Learning 5 Secrets From The Seals
The grind on out bodies and minds throughout our military service is something many veterans know all too well. For William Branum who spent most of his 26 years in the Navy operating in the Seal Teams the grind of the job was leaving him with pain and discomfort. It wasn't until he retired that he was finally able to tap the power of substances like CBD. This led him to create his own brand of high quality CBD products to help others by supporting their mental and physical recovery. CBD has shown effectiveness in helping people deal better with things like stress, anxiety, sleeping, pain and more. William also wrote the book, 5 Seal Secrets, but you will have to listen to know what the secrets are!
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Transcript from Episode 82 with William Branum:
Keith McKeever 0:01
Hey, welcome back to another episode of the battle buddy podcast, where today we're gonna talk about CBD. And some of the power the CBD can unlock when it comes to helping people sleep with pain, with stress, anxiety, I'm sure there's a few different things. My guest today can talk about CBD and the benefits of it. He is the owner and founder of naked warrior CBD company. He is in a beautiful sunny state of Hawaii while I'm sitting here freezing in the Midwest, but it is what it is. He is living the dream. And we're going to talk about some CBD and and five secrets from the SEAL teams. So hang on, and we'll get into it. Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. Welcome to the podcast oil.
William Branum 0:43
That was quite the intro. Thanks for having me
Keith McKeever 0:44
here. Well, no problem. I try to spruce it up a little bit now.
William Branum 0:49
I wasn't prepared for the agenda today. And I was like, oh, what? Oh, a pay attention right now. It's time to Yeah,
Keith McKeever 0:55
well, it's thought about that. Yeah, exactly. That's like that should be everybody's clue. So welcome to the battle buddy podcast. I really appreciate you coming on here and kind of sharing with us. I think we got a couple of two different unique, different things that you can talk about. But before we do, let's hear a little bit about your story, your military journey, what kind of things you did where you were at? Once you can tell anyway.
William Branum 1:19
Apparently, I have a lot, a lot of stories, a lot of things I could talk about, but we'll see where this goes. Let's see about me. I grew up in a little town outside of Meridian, Mississippi. Pretty much most of my life, I was poor. I was called poor white trash a lot. And let's see, I was heavily involved in the boy scouts. I was a very poor student, you know, at at 2.3333333 GPA. Just about I always write but I always took the AP classes because that's those were the classes that the girls were in. So I, you know, priorities in all. And I always knew I wanted to be part of some sort of elite military organization. Although I did not know what that really meant. You know, I grew up watching, you know, I watched John Wayne as a kid. He was in a movie called The Green Berets. In Vietnam. He was, you know, a cowboy, just the the tough guy. John Rambo was a movie that came out when I was a kid. He was a ranger, I think of Vietnam. What else Chuck Norris was in a movie called Delta Force. And, and I grew up watching a lot of kung fu theater, because we only had, you know, four channels. And one of those was PBS. So watch Sesame Street also. And GI Joe, I got to watch some GI Joe, also at my grandparents house. So those are sort of the role models I had growing up again, I was I was heavily involved in the boy scouts. I was Eagle Scout. And I knew for certain without a doubt that I would not join the Navy. The end. But, you know, I went to this national jamboree that the Boy Scout organization that was a part of put out there, like paid for me to go and so I went and I met a kid that and he was like, you know, I'm when I when I graduated high school, I'm gonna go to the Naval Academy. I was like, Oh, that's cool. And I'm gonna fly F 14 tomcats like Top Gun. I'm like, That's cool, too. And I'm gonna be a Navy SEAL. I'm like, that's cool. What is it navy seal. And so he explained that, you know what a Navy SEAL was. And I was like, that's, that's cool. That's what I want to do. And so I came back from that national jamboree. And the Navy recruiter called this was the summer between the 11th and 12th grade of high school. So if you know how the military works, they they get a list from all the high schools of like, who's graduating in a year, and they just start cold calling. And, and they called my house and hey, man, have you ever thought about joining the Navy? And I was like, Man, I don't want to join the Navy. But I was like, You know what, I want to go to the Naval Academy. I want to fly 14 tomcats and I want to become a Navy SEAL. So I just basically mirrored with this other kid wanted to do. And it was uh, you know, it was good that I did.
Keith McKeever 3:58
I think it was probably silence on the other wasn't there? Like, yeah, sure.
William Branum 4:01
He was like, No, he was like, oh, man, he was like, oh, yeah, come on down. I got something for you. And no one knew what a Navy SEAL was. There were no books. There were very, there were very few books. The I think the movie Navy SEALs had just come out. Maybe around that time. I had not seen it though. I lived a pretty sheltered life. i My mom didn't really want me watching anything with violence or anything like that. My I remember my dad talking about a little bit. He was a Seabee in the Navy. And he said he remembers like watching these guys run down the beach carrying a telephone pole on their back. And with boats in their head. He was like those guys were weird and crazy. And now I don't even know what was wrong with them. But, and I remember him saying small things about that. That was my only real introduction. And so I showed up at the recruiters office. I'm the recruiter was stoked to see me. He's like, I got this guy. He shows me this really cheesy Navy SEAL recruiting video and I'm like, where do I sign? And so and then how do I get to the Naval Academy and how do I fly an F 14 tomcats I'm like I'm ready to do do everything right now. Like all right, let's get you in the Navy first. And so I joined the Navy in the delayed entry program that summer between 11th to 12th grade of high school. And then pretty much a couple of weeks after I graduated high school off to the Navy and just to start my naval, my naval career
Keith McKeever 5:18
that sounds like he must have been super excited when you when you call you know, some kids I know that just hang up the phone just not do anything. I know that recruiting. I probably hurting. That's a That's a terrible, terrible duty. I would not ever want to do that. But like, yeah, I want to do all this stuff. Like I'm 100% And like, I think like he was he was cheating. I got this. At least March the box for the quota. Anyway,
William Branum 5:46
he's like, I'm never he's never gonna make it. It's like everyone everyone else said he's never gonna make it but whatever. Go, let's go. And so yeah,
Keith McKeever 5:54
you know, standing right over, I'm like, Dude, you get like five more this month to meet your quota. And then you just bam got one. Anyway. So yeah,
William Branum 6:06
way before Robo dialing, he had to like
Keith McKeever 6:10
yeah, that's your back, you know, back in the day, I'm sure those videos were extremely poorly produced, you know, of the team. It was a recruitment.
