A Voice For Veterans
Army veteran Joel Hunt believes all veterans should tell their story. As a radio show host on the Military Broadcast Radio network, Joel uses his platform to talk to veterans, highlight nonprofits, opportunities and give people a platform themselves. Joel also shares parts of his story of recovery from his TBI, learning to ski and competing in Sochi Russia in 2014 in the Paralympic games.
Joel "H Train" Hunt, an Army veteran, Paralympian and host of Military Broadcast Radio joins the podcast today but not for a "normal" episode! In this unique shakeup to our typical style, Joel takes over the reins and interviews our very own Keith about the Battle Buddy Podcast. As two veterans with a passion for supporting our fellow service members, Keith and Joel have a lively discussion about the Battle Buddy Podcast and how important is is for veterans to spend time with other vets and to find ways to uplift and empower each other. They also discuss the role of Military Broadcast Radio in providing a platform for veterans to share their stories and connect with their peers.
In This Episode We Cover:
Joel flips the script and asks Keith questions about the podcast
What are Keith's biggest lessons learned so far running the Battle Buddy Podcast
What is Keith's end goal with the podcast
Joel and Keith discuss the importance of empowering veterans
The importance of spending time with other veterans
Keith asks Joel to share about Military Broadcast Radio and why what people should know about it.
Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:
Check out Military Broadcast Radio: Mbradio.us
Transcript from Episode 92 with Joel “H Train” Hunt:
Keith McKeever 0:00
Welcome back to another episode of the battle buddy podcast today I have a very, very special guest. One tremendous, tremendous guy. And we've got a very interesting direction to go on this podcast. So you want to tune in for some of the questions because the questions are going to be fired both directions today. So without further ado, let's dive right into it.
Keith McKeever 0:21
Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever.
Keith McKeever 0:26
So today, I've got an old friend, Joel, a strain hunt. Joel, welcome to the show.
Joel Hunt 0:32
Keith, thanks for having me. You know, I was telling Keith, before we got on the air, that I am so happy, I'm so glad that there are so many veterans shows going out there talking about the veteran community talking about all the nonprofits that are out there. It's not just me, you know, I'm not saying I created or invented or whatever. But you know what, I mean, when I first started, there was very few and now there's like so much more. And, you know, I, I love that, you know, because now I'm at a point where I feel that, you know, I can kind of like, retire, you know, kind of thing. But one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on the show, Keith is because you know, you spotlight everybody else. And I think it's important. And I think it's due time to spotlight you because you and you know I'm gonna mess up names because I got to, you know me. But you and Richard, you guys are killing it. You guys are doing great. Your videos, great, your sounds great. Your contents great. You're having powerful interviews, I can definitely tell that you guys are changing veteran lives. And, you know, if nobody has said that to I want to be one of them that says that you and Richard, you guys are doing awesome. I'm so proud of you guys. I really I'm not saying that I'm superior or anything. But you know, I'm Jason you guys down.
Keith McKeever 2:28
I think I think you understand, you know, like, why we do it. Because I think we're all kind of cut from the same cloth. Like we were just we just want to serve our battle buddies, you know, we just want to serve and give back in some way, shape or form because we all deal with different things. And in some ways we deal with the same things just in different ways. Just depends who you are. But you know, it's enough of the struggling. We're all gonna, we're all gonna struggle with certain things. But we have to be there for each other. Right? Like, exactly, I hate to say it. Civilians do care about us. They just don't know how to care about us.
Joel Hunt 3:14
Sometimes, right, they get around, they get overwhelmed. And you really have to worry and I've told this before on my show, Gonzalez again, bats, you really have to before you like start talking, especially if you have TBI, you really need to know who you're talking to somebody that doesn't get overwhelmed with information. For example, if somebody like cuts off their arm or something, what is the civilian gonna do? They're there, they're gonna sit there, they're gonna start crying, they're gonna start flipping out, you know, they don't know what to do. They don't know what to do, because it's kind of like if your mom or dad died, like you have no direction, right in that instance, and it can be overwhelming, you know, and when you're deployed, and you have that, that orchestra around you, you know, if you don't have the right direction, that's okay. Because somebody over here you're right. They always can help you. But you lose that once you get back here because I think stateside is different than oversize. And I feel that you're more together you're more connected. Overseas compared to be in stateside stay inside is more like a nine to five job. It's not really that way overseas, at least in my unit. It wasn't.
