So in life, we're going to make mistakes. We're going to fall down, but we have the opportunity to continue to grow, to learn from what it is that has happened, what it is that's going on, and what it is that may happen. I believe that in all that it is that we do on a daily basis, we give 100% effort into what it is that we're doing. We are going to reap a reward. We're going to reap that 100%. Welcome to Veteran Voices, Sitrep. With your hosts, Tom and Chris Faust. Welcome to Veteran Voices. I am your co-host, Tom Faust. I'm here with my son, Chris. And today we are joined by retired Army First Class Sergeant Chris Clark. He served 21 years before retiring in 2024 and found healing and purpose through poetry, faith, and mentorship. He's the founder of the High Impact Foundation in Fayetteville, North Carolina. And he also developed the Give 100 to Get 100 philosophy, which I guess we'll hear about or about later. So welcome, Chris. It's great to have you on the show. Would you like to just start off by telling us a bit about yourself? Hi, thank you for having me, Tom and Chris. A father of five, husband, coach, mentor. I mean, the list kind of goes on. I'm a 21-year Army, having served in the United States Army in places like Fort Bragg, Alaska, Fort Campbell, Kentucky, having the opportunity to deploy five times. I'm an avid poet writer and have been writing poetry for 30 years and just trying to use my message to be able to help others. And then also having written the Give 100 to Give 100 philosophy, which I'm sure we're going to discuss a little bit longer here in the presentation today. So that's me. Well, welcome and we're glad to have you here. And I guess we'll just kind of jump right in because like most veterans, you were in for 21 years, so I'm sure you had a little bit of transition shock thinking that your expected skills and experience would kind of move smoothly into civilian roles, but found it's not quite like that. Can you give us your thoughts on that? So, I mean, definitely. So after doing 21 years as a 92 Alpha Automated Logistics Specialist and acquiring a bunch of skills inside the logistics world, it's just not the same on the outside. I mean, Army logistics is Army logistics. There are some parallels where it is that they kind of meet up with the civilian side, but then it is that side where it doesn't. And it's having that kind of disconnect and understanding, yes, the Army started moving towards some systems and things that would help us a little bit better on the outside, but really, if you didn't get connected with some of the civilian people stepping out, I found that it becomes a challenge. I look great on paper, look great on a resume, can explain, and I've had several interviews, but then when it comes down to it, they're just like, all right, hey, you know, 21 years of Army logistics doesn't equate to doing manufacturing jobs, doesn't equate to the actual transportation industry on the civilian side. Sure, I've been able to drive plenty of trucks, been able to do those things, but it's just not the same. And so that correlation just hasn't met up. And it's definitely been a struggle trying to find some of those jobs where it is that I'm meeting up to the expectations because everybody's like, well, man, your experience, we can see your experience, we can see this, but I'll move on. And I have, I've moved on to like several different portions of the interview process and finding that it's not just one interview. You got an interview with this person, then a panel, then, you know, now you've got to meet with HR and things of that nature. So it's definitely different from joining the military. You join the military, you meet these people, you take a test, they say, all right, hey, you qualify for these jobs, you pick one, and then you ship off. And next thing you know, you're doing some training, but civilian world's definitely different. Like I said, it's been a struggle for sure. And so how were you able to make the adjustment or were you able, I'm guessing you were able to make the adjustment to some form of logistics in civilian life, or did you move on to something else? So I'm still figuring the logistics piece out. I mean, people always need things moved, shipped, packed, whatever the case may be. So from an entrepreneurial standpoint is that looking into some businesses that would allow me to do it myself. My wife and I are looking at a few things to where it is that I can be able to establish that without having to step into the marketplace to kind of market myself or market myself in a different way, market the business that it is that we're looking to open. And then, yeah, to your point as well, is looking into those different things. As far as my poetry, I do do marketing. My wife and I, we own a few other businesses as well. She owns a revenue cycle management company that has been open for 12 years. I do the internet marketing, in-person marketing, the calls and all of those things, maintaining the websites and stuff like that. So I do have a different skill set as well, but one of my passions is logistics. And then my other passion is mentoring the youth, right? So that, with my foundation, with our program, it's been on pause for a little bit, but the intent is to start a mentorship program for young men, ages 13 to 22, so that we can be able to work with them to overcome some adversity, some obstacles that it is that they find themselves in life and provide them with kind of a blueprint or a road map as to what they can do moving forward, accepting some accountability for things that they may or may not have done. So then that way they can move past that hurdle and grow as a man in the world, see them grow as husbands, fathers, just successful young men, which will probably lead us into, might give a hundred to get a hundred philosophy, right? So that is a big thing for me. I believe that in all that it is that we do on a daily basis, if we give a hundred percent effort into what it is that we're doing, we are going to reap a reward. We're going to reap that hundred percent. And it requires for us to just kind of dig a little bit deeper, right? Things aren't going to be easy and plans sometimes get wrenches thrown in them. Things don't always go our way, but we control what it is that we can control, which is us and our actions, our responses and our reactions towards things. And then versus going to a negative space, we maintain a positivity and we continue to work. So by putting that hundred percent effort into everything that it is that we do, it doesn't matter if you're sweeping a floor, it doesn't matter if you're writing a story, it doesn't matter if you're speaking to someone, it doesn't, it doesn't matter a hundred percent effort in everything that it is that we do. I started this with younger children. And I noticed because in my program, I started working with kids as young as the age of eight. And with this, we build on that. It's always a thing. You have to give a hundred to get a hundred. And if I say it to them, we started from the beginning, first session, having them understand what a foundation, what a foundation is, right? So with me coaching basketball and providing physical fitness training, I always start with what's called our foundation. So I look at them and I say, all right, spread your feet a little more than shoulder width apart, bend your knees and sit down. And I have them sit down in that position. I just say, hold it, hold it. What is this called? And I'll ask them, what is this called? It's called our foundation. And so I'll make them stand back up and I'll say to them, foundation, I'll just call it out. And they know now they drop down into their foundation. Our foundation is our, as you both know, our foundation is our base. And in basketball or any type of sport, that foundation gives you that sturdy, that sturdy position to where it is that you can move left, right, front, back, and you can be able to adjust. And with that foundation, I also say to them, I say, can you build, can you build a house on sand? Sure, you could build a house on sand, but what happens to that house on sand? It'll fall. But if we build a house on a rock, it's going to stay. It's going to stand because it has a strong foundation. And that's, that's part of, that's the faith as well. That's my faith building into their foundation. So they understand that at the core of everything, faith is, is number one. And having them not to strive for perfections. As I tell them, you know, perfection is unattainable. There's only three perfect beings and, and none of them will ever be them. