Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: I'm Alex Stone, former military service member and law enforcement officer, now CEO of Echelon Protected Services, one of the fastest growing private security firms on the west coast. And this is ride along, where our guests and I witness firsthand the issues affecting our community.
I believe our proven method of enacting meaningful change through compassion and understanding is the best way to make our streets a safer place and truly achieve security through the community.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: I'm Billy Dunstan. I'm a veteran screenwriter and actor, and I'm here with the write along podcast to talk about veterans issues and how to help veterans outside the box.
[00:01:11] Speaker A: Hey, Alex Stone here. Welcome back to the Ride along podcast. Today's guest is Billy Dunstan. He's a veteran. He's doing veteran outreach. He really cares. He's actually kind of here to talk to me and see what we're doing with the ride along. He's a friend of a friend. I'm really excited to have him. Billy, why don't you tell everybody who you are and kind of what you're doing in the world?
[00:01:32] Speaker B: So, Billy Dunstan, former army Ranger. Right now I'm working in film and entertainment right now. Just got back from the WGA Writerskill Veterans project.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Really great project.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Excellent, man.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: If you are anybody that's even remotely interested in writing, definitely give them a look. And then from there, I would say, really, anything in the film. So writing, directing, that's been my focus, and it's acting as well.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Fantastic. And your approach, you didn't just leave the military behind.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: No.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: You're bringing it with you into screenwriting and into the film production industry. Isn't that right?
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Yes.
At first I think it was one of those things where I tried to distance myself.
[00:02:23] Speaker A: Was this during your transition? Maybe?
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:25] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: So I feel like there's two schools to when you transition.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Yeah, this is going to be a big conversation.
Yeah.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: It's your whole personality, and this is all you do. And it's hard to lead that. Or you try to, like, oh. You try to distance yourself from as much as possible. And I think that's where a lot of guys struggle. But there also is that middle ground of like, yes, I'm proud of my service, but it doesn't hold me back. But I'm not using it as the. What do you call it when you're in high school? Like the high school football, things like that.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: And if you think about it psychologically, it makes a lot of sense because a lot of these young men and women, they're entering into the military at still those formative years, if you're doing early entry, possibly 17 years old, right. Not even really an adult.
Most of us, we went in, I went in later, but most people go in 1819 years old. And your brain, they say the part of the brain that thinks long term isn't fully developed until you're 25. Right. And so, yeah, it makes sense that your entire identity, or at least a large portion of the ego and self, is going to be completely, pervasively and often in a good way, but it's going to be completely protected and surrounded by. I'm a soldier. I'm a marine. Right. I'm a sailor, I'm a seal. Right. These things, I'm a coast guardsman. We don't forget about you. I'm an airman. Right?
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Space force.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Yes, space force. And all of you space astronauts out there. So you're going in, you're getting people telling you, don't do this, don't do that. What's wrong with you? Right? And so you want to conform. And during that conforming stage, you're still building your identity as an adult. Right. And so after your first or second deployment, maybe you do four to six years, maybe you get one deployment in. Right. That's who you are.
And how am I going to leave this? Who am I going to be if I leave? Right? I'm going to lose my brotherhood, I'm going to lose my sisterhood. Right. And so for you, were you going through that emotional process of self differentiation, trying to reidentify yourself? How much of it could you take with you and how much of it did you have to go? Okay, wow. I'm walking around right now. I don't have my rifle with me. This feels weird. Right?
Kind of like, unpack that a little bit.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: For me, it was one of those things moving back home where I didn't have a lot of those military friends that helped. And then.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Is this home for you?
[00:05:14] Speaker B: No, Maryland.
[00:05:16] Speaker C: Oh, wow.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Yeah. I moved out here because I was stationed up at two seven five.
[00:05:20] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:20] Speaker B: And Oregon is just like the Pacific Northwest. You can't beat it in terms of being able to live in a city. But then I have friends that live 30 minutes away from here. They have farms and full farms, pigs, cows, everything that doesn't exist anywhere else.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Yeah. In two seven five, that was your ranger battalion?
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Okay. Just for those who aren't, who don't.
[00:05:41] Speaker B: Second range battalion, 75th Range Regiment.
So, yeah. Getting out and then looking at it broad picture, like, what do civilians have that's kind of the same, which they go to college, and you go to college, and that's, like, where people are like, oh, man, that's their self worth, and they carry that on. There's. People have been out of college 30 years. They only did four years in their college and had just have a bachelor's, but that's still part of them. Right. It's like, well, how do you. In the military, how do we separate that, but we almost, like, lock onto it harder.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. I think you're right. Yeah.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: So kind of then going from the military, going into college, getting to see both sides of that, and like, oh, it's not just, this is something I do to get me to the next level. It's not who I am. I think that's really what.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just WLC times two. It's your warrior leadership class. Right. Which is required to get your promotion. You're just taking. You're going to classes because you know you're going to get that self promotion in your real world, in your real life. Yeah, that makes sense. And so for you, that transition you think was relatively easy, but you're a talented guy, obviously try to be right. You got a lot of things going on. Obviously. You're intelligent. I know a lot of. For a lot of people, even my employees, that transition is not that easy.
