How an Army Veteran Rebuilt His Life After Rock Bottom

0:00I had PTSD and I had a traumatic brain injury and I didn't know those things either and so you take just the difficulty of transitioning out and then you throw on top of that some mental health struggles and issues you're having and it was it was the it was the most difficult time of my life what I always say adversity is inevitable stay and broken is option yeah you're gonna have adversity because life is tough but stay and broken is up to you. Eric Gillis is a resilient purpose driven army veteran educator and leadership strategist who helps individuals and organizations rebuild stronger after adversity through his journey from military service and personal hardship to rebuilding his own identity and purpose he founded the rebuilt warrior to equip leaders veterans and organizations. I don't want to be this guy and he said you'll never be who you were but you can be better. I don't want to be broken anymore what do I do now and that's where I come in to go let me help you rebuild your life here's what I did and I have

1:00this framework called structure because I always say when I got out of the military what I realized I was missing the most was structure. Today Apple is going to reinvent the ball. It's not over until our win. The Living Your Legacy Podcast for those who live to leave a legacy. Oh Hey welcome back everybody to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again Jay Slangin and here we are to the semi finals of the World Cup in the Miami Beach studios right and we got a special guest today. Well what an incredible journey this guy's

2:04had to pleasure to have him in the office but this is Operation CEO and yeah introduce yourself what's your name where you from and what's your business. Yeah my name is Eric Gillis and I'm excited to be on Operation CEO. My business is the rebuilt warrior and then also own a short-term vacation rental company called coastline collections. All right so what branch of the army did you join let's get into it. Yeah I joined the US Army straight out of high school actually signed up to join September the 12th 2002 so a year after 9-11 right in the heat of battle and walked right into that war and got to fight right in it. Yeah yeah so you're kind of army seniors were laughing at you because I guess your story was you know the re-recorder said hey you don't have to leave the states we're going to keep you in the states almost almost like a promise to you right

3:06and then you're getting shipped out straight to Germany and then straight to Iraq was it right yeah so tell us about that a little bit. Yeah so it's it's funny now in the moment it was it but yeah my recruiter who I had known and grown up with he was a little older than me but we grew together and he was the one I joined the army with and he goes hey man I can make you two promises you're not going to deploy and you're not going to go overseas and I thought that's cool I get to serve my country and all these fun things and so I finished up with basic training in my AIT training at the end they're calling out assignments and they start calling out Fort Campbell and Fort Hood and all these states out places and I go okay my recruiter lived up to what he said and they got to me they say Gillis swanford Germany and I raised my hand and said I'm just sergeant I'm so sorry you got me confused with somebody else I was told I could stay here and he was like nobody can make that promise to you and so I fast forward and I I make it to swanford Germany I'm getting off the bus that brought us from the airport my first sergeant meets us and he

4:06goes hey don't unpack guys we'll leave for Iraq in a month and again I go hey for sergeant I don't think you understand my recruiter what I learned is that recruiters lie to get you to join so yeah all of these ended up being great experiences but initially I was so angry at him for not telling me the truth because the two things he swore wouldn't happen happened yeah yeah that's that's crazy but also you got to think like you know 9-11 was a year ago right if you're not thinking hey I'm gonna end up in Iraq yeah and eventually Afghanistan or any of those right it's like you're you must be kind of dreaming right oh yeah yeah I remember watching on TV and realizing that I would have to go there I think I was I just didn't want to be in Germany I think I wanted to be a state side and and going to Iraq was a reality you know when you kind of you take the oath of enlistment you pledge to defend against all threats both foreign and domestic so it's kind of like

5:06I took an oath to do that but yeah it was the the going overseas was the craziest thing because I'd never definitely never left never left the United States and really never left Florida at that point oh okay yeah I'd never been on so my first airplane ride is a seven hour flight to Germany so yeah that was my first flying experience yeah and all right so in your civilian life I have you being abroad just kind of by yourself or for vacation or anything yeah so now I have now uh flown the it's been a fact my wife and I just got back from Colorado Springs and went to Vegas earlier this summer okay yeah I traveled a lot more now but a more cultured I would say thanks to the military yeah yeah you get over because Germany was great like once I came back from deployment the frontier was it took good beer good food yeah I remember our first sergeant goes hey the drinking age for you guys is 21 because you're Americans but listen they can drink at 16 in Germany you guys are old enough to go fight in the war I'm not going to police you

