Episode 15: Fighting the Battle with Traumatic Brain Injury – Andrew Marr of the Warrior Angels Foundation

Chris Albert 00:00:02 (link to this point)

Good afternoon. Welcome to the Warrior Soul podcast. This is Chris Albert, and I'm your host. You know, in the veteran community, we've gone through a lot over the last decade. A lot of veterans have faced things like PTS, like TBI, depression.

And we hear on the news consistently about veterans who are experiencing a lot of the negative aspects of life after military service. And then, you know, there's a lot of us out there who are really trying to push forward and who are really trying to make the most out of our civilian lives. And we're trying to get beyond the stigma, beyond the stigma of somebody who's suffering from these issues, somebody who's dealing with depression, who's dealing with missing his brothers in arms, who's dealing with life changes, and who's dealing with trying to grow. And the thing is, we'll keep talking about this thing called being normal. And you have to ask yourself, do you wanna be normal in the first place?

You know, I don't think that any of us wanted to be normal when we served. We wanted to be extraordinary. We wanted to put our lives on the line for our country. We wanted to to serve our country in the best way possible, and we wanted to be better people forward. So the question in my mind is, why would we ever seek to be normal after military service?

Why would we ever seek to to just meet the status quo when so many of us could get so much more? I've got Andrew Marr with me from the Warrior Angels Foundation. Andrew is a special forces, operator. And When he left military service He experienced a lot of these types of issues that caused him to really want to seek just feeling good in the first place. But through his research and through his work, he's come across some amazing things that have not only allowed him to get back to his elite performance level, but that have also allowed him to find things that he could be passionate about, to move his life forward, to make it better, to to experience growth.

And the best part about Andrew is that he's trying to give this gift to others. He's trying to help his brothers and sisters in arms to try to achieve what he's been able to achieve. And so, Andrew, I wanna welcome you here to the Warrior Soul podcast, and I wanna thank you for coming on. For those of you who don't know, we actually recorded this episode once before, and I screwed up the audio on it, and so I'm gonna own that. And Andrew is such a great guy.

He's putting in his time to come on here to talk to all of us about the great work that they're doing over there at the Warrior Angels Foundation. Andrew, I really want to thank you for that.

Andrew Marr 00:03:48 (link to this point)

Chris, thanks for having us on brother. And it's my absolute honor. And when I heard that the the last episode that we recorded didn't get, you know, fully recovered, it was a no brainer. The information's too important to to not put out, man. So I just like, hey.

Great. This is another opportunity for us to get it right, so we can pass this message on to the listeners.

Chris Albert 00:04:13 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Absolutely.

So Andrew, you served in Special Forces. You were an operator. Tell us a little bit about your background. Tell us a little bit about where you're coming from and, what led you to serve in the first place and what your experience was like.

Andrew Marr 00:04:31 (link to this point)

I think a lot of it has to do with just kind of how I grew up. And it's kind of almost cliche you hear about it, but I grew up in Texas and everybody wanted to be tough. I mean, I don't know if we were tough, but you definitely wanted to have that persona that's tough. Growing up in Texas, what was important where I was from was athletic sports. And so from the youngest age, was always an athlete.

And I think you learn that sense of, Teamwork and camaraderie and, you know getting out of your comfort level and, being able to be, Criticized to improve, you know what I mean? And I think those set the groundwork the framework for somebody to be successful later on life And I look back to some of those, role models that I had, you know First and foremost my father and coaches and stuff like that and I think that has a lot to do with being Kind of being resourceful and resilient later on life learning those lessons early on And and I think you know that that probably had a lot to do with it. One of four boys, growing up. We were all close in age two years apart. And so, you know, we just grew up fighting We didn't know anything else, but that that to us was our was our normal and it wasn't anything malicious just boys growing up And so I think I think growing up like that always in athletics always in boys, you know being in Texas when it was still, it wasn't taboo to be, you know, Tough persona or something like that, you know, that was more of what people are striving for You know is responsible for it and and then fast forward post nine eleven our nine eleven happens.

I'm in college I'm playing college football and that's all I wanted to do is I wanted to be a college athlete and I wanted to play professionally, but I always thought you know, there's guys out laying their life on the line tonight for the country, for freedom, you know, and I'm kind of pursuing my my own ambitions, you know, it would it wasn't an unethical or immoral thing on my part. It would just like, you know, if this ends this this personal mission my hands I think that's probably a good national natural segue into it So when I graduated college and there was no professional career there. It was it didn't take long. I I enlisted three months after I graduated college, you know to go, specifically for Special Forces and that's kind of the road that led in there

Chris Albert 00:06:58 (link to this point)

Talk to us a little bit about your enlisted so you listed as, as a basic in between 11, right?

Andrew Marr 00:07:05 (link to this point)

Right.

Chris Albert 00:07:05 (link to this point)

And then from there you went into Special Forces training. What was the training like? How long was it? Was the selection like and things like that?

Andrew Marr 00:07:15 (link to this point)

They have what's called an 18 x contract, what that allows is to a person that has certain credentials to come in and to go wide into Green Beret training pipeline. That's what I wanted. I didn't want any lag time in between that, but because of past injuries, this, that, and the other, they wouldn't give me that contract. So they gave me 11 Bravo's.

I said, great. I'll take it. And then, at basic training, I performed well there and, was offered a opportunity to to try out, essentially, for an 18 X-ray contract earn that. So what that does is after you finish your basic training and, your what they call OSUT one station unit training, the advanced skills after that you go into airborne school, learn how to jump, and then you go right to Fort Bragg North Carolina and they put you into a preparatory course to get ready for what they call special forces assessment and selection That's our way of figuring out who is a good candidate to become a special forces operator and so you go to SFAS it was a twenty four days back when I went through it in, two thousand and seven, got selected and, from that point on it's usually about somewhere between eighteen months to two and a half years to get through the entire course, based on what's, Specialty what job specialty you had. So I was an engineer which, basically had me working with, demolitions and explosives.

And so my pipeline wasn't wasn't as long as they had medics where medics would have been two two and a half years. Mine was right around two years it took to get a a Green Beret, but six phases of training there, including language. And then when you Graduate the Q course you go to your operational team what we call ODA operational detachment alpha and I went up to first group in washington state and Up in 2009 and I was on the same team up there until my medical retirement last year

Chris Albert 00:09:20 (link to this point)

Wow. You speak Korean, right?

Andrew Marr 00:09:24 (link to this point)

Well, I graded out as proficient in Korean in 2009. I'll put it that

Chris Albert 00:09:32 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Andrew Marr 00:09:33 (link to this point)

But you you learn how to take tests, man. So I I scored, well enough to get paid in, Tagalog, which is Filipino, and then, Thai. Yeah. Thai, Tagalog, Indo, and then Korean as well.

Chris Albert 00:09:48 (link to this point)

Oh, wow.

Andrew Marr 00:09:49 (link to this point)

Yeah. But, I mean, basically, just stuff to be conversational. Very but that was about it. And and that's a that's a learned skill that I I have not kept, kept up with.

Chris Albert 00:09:59 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah. I imagine. It's you really have to be in the country, have to be immersed in it in order to be going with it and everything.

Andrew Marr 00:10:08 (link to this point)

I'm sure anybody listening right now, when they were downrange or whatever, picked up on some local words, would be just basic conversational stuff, so same type of thing there.

Chris Albert 00:10:19 (link to this point)

Before we move on to the rest of the story here, because I know that there is probably a lot of people out there, we have got a lot of young people out there who might be interested in a career in the army or career in special forces. What would you say to them as far as trying out for special forces? What types of advice would you give to them?

Andrew Marr 00:10:43 (link to this point)

Well, know what, they've done a lot of research trying to figure out, hey, like, is there a body type? Is there a height or a certain two mile time that makes for a good operator. And what they've basically come up with is take all the physical attributes that you think that you need to be successful and throw them out the window. The most important thing to the operator, any operator, you know, any servicemen on the battlefield is their mind So what's it what you're able to do in special forces what you're you're given what you've earned the right to do is kind of, Make decisions autonomously, right? You've been given the leeway you've earned the right to to make decisions So I would say get comfortable dealing in environments that, are ambiguous and get comfortable with being resourceful without resources and being a team player at all times understanding what the end state is what the mission is and You know being able to work and take a team to be able to do that and oftentimes think about your leading you're going to be leading a a small team of indigenous forces that does not speak your language and so you have to be a very good educator You have to be a very good communicator in addition to your trigger pulling responsibilities

Chris Albert 00:12:02 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Absolutely. That's that's great advice That leads us into the next aspect of the story when it comes to the human mind and its importance for our health and our happiness and our performance. So tell us about that. Tell us about, you know, your experience on deployment and what happened and why, what led you to what you're doing now?

