GallantFew: Helping Veterans Find Hope and Purpose

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There are some people that make their
work just another thing they have to do,

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and there are those that make their
work something that they want to do.

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Welcome to Working on Purpose with your
host Elise Cortez. In our program,

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we provide guidance and inspiration from those
people who have found deeper meaning and

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personal connection to their work life.
It's beyond nine to five. It's working

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on Purpose. Now Here is your
host, Elise Cortez. Welcome back to

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the Working on Purpose show Things Between
again this week. I'm your host,

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Alis Cortez. Join you live from
Dallas, which is home base for me.

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If you've been tuning in for a
while, you know this program is

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all about helping people create more meaningful
and purposeful lives and equipping leaders inside organizations

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to cultivate meaning and purpose that elicits
passion inspired contribution, innovation, and persevering

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performance. I talk with my guest
to draw on their expertise and share my

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own experience consulting, speaking and developing
forces across the globe. Before we get

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into the program, let me get
a shout out to our sponsor, rent

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with right to Buy dot com.
This real estate service offers a new way

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ready. It's a great option if
your credit is not in the best of

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shape, or if you're in transition
such as divorce, downsizing, or relocating

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and unsure about your new area,
or checking out a new opportunity to see

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if it aligns with your own purpose. How's that? Each week in these

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conversations, I hope you walk away
with something you can immediately use in your

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life or work, and if I
can do anything to help you along your

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journey, go to my website at
Alice Cortez dot com and use the contact

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me feature to message me. Let's
open a conversation and explore what's going on

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for you and see how I might
be able to help. Whether you want

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to learn more about how to develop
a purpose inspired leadership and meaning infuse culture

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in your organization, you want to
see about joining a catch fire online inspiration

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accountability, or master my community to
nurture your own passion and purpose, or

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you'd like me to speak for your
company or conference and any rate. I'm

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glad we're connected and thanks for listening
onto This week's program with us today is

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Carl Munger. He is the founder
and executive director of Gallant Few, Incorporated,

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a nonprofit helping military veterans transition from
active duty to civilian lives of hope

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and purpose. He is a retired
US Army major who served in infantry and

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ranger assignments. He is an author, award winning video producer, and certified

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Buris Functional Emotional Fitness practitioner. He
was recently elected to the town of Trophy

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Club Town Council. We'll be talking
about the experience and challenges military service men

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and women have transitioning to civilian civilian
life, Carl's own experience making the transition,

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and the organization he founded to help
veterans lead lives of hope and purpose.

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He joined to the day from Trophy
Club in Texas, which is just

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outside of Fort Worth. Carl,
welcome to working on Purpose. At least,

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it's an honor to be here.
Thank you. It really is amazing,

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and I want to give a shout
out to our common friend, Handy

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Samran, who suggested I reach out
to you and have you on the show.

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You are a perfect contribution because this
show, Carl, is really designed

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to help really move forward the conversation
about meaning and purpose in the workplace,

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and our veterans are critical element in
that. So you are an important contribution.

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So thank you for being with us. You know, when a veteran

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does not have a successful transition,
the whole community suffers. So thank you

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for letting us talk about some of
the challenges and some of the things that

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we're doing. Yeah, you're welcome, and let's start if we can just

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briefly with your your mission. We'll
talk more about what your organization does a

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little bit later in the program.
At first, in this segment, I

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want to talk about really you know
what veterans go through, but I love

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what you what you're up to here
as a mission. You say, the

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mission of Gallant Few as a revolutionary
veteran support network is to facilitate a peaceful,

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successful transition from military service to civilian
life, filled with hope and purpose.

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Such a great vision to open our
conversation with Carl, and so let's

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first help our our listeners understand why
you exist as an organization. So we

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want to talk about what military people
face when they're going from military to civilians.

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So help us understand first, how
many military servicemen and women do you

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think make the transition monthly to civilian
life. Can you is there a way

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to quantify that? Yeah, I
would guess it's around twenty thousand. I

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think the military says they're about twenty
or fifty thousand per year, so you

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could say twenty thousand per month or
transitioning. Now, that does not necessarily

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include National Guards and reservists, because
do they transition right when they come back

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from a combat deployment. Their transition
is they check in at their unit and

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then they go home and they do
their day job for the next month before

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they come back for another drill,
so they may not interact with anyone else

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from that unit. So that is
it's a totally It adds layers of complexity

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to the transition discussion that a lot
of times gets glossed over. Just this

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morning, I got a message from
an officer who is serving in a state

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National Guard unit and they have over
the last thirty days, had three suicides,

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and the last one happened just yesterday, and so he's reaching out and

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saying, hey, what can we
do, give me some ideas, And

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you know that whole when people think
transition, it's not just somebody that served

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in the Marine Corps for four years
or ten years or twenty years, and

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now they're moving into the civilian life. It's the guy that manages the grocery

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store, that goes to Afghanistan for
twelve months as part of a reserver or

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National Guard unit, and that comes
back and is in the grocery store next

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Monday. M m. Well,
speaking of that crow, I mean,

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I don't have experienced military experience,
but in preparing for this conversation, I

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just dug a little bit here and
part of what I discovered is that part

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of the reason the military service pop
will have a hard time coming back is

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they they can't relate again to the
civilian culture and the civilians can't relate to

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them. Can you say more about
that? Well, that's a part of

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it, but the bigger issue is
and your show's all about purpose. So

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when you serve in the military,
you know your purpose. If you have

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any question at all about your purpose, your squad leader is going to jam

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it right down your throat, so
you know it's to support and defend the

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Constitution of the United States and lay
down your life for your brother, your

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country if need be. When you
come back to the civilian world, a

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lot of veterans, so employment in
the military that was purpose. So now

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I'm going to work at brand X
doing whatever, that's now my purpose.

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Only that's not purpose. So when
you when you try to equate civilian employment,

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unless you are in a very dedicated
service industry, maybe law enforcement officer,

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or maybe you're a counselor that works
with abused kids, you know they're

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definitely is purpose in that kind of
an employment or career. But when you

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go into let's say I'm gonna while
I go to school, I'm going to

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sell mobile phones or something that I'm
going to be the best mobile phone salesperson

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I can be, that's not purpose. So there is a contradiction there.

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They can't align that, and that
creates other issues because now they start to

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flounder because they don't understand what is
their purpose and it's certainly not this and

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unless they are able to transition into
something that provides purpose, now what happens

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is they start to have relationship issues. They may have employment issues, they'll

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have financial issues, they may self
medicate, may drink a lot, which

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creates more financial and more relationship issues, and the whole thing can just it's

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like going down a slide, and
at the end of that slide is a

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terrible, horrible crash, and sometimes
they can't see it coming because they don't

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realize that the second that they identify
what their purpose is, they can stop

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that slide. That is so incredibly
powerful. Carl, Oh my gosh,

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you just opened a whole entire world
for me in that narration and for our

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listeners, especially for me. You're
right, I do everything that I'm up

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to is about cultivating meaning and purpose
for individuals and insight organizations. And now

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I recognize how hard it must be, not just how hard, how impossible

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it must be to step down from
a place where you have you live every

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day an incredible purpose, and now
you step back into Sylvanian world and it

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must feel so empty. I that
is this is an incredible opening for me,

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Carl. I really, I really
get now more what the issue is.

