Security Halt!
The only Mental Health podcast that shares honest and authentic accounts of living with mental health issues, that's also hosted by individuals fighting the same fight you are!Providing information and resources for help with a heavy dose of humor and entertainment. Helping you find hope and the strength to fight on.
Security Halt!
#200 From Green Beret to Entrepreneur: Jon Hamilton's Infinite Grit Journey
What does it take to transform from a tumultuous childhood into a Green Beret and later a successful entrepreneur? Join us with Jon Hamilton, the inspiring force behind Infinite Grit and the Infinite Grit Podcast, as he unfolds his journey. From moving 18 times before age 18 to failing EOD school and then rising stronger, Jon shares how each challenge shaped his relentless pursuit of excellence. Staying active and fit post-military service isn't just a personal goal for Jon; it's a mission to motivate the community by example.
In our conversation, Jon dives into his transition from military life to the entrepreneurial world, motivated by a quest for freedom and control over time. Influential reads like "Think and Grow Rich" and "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" played pivotal roles in his entrepreneurial mindset, leading him to successful real estate investments. Yet, it’s his passion for coaching and mentorship that truly stands out. Learn about the transformative impact he had on a young man named Kayvon, and how genuine mentorship brings immense fulfillment and turns into a viable career path.
As Jon discusses the loss of camaraderie post-military and the essential role of community and mentorship, we uncover how veterans can find renewed purpose. With the mission of Infinite Grit, Jon empowers men to overcome societal doubts and embrace their potential. By leveraging the expertise of Green Berets, Infinite Grit provides invaluable life skills and fosters resilience. Hear Jon's thoughts on entrepreneurship’s tough roads, the importance of perseverance, and maintaining personal wellness. This episode is a powerful testament to unwavering commitment and the continuous pursuit of high performance.
Your support means the world to us, so please remember to LIKE, FOLLOW, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE to stay updated with our latest episodes and join our growing community!
Instagram: @securityhalt
Tik Tok: @security.halt.pod
LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
Be sure to follow Jon and Infinite Grit on Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
LinkedIn: Jon Hamilton
Tik Tok: infinitegrit
YouTube: @InfiniteGrit
Instagram: infinite.grit
Website: infinitegrit.us
Produced by Security Halt Media
security hot podcast.
Speaker 2:Let's go, you're dealing with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best with guns, with knives, with his bare hands, a man who's been trained to ignore, ignore weather, to live off. The land. Job was disposed of enemy personnel to kill.
Speaker 1:Period with nutrition on that note, welcome back to another great episode security out podcast. As always, I'm your host today. Caviar with me today is the one and only john hamilton. Uh, the man behind infinite grit and infinite grit podcast, and somebody that I find to be absolutely fucking refreshing when you're looking for individuals from our community that want to inspire and help develop others, whether it's first responders, military or just civilians, because that's one of the things that I realized is part of our next mission being able to bridge that gap between service members into our civilian community. And who better than the Green Beret? It's what we're built for. So, john, thank you for being here today, man.
Speaker 3:Hey, appreciate you having me man. Thanks for the kind words, really building it up.
Speaker 1:So no, I appreciate you Absolutely, man. It's awesome being able to see somebody that's also following their passion. And as much as we think that that second chapter in our lives is just going to be devoted to sitting on the couch and just kind of just forgetting who we were, it's vitally important for us to stay active and stay fit and stay moving. I remember, you know, not too long ago, you know eight, nine years ago, there was a sergeant major that left the regiment and everybody thought like, oh man, he's got to live, to be 100 years old. And what happens? We get out and we get in this life of being stale and sedentary and then get a heart attack or we just don't prosper, we just kind of fall apart, and I realized that happens to all of us. We have to catch it real quick. You have to get on the ball and that's something that your content's awesome because it's not shaming, it's not be like you're a piece of shit.
Speaker 3:Get out there.
Speaker 1:It's like live by example, and that's something that's beautiful man. So today I want to hear about your journey. I want to hear everything that brought you into that world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, so I guess I'll start from the very beginning, right? Um, so I'm from, uh, washington moved around quite a bit, ended up actually moving 18 times for my 18th birthday, so I was always bouncing around as a kid. Um, later on, during my high school years, uh, my mom married one of my best friend's dads so it was like a whole like stepbrother scenario. Um, but yeah, it was, it was. It was crazy. We moved different schools, we were always the new guys and it was we were both the same age, you know football players. So just always causing a problem is a good time. But, um, my stepdad happened to be a former Green Beret. He was a Green Beret during the cold war. Um, he was with first group, spoke Russian, like he was, you know, boarding like soviet ships during the cold war, like, all these crazy stories I heard growing up.
Speaker 3:Um, he did some work in south america, which I'm sure you'll appreciate, um, but through the uh, you know, end of 70s, um, throughout the 80s and early 90s is when he was um getting it, which is a pretty iconic time in the world of special operations. So I grew up listening to those stories. I freaking knew I was like that's what I want to do. I want to be a Green Beret, I want to have my own stories like this and have those experiences. Obviously, the brotherhood I hear him three times a week calling his old buddies and getting on the phone with them, with them. So it's like that's what I want, right? So I graduated high school. Um, obviously, you know, I graduated at 18. You can't go the x-ray pipeline at 18. You got to wait a couple years. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna, you know, try to do something in the military, get a little experience under my belt and then go to selection. Um, I enlisted for e, uh, like an arm or explosive ordnance disposal, um, probably because of hurt locker.
Speaker 3:You know, young, impressionable mind, um but yeah it is a good movie, but it is a, uh, recruiting tool. Let me tell you that, yeah, um, no, so I I always talk about this man because I think, uh, one, it is my story, my background, but I think people can get a lot from this. Um, I went to EOD school. I took my you know terrible study habits that I had through high school, all that stuff in a highly academic environment, and I like failed right away. Right, so I signed this six year, you know contract.
