Vincent “Rocco” Vargas: Growth

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

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I hope you get a lot out of it. And without delay, let's get into it.

Chris Albert 00:01:41 (link to this point)

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. That's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

We need to be reminded of this as much as possible with one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul Podcast.

Chris Albert 00:02:21 (link to this point)

Alright, ladies and gents. We have a really awesome guest for you today. His name is mister Vincent Rocco Vargas. You probably already know who he is. You probably know him from the Matt Best channel, from Article 15, from the host of other brands he's worked with, from the movie Range 15.

I thought he was probably the funniest character up there. And he's currently playing in the new FX series Mayans MC, which is a spin off of the original Sons of Anarchy. This dude is a really great guy. Really enjoyed speaking with him, really intelligent, and super self reflective. Like, he's one of these guys who's grown because he's observed himself.

He's observed the impact he's had. He's observed, you know, his place in the community and and the way he was influencing others. We talk a lot about that. He got real honest, and we got real frank. There's a lot of people within our community, the veteran community, that, you know, for lack of a better word, have a chip on their shoulder.

And we talk quite a bit about that very honestly and very openly. So I'm not gonna delay any longer, guys. This is an awesome conversation. You need to listen to the whole thing. And, if you like the episode, like I said before, please let us know.

Please write a review up on iTunes. Let us know on social media. Share this episode out. I think that this guy's got a lot to say, and I think that every veteran needs to hear it. So with that, let's get into the conversation with mister Vincent Rocco Vargas on the Warrior Soul podcast.

Vinny, welcome to the show, man.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:04:11 (link to this point)

Thank you. Thank you for having me on.

Chris Albert 00:04:14 (link to this point)

Dude, I think you get a kick out of this. I had a weird dream last night. I was 12 years old. I was in middle school, right? And Lita Ford wanted to take me to the dance.

Remember who Lita Ford was? No, she had this song was like kiss me deadly. She's like this blonde like glam singer. And like, friggin, I woke up with that song stuck in my head and I can't get it out. It's freaking awful.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:04:39 (link to this point)

I get all the time I wake up I wake up with music in my mind all the time.

Chris Albert 00:04:43 (link to this point)

Yeah, yeah. I think it's something about our brains. Like we remember shit. And when you when you dream and when you get really good sleep, it like, it takes you back through your day. Right?

So like, you'll know things better than before. And if a lot of times I'll wake up with a song or something like that and I'll remember all the words to the song, right?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:05:02 (link to this point)

Yeah, wake up with music all the time. In basic training, the guys will laugh at me about that. They're like, you wake up to a different song. I was like, I know dude. I don't know what it is.

Every hour it goes to something different.

Chris Albert 00:05:11 (link to this point)

It's always something random too. Right?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:05:13 (link to this point)

Yeah.

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

Well, dude, I I'm pretty sure that almost everybody in my audience knows exactly who you are. But can we just real quick go through go through a little bit of your story and and your background?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:05:26 (link to this point)

Yeah. Well, I'm Vincent Rocco Vargas. From college baseball, I went to the military, joined the military with the second and seventy fifth Ranger Regiment went through the whole, you know, process there. Three combat tours, two to Afghanistan, one to Iraq, got out, went into corrections, from corrections and went into the Border Patrol. From Border Patrol, started YouTube in 2013 with Matt Best and the boys.

You know, we started some businesses, we then we went into producing an independent film. And that's kind of where I branched off into doing film and television myself. I kind of found a passion in that and I kind of, you know, there's a reason for that. And I'm sure we'll go over it later. But, but yeah, and so, you know, and then now, now I currently work on, you know, my podcast, I do I do a lot of writing, and, you know, a lot of serial entrepreneur kind of stuff, as well as a few nonprofits I helped run and founded.

And you know, the goal and everything I do are in the essence of who I am and what it's all about is to serve more veterans and try and get more veterans to find that there's life after service. And hoping to help in aiding with a lot of the guys who are struggling with the transition of getting out of the military.

Chris Albert 00:06:37 (link to this point)

Yeah. You know what? I'm a huge fan of your show and what you've done with your show, your podcast. And I was a huge fan of what you did with Range 15 and and all your YouTube videos before. It seems like recently over the last few years, you've made more of a more of like a serious transition with your brand and and who you are and getting your personal message out.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:06:58 (link to this point)

Yeah, you know, it's it's, I think dick and fart jokes, excuse me, if that's, I don't mean to cuss, but you know, All good. Yeah. Okay, cool. Yeah, I don't I don't, you know, I think dick and fart jokes can only go so far, you know, and I think as well as I think after the laughter stops, there's still a void there that needs to be filled. And so you know, as much as I love comedy, you know, I feel like I I don't take myself very seriously, can laugh at myself.

I think there's also that point where, you know, in the position I am in as an influencer, and I use that word lightly, I hate it, but it is what it is. But as an influencer, I would love to be able to, know, help fill that void and help answer those questions that, you know, you know, joking and all that stuff is fun. And it might be what has knocked down a lot of the walls for us to communicate directly. But there has to be filled with something, you know, there has to be some sustenance that they can hold on to. And I think that's part of what we were missing as a group as an entity, but as well as I saw that and wanted to kind of move with that, you know, Everyone has their passions in life, what they want to do.

Everyone has their thing. And for me, I just kind of had my calling. I felt like this is what I want to do. I don't want to be thought of as too serious. But you know, there there is a time when like as a drill sergeant, you know, my years of experience in military and everything else.

But, you know, there's a time to take off that hat and be personable. Right? And for someone to actually to peel back my layers and get to know who I am genuinely and and to know, like, as much as I can joke about my life, I could also tell you about the honest, you know, struggles that I've been through as well. And, you know, that's that's part of, you know, the route I chose, and it has been an easy one, you know, it's it's left me broke at some points, you know what I mean? It's left, you know, it's left me people questioning, like, why did you turn your back on the guys?

I was like, I didn't. I just kind of went my way and they went theirs and we're still friends. It's just, you know, my calling is to do something a little bit different and and take a different approach. And and and this is why I do what I do now.

Chris Albert 00:08:48 (link to this point)

Yeah. And I I think a lot of people don't understand that there was a lot of character development there going on. Right? There Yeah. You know, as as far as who you guys were on YouTube versus who you guys are as people.

I mean, you're a family man. You you that's one of the big things about you that I admire. I admire a lot. And I think people just don't get that. Right?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:09:10 (link to this point)

Yeah. I try to explain it to people. It's like, you know, some people for some reason, can't look past face value, right? Article 15 is genuinely face value. What we were is a gimmick is characterized person, through an exaggerated versions of ourselves to create entertainment.

That entertainment was what was the driving force of our business. What sold T shirts, was selling T shirts and the money from that help us do other projects like Leadslingers Whiskey and whatnot. And so to try and have to break that down, I didn't think we needed to, but we did because people believed we were chauvinist, we were heavy drinkers, we were partiers, you know, but in all honesty, those are characters we portrayed. Best is not Matt Best. Matt Best is a really cool, chill dude.

And Matt Best, the persona is a wild man is like the funnest dude in the room. He's the guy that everybody wants to be like, You know what I mean? You mean that best in person, he's still a really good dude, but he's not the character. You know what I mean? And so it's same as like Rocco, you know, the character Rocco was was kind of the sidekick to the guys and, you know, and that's all entertainment, right?

It was acting in its own. At the level of like mainstream television, but in itself, we created characters of ourselves that are exaggerated versions and made fun of ourselves and that was successful. But the hard thing to watch was that the community took it at its face value. And when you go anywhere I go, people still are like, Hey, man, you want to show the Jameson? And it's like, man, that was all a gimmick.

You know what mean? Like, yeah, you know, in my personal life, I don't drink. I haven't drank in seven months, but I don't drink often. You know what I mean? Because a lot more things take precedence.

