Hello world, this is Just Being Intentional.
I am Thomas Harris, the host.
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Give me, introduce my guest for today's show.
He is a former Green Beret in the US Army.
He is also a former football player.
He is the co-founder of Merging Vets and Players, and he's also an actor and a filmmaker.
Nate Boyer.
Welcome to the show.
Thanks for being here sir.
Appreciate you.
Yes.
You have quite a resume there.
It's still growing, I'm sure, because you're always wearing all these different hats.
So you got a lot of things going on in your life.
Let's start with the past.
Let's get a little bit of backstory on Nate Boyer, who is Nate Boyer.
Where are you from?
Where did you grow up and tell us a little bit about what that was like growing up?
Yeah, I was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which is right near Knoxville.
I was going to veterinary school at the University of Tennessee and my mom was an
environmental engineer at Oak Ridge National Lab out there.
So I'm born there, but when I was maybe two years old, they moved to the San Francisco Bay.
My mom got into this doctorate program at UC Berkeley and my dad got a job at Golden Gate
Fields, a horse racing track out there year round out on the west coast.
He's from Oregon.
My mom is from Colorado, so being back out west made a lot more sense for them.
So growing up there, grew up in the east bay, town called El Serrito, sports fan since
I was a little kid.
Huge sports fans.
Niners, right?
Niners, San Francisco Giants, Golden State Warriors, those were my teams and they still are.
Very lucky as a young person to have our football team be such a dynasty because they won five
Super Bowl starting with the year I was born.
Obviously, I don't remember that one.
But I vaguely remember the second one and I definitely remember the last three up until
the early 90s.
So that was cool.
From being a little guy until I was 13, they were great.
It was Joe Montana and Steve Young and then of course Jerry Rice and Roger Craig and I
mean eventually down the road it was Deon Sanders and Terrell Loans.
I mean, just so many legends and we were always really good.
So I loved football but didn't play it growing up.
I played baseball, I played basketball, I played soccer, I played everything else and kind
of regretted that and I know we'll get to that later but it was something that sort of stuck
with me for a long time.
So I finished high school up there.
I didn't really want to go to college or wasn't sure what I would do in college or where
I would go.
I didn't really perform particularly well in high school.
So I moved down to San Diego after high school and started working on a fishing boat and
taking some firefighting classics that thought that's what I was going to do.
Wasn't quite ready to grow up.
So I took some things to happen in life before I took the next big step.
Yeah, that's some of those details that I wasn't familiar with.
I guess we never went back that far about what it was like the young Nate Boyer growing
up.
So obviously you were a green braid in the army.
What was their motivation one for joining the military and then more specifically why
green braid?
You know, I had a recruiter over to the house when I was a senior in high school but I don't
think I was very serious about it.
It was maybe a tactic to scare my parents a little bit or something.
I don't know.
I thought about it because I knew that or at least thought that college maybe wasn't going
to be the next step for me.
You know, a couple years after high school graduation is when 9/11 happened and that of course
got a lot of people thinking, not just me, and a lot of people joined the military at that
time.
I was 20 years old and I was living in Southern California and moved up to LA by that time.
And I just didn't think I could handle that kind of responsibility.
I just wasn't really sure of myself in that way.
I lacked that confidence and initiative and I didn't know how to work and I didn't have
ton of structure in my life.
I was just kind of flying by the seat of my pants which there's some value in that, not
being too rigid but I also just like, yeah, I was just kind of floundering.
And then a couple years later I ended up doing some relief work in the Darfur.
It's a region in Western Sudan that is still war torn and there's been a long ongoing
genocide in that area.
And when I went out there in 2004, in a short period of time, you know, 300,000 people had
been killed and there was, you know, I mean mostly women and children sort of flooding these
refugee camps across the border into Chad.
And they were under staffed and I had read this magazine article about what was going on.
And I just was not in a great place in my life.
I was 23 and felt like all my friends were graduating college and starting their lives and you
know, had careers and opportunities and I was like, just doing odd jobs and not really
sure, you know, who I was.
