Episode 528 Michael “Sully” Sullivan How Veterans Stay Mentally and Physically Strong Transcript
This transcript is from episode 528 with guest Michael “Sully” Sullivan.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Are you struggling to stay on top of your health after leaving the military? If so, you’re not alone. A lot of us fall into that trap. The structure’s gone, the mission’s gone, and those early morning PT sessions aren’t exactly calling your name anymore. But deep down, you know that falling behind physically starts to affect everything.
Your mental state, your confidence, even how you show up for your family. Now, think about having. That team, again, the, the team that motivates you. One, one, that gets where you’re at. They’ve been there before. Uh, one that keeps you moving, supports your goals, and helps you feel like part of something bigger than yourself Again.
T Uh, oday I am talking with Michael Sully Sullivan, a retired Green Beret and the incoming executive director of Team Red, white, and blue, a veteran organization that’s doing more than just running five Ks. They’re building purpose, accountability, and community through fitness. So whether you’re battling chronic pain, feeling stuck in the transition, or just miss the [00:01:00] comradery that you had in the military, this episode is packed with stories, tools, and motivation that can help you take back control in your own life.
But before we dive in, make sure you are subscribed to the email newsletter at DriveOnPodcast.com/subscribe You’ll get my five favorite episodes sent straight to your inbox. No fluff, just the best insights to help you drive on. And I also wanna 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 who are impacted by the global war on terrorism. This memorial serves as both a tribute to those who served and a way to ensure their sacrifices are recognized and remembered for generations to come.
So if you want to 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: Hey, Sully. Welcome to the show. Look, really looking forward to this conversation. And wanna you know, thank you for all the work that you guys are doing with Team RWB and you know, all the stuff that you guys are doing. And, and really looking forward to hearing more about it.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: I’m looking forward to talking about it. Yeah, this is an excellent opportunity. We, any opportunity to talk about team RWB and the mission is, is a good day. I.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. So, maybe we take a, a step back for just a second. Tell, tell us a little bit about your military background and kind of how that led to your role now with what you’re doing now.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, absolutely. So I, I recently retired, I just over a year ago now after 30 years in the US Army. So I was a, an officer in the US Army. I went to Claremont McKenna College at Pennant Behind me. [00:03:00] I was an ROTC guy. And, out in field artillery and decided I wanted to challenge myself. So I went special operations as a, you know, went to selection and became a Special forces officer or a Green Beret, and did that for the last 25 years of my army career. Amazing career. Getting to serve and, and lead everything from, you know, I was a lieutenant up up until a colonel. I had a special operations command and then I was a special, I had a security force assistance brigade command in the Army as well. So I commanded twice as a colonel and really enjoyed my career. When I was a major. I met Mike Irwin, who is the founder and current executive director of Team Red, white, and Blue. We were both stationed in our, in Fort Bragg and third Special Forces group. He was the battalion intelligence officer, and I was one of the company commanders. We got to know each other really well.
We did a combat rotation to Afghanistan and on that rotation coming out of it, Mike went out to graduate school before he went to teach at West Point and came up with this idea to help out [00:04:00] transitioning veterans to better integrate into their communities through. You know, personal connections, creating accountability and having that all wrapped around physical fitness.
Something that, you know, we did every day in the military, you know, but you create that team environment that you had that you miss after you leave. So an incredible idea. He got it off the ground. He called a lot of the guys that were still active duty and said, Hey, you’re gonna be veterans someday, so it help me get this thing going. I was at Fort Bragg still, and I be, so I stood up the initial group of our team at, at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, later to become the chapter in Fayetteville. And was an active member on and off for like the, the basically the full 14, 15 years of team RW B’s existence. When it came time for me to retire, Mike reached back out and said, Hey, I think you’d be a great fit for the organization and if it works out, i’d really like to see you replace me as the executive director. So, you know, next month, October is our 15th year anniversary. Mike and I are gonna run the Twin Cities Marathon [00:05:00] together and that will complete kind of this two year process of us really deliberately handing over the reins to me and I’ll take over as the executive director at the finish line of the marathon.
Scott DeLuzio: Oh, that’s awesome. And it is a nice change of command ceremony there too at the, the finish line. Right?
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Exactly. Yeah, we’ll
Scott DeLuzio: we’ll carry a flag.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: that we’ll share. We’ll share it. I keep joking, I’m gonna make him carry it the whole way and give it to me at the end,
Scott DeLuzio: Oh, yeah. So
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: carry flag. He’ll hand it to me at the end.
Scott DeLuzio: you, you could take the last few steps with it and yeah,
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: yeah. It’s not, it’s not easy carrying it the whole way you know, through, through that. But,
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah,
Lot of work. It’s rewarding to run our walk or do anything with a flag like it. It’s just great to be up. People respond really well. But, but it does, it’s a different, it’s a different kind of run when you’re running that whole time with that wind pulling on you and that extra weight.
Scott DeLuzio: Right, exactly. Now, well, speaking of. Taking a flag along with you for a, a journey. You guys just recently a little while ago, completed a cross country journey carrying the, carrying the flag across the [00:06:00] country. Tell us about that event and where that came from and, and you know, how that that whole event went you know, kind of on the ground, like what was going on there.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: absolutely. So it was the old Gloria Ultra Relay. And it was born out of a couple different ideas. Again, out of the mind of Microwind initially team RWB as an organization for like the past 11 years. We did it 10 years, took a year off for COVID. Moved a flag with our members from one part of the country to another.
