Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
#233 Magnus Johnson on finding purpose beyond service: A Green Beret’s Journey
In this powerful episode, Magnus, a former Green Beret, shares his inspiring story of transitioning from military life to discovering purpose through art therapy, community service, and personal growth. Magnus opens up about the challenges of finding a new identity outside the military, the transformative power of mindfulness and self-mastery, and how veterans can turn trauma into a catalyst for reinvention. Magnus highlights the groundbreaking work of the R&R program, designed to support veterans in their journey of healing and growth. From addressing veteran suicide and embracing multifaceted identities to balancing charity work and self-care, this conversation is a heartfelt guide to navigating life after service. If you're seeking insight into veteran mental health, holistic healing, and the importance of faith and community, this episode is for you.
Listen now, and don’t forget to like, share, follow, and subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts to stay inspired by stories of hope and resilience.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Journey of Transition
02:57 Art as a New Purpose
05:52 Understanding Veteran Suicide and Community Impact
08:56 The Challenge of Reinventing Oneself
12:02 The Importance of a Beginner's Mind
15:02 Finding Identity Beyond Military Service
18:01 Mindfulness and Self-Mastery
21:09 The Reality of Charity Work
23:54 The Balance of Helping Others and Self-Care
26:58 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
34:28 Embracing Identity Beyond Diagnosis
37:01 Mission 22: Programs for Veteran Support
44:53 Transformative Impact of R&R Program
48:36 Personal Growth and Future Aspirations
56:02 The Role of Faith in Healing and Purpose
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LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
Connect with Magnus and check out Mission 22 today!
LinkedIn: Magnus Johnson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/magnusjohnsonmission22/
Website: Mission22.com
Instagram: @mission_22
https://www.instagram.com/mission_22/
X: @Mission22
TikTok:@_mission22
https://www.tiktok.com/@_mission22
LinkedIn: Mission 22
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mission22/posts/?feedView=all
Produced by Security Halt Media
security hot podcast. 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 period I'm sure you're busy today, magnus. Thank you so much for being here today, man.
Speaker 2:Um, it's a pleasure yeah, thanks man, uh glad to be here finally yeah, it's been a minute but, uh, we made it through.
Speaker 1:thankfully, uh, the echo gods were in our favor and we're able to make connection. Dude, your story is quite remarkable and it's something I stumbled upon when I was going through my own transition and helped a great deal to just understand that your next chapter, your next endeavor, can be just as impactful as your life within the soft community. And that's something that a lot of our guys need to understand that their next chapter doesn't have to be something that isn't as great, isn't as powerful as their first endeavor. And I kind of want to just have you today go through your journey, not just the greatness of being a Green Beret, but that transition know, that transition piece that so many of us have a hard time finding, that next purpose and that next mission.
Speaker 2:You mean, uh, like when I got out what happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Basically like okay, yeah, uh, I got done with my last tour and then, uh, and I flew back a few days out processed, I don't remember, it was like 90 days, something like that. And then I got a job offer in North Carolina, but it didn't start for a while. So I headed up to Indiana to kind of wait it out and met a girl, made some friends, whatever Job started, went back down to North Carolina, started working and the job was really cool, but after a while it was still. It was running and gunning, it was teaching people, you know, firearms, this kind of stuff. Uh, green, like guys that wondered if they could have been a green beret, kind of stuff, you know yeah, yeah and uh it was cool though.
Speaker 2:I mean they were cool guys. But uh, you know, I did that for a while and I kind of felt, uh, man, you know, the old West, you know, when, like the old West frontiersman would come back out East and like put on shows, yeah, absolutely yeah, and that's kind of how it felt.
Speaker 1:You know, I felt like Dude, that's a great, that's a great parallel Like yeah, you know, I mean I'm no wild bill, wild bill, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I kind of felt like, okay, you know putting on a show, doing stuff, you know it's green beret adjacent, whatever. Anyway, long story short, man, that kind of fell apart and uh, I went back to indiana and I kind of just said to hell with it. And I started I, I said I'm going to make art. You know, I'm not going to be a contractor, I'm not going to sign up for contracts. You know, I'm not going to try to work for other agencies or whatever. I'm just going to do what I want to do how I want to do it, when I want to do it.
Speaker 2:So I rented something really cheap, my truck was paid off and I just started making metal art, carving stone. And one thing led to another man and the town I was living in, brown County, nashville, indiana, it's kind of by Providence man, I think it was a God thing. They asked me and this guy, jim Connor, to do this big leaf sculpture I don't know if you've ever seen it. Yeah, okay, yeah. So we started doing that and we went for it. Man, I mean, I had town council members in tears. They were giving me permission, taking away permission, and long story short, man, I just uh, I wanted to give something, I wanted to create something, I wanted to contribute and I wanted it to be, uh, something beautiful, something that would outlast me, something that was like a gift, a testament, a journey. I wanted to encompass all that. So, me and this guy, jim Conner, created well, I created Elderheart. He was the lead artist on it, and then myself and Mike Kissel, who's a board member of Mission 22, and a bunch of other veterans, we got together and we made this monument and I had to learn to speak, publicly speak, you know, politically, administratively.
Speaker 2:I had to learn how to weld. I had to learn how to manage a business. I had to learn how to fundraise, I had to learn everything to do this project. And, man, it was a big success and that was all I intended to do. I just intended to build this project. And man, it was a big success and I, that was all I intended to do. I just intended to build this one thing and kind of give it away and then move on. I wanted to, you know, get a gold claim, go back up to Alaska, I don't know, I definitely didn't.
Speaker 2:I didn't set out to become like a charity job. I set out to like build something beautiful, give it to this community, thank them, be grateful, contribute something and then be done. But once that monument happened, and then all the energy, all the different people you know, I what's the word? I didn't feel like guilted or compelled, but I felt like I've got to do more. I learned about the suicide rate 22 a day back in 2012. I was kind of bitter about it, man. I was bitter about people I know who died, committed to taking their own lives. Everyone's upset about how you say it, but basically they took their own life.
Speaker 2:And then I started digging around and I heard about the 22 a day and I was like, man, this is, this is ridiculous. Like how is this possible? This isn't true, this is weird. This is weird math, you know. So I really dug into it and I found out, you know the number's probably higher, but the VA has rules on how it, you know, gets those numbers. And then I sat with that for a minute and I was like, well, why aren't they doing a better job? Is what I thought. What's wrong with veterans, what's wrong with me and what's wrong with the VA, what's going on? And, long story short, I just got really kind of bitter and upset about it and I looked in the mirror and I asked myself, well, what are you going to do about it? And, uh, the answer was I wasn't doing nothing.
