Just S.M.I.L.E.
Welcome to Battle Buddy Podcast! In this episode, we are joined by Army Veteran Tholin Johnson, who shares his valuable insights on various topics related to personal growth, accountability, and honoring fallen comrades.
Tholin emphasizes the importance of keeping things simple in life and how it can lead to greater clarity and success. He discusses the significance of remembering and honoring fallen brothers and sisters, and how their memory can inspire us to live our lives to the fullest.
Keeping more veterans alive is a crucial mission, and Tholin shares his perspective on the importance of supporting and uplifting one another within the veteran community. Accountability plays a pivotal role in personal growth, and Tholin delves into the power of being accountable for our actions and choices. He shares strategies for setting oneself up for success and achieving personal goals.
Tholin's positivity shines through his advice as he shares his powerful acronym, "S.M.I.L.E," and its significance in maintaining a positive outlook on life. This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in personal development, honoring fallen heroes, and fostering a supportive veteran community. Tune in now to hear from Army Veteran Tholin Johnson and gain valuable insights that can inspire and empower you in your own journey.
In This Episode We Cover:
Keeping it simple!
Remembering and honoring fallen brothers and sisters
Importance of keeping more veterans alive
Accountability
Setting yourself up for success
S.M.I.L.E!
Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:
https://www.facebook.com/tholin.johnson.37
Transcript from Episode 106 with Tholin Johnson:
Keith McKeever 0:02
Welcome back to another episode of the battle buddy podcast today got an amazing conversation with with a veteran who, just like a lot of us has gone through a lot of different things, but he has found some very, very interesting ways to kind of deal with some things.
Some of its travel, some of its smiling, but I don't want to give away too much. So, without further ado, we'll just get right into the conversation.
Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever.
So welcome to the battle buddy podcast on
Tholin Johnson 0:37
what's Clyde? Good, great to be here. Great to be here. How are you?
Keith McKeever 0:41
I am great, man. You know, every day that you get up, and you can look and see the sky. You know, how can you not be grateful? Right.
Tholin Johnson 0:49
That's what I'm talking about. It's all about being grateful.
Keith McKeever 0:52
I absolutely. So share with us a little bit about your your military background, what you know, what brought you into the military? Would you do those kinds of things?
Tholin Johnson 1:03
Yeah, what brought me into the military was definitely I was I felt like I was born to do this, you know, for ever since I was a kid I always wanted to do something like warrior something. That was like leading people into battles. I don't know why ever since I was a kid, you know, played with a toy soldiers, the parachute soldiers. And this was in the Caribbean and St. Vincent and the Grenadines where I was a little plastic
Keith McKeever 1:27
ones with Yeah, okay.
Tholin Johnson 1:31
Yep, I will go on out, throw them off and, you know, have high buildings and just watch them go down. Sometimes I'll jump off the high buildings too. So learning how to land and things like that. So it was it was pretty. I would say it was written in the stones that I was going to be in a military like my family. My mom, they all knew it. You know, I was in the Cub Scouts. In Ireland in St. Vincent and Grenadines, they have Cub Scouts. And then I was also leading the platoon there. And then I was in the cadets, which is like our military for our island. But it's a step up from the Cub Scouts. And then when I came to the States join a fight I finally joined the army. Okay, so in the army I was 19 Delta cask out if you a cab. They know what your Air Force right?
Keith McKeever 2:25
I was Air Force. Yep. Right. So I tell you what, the I don't know what the rest of it means. But I have heard that before. So you've heard it before. I have heard that before. I don't know the rest of it means but I know it's an inside. Inside thing.
Tholin Johnson 2:38
Yeah. So the rest of it is if you ain't Kev, you ain't shit.
Keith McKeever 2:42
Okay. All right. All right. Well, you know, everybody's got to talk a little shit every now and then everybody, you know, everybody's career field is, you know, musical sub special tool. So,
Tholin Johnson 2:52
yeah, definitely. Yeah. So, so definitely you love them. You know, being being part of the scouts is a big prior to me, for me. 19 Delta, cat Scout, did two deployments to Afghan and one to Nigeria. It was it was great times I love I love the combat aspect. Because you finally feel like you got to do your job, especially as a scout. ended my career as a EE five. Got out. And that's basically where I am now. But I love the military. I loved everything about it. Then and how, on a good note, the way I wanted it to end I expected to be in for a very long time. And possibly a SAR major to army and stuff like that. But yeah, here we are.
Keith McKeever 3:44
Well, you know, there's one thing about life is gonna throw you some curveballs, right? There's gonna be some things come at you that you didn't see. You know, what? Everybody's got goals. And that was definitely a lofty goal. Right. Sergeant Major the army? I mean, yeah, yeah, definitely. Not, not everybody, you know, says that's a goal of mine. I even know, you know, when I was an Air Force, that conversation always comes up like, Oh, would you stay in for 2025 30? Would you ever want to be chief master sergeant in the Air Force? Would you ever want to be, you know, Comanche for, you know, have anywhere near those top 5% 10% of leadership positions, you know, listed most people like, no. Maybe they're ranking to pay, but not those top positions. Yeah. But you know, hey, only one person gets it at a time. Right?
Tholin Johnson 4:45
Yeah. So and it's interesting because a lot of you know, a lot of guys that I was in with, they also thought the same, but it's interesting that most of them are still in, you know, they still they're still in the military, but they never wanted to, you know, advance I already cared about, you know, getting to a high, high position like that. For me, my, my, my, I had like a very deep connection to why I wanted to be that rank, like everything in life, I kind of add like a meaning to it. Like there's an external achievement of people see all this is the goal right of achieving that rank, but for me was to be able to live out my actual goal, which was just to be honorable soldier, and to provide leadership, outstanding leadership to, you know, to manifest and to produce outstanding leaders under my leadership as I progressed in ranks. So that was, that was pretty much what I wanted to do. And the way I saw it is you have to achieve SAR major the army to really, you know, make a huge impact like that in the military.
