S2E9: Growing From Trauma with Brian Slade

Brian Slade is a Combat Rescue Helicopter Evaluator Pilot in the United States Air Force with 25 years of military service. He is also a real estate professional and recently minted author. His debut book "Cleared Hot" is a compelling, non-fiction account of what it takes to face your fears and overcome potential PTSD. When it comes to war and life, there are a lot of things that can happen. And while you can't always control what happens to you, you can control how you react to it. With wit and humor, he recounts his experiences in the military and how he overcame the challenges he faced both during and after his service. His story is inspirational and educational, and it's sure to help anyone dealing with PTSD or any other kind of trauma.

"Cleared Hot" is available as a book and audiobook.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/clearedhot/
https://www.instagram.com/brian.slade_/
For the Trauma to Triumph program, email brian@clearedhot.info

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In this episode, we talk about:

Learning

• You have to look for it, pay attention to it
• Stop and analyze what happened
• Stuff doesn't happen TO you, it happens FOR you
• It's like building a muscle
• Obstacles are cleverly disguised opportunities

Compartmentalization

• A certain level is necessary so we don't derail our lives
• But we have to go back to deal with those compartmentalized things in a healthy way

Chair Flying

• It's a combination of meditation + visualization + role-playing to prepare
• The added benefit is stress inoculation

Perspective

• Gunfights & mountains
• Gunfights are finite, while the beauty of the mountains is infinite
• It's important to keep the gunfights in perspective

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Leadership Voyage
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Leadership Voyage
site: leadership.voyage
email: StartYourVoyage@gmail.com
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LeadershipVoyage
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voice: by Ayanna Gallant
www.ayannagallantVO.com
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Transcript

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Jason Wick: All right, Welcome back everybody to another episode of leadership voyage. I am here with Brian Slade Brian. It's great to meet you this morning. Jason, thanks for having me on looking forward to it.

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Jason Wick: we're here to talk about your book from late last year 2022, which might have the title might win an award for the longest and coolest subtitle. So here's the title of the book.

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It is cleared hot

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Jason Wick: lessons learned about life, love, and leadership while flying the Apache gunship in Afghanistan, and why, I believe a prepared mind can help minimize Ptsd and you co-authored that

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Jason Wick: with Michael Hirsch What does cleared hot. Mean, i'm curious first of all for our listeners.

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brian slade: Yeah. So anybody that's military background will know exactly what that means right off the back. But it it when I pick pick the name.

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brian slade: There was some thought process that went into it. But one thing that I didn't realize is that is just not an obvious name for

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brian slade: for civilians, which is fine, because it that begs this question right? That you're asking clear, how is it directive that you are given in the military. When you've met all the criteria necessary to move forward to proceed with lethal force. Right? So we obviously want to minimize collateral damage. We want to. We want to maximize impact on the enemy, and you know

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brian slade: to do that, we we. There are certain criteria rules of engagement that we fall into. But the reason I picked it for the name of this book is because

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brian slade: the book is.

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brian slade: it's it's insidiously teaching lessons that to people to help them realize that they are cleared. Ha! On their life. Right! You have met the criteria to move forth with decisive action. You don't need to be sitting back, and if and if you feel you haven't, you, you need to like, look and identify where you have and move forth right. That's what

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brian slade: That's why we picked clear, hot

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Jason Wick: love, that title, and thanks for the explanation and a a great lesson already. I I feel we're gonna get in a an empowerment and taking action in your own life, which is wonderful to hear just on the book. First, I wanted to say that I really enjoyed the voice that you and

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Jason Wick: and your co-author Michael worked out. I wanted to give folks a little example of this. I i'm not an audio book, reader, but I will do the best I can. There's a paragraph in the last fourth of the book about from my perception, really one of the most intense moments in the book where your co-pilot has actually been shot in the leg from below you all in a helicopter.

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Jason Wick: and I wanted to give people an example of how you're able to thread the needle of an intense moment. But you still find this levity

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Jason Wick: and and almost humor in in the writing. So so here it is throughout all this auto Hasn't stopped screaming. Damn it, my leg! Oh, God!

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Jason Wick: My mind's trifricated, if that's a thing one part needs to communicate with our wing man, another with my co-pilot, and the third has to remember everything I was taught, and have since learned about what keeps a damaged a. H. 64 in the air. Keep the spinny things spinning.

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Jason Wick: Try padding your head and rubbing your belly while explaining what you're doing to 2 different people on opposite sides of the room all while bad guys are firing rounds at you.

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Jason Wick: That passage. I'll be honest with you as a as a civilian reading through this book. Sometimes I felt like I lost sight of the seriousness of what's going on in these things, because your inner dialogue is coming across in a way that just provides this

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Jason Wick: balance in these situations. I'm. Curious is the writing

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Jason Wick: a reflection of kind of how your mindset is, how your mind works, or I'm. Just curious any insight.

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brian slade: I it. A 100% is everybody that's met me and knows me is like dude, what your book is, just how you talk, and this, how you, how you, and and what are the principles that we identified in the book as far as a a resilience mindset

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brian slade: when you, when you're faced with obstacles and traumatic events, and all these type of things is to find the levity is to find the light side of what is. It seems like a very dark situation.

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brian slade: and I don't know if you listen to the gun, tape the gun video where he's where cause we have. I I think I sent that to you. I'm not sure if I did if I did not, will afterwards.

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brian slade: Yeah, the immediacy of what happens is screaming. The engines shot out that like controls are jammed. It's a big. It's a it's an intense moment as soon as we are moving forward. Obviously.

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brian slade: we're still intense. But you hear even my co-pilot who's wounded? Crack a joke? And you hear me

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brian slade: trying to line it up and correct correct We don't know who's gonna die. But that's literally

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brian slade: one of the coping mechanisms that a lot of people learn it in the in in those type of situations. But that's absolutely applicable

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brian slade: to everyday life. I mean, how many times do we just get inundated with like

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brian slade: relationship stuff, right? And it just seems like it's the it's it's burying you right, and you and you and it's all serious. It's so serious. But at the end of the day it's as serious as we want to make it right. It's as serious as the power that we give it.

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brian slade: And and if we can start to be like, I can't believe on this dumb sometimes, you know, because. you know, I I have to. I think I did that yesterday. So you know

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brian slade: it. It it. It really is one of the principles that we identified as a resilience tool.

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Jason Wick: Yeah, thanks. Great for pointing that out. And we're going to get into a lot of the

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Jason Wick: the lessons learned. And and Personally, i'm a a big fan of kind of everything can be related right. And and even though this book is about your experience in about a roughly about a 2 year period, I believe right in in Afghanistan. But essentially there's so much that we all could apply to our

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Jason Wick: own self improvement, our own handling of situations at work, whatever it is. Now, before we get into a bunch of those great things, I did want to ask you a little bit more about the book specifically. First off

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Jason Wick: what inspired you to write this book? Brian.

