Order of Man - Rise Above the Victim Mentality

00:00:00.000 A couple of months ago, when I was out in Maine, I had the opportunity to sit down with

00:00:03.460 an absolutely incredible man who went from lying nearly dead on the battlefield of Afghanistan to

00:00:09.080 losing portions of both his arms and legs to now running an organization dedicated to serving

00:00:14.940 and developing injured members of our military. His name is Travis Mills. And today he talks with

00:00:21.580 us about choosing your attitude and approach towards life, maintaining composure and chaos,

00:00:26.960 learning how to ask for and accept help and how to rise above the victim mentality.

00:00:32.540 You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears and boldly chart your

00:00:37.400 own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time. Every time you are not easily

00:00:43.380 deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you

00:00:50.940 will become at the end of the day. And after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

00:00:57.860 Gentlemen, what is going on today? My name is Ryan Mickler and I am the host and the founder of

00:01:01.800 this podcast and the movement, the order of man. I want to welcome you to this podcast, man. We've

00:01:07.140 been going for gosh, four years now, four years in March. And the lineup that we've had over the

00:01:12.980 past several weeks has been absolutely amazing. We had Chris Hogan, we had TJ Dillashaw. We had

00:01:19.540 Donnie Vincent last week. And of course, a couple of weeks ago, we had David Goggins. And now I get to

00:01:24.040 introduce you to a very, very inspiring man in Travis Mills. I'll get to that here in a second,

00:01:29.880 but just want to let you know, if you are new, that this is a movement to reclaim and restore

00:01:34.620 masculinity in a society that seems to be more and more rejecting the idea of traditional

00:01:41.180 masculinity and the good and the value that it is in society. So we need more men in this mission.

00:01:46.700 I'm glad that you're joining us. Make sure if you've been around for any amount of time and you like what

00:01:50.500 we have to share and you believe in what it is we're doing that you share, share this podcast,

00:01:54.760 share this movement, let other men in your life know about what we're doing here. Before I get

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00:03:19.440 Maine is in the state Maine. So it's origin, Maine.com. And then when you check out, make sure you use

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00:03:36.340 let me, uh, let me get into our, uh, our introduction for our guest today. Again, his name is Travis Mills.

00:03:40.940 I know a lot of you guys know him. I actually got to see part of his facility when I was out there

00:03:46.860 in Maine several months ago. Uh, he's an absolutely incredible and inspiring man. Uh, he's a retired

00:03:54.040 United States army staff Sergeant, uh, with the 82nd airborne division. And he's also one of only

00:03:59.700 five quadruple amputees from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to survive his injuries, but more than

00:04:06.680 just survive. Travis is thriving in life with his beautiful family, uh, multiple successful

00:04:12.800 businesses, which he talks about today. And of course the Travis Mills foundation in Maine, uh,

00:04:18.280 he's a New York times bestselling author. He's a motivational speaker and actor and an advocate

00:04:22.920 for both amputees and veterans. And today he's here to talk with us about his life changing and life

00:04:28.780 altering injuries, how he's overcome extreme adversity to serve himself, his family, and also those who have

00:04:35.280 gone through similar experiences as him. Travis, what's up, man? Living that dream all day, every

00:04:41.320 day. How are you? I'm good, man. You look phenomenal. I'm actually impressed with your attitude. I didn't

00:04:46.800 know what to expect when I came in here. Oh yeah. Well, you know, it's a facade. I didn't think you

00:04:50.320 were going to be a jerk or anything. I just didn't know what to expect fully. I appreciate that. No, I,

00:04:55.220 I think a big reason why I'm able to have the attitude I have, even though with what happened to me,

00:05:00.840 uh, I don't see myself really as handicapped that bad. Like I don't see myself as having

00:05:04.520 a disability. I just kind of like see myself as I was before my incident. Keep pushing forward.

00:05:10.320 Like before I came here, like the exciting life of Travis Mills, I picked my daughter up from school

00:05:14.400 at two 30. So I went in and got her and took her home. And then I came here. I had to change my hand

00:05:19.840 out. Believe it or not. What was it before? Just a different hand that wasn't working. Oh, same thing.

00:05:24.320 Same thing. It just wasn't like working the right way. So, but how do you control this? That's what I

00:05:27.660 wanted. So there's a couple of different ways. So soft muscle flexes. So make a fish real quick

00:05:32.220 and like rev the engine on a moped. Okay. So you know how to ride a moped. I could tell. Um, so no,

00:05:38.540 no, bring it first over here. Like make a fish, rev the engine. Right. Okay. No, up towards the

00:05:42.220 ceiling. Okay. There you go. Feel that muscle right there. Right. Okay. So I flex that muscle.

00:05:45.300 See that little circle. Okay. Right here. Yeah. Okay. So I flex that muscle and I flex it up slow.

00:05:49.280 It reads it and it opens. I flex it up fast and it rotates. Interesting. And then if you make a

00:05:55.140 fist. Okay. And then flex your hand up and I flex your hand down. Feel that muscle down here. Right

00:05:59.440 here. Yeah. Say a little circle. Cause my arm goes about mid forearm. Okay. So I'm about right

00:06:03.880 there. So I flex down, I flex that muscle like you did the, yeah, this one here going down. I go

00:06:07.940 down slow, down fast and turns it the other way. Yeah. So it's just how it works. It's kind of cool.

00:06:12.940 Like I can do most anything I want to do. You know, can you feel no in your, I mean, I know you can't

00:06:18.060 feel cause this is a prosthetic hand, but can you feel when you're touching something light? It's funny. I can.

00:06:23.160 And the reason I can't is cause the vibrations go through the socket. Cause if you ever had

00:06:27.980 a cast, like you broke your arm, you had to get a cast molded to your body. That's what

00:06:31.720 this basically is. They mold like my legs and my arms. And when I have my prosthetics, they

00:06:36.400 mold your leg. When I'm standing on my prosthetics, it's all suspension. So like I'm not standing

00:06:41.780 on the end of my legs. I'm standing on the outside ring of my legs. Oh, and it's sitting

00:06:45.560 in there. It's it. Yeah. I mean, I have a little bit of pressure on the bottom. I'm not going

00:06:47.820 to say I don't have any, but it sits in there and it's molded. So you're feeling it

00:06:51.220 on the sides. Yeah. So like I'll tap my thumb and I can feel the motion in my wrist all the

00:06:57.260 way up to my arm and feel the pressure, which would feel different than if you were tapping

00:07:00.520 your finger, for example. Well, yeah, there's no like a feeling or anything. It's just like

00:07:04.820 pressure. Right. But I mean, it's kind of cool. Like my daughter and I wouldn't, I don't

00:07:08.440 know how many people are familiar with what happened to me, but during my recovery process,

00:07:12.080 my daughter and I, she was nine months old when I started to walk again and she started to

00:07:16.660 walk around the same time. So she would hold my hand and we'd start walking together. So I learned

00:07:21.080 how to walk with my daughter. Is that right? Yeah. Kind of cool. Now, so you were in what

00:07:26.720 Afghanistan for your third tour? For my third tour. Yeah. What was it? 2012? 2012. Yep. A

00:07:32.220 15 month tour, seven to eight. And then I did a year long tour in a nine to 10. And then I went

00:07:38.580 over for, um, it's supposed to be nine months. All three in Afghanistan. And so how long were

00:07:43.620 you in theater then? About a month and a half. Oh, that's it. Yeah. Yeah. We were in a really

00:07:49.080 hot zone, a lot of firefights and stuff, but they had just thrown bombs everywhere. So

00:07:53.980 went out one day and set my backpack on the ground and underneath it was an actual bomb.

00:07:59.420 So it took my right arm, right leg. And it's not like you stepped on anything or drove over

00:08:03.620 anything. You can set your backpack down. No. We went out and patrol like normal. We had

00:08:07.020 the minesweeper, like there was a guy in the front that walked up and down the path. Did

00:08:10.420 you guys rotate through that or is that always that guy's duty? Uh, you know, it was actually... Or

00:08:14.440 is that the guy you don't like? No, no, no, no. They got really good training on it, but,

00:08:18.140 um, we couldn't actually switch them out. So it had to be one guy designated. Because

00:08:22.620 he was trained. Because he was trained on it. And we walked really slow and did everything

00:08:26.880 methodical. And he went down this path and he went up and down it. And you see what the

00:08:31.740 Taliban were doing then at that time is if they shot at you, they would expect you to dive

00:08:36.400 for cover. Right. So if you dove in for cover, that's where they put the bombs at. So they

00:08:39.720 would shoot at you. Yeah, they're watching. Yeah, like a thousand yards away or 800 yards

00:08:44.860 away or I guess meters is what the military uses. But they'd shoot you and our SOP or

00:08:49.440 standard operating procedure was take a knee. Right. Just take a knee, assess where it's

00:08:53.440 coming from, and see how it goes. Because the first thing you want to do is dive for cover.

00:08:57.600 And they wanted people to dive into these bombs. Into the sides of the road for cover.

00:09:01.280 So one of my soldiers, Brandon, swept the ground and nothing alarmed him, which, you know,

00:09:05.800 hey, can't blame him. He did what he had to, not once but twice. And then I came to a

00:09:09.500 short halt and put my backpack on the ground and the backpack was about 120 pounds. And

00:09:12.480 it, there's a pressure plate. So imagine like electrical circuit or whatever. And then

00:09:16.920 there was two ball bearings or whatever was the connector and springs in between it and

00:09:21.960 foam. And once there was enough pressure, we connect the circuit and boom. So my backpack

00:09:26.680 down, connected the circuit and it blew me up. You know, at the end of that day, I had just

00:09:31.860 my hand left. I had, my left leg was dangling by my, if you measure ankle bone, was touching

00:09:36.200 my like left thigh, the outside of it. Yeah.

00:09:38.940 Because everything shattered in there?

00:09:40.920 It just snapped right through. So I see my backpack on the ground. If you imagine right

00:09:43.920 side of my body, sit on the ground, bomb goes off, takes my right arm, right leg automatically.

00:09:48.220 And then the left leg was, like I said, snapped over and my left arm was blown out at the wrist

00:09:53.000 pretty bad. But I still had use of my thumb index and middle finger. The other two were

00:09:56.240 mingled up. I got thrown on the left side of my face. When I rolled over, I saw what was

00:10:00.620 happening. I saw the aftermath of my arm and everything. I was like, man, this is, you

00:10:03.720 know, the curtains. I didn't, I didn't think I was going to make it, but in my head, I

00:10:07.820 kept seeing the movie Saving Private Ryan. Yeah. So like I kept seeing the medic that

00:10:12.480 gets shot in the stomach and he cries out for his mom and ultimately dies. Oh yeah.

00:10:16.100 And I was like, you know, one, everybody thought I was kind of crazy in a good way. I never showed

00:10:20.300 any fear. I was first in a firefight. I was the last one to leave a firefight. The very

00:10:24.380 first day we got in the country, we had a big firefight. On the third deployment?

00:10:27.400 On third deployment. Yeah. And I was like a higher ranking NCO and not commissioned

00:10:31.140 officer, you know. E6? E6, like staff sergeant. But I was the youngest staff sergeant by like

00:10:36.600 three years. Really? But I was a senior. One guy was 10 years more. One guy was 13 years

00:10:41.000 more than me. Was that because your combat experience? Yeah. Well, combat experience,

00:10:46.500 leadership, overall knowledge of everything. So like, even though they had me beaten in time

00:10:51.480 and grade, time and service, I was still like the senior, which is pretty cool. I mean, one

00:10:55.680 guy was pretty bitter about it, but at the end of the day, I didn't care because I was

00:10:59.540 in charge. I set my backpack on the ground, like I said, and got blown up. But in my head,

00:11:03.880 I told myself, you know, don't show any fear. This will be the last thing to remember by

00:11:07.240 you. And at the end of the day, it's not. Were you doing that for you because you didn't

00:11:10.060 want them to see it? Or do you feel like you were doing that for them too? Oh, for them,

00:11:13.380 yeah. Yeah, I mean, I was a little bit crazy. So the first day we went on patrol in Afghanistan,

00:11:17.720 we got in a huge firefight. And it was a lot of guys' first time in combat, and it wasn't

00:11:22.060 my first rodeo. You know, these guys ducked down. We got guys in the middle of the

00:11:25.640 wadi, half of our platoons out in the middle of the wadi getting shot at. They're trying to run

00:11:28.680 back. One guy, he goes down. He's trying to stand up, or they're trying to get him up.