Speaker 3:Now I'm like six months in and I am needs of the army and I bring that up because, like, that was kind of like the spark that you know lit the fire under my ass and like made me motivated to one prioritize intelligence and want to learn information, want to learn like best practices and studying and actually like show up and do the work right. Yeah, prior to that, I was like a. I grew up as an athlete, you know, um, but I was kind of gifted genetically, like never really worked hard for it, and I thought that that's what, like you know, performance was is like, ah, you just got get what you get and you know, fucking adonis jeans exactly exactly so.
Speaker 3:Up until my point in eod school, you know, I was used to just kind of skating by and getting pushed on to the next phase of training or next class, whatever it is right. But that failure is kind of like what sparked this whole you know 10-year rabbit hole down the world of uh um or into the world of self-improvement, and is really what you know sparked like the. The planted the seed for infinite grit, right Um. So luckily I ended up getting an aviation job during school, volunteered for and clawed my way into the one 60th Uh. So my first three years of my career were with them, worked on a drone program out there.
Speaker 3:I was just a mechanic, didn't do anything like super cool over there, but I got exposed to that special operations world, so did a deployment to Afghanistan and then did a deployment to Iraq during that whole push with ISIL and all that stuff. And during that second trip is like when we really supported closely, uh, an SF team, right, um, they were out there getting after it every single night, uh, defending an oil refinery and all this stuff, like getting hit from all these different angles, and like our job was to try to provide close air support. So we got the planes up, built this entire site, like we're in it, right, yeah. And that was like my first ever trip of, like you know, you're you kind of conceptualize the, the amount of work required to make something like that happen.
Speaker 3:But during that trip, like when I saw the mission, right, like when I saw those dudes on the ground and like these planes in the air have a direct impact on their livelihood, so like we busted our ass, we worked, you know, 18, 20 hours a day for like 12 weeks straight, not a day off, like working through christmas, working through new year's, like all that, um. And after that trip I came back and I was like I'm going to slash it. It's time, yeah. So I was, like you know, being being on the isr side is cool, but you're you're looking through a straw, you're on the outside looking in, right Dude, we say this all the time and it needs to be highlighted that the greatest recruitment man is just being around Green Berets.
Speaker 1:We spend so much money on stupid marketing. Just highlight the teams man and that's a beautiful testament. As a young soldier, being able to witness that and I've seen it in every other Green Beret has a story like this where they saw the team in action and said that's where I want to be, that's what I want to do yeah, man yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean we can read books about it all day long. I read all the books about it, Chosen Soldier, like everything I read every freaking book I can get my hands on?
Speaker 3:yeah, exactly um, you can read about it all day long, but until you actually see it, you see the energy, you see the um, the the chemistry, like how they're working, like how, uh, one thing is like you know, green braids, um, you risk your life with the actual job, but you see these men risking their lives on a daily basis and it doesn't even freaking phase up. So, like in that situation when I was that young soldier and I would see guys come back on, you know, we worked with SEALs, we worked with all these guys and I was like these guys are freaking rocks dude. Like at that point, like going off out of the wire, I was like, oh yeah, like crazy, you know what I mean. Like these guys live out there and they're, they're exposing themselves to it every day. So I was like that's what I want to become, right um, so get back from that deployment, uh, pcs out to fort campbell um link up with the recruiters there and then start training up and going to selection from there. Um, get done, obviously, with selection.
Speaker 3:Had had my two years in the Q course and then ended up going out to 10th group With 10th group, got that one trip to Afghanistan, which is like what we just talked about, kind of that tail end of the Afghan campaign and then some Eastern Europe work and things like that. So, in a nutshell, that was my 10 year army career career. Obviously, I'm sure we'll dive into like the ups and downs and twists and turns and part of it, but, um, yeah, my biggest motivation for for doing it was one you know, my, my stepdad kind of planted that seed back in the day of of all his glorious stories of you know the cold war and things like that. Um, that failure and EOD really put a chip on my shoulder and you know like really made me dive into, you know, uh, optimizing my performance, both intellectually and physically. And then, uh, that third straw was seeing those guys in action having a lot of respect for what they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, that's, that's. That's exactly it, man. Those little interactions is what sets us on that path towards excellence and accomplishing the impossible. When you see that team, when you see that environment, when you experience that failure and you say never again like, okay, I got caught sleeping, I took that punch right in the face. So a lot of times people say, like the greatest lessons come from getting your ass fucking handed to you. Yeah, you're not gonna learn shit from all the times. You just glide through and pass and make it through all this stuff. No, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:It's when you are face to face with fucking failure, when you're at that bottom and you're just like, okay, I'm gonna have to walk back into that team room on monday and tell my team sergeant that I didn't do something right or I failed in some way, and it's like, fuck, okay, that's what sets us apart. That's what sets you apart as a man is when you're able to look at that failure and be like okay, I'm gonna learn from this, I'm not gonna piss and moan about it, I'm gonna get better. Like there's a time and a place to be fucking down. But give yourself that time, set that timer like all right, I'm feeling sorry for myself. Like tomorrow, let's wide erase board, clear that out.
Speaker 1:What's the next thing when you were coming towards the end of your career, what did you do to prepare? Because that's one of the things that our, our listeners, our active duty folks need to understand like we can control and be empowered by our transition. We need to understand that. Like we can control and be empowered by our transition. We need to understand that, like, hey, it's, it's not something that has to happen to me. I can be a participant in this. I can plan like what did that go? What was that like for you going through it?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I would say about two years out, um, you know, down, like, when we go down that hole of like self-improvement, it never really stops, right, we just change our interests and our areas of focus. So once I'm on a team, you know I'm um, I'm doing the thing, I'm obviously training hard, things like that. Um, I also started looking at what I could do outside of work. Uh, and that's when I kind of planted the seed and got the more entrepreneurial mindset read all the books, you know, thinking go rich, rich dad, poor dad, all that good stuff. Um, just kept reading, just kept in taking information, got really into real estate at the time, um, so while I was in, bought a couple uh properties, fixed them up, was renting them out, running some Airbnbs, things like that.
Speaker 3:So I knew, like, once I got out of the military, um, I wanted to do something where I have a little bit more freedom or control over my time.
Speaker 3:Right, I loved my experience in the military, but one thing I always freaking hated, and most dream braids do, is being controlled by somebody or something like the organization.
