Addiction, PTSD, and Losing Everything: How He Rebuilt His Life From Rock Bottom

What happens when you lose everything your family, your career, and control of your life?

In this episode, Travis sits down with Ryan Reichert, a former Army officer turned speaker and coach, who shares his raw journey through addiction, PTSD, and hitting rock bottom. After years of alcohol and prescription drug abuse, Ryan found himself isolated, divorced, and struggling to find purpose.

But his story didn’t end there.

Ryan opens up about the moment everything changed, how he rebuilt his life from the ground up, and the daily habits that helped him regain control. From walking into his first AA meeting to discovering purpose through service and faith, this conversation is a powerful reminder that even in your darkest moments, change is possible.

If you feel stuck, overwhelmed, or like your life is falling apart, this episode will show you a path forward.

What We Discussed

•  Ryan’s early struggles with identity and pressure to succeed 
•  How injury led to prescription drug abuse and addiction 
•  The impact of military service, PTSD, and trauma on mental health 
•  Hitting rock bottom: losing his family, career, and sense of self 
•  The moment he chose sobriety and walked into his first AA meeting 
•  How faith and spirituality helped him rebuild his life 
•  The “three daily wins” system for physical, mental, and spiritual growth 
•  Letting go of control and focusing on what you can change 
•  Overcoming limiting beliefs and redefining success 
•  Why community and meaningful conversations are key to healing

Connect with Ryan Reichert:
 Website: Our Protector Development

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryan.t.reichert

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanreichert78/

Ryan is a speaker, coach, and founder of Our Protector Development, a platform focused on helping people turn pain into purpose through faith, reflection, and action. 

