we didn't have cell phones. We sat around the table and had to remember
• 55:51
  the answer to, Hey, do you remember? And we had to think about it.
• 55:54
  Flashcards. If only there was a magic technology that you could hit a button.
• 55:59
  But, but, but think, like, like, like really think about the way the world changed
• 56:08
  when the cell phone happened and the smartphone happened.
• 56:11
  Like the immediate access to everything. Yeah. So.
• 56:15
  What we're talking about with AI is nothing different.
• 56:19
  It's just a difference of application and a difference of learning.
• 56:24
  A hundred percent. But you also know that's a scary thought,
• 56:26
  right? It is. I want to address two things.
• 56:28
  One, what you're both painting a picture of is the optimism of what the promise
• 56:32
  of the possibility is and the risks associated with it.
• 56:36
  So, one, veterans, we talked about this, adaptable, flexible in their thinking,
• 56:41
  their decision-making, ability to step up, fill a vacuum when there is a lack
• 56:45
  of a void of leadership and purpose and direction, right?
• 56:50
  They can use AI. And I queef that to when you go— Hold on. Did you say you queef? No.
• 56:56
  No. No, no, no. I believe the word was a queef. I do mumble, we're editing this.
• 57:02
  I'm looking straight at the camera, and I'm saying, Meg, you know Ted,
• 57:07
  and now you know Eric. It was Ted's fault. It was Ted's fault.
• 57:12
  I think that veterans understand what it means to have your finger in the trigger well and not.
• 57:19
  We know how to keep the muzzle up and down range.
• 57:24
  And I think that that equates to how to use AI in an ethical manner.
• 57:29
  You have to say something, Eric. You know, yeah.
• 57:34
  That's payback, by the way. Please continue, Ted. Don't worry about those two children over there.
• 57:41
  I'm trying to be professional right now. I'm trying to be professional right
• 57:46
  now. I got a guy in the sky looking out for me.
• 57:48
  I think that veterans understand what it means to put the finger in the trigger
• 57:51
  well and when to exercise safety and caution and when to act aggressively.
• 57:57
  And it's the same thing when you hit enter on that keyboard in the day and age of Claude and ChatGPT.
• 58:03
  You gotta know what you're doing and i think
• 58:07
  that also you know you mentioned 2007 the
• 58:10
  rise of the iphone my wife is a high school history teacher and she points
• 58:13
  out to me all the time you know we all grew up with pagers and television so
• 58:18
  and clearly pagers and and television equate to the ability to have critical
• 58:22
  thinking skills and the ability but i'll i'm gonna ride that wave right but
• 58:27
  the point is this that you know we grew up in an age where we weren't.
• 58:32
  Glued to our devices.
• 58:33
  And I'd venture to guess that all of us, right? Hey, it's efficient,
• 58:37
  right? We use it on a day-to-day basis.
• 58:39
  And so we have the benefit of being in a moment in time where we understand
• 58:43
  what it meant to pick up a phone that had a cord.
• 58:47
  I actually say the opposite. I think that technology has become inefficient
• 58:50
  and what you're offering, if you embrace it and use it correctly,
• 58:55
  makes things efficient.
• 58:57
  Because it helps filter and sift through that stuff without people.
• 59:02
  I like where you're going with that, which is there are artificial intelligence
• 59:05
  tools today that can help make what we're doing today is staring at phones and
• 59:09
  making decisions and hitting the button.
• 59:12
  There is a, I don't, I don't mean to interrupt you, Ted. But I'm going to do
• 59:17
  it anyway. But I'm going to do it.
• 59:19
  I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to do it. So the four of us sitting in
• 59:24
  this room right now, we sit at an advantage.
• 59:27
  We sit at an advantage of, we've seen all of it.
• 59:31
  We've witnessed the growth of telecom.
• 59:35
  Rotary phone to now. To now, yeah.
• 59:38
  Like the internet, the dot-com era, the AI era. Start aging us, guy. Damn it.
• 59:46
  Now, the advantage we have is we know how to apply things before that with that.