William Branum 6:19
Terrible. Terrible.
Keith McKeever 6:21
I mean, they weren't that great when I when I joined in 2006 like they weren't that great videos. It was like leftovers from the mid 90s. You know, the airforce kind of got me with like, oh four wheelers cool to be a cop and right four wheelers, do all this cool stuff. And it's like, yeah, no other real quick that much. You got to have like, You got to have like 15 years in and a couple of couple extra stripes on your sleeve to to get the magic certification nearly hand out. Five.
William Branum 6:49
We don't trust you.
Keith McKeever 6:52
To trust me either. Give me a four wheeler. Anything bad would have happened. So. But you did 26 years in the team's Correct.
William Branum 7:00
26 years. Yeah, yeah. So well, 23 of my 26 years, I was in the SEAL teams. So I, you know, went off to boot camp. I took the seal screening test, and I failed it the first time I took it. And there were some lessons that I learned it Yeah, it's super common. So the screening test when I look at it nowadays, I'm like, Really, I failed that that was That's so dumb. How weak was I really, but really, it was weak minded. It was not really weak by weak body too. But weak minded is really what it was, I just, I just wasn't prepared, I still had this mediocre mindset that I had as a kid. And, and so the seal screening tests, it's like, it's a 500 yard swim in the pool. Either breaststroke or sidestroke. Think that I'm gonna give you the minimum numbers. And this was my my floor. Minimum numbers, I think it was like 52 Push Ups 60 Sit ups and nine pull up something like that. And then a mile and a half run in long pants and boots. And I don't remember the time it's like 12 minutes and 30 seconds, I think. But I did the swim, I did fine. I got all the water dried off put on my you know, my my long pants and boots and T shirt I came out. And then we did the push ups. And I think I got to like maybe number 36 I was like 35 Let me see your sewing machine arms. Oh my gosh, this is very hard. I don't think I'm gonna make it to 52 because I was shooting for that minimum number. I wasn't shooting for like 152 is what I should have been shooting for. And so, but that that mindset came along a lot later. And so I failed it. I went back to my you know, back to the barracks there in boot camp and I had the opportunity to take the screening test later on when I went to my my service school to become a gunner's mate which I thought had to do with guns. It really has nothing to do with guns. It has to do with those big great things that float out there in the ocean, the gun systems and missile launchers on them. Big great things in the blue, blue water. You know, it's it's much more about hydraulics, electronics and pneumatics. And I was like I don't want to do any of this stuff. But I know are near as well. No not at all. And I would I would rather carry that boat on my head and be laying in the Pacific Ocean freezing my ass off and I would you know working on a ship but whatever. So I went to my school that service school and I worked out every day at lunch with the other guys that wanted to become seals. And I don't think not a single one of us went and took the test screening test again while we were in in a school and actually let me let me rewind there were a couple guys that had that did pass the screening test in boot camp so they didn't have to take it again. I did but I worked out with them and we did you know everything the same I was at their level of physical fitness. And then but I was like my dude, it's like Waukegan, Illinois. I'm not going i i don't want to go show up at four o'clock in the morning. It's like, ice out, it's cold, it's dark. It's scary. I didn't want to, like lose any beauty sleep because I needed all I could get. And I was like when I got towards the end of that school, and I was like I should, I need to go take the test. And then they're like, Oh, you could go pick up, it's time to pick order. So you can go to some other school and get in better shape. Or you can go to the go take the test, but I didn't, I said, I'll go take this other school for four more months, get in better shape, and then I'll go to seal SEAL training. And what happened? I didn't, I didn't realize because I took those orders for for four months of school in Virginia Beach, then I owed 24 months of obligated service to a ship in new Cusco, Japan. So
Keith McKeever 10:45
all the things so I had to go Sorry. All right,
William Branum 10:47
right. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't tell everyone enough people my plan. And so there was no one there to advise me, what should have happened is I should have shared my plan with people. And, and then they advised me to like, if that's what you want to do, then you need to go take the test tomorrow. And I did it. So. So I had to learn the hard way, because that's just how I go, I learned the hard way, through failure mostly. And, and I did my time on the ship. And then when it came time to pick quarters, I called my detailer, you know, doing the right thing, Hey, man, I just let me know that I'm going to drop a package to go to buds and he was like, That's great that you want to go, but you're too critical to the Navy, because of that school that I took for four months, for four months, you know, back then we were not going to let you go become a Navy SEAL. And so I I finally pass the screening test, I did all the medical stuff, all the physical stuff, I did everything I needed to do fit my package into to the detailers and and still nothing happened. And so I continue to call, I call this my detailer, I called the steel detailer. And the steel detailer said, there's nothing that we can do until your detailer releases you I was like, so I'm still like fighting and trying to get they're getting letters of recommendation. And eventually the CNO the Chief of Naval Operations comes to my ship and acoustic Japan. The significance of that is he didn't go to any other ship. He only came to my ship in Japan. And people said had told me that, you know, he's he's a common sense leader. And you should ask him if he'll let you go to buds and I was like, Okay, I'm just whatever II for nobody, I don't know anything. E three e four. Yeah, exactly. And so he comes to the ship, he gives his vision of the Navy, like, this is my vision, the Navy, where we're going, what we're doing, blah, blah, whatever. And then he says, Does anyone have any questions? And I raised my hand immediately. Oh, I got a question. And it's like, yeah, and I said, I joined the Navy to become a Navy SEAL. I think I deserve a chance to go. But my detailer won't let me go. And I think I deserve a chance to go, what do you think? And he turns to my commanding officer, and he says, Is he a good guy? And my CEO says, yeah, he was a sailor of the quarter, which is like employee of the month. And he turns back to me, he's like, check, you'll be in the first class after your PRD plan. Rotational date, six weeks later, I'm off to California to start SEAL training. And it took me a short 13 months to get through that six month block of training.
