The Veterans Connection
Eric Ranks is the founder of Veterans Connection, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting veterans and first responders. In this episode, we dive into the numerous resources and connections that Veterans Connection provides to help veterans and first responders find the help they need, as well as Eric's new liquor company, 22 Salute, and how a portion of its proceeds goes back to fund programs to end veteran suicide.
Eric understands the unique challenges faced by those who have served our country from the years he has spent serving veterans as well as the heavy influences of both his parents who are did serve. Through Veterans Connection, he has built a network of non-profit organizations that can provide veterans and first responders with the resources they need, whether it be financial assistance, employment opportunities, or mental health support.
In addition to his work with Veterans Connection, Eric has also launched 22 Salute, a liquor company that supports his mission of ending veteran suicide. By purchasing a bottle of 22 Salute, you're not only enjoying a high-quality product but also contributing to a worthy cause. So, join us in this episode to learn more about Eric's inspiring work and how you can get involved.
In This Episode We Cover:
What lead to creating The Veterans Connection
Their four pillars and a breakdown of them:
Connect,
Empower,
Align,
Thrive
His new company, 22 Salute Vodka and how he is changing how and where people across this country are educated on the veteran suicide problem facing the veteran population.
Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:
Transcript from Episode 94 with Eric Ranks:
Keith McKeever 0:00
Welcome back to another episode of the battle buddy podcast. You want to stay tuned to this one, I've got a super great nonprofit. I can't wait to have this conversation with Eric ranks from the veteran connection. We're also going to talk about the business he started that helps support veteran nonprofits. So you definitely stay tuned to have this wonderful conversation. So without further ado, let's jump right into it. Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. Welcome to the show, Eric.
Eric Ranks 0:27
Hey, thank you, Keith. It's a pleasure to be here.
Keith McKeever 0:30
Man. I'm so excited to finally have you on the podcast.
Eric Ranks 0:32
I know it's been way overdue.
Keith McKeever 0:34
I know. We've only known only known each other for what, like two years, something like that. Yeah. Two plus years, something like that. That's all right. Hey, you finally get it done. Right. So tell us a little bit about your your backstory. And
Eric Ranks 0:48
yes, so. So as you mentioned, Eric ranks. I am a military dependent. So my dad, prior to meeting board, started in the army during Vietnam, and then transitioned to Air Force. So I grew up as an Air Force brat. My dad was a clinical and neurological psychologist before he passed away. So he spent his whole career focused on military, mental health. And so that was a key topic in my family, my whole life. And later, as I got older, my mom actually went and got certified in counseling and EMDR, and things like that as well to kind of help push that as well. So mental health has kind of always been a thing in my conversation, my family. And so I'm excited. We're gonna dive in and talk about the nonprofit I found it and why we started it. But it all ties back to, you know, veteran and first responder mental health. So
Keith McKeever 1:44
that really surprises me. Okay. There's, there's a lot to unpack there. So your dad was Vietnam, did he serve in Vietnam?
Eric Ranks 1:53
during Vietnam? He actually served during Vietnam, he served in Korea, he was in the army and they kicked into Korea.
Keith McKeever 2:01
Wow, that's, that's really interesting. So in the mental health space in in that timeframe, because I mean, I, I can only imagine how different that was the conversation around mental health back then compared to, I mean, I'm sure it's different now than what it was when I served, you know, 10 plus years ago, so. And the fact that the stigmas on mental health has changed just in the last 510 years and society as a whole. But you grew up with conversations about mental health and a household that's that's incredibly rare.
Eric Ranks 2:32
You know, mental health, suicide, you know, like my dad's voicemails I always had a if you're suicidal call this number or this number. Like, that's just that was just everyday occurrence that, you know, I grew up around.
Keith McKeever 2:44
Wow. Yeah, that is, that is a totally different childhood upbringing. And most people. Yeah, cuz I don't think, you know, most people have that kind of conversations or anything. So that's okay. That really surprised me. Yeah. Especially
Eric Ranks 2:57
in the community, this community because, in general, you know, people hold things inside and don't talk about mental health. You know, and that's, that's kind of instilled both in the veteran and first responder communities, if you're suffering, don't talk about a hold it in. And it's actually the opposite of what needs to happen. But that's so often like, nobody wants to feel like they're the weakest link or they're not strong enough. And so that people hold it in. And so, yeah, completely opposite of where I grew up where you want you're supposed to talk about.
Keith McKeever 3:28
Yeah, exactly. It's, yeah, you need to you need to have that, that release. And it's good to talk about it. Or, you know, there's there's other ways to not just talk me, some people go to the gym, you definitely shouldn't. And it's ironic that you have a liquor business, but you know, you shouldn't bury yourself. Shouldn't bury yourself in a bottle in a negative way to drown your sorrows. It's okay to have a drink in a healthy way. But, you know, you shouldn't you shouldn't find negative outlets, outlets for things. But you know, some people go to the gym, some people get involved in, you know, sports or art therapy, music therapy, which, I'll get to that in a minute, because I saw something on your website about that. But yeah, I mean, you got to, you gotta find something to like, ease that pressure. Yeah, just let that build up in you and build up and build up and build up because it's, it's gonna go somewhere. You gotta blow off the steam.
Eric Ranks 4:26
Absolutely. Like you said, I think there's a lot of the second longest change, like I think, I think it was changing prior to COVID. But I think COVID Even accelerated that where now the general public is more more concerned. So not even just in the veteran community. But the general public is more concerned about mental health because so many people suffered through being isolated during COVID. But I think as a country, we're more aware than we ever were before.
Keith McKeever 4:56
I think maybe, maybe this is just my two cents. but I think maybe people around the country, especially, you know, when people are locked down and isolated and had to stay home, they may be felt a little bit of what was what a lot of veterans feel like, on a daily basis of feeling isolated feeling outside of society, like, I go out and about all the time, but I'll tell you flat out sometimes I'm in environments where I just feel, even though like, I feel like everybody around me is friendly and nice, I still feel like there's something a little a little different. Like, I'm, I'm not completely connected to everybody. You know what I mean? Like, it's just a little something, you know, like, it's hard to pinpoint, like, not necessarily in a bad way, but my experience is My past is a little different than everybody, nobody quite 100% gets me. Then again, I don't necessarily always open up, you know, I'll open up a little bit more and veteran communities or people who, you know, you know, like, and trust or people who are in your circle of trust, but it's, I think, maybe the pandemic, when people had more time to sit at home and couldn't go anywhere, couldn't do anything, maybe might understand that, that feeling a little bit, or a lot of veterans, they might,
Eric Ranks 6:23
they might understand that feeling. But, and this goes for me as well. Like, as somebody who hasn't served, I will never, I will never totally understand. Yeah, the things that you go through, and have gone through.
Keith McKeever 6:40
But understand a little bit of loneliness, loneliness, and like feeling like you just can't. Yeah, it's hard to it's really hard to put into words. But a little bit of a taste. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. So I mean, a little bit of taste of, I guess there's a lot of people who just, you know, might have had no mental health problems. And I don't care who you are sitting in your home for weeks on end and not able to go anywhere. And this fear of, because this is face it, you know, I don't go into politics, but we all thought the world was gonna die, right? I mean, that for like two weeks, like the whole world, I mean, pretty much everybody thought the end of the world was happening. So I think everybody was on edge of like, what is happening with this world? Like, what's, what's going on? Is this the end? There's the apocalypse here, you know, whatever. So I think that played out. Everybody went through something, right, to some degree.
Eric Ranks 7:32
And I think, I think users still some of that now. Now, it's not health related. But now we're watching Russia and China and the geopolitical storm is happening. They're like, again, rocking and dump into politics. But I think, like we went from when I grew up, so one of the bases I grew up was Loring, Air Force Base in Maine. It was closed during the Clinton administration, but that was the closest nucular base to Russia at the time during the Cold War. And so I grew up where we would do nuclear drills in school and things like that. And I would say, Now, if you watch what's going on, like, I think people are starting to see that, like, we're actually moving back to those Cold War era, which is, which, in itself is kind of scary, but I don't think everybody's isn't the end of the world. But we are like, we've gone from COVID, where, you know, people were scared even go outside of their house to now we're like moving into Cold War era, unfortunately.
