Join Brian as we discuss organization expansion, recovery and the impact of your story.
Full Transcript
(00:27)
Travis Johnson here, The NonProfit Architect, helping you build a stronger nonprofit. Today we have the memorable, the illustrious, the strong, Brian Paul, founder of Veterans4LifeUSA. Brian Paul thank you so much for joining me today. How the heck are you?
(00:45)
Man, I am good Travis Johnson, and thank you so much for having me on your podcast. Nice work getting the podcast set up and not just pursuing your dreams, but also actually taking steps to accomplish your dreams. So it’s great to see that.
(1:03)
Hey, I appreciate it. I’m just trying to follow in your footsteps. See the example I have before me, you know?
(1:10)
I appreciate it man.
(1:11)
So tell me about Veterans4LifeUSA and how you guys started.
(1:15)
Veterans4LifeUSA is based off of my own story of service, struggle, and recovery. I was a member of the 45th Infantry Division here in Oklahoma. My deployment was the Oklahoma City bombing, and did not deploy overseas. A short time later, I fulfilled my military obligation and got into the EMS service and later, the fire service where I worked two years as a volunteer firefighter. Then I became a full time EMT, part time firefighter and then finally a career paid firefighter throughout and experienced a lot of the traumatic calls most first responders experience.
Really my downward spiral started with alcohol and it became quite a problem. So much so that I actually got divorced and lost my job after going on light duty and became full blown addicted to alcohol. At that point, I was without hope and felt helpless and without purpose and was committing suicide through alcohol, very, very nearly successful to the point that my bone marrow was actually not producing red blood cells like it should. So there posed a rather large problem for my health. Through the encouragement of both my mother, and my son, I was able to get help at a place called English Mountain Recovery. It was a 90 day treatment program that featured Equine-assisted therapy, as well as talk therapy, and 12-Step. And there was some heavy focus put on that. I came out the other side and realized I was not the only person with this issue.
So that’s how Veterans4Life began. And just like you have with your podcast, it’s just taking those steps forward and one positive step after another and then when I met resistance and something negative that would push me back a step, I realized it was only one step and I was still moving forward. So now we have a foundation that provides purpose and support, as well as connects our struggling veterans and first responders to our partnering treatment organizations to help them with post traumatic stress and addiction.
(3:39)
Of course I know all this stuff, but I just love hearing it every time I can. You know, we’ve known each other for probably the better part of two years, I just love everything you’re doing, whether it’s, behind the scenes in movies, and we’re doing events with Major Ed Pulido, or I see you on podcasts and on the eagle and I see you traveling around on movie sets, or eating Twinkies before your daily gym routine, I just love just about everything you do, brother.
(4:07)
Well, I sincerely appreciate that. Man, when people say “Hey man, you’re doing great” or they show appreciation, I sincerely mean that they are appreciated those words mean a lot to me. I mean from in my heart and because it has been an enormous struggle and it’s not an easy thing to do to grow a nonprofit. And so I’m very thankful.
When people say "Hey man, you're doing great" or they show appreciation, I sincerely mean that they are appreciated those words mean a lot to me.
(4:39)
Hence sort of the reasons I started this gig. You know, we connected a few years ago and I was teaching a reboot combat recovery and we had you come in and share your story a little bit and then we hooked up with Answered Prayers Ranch and took the guys out there for some Equine-assisted Therapy. I know that you love horses, and they’re a big part of your recovery. Tell us a little bit about how horses help you.
(5:06)
Equine Assisted Therapy, many people will refer to it as Hippotherapy, uses the evolution of a horse. And many people don’t don’t know that horses are actually prey animals, so they have a very high sense of alertness. They can actually detect feelings and emotions and read facial expressions and all this amazing stuff through evolution of being prey animals. So when we put a struggling veteran, a first responder, or it could be a child, or just a person from the general public, in front of a horse and a therapist or a facilitator, that horse actually in a way tells on the struggling person that isn’t real open to talk about how they’re truly feeling and how they really are in life currently. And so the horse’s behavior towards the struggling person kind of tells on that person and then there’s talk dialogue. There’s something just about a horse and being out normally in the country away from hustle and bustle in a peaceful kind of nurturing environment. wrap all that together, and it’s very, very effective for almost nine out of 10 struggling veterans and first responders.
(6:26)
Wow, that’s amazing. It’s one thing to hide your emotions and your feelings and your struggle or despair from another person, but you can’t get away with that when it comes to horses. Not at all, they see right through it.
