Ep. 43 Chad Brown | Veteran, Conservationist & Founder of Love Is King

Chad: I was speaking years later, I was speaking at Patagonia. I don't know if you've heard of Yvon Chouinard.

Tarek: Oh, sure. The founder of Patagonia.

Chad: Right.

Tarek: Right.

Chad: He invited me out to come and speak. And and after when I spoke. I said, and next year, I'm taking you from Belarus to the Arctic. I think I was feeding the child in me of the Arctic to me was like going to the moon, you know, from Texas, kid from Texas and a geography class going over geography book. Right. You know, just like you get those National Geographic magazines and you're like, wow, this is cool. That, you know, I think I was really feeding that that child in me. And I did not have a plan. I didn't know what I was going to do, especially guiding all these youth and vets into that space.

Tarek: Welcome to Y'all Street. Today, I speak with Chad Brown, Navy veteran and the founder of nonprofit Love Is King.

Intro: He's the machine of the day. The machine that's 100 percent legit. So, Chris, you want a cup of coffee? I just want to be the best. Thank you.

Tarek: Chad, how about a cup of coffee?

Chad: Absolutely.

Tarek: So I got you this coffee mug. So the adventure begins. Thought it was appropriate.

Chad: I love it.

Tarek: Cheers to you.

Chad: Nice. Thank you.

Tarek: We actually have our first canine guest in the house today with our friend Axe down here, and I think that's that's a fun place to start. Let's open with Oprah. OK, because Oprah just did a feature segment on you, and it was part of her podcast series. Life is better with dogs. And I'm just curious, how did that come about? How did she find out about you? And what was that experience like to interact with Oprah?

Chad: Yeah. You know, it started out with a phone call that was coming from Instagram, and I thought it was a spam, so I didn't believe it until a couple of minutes later. They actually convinced me that it was Oprah and Harpo Productions.

Tarek: And how did they how did they convince you of that? How did you feel comfortable?

Chad: I was just like, really? No. Are you serious? No. You know, and so I was just talking away from it, basically. And and so just through our conversations, you know, they made it known that, no, this is real. This is legit. You know, and, you know, we would like to connect with you and learn more about you, about your dog, et cetera. Somebody on the Internet world, Instagram world, gave them my information, basically. I don't know who that was, basically. You know, so sooner or later after that phone call, I had another phone call. And then two days later, Harpo Productions comes out from L.A., Chicago, and they're in my life for three days.

Tarek: Unbelievable. That happened fast.

Chad: It happened really, really fast. And and they were like all up in my life, you know, and following me around, asking me questions, you know, and it was a really awesome experience, you know, getting to know the folks. I was only able to get one connection with with Oprah and then the rest was basically handled through her producer. And it was also emotional. You know, it was kind of because they did this one big interview with me. And as they were giving me these questions, these I didn't get a chance to review the questions. And so some of them were really simple, but they were loaded. And, you know, and so I just basically tried to answer, but I was also emotional. And I said, you guys need to stop because I'm like bawling over here. You know, I need to share everything. And they say, well, you're on the Oprah show, you know. So this is already difficult. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. You know, so but but it was a great experience. I just wasn't prepared for the questions that they were asking me because I was just like a waterfall.

Tarek: And the focus was on Axe primarily.

Chad: It was it was it and it's it was the focus was 100 percent on Axe and how acts supports me as a combat vet, how we navigate and work together on a day to day basis. Basically, you know, acts is a very big pivot cornerstone of my life. And we have not been separated for 11 years. And so he's my shadow. Everywhere I go, he's there. He has the ability to regulate my levels, read what's happening with my levels of PTSD, emotional levels, et cetera. Also, my TBI that tends to creep in, et cetera. And, you know, and he's just right there. And so when those signals come up, he's able to warn me, witness with me, et cetera, and then I'm able to respond, you know. And so we work together as a team. And he's a very, very special companion. Yeah.

Tarek: So let's start with your journey, then the journey from really the military and your family, which I know you have a long history in the military up to this this moment when you get acts. So let's start at the beginning. When when did you get into the military when you were 18?

Chad: I got into the military when I was like 21.

Tarek: OK.

Chad: Yeah. Yeah. And I went in and it was really a time in my life where I was actually in school. And my mom was she just got remarried, you know, and I wanted to do this on my own and try to put myself through school. And my mom was trying to help me. My mom didn't really have enough money. That was the bottom line to really help me.

Tarek: And where was this?

Chad: This was down in Texas. We're in Dallas, Texas.

Tarek: OK.

Chad: Yeah. And and so, you know, I think just over just over course of time, I started thinking about it and I was like, mom, I want to I want to go ahead and join, you know, and really my motive was just to get the GI Bill so I can be able to go back and finish school. That was really all I wanted to do. And and at that time, I was in an art school. I was going to the like the Art Institute of Dallas. And all I want to do is be like a graphic designer, basically, you know. And and and and and so got to a point where I didn't have enough money. And I end up going. My father served in the Navy. You know, I didn't choose the Navy because my dad, but I think probably because it was my subconscious and knowing that my dad served in the Navy. And but I just end up going into the Navy and and didn't realize what I was about to step into. You know, I I was it was my motive was GI Bill school, but didn't realize that there was going to be some chapters that I'm about to enter that's going to take me potentially away from my motive and take me into some deeper stories that I'm about to enter, which was war and and and and some really interesting spaces. This was a desert storm, the second phase of there's a storm, you know. And so I, you know, after my boot camp, it was you know, I found myself at my first base in Williamsburg, Virginia, and we got the call and it was ready to go. And and and I that one phone call I said to my mom, I said, Mom, you know, I'm ready. You know, and I was young. I was really young and didn't really know what I was about to step into other than just having kind of like a G.I. Joe kind of mindset.

Tarek: So how much time was there between boot camp and you deploying?

Chad: I think boot camp was like six, seven weeks. And then after that, I went to a school. And then that was like around four or five weeks. And then right when I hit my first duty station, I think probably one or two months.

Tarek: So it's fast, fast, fast. You enter the military and you're off to war.

Chad: I was off, you know, I was off. And and, you know, and, you know, I'm not a big church goer, but my roots is is is in church, you know, Southern, you know, Baptist. And my mom gave me a little green Bible. And she said, son, you know, carry this Bible everywhere you go. The only thing I can do for you is pray and you just continue to pray, you know. And so I went off into the world, you know, along with the unit into the war. And and and I carry that little green Bible behind my flat jacket, which is a bulletproof jacket, basically, you know, Kevlar.

