Inside the Mind of a Navy Seal

Most of the problems we face in our businesses and our lives are mindset-related.

We get in the way of our own success.

Imagine having a mindset that never inhibited your path to success, but instead only supported it.

In this conversation, retired Navy Seal William Branum shares what it takes to improve your mindset as well as healthier ways than alcohol to cope with our difficulties and our stress.

6:58- Is hell week really that bad?

9:41- the need to step back and observe and reflect

14:35- taking complete responsibility for our circumstances

16:18- how William is helping reduce the number of daily veteran suicides (between 22 and 26/day)

17:41- false peaks and why we should be excited the climb is never over

24:16- the why and how of upgrading your team

32:36- replacing alcohol with CBD

38:30- where you can get William’s products and the acronym for a successful life: NAKED

Justin Stoddart
So the big question is this: How do those of us in the real estate industry, with crazy amounts of ambition, how do we Think Bigger than the building of our own empires? How do we simultaneously seek success AND significance, income AND impact? My name is Justin Stoddart, and this is the Think Bigger Real Estate Show.

Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. Today, my friends, we are going to get into the mind of a Navy Seal. I can’t wait to introduce this gentleman to you and talk about what he brings to the marketplace, and what he’s going to bring to you in helping you to live your best life. Before I go there. Let me remind you that inside of the Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook we go deeper. We’re gonna introduce William, and even give you access to him to where you can understand again, what he brings to the marketplace. That’s where learning happens, when you engage not when you just listen. So we’re glad you’re here, but again, go over to the Think Bigger Real Estate Group on Facebook, where you will be able to become and implement the things that we talked about today.

Justin Stoddart
Today’s guest His name is William Branum. He and I became fast friends as we have a shared mentor. He’s doing some really cool things. But before we get to what he’s doing to help people deal with stress in a more healthy, sustainable way, we’re going to get into his mind the mind of a Navy SEAL. William Branum, thanks for coming on to the show today.

William Branum
Thank you for having me. I’m pretty stoked to be here.

Justin Stoddart
It’s a total pleasure. I have to laugh, you’re wearing a shirt that says “Get Naked” and you’re sitting in a hotel room. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a family show. No worries about what’s going to happen here. Before I go too much into that let me just state that William owns a company called Naked Warrior Recovery. It’s It’s It’s a CBD company. He’s on a mission to help veterans to reduce the suicide rate. And veterans can believe that people who who served our country at the highest level is 22 of them a day commit suicide, he’s on a mission to reduce that even eliminate that entirely. So please stay tuned to the end of this out of respect to him, and what he’s done for our country already and what he’s doing, I want you to hear what he’s got that again, can help people in a big way. So, William, let’s talk a little bit about your background. Right. I think Navy SEALs is internationally known as some of the baddest dudes on the planet, right? You just don’t mess with a Navy Seal. At what point did you decide I want to be I want to be one of those guys, I want to be a navy seal?

William Branum
So I always knew as a kid that I wanted to be a some sort of a commando, and also a ninja. I’m still working on the ninja piece. You know, some of my role models growing up where we’re in not just talk about my age too much here but John Wayne, he was a Green Beret in Vietnam, at least in the movies. He was there was John Rambo, I think he was an Army Ranger. Chuck Norris was part of Delta Force and they rode dirt bikes, and they shot rockets off the front of those, I’m still trying to get some one of those. But I was you know, I was heavily heavy in the Boy Scouts. I always knew I wanted to be a commando. And, and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted, I didn’t want to be part of like the big army, like a big movement of a lot of people. I wanted to be part of a more specialized force. And so I was looking at like maybe Green Berets or Army Rangers or Marines because, you know, the commercials of Marines. When I was growing up, they were fighting dragons with swords and things like that. And I was like, those guys are cool. And they have pretty cool uniforms as well. Like, the one organization that I would never join is the Navy, because they have ugly uniforms. You know, there’s a Navy base in the town I grew up in all those kids act like a bunch of idiots. And, you know, of course, when I joined the Navy, I was one of those kids that acted like an idiot so I, whatever, however, that worked out, but someone told me the you know, hey, I was at a on a Boy Scout adventure and from Meridian, Mississippi, and going to the national Jamboree, and I met a kid and he’s like, I want to be a navy seal and I also want to fly F-14 Tomcats because the movie Top Gun had come out and and we also won like the first Gulf War really with airpower, you know, dropping bombs and pilots are really were really the heroes there. And so the my the summer between the 11th and 12th grade of high school, the Navy recruiter called me, and I had finally decided, yeah, I want to be a Navy Seal. I didn’t really know what that meant. I didn’t because there were no books. There were no movies, there was nothing like that when I was a kid. And there was no internet when I was a kid.