Keith McKeever 13:12
You know, sometimes things happen just a lot in life just happened because of timing, luck, chance, whatever, wherever you want to put it. You know, gosh, who knows what your path would have been? If he if he wouldn't have picked your ship to come to?
William Branum 13:26
I would have figured it out. I would have gotten there eventually.
Keith McKeever 13:29
Oh, sure. He would have figured out Yeah, I mean,
William Branum 13:32
it would have happened, but it makes for a good story that would have taken another
Keith McKeever 13:35
year years. You know what, what else could happen? You know, so. But yeah, fast forward, you know, you get towards the end of year, 26 years of service. And somebody tells you about CBD, but of course when you're serving. Sure, it hasn't changed drastically in few years since but now you got to be cautious about what kind of things you put in your body. You know, because I don't know about you. But I was in for five and a half years, I lost count and about 20 urinalysis appointments. It was so bad. When I was in Japan, the lady would call and her name was Misumi she would call and I could hear her her voice and it'd be like, I'll be down here 15 minutes. I gotta pop that lunch, I realized after a while, I was like, I must be the control. I must be the control specimen and all the testing. Because I was like, I was literally getting tested like every other week. But, you know, the military loves to do that to people. So you gotta you know,
William Branum 14:30
it's funny. I, I, I remember, there was like, I went like almost three years once and not one, one test. And then when I was closer to getting out, we were having tests like every I'm like, seriously. And like then when I would just walk down to the to the master dorms for them to like do and then like really? And they just all laugh because it was like six times in a row. Like really? How am I the same person that keeps getting picked? So
Keith McKeever 14:58
yeah, that's how I felt, I think I was even weirder is when I when I put on the five. And I picked it and I got a phone call. And they're like, no, no, you've been selected to go down there be the observer. And I'm like, Ah, you gotta be kidding me. Like, I've been down there so many job I don't want. I mean, I guess I was well qualified. I'd been down here p and myself. 20 times whatever. Right. But yeah, I'm sure everybody has a story on that. But this this led you to CBD. Somebody kind of mentioned it. And you kind of started getting curious, go ahead, what happened there and catches up to you snowkiting. See,
William Branum 15:31
yeah, so. So after, you know, so much time in the military, you know, and I'm in the military, a bunch of deployments, and some not so awesome relationships that I've been a part of. I had a lot of baggage, what I call baggage. And some people call it ego. Some people call it armor, some people call it PTSD, some people call it whatever you want to call it, I just call it baggage. And, and I was struggling. And when I had all this noise in my head. And so what I would do to kind of turn down the noises in my head is I would pretty much just drink myself to sleep at night. Vodka was my my drink of choice. And it didn't, it didn't make my life better. But it certainly build out the noise in my head too, so that I could go to sleep. And depending on how you frame it, maybe I drank until I was tired enough to go to sleep, or maybe I drank until I passed out again, depends how you frame it, how you look at it. And and that's that was the reality. And I'd heard about this, you know, I started listening to a lot of podcasts on my on my drive to work and back and stopped listening to the radio and media and things like that. And I just, you know, consume podcast. And there was a guy on there talking about on I probably Tim Ferriss, I don't remember what podcast I was listening to at the time. But the guy was talking about, you know, medical marijuana. And you know, everyone knows about the molecule, THC and the things that it does. And there's some medical benefits, medicinal benefits for it. But there's this other molecule that helps with stress and anxiety and sleep and, and pain and different kinds of epilepsy and all sorts of other things. And it's called CBD. And I remember writing down because I keep a notebook everywhere I go, right? in big letters, because I'm driving down the highway, like CBD remember that? And I remember coming home talking to my wife about it. And, and, and she was like, she was like, Okay, well, whatever. And then I retired. And I say when I retired, that's the hardest military mission I've ever been on. It was harder than becoming a seal. It's harder than the, you know, like, you need deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan than I've ever been on. Because the military does a great job of preparing us to be in the military. They do a terrible job of preparing us to be not in the military. I mean, I've been in the military, my entire adult life from the time I graduated high school till, you know, 26 years later, then I was like, Holy shit, what do I do? It was like that, that that Avengers movie where Thanos, like, snapped his fingers, and half the world's population vanishes. It was that's the way I felt like when I was in the military was I was in the SEAL teams, I had a purpose. I had a mission and that up, and I had a team. And it was a badass purpose and a badass mission. And it was a badass team. So as soon as I left,
Keith McKeever 18:22
and when you get out, you have to develop a mission.