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brian slade: Yeah.

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brian slade: I I've answered this question a bunch of times, and I usually give the exact same answer. But i'm trying to find a more succinct way it it was it really it came down to disparity of opportunity, meaning

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brian slade: I had the opportunity. So you experience all these great

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brian slade: we maybe call them horrific on what whatever you want to call it significant experiences, and learn from them and grow from them. Experience. Ptsg: post-traumatic stress growth right versus damage.

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brian slade: and and I really kind of felt like all those lessons. or

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brian slade: it being taken for granted. If they're just used on me, if it's just me, the benefits for it benefits. It seems like excessive or disparity of opportunity is as I as I had the opportunity.

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brian slade: It shouldn't just be me it should be it should be

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brian slade: an opportunity for anybody who's willing to like. Jump in with me and see what happened in Ha, and then, like you said, and I think this is key.

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brian slade: See how it applies in their own lives, because it really does. It really does apply.

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brian slade: I would say, everybody's life to some degree. In some people's lives very much so right, and we try to do that in the book and tie back to you know normal

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brian slade: what what's normal, right? Yeah. What is normal? Yeah, tie back to life. We'll just say

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Jason Wick: no that, thank you. And and you do use this phrase somewhere in the book, either towards the end or throughout

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Jason Wick: that there are these elements, these principles that help folks can help or can use to apply to their own lives; and I think the phrase you us is to prepare for your Afghanistan talking to the reader. In other words, we have trauma we we have, we will likely have trauma. And and hopefully some of these principles can help

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Jason Wick: with the Teflon coding, as you've put it in the book.

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Jason Wick: One last question about the the book itself, the authoring of the book.

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Jason Wick: I heard an interview with you. I don't remember when it was. I listened to it a few weeks back. You and your co-author and you you called out how different you are! I believe You said something like

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Jason Wick: you were a conservative Mormon, and Michael is something else. I don't remember exactly what it was, but i'm sure it there it is a liberal Jewish guy. And so what i'm wondering is.

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Jason Wick: what are the value that you get from

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Jason Wick: diversity? What's the value you get from working with people who are different.

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Jason Wick: Well.

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brian slade: So first of all, Mike's an amazing guy.

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brian slade: right? He's from a different generation. He's 70 something years old. He fought. He fought in Vietnam.

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brian slade: Okay, so

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brian slade: there's a lot of reasons why he made sense to me. I put this out to several authors and said, hey, are you interested? They all said Yes, right. One of them was the author of American Sniper.

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brian slade: No, something you like. These are not authors that we're interested right? And

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brian slade: I, you know I was kind of debating back and forth who I wanted to go to go with. But when Mike one he was persistent, Mike was persistent, but which tells me something about him right that if he's persistent here he will get us through this thing right. We will get through this right, so that that made some that made that had some value. But then, when I got to know the guy

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brian slade: and he's from this, he's from this

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brian slade: other war that's similar to Afghanistan.

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brian slade: but different in many ways to a different generation similar in

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brian slade: why are we still here, you know, similar? Did we come here for the right reason? Different in that when he came back they spit at him, you know, and and when I came back they they gave me candy right so

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brian slade: very, very different, and i'm grateful for that. I am so grateful that we have a country that is very diverse in their perspectives, but still supports the military not unanimously, but very, very well, right so.

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brian slade: And then, as I got to know him, and I was like holy crap, we are so polarized in a lot of ways. I mean he's very liberal. I'm pretty conservative, like I I don't

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brian slade: i'm not i'm not registered as a Republican or a Democrat. I just I I call myself a capitalist like I believe in capitalism, right? So that's really what drives my needle is, is, Are we looking? Are we looking out for people in a way that helps them become more?

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brian slade: That's just kind of me. But Mike has a little different perspective, and

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brian slade: and what makes our country great and I and this is something I just want to get get across to you as many people as possible. Yes, we are different. Stop trying to say we're all the same.

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brian slade: We are different. That's good. That's good. Concrete only works

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brian slade: as a mixture for a foundation. If you have the concrete powder, you are not putting a house on that. If you have sand you want to put the house on that you have rock. Yeah, maybe for a little bit, but it's still not going to sit there. It's not going to be conjured together. You mix all that stuff together with water.

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brian slade: and now you have a foundation, and that's diversity. That's what diversity can do.

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brian slade: Right? So we we are different. Celebrate those differences, use those differences, mix those differences, create a foundation, and that's what I saw in Mike, and he was able to take it to like we would

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brian slade: once each other, both of us, you know, and both of us would take it and laugh, and then still be Buddies right, and it was a back and forth, and I and I liked. So I like that. He was resilient enough to take that because I can be pretty brutal.

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brian slade: and and

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brian slade: you could dish it, too. So am I? Okay, All right, all right. Oh, man, I got you, you know.

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brian slade: So that's cool. Great guy, though.

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Jason Wick: Yeah, thanks for the answer, and thanks for the the metaphor, the concrete as well, you know, and even from a business angle. You know, when you see companies that are more diverse, or their boards are more diverse. However, you look at those those measurements, you know. In general, they they outperform other companies. There's a a tremendous value to having the the differences from

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Jason Wick: not a coincidence. Yeah. Okay. One of the topics I'm: really looking forward to talking about is teams.

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Jason Wick: You talk about teams in a a variety of levels, some of which I can understand personally, some of which I cannot. You talk about when you played football in high school, how you ended up playing football in college, but it was a little different

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Jason Wick: in the military. You have teams. I don't know the terminology, whether it's units, or what have you? But first I really am interested in knowing, because in business we love to use sports metaphors.

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Jason Wick: but there's not always just one winner in business, so sometimes I don't think those fit perfectly.

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Jason Wick: But for you my question is. when you look at teams. how is sports in the military similar or different

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brian slade: when you look at teams? How is sports in the military similar different? Well, I have often said. and I and I said it in the book a lot of the lessons that I learned in sports.

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brian slade: We're we're applied, not just in the military, but throughout my life I in educators don't like to hear me say this, but I learned more from on how to attack life and

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brian slade: and succeed in life through sports than I did in a classroom. So

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brian slade: and and that's that's me. You know we all have our own unique

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brian slade: affinity for whatever right, whether it's a sport, or whether it's playing the violin, or whether it's music, or whether it's well, I guess violent or music same thing. But whether it's something, you know. If we dive into it.

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brian slade: we're gonna learn, especially if there's other people involved which I really do think that it that that that matters even in wrestling, which is like very out there. And you're exposed. You're still part of a team.

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brian slade: So yeah.

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brian slade: they're similar, different. Well, here's the similarities. You got to work together to achieve a common cost, and you have to have a mission statement, a vision, and everybody has their duties. And if you. If one guy slacks on his duty, somebody else is going to have to pick up the slack, and that's just not what you want. So there's got to be a synergy of effort. That's the similarities. Right

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brian slade: differences is you don't die very often in football. There's not bullets coming at you. Things aren't exploding around you. So those are different, right? But other than that.

