The VetsConnection Podcast

Ep. 24 - Wade Waddick Creator and Founder of Evolution Fitness In Boca Raton Talks About His Journey And The Upcoming Devil Dog 5K, 10K, Fundraiser

• Scott McLean • Episode 24

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Former Marine Corps Sergeant Wade Waddick shares his unique journey from military service to making a difference in veterans' lives. Learn from Wade's story of transitioning to civilian life and becoming the proud owner of Evolution Fitness in Boca Raton, Florida. He reveals the importance of staying connected with fellow veterans through networking events and his dedication to the Wounded Veterans Relief Fund. Wade talks about the upcoming fundraiser, The Devil Dog 5K, 10K event in Boca Raton Fl, at South County Regional Park on Sept. 22 @ 7:30 AM. If you're interested you can rgister at www.runsignup.com

Finally, we delve into how nonprofits like Connected Warriors and the Wounded Veterans Relief Fund are making a tangible difference in the lives of veterans. From trauma-informed yoga sessions that have led to zero suicides among regular participants to the idea of a “Find Your Non-Profit” campaign, we explore how community engagement and transparency in donations can address the critical needs of our heroes. Listen and be inspired by the power of community, fitness, and the unwavering commitment to support those who have served.

Scott:

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott McLean. My guest today is Wade Waddick. Wade is a former Marine Corps Sergeant, creator, owner of Evolution Fitness in Boca Raton, Florida, and active, very active, with the Wounded Veterans Relief Fund. How you doing, Wade?

Wade:

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious thank you.

Scott:

Excellent, excellent. Welcome to the kitchen studio.

Wade:

It's beautiful.

Scott:

Right, it's not going to last much longer because I got a new studio coming up around in October.

Scott:

Hey that looks beautiful too, you might be one of the last people to get your picture taken with the Hulk. I'm going to have to come back over and do another episode over at the new studio, absolutely. We recently met through an introduction and you invited me to the Broward Vet Working Lunch, which was yesterday, september 5th. That was a great event, you know you don't know what you're walking into with those things, right and you invited me. You're like, hey, come to this thing. I signed up. That was a home run. I'm definitely going back to that. So how did that come about?

Wade:

So, that group. Actually I've been going attending about for two years now and someone another Marine invited me to go Once again. I just said yes and didn't know what to expect and the group was smaller than us about 10, 12 people. But I saw the value in connecting and surrounding yourself around veterans that post-service were really trying to make an impact, whether through nonprofit or just their businesses, but that veteran vein is still in their body and they still want to hire vets and work with vets and connect with vets. And I've been going and attending.

Wade:

Now it is Broward and we're in Palm Beach, so it is a little bit of a drive, but I do try and attend as it's once a month and I've met amazing veteran connections there. That's why I extended an invitation to you yesterday and I think you're probably going to land a couple of podcast guests from that group. And, like I said yesterday, I just got my sister-in-law a job. I'm actually going tonight to the soft opening and she's now working for a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the Air Force. Her husband was there yesterday, so I'll see him again tonight. And you just you never know who you're going to meet when you go to different groups and as veterans.

Scott:

I think it's more important because we have a reputation of isolating and nothing good happens when we do that yeah, they're an active group, I can tell you. That was my first impression they're very they're very outgoing. There's no, like you don't feel, like I don't know. People are friendly, yeah, which is when you walk into those groups for the first time, you, you're kind of like I don't know what to really expect here.

Wade:

It's not a stiff bunch, not at all.

Scott:

Great way to put it. Great way to put it. So tell us a little about yourself.

Wade:

Myself going back to the military days.

Scott:

Sure, let's start there. Where are you from originally?

Wade:

Chicago, from Chicago. Yeah you're. You're a Red Sox guy, I'm a diehard White Sox.

Scott:

I was going to say White Sox or Cubs. Now I know what kind of Chicagoing you are, yeah.

Wade:

I got some White Sox friends Diehard Bears Go, caleb Williams, pray to God. But I'm a Florida boy, really. We moved down here when I was 10. But joined the Marine Corps once I stopped playing college basketball. The only job I wanted in the marine corps was infantry, which was not hard to get. Um, love my time serving in the infantry.

