Episode 389 - Anthony Rivera

Summary

Podcast Summary: Cleared Hot – Episode 389 with Anthony Rivera

Introduction

In Episode 389 of Cleared Hot, host Andy Stumpf engages in an in-depth conversation with Anthony Rivera, a former Navy SEAL turned entrepreneur. The discussion delves into Anthony's military service, his struggles with the VA disability claims process, and the inception of his organization, Vetivise, aimed at streamlining benefits for veterans.

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1. Military Background and Transition

Service Tenure and Training

Anthony Rivera served in the Navy SEALs from 2006 to 2017, undergoing rigorous training similar to BUDS and facing multiple deployments. He recounts his early days at Norwich University, where he was part of the Corps of Cadets and Navy ROTC, describing the intense physical and mental challenges he and his peers endured.

Decision to Enlist as Enlisted Personnel

Reflecting on his enlistment, Anthony shares:
“Your enlisted experience is worth its weight in gold.” (05:59)
He opted to join as an enlisted sailor instead of pursuing an officer commission, citing higher chances of staying active within his team if injured during training.

Challenges During Service

Anthony discusses the demanding nature of SEAL training and his role as a corpsman, highlighting the physical toll it took:
“They're really trying to hold on to whatever you get.” (12:59)
He also shares personal anecdotes about grappling with injuries and the lack of comprehensive medical record-keeping in the military.

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2. Post-Military Challenges and VA Claims Process

Initial Struggles with Medical Discharge

After serving, Anthony faced significant obstacles when attempting to process his VA claim. He narrates a pivotal moment:
“He laughed at me. No.” (14:00)
Despite frustration with a dismissive medical officer, this encounter ultimately led to his medical retirement and a deeper understanding of the VA system's shortcomings.

Navigating the VA System

Anthony details the opaque and cumbersome nature of the VA claims process:
“There's nothing that you can really do to impact that decision one way or another.” (17:00)
He emphasizes the lack of transparency and the minimal support veterans receive, often leaving them to fend for themselves amidst bureaucratic red tape.

Impact of Inadequate Support

Sharing his own experience, Anthony explains the consequences of delayed and poorly managed VA claims:
“I lived with that for five years with like, I would have diarrhea, no joke, probably like four or five times a day.” (27:47)
Such delays not only hinder financial support but also exacerbate health issues, leaving veterans vulnerable.

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3. Founding of Vetivise

Identifying the Problem

Recognizing the inefficiencies and lack of support in the VA system, Anthony founded Vetivise to assist veterans in navigating the complex claims process. He explains the motivation behind the organization:
“We're going to solve that at Vetivise in a couple of months.” (59:40)
The goal is to provide veterans with the tools and guidance needed to submit comprehensive and accurate disability claims.

Developing the Solution with Technology

Leveraging his background in organizational leadership and technology, Anthony describes how Vetivise utilizes AI to streamline claim submissions:
“We've created a system that helps every veteran understand, step by step, how to really put a clean package together.” (75:44)
This AI-powered platform acts as a Sherpa, guiding veterans through each stage of the claim process to ensure they maximize their benefits.

Securing Funding and Partnerships

Anthony discusses the challenges and successes in securing funding for Vetivise:
“We raised, like, $1.75 million last year.” (73:07)
Partnerships with nonprofits and veteran-focused organizations have been crucial in scaling the platform and making it accessible to more veterans without financial burden.

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4. The VA Claims Process and Vetivise’s Role

Understanding the VA’s Framework

Anthony provides an overview of the VA disability rating system and the critical steps veterans must undertake to successfully file a claim.
“Use the conditions you've reported and the dependents you've claimed, we'll calculate your estimated VA disability rating and potential monthly compensation. Would you like to calculate your estimate now?” (83:34)

AI Integration and Feature Highlights

Vetivise's platform incorporates several AI-driven features to assist veterans:

• Head to Toe Assessment: Evaluates how a veteran's condition has changed since service.
• Rating Estimator: Calculates potential disability ratings based on current conditions.
• Vetivise Vault: A secure, HIPAA-compliant space for storing essential documents.
• AI Health Summary: Compiles health data to support claims.
• Progress Tracker: Monitors condition changes over time.

Anthony emphasizes the importance of structured, step-by-step guidance:
“It's a thought experiment that was created to kind of understand how a veteran is different.” (82:53)

Addressing Fraud and Integrity

The conversation touches on the existing issues of fraud within the VA system and how Vetivise aims to provide legitimate, transparent support without exploitative practices:
“There are Nexus letter writers... they are really raking in.” (65:39)
Vetivise seeks to offer a reliable alternative by empowering veterans with accurate information and efficient tools.

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5. Future Plans and Broader Impact

Expanding Support Beyond Claims

Anthony outlines Vetivise’s vision to extend beyond VA claims to encompass comprehensive healthcare management and mental health support:
“Imagine a scenario where a veteran is using Vetivise and they're going through their head to toe assessment and maybe they're starting to answer questions that are, like, indicating self-harm instances.” (91:53)

Long-Term Goals and Community Building

The platform aims to create a supportive ecosystem for veterans, integrating resources for continuous health monitoring and fostering community connections:
“This is a lifetime app... a safe environment to share where you're at in your own healthcare.” (91:53)

Addressing Nonprofit Challenges

Anthony also discusses the broader challenges faced by nonprofits in effectively utilizing funds and coordinating support efforts, advocating for more strategic and centralized approaches to maximize impact.

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Conclusion

Episode 389 of Cleared Hot offers a comprehensive look into the challenges veterans face post-service, particularly regarding the VA disability claims process. Through Anthony Rivera’s experiences and the development of Vetivise, the podcast highlights the need for better support systems and the potential of technology-driven solutions to empower veterans in securing the benefits they deserve.

Notable Quotes:

• “Your enlisted experience is worth its weight in gold.” – Host (05:59)
• “There's nothing that you can really do to impact that decision one way or another.” – Host (17:00)
• “We've created a system that helps every veteran understand, step by step, how to really put a clean package together.” – Host (75:44)
• “Imagine a scenario where a veteran is using Vetivise and they're going through their head to toe assessment and maybe they're starting to answer questions that are, like, indicating self-harm instances.” – Host (91:53)

Resources Mentioned:

• Vetivise Website: vetivise.com
• Honor Foundation: honorfoundation.com
• Got6.org: Supports funding for Vetivise licenses.

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For more information on Vetivise and to support their mission, visit vetivise.com or got6.org.

Transcript

[Anthony Rivera]

Good morning, everybody. Welcome back. My guest today is Anthony Rivera, former Navy SEAL and now entrepreneur. I wish that I had the entrepreneurial. I don't know what the right word is. I think I have the drive for it. I just don't think I have the creativity that some people have. Or maybe my interests are just aligned in a different direction. I don't know. The point being is I am jealous of Anthony and not in a bad way. Actually, I take that back. I'm not jealous. I am inspired by the fact that he saw a problem in his own processing out of the military. And I'll jump forward here a little bit into what we're talking about today, which is gonna be his organization, Vetivise, that he is the founder of, that he got the idea for when processing his own VA claim, which I know from somebody who has exited the military is not the easiest process. There's not, I guess there is a step by step approach, but it's pretty broad. It's not as specific as you would want it to be. I realized it sucked when I was getting out. Did I think at that time that the solution would be is how about I found an organization that utilizes AI and creates a portal that can help other veterans to streamline and provide transparency and connect them and help them with that out processing? No, I just said to myself, that sucks. And that's the difference between a guy like Anthony and a guy like myself. I am super inspired by people who see a problem like that and they're willing to dive in and fix it because they have an understanding of how it can be done. And I guess maybe I just don't have that understanding. I'll stick with, I guess, serving coffee to people. Episode 389 with Anthony Rivera. We're gonna be talking about his time in service and then about Vetivise and there are some links down below that can help you at everything that the organization has to offer. The episode itself was information packed. You can get involved whether you are a veteran yourself or somebody who wants to sponsor veterans. So hope you enjoy today's episode. Before we get into it, let's do a quick two minute break so I can keep paying the bills, turn the lights on and off, and keep bringing the podcast to everybody for free. Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, today's episode is brought to you by Black Rifle Coffee. Let's head over to their website. Write me out. What do we got here? Energy is a go. Oh yes. They just officially launched their energy drink and on this rotating banner, I Am looking at a huge energy can on the back of a C130. Here's a problem. I see there's a man and woman standing here. One of them has a parachute on. The other one does not. Where's the safety in this? You do not need a parachute to skydive once. You need a parachute if you want to skydive twice. What else do we have here? Limited edition Liberty Roast. You can click right on that banner to shop for that. Looks like that is coming in. Is that K cups as well? As well as a bag of coffee. 250 year exclusive coffee roast. United States Army. This is part of their ecs, the exclusive coffee subscription, I believe, because I got a bag of it through that subscription. And what else? Right back to the energy drinks.

[Host]

Cool.

[Anthony Rivera]

A bunch of apparel for the summer. Looks like we have a little bit of a red, white and blue motif. Let's just click view more here, see what else we got. Oh, yeah, we're talking some red, white and blue action. I like what I'm seeing. Let's go back to the main page and you guys know the deal. Rotate through all of their bags of coffee if you want to. Shirts, apparel, things to make coffee from. Drink it out of whatever you may want. They also have a roast out right now called the Cleared Hot Coffee blend. Guess where? You can't get it on this website, but that's okay. If you want some. I'm going to put it down in the show notes below, actually under the Black Rifle Coffee main page website. Don't tell Evan. Okay, back to the show.

[Host]

Okay, got the red smoke gun. Runs north and south. West of the smoke. West of the smoke. Okay, copy. West of the smoke.

[Anthony Rivera]

I'm looking at danger close now.

[Host]

Come on with it, baby. Give it to me. I mean it. You're cleared hot. Can't be cleared hot.

[Anthony Rivera]

I wonder why that thing didn't work yesterday. I was thinking about it last night.

[Host]

I think it froze for a second.

[Anthony Rivera]

We had to drain the electrons. Unplug Countess for sure.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

You want to kick right off with what it is that you're doing or you want to talk about kind of how you got here in the first place? Give a little context to what you got going on.

[Host]

Yeah, I'll do that. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

So first there was light.

[Host]

You know where there's light.

[Anthony Rivera]

Bring us up to speed from there.

[Host]

So I got out of the military in 2017. Okay. So I joined in 26. 2006. From 2006 to 2017, I was in the Teams. During that time, I was. Before that, I was in college. I went to Norwich University in person. So I know they do, like, the online thing right now, but I was actually in the corps of cadets during the. During my time in military.

[Anthony Rivera]

The Corps of cadets?

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was a military college, but then they also had a civilian population that would go to college there. But I knew the whole time. Actually, man, I can't remember his name, but the XO of the Navy rotc, which I was affiliated with, was a team guy. He was at Damneck, and he was also a prior pilot. Mike. Mike something. I can't remember, but he was the XO of the Navy rotc, and I got attached to him, and we had, like, a small group of guys that we would train together, and he would put us through, like, the hell week kind of stuff, scenarios in the snow. It sucked. But out of those guys, there was five of us who did all three years, and four out of the five made it. Made it through buds, and then we all. I think all of us also went to 18 Delta, and then we deployed multiple times, and there's only one that's still in right now, but, yeah, it's pretty sweet.

[Anthony Rivera]

Why'd you choose E versus O? Because I feel like that cop probably could have led you through a commissioning source at the end of that if you wanted to.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

So I will say you made the smarter choice. Both are good. I did 12 and 5, so I split. But I'm telling you, man, that enlisted experience is worth its weight in gold.

[Host]

I'll say that. The. The one of the five that didn't make it, he went, oh. The other four of us went, E dog. So.

[Anthony Rivera]

Tells you everything you need to know.

[Host]

So what actually ended up happening was he told us. He was like, Just to let you guys know, I'm gonna give you kind of some. Some back information as you go through. If you get injured, which it's highly probable that you're getting going through buds. If you get injured and you're an O, you may or may not get rolled back. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

You have to be able to get one shot at it.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. And if you get injured, if you're an enlisted guy, then you may get rolled back, but it's probably more probable if you're enlisted. Yeah. So I took that information. We all did. And we were like, hey, it's probably more smart to just go as an enlisted guy. And like I said, four of us made it, and we were all enlisted. The one guy was an officer. He didn't. But, you know, it just is tough, right? It's just the way.

[Anthony Rivera]

Your favorite.

[Host]

So still, like, four out of five. That's sweet. That's pretty high odds.

[Anthony Rivera]

Better than the mathematical odds.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then, like, we had, like, the three years of training before that in Vermont. Like, we were super used to being cold and miserable, so I went from there, joined the military down in Florida. I'm from Florida originally. And then did a couple of deployments, and then I went down, like, the level two, level three path of the corpsman.

[Anthony Rivera]

No, no.

[Host]

In aso. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Why'd you pick the corpsman rate at a cur? Curiosity. I have deep respect for those that did, but I watched people. At least when I went through, they departed for a little bit.

[Host]

Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

At minimum, six months. Right? They're gone.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

They're getting amazing training, doing their ambulance rotations, but I'm sitting there like, hey, buddy, I'm already at my team.

[Host]

What's up? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It sucks because, like, you know, you go through sqt and then you're like, all right, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to go. And they're like, hey, go over there for, like, six to eight months. So you go over to Fort Bragg, you bang that out, and you come.

[Anthony Rivera]

Back 18 delta course.

[Host]

Right. And then you come back, and all the guys you went through with an SQT are now either coming back from or taking off on their first deployment.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

You're like, what the hell's going on? So, you know, you feel like kind of left in the dust in that.

[Anthony Rivera]

Aspect, but until somebody's hurt.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Like Corman up.

[Host]

Yeah. While I was. While I was in college, I was. My major was sports medicine, so I always had, like, a thirst for that medical knowledge, which actually ended up helping with vetivise. I'll speak to that in a little bit. But as I was going through the pipeline, you kind of get to pick, like, your top three. Do you want to go, you know, sniper, corpsman, whatever. I picked Corman because of that preexisting knowledge of the medical system and the body. So I was like, it's probably going to be. It's a longer pipeline.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

But it's going to be relatively easier for me. I know it's a very academic course, but it's not going to be all that difficult. And walk me through that pipeline.