(6:44)
As I mentioned, I went through Equine at my rehabilitation program in Tennessee. I remember telling my roommate who was also there for addiction and post traumatic stress, he had gone previously through the Equine program, and I remember telling him, “Hey, I’m from Mustang, Oklahoma, I grew up with horses, this is going to be fun.” And in my mind, I’m thinking, oh, yeah, I’ll put on a happy face and that horse won’t know the difference. And I was wrong. Yeah, you can’t act your way out of your true feelings and your true mental state in front of a horse, it just doesn’t work.
(7:27)
It’s like having a really close friend that sees right through you but can’t tell anyone your secrets. So I’ve seen you all over the place. How is it that you have so many connections in so many different cities? What are you doing differently than I see most nonprofits do?
(7:49)
It is very difficult. There’s no magic pill. And, really, we had expanded out to Phoenix, Arizona, Kansas City, and Tulsa, but in order to expand to different geographic locations, you really need strong leadership in place with those chapters because without it, the motivation and inspiration kind of seems to fade. But we’ve got an establishment there. I wouldn’t say it’s a strong establishment in the four cities, but we’re kind of pulling back just a little bit and kind of regrouping in the Mustang area.
Oh, gosh, we work with eight different VSOs, which are veteran support organizations, now. We recently had an event called The Warrior Challenge, which was great. It turned out awesome, especially for our first one. The idea behind the challenge was yes, we had the fundraising, yes, we had the food, the bands, the DJ, but the real goal, the real tip of the spear behind The Warrior Challenge was to get our state of Oklahoma out of being the bottom dweller and leading the country in veteran suicide. So to seamless communication and collaboration and support, I think that we should be able to do that. And we should be able to do that soon.
(9:11)
Oh, absolutely. I know I’ve been kind of getting my fingers in the pot of Oklahoma City nonprofit groups. There’s tons and tons of Christian organizations and veteran organizations in Oklahoma City. And I’ve seen a lot of collaboration. I talked to a few friends of mine in other areas of the country and they were kind of shocked to know that we were collaborating and working together on a lot of projects. It’s almost like there’s a finite amount of money and in Oklahoma City, we just don’t care. We just want to work together to brand the mission, build the mission, and actually help the people regardless of who’s getting paid at the end of the day. I think that’s pretty fantastic.
(9:54)
With Veterans Life, our motto is “Stronger Together.” and it’s two very powerful words and very simple and easy to understand. But it’s becoming more than just something you see on social media or some kind of logo you see on a shirt. It’s actually putting that into action. Now we’re hearing great folks from Wounded Veterans of Oklahoma, an organization near Tulsa, Eagle Ops, again, near Tulsa, Witkop, Flames to Hope, you know, some other young brotherhood down in Davis, Oklahoma, Rally Point in Ada, Oklahoma. They’re all kind of sharing the same concept now. So I’m hearing it. “Stronger Together.” Because it’s not about the organization. It’s about the individual. And in helping that individual who desperately needs our help.
Stronger Together!
(10:48)
What’s your next event you have planned? What are you working on now?
(10:51)
I’m personally supporting some of our VSOs that have got several events coming up. I’ve been tasked by our friend Ed Pulido to duplicate the warrior challenge and place that on his next golf tournament. So I’ve invited some of our partner VSOs out so we’ll have the same, hopefully the same amount of VSOs. Visitors to Ed’s golf tournament will have that information in front of them and we’ll do some speaking and collaborating there as well. So growing momentum.
(11:35)
That’s awesome, are you reaching out to the 45th and different police departments and fire departments in the area and getting those veterans that are still working hard, but might not be plugged into these organizations, giving them a chance to show up and compete?
(11:49)
We actually sent out invites to a hundred different first responder stations whether it be police or fire. We did have some out there. Not quite the turnout we’d like but for our first time you really can’t complain.
(12:06)
You know, it’s funny you talk about your first time because I know a lot of people that are brand new in the nonprofit space, and they put together an event, and it’s not what they thought it would be, and all of a sudden they don’t want to have any more events. All of a sudden they question the nonprofit they’re doing, they’re not sure about their mission.
You know, your first events, they’re gonna be terrible. You don’t know what you’re doing, you’re not sure who’s going to show up. I did the book signing with Shannon Woodington of Books by Vets, and the first one we did, I think we had more authors show up than people show up to get books signed and talk with us. And you know, that did not deter us from doing our second event and our third event, I think you were at our second event. Oh, it was a fantastic event, but if we would have stopped at the first one, we would have gotten nowhere. But that second one, we had over 50 people show up, we sold out of books, we had so many people connect, we had city leaders and state leaders and senators show up. We had veterans show up. We had other organizations show up. But getting past that first, really crappy event that everyone has is so important to moving forward and building a better organization and a better event and a better foundation and a better nonprofit.