William Branum 18:25
Right? I have to figure out what my new mission is. So I have to figure out what my new purpose is my new mission, my new team, all that stuff. And no one ever prepared me for that. I thought it'd be okay, I probably would not have listened quite honestly. But no one ever really, like laid it out and was like, Listen, you need to like start planning for real, at least a year out. And I do remember guys kind of talking to me about that a little bit. But I guess I just was too hard headed to listen, I'm like, I'll be fine, whatever, I'll work it out. I did get my medical stuff in order. So that was that was a good thing. And so as I transitioned out and started a company, I wasn't stoked on how the company was was turning out. Some of it was, you know, just me wanting to wanting to do what I wanted to do and not go put in the work over here to build this other company. And, you know, of course, when you leave the military, you have income also, are you having come when you're in the military, and you leave the military and there's no income? So it was that was also a challenge. But what was the biggest challenge was this all this noise I had in my head. And so again, drink myself to sleep every night, when you wake up the next morning. It's not optimal performance. And so I knew that I needed to do something, some sort of intervention with myself. I remembered I've been hearing more and more about CBD. And finally I'm like, I'm going to try it. And so what I didn't know is CBD was actually illegal federally until I retired in August 1 of 2018 CBD didn't become federally legal until December 20 of 2018. So right after that, like a bunch of companies started creating CBD air quotes, and, and it just kind of started flooding the market. It's a very saturated market right now. And so
Keith McKeever 20:20
wise with when you start seeing them at gas stations all over the place. Yeah, so just seemed about right on time, time timeline, and
William Branum 20:28
in. And so I was in Virginia, taking care of some business, and I had lunch with a former teammate of mine. And I said, Hey, man, after I finish here, I'm gonna, you know, venture out and see if I can find some CBD here in Virginia, because maybe what you have in Virginia is better than what we have in Hawaii. I don't really know. And, and so I, he was like, Oh, if you want CBD, I've got some at the house. He's kind of a big deal on Instagram. And so some companies sent him some, some products to try. And so he gave me a bottle of CBD. And when I took it that night, and the following night, I didn't really notice anything. When I took it, maybe I slept a little better, maybe I was a little less pissed off the next morning, I'm not sure. But what you know, the analogy that I use is water boils at 212 degrees, I was probably living my life at 210 degrees. And so it didn't take much to like any a little trigger would like set me off and hit that boiling point. But and then so I took that bottle of CBD. And I ran out. And then I didn't notice anything. But then I started noticing that I was getting more pissed off more quickly, pains in my body started to come back that were that were a little more dull, they were less sharp. And so I was like, Well, what's really going on with me? And so I tried a different brand of CBD I had similar results. And then I realized okay, this is really what happened is there was this very, it's like, you know, how you boil a frog and one degree at a time, you kind of turn up the degree at a time. Never jump out because yeah, and that's what happens to us veterans, first responders, like, just people in general. And, and that's certainly what had happened to me. But then the the reverse happened taking CBD I went from like 210 degrees to 205 to 200 to 195 to 190, maybe 185 I got out of that, like, very close to boiling point, that red zone. And and my fuse got longer, my pains got less bad. And and so now I'm thinking like, this is what I would this is maybe maybe this is my new mission. This is the new my new purpose is to create the high quality CBD you know, highest quality in the in the market to you know, to share with other veterans and, and first responders. And so, I was trying to figure that out. I didn't really know what I was doing. And I was at a business conference and I met a girl in the CBD industry. And I really wanted her to hire me. And so I talked to I went up to her and I was like, Hey, you're the CBD girl, right? She's like, Yeah, can you like you're a little too excited to talk to me right now. So can you like maybe take take a step back? And she was like, Oh, you want to do CBD. You want to do a to b b2b or b2c? I'm like, I don't know what those letters mean. I want to do CBD or to listening. And she was like, okay, got ya. Well, then why don't you just start your own CBD company. And I said, I don't know how to do that. And she leaned in and she said, You are a Navy Seal, you can figure it out. And so I politely asked her for my man card back. She gave it back to me. And then you know, she started educating me about CBD and I found out that the industry was extremely dirty. You know, when once CBD became legal in the beginning of 2019, there was just a rush of products that flooded the market, most of them not effective, not ethical. You know, the FDA went out and did a bunch of spot checks. They found that more than 70% of the products that are in the market, either they don't have CBD in them. They don't have the amount of CBD they'd say they have and um, they have high levels of heavy metals, mercury, arsenic, lead, things like that. They have pesticides and herbicides, they have you know, maybe higher levels of THC than the legal limit. And the reason for that is people were just like, CBD, technically comes from the hemp plant. Hemp and marijuana they're both cannabis plants, but they're bred differently to either have high levels of THC or high levels of CBD or other minor cannabinoids so that the cannabis plant is a quick education thing here. It has over 120 Different minor cannabinoids and terpenes cannabinoids are THC CBD CBN CBG, CB thc v, there's a whole bunch of them out there. They all do different things for the body. And then terpenes are are essentially essential oils. And so the hemp plant has over 120 of these different minor cannabinoids and terpenes the hemp plant. The cannabis plant has been used as medicine for over 2000 years. And it wasn't until about 100 You years ago, that it became illegal and it was 100% based in racism. And it became illegal because of racism. But the driving factor of that was there was an hemp was an industrial plant. That was a in the competition of the paper industry. And so the guy who had all these paper plant paper mills, was afraid that hemp was going to be the next big thing. He created this giant campaign of you know, those Mexicans, they smoked their marijuana, and they're gonna come up here and they're gonna rape your women and rape your daughters and, and the blacks, then they're gonna do the same thing and all the stuff. And so Congress 100% across the board voted to make cannabis illegal. Nothing, right, that's pretty much right 100% And so that's why today, marijuana is illegal, federally based 100% and racism, I mean, the damage that I've done to my body with alcohol, if I would have like, it's like, thankfully, the body repairs itself. But good lord, there's certainly a better way to do things. And so for me, CBD helped me to drink less, it helped turn down that noise in my head so I could have more positive self talk.
