Start With A Win - Vulnerability in Life and in Business

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

Brian Reese is the founder and CEO of VA Claims Insider, and he is one of the world's leading experts in veteran benefits. Through his company, he’s helped millions of veterans secure their financial future since 2013. A former active-duty air force officer, Brian deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. A veteran himself who personally struggled with the disability claim system, Brian started a company that coaches veterans through the claim process. Now, he has written the book, You Deserve It: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Veteran Benefits You’ve Earned.Following his last tour in Afghanistan in 2011, Brian faced many mental and physical issues upon his return home. However, he didn’t want to talk about these things which led to some very destructive tendencies. However, it was through this journey that he learned how to open up and be vulnerable. Brian challenges listeners to ask themselves these questions: Are you being the real you? And are you being honest with family and friends? Brian’s true breakthrough was getting out of his own way by being honest about what he struggled with. Outside of his wife and children, his family and friends didn’t previously know  any of his true struggles. But when he started opening up, it was as if he saw his entire life open up. Eventually, other veterans started reaching out and sharing how much they resonated with his struggles and his stories. He watched that vulnerability lead to a movement of veterans helping veterans, paving the way for VA Claims Insider. Through VA Claims Insider, Brian’s team helps veterans get the benefits they’ve earned for their service. They partner them with an expert coach who will walk with them through the VA disability claims process from beginning to end, ensuring they are never alone and making what’s confusing very simple and easy.Brian talks about the process of writing his book, You Deserve It: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Veteran Benefits You’ve Earned, which sold 10,000 copies in its first month of release! The book details all of the federal and state benefits as well as many other discount programs available to veterans and their families.The two round out the conversation by talking about Brian’s journey as an entrepreneur and how he carried his military experience into a growing, thriving business. And his two pieces of advice to fellow entrepreneurs? Be a self-motivated self-starter and persevere through adversity by being willing to constantly re-invent yourself.Episode Links:https://vaclaimsinsider.comFree E-Book: You Deserve It: The Definitive Guide to Getting the Veteran Benefits You’ve Earned:https://www.youdeserveitfree.com/freedom1Order your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success:https://www.startwithawin.com/bookConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Welcome to Start With A Win, where we give you the tools and lessons you need to create business and personal success. Are you ready? Let's do this. Coming to you from Denver, Colorado, home of Remax World Headquarters, this is Adam Canto, CEO of Remax with Start With A Win. How you doing, Producer Mark? I'm doing so good. I love it. I love it. It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood. Oh, it's a beautiful day for a neighbor. Would you be mine?

Hey, Brian, welcome to the show. Brian Reese is the founder and CEO of VA Claims Insider, and he is one of the world's leading experts in veteran benefits. Brian, through his company, helps millions of veterans secure their financial future since 2013. Brian's a former active duty Air Force officer deployed in Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and a veteran himself who personally struggled with the disability claim system. Brian started a company that coaches veterans through the claim process. Now he's written a book called You Deserve It, the definitive guide to getting the veteran benefits you've earned. Brian Reese, welcome to Start With A Win. Hey, Adam. Thanks for the warm intro.

You bet. And I mean, first of all, from myself and from all of our listeners, thank you for your service and for the service of all the people that you work with. You're very welcome. Thank you for yours and for anybody listening as well. If you were the uniform, thanks so much for serving our country. Awesome. So Brian, I want to, I want to jump into kind of what you do, because this is a really important thing. And we have a lot of veterans in our, uh, our audience here, as well as Remax and model mortgage. We have a lot of veteran franchisees and, uh, agents and loan officers. So this is really important as a lot of them have different disability benefits and things of that nature. So let's take a step back and go to

your service in the military. Give us an overview. What did you do in the military and how did your experience leaving the military lead you to starting this company? Yeah, I was a contracting officer in the U.S. Air Force. And my last kind of tour that my last tour that sort of led to many of the disabilities I suffer from today was in Afghanistan in 2011. It was with a joint combat unit, came home with just a myriad of mental and physical issues and just didn't really feel comfortable. I was really embarrassed by some of the stuff. I didn't want to talk about mental health. I didn't want to talk about physical pain. I sort of tried to suck it up and carry on and deal with it myself. And that led to all sorts of destruction. And so I think through this journey,

though, Adam, what's been most impactful is just me opening up and being vulnerable. And whether you were an officer, whether you were enlisted, regardless, none of that matters. What matters is that are you being the real you? Are you being honest with yourself? Are you being honest with your family and those around you with what you're dealing with? And I wasn't. I mean, I wasn't. I hid from many of those things. And so I'll tell you, though, that the breakthrough that led to

everything I do today is when I got out of my own way and I actually started being honest. I started talking about post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression. I started talking about physical pain. I started talking about weight gain. I started talking about the things that hold us back from becoming the best versions of ourselves. And I was scared to death. I mean, when I started telling the world about these things, because my family didn't even know. My wife, of course, knew and my kids, because they lived with me. And so they saw it happen. But my family and my friends didn't know. And once I actually started being vulnerable, though, and sharing these things, my entire life opened up.

