Social Media doesn’t tell the real story. It might look like we’re crushing it online, but the reality is that it’s held together by toothpicks and dental floss. For the final episode of the 2023 Army Navy Game Tailgate Series, Fran Racioppi welcomed back Travis Wilson; fellow Green Beret, Entreprepreneur, and Green Beret Foundation’s Director of Mission & Program Delivery.
Travis and Fran debunk the myth behind Green Beret to Green Beret support; and why supporting each other’s businesses, families and initiatives is an important part of post-military success. As Green Berets we would have given our lives for the guy next to us; but when we get out, we forget that our brothers need the same level of support in the next chapter.
In a Jedburgh Podcast first, Travis flips the script and asks Fran how he’s doing. Plus they catch up on the newest products from Alpha Elite Performance and how the AEP Outdoors is taking Veterans fishing in Mexico and heli-hunting across the world.
Veterans know better than anyone the challenges other Veterans face in service and beyond; yet they’re often the last to volunteer support physically or financially to Veteran Service Organizations. We need Veterans to match civilian levels of support.
Take a listen, watch, or read our conversation. Then grab a pre-workout, some GBNT Sleep and Rally and Recover.
The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are an official program of The Green Beret Foundation. Subscribe to us and follow @jedburghpodcast on all social media. Watch the full video version on YouTube.
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Travis, welcome back to The Jedburgh Podcast. It’s been a bit.
It has since Sandlot JAX in Florida.
In the back of the ambulance. At that point, you were the biggest guy who had ever gotten in the back of the truck. You’ve been blown away by Nick.
That is fine with me.
He is now the biggest man who’s ever been on the show.
He is not even all complete. It doesn’t even make sense.
It doesn’t count, then?
It still counts. The dude’s massive and he’s got a huge heart. He’s standing over there. He’s right behind me.
We’re here at the Army-Navy game. One of the biggest benefits I think that came from that first Sandlot JAX was meeting you and being able to get to know what you’re doing, both personally and then at Alpha Elite Performance, and then growing that relationship over the last couple of years. Now we’re here. We’re at an Army-Navy game. We’re at Gillette Stadium. You’ve come very far to my home, all the way from the Northeast.
It’s freezing.
The sun went away. They said there was going to be increasing cloudiness. It looks like it’s about to snow. I don’t think it is. You were like, “It’s beautiful here.” I told you, “Wait a couple of weeks.” You only had to wait a couple of hours.
Now, it’s cold, but that’s all right. I used to enjoy the cold when I was stationed in Alaska at the 501st and in the 10th group, where you were as well. Once you move away from that, I don’t know. I prefer the warmth and I’m full of metal, so that shit gets cold, too.
It’s because you failed to properly execute a PLF.
No. It’s hard to do at night when you’re spinning and your canopy’s collapsed.
That’s what we talked about last time. We’re here at the Green Beret Foundation. You have been an instrumental member of the Green Beret Foundation over the last couple of years and served as a tremendous ambassador to increased partnership. Talk for a couple of minutes about it. As we go into 2024, that’s where we’re focused right now. Where’s the focus of the Green Beret Foundation and where do you see the opportunities for them to continue to contribute to those who have given so much to this country in service, in special operations?
I don’t know. That’s a loaded question for me, but that’s a Charlie question. I’m an ambassador for the Green Beret Foundation, and what I will say is that I enjoy and I love doing what I do for the Green Beret Foundation because of what they do for people like you, me, the service members, the Green Berets and their spouses. The way forward is to continue what they’re doing. With the bringing on Charlie, the new director of the Green Beret Foundation, I think he is only going to get better with his experience and where he came from. I like the idea that we now have a director that didn’t serve. From my experience, I have seen the biggest givebacks, the biggest support from people who never served in the military.
I feel like having Charlie here, he has that. He wants the support. He wants to give back to the community, the Green Beret Foundation, and the Green Berets and their families. He’s doing that from a lens that only he can see through. It’s different. I think it’s going to be a lot better. I’ve already seen some changes for the better. I have seen in the past, our biggest support has come from people who didn’t serve.
I have a lot of Green Berets that are like, “I want to be an ambassador for the Green Beret Foundation. What do I have to do?” We put them through, “Here, sign this. Do that. You get some swag, great, but now we need you to go out and be an ambassador. We need you to be a good steward for the Green Beret Foundation.”
I’m not bagging on these guys, but a lot of the times, these guys want more than they want to give. I’ll talk to them about it and be like, “We need you to step it up. We need you to give. We need you to go out there and set up these events and then we’ll call on you when we need you.” With civilians, I have seen more people say, “I did this event and raised this much money for the Green Beret Foundation. How do I get it to you?” I’m like, “Are you serious? That’s crazy,” or, “We’re this organization and we want to do this for the Green Beret Foundation. We didn’t serve. We don’t have anybody in our family to serve, but we picked you guys to give this money to.”