Keith McKeever 26:17
That's awesome. Because you know, when you're going down that spiral, wherever you add on that path, like you got to have something and I've been a big fan of CBD for a while. I think there's so many uses for it. And I'm glad you mentioned hemp is a plant because man, it really could have 100 years ago really overtaking the paper industry. There are so many uses for the hemp plant. You know, I'm kind of excited to see not only hemp but CBD become more mainstream and hopefully more regulated. But also legal cannabis. I really hope that it's not for everybody.
William Branum 26:53
I think it's I think it's I think I think we're I think we're close. I think I think we're really
Keith McKeever 26:58
close or we're definitely closer than we were just five years ago. So yeah, yeah, I represent state of Illinois where we have recreational and medicinal I've lost track of how many states but the other one was a Colorado first or Oregon one of the two and it's just like a domino effect more and more states are doing it and seeing it Hey, like look, not seeing massive changes, but I do think a lot of people get confused on the CBD or they see like, oh, there's some THC in there. But like, you're not going to put a droplet under your under your tongue or put it on your knees or whatever and like 30 minutes later behind, like it's right. If you do you got some stuff that's way over the limit, right?
William Branum 27:36
So it's interesting I have so so let's just talk CD really quickly. Um, CBD specifically, there's three main categories there's a full spectrum, which has all of those minor cannabinoids and terpenes from the hemp plant to include a small amount of THC so point 3% or less is the dried weight of the hemp plant that is that makes that hemp and not marijuana. So that's the the legal definition. And then there's a so that a full spectrum has everything from the hemp plant, a broad spectrum, which is 90% of what I sell. We have most of those minor cannabinoids and terpenes but we remove that molecule THC. And then the lowest quality of CBD that you can get in the market is CBD, isolate it they they just isolate the molecule CBD you don't get any of the other benefits of any of the other terpenes or minor cannabinoids and it's like when they extract it, it's just this white powder and then they take that white powder and they like throw it into like an olive oil or an MCT oil or maybe even a hemp oil and then sell it and you will know it's an isolate because it'll have like 10,000 milligrams of CBD, more does not equal better. Just FYI. But so that just something to think about when you're looking at a CBD product. But very recently I've done a bit of a pivot in THC versus CBD. And so I have a couple of products that have a little more THC than than the average bear but they still fall under the legal the legal point 3% dried weight the way the law is written. So I you know I have some gummies that have you know of one gummy asleep gummy that has 30 milligrams of CBD, three milligrams of CBN which actually has more with CBN is the sedated molecule of the hemp plant and then some, some melatonin
Keith McKeever 29:31
and those early on. I was like I bet there's melatonin in that.
William Branum 29:35
Yeah, there's there's a little melatonin in there. And then another gummy that I have. It has 30 milligrams of CBD. It's got a bunch of other minor cannabinoids and terpenes but it has five milligrams of THC in it. Hemp derived THC, federally legal across the board and I can deliver to all 50 states and you know that one, you take it. You probably shouldn't drive an hour later I use it for sleep and Uh, you know, it breaks that habit of like going to that. That bottle of alcohol like I'm like, oh, yeah, let me just let me just go lay down, it's time to sleep. So let's just go sleep. So there's no hangover or anything like that. So I use it very specifically for sleep. But it's I had, you know, I'm a child of Nancy Reagan's war on drugs just say no, I had a hard time even trying CBD for the first time. And then I heard her had a hard time trying these other gummies. And I was like, Yep, I, yes, let's do that. Because once I once I pivoted, and I just got my mind, right. And I saw the benefits that I received from it. Like, why are you not sharing this? You should share this.
Keith McKeever 30:43
Now, I think that's why we're going to see some changes when it comes to to cannabis and CBD and things will be becoming more mainstream. I think it definitely has over the last couple of years. But you mentioned Nancy Reagan and her war on drugs. I'm right there with you. I know of a few years younger than you, but I remember there. I mean, I was the kid who just hooked up there. I loved our dare officer. I loved everything about it. It was like I have never taken drugs. 37 years old. The other thing I've ever tried is cannabis. But I tell you what, the first time I did it, I was like, Man, I don't know. But I'm like, it was one of the things and I was in Vegas for the first time I really tried it. And I was like, Well, you know what? Why not? It's legal here. Let's try not those people around me that works. I'm like, I feel safe. You know, I'll try it. And I'll tell you what, it's one of those things, you know, just like alcohol, you shouldn't drink and drive shouldn't operate machinery and use firearms, things like that. But I'll tell you what, if you've got some pain, you know, you got to find the right thing. You got to read the labels know what you're getting into. But yeah, help with sleep. Anxiety. Relaxing, is a heck of a lot better than putting a depressant and you like alcohol? Yes. 100%. Yeah. Cuz you don't want to get that point where you drink until you sleep. Whether you're blacking out or no or not, you know, that's, that's not good for you. Good on your liver.
