From Service to Success: Conquering VA Claims and Civilian Life

Transitioning from military to civilian life is no small feat, and in this episode, Chas and guest Yusha Thomas pull back the curtain on the unvarnished truths of post-service bureaucracy. We unpack the importance of self-assessment health reports, discuss how medical record volume can make or break your claim, and navigate the VA's concurrent receipt policies. But it's not all paperwork and waiting games; we touch on the life-altering impact this process has on veterans, the opening of new doors, and the pursuit of passions post-service, like fashion entrepreneurship or even political aspirations.

Chas and Yusha also celebrate the triumphs for veterans we've assisted, like the uplifting story of one who shot straight to permanent total disability from 70%. The discussion also tackles the personal joys and challenges of this line of work, giving you a peek into the lives transformed through rightful benefits and the dedicated team making it happen.

Subscribe and don't miss a single episode filled with insight, advice, and entertainment by veterans, for veterans.

Thanks for listening! Think you're underrated for VA disability benefits? We'll perform a free VA Claim Analysis and see if you're due an increase! https://sevenprinciples.com/intake/

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube for more on Veteran's Disability, VA Claims, and military life. https://www.facebook.com/sevenprinciplesgroup

Chapters

• 0:03 Understanding VA Claims and Percentage Calculation
• 10:50 Understanding the VA Process and Costs
• 23:43 Military to Civilian Life and Parenting
• 28:02 Recruiting Challenges and Potential War Concerns
• 37:15 Joining the Army
• 48:44 Tips for Veterans
• 52:47 Starting a Fashion Business With Passion
• 1:03:44 Navigating Veteran Life
• 1:13:34 Dating as a Public Figure
• 1:17:27 Start the Year Right

Transcript

Chas: 0:03

How many more points do we need one to get 95%? 95 is the magic number, because 95 is 100%.

Yusha: 0:08

Okay, I was about to ask that. So kind of like round up a little bit Round up exactly.

Chas: 0:14

Yeah, so everybody starts with 100%. You don't actually get 100% because they take away from the whole entire body perspective. So the whole body perspective is 100 is the overall number and if, let's say, friends, you get 50% for sleep apnea. I don't know about you, guys, but I love Bourbon Whiskey, especially Makers Mark, and we want to especially thank Veterans United for their contribution to our show on giving us a Makers Mark. As you can see here, guys, we had a couple shots already, so this show is going to be really entertaining. So stay tuned. Be sure to like, comment and subscribe.

Chas: 0:49

Welcome to Seven Principles podcast, where we discuss Veterans lives, veteran real issues and everything about Veterans. I'm the host, chad Sampson, and I am so happy to be able to at least give you a different side of Veterans claims, a more personal side, more informative and, of course, entertaining as well. I have no other than, as you know, entrepreneur mogul, youtube sensation, facebook sensation. I mean the titles go on and on and on. You're a sorry backbone. Get your shit fucking right, mr Usha Thomas. Man, welcome to the show man. Hey, I'm glad to be here bro. Yeah, man, it's crazy man I appreciate the invite, bro Dude.

Chas: 1:30

I appreciate you coming, bro. You got the fans outside going crazy. We got people in the front desk asking for a single jersey shirt Bro.

Yusha: 1:34

It ain't nothing but love man, it ain't nothing but love.

Chas: 1:36

Yeah, man, but yeah. So Since our last podcast, we've been able to help a lot of Veterans across the world and I thank you for that. It was my first time ever being in front of a large audience. That was about what I've built, what we do, how we do what we do and how we've been successful with it, because a lot of people, when they think of VA claims, they think it's like the military. You know, the military is very documented you perform, you get promoted. If you do what you're supposed to do your own time, keep your nose clean, you're fine. But the VA claims process is way more slommier in some cases than that. So I want to thank you, and also I want to thank the subscribers, the viewers and those that became clients of ours too. Absolutely, they loved it, man, they loved the video man.

Yusha: 2:26

Yeah, I told you that Soon, as of course they're used to my comedic videos and stuff like that, but when that video hit it was the most, one of the most viewed videos I had on my Facebook page and YouTube channel. So and in analytics you can see how sometimes on YouTube videos and stuff like that, people taper up. They watch it throughout for front to back.

Chas: 2:50

You know, I want to continue to put out good content like that with you, with you ourselves. You know, I think people we get so bogged down into like the day to day of like how we do claims and how can we be, you know, great. And then, of course, me as a CEO. It's like how do I manage a good team, how do I reward people, how do I incentivize, how do I also reprimand bad behavior? Because that happens with you know, with a lot of people that you're managing, and so to hear people wanting to hear the whole entire thing through it just gave me so much joy to want to say I want to do this more, I want to give out more content. So thank you once again, man, and, you know, thank the fans as well, the subscribers. Please support the channel, because the more we can do together, we can solve a lot with veterans across the world. So one of the things that people did say they were like we haven't seen you should put out that kind of content and we love them more for it.

Chas: 3:45

Right, we have this one client. I'm not going to name his name, but I'm sure he will want to be named at some point. He's an amazing guy of ours. He watched your channel. He's a subscriber, he's been watching you for years now and he ended up becoming our client. We got him from 7,200 percent permanent total.

Chas: 4:01

Okay, there's a trick that we do with permanent total. So, for those listening, permanent total is essentially meaning that the VA has designed a design or has designated that your conditions would no longer get better, and typically you need one condition, or several conditions that if one were to be reduced, you would still be at 100 percent. Okay. And so there's a special magic we have to do with the case to get it to 100 percent, and typically that magic is if we use the raw score calculator, which is 34.25.

Chas: 4:33

So to give you some depth on that, some veterans look at their case and you know, like I have a 10 for tinnitus, 30 percent for mental health, a 10 percent for migraines. That together equates to 50, but they're rated at 40 percent or something like that. It's some type of dichotomy like that, and they're like the VA is screwing me over and it's no, they're well, in some sense I guess, but no, they're not, because the VA math, you know, requirement states is how it works, and so we're able to look at these cases and say how many more points do we need one to get 95 percent? 95 is the magic number, because if you're 95, that's 100 percent.

Yusha: 5:10

Okay, I was about to ask that, so kind of like round up a little bit.

Chas: 5:14

Round up, okay, exactly, yeah, so it's a whole body perspective. So the way I teach clients is that everybody starts with 100 percent. You don't actually get 100 percent because they take away from the whole entire body perspective. Okay, so it's a whole body perspective. Is 100 is the overall number? And if let's say if we should get 50 percent for sleep apnea that's very common, 50 percent sleep apnea, sleep apnea and then they take the 50 from the 100 percent, you left with 50 whole body and 50 awarded its compensation. So if you get another, let's say 10 percent for tonight, is that's not 50 plus 10 is 60, that's 10 percent of the 50 that's remaining over here, which is five, right, and that's 55 percent wrong, okay, so it rounds up to 60 because the VA rates in increments of 10, but it's still 55 percent. If you get another 10, they just take the 45 that's left and that's 4.5, and now you're 59.5 or 60, you're still 60.

Yusha: 6:12

Okay, yeah, see how you broke it down. It's crazy A lot of people don't know that they don't know that, right, right.

Chas: 6:17

So so we get clients that come to us and those that watch your channel as well. Unfortunately, we had to decline people. We declined a lot of clients, unfortunately, because we're not going to waste the venerable time or the venerable money like bottom line the goal here. And so for me, give you kind of the business model of how I created this. The goal, of course, is to give a return on investment to my client.

Chas: 6:39

Now, my background is finance. I can easily go work on Wall Street, I can work anywhere in the finance sector and I can make half a million to one point five million dollars per year. One point five a million won't be easily done. I'd have to be working 12 hours a day, every single day, and I did that before when I was in finance as a younger guy, yeah. Now as a grown man kid, single parent, responsibilities and whatnot I can't do 12 hours in a world. I can ink out maybe nine, but not not 12 on a Saturday. You know I need to time to move along, you know.

Chas: 7:08

But I can easily work in finance, and so the model here is how can I make sure my client gets a return on investment? And for those that have watched your channel before and became our clients. They're extremely happy to know that, because we see it in the comments, we see it in the reviews, we see it in the clients a day send as well. You see it as probably more participation, or at least consistent participation.

Chas: 7:29

But our model is how do we make sure that, if you're paying us to do this case, we take this case and be the best through it by the client and the best interest of the veteran, and be a good fiduciary? How do we make sure that this case that is this this client is paying for? They get their money back tenfold. And I tell our clients, if you're going to live at least three more months after redone your case, you've already got your eye and our eye just keep coming every single month and it's a severe disability. Now our eyes are bad way to look at it, but from a financial standpoint it is a good way to look at it because you come to us, you give us money, we do the work, we get you money, you go off, you're happy, you tell your friends and then boom, this is like he's going on and on.

Chas: 8:06

So the clients that we were to interact with were just ecstatic to see something different, I guess, and to also know that it actually worked. And so there were also clients that we worked with, from the content that we put out together that I felt like it was too much of an investment. They felt like this is not good for me. I can go somewhere else and find otherwise. When it happened, these people came back to us and was like can you fix it? I fucked up, fucked up, fucked up big time, it's like. And they knew it. They called it was like hey, you told me to do X, y, z.

