Digital Social Hour - From Athletic to Amputee: The Unbelievable Journey I Travis Mills DSH #491

Episode Date: June 12, 2024

🔥 The Shocking Truth About Losing Limbs: Travis Mills' Story - An Unbelievable Journey! 🔥 Tune in now to the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly as we dive into the jaw-dropping story of Travis Mills, a true American hero and quadruple amputee. From a 6'3" athletic soldier to a life-altering explosion that left him with no arms and legs, Travis shares his incredible journey of survival, resilience, and triumph. 😲💪 In this gripping episode, Travis opens up about his darkest moments, the unwavering support from his family, and how he turned his life around to become one of the most inspiring motivational speakers in the world. Join the conversation and discover how he found the strength to bounce back and help others through the Travis Mills Foundation. Don't miss out on this captivating and emotional rollercoaster! Packed with valuable insights, heartwarming anecdotes, and a dash of humor, this episode is a must-watch. 🎧✨ Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 #DigitalSocialHour #SeanKelly #Podcast #TravisMills #Inspiration #MotivationalSpeaker #SurvivalStory #Resilience #SubscribeNow #WatchNow #AmputeeMotivation #PersonalGrowth #DigitalSocialHour #CombatInjury #TravisMillsFoundation CHAPTERS: 0:00 - Intro 0:41 - Travis Mills 5:37 - The Explosion 7:30 - The Coma 9:10 - What's Next for Travis 10:25 - Lack of Motivation in Younger People 12:54 - Travis Mills Foundation 17:00 - Where Does the Money Go 21:18 - Living in the Past 23:50 - How Do You Get So Famous 27:47 - Favorite Sport to Watch 28:10 - UFC 31:50 - Perfect Amount of Sleep 33:30 - Where to Find Travis 33:48 - Catching a Game APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://forms.gle/D2cLkWfJx46pDK1MA BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] GUEST: Travis Mills https://www.instagram.com/ssgtravismills/ travismills.org SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I went from a six foot three, fairly athletic guy, to now laying in a hospital bed with no arms and no legs, having people feed me and change my clothes and help me, you know, with everything. So, there was moments of that plus a little bit of like, why didn't I just die? You know, and kind of the self-doubt of like, how could I ever, you know, do anything positive or worthwhile like this? Yeah. Wherever you guys are watching this show, I would truly appreciate it if you follow or subscribe. It helps a lot with the algorithm.

It helps us get bigger and better guests, and it helps us grow the team. Truly means a lot. Thank you guys for supporting, and here's the episode. Ladies and gentlemen, we got another veteran on the podcast today. I'm honored for you to be here, man. Travis Mills. Hey, thanks for having me, champion. How are you doing today?

I'm good, man. I love your energy. You fired up? Yeah. You got humor, man. You got good energy. I love it. Well, I realized I can't just be funny looking, so I might as well add some humor to it.

So that's where I'll go with it. And I got cool tricks. Yeah. That doesn't even hurt. You think that would hurt, but it don't. Wow. Yeah. And my brain, it computes as that hurting.

Yeah. Well, the first time it fell off, it was a little painful. But ever since then, it's like daily. Damn. Did you get that right away or did that just come recently? So I got five weeks. I got a hand finally after recovery. So five weeks in, I got my hand for the first time.

Nice. Learned how to open it and close it and do all the stuff. Wow. So it took five weeks. So you were in the bed for the whole five weeks, and then you finally got that? Yeah. I mean, when I was hit by a roadside bomb, the right side of me was completely gone, never found.

The left side was still there, but they had to cut it off during surgery. And then two days after that, they took me in for a washout, and they cut my left hand off the rest of the way. So I became known as a quadruple amputee. I was one of five. I'm the fourth out of five to survive this kind of injury. Wow. And then during my recovery at Walter Reed,

for the stitches to heal up and all this stuff, it took five weeks to get my hand, my prosthetic arm. I wasn't proficient by any means with it. But it took five weeks just to be able to drink a Gatorade by myself or feed myself for the first time. Crazy. And during that process, were there moments of like, you might not make it out of this?