And actually, I identified myself that drinking was an issue at one point in my life, you know, and then you start to realize how much we influence guys by the Article 15 era. I realized, look, I can't sit here and promote alcohol, when I know that is one of the number one issues in veteran community is alcoholism, you know, and so it's like, I can't, not in good faith promote it in the sense where, dude, I own a liquor company, and it's hard for me to promote my own company. So I try and do it in a way where it's not, yeah, it's fun to drink, you know, I just say, hey, Leadslingers is here in the city, if you're interested, you know, because it's, it's, it's, we have to, you know, I was gonna do a podcast on mine actually about the subject is, we've been raised in a culture to believe and this is also the Latino community, you know, my personal life is like, you know, I we grew up drinking, you know, I mean, family gets together, it means we drink, you know, and I had to retrain myself and believe in like, that's not true.

I don't have to sit there and drink to have a good time. But the military does it to ourselves as well. We get together and like, hey, yeah, let's get together and have some beers. And it's like, yeah, do we really need to? Is that what you know, like, can have honest, fun communication without that.

For some reason, it's just turned into the culture of what we do. And that's also aided and abetted in the alcoholism and the issues that we have in the community, you know, and so it's like, so now I'm in the position where like, oh, man, all we did, you know, I've grown like shit. 2013, man. You know, how many years ago was that? I grow every year.

And I've matured so much more past that guy, that I myself look back at videos. And am I proud of what we did? Yes. But I'm embarrassed sometimes a little bit. Right?

Because you're like, oh, man, you know, I should have known better.

Chris Albert 00:12:32 (link to this point)

I think there's a lot of parallels there with like, with gangster rap. And the way I say that is is because with gangster rap, they had the personas, they had the characters, they had the the business side of things, what they were selling, But there was also a serious message behind it. Alright? And and and and there because there was issues, deep issues going on. Right? Some people took it a little bit too far, and that's why we had a lot of violence.

And the same thing within our community. I think a lot of people take it a little bit too far in saying, okay. I I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've I've gone to the VA. I'm I'm looking at the guys. I'm looking at the way they're carrying themselves.

And it's kind of like they're wearing a character, they're wearing a character that says, I'm a veteran on this, on that, I've done all these things. I'm a badass. And I drink whiskey all the time, that kind of stuff.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:13:23 (link to this point)

Right. And that's hard to watch, right? That's, it's hard to know that me and my guys and my era of social media influencers, not just the Article 15 crew, but like, know, there's the Grunt Style crew, there's the range Ranger Up crew, there's a bunch of us, right? Yeah, we are all kind of at fault for the inception of the bro vet. Right?

Yeah. We're all it's all our fault. We all fucked up. We don't realize what we're doing right that that became it's like, it's the residual effect of what we did. And we enjoyed and had fun, but didn't realize the impressionable individuals who who really struggle to find identity.

And we all do, right? We all get out of the military and struggle to find identity, held on to that identity, where it's like, you know, and there's not there's never it's never wrong to be proud of what you've done in your life. It's when that is all you ever associate with or as if that is the only time you know I mean? I tell people like, you don't want to be the Al Bundy of the military, you you don't want put the four foot or something one game, your whole life. And that's what happened.

A lot of guys are like, you know, I'm going to show them proud of America by wearing my Grunt Style shirt, Article 15, and my my legendary whiskey and every brand you can think of that, you know, we've created or associated with, right? And it's like, that doesn't necessarily show anything other than that you're buying a product that someone was marketing, right? Like, it's good marketing. Now, take peel back some layers, you can support all these companies because they're better known and I believe in that. Right?

I do believe in that. But I hope that we are mature enough to have our own minds and not be not be, you know, not be influenced in what you wear and how you act because of something you've seen on YouTube. You know what I'm saying?

Chris Albert 00:15:04 (link to this point)

No, exactly. And that's one of the reasons why I like what you're doing with your podcast right now because you're deeper into these issues and into who you are as a person and also your journey into this next life that you're developing with with in interacting.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:15:21 (link to this point)

Yeah, exactly.

Chris Albert 00:15:23 (link to this point)

Exactly.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:15:23 (link to this point)

And it's wild. Awesome to see it. Yeah, no, I appreciate it. It's wild. It's, you know, you're talking to a guy who's always been the brute of the group, right?

I've always been the bigger guy, you know, after high school, I really grew into my body and started being the fighter, the tough guy, you know, and going into the military, I'm considered a big guy. I never in my world, I wasn't a big guy. I never thought I was Going into the military, I realized, okay, I'm bigger than the average dude. So, know, you're six one and you're two twenty plus, right? Like, all of sudden, that's a big Ranger. And so, I'm always the guy who's gonna kick in the room, who's gonna grab the dude, who's gonna, you know, and so I'm using a lot of brute strength. I kind of enough people commented about it that I started believing in that and I started lifting that way. And I'm like, Okay, well, I am the big guy.

So I'll be the big guy, you know? And so I started believing in what other people said as well, you know, and never and I've always been someone who passionately wanted to be a writer, but but I'm dyslexic. So I've struggled with it my whole life, you know? So that was always the insecurity, like, alright, well, I'm not going to be an intellect. Right?

I'm not. As much as I love being the art of writing, I love the art of painting and everything else in just the arts in general. I love it, but I've always been known as the big brute. So, again, face value, I'll go ahead and I believed it for so many years. And then now, also as we did Range 15, was like, man, this is really cool space.

Like I felt it in YouTube. I felt like the character development, I felt all this, like the, I guess the the toe in the water of acting was the YouTube and I was like, man, kind of cool, right? That's why I really enjoyed it. For so long, stayed like, as much as I wanted to do more, it was just so comfortable to do this version of it. And then as we did Range 15, obviously, that took a few steps up.

And I'm like, okay, I think I want to try all the way. And when I did that, I was like, Woah, I'm not the brute anymore. Like, people still see me as the big brute, but acting is not a physical art, right? It's an emotional art. It's really getting into the emotions of life and understanding each scenario and how to get people to be convinced that I'm feeling that as well.

Now you're telling me to use my brain, right? And I'm like, Oh, right. And that is where it became attractive. And that's where I kind of felt more addicted to this out of expression. Then then, you know, being Mongo in the room, you know what I mean?

Chris Albert 00:17:56 (link to this point)

No, that's, that's amazing. It's amazing how the brain works because you mentioned you're dyslexic. You might not be able to get that stuff out through writing or through your fingers or things like that, but being able to convey it through emotion and being able to convey it through your body language, your facial expressions, all those different things, all those details that come in. And then the funny thing about the brain is that the more you use it, the more it puts things together. You might find that in the future, writing is going to be a lot easier for you.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:18:25 (link to this point)

Well, it's been easier in the past three years, and that's what surprised me. And actually, maybe because I've had to communicate verbally how I feel, because writing it was impossible. Now I could actually write how I feel in a more profound, visceral way. And it's, and it's interesting to like, man, I'm, I think the best compliment I ever get as a writer is if I write a poem, you know, and usually some of the poems are emotional, right? A lot of my poems are kind of darker than my actual, you know, what you see.

When someone says they read my poem and they say, I feel like you were writing my own memories, my own life, like as if I took it from their head and put it on paper. Or when they say, Man, I never knew how to put that into words. But the way you did that was perfect. Then it's for me, it's like, I did it. Right?

That's that's I'm very proud moment for myself to be able to, to articulate an emotion on paper for someone else to read like, Holy smokes, he hit it right on the head, you know?

Chris Albert 00:19:24 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:19:25 (link to this point)

And that's all from growth. Right? That's like, if I didn't, if I didn't believe in myself, I didn't try, if I didn't continue to try and try and learn, I never would have gotten to the point where now I'm a published writer. You know what I mean?

Chris Albert 00:19:36 (link to this point)

Yeah. And that's just part of it too. It's it's gotta be that continuous growth, that continuous desire to make yourself better, to expose yourself to different things. I mean Yeah. That's one thing I do every morning. Try to read something that I wouldn't have normally read. Like, I'm reading Montaigne right now. Just Oh, nice.

