Overcoming PTSD, Leaving the US & Graduating from Harvard I John H Davis DSH #386

Metrically opposed to one another.

The soldier sacrifices, the politician profits.

The soldier respects their enemies, the politician hates their enemies.

So there's a popular saying in the military that the soldier doesn't fight because he hates what's in front of him.

They fight because they love what's behind them.

And I think veterans and politicians just don't get long because politicians hate what's in front of them and disregard what's behind them.

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All right, guys, we got former veteran here, John Davis, and he's doing some interesting things in the veteran community.

I can't wait to talk about it with you, man.

I'm really excited to talk about the expat life.

I feel like now we get a lot of attention about people moving from like New York and California to Texas.

But nobody talks about the large contingent of Americans that are moving abroad.

Right.

So talking about the business model there, because basically if you make 100K a year in America,

compare that to like Dominican or Thailand or something.

For me as a veteran, you can take a military pension and live in the top 1% of a lot of different countries.

I live in the Dominican Republic, and I like to talk about Dominican Republic because it's the only country in the entire world with the Bible on its flag.

God, family, community.

are extremely important in people's day-to-day lives.

And that's really a refreshing thing to veterans.

So now you're seeing more and more veterans start to move abroad.

In the Dominican Republic, now we have over 20,000 American veterans that live there.

Wow.

Yeah, it's actually kind of incredible, and it's something that's going to continue to grow.

And that's why I'm really excited to talk about it.

Yeah, that's incredible.

So walk me through the process.

Do you need to get a citizenship to pull this off?

Every country is a little bit different.

Dominican Republic is one of the most,

I would say, the most friendly country to veterans.

And living abroad...

One reason I love talking about it is because you can live so much healthier.

So I stopped needing the PTSD medication that I had been on for years.

I started sleeping through the night.

I stopped getting the migraines that I suffered from since I was in Afghanistan.

And you can also live way healthier.

I'm outside more.

Americans spend 90% of our time indoors.

I'm eating fresh, healthier food, not necessarily the processed poison that we eat in America.

And that's when it kind of hit me.

Maybe it's not me, it's my environment.

So maybe the environment...

American environment is just toxic.

So when I changed my environment, it really changed my life.

And then you take other factors in consideration.

The political division and the cost of living is driving more and more veterans to leave America.

They can't even afford a house once they get back home.

No.

And, you know, we're on a fixed income when you get out of the military.

A lot of veterans retire on a fixed income, and the income is going to go a lot further a lot of other places.

And a lot of veterans don't really like living in a country that feels like it's at war with itself.

I think the political division is really making a lot of veterans rethink where they want to live and what they want to do.

Right.

So there's no division in Dominican.

It's all just kind of united?

You're separated from it.

You're just separated from the American political division.

You know, the soldier and the politician as archetypes are kind of like diametrically opposed from one another.

The soldier sacrifices, the politician profits.

The soldier respects their enemies, the politician hates their enemies.

So there's a popular saying in the military that the soldier doesn't fight because he hates what's in front of him.

They fight because they love what's behind them.

And I think veterans and politicians just don't get along because politicians hate what's in front of them and disregard what's behind them.

How long were you in Afghanistan?

I did two deployments to Afghanistan and then I came back and I initially tried working within the system when it came to veteran advocacy.

I worked as a legislative fellow where I drafted, created, and pitched legislation to Congress on veteran issues.

And this experience woke me up because I realized our elected officials don't give a shit about us.

I went in there.

I remember one time meeting a congresswoman from my home state of Iowa.

I got my suit and my tie on.

I'm going in to pitch this legislation I worked hard on.

And I get introduced, hey, combat veteran, Harvard graduate, John Davis, he's got this legislation for you.

And I went in, I started talking.

About 30 seconds in, you know, she's texting.

About a minute and a half in, she goes like, okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for your service.

Can you email the rest of this to my assistant?

And right then, I felt like I hit by a bomb.

You know, I was just like, man.

And it was such a wake-up call to me that as veterans, we can't rely on people like that to help us.

We can't rely on people like that to save us.

So that's when I wrote my first book for student veterans, because...

A lot of people don't know this, but there are two distinct classes of people in the military.

You have officers and you have enlisted.

It's the same across all the branches, but these people have significantly different outcomes when they get out of the military.

Officers make more money.

Officers have PTSD less.

Officers get divorced less.