Wade:

I was blessed to have served two years at naval academy. What year did you go in? I enlisted in 1996, so I I got my contract, had me doing security forces and at security for a school that came down and interviewed and selected three of us to go to the Naval Academy and it was quasi-prestigious duty. You had to be six foot or taller, expert rifle. We fell under the battalion of the Marine Barracks 8th and I, which everyone was handpicked to be there and basically like models of what the Marines, because we started the Naval Academy, a million visitors a year drove through gate one and they wanted six foot or taller people. You know the Marine Corps roles, so that was a great fricking. Two years of my life Awesome, awesome Marines I serve with still some of my best friends today, even though they're all over the country in different time zones. And then I got to my infantry unit and that was a different bunch of characters and that was a lot of fun and got out in 2000 and stayed in fitness and been rock and rolling ever since.

Scott:

So I was security police back in the day I was 87 and 97 and it was security police, not security forces. And well, we, the Marines, trained with us at Lackland, okay, and we had three air force instructors and two marine gunny sergeants as ours, as our instructors and the marines. Every morning we do pt, they would try to outrun us. Now I am not, I wasn't built for running then, I'm not built for running now. But I was like oh hell, no right, I am gonna kill myself to keep up with them because I gotta at least represent air force, right?

Wade:

they're a little soft. They could be a little soft.

Scott:

Yeah right. So at the end, when all was said and done on my graduation, graduating the Security Police Academy, I had Gunny Sergeant Horine put my badge on for me.

Wade:

Nice.

Scott:

Because that's the respect I had for them. And I actually had one of the Marines come up and give me his globe and anchor. I was hey, you deserve this. Wow, you must have made an impression. I did, I did, I was cool with them, but I hung with them. I stayed in there with them. It wasn't easy for me, but it was good. It was good. So the gym, evolution Fitness here in Boca Raton how did that come about?

Wade:

That's a great question. So when I got out of Marine Corps I was working for Valley Total Fitness and I must say I really applied the things that I learned in the service. I just applied it to my body of work at Valleys and quickly rose through the ranks, became a top 10 trainer in the nation for them 420 clubs. But I always knew that I wanted to do something on my own. My dad's an entrepreneur still to this day at 81. And I was taking a business plan writing course at Palm Beach State and the guy said something.

Wade:

The professor says something really profound. That kind of stuck in my head and made the most sense to me in my young, dumb, 23-year-old brain. And he said if you want to open a tanning salon, you should go work at one, because not only is there tremendous value in what they do right, there's probably more value in what they do wrong and it's a lot better to learn those pitfalls and mistakes on someone else's dollar than yours. Like well, that's kind of a good point. So at that time I reached out. This is 2002, 2003.

Wade:

I heard about a fitness bootcamp out in West Boca and it was called the United States Fitness Corps and he called it a paramilitary fitness organization. He was a former Navy vet, hit all veterans working there and I want to say it probably changed my life. I don't know that, but you know, when you get out of the service, no matter what branch, the transitional period, whether you see in combat or didn't do combat, is rough and there's a part of you that you're missing that camaraderie, that brotherhood. And I had a little bit of trouble at Bally's Like my personality trait with the way people talk to you in Boca Raton, never being. I was not born in Boca, I did not grow up in Boca. So transition out of an infantry unit to Boca Raton, florida, it was a little different. People snapping their fingers at you when you only heard yes Sergeant, no Sergeant, et cetera, et cetera. I'm quietly laughing here.

Scott:

I mean, I know what you're talking about.

Wade:

So I'll never forget, I'll share the story. So I call him up and he's like come try a class and work out with us and see if, if it's something that you're looking for. So I did and I'm 23 years old and we run down glades road and we sing cadence. And he's like do you think you could lead an exercise? Like fuck, yeah, I can. I was like first exercise we side shuttle, shuttle, hop, I'll cut the cage, you'll cut the rope boom. We did it. And when we finished the workout, he's like this is Wade, he's 23, he's got a Marine Corps and say a couple words.