[Anthony Rivera]

I mean, obviously, I've worked with quorum in mind the entire time, but it's been a while, and it is a long course and you guys do a bunch of stuff. Walk me through that pipeline. What do they start with?

[Host]

So you start with obviously, admin week. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You check all your books out. Totally. You check like these, a stack of binders like this thick, laying down flat. And you're like, damn, I'm supposed to memorize all this stuff. It has all the tests, all the answers. So it's just a straight rogue memorization skill. And you just have to absorb all that information. So you go through, I think it's like six or eight weeks of just classroom stuff. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

That's what it starts with. Just straight graph.

[Host]

You're getting hammered with anatomy and physiology, drug calculations, medicine. And it sucks. It sucks. Like you're in class from about 8am until probably like 5 or 6pm all day, five days a week. And then on top of that, like, you know, you come from BUDS or SKT where you're working out on your own. And then you're in an army unit where they do command PT like three or four times a week. And it is not fun. Right. You're just. It was rucks. Like they would just throw rucks on their back and just like hike for miles and miles and miles.

[Anthony Rivera]

Army people are going to do army shit.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. And it crushed dude's legs.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

So I got to into a bit of a fight with. Actually, you may know him, Dale Wooden. I know the name. Yeah. So he was a team guy, Corman, that was attached to the 18 Delta course.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay.

[Host]

He was kind of like the NSW rep there. And then at the time he was also like trying to go pro fighting. So while I was there, I was like, hey, man. Like, this is like crushing our legs. Like, I have to leave here and then go deploy. I can't leave here. And then.

[Anthony Rivera]

Broken.

[Host]

Yeah, broken. And now like I was just out of the game for like six or eight months now. You're going to make me be out of the game for another six or eight months. Now I can't even deploy again. So we got into it and eventually he was like, yeah, let's take a break from that. So the break from that actually entered me into jiu jitsu.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, sweet.

[Host]

Yeah, it was pretty sweet. So like halfway through the course, he was like, we're going to start all the NSW guys. Instead of going on these ruck marches and ruck humps, you're going to come and train with me and.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, so he used you as human training dummies.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay.

[Host]

Which was like, he was like, you.

[Anthony Rivera]

Can'T technically push me, but you guys are going to be cardio drills.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. And he was actually going, like, through the pro fighting sequence then, so it was good training for him. And it was also good training for us. Got to do a lot of takedowns, a lot of submissions, and it was pretty much just. He only taught one thing. Rear naked choke. Over and over and over again. Get to the back, choke, dudes out. Get to the back, choke, dudes out. Super functional.

[Anthony Rivera]

I'm not gonna knock it.

[Host]

Yeah. And that's pretty much what my game is still to this day. So that was. Yeah, that was like, 15, 16 years ago. No. Damn. Yeah, 16 years ago. So I went through that course, made it into the teams, and then I was a secondary corpsman to a primary corpsman. Cause I'm a new guy, and the primary corpsman was fmf. Corpsman.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, interesting.

[Host]

Super awesome Marine Corps. Yeah. So. And he was a team guy, so we went fmf. He did the Fallujah push, got out or got out of the regular Navy, and then went through buds. You may know him like, Justin Mendenhall.

[Anthony Rivera]

I know that name for sure. Yeah.

[Host]

Super awesome dude. I love that guy. To the day I die. Like, he has been a big brother to me and continues to be, so he kind of put me under his wing. He was like, hey, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna keep going through the medical. All this stuff academically you learned, Throw that away. Like, get your trauma bag and throw that away. You just need a little trauma kit. Right. We're not really corpsman. We have FMF guys that are attached to us. And then you have the long course, 18 Delta guys that are attached to us, too.

[Anthony Rivera]

That was a short course.

[Host]

Yeah. So the short course is, like I said, I think, six to eight months. The long course is an additional four months.

[Anthony Rivera]

Do you get essentially your nurse practitioner out of that or an equivalent in the civilian world?

[Host]

So the long course. No, you don't get a nurse practitioner. You get emt. What's the paramedic? You get the paramedic certification.

[Anthony Rivera]

I thought you guys got that from the short course.

[Host]

No, from the short course, you get emtb, the basic, but then you get, like, some. Some additional stuff. Like, you can pretty much get a job in a firefighter or something like that when you get out.

[Anthony Rivera]

Long course guys, they have different access to meds, though, right? Can't they prescribe as well in the military?

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you can prescribe certain drugs? Yeah, Nothing like controlled. When you go controlled, like, well, you know, in the teams, you can kind of hold on to whatever you get.

[Anthony Rivera]

It is what it is.

[Host]

Yeah. But yeah, so like, you get to have your. Your med pack and your bend pack has like all your meds and it gets pretty close to like controlled substances. But yeah, like, if you need anything, they're going to give it to you. Goods and bads there. Right. The good is if you ever need anything, you're going to get it. The bad is it's never going to get documented.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

Which that's absolutely terrible. Right. Like, and it's just the nature of the beast. Like, a good dude is just going to hook you up with whatever pain meds or anything that you need. You know, stomach troubles, you need to go to sleep. We'll get you whatever you need to continue the mission. However, I'm not going to spend any time filling out med charts for you because I got other shit to do. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

I'll bite you at the tail end. I got a personal story about that when I got out.

[Host]

Yeah, please tell me what happened.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, I was a few days from my EAOs and went in to get my discharge physical and the doc laughed at me. And he goes, I'm not signing this because my record was. My medical record was.

[Host]

I don't know, like 20 pages after how many years?

[Anthony Rivera]

70.

[Host]

Geez. Oh, yeah, yeah. So it's not. It's not.

[Anthony Rivera]

He just. He laughed at me. No.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

And I was pissed because I had other stuff on the schedule now and he. And I have.

[Host]

And gets held up. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. But so I got. Actually, I was at 16 years then at that point. So he extended me for a year. I talked to the officer detailer. They put me through the PEB MEB process, but I had to go out to Nico first. Finally got a thorough workup and documentation. Ended up getting medically retired. But if it hadn't been for that guy, I'd be in a spot where I'm sure what we'll talk about and why you created what you did is people trying to navigate the system on their own with almost no paperwork to support it. Yeah. I was really pissed at that guy at the moment. And now we're great friends.

[Host]

Laugh about it too.

[Anthony Rivera]

First time I saw my. It was years later. He goes, you're not pissed at me? I'm like, no, man, I actually owe you a big thank you.

[Host]

For sure. Yeah. So can you describe what Nico is? Cause I think that's super important.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. So the National Intrepid center of Excellence Understanding is now. They have many more. The one I went to was at Walter Reed. I don't know. I don't know how long it had been there, but it was the best medical care that I received while I was in the military because it was provided by civilian providers.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

And it was literally across the street, a single street. You could walk across to Walter Reed Hospital, and at that point in time, still populated with severely injured people coming back from overseas, amputees, all sorts of stuff. And oftentimes you'd see them there with their parents kind of reuniting. It was looking back on it as a parent myself, like, oh, man. Okay.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

And you'd go there for. You know, you would walk over to the military side for X ray. I think they did blood draws internally on the other side, but whatever, you know, the. The high speed whiz bang you might need that the military had. You'd go there. Nico itself, though, I think it was 30 days. I mean, it was psychologists, psychiatrists, full blood workup, looking at hormonal panels, neurologists as well. Neurologists. You know, neurological screenings, memory tests, group counseling, for lack of a better term or different. Relaxation stuff, sleep stuff. I mean, it was. Holy.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

But it all occurred in one. You just walk in there in the morning, and they're like, boom, here's what you got today.

[Host]

Right?

[Anthony Rivera]

You'd have, like, one or two individual things that you could kind of do at your own pace. But then it was this specialist that are hearing, you know, the classics, sitting in the booth, like, did I hear that beep?

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna click it. I think I heard it. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. And then it gets a lot. Damn it.

[Host]

Yeah. But that's, I think, how, like, every veteran should be treated. But for right now, I don't know.

[Anthony Rivera]

If the military could treat every veteran.

[Host]

Absolutely not. They cannot. Right. And it's impossible for them to do that. But what that does is it really sets the stage for a seamless transition. And then when you go through a medical evaluation board or a physical evaluation board, you were actually assigned a. A claim specialist. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

So, like, somebody both concurrently. So I got my VA rating concurrently with.

[Host]

With your military.

[Anthony Rivera]

With the military rating. I don't know if one finished before the other one. You get the.

[Host]

Generally, it's the VA One finishes first.

[Anthony Rivera]

It might be. They. They don't tell you.

[Host]

I know.

[Anthony Rivera]

You just get it. You get both at the same time. So it actually wouldn't surprise me if the VA one did but yeah, so I did my va. What is it, five or eight appointments? I had to go see two specialists for some nerve stuff in my leg and submitted everything. I think it was about eight months.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

And then I think I got a phone call. It was either a phone call or a completely generic template email.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

That said, this is your rating. Find a time to get out between now and 90 days. Go get your DD214 at North Island. Make sure you're squared away. Yeah, okay.

[Host]

Yeah. Completely in the dark. Right. During that entire process after I submitted.

[Anthony Rivera]

I mean, it was like throwing hot dogs down a hallway, right?

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing that you can really do to impact that decision one way or another. And also, you have no idea what the hell's going on. You don't know what the evidence they're looking at. Nobody actually interviews you. Nobody does anything. You're just completely in the dark. And then you get that letter or that email and it's like, oh, I guess it's done.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

And it worked. So. And then, like I said, I think you get, like, somebody who actually does your VA disability claim for you in general, and then they'll look at your medical records. And then actually, after going through Nico, they'll take all of those records and be like, okay, now we can actually submit some really evidence based information. And they'll do it without you. Like, they don't really need to.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, no, I handed that over to. I think it was a guy at Balboa Hospital. There was. I believe it was a. I think it was a civilian.

[Host]

Yep.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. At Balboa Hospital. He handled all the VA stuff for me.

[Host]

Yeah, I've heard that guys like, you know, you wait in a waiting room and then there's people in these cubicles.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yes.

[Host]

And then you just get called back.

[Anthony Rivera]

To the cubicle 100%.

[Host]

You sit in the cubicle with the person and they're like, all right, give me your medical records. You hand it over. They thumb through it, they upload it, and like, all right, I'll see you later.

[Anthony Rivera]

And if you take the time to look around a little bit in their cubicle, it's racked and stacked.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

You go, oh, boy. Yeah, I'm number 576 that this guy's working on.

[Host]

It's unreal. So, like, they can't keep up with their demand. But that's again, for, like, the. Not every veteran goes through that process. Not every veteran gets that type of. Of, you know, like, hand holding. I really think, like, all veterans should. But like you said, they can't keep up as it is in and of itself.

[Anthony Rivera]

I was gonna self select out of that. I was actually gonna just leave at right around 16 years and just go off and do my own thing. I was not gonna. I had no intention to pursue any of that stuff if it wasn't for that doc.

[Host]

That's good. Yeah, that's really, really good. Yeah. So, yeah, he helped you out a ton. Oh, yeah. Yeah, for sure.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. In hindsight, yeah, I was pissed.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

I don't think you understand what I have on my schedule. And now, you know, looking back. Yeah, it was.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

So turning point.

[Host]

When I got out, it was 2017. I got out January of 2017, but back up to 2016. Like, January 2016. That's when my wife and I decided it was time to get out. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

What was the tipping point?

[Host]

I was about to go back on to operational rotation, so I was teaching the Level 2 schoolhouse for a couple of years. I got my graduate degree at that time. And then.

[Anthony Rivera]

Is this in San Diego?

[Host]

Yep. Yeah, I was down in the. In the elephant cages.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay. Why'd you decide to go the ASO route?

[Host]

I didn't decide. It. It decided me.

[Anthony Rivera]

I've never really talked about the ASO stuff. It stands for Advanced Source Operations or Sourcing Operations. Because you lived in that world. I'll let you describe it as broadly as possible because I don't know where. I know what it is, but I also don't know where. Like, we probably shouldn't talk about that.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. So it is.

[Anthony Rivera]

It's not like James Bond shit, everybody. So don't get super excited.

[Host]

It's just a bunch of report writing and interviewing. Right. So, like, that's essentially. Essentially what it is. And then you can get a little more advanced, and then you can kind of start interviewing more trained people. But all you're doing is you're trying to see, can I validate information that's being provided to us so that way we can provide a more accurate concept of operations. So, like, all right, there's a target, right? There's a person that we have to go get that person. Do they have guns in their house? Where are the doors oriented? How many people are in the general area?

[Anthony Rivera]

This is what you're trying to elicit.

[Host]

That's what you're trying to draw out of these people. And in most cases, like, they are not the best people. Right. So, like, you're. They are telling on their neighbors or they're telling on, you know, their Their old friends, or in some cases, they were telling on, like, guys that they wanted to get to that guy's wife. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

Let's not forget the generational grudges.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

It's a different society. Right.

[Host]

For sure.

[Anthony Rivera]

The grudge, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq, that culture.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

The grudge from four generations ago. Oh, it's alive.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Especially if they haven't had payback.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. Financial. Financial payback.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. If the book hasn't been closed, metaphorically, that shit's still alive.

[Host]

Yep. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

I've hit many a target, I believe, based off of Steve being pissed at Bob.

[Host]

Yep. Yeah. So, like, we would have to take that information. Like, how'd you find it out? Like, what is this? Can I validate it? Give us cell phone numbers. Let's see if we can validate it with these different intelligence systems that we had in place. Right. So then you take all that information, you validate it as best you can, you grade it, and you're like, all right, I think we can go and target this package. Then you take that package, give it to the. Generally, like, the. The team chief, and the team chief takes it with the. With the, you know, oic. And they put a concept of operation together. Like, all right, we validated the information is correct. Now we can go action the. The target. Right. So, like, you take that information, you're constantly, like, giving people the opportunity. And I will say that that is where on my. I went to. It's a very uncommon trajectory. Right. So, like, I went through 18 Delta, came back. I went through the workup, and then prior to deploying, you know, we had a month or two, and we're like, all right, go do level two.

