The VetsConnection Podcast

Ep. 39 - From Green Beret to Civilian: Joshua Wathen's Journey of Resilience and Renewal

• Scott McLean • Episode 39

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Joshua Wathen's extraordinary journey from a young man in Katy, Texas, to becoming a Green Beret is unlike any other. Our episode dives into the life of this exceptional individual, exploring his initial leap from automotive studies to the arduous path of Special Forces training, influenced by the adventurer's heart and a friend's encouragement. Joshua takes us through his first deployment in Afghanistan, sharing vivid memories of maneuvering through perilous terrains and encountering Taliban forces. His story is one of courage, adaptability, and the relentless pursuit of excellence amidst the chaos of war.

Transitioning from military operations to civilian life presents a unique set of challenges, and Joshua’s experiences shine a light on the complexities of this shift. Joshua recounts his time training special forces police in Peru and the cultural adjustment as he moved to Austin for college. He candidly shares the struggle of reconciling the disciplined, team-oriented mindset of a Green Beret with the more individualistic civilian world, offering listeners valuable insights into the importance of managing expectations and finding common ground with those who have walked different paths.

As Joshua reflects on his post-military journey, themes of purpose, faith, and healing take center stage. Battling PTSD and overcoming substance abuse, Joshua's story is a powerful testament to human resilience and the transformative power of community and storytelling. From leadership challenges in Iraq to his redemptive journey with the support of Lone Star Cowboy Church, Joshua’s narrative is one of rising from darkness, embracing faith, and ultimately finding a renewed sense of life and purpose. Join us as we uncover the lessons learned and the profound impact of sharing one’s story with the world.

Scott McLean:

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Scott McLean. My guest today is Joshua Wathan. Joshua is now. He has a few things he does. I kind of like his description. He's an expert team builder. He's a veteran, a Green Beret. He's a leadership professional, serial entrepreneur. I want to know what that is. So we'll get to that. Cybersecurity guy shooting instructor and I like entrepreneur. I want to know what that is. We'll get to that. Cybersecurity guy shooting instructor and I like this. I like this because I happen to be one of those guys. He is an. I got a guy for that guy which is, I think, out of all his, his, his titles here, that's the most important the. I have a guy for that, because everybody needs a guy who has a guy. Right, joshua, that's right. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing well today. How are you doing today? I'm doing good, all right. So let's get right into it. Man, where are you from? Originally From Katy Texas right outside of Houston.

Scott McLean:

You went in the Army right. What year did you go in the Army?

Joshua Wathan:

2000 2004.

Scott McLean:

What made you go in? What was the catalyst? What's the story why you decided to go in the Army?

Joshua Wathan:

You know, I didn't really know what I wanted to do with my life, so I was kind of searching around. I had tried going to Universal Technical Institute and learning how to work on cars, which I still enjoy doing, but I'm not very good at it. I didn't want to make it my life's work once I got there and figured that out. So I was kind of just bouncing around figuring out what I wanted to do, and one of my high school friends had joined the army and came back on leave and handed me this packet that said you could try out for special forces, right off the streets. So you know, like any egotistical 20 year old-old, I was like oh, yeah.

Joshua Wathan:

I can do that Went and talked to the recruiter and four months later I was on a plane going. What did I just do? I probably should read the full contract, and that's how I got started.

Scott McLean:

And where did you go? To basic Fort Benning, georgia, fort Benning. Okay, all right, so you go through basic and then take us to your next step, go through basic and then take us to your next step.

Joshua Wathan:

So for the, it's called the 18 x-ray program If you're signing up for special forces right off the bat and you go to Georgia because that's where the infantry school is.

Joshua Wathan:

So you do your nine weeks of basic and then the drill sergeant same drill sergeants come in the next day and say okay, congrats, you graduated basic, welcome to infantry school. And you just stay there for another five weeks. So you get your blue cord, you get infantry qualified and then you go just down the street to the airborne school there in Georgia. And after you pass that, then you go to Fort Bragg, you do a special operations prep course, then you go to selection and then you're out with the big boys. Then you deploy. No, you've got to go through the qualification course. So that's anywhere from nine months to about two years, depending on the job and language you get. Then you go get assigned to the group. After that and, depending on what their rotation is, you may go to a school or be sleeping in the hallways till you get assigned a team or whatever it is, and then you'll get deployed.

Scott McLean:

Let me ask you this While you're in and while you're going through all this training, there's a war going on, right? What's the mindset of, say you, what was your mindset, knowing that there's a war going on and you're probably going over there? What was for a 20-year-old, right?

Joshua Wathan:

You look back now and you're like, oh man, like, but as a 20-year-old, you know, I think honestly, when I was going through all that training and everything, I wasn't so worried about the war as much as I was worried about not making it, because, like I remember, I would come home for Christmas break, right, and my parents would get me like a t-shirt or a hat or something to hang on the wall that said special forces, and I was like I hadn't even earned my tab yet. What if I don't make it? And they're, you know, they're telling all their friends that I'm going to be a green beret and all this stuff. So that was going through my head a lot. And then in the difficult parts of training it was just awkward tomorrow, like, just not today, just make it through today would they use that as a motivational tool?