At first, when I joined the Green Beret Foundation as an ambassador, I thought it would be a bunch of Green Berets raising money for other Green Berets. I have since come to realize that they do. They raise money for other Green Berets. Green Berets raising money for Green Berets. I have seen far more people outside of the military community and family give back to our service men and women and their families. It’s their way of serving. Because they never got to.
You’re seeing that here. We’ve talked to a number of folks. I was in Boston at dinner and I saw people from BU. The athletic department was there. I said, “I’m going to the game.” The athletic rider said, “I’m going to the game, too.” Those are people who haven’t served, but they have this commitment. I think that’s one of the important factors of the Green Beret Foundation. One of the things they do is they’re bringing everyone together.
Yes, there’s the programmatics. We’ve gone deep on the programs, what the focus is. Charlie was here talking about that. At the end of the day, I think the true impact for guys like you is it creates an environment for us to get together, which wouldn’t happen.
It’s very healing to get together back with other Green Berets and their families, because once we leave the service, we all start cluster out to where we came from and then we lose each other. We lose that sense of family and then we also lose a sense of purpose. This draws it back together when we get to get back together, talk about The Jedburgh Podcast or Elite Performance and other businesses, and then see the brotherhood come back together for a little bit. It reignites that feeling that we have when we were all together.
Talk for a second about partnership because Nick was here. We were joking. One of the things that I mentioned to him was that it’s very important that we, as former Green Berets, support each other’s business together as brothers in arms. Too many times, what we’ve seen too much of is guys have success and then everyone looks at them and they’re like, “F that guy. I can’t believe he did that. Why is he out there talking about stuff?” That’s not the right answer. The right answer is that you’re out there busting your ass every day. I’m here bust my ass. Nick’s busting his ass. There are hundreds and thousands of other SF guys who’ve transitioned out of service, busting their asses in their businesses. Now, how do we come together and support each other?
People are going to look at me while I’m saying this, but there isn’t any veteran loyalty. That’s also on my part. When I started my first business, I thought, “I’m going to be loaded. I’m going to be rich.” I was looking at it for all the wrong reasons. I thought that my brothers in arms are going to support me because I have this great business, this great product line and all that stuff. That’s not the case.
I see a lot of veterans who support other businesses of mine, and I wish I had their business, and that’s their prerogative. It is important to support each other’s businesses. One, we support each other in a lot of different ways when we serve. Why stop? It keeps the money in the family, if you will. I don’t want to make it about money, but I know what you need and you know what the next guy needs.
We support each other. It’s conducive and helps us when we get out and succeed after we get out of the military. A lot of times, more than not, these guys are hurting and struggling because they’re not getting the support from the brotherhood that they once were able to get that support from. It is sad. I don’t see it often where guys are like, “That dude’s successful. Screw him. He’s made it.” There is a fallback. “He must be doing well. He doesn’t need my help. I’m going to go over here or whatever. I don’t know.”
It’s odd because if you think back, there was a period of time where you’re like, “i’ll jump in front of a bullet for that guy.” Cross-post their stuff.
Is that guy successful, though? That’s the other thing. I know guys that look like they’re extremely successful online. Their business is crushing it and killing it. They’re not. I’m not saying that that’s us. We do all right for who we are and for the size of the business that we are. That’s why support that guy.
I guarantee he might look like he’s rocking and rolling online behind the scenes but I bet you he’s not as successful as you think he is, unless he’s ringing the bell on Wall Street like some of our brothers that are doing. Support him. He’s got a family and is trying to give back to the community because a lot of what we do is we give back. We have our own non-profit, AEP Outdoors. We take guys on an adrenaline-filled outdoor adventure.
I’ve got to do this. We’ve been talking about it. Every time you have one, you send it to me and you’re like, “Here’s what we’re doing.” I’m like, “I’ve got to go. We got to go.”
If you can get out to Texas, you can go on a hunt. The white tail. We went to Africa. We do hog hunts and things like that. We like to give back.
You got the fishing stuff, too.
We got Cabo coming up. Every June, we go to Cabo. We take some veterans down there to get the brotherhood together. They come down there and they stay in one house like Big Brother, the TV show. We do two days of fishing, a day in between that.
Two days of fishing, three days of drinking?
We try not to drink that much. It does happen, but we try not to because there’s fishing and we go out there all day. The day in between is just for the veterans. If they choose to drink, then they drink. If they choose not to, they drink. It is about giving back. I want to be successful to get back to the Green Beret Foundation, who I give back to more than I give back to anybody else, including myself. I enjoy doing that.
Talk for a minute about the progress that you’ve made in Alpha Elite Performance. I had a Rally & Recover earlier, but I think last time we spoke, that had just launched or was about to launch. You were focused a lot on the sleep product, GBNT Sleep. Talk about the launch of Rally & Recover and how that’s taken off. I had it and it was awesome.
