All across America and around the world, this
is Veterans Radio. This is Veterans Radio. Good
day. I'm Jim Fossone. I'm the Officer of the
Deck today here on Veterans Radio and thanks
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You can learn more about them by going to PuroClean
.com. We want to welcome into Veterans Radio
today, Marine T .J. Johnson. T .J., welcome to
Veterans Radio. Yes, sir. Well, thank you for
having me. Well, we're glad to talk to a Marine.
You went in in 1998. You medically, well, you
got out in 2002. They ultimately gave you a medical.
But you went into the Marines right after high
school. What was your thinking at that point?
Oh, um, well, my, uh, my family raised a beef
master cattle and orange groves and my father
was tougher than the Marine Corps. So I figured
I'd get an easy out if I just joined the Marines.
Um, plus the ladies liked the outfit. So it was
kind of a no brainer. Uh, but, uh, no, it, you
know, like a lot of us did to join the military,
I think in sharing stories that I served with,
you know, we all came from rural America. of
us and, you know, some college options, you know,
weren't really for us. And, you know, we wanted
to serve our country. I think, you know, I always
kind of joke. I think I became a better Marine
when I got out than when I was in because as
you get older, you start to appreciate things
and look at things a little bit differently.
But I definitely wanted to serve my country.
I definitely wanted to be a part of the best.
I wanted to earn it. That was a big part of it.
And I want to go off and accomplish great things.
And I felt that the Marine Corps would allow
me to do that. Well, amen to that. It's one of
those things that we owe the country. And I think
as we get older, we realize what we didn't realize
when we were in our youth that, hmm, this was
a higher calling than I realized. So we recognize
that as we get older, I suppose. But you sort
of had a twist and turn in your career in the
Marines and that. Uh, you, you suffered a significant
motorcycle accident that really kind of began
changing your life, right? Yes, sir. Yeah. I,
I, I went in, um, you know, Marine Corps was
probably my whole life. I think at the time,
you know, if they would have given 20 year contracts
are pretty, you know, probably would have signed
it. Um, I was really dedicated to being a Marine.
I was, I graduated, uh, honor grad. I was top
of my class. I was meritorious and promoted three
times by the time I got to the fleet. You know,
um, I was, I was. doing really well. I served
with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines as an infantryman,
was with them for about a year and a half and
29 palms, and then had the opportunity to switch
over to 1st Reconnaissance Battalion at Camp
Margarita and Camp Pendleton. And it was great.
You know, as I joined, it was a part of recon
at the time. They were pretty underfunded and
attached to headquarters battalion and they were
doing kind of an OJT program versus the traditional
ARS ARS or BRC programs for for the recon bubbles.
And so we were training with the operators that
were already there. It was a very small unit.
They were starting to try to rebuild and put
it together. And I had had a good a couple of
good friends of mine that were Stapleton. We're
going to be Stapleton snipers from three, four
or so. Pendleton had sniper school there. So
they just finished up the school and there were
guys I'd served with at three forward. And I
just wrapped up pre scuba for combat dive that
the operators were prepping for. And we finally
had a little bit of Liberty. And it's funny as
I've talked about this over the years and shared
this on the stages as a speaker and went through
this, it always is the word accident, but really
it was attempted murder. They were targeting,
the gang specifically was targeting you know,
members of the military for gang initiation.
And I happened to be one of those targets coming
off the back of the base. And of course, they,
you know, they caught me with a car when I was
on a motorcycle and I caught the corner of a
brick house at about 35, 40 miles an hour where
it broke all the bones of my upper body. All
my ribs had punctured and lacerated all my major
organs and my left bicep was sliced open and
they got out and you know, kick me and beat me
and rob me. The point was to kill me. I thought
I was dead. Of course, because of the gang in
the area, nobody would help. So I ended up having
to walk two blocks to a fire station while I
was drowning in my own fluid, taking about two
full breaths or a full breath every two minutes.
And, you know, by the time I got there, they're,
you know, they had they flighted me and intubated
me. And I had flatlined about three times, spent
probably six to eight months in the hospital
to learn how to walk, talk, breathe again. And
maybe about a year and a half later, let's say
Maybe about a year later, I was back operational.