Keith McKeever 8:31
Certainly closer to it now than we would have been in, you know, last 30 years. Yeah. You know, it's kind of scary. I mean, I mean, I was very young, when the wall came down, you know what I mean? It's so it's like, there's, there's a whole generation and a half that, you know, was born and raised are born and being raised, at least, that has no experience with that at all. Here, so it's, uh, you know, interesting. But, anyway, so the veterans connection, so obviously, I'm guessing your your childhood with both of your parents in the mental health conversation. Being veterans and mental health, I'm assuming that was probably a big driving factor with creating the nonprofit. Yeah,
Eric Ranks 9:18
so there's a couple of factors that kind of drove that. The first one, which I haven't talked about on here is so you and I just addressed the fact that, you know, people maybe understand a small piece of like that isolation piece. So I grew up on a life of really, really tough health battles. So it you know, just started, a kid has leukemia, and had internal bleeding that took weeks, like literally over three weeks to stop. Ruptured esophagus less than 50% survival rate, like our Surgeon basically saying, This guy's not going to make it multiple times in my life. My My parents and stuff said, Hey, he's not gonna make it through the night. And so, personally, I grew up around mental health. And then personally, I understand like, what it's like to have physical and mental pain. And I was suicidal part of my childhood growing up. Like, I understand that, that. Now, I don't understand the contributors that veterans have gone through because I didn't personally serve, but I understand physical mental pay. And so if we move back to 2012, at the time, I was managing a couple stores for ATT wireless. And I had some employees come back from Iraq and Afghanistan. And I was watching their lives fall apart from PTSD. And so, you know, between their careers, their marriages, like, just completely falling apart, not getting the help. And I also had a good friend who's quite a bit older than me that served in Vietnam, who had Agent Orange issues, and his legs would constantly to split open all the time. And, and back then, and 2012, which is crazy, like most, most non military, I think it's crazy, probably noticed her, he's more aware of this. But even back in 2012, Agent Orange issues were not covered by the DEA. As even though Vietnam was many years before that, the system is slow to catch up. And so understatement
Keith McKeever 11:26
is like 50 years, 50 plus years.
Eric Ranks 11:30
And so understanding my own pain, and then watching the suffering that these others were going through, I made a conscious decision to leave corporate America and start our nonprofit in 2012. And the what the nonprofit was founded on then is it's evolved. So it's kind of changed its primary focus over the years, when it was first started, it was started to help veterans get access to the benefits due to them, because I'm watching these people suffering and are not getting the help they need. And I'm like, This is crazy. Like, why why can't people so that was the original mission. So one getting helping get access, so they don't have to hire attorneys. They don't have to spend years fighting people giving up because they couldn't, you know, get access to everything they need,
Keith McKeever 12:15
and then give up a portion of you know, that back pay to those attorneys, which you know, what I will say sometimes there is a need to hire attorneys on but not always. There shouldn't be there shouldn't be.
Eric Ranks 12:28
And we also tried to pick up things that weren't covered. So for example, the VA would cover a wheelchair, but they wouldn't pay for ramps, on the house or on their Viet lifts on the vehicle wouldn't pay to widen the doorway so the other wheelchair can even get through the door. So when we first started, it was like, how do we get them access to things? And how do we make sure that what they can get is usable in their life. And then as the years of progress, just watch this rising suicide rates. And you know, I know that. And I know that the military and the department offense is really good at touting a 22 number of 22 veteran suicides. But if you actually look at the studies, it's actually based on very few states, it's like six states, and the actual number they say is closer to 4544 45. And so we were watching that grow. And so as I kept growing, I was like, man, what are we doing? Like, it's great, the benefits are important, but that's not solving the problem. And so I grabbed her grabbed my board, and we had some some several long meetings and completely changed our focus. Like I didn't get rid of veteran benefits. It actually fits within one of the pillars that we'll talk about. But we I decided that like looking at all the nonprofits out there, and there's some really good veteran nonprofit organizations. But unfortunately, one thing that we're trying to do different that is nonprofits as a whole whether it's veteran or non veteran, nonprofits tend to stick in like little areas. So whether that's we only focus on homelessness, or we only focus on or it's we only cover vets who are in this this war, or this age group or honorably charged versus dishonorably discharged, things like that. Like everybody kind of fits within a core. And that's primarily based on funding, like people know, they can't take on everything and, and so
Keith McKeever 14:29
it makes it difficult as a veteran to figure out what's available to you where it's at. And it's like, it's like the kid with like the round peg in the square hole kind of thing, like, Okay, I'm the round peg like, but I've got a triangle and a square here, like where do i Where do I fit? Like, absolutely what's available to me. And I've heard the same things like if it's confusing, like, I can't go here like they've turned me over here. And if turn me away here, it's like yeah, it's frustrating. But yeah, they've got funding they've got Everything revolves around funding. And the people who run the programs. Every nonprofit has the same issues. They would help everybody if they had unlimited funding and unlimited support. I mean, you would every other nonprofit would outside. That's just the it's just not the case. So, yeah,
Eric Ranks 15:21
so we, I kind of took a different approach, where, and so one, one part of our different approach is, instead of me trying to do it all, I partner with a lot of organizations, because I know I can't do it all. But where we're unique is, someone can come to us and get everything, like we take a whole holistic approach, we're not picking and choosing what's going to work for what's going to help somebody that we want to focus on, we're not picking and choosing who's qualified and not, for example, I'll give one example of qualification. So we're a veteran of first responder organization. But basically, if you're serving our country, and you're in a need, we'll find a way to help you, we had somebody who came to us who actually was in the CIA. And as someone in the CIA, they actually were overseas, in a lot of these situations with our military. In fact, they were involved with some interrogations and stuff that are high level I can't get into. But well, I don't even have all the details if I wanted to. But I do know the base level on it. But every nonprofit, they went to said, we can help you like your work, we will help you if you're a veteran, but CIA doesn't qualify. And they looked everywhere and everywhere and everywhere to try to get service dog. And everybody kept them away. And finally someone said, Hey, you should reach out to that veterans connection, they try to help everybody. And that person reached out and I'm like, Yeah, you served our country. Like, let's get you taken care of. Um, and so I try not to box our organization in of, you know, we're only going to do this is if somebody served our country, they should be taken care of.
Keith McKeever 17:06
So interesting wave look, I mean, it's our military is our military. But it does take the CIA and the FBI and our local law enforcement, and it's like the layers of an onion. In a way it takes it takes multiple layers, both here and abroad, to keep us all safe.
Eric Ranks 17:22
And a chunk of our, our police officers, our former military.
Keith McKeever 17:28
Absolutely. Absolutely. So yeah, that definitely makes sense. And that's, that's definitely good to know, that there's another another place to go there. So. So I want to dive into then. So you got like, four pillars connect, empower, align and thrive? Correct. So the Connect is, is that just service dogs that are aligned on to that are
Eric Ranks 17:52
Connect community connection is, you know, we kind of talked a little about a piece of this, with people understanding like, connection one, that's that's one of the pieces that is broken in transition, when veterans are transitioning from military life to civilian life, you lose the brotherhood and sisterhood connection. You also are dealing with things internally. And so you self isolate, because you feel like the ones around you are not understanding. And so one of our core pieces to start with this connection. So service dogs is one in and how service dogs does play into it is the fact that one, it gives somebody a purpose to take care of this dog to like, if they are like living alone, or don't have people around them, there's another person around them and taking care of them. But that's just one piece of it. So what we're releasing very soon, mobile app, that it's not only a snap to build connection, like we're geode targets, veterans around other veterans in their area, they can talk about things, they have private groups. So like if there's certain areas that they want it don't want to talk to other people about how they can make it private. We also have in there some stuff around employment to help them get employment. We have, we have a grief Charmin that we worked with really closely. And we've built some mental health solutions right into the app. So someone's going through something right there in the moment, they can at least get into a stable state, so that they can take the next step to reach out and get help, but at least they can get them in a stable state at that moment. So that app is part of the connection as we're going to, you know, get them interconnected with different people. We're in some really strong talks with one of the largest residential and apartment building groups in the country to build some veterans specific communities within like taking existing apartment complexes and things like that. And having them just do small retrofitting to create Have veteran veterans specific experiences within them, and within what they already have. And then also creating that as like, someone can feel like, you know, they have other group of veterans around them and people will will come move in as veterans, like, we're not trying to create a veteran only community, but create an experience where they can have that community around each other. So we have pieces like that, that are all part of that. And then we work with some other organizations with some other areas.
