Episode 160 | William Branum | Military Millionaire

00:00 - 05:00

David:

What's up military millionaires! I'm your host, David Pere, and I'm here with my co host, Alex Felice and his dog.

And today on the show, we've got William Branum, who is a retired Navy Seal, the CEO of naked warrior recovery, which is a CBD company. And then he also does coaching through the Navy seal mindset. He's done some real estate, he's done some 10-31 exchanges, including he lives in a place in Oahu that I probably made five offers trying to buy houses and was unsuccessful, so I'm super jealous of the town that he lives in in Kailua, which is just beautiful.

So we've had a few conversations, and Will's helped me out a little bit here with my transition out of the military and, and we had a lot of fun. So I thought we'd bring him on the show and talk about him building his businesses and some of the mindset stuff and really just helping you guys out with that entire piece.

So William thanks for joining us today, man!

Intro:

Welcome to the Military Millionaire podcast where we teach service members, veterans and their families how to build wealth through personal finance, entrepreneurship and real estate investing. I'm your host, David Pere. And together with my co host, Alex Felice. We're here to be your no BS guides along the most important mission you'll ever embark on your finances

Sponsor:

What's up guys, today, I wanted to stop and sponsor my own podcast by myself, which is a little cheesy to tell you about the course that I'm launching called Zero to One Real Estate Investing for Beginners.

Now, this is not a course to help you get rich fast, this is not a course to promise you to make a bajillion dollars. But this is the course that will help you get from zero rental properties to one rental property. It is designed to get you through your first purchase everything you need to know to get you through that step with support for myself, obviously, via email, and whatever, so that we can talk and I can help answer some of those questions for you. And it is extremely affordable right now, because I'm launching it for only 97 bucks, which given the amount of content in there, and the testimonials I got from the people who tested it beforehand, I am super on the low end for that price, but I'm gonna probably have to bump it up in a little while.

But for now, to test the waters and see exactly how many people I'm able to help with this, I want it to be extremely affordable, because I want to help service members and veterans get their feet in the water.

So if you are interested in learning about rental properties, and you just want to learn how to get your first one. And then there are some bonus episodes in there to help you advance past that. But if you really just want to know everything you need to know to buy your first property without screwing yourself over. This is the course for you to go and check it out. The link will be down below in the show notes. And back to your episode.

William:

Yeah, thanks for having me over here. Pretty Stoked to be here.

David:

Absolutely.

So I'm stoked to have you on the show. And I appreciate your patience as we tried to break our microphones while in anticipation of the podcast.

William:

It was awesome to watch. It was awesome to be a part of that.

David:

Trying to, I mean you know, whatever we got to do to sound better.

So anyway, why don't you give just a short background about you and kind of bring us up to speed on where you're at right now as a man with a job, a company, and coaching. I mean, yeah, a man of many facets at this point.

William:

I do have a few irons in the fire as I try to build this thing.

So again, my name is William Branum, I spent 26 years in the Navy, 23 of those years were in the SEAL teams. And the reason it's 23 years instead of 26 is because I've made some tactical errors along the way.

Number one I wasn't really physically prepared to join the SEAL teams because I, you know, I joined boot camp, I took the seal screening test, and I failed it. But really, I didn't fail. I quit on myself. I could have done more pushups. But I was like, ah, it's gonna be really hard. And then I eventually ended up on a ship in the, you know, in Cusco, Japan. And because I had taken a school that was very critical to the Navy, the Navy detailer wasn't going to let me go to buds. And it wasn't until the CNO came to my ship in Cusco Japan had CNO’s call and said, Is it okay, here's my vision of the Navy and whatever. And does anyone have any questions? And I raised my hand and I said, yeah, I was the second person he called on. I joined the Navy to be a seal. But my detailer won't let me go because I'm too critical. He says, but I think I deserve a chance to go to buds and so he turns to my commanding officer and says, is he a good guy? Like the CEO says, yeah, he was the sailor of the quarter this quarter. And so he turns back to me and he says, you'll be in the first class after your PRD, six weeks later I'm off to California to start SEAL training.

David:

Wow!

William:

So to back up a little bit more, I'm from Meridian, Mississippi, a little town. There's a little naval air station there. I swore I would never join the Navy because I didn't want to wear those dungarees. And quite honestly, I was probably thinking more like, I knew I wanted to be some sort of commando of some sort, but I didn't really know what that was. I knew that John Wayne was a Green Beret in the movie Green Berets in Vietnam. So that looked pretty cool.

05:00 - 10:00

William:

John Rambo, I think he was Army Ranger, Chuck Norris. He was part of Delta Force. But there were also these commercials when I was a kid of the marine marine corps who had like the most badass uniforms out there still today. And they were fighting dragons with swords. And I thought that was super cool. And I'd heard of like, Marine Scout Sniper Recon. So I'm like, Well, maybe that's what I want to do. And then someone told me about the SEAL teams. And then I was like, Well, what's that? Like, they do all this other stuff. It's the hardest military training in the world. And I'm like, Oh, well, that's what I want to do. And they do stuff underwater. I'm like, Cool. Sign me up. Then the Navy detailer called me and said, come on down and check out this video of being becoming a Navy SEAL. And so I went down there and, and watched it and signed up on the delayed entry program.

