Veteran Chat Project
Veteran Chat Project
Riding the Storm: Embracing Challenges on the Road to Success
Have you ever wondered what goes into organizing a successful event for veteran entrepreneurs? Join me as I share a reflective journey on a recent event held in Colorado Springs, full of insights, challenges, and lessons learned. I'll take you through the heart of the event, from the electrifying performance by Disturbing the Peak to the nitty-gritty of event logistics. There's also a critical look at the aspects that could be improved and the importance of aligning the music's vibe with the venue.
But that's not all, the drive to Colorado Springs offered a unique opportunity for introspection. I take a moment to express my purpose post-military service and dedication to veterans and entrepreneurs alike. I'm incredibly thankful for the support I received from the Disgruntled Vets crew. Their invaluable assistance helped make the event a success. This discussion segues into my vision for the Veteran Chat Project, and how I intend to use this platform to uplift and serve others.
Mental health is a topic that strikes a chord close to home and is a vital anchor for the Veteran Chat Project. I share my passion for promoting understanding and empathy for everyone's struggles and my plans to use this platform to connect people to the resources they need. Be prepared to hear about our future endeavors, including events in St. Louis and North Dakota, all aimed at supporting veterans. But it doesn't stop there. I also share personal insights on the power of self-confidence, staying committed to your mission, and why it's important to weather the storm. Tune in for an episode brimming with motivation and inspiration, and remember, success is just an action away.
What's going on everybody. It's Kyle and this is the veteran chat project. We are back in action and I am like I promised not going fucking anywhere, so let's get fucking down to it. How have you guys been? I hope it's been good. I hope everything that you have been doing in life since the last time we have connected has been working out. I hope you and your loved ones are all well. I hope everybody is just doing fucking great man. Quick recap on what I have been up to.
Speaker 1:Recently went to Colorado Springs and did a small event for veteran entrepreneurs. You could say it was. Depending on how you look at things, I guess you could say it was a win. I think it was a win and I will tell you why. We are going to go into a little after action review here in a second. But one thing I just wanted to say is thank you to everybody out there to whack a dude brewing. Steve man, you were a gracious host. It was just such a good time to hang out with some veterans and just drink a couple beers and really let your hair down. You know what I mean. I know you had a good time back there behind the bar jamming out to the music that might have been a little too loud. So for the neighbors over there we do apologize, although they probably will never like you again. That's my bad. So that's actually one thing. We'll go right into the after action review.
Speaker 1:For those of you that don't know, veterans, we used to do after any kind of training, exercise or something like that, you do an AAR, an after action review. Leadership would basically, you know, call on you and ask you know, three sustains, three improve so things, three things you could have done better, three things that you think went good. So I'll just, I'll get straight into it, it'll be, it'll be very, really honest on myself and you know all in the way of looking at yourself and going forward. So here goes after action review. As I spoke recently, I will have to double check with the owner of the venue and the band to make sure that both kinds of music line up. I mean, not to say disturbing the peak. You guys fucking rocked it and I think that's kind of the point I didn't realize. I should have realized, I should have remembered that Steve's place is more of a more of a laid back vibe, stuff like that. I mean again, not taking anything away from anybody. That was a complete on me. I didn't double check anything and again, I mean disturbing the beat they came out and they played for free. So I mean that that would be once I say sustained. Like that shit went really good. You guys killed it.
Speaker 1:We got a short interview with those guys and girl, they're super talented group out there, colorado Springs man, if you, if you didn't catch the live stream that I put up, feel free to go check that out. Also, if you're in the Colorado Springs area, go check them out because they are fucking dope. So, yeah, I guess another improve. Honestly, I think I would have a better camera situation set up dedicated to the music. I know forgot his name already, I feel like an asshole, but the singer of the band there. He offered me like sound to his, his sound board and if I was more technologically advanced I would have been able to say, hey, let me plug into the sound board, I'll dedicate a camera, not just a phone, and actually have the sound quality right through the thing. You know what I mean. I think that would have been better, although I did double check and make sure it was all sounding good for you guys. So that's always still going to be up on the page. So I do think I do think that's one thing I could do better as far. So so we got, you know, prepare with equipment a little better. We got double check with the ownership and the place and make sure how loud we're allowed to be. Maybe we could have done that a little later or probably would have been good again. If I would have double checked, we would have been fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, another thing I really want to do with this next one, I want to have other businesses, even if you're not in the area. One thing I felt short of is I didn't raise a single penny for Hayawashka Hayawashankai. Hayawashka Hayawashankai Dojo. David Wilson's foundation over there, which was the ultimate goal for me, was to be able to raise a little money for him and his dojo and help support his cause. But Doesn't mean that I'm not gonna do it again. Like I said, I do have another one coming. We'll talk about that in a minute.