William Branum 32:02
Now, just the damage, man, the damage is so terrible what it does to you. So?
Keith McKeever 32:08
Well, yeah, that sounds far cheaper, far cheaper, easier, less damaging to you. I mean, there's so many benefits to it. But you know, I've had a couple of people talk so far on my podcast over the last couple years. And just seeing these come up a couple of times. And I think, for a lot of people, you know, they might be scared to do it. But I think they really should give it a shot. But really know what you're getting right? You know, look at the label, read it, see what's in it research the company, I know, you've got a lot of stuff on your website, like what you know, what you need to know, frequently asked questions, things like that. So you get from reputable companies, what I'm saying. And the other thing that websites scroll across the bottom.
William Branum 32:46
And one of the things that that we do that most companies don't do is we we we do third independent third party testing of every batch of product that comes out. And then we put a QR code, we put those results on our website. And then there are a QR code on every bottle of CBD that we sell, whether it's a topical and ingestible, or whatever, a gummy, a soft gel or a tincture that you put into your tongue. There's a QR code on there that that you can scan with your phone, and you can go to the lab results of exactly so you can see exactly what you're putting in your body.
Keith McKeever 33:21
Awesome, that's good stuff. Like I said, you know, people, you got to get to know what you're putting in there. But I just had another question that kind of popped in my mind. Just Just curious on your thoughts on if this would ever happen. If this were to if they were to change the rules on cannabis and CBD and everything Do you ever do you ever see the VA ever getting to the point where they prescribe prescribe either one.
William Branum 33:49
So I have a buddy who he started a nonprofit for psychedelics to help with PTSD and things like that. And in you know, I knew him when he was a brand new guy in the SEAL teams, I knew him later on in life in the SEAL teams before he got out. And I would never ever know that he was struggling with the things he was struggling, struggling with. And he has done a very, very good job of I think he and his wife have done a very good job of like, getting in front of the right people to start helping make things that are, you know, illegal, legal for veterans to to consume and to help treat under kind of a clinical environment to treat, you know, those post traumatic disorders or post traumatic events, things that we're that we struggle with. And, and so I think that it certainly could be as a matter of fact, I do some work with a client, one of my coaching clients. He has a cannabis company in Canada and he's like this is the only thing that the Canadian government does, right? Is they they built these sort of getaways kind of like the VFW, but more they have like yoga and like art therapy and all sorts of other stuff. But you can, you can bring your lat, like these lounges around the country, to support veterans and their families. And then they also, the government pays for their prescription of cannabis and has it delivered to their house and things like that. So we're working, we're actually working to try and, and set something up like that here in the US with the VA or nonprofits or however we can make that happen up.
Keith McKeever 35:40
If there's any powers that be that are listening for the for the VFW and the Legion. That's a huge opportunity. I've been a member of both for years. I love the fact that they do a great job of advocating for us in DC, and probably across different states everything to or even maybe locally, but they have these buildings that are largely in use, and they're just bars in a lot of places. There's extra space, that get creative. One of the reasons I don't go, I got a family. Like I don't just I just don't go to the bar. That's not the scene, I want to be it. But if there was something for my whole family to do, I would be their heartbeat. And how? Well I mean, the age ranges of us that served during the war on terror is pretty vast. But there's quite a few that are young have young kids, you know that? Don't know what to do that just like me. So good, good opportunity there.
William Branum 36:36
So for anybody so we'll see, we'll see if we can make something like that happen.
Keith McKeever 36:39
Yeah, we'll see. We'll cross our fingers. And hopefully one of these days. Before I go on to the next topic, I just want to let everybody know that websites scroll across the bottom and W dash recovery.com stands for naked wire. That's why Williams hat says get naked on it. I don't know if anybody put that two together yet. But if anybody's interested in it, I'll have that in the show notes to go get your CBD, check it out. and whatnot. But you also have something on your website I wanted to ask you about you've got to book the five seals secrets. What what, what kind of what kind of teaser? Can you give us about what's inside your book there.