David:

That's awesome.

Alex:

It was kind of a mad destiny.

David:

Kind of a running joke at Marine Corps boot camp when we, you know, go on our final crucible event and hike the final hill. It's like, where's the dragon? Like they lied to me. Are we supposed to fight a dragon with a sword or something? But yeah,

William:

Yeah, shield swords, you know, pretty badass recruiting video for sure.

David:

Yeah.

William:

Even today.

David:

Yeah, I think that's probably one of their most popular ones ever. At least. It's one of the favorites amongst Marines. But I love the fact that you were the guy who put the hand up and asked the question with the CNO, right. Like, that's not like, that alone speaks kind of volumes about the destiny piece because like, most people in their first couple years in the military, just like sit down and shut up and don't actually ask questions, because it's like..

William:

Right, well I had been told no, like, you know, everyone around me is, you know, kind of that support unit that I had even my commanding officer, he's like, yeah, I support you going to buds. And you know, this was really pre internet, there were not a lot of books out there. The only books that I knew about was one called Brave Men Dark Waters, it was about the seals in Vietnam, and the other was Rogue Warrior, Dick Marcinko, who just passed away this past Christmas, who started SEAL Team Six, or something like that, I can't like neither confirm nor deny that exists.

I had taken the seal screening test. And actually the first time I took it, I told you I failed in boot camp. The second time I took it. So the screening test is like push ups, pull ups, sit ups, or run and a swim, I crushed everything except the run. And I was taking it with other guys that were either screening to go to become EOD, or diver, I beat everyone on every score on everything. And to include the run, we run in boots, and, and long pants. And I was the first one across the line in the run. And I thought that I had passed easily, because I beat everyone else. And what happened is I let my ego get in the way. And my ego said, you've got this, you're beating everyone. And so when I crossed the finish line, it was like 12 or 15 seconds, short of passing. So then I had to go take it again. And but that's something that I found, you know, kind of throughout my career where my ego kind of gets in the way. But I had done all of this work to finally, like, I've done all the medical stuff, I've done all the physical stuff, I've done everything to like, get ready to go. And I've got one guy standing in my way. He's like, dorry, I've got letters of recommendation from other seals and, and so my detail was still like, absolutely not, you're too critical to the Navy. And so it was Admiral Borgia, who actually later took his own life, who came to the ship and he only came to my ship. I was the small destroyer in Cusco, Japan. And he had, you know, CNO’s call there and people in my kind of division told me to like bro, you should ask, you should ask the CNO because he is a common sense leader. He is one of those guys that throughout his career, you know, he started the Seaman to Admiral program because he started as a, you know, an E-1 and became the CNO. And, and he was like, you should ask the CNO because he you know, he just makes changes on the spot. If like, policy doesn't make sense. And someone brings it up to him. He just likes changing it and it to where it doesn't make sense.

So I told my CO, I told my whole chain of command that I was going to ask, and it was interesting. There were a bunch of haters on the ship and I found out later that these guys did go to buds and they quit and they're like, you're never gonna make it you're blah, blah, blah. I'm like, okay, whatever you say. I'm not going there to not make it. I'm going there to make it but I showed up in buds of six months long, and it took me a short 13 months to get through that six month block of training.

10:00 - 15:00

David:

There's not a whole lot of people here that talk about this. But is it? Is it common to end up going through buds? Like more than once? Or to get? I don't I don't know if there was an injury there.

William:

Yeah, there were several injuries there. And I got rolled back. It's pretty common, it's not very common for someone to go straight through. In just six months, I envy those people like that, in my thought process, that's an easier way to go. Because the first time I got rolled back, I was like, very sad from an injury. The second time I got rolled back, they were going to kick me out because they're like, look, bro, you you didn't, you clearly didn't prepare yourself, you're using the second time you've been injured in like, whatever. You only made it like three weeks into the second class, and you got injured. And so I go to the first guy. And he said, I recommend you take a big drop from training, I go to the second guy. And I'm like telling the story about the CNO, you know, and if I leave, maybe I'll never get to come back. I think he says stand right there. And I'm watching my class. And in SEAL training. Not all classes are created equal. I can tell you that second class that I got rolled out of was a harder class than the class that I rolled into, like, we got beat for everything. And I loved every second of it. And just watched people quit and I couldn't wrap my head around it. I mean, these people were, you know, star athletes, they were exceptional performers. And I was mediocre. a performer at best. You know, I could barely keep up on the runs. But I was good enough to pass. I went to every Goon Squad. I was wet and sandy all the time. And I loved it. And then there were these other guys that were like phenomenal athletes. And they could you know, in buds, you fail multiple times. Like it doesn't matter what you do, you suck, you fail. And so these guys quit because either all the waters are too cold or I don't like being yelled at or no, I crushed this evolution. How dare you? You know, tell me that I'm not good enough.

And so that was a mentality that I watched guys quit. I'm like, what are you doing? This seems so easy for you. And I'm struggling all the time. But I'm happy. And they just weren't happy and it wasn't for them. So they went off and found another career.

