[SPEAKER_04]: This is Jocobodcast number 513, with echo Charles and me, Jocobodiling, a good evening, a good evening.

[SPEAKER_04]: One day, before Travis was set to head back out with the Marines to serve an Iraq, he went with his friends to a football game to watch his favorite team, the Philadelphia Eagles play, and create fun memories.

[SPEAKER_04]: The Eagles won, and Travis and his friends were pumped.

[SPEAKER_04]: but they were also sad because you would soon be leaving the country.

[SPEAKER_04]: One of them jokingly grabbed Travis.

[SPEAKER_04]: How about we keep you from going back to Iraq so you can stay here and have fun with all of us instead.

[SPEAKER_04]: Travis knew his friend was just kidding around and wanted him to stay in Philadelphia where it was safe.

[SPEAKER_04]: But Travis also knew that he had to face the dangers of war because protecting America's freedom was the most important thing he believed he could do to help his country.

[SPEAKER_04]: Travis became very serious.

[SPEAKER_04]: He knew that staying behind would leave his team without his experience.

[SPEAKER_04]: And if another Marine replaced him, that Marine might not have the same level of training that he had.

[SPEAKER_04]: Travis took his duty very seriously.

[SPEAKER_04]: He turned to his friend and said five simple words.

[SPEAKER_04]: If not me, then who?

[SPEAKER_04]: And that right there is an excerpt from a new book, a kid's book, and the book is called Things My Brother Used to Say, and it is written by Travis's sister, Ryan Man, Ryan Manian, and the book shares the wisdom of Travis Manian who was a wrestler, a graduate from the Naval Academy, a Marine Corps officer, a recipient of the Silver Star, a man who sacrifices life, [SPEAKER_04]: And the author, Ryan Manion, as I said, it's Travis Manion's sister.

[SPEAKER_04]: She is also the daughter of Marine Corps Colonel Tom Manion, who is on this podcast many years ago, episode number 72, and we discussed the book that he wrote, which was entitled Brothers Forever.

[SPEAKER_04]: And it was about his son Travis and his son's best friend, Brendan Looney.

[SPEAKER_04]: Another individual from the Naval Academy who is a seal, who's also killed in combat.

[SPEAKER_04]: And Ryan has also been on this podcast before episode number 211, and we discussed her first book, which is called The Knock at the Door.

[SPEAKER_04]: And so if you haven't listened to podcast 72 and you haven't listened to podcast 201, go listen to them to kind of hear the full backstory of Travis here about the hero that he was, [SPEAKER_04]: Such an amazing, an immense impact on the people around him and Ryan has carried on that impact and That's not only with her books, but she has a podcast called the Resilient Life podcast and Of course And perhaps most impactful issues the CEO of an organization called the Travis Manion Foundation [SPEAKER_04]: which has the goal of empowering veterans and families of fallen heroes to develop character in future generations.

[SPEAKER_04]: And it is an honor to have Ryan with us once again here tonight to discuss this new book, this new kids book.

[SPEAKER_04]: a kids book that I learned a lot from.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's called Things.

[SPEAKER_04]: My brother used to say and she can help explain how we can all continue to follow Travis Manions incredible lead Ryan.

[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks for joining us once again.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for having me.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's great to see you and you know we're going to get into this book.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm sure a lot of kids are going to get into this book and I bet a lot of parents are going to learn a lot from this book as well.

[SPEAKER_04]: Let's talk a little bit just to introduce the Travis Manion Foundation.

[SPEAKER_04]: What, tell us about when it started and where it's at right now.

[SPEAKER_01]: So the foundation started really after, right after Travis was killed, um, you know, that was 2007 and there was no go-fun to me back then or anything and in the newspaper and Travis is a bituary, um, you know, we had put in lieu of flowers, uh, please donate to the first Lieutenant Travis Minion Memorial Fund and my parents' friends had set up a bank account at a [SPEAKER_01]: and a couple weeks after his funeral, we had $700,000 in this bank account and we were like, oh crap, what are we doing with this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Travis wasn't married, he had no children and so [SPEAKER_01]: Really at first we were like, okay, well, what's the natural thing to do?

[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to support initiatives at his high school and at his college.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we did some stuff at the Naval Academy.

[SPEAKER_01]: We did some stuff at LaSalle College High School, outside of Philadelphia, where he went to high school and then it was really my mom.

[SPEAKER_01]: She was like, you know, I want to become a foundation.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to do stuff and my dad and I, I always say because people all the time [SPEAKER_01]: what you've done, what you've created, and we are very quick to say, we created nothing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like we looked at this, I remember it was actually in, I believe it might have been in San Diego.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was at a Marine Corps ball that we went to the year after Travis died.

[SPEAKER_01]: We went with his recon unit, they had invited us, and my dad was sitting out on the deck.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was smoking a cigar.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was after the Marine Corps ball.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he's like, you know, I think we should let your mom run with this.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is a really good way for her to put her energy into something.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we saw it this as this great way for her to channel her grief.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we thought it would operate locally in Philadelphia.

[SPEAKER_01]: She'd give out scholarships and I'll tell you what, you know, there was this moment where all the sudden we kind of looked at each other.

[SPEAKER_01]: maybe 18 months, 24 months down the line and we were like, oh shit, she's like, she's really doing something here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm always very quick to say, like, I jumped on the bandwagon.

[SPEAKER_01]: I waited until there was like proof of concept and then I was like, I want to be a part of this, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: So we opened our second office here in San Diego.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were located in Philadelphia, [SPEAKER_01]: and I joined the foundation and I was working underneath my mom.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I was just like her protege, I was following her around and it was so awesome to see my mom as a military spouse who never had a career herself because we moved so many times.

[SPEAKER_01]: So she just showed up and she was a teacher's aid or she worked at the [SPEAKER_01]: Dennis' office as a receptionist, she did whatever she could just to find something wherever we were living and to see all of a sudden her have this like incredible business acumen and I'm like she's running stuff like this is incredible and [SPEAKER_01]: I only worked with her briefly, just a little over a year before she was diagnosed with cancer.

[SPEAKER_01]: And she died eight months after the day she was diagnosed with stage four cancer.

[SPEAKER_01]: And two weeks later, our board of directors held a emergency board meeting and they said, Ryan, you're in charge.

[SPEAKER_01]: And [SPEAKER_01]: it was probably the scariest moment of my life because I had no idea what I was doing because really I was just kind of my mom's task rabbit.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I can get that done, I can do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And now I felt like I had these [SPEAKER_01]: incredible shoes I had to fill.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was this organization named after my brother that my mom had founded and had gotten at that point like people were talking about us like in the VSO space you knew of the Travis Manning Foundation.

[SPEAKER_01]: So there was a lot of pressure and a lot of times people will say well like how did you take TMF from where it was.

[SPEAKER_01]: after your mom passed to where it is today.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I got some really great advice.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it came from Alex Gorsky, who serves as our vice chair at the Travis Manning Foundation.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's a West Point grad.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was the chairman and CEO of Johnson and Johnson.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember having a conversation with him and I said, I don't know what I'm doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said to me, hire smart people then.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what I did.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I went out, and I found the smartest people I could find, that knew how to do this, and that's how the Travis Man Foundation grew.

[SPEAKER_01]: And here we are today, we are one of the largest veteran service organizations in the country, with over 300,000 members of veterans and families of the fallen, and, you know, for us, our work is very different than a traditional VSO.

[SPEAKER_01]: Our model is flipped, we cannot function as an organization if we don't have veterans leading our programs.

[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a very different model than you see in other veteran service organizations across the country.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's interesting, so a lot of times people ask me questions about like, oh, they got a problem with one of their leaders or they got a problem with one of their students or they got a problem with one of their team members, and I always say that for me, [SPEAKER_04]: Leadership itself is a really good tool for leadership.

[SPEAKER_04]: In other words, if I've got problems with you Ryan like you're you're you're you're you're not stepping up and making things happen.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'll put you in charge of something where you will Step up and make things happen or you're gonna learn and you're gonna learn a lot while you're doing that and so that's Kind of the model that you guys have which is Taking veterans and saying hey, we we need you to lead [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, talk me through some of the because you really have like an area that's focused on kids and then an area that's focused on adults [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, so the work we do with youth is it's funny, because it's kind of secondary to originally to what our mission was.

[SPEAKER_01]: But when my mom put our 501C3 paperwork in, it was this blanket mission.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it said, the Travis Manning Foundation's mission is to provide support and resources to our nation's returning veterans and families of the fallen and to also play a part in helping to create the next generation of leaders.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, how the heck are you going to do that?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, mom, that is way too broad.

[SPEAKER_01]: We got to focus down and she would, and when I would say, okay, how are you going to help create the next generation of leaders?

[SPEAKER_01]: She didn't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, she actually did not know how we were going to do that or how she wanted to do that.

[SPEAKER_01]: But she kept talking about [SPEAKER_01]: who Travis was as an individual and the mentorship that he had along the way and it was great coaches, it was great teachers, it was great parents and and she said this is really important and we're going to figure it out and we did and we did that by creating a program [SPEAKER_01]: that over a million youth have gone through where we're teaching kids about character, about how to live lives of character.

[SPEAKER_01]: They listen, a million kids have seen your face, Jocca, talking about leadership because you're in the video that we show to these kids, but it's an entire curriculum built on this idea of you need a live life of character.

[SPEAKER_01]: You need to understand regardless of whether you join the military or not, how you become a servant leader in your own backyard, in your own community.

