Memorial Day Special with Green Beret Jeff Houston

May 25, 2022

In this episode, we are joined by U.S. Army Special Forces veteran Jeff Houston. Jeff shares how his experiences as a Green Beret helped him as an entrepreneur.

Join us in honoring and celebrating our nation’s heroes this Memorial Day.

To learn more about Tac7, visit www.tac7usa.com
To learn more about Carry The Load, visit www.carrytheload.org
To learn more about Bird’s Eye View Project, visit www.birdseyeviewproject.org

Listen to the full episode using the player below, or by visiting one of the links below. Below is the episode’s transcript which has been edited for readability. If you have any questions or would like to learn more, email us at info@byrdadatto.com.

Transcript

Intro: [00:00:00] Welcome to Legal 123s with ByrdAdatto. Legal issues simplified through real client stories and real world experiences. Creating simplicity in 3, 2, 1.

Brad: Welcome back to another episode of the Legal 123s with ByrdAdatto. I’m your host Brad Adatto with my cohost Michael Byrd.

Michael: As a business and healthcare law firm, we represent clients in multiple sectors and multiple specialties, especially healthcare. This season we’re searching for common ground for our diverse audience, and we’ll be bringing in many guests to help us. This season’s theme is The Universal Language – Business.

Brad: That’s all right, Michael. Now, Michael, I have a question for you before we actually bring on this guest who is sitting next to you. Would you call me a quiet professional?

Michael: No, never. You’re first of all, never quiet. And I would say rarely professional.

Brad: Alright. Would you consider me unconventional?

Michael: I feel like these are some softballs and [00:01:00] I’m going to avoid that one because I’m afraid you might say that yes, you are unconventional because you partnered with me.

Brad: That’s true.

Michael: And I want to stay away from that. So I’m not sure where you’re going with this, but I would consider you creative, but probably more of a conventional creative.

Brad: Perfect. All right. You’ve known me for a long time now, have you ever seen me take a direct action and recon an area?

Michael: If you’re talking about going into a bar, ordering a drink and looking around. Yes, I’ve seen you do that.

Brad: So that counts is what I heard. Michael, have you ever thought of me as a bearded bastard or a snake eater?

Michael: Hmm I am trying to remember if you’ve ever had a beard. Yes, I have. I remember you had a beard during Thanksgiving, November.

Brad: That’s true.

Michael: So in the eight seasons we’ve been doing this, Brad, this has got to be one of the stranger tangents you’ve been pushing me on. So [00:02:00] what’s going on?

Brad: Well as our guests who are watching us on YouTube would probably recognize is that we have a guest in the studio and this shows is a special today. This is our Memorial Day special show, and we’re honoring our fallen heroes. For those who know, Memorial Day is a federal holiday the United States has selected as a day for us to mourn our US military personnel who gave the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives to protect us. And based on our relationship with a non-profit called Carry The Load we celebrate Memorial May at ByrdAdatto, which is not only honoring our fallen heroes in the military, but we also honor those who are first responders.

Michael: Yes. We love Carry The Load. We’ve been working with this organization for over a decade now, and I have to say Brad, I feel particularly safe today with Jeff here. I may make extra fun of you because I’m feeling pretty secure over here in my corner.

Brad: That’s right. And as you just referenced, we have our Memorial Day special, we’ve always had a military personnel in years past. We’ve had Birdman who you know, we’ve [00:03:00] also had the founders of Carry The Load, and today guest has worn something called a Green Beret. And for those who don’t know, a Green Beret symbolizes excellence, a badge of courage and mark of distinction, and the ability to fight for freedom. Although there are other fun terms out there for Green Berets, like the quiet professional, they work on unconventional warfare, a special recon, direct actions, a plethora of other types of mission sets they have. But then I found some more fun ones, which is like the soldier diplomat, the snake eater, and of course the bearded bastard. So let’s bring on Jeff, Michael.

Michael: I feel like I need to grow a beard now, too.