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. We won't ever be a perfect being. So in life, we're going to make mistakes. We're going to fall down. We are, we are going to, you know, we are going to not be in the best lights of time. But we have the opportunity to continue to grow, to learn from what it is that, that, that has happened, what it is that's going on and, and what it is that may happen. So we get, we get the, the, the hindsight. So we look back at what has happened to, so we have some insight of what it is that we need to do. So then we have foresight on the, on the steps that we can take to become better, which is improved. We just improve on a daily basis. And you make those conscious, intentional choices to be better every single day. That's good stuff there. Kind of circling back a little bit too, about the give 100, get 100 philosophy. How can people figure out what their 100% is like, especially on hard days? Ah, that, and, and that, and that's a great question because at the end of the day, everybody's hundred is different. What, what my hundred is may not be your, may not be your hundred, but one of the things that I learned while I was in the military, and especially going through like certain mental therapy, right. Or however you may call it, seeing the counselors, you got to hunt the good stuff. See, the thing about it is, is that on a daily basis, everything that happens in our life is not bad. Right. And most days are probably good, but then it is those hard days where it seems like, oh my goodness, when it rains, it pours, like things just are completely out of way, but we hunt the good stuff. So what was that? The one thing that happened to you during your day that made you laugh? What was that one thing that made you feel really good? Was it a good meal? What was it? Those things. And then you, then you, then you take that and say, you know what, this is the good, this is that small good. It's almost like the mustard seed that Jesus talked about, right. Of having faith as small as a mustard seed, then we can, you can move that mountain. If you have, if you have just a small amount of faith, you can do that. So that a hundred percent on that, on that particular day, maybe just that a hundred percent to say, you know what, I'm not going to stay in this negative space. It may be hard. The circumstance may not look as good as I hope for it to be, but you know what? I know that I can improve. And if God sees fit, I'll wake up tomorrow morning to a better day. So I've learned that storms don't last, right. But storms are good for the simple fact that if we didn't have rain and we didn't have storms, grass, the grass wouldn't grow, flowers wouldn't grow. We wouldn't have fruit to eat because they all need some type of water. So with that storm on the other side of that storm is the greatness that it is that you possess inside of you. It's going to happen. Storms are going to come. Lightning and thunder are going to roll, but are we going to stay stuck there knowing the fact that at some point this storm is no longer going to be here. And the things that we need in order for us to be successful are going to grow. Those seeds that have been planted are going to be fruitful. So it's just one of those things that just understanding like hard days happen, hard days are going to be there. We can't avoid them. I don't think anybody goes through life and says, oh my goodness, I just wish that it was unicorns and rainbows. Because we understand that there is a level of adversity that comes with you growing and becoming successful. And success looks different for every single person. Your success is different from mine and my success is different from yours. So that leads me to the point of we shouldn't compare, nor should we compete with anyone else. The competition is within ourselves. We have to compete with ourselves daily to be better than what we were yesterday. And that is truly the hard part, right? Is competing with yourself to say, all right, hey man, yesterday wasn't great, but can I do at least one thing tomorrow that's going to be better? Can I improve on this one thing? Set a goal. We improve on that, set another goal, crush that goal and set another goal to continue to move forward versus regressing. So that's what I would say to that. Yeah, this kind of makes me think about something that you mentioned in our little planning session earlier about the balance between effort and surrender. Can you talk more about that? I'm a spiritual person. And so I believe that on a daily basis, you have to surrender. You have to surrender to him because he tells us not to trust our flesh. And so if we trust ourselves more than we trust the process of what it is that he's doing, he's already laid down a blueprint for us. So surrendering isn't necessarily surrendering or giving defeat. I mean, even in the warrior ethos, I will not accept defeat. So I'm not going to accept defeat. The fact is, is that things will rise up, things will happen, but we're not going to accept that level of defeat. We're going to continue to move forward. And so surrendering is saying, all right, I am given 100%. I am given 100% effort. Maybe there's something, maybe there's something that's kind of hindering that effort. Do we surrender that? Are we gluttony? Are we eating too much? Is that the thing that's kind of holding us back from the goal that we set towards weight loss? Are we not exercising enough? And so are we surrendering to that to say, hey, I'm going to do more. And then therefore setting that goal, we're putting forth that 100% effort to do the difference, to be the difference, to make the difference that it is that we want to see so that we can be able to affect change, not necessarily world change, but affect the change in our lives so that we can be better for those who are around us. But most importantly, being better for ourselves, because if I'm not the best me for me, then how can I be the best for anyone else? Yeah. What you're going to say and resonated on something that I've mentioned in a previous podcast. I don't know. I heard on a radio of E plus R equals O. It's basically the event plus your reaction to the event equals the outcome. You can't control the event. You can't control the outcome. You only control your reaction to it. So I can relate to that part there. But kind of going into what some people might deal with, whether the need to surrender something, because some people might offset stress or whatever they feel with things that are good for them. Like you were talking about overeating or giving up and just not going for it. One of the things that you mentioned in the notes here is that you've been writing poetry since the fourth grade, and it became especially important during your military career. How