Keith McKeever 20:30
I love the community aspect of it, because that's one of the things that I look at it, what am I pillars to is one of the issues that leads to unfortunately, suicides, substance abuse, and homelessness is lack of connection. Because once you get out, your unit has already moved on to the next man or woman who's who's replaced you. And, you know, you get to join the best brotherhood sisterhood in the world become a veteran. But you go back to your home record or wherever and you go about life. And I mean, some people walk around with shirts on to have a flag auditor hat, you know, the might, might signify that you're a veteran. But a lot don't if you could walk past veterans on the street every day and not know. So it's so for a lot of guys and gals is there's, there's no all of a sudden, there's no community at all, like there's just none. And I've seen a lot of stuff lately on like, some of the veteran organizations that are out there. You know, some people hate on him, some people like them, it's, maybe it's for some people, maybe it's for not, not for others, but no matter what everybody needs to find a way to be connected somehow, whether that's an apartment complex, or just just a housing community where people live or just, you know, a networking group or a veteran Chamber of Commerce or whatever, or just just a group of people that just happen to know each other through an app and say, Hey, let's just, you know, get together for coffee once a week, whatever. Like, just to know that there's somebody that's going to check on you, that's got your phone number that knows where you live, that's going to you know what I mean? It's going to miss you. Or notice if something's wrong, that's, that's the key. I think that's the key to keep an eye on each other. So
Eric Ranks 22:24
yeah, it's actually the biggest piece I'm most people. Sorry, I get emotional. Sometimes when I try to hold that back. Is this this, this topic? actually means a whole lot to me. Um, I would say most, that's the, that's the frontline to save someone's life is connection. Most people are suffering in silence. You don't know like, you think they're doing well. And they're not. And
Keith McKeever 23:01
they're gonna, if you even if you ask, they're gonna say, Oh, I'm fine. I'm doing fine. Everything's good. Everything's good. Yeah.
Eric Ranks 23:07
But it's that connection, that will generally make the difference of them not doing something versus doing. So even just reaching out. And just like, whether you're you're talking about what they're going through or not, for them to feel like somebody loves and cares and respects them. That makes a big difference.
Keith McKeever 23:28
Yeah, I think it's I mean, the community is important. But I think it takes I think that there's two things that need to happen. Somebody needs to be connected to a community enough, so that they see you. Like if I saw you frequently enough, Eric, that if all of a sudden when I see you tomorrow, your personality, and everything has changed drastically enough. I know in the back of my head, red flags are going up, hey, there's something off. I need to pull them to the side. So Eric, is everything okay? Or, and this is what, and you know what, I need to do it too. But, you know, just the picking up the phone or sending a Facebook message or whatever, to one battle buddy a day, even if it's, even if you just pick seven battle buddies, and every Monday, you message this person every Tuesday you message this person, like clockwork, so that they get to know every Tuesday, I'm gonna get a message from Keith, and he's gonna check on me and know how I'm doing. You never know that person may be fine for six years. But there might be one weekend where they're having a really bad time. And that Tuesday morning there, they wake up and they're like, hey, look, I'm you know, today's the day, and I realized, you know, it's Tuesday Keith's gonna call me today I can't do today because I'm gonna have somebody called me today. You know, we that's like, that's where the power and You know, I love your take on this because I've said it. I've said it a few times, civilians, you've got an interesting perspective on this, I'm sure. Many civilians, I think a lot of civilians want to take care of the veteran community. Many don't know how you've been involved in this, I grew up around it, you know, how many don't know how. But veterans, we know how to take care of our community, we just don't, we need to do a better job of doing it. We have to step that a lot of a lot of this falls on our shoulders for not taking care of each other.
Eric Ranks 25:35
I not to give anybody an excuse, because there shouldn't be excused. But unfortunately, we live in a world a high demand world, the average person is working way over 40 hours a week maybe has two or three jobs in some sort of circumstances. That are family responsibilities they have. It's not excuse, but the average person. And even in the veteran community veteran, a veteran, we're so busy with our lives, that like, you may tell yourself five different times, I'm gonna reach out to Keith this week, I'm gonna reach out to Keith this week, and then something comes up this and then it's like Sunday, and you're like crap, I haven't reached out to Keith yet. And so at 10 o'clock at night, keep getting, you know, you get a message. Because it's like, I just have to force myself to do it. So I'm not trying to give people like an hour or excuse me, yeah, I think part of the challenge is we have to figure out as a society, how can we prioritize our what we consider being important in busy life, to the value of connection, brotherhood sisterhood? Like, how do we more prioritize people? overworld? I don't know if that makes any sense. But
Keith McKeever 26:58
you know what, I think it makes perfect sense. Because obviously, we're not, we're not putting as a priority, because we have a million different distractions between Facebook and YouTube, Instagram, and world and family and all this, like we're not putting that as a priority.
Eric Ranks 27:12
Yeah. And it's, I think companies have made it challenging to because I think two more people, I actually push back on this on a company that I've done some work for, in the past where, like, they wanted access to be able to reach you anytime hours that the night like, no, it's like, when the clock stops, people need to be off work, and get back to their life. So I think companies do this, too. There's so many people who, now that everybody works off a cell phone, and their companies all have their cell phone. They're emailing them and texting them and expecting people to respond at all hours. And it's like, it shouldn't be like that.
Keith McKeever 27:52
Oh, yeah, I couldn't agree more that just you got to, you got to manage your time better shut it down. And all that. So yeah, it's no easy answer, I guess.
Eric Ranks 28:06
Not in the United States. I mean, you got places in Europe and stuff that require people take X amount of time off on vacation, people only work so many hours and stuff. But you know, here in America, we just drive drive, drive, drive until someone's burned out,
Keith McKeever 28:21
get the hustle, the hustle and grind. Fake it till you make it society that we have here. You know, it's it's which, which doesn't, that doesn't help either. And I think for veterans, like, like, we get it, like we're, well, I guess I'll speak for my generation of veterans anyway. Like, we were used to a high operations, tempo, a lot of things going on just you know, constant, go, go go. A lot of adrenaline.
Eric Ranks 28:50
But that's one of that's one of the things that takes us back to this conversation, is the fact that as a veteran, like when you're serving, you know, what you need to do every day, you know, what the expectations are, you have a million things on your plate, you come transition, and all sudden your world stops. Like, where did my purpose go? I knew my purpose. While I was serving, I knew what I had to do every day. I knew I like, then that stops. And then you got to figure out what am I what am I gonna do with my life, the military, super, super good at training people to be lawyers, but they have no financial interest in training people how to survive, and they leave the military. So very, very poor job on transition, because it, they want you to be alive for they want to put all the money into your life, or they don't want you to transition.
Keith McKeever 29:40
That's why they outsource it to the Department of Labor. And they and all they teach you to do is to create a resume, get yourself on LinkedIn, and go get a job and be a productive member of society. Make it sound easy.