[SPEAKER_01]: And who better to teach these principles than our nation's veterans who have taken off the uniform, but still have a desire to serve?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, it's two parts, but it's one, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's all one mission at this point.

[SPEAKER_04]: Explain to me or explain to the people if I've got a school, I've got a kid and want to get my kids into this program, how does that work?

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, I mean, we're, we're regionally set up across the country.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have over 70 chapters.

[SPEAKER_01]: You contact us.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I will say, this is my call-out right now, our biggest issue as an organization is we can't fulfill the number of schools, sports teams, youth groups that want to bring this program.

[SPEAKER_01]: We need more veterans.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're a veteran out there listening, join our mission and become a character as a matter mentor, like activate in your community.

[SPEAKER_01]: But that's how you do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You get in touch with us and we work with you to set it up.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then if my kids or how does it end or school?

[SPEAKER_04]: Like, is it okay?

[SPEAKER_04]: There's videos, there's curriculum, is it books?

[SPEAKER_04]: Is it like work books?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a caveat of different things.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we have schools that do, you know, 12 week, 12 week courses with cohorts of veterans, where they're meeting once a week after school.

[SPEAKER_01]: Every all the way down to the most kind of basic is a veteran comes in and gives like a student wide assembly and and everything in between the other thing that we do and which has been an offset of this program which is so cool is that we now have.

[SPEAKER_01]: over 50 student-led clubs.

[SPEAKER_01]: So these kids are 50 Travis Manion Foundation service clubs across the country.

[SPEAKER_01]: So if you're a kid that like, and we have, and she's sitting right here, she's the one that works with all these kids across the country and gives them the resources and the toolbox.

[SPEAKER_01]: But it's not like, oh, go do a service club.

[SPEAKER_01]: You want to do a service club with us?

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the guidebook.

[SPEAKER_01]: Here's our expectations of what we need you to accomplish.

[SPEAKER_01]: to be a Travis Manning Foundation service club, but seeing the kids get back out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: That is awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then you guys do a bunch of events, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: A lot of running events.

[SPEAKER_04]: So you have what?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, well, we have the jogging for Frogman.

[SPEAKER_01]: I know you've come to that for us.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we have the jogging for Frogman race series.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then we have our 9-11 Heroes Run race series.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so we just closed out the 9-11 Heroes Run race series.

[SPEAKER_01]: We had over 100 events worldwide, over 60,000 participants.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was at our last one, which was last Sunday in Doyle's Town Pennsylvania, where it all began.

[SPEAKER_01]: And there were 3,000 people out there.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was just like, it was incredible, you know?

[SPEAKER_04]: They do jogging for frogmen in other places besides San Diego.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I think we have, yeah, I know we have Virginia Beach.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think we have like, [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe close to 10 locations, and then we do a virtual extortion run with that too.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Those are really good events.

[SPEAKER_04]: Like you mentioned, I've been to those quite a few times.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's really good to see the community come out.

[SPEAKER_04]: And it's not like some big pressure situation where, you know, it's just everyone in the community that's out there having a good time.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and that's what I always say.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like our race series.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're not, it's not about the run, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like galvanizing communities to come together.

[SPEAKER_01]: right so that's you know people will be like why don't run I'm like then come out and stand on the sidewalk you know and cheer for the runners that are going by like it's not about the run or the race nothing drives me crazyer than when you get these like you know these five k pros and they come out and they're like this this lonely log just three point you know not three point zero nine and I'm like dude that's not the point you're missing the whole point of what we're trying to do here [SPEAKER_04]: Now, is your favorite event of the year the Army Navy tailgate?

[SPEAKER_04]: It is far and away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Far and out even close.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not even close.

[SPEAKER_04]: So you guys do this massive, so in America, we have the Army Navy Game West Point against the Naval Academy.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's a huge deal to each tradition.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's epic.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'd never been to one until I was I was actually wondering was the first one you came to with us Yeah, that was the first hole.

[SPEAKER_04]: I ever went to yeah, so it was very cool to see it up close and personal And I had a friend of mine who was a quarterback He was in the seal teams with me and his name was all me grids are then he he got killed and But so I kind of hurt you know, I heard about it, but man it was awesome to go out to you see It's got to be [SPEAKER_04]: It's got to be like the epicenter of American patriotism.

[SPEAKER_01]: It is.

[SPEAKER_04]: Ever.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, do you remember the first game, the first Army Navy game, because you've now been to a few?

[SPEAKER_01]: No.

[SPEAKER_01]: We were walking around Philadelphia afterwards.

[SPEAKER_01]: And...

[SPEAKER_01]: you know, it's all the midshipmen and cadets and everyone's out there and you couldn't walk.

[SPEAKER_01]: You could not walk six inches without getting stopped like it was wild and we're just trying to get to a place to get like a burger and we end up back at the hotel because we're like, there's nowhere to go like this is not going to this is not going to work but like it is that's what I would say like the feeling of patriotism you have [SPEAKER_01]: when you're at this event, there's nothing like it, nothing like it.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, it's crazy because I've spoken at the Naval Academy and I've spoken at West Point.

[SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, I hear from people at the West Point at people at West Point in the Naval Academy all the time.

[SPEAKER_04]: So when I go out there and see all these cadets and midship and it's nuts, it's epic, it's awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: And so you guys do a tailgate where the TMF does a tailgate party.

[SPEAKER_04]: Is that the main party that exists there besides like individual human beings having parties?

[SPEAKER_01]: There's other tailgates, but none of them compared to what we do.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm going to tell you the backstory on this tailgate, which is interesting.

[SPEAKER_01]: So this tailgate started when my brother was a midshipman at the Naval Academy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And [SPEAKER_01]: My dad would do a tailgate with Alex Gorsky, our vice chairman of TMF West Point Grap.

[SPEAKER_01]: So Alex went to West Point, my dad, you know, he didn't go to Navy, but Marine who's got a son at Navy, so they started doing these tailgates and they would, I mean, when I say tailgate, it was like 20 of us wherever we parked the car, but we would joke like [SPEAKER_01]: We're a true Army Navy tailgate because we have Army fans and West Point fans or Army and Navy fans here And so after Travis was killed We continued on and Travis was at the Army Navy game in 2006.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was there [SPEAKER_01]: the year before right before he left in December of 2006, he left the day after Christmas in 2006 for Iraq.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he was at that last tailgate with, you know, where we're drinking basil hating and we're just having fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: And [SPEAKER_01]: After he was killed, we continued on with that tradition, and as the Travis Manning Foundation started to grow, we would like invite people that were part of the foundation.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I remember the one year Alex's wife, she was like, you know, because we just used to have like coolers and stuff, and she said, I hired a bartender.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, really, and it was this woman named Ivy, and she came with a fold-out table.

[SPEAKER_01]: and she was making bloody marries and I was like this is big time.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean literally we took up four parking spots and it just continued to grow and grow and grow and I remember the one year in Philly we had gotten pretty large.

[SPEAKER_01]: There were several hundred people there.

[SPEAKER_01]: We weren't charging for tickets.

[SPEAKER_01]: You could just walk up.

[SPEAKER_01]: There wasn't any bearer [SPEAKER_01]: came upon our tailgate and we had a pickup truck with a microphone and he got up on the back of the pickup truck.

[SPEAKER_01]: He grabbed the microphone and he was like, this is better than any Catalina wine mixer I've ever been to.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the crowd like when crazy, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, and then there was that other moment where I was like, this isn't seen.

[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then fast forward to last year.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sitting there with a reporter from the Baltimore Sun, and he says to me, this isn't a tailgate.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is like a goddamn festival.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, it is.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it was wild.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's thousands of people there, and they're waiting.

[SPEAKER_01]: You saw them last year.

[SPEAKER_01]: There were people waiting just to get in.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, we're there early, and I'm like, look at all those people just waiting for it to open.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, and they've all bought tickets to this event.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's truly an epic event, and yeah, it's like Travis Pelusa, you know, it's like a full off festival because there's bands and there's like games and all the kinds of sponsors it's it's awesome and people you buy tickets to go and interestingly you don't need tickets to go to the game [SPEAKER_04]: to go to the tail.

[SPEAKER_04]: No, you can just go to the tail game.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of people in that in at that tail game that don't have tickets in the game.

[SPEAKER_04]: So people, if people want to come to that like, there's a bunch of people there.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm there hanging out all day.

[SPEAKER_04]: Then I do have a tick to the game.

[SPEAKER_01]: You do.

[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm going to the game.

[SPEAKER_04]: But I'm hanging out there all day.

[SPEAKER_04]: Are you going this year, Echo?

[SPEAKER_01]: I just said that to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I said I'm like, Echo, you got to come.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: How many hours before the game [SPEAKER_03]: the games at like three or four yeah oh it's it's it's it's it's it's it's a little bit of mayhem yeah cuz tailgating is a thing oh you can't wipe out we tailgate but i think you wait you would you to get for a new way [SPEAKER_03]: in Hawaii for the UH football games.

[SPEAKER_04]: When you were on the team?

[SPEAKER_03]: No, no, no, like before or after.

[SPEAKER_04]: Before you were on the team and after you were on the team, you were tailgating.

[SPEAKER_03]: Exactly.

[SPEAKER_01]: I guarantee it's not, you've never seen a team.

[SPEAKER_04]: So I believe that wasn't the first thing.

[SPEAKER_04]: This thing is epic.

