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Veterans know how to lead. The lessons we learned in the military form the foundation for bigger successes in business, entrepreneurship and community.
Host John S Berry, CEO of Berry Law, served as an active-duty Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army, finishing his military career with two deployments and retiring as a Battalion Commander in the National Guard. Today, his veteran led team at Berry Law, helps their clients fight some of the most important battles of their lives. Leading successful teams in the courtroom, the boardroom, and beyond, veteran leadership drives the firm’s rapid growth and business excellence.
Whether building teams, synchronizing operations, or refining tactics, we share our experiences, good and bad, to help you survive, thrive and dominate.
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[00:00:00.000] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Freedom is not isolating yourself on the couch. That's not what it's about. It's like getting up early, doing some hard things again with some people. You're really going to feel much better after you're done.
[00:00:09.220] - John S. Berry
Welcome to Veteran Led. I'm your host, John Berry. Today's guest is Michael "Sully" Sullivan. He's an Army Special Forces Veteran and the executive director of Team Red, White, and Blue. Welcome to the show, Sully.
[00:00:25.980] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Hey, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:29.260] - John S. Berry
Let's start off. Tell us about Red, White, and Blue. A lot of us have, or team RWB. We've seen the shirts.
[00:00:34.540] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Yeah, absolutely.
[00:00:35.260] - John S. Berry
We know that there's a lot of events out there, but how did it get started and what's the purpose?
[00:00:40.780] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Yeah, absolutely. Started 15 plus years ago. Now, we just celebrated our 15th anniversary last October by a friend of mine named Mike Irwin. He's our founder and the executive director that I replaced this past October. Mike and I met each other way back when I was a major in third Special Forces Group. I was a Company Commander at First Battalion. He was our Intel officer, and we became really good friends on a mission downrange to Afghanistan. When he came back, he left the battalion, went up to Michigan because he was preparing to go teach at West Point. And while he was there, he really felt moved to look at the problems transitioning Veterans were having, especially those that it's served in combat as they left the service and were getting integrated into their new communities. He reached out to the local VA, and what he found out was, my word is not his or the VA's, but when you leave the service, it's like ripping off a gigantic bandaid. The service member loses their sense of identity. They lose the community that they had each and every day that they could rely upon. That sense of purpose starts to wane a little bit as well.
[00:01:48.600] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
A lot of Veterans find it hard to find their place post-service. A lot of Veterans then choose to... They think they're choosing themselves, and they're like, I don't have to do PT anymore. So, they stop doing the things to keep some kind of left of clinical, keeping physically fit and everything else. And that results in, for some Veterans, some mental health issues and other issues. So, Mike came up with the brilliant idea of what if we create micro-communities, to around physical fitness. It started out, a lot of people say we're the biggest run club in the world for Veterans. But the idea is you create a community within the community that you're transitioning into. It's made up of Veterans, active duty, guard, reserve, and civilians, make it completely free. The idea is you get together, you create meaningful relationships, provide that sense of purpose to the Veteran again because he's getting out, he's helping that Veteran to his left and right to stay physically fit and active. At the same time, that helps you because you're giving yourself that sense of purpose and that active service. And it also gives you a community within your community that you can build from as you leave the service.
[00:02:58.840] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Really focused on transitioning Veterans early on, and then it really started to take off from there. Mike leaned into folks like myself that he knew that we were active duty, that he could rely upon to get things going. I think it was about six months into it, he sent me a box of these red T-shirts that we're known for. And said, hey, Sully, I need you to start the group there in Fayetteville and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Get things going. And I was like, Wow, exactly. Is this going to kick off? What's the model? He goes, you got to figure it out. We're building this thing in flight. I was an early leader in the organization, pretty much from the very start as the first chapter captain in the Fayetteville Fort Bragg area. And really, it caught fire. The nation was very interested with two wars going on, what they could do for Veterans and service members in terms of how they could get to know them, how they could support them. So you had this just massive surge of people that were very interested in this effort. Then We started to show up at places, at the local 5K, at different marathons, at different CrossFit workouts, whatever it may be, cycling events, triathlons with the Eagle on.