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You know. One of the things
that through my entire transition journey,

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and when I look back in retrospect, I could not have designed the career

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that I have. I could not
have designed where I am today. Yeah.

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I don't want this to sound weird, but I believe that there's an

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unseen hand that's guided all of that, and my grandfather on my father's side,

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some of the stuff's still it's difficult
to talk about, even though I

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talk about it a lot. But
my grandfather on my father's side was an

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infantryman that fought in World War two
Korean Vietnam, And when my father was

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about sixteen, my grandfather was an
alcoholic and he and my dad got crosswise.

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Me through my dad out of the
house, and my dad went on

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to become a soldier. He ultimately
retired from the military as a sergeant major,

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which is the highest enlisted rank that
you can meet. But when I

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was four, he walked out of
my family and I had a two year

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old sister and my mom was pregnant, and that was early sixties nineteen sixties.

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In the late sixties, I became
one of the first kids and a

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brand new program in which stock Kansas
called Big Brothers, and I got connected

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to an attorney named Dave Adams who
drove a white convertible Corvette and he came

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and picked me up once a week
and we went and did things and had

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an interaction that show with his encouragement
that I didn't have to limit myself that

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I could become whatever I wanted to
be. So the mentoring aspect as a

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kid as a beneficiary of that was
priceless. So I didn't realize this,

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but about I'm guessing it was five
years after I had been connected with and

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had this mentor my grandfather drank himself
to death in nineteen seventy seven men Shelter

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in Denver. My father told me
years later when he and I reconnected,

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that all of my grandfather's possessions finnishye
box totally isolated by himself. I believe,

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in the things that I have learned
in the last nearly twenty years of

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helping veterans, both professionally and just
on my spare time, I believe that

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my grandfather had post traumatic stress,
probably had traumatic brain injury. The VA

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probably jerked him around. He self
medicated with alcohol, and that destroyed the

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relationship with my father. And what
example do you have? You have the

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example of your father, right.
So my father then, with the example

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that he had before, he moved
on to other things and in our life

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was extremely difficult when I was little. But if someone had been able to

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interrupt that process, if my grandfather, if someone had set him down and

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said, here's where you're going.
Here's what the anger is doing, here's

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what the alcohol is doing, and
here's a different way. Here are some

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things that can happen that can stop
this process. Then I have no idea

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what my life, what my sister's
lives, you know what it would have

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been like. It certainly would have
been different, that's for sure. But

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when I look back at that slide
that my grandfather went down from destroyed relationships

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to financial problems to alcoholism, you
know, there was anger and hurt and

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isolation in there, and ultimately maybe
they had classified as a suicideo as a

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suicide. He drank himself to death. There's so many veterans that follow that

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same path and it needs to be
interrupted. And getting purpose in there somewhere

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is a huge part of interrupting that
slide. This is exactly what I wanted

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to surface in this conversation, Carl. And let me say again a couple

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of things. Let me recognize the
path and journey you've been on. I

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really respect and admire the way that
you navigated that. And back to your

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point of you didn't want it to
sound weird, but the invisible hand of

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purpose definitely. You know, I
think that we all discover our purpose in

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some way different ways or different forms
or degrees. And yes, I think

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you are now living more of your
purpose that you're intended for, So kudos

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for that. And then secondly,
I did want to talk about the two

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things you just surface there in that
story about your grandfather. We've all,

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I think heard about the incidents of
PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder among servicemen

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and women, and what you're describing
with your grandfather certainly seems to me to

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be smack of that. Do you
know what the numbers are there or the

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precedence there is there? Well,
first, I would challenge you to drop

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the d off of that, because
if God forbid, you were assaulted and

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every time someone walked next to you
in a confined space you recoiled from that,

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would that be a disorder? No? Certainly not completely well done,

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Yes, thank you. Post Traumatic
stress is an injury, just like stranding

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a muscle as an injury, which
the good side of that means you can

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you can correct it, you can
repair it right, you can heal it,

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and which is contradictory to what a
lot of the things that the VA

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does today, they give you mechanisms
to cope, and part of that's medication.

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Part of it is techniques to help
you cope with the symptoms. We

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don't want to cope with the symptoms. We want to we want to interrupt

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that process and we want to change
it called forward. The VA says,

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and I looked this up last night
just to make sure that I had the

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right the right statistics on it.
Vietnam veterans have a fifteen percent diagnosed rate

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postmatic stress. So fifteen percent of
the and I came to tell you million

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plus Vietnam veterans out there have been
diagnosed with postmatic stress the post nine eleven

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veterans, So these are the ones
that have been war for the last eighteen

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years. Between eleven to twenty percent
in a given year, so there are

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some that may exhibit postmatic stress symptoms
one year and the next knot. So

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that's when they say in a given
year, but eleven to twenty percent Vietnam

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veterans fifteen so I think it's probably
pretty safe to say about fifteen percent of

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all veterans have some postmatic stress symptoms. Now, given that I left the

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military in nineteen ninety three, and
I made a decision to get out because

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in October of nineteen ninety two,
we had a helicopter crash that killed twelve

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of my friends. I was very
close with one of them, officer named

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ken Staus. He was the battalion
commander and I had been his human re

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source director. In the Army,
they call it an s one or an

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adjutant. I have been his adjutant
for a little over twelve months, so

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some I'm working very close with him
on a daily basis, and his death

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devastated me. And when I saw
the impact of his loss on his son

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and daughter and on his wife,
that started me relooking my priorities. His

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replacement boss came in and he and
I were not always on the same sheet

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of music. So I decided I'm
going to get out of the Army.

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So I am now the assistant Operations
Officer the first Ranger Battian, which is

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one of the most elite units in
the United States military and top secret Special

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Compartment and Information Clearance. Probably if
I just stayed in, I probably would

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have made general. A matter of
fact, of the twenty other captains that

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were there when I was there,
more than half of them became general.

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Some of them are still on active
duty today, and I removed I sell

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from that process because I had my
feelings a little hurt, but even more

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devastating the loss of my beatalon commander
and the other eleven. So I returned

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to Witchtock, Kansas, which is
where I grew up, mostly graduated from

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high school or high school and college. And I've been gone now for ten

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years. I go back into that
environment and one of the first major job

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interviews I had was with a huge, privately held oil and gas company that's

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headquartered there, and they're human resource
director looked at my resume, looked at

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me, and she said, wow, army officer, you know you guys

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are really good at following orders and
doing what you're told about. Here at

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this company, we need people that
have initiative, think outside the box,

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and don't need constant supervision. Could
not have been more insulted, and so

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I left, thinking, well,
holy crap, what have I done now?