Andrew Marr 00:12:31 (link to this point)

Yeah. My experience on deployments, it was probably not too different from than any other, soft guys, experiences at multiple deployments. Don't win them all, but but but you win most. You know? And the the beautiful thing about combat is it it doesn't you don't find out necessarily who you are.

You probably know that as a soft guy, but it's gonna reveal the character of everybody else around you and Your character is gonna be revealed to everybody else that was around you I think I'm probably my key takeaway that I'll talk about from my deployments is what I'm most grateful for is You know, you hear about the best generation in world war two and I don't dispute that whatsoever I think we have a smaller sector of the generation that, is alive today that, is is absolutely exceeds that, that standard. And here's why. When you get these, high performing individuals, who realize that they had talents that caught a pike, they could have been used anywhere. On the talented most talented end on the physical spectrum, the most talented end on the intellectual spectrum and somebody that didn't come from necessarily, you know, with a silver spoon in their mouth. But they made a decision after 09:11 to say, you know what?

There is shit going on in the world, and I think I can make a difference. I can make a change about it. And, I'm going to, offer up my talents and my services to be able to do that. So what that afforded me the opportunity to do was to be around the most incredible men in the most difficult circumstances known to man and to see how that human spirit endures. And so that Chris was an absolutely beautiful thing that I got to see in day in day out unless somebody respond when their buddy dies Next to him and the jobs got to go on and everybody else is counting on and they're dealing with all their stuff They're dealing with from that and whatever it is they're dealing with at home But they've said you know what?

I don't it doesn't matter. We're going we're here. So we're gonna do the best that we can To impact this the best way that we know how That type of mindset that type of person man, you don't find that every day so to be able to live that my entire time on the teams That you know that that was the operator experience just being around men that I would that challenge me to raise my game every day So that was what was incredible.

Chris Albert 00:15:05 (link to this point)

Right. Dude, that's that's so incredible that you say that because not only is that something that I mean, we think about combat a lot of times and combat can be a metaphor for life. Right. Right? And and, you know, so many people out there think of the world as imposing this hard situation just on them.

Right. But the reality is that the world makes things harder for everybody, and it's not what happens to you or what gets thrown at you, it's how you respond to it, and how you react to it and you're feeling about that situation. And, I think in a lot of ways, what we all have to learn, as a generation, and and in this generation is is to take that example and to to really think about how We want to react in the moment and and in the time period where where it's time for us to make a decision and time for us to take an action And, you know, I think that looking at you and and knowing a bit about your story, you know, I I see that in you, not only in your combat experience, but but in what you've done since then and how you've, carried on and gotten past some of the difficulties that you had when you got home. Mhmm. And, you know, I think that's a beautiful thing.

And despite all the difficulties, you're a better person for

Andrew Marr 00:16:45 (link to this point)

Right. Yeah. I I agree.

Chris Albert 00:16:49 (link to this point)

So you you go through your deployments and you come home, and you've just been through what is probably one of the hardest and most trying experiences of your life. And now you're back in The United States, and you are trying probably to make sense of it all. You're probably trying to to normalize back into your to your job back here. What was going on? What what happened to you then?

Andrew Marr 00:17:20 (link to this point)

Well, to, to caveat on on your last point, man, I agree with a 100% in this Italian. And what you're saying is basically like, hey, we can't control the circumstances of life, but we can't control our attitude and we can't control our effort and how we choose to think, accept and react to certain stimuli in life. Indirectly, we can shape the circumstances of our life. That was my mindset forever, and it still is. So even being that Having that positive outlook on life when I got back after my last trip I was hit with some things that I lost some perspective and know what happened was basically four or five months after my last trip we started having, all these new symptoms that was never present before and started with, extreme loss of libido and energy into migraine headaches Which went to, blurry vision into double vision, and balance issues and then I started having behavioral problems, difficulties with anxiety, depression Rage crying for no reason crying in public, you know dealing with children and people like How I what I knew was to be the wrong way to deal with something in situation but not being able to do otherwise, you know what I mean?

And that was a very, scary feeling. So again high performer, athlete sf guy never had an issue to six months, you know after my last trip, man. I'm so fucked up, you know now I'm on 13 different medications, you know, I said it before I was alcoholic My wife was nine months pregnant and I was so far gone She actually had to ask me to please keep my drinking down for the day in case She went to labor so she didn't drive this had to drive herself to the hospital, you know And I was actually like hey, how how dare you ask me a question like that? I've been to every driving school in the country I can drink I can drink and drive with a Blindfold in one arm, which was absolutely not the right answer. That's where my mindset was, you know what I mean?

Not to take step back and say, No, that's probably a good idea. Know, my wife doesn't want me to do this because she doesn't want to be in labor and drive herself to the hospital. But my reaction was, you know, not one that I'd want to repeat on air, you know, and, and so that's where I was at and just having a lot of physical problems I had blood clots and near death experiences with like with that we had problems with my son my children were sick It was just it was a very rough time and looking for a way out and all I found was a number of medications that at the end of the day I think only exacerbated Problems and made it worse because it didn't go to find the underlying condition It was just treating my complaints which you know, I'm thankful somebody was there to listen to what my complaints were But if you don't write ask the right questions, you don't get the right answers And so if you're just trying to cover up whatever it's bleeding at the moment You're not gonna fix the underlying condition and because of that, you know, that's why we went down the had the the the travels and the tribulation trials and tribulations that we had But you have to go through those Chris to come out on the other side and gain some perspective but, you know, that was the downward spiral that that led me to thinking, you know, I think it might be better just to to end my life, because it might be easier on my parents, on my kids, on my wife if if I'm not around anymore.

Chris Albert 00:20:54 (link to this point)

Yeah. I you know, I've had my own my own issues with substance abuse, and, you know, my I think my issues with substance abuse were mostly related to my own lack of intelligence about the matter at the time because I, you know, I started getting into it mainly because I, you know, I thought that there was so much monotony in life. You know, after you after you served in the military, you you go through these amazing experiences, and I say amazing because they are amazing. You're young, you are around people you love and people you work well with, you look great in uniform, you train, and learning so many things, you get to travel around. Yeah, remember the hurry up and wait, I remember getting slapped in the face with a big green weenie, but You know, it was at the same time It was really one of the greatest times of my life and when I came back it was like, you know, I Think I had some some depression about it some some some separation and things like that, but you don't want to think about that.

You want to think about, okay, I'm going to get on with my life right now. So, when I was drinking and I was really pushing the alcohol, I really wasn't realizing that I was probably self medicating for some of the issues that were scarring me. I didn't give myself time to have a good transition. I didn't give myself time to really think about my experiences, and I really didn't think about what I wanted the rest of my life to be like. So to fill the monotony, you know, drinking, womanizing, drugs, things like that, they filled my time.

And it sounds like, you know, in a lot of ways you're trying to make sense of everything and at the same time trying to cover up some pain there.

Andrew Marr 00:22:59 (link to this point)

Yeah, for me with the TBI, like, you know, I was always a social drinker but never anything that warranted a red flag. When I started having these panic attacks, it was so foreign. Thought this was an emotionally weak person's problem. First of all, had no idea what was going on, but they got so bad that the only way I could Function I thought was to drink. You know what I mean?

So I was like, I don't know how else to deal with this. I Think I'm going crazy. I can't get good answers from the medical system and I know when I start drinking at least I can kill whatever this this panic Undo depression that's come on me at least quell it at some at some in some capacity and then you start doing that and then that becomes Your new normal if you will and you know, that's what I needed to get out of bed in the morning, you know I just started drinking, and it wasn't because you know, I just have a party and having a great time That's what I did to get by with the with the physical, pain in the in the emotional behavioral Neuropsychological difficulties, but I I think getting out that what your experience is is very common man and I think you know what? What we all strive for is to be around like minded individuals, you know that challenge us, and to have a purpose and I think for the most part you do get that in the military and, depending where you're at you're gonna have some very like minded People that are challenging you to be better every day and I think, If you get out of the military and you're unprepared for that or you're unprepared of what those strengths amidst your life It's very easy to lose perspective and perspective is what I mean is like What you learned from your past experiences in in tough times in the military and if you lost friends or things went wrong Think about I would say my challenge to would to others be think about What that person would want you to be doing now if they were alive?