Jeff: Right? Makes you a bad-ass automatically.

Michael: Well, Jeff Houston, I’m going to introduce you. Jeff served in the US Army Special Forces, AKA a Green Beret. He was deployed multiple times to Iraq, has excelled at completing various tactical shooting courses with both assault and tactical rifles and pistols unlike Brad. A [00:04:00] certified NRA pistol instructor and training counselor. He previously served as the director of training and lead instructor for a shooting range in Denver, Colorado where he developed and expanded the training division. He was trained for military and police units and US Special Forces units, as well as local and federal law enforcement personnel. He is, as Brad alluded to a little bit ago, he’s a board member of a nonprofit Bird’s Eye View Project with Brad. He has a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting from the University of Colorado Denver. And he has carried his spirit of entrepreneurship to Texas, where he founded and owns TAC7, which focuses on active shooter response preparation programs and specialized security services. Welcome, Jeff.

Jeff: Thank you. Thank you. That was quite the intro. I appreciate that.

Brad: Yes. We’re happy you’re here because we feel as Michael said, much safer now.

Jeff: Yes, yes. Hopefully we’re safe with me here though. I don’t know, you know, we’re in a nice enclosed space here in the [00:05:00] closet, so we don’t have our situational awareness going on.

Brad: You don’t know that behind these curtains is totally empty. So there could be people behind that.

Jeff: You’re freaking me out now, man. Come on.

Michael: Okay. This is taking a weird turn. Let’s jump in and kind of start at the beginning, Jeff. And I’d love just to kind of hear your story starting with joining the Army and your training to become a Green Beret.

Jeff: Sure. I’ll try to give you the condensed version here, because it can go on and on and on. But I joined the military very deliberately. It was not something that I just did willy nilly. I was in college during, you know, 9/11/01 and I’d say that’s where the thought process started. You know, we were obviously going to war and I was young and able-bodied but I didn’t just sign up off a whim. So I did a lot of research and interviewed several people in special operations mostly. And I kind of quickly determined that I wanted to be in [00:06:00] special operations. I read a lot of books, talked to a lot of people and ultimately decided that I wanted to be a Green Beret. And then I figured out how does one become a Green Beret. You know, there’s a path to doing that. Obviously no guarantees, but there is a way you can try out basically. So I joined the army in 2004 and became a Green Beret which is about a two year process. Made it through all the selection and try outs and that, it’s a lot of training. It is, you know, the longest qualification course and training course in Special Operations.

Brad: So while doing all this, favorite thing you ever did while training and the worst thing you ever did while training.

Jeff: Oh man. Favorite thing, there’s just something cool about being in the woods with your buddies. You know, there’s also a lot of suck to being in the woods with your buddies, carrying you know, a 120 pound backpack rucksack, we call it. But you know, looking back, those were some of the coolest times, you know, where you’re just you’re with your buddies. You’re just sucking, you know, everything [00:07:00] is terrible, you’re hurting, but looking back its like, that was pretty cool. So I think it’s kind of the same. It was the greatest and it was the crappiest, but you know, definitely went through some hardships. A lot of mental resilience is required of course. You know, you’re really pushed, not just physically. Everyone’s aware of the physical things that you do that are really difficult, whether it’s getting in freezing river water, or frozen lakes, or just staying awake for literally days and hallucinating at the end of it. I mean but it’s really the mental side that they are really trying to do is break you down mentally and make sure that you have that mental resilience to push through everything. So that was a pretty special time for sure going through that whole process. And then I was on a team, I was on an ODA, you know, a Special Forces team. And was on a great team, did several tours into combat and had a very positive [00:08:00] experience I would say overall. Came back with all my limbs and healthy for the most part, a little banged up, but part of me wishes I would have stayed in for longer, but at the time, you know, I was actually married and for several reasons chose to exit, you know, get out of the Army and finished school. So I quickly went back to school right away and was going to go into this, you know normal kind of finance life, go into investment banking or private equity ultimately, and try to have a normal life. But that didn’t happen. I finished my degree in finance and was getting a divorce right at the same time. And it was for the better, you know, there’s over a 90% divorce rate in Special Forces by the way. And so it’s like no surprise, but it was a good thing for me. And I found myself just free, right? Free of you know, no marriage, really no job. At this point, I just graduated college and so I was like, well, I’m not just going to go sit in a cubicle and start my finance career just yet. I want to do some [00:09:00] more fun stuff and do some contract work. And then got linked up with a couple of really good guys in Denver. They were on the Navy side of the house and worked with them for several years.

