The Battle Doesn't End When You Leave the Army with Chas Sampson

What happens when a soldier takes off the uniform and faces the toughest battle of his life—navigating the broken VA system?

In this powerful episode of The Revolutionary Man Podcast, Alain Dumonceaux sits down with Chas Sampson, a U.S. Army veteran and founder of Seven Principles, to discuss the challenges veterans face after their service. From lost identity and PTSD to the endless maze of VA disability claims, Chas shares the raw truth about what’s broken—and how men can reclaim dignity, confidence, and purpose after the military.

You’ll hear:
• The emotional challenges veterans face when transitioning to civilian life
• Why the VA system fails so many men—and how Chas is fighting to fix it
• Common mistakes veterans make with disability claims (and how to avoid them)
• The role of faith, leadership, and community in healing and rebuilding
• Practical first steps for veterans feeling stuck, rejected, or lost

Key Moments in this episode:
03:20 Chas Simpson's Military Journey
05:44 Transitioning to Civilian Life: Challenges and Insights
13:07 Building Seven Principles: Overcoming Financial Struggles
17:07 The Importance of Purpose and Resilience
20:25 Challenges Veterans Face with Disability Claims
22:59 A Case Study: The System's Failures
28:46 Finding Purpose Beyond Benefits
32:42 Final Thoughts and Advice

If you’re a veteran—or you know one—this conversation is a lifeline.
👉 Grab Chas’s ebook Thank You For Your Service at sevenprinciples.com
👉 Join the free Integrity Challenge @ therevolutionaryman.com

Live with intention. Lead with integrity. Start now.

How to reach Chas:
Website: https://sevenprinciples.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sevenprinciplesgroup
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sevenprinciplesgroup/?hl=en
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@seven_principles
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuafUSVl796zWRT6pJZjGOg
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/seven-principles-group/

Chapters

• 0:00 The Hidden Battle After Service
• 2:45 Meet Chas Sampson And His Mission
• 3:40 First Duty Station Lessons On Leadership
• 5:44 Transition Choices And Life Planning
• 9:16 Parallels With NFL Careers
• 14:20 Building Seven Principles: Early Struggles
• 20:58 The Cost Of Bad Decisions And Delays
• 26:00 Pride, Communication, And Claim Outcomes
• 30:20 Money, Meaning, And Fair Treatment
• 32:10 Purpose, Daily Wins, And Final Takeaways
• 33:40 How To Connect And Next Steps

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:00

You know, one of the hardest transitions any man's gonna face in his life is taking off the uniform and stepping back into civilian life. And for many veterans, the battlefield isn't the hardest part. It's truly what comes after. And so the loss of identity, the endless red tape, and the feeling of being forgotten by the very system that swore that they swore to defend. So imagine you're serving your country only to come home and fight for the benefits you've earned, sometimes for years. And while you wait, the weight of invisibility, wounds from the PSTD, the depression, chronic pain, and pressing down even harder upon an enemy that we have not yet faced in our combat. But here's the truth you're not only forgotten. You are not alone. Because today we're going to talk about the brokenness of the system that we have that we live in and the resilience of so many veterans and the fight to reclaim their dignity, their confidence, and their purpose. And so if you're a veteran or you are one yourself, I think this episode might be a great one for you to listen to. So make sure you smash that like button, hit subscribe, and let's share this conversation because you never know who might need the encouragement we're about to unpack today. And so, with that, let's get on with today's episode.

SPEAKER_00: 1:22

Many never reaching their true potential, let alone ever crossing the finished line to living a purposeful life. Yet the hunger still exists, albeit buried amidst his cluttered mind, misguided beliefs, and values that no longer serve him. It's time to align yourself for greatness. It's time to become a revolutionary man. Stay strong, my brother.

SPEAKER_02: 1:48

Welcome everyone to the Revolutionary Man Podcast. I'm the founder of the Revolutionary Man Movement and your host, Alan D'Monso. Before we get started, I do want to ask you a couple of questions. What would it feel like to fight so hard for your country only to come home and fight even harder for your benefits? And what would change if every veteran had an advocate who truly understood their struggle? Well, the truth is that veterans don't need more sympathy, they need some solutions. And today we're joined by a man who's been in the fight on both sides of that table. So Chad Simpson is a U.S. Army veteran who went on to serve as a decision officer at the Department of Veteran Affairs and where he saw firsthand the struggles that many veterans face in navigating a complex and often broken system. And the experience inspired him to found Seven Principles. And it's an organization that's dedicated to helping veterans secure the benefits they've earned with dignity and with confidence and through his company, his advocacy work, and his ebook. Thank you for your service. Chaz has helped countless veterans cut through the red tape, overcome rejection, to reclaim their sense of worth. And he's not just an entrepreneur, he's a warrior for veterans' rights, a voice for the voiceless, and a leader determined to ensure that veterans, no veteran, is left behind. Chaz, welcome to the show, my friends. So looking forward to our conversation.