Officers are homeless less.

And officers kill themselves less.

And the big difference between officers and enlisted is that officers have a traditional, traditionally have a college degree.

So this college degree is critically important for veterans to get.

And that's why the first stop for so many veterans is college.

And my legislation that I pitched to Congress was about student veteran employment.

I wanted student veterans to be employed at their schools for the Veterans Administration.

But the legislation didn't get anywhere because I felt like I was just working within the system.

And writing eventually led me into the expat stuff because so many veterans feel

disenfranchised by the country that they fought for.

Yeah, do you feel like there's a lack of support for veterans once they come back?

I feel like there's...

a lack of understanding of the veteran experience, and this leads veterans to feeling isolated in society.

As veterans, we are very communal people.

We believe in the power of community.

We believe in coming together.

And then we get out of the military and we kind of find ourselves in the

individualized and a fragmented society.

And veterans kind of struggle as to where we're going to fit in here.

So a lot of veterans, that's why moving abroad can offer veterans something that America might not be able to, and that's a fresh start.

Because there's something beautiful about a fresh start.

And so many veterans are just well suited for living abroad because a lot of veterans are first and second generation immigrants themselves.

Veterans are well traveled, like Bobby, who was stationed in Germany for several years.

So a lot of veterans who are stationed overseas get out of the military and just stay there because they're experiencing a higher quality life.

So I've been on this one-man mission to just talk to veterans about how we can live healthier, happier, higher quality, and more peaceful lives outside the United States.

Plus, you have that community aspect, right?

You said there's 20,000 in Dominican.

You probably have a tight circle out there of veterans.

Yeah, absolutely.

And disconnected from the United States, we don't talk politics.

You know, we go out to eat.

We talk about dating, travel, fitness, conspiracy theories.

We don't talk about what's going on in the political world.

And veterans are usually like that because we want to be on the side of America, not necessarily Republicans or Democrats.

So disconnecting from the hyper-stressful environment of the United States, I think, is something that can really help veterans out.

Yeah, I'm glad we're talking about college because we have opposing viewpoints on college, but I could see where you come from and why it was important to you and also veterans now.

So it's cool to understand that.

What, so I went to Harvard and the most important thing I learned at Harvard, I think you'll agree with, as veteran, and veterans struggle to understand this, the most important thing I learned during my time at Harvard was veterans prioritize competency, performance, potential, the what of what you know.

But in the real world, who you know know matters a hell of a lot more than what you know.

And veterans and business sometimes don't mix because of the veteran mentality and our military conditioning.

I'll give you some examples.

Veterans will not quit jobs that they hate because quitting just isn't really in the military mentality.

Veterans won't ask for raises, even if they deserve them because you can't ask for a raise in the military.

So some of this military conditioning prevents veterans from being successful in business.

But that's why events like what you put on, the networking events, are something that's worth investing in, worth going to, and worth trying.

Because after years of serving in the military, veterans are just behind on networking.

We're not really sure how to start.

That's true because you're spending five, 10, 20 years.

And you're traveling around, you're doing different things.

So for veterans, networking is critically important, but it's hard to know where to start.

And that's why I think college is a good place.

Because I don't think college is a great place to learn a lot of stuff.

Right.

But college is a great place to develop who you're going to be and perform self-education while you're doing your real education.

So when I talk to veterans, I'm like, absolutely go to college because what it provides is a bridge between the military and the civilian world.

It provides a measure of structure for veterans and opportunity to kind of figure out who you're going to be post-service.

Now, I know you didn't go to college or you got a lot of people.

So I failed out of community college, joined the military, and I ended up with a master's degree from Harvard.

So that's why I wrote my book because I want to share those experiences to other veterans.

But like I said, I don't think that college is the be-all end-all.

And now the GI Bill recognizes that and is giving veterans more and more opportunities to perform different types of education.

Nice.

Apprenticeships, entrepreneurships, and things like that.

That's cool.

Did the military pay for your college?

Yeah, totally.

100%.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

Because Harvard is expensive.

Oh, crazy expensive.

I would not have paid for it if I wouldn't, I wouldn't have been able to pay for it.

One thing that I think is important that I've heard people talk about on your show is financial education and the lack of financial education in the United States.

I think some of the people that come on and talk about this kind of miss the forest through the trees and misdiagnose the issue.

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I'm saying this from an educational background is the how and the what are not important.

