Welcome to the Behind the Shield podcast. As
always, my name is James Geering, and this week
it is my absolute honor to welcome on the show
Army Infantry Veteran and the man behind Transcend,
Ernie Colling. So in this conversation, we discuss
a host of topics from Ernie's early life, his
journey into the military, some of the worst
days in uniform, his transition, the world of
contracting, the spectrum of factors that influence
our hormones. testosterone replacement therapy,
the importance of blood testing, mental health,
the Transcend Foundation, 7X, and so much more.
Now before we get to this incredible conversation,
as I say every week, please just take a moment,
go to whichever app you listen to this on, subscribe
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Every single five -star rating truly does elevate
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women's stories so I can get them to every single
person on planet Earth who needs to hear them.
So with that being said, I introduce to you,
Ernie Colling. Enjoy. Well, Ernie, I want to
start by saying thank you to Brandon for connecting
us and thank you for coming on the Behind the
Shield podcast today. No, absolutely. Thank you
for having me. And Brendan's an awesome person
to be working with. And he had nothing to praise
to say about you. So, you know, I appreciate
the opportunity. Yeah, well, we got to spend
a pretty interesting 10 days crammed in a plane
together. So we'll get to that in a little bit.
Oh, yeah. All right. So first question, where
on planet Earth are we finding you this morning?
You're finding... Me and Auburn Hills, Michigan,
which were right next to the Chrysler World Headquarters,
you know, the office building. And this is my
executive office. Now, you said Chrysler was
close to you? Yeah, yeah. So, you know, Chrysler,
Dodge, Ram, the automaker, one of the big three.
You know, it's big to the Detroit area, you know,
born and raised here. When I found the office
space and it was right in proximity to it, it
just had a great feel. So, you know, we were
quick to get at least and get the team in here.
And it's just good to come in every morning and
to look and see an icon, you know, something
of legacy, you know, within our culture, you
know, society. I wanted to be close to that.
Well, the reason I ask, and it's interesting
that you were born in Detroit, when you look
at some of the problems, and we'll get into it,
but mental health addiction, some of them, the
origin story is an industry leaving, and Detroit
is a perfect example. What are you seeing now?
You're a pretty clued -in business leader. Is
the American car starting to come back to our
grounds again, our shores? Yeah, I think there
is. quite a bit especially in this area um in
the ev world uh specifically um chrysler and
ford and uh gm jam mainly you know they're they're
investing in infrastructure and facilities and
that's creating a lot of jobs for construction
and you know engineering specific types of things
you have suppliers and vendors you know rapid
prototyping all sorts of things that tie into
that so In Oakland County, where this is all
located, there's a strip called Automation Alley,
and we're right in the heart of it. So it's great
to see buildings that were empty, you know, filling
up again. You know, lots that were destroyed.
There's construction coming in. You know, they're
rebuilding old factories, you know, and revamping
them for new lines. So, I mean, in this area,
it's pretty prevalent that it's coming back.
I can't speak for everywhere else, but it's great
to see that here. Beautiful. I hope that kind
of finds itself in Detroit because I know the
firefighters in that particular city are extremely
overworked and underpaid. Yeah, yeah. Important
note with us, you know, Auburn Hills and the
area, like people say Detroit, it's the easiest
geographical location, but we're probably about
40 minutes north, northeast of actual Detroit,
the city itself. The city itself has also come
back quite a bit and downtown area is beautiful.
I'll be down there tonight with friends and family
and a few others that we're hosting from company.
So, you know, it's a great place to go to, but
there's still some problem areas. You know, the
civics, they're still underpaid, overworked,
that kind of stuff. But yeah, we're close enough
to say Detroit, but we're not necessarily exactly
in Detroit. Brilliant. Well, you mentioned Detroit,
so I'd love to start at the very beginning of
your lifeline. So tell me exactly where you were
born and tell me a little bit about your family
dynamic, what your parents did and how many siblings.
Okay. Yeah. So let's see. Three brothers, two
sisters. Two brothers and one sister surviving.
Mom and dad been married for just about 50 years.
High school sweethearts. You know, still married
to this day. I was born and raised in Oakland
County, Michigan, right on the border of Oakland
and Macomb, which is a real blue collar area.
Very blue collar. All the trades work there.
Going back to the auto industry, especially in
the late 70s, early 80s, even mid to early 90s.
The neighborhoods and the way everything was
done, it was like strategic. You know, your line
workers were here, right? And then your managers
were here and your white collar people were here.
It was, you know, a very class division of where
people lived, even in the same communities and
proximity to where the plants were and all those
other things. So my dad actually didn't work
in the auto industry. He was in the computer
industry. He was a Harvard engineer, which basically
meant at that time he was fixing ATM machines
and anything that had to do with electrical engineering.
And it morphed over time into something that
was more desk job type of orientation. But in
the beginning, it was more of a skilled trade
than it was a white collar kind of thing. It
over time morphed into it. But the neighborhood
back then, yeah, it was... a real blue collar,
stick together, tight knit. You know, the kids
knew who everybody was. If you weren't from there,
we knew real quick. You know, grievances were
resolved with a quick fist. And then, you know,
you pulled that guy up and, you know, dusted
each other off and, you know. Everyone learned
their lesson, and we went back to whatever we
were doing, you know, sandlot football or, you
know, riding bikes on the trails and all sorts
of things that Michigan kids do, you know, pond
hockey, all that. Interesting enough, though,
when I was really young, I was about five, and
my brother was four at the time. And, you know,
same thing. As soon as the morning sun hit, you
know, we're out the door, summertime, you know,
playing with friends. um you know tragedy struck
uh my brother was actually killed um by a truck
uh on his bike and it was in close proximity
to me very close so obviously it's tragic as
a you know a young boy to um to lose a sibling
right there in front of you and in that manner
uh damn near broke my family apart um the whole
neighborhood you know could feel it could feel
the weight of it um no one felt real safe anymore
you know and it wasn't because of you know criminal
activity or anything like that obviously it was
just a the notion that that can happen anywhere
you know when you're careless and don't pay attention
um too many factors in there to go back through
and and see why or how but there was a massive
impact and obviously impacted my life um you
know really young you know that uh for the next
god seven to ten years you know You know, we
struggled as a family. You know, there was lawsuits
and, you know, all sorts of turmoil and pain
and healing that was going on. So growing up
like that, it was a bit rough. You know, at some
point in time, it started to mellow out. High
school time, you know, I discovered sports. I
got into the wrestling. I was pretty decent.
You know, that kept me, for the most part, out
of trouble. But I did find enough trouble, especially
hanging out with some of the guys I was hanging
out with. Eventually, I got in enough trouble
that I actually got expelled from high school.
A year later, I was allowed back. And, you know,
I went to school and finished my time. But I'd
have to go that extra year to graduate. I didn't
want to do it. So I dropped out. So, yeah, I'm
a high school dropout. Took that time and just
manual labor, construction, that kind of stuff.
But in that time frame, I was out on the job.
And my sister, she was 24. I was 18 at the time.
She was hit and killed by a drunk driver. So
I lost my older sister and my younger brother.
So I've been the youngest, oldest, and middle
child in my family, which is an odd experience.
Oldest now. You know, after that happens, it
kind of changed my perspective on where I was
in life and where I wanted to be. So I went,
you know, I got my GED. I literally just picked
up the book, studied it for a few weeks, paid
to go take the test, took the test. You know,
they let you know like 30 days later whether
you passed or don't pass. You know, got the mail
in my parents' house. I'm like, oh, cool. I have
a GED. decent so yeah i'm like oh i guess it
works um so i'm like okay what am i gonna do
now um so i just you know joined the army they
saw me coming you know right there young you
know former athlete you know kind of a troublemaker
trying to fix some things up um and uh they they
got me on an infantry contract and uh it was
you know all of them from there on out But it
was probably the best thing for me. I just, I
enjoyed the challenge. I really enjoyed the mentorship,
even though it can be harsh at times. But it
was exactly what I needed. And I needed to hear
it from that type of environment, I guess. I
don't know. I just, I was receptive to it differently
than I was throughout with parents and, you know,
other friends and teachers, coaches. For whatever
reason, for me, it stuck. It was different. you
know i was in and out i did my you know one time
enlistment got it as a corporal um you know iraq
was going on you know at that point in time it
was late 2004 for me and i went right over and
i got a security contract job and i was doing
convoy security up and down msr tampa which is
you know central to iraq and um the company i
was with wasn't a very good company um but when
you're you know, 20 -something years old, and
they're offering you $10 ,000 a month in cash
to go and do something, and you really don't
have any other job skills. It seemed like a really
good idea at the time. It wasn't. Fortunately
for me, I had a former squad leader that was
on a different contract with NSCOM, and we were
both at Biop, Baghdad International Airport,
and it was like a massive... like us military
installation with different little installations
within it and uh he had kind of heard over the
net that there was this uh you know civilian
convoy you know psd company and they were getting
their ass handed to them uh just north of taji
uh because we got hit by an id uh lost our fourth
vehicle ironically uh the person that died in
that vehicle was to see i was supposed to be
seating sitting in we uh when we went and picked
up our cargo, our trucks, you know, we were coming
back before we actually got in the vehicles and,
you know, began to SP. One of the drivers ate
a silicone packet from the MREs. It was an Iraqi
driver, so he got sick as crap. And I think he
saw it was in the back of the truck and actually
didn't want to drive it because they, you know,
always look underneath the tarp. And it was,
you know, RPG rounds, grenades, you know, explosives,
things for the Iraqi army that we were dropping
off. So he got sick. So then we had to reconfigure
everything because one of our American drivers
actually had a CDO and could drive a semi. So,
you know, he had to go in that truck. We reconfigured.