Would they want you to be sitting around here? Complaining sitting on a couch for three weeks drinking or would they want you to be out living it to the fullest and helping others and the answer time I I ask that question is You're right. I never thought about that way They wouldn't want me sitting around there talking about what what what what once was They would want me to go out there and be mastering my life, you know I think that's the succeed the key success to a successful transition man realize what what made it great realize that you can transfer those foundational principles on anything you do in life and Reach back and think about your perspectives and be grateful for them A lot of those lessons were paid in blood and oftentimes somebody else's blood, you know We have a obligation to go and to pay it forward and to do the right thing every day for those people who did sacrifice and didn't make it back, maybe alive or holy or functionally or however. You know what I mean?

Chris Albert 00:26:02 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Absolutely. For you, when was what was the thing that told you, okay, I need to be doing something different. I can't be taking this thirteen, fourteen medications I'm getting from the VA. I need to figure out a way to make this better.

What was that thing that made you do that?

Andrew Marr 00:26:23 (link to this point)

Well after, it all happened at the same time. My son, our youngest son had what is called a lymphatic malformation in his neck, so it was about to the size of a softball. He had a growth in there. My wife was nine months pregnant, like I said earlier, so we took him into the emergency room. My calf had been killing me for about three days.

So it turns out my boy Jace had to go into emergency surgery to take this growth out of his neck that was affecting his breathing Becky went to labor and then, it found it turned out that's when I had the blood clot So we're all there in the er in the same room Blood clots Jace with his neck popping out Becky going into labor So I denied any treatment, on myself until Jace and Becky were good So I was going back and forth between the 4th Floor where Jace was having surgery and the 2nd Floor where, Becky was given birth through our youngest boy And I'm drinking and I'm popping, our narcotics and opiates in between not to you know have a party or be high just to function and And so boy gets born safe totally good Jace fits up finishes up his surgery He's fine. They They finally get me into imaging to take an x-ray of my leg, and they found out, there's a massive blood clot deep vein thrombosis in your left leg because I didn't get, attention, at the right times that it broken off and went to both lungs. And so now we're fighting against the clock to to survive and so with my boy in the recovery room Becky still in the delivery room now I'm being rushed into the er to to deal with the blood clots and we got those taken care of he's in the hospital for about two weeks, with that, but I was really unhappy with the level of care and the level of explanation About what caused it what leaded up to the blood clots and and how life would be after Post blood clots and and this is at the time where I had been through every mechanism in the Department of Defense for specialty traumatic brain injury treatments, right?

So I've been to Walter Reed for a month and their inpatient there for TBI, then on every other TBI program that you could have been on. And so my my understanding of that care was lacking. I was really fed up with the care I had got when I was, you know, in dire needs. I was unhappy with the care that my family had gotten, and I realized like, hey, man, nobody's gonna do this for me. Know what I mean?

Nobody else and nobody else should. This is my job, and I'm gonna quit complaining about my circumstance. I'm gonna quit crying that, you know, I was told, you know, I couldn't operate anymore. Basically, hey, you can't take another blow to the head. We don't know what it'll do to you.

And so that coupled with all the difficulties I was having, you know, I was just I got in this, you know, Oh, why why did my life turn out like this and a somebody that was really negative and, the opposite of positive and It was at that point there at the hospital again. I was like enough is enough I'm going to be my own best advocate. I'm gonna do my own research I'm gonna figure out a way to get off this medication. That was my number one goal at the time I just want to get off the medication. I know I can't operate anymore I know I can't be in the army anymore I just want to be able to function and be the man that I want to be, for my wife for my kids and, you know continuing to be, in some kind of leadership capacity In order to be able to do that.

I've got to get better got to get off these medications I've got to quit drinking and I've got them and I've got to change my mindset out of this The world is against me into like I said I can't guarantee an outcome, but I can guarantee you my attitude and my effort. And I'm gonna make sure damn sure that those are the best output that I can put out every day. Every day, we're gonna improve. If only if it's just a a millimeter. We'll stack them up and look at them two weeks later and say, okay, great.

We're making progress. And that was the mindset that that kind of turned turned it around for me.

Chris Albert 00:30:31 (link to this point)

And how old were you when this deep vein thrombosis occurred?

Andrew Marr 00:30:35 (link to this point)

Chris Albert 00:30:36 (link to this point)

You were 32 at the time. Wow. That's a young man experiencing near death experience from a blood clot formed in his leg.

Andrew Marr 00:30:46 (link to this point)

Yeah. It's a low it's a high mortality rate from my understanding. I was still in great shape at the time, and they said, Hey, one of the reasons that we think you survived is because you're in great cardiovascular condition.

Chris Albert 00:30:58 (link to this point)

So you were doing all you were still running in PT the whole time, right?

Andrew Marr 00:31:02 (link to this point)

Yeah, that's a great thing about an operator is a fully functional alcoholic and training never suffered. Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:31:11 (link to this point)

When I was in the Marine Corps, used to smoke a pack and a half of cigarettes a day, and I'd slug like a deer. It was biggest thing in the world. And I remember you'd see people at the finish line. As soon as they're done with their PT test, they'd light up a cigarette and it's ridiculous. Oh, man.

Andrew Marr 00:31:27 (link to this point)

Just a whole different culture, man. But you know what? There's some mental acuity and some mental strength there saying, I'm going to overcome. It's fucking smoking run anyway. I don't know. I I don't recommend it. I don't applaud it, but there's something to be said about somebody who can do that.

Chris Albert 00:31:43 (link to this point)

I Yeah, absolutely. That was one of the things that led me to do it. I was like, I want to be hard. Want to be the kind of guy who can smoke a cigarette while running.

Andrew Marr 00:31:53 (link to this point)

Yeah. That's how a bitch runs a sub twelve, two minute mile and smokes a pack a day.

Chris Albert 00:31:57 (link to this point)

Yeah, exactly. But don't smoke, people. Don't smoke at all.

Andrew Marr 00:32:02 (link to this point)

Absolutely do not, horrible.

Chris Albert 00:32:04 (link to this point)

And if you're going into the military, the biggest thing I recommend to you is, there's gonna be people with TIDs at Copenhagen, there's gonna be people with cigarettes, and they're gonna look really happy doing it, but if you wanna save yourself a lot of trouble down the line, don't do it. Don't do it.

Andrew Marr 00:32:19 (link to this point)

No. Yeah. What we're starting to it's starting to happen with the upper echelons and and special operations, but I hope it trickles on down is that, like, hey. You have to treat yourself as an athlete. You know what I mean?

Not some weakened warrior. So, man, like, the whole culture is changing as far as dynamic stretching, recovery, nutrition, hydration, all these things that, you know, we're the extreme sports are are on the cutting edge. It's it's making its way over, you know, to the the operator fields, and and I hope it trickles on down. But yeah. Yeah.

I mean, if you're thinking about getting in, you need to be thinking of, like, hey. How do I perform at like an athlete, professional athlete, because you're basically being paid to perform.

Chris Albert 00:33:02 (link to this point)

Right, exactly. I also wouldn't recommend banning it because I think that would put morale through the floor. So so we we're in this story right now. You've come to your moment where you need to figure out what you're gonna do and how you're gonna change this situation. Sure.

And so you go and you start to hit the books and you start to try to figure out some things about what's going on in your body. And what did you find?

Andrew Marr 00:33:36 (link to this point)

Yeah, so after I got back in the blood clots, essentially locked myself upstairs for two weeks, and started trying to figure it out. I knew all the things were wrong with me. I knew my lab reports were bad or this, the other, so I just started there and started looking at the scientific literature and started understanding about the neuroendocrine system, hormones, inflammation, and some literature that was already out about, hey, what happens to a brain that's in close proximity to a lot of blast waves? And so I started reading this stuff and I was just baffled because I was getting, The scientific literature was very black and white and then what I was getting from the medical system was very gray, at at best. And and so that's when he said, you know what?