William Branum 37:13
So the five seal secrets is. So I talked about CBD helped kind of turn down the noise in my head. And then I had to get my act together. And so I looked back at my myself my my time in the in the SEAL teams. And I just figured out like what can i What can I extract from my time in the SEAL teams to apply to my transition from the military to my everyday life now. And so, you know, I had this, this, this tagline of getting naked. And really, that was about taking your ego off taking that armor taking that baggage off, that you were around, and you kind of hide behind and in, take all of that off and become you know, expose yourself become vulnerable, so you can find the healing that you need. So make it was was, you know, it was out there. It was it I was a little scared to use that because I thought you know, that's a little risky. But society will also you also have to look at marketing as well. Like how are you going to get your your customers attention. And so I was like, Oh, get naked, that that gets people's attention pretty quickly. And so now I you know, I do a fair amount of keynote speaking. And I do business coaching and mindset coaching. And really, this this I turn naked into an acronym. And so the it and that's that's what you're gonna get in the in the five seal secrets. And so basically this is what it stands for the N stands for never quit. The A is accept failure. The key is to kill mediocrity, the E is expose your fears, and the D is to do the work. And so if you go to five, seal secrets.com Put your name and email in there, I send you the it's it's just a PDF, it's about eight or nine pages, some cool pictures that a buddy of mine took most of the pictures are from a buddy of mine from SEAL training. And, and, you know, it's it's, it's free. And if you are interested in coaching Are you know, me to come and speak anywhere, you can certainly just reply to that email. And in but for sure I've I was actually on a podcast about 30 minutes ago before this one kicked off. And I was talking to my buddy about the number of people that just that PDF that ebook, if you will has has affected positively. You know one of the things like expose your fears. One guy you know I've talked about in there a little bit about you know, do the things that scare you. For example, maybe you're you have a your your you're afraid of like public speaking, go take a public speaking class, like learn how to speak in front of people get in front of people and speak that's That should scare the hell out of you. Or maybe you have low self esteem. Go take a Brazilian jujitsu lasts for a year, maybe you were beat up as a kid, you're gonna learn skills that are going to help you anytime that you happen to be in a conflict or anything like that. And I write that pretty specifically, you're gonna learn because you're going to be forced to fight someone, every night that you go to class. Brazilian jujitsu is awesome, because it's like one of the one martial arts, where you, you apply what you learn immediately. And in like real combat, not to hurt one another, but to learn the skills and learn how to defend yourself, learn how to attack when you need to attack, transitioning positions that you need to be in. And so I got an email not that long ago, like a few weeks ago from someone and it was like, Hey, man, thank you so much for writing this, like, like, expose my fears is the thing that like I had to work on the most. And because I read your book, I went and joined the gym, it's probably a UFC gym. I don't, he didn't, he didn't specify, but I went and joined a gym that they have, you know, kickboxing and jujitsu in also, and so I'm taking those classes, and I'm improving my self esteem and in the event that I ever, so they have the skills if I'm ever in a conflict again. And I was like, that's like the most awesome feedback I could ever get in my life. And so that was that was very cool to, to get that feedback and get get emails like that.
Keith McKeever 41:14
That's that actually, I really liked that one to, you know, expose your fears, because Zillow way to grow. So when you get to get past it is to expose yourself over and over and over again, to that fear of public speaking is a good one. You know, I've been kind of like that, when I started this podcast, you know, it was like, very first episode, and I'm sitting there. And it's just like, I don't know how this is gonna go. But you don't get there. If you don't take that first step. You know, in my career in real estate, I got my instructors license to teach continuing education. And it's like, I've only taught one class. So far, there's only five people there are five people in zoom, but it was it was still like, Alright, I think that many people here, you know, it wasn't this, you know, I was more scared of like saying something stupid or not having an answer. Somebody asked me a question. But you know, what does it make it easier next time I'm in there, and there's 10 people, or 15 people or 20 people, it's just Yep. You can't just sit back and you gotta
William Branum 42:14
get the reps in, it's like working out, you, you're not going to, you know, you're not going to benchpress 315. Unless you start with 135, you got to start somewhere, you got to start at the bottom, you're never going to be a black belt unless you start as a white belt. So you have to get in there, you have to get the reps in. The more reps, the more comfortable you are, the more you can do, the better you get, like podcasts, I have been on over 400 podcasts in the last two years. And, you know, some are better than others. Sometimes I perform better, but whatever it is what it is. And so you started this podcast, you are significantly better now than you were the first time you Oh,
Keith McKeever 42:59
let it out. There you go. Another thing I've always kind of kept in my mind, I've said this to a few different people. You know, they're like, oh, I want to do a podcast. But I'm afraid. You know, what if what if it sucks, and I don't remember where I heard this, but somebody put it out there like your worst video, your worst podcast, your worst blog post, whatever you've already done. You've already done your worst one. So go out there and just and just nail it. You know, just get comfortable do your thing. You know, I keep that in the back of my mind always like, you know what? I'm not I'm not the one to judge. You know, if somebody listened to all was there out in 77 different episodes As of recording this. If somebody were to listen to all of them, everybody's gonna have a different opinion of which one's my worse? Sure. You know, it doesn't matter. Of course, what matters is the content. And is it helpful to somebody and improve somebody's life? But yeah, you just got to push through those things. So
William Branum 43:53
yeah, 100% You know, I was gonna say in you know what, sometimes you get haters, and I love haters, they're the best, because I love them. Because what happens especially like on social media, I get the most haters from either Tik Tok or from LinkedIn, which is weird, because LinkedIn is like a business platform. And I get the most like, hate hate feedback from those two platforms. And a lot of them are like, Oh, another Navy SEAL like Jade, like writing books and tell them stuff and like in so yes, yes, there is it. There's another one. None of the other services do that. Oh, actually, they do. I've got lots of buddies that are out there speaking and talking and spreading word and and sharing their knowledge. And that's the whole point. Like we have knowledge to share that can help other people. There's no reason to keep it to yourself. And I struggled with that a lot in the beginning, like a lot. I still struggled with it a little bit on occasion, and one of the things that helped bring it home for me was you know, we A buddy of mine who I also do some coaching with. He was are you familiar with Mossy Oak? That camouflage? Oh, yeah, absolutely. So he was one of the he wasn't the founder, but He basically took it from a fledgling company to the behemoth that it became. And then he stepped away and did other things. But in the real estate world and other things. It's funny, like he has, like, if I could ever be on his level, I would be so happy. But he's he has 10 Different companies that he's running right now. And his goal. His goal is stupid. His goal was to have each company pay him $20,000 A year for fun money. Each company pay him 20, like, make enough money that they will pay him $20,000 A year 20k A year for fun money. That's over $200,000 For fun money. But anyway, he was like, Oh, we went hunting. He went, he's well, we're beyond that. Way beyond that. But anyway, we were, we went on a hunting trip. And, and I'm riding with him. And I'm like, I have all this opportunity to soak in as much information from him as possible. And he told me a story about when he was a kid, like they went through it, he and his dad went to a funeral. And they're walking through the graveyard. And his dad says, You see those, those, the names and the dates there, you see that? That dash, all of that, that the dash between the dates, that's experience. And you know how many of those people have amazing experience that they passed down to other people. They all have amazing experience, but very few of them shared with other people. So your job while you're on Earth, is to take the knowledge that you have, and share it with as many people as you can to make the world a better place. I was like, boom. All right now. Now it's a mission to share information like yes, absolutely. So when I get those comments, it's awesome. I'm like, yes. Thank you so much for watching, and thank you for helping me change the world. Have no idea what to do with that kind of comment.