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And how am I gonna My wife
at that time, I jokingly call

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her my starter wife. Were on
great terms. We've got two daughters that

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are wonderful people, and she had
not been to college yet. She attended

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some college, but she didn't have
a degree, so income potential is limited.

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Got two young daughters going to need
healthcare, so we're scrambling. So

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immediately there is this whow I walked
out of this job where I had the

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utmost respect admiration of both with the
people that I work for and of the

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people that I work for and with, and now I get insulted like this

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on a job interview. So Carl, hold that thought, Hold on,

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hold on that thought, thought,
I want to really develop this story from

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you, and it's so important that
we presence your own your own transition.

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Well, we've got to grab a
quick break, so hold on hold that

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thought. Okay, I'm your host, Alice Cortez. We were on the

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air with Carl Munger, who is
the founder and executive director of Gallant Few,

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Incorporated, a nonprofit helping military veterans
transition from activity to civilian lives of

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hope and purpose. He joins it
today from Trophy Club, which is just

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outside of Fort Worth here in Texas. We've been talking a bit about some

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of the issues and challenges veterans face
after a rake. We're going to hear

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more about his own transition and talk
about what his organization is up to.

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Stay with us, We'll be right
back. Elise Cortez is a speaker and

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00:18:17.079 --> 00:18:22.079
engagement and development catalyst. She designs
and delivers professional development, leadership and engagement

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00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:26.880
workshops and can bring her expertise to
your organization. She will help ignite meaningful

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00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:33.279
development within your workforce that will increase
employee engagement, performance and retention. To

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00:18:33.400 --> 00:18:37.359
learn more or to invite Elise to
speak to your organization, please visit her

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00:18:37.400 --> 00:18:41.839
at www dot Elise Cortez dot com. She would welcome the opportunity to help

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00:18:41.880 --> 00:18:53.680
get your employees working on purpose.
This is working on purpose with Elise Cortez.

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00:18:55.160 --> 00:19:00.319
To reach our program today, send
an email to Elise ali Se at

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00:19:00.319 --> 00:19:07.000
Elise Cortez dot com. Now back
to working on purpose. Thanks for staying

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with us, and we'll go back
to working on purpose. If you're just

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storing this and I guess is Karl
Monger. He's the founder and executive director

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of Gallant Few, Incorporated, a
nonprofit helping military veterans transition from active duty

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to civilian lives of hope and purpose. He is a retired US Army major

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who served in infantry and ranger assignments. He is an author, award winning

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video producer, and certified Burists functional
emotional fitness practitioner. I'm your host,

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Elice Cortez. So Carl definitely wanted
to get all of that story, and

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I so wanted to be able to
position that for our listener so they really

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understand that just the depth and breadth
of your experience. So okay, so

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you come back, you're trying to
transition back in the world. Keep continue

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where you're left off, please,
sure. So a rejection like I had

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just described, when that happens,
your self esteem, your self confidence,

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your self image, your self worth, they all take hits. And now

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I bump into another Army Ranger veteran
who says, well, gosh, you

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were a ranger. I was a
ranger, so why did you get out?

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So now I have to talk about
the crash that killed my friends,

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and I have to talk about the
boss that I didn't get along with and

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the decision that I made to get
out it all. If you can see

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how it brings up a lot of
pain, but it makes you want to

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retract so that you don't put yourself
in a situation to have that conversation with

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someone again. So now you're thinking, man, I don't I really need

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to be around other rangers because they're
like me, they think like me,

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we've had similar experiences. But gosh, I don't want to have that conversation,

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so I'm going to avoid that pain. And not only that, but

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now your self esteem is going down. So it just it can. It

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has the potential to become a snowball. And when we were talking earlier about

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that downhill slide, that's the little
snowball that starts that downhill slide. Because

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what happens next, Well, now
I go home and I'm thinking about all

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of these conversations and the rejection.
I'm going to take a shot of whiskey

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and that makes me feel a little
better. So I'm going to have another

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one. And you can see where
that goes, right, So now your

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spouse is saying why are you drinking
so much? And you're like, I

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don't want to talk about it.
So you start to become very closed off.

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That isolation is, in my opinion, the greatest threat to a veteran

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successful transition, and it really it's
just this morning on the news they had

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there's a new lawsuit against match dot
Com because they leverage the loneliness of people

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to send a fake message that says, hey, Joe is interested in you,

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and then you can only read his
message if you pay thirty dollars a

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month to subscribe to our platform,
and it was an ad. So people

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get very hungry to have those kinds
of connections, but at the same time,

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the isolation prevents them from having those
real relationships. One of the ways

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that we find that helps crack veterans
out of that is by creating situations where

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they have to come out and get
involved in something. And sometimes it's just

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challenging him. It's like, well, in your perfect world, what would

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you do well, I would be
a dog trainer. I would train service

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dogs to help veterans. Okay,
So on Saturday morning, I'm going to

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meet you over at the local Humane
Society and we're going to sign you up

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to the volunteer I'll see you there
at eight thirty in the morning. Right,

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military, I can fall back into
the officer mode. I can give

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somebody in order to come and they'll
probably come. And then once you have

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cracked through that a little bit and
they see, wow, this is nice.

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I like this now maybe you have
recreated some purpose in them because now

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they can help these animals. And
so now they go, Man, I

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got to get a job so I
can help these animals more so, now

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it's not getting a job for a
purpose, it's getting a job to help

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fuel the purpose it does. It
does, and so a couple of things

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if we can. So you're starting
to surface for me something that I heard

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from a colleague of mine when I
was telling him that I was going to

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have you on my program. He
also is a veteran, and he said,

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for him, he said, it
was the hardest thing he'd ever done

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to transition from the military into the
civilian space. And he said, for

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him, the transition happens when you
no longer feel like a soldier stuck in

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a civilian world, and you start
to feel like a civilian with a military

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background. And so I feel like
in some ways you're starting to surface that

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with what you've just said about being
able to look for ways to find meaningful,

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purposeful work now on the civilian side. Yes, there's a friend of

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mine made Mike Schlitz, who was
blown up in Iraq and lost both of

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his hands. He was burned over
ninety five percent of his body, his

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nose, his ears, his lips, eyelids, he looks side joke with

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him sometimes he looks like mister potato
Head that all the pieces fell off.

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And he talks about transition, and
he says, you never stop transitioning.

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It doesn't matter if you're military or
you're civilian. You're always transitioning. You

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transition from grade school to middle school, from middle school to high school,

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from high school to college, or
a job, you transition into a marriage.