Eric Ranks 29:54
And then they say, Oh, great, I'll go apply and then you get to go five to 10 jobs and they're all like, Well, yours skill set doesn't transition to what we're looking for, like, What are you talking about? Like I have a good friend who was a Navy SEAL. He applied for 17 jobs that turned down for everyone. Because basically he said his skill set doesn't doesn't translate. Are you kidding me know what he did? Is the Navy still like, come on? Like, it's so yeah, it's not as easy as just having a resume knowing how to interview like, it's also having like, understanding how to have a conversation with job places of here's, here's why my skills do into what you're trying to do.
Keith McKeever 30:38
That blows my mind. If I was hiring somebody, and I had a Navy SEAL apply, I'd probably hire him on the spot. I don't even care what the job because I know like, hey, these be these user intense, they didn't learn, they can learn under pressure, they will adapt to any kind of situation no matter what you throw at them, and it will phase them. Like, and there's nothing as serious in my in that I could throw at them that they definitely can't handle. So, you know, like, mind boggling. Wow. Holy cow.
Eric Ranks 31:16
Yeah, gave up and started his own business. He's, he's building an app right now he gave up he's like, nobody's hiring me.
Keith McKeever 31:24
You know, what? Can't can do attitude. Right? That's, that's a seal for you right there. Hey, you know, adapt, adjust fire move on. Right. So. So the next the next year you have here is empower. Yeah. That's all about basic needs, housing, food, transportation, stuff, like so tell us about that.
Eric Ranks 31:40
So that's actually where the, you know, the original foundation of the veterans actually started moved to is, you know, veterans benefits. But yes, you know, food housing, like we talked about, we're working on this, this veteran program with apartment complexes and housing, food, like there's a lot of good organizations that, that we can connect people to their new food as well as. So our organization is also unique in the fact that we, we don't we don't have this stigma that we feel like nonprofits are competing for the same dollars. That's, that's the stigma of the industry. I don't want to partner with another nonprofit, because there's only so much dollars, I would rather take money out of my organization, which we've done many times, and hand it to another organization, another nonprofit and say here, go take care of this person, we're referring this person to, here's the funding, go take care of it. For me, it's it's making the impact. Don't pass the buck, as an organization, how do we make sure the person who's coming to you gets taken care of. And so if we, I can't like these four pillars, I can't take them on a veteran connection ourselves. If I didn't work with other organizations, things would be falling out the wayside like crazy, like I can't, it's too much to take on.
Keith McKeever 33:03
That'd be a lot. Yeah, you'd have to streamline down and I can't be an expert in every area.
Eric Ranks 33:08
You know, like service dogs. I don't train dogs, but I have worked with great organizations that do. And so yeah, so we that the the Empower is working on all your, your basic needs. And it also includes childcare, like, you know, I've had circumstances in fact, one I had a so I like a lot of music, but I I seem to have a lot of connections in the country music industry, but I like all kinds of genres. I'm not just a country person. But I even had a country music artists who happened to overhear a conversation of me and a veteran who was struggling. And he wrote a song because he heard it and wrote a song about it, but it childcare like I didn't think about child care. That's what actually came up more recently that we added it, it was we had a gal who her and her husband both are veterans. Her husband was extremely suicidal. She couldn't go to take him and be with him at the hospital because she couldn't figure out what to do with her kids. I was like, wait. Childcare is something that you think about, like,
Keith McKeever 34:18
that's the biggest impact that you can make in her family. Yeah, like, Guys, it's bigger than food. It's
Eric Ranks 34:24
at this guy. And she feels like she can't go help the situation because no one can watch your kids. That's an
Keith McKeever 34:33
impossible choice is is a parent and a spouse like kids spouse. Yeah, like, man.
Eric Ranks 34:43
Yeah, and like that was powerful enough that this country artists, I mean, he was blessed that she allowed him to be part of this very confidential conversation, but he's like, Man, I gotta write a song about this like this is. But yeah, I was like, Man, why are we not having childcare? And I don't know a lot of nonprofits, they focus on childcare. But I was like, we've got to find a way to do this.
Keith McKeever 35:06
Yeah, that's a difficult thing for I think, for a lot of people is to find that access to childcare. And funded I know, it's gotten a lot more expensive over the years. So that's a, that's a very unique, a unique way to get back a lot of people, I think, sometimes just think of the basic needs is just housing and food. But there's always other things that get into that monthly budget, right? That that make a huge impact. So
Eric Ranks 35:34
in looking at those two, sorry, go ahead, no, go ahead. Okay. So if you look at those two, the reason why those two are pillars, one and two connection and power, is because if neither of those are out of balance, somebody's still going to be in fight or flight mode. You're trying to you're either isolating, not reaching out for care, you know, you have nobody around you or trying to figure out how to where to live, how to feed yourself and your family, what to do with your kids. Like you're, you're in a fight or flight. Like you can't start a healing journey. Like you may want to start a healing journey. But life will keep knocking you down because you haven't fixed the first two things. And so that's a great point. That's why we like I said, we kind of take a whole holistic approach, like, we know, you've got to tackle these different areas before you can you can solve the problem.
Keith McKeever 36:34
I love that. Like I've said that for a long time, you know, all the problems. I always look at the three biggest problems homelessness, substance abuse, and suicide is, you know, I guess you can, they're all different, but you can lump them all in the same category. They're they're all were the biggest problems. But there's always something that leads to it. And there's always barriers and issues that lead so you got to address the problem. And the hurdles along the way. So I love it. But the next one you got there's a line and I'm very curious as I started looking at your website and everything, so you've got, you've got a grief app, and then also saw sound and music therapy, which I find very intriguing. So very curious on those.
Eric Ranks 37:18
Yeah, there's, there's there's so one, one, you know, the reason I got into sound therapy is actually from a couple of veteran artists that like that was that was what their healing journey was was music. One of them you may familiar with r&b rapper called Elliot Mackenzie. He actually his last album, he's about to release another one. But his last album, therapy session is all every song is about him going through his journey of healing himself. So not to plug him but I would go check out, go check it out. And for someone who's listening to this, who's a non veteran, I don't say this about very many things. But if someone's a non veteran, go pull up YouTube. Watch Elliot Mackenzie's get gunshot video, watch it and listen to the words as you're watching it. Like don't don't half watch it like actually pay attention. Because that's the first thing I've ever seen, that I've seen heard that I actually feel like allows a non serving person to somewhat understand what the veteran is going through. He did an amazing job at pulling that whole PTSD in a way that a non you know, a civilian can understand. So I actually
Keith McKeever 38:44
have heard that one. I'm familiar with him. I've listened to a few of his songs. But
Eric Ranks 38:50
definitely, definitely check it out. And it's based on a true story his not to get sidetracked. But his when he came home. He was in a grocery store. And a child walked in and had balloons and one of those Balloon Pops. And that sound is triggered him immediately. And he ducked behind tomato counter. Everybody was looking around like He's a freak because he's hiding behind his tomato counter, but when he heard the balloons pop, so he changes the story slightly in the actual video. It's not a kid walking with balloons, but it is based on an actual life event that he did it on. And he did it with the marine wrapper, which is the same way the rain rapper like he walks down the street guy always has earphones on because that music is what keeps him in a in a stable mindset. And so that's kind of what got me like listening and talking to him and really getting those two I was like, oh, there's something here like we need to figure out how to get into like music and sound therapy. And I met some people who do those. I don't even like a call but basically like big symbols or gongs or something and but you twins have different like frequency sound. And they use that. And so we started expanding like referring people to different groups out there. There's two groups, I'm connected to that, like if a veteran wants to get into music, that like one of them's in Nashville, will they'll bring him in paired with an actual big recording artists and write music together. And, and so we started diving into, like, how can we partner with different organizations to specialize in sound? Because art art is the same way. Like there's another great nonprofit Claymore vets, done by Marie Salazar. You know, I've got a buddy Joe, Joe, our Joe. Now I'm gonna say his name wrong. Anyways, he's a, he's a veteran comedian. So again, it's art, he uses comedy, to help them get through there. And I have a gal named Robin, who's a veteran comedian as well. But yeah, looking at the art, so it's not just sound therapy, but it's the art. Like, let's, let's refer people to organizations. So our organization does some stuff on our own. But we also refer to a lot of organizations, like you mentioned earlier, there's so many authors who don't know where to go. So one thing and this is, this is not what we're offering today, but it is what we're building today. So we have partnered with a a third party medical research for that, when people bring modalities to us, hey, we want you to try this. And see if it helps. We actually are putting it through third party research. So in the process, when things validated, we're building a vetted directory of nonprofits that you can go to that have actually been vetted with medical research. And the directories is important because it there's so many organizations that people don't know where to go. But that's not even the main reason we're building it. We're building it for the research. So this is a 30, let's say 36 months, let's say like three years down the road, this is not a two day thing.
