The Humble Alpha NFT
If you have followed the digital asset space recently you are probably aware of NFT's. If you are not, they are basically digital art, purchased with digital assets like cryptocurrencies. To say this isn't a space dominated by veterans would be an understatement. Stephen Kuhn along with his business partner Lane Belone, both Army veterans wrote the book Unleash Your Humble Alpha, which happens to be listed on the Battle Buddy Podcast recommended reading list, shows individuals how to live their life with more purpose, quality of life and also become and alpha person while maintaining a humble attitude. As their book and message has spread the two of them had an idea on a trip to Peru. Using the book and its principles to find a way to give back to the veteran community. This started the HAVE or Humble Alpha Veteran Empowerment ecosystem, which in turn led to the creation of the first and only veteran challenge coin NFT project. This project gives back a portion of any proceeds directly to veteran nonprofits allowing veterans to build wealth and support a growing list of non profits! Steven joins the podcast to discuss this story in more depth and the important mission he and Lane are on.
Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:
https://wc.vetpreneurtribe.com/join-warrior-council1588153926334
https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenekuhn/
Battle Buddy Podcast Links:
Transcript from Episode 43 with Steven Kuhn:
Keith McKeever 0:04
Buddy with Keith McKeever. Welcome back to another episode of the battle buddy podcast. I have a guy that I've known for, I guess about a year and a half, but it seems like a lifetime now. Mr. Steven killin here. So, welcome to the battle buddy podcast. Steven. Finally. It's great to get you on here.
Steven Kuhn 0:23
Thanks, brother. Appreciate it, man. Good to be here. It's
Keith McKeever 0:26
been a while. It has. Yeah. It's it's been difficult to make those 30 Thursday morning meetings, but I've been trying to hit the Thursday evening meetings as best I can. So it has been a little while. But before we get started, go ahead and tell us a little about your your journey. What was your military story what you know, catches up to who you are and where you are today.
Steven Kuhn 0:45
Right? Well, I I got chaptered out and I'm just kidding. I joined in 86. I was 19. went to Fort Knox did the OSEP at the armor school. Graduated the Excellence in armor program and got placed into a special unit in in Germany, called the Canadian Army trophy unit cat. Canadian Army trophy was a biannual competition of NATO 10 gunnery units from all the NATO countries and since 1962, and the Americans had never wanted well. 1987 we want it long. So I'm one of the 16 guys in the history United States Army that ever won that trophy which is blows my mind. I was my one year mark in the army, I got an art comm Army Commendation Medal. As a PFC, I was like, this is easy. To do much, I mean, and that was a draw, I was a tank driver. So and it wasn't like I just shoot or anything. And then that sort of put me on a path of being noticed, as you know, in in second brigade, third Armored Division at Calvary, in Germany in Guild housing. First, the brigade commander, the new one who came in a couple, I don't know, like a year later, asked if there was anyone from count left, and I was the only one left. And he said, You're my driver. I was like, what? So I became the Colonels driver, which was the worst job I ever had in the army. That sounds terrible. Yeah, it was, it was like, go get my coffee. And I literally drove in the morning at 4am, before PT up to the mountains to get fresh Springwater for his coffee. So yeah, it was a horrible job. But he was a great guy, Vietnam veteran, full bird colonel was in for 28 years, one of those crusty old guys that was an e6 before he became an officer, you know, just just nasty old guy, he would like flip General's office, it was crazy. Crazy. And remember, the wall was up then. So we were at the border all the time, doing our GDP, general deployment, you know, practices and all that kind of stuff. And then we go to the border and do border patrol for our 11th ACR, level and recovery regimen. And so that was all exciting. But then Wall came down. And I witnessed that and that was incredible, to see what's going on. And to see all that going on and, and the celebrations and the happiness of the people in the very liberal East German women. When the military anyway, so as a soldier, you know, we have our excitement anyway. So and then the word then the war in Iraq. And since we were the largest armored division in the army at the time, they sent us to Iraq, and went to Iraq, and spent six months there, I came back, I got a Bronze Star for Desert Storm, which, you know, is weird, but it happened because when you compare it to this war, or operate, you know, whatever, Iraqi Freedom, then you're like, Okay, you know, sort of makes you feel sort of like, not worthy. And then in 93, I decided to get out. And I got out, I got a European out. And I stayed in Europe, in Germany, which is where I live for a few years, and I still have a residency there. My main residency is there. But I live in Hungary now. And I've been a civilian here since 1993. And yeah, just loving it. Loving Europe.
Keith McKeever 4:19
Sounds like a blast, especially because I've heard other parts of your story and the wild adventures and bartending and a few other things that you did. It's just kind of crazy, you know? Yeah,
Steven Kuhn 4:31
well, I own three bars in a nightclub. You know, got my nose and my eye socket broken by the mafia, separated retina, broken ribs, elbows, I mean, all kinds of stuff. Trying to fight you know, like, the mafia, right? Like, you can't take over my bar. I'm a veteran. You can't mess with me. And I'm like, Oh, really? You know? And I was like, damn it. And I And so, you know, I was got American cockiness that we have special There's a soldier getting out and that they beat the crap out of me beat that out of me big time. But it was all experiences that brought me to writing a book about, you know, my goal for in German became bestseller. And I put me on TV for about a year where everybody knew me in Germany and then became a newscaster and the news, like a guest news agent, or we call it anchor. Every MTV VJ for country music in German, you know, as a guest DJ wearing a leather jacket with tassels. It was embarrassing, but that was
Keith McKeever 5:31
gonna be the most interesting thing I could possibly ever imagine saying. Germany around that time. Yeah, yeah. That's crazy. Wow. That's yeah, yeah, you know, and I'll make shapes who you are. That's, that's the interesting about all of our stories. And it all brings us to today, but Aluna a little lines. I know a few years ago, you met your business partner link below. Another great guy. And you guys wrote a book and it's actually behind you. I don't have a physical copy of it. But I listened to the audiobook, because that's my preferred way. My bookshelf was too full to add any more books to it. So the audio library is easier to expand. But it's an awesome book. I tell you, what I thought was interesting about it is I think everybody can reflect and they can see. Some people are humble. Some people aren't. Some people are alpha personality. Some people aren't. And I think for everybody who could could read it or listen to it, whatever. There's something that they can pull out of it, and it gives them something to work on. It kind of sets the benchmark and gives you something to work on. But tell us a little about you guys's book, and
Steven Kuhn 6:35
well, the book is, you know, it all started when I met Layne. He's like damn, What haven't you done? Like, you know, like, I've done all this crazy stuff. Like I worked for Mick Jagger, Olivia Newton, John Andre Beaujolais. These like famous people, the parliaments and dated the highest royal in Germany met the entire royal family and like hobnob with them as a complete imposter. Like, I'm like a grunt. I'm a tanker hanging out with kings and queens. It just didn't
Keith McKeever 7:02
make this random American dude sitting.