(13:23)
Man, if we do have just a quick minute, I want to share what happened at the first event that I tried to hold, and then I want to share kind of the transition to where we’re at now.
The first real event that myself and a guy named Anthony Wong held, which he and I, that was Veterans For Life. That was it, and my 78 year old mother. I decided that I was just going to go for it. That Veterans For Life, everybody loves veterans, we got so much support out there. People are just going to show up to an event. So I decided I was going to hold a benefit concert. Four bands, three taco trucks, the deluxe stage, sound system, everything. And I was so proud because this event normally would cost around seven or eight thousand dollars if we would have paid the band’s full price, full price on the stage, and sound and all that. We did really well there, but I had it kind of reversed. I was using events to raise funds for itself and hoping that lots of people showed up. We sold lots of food and donations came flying, and well, there was a thunderstorm and a flood. I did really well with the funds but I was still out $1,300 out of my pocket. The bands were threatening not to even play unless I had it up front. I can’t describe the stress that was on my shoulders that day.
Fast forward all the way to about three weeks ago to the Warrior Challenge. We had bands food, a great obstacle course, great venue, indoor pavilion, eight different VSOs, Major Ed spoke -and for those of you don’t know who major Ed is, He’s the senior vice president of Folds of Honor, really big time guy- I spoke at the event, it was just a nice event, it really was. We think we had all our goals accomplished, at least to some degree.
Building a nonprofit or accomplishing your goal oftentimes is just in your head. it’s the ability to deflect the negativity and absorb the positivity. So if you have a key volunteer that is doing great work for the organization that dropped out, hey, it happens, it happens to all of us.
You know, the more times we say the word we, and we have a total team concept, and we show appreciation to each and every one of our volunteers for all efforts big and small, and your mission is worthy, and your mission is great, then you’ll continue to grow. It may not be on our timeframe, because I believe everything is on God’s time frame, but it’ll continue to grow if you can just continue to persevere. The person who doesn’t quit, never fails.
The person who doesn't quit never fails.
(16:21)
That’s right. If you don’t quit, you win. I’ve seen so many people, so many stories here recently, you know, marines crawling to the finish line of a marathon, people with no legs getting carried up the mountain by their buddy. It is the mentality that if you’re going to have struggles, you’re going to have obstacles, you’re going to have roadblocks, you’re going to trip, you’re going to fall on your face. But you’ve got to get up, dust it off, keep moving forward, keep making connections, keep working together, showering them volunteers with all the praise imaginable, because nothing gets done without volunteers. Nothing gets done without the right volunteers. But just working forward and keep plugging away and not giving up three feet from striking gold. And you’re all set.
So yeah, you got the Warriors Challenge complete, and you’re working on partnering with Ed Pulido. What does the next five years look like for Veterans For Life USA?
(17:29)
Well, the next five years look like just continuing to grow with the right people. So good positive people that are fun and energetic to work with and be around and, continue to put the glue in the foundation with great personal relationships first within our team, and then reach out and help the community. And it looks like we’re continuing to partner with our other VSOs and work closer on communication and support.
I think we’ve got the support thing down, but it’s the communication that I think takes a little bit of maybe mental training to get down. Understanding that when you have someone that’s struggling and possibly severely, that it takes hitting that alarm button, and letting the rest of us know that “Hey, there’s an issue with this person and I’m struggling to help the person” We need to get the team involved, get everybody around the state involved. Actually in the fire department that’s called mutual aid. So if one fire department can’t handle the scene, they call mutual aid, and brothers and sisters come to help, they’re always there.
(18:47)
Yeah. You know, that’s so important, especially those of us in the military or you and other emergency services. We have these plans, these things set up, so when we don’t do well, then we can phone a friend or call on a buddy. But when we leave the service, we forget that there’s people out there that care about us that are willing to help, we just don’t know how to contact them and get the word out. So if someone’s out there struggling and they need a hand, how can they get ahold of you?
(19:17)
I would tell them to first visit heroesinuniform.org. Click on our partners tab and visit the whole site, take some time with it. There’s a lot of resources on there that many people are just unaware of. So visit the website and then also go to Veterans For Life USA on Facebook, and that’s “four” with the number 4. Click on it, and there’s ways that people can connect directly to me. And if people want to donate their time, we would love to have the right volunteers come in, as well as if people do want to make a donation, a financial contribution, then that’s great. The financial contributions go to things like holding events.
Also, we’re working on a program that helps us get travel costs taken care of for our struggling veteran first responders. One of our partners that we’ve really begun to have some great success with is Transformations Treatment Center. It’s in Delray Beach, Florida. We’ve already connected four people there already, and it’s just a brand new partnership.