Joshua Wathan:

the uh, the drill instructors, the instructors in general you know I'm sure I was told that somewhere along the line because I'm not smart enough to do something like that on my own, but I don't remember it being a common thing that they would say. I do remember getting told quite a bit that just because it says special forces, what it really means is that you're not special and you know that and that's why you're on the team, and that there are private first class guys over at the 82nd that are on their third deployment right now and you haven't done anything. So shut your mouth and be humble, especially for the guys like me that were coming off the street trying to go through. That was what I remember hearing a lot of was just be quiet and do what you're told and try and be of service to those around you that's actually a great philosophy to take into life with you, as I'm sure you did, because you still remember it yes right.

Scott McLean:

So all right. You, uh, you go through all your training, get all your certs, and now it's time to do over yeah I got.

Joshua Wathan:

I was, uh, when I graduated so funny story. I um, everybody that graduates the q course is supposed to be promoted to a sergeant. There's no Green Beret, that's not a NCO. Well, they lost my paperwork. So I'm the only special forces qualified specialist that I know of. So anyway, I was like I went to go check into seventh group, which is located there for brag, and they're like oh yeah, I got any tab paperwork, your graduation paperwork. I don't have your sergeant paperwork. And I was like already wearing my sergeant rank because it was like, well, just assuming it got done.

Joshua Wathan:

So I was walking around wearing sergeant rank without papers for like a week and the sergeant major and the whole company was deployed to South America at the time. So I was on the B team getting told like, hey, go get these orders. And I have no idea who to call. I was trying to figure this stuff out and Sergeant Major calls and he's like hey, Specialist Wathen. I was like, oh crap, he goes. Are you in the team room right now? I was like, yes, yes, sergeant Major, he goes.

Joshua Wathan:

Well, why don't you put your feet up on the desk while I talk to you? Put me in the pushup position with my feet up you know three feet high on a desk and was just proceeded to chew me out for 15 minutes on this, that and the other, and it doesn't matter whether it's my fault, it's my responsibility. So I had to go put specialist rank on and go around the base for a week straight wearing specialist rank and of course everybody's looking at me like this guy just put a tab on and he's lying Right, cause nobody would looking at me like this guy just put a tab on and he's lying right, because nobody would. Yeah, it was a very humbling experience, to say the least. I was sweating everywhere I went, thinking I was gonna die, right, right, yeah, yeah so eventually I got put on a team and then we went to afghanistan they got.

Scott McLean:

Evidently they got the paperwork yeah because you're green.

Joshua Wathan:

You were green, beret, yeah yeah, but yeah, that was like it doesn't matter if somebody else fails, you better go fix it correct.

Scott McLean:

So where was your first uh deployment?

Joshua Wathan:

uh, the firebase cobra in afghanistan firebase cobra.

Scott McLean:

In what year was that?

Joshua Wathan:

2009, 2009 okay yeah, into 2010. I think we left before the new year. Yeah, we were like there for four months, then new year there for five months, something like that how many deployments did you? Do? They went to afghanistan and then, when we came back, I went down to peru for three months okay, all right.

Scott McLean:

Anything uh in afghanistan that stands out, any stories, any particular incidents yeah, I mean there's definitely.

Joshua Wathan:

We lost uh, we lost my captain over there. We lost a bunch of our fk counterparts, but the one of the most I don't know if it funds the right word memorable definitely experience I had was the first time that I saw combat. So we've been there maybe a week and a half. I was part of the advanced team, which for your listeners means that they send kind of half the team there first to kind of go get used to everything and the rest of the team comes in behind. So if there's stuff you need from the main base, they can grab it and show up with it. But anyway, we went out with the other team and I was the youngest, youngest, lowest ranking guy on the team and our intel guy, who had had 15 years experience or whatever, was like hey you're, you're coming with me, get on a four-wheeler. It's like oh okay, sure, so we're.

Joshua Wathan:

The trucks were kind of up on a ridge line pulling security, but they had to stop all the time to clear ieds and we took the four-wheelers down into the rice paddies. So the way they irrigate there is they just dig big ditches two feet deep, two feet wide and they pile the dirt on the side. So the only way to get past the ditches was to hit it, going 20 miles an hour and use the dirt as a ramp to get over. So we go over five or six ditches and we end up pausing because we're waiting on all the trucks to catch up to us. And we end up pausing because we're waiting on all the trucks to catch up to us and then we start seeing little heads pop up wearing black turbans. My intel guy was like yeah, that's all Taliban, we should leave. We have absolutely no support. We're like okay, so we get on our four wheelers, we hop one ditch, we pause for a second, we're getting ready to get back, get back on, get on the four wheelers to go do another one.

