[00:00:00.240] - Brandon Reece
Well, team, thanks for joining us for another show. As you're going to see, if you're watching the video, I'm running this one solo. My battle buddy Chris is on the road and he'll actually be jumping in once we hit record with our guest here in just a moment. But we've got a good one here. This is an interesting show where we're hanging out with our friend Nick Rahn. Nick Rahn is running an organization known as Warriors Next Adventure. Essentially, this is kind of a two part nonprofit that specializes in supporting veterans. Part of it is a 24/7 Crisis hotline that they, that they manage and in addition to that, as, as you may have guessed by the name of the business or the organization, they do some really cool stuff by taking veterans out on real adventures and in the midst of that, doing some really deep work with them to help them process PTSD trauma and make gains in their mental health and mental wellness. And so it's a really powerful interview. Nick's story is intense and we cover a lot, but there is a huge emphasis on what we can do as individuals to do a better job of managing our mental health and some of the things that we can do to make some real progress when things aren't going well.
[00:01:13.070] - Brandon Reece
So anyways, it's going to be a good show. Thanks for joining us. Let's jump in.
[00:01:16.910] - Nick Rahn
Wow.
[00:01:17.390] - Chris Nordyke
How many of you have listened to the Head Heart and Boots podcast? I can't tell you that react how much that means to us. Welcome back to the Head Heart and Boots podcast. I'm Chris.
[00:01:28.190] - Brandon Reece
And I'm Brandon. Join us as we wrestle with what it takes to transform ourselves businesses, we lead. This new camera angle makes my arms look smaller than yours.
[00:01:37.890] - Chris Nordyke
I'm noticing that and I really appreciate it.
[00:01:40.010] - Brandon Reece
I thought you did that on purpose.
[00:01:40.970] - Brandon Reece
No, I, I don't. I didn't and I, I am not happy with it. All right, well, my friend Nick, we are excited to get you on the show. We've obviously had some conversations kind of working up to this and I've been digging in on you and some of the adventures that you've been on behind the scenes. And so we've been looking forward to the show. So thanks again, man, for jumping in with us.
[00:02:01.150] - Nick Rahn
Yeah, I appreciate you guys having me out. Yeah.
[00:02:03.350] - Brandon Reece
So this is going to be a different show. So just really quickly, for those of you that are normally used to seeing Chris and I side by side, little bit different platform. My brother in crime is on the road today and so he's logging in from a distant Phoenix, Arizona.
[00:02:18.430] - Nick Rahn
Phoenix. Okay.
[00:02:20.190] - Brandon Reece
And we're having technical difficulties, so you can't see his beautiful face. So you're going to get two of the three today as part of the show. Nick, listen, you have a very interesting story. We can't cover all of it for the sake of time, but one of the most, I think, just moving things that. That I watched getting ready for this show was the video that was present on the Warriors Next Adventure site. That was the background ultimately to what motivated you to start that organization and working with veterans. And so I think, and a phenomenal place to start is just walk us through the kind of this beginning phases of. Of your military career and ultimately where that led you, because you're on one hell of a mission that people are going to learn more about as the interview goes on. But if you could start there, that'd be killer.
[00:03:14.600] - Nick Rahn
Yeah, I joined the Air force back in 2006. It was pretty much that or prison if I was going to continue hanging out with the friends I was hanging out with. So I didn't have much of a choice. But I. I had grown up wanting to be a cop, and so joining the Air Force and going security forces was kind of my quickest pathway there. You know, I ended up doing four tours overseas. Well, three, and then a tour to Qatar. Right. And Chris, I was telling Brandon earlier, you know, a lot of the veterans on here will probably agree with me. Qatar was definitely my hardest deployment overall. Mostly because people don't realize how hard it is to walk three miles to the gym. And the Dairy Queen is out of mint ice cream. Makes for a rough day. So you Air Force guys, hey, it wasn't army base. No. And then I ended up getting back from that deployment and I told my. My unit deployment manager, I was like, don't ever send me on some shit like that again. I was like, that was so boring. Like, I want to do something. And so I got lucky. Come to find out, I was really good at shooting a 50 cal. And so I ended up going to Kambuca, doing convoys, rough clearance down in Southern Iraq in 2008, and then got back from that one, went to northern Iraq to Balad 2009, 2010, and then went to Afghanistan and Bagram 2011, 2012. I had a lot of. A lot of rotations. And I think I spent maybe 11 months total stateside. The rest was all deployed or training. And I volunteered for all of it. It's all me. I loved it. It was great. I had the greatest time in the military. I Absolutely loved it. Even the dark times, you know, those are. Those are hard. But, you know, we can all probably agree that, you know, the time spent in the military is the best adventure we've ever been, right? The hard part is getting out, right? You lose your sense of purpose, you lose your friends, you lose your mission, you lose everything, right? You lose your identity. You don't know who the hell you are. And the iRahnic thing is I stumbled upon warriors next adventure just by healing myself.
[00:05:11.090] - Nick Rahn
I was one of those guys that was anti therapy, anti va, anti veteran, anti military, just because of the way I got out and found out about Jody after my last deployment. So I decided to get out. You know, I struggled. And when I first got out, I got a job as a pizza delivery driver. I was 23 years old. I hated my life. Talking about shame, like you were just a part of this amazing thing, you know, that less than 1% of the United States gets to do. And now I'm delivering pizzas. I think it was like my first week I delivered pizza to like the captain of the quarter or the captain of the football team from high school. I'm like, I need to get my life together. I was so embarrassed. But, like, looking back now, as a job, right, I was working. It's no big deal. But shortly after, I ended up getting a job as a bouncer at night. And I'm not afraid to talk about this stuff because it's all stuff from the past. And it's, you know, it's things that I've forgiven myself for. But downtown Minneapolis, it gets a little rough down there.
[00:06:07.970] - Nick Rahn
And I developed a cocaine addiction. I was fighting a new person every day, and I just kind of turned into a version of myself I never thought I would be. I was very unhappy with who I was, and I was just being reckless. And lucky for me, late 2013, I almost got stabbed in a fight. And, you know, it was kind of a wake up call. I think I need to change some things up here. Ended up quitting that job, got a job as a carpenter. And then about three weeks later, I got a call from an old law enforcement teacher that I went to in high school at Century College. And she said, hey, the Minnesota State Patrol is hiring dispatchers. You should go apply. And so I applied and I got the job and did that for eight years. But, you know, though I had a job that had meaning and purpose and it was paramilitary, so it's very similar to the military style. I still really struggle internally. I was struggling with the whole Jody situation. Still, I had gotten back together with my wife because she was pregnant with my second kids.
[00:07:07.750] - Nick Rahn
It was a very toxic relationship. We should have never gotten back together. You know, I thought I was doing the right thing, wanted to make sure raising my kids right. And I had been unfaithful after the military just because it was more of like a 24 year old's way of getting back at his ex wife, you know, current life. I didn't like who I was. And I figured in state patrol I could slowly start to change that. But something was still going on inside. And I struggled with suicidal ideations the vast majority of my life. I was a fairly abused child from my stepdad and my stepmom or my stepdad and my mom. I watched my mom die in fRahnt of me when I was 11 years old. They had crashed a snowmobile on the side of a riverbank or the snow bank. We lived right on a lake. And my stepdad came in and said, your mom's dead. I ran out to the lake and I see her wearing a snowmobile suit and I pull her helmet off and. You guys remember the show Rescue 911? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I, I learned how to check for pulse by watching Rescue 901.
[00:08:05.520] - Nick Rahn
So I checked her pulse. Does she have a pulse? And so I missed the CPR part of that show because I just started beating the shit out of her chest. And luckily it worked. She came back and she died five times on the operating table that night. And she was in a body cast for six months. And so I had to learn how to cook, I had to learn how to clean, I had to take care of her, I had to carry her to the bathroom, I had to wipe her ass, I had to do all of these things that an 11 year old probably shouldn't be doing. And six months later she got her body cast off. She dropped me off my dad's and she never came back. Right. So I had been struggling with mental health since I was very young. Pretty consistently had suicide ideations most of my life, even though I didn't want to die. It was always those secret things inside your head that kind of tell you like you're worthless. You know, kind of repeating what stepdad would say and my mom would say to me. And so I really struggled to kind of find my place in the world.