Tarek: And and so and I carry that little green Bible behind that jacket, you know, and so everywhere I went, you know, and did that experience bring you closer to God once you deployed or was it kind of later that?

Chad: You know, I think I've always walked that path of following my faith, you know, a closer or distance. I'm not for sure, but I definitely have always established a consistent walk in my faith, you know. And I don't push it on no one and everything, but I do know there's something there that that's that's watching over and protecting me. And I think my experience in the military reinforces that that that that's telling me that there is something there and you need to pay attention to, period. And and you're on you and you are being watched over. And so my time in the service, it took me into 14 different countries. Outside of the second phase of Desert Storm, I was called with my unit to go into Somalia, Operation Restore Hope. And we were there at the beginning, almost all the way to the end, spending nine months in the desert, doing convoys through city of Mogadishu, you know, and and in a few firefights along the way, it was intense. I there was there was a lot of things that I was part of. I'm not proud about. And there was a lot of things I had to do. And there's a lot of things that I've lost along that process amongst some of my brothers and sisters and and the challenges that we all had to face together. And so it was like I said, I went in to get the GI Bill, but didn't realize in order to obtain that benefit as a veteran, there was a lot of things that I had to incur in order to use a high cost.

Tarek: They're high cost.

Chad: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Tarek: Can you can you speak to the relationships that you formed in the military going through these difficult and traumatic experiences and especially because you're you're being connected to people from all over the country and all these different backgrounds and you have this melting pot and you land in Somalia. Can you talk to some about some of those relationships?

Chad: I incurred probably some of the most best relationships I've ever made when I was when I served. It's it's crazy because I, you know, even not to. Come out of the story here, but, you know, the landscape that we are in with the politics, et cetera, and how divisive that is amongst so many people. I served with some of the best. It has nothing to do with color. It has nothing to do with status. These are my brothers and my sisters that I stood with. They had my back. I had their back. We went through the same pain together. We share the same stories, the laughs, the cries. You know. Second to the best family I've ever had, you know, my Christmas is a Christmas that I will never forget, and it's probably the best Christmas that I've ever had in my life. And that was over in Somalia. You know, we going on probably four or five months, haven't taken a bath in the desert, eating MREs left and right and not knowing what's going to happen the next hour. Christmas comes and we giving each other exchange of MREs. You know, you know, yeah, that's it. You know, and and taking a green, you know, like a woobly and a mosquito net and and putting two by fours together. And that's a Christmas tree.

Tarek: Yeah.

Chad: You know, I mean, it's like being stripped down of everything that we can think of, of Christmas, the gifts and everything. Right. And this is where we this is where we we have each other. We have our laughs that we can own and we can share and exchange. We have the companionship, the brother and sisterhood. And and we can and we can just sit and hold each other in space. Right. And and then just enjoy that moment. And that is the definition of Christmas to me. And it still is today, you know, and and and and I wouldn't you know, I wouldn't trade that for anything. That's the most beautiful. I mean, not everybody wants to be dirty and taking baths. But that right there was the most simplest idea of what community is.

Tarek: Well, it strikes me that the humanity you describe in that moment, in that scene really carries forward to the work that you're doing today. And we are going to get to that and how that all circles back. But to keep the narrative of your story, how long were you in the military?

Chad: I did four years.

Tarek: You did. You did the four years. And so the plan was once you left to go back and finish school. Is that what you did?

Chad: That's exactly what I did. I did four years. And but I did go back and did do reserve for a little while, basically. I think was maybe one or two years. And then eventually I worked my way back into going to school. Which was challenging in itself, because, you know, exiting, coming out of traveling in 14 different countries, majority, 90 percent was that was 30. You know, world war. I mean, I mean, third world, third world countries and in two wars and here I am. Back in North Carolina at my mom's house, sitting on a very, very quiet porch in a neighborhood that's in silence and seeing cats running around. Two different.

Tarek: That's tough. Yeah, that's a tough transition.

Chad: It's it's it's. Yeah. I mean, how do you I mean, like, how do you even prepare to get back? Right.

Tarek: I mean, did you feel like a piece of your identity had been stripped from you?

Chad: Absolutely. A big. There was a big piece that left that that's that remains over there. And amongst that was many of my brothers and sisters who I served with knew that piece. And that was a raw piece that was, you know, just the rawest of of of who we are. Right. You know, and not a lot of people get the opportunity to even have access to see that kind of piece. Right. And these folks was able to see that they were able to learn that and understand that. And and and and now I'm on a porch in silence, seeing cats and dogs, people walking up and down. And I'm sitting here and I got a lot of stuff going through my head right now. You know, and it's it's it's it's loud. It's ringing in the ears. You know, you know, it's you know, because you used to believe you you have become immune and you're used to living in a war zone environment that's becoming part of a second nature. You're you're learning how to cut that off. You're learning how to deal with that. You know, it's becoming part of you. So now I'm back on this porch and I got all this stuff in my head. At the same time, I'm trying to move forward to go to school.

Tarek: And so oftentimes in life, when we go through difficult challenges or transitions, we we fall back and rely on our family for support. But it seems like in that moment, the family that your adopted family that you had had developed overseas in the military was also stripped from you. Yeah. So it's not just that you're in this new environment, but it it sounds like there's some loneliness that's creeping in, too, because you've lost that camaraderie.

Chad: There's a lot of loneliness that creep that crept in. You know, my family was trying to get to know me all over again. You know, yes, they that's Chad, my mom, my father, my son, you know. But but you didn't know I changed. I was a different person. You know, war, war changes you. You know, it it you're not the person of you know, you're different. When you come back here, you're a different person.

Tarek: What do you think? What do you think is the biggest change? Obviously, there's a lot of trauma and experience that you have to deal with. And I'm not so much talking about that. But what about your outlook on life and and how you, you know, approach the war? What about that was affected by your time at war?

Chad: My outlook on life is it's definitely been shaped by war. It has made me very sensitive to to even to the state that we're at and in this landscape, how people treat each other. I've become really sensitive to that, you know, more empathetic, very empathetic, very, you know, and as I have learned not to take things for granted, you know, when you're in those torn, war torn spaces, you there's a lot of things that flash by in front of you that that's it's ugly. It's it's just ugly. Right. You know, and and a lot of that ugliness that I've seen of what we are able to do to one another, how we're able to adapt to a harsh environment and and dismantle. People, communities, destruction. It has salted me in some ways and how I see things, and it makes me want to, I guess, do the best I can to make change in the world for the greater good for all people, you know, and whatever I can do.

