Make Veterans Great Again
Josh Mach is a Marine Corps veteran who started a podcast to help emphasize the importance of veterans connecting with each other. In this episode we talk about some of the issues people have with dealing with their mental health, some of the "guilt" that comes with those who served but didn't deploy, stolen valor, and a number of other topics.
Ultimately, Josh and I agreed that there are no rivals in the podcast space we're in. We are all trying to help veterans, and if one of us succeeds, we all succeed.
Links & Resources
Transcript
Scott DeLuzio: 00:00:03 Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast, where we talk about issues affecting Veterans after they get out of the military. Before we get started, I'd like to ask a favor if you haven't done so already, please rate and review the show on Apple podcasts. If you've already done that, thank you. These ratings help the show get discovered so it can reach a wider audience. And while you're there click the subscribe button so that you get notified of new episodes as soon as they come out. If you don't use Apple podcasts, you can visit Driveonpodcast.com/subscribe to find other ways of subscribing, including our email list. I'm your host, Scott DeLuzio and now let's get on with the show.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:00:44 Hey everybody. Today, my guest is Josh Mach. Josh actually lives in the same neighborhood as I do. And we got together from a connection on a neighborhood group. He is also a Veteran and he's starting up a podcast, Make Veterans Great Again, kind of play on words with the make America great again; but it's a podcast geared towards the mental health of Veterans. And so, I thought it was a great opportunity to get together with him, chat with him, see what he's up to and find out the type of stuff that he's into doing, with his podcast. So Josh, let me turn it over to you. Introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about yourself and we can go from there.
Josh Mach: 00:01:36 Thanks for having me on, my name’s Josh Mach. I spent four years in the Marine Corps as a combat engineer. I honestly didn't get a chance to deploy and do all that gun shit that we signed up for. So, I felt like I needed to help out in a way. And I didn't know, and I'm not going to lie, I felt lost when I got out. And as I was telling you earlier, I got tagged in to doing the 22-pushup challenge about three months ago, and I still haven't done it. But then the next day I saw a buddy that posted a meme saying, pick up the phone or stop doing your pushups and pick up the fucking phone and call your buddies. And I was like, okay. So, I came up with this idea where I'll just do a podcast and I'll just call and reach out to different veterans.
Josh Mach: 00:02:14 And it's not really scripted. We just talk and see how each other's doing. And my mission is to reach out to fellow brothers and sisters in arms to conquer our mental health together.
Scott DeLuzio: And that's a great, great mission, a great idea that you have to just do what we all should be doing, pick up the phone and talk to each other; we served together with. We went through some hard times together and then you come home and you lose contact and you don't pick up the phone and talk with each other very often and it seems to be a common thing. And then when something does happen, you end up having that kind of guilt, like, Oh, why didn't I pick up the phone? You know, absolutely. It's an easy thing to do, you know, it's, it's easy to just pick it up and make a call. Right.
Josh Mach: 00:03:02 It was easier to be next to that person while we were in, because you were forced to be their family. You were forced to see them every day, whether you wanted to or not. Right. So, when time dissipates and you guys separate, like neither person wants to pick up the phone because they feel like, well, they're not calling me. Well, they're not calling me. Well, it doesn't fucking matter. Just pick up the phone.
Scott DeLuzio: Exactly.
Josh Mach: They're going to answer, and they're going to talk to you like, you guys just saw each other yesterday, but you have so much shit to catch up on.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:03:24 Exactly. And sometimes I think social media can kind of be a crutch where you might be friends with them on Facebook or whatever you're on. And so, you might see pictures of their kids and their vacations and other things that they're doing. And you're like, Oh, well, I don't need to call him and checkup because it seems like they're doing fine. But you know, everyone just posts their A game on social media.
Josh Mach: 00:03:46 Absolutely. I was going to say, social media is a hoax. You know, nobody posts that they're struggling. And then if they do, it's almost too late by the time you realize what they're saying. So even your happy friends, you need to check on them.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:03:58 The happy ones, again, they're probably just posting the fact that they're happy, but they may not really be a hundred percent happy.