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Your life is always transitioning. And
where where you run into a problem

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is when you allow that transition to
stop. And a lot of veterans run

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into the civilian life is hard.
So I'm going to leverage my disability rating

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from the VA. If I get
one hundred percent, I don't have work

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because they're going to pay me,
and then I can stay home beyond my

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computer. Their transition effectively stops,
and that stops. It may not be

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a physical death, but it's a
spiritual death because they don't have to go

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find purpose, They don't have to
do anything else until they become so jaded

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that by the time they realize that
those things are out there, that they're

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that they're lacking, then their life
is we have. I'm pinging around a

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little bit on this, I apologize. One of the tools that we use

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when a veteran first engages with us
is we ask them to go to asmuth

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check dot com and I'm sorry,
asma check dot org. Asma check dot

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00:25:10.599 --> 00:25:15.240
com is somebody else asmuth check dot
org and take our survey that assesses their

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level of fitness in five areas emotional
fitness, social fitness, spiritual fitness,

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professional fitness, and physical fitness.
And then from that we're able to identify

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kind of where they are on this
continuum and we can start to help and

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encourage them and work them towards things
that can help them increase their level of

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fitness. One of the questions that
we ask in spiritual fitness is, and

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it's not a question, it's a
statement. I believe life is worth living.

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One's not at all ten as a
whole bunch. Where do you fall

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00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:52.400
on that regard? If it's not
a ten, then I'm going to do

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a little simple math. I can
do ranger math. If it's in ten

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percents, that's easy. So somebody
says eight out of ten life is worth

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living and I hit them back with, so you're telling me twenty percent chance

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you'll kill yourself, And they go, oh, I hadn't really thought of

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00:26:07.480 --> 00:26:11.279
it that way, So tell me
why why twenty percent? What's what's going

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00:26:11.359 --> 00:26:14.279
on in your life? And now
they'll open up and they'll start talking about

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00:26:14.279 --> 00:26:15.079
things, well, you know,
the VA screwed me around, or I

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don't have the job that I wished
I had, or I got divorced last

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year and I can't see my kids. Okay, So so now we take

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that process into a what are the
questions that you ask yourself about that?

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Because so many of us allow our
internal thought process, and oftentimes it happens

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subconsciously. See, you don't even
really realize that it's happening, but you

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let your subconscious questions go to why
questions? Why can't I see my kids

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because you're a terrible person? Right? Why can't I have a better job

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because you spend all this time in
the military, you didn't get the education

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and experience that they value. All
these why questions that can only answered with

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because gives you a reason and an
excuse for the behavior to continue. It

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makes it okay for you to achieve
the things that you really would like to

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achieve. When we talk to veterans, we don't talk about achieving goals because

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in the military, the army doesn't
attack a goal. The army attacks an

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objective. An objective requires a plan, it requires resources, it requires a

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timeline. So tell me what is
the most important thing in your life and

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the area of love that you absolutely
must accomplish. And most people can come

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up with something. It might be
internally directed, it might be externally directed

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towards a partner, it might be
towards a kid. Whatever. Okay,

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00:27:40.680 --> 00:27:45.359
so we have a process that that's
the functional emotional fitness practitioner that you talked

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about earlier. I'm certified to any
coach veterans through this process, but I

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00:27:51.720 --> 00:27:56.039
can train other veterans to become coaches
themselves or practitioners, is how the institute

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prefers to call it. But when
we identify that absolutely must, then we

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want to know what questions are you
asking about that. If I absolutely must

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be a better husband to my wife, and my internal question is why do

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00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:14.359
I yell at her? Then you're
because answer might be well, because you

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00:28:14.400 --> 00:28:18.400
have postmatic stress or a traumatic brain
injury or or whatever. If we can

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00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:25.839
interrupt that process and combined with a
vision of what that perfect relationship with your

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00:28:25.839 --> 00:28:29.680
spouse looks like, and change that
to what do I need to do to

386
00:28:29.720 --> 00:28:34.960
be a better husband to my wife? That requires actual actionable things. Right,

387
00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:37.559
you can't you can't answer or what
do I need to do question with

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00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:42.759
because so now you have to actually
try something. And when you start trying

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00:28:42.839 --> 00:28:45.880
things, some of them work,
some of them don't, but you learn

390
00:28:45.960 --> 00:28:49.880
from the things that don't work and
try and figure out what can I use

391
00:28:49.920 --> 00:28:55.160
from this that will help me be
successful next time? When I did this

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00:28:55.400 --> 00:28:59.160
and go ahead, now, go
ahead, finish your thought, and then

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I'll ask you another question. When
I did this In my own personal life,

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my wife has an extensive travel schedule, and our relationship was becoming a

395
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little strained because she would come home
and because she knew she was leaving in

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three days again to go overseas,
she would just open her suitcase and live

397
00:29:14.559 --> 00:29:17.680
out of her suitcase in the bedroom
like she was in a hotel room.

398
00:29:17.799 --> 00:29:21.160
And now I'm tripping over stuff,
right, Or she's not washing her dishes

399
00:29:21.240 --> 00:29:26.079
because she's focused on other things around
the house, And now I've been managing

400
00:29:26.079 --> 00:29:29.920
the house for myself for a month. It's like reverse deployment rights, like

401
00:29:30.039 --> 00:29:37.720
the ultimate irony coming back on me, and I could there was some resentment

402
00:29:37.799 --> 00:29:41.200
that was starting to build there.
And when I stepped back and I said,

403
00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:44.039
what is the one thing I absolutely
must do in the area love,

404
00:29:44.880 --> 00:29:47.599
and it was become a better husband
from a wife. So what do I

405
00:29:47.640 --> 00:29:51.319
need to do? Well? I
need to not get on her case about

406
00:29:51.359 --> 00:29:55.960
these things because I want to maximize
our time together. So when when I

407
00:29:56.039 --> 00:30:03.920
started going through that process and helped
me realize that I was unintentionally starting to

408
00:30:03.960 --> 00:30:07.440
engage in behaviors that could damage our
relationship. And once I started being intentional

409
00:30:07.480 --> 00:30:11.440
about the things I wanted to do, Holy cal our relationship got three times

410
00:30:11.480 --> 00:30:15.960
better. And it's better today than
she's been almost travel scheduled now for the

411
00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:18.359
last three years, and it's better
today than it was three years ago.

412
00:30:18.799 --> 00:30:25.440
Waybacker, and those kinds of what
can be very simple techniques can help anyone,

413
00:30:25.480 --> 00:30:29.960
but especially a veteran that falls into
the why can't I have meaning and

414
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.440
purpose? Again? Why can't I
be part of something that truly has value?

415
00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:37.079
All of those because answers are going
to keep them right where they are

416
00:30:37.119 --> 00:30:40.759
and not allow them to move towards
where they really need to be. That's

417
00:30:40.799 --> 00:30:44.000
so incredibly powerful, Carl. And
with that, let's grab our last break

418
00:30:44.039 --> 00:30:45.799
and then I'll get to get a
questions. I was going to another brand.