And then you know, that second injury I didn't heal up. And so pretty much I got my way all the way through the first phase through Hell Week. And then throughout hell week I somehow that that injury stopped being injured. And I finished Hell Week. And then two weeks after Hell Week, the stress fractures had developed so powerfully from you know, limping on the other leg. I got rolled one more time, but because I had made it through a major block of training, they're like, Okay, keep going, and you made it through injured, like, Okay, you want to be here. So go heal up and, and come back for the next class post that week.

So that took me 13 months to the day that I checked into SEAL training.

Alex:

Well, mindset is everything.

William:

It is.

And I didn't really understand that. I didn't understand that back then. Failure like it wasn't an option. And, I mean, it is an option. But if I have failed, I'm coming back. You know.

Alex:

I also think it's interesting. Like, that's something you really wanted. But I think, you know, I wasn't, I wasn't a seal. But when I was in the army, I was attached to a SF unit. So I was around those guys all the time. And it's interesting to me how many, you know, obviously, people are different.

Some people really want it, that's how they want to be. And then some people, like you, said they could do it, but that's not what they really want. And sometimes they get through the course and they find out that's not what they really want. And it's so I think it's really interesting in life where, you know, like, you have a really don't quit attitude, which I love. And it's obviously very valuable. I wonder how many people get stuck on the wrong thing and then don't quit.

William:

I can tell you that I was that without giving too many details. Because then, you know, 12 years later, I'm still in litigation, but I'll tell you that I was had a relationship that was very toxic, but I stayed in it because of children for you know, 11 and a half years 10 and a half years so that that other person was able to take a part of my retirement and I'm still like but I wasn't going to quit I was staying in it even though I was completely miserable and not fulfilled but I was just like this is what I have to do. I'm not a quitter, but so you have to learn it's not quitting getting out of that relationship, what it is, is for improving your quality of life. And so it was the other person who wanted out. And so I was like, Oh, this is the happiest day of my life.

15:00 - 20:00

Alex:

Yeah, it's a tough, tough part of life. Because everybody goes through like, you know, people who aren't that good at life, when they find out what they're really good at, they won't quit. And vice versa. There's people who are just good at life, and they get stuck on the wrong things.

Or you, like you said, you kind of get into this mentality of like, I'm not going to give up. And then after a while, you're like, I'm sinking myself into something that I hate the cruise winning. And so I just, I don't have any, I don't have any answers. I'm living life, but I find it very, just, it's really fascinating that you seem to have found the right thing for you. And then once you kind of got there, you know, you say the struggles you have, none of them are mindset struggles, all your all your struggles are like, you know, obviously, some are physical. Some are, I guess, for lack of a better term bureaucratic, right. But like you knew where you needed to be. And then it was just an inevitability.

William:

You know, early on that was early on in my career. Later on in my career, there were some mindset struggles, there were some things that I, you know, I struggled with a lot. And it was, you know, this noise in my head that I can't turn off. And I like to call baggage. I don't call it PTSD, I don't call it anything like that. I just called it baggage. It's because we all have baggage, it doesn't matter what walk of life we come from, you know, in the military deploy, you know, construction worker, stay at home, mom, we've all got some baggage, and it's from, you know, maybe it was some trauma that happened to us as a kid, maybe it's some toxic relationship that we've been a part of, maybe it's something that has happened in our professional life. There's all this baggage, and really, that's what the get naked mindset is about. And then that baggage oftentimes is ego. And we don't take that ego off and we don't get naked and allow ourselves that opportunity to kind of heal.

Alex:

Yeah, I have one. All he does all day is tell me that I'm a piece of shit. And at 30 years old, I'm really sick of it, but I can't turn it off.

Tell me, which is a good segue, though. Tell me about getting naked, you said this is what it's about.

David:

I thought he was talking about me for a minute.

William:

So the get naked mindset is about, it's just that it's about taking your ego off and kind of setting in the corner and being a little bit vulnerable. And, and to kind of share my story is as I was transitioning out of the military, which I wasn't really prepared to do.

You know, we all have these life changes, like life transitions. And you know, transitioning from the military is a gigantic one for me, and I think for lots of other veterans. But you know, I've got a lot of baggage and I had all this noise in my head that I wasn't able to turn down. And so I turned to alcohol as my medicine of choice and pretty much drank myself to sleep every night. Number one, that's not good for your brain, it's not good for your body, it's not good for performance, it's not good for anything.

And so it had heard about this molecule called CBD. And eventually, a buddy of mine gave me a bottle. And I tried it. And maybe that night, I slept a little bit better. And maybe the next day, I was a little less pissed off. And I like to say that, you know, water boils at 212 degrees, and I was probably living it like 210 degrees. And it wasn't like it didn't happen overnight. It was this cumulative pain, this cumulative, like being attacked as cumulative people putting baggage you know, weight into my into my rucksack that I would just continue to carry around some of it I put in myself and other people put other other, you know, a weight into this baggage that I'm carrying around.