Chas: 8:43

Because we give people with a strategy in some cases, because we're not going to hire us unless we tell you what to do. But we will tell you what to do. We'll tell you go change the tire, but you need a tire jack, you need a lug nuts, you need to remove those. You know there are steps to change the tire. You just don't change a tire. You need to know how to do it. And so we often tell them how, because the how takes three hours on a phone call. By that time it's like you're still going to mess up. You don't if you don't do it right.

Chas: 9:10

There are certain little small things in the case that, if you don't see it, just a sentence will change a whole entire outcome of a whole entire case. A box being checked in the wrong box being checked can take a client from 50 to 0 easily. So we see people get decreased. We see people also go into their own case and say the same but now can never get an increase in the future, because they thought in their mind that it was like the military they check off the box, everything's fine, you go for it, or that the raider would understand what they're articulating. And the raider only understands part three and part four to see a far.

Chas: 9:46

If you're not speaking that and to the nuance of what your case entails, then there's no way you can get your service connection. I see, yeah, it's crazy. So once again, for the viewers, obviously it's important to, of course, use a service, but it's also important to your case period, whether you go through us or somewhere else, it's important to do it. But I just wanted to get a feel for you know you were sharing that that people watched this a whole entire way through, absolutely like tell me more. What was some of the comments that you experienced, at least some of the ones that stood out to you, because you see more than what we see.

Yusha: 10:17

We just see someone fill out the form, get in contact with us and then boom, it would take you to say so, yeah, so it was a lot of like Facebook, for example, there was a lot of people inboxing me like after the video like yo is this legit? This is, this is real. Like, yes, this is, this is absolutely real. And I'm talking about anywhere from my channel is very diverse. Right, I'm talking about the demographic is all over the place, absolutely, yeah so you already know.

Chas: 10:43

Based upon that, you got Hillbilly's federal employees.

Yusha: 10:46

That's what we're making kind of like you got everything Right so I mean.

Yusha: 10:50

I'm talking about Vietnam. That's where I'm inboxed to. You know, the guys just got out after doing three or four years. You know what I mean. Hey bro, I really needed this video. Great information. Is this legit? I really needed contact Chas right to start my process, because you already know that the VA process is complicated. It is, it is and a lot of people mess it up. So you know my inbox was completely full, right, you know what I mean. So you already know. Based upon the people that were actually coming.

Yusha: 11:17

Yeah, right, so it was the question that we're asked in my inbox and just a couple. Was it legit? Definitely, how much would it cost, right? I don't think we covered that on the video.

Chas: 11:28

Yeah, yeah, we can cover it now, yeah. Right, right I don't think we did. I don't think we did yeah.

Yusha: 11:33

That was a question what's the turnaround? Right, and all that type of stuff. So I'm like, you know, fill out the information, fill out the intake sheet, you know, and one of Chas' you know employees will get in touch with you. You know what I mean. So those type of questions, because those type of videos, right, they don't happen, right, especially with somebody like myself. You know, we got millions of followers, right, you know what I mean. So majority of my things, like 95 percent, is about 95 percent, majority male, 80 percent males, 20, 20 percent women, right, and a lot of our, you know, I think anywhere from 95, I think 95 percent is all either veterans or prior service. Ok, prior service veterans, active duty, from every branch, for even space force, you know what I mean Army, navy, national Army, navy Marines, air Force, all that stuff, yep. So a lot of people were asking those questions and, like I said, it was something needed to happen because, those videos don't happen.

Yusha: 12:30

They don't. Of course, they used to be doing the comedic videos and stuff like that, but when it comes down to real information that really need to be done, that really need to be told, right, they were happy to see it coming from somewhere like me, with a huge influence and a huge audience. Yeah, so there was a game changer right there.

Chas: 12:45

Yeah, let's discuss that, because I think cost does become some taboo and people need to understand there is a cost to what we do. Before we get in the cost, I do want to share some some some, some some challenges that veterans will be experiencing. You discussed that. You know guys and gals getting out three or four years after they did a service they gone.

Chas: 13:03

I was one of those guys and guys. I did five years and I was like you know what all right here, just isn't here, I'm out of here. I'm tired deploying, I'm tired, I'm gone. So, for those that are given out, the VA now requires a self assessment health report from those that are in a BDD claims, and so BDD claims are benefits delivery discharge. I was one of the recipients when I got out of the military in 2010 and it requires for the veteran to. So when you leave the military, you have to do a physical assessment, a physical health assessment, right, and you answer yes or no to these things, and if you check no these things, it can be used against you in a VA decision rating.

Chas: 13:43

So if the evidence is for and against you. We look at PHA, which will appear out health assessments, and if it says no that you never were experiencing blurred vision or migraines or mental health or back issues or feet conditions or foot conditions excuse me, then you know we have the right to deny the claim if there's not enough evidence to support the claim. Okay, now they have made it a requirement to do an additional self assessment health report and I think that's going to be a number one way to fuck veterans. I really honestly believe this is crazy. How difficult it is for people to get service connection and I think with this self assessment health portfolio they're making makes it more difficult. So I'm going to tell you a story that's crazy. Two clients that we dealt with, both from 80 second airborne division. One was not a airborne guy, he regular soldier, he was an E3. He did a year and a half. Dude messed his knee up playing basketball like for.

Chas: 14:41

PT got 20 points for it. Okay, I got this Enon type 23 years tabbed out airborne Ranger, special forces, pathfinder. I mean he's got stuff everywhere, right? Okay, his medical records were probably 150 pages. Now, for us, what we require, what we, what we want, what we hope, is that for a good case to be 100 pages per year of service. That's a good case for us. Yeah, 100 pages per year of service bro there's four elements we have to meet right to make a case work in the veterans favor one.

Chas: 15:25

We need a diagnosis, okay. We need an event and service. We need a nexus that ties these things together. And we need chronicity. If it's chronic, I'm going to get my client paid, I know that for sure. If it's not chronic, depend on the presumptiveness of the condition and the nature of the condition. You still can, you know, get a pretty big, big payout, but having it chronic is always good. So 100 pages per year of service.

Chas: 15:50

So this this is the junior listed guy E3 for I think it was E3 he had probably easily 600 pages. This dude was what we call a sick call Ranger. Yeah, 80% off the bat. He did three years and so we're having trouble getting this major past 50 because he's retired. If you 50%, you get concurrent receipt, which means you as a retiree, you're able to get your VA disability payments, which are non tax, and you get your military pension, which is tax Right Huge benefit. If you're under that 50% threshold you can't enjoy concurrent receipt. So a lot of retirees came from your page to our firm wanting that 50 points and we said if we can't get you 50, we're not going to bill you for the service.

Yusha: 16:39

Yeah, well, you know where it is with those older guys. Man, yeah, it's a mindset, man. It is a mindset Like even when I was at a station at Campbell I mean you going to Sitco. You were frowned upon, absolutely. You know what I mean. So that E3, you say yeah, e3.

Chas: 16:54

That Rastus Neyup on Orgde or something like that. He was out there pooping.

Yusha: 16:58

Yeah, Right, right right. He did it the right way, though. You know what I mean he did.

Chas: 17:03

He did it the smart way. I mean, if you look at his records it was clear that someone, probably an older vet, maybe his dad, maybe his mom, set him down and said son, document everything.

Chas: 17:13

I don't give a fuck when it happens. Document it. It happens at midnight. You out there doing dumb shit. Go to Sitco. It's six in the morning, zero to 600 for formation, you know. So it's crazy to see that.

Chas: 17:21

But now there's this new stipulation that the VA is requiring this self-health or self-reported health assessment, and it's my opinion it's going to screw a lot of veterans over, because if you don't report things to proper in that assessment form, your B2D claim, you're probably going to get less on the front end. And so we've been successful at getting a lot of guys as soon as they retire or as soon as they ETS. Where you did three years or 30 years, we're getting you 100. We're getting you well, not 100, but you know, some get 100, some get 80. It all falls in there somewhere. But you get money from us because we put the case together properly. But for those guys and gals that are looking at getting out in two, three years from now, we've been actually doing medical assessments for them without a doctor, free of charge, and showing them Dave, this is what you should be considering, this is what your metaphor is look like. And in three years from now, if you go to the VA. This is where you're going to be at, as far as your percentage, probably zero or 10. And they're like, oh, I need to get my shit together and they get it together.

Chas: 18:16

Speaking of that, let's talk about cost. So I want to answer that, because people are always wondering what do you charge? What are your fees? You're not doing it for free, obviously. What do you cost? So we're very straightforward. You can go to sevenprincipalscom. You can also see our price chart down there. We give an example of it and everything as well. But for us, if we accept your case, it's $500 to retain the firm and that takes care of two hours of work. For us it's $250 per hour. Now, for us, we're going to probably put anywhere between on the front end, we're probably going to put it anywhere between three, about three to four hours. That's in phone calls, emails, that's in research, that's in coordinating efforts with our doctors and so forth.

Chas: 18:56

It's a lot of little moving parts. We don't charge the veteran a lot of money up front because for one we want to make sure there's a positive ROI. So what we're saying is that we feel that we are just that competent, just that smart to take your case, do the work pretty much for free up front, because $500 in the whole grand scheme of things doesn't pay for much. I mean, you're in our building. I mean this is not a very expensive building. Nothing is cheap about this building at all. Nothing is cheap about the employees that we employ. Nothing is cheap about none of this. The lights have to get paid for some way somehow, and so the $500 really just puts skin in the game. We used to not charge or retain a fee up front. We had an office full of medical records. Veterans will stop by, drop the records off and forget them. It's almost like kids, like somebody's single parent dropping off a kid and go to the club. So you know, it's three right, the club.