Steven Kuhn 7:06
Because I was random. And because I was self I was I was self assured or certain of who I was. That accepted me. It was like, wasn't me the question to this day,
Keith McKeever 7:15
they probably also really enjoy, you know, the stories and connecting with somebody that's not, you know, floating around in their circles all the time. So
Steven Kuhn 7:21
exactly who respects and is at their level not talking up to them or down to them? You know? And that's what the book sort of so a story is lanes like, Well, how did you, like do that? And like, What do you mean, I just walked up to him and started talking like, Yeah, but you had to, like, know your worth or something? Did you have like a process? I'm like, No, not process. And maybe I did, but I don't know what it's called. So we're like, we got to get the shit out. So we started doing interviews with an interview specialist, and just started talking, getting it all out. And it would come Oh, what about that? Oh, what happened? Oh, man, I remember that. I know. And that's how we came up with the five core models that were in the book. And so the book is 100%, applied knowledge and experience. It's not theory, and it's not knowledge, just sit in my head that I'm just talking about, or the lane talking about. It's what we've lived, and the results of how we lived. And so every one of the five chapters or portions is a story or two, with a lesson from that story. And then the exact action steps you can take to extract your own personal version of your humble alpha. What that means is, it's an operating system. So when you know, when you can articulate your own personal operating system based upon your identity, your purpose, right? When you can articulate that you can build upon that because you know, your your power and your strength. So when you're out there doing what you're doing, you're not going to do anything that's that's going to take away from your power, strength, or anything that will allow you not to step into your power and strength that makes you more powerful wherever you go. And you own your presence in life at that point. And that's where that true power of radiance comes from, where you can be funny inside and humble on the outside. You don't need to say word, everyone sees it, because you are certain of your ability to deploy your genius in any given situation. That's pretty much the book.
Keith McKeever 9:12
It's a good way to put it. Because just just listening to uh, once. My immediate thoughts was okay, all right, you read it or listen to it once. That's not enough. There's some books in this world, you can just go through once. This is almost like a workbook slash guide, like you said, you know, it gives you the actionable steps or like lean always says, you know, take imperfect action like Okay, write it down, plug it in your your tasks and start knocking these things out. But just going through a once I know personally, I went through this kind of thing right around the same time where I just started voicing my, you know, my thoughts and opinions and different meetings and stuff like that. And I'm like, I'm not going to hold back. I have something to say. It's going to add some value or some insight or spur some conversation and I'm going to say it you know, and I don't care if I ruffle some feathers, though if it needs to be said that needs to be said
Steven Kuhn 10:00
exactly as delivery to you know, I can deliver the same message mean happy, sad, crying, whatever, you know, it's the same message and yet we preach Imperfect Action creating as you go co creating with the world around you. And what that means is don't wait till earnings perfect because it will never be perfect just freakin take action, you have an idea take action immediately. And that action could be a phone call can be an email, whatever it is, but just take action. Right. And I guess, you know, if you look at the book as a workbook, which it basically ended up being now it's a course, it's at Forbes School of Business and Technology, and Harvard and Stanford are now looking at or negotiating, basically, to sign a contract to make this course a part of their bachelor's program, which freakin blows my mind. It's getting, it's getting looked at, put into the British ba system or Bachelor system. And in the Middle East in a Executive MBA Program. And this is a book that is an interview book that turned into a workbook, just so we can help people uncover their own operating system based on their identity and purpose. You know, and it's just, it's, it's, it's pretty, it's pretty amazing, because we didn't plan that we didn't plan the universities, we didn't need any of that stuff. You know, we set the vision of reaching out and helping 1 billion people change the paradigm of what they think leadership is, because it's all about you, it's not about anybody else with the courses you took, or know that stuff. Right? That can help you. But if you're not certain of your abilities, of your mastery, and you're it's hard to be a leader, full leader, there's leaders that have positions, you know, that positions but people are like, how's this guy leaders, you know, how he's doing kind of thing. And so we that's sort of where we, that's how we approach this whole process is, you if you can't lead yourself and how you lead anybody else. You know?
Keith McKeever 11:53
That's, that's a good right there. And you got a good point of like, things just kind of coming out organically, because I've seen that and like I said, about a year and a half that I've known you, because the book probably come out a few months before I joined the warrior Council somewhere write about that timeline. But then it went from there and then saw the reviews. And I know, you know, a lot of people in our same circle that have that have read it, talking about it. But then you and Lane took a trip to Peru. And I remember sitting in my living room you guys had posted in the Facebook group of like, Hey, we've got this big announcement, you know, such and such time we're going to do it. I was out there with my whole family. I Like everybody said on the couch, like Steven Elaine and have some sort of announcement there on this trip to Peru. Like if they're gonna if they're going to blast something out there that you need to pay attention to this like, I wanted to watch this. So we watched it on I think watch it on YouTube or watch on the TV. Maybe I cast it from my phone from Facebook, but you came out with half the humble Alpha veteran empowerment, which I am. I told you before we started recording, I was like I was looking through my T shirt GA Dana like that's the one that's today. So tell us what what that vision was that you guys came up with?