I think that a lot of people who are in the military, they didn't have a brotherhood. Like, I was really popular in high school, and I'm sure you were probably an athlete as well. Right? And, yeah, he was. And so that first time you get community in the military, there's nothing like it. And to never have it and then to have it and have it taken away, it's very hard. And I think this is a lot of reasons why a lot of veterans end up on that self injury track, right?
They feel like they've not only lost themselves and their identity, but they lost their community at the same time. And that double loss, I know that the crowd knows my background, but I worked in the chaplain corps in the army, and so I dealt with suicide and that double loss of self and community at the same time, with the lack of resources for veterans associations to come alongside and to bridge that development until they're secure in their new surroundings, it can become a black hole, and people can fall in there and get stuck. Right.
I think I transitioned well, actually, that's not true. I was homeless in my van for two years. But I think that you probably transitioned well. Right. And so I know that what you're doing now is about helping people transition. What are you doing, and how is your filmmaking shining light on that process and helping people understand that?
[00:08:48] Speaker B: So kind of go back a little bit. It wasn't the easiest transition. I mean, I think I did the thing where I drank too much, and that caused me opportunities, but finding purpose and then finding something that was more important than the drinking, more important than at the time where I met my girlfriend, then now wife.
I was doing bodybuilding, and it was something where if you wanted to be a good bodybuilder, you couldn't drink. And that was just something that gave me more purpose.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: That's great.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: And then I had always kind of been dabbling in art. And when I say art, I say, I used to be able to draw. I still can draw drawing. But writing was never really a thing. I mean, I was good at English in terms of, like, really grades. I would score high.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: But your creative nature didn't kind of steer you towards writing.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: No.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: Okay. And it's one of those things where someone's like, hey, you're good at that. I'm like, I didn't know. I just would do it. And then you do more, and it kind of just snowballs from there.
In terms of what I do for helping veterans, I think art has been missing. That's a key piece where you jump into a military and it's be physically active, shoot guns, kick down doors, and it doesn't matter. Like, you're a chaplain, but there's still a rigid structure, and it's very rigid. Yeah. Art falls to the wayside.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: You have to conform. Everyone's wearing the same uniform exactly the same way. Everyone's eating the same meals in the same fashion.
Sidestep, sidestep. Right. So, yeah, it kind of attacks creativity, in a sense. Right. This kind of sounds like what you're saying.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: Yes, it does. And with that, it's one of those things where you find guys and you're like, oh, man, I didn't know this guy could play guitar, or, I didn't know this guy painted this beautiful mural. Because you had guys that, oh, man, we need something for the platoon.
And then one guy by himself is just, like, painting this beautiful mural, bro. This is like the guy who's, like, smashing his fingers when he bangs two rocks together. But he's an amazing artist, and that's hilarious. But it's so true, though. The military doesn't foster art.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: No.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: And I think when you get out, you're craving that.
So what I try to do is through filmmaking, because filmmaking is a very collaborative process. Everyone from art, hair and makeup, camera crew, gaffing all those things have to come together and have to come together in a way that makes something that we consider passable or like to be beautiful.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
And so you're doing that.
We didn't really talk about this because I wanted to save it for the interview, but I watched your film that you made about suicide, and it affected me deeply.
And it was hard to watch because having been that person in a unit where people go to when they're suicidal, it's hard to watch that and know that there are still veterans out there suffering from that. So why are you choosing to stay in that veteran space?
Are there people out there that you want to help? Are there people out there that you wish maybe you didn't help? Obviously, there's something so deep about this that you're staying in this space, and you're offering a bridge. Right.
What is the intent behind all that, specifically? That video. Right. Your film, your short film.
[00:12:40] Speaker B: I would say one of the things it's kind of paying back into the system, the way I see it, is that there was someone to help me, and I want to help the next guy so he can help the next girl or guy just because that's the way it has to be. And not to say there's, like, this hard line of civilians and veterans, but it's one of those things where you have to reach out to your community.
No one's successful alone, and to isolate yourself from civilians, to isolate yourselves from other veterans is really damning. And so if I can help people through what I'm doing now, what I think I'm best at, then I want to be able to do that. And everybody likes being in movies.
I can just tell people I'm an actor and like, oh, man, what have you been in? Oh, man. They start to talk to me about movies because everybody has their favorite movie, everybody has their favorite tv show.
[00:13:32] Speaker A: It's so american. It is. It's like the perfect buy in conversation, right when you're connecting with someone to talk about that.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: So being able to share a little bit of that magic, like, hey, man, do you want to come here? And, I don't know, learn about lighting?