[00:04:12.070] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
And everyone's like, these people seem to be having a lot of fun. It seemed to be very motivated. How do I get involved? And it really grew from there. So the mission, it's never changed. It's enrich Veterans lives. Our vision right now is to focus on building and forging the leading health and wellness community for Veterans across the United States. So 15 years into it, over 300,000 members, people that have signed up over the years, have been involved, they come and go. About active, really engaged members is about 25,000 annually. 19,000 events put on them by our 150 chapters nationwide. So just things going on constantly that pull Veterans off the couch into their community, and keeps them going.
[00:04:57.500] - John S. Berry
What I really like about your organization as opposed to others is that it keeps that training mentality going because you are training for any event. When Veterans leave service, a lot of times the team is gone, the mission is gone, and then the training goes away. Nobody's happy sitting in a bar, chugging beers all day. Hey, when you're in military service, you think that's great. Like, wow, I wish I could be doing that instead of rucking all night. I don't want to carry 80 pounds on my back for another 12 hours. I want to be in the bar drinking a beer. Until you're in a bar drinking a beer, then you wish you're out there humping that 80 pounds. It's an interesting, I think, mind shift. You always want to be somewhere else. But when you're training for something, you have something to look forward to.
[00:05:43.580] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Yeah, absolutely.
[00:05:44.680] - John S. Berry
Just tell us a little bit about some of the upcoming events.
[00:05:47.680] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
We always do some big things each year. I mean, one is going on right now. So the month of February, we challenge all our members to go 100 miles, like over the month of February. You could pick the modality. If you like to swim, you like to bike, you like to do the Jacob's Ladder, which is crazy. Mike Erwin loves that thing. But the whole idea is it converts to a mile on your feet, and the goal is over 28 days, keep moving every single day to accomplish this goal of 100 miles in the month of February. It's tough. A lot of people are giving up their New Year's resolutions. It's the coldest month out of the year. It's the shortest month of the year. It's still not getting light until late. So it really challenges folks to get out there and keep moving. But we do it in a team-like environment. We encourage people So like, where they do it with their RWB chapter. We got Veteran employment resource groups that are coming out to do it, tons of active-duty groups that are participating. This is one of our largest events, and actually we facilitate this event via runsignup.
[00:06:46.420] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Com. But this year was our inaugural year. We were doing it with some storytelling around the Global War on Terror. So it's the GWOT 100, and we were able to reach 25,000 entrants. Well, we're almost there. We're at 24 and some change of folks across America that just want to get together, moving, keep it going. So it's events like that that we do quarterly. Second quarter, we focus on Memorial Day, and we have Memorial Miles. It's another movement tied to memorializing and moving for all those folks that have given their lives for our freedom from the Revolutionary War at present. Around the third quarter, we do a 9/11 Stair Climbs. We do these across America with a flagship event up there in New York City. And then we do a functional fitness event in November called WOD 4 Warriors that we encourage everybody to get out before you go out and have your free meal at the local Waffle House or whatever. Maybe earn it by doing some sweat, get some sweat equity and pay it forward, do some work, and continue to continue to train. Those bigger events that we encourage people to do are things that we provide.
[00:07:56.920] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
We also encourage our members to like, announced every a big fitness goal. And we do it based off, if you've read the Comfort Crisis, this idea of a Masogi, this idea that you should pick something each year that you have a 50% chance of failure. And then unlike a Misogi where you keep it to yourself, we ask you to announce it to everybody within our community. And we have a digital community with our application with a group, and it says, What are you going to do? For me this year, I said I'm going to run 20 marathons for 2026. So I'm calling it the 2026.2 Challenge. Can I do that? It's like a little two a month, maybe. It's going to be very challenging. I'm a big runner. I'm not going to be fast anymore. But again, it's this idea that if I'm going to say that and put it out there, then I'm going to need to train. Just like you said, I'm going to have to stay constant. And if I have a community of folks around me encouraging me to get it done, giving me the best tips, we have within our application, different groups that can help you with that, whether it's stretching, whether it's nutrition, the running group to give you tips, and then getting out in person with the weekly chapter events to keep you moving.