The why of financial education is sometimes the most important part.

So why is America not teaching financial education?

And that's because do you think that an educational establishment that wants you to pay $300,000 to go to college wants you to understand economics?

Do you think the politician that makes $150,000 a year, but is worth $80 million wants Americans to understand economics?

Do you think the IRS wants you to understand taxes?

Do you think Wall Street wants you to understand the stock market?

Do you think credit card companies want you to understand how credit works?

Do you think the military-industrial complex wants you to understand the economics of warfare?

Do you think the pharmaceutical industry wants you to understand the economics of medicine?

No, no, no, no, no.

And hell, no.

You know, they want to chain you to a form of economic enslavement because then they have you.

And once they shackle you to your debt, you can't fly.

You're just like Pac-Man on the ground, consuming, consuming, consuming, consuming

until you die.

And that's why the rich get richer and the poor get poor because the lack of financial education and also the purposeful lack of financial education in the United States.

So I've taught in, I've taught in Thailand, I've taught Cambodia, I've been a part of educational projects in Africa, and they teach financial education and entrepreneurial classes in like grade school.

Wow, that's awesome.

I promise you, and that's why, so I talk to a lot of families about moving abroad now, which kind of surprised me.

Initially, I'm thinking, okay, mainly single guys who are going to move abroad.

But I've been inundated from messages from families, from female veterans about moving abroad.

And I'll tell you, nine times out of ten, a private international education is superior to an American public education.

Wow.

I mean, it doesn't shock me if we're being frank.

Just what I witnessed, what I learned in school was nothing.

Yeah.

And overseas, I think the private international schools just have a grasp on trying to attempt to mold you into someone that's going to be successful later in life as opposed to successful in the next step in education.

Absolutely.

You also spoke at Congress, right?

Yep.

What was that like?

What were you trying to achieve with that?

Mainly all of my work centered around student veterans because that was what I was most passionate about.

You know, there's a big difference between people with college degrees and without college degrees.

Not you specifically, but generally, people with college degrees make more money.

For sure.

And financial health is mental health.

All the veteran

that I see that we study, the majority of them struggle with the financial aspect of things.

And for me personally, I can understand financial stress can be just as bad as combat stress.

Wow.

And the veteran mix in business, like I mentioned, just doesn't really work out.

So a lot of veterans who are struggling financially would more benefit from things like coaching than therapy.

So that's what I started to provide for veterans is coaching for student veterans once I realized that a lot of veterans' problems were wrapped up more into life.

than necessarily the mental aspect of it.

If you start solving your problems, you're going to be better off.

If you start making more money, you're going to be happier.

If you start creating wealth, you're going to have a higher quality of life.

So those are the types of lessons that I wanted to provide to veterans that I wanted to pass legislation for, but it completely blew up and I didn't accomplish anything legislatively.

And that's what led to me trying to do my own advocacy work to go outside the system to help veterans.

And I stumbled on the living abroad thing just because I moved to the Dominican Republic, swim in the ocean every day, and I was really happy.

And my rent's 500 bucks a month.

Wow.

It's that cheap?

It's that cheap.

My first experience of living abroad was in Thailand.

I was teaching English and I was looking for an apartment.

This is years ago.

And I go in and find a beautiful high-rise.

And this guy shows me an apartment.

He walks me around it.

And I'm like, okay, it's got a rooftop pool, nice gym.

I was like, how much?

He's like, $350.

$350, what?

And he was like, dollars.

I was like, per week?

He's like, no, per month.

And then it hit me.

I was like, I'm a millionaire here.

You know, on my military retirement, I'm a millionaire here.

And so I lived in Thailand, loved it, it, and came back to the States to go to Harvard and then ended up in the Dominican Republic, which I know and love.

And, you know, Dominican people are extremely friendly and welcoming.

Being an American abroad, people kind of expect you to be kind of stupid.

I think we just have this culture that we're like, you know.

But moving abroad is something that changed my life.

And I want to share that message with other veterans who might be struggling, but also veterans that just want to live a higher quality life.

Yeah.

It seems like a no-brainer to at least test it, go there for a week or two, see if you could possibly live there, right?

Yeah.

And I always recommend to people: hey, just because you find a sweet house and you can buy it for like a hundred grand, don't do it.

Rent for a while first, get used to the area, you know, because there are difficulties moving abroad, like there are difficulties with anything.