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https://overcomepod.com

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Transcript

0:00

Hello, welcome to Overcome with Travis White. This is place for you to share your mental health stories. I'm very excited to be speaking with Ryan Reichert tonight. Ryan is a professional speaker, mindset trainer, executive coach, bestselling author and podcaster. He empowers overwhelmed professionals to break free from limiting beliefs, discover their God given purpose and pursue meaningful transformation. Ryan, welcome to the show. Thank you, Travis, so much. It's such a pleasure to be here. it's, I, I'm not going to say I think I'm going to say, know we're going to have a great conversation. I love your background, but without wasting any more time, I'm just going to turn the microphone over to you. Thank you so much. Crank it all the way back to 1978 and growing up in Hoople, North Dakota, it's Tater Town, USA, very small village. I wouldn't even call it a town or anything like that. And I grew up Irish Catholic, I kind of foundationally there in things. And my father was the insurance salesman in a farming community, so my mother was a school teacher. So I had a lot of chips on my shoulder right off the bat in a small Protestant community. being, you I think there's five Catholic families and I only say all this to preface kind of the divisions that we have in our communities and in our lives and so forth and what that can do from a kind of a mental mindset that we I carried with me for 45 years basically and uh in that how do you stand out in that type of community if you're not a farmer, you're not Lutheran? It was sports and so for me I put everything in the sports God had given me some talents. I was fast I was bigger for my age Kind of my stature. carried a day. I landed at I think about 12 years old I was six feet tall and you know, so it worked out great for football and basketball Only problem was my freshman year high school. I got hurt. I tore my ACL and needed three surgeries and I started my mental health journey from kind of the ditch, the valley and got into prescription drugs and abusing that through the pain of recovery and, you know, not realizing that I'd come back and, you know, play football, basketball, run track, go to state, you know, be the cats of the football team, all these things over time and space. But it did create this doubt in my mind of the woulda, shoulda, coulda's, what could I have been if it never happened? and so forth and I really wanted to go to West Point for college so the US Military Academy and because of that injury I couldn't get in and so I didn't have a good number two or backup plan so I went to the University of North Dakota and found myself on the rugby team there and getting in trouble right off the bat my freshman year I was arrested at the All-Minnesota Rugby Tournament for driving under the influence, underage, all kind of under things. That didn't bode very well for my freshman year in college. By my sophomore year, I needed to figure out how I was going to pay or stay in college, so I joined the Army. That worked out actually very well because After three years of scholarship, I found myself on active duty and was in the infantry and I spent 23 years in the army and it was pretty amazing. Three and a half years in the Middle East in combat and that's where PTSD, more addiction, more prescription drug abuse, alcohol was certainly my crutch of work hard, play harder. And then about halfway through my career in the military, I injured my other leg and I ruptured my Achilles and was prescribed Oxycontin. for me, that took just a, I liked what it did. And unfortunately I abused it. I abused my rank to obtain more of it. And in the end, as I walked into retirement and, so forth. Unfortunately today with the VA we prescribe or get prescribed far too many things to take away our pain and our suffering and uh 18 months I found myself post retirement. I gained 50 pounds. I hadn't worked out you know since probably six months before I retired and it was just one of those things I found myself in a deep dark valley. You know drinking every day. completely destroyed my 25 year relationship with my former spouse today. My children were estranged to me as we went through the divorce process. And I lost my corporate job that I was so proud of because there was a title and pay and all these things that. And I say all this, I was sober. I sobered up two and half years ago. And I think about it's interesting, like sobering up, then get separated, then get divorced and have your kids not want you in your life and lose the job. But what's so cool about it is in my sobriety, my spirituality was reborn. drive and purpose in life completely, you know, back to very similar serving like in the military. Today with who I help and who I coach and speaking at junior high, high school, know, different associations, TEDx, wherever, wherever they'll have me, right. I want to carry the message that mental health is such an important thing. And how do we get better? We get better by talking about our suffering, our pain, our trauma. and it's really hard because I always want to start my story off or my life off in Hoople because in a small community everybody knows everything but we don't talk about any of it. It's super hush hush. You can't say that the Rikers all... My dad's recovering alcoholic. Yesterday was his 41st birthday. He's almost 75, but yeah, he's really only 41 because he's been sober 41 years now today. And it's such a miracle to have that and share that with, you when I look at little pictures, there are pictures today from me being a kid and I asked somebody, what do you see in this picture? My dad and I are in it, you know, I don't know, father, son putting a... Swing set together and I said like, yeah, well you see that I see two alcoholics, two people that are afraid of where they came from and things that have happened to them. And he's a Vietnam veteran. So I'm very proud of his service and everything there. And both my grandfathers were two veterans and for them is shell shock for us, it's PTSD. sure we get help, but we don't, there's just never enough, To normalize being able to talk about trauma and pain and suffering. And so I think today that's why it's my hill. It's the war of purpose that I take on for everybody out there to show them that. We're built to break in such a way that when we go through these tough times or these struggles, it's not to defeat us, it's not to hurt us, it's to make us stronger for something that we're gonna face down the road. it takes, you have in this platform to allow people to come and share their stories. It takes me going and bringing it out to the youth, know, so I'm not. Because when I look out into junior high assembly or high school assembly, I see myself out there, seeing the kid that's got crutches or seeing someone who is wearing glasses and being made fun of for being called four eyes or bullied or all these different things. people hopefully seeing or hearing my story, they're like, you know what, I want to talk to. My counselor, I want to talk to my parents. I want to talk to some leader that they have that they can go to and just say, you know, I'm tough, but I need to talk about it. I need to let people know that I have feelings, I have emotions, and it's hard because life is hard. And so with that, it's probably the long version of certain things, not going into super deep detail on some areas as well. But no, we got lots of time to talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. No worries. I appreciate you sharing that. I have so many different thoughts and so many different directions I can go, but first I want to say congratulations. You said it's been two and a half years that you've been sober. Did I hear that correctly? That's, that's, I always love hearing like, you know, just the fact that somebody's overcoming addiction. I think it's fantastic. but the fact that you're out there helping others. I admire you for that as well. brings me to my first question. Thinking back to your addiction, what was the first, your first step towards healing? The first thing was, I went to AA, still go to AA. My father's, that's what he did. And so I was like the teen, allachid thing. So kind of I think to me it was comfortable to do that, to just Google search where the closest AA meeting was. And when I went to it, was a Monday night, first one, and it was just walking in the door, It's going, sitting in your car there half hour early and going like, am I going to go into this thing? Am I finally going to surrender to who I said I would never become or who I never was or all these things? And then getting in there. And in my mind, when I visualize back, to it I think of this old building that's super dark filled with smoke and a bunch of old crusty sober people and That was me, the dark smoke, all this stuff. That was what I brought into that room. Because when I go to that room every Monday night still this day, it's like, did you guys put new lights in here? It smells nice. Did you change everything out? And everybody in there looks 30 years younger than we are. And it's just interesting to see. the darkness that I was carrying and the light today like I was, you know, say to people, you know, be the lighthouse for others, you know, shine that light so, you know, they don't crash on the shore. They can see the rocks, they can get help. Ask them if they need help, kind of show them. what right looks like because I certainly wasn't living what right looked like or should look like. And, you know, that's the coolest thing about it is I'm not who I was yesterday. I'm not who I was two and half, three, four or five years ago. I'm who I am today. And uh it's taken a lot of work to get here. But it's the biggest thing is I got to give this away to keep it. And that that's really what it was is the strength to walk through the