Josh Mach: 00:04:08 Right. You never know what happens behind closed doors. Like you didn't know what was happening behind closed doors when you were living right in the room next to him, and now you're even further away. So, you're even a little bit more detached and I'm not going to lie. People just want you to reach out. They wish you reached out just like they wish that you wish they would reach out. You've just gotta have the testicular fortitude to pick up the phone and reach out first. There's nothing wrong with asking for help. Hell, you don't even have to ask for help. You can literally just, Hey man, what are you doing? Just check up on one another, be curious about their life. Like we just said, social media is a hoax, so get to really know what's going on in their life. Not what they front and show everyone.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:04:47 Exactly. Yeah. And if you call each other friends, brothers whatever the word is that you want, battle buddies, whatever you want to use to describe each other, and start acting like it. And I'm just as guilty. So, I'm saying this and I haven't picked up the phone nearly as much as I probably should have and it goes both ways. So, this is good advice that I should take to heart as well.
Josh Mach: 00:05:17 Right. I like to tell people, phones work both ways, but I get it. Everyone's, life's busy and it's not like, Oh, I need to talk to this person. I'm like, yeah, you need to, but your day goes on, you forget about it later on. And hopefully you just reach out to someone before it's too late or they are able to reach out to you.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:05:34 For sure. Yeah, absolutely. So, going back to your time in the service, before we started recording, you mentioned how you were in the Marines and you hadn't deployed that sort of gave you the feeling of...
Josh Mach: 00:05:53 It's almost like guilt and I'm not going to hold back. So, it's almost like, it's not like survivor's guilt, but it's like, I could have done something, but I did nothing. So, I feel ashamed. Like I didn't earn the title Marine, even though I went through bootcamp, got it. Earned it. I didn't do anything to keep it up, I missed out. I didn't get to help out. I didn't get to do anything. And now's my chance with this podcast to actually reach out and help people, you know? So, I may not have been able to help while I was in, but I still have that bond with people and I can connect with them over being in the military. So, now's my chance to be able to reach out, to help and do my thing.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:06:34 Yeah. And before we started recording, I mentioned to you about some of my friends, people I know in my past that were in a similar situation. Some of them were in the service in the nineties. And they got out before the 9/11 time period. And they felt like, look at what all these other people are doing, they're doing so much. I feel like in comparison, I've done nothing with my military career. And I always try to tell those people that they did exactly what was asked of them. You know, they volunteered, it's not like you had a gun to your head and said, go and join the military. You joined, you volunteered and you did what was asked of you. And if that didn't include a deployment, a combat deployment or whatever, then so be it. But you did what was asked of you. I think that that's still an honorable thing to do, you know?
Josh Mach: 00:07:37 I guess I just try to hold myself to a higher standard in a sense, and not necessarily just because you deploy into combat, you're at a higher standard, but I'm not sure how to properly word this, but I just wanted to do more. And I didn't, so I'm almost ashamed to say, Oh yeah, I'm a Marine. First of all, I'm not ashamed to say I'm a Marine, but like those questions that they're going to hit you with, they always ask you did you deploy? And then the next question is did you kill someone. Right. You know, I drank water all day long. Like, that's it.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:08:08 Yeah. Yeah. So again, everybody's going to feel differently about that and how you feel about it and how somebody else feels, but it's probably not going to be the same, but my personal belief, if you deployed and you sat on a bass all day and you were maybe a cook or something, you never saw combat but you were overseas, you still were just doing what was asked of you. Even if you stayed in the United States and you never left the United States, you still were doing what was asked of you and that's where your country needed you. So, I think that that's still a good thing. It's still an honorable thing.
Josh Mach: 00:08:50 I agree. Every role is important.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:08:53 It keeps the machine moving.
Josh Mach: It's in my mind, you know,
Josh Mach: 00:08:56 I got it. I'm working on that. I've been going to therapy. I've been reading a lot more and listening to motivational inspirational stuff, and I gotta stop belittling myself and I got to start appreciating myself and talking up. So, I did sign the dotted line. I did make it through bootcamp.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:09:14 Right, exactly. So, there's plenty of people who haven't gone that far and they haven't even begun to even attempt to go to bootcamp.
Josh Mach: And so, they would have said something, it would have knocked them in the face for sure.
Scott DeLuzio: What is it about your podcasts? Let's talk about that a little bit and, what is it about that, about making those connections and having those conversations that you think is beneficial? Is it, kind of just leading by example and showing people this is how it's done in having these kinds of conversations or, what is it about yours?