• 59:53
  And that's the thing that we really have
• 59:56
  to take an account for like veterans that are generations
• 1:00:00
  you know completely after us generation
• 1:00:03
  z generation whatever the fuck it's called
• 1:00:05
  now i don't even know but like when we look at that we have to take that into
• 1:00:12
  account they did not experience the same stuff we can take all that and apply
• 1:00:17
  it our experiences to whatever was before Or AI or dot com.
• 1:00:24
  We've got a frame of reference. You've got a back catalog.
• 1:00:27
  And we've got a really good frame of reference.
• 1:00:31
  That goes back to the, even when you talked about how do I relate and how do
• 1:00:36
  I bring myself in? I'm going to tell you this.
• 1:00:38
  Your world scares the hell out of me. I don't know why, right?
• 1:00:41
  Like, I've done way scarier things, guys.
• 1:00:44
  Bottom line is deployed, right? All this stuff we've had to do.
• 1:00:48
  Don't say me. But here's what I'm going to tell you.
• 1:00:51
  The biggest challenge I think you have with guys like me that are not technical. Yeah.
• 1:00:58
  But, to your point, you can train us to do the basics required to do what you're teaching.
• 1:01:07
  You got to be able to dumb it down to where you don't scare
• 1:01:10
  people like me right like i'm going to tell you this
• 1:01:12
  really was when i when i watch you when i listen
• 1:01:15
  to you and guy in the sky talk right at the end of the day you guys have a subject
• 1:01:19
  matter expertise a knowledge base of this and i walk in and i'm not gonna lie
• 1:01:24
  i turn you i tune you out and i talked i talked to roger earlier and and and
• 1:01:28
  roger knows i love the fact that you guys got it but how do you relate that
• 1:01:33
  because I'm going to tell you, I already know,
• 1:01:35
  I already know that you have the ability to train the me's and the,
• 1:01:40
  and the folks that don't have that as a background.
• 1:01:43
  I'm going to challenge you with this and you may already be doing it because
• 1:01:46
  I don't see you every day.
• 1:01:48
  I'm not, I see you in, in, in pieces and glimpses and whatever,
• 1:01:51
  but how do you relate to the guy like me?
• 1:01:57
  That's at that point of, I could walk away from government.
• 1:02:00
  I can do whatever I could retire and move on to the next thing,
• 1:02:02
  or I'm running a charity and, and I know what you're teaching could help me,
• 1:02:07
  but I'm scared to death of it.
• 1:02:08
  How do you relate to that? I can answer that. I asked Ted.
• 1:02:14
  But I'm going to answer, let him answer. And then this guy will give you opportunity.
• 1:02:19
  Then we'll go back to Ted.
• 1:02:20
  I'm going to answer that. It's because I was you.
• 1:02:24
  I am you. You were inside me. I was inside you.
• 1:02:27
  This guy's real awkward, real fast. We're basically the same person.
• 1:02:31
  Yeah, but dude, I'm not going to lie.
• 1:02:33
  I want to know it. And this isn't why I had to turn down, you know, the new job I took.
• 1:02:39
  I couldn't unfortunately make it because I really wanted to be in that first cohort.
• 1:02:43
  But it scared the hell out of me. I'm not going to lie. Like,
• 1:02:45
  I was scared to go in. You're not the first person to say that to me. I was scared to go in.
• 1:02:48
  I'm sure you're shocked to hear that. No, I'm not. I've had very candid conversations
• 1:02:52
  with folks who are not here.
• 1:02:55
  Dude, you can shoot at me. I'd rather go get shot at than do that. We all would.
• 1:03:00
  Some days I think all of us would rather than to fight route seven and four 95.
• 1:03:07
  Well, no, it also comes down to, let's face it. There's the existence of,
• 1:03:11
  I've been very successful. I've been whatever throughout my career.
• 1:03:14
  And I'm afraid to find that ceiling. And maybe you're about to show me my ceiling
• 1:03:19
  and I can't go no higher. and I can't learn it. I disagree.
• 1:03:21
  But I also know he's already explained it to me.
• 1:03:25
  So the only thing I'm going to say is, how do you resonate to the people like
• 1:03:29
  me that are worried about that, right?
• 1:03:31
  And I don't mean that as a hit or a slight because I believe in what you're doing, bro.
• 1:03:36
  I'm behind you 100%. I know you got it, but how do you resonate to it to get
• 1:03:41
  the guys like me that are scared to death of it but want it?