Keith McKeever 4:55
But I would agree. I mean, that's how it was for me both times I was deployed, but even beyond that, like when you take off the uniform for the last time and you join the veteran ranks, join the cool kid club. You are surrounded by other veterans all the time. You just don't know it is not everybody walks around with a big ol sign on their forehead said. You know what I mean? Like
Joel Hunt 5:22
nobody told no. And nobody talks. I got a guy, I have nothing against him. He's here the battle buddy of mine. I didn't remember much. But I knew that he was on Facebook. And he got he got hurt he on a motorcycle accident. This guy's only like 35 minutes away from me. I haven't seen him since I rack. It's just so weird that people will travel miles and miles and miles, somewhere to meet up with you. But it's really hard to get that family member to visit that lives three hours away. Unless it's some kind of like a big huge holiday. Am I wrong? Or am I right?
Keith McKeever 6:10
That's that's a good point. You know, I took my family to Disney last summer. And I couldn't make it logistically happen. But actually, I've gone on a couple of trips over the last few years and went to went to Denver at one point in time. Met up with a lady I met in a veterans group, veteran entrepreneur, never served with her. She was Navy, but we were able to meet up met her and her daughter, me and my family met for ice cream. Met went to Miami on a cruise with my wife and another lady from the same group. She had a family emergency so we could could not meet down there. But we had plans to meet up and go out for drinks. But taking my family down to Disney, we were trying to make plans to meet with a battle buddy of mine that lives in the Atlanta area. You know, so it's like, yeah, like trying to go through an area like, oh, do I have extra time to stop and see so and so that I know is in this area. You know what I mean? Like, you know, when when going through there, like, I know how to do like, trying to try and get there.
Joel Hunt 7:11
I know. And you know, so many people. And I'm kind of like taking the show away. And I don't I don't want to do that. But there's a lot of people that get upset with other people for doing the same thing the other person would have done if they were in their shoes. For example. I traveled to Indiana because one of my best friends died. And I went to the funeral. And it was so funny that people that I knew I you know, I kind of thought to myself, I I kind of expected them just to drop everything and just pop over and you know, I'm thinking and like I said it was my TBI, Keith, I find myself thinking more and more every day. I'm thinking to myself, wow, you know, when I'm here at the house, and I have like this schedule and stuff and people, they say hey, man, can you blah, blah, blah? And I tell them no, like, now now it's like reverse now I know how it kind of feels, you know what I mean? So I don't get as upset. I guess what I'm saying is that's a that's a thing that helped me control my anger. I got a friend of mine. He he gave me an entourage or whatever you call it, you know, you know what I mean? But he gave me the phrase of everybody doesn't interpret the Bible the same, the same way. Everybody has their own interpretation. And it just spoke to me and I'm like, wow, you know, so instead of me getting mad if somebody does something to me, instead of me getting mad, I try to think to myself, Okay. Oh, what did I do to cause that reaction? And right when they can, when they come out? I kind of stopped and I'm like, Okay, let's compromise here. You know, and talk it out. I find that when you're dealing with a bully or anybody mean that if you just if you confront them and come in peace, you know, hey, yeah, don't don't go aggressive because
Keith McKeever 10:00
gasoline to the fire. Right.
Joel Hunt 10:02
Right. Exactly. Exactly. But like I said, I don't mean to take the show off from you. I just what, what is the biggest thing? Because you told us what inspired you to start this podcast? What's the biggest thing that you've learned so far?
Keith McKeever 10:29
Oh, that's a that's a tough one.
Keith McKeever 10:38
There's a lot of cool people do a lot of cool different things. That's for sure. You know, ad. Gosh, you know, the time we're recording this, I think at episode 87 is coming out this week. Right? That's a lot of different conversations. Yeah, a lot of different topics.
Joel Hunt 10:53
It is. Not only do you have those conversations, but I'm guessing that you've drew a lot of knowledge.