Keith McKeever 5:58
Well, that is definitely, most certainly a position that should be channeling that kind of message down for sure. And, you know, I mean, nobody wakes up every day and just says, I'm going to set this goal for no particular reason. So yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of
there's a lot to it in that position where, where they really need to push that down to all the troops, you know, the right leadership. But, you know, unfortunately, you know, I know you've suffered some some issues with leadership,
care share what those issues were.
Tholin Johnson 6:47
Yeah, I mean, just like, just like any of us, right. I mean, just like many of, of you who also listening, you know, we go through that with leadership, sometimes we have good leadership, sometimes we have bad, right. And I'll notice that a lot. And that's kind of how I, I kind of set up my, my way of being a great leader. When I was in, was, I looked at the guys that they good, took things from them, I looked at the guys that did bad. And, you know, I'm like, That's not who I'm gonna, you
Keith McKeever 7:17
don't follow that example.
Tholin Johnson 7:20
Yeah, exactly. So yeah, my, my problem with, that I had with leadership getting out was very tough man. Because, you know, I expected, you know, to have a lot of leadership, have my back, and stuff like that when I was doing great things in the military. And then when it was time for me to get out, which were some circumstances that I can control outside of my control. And I started think it was best for my family, now I'm getting out, they kind of turned their back on me, man. It's kind of tough, you know, going through military doing so many great things, given your whole life, given your whole family, given everything that you have, towards the service of being a great soldier, for not only yourself, but for your family, for your, your, your, your leadership for your organization, right, and given everything that you have towards them, and then they turn their back on you when it's time for you to leave. So that was tough for me, that I didn't even get, I didn't even get a ETS award, man, you know, for all the things that I did, and even even I had soldiers that that weren't, they didn't do much in the army, some of them even got in trouble. But I always believe that because somebody volunteered and give their time and your life and effort to, to contribute deserves something to leave with. You know, so it was kind of tough for me, realizing that, that that kind of happened to me, when, you know, I've done so much for for the military, and for, you know, my leadership at the time, so it was tough, and we kind of spiraled into a lot of depression, even from getting out feel like I'm losing my purpose, I lost everything. You know, but no longer being a soldier soldier. So it was kind of scary transitioning into a civilian and dealing with that. And that led me to, you know, what I do now? In the same aspect, which is kind of powerful to me, and I'm proud about, because I didn't let what happened how my time ended with the military, to still keep me serving, still keep serving veterans still looking for ways to help veterans, you know, be better outside, you know, from being better inside. So,
Keith McKeever 9:38
well, you know, what's weird is if you would have stayed in how to put this you might have a bigger impact doing what you do now on people than if you would have stayed in am a sergeant major in the army. It sounds weird to say that because I mean, you could have an almost immeasurable impact. Back in that role, but you just never know, like, you never know what the path of life is going to take you. And how many people you're gonna impact where are you going to impact them? To what degree you're going to impact people? And you can't predict the future? So, yes, it's, it's kind of a, you know, a neat thing that you should probably sit there just be, you know, kind of grateful be like, wow, you know, hindsight is 2020, right? When you're getting out, like, Oh, I'm lost. I don't know where I'm going to do it. But like, you sit there and be like, Oh, this is pretty cool. What I do. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say but with this podcast, like, Guys, it's pretty cool. Like, I don't know how many people I really, you know, like, how deeply I touched, you know, people. I mean, I can look at the analytics and stuff, but like, I don't know, to what level, you know, how many people exactly to what level I impact people's lives. But I know it does. Yeah, you know, but it's like, I wouldn't you know, 11 years ago, when I got out like, 12 years ago, I guess. Now, if you would have told me, I started a podcast, I was talking about veterans issues, I would have been like, Dude, I don't even know how to be a veteran yet. You don't have like, a path like you go into? Yeah, but there's definitely something to that being like, lost and like not knowing.
Tholin Johnson 11:14
Yeah, definitely, you're doing, definitely, I'll see that. And definitely tell to tell you, I mean, for you know, being on here, I knew you. Like I've seen the impact that that you make with your content, the things that you do the buddy check, you know, all that is connected to, to definitely, you know, just having a bad battle buddy podcasts, you know, like, so. So veterans always know, that they're not alone and some and you're there for them all the time, you know, and giving them the knowledge of like, other guys like that, that came on to to like, what's his name, Cortes? You know, Danny, you know, all these guys that have are doing successful things in their life. You know, it definitely like, I wish, I wish I had your podcast when I was in Barrow, to be looking at it and be getting all this knowledge and gain all this insights that we get from everybody on your park, as they come on, that are already doing great things outside, you know, so that's like an inspiration to say, hey, you know, it's gonna be fine for me outside, as well as I can make things great for me inside as well. You know, so knowing both spectrum would be fine. So definitely, thank you for all you do on your end. Well,
Keith McKeever 12:30
thank you for the kind words. Yeah, yeah. You know, for those that are getting out to work, come on in the water's fine.
The wall is great.