Speaker 2:You know, I was up on the Hill, uh, isolated work, doing my own thing, being my own guy, you know, and I wasn't really connected to the community. I wasn't uh reaching out to other people. Um, well, there was a guy, uh, who always reached out to me and asked me how I was doing, and I never asked him how he was doing. Man, and he took his own life and I realized I never asked him how he's doing. He was always asking me, but I never asked him. And, uh, that happened.
Speaker 2:Then the leaf sculpture happened. Then people wanted more, people wanted to help, people wanted us to help them and we just got bigger and bigger and took on bigger projects and started doing more work and, uh, it's been probably, it's probably been harder than being a green beret, to be honest. Um, you know, there's no real no back in 2012 was no answer. There was theories and there was problems and statistics and it was kind of weird. You know, why is this guy making metal art? Why is he building monuments? Uh, you know, I I didn't, I had to. I had to work full time at it to get it off the ground. You know, my wife was working at the County and I'm, you know, welding up leaf sculptures and stuff. Uh, I think I think the war hadn't ended for me and I wasn't done. But I, you know, I'm not, I wasn't going back. You know, you talked to a lot of guys and they're like oh yeah, I go back in a heartbeat like now I'm done yeah, that's a weird thing too.
Speaker 1:That's, that's a weird. It almost sets you apart. And now more than ever, with so many conflicts popping up, everybody you go to these veteran echo chambers, whether it's reddit, facebook groups, what, what have you? You have that conversation. You see it, I'd go back in a minute. I'd go back, I want to go back and it's like no I'm done, it's not hard it's there.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, yeah, you can. You know, you might as well tell the truth, you know, uh, yeah. So I didn't want to do that. You know I didn't want to. I wanted to reinvent myself, you know. Um, I wanted to decide who I'm going to be for the next chapter. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to challenge myself. Test'm going to be for the next chapter. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to challenge myself, test myself, do something I've never done before. Take a big leap. Can I create? Can I make art? Can I work with this town? Are they going to accept me? Are they going to? It's very political, very clicky. And they did, man. It took a while, but they did, dude, they fully accepted and absorbed and took on responsibility and they put this really big art piece in the middle of their town and this is like a little art colony, so it's like a big deal.
Speaker 1:Did you always grow up having this creative side of you, or was this something that came out of you afterwards?
Speaker 2:Man, when I look back now, I think I had the creative side of you, or was this something that came out of you afterwards? Uh, man, when I look back now, I think I had the creative side. You know, I I always found ways to solve problems. You know, creatively that doesn't mean I was like painting, but you know, um, there would be an obstacle or an issue or some sort of something. I had to leave or move or find a solution to a problem, and I would always come up with something in a unique, different way that would work. And that was a creative mind. But I didn't do art, I didn't do metal art, I didn't build sculptures until Elderheart, mission 22.
Speaker 2:But really, man, it was like I just want to. I don't want to be told what I am or what I should be, or how I should fit in, or what's the next steps or what I'm supposed to be about. Like, I'm out, it's up to me. For me, that was building that monument. That was me going big. You know. Know I can contract. You know, I know I can, like, carry heavy up and down the hill. You know, uh, I've done, been doing that my whole life, you know, working the oil fields, working construction, doing all kinds of stuff like that like. That wasn't. That wasn't the challenge. I could make money, but can I give something beautiful that outlasts me as a desperate act to make this issue known? Remember, this is 2012.
Speaker 2:And I had nothing. I was out, I didn't have money, I didn't have tools, I didn't have a garage, I didn't have anything. And people came. People came with tools, people let me use their shop, people came to volunteer. We ended up raising money and then we started buying the tools and then we bought the metal and then we built the thing, you know, and it was crazy because I had no business experience, I had no artistic pedigree, you know, I had no resume to hand them. But one thing led to another man and like it happened, and so that's the beginning, I guess, of my transition piece that you know, it's not over, still ongoing, but that's like the catalyst. But I think I was just like, if you want to boil it down, man, I was like tired of who I was and hadn't become who I wanted to be yet and I just said, uh, I'm just gonna go for it, I'm going to do what I want to do, Because the thing about art man is like nobody can say if it's good or bad, how much it's worth?
Speaker 2:Do they like it, do they hate it? That's, do I go to the junkyard for like 50 bucks, build something and sell it? It would get fundraised for 10 grand, you know. So I take, you know, so I take my old dodge down to the metal junkyard 50 bucks. Later, come back with scraps, make something out of it. Somebody give 10 grand for it, you know for the charity piece and to buy it type of thing, and then we'd pour that into the soaring monument, dude, and like that's badass. You know, I go to the dump 50 bucks, come back 10 grand and I would keep rolling, you know yeah, that's the most.
Speaker 1:That's literally one of the most green beret things out there. I didn't have nothing, dude, and then it's like a bad attitude and a truck that's a country album right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I did?
Speaker 1:I had nothing it's remarkable because so many of us we don't hear this story.
Speaker 1:We don't hear and we don't champion these stories. Everybody wants the safe path and the reality is we're not built for the safe path, like we're not cut for it. We went for something absolutely impossible and then, when that chapter is closed, we want the reassurance of a perfectly paved path, but more often than not, we follow that path and it leads us down a road where we're not happy, where we're not spending time with family. We're not becoming the man that we want to be. We're not doing the things that bring us joy. We're not becoming the man that we want to be. We're not doing the things that bring us joy, like the discomfort, the challenges, the the difficulty of things, and we have to factor that in and it in from an outsider perspective. It may look like you had it all figured out, but in reality, sitting down hearing this is like no, I just wanted to do something that was unique to who I am and that's hard to hear for a lot of guys.
Speaker 2:I mean the guys. I know you got the guys that like talking about being unconventional, like. They like talking about being alpha, they like talking about all these things. Right, that's all under the banner of the military Government's paying your paycheck, you break the rules, you're going to get in trouble. You can be as unconventional as you want to be in this format, right. It's a lot different when there's nothing Like, okay, now be unconventional. Now, you know, take in those values, take in those beliefs and apply them, because that works, man. But I think being a special operations guy in the war, everything else feels like a substitute, right. Like what are you going to do? Go be a manager at Home Depot who cares? Right, you're going to start a company, go sell something. But it doesn't have to be that way, man. You can be as unconventional, as resilient, as gritty, as focused, as determined, as creatively thinking as you absolutely want to be, and it can be in any genre, in any place, in any being really adaptable.