Keith McKeever 11:01
Oh, yeah, you know, it's on all these different topics. You know, some of them are topics that I know something about. Others I know very little about. You know, I think back to Seth Connor, one of the early ones, we talked about psychedelics, I don't know anything about psychedelics, I don't know anything about ayahuasca, or, you know, magic mushrooms or, you know, whatever. Like, that was really fascinating. But I could get just as excited about that, we're talking about real estate and personal finance, like stuff more about like, it's just, it's so interesting that everybody has their topic and their and, and this thing that they're an expert at, that they're coming on to share, right? And, you know, my goal is to make that whatever that guest is an expert at. To turn that into something that educator inspires. The military member, the spouse of the veteran or veteran spouse, whatever, educator inspires them in one way, shape, or form. So when they listen to it, that they're like, hey, okay. Right, you know, okay, Joel has been through that. All right. Yep. Okay, he's, he's found ways to either overcome that, or deal with it, or whatever. Like, if he did it, I can do it. Yeah, exactly. Or, if I'm not dealing with it, I got a battle buddy deal with it, I can share this with them. This will be helpful, or, you know, like, or, you know, like personal finance just just recorded one earlier today on personal finance and stuff like that. It's like, Hey, this is this is great information to teach young troops, like get your finances in order when you're young. So that when you, you know, get farther along in your career, you're set up for success, right, you're gonna get out of the uniform, and you got the rest of your life and retirement, hopefully, you know, at some point in time in your in your life, like, it touches everything with the rest of your life. So, like, it's just, it's just so fascinating. You know, as I say, it's hard to point to one thing that I've learned, because there's so many different topics. It's not like, we're talking about just entrepreneurship, or just, you know, one niche topic. It's just, every week is something different.
Joel Hunt 13:15
hasn't taught you empathy.
Keith McKeever 13:19
Yeah, yes. So you don't, it's a waste? Yeah, it really taught me to, not just that maybe to be more grateful. Definitely. But really, just to kind of stretch my mind to think about things I think back, you know, a few weeks ago, had had one with the civilian guest, we talked about art as therapy. Well, it's not necessarily new topic. But she brought up the art form of ikebana, which is a Japanese ancient Japanese art form that emperors and samurai would practice after battle to calm themselves down. And it was like, Oh, that's really interesting, you know, and how now it's mostly practiced by women, but she's trying to bring that as a form of art therapy, and healing for men. And it's like, I'm not an artistic kind of person in the form of like, I'm going to make something with my hands kind of are. So it really challenged my thought process to be like, Okay, this is interesting, like, and then she chant personally challenged me to create a piece, which I'm in currently in the process of creating, I would
Joel Hunt 14:27
say when it comes to like wood or anything mechanical, do you don't even ask me like, I will tear something up. I will screw wires and short circuit the doorbell has happened before, but when it comes to computers, you like the apps, the URL, stuff like that? I'm really good at that. Why? Why did you know? Why did God punish me? Yeah. See,
Keith McKeever 14:57
she actually she told me that In this, this kind of helped my mindset, she's like, Well, everybody's creative. And I said, Well, I'm not really creative. She goes, No, you may not be creative in the ticket brush and paint on canvas. But you're creative at something. And she's like, think about what could you be creative at? And I was like, I said, Well, I really like spreadsheets, and I love things being organized. Like I like, things have to be neat and orderly in their place. She has a CD. So yeah, very much. So she's like, well, that's kind of a form of creativity, and how you organize it, and the way you do it, and, and I was like, Oh, I never thought about it like that. You know what I mean? Like, she really challenged my thought process of what creativity could be. And sabe that's just a perfect example. I mean, a wonderful lady, her and I continue to chat every now and then it was just like, wow, you know, it's just one of those examples of just a topic that I didn't know going into it, I was like, I don't know anything about this. But it's going to be interesting, it's going to be fun, I'm going to learn something we're going to share with the rest of the world, right. And it's just kind of like a, that's just one of those examples where it's a gift that keeps on giving, because I'm like, I'm still kind of learning, I'm creating my, my art piece. And she kind of reframed my thought process when it came to the creativity. So, you know, this
Joel Hunt 16:20
idea, you know, when you need help with creativity, you can always call me and say, hey, you know, help make has a printed up pretty good at the overlays. Now I'm getting really good at
Keith McKeever 16:35
all right? I'll keep that nugget in the back of my head there.