Josh Mach: 00:09:52 I just want to show that it's real, it's genuine. It's all about reaching out and taking care of one another. And I don't have to be a professional podcast with all this amazing equipment professionally done. I just want everyone to know this is real and it's not some hoax. And that all it does take is one phone call to change someone's life. Whether it be for a day or for the rest of their lives, it could prevent them from killing themselves, like a simple, hello, how are you doing? They could give you an asshole response and hang up on you. But in their mind, somebody reached out to me, someone does care. I just want everyone to know they're not alone. Like, it doesn't matter if you've deployed, seen combat, or you haven't deployed at the end of the day. You're not alone. There are other people that have feelings. They feel exactly how you're feeling. And they're there for, they may not come out and straight up say, Hey, I'm here for you, but have you ever picked up a phone and had a conversation with somebody you haven't seen in four plus years, but you've been through the shit together, whether it was bootcamp, deployment, whatever, they still act like they're your buddy, they're still your brother or sister. Like you saw them yesterday, but you just have 10 years of stuff to catch up.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:10:59 Exactly. And having those conversations, like you said, it does bring you back to 10 years ago or five years ago, however long it's been and you're still friends. So just because you haven't taken that initiative to pick up the phone and they haven't done that. It's not like you're all of a sudden, not friends anymore. Like, you guys have been through a lot of stuff together. You're still friends. It's just, life gets in the way sometimes.
Josh Mach: 00:11:28 Right. And honestly, there's been people that I haven't even met that I've done podcasts with and they could be in different branches or they can be in the same branch. And it doesn't matter that I don't know you, we still have the same common bond, the same interests, we say went through the same shit. And so, even though we don't know each other, it just goes to show you're not alone. And the connection that you make with a Veteran, just because you find out you reach Veterans and we can be the sarcastic assholes or the fucking dark joke, humor, motherfuckers. Right. And not have them thinking like, Holy fucking belongs in the psych ward. You know, he's probably right, but not joking at this point, you know? So, it's just reaching out to one another and that brotherhood, that family it's still out there.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:12:15 It is. And I think that's an issue that a lot of veterans have. There's actually another Facebook group that I asked a question a couple months ago and I wanted to see what was the biggest problem that people have after getting out of the military and dealing with civilians was at the top of the list. And from what I gathered from people's responses, it's that they've lost that identity. They've lost their sense of connection to the military. Exactly. Yeah. And, and so people like you and I, we physically met, we just met today, and we're sitting here having a conversation where we're both veterans, we have that in common with each other. We're able to pick up a conversation, just start talking about veteran issues, and I'm sure if we keep digging and peeling back the onion, we can find even more things that we had in common with each other.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:13:16 And we can just keep on going and figuring stuff out just the same way that you do with the people who are in your unit. When you were in the military, there were people who, when you first arrived at your unit, you had no clue who they were, but you eventually figured it out, you know? And so absolutely get in touch with people, we're in the same neighborhood. We live less than a mile away, probably pretty close. And prior to today, I didn't even know you existed and vice versa.
Josh Mach: 00:13:45 And honestly, the only reason that we found out about each other is because we both opened up and reached out in a sense, I originally posted in the neighborhood Facebook page and I was like, Hey, I'm starting this podcast. If anybody wants to be on it, just talking about it and sharing that information, I took the first step. And then you took the next step and I believe your wife sent it to you because she saw it first.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:14:07 Yeah. She saw it and sent it to me and said, Hey, there's this guy in the neighborhood. He's doing this podcast. He's a veteran, reach out or whatever. And so, I did, but I could have just sat on it and been like, now that guy doesn't want to talk to me or whatever, but you totally were looking for people like me.
Speaker 2 00:14:23 Well, to talk to, I didn't necessarily expect you to have your own podcast, but that didn't deter me at all. Like someone asked me, does that bother you? That they have a rival podcast in a sense. And I was like, I've never thought about it. And yet it didn't deter me. But the thought like, Oh fuck, I'm not the only one doing that. Instead of it bringing me down, I'm like, that's awesome. Like, it just shows the need for this and shows the need to just talk and reach out for people. Veterans need veterans, you know? Because we understand way better than civilians understand you. I have a buddy who he's like, man, I really liked your podcast. I like how people are opening up. I'll never do that because I won't open up because it'll make me think about it. He's like, but it helps me, I still get to hear other people opening up. That's awesome. Like you're helping people. And at the end of the day, as long as I help one person, that's all that matters.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:15:16 Right. And when you can relate to other people's stories and you can hear what they went through and you're like, I kind of went through the same thing, maybe not identical, but similar situations, it makes you feel like you're not alone.
