Getting the Veteran Benefits You've Earned with Brian Reese

Brian Reese is best for real estate, financial wealth, and those who are truly committed to making a significant difference in the lives of veterans. He is from the great state of Texas, originally from Minnesota, he served in the armed forces in the Air Force, and he is a coach for helping people who are veterans and looking for ways to coach, encourage, and equip them to unlock the benefits that they’ve earned for their amazing service.

From 2003 to 2012, he was a member of the United States Air Force. He worked as a civil servant for the Department of Defense for a time. After removing his uniform, he worked as a civilian in the Air Force. It was around this time that he began looking into the VA disability benefits process and quickly became confused, overwhelmed, and ended up not receiving the rating that he should have received under the law, resulting in a loss of approximately $100,000 in tax-free compensation for his family and himself. Around that time, he began doing research online, and he thought to himself that it shouldn’t take an advanced degree and 1000s of hours of research to get the benefits that one deserves for wearing their country’s uniform. As an entrepreneur, he jumped in headfirst and said, “There has to be a solution here.” That is what prompted the development of VA Claims Insider. They are an educational firm. They offer coach and consulting services to underserved veterans and people attempting to obtain VA disability benefits through the VA. They’ve taken the perplexing process, which can appear to take years only to be denied.

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Getting the Veteran Benefits You’ve Earned with Brian Reese

Brett:

I’m excited about our next guest. He is out of the great state of Texas, originally from Minnesota, he served in the Armed Forces in the Air Force, and he is a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, and he’s a coach for helping people who are veterans and looking for ways to coach and encourage them and equip them to unlock the benefits that they’ve earned for their amazing service. I’m so excited to bring him on the show. Please welcome in the show with me, Brian Reese. Hey, Brian, how are you doing?

Brian:

Thanks, Brett. Appreciate you having me on.

Brett:

Absolutely. And for our listeners getting to know you for the first time, would you give us a little bit more about your story and your current focus?

Brian:

Sure, I served in the United States Air Force from 2003 to 2012. Spent some time as a Department of Defense civil servant. So I worked in the Air Force as a civilian after I took off the uniform. And it was around that time, when I started looking into the VA disability benefits process and very quickly got confused, became overwhelmed, ended up not getting the rating that I should have had by law, and lost about $100,000 of tax-free compensation my family and I deserved. And it was around that time, and I started doing research online, and I’m thinking to myself it shouldn’t take an advanced degree in 1000s of hours of research to get the benefits that one deserves for wearing the uniform of their country. And as an entrepreneur, that’s when I jumped right at this headfirst and said, there has to be a solution here. And that’s what led to the creation of VA claims Insider. We’re an education company. We provide coaching and consulting services for underrated veterans, and folks who are trying to get their VA disability benefits through the VA. And really what we do in a nutshell, is we’ve taken the confusing process, which can seem like it takes years only to end up denied. And we’ve made it easy, we’ve boiled it down to its simplest elements. And we have an eight-step process, where veterans get partnered with one of our coaches, that happens over about 30 days, and you walk the journey with us, and we’re there for you no matter what. And so far, I mean, we’ve helped over 15,000 veterans directly in our program, hundreds of 1000s of veterans and their families come to our websites each month for our free services. And it’s just, it’s been such a blessing, we’ve changed so many lives, Brett and my life has been changed as well, from the veterans that we serve. And it’s just, it’s just an absolute honor and a blessing to serve.

Brett:

That’s amazing. I want to thank you for what you’re doing. And it makes family members who served in the Marines and served in the Army and, and one that has a partial disability right with what, what he went through in the special forces. And so it’s, it means a lot and I’m excited to, to spread awareness and to, to hear more about this. And we’re going to be diving into all of that which is getting the veterans benefits you deserve you earned and if you have a family member or a friend, or anyone you know who’s a veteran, I want you to think about sharing this episode VAclaimsinsider.com is the website. Brian Reese, but before we go into some of these strategies and processes and some coaching here, I want to take one other step back, Brian, I believe we’ve all been given certain gifts in this life. And these gifts have been given to us to be a blessing and help to others. Some people become strengths, some people call them superpowers. So I’m curious, I want you to go back to your high school days in Minnesota. Maybe you’re playing hockey, maybe you’re doing something really cool and fun when you’re growing up. But at one point maybe someone has spoken to your life or things that you’ve identified as some of your strengths. So what are those maybe one or two strengths that you believe you were given that helped you help and bless people today?