So I ended up going over there and doing some of that, doing some relief work for about
60 days and completely changed my life and perspective on things and also an appreciation
for how lucky I was to be in the position I was, you know, in America, honestly.
And say, would you say that there was a lack of purpose that was there for you?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, we share the same sentiment in that.
You know, when I joined the military, I didn't feel like I had any purpose.
So one thing that was great about the military is that it provides an opportunity for those
who don't, who kind of brotherless, you know, we're just trying to figure things out and
we don't really have any direction and kind of gives us that platform to try to do something
different.
Right.
And see what happens.
Yeah.
Now, you hit it on the head.
I mean, that's, that was exactly how I felt.
I just felt like, you know, if I wasn't around, everything would be just fine.
And that's not a great feeling, you know, like, not that I want everything to fall apart
if I'm not around.
But you want to, everybody wants to feel like they belong and that they make a difference
in their life matters, you know, in some way.
Yeah.
And there's a reason to get up in the morning and people rely on you.
Like we need that.
And so I didn't feel that way.
And after you just spent in those two months over there, I felt that at least a little bit.
And I wasn't a doctor or doing anything spectacular.
Right.
I was just helping, you know, but it was people that needed help and they needed people
doing the little things too.
Certainly.
Yeah, serving, exactly.
Hanging out with some of the elders there and helping pass out food rations and playing
soccer with kids, like super simple stuff, you know, anybody could have done what I was
doing.
I wasn't, you know, I wasn't an engineer or a medical professional in any way.
But I was just, you know, doing the dirty work as well and just the little things.
So like that was super important for me and like sort of my development and growth into
feeling that way, feeling and building a little bit of confidence and feeling like, okay,
like people, people like me can find a place, you know, I mean, anybody can find a place.
Or people like me can find a sense of purpose.
You just got to kind of look for it and you got to, you know, get in with your fit in and
all those things and you're fitting in was in the middle of a continent I've never been
to and around people that, you know, I didn't necessarily have a ton of common with or even
I had big language barriers.
It was towards the end of that trip.
I started thinking about what was next and like wondering like, so now what, you know,
I don't, I don't, I'm not going to go work for the Peace Corps.
Nothing wrong with that.
I just didn't seem like a good fit for me and I ended up getting malaria and this family
took care of me over there.
They had a mud hut with like an extra room, a little cot for me to recover on and they
put this radio next to my bed and the only channel that came through was the BBC News and
I was listening to the second battle of Fallujah, like the play by play essentially and this
is in the fall of 2004.
And so I was just sort of felt like it was a message, you know, from the cosmos that I'm,
this is what I'm supposed to do next, you know, join the military and go fight for those
who can't fight for themselves.
And so I came back to the States, found out about the 18-experry program, which is the
Army's fast track into being a Green Beret.
There was no guarantee you're going to make it, you know, I think only about 20% of the
people that went to selection ended up finishing and earning that Green Beret, but you at least
had a shot at it if you scored high enough on the tests.
And so I was able to get into that program and eventually earn my Green Beret.
And why that program?
Just because the special forces, like their mission, this unconventional warfare, everything
you're doing is foreign internal defense, which means, you know, you're fighting alongside
living with training indigenous forces.
So these people, you know, Iraqis or Afghans for the most part at that time anyway, like
you are working hand in hand with them.
And that was important to me after spending some of that time in the Darfur.
Like I wanted to be around people we were intending to serve.
So that was a big part of your motivation, right?
Totally.
And eventually a lot of the military adopted that anyway.
Like most of the time things shifted several years later as the war continued to grind
on.
And so a lot more of partnered work being done, you know, partnered missions, not just
with special forces, but the special forces led the way on that.
Their motto is "Dea Presse O'Lebar," which means to free the oppressed.
And that really spoke to me as well.
I just raptured by that motto.
I just sounded like, that's who I want to be.
That's what I want to be a part of.
Freeing those or being a part of the mission to free those that are sort of experiencing
this ultimate impression.
So you've been to war obviously.
I'm inviting other vets to be on the show.
I'm obviously on my veteran myself.
You are.
Also part of a elite group, the submarine force.