Try to get exposed to it. That dude, you know, when he he reached midlife, he lost one of his best friends to to an early death. And he locked himself in a room and just started writing. He started writing about himself. And when you read something like that, that's from like hundreds of years ago, and it speaks to you still.

That's amazing. And that's with with all these different forms of communication that we have podcasting, video, everything that we do. It's amazing when you touch someone like that. And I watched one of your spoken word pieces. I think it was about last week I turned it on, and it was it was you alone in your apartment, waking up and then going to the gym running into somebody who you hadn't seen in a while.

That really hit me. It really hit me deep down.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:20:43 (link to this point)

I appreciate it, you know, and that you know, the whole that was my first attempt to doing something serious outside of the YouTube comedy. But something that's been in my heart for years, you know, I've struggled a lot with with the loss of a couple friends in the military and, and, you know, you raise a lot of questions in yourself and a lot of insecurities and going through a divorce at the same time. Like, so my life kind of got, you know, a lot of a lot of ugly stuff got stacked up on on top of one another. And then it's all on me now. And embarrassed about losing a marriage, embarrassed about being cheated on, embarrassed about, like, feeling really insecure about, like, being a man but being emotional.

You know, like, all these things that the world is telling me I shouldn't be, all of a sudden, I am. I'm weak. I'm vulnerable. I'm emotional. I'm questioning like, whether I'm man enough, like everything and knowing I lost a couple friends that I can't get over.

Like, I cannot let that go, you know, and so it's like, you know what, let me express this honestly. Not normal to do. My life is was was obviously new to social media and finally getting exposed to like, everybody seeing my life. You know what I mean? And I'm like, you know what, fuck it.

Let me just put it out there. I'm gonna this is how I feel. And I wrote the spoken word and I sent to a buddy who does film. He's like, dude, this is really good. I said, yeah, man, it's really raw and it's real.

You know, it's it's how I feel. He goes, let's do it. And so we made this this short film and it and it, you know, it I don't even know how to say it. It went to a film festival. We only put it in one and it got mentioned, didn't win anything, but it got mentioned and and which is cool, you know, and my first attempt at anything myself, it hit.

Right? And and if anyone takes the time to listen to it, anyone takes the time to break down the verbiage in it, right, the the poem itself, it will hit you where you're gonna be like, oh, man, that's super honest. And it is. It is. You know, I've gone through all that.

You've seen that video. I've gone through it. You know what mean? I was a car salesman, right? I did lose my, I did lose my marriage.

I was drinking a ton. You know what I mean? It was it was I was contemplating, you know, like, man, life better from just gone? Is it easier? Yeah, that's my head.

It's like life will be a lot easier if I didn't have to deal with it. And what are the options there? We all know what the options. You know what I mean? So all this going to my head, I wrote it.

And I thought, you know what, everyone talks about veteran suicide. Everyone talks about the issue, but like, no one approaches in a different way in a different art form. So that's why I did the spoken word version. Like, one would, no one does that. Everyone does all these other weird things.

Everyone's trying, right? Everyone's coming up with a concept that they think is best. I said, you know what? Let me hit someone artistically. And hopefully, they feel it differently or maybe it actually gets through them, you know.

And, you know, I didn't get the views that I wanted, but at the same time, man, the people that did view it appreciated it.

Chris Albert 00:23:30 (link to this point)

At the same time, you know, you also you put yourself out there and you tried it. Right? And that's a huge thing.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:23:37 (link to this point)

When you when you try things, that's when you learn.

Chris Albert 00:23:39 (link to this point)

Right?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:23:40 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:23:40 (link to this point)

You're friends with Nick Koumalatsos. Right? I had him on last week and we were talking about, you know, how we both fell flat on our face the first time we tried to start a business. And Yeah. You gotta expect you're gonna be able to do that.

And because even if you fall flat on your face, you're going to learn something from it. And it could start something that that eventually leads to something.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:24:02 (link to this point)

It's funny, like, I've never been afraid to fail. That's why like, I don't care. You know, when I did that, I just did it. I did the best I could and I did it. If one person viewed instead of saving their life, cool.

Perfect. Yeah. But I know what I did it for was to get it off my chest and to put it out into the world. And that's it. That's all I can do.

I don't care about like millions of views. It would be nice because I know it could help more. Right? Like, that's why that's the only reason viewership matters is the more veterans that watch it, I think it would it would affect them better. But look, man, if one guy watched it, I'm cool with it.

I don't care. I didn't put it out there for that. Don't everything I do, social media wise, everything I don't do it for for, for to feel it to get affirmation from strangers. Don't it's not about that. You know what I mean?

It's about let me create something that I mean something to me. And I'm just gonna let it's like, well, let go of that burden, let go, wherever the fuck it goes, it goes, I don't give a shit. But I put it out there. It feels good for me. And if it's if it's just therapy for me and what I do, cool.

And if someone catches it, someone finds it somehow. And randomly, dude, people find it. I don't know how the fuck it happens. Randomly people find it. And when they do, I always get a good message.

And it's cool, man. I have another one I'm working on right now, actually, too.

Chris Albert 00:25:05 (link to this point)

That's awesome. That's awesome.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:25:07 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:25:08 (link to this point)

The other part of it is like, you stop playing the character and and you were you during the whole thing.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:25:15 (link to this point)

Yeah. You know, I yeah. Go ahead. I'm sorry.

Chris Albert 00:25:17 (link to this point)

And you mentioned you're getting a lot you get a lot of flack for that sometimes where where you stop playing the character, you know, people people come at you in different ways. You know, what have you found is is the best way of of getting these messages out to people? Because, obviously, people people find you, they found you in one way, they're finding you now in a different way. What how do you approach that?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:25:42 (link to this point)

It's like this, man. If they followed my Instagram, I've never changed from day one. From day one, you go back, I think my first pictures on the border patrol on the border and I took a picture of a swan in the water or some shit, right? I think my my picture five, think it's already my kids. Like my kids will be my social media.

And if you follow Instagram, that's the most honest version of me. You know what mean? You're gonna get the dumb stuff, the funny stuff, the freaking family stuff, you're gonna everything that I'm involved in. That's it. So people that follow my social media early on, they knew me.

Like, you might call me Rocco, but not but Rocco's the same dude as Vince Vargas. There's no difference, right? Rocco isn't a character. Rocco on YouTube, that's the dude, it's a character. But that's also the actor side of me.

You know what I mean? So like when people will kind of, there's people that kind of cross line and they're like, Hey, bro, get fun with my wife and say, Hey, bro, is this a zombie? You're like, obviously, obviously, it's not and you're just an immature kid. So if this guy actually wanted my time to talk to me, he was gonna get it, you know, and I'm not I'm a nice guy, man. But I'm also not a not a pushover, you know, so it's like, same time people trip out like they say, Hey, man, let me buy you a shot.

I'm like, Nah, dude, but you can buy me a coffee. You know what I mean? Like, I don't drink. You know what mean? I'm not that guy.

So, you know, I think I've carried myself in a way where people respect that I'm genuine as they come. I have nothing to hide. And I'm not embarrassed about saying I don't drink. I'm not embarrassed about saying I was an idiot back then and embarrassed of some of the things I did. You know what mean?

I'm not I'm not embarrassed of it. I'm okay with accepting that, you know, I've made some decisions that I'm not proud of and, know, I move on. I and I try and get better. So it's like, if they followed me, they know who I am. If they didn't follow me and they catch me on just YouTube and they find me in public and say some weird shit, they're gonna get like the version of me as like, cool.

Have a good day. You know what I mean? I just I need anyone to love me. I'm just existing and I'm hoping, know, I'm doing my best not to to piss anyone off. But at the same time, I don't live my life concerned with how people care.

Yeah. I can like what people think. I appreciate the following. I appreciate the support, I guess. Right?