[00:09:08.040] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
So it's this constant goal of trying to give the membership something to shoot for and then building a community that's going to help them get there.
[00:09:16.740] - John S. Berry
Yeah, and you've done a marvelous job of leading past your time in service. I mean, 30 years as an army officer in the Special Forces, hey, but even before that, you were a leader, you're the captain of the football team at Claremont McKenna, quarterback to defensive back. And even then, fitness was everything, leading the team. You did it in the military, and you continue to do it now. And the fact that you're still running after all the jumps and all the ruck marches, the secret I want to know is, how do you sustain that? How can you continue to run this much after college football and 30 years in the military?
[00:10:01.480] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Well, I guess I'm fortunate with some good genes. I've never had any major injuries. I've had some things. Last year, I was off. I didn't run for almost eight months. I had some serious Achilles issues that were giving me some planners fasciitis stuff. But knowing myself and knowing what I needed to get back, I needed to commit to my physical therapy, do all the other things, continue to do other movement that I could do, and just understand that I had to adjust the... Take a detour, but the destination wasn't going to change. The idea that I could get back to running was what I set my mind to, and I really worked through it. It was hard, but it gave me something to shoot for. And that's always been a part of my journey. The other big part of my journey, and it's not like a cliché because I worked for Team RWB or I was a team guy as a Green Beret, but I played team sports all my life, as you mentioned. And there's something to this idea. I think, personally, everybody was like, you're born into a team. That's the only one that you didn't choose.
[00:10:59.220] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
And then from there forward, you get to choose your friends, you get to choose your path. And there's always those folks around you that are going to help you or not help you get to where you want to get. So I believe life is a team sport. And if you choose the right path and do the right things, you can maintain your health and get after it. I would say things hurt. They hurt all the time. All the stuff I did in the military, playing college sports, I played rugby as well. It's just there's aches and pains, but I am a firm believer that the issues I have would be a hundred times worse if I start to allow atrophy in the muscles around my joints that hurt. It's like the stronger I am, I have a friend who always says, motion is lotion. You just got to keep moving, man. So I'm not as fast as I used to be, and I'm fine with that. But as long as I could continue that movement, it's what continues to motivate me. It doesn't always feel great, but I know it would hurt worse if I wasn't doing it, if that makes sense.
[00:12:00.000] - John S. Berry
So do you do yoga, cold plunges, breathwork, or do you just use the ranger school methodology of wake up, suck it up, and move?
[00:12:07.130] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
No, I am a firm believer in understanding my data. I got my aura ring on, I try to maximize my sleep. I track all these different things. Big fan of compression sleeves. I bought some Normatech boots. It's not an advertisement, but the strong... Like laying on the couch every night or every other night with some Normatech boots on and creating some circulation in your legs is incredible. So I'll take any gadget or way to help keep things going that I can get and to do it smartly. I got a friend who just got me doing yoga. I've pushed back on it for years. I'm horrible. I'm not very flexible, but I've had several people say, It's great. Your flexibility is key to continue to move, your joint health. So it's committing to all these other things because it's a constant journey. At RWB, we keep saying, Hey, tomorrow better than today. That doesn't mean I'm going to be faster. It doesn't mean I'm going to be able to deadlift more than I did when I was a football player or a second lieutenant. But what it does mean is that I can still do it, right?
[00:13:10.530] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
And I still can feel the endorphin rush and the feeling of accomplishment. So for me, it's just a continued effort to find the ways that keeps me healthy, to do the right things. Like with the Achilles stuff, I still do my physical therapy exercises because I know that's what's going to keep me from it coming back. It means more work and more time to do different things. But I don't know, it motivates me. It keeps me going.
[00:13:38.680] - John S. Berry
I've noticed one thing about leaders that stay in shape is it seems like it's just in their DNA. My dad had a great story in Vietnam when he defended the commander of the Fifth Special Forces, Bob Ro. Basically, they said that Bob Ro's men had committed war crimes by killing a double agent, and so they locked him up. He said, Well, I'm the commander. I give all the commands. So they locked him up, too. And he still wanted to do PT. And the story my dad tells is that he was going to go for a run every day, and the MPs could not keep up with him, so they would just release him into the jungle. He'd go run 10 miles and come back every day.