William Branum
And, you know, we he said, Hey, have you ever thought about joining the Navy? I was like, Well, actually, I was thinking about becoming a navy seal and fly f 14 tomcats. And he was like, Well, why don’t you come down here and we’ll talk about it. So I came down to the recruiting office, he showed me this super cheesy video of like, you know, these guys jumping out of a helicopter and getting it a little rubber boat and going to the beach and then you know, looking through binoculars at a building and then the next thing you see them like running out of the building and it like this really terrible GCI explosion behind them. And I’m like, Yes, that’s what I want to be. I want to be the best of the best and so, and that was really all I knew about it, I knew that they were the best they because they jumped out of airplanes. They scuba dove, they, you know, ran around in the woods, they shot guns, they blew stuff up. And they were like an elite small unit. And so that’s what I wanted to be, I wanted to be a part of something like that. So I joined the Navy to become a seal. I made some tactical errors, and it almost cost me becoming a CEO making those it was just really about like, choices that I made as far as like maybe jobs because there when I joined, you couldn’t like join and say, I’m gonna be a seal and being a seal was your job, you had to become a gunner’s mate or a bonus mate or a Quartermaster, whatever, those Navy jobs in order to advance in the Navy, and so that those jobs took me down a rabbit hole that put me on a ship for two years before I was able to, and that was actually almost didn’t get to go, I had to ask the Chief of Naval Operations, who is the most senior guy in the Navy, there’s only two people in the military more senior to him, which is the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States. So this, this super senior guy, the guy that’s in charge of the Navy, came to my ship in Yucosco, Japan, after everyone told me no, you can’t go be a seal. And I raised my hand and I said, Hey, I joined the Navy to be a seal. I think I deserve a chance to go. And my you know, all these people won’t let me go and he’s like, you’re right. You do deserve a chance to go, you’ll be in the first class after your PRD which is planned rotational date. And so I went to BUDS and it took me a short 13 months to complete a six month block of training. So I don’t remember the question, but I just started talking and here we are. Now I have graduated SEAL training.

Justin Stoddart
So I’ve read the book can’t hurt me by David Goggins. I’m in the middle of Leif babban. And Jocko willings book, Extreme Ownership, they paint a pretty gnarly picture of Navy SEAL training. Is it that bad?

William Branum
Um, it’s very difficult. It’s very difficult. I got hurt several times, and almost got kicked out. Because, you know, I only made it a few weeks in and then you know, broke a bone, made it a few weeks in and like stuff broke again. And so they were like, Alright, you got to go. And I’m like, wait, I wait, I I need I can’t leave. Like it took a while it took the CNO to get to get me here. Can I please stay? am I crying and there’s a whole mess. And so they said, okay, you can stay, you’ve got one chance left. And so when I finally class back up for class 207 I wasn’t healed. I was just hobbling along. And so I went, what I learned is that you can push your body so much further than you actually think that you can. And this was really something I learned throughout SEAL training. And there’s a week that’s it’s, it used to be week five, now, I think it’s week four, or three or something called hell week. And you you only sleep in five and a half days, you only get about two and a half hours of sleep. And actually, I wish that they wouldn’t have let us sleep at the time. But they just I mean, part of it is there’s safety involved and all this other stuff. But um, what I learned I saw one boat crew in in hell week that kept winning races. And then we this was very, very early on. Like Sunday night, it starts Sunday night. And you have this sort of breakout where they put you in a tent, and you have all these explosions, and they pull you out in the spring with fire hoses and run back here and go back there. And they’re shooting gun blanks, shooting guns, and everything is super chaotic. And like, go get wet, go over there and do this. And at some point, I like stopped and I stepped back because another guy that had already been through hell week who was injured and he was waiting for the other class to another class so that he could hop in post Hell Week. He was like so when you go through hell week during breakout, what you should do is you should like, stop. Because there’s a lot of people out there running around. It’s just total chaos. And you just step to the side and then look around and see how much stuff is going on. And what what all is happening. And when I did that I stopped. I like stepped off to the side, I saw a moment where no one was paying attention to me stepped off to the side. And I looked and I just saw chaos, explosions, gunfire, kids running around, I saw all these looky loos these people on the second floor of this balcony overlooking the BUDS compound. And they’re like, and I was like, I never would have seen those people had I not like stopped and like step back and taking a look at like what’s what’s actually going on in this super chaotic event.