Brad: Is that a reference to a Navy Seal?

Jeff: It is. It is. Yeah. Yep. Nailed it.

Brad: Those Navy guys.

Jeff: Navy guys. Yeah. So that was awesome. And really that my military experience combined with a few years of doing different types of work with those guys set me up for what I do now, ultimately. And I moved to Dallas seven and a half years ago in 2015 and started consulting and built a business here.

Michael: What drew you to Dallas?

Jeff: My folks, my family moved here about 20 years. So they were here, they had roots here and all my siblings are here and now I’ve got nieces and, you know hopefully a nephew on the way here soon. And so I wanted to be close to my family. I’d been gone since I left for college at [00:10:00] 18 and you know, short of visiting my family, I was gone. And then knew that it was the time if I was ever going to come back and be close to my family physically, that was the time. So Dallas has been great. I’ve loved it. I lived all over the country and I certainly miss Colorado, which is where I’m from originally. But I missed the climate there mostly in the mountains, but I love Dallas. Love the people.

Brad: Yeah. Well, you got a guy next to you who loves Colorado so much he’s trying to open a ByrdAdatto office there, but that’s a whole other story.

Jeff: Oh boy. All right.

Brad: Well, good. Well first off as always, thank you for what you’ve done for us. I always appreciate having you guys on here who served. Most importantly, for those who got out with, as you said, all your limbs. So that’s actually really nice too because you know, I know many people that we serve with on many boards who haven’t been as lucky. And so those listening and want to learn more about these two nonprofits, we’ll drop in the links for Birds Eye View Project and Carry The Load, which are both I know with Jeff serving on that board and Michael and I being very active in both, near [00:11:00] and dear to our hearts. But not like everyone else, you had the opportunity when you did get out to start trying to figure out what you want to do with your life. And I know just again, from serving on these boards, it’s not easy. You actually said I got out and I just went back to college. I know people again, different branch, the Marines, they say, well, I got out and I tried to get up at college I couldn’t figure out how to be in a room with these people. And so I think it’s a huge hat tip to you that you were able to transition and, you know, into as best you can to civilian life and then build a business on top of that. And so that’s going back to the universal language of business, and I know that our audience probably would like us to spend a ton of time on your military. We really want to dive into that because I feel like as a Green Beret with your operational experience you had, and then being able to fold that into a business is fascinating. So let’s talk about that idea of yours, the lessons that you learned when you basically said, hey, I did military training, but what can I take from that and then apply it to an [00:12:00] actual business?

Jeff: Sure. I mean there’s, as most people know, there’s a lot of overlap in terms of teamwork, right? That’s kind of the first thing that most people think of in military. And if somebody were to guess what’s lesson you take from the military and it’s, you know, teamwork is often one of the first things talked about, and I agree with that. You know, the ability to work with a team is critical in the military and Special Operations you know, teamwork and leadership are huge. And those certainly parlay into any business or successful work environment. You have to learn how to work with different people. Even if you don’t necessarily like someone you’re working with, you got to figure it out, right? So the ability to adapt to different types of people, different personalities of course, is critical. And in Special Forces you are blessed with really becoming family with your team. So you’re around them [00:13:00] certainly a lot more than most people are around their people in the office. And not only are we around them more, but we’re doing really difficult stuff together whether it’s training or preparing or completing actual missions in combat. And so obviously you can see how important it is to trust your team and you to know what’s going on with someone and know that they’re going to have your back no matter what. So those parlay, obviously into any successful work environment or as a business owner, whether it’s building out a team or working with other people on different projects partnering with people, really have to successfully do that. And the military definitely has helped with that. And then the leadership aspect too. You have to learn how to lead people. And you do a lot of that in the military. Even if you’re not, you know, an officer, if you’re in Special Forces, you are working with [00:14:00] other military units or special police units. And you don’t know these people very well and you got to figure out how to lead them. It could be a small team of a few guys or a larger unit and so having those experiences in the military definitely parlayed and have helped me a lot I think in building out a successful small business.