00:11:32.880 He keeps falling. We think that, you know, he got shot. And, you know, I was four squad

00:11:36.940 because I was a weapons squad leader. So I had the big heavy guns on both sides of the

00:11:40.040 river. And then I had third squad in between me. Well, third squad, when they were shooting

00:11:44.220 back, they had two guys that were seasoned team leaders that should know what to do,

00:11:47.900 but they weren't doing what they're supposed to be doing. You know, their squad leader,

00:11:51.000 he's a friend of mine, but he just picked up like the ANA's saw, 249 machine gun,

00:11:55.560 started spraying it. And I was like, what are you doing? So I kicked his team leaders,

00:11:58.420 both. And I said, you know what you're doing? You've been here for, act like it.

00:12:01.280 And control your rate of fire. Don't waste all your ammo. Get them in line. And I smacked

00:12:05.680 both of his guys. And then I left my guys and my first sergeant was yelling, like, third

00:12:09.520 squad, go get, like Sergeant Butler was the one that was injured. He said, go get him.

00:12:13.520 I said, no, first sergeant, don't worry about it. I grabbed my M4 and I threw it to him.

00:12:16.180 I said, here, hold this. I threw my M4 and I ran down into the wadi, ran down to Butler.

00:12:20.880 And I was 6'3", 250, pretty big man, I guess. You know, I mean, that wasn't like a six foot

00:12:26.680 seven behemoth or anything, but you know, 6'3". And I was, I looked at weights a lot

00:12:29.540 and I was really good at sprinting. I ran down there and they're trying to get Sergeant

00:12:32.480 Butler out and he's got his arms around these guys on either side. And he's trying, like,

00:12:35.860 they're trying to carry him all weird. And I just picked him up. I was like, let's go

00:12:38.900 over my back. He went and we ran out. I sat him down. When I sat him down, like, I went to

00:12:43.200 drink some water. And my first sergeant's like, I need Sergeant Mills back here. Get over here.

00:12:46.540 I'm like, oh crap. Okay. Nevermind. Put the water away.

00:12:48.300 I ran back and we finished the firefight up and I was the last one off the objective.

00:12:53.380 And then I had...

00:12:54.040 Was that, just to interrupt you, is that, you received the Bronze Star, right?

00:12:57.840 Yeah.

00:12:58.240 Is that for that experience there?

00:13:00.640 Yeah, I believe so. I don't know if they have, if I have one or two. I did for that.

00:13:05.260 Yeah. You know, we were going back to the base and I was always happy. I'm always, I'm always

00:13:09.680 a happy person. I used to sing the 80 second songs just to annoy people because they couldn't

00:13:13.520 tell me what to do. I was just, I outranked them.

00:13:15.080 You were there.

00:13:15.540 You know what I'm saying? You say something rude to me, watch what happens to your life.

00:13:18.300 So I would sing like, you know, activated long ago. Well, I started after that day of

00:13:22.880 our first firefight, I ran to the front and I was like, the heavy guns are always in the

00:13:26.060 middle of the squad, the most protected. But I would run to the front and I'd high five

00:13:29.680 everybody in and I would be singing the songs. And they kind of, at first they hated it.

00:13:33.580 They couldn't do anything about it. After a while though, after day in and day out, they

00:13:37.100 would start singing them with me and it became something really fun. After that firefight,

00:13:40.940 those two guys I yelled at had, you know, that had been there before, been in combat. I saw

00:13:45.240 them we were getting, you know, refreshing our ammo and they said, look, Sergeant Mills,

00:13:48.320 I got to be honest. When we got here, we saw you were the E6 in the weapons squad leader

00:13:52.360 spot. We had no idea how you would ever get that with your attitude, like how you acted.

00:13:56.040 You're always joking around, never really serious when it wasn't training.

00:14:00.040 Sure.

00:14:00.360 And they said, but after today, they goes, I get it. I got to fight hell and back.

00:14:03.460 I was like, well, you know, I said, the one thing you guys don't know is that first

00:14:06.760 sergeant was with me. He knew about me from last deployment. So it's not like, it wasn't just

00:14:11.280 like, Oh, yeah, just throw this guy in here. It'd be great if you could take this for me.

00:14:14.020 Like they, they knew, right? My NCOERs, they knew what I had done. So I kind of had a reputation,

00:14:19.780 if you will, that was building, not just with the people that were already there before me,

00:14:24.000 like years before, like the last time I deployed, but now with the younger guys. Well, I don't

00:14:28.400 know when I got blown up. I just, I felt like no way would I let them ever see fear come

00:14:31.740 out of me. I ducked down one time in combat and I had a sniper round crack between me and

00:14:36.200 my lieutenant, about six inches. And I ducked in now so mad at myself. I stood up on top of

00:14:41.240 the berm and I aimed at where I thought it came from. And I just ripped off a magazine,

00:14:45.200 dropped the magazine. Another one went in until finally they got corralled me into like, Hey,

00:14:49.340 get back down. What are you doing? I'm like, I was so mad at myself for ducking.

00:14:53.140 And the thing is, it's a lot like war movies, but it's like, at the end of the day, I think

00:14:55.960 it's band of brothers, you know, it's not that I was reckless, but it wasn't, it's not my

00:14:58.860 choice if I live or die. It's not up to me how the day ends. So when I was laying on the

00:15:02.480 ground there with no arms and leg or, you know, norms, right side, left leg dangling, left arm

00:15:06.380 dangled up. I wasn't going to affect my situation by freaking out. I wasn't going to, it wasn't going to do

00:15:10.420 nothing for anybody. So I told the medic, don't worry about it. You're not going to save me. He

00:15:13.800 wore his tourniquets on. They started to, you know, really, you know, work on me, had an IV in my,

00:15:18.140 like they had to do like a chest, like sternum IV. Just right there. I guess that's the only time I

00:15:21.700 actually had any pain where I showed it. I was like, ah, what the, that a sternum IVs. They go

00:15:25.780 right through, straight in, just in like, you got a hammer at home. Like, it's not just like,

00:15:31.020 you know, it's like, I mean, yeah, cartilage and bone and everything right there. They threw down,

00:15:36.400 they threw down, which I'm thankful for, you know? And then, um, when they were working on me,

00:15:39.260 I didn't know what to really do with myself. So I read on my LT, I actually took my left hand that

00:15:42.500 what was still left of it, my thumb and index the middle. And I had a mic on my right side of my

00:15:46.900 chest. I picked it up. I squeezed the trucker mic. It's at A6. This is four. I need your medical

00:15:51.100 mind. I got guys injured. So doc voice ran out, worked on Brandon and Ryan. Cause the guy that was

00:15:55.700 mind sweeping, he got a little bit of shrapnel as well. And Brandon's the guy who's sweeping,

00:15:59.420 right? Yeah. And so I'm sure he holds this against himself a little bit. Well, you know,

00:16:03.700 I think he did. I know for a fact he did, but then I talked to him and was like, Hey man,

00:16:07.260 you could have known it wasn't your fault. At the end of the day, it is what it is.

00:16:10.740 Sounds like he did his job. Yeah, he did. And as unfortunate as the day was that I got

00:16:14.940 blown up and like, look, I get it. Like I do a lot of great things. I'm very fortunate

00:16:17.980 with this motivational speaking. I'm very fortunate with the foundation, but I'd give it all back

00:16:22.960 for my arms and legs, but you're just not going to change it. So I told Brandon, you know, you

00:16:26.800 don't, don't worry about it, bud. You know, as I was saying, as unfortunate as it was,

00:16:30.900 there was actually 13 in a row and the last six were daisy chain together. Yeah. So the front

00:16:36.940 guy would hit the last number, you know, 13, but then the next six behind it or whatever

00:16:41.800 or five behind that one would all blow up and kill everybody. So in a way, I mean, if

00:16:46.840 you're going to hit one, that's a weird way to say it, but that's the one to hit. The

00:16:50.100 first seven would be the ones to hit, you know, we were just in a really bad zone. We

00:16:53.540 had 22 guys had to come home from deployment. For injury sustained. Yeah. IEDs and stuff.

00:17:00.320 22. Yeah. One killed and 22 had to come home. Two doubles, a triple, a quadruple.

00:17:06.100 A couple of guys that still might lose their legs or whatever. But you know, the problem

00:17:09.680 is a lot of it was politics. Unfortunately, like I would watch them put bombs in at nighttime

00:17:14.420 on a raid camera, but we weren't allowed to go out at nighttime. Isn't that crazy?

00:17:17.560 Oh, it's insane. And those insurgents understand your SOPs. Well, they knew the rules to go.

00:17:22.500 Right. Rules of engagement, right? Their president asked our, our government to not go out

00:17:25.900 nighttime. It scares our people. It's not fair. They can go out nighttime and see and we

00:17:29.380 can't. So we couldn't drop mortars on them. We couldn't. And then it got to the point

00:17:33.320 where if someone shot at us, we call the Kiowas in, the Kiowas come on station. That

00:17:37.500 person sees the helicopter. They throw the rifle down, their AK, stand next to it, but

00:17:41.740 they're not holding it. No longer combat. You can't do anything because they're not

00:17:43.980 holding that. They know that when they shoot, they're 800 yards or 800 meters away. By

00:17:47.900 the time that we have to move slowly to sweep the ground to get to them, that Kiowa's got

00:17:51.920 to go for refueling or gets called off to another station because now there's no more

00:17:54.860 combat. They don't have that support. They pick the rifle up and they go. It's kind of

00:17:58.660 sad. I actually, we had the guy that put the bomb in that got me detained. And then we

00:18:02.960 turned him over to the national government, the Afghan national government. And they're

00:18:05.500 like, well, you didn't get pictures with it. We don't know if it's really him. It's

00:18:08.460 like he had 600 pounds of non or of HME homemade explosives, like 600 pounds at his

00:18:13.900 house, scars on his hands, all that. Yeah. But you didn't get pictures. So they let him

00:18:18.300 go, let him go. Yeah. Which he's just, he went back to doing the same thing. Yeah. Not

00:18:22.100 anymore though. Like the sister platoon found him. So really? Yeah. Yeah. They told the

00:18:26.580 ANA like, Hey, this is guy I've been looking for. He's on our wanted list. And the ANA

00:18:29.620 goes, Oh, well it looks like he was turned in like the commander. Like, yeah, he was

00:18:33.240 already turned in and let go. And the guy's like, Oh, okay. We'll do this different this

00:18:37.480 time. Yeah, they did. So not my, not my unit, but the ANA, the Afghan counterpart took care

00:18:42.900 of things. Oh, is that? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. At the end of the day, I can't change what

00:18:47.060 happened to me. I can't change the fact that I got blown up. I can't change the fact

00:18:49.860 that I have no arms and legs, you know, through the trials and tribulations, I guess I've

00:18:52.980 really found a couple of life lessons, you know, number one, don't dwell on the past

00:18:55.960 because I can't change it. I used to lay on my bed and hold, you know, close my eyes

00:18:59.020 and like hope and pray and wish it never happened, but you can't change it. So I might as well

00:19:02.460 just reminisce. I had 25 great years. Was that like a, like flipping a switch or did

00:19:06.640 that take a long time to like realize, Oh, here's my life.

00:19:09.900 Um, I'm stubborn and kind of keep my like things close. So my wife had never seen me cry

00:19:16.480 before, but obviously after I got blown up, she'd seen my, my tears come out and everything

00:19:19.480 like that. And I kind of like was telling her like, you don't have to do this. You know,

00:19:22.200 you're 23, I'm 25, I'm a six month old. Like you can take the house to

00:19:25.900 cars, the money in the account where we have is yours and you can go, you know, but she

00:19:30.240 was like, that's how this works. And then my daughter would come in and my parents are

00:19:33.720 phenomenal, you know, like just great people gave them my morals, my values. And I was

00:19:38.500 just thinking like, you know, I'm this little girl's father and if I'm going to live with

00:19:42.060 there, I wasn't going to die anymore. You know, I'm past the point of like, Oh, he

00:19:44.900 might not make it through the surgery. He might not. No, I was just like, I was going to

00:19:48.220 make it and I'm going to be her role model. So what kind of example am I going to set

00:19:53.500 if I give up? Yeah. If I'm like, you know what? It's not worth it. Like I hate

00:19:57.380 this. Like, and I'm just bitter and angry. So it was fairly quick. I met a guy, he came

00:20:02.680 in quadruple empty. He was a Marine and he was the second ever. And I'm the fourth out

00:20:06.600 of the five of us now. There's five, right? Yeah. And he was just like, Hey man, you're

00:20:09.740 going to be fine. And it took me a little while. I thought I was like hallucinating from

00:20:13.080 some of the drugs I was on. This was the guy, he was wounded before you? Yep. Okay. Yeah.