Steven Kuhn 13:01
Yeah, well, you know, humble Alpha came to the same way it came the name humble Alpha came through Peru or Peru journey as well. The idea for the book came to the Peru journey. Every time we go to Peru, we work with plant medicine, sacred plant medicine. And we expand our consciousness and release all blockages and activate our creativity. So the brain is a creative creation organ. Right? An organ of creation. It's not a storage vault. For for knowledge, storage, knowledge not applied is basically just taking up space.
Keith McKeever 13:33
Right? Exactly sitting in a drawer there somewhere.
Steven Kuhn 13:35
So when we get to Peru, we expand that consciousness so you can let go of the things that you're not you're not applying and apply the things that you do have that you do need anyway, so I'm sitting there, you know, and my intention when you work with plant medicine, you always have to put an intention like my intention is to x y&z and this time it was my intention is to bring together the humble alpha and the veteran empowerment. Right or the veteran worked, we do better on the vet printer. And I'm sitting there working with the medicine and I got this voice said, Write this down. And I wrote it down and it was half. I was like, have What the heck is have? I'm looking and looking and looking. And it just crystallized humble, alpha veteran empowerment. I was like, hey, Lane, come here. And I showed him he's like, that's it. Alright, man, see, went over and started finishing. We just finished what we were doing it was that it was that like non sensational. Right? It was just what it was. It was like, okay, like, the payment isn't delivered. We're gonna go with it. So we sat there and the next day, we went to the temple of the moon. We sat there and put up the camera and we said, I have no idea. We're gonna say Do you know no idea, but have it's powerful. We're gonna make this happen. And that's when we did the live. We had no idea what we were saying. We had no idea what we're going to talk about. We just created space and then flowed with it. And that's when we went out with that. And then what was it like a month later, there was the first half mission that we need to know what's happening. And for that it just exploded. Yeah,
Keith McKeever 15:03
that was awesome to see. I even told Jose, I was like, Man, if I could have got down to Texas out of the data for that, too. For those that aren't aware, we had a veteran in our inner where council that needs some help, he had a couple of storage containers, he was weld them together to put his coffee shop in, and he just needed a little, you know, extra set of hands. And I think it was about six or seven guys ended up going down there. And he cooks some food for them. And they were there for a day or two hanging out, not only building stuff together, but I know they sat around the campfire and had conversations and collaborated. And I mean, that's what it's all about coming together and collaborating. Well, that's what's
Steven Kuhn 15:39
missing. If, you know, I've talked to 1000s of soldiers and airmen and Marines and Navy and even some postcards. And one thing that everyone can agree on is, when we leave the military, we lose a few things. And one of those is community. You know, and that's not just the veterans, that's the families to, you know, you have commonalities that you're missing. Now you have, you know, you live next door, next door neighbor to the post office, The post guy and wife, they have no idea about your military background. But if you live on base with everybody, then, you know, I mean, it's like you have that community, you have that place to go. And the other thing is purpose, you know, we lose sort of lose purpose. And so we work hard on that kind of thing, you know, and have is that community. So these have missions mean a lot, we have the we're working with a have an F t now, we just launched that we're doing to recalibrate and relaunch now, because of the difference between a theorem and act and all these different kinds of Kryptos that are causing some blockchain issues. Don't Don't even get me started. But you know, we're not, I'm not worried about it. Because if then it's not built on NFT. It's not built on one thing, it's built on the community. And the community has been behind us the entire time. Lane and I preach hit honesty, integrity, transparency, honesty, with you with with why you do say and think like you do. Transparency is how you step into the world. Without honesty, it's your ongoing reputation. And the byproduct is integrity. And that's sort of how we live, not sort of it is how we live to the point of our own detriment sometimes, because we're so honest, and so transparent with all of our projects, and everything we do is when when something might not work out the way we said it, would we just say, yeah, it didn't work out the way we said it did. You know, and some people like, Oh, you guys, or whatever, whatever. You know, it's like a
Keith McKeever 17:21
tough pill to swallow to say that to Oh, not not
Steven Kuhn 17:24
anymore. I've not achieved what I thought I would achieve many times, but it's, it's a process. Look, your whole life is cascading in front of you. There's no time in life, you're gonna go, I made it. I'm done. Like this is it. I'm actually here bullshit. Because the more you learn, the less you know. And the more you create, the more space you have around you to create. And anyone with potential, anyone with capacity will always be attempting to fill that potential in that capacity. It's just like a goldfish. You're like what? So it's like goldfish, a goldfish in a bowl, we'll get you know, we'll stay that big. You take that same exact goldfish, if you have a goldfish, don't try this, put it in a big pot of water or put it in a pond. And that thing will grow like up to a foot long sometimes. Because they feel the space they're given. They feel the potential space that they're given. And humans are the same way. And that's why if you're always moving, and you're always learning, you're talking to new people, I talk to three new people every day of the week, in weekdays, so three new people every day, at least sometimes more. And I'm always learning oh my god, that's amazing, amazingly, but I focus on my core talents and my genius, if you want to call it that, right? And we're going to help these people best like in the book, you're going to learn to word moniker which is your identity. And mine is powerful connector. Right? So I make money from connecting people, real estate deals, investment deals, m&a, mergers and acquisitions. You name it like customers, clients, distributors, manufacturers, and I just made money just connecting people. Right? But I do it in a way where everyone wins, including me. But everyone wins. I don't just say oh, you need a client here. Go talk to Joe. No. Does Joe need your services to like, how can we, you know, I'm always I'm always putting that power into those connections. And it served me so well. It served me so well that I have a good reputation and so does Lane in everything that we do. Because we're no nonsense. If we screw up, you know what's integrity? Doing what you say you're gonna do, not doing what you say you're not gonna do and if you screw up, apologize and make it better. Yeah, that's integrity.
Keith McKeever 19:43
Yep, yep. And that's something we should all I firmly believe with, you know, lead with first.
Steven Kuhn 19:49
Well, and you said it's, it's a hard pill to swallow, but it is the first time you have to admit something or the second time or whatever, maybe the third time, but after that, it's so liberating. not to have to try to like, oh, well, you just Yeah, I screwed up. Yeah, it didn't work out the way we thought, yeah.