Michael: Well, tell us about Tac7.

Jeff: Tac7 is a, really we’re a boutique security firm is kind of what people end up calling us because we’re not a huge company. We’re a small business that really focuses on meeting clients’ needs that are everything from specialized requests and services with individuals or families all the way to training in the corporate environment. Most of our business post COVID has been more on the family side. We work with families on safety and security, and usually that starts within the [00:15:00] home. You know, people want to feel and need to feel the safest while they’re in their homes. So we just work with families on everything from home defense planning, possibly firearms training, safe storage of firearms in the home, having a plan really for emergencies. And it’s not just that stereotypical like, oh bad guy’s going to kick in my door. It’s you know, do you have fire escape ladders for your kids that are on the second floor? Do you have a plan for if a spouse is home alone and there’s, you know, kids in the house also, what are they going to do if they hear something in the night? What if the alarm goes off at three o’clock in the morning? What is the plan? What’s the protocol for that? And then we expand beyond the home and talk about, you know, day-to-day safety, situational awareness being in your vehicle and, you know, do you have a first aid kit in your vehicle? Trauma kit? Are you prepared to deal with things if you get stranded somewhere? So it’s not just all about, you [00:16:00] know, body guard work or gun stuff. It’s really what’s going to affect the safety or security of an individual or a family. And we don’t stop there. We work with people for years sometimes and do driver’s training as our families that we work with develop over the years, their kids get older. We might do driving stuff with them or they’re going off to college. So it’s situational awareness and staying safe when you’re out with your friends. So there’s really no end to it. We really take pride in customizing the solution to the client. On the corporate side which was actually speaking of business and lessons learned, you know, one of the lessons learned from the military that I definitely have had to apply is adaptation. Right. And so to your point, what does Tac7 do? Well, we’ve had to adapt, you know, because of COVID and adapt our long-term strategies for growth for business growth, you know, because I was going to grow the [00:17:00] business more on the corporate side, doing training, like active threat response and trauma response in the workplace. But that did not go to plan, right because COVID hit. So we couldn’t do an office training in corporate training and so we adapted and we just went back to our original model of working with families and we’re starting to get back into more of that corporate stuff again. But again, just have to adapt.

Brad: You know, a couple of things you had said, and I think that as I understand it, so obviously never having served much less been a Green Beret. But what I’ve read about you guys is obviously you’ll have an educational aspect to your training, meaning that not only can you be door kickers, but you’re also, as you said, you’re trying to be a force multiplier. And part of that is that educational side of it. As you were talking about working with these families, all I heard was how you’re not just like this is what you need to do to get in this room and we’ll show up and we’ll kick the door down. It’s hey, you need to be thoughtful about your security too, because we can’t be [00:18:00] here 24/7. Here are the things. And that to me, I think, and forgive me if I’m putting something in your head, but that sounds like, because I know how to educate others, I’m taking that and I’m utilizing that at the same time, obviously giving them that security.

Jeff: Yeah, absolutely. No. You’re spot on. You know, foreign internal defense is one of the core missions of Army Special Forces and you rattled off several others earlier. And a big part of that is training. Yeah. Biting off heads of snakes casually got to do that at least once a week. So yeah, you have to be able to communicate effectively, right. And teach and that has definitely parlayed into what I do now on multiple levels.