Again, I'm taking matters into my own hands. I'm gonna find out what else is out there and I'm gonna do it. And so I found several things. I found a functional neurology Brain Institute down in Texas that we went to that we had some success with I looked at a place called the brain treatment foundation that works with, doing the EEG of your brain and then syncing up your different, brain waves So you have alpha theta delta waves And and they need to be in sequence, for the brain to fully be optimal, and figuring those things out and then figuring out what else is out there hyperbaric oxygen trait treatment and people have all these things, you know, Remedies that they're say are working. So I wanted to get down to hey Why do some things work for some people and they don't work for others?

You know, what is what is the brass tacks? Is there an underlying condition? Is there a place where it starts and if there is can we identify it and can we treat it And so being on that road, getting out there, trying different things, learning from different people, that led me to Doctor. Mark Gordon, top neuroendocrinologist out of California. He's been dealing with TBI specifically treating diagnosing and treating TBI specifically since 2004 and he's developed these revolutionary protocols that can effectively Improve people's quality of life that's been diagnosed or not diagnosed with that's had head injuries and And so that was he he emailed me and he left me some information.

Hey. Here's my credentials. He left me a Joe Rogan podcast. He did. He's like, listen to this podcast.

If you have time, if any of this is, of value or interest to you, let me know, and let's get you on the program. And I listened to the podcast he did with Joe Rogan in another one of his patients called Matt Gosney, a Navy corpsman who had had a couple of his last trip was a bad trip got hit he took Three times and trapped more in the face and just was having a rough time, was on 16 or 17 medications and Had come to doctor. Gordon and got treated effectively and, right now the foundation, Covers all Matt Gazi's clots and I can tell you he's off 17 medications and he's living in, Hollywood as a screenwriter doing phenomenal.

Chris Albert 00:36:51 (link to this point)

Wow.

Andrew Marr 00:36:52 (link to this point)

This is a guy who has multiple attempts at suicide. You know what I mean? And couldn't function. So now he's off all medication functioning at a high level, you know, as a screenwriter. So but anyways, I was listening to him talk and tell his story, Chris, and everything he was saying was like I was like, that's my story.

You know? I was like, man. Okay. So maybe this just isn't special to me. You know?

It was the first time I thought that, like, maybe this isn't specific to me. This is a much bigger problem and I started to understand that it was you know And and I think that also helped the first time I realized like hey, you know, this is not just my problem This is this is a big problem and even if nobody's talking about it where I'm at It's happening and so I need to I need to talk about it But heard that podcast, it was a no brainer. Hey, I gotta do this. Contacted Doctor. Gordon.

We linked up there in Southern California and ran the tests, started the protocol, and the rest is history. Almost eighteen months later, I'm off 13 medications, sober, and living and functioning at high capacity, as good, if not better, than my pre injury status. But if doctor Gordon wouldn't have for no for no benefit to himself just because it was the right thing to do reached out to me and say, I have something that we think can help you try it out. You know, we we wouldn't be where we're at today. We wouldn't have the foundation where it's at We wouldn't have helped over a 120 other veterans do the same thing that happened with me and happened with Matt And so it just it all goes back to doctor.

Gordon and just being selfless and living by a code, and that code is doing the right thing.

Chris Albert 00:38:32 (link to this point)

Absolutely. I just want to clarify for everybody at home, of the things that Andrew was going through wasn't just alcoholism or depression. You were having problems balancing, right? You were having problems walking around, you were having problems with coordination, falling around and things like that, right?

Andrew Marr 00:38:53 (link to this point)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Balance was a real issue going from laying down to standing or sitting to standing or getting out of a vehicle to be stationary and the vertigo would set in. It was a very low quality of life there for about eighteen months to two years.

Chris Albert 00:39:18 (link to this point)

Wow! And then right now, competing could you, do you hit your volume just a little bit now? Sorry about that.

Andrew Marr 00:39:27 (link to this point)

No problem.

Chris Albert 00:39:28 (link to this point)

There we go. Right now, you're actually competing in, shot put. Right?

Andrew Marr 00:39:35 (link to this point)

Yeah. So I competed in a shot put and discus at what they call the Warrior Games. So the Department of Defense puts on for, wounded service members and veterans, every year, starting in 2010. And so we competed in that at West Point, that happened, last month, last June, at a West Point. And, yeah, so I wanted to do those because both of them, I do a rotational spin, a rotational throw with a shot put and discus.

And again, we just wanted to show like, two years ago, I had a difficulty walking down the hall. You know what I mean? And there's no way I could have performed or competed doing a a spin, a throw rotation, you know, sequence at any level, and now doing it at a high level. So I was a was a finalist in discus, and I got third place in in shot put. And so, again, it wasn't anything that we're trying to highlight, you know, personally what we're doing, but just saying, hey, you can be rocked by the circumstances of life and think that you can't function anymore, or you're not gonna be able to compete anymore.

But you can. You just have to make your mind up that you're gonna do it regardless of what the experts say or anybody else says about your life.

Chris Albert 00:40:49 (link to this point)

Absolutely. And through your research, know, when you were looking at what constitutes a traumatic brain injury and what constitutes a TBI, A lot of times it's not just being blown up by an IED directly or being directly exposed to something. You found some other ways for that brain inflammation from a TBI could occur. Can you tell The Us about

Andrew Marr 00:41:18 (link to this point)

mechanism of injury, almost it can be so varied. There's a lot of variables. There is blunt force trauma, explosive blast wave, acceleration, deacceleration. But things that we'd never thought about as soldiers, Marines, and the sciences are revealing now that we might need to think differently about doing it is the effects of being around thousands of, rounds going off, you know, day in and day out for for years the effects of multiple Carl Gustaf rounds, you know, in close proximity, and stuff like that. So, there's other environmental stressors and environmental factors, that that can produce the same alteration in brain function.

So it's it's it's varied. But the important factor is the the main thing about TBI is it's that it's a two phase injury. Again, phase one is that initial trauma, whatever it is, be it blunt force trauma, falling off of a roof, or acceleration, deceleration like we talked about phase two is the silent part that we hear called the post traumatic inflammation neuro inflammation and That can happen a week a month years after the injury So that's when somebody starts having these new problems and they go to the doctor and say, hey, I'm having these are the symptoms I'm having. The doctors on on on a whole aren't doing their due diligence to ask the right questions to say, okay, well, what is what is the reasons what precipitated these symptoms? And can we find a actual point in time on your timeline where there was trauma that we know happened?

Instead, we just treat symptoms and doing that, you don't get to the problem. If you don't do that, then you're just straying out people on a life that's predicated on a bowl of mind altering pills.

Chris Albert 00:43:19 (link to this point)

Absolutely and so you know from watched your you actually went on Joe Rogan, after after starting to work with, doctor. Gordon's so you know and talked a little bit about your story but there's guys out there who might have just been in proximity to explosions might have just been Through some sort of continuous Proximity to blasts and and in that process the brain racks back and forth inside the skull and can cause a lot of different types of inflammation and things like that that we're talking about and that inflammation can really lead to a lot of these types of issues where your brain is also a hormonal producing center. It can also really harm your testosterone production and lack of testosterone production, lack of hormone production. You know, we forget how much hormones play a role in our well-being and how much they play a role in how we function and if your hormonal interrupt your hormonal processes get interrupted then in many cases it's like a domino or a cascade effect where it can interrupt a lot of the other processes in your body. So that's

Andrew Marr 00:44:41 (link to this point)

Yeah, dead on Chris. And so you don't have to be knocked out or unconscious or to have a open head fracture to suffer a traumatic brain injury. And, you know, so any any number of things can cause that, being in close proximity to a blast wave. And again, it's not like, hey, if you just hit your head one time, you're at you're at great risk. Probably not.

But and probably not even, you know, being around one or minimal explosions or minimal door breaches. But when you do that repetitively, day in and day out, over a period of years, we now know that that is having a a damning effect on the brain. It's causing this, micro scarring that is not visible on Imaging yet, right? So we can't see it on imaging we can see it in post mortem and then we can make a correlation off a lab analysis that points out the neuroinflammation markers that are in the brain as well as, Hey, what about the hormones that are produced in the brain called neurosteroids? Are they affected?

And so if we have neuroinflammation, we have the inflammation and you Have a dysregulation of your hormones man, that's a recipe for disaster everything that, these neuro steroids are tied to Cognition executive decision making, being able to do the right things socially make the right decisions affects our physiology, Our psychology everything about us when that starts to become deficient or insufficient Man, that's when we start to see all these problems that that we were outlining earlier and here's another important thing is, So say the normal range for total testosterone is somewhere between one and ten, right and you come in as a healthy 35 year old at a two. Well, doctor's gonna say you're totally normal. You're range. Even though you're saying you have all these symptoms, you're fine. And we're saying not only is that wrong, that is unethical because a 33 or 35 year old's numbers should not be that low.