Yeah.

But the funniest thing,

the thing I discovered stops more veterans from moving abroad is you can't have guns in other countries to the same extent.

You can have guns in the States.

Yeah, so you can't have them in Dominican.

You can have them, but it's a complicated process.

It's expensive.

It's not really worth it to go through it.

But the way I explain violence from the United States to abroad is the United States, because a lot of people are concerned about safety going abroad.

It's kind of the first thing people talk about, especially veterans with kids or female veterans.

And violence in the United States is incredibly random.

I mean, we're here in Las Vegas, the site of an incredibly random attack.

Violence abroad kind of makes sense.

Like if there's fights on, we'll say the Mexican border from the cartels, okay, they're fighting over a trillion-dollar human trafficking and drug operation.

But violence in the States doesn't make sense.

You could be an old lady and get shoved in front of a subway.

You can be stabbed on the street.

You could be a mass shooting in the school.

It doesn't really make sense.

But violence abroad, it's kind of like, all right, you know, it's for a purpose.

You know, people aren't killing each other in American cities for a purpose.

They're just killing each other.

And that's a terrifying part, is a randomness.

That makes sense.

Are you in like a gated community with guards and stuff too?

No.

No?

No, I'm in the country.

Wow.

I'm out there.

I'm out there.

You should have you come visit.

I mean, I don't know if I

sound sketchy, bro.

But like you said, it's targeted.

Right.

Okay.

And there's expat areas compared to normal areas.

Any country has their areas you shouldn't go into.

You know, even so I go to Columbia a lot, and Colombia has areas where you should avoid, but other areas that are very safe.

That makes sense.

So I think there's kind of a misperception on safety abroad because I personally feel a lot safer.

abroad than I do in the United States.

I don't blame you, man.

I lived in LA for a bit.

I felt so unsafe every day.

Walking around a major American city is super stressful.

And that's one reason I don't think veterans should live in cities.

I mean, if you can't look up and see the stars, you're in the wrong place.

Agreed.

And you have to be on edge in an American city.

You can't take a subway in New York and just be relaxed.

No.

You're on edge.

You have to be on edge.

You have to be on your guard.

Not to mention the fact that like veterans and stress, you know.

A city can really exacerbate PTSD because it has all the symptoms of PTSD, loud noises, things that trigger you, crime.

And then you have to see the worst side of humanity.

And when I moved to the Dominican Republic, I realized once, like, I just took, I'm on the beach, just having a beer, watching the sunset, and I just take a deep breath.

You know, and how often do you just like take a deep breath and be grateful to be alive?

In America, I don't think that happens as much because we're constantly going, going, going.

And that's why I'm talking to veterans that sometimes a simple life is a better life because even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat.

Yeah, you're still insignificant out here living under

God knows what, just being controlled in so many different angles.

And moving abroad provided me a freedom that I want to share with other veterans, not only the freedom to live a higher quality life when it comes to money, but also to work on myself apart from the stress United States of America.

Because I think that in 2024, I think this year, people moving abroad is going to be a bigger deal.

I can see it, especially depending on the election.

More and more people are going to talk about it.

No matter where it goes, a lot of people are going to say I'm leaving the country.

Especially if Trump loses.

Yeah.

So, and on my website, I wrote, I ended up writing an article about living in the Dominican Republic like a year ago.

And I got such a positive response from it that I was like, okay, I'm going to do more.

I went to Mexico and I wrote an article about living there.

And I met with medical groups in Mexico and I met with veteran groups in Mexico.

Nice.

And then I went to Thailand and I met with veterans of foreign wars posts and American Legion posts over there.

And I started making social media videos about, hey, I'm on the beach of Dominican Republic and you're living in Boston or wherever else.

So, you know, getting that response has been awesome.

And then I wrote a veteran's guide to movement abroad and made it free on my website.

So then veterans can read how to move abroad, steps, pros, and cons, and all that to really dive into it.

What's the tax in Dominican?

The tax is incredibly low compared to the United States.

So let me see how I can phrase it.

If you buy a,

we'll say a $400,000 house, Dominican Republic, which would be an enormous mansion, your taxes on the house would be less than $500 a year.

Damn, the property tax?

Yep, because you have full property rights in Dominican Republic.

Yeah.

So that's one thing with moving abroad is American taxes after you move abroad don't even make sense.

I mean, like what I paid for my house I owned in New York now honestly seems like a criminal enterprise.