Brian:

Well, the good Lord has certainly blessed me with many gifts. some of which I sort of just became aware of as I jumped into becoming an entrepreneur, but I think probably first and foremost is a gift that I’ve been given from the Lord is an ability to persevere through adversity. It’s something that I learned at a young age through multiple disappointments from not making hockey teams I felt like I should have made disappointments with school or how something worked out and a travel team. Just the ability to persevere no matter what the situation is, and find an answer, find a solution. I think the other probably strength is around leadership, and around being resourceful. I truly think one of the most important skills that any person can develop is the ability to be resourceful. And I say this to our team all the time, I say, You know what? Your talent doesn’t matter. Your memory doesn’t matter, your background, your education, your experience. None of that matters. What matters to me is can you learn? And can you be the most resourceful person in the room? To find a way to Yes, and it’s something that we talk about here all the time, and that’s a gift now that I have is the ability to be the most resourceful person in the room and find an answer. And I’ll give an example of this. When I started this business, I certainly was not an expert in VA disability benefits. it happened over time, it took a lot of research, it took a ton of reading, it took asking tons of questions, it took researching the law and testing and applying things. It happened through writing hundreds of blog posts. And so I truly believe Brett, that anybody can become an expert in anything, you just got to put in the work. And I think most people just aren’t willing to put in the work. And I think that’s what separates successful people from unsuccessful people.

Brett:

Amazing. Brian, I love the way you said it. Talent doesn’t matter. Memory doesn’t matter. Can you learn? And can you be the best? Can you be the best person in the business or the best person in the room right or in your business to find a way to Yes, I find a way to a solution? Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that. Now let’s dive right into the number one secret for veterans right to getting the benefits they’ve earned. So what is that number one secret? What’s the first step in this process in this journey?

Brian:

Sure. The number one secret that is just not talked about enough, is that VA disability claims come down to medical evidence. And, and the problem here, Brett is most veterans don’t have enough medical evidence in their active duty service treatment records. And the reason is, you probably never went to the doctor, okay, you didn’t want to be that guy or gal who looked weak. You didn’t want to fall out of formation, you didn’t want to be ostracized from your unit, heaven forbid you became non-deployable. Okay, so we suffer alone in silence. And we don’t talk about the mental and physical conditions we’re dealing with while we were the uniform. And I’ll tell you what happens that is when you transition out of the service, you then start to go when I have all these conditions, I’ve got PTSD, I have migraine headaches, I’ve got sleep apnea, I’ve got a painful nerve condition called radiculopathy. I’ve got flat feet, and you go to apply for benefits. And it all comes back denied. And the denial says something like there’s no evidence in your service treatment records of any complaints of sleep issues or any complaints of mental health conditions, or blah, blah, blah. And that’s really the first time Brett that a veteran becomes aware of I have a problem. What happened? The VA didn’t believe me, what do I need to do now? And that’s where a company like ours comes in. Because we jump in there with the veteran, we say, look, the issue is you never went to the doctor and active duty. The solution is to get your butt to the VA now and get a diagnosis from your primary care doctor or get a diagnosis from a private provider and start building the case of medical evidence. And then through personal statements, and things called Nexus letters. The veteran can then connect their conditions back to their service, even if it’s been years later. And they’ve been denied multiple times. So that’s, that’s the number one secret is making sure you have enough medical evidence in your record. It doesn’t have to be in your service records because chances are you didn’t go to the doctor, but it has to be in there now. And that’s one of the services Brett that we provide in our coaching program is we’re able to connect veterans to private medical professionals who can help with things like Nexus letters to prove service connection of their disabilities to document severity of symptoms so that veterans can finally get awarded the benefits they’ve earned for their service.

Brett:

Got it. So let me pull that out. Right so the number one secret to VA disability number one secret to getting the benefits you’ve earned as a veteran is, it’s all going to come down to medical evidence, and the evidence is going to determine whether or not you’re gonna get the benefits. And as a part of that, and I can imagine you’re in the military, you’re there, and you’re building your mind, you’re building your body, you’re building your leadership you’re serving your country and you are with your squad. And you don’t want to walk out and be seen as the one who’s the weakling, or straggling behind, or whatever it might be, whatever the humility are the pride, the pride, and the ego gets in the way. And we’re not documenting that those who are serving are not documenting that, and they suffer alone in silence, and now post active duty, all of these things are really kind of coming to light. What is it about it? I mean, if you feel like the PTSD, and the sleep apnea and the flat feet and those all those challenges, do they? Is it like the body and the mind and the emotions finally relaxed after being in such a heightened state of adrenaline and intensity? That they just start to notice it a little bit more? I mean, what percentage of it? Hey, I noticed it, I just ignored it. And what percentage of it is now that I’m actually relaxing back to normal society? Like, I’m not normal right now. Like, I went through a lot of trauma, can you kind of walk us through that psychology there?