[00:08:59.340] - Nick Rahn
Even though I had a decent job. I know I was a good dad. My kids love me, you know, I'm really good with them, but I just had this thing inside of me that would not Go away. And so finally 2015 came around. My youngest daughter was just diagnosed with autism. We kind of knew, but like, once you get the diagnosis, it's real now. And so that was. That was difficult. And I had started drinking again. I was at the point where I was drinking about a bottle of Jameson a day downstairs in the garage, sitting in my boat. I was a big loner. I wouldn't hang out with many people. I started training jiu jitsu again. But around this time, I started pulling back and doing everything typical of somebody who is actively suicidal. Getting things away, retreating from people, ignoring people, having anger helpers. And eventually later on year about June, I found out that my wife had been cheating on me again. Now, again. I just want to preface this being her beat along break. We're fine now. You know, I was unfaithful to her too. So it's not just, she's not the bad guy in the story, it's just a part of the story.
[00:10:03.530] - Nick Rahn
We both wRahnged each other. I just don't want people thinking that she's terrible and I'm perfect. No, I'm not. But that was kind of like the tipping point for me. And I decided to go into the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota. Have you guys heard that? The Boundary Waters?
[00:10:18.270] - Chris Nordyke
No.
[00:10:18.990] - Nick Rahn
Oh, my God. You guys want to see a beautiful sight? You guys got to go canoeing in the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota. It's one of the most gorgeous places in the world. So I decided to go up to the Boundary Waters. I didn't bring any food, and all I brought essentially was the fishing pole sleeping bag in my vessel. And I decided I was going to go up there and I was going to end it. And I figured that if I did it up there, no one would find me in the bears and wolves would get me. And so no one had to see it. I went up there and for five days I was recording videos essentially as like my suicide note. And on the fifth day, I woke up and said, well, today's the day, you know. And I had nothing in me that was telling me not to do it. So I made a final video and I put inside a waterproof bag and I put that inside a waterproof bag just so somebody could find it to let them know, like, what happened. I put the pistol up to my head and I pulled the trigger.
[00:11:07.870] - Nick Rahn
This is something that. That's still kind of. It's kind of perplexing some days, right? I heard the trigger squeeze and I heard the hammer hit the round and everything went white. And my eyes were closed. And I remember opening my eyes and I saw the sky was like the deepest, most beautiful blue I've ever seen in my life. Same with the water. The trees were like the most beautiful green. And like, straight out of a movie, nobody believes me when I say this, but straight out of a movie, an eagle dove and caught a fish like 50ft in fRahnt of me and then landed on a tree stump not too far away. Was eating a fish. Like, how often does somebody see something like that, right? I. I couldn't believe what had just happened. I thought I was dead. And I thought that this was heaven, you know, this is some different place. And I look down and I see the pistol in my hand. So I dropped the magazine, I pull a slide, and I look at the bullet. And now at this point, I had. I had loaded over a thousand rounds of nine millimeter ammunition.
[00:12:01.990] - Nick Rahn
I've never had a misfire. And I looked at the round and the primer was struck, but the primer was a dude, so I shouldn't be alive. There's one in a thousand chance that that happens. So I was so pissed off, I reloaded it, racked it back, and put it up to my head. I was like, there's no way this happens twice. And I just remember this. This feeling rushed through my whole body that just said, nick, don't do it. So I aimed the pistol on the water and I shot all 19 rounds off in the lake. And then I was pissed that the gun worked. So I was like, you can't even kill yourself right. You know, I know a lot of people think that's kind of gruesome, but it's. At the time, you know, I started laughing like, you're such a loser. You can't even kill yourself. And that's kind of where I was sitting with my life at the time. I remember sitting there for about an hour, and I went back and I watched all of the videos, and all I could think of was, I feel so bad for that kid.
[00:12:52.250] - Nick Rahn
Like, I don't want to be that anymore. You know, that doesn't have to be me the rest of my life. And so I decided that day is where I killed my old self. And I was going to create a new version. And I remember sitting there thinking, God, I'm starving, but I have no food. So I loaded up and I went back and my first call was to my jiu jitsu coach. And I told him, I was like, hey, you know he's going to Brazil to get his black belt. And I'm like, do you mind if I go to Brazil with you? I need a change of pace. And he's like, absolutely. So my second call was to my wife to say, hey, we're done. We need to both move on from this. And, you know, it was a long path getting to the point of starting a nonprofit. But eventually, in 2019, after I'd done an extensional amount of work on myself, I created a process called the six Principle process. And it was a process just for myself to help me whenever I felt like I was struggling. And a veteran friend of mine who's a vet who trained MMA with me, he was really struggling.
[00:13:48.280] - Nick Rahn
I pulled him aside and I took my I and I put him through the six principles. And over the span of like three or four months, he changed his life. And I was like, well, I think I have something here. So I started a nonprofit and I've been doing it ever since. In a nutshell.
[00:14:00.530] - Brandon Reece
Yeah, yeah. Nutshell is probably the nice way to put this. I mean, it's difficult to, to put into words. As I'm listening, you kind of process through this story. You know, there's a lot of an immediate like, of reactions that, that I'm ultimately having. And there is just this part of me that's like, what are the chances that that thing happened the way that it did in, you know, in my worldview, it's difficult for me to separate that from, you know, the spiritual part of, I think of our being and our walk in life. And so like, I get emotional just kind of thinking about your story. It's unbelievably powerful. Something happened though. So obviously there was this, this time frame where you're doing the self worth work before you launched the warriors next adventure and start seeking to provide that support to others. Can you slow down for us? Can you talk us through that? Like, what were you experiencing? What was happening in your life during that time span?
[00:15:02.220] - Brandon Reece
Yeah, yeah. The formation of those six steps.
[00:15:04.460] - Nick Rahn
Yeah, for sure. I think it was, it was a couple of weeks after I got back from Brazil. I had been training jiu jitsu since 2007 on my first deployment. And I did my first MMA flight in the military at the Carolina Crown, two at the RBC center down in Raleigh. And I loved it. But my ex wife, not so much. So I was kind of forced to quit. And I decided once I left her and went down to Brazil, in Brazil, I decided, you know what, I want to fight MMA again. I was like, I'm, I think I was 2627. I don't. I don't even know. And I was like, I think I want to do this again. And when I got back from Brazil, I remember I was sitting in my house or in my. My mom's basement, and I was drinking by myself. The kids were at their mom's house. And I remember looking at that bottle thinking, like, this isn't going to help you become the person you need to be, you know? And I poured it back into the bottle, and then I'm like, why the. You poured it back in the bottle?
[00:15:58.880] - Nick Rahn
You dumped the bottle out? So I dumped out the bottle and thinking that that was going to be it for alcohol, you know, it was for a while. But I remember sitting there that night thinking that the person who could have stopped me, I don't think exists. So I decided right there that night that I'm going to become the person who could hold that gun out of finance. Right, but what does that look like? You know? What does that person do? What does that person think? Like, how does that person talk to people? What is he doing with his life? And so I just had this baseline of I want to become the person who could pull the gun out of my hands if that were to happen again. So I decided to focus on mma. And I figured that, you know what, I have this vessel of a sport that I love so much. Maybe this is a vessel that can get me to that person. I knew MMA wasn't going to fix me. I knew jiu jitsu wasn't going to fix me. But at least it's a vessel. It gets me on a path, and I wasn't on a path.
[00:16:56.450] - Nick Rahn
I love my job at the State Patrol. I was the 91 dispatcher for eight years. I loved it. It was great, but I just felt like something was missing and I didn't know what it was. And so, God, I want to say, four months after my divorce, I did my first fight back and ended up winning in a minute and ten seconds with an arm bomber, which was awesome. It was such a good fight. And a couple months later, I believe it was February of 2016. Probably one of the most pivotal things that have happened to me in my life. I ended up breaking my neck. I was in a jiu jitsu match, and I got. Do you guys train jiu jitsu?