Speaker 3:Right, there you go. I was like I want my time, I want to if I want to take a trip, um like language learning is a big thing for me. So if I want to take a trip, um like language learning is a big thing for me. So if I want to take a trip to South America and go learn Spanish for three months and immerse myself, like I want to have the ability to do that, I don't want to be restricted to a job. So, um got out and I thought just real estate investing was going to be it, right, um, and you know, I I prepared in the way of like buying the real estate, but I kind of had like a naive, you know, uh, um immature mindset about that of like trying to reap the rewards of an investment like that too, quickly and I actually ended up having somewhat of a rough transition because I put all my eggs in that basket, um, where it's uh, something that is more long-term.
Speaker 3:Like you know, I got out in 2023, so interest rates started going sky high, like um taxes, so it was a little bit weird of a period, um, but you know, one of the things that I I kept coming back to is my passion for self-improvement, my, my dedication to this, like um, and I started making content, uh, originally online, just kind of like putting stuff out there, um, kind of feeling it out, and I started getting a lot of questions, uh, primarily, you know, young men, ambitious individuals, asking questions about this mindset thing or this training topic.
Speaker 3:I've always been into fitness and things like that, um, and it really spiraled into me answering their questions and then took a couple on, you know, coached the first couple guys for free and, like you know, one of the first guys I coached for free I won't say I'll say his first name, kayvon. He's this freaking awesome dude. He was in Alabama at the time and he weighed like 320 pounds, 21 year old kid, kind of just playing video games, not a whole lot of money, not direction in life, things like that. So I ended up taking him on the coaching program and I was like, okay, this is going to be like I'm going to figure out how to do this whole coaching thing. Um, six months later, man he's. He's down 50 pounds. Uh, he got a job with fricking NASA. He's working full time.
Speaker 3:He's got a girlfriend hiking, like completely turned his life around, right. So that's when I was like, okay, like if I can have this big of an impact on on someone's life, like this is my freaking call, like I I need to um, you know, dive into this, that's beautiful man, I, I want to.
Speaker 1:I want to pause on that because that's one of the the greatest and most satisfying things that you can experience. If you, if you transition out and you have something that you are passionate about, like mentorship, like you can do it for free but you can also get paid to do it, like I got my mindfulness certification, that was one of the first things I realized that could help me, help other people and being able to do that. That feeds back into your own soul. You got a job at nasa.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah I mean like that. So I do obviously do it for paid. Now, this is what I do full time, um, but like that experience and like having an impact, and obviously like he's the one putting in the work, right, but we're the one providing the accountability, telling him exactly what to do, holding him accountable to actually doing what he says he's going to do, like all that type of stuff and, uh, removing the guesswork out of it, right, and yeah, I was like that is, you know, being a Green Beret me on a team going on missions was fulfilling. It was one of the most fulfilling things I've ever done in my life. But man having an impact on people's lives, like that is a close second.
Speaker 1:Absolutely man, and guys think that it's not within their wheelhouse. If you've ever had a junior and you've ever been and I get it some senior junior relationships they're not really there. You don't really develop the person. But if you've ever had time in regular army and you've mentored young soldiers and then had the opportunity to mentor and coach a junior or other young Green Berets, if you have a passion for that, you can do it on the outside and you can get paid for it. And it's not about being a grifter. We're not talking about these assholes and these fucking alpha bootcamp fucking bullshit. No, this is one human being helping another human being at a respectable cost and you're offering them something of benefit, your life experience, what you've already been through, and you go get a certification in coaching, go get a certification in nutrition and fitness all these things are there. You can build your own business and be completely 100 involved in what you love, like that's amazing, like, and. But nobody's going to do that, nobody's going to tell you about that thing going through the uhAPS program.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, they tell you to go work at a corporate job for 60K a year. Exactly, that is something that I carry with me a lot. It's like at the core of every Green Beret is the desire to teach. Right, that's exactly what the role is. You're a force multiplier, you learn all these skills, partner with foreign nations and teach those specific skills.
Speaker 3:So getting out of the military, like transition into teaching obviously different topic, but still teaching, guiding, mentoring Like it's a very natural progression. I think for a Green Beret, it's like that desire to share knowledge, to continue learning, that that desire to share knowledge, to continue learning, um, you know, so that is uh kind of like yeah, what, what you said, um, transitioning out of the military, there's never going to be a shortage of, um, I mean, I'm sorry, there's never not going to be a shortage of good, strong men who can be leaders in the community and teach these individuals how to improve their lives. Like we can only you can only take on 50 to a hundred clients at a time. Um, there's millions of people out there that, if you create a structured plan for them, uh, remove the guesswork out of their life, figured out where the time sucks are and where they're wasting their time and not making progress. Like you, can drastically increase the speed at which somebody can get from point A to where they want to be with their life just by your mentorship.
Speaker 3:Because one of the biggest things that you know, you're you're obviously more in the entrepreneurial space too is, like one of the hardest parts about going from point A to point B is not knowing if what you're doing is what you should be doing. So as a third party, removing that guesswork, saying, hey, this is a tried and proven system. Um, you know, obviously we're going to make some tweaks for the individual, tailor the approach, but like, this is the framework, you do this, you will get here. You know what I mean, um, and I think that is something that all greenberries can offer.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man, that's. It's a no brainer. And I have to wonder too, when one of the things that a lot of us struggle with whether you're soft or conventional is the identity piece, do you think that by choosing to go into the entrepreneurial space and be a mentor and a coach, do you think that helped with the identity piece? Did you think you were able to just quick, do a quicker transition, because you were bringing so much of what you loved into this new space, so you didn't? Did you struggle at all with that, or did it help and benefit?
Speaker 3:I definitely went through that growing pain, not necessarily in the sense of like an identity crisis, um, but more in the sense of like an identity crisis, um, but more in the sense of like lack of community, like one of the big things that I loved about being on a team.
Speaker 3:You know, uh, had 12 of my best friends. You know what I mean 11. Um, but like really close with these guys and my team, we had a very close knit team. You know, we were like a lot of athletes so we always played sports together Like we're. We were like a lot of athletes so we always played sports together Like we're super competitive, always driving each other.