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brian slade: really you are a camaraderie based. Move forward and conquer

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brian slade: entity right?

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brian slade: So they're very similar.

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brian slade: I think they're very similar now, you know, when Tom Brady says

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brian slade: it's like I was prepared for war, and people like

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brian slade: I get why they say that

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brian slade: because it is different that way. If you compare it to that, it it there's it. But you can compare. You can compare a military back to sports, and it's not an issue, because it's, you know.

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brian slade: So there is a little bit of. There is a little bit of a

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brian slade: unilateralism on that, but but it's very, very similar, and I a lot of the the feelings of brotherhood, and and whatever you want to call it.

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brian slade: that you foster in sports, you definitely foster in the military. If you're in a successful unit. you foster that as well.

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Jason Wick: You said the word camaraderie. You've had a lot of different roles. Well in the book. You had a couple of different roles within the military, and presumably well beyond that, and in your career that you've had going on 20 something years at this point, right?

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brian slade: But who is counting?

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Jason Wick: Is there anything more important than camaraderie when it comes to building a team? From your point of view. They're making a strong team.

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brian slade: you know. Yeah, I I said this in the book right? I love football. I loved love, love, I mean like just loved it like

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brian slade: I dream about it. I would, you know it was just so much fun for me.

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brian slade: and then I played it in college. and it took out one piece. one piece of football, and it was comrades right. and it killed it for me

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brian slade: right? So did I really love football.

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brian slade: or did I love that connection that I felt through football right? And truth is I,

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brian slade: It's probably a little bit of both. I do like hitting people.

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brian slade: you know

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brian slade: i'm a i'm a i'm a big guy. I gotta use that somehow, right? So I I actually played. I didn't put this in the book, but I actually played football again as a 40 year old in a semi pro week.

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brian slade: Yeah, and and there was a little bit more of that camaraderie again, and it was fun, and it was, you know.

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brian slade: I was a little bit too old to be playing the game, because I was in that insult for a week after the game, but but the co camarader is there, and that's what I want. I kind of wanted to see.

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brian slade: I kind of wanted to see. Look! I do I still love this game, or or was it really just the

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brian slade: the camaraderie, and and it's both. But if you take out camaraderie, it's not the same right? So it it is a very key element, I would say. It's the water to your concrete, you know. Nice

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Jason Wick: for those listening here, and and you just heard Brian say at 40 years old he went back and played football, and he wanted to see. He said you wanted to see, I think that phrase is a really interesting one.

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Jason Wick: Learning is a constant thread in your book. Each chapter has a

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Jason Wick: pretty descriptive name, and as for the previous snippet I I read usually maybe something a little little funny, but it but it's it's amazing how you kind of

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Jason Wick: have a lesson

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Jason Wick: in every chapter. Whether it's, you know, watching your overconfidence or other things.

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Jason Wick: Boy, You are focused on learning, Brian.

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Jason Wick: What is it?

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Jason Wick: Well. how I should say, how does someone go about

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Jason Wick: being an effective learner, or how have you gone about

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Jason Wick: being an effective learner? What does it take?

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brian slade: Well, first? I don't know if i'm an effective learner. I you know I've learned that sometimes not effectively. But I I think the biggest, the biggest

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brian slade: good.

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brian slade: the the the easiest way to learn is to look for it, to pay attention

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brian slade: right to to do a little self analysis at the end of each day and be like Holy Shit. This just happened. What?

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brian slade: What? Why did that happen right and well? How did I? How did I react to it, or

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brian slade: or cause it, or whatever just analyze it

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brian slade: and understand. And this is something that I

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brian slade: I really preach is. and it's not me. This came from someone else. I'm.

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brian slade: This is there are no new lessons. We're just regurgitating things with different words, right? But stuff doesn't happen to you happens for you, right? And so, if you really see that everything that happens in a day

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brian slade: happens for you.

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brian slade: And then at the end of the day, or when you can take a pause, and you really look back at it and say, Well, I don't see how this happened for me. It really feels like it happened to me

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brian slade: and dive into figuring that piece out something. It'll be that it'll be that stinking picture that you stare at that. Have all the little scribbles and everything, and you can't see the picture.

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brian slade: And then, all of a sudden it's a yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a so I see it now. I see it every time. Right. It's it's it's there, you know I don't have to go cross-side anymore. It's right there right? So

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brian slade: so it's that kind of a a thing in that practice at least something I've tried to to make a practice becomes easier and easier the more you do it. Just like any muscle, just like any exercise. The more you do it, the more it becomes

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brian slade: a second nature to analyze and pay attention, right obstacles, trials, trauma, all of that is just cleverly disguised opportunity

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brian slade: it it really is. And if we we look at people constantly. and we say this, I hear this all the time like so, and so started way down here right they grew up in whatever they get over, whatever the situation is. And had this bad thing happen, this bad thing happened, and despite all odds, became this amazing person right.

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brian slade: and and I know it's not. Despite all odds. It's because of all odds it's because of those odds they became that amazing person. You take those things away from them. And you just took away all those opportunities.

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brian slade: those opportunities to overcome those opportunities to become this Amazing because you don't become you, Don't just all of a sudden become this powerful person. Right? That is, that is a line up online preset on preset type thing. You learn a little. You grow from that, you stretch yourself, you do it again. You do it again, and you pay attention right.

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brian slade: and you analyze backwards, and I I i'm not saying I got it all figured out, but that's what I do, and that's what's helped me, and that's what these all these crazy experiences experiences it's called the Mess. Now all these crazy experiences that you see in book, or read about in the book, or hear about tuna, or you know or hear about in the book.

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brian slade: It's a

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brian slade: there's there's learning that comes from that. There's growth that comes from it.

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brian slade: and even putting it down on paper and becoming an an author which I never thought I was going to do. There was a lot of growth that came from doing that.

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Jason Wick: It's definitely a stretch for me, i'll stay there. I'll.

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Jason Wick: Yeah. And and and, as you said before, thank you for sharing, you know, sharing all of the all of your learnings to to try and help others the opportunities you had to learn. And again I think it speaks to this mindset. Let's let's go back a couple of minutes with what you said.

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Jason Wick: It's having that mindset that things are happening for us. and rather than happening to us, and as we take the opportunity to look backwards and reflect and analyze what happened today. If something feels like it happened to us 150

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Jason Wick: to really dive into that. That's a powerful sentence, ma'am.

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brian slade: Yeah, it's a good practice to get into. I every day at the end of the day. I try to do that, and I also try to identify 3 things that I was grateful for that day. And and why always put the why always put the why? Because that's the I mean that's what glues it in there right?

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brian slade: So when I do that with my son, too, and and

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and it's starting to work, I hope.