I went from truck four to truck three. And, you
know, that was that. So, you know, by just one
small event, it saved my life. You know, craziness.
I didn't even realize at the time that that was
so significant. But, you know, we got back out
on the road. And a couple hours later, we're
halfway back, just south of Balad, you know,
just north of Taji. And, you know, first cab
was there at the time, and they had everything
blocked off. And they kind of told us that this
is a choke point, you know, most likely ambushed.
You know, we know about this ID. There's probably
more. But, you know, when you don't have air
cover and night vision, you know, all the other
things that you did when you're in the military.
You know, the decisions are a lot different and
they make it a lot quicker. And the truck leader
at the time decided, you know, we're going to
press through because we didn't want to be on
the road any longer with this kind of cargo.
We wanted to get it dropped. So we pressed forward
and sure as shit, you know, we get about a half
a click down the road and then, you know, boom,
the fourth truck is hit, split in half, killed
the TCE. where i would have been sitting um with
the rest of the guys and then uh which was real
uh for the time they engaged us with the small
arms fire and it was more of an ambush than anything
else so you know four trucks one's down truck
three we had to turn around and you know kind
of get in between the kill zone you know fatal
funnel where you know those guys were at and
we had a building and it had kind of a fence
on either side of it. You know, it was probably
about 60, 70 meters, you know, just, you know,
in front of us. But the semis and the rest of
the trucks, you know, they were getting the hell
out of there. You know, they were getting them
out of the way. So, you know, we started covering
fire and trying to move wounded behind our vehicle.
And I remember two shots in on my M4 and click.
You know, rather inconvenient time for it to
stop working. um yeah i did everything i could
and you know finally uh you know i had no choice
deadline the weapon and there are some guys creeping
around like a small utility building yeah we
had a secondary so i was fortunate for that um
it was a glock 17 so use those 45 rounds really
quick and uh then just picked up you know weapon
on the ground you know just the same thing anyone
else would do turns out later there was a damn
bullet lodged in the barrel of that rifle oh
god so if you fired it would have exploded in
your face yeah yeah so twice now unbeknownst
to me you know i'm injured to death and i you
know you escape it and you don't even realize
it at the time um you know as soon as we're getting
low on ammo and it's probably only been you know
three minutes you know felt like three hours
and uh the two other trucks came back blazing
and we uh PKMs in the back with Kurdish Peshmerga
as our, you know, secondary. And they were rolling
pretty heavy and they came in guns blazing. And,
you know, all of a sudden that got them to at
least break the contact where they're at and
fall back into their building. And, you know,
we were laying waste to it. Don't ask how civilians
had an AT -4, but we had one. And, you know,
we pulled pins and, you know, it was armed, hot
cocked, ready to fire. The Kurds realized that
one of their guys had been killed and this particular
group of Peshmerga hadn't been hit yet. You know,
they had firefight experience, but they hadn't
lost anybody. They hadn't had, you know, one
of their tribesmen killed. So when they saw that,
before we could fire off the AT -4, they ran
through machine gun fire straight through right
for the front door, kicked it the fuck down.
And went in there, and we were getting ready
to go in. It was only maybe 30 seconds. And they
came out with 10 guys, you know, hands behind
their head. They took prisoners. So we zip cuffed
them, hooded them, had them laying on the ground.
And we were still going to blow the building
just to, you know, make sure. And the Kurds,
not speaking enough English, you know, they're
like, bombs. You know, like, don't do it. We
go in there and look. It's all HME. It was a
diet -y factory. If we would have hit that, we
would have been just vaporized. Number three.
Yeah. Number three that day. So, you know, we're
waiting for Medivac to come in. Comes in, picks
up wounded, picks up, you know, the KIAs, gets
them out of there. You know, we take radios,
everything sensitive out of the truck that was
hit. You know, we regroup. and then you know
push on down to taji at that point so get just
inside the gate you know that's where the trucks
are going to stay um you know go to use the wire
take a piss and right before i put my boot down
number four freaking anti -tank mine that was
sitting there and uh i was like jesus christ
this is days just getting worse it's not like
like i don't know at this point like what's what's
going on here so you know i kind of pointed it
out like oh yeah we probably should do something
about that more than likely it was inert anyways
you know um but still just to you know have that
happen mentally the things that go through your
head there but we rolled out um went through
the tip of the sunni triangle uh at this point
it's night And we just hauled ass right back
through. Everybody's tired, angry, had a long
day. So if any pot shots came off, I mean, they
got more return fire than they would have thought
for because we had no problem stopping and saying
hi. We got back, the rest of the thing, you know,
no problem. It was a place called Camp Bristol
out by the tower area. We got back, and I got
to the talk, turned in my gear, and my squad
leader was there, the guy I was referring to
earlier, because he had heard everything over,
and he's like, you're not staying. He's like,
just resign, and you're coming with me. And I
was hesitant, and he's like, this crap is going
to happen every day. Do you want to do this?
This is why they're trying to pay you $10 ,000
a month. This isn't the same. And I was like,
all right. So I just, you know, thanked everybody
there. And I just said, you know, for me, I'm
going to go with somebody I trust. You know,
I'm not here. So I grabbed my bag and got in
the truck, a Hilux, and drove to the other side
of Biop. And, you know, it actually turned out
to be an intelligence contract, INSCOM, Intelligence
Command of the United States Military. And they
had a very different. contracts going out at
the same time in that area. But I went and I
met his boss and, you know, talked for about
an hour and they're like, okay, yeah, we're going
to, you know, send something back to the States
and get you an offer letter, everything. Just
go home. You know, we'll actually help you out
and get you a ticket back to the United States.
So recycled back out and back to the U .S. Two
weeks later. Right back down to Georgia, right
back through CRC, right back over to Iraq. But
this time, I started doing security work. You
know, it was intelligence support work. And I
actually got put in the IZ, the International
Zone of the Green Zone, right next to the Green
Zone Cafe after it was blown up. So, you know,
it was remodeled. That was kind of nice. But,
you know, we're right behind the old Bath Party
headquarters where FOB Honor was. We actually
weren't in the FOB. We were actually outside
of it, a place called the Golden Dome, which
was like essentially their compound. And I wasn't
sure exactly what I was supposed to be doing
yet. No one had really mentioned it. Logistics
was said. Something about recruiting was said.
But I really wasn't 100 % sure what I was going
to do. And they were recruiting local national
linguists for the most part to work with U .S.
military as interpreters. They were gathering
biometrics. They were doing, you know, some other
things that were going on there. And, you know,
so I was one of the admins in the office going
through things. And I noticed there was a desk
where all these files had just been thrown. I
was like, what are these? Like, oh, those are
the ones that got killed. either with their units
or in most cases, honestly, family or raw people
found out that they, you know, were working with
us and they were, you know, killed. So there
were supposed to be benefits paid to them through
the U .S. government and a few other entities.
And no one was really contacting them. At this
point, they didn't know what happened to their
family member, a lot of them. So talking with,
you know, a few of the leaders. leaders in the
company and what was going on. You know, they
just didn't have the resources at that time to
investigate, you know, go through, get the paperwork,
make the contact, all those other things. But
they really did want to. You know, just how I
grew up and what I experienced, I didn't think
was right. So I asked if I could do it, you know,
as an additional duty at first. And so they let
me work with one of our U .S. hired interpreters,
you know, to interpret everything, you know,
get all the paperwork documentation. You know,
they were calling Iraqi police. They were calling,
you know, units. We were getting everything we
could to kind of get the standard thing you would
need for, you know, a claim with, you know, an
insurance company. In this case, it was U .S.
Department of Labor. And we, you know, over time,
you know, took care of. you know, several hundred
of them, hundreds of them. Whether it was getting
the wounded out to Jordan or whether it was,
you know, notifying next of kin and having the
men give them a cash indictment and then start
the Department of Labor paperwork, they quickly
escalated to a full -time job once they saw the,
you know, the amount of work that had to be done.
And at that point in time, in 2005, things were
getting more kinetic, you know, they were increasing,
so. They needed somebody to deal with it because,
you know, they would dump them off at the hospital.