Maybe you sew and can you make me a costume? A really cool costume. This is what I'm thinking about. Or even just, like, drawing up sketches for something. I have a buddy who really good woodworker. I mean, dude's phenomenal. Everyone picked up a hobby or skill during a pandemic. And his was woodworking. Oh, wow. He actually made all of their, his really great furniture set now in his bedroom, all the furniture he made by himself.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:14:14] Speaker B: And he's like, man, I don't know anything about film. I'm like, bro, but you can make sets. That's your contribution.
Something that doesn't exist right now in the world. You can build and we can film it, and it'll exist in this movie.
[00:14:26] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: And to me, that's amazing.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: It is amazing. In fact, as you're talking, I'm seeing my brother, the fallen seal, Seth Stone. He actually made this table. This table was wood, really decades old wood. It was just down there at Warcom. And so he asked Skipper one day, hey, I want to make a table. Can I have all this wood to make a table? And so my brother was super creative. He played classically, trained guitarist.
He also painted, he sketched, and he did a lot of woodworking. It's funny how that creative process, I think, made him a better seal, a better soldier. Right.
And it is kind of interesting that the military does kind of take that away sometimes, even though I think that in the long term, if that's fostered a little bit more, you don't want to color outside the lines in the military. Right. But if they can get to color but not outside the lines, maybe that would actually be a good formative process to help people deal maybe a little bit better in the military, at least emotionally. Maybe they can get some of that emotional creativity energy out. Right. And so. Well, I love what you're doing. I think that's great. I'm also interested. I know that you do jiu jitsu. You're bodybuilding, you're a model, and you also act. And now you're doing screenwriter. And so you're extremely busy been. We have friends that are friends for years, and there were several times when I think there was a UFC fight, but you weren't there, and I was there. And so there's always, like, I've been always trying to meet you.
Something I'm interested about is how did you decide to transition from acting to screenwriting? Right. So you're acting, obviously, and kind of explain how you got into that, but then tell me how you decided to jump into actually screenwriting.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: So there's kind of, like, two stories to that.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:31] Speaker B: And the first one is, like everyone says, you have to make your own opportunities. So if you're not getting the role or you're not seeing the story that you want to be told, then tell it yourself. And then through community, whether know, going out there into the film community, the broader film community, especially here in Portland, or if I want to reach out to my veteran contacts and be, you know, I have a budy who's going to the LA Film Academy, and he's going for.
To talk to him, get a little bit of what does he put into his know, just, again, community. So that was the first thing is I wanted to tell the stories that I wanted to tell.
The second part of it is just me personally. I try not to.
How are you cussing? But are we good? Yeah, I just want to make sure I try not to talk shit on anyone's work unless I've done something comparable.
So I was like, I can't be like, oh, man, this screenplay is garbage.
I'm not going to do that if I haven't been there myself. So eventually I started doing that. So, like, oh, man, I can tell you I've been there. This isn't very good. Or like, this is great. And I can say that because I've been there.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
And so when you're writing the screenplay and you're choosing your characters, I'm always curious. It's my own curiosity. Do you think of other people that you know and you write those characters into?
Because character development, I would imagine that's really difficult. There's got to be people that you're like, oh, that guy was kind of a funny guy. I should write that in.
Into a screenplay. Right? Is this a normal thing?
[00:18:11] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: That's what I assumed it is, and it's always evolving.
So the way I did things when I first started writing is different than a year in, and that's just through going to seminars, stuff like that. And then the biggest one I just went to was with the Writers Guild foundation, the veterans writing project.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Amazing. And where is that?
[00:18:34] Speaker B: So that was in. And then who hosted that? The Writers Guild.
[00:18:39] Speaker A: Okay, so you have the screen actors guild, and then you have the Screen Writers Guild.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:43] Speaker A: So these are unions. Guilds. Right. And so you're a member of this guild.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: So I'm going to fellowship to the writers Guild.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Okay, so is that the beginning process of joining the guild? Of fellowship, yes. So is that a mentorship process?
[00:18:58] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: So this is actually ongoing? Yeah. You can't just jump in there.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: No.
Every year they do it, and I.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Think they only once a year.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Once a year.
[00:19:10] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: It's anywhere between 50 to 60 veterans get accepted.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: Really?
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Yeah, from all over.
[00:19:16] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: And again, there's one of those things where you can have almost no formal training.
A lot of the other people that were in my group, I was like, oh, man, this is crazy, because they had been to school for a lot of these things, master's degrees, and I was only one who didn't.
[00:19:33] Speaker A: That's amazing.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: I was still chosen because this is actually my second year. And one of the things they want to see is that they want to see that there's just progress because they can't teach you what they're going to do. They can't teach you screenwriting in a year. You can't go from the groundwork. But have you been going to classes? Have you been working on anything else in between that?