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brian slade: when you were in Afghanistan in this 2 year. One year stretch in Afghanistan. Is that right? In the beginning of the book yeah, from start to finish? The whole experience of the deployment was 23 months a lot of it wasn't. It was a a unit feeling training program that actually happens like 8 months in Fort Hood.

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brian slade: but it was continuous right. So we were away from our family that whole time, and I actually hated the ported for Hood more than Afghanistan, because we're on us soil, and we're not seeing our families right. I'm like. Do the 2 states away right, and we're standing in the

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brian slade: we're staying in the woods half the time painting our face with camel, which we're not doing in Afghanistan. I'm like, Why am I doing this crap? I'm a pilot? Why am I paint my face with camel ever right? That's that makes no sense. But you know

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brian slade: sometimes so.

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Jason Wick: But you're no i'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you

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Jason Wick: when you're in the when you're in this this training and and subsequent deployment.

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Jason Wick: you you detail a quite of challenging personal issues with with family, with your your wife at the time right? And and it brings up

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Jason Wick: for me the question of compartmentalizing. and

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Jason Wick: it's a complex topic compartmentalizing. And I do wonder if there's a way you can help us

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Jason Wick: kind of put it in a good context of how we should or shouldn't use this.

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Jason Wick: When we go to work, we most of us go to work either for me at home, most days, or others in an office

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Jason Wick: we're not faced with the life and death that you've detailed, and so I can see how compartmentalizing is maybe a necessity to get through certain missions to have a mindset of getting through deployment.

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Jason Wick: I i'm really curious looking back, based on your experiences. What are your thoughts on compartmentalizing.

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brian slade: you know. Comp compartmentalizing can get a bad stigma, but I think there's a time in place for it.

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brian slade: and and I think the reason that it gets a bad name is, if we compartmentalize and never deal with what we compartmentalized.

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brian slade: then it becomes a festering, wounded, and getting gangrenous, spiritually gangreneous, emotionally gangreneous, whatever you want to call. but but

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brian slade: compartmentalizing in a healthy way, I think is a necessity a tool that we have to have in our toolkit, because every person that's listening to this podcast has multiple facets to their life.

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brian slade: And so, at any 1 point, one of those facets is going to have something significant happening that can bleed over it negatively affect all the other assets in their life, right. Usually

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brian slade: that happens only 100 of the time. Right? So

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brian slade: right, so.

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brian slade: So what you you you either compartmentalize it, or you bring everything down with anytime anything comes up in any one segment, right?

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brian slade: And so

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brian slade: with what then? The book you you right I I I I emphasize, even in the book, that sometimes it was much more difficult to deal with the relationship than it was to deal with the trauma I was

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brian slade: experiencing with life and death situations.

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brian slade: and so people that don't experience life in that situations. What i'm trying to give them there is understanding. The trauma is trauma, pain is pain, and there we don't, do. We don't do

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brian slade: pain comparison right, because

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brian slade: your pain is greater than my pain. Your traumas I can't judge that I could absolutely cannot. But I can say. As a matter of fact, in my life it some of the most painful things have happened from situations that have nothing to do with war

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brian slade: right?

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brian slade: And so that gives credit and weight to people that have never experienced those horrific things that that we that are in the book like holy crap. Maybe this really is something I need to deal with. This is something I need to

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brian slade: compartmentalize at the time, right? And so we'll put it in a box and deal with it so that you don't derail your whole life. But understand that when you put it in that box you have to go back to that box

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brian slade: and and and deal with it right.

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brian slade: and you have to deal with it in in a healthy way. Not just let it blow up because it will blow up into your other boxes right?

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brian slade: And then you just got her in every box, and that's no good, right?

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Jason Wick: Yeah. And I think I I really appreciate the context. You're bringing to this.

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Jason Wick: as with most things, they don't exist on an island. They're not a right or wrong. 100% of the time, of course, right? And so you're talking about. I'm sure we're many of us. We're all compartmentalizing every day, and don't even realize that actually most of the time to your point, right? We have a lot of different facets of our lives, and we need to minimize certain things in certain context to move forward in a different context. But the key you're saying there

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Jason Wick: is to not

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Jason Wick: put that away permanently and make sure that you revisit it, and I I

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brian slade: sorry I got you. No, no, please go ahead. Every time you throw something in a box. Think of it as an anchor there right. If you don't go back to that anchor, it's just going to hold your whole, your whole system, your whole life back right. So you have to release that ink.

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brian slade: That's okay to throw the anchor there, because what you're doing is saying, I got to come back to this

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brian slade: right? I have this. I'm gonna put it over here right now, because I have the other stuff I got to focus on right now, so i'm throwing that anchor out

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brian slade: and anchors hold things in place right, which is good because you want to go back to that. But if you just throw the anchor and never go back to it.

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brian slade: It's gonna hold your whole ship right? Not just that one thing. So

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Jason Wick: yeah, thanks for saying that. And and I also I have written this quote down from the book which you've kind of already spoken to. I I quote. There are actually more similarities between my more experiences and yours than most realize, and you've already kind of addressed that in like comparative suffering does us no good.

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Jason Wick: Oh, i'm going through a difficult trauma. Oh, but it's it's not as bad as

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Jason Wick: being in a an Apache 64, and being shot at okay, I don't need to do it

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Jason Wick: tough enough, Jason: right? So I I do actually really appreciate you bringing that perspective to this conversation for everybody. It's like, hey.

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Jason Wick: take a look. Some things are really tough.

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brian slade: Okay, it's all right. Yeah, there's 2 sides that coin. I agree, like you really need to give give it the weight that it needs, but at the same time it as a prospective tool, at least for me. It is always

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brian slade: always helpful for me to say

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brian slade: there's people to have a way worse than I do right.

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brian slade: and that, and because that's always true. But I don't care how bad you have it.

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brian slade: Somebody has it worse, right? And And so.

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brian slade: yeah, you're not going to compare it in a way to say i'm not going to deal with my stuff.

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Jason Wick: Yep.

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brian slade: So in that facet yeah.

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brian slade: pain is pain. Trauma's trauma. You need to deal with it. You need it. You need it, engage it, and not minimize it, because if it's affecting you negatively, it's powerful. Here

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brian slade: we can. We can all agree that trauma is powerful right because

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brian slade: it it, it actually will drive people to take their own life. That I, I I think, is the the most powerful thing you could possibly do right. So there's a lot of power

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brian slade: in Trump. but that's both book good and bad. Our is where you direct it

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brian slade: right, so I always use the analogy of a lightning boat, a lightning bolt if it hits you square on the top of the head, you're probably dead

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brian slade: right. But if you redirect that energy, it can power a city right so trauma, if used as a foundational tool. and the under your feet lifting you up to the best version of who you can be. It can actually be your superpower

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brian slade: because you experience those things, what we say, not to you for you. So once you identify where that for you is, and how that for you is. What was the lesson? How did that make you

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brian slade: a better? How can that make you a better person if it didn't yet make sure you read tool that so where we can, and that's a training that we actually put together from this book to do, to teach people how to turn their trauma to triumph.