Keith McKeever 20:08
Yeah, we failed at something or whatever. But there's learning lessons, positive learning lessons, you can learn everything. As long as you look at things the right way and be grateful. You know, take that imperfect action for the next step, right? If you don't want to take
Steven Kuhn 20:24
imperfect action, no against energy creating and CO creating as you go. If you want to go a little further, no expectations, right? No expectation of a specific outcome, you have a picture, you have a goal, yes. But how it's gonna happen doesn't matter. Because when you're certain, that's all it matters.
Keith McKeever 20:41
That is a good one. And I'll tell you what the imperfect action thing, for me personally, has been absolutely huge. Yeah, I just keep it in my mind, you know, this podcast, or the other things that I do, and it's like, okay, I'm not going to be the number one podcast in the world overnight. But what can I do today? Tomorrow, what can I do this week to move the needle just a little bit? Yeah. You know, it's social, do business, personal life, whatever your thing is quality of life, you know, which I know. That's, that. That's another thing. And it's amazing how simple little quotes like that can just reframe things. And I know myself. Over the last year and a half, I've looked at that of like, okay, what is my quality of life? You know, I was involved in things like my homeowner's association, it did not bring me quality of life. And I, you know, just a couple of months away from finishing up my tournament being done, and passing those duties off to somebody else. And they keep asking why and I'm like, quality of life. It doesn't bring me anything positive, I get no enjoyment or anything positive out of it. So I'm not going to keep doing it. Makes no sense.
Steven Kuhn 21:43
I think if I look back, I came up with that strapline. Before I even met lean, I think, yeah, before I even met links, I stayed at the end, I still say at the end of all my videos, it's all about quality of life. Exactly. And it just became our mantra. and quality of life is enjoying life, no matter what the task or moment, you know, and no matter what you're doing, you're enjoying life. And I have to say, you know, it's difficult to be 100%. But it's not difficult to be at 90%. Right, you know, and, and Connie, life is literally, you reflecting back, like, wait a second, why am I upset? Why am I pitching right now, and with my kids, it's weekend or whatever, right? So what the guy beside me is, you know, driving faster, whatever, he flipped me off or whatever. So what? You know, that, you know, I mean, it's like being conscious of what do I got in front of me here, man, you know, I mean, like, what, what am I? What's my quality? Like, that doesn't serve me see, that doesn't serve me see, you know, that kind of stuff. And it's just, it's like you said, it's small, little statements, little reminders. Because, you know, one thing that the reason we wrote the book The way we did or had had it written the way we did at steps and stuff, because it really like, I would read like, Napoleon Hill, right? So the Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich. I'm reading it and it says tips in there. And and at the end, it says, Remember, when we said this, isn't that and you're like, shit, where was that? You're looking like, I didn't highlight it damage chapter was that and you're like, can you just give me some steps, man, like, give me like one to five or something. Just at the end of the chapter, please. You know,
Keith McKeever 23:22
most people are not organized. And I'm like, I'm reading the
Steven Kuhn 23:25
book, I'm not gonna stop and write everything down. I'm robbing the flow. And then I said, No, I want to have steps in this book and Lane and I said, Yeah, we want to have steps in this book. So I'm going to read a chapter do the steps, get the results go to the next chapter. And so by the time you're done, you're literally creating your own new foundation of your own operating system based on your your, your identity and your purpose. It's freakin amazing if I'm honest,
Keith McKeever 23:46
it is, like I said, I just listened all the way through the first time I have not gone back and done the action steps but just one read through or listen through has been impactful to me. And that's one of my goals is to go back section by section like you say, and start knocking those out. But but then all this all this have stuff in the missions all transferred to the NFT space, which I know you got a discord and there's a lot of people on there. And, you know, the NF T's have just just launched. And they are a series of challenge coins, which is awesome. Ended up fits perfect within the veteran thing. You went out with the Marines first, which kind of surprised me because even later, both army vets
Steven Kuhn 24:25
Well, it was the most it was the most recognizable mascot was a bulldog. Ah, okay, gotcha. Because what do we got? What's the army got? Mule? Who's gonna be like, Why is there a mule? Well, that's the army mascot. Oh, yeah. Most people wouldn't know that, you know, now, we're also serving partially the crypto community. So it has to be back and forth. And until we educate them on what this is all about what a challenge coin is why it's so exciting. Why it's a military collectible since the Roman times. You know, this is a it's a it's a big deal for us. And like I said, we're creating something that doesn't exist. I didn't say it here but like I've been saying we've We're creating something it doesn't exist yet. It just doesn't exist yet. We're compiling a basically, we're not creating a new wheel we're using have as an umbrella to consolidate all of the services that are already out there in the venture healing space and in the veteran transition space, right. And if you can imagine documenting all this on the blockchain for one central location, whether it's healing modalities and the results, or the programs that are out there, and the results in one location for everybody, instead of going to Google and finding out Veteran Service helped me boom, 350,000 entries, you're like, Oh, my God, where do I go? Right. So that's part of it. The second part is is since the 22 veterans a day who keep committing suicide and just happened again, yesterday. Can West Point, dude. Did It Again, someone did it again every day? You know, it hasn't changed in 20 years, man 22 veterans a day killing themselves? Yeah, is suicide. No, they're killing themselves. Alright, I'm gonna paint a pretty picture. And I know what it's like to have a gun in my mouth. I know what it tastes like, I've done it. Right. Back in those days after the war. I know what it feels like, No one deserves that shit. And this is a deal. 20 years that's been going on. There's probably 3040 50 times more nonprofits in the world back then. And it doesn't change anything why fragmentation and competition. There's competition in the ranks. We don't need that. So we're like, we're not inventing anything, you keep doing what you're doing, we're just gonna bring everybody together and put you in a central place so people can understand who you are. And that's why, with our, with our project we're donating up to with each drop up to 100. Veteran nonprofits 25 per mascot, right? When we launch. And it's a daunting project, I gotta tell you, it's not easy. The tech is overwhelming, it changes every day. The man the the complexity of it all, it's just just mind boggling. Right? So it's, it's, it's a learning curve. But again, you know, he learned this much you want to know more, you wanna know more, it just keeps going. Right? So here we
Keith McKeever 27:08
are, it's definitely some interesting stuff. Because I've, I would consider myself on the NFT a crypto stuff as somebody who has a base level of knowledge. You know, I'm no expert in it. I don't trade in it. It's interesting. But I know that a vast majority of the population is totally lost as to what an NF t is, or the blockchain or cryptocurrencies. And it's hard, you know, I would say, for those people, if you're that lost, if you're interested, get educated, if not, maybe stick with whatever investments that you were doing before, you know, because it is an investment, but it's not only just an investment for you, it's an investment into, you know, the veteran space and open those nonprofits, because we all know that there's, like 45,000, I think that are in nonprofits, in different spaces around the nation, and they're all doing things at different levels. And sometimes small levels, good, big levels, good. You know, doing things on a medium scale is good, but the more we can support them, the more we can hopefully change that number. It'd be great to see that number. Zero, but it's never gonna be unfortunately, but if we can get that number to be 21 or 20, that'd be great progress.