Speaker 2:Continue to be new. Well, I'm a green beret, like I already done that. Like, well, then, be new. Try like, learn something, like practice being new, beginner's mind, beginner's mind, dude, and it's like, whether it's welding, speaking. Whatever, if you, if we have this beginner's mind, with this like determined grit to pursue something in the service of others, people are going to follow that, you know. They're going to follow that like leadership but also humility, they're going to. They're going to follow like that, that spirit, that like wants to grow, that wants to push, that's looking for help, that's willing to help others. And I would just say, you know, if you're called to continue to stay in or sign up for contracts or go out, like great, that's awesome. But if you're sick of it, man, apply all that stuff to something new and be a beginner, cause, dude, it's awesome, it's totally liberating, cause you don't have to know all the answers. You can seek them, you can find them, you can develop them.
Speaker 2:And that whole process over all these years has been my major transition, you know, is beginner's mind. Who gives a shit who I was? Yesterday? I was a mediocre Green Beret at best. Dude, you got phenomenal rock stars out there, dude, you got guys that are just amazing. You know, I was all right, I did some amazing things, but I'm definitely not like one of those legend to hero types, you know. But that's not what I'm pursuing. I'm pursuing that real feeling, that feeling of being connected in my mind, my body, with a purpose, a purpose that's not what I'm pursuing. I'm pursuing that real feeling, that feeling of being connected in my mind, my body, with a purpose, a purpose that's bigger than me, a purpose that's bigger than the military man you know.
Speaker 1:Uh, that's, that's what I'm looking for yeah, a lot of times we get stuck with the idea that this, this is like the greatest thing I'll ever achieve, like I will never achieve anything greater than this beret, and this, this little thing that says I'm special, and that puts us in a box. And then we struggle with identity, we struggle with that, with that purpose, but we're not willing to open our eyes and realize that this, this has to be a stepping stone, this has to be, you know, a footnote in a greater, more, you know, collection of novels. This has to be just the beginning.
Speaker 2:We have to be able to look at it like, like that well, like, uh, man, one thing that really bothers me is like, oh, you're a veteran artist. No, I'm an artist that was a veteran. I is a veteran as a veteran. Like no, as a man who also served right. Like I'm not a veteran father. Like, no, as a man who also served right. Like I'm not a veteran father, I'm not a veteran voter. I'm not a veteran artist. I'm not a veteran business guy. Like legally I get it.
Speaker 2:But veteran is not my identity. It's a piece of my identity that, you know, has an effect, an affect or whatever, but it is not that the entirety of who I am and man it's like what a you know it's. It's taken me a long time to kind of get out of that mindset where I'm looking at everything like as a veteran, as a green gray, like there's other tools, there's other perspectives, there's other wisdom. You know it's out there, man, and it's awesome and it's good to be new and it's good to seek it and it's good to you know, apply yourself from zero and see what you got, see what you can become what were some concepts that you like?
Speaker 1:I always talk about mindfulness and meditation as being something that helped me not only find peace and kind of be able to put things in perspective, but allow me to let go of so many things that weren't serving me. When you were going through your journey, I'm sure you dealt with some of the same issues. What were some of the things that you picked up along the way that helped you with this new perspective, cultivating this beginner's mind?
Speaker 2:Well, dude, I mean all of it, basically meditation, art, therapy, tons of psychological education, serving God, becoming a Christian, like getting on my knees and like, okay, god, what's your will for me? Who do you say I am Right, what's my purpose? What's my mission? Now, under that banner, right, the infinite banner, because that's my mission. Now, under that banner, right, the infinite banner, because that's a mission I can get behind, right?
Speaker 2:Uh, if your identity is only limited to a job or an occupation or an outfit or role, and that identity or that role or that occupation, to see, you know, ceases to exist, you're, you're, you're out of luck. Patient, to see, you know, ceases to exist, you're, you're, you're out of luck. So, man, I, I sought an identity that was bigger than me, uh, bigger than the military, and so that's probably the biggest piece. Um, I had to work on addiction, I had to work on anger, I had to work on cognitive stuff. You know, I had to have the beginner's mind with entrepreneurial, like, learning how to run a business, learning how to develop one man. I, dude, I went everywhere. I went to a Buddhist temple for a year to learn to meditate.
Speaker 1:No shit, yeah dude.
Speaker 2:You know I didn't live there, you know, but I went. I was like dude, I got to find a way to like control myself, you know, and and I'm not like religion sampling I went there because they understand meditation, they understand the breath like the science of it. I got nothing against Buddhists I like Buddhists but I'm not one. But I wanted to learn how to meditate and they know what's up. They invented it 2,500 years ago. So I did that. Um, I tried some other programs veterans programs, all the mission 22 programs, like I created them mostly, and the way they're organized is like the books I've read, the methods I've learned, the tools I've used.
Speaker 2:So again, that curiosity, creativity, beginner's mind, like, okay, what is the amygdala? What is the hippocampus? What is stress, breathing, what is the vagal nerve? Am I right, am I wrong? I mean, one of the best things I ever did was get one of these smartwatches. I'd be arguing with my wife I look at my stress, it's like 99. Yeah, it might be me. Yeah, maybe she's not, maybe it's not her.
Speaker 2:And so it's like I'm constantly looking at the data. You know my HRV, my stress, my sleep, my deep sleep, my REM, like am I full? Am I do. I know what I'm talking about. Does the data back it up? Have I prayed, meditated, been grateful, been of service to others? If I'm doing all that and I'm still out in left field, I got to take a break.
Speaker 2:But once I started learning all these different modalities and started measuring them like real data, real time, you can start to get a grip. You can start to calm down that fight or flight response, fight, flight or freeze. You can start to look at yourself more objectively. Why am I having this huge emotional reaction? Something so small, and you can look on it instead of in it. You know, you can accept the truth, do the work necessary to move the needle and then rinse and repeat until it becomes a habit. And so I just kind of committed to this never-ending quest to master myself. Man, you know, I think it's Confucius is like hey, you can master yourself, you're good to go. And, uh, this is from a lot of years of not mastering myself. You know. Uh, I'm not. I'm not trying to sound like I got it all together, you know, cause I don't, um, but I'm committed to the humility of the process of trying yeah that's a lot of us have to understand.
Speaker 1:It's not. It's not about mastering and overcoming, and you're sitting at a podium and you're like I win this journey's complete. That's never gonna happen.