My entire life improved. My relationships got better. And this massive following happened. And all these other veterans started going, Brian, you just, that's my story. Like I'm struggling with mental health. I'm struggling with alcoholism. I'm struggling with drug addiction. My relationships suck. I've been divorced three times. And literally that vulnerability led to this incredible movement of veterans helping veterans. And it's been just an absolute blessing to continue serving. Well, first of all, sorry for your pain and thank you for sharing that with us.

You're right. It takes a lot for people who are suffering to say something about that because they don't want to be labeled and you're in the military, so you don't want to be thought of as weak or something of that nature. And you have a lot of pride also. So thank you for sharing that. And you started a company called VA Claims Insider. Is that correct? That's correct. Tell us about that. Yeah. I mean, really what we do in a nutshell. And I love to share this story because my dad, he's not in the military and he's asked me over the years, you know, Brian, what do you do? And I'm like, well, I'm, you know, I, the founder and CEO, I read a lot of content. I do a lot of these videos and he keeps asking me the same question.

He's like, no, what do you actually do? And so I finally shared with him, I said, I give veterans permission to get the benefits that they've earned for their service. And if you really think about that, it's so powerful because when you give somebody permission, that's a coaching process where all of a sudden they start to understand, wait a minute, yeah, I did wear the uniform. Yes, I am suffering from physical and mental pain. Yes, I do deserve these benefits. And this guy's giving me permission to go get them. And so that part has been so powerful. And Adam, I heard you talk about some of the things that hold veterans back. They're too prideful. It's not possible for me to have a mental health condition. I'm not that bad off, right? Somebody else has it worse than I do, so they deserve the benefits. We lie to ourselves. Military veterans are very good at lying to themselves and downplaying their issues and telling themselves things like, I'm not worthy. I'm not deserving. I didn't deploy in combat, I don't deserve these benefits, somebody else does. And I from beginning to end. They're never alone in this process and we make what's confusing very simple and easy. Well, thank you for helping and supporting them. So let me ask you this. Somebody leaves the military. How long after they leave the military or what does the process look like after they get out in order to seek help for themselves?

Here's the process that DOD gives military veterans who are transitioning right now. They kick your butt out the door, they hand you a DD-214, and they say, good luck. I mean, that's really what happens. When it comes to VA benefits, though, there is literally nobody out there educating. That's a key word here. Educating the transitioning service member and the veterans on how they actually get the benefits they've earned. of course, have heard of the VA. But when you start to talk about VA benefits, that's where they instantly start to shriek and go, I looked into it one time and it looked too confusing, so I quit. Or I tried once before, Brian, I got denied, so I gave up. That's usually the veteran that we find. And so our program, Adam, it's an eight-step process that happens over about 30 days. And from beginning to end, like from actually getting your claim in to when the VA makes a decision, it takes about 90 to 120 days to actually start getting those benefits. Wow. And you had to tell the story so many times,

and it speaks to so many people, obviously. We have a great deal of veterans in society, and thank you to all those. For those that don't know, when people took that oath, when they raised their right hand and swore to defend the country against the enemies, foreign and domestic. And they wrote a blank check for their lives. They said, do whatever with me you think is needed in order for me to protect this amazing country. And so they gave unconditionally to the country. And the country actually give, gave significantly to them. They just don't know what was given to them. And that's what you're shining the light on here is the opportunity for them to, to take advantage of, of that help and that ongoing

assistance. So you wrote a book called you deserve it, um, to, to help tell this story. And I, it sold more than like 10,000 copies in one month. So congratulations on that. How did you, I mean, you, you decided, Hey, I think I'll write a book. And then, I mean, I've read a book and I'll tell you selling 10,000 copies in a month is no easy task. How did you come up with this idea and how did you roll this thing out the door to get it in people's hands? You know, it's, I think it's one of those things that just sort of happened over time. And in a nutshell, Adam, and by the way, congratulations on writing a book. Anybody who wants to write a book, I got news for you. Don't write a book. It's a pain in the butt. Okay. But in all seriousness, I wrote the book that I wish somebody would have written for me in a nutshell.

I mean, literally what I did, Adam, as I said, is I was leaving the Air Force. What would I have liked for somebody to just walk into my little cubicle and say, here, man, like, I want you to read this. You're going to thank me. Everything you learn in here, go do something about it. Go apply it. Here's what it's going to mean for your life, the benefits for you and your family. You're going to get disability compensation. You're going to get medical benefits.

You're going to take advantage of the VA home loan, the funding fee waiver. Oh, by the way, we're going to teach you how to get all these incredible benefits in your state. Things like no property taxes if you meet certain thresholds. That's the book I wrote. And what I started doing research, nobody had ever packaged federal veteran benefits, state veteran benefits, and then nonprofit resources and for-profit discounts. Nobody had ever packaged all of that into a single volume. And so that's really what I did is I went out and said, I'm going to write the book.