[00:17:29.220] - Brandon Reece
I have just briefly about four lengths in.
[00:17:31.740] - Nick Rahn
That's it. Okay. So there's a thing called a head and arm choke. It's where your head and your arm get wrapped around their arms. And my Feet were on the ground, my butt was up in the air, and I jumped and spun. And when I spun, my body spun, but my neck didn't. And so I had my C5 and C6 vertebrae were, like, a quarter inch turned, and then the disk in the middle was completely popped out, pinching my C6 nerve on the right side. And when it happened, I felt like my whole body went numb. And I didn't really know what was going on, but I still had the adrenaline, so I got. I gotta win the match, right? So I tapped him out real quick. And then I remember going over by my coach, and I laid down. I looked at him like, I can't feel my legs. And he's like, what? I was like, I. I can't feel my legs. Like, my toes are numb, my feet are. And he's like, nick, you just walked over here. I was like, I know, but I can't feel it. And so he did what I wouldn't recommend.
[00:18:24.810] - Nick Rahn
He wrapped my jiu Jitsu belt around my chin and he put his feet on my shoulders and he pulled my neck. And, like, immediately I could feel my toes again. So it worked, but, you know, we didn't know how bad it was. Whoa.
[00:18:36.010] - Chris Nordyke
Yeah.
[00:18:36.570] - Brandon Reece
Yeah.
[00:18:37.690] - Brandon Reece
Oh, goodness gracious.
[00:18:40.010] - Nick Rahn
Yeah. He is not a doctor, so. But, oh, man. Yeah, it was wild, man. And so I'm stubborn. And of course, I don't go to the doctor right away. And two weeks later, I had another Jiu Jitsu tournament. I'm like, I'm gonna go do this tournament, right? I'm 27, 26, however old I was. And I was like, you know, I'm fine. I'm Superman. So I go to this tournament, and I win the no GI Division with no issues. And then the GI Division in my second match, I got a guy in what's called a paper cutter. Is you take your hand across their neck and you drape it down. Your other hand goes under the shoulder and you pull. But I couldn't move my arm. So when I gripped, I couldn't pull because my. My nerve is completely pinched and my muscles weren't firing. So I looked at my coach. I was like, I can't move my arm. And so I jumped on top of him and I put him in a topside triangle, and I choked him out with one arm. And after that match, I went up to my coach and like, look, we got one left.
[00:19:34.330] - Nick Rahn
I was like, I can't use my left arm. He's like, your neck is jack, man. As you got to get that fixed, like after this next match. And he's like, you probably shouldn't compete. I'm like, fuck it, we're already here. It's first place. And so we go in there and I got put in a triangle choke, which is where they had their legs wrapped around your arm and your neck. And he was squeezing and my coach is like, nick, tap. And I'm like, no. So I flip him over, I get out of it, I put him in a triangle and I choke about. And so when they go to raise my hand, they raise my right hand and it hurts so bad. So I walk over to my coach and like, my neck is so stiff, my arm hurts. He hands me a 10 pound dumbbell and he's like, lift this up. And I'm sitting here like, I couldn't lift a 10 pound dumbbell. I'm like, I think I should go to the doctor's office. So I went in like two days later and I was in surgery like three days later. And so the spinal cord wasn't disrupted, but the bulge was sticking out so far.
[00:20:33.400] - Nick Rahn
It was kind of rubbing against the spinal cord, so it was causing issues. So when they went to go look at it, my c, I think it was my C5 had a crack in it. So they repaired everything. They cut the bulge out. They told me you'd never fight again. You know, the 18 months recovery, you know it's going to be a struggle for you to walk again. Like all this negative shit. I'm like, fuck you guys. I'm going to fight again this year. They're like, no, you're not. Oh, like, watch me, all right? I'm a stubborn bastard, right? But I had two weeks in bed where I couldn't get up, and I picked up a book called Buddhism, Plain and simple. I'm not a Buddhist, right? I swear too much. And I like meat. So you're not going to see me in a robe anytime soon. But I really like the. It's called the eighth fold Path. The Eightfold path is just eight different ways to think and to process life. And so I started following that path. My brain sucks, but I'll go over as many as I can. It's the right thought, the right intent, the right work, right?
[00:21:28.720] - Nick Rahn
What job are you doing? Is it good for society? The right speech, you know, and it goes on and on like that. And so I am not a religious person. I left religion when I was probably 12 years old. Part of that's probably because what happened in my childhood, but. But I really loved What. What Buddhism was talking about, because it was not a religion, right? It still technically is not a religion. It's a way of life. Others will argue that, and that's fine. But I started looking at that Eightfold path and thinking, oh, Nick, you were literally just talking about, who does this person need to look like the guy that could pull the gun out of your hands? And so I started digging into that, and I learned about epigenetics right around the same time. And so for about two weeks straight, all I did was watch YouTube videos on epigenetics and healing and mental health and therapy. And I started reading audiobooks. And I probably read a little over 300 audiobooks on, like, mental health, trauma healing, you know, in those kind of areas, just because I wanted to fix myself. And none of this was for other people.
[00:22:27.660] - Nick Rahn
I didn't want to help others. I didn't care about others. I was very selfish. And what ended up happening was about a month and a half after my surgery, the staples in the back of my neck were, like, rubbing against my spine, and it was so uncomfortable. So I just ripped them out with the players. And I went in a couple days later to get the staples out and for them to do an MRI to check my neck. I walk in, nurse is like, all right, gotta remove a little staple. It's like, oh, I already did that. She's like, you need a special device to remove those. Like, ah, use the pliers. It's all good. And so she looked at it and she's like, oh, my God, dude. Like, I was so reckless. You know? I look back at it now, I'm like, what an idiot. Like, why would you do that? But then they did my mri, and my doctor, the neuro. The neurosurgeon came in, and he's like, what did you do? And I'm like, oh, no, Did I mess it up? He's like, I don't know how you healed so quickly. I was doing my own PT every day, you know, Like, I was deadlifting already.
[00:23:20.990] - Nick Rahn
I was doing everything I wasn't supposed to. And they medically cleared me to start training again a month and a half after surgery from breaking my neck. Which is wild. Yeah, wild. It's. Yeah, it was nuts. So I called my jiu jitsu coach. I'm like, hey, I'm taking a flight in August. He's like, you broke your neck? I was like, nah, doctor cleared me. I got a doctor's note. And he's like, okay. Like, he knew. He took. He knew he couldn't get me to say no. Like, I'm gonna do it, right? I was just told I'd never fight again, but I'm like, no, I'm fighting again this year. And so I ended up training my ass off. But with that, with me getting cleared, I kind of had this realization that, you know what? I can do whatever I want to do. I can make things happen the way I want them to happen. I just have to do it the right way. What is the right way? Right? And so it's going to be different for every situation. But I started thinking, like, you know, I don't really live life by any principles, so I'm going to create some principles that I'm going to live by to help me stay on the right path.
[00:24:22.240] - Nick Rahn
And so initially I had like 75 principles, which is just ridiculous, and slowly started to cut it down. And by using these principles and training and just kind of keeping myself on a path of discipline and honesty and intention. Intention was probably the most important thing for me, was living my life with intentions, always doing things with the intent of this result. Like, I'm never going to be rude to you ever, because I don't like when people are rude to me. I'm going to have a good intention with everything that I do. Four months after my next surgery, I ended up fighting at Caboose in Minnesota. And I won Fight at night. We beat the living out of each other for three rounds, and I ended up choking them out. And that night, I remember jumping up on the cage after I had just won. Never supposed to fight again. And four months later, here I am sitting on top of a cage with 75 people wearing my shirt, screaming my name. And I could see people crying. My coach was crying. And I'm like, whoa, there's so much power in what just happened right now because it was so much bigger than the fight, right?
