From an early age, Army veteran Paul Akins had to hold in a deep secret. Being abused by a priest was something he didn’t talk about till lately. That kind of trauma can be difficult to deal with. Paul somehow found the strength to start sharing his story in an effort to help others. Helping others eventually led Paul and his wife, to create Ohana Services. Ohana is Hawaiian for family, and the goal of their company is to help people on how to lower their monthly bills. Realizing that non-essential monthly expenses can get out of hand quickly, they decided to help other families lower these bills and regain some financial freedom!

Transcript from Episode 14 with Paul Akins:

Keith McKeever 0:02

Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. Alright everybody is Keith McKeever, the host of battle buddy podcast. I've got Paul Aikens with me today. So Paul, welcome to the show. And go ahead and tell us a little bit about your story. You know where you're born and raised your military journey, etc.

Paul Akins 0:21

Hey, Keith, good to see you, man. Thanks for having me.

Keith McKeever 0:23

Yeah, no problem.

Paul Akins 0:24

So yeah, I'm a US Army veteran. I served from active duty in 1986 to 1991 did some time in Fort Gordon Fort Bragg. And my last duty station was third Armored Division in Frankfort went to Desert Storm flew out Christmas Eve 1990 landed in Saudi Arabia on Christmas Day. Christmas cash it Sure. And so there was three feet of snow on the ground when we when we left and we landed in the desert. And some guy from the Air Force met us the next morning on the tarmac at about eight o'clock when we landed and apologize that it was so cold out that it would warm up soon. It was like 72 degrees at eight o'clock in the morning on Christmas. By noon, it was 98 and we were eating Christmas dinner with sand in it. Yeah. That's worse. That's that's a really short story of

Keith McKeever 1:15

my military. There wasn't a lot of infrastructure setup at that point. There.

Paul Akins 1:18

So by then there was enough where you know, we went to Summit City and lived in in some tents on concrete pads until the rest of our equipment a plot arrived at the port we had shipped it out months earlier. So we were only there for a couple of weeks that we grabbed our equipment and actually deployed to the desert

Keith McKeever 1:37

so awesome. And yeah, that's a good old desert and tents and sand and all that stuff. You know,

Paul Akins 1:45

I never ever thought I would live in the desert for six months but it was a definite learning experience. I don't think I've ever really readjusted to the environment I break a sweat so much easier than I used to now from living just living for six months in such a dry arid condition that anytime I get around any humidity now I hate it.

Keith McKeever 2:04

I don't I don't have that problem. My problem is with snow. I just I joke often it snow is just visible evidence from God that it's too cold to be outside. You know, I do not like the cold. I think maybe that's what I took away from the desert is I just performed will prefer a warm, drier climate. And of course I'm a little a so it we could get all four seasons in one day sometimes. So you never know what you're going to get into.

Paul Akins 2:35

Lightly upstate New York. So similar similar weather, we get lots of snow, not as much as Buffalo or anything like that. So you know, I currently live in the lower Hudson Valley in New York State with with my wife. And we've got she's got two daughters that are my stepdaughters that I've known since they were three and seven, you know, and then the time since I got out of the military in 1991, I've been in the corporate world, and am now you know, really starting to grow our own family business. So I'm in that transition period of how do I go from being an employee and transition into being a building owner. But you know, it wasn't an easy ride. You and I have talked a little bit there was a lot of bumps and bruises along the way. And

Keith McKeever 3:19

bumps and bruises in life's journey. So, you know, what, what obstacles did you have to face? Well,

Paul Akins 3:26

and I'll start with the probably, well, not probably definitely what was the lowest point in my life for me, it was my 34th birthday. So August 12 2001. And it's late at night, I spent the day alone. And I drunk out of my mind, stoned, emotionally drained. And I'm laying on the floor. Sobbing I mean, like ugly, crying, sobbing, begging God to take my life. I just don't have anything in me anymore. I was raised Catholic. So suicide really wasn't an actual option that I could get past the point of, I was so convinced that we'd go to hell if I did that, that I just couldn't do it. But I didn't want to live anymore, man. I just asked God to take me home. I'm done. And I woke up the next morning. And, you know, obviously I'm alive. But how did I get to that point? You know, I'm living a happy well adjusted life now. So what the hell made me want to die 18 years ago. And from the outside, you would have thought I had a really great childhood, you know, white picket fence in upstate suburban New York. I was a straight A student pretty much excelled at most things. I tried I suck at basketball. I learned that really early so I don't play basketball when I wasn't good at I couldn't do it. So you know, and I practice the things I was good at and got better at them. So, you know, it was I loved school. I was a curious excited kid. But what Nobody knew in the background was from the age of about 12 to 13 years old, I don't have it exactly right in the timeline in my head. But, you know, I met our family priest at the age of 12. And somewhere between 12 and 13, The abuse started and I was sexually abused from the time, I was, you know, just barely 13 years old up until the time I left for the army when I was 18. And it took me a long time to even admit to myself that I wasn't at fault for that. You know, a lot of abuse victims internalize and look at what did I do wrong? How did I put myself in that position? Why didn't I say no. And, you know, I came to realize that I had been groomed from the day this pedophile met me, so that he could manipulate every situation we were in. And it got to the point where, you know, the, he was so good at creating and maintaining that relationship that even after he moved out of our parish, the relationship continued, and I would go visit him. And along the way, I became a discipline problem. The straight A student started not getting A's started drinking. As a matter of fact, he gave me my first drink at the age of 13 or so. started doing drugs. Yeah, you know, and by the time I was 18, I was drinking every time how by time I was 16, I was a professional binge drinker. Every chance I could get a hold of any alcohol, I drank it until it was gone, or I passed out, survived a lot of really stupid crap in my teenage years that I'm really surprised I lived through drove drunk more times than I can remember, I was

Keith McKeever 6:50

just gonna say, most of that was drug and alcohol related. Yeah.

Paul Akins 6:54

Just doing really stupid stuff, man. And it was, you know, I didn't realize at the time that I was just trying to numb myself to what was going on. And finally came to the point where at least I realized that I wasn't going to live much longer if I didn't change. So that was my decision to change to join the army, as I figured that the army could, you know, beat this out of me, the discipline that was going to be instilled in me, maybe I could learn to, I just had to get away and change things still had not really made the connection that this had anything to do with the sexual abuse that I had suffered. So I joined the Army. I was enrolled in the local community college, Dutchess, community college and Dutchess County, New York, because even though I got really good grades, I managed to still graduate in the top 10% of my class and could have gone to, you know, just about any school, I wanted to my parents said, man, you're, you're a royal screw up, no matter of fact, they had over the previous six years, the more more trouble I got in the more and more restricted my life got, the more things they tried to take away from me, they were just trying to, you know, they've realized something was going wrong, but they didn't realize what it was. And the one thing they didn't take away from me, was somebody they saw as a positive influence in my life, which was my abuser,

Keith McKeever 8:09

any less stuff you have to do or things you can do, I would guess the alternative is baby, you know, getting in trouble or out, you know, backlash and, you know, going back to the, you know, situation that you don't want to be in.