William Branum
And so as we kind of go down this road, that’ll be a little bit of a theme of, you know, we all get sucked into this chaos of life. And sometimes we just need to like step back. It’s still gonna happen in front of you, but step back, detach a little bit and look around and see what’s actually going on because a lot of times what’s actually going on, you’ll see details that you wouldn’t see if you just stayed stayed sort of focused in on it. So buds, it’s very hard. But one of the things that I learned is I, you know, I’ve told you I saw this boat crew that was like winning races, like Sunday night and Monday morning, I was like, I want to be in that boat crew, those guys are about my height, because we boat crews are all you know, every, like, you’re carrying a boat on your head, the boats about 250 pounds. And you know, which doesn’t sound like a lot if it’s divided amongst seven people. But it actually is kind of a lot after you’re like running, and it’s bouncing up and down. And it’s running, running back and forth. And you will make you bald, and and it’s like jamming your neck. And you know, maybe the instructors are throwing sand in the boat. And, and I saw these guys winning, and I was like, I want to be in that boat crew. Because the guys that I’m with right now, some of them are quitting, I don’t want to be around them, I don’t want to be around quitters. I’ve been here for like six months already, I’m ready to like get through hell week. And I want to do it as quickly and as effectively as possible.

William Branum
And so I eventually got into they they re re lined us up, I got into boat crew three, and we run almost every race throughout the rest of Hell Week. And what I learned is that hell week sucks, buds sucks. But it’s always better. If you can suffer in the front than suffer in the back, you’re going to suffer no matter what, let’s put out one to 5% more effort to get to the front of everyone else. And you might get a 20 minute break instead of like suffering the whole time. Like it was just like morale building to get to the front of the line than to be in the back of the line. And so that was just sort of a lesson that I’ve learned. And I’ve started to like, incorporate more into my in my personal life and my professional life as well.

Justin Stoddart
So real quick, a couple a couple lessons stood out for me that apply directly directly, I think to real estate agents. Number one is this concept of stop and reflect. Right? Again, we live in, especially right now the market, right I just got off a call with a client of mine. And she was just she was describing how fast moving the market is right now that there is no time perceivably to stop and reflect. It’s just it’s a complete race because there’s so few homes, so many buyers. It’s just highly competitive. And I think regardless of what it may seem on the outside to everybody else, just like your scenario, right, where they’re shooting you with fire hoses, and you know, explosions going all over the place. That’s a little bit what kind of the whirlwind of real estate can feel like to some degree. And I think making sure that you take time to reflect right? It might not be during business hours, it might not be when you’re supposed to be meeting with a client, it might be you need to get up a little bit earlier and stop and reflect and see what’s going on. How do I position myself on a winning team to be able to get ahead like what’s working, what’s not working? Sometimes the best answers come and we just stop and ask ourselves questions is what I’m doing working, is what I’m doing producing the result that I wanted to, is there a better path? Can I observe anybody else around me that’s doing it better than I am, to which I might be able to adopt some of their practices.

William Branum
Exactly. And oftentimes, you it is best to stop during those working hours during that like, you’re like, Oh my god, I have so much to do. And I have to like, you haven’t even prioritized what it is that you need to do, you’re just reacting to the things that are in front of you. And if you can, like stop, it takes discipline. And I fail at this a lot. But if you can stop and step back just for a second, I know it takes you away from the task that you’re doing right this second. But and then turn and focus and like what are we what are we actually doing? What is the actual objective? Is it like to get this award? Is it to get the highest dollar amount for the property? You know, figure out what it is? Is that team just like you said, is that team doing better than the team that I’m on? How do I get on that team? And how do I stack the cards in my favor? Not necessarily. I’m just grinding, like we all grind. And a lot of times the grind, we focus on the wrong things when we’re just grinding instead of like, figuring out the things that actually matter. And most of the time, those are the things that we don’t want to do. And so and it is for me at least. Yeah. And, and so I think that’s, you know, a lot of it like, sometimes we just have to stop in the middle of all of it and like focus on focus on on, step back, detach from what it is and then figure out where we actually need to go not just grind to grind.

