Episode 522 Joshua Daniel The Real Cost of Military Transition Transcript
This transcript is from episode 522 with guest Joshua Daniel.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] You ever feel like you’re grinding it out at work, trying to stay present for your family and wondering what the hell happened to that sense of purpose that you had in uniform when every day counted, but it all feels like a memory now. You’re not lazy, you’re not broken. You just miss a clarity, the brotherhood and the why behind it all.
Now imagine building something that reignites that fire. Not just for yourself, but for your community, for families who’ve lost everything. And that’s exactly what Joshua, Daniel did. After two decades in special operations. He didn’t just retire, he shifted his focus. And through the Hero Games, charity and counterculture solutions, he’s proving that you can still serve, still lead, and still honor the fallen without wearing a uniform.
And speaking of hero games, this year’s event kicks off on September 6th. It’s a little late for registration, but uh, it’s never too late to show your support. Follow the Hero Games charity [00:01:00] on social media to see the impact that they’re having for yourself. Every rep, every. Tier every story. Uh, it’s really impactful.
So give them a follow. This episode though is for anyone wondering what’s next after service and how to find a purpose worth sacrificing for. But before we dive into this episode, I also want to take a moment to raise awareness for something deeply important to our community. The Global War on Terrorism Memorial Foundation. This organization is working to build a permanent national memorial in Washington DC to honor the service members, families and civilians impacted by the Global War on Terrorism.
This memorial serves as both a tribute to those who served in a way to ensure their sacrifices are recognized and remembered for generations to come. If you wanna learn more or find out how you can support the mission, visit GWOTmemorialfoundation.org. Now. Let’s get into today’s episode.
[00:02:00]
Scott DeLuzio: Joshua, welcome to the show. Really glad to have you here. Looking forward to this conversation.
Joshua Daniel: Yeah. Thanks man. It’s a pleasure.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely.
Before we dive into
you know, kind of what we’re gonna talk about and you know, get really into the meat of the conversation here you, you served, you served in the Army. Tell us a little bit about your experience in the army. Kinda special forces, things that you did there and you know, how that that kind of shaped your outlook for, you know, what you’re doing now.
Joshua Daniel: Yeah,
man.
It’s a lot, right?
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: I did 20 years, eight months and eight days, so almost 21
years. All of which was in special operations. So I
joined the Army at 17.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay.
Joshua Daniel: I was still in 11th grade, had to finish high school, unfortunately. I had a Ranger contract. Went straight into the Ranger regiment. Spent five years there, deployed to Iraq with them, [00:03:00] three times, Afghanistan once, then I went to
Special Forces and spent the rest of my career there. So Green Beret,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: Did another three trips to Afghanistan with special forces and trip to South America, Trump to trip to Central America, few instructor gigs nested in
there.
And a, a lot of good times man.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s, that’s awesome.
You know,
someone who. You know, is so young going in, you know, going in with a contract for that and then sticking with it for. You know, 20 plus years is, is pretty awesome to hear. Any, any challenges along the way? You know, I, I know that type of of work, you know, being a infantryman myself, I know that’s, that’s definitely a young man’s game.
And as you were getting older you know, I, I gotta imagine that was probably one of those things where you’re like, man, these, these young guys are, are, are gonna be whooping my ass someday, right?
Joshua Daniel: No [00:04:00] doubt, man.
No doubt. And you don’t see that coming.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: It it, comes,
Scott DeLuzio: it does,
Joshua Daniel: yeah, dude, challenges from the moment that I showed interest in the Army until I. today, right now that
Scott DeLuzio: right?
Joshua Daniel: and I’m away from it all. Still, there are still challenges associated with it. You know, I joined the Army
I was 134 pounds, you know,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: Man, and I knew very little about the Ranger regimen.
You know, this was 2003 and. The internet was around not nearly to the I guess, depth and breadth that it is today,
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Joshua Daniel: you know, so there was some information. I remember getting on US Army’s website and just looking every day, see if there’s something new on there.
But there wasn’t a lot of information about military or rangers.
You had to read books, which, you know,
was, fantastic way to learn and I
read all of the books, [00:05:00] dude.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: but yeah, got in there and being a small guy, just had to really find that grit that,
that I kind of grew up with around rural Virginia. I.
That’s what got me through, honestly,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: this mindset that was gonna get it done and there was nothing that was gonna stop
me and it was just gonna be, it was gonna be shitty and we were gonna
do it.
And that’s it. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And that, and that’s the mindset that gets instilled in you early on
from, you know, ba like basically basic training is like day one when they’re. Yelling at you to get off the bus, and it’s like, wow, this is going to be a cultural shock, because this is not like anything that most people have ever experienced.
And you know, you realize, hey, you know, it’s gonna suck, but we’ll get through it and, and you keep pushing on. Right. And that’s, I guess, the name of the game with, with all of it. You know, even. You know, ranger school [00:06:00] and you know, going into special forces and all the things that you, you had to go through it’s a lot of suck, but when you get through it, then you can look back and be like, Hey, you know, I, I accomplished something.