Wade:

I started crying. I'm getting chills now, but I literally started crying because this is what I'm missing and I was working with a couple Marines at Bally's, but it wasn't like. This just struck a chord with me and I was like this is what I want to do. And I did learn a lot there working for him for four years and I learned a lot of what not to do that is certainly true there but a lot what to do. And I knew I wanted to own my own place. And in 2009, he was going to move the facility, ironically, back into the ballet total fitness building and I was not really happy working for him anymore because a very toxic environment with whole other issues, and so I took that as an opportunity to open, open the gym, and I pivoted from there, opened 2009 and every Superbowl Sunday we celebrate our anniversary. So last Superbowl we celebrated 15 years in business.

Scott:

And it's in a very unorthodox place. It is because we do very unorthodox things, yeah that's there you go see, I never knew that was there which is good.

Wade:

Yeah, we didn't always, we weren't always there.

Scott:

We're oh we're on lions facing lions road next to olympic heights ah, okay, yeah, okay, yeah, because it's behind, best buy now yeah, we're talking about 441. Yeah, but I walked in there the other day I was told hey, I just met this guy, wade, do you know about him? I said no, and so he's like, yeah, he's a good dude, you should go over. So I literally jumped in my car.

Scott:

Yeah, and before you could even text the guy back like, hey, you know I was there, yeah, it was wild, right, so that's how this interview came like. I love it, an action guy. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you got to do it right. So we met, we set up this podcast, wade invited me to the uh vet working and this is the beginning of a good friendship, my friend yeah, I got a feeling we're going to be doing a lot of stuff, especially right across the street exactly exactly now.

Scott:

I I'm beat to hell as far as working out wise, so I probably won't be in the gym shoulders, hips, running dogs for 32 years. We'll talk about that. Oh, here we go. Oh, what did I get myself into? And so tell us about the Saturday morning workout.

Wade:

Okay. So before we hopped on the podcast you said we're talking about that. So kind of a cool story. Kelsey DeSantis, Marine Corps veteran, actually a dog handler as well. She's a professional MMA fighter and right as we're going in the COVID she reached out to us to start doing some conditioning with us and she invited us to go over and watch her spar with Amanda Nunez, who was at that time, the number one female fighter in the world. Where were they sparring? American Top Team, American Top Team right down the street. We were not allowed to video any of it. No, and very cool, very high-level respect for that type of combatant athlete. Amanda Nunez is no joke either.

Scott:

She's no joke. Nunez is no joke either. She's no joke, man. She would kick my ass. She would kick my ass, and so would Kelsey.

Wade:

Kelsey's a bad, very pretty girl, but she would knock your head off. She still fights professionally now. She just fought in Dubai a couple months ago. So she reached out to us and said, hey, I want to come work out with you and your two other Marine Corps idiots. And so we started working out together doing just conditioning stuff. So it was like hit workouts, you know high intensity, integral stuff, stuff that would translate to her type of sport. And then she's all vested in the veteran community. She's an awesome human being and she's like we should just open this up to other vets, like why are just the four of us working out? And so, right as we started to roll it out and just say, hey, if you're local, come, it's free, we're just hanging out. And then covid hit. There we go, yep, covid hit, and we kind of shut down. I mean we had fucking nfl guys coming to the gym, fau football players, another kid that was the slot receiver for university of hawaii all wanted to work out.

Wade:

You know one kid was in a senior year of college football hoping to get drafted. So we kind of stayed open the whole time and we brought back savage Saturday almost instantaneously, cause at that time we probably had about 20 guys in recovery that were coming to us. They're busting them in from one of the halfway houses in Delray beach and I was like listen, man, we can't, we can't ask these guys to be isolating man, they're on. You know, some of these guys, really freaking salt of the earth, humans that were just really struggling, and this was like on the on the weekend where they're allowed to come out. They come even, like they do today, from a different recovery place with their handler or whatever you call them. And so we brought it back pretty quick and people videoed and people drove by and people posted and people criticized, like you know what, some of these people have been fucking shot like we're four or five guys with purple hearts.

Wade:

I was like the only thing keeping them on this side of the earth is like coming and working out and hanging with vets. It's not the workout, it's. What's cool is we do it at 9.30 on Saturdays and sometimes I'll come home at one in the afternoon and my fiance's like oh, did you guys go to breakfast after? I was like nope, just sat there and shot the shit for three hours in the back of the gym and one of the Air Force guys brings a cooler with water and snacks and I set up all the benches and everyone just hangs and chills after and it's really just. The workout is a byproduct of bringing veterans together.