And then, of course, 9 -11 happened. So my unit
was deploying, heading out, preparing to head
to Hawaii and then head over to Afghanistan.
And yeah, and that was my turn of events and
experience during that time. And then I got out
and moved on. Well, it's almost 23 years later
kind of thing. And that's the beauty of time
is so much more goes on in life. other than just
our service experiences, but their service experiences
are foundational, and we're gonna kinda come
back to that because T .J. Johnson's not only
a Marine, which we've been talking about, he's
a business owner, which we wanna talk about,
but he's also been a motivational speaker, a
best -selling author, a life coach, so he's taken
his experiences over time and really developed
those skills to bring them to other folks, but
we really, Along the way, you kind of went from
this near -death experience, you have done some
physical feats that make the resume, walking
across the country, incredible number of sit
-ups, I think, or push -ups, actually, I can't
find my notes. What's the motivator for, like,
I gotta push myself to my physical limits? Uh,
that's survivors guilt. So, um, you know, it
took me a long time and it's still a process
of working through therapy and truly kind of
understanding why I do certain things. I think
the best way to explain it is, is the general
public sees that when someone goes through severe
PTSD or a veteran for that matter, um, a lot
of times as they coin, they go into drug and
alcohol, um, you know, and they go down kind
of a spiral and obviously the thoughts of suicide
kind of start to come in. Um, for me, you know,
to be given a second chance at life, there's
a lot of whys, right? So why me, you know, why
now? What's the reason? And I had to dig into
that for a long time. And there's a lot of different
emotions that kind of play into that, right?
You know, anger, frustration, confusion, sadness,
and trying to determine like, you know, what
makes me so valuable that out of all of the amazing
people that I served with that didn't come back
or all the people that, you know, children and...
families that pass away that don't have that
second chance at life that would give anything
to have that second chance at life. Why was I
coined to that person? And it's a constant evolving
understanding of something probably I will never
truly understand because my brain is just too
small to try to comprehend it. But ultimately
it comes back to being of service for someone
who gets the blessing to have a second chance
at life. I feel that I must serve and pay back
my debt or continue to pay that. I guess maybe
more lease on life in order to do the right thing,
because I would hate to get to the end. You know,
walk up to the pearly gates and you know, say
they will give you a second chance at life. What
did you do with it? And I said, well, I squander
it. I drank. I did drugs. I, you know, didn't
give back to my community. And I think I would
just. that would be way too heavy on me. So,
you know, more importantly, it's about how can
I push myself to limits? Because I know the max
limit, right? I know what it's like to walk to
the other side. So I do know that, you know,
what kind of pain you feel is never going to
be that pain up until that point. You know how
to pull back. So all the things that I've done
or continue to do, even though it was tremendous
amount of pain for me. And again, it is my version
of trying to overcome certain things and sometimes
not always doing well with it. It's my version
of that drug or alcohol addiction. It's a way
to try to push myself through pain and agony
to continue that lease on life, to help and serve
other people, to selfishly put myself in a position
to be worthy of God's grace. Well, you know,
I talked to a lot of veterans and that adrenaline
rush is a little bit of what you're talking about.
And that's why we're buying fast cars and fast
motorcycles. We're doing addictive activities
almost to a level of whether it's physical activities
like you were doing, or some are, it's drugs
and alcohol. I mean, there's a lot, you know,
that's a heavier topic than either you or I can
really delve into. But I'm gonna bring you back
to, over these 20 years, you've had highs and
lows. You were... As I say, a best -selling author,
you ran a CEO of a prosperous mortgage business
that collapsed under the economy. That led to
homelessness, that led to starting over again
and being resilient. But somewhere along the
way you got this serial entrepreneur bug. There
was something in it about starting and running
businesses. What's your personal philosophy about
that? I think it's plays along of what you mentioned,
just chasing a high. I mean, developing a business
is for one. I think their freedom of being able
to make your own decisions, getting out underneath
Big Brother is is a big part of it. The ability
to be able to have a vision and a dream. I think
the military plays a great structure in some
things and there are tools out of that toolbox
that you can grab and use every once in a while.