But one of the tallest ones that ever, yeah, you're a lot taller.
You're doing all right, didn't you?
Did you shave the ass?
I'm usually taller than most people I'm standing next to, but I still don't consider myself
very tall.
We had a guy, two guys on the ship that were 65 and 66.
I'm sure they got some horrible neck issues right now.
Big time.
Exactly.
Going to war, just like a lot of that, that you and I know being a part of MVP, we meet
so many of our peers that are veterans who've been to war.
They've experienced great traumas from war, you know, PTSD.
The things that you've seen that you can't unsee, even when the lights are off and your
eyes are closed, those images are still heavily ingrained in your brain.
Share some insights on some of those challenges with the traumas that you face firsthand being
at war.
There's a lot.
There's a lot of different things that people experience and everybody's experience
at war is very nuanced.
That's one thing.
People like to put a blanket statement on post-traumatic stress and they also generally, and it's
not their fault, it's the way the media sort of spun this, but it's like, this is a veteran
issue.
People that have PTSD are veterans and it's like, well, some of them are, but there's plenty
of people that never joined the military or went to war or were any kind of combative
situation that have post-traumatic stress.
It could be from childhood, it could be from our car accident, it could be from a million
things, right?
That's one distinction to make sure and remember because everybody's experience, even those
who did go to war, are very different.
We don't all have our best friend dying in our arms.
Even if we did, people would react to that differently.
People would have a different response to that.
It was early on in my very first appointment, we were on a convoy and one of the vehicles
on our convoy was hit a roadside bomb and the driver was killed instantly and the gunner
was ejected and people could caught on fire and somehow only one of those people passed.
Our medic actually ended up saving a couple of those guys' lives.
It wasn't even a big fire fight at that moment or anything like that, but it was just this
huge shock to the system, no matter how much of the two years of training and the infantry
and the special forces that had gone through, it was still just like, when it's real, it's
different.
I just remember the smells and I guess they would call it the fog of war or something, I don't
know, maybe they wouldn't call it that, but that's what it sort of felt like.
I was trying to get my bearings and figure out what's the best way to protect the guys
around me.
What am I supposed to be doing right now, beyond just making sure I'm pulling security
somewhere and gathering intel and making sure the situation is under control and all
of those things, taking orders.
I just remember smelling barbecue chicken.
I was like, at least barbecue me chicken right now and then realizing that's the smell of
burning flesh.
Things like that that you just don't think about in the show now and probably forever, there's
certain, when a car door slams or somebody drops something in the kitchen at a restaurant
that shatters or they shoot the cannon off at the Texas football games when we score a
touchdown.
I jump and it's quick.
It's not like it sends me into this spiral, but I feel that.
If I'm at a barbecue and I smell that familiar smell, my mind does go there for a heartbeat.
Just things like, it's just one example, but just things like that, you'll never forget.
That was just, I mean, I was in confights down the road and experienced a lot of different
things in my time.
I experienced a lot of long periods of time where nothing happened.
It was the most boring time of my life for months between the three combat deployments and
even some of the other rotations where it's like a whole hell of a lot of nothing is going
down.
You got to stay switched on.
You can't get complacent.
You always got to be ready because before you know it, you're going 100 miles an hour
every day for weeks on end and you're kind of grateful for the downtime you had and you
can't wait for the next one.
So it's just a very, it's hard to really put those things into words.
I try to do the best I can through senses that maybe people can relate to a little bit
because until you, unless you're there, it's just like anything.
If you don't experience it for yourself, it's really hard to relate to.
Yeah, there's a stigma that PTSD only associates with those that have been the war.
Reality is that trauma is for anybody.
Everyone has experienced some form of trauma, whether it's verbal, physical abuse as a child
from someone close to you.
People that I deal with who experience homelessness, there's traumas there, but it's more of a human
issue.
We have to kind of separate that from just being a veteran or someone that's been the war.
Trauma is a human thing.
We're just trying to educate people on that to just teach people that it's not just somebody
that's been the word that's going to be shell shocked or suffering from PTSD.
It's trauma is trauma and it doesn't really have a specific identity.