Scott:

Herd Foundation has Fall. In Friday when you go through the Freedom Patch, it's eight weeks of Freedom Patch 1 and eight weeks of Freedom Patch 2, of all groundwork with the horses and it's just an amazing thing. But every Friday it's just an amazing thing, but every Friday it's the aftercare that never ends, which is how I modeled my foundation. I'm on the board of directors, we do it really well there and it's the aftercare that never ends. These veterans that have gone through this program. They show up every Friday. It's from 11 to 1230. It's all optional and sometimes you can't get us out of the bleachers into the arena with the horses because we just get into these conversations and there's a group of us. There might be four of us, there might be 10 of us. It's optional, but it's always there.

Wade:

Where is this done?

Scott:

It's done in Delray. In Delray Beach, at the Herd Foundation, there's an eight acre horse farm right in the middle of East Delray.

Wade:

I just went to lunch with someone's wife that works there okay, uh, and so that's what we do.

Scott:

I was there before I came home to get ready for this. Okay, I was at the herd foundation doing my fall on friday, working with my horse and just getting my head right love it and it is very connective herd foundation. No matter how far I go in this veteran space, herd foundation is always my foundation, my base. So, yeah, so that's like your saturday morning thing, the veterans just like to hang out byproduct? Yeah, just want to hang out and that, and that's all we want to do sometimes we got an 84 year old.

Wade:

That I mean he can't do yeah a lot of what we're doing. But he comes in, he'll do some stuff or punch a bag and his things.

Scott:

Yeah, that's it. Is there a veteran's discount if veterans want to join At the gym?

Wade:

yeah, we give everyone a 20% off of any of our memberships. We're already one of the least expensive small group fitness facilities because we're doing a lot of shit outside paying for poshie posh stuff. You're swinging sledgehammers, flipping tires, pushing sleds, all that good stuff. So it's very affordable. And then I own the place, so if there's a vet that's really on tough times, we do all types of creative financing. I help people out when I can help.

Scott:

There you go, there you go, there you go. So how did you become involved with Wounded Veterans Relief Fund?

Wade:

that we, the first year that we did our double dog 5k, we you know it was an idea by a couple of Marines that were on staff at the time Like we should do a 5k, and I was like man, that's one of my least favorite things and how long ago was that?

Scott:

What year?

Wade:

2015. Okay, so we then we gave the. The first year we gave the money to the Wounded Warrior Project, and the reason why we did that knowing that it was not necessarily the greatest veteran nonprofit organization is because it had a huge name and I don't think I ever heard of Tunnel for Towers back then. I would have done it for them, but it helped me get on the news. It helped me get on four or five different radio channels and really bring awareness to the race and really bring awareness to the race. And I overspent in everywhere that I could overspend to make the race one that people don't want to miss, knowing that the check to the Wounded Warrior Project wouldn't be that significant. And then the following year we pivoted. I heard of the Wounded Veteran Relief Fund. I wanted you know, there's so many nonprofits I wanted the money to feel kinetic to people when they donated, that it stayed in the state and it went to a veteran in the state, versus giving to a national, you know, american Heart Association.

Wade:

You know people work hard for their money and like to see that the money goes to a great cause and see the significance and impact. And I like the fact that the wounded veteran relief fund every month posts how much money they've taken in, how much money they've donated, how many of them. You had turkey on your your pot he actually quoted.

Scott:

I quoted the. I actually corrected him. I said nope, it's actually this, I was just.

Wade:

And he said he knows he was he was just like a percentage point off yeah, he knows, he knows his numbers, and I think that's important to people, because unfortunately there's, a lot of bad actors in this space, yeah yeah, but a lot of good.

Scott:

So you started setting that up with them. Yeah, we've been giving them money since 2016. Today, okay, since 2016. And this is a dedicated cause for you. It goes to Wounded Veterans Relief, so maybe they should give you a title. I it goes to Wounded Veterans Relief, so maybe they should give you a title. I think Mike should give you a title.

Wade:

He's going to hear this podcast.

Scott:

And so I'm just going to say you know I'm just the podcast guy, but I think Wade needs a title.