00:20:17.440 Todd Nicely, retired corporal for the Marines. He flew in from Missouri just to be like,

00:20:21.820 Hey man, you're going to be fine. Just so you know, like you're gonna be able to feed

00:20:24.220 yourself, dress yourself, go to the bathroom by yourself, you know, everything, walk, drive,

00:20:28.040 whatever. You know, I kind of made a point like, all right, cool. And then I told the

00:20:31.120 doctor the next morning I was going to work out. And the doctor said, you can't work out

00:20:33.700 yet. I said, no, no, you don't understand. I met Todd Nicely. He said, I'll work out with

00:20:38.240 me at one o'clock today. I'm going to go work out. And he's like, well, I don't think

00:20:40.460 you're ready. I said, I don't think you understand what I'm saying. I said, I'm going to work

00:20:44.000 out. And at this time, three weeks after probably my explosion, I had a ketamine

00:20:47.020 coma. I just came out of. Yeah. I came up, well, I had been put into a coma medically

00:20:51.680 induced and I came out of it. And then I met Todd about five, six days after that. I kept

00:20:56.100 telling him, no, no, I'm going to, you know, go do my, you know, this. And I even told the

00:20:59.260 doctor I would jump out of bed and low crawl. And he said, I'll think about it. So I called

00:21:02.280 him every half hour for four hours straight. I think they find, they're fine. You can go,

00:21:06.760 you know, and stop calling me. Yeah. So I had to lay there and like they put a heating pad

00:21:10.520 on my back and I fell asleep for most of it. But once I saw someone had done it before

00:21:14.480 and I realized my wife wasn't going anywhere and my daughter was still my daughter, even

00:21:18.180 if my wife decided, you know, Hey, this isn't what I want to do. I was still gonna be her

00:21:21.700 father and I wasn't gonna change the situation. He got nothing really left in life, but to

00:21:26.480 just bear down and go. So my workouts became my job. I did eight hours of therapy, physical

00:21:32.420 and occupational, 40 hours a week, as much as I could. How soon did you get your prosthetics?

00:21:37.160 Five weeks, I got my arm. Okay. And then seven weeks and four days, I started walking

00:21:40.620 again, but it was like, you know, short legs. It wasn't the tall legs I'm wearing now. This

00:21:45.300 is a progression, right? You know, like my arm, I can only wear for an hour when I first

00:21:48.660 started with it and why did it wear skin breakdown, um, getting used to it. It's, you know,

00:21:54.500 so was it callous then up like where it connects? How does it, it's just, it just gets used to

00:22:00.000 it. Yeah. Yeah. Just adapts. Yep. Yep. You know, my legs, I, uh, I try to throw them on

00:22:04.620 by eight, nine o'clock if I don't have anywhere to go early in the morning and then I take

00:22:08.580 them off. Well, if I'm just being honest with you guys, when I go home, if I'm done

00:22:12.200 for the day going out, I take them off. Cause when I'm playing with my, like my son, he's

00:22:15.340 15 months or my daughter, she likes to wrestle and play. They're really hard. So if I'm not,

00:22:20.080 yeah. So I take them off so we can actually wrestle and play and I got to worry about it.

00:22:23.740 And I take my arm right off and do what I can. But I mean, like I said, I keep my cards

00:22:27.340 closed. So like there was times, you know, I'd be like alone and I'd sit there and think

00:22:30.960 about like, what the heck, why is this happening? And I'm not going to say I don't still like

00:22:34.680 sometimes, you know, my wife jokes around, you know, I have a horrible sleep schedule.

00:22:38.180 It's not because I'm, I can't sleep good. I sleep great when I fall asleep. But if

00:22:41.140 I'm not tired enough for the day to go to bed and I sit there and I'm like, wow, so

00:22:44.480 this is my life. This is what was planned out for me to have no arms, no legs. Like

00:22:47.760 how is that even possible if this was what was chose for me?

00:22:51.100 Do you think it was a plan?

00:22:52.360 You know, I don't know. You say God has a plan for everything. And at first you get

00:22:55.560 blown up, you got to like question like, man, like, is this really, you know, what the

00:22:58.980 heck? But I just keep going back to, well, I'm still here. Might as well keep doing what I

00:23:03.820 can. You know, my wife has really been our trooper. We have, you know, our second

00:23:07.580 child now. And she says we're done. I believe her. But I don't know. I don't know why I

00:23:12.500 would have to go through something like this. I don't, I don't feel like, um, it's not like

00:23:16.040 a blessing in disguise, really. I mean, I just make the best of it because at the end of

00:23:20.380 the day, I can't change it.

00:23:21.440 Yeah. I mean, you seem pretty neutral about it.

00:23:23.480 Yeah. I mean, I can be happy about it. I can be sad about it. I mean, not happy, but

00:23:27.360 you know, I, I'm just going to make the best of any situation I find myself in.

00:23:30.100 Yeah.

00:23:30.300 You know, I don't question like, why did this happen? Am I, you know, like my bad person, I'm like

00:23:33.760 ask those questions anymore.

00:23:35.440 You used to though?

00:23:36.260 Oh yeah.

00:23:36.740 You thought you were being punished or something?

00:23:38.260 Well, you just got to wonder why, why, why, why? You know, there's so many people out there

00:23:41.600 like you see like these guys go to jail for like murder or rapists or whatever. And you're

00:23:46.280 like, it's fine for my country, paying my taxes, had a young family, you know, like I got a

00:23:51.240 dog, I bought a house. What the heck?

00:23:53.800 Yeah.

00:23:54.280 So, you know, those things do run through your mind and I'm not going to sugarcoat it and

00:23:58.140 sit here and be like, well, I never thought of that actually. I'm just so happy it happened.

00:24:01.300 I was like, well, I lived. But at the end of the day, I did live. I have friends that never

00:24:05.460 are going to be with their families ever again. It'd be selfish if I gave up. It'd be a slap

00:24:10.480 in their face and their service and their family sacrifice that they've made, all of

00:24:14.140 them, for them not making it back home. They're, you know, kids without fathers or mothers. I

00:24:19.500 don't know any mothers that died, but I know there are ones out there. So I'm not going

00:24:22.720 to downplay. I'm just saying for me personally, my close friends, you know, that never made

00:24:27.120 it back home. I just feel like how, you know, fortunate would they have been if they would

00:24:30.820 have made it like me, if they would be there with their daughter. I think my daughter, dad,

00:24:33.960 daughter dances, right? My daughter goes to gymnastics. I took her last night. You know,

00:24:37.960 my son now, me and I were starting to get a pretty good bond. He's a real mama's boy.

00:24:42.240 It's ridiculous.

00:24:43.040 He will be for next, maybe what, year or so?

00:24:45.560 Yeah. Well, I keep telling my wife.

00:24:46.740 It'll be years.

00:24:47.040 Yeah. I'm like, you know, Kelsey, you better enjoy this because when you can get in that truck,

00:24:50.600 like Chloe, like my daughter loves to go with me.

00:24:52.600 Yeah.

00:24:52.740 I put her in the truck. I used to, you know, buckle her into her car seat and we'd go anywhere.

00:24:57.260 Everybody just knew if I was showing up, Chloe's coming with me.

00:24:59.440 It's awesome.

00:24:59.960 And Dax is, and my son's name's Dax. So my medics were Daniel and Alexander. So I just

00:25:04.380 mashed their names together. So I named them after those two. They made it possible for

00:25:07.120 me to live.

00:25:07.660 The medics in combat?

00:25:10.120 In combat.

00:25:10.560 Yeah.

00:25:10.960 Yeah.

00:25:11.260 All right.

00:25:12.100 Daniel Bates and Alexander voice. So his name's Dax.

00:25:15.240 Okay.

00:25:15.760 I like that.

00:25:16.180 That's cool.

00:25:16.400 And I'm excited for the day when he can jump in the truck and just go with me. Right now

00:25:20.460 he can, but I have to make sure I'm at a destination so I can get him out. I can't do the

00:25:23.520 buckles.

00:25:24.080 Yeah.

00:25:24.300 But usually I go down to my, my marina. My mom and dad live there, so.

00:25:27.780 They can get him and everything's good.

00:25:29.400 Yeah. Get out and chase him around and it's fun.

00:25:32.260 What point did you think you were in the clear? I mean, you thought, Hey, this is over.

00:25:35.560 I'm dead. Was it there when you were laying there that, or was it later when you were in

00:25:40.500 the hospital? What was that like?

00:25:42.140 So I had like every thought that I would, I was going to die.

00:25:45.840 Right.

00:25:46.080 Right. I just come to terms and grips with it. Hey, it is what it is.

00:25:48.660 I think it was really had a lot to do with like band of brothers. Like the guy, you know,

00:25:52.560 it was like, if you realize you're already dead, like it makes you a better soldier or

00:25:55.460 at the end of the day, you can't control what's going to happen. And some other movies I watched,

00:25:59.500 you know, where things rushed in my head and like a guy was like, I've seen a squire pull

00:26:04.220 a spear from himself and fight back where another guy praises God he doesn't get killed and

00:26:08.340 then gets killed. He said, at the end of the day, it's not your choice. What happens type deal.

00:26:12.680 So for me, it was just like, well, this sucks. I still have men that look up to me and believe

00:26:17.500 in me. Matter of fact, I woke up in the hospital and when I woke up, I didn't want to call my

00:26:21.340 parents. I didn't want to call my wife. I didn't want to have those conversations because

00:26:24.500 I was really embarrassed about everything more than probably.

00:26:27.620 Why?

00:26:28.360 The tail band got me, you know, I was pretty tough. I was a strong guy. I was never going

00:26:32.920 to let, you know, them get me type deal. And I feel like I let everybody down when I got

00:26:36.900 injured, but I did want to call my unit. So I called my unit and I would never show them

00:26:40.740 emotionally what I was going through. So I told my brother-in-law who's in the room

00:26:44.000 with me because he was in the service and some of my wife and still real close. I looked

00:26:48.140 at him and I said, Hey, you got to find my unit's number. I need to call. So he called

00:26:51.780 them and they got the phone and said, Hey guys. And I started singing like the 80 second

00:26:55.140 songs, you know, it was really nice. And I promised him I'd see him when I got home and told him

00:26:59.460 I was fine. Everything, you know, it was going to be great. I was like, Hey guys, don't

00:27:02.400 worry about me. Like I'm going to walk again and feed myself. I'll see you guys when you get

00:27:05.200 home. I'll be on my tall legs. I mean, internally I was a mess, but you never, you

00:27:10.600 know, you always exude confidence and I would never show that to him. I did get the chance

00:27:14.580 to see when they got home and talk to him and it wasn't really for me when I called

00:27:18.160 them. I think, you know, I wanted to say, Hey, thanks. Great job out there. But at the

00:27:21.020 same time I called them so they would stop worrying and just fight the missions, let

00:27:24.200 them get back into the thing you need to do. One of my teams, the 240 gunner, uh, James

00:27:29.300 Neff, because I just want you to know, we went on a mission and I killed them all. I killed

00:27:32.900 them all, Sergeant Mills. And I was like, Oh, okay. And, uh, they went on the

00:27:36.600 mission and at nighttime, like they went through the SWATI where the, we were shot

00:27:40.480 out the day before and they just laid waste to, and they all, they're all bad

00:27:44.640 guys. So I'll hit AKs, all shooting and stuff like that. But they're like, before

00:27:48.260 they knew we were there, we got them. And I was like, Oh, cool. But then I also, I

00:27:52.540 might've been so drugged up. I kind of yelled at my CEO and told him a couple

00:27:55.920 of things he was doing completely wrong. And if he didn't fix it, a lot of guys

00:27:58.620 are going to get injured and killed. And they were like, Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm

00:28:01.360 like, no, it's fine. Take my rank. I don't care. I don't care anymore. Just because

00:28:04.120 me and my CEO had different views and you're not supposed to, how did that go

00:28:07.420 over? No, they didn't do anything. That's me. I don't know. I was in a

00:28:11.120 hospital bed. What are they going to say? I have arms and legs. Yeah. What are you

00:28:14.280 going to do now? Right. Yeah. I was 110 pounds lighter than when I went, I went

00:28:17.260 from two 40 to one, uh, two 50 to one 40. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So, so he took me

00:28:22.100 off speaker quick. He's like, you can't, I'm like, no, no, he needs to hear it. He

00:28:24.600 needs to know. Hmm. And, uh, I probably shouldn't have done that. It's not

00:28:28.220 like, but at the same time, unfortunately I think he suffers a little bit from, from

00:28:33.140 guilt, from things that happen. I don't talk to him. Not, not to just you, but

00:28:37.260 but the team in general or what? Oh yeah. Well, we had, like I said, triple

00:28:40.800 amputee, two double leg amputees, one guy killed, another guy mangled up, you

00:28:46.140 know, other guys had to come home. One guy lost eyesight and one of his eyes, not

