Episode 201 Brent Magnussen Developing Resilient Warriors Transcript

This transcript is from episode 201 with guest Brent Magnussen.

[00:00:00] Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community, whether you’re a veteran active duty guard reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host Scott DeLuzio and now let’s get on with the show.

[00:00:21] Scott DeLuzio: Welcome back to the Drive On Podcast. Today, my guest is Brent Magnussen. Brent is a us army veteran who served as a combat engineer. He’s also a bestselling author speaker and sits on the board of the Resilient Warrior Foundation, which serves us veterans and first responders who suffer from PTSD. So welcome to the show.

[00:00:47] Scott DeLuzio: Brent, I’m glad to have you on.

[00:00:48] Brent Magnussen: Yeah, man. Awesome to be on. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. You

[00:00:51] Scott DeLuzio: bet. For the listeners who may not be familiar with you and your background why don’t you tell us a little bit about

[00:00:57] Brent Magnussen: yourself? Someone doesn’t know about me [00:01:00] oh my God. My ego is being crushed and humbled as we speak

[00:01:04] Scott DeLuzio: there, there might be one or two.

[00:01:06] Brent Magnussen: There might be one or two, one or two. No I appreciate it again, man. I appreciate the time. I appreciate what you’re doing with the podcast. And it’s always interesting to get two army guys. On zoom and then hit record. So hopefully this goes well, but we’ll see where it goes. yeah. So for the 99.9% of the population that does not know who I am I’m Brent Magnuson.

[00:01:25] Brent Magnussen: I was born and raised in the rough middle class suburbs of Chicago. And Yeah. I was a sports guy growing up, martial arts guy growing up. And like the vast majority of males in my family. I had a calling if you will, to serve. And pretty much knew it was gonna be the army. And yeah, I was fortunate to enlist and get to serve with some amazing people.

[00:01:46] Brent Magnussen: was a combat engineer with the 94th engineer battalion combat heavy spent most of my time stationed outta Southern Germany in VI. I was fortunate enough to deploy got to hit Bosnia, did a little skirmish and supported some cool guys in Macedonia. [00:02:00] Then argument deployed to cost of O 99 and then late 99, I got banged up a little more on a training up and got medically discharged, healed up for about a year, year and a half.

[00:02:10] Brent Magnussen: And then after that, unfortunately things kicked off in the middle east and found that there was still a purpose. Cuz for a lot of us that get on, especially there’s the guy that wants to be the weekend warrior. Although I don’t like that term, then there’s the guy or the gal that wants to put in a full 20 plus some and just get after it every day.

[00:02:30] Brent Magnussen: And I wanted to be that guy and unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be, but I was able to do some contracting and still contribute in that capacity. And after that Yeah, I became entrepreneurial, been doing some executive protection stuff, so I can still kind of, get after it a little bit.

[00:02:46] Brent Magnussen: And in addition to that, I obviously have the book Roger Up and yeah, we have a big event called Roger Up class zero one coming up September 1st, second, and third in Chicago. We can talk about that a little later, but that’s kind of [00:03:00] my story. Got married four years ago. I have an awesome wife.

[00:03:03] Brent Magnussen: Super cool stepdaughter and yeah, I like jumping outta airplanes and doing jujitsu that’s about it.

[00:03:09] Scott DeLuzio: yeah, it sounds great. Lots of interesting high intensity activities you got going on there. Right. But you’re also I mentioned this in the intro. You’re also on the board of the Resilient Warrior Foundation and I’m interested to learn about that foundation and what it does and really.

[00:03:28] Scott DeLuzio: How it helps the veterans in this community.

[00:03:31] Brent Magnussen: Yeah. So that’s one of the things I’m actually most proud of is our WF or Resilient Warrior Foundation. So this is actually this is actually one of my patches, our patches for it. I’ll send one out to you. So this, whenever someone gets signed up with us, we send ’em one of these that they put this on their jujitsu.

[00:03:48] Brent Magnussen: You can see over here. And so what RWF is Resilient Warrior Foundation. We’re a 5 0 1 C three nonprofit. And essentially what we do is we sponsor or pay for [00:04:00] the jujitsu memberships for combat veterans or just veterans that have PTSD and first responders and suffer from PTSD, acquired in service to this incredible country.

[00:04:10] Brent Magnussen: And the simplicity of it is you hear about us. You contact us. If I’m not busy, I’ll usually be the one reaching out to you. And when I talk to these guys and gals, it’s Hey, what’d you do? Where’d you serve, send us your DD214. Let us know if your service connected or not, and we’ll get you hooked up.

[00:04:28] Brent Magnussen: If you’ve never done jiujitsu before I speak army. I speak jujitsu. Let’s look at a school in close proximity to your home, make sure it’s a legit school and let’s get you training. And so that’s the awesome part about it. My good friend, Matt Davidson, we met training jujitsu together. We both got our purple belts.

[00:04:46] Brent Magnussen: I think about three years ago together. And he’s like, Hey man, you have a big platform. You should come on the board. You do a lot of speaking and I know how passionate you are about this. So. You love the military. You love veterans and you love [00:05:00] jujitsu. So let’s do this and it’s been great. I’ve been able to help them grow and it’s just the most rewarding thing.

[00:05:06] Brent Magnussen: And I don’t get a, paid a dime for it, and I put a good amount of time into it and it’s, I sleep so good at night because, and I hate to get long winded here, but I’ll just, I’ll be as brief as I can. The most amazing thing about. The Resilient Warrior Foundation. And again, keep in mind competitively speaking.