I mean, I joke to people all the time, like, you know, hey, what? You take the uniform offered last time, welcome to the cool kids club. Yeah, you get to join the biggest fraternity sorority, cool kids club, whatever you want to call it the world. We're all veterans on what a big, big ol happy, dysfunctional family. But he knows. But we are. We're a family. We have to take care of each other. And there are so many more resources now. That, you know, it's been so long since I got out now which here, be careful what I say that because I mean, I could have some Vietnam veterans or security veterans. It's been a really a long time for those guys. But, you know, it's things have changed. You know, back in 2011, when I got out like, there was YouTube, there's Facebook. Sure, there was a ton of nonprofits around the country, but there wasn't a ton of people that were doing podcasts or video, you know, vlog series on YouTube, whatnot. Yeah, so like, there was, I'm sure there was resources, but not like, is easy to access today. I mean, we got Tiktok right. I mean, like, it's media is at our fingertips. We can't avoid it. So yeah, it's it's
Tholin Johnson 13:55
Yeah, so you had easier you had some money. You had Natalie on your from tick tock, she's crushing it with with the mental health. And that kind of leads into like, your your statement where you know, I would not have the amount of impact that I have now if I was stayed in this Army and Army, right? Because when I was in, you know, I didn't have the chances to talk really about mental health. You know, it there's a big stigma you know, with it when I was in I don't know how things are now. But we all know there's a huge stigma with it. And that's something like I was dealing with a lot you know, I was on like 17 meds when I got out man when I was getting out. I was very depressed. I was on the couch all the time. I couldn't get off the couch you know, I was just really down nobody really to help me. I was still in Germany. So I wasn't back in the states where I can get a lot of help and and things like that. So it was definitely you that's when, like you said, you know that situation of me again now and not keep going up the ranks. I was able to I finally talked to like, therapists that's not connected to the military, they're like, Yo, this is not, you know, a good way to be thinking, you know, like, when I step into a room, I'm scanning the room and stuff like that, you know, I hear loud noise, that, you know, I was blacking out when I'm around fireworks and zoned out, and I couldn't be around those things. So it was getting out. And there's leaders in the military that was telling me, you know, it was fine. Because you know, other veterans, hey, we hide from it, we don't go out in the fireworks, we don't go to loud noises, we start a crowd sounds like that, oh, it's perfectly fine to scan the room, you know, I'll do it too. You know, so was getting out that definitely helped me to see hey, man, this is this is, this is not normal. That's what they had to tell me. And I got to see that. And that's what got me to start working on myself. And I started to look into, like, how can I help with situations for myself, right in the situation that I was at, at the lowest level, because I wasn't going to get as much help as people in the veterans in the States, who can get help from, you know, the VA and stuff like that. So that's how I look at a lot of things like how can I? What's the solution on the basic, the most basic level, you know, how our veterans that don't have the VA don't have access to the resources we do? How are they taking care of themselves? Right? How are they dealing with these things? So that was the biggest thing for me, like find the most basic solution? Everyone else is worried about the complex, you know, things, but what's what's on what's on the surface? It all starts with me, you know,
Keith McKeever 16:50
it goes back to the KISS principle, wherever that people keep it simple, stupid. You know, I mean, like, Don't overcomplicate it. Yeah, I mean, there's so many different things that you can do. And I'm glad you brought up like, you know, the VA resources in the you didn't have them.
Because if you are in the VA system, you should definitely be use the VA system. But we do know that statistically, a lot of people who are unfortunately, taking their own life math, vast majority, I think it's like 62 thirds, I think, are outside of the VA system.
Which that's obviously part of the problem. But you had to find creative ways yourself, because you're not anywhere near VA system. You weren't even in the country. Traveling around and shooting, you've got a couple of YouTube channels, but you and your wife are traveling around around the globe and visiting I'm sure, like a million wonderful, beautiful, warm, tropical places that we were asked would be super jealous to know that you were at. But what kind of things did you learn doing that? Or what kind of tricks did you learn to navigate that without those VA resources? Because I know resources are kind of limited in some countries, too, especially with mental health. I mean, we know there's a stigma here, but I'm sure in other countries, it's just as bad or worse, you know, to get a mental health provider. So you kind of just, I'm assuming just kind of stuck with it and dive into it and figure it out yourself.
Tholin Johnson 18:22
Yeah. So So for me, it started it started first. And at that. I was trying to think of like, what what can help and that's where the Jussie Smollett came from, you know, for just model over. So, I can tell you right now, right, Keith, just smile. Right? Yep. And you'll see after a while Look at the smile is still there, you know, on your face and stuff like that. But how did that feel for you? I feel good. Right? So that's, that's what I that's why I started digging a little bit deeper into was, Hey, is it the smile that brings the joy or is it the joy that brings a smile? I know I asked you this and what was your What was your response the first time?
Keith McKeever 19:08
If I remember right, my response was something along the lines of like, I don't know, like I don't think looking first the chicken or the egg like I really don't know.
Tholin Johnson 19:20
Yeah, and that and that's how that's how I was too sometimes. So before I even thought maybe Hey, the is the is the joy that brings a smile. So we always thought right. But then the more I started to study into it, I started studying like psychology and things like that. And the more I started studying into it, I started to learn that it's actually the smile that brings the joy. Right and if you change the state of your Bing, then it would help you to be more joyful so is how you can access more joy. Just by smiling, the muscles in our face and our cheeks. They activate certain Um, chemicals, like dopamine, serotonin, stuff like that, that brings joy to you because your body is used to and your mind is used to whenever your face makes that movement or smiling. Right? It brings joy to you. So it's how can you spread that also to everyone else. And then I started doing that more. And because I was a serious guy all the time, you know, being in the military, because I started smiling.
Keith McKeever 20:25
It's a pretty common trend, when I hear that from my wife all the time, it's like, well, you loosen up, it's like, I don't really know how to do. Yeah.
Tholin Johnson 20:36
So it's just learning that that like those little things, just simple, basic thing like that can help you so much. Getting out of whatever you're feeling, even dealing with PTSD and stuff like that, you know, is just studying that little thing of how can I change the environment, if I'm feeling frustrated, a with VA or something like that? I can just smile, and bring some joy to my being right now. You know, how can I easily access that because like we said, you know, two thirds, or 70% of the veterans that do commit suicide are not connected to the VA seems like they don't have access to these resources. So it's like, how can you, you know, be able to help yourself in the base most basic form? Because if the VA is not there, okay, how can I help myself? My leadership is not there, how can I help myself, you know, it all comes down to you. And me, you know, to make sure we're better than ourselves. So smiling was definitely the the huge thing, right? Sounds sounds so simple and stupid. But it's changed my life. It's changed a lot of vets lives that, you know, keep hitting me up, and they see how I'm my life is now compared to how it was before. And there's, I started seeing them a lot more happy and bringing a lot more happiness into their life.