[SPEAKER_04]: So if you want to come to that, get a ticket.

[SPEAKER_04]: Where's the game this year?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's in Baltimore.

[SPEAKER_04]: Sick.

[SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, if you want to you can go to Travis Manion.org and get a get a ticket and come out and hang out You also have the gala which Is you could recognize people from the community recognize the veterans that are doing things recognize business that have been Big supporters and whatnot, so that that's a really nice event elegant event like I that's a lot.

[SPEAKER_04]: I think that might be [SPEAKER_04]: I had to put my uniform on for that event because I spoke at one of those things.

[SPEAKER_01]: You did.

[SPEAKER_01]: You are our guest of honor a few years ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: You came up and you were the intensity of your and you know it's funny because you got up there and you started talking at first and I was like where's he going with this and the way you brought it all back around I was like [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, wow.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm like that was pretty awesome.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, appreciate it.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I think Brian Stan's gonna be there this year.

[SPEAKER_04]: Was he the presenter?

[SPEAKER_01]: He's a presenting sponsor.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, Brian's always there.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, great job.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's wild how all these little things crossover, I mean, Brian Stan having Travis Manion as his corner manning his first fight.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you know what's wrong with him?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like Brian said, when he got into MMA, [SPEAKER_01]: like he was like my ground game sucked and I think they were in quannico and he says to Travis like dude you got to help me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Travis is a wrestler who's like because the thing about Brian it was like you know if Brian got you it was one punch and you were done but if you got Brian down on on the ground he struggled and so Travis was working with him on like grappling being down what to do and yeah it was his in fact it was [SPEAKER_01]: He was his corner man and his fur his first MMA fight and then he was also Travis was there with him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think they were out in Vegas and that's when Travis got a call, they were in the hotel room and Brian shared the story publicly and obviously with our family and they were in the hotel room and my brother got a call on his phone and Brian said you know we're 20 minutes from walking out and it was his first like big big fight [SPEAKER_01]: And he's like, I could just see looking at your brother's face.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, what, he was like, nothing, nothing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's go and he's like, tell me.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, I'm not walking out to you, tell me.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Travis was like, J.P.

Blacksmith was killed.

[SPEAKER_01]: And J.P.

was a Marine Corps officer football player at Navy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And Brian's like, I went out to that fight, like, just hearing that, you know, one of my good friends had been killed.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, I'll never forget that moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's, again, that's one of the coolest things about the Army Navy football game and it's, you know, cliche to say it, but like these guys are gonna be out there playing hard against each other, but this is literally the leaders of our military, you know, that are gonna be out fighting together on the battlefield.

[SPEAKER_04]: So it's a, it's a really epic event and yeah, the game is a really cool thing to, what do people buy tickets to that as well?

[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, we don't sell individual tickets that so it's all I mean, if you're come if you're a company out there and you want to sponsor a table.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, but yeah, that's just a great night like thanking the the big.

[SPEAKER_01]: groups and organizations that support us.

[SPEAKER_01]: Joco fuels getting a nice award this year.

[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, that's good to hear.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's good to hear.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, we did a epic cookies and cream protein in honor of Travis.

[SPEAKER_04]: Because apparently he ate quite a few Oreos back in the day.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good choice.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, you got to cut weight.

[SPEAKER_04]: Sometimes you got to get a little, you got to take a little pleasure.

[SPEAKER_04]: Sometimes you cut weight all the time in high school.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's, yeah, Joco feels been a obviously huge support of what you guys do.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's epic.

[SPEAKER_04]: So I just listed like all these crazy things that you've got going on from the Gala to these programs and all this other stuff.

[SPEAKER_04]: At what point do you like tell yourself, you know what?

[SPEAKER_04]: I need to write a book.

[SPEAKER_04]: I need to write a kids book too.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I honestly I'd like to say that I came up with this idea to write a kids book.

[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was some people on my team said, you know, I think there are [SPEAKER_01]: I think there are, we were really trying to find a way that we could hit a younger demographic for the work that we do with our youth.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, right now our program is designed for kind of high school, junior high high school.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we had a lot of veterans that were like, I want to talk to my kids, third grade class or fourth grade class.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it was like, well, [SPEAKER_01]: How do you walk in and talk to kids about character?

[SPEAKER_01]: Young kids, I've gotten 11-year-old, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, and what did I do?

[SPEAKER_01]: I gave them way of the warrior kid books.

[SPEAKER_01]: I gave them Mikey the Dragon, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, read this.

[SPEAKER_01]: So then it was like, well, maybe if we have this, like we have this tangible piece that a veteran can walk in and say sit down, I'm gonna read you a story.

[SPEAKER_01]: And with that story comes some important messages that can help them as they grow.

[SPEAKER_04]: How did you grab onto the things my brother used to say?

[SPEAKER_04]: Cause I wanna say, and I'd have to go back and listen to it, but it seemed like those were always kind of just, I mean, clearly the driving motto of the organization is what your brother said and used to say.

[SPEAKER_04]: And so as you were putting the book together, you're thinking about it like, well, I'll just talk about the things that he used to say.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because I just, I started to think about all these things that everything in here is stuff that I say all the time and I'm like, God, we could break this down.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's so many.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, you know, be big in the little things.

[SPEAKER_01]: If not me, then who, like, find a friend and everyone, kindness matters more than, you know, like all of these things are, there was nothing we're, honestly, we had to cut down because we were like, all right, which, what are the five most important ones that we want in this book?

[SPEAKER_04]: You didn't have to brainstorm and try and figure stuff out.

[SPEAKER_04]: You're just like, these are the things that you used to say.

[SPEAKER_04]: Here's the kind of most impactful for, for book one.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Love that.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then you sat down and wrote it.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we sat down and wrote it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Which I tell you, you've written children's books.

[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's super hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: I...

[SPEAKER_01]: It's really hard.

[SPEAKER_04]: It was not hard for me.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, I think, here's what I'm gonna tell you.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is why I think it was hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: When I did the first iteration of this, it wasn't a children's book.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, that was the hard part for me.

[SPEAKER_04]: And that's why it wasn't as hard for me because I have the mind of the way the 12-year-old.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know what I mean for me to like break stuff down and, you know, just be like, oh, yes, this is what a 12 year old thinking.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's not it's a much.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, it was short or distance for me to get to 12.

[SPEAKER_01]: Then it was actually funny because I'd have words in it and John from Jaco Publishing would come back and he's like, yeah, a kid not going to understand that.

[SPEAKER_04]: Like, no, so he didn't have to do that with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know he was like, yeah, so I would say it was hard.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I got 10 year old.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, the funny thing is about the kids books [SPEAKER_04]: When people ask me about the kids books, I will be like, do these books are awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: Which I normally, like if you ask me about extreme ownership, you know, you know, I really like your book, I gotta go, thanks, you appreciate it.

[SPEAKER_04]: But when someone says, oh, I read the warrior kid books, they're awesome, I go, yeah, do they are awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: And the reason I do that is because, [SPEAKER_04]: When I read them, it feels like I didn't write them, you know, because I was like writing them from the mind of a 12 year old 10 year old and so when I'm writing them like do this is such a cool book that this kid wrote and it's like I 100% wrote it like I've never had a ghost writer or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_04]: and but but it's like such a good little character that I put my mind into that it seems like this kid wrote it you know and uh so so that's why I say it wasn't hard for me because it was like oh yeah I just have to like act like a kid and I've always been a voice had a mind that [SPEAKER_04]: Related to kids like you know when when I was a kid I worked at like summer camps and taught stuff to kids and I taught you Jitu to all my kids and I had you know wild kids Eccletrails have seen me in action with kids like I don't know why I relate to kids because they're Because I have a immature brain.

[SPEAKER_04]: I guess it's the reason yeah [SPEAKER_04]: So that's why I'm writing kids books.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's just like I get to be that that 10 12-year-old kid So maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much Well regardless of how hard it was for you.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm glad you put the work in because it came out really Really awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's some I have some commentary.

[SPEAKER_04]: We'll talk a little bit about the writing of the book, but um [SPEAKER_04]: Let's get into it a little bit here.

[SPEAKER_04]: So one thing that I loved about is it like it opens up with these pictures of Travis and your family like as a kid and and to me it's just so important to do that because [SPEAKER_04]: Hopefully, look, we see a picture of a Marine of a 22-year-old, a 23-year-old, a 24-year-old Marine, and it's really easy, because they all look the same, they all have the same uniform on, they're with very easy to forget.

[SPEAKER_04]: that that's a person that that's a kid that that's a son that's a brother it's it's easy for people to forget that until you see You know these these just awesome pictures that really just I mean They're just great pictures of you know a kid yeah a young kid who's We're in a camouflage uniform.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, but he's also like kissing his sister, you know hugging his mom like all these [SPEAKER_04]: pictures that I love that the book opens with this.

[SPEAKER_04]: This is a person, this is a brother, this is a son, this is a, you know, someone that wanted to that had hopes and dreams in life from and was pursuing them and having a good time.

[SPEAKER_04]: So it's just an amazing way to start off the book.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can't take credit for that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that was John that that put that up in the front and, you know, we knew we wanted pictures and and there's a whole other picture collage in the back too.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's kind of how I thought it would be, but I'd love that he put him right up front.

[SPEAKER_01]: So like before you even start reading it, you're like, okay, this is this is this is a kid.

[SPEAKER_01]: This is who I'm going to learn about.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I know that kid, you know, like we all like these school pictures, like I have a son as well.