SPEAKER_01: 3:10

Thank you. My class.

SPEAKER_02: 3:12

Right on. We talk about in this podcast about all of us being on a hero's quest, and you're has such a great one to talk about here today. So I'd like you to take us back to that time during your time in the army where some there may have been some defining moments that helped shape your identity and become the man you are today and this work that you're doing. So let's talk about that.

SPEAKER_01: 3:33

Yeah. So do you want one particular moment or maybe the first moment?

SPEAKER_02: 3:36

Yeah, any particular moment that really stands out for you.

SPEAKER_01: 3:39

I would say the one that stands up the most would be my first unit in Germany. I think for many service members, and particularly I'll say soldiers, being a little biased towards the army, because I served in the army. I would say most soldiers, when it's their first duty station, they're just leaving home, especially me. I was I had just turned 20 years old. It's exhilarating. It's also very nerve-wracking. It's you're ancient, you're anxious, you're nervous, you're happy, you're excited, and you're sad. There's so many different emotions you're going through. So for me, that's probably my fondness moment because my first duty station was Germany. And I grew up in Fedville, North Carolina, and never really went outside of Fedville. So to go from a little small army town, or it's not small, it's got a little size nowadays. It's probably about 400,000 or so residents, but to leave that and to go to my first duty station and have really great leadership there as well. It really set the tone for what I thought of the army and my perspective and what I thought was valuable. And more importantly, it gave me some insight to the things that don't happen often in the army. There's a lot of talks of people being in bad units, and I was part of a bad unit, my second unit. So I definitely saw both sides. And so for me, I guess the final moment was that you can be as strong as you want to be as long as you have the heart to lead. I think you if you don't want to be that strong, really a strong kind of takeover leader, fearless, brave-hearted person, you can be that and be a good leader in the army. You can also be the total opposite and be a good leader in the army as well. So it really helped me. And I hope I can phrase this in something like quote, but I would say that that experience helped me see that being a leader really comes from so many different dimensions. And it's not a one-set tone, I would say.

SPEAKER_02: 5:19

Yeah, I completely agree with that, Chaz. I think there's lots of different ways that we can show up as leaders. I think there's a an a mentor, a friend of mine years ago always said people will do will do what you do more than what they'll do, what you say. Yeah. And if we can, you know, if we can exemplify what it is to lead, then people will start to gravitate towards us. So I completely agree with you. It doesn't matter how we're showing up as leaders as long as we're showing up as a leader.

SPEAKER_01: 5:43

But absolutely.

SPEAKER_02: 5:44

You know, your journey also, though, obviously after leaving the forces and trying to reintegrate back into civilian life when you first left the military, what really caught you off guard about the about civilian life? And then did you have any moments where you felt that you failed maybe yourself or your family?

SPEAKER_01: 6:03

No, sorry, I just I drank some coffee, went on the wrong pipe. I'm drinking coffee seven o'clock at night. So that's what I get for that. But I would say for me, when I transitioned, I was really happy to get out of the army because it gave me more time. So my principles of why I left the army wasn't necessarily due to I didn't the military, I didn't care for it anymore. I wanted to get out. I really enjoyed the military, loved serving in the army, had always planned to do 20 years. And I just at the end of my when it came time to make a decision to ETS or continue to or to re-enlist, because I was on the enlisted side, I I literally sat and thought, what would be my cost benefit if I stayed in, and what would be my cost benefit, and more sorry the return if I got out. And so for me, I was gonna go either drill sergeant, recruiter, or OCS. Those are my three options I gave myself. I was E4. So I was like, if I go recruiter, I got to at least make E6. So I had a path to E6. And I said, if I go officer, that can happen now, and I can just go to school and then come back in and commission as lieutenant. So I thought about all those options. And then I looked at the creative market. I had been making really great money while I was in the military. Moonlighting is what we call it in the military. I was working on a second job, and the amount of time I was putting towards that and the amount of revenue or income coming in from that was substantially, the numbers were more in the favor for doing going that direction. So me getting out of is a very different transition. I was a very fortunate man to be able to have those options. But for me, getting out the transition was being able to have more time to do more things with my own time and make and be rewarded for it financially. And then I didn't really have, I think your second question was what could you ask that question again? I want to make sure I answer it correctly because it was a very unique pronoun you used about in your question. Could you ask that one more time?