Keith McKeever 22:01
Like I said, a few minutes ago, like the kiss method, right, keep it simple, stupid. Yeah, that's a simpler smile. Yeah, I believe it takes like double the muscles to frown the nose to smile, something like Yeah, yeah, I'm not I'm not a medical guy, or something like that, though. Pretty close to that. So. So technically, it's far easier to smile than it is to frown. Right. Anders had added health benefits.
Tholin Johnson 22:28
Yeah, there's a lot of a lot of health benefits.
Keith McKeever 22:31
Not just put on South Park or something. You'll smile in a couple of
Tholin Johnson 22:35
days. Exactly. And that's, that's the big part. Like put on, like, look for funny videos. I know, there's vet TV is hilarious, you know, especially for veterans. You know, you can connect to to a lot of their stories. They do that dark humor that we like,
Keith McKeever 22:51
but if your spouse does not have it yet TV for a while. The first time my wife sat down and watched it. She's sitting there for like, maybe five minutes, and she just, she just looks over me. She's just like what? What is, this is just what? And I'm like, This is hilarious. She's like, this is just disgusting and crude. I was like, This is great stuff. Yeah. And yeah, so she did totally not get it. And I'm like, you just gotta have a dark sense of humor. Really dark sense of humor, but it works.
Tholin Johnson 23:36
Exactly. I mean, it works for you. It works for you, you know? Yeah. Always watching
Keith McKeever 23:41
you pull up YouTube, you can always watch funny fail videos. themselves and cat videos. goat yoga, watching people accidentally hit themselves with a two by four, whatever works for you. You know, I mean, there's something.
Tholin Johnson 23:54
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And that was that was that led me into you know, starting to 10 for 10 Just model over which 1010 meaning in 10 years, I started in 2020. So in 10 years to accomplish getting the suicide rate now to 10 a day, right? I know, most people they want zero day, but you know, it's kind of like having a goalpost to go to right. So, instead of feeling like it's a huge goal of getting to zero if we just aim for 10 Okay, now we have some, some good motivation to see that oh, we can achieve 10 What else can we achieve? Let's go for seven. Let's go for five next, what about three to one and then you know, see if you can hit zero. So that will be that'll be the huge that's the huge drive behind all this and then what you do is, is pretty funny. If you complete 10 Pull Ups, right then you will give a positive story of how you overcame to share with a military whatever veteran right? So share your stories to veterans. And then if you don't achieve 10 That's when the funny side come in that you you give your best military joke you got one first
Keith McKeever 25:28
man I don't know if I got one on the spot cool gosh I don't know. Yeah. I don't know have i Do you have one
Tholin Johnson 25:45
minute would be like well it's always like joking about Marines and stuff like that. You know any any joke about
Keith McKeever 25:51
Marines I mean, easy very awake at one of the most destructive thing to a lieutenant. A map there you go you know, things like that. Funny thing was I did see a lieutenant once brand new lieutenant in our in the unit. walked by his office head dig take a double take us had his feet propped up on the desk. I was reading a romance novel. Right? Yeah, I was like, wow. Yeah. Must be nice to be a lieutenant, I guess. Yeah, I have no job responsibilities at all. Boldly sitting there. It's like, typical butter bar. But, man.
Tholin Johnson 26:32
Yeah, I had a lot of guys bring up some cool some very funny ones. I have to check my Facebook Like, way long, like couple months ago, but it was is. There's some guys that have some witty ones. That's pretty funny.
Keith McKeever 26:49
Yeah, well, most of the ones I usually hear is, is pretty much anything directed towards Marines. Of course, I was Air Force. So there's all the cheer force jokes. Which you know what? When I hear it, I guess I'll say this. I do find those absolutely hilarious because I was security forces. And the only chair I sat in was a squad car. So the Read to me, the rest of the Air Force was like the cheer force. They you know, they had their nice cushy offices, beautiful buildings, they got there, they got their down days, their r&r time or whatever. I don't know. We were always working. They got to go have their fun runs. But somebody still had to go put out the
you know, long with see had to go block the traffic and direct the traffic and stand out there rain and shine and yeah, that that that was us? Yeah, we never we never got to participate in anything fun. We were We were always you know, I guess somebody's gonna go to base. But. So I always did find the chair for stuff funny. But yeah, yeah, there's plenty of jokes to go around for sure.
Tholin Johnson 28:01
You know, and, and that's why I say like, being able to, you know, do the hashtag just smile over when you do your pull ups, whether you do them or you're able to achieve 10 or not, you know, it still gives veterans something to look forward to, and just tap into, you know, just tapping, type in the hashtag. And having that easily accessible. Whenever you're feeling down or feeling any type of way, you get to see that there's other veterans that are alive. You know, so the big thing for me was when my, you know, I started all this and got passionate about it. When, you know, one of my battle buddies that I've been with, in my career, that he was involved in, you know, the veterans, the VA, there's a trend going on, you know, with, with veterans going to the VA parking lots and committing suicide. And he was one of those. And when that happened, you know, somebody said that this is what veterans do. And I took that very personal I was like, No, like this, why is it a normal thing for you to not care because veterans commit committed suicide and say, This is what veterans do. So I've always wanted ever since that day has been like, my, my goal and my passion to always show that, hey, no, we're, we're alive. You know, there's people like you. There's all the veterans that's been on your podcast, you know, the 100 episodes, that's like 100, you know, veterans that are still alive, doing great things in life. And this is what we also do, you know, so is it has nothing to do with, you know, suicide is not. It's not what we do so is to have that place where those 70% and whether they get the help or not, you know, there's many resources but for now, if you don't have access to the resources, here's something simple you can do to keep surviving until you thrive, right to stay alive. So it's pretty much shown Hey, There's other veterans out there that is alive. And this is how they're staying alive. You know, so you get that that motivation from just tapping into that just smile over. Link, hashtag, you know. So it's very, very simple, very basic that anybody can really do and get that motivation.