doors, sit down, and just want to listen. And then from there, it just started to work. Just continuing to be present, to show up every day. I I went to 90 meetings in my first 90 days and then probably started to taper it a little bit. Today I'm very active in my community with church and teaching and also continuing to serve in AA billets across the metro area. So that to me is the big one, is like the strength it takes. Because I probably didn't have any strength. it wasn't like it's like I floated in there kind of all dark and gloomy. And then somebody challenged me to come back next week. And I was like, well, I think I'm actually going to a meeting tomorrow. And then one on Wednesday. day and one on Thursday and just started shopping meetings throughout the area and it was just really cool because you know I kind of have a saying you know all AA meetings are good but some are better and it's just one of those that it stuck for me and I love the relationships that have been built and the ones that I continue to go to regularly every week. and now I really care about people and the fellowship you can have with others where before I didn't. I cared about titles and fanciness and things that are insignificant don't really matter and don't help anybody out in the end. It's really just, you know, how did it make Ryan feel and how to make Ryan look and I cared what everybody else thought and said. uh I realized today I was letting everybody else control my life and my life was out of control. Yeah. And it isn't that crazy. That's crazy to me though, that like, once you like realize like, well, let me rephrase that once you. Yeah, no, I was saying it the right way. Once you realize that you need to stop caring about what other people think. I think that's when we make some of our biggest changes in life. Cause I remember I have bad anxiety and depression and stuff and For the longest time I spent too much time thinking, well, what does he think? What do they think? And sometimes I still catch myself in this rut. But as soon as I let go and be like, you know what? I don't care. That's when I make the most change within myself. And I know that others can see that too, if they're paying attention. But sometimes it's just like, we have to go through the hard challenges to get there. I think the big one, a lot of it, because I have the same anxiety, have anxiety for as far as I can remember and then depression as well and so forth. And I think it's really though, it's like for those out there watching and listening is for me, is like, are you a kind person? Like straight up. And so if you're a kind person, like don't worry ever about what other people think, because you're just like emulating kindness. It's not like you're being an a-hole, you know, kind of thing. Like if you're an a-hole, maybe, should care what other people think because you shouldn't be an a-hole like he should be kind and gentle and unless I don't know the old I'm gonna date myself here the old Roadhouse with Patrick Swayze even he's the bouncer and it's like there's the one when he's like be nice you know until it's time not to be nice and so that that's what it comes down to for me I think before I allowed toxic people to hurt me and so forth because I cared what they thought and I cared what they said and I probably wasn't very nice either though. I mean I can definitely say that I was unkind. But today, realizing that I want to be kind, I want to be loving, I want to smile and say please and thank you and excuse me, I'm sorry if necessary because I'm all in front of myself. But to that end, I know Travis is a kind person. I know that then, you should absolutely not care what other people think because you're not rude and you're not unkind and so forth. So we shouldn't get wrapped around that. telling somebody that this morning actually when it comes to simplifying your decisions and like you know like with clothes and outfits and different like anything to streamline where you don't have to have anxiety over it, where you start to have that analysis, paralysis of like, you have 20 different tops kind of thing. Well, there's only how many days in a week and how often do you wash clothes and all these things. But like for me, I really like hooded sweatshirts or sweaters or whatever you want to call them. So it's really like this one. So I probably have like a blue one, a white one. And you know, like my pants are probably two different colors, same style. And makes it really easy to just grab stuff and I don't have to spend an hour going like, I'm going to this event, like, you know, what should my socks look like? What should this look like? What should that look like? And just go like, no, I'm comfortable and I can execute and operate the best of my abilities without wasting an hour deciding how this outfit is going to make me feel. uh no, that was about it. I thought you were ending. just want to make sure I didn't cut you off, but I love it because you're just being yourself. And you reminded me of this podcast that I watched once where this guy said that he wore like the same color to shirt every day. And people are like, well, why do you only wear white? He's like, cause I like it. And he's like, and I have different colors, but like I have, it's like the same brand of shirt, same three or three to four colors. And I wear them every day because I'm comfortable. I'm within my own skin with these and I don't care about what I look like. He's like, yeah, I keep clean shaving and stuff and, but I wear the same clothes because it's, it's. operate on a different, like it's frequencies is what it becomes. And so for those of us who do suffer from anxiety, depression, and uh some of that analysis paralysis, you have to simplify it. You have to create it to like, like, like when I Okay, when I see myself like looking back, like at the two of us on the screen and I see this and I'm like, okay, I'm confident, I'm comfortable. Like this is the closest Ryan is to no anxiety, no depression, no analysis, paralysis, overthinking things. And so if you can start your day that way after you get out of the shower and just hop into this, it will, you will start to move. And a more, so we used to have a saying, I was in the team, slow is smooth and smooth is fast. And so that's what that creates. That frequency creates that slow, smooth movement. So being smooth is actually being fast. And that will allow you in your day to day living to not go into these, I call them doom spirals actually. I don't know if you saw it on the app or not, but like it's the mind spiral stopper kind of thing. And it just basically takes you through different pieces to simplify or streamline who you are, what you are and what you like. So therefore you don't have these catastrophic like doom spirals or mind spirals at times because you're. Like I'm the one briefing today for the weekly meeting and I need to wear this and then you pull that out and you notice there's a stain on it and you only have one of them and it's catastrophic. You're like, oh, maybe so and so can brief today because I can't wear any of this other stuff and I'm behind now and you then you hop in your car, your car doesn't say, you know, it just goes from there, right? You can start seeing the avalanche behind you and. Like I said, think we said it, life's hard. Like make it simpler for yourself and have. The things that bring you joy. I don't know who the person was that was like the declutter lady. You know, does this bring you joy? No, get rid of it. Does this bring you joy? No, get rid of it. Does this bring your joy? Yes. OK, keep it. And then the next one. This is the same one. It brings your joy. Yes. Like, OK, get in a different color. And you know, so that is just it's neat to see it and to see people that operate at higher levels and they normally have the same back story. It's like why, just like you said, why do you have 20 white shirts? It's like because I'm comfortable with it and it brings me joy. so cool, one less decision. Like you will just, I kind of always do this finger snapping of, like that's how fast then the next thing in your life, the next thing in your life happen. And it's not about being so efficient that it's all about efficiency. It's more so because of what? the spirals cost us as over thinkers with anxiety really. Yeah, really cool. love all this. but I'm curious to know, was there like a defining moment when you were going through, you know, your addiction recovery and dealing with everything that you've had to deal, deal with that you've realized that your life story could help others? Was there any defining moment that comes to mind? I I really go back always to the 30th of December, 2024 was the day I got the email from my divorce lawyer that the divorce was final. And my mom was here visiting me and I had been writing. And a notepad for a little while. I just started the business or gotten my LLC for our protector LLC and which is now turned into our protector development. And she's like, you know what? What you going to do today? I was like, hey, I'm going to just go in the office, start typing when I've been writing in this notepad and now to me it seemed like all days. You know there's part of it is 12 hours. It's part of me was like 8 hours, but anyways, I think I. typed out 12,000 words or something for the first book I wrote. God only knows when the devil comes to you a second chance at life. And it's kind of going through the divorce, broken heart, estrangement, job loss, and the tools that got me through it and so forth. And I was actually. coaching someone earlier today about, you know, he's like, just where should I start? Right. And to me, where I started was I was taking so many losses that year, every single day I was just piling up catastrophic loss after catastrophic loss. So was like, how do I win? And it just came to me three daily wins, a physical win, a mental win, and a spiritual win. And what it really came down to was uh May's