Speaker 3:Um, and admittedly that is something I took for granted. I was like you know, the war is over, my job in the army is done, I'm, I'm getting out, things like that. Um, so I got out kind of like not expecting that that lack of community to really affect me and literally like overnight, like two weeks out of the army, I'm like damn, like working out. It's not as fun anymore Like all this stuff. You know what I mean. Like you, you really missed the community. I missed like the competitive nature, like going into the team room.
Speaker 3:Um, that is what I missed and struggled with. I legitimately struggled with it for a while. You know what I mean, um, and just like stir crazy, like not necessarily knowing where to put my energy, trying one thing after another Um, but you know, the coaching aspect, uh, really did help with that Um. One, providing the skills on an individual basis. But two, we also have a community where we have, you know, live calls and we're jumping on there. You kind of get that group mentorship. I'm down in Arizona. I literally just worked out with one of the guys from the community this morning so took some guys up to the mountains last weekend, did some land out. So I try to just incorporate that stuff and it's like you know, like for the land I didn't charge them or anything like that stuff is fun to me and I think that part of a culture and having that community around you is is so important and definitely nothing or something I'm never going to take for granted again. But that was probably the thing I struggled with the most.
Speaker 1:John, that's it's. It's so frigging true, and but what you're doing is you're making an active effort to alleviate that pain, to fill that hole by being willing to engage with other people within your community. That's the missing piece. I hear it all the time. Um, every time I make a post talking about the importance of sharing, the importance of talking about what your experience is, to get out there and not not just to be boastful or prideful. No, no, I want people within our professional background, within the soft community, to share, be open and share what they've gone through to help inspire resilience and grit within others. Your civilian brothers and sisters, they want to hear that. Your other veterans want to hear that that's allowing you to share your experience and that makes that first connection with someone.
Speaker 1:It's like whether you're doing it just doing it one at an event or doing it on a podcast, being able to put yourself out there, because people want to hear that experience and they want to learn from it.
Speaker 1:And then they want to bring you into their community and their groups and their friend circles to go do things to be able to be brought back into the fold, groups and their friend circles to go. Do things to be able to be brought back into the fold. That's the one thing we don't understand, or we've been fed this lie that we are supposed to be on the outside perimeter of society. No, your time and service is done. You got your dd214. Come back into the fold. Come back into the local community where you just share being able to go out there and and teach land nav fuck. It doesn't matter if you have to do like a four-day like brush course to freaking prep yourself back up to teach it like do that? Be willing to go back out there and engage with people, because let me tell you, there's probably a lot of people out there that never held an actual paper map.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or even stepped off trail in the woods and led a movement right Like we had these guys, you know, um, a couple of them were military, had done a little bit in the past. Uh, one of them had never done land out like that, um, and to like get him in there and say like hey, you're going to stay out front, we're going to hang back and you're leading the movement, like where are we going? Type of thing like that. That inspires, obviously, like the problem solving skills of finding the points in land nav. But one thing land nav does a lot is really boost confidence, like when you get from point A to point B walking through the woods with a paper map.
Speaker 3:I don't care who you are, you're going to be like dude. I am the shit. You know what I mean. You're going to feel confident, especially like the longer the distance is, you're like dude, I can do anything. I just found this stick in the woods from four miles away. That's crazy. So, um, I think that is a big benefit of of doing things like that. And and you brought up a good point too Um, you know, like the, the bootcamp style stuff, or dudes are yelling um, never been my style, right? One of the things that I've always liked about SF is it's freaking, calm, cool, collected. Uh, here's the standard to go do it. If you don't, we'll talk about it. You know what I mean? Um, I'm not. I'm like all the people I coach. You know I don't yell at anybody. I'll ask questions and I might dig into something. Um, but I'm not sitting here like oh, you need to do more push-ups and like that's not how you build an individual um, you build them through providing guidance and, obviously, answering the asking those pointed questions.
Speaker 3:So same thing when we're at land nav. There's like a calm environment, but like, hey, now it's, it's on you, now you ready.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, it's so well said man In my experience, going back to school now studying and learning so much from our socialist propaganda school system, asu Did you go to ASU? Yeah, I'm going to ASU right now. I'll have to edit that. No, I'm not dude, are you?
Speaker 1:uh, are you in arizona? No, no, I'm still in florida. Yeah, I go online, yeah, but it's such, it's um, I gotta mark this because I don't want to out myself. So it's.
Speaker 1:It's very important to go back and achieve the things people always said you're not going to be able to achieve. I 100% believe that when you grow up in adversity and people tell you well, you're not going to do this, you're too stupid, you're too poor, like I'm going to get my education. But one of the things I've realized is we don't champion things that are really vital to the community in school anymore. In higher education, in every higher level course I've been to, we destroy masculinity, we destroy the nuclear family and they continuously champion the idea that we don't need strong, healthy men in the household or within our communities. Every course that I've been through so far is nothing short of socialist propaganda and it's maddening. It's absolutely maddening, and I'm seeing now clearly understanding why so many men feel broken and abandoned is because there's no place for them. They're toxic, they're horrible, and then they want to feel like they're part of a tribe, they want to feel connected. So then they get grifted, they get preyed upon by these assholes when in reality, they need somebody like John. All they need to do is go on social media and find your profile and listen to quiet wisdom. It doesn't come from a place of boastful, prideful arrogance. It come from a place of boastful, prideful arrogance. It comes from a place of wanting to simply help somebody get better, like, hey, I can help you do some really uncomfortable but great things in your everyday life that are gonna pay out in dividends for the rest of your life. If you're just willing to just come along in this journey, just come on, let's work out, let's go do some hard things. And that's needed and that's the way I view it If more Green Berets, if more Rangers, if more okay SEALs too, and our TACPs and our CCTs, if more of these amazing members of our 1%, the 1% communities are willing to get out there in that public space and teach, coach, mentor and give back in some way and it doesn't have to be for free you can make money, you can make a healthy living. You can be doing something, you're passionate and get paid to do it, and also be willing to help individuals that desperately need that connection.