This, this is something that very few people get a, an opportunity to accomplish and can say, Hey, I did this. And. Then you are sitting here and you’ve, you’ve done it, and you can, you can look at, you know, other people and say like, yeah, you know, this is something I can be proud of. I’m, I, I did this stuff and, and that, that’s pretty cool.
Now fast forward to, you know, you said you are in 20 years and eight months. Eight days. What, what was that transition like, getting out and did you have a plan for what was next? Or you, you’re like, you know, I’m just gonna get out and kind of wing it.
Joshua Daniel: Yeah, I had a plan, dude.
I planned most things right.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay.
Joshua Daniel: I, I also like being spontaneous, but, you know, we planned the big things. I, I
knew that I was gonna do 20 after my [00:07:00] first enlistment.
I didn’t really know where that was gonna take me,
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: when I was about five years out. So hitting the 15 year mark, I knew that I, I saw
the writing on the wall, man. My body was crushed.
wars were ending,
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: and there’s a natural point to step aside.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: is, and knowing when that time is, is vital. I was actually gonna just. Promote to E eight and kind of ride a desk for the last two or three years because the war, the war had ended.
The war was over really for the last two years that I was in.
And that was devastating for me, honestly. And it’s hard
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: understand, but remember looking at my cousin who was going through the Special forces qualification course and I had been [00:08:00] promoted to E eight, which in Special forces, that makes you a team sergeant. Right. And man, there’s no higher
calling in special forces than being a team sergeant.
You know,
you’re in charge of a 12 man team.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: And so, yeah, I just didn’t see that as
being worth it because, well, I, I just wanted to
go back to combat and that was gone.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: So I remember having a conversation with my cousin who said, Hey man, hey, flat out, and this is, you know, this is harsh language, but it’s important to capture.
He said, Hey, well you know what? You’re fucking me and everyone else in
my generation, we deserve to
know the things that you know. You can’t
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: leave, man. You can’t just take the things that you know and leave. That changed everything for me in that moment. And so I made it a point to go back, take over a special forces team. And you know, back to the whole thing about challenges,
[00:09:00] The
biggest challenge of my career was
being in charge of a special
forces team.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. I I gotta imagine that’s not an easy thing to do,
but
you know that, that’s a really good point. And that’s, I’m, I’m not sure how old your, your cousin is, but that it’s pretty insightful because you have 20 years of special forces and Ranger experience that. You were able to accumulate for yourself and yeah, sure.
You probably passed some knowledge to other people along the way as you’re, you’re helping other people out. But to just walk away from that without imparting that knowledge on your, your team, that you would be in charge of those, those 12 men. Yeah, that, that’s kinda screwing them over because somebody else is gonna take that spot and they may not have the same experience as you.
They’re, they’re gonna be that next best person for sure to, to take that spot. But they may not have the experiences [00:10:00] and maybe not the, the amount of combat experience. And unfortunately, as time goes on, fewer and fewer people are going to be in the military who have that type of experience. I mean, it’s fortunate because obviously we don’t want.
The country to be at war constantly. You know, so that’s a good thing. But unfortunate because then we start to lose people who do have that experience and we get to a, you know, maybe a pre nine 11 era, late nineties era where, you know, very few people had actually seen. Real combat at that point, you know?
Yeah, sure. There’s a desert storm era people, but you know, Vietnam era people, they, they all were at that point, I would imagine, mostly out of, of the military. And there’s, there’s not a whole lot of other people who, who did see actual you know, sustained combat for any, any length of, of time. And so, you know, you, you lost a lot of that training if it didn’t get [00:11:00] passed on.
And so. Yeah, that, that’s a, that’s a really good point. So you had a plan getting out. What was that plan and, and how did that shape up for you?
Joshua Daniel: Man, I, I follow my heart. I always do. I never resist that intuition, that instinct, that, that thing that like sets me on fire. I never resist it. You know, I’ve been married for almost 20 years. I have four kids and dude, I mean, I married my wife 10 months after I met her. Told her I was gonna marry her about two months after I met her you know, had to go to ranger school and, you know, and delay that. I always follow my heart, man, so I just knew that I wanted to be in service in some capacity. I feel like that’s,
that’s my life’s calling is to just
give everything I have to, to this world. [00:12:00] and, we had already started to do that through our nonprofit called Hero Games Charity. So once a year we bring a special operations Gold Star family here to Bedford, Virginia. We pay for everything for them, and then we culminate that with the Hero Games, a big fitness competition on Saturday
in honor of that person. We build a relationship with the family man, we, we really honor our fallen and you know, we do it once a year.
We go all out. It costs about 30 grand to run the hero games. We actually just produced our first short film. You know, if you’re listening to this, go to hero games charity.com, and the short film is right there. Dude, I promise you’ll, you’ll, you either hate the troops or you’re bought end dude. Right from the drop.