Well, I mean, not during that time at Walter Reed, but during my time waking up in Lodgfield, Germany, in the hospital, on my 25th birthday, actually, I woke up and I found out that I was injured. And then I lost arms and legs. And I was like, you know, I have a lot of questions like am i a bad person you know what did wrong what did i do wrong like deserve this and the biggest thing was like how can i still be a husband and a father because my daughter was six months old my wife and i had been married for going on four years and i went from a six foot three fairly athletic guy um to not laying in hospital bed

with no arms no legs having people feed me and change my clothes and help me, you know, with everything. So there was moments of that plus a little bit of like, why didn't I just die, you know, and kind of this, the self doubt of like, how could I ever, you know, do anything positive or worthwhile like this? Yeah. You know, cause you don't know what you don't know.

Right. Right. So that's my attitude. That was my attitude at the time. Then my wife, when I saw her for the first time, said she wasn't going to leave me, and I told her she should. And then my daughter was six months old, and I credit her with basically all my recovery.

Wow, so you told your wife to leave you. Well, you know, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I didn't think I had anything left to offer. And then, you know, you're engaged, you're going to get married. Yeah. I didn't think I had anything left to offer. You're engaged. You're going to get married. For me, it's like what I promised to her when we got married and what I was going to offer was not what I was holding up to. I was fairly fit. I was pretty jacked, if you will.

I don't know what else to say. I was arrogant. But then I get taken down, lose my arms and legs, and now I need help with everything. You know, so I just thought, not the life I would choose for you, and you can pack it up and no hard feelings, and financial whatever I have will be for you, but that's just not the life I want for you.

Wow, and she chose to stay. Yeah, I think obligation kept her. Our story got pretty big on the news, and she's like, I can't leave now, everybody's watching um you know what i mean yeah that and handicap parking really was exciting oh man um but uh no she decided to stay and and we got through 19 months of recovery at walter reed and it was wild it was it was hard you know there was days where um i was up and walking you know and then there's days where I was so sore, my muscle spasms so hard, I couldn't move. And, you know, every day was a new challenge.

But the ultimate goal was to retire. And I did after 19 months of being at Walter Reed, I finally retired. Wow. So just a roller coaster of emotions. And you said your daughter played a huge role. Yeah, I mean, not a lot of people can say they learn how to walk with their kids, you know, so like I learned how to walk with my daughter as she was learning i was learning wow and um me and her a very very close bond she's you know one of my best friends to this day and then um my wife and i you know through the recovery had to find what we're gonna do because i quite frankly lost my chance to serve my country and i lost my job you know i guess one of the greatest and the worst life lessons i ever learned was that i was replaceable um and not that it's the army's fault

but within three hours of being injured you know somebody else flew in and take my job dang not quick well they have to right the fight continues you know yeah you were mid-fight right yeah so i think it's helped me understand that, you know, I am replaceable. So I got to work hard every day, no matter what I, you know, I get myself into and I do. But also it's helped me understand that, you know, life's pretty precious. So enjoy the moment, you know, as much as you can as well. Yeah. So when you stepped on that mine, was it instant blackout or did you have a second to witness it?

So I took my backpack off um about 120 pound backpack full of grenades and ammo and waters and food and stuff and i put on the ground and it landed on top of a bomb wow and we swept the ground with a minesweeper damn yeah and we just missed it and when the bomb uh went off i was conscious the whole time they actually um i mean i was on the ground to the point where I told my medic he should just leave me. Like, don't worry about it. They're not going to save me.

Not that I was suicidal. My line of work, I've seen a lot of guys die for a lot less injury. I radioed my lieutenant with my left hand. I still had the use of my thumb, index, and middle fingers. I radioed my lieutenant and said, hey, I need your medic with mine. I got guys injured. And then they got me in a helicopter, and I was yelling at the flight medic a little bit, not in a bad way, but one of my guys was yelling out. And yelling the flight medic a little bit not in a

bad way but one of my guys was yelling out and he had every right to he was in a lot of pain but i yelled the flight medic and he wasn't listening to me he had this big old like um space you know style helmet on he can't hear me yelling at him so i got my arm out of the strap it kind of broken and dangling and i swung it over my head to motion take his helmet off and then he did and i told him give my guys water tell them they're gonna be okay and then um that medic actually wrote me my wife a letter about that and we published it in my one of my my first book wow and then i was able to get to the hospital go into surgery and then as i got into the er after i kept trying to sit up and they pushed me down enough they just kind of knocked me out and then that's when you got knocked out yeah they had to medically sedate me not because