SPEAKER_02: 7:51

Yeah, for sure. So it was actually a two-part. One was just that what maybe caught you off guard. Caught me off guard, okay. That's what it was. Coming back to into civilian life.

SPEAKER_01: 8:01

Yeah, nothing caught me off guard. Yes, were there things that I would have wanted in the civilian world that I didn't get in the army? Yeah, absolutely. But I think for me, I just conditioned my brain to think that I'm making a transition and I have to make it the best of this transition, and I got to find a way to compete and win. So for me, it was all always about making a plan, sticking to the plan, and then being open to change the plan just to make sure I get to the goal. The army was the same way. I joined at 20 and I had the mindset going in. I'm gonna I'm gonna master this thing, I'm gonna do very well at it, and I'm gonna leave myself with the option to leave on my own terms, and the own terms meaning I did well, I did my job and some, I definitely performed, and I could have stayed if I would have really wanted to. So I think for me, there was really no shock, but it also goes back to my upbringing as a kid and also goes back to the things that I was experiencing when I was 12, 13, 14, 15. So I had probably had a really different life. I'm sure everybody has a different life, but mine was different than others. So I think that's what really helped me to be able to compete like at that level at 20 and then 30 and now 40.

SPEAKER_02: 8:56

So there you go. So I the reason I ask with this this as an opening question, because now I'm wondering, and with your advocacy work, are you finding some uh similarities in that, or are you finding more differences with guys coming transitioning from the army or whatever? I will say the forces overall getting back into civilian life.

SPEAKER_01: 9:16

Yeah, so I would say I'm an NFL agent as well. So I help NFL players, I represent them, and that's for all 32 NFL teams. And so the transition that you see with NFL players and with guys retiring ETFs from the military is very similar. Only difference is the contract value of each party's respective value to the service they offer to the respective entities, which of course players are to the NFL and service members are to the Department of Defense or Department of War now. But the the things that I see here is people are people, right? I'm I deal with guys that are sometimes high net worth, have done extremely well for themselves run businesses. And I deal with guys also that can barely are unemployed, literally on paper and financially unemployed. They're not just status of unemployed, they don't have employment, but they have income coming in. They actually have no income and they also are classified as unemployed. So that's a wide spectrum. And what I would say is that, yeah, there are some commonalities in regards to if you find someone that transitioned and they've always been a civilian and they go from one banking branch to let's say they go from banking to insurance and then from insurance to like construction, yeah, it may be hard to transfer to different entity, the different entities, but the lingo tends to be about the same, and just the culture changes and like some of the way you do business change. But yes, there is a stark difference in serving the military, even playing the NFL, that that transition going somewhere else is just really different because you're doing something like only less than 1% of people do in the world. I have seen a group of men and women, and we'll speak military here because that's what the question is about, veteran in the military. I have seen men and women that are veterans in this case that have exited very well. They could have left a decade prior, but they put themselves in a position, they planned properly to exit and meet their goals, and they did it, and they did it extremely well. I've met some veterans that also have not done it well. What I would say is the common denominator between the two was that either A, they plan to fail or they fail to plan. They plan that if this fails, and I said it differently, I'm planning to fail. So if I plan that this fails and I already know all of my fails, then I add fail-safes to where I know I'm going to meet my goal. And then other ones just plan to fail. The other ones fail to plan. They did not plan anything at all. And so, because of their failure to at least execute a plan or make a plan, they didn't have any type of aspect of what they're walking into and got shocked and then got shot down because they just weren't prepared for it. They never took their due diligence. Not saying they don't do that, but that's what I see on my end of the spectrum. And I and hopefully services like mine is what's helping bridge that bridge, at least financially, because we're putting a lot of money in men and women's pockets all across the country for the rest of their life every single month. So that's a huge value add. And I get a lot of folks that shake my hands and say, Man, you're doing the Lord's work. And I've come to believe that over the last 11 years now. That's what I've seen from it. First going into this business, I didn't really, I just really listened to what I heard frequently and what I saw in my circle, which was, yeah, everyone had a tough transition. I even had close friends that left the military and got back in the military and got back out again and realized for three or four years, I've seen that as well. So when I was around that, yeah, but now in my leadership level, where I'm at as a CEO and running a pretty decent sized organization for the last 11 years, I've been able to see a massive amount of people and deal with their personal affairs. And I can tell you it's really a mixed tool, a mixed bag of different tools that people have used in their tool set to be successful or not.