does poetry kind of evolve into a form of therapy for you? Well, I'll start by saying I was introduced to poetry in the fourth grade by my teacher, Ms. Scherer. I was going to the cathedral school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. And I was just fascinated by it. Like, oh my gosh, I get the rhyme. I can write. And then as I continued to write over the years, and this is just a backstory so you understand where the poetry comes from. Then I had an individual in the eighth grade by the name of James Famba. We were on a bus, and he was like, hey, Chris, have you ever tried to rap or anything like that? And I was like, no. He was like, all right, man, just give me a letter. And so I give him a letter, and he starts down the alphabet, just rhyming and going into it. And I was like, man, this is fascinating. This is the inspiration. And so I started writing more. So a lot of my poetry became like rhymes. I was rhyming. I wanted to rhyme. I wanted to do that. I would never call myself a rapper. That's not my thing. But then I started progressing more into the poetry and writing free verse poetry or poetry that had a different kind of pattern. I don't know how to necessarily explain it. I won't call myself a poetic genius or anything, but writing it then became, let's fast forward, coming into the military, my first deployment. I went through it. Iraq was a unique experience all in itself. There's so much that's wrapped up into it. And so I started writing. I started writing more and more and more because I had feelings on the inside that I was trying to contain, but I needed to let out. And in the form that I could have potentially let it out, it may not have been good for other people. And I think that's sometimes where people may not want to talk about the harsh reality of what war can do to a person mentally. It's not just the physical scars that we see, but it's the mental scars. And because I was taking on a mental toll and how to kind of digest what it is that I was feeling, when you go from scared to hurt to angry to hate, then it's like, what do I do with this? Because I feel that I'm going to do something that's impulsive. And so by writing that, it became a release. I had the opportunity to speak with counselors and I've gone through therapy that has been intense, very, very intense therapy to kind of get over some of the things that I witnessed, some of the things that I've gone through. And not only just from war, but childhood traumas as well. War kind of compounded some of those things that put those feelings into effect. And then kind of losing spirituality and questioning God, why are you allowing this to happen? What is the issue? So putting it on paper became that release. And then having a series of some counselors that just want the greatest, where you go in there and they're not providing you with anything. They just sit there and they look at you and they ask you a bunch of questions and they say, all right, session's over. You have a good day. Huh? That's it? That's it? Wow. And then to having those really good counselors, to that point, I have a woman that I happen to meet with and go through some intense therapy with by the name of Linda Jobs. I love that woman because she wasn't, she didn't just sit there. She made you, she made me think, she helped me through some, some very, very, very dark time, very, very dark time in my life. And I still speak to her. She's 83 years old and we have a fantastic relationship. So if my writing isn't helping me, I have her cell phone number and I give her a call or I send her a text and, and we talk because that's somebody that, that I needed in my corner. But the poetry is release. It is, it is a healing. It helps to take the, take that weight off of, off of your shoulders and just get that stuff that's been bobbled up and jumbled up and inside of my head and put it on paper and then go back and revisit it sometime to read it. Man, this is how I was feeling. This is what, this is what was going on. And I believe that it is, it's, it's a help for some people just to, just to write it down. And it doesn't have to be in a form of poetry. It could just be, this is what I feel today and however it comes out, it comes out. So no, like all my poetry is pretty much block poetry. It is all the thoughts of whatever that's, that's coming out. Some are intentionally written and then some are the, the, the poems that are raw, real emotions that it is that I may be feeling in, in that moment. And they're all contained on my cell phone. Like I have a, I have my Samsung notes app and I open it up. If I feel a way, it could be 2.30 in the morning. If I wake up and there's something on my mind, I just start writing. I could be somewhere and just start writing. I've wrote a, I've wrote a few poems, funny, sitting in the casino on a, on a cruise ship. It's, it's, it's whenever, whenever it comes, whatever, whatever it may be, how I feel about a certain situation or situations that are going on, current events, things in the past and or present things that are going on that, that are, that are effect. And so it's that, it's that getting it off your chest, what, without, without lashing out with in a physical way. Yeah. Yeah. That, that strikes me as something I've heard before, which is this maybe is a little more of a formatted way of doing it, but journaling is always a good thing. You get these thoughts just building up inside of you and just, just getting it on paper helps you like set it aside and, and okay, now it's over there. I don't have to hold onto it anymore. I can see how that's a therapy in itself. Yeah. Yeah. And so what, what would you maybe hope that others would take away, you know, from this, when they hear or read poetry, is there something in like, there's a lot of famous poetry out there, which may have been written in similar fashion that people assume, you know, as classics. Do you think that, that, that that's the case that, that we can get therapy from reading other poetry? I believe so. I believe so. I mean, and, and also perspectives. You can gain different perspectives from reading people's poetry and how it is that they see certain things. I may see this this way, and you may see it that way. And then there's, then there's somewhere in the middle where it kind of, where it kind of matches together where those perspectives, or we can see different things from different people's lenses to understand what they were going through. And, and with poetry, it provides you with so much imagery, right. And like just reading, at least for me, right. So when I read, when I read poetry or I read a book, it's like, I can put my, I'm putting myself there, immersing myself in what is being said. And so with that, it may be not necessarily just, just for a healing. It can also be to gain, you know, a different perspective. Wow, I had something similar, like similar to this happened to me, but they took it in a different way, or they managed it in a different way. It can help to provide people with certain coping skills or how to, you know, kind of navigate certain things. Wow. And in most of, in, in most of my poetry, there, the ending is a redemption. It may start with, it may start with something that was, that was not necessarily always terrible, but something that could strike you, that, that level of adversity, some type of obstacle, but then, then at the end, it leads to redemption. The things that it is that we can do in order to kind of change the circumstance, take advantage of some opportunities that have been presented. Right. And so in that, I believe that it can help people because it can show them that it doesn't have to stay there. Again, it leads