[00:05:24] Brent Magnussen: And I’m a very competitive guy. So I don’t like to use the word competitive and nonprofit in the same sentence cause, but I’m competitive. And I know that we’re in the same big pond or even ocean, if you will, with 40,000 other nonprofits in the veteran space or niche. So, there are other. Great organizations out there doing similar things to us.

[00:05:47] Brent Magnussen: So it’s very important. One that people are donating money to any organization that’s legitimately helping. Veterans, for example, I went down and did hyperbaric oxygen therapy in [00:06:00] Florida with the 22 project. And that completely changed my life. Headaches, hearing loss, sleep issues things that I had dealt with for years.

[00:06:08] Brent Magnussen: 80 dives later, my sleep has never been better in my entire life than after 80 dives in an HPO tank. And if it wasn’t for the 22 project out of Delray beach, Florida. Paying for everything, including your flight, your hotel rooms a month of dives, 40 dives in one month, two, five days a week. So there’s amazing nonprofits in the veteran space that exist out there and what we’re so proud of and what we’re doing is, for the people that have never trained Brazilian jujitsu or for the people that have never heard of it.

[00:06:38] Brent Magnussen: In very short. It is in my very humble opinion as a guy’s been doing martial arts on and off for probably 25 years. It’s the most effective form of self defense. And it’s probably in a one on one situation, not just for a male, but for a female and a child, the most practical way to fight or more importantly, get out of a fight or a bad situation.[00:07:00]

[00:07:00] Brent Magnussen: And as we transition out of the military, Whether we had 15 combat deployments and lost half of our friends, or we did. Four years and never deployed, but had a sexual trauma or saw something horrific happen or whatever it is that readjustment period back into society into the civilian world is difficult.

[00:07:25] Brent Magnussen: Especially the longer you’ve been in. You don’t have someone telling you what to do anymore. You don’t have someone telling you where to be, what time to be there. And most importantly, you’re not held as accountable. You there’s no one. I know. That can hold themselves as accountable as the entire United States army can, or the Marine cor can, or the Navy or the air force or the coast guard.

[00:07:46] Brent Magnussen: So, you have this camaraderie that’s built in and the longer you’re in the military, the longer you’re in that framework, the more it becomes normal. And for guys and gals that have been in there for a long time, and then they get out, [00:08:00] this world is very, very scary. You’re able to, you’re basically able to do whatever you want.

[00:08:07] Brent Magnussen: You’re almost like a kid that just got left home alone at nine years. And there’s guns in the house and there’s a hot stove that works and there’s scary things. And you don’t know what the hell to do because no one’s telling you what to do. And it’s easy to fall into that trap of maybe getting a little lazy.

[00:08:25] Brent Magnussen: Maybe I’m gonna take six months off. I put my time in, I’m gonna try and figure things out. Maybe the bottle starts becoming a little heavier than it was. Maybe medications from the VA become a lot heavier than they were. We all know how many pills the VA likes to throw at you. And the next thing you’re drinking five or six shots a night to go to sleep.

[00:08:42] Brent Magnussen: You’re on five or six prescription medications. Things are spiraling. Outta control. Relationships are struggling. You’re starting to really, really isolate and push people away. And the whole time, you don’t know why you can’t figure out what the fuck is going on. [00:09:00] And the beautiful thing about jujitsu is it teaches you, it reteaches you, the veteran.

[00:09:08] Brent Magnussen: How to start dealing and managing anxiety, dealing with anxiety and how to start managing and dealing with tough situations. So for example, if you’re a new guy and you’re 160 pounds and you go to your first two JSU class and you start learning, and then a few weeks later, they let you start actually training and rolling with another person.

[00:09:28] Brent Magnussen: And you’re 160 pound guy and you’re five foot. You just happen to be rolling with a guy that’s six, two, two hundred and forty pounds, and he’s probably on what we’ll call performance enhancing stuff. And he’s mean, and he’s nasty and he’s sweats a lot. He probably hasn’t showered in two days and he’s on top of you and he’s trying to strangle you, but you’re surviving based on the techniques that you’ve learned based on the leverage and the different things that you’ve learned.

[00:09:59] Brent Magnussen: You’re [00:10:00] using all of that to manage that. And you survive this gorilla of a guy trying to do bad things to you and what that does and what, and how that carries and transforms you out into the other world and how it carries over into other aspects of your life is incredible. Cause it reteaches you how to confront all those dragons and all those demons.

[00:10:21] Brent Magnussen: It reteaches you how to manage and deal with anxiety and stressful situations. And it’s for me. I mean since the day I got out, I’ve been chasing vigorously that camaraderie. I mean, I, I remember. And I’m sure you would agree. There were guys I knew in the army. I mean, I was deployed a year AF less than a year after I was in, I had been deployed for the first time and I knew guys for one year in the army that I trusted more.

[00:10:49] Brent Magnussen: Then I did guys. I grew up with my whole life cuz we were that close. Yep. And it’s hard to replicate that. And you ask any veteran out there. If they tell you they missed a gunfire and all they’re shooting, [00:11:00] they’re crazy. Stay away from 99.9% of the guys in gals, you meet that were in the military. The number one thing they’re gonna tell you, they miss is the.

[00:11:08] Brent Magnussen: And the closest thing I’ve found and I have scoured the flip and planet for it is jujitsu. And it’s unbelievable, man. And I’m sorry, I got so long winded, but I’m so passionate about it. I know what it does for veterans. I know what it does for kids. I know what it does for women. I know what it’s done for me.

[00:11:26] Brent Magnussen: and being part of R WF is one of the things I’m most proud of in my life right now.