419
00:30:47.079 --> 00:30:49.039
I know, I tell you would
evaporate. Time evaporates on this program,

420
00:30:49.119 --> 00:30:52.160
Carl. Look out, I'm your
host, Alice Cortez. We were

421
00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:56.119
down the area. Carl Monger,
who is the founder and executive director of

422
00:30:56.160 --> 00:31:00.119
Gallant Few, Incorporated, a nonprofit
helping military veterans transition from activity to civilian

423
00:31:00.200 --> 00:31:03.680
lives of hope and purpose. He
jojo today from Trophy Club, which is

424
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:07.559
right outside of for Worth. You're
in Texas. After the break, we're

425
00:31:07.559 --> 00:31:10.599
going to talk about how it is
he actually founded this organization and a few

426
00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:14.200
of the other programs that they conduct
to help veterans stay with us. We'll

427
00:31:14.200 --> 00:31:26.279
be right back. Elise Cortez is
a speaker and engagement and development catalyst.

428
00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:32.920
She designs and delivers professional development,
leadership and engagement workshops and can bring her

429
00:31:32.960 --> 00:31:37.079
expertise to your organization. She will
help ignite meaningful development within your workforce that

430
00:31:37.119 --> 00:31:41.680
will increase employee engagement, performance and
retention. To learn more, or to

431
00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:47.799
invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at www dot Elise

432
00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:52.960
Cortez dot com. She would welcome
the opportunity to help get your employees working

433
00:31:52.119 --> 00:32:04.519
on purpose. Is working on Purpose
with Elise Cortez. To reach our program

434
00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:09.799
today, send an email to Elise
ali Se at Elise Cortez dot com.

435
00:32:09.799 --> 00:32:15.759
Now back to working on Purpose.
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome

436
00:32:15.759 --> 00:32:19.400
back to working on Purpose. Thank
you. Just tune in. My guest

437
00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:22.119
is Carl Monger, the founder and
executive director of Gallant Few, Incorporated,

438
00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:27.920
a nonprofit helping military veterans transition from
active duty to civilian lives of hope and

439
00:32:28.000 --> 00:32:31.279
purpose. He is a retired US
Army major who served in infantry and ranger

440
00:32:31.279 --> 00:32:36.279
assignments. He is an author,
award winning video producer, and certified Burrough's

441
00:32:36.319 --> 00:32:40.000
Functional Emotional Fitness practitioner. I'm your
host, Elise Cortez. So yes,

442
00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:43.559
carus who are seeing before the break? This just goes so fast, and

443
00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:45.640
you have so much great information to
share and I so appreciate you being here

444
00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:50.279
and sharing it. I want to
share more about how you do your work

445
00:32:50.319 --> 00:32:52.160
and you're helping us get present to
just how it is you start to enroll

446
00:32:52.599 --> 00:32:55.640
veterans to work with you. But
before we get to anything else, I

447
00:32:55.720 --> 00:33:02.000
got to know how it was that
you actually started gallant feel So eight years

448
00:33:02.039 --> 00:33:07.640
after I left active duty, the
terrorist attacks A nine to eleven happened,

449
00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:14.440
and in October of two thousand and
one, Mile Boss, the guy that

450
00:33:15.079 --> 00:33:16.640
the intermediate boss, not the one
that I really didn't get along with,

451
00:33:16.720 --> 00:33:22.359
but but my boss below him,
was now the commander of all Rangers,

452
00:33:22.359 --> 00:33:24.599
and he led that he was the
first guy at a parachute in to Afghanistan

453
00:33:25.759 --> 00:33:31.119
to deliver a response to the terrorist
attacks. And the Ranger Regiment has had

454
00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:35.799
Rangers deployed in combat ever since,
and they are to this day. They

455
00:33:35.880 --> 00:33:40.200
did missions last night. And when
I saw that Joe Botel, who retired

456
00:33:40.279 --> 00:33:44.839
two months ago as a four star
general, when I saw that he had

457
00:33:45.079 --> 00:33:49.759
stepped into the pages of history.
I was still in the Army Reserve system,

458
00:33:49.799 --> 00:33:52.359
although I was not an active participant. I'd had back surgery and some

459
00:33:52.440 --> 00:33:59.319
other things, and my daughters were
older civilian job time. Just I wasn't

460
00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:04.119
in a position to be back in
but I had access to the email system

461
00:34:04.119 --> 00:34:07.639
because I was an inactive reservist.
So I said Joe a message that basically

462
00:34:07.679 --> 00:34:12.679
said, Joe, I'm proud of
you. I'm jealous. Please pass my

463
00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:15.760
regards and the thanks of a grateful
nation to all those that are with you.

464
00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:21.719
With that about I always says,
it's twenty four hours. He responded,

465
00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:25.360
send me an email from Afghanistan,
thanked me for my message, and

466
00:34:25.559 --> 00:34:30.840
he ended up later on inviting me
to come back to forbidding in July of

467
00:34:31.320 --> 00:34:36.199
two thousand and three when he changed
command. Ranger rendezvous every two years when

468
00:34:36.199 --> 00:34:40.719
the regiment changes command, is an
amazing event where rangers of all eras come

469
00:34:40.760 --> 00:34:45.639
back to forbidding and they watch this
tradition of the changing of the commanders.

470
00:34:46.400 --> 00:34:52.280
And I went, but I didn't
want to go because these guys had now

471
00:34:52.320 --> 00:34:54.320
gone into the pages of history.
And I'm the guy that left because my

472
00:34:54.360 --> 00:35:00.199
feelings got hurt and struggled through my
own job transition. And there's more that

473
00:35:00.119 --> 00:35:02.039
that we do not have time to
get in today. But I will tell

474
00:35:02.079 --> 00:35:07.000
you that one Army veteran that was
out there, he reached out to me

475
00:35:07.079 --> 00:35:10.280
and he helped me through my transition
because he took a chance gave me a

476
00:35:10.400 --> 00:35:14.960
job in an industry with a skill
set that I had zero experience in.