Joel Hunt 16:41
So one last question that I have, and then you can ask you stuff is like, what is your end goal now? Like, you know, what you've done, you know, what you can accomplish? Like, what is your end goal? Like, what? What dream? Are you chasing? Are you chasing the B? on FM? Are you dreaming or chasing? You know, creating some kind of maybe like, a studio or group from veterans, like your community, you know, the spotlight thing that you have sent everybody, which I love that, by the way, you know, the contribute, like, I want to know what your in game is. I want to know what you're chasing for. And I think I think people that follow you and they listen to you, they would like to know your end game as well.
Keith McKeever 17:40
Well, this might actually surprise you. But I don't know that I have a real answer for that. Obviously, the goal since day one, like I said, is to educate and inspire. Right? The goal with each episode is to just get better at podcasting, to to put better content out there, to ask better questions, to find a way to promote the episode better to share it out there more. But at the end of the day, I mean, this all happened during 2020 When there was you know, obviously, we all know what happened there. But, you know, I did a lot of volunteering with the Honor Flight network. And we couldn't we couldn't do flights to DC, obviously, it wasn't safe to take, you know, a bunch of guys in their 70s to their 90s, early hundreds to Washington DC during the pandemic. So, you know, I had this idea before that. Now, when that shut down, it was like, Well, you know, I needed something to fill my void and my wife was kind of there in my ear a little bit too. And I had just kind of sitting on the shelf. So I just picked it up and started so 2020 I did three episodes 2021 It was every other week it didn't last year it was every single week I did an episode except for December I took the whole month of December off to kind of plan for this year and and whatnot. The really the goal is to just put out about 48 episodes a year and just continue to get better every single year interviewer or guests bring more value. And quite honestly just see where it goes. I don't know, you know, I don't know where the future where the future goes. It just depends on you know where where the guests and where the listeners take it. You know, where the real value I think in his show is is is more listeners listening and more listener sharing. Exactly. That's that's what the key is like this. I don't do this for me. I don't do this to bring a name for me. I do this literally for our veterans brothers and sisters, right? Because there's there's a chance that it could literally impact lives. This could literally keep people out of homelessness could literally keep needles out of arms, guns out of my It's like, just to be point blank here. And people above ground. Right. Like, that's, that's the goal, you know.
Joel Hunt 20:08
And so what I was getting ready to suggest is something that that I did, and I just Hi, I just want to share. Okay, sure. I've just got, especially with somebody that has TBI, there's basically research my whole self going through past journals, emails, AOL emails, I mean that shit. Okay, who you are way back? Yeah, exactly. online space. There's MySpace. Oh,
Keith McKeever 20:38
my God. How'd you how'd you recover that password?
Joel Hunt 20:40
Oh, my gosh, yeah, it's
Keith McKeever 20:43
I don't think most people want to know how you could recover, can recover MySpace password.
Joel Hunt 20:47
But one thing that I've learned, okay, is everything that I've accomplished in life. I did, like a timeline, everything that happened and everything. And psychiatrists gave me this idea, I can't take credit. So I put like a map, a pill or like a map on the wall. And I took a, I took five steps back. And I looked at my timeline. And I sat there and did I have been through so much shit. And now that I'm, you know, getting the remember, I'm remembering stuff that I don't want that, like just tears me up inside, you know, but with the sadness, one thing that I have learned is that everything, everything that I set out to do, like, you know, yeah, before we go on to, before I went to, for example, before I went to social, you know, my mom died. So when she died, I'm like, Screw it, I'm not gonna do it. And when, and my best friend pushed me to do that, you know, I've always kind of been the guy that when something happens, or trauma happens, I kinda kind of close up, I kind of close up. And, you know, instead of closing up, I think everybody needs to take, like, five steps back and, and look at like, Okay, I have accomplished all this. And I wanted to do this, this was a goal, I did it. Very few people in the world will be able to do it. I did. And then I made another I made another goal might have been small, for some, okay. But for me, it's pretty big. And my small goal, and I mean, it doesn't matter if it was famous or not, doesn't matter if it's like a real big time radio station. But my, my goal was to be on FM channel, because I was told ever since Colorado media school, that I will never be able to be a show host or guest host. Because of i Some people say I sound like I'm drunk. Some people don't say I don't it just depends on the timing of the day of apparently. But I've been told I couldn't do stuff all my life. Like when I played football, I was I was told that I won't be able to do because I was too little. You know, when I skied? I, I was told you're too old. You're not going to make it you know? So that's that's the one thing that I wanted to kind of share with, you know, not only you but ever, you know, everybody pretty much and yeah, that that's that's pretty much all my I then hit the I hit the time and shine thing later, after I edit. But this is the time that you know, I normally ask you like, the biggest thing that I that we can do to help the battle buddy podcast, it's your time to shine. So anything that I didn't ask you because I know you want to ask me questions and it's getting time I know that you might have some questions that you would like to spotlight like your handles, well, what can we do to help you?