Tarek: Yeah, you mentioned you mentioned that the military took you to 14 different countries and several third world countries. And I imagine, you know, a kid from Texas, Dallas, Texas, seeing the world really for the first time and see how other people live in these third world countries also must have left an imprint on you as you came back to the States. And where I'm going with that question is, you know, again, as we as we flash forward to your nonprofit and the amount of time that you spend with these, you know, Native American tribes and going to these remote places, it seems to me that that you have that the military really prepared you for that in some unique way. Would you say that that's true?

Chad: That's pretty true. Yeah. You know, coming from Texas and going into joining the military, I've always said that was my that was where I grew up. You know, my mom and my dad only they only done so much for me. And the military kind of took on that role and and became my mother. And my father injected me with a lot of responsibility, taught me responsibility, integrity, how to walk, how to stand, how to take a position and advocate for yourself. A lot of that, those. Milestones are teachings that I learn in hard environments and also around good, awesome leaders that I was under as well. I think a lot of that has has. Shadowed with me as I move forward out of the service and has came out in so many ways for me to survive and for me to know how to navigate certain hard situations. I still rely on it. And my nonprofits is built off of some of the formulations of of of deployments. You know, that's where the name deployment comes from. And for that, we adopted into our organization , you know, and and and from the Native American, you know, I leaned a lot into that because actually the Native American community was the first only community that really opened up for me as a veteran with with demons. Yeah. Right. And Native Americans does they do that with a lot of veterans. Right. And as one brother said to me, you know, when a warrior comes back from war, it's not the warrior that heals himself. It's the community that heals the warrior, you know. And and and that was a brother from the Quinault Indian Nation tribe that took me in and and they did ceremonies. And he and he said that to me and he and he started to teach me better ways of how I can be able to be more responsive to a community with the skills I have and understand that just because I have the demons, that doesn't mean I'm broken. This is what we have to do to to get healed in order to do right by yourself and then also do right by your community. You know, we're natural service of servers that serving each other basically.

Tarek: Right. Well, you just mentioned leadership and talking about having great leaders in the military. What what lessons did you learn about leadership from those leaders? What made them great leaders in your mind?

Chad: You know, I think, you know, one of the things I could think about a lot was, you know, as a lot of us vets, we are we're very mission oriented. You know, we're we're hardwired into that idea of a mission. You know, and so I think the simplest form of one of the things I can think of is is and how I even live my day is once when you get locked on mission, which translates to an agenda. Right. You know, you you follow it through. You see it through. You see it through with the plan. You match that plan with strategy. Right. And you see it through. But you always have to prepare yourself for the unexpected question mark. Right. Especially as entrepreneurs, we get thrown the question mark a lot. Right. And so we have to adapt and improvise to that situation. Figure it out. Right. Seeing it through. We don't throw in that white towel just because we have this in front of us. We just probably need to reset and come back and reevaluate and see it through. Always see through your mission, follow through your mission, basically. You know, so I think that's probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned is and that was something that I did not learn, you know, from my parents. Anything is, you know, but I'm in the military, but it is it's adapt and improvise, seeing it through. It doesn't matter about the pain. The pain is something that you can you can manage. A lot of us don't understand how we can make that. We can actually manage that. We can manage that pain. We can manage a bad situation. It's just about adopting the right mindset to that situation and being able to see that through.

Tarek: But yeah, it's a great segue into your personal journey, because you had you experienced some pretty, pretty dark low points along the way. You know, it's it's always darkest before the dawn, as the saying goes.

Chad: Yeah.

Tarek: And and it seems like you embrace that concept of of seeing the mission through, even though it was really dark for you. So can you can you talk about kind of what led to that descent and maybe the process of getting out of it?

Chad: Yeah. You know, that was a time that I was I. Maybe I could start where I've got off for a job in Portland, Oregon. I was living in New York and I was in the the advertising design world at that time. And and so, well, I took this job and went over and got planted in Portland. I was doing great, but some things started to happen with me. And I wasn't for sure what was going on with me, other than there was a whole lot of stuff starting to creep up. A lot of it was stuff from the military, what I've been exposed to. New York gave me a a lane where I was able to suppress that because fast life, fast lane. And I it allowed me to think what's in front of me instead of thinking what's behind me. Moving to Portland was a lot much slower. Which what was behind me started to creep up and step in front of me now and now is forcing me to deal with that. And. Over a course of time, as I'm starting to look at this and it's getting overwhelming, I'm losing, I'm sparring down. I end up losing everything, you know, and didn't quite understand what was happening.

Tarek: You're having some like dreams and nightmares, nightmares, dreams.

Chad: Anxiety, you know, probably borderline a schizophrenia stepping in now, you know. You know, I couldn't hold down the job. My what I was hired and, you know, walking off. There was times that I would have blackouts in the parking lot trying to get home. And I'm probably I'm probably five miles from my location and I literally has a blackout to where I have. I don't know where I'm at, you know. And so it got to a point where, you know, to fast forward, it just got to a point where I ended up losing and not being able to stay or stay on task with things that was in my life, even paying bills. And I end up homeless, basically. It was hard. It was extremely hard. And, you know, it was also embarrassing. 100 percent, you know, my mom, my father, I was there's love there, but it was, you know, you know, parents, they get proud of the things that you do. Right. And these things happen to where it's it's it to me. It was really embarrassing to get on the phone and ask my mom to my mom where I was, what was going on. And it broke her heart.

Tarek: It was hard for her to understand.

Chad: It was hard for her to understand, you know. And I and I didn't know I didn't have nobody to turn to other than talking to God and asking God to to walk with me now. I don't know how I get from point A to point B. I don't know what I'm going to do. But I need you. I need you to to walk with me here. And, you know, it ain't it wasn't pretty, you know, just because me knocking on the door, God, that doesn't mean it's going to be, you know, something you might see in the movies. Right. And all beautiful and angels or whatever. You know, I think what he was what God was doing was was protecting me. But I needed to go through that. And I needed that. These were my demons. These are what I incurred.

Tarek: How do you think they protected you?

Chad: Oh, where I was at in that time of life, I was on the street. I was dealing with a different population that I would never thought I would be dealing with. You know, you you're you're like you're you're walking forward with eyes in the front and you got to have eyes in the back. You know, and I found myself in a up on 82nd Street. I found myself in a blood line to give blood. Never thought in my life I'll find myself in doing that, you know. And just to make a little bit of just to make a little bit of money.

Tarek: Was there any substance abuse issues at this time?