And if they're saying that they're having all these problems and we can't associate anything else to these problems, then can we try to do a physiological correct dose of what this person is deficient in to see if that improves quality of life? And again, what our research has shown when we do that, when we can correct the inflammation, when we can correct those deficiencies, quality of life improves. And I'm talking if you take your if you do as doctor Gordon, recommends, every time I've seen improvement. Every time over a 120 cases.

Chris Albert 00:47:28 (link to this point)

Wow.

Andrew Marr 00:47:29 (link to this point)

Yeah. And he's got 1,300 documented cases, through the civil sector as well.

Chris Albert 00:47:34 (link to this point)

That's amazing. It goes back to that, who's in the population for the normal levels. We have an average there of like 18 year olds all the way up to like 90 year old diabetics, and at 35 years old, you really shouldn't be feeling like a 90 year old diabetic. Right.

Andrew Marr 00:47:55 (link to this point)

Yeah, so some biostatisticians in the 1970s came out with some interesting work, and they said, The reference ranges that we use is really only applicable to the patients that we got those ranges from. So that group and that group alone, because of what you just said, because we're testing people in there from 18 to 95, we don't people are probably not healthy subjects to begin with. So these references as the as canonical, you know, scripture is not is not actually accurate. The how that person's feeling. You know what I mean?

So what might be 50 percentile of the recommended range for me might have me just feeling phenomenal, and you dragging. You gotta be at seventy fifth percentile. That's where we come in and say, This is what we're offering is precision based on your individual physiological needs. Nothing subjective about it. An objective analysis saying what's wrong, what's deficient, and then an objective way to treat it and then to measure it, and then do follow-up labs, take your subjective reports, triangulate them, find out where you are, and make improvements, take things away, add things to it.

That's the process.

Chris Albert 00:49:12 (link to this point)

This is why you don't want to go out and try to get some testosterone off the street and inject it in yourself. You need the supervision of a doctor. You need your blood work tested.

Andrew Marr 00:49:22 (link to this point)

Yeah That's that's a bad move for just a number of reasons one You have no idea where it came from you have no idea what there's a number of different Testosterone is out there and different ethers that are doing different things. So, you know, you need to be under the Attention of a professional and not just you know is sub some standard guy high level, you know individual So getting it off the street is bad. For one, you don't know what it is. Two, what are you what are you doing? Where are you starting?

Where are you trying to get to? What are the reasons if you're not if you're not, managing that, if you're not tracking that, and you're doing it for all the wrong reasons. So don't be an amateur about it, man. Do it. If you're gonna do it, do it right, and let's let's get some real people behind you that know what they're doing.

Chris Albert 00:50:07 (link to this point)

Right. Exactly. And that's why Andrew is here is because he's putting people in touch with these resources and and making sure that the people who need them get them. Since undergoing the treatment, you've kind of experienced a renaissance, you're working on the foundation, the foundation is your greatest priority right now. You've also been doing some things in your life.

Tell us about how much life has improved since going through this treatment, since partnering up with Doctor. Gordon and experiencing this.

Andrew Marr 00:50:43 (link to this point)

It's hard not to get emotional about it. I just wanted to know, Hey, can we please figure out what's wrong with me? Can I get an honest assessment so I can figure out what my new parameters are? And I I'll live within the parameters. You know?

I'll operate in there. But I just wanna find out what's what's going on. And, you know, Taking my girls to the movies and then the next day coming home and I've seen a preview and asked her if they wanted to go see the movie and then have them look at me and like in awe saying dad You just took us to that yesterday. How do you know not remember that and just being completely unable to recall any of it? You know, I I thought life was over, you know, I was, 32, you know, I've told him hey, you can no longer do what what I felt was my purpose was being an operator.

I Don't now. I don't know my purpose taken away. I don't I don't know what I'm gonna do my health is at risk my my family's health is at risk Going going from that in the physical pain, you know Difficulty getting on the stairs in the morning and these mind splitting headaches and double vision you just You know, you got to the point where you thought maybe it's not maybe it's a better answer if I just don't remain, you know to now Being on the other side of that and I'm so thankful for everything we've been through but being on the other side of that Realizing how how special today is and I didn't even need a reminder how special today was, you know, I I'm fully aware of you know, my own mortality and everybody else's but Being able to get on the right side of health again, and then being able to help others to do the same thing. There's no more fulfilling thing in life, you know, and my dad broke it down to me, really well and I and, it was right in the middle of having that hard time and he's son.

I don't know Everything that you've you've been through and I can't understand it anyway But I do know if you find a way to make your life about putting value into somebody else to helping somebody else That will put value back in you and you know, Chris I found that to be the the secret sauce man, make it about somebody else figure out how to improve other people's well-being and life and quality of life and as a You know as a byproduct that is gonna make your cup run over if with just being full

Chris Albert 00:53:21 (link to this point)

Absolutely, and I could not agree more With with what you're saying. I mean there's been times in my life where I was so focused on My own issues my own problems that I felt like I was in almost a cavern and I couldn't really see the light And it really wasn't until I started doing things to add value to other people's lives, you know living a life of service that that I really began to see because I think a lot of us think when we go into the military we get out service is over, right? It's time for us to move on to something else and What a lot of you out there you have to understand is that service never ends regardless of what you're doing If you're in business you are your your job is to serve your customers your job is to serve people If you are doing anything in this world, the only way you're going to see the higher purpose of what you're doing is if you're mindful of the idea that you're here to serve others and you're here to put value in other people's lives. It's so And beautiful that you were able to find that through your own life's trials and tribulations and I think that that's absolutely amazing.

I think that that's that's it's almost better that you found it that way.

Andrew Marr 00:54:51 (link to this point)

Yeah, it makes it real. You know what I mean? And it's going back to perspective. It's drawing your perspectives and so go through and relive what you thought was a bad time. It only is what we frame it to be.

It's not that way for the universe or the world. Starting to look at it through that lens help help me to understand, I think, a bigger picture. And one that was, hey, don't run from your emotions when you experience them. Try to understand them. Try to feel what what that's about, and where is that coming from?

What's where's what's the true underlying theme or the central theme for for this emotion? And if it's something that you can use to your advantage then use it and if you realize that it's something that's not, optimal then allow it to run its course and then go about your business, but you know, I Thinking about it that way and and and realizing hey, everybody has hopes desires and dreams, and their and their own fears Allows me to try to treat people better as a whole

Chris Albert 00:56:00 (link to this point)

Right. Exactly. Don't run from your problems either. Right. Your problems through your negative experiences, through your quests to try to solve those problems, you could find something that could be changing your life.

Andrew Marr 00:56:13 (link to this point)

Yeah. I agree.

Chris Albert 00:56:14 (link to this point)

A 100%.

Andrew Marr 00:56:15 (link to this point)

Awesome. It's It's all about the journey, man. It's all about the journey. We gotta look back and figure out what insights were gained, and how can I use that to better my performance in the future and help somebody else in a similar position?

Chris Albert 00:56:28 (link to this point)

Absolutely.

Andrew Marr 00:56:30 (link to this point)

Absolutely.

Chris Albert 00:56:31 (link to this point)

So the Warrior Angels Foundation is up and going right now. How do you how how does somebody get treatment? How does somebody

Andrew Marr 00:56:43 (link to this point)

Yeah, so we made a let's try to make it as user friendly process as possible. So if you're interested about any information on us, can find it on our website, waftbi.org. That's waftbi.org. On there we have ways that you can donate, ways that you can do your own fundraiser in your community, ways to find out about all of the treatment, aspects. So if you want treatment specifically click on the treatment tab.

It'll open up a page and, just follow all information, From that page, you'll say you're gonna put in some information there and then we're gonna start some, Email, exchanges giving you everything that you need, to fill out to get back to us. So once we get all your paperwork, filled out your health questionnaire, in addition to your DD-214 if you're a veteran pcs if you're a service member something verify service, We'll then look and make sure that you're a right candidate, for this and the right candidate is anybody who thinks that they have had, suffered a traumatic brain injury, in the line of duty. So it doesn't have to be necessarily combat, but it needs to be service related. So if you think you have those there, fill out the paperwork. We'll get it back to you.

