E99 Healing Trauma From Military Service with Military-Mike | Mental Health Podcast

Hey! What's up, Unbroken Nation! Michael Unbroken here – author, speaker, coach, entrepreneur, and advocate for adult survivors of childhood trauma and you are listening to the Michael Unbroken podcast.

Super excited to be joined by one of my great friends Military Mike today. Mike is an enabled veteran best-selling author, investor coach, and multi-passionate entrepreneur. He teaches veterans high-income skills, so they can increase their earning potential and learn in their American dream that they have fought hard to defend, got Goosebumps even talking about it. Military Mike, what is up, my man?

Military-Mike: What's going on brother? How are you doing man? Thanks so much for having me on the show.

Michael: Man. I'm so good. Super excited to have you here. Super excited to be connected with you. I love your story; I love your mission. It's so much about what I think about as we move towards creating change in expansion in the world, how we come together to help each other. Now, a little background for folks listening to you and I actually connected was in a pitch off from the Grant Cardone. My audience is probably heard me say this 10 million times or tired of hearing it at this point, but you were right there and something really incredible happened at that moment, and Grant helped invest was ten thousand books to get dozens around the world, right?

Military-Mike: That's it.

Michael: Amazing! And so Mike, you and I connected there, we met up in Miami, both exhausted from being all over the world and traveling, and just sat there and just took it in so, didn't learn, you know, I like to consider myself a learner, but before we dive into you, as an educator, and someone inspiring the world, tell us about your journey. How did you get to this moment?

Military-Mike: Man! I appreciate it. So I got to say it really all comes from this idea that or this mindset that I have that life is too short, you know, I've kind of experienced a few things in life that have taught me that I need to give more, I need to produce more need to do more, right? You can't just come onto this Earth and not leave an impact behind right before, it's too late. I lost my mom when I was 6 years old and at that moment, you know, from Sickle Cell this disease that I didn't really fully understand, but I knew I had a portion of, right? And this was, it was, you know, stemming in my family, I knew that there was a clock that was put on my life and on, you know, other people in my family's life, and so, with that clock in mind, I've always had this, you know, this need and desire to do a lot. I mean, I don't Grant Cardone calls it, an obsession with other people, they might think you're crazy, because you do so much, right? But to me, it's just like, well, if I have this clock on my life and wide die without putting myself out there, right? Without trying, at the very least, so, I kind of grew up, loving James Bond I know you, and I kind of a kind of gelled over that I will know that James Bond is kind of is like a huge hero figure in my life, early on as a child, but I loved, you know how he looked in a suit, I loved how, you know, he did jumped out of planes, did all these really cool things.

So, anyway, fast forward, I joined the military and when I joined the military, I realized that I was in a community that didn't necessarily have long-term potential for me, I knew that I enjoyed my time in the service, but, you know, there were some sacrifices that I had to make. I wasn't ready to give up, I know, and I definitely love serving my country, don't get me wrong.

But you know, when you are in an environment where you're away from home for long periods of time, it can be depressing, and when you're in an environment where your leadership, you don't necessarily trust them, right? Or you know, you don't feel comfortable in the environment you're in, you’re going to look for means of escape and in the service. A lot of people don't talk about this, but you know, there's this encouragement and of drinking, right? The drug, sometimes even like all these unhealthy ways that people cope with the stress and they look for this means of escape and it creates a cynical cycle that becomes detrimental in the long term and I hear about all these veterans committing suicide, you hear about all these veterans going homeless, right? And just kind of losing themselves and their transition, this is where it stems from then, and it's tough, and I almost went down that route myself, you know, and so, it wasn't until I started my journey to self-help, right? And transformation is when I realized I needed to change everything I was doing and, you know, from then on it was just getting into real estate, investing, learning how to teach other people with marketing and skills and business, and just kind of growing from there, man, and really just I don't know. I gotta say like, I said life is too short and if you're not doing something to leave an impact on other people's lives and leaving something behind you, then you're just kind of living a life of I don't know, I don't even know what to say, right? You just kind of living a life of, you know, loneliness and emptiness and that's it.