Speaker 2:No, no, bro. We got on time magazine and like a week later I felt like a loser. I was like it don't matter, dude, you know, it was just that not that long ago. I'm like does anybody even know about mission 22? You know what I mean. Like, uh, it's been like 13 years. You know. I'm like maybe I should like start a landscaping company. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:I read a story where you were having that, that, that moment of like fuck, is this thing even like, is this thing even helping, is this thing even growing? And the person that you were with in the car, it's like hey, look outside the car window, Like, and somebody drove by with a mission 22 sticker and that's like the reality that like dude, like you're doing great work, find the beauty in the work, find the beauty and hell, like I, I'm super transparent, I tell people this. The same thing, like it's you create something that's of service to people. And you're like, fuck, this is even, is this even helping one person. Then you get that message, then you get that email. It's like, okay, like, but don't get me through the next day. But it's like it's at every level.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember we were headed, we were. We were driving up on a highway.
Speaker 2:Uh, to snow, qualmy pass in washington, we were gonna we were gonna head out on the pct and it was raining and, uh, I was looking out the window. I was like, why am I going on like this granola hike? You know what I mean. I got my little booty cap and everything and I'm like looking out the window. I'm like, dude, maybe I should just pack it up. You know what I mean? Like, maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about and I like leaned out the window cause we had just moved from Indiana to work. And I'm looking out the window and I'm kind of like leaning on the window and I see the mission 22 sticker and I was like we're not even from here. Someone's got a sticker like that's that kind of got, you know. So there's always little things along the way. Hell, it was just recently.
Speaker 2:I was like starting to wonder that that and, uh, I think, marcus, you interviewed him. He's like check out all these testimonials and like, dude, people's lives are like completely transformed. You know, but I forget because I get stuck in my own head and believe my own crap, you know, and I forget you're here. All these people are like totally rebuilding their lives and we're a part of it. We're not the only reason, but we're a part of it and uh, yeah, it's working. You know, but you got, I gotta come to that daily. I gotta like I gotta get to that daily yeah, and it can.
Speaker 1:I would imagine that it any organization that's founded on on helping others. It can become such a powerful force in your life that it can almost overtake everything, like you can almost become like the. Yeah, I call that go ahead sorry, go ahead sorry man, I was gonna say it can become that thing where, like you're so zoned in on that, that spotting scope or behind the gun, you're not taking into consideration anything else out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, I uh I backed off like a couple of years ago Cause, uh, there's like this I call it like a charity sickness, right, like the helper, and like it's all about them helping people, and like my veterans, and we are mission. You know what I mean. It's like, dude, we're here to be a service to others to the most of our ability and but it's not reliant on my talent. No one's going to get better because of me. They're going to get better because of their work. You know, I believe, because of intervention from God, if, for them, if they have one um, their tenacity, their grit, their humility, their open-mindedness, that's what's going to help them.
Speaker 2:So I don't need to carry the burden of veteran suicide, but I want to be a part of the solution. Does that make sense? Absolutely. But the minute I start putting it on my shoulders, that's this weird form of self-centeredness. Man, uh, I find really off putting in charity work. And when I saw that in myself kind of creeping up, I kind of backed off and like really empowered everyone else around me to make it about the brand, not about me. You know, I don't want to be some guru leader, cause, like dude, uh, I'm going to fall short and when I'm fallible and when I fail, then you'll say it doesn't work right, and uh, yeah, it doesn't work if I fail. That's a silly way to look at things, you know. So we got to have a, we got to have a more noble standard, and it certainly isn't on an individual. So I love this work, but it is not my identity either. You know, mission 22, founder Green Beret those are just things I've done, man. That is not who I am.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's. It's refreshing to hear, because there are individuals where they very much are the identity and that face forward and it's like, okay, it's got to be bigger. This is a huge undertaking. It's a huge thing trying to save veterans lives, trying to reach out and connect with first responders, veterans, service members, and give them hope, give them tools. But it has to be bigger than just the individual who created it.
Speaker 2:It has to be about foundation and it's a disservice to the people that are trying to help. Right, because, like, you can create this codependency, right? Like I don't know how many times. Like well, I got to talk to magnus, you know he's the founder. I got to talk to him. Like, no, you don't like do the program.
Speaker 2:You know the program's good me, I'm hit or miss, depending on the day, you know, uh, but you can kind of create this codependency with, like the helpers and then the helped and like they don't feel good unless they're getting help from you and you don't feel like you're making an impact unless you're kind of being codependent and like being all that you definitely like, depending on your role as, like, psychologist, counselor, life coach, whatever there may be those moments. But if you work in charity to help people and you're basing your self-esteem on whether or not they love you and appreciate you for helping them and that's the dynamic there's going to be a catastrophic failure or you're going to get burned out because it's too big for anybody. And so I like to do this work with discipline, with humility, with the beginner's mind for the purpose of doing that, not to build the ego, not to identify as someone who helped. I'm a help. You know that's a slippery slope man and a lot of people get caught up in that and they get real burned out and then they were kind of.
Speaker 2:That kind of makes people codependent on you and I want them to be free. I don't need, I don't want them to want to need me. I want them to take what we've taught and then create their own. Is that? You know what it means? Set free the oppressed, absolutely? Yeah, I don't. I see a lot in charity man. We're like oh, you're so good, you're so nice, you're. You're it's like, dude, no, no-transcript. Constantly be like thinking of yourself as a disabled vet. What's next, dude?
Speaker 1:It's that warm, comforting jacket they give you as soon as you get out. It's like, okay, here's your disabled veteran and your disgruntled veteran jacket and hat and go off into the world and represent this. And it's like, dude, you can heal, you can overcome, you can find your next endeavor and be amazing, wildly successful. And none of those things have to be your identity. You don't have to make your identity. But there's money in that identity and there's a connection. And it's so hard to tell people like, hey, let go of it. You are an amazing individual, you don't need this comforting jacket of disability and disgruntled veteran. But it's hard to combat that idea. It's hard to combat that and then sell the idea of discomfort and discipline.
Speaker 2:Well, and I see both sides, right. I see the guys there's some guy in some podcast or video. He's like I've had all those problems, who gives a shit Drive on. You know, like okay. And then you see the guys like looking for 10% discounts everywhere. They go, right, there's these extremes.
Speaker 2:And, man, to me it's like, hey, maintain pliability. There's going to be times when you got to know, yup, I got some PTSD, some TBI, some addiction. I need help. I'm willing to do whatever you say. It's true, when you start gaining traction, you start making ground. Okay, Set it down.