Keith McKeever 42:05
Our GED doesn't sound like something that happens overnight. No, our goal is to go
Eric Ranks 42:09
to Congress and force a change of funding with the VA. So I shouldn't say this out loud on a podcast that that. I'll say it anyways, I'll take the fire. So in 2020, Congress gathered a 10 billion for veteran mental health, 7 billion went to the pharmaceutical companies. That's not the way to solve veteran mental health. The only way that's going to change is if you have the clinical research to force Congress to reallocate budgets. Now I could have just got myself in trouble, like saying publicly that we're trying to cut was being spent on the pharmaceuticals because they're a monster out there. You don't want them coming after you. But
Keith McKeever 42:55
I'll jump right into fire with you. Because I've said it publicly before. What I went to a counselor for the very first time in 2020, what I called the VA, the first question they asked me is, do you want medicine? Or do you actually actually just want to talk to somebody? That was the very first question anybody to VAs when I called mental health.
Eric Ranks 43:13
And there's a lot of VA. So if you chose to talk to somebody, you may not talk to the same person the next time. I'll my third person since 2012. So So those are your those are your options, and neither of them are great solution. So the only way that's going to change is research and research done by a third party company, which is what we're working with right now. And so yeah, so sound therapy, we do EMDR equine therapy. Now this is super, super unique. Not only
Keith McKeever 43:42
love equine therapy, I've had a couple of guests on to talk about that a little bit.
Eric Ranks 43:45
But watch this, not only do we do equine therapy, but we have a partner that we can do equine therapy, and EMDR. So they're getting the EMDR treatment while they're on the back of a horse. Oh, that's super unique. And EMDR super cutting edge light therapy that's for trauma is super, super effective. PTSD service dogs. Yes, the app, you talked about the grief app that's being that's we're taking those functions and putting them into that app that we talked about under community yoga, tapping, like, we start to focus on the natural things. It's great, the VA is gonna put somebody on drugs and counseling, and the average vet is on 10 Plus drugs, which I mean, no one can function well halfway, taking one drug to fix the next thing that created the next problem and they give another drug for like, it's not the right solution. So we really focus on what can we do to get them off? Now I'm not I will say this. I want to be very clear this. I'm not saying there's not a time and point for pharmaceutical drugs. It's Somebody's in a really bad state. And they can use a drug to get them in a state that they can function, why we're healing them great. But let's get them healed and start pulling those drugs away as we can. But the first priority is stabilize. So I'm not saying there's no need for pharmaceutical drugs, somebody has to be stabilized if they're in a bad state.
Keith McKeever 45:21
Absolutely. But there is alternatives. Correct. And I've had to broaden my horizons, what that means over the years of doing this podcast, there's alternatives to pharmaceuticals. I'm not saying I'm really for or against them, because the idea of going down to the jungles and taking mysterious, mysterious, mysterious things like Ayahuasca scares the crap out of me.
Eric Ranks 45:47
More than I'll ask you, though, is the toad venom.
Keith McKeever 45:52
Yeah, that one, I don't know, do some research
Eric Ranks 45:55
on some of the negative things that can cause like,
Keith McKeever 45:58
I'm kind of a wimp. So like, I don't know, I can't all that kind of scares me. I'm not saying it. I mean, I'm very intrigued about how it works. And I've had conversations with a lot of people, and it appears to work very, very well does appear to work. It to me personally scares the living crap out of me. But, you know, there's that as an option. Yes. There's, you know, there's all kinds of things, service dogs, equine therapy. There's, there's all kinds of things that can help people, right. Just just a counselor. I mean, like, like I said, I went to, I called the DEA, and I, I'm still not on anything. The only thing I take is I take focus factor, pills over the counter, like mental clarity things. That's the only thing I take.
Eric Ranks 46:40
So it doesn't work. And I've seen a lot of commercials are focused back there. I don't
Keith McKeever 46:44
really know. I don't know if it's that or the coffee. I really don't know. Yeah, that's that's a darn good question. Yeah, I think so. There you go. I don't know, you know, I guess so. I guess it's not necessarily glowing endorsement for him. But I didn't want to take the pills was like my last I was like, I don't. That's my last resort. For me. That's the absolute last thing I wanted to do. To me, I think that there's a lot of other things that you can try to do. First, just go the other routes, and see if it works first before you just start adding another pill. It's like I'm on more than enough other pills for other things. I don't need to add more for for for mental health things, whatnot. But I do love the sound therapy. I want to go back to that before we go on to the next pillar, because that has been something for me, that has been huge. I said, I'm aware of Elliot, I've listened to a few things from the Marine rapper. I'll be honest, I'm a little I'm a little if if he on some of his music. I'm not a huge fan.
Eric Ranks 47:54
Oh, Raymond is is he had it, which I think is kind of cool is he had a change. So the marine rapper was at an event in San Antonio. And he's at the Alamo. And he was performing and he looked out and saw a bunch of children out there listening to and it triggered his mind. He says, You know what? As a rapper, I'm going forward, I will never release any music that is not okay for a kid to listen to. And I respect that. Like he made a conscious effort to not go down to normal rap. You know, I'm not I'm not knocking rap, like I listened to rap. You know, but in general, rap has a stigmata of it's not necessarily the best thing that kids should be listening to. I'll just leave it at that. But oh, yeah. And I respect that he made a conscious decision that everything and I also, like, I also respect the fact that he refused to be censored. So I don't know if you know much about his part of his story during the election time. But
Keith McKeever 49:09
yeah, I I've heard I saw a few things about him and some of the things during the election, I heard some of the lyrics and
Eric Ranks 49:20
let's not but Apple and Spotify and everybody took his music down, because they assumed he was associated with the January events, which he wasn't. He just happened to be performing in Washington DC. And so they just put them together. He was not tied to the event he was he was blocks and blocks down the road performing. Well, Apple, Spotify, every new Amazon all of them took all his music down. And censor government said like, listen, like you're tied to the Trump stuff like we're taking your music down. And he had was just cool as he had a lot people on both sides right and left come out in flooded and support like, Hey, you can't censor him like, everybody has a right to their own music, their own opinion their own. But yeah, he went, he was at the very he was like number one on Billboard. And then they censored him. Everything dropped overnight. Like
Keith McKeever 50:17
always, oh, yeah, he was he was kind of everywhere for a while. I didn't know that had happened. But I didn't know that some of his music was.
Eric Ranks 50:24
He definitely has he does let you know his political side.
Keith McKeever 50:28
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Which I personally was not a fan of whether or not I was, you know, agree with it or not. But I have been a big fan for a long time of soldier heart. And Doc Todd, those two guys in the redcon one music group. Those have been my guys I've been listening to for a long time. That's my playlist.
Eric Ranks 50:51
Word ma Holmes.