And the U .S. military, for the locals, they
were like, yeah, they can stay a night, but then
they got to go. I was able to work with command,
you know, and basically under the LOIs that we
had, kind of get them to have a little bit more
of an extended period of time. For those that
weren't like severely wounded, you know, we would
get them out if they were stabilized. For the
ones that were severely wounded. and one in particular
that was hit by an IED, and he happened to be
the interpreter for one of the battalion commanders
for an MP company, or battalion hire. You know,
we did everything we could for this guy, but
he had a TBI. He was in a coma. You know, it
really wasn't looking good. He needed long -term
care, and there's only so much you can do in
a combat support hospital. So, you know, I had
to work through the Department of Labor, through
our company. through the U .S. State Department,
through the Iraqi Interior Ministry, through
every hoop you could think of, to coordinate
an ambulance flight from Lebanon to be allowed
to land at Baghdad International Airport, to
wait for us to take him there from the IZ, which
means I had to get permission to use a medevac
helicopter to take us there from the U .S. Army,
and I had to borrow their life support systems
in order to get him transported. got all that
somehow worked out. And I was like, all right,
good. He's going to go. And, you know, the mission
was about to start. They were getting ready to
do their thing. You know, I was signing some
paperwork and I was getting ready to leave. And,
you know, the liaison was a major. She was like,
where are you going? I was like, I don't know.
I assume this is good. Oh, no. You're going with
them. I'm not letting you go with this equipment
and everything else. You're going with them.
So she talks to the pilot, whatever. You know,
I have my stuff. Got it. At this point, it's,
you know, about 4, 4 .30. It's getting late.
You know, sun goes down there pretty quick. We
get in, and we can't find the plane that flew
in from Lebanon. I have no idea where it is.
So I'm on a... Iraq, you know, piece of crap
cell phone talking to somebody in Dubai who's
talking to somebody in Lebanon who then picks
up a Thraya to call a plane to tell them to start
hitting their lights so we can see, you know,
who they are. And eventually we were able to
identify the plane. Problem was there were two
sides of the airport, the civilian Iraqi side
where these guys landed and the military controlled
side where we were. And the pilots weren't really
allowed to go over there. Obviously, you know,
there was no other choice. So the pilot looks
at me, he's like, you have five minutes from
the time we hit the tarmac to the time that we're
gone with or without you. I don't care, but we're
gone in five minutes. You know, he was definitely
timing the issue. So we lift off, go back, get
right up as close as we can to the, you know,
plane. their door drops to bring out their equipment
and the doctor that was there was oh hi you know
he's trying to talk like there's no time for
this you know we yeah we have five minutes and
honestly the sun is about to go down if this
bird doesn't go off before the sun goes down
you're not leaving you know because there are
no flights especially civilian flights that dart
um barely but barely got it done and hyder was
not a small dude he was you know 661 you know
240 he was Getting him crammed into that plane
and, you know, taking him off and already putting
him on and doing this, you know, outside, you
know, on tarmac was an interesting experience
to say the least, but it all got done. I just
remember getting back on the helicopter and it
was, it was winding up and they took off and
they're taking a turn to go back to the IZ and
I could see the plane just taking off, you know,
the sun just about to set. I was like, holy shit,
we actually did it. And they flew him into Armand
Jordan and got him into a hospital there that
the Department of Labor pretty much designated
for these types of injuries with the Iraqis.
And, you know, he was there for like six months
and his family went there and was visiting him.
His father was a correspondent for the L .A.
Times. So it ended up getting a little bit of
press, to say the least. But something happening
and getting an infection. And I remember I found
out Christmas. that he passed you know after
all that now that was pretty defeating too because
that was like the one thing out of all the you
know shit crap you know all the things that had
happened it was like that was going to be the
one good thing uh to end that tour um but you
know we did everything we could so you know it
was what it was you know getting back to the
states after that um i got lucky and the um Operation
side in the U .S. picked me up for a job. So
newly married, just married. Moved out of Michigan,
never been out of Michigan like that, not to
live outside of the military. And then starting
a new job, all those things. Realized I'd moved
a little bit too far away for the D .C. area.
You know, 25 miles doesn't seem far, you know.
At least it didn't at the time. But it ended
up being like a two -hour commute each way because
the traffic and all this other stuff was miserable.
But I think, you know, for the next six years,
you know, it was pretty much Op Temple was just
the same there as it was, you know, in a theater.
You know, same thing was on a Mexican team, NOC
team, you know, if we'd have casually, I'd go
to Dover, you know, and start coordinating to
have them move over to a civilian morgue, whether
they're viewable, getting the personal effects,
coordinating, you know, the hero's flight home,
escorting the remains, you know, getting them
to the local funeral home there. And then at
the same time, keeping everything in contact
with the people that did the notifications actually
with. Because as soon as the notifications were
made, they stayed with the family until, you
know, we were able to get their loved one home.
And then usually, like I said, I stayed with
the loved one until they were returned home.
But, you know, that could happen at any point,
any time. So I always had it backpacked. Even
then, there's always something constantly, you
know, ready to happen. Finally, a few years later,
you know, I had a daughter, you know, so I have
a new dad, all these other things. And Afghanistan
was starting to warm up a little bit. And I really
wanted to try again. You know, I wanted to go
back. I wanted to get the contractor money and
all those other things. So, you know, my wife
let me. So I moved off the Iraq test to the Afghanistan
side. And, you know, I was there for almost 20
months. You know, on that rotation, you know,
I had two vacations home, like after nine months
and then after another six months after that.
But it was a long, a long one. That one was a
little bit different position. You know, it was
a little bit more hands on. But, you know, I
was in a little bit of our war back area, which
is south of Kabul, about, you know, I'd say 70
miles. And that battle space was, you know. a
good a good warm one um but uh spent all that
time there and uh went back again headquarters
picked me back up uh so i was an operations manager
there the whole time that was happening my tsci
was processing and it finally came through um
so i had some options i didn't have before and
uh there was another agency i wanted to go to
a new agency the joint id defeat organization
guys that were making bombs and, you know, hunt
them down and find them. Specifically the COVID,
which was the world's, at the time, the world's
largest fusion intelligence area. And they had
people at the location in the U .S., you know,
doing all sorts of things. And then people downrange
all over the world, you know, on the other end
of that mission. So I was lucky and fortunate
enough to get into the J33, which was the current
operations. And I was part of the general staff.
So all the plans, policy, you know, centrally,
all the planning, future planning, meetings,
you know, dignitaries, all that stuff, everything
that came through, you know, we were part of
and knew and prepared and, you know, learned
a hell of a lot there, especially about leadership.
And just it was a whole different type of experience.
That was pretty much the end of the military
and contracting piece. I was there for a couple
of years, did a couple of rotations with them
too. And then that was when I went into the private
industry side. So that's early life to end of
civilian contractor military life. Well, I want
to go back to the initial loss of your brother.
And then obviously you have another one, you
know, 20 years later. How did you and your family,
when you look back now, what were the effective
ways that you process some of this grief and
were there any, you know, any negative ones now
when you look back? Well, at first we didn't
know where to start. You know, I remember the
first Christmas because it happened in June,
you know, and that six months was just an entire
blur. started school school age kid you know
just you know two months later so obviously you
know they have you in therapy as a kid right
away you know to try to process the trauma but
um you know my sister and my mom same thing they
were processing it oh yeah obviously it was still
miserable um but my dad just shut down i mean
he just shut down uh he would he went to work
and he came home but he didn't want to talk about
it. He didn't want it brought up. He didn't want
to think about it. He just, he couldn't. It broke
him pretty hard. So that caused a lot of tension
because, you know, my mom wanted to see it as
a family, go to family counseling, do all those
things. It was point of friction. And that's
when they decided that they wanted to do, you
know, a lawsuit over the company because it was
a commercial truck that actually hit them. And,
you know, once that started, you know, lawsuits
are expensive. And if there's not a lot of money
to go around at that point, then, you know, there's
even less. And when there's less and there's
not a lot, that makes things very difficult.
You know, I remember for probably the next five
or six years, you know, my entire time through
elementary school and even the beginning of middle
school, like there was no school clothes shopping
or anything like that. I got my cousin's hand
-me -down clothes or, you know, I only got new
shoes at like the discount store, you know, and
that was like, one pair a year and had those
things ripped apart and duct tape back up. It
was, you know, it was what it was. So I think
that was an added stress that as a young person,
I wish I wouldn't have had to experience. I think
it just added so much more to it and pulled everybody
in such different directions and the family that
it, it was damn near impossible, but you know.
we all made it through it came back on the other
side and during that time my parents you know
they had three more kids you know there was almost
back to back to back so you know quickly it was
you know more like being a brother again and
and kind of you know focusing on the new siblings
and all those other things so i would say the
things that were done right you know it was kind
of it was good to have that that family you know
aspect back to it joy you know playfulness all
those things um you know as the brothers and
sister got a little older you know my dad started
to warm up a little bit and um thank god you
know to this day he's seems like he's getting
softer every year you know he's you know a lot
better so in time everything worked out just
the way it was supposed to now we kind of touched
on this right before we hit record But when you're
able to process trauma somewhat, it can actually
drive you towards certain careers. And there's
so many people on this show who wore uniform
for their profession, for their career, that
actually had quite significant trauma in their
early life. Now, you know, you could argue a
dress. I think that becomes almost a superpower.