I feel great. Rally & Recover is wonderful. Our formulator, the chemist, the guy we work for or work for us, is a genius. He is always behind the scenes. He doesn’t want to be in front of anybody. We come up with these. I come up with the ideas and he makes them a lot better. Our success is because of the people behind the scenes. I’m the face. I’m the guy who came up with the brand and the products, but it’s my wife, our media guy or gal. It’s the formulator. Those are the guys behind AEP that make it what it is and why it’s progressing forward and up. We’ve got some amazing products. The Rally & Recover that you’re talking about.
[00:11:49] We’re in the process of trademarking that one right now. It’s oral rehydration salts, electrolyte, prebiotic. There are a lot of good oral rehydration electrolyte companies out there. We’re trying to be one of them and then hopefully get a little slice of the pie with ours. We have our ODA Super Greens and GBD Sleep. We have our pre-workout protein collagen. Our collagen’s a big one. We have a new product coming out. It’s a focus thing. I don’t want to say too much. It’s a fun industry to be in. The health and fitness industry is a lot of fun.
It’s rapidly evolving. There’s a lot of competition. It’s not an easy space.
It’s very saturated. To have been doing this since 2015 and still grow at the amount we have is a success story in itself. I’ve seen a lot of companies that started that have already closed or stagnant and they’re not moving forward or climbing, but yeah, it’s very saturated. We’ve actually been asked by other companies, like, “Let’s talk about taking you off the map.” We’re not there yet.
We’re going to get to this game here in a couple of minutes. What are you looking forward to the most?
Just a good game. Of course, I’m rooting for the Army. I love college football. That is my jam. The NFL is like these guys made it out of college to the NFL and they’re playing football for money.
You’re in Massachusetts. It’s Patriots nation.
I can talk shit about the Patriots because they suck. Let’s talk about the money that they spent on a video screen when they should have spent it on their players.
That video screen that we’re about to go see over there is the biggest in the world. It’s pretty sick. I’m going to make sure you respect it.
I enjoy this climate and I predict that Army’s going to win by seven. It’s going to be a close game. It might be mildly boring. I think it’s going to be stalemated. It’s going to be boring until the end when the Army wins by seven. That’s my guess.
It’s a good prediction. Travis, we have a lot going on in your world. A lot going on with the show. You and I have been talking about partnership between us. I look forward to that. I’m going to start using Alpha Elite Performance products. I’m going to track that journey, too because I’m on my journey primarily very focused on getting back into crossfit. We did a lot of CrossFit and physical wellness.
You got a circle of people that I want to meet.
The next step of that for me is that nutrition piece, taking care of myself. I think that I’ve been able to turn the corner on recreating the discipline needed to get back in the gym and now it’s going to be about the nutrition piece. I look forward to that.
You talk about the health piece and you always ask everybody else about their business and things like that. Has anybody ever asked how you’re doing mentally and physically and about your business?
Flipping the script. Nobody ever has.
How are you doing? From the outside looking in, I love what you’re doing. I see what you’re doing. I hear it and I see it in emails now and I think you’re doing a great job. Brother to brother, I got to ask, how are you doing?
Behind the scenes, toothpicks and dental floss. That’s what it’s being held together by. It’s a mission. When we think about why do we wake up every day, what’s that drive, that character that we display? I always say drive is the first characteristic that we want. You have to have a goal. You have to have a place where you want to be.
For me, my mission is to create impact. I believe that this platform that’s been created over the years, and I don’t say that I created it anymore. That’s been created through all of the guests that have come on and through the team that’s been created. Nick’s standing over here came on for videography and taking us up in ten rungs, feet on that ladder with his efforts.
I look at that body of work and even on the toughest day where you look at it and you go, “I don’t know how we’re going to afford this or do this, and how are we going to get sponsors in and how are we going to make it happen?” I look at what we’ve done and I think to myself, “You can’t stop because you’re changing lives.” You come to an event like this and I’ve had over ten people who I don’t know come up to me and tell me, “I’m a huge fan of your show.” If that number was one person or zero, I’d still wake up and do this tomorrow.
Sal’s one of those guys who’s standing right over there. He listens to your show and then he buys my products and we both met him for the first time. He’s wonderful.
One of our biggest supporters. To me, that’s what’s important. I think that if that’s your driver, then you keep hammering it every day. Great things will come and you create a community. You get involved with opportunities to do more and more things. That’s all you can ask for.
The only person who ever failed is the one who quit. So don’t quit.
Maybe they didn’t have the courage to try.
That has been instilled in us and having gone through the course and or in life. Our folks probably had a little bit to say about that.
It won’t be easy. We start planning events. You and I were talking about Shot Show and we’ll start planning the events. We’ll start looking at it and then it’s about how do you make it happen. I don’t look at anything and say, “I can’t do it.” I look at everything and I say, “How do I make it happen? Who’s the person that I call? What’s the organization that I have to reach out to?”
Networks and connections.
Also, continue to tell great stories.
You’re doing a good job.
Thank you. Thanks for asking.
I don’t know if anybody ever has this, but we got to check on each other. We might as well do it on your show.
Now we got to get into this game.