Paul Akins 8:27

Yeah, so, you know, my solution is on going to the local community college, and I realized that I just needed to change my situation. So I walked off campus. And, you know, I knew I wasn't gonna join the Air Force, because they weren't gonna let me be a pilot. So I didn't want to join the Air Force. If I couldn't be a pilot. I didn't want to join the Navy, because there was just no way that I wanted to be out on a ship away from you want to

Keith McKeever 8:48

float in the middle of nowhere? You know, at listeners.

Paul Akins 8:55

In hindsight, since, you know, what I wanted was a technical education. Either those choices would have been fine choices, because they have great technical education. Yes, yeah, definitely. I also knew that I didn't want to join the Marines. You know, I have two cousins that were in the Marines. And, you know, not not to not to disparage my crayon eating friends now, but I didn't want to join the Marines. So I didn't, I wasn't looking to be a combat veteran, I was looking for a way to get the education that I wanted to get a potential way to pay for my own college education. So I joined the army, I got my training as an Electronics Technician. But I also found out after I joined the Army, that drugs and alcohol existed there to surprise you know, I thought it was going to be so locked down that I wouldn't even have access to this stuff other than basic training. Even as early as a it I found that there was as much drugs and alcohol as you wanted to do. And, you know, guess what? Coke doesn't stay in your system as long as marijuana does. So it's a much safer choice if you're worried about passing your analysis.

Keith McKeever 9:59

Yeah. I don't know how much really now, but I have heard that from a lot of this, that served in the 80s and 90s that it was really prevalent. It didn't take too many doors to knock on to find so

Paul Akins 10:12

I didn't even have to knock on a door. My first permanent duty station at Fort Bragg after I got out of Fort Gordon, doing my A it, I got to my first permanent duty station of Fort Bragg. I opened the door to the room, I was assigned to throw it through my duffel bag on the empty bunk. And my roommate turned around to me and said, Hey, welcome to Fort Bragg. You want to hit and handed me a crushed up coke can with you know, that's what we use to smoke marijuana back then. So it was, you know,

Keith McKeever 10:41

there since you started saying it, I was like you're an open up a door and yet, get it offered right away? Go out Go figure. 30 seconds.

Paul Akins 10:48

Yeah. So and if there's any environment conducive to binge drinking, you know, we were pros at it in the military. What else did we have to do? You know, we we did things like on Fort Bragg, we got a rule changed a couple of times, because there used to be a rule about how many containers of alcohol you could have for per person in the barracks. And, you know, we consider it a keg a container.

Keith McKeever 11:16

That will come into a ball,

Paul Akins 11:20

boy, or soccer game in one weekend and said, What the hell are you doing? We're like, we're drinking beer top. He said, But you're only allowed, you know, so much beer per person. So this is only one container. So it was lots of stories I could tell about the really stupid stuff we did. But, you know, fast forward to, I got out of the military in 91, after Desert Storm, had married a fellow soldier. During that time, she was in our unit, she actually deployed to Desert Storm with us. But I wasn't any I wasn't marriage material. And neither was she to be honest, because we were both too young and stupid and got married for the wrong reasons. So that that just ended badly

Keith McKeever 12:05

as a trend that has not ended. That happened a lot when I was in, you know, we call it an Air Force, you know, tech school marriages. So as you get to tech school, get a little taste of freedom after basic training, find the first first good looking thing you can see walking by, but it makes you know, like three weekends later there and getting married the base chapel, you know, it's gonna end bad cuz you're 1819 20 years old. Like, that's, it's a recipe for is like a train wreck. And you can see coming alive on the road?

Paul Akins 12:33

Well, you know, I was I was really good at bad decisions at that point in my life. So it's, they say, I'm gonna, I'm gonna get it wrong. But I've heard it said over and over again. You know, wisdom comes from experience. Experience comes from bad decisions. So therefore, I should be really, really wise. Made a lot of bad decisions in my life. But I rebounded right into a second marriage that I had no sense, no reason to do that. I should have fixed my own stuff first. And things got progressively worse. And fast forward to the night that I'm laying begging God to take my life I'd been through, you know, one divorce, and was now starting a second one I had separated from my wife, we had two apartments with two houses on one piece of property. And the smaller house was an apartment that we rented out, but it was vacant. So I moved into that one. And I was convinced that I was going to put my marriage back together was trying to work on it, and ended up alone on my birthday, because she was out with somebody else. And it just, you know, like I said, I was drunk out of my mind, stoned out of my mind, I don't even remember on how many different substances and I was, I was just done, I was done. Still had not made any connection whatsoever to the sexual abuse that I had suffered. You know, I just thought I was a screw up. So the next morning, I woke up, and it wasn't like, you know, an epiphany, the sun shined down on me and my life changed. But what it was was me realizing, okay, I begged God to take me I'm alive. If there is a God, maybe there's a reason I'm alive. And I made a decision at that point, that I was going to start making changes to make my life better. So you know, incremental changes, the first first thing I did was I gave up all of the mind altering substances except alcohol. I held on to that one for quite some time. But I made a decision that I wasn't doing any of the other stuff. And I knew that when I made that decision, it was going to start forcing other changes in my life because I was to the point where, you know, in my other house that I wasn't living in there were drug dealers and prostitutes and car thieves. I came home one day and there's a car parked behind my house. uptight again. The house with a tarp pulled over. And, you know, I asked my my ex wife, what the hell was that? Oh, Joe wants to store his car here, while he's on vacation.

Keith McKeever 15:11

Yeah, he closed down close to the house with a tarp on it.

Paul Akins 15:17

That wasn't just there, Joe wasn't storing his car at all. So, you know, something had to change. So I started making those changes. And eventually what what changed was I had to leave the state because I was so entangled in the web of what I had allowed myself to be in, you know, anybody who's struggled with addiction and recovery, has heard the phrase, you know, would you allow other people to do to you what you did to yourself, and what I did to myself, and where I put myself, if I imagined somebody else doing that to me, I would be so freakin angry. So I had to come to the realization that I did that to myself, and I had to change it. So I left the state, I moved to New York, back home, moved in with my parents, trying to figure things out while I was trying to put some money aside. And that that's when the ex wife hit me with what turned out to be, you know, the craziest story in the world that she was dying of cancer. And I moved back down, out of the goodness of my heart, because I was going to help her through this dying process, because she didn't have anybody else. It was just a trick to get me back down there and take advantage of me more, more than I possibly, you know, more than I could have ever imagined.