Keith McKeever 30:24
Absolutely. And I just put the banner to scroll across the bottom just in case. Anybody watching, if anybody's listening to as well remember, if you are struggling, and you're listening to this, there are resources at the VA, the number is 988. Press one. Because the most important thing is that you're here tomorrow. That is the most important thing. Because we want not only what we say, we not only want you here tomorrow, we want you here tomorrow, smiling. Yeah, that's what we want. I might have, I might have to keep my eye on the ad that
because I always say this stuff at the end of the podcast, you will have to start adding it here tomorrow, which you're smiling as well. So there you go. That and then maybe press one.
Tholin Johnson 31:13
And smile is so military individuals live every day. That's what turned smile into so military individuals live every day. And to say for that, too, is like, the great Colin Powell or Colin Powell. You know, I'm from the other islands. So we say different. But the great Colin Powell, he always he mentioned that, you know, I read one of his books. And he talked about that, like, and I always remember that. It will be better tomorrow.
Keith McKeever 31:44
That's true. Tomorrow's another day. You never know what opportunity is ahead of you. And yeah, you just, you just got to make it till tomorrow. That's the key. Just kind of wake up tomorrow. So that's, that's some good stuff. Because we got to keep gotta keep more people alive. Because I love the goal of 10. Because I 100% agree with you that some people would say yeah, goals got to be zero. Unfortunately, we'll never get to zero. There's too many veterans. I don't know what the exact number is, I think. Last is stats I looked across all generations live right now. I think it's like 18 or 19 million, something. But that's a lot of people. That's a lot of people that can fall through the cracks. Zero is a dream. It's never going to happen. Statistically, it'll never happen.
We'll be we'll be lucky to get into the single digits at the rate. We're gone. Because the numbers have gone upwards. They've supposedly doubled to into the 40s. Yeah. So we've gone the wrong way. Exactly. And a lot of that is unfortunately, people who are not connected to the VA. Why? How bad? I don't know. I don't know this. I don't know the solution there. But that's a big part of the problem. If they were roped into the into the VA, maybe that maybe that's a trend to start skinning it down. Maybe mental health and the stigma being reduced. Yeah, over time. Maybe that helps. I don't know. But we all would love to see that number. You know, I would be ecstatic if the VA came out with a with a report to say the number was 21 I tell you what, I would jump for joy. Yeah, I really would. I would be like, Wow, that is one more of us that is alive every day. Yeah, off that 22 number. But unfortunately, the number is apparently doubled. Yeah. So like, you know,
Tholin Johnson 34:00
yeah. And that's why I love you know, the quote, from the quote from Nelson Mandela that says, you know, it always seems impossible until it's done. And that's kind of what you know, pretty much drives you know, the just my love and drives me to keep doing it as well, you know, yeah, this 10 is also kind of impossible, but the way I look at it is a vision into action completes the mission. And that's, that's what's powerful for me is like, we all bought into it. And, you know, the numbers might seem like it's double now but when you do some research and dig a little deeper into you know, how a lot of the numbers even came about, you know, you can tell you will be able to tell like there's a huge accuracy problem with data, you know, how they're tracking numbers. Okay, so that's, that's something I've been working on a lot ever since, you know, I'm back in the States and not really traveling as much as I used to, is, you know, connecting with different organizations and programs to see, hey, how can we get a little bit more accuracy on the data and numbers. And that's like a coalition for fat military families, I was in the simple veterans symposium about three weeks ago. And it was kind of cool connecting with a lot of organizations seeing what they're doing that's impactful in the veteran community. And one that stuck out to me was be connected, I'm trying to connect to these guys. And what they're doing, they have a risk reduction program, which they're being proactive, right about with helping veterans instead of waiting until the problem happens. They're seeing what veterans and how they they're at risk for age, where they live, or if they have disabilities, you know, they already know what the high risks look like. And they're already reaching out to those veterans in the state. So even when a veteran comes to the state, and they know, hey, this is a veteran, they are already reaching out to them, and already trying to reduce the risk, which would help reduce the suicide rate. And then they're using their data that they learn from that. Right from, from those veterans to keep track of the numbers.
Keith McKeever 36:33
Love it, love using data to, to track and predict. Yeah, because you know, if used, right, it can be very, very powerful tool for something like that. Because I've said,
from the very beginning of this podcast, the things that I noticed that made me start this was that there was certain things that led people to substance abuse, homelessness and suicide. And that was physical and mental health issues. close family relationships lack a connection to the community. And that doesn't have to be necessarily veteran community, but just the community in general. You know, it could just be your local community, it could be church community, it could be whatever, just being connected to a community. And it could be employment, gainful employment of some sort, right? Not necessary, how much you're paid, but that you're paid well enough, but you have a job that you enjoy that you get up and you have purpose, too.
And the last one would be the financial and legal kind of issues that go and the more of those are that are in turmoil, the more likely the roof on the house is going to collapse. Yeah. And if you really, were to pull back the curtain on people who have unfortunately taken their own life, or who are experiencing homelessness or, or substance abuse issues, you're gonna find it. Probably the least two or three of those are a serious issue for them. Yeah, if not all five. Yeah. And so you have to address those things. And there's a lot of organizations that just want to, oh, let's just address this, let's like, let's address the end thing. No, you have to address the problem. That started it.
Like, financial issues, it starts with a budget. It starts with a job that pays well enough to pay the bills and a budget. So you know how to It's simple. It's that simple.