477
00:35:15.800 --> 00:35:20.159
And when I resist at that,
he said, you know, you've demonstrated

478
00:35:20.199 --> 00:35:22.280
the military that you have discipline,
integrity, and the ability to learn,

479
00:35:22.880 --> 00:35:27.320
and if you decide you want to
be successful at this, you will and

480
00:35:27.360 --> 00:35:30.239
I will make sure that happens.
So I went into the construction equipment industry

481
00:35:30.360 --> 00:35:35.559
and most of my well, now
I can't say most of my post military

482
00:35:35.559 --> 00:35:37.840
time because now almost most of it
is doing what I'm doing now, but

483
00:35:37.960 --> 00:35:43.599
a lot of my post military time
will spend the construction world. So I

484
00:35:43.679 --> 00:35:46.760
go back to forebanging and I walk
up to the back. There's big bleacher,

485
00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:51.239
grandstance. There's probably a thousand people
there. The unit is assembled on

486
00:35:51.280 --> 00:35:54.199
the field and I'm just looking for
a place in the back where no one

487
00:35:54.239 --> 00:35:59.559
will notice that I'm there. And
a young ranger with a clipboard says,

488
00:35:59.559 --> 00:36:01.400
sir, what is your name?
I told him my name, and he

489
00:36:01.440 --> 00:36:07.800
said, follow me because I was
on the list. He took me up

490
00:36:07.239 --> 00:36:12.599
to the front row where they had
reserved a seat for me next to all

491
00:36:12.599 --> 00:36:17.480
the local dignitaries, the mayor and
the It was an incredible honor that I

492
00:36:17.519 --> 00:36:22.159
really felt like I didn't deserve.
And then afterwards Joe came right up to

493
00:36:22.199 --> 00:36:24.000
him and give me a big hug
and thanked me for coming. And as

494
00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:29.280
we talked, he encouraged me to
talk to the other rangers and find out

495
00:36:29.280 --> 00:36:32.119
their experiences. And as I did
that, if they came, apparent to

496
00:36:32.159 --> 00:36:39.880
me that the things that they were
dealing with, we're moving them down the

497
00:36:39.920 --> 00:36:45.559
same path that my grandfather had gone
down. And I apologize, I'm a

498
00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:50.559
little emotional about this. It's beautiful. No need to apologize. It's beautiful.

499
00:36:51.679 --> 00:36:57.719
The men and women that do the
hardest work, the heaviest lifting and

500
00:36:57.800 --> 00:37:04.119
protecting our country, they internalize all
of their issues. They don't ask for

501
00:37:04.159 --> 00:37:06.639
help. A matter of fact,
if they ask for help, they have

502
00:37:06.679 --> 00:37:09.199
a perception they're going to be perceived
as a week and they might not be

503
00:37:09.239 --> 00:37:13.320
allowed to stay in the unit.
If a ranger complains of having a back

504
00:37:13.360 --> 00:37:16.119
injury, his supervisor's got a question
whether or not he can carry that one

505
00:37:16.400 --> 00:37:20.199
and twenty pound ruck stack for twenty
miles or jump out of an airplane in

506
00:37:20.199 --> 00:37:23.880
the middle of the night. So
they don't talk about it, and that

507
00:37:23.960 --> 00:37:28.119
means they can't go to the medical
clinic and get pain meds, which means

508
00:37:28.519 --> 00:37:31.480
they drink, which means they put
up with those injuries. And then when

509
00:37:31.480 --> 00:37:36.519
they get out of the military,
there is zero documentation in their medical records

510
00:37:36.559 --> 00:37:37.599
and they go to the VA and
they say, Doc, my back is

511
00:37:37.639 --> 00:37:42.280
jacked up six ways from Sunday,
And the doc looks through the file and

512
00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:44.880
says, well, wow, you
must have done that last weekend because there's

513
00:37:44.920 --> 00:37:51.760
nothing in your medical record. So
denied. So as I came back because

514
00:37:51.760 --> 00:37:54.679
of my own experience now going through
the VA process, I knew these things.

515
00:37:54.760 --> 00:37:58.800
I knew that their tendency was going
to be isolated. I knew that

516
00:37:58.840 --> 00:38:01.719
they would not want to talk if
they left the military because of the death,

517
00:38:02.119 --> 00:38:06.880
because they felt like they were a
failure, because they were injured or

518
00:38:06.880 --> 00:38:10.079
they got a DUI. They would
not seek out their brothers and sisters.

519
00:38:10.119 --> 00:38:15.199
And there's women now. When I
went to the last ranger rendezvous just two

520
00:38:15.239 --> 00:38:19.800
months ago at four Benning, Georgia, the regiment personnel officers a female captain.

521
00:38:20.280 --> 00:38:23.400
First time in history this has ever
happened. And there are men and

522
00:38:23.519 --> 00:38:27.559
women now that are doing this stuff. And when they go back to their

523
00:38:27.599 --> 00:38:35.159
communities, they's I don't even I
can't adequately articulate the challenges that are in

524
00:38:35.159 --> 00:38:38.079
front of them, because not only
are they trying to rediscover purpose, but

525
00:38:38.119 --> 00:38:42.039
now they're trying to deal with the
injuries that they have, some of which

526
00:38:42.039 --> 00:38:45.239
are emotional injuries. Because you don't
talk to a shrink when you're in the

527
00:38:45.280 --> 00:38:49.239
military either, because somebody will think
you're not going to be effective when you're

528
00:38:49.239 --> 00:38:55.400
on a mission. So there's this
this very hard veneer that is around them.

529
00:38:55.480 --> 00:38:59.880
And the way that we break through
that now is when I talked to

530
00:39:00.119 --> 00:39:02.880
I'm very effective with Army rangers because
I am one an infantryman, an airborne

531
00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:07.760
trooper, because I can say,
you know what, I don't want to

532
00:39:07.800 --> 00:39:13.400
hear anything about you. I'm gonna
take thirty seconds. I'm on a list

533
00:39:13.440 --> 00:39:15.920
off six things, and you tell
me how many of them apply to you.

534
00:39:16.519 --> 00:39:19.920
Number One, you don't feel like
you can tell your story to anyone.

535
00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:22.400
Number Two, you're embarrassed because of
how you left the military. You

536
00:39:22.480 --> 00:39:25.880
probably have some survivor's guilt to regret
their Number Three, you're drinking way more

537
00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:31.039
than you want to admit to anyone. You're having trouble sleeping at night.

538
00:39:31.119 --> 00:39:35.079
You can't get a job that makes
you feel like you're worth a crap and

539
00:39:35.159 --> 00:39:39.639
you don't know what your purpose is. And I had a Ranger staff sergeant

540
00:39:39.639 --> 00:39:45.159
who was a squad leader who had
I think eight combat deployments and someone had

541
00:39:45.159 --> 00:39:47.440
referred him to me. And when
I got on the phone winning I'm like,

542
00:39:47.559 --> 00:39:51.000
so you're Sergeant Smith, right,
and he's like, yes, so

543
00:39:51.119 --> 00:39:53.159
you were at the rangers. Yes, I heard you had a bunch of

544
00:39:53.159 --> 00:39:57.679
deployments. Yes, it was just
you know, he was not going to

545
00:39:57.760 --> 00:39:59.880
open up. And I said,
okay, so let me let me run

546
00:39:59.880 --> 00:40:02.920
dow on this. And so I
listed those six things and I said,

547
00:40:02.960 --> 00:40:07.440
does any of those sound familiar to
you? And he goes, holy crap,

548
00:40:07.480 --> 00:40:12.360
every single one of those. He
says, you see this a lot.