Speaker 1:I would really like to get businesses to. You know, maybe send us some stuff we can auction off. Even if you're not in the area, you still want to get involved. You still want to get your business out there, whether it's like a woodworking or an artist or you know. Whatever you got, man, we're gonna I'm gonna set this one up here. It's gonna have more time, I'm gonna have more info, I'm gonna plan it a lot better and I'm gonna take all the planning on myself, not delegated off to anybody else.
Speaker 1:That's another thing. You just, you know, sometimes you have to make sure that Things are done the way you kind of envision them and you can't really trust everybody else has your vision on a project that you, you know, want done. But you know we didn't have everybody show up that said they would. So that'd be another thing. You know, I'll even just keep improving because you know there wasn't just three things that I could have done better. Oh, I would Basically do like some sort of agreement next time. You know I didn't. I didn't charge anything, which was was awesome. It's because, again, what I could do, if you're in that area and you are a veteran and you want to set up something like this, or even just you want to rent out their tap room for anything, he does offer that for free. He didn't charge me a penny.
Speaker 1:So the main goal was to basically just set up an ideal situation for entrepreneurs to come in and show off the goods man, show off what they got, and 120 millimeter spice works definitely did that. So shout out to Chris over there. My man fucking killed it. Everybody that came in the building that day I think they brought. They left with some spices. So shout out to him and keep up the good work. Definitely, if you guys are Curious about what he's doing it's all smoked seasonings, different flavors, different combinations that he works on some mad scientist shit Shout him out on Facebook, instagram, 120 millimeter spice works. He is also the head of Veteran nonprofit, 22 until none, which is basically aimed at reducing the number of veteran suicides. So Chris is a good man. Everything you send over there goes towards that and um, yeah, dude, so he got to, he got to take full advantage of it.
Speaker 1:You know and and I think that's fucking awesome and I wish, I wish more people would have done it. But also, you know, I get it Wasn't sure what it was, wasn't sure who I am, but you know what it's a. It's a marathon, it's not a sprint, and I am fully fucking dedicated to get this thing going and that's Kind of what I want to move into on. My next point basically is you know I had I drove out there from Colorado spring or to Colorado Springs from North Dakota. It's about 900 miles each way. I Did that in two days and with that, you know, and I'm sorry, I did that in four days. So with that, you know, you get a lot of time to reflect and think about things and you know, as I kind of mentioned the last time I spoke from this platform, what I wanted it to be, what it's going to be, and and I really was able to Narrow it down and really decide what's going to happen for the future for veteran chat project. And I think you know I just I feel better as a human being when I can be of service to other people, whether it's veterans or just any Entrepreneurs in general. So I mean I'm gonna keep doing these events, I will specialize them for veterans often and I will also do some that are just Just small businesses, because the next one here is going to be a Walcott North Dakota, which you know I'll get to in a second.
Speaker 1:But back to the drive and reflection, man, I mean you just you know we, our whole thing here has always been kind of like finding your purpose after the after service. I mean, shit, man, I've been out for. I'm out fucking what 13 years or something like that, I don't know. And I mean, beside the obvious purpose and direction of being a father and being a dedicated husband and and making sure that I do everything I can to provide for my family, whether it's, you know, be the stay at home parent that I've been or whatever. You know, my wife, my wife, needs me to be flexible for our family. So that's what I do, you know, and that's that's how I act of service to my family, that's how I show love and and I really want to spread that across, you know, as many platforms, across as many people as I possibly can. You know, I'd love to get into a situation where I just have, you know, small circles all across the States and we just get together and we set up events.
Speaker 1:You know, I did get to meet up with some of the disgruntled vets, guys and gal, and it was. It was Yoda and owl, and so that's Jackie Chappy's wife, which Chappy was not back from deployment yet, so I'm sure that's going to be a big party whenever he does get back. So shout out to those guys, disgruntled vets. You guys fucking showed up for me and I truly appreciate it. And again, like I've said in the brewery that day, if there's any way, shape or form I can help out, be of service to you guys, whether that's running a running a North Dakota page for disgruntled vets, helping helping the cause. Where it comes to some of the events we were talking about, you guys got some really cool shit lined up and I, you know I can't wait to be a part of those. If I can fly in and be part of all that shit, I will. I'll definitely.
Speaker 1:Dad bought it up for the car wash. The vet bought car wash man, and I'd love to do something like that up here because, you know, at the end of the season people got them. We got all bunch of farms up here. You know they want their tractors clean. Probably they might not go for the dad bod thing, but we'll see. You know, farmers are a little a little more, a little more tight than you guys are down there in the springs. So but yeah, man, it was a blast just to get to hang out with you guys and kind of get to know a little bit more of of who you are.