[Anthony Rivera]

That's really weird. Utilization of your military, prior military training.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Taking a specialized guy, and it's like using a scalpel as a letter opener.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Not being negative at all about that, but it's just. Just the 18 Deltas are worth their weight in gold. When you start leaking hydraulic fluid.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

And it's like, hey, let's go. Yeah, let's go. Manage humid sources, Right.

[Host]

Yeah. I think there was, like, maybe looking back, there may have been some strategic use behind that. Like, looking the way that I do at the time, I had a big, bushy beard that was black, and so.

[Anthony Rivera]

You could fit in.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I went through.

[Anthony Rivera]

I could not.

[Host]

Yeah. I went through the language course, so I learned Arabic. So I had. All good at OnePlus. Yeah. So you. Terrible. At best.

[Anthony Rivera]

I was gonna say, you knew enough of the Language to get pay.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Excellent.

[Host]

Yeah. Especially, like, we had a. Well, I'm sure most people know about this, but, like, when you. When you're going through that language test, it's on the phone and then.

[Anthony Rivera]

Is it.

[Host]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

I did not know that.

[Host]

You're getting interviewed on the phone, and you have to have a conversation with that person.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, shit.

[Host]

So they're asking you a question, and then you repeat it. Right. So that way the guy who actually speaks Arabic can answer the question for you and be like. You cover. Like, what do I say? All right, cool. All right, cool. And then you say that thing, right? And you're like, all right, good. I passed it just enough to get the pay. Right. But then I kind of, like, kept up with it as best I could. And then it did help, like, a little bit while you're deployed, because then you could hear certain words that were, like, triggering, like, oh, they're talking about cars. Or, oh, they're talking about, like, explosives or something like that. So now you really key on, like, certain phrases. And then looking the way that I did, it was very easy to just fit in, especially, you know. Yeah. I look like you would be a low vis.

[Anthony Rivera]

Wet dream.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

I would look like an Amish dude churning butter. Like, the whole. I mean, I went. I think I went the longest I ever went without shaving and cutting my hair was three years.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

And I would look at myself in the mirror like, I'm sorry, who are we fooling here again? What country is it that I am gonna try to buy myself some extra time in? Okay.

[Host]

I will say that. Like, you know, I was. We were out in, like, the outskirts in Iraq on my first deployment, and then we came back to Al Asad, and while we were at Al Asad, we shut that base down over in the outskirts, and then we went to Al Asad, and Al Asad, they have the large defects. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

And then there's a dining facility.

[Host]

Yep. Yeah. So we had.

[Anthony Rivera]

Staffed by Somalis, generally.

[Host]

So. And then you always. In general, you have, like, a master sergeant or a sergeant major that's standing right outside of the entrance. So if your uniform isn't looking up, snuffed him. He's like, hey, get the hell out of here. Go get. Right. So.

[Anthony Rivera]

And I want to be clear that this is occurring in an active war zone.

[Host]

Not.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah, I'm not.

[Host]

That's his priority.

[Anthony Rivera]

I am not arguing for or against it. I'm just saying sometimes you scratch your head and go, what are we trying to accomplish.

[Host]

I know, dude. Yeah. It didn't make any sense. So we would go in and you know, you roll in as a team.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

And you know, me looking the way that I did and all of my buddies looking the way they did, they were like, all you guys get out of here, Terp, you're good to go. And they thought that I was the terps. I was like, fuck you guys. So I just keep going and hang out and have a good time. Yeah. I didn't have to waste any time. Yeah. So they would go back, change or like shave or something like that and then we would get after it. But during those like meetings that I would have with these people in general, they would bring food. Right. So you have like a meal that you share. It's just custom.

[Anthony Rivera]

Makes sense.

[Host]

Yeah. So like you're eating their food that either their wife or their mother made and it's ill prepared. Most of the times it's delicious. But I was eating that stuff and I think probably like on the third week of the deployment, my stomach just started getting crushed and I got. I didn't know this at the time, but I got H. Pylori, which is a virus that lives in your guts. And most people, interestingly enough, like most people are asymptomatic. If you have H. Pylori, you may or may not even realize that you have. It really does. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

What does it do to you? How could that be possible?

[Host]

So the symptoms are, if you do, if you are symptomatic, you'll have constant diarrhea, like what's called sphincter spasming. Right. So it feels like it's not just like, I have diarrhea, but like 10 seconds before you're about to get diarrhea, your butthole's just like, hey, it's game time.

[Anthony Rivera]

It's partying.

[Host]

Oh, we gotta go. So like you're stepping real wisely. You're like, oh, no, this is happening, this is happening. Don't look at me. So and then like a lot of team guys deal with this and they just either are asymptomatic or they're symptomatic and they don't want to talk about it. So I'll kind of get into that later. But.

[Anthony Rivera]

So we're not the smartest bunch. I mean.

[Host]

Yeah, I think men in general. Right. Like, I'm gonna suck it up and I'm just gonna keep driving on.

[Anthony Rivera]

There's a reason women have a longer statistical lifespan.

[Host]

Yeah, for sure.

[Anthony Rivera]

We're idiots.

[Host]

Yeah. So I ended up getting like that upset stomach. And then I lived with that for five years with like, I would have diarrhea, no joke, probably like four or five times a day. And I just.

[Anthony Rivera]

And you didn't think about mentioning this to someone?

[Host]

I talked to my corpsman, right. At the team. I talked to the doc at the group level, and they're like, all right, we'll refer you out to a GI specialist. But you're constantly going. And like you're going on a, A workup.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

And then you go on another. Like, then I went to level three, then I come back and you're going on another workup, and then you're deploying again. So my schedule and the GI's schedule didn't align for five years. By the time I got to the GI specialist, he was like, like, your guts are ruined. Like, the best that I can do is do like a patch job right now. And this is just gonna be the way that it is for you for the rest of your life.

[Anthony Rivera]

How'd they clear it or how would they have cleared it if you had caught it early on?

[Host]

The same way they clear it like later on, but just the damage isn't done. I'll speak to the damage, but you just do a five day antibiotic purge and then you, like, it kills all the bacteria in your gut and then you get on a good probiotic and then that lets the good bacteria continue to thrive. But you really do have to manage your diet from that point on. But, but at that time, five years of that damage, it, like, I gave me tons of ulcers. You know, like any spicy food or any. At one time, if I ate steak, just steak. Not even like buttery steak or like a super salt or seasoned steak. Steak in general would ruin my guts. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

How about other red meats?

[Host]

Just steak. It was just steak. Yeah. So like I could have ground beef. And the concept of that, I think, is that, that it's already broken down, so your body doesn't have to break it down anymore. So it's not really making your intestines work a whole lot to continue to break that down. So I would stick with ground beef. If I needed like beef, I would have ground beef. So you live with that and then, you know, the damage is done. You just have to like, really manage your diet as best will your guts.

[Anthony Rivera]

Reheal themselves kind of like a smoker over. After 20 years, if they've stopped, it looks better.

[Host]

Yeah. So like after, you know, it kind of depends. So like there are pockets that the damage is done. So, like, your intestines are actually folded up. Right. So, like, as.

[Anthony Rivera]

So I get Draeger hose a lot, right?

[Host]

Exactly. Yeah. So, like, as poop goes through the different parts of your intestines, it expands and it really kind of like grabs and keeps going through, but when the damage is done, the damage is done. So, like, I have to, like, I have to constantly be on a probiotic just to make sure I have to eat yogurt, like a good cultured probiotic, pretty regularly. And if I don't, like, I'll pay the man for it. And with Jiu Jitsu, that's not the best either. Right. So, like, it's. It's killer.

[Anthony Rivera]

Like, sometimes you just gotta hang drywall.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

You just gotta get the spackle out there. Yeah. There are some Jiu Jitsu positions that are going to be quite heavy on the old tummy.

[Host]

Yeah. So, like, anytime somebody gets in the mount or something like that, especially big dudes that are pressuring down. Yeah. You're like, oh, God, please stop. I'll tap. Because I just don't want to on myself right now.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah, you should shit on yourself and see if they stop.

[Host]

Yeah, they probably won't if they don't.

[Anthony Rivera]

Well, if they do, it's like, listen, I didn't tap. So we're still going.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. So. So then you do that. And then I took my, you know, medical knowledge from, you know, the. The 18 delta time, and then I looked at my medical record, and this was in January of 2016. And to loop back to, like, why I decided to get out, my wife and I were like. I was like, hey, it's time to either, you know, go back to operational rotation or go back to operational rotation. There's no other choice.

[Anthony Rivera]

Right.

[Host]

So she was like, well, I'm gonna go back to Florida where my support network is. My wife, my. My mom and dad, and your mom and dad are. So that way we can really, like, I can have help with the kids.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

Cause, you know, like, you're gone all the time. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

It's hard to describe.

[Host]

Yeah. So, like, I had a five and a six year old at the time when it was time to get back after it. And I missed, like, all the first steps, all the first words, all the first everything. Yeah. And then you're just a weekend dad at best. Right. Right. So that you come home like, daddy's home, let's help out. And you're hurting more than helping. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. Your wife behind the scenes is just cursing you because you're upsetting their structure, their schedule. The reality is you don't really know what best helps the ship move safely smoothly. I mean, you're doing the best you can, but yeah, that's real for sure.

[Host]

Yeah. So my wife is like, hey, I'm going to move back to Florida. If you want we can do like the geo bachelor thing. Geographical bachelor. And what that means is like know you're staying married. But I would be stationed in San Diego, my wife would be in Florida. When I wasn't training or working, I would take leave or on weekends I would fly back to Florida, which would.

[Anthony Rivera]

Be limited at best.

[Host]

Yeah. And then have like a day maybe and then fly back to San Diego.

[Anthony Rivera]

So people do it. That's a tough row.

[Host]

Yeah, some, some people do it for like a decade plus and I don't know how they do it, man. Cause like not like you're not even a weekend dad at that time. You're just like, hey, daddy's popping in every couple of months.

[Anthony Rivera]

Well then there's the transition of when you stop doing that.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

I mean, live if you do it for a decade, if you do that for a decade, that type of relationship and you try to go back to whatever the nuclear, traditional, whatever you'd want to call it.

[Host]

Who.

[Anthony Rivera]

That'd be real tough.

[Host]

Yeah. How do you build those relationships that are non existent. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

Or just how do you integrate into something that is already highly structured largely without you?

[Host]

Yeah. So like the role of a father, you know, is really to protect and provide and then also like protect spiritual, emotionally and then any other way that you can protect your family, your wife and your kids. How can you really practice that? Because it takes a lot of practice to understand. Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

There's a lot of people who would say, well that's, that's just not right. You shouldn't be doing those things. So those people. I don't know what to say.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. You know, yeah, it's, it's my role as a father and as a husband to protect, provide and lead. Right. Like that's kind of how I understand my role in my family. And my wife's role is to support and she is incredible. Also. The supporter role is really. My wife is awesome at telling the truth. And the truth is never fun to hear. Right. So like you hear the truth and.

[Anthony Rivera]

You'Re like, that's a true story. No pun intended.

[Host]

Yeah. You're like, all right, well I didn't like how that sounded, but yeah, I'm gonna listen and I'm gonna see if I can change.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

So we made that decision to get out in January of 2016.

[Anthony Rivera]

Was it hard for you being at the. So you read about the 10 year mark.

[Host]

Yep. Which is 11 years. So. Yeah, well, yeah, 10 years at the time.

[Anthony Rivera]

There's a lot of people who would, you know, hey, you're halfway there, right? Hey, you're, you're. Now, every step you take, every day that goes by, you're closer. Yeah. It's, you know, you've made it over the hump and then there's, you know, the teams do a good job of trying to make you feel irreplaceable at times, even though they will completely replace you with the next youngest heart rate that they can find. Was it tough for you at all or did you. Was it pretty easy bridge for you to cross mentally and emotionally to be done with it and find something else?

[Host]

I think my story is pretty common to, like most team guys where it's like, well, it's just a decision to make. I'm not gonna deal with it until it becomes an emergency. And at that time, that didn't happen until like two years after I got out of the military. Right. So I'm already out and now I'm like, shit, I'm going through an identity crisis. Yeah. I didn't realize that, like, because I just moved from one fast paced job to another fast paced job. So I went from traveling all the time in the teams. So then I worked at Amazon where I was traveling all the time for Amazon.

[Anthony Rivera]

Right, you went from the teams to Amazon?

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, I'll talk about that later.

[Anthony Rivera]

I was gonna say, that is not a transition I've ever heard of. I'm excited to hear what this was like.

[Host]

So in January 2016, ended up going through, like, I did what every good team guy does. Right. Like, I talked to five guys that were already out of the military that had their VA disability stuff done, and I was like, what do I do to each one of these five guys?

[Anthony Rivera]

You should go into taps. They would have figured that out.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. It's interesting. Yeah. I could talk to taps. Yeah. But I went to five different guys and I got five different stories and not one of them was aligned. So I just threw that information aside. I really went to work. I started understanding what the truth was that was out there, put a plan together, and that plan I started executing on.

[Anthony Rivera]

How'd you find that actual raw beta? Because that is the team guy way you go. And somebody who just got out, hey, who did you Go talk to. What did you bring? What did you need?

[Host]

Yeah, Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

I don't think I ever looked for any of the, like, the straight beta, whether it's in a manual or doctrine.

[Host]

Or whatever it is. Manuals. Yeah. Yeah. So just kind of backing up a little bit. Prior to January 2016, I had just finished my graduate degree, so I was very much in, like, student mode. Right. Like, if I heard some information, I would really look into it and figure out, like, oh, what's the actual truth behind that? So when I got.

[Anthony Rivera]

Where'd you get your degree?

[Host]

I got my degree in organizational leadership.

[Anthony Rivera]

Sweet.