[00:14:13.700] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
That's awesome.
[00:14:14.330] - John S. Berry
Even when he's being detained, he was still going for a run. But I think there's something to be said for, you can't let anything stop you from doing the physical thing, because the physical and the mental are intertwined. And when we stop moving, it's like we're making a choice. It's like we're quitting, right? Look, I have a buddy who was one of my squad leaders back in the '90s, started a CrossFit gym, opened up five of them.
[00:14:42.690] - John S. Berry
I remember he told me, Hey, we're doing this at 5:00 AM. I showed up and I'm like, Oh, man, this sucks. It's like being back in the military. There were amputees doing CrossFit at 5:00 AM. I'm like, Okay, I have no excuses not to be here, not to be doing something.
[00:14:59.700] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Exactly. Yeah. I mean, that's what it's all about. It's about continuing to move. I mean, for me, it's definitely it's therapy. I do some of my best thinking when I'm on a long run by myself. It's even better when I'm with somebody and you could just You're embracing the suck together, but at the same time, if you go on a long run with two or three friends and you talk the whole time, I mean, by the time it's done, you're like, I just can't believe we just did a half marathon or something. It's a different feeling. And I definitely think there's obviously a chemical release and all the other things that happen in your brain. But for me, it definitely is a form of therapy just to keep that movement going. So, yeah, I'm a firm believer that you just got to keep getting out there, get after it every day. It's unfortunate because too many Veterans see the opportunity that isolation is freedom. I don't need to do the thing at the CrossFit gym to prove myself anymore. It puts them into this decline that eventually, hopefully doesn't end in a way where they're physically not able to take care of themselves.
[00:16:10.700] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
But ideally, someone like us can find them and go, Come on, man, get off the couch. Freedom is not isolating yourself on the couch. That's not what it's about. It's getting up early, doing some hard things again with some people that motivate you. And you're really going to feel much better after you're done.
[00:16:27.180] - John S. Berry
Yeah, I think that's the beauty of physical fitness. It parallels life. You're never done. You've never earned it. You got to keep improving. If you don't, you lose it. And there is such, I think, an empowerment in being able to say, I can move my body today. We all have injuries. We all have pain, but it's that choice. I think it's the same thing as a leader, as a business owner. You got to keep moving forward. You've never made it to the top, because even if you're where you wanted to be, everybody's looking at you. Staying on top is pretty damn tough. If you're going to sit around and do nothing and not try to improve, you won't be on top for very long. I've seen that happen to some people. They get complacent, and as we know, complacency kills.
[00:17:15.460] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Yep.
[00:17:16.010] - John S. Berry
Tell me this, Sully, what is the best way to encourage Veterans to get back out there, join that running team, do an RWB event? How do you convince them that this is the right thing to do for your mental health, for your family?
[00:17:32.300] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Yeah. Well, I think part of it is just exposing people to it. So it takes effort. Some people will be like, All right, I'll come out. I'll check it out. There are some folks like me that would say, I really don't need RWB, but I'll go help the other Veteran out. And then after you do it a few times, you realize you're getting more out of it than the people that you think you're there to serve. So this idea that you still need, I think it's ingrained. It's almost, some would say it's beaten into all of us that serve from the time you enter your basic training to the moment you get out. It doesn't matter how long. You're put into this crucible and given this idea that service matters. It's encouraging people to understand that just showing up on a Wednesday to go for a walk, a ruck, a run with another five or six Veterans, a couple of civilians, a couple of family members, that's an opportunity for you to serve. And they're almost like, I mean, come on, man. It's not like I'm feeding them. It's not like I'm building a house or doing something crazy.
[00:18:37.850] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
I go, Yeah, but you're building their house. You're giving them a foundation so they can have a better tomorrow. It's going to be good for you. You just need to get back out there and experience that. And I think if you can get that hook in, most of the folks that come out to an event, they experience something tough together. They start to just get to talk to somebody and just share what they're doing day in and day out while they walk for a 5K. It really starts to change their attitude about what is physical fitness and what it can do for you. It's not the thing that you had to do at 6:30, half-right face, give me 20 pushups, get up, and now we're going to go for a force march. That stuff's miserable. People think they're choosing the happier life when they don't realize they're choosing not to take care of themselves the way the military actually knew they needed. You needed that. You needed to start the day with those endorphins. So, it takes some work. Some of it's just showing them they can be fun. Some of its showing them that it is good to challenge yourselves again.