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Have you produced anything? Yes, exactly.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: So all those things help.
I know dudes that three years, four years they've applied, but that shows that they want to come back and that this is not something that, like, oh, man, someone told me about it and it sounded kind of cool, and then I didn't. They try to weed those people out.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow.
While you're doing all this, you're building your career. You're doing your male modeling.
That's great. I love that.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Modeling in general.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Well, it's not like you're doing hand modeling. Right. You have legit contracts with legit.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:20:32] Speaker A: People that have. You're doing real retail modeling. Yeah. It's amazing. And I think we all kind of want to be Tyrese. Right. There's nothing wrong with that.
You've got all these progress, but you're still not leaving the veterans behind. Right. You're still working alongside other veteran groups. Can you kind of explain what you're doing there?
Because I think people would be interested in knowing, because a lot of people, they don't know how to help veterans. A lot of people who aren't veterans, they don't know what to say and what to do. So kind of tell us what you're doing in that space and how people can get involved.
[00:21:08] Speaker B: So I'm always going to sing the praises of veterans of entertainment and media.
They are.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: And that's an organization?
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:21:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:17] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:21:17] Speaker A: Veterans of entertainment and media.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Veterans in entertainment and media.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: So v I. VMe, vme. Okay, cool. I never heard of that. That's amazing.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: I think they've only been around for maybe 15 years. So relatively new.
[00:21:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: And I think the best way to describe it is kind of like a LinkedIn, but for veterans that want to do anything in media, so you can.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: I love this.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: Anything from hair and makeup or two directors, they're in there and they're trying to pay it back. And one of the cool things about this is that when you join, they'll ask you, do you want to be a mentor? So you can actually jump on? And if there's any experience that you have that you can talk to people and they'll put you in their Rolodex and someone can contact you and like, hey, I have an issue with this or a problem with this or whatever it is, you can just help them that. Or if you're one of those people that you can put down there for professional or just for casual and like, hey, I think because of reading your story, you're a cool guy, cool girl, whatever, and I'd like to get to know more about you.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: That's amazing.
[00:22:23] Speaker B: Again, it's building community, but it's in a focus of, like, man before because entertainment industry is really hard to get into.
But having that entry, like, oh, man, there's people like me that want to tell similar stories. Like me. It's a really good way to not feel alone.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Do you feel that media, do you feel that they depict veterans accurately? Because I watch every veterans movie. I watch every movie. I just watched the covenant, which is new, just came out. On a scale from one to ten, I'm at, like, maybe a four or five. I think they try to portray it accurately, but I think that too often they're trying to portray the military industrial complex, but they put it on the back of the veteran.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: So the thing about that is that in order to make an emotional connection to a story, you need to have a main character that really has an arc. Otherwise, we're just kind of like watching someone.
For example, if someone's like, oh, man, I went to the grocery store today, and then I picked up bananas and I paid for them and came home.
[00:23:28] Speaker A: What I care about that story?
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Nothing happened.
So where's the conflict? And that's kind of like where I think sometimes Hollywood does cheap out with, like, oh, man, veteran PTSD.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: Yeah, always.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: Because the other side of that is like, well, the veteran came home and he had his wife and two kids.
[00:23:48] Speaker C: Very well adjusted.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Credits, and then what was the point of that? So I think those movies could exist, but what do you see them, like on a hallmark channel where everything was just great for them and nothing ever happened?
It's a weird thing because you have to have some type of conflict.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: So it's the nature of needing a narrative itself.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: You can't have a fictional book with narratives and character development that's interesting unless you make it interesting.
It's kind of like being typecasted as a veteran. Right. And you know what? That actually makes sense because this is probably true of law enforcement in movies. This is probably very true of the criminal in a movie.
Like the criminal always has a british accent. Right.
Okay, so it's just general typecasting. You don't think it's intentional?
[00:24:43] Speaker B: Not really.
[00:24:44] Speaker A: Okay, that's interesting. Well, there's a lot of great veterans movies out there. We were soldiers. I think Covenant was great.
I don't want to keep going on and on, on, but 13 hours Benghazi, fantastic movie, right. And we could go on and on. But I'm actually really glad to hear you say that because I've always wondered that and I didn't know who to ask. And I just realized right now that you're in the room. So I should ask you, I also.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Consider like this to be part of media, so being able to go out and talk to people. Yes. There are people out there that are doing things for veterans that maybe aren't the typical channels. So, like what you do.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Thanks, man. We're trying, as you know, in our industry, public safety.
A lot of veterans, when they do transition, they're transitioning into law enforcement, into security work. Right.
So when a lot of people are in the military and they make that transition out of the military, I think that they're wanting to find that brotherhood or that sisterhood, right. They're looking for that fraternal order.