Yusha: 19:49

Ben closed. They've been singing that song.

Chas: 19:51

now we're green for a while now.

Chas: 19:53

Like pick your kids up. So we have people dropping a case off and just not taking any action. So once we apply the fee, it held us to the fire to perform, which is what we want to do. It also held the veterans to the fire to also perform by giving us what we need. All we ask for is intake form, which is you can look at it in the description, in the comments, or just give us your medical records and do an intake form that way. So I mean, either way, it's very simple work for the veteran. But it's $500 up front and there is also a performance fee or what we call a back-end.

Chas: 20:25

So if someone comes to us, we have a 0% rule where the fees are capped. The most someone's going to pay us at 0% is $3,000. They go to less than 100. They go to 100. I think it's 7,500 or something like that Did they pay? We give them a flexible payment plan. It's extremely flexible for them. And then for those that are rated above 30% I think it is 20 or 30. I figure I got to talk to finance about that, but there's a five times a difference model and so if you come at $100, you leave at, let's say, $500. And we just take the difference of that, which is $400. And we multiply by five, it's $2,000 a year final bill and veterans typically pay up front the whole entire deal. We do get some that take our payment plan. They pay over 10 months, Some pay over six months, Some pay over 60 days.

Chas: 21:08

Everyone's finances are different. We are very flexible with veterans too. Every year we have probably maybe 1% to 2% that don't pay us. So very, very low amount of people don't pay us and typically they're not paying because of a lot of the reasons going on in life, Somewhere in bankruptcy. Some have other financial stuff going on.

Chas: 21:28

So for the viewers, that's our cost and we've also kept our performance fees. So for viewers out there thinking well, I'm at 70% or I'm at 30%. If I go from 30 to 100, which we get a lot of cases go from 30 to 100, Daddy quakes like $15,000. That's a lot of money, Not no grand scheme of things or how much you're making. Yeah, you're making. We just 10 extra money every single month for us to live, which is great, but we cap our fees at 12 grand. So no matter how much you get back, the most you're gonna pay us is $12,000. So that is extremely fair for a lot of clients. I think that should be a rule across the board.

Chas: 22:03

I am working with different members of Congress and everyone else to bring some type of structure to what we do, because there's a lot of people that do different things to what we do. There are a lot of people that do it differently. Some are getting results, some are not. But not only do we get traffic from content that you and I put out, but we also get content from other firms or what they're not doing. So we get our competitors clients too, because our structure is just different. If we cannot perform the mission, we're gonna abort.

Yusha: 22:33

That's it. That's it.

Chas: 22:35

So I think that veterans like that upfront, straightforward bottom line this is what it is, this is what we can or cannot do. Take it or leave it Absolutely. Yeah, so, but yeah, I wanted to also touch base on when I met you, you were a recruiter and you were on the recruiting show my experience in your case, we had to get records from everywhere. So what is it like, I guess, for guys and guys that are on the trail doing drill sergeants, drill sergeant stuff, recruiters, people that are working in remote locations, what is it like transitioning for folks like that?

Chas: 23:13

Transitioning like going from recruiter.

Yusha: 23:16

I mean, I'm sorry, going from your typical.

Chas: 23:18

MOS to recruiter, to recruiter and then, of course, getting out after that.

Yusha: 23:23

Okay, I'm trying to understand your question. Can you say that one?

Chas: 23:27

Yeah, so like when you are coming out as a recruiter. Well, okay, so you came out as a recruiter. I left ETS as a recruiter. I was your last.

Yusha: 23:36

I was your last. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Ets as a recruiter.

Chas: 23:38

Okay. So when I ETS, I ETS as permanent partner at Fort Lewis. They had a whole thing set up for us, so we had like TAPS briefing. I think they call it SFL TAP now. We had TAPS briefings. We had a counselor with us to try to do resumes. Soldier for life too.

Yusha: 23:56

Soldier for life.

Chas: 23:56

Yeah, we had like the sheriff department comes in that tells you like be a sheriff you want to be part of. At the time it was King County in Seattle, or Pierce County too. They both came in. We also had like VA reps on board that like did everything for us. I mean it was like plush bro. The transition was crazy. But I know for recruiters and people that aren't like at like a duty station per, say, like Fort Bragg or you know which is Fort.

Yusha: 24:20

Liberty. Okay, I understand, I understand.

Chas: 24:22

What's it like in you guys lifestyle to transition when you're in that type of place?

Yusha: 24:28

So if you're in like a like I was in 79, romeo, when I got up right so I was assigned to Fort Rucker because I was stationed in Mississippi, hattiesburg, mississippi so you'll get assigned to a duty station, okay, like a where you go out of process, like a home base, yeah, so, like you know, fort Rucker, Alabama, that's where I was at.

Yusha: 24:48

Okay, so when you go there you get the same briefings you would get if you were. You know you were stationed at Bragg when you got out I was stationed at Fort Lewis. Okay, you were at Fort Lewis. So all the briefings you would get at Fort Lewis we would get it at. You know, whatever base we were, you know, get assigned to.

Chas: 25:02

Miles, Fort Rucker same thing, Okay.

Yusha: 25:04

So it even as a recruiter, because we don't, typically as a recruiter, you're not around army bases, right? So you also get assigned to health clinic and all that type of stuff too, right? You know what I mean? All in the system and all that type of stuff, okay. Where you can go, you can't go. Who takes the insurance, who doesn't? All that type of stuff, Gotcha, I was lucky to have when I was stationed in New York as a recruiter. We had a VA we had I'm sorry, we were by Fort Hamilton Brooklyn, okay, fort Hamilton Brooklyn, which was a VA clinic, a VA hospital, right next to, you know, fort Hamilton, gotcha. So we would go there, okay, and we would get in one place, okay. But you, our recruiter, and you're stationed in bum fuck, mississippi, like.

Chas: 25:45

I was.

Yusha: 25:45

You know what I mean. You'll go to different hospitals, local hospitals and stuff like that, clinics and all that type of stuff. So that's why my record was all over the place. You know what I mean, right? So I think I was in Campbell, new York, mississippi, and a few other places I would have to go Like, for instance, I was at school at Fort Lee. You know, I had like something happen to me and I had to go to an emergency room. Okay, different locations and stuff like that. That's why, if I was in the school and I had to go to a hospital, that's why my records were all over the place.

Chas: 26:14

Yeah, exactly so. Well, you know, recently the army missed this mark on recruiting and you know I was thinking about this. I was at the school. My daughter got in some kind of a little bit of trouble. Man, you know I'm a full time single dad and I'm also a CEO and it's probably distress is crazy of like what I manage on a day to day but I love being a dad and I don't really love being a single parent. It comes with its ups and downs, but this was funny because my daughter ended up getting a vape. I guess this vape is like a new big deal for teenagers, man, my daughter I have a 16 year old and 11 year old my oldest daughter got a vape from one of her, I guess, friends at the school or whatever, and the policy state said they have to notify law enforcement. I'm like for a fucking vape.

Yusha: 27:05

Is that like just nicotine?

Chas: 27:07

or it was like a vape, Well it was THC vape. Okay, so they actually characterized it as possession of drug paraphernalia. I'm like, well, technically it's synthetic, so of course I'm gonna argue and I lost. I lost big time. I'm to fit my babies. You know, that's my daughter.

Yusha: 27:27

Absolutely, you know, so you go to bat for them, right.

Chas: 27:29

So, with that being said, they also logged that at the local police department. I immediately went to what is her efforts to join the military? Because if my kid decides to join the army or the Air Force, navy, marine Corps, whichever she decides, if she decides to join the military, how would this affect her, which obviously would affect recruiting numbers too. Absolutely my youngest baby, which was crazy. Both of this happened in a matter of one day. This was early in the morning, late in the afternoon, eight this morning or 10 this morning and 2 30 pm today. It's crazy.

Chas: 28:02

My oldest daughter, someone's parent, I'm not gonna name the parent, someone's parent creates edibles and the kid, ben Sneaky, took mom and dads edibles to school and dispersed them. Oh my God, there were 16 kids high as hell, middle school kids, sixth graders, high as hell. My daughter was one of them. My daughter was smart, though my youngest she was smart. She actually took the gummy, put it in her mouth, tried it, didn't like it and was like ugh, throw it out. So she wasn't high, but she felt a little woozy, a little bit. It's just a very powerful gummy.

Chas: 28:33

Oh, absolutely. So you know, I'm thinking in my mind like, oh my God, like I want my kids to have the best future, I want them to have the ability to do whatever they want to do, whether they go to college or whether they, you know, join the military. So that gets back to the point. The Army missed this numbers, or it's goal, or it's mark on meeting recruitment. And with you being in recruitment, what is it like in the office where, army-wide, this is a problem? How do you guys, I guess, change that? And like, what's your thoughts on the current Army's recruiting miss?

Yusha: 29:03

Man, I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you like this and I was a recruiter, I was a recruiter first, then became a center commander. But when you miss your numbers, like that, shit changed Wow. You know what I mean.