Wade:

I'm open to being anointed Official title. I gave myself a title Veteran Fundraiser Coordinator but I'll take an official title Mike's listening to this right now.

Scott:

He's not comfortable. He's not comfortable. Uh, what about any other events that you get into with the gym or yourself? Are you solely dedicated to the, the 5k, 10k?

Wade:

so like, like we're saying before we hopped on here, I I just keep saying yes. You know, I said yes to be on the board of the connected warriors. I said yes to be on the board of the Connected Warriors. I said yes to be on the board of another nonprofit and then I stepped down. I didn't think my value was being utilized in the best capacity within that organization, but I just keep saying yes, it's um, I emceed a comedy show that benefited the irreverent warriors and the Connected Warriors, so no money went to the um when a veteran relief fund that evening. Uh, we've done some co events where money's split amongst the nonprofits, which I think is a very successful strategy.

Wade:

Um of the belief that I will say yes to anything of his veteran related. Um, it's despicable that you know my fiance son, he's on active duty right now and I say at the same time I get asked to speak. I was like you know, she's a mama bear, she's worried about her son on active duty and he, he just got back from deployment and he's in Norway, but you know he was deployed to another country and there's always stuff that are not all over the world.

Wade:

And so that you know, and so that impacts our mama bears. And as much as she's worried about him on active duty, she better be four times as concerned when he comes home, because he's four times more likely to die from suicide than in combat. And that's a disgusting statistic. And we can't keep saying the VA needs to fix that or the military Like, unfortunately we're going to have to do it. So I keep saying yes to any nonprofit.

Wade:

Someone just asked me the other day why do you give all the money to the Wounded Advent Relief Fund? And I think that's a fair question and I'm open to. You know, next year will be our 10 year of the race and I want to do $100,000 for the race and I'm open to spring and I I know that Mike Durkee would be open to it too. You know they're they're great and they've worked with other nonprofits and they've done collaborations with other nonprofits knowing that they weren't going to be the beneficiary of all the money. Because I think, you know, if you've met Mike, you know that the guy is just wants to help veterans solid yeah, he's a solid solid guy.

Wade:

I mean, you know he's not full of shit. When I'm one-on-one with him telling me a story about a veteran, he's crying yeah, it's not. I'm not donating money to him. He's already got my money, so he's not doing it for show or for an audience. Or he's just telling a story about how it impacted and saved someone's life and it. You know he cares about what he does and so I'm open to it. But I'll do anything. If you're out there, you have a non-profit and you want me to talk about it or spread the word, I'll do that.

Scott:

Get people there yeah, another thing about mike. Last time I talked to him he was on the phone, I know. I said I know you're a busy guy. I think they had just taken care of like four veterans getting them dental work, like four. He's like it's crazy, like we're just crazy busy, but he finds time to talk. He finds time to talk he finds time to talk the guy.

Scott:

I don't know how he fits it all into a day and he's probably going right now like, oh, why are they talking about me? But it's important that people know that the person running that foundation he leads by example.

Wade:

It's funny because someone's like, well, if he ever stepped down, would you ever want to step into that role? Like no, that is like the president of the United States type schedule. That man burns the candle at both ends and works his ass off because he's really committed to the cause and I love he's a just a good.

Scott:

a good person he really is. Uh, getting back to what you just said about saying yes, so prior to the podcast, I usually have a good conversation with the people that I'm interviewing. It's a great way to kind of move right into the podcast. We come in comfortable and there's no glitchiness. So Wade had mentioned to me that he says yes a lot, so I said, all right, I got something for you. Now here comes the cheap plug for my one man one mic foundation. Go to the website onemanonemicfoundationorg. Look at what we're doing. It's a beautiful thing. And so I'm having a fundraiser on November 12th at the Boca Black Box Center for Performing Arts in Boca Raton and it's Story Lab, and I'm going to have like I don't know, eight or nine veterans come in and just tell a good story to the audience, Because people like listening to good stories, love, love.

Scott:

And I want to show what we do and what we're all about at the one man, one mic foundation. So I said all right, I got something for you. I said you want to tell a story at my fundraiser? And he just looked at me.

Wade:

He says yes how could I say no after just beating the dead horse about saying yes?