Speaker 2:Then what's a good example? Man, ptsd and wanting to avoid people and places. In the beginning I had that bad. My wife would go out and do the shopping, go get this, talk to the neighbors, do all this stuff, right. And then I started kind of getting a little better and I was like maybe I should go do that and I was like, nah, she can go, Right, well, I didn't. That's wrong, dude. You know what I mean. Like I need to, I need to pick up the mantle, I need to, I need, I'll go, I'll go get to the store, I'll go talk to the neighbor, I'll. But then there's times where maybe I shouldn't, and then she does, you know.
Speaker 2:So it's this sort of give and take, but we got to constantly push in both sides. We can't just like hide out in the disabled debt and we can't just deny everything and put on this facade, because that's what got us here to begin with, but now we're not moving out of it because now people are stuck with that identity. So it's like this weird thing that's got to be pushed, moved, and so the minute you know that you could probably do something, but you're, it's easier just to let somebody else. That's your cue. You know what I mean. It's time to step up, you know.
Speaker 2:But then you got to have some humility and like, okay, maybe I've ran it out a little much, I'll accept some help, I'll get recalibrated, and that's the kind of that's how I like to stay in that kind of frame of mind, you know, malleable, depending on the when, my facilities and my faculty, everything's working. And I'm here, man, I'm going to do everything that a man should do, and then I'm going to have enough humility where like, hey, you know, maybe today I got to take a knee, but uh, as soon as I'm ready, man, I'm right back at it and I and I think that is a if I could pass on anything with your viewers or people it was like hey, don't hide behind the veteran identity and don't deny it either. It's part of the story. Some days are better, some days are worse. You got to constantly be doing your best, with whatever capacity you have at that day and at that moment, and that's how you gain ground. Yeah, that.
Speaker 1:That's how you gain ground. Yeah, that is a great, great advice for everybody out there listening. It's understanding that you don't have to be just one thing. You can be who you are and have those different sides of you and be able to embrace it. You don't have to let that warm, comforting diagnosis be your end, all be all. The VA makes it so easy. It's just so easy when you get out getting that rating and taking on that identity. But I always tell people challenge it like just be willing to live a life that's truly authentically you and not base your identity on a diagnosis or on an idea of what a veteran is. You get to choose. It's your life, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, don't ignore it, but also don't hide behind it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and that's hard to do, that's tricky man, especially in our society, right, like people are always doing that. I'm ADD, I'm autistic.
Speaker 1:I'm this, I'm that.
Speaker 2:You know, it's like everybody is autistic now well, maybe we're figuring out more, maybe you know the food has changed or maybe there's things in the environment that have caused that. And I'm not saying that that's wrong. What I'm saying is don't present yourself to the world by your diagnosis alone. It's too small, it's too limiting. You know, be more, understand the diagnosis, learn the tools, develop ways to calibrate yourself to do the work. You know, if you need counseling, do it. If you need hyperbarics, do it. If you need medications, depending on what they're you. You know, if you take advantage of these things that people offer, but then as soon as that scale starts to tip, immediately become a service, start serving others, get back in leadership, get back in responsibility, get back in discipline and just learn that process and stay committed to it. And that's what I would say to anybody in this position. Otherwise, you get stuck, dude. You get stuck in this denial bullshit or this hiding thing, and both are kind of. You know it's not enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And one of the things I did want to touch on is um the approach that mission 22 um goes about helping people. You touch it on. Can you uh touch on that for the programs you guys run?
Speaker 1:are you talking about r&r specifically, or yeah, yeah, uh, how much did marcus tell you a bunch oh yeah, but I just want to reiterate and just put it out there again Uh, that way of folks, I always know the guys are tuning in, but they hear, they need to hear the message again and again sort of been like okay yeah, this is something I needed to get involved in.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, we're launching a new program. It's basically, uh, coaching. We're doing coaching, r&r, we're building up resources to be able to start running more cohorts, hopefully within a few months. So I'm going to talk about two things, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:So the first one I'll talk about is R&R. It's basically 12 books. You learn to meditate. You get a gym membership it's got to be something in community, crossfit, jiu-jitsu, something where you're with other people. You get a ton of something called NuCalm I don't know if you've ever heard of it. Basically it's a device that immediately helps you get yourself in the parasympathetic, getting a state of calm and a state of rest.
Speaker 2:A lot of veterans are in this constant anxiety, heightened state of like fight or flight, coiled up like a tight spring. New calm immediately kind of like decompresses all that so that you can actually get into a state of parasympathetic where you can have cellular regeneration, where your mind can calm down and your body can rest. So this is kind of how we teach meditation. First is new calm, which puts you in a meditative state. Then is heart math, where you have to kind of sync up your breathing with this other thing and it gets you in a flow state. And then there's muse, where, like these, birds are chirping and you have to stay in a state of calm. And then the whole time you're checking your data, you're checking your watch and you're learning to master how to get in a flow state, how to get in a state of calm. And then the whole time you're checking your data, you're checking your watch and you're learning to master how to get in a flow state, how to get in a parasympathetic, how to engage, your breath, crawl, walk, run, and then on top of that you get a coach. So for six months to a year, depending on which program you pick, you're going to have a coach, not a counselor, not a therapist. You're responsible're responsible. You set the tone. You tell them what you want to work on. They're informed in trauma. They're informed in like, how to watch if someone's suicidal, this that the other. But the idea of giving veterans a life coach rather than a counselor is I want, I want the relationship to be even. I don't want it to be I got a problem. You're going to help me. I want it to be. I got a problem. I'm going to have you assist me in solving that problem.
Speaker 2:This, this program, is not for everybody. There's some people that absolutely need intensive psychiatric care, intensive counseling, and they can do both. But this program, I would say, is for somebody who knows I got some issues, who can distinguish the true from the false, who are tired of it, who are willing to get in and do hard work, repetitive daily work, and they go on this journey, man, where they're in a community of other people going through it. They got a coach. It's mandatory to go to the gym, they've got to read the books, They've got to learn to meditate and they get tons of supplements that help them sleep, calm down, get rid of inflammation.