Keith McKeever 50:52
And now Haven't we the Navy
Eric Ranks 50:54
veteran. He wrote a cool song called he has several several songs, but the deployment song it released. It was released why he was deployed on an aircraft carrier. And so he didn't get to like experience the you know, the big parties and stuff isn't music being released, but it was cool because at the end of his his career, the Navy did fly out like a big like media and record and recorded a music video with him and everything. So it's cool at the end that the Navy like allowed him to have some of that but really cool music is is I would say he's more like consider his music more. I don't know it's not rap or the it's more I don't know take a disco look at Go Go look at is really, really, really good artist. And then there's some other like in the country genre. There's a couple of cool veteran artists I listened to as well
Keith McKeever 52:03
as quite a few good ones out there. I mean, it's uh, you know, I love those songs where I mean, there's, they're great artists anyway, but when they start singing about things that are relatable as a veteran, you know, I think that's one of the things like soldier hard. I think, if I remember I think all or most of his deployments were to Iraq and I never went to Afghanistan but I was in Iraq twice and just like it's just much more relatable you and I was Air Force he was Army just just certain things and Doc Todd's his his biggest song on Spotify was not alone. And it's just you know, like lyrics and air about put down the bottle like you're not alone. It's just a really good song. It's
Eric Ranks 52:43
Daybreak is another good one. He's He's a rocker. I don't know if you're with him. But that's another great way to check out his day Bray.
Keith McKeever 52:53
For sure. My Spotify list on the description for everybody. check some of these out.
Eric Ranks 52:58
He yet like he has some good songs, one's about like homeless vets and things like that. And yeah, I mean, I love music. And maybe that's partly why music therapy triggers like, music has always been a real strong core of, of who I am. Like, I can't sing. Like, I was not blessed with that gift. But there's something about music that no matter what state of mind, I am in music can level me.
Keith McKeever 53:31
I can understand it. I can't sing either. And I can't, I can't paint. I can't do anything else. So I appreciate art. I feel like I can really appreciate it because I can't do it at all, any of it. So I think there's something to that. So anyway, we'll move on to thrive here. So you got a handful of different things. But what what what's going on into the Thrive thing? I don't know how much you want to dive in each one of those. Yeah, so
Eric Ranks 53:57
thrive. I mean, I'll talk in general, we can dive into certain ones if you want, but thrive in general is one thing I believe is when you've got so aligned when someone gets through why you're getting them in a good place. How do you help them stay in a good place? Like that's the question like, yeah, we there's a lot of organizations that can help somebody, like stabilize, you know, maybe they go on a retreat with a bunch of people like this awesome retreats out there. There's also there's all things that can help someone in that time and place. But how do we keep them and part of that is, is getting their life in a really good place. And so thrive is a combination of things. One is Veterans giving back to other veterans. I'm a firm believer that service and gratitude. Those two things can make a huge impact on somebody's quality of life. And I know lucky like I would say In the last five years, probably there's more people who have bought into the gratitude piece, because now it's everywhere. But it really does make a big difference it always has. So veterans giving back to veterans, we do have some programs like to help vets pay off their mortgage, faster credit repair. If someone wants to just like going the entrepreneurial route and start their own business, we have some programs internally ourselves, like we have. There's, like if someone wants to go, like, for example, get tech training, we partnered with a company called Pluralsight, which is the leading technology training platform in the country where we give them free licenses, and go through Grant Cardone University for free through organization they can like so we have some of that ourselves. But then we also partner with other organizations. So we have other organizations that too, like you have organizations like bunker labs, and warrior rising, that are great for that entrepreneur as well like to help them get started. And, and we've referred many people into both those organizations, like, it's really knowing what you do well, and knowing who the best is in those other areas. And bringing everybody together. Like that's, that's our key. Passion is like, let's, let's bring the best of the best. And make sure somebody, whatever stays there on their life can fit with it and go through these four pillars. Because if all of them check that they're doing well on those, somebody's gonna live a very healthy, productive, happy and blessed life.
Keith McKeever 56:38
Which is awesome, because they're taking care of themselves, their family, and then the next generation. And you're not letting, letting that next generation fall through the cracks and whatnot. So that's awesome. So that's the veteran connection. But you also created a, a business that is for, for profit, but donates a portion of the proceeds back to your nonprofit. And that is I'm gonna throw that up on the screen, I just had to veterans connection.org scrolling for those that are watching or listening, we move into? Well, I
Eric Ranks 57:11
guess we can do at the end. But well, yeah, we'll do it, we can do it both. Yeah. If you want to learn more about the veterans connection, or how to support us, both in programs you offer or financially reach out swinging through the Veterans connection.org. You know, we, if you're in need reach out to us, if you want to find ways to, to volunteer time or to support or you know, a good program that we should be talking to, to partner with, like all those types of things. Like we, I'm firm believer that we have to do it. As a group, not one organization can take this on ourselves. Mental health is is a real thing. And also, on top of the thing I didn't talk about as this research is, with this research that we're working on building over the next couple of years, I feel like veterans and first responders are two of the hardest cases for PTSD and mental health. When we can show proven documented results that are working in all these areas, we can replicate that to anybody. A mother, a child, like mental health has mental health. And so yeah, we need everybody's support and help to help us take on this mental health battle.
Keith McKeever 58:29
There you go. So I I will have everything in the description where you can go, go to the website, you can go to website donate, wink, wink, nudge, nudge foot stop, you know, all that good stuff. Right, donate, donate, donate. It is a nonprofit. And moving on to 22 Salute. I'll have the website down there for that as well. So perfect. Tell us tell us a little bit about what 22 salutis
Eric Ranks 58:50
Yeah, so I will say it took me so first I'll tell you how 22 Salute came about 22. Slow came out about from a conversation of a veteran Council call the word Council which Keith is part of with the real struggle nonprofits have, which is how do you have continuous, consistent, consistent and projectable donations coming into your organization? Because if you want to continue increasing your impact, you've got to be able to try to figure out what what donations are consistent. How are we going to grow them and all that and we keep going What's
Keith McKeever 59:42
the baseline right? I mean, you know, projectable baseline
Eric Ranks 59:46
exactly what baseline and we keep going through these ups and downs in our economy. And unfortunately, nonprofit donations are always one of the first things that locks up when the economy changes. And so I got to this point where I was like, there's gotta be another way that I don't have to just rely on when the next donations coming in if this person who gave me you know, I'll use I'll use an awesome donation, give this person shout out to John Leary, Family Foundation, John are starting, John last year. Okay, if I can talk John Lynch, your family foundation drama, Jr. is the former CEO of T Mobile, he donated $10,000. That's great. But does that mean he's gonna donate $10,000 Every year, not necessarily. Like is a nonprofit, it's just hard to judge it. So 22 Salute was born out of necessity to try to keep increasing our impact and be able to, like, actually project how many people we can take on month after month after month. And it started with it within so I had some suggestions of you know, there's some, there's some great people who do coffee, great people do alcohol. And in some conversations, I said, coffee I was at first more open to actually was not open initially to 22 solute as an alcohol brand. Because of mixing alcohol and veteran mental health, like there is there's some real things there when it talks to you're talking about alcohol and people using it as a coping mechanism. Concern, I know that all too well, like we've we've worked with that. Yeah, it's a real system. So it took me a while to come around. But then I then I figured out how I can take this brand because alcohol is a very profitable industry to be in. And I figured out, well wait a second. Like there's ways I can do this and make it a positive. And I do that a couple of ways. I I'm, I'm more solo. I'm 22 sloop than I've ever been I was I had to work myself into this. And it's a couple of things that we've done to do a different one. Alcohol is necessarily a bad thing. You people can drink alcohol and have a great life. And it doesn't have to be used in a day to like we should never, we should never what's the best word for this? You should never, I can't think of the right word for the first time or something. But you should never like look down on somebody. Because they drink alcohol. Like if you want to find a way to trigger somebody for mental health. Like, look, start start hitting them down for something that they're doing. If somebody's doing something that's like in a coping way, it's not great. But find a positive way to help bring that versus beating them over the head for something because that could trigger them to do the next thing. We should never fault somebody. But we can help them through it. So what I did that was unique about 22 Salute, and we'll talk specifically on the uncle site because that's the site it's unique. Like there's we are coffee, there's a lot of coffee companies out there. And yes, our coffee goes to help fund it but our alcohol brand, we're actually doing something very, very different. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna grab, I want to grab a bottle just to show why it's different. Not because I'm trying to show my bottle. And I should have had this like so I didn't have to slide. There's a couple of things. So one. We we've have a nationwide agreement with Kroger, which has almost 3000 stores across the US. They're in the process of acquire trying to acquire Albertsons, which that has another 3000 Plus, Kroger is already the largest grocery chain among us so if you're not looking at big Brock's it's Walmart falls under progress, the largest grocery chain and ours is number