Joshua Wathan:

And we're getting ready to get back, get back, on, get on the four wheelers to go do another one and just start bounding back to the team. And you start seeing the cornfields, just kind of part, because RPGs were starting to fly at us. And so I turn and I'm like what is that? You know, being a new guy, I wasn't really sure what was going on. I turn and look at my Intel guy and he's four feet off of his atv because he had just realized that we were taking contact and had jumped off of it. So I had had my radio on through my headphones but I didn't have my speakers on, so I didn't hear any of the gunfire that was coming right at us. All I saw was the corn moving and like some smoke, and saw him jump and he's like we're getting shot at. Take cover.

Scott McLean:

I get behind the four-wheeler, he all right, we got to get out of here.

Joshua Wathan:

I'm going to lay down cover fire. You get on the four wheeler, go, hop a ditch. You lay down cover fire, I'll come meet you and we'll just found back, like okay. So I get on the four wheeler, hop a ditch, good to go. Go laying down cover fire. Tell him go on, let's go catch up to me. He's like okay, on the way. And then, I don't know, 15 seconds later I get a message right here, the radio click on. I hear his voice going I'm stuck in the ditch. It's like okay, great, so he's.

Joshua Wathan:

He had dumped his four wheeler into the ditch and we had winches on the four wheeler. So I drive over to him while we're getting shot and I'm backing up and in my head I hear that beep, beep sound. You know cause it's going so slow. And I'm like okay, how do I pull you out? He's like use the winch. So I I had never used a winch before in my life, but I found out real quick that you have to press a button and the thing just. But I found out real quick that you have to press a button and the thing just. So it felt like four years of just sitting there waiting for this winch to come all the way out, hook it up, go, bring it all the way back in, get him unhooked. And then we finally made it up to the top.

Joshua Wathan:

And the funny thing about that was, before we left he was chewing me out, just like trying to make sure that I could keep up. Don't get stuck in a ditch, don't get left behind, don't you know? And I'm new guy, right? Yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir. And the whole time. And then he gets himself stuck and we get all the way to the top and he's like good job, yeah, really, that's all you gotta say. He's like let's go, okay, but it was just. The reality of combat was like it was not what I expected, with Rambo and throwing grenades and shooting and all that. It was more just, there's just a lot of stupidness. That happens in everyday life.

Scott McLean:

That happens just the same in combat and you just say I would assume it's magnified in combat. It's just magnified, right? Yeah?

Joshua Wathan:

I mean, but it was, it was funny we were taking rounds, but the only thing I could think about was how slow the stupid winch was going. Yeah, like it didn't. Okay, like I'm gonna stay low, I don't want to get hit and it's kind of weird, but it was just. I couldn't focus on all the guys shooting at us because I was worried about this stupid winch and this guy that got stuck in a ditch after he screamed at me for not making sure to do the same thing he just did.

Scott McLean:

It's amazing what the brain will do to keep you in the moment. Right, yeah. Yeah, and that's all like it just took over that. It's like we're going to focus on this, because you're probably going to lose your shit if you see what's coming Right.

Joshua Wathan:

Yeah.

Scott McLean:

So you left Afghanistanghanistan, fortunately intact, at least physically, at least physically. And then you said you went to south america yeah yeah that was vacation, that, yeah, that that's. That's a. That's a big dichotomy right there. Afghanistan to South America, like, yeah, anything down there that stands out. Just the vacation, like you said.

Joshua Wathan:

Yeah, south America was trying to keep guys out of trouble. We were down there to train the special forces police how to deal with all the narco-terrorists right. So it was just a lot of teaching them react, contact, ambush, marksmanship, things like that um you said peru right, yeah, down in lima so they've got some red, a lot of red zone in their jungle areas where, like, the regular population doesn't go.

Joshua Wathan:

But the cool thing there was we ended up getting a joint service achievement medal as a team for the course that we put on, and it was just a testament to how much you can learn how quickly when you've got a good team around you. Because they asked me to put the course together and so I was like all right, you, you guys teach demo, you guys teach radio. Here's your section. We're just going to run them to death and have them shoot a bunch of rounds and all that. But you know, in my head it was I'm just trying to be creative, I'm trying to be helpful.

Joshua Wathan:

And then to see the colonel's reaction that was running the embassy down there when he came out was just like we've had. I've had a dozen teams down here. I've never had anything like this. It was just I don't know it was. It was cool from a confidence perspective, but it was just. I remember smiling and looking around at all of my teammates and just being feeling very peaceful. Yeah, like you guys got my back. You asked me to do this thing, I put it together and they're the ones delivering on all of it, right, and it was just awesome to be a part of something like that.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, it's like a, it's like a paratrooper, you know who packs your chute.

Joshua Wathan:

You know what I mean.

Scott McLean:

It's those people that make your jumps successful, even if you, you know, maybe they pack their own chutes, maybe they don't, but in the end you know it's the people behind you that make it work, that make it happen, right. So how long did you stay in for?

Joshua Wathan:

I was in for six years.

Scott McLean:

Six years, all right. So six years comes up. It's time for Joshua to bug out, right? So what was the transition like? It's weird.