[00:19:41.240] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
And then just also letting them know that It's okay. The timeline is yours. That's the difference in terms of you did get to choose yourself and then try to give them the opportunities to do the things they want to do. So that's what we're trying to do at RWB.
[00:19:56.980] - John S. Berry
So has your leadership dynamic changed then to try to get more people involved. So if I take you back to your 20s when you're the captain of the football team or when you're that young Special Forces officer and someone wakes up and they tell you they're sore, they're tired, or you tell them, Suck it up and get out there, what's it like now when you're talking to guys in their 50s and they're saying, Oh, man, my hip hurts my shoulder. How do you handle that as a leader now?
[00:20:21.880] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Personally, I don't think I've changed too much. You got to meet people where they're at. But at the same time, I actually believe a lot of people respond to a higher expectation. My wife's a high school math teacher. We talk about this all the time with her students. She goes, If I set a lower standard for them, they're going to hit the lower standard and they'll be fine with it. It's the same for anybody. I think it's especially for Veterans who are used to being held to a higher expectation and being used to being called out. Call that guy out. Be like, Come on, man. Get off the couch. We're going for the run. Suck it up. We're going to do this and you're going to enjoy it. I don't think that's changed as much. I think I do. As you get older, you get a little bit more empathetic and understanding that people have a lot of problems. Life happens. There's different stages of people's life in terms of how old their kids are and how they're involved in sports. And the good thing about RWB is we're just kind of always there. The stickiness can come and go based on what you need, but we're not going to go away because the mission is evergreen.
[00:21:26.800] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Health and wellness is always going to be something you got to work on. You always need to have personal relationships in a community to help you with things, so we're here for you. But I think for me, I just, again, that mentality of a team got me to where I was at. I was successful in college because I was a team sport athlete, I think. I think those guys, that was the best thing that I got out of my experience in college was this group of people that were doing hard things together. And it translates to what we were doing in the classroom and then what we did after. As a Special Forces guy, I definitely believe that. The power of the team and then green berets, it's always work by, through, and with other people. Build the network, build a larger team. This thing's... Build the movement. It's all about what you can do to pull people in and motivate them. So I feel like I was prepared for this second career, second calling post-service. It all translated pretty well.
[00:22:29.300] - John S. Berry
And I want to move to the future of Team Red, White, and Blue. But first, we're going to do the after-action review. Your examples of great leadership and horrible leadership. One to three examples of great, one to three examples of bad. We'll start with the great.
[00:22:42.420] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
I think the greatest leaders that I had were the ones that took the time to truly mentor, coach, and teach, and then to set the example. They're the ones that were willing to roll up their sleeves, get their hands dirty, but also when to know to step back and allow those that they were leading to get the work done. And I always tried to emulate that model. And then I think the ones that are, again, not to name names, and I'm probably one of them. I've talked about this in other times, other podcasts, that one of my biggest failures when I was a battalion commander, I started believing in my own hype a little too much. And I think the worst leaders are the ones that forget the fact that that humility and that understanding that maybe even if you do think you're right and you might be the smartest guy in the room, that is not the best approach in terms of the environment of working with other people, and especially when you're trying to lead down, and sometimes when you're trying to lead up. So, I think that for me, the biggest examples of when failure creeps in for a leader, it's when they start to lose that humility that keeps them grounded and allows them to be that guy that's going to lead and then step back and allow things to happen.
[00:24:08.080] - John S. Berry
I think I've learned this lesson over and over again in the military and then as well in the courtroom. Your performance is never as good as you think it is, and it's never as bad as you think it is either. It's somewhere in between. Let's talk about the future of Team Red, White, and Blue. What's your vision?