Seriously. I mean, and that, that is the truth. Like I’m so
proud of what we’ve built with hero games. So Hero games is a
large part of my purpose.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay.
Joshua Daniel: I think that we have to [00:13:00] have purpose driven lives, and I think. For some of us, there has to be that occupational purpose. You know, we can find purpose in our family and we can find purpose spiritually. I think that we also, some of us need that occupational purpose and that certainly I fall into that category. So Hero games really was that for me. And then we wanted to branch out and do more, but we wanted to not take away from hero games. So we created Counterculture solutions with the same team. And Counterculture Solutions is basically taking all the things that we know teaching people. So actually we run things called a purpose truck where we hit the mountains for a day and help people figure out their purpose. We run violent encounter survival courses geared towards. Just female only populations.
We also run ’em for men and women. [00:14:00] work with businesses and
dude, there’s, there’s a
lot there we could talk about.
Scott DeLuzio: I’m sure yeah, we can, we can kind of dissect some of that as well.
But
Joshua Daniel: I.
Scott DeLuzio: I think something that you were talking about having a what was it? Occupational purpose is. Something I think that we miss when we talk about, you know, finding your purpose, right? There’s, there may be multiple purposes, right?
You, you talked about another thing, a family being. My purpose, like why do I, why do I even care what kind of job I have or what you know, how much money I make or any of that kind of stuff. Well, I need to provide for my family. I need, I need at least a certain amount to be able to feed them and keep the lights on and, you know, provide them with a quality of, of life, you know, to be able to do the things that we want to do and, and all that kinda stuff.
So, okay. I need to, that’s. One purpose that, that I have. But then the occupation side of things too. I mean, you could say, okay, well [00:15:00] that occupation is, you can look at it like that occupation is funding my other purpose or my other passion or, or whatever. And that’s a perfectly acceptable thing. Two.
Acceptable way to think too, and I, I’ve talked about this before on, on the podcast as well, but if you have a soul sucking job that you just don’t want to get out of bed in the morning because it just is sucking the life out of you. I mean, there’s gotta be something better out there, right? And so if you have that occupational purpose and you can see the.
The benefit that you’re providing to I guess society or to whoever is important to you in, in your world then, then you’re gonna have, you’re gonna find some sense of purpose there. You know, if you’re just nine to five punching a clock and, you know, pushing papers and doing that kind of thing, and you don’t really see the purpose in it, it’s gonna be hard to really [00:16:00] get.
Jazzed up about it, you know, it, it’s, that’s gonna be a, a, a tough sell for, for a lot of people. And some people could do it, but you know, God bless ’em. But but in your case, it seems like the military community is still a big part of what you do, you know, through the hero games. And, but also taking that training and I think maybe a little bit of what your cousin was telling you about, Hey, you have a lot of knowledge, let.
You gotta pass that on to the rest of us. But that’s kinda what you’re doing with with counterculture solutions is, is what you’re, you’re doing is imparting some of that knowledge as well. And you know, it’s inspiring I think to hear that because some people get out of the military thinking that.
They don’t have the skills to go work in a civilian environment. Right. Well, here you are taking the skills that you learned over a 20 plus year career in the Army and [00:17:00] you’re applying a lot of that to what you’re doing now. Not only just the, the hero games, but also in counterculture solutions and in providing that kind of training.
To make people in your community, in your, your state, your, your country to be better off from, from that level of training. Right?
Joshua Daniel: Yeah, there’s a lot there, man. I think some, some, maybe the first thing that I would say
to all of that is wellness is holistic, right? With counterculture, we say that we view everything through the eight dimensions of wellness. So you can be physically and emotionally, environmentally fit. All of those things are great,
but if you lack spirituality, then
you’re not truly fulfilled.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: there’s a lot of dead men walking, [00:18:00] dude, they’re, they’re going to work Monday through Friday, spinning most of their lives
hell for no real. Reason,
other than They’re just scared to take the leap.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: to take the leap, and they summarize that as like this act of service and
like another day, another dollar. It’s,
it’s all fake dude.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: look, they’re sacrificed in everything. I sacrificed a lot being in the Army, but. I understood how important that sacrifice was. I don’t know that I can go work at some corporate job where I don’t believe in
anything that I’m doing and go, Hey, you know, this is a, a worthwhile reason to be away from my family.
Scott DeLuzio: Right,
Joshua Daniel: no, absolutely not. So why do people sit in that? And, and then rationalize because people love to compromise. They don’t
wanna do, they don’t want to take the leap, they don’t want to do the hard work. That’s, that’s just the truth, man. It [00:19:00] really
Scott DeLuzio: right.