Steven Kuhn 28:13
Well, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's daunting to think about the fact that and this just came to me yesterday, is that I've lost more friends to suicide than I now have friends that are alive. A crazy thing about that, that's, that's, there's nothing that's not it's not even, you know, understandable in any way. And it's, it's a real thing. And when people reduce, like, some people reduce what we're doing all you guys are trying to make money from NF T's and stuff like no man. No, you know, Lane and I have financed the last four years of everything we do out of our pocket, you know, the warrior Council cost 49 bucks a month that doesn't pay for anything. You know, we have all of everything to go with at the website, all that kind of stuff. I'm not gonna get into the specifics and specifics but even our event in Texas, we paid out of pocket for that. You know, everything we did we pay out of pocket. Why? Because that's our mission. Was that mean? It means we got to work on the side to do our regular job, which we do the advisory, right, so Lane and I do the humble Alpha paradigm advisory upgrade program, program, Upgrade Advisor program. And, you know, busting our asses for this because we believe it, believe in it. And we believe that there's a better way, not our way. But everybody else's way just adjusted a little bit maybe a little bit more focused instead of like everyone for themselves. And so that's where this is this what this is all about. And so we have to stay focused on the good because people start talking about NFT Well, what am I going to get it meant and how it's gonna cost. Why is it taking you know, this price and that price? Because crypto went up and went down on the cost, you know, it's kind of stuff. You can get focused and lost in that. But we have a mission, we have a vision. And that's what we're going for. And we're looking at the things that people are saying good, so that we can build upon those instead of looking to things that are bad, that are distracting us from the good. And it's a it's a daunting task, because the more public you make yourself, the more vulnerable you are. Right,
Keith McKeever 30:23
unfortunately, in our community, your veterans to point the finger and say, Oh, you're doing something wrong, you know, it's like, like you said, you're trying to support eventually 100 nonprofits, you know, you know, this is big time support, and it goes beyond financial, but just the connections, and then being able to collaborate together
Steven Kuhn 30:43
to have missions. I mean, we our goal is have international half missions. We've already got Brits, Aussies and Canadians ready to roll and the half, they want to roll in half, they wanna have their own NFT section and stuff, you know, and they want to do international missions. Can you imagine doing a half mission with for Brits for Americans, like you have one Army, Navy, Air Force Marine, from America, Army, Navy, Air Force marine from the UK and from from Australia, we send them all to Bali to reforest or to help in a situation where there's there's trauma or whatever, you know, think about that. Think about that, well, it's not only awesome, what it does is it re educates the world, what the meaning of an army can be, because if you think about it, 18 million veterans in America, just veterans in America, that's an army, if I've ever seen one, right, or sorry, a military force, I'm gonna say army Marines, or the Navy or the Air Force. That's, that's a, that's a force to be reckoned with. And if we can send people through the world, helping with, you know, humanitarian situations, or like Haiti, and earthquakes and things like that, and we can do that through financing through through the so the nonprofits, and through NF T's, for instance, and maybe the investment fund, when we kick that off, then that's going to change the way people will not only look at America, and England and Australia, but at the military community, the veterans, and let's face it, veterans have the issue is when they get out, they don't know where to start. But when they start, but when they start, right 1% of America, or veterans, something like that, right? So close 1.5% of our veterans 3% of the entire population of America are entrepreneurs. But from that 1% veterans 13% are entrepreneurs. Think about that. So the proponent is 12 times, you know, whatever it is no, four times what it is, or five times what it is. entrepreneur in the veteran space as it is a non veteran, what's that mean? Creating jobs, right, pushing the economy, you know, help helping the local community, all these things, and it's just not focused on people use veterans as a token of achievement. You know, like, like, Under Armour, you know, the only only reason Under Armour worked with the Wounded Warrior Project, because it was great marketing. I don't want to say they don't care about veterans, but yeah. You know, anything that gets awareness out there, it's awesome, Wounded Warrior Project. They have a love hate relationship with most most of their people. But I mean, actually talk to the CEO or texted with the CEO on a cell phone general. He was nameless, but yeah, you know, and it's, it's, it's people ask me all the time, like, Why do you give so much of a shit? And I have to say, you know, because, you know, I, you know, when I got out the military in Europe, I had a hell of a time. I had like, a fight every day for like, a year, like a fight fistfight after I got out in Germany. And then I had a crash and burn like a breakdown, then I had the suicide attempt, then, you know, it's like, it just it was hell. That's why, and now, I'm in a place where I think it's pretty cool. And I want other people to be there. I want to help other people do that. And yeah, I'm the guy that pushes out, looking for new ideas, making new businesses getting better data, investment data that I'm doing, that's what I do. I'm not going to sit and babysit, you know, that's not what I do. Right? I'm not going to sit and go Kumbaya and stuff like that. That's just only in Peru. I'm moving because I'm moving right, right. lanes completely different. His energy is more like, Hey, let's go let's do this. Let's calm and look and, you know, so I'm the I'm the mover, right? I'm moving. I'm creating new things and bringing people together and getting investments and funds. Oh, NFT. What an idea. Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. And Layne sort of leans back and looks at all this and brings people in and talks to them and stuff. So some people love me some people hate me and it's not about me. That's all I keep telling people that's like it's not about me, you can Love or hate me, it's not about me. It's what I'm doing. That's all it matters, whatever you want to
Keith McKeever 35:04
have a good point about leaning in yourself like you guys are like a yin and a yang, I guess you could say like, I could see you being the one to energize him and him the one to call down. And let's take a step back. I know he was a Greenbrae. Like that, which fits perfect. Where there's personality, probably sit back, see what's going on, assess the situation. But the other problem I see in the veteran community is, is the lack of community, but civilians just look at us and they see the negative stuff, they see the PTSD, the suicide attempts, the homelessness problem, they see that drug and alcohol abuse, and it puts us in a bad picture. And it's like, where are the good stories? Where are the people that are going past their traumas, and succeeding at high level, impacting their community, and giving back and there's, since I've started this podcast, and since I've been in the water Council admit that there's a lot of people out there doing it, and their stories need to be shared. I'll give me energy every time I sit down with somebody, and do this podcast, because I'm sharing another story, it's an opportunity for civilian out there, to hear the successes and the things going on in our community. We got to change that narrative, like we are, you know, a lot of us come out broken physically, mentally, like, we all have some bumps and bruises, you know, we are young and dumb, jumping out of the back of five ton trucks and doing other stuff, right. You know, we, we took a hard physically, in some cases mentally, but it doesn't mean that we're bad people doesn't mean that we're dangerous, we have to change that narrative. Exactly. So