Joshua Wathan:

So I got out, immediately moved to Austin, went to Austin Community College for a couple of years with designs to go to UT, and then I met a girl worked for the VA, so we came back to Houston because that's where she was in Waco and driving was crazy. There was no office in Austin, so I transferred to the University of Houston instead and ended up in the Wolf Center for Entrepreneurship there and learned how to start businesses. But I would say, you know, first getting out, it was six months of, I got money stacked up, I know how to party. I've got a good routine Like these.

Joshua Wathan:

Classes are super simple and it was amazingly simple because my high school experience was pretty horrible. I hated school, I didn't want anything to do with it. I had a crappy GPA and then I was thinking college was going to be really hard and I showed up and with the discipline that I had from the military, I was like this is a joke. But what I really had to learn was stop treating everybody that's in my class like I treated my teammates, because they don't have, they haven't been through the same stuff and they're worried about themselves, not worried about the team, even when it's a team project example of what, how you were treating them well, just hey, this needs to get done.

Joshua Wathan:

You're gonna do it, right? Okay, cool, I don't need to manage you after that. You're a big boy, right? You know this. This kid either doesn't want to be here, it doesn't know what he's doing, or he's doesn't have habits, right? He's a 20 year old, like I was when I got in and hasn't had all of that.

Joshua Wathan:

Well, on this, this, like this, the military does a good job of beating that selfishness right out of you. You know, like you just can't act like that, you're not going to survive. So I put a lot of trust in people that hadn't earned it and that cost me both, both on a just an organizational level and like a personal. I was just mad at everybody, you know, and it wasn't because of necessarily what they did, it was because of the expectations I put on them.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, unfair expectations right yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Joshua Wathan:

Yeah. How long did it take you to figure out you were doing that wrong? Because of the expectations I put on them? Yeah, unfair expectations, right? Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, how long did it take you to figure out you were doing that wrong once you were already done? Because usually you don't sketch it when you're in the middle of it. Right yeah, you're caught up in the moment, you're just doing what you do, you're doing what you know, and then is this an afterthought or I would say there was phases of it.

Joshua Wathan:

You know, learning oh, I'm not going to do that again, but not from a strategic level, more like a tactical type of thing. And then, once I got into the Wolf Center, that was 60 to 80 hour weeks. Only 35 kids 36 in our class were let in per year. It's the number one school in the nation. So, like your, go all the time. And so I was able to actually put some of those same expectations on those students in my class, because we were expected to move at the same pace and be have the same level of responsibility, and I really learned, learned a little bit better how to blend that, because it's not the same but it's very similar. You need to be a big boy, you need to be a professional, but at the same time I had learned at that point.

Joshua Wathan:

These people are younger than I am, they don't have the same experience, they're more nervous about certain things because they haven't done it before, and so a lot of coaching, guiding and just carrying people when needed helped until I lost my patience At a certain point. I just no, I'm not. I'm like, I'm not your mother. You know what I mean. I got other stuff to do and I was trying to run three businesses and go to school and do all kinds of stuff there. So it took a long time. And even after that I wasn't contracted in Iraq for a couple of years and there was a couple of times where I chewed the head off of a teammate. That was unnecessary, you know, because these guys were in it for the paycheck and that's not the same thing. And it's been a process, man, to just learn that I need to be me and let other people be them and figure out what seat they need to be on the bus instead of trying to force them into the seat that I have planned for.

Scott McLean:

So you went over there. You went over to Iraq civilian style and you took it as another deployment where other people that were there were taking it, just because the money was really good, Is that?

Joshua Wathan:

what you're saying. Kind of I think it falls into expectations again. Like I had a guy who came in SEAL qualified dude, so it was from Team Life, this, that, and the other came in seal qualified dude, so it was from team life, this, that and the other, and I remember I was advising kind of the. The whole group of all the teams that came in had kind of a headshake meeting once a week or so and I'd go over there and so they were using us like the ground guides because they'd come in every three months or so and we had been there for a year. So you know, I didn't take into consideration that the guys that had been there longer had the place wired and got to know people.

Joshua Wathan:

And so the SEAL was dealing with one of the colonels, one of the Iraqi colonels, and I was like hey, can you go get X, y and Z? I need it for some other teams. And he just went yeah, no problem, I said, are you sure? Yeah, I got it. So I went to the meeting briefed yeah, we can get that for you Came back two days later and was like, hey, did you get that stuff? And he's like the colonel told me no and I lost it.

Joshua Wathan:

Like we were at the dinner table with the team and he had been there maybe two or three weeks and I just lit him up right in front of everybody, alienated him from everybody on the team, and so I think that was a. That was a fault in leadership. Right, though he needed his ass chewed, but he didn't need it chewed in front of everybody else, right. He also needed a better, in brief, and he needed somebody to walk through, and I should have gone over there with him and confirmed that we could have gotten it before I told somebody else that we could have done it right. So there's things like that, that the nuances and the details are what made a huge difference, not necessarily the overall concept so you get done with that.

Scott McLean:

You come back to the states. Any demons start to pop up yeah I was.