6:11guys drinking so yeah yeah so so like being 18 and being in Germany was incredible yeah yeah so so all those like I hated it but then I was like I loved it we would jump on a train to go to Paris and it was just a I really enjoyed Germany once I got past the shock of it yeah yeah um so yeah you got to you got to go international again man yeah so that's our we want to I've always wanted to go to Japan I never got a sign there but I've always wanted to go to Japan Japan's the pants the same world different planet oh yeah oh yeah oh I want to go so yeah I'm no man I've I've lit Ben all over the world yeah yeah that so we we desperately more I can I we keep saying 2028 is when we're gonna go to uh go over to Japan I say that and then the Olympics are now like in 2028 this summer and so yeah now we're talking about oh maybe we'll go to the elite you don't need excuse to go to Japan you just go just go and oh my god yeah yeah yeah incredible yeah yeah you're not gonna it's impossible to have a bad time there so I know people that's what they're not the story they tell me it's like it's incredible and the price once you get there

7:12the like money is more you know like you've been spending not lose it as easy so yeah it looks incredible for a lot of people on operation CEO the transition into their civilian life is a is a big thing right they're like the VA they pretty much play you like a video right they kind of attuned it to like you know you're in class growing up in in the 90s or whatever and they and they real they kind of pushing that TV they press play and then you know it's like a it's like a one or two day course or whatever right but then after that it's like there you go boys right enjoy the real world yeah yeah and for you it was it wasn't like a a slap on your back and say enjoy the real world it was like the slap on your back but then getting hit with it by a bus almost right tell us about your journey into the civilian transition lifestyle yeah it was it was definitely overwhelming again I joined at 18 to the army so I'd never really known adult

8:17life outside of the military yeah and so I get out of the military I'm 22 at this point um and I'd never really handle my finances because the military they they pay your housing they pay your medical and so so getting out all those things are overwhelming you don't know how to translate your skills into the workforce and so so trying to figure out how to navigate that and then on top of that I just had a child so I got out in June of 2007 I had my first child born in April and so getting out with an infant and so it was overwhelming just transitioning out and then compile on top of that not realizing at the moment what these labels were is I had PTSD and I had a traumatic brain injury and I didn't know those things either and so you take just the difficulty of transitioning out and then you throw on top of that some mental health struggles and some other issues you're having and it was it was the it was the most difficult time in my life

9:18even like I would fight in a war over that any day because the uncertainty of that was just troubling each and every day wow that's crazy to say yeah because even you in war you experienced some some crazy stuff too right I mean just real quick like okay you're you're in Iraq what was your mission you know like a lot of people they get their mission a lot of people as a wreck right so what was what was your role and what was a big mission for you out there yes our mission I was in Samarra it was the birthplace of Saddam Hussein he still had a big stronghold of supporters there he had just been captured in January and we've made it there in February yeah so it was a hotbed of anger towards Americans that is like one reality it is it is like Jesus I remember watching it before we go over there and I think we may not have to go now we call Saddam and no no all that did was kick a hornet's nest and make them angry and so all the way to shouldn't was to stabilize that area yeah and so we went to a very hostile area

10:24where they did yeah here we are you stabilize the calm down guys see Americans just everyone chill out Saddam Hussein we killed your leader we're sorry but you can't get mad about it we want to make you not be mad about it and stuff it's good times guys it's good times and uh and uh they're not very recent they weren't very reasonable about that they were angry and they got the violence and they want to blood and they didn't want us there they hated that we were there and so yeah it was literally a daily battle every single day whether it was being in the city actually fighting with your m16 or just them lobbing mortars which are little explosives into our compound yeah it was a battle every single day crazy so you're in your civilian life you got PTSD from this intense post post 9 11 hotbed Iraq right and then that transition in civilian life like it it just smacks you in the face and really knocks you down does knocks you down until you up to the

11:25low moment of your life like you have a pretty much like a trifecta of stuff like and I'm just kind of do the bullet points it was like it was like going into bankruptcy uh having to move in with your parents as a man with a wife and and kids and your dog and and gaining weight PTSD losing your job and I mean it's just like it just keeps coming and coming and coming right so yeah talk briefly about that and then talk about that amazing shirt that you're wearing yeah yeah I mean I think of it like if you if you love boxing I'm thinking if there was a referee there he was getting ready to do a statement in 10 count because it felt like life kept hitting me yeah and wouldn't stop um I reached a point 2009 where I felt like such a failure that I thought I'm just gonna in my life and I attempted and I failed thankfully it's the greatest failure in my life um but that introduced me to counseling which I had been adamant against you know there was a there was

12:30something that you had said in your in your interview where you had swallowed the muscle a handful of muscle relaxers and then that's when you felt fear yeah like fear that whoa there was no turning back you know like I just made a decision of like well and I felt that yeah I was like oh my god yeah wow right so and there's a difference it's like okay yeah it's almost like it was a call for help a cry for help right but I guess you don't know it at the time yeah and then when you did it you you went past that line right of like you know that wow you know um I can't explain that but it's just like crossing that line of that's the line of all lines really um honestly that's a lot of all lines and then you were like ah what did I just do and that's that fear right like I