Josh Mach: 00:15:28 We have the same story, different paths.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:15:32 Exactly. Yeah. And so, in knowing that you're not alone, it gives you a little bit of hope that this person seems like they're doing all right. And maybe I feel like my life's in shambles, but they went through this and they're doing okay, so maybe I can stick it out a little bit longer and see where I end up.
Josh Mach: 00:15:51 Absolutely. It brings that shimmer of light through the darkness and that's all it takes is one little piece of life for you to keep going towards it. And I've recently heard in the videos that I've done, the motivational podcasts and videos, and that I've been listening to. One of them was a General and he went through SEAL training and he was talking about the five or seven things that he learned throughout it. And the one that stuck to me and that I've been preaching is to make your bed every morning and the whole reason behind it. Like I never took the time to understand the whole reason behind making your bed other than they just want to fuck with you. And it's another thing and attention to detail, right? But in reality, it's to inspire, motivate and push you into completing more tasks. Because if you wake up and make your bed, you've already completed a task for the day and it pushes you and drives you to want to complete more tasks. And then on the off chance you had a bad day, you come home to a bed made that gives you hope for a better tomorrow,
Scott DeLuzio: 00:16:47 Right? Like the worst-case scenario, you've accomplished nothing else other than making that bed. And you can go to bed at night knowing that you have a nice freshly made bed. And it's a comforting thing to come to as opposed to coming back to chaos with pillows and sheets all over the place.
Josh Mach: 00:17:06 Right? Absolutely. I fucking hate waking up to make my bed in the morning. And I think it's a waste of time. I thought it was a waste of time. It was just me being lazy, to be honest with you. Right. Because if I come home and I didn't make my bed, I just feel like that anxiousness and that unrest is still there. But if you come home, your bed's made, everything looks nice and clean. You're like, okay, life's not that bad. It's a simple bed that can make your day or break your day.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:17:31 Right. It just takes just a short amount of time to pull the sheets and fluff the pillows and takes five minutes. Not even getting counted down, you know? It's super simple and it's a quick win, you know? And then you can set goals for other little things that you can do throughout the day. If you're really struggling, you can find those little things to do that are low effort, but still are wins, right?
Josh Mach: 00:18:02 Like you don't think making your bed means anything, but it means way more than you'll ever think. And if you're struggling, take it back to your bootcamp, basic team days, like how do you survive? All I was told to focus on my next chow, my next chow just make it to your next chow. So, make it to your next chow, make it to your next lunch, make it to your next, whatever the case may be, take small steps. You don't need to make leaps and bounds. Right. Even if you're fucking crawling, as long as you move forward an inch, you're still moving forward. You're making progress. No matter how little it seems.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:18:34 Exactly. You mentioned that about, you know, bootcamp with make it to the next chow. That's exactly how I got through bootcamp every single day. It was okay, I'm going to wake up, whatever PT in the morning and then breakfast. Cool. And then how many more hours until lunch. And that was just the way I thought. It was like, okay, well it's four or five hours, whatever it is to lunch, that's not too bad. I can get through that. And then it's five hours until dinner. Cool. I can do that. That's not too bad. And then, how many hours until lights out and then, alright, it's not too bad. I can do these little sprints as opposed to looking at the whole marathon.
Josh Mach: 00:19:16 Right? Just like bootcamp. Life is mental. It is way more mental than it is physical. And most of the things you're running from and hating yourself from, it's inside your own brain, it's inside you. Like you are your own worst demon, your worst evil. So as soon as you say, it's so hard, it is hard; I'm not going to lie. But when you start to realize that it is you and you get out of that victim and mindset, that victim mentality you'll be able to grow. And you'll see the sun and the sky has been bluer lately than it has ever been in a long time. You got to constantly retrain your brain. Your brain is a muscle. So, the more you work on it, the stronger you're going to get as a person. And the brain is probably the hardest muscle to work out.
Josh Mach: 00:20:05 As soon as you wake up, your brain’s on even though you are not; and so, it wants to start triggering and firing on all these old past memories and it just replaces or becomes muscle memory. And you start thinking of all the negatives and all the bads and the poor me and this and that, you’re right. Poor you. But you're the only one that fucking cares. Now, pick yourself up off the ground and keep going. I forget who said it, but they said, if you're going to fall, fall on your back, because if you could see up, you can get up. So, get up and keep moving forward.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:20:37 And keep moving forward. Absolutely. That's a great way to think about it. When you are struggling with something and like you were saying, when you wake up in the morning and you're struggling, you're dwelling on the past or whatever, and you keep doing that every single morning, that just becomes part of your morning routine that just like brushing your teeth or taking a shower or whatever. And it becomes a routine, a habit if you will. And it's harder to break things when they become habitual, when they're over and over and over again.