549
00:40:12.440 --> 00:40:15.559
And I said, every veteran that
I talked to has at least two,

550
00:40:15.639 --> 00:40:21.039
if not all, of these things. And he says, you mean

551
00:40:21.400 --> 00:40:30.320
I'm not weird? Yeah, And
I said hope. And this staff sergeant,

552
00:40:30.360 --> 00:40:32.559
who's harder than nails can take on
any challenge in the world, broke

553
00:40:32.599 --> 00:40:38.480
down in tears. That starts the
healing process. And then because now he's

554
00:40:38.760 --> 00:40:42.559
now I think's military much Okay,
so now I know the deal. What

555
00:40:42.599 --> 00:40:45.920
do I need to do? Now
we can start going down a path.

556
00:40:45.079 --> 00:40:49.440
Path that says, you know,
let's let's evaluate where you are on this

557
00:40:49.519 --> 00:40:53.079
continuum with our asthmath check survey.
Let's look for areas in there that one

558
00:40:53.079 --> 00:40:55.639
of the questions we ask, it's
a little bit tricky, but it says,

559
00:40:55.639 --> 00:40:59.760
the only place I go for fund
or bars? Is that not a

560
00:40:59.800 --> 00:41:01.239
lot like you? Or is that
a lot like you? So if you

561
00:41:01.280 --> 00:41:06.119
tell me the only place you're going
on our bars, then let's talk about

562
00:41:06.320 --> 00:41:10.199
other potential resources in your community.
Maybe it's a chamber of commerce, it's

563
00:41:10.239 --> 00:41:15.760
a rotary, clubs, whatever,
there are places as you can meet people

564
00:41:15.119 --> 00:41:19.320
that are good, people that are
that are it's not revolving around a bar

565
00:41:19.360 --> 00:41:22.199
scene. So that's a huge that's
a huge piece of it. And that's

566
00:41:22.199 --> 00:41:27.519
why our rock climbing sessions come in. Yes, Yes, because when we

567
00:41:27.599 --> 00:41:34.000
have we now have four communities around
the country that are doing indoor rock climbing

568
00:41:34.039 --> 00:41:37.400
programs. Grape Fine, Texas,
which is right next to dallaspol Worth Airport,

569
00:41:37.400 --> 00:41:40.239
Welmington, North Carolina, Raleigh,
North Carolina, at Columbus, Georgia,

570
00:41:40.400 --> 00:41:44.400
and we allow veterans to bring family
members to it, but one here

571
00:41:45.320 --> 00:41:47.880
is funded by a grant. This
we just applied for the sixth year of

572
00:41:47.880 --> 00:41:52.960
the grant through the metroport Rotary Club. They have granted us over three thousand

573
00:41:53.000 --> 00:41:57.679
dollars a year to pay for a
membership at this rock climbing jump. And

574
00:41:57.760 --> 00:42:00.679
when a veteran comes, they get
their hard us, their shoes, their

575
00:42:00.760 --> 00:42:07.039
chalk bag for free. And I
had one young veteran named Nate whose severe

576
00:42:07.039 --> 00:42:12.000
postmatic stress, very low self esteem, self confidence. He couldn't even call

577
00:42:12.039 --> 00:42:14.880
and ask if he'd become. His
wife called and asked if he could come,

578
00:42:15.559 --> 00:42:16.920
and so I was watching for him. I knew about the time he'd

579
00:42:16.920 --> 00:42:21.599
come because I knew when he looked
at the noise and the activity in the

580
00:42:21.639 --> 00:42:23.840
gem, he would probably get spooked
and leave. So I look over at

581
00:42:23.840 --> 00:42:28.079
the door. I see this guy
come in. It's kind of scraggly beard.

582
00:42:28.199 --> 00:42:32.079
He's wearing an old Unit T shirt
with the shoulders ripped off, and

583
00:42:32.679 --> 00:42:37.519
he's got on cut off camouflage fatigue
pants. And he looked at the gem,

584
00:42:37.559 --> 00:42:39.400
turn around, started to go back
out, and I yelled out,

585
00:42:39.440 --> 00:42:42.199
hey, are you Nate? And
he turned around looked at me. He

586
00:42:42.199 --> 00:42:44.800
said, yes I am. And
I said Step one, go over here,

587
00:42:44.880 --> 00:42:46.239
do the safety waiver. Step two, get your gears, she tell

588
00:42:46.280 --> 00:42:50.199
you. Step three go over here, they'll give you your safety briefing.

589
00:42:50.239 --> 00:42:52.320
Step four, come find me.
So I put him right into military mood.

590
00:42:52.880 --> 00:42:55.320
And so he went through all those
things and he came and found me,

591
00:42:55.880 --> 00:42:59.280
and I said, okay, good, you're up. So I put

592
00:42:59.400 --> 00:43:01.880
him on a freezy wall. Took
him a long time. He struggled climbing

593
00:43:01.880 --> 00:43:06.360
the wall, got to the top. Finally there's a group of veterans down

594
00:43:06.360 --> 00:43:10.159
below. They're a cheering nate on. That is important because once the last

595
00:43:10.159 --> 00:43:14.880
time somebody cheered for you. You
know, if you run a ten k,

596
00:43:15.079 --> 00:43:17.840
maybe once a year, there's people
cheering when you come through the tunnel

597
00:43:17.840 --> 00:43:22.679
at the end. Once the last
time somebody really really knew you had cheered

598
00:43:22.679 --> 00:43:25.000
you on. So that happens in
the military all the time. So now

599
00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.599
they're doing this, So I lower
him down. What he's done. He

600
00:43:29.679 --> 00:43:32.239
sinks to his knees, covers his
face with his hands, and he's in

601
00:43:32.280 --> 00:43:36.800
tears for about thirty seconds, and
he looks up and he apologizes and he

602
00:43:36.800 --> 00:43:39.320
says, you know, that's the
first time in the last three years that

603
00:43:39.440 --> 00:43:45.239
my mind was clear because I could
only think about climbing that wall. And

604
00:43:45.840 --> 00:43:49.119
I said, that's great. My
end clipped. I handed my end to

605
00:43:49.239 --> 00:43:51.280
him. I took his end and
I said, now you belie me.

606
00:43:55.960 --> 00:44:00.320
And Nate said, you want me
to belie you? And I said,

607
00:44:00.360 --> 00:44:01.199
yeah, you went through the training, right And he said yes. And

608
00:44:01.239 --> 00:44:04.840
I said you pass and he said
yes, And I said, then I

609
00:44:04.920 --> 00:44:08.280
trust you. Let's go. And
a year and a half later he told

610
00:44:08.280 --> 00:44:13.599
me that was a defining moment in
his life because no one had trusted with

611
00:44:13.679 --> 00:44:16.719
him with anything valuable since he left
the military. And here I was,

612
00:44:16.800 --> 00:44:19.840
because I was a veteran. I'm
like, I trust you, let's go.