[SPEAKER_04]: And like, yeah, you look at my son's picture.

[SPEAKER_04]: But it's like, this is what we all know this kid, you know, and so it just makes it so relatable.

[SPEAKER_04]: You start off by saying this in the book, Travis was a person of character.

[SPEAKER_04]: That means that he always tried to do the right thing, even when it was hard.

[SPEAKER_04]: And it's, you know, you kind of mentioned as we were talking earlier, but, you know, you talked about his coaches, you talked about his parents, you talked about, you know, people that weren't his life, but man, he really had a sense of character from an early age.

[SPEAKER_04]: Where do you, where do you track that, too?

[SPEAKER_04]: And you know, we talked about this when you were on the podcast, like, you were [SPEAKER_04]: you were a little bit more of a wild giant.

[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was wondering where you were supposed to.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I even kind of put that in this book in some ways.

[SPEAKER_01]: There's a little piece of that where he's down, lifting weights.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, come hang out.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's great outside.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: We talked about this the last time I was on your show.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I talk about it a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's very easy to find a way when someone you love passes, especially someone in the military who you can point back to all these like incredible things and and I'm always [SPEAKER_01]: very quick to say that like Travis was a real human and he had flaws, but he was different.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I'm not putting my brother up on any sort of pedestal post-death.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I talked about my brother while living the same way I talk about him, not being here.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was in all of my brother, [SPEAKER_01]: from the moment I could understand that he was different than I was and that many people his age were like I saw something and I don't know what I attribute that to.

[SPEAKER_01]: I attribute that to a lot of times I look at you know being raised by a Marine Corps [SPEAKER_01]: He was so attracted to this idea of discipline and setting goals and everything my dad taught him.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was quite the, I just rebelled against all of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, anything you're going to tell me to do, I'm going to do the opposite, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, part of it was just maybe something inside his DNA and it's cool because I see other examples of kids like that these days, when I'm out and when I'm speaking and there will be a kid that I'm talking to and I'm like, [SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, you're just like Travis like I see it and there's something you can't put your finger on it, but you just know they're a little bit different, you know, so [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that's, I remember when I was teaching Jiu Jitsu, teaching kids Jiu Jitsu, like you'd get out of every 50 kids, there'd be a kid.

[SPEAKER_04]: And this is like, Jiu Jitsu specific.

[SPEAKER_04]: You'd be like, oh, this kid is going to be really good at Jiu Jitsu.

[SPEAKER_04]: And you'd be right.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, oh, yeah, they're right.

[SPEAKER_04]: And so you can, you know, it's like, well, you see someone that's, you're like, you see a kid that's, oh, this kid's going to be a really good rest of it, this kid's going to be really good at basketball, whatever.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then you get these kids where it's like, oh, they've got like a leadership potential.

[SPEAKER_04]: That they're gonna be, they're gonna have some inherent qualities that are going to be good for leadership and like for Travis, like there's an inherent and we'll get into it, but like an inherent humanity in him that you're like, oh, this kid is different.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's such a good way to put it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And frankly, you know, I talk about, [SPEAKER_01]: the wild child in me growing up.

[SPEAKER_01]: Now I am, I parent exactly like my dad did, which is, I mean, sometimes I catch myself and I'm like, oh my God, I am my father's daughter and it's wild.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I ended up getting kid just like, [SPEAKER_01]: her, just like my brother, you know, I mean, my oldest is a spitting image, not physically, but of who he was and how he, his work ethic and all of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to fast forward a little bit of them here.

[SPEAKER_04]: One day Travis and his fellow marines were on patrol when I rack while driving around to see if anyone needed their help.

[SPEAKER_04]: They were attacked by the enemy.

[SPEAKER_04]: As the enemy attacked the Marines fought back, with his team under fire, Travis bravely ran into the middle of the chaos to help those injured in the fight.

[SPEAKER_04]: One by one, he pulled them away from danger, in the end, each one of them escaped to safety, except for Travis.

[SPEAKER_04]: He had been shot while saving his teammates and died because of his injury.

[SPEAKER_04]: So now this is a section where, you know, going back to what you said or early was hard to write this book, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: Here we take this heroic and courageous actions of your brother.

[SPEAKER_04]: And we put them into what is it like seven sentences?

[SPEAKER_02]: This was a hard part to write.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: this, so speaking of things being hard to do, I did a TED talk one time.

[SPEAKER_04]: And for the TED talk, you have, I think it's 12 minutes, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: And so, part of the TED talk, I wanted to explain how I had been in charge of an operation.

[SPEAKER_04]: And there was an Iraqi soldier who was killed.

[SPEAKER_04]: One of my guys was wounded several more.

[SPEAKER_04]: I rack his soldiers wounded.

[SPEAKER_04]: There was chaos in Mayhem.

[SPEAKER_04]: So, the first draft I did of this, just to explain what happened was like a 15 minute talk.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I had to take all that and put it down into like three sentences of what had happened.

[SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, actually in your dad's book, it's like ch-ch-ch-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h- [SPEAKER_04]: Travis knew what was going on.

[SPEAKER_04]: Travis was consciously making decisions beyond like, oh, my friend, he's helped right now.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to go get him.

[SPEAKER_04]: I understand the threat that wonder, oh, now I'm going to go and maneuver again, go out and fire again, like he had to consciously, so it's really good to hear all that detail.

[SPEAKER_04]: Just like when I had this because the thing I talk about in the TED talk was a was a fratricite It was a blue envelope is a friendly fire situation and so it's good to understand all those details And here you have to write this kids book and you're gonna take all those heroic details and you put him into One by one he pulled them away from danger.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's that's what he did heroic, and that's what we put into and I realized as I was reading the book [SPEAKER_04]: is that's part of the story, but it's not the most important part of the story.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: And so for you to explain what happened to kids and go, oh, okay, I get it.

[SPEAKER_04]: But truly his heroic actions that day obviously incredible and courageous and heroic in every sense of the word, [SPEAKER_04]: but that's one little moment in his life where his personality and his character was displayed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, I think that was the culmination of everything he did in his life.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like I always say that the decisions Travis made that day were because of a series of small decisions that he made over the course of his life.

[SPEAKER_04]: you then you end up saying this.

[SPEAKER_04]: Travis may not be with us today, but I will always remember the example he said for me and his fellow Marines.

[SPEAKER_04]: He understood the importance of character, the value of leadership and the power of bravery.

[SPEAKER_04]: And you got the little measuring wall here.

[SPEAKER_01]: My dad used to.

[SPEAKER_04]: You still got that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I'm in a different house.

[SPEAKER_01]: I have it with my kids, but yeah, that was like, have you grown?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Ryan, you're a runt, forget it, Travis, you know, get over here.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's keep measuring.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I used to have that, too.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: And it was, it's cool, and I have a new house, you know.

[SPEAKER_04]: So we don't have that wall anymore, except for my, my youngest daughter still has some marks, you know, because when we got the new house, she was still growing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: But yeah, it's, um, [SPEAKER_04]: It's very cool to have those things.

[SPEAKER_04]: If you have a house man, measure your kids on the wall, mess up the paint, leave those marks there.

[SPEAKER_04]: The way Travis lived his life has taught me so much.

[SPEAKER_04]: Here are the five most important lessons I've learned from them.

[SPEAKER_04]: So again, this is, you broke down these lessons that you learned.

[SPEAKER_04]: you pick the top five, at least the top five fitting for this first book.

[SPEAKER_04]: The first one is, my brother used to say, find your Brendan and this is a, you know, a reference to Brendan Looney.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mentioned earlier, and again, the brother's forever book that your dad wrote is, you know, explains this incredible story about, [SPEAKER_04]: your brother and Brendan Looney who both went to Naval Academy were incredible friends at the Naval Academy and They were both killed in combat one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan and they're buried together in Arlington cemetery [SPEAKER_04]: which is a touching story and a sad story, but this isn't meant in a sad way at all.

[SPEAKER_04]: This is like find your friends.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Talk through about it.

[SPEAKER_01]: So find your Brendan, you know, and again, my dad tells a lot of the stories in here, most specifically the bike ride story.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a real story through the streets of anapolis where [SPEAKER_01]: But it was this idea that when Travis used to think about friendship, friendship was more than just finding someone that was fun to hang out with.

[SPEAKER_01]: Friendship was about finding people that pushed you to be the best version of yourself, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: And so the...

[SPEAKER_01]: the message here is a little bit about the healthy competition they shared and but again it was like Travis looked for people in his life that weren't going to bring him down but we're going to make him rise and you know Brendan was a real big part of that and a big person for him in that way and so you know you want [SPEAKER_01]: Again, if we get back to my wild, child days, I never thought about friends like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I thought about friends in terms of like who through the best parties who could get the beer, the quickest, you know, it was like, you don't sometimes you don't think about when you're building relationships and how important relationships matter and how important the people we surround ourselves with matter in terms of who we're going to become.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that was something Travis knew very early on.

[SPEAKER_04]: Advice that like the person you marry like your spouse is like the most important decision you're going to make in your life But that's to your point.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's not just about like your spouse.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, who who you're hanging on with and the other thing I was thinking of is If you're if you're looking for friends that are going to push you to make you better You'll find them 100% [SPEAKER_04]: And if you're looking for friends, they're gonna drag you down and have a negative impact on your life, you'll find them, too.

[SPEAKER_04]: And by the way, both of those groups are looking for you.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Both of those groups are looking for you, both groups.