00:28:49.880 both luckily. Yeah. Being the CEO or the CEO, like commander, you know, falls on his

00:28:54.500 shoulders. Sure. Yeah. Hmm. So I was impressed as I was kind of reading up on

00:28:59.240 your story and getting to know what you were all about. I was just impressed with

00:29:01.940 the speed of physical recovery. That was inspiring to me, like how fast it

00:29:06.860 was. And then you had this idea for, I shouldn't say like the idea that it is

00:29:10.520 now that, you know, your, your, your foundation, but that turnover was, was

00:29:14.520 really quick. Yeah, it was. I was fortunate to meet Todd nicely. Like I said, he

00:29:18.360 came in. Right. And then from being Todd nicely, you know, I made a point to go

00:29:22.760 visit everybody that came in because at Walter Reed, the worst you're typically

00:29:25.860 going to see typically would be an amputation of some sort, usually double

00:29:30.500 eggs. Like, Oh man, they lost both legs. Like that's a big thing. That's a big

00:29:33.600 deal. So, and not, not to downplay like anybody's amputations, but when you're

00:29:38.160 sitting in the hospital bed wondering like, why did this happen? Like, you

00:29:40.320 know, all the same questions I had and I'm missing, you know, you say you're

00:29:42.700 missing one leg below the knee, you know, we joke around there, but I say it's a

00:29:45.700 paper cut nowadays. You haven't met Chris, but hopefully you guys do meet him. He

00:29:48.920 works at the foundation. He's below the knee. He runs whole maintenance. He's a

00:29:52.240 tired first sergeant. He works for us now and he's a great friend of mine, but you

00:29:55.680 know, we joke around like, Hey, that's a paper cut. How are you doing? Put a

00:29:57.400 bandaid on it. And, um, you know, I come rolling in or walking in depending on

00:30:01.520 what part of recovery. And I said, Hey, what's, how's it going? Like I'm

00:30:03.600 Travis. You got any questions? And you meet them and their wife and their kids

00:30:07.100 or their mother or their mother-in-laws or whatever. And you're like, Hey,

00:30:10.860 you're going to be fine. And the whole attitude changes. So what gives them new

00:30:14.320 perspective, right? That I imagine it's pretty hard to see when you're in it. Oh yeah.

00:30:17.800 And the doctors would come and at first the nurses and doctors were like, Hey

00:30:20.620 Travis, we have a guy that just got in here. You could really use you to talk to

00:30:23.780 him, but because of HIPAA, we can't tell you where he's at, but we can tell

00:30:27.040 you he's not in room 40 and he's not in room 42, you know? And I'm like, I'm

00:30:30.320 not a Marine. So obviously I can count. They're just so dumb. Those Marines.

00:30:34.060 I thank you for saying that. That's going to elicit some emails that I'm going to

00:30:37.860 have to deal with. Yeah, no, that's yeah. Right. They don't understand what I just

00:30:41.240 said. Eat your Krayolas. So I knew I could get better because Todd and I just came in

00:30:49.120 and I was like, Oh man, this guy did it and he's a Marine. So it must be easy. But

00:30:53.280 you know, I'd go there and I'd visit and then it turned into like, Hey Travis, we

00:30:56.200 have a new patient, you know, PFC Johnson. He's got his mom and his wife here. Can

00:31:00.400 you go say hi? Yeah. He's missing both legs. This is while you were recovering

00:31:03.460 there? At Walter Reed. Yeah. And then I, and then I started doing like a welcome

00:31:06.260 committee. So it was like me and two other guys and then me and three other guys.

00:31:10.460 And I think the height was like nine people went up and it was all different

00:31:13.200 variables of recovery. Like some guys were walking, some guys were walking with

00:31:16.240 canes. Some guys were with a wheelchair and then walked in. This is the welcome

00:31:19.380 committee. Yeah. Like a welcome committee that, you know, just like, Hey, let's go

00:31:22.380 say hi to these. Let's go. And that was going to be, I said, this is going to be

00:31:24.700 our PT. This is where we're going to do physical therapy day. We're going to go

00:31:27.520 walk the halls on the fourth floor and say hi to people. I do an occupational

00:31:31.160 therapy and my therapist would get mad at me because I'm like, Hey, I don't need to

00:31:34.200 come here no more. Like I live life every day. Like that's what this is. And you get

00:31:37.500 kind of mad. And I said, well, you know what, Joe, I'm tired of doing Legos. So how

00:31:40.280 about we go out and do like actual like work trips? Like we'll go to the grocery

00:31:43.780 store. We'll go here. We'll go there. We'd go to a movie. When you went there, you

00:31:48.020 had to navigate like, how are you going to get in the movie theater? How are you

00:31:50.400 going to pay for the movie? How are you going to, and we kind of changed it to

00:31:53.140 that. Cause I was, I was tired of phenomenal care, but I was tired of like

00:31:56.100 sitting there and try and put Legos together. Is that what it was to work on

00:31:59.160 your motor skills? And well, there was Legos, there was, uh, uh, cutting things.

00:32:03.440 There was, you know, like we made it like for Thanksgiving one year, we made a

00:32:06.100 Thanksgiving dinner. Like I was in charge of the stuffing. So I had to have

00:32:08.160 like both arms and a knife and cut the celery. Okay. Yeah. You know, negotiate everything,

00:32:11.780 which, which I'm thankful for. I am. Sure. At some point, you can only do that so

00:32:15.300 much. At some point you're like, I'm living life. Like that's exactly what we're

00:32:18.420 supposed to be doing here. Like I'm actually living it. I'm doing everything.

00:32:21.240 So I thank you. And that was kind of hard. Like Joe was not pleased when I told him

00:32:24.700 we were done, but he understood why. How long was that process from the time that

00:32:29.580 you went into the time you kind of got to that point? About a year. I still did.

00:32:34.340 So you were there for that long. I still did physical therapy, but I kind of, I

00:32:37.860 gave up on the occupational therapy and I gave up. I just. What's the

00:32:40.900 difference? Physical is like, uh, walking, running, like that kind of stuff. Like

00:32:45.940 they would help you with your stride. They would help you with stuff like that.

00:32:49.100 And occupational therapy is more fine motor skills, navigating. Functionality.

00:32:52.200 Yeah. Like my wallet's not in here, but like my wallet has like a, you know, like

00:32:55.900 a necklace lanyard or if you will, like, you know, like you see the ones like, like

00:32:58.580 mine says Oakley on it. So like I figured that out. So my wallet's like, it holds my

00:33:02.700 business card and my personal credit card. Then it holds my ID on the backside.

00:33:07.160 So I don't carry cash on me ever. And I have on that lanyard. So I put it in my

00:33:10.360 pocket and a lanyard sticks out of my pocket. So when I want to go pay for

00:33:12.560 something, I pull it out and pull that out. And then I tell them, Hey, you want

00:33:14.900 to grab this card out? Cause if you don't grab it out, I'm going to use my teeth

00:33:17.420 and my mouth and you're going to touch it. You know, they're like, no, no, I'll

00:33:20.640 just grab it. I'm like, yeah, I know. Now they don't even ask like everybody

00:33:22.780 around here. Cause they know you. Yeah. You're a small enough town here.

00:33:25.120 They know you. Well, yeah. So, and they're kind of respectful of like the fact

00:33:29.300 like, yeah, he has an arms legs. I can help him out a little bit. Well, and I

00:33:32.420 appreciate the fact that you, I don't want to say normalize it though, but I

00:33:36.300 mean, even just meeting you here, you know, like you tried to scare me by like

00:33:39.580 when I grabbed your hand, like you're joking around and yeah, it's kind of the

00:33:43.040 best way. I feel like it's the best way to, to get people to feel comfortable is

00:33:45.540 tell a couple of jokes, break the ice. Yeah. I joke around and tell people, I tell

00:33:48.400 jokes, a disarm situation, knee slapper. If you got them, I don't, if you do.

00:33:54.140 But, uh, but I, yeah, I'm not going to walk in there and all of a sudden not be

00:33:59.700 looked at like, they're like, Oh, I didn't even know she had no arms and legs.

00:34:02.220 You're going to notice. It's like, come on. Like you don't, don't, don't pander.

00:34:05.900 Or are you Travis Mills? I'm like, well, get away with my, my smile. Yeah. I'm

00:34:11.220 like, Oh man, it was a fake legs and the fake arms. I didn't even notice that. I'm

00:34:14.300 like, I wear shorts and a t-shirt everywhere I go. Like how are you not

00:34:16.480 going to see? Yeah. But I appreciate them trying, but at the same time, like,

00:34:20.160 come on. But I imagine that's hard. Cause I, even as we were talking, we're

00:34:22.720 talking about jujitsu and you were talking about rolling. I'm like, I don't, what

00:34:25.560 would I, what would I grab onto? You know what I mean? Like to be. I got a problem with

00:34:29.200 that. I'm working on it. But I imagine like, it's probably an interesting thing

00:34:32.920 because people are so, it's almost like they're more of a victim. I

00:34:36.860 imagine then, then you put yourself in that position. Like, I don't know how to

00:34:39.800 behave around this person. I don't know. Do you get that? Like I walked out of

00:34:43.040 Walmart last night. My daughter came over to school and she was like, dad, we

00:34:47.260 got to go to the store. I said, okay. I said, there's these families in Mount

00:34:50.660 Vernon and they don't have food and we're doing a can drive. So we got to go buy a

00:34:53.860 bunch of food, dad. We got to buy them food. I said, well, brought to my attention

00:34:56.960 Chloe, we'll go do that. So I went to like Sam's club and I forgot my wallet. So I was

00:35:00.500 like, you guys got Apple Pay? And the lady's like, no, I don't think so. I think

00:35:02.780 they do, but she didn't know how to run it. So I just like, okay. Went to Walmart

00:35:05.900 and they, you guys Apple Pay? Same, like same situation. I don't, I don't think we

00:35:10.580 do. I'm like, you guys just know how to run it. Obviously like this, this is

00:35:13.440 2018. Come on. As I'm leaving this lady, the Gloria, she's like, are you the guy I

00:35:17.540 see on TV? I said, I think, I think probably. Yeah. She goes, I love, can I give you a

00:35:21.480 hug? I just love what you're doing. I'm like, yeah, no problem. So I get a lot of

00:35:24.060 like random hugs. Do you really? Oh yeah. Yeah. And Chloe's always like, oh dad, like

00:35:27.840 you know, how do you know everybody? I'm like, honey, they just, they know me. Like

00:35:31.460 I don't, I don't know everybody, but I'm, I'm always friendly to take care of your

00:35:34.140 people. Yeah. But I try to make it so people, yeah, they see my injury, but then

00:35:37.860 they see like, oh, he's just regular every day. Yeah. You know, nothing's really

00:35:40.440 different about him. And you know, to the extent where I can't hold a

00:35:43.340 conversation, like I was at the hospital and this guy, I'm in my wheelchair, he

00:35:47.100 rose me on the head and I'm like, what are you doing? And he's like, how are you

00:35:50.700 doing? And I'm like, Hey man, I'm, I'm good. Thanks. I'm Travis. How are you

00:35:53.960 doing? He's like, I hope you're doing fine. They're talking slow to me.

00:35:57.720 And I'm like, look, my brain's fine. Just so you know. And he said something

00:36:01.800 else. He went around my head. I said, look buddy, you're not my grandpa. Don't

00:36:04.820 touch my head. And I don't know you. And I've told you like over and over I'm

00:36:08.680 fine. And you don't, you just keep talking slow to me. So this conversation

00:36:11.480 is over. Yeah. And he's like, okay. And I'm like, no, no, we're done. We're done

00:36:15.880 here. Just like wheeled off. But I don't get into a lot of that where people

00:36:18.780 like they can't see past the injury. Yeah. I had one guy in Colorado say, you

00:36:23.000 ever think about what if you didn't get blown up? I said, well, not really

00:36:25.160 anymore. And he's like, no, you must think about it. He goes, I

00:36:27.620 would. I said, well, yeah, I used to, but now I realize I can't change it is

00:36:30.300 what it is. He goes, no, you're lying. You must. I looked around the room. I

00:36:33.960 said, I said, you know what? He goes, huh? I goes, I'm not actually paid to be

00:36:36.780 here. I said, I'm just here for this documentary screening. It's free to the

00:36:39.960 public, which is nice. So that's why you're here. But I can't find someone to

00:36:42.900 get me out of this conversation. So I need you to go away. He was just like, but I

00:36:47.100 said, no, no, this conversation is over. So go away. Yeah, please. You know, he's

00:36:52.040 sitting there calling me a liar and I can only take so much of it. I mean, it makes

00:36:54.300 sound like a huge, you know, a-hole or something, but I'm really not. But it

00:36:57.640 makes you sound like a human being. Yeah. I just can function and do

00:37:01.100 everything that anybody else could do. Yeah. Well, I mean, for the most part, I

00:37:04.000 mean, I do have to have help with my legs on, but once my legs are on in the

00:37:06.600 morning, it's like three minutes of like, oh, I hate this. You know, someone

00:37:09.560 helped with my legs on. My father-in-law helped with my mom or not my mom, my

00:37:12.720 wife and my dad. Like, you know, there's a certain few people that will allow help with

00:37:16.340 my legs on. And was that hard at first to be able to ask for that or to ask for

00:37:20.440 that help? You know, it is. It is. You don't want to be a burden on anybody. You

00:37:23.520 don't want to have to put somebody else out, but I'm getting new legs, hopefully

00:37:26.780 built the beginning of the year to like do it myself. Is that the difference? Is

00:37:31.100 these ones you're going to be able to put on yourself? I should. Did you make

00:37:35.380 yourself taller? I'm actually three inches shorter. Oh, you are? Yeah. I'm only six

00:37:39.180 foot tall with these and I was six three, but gravity is a real thing, I guess. And

00:37:42.680 big tree fall hard apparently. So it is what it is, but you know, you help with

00:37:48.500 that and like I get help with deodorant and that's about it. It's really weird.