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Jason Wick: Oh, that's wonderful!

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brian slade: And

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brian slade: and honestly it can become foundational. It can be that redirected lightning boat as it is.

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brian slade: and I don't care if it's. and when I first got in the in

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brian slade: deployed, and there's people on that never leave the fog the for operating base. We call them for it right?

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brian slade: And and some of those guys were like, I have Ptsd, and Of course we did that whole, you know. Comparison like. How can you have Ptsd? You're not even getting shot at right? And then

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brian slade: and me and I I and some of them really did. You know some of them were doing it for the whatever

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brian slade: you know, but some of them really did, and and what I've learned through this book and through other processes is is exactly what we've said over and over again already. On this podcast is pain, pain, and trauma is trauma, and you, if it's affecting you negatively, you need to focus on it. Redirect that power, digest it to your benefit and move forward.

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brian slade: Be clear. Hop on your life.

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Jason Wick: Yeah.

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Jason Wick: You seem to be a master at threading the needle, Brian. I mean that you're talking about. There is value in seeing the perspective of what you're going through compared to someone else. And therefore the perspective element of that

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Jason Wick: which is, we're going to get to your list of principles. We're kind of incidentally getting to your principles, which is not a surprise, I suppose, but the perspective is valuable, but you don't use that to minimize the the anchor that you you to ignore the anchor that you put down so wonderful. No thanks for saying all that.

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Jason Wick: There is a term that I was not familiar with.

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Jason Wick: and it's called Chair Flying.

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Jason Wick: and you detail it in the book. During some of the experiences you have in the your deployment, as well as later at the end of the book. As you're trying to kind of express these different principles of how to handle.

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Jason Wick: how to handle trauma? Could you walk us through what chair flying is, and

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Jason Wick: how we can use it to our advantage.

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brian slade: Yeah, I mean, you guys have seen Harry Potter right?

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brian slade: I thought that was broom flying. Yeah, I'm just kidding. That's what it is, but that's not what it is at all. No. So it's actually a tool that they teach us in flight school, and they use the term chair flying. But what they teach us is just visualize, you know scenarios and walk through it, and

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brian slade: and what I did is I took their term and just

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brian slade: put some steroids in it. And so basically my version of chair flying is, if you, if you took meditation, visualization role playing got them together. They had a love child that would be the chair flying right.

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brian slade: And

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brian slade: and and it it came about

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brian slade: for me

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brian slade: because I kept having emergency like things kept happening. We were early on, even in flight. School, like aircraft, were breaking, and I had to like land without crashing, and i'm like

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brian slade: I don't know if I can do this, you know there's and I I think I say in the book, I can't tap my helmet and say, coach, take me out. If you're in the air.

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brian slade: you either fix it, or you're done right, and that's that's that's just it. And so the first couple of events that I had like that I was like coldly crack. Well, I made it through those. But you know what if this happens right, and I can sit there and get anxious about the what if and get all anxiety but that doesn't help anybody right? So what

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brian slade: we'll start I started to do is the process of terrifying, and for me I would do. I would start by setting.

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brian slade: I fertilizing my garden, I guess, because you want to plant some things that are going to grow. So I would meditate, and and meditation as individuals fingerprints. Do you figure out what works for you. For me. It's breathing exercises right?

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brian slade: So I would just do some breathing exercises. All that's telling your body, your brain, your soul, is that you control the environment. Okay.

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brian slade: that you are in control of the space. and then you start to visualize it.

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brian slade: I'm trying to think if it's best to see. So let's go to that Internet where you're talking about with my Co. Probably got shot alright.

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brian slade: So i'm gonna try to teach this principle through that, as as we're rolling in, we're getting that we haven't engaged with the enemy. Yet we're talking to the guys on the ground we're trying to figure out where they're at, so that we can get the cleared hot right. Meet the criteria so that we can move forth with employing lethal ordinance.

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brian slade: Just as we're starting to turn in. Back we get cleared. Hop we get you're cleared on this as my did that clear to engage

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brian slade: we're rolling i'm in a bank, and all of a sudden my co-pilot starts screaming

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brian slade: I lose. He starts screaming, saying he shot it's very obvious because

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brian slade: I mean if you hear that

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brian slade: if you listen to the audio on that video. You'll you know exactly what happened right when it happened. So

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brian slade: it would be easy to say that's the number one priority, but it wasn't. It was number 3 on the priority list at that moment, because at the same time an engine got shot out.

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brian slade: and in the background of that video, and you hear him streaming. You also hear this

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brian slade: R Rpm: low, this really calm voice telling me that i'm about to die right? So

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brian slade: rotor is what keeps us flying. So when it's low we're falling.

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brian slade: and

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brian slade: the cyclic which is the control in my right hand that's between my legs, which controls right left bank was Jean.

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brian slade: So I want. I went to roll out and drop the the collective, which is the control of my left hand, makes it go up and down and counterintuitively. When you have low on your road. Rpm.

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brian slade: Rather than pull up to make it go up, you need to slam it down, and it reduces the the angle of attack on the blade, so that the induced flow of air. This is all sciencey sorry. Pushing the glasses back and going Here we go. So as as we're falling, the induced air spins it faster. It creates inertia, and hopefully you have enough to

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brian slade: again to to keep it many fast enough to apply. Well, I've done the collective at the same time, and I went to control. I went to center up the the the cyclic, and that in the the control between my legs. But it was jammed. So we're falling

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brian slade: at what we call a slice sideways towards the ground. and

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brian slade: in the Apache there is a backup control system. But you have to sever the mechanical linkage to get to the backup control system.

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brian slade: I know this because we we learn it right. So I know that's what I have to do, and so I slam that cycle. You just a certain I I can't remember how many pounds of pressure to break the mechanical link it's it's designed to break so it's not like you have to be Arnold Schwarzenegger to do it, but you do have to give it some a certain pressure.

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brian slade: And then there's this

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brian slade: they called 1 s easy on right.

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brian slade: 1 s easy on where there's 1 s where it doesn't take effect of where the second was. When I learned that

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brian slade: I was like, okay, I didn't think much of it. In this moment I realized exactly why that 1 s easy on was there, because

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brian slade: what I had to do with the controls, how to take an immediate effect. With the engine power limited, we probably would have landed upside down in front of the Taliban.

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brian slade: and that is not how you like to land right. So so when I slammed it over he screams, and i'll tell you why. In a second he screams again, slams it over. It does break.

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brian slade: I remember thinking. Please work as advertised Boeing 1 s, because I don't want to fall upside down, and I bring it back to the center. It does take effect that the rotor comes back. So those are priorities. 1, 2. Now I can talk to Mike

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Jason Wick: right

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brian slade: All that happened in by about a second. you know. and and he screamed because what we found out later is his leg was shot, shattered, spam, or wrapped it around the cyclic.