Josh Mach: 00:21:13 I didn’t even realize it either. So that's like the worst part, like what you think about every day is what your life is, because that's all you're thinking about. So, you're only thinking that and projecting that outwards and that's all that's going to happen. So, if you're like, Oh, I'm always losing, I'm always this; well stop saying, you're always losing, you're always this, that's what I'm working on. I'm working on speaking high about myself, talking myself up and not bragging or boasting, even though that's what I feel like. So, I'm combating that, but just like, Oh, I did have a great day. You know, even if I woke up and I just was able to breathe today, I had a great day and I just got to try to stay positive.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:21:49 Yeah. And being grateful for even a little thing like waking up and taking a breath and getting out of bed and doing the little things, it can really change your attitude and your mindset about things. It's something I struggled with myself. I don't feel like I am grateful enough for the little things; I might take some of those for granted and not really realize how good I have it, and I agree. I understand, I got a happy family. We're all healthy. There's a lot to be grateful for. And why be down on myself for any of that kind of stuff?
Josh Mach: 00:22:33 For me personally, I tend to focus on what I don't have instead of what I do have. And I don't do that on purpose to bring me down. I do it to push me, but then it gets to the point that I think about what I don't have too much. And it brings me down. So, I need to learn to stop focusing on what I don't have, focus on what I do have and what I'm going to have, not what I don't have, but what I'm going to have. It's as simple as changing your vocabulary, I'm learning. And obviously that's hard too, because you grew up speaking the same way. You want to be true to yourself, but you have to be able to mature and correct your vocabulary to push yourself into the greatness that you really are.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:23:12 Yeah. It's one thing to have ambitions and have goals to push yourself towards. And it's another thing to beat yourself up over not being there yet. Because you got to give yourself some time.
Josh Mach: 00:23:25 That's where I'm at. I want to jump to the third ring and I can't even reach the second. So, I always try to skip the first and that's a huge issue. I need to take the first step because I'm moving as opposed to just reaching, reaching, reaching, hoping, and praying. I am not going to get there. I got to start on everyone, I can't skip a ring, basically got to start from the lowest and work your way all the way up. No matter how repetitive, how slow it's going. Just keep taking steps day by day.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:23:53 Yeah, for sure. It's like in the military, they do the crawl walk, run, you got to take the baby steps and get yourself there. And then eventually, you can't be mad at yourself if you haven't crawled yet that you can't run because you haven't crawled yet. And of course, you're not going to run. You have to give yourself a little bit of grace and know that it's going to take some time.
Josh Mach: 00:24:19 And if you think you're better than crawling, you still have to start off at crawling before, like you said, you can run. There's this book I'm reading right now. Can't remember the name of it, but there's a phrase in it that says the object in the way becomes the way. What is your take on that?
Scott DeLuzio: 00:24:34 Object that becomes the way is
Josh Mach: The object in the way becomes the way.
Scott DeLuzio: Okay. Well, I'm just trying to visualize that phrase. And I'm thinking of a brick wall in the middle of a street or something, I'm trying to drive through that. And if I can't see any other way around it, that's going to be the thing I'm focused on, that brick wall, that's kind of my visualization of that phrase.
Josh Mach: 00:25:15 So I think we're on the same page. My take on that is that, if your life is going great, or life's going bad, something plops in the road, and now you're at a fork. But if you choose to take that object on, and you let it take you over, your life's going to go downhill instead of uphill. You know? So, like the object in the way becomes the way. So, if your object in the way is like, I can't get a job, we'll say that was the first thing that came to my mind. But you can't get a job. You're going to be thinking to yourself, I can't get a job. I can't get a job. So instead of applying yourself and looking for other avenues and other options, instead of conquering that object, that object becomes your way. And all you're stuck in is like, I can't get a job. I can't do anything I can't, but you can, you just didn't face that up.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:26:06 Yeah, exactly. That does make sense. I like how you phrase that, because you can tell yourself, you can lie to yourself and tell yourself all these things, and you'll end up believing yourself, right?