Joshua Wathan:

So I came back, started a leadership consulting company, did that until covid and then then, after COVID, I stopped, and once I finally stopped and sat, I didn't move for like three years. I homesteaded, bred dogs, would do some woodworking and stuff like that, but for the most part I sat on my back patio smoked cigarettes and had a pity party because I didn't know what I was supposed to do. A big part of that was when I came back. I met my who's, my wife. Now we got married and started a family.

Joshua Wathan:

So I realized, okay, I'm not going to go back overseas, I know how that ends. Why start a family if I'm not going to be here Now? I need to figure out what else I want to do as far as the what, and so it was a lack of purpose. I didn't understand what I was supposed to do and I'd worked really hard for all these different qualifications and none of them really fit for any work that kept me home, even if you do like Secret Service or FBI or something along those lines, where we're stateside a lot of the time. So we're still not home, we're gone. So yeah, I had to deal with that. I ended up having a wife called the PTSD foundation of America after I was throwing a rage fit and went to a warrior group that night and started working on my faults. Good for you, man, and you know, I think for me a lot of the civilian friends and family that I have tried to approach me with a bunch of hugs going, it'll be okay.

Joshua Wathan:

And I just don't because I just don't respond well to them, like, okay, you're full of it, you don't get it. But when I started going to those warrior groups, the veterans there want, for first thing, that a lot of the stories that were there were way worse than mine. Like, come on, I'm living in a nice house, I got a beautiful family. Like money isn't a problem, we gotta. I still got. I'm not a rich person by any means, but it's, I'm not struggling to put food on the table like what are you doing with your life really? But then they they would turn around and just say that to me like you're, how are you gonna sit here and call yourself a green beret and not just go home and go sit in your chair? What are you doing with your life? Get the fuck out of your chair, like that's. When I was like oh, okay, I'm home, like thank you, you know, and that led to them giving me a job. So I was helping other guys out. That was kind of like basic training for life for me all over again, just to get a little bit centered and help other people. And then from there I ended up just having a few friends call me up that I had worked with in the past or whatever, and go hey, man, I'm starting this business, can you help? And that's how I got where I am today with Triad.

Joshua Wathan:

Jason, the CEO of this company, was a former client of mine when I was doing leadership consulting. He had put on Facebook that he was looking for a veteran to help with sales. And I said I know a lot of veterans, I'll find a guy, send me a job description. And by the time all that was said and done, he said why don't you just come help me build a business? And so now we're partnered up and going to the moon, man, so you were kind of a headhunter in a sense, right.

Joshua Wathan:

Finding people for jobs. Yeah, I got a guy for that right. I was just like, hey, man, let me, I'll help you out. You're a friend and you know. I think the biggest thing that I learned through that lack of purpose, other than my faith, which is definitely number one getting closer to back, closer to God, was what I do does not motivate me for me at all, nor does the money piece of it, but who I'm working with and being accountable to somebody, to a team that was depending on me, and money being the scoreboard for that. This is for, like the competitiveness that that gets me up and gets me moving Right, and so, fortunately, I'm in a place where I can choose who I want to spend my time with, more than I have to worry about what I'm, what I'm bringing home.

Scott McLean:

So were there any other demons drinking anything like that, or did anything else creep in?

Joshua Wathan:

I mean I've, I've never, I've always been anytime I would get smashed in the military. It was because I was partying with friends, yeah yeah like, and so no, I mean smoked cigarettes and dipped at the same time like oh my god, yeah nicotine was a real thing real quick.

Scott McLean:

I I've said this before I'm a recovering alcoholic, 34 years. This past, thanksgiving, and they sent me to the three-week inpatient at Travis Air Force Base. The first thing they said to us was don't quit smoking. Smoke all you want, smoke everything that you can get your hands on. Just don't quit smoking while you quit drinking, which was great advice.

Joshua Wathan:

That nicotine was our savior savior, unfortunately, but I don't smoke since anyway yeah, I remember we tell the guys of can't poke the same thing right, like yeah, if you're dealing with major substance abuse. Right now. Don't worry about the nicotine and really worry about the tobacco later because, like, I still use the nicotine pouches but there is just clean nicotine. That's like a breath mint.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, I don't do the tobacco so we got introduced by robin notton on linkedin. She reached out to me about my you know, she saw the one man, one mic foundation where you know the two pillars are storytelling and podcasting, because the two go. It's basically hand in glove. And she said you need to talk to this friend of mine, joshua. You need to reach out to him, reach out to Joshua. So we finally connected and I think our conversation at first was where is this common thread, like why she never really said why I should reach out to you, right? And we, we kind of stumbled into that as part of the conversation, like why she never really said why I should reach out to you, right? And we, we kind of stumbled into that as part of the conversation, like why did she have me call you? And you're like I don't, I don't really know, but hey, I love talking to you, right, we had great conversation, but then we found it.

Scott McLean:

We found it you mentioned that you wrote a little story about your life, right, your experiences, and now to do that, you really, really for somebody to do that. Number one, it takes really good insight, like you have to have a lot of self-awareness to be able to get honest with yourself and write something like this and you read it to me over the phone about yourself. Number two you need a lot of honesty with yourself. And number three, you write the story because you feel it needs to be written.