i was going crazy or nothing just because you know i just it was time to work on me right and i looked at the nurse after she pushed me down finally and i said hey my little girl am i ever gonna see her again because you know chloe was um only six months old and then they knocked me out for 14 hours of surgery wow like nine doctors or seven nurses worked on me continuously crazy man yeah and i know at one point you were in a coma right for five days so they had to medically induce a coma um because my pain levels were so bad and i felt like my feet were getting ripped off, my hands were on fire, just a lot of different kind of chronic, terrible pain. And they tried these different case studies,

and finally they did this ketamine coma, and I was second in the nation to ever have it and 30th in the world. And the idea was it would reset my brain to think where my nerves end is where they end now because the phantom limb pain everybody talks about is your nerves trying to find your hands and feet again. And when it's not there it like stings you and tries to find a different route and continuously so they did a ketamine coma and you know for five days they gave me 600 milligrams of ketamine per hour through my body jeez yeah oh yeah it was wild so you were hallucinating like crazy yeah if it was on tv i was there um for the first 10 days after i got over that is

nuts what were you seeing well it was different so gang is con somebody's watching history channel and i was like fighting with gang is con you saw gang is gone yeah arrows just zipping by me holy um i think uh rob deer deck was on fantasy factory yeah and me him and drama you know we just hung out and then uh one time a lady walked by with a dog and i was like oh my gosh a lady dressed like lady gaga is like crawling on her hands and knees and on a leash i thought the dog was like a lady like dressed in leather wow so it's whatever was on tv you were just seeing it was like tv and just like whatever like i looked out my window thinking like two nations were warring with each other at one point and there

were SWAT guys on the building it was nuts crazy man so yeah that was that was a wild wild ride for like 10 10 15 days nuts here you are now one of the biggest motivational speakers in the world now dude I appreciate you saying that I am working on my weight though we talked about the carnivore diet already I'm gonna not be the biggest uh but one of the most inspiring but uh if you make it through that man let me know because that diet sounds intense for me no i i just gotta figure it out you know i lose 30 pounds every night what do you mean take my legs off my arm i gain it back in the morning though yeah but uh but no i do i do the motivational speaking i really enjoy it um get up there and tell people you know a few things that maybe they need to hear you know and my biggest thing is like i need people to realize that just because i have no arms no legs and i got blown up in afghanistan it doesn't

put me on some pedestal i don't think that i'm you know better like more injured or more hurt than anybody else and i think everybody has to realize that their biggest problem is their biggest problem and like that's real and i've worked very hard letting people know like whatever you're going through whether it's you know there's there's people out there with crippling you know anxiety yeah that they can't even leave their house you know and i can get up and drive my you know drive my vehicle and take my kids to school and all that stuff you know so i just i think it's important for people to understand like what happened to me is you know yeah it sucked but there's ways to get through any situation any curveball that gets thrown at you yeah do you feel like there's a lack of motivation these days and a lot of younger

people um i don't know i guess are you interested in coming on the digital social hour podcast as a guest we'll click the application link below in the description of this video we are always looking for cool stories cool entrepreneurs to talk to you about business and life click the application link below and here's the episode, guys. I guess a lot of conferences I speak at, it's usually like a big sales conference or a big sales motivated people or a banker's conference or real estate. But I think that sometimes, you know, as a parent, I do coddle my kids a lot more than my parents coddled me.

For sure. It's like, oh, did that hurt? Not like, you know, I think I saw a thing on Facebook. My mom and dad used to say, or my dad especially, was like, why are you crying? I not like you know i think i saw a thing on facebook my mom and dad used to say or my dad especially was like why are you crying i'll give you something to cry about you know and then my wife's always like with my son like oh what's wrong yeah tough love yeah i'm like kids gotta toughen up you know it's different yeah these days uh you can't really get in fights in school like back then you can't throw hands and it's normal yeah yeah and um and i started

seeing that change when i was in high school. Like I never been in a fist fight, as weird as that might sound. Really? Yeah, yeah. Like I was in the Army and I had to deal with like Taliban and stuff like that, but never was in a fist fight. Wow, never hands on? No.

I was so afraid because I was a lot bigger than a lot of people that my mom had it drilled into me that if I did get in a fist fight, I could kill somebody probably. Probably could, yeah. And then I would, well, I don't know. You watch the UFC. 6-3. You watch the UFC, though.

None of those guys kill anybody in the UFC. Well, they stop them. Right, right. Yeah, I don't know. I just – I think that there's – The thing with street fights is concrete. UFC, they're landing on a mat. Yeah.