And I think that for a lot of them, they look at law enforcement, the thin blue line, or they look at, well, even emts, firefighters, right. They're looking for something that has. Where you still get that adrenaline dump, right. So you're getting your adrenaline fix. You're still able to do things that are dangerous but acceptable and legal. Legal, ethical, moral, but dangerous. Right.
And you're still able to operate in the space that allows you to protect and to help people. Because I think a lot of us join the military for that reason.
And so that transition, I think it just happens so much. It's so many veterans, and I think that's the reason. And so at our company, we embrace two things. Number part of our core values is family and team. Right. Family is important because we want people to be a part of that fraternal brotherly order. Right. And in a family, you're always going to be accepted. Even when you fuck up, you'll be accepted. Right. Because that's what family is supposed to be about.
Right. But we're also a team, and a team, unlike a family, sets expectations.
And when you fuck up, you're always going to be family, but that doesn't mean you always make the team. Does that make sense? But maybe you can be ancillary around the team, and you can still serve in a capacity that is team, that can still build team and help team.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:27:31] Speaker A: And maybe you get back on the team. Right. And so these are kind of concepts that when we started our company, that we wanted to be very intentional, not just because we wanted to help veterans, but because we think that's the right way to operate as a company. Right. I'll say it this way. I think the military gets that. Right. I think family and team, those are two things that the military, unless you're in a toxic unit, which can happen. I think the military does those really well. Not perfect, but very well. Right.
We wanted to emulate that.
And then on the flip side of that, not only are a lot of people in this industry veterans, but in public safety, you're always going to be in contact with veterans in public. Right. A lot of veterans are houseless. Right.
There's a higher level of proportionality that being a veteran will lead to houselessness at one point.
And we work with a lot of folks on the streets that are veterans. And I myself, I was homeless as a child with my mother when I was younger, and then that ended up with my brother and sister. We were separated and ended up in different foster cares. My brother was adopted, and then as an adult, I actually was homeless here at the McDonald's on Eon Avenue. I lived in my van for two years down there after I transitioned out of the military and law enforcement. Right.
And I think a lot of reason, and there's probably 20 veterans I could talk to about this, but you're here, so I'm going to talk to you about it. But I think a lot of reasons, and I've been told this by probably four or five veterans, I think a lot of reasoning behind veterans being homeless is it's just another FTX, man.
It's just a deployment. Like, okay, I'm going to be in the shit for six months, or I got to live out of my car for a year, I got to wash my balls in a sink in a bathroom for a year. That's okay. It's just an FTX. Mentally, the military has prepared you to be mentally tough enough to be homeless. And I know that for people who aren't in the military. That might sound kind of crazy, but that's a thing because I've had veterans tell me that. I've literally had a veteran tell me just in the past two weeks, this person's essentially living in their vehicle. And I was like, hey, man, so you can come in. I got an extra room. We got a guest room at the house. I know you. I trust you. I know your people. Your people are my people. Come and live in my house. And the guy's like, hey, bro, this is just an FTX, man. I'll be on my feet in a couple of months.
And I'm like, so you're just sucking all this up and taking in this training.
This is just a training evolution for you? And he's like, yeah, mentally, that's where I'm at because I know I have what it takes to get through that.
But what happens is, I think a lot of veterans are prepared for that. But what happens is, because being homeless actually causes PTSD, right. Is that you enter in as you prolong and stay longer in homelessness, or you're unhoused. Right?
[00:30:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:54] Speaker A: You're developing PTSD, not around the veteran stuff, but around being homeless. And then those are triggers for issues that you deal with because of possibly things happen to you on deployment or things in the military and this nature, and it becomes almost overwhelming at a point, and then they get stuck, and then they're just unhoused. They're just homeless, and it's no longer an FTX. It's just. That's my reality, and I'm stuck.
That's. That might be a gradual process flow for a lot, but I don't know. I'm talking a lot, and I should be letting you talk.
When we meet these folks, we do try to help them, asking you, I mean, coming from your point of view, you're a veteran.
When my team members, when we touch people on the streets and we get to know them, we make that connection, how should we be approaching people? How do we talk to people that have been in the military, possibly dealing, struggling with stuff? What's the best way to approach that person?
[00:31:55] Speaker B: My thing has always been trying to give someone a purpose, so make them feel like they're part of, like what you're talking about, like they're part of the team. Again, kind of going back to what you were talking about in terms of making it feel like you're a team and we're a family, and someone's like, oh, man, we're on an FTX, I think sometimes we get too caught up in. And I've even talked to people about the VA about this, too. We're like, oh, man, you know, I'm broken, but I don't want to take money away from the Vietnam vet.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: Another soldier. Yeah.