It was a very deliberate event. Our members would take a day of moving the flag about 50 or 60 miles, and we would do this over a two to three month period. You know, sometimes as far as like Seattle, down through San Diego to Atlanta last year we went from Philadelphia to Chicago. It was a great event. But it being our 15th year anniversary and kind of kicking it off earlier this year. Mike always had the idea of maybe we could set a world record for relaying a flag, from the, you know, you pick the coast, [00:07:00] but go 3000 miles, which is the agreed upon like transcontinental distance for a or run. and let’s do something epic like that. So he gave that over to myself and our deputy director, JJ Pinner. And we determined, well, if we took 12 runners, we could put them on eight hour shifts for each. The flag would never stop from the moment it starts, and we could run, anywhere between a seven 30 and an eight minute pace to set this world record, which would be really hard to like, replicate and beat.
Right? And the whole idea would be to show not only the, the, to high highlight and showcase the, the mission of Team Red, white, and Blue, which is veteran Health and Wellness and forging this, you know, the leading community for health and wellness, but. It would give us an opportunity to highlight that veterans can continue to, like, do epic things despite maybe, you know, service being tough.
It didn’t break us, it didn’t make us wounded, we’re not [00:08:00] damaged goods. You know, five, there was five Purple Hearts awarded to the, the 12 vets that ran this flag. So these guys are, weren’t just like, you know, your average people. They, they were people that were dealing with stuff and, and, and they pulled it off.
It, it, it was amazing. So it was days. I, I’m drawing a blank on how many hours, like it was two hours and five minutes. I’d have to double check. But the it was, you know, nonstop in May for, for JJ and I, we both say it logistically, it was the hardest thing we’ve ever been involved in. I mean, 25 years of special operations. And most of those missions that I did and things were pretty quick, maybe five days max at a time, but to be on the road for two and a half weeks with something that’s constantly moving, making sure people had hotel rooms, keeping all the vehicles running, you know, it wasn’t just the running, you had to do all this backside support.
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: it took a team to get the team across the country and just absolutely epic. I mean, the finish was at the future side of the global war on [00:09:00] terrorism. Location right there on the National Mall. We started on the deck of the USS midway in San Diego. Ran through some of the most gorgeous parts of the country. Little towns showed up completely, like cheering for the flag as it went through the whole time. I mean, it was, it was just a, an amazing, event. It really highlighted of the resiliency of veterans. And for us it was a big fundraiser as well. We, we raised over $800,000,
Scott DeLuzio: Oh wow.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: and sponsorship money to get it done, which was pretty epic in and of itself.
Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. That, that is pretty epic. And I was gonna ask too about the reception a across the country and all the, the, the small towns, the cities and all the, the places that you guys went through. What was it well publicized beforehand that, you know, you guys are gonna be coming through on this day, around this time, and so that folks can come out and cheer you on, support you in, in that type of stuff?
How did that work out?
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, we did, we did. We had a support from a media company that we, we hired to [00:10:00] help get the word out. We had an amazing group of people from Follow My Challenge where they gave us GPS trackers that we put on the flag so you could live track where the flag was at
Scott DeLuzio: Oh, awesome.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: 7. And we use that data to help it.
It’s being certified right now. We have the World Record Certification Agency is gonna certify it as an actual world record. So we had all this technology to back up where things were at and when it was gonna be there. It got difficult at the start. predict the exact kind of like time and hour we would be hitting a certain city or a location. We had to make some predictions. We were hoping for a 7 45 pace overall. We started out a little slow, but then they just got faster and we ended up with an average, I think seven minute and 43 second pace for the 3000 miles,
Scott DeLuzio: Wow.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: across the 12 runners. So, I mean, they were flying,
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: and. As we got a little bit more into it, we could actually put out on social media and everything, like actual times and like block about within a [00:11:00] half hour of when we thought the flag, the flag was gonna be somewhere. And that allowed more people to start showing up. As you know, it went across the country. There was parts of the country, like when you’re in West Texas or like, Eastern New Mexico. There, there, there’s not a lot out there. I mean, we, we ran right through Roswell. We didn’t see any aliens, but there was local that came out to cheer us on. We had amazing support from local law enforcement who gave us, you know, escorts a lot of the way which kept the runners safe. And actually that was kind of a highlight in and of itself. ’cause people would be like, Hey, what’s going on?
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: occasionally you’d have an angry driver who’s like, you’re on a two lane country highway.
And they’re like, why is this RV in this car driving so slow? And then, you know, they would go to pass, probably angry, and then they would see the flag, see the signs about what was going on. And immediately honk their horn and cheer for the person with the flag. So nothing but positive perceptions.
Scott DeLuzio: Oh, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah, I, I can imagine those, those drivers like getting all frustrated and, you know, pulling around all angry and then it, then the, the humility sets [00:12:00] in as they, they see the flag and it’s like, oh, that’s what I’m getting mad at. Oh, shoot. But, but no, that’s awesome. I. You know, great that you guys were able to raise a bunch of money and awareness for what you guys are doing and, and everything.