If you're in a street fight, I mean, they hit their head on the concrete. I tell you what, I do enjoy the UFC. And I watch just about every single one. And it's not like i'm a barbarian i just like the sport of it i used to do a lot of that ground fighting tactics uh ground fighting tactics they called it in the military and um like you know i do a little jiu-jitsu here and there i'm very good at it but i'm hard i'm hard as an opponent because you try to grab my wrist and i don't have it yeah zion right the black dude, he just fought. Did you see that?

He has no legs. No, I didn't see that. Or Zion Clark, yeah. And the guy didn't know how to fight him. He literally has no legs, so how do you take him down? Yeah, I think I've seen clips on him, but I didn't see his fight. Yeah, pretty nuts.

I love UFC, though. Shout out to Dana White. I love what he's doing over there. I don't know about power slap, though, Dana. No, I'm just kidding. Oh, jeez. I wouldn't do power slap no I wouldn't that seems like it'd break your whole entire face you're just asking for a concussion yeah at least UFC you can defend yourself yeah yeah but now what do you so out here in Vegas what do you get into

just podcasting I host events man and I love food so this is the best spot for all that you love food what's your favorite kind of food I like steakhouse as I say yeah i like seafood too i know we were talking about lobsters which you don't like but wow it's just you know it's a flavor thing for me yeah i don't have a refined palate obviously yeah but uh now when you say steakhouse is like are you like i'm a cajun rub ribeye kind of guy so that's a dry one yeah yeah is that i'll eat dry but i like the the wet probably more okay okay yeah I got you. No judgment coming at me though, right? No, no.

I love some short rib, you know, melting off the bone. That's my thing right there. So, you know, after I was injured and trying to figure out what life was going to be like, my wife and I started the foundation, the Travis Mills Foundation, which was a $5,000 donation to send care packages overseas. And now it's going to be one of the top VSOs, you know, in the nation, veteran service organizations. Wow.

And we bring out combat and service-connected injured veterans that have been through physical injuries due to service. So I do things adaptively. But on top of that, we have a post-traumatic stress program we partner with now, which is one of the best in the nation called Warrior Path. Nice. The reason I'm telling you that is because after I found my way of, like, finding this foundation

and all this stuff out, I decided I liked entrepreneurialism. So you said short rib and it made my mouth salivate because I have a restaurant and we make one of the best short ribs around. Oh, yeah?

Oh, yeah. Where's it at? A little town in Maine. It's called White Duck Brew Pub. It's in East Winthrop, Maine. We just got an article written about us. Not like a big publication about one of the best best yeah restaurants in this you know in small town

sign me up man when i'm out there i'll go there come on i'm putting a brewery in right now as well actually we're in construction right now so you're still drinking i mean you know responsibly of course yeah yeah i think people you know everywhere i go i always gotta try the local the local brews just to see if I know what I'm doing. Yeah. Which I don't. I have a brewmaster that does all that. It sounds like it's complicated, right?

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of science in that. Yeah, a lot. I had on a professional whiskey taster on the show last week. What? Yeah, that's a job. He's the number one guy in the world.

Okay. Yeah. His name's Fred Minnick, and he ranks ranks he has a top 100 whiskey list every year that comes out really so all he does is drink whiskey how do you get into that line that's what i'm saying right you know imagine doing that for beer or for vodka or whatever you like to drink you know my problem is like i just like everything i'm just you know no favorite alcohol you just like them all well i mean yeah i have a favorite you you know, but I'm not like a fan. I like Basil Hayden's probably better than anything.

I've had a lot of fine whiskeys, if you will, but I'm like Basil Hayden's is good. Yeah. It works for me. I feel that. But what about you? I'm not big on alcohol, man. No? Yeah, I used to be heavy.

I was a big partier in college. Yeah. Yeah. They called me a tomato face. I would get super red. I would black out and just be super dumb. Try to look cool. There you go.

It was a phase. I don't go that level. Nah. I have a wife. Yeah, it's not worth it. Especially these days where everything's filmed. This was back then where I caught the tail end of it or the beginning of it. I got you.

I got you. No, we just get to have a lot of fun. With the foundation, I never could have imagined that sitting around a dining room table with my in-laws, my father-in-law, who's my, you know, travel companion, right-hand man, if you will, business manager, and my wife signing paperwork thinking we'll just give back to these veterans with care packages that are overseas to now bring out families and watch the whole transition come through of like, you know, they have no arms and legs or they have a wheelchair they're in or things like that we have a barrier-free resort that we show them like no matter what you can do anything yeah and unlike my uh my football career in college you know live life off the sidelines yeah that's where i stayed most of the time

sidelines yeah i mean i was redshirted but it's i'm just saying it didn't work out for me yeah what position were you? I think they call it ass back, actually. Ass back? Every time I try to get in the game, the coach says, hey, Mills, get your ass back here. Can I say that? I'm sorry. Is that okay?