Keith McKeever 47:09
Alright, thanks for helping the algorithm pick up that there's more interaction.
William Branum 47:13
That's That's it. That's a whole like, I want to like I want him to like reach back and like did it to do Oh, there's lots of engagement that's like, show this post and more people. So yeah, I love the haters, because they all
Keith McKeever 47:22
have your hater friends and have them too. Yeah, you know, some people are just gonna naturally do that. You know, tick tock doesn't surprise me. Just because of how organic it is. LinkedIn though, that one that one kind of surprises
William Branum 47:35
LinkedIn is LinkedIn is pretty organic as well. It's almost as organic as Tik Tok. Like, I get likes from people that I'm like, I'm not are we? We're not even connected.
Keith McKeever 47:44
I guess you'd be surprised in some ways when it comes to LinkedIn, because so many people have gotten it on and on. And now of course, I've been on it for 11 years and part of my transition of like, Oh, get your LinkedIn squared away. Right, right. Get a suit, you know, resume, LinkedIn, all that fun stuff. But I actually check out every guest that I bring on the podcast, under LinkedIn, I actually put every guest on my website as past guest, and you can connect with every guest. Click that button, and it's gonna take you right to another page to their LinkedIn. And I can tell you, I've had people that I've talked to who have virtually nothing on LinkedIn, or no LinkedIn, or even people in my own industry, we're in real estate, we're in sales. People need to know who you are, and you go in there and they don't have a photo. They don't have a bio, they have nothing on there. And it's like, what are you doing? Yeah, just shoot yourself in the foot. Why don't ya? Yeah, you know, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people would just treat it like the Wild West and behaviors. Not professional on a professional.
William Branum 48:41
It's not terrible on LinkedIn, it's far worse on Tik Tok, but I for sure get a good amount. Like, I'm surprised at how much I get it. Some of them are just people being smart assets. Like, you know, I had one recently where the guy was like, I forgot I was telling a story about, you know, the time I didn't shoot a guy. And, and the guy replied something about what was it? He was like, Oh, I thought seals shot everybody. Because everyone that I know, has they shot Bin Laden, and they they wrote seven books and whatever, and whatever. And it just happened to be an army guy. And so I replied to him, I was like, Wow, man, I didn't know that army guys could read.
Keith McKeever 49:19
Oh, yeah.
William Branum 49:22
And then he replied back like I like big font and pretty pictures. So
Keith McKeever 49:27
I guess picture books down to right. Right. Exactly. So simple words, reading children's books, but yeah, we could go we could go on for days dragging on the army. I've had plenty of experiences and ties in with them too. But you know what? I know the flag will just come right back as at me as an airman so but I
William Branum 49:49
Yeah, or like when I when I work with the Marines they're like yeah, we're the and I tried to be smart. I remember on active duty I tried to be smart and like yeah, your your Department of the Navy Shut up like yeah, we're the men's depart Been a baby okay, now I knew that was next time yeah yeah
Keith McKeever 50:07
yep I wish I have some Navy people my family but I got a cousin who was a marine or is is a marine whatever he knows Marines get picky about that stuff but it's awesome to us here asked me once I said look man who brings you all your stuff who brings you your water your ammo your you know everything you need. He thought about it for a second I can see the wheels turn as I guess right it's the Air Force and the Navy. You bring everything you need, will fly anywhere you want to go. Pretty much. But anyway, William, I appreciate you coming on here and sharing with us I hope check out that book because I know I'm going to hop on there. I want to read it now and learn more about the other ones. But I appreciate you sharing about CBD and what you're doing there and educating people on how they can not get the gas station crap that's not tested and all that.
William Branum 50:59
Yeah, can I know I shared that with that story with you when we when we talked last time but you're the story that I usually tell is you know, someone asked me once upon a time what's the difference between your CBD and like the CBD that they get in a gas station? And I wished it was me that came up with the with the reply. But it was you know what's the difference between sushi that you get in the gas station and sushi that you get in a sushi house? It's Do you really want to roll the bones with with gas station sushi? Why would you do that with CBD because you don't know what you're getting in? Gas Station CBD for sure.
Keith McKeever 51:35
There's raw fish in it. But how was it prepared? How much is in it? Right? That's a good one. Yep, that is a good one. How
William Branum 51:42
long has it been sitting out?
Keith McKeever 51:46
Yeah, exactly. Oh, that's exactly why I don't eat sushi. But that's all another story for another day. So I appreciate you stopping by and being on the podcast, William.
William Branum 51:56
Yes, sir. Thank you very much for having me on here. I appreciate you.
Keith McKeever 52:00
No problem. Take it easy. All right, talk soon. All right there you have a folks. Hope you enjoyed it. As I always say if there's a resource that's not on my website, you think you should please reach out let me know. And if you're struggling for any particular reason, remember the national suicide hotline number is 988 press one or you can text 838255