[00:32:26] Speaker B: And it's like, one that's not the way. Very common one that's not the way that works. So I think a lot of people say, like, oh, man, I have my mental health issues and I'm broken or I'm hurt or I'm xYz, but I don't want to bother my friend or my friends because they have their own problems, and it becomes a circle of spiral because I don't want to bother you because I'm tough. I can handle it. So I don't want to bother you. And you're like, well, I don't want to bother him because he has his own stuff where he is maybe going through divorce, but instead of just talking about it something like, we are now, but we feel like that I can handle it, and you can only handle it until that damn breaks. And like you said, that's when you're stuck there.
[00:33:14] Speaker A: You can't get out there at that point because you wake up one day and you realize, I guess maybe you don't even realize it, but there's a point at which you enter into a place where you lack the amount of self worth and self agency required to know how to make a change in your own life.
I think most veterans were trained to know how to make decisions, how to make them fast, and how to implement, how to create a strategy and tactics around it and to get it done and make it happen. Right. And then something happens to where because of lack of self care, maybe their over inflated sense of strength, I can just take it. I can just take it. Right. And their lack of self care leads to that point, to where they no longer have agency, they no longer even believe they have a choice.
Right. And the way I talk about it is when I meet homeless people on the streets and I talk to homeless people every day, it's like they think that getting into a shelter or getting into housing for them, that's like a golden ticket. That's like winning the lottery for them, that's like one in 550,000,000.
Oh, yeah, sure. Okay. I can get into housing. Okay.
And it's not even something they can believe in. And the reality of the situation is, if they could work with someone on the street level for just three to five days, that's a reality. Get you into housing, get you help, get you into detox. It just takes coordination and a team to make those efforts happen for that person. But because that team's not there and because they don't have family, no one's really caring about them the way they should. The people that are around them are using them, getting them enslaved onto drugs so that the drug dealer can make money, pimping them out for money so that they can make money. They're a tool. They're not a person, and their self worth completely collapses.
[00:35:14] Speaker B: Not exactly a career day, but no one ever told me, like, hey, man, I think I started this. I was, like, almost 30. Yeah. No one's like, hey, man, if you want to be an actor or screenwriter, no one's stopping you.
Maybe if you want to get into the guild, yeah, but to just be a dude, be an actor. We got cameras, and I got a computer. I can bang it out. I can look up YouTube format.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: That's crazy.
[00:35:41] Speaker B: No one ever told.
So, like, being able man, if that's something you've ever been interested in, let me know, and I'll put you on the right people. Because that was the thing where, when I started, I just started, and I didn't really know who were the right people. I talked to a lot of the wrong people. I mean, I've been on projects where wasn't paid, no food, no nothing.
Horrible working conditions. Dude was a dick. And then the footage is nowhere, and it's just like, well, I learned that the hard way, and there are a lot of people learned the hard way, but now I'm be like, hey, that's not okay. Don't work with them if they don't treat you right or just having someone to talk to.
[00:36:20] Speaker A: A mentor. Yeah, exactly.
[00:36:21] Speaker B: A mentor, where you have those things where you can just push them in the right direction.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: Awesome. I would love to have that type of event and then have him be able to come talk at that. That'd be awesome. Wow. I'm just really impressed at just what you've achieved so far in your life.
I think that you probably got into this when you're around 30 years old. Right? So where do you see yourself in the future, and what are your future plans? What do you have going on?
[00:36:47] Speaker B: So, big picture.
[00:36:48] Speaker A: Big picture.
[00:36:49] Speaker B: Open up a production studio and hire all my friends and veterans, and we'd make a bunch of. Yeah, they're definitely coming along.
[00:36:56] Speaker C: I love it.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: That's big picture. But right now, I would say in the next year, I have a movie coming out. It's broken up into short films, but it'll be a feature. It's called betrayal and bullets under my.
[00:37:08] Speaker A: Betrayal and bullets. Yes. Wow, this sounds great.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: And it's under my production company, breakfast Steak Media.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:37:13] Speaker B: The first film short is going to be coming out here soon, and my goal is to hire as many veterans I can onto one of the cast and crew.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And I've been able to actually have a couple on now they've loving it and being able to say, hey, this is how things are. And if there's anything I can support you on, if that's something that you get to learn here, but you have your own projects and your own stories to tell, you have a network of people to now draw from.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: Okay. So if there's any veterans watching that are interested in this kind of mentorship group, what you're doing in the future. This whole screenwriters guild.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: Right. And the veterans. Entertainment and media.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: Yes. The veterans in entertainment and media. That's big time, though. Those two things are big time.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: I know. Baby steps. Baby steps.
If anyone's interested, they want to get in contact with you. How would they do that? What's the best way for someone who's serious about this, who thought, I really do want to go into acting, or, I would really love to be in media. Who would they contact if not you or you? What's the best way to get a hold of you? And how can they follow you to know what's going on in your future?