Speaker 1:I'm tired of seeing bitter, angry people. I'm tired of seeing broken men that feel like they don't have a place, and now more than ever we need them. We need strong individuals in the homes, we need fathers and we need to feel like, hey, it's not wrong to want to be a good person, have high morals and have values. And we're being vilified and I think you're the perfect example of somebody that can walk into this space because nobody can say, like john hamilton is toxic. No, nobody can say john hamilton is a bad guy like no dude. He's giving out fitness and inspiration in a great way and we all need to take lesson and take note of it, of how we can be better about influencing our, our civilian brothers and be able to give that solid advice. And I think, man, like we're in a slippery slope and if, if we don't, then who will?
Speaker 3:no, no, and that's that's um, not to you know, keep talking about infinite grit, but that is a. A huge goal of mine is not to make it just about me. That's why I created the brand and saying, instead of saying, john Hamilton coaching, it's infinite grit. And my goal uh, I actually have a call with a buddy who's getting out tomorrow um is to hire Green Berets and have this be like a collective of um. Hey, you come on to infinite grit and you get, you know, assigned a green beret coach with best aligns with your specific goals, but you also get access to the entire team of green berets.
Speaker 3:There's a weekly, there's like calls that are led by each individual green beret, asking questions, go over, yeah, areas of expertise, but it's like this is like the team environment that I want to build, so one I want to accomplish, like you know, easing the transition out of, like you know, the military. If I can hit up a green beret and be like, hey, you don't got to worry about, like, your income, like we'll replace and probably pay more than what the army is paying you. Um, you just come coach, share your wisdom with, with these individuals and coach them to a better life, right, um, so that is uh one thing that that we really are are working towards, um, and hopefully, you know, tomorrow the first one will come to fruition.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, man, I am. I'm so glad that that's the the path you're taking on, because it's a mission that is not going to go away anytime soon and you don't have to worry about higher headquarters calling you and canceling it Like you get to decide.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. If we want to take a trip somewhere or go do something, we don't got to get the clearance. You don't got to call range control Nothing.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. When you were building this, at what point did you feel comfortable believing in in yourself? Because that's one thing that I realized talking to a lot of entrepreneurs like there is a truth in saying that if you really want to be successful in this, you have to get rid of plan b, you have to get rid of plan. But so many of us are like hanging on to like I'm not, I'm not hanging on, I'm going forward, and you're like I gotta send this resume on linkedin today, like yeah yeah, no, I, I 100 have done that so many times.
Speaker 3:There's been so many times throughout this entire process where I, like, pull up my phone, I'm like what's going on in the world of indeed, you know what jobs are out there? Because it's hard, dude, it's hard, um, yes. So, like you know, there was, um seven months because I won, admittedly, uh, I hired a um coach now for me, uh, which has been an absolute game changer, enabled me to deliver a better product, enabled me to actually, you know, make a living off of it, things like that, um, and just make the whole program way better. Uh, I should have done that in the beginning, but you know, like every stubborn, you know, dude, that, especially coming from an environment where, like I, can learn anything, right. So, uh, dude, I struggled hard. I went like seven months making less than a thousand dollars per month and I was just like blowing through my savings, like I was freaking out, right, um. So I would say, uh, that we are able to outwork our self-doubt, right, there's still times where things pop up.
Speaker 3:Um, there's, like, throughout that entire process, I was riddled with self-doubt, like always thinking about, you know, plan B and things like that, um, two things with. That is one I never actually gave it like a legitimate shot to go to a plan B. Um, so I I knew like this was the main plan, this is what I want. Anytime, I like got off track. I was like, dude, just shut the fuck up. You know what you need to do, just do it Right. Um, and two, like my wife is awesome. My, you know, if I was like venting, if I was stressed or something like that, um, she would. She would like she quit her job making decent money, and we both went all in on on this together. She helps me out with it. And uh, a lot of times she was like talking to me off the cliff like no, just keep doing what you're doing, like it's going to pay off, type of thing. So, um, you know, I don't think.
Speaker 3:Uh, we hear the quote all the time. Um, I've shared the quote like burn the boats, type of thing. Uh, and I I do think burning the boats is important, um, but more so than that is putting in the actual work. Like it doesn't matter if the boats are burned, it doesn't matter if a certain person is part of it or standing in your way, like as long as the work is being done on a daily and consistent basis and you're making progress towards it, then you will get there. Um, it's just a matter of you know to steal. The quote from Alex Ramosi is like we get to, we can outwork our self-doubt right, yep, so true man.
Speaker 1:Um, there's this idea and I've I've dealt with it too. I've looked at other teams, I've looked at other entrepreneurs to have like this great, solid team. Uh, shout out to triple nickel. Every time I see those guys, I'm just like fuck. I am so fucking jealous because they built a fucking ODA. Ruben Ayala and Chris and the rest of the team at Triple Nickel have this phenomenal ironclad team and they work so damn hard and they hustle all the time. And the journey, you have to imagine, is not without problems. You have to imagine is not without problems. You have to imagine like but when, from the outside, looking in, you're, you're seeing green and they're all green braids, that's, that's a beautiful thing. You're seeing all these green braids working towards the same mission.
Speaker 1:And then you're back in your studio and you're doing post-production, working like fuck this shit yeah I got fucking I got 17 more fucking videos to do and four more podcasts. This sucks dick, it's like. But it's like you and I put I put a quote on on LinkedIn. It's like, fuck the cavalry.
Speaker 1:So many of us get started on this dream and you may have started with a few people that are like, yeah, we'll build this company, we'll do this, and then it gets hard and then one person leaves that person personally and before you know it, you're sitting there with the banner and you're like, oh fuck, I don't know, you're holding on to the fucking banner. That's your fucking dream. Don't let it fucking fall to the ground, Don't let it fucking touch the ground. Keep fucking moving forward. You'll figure it out.