[Host]

Yeah. Through Chapman University. So I ended up, you know, taking that same desire to find what the truth was and then ended up like, all right, I'm gonna figure out what the truth is. So I found these documents. I read them over and over and over again. It took me about six months to read and digest, and there are thousands of pages. And then I started putting a plan together that was directly in line with the VA's guide. And I executed on that plan January 11th. I took advantage of what's called the benefits Disability at Discharge program. Bdd. Yeah. This is crazy. Yeah. Most veterans don't know about this. So if you submit your VA disability claim within six months of getting out of the military. So six months prior to your EAOs, before or after? Before. So six months before your EAOs, you get put into the BDD, you don't get any information on it. You don't know actually what the actual program is unless you look into it. But what it does is it prioritizes your claim. So they look at the timeline. They're like, all right, you're 180 days out from discharge. We're going to automatically put you in the BDD window. Now, your compensation and pension exams get scheduled sooner and then closer to you, so that way you can go through those while you're still active duty.

[Anthony Rivera]

That's awesome.

[Host]

Yeah, it's sweet. Like, every veteran in transition should be going through this program. Unfortunately, only one in three veterans that actually do a disability claim do it.

[Anthony Rivera]

Wow.

[Host]

And the numbers are staggering. Right. So, like, there's 19 million veterans. Six million are integrated into the VA, 13 million are not in any way.

[Anthony Rivera]

They're just all orbiting through space.

[Host]

Yep. They're like, I don't know where to start. So if I don't know where to start and I don't know how to navigate the system system, I'm just not going to start because I genuinely don't know where to Start.

[Anthony Rivera]

They earn those benefits too.

[Host]

Absolutely. You earn them the day. So, like, if you're served for 90 days or more, and you are different in any way after 90 days, the VA is required to treat any of those conditions. Right. So, like, I talked to this one dude. He served, I think, 180 days active duty. So he went through boot camp, went through a quick mos, and then he went deployed, got blown up, immediately lost both his legs, and then he got out. Right. So they went through the peb. It was a fast decision. It's like, well, you can't do this job anymore. And he's like, I did 180 days. Like there's. That's just the way that it was. So, like, he earned his benefits just as equally as a person that did 20 years as a, like in the, in the Navy, like a yeoman. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

And this is what I tell people when they join the military will get their pound of flesh from you. Make sure that you take the time to get one or two pounds of flesh on the way out. And that could be educational benefits, vocational schools. The VA benefits is a part of that. There are so many programs outside of just the VA that people in the military never take advantage of.

[Host]

Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

And that's where it's not that there's really a pound of flesh up front for the military, but it's a good metaphor. They ask a lot. It might require a lot of. You take advantage of. Of absolutely everything that the military has to offer.

[Host]

Yeah. That's like. It's one of the benefits that you chose to participate in when you also chose to sacrifice and join the military. Like, there's 300, plus million people in the U.S. 19 million of them served.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

That's not a big number, right?

[Anthony Rivera]

No, it's. I was just actually doing the math on this. It's right now in the military, there are 2.4 million people if you combine active duty and guard, which is 0.83%.

[Host]

Yeah. That's not a large percent of the population. So you choose to serve. Now, we as taxpayers are obligated to help those members that chose to serve. Because I didn't choose to serve. If I did not choose to serve, and I'm a taxpayer. Right. This is what we sign up for as being US Citizens. So you go through that, and I went through January 11th of 2017. That was my EAOs, right. I got out. I got my DD214. I submitted that in my VA disability claim. I had already had all my C and P exams. That was the last thing they needed. I submitted that, and I was like, super nats ass. I was like, I know exactly what I need to do. I know. Here's what needs to happen. I submitted that document. Eleven days later, I got my VA disability rating back.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, hell yeah.

[Host]

And it was everything that I anticipated down to the percentage point.

[Anthony Rivera]

Wow.

[Host]

Yep. And I was like, cool. Like, I made a very detailed report. Not only did I just submit the evidence, but I also wrote a summary of, like, here's the condition that I'm claiming. Here's how it aligns within the way that you define it. Va. Here's the severity that you guys have defined it within. Va. Here's how that condition affects me personally and professionally. And here's the medical evidence that supports that.

[Anthony Rivera]

Jesus.

[Host]

For every single condition. Right. So I did that, and that's exactly what they needed. I did their job for them because I didn't want to have any, you know, like, any. I didn't want to give anybody else the opportunity to mess this up because I knew that I only got, like, one chance to do this.

[Anthony Rivera]

I just hope for the best.

[Host]

Just spray and pray.

[Anthony Rivera]

I'm like, what paperwork do you guys need? There you go.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we ended up taking that, and then, like I said, working at Amazon, I got out. January.

[Anthony Rivera]

Did you know that was coming when you got. How the. Did you find your way to Amazon?

[Host]

So right as I was getting out, probably like, July of 2016, I started working, got a second second job. So I was still active duty. And then I got a second job in Orlando. So I was stationed in San Diego. I talked my command. I was like, hey, I'm not a drinker. You don't have to worry about me getting a dui. And they're like, okay, we're going to do a big trust fall. Move your family over to Florida. Check in by text every, you know, other day at the time. Right. So for the first couple of weeks, every other day, I would check in. I had already moved to Orlando. I wasn't on leave. They were taking it. Like I said, a big trust fall.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

If I'm getting anybody in trouble right now, it's already too late. This is too long.

[Anthony Rivera]

Statute of whatever, probably expired.

[Host]

So I was texting. I'm like, no dui. No dui. I'm alive.

[Anthony Rivera]

Isn't it amazing? That's all they want to know.

[Host]

That's it.

[Anthony Rivera]

Dude, have you gotten us in trouble?

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay, fine.

[Host]

Yeah. So I was working at this job, and I was the head of HR for a tech startup company.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay.

[Host]

And I was working in operations as well.

[Anthony Rivera]

Hold on. You went from being an 18 Delta ASO level 3 to the head of HR for a tech startup company?

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

This is a fantastic.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Trajectory you've been on.

[Host]

Yeah. So I ended up actually getting that job because I went through the Honor Foundation.

[Anthony Rivera]

I've heard great things about them. Never interface, but I've heard great things.

[Host]

Yeah. It's a great program that Joe Musk started that has now transitioned over to. Oh, man. Matt Stevens. Matt Stevens is the new CEO of the Honor foundation, and they do an absolutely incredible job. What they do is they help team guys, as special operators now in general in all branches, figure out what they want to do after they get out, coach them on professional acumen, and then actually go through, like, a little bit of trial by fire. You can, you know, kind of like, you can follow industry experts, and you can really do a whole lot of stuff within that window of opportunity. It's like a three, three and a half month program. @ the time when I went through, I was in the Honor Foundation's Group 6. So it was relatively new. And I took full advantage of that. Right. Like, I was like, hey, let's see what I can get out of that. My mentor. You get assigned a mentor. That mentor, his name was Mark Brown. Mark Brown set me up for my professional trajectory in ways that I can never, like, express fully. So he was like, you know, you're not retarded, so that's awesome. I think that you understand what HR is from a people leadership perspective. I'd like to give you a shot. This lady in our people leadership operations who was helping all of our people leaders out understand how to get better in leadership, she just quit. So would you like to take her job? This was while I was in San Diego. So for two months, I was doing that job, and it was really fun, Right. I had to meet, like, people leaders, figure out, like, what's the kind of gaps that you think you need to fill. I'm gonna talk to the people who report to you and see if they align with those, what your understanding of those gaps are. And then I would help them, like, nope, you're way off or you're spot on. Let's see how we can fill those gaps as best we can. Right. So I did that for two months, and then after two months, I was like, that's when my wife was like, hey, it's summertime. It's time to move. We need to move to Florida. I talked to the command. I ended up transitioning jobs from that job over to. I just quickly looked for a job in Orlando, and I found a. A tech company that needed an HR leader. And I was like, all right, career progression. Go from, you know, senior director of hr, our people leadership, over to head of HR at a tech company. I'll do full spectrum hr.

[Anthony Rivera]

Climbing the ladder, if you will.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Full spectrum hr.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. So I would understand, you know, like, compliance. I would understand recruitment and really try to figure out, like, how we can scale the business from a human resources perspective. I ended up doing that for. Geez. Probably I think, like, seven or eight months. And then while I was in that role, you know, you start hitting these windows where it's like, I'm still active duty, but in January, I don't know if my VA disability rating is going to be enough to where I'm not going to need health insurance.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

So.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, that's right. Because it has to, what, 30%?

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I just didn't know. I didn't want to risk it and have, you know, like some. Something mess up. And now my family doesn't have any health insurance.

[Anthony Rivera]

Number one, cause of bankruptcy in the United States. Health costs.

[Host]

It's terrible. So In October of 2016, I signed up for healthcare insurance that was gonna start January 1st.

[Anthony Rivera]

Like a cobra policy or something?

[Host]

No, it was through the. Through the job that I had.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay, cool.

[Host]

Yeah, so it was just the company's.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, is there open season?

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. So there's open seasonal enrollment in October. Signed up. It started in January. In January, you know, I started paying $1,100 a month. That's funny. For healthcare insurance. And I was like, this is ridiculous. There's no way, like, I'm losing 1100 bucks a month. And then January 23rd came around. Right. Eleven days after I got out of the Navy. I don't need health care insurance anymore.

[Anthony Rivera]

How long are you looking for that policy?

[Host]

A year, dude. A year. So I went and I called the company. I was like, hey, I've only had this policy for, like, 24 days. I don't need it anymore. I need to cancel it. They're like, yeah, nope, you're screwed. Like, you're just gonna have to pay it until October and October, you can opt out.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

So that way, January next year. You're good.

[Anthony Rivera]

You could probably hear them in the background. No, sir. We already have your routing number and checking account. So you're. You're good.

[Host]

Yeah, it sucked. So Bad. So I went to my boss at the time, he was the president of the company. And I was like, hey, bud, here's the deal. This is not a negotiating tactic. I just need 1,100 extra dollars a month, month to work here. And he was like, this is a tech company. Like, we're not going to spend an additional eleven hundred dollars in hr. And I was like, no, no. Like, if you want me to keep working here, I need eleven hundred dollars a month. And he's like, all right, let me see what I can do. So a couple of days goes by, he comes back and he's like, the best I can do is like 500 bucks a month. I was like, I really, like, this was not a negotiation. If you can't do it, I totally understand and respect that. So I went and looked online. I found a job at Amazon in like a senior HR leadership role at the corporate office in Seattle, but it was remote in Orlando, so I interviewed for it. I got the job within, I think, like a month and a half of being told that I was getting a $500, you know, a month bump, which is awesome, but it just wasn't enough. That forced me to then find a new job that I then jumped into Amazon on. And then I was traveling 85% of Monday through Fridays for two and a half years.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah, man, Whatever came of the tech.

[Host]

Company, they're still around.

[Anthony Rivera]

Are they doing.

[Host]

Yeah, they're doing really well. Yep. It's called Fan Hero, so I'm gonna plug them. They're. They're doing really, really good, I think.

[Anthony Rivera]

At that 1100 now, though.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Startups are tough, man.

[Host]

It is, man. It's so you gotta just constantly be nimble and try to figure out like, oh, man, how do we really keep this thing alive? So now I think they're on YouTube 6 of operation, which is.

[Anthony Rivera]

I mean, at least they're still alive.

[Host]

Yeah, it's very uncommon. They're very well funded, so they just keep going.

[Anthony Rivera]

How is Amazon? I've heard, Geez, I've heard and I don't, you know, not necessarily from somebody. You might be the first person I know that actually worked directly for Amazon. You know, you hear about hourly wages that they pay people. You hear about some of the not work conditions, but I would say work requirements are what people need to do.

[Host]

What was your.

[Anthony Rivera]

I mean, not necessarily that an HR job would be doing a lot of so many different roles, obviously from everything. Now they have their own airplanes to delivery vehicles to. I think they were Messing with drones for a little bit. Yeah, it's like, I don't know if I need a drone dropping anything off, you know, like, let's. Let's slow down here a little bit. T1000, right?

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

What was your experience like with the company?

[Host]

It was super interesting from my perspective. So in hr, operations, leadership, I was over six different business units. So you, like, named a couple of them Amazon Air. So you think about Amazon, it's actually multiple businesses under the umbrella of Amazon. So the minute you order something online, that is one business that takes your order, aws, takes that order, fulfills it through the technology, and then finds it in a warehouse, then it jumps into the next business. Next business is the Amazon warehouses. The warehouses are where you see the people, like, stuffing stuff in boxes, wrapping it up, putting shipping labels on, putting it on pallets, and then moving it. Right, right. So that's one business unit. I was over that one. I was over. Then it gets put into a shipping container, right? Not a shipping container, a truck. A truck, right. So that truck then transports that in that product to a delivery station near you. That's its own business. So I was over that one as well. Then. Then you go to the delivery centers.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

And then I was over that business unit as well. This is for, again, people leadership roles, and then Amazon Air.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yep.

[Host]

So transporting stuff all the way across the US across the world. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Globally, for sure.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. So it was really interesting. I got to learn a lot. And then in the. In the people leadership side, like, I would transfer. I would travel. Like I said 85% of Monday through Fridays, I would go to a different station and I would just kind of go to the operations leader in that area and be like, hey, I was doing the same thing I was doing at that first job.

[Anthony Rivera]

Job.

[Host]

What do you think your gaps are? How can we fill those gaps? Let me talk to the people who work for you, see if that aligns, and if it doesn't, I'll communicate that with you in the safe space so that, like, there's. The only reason that I'm talking to you guys is to get everybody better.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

So I had, like, I think at one time there was like 200 people that indirectly or directly reported to me at Amazon within, like, this people leadership field. And then I did that for, like, man, I think, think 18 months just traveling. Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. Not. And then, like, the. The. The world started crashing in. Right. I started realizing, why did I get out of the teams to be near my family when I'M not near my family. This just doesn't make any sense. Working at Amazon was super interesting because you got to see how a fortune, you know, 10 company operates.