So let's transition from going from time and service to walking on at the University of
Texas, Long Horns.
How did that come about?
Yeah, so as I mentioned before, I had those regrets of not playing as a kid and it just
stuck with me through my teens, into my 20s.
I was in Iraq actually when I had the opportunity to reenlist.
That was a year out of my contract and I was 28 at the time and I was like, man, I don't
go to college now, I'll probably never go.
Maybe I should do that.
So I decided to go to school instead and go to, I eventually reenlisted into the Texas
National Guard so I still was in the military.
You know, I told myself, too, wherever I go to school, I'm going to try out for the football
team.
I went to the University of Texas.
It was, you know, I loved Austin.
I'd been there once and had a great time and went back and visited once I came home for the
deployment just to make sure I went to campus.
I mean, it's a great university.
It's one of the best publics in the country and they have a legendary football program and
I just love the city of Austin and everything just kind of made sense.
And so that's the only place I applied and I started doing some online courses to get
my grades up through Central Texas College and transferred in as a sophomore and got accepted
and left the military in January, left the activity anyway.
In January of 2010, went to UT.
Went to Austin and walked on, you know, went just went to tryouts and even though I hadn't
played before, I was a decent athlete and I prepared for it.
You know, I've been working out for good nine months since returning home from the deployment,
doing football-specific drills and workouts.
You know, so I made the team as a walk on safety.
Just on the scout team really, so getting the team ready for the games on Saturday and I
got to dress out for the home games, but I wasn't on the travel squad or anything that
first year.
My sophomore year, I relisted into the Texas card and in the Special Forces is still, which
was cool.
And I ended up doing a couple more deployments throughout my time in college, but I also
started long snapping, which is a very thankless job and, you know, we're very used to doing
the thankless jobs in the military.
So I had no problem with that.
So long snapping, you know, it's certainly not, you're not the star.
Nobody really knows who you are unless you screw up, but you got to be precise and you got
to be accurate and you got to be consistent and you got to set up the punter and the kicker
to do their jobs, you know.
So I took a lot of pride in that and ended up winning the job my sophomore year and started
for three years as the longhorn's long snapper, which was cool.
The American snapper is, I like to call it.
All right.
You are the co-founder of merging Vets and Players organization.
I've probably been a part of since 2016.
Before we talk a little bit more about that, can you just explain to the listeners what MVP
stands for?
Yeah.
So, you know, real quick, I'll say that when Texas, when football ended at Texas, I thought
football was over for me, right?
I'd gotten out of the military, I was getting out of the military in February 2015, out of
the guard, so I was going to be completely done.
I finished, I played my last year at Texas in 2014 and I was pretty sure that was it, you
know, and that football was done.
The military was done and I was like starting to think about what was next and then all of a sudden
I get this opportunity to play for the Seahawks for a very brief time.
I was in training camp, played in the preseason before getting cut.
And so then I get cut in September of 2015 and I had met Jake Laser at Unbreakable Performance
Center just a few months prior to that and he'd helped train me some and he helped me get
my agent, you know, and he really wanted to see me succeed on the football field and, you
know, it was enough to just get into camp and kind of get that opportunity.
And then I got cut and I had, you know, no, no, no more camouflage, no more jersey.
Not about going back in the military, wasn't quite sure what was next and Jay was like, hey,
there's a lot of people in your shoes and I've been thinking about a way for us to work together
and build something 'cause I want to bring together, you know, vets and athletes and I want
to call it MVP, which would stand for merging vets and players.
And so we co-founded MVP at the end of 2015 and started really operating in about April
of 2016.
Simply by bringing vets and athletes up to the gym to train together and then to huddle
up afterwards and just talk through our stuff, you know.
Peer to peer, open forum, not a lot of rules and regulations to it, just speak from the
heart and everybody's supporting one another and we've got each other's back and we're all
going through this very similar things.
Of course, war and playing sports are different, but that structure and camaraderie and identity
with the uniform and team and locker room and all those things are very similar and losing
that is a struggle for both vets and players.
And so that's how it came about.