I think that’s, that’s incredible. And that’s, you know, what I think all those types of events are all about is you know, really raising the awareness and, and. Getting the publicity and getting the, the attention of the folks who you know, perhaps need the services that you guys offer. And, and that’s, that’s important too.
So tell us a little bit about the, the organization, what you guys do. I know you, you mentioned a little bit about fitness before tell us, you know, kinda what the program is and, and what what folks you know, get out of it.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, absolutely. So, the program itself team Red, white, and blue, or RWB is how most people refer to us, and you’ll see the red shirt and eagles, you know, at most five Ks, 10 Ks across the country. So again, the idea is our mission is to enrich veterans lives and the way we do it, the vision is to forge America’s leading [00:13:00] health and wellness community. So we focus primarily on holistic health and and wellness. So we provide five base programs that are geared around educating you on, you know, how to take care of yourself the right way. In terms of like sleep, nutrition, you know, understanding that your grip strength has a lot to do with your physical, like capabilities.
Hydration, we, so we provide a lot of like to veterans to kind of get them smart in terms of their own health and wellness journey. but the big piece of what we do is, is through a community-based model to bring people together, ideally in person to do, you know, physical fitness events and usually those of your choice.
We have different groups and different activities for each member to meet their needs. A lot of our members are runners. You know, like my previous local chapter in Fayetteville, North Carolina, every Tuesday, Thursday there’s a 5K walk run or ruck. You can show up. There’s usually anywhere from 10 to 20 people there.
You get to see everybody. It kind of keeps you [00:14:00] accountable to like go out and do that run. You get those personal connections
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: that you know, when you leave the service. And it forces and it gives you a better environment to kind of enjoy doing some physical fitness, which we all need as like just the baseline of like our health and wellness.
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: So we focus, you know, anywhere across the country we have on the rolls, oh, almost 300,000 members that have signed up over the 15 years. Not all those members are active, but we have over 140 plus chapters in all 50 states. And then we also have a application that allows us a virtual community where you can. It has a little bit of a social media feel, but it also allows you to find those events so you can geolocate wherever you’re at and find out who might be having something going on near you. Or if you’re like in a spot that we don’t have a, a chapter, you can still participate through virtual challenges, the workouts that we have, the different community groups that we have within the app. So again, it, it wraps around this idea that you know. [00:15:00] You yourself need some personal accountability to keep moving once you get out of the service. And this community’s gonna help you do that through that programming. The, it, and it’s, it continues to evolve in terms of what, what, what we’re providing. So, you know, it’s both that in person. I said, those 19,000 events that we, we sponsor every year, it’s partnerships with like Spartan Race where we’ll get Eagles out, you know, 20 of ’em at a time. They do a little bit of volunteer work, they get a free, you know, bib, and then they get to do an obstacle race, you know, and you get to do some epic stuff with 20 of your best friends in a red t-shirt. You know, to just, again, like educational challenges that will kind of reinforce some of the things that you need to do. We partner with some other health and wellness the va, that if you have a more acute issue, you know, we see ourselves more as a hub to get you out to those, those types of clinics and agencies that can help you with actual, like medical care that we’re not providing in terms of physical fitness. And then once you deal with that, you know, you [00:16:00] come back and you continue on your journey because it never stops. So. It’s an evergreen mission that we see providing not only veterans, but our, our membership base has opened up to everybody. As I mentioned, I started out as an active duty officer. We have guard reserve.
20% of our membership is civilian and actually half of that civilian membership have a direct connection to the military. It’s just folks that want to be a part of the community and see what it, what, you know, what it’s like to be a part of the service, to engage with veterans. And I think that’s. A big part of, kind of like the tie in to your local
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: those folks that aren’t just veterans or active duty military folks or family members.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, I think that last piece that you just mentioned there is a big it’s a strong component of it because there, there’s a lot of people who, they don’t know anybody who served in the military. Like they have no personal connections whether it’s in their family or friend circle or coworkers or [00:17:00] anything like that.
They just. They don’t know anybody or, or if they do, it may be a, you know, a loose acquaintance or something like that. And they don’t really know much about military life or you know, the, the discipline or the other things that go into you know, the military community. But you know, when veterans leave the service they.
Oftentimes find themselves not holding themselves accountable for the physical fitness side of things and, and other things too. But and they kinda let that slip and it’s, you know, kind of a joke where, you know, every veteran will always have a piece of their uniform that still fits. It may just be the socks, but you know, they’ll always have something that still fits.
But. But essentially, you know, you, you lose that, that fitness aspect of it. Where, you know, in, in the military you had your, your squad or platoon or you know, whoever that you would work out with and, and get that exercise in and [00:18:00] maintain that level of physical fitness that’s required for military service and.
You get out and now it’s just you against the world. And if you don’t care about that, then it’s not gonna happen. And, and so, having that team of people who can help hold you accountable with regular. Regularly scheduled events where, where you, you show up, you have, you start to make friends there and people are looking out for each other.
Very similar to the military world. Right. And, and that’s, I, I think that’s a, a great way to maintain that healthy lifestyle going forward. Right.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it helps you maintain the lifestyle. It helps you maintain like a sense of purpose, you know, because you join the team, you see yourself as like, not only taking care of yourself, but your, your participation is helping out that person that you’re seeing at these different events.