Michael: Yeah! And being unfulfilled right? And I resonate with that in such a real way because you know, I spent my teens in my twenties chasing money, and I was like, oh man, he's got to be the solution for all these problems I have while I'm like downing a bottle of like Captain Morgan every night, you know what I mean? And like being in this super dark place and that was what I experienced and I had a near-death, I'm not a few near-death moments, to be honest with you, but one of the things I'm always thinking about is re-establishing my relationship with death because when you like really sit with it, and you understand that one day, this is all over like it's done. It will change the way that you live and exist within the world. What was it about that, and I want to talk about this, because I do think that people are terrified of dying, and there's not the fact that I'm not like, scared to die, I don't want to die, I hope I die without pain and without some really crazy thing happening to me, but I also rationalize the idea like it's going to happen. And so it pushes me to move at a pace in which most people, they look at me, they go, you're a workaholic, you never take a break, and I'm like, but you have to understand, I love what I do, I'm obsessed with it to the point that I don't mind the hundred-hour work weeks and in fact, because I'm building something, I'm creating something, talk to me about the relationship of death that you've had, and the way that is really catapulted you into trying to create this life that you have now?

Military-Mike: Yeah, man, my relationship with death is crazy in my opinion, right? I know a lot of people have experienced, a lot of other things and that I don't want to take that anyone else, but as I said earlier, from losing my mom, when I was 6 years old that to me was devastating because I'll never forget, you know, the setting we were at a party, you know, that my grandparents were hosting for one of my little cousins and my mom had been in and out of the hospital for a while, but to me, it was just a routine. It was just something that she was doing, right? And I six years old, how do you really explain all the craziness is of a terminal illness?

So I saw her that day in the hospital and she looked fine to me right again. She looked like, you know, every other time she was in the hospital. So I didn't see the difference there and then it was three or four hours later where my dad pulled me and my one-and-a-half-year-old sister into a room to explain to us that our mom was not coming back, and that was, that was tough, right? I mean, I don't even like I didn't even remember the next week. I just feel like it would just be black because I just like, how do you go through that the rest of your life now? Like not having that person that was supposed to be there to nurture you and develop, you over the years.

And then from there, it was her sister and then you know, another aunt, another cousin right, you know over the course of my early childhood and so it almost numbed me, right? A little bit to death as a child, but then fast forward to my time in service.

My last deployment and this was after again, I started my journey of self-development. I was in the Middle East and I remember getting a phone call from or text message, right? Like a Facebook message from my uncle telling me that my aunt, so my mom's last and final living sister, who had already beaten the odds of sickle cell would have gone to the hospital three times in the week, and I remember, feeling that gut feeling in my chest saying, okay, something's wrong, something's wrong, I don't know what's going on, what's going to happen here, but I just started praying and we ended up losing her.

And I remember asking my command to go down and bury her in the ground because she had kind of taken that mantle of the mother figure in my life at that point and they said no, because she wasn't an immediate family member, right? She wasn't a part of that like Inner Circle at the military deems that you are granted emergency leave for those scenarios. And so I had to, you know, look, my family in the eye is coming back from a nine-month deployment and saying, hey, I tried to get here, right? That feeling of shame, right? That feeling of disappointment was huge and heavy and my life, and so that is kind of Ultimately led me to leave service but you know, just this recurring, you know, the cycle of early death in my life, just that's really what catapulted me to say; ‘Hey life is too short, man.’ I gotta work, I gotta hustle, like you said, like I don't mind working hundred plus hours a week because I am creating something, right? I'm trying to leave something behind as a matter. If, you know, I end up dying, five years from now, five days from now, or 50 years from now, right? At the very least, I will have least tried right to do something to leave behind and I'm proud of what I have, you know, done at this point, and I'm excited about all the things that I have yet to do.