[Anthony Rivera]

I was going to say five.

[Host]

Yeah. They, I think are probably.

[Anthony Rivera]

They might be. I mean, they're up there obviously, and.

[Host]

They do so many things.

[Anthony Rivera]

Let's not forget their cloud data services. They sell to the government as well.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

You want to shut the old govy down. People talk about nuclear weapons, which of course would work. I'm just saying.

[Host]

AWS in Virginia. So ended up getting a whole lot of experience there. Understood like what it meant to work a lot.

[Anthony Rivera]

Was there a consistent theme that you would hear when you would ask them what the gaps were?

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. Empathy for sure. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Empathy from the top down.

[Host]

Yep. Empathy from the top down. Because they were met with such strict deadlines. So like every day you have to hit these operational metrics and if you're.

[Anthony Rivera]

I feel like they're galactic, dude.

[Host]

It was impossible. Like you have to make people do the impossible day after day after day.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

So if you're having them do that, how can you be empathetic and actually like spend time to understand, like what. What's going on with the different people? Right. How do I inspire you guys when really, I don't really care if I'm inspiring you. You have to do this.

[Anthony Rivera]

We're doing a spreadsheet, we're doing same day deliveries.

[Host]

Like, let's get it. Yeah, yeah. We have to hustle. Move faster, move faster.

[Anthony Rivera]

That's a tough leadership environment actually.

[Host]

So empathy was definitely like the pretty consistent self proclaimed deficit across the board. So it was just really like, as best you can. I know you're already working 16 to 18 hours a day. Spend one or two of those getting to know the people, understanding their life. How. How can I best understand and support you? What is your career trajectory? How do I get you? How do I send the. Send the elevator up, Right. How do I get you to where I'm at so that way I can move out and move on up? But it was, it was interesting. Like, it was demanding, but it was. Also.

[Anthony Rivera]

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[Host]

It wasn't all that difficult. I will say that the last six months and this kind of ties into Vetivise. So, like, while I was in that role, traveling around all the time, I would naturally navigate to veterans. Amazon employs a ton of veterans. I think right now probably over 150,000 veterans or spouses of veterans work for Amazon and they have probably over 800,000 employees at this time. So they're, they're, they're very veteran focused. And I would just naturally navigate to the veterans, like, hey, how can I help you with the va? Like, I've got it figured out. Help me help you. Let me teach you what you need to do. And then I would just do it with them, understanding all the different steps and I would just have them do exactly what I did while I was active duty and I got really great results. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

So except for the BDD part.

[Host]

Yeah, they were out of that. But so there's another interesting window. So if you just got out of the military, which Amazon hires predominantly from immediately transitioning.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, from one job to the next.

[Host]

Yeah. So like you just got out of the military, I'm going to recruit you straight out as an officer and now you're going to work at Amazon Operations because they know that they can really drag you through the mud and you're going to perform very well. Well, so if you are 12 months post EAOs, so 12 months after exiting the military, all the medical evidence that you gather in that window counts equal to your active duty medical records. No veteran knows that or very few veterans know that. And that's the VA giving you a bunch of leeway. Like, hey, I know you were busy while you were active duty, probably not getting the treatment that you deserved, but now that you're out, go to the doctor. Go to the doctor, figure out how you're different now as compared to like when you went through MEPs. Right. So it gives you that opportunity. Again, very few veterans understand this, so ended up helping them really take advantage. Oh, you're in that window. Go to the doctor. Spend like one or two days a month at the doctor getting the evidence and diagnoses that you need that are legitimate. So that way you can put your fact based, fully developed disability claim in.

[Anthony Rivera]

How do they view it? If you're 12 months in a day, you're out.

[Host]

Yeah. So if you're 12 months in a day and you're claiming a condition that you don't have medical evidence to support while you're in.

[Anthony Rivera]

Or the 12 year grace, essentially.

[Host]

Correct.

[Anthony Rivera]

Or 12 month grace, not 12 years. Nobody take 12 years, please.

[Host]

Yeah. So if you're outside 12 months in a day day. You need what's called a Nexus letter. And a Nexus letter is like, hey, I have this condition, right? So I blew my left shoulder out while I was active duty. It popped back in, and now, like, I have limited range of motion in that left shoulder. And it still bothers me to this day. I roll over on my left side. You know, I got bursitis. And it's just constantly in pain. So you get that diagnosed 12 months in a day after, you know, getting out of the military. You take that diagnosis and you have to go to a doctor, a separate doctor, and they write a Nexus letter. This is a whole different problem. So there are Nexus letter writers out there, doctors that are physician's assistants in general that just write these Nexus letters. And in some cases they charge, you know, 2 to $3,000 for a letter. Now in most cases, they're just copy and pasting because they've already done this time and time again. And they're changing the social and they're changing the name out. They're doing it because they can and just raking. Yeah, they are. They're really raking it in. They're making a ton of money. There's. There's all kinds of different stuff out there, but that's the only thing out there right now. So.

[Anthony Rivera]

So it is solvable. Much more complex, though.

[Host]

Yep.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay.

[Host]

And we can solve that at Bed of Eyes in a couple of months.

[Anthony Rivera]

So how is it departing Amazon? How is it? I mean, I've never actually, I'm trying to think here. I worked for a civilian in business. When I got out of the military, they probably structured themselves a company, however, did not act like it. And then after that, it was kind of 1099 stuff, part and parcel. And I've worked for myself now essentially for probably coming up on 10 years, which pros and cons. Right. You're the warden to your own prison. You don't like the view. Don't bitch to anybody but yourself. You can move it if you want to. Yeah. So what's it like leaving Amazon? You just come in and be like, hello, Bob. I feel like Friday is probably a good day for my last day.

[Host]

Yeah. So for 18 months while I was at Amazon, I was doing this job and it was awesome. And then at the 18 month mark, they were like, hey, we're standing your entire division down. So you have to go and tell all the people that work directly for you that they have two months to find a new job. And if they don't find a job after 60 days, find a new job in Amazon. If you don't find a new job In Amazon after 60 days, there's their severance package.

[Anthony Rivera]

Damn.

[Host]

Yeah. So I had to have, I think, eight, 16, or 18 conversations like that. And that was rough, Right. So, like, that was. That's when, like I said, the identity crisis started coming. I was like, why the hell am I having these conversations with these people, most of which have worked here longer than me, and I get to stay. And they're just really, like. They took me and they're like, we see that you can kind of lead people and you're really good at, you know, delivering and performing. We're gonna take you and put you in this, like, purgatory role until we find a new thing for you. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

So they did for you what they were asking the other people to do for themselves.

[Host]

Yes.

[Anthony Rivera]

Which.

[Host]

It didn't feel good.

[Anthony Rivera]

It's beneficial to be that guy, but. Yeah.

[Host]

But it still doesn't feel good.

[Anthony Rivera]

Well, because both you and I have been in the role of the other person. Looking up at that, and you're like, I am actually gonna slash your tires in the parking lot.

[Host]

For sure. Yeah. And it was tough because, like, I would have these conversations with these people. People. And they had been working at Amazon for, like, eight or nine years, which that's a long time at Amazon of grind and grind and grind, and they're like, what am I supposed to do now? Crying.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

And I'm just sitting there like, keep it together, man. Keep it together. Keep it together. I'm sorry. Everything's gonna be okay. I don't know that everything's. You know, I'll help you try to find a new job.

[Anthony Rivera]

Fantastic. Maybe. Yeah, Leave the maybe out.

[Host]

It sucked. So, like, had all these conversations finished that at that time, I was checked out. Right. I was like, man, this is what it means to be in, you know, a corporate environment. They're gonna use and abuse people. Eventually. It's gonna happen to you. Right? So I just coasted for six months, maybe a little longer than six months, and I talked to a couple of people, you know, like, they would have me check in, you know, like, I would fly from Florida to the headquarters for a couple of weeks out of the course order, and then that was it. I would not check my email. I didn't really do anything. But what I was doing was I was working with all the veterans that I had been connected with. And I was like, all right, let me help you out with this. Let me help this and that turned into a side business. Right. And then changed into like I found out about a business that did this at scale and then I started working with them. I didn't understand what I was doing was not all that great. Right. Because. Because I was working for a business that was charging veterans to do something that in all likelihood should have been done for them for free. And now we have Vetavise.

[Anthony Rivera]

It's a very murky. It is a very murky world when it comes to benefits and being able to separate the wheat from the chaff on those who are helping for the best of reasons and those who are helping for their own financial reasons. A blend in between. Yeah, it's a step on my dick. Was it earlier this year? I was, I was making a joke.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

And if people listen to the episode and it's full content, I mean, I opened the two and a half hour episode by making fun of somebody and I hope that they see the tone in that. We were talking veterans benefits came up and you know, we were talking about somehow it got onto the fraud that is associated in the veterans benefits ecosystem. I jokingly made the comment that probably 50% of veterans benefits in the modern GWAT era are bullshit. I don't believe that. But I did say it and I'm 100% responsible. And again, in the context of the conversation, I understand exactly why people reacted the way that they did. My fault for saying that. But I also won't sit here and say that it isn't an issue. We don't even need to argue about the percentage. It's something that exists. And there are organizations out there in the ecosystem you're talking about that will help facilitate that. Even though they know what they're doing is fucked up, dude, it's terrible. As long as they're gonna get some cash, it's terrible. Yeah.

[Host]

So you have everything from like fully legal and legitimate operations to the like kind of gray area, the fully legal options. There are accredited agents, There are attorneys in general. And I'll just briefly describe that. So. So like, if you're a veteran and you're trying to get engaged with the VA for the first time, you're one of the 13 million.

[Anthony Rivera]

Thirteen million?

[Host]

Yeah. So you're one of the 13 million. You're like, I don't know where to start. I heard that there are these accredited agents because I can go on va.gov and I can see what the accredited agents are. So you look them up and they're an attorney. So you go talk to the attorney. And I actually did this going through like market research as I started developing Vetivise. I go to an accredited agent, he's an attorney and he's like, hey, just, I want you to put your patient pants on. Everything's going to be okay. Sign this power of attorney and I'll take care of it. I was like, well, how do you get paid? He's like, well, you don't. You're never going to pay me. Don't worry about that. You're never going to pay me.

[Anthony Rivera]

Not the question that I asked.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like, you're never going to pay me. And then like, he didn't answer the question. So I ended up finding out that he was going to take in the contract, he was going to take 30% of the back pay.

[Anthony Rivera]

Now that could be a tremendous amount of money.

[Host]

Yep, absolutely.

[Anthony Rivera]

Is that legal?

[Host]

It's 100% legal. It's even.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, this is one of the accredited agents as well, right?

[Host]

This is accredited agents. So this is legal. So you have an attorney that talks to a veteran is like, this is going to take two years. Don't worry about it. We're going to get the win in the long run. But I'm going to do everything for you, me and my staff.

[Anthony Rivera]

I get the enticement of that pitch. I really do.

[Host]

Yeah, it's the no brainer, right?

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. I don't give you everything. You handle it. I'm probably still going to get a great check one day and I will never see that 30% anyway because I bet you take it out before it hits my account. Exactly.

[Host]

Well, the VA pays the accredited agent out of your back pay.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay.

[Host]

So the veteran never even sees that loss fully. So what ends up happening is the accredited agents are only allowed to collect on appeals. So they're incentivized, some would say indirectly, to put a failing claim in first.

[Anthony Rivera]

That way they're. Indirectly.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. This happens. So like they'll put a failing claim in and then it gets, you know, come back and it's like it's denied. Then they appeal it with the correct information. They drag that out for a year and now they get 18 months of back payment from the veterans. Back pay pay.

[Anthony Rivera]

Why would they set it up structured like that? Why would they only get paid on an appeal?

[Host]

What they're. So the, the purpose of an accredited agent is actually to help veterans after they mess up themselves. If they do mess up.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay.

[Host]

Then it's like, well, you don't know what you're doing. Go to a professional.

[Anthony Rivera]

But let's say both parties, attorney and client, if they just submit the claim the first time and it goes through.

[Host]

Through as an initial claim, yes. They can't collect on it.

[Anthony Rivera]

But that's what I'm saying. Why structure it so they could only collect on an appeal? I'm trying to understand why it would be actually designed like that in the first place.

[Host]

There's a law. So, like, there's a law that states that only the veteran themselves or a veteran service officer.

[Anthony Rivera]

Vso.

[Host]

Yep, yep. Can help a veteran submit their initial claim.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay.

[Host]

So either the veteran does it or they go to a vso. Either a veteran service organization that has veteran service officers attached to it, and then they just. They do your claim for you.

[Anthony Rivera]

How do VSOs get paid?

[Host]

Yeah, so VSOs get paid by either the state or nonprofit governments. I'm sorry, Nonprofit entities. And what they do is they do a great job. Unfortunately, there's only about 8,000 of them. So. There's 8,000, but not directly tied to.

[Anthony Rivera]

The outcome of the package that they.

[Host]

Correct. They're just. They just get paid on a salary. Okay, Right. So they get paid on a salary from the. The government. I'm sorry, from the. The state entity that they work with. So VSOs can be, like, at a county level, the county is required to have one VSO at minimum. But then also the State has multiple VSOs that are attached to them. But then it's a cleaner structure. Yep. Yeah, absolutely.

[Anthony Rivera]

From a pay perspective.

[Host]

Yeah. And then they just get paid. Unfortunately, there is no standardization of training. When you get hired as a vso, you just, hey, I got hired. I think I know how to help veterans.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, boy.

[Host]

And then you just get thrown to the. To the wolves. It's like, I need help. I need help. So going back to, like, what I did as market research for Vetivise, I went to a vso. Right. I had already got my VA disability stuff already done. I just wanted to see what that appointment was like. And these guys are doing their absolute best.

[Anthony Rivera]

Are they listed on va.gov as well?

[Host]

Yep.

[Anthony Rivera]

Okay.