And that's really, I think everyone's just support. Don't I don't I don't really I don't like calling people fans. I think it's weird. But at the same time, like, everyone who follows me supports what I do. And they are the reasons why I have the life that I have.

So nothing but a blessing, you know. But if they follow me long enough, they know I don't I don't fuck around. I'm just a genuine dude.

Chris Albert 00:28:06 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:28:06 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:28:07 (link to this point)

Absolutely. You're also me in this transition from, you know, being with border patrol and and government work to being an actor where, you know, before there's a paycheck coming in every month, everything's coming in. Now you gotta you got to constantly go out there and grind constantly go out there and sell yourself, right?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:28:25 (link to this point)

Yeah, sucks. It's funny, I know, hope no one thinks that I'm still sitting here solidified and acting for the rest of my life. I am such a ADD individual when it comes to what's going to pay the bills for the family and what is something I genuinely love. You know, like, just today, genuinely, I just messaged the chief of Border Patrol saying, get me in. Right.

Why? I don't know. I just get like, antsy. You know what I mean? I'm like, scary, dude.

It's scary raising a family and not having the security of a check the first in the fifteenth. You know what I mean? The only problem with that is that I really believe in a lot of the stuff that's in my brain that I want to put out on paper. I want to create videos with and I want to, you know, I want to tell stories, whether it's in theater, books or film. I believe I can help a lot of people.

I really do. You know, and I think it's a slow process of gaining the trust of individuals who are going to finance projects, you know what I mean? But I think I'm meant to be in this world to help more. And if I put myself back in the Border Patrol, it slows down that process. And I think it's not fair to everyone else.

Like, I really have a lot on my plate that I want to give back, you know. And so, I find that comfort that I'm doing the right thing for myself. Like, there's definitely internal happiness in doing what I'm doing. That doesn't mean physically I'm not stressing the hell out. You know what mean?

So, you know, it's something that we're trying to figure out still. It's weird to get what you get paid for the whole year in five months and figure out how to manage that. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, my my year starts when Mayans episode one starts.

But here's the scary part. There's no guarantee for season three. Right? There's no guarantee for season seven. So the next six months is up to me to kind of establish something else for my family, whether it's another acting gig, or it's training, right?

Contract work, whatever, you know, because obviously I have this experience, or it's the podcast growth or it's write another book. It's it's a million other things that are on my plate to try and bring in a revenue stream that's going to help the family. And so stressful, but I think it also, you know, being who I am and what I've done in life, I guess I kind of always enjoy being in the stressful side of things. Think it motivates me more. I think I work harder and, know, when I'm facing like stress like that, I'm like, okay, find a way to, you know, and so I get paid to speak engagements, which is beautiful.

I love it. That's been like, the pay is cool. But the big thing to me is just being able to go out there and travel around and talk to more people and affects more people. So, know, I'm growing all different aspects and trying to just continue to keep the lights on and hopefully one of days it hits, right?

Chris Albert 00:31:14 (link to this point)

Yeah, no, exactly. I think people have this false perception, they say, alright, well I see this guy on YouTube, I see this guy's got a podcast and they think it's easy. And they think it just just kinda comes. And and you put yourself out there on social media, everybody's gonna buy. But this is hard work.

It's a grind. And and the thing is, there isn't like I think a lot of new guys who get in the business, they think it's like one video or one viral thing that's going to make it big for you. And it's really not. It's a gradual build up no matter what you do.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:31:47 (link to this point)

Right? Yeah, that's what it is. It's like, you know, they say overnight success takes ten years. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know.

I have I have several business. I have no idea which one's going to be this successful or if all of them were going to be successful, all are going to fail. You know what I mean? I hope to God they're all successful. It'd be really nice for me.

Which is the way numbers work, man. It's not, you know, it's probably not gonna be one out of seven. You know what I mean? So it's it's it's hard, hard work. And it's continuously everyday wake up to continue.

Like, And the family's good. If I land a movie and they say, hey, we're gonna pay you a 120,000,000 just to sign like, okay, game over. I'm done. Everything else can take it back. I can breathe finally.

I can sleep finally. The family's good. But it doesn't mean I'm gonna stop because I'm like, okay, well, now I can focus on just the book.

Chris Albert 00:32:46 (link to this point)

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Exactly. With the Mayans, and I have to say, I was big fan of the Sons of Anarchy franchise until they killed Opie.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:33:00 (link to this point)

Was like I remember that moment, man.

Chris Albert 00:33:04 (link to this point)

And you wanna know the funny part? So I used to own Metroflex gym down in Long Beach, and that dude who killed him used to come in and train with Kali Muscle. And then I live out in Redlands and I see the dude everywhere. And every time I see him, I'm like, I know he's just an actor, but he killed Opie.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:33:24 (link to this point)

It's crazy. Yeah. It's good.

Chris Albert 00:33:29 (link to this point)

But this franchise, I mean, it's got so much potential. Amazing story. How did you come to be involved with it?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:33:37 (link to this point)

In the right place, right time, and the right amount of training, I guess. Most guys didn't know I did some theater in college. And so that's actually because I was dyslexic. I was failing a lot of classes and my coach was like, hey, you need to get you need to find a class. It's be as easy A.

He goes theater class and I was going to Glendale Community College, which inadvertently, Marcus Alvarez, Emilio Rivera, who plays Marcus Alvarez, went to theater at Glendale Community College years before me. So, it's kind of funny how, yeah, it's small world. But I'm doing theater classes, man. And my theater coach was just like, man, you're naturally really good at this. I'm like, oh, I don't know, man.

I'm just, you know, the first thing I ever did was playing a drunk college kid coming home trying to sneak in. Like, I do that every Saturday. I do that shit at home. So it wasn't hard to play, you know, But something about it was was fun. And I love it, you know, but never in a million years thought I could do anything with it.

Just like, let me get my A so I can pass my college so I can play baseball. Then you obviously you have the whole evolution of my career from from YouTube to the range of team and then boom, I jumped into Dadsden Parks. You remember those small skits? It's kind of like an improv comedy, semi scripted. And we do it on YouTube, then they actually went national.

They started playing in front of the movies before the movies came out. And that got a lot of notoriety. And so my buddy was like, hey, fly out here and do it again. Let's do more of these. Let's keep them going.

I'm like, alright, cool. You know, we'll just keep filming these and I think it's gonna be good for me. And at that time, I kind of decided Hollywood is what I want to do. I just didn't know really where to start from here. You know, I have an independent film that I produced that I acted in that I helped, you know, with the whole thing.

They give me a little bit of credibility. But the movie wasn't like, you know, what it was really kind of a cult classic in our world. It's recognized, but everywhere else, no one really know what the hell it was. So, like, I'm showing up here with a little bit of credits, but more producer credits and acting credits, you know what mean? So I'm like trying to build them.

I'm building them. And so I flew to LA. And while I'm in LA, Steve Howie, a good buddy of mine, he's like, Hey, man, they're still looking for guys for the Mayans MC. If you're interested, man, I said, bro, I'm in LA right now. Like, I'm in LA filming dads and parks right now.

What do they need me? He goes, Well, let me send him some information. So I made a quick reel of YouTube of Range 15 of dads in the parks, you know, of brothers in arms, because I was already filming that I pitched that show to me and a producer kind of went head to head and decided to try and make that happen. And so I had a real, inadvertently just had one, put it together, send some pictures. And I was like, Yeah, let's see him.

We'd love to see him. We haven't come in for an audition. So boom, I get the email from the audition. They send me the words. I'm terrified because I'm dyslexic.

So I have my wife reading it. And I'm like, Are you sure it says this? Was like, Okay, are you sure? Because I flipped these all day long. Right?

So I've never been to an audition, bro. The first movie I did, we did it ourselves. I have no idea what I'm doing here. So I called my buddy saying, hey, what do I need to do? And he explains it to me.

He goes, look, show up there and read off paper, which means don't have the sides in front of you, right? Just memorize it. I was like, okay, that's fine. I'll do that. And he goes, and don't be fucking scared.