I do not think that a lot of times a great. Entrepreneur
is a great military person because it's kind
of a it's the difference between the two, you
know, you've got structure and discipline and
you have that in entrepreneurship, but you have
to have the willingness to kind of go outside
of the box. And I will say I think maybe it does
play a little bit along the Marine Corps, you
know, working a little. You know, making a lot
out of it and taking risks, you know, on your
own and going out and trying to take a underfunded
small unit and accomplish great big things. And
I kind of feel like in a nutshell, that's what
entrepreneurship is. But for me, I just enjoyed
the ability to be able to decide my own fate
and build my own business. And a very smart man
once told me a long time ago that someone paying
you a salary is them determining what your worth
is. You paying yours and building your business
is you knowing what your worth is. I think they
just kind of stuck with me at a young age. So
I just kind of continued to do that in building
businesses. Well I want to talk about the one
you're involved in now and we're going to come
back maybe and talk a little bit about if we
have time on and what advice you'd give to veterans
thinking about going into business. But let's
start with Big Guns Coffee which you started
kind of launched it with your then six -year
-old daughter Charlie in 2021 just coming kind
of out of COVID. Tell us about Big Guns Coffee.
Yeah, well, so for one, it's not my business
and be very clear is my daughter's business.
Just in case he's listening to this, I don't
want to get fired. I am the co founder. I'm the
one that kind of laid the foundation and support
and use my coaching experience to help her build
it. She is truly not a novelty item. She is the
one that sells and gets the relationships and
builds the platform. Of course we do it together.
Obviously, you know, there are some legal things
that, you know, a 10 year old can't do, but exactly
they can't. That's right, right, right. So, you
know, she, we, we are partners in that sense,
but it was really her idea. And it was a combination
of all those things that we just briefly, you
know, kind of skimmed over, you know, at the
end, after I'd ran across America, you know,
I'd been homeless. I'd been through all these
things that done these pushup world records.
Uh, she actually built the company right after,
uh, broke, you know, and attempted the two world
records of most pushups in 12 hours and one hour.
And, uh, you know, and her comment was, you know,
I. Dad, you've done all these things. Not everybody
can do what you do, but maybe they can feel like
it. And I want to build a business like that.
So that's where she came up with big guns. So
it's not guns shoot. It's guns muscle. So, um,
you know, she wanted people to feel empowered
and feel strong. And, uh, and I just written
a book called done by 230, where I was really
trying to focus on how to teach people to be
better CEOs and executives of their homes and
their business. Um, I didn't like how corporations
spent millions and millions of dollars on how
to develop relationships with complete strangers.
yet we just assume and had no real platform to
do that with our partners or our children. We
just assume because we have children and there
are blood that automatically we can communicate.
And when you work in the homeless community and
you start to kind of get into the tunnels and
skid row and you're sleeping in shelters and
you start to ask the right questions, one of
the biggest things that you'll see is absentee
fathers. And I'm just, I realized the success
rate of fixing out on the end was extremely low.
But the success rate on starting in the beginning
to hope that never get there was extremely high
and that was kind of my main objective and I'd
written that book really focusing on teaching
people about that and then ultimately I came
downstairs after I just kind of wrapped it up
and my daughter says I want to start a business
just like any kid would say I want to do dance
gymnastics. I want to ride a pony. She says,
I want to do something like that. Dad, I want
to make an impact. And I said, well, if you do
this, you have to do it. I can't just go do it
for you and then put you up in a shiny little
pedestal and say, you're doing this. You've really
got to put that work in. And as they say, 30
minutes later, she developed Big Guns Coffee
with a coffee cup, a little muscle arms on it.
And she says, I want people to, coffee is the
first part of people's day and it makes them
feel great. And I want them to feel that same
way. And that's how Big Guns Coffee started.
Do I hear a little bit of your hard, uh, as nails
father, uh, advice trickling through to your
daughter when you say, if you're going to start
something, you got to follow it through. Well,
absolutely. I think that's, that's probably more
love than it is hard as nails. It is, but I bet
when you were a kid, you thought it was just
hard as nails stuff. Yeah. Well, my dad never
started a business with me. So I was, he just
made me swallow my teeth if I said anything out
back. So, um, you know, look, Having a daughter
is different than having a boy and Having a daughter
you become you know again. I can't speak for
everyone else I just speak for myself for me
it is it is the most amount of love I've ever
experienced in my life. I have never had the
feeling of love like I have for my daughter She's
my best friend my emotional support animals.