Scott McLean:

A lot of people have the story in their head and they'll tell the story, but to really sit in front of it and put it down and really kind of look into it, which was one of the things that they I learned this when I was going through that rehab I just spoke of, and they said we want you to write down your drinking history, right? And so I started writing and I was like no lie, dude. It was like 40 pages, 50 pages. It was a lot, right. And then you got to read it in front of people and that changed everything, right.

Scott McLean:

So when you see your story written in front of you, that really changed that and literally it's like it changes everything for you. So you said you had this story and I want you to, uh, if you would tell the listeners or give the listeners that story, is that something you want to do? Yeah, I'd be happy to do that yeah, the microphone is yours, my friend.

Joshua Wathan:

So I wrote this while I was still working at the foundation about two years ago. One of the guys I worked with took me to man Camp. It's basically a men's retreat for a church and I just had shoulder surgery and they were doing skeet shooting and I love to shoot and I couldn't do it and I rekindled sort of rekindled my faith with God and in revelations, as well as a couple other places. It tells you you're supposed to share your testimony and I hadn't done that yet. And then I saw in the itinerary at the man camp that they were going to do testimonies that evening. So instead of shooting and just hanging out, I went and closed my door to my room and spent five hours and wrote this down. So that's where this came from. Just to give you a little context, it's called who Am I? My name is Joshua Watham, but that's not who I am.

Joshua Wathan:

I grew up in Katy, texas, in a middle-class family who loved and cared for me From the day I was born until I turned 16, I wanted for nothing and experienced no suffering. I was introduced to the church by a friend, accepted Christ into my heart and was baptized. Life was meaningful and life was good. Then the year 2000 smacked me in the face. I lost six family members and my best friend left a rose and a note for his mother that guided her to the swing set he had hung himself from. I became bitter as I watched the people who tormented my friend and pushed him deeper into his hole flow into the church with tears in their eyes as we laid him to rest. I can still remember their voices the next day at school as they made jokes about his death and displayed their hypocrisy as a badge of honor, and I blamed the church for accepting it. Then I turned my back on God. Who am I? I am angry.

Joshua Wathan:

After a few years of rebelling and searching for something bigger than myself, I joined the army. I signed up to become a member of the Special Forces. I completed 14 weeks of basic training, three weeks at airborne school and shattered my ankle on my last qualifying jump. Ten screws, one plate, and nine months later I was running eight-minute miles uphill with 60 pounds in my butt. Nothing was going to stop me. It took me three years of suffering to earn my green beret, and now no one can take that away from me. I was placed on a murderous team with a mountain of a man as our leader, and we went to war. I came back glittered with shiny medals for dark days done well. Who am I? I am tenacious.

Joshua Wathan:

After six years of service, I left the military in search of another mountain to climb, and I ended up at Austin Community College. I quickly learned that being aggressive and opinionated was not the best way to survive in that environment. I transferred to the University of Houston and I set my sights on their Tier 1 business program and the Wolf Center for Entrepreneurship. There I worked 80-hour weeks and I learned how to lead people with different values and different drives. Working with students gave my sword the company of a shield. Who am I? I am learning.

Joshua Wathan:

Upon receiving my degree, I packed my bags and left for Iraq as a civilian contractor. I had grown tired of putting on a face, so I put my diploma in a drawer and I joined some old teammates overseas to help train Iraqi soldiers how to fight ISIS and old teammates overseas to help train Iraqi soldiers how to fight ISIS. We trained thousands of soldiers and each made hundreds of thousands of dollars. We did all this despite the fact that the Department of State denied us access to the American base and our only three support personnel got themselves kidnapped and held for ransom. Who am I? I am successful.

Joshua Wathan:

After one of my soldiers dropped a mortar tube on my wrist, I came back to the States for surgery. This is where I met my wife. She had me at her loan and has been my guardian angel ever since. Her son is now our son and he keeps my integrity in check on a daily basis basis, because where I lead, he follows. My wife and I made another human together, and this little daughter of mine is the light of my life. Who am I? I am loved.

Joshua Wathan:

The divorce rate for active special operations soldiers is approximately 95 percent, and I chose my family over my career. So I had to find another profession. I leaned on my degree and followed my ego. I failed business after business because I thought I knew everything. I got scammed and I got screwed because I trusted untrustworthy people with the thought that I could change them. Then I stopped caring about trying because I was unfulfilled and without a purpose bigger than myself.

Joshua Wathan:

Who am I?

Joshua Wathan:

I am blind. I was deeply embarrassed, my mind was torn and my ego was shattered. So I quit on myself, I quit on my family. I quit on the world. I decided that my VA disability was good enough and that I didn't need to work anymore. So I got comfortable in my patio chair, a load of cigarette, and I stayed there for three years.