a four-year-old gold doodle. She's like right off camera, like right here. And she was, know, whatever, one and change at the time. And I was super depressed. And she bark at me to be like, all right, I'm going to do my business right here on the floor if you don't take me out kind of thing. And I'm like, oh gosh, OK, fine. And I had enough strength to take her out. We'd walk around the apartment building. So what is that? couple hundred yards maybe, not very far. And you know, doing that what four times a day. So that was my physical win in the beginning. And, you know, after a month or two, it turned into two apartment buildings and then three apartment buildings and then the full neighborhood and then two neighborhoods. And we just kept building upon that every single day more and more. And then it got to be probably too much. And she's like, hey, we can ratchet it back. We don't need to do a five mile walk every time we go out kind of thing. But that was the physical. Today it looks like my physical win is going to the gym for about an hour and a half. So I'm kind of back in my military physical training morning mantra of roughly 90 minutes of physical training. And then for mental, what it looks like to me is reading the Bible after I come back from the gym. about 30 minutes and then I meditate for 30 minutes. So that my mental and my spiritual kind of are two together. And what that looks like really is, can have it, actually the new book just came out here at beginning of March, Let's Get Spiritual. So this is all the practices that got me to Travis and Ryan on a Thursday night in March kind of thing. Basically, your physical wins I have in here, walk, run, lift, swim, mental win, read, write, create, learn, other spiritual win, pray, meditate, study, grow. And there's a bunch of the other things that have worked. But that to me, was in the first book was the three daily wins. And so then no matter what kind of I say, what you do from five to nine locks in your nine to five. And so I can control those three things. So that means I win three times before some people even get up for the day. And then whatever happens during that nine to five work day, it doesn't matter because all that's really outside of my control, right? Having a meeting like today, the coaching meeting this morning, could have canceled, car could not start, something didn't happen there, that person doesn't show up. I can't control any of that stuff. Like I can just control me. So I showed up and I already knocked out my three daily wins. I was happy. They showed up. Bonus. and work through that and hop on a podcast, keep working on the next book. We need to really realize is, and this is something I'm still working on today, I don't have it all figured out, is what can I control? What can I control? It's just like hopping on a Zoom, right? And it's like, my internet's not working or this is happening or that's happening. It's like, what can you control? Okay, so in your apartment, your Wi-Fi isn't working. I guess it's like, do you turn your phone Wi-Fi on? Do you go across the street to the conference center? So anything that happens in your life, you just always have to look at it's like, can I control this? And if you can't control it, you just have to. For me with My Spirit Tribe, just take the wheel. I know you'll take care of it. It's all going to work out for me. But yeah, in that moment, 30 December 2024 was kind of the, I was like, all right, this is going to be the beginning of a story. I don't know what it's going to look like. it was my second chance at life. was the redemption tour, as I like to call it, in what, 2025? became where, it started in full on publishing three books in 2025, creating an online course, starting to develop the app. And then now in 2026, more coaching, more speaking. We did TEDx in February, TEDx Duluth. And it's just trying to be an advocate for, you know, be kind is my, you know, huge mantra. Normally, anytime you see me with a Be Kind shirt on or something that says Be Kind, with the six steps to, you know, transform your life, our lives, any way to transform how we go about just taking kindness to the 8 billion people that are around the world. And what could that look like if we were all just kind and realized that there's so many things in our life we can't control. So just let it go and be kind. Yeah, for sure. I absolutely love it. And I remember going in a therapy session. I was describing to my therapist like, well, I can't control that. can't, it's basically what you said. And he turned around and he said, you need to one, your expectations or certain things in your life. And two, you can only control the things you can control. And it's like one of those things, so much easier said than done. But once you realize it or put it to mind that you can't control everything, but for that stuff that's in your control. Like it makes things so much better. You said something I love so much, lower your expectations because I mean, that's truly, I'm gonna butcher it. I know it's, think God only knows, but. Was it happiness? don't know. is it? Is it reality minus expectation equals happiness? Yeah, reality minus. Expectations equals happiness and so it really is, you know, like we have what we believe. Well, we have. We know what we know what reality is and then we have that experience like the potential. It's always with people. I think this all the time. with friends, family, coworkers, like we see them, we put them on a pedestal possibly or Ryan does anyways at times, puts people on pedestals and we see the potential in them. I see the potential in them and then that's the only thing that I can gauge. Like, I'm like, why isn't it this way? Why aren't you acting this way? This is who, this is who you can be or. or I believe you are maybe, or I've seen that maybe a glimpse of you and it's like, no, no, no, that's you, what you would do. That's how you would act. And so, no, you have to look at like how they're acting if it's other people or the situation. And that takes so much. mean, today I can do it. I can pause. 99.9 % of the time I can pause and this thing doesn't open up and stupid doesn't fall out and I don't have to make amends with people and so forth and so normally my actions you know do match things but it is really that it simplifies and it's hard because We're human. want more. We want more, more, more, more, more. We want comfort, comfort, comfort, comfort, comfort. And that's not what we should want. We should want hard because hard is meaningful. Hard is doing the next right best thing. that sometimes. You know, it's not ice cream with sprinkles and whipped cream and stuff like that. It's oatmeal with almond milk and uh that's it. And so um I don't know what to say when it comes to some of that stuff, because it's just like you can't. what's the old saying? You can't have your cake and eat it too kind of thing. It doesn't work like that. But I love you sharing with you Sarah, same for me. I think of my therapist, my psychiatrist, different people I've had in my corners over the years. And now today it's more realizing it's just somebody to talk to that the things you forget about because you've gotten better with handling it and lowering that expectation bar. But then every month now, I'm down to just once a month, which is pretty awesome for me. And I want to think back to how often I used to go. And it's like, everything's great. And then she'll be like, OK, give me a high for the week, a low for the week. And then open your calendar up. I'm still old school, so I do analog calendar. And she's like, kind of reflect, you know, take two minutes to look over your account. And then it's like all of sudden it's just fireworks going off. yeah, this happened. That she's like, I just wanted you to get let it go. I'm not sure if you, know, like in a meeting, you know, talked about it. Probably not because, you know, sharing for a minute, only a minute, not an hour. And. For those out there, I said, listen and watch. if you're not somebody who is able to, because you don't want to be unloading on your friends. You're a clown kind of thing, right? It's this side of it where you're just looking for a reaction for some sympathy and so forth. Get help. See a therapist. See a psychiatrist. Have a coach. that can hold you accountable to those daily wins that you want to have in place. And so you can win every single day. You can really be proud of yourself again. And that was for me too. I needed people that believe in me. And I was probably running in circles where, I certainly shouldn't have been and it was one where I wasn't being stretched in any which way. And so now today I definitely have like, it's like, you all like, when do you all grow the circle and when do you need to move on kind of and find a new tribe? And when it's okay to have certain tribes that you check in, check out of and so forth. So yeah, it's pretty cool. You remind me of something that my former boss used to say. He said, if you're not being challenged throughout your day, you're doing it wrong. Cause he's like, that's, that's when we learn. And I totally agree with that. I definitely, when I look, being in the military, one thing I loved is every one to two years you transition roles. mean, if you're in a command position, 24 months is all you had in that position. so you wanna obviously come in and assess, have the way you wanna steer the ship and then you're kind of getting ready for the next person. And you start to see at, I would say, between 24 months and 36 months, a massive complacency impact with people, especially professionally, where you have it all figured out. Because it takes about six months to figure it out, right? And then about six months to tweak it. Six months, OK, we're humming along. And then it's like, OK, now what? And that's when you just are like, well, we'll just kind of. coast until someone corrects me. And you see that time and time again, and then you