Keith McKeever 25:11
Yeah, you know what, just sharing the message sharing episodes. Like I said, this is this is about getting the message, getting the episodes out to veterans, now I get it. A lot of my episodes are, you know, 45 minutes to an hour, not everybody wants to listen to it. But in that hour, 45 minutes to an hour, there's a lot of actionable information in there. You know, I purposely try to write four to six questions, deep questions for each one of my guests. So that we're pulling out really, really good points. So you really, really should listen to them in their entirety. If it's if it's something that's interesting, if it pertains to you, or share it, share it on your network, share it to somebody who might specifically need it. Because like I said, at the end of the day, it's it's about the veteran community and getting the message out there to them, you know, and saving somebody literally helping somebody avoid homelessness, substance abuse, or, or, or suicide, you know, because we they're all huge problem in our community. Yeah. And
Joel Hunt 26:15
like we champion secret, like the military, your exam,
Keith McKeever 26:19
because like I said earlier, like civilians care about us, they just don't know, not all of them, I should say, they don't want to blanketly say that. They all don't. Not all of them know how to take care of us. There's some they do a tremendous job of serving the veteran community. I know some of them personally, tremendous people, some, like they just don't know how, but we have to do a better job of stepping up and taking care of ourselves. Yeah. Like, there's a time and a place to poke a little fun. You know, hey, it's an airman up, poke a little fun, you know, an army guy or marine or a sailor any day, there's a time and a place for it. But then there's a time and a place to not do it and to get serious and have conversations and be like, hey, look, we're okay. Not playing around. We're battle buddies. Are you taking care of what you need to take care of? Let's get you just get you taken care of. Like, you know what I mean? We're, we're brothers and sisters, like, and I firmly feel that like, I've tried to raise my kids to see that, like, at the end of the day, if I see somebody on the street, and they're holding a sign it says veteran, like my kids are like, Hey, Dad, look, here's one of your brothers or sisters. Like, they're at their young age, like they're recognizing it, let's like, yeah, like, yes, that's how I want to see, you know what I mean? Ya know, but it's just, we got to do what you got to do a better job. Like, that's all of us. I'm pointing the finger back at myself, too. There's more I could do. Like, I just have a way of just all I'm doing is inviting people to conversation, and I'm sharing it with the world. Right? Like, there's more I can do. Like, I've got some of the things I could do yet. Like, I could put those put together some little things in my car for for homeless veterans. There's maybe some things in my community I can get involved to do. There isn't a limit to what you can do. There is but every one of us should find something that we can do. Got to do. Yeah, fine. find some way to give back
Joel Hunt 28:13
T word we have to empower. That's the only way that you're gonna fix your TBI. You fix your PTSD is you empower another veteran, that's how you fixed 22 or 44, or 64, or whatever the number is, I'm so sick of hearing about it. We have to empower other veterans to do stuff.
Keith McKeever 28:42
Point get out volunteer for another organization or go fundraiser if you can't do that, and you can sit on your hands sit at home and pull out your cell phone and call your battle buddies. And pick one a day. You know, however many gotten your phone pick one a day and give him a call shoot him a text Hey, how you doing today? You're doing okay, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Everybody can do something like you everybody's got five minutes out of there. They get text somebody just do it on rotation. Even if you only know seven people, every Monday you text the same guy how you doing today? This is your Monday check in. Know, I everybody could do something like as long as that way, you know you're doing something to try and help. Right? And that person may be fine for the next six months. But what happens when it's six months from now and they have a really, really bad weekend. Okay, and they're waking up that Monday morning. And they're in a really dark place. And you text like clockwork at 8am. And they're sitting there at 755 and they're in the worst position they're in and that text comes through at eight o'clock. And they look at their phone. And then I called Joel just texted me. You know what, maybe I should call him right now. I need a battle buddy right now.