Speaker 2:And then the other thing that coaches do, man, is that the American diet is screwing people over for the ability to recover. It's not just veterans, dude, like suicide rates, depression, all that stuff is going up, up, up up. Veterans, dude, like suicide rates, depression, all that stuff is going up, up, up, up. So much of this got to do with the human body not being able to process trauma and stress like it used to because of its massive inflammation from seed oils, from sugars you got these highs and lows of the sugar, man, it's anxiety. You've got all these seed oils affecting the hormonal levels. Tons of veterans come in with low t man, man, their testosterone is low, you know, from all this chronic stress, chronic stress, bad food, and then they're like oh, I got PTSD, I'm all messed up. Well, half the time. Man, like you just need to get your T levels up, you need to get your inflammation down and you need to establish like really serious disciplines. Establish like really serious disciplines. So if we touch on fitness, we touch on meditation, coaching, dynamic relationship where you set the tone, set the pace, pick a desired outcome and go after it and you're supported. And then those coaches teach about food and diet and how to avoid basically the horrible American diet that's destroyed our health, our physical, emotional, spiritual health, man, because we don't have the raw components to recover cellularly to have energy. So R&R touches on all these things. You've got to do the work, you've got to go through that journey. But by the end, man, people have lost massive amounts of weight. They've come off medications, they've learned to meditate. The dialogue's opened up with their weight. They've come off medications, they've learned to meditate. The dialogue's opened up with their spouse. They've achieved the goals they set out with their life coach. They've reclaimed that discipline. They've reclaimed that they're the narrator of their story.
Speaker 2:R&r is more about removing things, removing things that are limiting your ability to transition, to grow, to identify yourself in a new way, with a new purpose, and so much of that sounds like. It's like, oh well, why don't you just change? It's like, well, dude, is intensive therapy going to work if you just got? If all you ever do is eat horribly processed foods and you have no testosterone and you have no energy and you have headaches all the time and can't get along with your life. You got to get your levels right. You got to eat right. You got to. You got to. You got to go to bed. You got to wake up. There's so many more things that if we do these things, so many guys with PTSD would find that their lives become much more manageable in not that long a time.
Speaker 2:Not everybody. This is for a certain group of people. This isn't for people with severe TBI. This isn't for people that have, like, severe hallucinations. This is for people who got, you know, 50 to 70% disabled, ready for the VA, who can distinguish the truth from the false. Ready for the VA, who can distinguish the truth from the false and who are tired of not taking like agency, control and direction in their life and want to reinvent themselves. That's who this program is for, man.
Speaker 2:And we've seen, we've seen amazing results, amazing results. I mean I can't even do one woman, uh, had stopped ovulating, started ovulating again. One guy built this massive company and ended up selling it like a yoga studio. People have lost 30 to 40 pounds, marriages have been saved, families have been reunited. And they did it. I didn't do it, they did it. So when the problem comes around again because it will, they did it.
Speaker 2:They know that they can put in work, that they can measure results, that they can move the needle, because they've already done it for a year. Freedom that that beginner's mind, you know. Setting smart goals, bringing in support through coaches, mentors and applying these things over time to see the results. And dude, it's really great. Like uh, it's really frustrating that I can't raise the millions and millions needed to get as many people that want to go through it, through it, because it's a there's a lot of demand, it's it's a really great program, it really works. Um and dude, the way we, the way it's done, I think is the most special right, because I, it's not, you don't leave. They're like, oh, like, oh, I'm all better now because Magnus or Marcus or somebody helped me. It's like no, I went, I did this super hard work, it changed my life and now I have the tools forever and I can give that to others around me, including my children, including my spouse or veterans in my own circle. Yeah Boom, now you've got a powerful employer.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, exactly, and that's what we need.
Speaker 2:Now you got a dude who knows how to eat, knows how to train, has a psychoeducation, knows how to meditate and can help you measure these and create goals and like, get traction and do that and like that's, that's the green brain mission.
Speaker 1:Dude by, with and through yeah, oh yeah, man magnus, thank you so much for being here, man, it's amazing to see this program touch so many different lives and then come back around and to be able to advocate for it, to be able to share it and be able to see people that are like man, this makes sense, this works. It's like dude you're not only going to be able to change your life, but, just like you said earlier, you're able to change the lives of others and you're able to go back into your community and be that that shining example of like dude. You don't need to wait for somebody else to save you. You don't need to wait for the cavalry. You can do this on your own. You just need somebody a sidekick, a coach to sit there and say, hey, like, this is the pathway, let's have some accountability and keep moving forward together. That's what we all need.
Speaker 2:Dude, we need help, but we also need to be willing to receive that help. The best help is the help that makes you work, because then you own it. Once you own it, man, you can rise up and you can reinvent yourself and you can be a guide to others, you can be a testimony to others, you can become that person who is now aware and able to help people in need. And it doesn't have to be this sad story, it doesn't have to be this way. But you got to have that beginner's mind. You've got to be willing. You got to. You got to let go of what you thought it was going to be and get busy creating what it is you want it to be. And that's going to be a long process, you know.
Speaker 2:And there's a lot of stuff out there, man. There's the gangway and block. There's stuff out there, man. There's the ganglion block, there's iowasca. There's all this stuff, man. Go get it. Like, go look, go look at it, go experiment it, go read about it, research it. Like, if you're a commando, use that brain. Like, do the work. You know, and maybe it doesn't work for you, but maybe some other thing would, and it's like you're only as good as your last stop. I know I already said that, yeah.
Speaker 1:Be willing to try new stuff.
Speaker 2:Dude, I look at trauma as an opportunity to reinvent myself, because the version that I had got going failed, so I swiped it off and I started again. Man, trauma can be an opportunity. People hate hearing it. They really do Not always Some people it isn't, but for a lot of us it can be an opportunity to completely reinvent ourselves. And, dude, if you've come through a lot of darkness and you now carry some light that you can give to others, that's badass, that's a better mission. That's what we're supposed to be about anyway, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, magnus, what's, uh, what's on your um? What's on your next chapter? What are some things you're working on now?
Speaker 2:Uh well, I'm writing a novel.
Speaker 1:Oh, no way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, you know, I think first novels all fail, uh, but I'm writing one. Uh, mission 22 still going strong. Man, we've definitely. You know, the last four or five years has been some weird stuff. We're navigating a lot of. You know, there was all that inflation money, yeah, and now people can't even buy groceries, you know. So we're kind of oscillating back and forth trying to work our way through that. I got a son, I got, uh, I got a lot of work to do with him. Man, you know, he needs a dad, he needs somebody that he can be with, do stuff with. I'm doing crossfit a ton, I don't know.
Speaker 2:You know kind of weird, I'm 43, but uh, like I'm, I'm kind of into it, dude, yeah you know, uh, there's a lot of guys that kick my ass like they're fit, yeah, you know, and it kind of that little fit. Well, I used to be green beret like no dab. Well, you didn't do that workout.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know I let that go. But it's great to go to the gym and, uh, I have a. I have a new gym buddy here who's, oddly enough, I don't live near any major bases, but there's a Green Beret here, a National Guard guy, and I'm trying to give that wisdom of like, hey, man, you don't have to work out like the 25-year-old teammate, you just need to work out and be fit and be physically fit, be able to do the mission. But remember, you're never going to deadlift thousand pounds, you're never going to squat 800 pounds, like think of longevity, like think of being that, uh, that supple leopard. I wish I would have taken that advice while I was still on the team yes, and.