I wish somebody would have written for me. I'm going to make veteran benefits, super simple and easy to understand. And I actually teach people how to get them in the book. It's very much an action book. So on that note, where can people go find this book? It's frankly, a lot of people know a veteran who doesn't have this information. And if you're a real estate agent or in the mortgage industry or something like that, by the way, you ought to buy a case of these things and have them handy, because this is good information that veterans need to know. And it's a great way for you to help your community get a home or funding for a home. So Brian, where can people find your book? Yeah, people can find a hard copy. You can also get, so you can get hardcover, you can get softcover, you can get the audio book on online resources, websites like Amazon,

Barnes and Noble. But I have something really special for all of you Start With A Win listeners. If you go to our website at vaclaimsinsider.com and you click the link that says free resources, you can click the link that says you deserve it. And I'm gonna let you have a free ebook version of You Deserve It, the definitive guide to getting the veteran benefits you deserve it. And I'm going to let you have a free ebook version of you deserve it. The definitive guide to getting the veteran benefits you've earned.

Wow. Uh, that's, that's awesome. Thank you, Brian. And, uh, amazing gift to the veterans. And again, all of our listeners know somebody who could use this. So please take advantage of it. So, um, Brian, I want to, I want to move on to your entrepreneur world now, because you went from being in the military to starting a business. Okay. Which is amazing. I mean, talk about, you know, that's America for you to be able to serve our country and then start a business to serve our communities and, and find a way of making a living that way. So how did your experience as an entrepreneur or what did you learn as an entrepreneur building this business after being in the military? So many things. I wish I could tell you that my MBA program prepared me to be an entrepreneur,

but it didn't. In fact, I don't think anything I learned in my MBA program taught me how to be an entrepreneur. But I will tell you that being in the military and not having enough resources to get the mission done, but still having to find a way to yes and making stuff happen regardless of the situation, persevering through adversity, that skill set absolutely transferred over and has helped me be an entrepreneur. Truly, I think a couple of the attributes, Adam, that you really need to have as an entrepreneur, regardless of whether you served in the military, you need to absolutely be a self-motivated self-starter, okay? Because there's going to be days where you don't want to do stuff.

There's going to be days when you don't want to get out of bed. There's going to be days when you think the sky is falling and you're about to go out of business. And you have to take action anyway, okay? So you have to be a self-starter. The second thing is you have to be able to persevere through adversity. No matter what's thrown at you, there's going to be tons of ups and downs in your entrepreneurial journey. And the thing that I found, Adam, and you probably have found this being the CEO of Remax,

is you constantly have to reinvent yourself. And when we hit these different stages of growth, and it just, it happened like clockwork. When it went from just me to having about five people, everything broke, and I felt like we had to start over. When we went from five people to 25 people, everything broke again. Our systems broke, our processes broke. When we went from 25 to 50, we broke again. When we went from 50 to 100, we broke again. We went from 50 to 100, we broke again. Now we're about 150 or so folks around the world. And we're now just fixing again what we broke. So I think that you have to

constantly be reinventing yourself and you can't ever be satisfied with where you're at. Great tips. I hope everybody's writing these down because that was just a goldmine right there. Brian building a pretty large business from scratch and really reaching out all over the world to talk to veterans. By the way, veterans don't just live in the United States. They are global because we have a military presence all over the world and they all have the same needs when it comes to these things. So Brian, I have one last question that I ask everybody that's on the show, because really, I mean, we appreciate what you've done. You do amazing things, both for our veteran community, as well as for our civilian community, because you're helping those around them. You're helping

their family members, their brothers, sisters, fathers, sons, mothers, daughters. I mean, look around society and veterans are all over the place. And if they're not a veteran now, there's a lot of people who will be in the near future when they join the military. So, Ryan, what do you, uh, what do you do to start your day with a win? Yeah. Number one, wake up early. And my day typically starts between three 30 and four in the morning. And the first thing I do is I read, okay. I open up, that's my quiet time to myself.

So that's when I do my reading and my writing. I have a daily devotional that I start with. So I start my day in the Bible. I start my day in the word. And I would encourage you all to do that. But I think the number one tip there, Adam, is wake up early. I guarantee you. As somebody whose alarm goes off at 4.30 in the morning, I've now found somebody who gets up earlier than I do. So Brian Reese, military veteran, American hero, author and business owner, and somebody who helps veterans who need to understand how to get the assistance that they deserve. Thank you so much for being on Start With A Win. It's my honor. Thanks for having me. Hey, and thank you for listening to Start With A Win. If you're ready to create personal and business success,

subscribe to this podcast and head over to wherever you get your books and order Start With A Win the book. Not only will you be helping yourself, but all author proceeds go to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals so you'll be helping others as well. Head over to startwithawin.com for more great content. And until next time, remember, start with a win.