[00:11:32] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And I’m glad that you went through that and all the overview of really how jujitsu helps the people who are dealing with PTSD and. Coming out of the military searching for that comradery because you’re absolutely right.

[00:11:49] Scott DeLuzio: The people that I’ve spoken to, and this is we’re over 200 episodes now. So I’ve talked to quite a few people just on this podcast alone. A lot of [00:12:00] people are say the same exact thing that they came out of military. They’re looking for that comradery and they. Don’t know where to find it. They start a job and they feel like they just don’t relate with the people that they were working with, or they are involved in things in their neighborhood.

[00:12:17] Scott DeLuzio: And the other civilians that are they’re not non-veteran civilians who are in these groups and stuff, they feel like they just don’t have a good relationship with them. And when you take people who are. Working towards a common goal, right? You’re learning jujitsu and you’re working together, helping each other out that builds a sense of comradery.

[00:12:42] Scott DeLuzio: You’re yeah. Doing the same thing that you are doing in the military. I mean, obviously not the same exact thing. You’re not You’re not preparing for combat necessarily, but you are preparing for your own personal defense and maybe your defending your family and helping your physical condition and things like that.

[00:12:58] Scott DeLuzio: So there are some [00:13:00] parallels there that’s maybe not a hundred percent meshing together with the military, but definitely parallels. But that image that you described. That big mountain of a man on top of you trying to choke you out and everything. The thing that really clicked with me was that in that moment you don’t have time for the other stuff, all that other noise that’s going on in the world.

[00:13:24] Scott DeLuzio: You don’t have time for the flashback memories that you might have been dealing with. You don’t have time. Have you ever jumped

[00:13:31] Brent Magnussen: out of an airplane? I have not. Okay, well, when you do, and I hope you do, and if you wanna go, I don’t know where you’re at, but if you want to go, let me know, cuz anyone that ever goes with me, I pay for their first jump.

[00:13:43] Brent Magnussen: Okay. So if you ever, my new friend decide to jump out of an airplane I was hoping you were gonna say yes to that. So this would all make sense, but anyways long story short, when you jump out of an airplane, I promise. You are not thinking about baby mama drama. You’re not thinking about your bills.

[00:13:59] Brent Magnussen: [00:14:00] You’re not thinking about some ex-girlfriend or some ex-boyfriend. You’re not thinking about how much your kids’ braces are gonna cost. You’re not thinking about anything. You’re thinking about one. I’m literally the closest I’ll ever to be to Ironman right now. And two, I hope when this thing says 5,000 and I pull that shoot open.

[00:14:22] Brent Magnussen: Right, because I don’t wanna have to rely on my reserve. So it’s the same thing with jujitsu and you said it beautifully when you’re in that situation and you’re managing that stress and you’re dealing with a very serious situation, two things are happening. One you’re getting retrained on how to do all those things, but two, and it’s something you alluded to is you’re doing something very similar that you did in the military, which is the number one.

[00:14:47] Brent Magnussen: That builds that camaraderie and that as you are enjoying that suck together. Yeah. And that’s the best part. I have people asking me all the time, like, what was What was basic training like, or what was this school [00:15:00] like? And it’s funny, like I, the guy that wrote the foreword, my books, a good friend and mentor his name’s, Jason Redman spent 21 years in the seal teams.

[00:15:07] Brent Magnussen: And I was never in the Navy and I was never, I never went through buds and I asked him, like, what was the toughest part of going through buds? It’s like six or seven months and there’s hell week and you see it. It’s like, it sucks. Like every picture I’ve ever saw of anyone in bud.

[00:15:21] Brent Magnussen: They don’t look happy. And it’s a fake smile if they are smile . And I asked him what the hardest part was. And he said, see, in the finish line, he said, the reason more, most of the guys quit is because they look too far ahead. He said the best advice I ever got was just get to your next meal. Yep.

[00:15:37] Brent Magnussen: Just get to lunch. You get to eat. And then the next four or five hours might really suck, but just get to dinner and then guess what? They’re probably gonna let you get some. Just get to breakfast and that chunking method is really cool. And it’s the same thing in jujitsu. Just get through that role survive and then just get through the next one and the way that transfers over into other areas of your [00:16:00] life.

[00:16:00] Brent Magnussen: Most importantly, your confidence and as men I’m speaking specifically to us as males, our egos are constantly in need of humbling and it may not be the most polite term, but for me, When I think of jujitsu, I think of two things, the most effective form of self-defense and fighting and the thing that does the greatest thing for the male ego.

[00:16:26] Brent Magnussen: And it’s also the greatest douche bag filter on planet earth. Cause I have seen it cause I’ve been in jujitsu for well over 10 years, I’ve seen it. I’ve seen the 230 pound steroid guy come into the gym and some nerdy, 160 pound accountant looking. Who’s been training for four or five years longer than him.

[00:16:47] Brent Magnussen: They train. And the little guy who looks like some nerdy accountant, nothing against accountants, they’re important strangles the silver back gorilla on enough steroids to make, a prime Ronnie Coleman jealous. And that [00:17:00] guy doesn’t come back. So it does an amazing job of filtering out the type of people you don’t want knowing.

[00:17:07] Brent Magnussen: How to legitimately strangle and break arms and all those things. So, right. It’s a beautiful martial art. It’s, it is just a beautiful thing. And it’s a beautiful thing when you see what it does for veterans and especially the ones that stick with it and just the leaps and bounds they make in their life.

[00:17:24] Brent Magnussen: All based on the principles they’re getting and the benefits they’re getting from jujitsu.