Joshua Wathan:

I emotionally abandoned my kids and I put the weight of the household on my wife Like the living dead. I roamed the property and I spoke to no one. Eventually, my guardian angel had enough and called a friend over to try and talk to me, after realizing that he wasn't going to leave, even though I had locked myself in my shop and told him to go away. I fell into a rage. I charged into my house, down the hall and into the kitchen, where I slapped a light fixture that's the size of a church bell and shattered it into a million pieces. I pointed my bloody hand at my friend and yelled leave now or you'll never leave. And as he hustled out the door, I turned my head towards my wife. I called her names. I told her that I hated her and that I was going to divorce her.

Joshua Wathan:

Who am I? I am lost. My wife could have left me that day and I would not have blamed her, but she is no ordinary woman. She is my guardian angel. Instead, she picked up the phone and called the PTSD Foundation of America and put me on the phone with a veteran who understood how I felt. That night I was in a warrior group with my brothers working on my faults.

Joshua Wathan:

During this journey, a veteran brother came out to my house several times when I was reliving my dark days and simply sat with me as a brother who had been where I was. Eventually, he and other brothers pulled me out of my home. Then they gave me a job and with that job came purpose. Then they showed me Lone Star Cowboy Church and with that church came life. Now I find myself leaning into my faith and saving lives. I find that the tears and the fabric of my family are mending and here at Lone Star Cowboy Church I see my bloody trail being washed away and I thank God. Not anger, tenacity, learning, success, nor love cure my blindness, because faith is the only map that truly leads to the lost. Who am I? I am here. Who am I? I am his. Who am I? I am his. Who am I?

Scott McLean:

I am home Beautiful man Beautiful, thank you for sharing that.

Scott McLean:

That definitely runs the gambit. Definitely Well done man, well done. So it took you five hours to write that. You said, yeah, I gave it a check. Yeah, yeah, that's a long five hours. Yeah, yeah, very good man, I appreciate again, I really appreciate you telling that story.

Scott McLean:

When we were first talking I was like, okay, this would be a, you know it's going to be an interesting interview. And then you know, on the phone, our first contact. But then when you told that story, I was like, okay, this would be a, you know it's going to be an interesting interview. And then you know, on the phone, our first contact. But then when you told that story, I was like, ah, this is a home run. Yeah, yeah, this is what it's all about. This is what I want veterans to hear, this is what I want other nonprofits to hear, this is what I want everybody to hear. Things like that. You know, just that story story alone, I'm sure, is going to touch at least one other veteran, which is that's the win. Right, that's the win. You know, and again, thank you for sharing that. Now that's a tough act to follow. My next question, but tell us I don't usually do this, but this is well-deserved in this case. Tell us about Triad. Tell us about what you do and what you are. It's a veteran-owned business, correct?

Joshua Wathan:

Yes, it is.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, so what does Triad do?

Joshua Wathan:

We do strategic cybersecurity consulting. Really, what that means is we do a lot of compliance. So cybersecurity is the new forefront of warfare. The anonymity and availability that's there to be able to get resources from behind a computer several thousand miles away takes away the need to have to put troops on a ground to secure territory. Because of that, the government is pushing down a lot of regulations to businesses saying they have to do X, y and Z to be compliant or they can get fined or worse. So our job is to come in and help them become compliant. That's usually a six to 18-month process, depending on what level of compliance they're trying to be. Beyond that, once a company gets a certain size, they need to go from just having basic password protection and encryption to having somebody that's sitting with the C-suite and talking to the board on behalf of the cybersecurity environment within their company, talking to the board on behalf of the cybersecurity environment within their company. And so we do that on a fractional basis, on a part-time basis, and that way they don't have to hire a full-time chief information security officer, an analyst and a software stack that comes along with it. We're a good bridge between, say, $2 million in revenue and $25 million in revenue to get them where they need to be.

Joshua Wathan:

My partner is the expert in cybersecurity. He's a Navy veteran, ran a IT company for 16 years and sold it and immediately started this business with Triad, this business with Triad. My job, my role inside the company as the chief operations officer, is to get everybody, get all the people moving in the same direction, both with inside the firm and outside. So, being a newer company, I spent a lot of time doing business development, sales, marketing activities and inside the firm I spend a lot of time training the other employees, helping and providing resources, strategizing things like that All right.

Scott McLean:

How can somebody that might be interested that's listening get in touch with Triad?

Joshua Wathan:

With Triad. Triadinfosecio is our website. If you want to get in touch with me, I'm always on linkedin. Linkedin backslash joshua waffen. Uh, shoot me a message. I'm happy to connect and hope you're going to be helpful.

Scott McLean:

W-a-t-h-e-n.

Joshua Wathan:

Yeah, that's it I said at the beginning of this episode, I want what is a serial entrepreneur and it's real with an s, not with a c yeah, I was gonna say I didn't make lucky charms, although that might have been interesting you wouldn't be on the podcast.

Scott McLean:

You'd be too rich for me for that.

Joshua Wathan:

Yeah, that's true, that's true. Selling sugar is a good business. It's cereal just means. I've done it a bunch of times. Yeah, I think triad is the ninth business that I've helped build or helped grow to varying degrees of success.