[00:24:26.040] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
For me, just took over in October, a longtime member, and I've seen some iterations over the years. It's a difficult time in the Veteran space in terms of the nation hasn't moved on, but we're just not the number one narrative. When you had two wars going on in Afghanistan and Iraq and other things happening all over the world. The nation was on fire for what they could do for a Veteran, and Veterans and service members were on fire for each other. I think some of that's coming back, even though we're not in a time of conflict, but it's a challenging environment to make sure that you're heard, and people understand what you're trying to do for the Veteran community and the community at large. I see my vision is we got to continue to stay focused on what we do. Team RWB, being a community-based holistic health and wellness model where we keep people left of clinical is our sweet spot. We're not doctors, we're not specialists, but what we can for you is keep you moving, keep you active, give you a sense of purpose, create some really great relationships in your life, and that's going to help you with other things.
[00:25:38.800] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
It's going to build resiliency when the bad times do happen. We can't prevent everything, but if you stay a little bit on the left of that and work on it, maybe you won't have that issue that you got to go see the doctor about with your knee, or maybe you won't have that issue, some mental health issues, because you got a group of people that are really helping you through it. But if it does happen, hopefully we've made you a little bit more resilient so you can go deal with it and then come back to the team. And I really want to continue that effort and build upon what we're doing and scale it. I think there's so much more Team RWB could do for the Veteran community and just the community at large when it comes to this health and wellness approach and what we need to do to continue to work on it as Americans. And I really see Veterans as the leaders in this effort in terms of, as a Veteran service organization, we're providing the service not only for ourselves, ourselves and our other Veteran members, but for all those members that can join.
[00:26:33.960] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Because again, anybody can join. It's the secret sauce of RWB. It's not just for Veterans, it's for the community at large. It's for active-duty Guard Reserve who will be Veterans someday. And bringing all those people together and seeing this positive aspect of what Veterans are doing for themselves to move the needle and to move forward is critical. So, the long-term vision is to fight back against some of the narrative that's going on in the Veteran community that we're damaged from our service or we're all needing extra help. It's not a Veteran welfare community. Really, Veterans are the lifeblood of this nation when you look at our history, and I think we all have something to provide. And we want to be that positive force for good when it comes to health and wellness for not only Veterans, but all the people around us that we find in our community. So, for us, it's like, how do we scale that? It's two ways. It's continuing to grow our in-person communities through our chapters, providing cool and fun events that challenge people, that bring people out, like the GWAT 100 and these other events that happen all over the nation.
[00:27:37.560] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
But also, we've leaned into this idea that we're a hybrid world now, and we have a really good application that allows our members to connect digitally in a positive manner. There's no algorithm in there, and it's all focused on health and wellness and your journey. And we want to continue to build that out so we can provide our members an opportunity to get smarter, better. They can understand what they're going on through. They have a community, both online and in-person, that's going to help them move things forward. For us, it's just how do we continue to scale that in a positive manner while we don't lose sight on our vision moving forward.
[00:28:17.440] - John S. Berry
Yeah, great vision. As you pointed out, the thing that I believe as well is that our Veterans are our nation's greatest resource.
[00:28:24.540] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
Absolutely.
[00:28:25.240] - John S. Berry
We've got tested, proven leaders that our country has invested a ton of money into, and yet we're underutilizing that resource because of a narrative that's out there. Instead of the Veterans are broken, it's almost like, no, Veterans are elite because they're tested, because they come with batteries included. They've actually led people. They've actually stood for something greater than themselves. They've raised the hand and swore that sole of oath to the Constitution to protect others and to protect the letter of the law. As I said, we are a nation of laws, not a nation of men, but we wouldn't be there if we didn't have the Veterans and the support of the Veterans. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to be an infantry officer before I became a lawyer, because before I said, I'm going to support and defend the Constitution as a lawyer, I had to see it from the ground. That was what an honor and an experience. And yet, as you know, we have so much to give back. If we're not getting out moving and taking care of ourselves, we're not fulfilling that promise because the oath never expired. Here we are saying we're going to continue to serve, and then we come back, and it's easy to get complacent.
[00:29:39.380] - John S. Berry
But there are heroes like you who will say, No, no, no, that is not This is not the end. This is the beginning. How do you grow? How do you grow Team RWB now? Now that the spotlight is not on the Veteran community anymore, how do you grow it?