Michael: So what’s harder, starting a business or Green Beret training?

Jeff: They are both difficult. I will tell you that, but you know, becoming a Green Beret, that training pipeline is pretty darn tough. I will say that for sure. But starting a business has been no small task that’s for sure. I [00:19:00] feel blessed, I think I can finally call myself a successful small business owner. You know, I started the business and we’re now really eight plus years into my business and we’re still around and doing good and still growing. So it’s been a challenge, I will say that for sure. And any entrepreneur out there, any business owner out there. You guys included know that, you know, there’s a lot of challenges that come with starting a business and then keeping it. And not just keeping it, but growing it, you know? Because if you’re not growing, you’re dying right. So there’s a lot of challenges to be had with that. I think I definitely was able to lean back on a lot of my military experience to help me get through those tough times. Also it was a lot easier for me being really a single guy without a family. That enabled me to take even more risk which is necessary. Typically when you’re an entrepreneur, you need to take risk [00:20:00] and my appetite for risk was certainly greater because I didn’t have that worry in the back of mind about supporting a family.

Jeff: I think that’s a great point, is that no matter what, if you’re starting a business, there is risk associated with that. And depending on what type of business you get into, you know, how much are you willing to put on the table to risk that? But I think any entrepreneur will tell you they’re in it because they believe in themselves. But I can’t remember. I remember reading this a long time ago, but as you said, there’s a certain timeframe that most businesses don’t make it. And I think I heard like as a restaurant business, most restaurants fold after two or three months, which is crazy to think about how hard it is to get those open. So, you know, and going back to, there is a timeframe where all of a sudden you’re like, oh my gosh, I’ve kept the lights on. And I’ve grown. That’s amazing.

Michael: And double hat tip if you got through COVID.

Brad: That adaption aspect of it. And I know we’ve talked about this with our audience before that what we had to do to adapt so we won’t actually [00:21:00] go through all that. But those who have, I think is two things, one that you figured out how to survive, and because of that, it made you rethink a lot of different aspects of your business to then figure out how can I thrive now.

Jeff: Absolutely. You know, you really have to, you constantly have to be assessing any way when you’re running a business, just assessing and potentially being ready to adapt or certainly be ready to deal with problems because things don’t always go your way, but you know, COVID threw something really different at everybody and it required a lot of, you know, just thought and quick adaptation. And I mean, the bills still have to be paid for everybody. Right? Every business owner out there knows, hey, your landlord is still going to expect that check. Or, you know, you still got to put food on the table for your family and you, all your employees, you know, the people that are working for you are relying on you. I don’t have a lot of people working for me. We’re mostly contractor based, but I’ve got some employees and that’s, you know, never even occurred to me again, going back to the step mentor. That mindset, right? Like you believe in yourself, you know that [00:22:00] quitting is not an option. Going back to the Special Forces training, that was never an option for me to never occur to me. And as a business owner I’ve never been like, well, I guess we may have to close our doors. You know, that’s just not an option. So you got to figure it out and work hard. And grind.

Brad: Yeah. So I think Michael had you know, a good question on that, but it’s funny when I talk to other gentlemen who may not have been a Green Beret, they might have had something like they were like a sea lion or something, whatever that was, and that mentality though, when you get into that business world, that drives them as to, you know, well, I’m a hundred miles into the desert and I’m tired. There’s just nothing I can do about it but walk back out of the desert and that mentality of this is not going to break me kind of like you were saying, which is, you know, I got this business, I’m going to figure out and as COVID and other things push pressure on you, your mentality is I can figure it out. I’m ready to fight to take the fight. So that’s fascinating.

Jeff: Yeah you have got to keep the faith in yourself.

Brad: Yeah. Well, [00:23:00] Michael, I kind of wanted to go into a whole Navy Seal, Green Beret piece, but I don’t know if we want to get off the business. I know we have a whole strategy question for Jeff too.