Chad: No, no. Something God, you know, no, no. I didn't go there. It was but it was just pure survival here. Like how to put gas in my tank to how I'm going to get something to eat, you know, and I needed to operate. And that's kind of maybe some of that military started to come out of me. And my father, you know, has, you know, he was also an outdoorsman and he taught me a lot about the survival, but it's also being on a farm. And it was just kind of being on a farm where you got chores, right? You got things you got to do in order to keep things going right. It's the same sort of concept in survival mode. You need to put yourself in a situation to where the things that you can take advantage of and reach that you can have control over. You maintain those things. Maintaining those things is what's going to give you compass. It's what's going to give you focus, right? If you don't maintain those things, it makes you lose your mind. And I was in a space where I needed to just maintain food. I needed to find food. Right. I needed to do that. Going to a blood bank that allowed me, that gave me sixty dollars for a pint of blood for me to take, put gas in the car. That was routine one. Food. Routine two. Right. Find a place of shelter. Routine three. And so I had to maintain those things constantly, just like in survival mode in the woods. You know, you got to find your shelter, your food, your fire, your water. Maintaining those things always will always allow you to sustain and retain your compass for you to be able to stay focused on what you need to do, basically. You know, and that's what I did. And I didn't step to the left. I stepped this step to the right. I stayed on target. And that was my mission, you know, and showing up every Tuesday at seven a.m. at the blood bank. I was there every Tuesday and every Thursday. Everything was something that I had to put in place in order to do that. And then on the outside, as I'm doing that, end up slowly making my way to the V.A. because I need the gas to get to the V.A. Me maintaining that. Right. If I lose my my position of what I'm staying focused on, then I can't get to the V.A. Right. And so I need to do those little things that's going to help me be able to operate. You know, and when I get to the V.A., you know, I'm getting support, getting help. What did that help look like? It was it was a random, you know, they they put you with the provider. It's like a drug dealer, you know, and, you know, it's questionable. You know, I mean, a lot of us vets, we we are, you know, we you know, you hear the stories of the V.A. Right. And so you walk in and your your provider will say, how are you doing today? You know, and you say, oh, I'm doing great, great, great, great. Oh, we're going to down your meds. And then I'll say, well, how are you doing? And you thought, oh, I'm not doing that great, blah, blah, blah. Well, we're going to up your meds. They don't know what they do. And they just open them down and, you know, everything, you know. And so they up my meds, they down my meds. And so, yeah, I was I was, you know, taking probably, you know, eight, nine different medications. You know, this was mostly for like anxiety. Anxiety to the to keep from dreaming the bad stuff to is everything, you know. And it was terrible. I mean, a lot of those medications is definitely when you read about them because, you know, you know, any bad because they give you a brown bag. Everybody, every veteran know they give the brown bag. You sit there, the brown bag, they open up the brown bag. You got the meds in there. But on the back of the brown bag, you got a white sheet of paper that tells you all the bad things that's going to happen to you. You know, and so it's crazy, you know. And so but you got to take the meds, you know. And so I was I was taking all those meds. And did it help me? I don't know. I can't say. I tell you what, it I definitely I gained a lot of weight. And the biggest thing at that point when I was in that space, it put me in a place of suicidal, you know. And and I remember calling my mom and and I was, you know, I didn't have that much. I was using one of those paid cell phones that I was able to get, you know. And I call my mom and, you know, I was kind of like in a state of of of concern. And and I was crying and I don't remember all the stuff I was saying, though. But I was reaching out. I was needing help because my anxiety and everything was like going all over the place. And that was a day my mom, she called the 1-800-SUICIDE-HOTLINE through the VA and they were trying to find me. My mom was trying to give them the location where I was at. I ended up moving from that location and up, finding myself down along the river in Port, outside of Portland, on the Clackamas River, around an Estacada Estacada area. And I had my my firearm and I was loaded up on a whole lot of medications. And I got out there and I was had the intentions to take my life. But I was so strung out on heavy medications. I blacked out again and I was found by a couple of folks. I think was a I remember a police found out that I was a veteran. And instead of me going off to jail, they went straight into the VA hospital. And I was there for eight days in a psych ward to prove to the docs that I wasn't going to hurt myself. And so I was there in the psych ward. And then when I got out, that was when, you know, I was introduced to fly fishing.

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Tarek: If you pause in the psych ward for a minute, you're in there for eight days.

Chad: Yeah.

Tarek: You realize what had just happened, the point that you had gotten to. I'm sure you had a conversation with your mom during that period.

Chad: Yeah.

Tarek: Well. What was going on in your mind? You know, what was the cost for reflection? I mean, you mentioned a few moments ago about the importance of mission and and seeing things through. Can you can you take us back to that moment? Because this this becomes the turning point for you.

Chad: Yeah. I'm going to be honest with you. My memory is so shocked. I was just with a lot of medications at that time, you know. And but I they remember, you know, it was. You know, I was going through routine. I was just a weird place because I was pretty much, you know, just like when you're in a hospital, when you're naked and you got a robe over you and that was it. You know, so we were I was in a robe for eight days, basically, you know, trying to keep my butt from not being seen, you know, you know. But yeah, you know, I it was what was it like? It was it was sterile. It was very sterile. And there was a lot of us vets in that space, you know, and a lot of us didn't really talk. We were all fighting our own stuff. But, you know, there was a lot of veterans in the rooms that we were there and we were going in and out of these circle group talk groups, basically.

Tarek: Yeah.

Chad: And constantly meeting with the docs. And you know, and I was there was a lot. I was doing a lot of praying.

Tarek: And was there a sense of comfort in that being being with other vets again in that environment?

Chad: I don't remember the comfort. I don't remember the comfort, I remember more of. The thousand yard stairs that all of us had, that we were all. You know, we were all like in a different state of mind and we weren't talking. It wasn't no brotherhood, sisterhood. I think I think it was much more of. You're amongst a lot of warriors that are broken. The. The conversation of of help are reaching out, it's not there, it's you're in a different state and it's being. It's being suppressed with a lot of medications. These medications that I was on and I'm sure a lot of that was on. Game changer for the worse. You're not yourself. You're even disconnected more from who you are. You know, and so you're it's it's like. It's like zombies in a way, it's really a weird state. It's I didn't have the conversation, the talks, like when I was in the military, this was more of. You got a couple of guys staring at the wall, you got a couple of guys staring in space, you know, it's just broken soul.

Tarek: By the time that you had left the psych ward, were you then working to get yourself weaned off of that medication? Yeah.

Chad: Once when I left that psych ward, I was introduced to fly fishing. And when I was introduced to fly fishing back to nature.