Michael: Yeah, I love that man. And my heart goes out to you, man, because I think about how many times that we do have to make sacrifices in our lives, right? And sometimes it's by choice and sometimes it's by proxy, you know, at 18 years old. I put, I told my mother I sat down, but then I said, you're not allowed to be in my life anymore, right? She was a drug addict, she was an alcoholic, she was a liar, a thief, and narcissist like you name it, right? Like she would drink and drive the whole nine, like, and I foresaw, like, I knew like if I kept her in my life that I would not be having this conversation with you today, right? I could just force it, my gut told me sometimes the hardest thing that we have to do is the best thing. And years later that has paid dividends in my life to be able to put myself in a position to even have this kind of conversation, but you talk about sacrifice. There's nothing like I don't think people really understand the power of a sacrifice that you're not ready to make until you have to make it.

And you've done that multiple times, talk to me about that like realizing these moments in which you're like I got to make a sacrifice even if I'm not ready and the impact that that has on your life, whether good or bad?

Military-Mike: Yeah. It's a huge crossroads, I think right in your life and just like you said, Mike like you gotta see you got a project right? A little bit, you have to say; ‘Okay, Am I going to be better off in the future by making the sacrifice right now? Or am I going to be, you know worse off just kind of staying in this environment.’

We've all heard the phrase, you know, you're a sum total of the five closest people in your life, right? Or I would say five closest influences because they don't necessarily always have to be people, they can be things, that can be books, they can be, you know, whatever you're doing spiritually, but yeah, you got to make that choice and, you know, for me and as a veteran and for, you know, other veterans that might be listening to this, you know, you have to when you experience that sacrifice that you aren't ready to make and you're still in you have three choices, right? And I know you've all have seen maybe someone experienced this or maybe you've gone through yourself, you know, but that feeling of needing to lash out, right? What does that do for you? Really at the end of the day, like if you can, you can kick, you can screen, you can punch, you can do whatever you want, but that doesn't solve your problem, right? You can opt-out you can end your life, right? But is that a solution? Is that really something that is going to help solve anyone's issue? It's going to cause more problems will cause more problems for the people you leave behind, right? And it doesn't do anything to help, you know, you, when your future, and all the things, all the positive changes, all the good that you can do and bring right or you can get out, right? Choose for me, it was choosing to get out, but not getting out violently getting out, smartly, right? And choosing to invest in that time to personally develop myself on my way out the door, but that's how, you know, I choose to, you know, make that sacrifice as calmly as I can make it and then, try and better myself on the back-end of whatever situation I'm going through because I always have to remind myself the situation that I'm in right now is not as important as where I'm going. I was taught that you know, someone told me that while it's the Naval Academy and that Mentor still a positive father figure in my life, and I was kind of going through a rough breakup at the time, right? Because of the rough breakup at the time but it was still something so pivotal and profound that I've applied that lesson to a lot of the sacrifices in my life since then and it's been and it's been great.

Michael: Yeah, that's powerful. And there's so much truth amendment and like look like someone who has had a suicide attempt in my own life, it was being in this place from like man, this is fucking rock bottom like I don't even know if I can go any lower than this. And at that moment, what was really spectacular called divine intervention? I don't care what you call it.

There was this moment, I realized this promise that I made to myself, when I was 8 years old, going across the street, to our neighbor's house and stealing water because we were so poor, the water company had cut our water, and I was just in this moment, like turning on their spicket, filling up this little blue bucket I mean, like, when you've grown up, this won't be your life, and as I had this final breakdown of all breakdowns, right? The Rock Bottom, could not go any lower. I was like, what are you willing to do to have the life that you want to have and the words, No excuses, Just results came into my mind and it has become the precursor for everything that I do in my life, but that required a tremendous amount of action to go from where I was 11, 12 years ago to where I am right now, having this conversation with you talk about the power of actually taking action against the things that you're thinking?

Military-Mike: Yeah, man. That's a great topic. Action is critical. Okay, so I'll break it to you like this; In the service, they teach us not to get pinned down. Getting pinned down is the worst possible place to be your enemy can flank you around all sides if you're just hiding their cowering behind whatever object, you know with all these bullets flying overhead, your enemy will flank you and they will get you, all right? So you have to keep moving and I think that's a critical lesson in life too. If you allow yourself to succumb, to your fears, to your emotions, to the depression, right? All that stuff will eat you inside and it will not only prevent you from doing all the good that you have the potential to do. It will also, ill cause you to see life through such a negative lens, and people by, and large are not evil, right?