She's she's she's everything to me in this world
And the one thing I have learned in business
is that no amount of money can make you successful.
It's the value that you create and your ability
to understand, connect, communicate, and sell
to people and serve people is where that monetary
gain is in exchange. And what we're doing is
laying that foundation for her. She can do whatever
she wants when she grows up. I have no, I don't
care if she wants to be an artist, she wants
to do all these things, but. As I father in a
coach, if I coach her on the foundation of things
that are, you know, a dying, it is dying right
now, right? Which is looking someone in the eye,
shaking their hand, communicate, being able to
work a room, feel confident, not have fear, you
know, based on other people. It'll allow her
to pick and choose her career. If it happens
to be the coffee business and she builds her
company, great. If she happens to take it and
go be a teacher, that's great too. But more importantly,
it's about teaching her the foundation of the
skills that we unfortunately won't learn until
later on in life. Yeah, those life skills are
not taught in the classroom and they're probably
more valuable than most of what you get taught
in the classroom. And that's part of what you're
teaching your daughter through Big Guns Coffee.
You've also sort of in the company taken a kind
of unique angle, I suppose, in coffee and where
you buy it from. Tell us a little bit about that
distinguishing feature and why it came about.
Yes sir. Well, I'll take credit for that one.
That is a hydroponic coffee. So we're the first
indoor only first and only indoor hydroponic
coffee farm in the United States. As we're starting
to learn now that we've really kind of got out
there, we're the only one in the world. We've
been contacted by different countries. We leave
for Germany later this year to kind of go talk
about what we're doing in coffee in our segment
and our focus. And it really just kind of came
from a program I went through with Appalachian
State University. It's called Frontline to Farm.
And it was a program for disabled veterans on
learning to understand farming. And during that
time when we were doing our coffee, I just wanted
to kind of get a little more back to the roots
of farming and maybe just live a little bit more,
you know, lax life in that sense, not that farming
is lax, but just kind of take a different approach
to my corporate side of it and kind of go back
to my roots. And I had met a veteran that was
growing hydroponic lettuce and was extremely
intrigued by hydroponics, very naive to the process.
And then I just submerged myself in it and was
like, you know, I wonder why we can't do coffee.
And when I went to Google it, there was nothing.
There was no one's ever done it. There was no
real data. nothing to research and I thought
well either I've stumbled upon something or I'm
a complete idiot and I don't see what the problem
is and somehow lucky for me I stumbled upon something
something and and then we started to develop
it and we spent all my savings and money and
everything sold my car you know we went all in
to develop and build it and then we started having
harvest we started growing coffee and we started
putting it together and that's where we are now
creating the first indoor, you know, hydroponic
coffee, American grown American made coffee with
its own independent commodity and supply chain
that hopefully will never compete with the overall
coffee market, but will create an opportunity
to lay the foundation for the future of how coffee
may be done. And up until that point, an additional
avenue for people to have to be able to source
American products. So this is intriguing, T.
Shane. How long does it take to grow coffee,
uh, panically. Well, so, um, It depends on the
variety. There's 134 different varieties and
coffee's been around for a long time and people
have been working. Been working on innovative
ways to make coffee grow faster because it is
such a such a huge product, right? America is
this second. The second most drink product in
America is coffee, so that's a high demand and
whenever you have a high demand, you start to
put in a lot of money and scientists to try to
determine out how to push that demand and and
create that supply, right? So hydroponics just
alone set aside the factor of whatever the. the
produce is or whatever it is you're growing has
a 50 % faster growth rate than traditional grow
and anywhere between 30 to 40 % more yield in
the produce than a traditional grow. So if you
had a variety that was taken two years to grow
three years to grow there's a high probability
if you have the right nutrient mix and you know
how to do it that you're going to be able to
grow that half the time say a year year and a
half. So that's the part we're working on now
is to scale and we're creating franchise opportunities
for veterans to be able to you know, start their
own farms if they want to. And that allows us
to kind of scale and grow and meet that need.