And unaddressed, obviously, it still leaves that
kind of fractured foundation that we're now,
you know, piling other stuff on as we actually
do our job. When you look back now, how did that
loss so early factor into your journey into the
military? Oh, it was definitely a superpower
because it was addressed. It took a lot of time.
I mean, basically, my childhood and adolescence,
you know, I had it out of therapy the whole time
because as your brain develops and emotions and
hormones and all those things change. And that
leads me into something when we talk about Transcend.
It, you know, it was just restarting all over
again, you know, getting back to being able to
process what had happened because it was so bad.
To this day, you know, there are things that
happened overseas and things that I dealt with
that actually registered less of an impact than
that did. You know, I think part of that was
because of my age and part of it because actually
the, you know, how dramatic it was. But, yeah,
I think going through all that just made it so
I could focus on what was important at that moment
in time. And I was able to block out the actual
event that had happened, you know, the emotions
that were going along with it. It allowed me
to kind of process things a little faster, a
little quicker, and be able to be there for other
people. Especially, you know, having that empathy
to see the things that I was seeing, you know,
with not being able to. get people their benefits
and things like that so i you know between the
empathy and the capability you know it definitely
set me up a path that went up yeah and i can
tell the empathy side not only what i know now
about you know how you help with 7x for example
but also just in this journey caring enough about
you know the iraqi allies to take care of their
families and you know some of the other things
that you've done i've said this a lot as a medic
I think the thing that haunts us, firefighters
and medics and police officers, is not so much
the grotesque scene of someone being killed.
It's the wails of the people left behind. So
you had your really shitty day, near -death experience
times four. But then you have these death notifications.
You literally are going to see these grieving
widows and widowers. That is now compounding
onto some of the trauma. As you said, even though
it was addressed, it was still there as well.
What were the highs and the lows of your own
mental health as you progressed through adulthood?
Highs and lows. Before, just to get back from
those deployments with a sense of accomplishment,
regardless of how arduous it was and mentally
taxing, I felt like I'd built something that
had left because when I was there, that position
didn't exist and somebody wasn't taking care
of those people when I left. you know, somebody
was coming in to replace me and to continue that
on and make sure that it continued, that as long
as we were there and that was happening, that
somebody was going to be, you know, on watch
and making sure that, you know, the loose ends
were tied, the families were contacted, taken
care of, the right things were being done. So
that meant a lot to me. And then, you know, like
I said, getting married, you know, the woman
I love, I'm still with her 17 years later, you
know, and. be able to start our life together
and have that excitement and actually have a
job, you know, behind a desk instead of, you
know, doing some of the other things that were
going on. It was important. It gave me hope that
I could do something in the future. So I guess
that's a good way to put it. The Lowe's, a common
story for everybody, you know, I think is self
-medication, right? And then, you know, wanting
to keep it private not wanting to complain knowing
that i was alive and many others weren't um it
gave me that sense of i shouldn't speak on any
of these things i should just kind of keep this
to myself and it didn't work out so well drinking
got heavier heavier heavier heavier started to
affect relationships and um you know that went
on for years it wasn't like it was like I realized
it was something good. And then all of a sudden,
you know, it stopped. You know, I pulled back
for a while. And, you know, it was when my daughter
was born. And then, you know, I went and did
another deployment, which is basically two. And
then came back, same thing, right back to self
-medicating, going into the cycle, you know,
back. you know, over again. And I was in a rotation
at this point with the COIC, you know, Task Force
Paladin downrange, just back and forth. And that
just continued to add, you know, stress and everything
else. So I found myself in my early 30s, you
know, and at this point, I was really going out
the wrong path. Once I walked away from... the
private industry, paramilitary contracting, government
contracting, intelligence, all that crap. I didn't
have that weight sitting on there. I realized
at that point, okay, I need help. I got to do
something. I got through a process called EMDR.
I swear by it. You know, this was back in 2014,
2015. So it's, you know, a while ago, you know,
before some of the, you know, psychedelics, microdosing,
all these other things, you know, were out there.
This was, you know, kind of the top of mind.
And honestly, I've gone back once or twice since
just to kind of get a tune up, so to speak. And
for me, it worked. You know, it really calmed
me down, the anxiety, you know, the fears, you
know, that fight or flight response that you're
kind of stuck in. anger, all those things. It's
not that they just went away overnight, but it
allowed me to be able to deal with it. It allowed
me to, you know, recognize when it was starting
to happen or what was triggering, you know, made
me self -aware. And then I honestly didn't want
to be that way. So it took a lot of effort too.
But, you know, I think eventually I was able
to really put my demons where they belonged and,
you know, go on and live a normal life, at least
for the most part. Well, I've heard a lot of
success stories about EMDR, especially when it's
specific events that are, you know, beneath the
thing, the thing beneath the thing. And this
is, I think, an important conversation. As you
mentioned psychedelics, obviously a lot of people
are having success with that. A lot of people
that were on the plane with us were having success
with that. But it's understanding there's a toolbox.
And I think this is a message that's not really
relayed very well to military and first responders.
You know, you have counseling, you have psychiatric
meds, and there might be an application for those
meds for bridging a gap or someone who's got
extreme schizophrenia or something. Maybe they
do need medication as well. But you've also got
equine therapy and these retreats and psychedelics
and AMDR and, you know, all these other things.
And so I think that gives a lot of people hope
because they were like, well, I tried counseling,
EAP. And that person fucking sucks. And I'm never
going back. Versus, okay, well, there's a lot
of other different types of counselors. There's
some that have worked with military and first
responders that you need to be seeing. But then
there's also this toolbox of other things. And
it might be EMDR for this one thing. But then
it might be meditation for another thing. And
you start kind of layering them together to find
your own version of therapy. Yeah, I think that's
absolutely true. And I think the most important
part about that is having somebody. that knows
you, that is checking up on you and continuing
to push you to get into one of those therapies,
right, to break the loop. But the most important
addition to that is just having somebody that
knows you, buddy check system, whatever it is,
kind of pushing that person who's suffering to
go and find their tools and start to utilize
them, you know, and to keep encouraging them
even when they're not necessarily working very
well. That way, you know, you do find what that
combination of things are that works because
there are so many different things out there
that help. Not everybody's the same, you know?
Yeah. You might fail in the first one. It might
not help as much, but if you have that support
and you're continuing to be pushed, you know,
chances are you're going to end up in the right
place. Well, we're going to talk about transcend
in a moment, but, um, Brendan was also telling
me about, you know, hitting some bullet points
to help me, you know, understand the things because
obviously you've got, Things online, you've got
interviews, but then I'm always intrigued from
people that are close to someone. What's between
the lines as it was? And he mentioned that in
the journey to Transcend, as you transitioned
out into the corporate world, you'd had some
other companies that hadn't succeeded, which
I think is a very important part of the business
journey. So talk to me about that. You've been
very successful in the contracting space. You
transition out. What's that journey to Transcend
look like? So as I transitioned, I can't say
that word today. As I left that space and went
into the private industry, I ended up becoming
like an IT program management, software development,
implementations at ERPs, that kind of stuff.
But, you know, it was just planning, just like
I had done in the past, you know, taking complex
pieces that were integrated and, you know, plugging
them in the right places and then making sure.
The people that need to be doing those things
were doing them. But I was learning a lot about
e -commerce and social media and how that would
drive revenue and how to basically run a business.
So I was intrigued by it. At the same time, I
was trying to get back in fighting shape, so
to speak. My wife was competing. She was a figure
competitor, which is like bodybuilding. She looked
amazing. Still does. But I couldn't, I could
not keep up with her. There's just no way. I
tried everything and I was getting pissed. I
had a coach, you know, I'm on a diet, killing
myself in the gym and nothing is happening. Finally,
he's like, oh man, I think you need to go to
a clinic. You know, I have some blood work done,
get some things checked. You know, so I go to
my primary care, talk to him about it. We do
blood work, you know, but they don't do any hormones.
They just do your standard panel. Like, okay,
well, everything looks normal here. I'm like,
well, I'm still feeling these symptoms, right?
I'm tired, lethargic. This won't happen. You
know, the libido, you name it, all the testosterone,
you know, symptoms. And, you know, well, how
about I send you to an endocrinologist and, you
know, they can look and see if there's something
that's not on this panel on one of their panels.
Okay. So, you know, I get to the endo and. This
female doctor, she looked at me and she's like,
you were probably a long -term steroid user.
You probably crashed your test. I don't help
those people. I don't work with them. I'm like,
okay. I've never touched a steroid. That wasn't
my thing. I'm not in the bodybuilding. I was
trying to get back in shape and wanted to lose
some weight. But she wasn't having it. So I was
stuck. I went back to the coach and I'm like,
this is what happened. This took two months,
by the way, to get through. I was suffering the
whole time. And he said, oh, no, I meant to go
to this other private pay clinic down the road,
you know, that specializes in this. Maybe you
should have told me that first. But, you know,
so I go in there and doc takes one look, gives
me this, you know, lab panel, go through and
get everything done. Turns out my test is like
90, you know, and it should be, you know, the
four or five, 600 range. And my estrogen was
like 80, which is more than double what it should
have been. You know, which explains why I was
crying at Disney movies. But, you know, got all
that straightened around. And all of a sudden,
the work that I had been putting in, it just
so quickly changed. I mean, within probably two
weeks, you know, my sleep was better. Cognitive
ability was there. I didn't have the brain fog.