Chas: 29:15

I mean it's not really good I mean I could imagine, but like change it's not really good. Your face was like from an arrest type change.

Yusha: 29:21

Well, it's recruiting man and it's like probably one of the hardest jobs and, as most recruiters don't put in packets to become a recruiter and most don't know how to recruit, so, yeah, you go to school and you learn, or they try to teach you how to get out there and talk to people, but it's anxiety stricken. You know what I mean. So it's like an environment where, say, if you an introvert, you don't like talking to people, you're in trouble. So in the recruiting world you miss your numbers. You gotta now times. I'll tell you, you gotta come in a little earlier.

Chas: 29:52

You gotta stay a little later. You know what I mean.

Yusha: 29:54

You gotta increase your numbers by going to different locations, more school visits, more briefings and all that type of stuff. So, all right, I can tell you right now because of the numbers been missed nine times out of 10, something's gonna come down where they're gonna change the standards. You know what I?

Chas: 30:12

mean I did see that the space force was allowing. They changed the age. I think it was like 18 to 42. 42. And before was like 18 to 32 or 35 or something.

Yusha: 30:23

I believe that every branch right now is the age the 42. I think last time I checked it was every branch that went up to 42. Because the army, at one point, I think, the maximum age was 35. Something like that, if I'm not mistaken. And then stuff like that would change As-Vab waivers. What happened you?

Chas: 30:41

know what I mean. The minimum Criminal behavior probably will get a slot Absolutely.

Yusha: 30:47

You gotta rest it for some type of drug, paraphernalia or something like that, or whatever Waiver, so my kid might have a chance. Oh, absolutely.

Chas: 30:55

If we had a war, you know, they started like moving the standards around.

Yusha: 30:58

That's typically what happened, I remember and sometime they have surges too they also changed the standard. During those time, I was allowed to put a dude in with a missing big toe. A missing big toe, yes, in 2013 in Mississippi. Yeah, as long as he, I sent the waiver up and he went infantry, he's probably still in. Wow, a missing big toe. I think it was on his right foot, but he passed it.

Chas: 31:22

The medical exam. You do duck walking. He did all that.

Yusha: 31:24

He did all that. We sent up the medical waiver. It took like 30 days, but it got approved.

Chas: 31:31

You know I needed a medical waiver too. I needed two waivers to join. I joined at 06, so you already knew what kind of time it was Right. Right, I have a tattoo on my neck that I got when I was young and stupid, right, and I also have extremely flat feet. I mean like flatter than the soda that's been out for 12 days, okay, like it's flat, flat. And so I had to do the whole duck walk and I was in pain, but I was not gonna let the Army slip out my grass, I was going to an Army dog. So it's kind of crazy those waivers coming out nowadays and how they're doing that. Now, you know, with these types of waivers, there's talks of a potential war again.

Yusha: 32:08

Right, that's the we in trouble. We going to war nowadays, man, we in trouble.

Chas: 32:13

I think the next war is gonna be different, in the war that you and I fought, you know you and.

Chas: 32:17

I fought the more up on Mahum V's M2's route clearance convoy and we'd knockin' shit down. I think the next war is gonna be more behind computer screens man. Absolutely I think so. I think it's gonna be a matter of like weird agents that would get deployed, like COVID. I mean, I don't always sound like a conspiracy theorist, you know, but I think COVID was definitely. Yes, I'm not gonna get into COVID, but I think there is more to it than just what we know. I'm gonna leave it at that. You believe it at?

Yusha: 32:44

that you believe it at that, Because the comments are going to be on fire. Yeah man, Listen man, I'll be banned. I'll be banned on all social media platforms, man.

Chas: 32:54

I'll leave it at that. However, I think you know if a next war happens which I'm crossing my fingers hoping that it's done. But inflation is high. American spending is down. Credit card usage is up significantly. Studies are showing reports are showing that 60% of households are maxing out their credit cards right now to finance Christmas and finance, you know, the end of the year, to finance their life, to finance everything, and so when that starts to happen, I think it's almost like I'm from the neighborhood and you know, if the neighbor he don't have it, the neighbor's gonna be your house to get it right. So I think, as Americans, when we are not doing well, we go to somebody's house and we find a way to get it, and I think that's kind of what I'm seeing in the news nowadays. It's scary, bro, it's a scary situation.

Yusha: 33:45

I mean, the last thing you need is you know I mean. And then all these movies coming up you know what I? Mean you don't want that to happen, especially war, because kids aren't the kids. The way they're raised nowadays. I mean on social media and all that type of stuff. I mean, as far as you know, the amount of kids that don't go out and play anymore, do any type of physical fitness or not physical fitness.

Chas: 34:09

But physical activity. Physical activity yeah, you can spin out, yeah.

Yusha: 34:13

And recruiting numbers are down because people are frowned upon the military too. You know what I mean. A lot of people don't enjoy them because they don't want to. Back in the day, the selling points were college education and all that type of stuff. They don't even care about that anymore. You know what I mean Because a lot of people are starting to find employment and they're not going to school a lot of them. You can get a job on the internet doing whatever you know what I mean.

Yusha: 34:37

And make a living Absolutely. So, yeah, we go to war man with, oh man, we in trouble, I think, and I don't think the draft will work.

Chas: 34:46

I don't think it will.

Yusha: 34:47

I think people just.

Chas: 34:48

I'm leaving the country I'm out of here. I'm going to Canada.

Yusha: 34:50

I'm going to Canada, take me to jail Right, because these kids don't care. Right, absolutely not.

Chas: 34:55

But I think my generation of parents that was a different army, that was a BDU army boot shine. I learned how to use the Kiwi and cold water when I was a little boy. Where your parents were at my parents were not in my aunt was in and she was in my life every day. She lived in my parents' house, okay, and it was. So. Let me tell you something so crazy man Shout out to my Aunt Paula, if you're watching Aunt Paula's amazing bro.

Chas: 35:18

Now, I grew up in a church and you know how it is in the church. Like you know, your mom's best friend is your aunt. Oh, absolutely, you know, if they're too young, like they're not auntie age and like your cousin, you know. And then for a few of them that are like, really, you know your age and really cool, it's your sister or brother or whatever. So this is like my aunt in Christ in a way. But my auntie Paula is probably one of the most disciplined squared away people I've ever met in my life. She's still this way to this day. She was Army, yeah, she was Army. She was at Fort Bragg I'm talking squared away hair and the braid single braid off the maroon braid.

Chas: 35:57

You know, bro, you know what I'm saying, like she was on that kind of time and so you know, seeing that, and she always had a nice car. I've always been the guy like nice cars. So for me I was like how you do it? She's like I'm in the Army, I'm like I need to do that Army, the Army, like bro, when I was living in Fayetteville. I grew up in Fayetteville, north Carolina. I'm seeing guys with Calot DTS on 24s. I'm seeing.

Chas: 36:22

Esclaves. On 26s I'm seeing brand new Chevy's and brand new BMWs, mercedes. I'm like these dudes are in the military, like I'm going to the military.

Yusha: 36:34

You saw that in my hood it was drug dealers period. Yeah, we didn't. You know, philly is not like in military. Yeah, you're, philly's not military at all. Yeah crazy.

Chas: 36:43

So. So tell me about what made you say I want to go to the Army. You from Philly, you're not from an area, because for me I think the stories is like straight forward I grew up in February, north Carolina. I grew up watching guys and gals jump out of airplanes Like that definitely was a huge influence for me during the Army. But you're from Philly, which I have a crazy story about, philly, by the way, I'll share with you but Philly doesn't have a big military presence. Tell me all about that. How'd you come to that conclusion?

Yusha: 37:09

I ain't gonna lie to you, man. I remember the day that that light came one in my head. I was in a physics class in Missicato which I hated. Physics, man, I ain't gonna lie, I was a smart kid but I just like physics. It was just mellowing me, man.

Yusha: 37:23

And I remember we had a recruiter going classroom, a classroom, a classroom. His name was Sergeant Harris. Sergeant Harris, hey, anybody want to take that the practice as that we're doing on the fourth floor, come at this time and you take the practice. I took it as an invite to get out of this class. So me and my best friend at the time, jamil, right out, we actually joined. We ended up joining the army together. But I didn't want to join the army at first, man, my dad was a Marine. You know what I mean. So if I was gonna join, I was gonna join the Marines. You know what I mean. But I didn't want to. My vision was set on going to the Art Institute of Philadelphia, okay, okay. So I was in the art and painting and drawing, all that stuff. I was really, really good.

Chas: 38:08

A lot of people don't know that about you, though.

Yusha: 38:09

No man, that's crazy, right right because I don't talk about it often, you know, because I don't do. This is, like you know, personal type of stuff. So a lot of things, people, they only know the comedic side and stuff like that. So yeah, I definitely wanted to go to art school for fashion and all that stuff, but when he came to my class we took it as an opportunity to get the fuck out.

Chas: 38:34

Get out, hey, hey, hey, get out, hey, hey, hey.

Yusha: 38:36

We ended up doing really good on a practice test and I remember it was me, him and like somebody else. It was like probably like 15 people up there taking the practice test and he was like hey, you know, you all took real quick like 20 minutes. You know you can tell the ones who failed and the ones who passed. Take the ones that failed. Hey, y'all can dip, but y'all three.

Chas: 39:00

Yeah, y'all didn't come with me.