[Host]

Yeah. So you can go and find a vso va.gov in your area. So then I went to the VSO in Central Florida. And like any good teen guy, I showed up 15 minutes early, easily. And I just waited in the waiting room 45 minutes after my appointment was supposed to be started. I was called in to the meeting, and there was a ton of people in the waiting area. So I go into this guy's office. Office. And I'M like, hey, I'm here. He's like, how do I help you? I was like, I don't know, what do you do? And he's like, just sign this form and I'll take care of your VA to build a claim for you. And I was like, okay, what else? Like, what do you do? He's like, I'm busy, I have other people to help out. And he was right. Like he had a ton of people that he had to help. By the end of the day, he couldn't keep up. Right. And he was helping everybody from like people that had really nuanced cases all the way to a guy that was presenting like me. Like, I don't know what you do. Help me understand how you can help me. Right. So, and then everything in between. How do I log into va.gov? what do I. What is va.gov? right, so you have everything in between. So like these 8,000 veteran service officers are trying to service 19 million.

[Anthony Rivera]

It's not a great ratio.

[Host]

No, dude. And it's impossible. And the. There is essentially like no technology that helps them manage that process.

[Anthony Rivera]

How is that possible in 2025?

[Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

I mean I can get groceries delivered to my house within the hour.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

We're solving first world problems.

[Host]

You know, I'll talk about this briefly. I don't think anybody views veterans as the high quality customer that they should be treated as. And if you don't view a certain person or a category of people as a high quality customer, you can never provide high quality customer experiences for them.

[Anthony Rivera]

Do you think it's because of the quantity?

[Host]

I think it's because it is a large government system that is funded by taxpayer dollars that always has existed and always will exist and as a result has no real need to self improve upon itself. Right. And also has no need to view you as a veteran, as a customer. Customer. I'm always going to be here, right. If I'm always going to be here, I'm universal healthcare. You need to figure out how to use me.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

And that's just the nature of the beast. Right. So what, what the accredited. I'm sorry, what the VSO did was he was just trying to do his best. We are, yeah. So we help VSOs, we help veterans understand how they can navigate the VA themselves and also like we help the veterans understand how they can manage their healthcare at the VA or elsewhere. Right. Through vetivise. And that's kind of where, I mean.

[Anthony Rivera]

I, I understand and I definitely want to hear about what you're talking about. When did you get to the point where you realized that you were going to try to solve this problem?

[Host]

Yeah, that's good. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

So, because identifying a problem is one aspect of it for me, what I do is I find somebody smart, smarter than me, which is everybody in every room that I'm in, and I say, hey, could you solve this problem? Because I don't know how to. Yeah, that's a different bridge to walk across than saying, I am going to figure this out and solve it myself.

[Host]

Yeah. So back in 2020, I was actually working with non profits. I was working with the Seal Future Foundation. I was working with a handful of other foundations and I would hold like education seminars so the nonprofits would pay me. Not as a vso. I was really just a force multiplier. I'm going to teach you exactly what you need to do so that way you can maximize your experience at the va. Right. And I would say the same thing over and over and over again. And I did that for like a year, year and a half. And then by 2020, I was like, I can't keep up with this anymore. Like, I'm stuck in my office having the same conversation five or six times a day in these large group zoom settings, right. I'd have like one Zoom with me talking. There's was like 100 to 200 people in the zoom room with me. They're all taking notes, asking questions, asking the same question over and over again. After months, I would answer their questions before they asked and then I would have these little flyers. And this is all generally like the precursor to Vetify. So back in probably like late 2020, early 2021, I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. There is a standardized, scalable approach that I need to figure out how to solve solve. So went to kind of like the drawing board. I was like, how do I do this at scale? How do I help not just like the 7,000 veterans that I've helped out to this point, but how do I help all 19 million and their spouses and their college bound children, right? How do I help each one of those categories of our veteran community? And the dawn of AI came about like chat GPT started going live, you know, OpenAI that really started kicking off and I was like, oh, damn, dang. I think I figured it out, right? And I partnered with one of my initial partners, Jimmy Beach. He ended up looking more deeply into how we patent our process. And he figured it out, patented the technology that we have, and Then started getting ready to build. We raised. Last year, we raised, like, $1.75 million.

[Anthony Rivera]

Was that fun?

[Host]

No, dude, no. Hell no. Listen, dude, like, tech companies are super interesting and fun. You get to solve the easiest problems every day because you don't even know what the hard problems are yet. You're just like, there's fires everywhere. All you gotta do is just keep spitting, right? Eventually something's gonna happen. It sucks. So I can't thank the investor partners that we've had to date so far that have really kind of stuck their neck out. And, like, I believe in this. This problem solution. I believe in the vetivized product, and I believe in the vision of where you guys are going.

[Anthony Rivera]

Did you guys swing for the fences if you're going to get the ball over the wall?

[Host]

Yeah, exactly. And I think we really have. And we're making really good contact, man. It's really, really awesome.

[Anthony Rivera]

So walk us through it then.

[Host]

Yeah, really briefly. Just understanding what we are and what we're not. We are not a medical. We don't provide medical advice, we don't guarantee outcomes, and we don't directly file VA disability claims for veterans. It's not difficult. You can do it yourself. I am not a very smart person, and I did it, and I've helped multiple people do that. It's not hard. So it's really just understanding how do you put a package together that you can easily just submit. That submission portion is like five minutes of the fight. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

And especially if you know how. You know if they. If you know how you want it formatted and templated.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Anything can seem insurmountable if you don't know where to start.

[Host]

Right, Yep. So, yeah, exactly. So what we've created is this system that helps every veteran understand, step by step, how to really put a clean package together so that way the VA can really just decide quickly on that claim. What we are, we are expert guidance. We provide expert guidance through our AI powered tools tool, and we have free access to veterans.

[Anthony Rivera]

How does the AI assist you guys? Like, what are you guys asking it to do?

[Host]

So we actually created our own model, and what it does, it's. I'm going to speak as. As generally as I can do it. It measures you in your individual circumstances against a standard, and that's the same standard that the VA uses.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, interesting.

[Host]

So we just like, well, this is never going to move. Move. You're that movable object. We're going to see how you fit within this puzzle piece. Right. In every single condition. So it's pretty. It's pretty tits, man.

[Anthony Rivera]

I use AI to create images of like miniature dachshunds with rockets on the side. That's, that's. You and I are not using AI the same way. Let me just correct.

[Host]

A couple of weeks ago I was, I saw that they make ChatGPT now can make images.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yes. That's the tool that I use for said miniature dachnes.

[Host]

Yeah, I typed in make me a dog that's dressed as a knight riding a dragon. And I want the artwork to be like kind of ancient. And it did it right? It did it and it refined. I was like, damn, this is cool. So incorrect. We are both equally dumb.

[Anthony Rivera]

Well, you're taking it into a business sense. After that I'm stuck at the dachshunds. All right, go ahead.

[Host]

Let's. Do you mind going to the next. All right. So our platform is intelligent, automated and it's self paced. That image right there, it's one of six AI agents that you can use that talks to you through the process. We designed it to talk to us because there's a pretty interesting research out there that shows that a lot of us are dealing with traumatic brain injury. So if you read something for the first time, you're going to have to read it multiple times over and then you're going to retain a bit. Little bit. If you follow along what's being read to you, retention goes up dramatically.

[Anthony Rivera]

Interesting.

[Host]

So that's why we designed it. That way you can go to the next if you don't mind. Yep. So from left to right, this is our current product offering. We have a head to toe assessment, a rating estimator, vetiverized vault, AI health summary and a progress tracker. Everybody needs to, you know, go through the steps to make sure that they can, you know, progress as they're time allows.

[Anthony Rivera]

Most people could not even define for you the steps in and of themselves or how many that there are. I'm already liking the one on the farthest. Right.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty sweet.

[Anthony Rivera]

I mean, if you think about it too, it's so intuitive. You're talking about your daughter's going to be of driving age. Guess what it's going to look like when you log on to usaa. Say you use it, you're on step one of four. It's so ingrained to follow those steps to know where you are to get to the place that you need to be.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Not for VA claims though.

[Host]

No. Yeah. So another way I like to describe vetavy is we've created a Sherpa. Right. So if you're climbing that mountain for the first time and you've never put a pair of hiking boots on, well, you're not even gonna take the first step because that peak looks way too far away. I'm done. Right. Like I don't even want to take the first step. Now if you take that same person and give them a Sherpa, that's gonna carry all their gear and their water and their food and that's gonna plan the route out and when they get tired, it's gonna tell them, hey, take a break. Right. Everything's gonna be all right. Or it's time to get up and it's time to get moving. That's what we've created. And that mountain is the VA disability claims process and then also the healthcare management yourself. Right. So like understanding how you manage your healthcare. The head to toe assessment, I'll go into it now if you can go to the next one. So this is the process that we follow that veterans navigate through all by themselves from intake all the way to. Yeah. Analyzing your rating. So when you put your disability claim in, you can go to the next one if you don't mind. When you put your disability claim in. Here we go. Check this out. This is the platform itself. So you can see. Try to keep it as simple and clean as possible. Again, thank you, Jimmy beach, for making this look as clean and crisp as possible.

[Anthony Rivera]

Lets begin with a critical step in preparing your claim. Gathering supporting evidence. Your Vetivise vault is a secure HIPAA compliant space for storing and organizing essential documents. Here you can upload medical records, personal statements and other evidence needed to support your claim.

[Host]

So the HIPAA compliant. The vault. Right. I don't know if you're familiar with this.

[Anthony Rivera]

I know broadly what HIPAA is. I mean, it's medical privacy essentially.

[Host]

Yeah. And if you've been out for, let's say 10 years and you've never engaged in the VA, common sense would dictate that my medical records from the DoD would naturally just navigate into the VA. One would hope. So that's not the case. Right. So what happens when you get out of the military is your medical records get stored in a warehouse. Warehouse. And that warehouse just sits there for.

[Anthony Rivera]

Aren't they trying to go to all digital at some point?

[Host]

They have been trying for years and it's a iterative process so eventually they get to that.

[Anthony Rivera]

Then do you think they would be ported over or would thumb drives just be stored in a plastic baggie somewhere?

[Host]

Probably, yeah. So what we've created and also like those warehouses, this is again super crappy. Right. Medical records are made of paper. Warehouses do tend to light on fire periodically.

[Anthony Rivera]

Can you imagine?

[Host]

So you have a lot of veterans from like the Vietnam era that have, they're like, alright, I'm ready to do my disability claim. I've had cancer, like I need to get the help that I need. And they go and look for their medical records. Unbeknownst to them, they've been burned down in a fire. So what we've created is a solution for that is one problem where your medical records can and should be stored in a cloud based storage device. So that way they can have all the fires they want one. I don't care. Right. Your information is always stored and then like you can put your I love me binder in there, you can put your marriage certificate, you can put all the stuff that you find valuable in this cloud based storage and it's yours. I, as the CEO of Edivise, don't have access to any veterans. That is, that's on Vetivise. The head to toe assessment is a thought experiment that was created to kind of understand how a veteran is different. So like in general, like I ask you, how are you doing?

[Anthony Rivera]

Awesome.

[Host]

Yep. Yeah. And that's, that's the general answer, right? I'm fine. Right, I'm fine or I'm awesome. That's, that's what we get. So what we've created is actually a method to understand how a veteran is different today than they were prior to joining the military.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

Because if I ask them like how.

[Anthony Rivera]

They'Re doing, well, that's what the rating is based upon anyway.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah, you're different. So what we've created is a solution and I'm going to skip over this video because it's got some pretty sweet information in it that I really don't want to share. There we go, this one. So like after you go through the head to toe assessment, you then jump into like, we get your information and it gets measured against the VA's standard. So then you go to the disability rating estimator and you can press the next. So again, imagine this is all before you ever submit your VA disability claim. You get information like this, I think you press space bar or play.

[Anthony Rivera]

Using the conditions you've reported and the dependents you've claimed, we'll calculate your estimated VA disability rating and potential monthly compensation. Would you like to calculate your estimate? Now?

[Host]

Again, this is all prior to you submitting a Disability claim. Yeah. And now you know, kind of what the light at the end of this huddle should look like. And it's broken down for you.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. And it's interesting. I have interface with the system enough to know that you could, you could find those numbers, but they are not all in the same spot.

[Host]

That's correct.

[Anthony Rivera]

You're going to be bouncing around looking at rating schedules and percentages on charts that I might be smart enough to figure it out. But I just looked at the chart and said no thank you.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. It's tough, right? It's super tough to understand what's going on. So that's kind of it for for now. We have much more to the platform, but I really don't want to kind of give away too much special sauce.

[Anthony Rivera]

When are you guys launching? This thing's full scale. Ready to rock.

[Host]

We launched in January so we partnered with a couple of nonprofits and they sponsor the licenses for their veteran ecosystem. We also partnered with cities that are paying for vetivy for their veteran employees. We've partnered with a lot of different organizations that are paying for vetivise access to the veterans. So again we're really stuck on like we don't want to charge the veterans anything. We're trying to go through hell and high water to make sure that no veteran pays a dollar for this. You know, maybe the VA or the DOD might make this like a program of record so that I don't think.

[Anthony Rivera]

Either of them need to. I've talked a lot with a lot of people now and even in my own experience. Right. You go through the traditional test. I think it was a two week course on paper. I graduated after the first day. I had all the signatures required to graduate. Other people fill in what I might have done with my time in between those. I think and we had talked about this, you know, 40,000 service based NGOs. I actually think that the military should task shed off boarding people out of the military.

[Host]

Military, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

How much time do they spend boot camp. Right. For. For us naval folk? I think it was eight weeks.

[Host]

Yeah, I think so.

[Anthony Rivera]

Marine Corps, a little bit more of an intense experience. Give them some more time.