Scott:

so, uh, wade will be one of the storytellers. It's going to be a really cool night. It's very just come as you are. It's not one of those fundraisers that swank and pop in circumstance. So, yeah, and tickets are on sale at the boca black box box office and online at boca black boxcom. It's on November 12th. Buy tickets. Buy them. Yeah, so you know what let's talk about. You're on the board of directors for Connected Warriors, right? Yes, you want to talk about them a little bit.

Wade:

They do a phenomenal job of treating it's yoga, but the yoga instructors have like a trauma training yoga practice. It's not just come in and OM and do downward facing dog. So it's a specific type of yoga to deal with trauma and I can speak from experience. I've done a lot of yoga in my life and we do. We offer yoga once a week at my gym. It had always been vinyasa, which is a very flow, like warrior one. You're holding poses, but like hard poses. You know you're uncomfortable and it is, I want to say, athletic yoga.

Wade:

But one day she switched to yin. I don't know why, but one day she just today, we're going to do yin yoga. Is this judy? This is not judy, this is my instructor, okay, um, and I was like, okay, that's interesting. I don't know what yin is, but whatever.

Wade:

And so it was a very passive type yoga and halfway through I was going to walk out because I wanted to start crying and I didn't know why and something, literally I'm not lying I was on the brink of walking out. I was like what in the fuck is going on? I want to start crying, and not physical, like emotional. Something's coming out of me that I was like you know, there must be something, there's a reason why this is happening. So just stay, stay. So afterwards everyone left and I was quite humbled and kind of embarrassed that I felt like that. So I said you know why was? Why was this so different? Why, like, I felt real emotional. And yogi people say some weird shit. Okay, I mean, I've done midday meditation where they're talking about their healing crystals and they say some really, you know, om's the first word spoken to the universe. Who was there to fact check that? Okay, but they say, but listen.

Scott:

Hopefully it wasn't a facebook fact.

Wade:

listen you're right, but you know this practice has been around for thousands of years. There's got to be something to it. She's like we hold a lot of our emotion in our hips. So when I do a lot of hip openers in yin, sometimes certain things come out. I was like, okay, I mean, maybe that's that's true. So my point is, the yoga they do with the connected warriors is a trauma-based yoga practice. So the practitioner up there guiding you through it's supposed to be for someone who's experienced some type of trauma and people that go on a regular basis to them and do yoga. They've had zero suicides, people that go and see them on a regular basis. So they're a great organization here in Boca Raton but they offer yoga all over the world.

Scott:

Judy Weaver was one of my first interviews. She's awesome. And what a great interview. She's awesome, she was really spot on and I love interviews like that. Like Ashley Williams from 22 Project I mentioned that Great person when?

Scott:

I can just sit back, let them go and just this is going to be an easy edit Like this is just beautiful stuff and they just go with it. They go, and Judy was one of those people. She just knew her shit and she just let it all go and I sat back as an interviewer those are the best interviews. Yeah, she can go, yeah, but she's passionate about what she does.

Wade:

And you mentioned Jonathan Oakley, a Marine Corps veteran as well.

Wade:

I met him with Connected Warriors, with Project 22, and Nick Cannon from WVRF and he was really blown away by the fact that he came down and read that brick building off Yamato, that there was three nonprofits sitting there all willing to have a conversation with him.

Wade:

Because this was about 18 months ago when he first came down here to take over mission united in palm beach, which didn't didn't have until he came down and he's like, wow, you guys are all sitting here like playing really nice in the sandbox. And it's like if you really care about veterans and your goal is to help veterans, then if one year they get a ten thousand dollar check, check and we don't get it, it's okay, because if we believe in what they do, why shouldn't we want them to get supported? We all are out there trying to chase dollars to fund the nonprofits, but if we're all truly committed not committed for selfish reasons, but if we're truly committed then we should play nice in the sandbox Because, like Steve said yesterday, look how many nonprofits are here today and there's so many people trying to help veterans and there's a lot of really good organizations out there, especially here in South Florida, but how do we know about them?

Scott:

You're helping that, right. Yeah, that's how I started the podcast and the people that have listened already know this story and I won't be repetitive in that sense. But I floated around out in that ether for 20 years not knowing that. You know, number one I had a problem. But number two, that non-profits that work with veterans even existed, and why didn't I fucking know, right, it really kind of frustrates me when I think of that. Like why didn't I fucking know that? How come I didn't? How come there was nothing to tell me about this?