[00:17:30] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. It’s amazing. Just to see the. Benefits that people get when they try something new and branch out and step outside of that comfort zone. We all have our comfort zone, the things that we are familiar with, that we’re comfortable with and that we like to do every day.

[00:17:47] Scott DeLuzio: And when you just do those things, those things that. Keep you comfortable, you don’t grow and you don’t get to heal in, in certain ways or make strides [00:18:00] towards a better life when you just stick in that comfort zone. Unless you’re really comfortable with being uncomfortable, if you’re not going to be you’re not gonna be making any progress with anything there.

[00:18:10] Scott DeLuzio: So,

[00:18:10] Brent Magnussen: and no one is not. Everyone’s David Goggins. David Goggins is a very, very, very, very, very rare. And as much as I love Goggins it’s difficult for me to get fully on board because there are very few people like that on the planet. It’s like, if we’re talking about horse racing, we’re talking about secretariat, who I think is the greatest race horse ever.

[00:18:30] Brent Magnussen: People say that he didn’t do very well at stud, but the problem is you can’t reproduce that Michael Jordan’s kid is, was never gonna be as good as him. Tiger. One’s tiger. Woods’s son. Who’s hitting the ball really well right now is never gonna be tiger. Walter Payton’s son was never gonna be Walter Payton and you’re not gonna recreate that beauty, but yeah, it’s just, yeah.

[00:18:52] Brent Magnussen: Sorry. I’m off on tangents. No, no,

[00:18:54] Scott DeLuzio: That’s fine. I get the point. I get that point because it it’s something that just it is hard to recreate and [00:19:00] once when you get it you have to You have to do what you can with it. And I think that’s what he’s doing with his ability to be comfortable with the uncomfortable things that he does through his life.

[00:19:10] Scott DeLuzio: Right. Exactly.

[00:19:11] Brent Magnussen: And you’re right about there not being growth either. And the problem is, when we were in the military, we constantly had whether we were living in the barracks or living off post or whatever, even if we had the weekends off, like we constantly had someone telling us. We have to get together as a group in the morning and do PT.

[00:19:28] Brent Magnussen: And you may not have wanted to do it, but you’re just like, well, 28 other guys have to do it. So fuck it. I’m just gonna go do all these pushups. I’m gonna run three miles. It’s gonna suck, but everyone else has to do it. So I have to do it when you’re out and you’re alone. And it’s two o’clock in the morning and you’re in your apartment by yourself and things.

[00:19:48] Brent Magnussen: Aren’t looking so well. And you can’t. And the bottle’s there and everything else is going on. You don’t have those 28 other guys and a squad leader and a platoon Sergeant, and whoever else telling you, [00:20:00] Hey, get your ass outta bed. We gotta go get after it. You don’t have anyone doing that. You don’t have anyone calling you.

[00:20:05] Brent Magnussen: I don’t care who you are unless you’re Goggins or like maybe three or four other humans on planet earth. You’re not gonna make yourself when you’re that low. Get up and get outta your comfort zone. You your uncomfortableness is not gonna exist. You’re gonna continue to stay as comfortable as possible and isolate and all those other things.

[00:20:23] Brent Magnussen: And that’s what jujitsu does so effectively, is it gets you so massively out of your comfort zones. The vast majority of our population brother is. Civilian specifically speaking about civilians, but some former military as well, the vast majority of human beings are not used to someone grabbing their shirt and putting their hands on ’em right.

[00:20:45] Brent Magnussen: The vast majority of human beings are not used to having to put their hands on someone else. And if it happens to them, they have, they’re petrified. They have no idea what to do. So just walking down the street, knowing that if that ever were to [00:21:00] happen, You’re comfortable with it, knowing that if you got into a scrap and you ended up on your back, you’re comfortable being there.

[00:21:10] Brent Magnussen: Like most people are not comfortable on their back unless they’re like a hooker or they’re probably not that comfortable. Like most people are not comfortable on their backs. And to know that you’re okay. If something really serious happens, you have to protect your life, your friends life, God forbid your family’s life.

[00:21:26] Brent Magnussen: And. It just yeah, it’s I told my nephew this once when he asked me when the book came out in 2020, he said, Hey, uncle Brett, do you have any superpowers? And he was like seven or eight years old at the time. So that’s a normal question for like a seven or eight year old that just saw iron man or Thor.

[00:21:43] Brent Magnussen: And I said, actually, yeah, Carter, I do. And he looked at me kind of funny and I said, I do, and I’m not lying to you. I said, I know Brazilian jujitsu and that’s a superpower. And he’s like, absolutely. It’s a superpower. It really, really, really is. And if it’s [00:22:00] used kinda like the force, don’t mind the Jedi tattoo I’m a big nerd.

[00:22:04] Brent Magnussen: I didn’t use that in my opening, but yeah, I’m a huge nerd. Just like the force man, like it can be used for good. It can be used for evil, but if it’s Susan the right way is jujitsu is one of the most powerful, personal development tools on planet earth. And it’s never even thought of that. It’s just thought as a martial.

[00:22:20] Brent Magnussen: But it’s from a personal development or a personal improvement perspective or personal growth perspective for me, it’s like top three things on the.

[00:22:30] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And what just wanna circle back to that point that you made about when you’re in the military and you gotta get up for PT or you gotta be at a formation or you have to be somewhere, you have to do something.

[00:22:40] Scott DeLuzio: People are telling you what to do. And if you’re not there I know for me anyways if I was running late for something. I felt like I was letting the whole team down. I was letting everybody down. Right. And when you’re talking about jujitsu and you’re getting together with people, it, to me, it feels [00:23:00] like it would be the same idea where it’s like, okay, if I’m not gonna show up today because I’m just not feeling like it.