Michael: I guess for timing purposes we can go to the strategy. So talk about one of your proudest business strategies or accomplishments that you think would be beneficial for any industry.

Jeff: You know, I think I’m probably most proud of just being able to help people, right? Whether it’s from a client perspective, we’re talking about safety and security and that’s very important to people. Especially when it comes to their children, you know, people will do anything to keep their kids safe. And we have been able to play a role into providing peace of mind for people and safety for their family. So that’s rewarding I would say. I would say that’s, you know, an accomplishment that feels good. And the same for having people [00:24:00] on my team, whether they’re contractors that are part of my regular contract crew or my employees that have been with me for a while, you know, just it feels good to know that they’re coming to work every day and  doing a good job. And I just like knowing, and it’s rewarding that I’m able to do that with them and for them. And I couldn’t do without them, you know, so it’s a team effort. So that’s always an accomplishment that I don’t take lightly. Strategy wise, you know, the biggest thing really for me has been just the people, right? The networking, the friendships. I’ve been very fortunate thanks to our friend Birdman, really. I mean, I can narrow down almost every single client of mine to stemming from him in one way, shape or form. And that that’s huge. So just, you know, from a strategy perspective, just being a good person [00:25:00] and communicating effectively with people really. I mean, networking, you know, it’s really about the people at the end of the day, whether it’s the people you’re talking to or reaching out to, or the people that you’re working with or for, they matter.

Brad: Yeah. That’s music to our ears, our passion statement is helping others succeed. And so you’re saying exactly how we feel about whether or not that’s helping, obviously our team, our clients, or the nonprofits that we work with. And that’s what motivates us every morning. It sounds like you have that exact same motivation.

Jeff: Absolutely. You know, if you’re helping elevate others, then you’re moving forward in life.

Brad: And it’s just, it truly is. It’s funny because obviously unlike you, you know, I’ve talked about this before I have this other person to lean on. Every once in a while, it’s a good idea, but that motivation as to, you know, some people like they’re motivated by other things, I think we’re all three in this room, all motivated by one thing is that people aspect, which I think [00:26:00] going back to where you started the business, you were talking about that in the very beginning of it is that teamwork. You started off with teamwork and then your motivation is having those other people still succeed throughout this entire podcast. It just shows you the element of who you are as a person.

Jeff: Thanks. Yeah. It’s so true, people matter.

Michael: Well, let me say this first. Thank you for your contributions and your service.

Jeff: Thank you.

Michael: Very grateful.

Jeff: Thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, I’m happy and proud of what I’ve done, but I couldn’t have done it without the support of people. Whether they’re other veterans or just people like you guys that are supportive and everything you guys do for Carry The Load and other, you know, Bird’s Eye View Project, and other veteran charities. Sorry to interrupt you there, but thank you.

Michael: Yeah, absolutely. And it just is apparent we’ve seen this time and time again, those who’ve served our country, model servant leadership in how they run their businesses and it’s very inspirational and encouraging to us as business owners. We’re [00:27:00] grateful that you joined us today.

Jeff: Glad to be here.

Michael: And so what we’ll do next is we’ll sign off and then Brad and I will circle back after commercial and come up, I don’t know what legal we can say, but we’ll come up with something and wrap the show up.

Brad: Absolutely. Thanks Jeff.

Jeff: Thanks guys.

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Brad: Welcome back to Legal 123s with ByrdAdatto. I’m your host Brad Adatto with my cohost Michael Byrd. Now Michael, this season, [00:28:00] we are searching, as you said for common ground. And our theme is The Universal Language – Business. Okay, audience members it’s just the two boring attorneys now because the Green Beret has left the room. How amazing. I mean, first off audience members, Jeff’s the nicest guy ever just general, but if you can’t tell either by his voice or by the camera if you’re watching, he’s a big man. He’s a really big guy and it’s great to have someone who’s so unique and nice like that who then obviously served in our armed forces. But then obviously his belief is obviously helping other succeed in some capacity, but I thought you and I both agreed there was something that Jeff said throughout this conversation, which was about risk. And in business, there are risks and in life there’s risk. And I know that in other episodes, I’ve talked about people take different types of risks, people who have different kinds of concerns, some people are afraid to step out of the shower in the morning and other people [00:29:00] jump out of a perfectly good airplane with parachutes, right? So there are different risk tolerances for every single person. And so for Jeff, obviously for him hearing his story of each step that he took was fascinating, but I’d love us to kind of think about the mentality of an entrepreneur and then taking that and applying it to them on the risk side.