Like, show up there and you own it. Like, he goes, you've been to combat. That's this is not scary. Just go in there and do it. I was like, alright.

And so I showed up and just genuinely just kind of read the scene, knew the character. And what I did was the character, the first character I read for reminded me of an NCO in the military. And so I kind of took that swagger. I kind of like, alright, I'm a cocky e5, e6. And I'm telling my subordinates to just fucking fall in line, right?

So I read it, boom, boom, boom, boom, done. And they gave me a hug and I said, it was great. We'll call you. And I'm like, all right. Well, my vacation's over in California.

So me and my wife flew back. Right. Get a call. We need to see you again the next day. Kurt Sutter wants to see you.

And I'm like, holy smokes now nervous. Right. You know? So I buy a ticket. And at the time, only had, $800 in my account.

That ticket was, like, $500. So I like, sorry, babe. I got to try. Like, we got it. Like, when is this ever going happen again?

So boom. I flew back to LA. Now I have my dad with me because he's driving me to the to the audition. And now I have two different characters. I have that same old salty NCO kind of character.

And then I have what would be more of like a prospect that the private in the unit, it just showed up. And that's kind of where I took it. Was like, reading it. I'm like, I this guy's a new guy. He, you know, he's got no respect.

People laugh at him. He's just a punk. And so I did the first scene of the of the old salty dude. And they're like, cool. And then I did the second scene with the with the private.

They said do it again. I did it a second time. And something happened in that scene where I felt really like, I'm a dumb private kind of mentality. That's kind of why I took the character. The whole room laughed.

And I was like, oh, cool. Right? Shook Kurt Sutter's hand, walked out. Like, I'm just trying to act like I'm like, I've been here before. No big deal.

We're good. You know, as I'm leaving, man, my dad is kind of jumping on my back just proud. My dad's a huge Harley guy. I rode rides motorcycles my whole life. Like, so so he's just like, it was, would be cool for me to be on the show for him, you know, he's jumping on my back.

And he's kind of like, give me a headlock saying, Man, I hope you get it. And I'm like, Yeah, me too. Whatever. As we're walking, we're, my dad's doing this. I didn't realize that upstairs, they're watching us.

And Kurt sees it and saw something and he mentioned it to the casting director like, wow, it's beautiful. Right? Some some to that effect, right? Like, that's really genuine. And the casting director calls me and goes, hey, you're hired.

I was like, fuck, bro. Like, what does that even mean, bro? You know what mean? Like, what does that mean? And three days later, man, I'm on set.

I'm the first pilot.

Chris Albert 00:39:29 (link to this point)

Oh, man. That's amazing. That's amazing.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:39:31 (link to this point)

And I'm sitting there acting like I know what I'm doing. I'm just like, just just cool, bro. And it's funny because, you know, I tell this story all the time. Blows my mind. I am an ex military and law enforcement officer in a room with a lot of half, like, lot of half the dudes were ex felons.

Right? Straight up. Yeah. Like, these guys came from prison, started acting and and making their way in the career. Beautiful stories.

All of them. And Kurt even mentioned, I pride myself in this group of cast members because you guys have more prison time than screen time, meaning more genuine rawness. And everyone looks at me and sees my tattoos and sees me. I look like I probably was in prison. I get it.

But I'm like, now this is really awkward because I was actually on the other side and I felt bad. You know, wasn't sure if these guys were going to they're gonna they're gonna, you know, cash me out, man, treat me different, you know, and it didn't take it didn't take two days of just hanging out with the guys and I'm getting to know me and getting to know them. It was like it was like jumping into a platoon of dudes that I've been there all day.

Chris Albert 00:40:33 (link to this point)

It's funny how that works. Right? Chris, you take those parallels from your life, like showing up to a unit for the first time, showing up to your platoon for the first time, and then kind of taking those skills and kind of transitioning them over to to what you're doing right now. Know, it's a similar situation, group of guys trying to get to know them, to get to know their strengths because I'm sure I've never been an actor before, I'm sure you've you've to play off of each other. You got to realize what the other person's gonna do. Right?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:41:01 (link to this point)

Yeah. For sure. Yeah. It's it's and it's funny the parallels of a felon who's someone who's spent time in prison and a military guy. Talk about the same transition issues.

You get out of the military, you're trying to figure yourself out. You get out of prison, you're trying to figure yourself out. It is so similar because even a lot of these guys come from prior gangs. Gangs are nothing but a military unit. They have, they have rank structure, they have, you know, rules.

We do too. So, you know, every single one of these dudes has conveyed the message like, man, you know, I wanted to be in the military. I thought about it, you know, so it's this funny dynamic when they found out as military, they were just completely, it was cool. There's so many parallels that we what we experienced in life and we all go through trauma, right? You know, a lot of these guys who have, you know, have a gang background, they come through some kind of trauma, you know, family trauma, whatnot, whatever the case in us coming out of the military, most of us experience trauma ourselves, emotionally, mentally, whatever the case.

So it's crazy. And it's where we found, you know, our common ground and where we kind of became really close because of that. Wow.

Chris Albert 00:42:08 (link to this point)

And, you know, that's the thing too. I mean, you think about somebody's life, there's that one thing that could have happened, right? Maybe maybe they made the decision to go to the recruiter. Maybe maybe maybe you made an opposite decision and you could be in a completely different place. Life is crazy.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:42:25 (link to this point)

That's the thing, man. I grew up, you know, my father was an ex gang member. You know, my father was actually, you know, got arrested for a gang fight. He hit a guy with a pipe and, you know, they made the choices that this pro officer was like, you can either join the military, or you can go to prison, you know. And at the time, was like, well, go to the military, you know, my dad easily, you know, my dad's a knucklehead, but he joined the military and straighten them out, you know.

I easily grew up in the same same stuff as he did. But I wasn't in gangs, right? My brother was involved in the world. I was so heavily involved in sports. And I was fortunate enough that it kept me away from it.

But I've seen my friends go through it. I mean, my first drive by I've ever heard was around 10 years old. You know what I mean? 15 years old, I'm in the block with some of my buddies and you drive by down the street, you're like, Oh, woah, by, let's go inside. You know what I mean?

And so my first gunshots, you know, I heard overseas was just a difference. It was like actually just different rapid fire, right? I was like, Oh, okay, I get the difference. You know what mean? But it wasn't a shock to me.

Like, I heard this. I grew up around that. You know what I mean? So it's this interesting thing that easily might have a turn where I was in prison. Hands down.

I was just busy playing sports and luckily was fortunate enough not to get caught doing anything stupid.

Chris Albert 00:43:38 (link to this point)

Right.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:43:39 (link to this point)

Right.

Chris Albert 00:43:40 (link to this point)

You know, when when we look at at different groups of people and, you know, back to the whole veteran issue, one of the things I've I've seen a lot of, unfortunately, in our community is there's kind of like a victim of victims mentality that that kind of happens. Right. And when I say victims, you know, you look out at the world, we we see them all, people are complaining, people are doing this, people are doing that. But I think in our community, one of the things that one of the unfortunate things that's happened and it's been common, and it's not amongst everybody, but it's this mentality like, okay, the world is this way, and I don't mesh in with that world, so I'm gonna increasingly kinda isolate myself. I'm gonna I'm gonna be pissed off about it.

But you seem to you know, and and I I know you've been through your own issues, but you seem to have this kind of light about you where you're just gonna accept what happens and you're gonna respond to it in a way that that that is going to put you into a better place. Right?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:44:47 (link to this point)

Well, I'm not naive enough to think that my life is going to stay smooth. You know what I mean? Like, I live in this in this mindset of like, you know, if you're not personally embedding into my my little circle, my wife, my kids, my mom and dad, I'm not worried about where your opinions are, what your thoughts are, what your political beliefs are. I don't care. It doesn't bother me.

It doesn't affect me. Somebody's post on social media is not going to change the president's freaking, you know, people running for office. It doesn't. For some reason, our society and our culture and our community think that they voice their opinion on social media, it actually matters. It 100% does not matter.