And so, over about a 30 day period, I was able to have a little bit better self talk, you know, what CBD did is it helped turn that noise down in my head. And I was able to have a little bit better self-talk and, and that's is how I eventually started, you know, naked oil recovery, which is a CV and supplement company. But while I was trying to figure out like, what my, what my mindset was supposed to be again, and how I was going to, you know, excel in this new life, this life transition that I had gone through, you know, I say that the transition from the military to civilian life is the hardest military mission I've ever been on. And so and I'm still on it, I'm still figuring it out. I'm still mission planning and I'm still doing all this other stuff.

But so what I did is I you know, first I had to like figure out like, how to heal myself so I learned to take my ego off and set it in the corner and then I came up with it you know sort of the the Get naked mindset and naked is an acronym because in the military. We like acronyms, acronyms or help us remember things and naked is something that's super easy to remember. And it's not about being physically naked, although that's super cool. It's about being your authentic self.

20:00 - 25:00

William:

And so naked it really stands for the N is for never quit, the A is accept failure, the K is to kill mediocrity, the E is expose your fears and D is to do the work. And because we're talking about taking action with your life and changing your mindset, you know, it's really, to think like a Navy Seal, you have to get naked, and take that ego off, and never quit and accept failure and kill mediocrity, expose your fears and do the work.

And so I have like this whole kind of an idea, this, I've got a PDF that I share with people. And if you go to the website, fivesealsecrets.com, the number fivesealsecrets.com, put your name and email in there. And, I'll email you this PDF of the five seal secrets. And it really lays out like never quit isn't about like, never quit being in a toxic relationship, never quit trying to stop drinking or smoking or doing unhealthy habits, never quit means never quit on yourself, never quit on the people that are around, you never quit trying to improve your fighting position trying to improve your quality of life. And so that's kind of what I was talking about earlier. I was in this toxic relationship, and I had this never quit attitude. I was not quitting the right thing, I should have quit the toxic relationship and started supporting my quality of life and then supporting my kids in a different way.

And so, you know, one of the things that I learned in that kind of, you know, throughout my military career is, you know, when we went to sere school to be, you know, prisoners of war, they taught us, you know, create these small victories, and these small victories help your mind and your heart to kind of get through that, that process of being interrogated, get being beaten, and whatever else goes on, you know, during sere training. And so if, you know, they tell you things like, you know, don't communicate with, you know, the other prisoners, so when you get back to your cell, you start knocking and, and try to build that communication with the person that's next to you. Or if you're out in the courtyard, and they say, Don't look to the left, every opportunity you get, you look to the left, and that's a small victory that you get, when you're being interrogated, you shove a little white lie in there. And that is also a victory.

And then another way to kind of think about it is if you're, you know, apply this to a project or a purpose that you're on starting a business, getting a degree, whatever, creating a podcast, you know, starting a real estate company, it's you know, it's going to be hard, it's going to be challenges, you're gonna have times where you don't feel like doing it. And what you have to do, in order to get to that end goal is you have to chop your, your goal, your plan, up into small pieces. So the analogy that I use is Hell Week, which is the most famous military training in the world, being all over the world. And everyone knows what Hell Week is. They think all Seal training is this one week. And really, it's just five and a half days of no sleep, you're cold, wet and miserable the whole time. And but there's one thing that's constant during Hell Week is they feed you four times a day. It's not like ranger school where they don't feed you, Hell Week, they feed you four times a day, because you're burning a lot of calories. And, and so all you have to do, no matter how miserable it is, you have to make it to that next meal.

And so every time you make it to that next meal, that's a small victory, like you didn't quit, they didn't break you, you're golden. And you just keep going and keep doing that and keep creating the small victories. And that's really what never quit is all about.

The A is accept failure, because failure really teaches us lessons that we could never, ever learn on our own. And I look at failure as like, it's like a foundation to success. Sometimes it's like a rung on a ladder, or sometimes it's stairs in the staircase, and you don't have those failures, until you don't have those, those steps to get where you're going until you have that failure and you learn that lesson. And every time you fail, you learn a lesson and you get a little higher and a little closer to that goal. So you accept those failures and those you know, help you to create success in your life, the K is to kill mediocrity, because we're, let's face it, we're surrounded by mediocrity every single day. And you know, you can say hit a button on your phone and pick what color bananas you want, from Instacart or whatever or have ice cream delivered to your house in 30 minutes or less.

So this technology that we have in you know, has made us to be more dependent on it and really it just kills the drive and desire that we have because we don't have to work hard. And so the way that you kill mediocrity is you have to compete. And competition is that biggest thing. That competition with your ego is the biggest thing that's kicking your ass every single day because your ego knows your strengths and knows your weaknesses. It knows everything about you and it knows exactly what to tell you to make you quit on your goals to quit on yourself.

25:00 - 30:00

William:

And so what I tell people is they need to compete in kindness, compete in giving, compete against your ego. And once you learn to beat your ego, then nothing can stop you. And when you learn to kill that mediocrity in your life and you kill that ego in your life, you will improve your life and the lives of the people around you.