[SPEAKER_04]: Anyone that is trying to step up and trying to do good things with their life, they're looking for other people to come with them and help them and push them.

[SPEAKER_04]: And people that are looking to do negative things, [SPEAKER_04]: They're looking for companions as well, misery loves company, right, and they're looking to make those things happen as well.

[SPEAKER_04]: So the kind of friends that you're looking for, you will find.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and isn't there the, I'm gonna miss quote it, but there's like, you know, you are the sum of the like, the five people you hang out with the most.

[SPEAKER_01]: So choose wisely, you know?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, indeed, yeah, awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: So that's the first one is find your, your Brendan.

[SPEAKER_04]: The second one is kindness matters more than you know.

[SPEAKER_04]: And, and you kind of go through the story, yeah, there's a guy called Sam in the book.

[SPEAKER_04]: And actually, that's, that's a real name, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because it's not as early.

[SPEAKER_04]: OK, yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's a guy named Sam, who's called Sam in the book, and he's, you know, the way you describe as the opposite of Travis in every way.

[SPEAKER_04]: So Travis is confident now going.

[SPEAKER_04]: Sam is quite reserved.

[SPEAKER_04]: Travis is tall on athletics.

[SPEAKER_04]: Sam is short and awkward.

[SPEAKER_04]: Travis is well known on a popular Sam wasn't even noticed by many of his classmates, but despite all this, Travis, you know, becomes friends with him.

[SPEAKER_04]: And includes him with things.

[SPEAKER_04]: And his freaking nice to him.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Um, and then after Travis died, your parents got a letter from this, this Sam character that's explained like how he was a good human being and feels his friend.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and how much Travis's friendship like helped him through high school.

[SPEAKER_01]: And fun fact on Sunday at the Doyle's Town here is Ron.

[SPEAKER_01]: I was walking to the start line and there was Sam.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you stand there with his two kids.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I was along the, I ran the race with my dad.

[SPEAKER_01]: And again, his name is not Sam.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I sent to my dad.

[SPEAKER_01]: I said, Dad, you'll never guess who I saw.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I told him, and he was like, oh, that's so great.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he was there with his two kids running the 9-11 heroes run.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, it's this idea.

[SPEAKER_01]: You don't.

[SPEAKER_01]: thinking about who you hang out with and who you choose.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's not about choosing like all the alphas or like the top of class, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: It's like who are you going to, they're Travis recognize something in this guy that he recognized that he was, I mean, and he wasn't getting [SPEAKER_01]: necessarily bullied, but he just wasn't part of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like he wasn't brought in and Travis was, you said the word, like the humanity in him.

[SPEAKER_01]: My dad and I had my dad on from Memorial Day last year to talk about Memorial Day on the resilient life.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we were talking about just the compassionate side of Travis and he just possessed so much compassion.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I told the story of one day we came out, we were living in Virginia and came outside and a bird's nest had fallen out of a tree.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the birds had already hatched and they were dead.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the mother bird kept flying around and there were these like four dead little baby birds.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he was so affected by these birds.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean he was like eight, nine years old and he had [SPEAKER_01]: And he was crying at the funeral that he had for these birds.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he just had this really compassionate side to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, and I think he saw something in like, hey, I'm gonna be friends with this kid and I'm gonna make sure that he is invited to everything.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, because no one else was doing it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's very easy to overlook that kid that doesn't get included.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, not necessarily getting picked on, but just like not part of the group, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and it also speaks to like being a leader and just being a very confident in who you are type of individual because, you know, when kids are in whether they're in high school, whether in middle school, right, like being popular and being cool, you don't want to be seeing doing things that are uncool.

[SPEAKER_04]: So the last thing I'm going to do is like, oh, everyone's, you know, [SPEAKER_04]: Maybe they're not making fun of Sam, but, you know, I'm not going to go out in my way to go and get with the kid that's kind of awkward and weird to tell you.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, physically Sam and Travis looked very different in high school.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'll put it that way, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: So.

[SPEAKER_04]: And Travis just was like, you know, I don't care what you guys say about me.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm going to go hang out with Sam.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's all good.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Like supreme confidence and knowing who you are.

[SPEAKER_04]: And just the importance of [SPEAKER_04]: being nice to other human beings.

[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's that's basically it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's be nice, you know?

[SPEAKER_04]: It's nice to other human beings.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, there was an advertisement that was on, I forget what it was for a long few years ago, but it was like people walking through the world.

[SPEAKER_04]: And the other, you know, someone's walking, they're looking as they're looking other people, like their problems were above their head.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, it's like saying like, oh, you know, husband's cheating on her kid is sick with, you know, this disease and you know, maybe if you can try and picture what's going on in other people's worlds a little bit and recognize how hard people have it in the world.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, everyone is going through something.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, you don't really need to add to that.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: By being a jerk to them.

[SPEAKER_04]: And if you can, you know, treat people with a little kindness, be nice to them.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's going to go a long way.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: And just to finish up on that, you know, we knew Sam and high school, we knew trap.

[SPEAKER_01]: We had no idea until Sam sent that letter after Travis died.

[SPEAKER_01]: What that friendship meant to him.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and I, and I, I, and I, and I, and we received thousands of cards and letters, like that one, like hit hard.

[SPEAKER_01]: It hit hard.

[SPEAKER_04]: Number three, dream big and work hard to get there.

[SPEAKER_04]: So again, this is a wild thing to see in a young person.

[SPEAKER_04]: Travis had goals and he literally wrote those goals down.

[SPEAKER_04]: Rotem on a beam in the basement.

[SPEAKER_04]: This is what I'm going to do.

[SPEAKER_04]: This is what I'm going to make happen.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then, like, focused on those goals and made them happen, and you saw that.

[SPEAKER_01]: I saw it.

[SPEAKER_01]: I saw the words on the beam.

[SPEAKER_01]: I knew what he was trying to do.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Was it going to come in a national champion resting in high school or something like that?

[SPEAKER_04]: Was it goals?

[SPEAKER_01]: It was, it was a GPA, I think you wanted like a 35 or 36 GPA.

[SPEAKER_01]: Who was that?

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it was.

[SPEAKER_01]: being all American wrestler it was all American wrestler and and then he had other things that were like more mundane you know bench press X amount like you know I mean there was a bunch of stuff he just wrote him down we had three wheels echo three wheels yeah [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we had an unfinished basement, and we had, you know, my dad had like a bench press that, and you know, and he just went down there, there was nothing special about what he was doing in that basement, and the equipment he had or anything like that.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, really good, it's actually good advice, you know, to kids, like when your kids when kids see this and they go, oh, maybe I'll write down my goals as well, because when you write things down and you put them in front of you, it's like, it's real.

[SPEAKER_04]: It becomes real.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's funny because, you know, I just had Dave Burk on and when I read his book and the first thing I like highlighted underlined was when he said to his mom, I want to be a top-gum pilot and she goes, well, why can't it be you, you know, and I was like, that's it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think, I think, I think, I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, listen, I think adults do it too, but even kids like you look at things as unachievable, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: As unachievable, when Travis wrote down, he wanted to be an all-American wrestler.

[SPEAKER_01]: He was a freshman in high school and he weighed 145 pounds.

[SPEAKER_01]: When he became an all-American wrestler, he was wrestling 189, you know?

[SPEAKER_01]: If you would have said, hey, you're going to be an all-american wrestler wrestling 189 and haven't undefeated season.

[SPEAKER_01]: That seems unachievable, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: But why couldn't it be him?

[SPEAKER_01]: Somebody could do it.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anyways, somebody had to do it, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: And it's interesting, too, because Dave Burke and his book he kind of lines out the methodical approach that he took to become a Marine Corps fighter pilot.

[SPEAKER_01]: He had this long conversation, and I'm like, I get it, like, I watch someone do everything you said.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like it was like, you got to do this and once you accomplished this, then you do the next thing and you keep working through those wickets.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm like, that's exactly what Travis did throughout his entire lifetime.

[SPEAKER_01]: He just knocked down wicked.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was like, check, all right, what's next?

[SPEAKER_01]: Cause this is where I got to go to get to this next goal.

[SPEAKER_04]: That must have been bizarre when you when your brother left the Naval Academy after what a freshman semester was at the first semester.

[SPEAKER_01]: First semester and it was, it was Christmas.

[SPEAKER_01]: He did not go back after Christmas.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I, I used to, [SPEAKER_01]: take a, have a lot of guilt on that.

[SPEAKER_01]: Because listen, I played a large, large role.

[SPEAKER_01]: As I, as I talk about, you know, Travis and how I looked up to him, Travis also looked up to me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like Travis, I think, envied a little bit of my laws-a-fair approach to life and how I was just in it for the fun.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, and I think in some ways, like he would be like, God, like, [SPEAKER_01]: You know, there would be times.

[SPEAKER_01]: And then you get to this environment at the Naval Academy and it's so rigid and it's so structured.

[SPEAKER_01]: And frankly, you know, there was a little bit of like, he wasn't necessarily seeing everyone there, all of the midshipmen, like in the same mindset that he was, you know, and there were things that he would say to me about like, he didn't love every midshipmen there.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's just a fact.

[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.

[SPEAKER_01]: he would have conversations with me about kind of, I remember what it was, was a night where there was a bunch of midshipmen that went to the drugstore and bought rope a tussin.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they bought multiple bottles of rope a tussin.

[SPEAKER_04]: And they take it drunk or something like that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And they did these things called rope-o trips.