[00:25:24.830] - Nick Rahn
It was a major accomplishment of overcoming my own physical ability. And I remember looking at all those people out there. Those were the people that 100% have my back at all times. And that was when I kind of came up with that first principle, right? That you have to look at who you have. Look at the people that you associate with, right? Because we can all say, you know, there was a time in our lives where we're hanging out with certain people that were not a net positive for what we're trying to do with our lives, right? The drinking buddies that always want you to drink every weekend. Not saying, abandon your friends, but you don't have to drink to hang out. Right. But you also have to look at the. The negative side, right? So I got two people, I call them the shooting stars and the Black Clouds. Right. So the shooting stars are people like my jiu jitsu coach. He's been like a syndicate father to me since I met him in 2014. I absolutely love the guy. He actually made me become an ordained minister and I performed his wedding to his is now wife, which is kind of cool.
[00:26:20.440] - Nick Rahn
So if you guys need your marriage, I got you again. A lot of my friends call me side quests just because I'm always doing different, but totally. But I started thinking, like, you know what? I really need to look at the people that I associate myself with. And so I went through a Rolodex of people that I just need to be like, yeah, we can't associate anymore. But what I did with all of them is I reached out to them and told them, look, I'm making some major changes in my life and I need you to know that you have not been on the positive side of my life and we need to maybe shift directions. And half of them told me to go screw myself, and the other half said, hey, man, I'm sorry, like, I want to change with you. I'm like, all right, cool, let's go. And then reaching out to the people that were always there for me, like my jiu jitsu coach, my stepmom, she's been my mom since I was like 4 years old. She's amazing. But yeah, I really started to change the people that I associated with.
[00:27:14.910] - Brandon Reece
Nick, I'm just curious if you could dig in a little bit on during this period of time when you were, you were starting to fight again, you had the neck injury, you come back, it's like you've had these series of comebacks from just a string of kind of disappointments and setbacks. I'm just curious at this point, as you're starting to frame that first principle, what was kind of your inner thought life like? Like what, what was the story in your head at that. At that stage of your life and like, what was kind of your inner dialog and self talk at that stage? Can you kind of take us back there and just what, what was your day to day like when you'd wake up in the morning and what was your routines and all of that stuff at this point?
[00:27:56.370] - Nick Rahn
Well, I'd say when I started training for my first fight back, my fight in 2015, it was in December, that was my second fight. My first one was in 09 but when I started training for that fight in 2015, as I said before, I don't think MMA or Jiu Jitsu is the answer, but maybe it's a vessel. And so I decided to 100% dedicate myself to it. And so I was training anywhere from, like, 12 to 20 hours a week. I was eating the. The Gracie diet, which essentially is just no processed foods, no sugars, meat, potatoes, rice, chicken, steak. That's really about it. And so I got rid of everything unhealthy out of my life. And I also had quit drinking alcohol just because I realized that I wanted to really put everything into this. And my first showing in 2015, after coming back, I just absolutely annihilated this guy. You know, I hit him with one uppercut and I split his whole face open, and I broke his arm and I dislocated his shoulder. So it was. It was a good fight for a minute and 13 seconds. And after that fight, it was kind of just.
[00:28:57.950] - Nick Rahn
It was a positive affirmation that I think I'm on the right path. And so during this time, I. I really started to think with all of these principles, right? I would write something down every day. One of the things I used to do is I would go home and sit down with a journal, and I would write down the things that made me happy that day and the things that made me angry that day. And so, trying to develop my principles, like, who am I? How am I going to live? How am I going to act and speak, I started to write down everything that would piss me off, and then I would write down the reason why. Why does this even make you angry? Right? Why are you holding on to this when no one's going to care about it tomorrow? It's only you. And so I started to kind of let things go. And that was around the time where I came up with the third principle, which is accept your past, right? So the hard thing is most people, you know, when they experience trauma, right? I focus on veterans, but everything I talk about here with the six principle is for everybody.
[00:29:53.620] - Nick Rahn
But since, you know, veteran world here, when you get out of the military, I like to tell people this, right? Most of us are either walking backwards because we're going into a new life when all we're doing is looking at the old one, because that's a version of us that doesn't exist anymore, but we're. We're holding on to it. Why, right? Is that version of us going to help us in the future if we're walking backwards? Into the future and we can't see what's in fRahnt of us, right? So all of our focus is on the past. So you need to take a knee, you need to process that and then stand up and turn around. Right. Another reference that I use is with Warriors Next Adventure, every year I take 10 veterans to Colorado on a six day mental wellness retreat and we climb a 14,000 foot mountain. And while they're climbing that mountain, when we're talking about the third principle, I talk about the anchors that we drag behind us, right? Those anchors could be anything from something stupid you did when you were a kid or something that somebody said to you that's still pissing you off, or something that somebody did to you that really hurt you.
[00:30:51.420] - Nick Rahn
You're dragging that anchor with you. It's not attached to you. You're holding onto it. You're the only person that's keeping that anchor attached to you, right? So what I make them do is I make them focus on those anchors while climbing the mountain because I want that climb to be the hardest thing they've ever done. I want it to be difficult. I don't want it to be a walk in the park. The whole point of that mountain is to push yourself and understand that that weight that you're dragging behind you is slowing you down, right? So we have to let go of those anchors and at the top of the mountain we do like a ceremony and I have everyone pick up a rock and we simulate dropping our anchors and so leave it on the mountain and then, you know, move forward with your life. And so I started to look at all of those anchors that I continued to pull around with myself and, and my ex wife cheating on me was the biggest one, that was the biggest stab in the chest, right? Especially while I was deployed. It hurts so much.
[00:31:44.340] - Nick Rahn
But never once did I go and look at how was I. A part of it was always, she's wRahng. It was all her, what was I doing that led to her making that decision, right? Because though it's wRahng for her to make that decision, I never looked inside and saw how did I treat her. I was always gone. I was home for like 11 months out of six years and she was completely alone. And I didn't give a shit because she's home with the kids or she's home with the dogs. She can go to Walmart, she can go to Dairy Queen. She's fine. She's living the life. Fuck her, right? She's fine. I never stopped to think, how did she feel about me being Deployed in my head, it was all, it sucks for me, not you, you're fine, you're home, you're safe. But she's worrying about me constantly. And it's just I never took the accountability in that situation. And so I ended up calling her and telling her like, hey, listen, I just wanted to say I'm sorry for everything that's happened between us. We have two children, we need to come together.
[00:32:42.210] - Nick Rahn
I can't fight with you anymore. It's not productive, it's not good for our children, and we need to make peace with each other. And so that was probably the biggest anchor that I let go, was hating my ex wife. And I noticed that after that day, I just, I felt lighter, you know, because I kind of let some of that go, right? That was a big part of it. And I started to think of all the different things in my life during this time period. What are all of these anchors that I continue to pull behind? And as I slowly started to let go of anchors, I started realizing that there was a lot less resistance in my life in every aspect. You know, with friends, with work, with mma, everything just kind of started to make sense. And that kind of tied in with the second principle as well, with letting go of the past. I started to focus more on some of the things that I do have. The second principle is, it's an open ended question, it's what do you have? Right? So it focuses on gratitude, but it also focuses on value, right?
[00:33:39.270] - Nick Rahn
Most veterans that call my crisis line, I would say 99% of them, they feel worthless. They think nobody loves them, they think the world will be better without them, right? It's because in their mind at that time, they feel like they provide zero value to anyone around them, which isn't true, right? Everybody provides value, everyone has inherent value in this world, but it's really easy to ignore those little things, right? And so the second principle, what I started doing was I started looking at all the little tiny things I had. I lived in a shitty apartment, you know, with my two kids, I had an apartment, I had a place that was ours. I had a 10 by 10 wrestling mat in the living room so we could do jiu jitsu whenever we want, right? You know, I had a decent job, but at the same time, I was never really that good at anything in life. But I was an excellent problem solver, right? So when I ask people that, that second principle, what do you have? It's not just what vehicles do you have? Do you have a car? Do you have a House, like, what skills do you have?