The E is expose your fears, and I know I'm getting a little long winded here, but fear is kind of that thing that I was talking about earlier. That's that noise. That is that consumes your brain like your, that lives deep in the down deep, dark part of your brain where you don't want to tell anyone about you don't want to, you know, discuss it with anyone, you just think you can control it and compartmentalize it and, and not share it with anyone. But you know, that fear comes out at night. So I think a fear is like a vampire, you know, a vampire, it lives in the darkness, and it sucks the life out of you. And so, fear does exactly the same thing. It lives in that dark place in the back of your brain, and it sucks the life out of you.

You know I can't tell you how many times I've been driving in my car, or my truck. And I'm having arguments with myself about something that doesn't even matter. Or I can't sleep at night because I have all these thoughts and fears going around in my head. And so what I've learned is you have to expose those fears. And you know, there's different ways you can do it. Let's say you're bullied as a kid, you have low self esteem, go take a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class for a year, you're going to be forced to learn, you're gonna be forced to fight someone, every single day you go to class, and you're gonna, but you're gonna learn a skill set, you're going to have people that are going to teach you how to defeat that fear that's going on, maybe you have a fear of public speaking, go take a public speaking class, and what you're going to learn or an acting class, or what your going to learn is the people in that class, they want you to succeed. And some of that fear is the anticipation of something that has never happened, and probably never will. But you know, you're afraid to get up in front of people, because you're afraid that people think you're a failure, they'll think that you're not going to do a good job. And what really happens is when you get in front of people to speak, they actually want you to succeed, they want you to be awesome. And so once you expose that fear, nothing can stop you.

And one other, you know, kind of way to expose your fears. As a friend of mine, he says fear does not exist on paper. And so he's a billionaire. And he's also a business coach of mine. And so, but he still has stress and anxiety and things that really bugged him. And so when those things happen, he'll pull over, stop at a Starbucks, order coffee, and they will take a pencil or a pen and a piece of paper, not type it out on his phone and write down every fear that's bothering him. And once he looks at it on a piece of paper, and he reads it, he's like, really, that's really what's bothering me. So now he's exposed that fear he exposed, you know, like, you kill a vampire by exposing it to sunlight, he exposed that fear to the world. And now he controls the fear and the fear no longer controls him.

And then the D is to do the work because you know what all of this is about taking action. It's about changing your mindset. It's about doing stuff not being mediocre. It's about never quitting, accepting failure, killing mediocrity, exposing your fears, and doing the work. And that's really what the Get naked mindset is about.

David:

I don't have any questions.

I actually really liked the part about at the end there the writing down because there's something so therapeutic for me for writing out, you know, whether it's goals or whatever journaling, thoughts right now. stuff. So I think that there's definitely something to putting pen to paper and putting words out. I mean, when I first started writing part of it was because it was therapeutic to get words out on paper or, or even write blog posts or whatever.

Alex:

How long do you drink for?

William:

How long? Till I passed out pretty much.

Alex:

I mean, how many years?

William:

A few.

I mean, it certainly started before I got out of the military.

Alex:

Yeah.

Drinking. I know, this is gonna be controversial. I'm of the opinion that drinking is the worst substance of them all.

William:

Oh, it absolutely is. I mean, it's interesting that like marijuana is banned.

Alex:

That's certainly economic.

William:

There were political reasons. It was banned.

Alex:

Those things that are illegal that you can get prescribed that are pretty nasty, but alcohol is the most available and I think it's the worst.

William:

100% agree.

Alex:

Yeah.

Alcohol because it's most available. The reason I brought this up is because it's probably the most commonly abused by most Americans. Certainly our listeners, military guys. My guess is there's not that many people who listen to us who are doing cocaine or opiates or amphetamines, but there's probably a lot of drinkers.

David:

Definitely I have a lot more alcohol in the fridge than I do cocaine.

Alex:

Yeah!

Nobody hangs cocaine out of the house.

30:00 - 35:00

William:

I mean, if you look at what alcohol does to your brain, like it creates so much damage, it disrupts your sleep. It is really probably one of the worst things that you could do to your body. We still do it I think in very small, you know, small doses a glass of wine a night or something like that there are some benefits to that. But how many of us just do that? It's either all or none.

Alex:

Well, to be fair, you're an all or none kind of guy.

The reason why I brought that up is because I was an alcoholic. I didn't know that I was an alcoholic, which is another interesting part of alcoholism. I thought I was just having fun drinking a bunch. But it's really catastrophic on your physiology and in many ways, that's why I brought it up but it is also a good segue to CBD, right?

How is that fixed?

William:

So kind of like what I talked about earlier is CBD was a modality, mindset was a modality all these are like, there's not like one thing that fixes everything.