Keith McKeever 16:31

Would it be safe for me to assume that she was involved in all the same stuff that you were in? Yeah, then yeah. So she had she had reasons she she needed money, fix whatever.

Paul Akins 16:43

So you know, that only made things worse for me. kind of confused those two points that that happened, the move to New York and back down happened just before the I want to die moment. And that was because when I when I moved back down, and my wife will probably correct me on this. I have a hard time getting things in time order, but it was. Yeah, so she just said that was before I moved to New York. So that was it was happened the first time before I moved to New York, I was gonna help her live through that process. So fast forward, a little more met, who now currently is my wife, my my soulmate, my best friend, Tracy, we've been together for 18 years been married for 13. And when I moved back to New York, and started trying to figure my life out, I met her. And we were both just out of relationships. Neither one of us was really looking to have a new relationship or partner, but we became really good friends. And she became my safety net, and encouraged me gently, but often,

Keith McKeever 17:48

gently was early.

Paul Akins 17:50

She encouraged she was the first person I told about my sexual abuse. And she kind of asked me, Do you think that might have anything to do with some of the stuff you've been through and some of the decisions she made? Now that that's done, I'm past it, I'm good. I'm over. So she'd asked me every once in a while, and she encouraged me to get some counseling. And it was probably the best decision I ever made in my life second to marrying Tracy. So through the process of actually going through counseling for the the abuse that I suffered, I was able to deal with the emotions that it caused me in part to make some of the decisions I did, and to get to a point where I could forgive myself and not blame myself for the choices I had made. Because as I said earlier, I was not equipped to make those decisions at that age. And I was groomed by somebody who was the textbook, pedophile. I just was reviewing a class that my younger stepdaughters, she's studying criminology and criminal justice. And, you know, if you're on the wrong side of law, watch out for her holy crap.

Keith McKeever 19:02

I think she knows knows your story as well, or she does. So I'm sure you guys have had some interesting conversations, you know, tying that in.

Paul Akins 19:10

We were we were reviewing one of her class, you know, she was getting ready to write a paper and asked for some input from me and one of the classes was on, you know, pedophiles and sexual predators. And when I read the textbook description of somebody grooming somebody at a young age, literally textbook word for word, everything that he did, to me was in that textbook. So the counseling, you know, was not a lifetime thing, but it was long enough that I needed it to get me over that process to really start healing and I still am, I started going to counseling just about 18 years ago.

Keith McKeever 19:51

But, you know, slowly dealing with bits and pieces of it, you know, for the rest of your life. Yes, profound thing. impacted your life for so long.

Paul Akins 20:01

And I just started telling the story very recently, this is, you know, the second or third podcast that I've actually done it on. But very few people up until now have known this about me. And there are people that are going to be surprised when they hear it. But I've actually come to a point. And this also surprises some people, I've come to a point in my life where I, I've chosen happiness, I've chosen gratitude, and those things are a choice. And I'm grateful for everything I've been through even the really screwed up stuff. Because I'm now at peace with who I am, I'm content with who I am, I'm happy with who I am and where I am in life. And I wouldn't be exactly where I am without any of it. So even though it was horrible, even though it caused me to, you know, want to die, even though I made some really, really bad decisions in my life, I've come to a place where I can look at it all as a whole and say, You know what, I'm grateful for everything that's made me who I am. So

Keith McKeever 21:01

20 ways to be mentally, you know, to be grateful for where you're at, you know, where you been through. I have been through anywhere near what you've been through. But I lost my father when I was 16. I mean, you think about all the different things that you want your father to be in your life for. But my kids have asked me enough, you could have any wish, what would it be? You know, anything could come true. Would you want your dad back? No, no, I really wouldn't. And it sounds weird. But I wouldn't want to back because he passed away hit cancer. But him passing away set upon a series of events in my life that made me who I am today. And without that I wouldn't have met my wife, I probably wouldn't have been in the military, I wouldn't have my kids. I wouldn't want to change any of that made me exactly who I am.

Paul Akins 21:48

Yeah, I'm right there with your brother. And, you know, you said you haven't been through what I've been through. And I hear that, you know, my wife's a cancer survivor, and she hears it a lot like, Oh, my story isn't anything like yours. None of our stories are like each other's but everybody's got their own pain, everybody's got their own baggage. And it's unique and important. And just because your story isn't like somebody else's, it's no less important, everybody,

Keith McKeever 22:14

it's gonna hit everybody differently. Some people can be through some absolutely terrible stuff, and not even faze them. And other people can be through something that's very minimal, and it have lasting impacts, you know, from I don't know, to say like a traffic accident or something like that, where, you know, maybe the rest of their life, they will not get into a car. You know, they have severe PTSD, and it impacts the rest of their lives in such a crazy way where, you know, they it alters everything. Yeah, it's all how you react to it to a situation.

Paul Akins 22:50

And the magic comes when you realize that you have the choice to react. Now, you know, it's a learning process. But everything that happens to us, and this, this comes from Dr. Stephen Covey is that you have a space between stimulus and response. So no matter what happens to you, there's a space. Now, for some of us, especially when we're first learning to deal with a lot of crap, that space is really small, it's a microsecond between when something happens and when you react to it. And, you know, one of my goals has been to make that space bigger. So when something happens, I can now choose to pause, I can look at it, you know, the the analogy I was given that I love is when something happens, or somebody says something to you, or there's an event, imagine there's a Plexiglas barrier in front of you. And whatever that is that that happens, stops and hits that barrier. Now you have the ability to examine it, and look at it and say, What am I going to do with it? And how is this going to affect me. And if you can increase the amount of time that you spend examining a stimulus before you respond to it, for me, it's been effective, and I still suck at it in a lot of places. But in certain places, I'm getting better at it, to respond rather than react, to analyze the situation and say, okay, you know what, I don't have to let this bother me. I'm just going to let it slide off the Plexiglas and go away, I don't need to deal with that. Or, Hey, this is something that will serve me. So I'm gonna let it through. And I'm going to deal with it in a way that will serve me and serve others.

Keith McKeever 24:23

And Paul is gonna be really, really helpful. I was I was told once you know, before reacting, just just wait like four seconds, just pause, count four seconds, and then say what you need to say or react, how you want to want to react. Because especially those of us who served in the military, people's lives are on the line, you are taught to act and go from zero to 100. Instantly, it's react, save lives because the people on your left and your right are California. And that's something that just takes a long time to get over and you get over bits and pieces of it over time. But every now and then something might, you know, sneak up and hit you where you just react and guess most civilians will look at it in a very strange way. That's not really appropriate. But that's how you're just kind of hardwired to do. So you just got to slow down and build that reaction time and just pause for four seconds, three, four or five seconds, can can change your, your approach.