I mean there, there are evil people. I'm not saying there are not, but things are not always out to get you, and if you live life through that type of lens, you're not living a fulfilling and fruitful life, you're not. So keep moving right? Tony Robbins teaches us that you know, your emotions are controlled by your emotions, right? So you have to get up. Change your action, right? Create a spark in your body. So you can give yourself more energy to get yourself out of that negative mindset that you are in. And I think that's critical and that's definitely something that I try and do when I'm feeling, you know, in those down moments. I'm not perfect, right?

No one is right, life has ups and downs and you're not and I'm not saying that you need to, you know, be Tony Robbins, but what I'm saying is that, you know, when you're feeling negative and if you haven't tried it before, try it, try getting up, try moving around, try keeping your head in an upright position, right? Maybe your chest out and do that little superman stance, and just see how your emotions change. Hold it for 2 minutes. Keep breathing, and just see what happens man, because I guarantee you, those two minutes changing your state from that negative emotion, you're feeling into something more positive, will be more beneficial for you in the long run, I guarantee it.

Michael: Yeah. That's so much about the action. I'm constantly thinking about the idea that what you think, becomes what you speak and what you speak, becomes your action and your action, becomes your reality, and everything is about that. But we're faced with this, especially if you come from any type of traumatic background losing a parent, being abused, whatever that is, this thing called, depression, kind of starts to show its ugly little head and I got, to be honest, man, I don't know anyone, I've never met anyone on planet Earth who has not battled depression, but especially people from the military are amazing veterans and my family I come from a military family. I would have been in the military had I have not had an injury in high school in which I couldn't pass MEPS but it was my dream. It was the only thing I ever wanted to do because I saw fucking Tom Berenger in sniper and I was like, that's it, I'm gonna be a Marine Corps scout sniper at like I would just think Lee, remember it like it was yesterday, I'm eight years old, I'm home from school, it's a summer day, it's on television. I was just like; ‘Ooohhh! Right? having that moment.’ And one of the things that I understand and like I'll never get to have that life, and I'm so much gratitude and appreciation for not only my family but for you and for everyone that serves not only my country but their countries because it's a calling that so much bigger than you. But the question is and because we're not having the conversation enough. How do you deal with the depression of being deployed? How do you deal with the depression of I can’t see my family, my kids, my best friend, my mom, go to the funeral, go to the birthday party, be in that because it takes its toll, man? How do you deal with that?

Military-Mike: It really does man. Well, first of all, I'll tell you how you don't deal with it. Okay, you don't deal with it by getting lost in social media, scrolling through Instagram, seeing everyone, living their best lives, and just feeling sorry about yourself, right? Because that's what I did. That's what my sailors and marines did, right? And they and it just causes this feeling of desire and want and just all this unnecessary emotion that you don't need what you should do, instead is find ways to use your time, investing in yourself, right? Invest in your growth, pick up a book, read. I read one book and it changed my entire life, Rich Dad, Poor Dad set me on the path to where I am now, where I own more than, you know, 10 different properties in five different states and two different countries, you know, I've started a company and grown a community of 25,000 plus veterans, inspiring them to take action and to invest in real estate. If I never read that book, I would have never had into my source of energy and my potential that I had to give me the direction to grow, and I'm not saying that to stand on a pedestal here, I'm saying that’s the potential that you have as a veteran. If you're going through a long deployment, it's already tough being far away from your family, not being able to communicate but through emails, maybe text messages, or whatever you have the bandwidth for, right? Because a lot of our systems out there is still old school and decrepit, but anyway, you know, it's you got to do something to change it out. If it's online courses that you can read, great! If it's or you can do then, great! If it's a book that you can read even better, podcasts I mean, I spent less time watching Netflix on my last deployment and more time, you know, watching how to's on YouTube, and now though, not all of those how-to's are great now, right? Because there's a lot of misinformation out there, but even the misinformation is enough to kind of get you inspired to do something right, different. So that's fine. Just don't worry about that and just invest more of that time that energy learning new things stuff, it's going to add value to your life. I mean, I talked about high-income skills a lot because it's a veteran. A lot of times you get lost in that world of, you know, working for someone else's mission and you know, serving the country and wearing that badge of honor sometimes it becomes a crutch to the point where now you feel lost and you don't have an identity for yourself. So when that back end, when you're looking to transition you just you're looking for someone else to give you instructions and guidance in life, but you don't need that. They talked to the discipline, they taught you the ability to, you know, go out and do not fail at your mission, right? So take that, take the discipline and go out and apply that in your own life. Take charge and carry out the plan of your life. Okay, be your own boss, develop skills, and sales and marketing, or coaching and consulting, take your passions and convert them into something that can earn you multiple six, seven, and eight-figure incomes in any economy. All right? But that's how I recommend, you challenge that deployment period because everyone thinks the common misconception is that, when you're on deployment, you're on a mission 24/7. I mean, you kind of are in a way because you're always on call, but you're not always on the watch, and there's a lot of off time, that accumulates, and when you spend it, watching Netflix, surfing social media doing things, you know, and living other people's lives vicariously, through them that is not doing anything to add value to you. So you don't have to necessarily be an entrepreneur.