Once we have all the paperwork and you've been vetted, then it's a really easy process. Once we have the funding, we fund you. Our lab is in Florida, so we'll send our lab kit to wherever you're at. So say you're in Chicago, our lab kit will go from Jupiter, Florida to your home address in Chicago. We'll send a mobile phlebotomist out to your house to draw the blood, and they'll do that and then send it back to Florida.

If you don't want to use a mobile phlebotomist, we'll make planning considerations for you to go to a lab that's close to your geographical location. And again, they'll draw mail back to Florida. Florida will get the lab, they'll analyze it, get the results, send it to Doctor. Florida. I mean, send it to our doctor in California.

He'll write up a detailed report. He'll then email that to you and also send in a FedEx document, which outlines everything that the lab analysis has found. And we'll then schedule a video conference between the two of you to do a one on one consultation. At that time, one of our physicians will take you through everything in excruciating detail and make sure you understand what all that means. More importantly, they'll give a recommended protocol.

The protocol invoice will go to us after the consultation. We'll fund it. And then the protocols will be sent to your house there in Chicago in this example. So without having to go to a doctor's office, without having to wait in a waiting line or go to a VA, we've brought world class traumatic brain injury Care to the veteran wherever they're at and then same same process with our follow-up labs and anytime you need follow-up protocols, so we made pretty much an on demand service

Chris Albert 00:59:42 (link to this point)

And what direction are you guys going in? So are you guys looking to try to get this to become a new standard of care? Where are you trying to take this?

Andrew Marr 00:59:57 (link to this point)

Yeah, so great question. We're not just in it to bang our chest and, Hey, I'm a veteran, hear me roar. That actually disgust me. What we wanted to do was bring about real impact and real change. So one, is there an objective way to identify the underlying condition?

And then number two, can we treat the underlying condition? So having the answer, understanding the problem, going and finding the right answer, and then saying, Okay, well, what's the right thing long term? The right thing long term is to have this implemented by the DoD and the VA. So, this year, Doctor. Gordon, along with some other high profile physicians, will begin writing some articles on our last 100 patients to get published in the scientific literature next year, probably second quarter of twenty seventeen.

And That will be some significant scientific findings and then we're we're what we're doing right now is we're raising money for round two which will take about another two fifty, cases and do another retrospective study on how those individuals are responding to their treatment. So we're going to put out two different groundbreaking articles in the next three years about the success that we've been able to replicate and as vetted by independent review board and peer reviewed articles. So at that point, it's no longer just me saying it and then us saying, hey, we have 1,300 documented cases. It's now actually having the scientific literature to support our findings. So at that point, we're ready to take this to Capitol Hill, which is the end state to get this implemented by 2020 in DoD and the VA.

So that's kind of our our milestones right now. We're working to get these new articles published in the literature, and they also to keep us right on track to where we wanna be for getting this implemented in 2020. When we do get it implemented, Chris, we can effectively stop these cascades of suicide and losing, you know, high, trained soldiers, Marines, and Airmen, to post traumatic stress symptoms, to TBI symptoms, because we can stop them before they ever happen, keep them in the force, strengthen the force, strengthen the family, heal the veterans on the outside. And it's a fraction of the cost of what the government currently pays for TBI and PTS treatment. And again, it treats the underlying condition, which is not what the other platform is doing, which is basically medication and psychotherapy, which is not improving the condition.

Everything we do is to bring about this lasting change. We have milestones along the way that we work towards, and everything we do is to meet with those objectives to have this taken over and then work ourselves out of a job.

Chris Albert 01:03:03 (link to this point)

So, yeah, your effective goal is to not be an organization?

Andrew Marr 01:03:07 (link to this point)

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we're solving a very specific problem and that that is far reaching outside of just not just a veteran issue or service issue. It's a issue that deals with humanity. So where our hypothesis is this can kind of lead the way for this to trickle down to the civil sector as a whole with these publications that are coming out in the next few years.

Chris Albert 01:03:30 (link to this point)

Absolutely. And do you have any idea of the figures of how much money you'll be saving federal government if this gets implemented?

Andrew Marr 01:03:37 (link to this point)

Well, yeah, for one to one. The Congressional Budget Office put out a report in 2012, what the VA spends on TBI and PTS for one patient, and it's close to $15,000 And again, that's medication and psychotherapy. Those costs were only increased over that person's lifespan because Those have consequences later on in life Where ours is about $5,000 in year one, year two, it's gonna be about 2,500 to 3,000, and then to get you to a maintenance phase in year three, which is around $1,500, so a little more than a $100 a month. So for a third of the cost, we can go and directly identify and treat the underlying condition in a fraction of the time. You know, that that's in the end is why it'll be taken over by the budget makers because budget makers wanna say they save money to the constituents and we'll be able to say that.

Chris Albert 01:04:38 (link to this point)

Wow, that's that's Mind blowing as far as how much money you'd be able to save but also and we talked about this the last time you talked we talked you have to think about that opportunity cost Yeah cost to the economy of not having these great elite performers out there doing work and out there being active participants and opening up businesses and becoming leaders and things like that.

Andrew Marr 01:05:05 (link to this point)

I don't know what the loss of productivity is, but I know it's in the billions per year, like stupid billions, tens of billions, because I think it's five point three, American five point three million Americans living with a disability, towards TBI every year. So it's it's a big number and and you hit on it, When you bring somebody back to life or when a veteran leaves the service and starts a business, these things have so many positive ripples just outside of that individual. By turning an individual back on, we've now improved their home life, improved the life with their spouse, their children, their coworkers. Are they able to go back to work? That's what it's all about as far as, you know, getting better and providing value.

Get back on your feet. Figure out how to get better every day. How can I provide value? If you get after it like that, you figure it out the right way. That's what we've been able to see with these veterans that we've been helping.

Chris Albert 01:06:09 (link to this point)

Absolutely. That's awesome. And I'm going to put all the information in the show notes for this episode. Aside from treatment, what other types of practices have you implemented in your life that you think have really had a market improvement on your performance and on your your well-being?

Andrew Marr 01:06:33 (link to this point)

Yeah. I think we spoke a little bit about routines, and I I have a morning ritual, if you will, where I go through a gratitude journal, so I have five things that I'll write down and kind of re experience things and and Going back to talking about some of the things talked about, you know I found that when I come from a spirit of gratefulness of gratitude There's no time for fear or there's no time for anger There's no time for anxiety, you know when you're just hanging on What's grateful and getting your mind primed for the day that way I found that you know that that that helps me to perform at a higher level. I usually like to go right into a meditation practice, and I have a different mindful, mindfulness techniques that I that I all, Implement, but usually I'll spend somewhere between ten fifteen minutes after my, gratitude portion of just, Meditating and attempting to be to be mindful and and I spoke on a little bit earlier and that's just you know Removing myself from the equation and then just trying to be present, in the in the here in the present moment, you know and I found doing that coming back to reality helps to Reground me and and repurpose me and again prime me for optimal, success for the day

Chris Albert 01:08:05 (link to this point)

Absolutely. I I was speaking to, Adam Majors from he's got an organization called the Warrior's Ascent. And his his organization, they focus on mindfulness, and they use something called depth psychology which, kind of mixes the psychological and the more mystical elements of the line of of the mind together. Mhmm. And, they do things like yoga and meditation together and they kind of take people through What they call the warriors journey?

And they're out of a they're out of Kansas City, Missouri and they've They've been having some pretty good success with it and I think that in a lot of ways when you are Doing things to take care of yourself like meditation that can actually Shave off the edge of that kind of cortisol dump you're getting every day and and kind of save some of that that pregnenolone. We talked last time about the pregnenolone steal. Basically, you're constantly pumping cortisol out, you're stealing a lot of the pregnenolone that would go into making your positive hormones. The more I think you're able to implement these this type of thing into your into your life The more you're going to shave off a lot of that that those negative stress hormones that can really cause you to have a lot of Hormonal deficiencies down the line as well

Andrew Marr 01:09:33 (link to this point)

Yeah, I agree 100% man. I think is like we have a what I'd call a dopamine rich culture, whereas dopamine is going to that's the brain's reward system, right? So like, I want something on demand and I and I want it now and, I don't get it then, you know, I that makes me angry that that's dopamine and then, Walking around in that stress straight stress state high cortisol level Be it from a real anxiety or perceived one and then having you know, these dopamine flushes again That's that's an unbalanced segment that that you don't want. And I've I've absolutely found that being mindful mindfulness meditation helps that and one thing it also does is it helps with what's called neuroplasticity so the Rewiring of the brain, you know, the brain is so unique in Rewire itself, you know, and and that's we're finding out now is that, If you continue to rewire your brain you can stop the aging process effectively and they looked at did an alzheimer's study and see what was the lowest percentage of people to get it and it was, Academics and it was all down the line because you know high school was a certain rate college. It was a certain rate, Majors and a master's degree and a doctoral degree. Was always less and less and less chance to get Alzheimer's and that's because they kept their mind engaged for the majority of their life. So it's just another way to challenge your mind to keep it engaged and the benefits of it. Man, awesome.