Brian:

It’s probably some of both. Um, in my experience, though, Brett we’re all trained in the military culture, which is Mission First, take care of everybody else except ourselves. And so I think when you’re wearing the uniform, you’re so worried about taking care of the mission and helping your brother and sister making sure nobody else gets left behind, that we don’t think about our own mental and physical health, we just don’t and a lot of us are in the military to and we’re a bit younger. And so I think that factors in as well, where you take off the uniform 1015 20 years ago by these conditions that maybe we’re only small problems, while you were in the uniform, are now significant problems that are causing major issues, and your work your life, and your social functioning. And so, I think it’s the military culture that we’re just, we don’t want to be honest about our mental and physical conditions. And my dad asked me a while back, he said what do you actually do at VA claims? Insider? What you, Brian, what, what do you do, I said, I give veterans permission to get the benefits, they legally, morally, ethically, and medically deserve. And that’s really important because that’s part of the coaching process. Part of the reason why veterans need a coach is we’re terrible at acknowledging or realizing our blind spots. And sometimes we’re not willing to admit what’s going on until somebody else gives us permission, and starts drawing it out of us. And so that’s where that inside-out coaching process becomes so important. And Brett, I’m gonna, I’m gonna make a really bold statement. And some people may disagree with me, frankly, I don’t care because I’m speaking from experience when I make the statement. Every single veteran suffers and suffered trauma. Every single veteran is suffering from symptoms of mental health. It’s, it’s just the reality of what we see. And yet, there are lots even the VA doesn’t want to acknowledge the VA statistics, they’ll say, only 25% of veterans have PTSD. Well, that’s because they’re only reporting the veterans who are seeking PTSD treatment at the VA. They’re not including the millions of veterans who have PTSD who don’t get help. And they’re not including those who are seeking private help, because they don’t trust the VA with their health care. So I truly believe that the veteran suicide epidemic is a direct result of the fact that all veterans have mental health conditions. And until we get real about that, until we address it, I don’t think we can stop suicide. I really don’t.

Brett:

Wow, that’s powerful. And that’s amazing. And I really want to reiterate what you do And you talked about the gifts have the ability to persevere through adversity and leadership by being resourceful right, and saying, Hey, how do we give them permission and the encouragement and unlock the false beliefs of those who have stuck behind the culture of the military the culture of their own egos or pride or whatever it might be to know that they have the permission to get the benefits they deserve legally, morally and ethically. I love how that hits up the court on every angle. And you’re right. I think the moment we actually exchange what is true. And letting our ego get out of the way is the moment we can actually start to solve the problem or move past it. But for not acknowledging the actual statistics in the reality behind the stats or the real story behind you save 25% at the VA, because those are the only ones that are actually getting the treatment. The rest of them are a lot of them were all of them right or not, Or I forgot or don’t think they can or gave up on the process because they hadn’t properly documented it during their active duty or whatever. Right. So that’s amazing. And so talk about step two, then. So secret number one is obviously acknowledging the problem acknowledging what they can be doing what step number two, especially to work with you, someone shows up, and they’re ready to get going. They’re like, I’m ready to go on right now, what would be step number two?

Brian:

Step two is to get educated. And that’s one of the services that we provide is we provide live mastermind coaching sessions. So we do live sessions, just like how we’re talking right now over zoom. there may be 15, 20, 30 veterans, on a live zoom coaching call, we’re offering four to five classes every single day, that is live-streamed from our hundreds of coaches from around the world. So once the veteran signs up, you got to get educated in the process. And I like to think about it in terms of football, because everybody understands sports, okay? Imagine if Bill Belichick is trying to win a game for the New England Patriots, but he doesn’t know all the rules of NFL football. Okay, he’s gonna have a pretty hard time putting together a winning game plan if he doesn’t understand the rules of the game. Okay, if he doesn’t understand the strategy of the other side? How is he going to put together a defensive game plan against their offense to counter them? Well, the same is true for the VA disability process. If you don’t understand the rules, which some of them are legal rules. Some of them are medical rules. Okay, if you don’t even understand the basic elements, how do you even know what you’re eligible to apply for? If you don’t know what you’re eligible to apply for? How are you ever going to put together a strategy to help you get the benefits you’ve earned for your service, but yet, that’s what millions of veterans have done. And let me be clear, it’s not their fault. Okay, it’s the VAs fault, it’s the system’s fault. Because when we take off the uniform, they kick your butt out the door, you’re no longer useful to the military. And we spend years sort of floundering on our own. And so that’s one of the huge values Brett that we provide is a personalized strategy for the veteran. And we go head to toe so they understand what they’re suffering from what they may even be eligible for by law. And then we show them how to get those benefits. Like literally step by step, we show them on the screen, how you get them. And I’m telling you, there’s just there’s nobody else doing this. And that’s really, again, why I started this business was just out of the necessity of going I can’t believe nobody is helping veterans. Okay, I’m going to help them.