[SPEAKER_01]: where they just chugged the whole bottle of ropa tussin so they could get a high and he was he called me and he was like this is crazy like this is crazy that I'm sitting here watching kids in a dorm room just drinking bottles of ropa tussin he's like I don't know if this is where I want to be and you know it wasn't that he wasn't like I don't want to start he's like I can go I can go anywhere and be a marine right I can go do our ROTC somewhere and I was like hell yeah you can and so I [SPEAKER_01]: We talked to them every night for weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and I'd be like, dude, just leave.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in Philadelphia.

[SPEAKER_01]: You go to school in Philadelphia.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll have the best time ever.

[SPEAKER_01]: The best time of our lives in college, you know?

[SPEAKER_04]: Did you say anything to your dad?

[SPEAKER_01]: No, I told him after the words that, you know, that I know, and, and, you know, and then he, he kind of just stunned my dad and was like, I don't want to be here and my dad said like you can't, and I know it now having a child at maybe like if they don't want to be there, it's you can't force it.

[SPEAKER_01]: You can't force a kid to be at a service academy and, um, [SPEAKER_01]: So my dad said, you want to leave, then figure it out, get a job, find a place to go to school.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not helping you, figure it out.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so he went and he talked to, uh, went to Drexel, um, walked on because he was like, oh, spring semester, wrestling seasons over, walked onto the men's lacrosse team, started as a freshman on the men's lacrosse team at Drexel.

[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, so he's got, he's two times, you know, play two sports, still sport and, and he had, uh, my guitar, at Drexel, he was out of party.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think I've talked to you that he liked to play the guitar a little bit, like very unaccomplished, but he liked it.

[SPEAKER_01]: And his, my guitar was stolen at a party.

[SPEAKER_01]: And so because I always like Travis was very analytical it was like there was this one thing that like opened up everything for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said Your guitar was stolen.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm really sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna buy you a new one.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's a tiny guy's but these aren't my people like these were all my friends at this party and one of them stole your guitar and he was like I made the wrong decision and I'm like [SPEAKER_01]: You're screwed.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Unlike you're screwed.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he went back to my dad and said, I screwed up like I want to go back to Navy.

[SPEAKER_01]: My dad's like, I'm not helping you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, I'm not helping you.

[SPEAKER_01]: And my dad did drive him back to Navy.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he sat down with the senior Marine who we just recently saw.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he said, you know, the reason that I even considered letting your son back into Navy is because you didn't walk in that door with him, because you made him go in by himself.

[SPEAKER_01]: And he got back in, read it, plea beer.

[SPEAKER_04]: How many times does that happen in the history of the nation?

[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, but not a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not a lot.

[SPEAKER_04]: Not a lot.

[SPEAKER_01]: Not a lot.

[SPEAKER_04]: The brother leaves and then gets left back in.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's amazing.

[SPEAKER_04]: So, but awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, sorry.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no.

[SPEAKER_01]: So he got back in, had to redo plea beer.

[SPEAKER_01]: But I think it was the best thing that could have ever happened for him.

[SPEAKER_01]: because it left no question that he was where he was supposed to be and once he got back there, he was so locked in like ridiculous.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's I did not recognize until today because even talking to you last time talking to your dad.

[SPEAKER_04]: I never made the connection, which it makes sense now of him, like this is my first hit time here in the Robotussian story, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: But I could see someone with high ideals, like Travis, [SPEAKER_04]: This is the connection I did to make.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, I thought, oh, well, it was like a little bit, you know, like, okay, don't get to rest in love with people yelling at me like this is stupid.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's kind of like, but it was more a, there's an ideal that I have that Travis has in his head of what these people should be like, they don't meet that ideal.

[SPEAKER_04]: And he's like, what am I even doing here?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: which I did not make that connection until today.

[SPEAKER_04]: So now that now it makes more sense to me and it also makes more sense to me that once he left and he gets out into the civilian world is like, wait a second.

[SPEAKER_04]: I thought the robot talks too bad.

[SPEAKER_04]: These people are of liars and thieves.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then...

[SPEAKER_04]: And now you could see his dedication is through the roof, because when he goes back to the Naval Academy, understands what he had walked away from, understand the miracle that it took to get back there, and he obviously continues on and doesn't credible things.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, but that's a little bit of a, like a, a vector off of the idea of dream big and work hard that didn't, didn't make sense to me until now.

[SPEAKER_04]: Now I understand it.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: So that's number three dream, dream big and work hard to get there, man, if you can teach your kids that you will be in a really, really good spot.

[SPEAKER_04]: Next one, number four.

[SPEAKER_04]: be big in the little things.

[SPEAKER_04]: So you hear that and or you don't hear it.

[SPEAKER_04]: You say, one day I walked past Travis's room and saw him painting be big in the little things and green paint on his wall.

[SPEAKER_04]: What does it mean?

[SPEAKER_04]: I asked, what little things?

[SPEAKER_04]: Big how?

[SPEAKER_04]: I'll tell you what.

[SPEAKER_04]: He said, stick with me this week.

[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to do a lot of little things together when we're done.

[SPEAKER_04]: This will make sense.

[SPEAKER_04]: Did you ever Google this expression and see where it came from?

[SPEAKER_04]: I haven't did you know I didn't I didn't think of Googling it until right now because I wonder if he heard of it or like where you know I never have that's it that's what to do that yeah because it's of you know it's kind of it's a it's a artistic little statement yeah be big in the little things that's a kind of a [SPEAKER_04]: Cool way of saying it's a catchy little phrase.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so again for him to have made this up and then what's he just painting Shit on his wall.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's just what's happening.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, wrote on beams painted on walls like what you do, right?

[SPEAKER_01]: In green paint in green paint because of the eagles come on.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's why it was green Well now everything comes together So How old are you and this is happening?

[SPEAKER_01]: Um, like junior high-ish.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: So now you kind of hang with him for a week Starts off, you know, he wakes up early in the morning.

[SPEAKER_04]: You wake up with him.

[SPEAKER_04]: You make breakfast for your parents.

[SPEAKER_04]: Next thing you do is, you know, a couple, you know, you go to the library after school You get all your homework done and study hard and all that stuff.

[SPEAKER_04]: You guys go to a basketball game and instead of like celebrating when everyone's done and leaving and high-fiving You guys clean up Again, this is in junior high [SPEAKER_04]: And then, you know, he gathers up some stuff that he doesn't really need and takes him to a veteran's home and donates these things, and this is the things that he's doing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, he was always trying to teach me little lessons.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like, they're...

[SPEAKER_01]: I can...

[SPEAKER_01]: When I think about like Travis in my head, I think about him being like, come on Ryan, like that's kind of how he was with me.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like why don't you try this?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like why don't you try and do this for a week or why don't you think about it this way?

[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I can hear him, like, come on Ryan.

[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, so that was his, that was him teaching me how to be big in the little things.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: You know, you obviously you figured out and there's a saying in this in I have first heard in the seal teams I don't know if it's from the seal teams But it's similar It's uh, how you do anything is how you do everything have you heard that before?

[SPEAKER_04]: No, but yeah, very similar It's very similar and it's cuz you know, oh the way that I Fold my clothes is kind of the way I'm gonna take care of my gear is kind of the way I'm gonna behave exactly like well That was the thing so after Travis died [SPEAKER_01]: It was my uncle who actually said, he said, you know, Travis was all about being big in the little things.

[SPEAKER_01]: And because he was big in the little things, it made him even bigger in the big things.

[SPEAKER_01]: In the big moments when it counted, IEA, April 29, 2007.

[SPEAKER_01]: You know?

[SPEAKER_04]: Alright.

[SPEAKER_04]: The last thing, and clearly this is the driving force, my brother used to say, if not me, then who, and this is what I started the podcast with, this is the story that you tell in your book, it's in this book, it's in your dad's book, and it really is just a way to position yourself in the world, where you will do [SPEAKER_04]: the right thing, the good thing, when it's really easy to look around and say, well, you know, I'm not going to do the right thing.

[SPEAKER_04]: I'm not going to take action.

[SPEAKER_04]: And if you ask yourself, if not me, then who's going to change your attitude?

[SPEAKER_01]: 100%.

[SPEAKER_01]: That, you know, it's like when Travis said that, you know, I wasn't there when he actually said it.

[SPEAKER_01]: It was out of Philadelphia Eagles game and he said those five words and then, you know, [SPEAKER_01]: moment of reflection where you look back over the course of his life and it's, and it's, those five words, those, that was the first time anybody heard him say it, but those five words were what he lived by every single day.

[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, you can make them real big and profound in what they mean or you can also, like you said, you can dumb it down to like, how am I going to have an, if not me, then who moment today?

[SPEAKER_01]: No matter how small that is, [SPEAKER_01]: right, and then those, if not me, then who moments they start to build up, you know?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and this is something your dad pointed out a bunch with with, you know, he was first, you know, thinking about writing about Travis, and then when Brendan died, he's added Brent, Brendan, but then he, it was also like, hey, this is, this is like what our service men and women do, like this is what they're doing.

[SPEAKER_04]: They're all saying this, and this is like a [SPEAKER_01]: Well, yeah, and I've said that all I'm like those are the five words Travis spoke, but those five words represent this entire generation of men and women who have volunteered to step up and serve like those five words are not unique to Travis Manion, you know.