You can do things to develop yourself spiritually, right? Mentally, physically, right? You can I say a lot of gym buffs, right? Come back from deployment, losing like 50 pounds and gaining all the muscles and stuff, like that's great, you know, do that, but do something that's going to add value to you, positively don't just use it.

Thinking about the life that you could have and thinking about all the things that have gone wrong between you and your spouse or your family and this and that and all these regrets that you have that just weighs you down and it and it doesn't help you become a better person in the long run.

Michael: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I think that translates over to civilian life in such a true way because there are so many people who they're blaming the world for why they can't have the life that they want to have. And yet they're watching television all night, they're hanging out at bars all night, they're not going off the gym, they're not doing self-care, they're not doing self-help, they're not doing self-education, that's really, I'm trying to coin self-education now because it's like, I think we're past the help part of it.

Now, we're learning and you have the opportunity to step into creating the life that you want to have, but it starts with acknowledgment and saying that you are capable of doing this, you are capable of building this and everyone starts at zero. Everyone starts at zero and the one thing that I've learned about not only being an entrepreneur, but a leader in this space or us talk, a talk I was going to call myself a talk, I haven't talked, I never shut up but like be getting on stage and speaking, and all of these things, is that it started with zero, it started with no one coming to the workshops. It started with one person in the audience and started with one listener, one follower, one line in the book, right? It always starts there and people are so concerned that if they don't do it all right now immediately that no one's going to take them seriously. I've been building and creating this thing for five years, but I've also been creating my life for the last ten probably 12 with intention. Can you talk about the power of intention and clarity as you're moving towards these goals in these things that you want to create in your life?

Military-Mike: That is so so critical. If you don't have intention, then you will not see the result you're looking for, you can't. And I love this topic Mike because, I mean, I've seen my transformation from the time I started, you know, to even now and the clarity that I've had in the market that I'm tapping into right in the veteran community. When I started out, you know, I knew that, okay? Your network is your net worth, right? I hear all these awesome buzz words, but I didn't really know what that means. What that meant my intention back then was to say, okay. I just need to network with people more successful than me and that's great, and that's how it started now, right? It's way more intentional than that. It's not just people who are more successful than me, it's people who are doing exactly what I want to do. Right? And so, I want to go and network myself in their circles. So I can ask them questions that relate to where I'm trying to go, and I can be more fulfilled by that network. It's nice to have a bunch of cool friends that have a lot of money or have a lot of success and wealth, but it's nothing if they can't do anything to positively, help impact you and your life, right? And so, you know, for you listening to this, you know, think about the next time you step into a meeting right? Whether it's just a corporate meeting, right? Or there or whether it's a meeting with friends.

Think about the next time you have a conversation with your family, think about the next time you have a conversation with a friend, right? What is your intention with that conversation, with that meeting, with that time that you're about to spend? If you're going to go and you're going to take a trip with your family. Okay, great. It's nice to just put yourself in the position to go on that trip. What are you looking to accomplish from it? Are you trying to get closer as a family? Are you trying to bond? Are you trying to talk about a challenging period that you experience with this friend of this family member, right? You need to be intentional with your decisions, with your actions, with your conversations, in order to really achieve the result, you're looking for.