Justin Stoddart
I had a client actually that was meeting yesterday and talking about the importance of like him at some time with his family, right? Like I’m trying to take a weekend trip and I can’t get the time because I’m working weekends I’m working evenings, it’s just non stop. And I think at some point like when there’s problems in my household where things aren’t going quite as I would have wanted, let’s say kids have way too much screentime let’s say that they’re just constantly thinking of each other, ultimately, I’ve got to look at myself and say, What am I doing wrong is that as the leader of this household that’s allowing these things to happen. And I think those of us that that, again, the owner of businesses, if they’re not going just how we want, whether they be in the quantity of business, or in the quality of life that we’re getting out of, we have to stop and look at ourselves and say, we can’t always point outward to the market, we can’t always say something else’s fault. We have to be able to look inward to say, what can I do differently? I must, I must stop the tail from wagging the dog. I’m in charge here. I’m going to tell my clients when I’m available, I might lose some clients. But it’s better than losing your family, it’s better than than losing your mindset, right. And I think when you start to do that you show up different like differently for your clients, you have actually given yourself space to reflect time to grow yourself. You show up refresh, excited to be there not resentful that you’re with them instead of with your family when they interrupted your your weekend. Again, I think it involves taking complete accountability, complete ownership, to say, No, I’m in charge here. And it’s not where it’s, I’m not where I want to be. And it’s completely my fault, which then empowers you to say, and I can, and I can get me, I can get myself somewhere else, right, which is a lot of lessons I hear you saying.

Justin Stoddart
Let’s talk really quickly about how you’re helping veterans, obviously, you served our country, faithfully. Again, my hat goes off to you. I know we’re right between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. And that’s why I wanted to book you during this time. Because I wanted, honestly, on behalf of me and my audience, for the depths of our heart, we thank you for your service for the sacrifice that you were willing to make. So that we can be free, in my opinion, so the world can be free. So thank you for that. That’s a don’t take that lightly.

William Branum
Thank you.

Justin Stoddart
Are there any other lessons before we get into what you’re doing to help veterans? Is there anything else that you would say this is an important principle for having self discipline? Obviously, before this show, you and I talked about how there’s a pretty simple recipe for being successful in life and in business in in real estate, it’s the same thing. And I think it’s important to recognize that it’s oftentimes not the recipe that’s failed, it’s the person that’s doing the recipe, right, they aren’t actually building the database, they are actually making the contacts, right, like adding value to their client base, they’re actually having a superior client experience. So if we know the recipe, the problem is we’re not following the recipe because of our lack of self discipline. Is there any advice you can give to people on how to improve their self discipline, how to improve, empowering themselves to take control of their own life in their own business?

William Branum
So I would so let me let’s back up just a second, going back to budds. Because, you know, you asked a question that I didn’t actually finish answering it. Um, so BUDS, BUDS hard, and I made a mistake. And I think we all make this mistake, all of us. I don’t think there’s one person that hasn’t made this mistake. You know, when I, when I graduated BUDS, I thought the hard work was done. I thought, it’s all good, we’re good to go. Now. Now the easy stuff and I’m getting, you know, I’m getting a, you know, I’m gonna go show up to the team and life is going to be great. What I failed to recognize or realize, and I’ve learned this over and over many times, is that every time you get to a peak, you’re going to have to go back down and there’s another peak that you need to go climb, like there will never be a peak in your life where you have to stop climbing, you’re always going to get to another peak, you know, I remember going out and doing cold weather, some cold weather training and actually testing out some cold weather equipment that we were developing for the seal teams. And what we did is we went out and we climbed these mountains and you just got super sweaty and then you put on these puffy pants and jacket to warm back up and basically dry yourself out from the inside out. And and as I’m climbing these mountains I’m just sucking wind and the guys that are up there in Alaska, they’re like okay, all right. You see that? You see that peak right there? That’s not the top you have to keep going that’s a false peak. So in life we always have these false peaks and what I think what happens oftentimes is we we think that we’re we’ve done good enough like in your in your industry you sold a house Okay, I got a big fat commission check what guess what I got to sell another house and I gotta sell another house and I got to get more clients and I can’t find a house to sell. I can’t find a house you know, clients to buy. So you’re always having to grind but you’re always like, what makes the grind worth it? What is your actual end goal and there should never be like once you hit that goal, there should be a new goal and the new goal you should never ever, like find yourself at the top because when you’re at the top, you’re only going to fall. You should always continue to climb and get better throughout your entire life. And whatever the the businesses that you’re in, you’ve probably asked me a question, and I didn’t even answer it. But yeah,

Justin Stoddart
Well, I think the, I mean, the the lesson is the second that we stopped climate is the second we stopped growing. The second we stopped growing, is the second that we stopped really having your

William Branum
level back down the mountain, you just started you’re gonna become mediocre at that point.

Justin Stoddart
Well, and and the second you stop growing is the second you stop having a fulfilled joyful life, right, that there’s right. Like there’s a there’s a relationship between adversity, and the climb, and the grind that all of us oftentimes want to avoid, that is actually the recipe for fulfillment for success, for significance for growth, for all the things that we actually want 100% on the other side of the stuff we don’t want, right?