back to that storm. It's not going to be there forever. And so you can find that road to redemption. You can find that road to, to righteousness. You can find that road to being better. You can find your road to improvement. And, and then also we understand that pain brings purpose. So sometimes like when, when there's a level of pain, there's something birth. It's no different than childbirth. A woman experiences immense pain during childbirth, but then the thing or the child that, that, that comes out is beautiful. And that we can hold, and that we can chur, cherish, and that we can help to mold into become, becoming something successful. So pain births purpose. And I believe that we can take the, the pain that it is that we have endured through the experiences and birth our purpose to being better. Remove ourselves from the circumstances that we sometimes hold ourselves bondage to. Because at the end of the day, a circumstance is a circumstance. It's us taking the opportunity to utilize what I, what I tell my kids and what I have told my soldiers and what I have told the kids in my program is every morning that God wakes us up. He first, that's one of the first things that he's given us, right? Is he's given us life. But then there's three other things that come along with what God gives us when we wake up in the morning, and that's time, space, and opportunity. It is us, it is on us to consciously and intentionally use the time that it is that he's given us. From, from the moment he wakes us up, we have time. He also provides us with space because the world is large. Our, we, we either live in a home, maybe, maybe we don't, but we have space to be able to move and utilize the time that he's given. And there's a vast of opportunities that sit out in front of us. Sometimes we have to seek it. And when we seek God first and those opportunities open up for us, and that's taking advantage of the three things that he gives us along with life, every single moment. And if we do those things, then the biggest thing is main is one maintaining than to improving, doing something better than we did yesterday. And if that happens to be seeking God, if I seek him better than what I did yesterday, I gave my, I'm giving my a hundred percent to be the best me that I can do. Really good stuff there. I can see how, you know, you know, being in the army and, you know, you know, giving, you know, you know, soldiers and people, you know, the opportunity to succeed or fail so they can grow, you know, and showing that leadership style, you know, I can definitely see how that, you know, kind of helps you with your career. One thing that you, that we can touch on is you founded the High Impact Foundation with your wife. You know, what inspired that? And, you know, how has, you know, how has basketball become more than, you know, just a sport for the youth you serve? So what, what birthed High Impact was the fact that we saw, we saw a need. I've actually been coaching basketball for 20 plus years now. Alongside, alongside my military career, I've had the opportunity to coach from young to, from youth, right? Five, six year olds, all the way up to high school seniors. And with that, it just came, it just came a time where it is, we had actually been selected and we were the 2017 Fort Bragg Family of the Year. And then I was coaching at a local rec center here in Fayetteville, North Carolina. And I had a great group of kids, great support system with the young ladies that it is that I was coaching. We had actually won the championship two years in a row here in the Fayetteville area, the city championship. And there was just a need. We saw that there was a need to elevate what it is that we're doing for the simple fact that we had watched other coaches. I've watched other coaches over the years and I've learned, I've learned the good and the bad, right? And out of all the experiences, you're going to learn something and be able to take it forward. And so learning what I learned is that sometimes you're, we were, we were being unappreciated for what it is that we're doing or question how it is that we're doing. I'm a little bit unorthodox. I didn't believe in going into a rec center and just having, having my girls run around and do layups. It was a teaching. We wanted to teach them. I would rather have them understand the game of basketball in its entirety versus just saying, all right, shoot the ball, dribble the ball. There's more aspects to the game, but sometimes those certain things, the scoring, shooting the ball, that's what, that's what had become glamorized. And we were looking to build like full complete basketball players. And then there, there's more to it. It was also to build durable, explosive athletes. So we started on the basketball side and we started with the young ladies and we started traveling and going to tournaments and working with them, helping to grow them, provide them with a better skillset than what it is that they had and an opportunity to, to, to get better. But then we also, we kind of maneuvered a little bit. So we had the basketball side. And one day my wife looked at me and she was like, there's a lot of kids that are getting injured. We see the young ladies with torn ACLs, young men with torn ACLs, sprained, sprained ankles, knee, back problems, things of that nature. I'm not, I am not a kinesiologist by no means. However, I do follow an individual named Jim Stefani. And if you know a little bit about him, he is a, he was a Harvard professor that taught kinesiology. And so he, he developed, he kind of developed these blueprints and these plans for like micro cycles and how we can be able to build the body and understanding it. So I did, I started doing, well, I've been doing a lot of research for, for years on how I could build my body. Now, how do we, how do we scale it down and then work with young people so that we can have injury prevention? One of the things that I've seen in youth sports is, is that a lot of people don't look at the injury prevention portion, which is building them physically, not putting them on super heavy weights, but using bands and our body weight exercises where we can build the ligaments in their knees, ankles, joints, help them to become stronger. So when they go out there and compete in a contact sport, basketball, I mean, it's applicable to all sports, right? But having that need helped us to be able to develop that. And then in the midst of doing, doing the physical portion, the biggest portion for us was to train them mentally. So it was to help these kids become mentally agile, understanding that it is that they have to be able to pivot. And those pivots, I mean, basketball court, football, football field, baseball, turning your hips, all of those types of things is understanding where it all comes from. Your, your physicality is going to follow your mentality. And so by, by bringing them in them, bringing them into our gym, we, we, we essentially opened a, a, a fully functional fitness gym where it is that we had everything, kettlebells, the whole nine yards laid out. And I will put these kids through some rigorous, some rigorous physical activity. And why parents, we had some parents that, that were asked, like, why is this so hard? I said, because life is hard. I said, and at the end of the day, I said, I'm only using physical fitness as a driver or a vehicle to build them mentally. They're going to go through a certain level of pain, not, not to the point where it is that we want, we want to hurt them or we want them to hurt themselves, but they're going to exert that. And in turn, what, what happens is they're going to give more. They're going to start to give more because they