Paul Akins 25:22

And it takes a lot of practice. So that was one of the things that I learned in therapy, I would I would highly recommend, you know, one of the reasons I've started telling my story is, I know there's other people that have been through what I've been through. And, you know, if, if that's you, if you're hearing this podcast, or seeing the the webcast, and you've been through something similar and you haven't reached out for help you, I would, I would highly encourage you to do so. Whether it's somebody you love and trust, or just find your local mental health hotline, and give a phone call and let them refer you to somebody who can help, because it made a world of difference for me. And once I started doing that my life was much, much different direction.

Keith McKeever 26:05

I'm sure you know, different speeds for everybody, but not for sure. For some people, it can make a big impact pretty quick. For others, it might take a little bit longer. But either way, you're moving in the right direction by talking to somebody and have somebody process help you process different things from different angles.

Paul Akins 26:23

And one of one of the things that I came to realize is, there's this cycle of self sabotage, where somewhere in your childhood, somewhere in your past, there's been some trauma that somehow makes you feel not worthy. So every time you come close to achieving something great, you figure out a way to screw it up. Because you don't think you deserve it. Mine's a little bit different from that I somehow internalized, I told you, I was a real good student, I was successful in a lot of things I did at a young age, I had internalized and saw that as what made me attractive to a pedophile. So my cycle came from every time I was getting close to achieving something great. My subconscious said, it's gonna make you a target, don't do it. And I would go out and get drunk and screw shit up, I would get arrested for DWI, and screw shit up, I miss a couple of days at work, and screw shit up. So it was that cycle of keep going, because I have this drive to be good at whatever I do. You know, and that that's it, a lot of us, especially in the military, you know, you train, you want to be the best at what you're doing. So I've got this drive to be the best at whatever I do. But when I'd reach a certain level of success, that cycle would kick in. And my subconscious would say, man, it's not safe there, man. Don't go there.

Keith McKeever 27:41

You know, so now you've got two sides just butting heads, right? They're wanting to punch punch right through and achieve their greatness that's capable. But you know, something else gravity by the pant leg and pulling you back down.

Paul Akins 27:52

So that's a conversation I've had with myself daily, now. So I got the counseling that I needed, I got the support in my best friend and my wife. And I actually started building a pretty successful career in the corporate world. You know, I still work for the same company that I worked my way up through, we were purchased by a much larger company several years ago. And it's a specialty construction company that owns a bunch of fire protection companies, pipeline companies, about $5 billion a year in revenue. And I finally worked to a place where I enjoy my job that I'm doing full time for them. I'm running an apprenticeship program, that gives me some time freedom because I teach classes several days a week, but only every other week. And the rest of the time, I pretty much have time freedom to build the curriculum to do the reporting I need to do to interface with talent pipelines, and how do I get people into this talent pipeline. But the other thing it's done for me is, is along the journey of self exploration, healing, and personal development, I discovered entrepreneurship, and really kind of grabbed on to building a business with my wife together. And the self discovery and self development journey we've been on together has been extraordinary. And now we're to the point with our family business, where we're really seriously looking at the transition of me away from being an employee and into running the business full time. So you know, some of the things that I'm going to be planning over the next several years is, I love what I do for my career, and I don't plan on leaving it, but can that transition to a potential consulting role at some point, so that I can spend more and more time in the family business because right now it's only part time. You know, I have a commitment to employer that I have to uphold and I you know, they get 4050 hours of my week, every week and I work the family business with my wife when I can fit it into my schedule. She's the primary, you know, customer service rep. Accountant, Administrator General Manager, whatever you want to

Keith McKeever 30:01

do the entrepreneurship, you know, we're just wearing a bunch, you're changing them out all day long.

Paul Akins 30:08

Yeah, it's been, it's been really rewarding to build that business side by side with her. And it's something that I know we're going to do the rest of our lives. And the neat thing about entrepreneurship that I've heard this quote a couple of times, and it's, you know, it's not about who you need to be to build the business, it's about who you're going to become, in order to build the business. And it's like, you know, the self development journey has been hand in hand with it, because I've looked out for, you know, training and other places, and, you know, people that first I would never pay attention to, like, like Tony Robbins, you know, I used to think that he was nothing more than a snake oil salesman, but I've, I've listened to some of the seminars, I've been in a room with him where some of what he said, really connected with me and was quite powerful. And it's kind of clicked another level for me in some places,

Keith McKeever 31:01

he's a good one to listen to, I have always enjoyed listening to Tony Robbins. Never been to a, you know, never been in the same room with them. But guys, very, very powerful, powerful guy, the way he approached his life. And, you know, I've seen some videos out there, like wakeup techniques in the morning, just priming yourself up for success. And because everything's ball, it's all mental, it's all in your head, you just got to get it all right, and work in the right direction. So that's what I like about it is, you know,

Paul Akins 31:29

yeah, just did, I just did a three day intensive course with Dean Graziosi. That was, you know, that was another one that I've seen Dean in and out of things, but never really paid a lot of attention, though, you know, he was the king of the infomercial in the 90s. And he's, he's really kind of kicked it into another gear now with teaching some some real skills for building a business and personal development and personal accountability, that, you know, it was three days that I've got a couple of really good takeaways that are going to help me, you know, take what I want to do to the next level. So that's a big part of what I've enjoyed, about enjoyed about the journey of going from soldier to employee to entrepreneur. I've just become, you know, a much more well rounded person in the process, I believe, and I'm really enjoying the journey.

Keith McKeever 32:21

Yeah, sure, if you examine your corporate role, she's had plenty up over the years, but, you know, in a corporate job, you've got certain skills that you have to acquire for that job. But they're very specifically pointed towards that job. As an entrepreneur, you have to know everything from finance taxes, you know, maybe e commerce, if you got that kind of business or something to website building SEO, you really got to learn it all. Or you got to find the resources that you can pay to do that stuff for you. So if you really have to wear many hats, and it's not for everybody, it's a heck of a

Paul Akins 32:55

ride. You know, the other, the other thing to really come to terms with if you're, you know, taking that journey or want to take that journey you're contemplating taking that journey is nobody's going to tell you what to do. If you're, you're gonna be your own boss in the truest sense of the word. And if you don't treat yourself, it's almost like you have to have a split personality and, and be your own boss, and make your schedule and tell you what to do. And then you're your own employee following the schedule, you just set for yourself. And that's what I have to do. I got to put put stuff in my calendar and defend it once once it's there. Yeah, I have my lunch break every day from my primary source of income right now, which is my full time career. My lunch break is dedicated to prospecting for new clients for the family business. And that's, that's what I do during lunch. And I have to defend that and not take other appointments, not take invitations to do stuff that does not serve my bigger goal.