Steven Kuhn 36:33
well. And also, you know, it's, it's, let's say, narrative is partially self sort of fulfilling, if you know what I mean, like, like, we do it to ourselves, you know, sometimes like veterans, they, we have that temper we have whatever it is that issues, we have the PTSD, and so they refuse to get help. Because what's the one thing we do in the military? What do we learn to over everything? We can't do it alone. What's the first thing we do when we get out? I got to do it alone. Can I ask for help? Right? Can anybody help me do it on my own? And that's where a lot of primes come in? Because they have no support structures, we usually lose that anything, you know.
Keith McKeever 37:11
Absolutely. Yeah. That's a that's the biggest problem. You know, what? Definitely one of the biggest problems I mean, there's other ones financial employment, personal relationships, physical mental health, but,
Steven Kuhn 37:22
but it stems from it stems from that lack of structure, look, I mean, come on, we're told when to get up when to do PT when to eat when they go to bed. We're told everything you know. Interesting,
Keith McKeever 37:34
as somebody veterans get into the entrepreneur space, we're mission driven, results oriented, work together as a team, but what entrepreneurship is working alone. And you know, to a certain point, and it's interesting, trying to figure out why. But then a lot of great successful veteran entrepreneurs, that's for sure.
Steven Kuhn 37:54
Yeah, well, I don't ever I don't think I've ever owned a company on my own. Like I've I've literally turned around hundreds of companies. I've owned over 20 My own companies. I don't think I've ever been in on my own. I've never done a company on my own now. I think about it. No. Well, it's because I you know, if Yeah, we can be our own hero and do that kind of thing. I mean, but I don't know everything. And I don't want to do everything. I want to work in my power. Right? I want to be the best of what I do in my power. You know, and Layne does his thing I do my thing Sarah does her thing who's our other partner Pat does her thing is our other partner you know, and we just we just stay in our zone and of course we cross over sometimes we have to, but when I when I when I realize that I can make a certain amount of money by myself or make a little bit less but have half the work. Guess who's gonna do half the work?
Keith McKeever 38:55
That's a good point. Why coding? Yep, yep. So there's there's a lot of stuff for people to unpack there but I'm gonna throw the the website up there the half Dash and ft.com I'll have in the shownotes for everybody who listens and watches as well as a few other links where you reach out to Steven or good book and all that stuff. But tell us about what's what exactly is going on with the NF T's you know, how they can get it what they what they basically what they got to got to do.
Steven Kuhn 39:28
Right? Okay. So basically the NF T's are challenge coins as you said they're they're based on the the four military mascots, calling the veteran Bulldog, as we call it, obviously, for obvious, you know, trademark reasons and stuff called the veteran Bulldog. They're in the shape of a challenge coin. And that's because it's one of the highest or the biggest military collectibles there is. period goes back to the Roman times where the commanders will give it to the Roman soldiers for doing a good job, or for completing a battle or whatever. And we took that into the digital space and turn them into enemy teas and these NF T's when you purchase an NF T the foreigner dollars about depending on what the crypto is, but they're foreigner dollars, we try to base them on. When you purchase an NF t, we put a percentage of that that goes directly to nonprofits in the military. We'll take a percentage of that and we stick it meaning we're going to invest it so that we could give a return to everyone who holds an NF T. Right? So that's the plan. Well, you know, we can't guarantee anything, obviously, because it's the crypto world, they might lose a lot tomorrow, like Biden might say, hey, sorry, no more crypto in America, you know, so
Keith McKeever 40:31
there's risk involved. It's an investment just like anything else, stock market bonds,
Steven Kuhn 40:35
but it's not a big investment. And when you realize that what we're doing with this is giving back to the community, we're creating a more cohesive community. We are we have the ability to do more live events. We have the ability to do more retreats, if we will we do the online symposiums, the healing symposiums, do the documentation on the blockchain, that's what this is all for. I mean, it's, it's daunting. It's incredible, the like, I sometimes get migraines, which I haven't had for years, because it's just pure volume of new knowledge. You know, and it's hard not to get excited about it, like gaming to suddenly know, it's happening as it's happening. Because you don't want to Indiana T space. People are like, Oh, it's gonna sell out one day and you got a blob. But what happens is that NF T afterwards, right? Yeah, it sells in the secondary market. It was up and down, up and down, up and down. Project people who made it makes a lot of money and no one else is like, I have an NFT. Now, okay, I sold it made some money. But what's the point? Like, what what was that all for? Oh, I have access to, you know, a community of rich people, or whatever, you know, like, the one that but Justin Bieber bought for $1.8 million, whatever, like digital picture of a monkey or some shit. And it's only because he bought into a community of others who paid $1.5 million for the same now. They're all like $1.5 million buddies or whatever. But that's not for the normal person. And we're not treating the NFT as its own entity. It's part of what we're doing. It's a way to generate revenue and project support for what we're doing for the veterans in the veteran families. Remember, we got a war Sure. But we leave a wife or a husband and kids and grandma and grandpa and mom and dad behind. That's trauma to they need to be served as well. And so that's this, this whole half mission isn't just about veterans, it's the veterans and their families and support structures that go with that. And that, that takes a lot of dedication. And, you know, if, if it was that easy to go out and get on, you know, a million dollars to do all this stuff, right? Then all these nonprofits would have that. That experience. Point. Yeah, but they don't. So we have to find a way without asking for handouts, where people they feel part of the mission, they feel like they're part of a community again, and they are we have a we have a discord channel, they can join that and join us together and sort of chit chat and have a good it's awesome. We have a
Keith McKeever 42:56
lot of stuff on that on that discord channel.