understand that this is hard. And if you challenge them and you keep pushing them, what are your limits? Stop setting a limit on yourself to where it is that this is where I'm going to stop. Because the fact is, is that we understand that the mind can drive you to go further than what it is that you think your body may think it can do. And by doing that, now we have kids. I, I have kids that are playing high school sports that got cut. Middle school got cut the first two years of their high school career. You know, I have kids that are, that are performing at, at, at a high level, not only because of the physical attributes that they were able to gain. It's because we set the tone for their mindset because the mindset is what drives you to do more. The mindset is what drives you to do pretty much anything that it is that you put your mind to knowing that it's not going to be easy. And that physical portion, I said this, I said this to one of my mentors, I said, you know, physical training, physical, physical fitness is just training the mind. I'm, I'm training the mind to overcome those obstacles. Right. And for me, that's the, that's the biggest thing. If we can set the tone for kids, for adults to have a, a, a better mindset and understand those things, then you will be more productive. You will give more than what it is that you think you can give. And in turn, you're going to reap a greater reward. Yeah. And, and so, yeah, the, the mindset sounds like it leads in with your give 100, get 100 philosophy. What kind of changes have you seen in the kids when they've embraced this philosophy? Oh my, oh my goodness. We've had children come into the program that were having issues at home, didn't want to do the chores. Then we're having issues at school. Their grades were struggling and things like that. I'm talking about complete three sixties to where it is that we get them to buy in. I get them to buy in, not to my program, but buy into themselves. It's not a buy-in to what it is that I'm saying. It's a buy-in to them buying into themselves and believing that they can do whatever it is. And then in turn, parents are like, oh my goodness, like, wow, the, just this small thing. I said, yeah. And I said, it's a reiteration. I said, they, they kind of get out of line and remind them, remind them of those, remind them of those things. Do we, do we want to go back here? No, you don't want to be there because then you're losing out on the opportunities that may be, that may be afforded to you. So it's, it's all about them buying into themselves and believing into themselves and having a mindset that they, they are great. Our motto at High Impact is we're not good, we're great. And the reason being is because we never want them to settle for mediocrity. Don't, don't settle for just being good. There's a ton of good people, but what separates you, what separates you are the things that it is that you do, the mindset that it is that you have and the belief that it is that you can be great. That is going to set, set you apart from just being in the category of good. You know, for instance, one of my favorite basketball players of all time is Kobe Bryant and why he set a tone of greatness because he pushed himself past the limits of what people could say. And when you read inside of his book, he was a, he was a student of the game, not just a player of the game. And so becoming a student of the game and understanding that right here, that our mental willpower gives us the, we, we possess the greatest thing ever because our mental willpower allows us to do that, allows us to go further, allows us to be better than what we were. It's simple. So my, my entire thing, when it comes down to the give a hundred to get a hundred philosophy encompasses all of that. And in the major portion of that is building the mentality, building the mindset and providing individuals with the opportunity to believe in themselves and not enabling them. So we give them the choice and we allow them to succeed or fail. And if we give people that, that opportunity to succeed or fail. And when they, we see them start slipping as a mentor, that's when we step in and we provide them with some things, not to, not to enable them. And sometimes it's that tough love, that hard love, where it is that we have to express to them that, Hey, self accountability, taking, being accountable of oneself is one of the first steps to overcoming anything. So if I didn't put it, I'm only as good as the work that I put in. If I didn't put any work in, how do I expect for, for this to be done? How do I expect for that to happen? We can have all the expectations in the world because at the end of the, but at the end of the day, we have to put work in to achieve what we really want. And that's, that's that given a hundred, it may not be the same on a daily basis because we may not feel well, we may be under the weather, but I'm still going to give that hundred towards whatever goal it is that I want to meet. So it's maintaining, setting those goals, then given a hundred percent towards the goals that we want to achieve. Once we reached that goal, set another goal that's higher than the other one, no different than when we're in the gym. If I, if I start off with 25 pounds, the next week, I should be going up to at least five to 10 pounds, 30 to 35. So week in, week out, it is that improvement, pushing ourselves past the limit of what we thought that we could do. And it not only builds you physically, it builds you mentally. And that, and that's where we see success. Yeah. And you spent some time working with exceptional children in high school. Um, how did that experience shape your perspective on teaching patience and encouragement? Oh man. Um, patience is an understatement. You, you, you definitely have to be very patient, but what I, what I learned from those individuals inside of that classroom is that their minds are as sharp as anything. I mean, they are extreme. They were extremely talented. Um, and when I mean that, and when I'm, what I mean by that is on, on the artistic side, it, they couldn't necessarily explain to you sometimes in words, what they wanted to do, but they can put, they could put it on paper and, um, they believed they believed in themselves. And one of the things is, is that, um, I had a saying, so I started a mantra with, uh, with the kids in the classroom, which was, I am smart, strong, and capable. And the reason being is because I saw that there were some times when they were doing certain school work or, or certain, um, subjects where it is that they will become frustrated and they would get kind of upset or they would shut down and I, and I would look at them. And so I wrote it on the board in, in, in big, bold, black letters and said, Hey, what does the board say? And they read it. I'm smart, strong, and capable. And I say, yes, you are. You are capable of doing anything that you put your mind to. I said, this may be hard. I said, do you need some help? Because at first they were, you know, they wouldn't necessarily ask for help. They didn't want to ask for help. No different than, no different from, from children who were in the general education side, they were, it's kind of like they were afraid to ask for help. But once, once I kind of got down on their level, found out some things that it is that they like, then I can make a correlation between what it is that we were working on to what it is that they like. Um, most of them either, you know, most of them are very savvy with a computer, know how to use YouTube. They're they, they understand and they play video games. And so because of that, I could use, I could use that. Right. And say, all right, Hey, this is just