Scott:

I'm telling you, I there needs to be like a statewide campaign at least, and it's called find your non-profit, and it could be for all non-profits. I'm veteran centric, but right, there needs to be an ad campaign. Put it on TV, put it on the radio, put 30-second, 15-second spots. It needs to be funded somehow for people like me that floated around out there. Now, I believe everything happens for a reason in your life. There's a reason I didn't find those because I probably wouldn't be doing what I'm doing in the veteran space. Now, right, but life could have been different if I did. It might have been easier, I don't know.

Wade:

However, my PTSD was it had its moments and I won't get into all that, but I didn't know about them and why.

Scott:

This makes no sense to me. So this is why the podcast started to help Jonathan Oakley and Cecilia Baez from the VA, who all they want to do is get these nonprofits together, and it's collaboration over competition, and I think they should play nice in the San.

Wade:

Francisco.

Scott:

But it's, it's a, it's a funny world and I do think most of them do.

Wade:

They do out from a lot of my experience in the people I'm meeting.

Scott:

They do.

Wade:

They do. I will say I will say this this is, you know, one of the guys on Saturday Air Force veteran. I will say I will say this this is, you know, one of the guys on Saturday Air Force veteran. He said something to me that I'd never heard anyone articulate time in service. He's like you know, when you're in the Marine Corps, more than even the other branches. He's like you're institutionalized and I never heard ever anyone use that word specifically. But if you look at like who's institutionalized in this country, if you view time and services being institutionalized, inmates, right, but the difference between being an inmate when you get out of prison is on the other side there's a parole officer. Hey, scott, do you have employment? No, okay, that's a problem. Do you have a place to live? No, that's a problem. The veteran gets out and they go to the VA and the VA is a big machine.

Wade:

You know you're a number, unfortunately, right, you have to advocate a little bit for yourself. But, like when he said your instance, I'm like man, we need to have something. So, like what you're talking about with the nonprofits, the next step to that is in taps. When you go to, here's how you write a resume, good luck. They need to say here's the app you have to put on your phone and when you get home Ohio, florida, wherever it is that you live you punch in the app and it pulls off your look, here are all the nonprofits and your zip code that these are resource centers for you. These are, you know. Then you can find broward vet working and go to a vet. We had, I think, four veterans there yesterday that were looking for employment. Yeah, and there were four or five veterans there that, um, peter mock, I can't pronounce his last name my mood, my mood, thank you.

Wade:

He was um the. He used to run the junior razzi program at Stoneman Douglas.

Scott:

Yes.

Wade:

And now he works with a giant corporation we're always hiring. I travel all over the country to hire veterans and so there's, there's a value add and a veteran that would have that app and then see that and say, come to that Broward vet working is like wow, I got a job because of this, or and that's what you know if you're listening what Jonathan's doing and what Cecilia's doing.

Scott:

That is not easy work either.

Wade:

They deal with them down here by himself.

Scott:

Yeah, they deal with a lot of different personalities. I'm not speaking for them, you know, but I just know they deal with a lot of different personalities and their intent is nothing but good. It's like just get to know each other, you know. And you get people like me that say you know what, I'm going to help you, I'm going to do whatever I can to help you. So there should be somebody out there that says you know what he's doing it, so I'm going to do it, let's do something to help them, get these nonprofits together. So people like me that literally 20 years, like I just had that epiphany, like about two weeks ago. I'm like 20 years, I floated around out there and I.

Wade:

How did I not know?

Scott:

that there's a problem there, right, but there's an answer also. There is an answer, and we'll find it one of these days, I agree I mean, but your podcast helps, like you you do.

Wade:

You bring us on you. Let us talk about the non-profits and you know, it takes one person hearing it to pass it along to another person. And, like I told you before, we hopped on the podcast saying with the savage chatter, there's no ask, just keep inviting and I always say that to the veterans too keep inviting the same people, because it might, it might not be the right time, yeah, and then when it becomes the right time, they say yes they come, and then who knows where that could lead.