It's wasted energy. I will not waste my energy on just redundant dialog. Right. It just doesn't make sense. And that's what we're doing.

Right. And so, you know, I don't post my opinions on any of that stuff because my opinion is my opinion and me posting it has no effect personally. Realistically, just wouldn't do anything. Doesn't move the needle. So why waste my energy?

I don't get mad at like, don't do this whole FBA. Right? Like, you know, I've had good days at the VA. I've had really bad days. It is what it is.

That's life. You know what I mean? I don't sit in this world thinking life is perfect. And that everyone around me is never gonna pass away. Right?

I don't live in this imaginary bubble that 22 push-ups stop suicide. Right? Do you see what I'm saying? Right. You know, I don't I people can't expect that every GoFundMe needs to be shared.

Chris Albert 00:46:23 (link to this point)

Right.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:46:24 (link to this point)

Exactly. It's this funny thing where, like, people have to understand that your issue is not necessarily my issue. And that's okay. You know what I mean? So, like, what happens is is we we get so offended.

You don't you care about veterans. Like, yeah, I do. I get about a 100 freaking GoFundMe's a day. The honest truth is, why would I share something that is not near and dear to my heart? Because when I do need something near and dear to my heart, I've already exhausted all efforts and all money.

You know what I mean? Like, when someone really close to me passes away and there's a GoFundMe, I will share that because that means a lot to me. Right. And that's what I want to put my efforts towards. But if I share a GoFundMe every damn day, well, then I've already exhausted my resources in my group, and the person that needs it the most that affects me the most, family, God forbid, whatever the case, will not get the same resources.

So, people get mad that I don't feel the same way they do about their issues, right? The 22 thing, right? I'm just gonna do a podcast on this whole thing. The '22 thing, it's a trip, man. We have turned the number '22 into into, I don't know, I guess for some reason we've grabbed that number, and we ran with it.

And now it's identified as veterans in '22 going hand in hand.

Chris Albert 00:47:46 (link to this point)

The first episode of this podcast, I actually did it on that. Right? And the thing about it is this. And I know quite a bit about psychology just back from my PhD days. But we have this thing, it's called social proof.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:48:00 (link to this point)

Right?

Chris Albert 00:48:01 (link to this point)

It's a psychological concept. And when somebody that's like us, right, that has the same attributes as us, that that that we identify with, does something, it makes us more likely to do it too. That's a that's a human principle. Right? And so if you're going out there and you're spreading that number, 22 veterans a day, 22 veterans a day, 22 veterans a day, and that's all you're talking about, guess what you're doing?

Right?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:48:29 (link to this point)

You're perpetuating it.

Chris Albert 00:48:31 (link to this point)

Right.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:48:31 (link to this point)

It's crazy. Becomes you're now the biggest best car salesman for the '22. You have now created all these posts that are going out through social media saying, well, I guess I should just be one of the 22. You know, how times I see that shit? You know, many times it's sent to me?

It drives me fucking off the wall. It's like, you know, I just do this thing like, you know, my buddy comes to me and goes, hey, man, I'm having a really bad day. And I was like, you know what? Let's do 22 bullshit real quick. Let's see if that goes away.

Bullfucking shit. Bullfucking shit. And I get it. We all have a bleeding heart for the subject. How the fuck do we fix this?

Right? How the fuck do we fix it? I have some ideas. And those are just my ideas, right? Everyone has ideas.

But I'll tell you what doesn't work. Right? We are no longer in the era of suicide awareness, the world is fucking aware and the world's every veteran as a suicidal maniac. That's the saddest part. That's what we did.

You know, my mom doesn't really know much about my military career besides the little bit, right? She also knows like, lot of veterans commit suicide, like, oh, goddamn it. Well, you know, a lot of people commit suicide, mom, you know, it's a world issue. It's a human. It's not a veteran issue.

We have cops commit suicide, we have kids commit suicide. The world right now, United States Of America has a suicide epidemic. But what we did as a community trying to drive attention towards us, we end up making it a it's our issue now. Veterans commit suicide. Veterans are the only ones with PTSD.

Veterans are the only ones with TBI. Oh, motherfucker. Goddamn it. We have issues. We need to fix them.

But highlighting the negativity of our community is only giving everyone else a negative outlook on our community. Right. That's what bothers me. You know, 22 push-ups a day is not is if you're trying to do it for suicide awareness, we're all aware. How about suicide prevention?

Where's the answer there? Right? And the only way I can say suicide prevention, think it's What about living, you know? Right. Yeah, I'm I'm enjoying our lives. How about let's identify all the successful veterans out there that are kicking ass. Those are the ones we should be highlighting.

Those are ones we should put on a pedestal. Those are the ones we should let me see the blueprints of that guy's life. What did he do? What is his answers? How did he do it?

That's the guy. Instead of being the victim. We are all victims. For some reason, these guys are putting themselves like, oh, man, nobody's helping me. Motherfucker, no one no one's supposed to help you.

Nobody sits there and pumps your chest fucking full of air. You do it every goddamn day. Same fucking way you gotta get your ass up and go get yourself a job. Some guy calls me and asks for money. Gets mad because I don't wanna give him money.

He's like, bro, I have fucking money. I got fucking six kids. Have you applied have you applied at Walmart? No. Why not?

You too good for fucking Walmart? Because I'll tell you right now, motherfucker, I Uber and sold cars at the same time just to fucking pay my rent. I have no ego. I got kids as a fucking father. It's my fucking obligation to put money to put food in their mouth.

So I would do whatever the fucking has to do even it comes to stripping on a goddamn pole, bro. There is nothing above what I'll do for my family. Nothing. And people don't get that. And if you're not that, well, then you're looking for a fucking handout, dude.

And if you're looking for a handout, get away from me. If you're not willing to help yourself, why are you going to try other people to help you? I think it's crazy to me. It's crazy to me. Right?

It's like, it's it's the hardest thing is that people off subject of the other one. But, I don't know. I think, you know, it's it's just social media has made the made the issue harder for a lot of us is that, you know, social media gives everyone a voice and everyone feels like now they're obligated to have an opinion. And everyone feels like their opinion matters And it doesn't. No one gives a shit.

You know what mean? Like, it just doesn't matter. The only things that matter is what is what you can touch, right? The people's lives that you can connect with person in your small circle. And that small circle grows into a bigger circle.

So influence people in a positive way, it slowly will grow outside of that. You have people doing that all over The United States. We can start to influence change in a positive manner. Stop talking about the negative, push the positive. Not saying think positive and positive shit happens.

No, I'm saying be positive straight up work hard for it. There's guys in hero sports that have a drinking problem. There's one guy that has a drink in particular, we know, and that's fine. But we're not going to enable him, right? So some the guys took him out to drink and boom, right away said, Nope, This organization might be the enablers of his actions.

There's there's never gonna be an okay for that. I don't get people together to go drink. We can get people together to to to play sports. I can't I can hold this guy's hand to counseling. It's up to him to take this motherfucker.

If he doesn't take it, well, then he's out of the organization. We will not enable people. You know what I'm saying? Right. Guys have to take responsibility for their own fucking actions.

And if just because I'm not paying this guy bills are weak, he can't come in and say, I don't care about veterans. Like, no, I care about veterans, But I'm also not a babysitter for that. There's a big difference.

Chris Albert 00:53:14 (link to this point)

Exactly. And and all the bad shit that happens in your life doesn't matter. You you choose how you respond to it. Right? And and

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:53:24 (link to this point)

that's it.

Chris Albert 00:53:25 (link to this point)

I think too many people get wrapped around. Oh, I've done this in my past. I've done that in my past. And the thing we forget is there's been a lot. The human race has been here for a long fucking time.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:53:35 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:53:37 (link to this point)

Hundreds of thousands of years. Through our history, up till the last maybe thirty years, life was pretty fucking brutal, like for a lot of different people. The general life of everyday people was brutal. And you know, what's happened to us over the past, you know, twenty years with with what we've been through doesn't make us special. Right?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:53:59 (link to this point)

Yeah. That's it's the crazy thing. It's the crazy. Sorry. My wife just called it a ton.