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brian slade: and that's why it was jam.

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brian slade: So when I slammed it out it on spun his leg.

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brian slade: which obviously hurt. And then it came all the way to the other side. He had a bruise that looked exactly like a cyclic on his other lake.

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brian slade: I hit it, and then I came back to center.

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brian slade: Why, I tell this story. Besides, it's just kind of a crazy story. Okay, I just explain all kinds of stuff, right? That was happening.

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brian slade: If I had to think about all that stuff like, just like i'm gonna sit down and think about what i'm gonna do today. I want to have enough time.

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brian slade: We'd been done right. And

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brian slade: so in chair flying. I would visualize

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brian slade: what? What's gonna happen

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brian slade: if I lose an engine right? And i'm in a bank

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brian slade: right? And so I would. I would work myself up to what I call Choke Point.

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brian slade: First. I'm gonna do this. Then i'm gonna do this If I pause.

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brian slade: then that tells me my brain Hasn't Hasn't connected that yet, right? But pause. That's a choke point.

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brian slade: Then we're gonna work through that Co. Control point. Go back to the start and do it again right until we go right through that smoothly, and we hit the next chill point.

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brian slade: We do that again and again again. You will start to finish no trouble points.

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brian slade: It's already been what it's been mapped. It's been wired. We got it right now. We're going to throw variables in there.

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Jason Wick: Well, what if it doesn't work like it's supposed to. And then this happens right.

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brian slade: And what if this happens? And then and then we're, and we're not doing this to induce anxiety, and I know a lot of people will be like. Well, man, if you think about what, if you're going to get? No, that's the meditation piece

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brian slade: we plan it with. We fertilized our garden right? If you start to go to that anxiety level, you go back to step one, and you you. I'm in control of the space I'm in control of this space.

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brian slade: and then you try to get further than you did last time.

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brian slade: Right? Maybe you don't get all the way through it in one setting or 2 settings or 3 settings.

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brian slade: but

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brian slade: keep working it, and keep controlling the space, and you get there the moment. If you start getting anxiety, you you gotta go back to step one

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brian slade: right? I'm not a real anxious person, so I never really deal with that. But I have had people that are, and we've used this technique.

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brian slade: and they just have to go through it more more times right. They just have to go back and it and it works.

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brian slade: and you can use this in your daily life as well.

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brian slade: But then you go to the role, play part of the chair flying right? So I did it all the visual gymnastics. Now i'm actually saying and doing, and moving and putting muscle memory to the actions, moving my hands. How I do it!

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brian slade: Am I going to? I'm going to be calling the radio? I want to take a deep breath real quick. Take all the time you need you at half a second quick breath, right? And

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brian slade: and then i'm gonna say, i'm gonna talk to him. And if you did Listen to that. I'm pretty calm on the radio. It's just not. Does that mean my heart wasn't going 5,000 be a minute?

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brian slade: No, it it I mean. I have a hummingbird in there, but

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brian slade: but

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brian slade: outwardly, and control wise. It was all calm, cool, collected, and even throwing jokes out there right? So those are all things that were

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brian slade: run through the chair flying process, and once you put that role-play piece to it the muscle memory it's been mapped. Now your muscles know what to do.

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brian slade: Did I ever Did I ever chairfly that exact scenario where he got his leg shot and wrapped around the cyclic, and in.

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brian slade: you know I had to break in the backup controller flying with engine shot out. No, I did. And then now did I chair fly all those scenarios individually. Yes. Did I Chair, fly compound emergencies? Yes, in different ways. Yes.

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brian slade: you put enough of those little things together, and your brain will connect it quickly, right? So

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brian slade: that's what share flying is now the the

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brian slade: the added benefit to it that I did not know I was doing

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Jason Wick: at the time, but when I got back and talked to all the people with 3 letters behind their names that were smarter about brain stuff. So when I talk to those dudes.

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brian slade: They're like it's. You were doing stress inoculation. right? And i'm like, Well, what? What? What's that?

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brian slade: And you know we know what inoculation is. It? You give yourself a weakened dose of a back of a

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brian slade: your body builds up a a tolerance to that virus, and then, when the real virus comes, knock it, and you punch it in the face right?

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brian slade: So that's what I was doing with trauma like

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brian slade: I I pictured blown people up before I saw them be blown up by my trigger.

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brian slade: Right?

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brian slade: I pictured it ahead of time. My brain had already

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brian slade: digested that to some extent. Now it wasn't exactly how I pictured it because

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brian slade: you can imagine it, or you can imagine the fight, no matter what you imagine, you will not be right right. So

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brian slade: what I imagine wasn't perfect, but it did inoculate myself somewhat

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brian slade: to that situation. Someone in one trauma can knock out the punch in the face.

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brian slade: I say, get underneath my feet. You foundational you're not an obstacle, right? So

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brian slade: So that was something that was happening without realizing it was happening.

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brian slade: And then it was it was to that part that we just talked about. Analyze afterward. Pick the patients, look back and see the lessons, talk to the guys with 3 letters behind the name, and say why.

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brian slade: you know, and

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brian slade: and learn and learn from it. And so it's a technique you can use every day.

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brian slade: Because if you're going to have a difficult conversation with your significant other.

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brian slade: There's a lot of choke points, you know, and if you can work through as many of those ch points ahead of time.

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brian slade: They're gonna happen in real time

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brian slade: because you already got it right.

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brian slade: You gotta handle it perfectly. But but you can definitely control your side of the scenario much better, which often we'll have rival effects to the other.

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Jason Wick: What a great

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Jason Wick: thanks for taking the time to go through that whole piece deliberately! You know, painting the picture of the experience with your co-pilot, and how that's the third. It did blow my mind reading my co-pilot is shot. That's priority. 3. I understand it right.

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Jason Wick: But just to saying that is fascinating. And then.

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Jason Wick: hearing the back story, the preparation determining the outcome like you said, it's not about robustly handling every possible permutation that could ever have happened in your life.

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Jason Wick: But you practiced

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Jason Wick: this combination of meditation, visualization and role playing, and the fact that you're

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Jason Wick: anticipating and experiencing what that could be like in certain ways

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Jason Wick: is stress inoculation. I find that fascinating. And, as you just said, let's even take it to to the business angle. Here for a second.

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Jason Wick: Everyone who works on a team or works with other people has that person.

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Jason Wick: They don't get along with.

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Jason Wick: and we can go out there today and have the same dang argument again, and we can handle ourselves the exact same way again, which will have the same poor result again.

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Jason Wick: But all of those things emotionally for us do happen in that 1 s

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Jason Wick: right. Our coworker says that thing that triggers us, but we're done.

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Jason Wick: It's that 1 s you had in the in the airplane is sorry helicopter as well we could share. Fly.

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Jason Wick: take ownership of ourselves to improve what is in our control and come to that relationship with a stronger

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Jason Wick: presence, with a more prepared

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Jason Wick: presence.