No, that's funny. No. So I was a fullback. Fullback. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I feel that.

That's a tough spot. Yeah. Yeah. I love what you're doing with the foundation, man. I donated to Wounded Warrior, and I don't even know what they spent it on, to be honest. But with yours, you could actually see where the money's going, which is cool. Yeah, it was very clean in the 990s. I don't take a dime. Never paid myself.

Never got a bonus. Nothing like that. It's not about me making any money off from it. I get the chance to go speak, and I have a pension and all that stuff. So it was never created to make me or my wife any money. Wow. This is about giving back and you know we are very very cautious with anything we get ourselves involved into just because there are things that other non-profits have gotten in trouble for good bad or indifferent

and since it's like literally my name uh you know what i mean yeah your reputation's on the line yeah so i gotta make sure everything's uh above board at all times yeah because you probably get offered to fund a lot of stuff but you got to be really selective oh yeah there's a lot of things i mean and and you know we get a lot of people that reach out about like like medical marijuana and like it's still taboo in a way where i'm being advised but some people like oh you can't you can't have them do a fundraiser for you i'm like well they're just trying to help yeah like yeah but that's i'm like you know it doesn't really matter anymore i'm siding with weed on that one i know i know there's too many benefits to it that's where i'm at with like with these people that reach out but then you know there's just always a discussion about like well put her name next to it is it gonna look bad and i'm like i don't think it does

nah we we have to foundation because maine's um legal right yeah so we have to we take people to the to the local recreational place. Yeah. And they get all the stuff they need, and they hang out around the fire and just chill out. That's cool, man. It's huge for post-traumatic stress, I feel like. I heard it is. And anxiety.

It actually makes my anxiety worse, but I heard for most people it helps with anxiety. You know what I mean? Yeah. But not for me, man. No, I got you. When I get too high, I just can't hang. Can't do it. I think I overthink. You know what I mean? Yeah. But not for me, man. No, I got you. When I get too high, I just can't hang. Can't do it. I think I overthink.

You know what I mean? When I was a kid, I could smoke all day, hit like 20 gravity bongs in my mom's basement. But nah, these days, too much stress. What's because you're a genius? I think there's a – I'm not a genius. Well, maybe, but my dad was a genius. So his IQ was 150. I thought you're like the prodigy, though.

Like they said you're smarter than your dad. I think my mom probably takes the evens out a bit. My mom's got the work ethic, so I got that from her. That's awesome. Yeah. I don't know. I haven't taken the test. I don't really care about IQ tests.

People place a lot of importance on them, but I don't think it measures all intelligence. I know people that are super dumb, and they make a ton of money, honestly. Yeah. If you want, they can show me something i mean i walked into a bomb for early retirement i was just like man 20 years sounds like way too much how do i get like that retirement you know yeah and i just hit a bomb found a way but now you're making millions with speaking and your books and doing all right doing all right but uh you know be able to inspire people my new book uh just came out you know last november bounce back and the thing is like in uh it's every time i went and i uh i'm getting mumbled up here every time i go and speak somewhere people will like come up and tell me a story about themselves like what they went through

but then they'd always be like well you know it's nothing like you like i was saying like your biggest problem is your biggest problem right so i actually took other people's stories divorce uh cancer survivor widower widower post-traumatic stress i put their stories in this book and had medical theories and research articles and different papers that are published on like why you know your brain and you feel the way you feel and it showed people going to the very bottom of the barrel and how they bounce back and i did it because i want people to realize like i'm not special i just found the right you know tools to get better which was my support group um you know hard work realizing that i didn't die and i couldn't just make myself die so i might as well get better and you know we live in a country that takes care of veterans like me

like takes care of me a hundred percent yeah um takes care of me you know, we live in a country that takes care of veterans like me, like takes care of me. A hundred percent. Yeah. Takes care of me. You know, taught me how to walk, how to feed myself, how to do my cool like spinning trick. Doesn't even hurt, like I said. Got the Apple Watch too, man. Well, you have to.

You know, that's how I text and I call people. Oh, nice. But, and you know what? They went away from like the heat sensitive. So I can't touch a phone. So like people always, they watch me. I'm on my phone, right? I close my eyes.