Well, number one, it all takes work and there's many pieces to it, you know, there's you know, I call it five seal secrets to get naked. But, you know, CBD was a modality that helped turn that noise down in my head not only helped turn the noise down in my head, it helped me, you know, help those triggers that come along at you know, when I'm living at 210 degrees, like I'm just ready to hit the boiling point pretty much at any moment. What I noticed is over time, it just took me longer to hit that boiling point. And it also something else that happened so what kind of the bro science of CBD is it reduces chronic inflammation, it reduces stress and anxiety. And you know, it helps support what's called the endocannabinoid system, which is this giant neuro receptor system that's in all mammals, and it's kind of new science, this endocannabinoid system because the way it was discovered was in the 90s. Scientists were trying to figure out how medical marijuana helps people so they put a radioactive isotope on a THC molecule and put it inside the human body so they could track and see what it was doing and where it was going and how it was helping. And that's how they discovered this whole giant neuro receptor system.

And so this endocannabinoid system is connected to every system in your body, your central nervous system, your respiratory system, your digestive system, the immune system, endocrine system, it's connected to everything and so why, you know, some people are saying that CBD cured their cancer or cured their whatever. CBD isn't curing anything, it's more like a super multivitamin. And what it does is it helps, so if you have one system out of whack, that's going to bring all the other systems really out of balance. So what CBD does is it's endogenous, actually, CBD is exogenous, cannabinoid because your body makes endogenous cannabinoids that support that endocannabinoid system.

And so sometimes you don't make enough or you just need more support, and so CBD comes in, it fills in the gaps in it, it unlocks those keys of the endocannabinoid system and helps bring it back into homeostasis. And once your endocannabinoid system is back in homeostasis, the other systems come back into back into balance and your body is able to heal itself the way that it's you know, naturally supposed to, you know, helping chronic illnesses there's this is not medical advice by any stretch of the imagination, but it is just but it's it's new science because CBD was a schedule one drug up until the passing of the farm bill in December 20 of 2018.

So from there now you see CBD stores pop up all over the place, but be very careful and like what you get when you're buying or using CBD. Because the FDA has done several spot checks. And they found that more than 70% of the CBD products in the market either have higher than the legal point 3% or less legal limit of THC. They have heavy metal like you know, lots of, they don't have CBD in them. They don't have the amount of CBD they say they have. They have high levels of heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, and lead because the hemp plant which is where CBD comes from is a bio accumulator. That means it pulls all the good stuff out of the soil, it pulls all the bad stuff out of the soil. And it's such a powerful bio accumulator, that they're using hemp plants at Chernobyl to clean the radiation out of the soil.

So you don't want to get any Chernobyl CBD because that would probably ruin your day. But the reason that it's important is you need to know really kind of where the product is coming from. And you if you're putting something in your body to be using air quotes here a medicine to help you heal or get better. Then you want to make sure that it's from a good source and it doesn't have a bunch of crap in it and that's so at naked war recovery. We put QR codes on all of our stuff so you can see third party independent data testing to show where our product, you know what is actually in the product.

35:00 - 40:00

William:

So we go a little bit one step more than what most even the biggest names of CBD do. We test the oil when it's extracted from the hemp plant, but then we test the final product after it's gone through whatever the manufacturing process is whether it's a tincture, a gummy, a soft gel, a topical, it doesn't matter what it is, we tested it the beginning, and then we tested at the end to make sure that there are there was no nothing went wrong, or any sort of contamination in the manufacturing process.

So the bigger names they test the oil in the beginning, and they don't test it or the product at the end. So when you look at, at the certificates of analysis, if companies aren't providing those for you, or they just have one that's super old, on their website, then you probably should not trust that company, you should be able to go in and see exactly what lot what, what, what you're actually putting in your body and what you're what you're purchasing.

Alex:

Okay, but here's what really happens. I go to the store, I look at CBD, I take it, I feel like it does nothing for me, so I buy a bunch of weed, and I'm happy.

William:

So CBD works on a different neuro receptor than THC. And, and just to kind of give you an example of that is generally you don't feel anything when you take CBD. And like I talked about in the beginning, you know, I took it, you know that first time and I like maybe I slept a little bit better, and maybe I woke up a little less pissed off, maybe I don't really know. But what I noticed is that over time, I felt less bad. I was further away from that boiling point from that 210-212 degrees, you know, from like, 210 down to like 190 out of that red zone and more into like an orange or a yellow zone. And then I stopped taking CBD and I started getting closer to that, you know, back to the like trigger things would fire me up a little bit faster.

Something else that I noticed is 100% disabled, I got lots of aches and pains. And the pain that I have daily was less bad, they were less sharp, you know, I would do certain movements to stabbing sharp pain. Taking CBD over time, it was just less bad. And when I stopped taking it, it started getting I started getting those sharper pains those more dramatic pains again. I started getting more irritable again. And so I've had that feedback from a lot of a lot of customers.

So I have an energy drink. It's got 12 and a half milligrams of CBD in it. 75 milligrams of caffeine. And so it's a small amount, but it gives you a clean focus energy. And, and so I have some Crossfit customers that she sells the product in her Crossfit gym for this one person, for example. And she was taking the energy drink for a while. And then she ran out and she stopped taking it and she was like, I'm just super pissed off. Like, I don't know why I'm getting more agitated than I was, you know, a few weeks ago. And then she realized she ordered more energy drinks and then she was like, and she called me she was like, listen, I know this sounds weird, but your energy drink actually makes me less stressed. And I was like well that's kind of what CBD does like you don't feel it. You don't feel high, you don't feel anything like that.