Brett:

Amazing. Brian, by the way, can learn more about Brian Reese at vaclaimsinsider.com. another quote that comes to mind on this is it’s learning and we all have to learn this I think on a daily basis, Replacing the joy of being right, with the joy of learning what’s true, And so sometimes we want to believe that we either know it, or we should have known it, or we’re embarrassed to tell it, especially guys, We don’t want to be told that we don’t know somethino or we’re not right, or we’re missing something, Especially when it comes to vulnerabilities, with our mental health or our bodies or whatever, I mean, these are all these insecurities that are going on behind the scenes, but we’ve got to train and coach and be with those who are going to train and coaches of replacing the joy of being right, with the joy of learning what’s true, Because it’s not just at the end of the day, people were coming back from the military, they’re starting families, they’re getting married, And they’re looking to create a legacy. And they’ve got to get right with what they’re facing. And I can’t think of a better way but to connect with someone like yourself and your team, and that community, you probably built right around that for people who are going through similar challenges, and together make progress to do that. Anything to add to that, Brian?

Brian:

I love that quote. I really do. I mean, that’s something that really helped propel me forward because, in my younger days, I needed to be the right big ego Hockey player who thought I knew everything. And really through growth through a lot of prayers through a lot of reading through coaching. I mean, I have my own coach as well, that has helped me through, some really tough things and helped me be a better leader. I’ll tell you, there’s, there’s something that I want every veteran to really hear, okay, because this is so important. And what, I want non-veterans to hear this. One of the core values of the Air Force is service before self. Now, I thought that meant service at the expense of self. And that’s not what it means. I think what I’ve learned through this journey includes the fact that I’ve got multiple mental health conditions, I deal with anxiety, depression, I’ve fought through alcoholism, drug addiction. I mean, I’ve done it all, I’ve been there, done that I got the t-shirt, okay, that there’s nothing you could tell me that would surprise me or something that I probably haven’t done myself. But I’ll tell you, I didn’t get sober. I didn’t start really, really celebrating life change, until I actually took a look in the mirror and realized through a coach, that service before self does not mean service at the expense of self. And I realized, I can’t take care of anybody else. I can’t take care of my wife, I can take care of my kids. I can’t lead our company. Unless I take care of myself first. And I think some people bred they tend to think that well if you are thinking about yourself, that means you’re selfish. No, you have to be selfless, to understand that before you have to get help. And you got to get better before you can be the man, the husband, the wife, the brother, the sister, the uncle, the cousin, the leader before you’re going to be that person that God created you to be, you got to get right first. And it wasn’t for me until I had that breakthrough with a coach, where he kept asking me all these questions. And he just kept asking me, Brett, Brian, what’s the one thing holding you back or standing in your way? What’s the one thing that if it happened, your business growth would accelerate? What’s the one thing that would improve your marriage or your relationship with your kids? And I always had the same BS response more time maybe if we go to counseling that would improve my marriage. maybe if we get to next quarter, and we’re able to hire more staff, we’ll have more revenue, and our business will grow. If I do more marketing, you don’t want to know what the answer was. The answer was alcohol for me. If I could have quit the booze, everything would have improved in my life. I wasn’t honest about it for about seven years. And really, it wasn’t until I got sober and honest about what I was dealing with why I was drinking all the time, why I was taking drugs, it wasn’t until I got real about that, that life in business started to accelerate to a level that I could have never dreamed of. And so I’m here to tell you, folks, that no matter what you’re dealing with, somebody else is dealing with it too, or somebody else has dealt with it. Okay, and we want to help you celebrate life change. That’s what we do here.