SPEAKER_02: 12:34

Yeah, I completely agree with that. And I think it's so true, right? How we depending on if we fail the plan, we're gonna we're planning to fail. And in in while that may sound somewhat cliche, the challenge is many of many people in lots of walks of life live day to day, paycheck to paycheck, decision to the decision, without really any type of plan. And so to be able to have an organization like you've built with seven principles really helps folks fix that gap and help them get their at least get back on their feet. So it's an opportunity for them to start to rebuild a life. And so I think like any entrepreneur or anything starting anything, when you're starting, when you started seven principles, I'm sure there must have been moments where you had some big challenges you had to overcome. And let's talk a little bit about what the some of the struggles that you faced in building it and how did those failures really change the way the or the direction of the organization and maybe even yourself.

SPEAKER_01: 13:27

Yeah, I think for me the biggest struggle was the financial side of the business because it costs a lot to run a business, not just only your indirect costs, but not only your direct costs, but indirect costs, like the cost of doing business and the cost of cost. And so I think for me, I just I had a tough transition when it came into really narrowing down my lifestyle. I like to live a certain type of way, just to be frank with you. I like to have a certain kind of car, I like to live in a certain kind of neighborhood. And I'm more important like to live a certain type of healthcare stuff myself, like making sure like I'm always well groomed, I get manicures and making sure I work out well and I eat well and also support my family. So for me, I wanted to make sure I had a certain dollar amount. So resigning from the federal government to do this kind of work was like it was really a leap of faith in regards to it was more, it was I wouldn't say a leap of faith, it was more so a leap I took knowing that it would work. I just didn't know when it would work. And so I had to really buckle down for the first, I would say, three years of the business and just focus on every single dollar goes back into the business. And that wasn't tough for me, so to speak. That's probably the toughest thing I had to do because I didn't have to change my mindset of it's cool to take the bus. It's cool to take a train. It's actually cool not to have a car for a year or so. So I didn't have a car for a while. And I used like zip car, I used to rent cars from like Avis, whatever, and that would get me around town. But I lived live in DC, so it's easy to walk around. I can walk to the grocery store. It's not like I'm in rural America where not having a car, like your life is destroyed. You know, my life still went on like normal. I just caught the train, the bus here and there, and a little bit of Ubering. But the that was the toughest thing for me is being able to take the money and put it back into the business, and then that money then capitalized itself, and that that allowed me to be able to hire personnel which built a team. And one mistake I did make early in my career as a CEO is having the wrong people on the ship. There's a thing of saying, you want to hire slow and fire fast, like you should be fast to fire. And I wasn't, I've never, even to this day, I'm not really fast to fire. I'm quicker to fire nowadays, but I wouldn't say I'm fast to fire like most organizations probably run or actually do run. I do like to give a little bit of grace until, okay, now it's it's hurting the team, so now you must go. But I think for me, that was one of the one of the mistakes I made early on is not having the right people on the team and not having good team structure, not only contractually, but also butts and seats of who's actually serving our veterans and really just focusing on giving a really good high QA product. We want folks when they come to our organization. I understand they're getting quality, and that's always been the position since day one. And I think just keeping true to that and making sure we have people around us that believed in that and actually executed it is what's helped the business growth to now 11 years. But that would probably have been my struggles with the very early foundational days of taking a lot of financial risk. And I'm we're talking quite a bit of capital here that I could have just otherwise kept in retirement and worked in the feds and had a have an amazing life still, making great money and still serving Americans. But I ended up going this route and I I couldn't say no to it because there were so many folks asking for my help and I couldn't tell veterans no. And so I figured I'm gonna figure this out for them and I'm gonna take a hit on the chin. And if it doesn't work for me the first two years, I'll just go back to the federal government. And I actually did apply, thinking about it, I did apply for a couple of jobs in the feds when I was uh when I was like like a year and a half, two years. It's like, ooh, man, this is brutal financially. So I actually did apply and I got interviews, and I ended up turning on the interviews because I was like, No, I'm gonna go in and get the jobs, I'm just gonna turn on an interview and just keep sticking to it. But yeah, that it was just those little moments, which I'm glad we brought it up because I haven't thought about that in actually almost 11, 12 years. But it was those little moments that were like, ah man, I really love running this business. I like helping people and I'm solving a big issue. And I worked the first year for free, by the way. Just FY, that's why I was so financially tough. I didn't charge a dime. I wanted to see if it if the market would want what I had to offer, and I wanted to also see if there was actually that much of a need. And sure enough, it was.