Speaker 1:So again, shout out to the Discount of Vets crew, dylan Lanzel. Thank you so much for your help setting everything up. Man Shit, actually, it's funny, I got his card right here. So let it focus for a second on target homes. Dylan, if you're in the Colorado Springs area and you need to get your, you need to get yourself in a house, and he specializes in veteran, veteran loans, everything like that. And also I mean just he's a good dude, so he's not just trying to sell you a house, he wants to get you in home. So, just like Keldon Walker I had on the show a while back, he's just somebody that just wants to help. So you know, that's just the kind of people I want to surround myself with.
Speaker 1:Going forward with this thing is is what can I do to help you succeed and achieve your goals? What can I do to help you figure out what your goals are? What can I do to help you get off your fucking ass and realize that it's nicer outside of your head than it is inside your head? Because that's a huge thing, man. That's why I started this, did have a partner. He decided it wasn't for him anymore. And this is where I'm at because I still feel the need to talk and get my shit off, because I'm not fucking perfect and I'm not okay all the time and I do want this to be that place regardless.
Speaker 1:I just it's important to me that when, when somebody that you know talks to me and they're like man, that veteran chat project thing you got going on, that's really cool. You know, you're nobody's really talking about the mental health and stuff like that, and it's true, nobody is nobody's, nobody's willing to sit down and have the hard conversations and just be like look, dude, I'm not fucking okay. Some days are worse than others, but some days are great. And it just it takes hearing it from other people sometimes to understand that you're not alone. And that's really what I want to fucking make people know, dude, you're not alone, I'm fucking here, I'm with you. My communication lines are always open.
Speaker 1:Man, I'm mostly sharing this stuff now all for my personal platforms and then tag a veteran chat project in it Because I don't want to be seen as the as veteran chat project. I want you guys to see me for who I am Right, wrong or indifferent. I'm always a fucking person that shows up for the people that I fucking care about and in regard, I mean, yeah, I do. If I fucking care about you, I put you in my circle. It means a lot, because I don't really like people that much.
Speaker 1:Like, admittedly, it's something I'm working on and something that I have worked on, but you know, that's what we're here for, dude. That's what we're here for and that's what I'm going to talk about in the episodes. I don't have guests. So I mean, like, as of right now, I actually don't have any guests lined up. So I will be trying to aim for about two 30 minute episodes a week. We'll do one turret talks a month.
Speaker 1:And then, you know, on those, these, these episodes, you know, I kind of want to get into some things. Man, I'll definitely be exposing my innards to you, not like, you know man, flashing you my junk or nothing like that, but you know, just basically sharing who I am and the shit that I go through every day, because it's it's important to fucking to hear it. I've learned that's that Just by me talking about it. It makes people okay with talking about their shit and man, just talking about it lifts the weight so heavy. You know, I'll sit down here for the next 10 minutes or whatever and chat and I'll go upstairs and I'll feel so much better having just gotten this stuff off my chest. I mean, even just before I got on the show I was Flipping out at fucking this computer. Shit dude, I'm not great at it, but I get better and and it's working.
Speaker 1:But you know that's a, that's another one of my faults of many I suppose is, maybe like some of you, that short fuse, something we kind of took away from the military. I know I did and I May have had it a little before too, and the military may be short in the fuse quite a bit. But you know, again, I don't know and I'll beat this a dead horse into the ground. It's something working on and then it's okay. You know, fuck it if you don't think it's okay, because it's. You know. You know that's what your thought is. But I don't want to. I don't want to say fuck you. But you know at the same time, like, hey, man, look like you got to understand it. Not everybody's okay and I, it's.
Speaker 1:Something I even need to do is like I judge people pretty quickly off, like their actions, and I don't ever even register in my head, like you know, fucking everybody's going through some shit, man. Like you know, as it's not Not the same as yours and mine's not the same as yours and yours ain't the same. You know vice versa. But you know everyone's going through it, man, and the more people that are willing to sit down and talk about what's wrong, what, what makes them upset, and then and it's not in the hopes of like oh, the whole world's gonna Hear me say that I'm upset when I do this and they're not gonna do it anymore, like, unfortunately, that's not how it works.
Speaker 1:If it was that easy, then where there's gonna be no fucking point, man, it would just be too easy be turning the game on easy mode and just playing through it. So you got to. You got to take the hits, man. You got to be uncomfortable. You have to grow. You you know it's all that shit, all those Fucking beat to death. Stupid, fucking the sayings, dude. You have to weather the storm. You got to keep pushing. You got to keep getting fucking hit. You got to keep throwing pasta at the wall till it's done.