00:37:51.700 Like my father-in-law helps me mostly because he's my business manager, if you

00:37:55.140 will, our business partner. So I travel, I did like 40, I don't know, 41 or 44

00:37:59.620 cities this year speaking to big conferences. Really? What'd you say? 40? 41 or

00:38:05.480 something like cities. Yeah, something right in there. Yeah. Wow. Like 28 states. I travel

00:38:09.140 a lot for work, you know. He travels with me. Like he's my business partner, if you

00:38:12.980 will, our business associate. And he has my legs on. It's kind of weird when your

00:38:17.180 father-in-law, you didn't really know until he got blown up. Then he comes to

00:38:20.040 live with you and your wife has to help you like, you know, I'm on my boxers and

00:38:23.820 I put my liners on and my legs. And I got to like put my liners up to my inner

00:38:27.000 thigh. So it's like I'm wearing a speedo kind of and he's the one who just

00:38:29.020 helped me out, you know, whatever. Yeah. We get along great. So, so it's cool.

00:38:32.500 But like, you know, like I said, there's like maybe 10 people in the world that

00:38:36.680 are like, I don't want to say privileged, but you know, that I would, I would

00:38:40.940 accept. Right. It's not gonna be just anybody. Yeah. It's weird. Like my trainer at the

00:38:44.080 gym, Kevin, I used to go to like when he was there, he would do it. And that

00:38:48.860 wasn't weird for me. But the other trainer, Lynn, who I'm a great friend with

00:38:51.960 and I love her to death. I'm like, that's okay. What's the difference? Well,

00:38:57.600 like I had my therapist, Carrie, who like helped me before and like every now and

00:39:01.580 then like your hand will slip because it goes up so high. Like she's rubbed a

00:39:04.280 pinky like across my testicle. And I was like, Oh, she goes, we're never gonna talk

00:39:07.660 about that again. We're never gonna talk about that again. Don't you even bring it up?

00:39:10.640 I'm like, no, no one never will. Except for like right now. Yeah. And other

00:39:14.460 millions of people. Right, right, right. But outside of this, no one who will ever

00:39:18.260 know. No one will ever know. Right. But yeah, I mean, it's kind of like a

00:39:21.700 vulnerability thing. You know, I don't like to be seen as vulnerable. I don't

00:39:24.680 like to be seen as a, I can't do something, you know, like, I mean, there's

00:39:27.860 things I shy away from. Sure. But you know, I've went snowboarding before done

00:39:31.880 downhill mountain biking. I've done kind of anything you can imagine like

00:39:35.260 hiking and canoeing. Really? You know, since. Yeah. Yeah. Cause my, my kids are going to

00:39:39.200 still want to do this kind of stuff. What's the hardest thing? What's the

00:39:41.980 hardest adventure? Like that sort of thing that you've been on and that you've

00:39:44.920 tried? I mean, snowboarding, I can't do it independently yet, which I hate that I

00:39:48.120 can't do it independently yet. Like I want to be able to do it. How, so how does that

00:39:51.940 work? Is somebody like literally holding onto you? Like hand holding my prosthetics

00:39:55.920 and lean back and forth. Yeah. But I do it on short legs. And you're sliding down. So

00:39:59.120 if you imagine these sockets or the knee joint is, this comes off and there's a foot

00:40:01.920 like basically right here. Oh, okay. So I just like lean forward, lean back. Cause I don't

00:40:05.640 have the knee to bend. Right. Yeah. Cause yeah. Without that, it'd be a little

00:40:09.940 whole challenge to have that extra joint. Right. Yeah. Yeah. But I mean, it's, it's

00:40:13.880 all right. And, um, kayaking, that's pretty easy. My arm eventually will sweat and the,

00:40:18.280 like, uh, the socket falls off. I don't want my right side unless I'm doing like that

00:40:22.140 kind of stuff. I mean, it's your full arm on that side. Just, is it just below your

00:40:25.620 shoulder? Um, mid bicep, I guess, or a quarter of the bicep. Okay. Yeah. But the

00:40:29.700 problem is, um, I moved to Maine cause of this, my body, when you're amputee, you overheat.

00:40:33.780 Oh, because you don't have enough or you don't have the same skin surface. Right.

00:40:38.000 So when your blood circulates, it goes to your fingers and toes, comes back cooled

00:40:40.700 down. Right. Okay. Residual limbs come back quicker. When you release it from your

00:40:44.540 body, which you'll, you'll find out when you visit Maine this time of year, it's

00:40:47.980 usually head, hands and feet. I'm missing four to five. And then a third of my body

00:40:51.260 is actually capped off. So like I wear shorts over where I go, but I actually have the

00:40:56.020 outer wall, which is this wall, an inner wall, and then a liner. So it's basically I have

00:40:59.700 wool socks wrapped in rain gear on a third of my body. So like right now,

00:41:03.760 I'm like sweating right now, but it's just my normal everyday life now.

00:41:06.940 Interesting. So when I put my prosthetic on, it's like a body harness and all this

00:41:10.860 stuff. Eventually it just gets so sweaty. It just falls off.

00:41:15.380 Just slips off.

00:41:16.220 Yeah. So I don't wear it too often much.

00:41:21.520 Man, let me hit the pause button real quick. If you've been listening for any

00:41:24.820 amount of time, you know, I believe that it's, it's no surprise that our boys are

00:41:28.840 facing an uphill battle. In fact, if you look at the statistics, you can clearly see

00:41:33.680 that boys are falling behind on some very serious and alarming metrics from academics

00:41:38.640 to depression and suicide, drug abuse, violence, criminal activity, college rates,

00:41:43.820 and income just to name a few. So if you're a father of a boy between the ages of eight to

00:41:49.220 15, I want to equip you. I want to equip you with the tools that you'll need to usher

00:41:53.460 him into manhood. And that's exactly what we're doing at our second legacy experience

00:41:58.600 on April 11th through the 14th, 2019. And all you have to do is get to Las Vegas with

00:42:03.680 your son and we'll take care of the rest from food and transportation to an array of physical

00:42:09.520 and mental and emotional challenges. And all of it is designed to push and test both of you

00:42:14.880 forge deeper connections and help your son go from boy to man. So if you want to learn more,

00:42:20.660 including watching the short trailer from our last experience, which is absolutely amazing

00:42:26.360 and also lock in your seat, head to order of man.com slash legacy. Again, that's order of

00:42:31.720 man.com slash legacy. You can do that after the show guys do it quick because we only have a few

00:42:36.560 spots left, but for now we'll get back to the conversation with Travis. How did you come up

00:42:42.520 with the idea for the foundation for what you're doing now? Well, you know, we were at Walter Reed

00:42:47.440 and there was a bunch of people that were giving back different nonprofits there. Gary Sneeze

00:42:50.900 Foundation was a big one. Yeah. A trucker for troops and a supply fund and just all these people

00:42:56.420 trying to get back and do, you know, no matter how big or small they were. And I thought, man,

00:42:59.440 it's awesome. And my wife and I were shown such graciousness that we thought we should do

00:43:03.980 something to give back. And we, uh, we decided we would do care packages. Travis Mills Foundation,

00:43:09.140 care packages, easy. Started it with $5,000 from us, you know, like a donation from us.

00:43:14.800 Sure. And we sent care packages because overseas people get care packages all the time

00:43:18.220 from these organizations. But the problem, not the problem, I shouldn't say it like that. But

00:43:22.340 the thing is when they send them, it's like baby powder and like socks and like a bunch

00:43:27.640 of stuff that's probably helpful, but not really what you want. Right. It's like when grandma

00:43:31.780 gives you underwear for Christmas or whatever. Right. Right. So I thought I know what to send

00:43:36.180 them. So I sent like peppered beef jerky, like Oh Burrito, like one pound bags of peppered

00:43:40.700 beef jerky, uh, peanut butter, M&Ms, Orbit gum, Hillshire Farms. My mom and dad were just

00:43:46.520 up to the mall. It was a Hillshire farm store. It's like an hour, whatever way. I said, mom,

00:43:51.260 you buy me a packet in there, a package in there for Hillshire Farms. I'll double what

00:43:55.840 it costs. I'll pay you double for doing that. I don't think she's going to charge me double

00:43:59.600 one. Maybe I'll find out. Then I went back, you know, like that kind of stuff, like the pepper

00:44:03.020 jack cheese, sausage. Yeah. And like Orbit gum. And you know, we did that. And I thought

00:44:08.100 I would just find people that I deployed with before that are deployed now and find

00:44:12.240 out how many guys are in their unit or who needs a box. So we sent out just a bunch of

00:44:15.220 boxes the first year. And then as I was still at Walter Reed and I was doing downhill mountain

00:44:19.440 biking and all this stuff. So people reached out to us and were like, so excited about

00:44:24.640 like, Hey, you should bring some families to Maine. And I got thinking, yeah, maybe we

00:44:27.940 should. Like when I go on these trips, I get to take my wife's. I need a non-medical

00:44:31.140 assistant. But a lot of guys that went or service members didn't get take their loved

00:44:36.000 one with them because they could function by themselves. You know, they got a below

00:44:38.580 knee amputation. Sure. They're still learning things, but they don't need, they don't need

00:44:41.780 that assistance. Yeah. They don't need assistance to like shower and do things like that. So

00:44:44.800 they didn't get to take their loved one because they got a paper cut. You know, I thought,

00:44:48.560 yeah, the family's the whole reason I'm getting better. Like I openly say it and I honestly

00:44:51.740 feel, I don't know if I'd be the same person without my wife, my daughter, you know, I don't

00:44:56.040 know if I've been like, like this, you know, this is worth it or this is something I

00:44:59.460 can do without having the support of, of them. And a lot of it, probably my daughter looking

00:45:03.880 at me and believing in me and things like that. But the side would bring some families

00:45:06.980 up. We did, it went very well. We had a deal locked in. We were going to like buy this

00:45:10.400 camp we rented from the guy and he was going to sell it for a set price and be done with

00:45:15.680 it. Well, he kind of took back his deal and he wanted to sell it for more. He's like,

00:45:19.640 well, appraises for more. We're like, no, it doesn't. We already had it appraised. He's

00:45:22.620 like, and I want to run the programs. I'm going to be, I'm still going to be here and run

00:45:24.920 it. I'm like, no, we're out. Yeah. So we just, the next year we did the same thing,

00:45:29.060 see if there's any life, but we did it at a different camp and there was, and then

00:45:31.960 we went out and searched for a property, came across a property that we actually could

00:45:35.200 afford. And it was run down from 1929. It was built by Elizabeth Arden and we put the

00:45:40.900 lowest offer in out of three offers. And the guy selling it was like, I love what you're

00:45:45.200 trying to do. I understand it. And I'd like to sell it to you guys. Really? Holy crap.

00:45:49.480 Like you had to offer for double what it was worth and to offer for what, you know, what

00:45:52.980 you're asking. He said, yeah, no, it's fine. Like I would love to sell it. Really? Yep. That's

00:45:57.640 amazing. So we did two and a half years of renovations, about 2 million, two and a half

00:46:00.980 million dollars worth of renovations, I guess. And we opened the doors last June. We brought

00:46:05.980 in 84 families last year, this year, about 130, 135, somewhere in there. So over 200

00:46:10.020 families served. We don't charge the families. We don't have them pay anyway when they come.

00:46:16.380 I don't take a dime as the president. None of my board gets paid. We'll never pay ourselves

00:46:20.040 for anything. And we just keep trying to bring out families that have been physically injured.