Speaker 1:I don't. I tell guys nowadays but hey, look at a hybrid athlete, look at being able to run pain-free. You can still carry the weight you need on a rock, you can still do the rock run. So all the stuff you need. But remember, you're not trying to build a beach body, you're trying to build a body that's going to get you through life and make you an athlete.
Speaker 2:That's, yeah, that's more important dude, you want your bones to be dense, you want your testosterone to be up, you want your metabolism working. You want that dopamine, serotonin, you know, but it's not your identity, yes, you know. So that make I go at it hard, uh. But then I also like the back flares up, dude. You know all that kit jumping in and out of trucks. Like you know, I gotta go to the chiropractor once a month, you know. Yeah, I got some ice packs, but I'll definitely back off if it starts season. Yeah, but if I'm feeling good, man, I give her hell, you know. So I'm working, I'm doing that, man, I'm, I'm, I'm about that. I think fitness is really cool, but I also think it's not. People put it on the very, very top and it's not. Yeah, right, but it's up there, but it's not the top of the pyramid. Yeah, we're supposed to be fit so we can be strong to serve others, exactly, yeah, yeah, you know. So I like that, I like doing that. Uh, what else am I doing? Debating?
Speaker 2:on a phd oh, no shit, I'm not sure. Yeah, yeah, I'm looking at theology, social psychology, uh, different kinds of coaching. Nice, part of me thought about being a naturopath, I don't know. Yeah, part of me just wants to kind of be done with academia too.
Speaker 1:That's been a tough yeah, it's been a lot to deal with. It was I found myself in the same thing. I'm in school right now. I I found that it was such a rewarding thing to start a class and I've already read the required reading because it's already a passion of mine. But now I'm in that phase where I'm like you know, I don't think you guys did a lot of work to become instructors or professors. And now I'm starting to see it and I'm like, okay, now I'm starting to understand. Like yeah, this is a racket. I need to get done with this degree and move on and walk away from school for a little bit, but it's still fine enjoyment. But it's like now you're starting to see behind the veil and look at the professor. Like okay, why do you want us to just focus on doing responses instead of actually being able to like write a paper? Like it seems like you just want to take a time out in this class, like you don't want a lot of work well, dude, I mean absolutely.
Speaker 2:Like college is inflated, yeah, right, like I forget the statistics, but the amount of people that have a bachelor's today compared to like 20 years ago is pretty big Right, and it's definitely not everything. And I wouldn't recommend it to people just starting out like, hey, go get a bunch of debt and go, like you know, I wouldn't wreck. But with me, you know, I had the GI bill. I got my master's with GI. What is it? Yeah, the GI bill, yeah, right, yeah, I was thinking VA home loan, gi bill, I got my. But now, man, it's like there's all these things that I want to say, like the R&R program, yeah, dude, that program, yeah, dude, that's. We got a bunch of badass data, qualitative and quantitative, like it's legit. But who says so, yeah, magnus, right, we need, yeah. So it's like you know, part of me is like, well, maybe I should get that social psychology, yeah, you know. And then we start getting some bigger grants, blah, blah, blah. It's a whole thing, dude, it's a whole world.
Speaker 1:Uh, it's I understand completely, because I'm like hey, you know you want to advocate for veterans. It's great I've been able to go and work with some awesome non-profits, do some great stuff, but at the end of the day, it's like you're just a guy with a podcast. It's like you know it, it's a tool. It's a tool to speak to the people and what I realized is you know, your pedigree from the military gets you into the room, but you still need something with the fancy letters at the end to get a seat at the table. So that's my whole endeavor, my whole thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, depending on where you go, it's just one of those things where it's and it's another one of those things of like hey, uh, they said you would never be able to do it. So it's great to be able to break the myths and be able to defy the people that grew up saying that you weren't meant for certain things and being able to say, hey, yeah, you know, turns out I am meant for these things, I am good at these things, and it's definitely been a very rewarding journey so far, but definitely ready for it to be over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it's definitely not everything and there's some entrenched BS there. Yeah, propaganda, some sort of you know science itself is kind of you know the researchers, and some of the science that they're discovering is pretty biased, you know researchers and some of the science that they're discovering is pretty biased.
Speaker 2:You know, uh, I forget again I had to look this up but uh, like an engineer or a physicist, right their theory, their theories, when they're working on their papers, their, uh, their thesis, it's like a 50% accuracy. You know, they like they do all the work, they do the research, and then like, yeah, my theory was wrong, like 50% of the time. Well, like in counseling and psychology and stuff like it's it's getting up closer to 100 of the time that their theories were accurate. You know, yeah, and so I got a. I got a tedious relationship with psychology and mental health. Man, yeah, it's, it's not the end-all, be-all of being really healthy. You know, it's physical, it's emotional, it's spiritual, it's what we, it's environmental, it's. It's so much more than just psychological yeah, no, it's mind, body and spirit.
Speaker 1:And if you just focus on one realm and say that it's all, it's only this, it's like my own lived experience. I needed all three realms. I needed all three of these fears to be kicked in and working. And that's when, like when I really leaned into that last fear which for a lot of us was spirit and got back in the church, that's when I saw the greatest amount of growth, like it was great. It was like you're, you're jogging, you're doing great, but then you get, get your butt to church, get back into your faith, and then you realize like, oh man, this is what running feels, like this is what it's like firing on all cylinders. And that's just my journey and I'm proud to like be able to say it and be able to share it with people, because my body and spirit guys be willing to be willing to be inquisitive and ask, just be willing to do it, just once.
Speaker 2:Bro, I'll tell you right now, even as a Green Beret, I wasn't half the man I am as someone who follows God. Yeah, it doesn't matter, dude. I blew up all kinds of IEDs, did all kinds of missions. You know, blah, blah, blah. It was all blah, blah, blah, dude, Until I started getting on mission for God, until I started looking at what is biblical manhood, what is my responsibility to my family, to my community, to God?
Speaker 2:Like, what am I supposed to do? Who am I? Who does he say I am? Everything changed, bro. That's when I created R&R. It wasn't because I'm so smart, you know, it's like.