Tholin Johnson 38:39
Yeah, it is. It is. And that's the thing, the why I said, you know, when you think about it, right? When you think about it, this is why I said we are the solution, right? Veterans were a solution for for this, right for for a suicide and everything, we are the solution. Like we can't depend too much on outside external resources, when a lot of it is going to come in turn, just like the things you said, right? The major stresses, right, that cause suicide in veterans, right? What veterans a top three or relationship problems, right, financial problems and legal problems. Right relation problems. You have a great, you have great resources on here. You know, I looked at what's his name, Danny Mayberry, it's five pillars, that helps with you know, connecting all of that really relationships and finding community and belonging and all this stuff, right. That's something you can personally do for yourself, you know, while you're working on yourself, right? The same same as financial right, Conrad? Right. Right. He's Buddha knows his finance wrote a
Keith McKeever 39:51
book on financial basics for troops. So effective blueprint right there.
Tholin Johnson 39:57
Right. And he and he learned these Things from military write in while you're in the military, and when he got out, and then you know, you have legal problems, something that I found out man at the symposium was I never knew about there is this veteran court. Right? If you have a misdemeanor, it can get erased. If you're a veteran. While you're in while you're in court, that you will actually have a court process, right to reach out and reach out to veteran court, you know, about veteran courts, right? Yeah. Right. I never knew about them. You know, and that I feel like that's a huge thing that
Keith McKeever 40:33
gets really talked about too much.
Tholin Johnson 40:37
And it needs to match it needs to because a lot of veterans that are in that 70% range, I would say, because they're having a lot of legal problems, especially from even being inside. Right. And they
Keith McKeever 40:51
need to find an attorney who's dealing in the veterans court.
Tholin Johnson 40:54
There we go. Very cool. I gotta help you find. Yeah, judge, he definitely he did like a big skit for us and everything,
Keith McKeever 41:04
and judge me good to me, somebody somebody in that space that could talk about it? Do we got to do that? We got to make that happen? Yes, that'd be powerful.
Tholin Johnson 41:12
Man, I was blown away, I was like, Yeah, you know how much people this can definitely help like veterans, that dealing with drug issues, all this stuff, and your your your misdemeanor will get you raise by you completing a program that's going to help you be a better person, you know, to deal with your drug issues to deal with your financial issues to deal with the violence, anger, you know, all this
Keith McKeever 41:36
stuff's not following you along, it's not kind of being dragged along with you, you kind of in your back pocket as you're looking for jobs and relationships and all this stuff. And yeah, that's that. I can't imagine, you know, having to go through that. Yeah. And having all that extra baggage, trying to go through things. So yeah, that's a, it's a great program, but I don't know that much about it, we're definitely gonna definitely have to find somebody talking about it, that's, that's a good one.
Tholin Johnson 42:06
Or reach out to the people who did it here. And I've already also saw, like, there's a lot of people who want to do it in their state, because they're seeing how powerful it is, especially to helping veterans get back on their feet and stuff like that. And they don't care about if you are honorable or dishonorable. So that I thought that was the powerful thing, where they're helping any veteran, once it's a misdemeanor. And now, and obviously, you have to do, you have to go through their program, you have to stop using drugs, you have to meet with their counselors every week, and things like that, once you're taking the action to do that, and they're very lenient with you would help you out. But it's all based on you again, you know, it's all based on you. So that's how that's how I like to look at looking at a lot of things in life, you know, is what what are you doing for yourself as well, we are the solution, we got to be there for each other, like how you do your battle buddy checks, you know, stuff like that, like, when's the last time you checked up on your battle buddy? Who's not? Who's who got a dishonorable discharge, you know, saying, like that stuff, we also got to think about and looking to, to help in those guys as well and reach out to them as well.
Keith McKeever 43:19
I mean, that is this, this segment of the overall veteran population is going to fall outside of the VA, you know, and they're going to very likely be outside, if any kind of, like I say, social networks, right, because they're probably get out, went back home, may not engage with us on social media, things like that. So, you know, you may not have heard from them for a long time. So that's a darn good question.
Ones words just kind of came to my mind was accountability.
Like we have to be accountable to ourselves, like with veterans court, get to be accountable to yourself, like go to the program, like you have to be committed to it yet hold yourself accountable. Because
but we have to be accountable to our battle buddies. No, you know, which is, you know, that's one of the coolest things about being on this on this journey and, and talking to so many other people, because there's so many awesome people that are finding their own little ways, like yourself. And I've actually talked to a couple other people this morning, too, that are doing things in their own little way too. And it's like, man, it's so awesome that so many people just finding ways to just connect with other vets daily, weekly, whatever, to impact lives, as I guess that's just what we need. That's what it's got to be. Yeah. One at a time. One, one person at a time.
Tholin Johnson 44:46
Yeah, it's, it was sad for me to you know, think about when when I got out that you know, how we take care of each other in combat. You know, we're there for each other. We support each other in combat, but then when we get out out and people struggling, you know, it's a whole different story. So it was like, if we can do it through combat, why can't we do it? You know, here as civilians as well take care of each other, the people under the uniform, you know,
Keith McKeever 45:14
do you think some of that? I got my, my thoughts on it. But do you think some of that is because people, some people stay around where their unit is, but a lot of people go back to their home of record. And you're not physically right there all the time. Whereas, you know, when you're in you, when you're in the unit, you're reporting for duty every day, you're out there in the training in the field, or in the office with that person every day. It's so much easier to have each other's back. Right, when you're not physically there.
Tholin Johnson 45:50
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, I could see that definitely as a, as a huge thing. And that's why we gotta constantly remind each other all the time and to see these things, right. Like, like the hashtag, you know, just smile over to see that all the time. You know, hey, let me check up on my buddy. You know, to see better buddy podcast. Hey, let me check up on my battle, buddy, you know, who I haven't talked to in a while? Let me see how he's doing. Yeah, let me do a buddy check. You know, so it's like, using social media to our advantage to always remind each other to stay alive?