just see these spikes of what does it look like? The climate starts to go down because did you have how many people at that time that have roughly that amount of time in the seats and everything? And it's like, well, but if we change that. And I'm like, yeah, you should change it. Because I guarantee there was someone that was underneath them that has been doing their job for the last year and not getting paid for it. And now they're bitter and angry and sinful. They're probably getting ready to move on somewhere else because we missed these marks as leaders when it's time to shift and start putting people in different billets. don't get me wrong. mean, I'm certainly never, but I'm like, when I'm comfortable, I'm like, I'm not raising my hand for more homework. Like let's, keep enjoying some of this comfort. This is nice. And realizing though that we only get one life to live and it's not very long. And what do you want to do with it? You know, how many lives do you want to impact? I think that's how I kind of gauge it. I challenge people today, even when I think about being a small group leader and challenging, you know, 12, 13 year olds and class. What are you guys going to go out and do this week? How many people are you going impact? What does that look like? And it's the same for my girls. And I guess they're 18 and 20 now. So they're moving on to the next adventures and endeavors. But I think it's the same to us. You have to challenge. ourselves. It's like, what's Travis want to do and who do you want to impact for the next 365 days? And after 180 days, like, OK, how are doing? And then how are we tweaking it? What does it look like differently? Because we can't get seduced by our success. Because I know for me, that happened all the time. I'd get to that one year mark and. I'd taken my lumps for the first six months trying to figure things out and not doing it right. But don't worry, I'll get it right by the time my evaluation report shows up so it can say I'm number one or number two. And oh, boy, look at me. You pat me on the back. I did such a good job. And then you get seduced by that, so you get a little lazy. accountability is a good thing. It's really hard. I get it. Don't get me wrong. I'm trying to think. One of my coaches today was kind of hammering me a little bit about a couple different things. And I certainly didn't like hearing it, but I was taking notes going like, OK, yeah, all right. I can agree. I disagree with it, but I agree with it and certainly need to do something about it. And so I think to me is that side of when we start to, I guess, the I wants, I want this, I want that. is, so okay, are you willing to put the work in for it? Like, are you willing to receive that constructive criticism, that feedback to be, you know, whatever this is? I'd say a lot of us initially are like, but then we say we want it. And so like, it's like, how bad do we want it? And so yeah, that's why I'm like, as far as I'm concerned, people are like, yeah, it's great. What about this book? What about that book? Like what books? Like as far as I'm concerned, I have two right now that are unwritten that haven't been published and they probably haven't worked on them enough because I was doing something else. was watching Netflix for two hours last night when I could have been reading another book to get ready for, know, it's just so it's, we're all kind of susceptible to that, right? And we, We need people in our corner to check on us and ask. I mean, I have a lot of people and I'm just like, hey, let me know. Let me know you see anything, smell anything, because I want to be the best that I could be. Because I know what I was like when I wasn't. And I wasn't having people hold me accountable. And one good, one good. You touch on something that I think is key for anybody that's, going through addiction, mental health, physical health, whatever challenge you're facing, community. You need those people in your corner. Yeah, I love that. I mean, I think that's the most important. I mean, never would have never would have imagined community be the most important thing, just kind of looking at my life. But then also knowing that I was units that yes, we were all alone in the middle of nowhere. And that's all we had was the 31 Bubbas or the five or the. The 200 of us, whatever that unit looked like down range and just think how tight we were. And it's how quickly you forget that, that that's what really made you tick, makes us all tick, is I always kind of say our tribe. And yeah, today I just think about the guys that checked in on me today, didn't know that they were going to call. And when they did, it was so special to hear their voice. One, for me, I care now more about them than when they're asking me, I'm like, OK, can I ask questions now? I want to know how you're doing. What's going on with this? What's going on with that? How's your family? How's your dad? How's the different things you know about them since the last time you talked that maybe weren't in the best of places? then how are you really doing? with that. mean, because I know for me when I just hear you say it out loud how it impacts me and I'm not immediately part of your family. And, you know, it's I just it changes so much. I think about I used to be really big into like sporting events or concerts and having to go, you know, it's like, I'm going to the next Taylor Swift concert. I don't know something because the girls were always big in the Taylor Swift. And today, you're someone's like, hey, this weekend, I'm like, yeah, I'm going to see my kids. Oh, like, like, where are they? Are they gone? Like kind of thing. I'm like, oh, like, well, we're going to a wild game, a hockey game. But that's not I'm not like that's not the point. The wild game is not the point. The point is I get to see my children and spend time with my children and have an experience. It's not about the hockey game. Like, I really don't actually want to go to the hockey game because it puts me into a 20,000 chaotic people that I was nothing against going to hockey, drinking a few beers, screaming at the receivers out there and cheering on your team. get it, but it's kind of for me. the demons that still like, you you never, they're still in there. And so it's, know, do you put yourself back in situations and I'm gonna, cause I want to spend time with my children, with my, with my fam, my new family and it's special, but it's not about like all of that. Extra that it used to be because the extra was why I used to do it that you know I didn't care It's like hey cool my family came with because that was it's just a package deal and you know cool But I was going because I wanted to be put in that element you know where I could be the loudest most vulgar person you know and Not be present with the people that you're really there to be with so when you say community today. Yeah, it's it's so important all the people that you have that lift you up and then that you lift them up when it comes to the accountability and really having meaningful conversations. think that today is my biggest one. I can't be in circles that don't have the ability to actually think before the communication flows. It's something where I want to continue to grow and learn. And be as impactful as possible versus news weather sports that none of that matters at all. Yeah, I love it. I love the little ad. Addition you added to like community and just basically saying, no, it's, it's not about the game. It's not about the event. It's about being with people that you love. But you also have mentioned the military a couple of times and you know, just your time spent there. How would you say that your experience in the military shaped your mental resilience? Yeah, I think way, way back. So I was in the infantry and my first year on active duty was just schools. It's like infantry officer base, of course, was basically 16 weeks of preparing for ranger school. That's what I remember. show up Monday morning, get our stuff, squirt away, walk out to the ranges and stay out there till Friday, walk back. and living out under the stars every night. Which is awesome when I think about it, because to me, I know you could drop me off in the middle of anywhere under the stars and I'd probably actually really enjoy it. I'd be like, man, this is amazing and so forth. But it took a Monday through Friday for four months. And then you got airborne school, so you don't go fall out of some perfectly good airplanes. And then I go into Ranger school, know, 61 days of peer suffering, you know, being your caloric intake being set to a pretty low amount, you're sleep deprived, and you are worked to exhaustion and mentally challenged to make the hard, hard, hard decisions in that state. And what then going through all of that, it wasn't too long after all that, maybe like eight months, I went to Afghanistan after that. So I was like very prepared to be on the side of the mountain in Afghanistan with my guys and my platoon. And we just called it extreme camping. And it was one of those things that it wasn't that big of a deal. And so. Today it's different, but I can really see that. made me harder. I didn't have lot of compassion and empathy from people who would say they were having a hard time or that their circumstances weren't ideal. And I'd be like, explain them to me. they'd explain it. And it's kind of like, my ice cream's not cold enough, my whatever. And I just, I would kind of get upset. and go like, really that you're complaining about that? And it was always kind of a measuring thing. And it's like, hey, Ryan, you were put through all that so you could have the resiliency to lead and so forth. And so instead of of like snubbing your nose or thumbing your nose, whatever you call it, at people. It's realizing that you can take the lead when something happens and there's chaos and you thrive in that environment. Where the rest of the folks, like you shouldn't have to ever go through that kind