Speaker 2:Once I got on the right side of that religion, you know spirituality with God, with religion, once I had the beginner's mind with that, I'm like, okay, I'm going to look at this, I'm going to look at, okay, who's God? Who does he say I am? I'm going to pursue that until I can either say yes or no. And uh, man, that, out of all the science, academia, green beret, blah, blah, blah. Like, if you're pursuing that, dude, everything's gonna, what's supposed to happen is gonna happen. And uh, that is an unlimited resource that can do everything. Yeah, and we people don't like to hear it. They want, they want to take a pill. You know they want to, they want to do something. But, like I'm telling you, dude, you go to God. You have the beginner's mind. If you're willing to work and you're willing to reinvent yourself, like a lot of amazing things can happen. Absolutely. Men need to hear that, especially dude.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a bottom line. I'm lucky and so blessed to have found that on my journey and realized the importance of it, the importance of it, the ultimate calling Be a husband, be a father. To put those things where they matter in order of presence in that ranking, because for such a long time it didn't exist. For me as a Green Beret, and for a lot of us it didn't exist either, and I especially avoided fatherhood, thinking that it was not important, that it wasn't this thing that I needed.
Speaker 1:And then later on in life, it comes back full circle to kick you in the ass Like, oh wow, I'm not a father, I'm not putting a priority in family. Well, who's going to be there for you? Who's going to be there at your home? At the end of the day, it's not going to be the team, it's not going to be. It's the family you build, and that's why so many of us need to understand this and I'm so glad that I have that.
Speaker 1:I'm fortunate enough to be building that now, to have the ability to craft that, to be back in my faith, practicing fully and understanding the value and importance of it, because that's really what you need in life. Nobody teaches you when you're a young man growing up when you don't have a dad, when you don't have a father at home and you don't see that, yeah. When you're a young man growing up when you don't have a dad, when you don't have a father at home and you don't see that, yeah. But, like I said, I'm fortunate now to be able to not only share with the audience, be able to bring individuals such as yourself to believe in it and see it for the truth that it is, but be able to spark that revolution into others, be able to say, hey, we need a champion, this we need, this is what we need a champion 100 dude like that's what it's all about, you know, it ain't mission 22, it ain't me, it ain't psychology, it ain't this.
Speaker 2:It's like you want to be on mission, go to. You want a mission bigger than being a Green Beret? Answer God's call dude. See how crazy that gets Because it's not for the weak dude. Yeah, like God has big demands on people that he calls and I've seen so many guys' lives completely turned around. Once they kind of gave up this idea of what it is to be a man or a green braid, all that, and like look to God, got their idea from that. Complete life change, everything, everything gets put in order Mental health comes around, physical health comes around, family health comes around, purpose comes, mission comes and like dude, people don't hear it enough, you know?
Speaker 2:uh, and I think it's up to guys like us to kind of set that example the best that we can absolutely you know, you get some commandos going into church and they see these sort of beta males and kind of passivity and they're like, yeah, that's not for me yep and you know they're right. But guess what they're not in the church. What if they were in the church? Guess what they're not in the church. What if they were in the church? Then the next guy that comes in the church would see him.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And they'd be like, oh, that's a man, that guy's got it going on. I'm going to ask him to mentor me, I'm going to do what he does, right. So if you see something missing, it's probably because we're not in it Absolutely and it's probably because we're not in it Absolutely. Like you go to the church and you're like, oh, they're singing these songs and like you know, oh, hi, brother, like this, these aren't. You know, like people get judgmental. Dude, I did, but I wasn't willing, I wasn't there, I wasn't being somebody that people could come to in the church. You know, yep, and so what we see that we're lacking in society.
Speaker 2:I think that we are supposed to fulfill and we're not. Yeah, and I think we need to take our. We need to take that agency. We need to surrender the cross. We need to. We need to get back into the science, get back into the research, get back into academia. We need to assert ourselves where the, where there needs to be truth and we need to hold each other accountable. And we need to get rid of this identity of a broken soldier, warrior, marine or whatever, and take some of that brokenness and, from that, reinvent ourselves and then pursue beyond mission for God. You start seeing that happening. Onesies and twosies, hundreds and thousands from commandos especially. You're going to see society turn around pretty quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've been absent for the last 20 years. It's time for us to go back and be of service in these spaces once again.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm talking about and that's why I'm so proud of R&R is because it opens that up. And then, boom dude, they're off to the races, and so R&R is not the only place to do that. You could do that wherever you know. But if we answer that, call man, I think everything falls into place.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Magnus. Thank you so much for being here today. Man Again, Mission 22,. Go to episode description. The link will be there for the program and whenever that book drops, man, I can't wait to have you back on to talk about it. So you got to finish it, you got to carry on with that mission.
Speaker 2:That's why I said it. I put pressure on myself because I didn't want. I was like man, don't say it don't say it.
Speaker 1:No, you gotta put it out there. And then, uh, yeah, you know what I'm gonna put it on. Uh, god's gonna put it on my mind and my heart to reach out every so often see how it's doing well, I get about, I get about uh, seven, eight pages a week.
Speaker 2:So I got about two, got about two, three hours in the morning. I crank on it about twice a week and, uh, my got a pretty full plate. So, yeah, yeah, if it's a big success, you know, uh, we'll try to write another one. But I gotta tell you, man, it's a little bit weird. It's a bit of a weird book, you know.
Speaker 1:Good. All the good ones are brother.
Speaker 2:It's not a military book.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good man. We need to be able to get outside, and the audience will know once they listen to this episode. It's refreshing to see somebody's journey where they just say I'm going to go into the unknown. I've been in the unknown before. I'm going to abandon this comfort, I'm going to go into the unknown, and that's just the perfect episode for this man. So I can't thank you enough for being vulnerable enough to share your entire journey and for creating something that's helped so many people and continuing to say hey, I'm just a guy and I'm going to continue going into beginner's mind.
Speaker 2:Well, thanks, man, I appreciate it. Uh, you're doing good work, dude. I've seen people you're interviewing and things you're talking about. You're doing intelligently, you're doing humility, you're asking great questions and, uh, that's really important right now, man, uh, there's not a lot of platforms that are doing that kind of direct, open, calm, sincere dialogue. You know there's a few, yeah, and uh, I appreciate it, man, and I know other people will and continue to do so as you continue to grow man, it's great.
Speaker 1:Thank you absolutely, man. Thank you, brother, and thank you all for tuning in and, as always, take care of each other and we'll see you all next time. Till then, take care of each other and we'll see you all next time. So then, take care. If you like what we're doing and you enjoying the show, don't forget to share us. Like us, subscribe.