Tarek: Better kind of drug.

Chad: Better drug. That became my fight. And I went back to the VA and talk with my provider and told her that this is what I've done. It brought me joy. I laugh. I don't remember how much I laugh, especially when I hooked up to my first fish. Man, that was that was crazy.

Tarek: How did that happen?

Chad: I was in Harlem, man.

Tarek: People don't just go out and start fly fishing. Right. Yes. Some training involved in things. Oh, my my fly fishing was real ugly.

Chad: I mean, no practice. I mean, floppy line kind of stuff, you know. But you know, but I got it out there. I just got it out there. It was it was all luck, you know, beginner's luck, you know. But I did hook in on the fish. And when I hooked in on that fish, I was hooting and hollering all over the place. You can hear me. I mean, probably my mom can even hear me from North Carolina, you know. But you can I mean, I was it. It was a day that I felt that my joy and my excitement of connecting to that fish was pushing the medications through my my pores. And I was able to see just the greenery, which was the leaves hanging from the tree. And that became clear to me in my eyesight, just that little that little window. And that became my medicine. That became my strength. That became my walk. That became my fight and my drive. And I went back to me. I told her and they said that literally they wrote me a prescription to fish more and the more you fish, we will win you off your medications and just maintain your group therapy, you know. And that's what I did.

Tarek: And was that an everyday thing for you?

Chad: That was everything. I was still living out of my rig, you know. And, you know, I was still. Yeah, that's where I was at. And I didn't care. I honestly I didn't care that rod going to the river. That was everything to me, you know. And and and and and I, you know, became what you call like, I guess you say, like a trout bump, you know, I was chasing fish everywhere I go. I was chasing fish. You know, I got a story for you. One of one of those times that I heard that there was a salmon run. Never fish, you know, for big salmon. And so I didn't know what I was doing. And so I got my rod. I had the wrong kind of right size and everything didn't care. Got out there and I saw some guys fishing and there was a salmon run and I was so excited. And I got out there and I start casting, didn't hook in. I cast again, didn't hook in. And I finally cast and I hooked it on this big salmon. And that salmon went up river and I didn't know what to do. And I was like cleaning up the river and I was going all over the place. And soon enough, that salmon turned around and start coming at me. And I start seeing the salmon and I saw teeth in the salmon, you know. And so what I did was I dropped my rod and I run the opposite direction. And there's people and I said, what are you doing? You know, I said, I'm running away from the salmon. You don't run away from a salmon, you know, you know. But it was crazy, you know. And that was my first experience with salmon. That's what it brought me a lot of joy. And that's what brought me some awesome connections of friends on the river that witnessed that. And still to this day, they bring it up at gatherings and stuff, you know. And, you know, and they're still the best friends. And actually, one of them was still is still a board member of my own organization, you know, years later. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and so he became my teacher. He became kind of like a mentor for me. He's a very well-known angler. And he just kind of took me on his wing and start. Basically, it's like there's a movie, I don't know, Tuesdays with Morrie or something like that. It was kind of like that relationship that we were having, you know, every Tuesday or every Wednesday we would connect. We'll go to the river. Sometimes it wasn't about fishing, but it was about the journey going to go fish and the journey of relationship and that journey of companionship and that journey of study, the journey of education around the water, science, conservation. I mean, he was a very well-rounded angler that knew has holds a lot of information, you know, and he was just dumping a lot into me. And it was this theory, this idea that sometimes it's not always about catching fish. It's also about being able to come to a place of pause, a place where you can be able to think and be able to go through your process and allow the river to become your own therapist, you know. And these are the new learnings and teachings I started to learn from him and from many other folks within the outdoor space. And these people were hunters. They were anglers, biologists, scientists, conservationists, many, many folks, you know, and they were just dumb. And I just sooner or later, I started to become like a rodeo, like a rodeo of a band. I became a rodeo of guides, you know. I said, hey, can I jump on that boat and I'll get the bags? Because I had to forget. Like I'm like, this is a place where I'm relearning. I'm relearning how to insert myself back into society.

Tarek: You're rediscovering yourself.

Chad: I'm rediscovering myself all over again. Right. And I'm getting new tools. And some of these tools is not about fishing. Some of these tools, it's just about learning and having conversation. When I'm on that boat with the guide and there with the clients, I'm just having conversation, talking. I'm learning. There's a lot of things I'm taking in and I'm being taught how to pause.

Tarek: Were those interactions influential in your decision or your desire to start a nonprofit?

Chad: I think so. I think from a lot of the interactions, as I'm these interactions, I'm molding myself into something that I'm not for sure what I'm becoming. But it's feeling really, really good right now, you know, and I'm and I'm still homeless, you know, you know, still.

Tarek: Oh, you are still homeless.

Chad: Oh, yeah.

Tarek: You are still giving blood.

Chad: Absolutely.

Tarek: But just spending your days fishing.

Chad: Absolutely.

Tarek: Wow.

Chad: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. I would I mean, sometimes when I get fish, I would actually make little fires and right there on the river. Absolutely. That's my food. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And and I didn't stop becoming homeless until I actually got my my benefits back from the VA. You know, and it was it was like all of my this back pay of money from for my medical basically. And that right there is what. Put me a little bit more back into society.

Tarek: When does your best buddy Axe come in the picture?

Chad: Axe, he came in later in my life. You know, this was now I'm I have entered back into the work world of being an adult, paying bills.

Tarek: So did you go back into graphic design?

Chad: I did not. I did not. I I went straight into opening up my nonprofit.

Tarek: OK.

Chad: And and that was done by duct tape because I didn't know what the hell I was doing.

Tarek: Yeah.

Chad: About a nonprofit.

Tarek: And how did you get the money?

Chad: It was all passion.

Tarek: How did you even get the money to start it?

Chad: Well, it was it was the money that I got from my benefits.

Tarek: I see.