William Branum
Yes. And I mean, it’s, that’s a hard lesson to like to get through, like, you know, it’s like, in that boat crew that I was in, I we, no one in that boat crew was exceptional in any way. But somehow, it was an unspoken truth, we all want it to be at the front of the line, we didn’t want to be kind of bouncing back and forth. At the back, we always wanted to be at the front. And I was so grateful to be surrounded by those men.

Justin Stoddart
Yeah. And, and you subjected yourself in order to, to carry the distinguish title of being a navy seal, right, and be able to serve our country and that, at that elevated level, you were willing to go through hell literally like how we create, to get there. And I think everybody wants like, the happy ending. Everybody wants the big successful business and the happy family and the healthy six pack, abs body and the on and on and on. Right. But it’s the Yeah, yeah, I want that. But it’s the actually being willing to subject yourself to the adversity, the trials, the challenges, the difficulty to get yourself there where the wheels come off for most people, right? Yeah.

William Branum
And, and they don’t, they don’t maintain that discipline that, you know, but oftentimes, I think they don’t go in with the plan. They don’t… and I’ve been guilty of this, I have gone in many times, like I didn’t have a plan, and like, I haven’t made it through buds. And now I’m gonna be a navy seal. Well, guess what, once I got to the SEAL team, I was still not a Navy Seal, I was still on probation, I still had to prove myself every single day, I still had to go before a board and they evaluated, you know, my knowledge, my experience, how I performed, you know, with the platoon, and they could have said no, you know, they’re guys now that show up to the seal teams, and they fail in their performance. And we kicked them out of the teams, because they don’t, just because you make it through BUDS doesn’t make you a seal. Just because you show you got that pin, you can show up to the team and you can not perform to the level that we expect you to perform, and you will no longer be a Navy Seal. So I loved being in around that because I had guys that were senior to me, that pushed me I had guys that were junior to me, and they pushed me like everyone, we’re all I expect more out of them than they expect out of themselves, they expect the same out of me, they expect more out of me than I expect out of myself. So I have to always raise the bar to become better, a better person a better Seal a better whatever it is. And if we can do that, in our in our own lives, you know, I’m not in the Seal teams anymore. And that was a very hard transition to to being a civilian and not having that mission, or a team or anything else. And now I have to like figure it out for myself. You know, if you are you can surround you know, who is it…. Five, the people you surround yourself with–Jim Rohn is, you know, right, I mean, and that was the epitome of the Seal Teams like you’re surrounded by awesome people, elite individuals who push you and they push themselves, and then you push them and so everyone is just getting better every day. And now once I got out, I didn’t have that push. So now I had to surround myself with people who are going to push me people like you who pushed me. And you know, I had to join, you know, coaching groups and things like that, so that I could become better and figure out what the hell I’m gonna do with now that I’m a grown up or when I do grow up, who knows?

Justin Stoddart
You know, I think you’re less than that you’re kind of teaching us through a number different experiences. You have to ask yourself, Am I on the best team? Am I am I positioned around the people that are going to actually help me to get the successful and the significant life that I actually want? Right? And I think we have to ask ourselves that sometimes people will get caught in a real estate brokerage, where it’s like, well, they’ve been really good to me. I’ve been here for a long time. They’re nice. That’s great, right? But I would ask you, are you in the best spot to take care of your family, your future your clients? If the answer is no, you might need to make some hard decisions, right? Very similar to you. When you’re carrying that boat. You’re looking over at the team. It’s like man, those guys are flying. Those guys are those guys are winning. Those guys are winners, and my team and

William Branum
I was surrounded by guys that were whining and didn’t want to be there and many of them quit. And so I was like, awesome. Get out. Like when I first started was interesting when I first started I was like, No, don’t quit stay here. We This is a good place to be. And then after I’d been there for several months, and I just wanted to keep going and be there, and I’m surrounded by those people. I was like, Yeah, get out beat it. I don’t have time for you. You’re in my way now. Yeah. So and, and being your account to your to your point of like being in those brokerages where they’re like, they’re comfortable. They’re not being pushed. They’re living a life of mediocrity. And we’ll talk about mediocrity in a minute.

Justin Stoddart
Yeah, no, I love it, man. Such great lessons. I’m super grateful for what you shared right there. Because again, that was one of the key principles that I wanted to get into your mind to say, what is the mind of a Navy SEAL? Like what how do you see the world differently, right? And you don’t see adversity as uncomfortable. You see it as the path to become the person that you need to become. Right. And so I think hopefully right now, where there’s some adversity in the real estate market, either agents are working like crazy doing well working like crazy. And or they’re working like crazy, not getting paid at all right? There’s a lot of that well, is that you have to look at that, through a longer perspective of who is this helping me to become, because I’m somebody stronger and better through this, now I can. Now now as soon as the market tips just a little bit, I’m going to be able to really have a lot of opportunity, because it will have weeded out people that didn’t belong here. Right? I mean, that’s happening. Real estate is right now very similar to your Seal Teams, you know, or the people that were wanting to be seals, stuff

Justin Stoddart
I want to get into now your mission, again, which I think is is super, just inspiring, right, which is you’ve got to get 22 veterans a day are committing suicide. Obviously, some of those are our physical breakdowns, right, a lot of its mental views of what veterans have gone through to protect our country. Tell us about your company and kind of help me.