Joshua Daniel: I mean, if you’re willing to waste half of your life sitting behind a desk doing something, you’re, you hate then. Okay. Better than you, you, than me. So yeah, I, I think it’s all a big compromise that’s unnecessary, you know,
serve and sacrifice,
but do it for something worthwhile. I.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm. Yeah, and I, I, I think there, there may be,
Kind of a, a shift in people’s attitudes towards doing more service-based things or things that matter to them more than I. Just chasing a paycheck. At least I hope that that’s the case. It’s just, I know it’s anecdotal evidence of, you know, a very small population, but I, I’m hearing more and more people with the attitude that you’re having here basically saying that you know, like, yeah, that.
That corporate job is not, not for me. That, that type of work is, is not what I want to do. I, I wanna be able to [00:20:00] take the time to spend time with my family and you know, do the things that I want to do knowing that there, there’s a trade off in everything, you know? Yes, sure. You can work that safe, secure, corporate job and make a ton of money and, and, but you’re probably not gonna have the time to spend with your family ’cause you’re gonna have to spend 80 hours a week working, working that job. Right. Or you can, you can have the trade off and, and you can maybe spend more time with your family and you may not have the security that a large corporate job might have, but.
Okay. If you, if you’re, if you know what you’re doing and you’re, you’re putting the, the time and effort into making sure that the, the organization’s run right, you’re gonna do okay. You know, I don’t, I don’t think you’re gonna. You’re gonna hit any, any walls that are gonna just be absolute deal breakers with, with things like that.
And, you know, you talk about like, things like hero games the, the charity, right? There’s these competitions that you do they’re honoring the [00:21:00] sacrifices of these these, these families and the, the the soldiers who were, were killed. Like all of these things are super important and they’re, it’s gonna continue to get support.
Like, you know, for, for a long time. So I, you know, I don’t, I don’t see that that’s gonna be something that just kind of goes away because interest dries up in it, you know? So you obviously found something that is, is interesting it to you, but also it’s, it’s something that is important to many, many people and, and and it’s.
A great thing that you’re doing too. Now I know you, you mentioned a little bit about the, the, the games the hero games. Tell us about like some of the, the competitions and, and kind of like what you guys do and you know, the, the fitness stuff and all, all that kind of stuff that goes into it
Joshua Daniel: Yeah. Well, you know, I think actually it’s important
emphasize
that
Scott DeLuzio: actually.
Joshua Daniel: the competition and the actual,
the hero games, which is just once a year, that’s. That’s just not even what it’s about. [00:22:00] That’s more like
a, a, a, a forum, an opportunity, a body
for us to come together. Right. What it’s about is reaching out to that, that new family every
year, which the way that we
work it is last year’s family,
helps us choose next year’s family, right.
Scott DeLuzio: it. Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: So
Scott DeLuzio: nice.
Joshua Daniel: it’s a family business. From there, we reach out, we start building a relationship. Six months out we’re building a relationship with this gold star family, learning everything about ’em. we bring ’em here. We pay for everything, everything. Food, what, you know, if they’re flying from the west coast or flying from overseas, we’re paying for it.
Right? We’re giving ’em the best that we have, the best Airbnb in town. The biggest, most beautiful SUV we can get
our hands on. We’re just giving them, we’re
showing ’em everything.
We’re giving ’em everything we got, man,
because
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah,
Joshua Daniel: everything right.
Scott DeLuzio: that’s [00:23:00] right.
Joshua Daniel: we bring ’em in, we lay bricks at the National D-Day Memorial in honor of their person. The National D-Day Memorial is here in Bedford, Virginia because man, this is a patriotic town. We lost more boys
on D-Day than any other town, city
in the United States per capita.
Scott DeLuzio: Wow.
Joshua Daniel: yeah, so they put the National D-Day memorial here. So we, we lay a brick at the D-Day memorial for each year’s honoree. We hit the mountains, we go to dinner. We have a big team party the night before, the hero games. We get to know ’em, right? They get to know the team. Last year we had 57 volunteers, right? It takes a lot to run this thing. And then there’s the day, right? And the day is, it’s a mixture of emotion, man. It’s somber, but it’s also uplifting. There’s a lot of tears, man. And, and there’s no winner. There’s no
winner at the hero games. Sure, your team might come in first, but no one
cares. And I make sure [00:24:00] everyone knows that, right? Like,
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: here to see how fast or strong or fit you are. It’s not about
that. We’re here to put our head down and to suffer
thinking about that person and what
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: for us.
So, actually we, the only thing that we
kind of award is based on.
Character and merit. So
Scott DeLuzio: Okay.
Joshua Daniel: individuals from each of the six teams, which I think this year we might have seven or eight teams. Two of those individuals get a tomahawk and a coin based on their merit throughout the
event, not how fit they were, how fast they were, but a
display of their character.
Scott DeLuzio: Excellent.