Joshua Wathan:

As you heard in my testimony, I failed a bunch of different businesses, but I think most of the businesses that I would consider a failure meaning that they didn't get where we wanted them to go or they didn't have an exit was just because I either stopped following through or I didn't have a. I didn't take the plan seriously, right Like I. I just leaned on my ego and went, oh, I got this. No, there's a lot of other people way smarter than me that have more money than me, and if I don't get really granular with that plan and execute on time effectively, then what am I doing? Um, but I mean that said.

Joshua Wathan:

But that said, we've had some pretty cool businesses. I helped develop intellectual property from the University of Houston to filter out sulfur from oil and gas drilling companies and had a subscription box company for vape juice back when vaping was just starting. We'd do a flavor profile and you'd say, hey, I like strawberries and I like chocolate, and we'd send you a bunch of different flavors of vape things that like met that flavor profile. So I'm much more of a lifestyle type of business, but we got it running and had, you know, decent revenue and all that yeah all the way to leadership consulting had a remodel company for a little while.

Joshua Wathan:

Covid killed that thing. Like everybody, went to home depot and we're doing it ourselves, right, right, yeah, there's no way.

Scott McLean:

Yeah, I get it I, I guess I could be then consider the serial podcaster, since I have two, but I had three, that that didn't get off the ground you know, they just didn't it.

Scott McLean:

So of course we're talking totally different sides of the spectrum with what you're doing and what you know this is, but it's the same mindset Don't quit. If you love doing it, keep doing it. You know what I mean. Just make those mistakes and learn from them, and when you start your next thing, it might not get off the ground. You know, and I think it's an individual choice and it's a mindset you got to love what you're doing and you'll keep doing it and then you will eventually succeed.

Joshua Wathan:

Yeah, I know a lot of rock eaters that have made really successful companies just because they wouldn't take no for an answer and they would not stop.

Scott McLean:

yeah, persistence is key absolutely, and I tell people in this, in this business I'll call it because you can make money in podcasting, but not everybody's going to be joe rogan, like you're not going to be joe rogan there's only one joe rogan or tim pool you know what I mean or someone like that. But you can be successful in it. You know you can make money in it if you really push it and try, and I I respect that mindset because I live it. You know what I mean. So well, all right.

Joshua Wathan:

Is there anything?

Scott McLean:

else, anything else you want to? Uh, this was a great interview, Thank you.

Joshua Wathan:

I did say to any veterans that are listening right, like if you're waiting for somebody else to tell you to do something, whether that's get help, start a business, follow your dreams for lack of a better term, you're doing it wrong. Get up out of your chair and go make your life what it's supposed to be, because there's plenty of people around that'll help you do that. But you've got to want it first. I think that was a very hard lesson I had to relearn, you know, after going through something where they pushed you and you had to want to be there and then just kind of giving up. I had to relearn that man, there ain't nobody else going to do this for me. They'll help me. A lot of people will help me if I ask for help, but I got to be the one to take the first step forward.

Scott McLean:

Absolutely, man, absolutely. And no looking back once you do that. No looking back, man, just keep moving forward. That's it. Well, joshua, this has been one of those, and I have these every once in a while and I'm doing another interview tomorrow with a nonprofit in Chicago. That it just like timing just didn't work. But we got this done and I appreciate your diligence. I appreciate you reaching out to me saying, hey, are we doing this? You know what I mean Because I'm also running a foundation, so I I got a lot going on, but I appreciate that I and I do put you on and I do put everybody on the list and I do eventually get to them. But I'm glad you pushed this and it was great talking to you and it's always good, it's always good to know that I have a guy and now I now I have a guy right in Houston that if I need something, oh, you're in Houston, I got a guy yeah in South Florida.

Scott McLean:

You got a guy my friend awesome you got a guy.

Scott McLean:

Well, listen, joshua, thank you, stick around. I'm just going to do my outro and we'll talk a little afterwards. Well, we built another bridge today. This was a a great bridge. They all are. They all are and I appreciate you listening, I appreciate you following.

Scott McLean:

If you liked it, share it. If you're on any podcast platform, like and subscribe. You know, basically, I say this every, every episode. I appreciate your time, I appreciate you listening to me and you are the engine that runs this machine. If you want to get in touch with the podcast, you can reach me at vetsconnectionpodcast at gmailcom.

Scott McLean:

If you want to go to the website and see past episodes, which is also a good resource page, because every interview becomes a resource and it also has. It's a unique resource page in the sense that it has a podcast episode, so you get to hear the people first before, instead of just jumping to a website and really not having any background on it. So go to vets connect podcastcom. All the episodes are there. This one will be there and listen to the end. There's a. There's a good public service announcement. It's 30 seconds. It's good for veterans, families of veterans, friends of veterans and civilians in general. It's about 988 and 211. And there's a lot of resources covered in 30 seconds. So give it a listen and I appreciate that. And happy new year to everybody out there. I look forward to a bigger, better year for the Vets Connection podcast and the One man, one Mic Foundation. That's my cheap plug, and so go to onemanonemicfoundationorg to see what that's all about. And again, as I always say, you will hear me next week.

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