But I'm not sure what happened. Guys got out of the military expected the world to help them. Like someone's on civilian aspect, what can we do? What can we do as civilians to help veterans? Is it nothing?

The guy needs to help himself. And I say that, I guess, like, kind of like the tough love thing. I think guys need to go to counseling no matter what. I think everyone needs to go to counseling. Right?

You know what mean? I think it's like, the big problem we have is guys aren't willing to go to counseling. They need to go to counseling straight up, but they also need to have they take responsibility for their own actions. People just don't want to do that anymore. Right?

Like, in the military, I know you didn't have to really, it was just like this, your first line leader will correct you every time you're wrong. No one's gonna do that here in the civilian world. No one cares, you know, you can wither away and disappear. No one's gonna really say anything because, look, man, it's a competition. Like, we're all competing with life.

We all have to work hard and the people that work the hardest tend to find more success. And it's just kind of this equation that is proven. You have to take responsibility your actions. And if you don't, you're always gonna be looking at everyone else to blame. And that's where we have problems.

All these veteran dudes are blaming everyone else for not helping them. The VA is not helping. Like, they don't want to give a military discount. They don't understand my disability. They don't have to.

You know what I mean? Like, no one has to understand your life. That's your issue. That's your thing you're dealing with. That's your ego.

That's your insecurities. That's yours. I don't expect my mom to care about what I went through in the military. All I know is she loves me, and she just wants me to do good for myself. Right.

And that's the thing is, like, everyone's in the in the medical world, as you're putting an IV and someone in there, like, it's gonna hurt. Like, you don't give a fuck. Look. This is your emergency, bro. I'm gonna try and fix it by putting a needle on your fucking arm, giving you some fluids.

I don't care if it hurts or not. I'm trying to help you in this way. You gotta I'm not worried about how you feel. I'm gonna try and help. Right?

So it's like, it's not my emergency. I don't worry about it. I'm not worried about how you feel. And so as sometimes I've come in, like, oh, my life. Genuinely.

There's a reason why it's like that. And we could probably break it down. Are you are you ready to hear the truth? Because it's probably you. You know what mean?

Yeah.

Chris Albert 00:56:11 (link to this point)

No, exactly. And I think it's important to say again, you know, you're seeing this out of love. Right? And it's because this community has so much potential. We could we could have a serious impact on this country if and I like to call us a sleeping giant of the country.

But if For sure. If we if we actually took charge of our lives and actually went back to becoming leaders, the leaders that we know we are, then things would be different. And and and it's not just about posting memes. It's not just about sitting on your couch getting pissed off at the news. It's about actually going out there and taking action.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:56:47 (link to this point)

Actions, man. Actions. It's funny you say that because, you know, I'm writing a book on parenting leadership. I think the parallels there because, you know, I've raised soldiers in war and the same old thing. But we lack leadership, right?

We lack strong leadership. We really do, you know, and that's a hard thing. But like some of the best leadership you're going to find is guys from the military that are just not taking that position. Like, I don't think in my head, I think the person who's best suited for a job should get the job. So I don't think like, hire veterans first.

Like, I don't think so. There's some veterans are not very good workers, right? Like saying that people like you guys should get more veteran actors, well then veterans need to go to acting school, right? They need to go get lessons. You don't hire people because they're a veteran, it doesn't make sense.

You're not going to find a successful business like that. You have to fire hire people that are trained in whatever field they want to learn. You know what I'm saying? And so, it's this crazy, crazy mindset, you know, I think people need to be best suited for the job and people need to work towards what they want, what they want to do. I know.

It's just crazy.

Chris Albert 00:57:49 (link to this point)

Well, you got to come back and you got to realize that, you know, I read this book Mastery by Robert Greene.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:57:54 (link to this point)

You read that book? No. No. No.

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

I had him on the show a couple of weeks ago. Really awesome guy. But this book, it kind of talks about regardless of what you're doing, you've got to go through an apprenticeship apprenticeship. Right? So that means that you gotta you gotta be willing to eat some shit for a while.

You've gotta get through that. You've gotta be willing to fall flat on your face. And just because you were in the military, you attained a certain rank or whatever, When you're going into the civilian world, it's something new. Right? It's something new. And, yes, you can carry over the skills that you learned, the leadership skills that you learned, but you've got to understand that nobody's just gonna give you a break because of your past.

You've got to to start. Yeah.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 00:58:38 (link to this point)

You're going to earn it. Well, there's the things like I was going to say and to get what I was saying before and I kind of lost train of thought was just because you're a veteran doesn't mean you should get any opportunity over anyone else, in my opinion. I think the best person is suited for it. But if you can get your foot in the door somewhere, because of hard work, your leadership skills, your all the adversity you face in the military, a lot of stuff you will make you the best leader in your surrounding group. Hands down.

If there's something that we have, we learn how to work with a group and lead a group. You know what I mean? Like, that's the biggest thing we have. Like, yes. So, you do have something that's important and you do have something that the world needs.

But no one's gonna hand you that position. You gotta work towards them. When you get there, then now you're changing shit. Right? Like, you say, like, we can definitely be a huge force in this world of really changing things.

But right now, everyone's playing the victim. Right now, the majority of our guys are sitting on the couch blaming everything, trying to collect that check. Cool. Good for you. But we're missing out on an opportunity for us to take over The United States in a very positive manner, strong leadership skills, and guys who have a lot of experience in adversity, right?

If you've gone to combat, you've experienced a lot of adversity. That's a lot of life lessons that the average college kid won't have. And he's always going to thrive from learning more from you. We can be really good teachers. It's just like I said, guys are just not putting themselves in that position right now.

And not not everyone. It's, know, saying, it's not everyone. But those ones are the ones I'm mad at. Right? You know, the ones that are not doing it, I'm mad at.

I'm like, come on, bro. Yeah. We're better than that. Like, you're better than that. It's just hard to watch.

Right? It's hard to sit in my position. It's like my community is a community I love more than anything. And I'm more mad at than anyone. You know what I mean?

I'm fucking mad at my whole community because like, bro, like, stop it. Like, I don't I, I get tired of identifying as a veteran. Because like, the negative, you know, the negative views that everyone else has on veterans is like, yeah. I'm a vet. I'm a vet.

Yeah. But but, you know Yeah. I'm also hard worker.

Chris Albert 01:00:36 (link to this point)

You know? Yeah. No. And and the thing is, I think it's it's not just that. I mean, when when somebody isn't putting themselves in the best light from our community, they're they are reflecting on the rest of us.

They're reflecting on everybody who's going to get out, everybody who's currently serving. And that's the way it is. Right?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 01:00:54 (link to this point)

Well, that's kind of like, why did I choose to go acting like I'm not there's not a vanity side that like I need to be fulfilled with being famous. I don't really give a shit about the fame. I really don't. That's not something I chase and I never want to be like that. And if I find myself doing that, I got to check myself.

But I do know the biggest influencers in our time right now are mainstream media actors. And the biggest influences are of telling a story are movies, right? So the theater world, the movies, television and famous actors have the strongest voice and influence in social media. Right. Why do think Kim Kardashian is getting people out of prison?

You know what mean? She's got a huge follow-up. Kanye West, these guys that are they're not the greatest, you know, role models for any of our kids, but they have influence, their voices are heard. We just need a bunch of freaking veterans, or a bunch of guys who see things our way to get there. How does that happen?

Well, we've got to get into mainstream media, we have to become the rock, the Dwayne Johnson of our era, and be able to influence our opinions in that manner. Now, you're moving the fucking needle. I'm not moving the needle with 150,000 followers. It's a lot. I got a small army with me, right?