Keith McKeever 33:52

Yeah, it does force you to adapt and take advantage of every opportunity, just little things. He talked about calendars. I use Google Calendar, personally, I've got my business. I've got a you know, personal calendar, my wife's got her work stuff. And we have we use Google Calendar because it throws all of it in one. And at time blocks, things like for the podcast, I use Calendly to schedule well, that will automatically block it out if I already have another appointment there. So it's already started doing a lot of that work and make sure there's no booking nothing's booked to close, that I've got time built into things. And you just got to take the little steps to like not, you know, mess things up. You know, just little steps for time. You know, a lot of time on the road, I listen to podcasts, I listen to a radio in the car, I listen to podcasts, or listen to an audiobook. Take advantage of that 30 minute commute to learn something to do something. You get to take advantage of network opportunities on Facebook, social media, whatever. Meet people get to know people as another huge step for entrepreneurship. So it's definitely mindset, but your buddy Your business, your your family business that you're doing is consulting, right? A lot of financial.

Paul Akins 35:04

So the business is called Ohana services. And, you know, backstory on the name. I didn't originally agree on the name, but I'm not the boss my wife is. And when we decided to create the LLC and make the family business, we were kicking around names and she said, What do you think of ohana and I went, and you know, for us, it comes from the Disney movie with Lilo and Stitch and Ohana means family and Ohana means nobody left behind. We're huge Disney fans. But family is also a huge primary focus of us. And everything we do, is really around making lives better for other families. So I bought in and said, We're going to call the company Ohana services. So we created the LLC. And we've got a couple of different things that we do. And they're all around making the financial life better for families and small businesses and even some larger businesses. And there's a couple of ways that we do that. And one is negotiating monthly bills for people. Now, you know, you think about your cable bill, your cell phone bill, your internet bill, hack, even pest control or home security. Most people just you know, they know they pay what they pay. And there's also what we call a loyalty penalty. In most of those industries, you sign up for an introductory rate, and the longer you're a customer, the bigger your build gets

Keith McKeever 36:31

bigger when that bill goes to 75 to 100. After that one year period. Yep, you're outside that introductory window.

Paul Akins 36:38

And so Tracy would regularly for us call our service providers and negotiate and say, you know, why can't I get the new customer rate, and they wouldn't always give us a new customer rate, but she'd find something. Now that's, that's time consuming. It's frustrating. Sometimes you're on the phone with hours for them. So what we do for our customers is we have contract negotiators that negotiate on our customer's behalf. So they call the service providers and they get them savings on just about any monthly bill. You know, that's that's a service that you have the option to use or not, you know, we can't we can't work on people's tax bills, we can't work on your college debt. Sorry.

Keith McKeever 37:20

Yeah, darn shame. The big ones people like to elaborate,

Paul Akins 37:25

we can't get your mortgage lowered personally, but we do have a referral network of other people that can work on those things like credit repair and mortgage and, and debt. You know, so that's the other side is we also have a network of people that either were direct affiliate marketers for where we can just put you into their pipeline for financial advisors for credit repair specialists for mortgage brokers. But our primary focus is the bill auditing. And, or sorry, Bill negotiation and auditing. So for commercial buildings, commercial customers, we do the negotiation. But we also do if you're a big enough company, we'll do an audit, we'll do a three year look back to make sure you haven't been overcharged on your utilities and stuff that are regulated by the government because there's taxes and fees and things that often get mis applied. So we'll

Keith McKeever 38:18

well course, we'll look at your business owner, and you're getting a ton of different bills, it's easy to look over some of those little line items that they add a couple bucks a month here, a couple bucks a month there.

Paul Akins 38:29

And hey, most small business owners small to medium business owners. And I'll give you my definition there when I say small to medium, mom and pop that are just getting off the ground and starting and haven't even reached the breakeven part point up to somebody who's doing a couple million dollars a year in business. That's a nice size, small business. But we've even worked with customers that do 50 or $100 million a year in business. And we've got one or $2 billion clients. Because here's what happens is you have somebody who's an accounts payable specialist, and they're really good at what they do. And they look at the bills when they come in, they either match them to your purchase order or they you know, look at what you were charged last month for recurring service, make sure it's the same, make sure it's accurate, and they pay the bill

Keith McKeever 39:12

are not too far off, like electricity or water. Oh, that's within a margin of error, you know.

Paul Akins 39:18

So they're really good at making sure that there aren't any really big discrepancies and that the bills are what you expect them to be. What they're not usually really good at is knowing whether those bills are what you should be paying based on the real market situation in your area. So we have access to 1000s and 1000s of bills from 1000s of customers that we can compare and say you know, this is this is what Keith should be paying for his internet and out of his broadcast studio. And we can then negotiate on your behalf and get your bill lower. And that's you know, it's a pretty cool business model because we can't charge anybody anything. We have a guarantee no say is no charge, we can't charge you unless we save you. So I don't have any product to sell, I don't have, you know, any way that I can make money unless I help my customers save money.

Keith McKeever 40:12

It's an interesting space to be able to come to be an entrepreneur, because I think, because I'm a realtor, a service industries great, but sometimes I'm like, Man, it'd be nice to have a physical product like you could have on your shelves and sell it in commerce. But that comes with a whole new set of, of issues. But it is nice when you can, when you can help somebody, like really help somebody, especially for me, helping people, you know, buy or sell, you know, the biggest investments of their life. Side note that you need, I mentioned, can help with mortgage bills, I will throw two things in there. One now, right, as you're listening to, this is a good time to call your insurance companies, or call other companies and shop around for rates, good chances, you probably haven't done that in a really long time. So, you know, call two or three other companies to get some quotes compared to what you're currently paying, you might be surprised where you can get some savings. Second thing is rates are still good on mortgages. If you're paying more than four and a half percent, pretty much anywhere in this country. There's variables there, but if you're paying anything more than that, you should look at a refinance. You know, you have no idea what you could save, especially with, you know, differences in equity, or whatever. So they're two different things. I'll interject right now, you know, as we see here, 2021, perfect opportunity to look at those

Paul Akins 41:27

great advice. You and I talked a little bit previously, and we've we've both taken advantage of the low mortgage rates. And it's, it's made a big difference for me to be able to read, I was paying seven and a half percent, and got down to three and a quarter. So yeah, if you're paying, like you said, over 4%, at least make the phone call reach out, you know, and I'm sure you're in the industry, you know, I've got some, if people want to reach out and get a referral. Now reach out to Keith Ryan, we can we can point you in the right place. If you don't know anybody.