[00:29:56.940] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
I think for us, again, we can't move away from our mission or try to be something we're not. So again, understanding that we're like a health and wellness community tied to physical fitness events, that's what we do and build that community together. Keep that as our North Star. If you try to do too much, It's going to get diluted, and it's not going to be who we are. For us, it's continuing the drum beat. It's things like this event this month. I mean, the fact that we got 24,000 Americans, the first event ever in team RWB history where we have more active-duty participants in the event that we're putting on than Veterans themselves. It's almost the same, but there's a little bit more active duty, and we think that's great because, again, it's that transition drift that gets a Veteran. That first two years out of the service is where you start to, are you going to be that resource that we're talking about, or potentially, are you going to become something that we got to really start to work on? So, we're really excited about that. So, it's that use these big events to continue to get the message out and understand that, hey, even within the active-duty community, PT can be fun.
[00:31:06.840] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
You could get out, you could do a challenge like this over the month of February, pull your teams together. It gives you something else to aim for. And to show that there's a bunch of Veterans that are doing this and leading it is going to be the key. We're doing other things. We're leaning into the idea that the world is changing. With the next iteration of our app, we're looking to bring in the capability of an AI bot that would help not only the chapter captain better understand their members and what they're wanting to do, so maybe we can provide better in-person events that you know, Sully would want to come out to because he loves to run. Or for Sully, it's like, Hey, you're into wearables, you're into all this stuff. You self-assess the things you need to work on is this because we have a little survey that we have all our members do. But maybe that bot could become a coach and help out with the other people just be like, hey, Sully, you need to work on this and this and this. You said you had this big running goal. You know that the group gets together every Wednesday in the park.
[00:32:08.860] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
You need to go next week. Show up to the in-person event because that's where we're people. We need that community. So, we're leaning into those ideas as well, because if we don't, the technology is going to move past us. And if we just want to be on the sidelines, saying we don't want to do that stuff, it's not going to help. So we're trying to innovate that way as well, because I think I think that kind of environment is what's going to drive people towards in-person community again, using a hybrid model of understanding that they can still stay connected on their phone, but at the same time, it's that 30 minutes of walking together with somebody that really was the meaningful moment of that week. It's just a constant grind to continue to try to get motivated, volunteers like I was back in the day to become the acolytes of the future, to continue to carry, we say, spread that eagle fire and really make it more of a movement than fall into the mode of just being an organization. And it's tough. If you study movements, we got to find that inflection point and keep going like, is this the second wave?
[00:33:16.400] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
We're hoping right now. You got what's going on with the GWOT 100. The nation is actually really starting to talk about nutrition and health and fitness in a different way than we did the last 5-10 years. So, the wind is at our back. Our sails are full, so we think that there's an opportunity to scale as we move forward.
[00:33:34.820] - John S. Berry
Outstanding. So, Sully, where can Veterans and supporters learn more about Team RWB?
[00:33:41.080] - Michael "Sully" Sullivan
So the easiest place is right at our website. So teamrwb. Org. And again, it stands for red, white, and blue, but teamrwb. Org. You'll find us, and you can find a little bit more about us, and there's a Join Now button there. Or if you're just sold, you're like, Sully, I don't need to go to the website. Pull up your phone. If you're an Android or you're an Apple user, you can go to the App Store, download our app, and you go through the little Join journey. Once you sign up, you'll do a quick survey. We ask our members to self-assess on your personal relationships, your sense of purpose, your mental and physical health. We'll give you a score, and then we're going to give you a pathway to help increase those scores. And then ideally, it gets you your first in-person event. So again, those three ways, the website and then the app stores, will get you to where we're at, sign up today, get involved. Once you sign up, we're going to send you a free red T-shirt, and we're going to tell you you're a part of the team.
[00:34:42.200] - John S. Berry
Thank you for joining us today on Veteran Led, where we seek to help Veterans build an even bigger, better future after military service. Unfortunately for some of our Veterans, the roadblock to a better future is that they are not receiving all of the benefits that they earned. If you need help appealing a VA disability decision, contact Berry Law.