I use my nose. Yeah. And people are like, how do you do that like yeah wow i didn't know they did that on the iphone oh my nose is you know it's warm so i can do that okay they didn't do it special for me that's just why i figured out works wow yeah that is interesting man yeah i've seen you talk about the past and you know not to kind of live in it or dwell in it and you seem to be doing really well at that mindset yeah i just i realized in the hospital bed when I used to close my eyes and think, like, I'm just going to go back in time. I'm not going to make this not my reality. I'm going to open my eyes and be back in my base.

It never happened that way. So instead of dwelling on what happened, I just reminisced. I had 25 amazing years with arms and legs. And then this April makes 12 years without wow and um i don't look at myself as different now so that's that's my big thing like people are like oh man is this so much different and i'm like i just have a few steps in the morning right my my pants go on or my legs go on you know then my pants my arm goes on then my shirt so a few extra steps here and there and he has a little bit different but this is just my new normal and

as soon as i could accept as my new my new normal, life got a lot easier. And the biggest thing was I had to stop asking why. You ever have a problem you can't figure out and you keep asking why? Yeah. And you just go in these different rabbit holes. Rabbit holes, yeah. I can ask why this happened all day long, but I'll never get an answer. Right.

So I had to accept this has happened. This is my life. And if I stop asking why, my life's going to get a lot better because I'll never get an answer. And if I did, say I found some answer, I was like, oh, my gosh, that's the answer. That does nothing for me. You know what I'm saying? Because I really will never know.

You still can't change it even if you find out the answer. Exactly. So, you know, for me, I always control my attitude. My situation doesn't change, but my attitude is always positive. I mean, I woke up in Florida this morning, right? And I took a shower, but I already knew that the hot water heater wasn't working. Something about a GFI popped, and I couldn't get it reset. The electrician came over this morning, but I knew I had to go take a cold shower this morning.

And I was sitting there, and I was just like, this sucks. But I just kept saying dopamine because I know that cold water releases dopamine so yeah took a cold shower and then we got on the airplane and flew here i missed my set my connecting flight because maintenance on the first plane so caught a second one and i still made it here so many delays these days man that's so normal yeah i just expect it no i think my last 10 flights have been delayed yeah yeah i don't know what's going on you go back out to jersey any yeah i'm going back in may my mom's still out there yeah yeah you've been there yeah i've been a few times what do you think i yeah everywhere's kind of the same they got they got great places to eat i mean i go to a lot of conferences though right so like i mean i'm usually like in a bigger

city when i go and go check out the local fair and you know i don't know jersey's nice right or no what do you think it's a good family state. Yeah. Good Italian food, good Indian food. But not for business, that's a... No. No. I was bullied.

I was different out there, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. But now you got your... Is it Jersey's? Yeah, I started Jersey Company out there. That's how it started. But I got made fun of for that.

Why? Just a ton of 9-to-5ers. I mean, it's just all corporate. That wasn't normal. You know what I mean? I think I saw something where it said, you know, it was like the entrepreneur. Everybody's, all these graduates and all these 9-to-5ers are all mad because their boss is like way younger. Wearing sweatpants.

Wearing sweatpants. Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah. I can't remember saying exactly. Not that you're wearing sweatpants. I usually am, actually. I wore this for you today, man. I wore shorts, but you take my legs off their pants.

I usually wear shorts in the summer. Yeah, and I wore a long sleeve, too. You know what I'm saying? I got to keep it classy. I feel that, man. But no, it's a lot of fun, you know? And then, you know, I just got to know how you do it. Like, how do you get so famous and so popular?

I actually don't consider myself that yet, dude, to be honest. What? Yeah. Is that about stay humble? Yeah, I don't know what it is. I don't care about followers. You know what I mean? That doesn't impress me.

It's more the story. When I have on guests, it plays a role if they have followers, but it's not the main thing. Right, right. I care more about the story, the message, the value. Okay, okay. So that's just how I frame it. So that's how you got everybody because you care.

I love it. And I'm a master connector. So after this, you'll see I'm going to add you to a WhatsApp chat. It's every single previous podcast guest. All we do is give value to each other. There's 550 people in it. I appreciate that. I'm just saying I'm impressed with you as a person.

Yeah. And I'm just like I'm not on your level of brilliance. And I know that. But, I mean, I can say a couple jokes here and there. It's a different type of smart, man. You're probably good at what you do. I'm good at what I do. But I think just having that ability to connect the dots has gotten me far.