Brett:

And all the people said, Amen, brother, man, thank you for sharing that. It’s inspiring. And that’s vulnerable. And that’s needed to lead as a leader with vulnerability, and openness. And know that you have a coach, if you’re a veteran, listen to this, you have a coach that you can connect with within the community connect with who’s been where you’re at, or, or is currently going through some of the same struggles. And that’s the key, find a guide, find a coach who’s a few steps ahead of you, and, and put on the humility, put on some more humility, take off pride, and go get the help that you deserve that you need that your family’s counting you on to get. And so you can learn more about Mr. Brian Reese and getting the veteran veterans benefits you’ve earned by going to VAclaimsinsider.com . That being said, Brian, are you ready for the lightning round?

Brian:

Let’s do it.

Brett:

All right, knowing what you know now if you go back to your 25-year-old self with one golden nugget make sure to tell yourself what to do?

Brian:

I would have told myself to take care of myself, to quit drinking alcohol to quit abusing drugs, and to get in the word get in the Bible. I mean, if I would have done some of those things early on, it probably would have accelerated my growth by at least 10 years, but hey, we live we learn.

Brett:

Hey, thank you for sharing that. Number two question, what’s the number one book you’ve recommended or gift at the most in the past year?

Brian:

There are a few of them. So there are a few books that I try to read at least once every year. One of them is Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Another one is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. I absolutely love the alchemist. If you’re looking for a story of finding yourself. It’s a fantasy fiction novel, one of my favorites. Those are probably the gifts of the books that get the most

Brett:

Awesome. Question number three, what are you most curious about right now?

Brian:

I am most curious about the rise of decentralized cryptocurrency assets and NFT’s. I truly believe that this thing called the metaverse is going to completely change everything. I mean, I really do believe that the future of the internet, the future of finance is going to happen through blockchain, through decentralization of assets. And I think ownership, literally, anything that can be owned physically, is going to be owned digitally. And that digital assets might actually have more value than physical assets. I truly believe we’re at the very beginning of a multi-trillion-dollar industry.

Brett:

Amazing. By the way, we do a little plug we have a cryptocurrency Deferred Sales Trust Mastermind that happens every Friday. As a part of that, we have folks that have multiple millions of dollars gains in their cryptocurrency or other assets to businesses, real estate, primary homes that they’re selling, look into ways to defer the capital gains tax and to be able to diversify and invest into other businesses or the real estate or the stock market. If you want to learn more about that, you go to capitalgainstaxsolutions.com. You can register for free, and connect with our team there and other people. The next question is favorite leadership quote or theme, you strive to live by?

Brian:

Probably, around the lines of nobody cares about what you say, they want to see what you do. And so do your actions, mirror your words, and I think as a leader, early on, I don’t think they did for me, I really did, I think I would, I would say one thing, and I would do another. And when you do that, you have no credibility. And so I think rather than boiling it down to one specific quote, I would just say that, as a leader make sure that if you talk to talk, you’re walking the walk because every single person is watching what you do and how you do it. And if your actions don’t match your words, you’re gonna have no credibility, you’re not going to have influence as a leader.

Brett:

Very well said. Last question. After all, all your service, thank you for your service. After all the people you’ve helped change lives with VAclaimsinsider.com. And with your family and everything, where have you where you’ve been, what you’ve been through? How do you stay centered with the number one habit to help you stay centered in your values, and stay encouraged to charge for to reach new heights?

Brian:

What would I tell my younger self? What’s a way that anybody can improve themselves, it’s to develop better habits. And that’s not just some buzzword of habits. It’s just we are what we do. We are what we continually do. And so if you want to have a breakthrough, start looking at somebody who’s further along than you model what they do, and then put it into a daily routine. I can’t emphasize enough how important my daily routine is. I mean, I wake up at the same time every day, I do the same thing every morning. I start doing the same things all the time. And I truly believe that that helps you accelerate your results.

Brett:

Fantastic, Brian, for our listeners who want to get in touch with you, would you mind one last time what’s the best place for us to find you?

Brian:

You can find me online at VAclaimsinsider.com. Feel free to shoot us a note. We also put out a ton of free content on our VA Claims Insider YouTube channel. Our blog has been visited about 250,000 times per month. You can find us at VA Claims Insider Blog.

Brett:

Brian Reese, it’s been an honor getting to know you a little bit. Hear a little about your story and an honor to hear the lives that you’re changing and what you’re doing. I want to encourage you to keep using your gifts have the ability to persevere through adversity. Don’t let anything stop you right from finding ways in finding good solutions to make it seamless for veterans to get the benefits that they deserve. And also being a leader who’s resourceful right and leading by example. Thank you for your service and your continued service. So, please connect with Brian Reese at VA Claims Insider, please share this with somebody who can help. You can change your life right now by sharing this with a veteran or somebody who needs to hear this and needs to take action. We do appreciate that.