Yusha: 39:02

Right, have y'all ever really given us some thought to join your army? I said no, not really. He started breaking down the opportunities, the sign on bonuses at the time, the different MOS's, because at the time I scored pretty good, so he was throwing military intelligence in my face, yeah, yeah 007 is 007, I don't sound too bad. And it also made me make that decision was you know, at the time I wanted to stay in Philly, but I didn't want to because I'd seen the environment.

Chas: 39:32

Yeah, you know what I'm saying. You gotta get out of there, you gotta get up out of there, right.

Yusha: 39:36

And my mom didn't. You know when I did tell my boy I let it, look, we do this, we do this together, man, you know what I mean. So I gave him some thought, actually had to get away because I was 17 at the time.

Chas: 39:48

Oh wow, you joined at 17?.

Yusha: 39:50

Yeah, bro, wow 12th grade. It was the last minute decision.

Chas: 39:52

You were not fucking around.

Yusha: 39:54

No, it was last minute decision. I mean, we had some I don't know we had some beef in high school with some guys man that we didn't want to stick around anyway. So it was like I gotta make a decision. What if we graduate and something happens, we run into these guys again? Man, they carrying a gun.

Chas: 40:07

Let's get up out of here. Right, right, right.

Yusha: 40:09

Let's get out of these four walls of Philly, Right? So I end up talking to my dad about it. He's a Marine, you know what I mean. So he talked to my mom. She wasn't going. So I'm like all right, Dad, you gotta come on. Man, yeah, Look, I Convince mom Graduation they're right around the corner, Right.

Chas: 40:22

You know what I mean.

Yusha: 40:22

Like I'm trying to literally leave two weeks after I graduate. So he ended up convincing her. She signed up paperwork, we went down there, we picked our MOS, we were at the buddy program, so we were both 98 hotels. Okay, which was Morse code interceptor.

Chas: 40:36

Okay, so we didn't have that job anymore.

Yusha: 40:37

Okay, but the reason why I joined the Army is I was I didn't know anything about it. So when he started talking to me about the benefits and stuff like that and I love money too, right, and he was handling on that money so I'm like, all right, all right, too easy, I'm out Seriously. So when we made our decision, my friend helped me too. So it was like Morve, we can get out of Philly, we can do this, we can explore, we can get paid and you know all this type of stuff. So after I graduated, two weeks later, we were out to Fort Jackson. Wow, you know what I mean. So it was the best decision I've ever made in my life. Man, yeah, if I were to stay in Philly, I would not. I would I probably been in jail or something like that. Yeah, hanging around the wrong crowds, cause a lot of my friends I didn't leave End up going that direction. Yeah, absolutely.

Chas: 41:20

Absolutely. That's what crazy. I have a very similar story of how I joined the military. It's almost similar.

Chas: 41:25

I was at Winsome State playing football. I was on a football scholarship and I absolutely hated Winsome State. I mean not hated, I can't say that, but I just I was not feeling it Right At the time. This was 2006. This was around May timeframe. I also had some issues with some guys at the school too, but I was afraid I was going to kill them. I ended up carrying a pistol around campus.

Chas: 41:52

Winsome State is in the middle of Winston-Salem and it's I mean, when I tell you this, it can get no more ghetto than ghetto is ghetto. At least when I was there, they've cleaned up a lot. You know, I was in, I was in Brown Hall, then I ended up going to Wilson Hall. So for all the Rams out there, you know I'm not hating the school, but it is what it is. So I ended up actually watching Friday. I used to watch Friday every Friday with some friends. It was four of us me, mike, contrell and Lorenzo. We would all sit in my dorm light up a J, pass it in rotation, watch Friday and be reciting the lines word for word, for word because we watch it every Friday. Right, this particular Friday the DVD was not working. This was DVD. I'm dating myself. Now this is DVD time for me, right?

Yusha: 42:31

I feel old saying that we always, we always play, we always like.

Chas: 42:34

DVD. My kids are like DVD. What is the DVD? Yeah, so we had a DVD and it wasn't working because you know we've been spending it every Friday, and so the guys left was like, hey, I'll throw all your great parties over, you know? Whatever, right, we'll go out separate ways. This commercial came up. This guy repelled out of a helicopter. They're like 40,000. Hmm, 40,000 in the dorm.

Yusha: 42:55

I thought I'm pointing your face over. I was like 40,000?

Chas: 42:58

40,000? You know what I can do with that? I don't have $40,000. Right, right, 40,000? Right, there's no way, this is fucking real.

Chas: 43:06

So I gathered the guys around like, hey man, you know, how are you guys feeling about next semester? Like, are you guys gonna stay on the team? Are you guys leaving? Everybody wanted to leave. Everyone was talking about I want to go to University of Miami, university of Florida, these big schools, university of Texas, north Carolina State, that kind of thing. Everybody wanted to go somewhere different and everybody was kind of tired of football. And I was tired of football too. Yeah, I did well at it, but at that point I was just like I'm over it, cause I just wasn't. I want to come on game day and catch touchdowns. I don't want to do all the practice, practice. I don't know what to do, oh my shit. So I ended up being the crew. We ended up getting in Mike's car.

Chas: 43:39

We go to the recruitment session and went to Salem and my recruiter was bad. She was a bad e-bro I never forget her name or a Tamara bro. Okay, she was bad E6, little E6, something. She was about five, four, you can tell she run like a 13 minute two mile, like I mean-. Oh, she was in shape too. Okay, what? Yes? So I was already like the army's where I'm going, and you was soaked, I was soaked, I was soaked, we do our ass vibe. Same exact scenario. So I got you guys to go. She was like but you, let's have a conversation. She's like why do you look at this? So at the time I had locks and gold teeth.

Yusha: 44:14

That's some Florida shit right there, ain't it? Everybody thought I was a Florida boy, yeah, yeah.

Chas: 44:17

But you know, North Carolina, that's North Carolina. Ain't that much different Right and that much different in North Carolina. So you know I'm in locks gold teeth, jibbo jeans North.

Yusha: 44:25

Carolina, I love the jibbo's. You know what I'm saying.

Chas: 44:27

North Carolina, jersey, heraches on my feet. You know what I'm saying. You couldn't tell me anything. So she was like I looked at your background, looking at everything that the school sent over. You have a very good, you know. You have a 3.0 GPA in college. You're doing very well, but I would never one ever approach you Because you're very tall and you look a little intimidating Right With this gangster. Look you have. And I was like no one's ever told me that I never. And it was so raw because she was like you scored an extremely good score on your ass. Vibe, you can get any job you want. And from that day forward, this lady was picking me up, taking me to go eat. She was taking me back to Fayetteville, north Carolina, where I'm from, to home two hours away. She was driving me back and forth. I mean, I was trying to be like downtown got a 10 year old alpha.

Yusha: 45:14

That's why.

Chas: 45:15

Yeah.

Yusha: 45:16

Alpha. They get extra points. If you're an alpha, what does that mean? So there's two categories, it's more than two categories, but the main categories are you scored 50 and above, you're an alpha.

Chas: 45:25

Yeah, I scored. On the practice, I scored an 87. On the ribbon I scored a 94. Right, so I got any job I want. Exactly, I already knew what it was, yeah, so in 40 or what.

Yusha: 45:34

31 to 49 is Bravo status.

Chas: 45:37

Okay, yeah, so I didn't know that.

Yusha: 45:39

Yeah, man.

Chas: 45:41

I thought she wanted you know what I'm saying, Cause I thought maybe I could.

Yusha: 45:44

No, you get special treatment, bro, like I was an alpha.

Chas: 45:46

No, I was talking about a different kind of special treatment. Oh man, oh man, cause she a baddie, bro, yeah.

Yusha: 45:53

She was real nice.

Chas: 45:55

I had a little phone that gave me and everything Like. Okay, Cause I had a phone, I had a little track phone and my minutes would run out and I didn't have the money to refill it. So, oh, she looked you up, she gave me. She gave me some type of like a burner phone. I had to give. I had to obviously give back. Okay, I mean I had to have a phone she gave me, I mean. I mean, I mean I definitely had different rules.

Yusha: 46:14

I know we get there's a, there's a. I mean we get recruited, we recruit a pay. I'm sure it changed, I think, when I was in a 350 or 450, and you'll get different incentives too. But you'll also get money to pay for, you know, taking the applicant out, okay, to eat and stuff like that. I don't know about the phone situation, like, but that was like the early 2000s, it's 06. Right, right.

Yusha: 46:36

So I mean, I'm sure, they had different stipulations and stuff like that. But you definitely get money to treat your applicant to certain things.

Chas: 46:43

I did not know that. So I was an alpha. Yeah, you were an alpha. That's crazy. She wouldn't have never heard that shit.

Yusha: 46:48

She wouldn't. She wouldn't have did it for anybody that scored a 35.

Chas: 46:52

Okay, yeah, yeah, makes sense. Absolutely not.

Yusha: 46:53

Yeah, so and a lot of times that some, something like other branches, if you score under 40 or not, you don't even qualify.

Chas: 47:00

Wow.

Yusha: 47:00

Like I think it's Air Force. They could have changed it because everything's changing. Yeah, but when I was recruiting because in New York city we worked in times Times Square I was in Times Square recruiting station, so we work with every branch. I mean, the fourth space force became a thing.

Chas: 47:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Air Force Navy and we had Army in the back.