Keith McKeever 1:04:06
two. So is it all it's all in all Kroger's. Now,
Eric Ranks 1:04:09
not at all Kroger's yet, but we have an agreement, so we have to do it. It's very expensive to produce. So we have to roll out in a very strategic way. So we don't bankrupt ourselves for expanding too fast. So we are doing it like state by state. You know, we're also in places like Total Wine and places like that. So, one one thing that I that I saw, I was very specific, a way we designed our blog. So I'm doing something no one else is doing. I am taking veteran or first responder suicide and putting it in the eyes of the general consumer. I'm bringing nationwide awareness where no one else is really talking about suicide in a nationwide way. Anytime you walk into a store. It's in Your face, no one else is doing. So are bottle, a couple of things. One, during the veteran community as soon as you see that 22 You know what that means? Now why that's important for the veteran, I'm gonna go through a couple of things about our bottom, why that's important for the veteran, is if somebody is using this as a coping mechanism, one, I'm going to say it and I'm very well mean it like I'm not joking, don't buy our bottle, if you're using this as a copious, I don't want to contribute to that. And we're not targeting the veteran community. We're targeting the general consumer who does not understand what's going on. But as a veteran, if I see this, and I'm using as a coping as I'm hoping that they'll read our bottle, because it's very specific, and it will make them second guess what they're about to do, don't buy our bottle, whether it's on a grocery store shelf, whether it's sitting on a bar counter somewhere, like I want them to see that and have it stop the action that they're about to take. Like we want to save lives. And we this is this is it, we're we're doing it in a very unique way is mixing alcohol. But we're doing in a very purposely way to like to the consumer, we have a very clear story of the what the problem is and how it lays. We're trying to solve that. We're not we trademarks, and I'll give a shout out to a good buddy Andy Nelson. But we trademarked with a purpose. So anything we released. So this is vodka with a purpose trademarked bourbon with a purpose, anything like that. It's all trademark. We also trademark salute shot. So we went with a one liter bottle, because there's 22 shots and a one liter bottle. And we trademark salute shots. So one thing we talked about many times on this, this connection. One way to help save a life is reach out to people. It's great that people want to do 22 Push Ups a day and things like that. But it's the connection was gonna save a life. So we trademark salute shots and we say, hey, gathers 20 to your friends and family come together and do a salute shot together. We do that. Not because I'm trying to sell more alcohol. But I'm trying to build people in a non threatening traditional way to build community.
Keith McKeever 1:07:35
If it gets 22 people in a room together to have conversation to check on each other. Yeah. Then it's worth it. Yeah,
Eric Ranks 1:07:45
it's cool. That was the whole reason why I went and said, Hey, I want to trademark flu shots. And and I'm specifically like, there's there's a lot of grocery stores that would prefer I sell a 750 milliliter bottle. It's no, that's what most goes on. If you go out and buy off premise, which is anything outside of like a bar restaurant is because they're off premise. Most people buy 750 I said no. I'm about saving lives. There's 22 shots that are wildly wrong. There's not 22 shots and 750 later on. I'm so if people don't buy one of my bottles, because they wanted 750 or some other who cares? My point of this brand is to raise money for the nonprofit, and save a life and bring and bring awareness nationwide. And they can scan our QR code, right on 22 salutes website. And on the veterans connection, we make it really easy. If you scan on your phone, the QR code, they can click Text to suicide crosses line, they can click another button it will dial the number so they do the text one, it will automatically pre format all the texts connect them. They click the phone line, it'll dial the number if it like you make it super, super easy for people to get help if they need it right in that moment. So I'm using this that brand, as a way to bring nationwide awareness. Like if they don't want to donate to the veterans connection, that's fine. But maybe they'll reach out to a vet they know because now they're like oh wow, there's there must be a problem. If this brand is out there pushing that there's this problem exists. Or maybe I'll go donate to a different veteran, nonprofit great. If it's a good organization go donate to it like if they're making a difference. That's why I partner with people like I want I want people to take action and and it's in first responder communities as well. The first responder community suicide is much higher than a traditional you know, the traditional person and that's not the right word either. Yeah,
Keith McKeever 1:09:58
well yeah. salaries,
Eric Ranks 1:10:01
general public
Keith McKeever 1:10:02
suicide rates, higher substance abuse rates higher divorce rates higher.
Eric Ranks 1:10:06
Yeah, it's all it's. So we're taking on the problem in a very public way. And that's
Keith McKeever 1:10:15
really clever and very well thought out. I, I applaud you. Because that's, that is pretty darn clever.
Eric Ranks 1:10:22
And we will get people and we already have that are like, well, they're like, are you really going to mix those two? Yeah, because I have a reason for it. I, like I said, it took, like you said, I thought out, it took me a while to get to the point where I said, Okay, I'm willing to put alcohol, because I have 10 year plus great history on the nonprofit, like, I don't want to ruin it with an alcohol brand. So I had to really think through, like, Can I do this, and I did it in a way that I believe will one, save a life because it may not stop everybody from using his self coping mechanism. But if it saves, even a handful of lives, it was worth it to me. And I may have got somebody to reach out to somebody, because they now learned about a problem that they didn't understand was there because they're not closely aligned to the veteran community know what's going on.
Keith McKeever 1:11:22
Or maybe they've got some some slight ties, maybe they got some family members and friends, but they're not, you know, generally tied in at all in the veteran community. And they read that bottle, and they're like, Oh, this is interesting. I wonder how my friend John Doe is doing over there. I never really had a conversation with him about his time in the military and how he's dealing with things and, you know, then maybe they have a go have a conversation with him, like, how's life? You know, how was, you know, maybe they go down the rabbit hole? And, you know, how was your transition out of the military? And How's life treating you? And like, you know, I'll tell you, I've got, I've got close friends I grew up with and they never, I will feel like they're afraid to ask about my experiences. Like, and if they had to ask, well, probably two or three years ago, I probably wouldn't have told him too much. But now an open book. I mean, I probably tell him probably tell more details in a word I want to know. But, you know,
Eric Ranks 1:12:20
it's, yeah, for sure. The other thing is cool. And humbling. I think that's a way to say it. Cool and humbling. So our brand is on fire, we launched Labor Day weekend. So we're five or five months old, we've won multiple awards already, we're expanding more rapidly than
Keith McKeever 1:12:43
I know I've hit you up a couple times. We wait for you to get that in Illinois. So as far as like Oh, Kroger, we're over here in Illinois
Eric Ranks 1:12:50
and in faster than most brands have done. And that's not the but neither of those are the homeland park where I'm going with this is and it's specifically about a beat on the retail shelf sorry. I have been in this in stores more than once. And we also pay companies that go do tastings of our products and states that allow that and they've had they've they've experienced the same thing. More than one time I have been in a store and somebody comes up to me at CSR bottle asked me that and then they break down and absolute tears and thank us for okay. I don't know don't know a single other product in a grocery store stealth. Someone walks in and lease, emotion, strong emotion because they've had a family member suffering or they've lost some family member or they themselves are. You're going there despite groceries, you're not expecting to have a whole emotional change. And the gratitude that we've received over and over is beyond humbly and that if those experiences that is why I say I'm more convinced on our product than I ever was before. It's great that we're winning awards. I announced one today double gold. It's a highest award. We just We I just posted it today. It's great. That's gonna help sales but that's not why I do what I do. It's got
Keith McKeever 1:14:46
to be good product. It's got to taste good, but it the end of the day, it's about saving lives. It's not
Eric Ranks 1:14:51
what I just Yeah, and but it's the gratitude that I constantly get on a weekly basis. From people reaching out, whether they're reaching out on social media, whether I'm standing in front of them, whether just reach and just thanking us, like, you don't know the difference that this is making. And that's what I do and why to do and the fact that is we grow this brand is gonna allow us to make that much more impact to the nonprofit. Um, I, I purposely, you know, two of them, I started this with two other people. So there's three of us, those other two people aren't tied to the nonprofit, like that's, but I'm the one that said, you know, Hey, call them and say, hey, guess what we're gonna do. But I purposely started the organization as a social enterprise, not a normal corporation. So it's in our bylaws that we have to give back to our veteran or first responder community. If anyone bought us 10 years down the road or something. It's already built where they are, will be required to keep giving back, I will not sell if someone offered me a I'm not joking. Someone offered me a billion dollars today. Yes, it'd be super tempting. But I will would not do it. If they wouldn't continue the mission. Because that's the whole reason I get up every day is to save lives. And I'm not trying to build a brand to get rich, I'm trying to build a brand to save lives. And that's why I was so thoughtful of how I designed that product. Is it's literally about how can I save more lives?