And I think that before the intention piece there's a little bit of that clarity piece, that has to come before that, cuz that's huge. I mean, sometimes you don't you don't really know what your intention is, and the reason you don't know that is that you're not clear on what you want. You have to be clear on what you want first, right? Then you'll be able to intentionally move in the direction that you're looking for or have the conversations that you need to have in order to produce the results that you want. Does that make sense?

Michael: Yeah, a 100%!  And I think about that and everything like from business and self-development and relationships and career, and connection thing about this if I didn't have intention and clarity about the conversation that you and I were going to have the day, we'd be talking about fucking sports and shit that don't matter, right? That's it like that applies across the board, like I hate water cord talk. This idea that we're going to have these bullshit conversations for 30 seconds, brings no value to anyone's life.

So when you're engaging in connection, community with people, make a commitment to the idea that you can show up that you can be present, but here's what's really fascinating and all of this and people are listening to this and they're hearing it and they're going. Well, I understand that from this very high level, but from a practical standpoint, when I think about actually showing up and doing things in my life, I feel like a fraud, I feel like this isn't me, I feel like there's this limiting self-belief. And for me, it has only changed through this idea of just, I'm going to do it until it becomes real. How do you work through this Mike? How do you go from this idea, but I'm concerned about judgment to I'm going to do it anyway because I believe in it enough that I'm willing to suffer?

Military-Mike: Then that's powerful. I really think that when you are able to do something, despite yourself, that's when you really see the biggest change, not only in yourself but also in the impact that you're having. Guys, you cannot let this imposter syndrome is what we call it in this world, you know, get you down, take that action, anyway, who cares if you haven't hit the threshold of success yet? There are people that are still stuck on the cover of the book, even if you just got through chapter one, you still have the ability to inspire them, pick them up, help them get started, okay? And by the time you help enough people get started in life, you might be on chapter 2 chapter 3 and you'll be able to continue on and so on and so forth, but for me it was the level of confidence, right? I mean, who am I? I invested in all of one property, when I started this company here, active duty passive income. And who am I? And I read a book, right? Rich Dad, Poor Dad, cool! Now, that makes me an expert in real estate investing held no, right? But you don't have to claim to be an expert and if you want to be technical in life, no one really is an expert. I mean, we all think, we all like to think that we are wide when you've come to a certain level of knowledge, and sure, right? That can be the perception, but everyone still learning, everyone is still growing, like you and I were talking about this before the show. Like we are constantly putting ourselves in an environment where we're learning and growing, but once you learn and you grow, you cannot forget to leave those who are still learning and growing behind and I live by this philosophy. God gave us two hands, one to pull ourselves up and one to reach down and pull someone else with them, right? And in that philosophy, you have to be able to get move despite what you feel about yourself, despite whatever your emotions are. There are people that look up to you that are there are need you to help inspire them so they can take action in their life and you are doing a disservice for them. If you believe in your emotions and you limit your ability to get past this idea that you're not good enough that you're not capable enough that you're not experienced enough to share your knowledge and your journey.

Michael: Yeah, and you know you're spot-on and I shared with one of my clients the other day. We were in this coaching session and you know, I looked at them and I said you are being selfish by not sharing your message.

Military-Mike: Yes.

Michael: Because and look whether you're religious or not, it doesn't matter, God's, spirit, universe call it what you want, but some people adamantly and truly believe that they are here for a purpose. I am one of those people I believe I am like, because why else would you suffer? I roused you suffer and to not use your voice is so selfish. And sometimes like, I think the truth is reality, is we're concerned about what other people think and I'm always like, what do they have to do with me? I get cans, like, I get canceled every day, brother. I get emails every day. I get canceled and I'm like, so what's your point? What do you have to do with me? Because this person over here needs my help and needs my boyfriend so that limiting belief that you have the only way that goes away is through trading action.

Now, Mike, I want to ask you this question because I want to come back to something, you said a couple of minutes ago, you know, we find ourselves wearing this badge, that becomes a crutch and that applies across the board. Trauma Survivor, artist, CEO, corporate, exact blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, janitor doesn't matter, right? We get tied and labeled and we stick with these labels and they become in our way and they become this crutch where we use it as an excuse. How do you find a new Mission?