Speaker 1:I mean, fuck, what do you want to? What do you want to do, man? I mean, I Failed so many fucking times in my life that I don't care. People probably have laughed at me behind my back multiple times. I don't fucking care. At the end of the day, I I don't laugh at you. I just I hope one day that you could become as Yourself, as I am, and that's you know.
Speaker 1:Actually, one thing I wasn't gonna bring up, but I just remembered I was wearing this dude, so it's like you know, be yourself. I'm something. I'm gonna start pushing on the website to not pushing, but I'm gonna, it's gonna be available. I am making this gonna be a small clothing line here. Be yourself, because it is something I truly believe. And it's not just a veteran thing, man, it's everybody. Dude, it's be your fucking self, be your fucking self, be your self.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, nobody fucking else is living in your skin. Nobody else will ever be you. And, yeah, it is important what other people think about you, but it also isn't right. So, at the end of the day, you want people to know Like, yeah, he might have been an asshole, but you know what? There's nobody I would ever fucking want on my side more than him when it comes to just like Having a caring friend, having a good neighbor, having someone who will literally, you know, go into your burning house to help you fucking get your kids out.
Speaker 1:You know, just in the middle, just because you know, I don't I Believe that you know, believe that I would do that. Obviously, I've never been in that situation. I believe that, you know, I would do that for some, for any one of my neighbors or anybody I had the opportunity to see it. It's just, you know, that's why we're all veterans. You know, we all put ourselves in that situation because we want to protect those around us. We want to put ourselves in that situation because we're healers or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're just crazy and you wanted to fuck shit up. You know that's on you, hey. But you know what. You did it and now you're back and you can't do that no more, right? So? And we got to figure out a way to figure it out, right? So that's what we're gonna do together going forward. We'll be posting episodes twice a week. I've said that already. That's okay. Let me see if I got any other quick notes. Yeah, dude, next event yeah, that's right. So Bruiser's Bar, bruiser's Brew and Bood here in Walcott, north Dakota, working there part-time, doing some cooking, also a bartending one night a week.
Speaker 1:We talked about this event on my way well before I left for the Colorado Springs one and after now, but she's real interested in hosting something along those lines. We are going to do it as a just a small business showcase I wanted, just because it's a way smaller community. I don't want to exclude anybody, so we're gonna do that. We're gonna do a small business showcase, probably sometime in December, january, depending on the weather here, but we'll sit down and really hammer out details. I'll be looking for a band the same old deal man. We got a little bit more room so we'll be able to play. With some more options. I'll be able to bring tables to the party. That's gonna be something that I'll also have, so I won't take tables away from the venue. So you'll be able to come set up your shit, sell off whatever, and then you know we'll make some donations towards a good cause.
Speaker 1:Whether it would be 22 till none, whether it's high wash at Kaidojo, whether it's something that I actually am spitballing in the back of my head right now, let me put a note in it real quick and I'll talk about it after the event. So yeah, dude, I want to do one in North Dakota. So that's that, we will do one, we will get it going. And yeah, man, it's gonna be fun because I have more of an opportunity to plan it here and it's not gonna be as much of a shoot-and-pray kind of situation. And then, me being me, I'm already planning for the future. I have the tentative eyes on something in St Louis. As long as my man, steve Steve's hot dog, shout you out, steve Ewing, it's always a Steve man, steve's always take care of you. So as long as Steve is on board which I'm sure he will be, but maybe he can let me host something at his place when I go to town.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I mean, that's basically what I want to be. I want to be able to set up events and do stuff like this and really kind of just give small businesses and give veterans and give everybody kind of just a place to come together and really just not be okay. Then we can all not be okay together, but then by the time we get done with the show or by the time we get down with the comments or whatever, and we get on and we do our monthly together talk, you know, we can really just start getting some good things out and really kind of planning our lives together. We get a group going to hold ourselves accountable and we can really just start moving forward with the future, man, and fucking really really dive into the future with with arms wide open. Sorry, I won't do that again, but you know it just came to my head and I did it.
Speaker 1:So, man, the other good cause I was talking about thinking about, so disc golf, man, there's something Dylan talked about. He said there is, there is kind of a thing that he does that he's sponsored by I forgot the names like veteran disc golf, but basically man. So I played disc golf. I think the key to even my happiness started with disc golf. It also started with a dog, which is another story I'll tell you guys in a different episode, because I do want to talk about the importance of dogs one day. And for those of you who don't have a companion in life, whether it be a boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, partner of any sort, or a dog or a cat or anything to take care of, is something great. So write that down.