[Host]

Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

Army I think is longer than eight weeks. Air Force I think is done on computer joke. I'm joking. I love you Air Force people. Space Force, who knows.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

But let's. It's on average two months. Best to integrate somebody from the way I would describe it as a me centered world to a we centered community. Right. You need, you have a new uniform you have a new language, you have a rank structure, organizational charts. And then you get ready to leave and they send you off. I went through taps at Balboa Hospital as well. There's a lot going on at the Balboa Hospital area. And I mean, the guy running the course didn't give a shit. You know, I showed up in my cammies wearing a trident on my cammies. He's like, give me your paperwork. Like, this is the droid that you are looking for. And I appreciate it at the time. Two weeks isn't enough, right? Let them go and work with an NGO for exactly the same amount of time as it took them to get them into the military to get out. And you can dive into this and NGOs. If there's 40,000 service based organizations, I bet you they're all amazing. But if you could reduce that, you would have. Have a better ability to apply that capital because it would just be more, you know, it would be more co located in one instead of disparate out everywhere else. Not that I want any service based organization to not exist, but for maximal impact, you're probably going to need maximal dollars. The dollars are out there and exist. Like I think you said 5 billion a year.

[Host]

5 billion a year.

[Anthony Rivera]

The money is out there already. I think it's a better role for the NGO than it is both the VA and the government.

[Host]

Yeah, I think so too. So the nonprofit are doing their best to. But unfortunately, like they serve two masters, right? The first master they serve is the more important one and that's the donors. So the people that give them money are the ones that they have to constantly keep in mind then what they do with that money is they service the veteran community.

[Anthony Rivera]

I think servicing them really well though, and being able to point at what you're doing actually answers the questions to the, to the first one, one serves the other other because. And that's. I mean, I've done some fundraising stuff. I mean, if you think you, you've done fundraising. I did it for charity fundraising, where people are literally just trying to get somebody to open their wallet and donate to something that they probably will never see the impact from. You think being a seal is hard? Go try to do that.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

In a world where there is complete donor fatigue, there's a GoFundMe for. There's a GoFundMe for somebody starting a Go GoFundMe.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

And it's. If you're in social media, it's like, boom, you have instance to gather people's attention who it. It is. It is exhausting how hard that that actually is. I think. I think one can serve the other one really well if they can see if you can show people what you're doing with the money. I think it makes it a lot easier.

[Host]

It makes it a whole lot easier. And. And I'm excited for what vetevise has in the future. Please, anybody who's watching this that's interested in keeping up with Vetevise, look at LinkedIn. I think we have. Yeah, we have an Instagram account. I believe you better because LinkedIn is dying.

[Anthony Rivera]

I have no data to support that. I'm just saying.

[Host]

Yeah. And then you can go on our website and [e-mail] but you'll see that what we have right now is just the absolute like we were talking about before. This is the Mark 1 model. It's only going to continue to improve, to solve as many real problems for our community as possible. Right. And not just from the. From the veterans perspective, but also from the nonprofit's perspective and then also from the spouses of the veteran's perspective.

[Anthony Rivera]

How would it work for the spouse? Do they get their own portal as well?

[Host]

Yeah, so they'll get their own portal and they'll have access to it. So what we have right now is one license, and it's really for the veteran. But in most cases, the spouse is the one that does the veteran disability claim for the. For the veteran. Because, yeah, they're like, well, I'm taking care of everything else. You're just gonna mess this up. So let me just take care of this admin stuff deeply checks out. Yeah. So, and unfortunately, like, it leads into very difficult conversations between the spouse and the service member that they have really been avoiding for, in some cases, decades. Right. Most of us were, you know, dumb enough to think that we needed to protect ourselves. Sorry, protect our spouse from ourselves because we didn't think that they were strong enough to, you know, really understand the crazy that's going on in our heads. They're fully capable. Like they were single mom in it up for over a decade. Right. So like they're, they're strong enough. We just need to open that door so that way they can understand how they can best support us. But yeah, so like the veteran spouse, current product is not launched yet, but it's a license. So that license can be accessed generally by the veteran or their spouse. So that way the spouse can be like, oh, let me help you out. Yeah, for sure. The admin stuff is maybe not your strong suit. It's my strong suit, so I'll take care of some of this stuff.

[Anthony Rivera]

And especially if that veteran has driven forward and has another job and they're trying to integrate and do those things, it's nice that they can work on that together.

[Host]

Yeah. And we give them a year. Right. So you have a year to go through this process. And also it really does help them to go year after year after year, not do a disability claim every year. But really like after you go and integrate into Vetivise and then you integrate into the VA now it's like, well, cool, I've got maybe five service connected conditions. What do I do now? Right, well, you should go on to vetivise, do your head to toe assessment at least quarterly because now you're gonna see either progression or regression or maintenance of these conditions and you're gonna be providing that input quarterly. So that way at the end of the year you can go to your doctor and say like, hey, I'm not gonna tell you how I'm doing today. I'm going to give you this report that shows you what I've been reporting to for the last 12 months. So you can see the last three of the. Three of the last four quarters. My left shoulder has really been flaring up and it's been keeping me awake at night. Right now the doctor can be put in more of the drivers. He'd be like, oh, now I have more data to provide more nuanced treatment solutions where it's like, oh, I'm going to try this out or I'm going to try that out. But the head to toe assessment is really intended to go over at least four times a year and it'll just keep providing more and more resources for you. So it's not just a one and done. This is really like a lifestyle lifetime app. So that way you can really just have a safe environment to share where you're at in your own healthcare. So that way, like I said, you can really master your experience even if you're not using the va. Right. If you're not using the va, this will at least help you understand how you are different than you were prior to service. And also, is there anything that I should be concerned with? Right. So maybe there's like some cancer or something like that.

[Anthony Rivera]

I was gonna say cancer screenings are one of the more common issues you hear currently.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

You could actually probably bake into your software depending on if it takes a look at their. Any correlation to their service record or deployment or locations. You could probably flag for the things that they need to take a look at.

[Host]

That would be nice. Yeah, yeah. Like I said, we have a lot of stuff.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

Planned to launch throughout the rest of the year.

[Anthony Rivera]

How quickly do you guys iterate? I mean, so V1. V1 is already out every week. So this is essentially like, you know.

[Host]

You get on your phone and yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

You never pay attention. You go to the App Store and it says 178 updates are due. And you're like, oh, shit. And you update it.

[Host]

Yeah. So we're not on the App Store because there's no transaction in our product. It's not likely that we're gonna get approved by the App Store or Google Play because the way that they approve things is how do they make money?

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. And you probably. I would recommend probably doing this on a desktop or laptop based software anyway.

[Host]

Yeah. So. Because it works great through your phone, but like you said, it works a little better, like for you to kind of absorb the information on a desktop or a laptop. Both work functionally fine. It's called a web based app. So it functions just like an app app. Clicking the buttons all over the place guides you through different processes. But it is a web based app. Right now. It's a website that you go to put your login credentials and then you gain access to vetivize. We are looking for as many sponsors as possible. We're looking for nonprofits that are looking to impact the veteran community. And there are nonprofits that are out there that just raise money to provide grants to other nonprofits. Right. If this sounds good to any nonprofit that you're really just trying to. To make your dollars get a really good impact, I'll speak in general, based on the 7,000 cases that I've worked with so far, on average, the VA disability rating increase, and even if it was the first time, it was a 40% rating increase financially. What that meant on average was a veteran was gaining access to $14,000 extra per year.

[Anthony Rivera]

So you meant the difference between their initial rating and then if they were to resubmit.

[Host]

Yep. Okay, absolutely. So the cost benefit is like $300 from anybody will impact a veteran more than likely. $14,000 per year.

[Anthony Rivera]

That's a really good ROI.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. And again, it charges nothing to the veteran. We will never. We're really trying to never charge a veteran a dollar. Right. There's a lot of veterans that are out there that the more they see this, are like, I'll just pay for this myself right now. Give it to Me right now, I'm like, hold, hold. Like, we're getting these partners. We'll find a way.

[Anthony Rivera]

That groundswell will increase as you guys start to gain traction, because you're directly linked. If you set it up, you're directly linked to the va, right? They can file through.

[Host]

Yeah, they can file well. So, like, Vetivise is its own autonomous system. It's not engaged with va.gov, but you go through a learning module and it's.

[Anthony Rivera]

Like, hey, it spits out what you need to do.

[Host]

Yeah. So download this document. This is everything that you need to upload to the VA. Here's what you need to do. Go on VA.gov go through that learning module module. You go to VA.gov and you do go into that. And then just a quick drag and drop that.

[Anthony Rivera]

Groundswell is going to increase as the success stories increase as well.

[Host]

Yeah, and we've had quite a few success stories. We had one guy who went through our process. He was stuck at 10% for over a decade. 11 years. Right. So you're stuck at 10% disability rating for 11 years. Went through our process and then within three months. Months, he had his disability claim submitted and returned back. And it was 100%. He should have been 100% straight away from the beginning.

[Anthony Rivera]

Broadly, obviously, providing anonymous and an honest conversation for this person. But broadly, what was he doing wrong?

[Host]

He wasn't doing anything. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

That is a guaranteed way to get nothing to happen.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. So that's what happens if you don't know where to start. And that. That one case is a veteran who went to a veteran service officer. That veteran service officer looked at the minimal documentation that the veteran had and was like, tinnitus, Right. You're gonna get tinnitus. So they submitted for tinnitus, they got tinnitus, and it was 10% for over a decade. Then he went through our process, understood, really how he was different, you know, post service compared to pre service. And he was like, oh, man, man, there's a lot of stuff that I need to really be managing my healthcare with. So he submitted all that stuff, got it turned around, and, you know, the quick math on that is over his lifetime, which he's in his, like, late 30s right now, let's say he lives another 30 years, which, easy.

[Anthony Rivera]

What are you trying to say? Is going to.

[Host]

I know, dude. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

How about 50?

[Host]

Yeah. So come on, simple math. 30 years. It's as much as $5 million of benefits that he and his family gain access to, not just the health care. Right. But then the prescription care. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

There's educational benefits.

[Host]

Education benefits. Yeah. So like he's got three kids, each one of his kids now that he's 100% total and permanently disabled, which he should have been from the beginning. This dude's messed up. Now his kids get access to chapter 35. Right. When his. When his kids get college age, which they're really young right now, but when they get college age, each kid has to have their own access to va.gov because that's their entitlement.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

But unfortunately a lot of veterans are like, I don't know what to do, so I'm just gonna not do anything. That's. Even though that's part of the 6 million that are integrated into the VA system. 6 million. So those are the ones that are actually using the system. They're not. Right. They don't understand what to do. So like our platform is from everything from I've never engaged in the VA at all, all the way to active duty in transition. Right. I would love to have this as like prior to EAOs, 18 months. So 18 months prior to EAWs, you should get Vetivize. So that way you can really navigate the process and be like a good window. Yeah. So now you got 12 months to really, you know, gain all the evidence that you need and really understand. Damn. Like, I've really been white knuckling it for, you know, five or 10 years on some of these conditions, or I've been avoiding surgeries, or I've been. And this is another really common problem, self medicating. Right. Self medicating with either booze or pills. And then that leads down to a whole different rabbit hole.

[Anthony Rivera]

Don't forget the combination of the two.

[Host]

Good night. Yeah, sure does work well. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, long term, we're really looking to do something with Vetivize that helps the veteran community out in every aspect of their life. I'll just share quickly and vaguely what we have in mind. Just imagine a scenario where like a veteran's using Vetvise and they're going through their head to toe assessment and maybe they're starting to answer questions that are, you know, indicating self harm instances. They should get immediately interdicted. Say, stop. Here's a counselor waiting to talk to you. Here's a group of veterans that are meeting, you know, quarterly or weekly on a zoom call or in person that are struggling just like you. Right. With a counselor. And then here's a mentor veteran that struggled with his mental health or her mental health just like you are. But they had a breakthrough and now they're looking to mentor guys like you. So when you're at your loneliest and feel without resources, you're met with nothing but connection and resources. Right. So that's, that's the path that we're going down.

[Anthony Rivera]

That's a heavy task.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. But it's better than doing nothing.

[Anthony Rivera]

How long have you guys been at it this far?

[Host]

Been at it for three years. From the plan, through the fundraising to now launching and really kind of going and growing. Three years.

[Anthony Rivera]

I feel like this isn't going to be your last entrepreneurial endeavor.

[Host]

I hope not. Yeah, this is. And unfortunately this is stupid simple. Right. So like, like I said, if you.

[Anthony Rivera]

Look, maybe in concept I can't write.

[Host]

Code and do the stuff, but I'll say that if you look at anybody as a high quality customer and then treat them that way and then provide either services or products for that customer and nobody is treating that customer, man. Just start a business and provide a product or a service for that customer and even if it already exists, do it better, faster, cheaper, flows to the top. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Separate by performance. What do you think? I think I can just tell you're entrepreneurial in nature. Let's say this becomes wildly successful. You get to a point where you, like you said, you send the elevator up, you replace yourself. What other type of stuff interests you?

[Host]

So other type of stuff that interests me is really tackling the nonprofit issue, like the disorganization again, that's, you know, I'm not trying to get too in depth on what we have and plan for vetivise, but I think there's some really low hanging fruit. Fruit for the non profit world to be able to better impact whatever customer base they're looking at, whatever services that they're providing and then really organize and streamline all those processes. Because if you think about it, it's just that's the business that they're in. How do we get donor dollars in and how do we push those donor dollars out to the people that we're trying to serve? I would love to tackle that and we have plans to do that at Vetivise and you know, some aspect, but that's something that really kind of resonates with me also something that really, that helps me out, that I would love to, let's say like tomorrow or next year or 10 years from now, you know, we made all the money in the world and this helps out every veteran. All 19 million, plus the 2.4 million that are Active duty and plus the reservists. Right. So every veteran and their spouse has venavies. We 1. And they're getting great value and service out of this. I would love to be able to provide some type of connection and resources. So that way the veterans as they're, you know, navigating post service life, what's out there for me? Like, who am I now that I'm not in the military? Right. I never. So, like, you're, you know, I'm a Christian. So, you know, your identity for me is defined Biblical principles. So that's generally easier for me because I have to understand that I have to live a selfless life, not a selfish life. And, you know, there's a great deal of selfishness that's in me and that's, I think, within everybody, not me, but. Yeah. That's awesome. Yeah. You figured out you cracked it. Yeah. So I think that. I think that if. If I could really provide some type of solutions. That way nobody has to deal with that sense of, like, loneliness. Because, listen, dude, we're all just connected monkeys here trying to figure out day to day.