13:33couldn't imagine yeah so go yeah so you you're trying to take in your life right and then kind of what happens what yeah yeah yeah and it was it was a fear I've never experienced at that up to that point and still never experienced um it was it was a near reversible fear um I live obviously I'm here and and I went and got help because my wife at the time came in with the ultimatum she said either get help or me and your kids are out and never see us again um and that became a concrete reality for me I'd felt like a failure up until that point but that was like a concrete reality of like I will be a failure I will be an absent dad and I will have a felt marriage and and so um so I did I went and got help and and I sat with the counselor and I just lamented all these feelings and emotions I had and I finally said to them I say listen he listened patiently and I said I just want to go back to being the happy 17 year I was before I joined the military I don't want to be this guy anymore and he said you'll never be who you were

14:36but you can be better and though people I tried to help me in the past maybe it's because I was more open to it that statement resonated with me and for the first time kind of put hope in my life I thought I can be better like okay let me let me do away with this route this false sense that I can be this guy again I'm not going to be him and in many ways I don't want to be a naive 17-year-old yeah um so let me let me let me just embrace this and so I did I it made it more tangible it wasn't a like you're gonna have this success story overnight it is you can be better every day and that began to be how I lived my life was I just want to be better tomorrow in the next day in the next day and so I strive to be better every single day and and it was the words of that doctor that genuinely impacted my life for the first time yeah amazing and so yeah I'd insight success we tell a lot of this hero's journey yeah right started from the bottom now we're here or like I keep on saying never judge anyone that seats sits in that seat if they have that perfect childhood

15:40with the with the perfect parents and the dinners and the outings for either fishing trips or whatever it is right because man life goes and then boom like life is a journey everyone's got to hold on right yeah honestly so uh where's life brought you to do yeah and at that moment I didn't have a title for it but I knew that I wanted to rebuild my life and and that began the start of the rebuild warrior yeah and and that's who I if you ask me what my identity is today it is the rebuild warrior and that definition is broad but what it is is I only not only rebuilt my life to success but I have helped others and continue want to help others rebuild their life and so yeah I really was at rock bottom I mean to the point that I didn't know that I would see the next day and now here I am I'm a school administrator at a middle school my wife and I own a successful company that I think is going to continue to grow to be successful and now I have this brand

16:42called the Reboot Warrior where I've written a book that'll come out on September 11th all right purposefully I wrote it where it would come out the same time frame of when I joined the military so I've written a book I have a website that has like all these self-help for if you were looking for help you could go there and take assessments and and then I travel when I speak that at schools and different venues to tell people that there is hope you like always this is what I always say adversity is inevitable stay and broken is optional and and so it's that like yeah you're going to have adversity because life is tough but stay and broken is up to you yeah and if you want to stay broken you'll stay there it's not like that fine china where breaks and then it's shattered everywhere yeah right we break where we're still in one piece we are right so I guess it's a choice for you to you know kind of you get it mentally put yourself back together I think that's what's hard for people it was hard for me because I didn't in a sense I didn't choose to be broken but I choose I was choosing to stay broken yeah and and and again things happen that are

17:47outside of your control like marriages end um unfortunately children die businesses fail like some of those things are outside of your control so being broken isn't necessarily your fault stay and broke it is 100% your fault and so you have to come to that realization of I don't want to be broken anymore I want to be better yeah and and that's what's hard and and then that's where I come in because I know what it's like to go all right I don't want to be broken anymore now what do I do and there's not a lot of resources if any out there for you and that's where I plug in the gap because all right now I'm I don't want to be broken anymore what do I do now and that's where I come in and go let me help you rebuild your life here's what I did yeah and I have this framework called structure because I always say when I got out of the military what I realized I was missing the most was structure and so I have this framework that's a lot of people it is for my military that's structure yeah because they they tell you what's on the wake up you you you do I remember our drill sergeants would be like you do more before 9 a.m. than most people do all day and we would we

18:50would exercise and you'd be in a class before 9 a.m. and and then you would finish your day and so like every hour is is kind of set for you and then you get out it's like what do I do it's gonna wake me up who's gonna make hold me accountable what time you go to bed in the military just crazy most of time I mean depending on the people they go to bed in no later than 10 most time yeah okay yeah the basic training I think they had us in bed by eight o'clock and you were sleeping at that time too yeah yeah and it's funny because like most veterans would tell you that still their life like I still go to bed about 9 o'clock I still wake up around 4 a.m. naturally my body wakes me up I can't help it and so it's like you still like those are the things that are so translatable to real life like oh cool I can I am perfectly set up to be successful in a job because I can what I don't struggle to wake up and I go to bed at a decent hour for most people and so yeah yeah somehow it turns like that I love the name of the brand rebuild warrior right you think of the soldier and warrior and and what people go through and it's like yeah you it takes