of stuff. It shouldn't have to be something that you have to be put through. And so that is softening over time and space to realize that the reason why some of us are. This is our path for our soul to go through and this is how we awaken ourselves to become who I am today to really help others and advocate for better and carry the water. Before I think I kind of was tired of that or I believe I should get a. a trophy or something crazy. it's just like, dude, what's your problem when it comes to all that? Like, no, it's never about that. It's not about you. You're not that important. And so it allows me now today for like the switch got turned back on and it's like, OK, let's like you were once a well-oiled machine. Like, let's get you running again. You can see that all that. training served its purpose and realizing that fighting for a purpose to help others is huge. Not saying that I have it all figured out, but knowing that the things that I've gone through works for others as well as that's what I do in helping others with the tools that. Many people have used before me. I don't believe anything that I'm doing is new. It's just asking for help. And then people, you know, holding you to whatever standard, whatever the standard is. And they're like, okay, you said this is the standard. I'm going to hold you to it. All right, ready, go. I'm like, sweet, was slacking. So today somebody kind of was like, you like you said you were going to do 50 pushups. You only did 48, dude. Like give them knockout two more. And, um. That's just what it takes. And that's the resiliency that was created in many, many years of training because every unit is a little different. And as you move up through the ranks, the formations keep getting bigger and then you're further and further away from the line as we call it. and uh operating so you become more strategic and maybe a planner and you kind of forget what it's like because you're you know 50 miles behind the line and you're in a tent on a cot versus being on the front lines on the ground with you know whatever it may be. And I think that's what happens with all of us, right? As we get older, we get a little softer, and it hurts more. And I believe now today, we just can't stop. We always gotta keep moving, keep moving forward. And I'm realizing that, that I used to be an ultra marathon runner, and I got hurt and kind of stopped. I ran one marathon after I ruptured that Achilles. I hadn't ran for a number of years and it hurts now to run. Like I'm still trying to get back into that peak running shape again, is a goal. So you just gotta push through the pain and you'll be able to do it again. Well, I absolutely love it. love everything you said. But the one part of your story that's always stuck out and you've mentioned it a little bit is how you found your spiritual side again. How did faith become central to your mission? Yeah, it certainly, I didn't, I didn't know it was going to become what it has become today. It just was, guess, how it worked. And uh basically about three weeks, I think, after I sobered up, I started going back to church. And from there, that turned into. the Alpha course and kind of re-bluing my Christianity and getting an understanding and clarity again. So I bought my first Bible about two years ago now and joined a men's Bible study. the first fall I started teaching sixth grade boys. And I was in sixth grade when I had my first drink and when I started drinking. so to see these guys a year and half ago or so when we started teaching together, I just can't see it. like, there's no way I was that young or whatever. And I was doing this, putting poison in my body. And yeah, so now it's just. serving as much as possible, reading my Bible every single day. It gleaned so much through it because everything stems from it. And so as you pick up a success book and you're like, oh, why does this sound so familiar? And it's like, OK, Psalms, Proverbs, just go through either one of them. it's like, that's any success book under the sun. just correlate them. For those of you out there that, like I'm not great with the AI yet, I'm working on it, know, throw those, know, take your book that you're in right now and like your success principles and chime it or whatever prompt and then say, okay, how does this relate to what verses in the Bible? And it'll literally like verbatim, it'll be like holy cows, it's like the same, like literally the same thing. So there's nothing new there. Same for when it comes to my books. That's why there's a lot of scripture in them because the scripture says it better than my same bullet point with just a few words moved around and changed or your North Dakota accent in it. To me, it is. It's just I can tell if I don't go through my paces. each day it's certainly I can see how my demeanor changes my light almost kind of dims a little bit inside and you just For me, that spirituality is just what creates the drive, that purpose, the war purpose that I have to, know, saving souls is what it comes down to. mean, it's it's that simple of you don't, have no idea who you interact with on a daily basis that, you you're helping them that one nudge to go down this path. I think that all the time my dad and I actually earlier today, we didn't get to talk yesterday. I to text him and left a voicemail and sing a happy birthday to him, but we didn't get to connect till this afternoon. And I was thinking to him like we were saying, because he's so rough, he's 33, I was almost 45. And I had a lot of nudges, right? I kind of, as was telling you through, you know, at 12, like, and you're throwing up, like you're probably like, man, this alcohol thing probably isn't for you, dude. Like now would be a great time just to not, not continue it. 18 getting arrested. Actually forget when I was 16, I was in Spain on a school trip and got in trouble and I got suspended from basketball for like six weeks of the season, my junior year, I think. You just forget so much of these nudges hours of like, dude, like, you know, this just checking in to be like, why don't you not do this? And so you don't realize like when you're kind, when you're helping somebody else out out there, like as you're nudging them into a. a better place in their life. We don't know that. So if we can be those people, as opposed to the person I might have been at one point where I was a little darker and I was nudging people the other way, know, like away from being kind, away from being gentler. And that to me is what it's all about. And that's why my spirituality is so important to me today because if there's light, there cannot be dark. so it and you know, the world is the world comforts, unfortunately, darkness and it that doesn't lead to a very an abundant life, I guess, in the end of the day. Very well said. This is all great. This is why I do this, is to hear these types of stories. It's like, I always tell everybody it's like a free therapy session for me. It's the same for me. mean, every conversation I have today is a meaningful conversation and it really is. If it's communicating with another alcoholic, it's like, cool, it's an AA meeting. If it's like for you and I, it is a therapy, it's another therapy session, right? So it's awesome. You just start to realize that that's the healing of conversation, right? Meaningful conversations are that they are that they're a therapy session. It's healing. We're releasing those generational curses or that family trauma that generations before us, we're going to take to their grave or did take to their grave. So we get to carry them. And the cool thing is today is some of us are strong enough to have a podcast platform and the projected all over the world. You're kind enough to invite me on and I'll talk about it as long as you want to talk about it. It's awesome. I have. Can't fold more questions here, so is there's there's so many different angles to your story, so. One of the things that I really like to is you say that you help people find their God given purpose. How do you help people discover that? Yeah, so this this one's really hard in and when I when I say really hard, it's a sense of. There's a lot of questions involved to it and you know it was always the joke when people because I was in infantry. Jack of all trades, master of none. So it's like what do want to be when you grow up? And so I think all the way back to 6th grade. I remember writing it on a three by five card. It was either a professional football player. Or a firefighter. And, you okay, fast forward 10 or 12 years and it's like airborne ranger and the infantry in Afghanistan. That's a professional football player and a firefighter. You put those together, that's what you get. And okay, well, fast forward 20 years. Okay. Now what does that look like? And it's the firefighter, professional football player, ex military. knowing that you can't do all that stuff forever. So what do do? You teach, right? Or you coach and so forth. And so I can only ask this from where I sit today to find someone's God given purpose and basically go, okay, you're... six years old, what do you want to be when you grow up? You're 12 years old, what do you want to be when you grow up? You're 18 years old, what do you want to be when you grow up? Say they're 35 and you know they didn't do this, they didn't do that, they didn't do this. I'm like okay does any of that something you want to do today? Yeah it is. Okay why aren't you doing it? Or why aren't you educating yourself to do it? Why aren't you? Why, why, why, why, why, right? The three, the three letters we don't love so much, why? And If we start with that, you can start to see the fear and this goes into the limiting beliefs. And I'll just share a lot of my side of it because that's the only way I can relate. And so for me, it was. I thought I had to go to college. No one ever asked me or no one told me or whatever it was. was like my mom went to college, bunch of our family went to college, my dad