Like it's because you could, I mean, you can go to Costa Rica tomorrow and buy a house that's incredibly nice and your taxes will be like $250 a year.

Wow.

So, why would you, if you're a veteran on a fixed income or lots of my friends are like retired cops or also on fixed incomes, why wouldn't you live in a place that gives you the highest quality life possible?

Right.

New York, you're probably paying 10K a year in property tax.

I don't understand, you know, and a lot of veterans will say things like, I don't know how you afford to live in the Dominican Republic.

I'm like, I don't know how you afford to live in the states.

If you leave your house in America, you're paying $150.

Like, absolutely.

I got a cup of coffee this morning.

We're in Vegas.

Small cup cup of coffee, six bucks.

You know, it's sounds like Vegas.

Yes.

So that's one thing when it comes to your economic health really plays into your mental health.

And when I wasn't worried about paying my rent, when I wasn't worried about the bills, I was able to do things that I loved.

I was able to enjoy life, pursue hobbies and passions.

And one thing that I think is awesome about veterans abroad is that veterans contribute to everywhere we're at.

You know, I work with the boxing program in the Dominican Republic where we take kids off the street and teach them character, discipline with a a bunch of other U.S.

veterans.

So we have all these cool programs.

We work with an orphanage down there and there are so many resources for veterans abroad that veterans don't know about.

There are American Legion posts as close as Mexico and as far away as Thailand.

So next month I'm going to Thailand where I'll be meeting with veteran groups, meeting with hospitals, talking about veteran health care, and then continue to produce more content and information.

to help veterans live that high quality life that they deserve.

Nice.

So for your relocation program, is it only for veterans or can other people do it?

Anyone could do it.

And it's not really a program.

It's just me providing information based on based on my experiences.

But I have been surprised at how many other people hit me up and be like, I'm not a veteran, but I want to get the hell out of here too.

I mean, I don't blame them.

Yeah.

And the people I meet abroad and the veterans I meet abroad are thriving.

And a lot of the veterans I meet in the States are surviving.

And I think that's kind of been a key difference.

And for me, I work from my computer and so many people just work online nowadays.

Absolutely.

If you're on a a minimum wage job in America, you're not going to be able to eat healthy.

You're going to be so stressed.

Your housing situation is going to be really bad.

It's just not worth it, man.

Yeah.

And now

so many people are entirely working from their computers.

Why wouldn't you want to work from your computer in Bali?

Why wouldn't you want to live, work from your computer in a Dominican Republic?

Why wouldn't you want to work from somewhere where you can connect with nature in a greater sense?

I think that's one thing that I experienced because the VA put me on every drug underneath the sun.

But moving to the Dominican Republic and swimming in the ocean every day is what helped cured my PTSD.

They say the ocean's actually really healing.

They're doing studies on this now.

And back in the day, they used to prescribe ocean air as like a medical treatment.

Really?

Yeah.

I don't know.

They used to prescribe it like hundreds of years ago.

Wow.

And say, go live by the ocean.

And that's why people that live near the water are healthier and have higher quality lives.

Because when you experience that ocean air, when you can go out there and put your feet in the sand, I mean, it really grounds you to your life.

It really grounds you to the things that are really important.

They say grounding is amplified in ocean water, actually.

And even a lot of the health and beauty treatments, they use ocean water in it.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

See, and yeah, like seaweed stuff, right?

Seaweed wraps and things like that.

Yeah, I see that in spas.

So it's been really an incredible journey to go out there and talk to veterans about how they can improve their lives.

Because I think so many veterans in the United United States are experiencing this kind of like crisis when they get out of the military because it is harder and harder to adjust to civilian life as the gap between the military and civilian population grows.

And I think this is where veterans kind of fall into a trap and end up in a place called veteran purgatory, which is an unhealthy mental space when you're out of the military, but you don't feel comfortable in civilian life.

And for me, moving to the Dominican Republic, reconnecting with religion, reconnecting with nature was what helped me.

I mean, that's what I feel like saved me.

I hope to continue to save other veterans with that moving abroad philosophy.

I love it.

So two tours in Afghanistan, you mentioned you had PTSD from that.

What were some of the things you saw there that really scarred you?

I think violence against children is by far the hardest thing to deal with, especially when it comes to things like...

child sexual abuse, which is prevalent.

Damn, you saw that there?