SPEAKER_02: 17:07

You know what I really like about what you're talking about. I love lots of stuff, what you just said there, Chaz, but the idea of the resilience on that gut check moment when you know you're having to make these decisions. I didn't and I'm smiling and I'm chuckling along with you because I have those same days, you know, with the men's work that that we that I do here. It's just maybe I should just get a different job and do something else. And then I just get sucked back in because I'll get the email or I'll get the call. And it's and you just know there's something that's just driving you forward that this is what you were meant to do. If you have enough faith and just keep plugging away, things ultimately work out. And you know, I really appreciated you telling that story because I think sometimes we forget all the work that has taken you to get to taken any of us to get to where we are today, and there's still so much more to do. And if you don't have strong purpose behind it, for sure, it's gonna suffer and it's gonna fail. And so kudos to you, brother, for hanging in there and really driving through.

SPEAKER_01: 18:05

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, tell more about your business. You say you you're helping men when men call. I'm not 100% aware, but I'd like to know some more context around that.

SPEAKER_02: 18:13

Yeah, for sure. So we run men's group up here. Our group is called Band of Brothers. We're we're a men's group. I focus specifically on entrepreneur men who are having challenges or disconnected with their families and their children. Those are some of the things that I live through. Hopefully, we get to a point where they're not on at divorce court or at the lawyers. Sometimes that happens. More so than outside of their career. And as we're so driven to provide for our families that we forget that we take that one of the most important things in our life for granted, and that is taking care of our family and being there when our parents want us to be there. When we've had we've had a couple of juggling incidents here, I know you had a personal thing to take care of, and I it it warmed my heart to hear that hey, we got to reschedule because you need to take care of something at home. That just really resonates with me that there's a man with perp with actual purpose and has direction and knows what's more important in life.

SPEAKER_01: 19:09

And yeah, yeah, you're right about that.

SPEAKER_02: 19:12

A lot of guys don't have that.

SPEAKER_01: 19:13

You're right, unfortunately. Yeah, I was actually talking, I was on a podcast, I think yesterday, before yesterday, and they asked about one of my favorite books. And I said the psychology of money. Like I've come very tuned with myself and what I feel is best for me and my family in regards to like how much I put out what I do. And that book just really resonated with me. And I think it should resonate with a lot of men or just me, people in period, not just men, but people in period. But it should resonate that as men, since we're talking about men, we do carry a big burden in regards to making sure things run smoothly and they with whether people see it or not, and being able to understand like how much is enough, and it's when it comes to money, because obviously the more work you do, you can make more money unless you're running it really smart, and then you don't have to do a lot of work, but you still are occupied somewhere else. And so when it's enough's enough. I mean, I really I like the work that you're doing. I've actually considered doing something like that myself down here in Houston. Houston, but I know I can't commit to it. I want I know it's gonna be great if I do it because I I do have a lot to offer and God has just blessed me tremendously. But I know if I do it, I can't commit to it consistently. If I can't do it consistently, I'm not gonna do it. But I think men are a demographic, or we are demographic, where we've been forgotten in a lot of ways. And to have someone in your corner is definitely much needed. So kudos what you're doing. Cheers to that.

SPEAKER_02: 20:23

Yeah, thank you so much, my friend. Yeah, I mentioned in the intro you wrote a book, an ebook here. And in this book, you lay out a bunch of the biggest pitfalls that you know veterans face trying to just trying to get their disability claims. So when you think about that, what are the most devastating things for men when they're doing when they're in their transition and and trying to get back on their feet?