• 1:03:44
  Because that's where I'm at.
• 1:03:46
  I'm scared to death of it, but I want it. Because we've got no other choice.
• 1:03:49
  What's going to happen is the majority of, I've said this many times,
• 1:03:54
  large firms who historically would have hired 100 people to do a job that had
• 1:04:00
  remotely anything to do with technology.
• 1:04:02
  So we're talking project management, program management, cybersecurity,
• 1:04:06
  blah, blah. They were going to hire 100 people.
• 1:04:08
  They only would, in the next year, need to hire 15.
• 1:04:12
  So what happens to those other folks? Agreed with you. And then what percentage
• 1:04:16
  of those other folks are veterans?
• 1:04:18
  Less and less, right? Yep. Less and less. Right now. Current dynamics.
• 1:04:23
  So my point is that the ones that they don't hire that are veterans,
• 1:04:27
  but are flexible, adaptable, know what it means to have your finger in the trigger
• 1:04:32
  well and not, can get coached up on AI,
• 1:04:35
  to give them the flexibility to do the things that are more human,
• 1:04:39
  like have a podcast conversation or go host an event where you are delivering
• 1:04:45
  a service dog to a well-deserving individual who has proven him or herself worthy
• 1:04:51
  of... Way to bring it around, buddy. You like that?
• 1:04:56
  My point is this. No, I got you. I think that you're right to be worried about the technology.
• 1:05:02
  And my friend, you know, guy in the sky will agree with me. No,
• 1:05:04
  it's not even worried. It's scared of my own.
• 1:05:07
  Limitations. You're worried about your limitations. Thank you.
• 1:05:09
  That's the word. Yeah. Limitations, really. And.
• 1:05:13
  So in the 1700s and 1800s in Great Britain, there were the Luddites.
• 1:05:18
  And these were people that were afraid of automation. They were afraid of the loom.
• 1:05:22
  They were afraid of manufacturing and warehouses.
• 1:05:25
  And they went and they burned that stuff to the ground because they thought
• 1:05:29
  that that was going to take away their jobs.
• 1:05:32
  But if they had learned the tools and the automation.
• 1:05:35
  Gotcha. So, and I am not calling you a Luddite. Hopefully, that is not my point. My point is.
• 1:05:41
  Luddite! You are. What are we doing?
• 1:05:45
  He's kind of talking to what you're already doing to a point,
• 1:05:48
  right? You're we're using it. We're using it at basic levels right now and learning it.
• 1:05:53
  Very basic. And I understand. But are you using it?
• 1:05:57
  Yes. The answer is yes. Doesn't matter how basic. Can I tell you this?
• 1:06:01
  And it wasn't even until this year. I mean, but you got to start.
• 1:06:04
  Well, AI hasn't really been. I mean, agentic AI and all that.
• 1:06:07
  I'm waiting for the right seat, left seat. Ted is not going to my house.
• 1:06:11
  I have offered multiple times. I need more breakfast, Ted.
• 1:06:17
  I need more. The griddle. Can we talk about the breakfast griddle at?
• 1:06:22
  Bro, I love you, bro, but no. No.
• 1:06:25
  I got it. So where are you from? I'm an army brat. No, where are you from?
• 1:06:30
  Dude, you're typically. No, where are you from? Where do you claim?
• 1:06:34
  Where do you hail from? Where do you claim? I truly.
• 1:06:36
  What state were you born in? Bro, you claim somewhere. What country were you
• 1:06:40
  born in? This is so hard. You claim somewhere.
• 1:06:43
  You ever seen the- I've grown up. No, no, no. I've been all over.
• 1:06:47
  Do I get to answer the question? No, not if you're going to conjecture this much.
• 1:06:51
  This is turning into Tucker Carlson shit, man. Come on. Answer the question. Where do you claim?
• 1:06:58
  You ever seen the meme? Oh, my God.
• 1:07:03
  I'm a New Englander by DNA. My mom and dad are from Pennsylvania. I'm from New York. Okay.
• 1:07:09
  My mother's from Massachusetts. That's actually Northwestern.
• 1:07:13
  So I was born in Iowa, but I claim Virginia Beach because my formidable years was growing up there.