But this is substantially more than traditional
grow. But again, it's not an apples to apples
comparison. It's an apples to oranges comparison
as far as the model. Very, very interesting.
If people want to know more about Big Guns Coffee,
where should they go? Yes, sir. So it's biggunscoffee
.com and all of our social media is at Big Guns
Coffee. And if they're looking for more information,
some of the things you've written T .J. Johnson,
where should they go? They would go to T .Janeinspires
.com and all social media handles at T .Jane
Johnson. I want to back up, though, because,
you know, as a crayon -eating Marine, what the
heck? Where did you ever think you had enough
experience to run a business, enough financing
savvy? Where does that come from? Well, I think...
It's kind of an oxymoron of the joke made Marines
right when it comes to the intelligence level
I think there's something to be said about being
smart and being tenacious. There's a lot of really
smart people that I haven't done anything There's
a lot of really people that aren't that smart
that have accomplished a lot And I think that
comes down to the basis of the never quit mentality
of being a Marine No matter what it is. I mean
we are the only branch. That's you know one every
single battle We are winners as a whole we are
tenacious We are trained to continue to advance
forward and to never quit and I do I do think
that if you can take those principles in life
and you can apply those to entrepreneurship or
relationships or anything that you do, no matter
what, the guy that continues to fight is the
one that continues to win. I think Bella would
prove that very well in the sense that you can
do a few people with a tenacious appetite to
it. to completely dominate can accomplish that.
And I think that's something that's extremely
important that, you know, from a takeaway standpoint
is for people to remember that you just got to
keep going. You know, life is life. And at the
end, everything will be OK. I have that competitive
advantage knowing that on the other side, there
is something there. So make the best of what
that is. This is today. Fight through it. Continue
to push forward, advance, and just make sure
you've got a great target and head towards that
target. Well, perseverance really is everything
and in business you have to hang in there, right?
Through the ups and the downs and the economy
and the interest rates and now tariffs and COVID,
but in business it is about persevering and time
being on your side if you stay in the fight.
As you get a chance to talk to a lot of veterans,
What advice do you give them about finding, and
these are different issues, right? Finding happiness,
finding success, starting a business. Pick any
of those you'd like to close out on. And what
advice would you give veterans? I would say pick
your lane. I think, you know, look, the reality
of life is I stay in a fight because I have a
daughter. If I didn't have my daughter, you know,
I probably wouldn't be in the fight. And I say
that in the sense that I would not tenaciously
be out trying to build my own business by myself.
I think most of us that have served are service
based people, and we have to have people to serve
for. And that gives us a mission objective. And
I think happiness is something that you have
to take time to really work on yourself. And
that's a hard thing to do for someone who's service
based because their fulfillment comes from helping
others. And it's really hard to be of service
to yourself. And I think that's probably the
most challenging thing you could ever do. And
I think that you have to make a decision on which
one you want. So when you find happiness, you
have to learn to serve yourself first in order
to. to serve anyone for that matter, or to continue
to live a happy, full life. As far as starting
a business is concerned, there's a difference
between being an entrepreneur and a wannapreneur.
Make your decision on what you wanna be, because
there is no fun. It is not fun. It's not exciting.
There's minimal highs compared to the lows. It
is complete 100 % challenge. You wanna quit every
day. There's failures all the time. So make sure
you have a clear, defined plan and objective
of why you're doing a business. I think most
people do it with the intentions of thinking
they're gonna stay in it forever, because it's
a passion. You know, build an exit, build a strategy
to get away with it. Just shorten that time and
hopefully build something that creates a service
to people. But hopefully a monetary exchange
allows you to live a life of at least financial
freedom. Well, teaching Johnson, you are certainly
a good number one employee for Charlie. We wish
you her and big guns coffee, nothing. But the
best, and we thank you for spending a little
time with Veterans Radio today. Again, sir, it
was my pleasure, and thank you so much for allowing
us the opportunity to share our story on your
platform. We just want to remind you that Veterans
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I am Jim Fossone. It's been a pleasure to be
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