00:46:24.060 We, we, 110%, I believe in the PTSD or TBI, like the mental injuries that you can face,

00:46:30.940 but I don't want to reinvent the wheel. I don't suffer from anything from that. Luckily, like

00:46:34.760 I have no nightmares. I sleep really great. I don't ever feel bad at what I did and I don't

00:46:39.640 suffer from that stuff. So I don't want to try to cater to something I don't understand.

00:46:42.780 So we partner with home-based program, which is made just specifically for that out of Boston.

00:46:47.760 And we're always being a conduit where if someone emails in and it's not what we cover,

00:46:51.760 we try to get them connected with somebody that knows how to fix their problem or help

00:46:55.660 them with their situation. So yeah, I mean, we started with care packages and a $5,000 donation

00:46:59.920 and now you fast forward to over 200 families. So we have a family out there right now, just

00:47:04.520 got in, you know, families out there right now. Eight families just got in yesterday.

00:47:08.160 Some of them like never seen snow and stuff like that. So that's pretty awesome.

00:47:13.220 How long do they stay out there typically?

00:47:14.720 Five days.

00:47:15.560 Okay.

00:47:15.720 So they came in Wednesday. They'll take off Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,

00:47:21.000 Sunday. Yeah.

00:47:21.700 You have all sorts of activities that you're doing, which is cool.

00:47:24.580 In the summertime, we have like all the water sports you can think of and horseback riding.

00:47:29.120 The property's amazing.

00:47:30.500 Yeah.

00:47:30.960 So I was out here in September. I had been familiar with a little bit about what you were

00:47:35.700 doing and we drove by. I didn't know that that's where your place was and I drove by

00:47:39.320 and saw it. I'm like, oh, that's really cool. And that's when your team actually reached

00:47:41.960 out a couple of weeks later after I had left.

00:47:43.960 Yeah.

00:47:44.320 But the retreat is amazing.

00:47:45.940 I appreciate it. You know, we just, we bring up, we keep it small and intimate. We have

00:47:49.740 eight families per week. There's eight suites that we have them in. Show them how to do things

00:47:54.660 adaptively and be independent. We'd say don't live life on the sidelines. Don't quit on yourself

00:47:58.360 or your family. Don't be a recluse. Get out there and be active, you know, with society and

00:48:03.860 your family. And we have people that don't have hands or don't have feet or, you know, any number

00:48:08.980 of whatever. And we show them how to do things. We have a guy that both hands are kind of messed up

00:48:12.500 and his legs are gone. And he didn't think he ever like shoot a bow and arrow, but we had people

00:48:16.400 come out, set a bow and arrow for him and he's back home shooting it. We have some spouses that

00:48:21.080 will write in and say, my husband's doing this now. Or even the service member will write in and say,

00:48:25.960 my family's been able to do this because we came there and learned it. We don't just show them cool

00:48:29.140 things. Say, all right, cool. Go home now. Like we say, how can we get you hooked up at home to do this

00:48:33.140 stuff? Right. Been really rewarding. It's kind of like a fast growing thing. And, you know,

00:48:37.080 and I always got to make sure I reiterate to everybody. And the thing is, no one ever asked

00:48:40.460 me. They even say they wouldn't even care, but I want everybody to know, like, I don't take any

00:48:44.300 money from this. I don't go out there every day because I don't want to be in the way. Like I go

00:48:48.780 out once or twice at the most when the families are here for like an hour or two. And I try to like,

00:48:53.780 just let my staff out there do what they need to do, let the families enjoy and relax. And then

00:48:57.940 that's what it's there for. So what are your plans? I mean, are you planning on expanding,

00:49:02.180 doing this across the country? What are your plans? Well, that's a great question.

00:49:06.020 Both of them are great questions, actually. So our plans right now are to keep doing what we're

00:49:10.300 doing and keep perfecting it, expand how many weeks that we do. So we do, we're doing 17 this year,

00:49:16.500 but we're trying to get up to like 24 mark, 24, 32 at the most. Wow. Yeah. Which is pushing it.

00:49:21.140 And then I want to build some educational programs for veterans getting out of the service that aren't

00:49:27.060 your typical, like I get out, I got hired off the street at Lowe's or Home Depot, which is fine.

00:49:31.300 Great jobs. But I want to, you know, I go and speak to these corporate offices and I want to find out

00:49:36.200 they're always like, we have a higher veterans initiative. I'm like, well, tell me about it.

00:49:39.800 Like Wells Fargo, I just spoke to their company. We're going to hire so many veterans by this date.

00:49:44.200 I'm like, well, yeah, what kind of veterans are you looking for? And I want to find out when they

00:49:47.480 go speak to these companies, if they are hiring veterans through initiative, what criteria are they

00:49:51.980 looking for? And maybe I can build a program, like a leadership program where I can, it's very competitive.

00:49:56.720 Sure. You know, it's something that you're not just like, Hey,

00:49:59.420 I got out and I want to go do this job. Get me a job. It's like, no, no, you're going to complete

00:50:03.200 this curriculum. You're going to go through this course. But I met a gentleman that speaks

00:50:06.960 and his whole way he makes money is he talks about hiring millennials. Like what does it mean

00:50:11.020 to hire a millennial and how to connect with millennials? And I'm like, you got to be kidding

00:50:14.100 me. You're telling me that I run a company and I have to have someone come tell me in a conference

00:50:18.100 setting, like with all the people about how I need to cater to millennials.

00:50:20.620 Right. How I have to cater to that person.

00:50:21.980 You must not realize like, uh, this is my company. And I'm like, why not start an initiative? Like

00:50:27.100 they are how to hire vets. Cause in the military, not every veteran is going to be a great worker,

00:50:32.160 a great guy. Like I'm not, I'm not.

00:50:33.940 Yeah. Being a veteran isn't like the great qualifier necessarily.

00:50:37.820 Right. Right. Yeah.

00:50:38.320 But they also have the, but if you are a veteran and you do qualify and you are going to, you

00:50:42.020 know, that I would vet and I would pick my team would pick. Well, I know you got a great

00:50:46.060 work ethic. I know you have discipline. I know you have the attitude of, I don't know how to

00:50:49.860 do that. It's just, or I can't do that. It's going to be, get the job done. It's in the

00:50:53.420 military. You don't have the choice of saying, you know what? I'm not doing that today. I'm

00:50:56.680 actually, I'm out. Yeah. I'll be back tomorrow. Maybe we'll see. You know? And it's not like,

00:51:01.300 oh, you hurt my feelings. It's like, no, that's not how the world works in the military. If I hurt

00:51:05.080 your feelings, get rid of your feelings. That's your fault. You know what I'm saying? If you tell

00:51:08.980 me you can't get a job done, you just lost rank and position. And now the person that you

00:51:13.200 were mean to or yelled at just took your job.

00:51:15.700 They're leading. Yep. Yep. So I think there's a path we're going to

00:51:19.780 take for that where we have really strong leadership building program type deal and we

00:51:26.940 can get guys in these jobs and maybe not, I'm not talking like they're going to be like

00:51:31.200 the head of sales, but get them into a sales job that has potential to grow. Maybe they

00:51:36.520 don't know everything going in there, but if you can show a certain characteristic or quality

00:51:40.560 and have people skills and get the job done, that's where I want to kind of head to because

00:51:45.080 you get these guys that get out and then they sit at home and don't know what to do. And I'm

00:51:48.400 like, why not start a competitive program that makes people really want to hire whoever

00:51:53.860 comes through? There's also, I've always said this and I truly believe it, Vietnam and our

00:51:57.400 veterans didn't get to welcome home that they deserved, but they made sure that I did.

00:52:01.540 You know, we had a lot of guys at the hospital that volunteered that were Vietnam veterans.

00:52:04.020 Really?

00:52:04.500 That were making sure we were taken care of.

00:52:05.920 That's cool.

00:52:06.260 And we started a Vietnam veterans breakfast, which is like March 27th is national recognition

00:52:12.020 of Vietnam veterans. So we have a breakfast for them. Last year we had like 200, I want

00:52:16.720 to say 225 veterans show up.

00:52:19.040 Here? You do it here?

00:52:20.260 Not heat, well, we, like an Oaks Lodge or whatever.

00:52:22.900 Right, but in Maine.

00:52:24.220 Yeah, yeah. And just brought them in and said, hey, thanks a lot. You never got this. We appreciate

00:52:28.520 you put a program on for them. Had their loved ones come in free for them. You know, like to do

00:52:32.180 more of that stuff. They always say the sky's the limit, but I'm all big. I'm a big fan of

00:52:35.740 crawl, walk, run. Never get too big for my britches, if you will. I'd hate to like ever

00:52:39.620 implode on myself. So I'll never trust myself too thin or try something that I think is risky,

00:52:45.360 but I will expand on the opportunities that I can provide knowing that my staff out here

00:52:51.840 at the foundation is just, is top notch. I mean, I can't ask for better people and just so grateful

00:52:57.060 to have the ability to work with them every day.

00:52:59.120 How do you keep yourself in check? And what I mean by that is,

00:53:01.680 you know, you seem like you're ambitious and you've got these goals and things you want to

00:53:04.920 accomplish and yet you're trying to balance between not being too big or getting in over

00:53:09.500 your head. How do you balance that?

00:53:11.240 The foundation is actually a lot easier than my personal life. Foundation is easier to balance

00:53:15.260 out because I have like Brandy as a director and my staff will tell me like, hey, I think

00:53:20.080 this is a good idea. I think this is something we should do. I don't think we should do this.

00:53:23.840 And they're a good, I guess, equalizer in the conversation because I'm not going to ever just be

00:53:27.560 like, nope, we're doing it. Go get it done now. Like that's not who I am. It's not going to act.

00:53:31.680 But my personal life, like I'm a part owner insurance company. I own 50% of this marina

00:53:37.800 lodge area that we bought, my speaking group. So I have three for-profit businesses and then

00:53:43.420 the nonprofit. And then I'm trying to expand a couple more businesses right now. My life

00:53:47.740 is not pleased.

00:53:48.800 And I see a lot of guys who are like this, you know, who are very ambitious and have

00:53:51.840 these big goals. And, you know, sometimes that is a challenge for sure.

00:53:54.620 Yeah. So there's a barn that's came up for sale next to my marina. And the big thing in Maine is

00:54:00.420 wedding barns. But it's like, it's going to be like a $600,000, $700,000 project, if you will,

00:54:05.600 because you got to buy the property that needs a full renovation.

00:54:07.920 Right.

00:54:08.580 But these wedding barns are potentially like half a million easy to like for the season. And it could

00:54:15.260 be a convention center or that can be like a community, like event center.

00:54:18.740 Sure. Yeah.

00:54:19.740 And, you know, I have people on both sides saying, hey, it's a great idea. A lot of people

00:54:23.440 saying that's not good. There's one guy that has an office literally right above, yeah, right

00:54:28.940 above us. And I look at him as kind of a mentor in business. He's very successful.

00:54:32.600 Is he a contractor?

00:54:33.320 Down to earth guy. He owns the company. He owns a real estate company.

00:54:37.220 Oh, okay. All right.

00:54:38.080 He owns a Brookwood Builders company. But he's been very successful. A great guy.

00:54:41.760 Okay.

00:54:41.940 Down to earth. And I bounce my ideas off him. And if I have an idea, I go in there and talk

00:54:46.380 to him about it. And he'll tell me if it's good or bad.

00:54:48.740 He told me don't do the marina, but he's like, you know what? You guys are actually doing

00:54:52.240 really good down there. Like it's, I said, yep. For the first three to five years, we're

00:54:54.920 not taking a dollar. It's all going back into it. Need a lot of repair and renovations,

00:54:58.620 but we're on our third year coming up and we're going to, I think this is our, actually

00:55:02.960 our big year. I thought I was going to take five. I think this is going to be our big year.

00:55:05.640 What made you decide to pull the trigger on that? Even though he said, probably not a great

00:55:08.980 deal.