Yusha: 47:20

It was two Army guys. Okay, you didn't. You know, you went to the Air Force first, couldn't qualify, you go to the Marines, too fat or whatever. The case is Navy was never there. So they always come back to the Army. We put them right there Too easy, yeah, easy work.

Chas: 47:36

Man that is crazy, because she was extremely helpful I mean super helpful to me. This lady taught me about the whole preparation agent Saran Wrap trick. Okay, because I had to shed like 20 pounds. You know I was, I was in a lot of it, yeah, so I had to shed a little bit of weight. I she gave me these strips to test my urine Every. She said do it every 15 days cause she was trying to, like help get me out of there. Obviously, but I was testing my urine every, almost, like every other day I was sweating. Every day she had to drink like a gallon of water.

Chas: 48:08

She was drinking a gallon of water, playing basketball outside every day in a hot North Carolina summer, and also preparation, saran Wrap. She was like, may she do this every day? And I took preparation H. Put it on my stomach, saran Wrap, my stomach and I would just hoot in nothing but like corn, green beans, small little things and urinate every two minutes. I swear and I got in and I never heard from her again.

Yusha: 48:31

Oh yeah, it was. I'm telling you it was a wrap.

Chas: 48:34

Yeah, I never heard from her ever since like I want to say like I joined June, oh six or July, mm-hmm. I never heard from her since that June, july timeframe.

Yusha: 48:44

So how long did it take you to ship so you Like?

Chas: 48:47

45 days 45 days.

Yusha: 48:48

okay, yeah.

Chas: 48:49

And I was going through. Well no, I'm sorry it might have been 60., because I had to. I needed like 15 or 20 days to get my urine back clean. That took 35 days. I have more fat or whatever, right right. And then I immediately went to Mepsin, I think, raleigh, north Carolina, and then from there a bus came and I was at Ford Jackson, yeah.

Yusha: 49:09

I see, I see me. You had the same similar issues, like I was a big kid man, yeah, 17 years old, I was two. I was two, 98. 298, 17?, bro, that's NFL, yeah, but you know, my school didn't have a football team, bro, oh you didn't play football in high school.

Chas: 49:23

No, oh damn, no, man Damn.

Yusha: 49:24

I played basketball.

Chas: 49:25

Okay, okay, okay Were you running four, five on the basketball court. I was.

Yusha: 49:29

I was five.

Yusha: 49:29

But okay, okay okay, I didn't start enough. I was JD too, so I wasn't tall enough to start and I wasn't good enough to start and play, you know Power 4. Yeah, it was just. I was good at street ball, okay, when it came down to actual rules, it was over with me. I was good for filing people. I was a big kid, strong, rough, you know, yeah. But yeah, I was two 98. So when I did join, you know the body fat at the time? I think it was 24%. Yeah, I met that exact. I was right there.

Chas: 49:57

Sucking my gut in. Sucking my gut in yeah, yeah, get your neck.

Yusha: 49:59

Yeah, I was in this fight for my life, man. I was in that fight for my life. He gave me all. Of course he gonna give me all the tips on what to do and all that type of stuff, but yeah, I wasn't gonna lose no weight, man Right, look, I lose it when I get the basic. Anyway, I'm gonna be out here at 17 years old, fat kid out here on the track. Nope man I was determined man.

Chas: 50:19

I grew up really poor and I remember that summer, bro, in 06, I went back home to my parents house and she was smart, she knew what she was doing, cause I actually went to say in Winston Salem and be at my friend Aziz house he had a house off campus. We were known for throwing parties and doing crazy stuff and she was like no, you don't want to miss this opportunity. You know, 40,000 is just right there for you. And I was like you're right, it is right there. She was like you should go back to your mom's house in North Carolina and I'll meet you in Fable and work out that office or whatever she did, and pick you up and whatever, and I would see her every now and again throughout that timeframe. But I remember going home, man and I was my mom was telling me what to do and I was just like I'm a grown man.

Chas: 51:00

I'm 19 years old now and I just I can't do it. So I was determined to get out of Fable, north Carolina man. I ended up leaving my mom's house. I told my mom I'll never come back. I ended up coming back and running for mayor at 30. Yeah, so you know, speaking of tips for veterans, there's a massive opportunity, obviously to get your claim done. You know, get your percentage. The reason why is because it opens so many doors, and one of them that opened for me was obviously government contracting opportunities, but also running for public office was really really, really big for me. I ran for mayor in 2017. And one thing I learned about was this concept of call more month than money. I never heard that shit before in my life man.

Chas: 51:45

Never heard it before in my life and a lot of our veterans experienced that now and I have this die hard philosophy that every veteran can and should be a millionaire. I really do believe that, or at least have the ability to do something that generates seven figures worth of income, absolutely, whether it's through the business, your chapter, you know, s-corporation, you're taxing yourself through that taxation, or whether you're just a sole prop and doing your thing. So for veterans I do want to give another tip and that is being able to one get as much service connection as possible that you legally can get your hands on, whether it's 50%, 10% or 100%, get it right Absolutely. We can be that broker to take care of that and do that, or you can do it on your own, figure it out, but at least do it. And once you do that, being able to set up a business whether it's LLC, s-corp, c-corp, llp, whatever it is and being able to compete for government contracts is gonna be huge, and a lot of veterans that we've worked with that also came through your channel.

Chas: 52:47

We have one guy in particular from Duluth, georgia. He runs a smoke shop and he's one of your subscribers. He came to us. We got him 100%. The guy came to me and said we own the phone, we was doing everything via telephone. He says to me Chas, this has changed my entire life because, living in Duluth I guess it's extremely cheaper than what it is appearing in the North I'm able to now have my son run the store and I can focus on finally doing government contracting. So he asked me for a consultant on SCVOSB. I didn't charge him for it because that's not what we do, but I have a lot of knowledge in it because we had to go through that process to be able to get our government SCVOSB certification, which you can look it up on SAMS I think it's SAMSG or whatever it is. You can look it up there and it's all on our portal, seven Princemen's Corporation. It's on the show as well, and so another tip I wanted to provide to viewers is get your claim done opens up so many doors. It's not just the financial door of getting the money per month, but it's also the other French benefits that are out there and being able to leverage them and so forth.

Chas: 53:50

So I know that you're in business as well. Tell me about some of the things, because I see a lot of veterans struggle with it. There seems to be no greater. Either veterans struggle with it or they just click and they make it happen, but there's a thin line of maybe inspiration or insight that maybe they need. And so you run your business. I have a few of your t-shirts as well. I wear them to the gym. It makes me feel kind of jacked. Also, tell me about the process, and maybe what you can share with other veterans, of get into business.

Yusha: 54:23

Well, get into business. I always wanted. I knew what I wanted to do Like. I knew I wanted to open up a clothing line because before I joined the army I wanted to go to art school and fashion school. So I was that guy. I was even my first year in Fort White, chuka, arizona, at 98 Hotel School. I was when I phased up. The first thing I didn't get a CD player, I didn't get a TV, I got a sewing machine so I can make clothes and at the time we were in VDUs the old school uniform.

Chas: 54:57

You can't be in. You were shot in shoes. I came right when ACUs were issued. Okay, so we would be used.

Yusha: 55:03

And at the time people were coming to me and one of these patches on the jackets and all that type of stuff. I was always a creative, being good at art, I create, that's what I do. And I always told myself I said, when I get the opportunity, I want to start a business in fashion, Because it just was something that was always like a passion for me.

Yusha: 55:24

So when I first started the business, I didn't have a clue about what I was doing. I will always tell my wife at the time what if I started this? How would it affect us? So she will always give me good advice. She was one of the people that actually pit a foot in my ass. They get it done. I will always what if you should? Yo, you got this, you got the right mindset. You didn't get it done.

Yusha: 55:49

So I had an idea and this kind of propelled me in the content stuff. So I was like you know to be smart if I was to start making content and then, on the back end, start promoting my brand, because if the content is going and it's reaching all these different people and I'm selling shirts and sweatpants and hoodies and stuff like that, that can bring people to my store. So that's what I started, that's what I. I remember my first video, one of my first videos of 2000, and what 16? Okay, the first time I pit the T-shirts on the back end of the video. The first time I did it I didn't have and I was still in the arm at the time. The crazy part about it is I didn't have the money to buy the T-shirts and screen print. I didn't know anything about screen printing. I was going to get it done by third party.

Chas: 56:43

So did you outsource or did you like print on demand?

Yusha: 56:46

So I, when I started, I didn't have a clue, I just put, I just got a, I went to Fiverr and got someone to like to draw the logo.

Chas: 56:54

The designer that butt-sword shirt that butt-sword shirt and then you go to Fiverr. That's one of your best shirts. Right, it's my first shirt.

Yusha: 57:01

So my first shirt, I said look, I was using this phrase. I think this would be a good T-shirt to start off with. I didn't want to have too much, I just want to have one design and put it out there and see how people respond. So when I first did it, I didn't have the money, man, I was broke. Wow, wow, I was broke. I was still in the army, but we had bills, kids yeah, you know what I mean. At the time, we always had the issues in, you know, in Mississippi, because we had a house in New York and they weren't paying rent.

Chas: 57:24

So in New York you can't just kick people out. Right, New York is free and liberal with tenants, Right? Oh yeah, absolutely. You can't Super liberal.