[00:34:37.250] - Nick Rahn
What attributes do you have, right? What are some of your characteristics that bring value to all the people around you? And so I started seeing that in myself a lot more. And without telling people. Cause it's kind of douche. Like, hey, did you know I'm a good problem solver, Right? That's kind of douchey, right? But it's. It's that inner checklist that you have to do with yourself to go, okay, well, I'm. I'm a good problem solver. That means that I can solve most problems, right? If I can't, I'm also very resourceful. I can reach out to a person that can help me solve my problem. That's kind of where my mindset was at for the majority of this time. And the hardest thing for me was, like, how do I develop this person? You know, because, like, I feel like I'm starting to become a better person. But can this version of me right now pull that gun out of my hands? I don't know. And so I wanted to dig really hard into education. Now I am not professionally trained in any of this. It's all Based off of 8 years Minnesota State Patrol.
[00:35:32.580] - Nick Rahn
I got really lucky. I took a class with the FBI while I was in the military. It was hostile negotiation tactics and neuro linguistic programming. And so it's essentially manipulation, right? So how do you manipulate the situation to get your desired results, right? And I started to really focus on. I wanted to dig deeper into. I needed to know the enemy, right? This was my enemy at the time. Even though I was starting to progress and do better, I still had those inner thoughts of like, you're worthless, nobody loves you, right? And so whenever I would start to feel that, I would go right to that second principle immediately. So I started using the system to kind of pull me out of my bullshit. And every time I would start digging into that system, I would work that second principle. Go over, okay, I have this, I have this, I have this. I provide value here. The people at the gym, we all love each other as a family. And then I would look at the first principle. I gotta call Mark, right? So I would call Mark and I would talk to Mark, and I wouldn't tell him what I was going through, just to talk to him and just to have some sort of perspective from him.
[00:36:32.330] - Nick Rahn
Because every conversation with Mark is always, Is always a good time. And then I would start to look at that third principle. What are some things in my past that might be causing me to feel this and so I started digging a little deeper into my childhood, realizing that a lot of the way that I feel is because of the way that my stepdad treated me. And I still hear him in my head telling me, you're worthless, you're a piece of shit, you're ugly. Right? And so like I slowly started to beat that, right. But it would still sneak in. And every time I snuck in I would go over the principles. And so once I finally kind of got to the point where I, I started to accept a lot of things, but then I was at the point of like, okay, what's next? Right? So I needed to look at the first future. What does the future look like for me now that I've started to kind of mend some of the wounds and drop some of these anchors, like, what's next? Right. So I came up with the fourth principle, which is you have to look forward to a positive future, right?
[00:37:26.260] - Chris Nordyke
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[00:38:19.960] - Chris Nordyke
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[00:38:53.890] - Nick Rahn
Focusing on manifesting something that you want, right? And it doesn't matter what it is. It could be business, it could be mental health, it could be relationships, it could be whatever. You can manifest whatever you want. As long as you're doing it with integrity, you're doing it with the understanding of, you know, what's your scope of ability in this area, right? Somebody who's never started a business before can't go say, I'm gonna go start a stock trading business tomorrow, and it's gonna be the best, right? Okay, you gotta. You gotta go down path to get there, right? And once I started deciding, okay, this version of me speaks well to others, treats others well, lives life with a good intention, and understands when somebody is hurting. And when I realized that that's the version of me I wanted to be, how do I understand when somebody else is hurting? And so I started to use vulnerability. I started talking to people about difficult things when I had a sense that they were struggling with something. I would talk to them about something that I was struggling with, and next thing you know, they're opening up about, you know, yeah, this one time I tried to do this, and it's just I've been feeling like a piece of shit.
[00:39:57.190] - Nick Rahn
And then I would start giving them advice based off of what would I say to myself in this situation, right? If I saw myself sitting here and that person was saying what this guy's saying, what would I say to him to help him at least feel better about the situation or give him some kind of tools that he can use? The beautiful thing is, I came to this really cool realization, was actually from another disaster. In 2018, I was the number five welterweight in Minnesota. I had been taken on opponents left and right, and I love fighting. It was the best. Ended up getting knocked out June 1st of 2018. And about a week later, I got ringworm on my arm, so I couldn't train anymore. I had a fight June 30, but I had to pull on the fight because I couldn't train because of the ringworm. And that's when I realized I had gotten another really bad brain injury and I was struggling. And I ended up deciding to quit MMA altogether. And. Kristen, do you have something? I'm terrible at this. Keep going.
[00:40:48.380] - Brandon Reece
After story.
[00:40:51.540] - Nick Rahn
No, keep going, man. I ended up getting knocked out, and a couple weeks Later. Long story short, when I was in Brazil, I met a beautiful hot rod model. By January of 2016, she had flown to the United States. Month goes by, she's like, I don't want to leave. Like, let's get married. And so we got married. And June 2018, three weeks after I got knocked out, a week after I had to pull out of mma, she leaves me three days after she gets her green card, right? And when people are like, dude, that's terrible. And so I was like, I was with a Brazilian model for three years, I'll be okay, you know, but she was, But the, the thing was, she wasn't good to my kids. I knew probably year in that this wasn't going to work. She was pretty rude to my kids and that was pretty difficult for me. And we just did not get along after about a year. And I just, I kind of knew the end was coming, kind of wanted it to happen, but I was like, well, we should wait till she gets her green card.
[00:41:49.940] - Nick Rahn
And when she got it, I knew, I was like, I know she's a bleep. And four days later I get back from the trip. But the beautiful part about this trip is while I was on this trip, we were filming a documentary for another non profit that goes into old folks homes, finds out what they miss. And then we film a documentary on it and we were doing one on waterfalls. And so while I was walking across the waterfall, my wife was at home packing up all my shit, you know, taking it and leaving. I didn't know this at the time, but it's kind of iRahnic how things happen at the right times, right? I was walking across this waterfall and that whole trip I was talking to my buddy Oren about like my process that I've been creating and how I'm trying to change my life and I'm trying to be a better version of myself and I just don't know what that is. And I'm walking across this waterfall and I slip and fall. All right, the water is only like 3 inches deep, but it was like really fast. And so I fall and I hit my back, but midair.
[00:42:41.600] - Nick Rahn
The name Warriors Next Adventure just downloads into my brain and I, I don't know where it came from. I am a full on believer that ideas are implanted inside of us. I don't know where it comes from, but it's just Warriors Next Adventure. So I remember hitting the ground, jumping up and looking at Orin's like, orin, Warriors Next Adventure. He's like, I don't know what that is, but I love it. It's like, I don't know either, but it just kind of came to me, man. I was like, okay, I don't know what this is, but so I wrote it down in a note in my phone. I was like, that's cool. Warriors next adventure. And then it was three weeks later, I had a week off of work, and I posted on Facebook, hey, I got a week off during this date. Where am I going? And everyone's like, go to Sturgis. I'm like, I'm going to Sturgis. Screw it. I didn't know anything about Sturgis. I knew it was, like, a biker rally. I didn't know that it was littered with Hell's Angels and all these other people. So when I got there, I was a little nervous.
[00:43:30.470] - Nick Rahn
You know, I was working for the state patrol at the time. They don't like cops. So the first night, this is kind of where I came up with, like. I kind of had the idea of, like, where I needed to go in life. I was drinking at a bar by myself, and I had started drinking again, but not much. I was kind of under control only during, like, you know, social stuff. So I was drinking a beer, and I spill it on this guy next to me, and I look over, and he's wearing a cut. And I'm like. I was like, my bad, dude. You know, let me buy your beer. And a ring on that said vet. And I'm like, oh, are you a veteran? He's like, yeah. Like, oh, what branch? He's like, air force? Like, me, too. He's like, yeah, my buddies are over here drinking. You want to come over with us? I'm like, yeah, sure. Why not? So he gets up and turns around, and the back of his cut says, hell's Agents. I'm like, oh, right. I was like, this is probably not good for me. So we go out, we start drinking, and I wake up in my car the next day with zero recollection of what happened the night before.