Joshua Daniel: Then we wrap it all up and the next day we do a podcast with the family. The podcast that we have is called the Catalyst Collective. It kind of captures all three of our organizations, sharp Drop, CrossFit,
which is our gym,
Hero games charity, and
then our
for-profit counterculture
solutions.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay. [00:25:00] Yeah. One of the things that
I do to myself when I am. When I’m doing some sort of hard exercise, I’m running long distances and it, it’s sucking. And I, I feel that that little voice in the back of my head tell me, tell me, Hey, you know what? You, you probably should just quit. You know, this is hard and you should just knock it off and, and go, you know, hang out on the couch for the rest of the day.
You earned it, you deserve it. You know, but I’m only halfway done at that point, and I, you know, I, I didn’t actually get the full run in or, or whatever. And, I think to myself about all the people who don’t have this opportunity to go out for a run anymore. And I’m like, if I quit, I am the biggest piece of crap that ever existed because I.
They can’t do it. I can do it. And I’m, I’m gonna really choose to not do it like that. That just doesn’t fly, you [00:26:00] know? And so as you were talking about you know, some of the grit and the suck and the stuff that goes into the hero games that’s the first thing that popped in my head. And I’m like, I, I know what these people are going through because they’re, they’re doing it and they’re thinking about this this fallen soldier, and that’s.
That’s what it’s all about is, is honoring them and making sure that that family knows that that sacrifice is not going to be forgotten ever. Not, and I don’t even wanna say anytime soon because that sacrifice won’t be forgotten. It, it, it will be carried on you know, through the, these people who have worked through this game and, and.
Did all the challenges and all that stuff, they’re gonna remember this experience and they’re gonna remember this individual who, and, and their family who they are honoring during this event. And so that’s, to me, that’s just a, a wonderful thing that you guys are doing. And coming from a, a family my, my brother was killed [00:27:00] in action in Afghanistan in 2010.
Knowing what it’s like when, when people go out of their way to do even just a little thing to honor. Or remember, or any of those things for that, that person it, it means the world. And so you’re like, what you guys are doing, I know is making an impact. It’s definitely helping you know, those families in their grieving process and the healing process and, and all of that.
So, you know, it’s, it’s super important and, you know, that’s, that’s part of the reason why I want to have you guys on the show too. ’cause you know, talking to you and, and hearing about this, helping spread awareness of what it is that you guys do. It, it, I think, is important. But also, you know, learning about how you’re able to take your experiences and your knowledge and turn it into something that helps other people.
That’s, that’s pretty awesome too, because we. A lot of times we see people coming out of the [00:28:00] military that just don’t know what to do next, and sometimes the answer’s right there in front of you like, like you’re in your case. Right? It’s, and for you, it. Maybe seemed like it was pretty obvious. But, but you did do the, the work and you started kind of thinking through what, what is my next step after the military?
And I think that is an important piece too. ’cause too many people just get out thinking, oh yeah, I’m just gonna land a awesome job and I’m gonna make a ton of money. And it doesn’t always work out that way. Right.
Joshua Daniel: Yeah. Yeah, man. Do you want to take a minute
to tell me about your brother?
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, we could do that. Yeah. Yeah, sure. Yeah, so my brother, he,
he and I both were in the army National Guard. He was in the Vermont Guard. I was in the Connecticut Guard. Both of our units were deployed to Afghanistan at the same time. So I actually found out that he was killed in action while I was on a mission in Afghanistan.
Terrible situation, but, you know, he, he [00:29:00] was a, an infantryman. He had previously deployed to Ramadi Iraq, and he that was in 2006, so that was a pretty difficult time to be in Ramadi. And he he came back, you know, had a little, had some issues, really didn’t wanna talk about what, what he did.
Over there. He, he gave us like, I think like a half hour or an hour, or said you can ask questions, and after that I don’t ever wanna talk about it again. And then so we respected that and we, we didn’t push him too much for that for information. But you know, he was, you know, as far as who he was, he was, he was a fricking goofball.
And you know, he would light up the room when he walked in because he was just that, that kind of person. And you know. That loss just left such a huge hole in not just my life, but you know, everybody who knew him just left a huge hole. Our, our, our whole town, like almost shut down almost entirely the day of his funeral.
Because there’s standing room only in the [00:30:00] church. There was lines of people and cars going from the church to the cemetery that it was like. I don’t know that you could have had more people, you know, at the cemetery that there was just so many people you know, deep and everything because he, he just touched so many people.
And you know, but again, bringing it back to kinda what we’re talking about here there were a lot of people who went out of their way and did, did little things for us, little special things, and did what they could and it. For us as, as a family it felt really good. You know, we had food that could have fed the army that was in Afghanistan.
We had that much food coming to our house after, after he was killed. We, like, we could have fed an entire army because there, it just kept coming. But. It was, it was such a nice thing because we had so many people you know, just coming out and, and just trying to do whatever they could to support us.
But, you know, even, even just little like trinkets that people would make and give to us and [00:31:00] just saying, saying, Hey, we’re, we’re thinking of you. Even those little things were really helpful. And you know, I know from our perspective, after the first few months even, you know, the first year or so.