You know, so you build those relationships back that you kind of like, you know, when you, and as we like to say in the military, embrace the suck together, you know, and it [00:19:00] drives
Scott DeLuzio: Yep.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: unit cohesion. It’s a very similar kind of thing that most veterans, I think are looking for. And they miss, I mean, I
Scott DeLuzio: I get.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: everyone’s like, Hey, I did it for 30 years. Like, why would I get up every morning and continue to do pt? I don’t have to do that anymore. But I think what, you know, what we know is that the science behind it is like there’s something to that, like starting your day or getting some movement in, even if it’s just 40 minutes of walking, you know, it releases endorphins, you know, it changes. The blood markers in your body, like your body will start to heal itself and do different things when you continue to do the right things. It’s not always easy. It wasn’t easy in the military. It’s not gonna be easier. Now it
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: You can have a better environment. Right. You know, if you’re doing it with some friends. But that’s something we’ve leaned into as well. I think we, we just released this summer a blood marker study that we did last year that showed exactly that, where we took new members. do anything different with them. We just, you know, asked ’em if they wanted to be a part of this study. we, we looked at their blood, their BMI, we gave them Fitbits and [00:20:00] we said, Hey, get into the app. Get into your local team. encourage everybody in team RWB to do a yearly big fitness goal. Kinda like set a big goal for yourself, like it might be a couch to 5K Last year for me it was running a hundred miles.
I didn’t complete it. I got to 88. But it’s, it’s something that you could fail at, but it’s gonna force you to kind of train for it, right.
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: so we asked everyone to do something like that over that six months, and then we checked them at the end, and the, the science proved it, like, I mean, cholesterol came down, body mass index came, went the right direction.
You know, the, you saw, you saw their body fat drop sleep, you know, the, the Fitbits, their sleep was getting better every single night, which is critical, right? You know, for your health and wellness. I think when you see that it, it sets a baseline, you know, for folks that it makes other things in your life also easier, whether it’s other social connections, your relationships work, you know, if you feel better and you’re happier about, you know, how you feel physically, [00:21:00] you know, the, the other things start to fall into place as well.
So we, we definitely see our programming as kinda like a foundation for a lot of, a lot of other things as well.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, and, and so someone like yourself, you spent 30 years in the Army and you know. Obviously physical fitness was a, a component of that time in the, the military. And think about all the work that you did to get your body to a certain level you know, during your time in the military and. I don’t care if it was 30 years or, you know, you did six years or, you know, whatever the, the amount of time that you, you spent in the military at, at some point you did a lot of work to get to whatever that physical fitness level that you were in.
But then you get out and you let that all go to crap and you, you start, you know, stop running, stop lifting weights, stop doing all the, all those things you’re. You’re gonna notice your, your health start to decline and you’re gonna get gain weight and you’re not in the areas that you want to gain weight.
Right. And that’s, that’s the stuff that that’s [00:22:00] gonna start happening. And you know, it’s like you said, it’s hard work sometimes to do the, the physical work, the, the exercise and stuff. But it’s much harder to do it. When you let it slip, and then you have to work back to just to get to that baseline of where you were at.
And it becomes harder for you physically too when when your physical health starts declining, when you start having you know, other health issues, you know, cardiovascular, you know, issues and, and all that kind of stuff. Now you have medical problems that you have to deal with too, and that, you know, it’s, it’s just so much easier if you can maintain that going forward.
And I know easier said than done, but it’s it, it does end up becoming you know, easier. And I’ve, I noticed that with myself. You know, I, I kinda let myself slip after leaving the military, and then I remember the first run I went on after years of not, not going on a run. I, I think I got like. I dunno, three quarters of a mile into it.
And I was [00:23:00] ready to puke. It was, it was awful. But, you know, I used to, I used to be kind of a, one of the PT studs, like I used to do all sorts of exercise and, and enjoyed it. And then I, for whatever reason, I just let it slip and, and when I decided, hey, I need to get back into it, man, that was tough.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, it, it is, right.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah,
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: so ideally we’re trying to make that a little bit easier, right?
Scott DeLuzio: sure.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: do. Because if you, I mean, again, if you have some folks that are helping you, you have little bit of better education on why you’re doing things
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: being told to do it like you were in the military, which was all for the right reasons, but now you can understand it for yourself.
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: a little bit more ownership? I think it, I think it’s, it’s critical in terms of what you’re gonna do, like post
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Just, it was when you’re in the service and you just gotta keep doing it, I mean, it, it doesn’t, unfortunately, there’s no magic pills. And I would actually say like the group of folks that are getting out now, I mean, it’s getting harder and harder.
There’s so many other distractions in people’s lives, you know, whether it’s [00:24:00] social media. The, the massive amounts of stuff you can see on television. There’s just, we have a lot going on in our lives in, you know, prioritizing 20 or 30 minutes of movement of whatever it is each day or even an hour or making sure you’re eating healthy when you’re out with your friends, you know, at a place that’s probably not providing the best choices. Like that stuff gets difficult, right.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: even more difficult now than it ever was. So, you know, I. and you’re seeing it across the country, not just in veterans, you know, there there’s definitely more acute, preventable illnesses, both mentally and physically. And we would argue that, know, veterans I think are uniquely qualified to kind of solve that, not only for themselves, but like be an example for the nation.