Speaker 1:So the disc golf thing, man, I really kind of want to kind of just start like a disc golf veteran. We'll call it, you know, disc golf initiative, you know, veteran chat projects, disc golf initiative, dgi, because we always, you know, we always like our acronyms, our veterans. And basically what I would like to do with that is I will go after some disc golf, big dogs, dynamic discs. You're first on my list, ricky, why, sake? What's up? I know you want to be part of this. I just said you because I like you the most, brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what I'm going to do is I want to try to get, you know, some stamps made up and be able to have like a putter and a mid and a fair way to kind of start, kind of like what I guess dynamic disc has veterans for vets. But I don't want to do that, I want to do, I want to do like my own kind of thing. So like I'll do in the area for veterans or family members of veterans. You know, I'll go up to the VA and then just have like a trunk full of discs and just take guys out to the closest park. There's actually a really good disc golf course right by our VA here in Fargo, trollwood Park. That would be perfect for it. As I'm thinking about it. Everything's coming together, it's great. So, yeah, I mean I could just go up there and get into like the physical therapy unit and just say, hey guys, like who wants to fucking go for a walk in the park and enjoy nature? Obviously we can't do it as much up here, but it could be still something that we could look forward to in the wintertime.
Speaker 1:There are disc golf simulators available places. I don't know if we have them up here, but you know what I mean. That could be something that I you know, if, if you know, we had the funds for you know I would. I would build a place. Man, I would just build a hub here in North Dakota. That was the veteran chat project hub and it would just be like yo, if you need something to eat, you want somewhere to hang out, you know just that's where we're at. We're playing disc golf, drinking beer, barbecuing, got the family in there, like all that. That would be, that would be dreams right there. But you know that's that's the future, that's one day. So I mean, obviously you could tell what I really want in life out of this thing is to be helpful. So hopefully I'll look into some of sort of a nonprofit situation and see kind of what that looks like.
Speaker 1:Maybe I'll set up that disc golf initiative that way, so that way we can really kind of you know, it's important that that fresh air, that getting out of your, your head space and into into a better environment around people who are just you know, it's one of those things, man, disc golf dude, you can. You can be pissed off when you start and if you really focus on just the game and let, let and go of everything else, you have forgotten, at least while you're playing, what you're playing about, because you're just watching these fucking plastic frisbees fly to the air and and you you get one throw off there. You're just like, oh yeah, dude, I want to go play that shit some more. It's like it's like 10 cups said. I know it's about golf, but I think about it as the same thing with disc golf, not that they're the same thing, but that this comment goes both ways. But when he was talking to the the doctor lady in the beginning and he said you know, like when you hit that perfect shot and the tuning fork starts ringing in your loins, that's the fucking shit, dude, when you throw that first throw, or when you get that first big throw in, like it'll keep you coming back for months. Dude, it's way better than any drug. There's just nothing better.
Speaker 1:And then, and then the fact is, if we get a big veteran league together up here, it would be great, because then it would just be nothing but but vets getting together. Once a week we talk 30 minutes. How's everybody been? What are you guys doing this week to stay healthy? What are you guys doing this week to stay active? And that's the big thing is, staying active will get you ready for disc golf, because this game is so much fun and it's so accessible. Man, all you have to do is be able to walk. And I mean, even in that situation, if we find you the right course we can make, we can get you to play. Man, we promise we'll find you away. So that's what. That's what I want that to be about. I want to. As soon as I'm done here, maybe I'll take an hour and look up what that looks like and we'll talk about it on the next episode.
Speaker 1:So other than that, I don't really have much else for you guys. I do really appreciate those who have listened before. I know with the inconsistency. We might lose some people, but my hope is that it gets you all back by understanding that it was just a minor flaw. And now I have ample time, I have a plan, I have goals, I have me.
Speaker 1:The best weapon in the fucking arsenal, you guys, it's yourself, it's the fact that you are your fucking self and that you can do whatever you want. All you have to do is fucking try. Man, gotta get off your ass. You're gonna stop being fucking lazy. Put your phone down. That's the one thing I need to do, man, put your fucking phone down. It ain't 1030,. You know your shit ain't done. And even then, dude, when you're just be better, do 1% today. You know to be better tomorrow. Live by that motto, you'll be all right. So I love you guys so much. You are not alone. And remember, here at Veteran Chat Project, we know that as a veteran, you were always focused on the mission first, but here we want you to understand that the mission is the mind and therefore I fucked that up. We want you to understand that the mind is the mission. Therefore, get that shit, lock the fuck in. You got it. I love you Goodnight.