[00:38:29] Speaker B: So, again, social media is the easiest way to contact me. And that's just if you are looking to be someone in entertainment, you're going to have to do social media. I've actually met a lot of veterans that are like, oh, man, I don't want to do the social media thing, but they want to be in media always like, come on, man, how do you want to be in media but you don't like.
So it's the weird dichotomy of that. But LinkedIn and you find everything. I'm Billy nuts in there. If you look on IMDB, I'm Billy nuts in there.
[00:38:58] Speaker A: And then on Dunston.
[00:39:00] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:39:00] Speaker A: Okay, great.
[00:39:01] Speaker B: And then same thing on Instagram.
You can see a lot of my work, too, as well as on YouTube. You can see my work there.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Awesome. Okay. YouTube. So typically at this point, we would break and actually go on a ride along. We would go out and find an echelon officer, find someone doing work, and we would ride along with them. This would give you the opportunity to connect with them, find out what we do. But I think that what I would like to do is maybe hold that for a future time, have you come back and do something really awesome with the veterans that work at echelon. And I think maybe now we go hit maybe, like one spot and continue this conversation outside. What do you think about that?
[00:39:39] Speaker B: Sounds good.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: All right, let's hit it.
Jeff.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: It snowed, like, super heavy, and it melted. And we actually filmed, like, that little window. We got lucky because it was just enough for it to be on the ground to actually look fucking really cool.
[00:40:11] Speaker C: Billy. Typically when we do the ride along, we go out and we'll connect with some team members and kind of follow them around. But I really feel like that we should save. You seem like a really special guy, and with what you're doing with veterans, I think that I'd like to really highlight the veterans in my company and have you come back.
[00:40:31] Speaker B: All right.
[00:40:32] Speaker C: But I did want to go outside and just kind of show you this space.
There's always a call out here, right? Got a cop car coming up behind us. This fountain actually is very famous.
Infamous, right? Very often homeless people use it. So if you need a free shower, you'll see homeless people completely naked in here dancing around.
It's not a pagan ritual, bro. They're just hot and they need to wash themselves.
[00:41:03] Speaker B: I mean, I've been down here, I've lived here since 2015, so I've definitely seen.
[00:41:09] Speaker C: Oh, okay.
[00:41:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it seemed to changes, but.
[00:41:14] Speaker C: Yeah, we have fleet week down here, Navy, and it's really special. But I actually haven't been coming because it's been so tough with having little kids and wanting to come. It's not really conducive.
[00:41:28] Speaker B: Well, have you seen the changes since you started doing this?
[00:41:32] Speaker C: Since my company, yes.
When we rolled into old Town, which is this section of downtown, over in this area, maybe like 80, 90 blocks, there were more than 450 tents in old Town, which is roughly like maybe 700 homeless people, and there's 4500 chronically homeless people in Portland. So old Town, this tiny little neighborhood, was housing 18% of Portland's entire homeless population.
[00:42:04] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:42:05] Speaker C: Right?
[00:42:06] Speaker B: Yeah, it's crazy.
[00:42:06] Speaker C: Lansu chinese garden, which is one square block.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: Right.
[00:42:11] Speaker C: There were 27 tents just around Lansu chinese garden. On the east side of the block, there was a criminal organization, and on the west side of the west side of the block, a separate criminal organization, prison gang running this side and then another gang running this side. And I mean, you go there now there's no one there. And out of the 27 tents, there were occupants, about five people in four tents. We got them into shelters.
[00:42:38] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:42:39] Speaker C: Yeah, really. It really is. We have about a 15% success rate, and, I mean, we're doing this every day. Last month, we got 112 people into shelter alone, and it would have been more, but we don't have direct access to shelter beds. We basically had to beg. Always a call here, right? Always a call.
[00:42:59] Speaker B: Probably the same one.
[00:43:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: Definitely seen a difference. Just coming from, like, I don't know if that's, like, a seasonal thing too, but just seeing more people out, more people just enjoying the community, and then less tents.
[00:43:20] Speaker C: We work with the city and the county. We work with everyone we possibly can to help people shelter. But at the end of the day, what stops criminal elements from going into areas and taking over and setting up shop? Right, because for them, for anything in business, location, location, location.
[00:43:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:43:36] Speaker C: They want a place that people can blend in. So it's not just one car selling dope. You can blend in a little bit. So you need. Some people can't be completely scarce.
[00:43:46] Speaker A: Right.
[00:43:47] Speaker C: You also need the ability to get away. So multiple points of egress for the criminal, and then for the people accessing, you need multiple points of access.
Specifically, you want people that can ride in a highway, drop in, and then.
[00:44:02] Speaker A: Bounce real quick and get back on the highway.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: Yeah, right there.
[00:44:07] Speaker C: Right there. Right?
[00:44:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:08] Speaker C: And so these areas are primed for that.