Keith McKeever 41:56

Yeah, there's a it makes so much sense, I still, occasionally still run into people with the nine 10% interest. You know, I know back in the 80s, you know, those mortgages are probably paid off now back from the 80s. But I know at one point in time, they're 1213 15%, which is just insane, you would think about, thank goodness, we're not close to that, but they're still near or at, you know, the historical low. So your credit score and stuff like that plays a big factor in there. But you know, it's worth exploring, I've said, if you're over maybe four and a half, you should definitely be calling and see what you can save, you know, three, three and a half range make a big difference. So,

Paul Akins 42:40

yeah, that's where we, you know, we don't do a lot of the other stuff ourselves. But that's where we, when we're talking to somebody, and saying, hey, you know, if we could put a couple $100 A month back to your family's bottom line, or we can put a couple $1,000 A month back to your business bottom line, you know, what else could you be leveraging that money for? And have you looked at your credit scores, have you looked at other things, and that's when we'll put them in touch with other people. But what what really makes Tracy and I feel great about it is, you know, the fact that it may be somebody couldn't, now they can make decisions that couldn't make otherwise, you know, money is money, you know, the love of money is the root of all evil money is money, it's a tool, just like any other tool, it can be used for whatever you want to use it for. So when you've got more of it, you have more options. So we can give somebody a little bit more money, maybe now they can sign their kids up for that ballet class they couldn't have afforded otherwise, or maybe it's a family vacation that you're saving up for. And you know, you can't pull the trigger until you got the money to go. So maybe that accelerates your timeframe a little bit more.

Keith McKeever 43:43

Yeah. Even with like loan, you know, refinancing, pull out equity, pay off some debt, you know, that's a great way to pay down things. And if you could save on your monthly bills, you can easily find yourself with a few $100 Extra every month that you can do something with and save for a trip, invest it, you know, add it to your retirement account, I mean, you know, a couple a couple 100 bucks extra a month in retirement account or in an emergency fund, so you don't have to put it on a credit card next time. Yeah, is huge. You know, if you've got $2,000 to use, instead of charging $2,000 on a credit card, you're gonna save yourself hundreds, if not a couple 1000 in the long term, if you don't pay that credit card off right away. So

Paul Akins 44:24

absolutely. So you know, kind of one of the other places that I am at, and you said something earlier that I think is pretty cool, you know, for people who are starting to make that transition, hey, I don't want to be an employee anymore. I'm going to be an entrepreneur, I'm going to start my own business. You said something important about leveraging some things, you know, you got to wear all the hats. And this is something that in the corporate world, I'm involved in a lot of leadership training in the company that I work with, but one of the things that we've really started to look closely at is there's kind of a new paradigm on what do you spend your time getting better at? You know, so when you've got to wear Are all the hats, and you're really not that good at something, is it worth your time to really put in effort to try and get better at it, when you're only going to move the needle 2%, you know, I'm never going to dunk a basketball, I'm just not going to do it, I'm not going to spend 20 hours a week training to play basketball. I'm also not, I'm not the detail guy on our business. So, you know, my wife does that. But if there's something that you are great at, let's say you're an awesome salesman, that's your key, that's where you should spend all your time is on selling. And as soon as you can leverage the profits that you're getting into your business, to subcontract, or hire employees, or go on Fiverr, or, you know, get somebody to do those things for you that they're good at that you're not, it's going to increase your ability to spend time doing the things that you're good at, and are going to generate bigger profits for you sooner.

Keith McKeever 45:56

Yeah, cuz some people aren't in organized, some people just never going to grasp accounting, inventory management, audio and video editing, whatever the case may be, you may have the natural knack to be able to pick it up, maybe it's worth your time to do that. But it's probably not, you know, so you got to figure out what your strengths and weaknesses are, and be able to do what your strengths are and find somebody that can, you know, handle your weaknesses, because that's their strength. So takes a lot of looking inward on yourself in self assessment, figure out where you're at, where your strengths and weaknesses are defined, surround yourself with people that can complement that.

Paul Akins 46:40

And it's, um, you know, opportunity cost is something that not everybody takes into account often enough. And as I said, I had just done a course with Dean Graziosi, the example he gave, that I thought was awesome, was when he was first starting out. He he was cutting lawns, to make some money. You know, this was when he was like, 20 years old, in in upstate New York, he had an automobile repair shop and was starting to get into selling stuff. And, you know, he was making 50 bucks on the weekend, cutting some lawns. And he realized that that time that he was using cutting the lawns, you know, if it was two hours that he was cutting the lawn, and he made 50 bucks, you know, yeah, 50 bucks is nothing to sneeze at, even now, I'll take it, I'm not gonna leave it laying on the sidewalk. But he could spend that two hours of time selling a couple of cars and making a couple $1,000. So he hired a buddy of his to cut the lawns for 50 bucks. So it was a break even proposition for him, he still got got the job done. He didn't make any money on that. But He then used those two hours to make a couple $1,000 doing something else. So that's, that's the opportunity cost that you really got to look at and spend your time doing the high leverage activities.

Keith McKeever 47:51

Yeah, I've always felt that way about my business, being a realtor, hey, I've got two thumbs, right? I, I will never be a contractor, I will never be a builder. I do understand some things, I can do a decent amount of work on my house. But sometimes it's just easier and more effective for me to spend my time working on my business than it is for me to be rewiring something or, you know, swapping out some plumbing or building a wall who knows whatever. It's it's not my expertise, I'm not that great at I might as well hire an expert who's going to do it right. And focus my time and attention on something that I have control over. It's beneficial for my business. So you just got to find what works for you. Yeah, absolutely. So that's a, you have to send me the links and everything for your business in case anybody wants to reach out to you about Ohana services. And I know there's a lot of people that could probably use that service. We're probably all paying too much for for all those services these days. To get my Netflix and my Hulu down to zero, that would be great.

Paul Akins 48:56

We may actually be able to do that. Those are some of the I'm not kidding. Those are some of the bills that we've negotiated. And it's shocking. It's actually estimated $60 billion a year that Americans are being overcharged. And most of it we don't know about there's hidden charges. You know, if you look really closely at your cell phone or your cable bill, you'll see some access fees and service fees. And some of those are completely made up. Now, I'm not saying that they all are or that this happens to everybody. Some of them are completely made up. And we've gotten you know, it's crazy. And for especially for businesses, they pay what they think they have to. We saved one of our customers, hundreds of 1000s of dollars on their internet phone bill, because they were just paying what they thought Now this was a multi location company that had a bunch of different offices and hundreds of different phone extensions, but it was an IP phone service that they were just paying what they thought they had And then we're being overcharged by over $10,000 A month based on what the same company was charging other clients. So, and it was just because they could, you know, the business model sometimes seems to be, how much can we charge and get away with it? Where it really should be? How much do we need to charge to make a reasonable profit to keep ourselves and Yeah, everybody's, you know, its profits, not a bad word, you're supposed to make a profit when you're in business. So charging charge enough to make a profit, but it should be a reasonable profit to where, you know, if you're looking at all your customers across the board, they're all being charged within, you know, a few percentage points at the same rates for the same services. And sometimes it's, it's more of a predatory predatory practice where the, the rate is whatever they can get away with, or somebody calls and compliance.