Steven Kuhn 42:58
But just in general chat, right? You have general chat, you have like the offseason, they're they're freaking awesome to to brother veteran, it's really, really cool. And that it's just this community that now you have access to 24/7. And I gotta tell you, I had a guy call me last night, my phone rang. From the half team, I never spoke to him didn't know his name or nothing. But he called me on Facebook Messenger. Right? And I'm like, Hello. He goes, we need to talk. I'm like, Oh, shit.
Keith McKeever 43:30
That's never a great way to start. Right?
Steven Kuhn 43:32
Like, did you lose money or something? And I was like, anyway, I'm like, Okay, what's up? He goes. I don't know if I can do this anymore. Um, I don't I can't I don't know where to where to go. Yeah, like he was ready to. He was drunk. Right? chain smoking and drinking. And having a combination with was not crying. He was not crying. He was not speaking emotionally. He was empty. And I mean, scary, empty. So I talked him off the ledge. You know? And if you want to know, it's been hundreds of veterans that call me that I don't even know, that I've never met or spoken to. And they talk to me like they know me. Hey, Steven, or Steve. Remember, the one guy told me Steve? Like, yeah. Can we talk? I'm like, Sure. And he's like, Hey, I know. You don't know me. But you know, I see what you're doing a veteran space. And I feel like you understand me like, Okay, what's up? And he goes, Yeah, I'm successful. My business is successful. And I feel guilty every frickin day because I lost my 14 members. And I can't I can't deal with this anymore. It's just too much guilt. I just, I just don't want to be here anymore. So you have a successful business guy he wants to offer himself because it feels survivor's guilt. Right. And in those moments, you're going to learn in the book, I create space, meaning I shall wholly and fully for that person with no pre preconceived notions or cookie cutter solutions. I'm there with one thing that I control and that is my intention to help add value by solving problems. Right? So that's what I do. And for some reason it came into my head. I said, Look, man, look up. He's like, what? So look up. They're up there right now playing either spades or dominoes. Looking down at you saying don't eff this up, man. Don't eff this up. We're up here. So you can be down there.
Keith McKeever 45:27
Yeah, yeah, I left it in your hands. Yeah. And
Steven Kuhn 45:31
he was like, his whole face this one. He's like, Oh, my God, I never thought I would like that. And then I said, Can you see him playing spades is like, yeah, I can see those bastards playing spades. It just turned everything around like that. Don't know where it came from. It just came, like I said, creating space, because you end up CO creating a solution or an answer that you otherwise alone would never have come up with. When you create space with someone across from you, or, you know, a hole. And so it touches me every day. You know, it touches me every day. And it's it's just, you know, especially now it's tight. It's it's climbing. I'm in Hungary, it's it's it's this morning, we woke up and the cars were all covered in sweat. Right? Because the sweat from all the bombing and stuff went up in the clouds and it rained. And like, what is this, and so I'm living in worse suit. You know what I mean? And it's like talking about triggering my PTSD, then I got this call last night from this one, this veteran who, you know, was wanting to leave this planet. And then, you know, so it's like, it's real every single day. And I've been out since 1993. I'm 54 years old. Right? And I still do this every day. Why? Because it was the biggest mission I've ever had besides being a father. But that's obvious. Right? The biggest, most selfless, most unforgiving, you know, sort of situation and mission that I've ever been on. And it will never be matched. And that's fine. I don't maybe I don't want it to be matched
Keith McKeever 47:03
a lot of ways you know. But it is you know, it's a small part of your life. It's very short window of your life, your legacy. But it does leave a big impact on every single one of us in one way, shape, or form.