19:56rebuilding you know like rebuilding of a mindset because it's so intense that all these conversations I've had with everyone in operation CEO people please tune in to operation CEO you know these these are people that help us live our freedoms and it's given me a huge deeper and better kind of understanding and thankfulness of what we experience here and what these stories of yourself yeah and the two dudes last week and the dude the week before that when they go through I'm just like wow you know but yeah I love I love the brand right you you're wearing that with pride yeah and I'm sure you're gonna get a lot of people because they're close 9-11 right you know all the dudes that have been coming I've been talking to it's like yeah and sometimes it's like you just need a little help there's that there's that little video of like they there's a kit right he's he's like in this river and he's holding on to this branch and he's thinking he's gonna drown

21:00he's like screaming for his life he's like yeah because the river is kind of just holding it and then and then the mom just takes him he's like just just stand stand right and then and then he just realizes he can stand and everything's all right yeah you know but he had just no clue he was he was holding on for his dear life you know so maybe that's kind of like a good analogy for you know what people are going through in their mindset and sometimes just reach out and it's that someone that can tell you like your counselor hey you're not going to be the same but there's there's a pathway yeah you know you can get better you can rebuild right yeah so I started education in the prison system that's where I started in the world of education and and I remember I would hear this term where they would go we want to rehabilitate them so we can turn them back out into the free world where they can be successful and I would think to myself well it's not rehabilitate them because if we get them back to where they were that led to whatever their criminal decision was

22:00whether it was an addiction or whatever the case would be I go no we have to rebuild them and that's where it came from because so many of us want to rehab we want to rehab to who we were but it's like no that was a sick person who led to my brokenness I need to rebuild into something better and stronger yeah and and in like the area I live you'll see where where people will tear down an old structure they'll leave the foundation because like for me my foundation was great I had great parents they great upbringing my foundation was great I just needed to rebuild something stronger because what I have is two week and that's what a lot of people I a lot of them have great foundations they just need to rebuild something stronger so you're already broken and in this this may let let's rebuild you into something better yeah yeah amazing yeah so I ask everyone what are you what are you most excited about yeah I am really excited about helping people I think most people get a joy out of celebrating the successes of others yeah but it genuinely drives me again it's

23:02why I'm in education I love to see successive students I love to see the success of teachers I don't know about most people enjoy that I'd say a lot of people right but there's also the people that just deep down inside their miserable that's good see other people you know with the success all those people tapping on their keyboard the haters right yeah yeah but no I I get you on that yeah you know I I'm with you I enjoy watching other people succeed right Rudy this is actually our first podcast in the new studios right yeah Rudy is just opened it up today yeah right so yeah it's beautiful that's his success right now let's let's just take a moment to celebrate his success of inside success but yeah the studios look beautiful absolutely it's great you were the first guest that I filmed the new studios right we're getting the hang of it but yeah they're they're great man yeah yeah and people once and that's what I want I just want to I want to see people be successful I want people to restart potential I want people to want people to experience true joy

24:03not just happiness but joy and so like if the what I it's my wife and I had this conversation we were making the drive yesterday about like well she goes what do you what do you hope to accomplish and I go I want one day to be in a position where I can help as many veterans as possible yeah I have no aspirations of being rich I have no aspirations of fame I just wanted to help people and the more people I help the more satisfaction it gets me because I want to prevent statistics and I want to help people because there's kids that need their dad their mother there's there's mothers and fathers that need their children to grow up and be successful and and so I just want to help and that's what I want the next 10 years is is to continue to build my platform where I can help more people be successful right now man how can people find you yeah the simplest way is to go to the rebuild warrior.com the rebel warrior.com if you go there my contact information's there so you can directly contact me I have a self-assessment you can do that says are you ready to rebuild do

25:04you need a rebuild it also has like podcasts that I've been on it has the link to buy the book that's coming out and tells you about the book and so it has where you can book me to come speak or to share with your staff or whatever everything's in that website so if you go to the rebel warrior.com everything you need to access for me is on there yeah perfect man and so yeah I mean it's been a pleasure to have you as my first guest on the new studio. Thank you very exciting we I call it the whiskey room yeah but yeah so thank you so much for joining us it's been a pleasure to listening to your story and I'm so proud of you for for building the rebuild warrior man. Absolutely thank you I appreciate that I enjoyed being here all right and thank you guys for joining us like I said dude if you haven't tuned in to Operation CEO you guys are missing out man you got to tune in so yeah we'll see you next time on the Living Your Legacy podcast cheers everyone