Yusha: 57:31

Yeah. So it was bad. It was bad financially for me at the time. So I said, look, I'm going to go out on a limb, I'm going to come out with a design, I'm going to put it on a T-shirt and I'm going to see if it's sold. And it sold, wow. And I used that money, I think that video. Honestly, 150 shirts probably Wow. That allowed me to. People don't know this, but I didn't have the money to get the shirts from the wholesaler and then print them.

Yusha: 57:58

I didn't even know how to screen print, so I learned how to screen print from YouTube, got all my screen print equipment from HobbyLavi, I believe and I took the money that people used to purchase their t-shirts and I self-taught myself and I literally printed all the t-shirts for those orders in a hotel and I got them out like within two weeks. So I kind of, you know, getting into business is something I wanted to do at the time, but starting a business is it can be expensive. You know what I mean? Yeah, very expensive. So I used that money on the back end and used that to propel and from there it was a wrap.

Yusha: 58:37

So I added more designs, changed over from Godad to the Shopify. Like I said, it was always something for me I always wanted to do. As far as fashion and all that type of stuff. It would just having somebody going in your corner like, hey, man, you can do this. Man, have the confidence, cause I will always be like you know what if it fell? What if I don't sell anything? You know what I mean.

Chas: 58:54

What if you win?

Yusha: 58:55

What if it works? That's how my ex-wife was she was named. They just do it, man. You got it, man, you had an idea about, you know, creating content. You create the content. It worked. People love it. You know what I mean. Same thing with business Just pit it out there, people will buy it. It was a movie with Wayne's World, would I say. If you, if you build it, it will come. If you build it, it will come, yeah. So that's the type of thing that is so, true, right.

Yusha: 59:19

So that's what got me started, and I love it, man. I love it because it's my passion.

Chas: 59:27

I can feel the passion from when I talk to you.

Yusha: 59:29

It's not something just to get a buck? Yeah, I'm not, I love. I love when people say, hey, bro, I purchased. I got people that buy. Every time I drive something, they buy it.

Chas: 59:42

Right, right, right. 10 orders, 15 orders, whatever it is, they'll be supporters.

Yusha: 59:46

But it's not. It's also what they say in the reviews. You know what I mean. It's the material, it's the fit, you know what I mean. That makes me super happy because it's like yo, I know the best type of fabrics these T-shirts and you know, I know the best type of fabric for hoodies and all that type of stuff. So when I know something is working and I find out that other people find out that is I mean what other people like, try it and they love it too. That right there it sparks something, it sparks something to me.

Yusha: 1:00:13

So you know, business to me is definitely a way to you know, get your foot in the door, to you know work on those different sources of income. But it's also something that you know with veterans. But when I started initially and I didn't have the money and we started getting orders and I completely changed it, I traded this on my whole website and I used a lot of the money that I was getting from the VA benefits just to fund it. To fund it, yeah absolutely yeah.

Chas: 1:00:42

So I did the same deal. I used a lot of my. I'm gonna tell you what happened. This is crazy. I was at year, so when I first started business I used my 401k from my federal government job. I left the federal government to do this and everyone thought I was stupid for it. I was at the VA and I left it. I was a writer at the VA.

Chas: 1:01:00

I obviously I got into this and then I ended up working at the Department of Defense, at the Pentagon, doing I was the chief human resources. So I was all the human resources stuff employee relations, grievances, adverse actions, terminations. It was nasty work but I was doing it right. My inner circle was like do it. My outer circle was like you'd be crazily. The feds Like it's a permanent job, it's good money, six figures. But I did not did it. I took my TSP and I invested it to the business or $100,000, all of it into the business. Ran through that shit crazy. I mean, blew that like nobody's. Blew that 100k. Ran right through it. Ran right through it, man, because like you make so many mistakes and you hired the wrong people and you use the wrong systems and your vision is too big to what you actually can support in that particular time. So I would say 50 grand of that was just learning experience. And so once I got to probably year two and a half, I'd never forget this man.

Chas: 1:01:58

I had a colleague at the VA come on my ass and was like Chas, why are you 90%? He pulled my foul. He knew who I was and I was in cases. It was like you're out here taking care of the world but no one's taking care of you, bro. Like take care of yo, you're a shit. I was like what are you talking about? He was like you're 90%. He gave me that. Look like he know it. Why the hell aren't you 100%? Why aren't you 100%?

Chas: 1:02:20

Because your case is 100%. But I was like you know what man? I don't feel like it belongs to me. He was like you, just you doing the same thing your clients are doing Because, honestly, when I got into doing this, I was 90% for a long time and veterans asked me what's your percentage? I'm like it's not about me, he's too embarrassed, it's about you.

Yusha: 1:02:40

No, no, no, no. What's your percentage? What's your percentage so?

Chas: 1:02:43

you know, I was just like I feel like I don't need it, but I mean it's there. I ended up getting pushed to do my case. I did my appeal myself, found it literally at the last minute. I walked into the DC office, got it stamped on the last day at like 4.58 PM. It was literally I had two minutes left. I was running to get there because my appeal period would have lapsed. I woke up eight months later 65K in the bank. I woke up. I had a dream the night before that I had won the lottery like a lot of money. That's crazy.

Chas: 1:03:15

I had this weird dream. I knew because I always can feel when money's coming, because you know when you're in business you just get this feeling like okay, a bill's coming, or like a six cents. Yeah it's like a six cents, something's coming up. So I had this good feeling like money was coming about. I thought it was from the business, I thought I was going to win a big case or whatever, and so I'll wake up to 65K in the bank, and that VA disability payment helped me run the business.

Chas: 1:03:39

It helped me up with the veterans and I took all that money put around to the business and we have not looked back since. At that time I was at year three. I was making. The business was making about maybe 600K a year give or take, and that was a hard 600K. I mean we were doing everything every day the right way.

Chas: 1:03:56

Got it from the fucking mud, bro. 60k a year. I was profiting about 30% profit margins. So I'm profiting $180,000. I'm paying taxes on 120,000 a year. That's what I'm reporting to the government. Right the rest of it, I'm finding ways to write it off right Right right right, right, the next year we hit 1.5.

Chas: 1:04:14

And just keep going, keep going, keep going, keep going. So, if I can't say anything, the ability to at least understand how to manage the money and make money out front of money, Absolutely. But to use your VA disability to propel you into something totally different, this is totally life changing. If you would have told me when I joined the Army 17 years ago, when I was 20 years old 19 years old, so 18 years ago that I would be doing this for veterans now, I would say you're full of crap. I wouldn't think it in a way, bro, In a way and it's kind of crazy because what I heard from you is just go start, just go do it.

Chas: 1:04:48

A lot of veterans don't jump out and do it and I think a lot of times it's because of some mental health blocks, Cause I talked to some clients and it's just, it's in their head, they just can't get past that. And they have the anxiety too, man, that anxiety which is also service connected, but they have the anxiety which is just like you know, I tell you a crazy story about mental health I had. You know, I have seen little. I have. So custody of my kids. You know I have them full time every single day. I had an issue with the courts and so for veterans out there, a lot of my clients are divorced, A lot of our veterans we talked to. I've been asking our clients about their relationships for now 10 years and when I asked about their relationships I asked them what's the status, what's going on, Because it helps me build a solid case. If I have a veteran that's been married for 15 years consistently, no problems, everything's peachy and cream besides your normal marital issues that just gonna happen with two parties, then okay, I can't really talk about social impairment as much or issues in relationships, or maintaining relationships is a problem. But I can go a different director of the case, it just depends. But most of my clients I would say 80% are divorced Already on their second or third marriage, and so when I speak with these people, I find a lot of ways that a marriage can work and I find a lot of ways that marriages can't work and when doing that, presenting a mental health claim can present problems for folks that are going through divorce.

Chas: 1:06:11

I'm gonna tell you what happened with me. I was at court. This was, I wanna say, maybe four or five quarter parents. Before I got custody of my kids, I met the court and this dude lines me up. It's called a gal In Virginia. They use I mean they may use something else somewhere else, but they use garment items and they are the devil, if you ask me. Because, if you're just being honest, if you are the man in a relationship, you're kind of screwed in this regard, at least for me I was. And this guy's asking me you served in the Army, right? Yes, sir, Probably said to. I was proud, bro.

Yusha: 1:06:49

I'm like you know what I'm saying?

Chas: 1:06:51

Yeah, yeah, he's like, yeah, we got his ass. So I'm like, yes, I served in the Army. He's like, how many years did you serve? I said five years. He was like, wow, quite a bit of time. So you would consider someone that really understands your job or an Army to say MOS, right. I said, yes, I definitely understand my MOS, I understand my job, I'm a great soldier. He says, and you know, thank you for your service, by the way.

Chas: 1:07:14

And at that moment I was kind of like where you going with this bro, where you going with this man, because this is a little too, you are kind of opposing party in a sense. So he says how many times did you deploy and where'd you deploy? To what was the things you experienced while you were in deployment? He's going through these and then he ends up wrapping it up and says these kids are around, someone that experienced enough trauma and it's bringing that trauma into the household why he should not have access to his kids. I cannot fucking believe it, bro. I was sitting on the stand just like what the fuck just happened, like did this dude use my military service against me? And there's been never a problem with any kind of you know, mental issues, no types of arguments. There's been no fighting, there's been no abuse or nothing. They were just trying to find everything they can to keep me away from the baby. So I'm so thankful now that you know. Obviously I have full custody of kids. I see my kids every single day.