went to college, but then he came home to run the family business when his father got sick. He didn't finish college, but I have to go to college, guess. It was like this fear of, am I going to? make it out of my freshman year and make it on my sophomore. Once I got my military scholarship, it was kind of funny because I go, gosh, now I really need to like graduate college. Otherwise it's going to be not good and everything else. I was on academic probation one year for kind of got into an argument with one of my teachers. I was like, you're going to get this grade because I wasn't coming to class because the University of North Dakota had a non attendance, you didn't have to attend class. You had to take the test to do the assignments. So he changed his participation or something like that in the vernacular somehow. And I was fine. And so I was like, you whatever. And he's like, you're not going to get a better, better grade than whatever D or something. So I dropped it, which put me underneath the amount of credits to keep like your scholarship without being on probation for it. And that cost me, you know, like some rank as a cadet. Like I think I was like the battalion executive officer, like number two in command. of the ROTC battalion and you realize, wow, now I'm this, whatever I got demoted to, embarrassing for myself and so forth. These are the things you forget. This is how many years ago. But what I'm getting at is limiting beliefs of that was going to stop me from getting commissioned or that was going to keep me from being successful at X. And what was so cool as a battalion commander was basically like, sit down, here's your counseling statement, sign it, hold your hand out, all right, don't do that again. Make sure you go to class and turn in all your assignments and do better. So that's one limiting belief that something like that happens, your life ends, right? All the things that you believe you dreamed of that would happen aren't going to happen. Well, I always really struggled with financial insecurity. What happens if you have an overdraft? What happens if you don't pay your credit card bill on time? What happens if you don't pay your rent on time? Do the rent police show up and take you to jail? Does the credit card police show up, take you to jail? Well, people are like, well, your credit score is gonna go down. Okay, yeah, I mean, it'll go back up too. Don't worry. You may pay a little bit more interest. But these were all things that I feared, right? So I was like, work really hard, save a lot of money, don't enjoy the fringe benefits of life, because more money in the bank means less rent police, rent, you know, all these things. so. For me, this is why I believe in God protection. He builds you is you're to go through some financial seasons that you're not going to have the multi six figure job, right? And while you're going through divorce and all of these other things, and therefore you're not going to be able to pay your bills on time. And you're going to see that you're not going to die. It's going to literally make you stronger because you know that there's always enough. today there's enough. I was to tell you today what the bank account looked like, I'm sure we're negative,$1,200,000 as we built the business out and everything, but all the bills are at least paid today. Tomorrow I don't know, but I don't have to worry about that till tomorrow gets here. And so you start taking people through, what's your greatest fear? My greatest fear was becoming like my father, if someone was to ask me before. And I would say today, absolutely. That's not my fear. I should have been like, I want to be like my father because the strength that it took to like sober up 41 years ago in a town of 400 people where there was only him and another guy that like were sober, to run in a, business, and not farm in a farming community. Like when there's only six other businesses in that small little town, mean, the kind of strength that that takes to see his entire family migrate out to San Diego, California, and he stayed to run the family business when everybody else left to go enjoy. And this is San Diego before it turned into I know how many kajillion people and it's going to fall off into the ocean. Back when was really actually San Diego was amazing. I remember going out there every year and going like, man, I could see why they all moved out here. So today, can't, mean, a weekend's perfect and it can get around the crazy traffic and stuff. So and then to see him just continue to go through it and he fought his financial insecurity in his battle with like bankruptcy or whatever it looked like, all these different things. And so as I'm going through them, realizing like he never gave up. so he's changed his career. He sold the business 25 years ago and kind of got into different other ventures and so forth. And it's super cool now as we kind of reflect together on it. because for me, I stayed in the military all those years for security, right? It's like, sweet, I get paid every year, gonna get some type of raise, might not be much, but it's gonna be something. And there's a retirement, they've changed that today. It looks a lot different than it did for how I was able to retire out of the military. But. healthcare, all these different things. So like that security blanket's nice, but when I think about the freedom I have today as an entrepreneur, yeah, I mean need the faith that I have because most people can't live one day at a time and know that you're gonna be okay. And every time something does come up, like I just don't buy plane tickets, I'm like a week out, like now kind of like when it's like, okay, got business trip like next week, like it just happens I'm not able to buy the tickets till like today and we fly out Monday. But you know what's cool about it. I know it's going to work out exactly how it's supposed to work out. So when you take people through that, it's a real struggle because as man with families, you know, as husbands, yeah, we're supposed to protect and provide and what that looks like. But, know, if you sit down together as a family and go, what's enough? Like what is enough? Like we can move back into that two bedroom apartment we had before we had all, you all the kids like, OK, you three kids like, but the kids could like bunk up together. We could go down to one car again and we could do all these things right you all the material stuff that you need to have the multi six-figure job to have and all the cool Disneyland trips and the big you know fancy cars and the pick a name brand thing all these things right and then you ask you ask the guy like hey so So what's it like with your kids? you able to really be that protector for them? Are you teaching them or is someone else teaching your kids? What does that look like? Are you able to be there and be the man that you want to be? Is your wife able to be there to be the mother? And don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that. You get to pick and choose. That's the coolest thing. Like we all get to choose what we choose. But when it comes to limiting beliefs, we start to say, I can't have that. I can't have that business. And I was guilty of this. I mean, I told my former spouse all the time, she'd be like, I can't want to start a coffee shop. No, it's just, too, it's too risky. We shouldn't know. Like, and it was always, I was afraid of, I had a number in my head that we had to have in the bank. And you know, we never made it to that number. and it's one of those and I laugh at it because I'm like it's a crazy stupid number when you think about why did why was it necessary to have that amount of money before you can start doing the things that you really want to try to do I mean doesn't mean that it doesn't Like you only fail when you stop doing it. Like a business only fails when you stop. It would not fail if you could just keep, there's ways, but you just, want instant gratification. We want to be like, okay, I was making this amount of money in corporate America within a year of running my own business. I should make about the same. You're like, dude, that's not, mean, you will make the same. It's just so you're have that in expenses and so forth, but you're gonna make it. You're gonna make, it's gonna all work out. And so really what we do is we walk it backwards of what do you want? Cause you can't have what you currently have and then create what God truly has given you the talents for and gonna give you the most freedom and abundant life as a family unit. because it's not gonna look like the world we live in today. It's gonna look like having one car. It's gonna look like a house that's probably half the size of the house that you live in, at least for three to five years. Unless you have it built out in such a way that you've done your due diligence prior to all of this. But I guarantee you, you'll be like, was it hard? Yeah, it was really hard. Was it worth it? Oh, I'd do it. blindfolded next time kind of thing because it's so worth it. this just that when I see the relationships and the relationship with my children today, you know, because of what I've been able to work on myself in this. And if I was doing my old job, no, it never would have happened. I never would have been able to do the work that it's taken to see my God given talents and abilities come through and then to help so many others. And that's what I love so much is when you see someone, because all it takes is for one of us to believe in somebody else and to see them just skyrocket. And for me, it took 18 months to create. the things that you're like, this tool, I love this, this is great. And that was like 18 months and it works for me to pull that together. But I can hand it over to somebody now, and within a week, they can get this out of this one tool. Within 90 days, they can take all the tools together and in 90 days have an abundance that they've never ever possibly had before. But it's