[00:44:20.490] - Nick Rahn
And I got a bunch of text messages on my phone saying, like, dude, you're nuts. Like, that was wild. Like, dude, you're so funny. Like, oh, my God, who are these guys? And what did I do? And I look at my passenger seat, and there's a wad of $1 bills. Like, there was, like, $240 of $1 bills. Like, what happened? I was like, did I roll up a bank last night? Like, I'm trying to figure out what's going on, and I get another text that says, hey, meet us at One Eye Jack's for lunch. And I'm like, okay. So I show up at One Eyed Jackson. I walk in, and there's this table of nine bikers sitting there. I walk through the door, there I go, hey. I'm like, what did I do? I had no clue what was going on. So I sit down. I'm like, guys, I don't. I had no recollection of what happened last night. And they're like, really? And one guy's like, I got to show you a video. I'm like, no, no. And so I do not attend strip clubs. It's not something that I enjoy. I have been to, like, four in my life, but I've never enjoyed it.
[00:45:15.460] - Nick Rahn
It's just not my thing. It's not my scene. But Drunk Nick, apparently, you know, the Hell's Angels really love strip clubs because we're standing by the edge, and there was a lady on stage, and I'm like, I can do better than that. She's like, prove it. So, shirt comes off, pants come off. And I jump up, and I'm stripping on the pole, and all these guys are laughing. I'm like, oh, my God. And so we get. We get to talking, and I. I asked him like. I was like, hey, do you mind if I ask you guys a personal question? I had already been playing with vulnerability, but I'm like, I want to see if I can get these guys to talk. I was like, why did you guys join the Hell's Names? And one of the guys says, when I got out of the military, I lost everything. He's like, I had no brotherhood. I had no purpose. And he's like, these guys are my brothers. Like, these guys gave me purpose again. These guys gave me camaraderie. They gave me everything that I needed. And every one of them was, like, saying the same thing.
[00:46:06.120] - Nick Rahn
And they asked me what I was doing. So I kind of gave him my life story, told them about the suicide attempt, told him about how I was fighting mma and I just decided to quit because of brain injury. And I was like, I don't know that l. I am anymore. And I was like, I'm trying to figure out who I am. And I look around and they're all crying. Like, that's pretty powerful to make a bunch of Hells Angels dudes tear up, right? And so as we talked, I started giving them advice and stuff like that. And I realized, like, okay, I have something here. This is kind of working. And fast forward A couple months later, go to Hawaii, spend eight days just camping in the tents. I slept on the mountains, slept on the beach, all this amazing stuff. And every day I came across a veteran, and I would start talking about this stuff, and he would start opening up, and I'm like, wow, this is powerful. And then the last day I was there, my friend Alex, and Alex and Ryan, they just happened to be in Waikiki, and I shared this whole story with them.
[00:46:59.330] - Nick Rahn
And Alex told me, you need to write a book or start a blog or something, like, do something with what you're sharing, because this could really help people. And a week later, I get home and I start a website called Warriors Next Adventure. And I'm like, you know what? I think I'm going to write a blog, and I'm going to try to convince people to change their lives by sharing some of the things that I've been through. And then three months later, we were a nonprofit. So it's kind of crazy how it all came together.
[00:47:25.330] - Brandon Reece
It's an unbelievable chain of stories, though, that ultimately, you know, ends up in this place where now you've got this intentional program that you've put together to intentionally reach out and help people. I think one of the things that catches me is I'm hearing you talk, and I know Chris has several questions, too, is just this idea of. And this is hard for me, but there's just this kind of consistent pattern of living in the moment. And that moment, ultimately chained together over several years, several exchanges, ends up becoming this thing that you turned into a program that you're helping people with. I think what can be difficult for people is
[00:48:06.350] - Nick Rahn
the future, or we think you could be.
[00:48:09.390] - Brandon Reece
And I think the challenge ends up becoming Nick, is that we want to just live and experience the end product, right?
[00:48:16.790] - Nick Rahn
This.
[00:48:17.310] - Brandon Reece
This future state. And we can have a tough time living through the here to there element. And I think what's really kind of creating an impression on me as I'm listening to these stories is all of these moments of just being there in the moment, being present, and fully living out what's in fRahnt of you right now. And I don't know if any of this was intentional. A lot of times it isn't. Or you just all of a sudden can look back and say, okay, that led to this. That led to this, you know, this pattern that ultimately created this really beautiful story and outcome. But, man, a big part of it was just a commitment to being in the moment at that time. I mean, how do you know that? Like, looking now, you know, is it. Was it really just now, hindsight's 20 20? Or was there. Was there a lot of intentionality in those moments?
[00:49:04.880] - Nick Rahn
I think initially it was. I don't think I looked back on that and thought of it that way until after I had started the nonprofit. I began the nonprofit by telling people how I came up with the nonprofit. Right? And so as I kept telling the story, I'm just like, the sequence of events are just almost impossible, Right. And if I didn't just live in the moment and go with the flow, I would have never gotten here. Right. And I had plenty of people tell me, don't start a nonprofit. You don't know what you're doing. Right. Even people very close to me and I told them was like, I, you know, have you ever read the books they can grow rich?
[00:49:38.690] - Brandon Reece
Yeah.
[00:49:39.450] - Nick Rahn
Yeah. So, you know when he talks about the burning desire, right. When I read that book and I heard about that burning desire, it was when I was laid up in bed after neck surgery and I had that burning desire with mma. It's like, I am going to fight again. I am going to heal this. And I had that burden. I just, I had to do it. It wasn't something that I wanted to do. It's something that the universe was telling me, this is your path, right. They'll finding out later. It was just my path for now. Right. I think the biggest issue that a lot of people have is learning when to let go. You're on a specific path, but certain things are trying to tell you it may be time to step onto a separate path. And that was really hard for me after, you know, after my MMA experience was, you know, I thought I was going to be, you know, Nick Rahn, the famous MMA fighter, right. The guy that was going to inspire others by being a badass. And then next thing you know, it's taken away from me. And at the time, it was one of the most terrible things in the world.
[00:50:34.040] - Nick Rahn
But, like, I go back and look at it now, and I'm grateful that that happened, because if everything didn't line up exactly the way that it did, I wouldn't be the person I am today, and I wouldn't be in the position I am today. So the more and more I go back and look at it, the more I think that the more we live in the present and stop giving power to the past, but also anticipate what the future is, the main focus should be in the present, right? Because we'll use the mountain climb, for example. I've taken a little over a hundred veterans mountain climbing in Colorado, and every single one of them on that climb, they're miserable. And the whole time I'm just smiling. I was like, God, you're going to look back on this and you're going to love it. I was like, you're going to love every second of this. And then we get up to the top and I see these guys crying. You know, they're just so excited that they made this major accomplishment. They climbed a mountain in Colorado. That's pretty badass, right? Even though there's kids in Crocs climbing next to us.
[00:51:29.610] - Nick Rahn
That's super annoying when I'm trying to make a point, you know. But when you get back down, the retreat is set up like this. Like we have Monday we drive in. Tuesday we fly everyone else in. When we just get together, talk. Wednesday we start the six principle process with one and two. Thursday we do three and four. Friday we climb the mountain. And then after we climb the mountain, I cook everyone's steak dinner that night. And then after is, we do a reflection. That reflection is probably one of the best things that I've started doing is because I wanted them to identify certain parts of that climb. I want them to focus on one part where they almost gave up. And I want them to share it because, man, the personal achievements that these guys make on this mountain, right when your brain's telling you stop, your body's telling you stop. Your legs hurt, you're tired, you're thirsty. It's just, I just don't want to do this anymore. Plus, we don't have to do this, right? It's just a volunteer thing. But what made you say, no, I'm going to keep going? So that's a question I started asking everybody about two years ago.
[00:52:29.550] - Nick Rahn
And I love the waterworks, man. There's nothing that makes me happier than seeing a big badass veteran start crying because it tells me that they're really tapping into something deep. Because we have to go pretty deep to get emotional sometimes. Unless it's anger. Yeah. The beautiful part is every single one of them, when they start talking about like, what's that one thing? They start identifying the climb itself, not the peak. Right. Which is the halfway point because you got to go back down and not getting to the truck. It's always those little moments on the climb. Like this. This last year we climbed the Calibran, which is four 14,000 foot mountains in one day. It was a long day. But at the top of Mount Lincoln, I remember my Legs were weak as hell and I have a small hole in one of the valves in my heart. So I tend to black out sometimes at the top of the mountains, which gets a little rough, but I can feel it coming. So I just sit down, drink some water, we're good. But my body was just, change your socks, drink some water and smoking.