(20:37)
Nice. It’s not just limited to Oklahoma City? You have partners around the country?
(20:43)
Yes. We’ve got Scottsdale, Providence, and in Phoenix, Arizona, Operation unbridled in Phoenix, Arizona. We’ve got Operation Bravo Dogs, which is a service dogs therapy dogs down in Sherman, Texas. We’ve got Horses and Heroes Inc. and Shawnee, Kansas, which is right outside Kansas City, Valor Recovery Program in Kansas City. We’ve got English Mountain where I actually went in Tennessee, we’ve got Transformations, Recovery in Delray Beach, Florida.
(21:16)
So you don’t have to be a local to help out. That’s amazing. Our job really
(21:21)
Our job really is to connect the individual and their particular issues with the right treatments and the right resources.
(21:31)
That’s really cool. Now, did I understand you earlier correctly, did you say you’ve been in a couple of movies?
(21:37)
I just finished up my third one. And a short film. I had small speaking role in “The Turkey Bowl” starring Barry Switzer, Donovan McDonald, Antonio Smith of the Houston Texans, Alan Richardson, Matt Jones who I’m actually in a scene with in the football portion of the movie, I’m actually clotheslining Matt Jones from Breaking Bad. That’s going to be pretty neat.
(22:08)
That’s awesome, man. How can I, and my connections, my audience, people I know how can we help you? What do you need?
(22:15)
The biggest way that people can help Veterans Life accomplish our mission is if you have a struggling veteran or first responder who’s a family member or a close friend, that’s struggling, isolating and needing help, sit down at your computer, visit with them, heroesinuniform.org. Have them connect directly with me through Facebook Messenger so I can walk them through the steps and give me that chance to help your loved one because we’ve got a lot of resources, we’re doing great things, we’re holding events, we’re holding meetings, all those things that nonprofits do. But we need our closest ally, which is the family, that mother, that spouse of a struggling person who’s isolating, to reach out and let us know you need help. And from there, I will personally walk your loved one through the steps and get them in the doors of recovery.
(23:09)
I think it’s so important that that we rely on our allies, the people closest to us to help us through the process and get connected. I couldn’t put it better myself, Brian. Well, Brian, I tell you what, I could talk to you all day. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join me as we get this podcast recorded. Thank you for all that you do and keep doing what you’re doing. I can’t wait until I get back from this deployment so we can hang out again. Check out Brian and Veterans For Life USA and heroesinuniform.org. Thank you so much, Brian.
If you don't quit, you win!
Brian Paul Bio
Veterans 4 Life USA runs out of Oklahoma City, Kansas City, Phoenix, and Tulsa. At the heart of the organization is Brian Paul and his ever-extending network of resources.
Brian Paul, President, and Founder of Veterans4LifeUSA served in the 45th Infantry Division as a rifleman, machine gunner, and mortarman. His team provided security and other services at the Alfred P Murrah bombing site following the terrorist attack on April 19th, 1995. He has also served as a firefighter and EMT in Kansas City.
Brian Paul enjoyed success in both the military and in his time as a Firefighter and EMT but like many others, he ran head-on into serious and life-threatening problems largely due to his “no quit” personality. He believed in his mission of service even when he knew it was costing him his health and eventually would likely cost him his life.
Brian began dealing with the extreme stresses of his job by self-medicating with alcohol. This, coupled with extraordinary stress from being a first responder, led him to a very real and dangerous problem with post-traumatic stress known as PTSD. This problem led to not only rapidly deteriorating health but also to divorce and even homelessness. Brian was simply fighting for his life.
With God’s help and the help of his family, Brian was finally able to find the correct and proper help he desperately needed and with very little time to spare.
Brian went through an intensive 90-day treatment program in the Smokey Mountains that dealt with his PTSD and alcohol problems simultaneously. Brian was extremely successful with this treatment for three main reasons:
He was finally receiving the correct and proper treatment specifically for him. He used the same intense focus and determination that made him a successful soldier and firefighter and directed it towards his treatment. He has an unbreakable connection with his higher power as he viewed it.
Brian has been sober, happy, and successful since Nov. 20, 2015, and focuses sharply on helping fellow soldiers and first responders, including law enforcement, avoid and overcome similar serious obstacles he himself has experienced and overcome.
Brian started Veterans4LifeUSA to help other veterans and first responders who struggle with PTSD and addiction.
The focus of Veterans4LifeUSA is to connect veterans, first responders, and their families to resources where they can find healing. They also create events and environments where veterans and first responders can build camaraderie and fellowship with others.
We hope to continue and build relationships and provide resources for veterans and first responders who struggle no matter where they may be.
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