Like so, you know, at RWB we kind of see it as our new mission for veterans, like to give ’em a little bit more purpose. You know, you fought, you fought for the freedom of the country, now you got it. sit on the couch and let it go away. Enjoy that, you know, stay healthy. Be [00:25:00] that example of what right looks like, you know, to your neighbors up and down the street, you know, be that guy that’s flexing on his neighbors going for the 5K on a Saturday in the neighborhood, you know?
But the I, I really think it’s gonna be veterans. It’s are gonna be kind of the ones to lead us back to a little bit more of a healthy lifestyle. You know, we wanna be a big part of that.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, I, I really believe that too. And you’re right, I, I think not just veterans, but across the board the country is getting less and less healthy. I just thinking about, you know, when, when I was a kid and, you know, playing sports on, you know, I played baseball, I played hockey, you know, things like that.
Just the, and just the kids in my class when I went to school and. Most situations. There was like maybe one, two kids who were overweight that, you know, visibly overweight and it was like, you know, you know, they’re, they’re on the bigger side. I look at some of the kids that are on, like my kids sports teams and stuff, and it’s way more than one or two.
It, it’s, it’s a lot. It’s, you know, [00:26:00] sometimes it’s the majority and, like that, that’s a problem, you know, nationwide as a country, like we’re, we’re having a problem with that. And, and if veterans can be the ones to lead the charge on that and show people that, which I think is a great thing that you include civilian non-veteran, you know, people, non-military connected people in the, the organization because you know, that just shows.
How to maintain whatever that physical fitness standard is whether it’s through diet or exercise or, you know, whatever the, the case may be. It allows those people to see it and then their, their circle will start to see it in that person and, and, you know, hopefully that, that radiates out, you know?
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, no, absolutely. I. I mean, I, I, I mean they, the, the, the studies right now, I mean, show like just 40 minutes of walking every
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: you don’t have to be, you don’t have to go for an ultra marathon and try to run a hundred miles. Like if you just get off the couch and do 40 minutes of intentional movement, right, really concentrate on like sleep hygiene and health.
[00:27:00] There, like a lot of good things will start to happen for you. Again, I think again, if you, if you’re looking for a group of people understand, like, okay, how do we solve a problem? may be a wicked problem with all these other things that are distracting us and like foods that are so easily accessible that aren’t maybe the right foods that we should be eating
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: causing us probably to, to gain weight that we don’t want.
It’s gonna be a, a group of veterans, there’s a group of military people that are like, okay, we can solve this. Like, we just gotta come together, do some of the right things. Set, set an example, and just continue to do the work. So yeah, I think that’s kind of what we’re hoping is gonna happen, you know?
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, absolutely. And just from my. I know it’s anecdotal evidence, but from my experience in the military, when you have a problem not necessarily a prescribed solution to whatever that problem may might be do this, do that, you know, whatever, to, to solve it. It’s just like, Hey, we have this problem.
We need to figure it out. Put a bunch of veterans together, they’ll figure it out. [00:28:00] And, you know, just, just a kind of side note story when. I was trained up to go to Afghanistan. We were out driving at Fort Polk in, in the Humvees, and we got them stuck in the mud and there was really no getting them out like it.
They were stuck. Stuck like up to like almost the top of the wheel stuck. It was bad. We figured it out. We, we went, we had, luckily we had some axes and stuff, and we, we chopped down trees and, and we used them to shove under the tires, like outta the box solutions. It wasn’t like, oh, you know, call AAA and have them come tow you out or anything.
It was like, go figure it out. And so we did. And you know, it, it, we managed to, to figure it took a long time. Don’t, don’t get me wrong, but, but we got it done. Those, those Humvees are no longer stuck in the mud. I could tell you that much. But. But yeah, like it’s outta the box thinking, and, and that’s, that’s kinda what you’re looking for when you’re dealing with, with problems without necessarily a prescribed solution.
Right.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, I think so. And it, [00:29:00] and I think, again, it’s part of, I mean, you train for it, it’s, it’s, it just, it gets ingrained in you in this idea that, you know, completing the mission, moving on, you know, those, those kind of things. And thinking through problems in a group mental, with a group mentality is. I mean, that’s, that’s what veterans do.
There’s just so much power, I think, in the veteran population. It always has been. And you know, again, the, the narrative ha past few years hasn’t always been that way. We focus on some of the, the people that need a lot of, a lot of help and that, that we need help for folks that, that have, you know, that are in mental crisis or dealing with PTSD or brain trauma and there’s a lot of those folks that came outta the war.
At the same time. Even those folks have something to contribute, right? So focusing on like the other 90% of what a veteran can provide you in life, I think is, is something more people need to lean into. Whether it’s team RWB and getting fit or, you know, solving a problem. You know, at work, you know, I’m, I’m
Scott DeLuzio: [00:30:00] Yeah.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: if you, you get your Humvee stuck at work, go grab the vet and he’s gonna be like, what do we need to do?
We need to chop down a tree
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. We’ll, we’ll figure it out. Yeah. It, it’s, you may not, you may not like some of the side effects of it, but we may, we may screw something up, but,
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: you
Scott DeLuzio: right,
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: wants, but.
Scott DeLuzio: right. Yeah. Just don’t tell the, the corporate lawyers about it and we’ll, we’ll figure it out, you know? But, but that group thinking you know, that the group mentality getting things done together, working together towards a common goal I.