Michael: Yeah. And I would say first, you have this risk range that you always talk about of people that that’ll jump out of an airplane. I think that the next step is a Special Forces person no doubt.

Brad: There is just jumping out of the airplane and then jumping off the airplane with 200 pounds strapped to your body into a bad territory.

Michael: Yeah. So what I love is talking about risk in terms of giving legal advice, is it helps us marry, you know, what are the laws which create risk to the personality type. And so I would [00:30:00] say generally speaking entrepreneurs are risk takers to a degree. So they’re going to have some risk tolerance, but even with entrepreneurs, there’s going to be a wide range and just by having a business there’s risks there with your employees, there’s risks with people you do business with, with your customers. And so you have to find that sweet spot when you understand what the legal obstacles are and what you’re comfortable with. And then you are really accelerating your risk if you go into a regulated industry like healthcare and there’s many regulated industries that have their own special things, but using healthcare as an example you know, you have to have some risk tolerance because you’re living as a business in a world of gray. And so if you’re not a risk taker and you want that control the certainty of your outcome, you’re really going to be narrowed on kind of your legal choices in your legal path on how you set things up. [00:31:00]

Brad: And one other takeaway that Jeff said, though, is obviously being Special Forces, all his use of risk, but there are different types of risks. There is business risk. How do I risk business, and then you still have to integrate it personally or take that towards your family. And, you know, he had mentioned that because he’s a single guy right now, he felt like he could take even a higher risk. And that’s just an application of internally, what are the internal burns that you have to worry about on top of that? And so every entrepreneur needs to look at it from, is this a business risk? And then how much of my personal wealth and assets am I willing to put on the table to risk this?

Michael: I think you and I both can relate when we started ByrdAdatto we were like, yes, we got this. We’re going to go for it. And we want to feed our families.

Brad: Yes, those were important elements. But Michael, you’re not saying that we should have Green Berets now because we started our own business are you?

Michael: Well, I don’t know. Is that possible?

Brad: I think we can buy them and then everyone make fun of us.

Michael: Yeah. Okay. We’ll pass.

Brad: Well, Michael, I [00:32:00] think I just want to have one more shout out to all our veterans for first, for your service, all our first responders. And of course everyone, you know, where the Memorial day weekend’s coming up, spend some time and remember to honor those who did serve and gave the ultimate sacrifice by providing our freedom.

Michael: Brad as a Memorial Day special, I will agree with everything you just said, and I’m not going to make you put your earmuffs on. So yes veterans, thank you very much for all that you’ve done.

Brad: That’s right. Well, audience stay tuned. Next Wednesday we have another special guest Brett Spark. We’ll be discussing maximizing your commercial contract revenue for private practices through negotiations and leveraging data.

Outro: Thanks again for joining us today. And remember, if you liked this episode, please subscribe. Make sure to give us a five- star rating and share with your friends. You can also sign up for the ByrdAdatto newsletter by going to our website at byrdadatto.com. ByrdAdatto is providing this podcast as a public service. This podcast is for educational purposes only. This podcast does not constitute legal advice, nor does it establish an attorney-client relationship. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by ByrdAdatto. [00:33:00] The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Please consult with an attorney on your legal issues.

ByrdAdatto founding partner Michael Byrd

Michael S. Byrd

ByrdAdatto Founding Partner Bradford E. Adatto

Bradford E. Adatto

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