Chad: I self-invested into that. You know, I took a little bit and I paid some debt. And then I took 90 percent of everything and I dumped it right into my nonprofit. That was a that was a time that Obama was in office and he was talking about there was this whole program around like leaving no kid behind that was tied with the U.S. fish and wildlife. And I in those early stages of brainstorming, I was like saying to myself, I say, you know what, fly fishing did this for me. I wonder how could I put something together to where I can work with youth, work with veterans, be able to bring that to the river where they can find their own soul river. And that's how I came up with the name Soul River and Soul River. The idea is the, you know, coming to the river is is is the is the soul of the river has a way of helping you through your process, through your darkest moments, however that lands on you. You know, the mission of that organization unfolded into a youth and a veteran comes together. It's like an iron sharpening iron process on the river building community. Yes, it's centered around fly fishing. But the most important thing is that. That veteran is serving that youth who once served in for our country, giving youth an opportunity of of of of support and in in in build and leadership and that youth gives veterans purpose. However, that lands purpose. That's the most important for many of us. That's right. You know, is in purpose equates to mission. Right. Gives us mission, you know, and and allows us to show up in the young person's eyes. Rather, you may be a big brother, big sister, life coach, mentor. But it allows us to show up. And that young person is looking for that and allowing that to happen. You know, and that's really what the organization is all about. You know, it's bringing those two worlds together.

Tarek: And when you have someone young looking up to you, it does recalibrate and sort of reset the standards that you hold yourself to.

Chad: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Tarek: Walk me through the early days of this nonprofit. So you have this idea. The mission and the purpose of this nonprofit is outstanding. Where do you go to find the first kids? You know, where do you where do you hook up with the vets? Like, walk me through that.

Chad: Yeah. Veteran community is a whole different ballgame. I'll speak to that. You know what I did? And I had a couple of personal rides in my rig. I had this idea. So we were in mission doing it. I would go to the basketball courts in the urban neighborhoods. I'll walk out into the basketball court and I'll take my rod. I'll put some fly line on it, colorful fly line. And I'll be these crazy casting right in the middle of the court. And I'm doing these loops and all this kind of stuff.

Tarek: All the guys were playing.

Chad: Well, absolutely. I would just step right there in the middle. I'm just I'm disrupting everything.

Tarek: They're like, let's not mess with this.

Chad: You know, and I got these crazy casting and people say, what the hell is that? You know, and I got these crazy and I'm doing these nice loops and long cast. And it's not right. And and kids are coming up and saying, what is that? Can I do that? Can I try? Sure. Absolutely. And I give a ride to a kid and show them how to do it. They're doing it. Their their friends come along and they say, oh, that's cool. That's cool. So this is where I'm using a little bit of my creativity. You know what I went to school for, because what I'm doing is is like I'm not pushing the sport of fly fishing. I'm pushing coolness and creativity and art. Which has a way of inspiring many people, period. It's also psychologically and like a medicinal type of process that will help one be able to cope. I don't care. People fighting cancer to come in, have a bad relationship, whatever. Art is definitely a beautiful way of showing up to help you process. Right. You know, and so I'm bringing art into that space. Yes, it's fly fishing, but I'm presenting it as art and something cool. And the youth are loving that. I'm not even talking about fishing, you know. But but but but but the attractor is learning how to do some freaking cool loops in the air, you know, and they wanted to learn that, you know. And that's where I started to to recruit. And and that's also. Where at one point with that, a good buddy of mine who's a board member today, that's also where we would talk about art on the water. We would talk about community on the water. We would talk about relationships and all that kind of stuff, all that kind of stuff, those teachings I'm carrying over, you know. And I'm just what but what I'm doing, I'm taking and I'm applying it in my own way to build a new community. And and and over the course of time, I would show up on the court and youth will show up more and their parents will come out and talking. And some of the guys will come out talking, you know, and everything. But yeah, that's kind of like how that it was very organic.

Tarek: Yeah.

Chad: Very, very organic.

Tarek: You talk to the parents. Hey, I want to take a few of these kids down to the river and and get them out.

Chad: Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Tarek: And what were what were some of those conversations like with these kids? The first time for many of them, probably.

Chad: Oh, man, I fishing and it is sights and sounds. Some of it was kind of scary, you know, you know, because you're taking, you know, urban kids outside of their comfort zone. You know, parents are watching you from a distance. You know, they're just as much as like out of their comfort zone, too, you know, because they don't go out, you know. And so, you know, so they're watching. But when a kid comes back, it's like, mom, dad, mom, you know, there was like, you know, they are moms and that they get right on board with that. And, you know, and in that same space, I'm also working with veterans. But that's a different approach. Veterans is it's kind of like a culture that is kind of like an earned of respect. You have to earn that right. You know, not every knows a lot of us veterans are wired like some of us not wired like that. But, you know, so what I did was I lean into close relationships. I have just a couple of guys that I knew and they were down. They were also outdoorsmen and they came out because they knew the power of of of nature and the power of fishing and stuff. And so that was not a seldom that they get it, especially the opportunity to connect with youth. You know, that set with them the same way it sits with me. And and so through that relationship, they start talking amongst their their people, their people. And that started open up to more vets, you know, coming in. And making that work, you know, but it's the community between that relationship of veterans and youth. It's pretty powerful and it's pretty magical. It's it's it's. Yeah, it's beautiful. As I'm thinking, you know, what really resonates me was a situation that this is a little bit fast forward in that my organization. But we started to do what we call deployments. And it went from the court to the river. But now we do deployments. And these deployments are what we call them in our organization is identifying places that that are at threat, our public lands, fresh water, our wildlife, environmental issues and also indigenous. And whatever those threats are, we would turn those threats into a curriculum. And that veteran would take that curriculum and use that curriculum to engage with our youth in those spaces. The idea with that curriculum is to allow the youth to exercise their mind, to think of how would you solve this problem? Without feeling afraid or pressured or whatever, what is your solutions? Because in our world today and how we move through world is all of ideas and having solutions and challenges, et cetera. And so we wanted our youth to kind of step in that kind of leadership to be able to think critical thinking, basically, you know,

Tarek: In an environment where they're being asked to collaborate with people from a lot of different backgrounds, too, which is absolutely a big part of the solution, a big part of the solution.

Chad: So. The power of that relationship was, and I'll tell you, is that one day we came back from a deployment. And, you know, youth or youth, urban world, I'm dealing with at risk kids, I'm dealing with broken homes. You know, whatever, I'm dealing with a lot of stuff. And so one of these kids decide to go to a store and get something. The story didn't have enough money to pay for it. But the kid wanted really bad and the kid end up taking it. And as the kid darted out the door, stealing, basically, the security guard runs after the kid. Tackles the kid. The kid turns around and hits the security guard and takes off. The kid ends up getting caught, ends up getting put into the system. I get a phone call of what took place. And the kid's attorney is like asking for me to. Is there any way you can speak about the character of this kid? You know, and I say, yeah, absolutely. And so I got the court date. And I sent an email out to the community of Soul River, Inc. veterans. When that court date came up, 25 veterans showed up.

Tarek: Wow.