William Branum
So my company is naked warrior recovery. And the Naked Warrior is the predecessor to today’s navy seal. So just a really quick history lesson here. If you’ve seen the movie Saving Private Ryan, the first battle scene there at Normandy, where the you know, the the assault force is going across across the beach. Prior to that assault force, the Navy went out and got a bunch of volunteers who were good with demo, who took little rubber boats from the big Navy ships out here into the beach, or just off the beach, a few 100 yards off the beach, got in the water, swam to the beach, did reconnaissance on the beach, figured out where all the obstacles were where the like the best lanes of assault would be, what obstacles were in that in the way there and then they would scroll back into the water and they’re being shot out from machine gun nest on the beach, and crawl back into the water. And they would take a rock with a string on it with knots every six feet. And they would measure the depth of the water and they had a slate around their neck and they would take notes on the slate like the depth of the water, any obstacles, and then they would do you know, they would, you know line up and they would be in the water 25 yards apart, measure mark and then they would dive underwater, look for obstacles underwater, and then come up. If there was an obstacle, they would mark it. And then they would do it again. And they would measure three to 5000 yards of beach a night. And then they would go back to the ship and they would build a chart and the chart that they built was the chart used to assault the beach, like the Intel that they brought back was the was what was used to you know, basically for the day. And hours before the assault. These guys would go back in they put demo charges on the beach, they cleared lanes and cleared off schools that were in the water because you know the landing crafts were coming in on the water. And like as their the landing craft is launching, that’s when they like blew the demo and like clear the lanes and then you know Saving Private Ryan came across the beach. And so that was the predecessor of today’s US Navy SEAL. So that first day decommissioned that team after they did that mission, then you know, there the island campaign in the Pacific against the Japanese picked up and the Marines were like going across the beach, or they would hit a barrier reef and they would run off thinking they’re in like three feet of water and then fall off on the other side. And they would you know, drowned in 30 feet of water when they thought they were in three feet of water. And so they recommission these underwater demolition teams, these naked warriors, and they would go in and they would you know, do more reconnaissance clear lanes of assault. And that was you know, again, that was the predecessor of today’s navy seal. So it’s that making worry recovery is is a hat tip to sort of my heritage as a seal. But also, you know, we’re all warriors in our own life. We all have some sort of combat some sort of battles that we that we find ourselves in, whether it’s something from work, whether it’s a toxic relationship, a bad client, a bad deal, and we just feel like we get attacked all the time. And you know, what we’ll do is we’ll put armor on so when the seal teams, we put our armor on our body armor on and we go into into harm’s way. And sometimes it comes in handy and then we come back, we take our armor off, and we hit the showers, we get naked, we recover and we get ready to do again. But in real life in regular old life, that doesn’t happen. If we get attacked enough times we end up never taking our armor off, we get too much stress, too much anxiety, too much stuff going on. And we just feel like we’re always under attack. And you know, after 26 years of service, I felt that way, I’ve got some toxic relationships, I have a bad marriage. And I have a lot of I have a lot of baggage that I carry around, I always have my armor on. And you know, the way that I dealt with the baggage that I have, I don’t call it PTSD, I call it baggage because I could argue that I probably have more more baggage from my other toxic relationships than I do from seven deployments of combat. So I just call it baggage because other people put crap in your bag, and you end up carrying that around. So part of what get naked is is about taking that armor off, take that baggage off and putting it in the corner so that you can also find so you can you find a place that you’re vulnerable so that you can sort of expose yourself and be fine healing because if you’re carrying crap around and you’re always armored up, you’re never ever going to going to find any sort of healing in your life, any sort of mental stability or anything else. I mean, I used to use alcohol like glasses and glasses of alcohol at night vodka rocks, was my drink of choice, and some other pharmaceuticals just to turn the noise off in my head. And so I heard about CBD. And I tried it. And I didn’t notice anything right away. It wasn’t there was no like spectacular magic pill or anything. Magic elixir didn’t see rainbows and unicorns, the world wasn’t great. But what I noticed is, I like to say that water boils at 212 degrees, I was living at 210 degrees, like it didn’t take much for me to like, blow that top for that steam to start shooting out. But when I started taking CBD, I noticed that, you know, maybe I went from like 210 to 208 to 205 to 200. And eventually, like maybe down to like 190 or 180 for like the, you know, the first 30 days of CBD that I had. And I also noticed that some pains, I mean, I’m 26 years of running around and jumping out of airplanes and and beating myself up.