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brian slade: Yeah, I I mean, I think it was you that just posted someone that said that you have more

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brian slade: more effect on someone's stress as a as a leader or boss or manager than the significant other attempts. Right.

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brian slade: So

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brian slade: even even a subordinates.

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brian slade: if you're working hand in hand with somebody, we have a lot of connection with people that we work with, and a lot of effect on their overall mental health, right

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brian slade: and an are overlooked. They slow down right. And I agree with you. 100% like it. I separate. Well, not a 100%, You said They have the same thing. The same result is no, it gets worse. It

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brian slade: it builds. We don't ever do it. It doesn't just it doesn't. Just stay the same level that that if we don't deal with it.

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brian slade: it builds and builds and builds, and eventually will unravel

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brian slade: It's that box. It's that anchor, and it's compounding.

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Jason Wick: Yeah.

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Jason Wick: we're not done yet, but we are starting to run. I can feel the time or ticking, but I want to get back, or I get to a couple of things before we wrap this conversation out, Brian. So the principles

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Jason Wick: and you said this earlier you talked to. What is it you talked to people who had 3 letters after the name? Okay, so people smarter than you and me. Who Who? You asked. Why? Why did I handle

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Jason Wick: this trauma certain way? Where maybe other folks didn't handle it the same way, and we're talking about a distinction between growing from certain things that are stressful and traumatic versus experiencing more towards the damage end of things. You said right. And here are 7 principles in your book

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Jason Wick: that you pointed out why it was more likely you would experience post-traumatic stress growth.

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Jason Wick: and it was practice chair pilot what

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Jason Wick: practice chair flying there we go, yeah, practice chair flying, which we just talked through quite vividly. Thank you for that. Another is build perspective. We hit on that a little bit thinking, boy. Somebody else out there has got it worse, or or seeing a situation we're in with the bigger picture.

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Jason Wick: Third: believe in a higher cause. Fourth be part of a team.

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Jason Wick: Fifth. Let the wound breathe by debriefing

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Jason Wick: 6 Don't Harbor, hate and 7 define and embrace honorable missions.

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Jason Wick: What I wanted to do is give you a chance. If there's anything we haven't hit today in this discussion. Is there anything in those 7 principles that you just really really wanna want to make sure to express.

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brian slade: But each of those.

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brian slade: each of those principles has, you know, techniques that we we go kind of like chair flying that we go, that I that I teach and go into because

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brian slade: I mean it's a course in and of itself it's one of them right. Seems simple, you know, billed Perspective, be positive what the you know. You know every our

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brian slade: Don't harbor hate. Of course that makes sense. How many of us do, though how many of us have this little thing that just like when, like you just talked about it in the workplace? Somebody says something, it triggers. There's a little hate. There, right?

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brian slade: There's a little hate there that causes that define your honorable mission. You know. What does that mean? That means that you are embodying what your what your cause is. You understand your cause is important. If your cause is important, then

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brian slade: collateral damage or things that happen along the way are seen as just like things that you have to deal with to get to your mission right because it's it's important. It's audible right?

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brian slade: So each of those we could go into in great detail. I don't know how much time we have. I can pick one other one and go go if you want me to all right. One. That I really, I think, is important is perspective.

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brian slade: and

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brian slade: we talked about it a little bit, and the story that I use and I've used it on other podcasts, and we'll use it on future podcast, but is when I first got to Afghanistan I'd never been to war before right I was 20. I don't know 7, 2828 years old. Never been to war

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brian slade: didn't know what to expect. I was actually part of the advanced party meeting. There was 3 of us that got on the C. 17 with our 8 Apaches and flu.

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brian slade: and and we were supposed to, you know. Get them out getting started. Set up the get, get, get the logistics part of it roll. So when the rest of the main body showed up, they just had a checklist and do this, we'll do this. We'll do this. Here we go.

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brian slade: So how I got selected to go do that as somebody who'd never been to work

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brian slade: doesn't make any sense to me. But there really were very few people in our unit that had been so. There were the 2 sergeants that were with me were just the best maintainers we had, and they'd never been to war either. So

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brian slade: when we landed in the more early morning of of of of in sorry When we landed in the early morning in the

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brian slade: the back of the C 17 starts to open

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brian slade: it's early morning, so there is light. So it starts to You know it's like that movie where that's like. I can't see the what's going to be. You know there's like music behind you go, you know, and

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brian slade: the first thing that sticks out to me is it instinct right? I didn't know that I thought it was going to stink. but I just in the back of my head. I think

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brian slade: I think because it was war I was like it's gonna be stinky, you know, wrong. It wasn't now if I would land it in Canada, or it would smell like shit.

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brian slade: so I would have been right there, but it this depends so on it didn't. And as it continued to go down to my, I started to adjust, or that I see I see mountains with snow on them, and they're beautiful.

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brian slade: right.

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brian slade: and i'm like we just land back in Utah.

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Jason Wick: What the heck you know like.

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brian slade: So it kind of took me by surprise. The next thing, you know. I'm flying missions over these mountains, and i'm like man that's a great snowboarding run right there, I take it so you know it, and it's beautiful.

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brian slade: and it was really kind of eye opening to where.

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brian slade: in a country where so much ugliness is happening.

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brian slade: there's this extreme beauty and that. And then to to really polarize that

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brian slade: we get called on Troops and Contact Mission, which is tick a ticket call.

405
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brian slade: and we we call patchy in the area we're taking fire. We need your help, you know. Express the enemy at a one to 0. 300 meters. What?

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brian slade: Yeah. So we descend out of that beauty

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brian slade: and into the gun phone.

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brian slade: and we hear the guy on the radio and the guy on the radio is entrenched in that gunfight. That is all he sees. That is all that's important to him at that moment. That is his reality. that's it. Gunfight

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brian slade: as we get into it, it becomes on reality. Those mountains are long ago. It's just the gunfire we are in that gunfight

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brian slade: we are throwing lead at people who are throwing lead at us. We are keeping their heads down to not throw that at the guys on the ground. We are trying to do our honorable mission

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brian slade: right?

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brian slade: But that is all that we are focused on is the gunfight.

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brian slade: and in the midst of that gunfight those mountains never changed.

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brian slade: That beauty that was there never went anywhere. It is permanent.

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brian slade: It is infinite. The gunfight is fine.

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brian slade: the gunfight feels infinite in its moment. It feels like this is where we are. This is all that's important, and to some extent it is like you that you do have to be front-site focused at that moment.

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brian slade: But

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brian slade: you also have to remain somewhere in the back of your head. You have to understand that this is finite.

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brian slade: because how many times in our lives are we stuck in gunfights, and we treat them like they are the mountains right. We treat them as if they are permanent, as if they are the bigger picture

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brian slade: when they are in fact

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brian slade: identified. And Sometimes we choose to stay in a gun by when we don't need to.