I think that’s important for folks who find themselves out of the military. They’re, they’re away from their their friends that they made in the military because, you know, they’re maybe on the other side of the country now, or they, you know, everybody kind of moves around. And, and they, and. Get stuck by themselves and they end up just isolating themselves.
Oh, nobody understands me. Nobody knows what I went through. And they, they have this mentality that they [00:31:00] just gotta, you know, it’s just them against the world. And they, they don’t, they don’t have a team anymore to fall back on and rely on. And so, you know, when you have a, a group like this who gets together you know, everyone’s gonna have good days and bad days throughout the, the group.
And there’s gonna be people who. Show up more often than others. And but when you’re showing up, even though you, people know, hey, he’s got, he’s got some stuff going on in his life, but he’s still showing up here, like, that’s inspirational to other people as well. So, you know, kind of get, like you, you were saying before, it gives you a purpose to, to show up and, and be there for that group, that team that of people who who you’re regularly you know, participating with.
Right.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: No, I mean it’s, a hundred percent what makes team RWB work, right? Is
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: in-person environment where you got that team of people working with each other to kind of, do something again, ideally to get after your physical fitness and wellness, but do it in a good way and, you
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: make [00:32:00] enjoyable. Yeah, I think it’s really something that every single veteran can, can, you know, I. Get something out of,
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: you know, and you’ll come and go, like, not everyone, you’re not gonna be there every week, you know, and not every month is gonna be like you, and you may backslide and get on the couch for a little while and start eating the wrong things. But, you know, the idea is that we’re always there for you
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: to come back. And it’s, I mean, it’s even better than it’s always like a reunion, you know, you’re
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: on the team. So, yeah, it’s, it’s an incredible environment and it’s, I’m really blessed to be a part of it. You know, I, I keep telling people I hit the easy button, you know, in terms of transition because, you know, I, I just get to do the thing that, you know, I, I love, which is working with people and small groups and getting after problems together and, and physical fitness.
Being a big part of that is, is awesome for me. Yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, that is awesome. And it is nice when you can find that easy button as well, and, and you can just transition into something that you love doing. And it, you know, it doesn’t probably feel like [00:33:00] work. I mean, sometimes I’m sure it does, but you know, it’s, it’s something that I. You enjoy, you’re passionate about and you’re helping other folks along the way.
So, so that, that’s awesome. But I think something that you mentioned earlier is about how you provide the education piece of, you know, the, the nutrition and the, the fitness and all, all the things that, which I think is, is important too, because then people can take this, they can take it on their own because, you know, you’re not sitting there cooking the meal for the people, right.
They, you’re not. You know, you’re not always providing all the, all the things that they need, you know? Yeah, sure. There’s those events and there’s those, those places where they can make those, those in-person connections. But, they’re gonna have to take that stuff on their own. You know, they may go traveling or they maybe go out with some, some friends and you know, how do you how do you maintain that healthy lifestyle?
And through that education piece, you, you’re able to you know, teach them. What it is that they, they can do alternatives to, you know, getting the greasy, you know, [00:34:00] cheeseburger at, at the, you know, fast food place or whatever. You know, there, there’s a lot of different things that you can do to help maintain that.
You know, even in more difficult situations where, where. A lot of times people don’t always you know, keep up the, the fitness, you know, going on, going on a vacation and, you know, it’s, it’s real easy to slip into the, oh, we’ll just go out to the restaurant and we’ll eat all the, the junk that they have there.
And I don’t need to exercise today because well, you know, you know, whatever. It’s easy to slip into that. But like you said, you know, 20, 30, 40 minutes of activity could be, you know, a, a huge you know, huge difference. And so, just finding, carving out that time and finding the time to do those things is is important.
But, but you, you teach those people how to, how to do all that stuff, right.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, we do. I mean the, the program itself is called Eagle Fit and it’s our kind of our educational based programming that we use multiple platforms. So we got a blog on our webpage that you can see multiple, like really great articles and like, you know, things that you can dive [00:35:00] into if you wanna read and kind of get a sense of that. We we’re developing some short form media that, you know, you we’re gonna be providing on YouTube and like, and then we’re building out our advisory board. So, we’re looking right now hiring, you know, volunteer experts that will provide like quarterly input within our application to our members so they can like get a little bit smarter.
Let’s say it’s a sleep doctor or a nutritionist. coach. So those folks are providing information within the app. So the, you know, what we call our members, our Eagles can get in there, get in the nutrition group and you know, check out what this, this, you know, nutritionist is telling everybody. But then the, the big part is reinforcing it, right? So we use our challenges within our app is kind of like that check on learning. And we gamify it, right? So there’ll be like, like we’re, do, you know, we, I’ve done a hydration challenge where it’s 10 days of making sure you drink, you know, the three, two ounces of water you’re supposed to be drinking every day.
And once you do, you, you check in, you tell everybody you drink your water, maybe you take a [00:36:00] photo of it, maybe you do a little social media post. But at the end of that, you know, on your profile, you’re gonna get a little badge. We’re military folks. We love our badges and our ribbon, but you’ll get a badge saying that you completed the hydration challenge.