[00:53:23.650] - Nick Rahn
But I was hitting one of those points where I was just like, I don't know if I keep doing this. This is the third mountain and I'm just dead. And so I look up and I'm like, you know what? I show me something. And then I see a mountain goat. And the mountain goat was like 20ft in fRahnt of me and I was like, you know, I got some carrots in my bag, I'm gonna go feed this goat. Gotta climb 20ft up and I'm gonna take a break while this goat eats my carrots. So I tossed in some carrots and as I was watching it, I was looking around just thinking like, God, how beautiful is this planet, how beautiful is our life. I'm on top of a frickin mountain in Colorado, feeding a goat. Like most people don't dream about stuff like this. Like, I'm so grateful to have everything that I have with my life. So I think it's stopping and identifying those moments, those moments of gratitude for, for what you have and for who you are. And if you don't have a lot of those moments, you gotta make a change.
[00:54:12.370] - Nick Rahn
And yeah, I don't think that it's a bad thing to be in that situation. I think it's a bad thing to stay there. Right? It's like, same with depression, you don't choose depression, but if you do nothing to fix it, you're choosing to stay there. I started using a reference that is about two years ago. I kind of had a thought. I'm like, let's see how this works. But have you ever been in a spot where you just felt lost and you felt, you know, maybe depressed, you felt like just nothing was going your way?
[00:54:37.220] - Brandon Reece
Oh, yeah, yeah, probably more times than I want to admit.
[00:54:41.140] - Nick Rahn
For sure? Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yes. Yeah. So when we get into those situations, what happens is imagine yourself sitting by a campfire. All right? You have a cooler full of food, you got drinks next to you, you got a fire in fRahnt of you, you're warm and you're surrounded by fog, right? There's a circle, fog all the way around you. You're sad, you're depressed, you hate yourself, but you had everything you need you have water, you have food, you have fire, you have security, right? You stay inside that fog ring because you know what's there. You're scared of the fog because you don't know what's on the other side, right? The problem is so many people get so comfortable sitting by that fire of depression, suicidal ideations, depression, ptsd, just thinking about the past, and they just choose to stay by that fire. Fire. Because they know it, right? It's the whole enemy, you know? Right? They choose to stay by that fire instead of taking that risk and standing the up and walking through that fog. Because, you know, I don't remember who first said it. So greatness is on the other side of fear, right?
[00:55:37.820] - Nick Rahn
There's fog, and all you have to do is walk through that fog to get to see what's on the other side. Greatness could be on the other side of that, right? Maybe you're just a little happier on the other side of that, right? But you're not sitting there in that depression spot. And so I think the biggest thing is with this mountain climb, it gets them out of that fog, right? It forces them to stand up and make a move forward, because you don't have a choice. You have to move forward. And the thing is, all these guys that I bring out to Colorado, they tell me, and we sign a verbal contract, you will open up, you will walk out of that fog, and you will use everyone around you to help you do it, right? So that's the verbal agreement that I have with every single veteran that goes on this trip with me. I'm paying for it. You're going to talk to me. But again, going back to the whole living in the moment, the experiences that these guys get and that I get to watch, is such a beautiful thing. It's definitely something I love the most in my life for sure.
[00:56:36.900] - Brandon Reece
Powerful, dude. It's powerful. Chris, I know you kind of been on standby. Did you want to throw something at him?
[00:56:41.940] - Brandon Reece
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Definitely, man.
[00:56:43.460] - Nick Rahn
I'm just.
[00:56:43.860] - Brandon Reece
I'm so curious about two things. If you could speak to this. That was texting Brandon, I think we're going to have to have you back from. There's just so much to dig into. But my. My two questions I'd love for you to hit on as we kind of
[00:56:54.680] - Nick Rahn
close and move toward wrapping up, is
[00:56:56.760]
one, as you were developing these principles, how did your relationship and your connection with your children begin to change? And then my second question is, how did your relationship with alcohol begin to change? Because you've Referenced it alcohol. It sounds like in your story that kind of early days it was, alcohol was kind of a familiar friend, right.
[00:57:18.030] - Nick Rahn
That you would reconnect with periodically.
[00:57:19.750] - Brandon Reece
It wasn't necessarily a healthy friend, but sort of a familiar go to.
[00:57:24.350] - Nick Rahn
And so I'm just curious, how did those two things shift and change as you were working through these principles yourself? Well, I think the third principle probably was the most impactful when I finally started to let go some of those anchors. Because you know, what gets your energy, gets your focus, right? So if you're constantly focusing all the negative things, all those anchors, all the things in your past, it's really hard to be present, right. Is because you're living in the fear in the past. And so once I started dropping some of those anchors, I felt I was able to be a lot more present with my children. I don't think I was ever a bad dad. You know, most of my drinking was after they were asleep. I've never drank in fRahnt of my children ever, and I never will. I do take some edibles in fRahnt of them because what's worse is going to happen. I'm going to give them extra cuddles and make delicious food. So, you know,
[00:58:12.500] - Brandon Reece
different consequences, right?
[00:58:14.100] - Nick Rahn
Exactly. Right. Like, oh, dad's making the sirloin steak again. Right. So, but, but I never drank in fRahnt of them and I'm proud of that. Right? And nothing against anyone that has a beer or two for the kids, I have no issue with that. I just, I grew up with alcoholism and I didn't want it to be around my children. But I noticed the less and less that I drank, the easier it was for me to show up for my kids. We live right by our favorite lake, Lake Josephine. We go to the lake almost every summer. I've had my kids 50, 50 ever since the divorce. So I've always seen my kids at least three to four days a week, every single week, unless I'm out of town. But I noticed that I started to connect with them a little bit better, more. So Nadine, my oldest kid, like I said, My 13 year old, she's non verbal autistic. So she's, you know, keep her happy, keep her fed and she won't punch you in the face, right? So she's got a mean left hook. But even with her, I can't leave the house without her getting pissed off, right.
[00:59:05.130] - Nick Rahn
She's, she's connected to my hip. We have a really good relationship. But my 15 year old, I noticed that when I started to make better changes and better decisions. We started to have a lot more like personal conversations. Now I'm a goofball, right? I am also a stand up comedian. So, like, I love making jokes. I make jokes about every situation. And so my daughter is an exact replica of me. She is a smart ass. We talk crap to each other back and forth and we just, we have a lot of fun together. And I realized the more and more I quit drinking alcohol, I should say, the less and less I drink, the more fun we had together. And she loved the whole MMA thing. She came to one of my fights in 2017, or no, early 2018. She came to a fight out in Wisconsin and I figured she was nine years old, maybe a little younger, and I figured it's too violent. I was like, you know what, I don't know how much longer I'm going to be doing this. Let's bring her out. And I won that fight a minute and ten seconds with an R bar.
[00:59:59.370] - Nick Rahn
And I remember looking out in the crowd and I see her jumping up and down, I could see her crying. And I was just like. A couple years ago, my daughter had no reason to be proud of me, right? And now I'm at a point where I'm not drinking anymore. Occasionally I would have a shot after a jiu jitsu match or after an MMA fight because that hurts and it takes a little pain away. But she had a reason to be proud of me, you know, like I just defeated another man in a cage. That's pretty sweet. But. But I'm also nice to everybody. I'm not mean to people. I treat others with respect. I live my life with intention. I started living the life that I wanted to be for myself and realizing that that brain was even better father to my kids. And so that was kind of like my confirmation. Like, okay, you're on the right path, you're doing the right things. And when I started the nonprofit, you know, my daughter is my photographer for my nonprofit. She's an amazing photographer. And so she loves volunteering with the vets, she likes being around them, she likes helping out as much as she can.