Yeah, absolutely. And then are you a big gamer right here? Big. Yeah? Yeah. What's your favorite? Basketball. But you play in a league, right? Yeah. Are you dunking at 6'6"? I'm dunking, man. Yeah? Yeah. What's your favorite? Basketball. But you play in a league, right?

Yeah. Are you dunking at 6'6"? I'm dunking, man. Yeah? Yeah. Were you dunking at 6'3 back in the day? I was. Yeah, but I was like the two, like, you know, both feet, two-handed slam.

I'm a two-leg guy, yeah. Yeah, I wasn't like that windmill. Nah. I'm not Mack McClung. No, dude. Impressive. He's only six feet, man. Impressive, right?

How the hell is he doing that? Is he even playing for anybody right now? He's on the G League team for the Suns, I think, or something, which is a shame. He's third in the G League in points per game. Wow. And no one wants to sign him for some reason. I think it's the height.

Blows my mind. Blows my mind. Only 10% of the league now is white, too. So I feel like they just favor the athletic more than the skill. Oh, yeah. I don't know about that. I'm just saying I saw him dunk two years in a row now. I mean, he won it easily both years.

He's probably going to win it again if he plays. Yeah. Dude's nuts. My friend Chase is his dunk coach. Is it? They have dunk coaches? Yeah, so the guy that was holding the guy on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, that was Chase. He's one of those directing people, too, right? Yeah, shout out to Chase. He's been on the podcast. That guy on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was Chase. He's one of those directing people too, right? Yeah, shout out to Chase. He's been on the podcast. That's awesome. Yeah, man. He trained me for a bit too. Is that how you got?

I was windmilling when he was training me. But then he tore his ACL off the bone or something. He was out for a year. I got to get back in there. That's too bad. Yeah. Jeez. So big game tomorrow night.

Now, how's the team looking? Team's good, bro. I'm averaging 15 a game. I'm doing all right. We got some good pieces. Can't beat that. Now, when it's not basketball season, I guess it's always basketball season, right? Pretty much. Yeah, they got summer league. I don't care about it. You got a team?

No, I mean, I just... That you follow, or you just like players? Celtics, I guess. Celtics? You know, because we all live in Maine, so New England. They're always good, but they can never win it lately. i know i can't really get really smart too i didn't realize i was about did he go for the money or was he he was he shipped out i don't know he got traded for someone oh they did get chris stops is that i don't know he played for memphis chris stops yeah no he was on uh the knicks and then he got traded to the Mavericks he's been all

over the place yeah yeah I don't know is that your uh favorite sport to watch no no uh I like college football is my favorite wow I've never heard that before I'm telling you it's I don't know what it is just college football is my favorite thing to watch well I found it if I there's football baseball basketball and like hockey hockey, golf, and UFC on, I'm always watching UFC. Okay. Yeah. UFC is tough to beat, honestly.

Yeah. Have you been in person? Yeah. It's electric. So I went with my wife. She probably didn't like it, right? Back at Fort Bragg, no. It was fight for the troops night.

Josh Koscheck was the main card. Yeah. And we got tickets, and we went and hung out. First fight, I think Bob Sanders was the guy's name, got a huge hematoma on his forehead. Okay. They called the fight because it got so big, like huge. And the next guy kicked a guy in the leg.

The guy checked it, and it broke his shit and wrapped around. It showed in slow motion. Yeah, I can see why she's traumatized. She goes, yeah, I'm out. We're done. So I had to go home. So I got home why she's traumatized. She goes, yeah, I'm out. We're done. So I had to go home. So I got home in time to watch the main fights on my TV in my living room. We got Anthony Pettis coming on after.

I heard, yeah. Yeah, that's going to be lit. Who's your GOAT in the UFC? Oh, jeez. You know, I was a big Matt Hughes guy. Okay. That's old school. Yeah, Matt Hughes for sure.

We used to get all the UFC 10, 35. No, my buddy bought them. He'd get them from the bazaar. Oh, yeah? And we'd watch them, all the fights. Damn. I know you're not supposed to like New York Yankees as well as the Boston Red Sox, but I like GSP, too.

I know that they were back and forth with each other. I couldn't believe Volkanovski got beat. He got wrecked. Yeah. I think his legacy's kind of taken a hit now after the last couple losses yeah and yeah and then um sean strickland i just feel like is he really as crazy as he comes off yeah yeah yeah i've seen him live stream yeah he's he just beat up this kid named sneeko he's he's pretty wild man i saw that he was walking him down like you're at this point, realizing you can't hurt me.