SPEAKER_01: 20:44

Having pride. Yeah, pride's gonna kill you. Yeah, I meet so many men, particularly men, women don't do this. Women will tell you straight up what's going on. I've had women tell me a little too much about what's going on with themselves from a medical standpoint. But men will have pride, man. I will literally have I will literally look at a guy's file, and I'm only saying guy because it's 99% men that do this. I will look at a man's file, look at all the evidence, see clearly what's going on, tell him what's going on and how to articulate it. He'd get in front of a doctor and go south. He won't even say much. Especially if it's a if it's a woman doctor, which unfortunately that's just the nature of it. Sometimes women veterans get male doctors, and male veterans get women doctors. This is what the nature of the spin in the mill, if you will. But yeah, man, pride. Not being able, not either a wanting to talk about it or not being in a position mentally to talk about it, which to me says we probably need to have some type of other help because it costs them money. It cost the it hits their pockets directly. Well, actually indirectly, it's just a loss of future, future possible uh compensation, but it's an indirect hit. They don't, I guess if you don't never have it, you never miss it. That's some of their philosophies. But my point is that if it was mine, I missed it, then I left something on the table that would have changed my situation.

unknown: 21:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 21:57

And pride hits us everywhere. Just going back to some of the work that we're doing, pride is one of those things, right? I I don't know what I don't know how to talk to my wife, so I won't because I have too much pride to go and learn how to do that. So I won't do, I won't lean into learning a new skill. And because I'm afraid because we could go out and handle stuff elsewhere in the business world, and you deal with NFL players, and I'm they're dealing with some guy across the line that wants to take his head off and yet can't come home and talk to his wife. Yeah, and and that's so reality. And that's reality, and that's because we don't know how to do that, and so we have all this pride and we just choose to shrink. And so we need people such as yourself and your organization, seven principles, to help men get outside of this box that we put ourselves into so that we can become much better. And so when I think about all these people that that you've sat across and you've heard you've seen and heard countless stories, but can you share out a story where the system really failed of that and how that shaped your fight for how you built your organization?

SPEAKER_01: 22:59

Yeah, that's a great question. I had my first case I ever touched in my federal career when I was at the VA, it was 2012, I think that was the year, or maybe 2013, one of them years. But it was my first case, it was an appeal matter. And back in those days, we were just getting into having everything digital digitized. It still was, it was still it was in the middle of a transition, and I had a paper file, and I'm six foot four and some change, so let's call it six four. That dock came up to my waistline. That's how tall the foul was, and it's all paper. So I had to go through all it with a thumber. I spent, I think I spent like two weeks on that case, maybe almost a month. Yeah, I probably spent like a month on that matter. But uh my first case, and the veteran that I was working on was a Vietnam veteran, he had passed away. It was his matter, and the continuation of the case was then the wife's matter. Then the wife passed away. Next to Ken picked it up, and we could have we had no way to contact next to Ken. They would just did a few things and then disappeared off the face of the earth. It's like they never was seen again. And so you get in touch with them, sent them a number of letters and correspondence from their last own address, all kinds of stuff. But that veteran had been denied for a number of times, and I wouldn't phrase it as the system screwed them over, and I'm probably paraphrasing what you said. I'm sorry if I am, I'm not trying to miskew your words, but I would say that a person in the system made the wrong decision and they made their wrong decision because of a number of factors, but they didn't if the process was if the veterans if it's my belief that if the veteran was able to communicate over the phone and have a teleconference and communicate what he was trying to say, I think he would won this case. The way he articulated things in the document and the way the CFR is written caused to where the adjudicator could make the proper decision at that time, and this is going back decades, right? And then laws changed, things got better, the communication with veterans got digital and a much more cohesive versus snail mail. I think it was a mishap of miscommunication and misunderstanding of how the CFR really works, and the fact that the VA rules or makes decisions on claims based on the rule of law. And if you can't tee that, then you don't meet the preponders of evidence. That's the burden proof for the VA. So I think it's a if we were able to read between the lines, yeah, I think a lot of veterans feel as if, hey, I have served, I did these things, I jumped out of airplanes, I was SF, I was Ranger, I deployed four or five times, or whatever it may have been. Now you should understand that. But to the everyday civilian, they may not understand none of that or may have an understanding, but not understand it in the tense that you want them to understand of how this caused your disability to be prolonged. So it's a way of communicating. That's where it matches what that raider is thinking, or at least trying to execute. So once it's denied the first time and then other things happen where it's denied again, then it just becomes an ongoing matter that sits around for years. And back in those days, things at the VA really went slow, just even for regular cases, which now to regular cases, you can get something back in sometimes a week or a couple days sometimes. I think that's I think that was a problem. But it was a death case, and I felt bad about it because I had made a final decision on the case and it awarded the veteran back. Oh man, it was up there. It was a big one. I think it was like a meal. It was up there, like 800,000 back pay. It was up there. I was like, whoo, this is a lot of money. I had to actually do the math because on my side as a raider, you don't get you don't do promulgation. That's the that goes to another department. So for me, I can look at how much I've awarded, I'm ordered 100% permanent total, and I'm dating it back for a long time because this dude's been appealing forever. And so I dated it back, and just over time, the cost of living allowance and how much things went up as far as from where he was at, which I think was like 10% to 100% over years, decades. It was, yeah, it was a massive claim. But I don't never know what happened with the money after that. After I made my decision, I don't really see the money side of it. So at that time, in defense.