[00:23:06] Scott DeLuzio: I’m feeling down, I’m feeling low or whatever. I’m letting other people down. And so I’m gonna be a little more motivated to. Push myself to go because I don’t wanna let other people down. Yeah. It’s kind of, kind of weird how that happens. I might be willing to let myself down, but not at other people.

[00:23:21] Scott DeLuzio: And so yeah, in, in that case I’m still going out. I’m getting the benefit the physical benefits, the practice, all the, all that kind of stuff and the comradery I’m also not letting other people down. And so it, it just feels like it’s the right thing to do. Whereas if I was just leaving it up to myself to.

[00:23:40] Scott DeLuzio: Go for a run for exercise or something. And, it’s a little cold out. It’s a little you know what? I could come up with a thousand excuses not to go out for a run. Right. But if I knew someone was gonna be there with me and that they weren’t going to get the exercise in if I wasn’t there, then I’d know that I’m letting the.

[00:23:56] Scott DeLuzio: That other person down or that group of people down. Yeah. And so, [00:24:00] I’d be much more motivated to get up and get my ass moving to, to get that done. Right. A

[00:24:05] Brent Magnussen: hundred percent. That’s why, we’re doing the the Roger Up event on September 1st, second and third it’s and if you look at the website, Roger Up event.com, you’ll notice all three nights.

[00:24:15] Brent Magnussen: There’s an introduction to Brazilian jujitsu. Each morning, there’s PT with Navy seals. And so you start the day out at five 30 getting after it, and you end the day with something positive, like the Jitsu. And throughout the day, we have amazing speakers, breakout workshops VIP mastermind dinners, and myself and Jason Redman.

[00:24:36] Brent Magnussen: Along with a really good friend of mine seafood Allen baker, we sat down and we essentially designed this whole thing around everything you and I just got done talking about. Sure. How can we for so many people out there that don’t have that leadership mindset, don’t have that military background for, for those people out there that just got so consumed by the [00:25:00] pandemic and we’re essentially locked up for two plus years.

[00:25:03] Brent Magnussen: One people are starving for something like this cause they actually wanna get out and be around other like-minded people. But I think why I’m so excited about this event is. It’s needed. People need to get out of their comfort zone, get comfortable being uncomfortable. We’ve got all these cool little things.

[00:25:22] Brent Magnussen: Embrace the suck, Roger Up man, up woman up. But at the end of the day, it’s just about getting the fuck after it and trying to be 1% better every day. And I still have to do that. I still have so many things that I need to work on. And you could do this podcast with me if we’re both still around in 40 years, when I’m in my eighties and I’m gonna be saying the same thing, I’ll probably not be quite as handsome and I’ll probably have a lot less hair, but I’m still gonna be telling you, man, I still have stuff I need to work on.

[00:25:54] Brent Magnussen: I still need to work on this. I still need to work on this cuz it’s constant constant growth. [00:26:00] And if we can just inspire. Change, if we can give them that spark, if we can get people that have never even heard of jujitsu because of the seminar to go out and try it, or to embrace a morning routine and actually focus on what they do the first 30 to 45 minutes of the morning, and that’s what they take away or whatever it is with the amazing speakers that we have and the structure that we have for this.

[00:26:24] Brent Magnussen: I’m just so excited for the people that are coming for the people that have already bought tickets and for the people that are gonna buy tickets and eventually be there on September 1st. It’s just it’s so exciting for me. Cause if I wasn’t putting on this event, I know it sounds weird, but I would have already bought a ticket to it.

[00:26:40] Brent Magnussen: Cause it’s even for a guy like me, that surrounds himself with all these personal development people. It’s something it’s stuff that I still wanna do. Cause I always have stuff to learn. I’m constantly trying to learn stuff. All the people I surround myself with excluding like my family and my wife and my friends.

[00:26:57] Brent Magnussen: Like the people, the five people I spend the most [00:27:00] time with. They’re all smarter than me. They all make more money than me. They’re all faster than me. They’re all stronger than me. They all shoot better than me. They all speak better than me. Most of ’em probably swim better than me. It’s just constantly trying to level up and if you’re hanging around five guys and spend more time at the bar than they do at the gym, it’s only a time.

[00:27:20] Brent Magnussen: Matter of times, either number six, if you’re hanging out with five people that are always the proverbial crabs in the bucket, and every time you start doing something good, like, Hey, I just started this new podcast. Oh, God, you’ve only got like three views really well, what are you doing? Cause I’m right.

[00:27:38] Brent Magnussen: I’m done with your negativity. I’m gonna surround myself with positive people that wanna celebrate my wings, not try to pull me down. So we’re gonna talk a lot about circle of influence. Cause it’s something that’s so important to me. And when I started realizing that, and it’s embarrassing now to talk about it, but I spent so long focused on what people thought about me.

[00:27:59] Brent Magnussen: And I think [00:28:00] maybe it’s cuz I’m getting a little older now I’m 46 and I just don’t give a shit anymore. What people think about me? I care what my wife thinks about me. I care what my stepdaughter thinks about me. I care what my dad thinks about me and maybe four or five other people. And to be respectful to your podcast, I care about what you think about me.

[00:28:18] Brent Magnussen: But besides that, if someone doesn’t like me, if they don’t like my salmon colored shirt with a flower pocket my wife bought their shirt. So if the podcast doesn’t do well, we can blame her. But at the end of the day, I just have to stop worrying about what other people think of me and focus on the stuff I can control.