I mean, he's got some deep traumas because I saw him on Theo Vaughn's podcast, and the dude was about to ball out crying from some deep stuff that happened to him. So, yeah, I think he's just pent up and letting it out. Yeah, that's crazy. And then I guess Ortega. I like Ortega. I like Jon Jones, dude. Are they going to fight?

I think he's going gonna do one more before he retires yeah but he's pretty much undefeated if it wasn't for that drug thing he'd be the goat by far oh yeah john yeah that held him back but he was gonna fight he wanted to steep it in he but i don't know he wanted him yeah but he'll probably be on ufc 300 that's gonna be nuts yeah you're gonna have to come back out here for that oh that'd be a good time i i haven't met dana white i feel like he lives he has a house up in maine he's from bangor so i just haven't ran across really he's from there he's from up in bangor area wow i didn't know that he's got a house out here now i think he lives here yeah he's building he's building one up in maine as well yeah i believe right

i heard that yeah yeah so just up like an hour from me yeah shout out to dana man but no i i yeah i i don't know i guess who's who you go to who you go with besides gotta go john and i like sugar sean right now but he's still building his legacy so i wouldn't consider him like the goat yeah is he going for is him and vera gonna fight yeah i think they're fighting he's he's pretty much undefeated too he has that one loss but it was because he uh did oh his shin yeah yeah what about patty pimlet you like him no you don't like patty the batty no you like him no no but you can't deny he wins he does win man i don't know how he looks out of shape you know yeah everyone's got their own style i guess yeah

i don't know i look out of shape too because i am um but i'm working on it tomorrow what are you doing i don't know. I just am on the manana diet. So that's what I tell everybody. Manana diet. It's always tomorrow. Yeah. Fasting is what they call it, right?

Yeah. Well, I do that all night when I sleep. So I'm pretty good at it. Yeah. If you sleep 12 hours, it's a long time. More like a six hour. That's all you need? Yeah.

Six hours? I don't know why. I think I use, I don't know. It's a good thing. I mean, I wish I could do that. Really? Sleep eight to nine. Is it better to sleep less?

So I just had a doctor on before. He said six and a half is actually the perfect range for most people. Really? Yeah. So I'm oversleeping. So I got to chill out, I guess. Yeah. I just love sleep, dude.

Nothing wrong with that. Not when I was grinding, though. When I was grinding, I was sleeping four to five hours. But I'm at a comfier place in life now. Nothing wrong with that. Yeah. So what's the next big thing on your horizon? Just grow this thing to a monster, man.

Get to Joe Rogan levels. There he is a monster. Nah, dude. I got high expectations. It's decent right now. The momentum's good. I can feel good energy, but it's not where I want it to be. okay how can i help you i gotta get to jaco level man i gotta get to rogan level so just guess and that's pretty much it all right cool guests to have on yeah because

i mean i i offer sometimes i mean i can send nudes if people want but then my wife would be jealous so maybe i won't do that yeah no news i think they'll get banned i'll get my account shut down you know i'm just kidding. Sorry. We can edit that out. I just tried to make a joke, man. You ever have any nudes get leaked? No.

God, no. I don't think I have. I've only sent a couple in my life. There you go. Back when I was in high school. Yeah, no. I never. Never with your face, though, right?

That was the thing with guys. No, I just never did, but I get what you're saying yeah yeah oh you never took them no no really i don't got the hands for it so no like in high school though in college and stuff no no i don't think so damn cell phones weren't really selfies weren't a thing you know oh yeah back then yeah yeah we had flip phones okay you probably couldn't take them on those yeah yeah that's different well uh damn we'll wrap it up there man no i appreciate you having me thanks for your time absolutely where can people find you i tell you what if everyone wants to check out travis mills uh.org or travis mills

foundation.org that's where i'm at my instagram is like at ssg travis mills and facebook as well and i do a lot of fun videos on there but but again i just appreciate you having me i mean i'm not i'm not here to you know do anything except for just be your friend. I appreciate it. If that works. Now, how would I catch one of your games? Do you live stream those? No.

We'll have to get you back out here, man. I'm not going to be able to see you windmill it? Not today. You're getting back on the horse. I'm excited. I'll get a videographer next game for you. All right. We'll go.

See you next time, guys. Thanks for coming on, brother.