Keith McKeever 1:16:33
Well, there's no doubt about it. On the shelves, I think your your well thought out process on there definitely achieves your two goals. I think there's definitely times where somebody will pick up that bottle, and they'll look at it and they're gonna second guess the actions that they're about to do. And say, Yes, somebody didn't lie about am I about to go through this? Like, I know, I got a problem. Do I? Do I really have a problem? I'm about to go through this yes or no. And, and other people are gonna pick it up and be like, this is interesting, I need a bottle, you're gonna be like, this is I've never heard of this, and they're gonna flip it around, or they're gonna start reading it. And they'd be like, holy cow. I gotta get this, you know, like, I have to support this. Because this I mean, how can you not? You know, like, you know, there's, there's no other brand out there. And there's, there's plenty of great liquor ban brands out there. But I don't know of any others that support veterans.
Eric Ranks 1:17:36
Well, there's even there's even good veteran, veteran brands, both coffee and alcohol, but they're not taking on this issue. People are too scared to take on this issue. And it like I said, it was I had to really think through if I'm gonna do this, how can I do this? Because traditionally, it's nobody wants no one wants to be the person that says, hey, we believe in mental health, and we're selling alcohol. And so there's, there's really good, even veteran owned brands that the veteran themselves knows the problems going on. But they're not taking on the cause. Now, we did trademark. So now we're preventing other people from from taking our idea, but but no one else wanted to mix the two. And I don't fault people for it at all. Because it is like, it's a fight. Like you've got to be willing to take the good and the bad, like, we'll get people that will, that will will push against
Keith McKeever 1:18:44
what we're doing. You're gonna have some haters, you're gonna have some negative pushback, that's for sure. But, you know you got to be willing to take it if if the if the fights worth fighting. And I mean, you know, you grew up with with two parents who served you know, as well as I do, and anybody listen to this, the fights worth it. Like we can't, we can't continue to let the statistics be what they are. For sure. These are human beings, you know, that deserve to get the care the treatment that they need to get these roadblocks moved out of their way to to get the resources they need to get their lives turned around and right back on the get back on the road again. You know, like we only got one life to live. Like, it's it's a shame that unfortunately, some people have a easier smoother path and others, you know, but
Eric Ranks 1:19:44
yeah, I'd also say on that, because I think it's important for people understand because I'm sure your podcast is not I mean, I listen to podcasts, but I'm sure it's not only followed by people like myself that are sort of Millions I'm sure there's other civilians are suited to. And so I do want to add one piece to that that a civilian may not know, the veteran is probably aware. But there's a lot of veterans who are suffering that actually never even saw a day of battle. So don't just assume, Oh, that Oh, my friend, my friend didn't ask for didn't go overseas and fight in a war. So he's fine. Or she's fine. Don't make that assumption. So I think this is civilian, civilians need to understand that, like, don't assume that all these mental health issues are all stemmed from seeing a de Annabelle, because there's many who never saw David battle that are still struggling.
Keith McKeever 1:20:42
Absolutely, that. Yeah, that's, that's a good one. I mean, I've I think there's examples of people who kick in doors for years, who struggled very little with mental health, and physical health, and other people who had very minimal, minimal exposure to it and have, you know, the mind is a weird thing, the body is a weird thing. You line up 100 100 people and expose them to the same exact thing, and everybody's gonna have different, different physical and mental reactions to
Eric Ranks 1:21:17
it. Part of the also, which doesn't get talked about is when someone signs up for service, what are they? What do they bring with them? Like, there's, there's a lot, everybody, everybody in this world is struggling with something you don't know about. But you don't know what their past was, like, some of the people that you're seeing that get affected by, by mental health and stuff, you know, that did or didn't see more than are affected more than others, some of those, it's because some of that is being triggered from their past even before service. You know, that also needs to be taken a look at is not just what service it is. Also, there's a high percentage, not everybody, but there's a high percentage of people who joined the military, who they joined the military as an escape, like, they came from problems before they joined the military.
Keith McKeever 1:22:13
There's also those that go right back to that environment, there are good or didn't come from a bad environment, but then find themselves in a bad environment after so, yeah, there's a lot of things at play, like you come from a good environment, and not, you know. So a lot of things can happen before during after service and different things. I mean, that's why the VA gets so difficult about, you know, trying to determine what was the service connected or before or after service and go away, but we give it to those questions. All right. You're writing. Big difference. That's a whole nother topic for a whole nother day. But, Eric, I appreciate you coming on here. We'll get this wrapped up. But I I appreciate you coming on here shared about the veterans connection, and 22 Salute I, like I said earlier, I've known you for a couple years now. And I learned a tremendous about a tremendous amount more than even I knew. So. I appreciate knowing more I know the guests appreciate no more. It I love no more. So obviously, one of my biggest goals of the podcast is not only to highlight nonprofits, but also to be able to put on my website, Resources Information, because one of my goals is to educate, guide and connect and connect people to the resources. So very, very similar missions in life is to just, you know, hey, like, this is where you need to go, like, you know, go over here like this is this is the people you need to connect with, and they get you taken care of. So, you know, I'm glad I know more of what you're doing and that I this is definitely an episode I could share with a lot of people that hey, if you're struggling, like this is a place where you you can go like, here's where you place this is where you need to start. You know, start here, okay, you know, get out of service start here and go here for your VSL go get your claims you know all that stuff so So I appreciate you stopping by Sharon and and seriously everybody needs to go follow Eric and accompany Facebook, all those socials. Like I said, I'll have everything in the show notes. But where can where can everybody reach you, Eric?
Eric Ranks 1:24:21
Yeah, so I think my so my own profiles is either going to be E ranks or Eric ranks depending on what social unfortunately the veterans connection started in 2012 before people really thought oh, your social profiles need all match. So the veterans connection depending on my social media, it's a little different. But you can find us and then 22 salute that was formed recently so I knew everything I had to match so that's 22 Salute Bev CO for beverage company, and that matches and I wish I could make go back and make the veterans connection all match but you'll learn the hard way. You know, social Romania was was newer 10 years ago.
Keith McKeever 1:25:02
Yeah, well, let's you got a time machine. You're kind of out of luck on that one, right?
Eric Ranks 1:25:06
Yeah, Mark, Mark Zuckerberg is not going to make any changes for me.
Keith McKeever 1:25:10
No. Well, you can only hope. So, anyway, Eric, I appreciate you stopping by.
Eric Ranks 1:25:15
Yeah. Thank you so much for your time.
Keith McKeever 1:25:20
There you have it, folks, I hope you enjoyed. And like I said just a few minutes ago, there's always resources on the website, go check them out. And like I always say, if something's not on there, and you think you should, please, please reach out. Let me know what you think should be on there. And I'll look at the feasibility of getting an ad on there as a resource and if you are struggling today, remember the national suicide hotline number is 988. Press one