one of those levels that became hard. Are you, do you, I said, you know, are you going to stop and just sit the controller down and not want to beat that level? And they would look at me and they said, no, I want to beat the level. I said, there's no different. I said, so let's beat the level. I said, so we can level up and go on to the, go on to the next stage. And just by using, using those things, again, it, it, it gives you a perspective of not only with children that have special needs, but children, adults, young adults. Um, it is, it gives you that perspective of understanding that sometimes we got to get down on their level so that we can be able to make the correlation so that they can understand and, or, and, or see, see some things differently. I have to see it differently because they see it differently. And if I can match that, then we can be able to use that so that they can improve. And that was the main thing. Um, the central theme behind, uh, really my message is improvement. Um, if I can see, or I can be that, that aid in someone's improvement, then that's a win. That's a win. Um, I equated back to sports, but sometimes we get caught up on scoreboards, but inside of those games, sometimes the scoreboard is not indicative of the level of play that, uh, the players actually played. It just happened to be that they didn't win on the scoreboard. And I used to tell them all, I used to tell my players and my kids, the kids in the classroom, like, Hey, look, look, this cause just cause you didn't, you didn't, you didn't get a hundred percent on that, on that test. Right. Did you give a hundred percent? Did you give a hundred percent? And if the answer is yes, and you score and you scored an 80, you gave your a hundred percent, but people will equate it and say, well, they got an 80%, but they did. They gave their effort that they gave. So it didn't equate to a hundred percent on, on that paper, but they gave a hundred percent effort to get a better score. It may be what they do. Maybe what they would have gotten, or maybe what they had, they had tried it before. And then they got 20% higher. That was my whole thing. Getting them to understand that just because he got a hundred percent, just because she got a hundred percent, just because they got a 90 doesn't matter because you're not competing with them. Ooh, who cares? It's, it's about you. It's about what you gave and it's about what you are willing to give. And so if you give that in turn, you, you got your a hundred percent. You did better than what you did before. And that's all that we can ask for anybody to do. Yeah. So the, that, that leaves basically room for improvement then. And, and I think you've said before, whether it was in our previous talk or here that, you know, improvement is basically the foundation of success. Absolutely. Because perfection is unattainable. So, so if, if we are striving for perfection, you will never get it. You will never be perfect at something. Something, there is nothing that is, that is perfect out here, except the three beings that I explained before, God, Jesus, and the Holy spirit. So if you're chasing perfection, you're actually, it's actually detrimental to your growth because you're always going to be, you're always going to be disappointed. You're always going to be disappointed because it's, you're not going to be perfect. You're not going to make a hundred percent of your shots. You're, you're, you're, you're, you're just not. And so the thing about it is, is what can you do though? You can master things, not perfect them and you can improve. And so if you, if you improve, then you win. That is success. My success doesn't look like everybody else's success because in some, some people's eyes, people may look at me and they say, Oh man, you're, you're such a, you're such a successful, successful young man. Right? Because I had a 21 year army career. I have a, I have a family, right? There, there, but to me, I still need to improve. And I don't feel that I've reached the level of success that I would like to have reached. Yes, I can, in one breath I can say I was successful in my military career. I was, I was afforded the opportunity to, to do some great things and I took advantage of those opportunities. But then there's still some things that it is that I still have to overcome. There's still some things that it is that I'm, that I'm working through to still become the version of me. And so I think it also becomes a thing of when it is that we speak to people that we don't, I don't speak to them just to speak to them. I speak to them through experience from experience. And because we have a level of those levels of experiences, you can talk directly. It may not be the same situation, but it could be something that's relative to it. And how I've done some things to be able to move through it. Where, where I'm at, people will see it and say, oh man, you got it going on. I'm struggling. You know, I am, I am, I am still, I am still struggling because I don't feel that I'm at the place that, that I would like to be. Right. I'm not trying to perfect anything, but I'm just trying to be better. And, you know, I tell people that I had a, I had an epiphany. I was speaking to individual Juan Valdez from the Wounded Warrior Project. I had the opportunity to have a, a sit down with him for us to discuss some things about some events that are coming up and how it is that I could, I could get involved because I really want to be involved in the veteran community. And as I was talking to him, something, something hit me in something very profound. While I was in the military, I had the, I had the honor of serving on a burial detail. And during that time it was veterans who had passed. We had soldiers that were sent back from Iraq and Afghanistan, and we had to do the burials or the airport honors. And I get a little emotional when I talk about it because I had, when you see it and you, you go through those experiences at each one of those funerals, every one of those family members, everyone, the loved ones are given, and I apologize for stumbling a little bit, but every, every one of those loved ones are handed a flag, a folded flag. And they're told on behalf of a grateful nation, we want to thank you for your loved one's service and sacrifice. And what hit me was we are also handed a flag at the time that it is that we retire. And on that day, a piece of me died. And that was hard. That was hard to know that, yes, I'm, I'm still part of the community because I'm a veteran, but I'm no longer going to stand in that uniform. Right. And it was, it was surreal because I was like, man, when, when we pass, my family's going to be given a flag. When I left service, I was, I was given a flag. And like I wrote in, in, in, in that moment, when I got off the, when I got off the call with, with Juan, I, I, I wrote a poem. I wrote a poem about it because it, it hit me. It hit me really, really hard. So I, I do, I, I apologize. I'm sorry. It just, it was just one of those things. And it was like, okay, so now what, what can I do? While I was inside of the uniform, I enjoyed taking the opportunity to be able to speak, speak to soldiers and, and help them. It was times where it is that there were, there were some soldiers, people just, they couldn't get them to do, like they couldn't get them to, to do what it is that needed to be done. These soldiers were down. These soldiers were out. These soldiers felt, felt a certain way. And it was just taking the opportunity to get to know them, to understand them, see where it is that they were at, and then provide them with a challenge that it is that they could be able to move forward. And so I still have, I