Speaker 1:If this is your fucking dream, keep moving forward and you have to see it through the end. But you'll never do that if you stay in the harbor, if you stay in shore and you just keep reaching out for indeed, and linkedin. Yeah, look, man, you gotta hustle, and you're right. Man, like carmosi says it fucking keep working. Hustle so fucking hard that others fucking take notice and they fucking start you. You will eventually build the team of your fucking dreams, but until that day, keep fucking moving forward, man, and it's. It's the hard thing to tell when you sit down and coach a service member going through their transition. And they want to be entrepreneur, they think they want to go in the business and they want it to be secure. They want it to be safe. So deliver this package to me where it feels good and I know I'm gonna have money right off the bat.
Speaker 2:I'm like well, I'm gonna tell you something. It doesn't exist, it's just not there. Yeah, but I think that's.
Speaker 1:that's part of the journey, man. Uh, I think that's one of the things that is actually, when you look back, when you, when you finally make that decent paycheck, you're like oh shit, this is awesome, I'm not in a red anymore, right.
Speaker 3:No, I mean, it is a challenge, that's for sure, and a lot of times, like you know, obviously becoming a Green Beret is way more physically challenging, but there was times throughout this year when you just don't know what the hell you're doing. Right, you're like, damn dude, some of this, this stuff, is like more challenging than aspects of becoming a green beret. Right, it's like you know what the path is to become a green beret. You either go out and you perform, you meet the standard, or you don't. Right this one.
Speaker 3:There's so many nuances. You're like I don't know if this is going to work. Put it out there. But that's one of the things that I think about. My wife and I quit our. She quit her job. We went all in on this. This is it.
Speaker 3:So there's times, just like yourself, where I don't want to post content, I don't want to edit content, I don't want to write, I don't want to do this stuff, and I will literally picture myself having to go to my wife and be like we failed or we didn't make any money and the reason is because I didn't post content.
Speaker 3:Oftentimes, even though the path might not be laid out, we know the 80% of tasks or the 20% of tasks, it's going to get the 80% of the results. The 80% of tasks or the 20% of tasks, it's going to get the 80% of the results, um, and a lot of times we try to squirrel our way around them and not just go at them head on, uh, and stay consistent with those two things, um, but that's what gets the results. So, you know, for the dudes transitioning out of the military, uh, and wanting to go that, that route, um, um definitely is going to be a challenge, but, like you have done way, uh, more challenging, way more, you've shown that you have all the skill sets, everything, the resilience, everything to make it happen. Um, you just have to identify what it is that you want to do and then attack it absolutely, man.
Speaker 1:I think at some point especially if you deployed and managed funds and seen projects into fruition throughout your time as a Green Beret you have the skill sets. You've done a lot of this work. I didn't understand it. I spent so much time trying to learn and get certification and skill sets that I already managed. I already had sets that I already managed. I already had. You go to Scrum, get a Scrum certification and you realize, okay, this is just the assholes down at S3 during their daily meetings I spend this money on and you go through and like not to say that it's not useful, because let me tell you I have used so much of those skill sets managing my own time, my own output, being able to understand workflow that is important. But don't discount what you've gone through in the military and say that it's not going to help you. I've never met people that could hustle with so little and get things done on a grand scale like I have with Green Berets. We're just cut from a different cloth. Same thing for bringing the infantry too. So shout out to your paratroopers in 82nd because let me tell you, if you guys there are transitioning and you're part of the great division, let me tell you you're going to be successful.
Speaker 1:You have the grit, you have the determination to make it out there. You have to be willing to dream for yourself, which I find is really hard. People don't want to be. They're be willing to dream for yourself, which I find is really hard. People don't want to be. They're not willing to give themselves permission to dream, so they're looking at just job listings. And that's the thing that, ultimately, only you can do. Only you, listening out there, can make that determination for yourself, like bet on yourself and follow your own dreams or do something for someone else and that's okay too, as long as you're happy and you know it meets your needs. And you can do what John's done. You can do what so many other veterans have done out there. You're just willing to see the possibility. When we look at the amount of energy and drive and hustle that creating your own business takes out of you, what are some of the things that you do to pour back into your spirit, to pour back into your marriage and into your own well-being?
Speaker 2:into your own like well-being.
Speaker 3:Yeah, admittedly, I was pretty bad at it for a while. You know what I mean. Like, uh, I I think one of the things that all of us have in common, um, from this environment like just ambitious men in general is we tend to get so fixated on something so I get obsessed. Dude, I was. For a long time I was working no less than 14 hours a day, right Between like putting out a piece of content every day on all these different platforms, coaching all these individuals, writing different programs like nonstop, answering questions, just nonstop. But obviously that starts to take a toll pretty quickly, especially like when the wife's like you're working all the time, like I'm getting sick of this.
Speaker 2:Can we start living?
Speaker 3:at some point. Yeah, yeah, all right, we're good Like chill. You know what I mean. But the last couple of months it's been putting a bigger emphasis on that and, admittedly, has saved my sanity a little bit and improved my relationships. But really just taking the time to do the things that you love doing so for me. You know I'm a big into the outdoors. I like hunting, hiking, just spending time in the outdoors, camping, going on different adventures, seeing different stuff, driving all that stuff. That's what I love to do, that's what me and my wife and I, when we get time um that like really charges our battery, right?
Speaker 3:Um, but one of the things I always talk about is like um, I think a big reason why you know the not not veterans, but just people in general never feel like their battery is charged, maybe they worked five day a week or whatever. Um, then they have the weekend and they're they're dreading Monday. They feel tired, they don't feel good about themselves is because they left, you know, unfulfilled promises on the table and took that like looming, uh you know guilt of those on-field promises into the weekend. So one thing I um try to do is I will literally make a list. You know, thursday, friday.
Speaker 3:So today is like my, my, my get shit done days, um, and I will just work my ass off to complete everything on it so I can go into the weekend knowing that everything is complete, like I can focus on spending time with my wife, I can focus on on doing the things that I love doing, um, and I think that you know, going back to like the whole passion thing, I think that's something that um is very easy to fall into, right? I think we go so hard when we're in the military. We're always, you know, going the op tempo is high, all this stuff, and you know you will, you get hired at a certain point like, uh, you get out of the military, you get that freedom and you're just like, ah you can relax like holy shit you know what I mean like I don't have, I'm not going to dy next week, I don't get attacked for anything like it's.