• 1:07:18
  My point, too, is I need a real breakfast that was not a real breakfast.
• 1:07:22
  The griddle. I love you, but that wasn't our big. Come on.
• 1:07:26
  No. We got to work on that. Okay. I love you, though. Well, hey,
• 1:07:29
  I love you, too. Now I got to know what you did.
• 1:07:31
  I don't want to defend you anywhere. Here's the thing. Megan Adair will tell
• 1:07:34
  you that the best breakfast is on the Merritt Parkway up in New York, north of Long Island.
• 1:07:39
  I'm not going that far. Yes, you are. No, we need to. Dude. When are you going to Iowa?
• 1:07:44
  We can go to Iowa. I'm going to call you out right here on the spot.
• 1:07:47
  And I'm going to get you up to the northeast, and we're going to go to the Hudson
• 1:07:49
  River Valley. We're going to go. You know what?
• 1:07:52
  If our two foundations come together like that, I got no problem.
• 1:07:54
  We will travel together and make it out of it.
• 1:07:57
  100%. 100%. I'm all in. I'm glad
• 1:08:01
  you reeled this in. 100%. Is this one of those tangents you warned me?
• 1:08:06
  We're back to the foundations.
• 1:08:11
  Let's go back to. I want to answer where you're from because truly there is
• 1:08:16
  a meme of Robert Downey Jr.
• 1:08:17
  Who's rolling his eyes up in the head and it says, any army brat having to answer
• 1:08:22
  the question, where are you from?
• 1:08:24
  By the time I was 28, I had moved 12 times.
• 1:08:33
  My mother was an Army brat. She was their home base.
• 1:08:39
  My grandfather was a colonel in World War II. Home base was always Massachusetts.
• 1:08:44
  They had their home base there, but she lived in the Philippines and France. Hold on, hold on.
• 1:08:47
  No, no, no. I want to take it home. Ted.
• 1:08:51
  What's your home of record?
• 1:08:55
  Because you listed something, you mofo. It's Virginia because this is where... We finally played.
• 1:09:03
  Yes, sir. I love that you've gone down this path because I'm at assist of many
• 1:09:07
  veterans, which is especially...
• 1:09:10
  Wow. Thank you for the crickets. Sorry.
• 1:09:13
  I press the button back here. You've got to learn your button.
• 1:09:15
  The crickets are from when I'm getting boring. I feel it. I feel it in my soul, in my bones.
• 1:09:21
  I don't know how to turn it off. I'm sorry. Okay. You've given. All right, we're good.
• 1:09:29
  Come on. Home of record, Virginia. Home of record is Virginia for a couple of
• 1:09:33
  reasons. This is where my parents retired.
• 1:09:35
  This is where, you know. I get it, bro.
• 1:09:38
  But you got to call somewhere. My birth certificate says Texas.
• 1:09:41
  I don't care. I went to school in Philadelphia.
• 1:09:45
  You know, parents are from New York. So you have no identity.
• 1:09:48
  There's got to be a place you call home, though. But this is where I go to.
• 1:09:52
  I feel more of an American than I do. And no bullshit. This is where you settled.
• 1:09:56
  Let's face it. This is where your wife and kids are right now.
• 1:09:59
  And so that's cool. I've talked about this. But I got to teach you about a good
• 1:10:02
  breakfast. That's not it, bro.
• 1:10:05
  You're bringing this up like 70 times. I'm curious about the breakfast now that
• 1:10:09
  you don't want. So first of all. You're making me hungry.
• 1:10:11
  So guy, guy in the sky, you're from Ohio.
• 1:10:16
  Us Midwesterners value breakfast. We don't fuck around with breakfast So no
• 1:10:23
  offense Unless it's got like 3,000 calories We don't want it,
• 1:10:29
  Pancakes, bacon There's a place in Bluemont Out by Boulder Crest Which is phenomenal
• 1:10:34
  There's a place Right across the street From the casino.
• 1:10:41
  That's phenomenal There's some phenomenal places There's a place in Lansdowne,
• 1:10:48
  Even Spanky's has a phenomenal breakfast. My wife cooks a phenomenal breakfast.
• 1:10:53
  We're doing Spanky's for breakfast.