still have several soldiers to this day that just give me a call. I'm like, man, we, we, we miss it. We, we miss you. And it's, and you know, it, it touches me for the simple fact that they still get it. They still get the fact that they can, they can just improve. This has been a theme throughout my entire career. Now I'm not going to say by far that I didn't have my struggles, that I didn't battle, that I didn't battle with some things. I mean, I got myself into, into some trouble, you know, on a, on a few, on a few occasions and had to stand on that red carpet. But those are those experiences that helped to shape me talk to these individuals, to keep them from making some of those same mistakes, to help them understand that, hey, you can do, you can do so much more. Just believe, believe in you. Make some small, some small changes so that you can be able to step forward and, and reap the reward of what the military has to offer you. It doesn't have to be this down and out thing and that people don't care because take on the people that do care about you and the individuals that will pull into you and the individuals that are going to provide you with a sturdy foundation for you to be able to stand on. Now, once they help you get there, now it's on you to stand on those two legs and, and, and, and, and move forward because now the belief lies in you and what it is that you're going to do. And so my, my thing is, is just, is just staying involved, staying involved to be able to, to mentor, to be able to provide that type of message to individuals, to believe in themself, to give that a hundred percent so that they can reap the reward of the a hundred percent on the other side and maintain the journey to greatness. If you say that you want to be great and it's not about just standing on a main stage, it's just about being a great person, a successful person in life, whatever that success may be for you. It's maintaining that, understanding where you came from, understanding what you have gone through and understand where it is that you're going by never giving up. That's the biggest thing for me, is just understand that. ISKRA So kind of, kind of segwaying off of that is, you know, so, so what advice would you give to veterans or, I mean, anyone really, who feels stuck and aren't sure how to move forward after, you know, any sort of big life transition? CURTIS Well, I would say one, you know, whether you're, whether you're spiritual, whether you're spiritual or not, I am, I'm a spiritual person. And I, I definitely struggle with faith. And I have talked to several other service members and retirees and people that are in, that have struggled with faith. For me, it was, it was going back to my faith, the faith that it is that I, that I grew up with in, in understanding that. So I would say if anybody wants to explore that, explore that, explore God and see what it is that He has in store for you and the fruitfulness that it is that He can provide. That's one. And two, just believe in you. See, set your, set yourself up. And while I say the transition is hard is because you go from having a structure and, you know, doing things on like this routine basis, like, you know, you're going to get up, you're going to go to formation, do PT, then you're going to, you're going to do personal hygiene, then you're going to go to work and then you're going to eat lunch and then you're going to go to a meeting and then you're going to come. You have that battle rhythm. So now one of the biggest things is establishing, you know, a battle rhythm in your, your new, your new life. Because in all sense, in all sense of it, when we step outside of that uniform, this is a new life because it's a, it's a different dynamic to what it is that you're used to. See, like for me, when I said that I was struggling, it, it, it's, it's hard because I'm not used to being home as much as I am now. You know, I, I love my wife, my wife and I have been together for 22 years, but it becomes, it becomes hard sometimes because you're not used to spending that amount of time with the individual on a daily basis. So it's trying to find your, find your way in, in, in establishing certain things. So I would say definitely establish a new routine. They say sometimes to eliminate a bad habit, you have to start a good habit. So if we want to, if we want to get to that and then we kind of have to establish a new routine because now it's no one telling you that you've got to, that you've got to be here at 6 30 in the morning. It's no one telling you that you've got to be, you've got to be there at nine o'clock. There's no one telling you that you have a meeting at 1400, right? It is now you establishing that. So it's really just establishing, you know, the, the new routine and writing. And why I say it doesn't necessarily have to be poetry. Poetry just happens to be my vice, you know, but writing, writing things down. My wife and I, it's funny that you asked me that question because my wife and I had this conversation the other day and exactly what I'm telling you now is exactly what I told her. I'm, I'm, I'm struggling not having that level of structure. One of the reasons why I joined the military was because I needed, I needed a level of structure. And kind of with my, with my background, I went to a boarding school for seven years where it is that it was pretty much like the army, but it wasn't the army. And it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't a strip, but I had to shave my face and I couldn't have a mustache until I was a senior in high school. So the transition from going, going from the Milton Hershey school, I'm not sure if you all are aware of it, but the Milton Hershey school, the school founded by Milton S. Hershey, the chocolate guy and his wife, Catherine was both for orphan boys in 1909. And then now it since grown and elevated. It's a K through 12 school where it is that you live there and you have a set of house parents and those house parents have anywhere between 12 to 13 boys or girls that live inside of that student home and they care for them and they go to school there. And there's opportunities that are open for them. And it's only for children whose families are below the poverty line. And because of that, it set a certain, a certain structure in my life that when I, when I graduated at 18, I left Milton Hershey school, I got on an airplane, I flew to California and I just wanted to party. And for a year I didn't do anything, but there was a realization one night as it is that I was riding with a friend and we, we had parked in front of the church and like, I look over and it's like, yeah, I can't do this. I need something better in my life. I need to do something better for myself. I, I need, because of who I am, I need a level of structure. Right. And so I joined, I joined the army at 19 and the rest is history. Here I am 20, 22 years later. And you know, but I needed that structure. And so getting out that transition was hard. I need, I needed, I am, I am still establishing my routine. It's been a year. I did kind of step into something for, for nine months because I was working in a school that gave me, that gave me that routine. I know I gotta be to work by this time. I know that we're going to do this at this time. Like it gave, it gave me that structure, but now stepping out of it and moving, I was working in the Chapel Hill area. Now I'm back in, back in Fayetteville. I'm trying to reestablish, you know, that structure, that what it is that I, what it is that I'm going to do to be able to go forward. So to your point is just establishing that faith, structure, and writing. I mean, we can just incorporate those three things and