Chris Albert's Warrior Soul

Mike Kurland is the founder and CEO of the Branded Group, a facilities service company based out of California. Over the past 8 years, Mike and his team built the Branded Group into one of the fastest growing companies in the country.  Nevertheless, things weren't always easy for Mike. He started his company from nothing after a heart-breaking divorce, after which, he had to hit the reset button.  Mike came onto the Warrior Soul Podcast to discuss his story and his advice for Veterans who are transitioning into new phases of their lives.  To listen to Mike's Be Better Podcast: https://www.branded-group.com/be-better-podcast/ To learn more about working for the Branded Group: https://www.branded-group.com/team/ To connect with Mike on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikekurland/ 

Mike Taylor and Alex Roodhouse served as officers in the United States Navy's Riverine Units, patrolling the Euphrates River during the war in Iraq.  Fitness was always an important part of their job, but as the demands of the job changed, so did the fitness requirements. When they first entered the military, the focus was on long runs and calisthenics. Yet jobs in the military increasingly called for a more functional, weight bearing, approach to fitness.  Additionally, many service members ended up getting completely out of shape when they went on deployment.  So after they got out of the military, Mike and Alex came up with an idea: all in one container gyms that could be shipped and placed anywhere.  That idea became Beaverfit, which today is a rapidly growing multi-million dollar a year business. You can find Mike and Alex's gyms today in places as diverse as Camp Pendleton and Miami Beach.  In this conversation, I talk with Mike and Alex about their journey from the military to entrepreneurship and how

Baktash Ahadi was born in Afghanistan and raised in the United States. After college, he joined the US Peace Corps and went to Mozambique. As the US war in Afghanistan ramped up, Baktash decided to return to Afghanistan as an interpreter who worked alongside the US Marines.  In this episode, Baktash and I discuss the tragedy in Afghanistan and what led to it. We discuss the bureaucratic system, and lack of incentive to ever actually get anything done. We also discuss the repercussions of what this means for the Afghan people, and for American Veterans.  To learn more about Baktash Ahadi: https://www.baktashahadi.com/ To follow Baktash on Twitter: https://twitter.com/baktashahadi  

Like many Veterans, I'm angry and appalled at the United States' hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan.  If you're angry, that's completely justified. You should be.  But to change things, we need to move beyond anger toward action. Veterans need to step up in society to ensure this never happens again. We do that by building our lives, and putting ourselves in position to exact change. 

I listened to this video a few weeks ago as part of my morning motivational routine called "No Zero Days."  I'm not sure who put it together, but the concept really spoke to me. Essentially, the video encourages you to never have any "zero days" again.  A Zero Day is a day where you've done nothing to get to your goal. Instead, you should do something: read a book, do some exercise, take some form of small action to get to your goal everyday.  Watch the original video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxtv5XB7eIA  

Mike Robillard is a US Army Veteran and author who earned his Ph.D in Philosophy from the University of Connecticut before doing a post-doctoral fellowship at Oxford.  Mike has since left academia to co-found an organization called Christian Veterans United, which seeks to restore the values of discipleship in Christ, duty to country, and masculine virtue to the American psyche.  Mike joins a number of former academics who believe that the American university system has become derailed. In this interview, we try to deliver some practical advice as to how this situation can be fixed. 

The financial decisions you make as an early adult can follow you for much of your life. In this episode, Chris discusses the mistakes he made with money, how to avoid them, and how to fix them if you've already made them. 

As veterans move into the civilian world, many of us feel innate insecurities about our experience and education in the new context. In this episode, I discuss overcoming this insecurity and beating imposter syndrome. 

Dustin Robinson is the Founding Partner of Mr. Cannabis Law – a full-service law firm exclusively focused on cannabis and psychedelic industries. Dustin is licensed in Florida as an Attorney, a Certified Public Accountant, and a Real Estate Agent. He focuses his practice on providing legal, accounting, financial, and business consultation to various businesses operating in the hemp, marijuana, and psychedelic industries. Dustin has worked at one of the largest national accounting firms – Deloitte – as well as one of the largest national law firms – Holland & Knight. After working at Holland & Knight, Dustin applied his legal and accounting background in the business world while running a multi-state manufacturing company. Dustin is deeply involved in the cannabis industry through his law firm – Mr. Cannabis Law – and various cannabis-related organizations, including CannabisLAB, ASTM D-37 Global Standards for Cannabis, Leafstyle360, and Broward County Medical Marijuana Advisory Board. Dustin also ser

Gratitude is popular, and helpful, but it can lose it's meaning. To keep the ritual working for you, you need to dig down deep. 

This is your chance to tell me how you've been impacting your community and your world. 

Tom Kubiniec is a leading authority in military weapon storage and armory design. His company, SecureIt Tactical Inc. is recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in America. SecureIt is the largest supplier of weapons storage systems to the Defense Industry and now the fastest growing supplier of residential gun safes in America.  Tom has developed storage systems for special operations units using his own patented technology. He's brought innovation and invention to an industry that has not changed in decades.  Learn more about SecureIt Tactical at https://www.secureittactical.com/weapon-storage/ Or visit their YouTube Channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZb3HLZuU80PVoAFxf_UDLQ  

This episode discusses how the 24/7 news cycle is killing your time and eating up your life. 

The most important thing you can do in life is decide where you want to go. 

The most difficult thing to deal with in life is uncertainty. In this podcast, Chris gives you a plan for overcoming uncertainty with a mission. 

Whether you know it or not right now, you are blessed. 

Bastards' Road is a documentary that follows US Marine Combat Veteran Jonathan Hancock on his walk across the United States visiting his fellow Marines while wrestling with his own demons.  After serving with Second Battalion, Fourth Marines, in the bloody Battle of Ramadi, Jonathan finished out his 8 and a half year Marine Corps career in military intelligence. As a civilian, he began attending the University of Maryland.  During this time, Jonathan began to deteriorate. Drinking all the time, missing class, and wrestling with the demons in his head, Jonathan was at the end of his wits.  After attempting suicide, Jonathan decided that enough was enough, and he decided that he was going to walk cross the country visiting the Marines he'd served with and the families of his fallen brothers.  Partway through the journey, a classmate of his from high school who had gone on to be in filmmaking caught wind of Jonathan's journey. He reached out and offered to help Jonathan document his journey in a movie. This is w

We all have a negative voice in our heads. In this episode, Chris gives you some basic moves you can make to overcome them. 

Andrew Marr is a Special Forces Green Beret Veteran and the founder of the Warrior Angels Foundation.  Andrew also recently wrote the book Tales from the Blast Factory, chronicling the ways in which his life was affected by Traumatic Brain Injury and the road to recovery he took using a unique therapy delivered by Dr. Mark Gordon.  That book was recently turned into a documentary called Quiet Explosions with the help of Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Jerri Sher.  LOGLINE  Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impacts 2 million people per year. Professional athletes, military, veterans, and first-responders share their recovery stories after suffering severe PTSD and depression. Joe Rogan and Super Bowl MVP Mark Rypien, NFL running back Anthony Davis and Ben Driebergen, Marine veteran and winner of CBS’s 35th “Survivor” season, are featured in this enlightening documentary.   SYNOPSIS Special Forces Green Beret, Andrew Marr, returned from his third deployment, a quietly broken man. The explosives expert suffered a multit