But the good thing about that is it reinforced the understanding of like. You should be drinking water
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: You’ll get a badge saying that you, so it provides those folks that opportunity to kind of like give that check on learning. And then in terms of our activity groups in the application, so if you’re on vacation or you got a question about you, you can get in the app and the nutritious nutrition group, and just ask a, ask a question or DM the the group lead and say, Hey, I’m having this. This is where we’re at, this is where I have access to food. Is there any suggestions you would have for me while I’m on vacation that I can eat a little bit cleaner? Still enjoy myself, but make sure I don’t backslide after, you know, being gone for a week or two. Right.
Scott DeLuzio: Right.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: So idea is, you [00:37:00] know, we don’t want people living in the app on their phone, but they’re, they have their phone with them and it’s there for them if they have those types of questions, whether it’s a daily check in with, ’cause they’re in the running group, or again, if it’s a question for like, you know, the. The person that runs the nutrition group. So it, it’s all part of that community that ideally is there for you all the time when you need it.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And it, it serves as a resource, right? It’s not, it’s not there, you know, for you to constantly be staring at it and, you know, doom scrolling like, like some people do on social media and stuff, right? But it, it’s there. So when you have a question, you can pull it up and, and ask a question or, or check in for, you know, certain challenge or, or whatever.
And it, it’s not like a thing that’s gonna dominate your life. It’s just a, a thing that you can utilize. It’s just a tool. To, to check in, to answer questions that, you know, that, that type of thing. Right. And so you, you know, I, I feel like the, the folks who oftentimes are the ones who find themselves more isolated are, are the ones that [00:38:00] have more kind of like mental health issues, PTSD and that, that type of thing.
What would you say to kinda like, encourage some of those people to to come out and check out one of the events or, or check out something that, that you guys are doing in their area to, to help them kind of push them towards some of, more of that community you know, aspect that, that they probably need, whether they know it or not.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, I mean, I. I think whether it’s, I mean, obviously if you have an acute issue, you’re, you’re gonna need other care,
Scott DeLuzio: Sure. Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: You know, maybe you should, let’s get that looked at first. You know, you can, there’s other things you, maybe you should be riding a bike now. So the, the idea would be, I mean, again, we would, we would tell anybody that [00:39:00] RWB is a perfect, like supplement in terms of like providing you social connections in an environment where it’s not all on you.
Scott DeLuzio: Hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: So, you know, and you’re gonna get the added benefit of. Doing the things that are gonna make you feel better. I mean, I, I’ll, I make no bones about it. I have all kinds of joint issues, different things that happen to me after 30 years of being in the army, carrying heavy things, being a special forces guy, jumping outta airplanes, six tours of Afghanistan, all the stuff, right. I know. My joints feel better when the muscles around them are stronger, and I’ve been using them
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: when I take too much time off, I start to feel aches and pains that are always gonna be there, but I can deal with them better when I’m stronger.
My flexibility, I’m working on it, you know, I’m doing those right things and it’s constant work. If I only had myself do that. Yeah, there’s times I think I could, you [00:40:00] know, pull it off. I have the mental strength to be like, okay, we gotta do this. But knowing that, you know, I have the ability to check in with some folks virtually, or go to the in-person meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah,
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: know, make sure I get my walk in. But it, it’s just, it is a mental boost in and of itself. And that, you know, that also gives me a physical boost. So,
Scott DeLuzio: sure.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: I, you know, we encourage everybody, like it doesn’t matter where you’re at in your journey. Like, you know, if you’re dealing with some serious stuff, you should be getting help for that. But you also should continue to do the other things that are gonna help you, prevent a physical injury or something else that’s just gonna make that mental injury worse.
Or actually help you deal with some of this stuff a little bit more because you’re gonna have a team again, you’re gonna have some social connections. start feeling better about yourself physically, which again, is gonna drive those other things, those endorphins, you
Scott DeLuzio: Mm-hmm.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: that, the stuff that is gonna affect your mental wellbeing as well.
It’s not gonna fix it, you know, there, [00:41:00] if you, I mean you have serious PTSD or, or a maybe a brain health injury from a blast injury. Like you can’t fix that with a 5K,
Scott DeLuzio: Sure.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: I think you can, you can make yourself feel a little bit better if you can still, you know, continue to. Do the things you know you can do instead of allowing that thing to define you.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, that’s a great way to put it. And you were talking about how the, the joints feel better when the muscles around them are, are strong and and everything. And the way it was described to me is that the, the muscles kind of help, excuse me kind of help to support the, the bones and the joints and everything that.
That is around there. And if those muscles start getting weak, whether it’s in your back or your legs or your, you know, arms or wherever then. The bones start, you know, coming together and the bones have to start supporting each other. And then now you’re rubbing on the bones together and, and that’s gonna start causing some of that, that pain and everything.
And so the, the stronger you are you know, as far as the muscles go, then that’s gonna [00:42:00] help alleviate some of that pain. You know, it may not get rid of everything a hundred percent. And I know as I’m getting older, that is proving to be more and more true, but it does not get easier as, as you get older.
But. But with that said, the younger you are, the younger you, you start in which, you know, the best best day to start was yesterday, but the second best day is today. You know, just get started and, and help get yourself into a better physical condition. So that. When you are much older it, it’s, it’s not as bad as far as, you know, the joint pains and stuff like that.