then, you know, figuring it out. But yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes when you're not in a position where you're provided with structure, you just need to create your own, set up your own schedule and follow it. Just keep your own structure. If that's what you need to do. Absolutely. Is there, is there anything we haven't touched on that you still wanted to talk about? I think, I mean, I mean, like I said, yeah, I know. And, and, and for me, my, my, my goal is for, for veterans, for service members that are still serving, regardless of branch, for children, for young adults, and for, for adults in general, is that we give, we give what our hundred percent is daily. We take advantage of the three things that God gives us, which is time, space, and opportunity. And we improve. We do something better than we did the day before. Whether that's in our speech, our actions, whatever it may be, we do something better to be better because, and not be better for anyone else, but ourselves. The fact is, is that if we compete with ourselves daily, then we can, we can beat that old person from yesterday without comparing ourselves to anybody else, not setting, not setting an idol. I refuse, for me, I refuse to say that I have idols. I don't idolize anybody. Someone can be famous and it's just like, they're just a regular person. And sometimes they want to feel like they're just a regular person. So just be a regular person and improve on what you can improve on. We have to release the control of the things we can't control and stay in a posture of what we like to call is become comfortably uncomfortable. Because the fact is, is that if you become comfortable, it's essential, it's a, it's essentially complacency. And I used to, I'm all, I'm always reminded when I hear that word, because when I was in, when I was in Iraq, ironically enough, there was a large rock outside of one of the gates in our side that said complacency kills. See, the thing about it is, is that when we look at that statement in that context, you know, it literally could have gotten you killed, but in normal day to day, normal day to day life and the things that it is that we do, if we become complacent, it'll kill your ambition. It can kill your dreams. It can kill the, it can kill your steps that you are taking forward to the, to improve. So we can't become complacent, but we can become comfortably uncomfortable and understanding that in that level of uncomfortability is where it is that we grow. We grow in the uncomfortable places. We grow in the hard places. The easy things are manageable. You can take those over and it's no problem. But when we're faced with those hard things versus avoiding them, let's confront them. Let's hit the conflict like a hammer to a nail and drive it away. So it is that we can be the best version for us, for ourselves, in order to be the best version for anyone else. I can't take care of my kids if I'm not healthy mentally, if I'm not healthy physically. And as we all know, sometimes when we're, when we're not right in our, in our mental status, our physical, our physical attributes decline. So building the mind increases our physicality, increases what it is that we can do. So my, my, my biggest thing is we grow the mindset, become mentally agile so that we can overcome the adversities and the obstacles that life's going to throw at us. And it may not be on a daily basis, but at some point in our life, we're going to face it. And some, most times we face it multiple times. It's just a new giant that it is that we have to slay. And so when it comes about, you slay the giant, you keep your stones ready. You hit it in the forehead, you knock it down and you walk over and you say, I've conquered that. And once you've conquered that, understand that there may be that time there's going to be that time of peace, but there's always a time of war. And when that time comes ready, you have, you have sharpened your tools to be able to battle those things that have come up in the mind is the greatest tool that anyone has that we can, that we can train, that we can sharpen, that we can put to the test. That's it. Improve, give a hundred to get a hundred and everything else works itself out. Seek God first and the rest is history. There you go. That's some really good advice to follow. So for any listeners that might be interested, where can they find your poetry or follow your work online? You can find me on YouTube at the poetic one Z and that's spelled out at T H E P O E T I C one Z, the poetic one Z. You can also find me on Instagram, same handle. You can also find me on TikTok with the same handle, the poetic one Z. All right. We'll be sure to include links with the podcast. So people have that written down as well. Okay. Yeah, that'd be great. So one last thing we like to do is ask a question just to get you thinking a little bit here. What is one way, one way we as a society could better support those transitioning from military service to civilian life? Embrace them, embrace them regardless of the years of service that it is that they, that they serve, whether regardless of anything, I believe the society can just embrace them. When it is that they're coming out and understanding that whatever it is that they've gone through and the experiences that it is, they have can, can be, can be better served in the community as well. So when they're stepping out there, they're providing and giving the community a level of leadership, a level of understanding, a level of compassion and a level of empathy. So my biggest thing is society just embrace, embrace the veterans, embrace the veteran community and understand that they have been servants to the nation. They have literally served the people of this country. So when they step outside of that uniform, let's be a servant to them as well. And I truly believe in servant leadership. So if we, if we are servants to, to the nation, being, being subservient to that, fighting for the freedoms that it is that each and every one of us have been afforded the opportunity to have embrace them, embrace them with open arms, embrace them with love, embrace them regardless of, of, of anything with unconditional, be unconditional in the embrace that it is that you have. That's what I would say to society, just embrace them. That's great. I like that. Yes. So, yeah, I mean, that kind of wraps this one up here. So I do want to say thanks, Chris, for coming on here and chatting with us, chatting with the viewers, kind of, you know, telling your story, what you do and that there's, you know, help out there and for everyone tuning in, we appreciate you hanging out with us and hopefully somebody can take something from this and, you know, it'll help them. They can pass it on to help others. That's why we, that's why we do this. That's why we're here. Well, I really do. I really do appreciate y'all taking the opportunity on this Sunday afternoon to allow me to speak with you, allow me to share my message. And, you know, it's a, it's a great opportunity and I appreciate it. We're glad to have you here. It's been very interesting. So I'd also just like to mention to any, anyone else listening, if you're a veteran or you support veterans, we'll leave the link below as well, that you can contact us if you are interested in being on this podcast. And Chris, you can take us out. Yeah. So anyways, yeah. Thanks Chris for coming on here. Dad, thanks for hanging out with me, doing all this stuff here. And yeah, for everyone else, hope you enjoyed it and we will catch you on the next episode. All right. Be sure to like, share all that. Yes. Thank you. I appreciate it. Y'all have a blessed day. You're welcome. All right.