[00:28:34] Brent Magnussen: You know what I mean? I can’t control what’s going on with Kanye and Kim. I can’t control what’s going on in the white house. I can’t control these gas prices and God knows. I wish I could. But I can control how I treat my family. I can control what time I get up in the morning. I can control who I decide to spend my valuable time with cuz it’s the most valuable commodity we all have is our time and I’m not [00:29:00] anymore.

[00:29:00] Brent Magnussen: I refuse to, and I drew this line in the sand a few years ago. I’m not gonna spend any more time with people that don’t wanna celebrate my wins that don’t wanna see me level up and don’t wanna see me become better. I don’t have any more time for you and I’m, and just like that show the apprentice. I have no problem saying you’re fired.

[00:29:19] Brent Magnussen: I have no problem with it. And it’s tough to do, especially with people you’ve known 10, 15, 20 years, but if they’re not making progress and they’re holding you back, what’s the point?

[00:29:30] Scott DeLuzio: Exactly. And if you’re the smartest guy in the room, sounds like you probably need to find another room to be in. Right.

[00:29:36] Scott DeLuzio: You gotta

[00:29:37] Brent Magnussen: find, I find news for your brother. If I’m the smartest guy in the room, they need to get a new room.

[00:29:44] Scott DeLuzio: so yeah, no I totally agree with what you’re saying there, and you mentioned a couple things that your morning routine and that, that circle of influence that you talked about, and these are topics that you talked about in your book Roger Up and. So tell us about the book. Tell us [00:30:00] what the book’s all about and why it’s important to have a circle of influence and the morning routine and things like that.

[00:30:05] Brent Magnussen: Sure. So real quickly, I’ll mention why the book is entitled Roger Up. So most people are probably familiar with the term, Roger, that. It essentially confirms a transmission and people have all heard watching mash or any military movie. They’ve heard Roger that. So back in the army, I was on a really long, we had a few mandatory 12 mile rucks per year.

[00:30:26] Brent Magnussen: I think there were three of ’em in our unit at the battalion level, if I’m not mistaken, but once a year we had. 18 mile R and it was timed and it was competitive. The 12 milers were timed as well. And I always wanted to compete, but the 18 miler was it was tough. And I was a very skinny guy, was six foot, two, about 165 pounds.

[00:30:47] Brent Magnussen: I was a twig and I, for some reason, logistics within the platoon, I, for at that point in time was the one of the 60 gunner. And that hog weighs [00:31:00] 21.7 pounds, I believe. So let’s call it 22 pounds. Now I’ve got a 35 pound ruck on, back those days we had the LBEs. So it’s essentially full battle rattle without the mags.

[00:31:12] Brent Magnussen: And I’m carrying this 22 pound hog around and right around mile 14, I was done, bro. I was smoked just, like I needed to hear the Rocky music. I was like something I’m done. And my platoon Sergeant came up to me and he is like, what’s going on? I said, Hey, Sergeant, I’m smoke, man. I’m and I had every excuse in the book, just like you were talking about earlier, not wanting to go for the run.

[00:31:34] Brent Magnussen: It’s real nice and warm and toasty. End of these covers why get up and go run out when it’s chilly. All I made every excuse in the book and he looked at me, he said, Maggie, you need to Roger the fuck up. You got four miles left. Let’s get it. And I wasn’t gonna let that guy. And that was the hardest four miles of my life.

[00:31:52] Brent Magnussen: And after that term Roger Up, which I had never heard before just was like [00:32:00] seared. It was like tattooed on here. I looked like Post Malone without the tattoos. It was like, that was my mantra. That was what I, that was my thing. And I carried that through and I’ve. Gone back to that moment, many times in my life when I’ve made mistakes or made maybe not the best decisions, whether it was in relationships or financial leader with businesses or whatever.

[00:32:23] Brent Magnussen: And I’ve always tried to go back to that. Roger Up mantra. And that became the book and we just kind of put all those principles in there. I had Jason Redman I asked Jason Redman and he kindly wrote the forward to it. He’s a New York times bestselling author. So, and I talk about how I met him and how I got a guy with two books on the New York times bestseller list in a retired 21 years.

[00:32:47] Brent Magnussen: Navy seal veteran at the highest level who was shot in the face and survived over 40 surgeries. There’s a History Channel show about him. He’s been on every top podcast and he’s a prolific speaker. And this guy’s [00:33:00] one of my really close friends now and still a mentor. And I talk about how to get into those circles because once you develop enough trust with these mentors, You start getting access to their circle slowly, but surely it’s like, I’ll give you a little bit, I’ll give you some scraps.

[00:33:21] Brent Magnussen: Right. And before you know, it, all of a sudden, like you’re running around with the big dogs. And I look at some of the names on this event I put together and I’m just like I’m just so blown away and humbled that all these people wanna be involved because I think they know what we’re trying to do. And yeah, but getting back to the book that’s all it was, it was just, it was the book I wish I had when I was 17.

[00:33:44] Brent Magnussen: and there’s some material in there that may not be applicable necessarily to a 17 year old, but at the end of the day I just wrote it. I put the truth out there and the truth. Isn’t always easy to speak. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life and I’m probably gonna continue to make mistakes, but that’s part [00:34:00] of growth.

[00:34:01] Brent Magnussen: You live and you learned and yeah, man, just kind of put myself out there and it was, as nice as it is to see best seller on Amazon and all that shit, and I’m not downplaying it it’s cool. And it’s something I’m very proud of and it’s great, but the, not none of that, none of those accolades, none of the.