Chris Albert 01:11:06 (link to this point)

Absolutely. That is definitely something that I've been trying to do with my own life because the first thing I did was I tried to hide out in school for a long time. So I went all the way up to PhD in international politics. I don't know what made me think that that was going to be something practical, but I could say that it gave me some alternative perspectives. It helped me To appreciate I guess you could say appreciate our hippie friends if yeah better term, you know, sure but you know in in but but at the same time you know, it it does keep my mind sharp.

And and going into business, I do tend to think about things a little bit differently than other people and things like that. So

Andrew Marr 01:11:56 (link to this point)

do you do yours? Do you do yours in the morning or in the afternoon? What do you like?

Chris Albert 01:12:01 (link to this point)

So I'm a morning person. I'm up every day, as long as it's a good day, at at zero four hundred.

Andrew Marr 01:12:10 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 01:12:10 (link to this point)

And I find that the more work I'm able to get done between zero four and zero eight, the better my day goes.

Andrew Marr 01:12:19 (link to this point)

Right?

Chris Albert 01:12:19 (link to this point)

Yeah. So the first thing I do is I wake up and I sit there for a second and I try to take stock of what's around. I try to really just kind of be present for a second then What I'll do is I'll really focus on my breathing like breathe in and through my nose out through my mouth really really focus on it and try and be mindful of it and then I'll do that for about twenty minutes and then I'll get up and then the first thing I do is I drink some water because the brain needs water as soon as you get up just to try and start function just to try and start to to recover from the night sleep when you're losing a lot of water. And then from there, go to use the bathroom, I'll come back in and I'll pull out my journal, I have a journal right here that I keep listening, and I'll write down everything I'm grateful for, I'll rewrite down my goal, my main goal for the day and then I'll write down what my point of the day is and how I'm going to accomplish it.

And then similarly, evenings, and I haven't been doing this as well as I should should be lately, but my evenings, I'll do the same thing. I'll talk about what went well during the day, what I'm grateful for from that day, what could have been better, and then I'll I'll I'll talk about my focus for tomorrow. What is my focus gonna be for tomorrow?

Andrew Marr 01:13:52 (link to this point)

And then like that. So when would you do that if the schedule, you know, aligned to what you wanted it to be? Like, What time of the evening would you do that?

Chris Albert 01:14:00 (link to this point)

Sleep has never been my best thing, so it's usually around 11:30, but I'd like to get that done by 09:30 if possible and get to bed. I found that

Andrew Marr 01:14:15 (link to this point)

Priming the brain unconsciously or subconsciously, what's going to happen for the next day.

Chris Albert 01:14:21 (link to this point)

Absolutely, and then I'll put it on binaural beats. I don't know if you've heard of them, tones you listen to while you're sleeping, and those helped me out, and that's where I'm screwing up right now is because I need to get the binaural beats back in my life, because they actually help to meditate me to sleep, and They they tend to quiet down some of those thoughts that'll that'll be racking my brain But that's that's the biggest thing is is a you know, the the gratitude is really helps because a lot of times, we sit there and we look at everything that is in front of us right now. We look at the road ahead and we think, oh man, well, it's so long until we get there. I'm not getting the sales I want. I'm not earning a million dollars a year right now, and what we fail to see is how far we've come, and we don't focus on that. I have I have to to remind myself every day, you know, three and a half years ago, I was living out of my car.

Andrew Marr 01:15:29 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 01:15:30 (link to this point)

And, you know, I I've come a long way since then. I've come a long way in a lot of different things since then. And I have to remind myself of that.

Andrew Marr 01:15:40 (link to this point)

Man, three and a half years what you've been able to accomplish is incredible, bro.

Chris Albert 01:15:44 (link to this point)

Well, dude, thank you so much, and and I appreciate that. And, you know, I I think the the biggest reason is because I had, like we said before, is because I had a a purpose behind what we're doing.

Andrew Marr 01:15:58 (link to this point)

Yep.

Chris Albert 01:15:59 (link to this point)

You know, and and my purpose isn't to get rich, you know, you're not going to get rich off of selling t shirts. But I think that there is a community here that, has so much potential. Yeah. And that has so much potential, not just to to to succeed and to achieve, but to have an impact on this country Mhmm. And on this world, and to make this world a better place. And I'm not talking about, you know, make the make The United States strong again and make it militarily strong again. No. Yes, we will, but I'm also talking about being creative, building things, making things that make other people's lives better.

We have that potential in this community, and I know we can do it.

Andrew Marr 01:16:48 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah. It's about, you know, getting, resources that are that are scarce and making them abundant to all, you know, I I think is where we're going, you know, and that's and that's the right thing to do regardless of a specific line in the sand.

Chris Albert 01:17:04 (link to this point)

Have you, have you read this book, Abundant?

Andrew Marr 01:17:07 (link to this point)

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Albert 01:17:09 (link to this point)

Big right now.

Andrew Marr 01:17:10 (link to this point)

Peter Diamandis. Where are you at in it?

Chris Albert 01:17:12 (link to this point)

I am on page 38. I started reading it the other day while I was at the VA, but the first chapter

Andrew Marr 01:17:22 (link to this point)

He has got another book out as well that you want to read after this one. The precursor to that book is awesome as well.

Chris Albert 01:17:29 (link to this point)

Awesome. Yeah. We're talking about the book Abundance by Peter Diamandis.

Andrew Marr 01:17:35 (link to this point)

Steven Kotler.

Chris Albert 01:17:37 (link to this point)

Yeah. It's really, really good. I've just gotten through basically the first couple of chapters, and it's really changing my perspectives on a lot of different things and I'll put I'll put that in the show notes for you guys at home, but but really awesome book and Exactly what Andrew just said taking resources that are scarce and making them abundant, and through that, bringing value to this world.

Andrew Marr 01:18:06 (link to this point)

I listened to somebody say something interesting the other day, and they were like, I can tell you somebody's values simply by looking at where what they spend their money on and where they spend their time. Show me what somebody spends their money on. Show me where they spend their time, and I'll tell you that man's values. And so I thought, wow. What a great thing to say, and what a what a way to aspire to live, to think, hey, that it is really easy.

I can I don't just have to talk about it? I can show it, you know, through these actions.

Chris Albert 01:18:38 (link to this point)

Absolutely. It's a journey.

Andrew Marr 01:18:40 (link to this point)

And I thought that was a great great saying.

Chris Albert 01:18:42 (link to this point)

That's something to think about for all of you at home. Think about if you want to think about where you're going and where you're doing, look at what you're spending your money on, look at how you're spending your time, look at how you're living your life.

Andrew Marr 01:18:56 (link to this point)

That's what changed it for us, and me and my brother again with starting the foundation and making it about other people. When you start looking at it like, Hey, how can we start solving problems that are out there that affect a large number of people? One, man, that's just a great and very fulfilling thing to do. But two, as an entrepreneur, if if you guys are, think about the all the business opportunities that you can find out there to do two things, make and earn a capture value and provide value. Yeah.

I don't that's incredible. That's what the world needs is people who can, you know, provide and capture value because if you can capture that value, then you can put it into somebody, else who can, you know, expand on that.

Chris Albert 01:19:38 (link to this point)

Absolutely. And and what you're finding now in this age of social media and this communications age is that people understand value a little bit more these days. And they understand when you're providing value, and they understand a little bit better now about when you're not. And you're gonna find that people who do good in this world are going to get ahead. You're gonna find that people who do provide excellent value to others are going to get ahead and that's Exactly why I think the veteran community is so primed To to do well here.