Speaker 3:You have that, that kind of breathing room, um, but I feel like and I've seen this not necessarily green berets, but with a lot of just veterans in general is they get out of the military, they take a breath and then they end up living in that relaxed state, never finding something else to work towards, and that is like a very toxic place to be in if you live there for the long term, right yeah, it can be.
Speaker 1:It can be very attractive to stay in in comfort land. Um, the va certainly doesn't help with the over-prescription of medications that make it easy for us to just and I was there too. I was dealing with a lot of health issues and at first it was very easy to say, okay, I'll just take this. But I'm grateful that I didn't indulge and I didn't sit down and say, hey, I want to live this comfort, pain-free life and embrace discomfort. And I talk about it a lot Like you've got to get out of the couch.
Speaker 1:You've got to get up off the couch, even if it's just walking, even if it's a 40-minute walk in the morning, 40-minute walk in the evening, do some light workouts. Like there's so many of us that are dealing with complex injuries and I get it, it is not an easy thing, but I've seen people with insane injuries get up every morning and do what they can and they get better and they progress and they continue to get better. I talked to a lot of people. I recently talked to a friend and it broke my heart seeing where he's at in his journey. And when you're dealing with horrible repercussions of TBI and you're heavily medicated, time moves and continues to move and it doesn't stop for somebody.
Speaker 1:And if you get in that complacent comfort zone where you're like I'm too broken to move, I can't do anything no, don't listen to that voice. You can do something. There is something you can do. If it's just getting up and doing a few lunges, doing an air squat, doing frigging pushups from your knees, lunges, doing an air squat, doing frigging pushups from your knees, maybe it's a 15 pound weight, 10 pound weight, something. Move your body, get out of that comfort spot and start moving. A little action begets a little action. I mean, you've seen it with your clients. It just takes a little bit of dedication and sometimes, like it's that sad understanding that somebody's been completely sold on that lie and then they embody it and then there's no turning back.
Speaker 3:That's the sad part, yeah, and I think the VA does have a lot of influence on that One. The VA system. You have doctors that just check blocks. You know, oh, you have this, we'll prescribe this, you have this, we'll prescribe this, and you end up with a freaking grocery bag full of medications, right. And I think because the VA sucks at actual treatment, like what are the root causes of this right? And they just try to prescribe it and they diagnose people with it. That, like I think a lot of veterans kind of take their disabilities or the injuries that they had inside of service and they make that part of their identity Like, oh, I can't do that because the VA says that I'm fucked up and you know what I mean Like yeah.
Speaker 3:So it's like, yeah, dude, like, uh, get the treatment from the VA, like, take advantage of the stuff that you're owed because you put your body on the line, your life on the line, all that stuff but don't make it a limiting factor in living your actual day to day life. You know what I mean. So that's something I see. A lot is like embodying. You know I have PTSD so I'm not going to be able to do anything like you can. You can work through it, dude, like there's, I know, countless individuals who have, uh, had, you know, had high levels of PTSD. We've all seen shit, you know what I mean and put in the self-work on a consistent basis and end up being able to live a happy life and do the things that they love doing. But it requires work.
Speaker 1:It does. Man, I'm so glad you said that Somebody shared this list of things. That was just absolutely stupid and the amount of positive likes and shares it got. I was just like god, you idiots like I love you all, but you're fucking idiots.
Speaker 2:It was like fucking, I can't sit with my back against the fucking door in the restaurant. Ptsd that's. I am hyper fucking vigilant.
Speaker 1:Ptsd it's I bared on my, and it's just over and over, like all this ignorant shit of like you never want to cross me brother because ptsd and it's like no dude, it's not a fucking badge of honor. It's a fucking medical issue. You get better, you identify the it's. What have we always done? You do your fucking intel analysis, you identify the enemy, you figure out the weak points and you fucking attack it and you overcome them. You don't hold on to it and say this is, this is me, now, this is me.
Speaker 2:Don't light any fireworks near me, because ptsd like fuck dude, it's so you could be going to a five-star permissive environment.
Speaker 3:They're still like, like you, learn to relax with 511 fucking pants a fucking the goddamn uh.
Speaker 1:Friggin deployment glasses oh the gators. Yeah, brother, I'm like okay. First of all, we're at a resort I'm drinking a freaking pina colada right now and we're chilling all right, that's how they get you, brother.
Speaker 3:It's like come on, man and I joke while I'm drinking a pina colada like. So what?
Speaker 1:I went out happy, yeah, and I and I don't want to call you and it's not trying to be mean but I do want you to understand that it doesn't have to be your identity. Think of all the times that you've leaned on this as an excuse to be rude, as an excuse to be a fucking dick, as an excuse to be condescending to people. That's not a way to live. That's no way to live. It's not and, yeah, sometimes we do need to get called out for it. If it's you, if you're hearing this and it's something that you do, you can change that behavior. Go get help. If you were combat arms, you've gone into the unknown, you've gone into danger. You've been in worse situations than admitting that you need help. Get help, overcome it. Don't carry it with you anymore. We're afraid of a diagnosis. We're afraid, and a lot of people use PTSD without even knowing that they have it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:If you're not diagnosed with it, stop carrying it as a shield. You can overcome these monsters. You can overcome these things and live a better life. You don't have to carry it as a badge of honor, and our American medical system makes it way too convenient. Being diagnosed with things doesn't make you a cool person. It doesn't enhance or make you worthy of our recognition as a veteran. Just the fact that you served is enough for us to tip our hats and say thank you for doing what you did when nobody else wanted to do it. Thank you for doing it. You don't have to hang on to that PTSD like it's a badge of honor, because it's not. Thank you for saying that. That's spot on, dude. It's the truth, man.
Speaker 1:The reality is we love and appreciate all of you that have served alongside us, with us, in whatever capacity, and you're amazing for doing that and we should honor that service, especially like right now look at our amazing lineage, our amazing warriors that went there into the fray and it's okay to be willing to say, man, I'm part of that few, the few people that would raise up and go into combat arms or go into the military in a time of war that's amazing. To combat arms or go into the military in a time of war, that's amazing. Now, anchor yourself in that moment of understanding that you did something amazing and great, honorable, and don't attach ptsd to it and remove yourself and stop wearing the t-shirts and stop passing the memes that make you feel like, yeah, man, don't don't light fireworks near me.