The amount of people who come by to kind of check on you, see how you’re doing that type of thing, kind of starts to slow down. And, you know, if you, if you have a few years go by, you know, very few people are checking in on you after that. And not, definitely not like the first few weeks after, you know, a, a death like that.
And so. When I hear about, you know, someone like you and your team you know, what you guys are doing that just goes to show that family that you picked that year that
Joshua Daniel: That
Scott DeLuzio: we did not forget you,
even though yes. It maybe it’s been a few years, we didn’t forget. Like you’re, you’re still
Joshua Daniel: cool.
Scott DeLuzio: our hearts and our minds and [00:32:00] we are not going to forget this.
The sacrifice that not, not only your loved one made, but also you and your family made. And that’s, like I said, that means the world to to families like that.
Joshua Daniel: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, man. And, and that’s exactly our intent. You know, the guy that we’re honoring this year, he is a ranger. He was a private
private first class, Eric Hario, 19
years old. First mission in Afghanistan.
Scott DeLuzio: Ooh.
Joshua Daniel: KIA in 2009, so it’s been almost 16 years. Right. If you listen to one of the podcasts or the podcast episode we did with Ma. Who is John Penney’s John
Penney’s mother. She says that she just
kind of thought that people forgot until she got a call from us. And look, man, we’re not, we’re not saviors. Nothing special about us, but that is what we do. We, we kind of swoop in
5, 10, 15 years down the
road [00:33:00] and say, Hey, we remember you
and we wanna, we
wanna honor
you.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Yeah. And, and by the way, I, I think you’re not totally correct there. I think you kind of are saviors in a way because you, you do. The work of coming out, out and, and saying to people, Hey, we do remember you. And we do remember the sacrifice and the, especially that many years later, you know, 15, 16 years later you know, we’re around that time period with my brother as well.
That many, that much time later, you really do start to feel sometimes that maybe people have just forgotten. And. That’s the last thing I want to have happen. You know, I don’t, I don’t want any, anyone to ever forget about who he was or, you know, anything like that. And I’m sure those other families feel the same.
And someone comes around and, and all of a sudden it’s like, Hey, we’re gonna, we’re gonna honor and remember, and you know, all the things for [00:34:00] you and your loved one. And that I don’t know that, that, like I said, it means a lot. And, you know, you may not, you may not even realize how much it means and you know, because, you know, thank God you’re, you’re not in those shoes.
And no, no one would ever wish that on anybody. Like, thank God you’re not. But you know, it’s, it’s one of those things that you don’t, you don’t, you don’t feel all that great when, when that stream of. People coming in to help you and support you and, and say, Hey, we’re, we’re, we’re here for you.
When that stream starts drying up you know, it starts to feel a little lonely and and it’s like, crap, now I gotta figure this out on my own, you know? But but then, then people come swooping in, like you and, and I, I think that’s, that’s really amazing. So, you know, I think the biggest challenge.
Is not finding the families to [00:35:00] support. Right. It’s probably gotta be picking which family, and I know you said you, you use the, the prior year family to help you in guiding you and selecting that, that next family. But I got, I gotta imagine it’s not an easy process to narrow it down and, and pick just the one the one family, right.
Joshua Daniel: You know,
I, I feel like
pretty rational about it, and,
Scott DeLuzio: Okay.
Joshua Daniel: and I I understand that.
There’s something special about only doing one per
year and just giving it everything we have.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: when we do choose that one family, you know, I, I know that we’re just taking a step in the
right direction. It doesn’t matter who it is.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: so it’s actually
really easy. Surprisingly, man, it’s, it’s really easy. The hard thing is getting the date locked in, man, because you’ve got. [00:36:00] 57 volunteers who we love our team,
so we wanna bring the same people back,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: gotta lock in the venue and the family. Can you fly on this day? Okay, well, you guys can, but can your brothers can, your cousins can grandpa.
Like, so it’s that the date’s the tough part.
Choosing the family
is easy, man, because I don’t
think we can go wrong.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s true. That is true. Yeah. You’re not, you’re not gonna make a bad choice with any of them.
Joshua Daniel: We can’t lose.
Scott DeLuzio: yeah, exactly. I.
Yeah, but the logistics gotta be
a, a, nightmare, I’d imagine.
Joshua Daniel: Yeah,
it
Dude. You know, it’s, I, I, I got to be a company ops sergeant in Afghanistan in 2018 and get, got to run, you know, the operations for
the, for the company man
running this event’s just like that. You know,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: place, different actions
and it’s all the same organization and executions very [00:37:00] similar.
Scott DeLuzio: I mean, look at, look at,
you. You’re doing,
you’re using those skills that you learned in the military and you’re, you’re applying it to what you do now. It’s totally different because you’re not climbing the mountains of Afghanistan and you’re not going out hunting the Taliban or any of those types of things.