My libido was back. I was dropping weight. I
just felt great. And that was continuing. And
then COVID hit and that clinic shut down. One
of the guys that worked there actually had talked
to the doc and essentially was going to buy their
book of business. And, you know, they were good
at the clinical side of things. You know, they
were kind of like a. a patient advocate where
they walk them through the process and help them
determine what was probably right for them. Since
everything was private pay, you know, it could
be expensive. So we found a different physician
and a financial backer and a business development
guy. And they were all good in certain areas,
but no one really was like the one that knew
how to file the articles of incorporation, you
know, put a financial system together. business
processes, contracts, you know, all the fun stuff.
So that was me. You know, and I wasn't even supposed
to be a partner at first. I was just like a consultant
they were going to pay. And they were deciding,
you know, I'll split it four ways. And, you know,
we kicked it off. I don't want to say the name
of the company, but, you know, we did kick it
off. And I always wanted to use e -commerce.
I wanted to do telemedicine. I didn't want to
do the brick and mortar thing, especially with
COVID. So they agreed to start in that space
because of everything that was going on. And
then, you know, I wanted to bring in social media
for marketing. And, you know, it was an uphill
battle. They didn't believe in it. So eventually,
we found an influencer that we really liked.
And, you know, we were able to work a deal. So
once they started promoting for us, it took off
very quickly. The person that was financially
backing it, once they saw that it was turning
the corner, making money profitable into the
millions, essentially just locked everybody out.
And, you know, gave everybody the opportunity
to sue him for, you know, shareholder oppression
and then, you know, take their buyout. And that
is essentially what everybody did. You know,
and that process took months. And, you know,
at that point, I was still working a full -time
job. fairly depressed, you know, kind of was
going back into that self -loving area. And my
wife just kind of looked at me one day in the
kitchen. She's like, you're going to do it again.
So just do it again. Just go and do it. She's
like this time, call a transcend, you know, kind
of joking because it was a play on the other
company. And I was like, I went down right, right
then, right there. And then I went right down
to the basement, to my office area, file articles
in corporation. First thing I did was talk to
one of my, business colleagues and i said hey
you know i'd like to trade you percentage of
equity to you know go in on this company with
me if you'll build a website do all the technical
stuff in the background because they were a developer
and did all that stuff and they they agreed and
then i went to the other two business partners
that were kind of you know had the same experience
I'm like, hey, what do you think about this?
I'm going to do it again. I'm going to do it
the way I wanted to do it. I'm looking for a
little bit of seed money. Do you want to invest
in all this other stuff? Yes, right away. So
I found a gentleman that was a competitor of
mine and worked out a deal with him, got him
brought over. And at that point, he had a small
book of business. So that kind of got the company
started, got all the things established. And
then we started the hunt for influencers and
we ended up getting a call with Jason Poston.
You know, he had spoken to one of our employees
that reached out to him. And, you know, for whatever
reason, he just said, OK, I'll, you know, give
him a shot. I'll listen to him, which was odd
because he had so many people contacting him,
you know, throughout his career that just to
take us randomly, you know, it wasn't normal.
You know, I told him this story. I told him what
had happened. And, you know, he asked me, well,
why are you doing this? And I said, well, for
a multitude of reasons. But to break it down,
one, it changed my life. And I know I can change
others. And I know I can do something good with
it. I know at some point, if the business grows
well enough, I'll be able to build a legacy and
hand something down. You know, be there for,
you know, the families of people that are working
there, shareholders. you know, start a charity,
all that kind of stuff. But mostly it'll give
me roots and stability and I won't have to deploy
or travel or do all these other things. I can
actually see my family. I haven't seen them in,
you know, forever. My career has been essentially
leaving. And that meant something to me. It really
did. So I was shocked because the way in the
structure that we did the contract was... Kind
of like pay to play. The more he did, the better
he did, the better the company did. It was based
on kind of like a commission kind of a thing.
At the end of it, he ended up basically becoming
one of our partners. He helped us find other
connections and grow the company. Shortly after
meeting with him, we met with Steve Weatherford.
He was a former partner for the New York Giants.
He was an NFL spittish man two times. I mean,
guys in his forties and just still to this day
is absolutely yoked. It's ridiculous. I don't
know how he does it. Well, I do, but, um, you
know, so they were all about that kind of lifestyle
too, like the health optimization and wellness
and, you know, taking, you know, control of your
health and putting it in the patient's hands.
versus working within the traditional means of
things, which is more reactive. You know, you're
not necessarily stopping things from happening.
You're just taking another medication to stop
one thing, but then, you know, you get a different
problem. You know, a lot of people think that's
by design. You know, I'm not going to share my
opinion on it, but obviously I like the proactive
and preventative approach personally. So, you
know, once we started. having patients come in
we were you know just focusing on education but
you know i think with jason and steve telling
their stories and explaining just how it helped
them and why it was better for you know people
in the industry especially the bodybuilding industry
where we really cut our teeth you know because
so many competitors were dying so young from
abusing steroids to know that one you could do
it legally with blood work and you could do it
a manner in a way where you were just optimizing
your your levels but you weren't necessarily
you know you weren't taking tons and tons of
gear you know where you get an acne and right
rachel and these other things people that don't
understand is over a certain dose it's not doing
anything anyways it's just giving you side effects
it's just hurting you it's not helping it's not
going to do anything if you bring those down
to the levels where they're supposed to be or
slightly above where the high average is at,
it's going to do basically the same thing. It
just takes a little longer time, but it's still
going to happen. You're still going to be at
your peak. So they liked the idea of being able
to promote something that was going to stop people
from harming themselves and then obviously help
them feel better and put things in their control.
So they agreed, and once they did, it just grew.
Then another influencer would hear their story
and say, hey, I kind of like to do that too.
Then another one. Now, I believe we're at about
40 athletes that we're working with. The company
grew from four people in my basement to 70 people
as of today. We just signed a lease for 30 ,000
square feet here. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
I want to walk through the the kind of genesis
of this therapy first becoming you know available
and then and then carry on forward to all the
kind of pillars of health that you guys address
my exposure to this was actually with the interview
with kirk parsley as a navy seal term physician
um sleep medicine is a big area that he focuses
on but he was talking about the the kind of creation
of this spectrum where your testosterone should
be. And I always forget where it is. I think
it was an Ivy League school area in the Northeast.
But where they got that range from was the, you
know, 950 was the 18 -year -old high school football
player dripping, you know, testosterone and semen.
And then you had the, you know, whatever it was,
2250 was the eight -year -old sedentary dude
in the same town. Up until very recently, a lot
of, you know, myself, a lot of peers, if we did
get blood work done that showed test, they would
be told, oh, you're 300, you're fine. Well, this
would be a 25 -year -old firefighter. This shouldn't
be at 250 or 300. So for the longest time, you
know, I was having this conversation like, look,
you know, figure out where you should actually
be. You know, if you're in your... 30s you know
then i would argue if a 950 is a 18 year old
you know stud then in your 30s you should at
least be in the five sixes at least you know
so if it's way below that but then the pendulum
swung all the way the other way and now all of
a sudden men's clinics and i'm doing air quote
showed up everywhere and now i was having 25
30 year old firefighter friends immediately walk
in there and boom they're on testosterone now
it's not the same one that maybe had the low
ones or if they did but there was no discussion
on on nutrition on sleep on on weight training
and all these things that can naturally stimulate
that you would do before then saying okay you're
a good fit for trt these are the options and
this is how you can do it so Talk to me about
that first, just the industry that you've seen
through your eyes. Obviously, we're going to
talk about Transcend. There's a reason why we're
having this discussion because I think people
should know the good companies. But what have
you seen as far as that predatorial element as
well? Well, the predatorial element is pretty
clear, right? Their sex cells are going to use
that, the glory days, all those things. And they're
going to make it very easy for you to get on
testosterone. um easy is never a good way to
accomplish a goal in my opinion um you know there
should be a little bit more thought put in something
especially when it comes into hormones what they
don't understand is when they go on a hormone
you're going on a hormone for life if you're
replacing your body's natural ability to create
testosterone and you're replacing with something
synthetic um you know that's that's what your
body's used to at this point and that's what
it's going to carry on to do um sometimes you
can into certain level you know to reignite natural
test. And there's methods of doing it, but it's
only going to be to a certain extent. And it's
probably going to be around the level you were
at before. It's most likely not going to increase
where you were at. But once you go on testosterone,
essentially, you should be able to, you need
to stay on it. And that's one thing I think that's
a real difference in the good clinics and the
ones that are a little bit more predatory is
explaining to everybody. what these things really
mean and what they do and the dosage and levels
and everything. And our approach is a little
different. You know, 950, you know, 850, 650,
a thousand. It depends on a few things. First,
let's talk about the symptoms before we talk
the numbers. You know, my number, your number
might be different and it could be based on age.