I mean,

you see the effects of it.

Wow.

You see little kids wearing makeup, walking around, you know.

And I remember this one time.

I was like, why does a little boy have makeup on?

Let's talk at the interpreter.

And he's like,

it's for the men.

I was like, yeah, but let's deal with that.

He goes, it's for the men's pleasure.

And I didn't understand what he meant.

I'm like a naive 20-year-old kid.

I'm like, what do you mean by pleasure?

And he's like, it's sex.

They're going to have sex with him.

And seeing stuff like that really affected me,

I would say more so than any combat experiences.

Wow.

You know, and so I wrote a letter to my grandmother, who was a minister in my church growing up, and about, you know, the kind of difficulties I was dealing with with some of the emotional health stuff when I'm like 20 years old.

Just not able to process this kind of like information.

And she wrote me a letter back and gave me some of the best advice I ever heard.

She's like, John, you can't change the world.

You can't change Afghanistan.

Just do three things every day.

Do something nice for yourself.

something nice for someone you love and something nice for a stranger.

And that's when I realized, okay, I don't need to like change the world, but I can have a positive impact on the people, organizations, and places I come into contact with.

And that's why, like, the messages I've got from veterans who are like, thank you so much for, you know, providing this information and moving abroad.

I never contemplated just getting out, you know, because I think most people aren't like, I'll just move to the Dominican Republic.

No, it's never a thought.

I never knew about it until I stumbled across your ad, man.

To be honest.

And

there's a large contingent of veterans that left after Vietnam when they came back to the United States and were mistreated and abused by the country.

A lot of them were like, okay, I'll take my military benefits and I'll move.

And that's why even today you have a huge number of veterans that live in Southeast Asia.

There's a huge contingent of veterans that live in the Philippines and Thailand and Cambodia and all those countries over there.

And the Philippines is the only place outside the United States that has a full VA hospital.

But in the Dominican Republic, we have veteran centers that do veteran health care just for veterans.

Wow.

A lot of people are unaware of this.

So my website, I started writing about it because I received superior health care paid for by the VA in the Dominican Republic than I did in the United States.

Wow.

When I was struggling, when I was living in New York, I called for a mental health appointment.

It was a 24 days until my appointment.

Holy crap.

Wait times do not exist in the veteran clinics in the Dominican Republic.

So these clinics treat service-connected and retired veterans.

If I want a mental health appointment, I'll go that day.

And I can get the same medications, I can get the same treatments.

I started doing water therapy and chiropractic care in the Dominican Republic for my back.

Nice.

And that has improved me so much.

So a lot of veterans are unaware that they can get their health care outside the United States.

That's probably another question you get a lot.

How's the health care system?

And the reality is a lot of people think America is like the be-all-end of health.

be all end-all of health care.

If that was true, then we wouldn't lead the world in chronic diseases.

America is not.

And what's cool about Dominican Republic and other countries is that healthcare is so cheap.

If I want a medication, I can just go to the pharmacy and get it.

Wow.

In the United States, if you want a medication, you got to see a doctor, you got to see a pharmacist, you got to deal with insurance, and they're going to bill you like crazy.

So a lot of veterans are so surprised because they're like, yeah, I need this blood pressure medication.

And in Dominican Republic, for like a three-month supply of the medicine, it's like 15 bucks.

But in the United States, it's like 400 bucks.

Yeah, it's nuts.

Yeah.

So the American healthcare system is broken and veterans can get such better health care abroad through some of these veteran centers.

So I've been writing about it, and I think we have five health care centers just for veterans in the Dominican Republic that serves the 20,000 veterans that live there.

That's sick, man.

They also put on community events.

You know, we have a Veterans Day black tie affair.

We have boat parties that we go on.

We go out and do bicycle therapy, nature therapy, all this cool stuff with the veteran groups.

So for me, I think the community of veterans abroad is maybe even more welcoming and friendly than in the United States because we're all veteran expats who came there.

We all kind of feel the same about certain things.

So I've been able to make like a ton of awesome friends of veterans abroad.

You're living like a king out there, man.

Yeah, which isn't a bad deal.

Hey, you can, if you're on a veteran retirement, military retirement, you could be poor in America or rich abroad.

The American dream is alive.

It's just not in America.

Hit this man up, man.

Instead of going to rehab centers out here and living terribly.