What happens is that how you know it's working is you feel less bad, you feel less stress, less anxiety, you sleep a little bit better. You know it's not rainbows and unicorns when you when you when you take CBD you don't get high like you do with THC and as a matter of fact, CBD and THC are kind of antithesis so if you take THC and you start having like a lot of THC I've never tried it but.

Alex:

You never tried it?

William:

I have never tried THC.

I have a contract job. I still maintain my top secret clearance.

Alex:

I'm getting the wink wink I know what's going on here. I hear you.

William:

I've never tried it but anecdotally I've seen in papers because I do go to PubMed and read articles and published literature about CBD because it's still a very new science. A lot is still unknown about it but let's just say you take you know, you get a bad trip from THC you can take like so the THC goes in and it binds to the CB one receptors that are in your brain.

What CBD does it will go in and it will unbind THC from those CB one receptors and bring you back down off of that high so that you're not tripping out and like freaking out or you know have that kind of schizophrenic Episode.

40:00 - 45:00

David:

I have a niece with really bad eczema. She's tried everything right to get her eczema to go away or whatever. And the only thing that's ever worked is this like CBD infused pointment whatever she uses.

William:

Some of it, like some of that is it's reducing the chronic inflammation that's causing some of that and I don't know all the like, again, it's not like you take two of these and call me in the morning. It's not like taking an ibuprofen. It acts differently. It's working more on chronic stuff. It's working on chronic illness and it's supporting the endocannabinoid system to bring things back into balance. So it's bringing her skin back into balance. Those are the more of the pathways that CBD works on.

Alex:

Look, because you know what they say I'm the only thing I know about CBD that was always like, they say they sell it as a miracle cure, right? Because it has very low negative solid side effects. I'm good for stress and anxiety. I know people with epilepsy take it and I've watched it. And you're like, it cured it, like not cured it but like in the moment, right?

William:

It turns off that episode, and so CBD, so the FDA is not yet willing to regulate CBD, it's still very wild west. So that's why I say be very careful about what brands you use.

You know, someone asked me once upon a time, what's the difference between your CBD and like the CBD that I get in the gas station? And I wish I could come up with the answer. But the guy that was you know, standing next to me he was like, it's kind of like this. What's the difference between the sushi that you get in a sushi house? Or this in the sushi you get in a gas station? Do you want to roll the bones with, you know, gas station sushi? Do you want to roll the bones with gas station CBD? It's kind of like that, like you don't know what's in that you don't know what, where it came from? I mean, if I could put my products into gas stations, that would be awesome. But just to have that distribution channel. But you know, right now what's out there, I would be very careful about what you have, I would go to a reputable site that does provide those third party independent third party lab testing results. And again, I tell people to set your expectations low on CBD. Try it. How do you feel today? And how do you feel in 30 days, you know some people just use it as a topical for, you know, joint pain, muscle pain, things like that other people take it, you know, orally or I have another product that is it's a brand new, it looks a lot like an M 60 fuse igniter if you're in the demo world, and it's it does micro dosing of CBD, and for a four milligram dose of this is equal to like a 25 milligram dose that you take orally, because you're you're missing the first pass metabolism, you put it into like kind of the thin skin pulse points. And so you're getting that micro dose of CBD into the body into the bloodstream much more quickly. So it can affect the body a little bit faster than if you were to take it orally and actually, there's multiple ways that you can take CBD. The fastest way for it to get into your bloodstream is through a contraceptive enema type.

David:

God I was literally when you said orally I was about to be like so do you take that annaly?

William:

You take it in the butthole, that's the quickest way, most effective way number two is through a vape but I'm not doing the vape thing because it's too controversial and there's too much shit that can go wrong with that. And so this is number three and then orally tincture is number four and then it you know cascades down from that so this is the fastest way outside of sticking in your butthole or vaping to get CBD into your bloodstream.

I know we're gonna talk about buttholes.

David:

I couldn't avoid the joke and I had to go there. Oh my Gosh.

Alright so if somebody is interested in checking out your products where do they go for it?

William:

Go to the website NW-recovery.com or you can type in nakedwarriorrecovery.com.

Naked way recovery was the original website domain. But then I thought maybe people don't want to type naked into their search engine. I don't know why. It just just popped into my head.

Alex:

You are so clean.

David:

Sitting on a government computer.

Alex:

Yeah.

David:

Google image searches naked warrior.

45:00 - 50:00

William:

You can still type in nakedwarriorrecovery.com and it'll take you to the correct site.

But yeah, I was like, oh, maybe. I mean, let's just keep them both open.

David:

That's probably a smart move.

Yeah, you got both domains. That's all good. So I looked around on your website and you got some stuff on there for sleeping. So one of these days I'm gonna have to try that out cuz I've heard good things about.

William:

You know what, that's one of my favorite products, quite honestly. And so the thing that makes it why I like that product so much is it has 25 milligrams of CBD. It has three milligrams of melatonin and three milligrams of CBN which is another minor cannabinoid, and I'll talk about the different kinds of CBD in just a second.