Yeah, because we understand service. We understand value. We we understand freedom and we understand being grateful for freedom

Andrew Marr 01:20:21 (link to this point)

Man, I agree and, one takeaway from spending a month out in Silicon Valley was that, Leadership ability and capabilities are still in high demand. That is something that will never go out of style. So the we have plenty of specialization. Right? We we have incredible engineers that are that are at at our disposal.

But what is in a short supply is in people who not manage lead can can clearly communicate intent and then empower everybody with the tools they need to move as a group from a point a to point b. You know that that is a transferable skill So as a veteran think about that think how you can apply those things We don't need you necessarily to know the specifics on you know, how to turn nuts and bolts, on a spaceship. But can you manage that team to get them be able to do it on a timeline, under budget and and come up with new and innovative ways to do it? I think that you can. That's what we provide, and it is in high, high demand.

Chris Albert 01:21:32 (link to this point)

100%. 100%. And you just came out of an entrepreneurial program yourself, right?

Andrew Marr 01:21:40 (link to this point)

Yeah. There's a Stanford Ignite Graduate School of Business out there, and they run a four week program every year for veterans, specifically post nine eleven veterans, being able to come up with the idea, take it through the design process, and to actually how to come up with the business model, business strategy, go to market strategy, and then actually, come up with a prototype and pitch Venture capitalist investors from our the Silicon Valley or get feedback from them on your project So it was a great great opportunity to learn some more insights into the business world, you know That that's where I really wanted to go to it is just try to better what we're doing with the foundation and then try to, you know, see what the Stanford network was all about. It's pretty impressive, Chris.

Chris Albert 01:22:29 (link to this point)

That's awesome. That's awesome. And and, people can apply for that online too, you think. Right?

Andrew Marr 01:22:34 (link to this point)

Yeah. Absolutely. You can type in Stanford Ignite, and, that will come up, next. So they run it, mid June. It starts in mid June.

It's in mid July. So they'll start taking applicants for next year, probably next quarter. So I would check it out on the Stanford Ignite website. I highly recommend it. It's a great opportunity.

It was about it costs $2,000 to the end user, but that's a highly subsidized program by the, alumni there. It costs a lot more than that, and that's gonna cover, housing and and two meals a day And so, know, most of the, incidentals are gonna be covered for so it is a great great investment if anybody's wanting to learn more about the you know design making process the entrepreneurial Process or just get plugged in with Stanford and Silicon Valley. It's a highly competitive Course that you're gonna have to try out to get but all the more reason to go after it.

Chris Albert 01:23:29 (link to this point)

Oh, wow. That's that's amazing One other question I wanted to ask you too was in regards to your practices, what are your workouts like now and do they differ from when you were just getting into the teams and things like that?

Andrew Marr 01:23:46 (link to this point)

Yeah. Totally different in the fact that I don't do the amount of cardio that I do anymore. It's funny, man. I was incredibly fit my entire time professional athlete level fit, but I don't think I really learned about really proper nutrition since being on the wrong side of health, you know, and and not just drinking, you know, Diet Cokes or Coke Zeros anymore, you know, and thinking, I'm not ingesting calories or stuff like that, you know. I'm a lot more clean, how I do things now.

Very functional, on the teams and and everybody kind of has things that that that they're into, but you have to be good at good at everything at a minimum, you know, you have to have endurance, you have to have power, have to have strength, you have to have explosive, power. You have to have all that. What I do now is just things that I like or things that I think are weak points. And so I'm going through this, body weight gymnastics course, right now, and doing a six week progression there because I never spent a lot of time on on body weight. So just getting to to know know the body a little bit different that way.

Normally, what I like to do, is heavy. Right? Heavy Olympic lifts, cleans, jerks, squats. It I don't know. It's what I'm good at and I started lifting at a young age and Thrown around heavy weight just makes me feel good like I've accomplished something I'm set You know setting up a task a goal and going after it and and that's what I like to do But it's you got to get out there and challenge yourself to also do new things and get out of your comfort zone So, you know, that's what I'm doing right now with the gymnastic body body weight workout

Chris Albert 01:25:30 (link to this point)

Awesome. And are you pursuing any other sports besides the, throwing?

Andrew Marr 01:25:34 (link to this point)

No. Well, I will be, mountain biking, next month. I'm doing a three day deal that does a 100 miles in three days, and I'd have money, so that's another good experience. Like our example, I don't have a lot of experience in mountain biking, so I'm starting training Monday, to train up for this, ride we're doing here in a couple months.

Chris Albert 01:25:55 (link to this point)

That's pretty cool. What kind of terrain you're gonna be going through?

Andrew Marr 01:25:57 (link to this point)

It's gonna be, it's all off road. It's out in, in Texas. So Crawford, Texas is Central Texas, so not not too difficult terrain. I don't think there's any any too big drops or anything like that. It's just a forest type level type stuff.

Chris Albert 01:26:15 (link to this point)

Very cool. Very cool. Any other kind of tips you wanna give? If you could give if there's a young kid out there right now who's, you know, not yet necessarily even a veteran, but somebody who's trying to figure out their place in life. Right?

What what would you tell?

Andrew Marr 01:26:38 (link to this point)

Well, I I would go back to the advice I gave, that my dad gave me. And and I'll say it again. If you can find a way to make it about somebody else, put value into somebody else, that's gonna put value into you. But I think you need to build, on that before you can get there. And if you can just focus on, hey.

What are things in life that I'm passionate about? But have a purpose to it, have a why. So be able to figure out what you'd love to do and know why it is that you love to do it. And if that's really the case, then tie that into benefiting somebody else, and then pursue it to the best of your abilities. Contribute and perform to the absolute best of your abilities.

You won't reach perfection, but you can always improve. You know what I mean? And, if you go after life that way with, hey, I'm gonna I'm going to control my attitude. I'm gonna control my effort, and I'm I'm going to put out the top top, performance in those areas, you're gonna be successful because success is a byproduct of just being able to do your best at all times in in every case and for anybody who also needs you to perform. And and realize that you have to earn it.

You have to earn it. Whatever it is you wanna do in life, it comes with a price tag. And if it doesn't, it's probably not worth having. You know what I mean? So, winning a lottery might be cool for somebody, but I would never wanna do that because I just want something that I would be able to earn and say I I made a plan I went out and I persevered and we overcame and we earned it that makes the life worth living being able to earn it And beautiful thing about America is you have the right to go out and earn whatever you want if you wanna try hard enough and work hard enough.

Chris Albert 01:28:36 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Andrew, those are extremely wise words, and, I hope that everyone out there, listen to that and applies that because as I said before, I believe that our community, the veteran community has so much opportunity and so much ability to have a positive impact on this country and That means that so many people out there, so many people out there who are Maybe discouraged with the way the world is right now Maybe thinking about the world in terms of a very dark place You know We can change this we we can change our if not the world if we can't change the world We can change our perception of the world and rather than worrying about things and complaining about things, getting up and going out there and doing things. Going out there and taking action, going out there and making our dreams come true and giving value to others. And The first thing that has to happen Is that people need to know how to how they're going to be taking care of themselves? How to take care of your brain how to heal yourself After your service in a way that's going to allow you to do these things and I just really want to acknowledge you because I think it's an amazing thing That you're doing you're giving so many people the keys that they need To figure these things out for themselves You're giving so many people the impetus to live a better life to To go out there and to take a chance on themselves to not fit there and resign themselves to a fate of wondering what could have been or thinking about the past but focusing on the present and focusing on their current choices and what they're going to do now.

So Andrew, thank you so much for coming on this show, and thank you so much for the work that you're doing.

Andrew Marr 01:31:01 (link to this point)

Yeah, Chris. Thank you brother for having us on and look forward to having a good and long lasting relationship between the two of us, man.

Chris Albert 01:31:08 (link to this point)

Absolutely, brother. I look forward to that too, man. And I will put all of your information for Warrior Angels Foundation on the, on the show notes. Are you on Twitter or, it's

Andrew Marr 01:31:23 (link to this point)

Yeah. We're we're on Twitter at, at WAFTBI, and I I think the same thing for Facebook. But on our on our website, we have the icons there for all of our social media, which I know we have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and, what's the other hot one? Instagram.

Chris Albert 01:31:42 (link to this point)

Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. So dude, thank you so much and to everyone at home. I hope whatever you're doing, wherever you are, you enjoying and loving life and following your path to where do you want to be.

I'll talk to you all soon.