But, it, those, those skills still apply. And that’s another, I think, important takeaway here is that. Like that, that military service, the, the stuff that you learned, you can use that in the civilian world. You don’t need a uniform to be able to put together a plan and execute that plan and do all the things that are required, all the logistics and all the you know, personnel and all the things that need to be in place.
You, you don’t need a uniform to be able to. Do those types of things. You could still do it even though you’re out of the military. So, you know, for listeners who are maybe [00:38:00] having a little trouble with that transition, trying to figure out what, what the hell am I gonna do with my life after getting out of the military?
You got a lot of skills. I’m, I’m sure you know, there’s a lot. You don’t have to be special forces and, you know, ranger and all that kind of stuff to realize that you still have some skills that you, you learn in the military and. You can apply those and, and that’s I think a, you know, important lesson takeaway too, you
Joshua Daniel: Yeah,
if
Scott DeLuzio: know?
Joshua Daniel: I can expand on that for a
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: I think it starts with. When you’re doing something, giving it everything you
got, man. And so for 21 years, bro, I was
a student of the craft.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: I, I, there was never a time where, you know, I spent my off time with hobbies. I didn’t have, I didn’t have
hobbies, man. Like I went to work and I was a professional. I came
home and I spent time with my family.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: [00:39:00] those little gaps. Dude, I was reading, I was educating myself. What are the newest techniques and tactics that are being used on the battlefield? What’s the next battlefield? Right. I mean, when I took over my team you know, as a team sergeant, I was preparing
them for a big conflict.
A conflict that we weren’t
for, frankly. Right?
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: looking forward. We’re not
just kind of resting on our laurels and saying, oh, well, hey, you know. Just
kind of chipping the days away.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: was never that, man. We were, I, I
was a student the whole time and constantly
pursuing excellence.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: so, know, if you find yourself at a deficit now,
you might actually be in a deficit
because maybe you didn’t give it everything you had
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: if you did, man, I promise the military even at. very foundational level. If you’re an E four and you get out after four years, you still learn how to [00:40:00] communicate like a professional. far does that go, man? Communication. How many adults cannot
communicate efficiently, right?
Scott DeLuzio: right?
Joshua Daniel: if you go to a job anywhere and you can communicate
well written and verbally, you’re already
a a step ahead man. You know?
Scott DeLuzio: And, and you show up on time. I mean, come on.
Joshua Daniel: You, you have some level of discipline. You have some level of organization. Yeah, dude, listen, you can’t spend any amount of time in the military and not walk away with something to give
back to the civilian world unless you were just
completely wasting your time.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: you know, maybe dig a little deep like you said and go, Hey, what, what
are my strengths here? How can I use these in the civilian world?
They’re there, man. You’re just missing it.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, that’s right.
And and maybe you can’t
necessarily articulate. Exactly how to translate it one to one from what you, [00:41:00] you did in the military to, to you know, maybe, maybe leaving a squad or a team or, you know, whatever it was that you were, you were doing. Maybe, maybe you can’t articulate it. Maybe you can’t think of that on, on your own, but like, there are ways that you can, you can do that there, there’s folks out there that can help you translate military to civilian, right?
And so like, the, don’t just, you know, write yourself off because you’re having trouble. Figuring that out on, on your own. Like, there, there, there are people who can help you out with that. So, definitely you know, I, I know that’s kind of a, a slight detour from, you know, the, the topic of conversation, but I think it’s an important thing too, because it’s kind of inspiring to see somebody like yourself who made a plan, stuck with the plan.
I’m sure there were some things along the way that you know, just like any mission plan, like. The second you walk out the wire it, it’s gonna go a little sideways. You’re not gonna follow exactly the same mission plan that you had intended. But by having that [00:42:00] plan in place, you knew what the end goal was.
You knew what the mission objective was. So yeah, sure. Maybe, maybe you took a little different path along the way and things might have changed along the way, but you still knew. That’s the target. That’s where I’m trying to get to. And if I hit that target and I, I make it to that objective, then I could say mission accomplished.
And then I can, I can say, okay, what’s my next mission? I can, I can move forward from there. But but without, without having any sort of plan yeah, you’re just, you’re just shooting in the dark and that’s. That’s not where you wanna be either. So, you know, I, I think, I think I, it was a worthwhile detour because I think there’s enough people maybe who are listening to this who don’t know what that plan looks like, and you might need to just spend a little time figuring that out.
And then, you know, like, like yourself, you ended up figuring, figuring out what your plan was, sticking to the plan. And now you have. [00:43:00] You know, all these, all these things going on for you and you know, you figured out a way to. Apply all of that stuff that you learned in, into civilian life.
And so, you know, I know, you know, we talked a little bit about counterculture solutions and you know, the, the type of stuff that you guys do there. The purpose track we talked about obviously the hero games, we talked about all those things. Is there anything else that, that we missed along the way that that you wanted to add in terms of you know, some of the stuff that you have going on or you know, type, type stuff that.
Some of the oysters might be interested in.