But CBN is a minor cannabinoid in the in the hemp plant, which the hemp plant has over 120 different minor cannabinoids, CBD THC CBN CBG CBB and the the cannabinoids and terpenes terpenes are like essential oils, which are in the hemp plant and they were kind of synergistically with the body. And people use essential oils for all sorts of stuff.

And so CBN is one of those minor cannabinoids so we remove the THC from almost all but one of our products. But now we've injected CBN, which is the sedative molecule that helps you kind of like start shutting down for you know, when you let's say you have some THC and you'd like start to like you're like, start to crash, well, that's the CBN that's in that in that, you know, joint or whatever you took, that's like bringing you back down and mellowing you out. So we take that same CBN and put it into these soft gels. And so for me, I'll take that about an hour before I'm ready to go to bed because I'm FOMO I'm ADD I got all sorts of stuff going on. And so I'll be stupid and I'll stay up super late at night working on stupid stuff or just screwing around like watching YouTube videos, and then I get tired and then I push through it and then I'm awake until two or three in the morning. And then I'm like well maybe I need to drink to put myself back down the CBN, this sweet product I take through a night with some magnesium and some other d3 and some other stuff and once I hit that start getting tired I can never recover from it. So at some point I just give up and I go to bed like a good little boy instead of staying up and being stupid. So it is by far one of my favorite products that we sell.

David:

I've heard it works wonders.

William:

I use it every night especially if I travel and I do a fair amount of traveling.

David:

Yeah I've been traveling a decent amount as well.

Alright so we got fivesealssecrets.com. Nwrecovery.

William:

If you just type NW recovery it's gonna take you to like Northwest recovery which is I don't know like a treatment facility. So Nw-recovery.com.

Better just type naked warrior cbd and it should bring up my site.

David:

Is there anywhere else that you would like to plug as far as where someone can get a hold of you if they want to reach out and ask you some questions?

William:

I am on Instagram at naked warrior recovery or at William.r.branum, I post the same stuff on both sites. So you know we have CBD. I do some keynote speaking for kind of teaching the Get naked mindset. I'm working on some other coaching products to kind of help people with you know life transitions and things like that. So I'm building and in the process of building.

If you want to ask me about 10-31 exchanges, I would have to push you over to my wife because she's much smarter about that than I am.

David:

I screwed that up on the first attempts.

William:

You hire a 10-31 attorney to be a part of that.

David:

I got hosed by a 10-31 guy. He kept my money and I didn't get the tax benefit because he messed everything up. But that's neither here nor there.

Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

William:

Yeah, thanks for having me on here.

David:

I've appreciated your phone calls over the last couple of weeks and you've helped me out a lot so I appreciate it.

William:

Hopefully I can bring some value to your folks here and I appreciate you guys. You guys are awesome. And thanks for having me on here.

David:

Yeah, absolutely.

This is the first time we've had anyone talk about CBD or THC or any of that on here and it's fascinating to me because I don't know much about it.

William:

It's a whole new world out there.

Alex:

I just quit

William:

Why did you quit?

Alex:

THC.

50:00 - 52:39

William:

Okay.

So one more really quick thing. So, again, there has been studying to show where CBD has helped people get off of other meds like opioids and things like that. So because you know, kind of like what I talked about earlier THC goes in and you know, grabs a hold of that CB one receptor, opioids and other medications do similar things. And so CBD has been able to go in there and, and reduce the amount of, I'm gonna mess this up. But I've read the studies and it's been shown to be very effective, not guaranteed, but very effective in helping people wean themselves off of or, you know, medical professionals wean them off of harder drugs, and to include opioids and things like that

Alex:

That's gonna be a hard study for anybody to finance because there's no money in capitalist America for funding the end of addiction.

William:

You're correct there, but really quickly, something that we didn't cover, and we can probably cover another time is the mission of naked warrior recovery is really that 22 to zero. And really talking to this, this crowd right here, this audience, you know, 22, that number 22 is 22 veterans take their lives every single day, we've lost more veterans to suicide, than we have to 20 years of sustained combat.

And so that is unset. And you know, as I was building this, I realized that my dad is one of those 22 Because he was in the Navy. And so that created a more of a spark for me to like, okay, like this is this is this is a real deal. So, you know, a portion of our sales goes to nonprofits that help help to reduce veteran suicide goes to helping to fund research to try and make that, you know, make that go away.

Our goal is 22 to zero, so anything that we can do to help that is and again, you know, I never had suicidal thoughts, but my brain was for sure, fucked up. And so CBD helped me kind of turn the noise down so that I could have a little bit better self talk and move forward.

So Hopefully, that's helpful to someone out there. And I'll stop there.

David:

It absolutely is. And I agree that's a valuable mission to contribute to.

Will, thank you very much for joining us.

William:

Yes, sir. Thanks for having me. You guys are awesome.

Alex:

Thank you, sir.

End:

Thank you for listening to another episode about my journey from military to millionaire. If you liked it, be sure to visit frommilitarytomillionaire.com/podcast to subscribe to future podcasts. While you're there. We'd love for you to rate the show. Give us a review on iTunes. Now get out there and take action.