Scott:

Absolutely, and I do believe and I live my life by two things.

Scott:

One is out of everything bad comes something good, which is what came out of me getting my diagnosis and I can only speak personally to what I'm doing today. And I'm still not done in the veteran space. I'm like in it now and you just want to make a difference and everything happens for a reason in your life. The universe eventually shows you why. Sometimes it's not right away. I guess that was my deal for 20 years, but it showed me the way and I'm not that guy. I'm not that like you know, universe and stuff.

Wade:

No, but I agree but it happens for a reason.

Scott:

Everything happens for a reason. So is there anything else you want to promote, anything else you want to talk about? I definitely want to talk about the Devil Dog 5K coming up. Yeah, let's keep talking.

Wade:

September 22nd. It's right here in South County Regional Park. It'll be our ninth annual year. Last year we raised $64,000, which may or may not sound like a lot of money, but to bring, I guess, awareness to that amount for a 5K that's a lot of money and this year our mission is $80,000. The highlights of the race is a 5K, 10k. We added a one mile walk because we, because I really want veterans there and like I said yesterday and scott was there, like who hates running, everyone's arms like almost popped out of their shoulder, like everyone here hates running, like myself included, and um, so we added a one mile walk. Quite honestly, if you walk half the course, just turn around, walk fucking back. Who cares? You know we have the best start line.

Wade:

I have a professional emcee at the start line with an additional DJ with a generator. So someone our girl sings the national anthem. She sings it off the back of a $210,000 apocalypse package from South Florida Jeeps. She smokes the national anthem. We turn back on 90s hip hop. He hypes everyone up and we turn them loose and it's a lot of fun and you get a badass devil dog gray shirt and a badass metal if you want one, and it's just great to be around a shit ton of vets and be part of a great cause.

Scott:

You said something that struck a chord in the 90s hip hop.

Wade:

A lot of people sleep on 90s hip hop.

Scott:

Early 90s was really good. Pretty damn good it was. It was good. It gets kind of overlooked, but there was some good stuff in the early 90s. So I'm all about that.

Wade:

Yeah, it's and it's good and it's it's just good group. It's a good group of veterans. Um, man, if I had any requests, it would be to see more veterans out there participating. There's a shit ton of american flags, shit ton of marine corps flags, all branches of service, even the space force. You're welcome, um, if you drop out of the sky to the race, that's cool. The coast guard did cancel our flyover, but I'm working on pbso to hook us up with a flyover at the start, but we'll see if that happens. All right, websites website for the race is run, signupcom, the gym, everything, everything's done through Google and social media.

Scott:

Okay.

Wade:

But everything's Evolution Fitness, boca on everything Google, facebook.

Scott:

Instagram Evolution Fitness and Boca. Go there Work out. I should probably take my own advice, but well, Wade's going to talk to me about that, yeah.

Wade:

Zero nine 30, every single Saturday, all ability and disabilities welcome. We start with a school circle name, branch of service, anything veteran related, and then we rock and roll. If you can do all of it, great, and if you don't do any of it, great.

Scott:

There you go, there you go. Well, buddy, this was a great interview. Yeah, love it. A lot of fun. Another easy interview. It's perfect, it's just free flowing.

Wade:

That's great, yeah, man yeah.

Scott:

So I want to thank you for coming on. Thank you for having me. I'm going to do my rollout and then we'll talk afterwards. So we built another bridge today. This was a good one. Evolution Fitness over there in Boca Do the Devil Dog 5K, 10k, you won't regret it. Do the one mile walk, just show up. I'm going to show up. I might even do the one mile walk. I'm banged up, but you know what Wade motivated me, so maybe I'll get out there and do that, and I hope you do too.

Scott:

If you like this podcast, share it. I appreciate it. If you're, whatever podcast platform you're listening on, leave a comment, give us a rating. If you're watching on YouTube, like subscribe, share. I'd appreciate that. This has gotten some legs people listening now and I appreciate that. And I want you to listen to the end of the podcast. There's a good public service announcement there that is very informative, and I think if you're a veteran or a family of a veteran member or even just a regular civilian, it applies to you. So please listen all the way to the end for that public service announcement and, as I always say at the end of every episode, you'll hear me in a new episode next Monday.

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Scott McLean

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