Josh Mach: 00:26:22 We're going to play victim and you don't even realize you're playing victim. I guarantee you; you can look at someone and you're like, that motherfucker is the victim mindset all day. And you're like, I never played victim. But if you start saying, I can't do this, I can't do that. You're the fucking victim. You just played yourself. You are the victim. So, get out of that mindset. You can do it. You just aren't pushing yourself, not willing to do what needs to get done. You're not willing to take the small steps.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:26:49 Absolutely. Yeah. And pushing yourself I think is a big part of it. Getting yourself the motivation to do something, even when you think it's a lost cause, you know, I can't get this job or I can't succeed in whatever, my business is failing. I'm a failure. I'm this whatever the negative self-image talk that you have going on for yourself. If you can just push yourself to try that one extra percent, every day, try to do that one extra percent and push yourself a little bit harder to do a little bit better. That's where you're going to end up getting some momentum.
Josh Mach: 00:27:34 Right. And it's okay to fail. Failing is needed to push you forward. However, you have to use that failure to push you and not let it break you because without failure, you wouldn't know what successes you wouldn’t know how to be great. I lost my train of thought.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:27:52 Yeah, I got you there. Yeah, that makes sense, because failure should act more like a sail. Like if you think about a bow check, more like a sail to push you to keep pushing you forward towards something. As opposed to an anchor dragging you down and slowing you down. When you think about little kids, when they're learning how to ride a bike, they fall, and that can be considered as a failure. Right. But if they were to just be like, well, the hell with this, I quit. They're probably not going to say those words, but kid's language and their kids and their little kid language, they would say something like that. And they're like, I quit. I'm never going to ride a bike because I can't ride a bike. Life would not be all that fun for little kids. They just quit.
Josh Mach: The object in the way, became the way.
Scott DeLuzio: Exactly. Tying their shoes or whatever the difficult thing is for them to do. If they just failed and quit, then they would never achieve anything. And they wouldn't have the kind of fun that they should have as kids, you know.
Josh Mach: 00:28:55 Think about all the great athletes. How many times did they miss the game winning shot? Did they strike out? They failed, but they're still the greatest of all time. And why? Because they don't see failure as failure. They see failure as motivation to get up, to fight, to work harder.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:29:13 Yeah. It's like I was talking to my son the other day about baseball and he plays baseball and stuff. And I was telling him about how even major league players, one of the hardest things to do in professional sports is to hit a baseball, to get a hit in baseball, because even the best players in the world can only do it about 30% of the time. Right. It's like every 10 at-bats that they get hits only three of those times. Are they actually getting a hit on average or so? And that kind of blew his mind, thinking like, Oh, if I get up to bat and I don't get a hit, then I must not be doing very good. Well, no, you're doing all right. You know, that's to be expected, you're not going to get a hit every single time.
Josh Mach: 00:30:02 Like Babe Ruth never struck out. Okay. Exactly. Yeah. But I think it was Wayne Gretzky, he said he missed a hundred percent of the shots he didn’t take.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:30:11 Exactly. It's another way to look at it.
Josh Mach: 00:30:14 Yeah. If you don't try, you're losing, but I've also learned that there's no losing, you're either winning or you're learning and don't get me wrong. I do believe people win and lose, but it's all about the life lesson in the loss. So, don't take it as a loss, take it as a learning opportunity to get better, no matter what it is.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:30:36 Yeah. There's another podcast that I listened to called the Jocko podcast that Jocko Willink motivated. And one of his sayings is good. When something goes wrong, good. Learn from it. Grow from it. It's all right. It's good. Like just let it happen. Learn the lessons and move on and grow from that, you know? Absolutely.
Josh Mach: 00:31:02 So a question for you, we'll bring us back to veterans.
Scott DeLuzio: Cool.
Josh Mach: If you see someone with stolen Valor, how do you react? What do you think?
Scott DeLuzio: 00:31:13 So I know a lot of people will react by being pissed off in anger, you know, they'll want to beat them down. They'll want to rip the metals off their chest and embarrass them and shame them and all that kind of stuff. To me, I see the person as if they have something that they feel they need to prove. And I actually feel sorry for them more so than anything. I feel sorry that they feel that insecure about themselves, that they have to pretend to be someone that they're not. And it's okay that you didn't serve. There's lots of people who didn't serve. As a matter of fact, most of the country didn't serve. You don't have to pretend that you're someone that you're not. Or on the other hand, there might be people who did serve, but then they go put bronze stars and other stuff on there just that they didn't earn and that kind of stuff. And it's like, why are you doing that? Like, what do you have to prove? I have a metal rack over here, like my shadow box. I earned all of that stuff. I'm not adding stuff to it that I didn't actually earn. Like that's mine. I wouldn't be very proud of that if it wasn't stuff that I actually earned, so I just question, what went wrong with these people?