Chad: Along with myself and that kid to speak about that kid and his character. And that judge basically said, I ain't never seen this before. I said, son, you are you must be really, really special. You got all these people here. And veterans. That are willing to step up. And speak on your behalf. Oh, I just have to say one thing, I'm going to step away from my chamber and step down and I need to come down and sit down with you and get to know you just for a couple of minutes and talk to you.

Tarek: Wow.

Chad: And the judge. Had a conversation with him and that conversation was small, but the judge was like, you know, reassuring the kid is this, you know, basically, I have to. It's my job of what you do wrong, et cetera. There is consequences. And I'm really want to understand and know because it's hard for me to put you in. I know it's going to happen. You're going to get put into a system. And once you get put in that system, it's going to be hard for you to navigate that system as a young man. And it's going to mark you as a young man moving forward. So I really want to take the time. I want to understand you. Because you can see in this room of veterans, you know, and he went through each veteran, everybody has something great to say, everybody. Wow. And the judge basically made a final decision. He says, understanding the community that you are tied to this strength and this power of people here. I do not want to take you away from that. I really believe that you are nestled in a community and you have love around you. And you have a lot of people that care for you. And I don't want to take that away from you. I want to give you a second chance.

Tarek: It's a great judge.

Chad: Yeah.

Tarek: How did the kid respond?

Chad: He was quiet. He was also crying. And he was very respectful. Yes, sir. I'll do my best, et cetera. And and it ended the way it's supposed to end it. You know, he got the second chance and the veterans gave him a lot of love. And he went off and finished his high school. He finished college. He actually went overseas, I think somewhere in Europe and as an educator, teacher, teaching foreign students.

Tarek: Yeah, incredible story.

Chad: You know, I mean, at that point in my life and everything, when you pull the the onion back, the teachings and the learnings come from the river. It came from the the times that I was homeless. You know, it ties it back to the military. Following the mission, staying on, staying focused, following your faith. You may not know what's on the outside of the door, but you got to stay present and you got to stay grounded with your faith. You can know for a fact that. You're going to be guided in the right way.

Tarek: How did how did that mission take you to the Arctic Circle?

Chad: Yeah, that was crazy. I was speaking years later, I was speaking at a at Patagonia. I don't know if you heard of Yvonne Chouinard.

Tarek: Oh, sure. The founder of Patagonia.

Chad: Right, right. He invited me out to come and speak. And and after when I spoke. I said, and next year I'll take a youth and veterans to the Arctic. I think I was feeding the child in me of the Arctic to me was like going to the moon. You know, and I'm from Texas, kid from Texas and a geography class going over geography book. You're right. You know, just like you get those National Geographic magazines and you're like, wow, this is cool. That, you know, I think I was really feeding that that child in me. And I did not have a plan. I didn't know what I was going to do, especially guiding all these youth and vets into that space. You know, and when I said that, that was me making a promise to the youth and vets, and I need to see that through. And I looked to my left at that time. I had my girlfriend and she was like. What? You know, I said, yeah, babe, I got this, but there's no money. You know, I said, don't worry about it. I'll find a way, you know, and you know, and so. Yeah, so I had to find a way. And and and what I did was basically I tried to do it the most traditional way possible of making the phone calls and.

Tarek: Raising the capital.

Chad: Raising everything and many doors closed in front of me, left and right.

Tarek: And you were planning to take how many veterans?

Chad: At this time, I think it was like 22 youth and veterans.

Tarek: Wow.

Chad: I know it was crazy. And so all these doors closed and. I got a little savvy and and I was like, well, my taxpayer paid his money, blah, blah, blah. And and so I called up a buddy in the Navy and I said, hey, do you think you could fly a C-130 into the space and drop us, you know, vets and youth off?

Tarek: Well, that was going to be my question. It sounds ignorant, but I'm thinking, how do you even get to the Arctic Circle?

Chad: I went there, you know, and I talked to a couple of buddies and and you know, they said it's possible. And and they made some connections and, you know, up into the Arctic. And it was like, yeah, we can try to do something, you know, but there was a whole lot of conversation. But that conversation started to roll over with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife. And I did and I got a phone call from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife, you know, and it was like, so what are you trying to do? Because I was I became this crazy lunatic, you know, that's trying to bring you the vets. And they said, what are you trying to do again? And I explained to them and and they, you know, they didn't shut the door. They were really open. You know, U.S. Fish and Wildlife is really big around trying to educate, you know, young people, et cetera, you know. And so, you know, and then one day I got a knock on the door. His name was Barry Whitehill, which we were best friends today. Older guy. He's probably in his 80s now, but he's one of the last of the last of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife rangers that used to patrol through the Yukon territory up in the Arctic. And and he was also he has man, he has so many stories. He's he's the he has the kind of stories where, you know, he was the judge in the backcountry with the sidearm. He had to make those decisions, you know. And so, you know, it's hardcore. And so he came and he knocked on my door and he says, my name is Barry Whitehill. And you Chad Brown said, yeah. I said, well, I'd like to sit down and have a conversation with you and see what you're trying to do. And so he walked in as we sat down and I told him everything. He says, I think you need a fairy godmother. You know, and I say, yeah. And so one thing led to another. And he had some really, of course, it's all about who you know. Right. And so he had some pretty higher up U.S. Fish and Wildlife folks up in Fairbanks, Alaska. And between him and his relationships allowed me to be able to bring up youth and veterans. And they and I was able to make that happen. And he guided with me into the backcountry. All at the same time, work some angles to where I actually got an official letter from from the from Congress, basically from U.S. Fish and Wildlife, all was out of Congress. That states, you know, of my permit to guide youth and veterans into the Arctic. And to this day, I still hold that permit, you know. And so it was really. Yeah, it was. And that's how I that's how I was able to make it happen. And Barry Whitehill was also my first intro introduction to the Gwich'in people up in the Arctic Circle. And through him, I have maintained my relationship with the Gwich'in people, the chiefs and also the Inupiat nation people further up north. You know, but yeah.

Tarek: So you load up all these inner city kids on a plane, say we're going to the Arctic Circle. Absolutely. You land in the Arctic Circle. Yeah, they get off the plane. I mean, what is.

Chad: Well, we want to talk about planes. We're not just playing, but we land in Fairbanks. Come, you know, regular airplanes. And then I take you on bush planes. Oh, my God. We're flying bush planes in deep to the Arctic, landing on tundra, completely.

Tarek: I mean, are their heads just spinning at this point? Are they just thinking like they landed on the moon?