[00:34:19] Brent Magnussen: And the fact that it’s been a, really a springboard for a speaking career and putting on events like this and stuff like that has been amazing. But what writing that book did for me was more therapeutic than anything. The VA times a thousand could ever prescribe . Right. It was like, when you really put yourself out there, it’s one thing when you put it down on paper and you put it out there for everyone to read.

[00:34:48] Brent Magnussen: And now they know, wow, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. This guy’s a little fucked up and he’s been through some stuff and he’s struggled with some stuff. And he talks about that [00:35:00] and yeah, and I think I encourage everyone to write a book, whether you should publish it or not. Two, two years later, brother, I’m still deciding whether or not that was a good idea for me.

[00:35:09] Brent Magnussen: My wife and I have this conversation from time to time, but she encouraged me to, she contributed to it as well, but she encouraged me to push a little further. There were areas where I kind of pumped the brakes a little bit, and I think she encouraged me to. Just step on the gas and go all in.

[00:35:26] Brent Magnussen: You’re already this far. And yeah.

[00:35:28] Scott DeLuzio: And that’s again, stepping outside of your comfort zone. Yeah. You wrote something that you know as a first time author myself I know putting all that out there, putting the, your. dirty laundry out there and putting all the dark stuff in your life, out there in a book that not only are your friends and family going to read, but complete strangers are gonna read.

[00:35:49] Scott DeLuzio: They’re gonna form opinions about you. They’re gonna start thinking things about you. And hopefully at the end of the day they read the book and they. Come out better off for reading that book. Yeah. [00:36:00] And, that’s I think what we all hope for when we sit down and write these books.

[00:36:04] Scott DeLuzio: So, I think everyone has a story to tell you don’t need to be a medal of honor recipient or a. 15 time combat veteran, or whatever you don’t need to have all of these accolades and all these other things. Everyone has a story to tell and, it’s there, there’s nothing stopping you from sitting down and telling your story.

[00:36:24] Scott DeLuzio: As. As little as you think you may have done in whether it’s in your military career or your just in life in general you have a story to tell and there’s something that can be learned from that. And if you don’t I’d challenge you to take a deep look at your life and look at some of the things that you’ve maybe failed that.

[00:36:42] Scott DeLuzio: And I try to identify. What those lessons were and how you’ve changed and how you’ve improved over time. And I bet you’ll find a story in there somewhere,

[00:36:53] Brent Magnussen: right? Thousand percent. I tell people all the time, write down the top 10 biggest failures in your life. [00:37:00] There’s at least two books. There’s at least two books in there for sure.

[00:37:04] Brent Magnussen: And the good news is if you’re still around. And if some of those were massive, like you overcame heroin addiction or alcoholism, or you survived sexual abuse as a child, or you were raped or you overcame some horrific accident from a car accident or a fall or whatever. If you’re you write that list of 10 failures out, if you’re still here to talk about it, look, guess what, man you’ve made progress like, right.

[00:37:29] Brent Magnussen: Not at that point anymore, because if you overcame heroin, which is not, I’ve never tried heroin, but I know unfortunately, plenty of guys that have, because the Vicodins were too hard to keep up with. Yeah. The VA was throwing 120 at him a month. And I had a friend that was taken 25 to 30 a day and he had to manage four or five different scripts that people were getting for him.

[00:37:55] Brent Magnussen: And then he realized. Wow. Heroin’s so much cheaper. I can do [00:38:00] this and guess what else I’ll do. I’ll shoot it up between my toes. So no one knows I’m doing it because I live in a hot climate and I always have a t-shirt on, so I won’t have any marks on my arms. I’m very isolated already as it is. And everyone knows my personality to be that way.

[00:38:17] Brent Magnussen: So who’s ever gonna know I’m hooked on heroin. And thank God we found out and we got to it and had a little bit of an old school platoon reunion, if you will. And that guy is thriving now, and I’m pretty sure he’s in the process of finishing up a book. So I’m not gonna say his name, but amazing guy, someone.

[00:38:37] Brent Magnussen: I love with all my heart and deployed with and consider a brother and Yeah, it’s a terrible drug. And I have several friends that are unfortunately on that list of 22 guys or gals a day that unfortunately throw in the towel too soon. And heroin was, I think, three of ’em and it’s because the opiates got out of control and heroin was cheaper.[00:39:00]

[00:39:00] Brent Magnussen: And it’s just a, it’s just a real shame, man. So everyone you’re right. Everyone has a story. Everyone should write it. Now, whether you decide to tuck that away in a box in the basement and bury it under three feet of cement is on you or if you wanna go out there and self-publish it for free and put it on Amazon, that’s on you, but just sitting down and taking pencil or pen to paper and writing about it.

[00:39:24] Brent Magnussen: I cannot express to you what it’s done for me and how. Therapeutic. It is just putting yourself out there. It’s one thing to look in the mirror and say some shit to yourself and judge yourself. But guess what? It’s a matter of five, 10, maybe 20 seconds, or in my case, if you’re really vain and pay a lot, attention to your hair, maybe 40 seconds until you walk away from that mirror, then it’s done.

[00:39:48] Brent Magnussen: Then you’re on with your day. You’re having a coffee. You’re meeting your friends, you’re going out, you’re going to work. You’re doing whatever.

[00:39:52] Brent Magnussen: But when you write that down, same thing as goal setting, you can talk about all the goals you want when you write them down and put them out there [00:40:00] and have someone hold you accountable. That’s when the real work begins. So I tell everyone, man, write in your book, write your story. You don’t have to publish it, but write it.

[00:40:08] Brent Magnussen: It will help change you and make you a better person. So I’m yeah, dude, I agree with everything you’ve said, man.