You know what I'm saying? But and I can make some like, you know, I can make some strategic attacks on certain things. But genuinely, we're not moving the needle. When I have 23,000,000 fucking followers, game on. Now that's a blanket frickin wave of whatever influence we want to push in a positive manner.

And that's what I know. I'm taking that's that's kind of the mindset why I went the route I went. Not an easy feat, bro. I'm really even now it's even harder. You can be on a main show.

My social media numbers don't jump very fast.

Chris Albert 01:02:33 (link to this point)

Right.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 01:02:33 (link to this point)

And so now I'm like, man, it's not happening as fast as I want to because I want to I want to gain influence. Right? I want to push I want to push the needle. I want to make people see things in a way I want to be able to see this message when you're here and have millions listen to it. And how many guys are going to sit back and look back and look in the mirror and be like, okay, they're right.

I'm fucking up. I gotta fix that. You know what mean? And that's all I want. But we can't like your podcast, my podcast.

I mean, we might we might get a million downloads, but like, we need 100,000,000 downloads. I need to be on the Joe Rogan podcast saying this because that right now he's moving the needle. Exactly. And when the guys that get the opportunity to do that, are they doing that? I hope they are.

You know what mean? I hope they are. Hope the guys that are getting in that position are using it their platform to to push that needle the right way to get more of the guys off their ass, help these guys stop victimizing themselves, help them to see what the truth is that we are all leaders. We all have the ability to do really good shit, but we're going to have to go through the shit for it.

Chris Albert 01:03:32 (link to this point)

Absolutely. And and, you know, that's one of the good things about being in the world we're in today. I mean, you're able to have a podcast. Anybody's able to have a podcast.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 01:03:41 (link to this point)

Right?

Chris Albert 01:03:41 (link to this point)

Anybody's able to to put things forward. It's in what I admire about you is that you're in this position right now where a lot of people would say, hey. I'm on the Mayans. This is awesome. I've made it.

Right? But but you're still going after it. You're still doing the podcast. You're still building your own media platform. And I think that's awesome.

I think it's awesome that you've been trying to communicate with people. I think it's also awesome that you've really refined your message and and not changed as a person, but realized what was going on and really wanted to to to make the decision to get this stuff out there.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 01:04:20 (link to this point)

Thank you. I appreciate it, man. Like I said, I appreciate it.

Chris Albert 01:04:23 (link to this point)

Awesome, man. Well, dude, number one, I wanna thank you for coming on the show. You know, I've been a fan of yours for a while, but really wanted to connect with you after I heard what you were putting out there on the podcast. And I really appreciate you. I appreciate what you're doing.

Where can people listen to Vinny Roc podcast? Where can they they they learn more about you?

Vincent Rocco Vargas 01:04:46 (link to this point)

Yeah. So the Vinny Roc podcast is on, you know, iTunes and everywhere else that, you know, podcasts are are uploaded. It's uploaded to Libsyn. So wherever they send it out. But you can also check me out on Instagram at Vincent dot Rocco dot Vargas and Rocco is R O C C O.

I have a Vinny Roc podcast Instagram as well. Usually just funny memes. It's just my my fun page that I run. But, you know, that's it. And you go to, you know, vinnyroc.com is my website.

It usually posts my podcast. It also has some merchandise and also has some of my speaking engagements, dates and stuff like that. So I try and try and keep out there. And if you just Google the name, I'm sure you can find it. I answer every single message that comes through every single one.

I'll answer back. So if there's something in the subject, gripes, complaints, or something you want to talk about, man, hit me up and I'll answer.

Chris Albert 01:05:34 (link to this point)

So awesome. And then you got Mayans MC up on Netflix.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 01:05:37 (link to this point)

Mayans MC is on. Yeah, Mayans MC season one is on Hulu. Season two is currently airing right now on FX on Tuesday nights, depending on your cable to their 8PM or 10PM. Check that out.

Your boy's gonna be there. Yeah, man. And that's it really, dude. And you know, if you're in Salt Lake, hit me up. I got a bar I got a barber shop here.

Do a lot of stuff there.

Chris Albert 01:05:59 (link to this point)

Oh, nice. I'm gonna try and get out to Utah soon. I've never been there, man.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 01:06:02 (link to this point)

Yeah. Come on out, dude. It's beautiful. You'll love it.

Chris Albert 01:06:04 (link to this point)

Outstanding. Outstanding. Well, again, thank you so much. And guys, listen.

I know we talked about a lot of stuff here that that hopefully is getting your gears turning. Hopefully, you're not getting pissed off and not throwing your phone across the room and not saying these guys don't fucking care because we do care. We wouldn't be talking about this shit if we didn't care. And honestly, it's because we know you're not dumb. We know you're not weak.

We know that you're fucking capable.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 01:06:33 (link to this point)

Right?

Chris Albert 01:06:33 (link to this point)

And that's the bottom fucking line. You are capable. So don't sell yourself short. Put some work into building a better version of you, and we'll be back at you guys real soon with some more awesome content.

Vincent Rocco Vargas 01:06:49 (link to this point)

Awesome, brother. Thank you very much.

Chris Albert 01:06:52 (link to this point)

Alright, guys. So I hope that you got as much out of that conversation as I did. Like I said, Vincent is a real genuine dude. Somebody who truly truly wants to help people and somebody who truly wants to leverage his media and his platforms in order to do so. And, you know, we talked about some serious stuff during this conversation.

There are too many of us out there who aren't really seeing the forest for the trees in terms of where we gotta go, what we gotta do. And at the end of the day, if this country is gonna change, if we are gonna make things better for veterans, it's gotta be on us. It's gotta be on us. We have to make the change ourselves. And if there's anything I hope that you're getting out of this podcast, it's understanding that.

We need to become stronger. We need to become smarter. We need to become better, and we need to continue to lead in the civilian world. And I really appreciate Vinny's message here, and I appreciate how he's transformed over the years. When we're talking about transformation, something we've been doing here at Warrior Soul, we've been working with a group called the Warrior's Obituary Society.

And what this is, is a group to empower men. Men who are seeking to live absolutely epic lives. Lives worthy of epic obituaries. And the way this works is we've created an eight week development program. And through that development program, you are outlining your vision, outlining your goals, being very focused about what you want in this life.

And then we're working on specifics, looking at your finances, helping you improve yourself there, teaching a little bit about investing, things like that. Teaching about fitness, taking care of yourself. Right? Teaching you about networking, business, teaching you all the soft skills that that you're gonna need to learn in order to make it out there in the world. And it doesn't just start it doesn't just stop with this eight week development program.

Like I said, this is a society. And so each week we're getting on a live call. We're talking about your goals. We're talking about where you're at. We're holding you accountable for getting there.

There's a lot we can talk about here, but it's gotta come down to action. And that's what the Warrior's Obituary Society is about. It's about getting our members to take action to improve their lives. And so if this is something that you feel like you'd be interested in, right, and I know you're probably getting marketed to for a million groups, million different things, and you're like, oh, this is another self help BS thing. It's not.

Right? We're working with people who are making real strides in their lives, improving their lives. A lot of those other programs, they cost thousands of dollars. This is not gonna cost you thousands of dollars. This is a very doable program.

So if you're interested, let me know. Email me over at chris@warriorsoulagoge.com. I'd like to sit down with you. I'd like to talk with you. I'd like to see if you're right for the group, and like to talk to you about whether or not the group's right for you.

Right? So let me know. You can also DM me over on Instagram at Warrior Soul Agoge. With that, guys, hope you enjoyed this. Again, please share these episodes out.

I really don't care if you join the society. I don't care if you buy any of our gear. I don't care about any of your money. Right? I'd love you to join the society.

I'd love you to buy gear from us. It helps us out a lot. But what really helps is us spreading this message, empowering each other so that we can change this country together. So please head over to iTunes. It doesn't cost you anything.

Write us a review, and share these episodes out. That's all I got, guys. Have a freaking fantastic week, and I'll be talking to you soon.