• 1:10:55
  Break it up. You got to tell me when. Break it up. You got to call, bro.
• 1:11:01
  Do I not answer your call? Do I not answer your call? He's very receptive.
• 1:11:05
  I would say, did you take him to a small hut on the side of the room? No, no.
• 1:11:10
  You don't have to mention it. No, so this is for entertainment value.
• 1:11:13
  I feel like we're about to besmirch a very, very reputable.
• 1:11:18
  We're not going to besmirch them. Don't name it. Don't name it.
• 1:11:20
  No besmirching. No besmirching. So Ted is very into downtown Leesburg.
• 1:11:26
  I drive an F-350 on 40s. There's no place to park in downtown Leesburg.
• 1:11:31
  Somebody's overcompensating. I'm building a new parking garage.
• 1:11:34
  It'll be fine. By the way. There's no place to park in downtown Leesburg.
• 1:11:38
  But literally right now we're recording in downtown Leesburg.
• 1:11:41
  And I see his truck parked out back. But they have a whole corner suit.
• 1:11:45
  He's in a corner too. He took the smallest damn spot possible.
• 1:11:48
  Hey, but I'm going to tell you this, Ted.
• 1:11:50
  That might actually be my truck over there. First of all, no,
• 1:11:54
  it's not. Yours is a baby truck.
• 1:11:56
  He parks in the only handicapped spot there is, and he overlaps it by a lot.
• 1:11:59
  My truck is a good truck, damn you. It's a baby truck.
• 1:12:02
  Bullshit. You got a small piece. It's a Dodge.
• 1:12:05
  Dodges are awesome. They're okay. So, hey...
• 1:12:10
  Ted, I must say this. First of all, a couple of things I really love about what you do.
• 1:12:14
  First of all, family is surrounded by it. I've met your kids.
• 1:12:18
  Hell, my girlfriend was one of your kids' teachers, which is phenomenal.
• 1:12:24
  She taught as Shinedere.
• 1:12:25
  Your kid, when he walked in his mouth, uh-oh. He's kind of like,
• 1:12:30
  what's going on? They love the dog.
• 1:12:33
  I love your wife. We've met multiple times. She's a phenomenal lady.
• 1:12:37
  She speaks her mind. And I love that you fit into this group where it's family,
• 1:12:44
  guns, religion, everything. AI. We don't.
• 1:12:51
  It's not wrong. There's a little bit of AI going on. But I love,
• 1:12:54
  dude, I love what you stand for.
• 1:12:56
  I love the fact that, bro, even though, you know, so a lot of people ask me,
• 1:13:02
  they're like, so how does this nonprofit fit with a for-profit?
• 1:13:05
  But I'm like, listen, what you need to understand is Ted is trying to create
• 1:13:09
  a community, a community environment within a community, right?
• 1:13:13
  Within Loudoun County, within more specifically, Leesburg.
• 1:13:19
  And the part I support the most is like, listen, this is where we are headquartered.
• 1:13:24
  So this gets more of our attention than anywhere else. Right, Roger?
• 1:13:28
  It does. Right? Because this is where we live. This is where we're headquartered.
• 1:13:32
  So thank you for what you do. I appreciate the hell out of that.
• 1:13:35
  This is where you're trying to create.
• 1:13:37
  We will continue to support your first Friday of every month.
• 1:13:40
  We will be out there. We will.
• 1:13:42
  I love that. You know, of course, Michelle loves that Casa de Evia is,
• 1:13:48
  is the, is the food that's provided there.
• 1:13:52
  And they're the service provider there. Thank you for them. They're awesome.
• 1:13:57
  I love the fact that you're like me, anything veteran centric that we can get
• 1:14:02
  involved. we're constantly pinging them and you got Honor Brewery there which
• 1:14:06
  are phenomenal partners of the CJ3 Foundation,
• 1:14:10
  Bottom line is, mi casa su casa, right?
• 1:14:13
  Like, what's good for the nonprofit is good for the for-profit because I believe
• 1:14:17
  in where you're striving to.
• 1:14:21
  Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
• 1:14:27
  oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
• 1:14:27
  oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
• 1:14:27
  oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
• 1:14:27
  oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
• 1:14:27
  oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
• 1:14:27
  oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.