It could be based on metabolism. It can be based
on body weight. It could be based on how I want
to feel versus how you want to feel. And the
blood work helps us find that number where. that
is where you're feeling good. And also, we're
not affecting other issues where you can go to
the roof. You know, your AST levels or, you know,
kidney functionality, liver functionality is
starting to have, you know, other problems. You
know, you're losing hair. Some of those things
are going to happen. And there's times when you
have to titrate down, you know, if you end up
taking too much. But the thing that is, if you're
monitoring the blood, like a good clinic would
tell you to. then you'll see those things happening.
And before it becomes a problem, you're lowering
that dose and you're, you know, backing it way
down. And I'll tell you this much, our physician,
you know, he's never going to authorize a dose
that is considered more than therapeutic. And
that's where you need to be. About 200 milligrams
a week, you know, in a split dose or, you know,
in multiple split doses is about the max. you
know, a male of most ages is going to be able
to handle without a side effect. And any more
than that, I would, I would have to argue against.
And, you know, that's not even where most clinics
start that are doing this, you know, in the right
way. They're also talking again about nutrition
and lifestyle and those other things, giving
the patient all the information to understand,
you know, what their options are. You know, they
talk about ACG, they'll talk about nicotine,
they'll. you know talk about their sleep and
and you know mood and diet patterns and you know
other you know comorbidities you know things
that could be going on that you know people aren't
looking at you have to look at the entire body
you know all of the systems everything affects
everything essentially so you go in and just
to get testosterone you get it and you leave
you're probably not one of the better If they're
charging you per shot, you're not at a good clinic.
You know, if you don't see the physician, like
as in on a Zoom and talk to them, you're not
at, you know, a good clinic. You need to be able
to at least see their PA, you know, nurse, nurse
practitioner. There should be a major blood panel
workup with all of your hormones, plus all the
base, you know, testing. Yeah, usually we do
like a new patient form, just like you would
in any other physician's office. You know, you
get that 10 page packet and you got to fill out
your health, medical history, you know, and then
go into your goals and other things that you're
trying to accomplish. And, you know, take all
that information, interview the patient, and
then, you know, at that point, walk them through
the process and see what they want to do, where
their priorities are. And that's essentially
what we do. That's how we, you know, take it
from the intake document where somebody makes
contact with us until they get the medication.
You know, they have to go through all those wickets.
You know, they're going to talk to one of our
patient care advocates. They're going to talk
to, you know, a physician or physician's assistant.
The blood work's going to be done. You know,
we're going to have done a review. And then we're
going to make a recommendation. Buy all the options,
too, because there's so many options between
peptides and some of the bioidenticals. You know,
you could have 40 options. We're not saying you
should do 40 of them. We're just saying. These
medications do certain things, and these are
all the things that you could do depending on
what you think would be best for you and your
budget. Because it's private pay, we don't accept
insurance, and we do that for a reason. Medicare
and Medicaid guidelines are very constringent,
and when you are taking insurance, you need to
fall in the U .S. with certain regulations and
laws. And it takes away from the ability for
a patient to put the care in their hands. So,
you know, in this case, Private Bay was the right
way for us to approach it. But once they've made
the decision, you know, that's what we're going
to support. You know, we're going to take that
order. And we have several compounding pharmacies
in the U .S. that we work with. We have a couple
that we really closely partnered with and use
for the main. source. But if they're out of medication
or they're going through inspections or things
like that, sometimes we have to shift. There's
different regulatory restrictions in states.
So sometimes we need to go to a specific pharmacy
to ship a medication to a specific state. So
there's a lot of logistics that are tied in this
too. That's the other thing to be worried about
and understand, you know, when you're going to
a clinic, you know, where are they sourcing their
medications that are going to be sent to you?
And how are they going to be sent? Are they overnight
cold pack? Or are they, you know, going USPS?
You know, there's a few things there to look
at and good questions to ask. All our stuff is,
you know, sent overnight cold pack unless it's
lypholized. which is powder form. It has to be
reconstituted. Most of the peptides are like
that. So they're heat tolerant and they're not
necessarily as, you know, constringent on the
time. So we don't have to put over an item, but
there's a lot of medications that do need to
be done that way. But we've made sure to go through
and find the pharmacies that are compounding
and sending to the patients, you know, as we've
ordered it for them. So the medication is basically
made at the time the patient is ordering it versus,
you know, sitting on a shelf. you know, just
waiting to go out at a standard pharmacy. You
know, we've gone through and we've seen their
FDA inspections. You know, we've seen their,
you know, proof that they got their raw materials
from an FDA approved source. You know, we've
seen the facilities where the filtration systems
are up and running, they're clean rooms. You
know, we still go back and ask them to send sample
products and see a third party independent testing
and make sure that both see the, you know, bioavailability,
the, you know, stableness of the medication,
all those things are. being looked at and done
randomly. So, you know, we can't just tell them
on next Tuesday to have a batch ready for us.
You know, because we do care because these are
medications myself and my staff use just the
same. So obviously we want them to be, you know,
just as good for us as they are for our patients.
But those are all things that good clinics do.
And those are the ones you want to go to, the
ones that are doing it right. So Brendan was
telling me as well, when you've done this questionnaire,
there is an element of, of counseling when it
comes to your nutrition your sleep etc because
i think this is a big uh sticking point in the
fire service if We get the firefighters work
week to where it should be in the US. They would
have a lot more time to recover. And I think
some of them would self -regulate at least when
they were younger with their hormones. So, you
know, but the problem is that they don't at the
moment. The county that protects where I live
now, they're on 56 hours a week and a lot of
times getting mandatory forced to stay another
one. So they're on sometimes 80 hour work weeks.
So to tell those men and women, oh, you just
need more sleep. Well, yeah, but sometimes they're
not able to get it. The TBI is obviously the
combat athletes, the military, the law enforcement.
That's another area where it seems like the self
-regulation starts to kind of fall away. But
having that diagnosis element first of, well,
you know, have you changed your diet? Have you
done this? Have you done that? It's still not
working or I'm just not able to because of my
work schedule. Well, then for especially the
younger male or female, now you've given them
a tool. Okay, I'm not. I'm just going to be in
this chaos for another 5, 10 years. Okay, now
I can make a decision. I understand ideally I'd
be able to do X, Y, and Z, but I'm not in this
work environment. So now here's a tool I can
use in the interim. Yeah, spot on, especially
in those fields. There's no opportunity really
to try anything else. So this is really the only
option. um so obviously going to the right place
is what's important but the um the interview
aspect of that and the guidance those questions
are obviously going to be asked first you know
and even more questions too um you know for men
we're going to ask them about their fertility
and their family planning and what they want
to do because there's an element there too that's
a risk you know they need to know and understand
and have full informed consent on the impacts
of things um you know there are things we can
do and medications we can use in tandem to protect
you know fertility and you know even in some
cases increase the potential fertility um we
can do some things in that area we can assist
males uh not so much in the in the female arena
but there's you know things that we have to ask
you know and it's beyond even just the diet nutrition
and lifestyle it's like i said before you realize
that this is a medication you're going to need
to be on essentially for the rest of your life
are you okay with that Do you understand and
know that by taking this, you're shutting down
any ash production that you have, and this could
affect your fertility, and it will affect your
fertility. So as much of the benefits this is
going to have and the situation they're in, they
still need to know those other potential effects
that are going to happen regardless. Absolutely.
I think that's what, you know, most people would
appreciate. It's just an informed decision. You
know, now you have all the tools because as you
said, I mean, you get atrophy of the testes.
I mean, it's a one -way street then. Your test
is only going to get worse and worse and worse.
But, you know, you can plan, all right, well,
I'm not going to do it for another six months.
We're going to try, you know, try and get pregnant.
But sadly, I think I see a lot of infertility.
In my profession, for example, because of the
shift work, because of the sleep deprivation.
So again, you know, maybe they've been trying
for five years. Maybe, as you said, this with
a combination of something else might actually
work this time. So it's, but again, you give
a family all these tools so they can make an
informed decision. Now, you know, they've got
all the information they need versus, as you
said, walking into a clinic, being told, yeah,
choose from the board. Yeah, that's 600 bucks,
please. See you next week. Yeah, exactly. That's,
that's the whole point too. That's why we asked
the question. So you do want to have children.
Okay. Well then I'm going to recommend to you,
even though it's going to be, you know, a few
hundred dollars more and I understand that's
expensive, but this is going to protect your
fertility, you know, so we're recommending you
take this along with this or no one understand
the risk that maybe that's not opportunity for
you now, but you know, when you are able to,
we should add this in, you know, those kinds
of things. And obviously for, you know, firefighters,
first responders, veterans, that kind of thing.