Keith McKeever 46:24
Absolutely. Cuz you just never know, either. Yeah, some people struggling. Outwardly, right. You know, they're kind of struggling, because since some people put stuff on Facebook all the time. It's probably the ones that are silently struggling. Yeah, if you've no idea, those are the ones that you really need to do. The buddy checks off. The ones that you're like, Oh, they're fine, man. Dude, he's, he's fine. He never post anything like weird or concerning, or whatever. Like, but the moment that you'd see them not post anything for a couple of weeks, or something's off? That's when you need to do that buddy. Check on that person.
Tholin Johnson 47:04
Yeah, definitely. So yeah, there's,
Keith McKeever 47:11
there's a lot more we can do. That's for sure. We have to we have to be accountable. So. But you know, another thing I wanted to, to bring up was a little bit more positive on some things when you were in you.
Were very forward thinking on some things. So I kind of wanted to speak a little bit to those that are maybe in in service right now. And thinking about that transition, and thinking about getting out? When did you have a plan for getting out? When do you kind of start that planning? That thought process of getting out? Yeah, when did you really kind of start setting yourself up for success? If that makes any sense?
Tholin Johnson 47:59
Yeah, it all starts when we get in, man. So we got it. Because Because, I mean, let's be real, we all know that you got the you're getting out in the military, you know, either in the body bag or coffin with a you know, a flag over your casket or, you know, you're getting out alive. You know, with life, you gotta handle life in the civilian
Keith McKeever 48:25
world, you really plan for it by you went and got three jobs. really set yourself up. That's where I was kind of leading with this. Yeah, you really set yourself up for success.
Tholin Johnson 48:34
Yeah, when I when I was getting out. For transition, I had three jobs, I was working with the military. I was working bouncer at night at a club, and I was also doing Charlie's food, you know, something I never thought I would be doing. But I love a challenge. So, you know, I was up for it. And I took it on. So because I knew I was getting out. So I needed to be very successful and already have a plan. And that's how I've always been, like, even in my career is I always have plans for what's about to come. So when something do happen, I have, you know, these these strategies already ready to you know, execute. So, and that's always made me very successful in everything I do. And that's why I help people now to do that in their lives outside, you know, military just regular civilians. So that definitely helped me having three jobs so I wasn't very stressed about finance when I got out, but I was still dealing with a lot of you know, depression and, and things like that and very hurt and so that the big thing that helped me was was finding my purpose, right. You know, even though I had the jobs right, I still struggled a bit because it was letting go of the soldier.
Keith McKeever 49:53
Yeah, that identity Yeah,
Tholin Johnson 49:54
right and letting go of their identity and I was kind of lost, right? And a quote, hit me that on Um, that the ship that those know what port it's going to every wind is unfavorable. Right so even if I was I had all these jobs right I had these jobs. So finance was great. You know already have in my mind, I'm setting up my family to be good for when I get out, right, everything is good. I still felt some type of way I still felt loss because now I'm losing my identity, which was my purpose of being a soldier. Right? So that's when I started to let my purpose pave the way. So that's why I always tell, you know, veterans that come to me for help and things like that let your purpose paved the way. Right. So in the military, we love acronyms, acronyms. So pave was pretty much the Ackermann acronym that I share with people that helped them to find their purpose. So pave, P for passion, a for action, V for vision, and E is execution. So you ask yourself, hey, passion, what do you love? All right, yeah. Is that still hard for you to think about? You know, what do you love? Because, you know, you got out of the military. Okay, I love the military, you know, but under the uniform, let's talk to the person on the uniform, what has significant meaning to you? Right, so if you answer that, that will help you find your passion, and then action, what are you going to do? Again, you might feel like, oh, I don't know what I'm going to do. Because I'm feeling lost right now. You know, that's most of the questions they give, and also was given at the time, it's gonna
Keith McKeever 51:41
take some deep thought for these. Yeah, exactly. A lot of reflection. So that's when
Tholin Johnson 51:45
you, you ask yourself, what do you love doing? Now you got a little bit more clear about what actions you're going to take, right? And then vision, where are you going? If you don't know, where do you want to be? Right? And then execution? How are you going to do it? If you don't know, how do you love doing things, and then that will show you your execution of how you how to always do things, and then when you put those together, it will definitely help for me, it was I simply just love to travel and help people in need. So we kind of put it together. And, you know, it became just, we want to spread love, happiness and peace, to help people smile, by making them hopeless from bringing them from hopeless to hope more. And that became my purpose. So everything I do is aligned to that. And I also had my goal of, you know, always being honorably a soldier, and producing outstanding leaders under my leadership as I progress in ranks. And I'm still kind of doing that, you know, in in a just smile over podcast, where a veteran could be better in service teaching veteran military individuals at the two year mark, how to be better, while the end, to then transition to be a better veteran when they get out. You know, because the purpose, once you find that and you love that pave your way, whether you in is going to help you whether you get out is going to help you still to always have that port that you're going towards. Absolutely. So you'll be up straight. You know, I got I got more that
Keith McKeever 53:24
you have to nail. But rephrase it, you don't have to necessarily nail the transition process to be successful in life.