00:55:10.920 It's going to sound bad. I need something to do. This turnkey business already profitable, 20 room

00:55:16.040 motel with 11 cabins and then a couple of offshoot rooms on the back of houses and stuff that people

00:55:21.980 have been coming to for years. There was no food there. There was no store there. There was no beer

00:55:26.720 and ice and wine sales. There was docks there, which are nice, but we fixed them up. We put brand

00:55:31.060 new ones in and there's six cottages that came up for sale that my wife again was like, don't buy that

00:55:35.640 right next door. And I bought them and it expanded our, our marina slip. So I put from 70 or 80 slips

00:55:41.960 we had moved our old slips over and I sold those in front of these cottages. And now I'm putting

00:55:47.140 one, but probably two more rows in. So it should have an extra basically a hundred slips to 120

00:55:54.100 slips down over there. And at a thousand dollars a slip, that's pretty good residual to help fix

00:55:58.880 my motel. We're naming it lodge. So it picks the lodge and everything up. But see this wedding

00:56:03.200 barn, which is right next to it. If I fix that up and I start renting that out, I know a wedding

00:56:08.000 barn is about making like $20,000 a week around here. And I can make that kind of money for five

00:56:13.380 months straight, maybe seven months straight. So $80,000 plus sell these six cottages I bought

00:56:19.240 off. And when I sell those, I'll take the profit, which would be pretty decent sized profit and fix

00:56:23.460 up my lodge and everything, make it really high class standards. So now I got a wedding package

00:56:28.160 right on the water with pontoon. We rent pontoon boats and fishing boats and it's right next to

00:56:33.640 a golf course. So my mind doesn't quit working. I can see that. Um, it keeps me up at night in a

00:56:38.100 good way. Have you always been like this? I've always wanted to be like this, but I feel like

00:56:42.180 the opportunity wasn't really there. Cause I was 14 hours a day in the military, you know,

00:56:46.000 like I had plans. My big plans were 20 years in the military. I was going to come back from the

00:56:50.500 third deployment, go recruiter from recruiter. I was going to finish my degree because I had three

00:56:54.460 years stabilization. I would finish my year and a half of college I had left and I would become an

00:56:58.240 officer for the last 12. I'd retire as a major at 38 years old, which would be a pretty decent

00:57:03.340 sized pension. Sure. And then I'd be a high school teacher or football coach. I did have plans of

00:57:07.700 like, I was in a, in my contract to be the coach. I was going to have like all the silkscreen printing

00:57:11.280 my company, you know, on my garage probably. Yeah. You're going to, I would do like all like the

00:57:15.360 rah, rah, like I got from Vassar, Michigan. It's like Vassar Vulcans football. Like I'd be the

00:57:19.160 one selling those shirts. Yeah. You know, and then I'd do a kick back to the school for boosters,

00:57:23.180 but whatever. And then I was going to have a lawn mowing company in the summertime for my seniors that

00:57:27.160 graduated knowing that I could do like landscaping and lawn work because I'd be out of school too.

00:57:32.540 So I was always ambitious. You always had this entrepreneurial side to you. But now when I got

00:57:36.560 injured, I had a lot more free time and they pay you so much for your, you know, your arms and legs,

00:57:42.100 like lump sum. So I started flipping houses and. Oh, is that what it, so you received a lump sum

00:57:46.440 disability benefit or something? Well, I mean, I have a, I have a retirement pension. Sure. Right.

00:57:50.360 In addition to. They also like your legs are worth so much and your arms were so much,

00:57:55.080 but it caps out. I only got paid for two of my limbs. Is that all four, but I'm not mad about it.

00:57:59.500 So ideally you're supposed to lose two limbs, like financially. Financially. Yes. Yes.

00:58:04.020 Which is a really strange way to look at that. But I started flipping houses and I flipped about

00:58:07.720 eight, seven or eight houses around here and I made enough to buy the Marina and. Yeah.

00:58:12.840 Kind of rolling with it now. It's cool, man. It's kind of weird. I'm gonna get a TV show based off

00:58:16.460 from it actually with micro being the exec producer on it. Yeah. Cause you met what you met Mike,

00:58:22.280 what, two or three years ago or something. Did I, did a show with him or, or something.

00:58:25.460 Yeah. Yeah. I met him about three years ago, I guess, maybe three and a half at a science

00:58:29.120 fair convention. My first time I ever spoke in front of people and great guy. They were

00:58:32.500 like, Hey Mike, someone's got to meet you. He's like, well, bring him back. And I go,

00:58:34.500 he, no, he wants you to cut, you know, you got to go over here and meet him. He's like,

00:58:36.840 why would I go meet somebody? And they're like, well, he can't actually climb, get over through

00:58:41.020 here. He's got no legs and arms. He's like, Oh, sorry. And he's a great guy. And then we just

00:58:46.040 kind of did a few things and he did a TV show based off of returning the favor. So giving back

00:58:50.180 people that give back. Right. So they built the ropes course and. Oh, at the retreat?

00:58:55.080 At the retreat, he built the ropes course in four days. They kept me away from it.

00:58:58.240 Yeah. So it was a surprise. Surprised me. Yeah. That's cool. I don't know. The people

00:59:02.020 that were out there, the Hudson media, the people that did the show were like, you should have

00:59:05.120 your own TV show, Travis. And I talked to Mike the other night about, you know, he's

00:59:08.980 like, you need to be on Travis Mills Incorporated. He said, you already have a platform. You already

00:59:11.660 have your image, but you need to make it so more people can see you because I just have

00:59:16.400 fun. I hang out, have fun. I don't get really mean. I never yell. My wife,

00:59:20.160 I can honestly say I've never yelled at my wife. Like we never, I've never raised my

00:59:23.200 voice. I'm not saying she's never really like upset, but I'm just saying like, I don't

00:59:27.000 see the benefit in it. Yeah. And that's how I was in the military. I never yelled. And

00:59:30.120 if I did, well, if I did yell, it was unhinged. It was like, that wasn't like abusive, but

00:59:34.140 it was just like, oh man, like that is not what I want to hear. Like I was, I had one

00:59:38.020 guy, he kept screwing up, kept screwing up. I kept giving him a chance, give him a chance.

00:59:41.900 And then finally on my third deployment, he screwed up again. And I'm a platoon sergeant and the

00:59:45.860 CEO came and found me and they yelled at me. And I don't like to be embarrassed or get

00:59:48.900 yelled at. And I went up there and I said, Hey man, so I don't like to yell at people.

00:59:52.880 You know, I said, but if that's what you need, I said, I'll yell. And I started getting louder

00:59:56.220 and louder. And I think I said, I said, I can yell so that I'll blow out your eardrums.

00:59:59.800 But I said some other choice words. You could see the fear in his eyes. And then, but then

01:00:03.380 across the area, one of my buddies who had deployed me for somebody was like, oh my gosh,

01:00:07.460 who the heck is that yelling?

01:00:09.100 And they didn't even know it was you.

01:00:10.000 Yeah. And like, uh, my buddy's like, oh, well that's, uh, that's Sergeant Mills. And I was

01:00:13.700 like, Oh, I've never heard that before. He goes, no, it's scary. He's like, you don't want

01:00:18.000 to hear that. And then I guess everybody in the tent had heard me ripping this guy

01:00:21.560 apart, but I was like a football field away.

01:00:23.460 That's kind of the point though. Right. If you do it too often, it's not as effective.

01:00:26.320 No, not at all.

01:00:27.240 Yeah. You got to pull it out.

01:00:27.960 Someone's like, Oh gosh, here you go. Oh, go ahead.

01:00:30.260 Same old thing.

01:00:31.360 But for me, when I, when I did yell, I was just like, Oh my gosh, it's so serious.

01:00:36.620 You know, but like I said, I, you know, I don't raise my voice or anything like that.

01:00:40.140 Not too awful much. I try not to, but I just like to hang out and have, have a good time

01:00:44.380 and make the best of the situation. The foundation, I mean, it's, it's been rewarding. I get yelled

01:00:49.760 at by Brandy though, because I don't know how to sit back and really take it all in and

01:00:53.320 say, Hey, we're doing some really wonderful things here. I'm like, Hey, what are we going

01:00:55.780 to do now? Like, how are we going to make it better? How are we going to, and she's

01:00:58.480 like, you ever just sit back and think like, wow, I started with a $5,000 donation and now

01:01:03.200 we have, you know, uh, like two or $3 million property in a matter of like three years or four

01:01:08.180 years. And I'm like, well, no, I want to find out how I can keep improving. She goes, exactly.

01:01:12.180 Like take time to enjoy. And when my friends was over, my financial advisor, he was over

01:01:17.860 and he's like, do you realize the impact that you get to have on people? And I was

01:01:20.340 like, what are you talking about? He's like, do you ever just sit back and say, Hey man,

01:01:23.040 I'm 30, you know, I'm 31. So he's like, you ever sit back and go, I'm 31. I've done

01:01:27.380 pretty incredible things. I said, no, I actually yelled at by Brandy for that. He goes, yeah,

01:01:31.760 I'm going to yell at you too. You got to, you know, you got to understand like the

01:01:35.220 lives that you change. I get emails all the time, you know, like, Hey, you know, I saw your

01:01:38.860 story. I'm in tears. Thanks so much. You're courageous. And I'm sitting here

01:01:41.200 going, Hey, I appreciate that. I'm just a regular everyday guy, you know, just your

01:01:44.660 average run of the mill dad, you know, husband, you know, whatever, the 31, I guess I, maybe

01:01:50.800 that's one thing I need to get better at is like, not always trying to like do something

01:01:54.960 more. My wife would, don't put that on the, my wife can't hear me say that.

01:02:00.040 We'll, we'll, we'll make sure she doesn't hear that.

01:02:01.940 Yeah. I mean, I'm, I'm basically buying the wedding barn, if you will. I'm buying it.

01:02:05.580 And I'm saying, this is your business to run. Here you go. You know? And she's

01:02:08.180 like, why would you think I want that? Because, because we're at the wedding, Chris and Kelly,

01:02:12.240 our friend's wedding. I said, and you said you'd want to run one of these. She goes,

01:02:14.640 no, I said, I think I can run one of these.

01:02:16.340 Yeah. It's, I was like, I heard something else.

01:02:19.120 I was like, yeah. So I'm going to buy this and you can run it. She's like, doesn't mean

01:02:22.020 I want it. Just because I said, I think I could run it and it'd be fun. I'm like, you're

01:02:25.960 giving me signals here. I don't know if you want a business or you don't want a business,

01:02:28.820 but you're getting a business.

01:02:30.120 Merry Christmas.

01:02:30.560 This is what you got now.

01:02:31.160 Merry Christmas.

01:02:32.420 Oh man. I'm, I'm excited for you. You got a lot going on.

01:02:35.040 Oh, like I said about Bill, the guy upstairs, I forgot to mention, I went to his office and

01:02:38.600 I told him about my idea for the wedding barn.

01:02:39.860 Yeah. Oh yeah.

01:02:40.660 And it was like, like last week because the barn came up for sale and he called me. He's

01:02:43.980 like, Hey, it's for sale. Just so you know. And I told him my idea. He goes, man, that's,

01:02:47.480 that's that. They don't make that. Wedding barns don't do that. They don't make that much money.

01:02:51.120 There's no way. And I said, Bill, you're just not looking into it. I said, I want you to do

01:02:54.900 some research. I'm going to come back and talk to you tomorrow. Well, he got on the website. They're booked

01:02:58.960 out two and a half years in advance. This, this one. Well, this is not this place, a different

01:03:02.960 place, a different place. Cause this isn't a wedding place now, is it? It's just a big steal.

01:03:06.400 Right. It's just a barn. Like warehouse. Right. Okay. Chicken barn. Yeah. It's going to be beautiful

01:03:09.880 when I'm done with it. And he went home and talked to his wife and did his research. He comes back

01:03:14.620 and he goes, I don't know where you're going with this stuff, Travis, but yeah, I think you're

01:03:17.860 actually onto something here. Really? I talked to Barb, his wife. He goes, she loves it. She has all these

01:03:22.320 ideas for it. She can't wait to get involved. I'm like, well, Bill, you know, I'm just saying. He goes, I think you're onto

01:03:26.980 something. And then I had another real estate agent, this friend of mine, he was like, that's just too

01:03:30.540 much work to go into it. You'd be like out $500,000 construction loan. I'm like, yeah, but

01:03:34.260 on a 15 year business or loan, what's that matter? Right. Right. You know, people are always like,

01:03:39.720 Travis, you're so successful. I'm like, no, no, I just have a lot of debt. Lots of debt. Cost your arm

01:03:44.860 and leg twice over. Nice. Nice. But no, I mean, I divulged too much. I don't know. I hate to be,

01:03:54.420 I like to just kind of hang out. People like a lot of people want to meet me and talk to me and

01:03:58.300 they're like, oh my gosh, like you're so awesome. I mean, it's awesome because they see like my story,

01:04:02.300 but I don't play myself up, I guess, as much as I do. I don't like to ever think like I'm

01:04:06.540 mightier. I do anything more special. I'm just like, Hey, I'm a regular guy. Well, I think that's

01:04:11.540 probably partly a large part of why you're, why you're successful. You know, if you let that stuff

01:04:15.500 get to your head, I think that could, could bring somebody pretty quickly. Yeah. But like I tell

01:04:20.000 people, I don't think I fought any harder. I didn't do anything more brave or heroic. I didn't

01:04:24.200 do any more in the military than anybody else that signed up, you know? So I always say thanks

01:04:28.060 for your service. Anybody that served, I'd let them know, like, you know, I don't hold my service

01:04:31.480 any higher. I also tell people I don't think my problems are, you know, outweighing anybody else's.