William Branum
The pains weren’t gone, the migraines weren’t gone, they were just less severe. They were just not as sharp. And so I you know, I finished that bottle of CBD. And, you know, I noticed things start coming back, I started creeping back up into that like 190 200 range, I’m like, Well, let me try this, again, a different brand. And, and so things started getting better, like the noodle started moving away from that 200 Mark again, now maybe this time, I was like to say 170 or so. And, and so what CBD did is I realized later that it helped me have better self talk, it helped me drink less alcohol, because I was just using alcohol to mask the noise so that I could just close my eyes and go to sleep. Like when it’s late at night. And you know, I’ve got all this stress and anxiety that’s just rattling my body in my brain like I don’t, I can’t sleep, I can’t close my eyes, I can’t be still. But CBD over time helped me to like, quiet those thoughts, quiet that noise and then have better self talk. And that’s what it helped me to do. And so the other thing that… and so how this has helped veterans and I’m speaking veterans, first responders, but we’re all warriors is you know, you know, you mentioned earlier that 22 a day. So right now, the number is 22 a day. But actually, as of November of 2020, the VA the Veterans Affairs did another survey and they estimate that it’s closer to 26 a day that take their own lives. And so we’ve lost more veterans in in from from suicide than we have in 20 years of sustained combat and yes, we’ve been in sustained combat for 20 years. This is the 20th anniversary of 911.

William Branum
And actually, this is a fine time to throw this out. I’m doing a swim and I’ll send you a link. This will be the second year of three that I’ve done it. Where we start in New Jersey we run down to a from one part to another it’s about a two mile run. Then we get in the water and it’s all former seals veterans first responders and patriots we get in the water we swim out to across the Hudson River to in front of the Statue of Liberty on a barge and we do 100 pushups and 22 pull ups to to represent the 22 veterans a day. Then we get back in the water we swim out to in front of Ellis Island on a barge, we do another 122. And then we swim to lower Manhattan. And we do another one 122. So it’s a fundraiser for the GI Go Fund. And and I’ll share that, that link with you. And I think right now there’s about 125 people signed up to do to swim this year. So I’ll be doing that. That as well. But, but the and I’m not a good swimmer, like that’s a huge misconception that people make about Navy Seals that we’re all good swimmers, I’m a I have a don’t quit–never quit attitude, I will just grind through stuff, which is sometimes a downfall. But it is what it is, I can go forever. I’m just not fast. I mean, we have some Olympic medalists that are doing the swim with us. They did the swim last year. And so and we’ve got some women doing the swim as well, I won’t be in the front, but I’ve definitely not be in the back.

Justin Stoddart
So let me pull in some relevance here. I see the stress that real estate agents go through, especially in a in a difficult market. And I do believe that alcohol becomes kind of an elixir of choice, right? It becomes a medicine of choice to be able to quiet the mind to be able to relax, be able to turn it off. And what I hear you saying is there’s a healthier option than that, right? There’s something out there, your CBD products that allow people without concern of addiction, right? without concern of, you know, the the adverse effects of alcohol, that give people a similar response in their ability to decompress. Is that what I’m hearing you say?

William Branum
Yeah, so it doesn’t, it doesn’t affect the body or the brain the same way that alcohol does, you don’t get high, you don’t get a buzz, you don’t get anything like that. It’s just a you can take CBD during the day. You know, if you feel a little bit of stress, you can take a little extra and I use it to help quiet my steam my steam engine, like it just puts a little bit of a little cool this on it. When when my stressors kick in. So in different products do different things. And we could do a whole a whole show about that. But, um, you know, but at the end of the day, the you know, what we have to do is we have to take that ego off that ego that we carry around like armor, that bag is we have to take it off and put it in the corner and set it aside so that we can actually find that healing so we can like quiet our mind, you can’t quiet your mind, if you’re all you’re thinking about is like the crap that’s going on around it. You can’t change your mentality or how you’re thinking or how you’re going to, you know what your next role or your next your next mission is or what how you’re going to like, you know, conquer the day, you can’t even think about that, because I can’t even go to sleep. I’m too busy thinking about stuff that doesn’t even really matter.