Josh Mach: 00:32:36 Like you tried to understand their backstory a little bit.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:32:40 Do they feel that they earned something and maybe their chain of command screwed them over and they didn't get what they felt they deserved? Maybe that's the reason, or maybe there's someone who came from a long line of military people and they couldn't join for one reason or another medical issues or whatever. And they felt like they wanted to continue the legacy of their family or something like that. I don't know. But a lot of people have their reasons for doing this stolen Valor kind of stuff. And I don't really understand it, but I know that they have their reasons and not saying it's right or that I agree with. Oh yeah, no, that's cool. Well go ahead and do it, whatever. I still think they kind of look like idiots, but they have their reasons. And I think it's helpful to understand what they're going through before jumping to conclusions.
Josh Mach: 00:33:32 That's a great point. So first I want to say that if you get angry, it means you lost, like you lost control and that person with the stolen Valor won. So, I get it. It's hard to keep your composure, especially if you've lost your brothers that wore that uniform and they're disgracing it, I get it. But you need to stay cool, calm and collected because by getting angry and upset, lashing out and all that, you're losing more. You're going to walk away angrier, mad, and they're going to be maybe embarrassed, but they're going to go to the next corner and keep doing the same thing. And you also brought up a good point, how you want to know what's going on with them. That's a great thing before you judge anybody, before looking at me, you're probably like this motherfucker, but before you can judge me, you need to know my backstory, just like, I need to know yours. So just because someone's doing something completely wrong to you, you don't know why their brain has justified them doing that at this moment. You don't know the trauma, the drama, the stress, or what they've been through. So be less judgmental and more compassionate.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:34:48 Yeah. I think that's a good way to look at it too. There are some people too that I've seen who have bought old uniforms, army uniforms or whatever at salvation army kind of stores or Goodwill or whatever that people have just discarded or whatever. And they just wear them because they think they look cool. Right? Like it might be just as simple as that. Like they just think it looks cool. And so, all right. Like you look like an idiot, but whatever, you think it looks cool, that's the reason it could just be that simple, or it could be that they feel like they need to prove something. I don't know. So, anyways, before we kind of wrap this up, I wanted to give you a chance to plug your podcast, so people know where they can find it.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:35:37 Let people know a little bit more about what it's all about.
Josh Mach: Right. My podcast link is, N V G a.buzzsprout.com or I'll give you my Instagram so you can tag it on there.
Scott DeLuzio: I'm going to put all the links in the show notes too. So, anyone who wants to check it out can find it all on there.
Josh Mach: All right. I'm not sure if I said this in the beginning or not, but my whole mission is to reach out to fellow brothers and sisters in arms to conquer our mental health together. And I just want to remind everyone you're not alone out there. You're not alone. You're not in this alone. Just reach out. People are out here for you. So, thank you very much for having me on; it was a great experience.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:36:20 I'm glad to have you on and glad we got connected. And looking forward to catching up with you around the neighborhood, our neighbors know that we know that each other exists. So, we may do this again and just keep in touch and keep pushing for the same good mission, hopefully that keeps on together.
Josh Mach: Exactly. Instead of being rival podcasts, I guess we work together, we can help more in unity than if we are divided. We're stronger together than if we are divided.
Scott DeLuzio: Exactly. Yeah, there it is. My whole thing with that, to that point is my goal is to help out Veterans one way or another. If you're succeeding, then that means I'm succeeding because if your goal is to help out Veterans too. So, if you're succeeding, then I'm succeeding because ultimately Veterans are being helped. And I don't really care who gets the credit. I don't care if I get five downloads on a podcast episode, or I get 5,000 downloads on a podcast episode. I really don't care. As long as somebody is being helped. If one person is being helped and that one person who finds a little bit of hope through sharing this kind of message, then I'm all for it.
Josh Mach: So, the same here, man. All right.
Scott DeLuzio: Thanks again.
Josh Mach: Thank you.
Scott DeLuzio: 00:37:42 Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to check out more episodes or learn more about the show, you can visit our website, driveonpodcast.com. We're on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram @driveonpodcast.