Military-Mike: Hmm. Finding a new mission is important. And I like what you said there because you know those labels really do get in our way. You got to step outside yourself first and to say; okay, what or I'm sorry, you got to look in you have to look inward to yourself and you have to say; ‘Okay. What inspires me? What am I passionate about, right?’ And I would even say, you know, think back to some conversations that you had, you know, with yourself or I'm sorry, with conversations, you had with other people, you know, previously. What are the compliment you about? What traits, what skills do they did? They, you know, say that you're really good at, right?  Because when you're finding a new Mission, you know, you want to be able to say okay you want to be able to fall back on your base and say; ‘Okay. What's my superpower?’ Right? Like what is easy for me to do that's harder for other people to do and then more importantly at the end of all those questions you ask and you answer for yourself. Who is it that you want to serve? Who do you want to help? Because, in order for you to have an accurate target, right? You have to understand everything about that target, you have to know who it is that, that, that you're helping in this mission that you're going to set for yourself, right?

So start with yourself and then end outside yourself and say; ‘Okay. This is these are my talents, these are my passions, this is what I'm happy about, this is what I can, I could value, I can bring to this marketplace, right?

And then in this mission, right? I need to find a target, so who can I best serve? And a lot of times guys, you might find out that that person looks a lot like the person you see in the mirror. Real talk because you've been through a journey, you have a story when no matter what it is, no matter how you're choosing to help somebody out, you know, nine times out of ten that person's going to have a lot of traits similar to you because you're speaking your own truth, you're speaking your own message, your own challenges and your story and how you overcame them.

So, you know, it starts the best way to start a new Mission, man, is this just start there. “Figure out what you can bring, what value you bring, and then figure out who you can share that value with the most and inspire.”

Michael: I love that man. I love that. So true. It's so true because you know, I see myself in so many of my clients and you know, of Coach thousands of people now around the world and I'm always like, I see that I've experienced that, have been there, and that's so much about community and connection and then you're parlaying with them. But, you know, I look at it like this, I have mentors who, I mean, they're so far above where I want to go that, it becomes a marker, it becomes a destination not intimidation, right? And sometimes I think you just have to align yourself with people who are where you want to be coming back to your point, a few minutes ago and in doing so, a lot, you have the ability to be a learner to go, I'm going to come and learn.

I have another question to go back to as I want to come full circle and something you said that's really important. You said a book changed my life, Rich, Dad, Poor Dad, this book changed my life. When I thought about personal development, I used to be like this shit is fucking stupid. Right? Why would you ever do a Tony Robbins? I saw that dude, and shallow how and it was like, are you kidding me right now? And then what happened is I realized something. Somebody knows something that I don't and I need it and I have amazing mentors, I've been mentored by my Tony, by Tom Bill, by Marie Forleo, by Grant Cardone and Pete Vargas and Pat Queen, and the list goes on and on and on and on and on and that all started with a book it all started with, can I do one thing? Can I read one thing? And it began with this moment of looking at and recognizing like if I don't do this then how am I ever going to have the life that I want to have? Out for the people who are stuck, like, where I was where they're like, self-help is stupid, I don't even know why I'm listening to this fucking Podcast, what advice do you give them to be able to step into this with vulnerability to acknowledge? You know what? Maybe I need this.