You know, we discount the meds. And when it comes
down to, you know, those that were, you know,
wounded or have other issues, you know, significant
issues and need real help, you know, that's where
our Cherry Transcend Foundation comes in, you
know, the 503. And we're able to, you know. essentially
donate what we can in order to support those
individuals to get through whatever they need
to. And I know you mentioned TBI, and that's
an important systemic issue, especially in the
military, where a lot of the NSF guys, just through
even training and everything else they've done,
they've had exposure to detonations weekly. And
those things are like a concussion every time,
and it's going to add up, let alone anybody who's
been in an IED or any other type of traumatic
event, like a rollover or, you know, God only
knows. But we have some medications that are
showing real promise in helping reverse or repair
some of the damage. It's way too early to tell,
and I will never say that it's a miracle drug
and it's going to do anything, but there is a
drug, Dehexa, and it is a peptide. It's a oral
medication. And it is initially created for Alzheimer's
and dementia, but it's to improve the cognitive
functionality. It repairs damaged brain cells,
essentially. You know, there's limitations to
everything. So we can't say, again, that it's
going to heal and fix anyone. But for those that
had low to mild TBI issues that have come to
us and have taken the medication long term, you
know, more than six months, close to a year.
They were starting to see that they were seeing
improvement in their day -to -day life, quality
of life. And at the end of the day, what we're
trying to do is improve people's quality of life.
Like I said, we can't reverse age. We can't cure
disease. But in a lot of the cases, we can optimize
health and we can reverse some of the symptoms
that people are feeling. So we focus on that.
Well, I want to get to the foundation because
there's a very... evident altruistic you know
arm to not only your company but you yourself
as a human being but just before we do 2020 obviously
this all happens when covid when uh you know
we go through the covid pandemic some interesting
things have come out of that one of them that
i've talked about here before is integrating
emed with 911 and allowing some of these patients
to interact directly with an ER physician, which
then negates the need for an ambulance if it's
a lower acuity call. What impact did the pandemic
have on e -medicine when it comes to Transcend
and the ability for people all over the country
to be able to access you as a company? It had
a tremendous impact, and I think it drove all
of our growth, to be quite frank, because we
were giving people healthcare options. in a manner
where they could do it from their home mostly
really the only time you have to go outside of
the home is to actually go to a lab core request
diagnostics facility that we are partnered with
in order to get the blood drawn but beyond that
it's done through zoom and phone call and you
know the medications are shipped to the home
directly and they're self -administered that
was a very attractive option for a lot of people
but even more so and you know I don't have an
opinion on it one way or the other, but a lot
of people become skeptical of traditional medicine,
especially with the shots and the vaccines and
all those other things. So they don't trust the
medications, you know, traditional medicine as
much as they used to in the past. And a lot of
them are looking for other options. They're looking
for an alternative. And we came in at the time
where we were talking about preventative health
care and, you know, in a way we were trying to
focus on education. and a less is more approach
and how to improve quality of life. And that's
what a lot of people are looking for. They don't
want to get sick, especially when they see people
dying from things that are getting them sick.
They want to improve their immunity, that kind
of thing. So we were just there at the right
time and we were available where others weren't.
And I think that had a massive impact. So talk
to me about the foundation. I met Brendan out
on 7X, which was the incredible round the world,
let's see if we can completely destroy human
beings and rebuild them project that we were
on. Ryan Parrott, and again, the genesis of that
was his sniper partner's suicide, David Metcalf.
And so, you know, we're making the book now.
We're making a documentary about this. And ultimately,
not only is it going to raise some money for
some nonprofits, more importantly, it's going
to share a lot of information on all the different
holistic elements to a lot of the dark places
that people find themselves and the way to find
yourself out through nutrition, exercise, mindfulness
and all these other areas. But you, and I'll
pull it out of the shadows, you were absolutely
imperative in. that going ahead it was a very
last minute thing and you were extremely generous
and made a massive donation to make sure that
that 7x project went ahead so talk to me about
you know the importance of altruism your kind
of social but business model and then let's talk
about the foundation as you touched on you know
who you're trying to help through that well talking
about the the social aspect of the the company
i mean that's just the way we're able to get
out to um you know a larger you know, massive
people that, you know, are listening to people
they trust. And that was the attractiveness to
it was to find a way to focus on education and
in an area that we knew people were suffering.
And honestly, that was bodybuilding and fitness
where people were, you know, abusing medications
to start. So I took the approach of if we're
going to. help people improve their quality of
life we need to first stop people from screwing
it up so let's let's start where the problem
might begin in this area and um you know obviously
you know from my wife being a competitor and
other things it was just kind of a natural place
to start um and that's just really where we grew
through grew from but the military and everything
around it obviously and all the tragedies and
you know 22 day and mental health all of it You
know, it's always, you know, in the back of my
mind, it's always sitting there. It's, you know,
it's just something I hate to hear about and
hate to see. So when I met Brendan, you know,
and I had found out his story and he's got his
own story, a hell of a story. I'll tell you what,
the one thing that really drove me quickly to
wanting to start the foundation is I didn't want
a guy to have to go back overseas again. I really
didn't. I saw a family man who really wanted
to get something done and do some good. And I
was right at that point in time where we could
have started a foundation. So instead of him
going back, I wanted to offer him a job. And,
you know, that's really how it started. You know,
we were aligned, like -minded, had the very same
outlook in how to approach these things. And,
you know, it was kind of one of those things
where I knew if I didn't, you know, do it now,
if I did it even in two weeks, you know, he'll
probably be back on a contract or off doing something.
And I just didn't want to see that happen again.
So we started it and, you know, he had known
Ryan or had met him through all of his connections
because he's got a massive network. But when
I found out about 7X, it took me about 10 seconds
to say that we were in. And I love the idea of
raising the awareness of what it was for and
what it represented and why Ryan was doing it
importantly. And I like the fact that there's
going to be science behind it. And the idea would
be to prevent things like this from happening
in the future. Why wouldn't you help there? Why
wouldn't you jump on that? So for me, it was
an instant decision. And I felt very strongly
about it. So when I found out that Ryan needed
some help, thank God we were able to. being able
to and knowing what i knew it was felt like a
duty and a responsibility and i just wanted to
make sure that that went forward you know to
me personally i felt like it was an important
project and the world would be a better place
with that being you know completed so yeah well
again for for people listening it was a very
substantial amount of money we won't put figures
out there but it was a extremely generous donation
that was really the difference between 7x going
ahead or not so i just want to add that so talk
to me about the foundation then now now you're
you know you're basically almost done setting
it up you touched on it before you know how is
it funded and then who are you helping with that
foundation specifically so um the plan to fund
it is the same way we actually agree with the
company where you want to work with our social
media partners and our athletes and those that
support the military. I'd like to talk to a few
more in the military community that have a platform
where they're able to reach out to people and,
you know, again, bring awareness. But the idea
behind the Transcend Foundation mostly is to
utilize our medications and to make sure that
we're able to help as many veterans and first
responders, firefighters, law enforcement that
we can. You know, in addition to that. We want
to take the approach a little differently than,
you know, others in the past. There's thousands
of charities out there that focus in one specific
area. They do it really well. Problem is people,
humans have multiple issues and one affects the
other. So one charity alone isn't really going
to. you know, cure the person and their ailments
and everything they need. We want to develop
a mesh network where we're partnered with other
charities that are focused in areas that we can't
touch on specifically, but can support each other.
So Transcend Foundation originally was self -funded
through Transcend Company. And then we've had
some private donors and, you know, we're working
towards getting into the electronic donation,
you know, more small donor types of donation.
So we're getting ready to launch that. But as
we've been kind of building the process and building
the thing and we've taken on a certain number
of patients that the company can afford to essentially
carry and take care of, we wanted to fund other
partnered charities as much as we could to keep
those organizations going and doing the good
and establish those relationships. So that's
what we're doing up to this point. And I believe
since last September until now, we've donated
almost a million through those efforts. Now,
we kind of didn't get into all the positive side
effects of testosterone replacement therapy,
if that's the route that is the right fit for
you. So just talk to me about some of the success
stories, because I know in this conversation
or in this podcast, some of the conversations,
like you said, it wasn't the only thing, but
it was one of the tools that took people from
some very dark places mentally back to feeling
good again. The most important thing that. Transcend
can do on the mental health side is going through
and finding out where hormones are with that
veteran or that patient so we can get them balanced
out again. Therapies are amazing, but they're
only effective if you're in the right space,
in the right mind. And if you're not able to
be receptive to any sort of treatment, it's going
to be hard for the treatment to take effect.