[Anthony Rivera]

It's real, though, when you tell you what, man, that I was looking online once, I think you can buy a trident for like 14 bucks.

[Host]

Sweet.

[Anthony Rivera]

And I tell people, too. I'm like, yeah, buy six, go to town.

[Host]

I know.

[Anthony Rivera]

Seriously, why did he do that shit? Well, Amazon didn't exist. That's why we went through not even the idea of Amazon existence. But, you know, whatever. Probably, you know, they issued them to us, at least your first one, and it cost the government probably $500, but for a $3 item. Yeah, but the weight that thing carries and what it means to you and it's. It's tough. I was having this conversation yesterday, I believe, you know, we rent. You rent your bird. You don't own the thing. You got to give it back at some point, but you get to keep it. It stays in your. Stays in your closet. There is a whole world of unknown and uncertainty. D Once you literally and metaphorically hang up your uniform, the DD214 day is a. Whoo. All right.

[Host]

It's a heavy day.

[Anthony Rivera]

Let's go do it.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Did you get yours at north island, too?

[Host]

I did, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Driving, like, straight out the base and you go over the bridge, you're like, well, what do I do now?

[Host]

Yeah. So.

[Anthony Rivera]

Well, the answer is whatever you want to.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

But it's hard when you feel like you're by yourself. I like. I like your structured approach. To it too. Because you know, there's the insert service. What you're talking about right now is this, this bridge that they need to walk over between who you were before service, how you were changed by it. Handle that and then you can start layering on the things that can come on beyond that.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Because if you skip that middle step, I mean, the data is out there and there's plenty of people who will show you what happened if you fall into that gap.

[Host]

Yeah. It's a dark hole. Right. It's a dark hole of like, I am alone and you never are alone. Right. So like, and then also like, I think a lot of veterans in general, they tend to think like, I can't relate to non service members.

[Anthony Rivera]

You really can.

[Host]

You can't.

[Anthony Rivera]

You say no, you can.

[Host]

You can. Absolutely. Yes. They're just normal people, just like you. And you're a normal person.

[Anthony Rivera]

Different. Yes. You had a different occupation.

[Host]

Yeah. I hear this never were your job and you never will be.

[Anthony Rivera]

I hear this all the time though, from vets saying they don't want to talk to a counselor or therapist because, well, they don't have the same experiences that I do. They didn't go through combat. How am I going to talk to them about it? Like, listen, first off, it may take you a while to find a counselor that you can connect with, but they're experts in what goes on between your ears. They don't need the experts behind the sights of a rifle. They don't need to have those experiences to help you structure your own path. And this is another misconception. People think that it's the therapist that does the work. No, it's you do the work and then you get homework and then the work never ends. But you can, you can connect with people. You don't have to have every conversation about yourself service. You can. If you want to wear military memorabilia for the rest of your life, you've earned the opportunity. But you don't have to. And honestly, it makes it a little bit easier sometimes to connect with people when you don't do that. I'm not. There's no judgment by me in any aspect of that. Food for thought. It's 100% possible. You can reinvent yourself. You could put on a different uniform. None of those are easy, but you can do it.

[Host]

Yeah. And also like, I think it's, it's interesting. So like when you're in these deep dark places and I've been there. Right. So, so like you're in this deep dark place and you're like, who am I now? Right. And there's a lot of like, self centered thoughts, like, oh, what do I do? Who do I like, who am I? What is this? And it's very selfish. And the natural way is if you want to be selfless, think about yourself less. Right. So like, you have to really go down that path and navigate it every single day. And the more you get it sounds weird, but, like, the more you get into other people, the less you're in yourself.

[Anthony Rivera]

That's a weird sense.

[Host]

Yes.

[Anthony Rivera]

Let's. Let's put some context on this.

[Host]

So get it. Like, serve other people. Like, we were talking about Jiu Jitsu earlier. Find a community. When I got out in 2016, I had already kind of been down the path of Jiu Jitsu, like, just dabbling in it for a couple of years. Yeah, it was pretty sweet. That's awesome. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

No, it's not.

[Host]

At least I found it.

[Anthony Rivera]

Finding it when you're 40.

[Host]

Well, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

But. But imagine like you never found it. You have the special sauce right now.

[Anthony Rivera]

I had the chance to find it earlier.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

People were so enthusiastic about it in the teams.

[Host]

I said it almost sounds like a cult. Right?

[Anthony Rivera]

Like, they were so enthusiastic, I didn't even know really what it was. But I was disgusted by their enthusiasm and to my own demise. Like, just because you like it so much, I'm not gonna do it.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Real smart call.

[Host]

I'm gonna prove to you that this is stupid. I'd never do it again.

[Anthony Rivera]

Proven to me myself to be an idiot.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. So with Jiu Jitsu, for, for me, it's been a great community after the community. Right. So like, got out in 2017, joined a JIU Jitsu gym in Central Florida, the Jungle. And it's a great gym under the coach, Mike Lee. He's the, the head coach there. And Thiago is the, the head black belt that. That is over. You know, a couple of different gyms there. It's a De La Riva gym. Like we were talking, but I have such great friendships from that community, and I talk to them the same way I talk to my buddies in the teams.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, yeah.

[Host]

And it's like this. You. You don't have to start at zero. You can really have these really gross, God bless you conversations because you're sweating in each other's mouths.

[Anthony Rivera]

There's. There's also an immense amount of trust.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Physical connection.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

And an immense amount of trust. And people hear that. Like, that's weird. You roll with one of them. Let me tell you right now, I've never had a single sexual thought about rolling with a woman. Is they're trying to rip your face off.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

People. And again, I get what you're saying. It might look a little bit weird from the outside. That's not what it is. Even though there are some people I know of, one example specifically, who was eventually ejected. People can get weird. Weird people. Find Jiu Jitsu, too. We'll leave it at that.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

But for the most part, I don't think I've ever been attacked so ferociously than by a woman.

[Host]

Oh, yeah. Yeah, dude. And then, like, are you trying to.

[Anthony Rivera]

Actually take my head as a traitor trophy? I'm not gonna tell you to stop, but holy shit.

[Host]

And then, depending on the time of month, right, that fight gets different.

[Anthony Rivera]

Ah, that was you saying that, not me. I claim no ownership of that statement.

[Host]

It's real, man. It's wild. So I will also say that, like, I've had a great transition. It's not been easy after getting out of the military. I'm super grateful for everything that's happened to me. I'm sorry for all the bad that I've done. I continue to be sorry for all the bad that I've done. I'm trying to find that navigable pass every day of, like, oh, all right. Be selfless. Think about yourself less. Something that's helped me is my men's Bible study group every Thursday morning. That's just helped me personally. It's a community. Right. So I'm trying to get into different communities because I understand that I'm a very. I'm not a very, like, social person. I don't like big parties and stuff like that because one, I don't really drink too much, and then I get tired at night. Cause I wake up really early. But two, like, I don't find a great deal of connection in these. In these. In these group settings where it's like, I want to get to know you. Right.

[Anthony Rivera]

Like, it's not my jam either. It's a weird place to have a deep. Well, if you do, you look really awkward.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Two people standing over by the fence, and they're like, are they. Are they plotting the overthrow of the government over there? Yeah.

[Host]

Yeah. And then you're, like, getting really deep into stuff, and it's just not the right setting. Right. So it's just tough. A breakfast, a lunch, like a. A community gathering, whatever it is. Like, I do really well in, like, five to seven people, Right? Because then I Can pay attention. Like, I'm 3/4 retarded. I really have to pay attention. I'm like, what are they saying? What are they really trying to say? Is it. Am I understanding it? Well? Oh, okay. Now I kind of understand it. So that group of like 5 to 7 really helps me out. And now I can get into their lives. Right. And I can be like, okay, so this person is changing jobs. What does that mean? How do I help them? I have understood. And I went down to that Mexico trip. Right. Like you're familiar with probably.

[Anthony Rivera]

Was it impactful for you?

[Host]

Tremendously, it was.

[Anthony Rivera]

Was that the ayahuasca or the ibogaine?

[Host]

Both. I'm sorry. It was ibogaine and five in the odd. Yeah. So I did that in 2020, and I think that also helped me a lot with vet of eyes.

[Anthony Rivera]

Amber and Marcus are awesome.

[Host]

Unbelievable.

[Anthony Rivera]

And they've been on the show for people who want to learn more about vet. That's. I do not know the number, but you could easily just Google it. Amber and Marcus Capone.

[Host]

Yep. I think it's. Yeah, I can't remember the website either, but they do a great job. So what. What. I went down there kind of, for me in general, and I don't. I'll talk about this to anybody. I had a lot of, like, real awareness and awakening that happened to me spiritually and physically. And then when I was going through it, like, I've got a son, right. He's 14, 15. Right. Now. When I went through that experience, I saw through my son's eyes who I was to him. And that wasn't a positive experience. Right? So, like, to him, I was this big, scary demon. Whether that was true or not, that's just kind of how I was perceiving it in that instance. And then just as I finished that absolutely terrifying experience, I got to redo it again. And this time, I wasn't the scary monster now. I understood that I was just a lost, lonely, insecure man that was afraid. And this is. Like I said, I'm just sharing everything here. But I was afraid that every time my son would either emulate me or repeat words that I would say or act the way that I did or walked and talked the way that I did, I would shut that down. Like, no, no, no. Be better than me. Like, I don't like myself. I didn't. I wasn't recognizing this at the time, but it was my inability to not understand that I didn't like myself and I didn't respect myself. If I didn't like myself, respect myself. I can't command that respect from others, and it's hard to respect other people. So I had this. You know, the second experience was like, all right, if you change just a little bit, you can really impact his life tremendously. Right. And that kind of ties back to, like, when I was in that. In that perspective of looking at him. From my perspective, what I was actually doing was like. I was like, be better. Be better. Be better than me. Right. But from his perspective is he loved me so much that he wanted to be just like me. What that required me to do was to elevate myself as a man and really live a more honorable and selfless life so that he could replicate that. That. Right. So now when I hear him say words like, you know, that I say or. Or walk around like I do, I'm like, okay, good. I got to do a little better. I got to make sure I don't judge him for. They don't shut that down anymore. It just makes me be a better representation of a man to him. And then obviously, like, for my wife, I try as best I can to be as selfless as possible. I fail every single day. I ask for forgiveness every single day. I thank her every single day for forgiving me that day. Because it's not a guaranteed thing. Right. Like, it's. Marriages come and go, unfortunately, and I'm trying to hold on as hard as I can to mine. It's, you know, it's easy and it's hard, and it's easy, and it's hard, and I'm the one who makes it easy and hard. Right. So if I just keep doing what I need to do, which is be selfless, don't think selfishly, The. The easy road continues to. To navigate itself, and then I can be a. A good dad. I can represent a good man to my son, I can be a good husband to my wife, and then I can be a good representation of a husband to my daughter.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. Life is hard enough as it is.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

You don't. Let alone relationships, you don't need to make it any harder.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. But we are really good at making it. Oh, of course we are. Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

Yeah. Why do you think that is? Is it like that selfish nature that comes.

[Anthony Rivera]

We're just idiots. I mean, if you gave us both the Molotov cocktail, we're going to light it and run around and almost burn ourself to death.

[Host]

Oh, yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Women would sit there and go, that's not a good idea. And we would Go. Yeah, you're probably right. There's a lighter. We're idiots.

[Host]

Yeah. Andy Santiceros, he. I remember watching him. Do you know him, Andy? Yeah. So we were on the island together and we were making this big bonfire and we were like, all right, man, let's. Let's have fun. He took a gas can. Can.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh, God.

[Host]

Stuffed a rag into it, lit it on fire. And we were drinking. He was having fun and he was just waving around. I was like, throw it, dude. Throw it. And he's like, throw what? And he got real close to the fire and just chucked it and it really exploded and messed up.

[Anthony Rivera]

Lucky didn't blow up in his hand.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

Fumes also ignite. Everybody not familiar with gasoline.

[Host]

Yeah, man. That's a good dude right there.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah. We're lucky to be around. What do you want to leave people with? I want to get you back riding mountain bikes in Montana.

[Host]

Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So if you're interested in learning more about vetivize, go to vetivize.com. if you're a veteran and you want to have a license sponsored for you, sign up for the wait list or you can go to got6.org got your 6 is a non profit that is out there that helps veterans pay for the licenses for vetivise got6.org or like I said, vetavize.com and the price is out there. I mean, you can donate. Please donate. So that way we can impact as many veterans lives as possible. Again, vetivize.com and got6.org those are the two websites.

[Anthony Rivera]

I love it. Let's link back up in whenever you want to, but I'd love to talk about how it continues and you add and you layer the stuff on there. I mean, I feel like, and I say this with no technical knowledge or ability to say this. I feel like the hardest part you've already accomplished, you've got it up and it's going. And at this point, not that I sculpt out of marble either, but I believe they chisel away at it and they create something beautiful.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Anthony Rivera]

So now you got something up there and you can add, you can put some clay on there. I'm really mixing genres at this point, but it can be beautiful.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think so too. Yeah. The big lift is done.

[Anthony Rivera]

Yeah.

[Host]

And now it's just the muscles there. Now we just gotta keep it going. Right. Keep getting it bigger and bigger as.

[Anthony Rivera]

I feel like most people fail even getting that big lift done. So you're already your leaps and bounds ahead man.

[Host]

I appreciate it. Thank you so much for hosting me. Thank you for allowing me to have this opportunity to share with your community what Vetevise is and the impact that it is intending to have. And yeah, I can't thank you enough.

[Anthony Rivera]

Oh it's awesome man. My pleasure.

[Host]

Cool.

[Anthony Rivera]

Let's get you back in Montana.

[Host]

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[Anthony Rivera]

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[Host]

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[Anthony Rivera]

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[Anthony Rivera]

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[Host]

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