But the more you can do in the transition process to set yourself up for success, the more likely you're going to have a smoother process. Yeah, that might be about the best way to put it. Yeah, definitely
doesn't mean you're not gonna have roadblocks, or some speed bumps, or some issues that come up. Because you are going to pass them, you're probably going to struggle with your identity, you're going to struggle with some of the things that you went through that we all kind of struggle with, like, who am I now? What am I doing? Like, even if you go through that exercise, and you do it, it's that I've been out years now, like, even 10 years later, 15 years later, you could still go through this same exercise because you're going to be a different person in life. And that still takes a lot of reflection to go through something like that. Yeah. Like, not not easy questions, but you need to ask yourself some very difficult questions when you're getting out. Oh, so
Tholin Johnson 54:33
yeah, and I love that and learning this pavement that that that's like embedded in in you. You know, like you said, it's very deep. I put some up with tears on the paper. When I did this man. I had the lights off, I turned my phone off, everything was off. And I sat there you know, just with a headlamp on and I wrote all this stuff, you know, and got very clear about that. And I noticed it was It's always been embedded in me. And once, it once you find that for yourself, I mean, you got your straight path, just that you said, you still have to deal with the identity part. And that's what you know, I do now I help people with that identity. You know, as a unit monastery Tejas, you know, that's what nobody love is I help people find greatness within themselves to take on their biggest challenges in life. And that's, that's pretty much what, what helped me for that part, where it hey, you can see, pave your way. But who are you going to be with, with when you when you're going on that way? You know, and that's the most important part, just like you said, you know, it takes a lot of work. And that's why I'm here to help people and guide them through that way. And most of my great my biggest red clients, or our veterans, that transition, and they're, they're killing him, and they love in life, read them, you know, so they have their things that they go through, but because of the strategies we build together, they're doing pretty good.
Keith McKeever 56:07
Awesome. Well, I want to flip back here, I want to give you a chance to, you know, we talked about traveling earlier. And I said, you do a lot of traveling to nice, fun, warm, exotic places around the globe. But I know you got a couple of new YouTube channels, they're linked down in the description, but go ahead, share with us a little bit about, you know, what you've done on different channels and more people could follow you and and what they can see on the channels.
Tholin Johnson 56:32
Alright, so so the first Youtube channel, I'll talk about what she keeps is hitting on is happy dream empire. So that's happy as h a p p e, a. And that's like, what I was saying, like we lived, our purpose is happiness and peace. So my Empress is happiness and peace. You know, there's a lot of work to get here. But yeah, that's how that's what we do. And we just traveled the world helping people in need. We've had a couple of countries in the last year, we worked with organizations like was it Red Cross for volcanic eruption in the Caribbean. We did a family animal shelter we did was that it's been so much man. Salvation Army for Christmas, where we handed out a lot of toys and food. We delivered food and to homeless in different countries. So also, we did some we started doing something for ourselves where we created. It's called, make a stranger happy where people donate money. And we do something great. Good for somebody else to make a stranger happy. So we call it bias someone to t and make a stranger happy. So you can check all that out on happy dream empire. Just smile over podcasts on YouTube, I just started, I'm starting to get into this talking thing more and being in the spotlight. Learning from Keith watching him how he's handling a lot of these things. Still not used to the whole social media thing and being upfront and talking. Unless it's something obviously you see like I'm very passionate about. But there is just my over podcasts were veteran could be better in. And that's more targeted to the two year mark soldiers. Because I think that's a vital part where you you got to make the big decision whether you're going to stay in or get out. So here are some tips just like we're doing right how to be better while you're in and how to deal with things with struggles while you're in. So when you get out and be a veteran that you already have these tools and strategies for yourself to be great and keep doing better, bigger and better things. So that's that I miss up nose. Alright, so best way to reach me is IG I'm trying to build that up. So Instagram, so is no b love. So just like this, no B love underscore yourself. And that's where you can find me on IG. And also, I'm trying to build up my YouTube, the YouTube channels as well. Once I get a process, I can start you know, put more videos out and I like to get live. So we'd love to have people you know, just coming in and given some three. So something I'm also still working on is is the dealing with PTSD. I was able to overcome my PTSD connected to fireworks a year ago. We'll be back Three years ago, and I'm still working with a psychologist who was connected to the UN United Nations. And we're trying to work on how, like to figure out a lot of what I did, what is about me that I was able to do this, and he's putting together his his studies and stuff like that. And then we'll hopefully be able to, you know, launch this soon to help other veterans to overcome their PTSD as well. So it'll be great.
Keith McKeever 1:00:29
And it will be a game changing study there. Yeah. At least for a couple of people, right? Yeah. Yeah, no, that's awesome. So I highly encourage everybody to hop on over to YouTube, check out check out YouTube, their Instagram. I'm sure everybody's already on all those platforms. So I thank you so much for being here. Share with us.
Definitely, everybody should have some takeaways. Especially easy one. Just
Tholin Johnson 1:00:59
think about how can I how can I smile and change change how I feel right now?
Keith McKeever 1:01:03
Absolutely. I no doubt about it the rest of my day. I'll have a smile on my face. Yes, for sure.
Tholin Johnson 1:01:09
And that's something I forgot to say to my just smile. The smile over podcast is dedicated to honor in honor of my battle, my first battle buddy that that passed away. Brennan Castro, when I was first a private, you know, he passed away and I was recently able to finally get over that hump of you know, finally see going and visiting his grave. 10 years later. It took me a very long time, it was very tough for me to do it. He was very emotional. And but once I did it, I felt so much release off of my shoulder in my mind. And it definitely helped me to get his blessings from his family to do this podcast. So on there, I'll say Skadoosh. And that was his saying. So yeah.
Keith McKeever 1:01:55
Awesome. Well, follow on. I appreciate you being here to share with us.
Tholin Johnson 1:02:00
Yeah, definitely appreciate you too, Keith, man, keep doing great things. And let's continue to grow and be serving, you know, veterans, like ourselves, because we are the solution. And you bought your battle buddy podcast is definitely a huge help. And push forward the needle to that solution.
Keith McKeever 1:02:19
You got a man look forward to seeing you grow, too.
Tholin Johnson 1:02:21
Yeah. All right.
Keith McKeever 1:02:24
All right. There you have folks, I hope you enjoyed. Remember, the National Suicide Hotline is 988 Press one, or you can text 838255 And also remember, we want you here tomorrow, because we want you to smile. See, there you go. I told you I was gonna add that in there. And remember, the website is bad about the podcast.net as I always say, always looking to add resources to it. So if there's something that's not on there and you think it should be please reach out and let me know what you think should be