Chad: They yeah, it was a whole bunch of oohs and ahhs and beautiful. I can't even tell you how beautiful the spaces that we were bringing these youth in at the same time. Harsh environments. It's the real deal. It's the real deal, you know. And so for the veterans, it kind of got them giddy because it allowed them to carry their firearms and all that, you know, everything, you know, and so but for the youth, there was like. Oh, wow, it's gone. But but what you saw was you picking, picking up on the the the resilience and the leadership from the veterans, you know, and you know, and that's what you start seeing. They start leaning into that.

Tarek: Those relationships must be so powerful. Very powerful between the vets and the kids.

Chad: Yeah.

Tarek: What was it like for them? Again, I'm just thinking inner city kids meeting Indian tribes in the Arctic Circle. What was the connective tissue there?

Chad: Yeah, I think, you know what? It's it just kind of just fell into place. You know, it wasn't the eyes on that, you know, the indigenous community. They open up like a community, a family. And it was like stepping into just an extension of family. And it was beautiful. And it still is today. I mean, youth, they're, you know, you wake up and they're in one of the huts area, you know, the huts of the where they live. And they're in there, you know, washing dishes and helping out with breakfast, you know, caribou, you know. And, you know, one of the yeah, yeah. And only the indigenous women, you know, she's like, I want to take the, you know, the you for for arts and crafts. And I said, sure, what time you what time you want to be there? And it's over at the tribal center. You know, you go to a tribal center and everybody shows up and they got like eight caribou just lined up, ready to be cut up. And that's arts and crafts. So youth, they get an opportunity to take a deep dive into the caribou. They learn how to, you know, you know, cut up the caribou. They learn how to take the bones and and the hoofs and what a life and all this kind of stuff. It's a phenomenal experience. It's a special experience, you know, and it's it's it impacts every youth and every veteran on so many different levels. You know, it's it's it's. The teachings, the stories, they call them the creation stories, which is like the Bible to us, you know, what they call the creation stories. And they talk about the spirit of the caribou and how powerful the caribou is. The great migration of the caribou. You know, they are the nomadic people. They are the caribou. The Gwich'in people are the caribou people, you know, and and they're just they are they they see themselves as the shadows and the spirits of the caribou that guides them, the caretakers, basically, you know, you know, it's it's it's it's a ground zero where youth and vets gets the opportunity to get injected with. Medicine of the soul and medicine to the mind on a grounded level and in and it's it's a lot of weight to that, you know, and to be able to sit in space with the chief and, you know, some of the tribal members and how they bring them in and the drumming, et cetera. You know, it's it's there's a relationship that you be that you get an opportunity to witness. And that relationship is the relationship between human and land, human and animal, you know, and you get a really sneak, interesting, sneak preview to how that relationship marries itself so well. And if you allow yourself. To witness that. You start to see. A lot of information and a lot of new things that that, that we need to probably learn from,

Tarek: and especially coming from the inner city to be connected out in nature like that and what you're describing, that's that's an extension of Soul River, right? It's just it's not the river. It's it's just a different location, but it's the same principle.

Chad: Yeah, I think, you know, when we think about it more, it's it's around like belonging.

Tarek: Mm hmm.

Chad: Redefining yourself, refitting yourself into something that you are connected to, but you've just been disconnected and an extension of Soul River that you're speaking to that you just said is helping you redefine and refit yourself into a unique space and position that will help you grow as a human and know and how to move forward, basically, you know. And those are there's one thing I was thinking about, like. A hunter, witch and hunter told a story of. A relationship, an insect that would bury itself in the hoof of a caribou at a young age. And when that caribou grows older, that insect buries itself between the skin and the fur, and it makes its way all the way up the body of the caribou. And as that caribou gets older, that caribou sneezes and out comes a bumblebee. And that's the relationship of how nature works, right? The complexity of that. But to be able to witness that as a human. That's an invitation that's there, but a lot of us are not able to see that invitation because we're so caught up in doing this, this, this, this, this, right? Soul River Inc. gives those veterans and those use those opportunities to be able to step into that quietness, which is also a form of medicine to the soul, to the mind that helps with mental health, etc. Like that.

Tarek: Absolutely. If people are interested in the work that you're doing or want to donate to the work that you're doing, where do they go to find you?

Chad: Well, you can go to two places. You can always go to Soul River Inc. You know, we there's a SoulRiverInc.org the sites there and the donation there. Button is there. But you know, but now also Soul River Inc. is also has merged with my other organization, which is Love is King. And so Soul River Inc. falls underneath Love is King as a program, basically. And but you can also go to Love is King as well, which is the parent of Soul River Inc. And the same thing as a donation. But it goes to the same direction and helps the same of the programming of the work that we do.

Tarek: Wonderful. I encourage everybody to go check that out. You are doing a lot of media as well. You're creating videos. You're you're bringing your camera up to the Arctic. What is the what is the plan for that? And what is your your intent with with that media?

Chad: It's all centered around storytelling and being really intentional and identifying, identifying the stories that needs to be told and brought to the screen. And, you know, that's a really big piece of me. I'm very passionate about being a creator, an artist, you know, and being able to be in these spaces. The witness allows me not just to be a witness, but also be able to document this and be able to bring that to the screen and down into the lower 48, where people can be able to learn and also be a witness and be educated about what's going on, etc. You know, and so the power story is is is is it's the same thing of having the right medicine to feed the soul. And and, you know, and as a photographer, filmmaker, that's my roots. And that's that's really where I live as a creative. And I think, you know, through my work with my organizations, it has given me a platform and given me the space to be able to go deeper and use a lens to help tell these stories in the most magical way and and inspire people, more people to to step out of their comfort zones and to learn and want to be part of something that's bigger than them.

Tarek: Can people find some of that content on your Instagram?

Chad: Absolutely. You can find it on my personal, which is what is underscore Chad Brown underscore, which is my Instagram channel. And I do have a personal creative website, which is chadocreative.com. And and that shows the breadth of all of my work, basically, and how I'm working and weaving in and out of the communities, basically using creatives, creativity and storytelling and photography.

Tarek: Wonderful. Well, Chad, I can't let you leave without giving you a gift. Being a kid from Texas is a Y'all Street silver round. Oh, my Texas Precious Metals. That's for you to keep. And I just awesome. Thank you.

Chad: My pleasure.

Tarek: And I can't thank you enough for joining us today. You're doing incredible work. And I really can't wait for for people to learn more about what you're doing. So thank you so much.

Chad: Thank you. I really appreciate it.

Tarek: So absolutely.

Outro: How do y'all drink this? That's the Yall Street.