not for everybody because you have to do the work. Work's a four letter word, hard's four letter word, life's a four letter word. So you get to choose, you're hard. yeah, it's pretty neat though to see those who want to take it on. Cause when you see him, I got one guy, he's 15 months into things. And I was talking to him this morning and I was just like, dude, you... He's like, you talking about? Basically, it's the same thing you did. I'm like, yeah, but I didn't get to see it. I can't see it. When you're in the bottle, you can't read the label. For me, I'm at zero. I just started. It's pretty special to have the testimonials and then just to be able to get the snippets and see what it looked like along the way. for them to truly pursue their God-given purpose and see their God-given talents come to life over time and space. Yeah, that's really cool. You've mentioned limiting beliefs. What are the most common ones that you see when you're coaching people? Yeah, the big one and maybe touched on it just a minute ago is the financial. They, you know, I have to have $5 million in my retirement account. I have to, you know, this, this, this, it's all the I haves and it's like, okay, well you get to pursue that, but you're gonna not say not. mean, I Lots of money set aside for retirement, but I wasn't living today. You know, I was living for when I'm 60, 65 and not going to be able to travel because my knees are both completely shot. And so I, I redefined like, what does that look like? I recalibrated for myself. What enough was cause there was a A guy speaking, I've been about six months ago that I was speaking at, he went before me. I was so glad that I got there early and was able to listen to him. Both him and his wife, corporate, an amazing, unrealistic amount of money, the two of them. But the nanny raising their kids, tutor raising their kids, and they had everything you can imagine on their son. was great highlight reel. And they sat down one night and they're just like, are you happy? No. Are you happy now? What would it take for it to be enough so we could raise our kids? They're like, well, let's start this business. Yeah, they did. They ratcheted all the way back and what enough was and still to retire one day and all these different things. To see them today, I love every time something pops up on LinkedIn from him and hear from him and stuff because it's what allowed me to see. what enough was and how, you know, it's, I'm going to continue to invest in myself. You know, I'm going to invest far more in myself than I am in my retirement. I'm going to continue to have a retirement, invest in retirement account, but I'm going to invest in who Ryan is like right now. Like I'm, kicking the can around. like, I want to get my doctorate and invest in myself in that. What would that look like? Why would that look like in a certain way? And it's uh just challenging because you only get your life to live. You only get your life to live. And so what do you want that to look like? I have, obviously, children. I have a partner today that uh has similar. beliefs, thoughts, and purposes in life. We have similar careers, so therefore it allows us to travel when we want to travel and shift our stuff. I mean, you don't have to go on a two week vacation kind of thing now. The cool thing I've realized, like three or four days I go in summer, would you tie work to it? Because you got a client there and it's in a tropical location because they were pretty smart when they chose like where they were going to build their business and everything else. Those are the things to me that you really start to We build our own box and it comes from community, family, all these things that we grew up and we believe somebody like I said, no one told me, but I believed I had to go to college and I think college is great and wonderful. I don't think. to be successful in life, do you need to go? No, you can certainly invest in yourself, you can be self-taught, you can have multiple coaches and pay them the $200,000 that it costs to go to a four-year school these days. And so this is coming from somebody who, know, got my master's degree, this, got that, and it... think education is great, but I think about what creates memories and what creates experiences and how do you learn from traveling the world. I think that all the time, that's one of the greatest things that I was given in the military was getting to see the world and how, oh wow, we were so blessed in the United States and everything that we have and what we take for granted is, you know, I mean. We have our own struggles here, don't get me wrong, but it's pretty darn good. And realize, if you have the opportunity to even get out of your own state, some people never left their hometown and nothing against that. Just knowing though that it's a big, beautiful world out there, should check it out and see the different cultures and different places and different foods and so forth. It's like I said, the world's your oyster. You get to do what you want with it. And so if you want more, that's where you need to be brave and take that leap. And you're going to either grow the wings on the way down or you'll build an airplane to make sure that it can take flight over time and space. And that's the coolest thing is once you make a decision. So not making a decision is making a decision. But once you make. the decision to change your course, the universe adjusts for you. And you can't lose. It's all better than you would ever imagine. You just have to start. You just have to make a decision. Yeah, for sure. And it's like, that's how I feel about this podcast is, is I sat on it for a long time. I was like, do I want to do this? Do I have the time? I know I have the capability, but do I want to spend the time? And it's like, been one of the best things that I have going. Cause it's like, it's, passionate about it. I love the people I speak to and I love feeling that I'm helping people. I mean you are you're helping I mean you're helping me right now I mean as I you know you're asking questions and I'm just sitting here blabbing away but it helps me I mean it helps me every time I share because it's just that one ounce more that I don't have to carry you know inside of me for something and yeah so thank you Yeah. So I kind of just have one bigger question here and there's a few followups. If someone listening today feels like they're, you know, in this deep rut, deep valley, whatever you want to call it in their life, what message would you want them to hear? It's a hard one. This thing is a thousand pounds at times, right? And you gotta ask for help. You gotta ask for help. Just, I'll throw my number out there right now. 360-951-9202. If you're in your dark, time today, you need to call somebody. You just need to talk. and let them just be there for you. But the thing of it is at times we got to, that's why I'm so big on the kindness thing and the smiles and the pleases and thank yous, excuse me, I'm sorrys because we don't realize for that person that is in that valley, know, when they bump into you out on the street and you you smile and say good morning, how you doing? Like you don't realize like just something that simple is just enough charge in their battery. to get them another day around the sun kind of thing. ask for help, don't give up, better days are coming. This is just a season of learning and you're like, gosh, I've learned so much. I've taken so many lessons. I'm taking so many losses. And I get it. If we want to compare stories, I'm not into that because it's not about that. But just know that. You're going through it to make you stronger because you're supposed to be the next president United States. You're supposed to be the next person that cures cancer. You're you know, whatever it is like you're you're going to save a kid that's drowning. Whatever it looks like, it's something so you giving up you not wanting this anymore. Is. extremely selfish because you'd be, you know, doing an injustice to you have some great gifts inside of you to change the world. And that's what's so amazing when we can unlock that and create the beautiful things. mean, I think it's just like all the artists in the world, if it's music or if it's art, art uh or whatever, and you're like the creativity. My oldest daughter is a designer and to see her like work. and so forth. It's so special and I know she has her struggles with anxiety and overthinking and so forth. You just need to talk about it. you know let's have a meaningful conversation. Let's just talk about it. Yeah. And I just want to add on, don't be afraid to talk about it. It's, it's very hard to be vulnerable at times and to actually open up and tell your story. But once you do it, it's, it's like a relief. And kind of just to follow up questions here. So where can people find you? Yeah, ourprotectordevelopment.com is the hub for anything and everything. can books, courses, apps, podcasts, set up a call, just to chat. And if you're on social media, it's Ryan T. Reichert or armyrt1978. that'll, I think any platform out there, one of those two, a lamb. And the last thing here is we discussed a lot of different topics from, you know, military to your books to your coaching, faith, you name it. Is there anything that we did not cover that you'd like to bring up? I think we hit it all, we've been going a good bit. But yeah, I think it's just been a blast. I've really enjoyed it. you know, just excited to know that somebody else I never knew that I had crossed paths with. So thank you, Travis, so much. And thank you for coming on the show. I really admire what you're doing and out there trying to help people. shouldn't say trying. You are helping people. but in this, you've had quite the journey to overcome. So thanks for sharing your story and thanks for spending time with me. And thank you to all that are listening. If this story resonated for you, please share it and subscribe. Thanks again. Until next time.