SPEAKER_02: 27:04

And even though it sounds like a big number, like you're saying, this was over decades. And in the end, the position that they're the financial position they're in maybe gets them a little bit better than above float. And so the work, this is really important work, and what a great distinction in helping us understand that while we may excel in a certain aspect of our life, whether when we're talking about military and veterans here, as a civilian who's never been who has probably never been in combat, I would suggest, doesn't have to really understand the skill set of what the veterans bringing forward. And then we give them this document to fill out, and they need to somehow explain on this document that's probably not great and not written well, on why they need the service. And so that's why I think you finding this niche then to be this advocacy work is so important. And because there is there's so many, so many veterans that are in caught in that place. And so I like that that you found this piece. And I talked in the intro as well about a lot of your work is around helping them find dignity and confidence and purpose as part of their healing journey. So it's a big, it's a big task. So why do you think that is so critical for veterans beyond just getting their benefits to be able to reclaim that part of their life as well?

SPEAKER_01: 28:22

Yeah, I think honestly, it's more so because they've earned the money and they also have put up the risk to get their reward in a sense. I think that's one part of it. I guess if you can rephrase the question just a little bit so I can give you a little bit more context.

SPEAKER_02: 28:37

Sure. Yeah, so I was thinking about how more than just the benefits, the money is great and they need to get to take care of them financially. But on top of that as well, just being able to reclaim their dignity and confidence and maybe even give them a new sense of purpose. Why is that also so important with this work that you're doing?

SPEAKER_01: 28:58

I don't know if I can speak directly to if it gives them more purpose or stuff like that. One thing I can say is that a lot of our clients feel as if they've been treated justly. And they unfortunately we don't win every, we don't win 100% of cases, so we do have a few losses here and there. And so we do get clients who are like, Man, the VA don't give a damn about me. I'm just excuse my French, it's kind of what they say. They say even more verbal things than that, but you kind of get it just where that's going. We do get some guys that and gals that are like, hey, they feel like they've been served fairly, they feel like they've been finally justified and vindicated in some sense. And then you get some guys that are like, man, I knew it wasn't gonna work for me. And but we at least tell them the truth. So I don't know if I can really speak to a newfound purpose because we're really focused on proving their case and taking care of them from a financial standpoint, making sure they get paid what they're supposed to get paid. So it's we don't really get too deep into the purpose side, but we do fulfill a huge need for sure. Because now that they are, I can't, yeah, I can't speak to the purpose, but what I can speak to is that a lot of guys are pretty happy, and gals, of course. I'm saying guys in general, but a lot of people that a lot of our clients are very happy about what they have been able to do with the money they have now that they've been fighting for sometimes decades. And they also you can see a you can see a general boost in their, I guess, in their behavior in regards to like how they communicate with us, because we don't really track our clients outside of just what they need from us and us fulfilling their need. So, like how they communicate with us and how they email us and sometimes how they review us as well, like on Google. That's the only way we really see okay, this could allude to like them have more perfect purpose. But quite frankly, typically the generalization is that they've been treated treated a better or fair hand, and then some of those that get denied, they also feel that way too. But we do have a court that are like, nah, the VA is screwing me over, and you guys are no help. Screw the whole process.

SPEAKER_02: 30:37

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I can totally see that just being able to see that that somebody's actually listened to them, regardless of the outcome of the case, helps do bring, I would suggest, bring some confidence and some dignity for them because they may have felt that the VA's just ignored them and they've done all they've served the country and nothing has happened, so it's oh yeah, for sure. That's pretty important, right?