Joel Hunt 29:57
You know, and I think that's what a lot A lot of veterans failed to realize is, veterans don't. They don't reach out what they do is, you know, because I was I was there. You know, they kind of they can plan their suicide out. And before it happens, what they do is, they'll look, I mean, I I did it one time for this, but I don't do it anymore. Now, it's more like, hey, we haven't talked to each other. You know, let's talk. Let's, you know, you're kind of like me in you. But there for a while I was texting. I was texting veterans. And hey, I was just thinking about you. I just wanted to make sure that you were good, because I know that like, nobody was talking to me, you know, and I didn't, I didn't I didn't put two and two together. Okay, you know, maybe they're working, you know, not, not everybody's day is like mine. And I never, I never thought like that. Like I said, you know, I went through my I went through my trauma with the incident. And I've learned a lot about myself.
Keith McKeever 31:29
Yeah, when you go through some dark times, you definitely learn a lot about yourself. And it's painful.
Joel Hunt 31:34
Yeah, it really is.
Keith McKeever 31:37
And, but I know exactly what you're talking about when when it comes to like, like reaching out to somebody calling somebody it's like, yeah, you know, are they gonna call like, is it a bad time? You know, like, you know, last time I was in a bad spot, like, I was not suicidal, but I, you know, I was really struggling with some stuff. And I thought about picking up the phone and reaching out to battle buddies, just to just just have somebody to talk to be like, here's how I'm feeling like, hey, like, just have somebody listen. And I was like, man, is it too late at night? Like, what's this person doing? Like? Do they really want to hear my troubles? Like, do I know this person well enough, like are they really want to hear it? You know what I mean? Like, and he starts second guessing it, you know what I mean? And I'll be honest, like, Dude, I ended up not calling anybody I just sat there cried for 45 minutes. I just sat right on my weight bench and just just let the tears roll. Like it was done. I just let the fucking emotions out. And I'm like, Cool.
Joel Hunt 32:38
So it's better to do that, though. Because when you freak out and get on, like trauma and stuff, you know, and you you reach out to somebody, they're like, oh, no, I'm not gonna walk away. I'm, you know, I can handle well, then you start, you know, you start the shit on them, like us having you overwhelm them. And then you just get a dark spot, you know, and it's kind of hard to climb out until that person that put you in that dark spot, reaches out and says, Hey, look, we're good. Yeah, people don't think about that.
Keith McKeever 33:18
As well. There's one good thing about you know, having well, great, great point to have a conversation about if somebody is struggling, you know, the suicide hotline, numbers, 988, press one, but go get mental health counseling, go get the resources that are available to you call the battle, buddy. If it's not that serious, or you know that one of the great things about counseling is they can teach you some tips and tricks to deal with things when they're stressful. So you don't get to the point where you know, where you're freaking out for 45 minutes or, or just the just the weight of the world just fucking crashes down on you for a while. Like, you know, it just sucks. Sometimes life just happens like that. Just you know, comes comes at you from 15 different directions. It just happens.
Joel Hunt 34:01
Right? either
Keith McKeever 34:02
yes or no? Why? I don't care who you are. And if you have trauma in your past or not, it's gonna come at you 15 different directions in the weights gonna get heavy on your shoulders. So yeah, and
Joel Hunt 34:10
if you have TBI, I don't care if you're married. I don't care if you have a girlfriend. I don't care what you have. Just let me know if you have a veteran that has TBI. Just know, if he can't find his keys. If I can find his wallet, and it serves How can I find his phone? You are not going anywhere?
Joel Hunt 34:34
There's a lot of people that are probably thinking about that. Be in that situation at that time. And watch how your opinion changes. Where it's very easy for us to say, Oh, we will never do that. But you've never been put in that position. I said to myself Long time ago that I would never pay to, like postpone with somebody, you know, get out of jail or whatever. And I did. So, before you say, Oh, I'm never gonna do that. That's why That's why we like seek you in the military I thought was funny, because I honestly cannot believe that shit, right? And then they seen up 15 minutes before. Yep. Hey, what's up, man? I used to get down. No, no, no, I couldn't I couldn't pay somebody to do my seat here.