Yeah, and I'd like to get into mental health treatment abroad abroad for state for veterans, like create some type of like mental health retreats in different countries where veterans can go there and do mental health.

So I'm hoping to develop that in the future.

That's needed, man.

Yeah, because these guys don't want to share their traumas after what they see, right?

No.

I mean, and sometimes you have to release it.

And sometimes it takes disconnecting from the United States to do it.

You know, if...

The government broke you, maybe the fix is elsewhere.

Maybe your fix is a beach in Thailand.

Maybe your fix is in the Dominican Republic.

It would definitely help, man.

Something about nature is very healing.

Yeah.

And

now I think that hopefully people are opening up to the idea of the healing power of nature.

So I went to Japan to do research on some project I'm doing about the healing power of nature for veterans.

And in Japan, they have these nature trails that are set up specifically for healing.

So what they do is they take your blood pressure before you go on them.

And then they take your blood pressure and stuff when you come back.

Really?

You can see the medical results of just walking in nature.

No way.

Now in Korea, in Japan, in Sweden, doctors are prescribing nature time

on a medical pad.

That's so cool.

Whereas America, the first is medication.

If that doesn't work, more medication.

If that doesn't work, we alter the medication.

And veterans have been on this like medication merry-go-round since the towers went down.

And more and more veterans...

I hope, are going to wake up to the idea of

things like living outside.

Because like I mentioned, Americans spend 90% of our time indoors and that obviously leads to some of our mental health struggles and in the Dominican Republic I'm outside all day you know living in the sun is such

in the ocean air but you know by the water is so healing I'm gonna come visit you man this sounds like paradise

we'll have a party

you had to learn Spanish didn't you yeah my Spanish is pretty good so that does stop a lot of veterans from moving abroad is the language barriers and that's why you see a lot of veterans in like Belize or Panama or the Philippines where a lot of people speak English.

In the Dominican Republic,

you know, I learned Spanish because I started dating Spanish girls and arguing with them.

So I'd be like, I'll just date Spanish girls, argue with them, I'll figure it out.

Those Latinas, man.

Yeah.

I'm dating one, but I love it, dude.

Yeah.

Can't be.

But it's fiery.

So, you know, you kind of learn the language and then switch Netflix to Spanish.

And in like a year, you'll be good.

That's what I started doing, too.

That helped me learn.

I took four years of Spanish class in high school.

Didn't learn s, honestly.

Started watching Netflix and Spanish, learned so much.

Yeah.

And the best way to learn a language is immersion.

So you don't necessarily need to speak the language before you move somewhere.

You know, you'll pick it up a little bit when you go.

When I lived in Thailand, I took one Thai class and I quit after 15 minutes because I was like, this is way too hard.

But Spanish makes a little more sense.

Ola and hello are pretty similar.

I feel that.

Talk to me about the five books, man.

So.

My book, Combat to College, is for student veterans.

This is for student veterans to be successful.

It's not just about getting good grades.

It's about some of the stuff we talked about, like networking, setting yourself for success after graduation.

This is my book on veteran affirmations.

So affirmations are a powerful mental health tool, but this book is written for veterans by a veteran with military culture.

So I took military oaths, creeds, songs, all that from all the branches and made it daily affirmations for them from

you know, January 1st to December 31st.

This is my most recent book, which I'm pretty proud of.

It's a affirmations Affirmations and Activities for Military Kids.

I had a friend of mine who I deployed with

who I think in the total war and terror, he spent like 10 years overseas and his son ended up killing himself as a teenager.

I think that a lot of the attention in the veteran community goes on the veteran, but we now realize that veteran families kind of serve right alongside you.

If you have a kid, it's very difficult if your dad or mom is gone for years at a time.

You have to move this and that.

So after I did my affirmation project for veterans, I created one for kids.

And this is military affirmations written for military kids.

So a lot of the language is about being proud of your hero, being respectful, some of the language that military kids understand.

I also put in like word searches with like military words and like mazes with like military themes.

So that was a fun project to do because I think

military kids' trauma and stress and issues go understudied and unappreciated.

Absolutely.

John, this has been fun, man.

Anything you want to promote or close off with?

No.

On my Instagram and TikTok, I'll be continuing to do veterans living abroad stuff.

And thanks for having me in there, man.

Awesome.

We'll link your stuff in the video.

Thanks for coming.

Yeah, thanks for watching, guys.

As always, see you tomorrow.