Essentially, the one thing that will stop a criminal element from coming in in the parks like this and setting up shop is being able to have a high level of community engagement, which is really our business model as a company. When you can increase the level of engagement from individuals and groups in specific areas, then you will scare criminal elements.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: Away, because at the end of the.
[00:44:35] Speaker C: Day, they're scared of eyeballs.
[00:44:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:37] Speaker C: They're scared of witnesses. They're scared of potential victims if there's a shooting between rival gangs.
I was asked recently by a neighborhood association, what can we do other than security and other than more law enforcement? Because everyone thinks that they always need more law enforcement. They said, what can we do to stop the criminal element in our neighbor area? And I told them, you should hire tour guides.
And they kind of laughed at me at first because they thought I was joking, because I know all these people, and they know I'm only serious when I'm joking. That's kind of who I am.
And I was like, I know that you think I'm joking, but I'm actually, serious?
[00:45:19] Speaker B: No, it's foot traffic.
[00:45:20] Speaker C: Foot traffic, yeah. And they go, seriously? I was like, yeah, you should have three to five tour guides a night, and on the weekends, even more. Historical tours, architectural tours, art tours, pub crawls, whatever. It's something that will get people on the street walking together and talking. And groups of 510 1225. I was like, if you have five groups, let's just say this neighborhood right here, you have five or six groups walking in this area doing tours.
[00:45:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:48] Speaker C: Criminals don't want to be here. They're going to drive by and they're going to tell their people, uhoh, no, this is bad. There's like 20 people over here.
[00:45:56] Speaker B: Yeah, that's something that. I'm from DC, so they actually do have a lot of night tours, but they're not just the night tours, but the lights.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:04] Speaker C: DC is perfect example.
Now, the criminal elements still go to the other neighborhoods where the tours aren't occurring, but in DC where the tours are occurring, perfectly safe. Perfectly safe. Yeah. Crazy, right?
Know, and then the other part of criminal interdiction is being consistent.
What I tell people all the time is security isn't security unless it's 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Right. And the majority of security work is perimeter work. And the perimeter is the perimeter of your property, but then you have to go two or three blocks out.
[00:46:43] Speaker A: Right.
[00:46:43] Speaker C: And that's not a normal model in security. A normal model in security is we want you on our property at all times and we want to know where you are and we want you inside because we feel safe when we see you.
And you're like, well, so you're like, that's not right. I can see here you're like, that's horrible.
[00:47:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:00] Speaker C: How are you going to see the enemy coming?
[00:47:03] Speaker A: Right.
[00:47:03] Speaker C: How are you going to see the drug dealer setting up a block away? Yeah. And so we have to break that mindset.
We have to break that mindset and kind of help them re see security as something that actually delivers results and explain, we're going to do these things, but these are the results you'll see.
[00:47:20] Speaker A: Right.
[00:47:20] Speaker C: We're going to be able to find who's selling dope, and because we're several blocks out, we're going to be able to contact them and say, hey, man, I know who you are.
I got your license plate, man. Look, I'm not the police, but I've been watching you. I got a video of you selling dope, man. I think that, man, if you want to literally make your money, you might want to do that somewhere else?
[00:47:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:41] Speaker C: Simple and easy. Nice little easy conversation.
[00:47:43] Speaker B: No, that was kind of the approach. I've done this type of stuff, but I've done security at bars. That's one of the things being a veteran. You get out and you're like, well, I need some money right now.
[00:47:52] Speaker C: Five years.
[00:47:53] Speaker B: Exactly. And it was, hey, look, I'm here as a courtesy.
If the police get involved, then you're not going home.
[00:48:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:01] Speaker B: So this is a courtesy. You want to go home. You want to sleep in your own bed tonight. And I really like the approach you've taken to kind of making this not just community making, more humanitarian.
[00:48:14] Speaker C: We call it humanitarian services, public safety and humanitarian services.
And it's nation building.
A lot of veterans get this, especially veterans that work for us. I tell them we spent billions of dollars.
We poured the blood of our children out on the altar of nation building, and what do we see for it? It's time we bring that money home and rebuild our own nation. And as a company, I take that seriously. We're trying to rebuild communities. We're trying to rebuild community, to heal the community.
[00:48:50] Speaker A: Right.
[00:48:51] Speaker C: Community engagement. And so, yeah, we're doing the best we can.
I'm excited about having you come back and see us in action, see what we do, meet the veterans that are actually contacting those homeless veterans on the street. Yeah, I'm excited. Yeah, it's good, man.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: Well, yeah.
[00:49:08] Speaker B: Thanks again for having me out, man.
[00:49:09] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:49:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I appreciate everything.
[00:49:11] Speaker C: Yeah, bro.
[00:49:11] Speaker B: Always head back.
[00:49:13] Speaker C: Yeah. Let's go set up the camera.
[00:49:26] Speaker A: And I couldn't see him.