Keith McKeever 50:52

Yeah, that's why when you call and complain, boy, can they roll out the red carpet for you. I mean, I just did it the other day, I'm not gonna name the provider, but it was something that I had like an introductory rate for. And I had it for a little while. And I was like, yeah, that's not really my thing. So a couple months ago, I went and cancelled it. Thought I cancel, it turns out it wasn't check my, my bank statement the other day, and $24, roughly, and I was like, What the heck is this? I thought I cancel that. So I got online chat with them. They're like, No, you never cancelled, it was just $24 for is that like six months? Three months worth? No, it's a month. And I'm like, Nope, you can cancel that right now. I'm never having to service again, this is ridiculous. You know, who pays this much for? For this? You know, like, there are other services that I know of that are cheaper. There's a reason I tried to cancel this like, so you know, your watch those games where they think you cancel something too, and it's not or you think you're having a deal. And boy, were they trying to match the deals I was telling them about to I'm like, I can do this for this amount, or this or this or this or this. And, oh, we can do that we can match that. I'm like, no, no, have you already burned that bridge? If you're done, I'm gonna I'm gonna go, you know, for option B, C, or D now,

Paul Akins 52:05

right? It is it's designed. It's designed on purpose to make it hard for you to unsubscribe to make it harder for you to cancel, to make it harder for you to talk to a human being to even have that conversation. And that's could people do what we do on their own? Absolutely, you know, a business can hire somebody full time whose job it is to do what we would do for them, it's probably not cost effective. Because a lot of that time is spent on hold. It's spent navigating through the phone, mail tree, and our reps know, these companies. Some of them used to work for some of these companies. So they know the fastest way to get to the person who can actually make the decision. So it saves time, saves effort saves effort, and just like we were talking about that allows you as a business owner to leverage your time and spend it on higher income producing activities rather than spending hours on the phone trying to bang your head against getting your bill lowered when you know you're probably being overcharged.

Keith McKeever 53:00

Oh, yeah, yeah, they all the head right there. That's, you know, literally hours on the phone. If I can take back to 45 minutes here an hour there on the phone with certain things. It's ridiculous. You know, in my case, sometimes I have to do something sometimes I had to set up utilities on a foreclosure or something like that already, but I said setting that stuff up, then I gotta go cancel then I got to explain the situation. Now I'm not the owner. Like, I'm not the owner, but I need it. My name is you know, bank foreclosure, whatever. Yeah, the man confuses them all then you got to talk to three different people because they're confused as well. So as soon as it's on, it's unavoidable, but it is what it is. We all you know, personally need to evaluate that stuff and figure out what it is because the prices go up. I think Netflix just went up. You know, I've got Netflix, Hulu, Disney, plus, we got the cable and went to those services. Now they're quickly just as expensive. You know, if I would have just kept the cable so yeah, it's crazy. It's out of control for all these streaming services. Of course. Now we're all pretty much at home. So what else do we have to do? Can you make so we're gonna watch TV and they're like, gotcha, suckers. gonna raise these rates because we know you're at home watching Netflix, we see how much you're watching.

Paul Akins 54:12

Like goes back to you know, managing your calendar is put your Netflix time on your calendar too. Because otherwise you'll you'll end up doing stuff like pins, binge watching five seasons of Peaky Blinders right in a row. You know? Not to say that I've done anything like that.

Keith McKeever 54:27

Yeah, no, I know. My lately has been on Hulu catching up with homeland. I never watched it and it was on there. I think we're like five, five seasons in now. So like, every night we watch two or three. And it's like, well, I can't wait to this is over. I mean, this is a good show with a lot of time here. But now but I am emotionally connected now. I got to know what happens. But yeah, yeah, yeah. So the movie industry crazy. Yeah, they're good.

Paul Akins 54:54

But yeah, I'll send you my links so that you know people can find me you know where we're on Facebook and Instagram and you know we've got a website it's Ohana services.us. So and also I don't know if you've managed to make your way into the clubhouse world yet it's it's a fun and interesting new platform.

Keith McKeever 55:13

I literally just got on there the other day mines at Keith McKeever by the way,

Paul Akins 55:17

which was yours. Mine is at Paul dash Aikens.

Keith McKeever 55:20

So all right off the lookout this is this is we're finished here. So yeah, that's a new one I've only barely kind of broke the surface on on clubhouse was pretty cool one of the interesting topics. So

Paul Akins 55:33

yeah, you can you can learn a lot and it's a great place I've bounced around. And I'm actually going to be with a couple other people that I know from some of the veterans groups, we're going to be hosting a room later today. So look, look for us. And we're just going to be we're just going to be doing q&a on business things like you know, marketing and advertising mindset. You know, I'm going to be talking about cost reduction and things like that. So it's a great place for people to just get together, share knowledge, give value and learn.

Keith McKeever 56:00

Yeah, you know what I will tune in because I've got a TV in my office and on the weekends, I like to flip on football games got wildcard football this weekend, I will work on some stuff in my office here and listen and kind of halfway pay attention to football games. I'm a Denver Broncos fan. And our Broncos are obviously not in the playoffs. Unfortunately for like the fifth year in a row. So painful. But

Paul Akins 56:25

a real life confession I gave up football is one of the things I get sports is one of the things I gave up along the way. And I can't even tell you, I was a Giants fan when I was a fan. But I haven't watched a football game. And so long I haven't watched a sports game and so long, it was just one of those things I decided to give up so I could leverage my activities. And now that I'm not commuting to and from work every day, I don't even hear the scores on the radio in the morning. So I've no idea what's going on unless I pick it out.

Keith McKeever 56:52

That's a good point. You know, I'm a big football fan for a long time. But it kind of sucks being in Illinois where you know, you're a Broncos fan. I was I became a Broncos fan. As a kid watching Elway went back back to the bulls, and been a Broncos fan ever since. And it sucks that I can't watch on TV very often. But I do on the weekends. If I'm home and I'm not busy, I will turn on a game and just kind of halfway watch it and pay attention and work on my desk. And that's about the extent by football watch. And listen, Broncos are on if they happen to be on TV, you can bet you I am glued on my couch, ready to go I am into it, I will probably lose my voice halfway through. But you know, such as the life of being a fan of a team, right? The ups and the downs. So before we before we wrap this up, I do have three other questions for you, Paul, that I asked everybody was the first one is what advice would you have for somebody who's looking to transition out of the military today?