Yusha: 1:08:12

I see them grow up. That's a beautiful thing, man, it's a beautiful thing.

Chas: 1:08:15

It's very difficult to raise the girls because I have girls. They're 16 and 11. You know, I've been through that time. If you get my gist these changes that are happening I got all these boys coming to the house. It's a lot.

Chas: 1:08:29

So it's kind of crazy to see how this has come full circle and be in my kids' life every single day, but also know that that's what's up against us as veterans, and I feel like using this platform that we're sharing now to tell veterans these are things that you may want to consider before you go in front of a divorce, before you try to get child custody, before you try to get expanded visitation. These things are gonna be used against you, and knowing how to respond to them in the moment is gonna be helpful, I think, for me. I think I responded well enough to where I didn't screw myself over, but I wanted to go off the rails with that, because that's like you don't do that, that's like I'm lying, you don't cross. But these lawyers don't give a shit. They gonna cross it, they gonna do whatever they can to win a case and that's what he did. So it's kind of crazy. It's wild man, that's wild. Oh, I would have been proud of it. The outlet was hot.

Chas: 1:09:18

I was driving back because at the time I was living in DC. I was living well, I was living in Northern Virginia but I was working in DC. So, excuse me, I was living in Tyson's Corner area. I was driving back, punching my steering wheel so hard that I was afraid I was gonna knock the airbag out of place. So I was like I gotta bring this back down. But, bro, I got custody of my kids. Took me seven years, a quarter million dollars to get custody of my kids, bro, and it was all because of my gender, I believe, and some other factors, I believe.

Chas: 1:09:49

But for veterans out there, I see it all the time. We get veterans that come to us. They look at increased disability for a number of reasons. But it comes up they're like, yeah, I got a custody case, I'm trying to make more money to pay the bills. But be aware that the money you make in via disability can also count for child support payments, and that's for male and female veterans. For the female veteran that's going out. They do a calculation If you're making 100% type money, 80% type money, it's going to count towards how much child support you may or may not receive, and with the male, the same rules apply. It just may be a little different depending on the nature of the case. Got to be more careful, man. Let's talk about dating man. We get a lot of veterans that ask about dating and relationships. I would imagine, for someone like you that have a DM full of options, what's it like managing something like that?

Yusha: 1:10:43

And being a relationship.

Chas: 1:10:44

if you are, you know Well, I'm in a relationship now. Ok, congratulations.

Yusha: 1:10:49

Yeah, I appreciate that man, it can get rough, man. It can get rough because people don't have any filters or anything. Yeah, so when I was single, I didn't date anybody that was in my inbox, but I was. I was living in Atlanta recently, separated from my wife, you know what I mean. So it was super fun, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was fun. It was fun, man. Good times, good times. But dating around that time, man, I wasn't taking anything serious. You know what I mean. My dating scene was I was all over the place, man. To be honest, I was all over the place, but at the same time, I was going through depression, you know what I mean, just separated from my ex-wife, going through some mental blocks, man, and that's why I didn't come up with a lot of content at the time.

Chas: 1:11:39

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you did take a little hiatus for a little bit.

Yusha: 1:11:42

Right, I took years off, man, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was a tough time for me, so I did meet a beautiful young lady.

Chas: 1:11:51

Congratulations.

Yusha: 1:11:51

You know beautiful man, we actually have a son together now too.

Chas: 1:11:55

Wow, ok, ok. What's your son's name? Yusha Yusha. Yeah, he had a name Yusha.

Yusha: 1:11:59

Jean. Yeah, sir, my guy, beautiful young man.

Chas: 1:12:02

That's so beautiful man.

Yusha: 1:12:04

He's two years old now, you know what I mean when I tell you he's spoiled too, man, he's spoiled. He's beautiful. He's spoiled, he's intelligent. This guy is something else.

Chas: 1:12:14

Yeah, yeah, he's funny too, OK, but yeah, man, I mean, look who his dad is, I mean.

Yusha: 1:12:18

You know what's crazy? All my kids have that same funny gene. They know how to draw OK, he's already started drawing. They know art. It's almost like natural form. Yeah, art, and just being funny, it's silly funny. You know what I mean, because I was class clown in high school.

Chas: 1:12:40

Right right.

Yusha: 1:12:40

So I was that guy. Yeah, I got best dressed and stuff like that, but because of the fashion thing, but I was the silliest dude you can meet.

Chas: 1:12:48

Yeah.

Yusha: 1:12:49

I don't know if you're a couple. What's your color? Bustin, we call it bustin where you talk Clownin, clownin. Ok, I wasn't good at that, but I was. If I would blur something out during class, everybody would start cracking out. I was that guy, he was random. Funny, I wasn't Jones. And people back and forth funny.

Chas: 1:13:04

I was nowhere that great.

Yusha: 1:13:05

That was about other friends. We had a group of guys that were just ridiculously funny. But yeah, so how about you man Dating with you? I mean, are you single, Are you?

Chas: 1:13:14

Yeah, yeah, I'm single man and I'm single by choice. So I moved around a lot. So let me get your rundown. So I was in the federal government and I was rigid as fuck, bro. Like I was like straight line, you know, I wasn't really. I was dating but I wasn't really trying to be with anybody. And then I ended up moving North Carolina right from mayor and that made it very difficult to date, because you know my face on the billboard, I'm on your TV screen, I'm in your community, I'm shaking your hand, I'm in the podium. So it gets very difficult to date.

Chas: 1:13:45

And for me, you know, I prefer a woman that can go to the White House and the trap house. So like I need that type of energy, you need to be able to do both. You know me, and when I say trap house, I'm not saying like an actual, like Bando, I'm saying like you know, someone that has a little bit of character, right, right, right and so I meet women that all the time that doesn't really have, that they're very corporate, they're very, you know, but they don't have the ability to relax and just be a normal person, you know. So for me it's very difficult. I like to date in the veteran community. I would prefer that sometimes, but that becomes a problem because it's like you gave me 100%. I'm like. Now I'm put to work.

Yusha: 1:14:19

Now you put the word out, I'm put to work. I didn't do this for that. I didn't do this for that. Come on now.

Chas: 1:14:23

So I met this girl offline. This was so funny, bro. We're going back and forth. I have an alias, I go by, and so she's, you know, constantly asking for stuff Now and she's a vet, she's retiring from the Navy, she lives in this area, she's 22 years, that kind of thing. Right, she's going, she's giving me the list, her real name, where she's from her Instagram, her buyer, linkedin, everything right. She's like I want, I like you a lot, and that's just us, just us talking, just just chit chat back and forth. And so I was like well, here's my Instagram.

Chas: 1:14:53

She immediately says I'm at 40%. I kid you not, I want she's bad, I'm not going to block her. I told her I literally let me, let me, actually I can pull it out and read it for you, man. She said I went on the house too. Man, now I'm going to tell you exactly what I, what I wrote to her. Let me pull it up, if I can, let me see. She says she says good morning, I reach out to you on IG, if that's okay. I didn't say anything, I said. And then she says again she said I messaged you on IG. You can help me increase my V8 claim. I'm at 40% right now, eyeballs in a crying Right, right, right.

Chas: 1:15:37

And I was like I was like, okay, I'm really on IG, but sure. And I said, see, that's why I don't tell folks my real name. Now you're trying to put me to work. Yeah, I guess I can help you. And so she goes on about her. You know she's retiring. I told her you know, your case is BDD, blah, blah blah. And I said I really don't like to. You know, mix the two together. And she was like I understand, I'm sorry to blur the line. She was like but I could just do whatever you tell me to do and yeah, so that's the type of, that's the type of experience I have with dating sometimes, but I mean, it's been pretty cool. I meet a lot of great women, right, you know, obviously I don't have a lot of time, it's a lot of work. I got to sing, I'm a single parent, blah, blah, blah blah.

Chas: 1:16:18

But but to wrap it up here, I did want to give a few pointers to veterans as well. Out there, maximize the benefits for veterans. Out there, 100%. The French benefits are amazing Student loan forgiveness. You don't pay any tax in a real estate in certain places, especially like Texas and Florida. Right, you're able to get Champ VA, which is huge for your kids, champ 35 as well, which is DEA. So again, 100% is definitely game-changing. It's been game-changing for a lot of veterans.

Chas: 1:16:50

The PACT Act has also created a lot of uneasiness with veterans. Unfortunately, from what I've learned, the VA themselves have issues processing these claims, so you may see uptick in denials for PACT Act claims. Please for veterans out there, continue to try, continue to push the envelope, continue to stand on it and make sure your claim done. But other than that man it's been great chat with you man, absolutely, and just sit down and kind of just bring in a human side and for the viewers out there, we'll be back again with some live content. We just wanted to do this one particular shot to say hello again.

Chas: 1:17:27

January. It's going to be an amazing year. Turn it off right, get your claim done. Link is in the description or wherever you want to find it to get in touch with us, do it and take form and go up from there. Also, the merch is amazing, as you heard. You should have expressed it before. The fabric is amazing. It fits well, it breathes well, it feels good and it's definitely quality. So the link is down as well. Be sure to buy your merch and get your case done, and until next one we're out. Peace, peace.