Going through and, like I said, getting the blood
work, finding out their levels and getting them
back to a base number. where they feel good again
and it gives them hope the first thing you can
do to help somebody is give them hope uh and
that has a dramatic effect on you know somebody's
outlook and somebody's receptiveness to change
where especially they were feeling in a spot
where they didn't have that before so you know,
from us, the greatest thing we can do is provide
that. And then we have a lot of healing medications,
peptides, things like that. Like I said, with
the cognitive ability of dihexa, BPC -157, you
know, that's going to help with, you know, damaged
tissues and, you know, ligaments, tendons, that
kind of thing. You know, you combine a couple
of those things together with testosterone and
you've really made a significant impact on somebody's
life and quality of life. And now you are turning
that patient over to one of your partner charities
that's going to go ahead and do the MDR or do
the psychedelic type of, you know, treatments
for mental health. And it works. It actually
works. So, you know, that's how we've been able
to, you know, kind of approach things. We're
kind of the start, the triage, so to speak, in
the ER. And then we're handing it off to, you
know, wherever from that point they would need
the most help. Beautiful. I mean, it makes sense.
You know, it's not just psychology, it's physiology
as well. And if your hormones are completely
crashed, then if you're not addressing that,
it doesn't matter how much meditation you do,
you're not going to be able to change your physiology.
Yeah, you're too tired to meditate. And, you
know, at the end of the day, if you don't have
that hope, if you don't have that physical energy,
you don't feel like you can make a change. It's
hard to mentally work through that. But I mean,
when you talk about testosterone, you're improving
your sleep. you know, you're improving their
energy, libido. So just for those things alone,
you know, and hoping to regulate some of the
mood swings, all of that right there, that can
impact not only that person's quality of life,
but, you know, married families, the whole family
dynamic, you know, you've just improved everyone's
quality of life by helping that person, you know,
improve their quality of life. You know, and
then if you add, like I said, some of the things
that heal some of the injuries physically, you
know, where they didn't think maybe they would
be able to before, because these are medications
that are not being used for the VA. or even traditional
medicine. And they're helping, you know, inflammation
is going down, pain is going away, mobility is
coming back, tissues are being repaired, cognitive
functionality is being restored, you know, sleep
cycles are resetting. You know, that's about
as good as you can get, at least within our capabilities.
And then adding in the mental health stability
piece of that and getting them to the right,
you know, team afterwards. you know, obviously
continue on treatments that they're in, you know,
it's, I, I believe that's the only way to go.
Yeah. No, well, like you said, I think hope is
the exact word, you know, you're addressing all
the things at the same time. It was a family's
hope too. Well, exactly. Yeah. Because they're
the ones that deal with us. Yeah. And that's
a good term too. They do deal with us. So I want
to be mindful of your time. I just want to throw
some quick closing questions at you. The first
one is, is there a book or other books that you
love to recommend? It can be related to our discussion
today or completely unrelated. There's so many
out there. Honestly, I wish I had just one that
I could, but not at this point. Yeah, no problem.
What about films and documentaries? So it's a
documentary, and it's one that kind of hit home
for me. Restrepo, you know, talks about, you
know, an actual army medic, you know, attached
to an infantry company, and, you know, their
time through, you know, an Afghanistan deployment,
and, you know, he's killed in the, you know,
in that deployment. But you can see the brotherhood,
you can see the camaraderie, you understand and
see what people are going through, but the mental
anguish that the soldiers go through at that
point in time, exactly, it really gets you front
and center to what they experience and what they
come home with and what that weight looks like.
So that would be one I would recommend that you
watch and understanding there will be a heavy
impact. Sebastian Jung has been on here, I think
it's three times now. He's coming back on in
a couple of months. But speaking of books, have
you read Tribe that he wrote? I have it on my
read list. You got to read it. Absolutely got
to read it. Yeah. No, it's on my read list. Yeah.
I mean, you take that, the observation from Restrepo.
But then you add in, he goes into kind of tribalism
in a positive way in some of the stories from
the Native American communities. But then, you
know, you've got that cohesion during combat.
And then when it's the loss of tribe, when people
are going to go home, that's when they see a
lot of the unraveling. So it's a really interesting
perspective, not only for the military, but first
responders too. Yeah. Brendan, you know, when
we were talking about this, you know, I say mesh
network, but the first thing he said was tribe,
you know, we're rebuilding a tribe. So a different
approach to the term, but, you know, definitely
the same kind of mentality where, you know, we
have to band together to get to the same kind
of result. Well, the next question, is there
a person that you'd recommend to come on this
podcast as a guest to speak to the first responders,
military and associated professions of the world?
I have met so many people in the last two years.
Yeah, absolutely. Robert Wilkins. Rob is just
a man among men. And I mean that in the most
heartfelt way I can possibly put. He is empathetic,
compassionate, intelligent, and he's worked in
multiple administrations on the President's Council
for Nutrition and Fitness to better the lives
of soldiers, airmen, Marines. any way he can
you know they look at everything from what the
military is doing to you know how they're feeding
them you name it um but he's a big proponent
of things that we could do better uh i think
he would be an amazing addition to the people
you've interviewed beautiful yeah brendan actually
suggested him before and with the military side
and like you said the um the wellness side combined
i think it would be an amazing conversation so
if you guys are able to help we'll definitely
make that happen We absolutely will. He's, you
know, on the board of directors for our foundation.
So I'll be reaching out to him today. Beautiful.
Thank you. All right. Well, then the last question
before everyone knows where to find Transcend
and yourself online, what do you do to decompress?
I spend time with my kids and my wife. I do.
I like to ride four wheelers around our property
and just see my eight year old son, you know.
try to figure it all out and just be there. I
like to play video games, stupid as that sounds,
play guitar, you know, just the things that,
you know, I did when we were younger that just
helped me take my mind off of things. But the
most important thing is just taking that 10 second
pause in the day when it's nice and quiet in
the morning before the day starts, you know,
and I just kind of sit out and grab my coffee
and take that breath. And I'm blessed to have
some property to look at that. you know it's
calming and you know i do that every day total
tangent right before we close out as a parent
now you lost a brother when you were a very small
child how did that influence your parenting and
how are you able to to not put steel apron strings
on your own children because of the fear of the
tragedy you experienced as a child honestly i
probably put steel strings on to a certain extent
to the As much as my wife would let me. Because,
you know, she has a different upbringing and,
you know, has a much softer touch. And, you know,
thank God for that. If it wasn't for her soft
touch with me, I don't know that I would have
ever, you know, been able to be where I am today.
In fact, I know I wouldn't. But, you know, as
time's gone on and I've had a little bit of time
to be a dad, you know, I've also realized that
the world. you know, is always going to be a
dangerous place. And there's only so much you
can do to protect your kids. But the best thing
you can do to protect your kids is sometimes
you got to let them fail. You got to let them
fall. You got to let them play. You got to let
them do those things to learn the lessons, you
know, to be safe. So, you know, I've kind of
had to try to balance those things out, you know,
that build them up. yeah it's a hard thing a
lot of people listening to this you know we see
that at work you know we see the the horrific
accidents and you know it it does kind of play
into your mind when you're with your own child
and it is that kind of tug of war between being
responsible and educating them on risks and everything
but also as you said allowing them to be their
own child and not this puppet that you're taking
through 18 years of their life yeah absolutely
um you know like i said i try to involve them
so Being able to spend time with them is great,
but they can't be there all the time, so they
have to be able to figure it out for themselves.
Absolutely. Well, I'm sure people are really
wanting to learn a lot more about Transcend.
Obviously, access it, maybe do an initial interview
themselves, see what's available for them, what
might be a good fit. Firstly, where are the best
places to find Transcend online? One of the easiest
places to go is to our Instagram account, and
that's at TranscendHRT. You'll find us, Big Blue
T is the envelope that you'll see right there.
There's a link to the intake document. The intake
form only takes about 15 to 20 seconds to fill
out. And usually the same day, sometimes within
10 minutes, but definitely within the same day,
you'll have one of our wellness specialists,
which is our patient advocate, and they're going
to contact you back. If you don't have social
media, you can find us at, you know, transcendcompany
.com. And, you know, that's the same thing, very
easy. You're going to find the link right on
the webpage. And we're right there. You can look
us up as well. And if you just want to talk to
a human being, you can call the main line, tell
them you're interested, and they'll transfer
you over to a wellness specialist and they'll
fill everything with you on the phone. So whatever
is most convenient and easiest for you, we're
easy to find. Beautiful. And then what about
yourself individually? Any places on social media?
I'm on Instagram. That's just EW Calling. That's,
you know, first. First middle initial and last
name. I wasn't that creative, you know, but if
you want to follow it, you know, I'll be blessed
to have you. Beautiful. Well, Ernie, I want to
say thank you so, so much. I mean, the conversation,
the vulnerability, and we talked before we hit
record. This is something that people, especially
men, need to hear. I mean, I've had so many people
that have been courageous in their service, whether
it's first responders, military or other professions,
but have been so courageously. uh vulnerable
as well and talking about you know the struggles
and and some of the things that happened when
they were younger for example i think it's important
but then what you've done with transcend bringing
these products um in a way that you know they're
trustworthy and people can be educated and as
you said be told okay these are the pros these
are the cons you know and and allow people to
make an educated decision with a veteran -owned
company that I can put my hand on my heart and
say is an altruistic social business as well.
It's been an honor talking to you today. So thank
you so much for coming on the show. Thank you,
James. It was an absolute pleasure. I appreciate
it.