[00:40:14] Scott DeLuzio: Absolutely. So, with that said. Where can people go to get a copy of your book? Roger

[00:40:19] Brent Magnussen: up Amazon’s the best place, man. Okay. I know they’re like a $17 trillion. Company. They’re probably gonna buy Mars before Elon flies as rockets there, but yeah, man, Amazon’s, as you all know a pretty big online store, so yeah, just go to Amazon, we’ve got the Kindle version and we’ve got the print version and then on rare occasion, when I’m at events like the big round up event, we’re doing September 1st, second and third here in Chicago.

[00:40:44] Brent Magnussen: I’ll have books for sale there. But yeah, that’s the best place is Amazon. Excellent.

[00:40:49] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. So I’ll have a link to that in the show notes. But I also want to let you have a chance to tell people where they can go to support the Resilient Warrior Foundation, whether it’s [00:41:00] through donations or I’m not sure if you guys need volunteers or whatnot whatever it is that you need, let people know where they can go to help.

[00:41:08] Brent Magnussen: And thank you so much for letting me plug that. It’s obviously something that’s really close to my heart. So Resilient Warrior Foundation.org. You can make donations on there. We have all kinds of swag that we sell, whether it’s coffee mugs or t-shirts or whatever, everything goes to the veterans or first responders.

[00:41:26] Brent Magnussen: No one on our board takes salary. All of us are 100% volunteers. We post everything online. We’re fully transparent. This is truly a now I’m not saying there’s not gonna come a day when things get crazier, when we’re gonna have to hire someone. And it’s just the hard truth and the growth process of becoming busier and actually having to hire someone to do all the work.

[00:41:48] Brent Magnussen: But right now we’re busy, but we’re still holding it down. No one has paid a single penny, every dollar that you Don. Is going towards managing everything and getting these guys in gals training [00:42:00] in schools all over the country. And I’ll just mention, because they’ve done some great things for us.

[00:42:05] Brent Magnussen: Another nonprofit that we work with is GE for GIS. So if you’ve never trained before and your school allows it you come and sign up with resilient Warner foundation and we get you good to going and going. Then I’ll get you a free G too. So, and even if your school gives you a G or they have you buy one, it’s always good to have more than one G unless you’re just training once a month.

[00:42:30] Brent Magnussen: Cause three things for new jujitsu people. One show up on time, two wear deodorant, and have a clean G in three. Cut your fingernails and your toenails. I still have a cut. On the side of this eye from some knuckleheads big toe. I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know if he was from like, the cave man days or what, but this guy had toenails like a saber tiger.

[00:42:59] Brent Magnussen: Just, I [00:43:00] got slashed right here. So if you’re gonna start your JSU always smell good. Always be positive. Always be on time to class and cut your damn fingernails and toenails. And your school will have no problems with you.

[00:43:16] Scott DeLuzio: sounds good. Well, I will have links to all of this in the show notes. So Resilient Warrior Foundation.org.

[00:43:22] Scott DeLuzio: I’ll have links to the book on Amazon and where people can go to donate and help out the Resilient Warrior Foundation. So thank you again, Brent, for coming on, it’s really been a pleasure speaking with you and learning about everything that you do and How jujitsu really is a great tool that people can use to help combat their own PTSD.

[00:43:46] Scott DeLuzio: So thanks again for coming on and joining me.

[00:43:49] Brent Magnussen: Yeah. And thank you for having me, man. And like I say, unfortunately, the nature of these podcasts, I know you’re the interviewer and I’m the interviewee. But I just wanna say for everyone that’s watching this, cuz I’m [00:44:00] gonna be sharing this with every platform I have.

[00:44:02] Brent Magnussen: Please go and check out this guy’s stuff. His story is absolutely awesome. He’s a veteran himself. His brother was a veteran. There’s just an amazing story there. And if you look over his right shoulder, you will see that incredible American flag perfectly rolled into a triangle in that box. And we know what that represents, and that is something that is.

[00:44:27] Brent Magnussen: More humbling to me than anything. On this planet. And so I know what you’ve got going on, man. And I’m honored to be on your podcast and maybe we’ll have the chance to speak again sometime. And more of the people that follow me and, have read my book and watch some of my content will get an opportunity to hear about your story and your book.

[00:44:48] Brent Magnussen: Cuz I know we’re already at like, see here’s the cool thing about podcast everyone beforehand. Me and the man talked for about five or six minutes. It’s like a little first date. And he’s like, so you got any [00:45:00] questions? And I’m like, yeah, how long are we gonna go? And he is like 30 well we’re right now at 41.

[00:45:05] Brent Magnussen: So this is called the reel end. I’m a sailfish and I keep fighting, trying to get back out and he’s reeling me in. So, I’ll stop talking. It’s been a real pleasure, man. And again for anyone that. Watching this that’s someone that follows me or has read my book or is attending the event or anything like that.

[00:45:24] Brent Magnussen: Please check out this gentleman’s stuff. We’ll make sure that he puts it into the link as well. Cuz he’s got an awesome book. He’s a first time author like myself. He’s a proud veteran like myself and his story and his brother story is absolutely incredible and it’s stuff that people need to hear and it’s inspirational.

[00:45:42] Brent Magnussen: So thank you, man. I appreciate. All

[00:45:44] Scott DeLuzio: right. Well, thank you again. I do appreciate your time coming on the show and sharing everything that you shared. So, so thanks

[00:45:50] Brent Magnussen: for everything. Absolutely. Thank you.

[00:45:54] Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you wanna check out more episodes or learn more about the [00:46:00] show, you can visit our website driveonpodcast.com. We’re also on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube at drive on podcast.