Justin Stoddart
And going back to what you had said before, which is the importance of stepping back, observing, reflecting, it’s hard to do when you can’t quiet the mind, right? It’s hard to do that when you just get locked in it and you’re in that chaos of Hell Week, you’re in that chaos of explosions in gut, you’re like just you get stuck and you’re not able to detach so CBD really was sort of that ability to like stand up and step aside and detach and look around and actually observe what was kind of going on in my own life. Let’s talk about how people find your products. William I love the mission that you’re on of helping give veterans a better alternative and keeping them alive right so that we can honor them How do people get access to your store and your products What does that look like?

William Branum
So my store is at is NW-recovery.com it or you can write in nakedwarriorrecovery.com I changed it to NW because I didn’t know if everyone wanted to write naked into their search engine afraid of whatever might come up but really quickly just to kind of talk about you know, you see me wear the shirt and get naked and get naked there’s a there’s a message there and the message is about mindset and I’ll go over really quickly because I think we don’t have a lot of time left but so basically the end the get is just means to take action get is an action word naked and it’s a really easy thing to remember get naked we all want to get naked we want to look good naked we want to be naked naked is how we started this world naked is really our leave the world but make it is about taking off that armor but also the end or is that and stands for never quit and I don’t mean like never quit smoking or drinking your bad habits or porn or whatever. never quit if you have something that you want to do and you want to achieve in your life and it seems unattainable like becoming a navy seal. you chop that up into little bitty bite sized pieces and you know if you’re in SEAL training, you chop it up into like, I’m not going to quit until after this evolution is over. I’m not going to quit until after chow was over. I’m not going to quit until like you just go from like one evolution to the other. Oh, I made it through that I must be good to go. I made it through that I lived I were good to go so I’m not gonna quit so just never quit. If it’s something that you want to do and you put your mind to do it and your body to do it. never quit make that part of your mission.

William Branum
The A is accepted. Failure is the foundation of success. You know, we get wrapped up around failing, and I didn’t do that, well, I lost this deal or whatever, you learn something from that. So accept the failure, make it your foundation, and make that part of your success. Because if you accept failure, you create this foundation, you will become more successful. The key is kill mediocrity. We like just kind of what you talked about earlier, I’m in a brokerage, we’re not really performing, but I’m happy, the people are nice, you’re in a mediocre relationship, you’re in a mediocre state of mind. So what you have to do is you have to kill that mediocrity and go find an organization, a brokerage shop, that is crushing it, and go surround yourself by awesome people, that he is expose your failures, part of getting stuck in that brokerage shop getting stuck in that, you know, getting rid of a client that is really not a good client for you, you’re afraid of losing something, you have this fear stuck in the back of your mind. And you you you get stuck on that. And that fear that you don’t even want to expose is back there, and it’s actually controlling you. So what you have to do is you have to control the fear. So what you have to do, in order to do that, you have to expose it, and what a friend and a business coach of mine, and you may know the guy you may have heard of him, his name is Sharon Srivatsa. He has coined the phrase fear does not exist on paper. So take that fear that thing that’s like eating at you and write it down with a pencil or a pen, not on a keyboard, write it down, physically write it down. Once you have you can read it, you can see it, you can look at it, you can share it with someone, now you’ve exposed that fear. And now you control the fear, the fear no longer controls you and the D is to do the work. Because all of this requires action. All of it requires work. There’s nothing that is free in life, everything has a cost. So you have to do the work to get the results that you’re looking for. And that is what get naked is all about. It’s that simple. But it’s not simple. It’s complicated. You just have to get naked.

Justin Stoddart
That’s, that’s you answered the signature question of the show, which is what do you do to continue to be a big thinker you just answered? It’s getting naked. So get for those that haven’t that feel like that there’s some some untapped potential inside of you. PS, that’s all of us. And for those of you that maybe you’re dealing with some of the stress in unhealthy ways, this is a great guy to follow. Be sure to go to his his his store, NW hyphen, recovery, calm, I put it in the show notes here, and and go find out a better way maybe to help veterans in your life and or yourself. Additionally, there’s some amazing mindset stuff you share with all of us. Well, it’s been a total pleasure. Again, I thank you for your service, not just to our country, but to all of us today.

Justin Stoddart
And my final request of everybody listening here today are these three simple words and they are go think bigger. Appreciate you.

Justin Stoddart
I want to thank you for tuning into this episode of The Think Bigger Real Estate Show. If you found value here, I asked three things. Number one, give us a review. Number two, go to Facebook and in groups search, Think Bigger Real Estate and apply to join. Here you will find a community of big thinking professionals that will help you grow your income, your independence and your impact.

Justin Stoddart
And my third request is Go Think Bigger!