Keith McKeever 35:35
Nobody wanted that job. So Oh, man. Anyway,
Joel Hunt 35:40
that's your questions key.
Keith McKeever 35:41
Yeah. Yeah, no, I just wanted to I just couple questions for you. Because obviously, you know, we wanted to flip the script a little bit. And have you asked some questions me, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to highlight what you're doing with military broadcast radio, I want to scroll that across the bottom. So what is military broadcast radio? And what is the backstory on that?
Joel Hunt 36:04
That's a no stress. Yeah. And I've kind of changed it, you know, because I'm getting some help with like the communication and stuff with a TBI. But it's, it's an unstressed radio station to where if you're a veteran, and you want that opportunity, you know, because let's, let's face it, unless you like somebody big or you went to college, or you know, somebody, you sometimes don't get that opportunity. So, I'm not saying MBR is like, the biggest out there. But you know, with Brandon join forces and being kind of a spokesperson for MVR, we have a little bit more visibility than other internet radio stations. And the only reason why he joined, you know, me and him kind of, like, partner together are not really a partner. Being You know, what I mean? Is because I like being a worker bee. Helping Veterans. I don't want nothing to do with the business side. You know? So, yeah, I just, I just wanted to the worker bee and you know, I've, it's one of the things that I've accomplished that I'm excited for, is I finally got to the point where there's a hospital in Lakewood. It's the VA valor. It's a homeless vets, the guys that are fighting the PTSD and TBI, like right here right now. You know, they're not on social media, you know, they are literally in that hospital. And I love that not only do we provide, like Christmas baskets at Christmas for them with 35 different resources. So it's not just hats and gloves, and all those all cool stuff. It's nonprofit logo swag, that when they see that, oh, good, nobody's gonna keep it the business card, they're gonna throw it away, okay. But if you buy like hats, or a shirt, or like a little wrist watch or something, it's it's not necessarily, you know, saying to everybody, Hey, look, you know, I'm doing this No, it's, it's letting you know, hey, look, you're a part of a team. And if you ever need help, you can Google or everybody knows how to use Google. You can Google that name, and you're able to get the help that you want. You know, we provide the resources we try to, you know, network and sends you to nonprofits that really work well. And when I say really work well, that means they don't fight the veteran, like they want to help the veteran, you know, they don't, they don't send them like a 912 page application. Here, fill this out, you know, it's not like that, you know, as people that really, really care, and that they want to, you know, participate in this mission. And that valor. It's starting big like Valentine's, and Easter and all those. We go over to Dunkin Donuts and we buy we get doughnuts, and we have doughnuts and coffee with the veterans with Stokely and we're trying to get other NFL players there because I told I want to tell Brandon is you don't understand how much veterans and people look up to you. And you don't think anything of it, but it's huge to be able to see sit there and eat a doughnut with Peyton Manning, or eat a doughnut with you. Now, granted, these guys are just like people just like us. But them giving a little piece of their time knowing that they could be making millions for like five minutes. That's that's appreciation right there.
Keith McKeever 40:30
What's I mean, it's huge for somebody's mindset. Yeah, like, hey, we all I think almost everybody realizes exactly like those people, their time is very valuable. They've got a lot of things going on, they could be spending their time a million different directions. But if they spent, you know, half an hour or an hour of their morning, just casually having conversation, eating some Donuts, donuts and drinking some coffee with them. Like, just genuinely being here for them would just be like just a big morale boost, especially when you're in a hospital, which let's just face out here. What the heck you're in the hospital for obviously not well known as a as a positive, wonderful place to be. Yeah, I mean, they're all there. I mean, yeah, we all know what that environmental
Joel Hunt 41:18
I love is, you know, every single time I get kind of like, stressed at work, and this last one, and then when we do it, you know, I see the smile on their faces. And, you know, ever since we started this program, me and Brandon, like, we haven't seen the same vets in there every single time. Like they're changing. And I really think Brandon is bringing a very positive outlook for them. Something like I said, to push for that goal. You know, their next goal is, wow, I just met Brandon. And you know, he was telling me, you know, I think I can do this now.