SPEAKER_01: 30:59

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02: 31:00

I'm sure throughout your journey, you mentioned uh psychology of money is a really impactful book for you. So I'm not gonna ask you about books, but I'm gonna ask you about maybe there was a mentor or there was something, maybe there was maybe even a passage in the book, but something that has somebody has said or you've heard that has been you would say I would ask is maybe the best piece of advice or a really profound piece of advice that's still serving you today. And what would that be?

SPEAKER_01: 31:25

Yeah, I wouldn't say advice. I I think for me, I read a lot and I look at a lot of stuff and I take a lot of information. I speak a lot too. So it's never really advice, but it's more so experiences I've had. And those experiences sometimes are like something as as unique as a porta potty visit affair in random city and state that I don't never been to before that I've never been before, I never frequent to like normal everyday folks I deal with on a day-to-day basis. For me, it was really a lot of key element moments when I was growing up as a little boy, growing up in church. I grew up in a pretty strict home, very Christian, conservative, strict home. My parents really focused on me, maybe focus on God, sports, and just being a really good neighbor, being a good person. Around that, I was around a lot of good men and women growing up, especially at our church. And so I had a chance to really learn a lot of great experiences, like from like attention detail to how to actually address other men, how to shake, shake someone's hand. I don't know, four, five. I'm teaching that I'm teaching kids that now are 14, 15. So you just think about the difference. But I think for me, it was just a lot of experiences I've had over the years that really it was never any real one particular piece of advice, but it was more so like the culmination of all these experiences that really made me move the way I move, if you will.

SPEAKER_02: 32:32

Yeah, absolutely. That's great that that you've been able to put all those together and really does end up by shaping who we are. Man, I just I've really enjoyed our conversation here today. Yeah, likewise, yeah. But I'm just wondering if there was something that we haven't had an opportunity to touch on, what would be a piece? What would be a lasting thing we want to give our listeners for today?

SPEAKER_01: 32:52

Um, I would say live every day with purpose. That's my thing. I every day I wake up, the first thing I want to do is win. And I think when people wake up like that and they have a purpose in their life, like you, you you just end up fearing better. I that's my belief. And that's off the top of my head. Something I want to give. That's what's going through my mind right now of just like living a life with purpose. That's how I am. And I think if I can offer any little bit of advice, I think it'd work for others.

SPEAKER_02: 33:12

Right on. Love that. I just want to say thank you once again. Thank you so much for for your service, for this tireless work that you're doing on behalf of all veterans. And you've really had an opportunity to show us today that while there may be the system may feel or seem broken, but it's the spirit of those like you who fight for what's right is what truly becomes unbreakable. So if there are men out there who may have not have heard about your service, what would be the best way for them to reach you?

SPEAKER_01: 33:37

Yeah, seven principles.com. Yeah, www.sevenprinciples.com. That's S-E-V-E-N-P-R-I-N-C-I-P-E s dot com. But if they want to follow me on Instagram, they sure can. Or you can just or any platform actually. I just say Instagram because that's like a favorite of mine. But you can go on Google and Google my name, Chas, Samson, C H S, S A M, P S O N. All my platforms are there. I interact on all platforms. So that's LinkedIn, Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok. So yeah, however I can be of a resource and offer value, I'm more than happy to do so.

SPEAKER_02: 34:08

Absolutely. I'm going to make sure all that information is in today's show notes so folks can have an opportunity to get a hold of you. And so if you ever want to connect with Chaz and learn more about his work, you can even grab a copy of his ebook. Thank you for your service. And just go to visit sevenprinciples.com. That's where he's got the ebook. It's a powerful resource for any veteran who's trying to navigate the claims process and searching for hope in the midst of his struggle. And as we close today's episode, I just want to challenge you with this one thing. Are you living your life as though you're in your best days of that or today? Or are they actually behind you? And if you're willing to believe that your story still has something to be written, then I'm willing to challenge you to step into your purpose and take our integrity challenge. It's a free gift for us to you. It's an opportunity for you to get started, to live with intention, to live with integrity. So let's get started now. And so thank you so much, Chaz, for being on the show. We really enjoyed today's conversation.

SPEAKER_01: 35:02

Thank you. My pleasure.

SPEAKER_00: 35:14

Thank you for listening to the Revolutionary Man Podcast. Are you ready to own your destiny to become more the man you're destined to be? Join the Brotherhood that is the Awakened of Man at theawakendman.net and start forging a new destiny today.