It’s probably still gonna be there, but not as bad. Right.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah
Scott DeLuzio: so for folks who are interested in joining up with team RWB and, and the, all the things that you guys do where can people go to. Start getting, getting involved. I know you mentioned the app you know, I’m sure the website is probably another place.
But are there there places that they can, they can reach out to? And, and [00:43:00] what’s the best place to get in touch?
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, the best place to get started is you go to team rwb.org and you’ll find our webpage, which will give you a direct link to the ability to sign up and you know, to join with that. It’ll take you to download the app,
Scott DeLuzio: I.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: iOS or Android. We, it works on both. And that’s our primary platform that gives you access to all our in-person events.
It’ll geo locate you immediately to where the closest chapter is in your area, and you’ll be able to see in there during our, in our events, like what’s going on in, in and around your area. And it provides you an opportunity there to kind of see what the community’s about, see the different activity groups, and get a feel for what’s going on.
And then, you know, I’d encourage you, you know, ideally you’re near a chapter and you can then immediately get out to their next gathering. It could be a coffee, it could be a 5K. You know, it might be, you know, you hit it on a month where we’re doing a CrossFit workout, you know, and they’re getting after it in the park somewhere. But there’s [00:44:00] gonna be an opportunity for you to get out and meet other people that are, you know, just getting after it themselves, continuing that health and wellness journey. So those are the primary means for you to, to. To find out more about us and to join. Yeah,
Scott DeLuzio: And then imagine donations if people are interested in donating. They, they could do that all through the website as well, right?
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: you can. Yeah, absolutely. There’s a way to donate through the website whether you wanna do a one-time donation or become like a Sentinel member, if you want to give, you know, monthly or annually. But, you know, we encourage folks. It’s application and the, the ability for people to join is absolutely free.
There is no cost to anybody. To join or be a member of team RWB. If
Scott DeLuzio: You’re.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: You, you get this beautiful, you know, red t-shirt sent to you in the mail for free. If you’re a non-veteran active duty, you’re not a veteran yet. We do have a shop where if you want to wear the eagle, you can purchase one and wear it as well. Of folks like to identify. Like I said, I, I think a lot of people think we’re the largest running military running club in the world. ’cause [00:45:00] you go to any race in America, you’re gonna see someone wearing the, the Eagle or, or hopefully five or 10 of ’em. yeah.
Scott DeLuzio: so
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: the
but the
Scott DeLuzio: the program.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: itself, you know, it does cost us money to, to run.
We’re a very small organization in terms of like paid employees, but the majority of it is our Eagle leader volunteers that are getting after it all over America. And we subsidize that programming and those events that they put on with, with those donated dollars. It also supports, again, that Eagle Fitness Education Program. Our application, unfortunately, applications are very, very expensive. But we have a very effective one that allows you to do quite a bit. And we’re we’re able to get that, get after that with a very moderate, and modest budget. Some of the other things that your donation dollars can also help is we have a scholarship fund, not for like college, but like if you want to get your certified personal trainer certification.
We work with this place called the University of Health and Performance is one of the primary places. It’s an Arkansas owned by a veteran. [00:46:00] It’s, it’s only for veterans that want to get into the health and wellness industry. we’ll pay for your scholarship there, or you could use your GI bill if you wanna get your CrossFit Level one certification.
We, we will pay for those running Coach certification. We think it’s great for veterans to get more education about that. And then ideally they come back to the community with that knowledge and share it, you know, with their fellow veterans for free as they build out their business, if that’s what they want to do. So, you know, all of that stuff, you know, the donate donation donated dollars allow us to go 100% and fund all of those types of things.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, that’s awesome. And it’s awesome that, that all of these things are provided for free to the veterans and the, the folks who are you know, involved with this because it’s you know, it just makes it that much easier. Like you really have no excuse. Not like a money issue. It’s not a, you know, anything like that.
It’s, hey, just, you know, get off your ass and go, go, go do something. Right.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: Yeah, I
You show up once they’re gonna get to know you, they’ll know your name, and then they’re gonna [00:47:00] ask why you didn’t show up for that second one.
Scott DeLuzio: right, right.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: prepared. You’re gonna be on the team right away and they’re gonna have you, you’re gonna have a good time, and they’re gonna, you’re gonna expect you to come back out.
Scott DeLuzio: That’s awesome. Yeah, and, and it’s good too because like, like you said, that that kind of holds you accountable and it, it will help encourage you to make it to the next one and the one after that and, and subsequent ones because there’s, there’s just that community, that group, that team that. You know, you may have been missing and you start to feel close and, and, and get a connection with those folks.
So, so that’s awesome. Well. It’s been really great chatting with you you know, learning about what team RWB is all about. You know, the, the run that you guys did over the over you know, back in, you know, may. And you know, all, all the things that you guys have, have been doing has been you know, pretty incredible.
You know, definitely encourage folks to check it out. All the links that we talked about you know, to the website and everything will be in the show notes for the listeners. So, so check it up there. But thank you again for joining me [00:48:00] and sharing everything. Thing that you guys are doing.
Michael “Sully” Sullivan: No, I really appreciate the opportunity. I mean, it’s an incredible organization. You, you won’t regret it if you decide that you want to be a member. You know, we, we believe every day is better. You know, the, the, it’s better days ahead, not behind you. And it all starts with you just joining the team and getting on out there.
Scott DeLuzio: Excellent. Well, thanks again.