Military-Mike: Yeah. That's great, man. I say it all comes back to what I said earlier about the clarity that's huge. You got to get clear with yourself where you're at currently and asking, just do an internal audit. Am I living a life that helps me be fulfilled, right? Am I living in a life that gives me, that feeling that I have arrived, where I want to be right? I am making the impact; I want to have. I'm making the money, that I want to make. I'm spending the time with my family that I want to spend. Whatever it is. You gotta ask yourself that and it really starts there. And if your answer is, yes, then great! Then why are you listening to this? Do you know? Why are you getting the south house base? Maybe you're good, maybe you don't need it anything, but I guarantee that most of you listening to this, you're not there yet, and that's okay, right? But now you have to ask yourself. What are you doing to get there? What are you currently doing? You know, I listen, I used to hear this thing which was overplayed and now it's now a kind of makes sense to continue to bring up, you know that definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I mean, it's true, it really is true. And if you think that, you are going to have that fulfilled life and continue to do what you're doing right now, then you're absolutely crazy, you have to give something up, right? Grant talks about this, right? In order to get something, you got to give something up. You gotta lose your mind, right? That's what he said, but it's true. Like, you have to lose the way that you're currently thinking because I guarantee you that way that you're thinking right now is it's holding you back from success. Mike, you talked about mentorship that's critical, a lot of people have this. Oh, I don't want to pay for mentorship, I don't want to pay for coaching. Why not? Why do you pay for college in the chance to learn all these different things in the hopes of landing a job on the back end, if that I want to pay for the coaching that's going to give me the most direct result, that's going to teach me one specific thing that it's going to help me get to the other side, right? That I know I'm going to be able to do for me. My coaching helps me produce more for my clients, right? For the military veterans that I helped inspire and teach high-income skills, because I know if I learn and I grow, and I take action on the things that I'm learning, I can inspire and teach other people do the same.

So, as result, the coaching I invest in, helps me invest in other, you know, individuals and helps grow my income, and helps me give the impact that I want to have in life. All right. So what are you doing? All right, how are you? How is Netflix that you're watching every single night? Adding to your income, right? Or adding to the impact that you want to have in life. It's nice to watch all these cool shows on people doing incredible things and doing these competitions and making money. That's all entertainment. That's great! But all that's doing is distracting you until you go back to your 9 to 5 and keep living this vicious cycle that you keep doing to yourself every single day. You have to break it. If you don't break it, you're never going to change. You're never going to live that life of abundance that you work called for.

Michael: Yeah, yeah. And like and I'll say this to Mike because, you know, I think it sometimes when you're in these spaces, you people come off as preachy and I want to say this if you're good with the 9 to 5 in Netflix live your best life. As my homegirl, Oprah says; “No judgments” but if you're putting your head on the pillow at night and you're like, I hate my life, you need to do something about it because the truth is nobody's gonna do it for you and if you don't believe in yourself who will? And I’m telling you right now, you're worried about spending $10 on a book and I'm about to spend six figures on a coach, and but look, I started at zero Mike, I'll tell you right now. Ten years ago, I literally had to ask my girlfriend to pay for rent money, I had to I was that broke, right? And the reality is that now my life is very different because I was willing to go through and sacrifice. You can have the life that you want to have. I believe this, as much as I know, the sun will rise in the morning, you can have the life you want to have, but you're gonna have to sacrifice, it's going to be hard, it's gonna be more difficult than you even think it's going to be but on the backside of it, it will be worth it. My friend we're running out of time here, and before I ask you, my last question. Tell everybody where they can find you.

Military-Mike: Oh, yeah that you can find me on Instagram @MilitaryMikeFoster. You can hit me up on Facebook, right? Whatever. If you want to hit me up an email directly, feel free, mike@military-mike.com. Yeah, would love to connect with anyone of you guys, and yeah, appreciate my time for your time.

Michael: Yeah, of course, my friend and guys go and check out Mike works, what the work he's doing is incredible as someone from a military family, who desperately wanted to be. I was that guy I wanted to be in the military. I was in JROTC like I just needed it. I needed to escape the reality of growing up in poverty and I didn't get that, but what I did get is still I got the family and Brotherhood because of people like Mike and I'm super appreciative. My last question for you, my friend is, what does it mean to you to be unbroken?

Military-Mike: Hmm. That's a powerful question. I got to say it. It means to live that life of fulfillment. Right? Despite what you hear, despite what you've been taught, despite all the things that might have held you back.

For me, being unbroken as being the absolute most unstoppable version of the Military Mike I can be, right? To go out there and to do all these things, even when people say; ‘Oh, Mike! You're doing too much. You can't do all this stuff.’ Watch me. I’m Unbroken!

Michael: Love it, my friend, love it.

Unbroken Nation. Thank you so much for hanging out today.

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