613
00:44:20.760 --> 00:44:23.320
It enabled him ultimately, and there
are some other things. We're not

614
00:44:23.360 --> 00:44:28.840
the only one stop shop to fix
this stuff. But now he's and rolled

615
00:44:28.840 --> 00:44:31.360
back in school, he's working on
his degree. He has a future that

616
00:44:31.480 --> 00:44:36.599
is significantly brighter than it was before
we started coming to rock climbing. We

617
00:44:36.719 --> 00:44:40.039
leveraged that program and a couple of
times a year we take veterans on weekend

618
00:44:40.039 --> 00:44:45.719
therapy sessions where we bring in the
Burist functional emotional fitness stuff. We talk

619
00:44:45.760 --> 00:44:50.760
about it in between the rock climbing
stuff. And this last weekend I took

620
00:44:50.920 --> 00:44:52.880
a group I think we had eight. We went to Pilot Mountain, North

621
00:44:52.880 --> 00:44:58.679
Carolina and we did some extremely difficult
and technical rock climbing and we had a

622
00:44:58.679 --> 00:45:02.199
great session with him. Oh my
gosh, Carl, this is so so

623
00:45:02.199 --> 00:45:07.119
so important work. I'm dripping and
hanging on every word that you're saying.

624
00:45:07.480 --> 00:45:09.239
And we just left because yeah,
we've got a couple of things. I

625
00:45:09.320 --> 00:45:13.400
got it. Yeah, Yeah,
We've got just a couple of minutes here

626
00:45:13.440 --> 00:45:15.679
that are left. So what in
about two minutes? What what did you

627
00:45:15.719 --> 00:45:20.880
want to say? Yeah? So
first coming up the end of October October

628
00:45:20.920 --> 00:45:23.480
twenty five, twenty six, twenty
seven, we have that expo that's at

629
00:45:23.519 --> 00:45:28.079
Sentiment Creek Ranch in Fort Worth,
Texas. You can go to viet xpo

630
00:45:28.199 --> 00:45:31.679
dot com to learn more. Simon
Senek is coming in Friday night to speak

631
00:45:31.760 --> 00:45:37.320
to our barbecue banquet. Simon is
world renowned and the work that he does

632
00:45:37.360 --> 00:45:43.280
on hope and purpose, and he
is coming for free because he believes in

633
00:45:43.320 --> 00:45:45.719
what we do and he wants to
help us grow our mission. That's a

634
00:45:45.920 --> 00:45:49.960
Saturday, Well, we have some
We have five veterans that are business owners

635
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:53.360
and successful in other areas that are
going to come talk about their own transitions.

636
00:45:53.920 --> 00:45:57.840
And then Sunday morning we have a
kickball tournament, some family activities.

637
00:45:57.840 --> 00:46:00.199
They'll be real fun. So ve
et xpo dot com if you want to

638
00:46:00.280 --> 00:46:06.280
learn more about my journey and what
we do. Common Sense Transition is a

639
00:46:06.280 --> 00:46:08.519
book that I wrote almost two years
ago. It's available on Amazon both in

640
00:46:08.639 --> 00:46:14.039
kendall and print version, but it
lays out my story in detail, as

641
00:46:14.079 --> 00:46:16.280
well as some of the veterans that
I work with. The last thing that

642
00:46:16.280 --> 00:46:21.119
I want to mention, unless you
have any other questions, is I talked

643
00:46:21.280 --> 00:46:27.000
earlier about my dad leaving when I
was four. Now anything is possible because

644
00:46:27.280 --> 00:46:31.519
my stepdad, who adopted me.
My birth name was voter adopted names Monger.

645
00:46:32.679 --> 00:46:37.719
Seven years ago, my stepdad passed
away the adopted who's now legally my

646
00:46:37.760 --> 00:46:45.719
real dad. Earlier this year,
my biological father and my mother reconnected and

647
00:46:46.199 --> 00:46:53.039
in August they got remarried. After
being a part I think they were together

648
00:46:53.199 --> 00:46:58.400
for I want to say eight years, and then they were divorced for fifty

649
00:46:58.400 --> 00:47:02.840
three years and they're back together.
Anything is possible. Forgiveness is possible,

650
00:47:02.880 --> 00:47:07.760
Growth is possible, Overcoming the crap
that happens in your life is possible.

651
00:47:07.239 --> 00:47:12.840
And the biggest lesson that we have
through our functional emotional fitness coaching is what

652
00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:16.760
happened to you yesterday, last year, when you were a kid. That

653
00:47:16.760 --> 00:47:22.000
doesn't matter what you make and form
in terms of a decision in the next

654
00:47:22.039 --> 00:47:25.239
second, the next minute, the
next hour is totally under your control.

655
00:47:25.639 --> 00:47:30.800
You'll have to let anything that's ever
happened to you dictate that decision. And

656
00:47:30.920 --> 00:47:35.039
too often we allow the excuses and
reasons for what brought us to where we

657
00:47:35.039 --> 00:47:38.320
are today to dictate the next thing
that happens. I completely applaud that,

658
00:47:38.360 --> 00:47:42.199
and it doesn't ligne with my work
in logotherapy as well, and that is

659
00:47:42.199 --> 00:47:45.239
how the attitudinal stands we take in
any one situation is under our control and

660
00:47:45.320 --> 00:47:50.400
is our freedom and our responsibility.
Completely applaud that. Carl. Thank you

661
00:47:50.440 --> 00:47:52.639
so much for being a guest on
working on a Purpose. You are a

662
00:47:52.639 --> 00:47:57.199
tremendous contribution. Thank you. Any
veterans out there go to asthmuth check dot

663
00:47:57.280 --> 00:48:00.800
org and you'll get in our system. So if you want to learn more

664
00:48:00.800 --> 00:48:02.440
about calm Monger and the work he
and his team are doing at Gallant Few.

665
00:48:02.519 --> 00:48:07.960
Go to the website it's gallant few
dot org. Last week, if

666
00:48:07.960 --> 00:48:09.559
you missed the live shore, you
can always catch a v recorded podcast.

667
00:48:09.639 --> 00:48:14.519
We were on the earth Rachel Stewart, who is the author of Unqualified Success,

668
00:48:14.519 --> 00:48:16.039
bridging the gap between where you are
now and where you want to be

669
00:48:16.119 --> 00:48:20.559
to achieve massive success. We talked
about her book and she gave some key

670
00:48:20.599 --> 00:48:23.239
takeaways you can immediately put to use. See you next week for another nurturing

671
00:48:23.280 --> 00:48:27.280
and inspiring conversation. And remember works
at least one third of our lives,

672
00:48:27.320 --> 00:48:36.480
So let's work on purpose. We
hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be

673
00:48:36.639 --> 00:48:40.199
sure to tune in to Working on
Purpose, featuring your host Alice Cortez,

674
00:48:40.480 --> 00:48:45.599
each week on the Voice America Empowerment
Channel. This week, find your life's

675
00:48:45.599 --> 00:48:47.039
purpose at work