01:04:36.140 I mean, I get it. Like some lady walked in, she's like, I thought I was having a bad hair day,

01:04:39.320 but then I saw you and I realized my hair is not that bad. And I'm like, like, that doesn't make me

01:04:42.760 feel very good when you say that, you know? I'm like, choose your words wisely. But for me, people like,

01:04:47.320 well, geez, you know, I, I had a grandma that had this, but seeing you, I realized like,

01:04:52.300 it's worse for you than, than for me to deal with it. And I'm like, no, no, we all have our

01:04:55.860 own problems. You know, we all have something we're going through. So if my story has helped

01:04:58.520 you, that's great, you know, but don't think that I hold myself on some pedestal because I really

01:05:03.100 don't. And then, you know, just like the life lessons I was saying, like, don't dwell on the

01:05:06.640 past because I can't change this. I just reminisce it. I learned I can't always control my situation,

01:05:10.920 but I can always control my attitude. So every morning I wake up, no arms, no legs, you know,

01:05:14.760 it's a new day, but still the same situation. Yeah. I jump out of bed, throw my arm on,

01:05:18.900 go down the elevator with my daughter. She wakes me up usually, or I wake up waiting for,

01:05:22.280 her and get so fired up when she comes in. I'm like, let's do this. Let's go.

01:05:25.520 It's time. And, uh, you know, I feed the dogs and she gets breakfast and I make my coffee and

01:05:29.640 watch TV. My wife and my son will wake up a little bit later and they come down and

01:05:33.640 you go about your day. You know, I control my, my attitude. I'm not going to let it ruin my day

01:05:37.700 that I have no arms and legs. I'm just going to whatever is what it is. Yeah. Awesome, man.

01:05:42.920 All right. Did I say anything stupid? There's just a couple of things, but not that I remember

01:05:48.420 anyways, I do have to ask you one other question before we wind down. I didn't prepare you

01:05:52.260 for it, but you'll be good. That question is, what does it mean to be a man?

01:05:56.160 What does it mean to be a man? Yeah. You know, I think I model a lot of that off from

01:06:00.480 my dad, I guess. And even my mom, my mom, my dad, my upbringing, I was in my first karate

01:06:05.960 match. And if anybody gets my book, they'll, they'll find out I fought a girl and I just

01:06:10.140 like, like jumped around, but I wouldn't hit her. I was like, Oh my gosh, like I can't.

01:06:14.120 And at the end of it, she beat me. My mom and my dad were like, what are you doing? I'm like,

01:06:17.340 well, it's a girl. I can't hit a girl. You know, they're like, Oh, Travis in this, in

01:06:20.800 this environment, you like when you're, it's okay, but never, you know, whatever. So like

01:06:25.300 the morals and the values I was taught growing up, I don't know. I'll always be there for

01:06:28.560 my daughter and my, and my son, my wife, whatever she needs kind of stuff to the plate,

01:06:33.140 you know, shirt off your back. People, a lot of people nowadays, maybe not a lot, but a lot

01:06:36.980 of people I run into, I don't know if they would like, like give the sugar off their back

01:06:41.100 or like stop and help somebody and do things. But I don't know about being a man.

01:06:45.440 I just think about being a good human being and the best I can do for that. So, you know,

01:06:49.920 my daughter, she gets her homework that she gets to take home. She has all week to do.

01:06:52.960 We do it every time she gets home from school. Like on a Monday, we'll do her whole entire

01:06:56.000 thing of homework, just being there for people and listening and understanding. And I don't

01:07:00.880 know, I'm not good at this stuff. I'm not good at like intelligent answers, but to be a

01:07:05.040 man, I guess, you know, I just, I don't cry and I pop my chest up, you know, and I just

01:07:09.500 like swing an ax every now and then, mad stuff, drink a beer.

01:07:13.720 I think that was a pretty good answer you gave.

01:07:15.340 I mean, I just, at the end of the day, I have to, I still have responsibility. I still

01:07:18.900 have the ability to be here, you know, and live and, and why not make the best of it?

01:07:23.460 So yeah, just cause I lost my arms and legs doesn't mean that I don't have to take care

01:07:26.900 of like, you know, things at home or I don't have to be a good person. I can't just like,

01:07:31.400 well, I have arms and legs, so I get away with it. You know? I mean, I do that sometimes.

01:07:34.340 Don't get me wrong. I pulled over. I'm like, my foot got stuck. I couldn't even feel it

01:07:37.060 officer. Like, come on. You can use it in the right, in the right context.

01:07:40.580 Well, I mean, like I'm part owner insurance company. I had to go sit with a company. It

01:07:43.340 was like 500 people or not the company I sat with like the, one of the owners and he has

01:07:47.780 500 people. I'm like, so if you don't want to buy our supplemental benefits insurance,

01:07:50.480 that's fine. That blanket of freedom that you go to bed with and that pillow of justice

01:07:53.700 for all. I remember I lost my arms and legs for that, but no big deal. You don't got to

01:07:57.260 sign up with us.

01:07:57.940 Don't feel guilty. Don't feel bad.

01:07:59.220 You don't want to, you don't want to help me out in my business. I get it. Hey, I helped

01:08:02.120 you out with, you know, being free, but whatever. So I like throwing that context, but.

01:08:06.920 And that's perfectly acceptable.

01:08:08.440 Well, he signed up with the company, like all the people say, hey, it worked. You

01:08:11.200 know what I'm saying? No, either way. I don't know. Do you have any questions? Are you not

01:08:15.720 allowed to talk?

01:08:16.620 My wife's in here, by the way. So Travis is asking if my wife has any questions.

01:08:20.340 You know, do you?

01:08:21.140 I keep looking over like at her to see if I'm saying something horrible or bad or wrong.

01:08:25.100 Cause at my house, when I say something, my wife will give me a look and I'm like, oh,

01:08:27.960 shouldn't have said that.

01:08:28.800 She's used to saying all kinds of crazy stuff that probably shouldn't be said. Not her and me.

01:08:35.920 Oh, okay. I was like.

01:08:36.560 No, she did not her, me.

01:08:37.700 She seems so sweet. I wish she ever.

01:08:39.160 Yeah.

01:08:39.620 Yeah. It happens. It happens. I didn't swear or anything, right?

01:08:42.620 I don't think you did.

01:08:43.500 I was good.

01:08:44.000 I think you did good.

01:08:44.880 It's not like my normal vocabulary, but I also.

01:08:46.800 Yeah, no, I think you're good.

01:08:47.480 I can tell a war story sometimes and I'm like, no, I was. And I'm like, you know,

01:08:51.880 bad word here and bad word there. And I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. I just got into it.

01:08:55.560 I want to send the guys, let them know where to go. So travismills.org.

01:08:59.380 Oh yeah.

01:09:00.040 Anywhere else?

01:09:00.640 Well, there's travismills.org for all your Travis Mills needs. And then from that website,

01:09:04.920 you'll find the store, like the book and stuff like that. There's a New York Times bestselling

01:09:09.480 book. If you go on Netflix, type in Travis Mills, my documentary pops up. You know, it's

01:09:13.860 funny. I get all this credit, but I was actually a shark bite. Four sharks bit me one time.

01:09:17.740 You think it'd be a great story. No one cared. That soul surfer beat me to the punch because

01:09:21.340 she still had her arm to punch with. So I made this story. I met a guy at the hospital recovering

01:09:25.620 who was actually blown up in Afghanistan. Horrible personality. I told his story, Photoshop.

01:09:31.500 This, I mean, I'm doing wonders with this. Oh, we're still recording crap.

01:09:35.720 Yes, we are. I can cut that out though.

01:09:38.160 Oh yeah. No, just like me. You just cut things out. You can make it. But no, no, I appreciate

01:09:43.940 your time. I truly am thankful to be able to sit here and hang out with you guys.

01:09:47.360 Yeah. Yeah. We are too.

01:09:48.860 Get a lasting, beautiful, budding friendship out of this.

01:09:51.220 I think we will.

01:09:52.020 It'd be an amazing time.

01:09:52.420 I think it's going places.

01:09:53.440 Oh, you know it.

01:09:54.080 Right on. Appreciate you.

01:09:55.620 Absolutely.

01:09:55.960 I really do. I appreciate your service. I know you probably hear that a lot, but I truly

01:09:59.280 do. I appreciate your service. I appreciate your sacrifice. And also, I appreciate what

01:10:02.940 you've done with it above and beyond that military service. So it's inspiring.

01:10:07.720 Oh, thank you. I'm not very good at taking those kinds of compliments. So I get real awkward.

01:10:11.580 So I'm going to try not to. I realized that yesterday.

01:10:12.740 A thank you is awesome.

01:10:14.100 I was out to the foundation and one of these guys that came in with his family has like three

01:10:18.960 young kids and his wife and he kind of waited for me to be off the side. I was kind of,

01:10:22.920 I don't know what I was doing. I was checking my phone or emails or something.

01:10:24.980 And he comes up with, Hey man, can I just talk to you? I said, yeah, no problem. He's

01:10:27.660 like, the fact that you're able to still keep doing this gives me inspiration and hope.

01:10:30.680 And said some really nice things about how to keep going. And I'm like, Hey man, I said,

01:10:35.460 normally I make a joke here and I get awkward. I apologize because I don't want to do that,

01:10:38.620 but I'm not good at taking these kinds of compliments. I mean, this is just something

01:10:41.020 people believe in you, believe in what your family's been through and they want to give

01:10:44.340 back. So this is why this place is created. So as much as you're thanking me for this,

01:10:47.620 thank you for all you've done. That's the best way I can accept like a compliment. Cause

01:10:51.440 I don't know why I just makes my wife beats me down so much. Um, with love. Yeah. I can

01:10:57.480 tell you're, I can tell you're lacking confidence for sure. Well, I, yeah. When I get in trouble,

01:11:02.120 she just takes my arms and legs away and puts me in the closet. It's crazy. I used to be in

01:11:04.660 the corner, but I started getting out, like sliding around on my elbow, my butt, but I was like,

01:11:09.060 how'd you get to Maine? If she's, you know, from Texas and Maine, you're from Michigan. I'm like,

01:11:12.320 well, I said, let's go to Michigan. And she said, no. And I said it one more time. She took my arm

01:11:16.560 off and she beat me with it. Yeah. Stop hitting yourself. Stop hitting yourself. It's a loophole.

01:11:20.900 Yeah. It's crazy. But no, either way, I thank you for your, uh, for your time and allow me to be

01:11:25.760 on here today with you. Thanks guys. There it is. Gentlemen, my conversation with the one and only

01:11:30.920 Travis Mills. I hope that you, uh, got a lot of value from this. I mean, the guy's attitude is,

01:11:36.180 is amazing. His personality is infectious. I love it. We had a great time sitting down and,

01:11:40.860 and, uh, joking and having a very serious conversation also about just how to overcome

01:11:46.340 this victim mentality and how to take a, a crappy hand, quite frankly, and turn it into something

01:11:51.540 that's going to be valuable in the lives of people that we, we have an obligation and responsibility

01:11:55.420 to serve. So make sure you go check out what Travis is up to Travis Mills, the foundation that

01:12:00.980 they've got. It's an incredible cause. And I I've seen a portion of their, their retreat,

01:12:05.360 their facility, and it's absolutely amazing. So go check them out. I love when guys take things that

01:12:10.000 have negatively, I guess, impacted them in their lives and then turn it into a force for

01:12:14.000 good. And that's something that certainly Travis is doing. So guys, that's all I've got for you

01:12:17.900 today. Again, hope you enjoyed the show. Glad that you are on this mission with me. We continue to

01:12:21.980 grow. We continue to expand. And I think it's a testament to the fact that all of us as men know

01:12:26.960 that we are to step up and know what kind of men we want to be. And I hope this is the tool,

01:12:32.400 the resource, the conversations that you need to help you do just that. If you haven't done this

01:12:37.360 already, please make sure you leave us a rating and review, share the episode, share the movement.

01:12:41.700 And again, I appreciate you being on this journey guys until tomorrow for the ask me anything,

01:12:45.920 go out there, take action and become the man you are meant to be.

01:12:50.760 Thank you for listening to the order of man podcast. You're ready to take charge of your life

01:12:55.360 and be more of the man you were meant to be. We invite you to join the order at order of man.com.

Order of Man - February 05, 2019

Rise Above the Victim Mentality ｜ TRAVIS MILLS

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