Speaker 2:I'm a combat veteran.
Speaker 1:No fuck, set them all off. Fuck, yeah, why. Why the fuck wouldn't? I want that. It's fucking cool. Our entire lives we've driven across the borders to alabama show places to get fireworks and celebrate. Make be happy that that's happening. Be happy that people are willing to live their life around you. Don't make it weird to have to accommodate for you. That's happening.
Speaker 3:Be happy that people are willing to live their life around you. Don't make it weird to have to accommodate for you, that's just weird.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, I a hundred percent agree, enjoy it. Yeah, like, that's the thing is. Like you, we obviously all joined the military for different reasons. Many of us joined the military because, uh, we wanted that challenge, we wanted that um, camaraderie, the brotherhood. But an underlying reason why the global war on terrorism era individuals joined the military is to contribute to that conflict.
Speaker 3:Because America right, because we want to protect exactly what we have here. So, when you get out of the military, fucking enjoy what we have here. Like, yes, there's always going to be something in the news, yes, there's always going to be this and that going on. But if you go to permissive environments where the crime rate is extremely low, which there are thousands of places, even in Arizona there's there's places right down the street from me where there is literally zero crime, pretty much ever. Right, I can go there and I can relax and take advantage of the things that I want to do without having my uh worrying about my back being to the door, like just kind of just let go, right, um, so no, I, I 100 agree. And then take advantage of the freedoms that that you have. That, uh, you know you put your life on the line to protect yeah, man, people enjoy life.
Speaker 1:It's a lot better when you're happy and, um, you don't have to worry about always being at a 10. It's okay to be at a one you go to a day you go to a dangerous part of your neighborhood or dangerous part of the, the country you know have you concealed it up a little bit yeah, exactly it's it's supposed to be movable.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's not something, and that's something that's like. You know, I, if I'm going to a permissive environment, like I'm not gonna have a big posture and like be this dude, I'm just gonna go enjoy the night, you know, like that I think I feel like uh, um, sometimes the veteran community needs to lose, let go a little bit and have a little bit less control over a situation and expose themselves to that. It's not a it's not a matter of becoming complacent and things like that. It's just a matter of doing it for your, your mental health, because being at a 10 all the time is very, very detrimental Fact.
Speaker 1:And I can show you my medical records to prove it. John, I can't thank you enough for being here, man, before I let you go, I was wondering if you could give us a little bit of your own wisdom and sound advice, like your top 10 things that you've seen, that can help all of us when we want to address our health and wellness. Just from what you've worked with with your clients to address our health and wellness, just from what you work with with your clients.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'll start with the fitness thing. I talk about four main pillars, right of a high performer getting to a higher level of performance. The first one is fitness. With this it doesn't have to be anything crazy there's a lot of noise out there on the internet these days. A simple plan getting moving, eating an 80% healthy diet, things like that. Fitness, getting in the gym and taking care of your body is the gateway drug to success. It's the gateway drug to being successful. And the other three pillars and that's why it's number one. So, number one get moving, expend some energy on a daily basis. If you don't like lifting weights, then go find something they do like doing right.
Speaker 3:Um, next is mindset. From a mindset perspective, the the number one thing that I encourage individuals to do is to develop clarity. Um, so the first thing that we do and when someone comes in, a lot of times it's it's individuals that they don't have a lot of clarity on what they want to do in life, what they want to accomplish, and the very first thing I talked to them about is is going through kind of a passion inventory, right, like we all have those things that we have been passionate about our entire lives. We love doing. Um, we, we have this, this small group or things that that really drives our passion and lights that flame right. So write those down and start incorporating them back into your life Um, through that you'll develop clarity on what professional avenues you want to take, what things you want to pursue that align with those specific passions right and interests. So create a plan, backwards plan, develop those goals, timeframe to make it happen and then go out and freaking action it. Number three is skill acquisition. So, learn new skills, stay hungry for knowledge on a consistent basis right. If you don't have any skills to learn, pick up a language, pick up a freaking instrument like. Develop your mind in a skill that takes a long time to learn, and exercise that muscle of delayed gratification right.
Speaker 3:And the last portion is leadership. I talk about us having three different types of individuals in our social circles. Right, we have the expanders, we have the neutral and we have the detractors. For the expanders, those are the individuals like yourself. Right, I would consider you an expander. We talk, we get creative, we feel good about the conversation, we feel like we can go accomplish things. We all have those individuals in our lives. So seek to develop intentional, growth-minded relationships with them and be a leader with that. It's not going to happen if we don't take that first step take them out to lunch, get on a call with them and be like hey, I want to start holding each other accountable towards the things that we want to accomplish. So be a leader in that regard. And if you do those four things, success is inevitable.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, dude, that was fucking perfect. Like, uh, if you're listening and you would like to know more, uh, obviously hit us up on LinkedIn. Uh, I will put my LinkedIn on the episode description and I'll do the same for our amazing guests today. Uh, I can't thank you enough for being here today, brother. It's been an absolute honor. I can't uh can't stop looking at all the positivity that you're constantly putting out there. So please continue, because we need that. That's the only way we're going to drown out the negativity and the crazy shit that comes across. You guys have got to stop focusing on Israel and Ukraine, please.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah yeah, no, I agree, and I appreciate you having me on here, man. It's a great opportunity to get on and finally speak to you. I've been seeing the podcast for a while, so I'm truly honored to be part of it man.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, brother. Infinite Grit, and what's your website? One more time Infinitegritus Dot US, awesome. I knew that. That's why I want to make sure we hit it up, because we don't want to correct it Dot com Thank you so?
Speaker 1:much for joining us today and I hope all y'all take care of each other. We'll see you all next time. So then, take care. If you like what we're doing and you're enjoying the show, don't forget to share us. Like us, subscribe and head on over to our Patreon, where you can be part of our community and get access to all of our episodes as soon as they drop. And remember we get through this together. Take care, bye, thank you.