Steven Kuhn 47:14
There was an article in The Economist like 2002, or something, I read it in an airplane, I ripped it out. I don't know where it is anymore. But it was like 2002. And it was a general in the UK that said, when someone joins the military, like a Marine, right? They join the military, when they say rah, Devil Dog for the rest of their life. There's an automatic cohesion there when you meet somebody army. Oh, you are Oh, 90 Oh, automatic cohesion. So it doesn't matter what they do after that. They're still a Marine, or an army or navy or Air Force, right? If the civilian world understood that concept of a spree decor, imagine companies what they could do with their employees. Right? Imagine what kind of a powerhouse they would have with people with that kind of identity. Right? self self discovery of that kind of identity. Have you ever heard someone who worked at Apple leave apple and work for Samsung and say no, I'm still an apple. You know, exactly. No, no. And so yeah, it's a job. It's a this is an adventure. Also that kind of stuff. Whatever. You know, it's not just a job. It's an adventure. That was my commercial when I was a kid. showing my age because people like What's he talking about? But that was the only commercial it's not just a job. It's an adventure. We do more we do more before nine o'clock in the morning than most people do all day. You remember that one? That was a commercial. And Kevin Crowley the tanker. That's why I wanted to tanks because Kevin Crawley the tanker on the TV commercial. But, you know, these are all things that keep us in that loop. I guess you could say because we wrote a blank check man face it. We wrote a blank check. And everybody wrote a blog doesn't even have to be deployed. My first trauma in the middle in the military never even hit me until I got out is I was literally in country in Germany for I don't know, a couple of weeks. And there's a deuce and a half pulls up two and a half ton truck. And on the back there's a two man generator. Right and I was wondering I was calling to man but anyway, two man generators obvious because you need to man right. And one man's pulling it off. And it falls on him and crushes his head right in front of me. Oh, blood edge. He died instantly bled everywhere. And everyone just froze. Like, you know, that was my first trauma. So it's not about going to war. Right? It's about what did you say to yourself? And how far did you know you were going when you signed up? You know, that you could go to war. And you know that you might not come back? Who can say that they did that? Who hasn't done that? Nobody who can say they understand that? Who hasn't done that? Nobody. And that's why we have that bond. That's why when you give up that much of who you are and you're willing to give everything you let go of something. It's it's like when you have an air balloon you Do you have a balloon air balloon, you have a balloon. It's like this big and it's tight and you blow it up, let the air out. It's stretched, it'll never go back to that normal shape. That's a veterans in my opinion. Yeah.
Keith McKeever 50:10
I remember first time I went to Iraq and we flew in with the Brits, to camp Buka was a prison camp. I remember sitting there, I was probably a choc six or seven, something like that. And I remember, I'm like we're flying in the middle of the night. By the time I get on that chopper, anybody on the ground who wants to take shots at US has now had the chance to set up. Yeah, and we're mid flight issue, not flares. Those Those Brits were I mean, they they didn't fire their weapon. So there must have been not been a serious threat. But we made some evasive maneuvers fired off some flares. And I'm just thinking 21 years old, like, Fuck, this is real. There's no turning back. I gave up. I was like, Look, I may not leave here. I may, I may be leaving this place in a box. And at this point, all I care about is the guys and the gals around me. If they can, if they as long as they leave. That's cool. That's amazing. You just give up on life. You know, but you don't give up on life. But you give up on life like I die.
Steven Kuhn 51:10
sacrifice your life. sacrifice
Keith McKeever 51:12
your life. Yeah, yeah, you know, and
Steven Kuhn 51:15
when they said, We're going to the desert, you're the front line. We're the largest Armored Division, you're going like you're going and we're the eighth cows Task Force. Eighth cavalry were the very front were the tip of the spear head. And only two to ACRS in front of us with McMaster. He peeled off we ran right into the Republican Republican Guard, the Battle of 73 Eastern which is now famous. And before we left he said you need to write your will and pack boxes for your your personal belongings. So in case you don't come back, your family gets it. So I'm like, wrote the wheel that was easy that I wrote by then had four boxes mom, dad, brother, sister. And of course they were small boxes because I don't have anything
Keith McKeever 51:56
too much to the warzone
Steven Kuhn 51:58
where you leave them behind you leave the mine.
Keith McKeever 52:00
Okay. All right. taken any bags and everything?
Steven Kuhn 52:06
No, my Sports Illustrated bikini magazine collection for my brother and my my crystal ashtray. You know, it's this kind of stuff, right. And, you know, I bought in Germany, and the beer mugs and Steins and all that kind of stuff. And I put them in there. And I said, I should probably write a letter to each one. Because if they open, this means I'm dead. So I sat there, and I wrote a letter to my brother, twin. My sister's one year older, my mom and my dad who were separated in a divorce for a long time. And I had to write them a letter of what I truly, truly wanted to say to them, If I wasn't going to come back, that at 23 years old. That was that was me releasing the baggage of life, so that I could go to war, and be okay with not coming back. And that's exactly what it was.
Keith McKeever 53:03
Absolutely, it's crazy to think, you know, 18 to 25 year olds doing that, for the first time. When I'd venture to say almost all all people at that age are still trying to figure out life. I don't think I figured out life or money. Or I don't know, either. I think I was about 30 When I finally like when things kind of clicked and I'm like, I'm cool with being a dad. I'm happy to be a dad. I know the direction, you know, basic direction of going in life. I got this vision and mission was 30 You know, two years after two or three years after I got out of the military when it finally just like clicked in my head of like, This is who I am. This is what I want to do. Yeah, so 2223 Like, you definitely don't know that. You know, you're pretty immature and young, dumb, stupid.
Steven Kuhn 53:46
Yeah, and I got a cool uniform, and I'm tough and I'm a Marine, or I'm Army or whatever. Yeah, I know. It's like, it's, it's a it's it's a little bit of instrument instrumentalisation there but, you know, it is what it is. And, you know, the military in America provides work and travel and good pay relatively for as social, economic, socio economic structure that otherwise may not have the opportunity to do those kinds of things. And so see it as good or see it as bad. Yeah, I went to war I lost friends. Yeah, I have PTSD and all this kind of stuff. But I can't I cannot sit here and say that I would change anything.
Keith McKeever 54:24
Absolutely. I would. I'm the same way. I mean, I would it would suck to go through some of that stuff again, but like, you know, go through it and do what you got to do. So. Anyway, Steve, I appreciate you. coming on the show and it was
Steven Kuhn 54:43
a really good conversation brother. Like I really appreciate it was. That was really I never like, again, creating space. It just, you just co create something new and that was completely new. I talk a lot of passion. cuz like 100 a year probably. And this was I've never had a conversation like that. So thanks. Well, I
Keith McKeever 55:07
appreciate that. And that's my goal is to my goal with every episode is to educate, inspire, or point somebody in the direction of resources that will let them see that somebody else has been there that they're not alone, hence the battle buddy podcast, but they can better their life in one, one or two or three different categories. Just move the needle a little bit. That's the goal. So, Amen, brother. I appreciate it. Steven until til next time we chat. Maybe on a Thursday morning, I know. But I appreciate you being on.
Steven Kuhn 55:38
My pleasure, brother. Take care