Joshua Daniel: Yeah, man. That’s a perfect segue into something I wanted to address based on the last thing you said is we, we do one-on-one mentoring because I, I started that because there were so many times in my life where, you know, a parent
or a sibling or a friend wasn’t enough. You
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: a mentor. And in the military, you can’t just walk up [00:44:00] to, you know, a guy the next rank above you and go, Hey, can you be my mentor?
Right. This doesn’t work. So I just remember feeling like, man, I, I wish I had someone to talk to, you know, how do I negotiate these things? So we started one-on-one mentoring with counterculture and it’s been really rewarding for me to be able to help everyone. But I. We actually have a lot of veterans as our mentorees. And you know, to your point, you can take a private in the infantry and say, well, hey man, have you done an ambush? Yeah, of course. You’ve done an ambush. You were in the infantry. Okay, well, did you help plan it at all? Maybe a little bit. Okay. All right. Well, what about attention to detail? Did maybe your s squad leader look at you and say, Hey, hey private, I need you to. Look to your left. You see that tree? Look to your right. You see that tree? That’s your sector of fire. Don’t deviate. Right? And so, hey, I need you to stay awake as well. I [00:45:00] need you to communicate these things. I need you to stay online as we assault through like all of these little points. Man, these, these can easily be
translated that, that attention to detail valuable on the, on the work site or on the
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Joshua Daniel: right?
Man, so. Yeah, we do mentoring, dude, and, and I really, I really enjoy that. We don’t do anything that I don’t want to do, man, frankly, because, know, we’re in a financial position where I don’t need, I don’t need to make money. And that feels great, right. I’m retired. so I, I, I don’t do any services that, that we don’t want to do.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Joshua Daniel: we’re doing mentoring. We do some personal firearms training, groups. It’s not open to the public. It’s, it’s very selective. We work with businesses and provide training opportunities for them. So go to, or any business can come to us and say, Hey, you know, we’d like to strengthen our [00:46:00] leadership in communication.
We’ve got two days this summer to do it, and our budget’s 800 bucks. Cool, man. We got something for you, right? We’re gonna give you everything we got. So. That’s, that’s some of what we do really. It, it’s about giving back. It’s about making the individual better and then making the community better, right?
So what that’s gonna
look like in a year, who knows? But right now,
that’s what it looks like for us.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And
to your point, the,
When you make the individual better.
They’re gonna take that into their community and make their community better. They’ll, they’ll start with their family, you know, assuming they’re, they have a family you know, to start with, but you know, they’re gonna make that family better because they’re better.
And you know, especially a leader in the family, like a mother or father or something like that, it’s gonna be a good example for their children. And then that will that will. Carry on through [00:47:00] the kids and then the, those kids will be better people and that will resonate out, you know, to their friends and their.
Teammates and, and other things that they, they are involved in, they’re, they’re gonna end up just being better that way. And then you know, it, it’s almost like a ripples on a pond. You toss a stone in the, in the pond and you see all those ripples go out, but it, it’ll radiate out to the community because you’re, you don’t just touch the one person you know, in your life.
You touch. Many people in your lives throughout, through your community, through, you know, schools and your job and other places that you interact with people. And the better you are then that will help. Other people be better as well. And you know, it just kind of radiates that way. And if we, if we all had that attitude like, think, think just how much better of a world this would be, right?
[00:48:00] If we all had the attitude of, of just let’s try to get. Better and help each other to get better and, and all that, like, that would just be such a great place to live in. But unfortunately that’s not the place we live in. So we, we gotta do the work one person at a time and, and you know, we’ll, we’ll get there.
We’ll, you know, things will, we’ll get better, but but that’s awesome. You know that the one-on-one mentoring the all the, the other stuff that we talked about today, I think that’s really. Awesome stuff. For the folks who are interested in either counterculture solutions, the, the Chair Hero games charity purpose track the one-on-one mentoring is there anywhere that you’d, you’d like them to go, just to direct them to find out more information about it and get in touch with you guys?
Joshua Daniel: Yeah, it’s super easy man. We’re easy to find. hero Games Charity is [email protected] at Hero Games Charity on Instagram and Facebook counterculture solutions.com. [00:49:00] Same thing at Counterculture Solutions for Instagram and Facebook. That’s pretty much all we are, man. We don’t play around with TikTok or
X or LinkedIn, any of that stuff, man.
We’re just,
we, we keep it to Instagram and Facebook.
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Joshua Daniel: Yeah, we’re here in Bedford, Virginia. We’re co-located with Shark Top, CrossFit. Got an office space in there, man. So we’re easy to find if
anybody ever wants to come and hang out and,
yeah, man, I’d
I appreciate the time.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. And I, I appreciate the, the work that you’re doing and like I said, honoring those families is. That’s, that’s super important work and so thank you so much for all that you guys do
Joshua Daniel: Yeah, thanks man.
Scott DeLuzio: appreciate it.
[00:50:00]