[SPEAKER_04]: I certainly took them to the next level in his life, so that's the, those words of the driving force, you know, behind the Travis Mending Foundation, they're written everywhere.

[SPEAKER_04]: They're set all the time, which is just epic.

[SPEAKER_04]: So much of his life has become legacy, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: And I've never really thought about the way that he lived his life has translated into this legacy that he has left behind, which is now being transformed enough and transmuted into all these people and all these kids and all these veterans everywhere, just so powerful to see.

[SPEAKER_01]: I had a conversation with someone recently, and I was talking about just missing my brother and I would do anything to have him here.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't care about the legacy he's left, and I don't care about the hundreds of thousands of people that have been helped as a result of it.

[SPEAKER_01]: selfishly he's my brother and I want him here with me in San Diego at his favorite burrito shop, you know, like that's that's and And he said to me That your brother wouldn't want to be here knowing the impact that his legacy is left.

[SPEAKER_01]: I can tell you right now [SPEAKER_01]: He's like, I didn't know your brother, but I knew your brother, and your brother would would not trade coming back to for the impact that his name and his story has created.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I thought about that, you know, and at the end of the day, it's probably true.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's one of those harsh realities you have to admit, like, yeah, to have just such a massive impact.

[SPEAKER_04]: What else do we have going on right now?

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I mean, we're gearing up for Army Navy, we're almost there.

[SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, we know our team is going to win our team.

[SPEAKER_01]: Navy?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_01]: Navy?

[SPEAKER_01]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_01]: Listen, you know.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so you've got a funny look on your face.

[SPEAKER_04]: You're making like you bust me for something.

[SPEAKER_04]: So, as if anyone's Kirby talk about the Army Navy game or the Army Marine Corps Air Force Navy in general, like I truly, I cannot say anything negative about the other armed services.

[SPEAKER_04]: First of all, because I worked so closely with the Army and the Marine Corps in my career and in the Battle of Romadi, like it was one team, one fight and those the Army soldiers and Marines truly would risk their lives to rescue my guys and they did that over and over again.

[SPEAKER_04]: Um, you know, even, you know, you had Dave Burke on your podcast, like Dave Burke, you know, he lost one of his Marines.

[SPEAKER_04]: Corporately on like, they were on a rooftop of a combat outpost that we had secured, like, uh, I don't know if it's a, you know, [SPEAKER_04]: quite recently before that like it was my guys up there and we left and you know Chris moves up in a position they're doing what we're doing their job and he gets killed like this was such a unified fight and so I can't I can't I just can't bring myself to say anything negative about I'm not saying anything negative I'm just saying my point in saying all this is my [SPEAKER_04]: When people ask me like who I'm rooting for, I'm always very diplomatic, um, you know what I'm like, hey, America's gonna win right, but then when we were talking before and [SPEAKER_04]: You and Echo busted me saying like, well, how's our team looking this book this year, meaning like the Navy team because that's our team because I wasn't I was in the Navy like we can't deny that fact.

[SPEAKER_04]: So that's what I said.

[SPEAKER_04]: I said what I said do I view the Navy as my team?

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, I guess yeah, of course, I do I was in the Navy for 20 years.

[SPEAKER_04]: So I do view it as my team, but [SPEAKER_04]: I truly do support both teams and hope it's an awesome game.

[SPEAKER_04]: As do I.

Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: So that's what we're gearing up for.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what I mean, yeah, from a fun and event perspective, but you know, the work of the Travis Manning Foundation is so much more than an Army Navy tailgate.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's important to note out like we are making sure like at the forefront of everything we do is making sure that we're giving veterans continued purpose when they're [SPEAKER_01]: which in turn helps their mental health, which in turn plays a role in the incredible suicide epidemic that we have facing our veterans.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we have real important work that we're doing at TMF.

[SPEAKER_01]: We have a lot of fun stuff, but at the end of the day, there is no veteran that is going to come to the Travis Manion Foundation and not be positively impacted by the programming and the opportunities that we provide.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's just outstanding and what do you see in terms of like the wars are over?

[SPEAKER_04]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_04]: Like now we have people that are getting out and you know, they might not have served in combat.

[SPEAKER_04]: I was thinking about it today, you know, it's been like you could do a fort.

[SPEAKER_04]: You could have done a four year hitch right now and not get like the, you know, not be in a wartime scenario at all.

[SPEAKER_01]: I think those service members deal with their own set of challenges as a result of that.

[SPEAKER_01]: It's crazy at the distance, you know?

[SPEAKER_04]: So incredible work that you guys are doing across the front.

[SPEAKER_04]: Where can people find you guys?

[SPEAKER_04]: So it's TravisMainion.org.

[SPEAKER_04]: It is on Instagram at Travis Manean Foundation, Twitter, X, and YouTube is at TM Foundation.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then do Facebook or Travis Manean Foundation.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then for you.

[SPEAKER_04]: You can be found at RyanManion.com, and then you're on Instagram and Twitter X at our Manion.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's correct.

[SPEAKER_04]: Did you get everything right?

[SPEAKER_02]: You got it.

[SPEAKER_04]: This book, by the time this podcast comes out, this book will be available for order on Amazon.

[SPEAKER_01]: It will be available for pre-sale, and then public state is November 24th.

[SPEAKER_04]: November 24th.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: So it will be out at the game.

[SPEAKER_04]: What are we there?

[SPEAKER_01]: It'll be out at the game.

[SPEAKER_04]: Are we gonna bring copies?

[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.

[SPEAKER_01]: We'll be selling it at the game.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_04]: There we go.

[SPEAKER_04]: Rock and roll.

[SPEAKER_03]: For sure.

[SPEAKER_04]: Awesome stuff.

[SPEAKER_04]: Awesome to see you.

[SPEAKER_04]: Echo Charles, you got any questions?

[SPEAKER_03]: No questions, but I do have to mention that the shirts.

[SPEAKER_03]: I forget if you or your dad gave them to me.

[SPEAKER_03]: The TMF shirts.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Those are probably the highest frequency shirts in my rotation.

[SPEAKER_01]: Well, if you still have shirts that my dad or I gave you, I mean, the last time I was on this podcast was like years and years ago.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we need to get you some new gear because we've got some good gear.

[SPEAKER_03]: I expected and I'm going to accept it.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_03]: But I will say that these current shirts that I have are still 100% capability right now.

[SPEAKER_03]: And they're in the rotation but more importantly on the back it says if not me than who so my kids always like read it when I walk by or whatever And they'll say that from time to time Thanks for that influence there love it.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: Good to see you again.

[SPEAKER_04]: You too Brian any closing thoughts [SPEAKER_01]: No, I mean, I think at the end of the day, I love that Jaco Publishing has given us this opportunity to put this children's book out.

[SPEAKER_01]: We didn't really mention that.

[SPEAKER_01]: This book is a product of Jaco Publishing.

[SPEAKER_01]: So we're excited to be part of the incredible leadership books for both adults and kids.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm just excited for parents and educators and are youth to get their hands on a copy.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, you and me both and it's, you know, it's going to be right up there and people are going to learn from it.

[SPEAKER_04]: People are going to read from it and I'll tell you from my personal experience as awesome as it is to have, you know, a adult come up to me and say, hey, thanks for your book.

[SPEAKER_04]: I really help me, you know, get promoted or save my marriage or whatever they went through.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's always awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: But having a little kid come up to you and say, I did my first pull up or, you know, for this, for this, it's going to be, you know, I got an A in this class and, [SPEAKER_04]: you know, I wrote my goals down.

[SPEAKER_04]: There's truly no better reward than knowing that your brother's going to have an impact on a whole other generation.

[SPEAKER_04]: So thanks for writing the book as an honored to be able to publish it and honored to be able to help out as much as we can with what you guys are doing because it's all just awesome.

[SPEAKER_04]: So [SPEAKER_04]: Thanks for joining us once again.

[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks for the service.

[SPEAKER_04]: Thanks for the sacrifice of your family, and truly thanks for what you're continuing to do today to help out our veterans, their families, and this next generation of Americans with your brothers' principles.

[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Akka.

[SPEAKER_04]: and with that Ryan Manion has left the building and left us with some awesome lessons learned some awesome approaches to life and you know going back and I was reviewing some of those old podcasts that I did with Ryan and her dad and um it's interesting and factual that your mental state is tied to your physical state and Travis obviously knew that [SPEAKER_04]: And so, if you wanna have a good mental state, you gotta get a good physical state, which means you're training, which means you're lifting, working out, running, you sprinting, you training, that you're just too, bought.

[SPEAKER_04]: If you're doing that, you're gonna need some, well, quite frankly, you're gonna need some fuel.

[SPEAKER_04]: We strongly recommend a Jockel Fuel.

[SPEAKER_04]: Hey, check out JockelFuel.com, get yourself, [SPEAKER_04]: Some creatine get your you on the creatine.

[SPEAKER_04]: What do you want right now?

[SPEAKER_04]: How many grams a day?

[SPEAKER_03]: You just got the repattery stock.

[SPEAKER_03]: What are you on?

[SPEAKER_03]: Other rams for me.

[SPEAKER_04]: Talk to me.

[SPEAKER_03]: 10.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_04]: I am now currently at this time at 15 grams.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I might be going 20.

[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_04]: Because it's not a big stretch for me to go to in the morning too.

[SPEAKER_04]: Two scoops in the morning.

[SPEAKER_04]: Two scoops at night.

[SPEAKER_04]: So right now I'm doing the one scoop in the morning.