[01:00:55.970] - Nick Rahn
And you know, me and her have a fantastic relationship. And the woman I'm with now, she's. Her name's Mara. We've been together for seven years and she's got two kids, so I have four kids now. Her oldest is in Germany, stationed at Randstein. She's in the Air force. And our 19 year old, she's out in Duluth. But when I started dating her, I was still having a Beer or two here and there. Like, I go on a date, have a beer, you know, that's about it. But she doesn't drink. She's sober. And so 2020, I just like, well, she doesn't drink. I might as well quit altogether. And so I completely quit alcohol in 2020 with a couple little oops a daisies here and there with some awesome parties. But before the Ocean row, we had quite a few drinks in La Gomera before we left for the row. But I noticed that the more and more I detached from alcohol, the more energy I had, the better I felt about myself. Right. You know, and we're all, what, in our 40s, right? Late 30s, early 40s. Our bodies don't react the same anymore. Yeah, we're not in our 20s.
[01:01:52.710] - Nick Rahn
Right. So, no.
[01:01:54.350] - Brandon Reece
Yeah, in the later 40s, Nick.
[01:01:56.430] - Nick Rahn
So, yeah, thank you for referencing the
[01:01:59.310] - Brandon Reece
possibility of late 30s.
[01:02:00.710] - Nick Rahn
I love the screens. Well, I think that was the biggest thing. What was the second question, Chris? I mean, you addressed it. I was just really curious, as a dad. Right. As you were, as you were processing through all this and creating the nonprofit, like, how did that. How did your relationship to the kids start to shift? And you kind of weighed into that a little bit. And then the booze, you know, how has your relationship to alcohol changed? Yeah, well, I think one of the coolest things was 2021. This might be a story for another time, but I was traveling around the country for 45 days on a short bus, and we were filming a documentary called PTSD vs Jiu Jitsu. And we were interviewing veterans who experienced PTSD and use Jiu Jitsu to help overcome it. And we were in Texas. My sister lived in Texas. My daughter actually flew down with my stepmom, and she came to one of the seminars. And during these seminars, I'm talking about my suicide attempt. And I had never talked about this in fRahnt of my daughter. And I believe she was. I think she was nine at the time.
[01:02:58.100] - Nick Rahn
And so I'm giving this speech in fRahnt of, you know, 60 people, talking about how I overcame what I went through and why I'm doing what I'm doing and why Jiu Jitsu was such an important part. I got to the point of talking about my suicide attempt, and I'm gonna get emotional just talking about this, but I remember thinking to myself, that day, I had the first realization, which I don't know why I did before, but I had the first realization that I almost took my kid's father from her. And she's sitting Right next to me. And so like, I stop and I just give her a hug and I'm just like, I can't keep talking right now. I'm crying. You know, I shook it out and everything. And after the speech, you know, everyone gets up and starts getting ready to train. And she came over to me and gave me like the biggest hug. And she's heard the story a few times. She's been to some of my six principal speeches and did photography for me. She understands my struggle. She understands that I was the one who did that to myself, nobody else.
[01:03:54.280] - Nick Rahn
And she also has seen a major change in me. And she's seen people come up to me at speeches, talking to me, like congratulating me and saying great things about me. And I can tell this girl I'm going to be the president, United States. And she'd be like, okay, cool. Like, she's so used to me doing crazy shit. Like now when I tell her stuff, she's like, okay, cool. Like, and I'm like, oh God, she doesn't even care. And then I meet her friends and they're like, oh my. What? You fought mma? Like, you drive race cars, you climb up. Her friends know everything about me. She's so used to be doing crazy. She's just like, she doesn't know how to react anymore. She's like, okay, cool, you know, but beautiful. Yeah, I mean, yeah, she's. She's my only dude.
[01:04:37.020] - Brandon Reece
Yeah. There's almost a trust that now over years you followed through. Like when you're presenting ideas or concepts or talking about this thing that you're going to try or do, like, she's got it sounds like at least there's a rich history of watching you step into that and actually following through, which is a really powerful message and lesson for our partners and our kids and our sphere of influence. Listen, dude, you know, I want to be really careful with time. Didn't even into several things that I still am super curious about. One of them being a rowing story that puts you out in the middle of the ocean for an extended period of time that doesn't end up going exactly the way that you anticipated. Here's what we're going to do. I would really love to have you back on the show and do a part two where we can dig into some other elements of the story. So if you're open to that, we'll make sure that make that happen and get it scheduled. But we have been tiptoeing around this subject of warriors next adventure. So very specifically you Partner with veterans. This is a nonprofit.
[01:05:40.570] - Brandon Reece
You partner with veterans and you take them on these more extreme outdoor adventures where you expose them to the six principles, and there's this very intentional engagement with you and these groups of veterans. Where do I send people? Because here's the reality. A lot of our listeners are from blue collar industries, the trades. They're from the disaster restoration industry. As employers, we have a lot of veterans in our businesses, and we have a lot of veterans that are a part of our community to include myself. And so where do we send people? If they're in a place themselves or have friends or people in their sphere of influence that. That could use a battle buddy as this person works their way through their own experience with, you know, with trauma and ptsd.
[01:06:27.100] - Nick Rahn
Sure. Yeah. So one of the main things we do is I actually run a 24.7crisis line that goes directly to my phone. And to date, we've stopped 151 suicides since 2019. So almost every one of them are told by another veteran or by a friend or a family member, hey, call this guy. So you can find all of our information on all social media. It's Warriors Next Adventure. Our email is warriors nextadventuremail.com the website is warriors next adventure.com. same with Instagram and Facebook. You know, we help with a lot of different things. So if it's something that we don't provide, like homelessness or financial, we have connections with other nonprofits that do. So we partner with a little over 150 nonprofits nationwide. And if it's not something I can help you with, I'm going to help you find the resources for it. So, yeah, just feel free to reach out to warriorsnextadventure.com all my stuff's on there. The crisis line number's on there. The programs are on there. Like, we have a Jiu Jitsu program. If there's a veteran that's interested in Jiu Jitsu, what we'll do is we'll pay for your first month of Jiu Jitsu and find you a gym, and then we'll also send you a Warriors Next Adventure gi.
[01:07:29.440] - Nick Rahn
And then in Minnesota, people can come train with me for free. I'm a black belt. I've been training for 18 years, so. And then I teach private lessons and train a couple security companies, too. So I'm very well rounded when it comes to mixing law enforcement and Jiu Jitsu, but mostly focusing on the trauma aspect of training Jiu Jitsu and then having a conversation after we're done. And then the Colorado trip that we do every year, that one is full for 2026, but 2027, usually what we do is we start opening up spots around October, November time frame. I try to focus on veterans that are really struggling, that need something major, a major change, a major shift in their life. But everything can be contact. You can reach us@warriorsnextadventure.com it's the best way to find us.
[01:08:12.820] - Brandon Reece
Love it. I love it, dude. Appreciate your heart and your mission that you're on. The numbers speak for themselves, the level of impact that you're having on people in your community and really from all over the nation. Really appreciated your time, dude. The stories are unbelievably powerful and we're excited to have you on again to get into the second part of what you've. Yeah, man, I've so far because it's pretty unbelievable. Pretty unbelievable.
[01:08:36.560] - Nick Rahn
Got a lot to talk about. Yeah. If people want a little spoiler for the next episode, they want to check out then Defying Death on The Atlantic on YouTube. It's pretty wild documentary that is going
[01:08:46.720] - Brandon Reece
to be the basis of the next. All right, brother.
[01:08:51.000] - Nick Rahn
We appreciate you, man.
[01:08:52.160] - Brandon Reece
Thanks again for hanging out with us.
[01:08:53.800] - Nick Rahn
Of course. Thank you, guys. I appreciate you having me on. All right, See you, man.
[01:08:59.560] - Brandon Reece
All right, everybody. Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of Head Heart and Boots.
[01:09:03.890] - Chris Nordyke
And if you're enjoying the show or you love this episode, please hit follow formerly known as subscribe, write us a review or share this episode with a friend. Share it on LinkedIn, share it via text, whatever. It all helps. Thanks for listening.