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brian slade: We just stick in that gun, file.

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brian slade: The gun fights over. We're still throwing rounds. The guys are gone. We're still in that. Got a fight

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brian slade: like that's a perspective thing. You get to those mountains and you raise up even further higher perspective, if you will, and you start to see the curvature of the earth. and it's beautiful in every direction

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brian slade: that's infinite. That's not going anywhere. If you raise up even further, and you see the globe.

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brian slade: and you're in space. I've never done this, but helicopters. Don't fly that high, but

427
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brian slade: you're in space, and you see clouds and water, and land, masses

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brian slade: and beauty, and this the beauty is not in every direction, because there is no direction.

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brian slade: It just is

430
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brian slade: the duty. Just it's. and that is the infinite that is not going anywhere on that very same time when you're staring at that planet. If you grew up in space.

431
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brian slade: How many gunfights are happening on that planet

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brian slade: at that time?

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brian slade: How many gunfights are happening right now when we're talking about this message?

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brian slade: How many gun fights are in your background in your head while we're talking about this message, and i'm not saying you can't have gunfight. You get it. You have to. It's part of what we do. but you have to keep them in perspective.

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brian slade: You have to understand that they are finite, and the infinite is beauty and always will be.

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brian slade: And you have a right to that beauty. right?

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brian slade: So there's exercises. I'll walk through people. That. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, that's sexy that's cool, whatever

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brian slade: it makes sense. But how do we? How do we practice that? How do we?

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brian slade: How do we build that perspective muscle, if you will in our mind, and and it it really is through doing little exercises.

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brian slade: And then those little exercises become habits, and then those habits become big muscles right, and it becomes a default.

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brian slade: and so put in the work to do that I mean that we, I go on the techniques on how to do that, but it's totally worth it. and I don't have it. I don't have it now. There's still times, and i'm like man. I just totally got folk. I just got focused on a

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brian slade: Yeah, sure, yeah.

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brian slade: Had this. I had this discussion with my kid last week, like, and i'm like, how am I gonna teaching this. I'm like what I'm just gonna teach him the way I teach anybody else. I talked to him about gonna fight some mountains, and now he identifies his mountains every time before he goes to school.

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brian slade: because he has somebody who's he's dealing with. I said, I want you to focus on your mountains because that's the gun fight. When he says something you know it's a going to fight. Go to your mountain.

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brian slade: and so he's been doing that. It's been work, and I ask him myself. I have to say. Well, someone said, I want to say the kid's name, but so on. So did this today, and it was gunfight. So I went to my mouth.

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Jason Wick: Wow, okay.

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brian slade: good.

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Jason Wick: How to build that habit. That muscle?

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Jason Wick: Well, thanks for sharing that, Brian. That's great. And and

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Jason Wick: we can feel the passion for

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Jason Wick: the perspective principle through your description and your explanation there. So thank you for sharing that.

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Jason Wick: and and above all, thank you for sharing the book with us, and for, as you said, sharing the lessons that you've learned

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Jason Wick: with others, and thank you. Sorry I should have said this up top. Thank you for your service as well. Mark is worth it.

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Jason Wick: The question I ask. Every single person on this podcast is the same at the end before I give you a chance to pitch where, if you want to direct people to check your stuff out, I ask everyone on this on the show. What is something you've learned recently.

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brian slade: Well, I think I just hit it

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brian slade: that the stuff I the stuff I teach grown men applies to kids, too, and there's and there's and I I have. I've already already had a strong desire to get upstream on some of this stuff, so we have some initiatives where we are.

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brian slade: We are reaching to the youth, in fact, to try to speak at colleges and stuff. But

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brian slade: I guess what I learned is. you know. Always

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brian slade: Always look at the tool that you've been given, and don't don't be afraid to use it in different places right

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brian slade: So

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brian slade: here's my kids struggling with something in my head. I have this tool set that I talked to military people about, or leaders about a corporate about, or they this this is that's why that's my audience, right.

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brian slade: and my own kid needs that message right now. I have the tool set.

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brian slade: and I was like, and and it was weird it was like for me. I'm like, how am I going to help him with this? I'm like, you know, and so and it worked. Go, figure, you know. And and and I think, how often does that happen in our lives where we have the answers

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brian slade: we just choose to think we don't, you know, and I always tell people this is what I I tell you. You're not broken.

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brian slade: I I don't care who tells you

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brian slade: you are broken, and how much you feel you are broken.

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brian slade: That is a perspective thing. and that is what you've learned. and

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brian slade: that is just swallowing the lightning

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brian slade: redirect that energy redirected. And i'm not saying, that's easy.

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brian slade: I'm not saying oh, it's just as simple to not not i'm not. I'm, not diminishing your your just struggles. The real

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brian slade: but they can serve to be you benefit.

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brian slade: It just takes some time, and

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brian slade: that's what we do. Now. You know we we, we do a transformation training to try to help people, and it's called trauma to triumph. And

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brian slade: and that's what we do. We we take guys, and there's it's a 3 day container training, and

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brian slade: I can't tell you how many people have told me that that was like I can. It's not an infinite number, but a lot of people have come through and told me

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brian slade: this was my last

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brian slade: step before I you decided to suck started. I know

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brian slade: right, and now it's

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brian slade: now it's a whole different perspective, right? And the year after they're still in that good place. So it really does work. And

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brian slade: and so that's been very remarkable.

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Jason Wick: That's great.

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Jason Wick: And for those listening who are interested in

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Jason Wick: either the the tools you're talking about or the the books, the materials, however, you want to think about it. Where should they go and to check it out?

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brian slade: Well, I think right now the best way to do it is reach out to me on socials, and then i'm Brian slate on, on, on Linkedin and and Facebook, and

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brian slade: but cleared hot.info is my website for the book. It recently had some crap happen to it. We're working on. So maybe by the time this errors it'll be good. I don't know, but you could always hit me on the socials. You can also hit me at Brian at clear hot

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brian slade: dot info and an email.

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Jason Wick: and especially if you're interested in any of the trauma trial stuff, because I I. I talked to people individually on.

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brian slade: There's only so many seats, so

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brian slade: as we as we talk to people we try to get, you know. Get it lined up, but

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brian slade: those would be the best ways to get a hold of me. And please, do you know, I mean if this touched you in some way you don't have to be military. You want to be first responder. You don't have to be any of that stuff you just.

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brian slade: If this was like connected, then then reach out

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Jason Wick: excellent. So brian@clearedhot.infoforthetraumatotriumphthewebsiteisclearedhot.info and Brian slate on social. I'll have all that in the so in the episode notes so perfect.

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Jason Wick: Brian Slade. My honor to speak with you today. Thanks again for sharing

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Jason Wick: what you've learned throughout your time thus far, and you will continue learning. But the the pleasure's been mine for this conversation. So thank you so much. Yeah, thanks for having me, Jason. I appreciate it, you bet.