Keith McKeever 41:59
Yeah, but that's good. That's, that's awesome. Yeah, that would be that'd be awesome. I know. I'd love to meet him. Oh, hey, pay me.
Joel Hunt 42:08
Every time you come to Denver, brother. Great.
Keith McKeever 42:11
Yeah, you know, as we talked before, I am a lifelong Broncos fan. Like I I've been a Broncos fan since 96. Been diehard to the good years and bad.
Joel Hunt 42:24
Remember a few tickets. All right. I cannot get tickets. Everybody. Yeah. Can you hear me? No, I can't get a free ticket.
Keith McKeever 42:32
I I've seen him play a couple times. I went I went to Denver a couple years ago. I didn't get to go see the stadium but did a stadium tour. I was like I told my famous I don't care what else we do in Denver. So we are seeing the stadium. We are seeing the stadium. That is happening. And then I did I did go to Indianapolis because I'm in Illinois. I did go to Indianapolis for Peyton Manning's return. That's my home. The game did not go well. But we were there for the game. At actually, we stayed in the same hotel as the players. I remember. Somebody told us the players were walking out of the back of the hotel. And so there's a there's like maybe 20 people back here and the buses were back there. And I remember John Fox walked out. And a couple of the offensive linemen walked out is like, you know, these are big guys. What was his name? Vasquez or something like that was was Was there a time? guy was like, you know, six foot seven or something like that. He was one of the guards. Yeah, Maria walking out like Luis Vasquez. Well, if you're sure, yeah, right. He played for the chargers for for many years, too. Before you came to the Broncos. I remember this dude walking out and I'm sitting like across the alley, and I'm just like, yeah, monster.
Joel Hunt 43:46
For All. For all those parents out there that think their kid's gonna make the NFL. I guarantee you that. Unless you're over five foot nine. You should probably start teaching them like
Keith McKeever 44:01
golf and bowling and stuff.
Joel Hunt 44:03
Maybe bowling, you know?
Keith McKeever 44:06
Like, he's, I mean, he's, man. I don't know if it was his offensive lineman. I don't know, I just remembered some of the players coming out. And it was just like, I mean, I'm only five, seven. But I was just like, Oh man, I felt really small. I stayed across stories these days are huge. just huge. Just giants of men.
Joel Hunt 44:26
I feel with Stokely around.
Keith McKeever 44:31
Man. So anyway, job, man, I appreciate you coming on. And it's been fun to kind of flip the script a little bit. Yeah, some questions fired back to me.
Joel Hunt 44:41
I love that. And you know, if any veteran is interested and you know, as basically what I do is I kind of give you direction I kind of help you, you know, and if you're a part of MBR it's really easy when you're doing a show on MBR I can totally show it. To Stokely and he can give you pointers. And he can give you some feedback if you know if that's something that you want. I'm here for the veteran, and I'm literally trying to do what veterans want. The veteran told me that he wanted a studio here in Denver, to get all the veterans together so that we have, like a Denver media thing. And I'm working on that as well. So Oh, that's cool. Yeah, anything that I can do working for vets that, that that's my goal,
Keith McKeever 45:34
I can understand that. So I said like earlier, like, you know, my goal for my show, like, don't really have a goal like not one set specific goals, like obviously, growth, its growth and continue to serve. Not one specific, like, this is my goal. But yeah, you know, just continue to serve and continue to do things I think very similar to yours. Like, hey, where can we grow this and work? What can we do? How can we continue to have a voice so? Exactly, yep. So Josh, once again, I appreciate it.
Joel Hunt 46:04
Okay, thank you. I appreciate it. We finally got it done.
Keith McKeever 46:08
Yeah, absolutely. You take it easy.
Joel Hunt 46:12
All right, brother. Thank you have a good one.
Keith McKeever 46:16
All right. There you have it, folks. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember to check out the website battle buddy podcast.net for all kinds of information and various resources and like I always say if there's a resource that's not on anything you should be please reach out, let me know. And remember, the National Suicide Hotline if you're struggling for any reason, is 988. Press one