[SPEAKER_04]: Two scoops at night.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: Not a big stretch for me to just add up.

[SPEAKER_04]: because everyone's getting into the creatine and let's face it when you take extra creatine, you feel extra good.

[SPEAKER_04]: You feel stronger, you cognitive abilities increase, so good across the world.

[SPEAKER_04]: The other thing is we have the collagen and colostrum.

[SPEAKER_04]: combo out right now and it's playing it's a plane no taste right but if you put in your greens you're getting that double activity it's like a streamlined activity extra protein you're getting the college and you're getting the classroom you're getting that joint health and you're getting the green activity so that's a good one to give a shot at my oldest daughter [SPEAKER_03]: I just added it to my current system.

[SPEAKER_03]: I hydrate creatine.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, collagen.

[SPEAKER_04]: Right in there.

[SPEAKER_03]: No factor.

[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: It does not.

[SPEAKER_03]: It does affect the texture slightly, but that's not a factor at all.

[SPEAKER_04]: My wife is taking it with milk.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_04]: So she has, she's got her own, she's got her own little world worked out where she's doing some kind of coffee, tea, milk thing now with the college in class for a minute.

[SPEAKER_03]: Sorry.

[SPEAKER_03]: So interestingly, my wife knew about the college and knew about the whole college and thing.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: So she jumped right in the game.

[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, which was weird.

[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, Oh, yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: Cool.

[SPEAKER_03]: There's this new thing.

[SPEAKER_03]: This new product, college and whatever.

[SPEAKER_03]: She kind of lit up.

[SPEAKER_03]: Because it's face it when I was like, yeah, Mokas RTD is now she's like cool and just kept living her life, you know, but the college and what up?

[SPEAKER_03]: So she already knew it, uh, knew about it.

[SPEAKER_03]: You mentioned your wife.

[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm like, oh yeah, it was interesting because college and it's more of a universally like X not accepted, but uh, taken like thing.

[SPEAKER_03]: You don't have to be hardcore into lifting as I consider myself to be from time to time.

[SPEAKER_03]: Mm-hmm, not all the time.

[SPEAKER_03]: Check.

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, if all this stuff, including hydrate, including milk, protein, including cookies and cream, milk protein, by the way, you can get it all at jockofield.com.

[SPEAKER_04]: You can also get it a bunch of different stores out there.

[SPEAKER_04]: You can check IV, you can check Walmart, you can check.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, really wall-wall.

[SPEAKER_04]: H-E-B-Mire, like they're just wearing so many Harris teeter dash doors like there's so many places that we're out right now military G&C like check these places out And you can you can get yourself some jockel fuel also Check out origin us a calm and we got some products coming out right now Bonded fleece jacket It's like it's like a hoodie that's wind and waterproof water resistant can't say proof because we don't have tape seams on it, but it's [SPEAKER_04]: Really really legit next level up.

[SPEAKER_04]: Like you're you want to be next level prepared preparedness for life Sure get that next level up get yourself that bonded.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's like a jacket and then also the most have you seen the moab jacket?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I've seen pictures of it.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, well, I have the moab jacket.

[SPEAKER_04]: I just ordered another one.

[SPEAKER_04]: I have a great one, but I'm getting like the [SPEAKER_04]: Kind of what is it like a rust colored type one.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so these are good to go And look the good thing about it was like there's so many times of year that you can wear that like any time It gets I'm gonna use a word right now.

[SPEAKER_04]: Brisk [SPEAKER_04]: It's time to get some little brisk, you know.

[SPEAKER_04]: You're good.

[SPEAKER_04]: And you're good for like from brisk all the way up to like it's really cold.

[SPEAKER_04]: Cold, you're good.

[SPEAKER_04]: But really cold, you'll be like, I need to get a hoodie underneath or something like that.

[SPEAKER_03]: Solid.

[SPEAKER_04]: So, or do you say, 100% made America all of it from the, from the cotton?

[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_03]: That's in the materials, the zippers, the buttons, you know, all of it, which is saying a lot though, because it's facet, sometimes you can kind of sidestep some of those elements and be like, oh wait, the cotton, the this, that that is not made in America, but since at this point of production, they started to make the rest of it in America, we can boom, we can [SPEAKER_04]: Chinese, made pieces, and sewing them together in America does not make something American-made.

[SPEAKER_04]: It makes it a fugazzy.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, so don't buy into the fugazzy stuff, the fugazzy stuff, get yourself some stuff from originusa.com.

[SPEAKER_04]: 100% made America American hands put your money back into our economy here in America, help our communities rebuild, help our nation remain free.

[SPEAKER_04]: Don't help the growth of communism and slave labor.

[SPEAKER_03]: Don't do it Also, too, I know people are wondering about jockel store like when is there?

[SPEAKER_03]: I realized a lot of this stuff is like 10 years old old Like this design was implemented 10 years ago, so I get it again Some people they want to hey, what about some new stuff?

[SPEAKER_03]: Don't worry.

[SPEAKER_03]: I got you But the end of the year we're gonna have all new stuff on there.

[SPEAKER_05]: Okay [SPEAKER_03]: and then look at that one from time to time or more often we're gonna have more and more new stuff all on jockel store jockel store dot com sure speaking of new stuff often we have a thing called the shirt locker feet on the right on some people know already some people down for the cause already but if you're not shirt locker subscription scenario new shirt new design all kinds of designs [SPEAKER_03]: relevant to the path for sure but new design every month people seem to like that one so check that one out go on the store go on the the website click sure locker you can see the other designs just see what it's all about because it's like I said slightly different vibe or look at that one but anyway yeah it's all on the jacklist or jackal jackal jack [SPEAKER_04]: If you need a book, I've written a bunch of books, which is cool, but also Dave Burke, new book, need to lead, check that book out, and then obviously we've got things my brother used to say, written by Ryan Manion, amazing book for, look, get it for your kids, get it for your neighbors, get it for the kids across street, get it to the classroom, give it the library, get this book out there to the world, it's going to help out so many people.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's all from front.com, we have a leadership consulting company.

[SPEAKER_04]: We solve problems through leadership.

[SPEAKER_04]: So if you need help inside your organization go to echelonfront.com also we have events.

[SPEAKER_04]: The next big event that we have I believe is the master.

[SPEAKER_04]: It is going to sell out.

[SPEAKER_04]: So if you want to come to go to echelonfront.com and register and if you can't go to an event, but you want to learn the skills of leadership check out extreme ownership.com.

[SPEAKER_04]: to where we teach the skills of leadership in an online environment.

[SPEAKER_04]: And if you want to help service members and active and retired, do you want to help their families?

[SPEAKER_04]: Do you want to help gold star families?

[SPEAKER_04]: Check out Mark Lee's mom.

[SPEAKER_04]: Mama Lee, she's got a charity organization, which is amazing.

[SPEAKER_04]: If you want to donate or you want to get involved, go to America's MightyWarriors.org.

[SPEAKER_04]: Also check out heroesandhorstors.org and finally, Jimmy May's organization beyond the brotherhood.org.

[SPEAKER_04]: if by any chance you found the battle of Romani in 2006 with the ready first brigade combat team check out Romani reunion 20 dot com big reunion down in Texas January 16th and 17th I hope to see you all there army navy air force and Marine Corps let us know also [SPEAKER_04]: If you want to connect with the Travis Manean Foundation, go to TravisManean.org on Instagram, their at Travis Manean Foundation, Facebook, Travis Manean Foundation, YouTube and Twitter is TMF TM Foundation at TM Foundation and then for Ryan Manean, Ryan Manean.com and she's also on Instagram and Twitter at our Manean and then if you want to check out us, you can check out jockel.com and then on social media, I'm at jockelwillink, [SPEAKER_04]: Don't spend too much time on there.

[SPEAKER_04]: It should annoy you to be on there.

[SPEAKER_04]: That's the point that I've reached in my life I'm annoyed by social media.

[SPEAKER_04]: Mm-hmm.

[SPEAKER_04]: Like Good.

[SPEAKER_04]: Don't go on there and think that there's gonna be anything that's gonna help you out.

[SPEAKER_04]: No, it's not Even though the thing that you think helped you out in the moment I Got really motivated by this thing.

[SPEAKER_04]: So what'd you do?

[SPEAKER_04]: I screwed scrolled to the next thing didn't help you at all.

[SPEAKER_04]: So it's good off there [SPEAKER_04]: Get off that social media.

[SPEAKER_04]: Once again, thanks for Ryan Manion, for everything you've done, continue to do for our families, for our veterans and our, and their families, thanks for capturing and sharing the legacy of your brother Travis, we will not forget him.

[SPEAKER_04]: Also, thanks to all of our military members, Army, Navy, Air Force and of course the United States Marine Corps.

[SPEAKER_04]: We live free because of your sacrifices, [SPEAKER_04]: and we are grateful for this gift every day.

[SPEAKER_04]: Also, thanks to our police law enforcement firefighters, paramedics, EMTs, dispatchers, correctional officers, Border Patrol, secret services, as well as all other first responders.

[SPEAKER_04]: We are safe at home because of your sacrifices and we are thankful to you as well.

[SPEAKER_04]: And everyone else out there.

[SPEAKER_04]: Remember all these lessons from Travis Magen, and I think a good one to focus on every day and they're all awesome, [SPEAKER_04]: The little things, the little things matter, the little things count, little things add up, and over time, the little things become big things, and that's all I've got for tonight, until next time, the Zaccoe and Joccoe.