Paul Akins 57:46

My biggest advice would be I mean, there's a lot of opportunities available. And at least in the corporate experience I've had military experience is highly valued because of some of the things that come along with it, which are usually leadership, discipline, maturity, work ethic. So don't decide too quickly, what path you're gonna follow. And make sure it's something that you're passionate about. You know, I'm 53 years old now. And I'm finally at a point where what I do for my career is something that I love, so it doesn't feel like work. So whether you've been in the military for four years, six years, or 20 years or 30 years, make sure that your next step is aligned with your passion.

Keith McKeever 58:33

That's a good one, because most people are going to hit 20 years max, they're going to get out in their 40s. Yeah, there's a few other people making 3035 years, whatever. I don't know why. I guess we got to have a few people in those in those slots. But, you know, I've often said, You get out at 40 or 45 years old, the typical retirement age is supposed to be 65. You know, it's gonna vary for everybody, especially if you're an entrepreneur, that may change a little bit. But if you get out, you've got 2025 30 years of work. That's a whole nother lifetime. Yeah. So you're right, you've got to find something you're passionate about, or you're going to continue to get burned out change jobs here in there. So you know, find something that it's going to make you happy that you can get up and be happy to put your boots on everyday go to work. So great advice. That's a good one. What about for anybody looking to join a military today?

Paul Akins 59:31

I don't know a lot about what the military experience has changed since I went in. And I haven't talked to a lot of people that have entered recently. But for me, I know people say all the time and when they find out, thank you for your service, and sometimes I struggle with how to answer that. But what I've been saying lately is, you know, it was an honor, and I got more out of it than I gave. So what I would say is if you're considering it, one thank you because our country needs people that are willing to step up and do that. And also, as you enter the military, do it with the same thought process that I just described, leaving the military, find what it is you're passionate about. And look for the opportunity to do that in the military. Because whatever branch you decide to enter, there are careers from, you know, heavy equipment operator to chef to, you know, working in the medical field, to being a frontline combat soldier, if that's what really drives your passion. So what I would say is, don't just take what you can take to get into the military, choose what you're passionate about, and do it 100%.

Keith McKeever 1:00:43

That's a good one, because there are so many different things you can do. And then you got to, I would add to that, don't look past that to later on in your career. Because at 1819 20 years old, you join, join something to join the branch you want, it's going to give you the job you want that you're passionate about. But don't look beyond that, because you can't forecast four years down the road or six years, 20 years, you have no idea I was security forces, I found out pretty quickly after a couple years, I didn't want to be civilian cop. That's not what I wanted to do. That came home ended up in a family business and getting into real estate. So you just never know, I would have told you probably 21 years old that I was gonna get out and become a cop. But that changed after a couple years. So don't Don't Don't Don't try and forecast down the road. Which what you're going to do find what's going to make you happy. If you for years to get out great, do 20 And get out great, you know, then you can go on to continue that or go down a different path. So it's a good one. And the last one here, are there any veteran social groups, nonprofits, organizations out there that have been helpful for you or somebody that you know that they'd like to give a little shout out or tell us a little bit about.

Paul Akins 1:01:52

So a couple of things and relating to my you know, sexual abuse and recovery journey is, and if anybody in specific, but look up your local mental health resources, make sure you've got that phone number available. There's, there's a national suicide awareness prevention hotline, make sure you've got that number available. And reach out, reach out to your strong brothers and sisters, the ones who never think you would never think have a problem. We've all got problems going on. So even the folks that don't look like they're having a problem, just reach out every once in a while and say, Hey, how you doing, man? knowing you're not alone can be the biggest thing for somebody who's going through trauma. And that's part of why I tell my story is so that people, when I first had that aha moment of I'm not alone, there's other people that have been through this. I want I want people personally to know, not only can they survive trauma, but they can thrive, and they can flourish. So it's not just survival, you can heal and you can be as impactful and live as full of life as you choose to. And use those resources around you get on Facebook, look for your fellow veterans groups, you know, we know each other through the veteran or tribe. There's a bunch of other groups out there veteran support groups and veteran business groups, join as many of them as to kind of meet as many like minded people as you can.

Keith McKeever 1:03:21

Absolutely, there's a bunch of people out there that are gonna be in the same boat, especially, you know, entrepreneur, tribe, there's like 15,000 people in there. And it's amazing some of the conversations that people are having, it may not be helpful for your business or mine, but it could be informative. You could find somebody in there that is doing something similar and you can network or, or just communicate with So

Paul Akins 1:03:43

yep, so I'll get that out. I'll give a shout out to Steven Steven Kuhn and labelong. And, you know, if you haven't picked up their book, combo, alpha, do it. Absolutely amazing.

Keith McKeever 1:03:55

It's a good one. So Vamos, I'm just a couple of pages in honestly, I haven't picked it up in a little while, but I started reading it and it's a good one.

Paul Akins 1:04:03

And Stephens on on clubhouse as well. And I've been in a couple of rooms he's been in absolutely nobody better when it comes to, you know, talking about business and the logistics of actually being a business owner and what it takes to be successful. So follow him if you haven't follow Keith, he's doing great work. Appreciate you having the podcast given a platform for people to get the word out. Wishing you the best

Keith McKeever 1:04:28

of luck. That's the goal is to help fellow vets you know, those that are still serving those that are out military spouses, even you know, we all go through lots of different things in life and like I told you before this this episode, my goal is to keep the needle out of somebody's arm to gun out of somebody's mouth or set somebody on a path for financial freedom or, you know, move past the trauma in their life. So that's that's the whole goal of the podcast. So great to hear your story because I know it's gonna resonate with a lot of people. So there's a lot of people that are going to be through some sort of trauma A lot of people have been through addiction. And they're probably out there wondering. What's the next step? How do I get past this? You know, they're going to be in different spots. But hopefully they can see that they're not alone. You know, the there's somebody else out there has been through this. There's a lot of people I know a few people that have been through different things. They're not alone. And that's why I named this honestly, the battle buddy podcast, because I want people to know, there's other people out there that have been in your shoes, find them, they're out there, listen to him, listen to their stories, if you can do it. So connect.

Paul Akins 1:05:34

Absolutely. And I'll close with that. Anybody who would like to reach out to me personally, if you're having trouble with anything, and anything I said resonates with you. Reach out, you know, find me on social media. I'll send my contact information to Keith he can he can put it in the comments. Don't be alone. Don't not get help. You know, step forward, reach out. And if there's anything I can do to assist, I'd be happy to.

Keith McKeever 1:06:00

Awesome, there you go. Well, we'll get all that linked up in the link. So once again, Paul, I appreciate you being on the show. love to have you again. You know if you ever want to talk expand on anything you're talking about anything else. I'd love to have you back.

Paul Akins 1:06:12

Awesome. Thanks a lot. All right. You

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