And yeah, you've been with us really since the beginning, which is.
Yeah.
I was going through my own transition for a very long time, just trying to figure out what
I was supposed to do next and I remember getting that invitation from you and Jay and it
was a small group of Ragtag individuals that came into unbreakable and we've been calling
ever since and it's been quite a ride.
You know, I've had other opportunities that came through just being a member and that's
why I've been so passionate about the program.
I believe in the message of it and we're going to continue to grow, just keep growing and
individually and corporately to just keep reaching those folks that could use this program.
Absolutely.
Yeah, and I'm excited about getting things rolling in Nashville and I just want to say thank
you for taking the lead on that, brother.
It really does mean a lot.
We've already done a couple of engagements out there and actually three of them and we're
just going to continue to push for that.
It's a great place for it.
There's obviously a lot of veterans in the area, the Big Sports Town, you and I were just
out at Fort Campbell recently with the 101st Airborne and the Special Forces Group and that
was really cool.
That was awesome.
Yeah, it's good stuff, man.
Thank you to the Titans too.
I'm getting on board and I know that you've done some stuff with the Nashville Predators
as well.
We're just building it, man.
Brick by Brick.
Absolutely.
You know, more people will start learning more about MVP as we continue to put it out there
and raise awareness.
I'm going to use that a lot in my show, bringing on vets and people that are members of the
organization.
I just believe it's the right thing to do to provide an outlet for those that are trying
to figure out what the next steps are and they just fall enough and they need community
like they used to have.
So we're going to keep doing that.
Another big part of MVP is that you actually made a film about this program.
You started getting into acting, you know, Hollywood and Nate Boyer.
So it's been a pleasure to see you growing in that area, learning the acting side and then
MVP.
You wrote it.
You produced it.
You directed it.
You started in it.
What?
Was that experience like just doing this film?
MVP was the first.
Yeah.
First of all, it was a hell of a lot cheaper to make the movie if I didn't have to pay any
of those people.
So if I wore all those hats, then I don't have to pay those hats.
And so that helped us get it done because we did it on a shoe string.
But yeah, it was during the fall of 2020, you know, and so the pandemic just kind of rolled
on and didn't know when the end was coming.
There was a lot of people that were just wanting to get back to work and figure out something,
work on, especially creative folks and a lot of them in Los Angeles that found themselves
out there because they were interested in, you know, in film and television at some level.
And I was one of those people, you know, I took some acting classes when I first got out
there after, you know, football was over.
And then I did an internship with Peter Berg at Film 44 and Pete had done, you know,
Lone Survivor and Friday Night Lides and a lot of football.
Love his work.
Yeah.
And I just learned a good amount from doing that internship and enough to kind of get me
started, you know, and I developed this relationship, friendship with Braden after good, who was Pete's
head of features.
Braden eventually became and is a Sylvester Stallone's producing partner at Balboa production.
So Braden heard I was working on a script about MVP and Stallone had been to a couple of
our huddles and, you know, was supportive of what we were doing and what Jay had started.
And he was a member of the gym out there for I think six months or so.
You know, from there it was like, I got notes from Braden and then I started sharing it
with other people and started getting this script crafted down.
And, you know, when the pandemic was going on, it was like, this thing's just got to happen
now. I found out about the Hollywood Veteran Center being closed down.
They lost funding.
It was funded by the V.O.A. and the V.A. I believe.
But, you know, during COVID, there was a lot of casualties out there as far as businesses
and nonprofits and all that.
Right.
Grateful to have MVP as a charity survive that.
As sad as it all was, it was kind of an opportunity for us to make our movie because we
got a lot of talent in front of them behind the camera for next to nothing.
And we had a ton of veterans who just wanted to help, you know, and be a part of it.
And so we made the movie and it turned out pretty good.
Like I said, it was such a team thing.
And, you know, I know I have a lot of those titles in it, but like what people don't understand
is there was other producers alongside me and I had a co-writer and, you know, my cinematographer
is an Emmy award-winning cat that I'd met through some work at the NFL that I was doing.
And everybody was just doing it at a cut rate.
You know, then you get people like Jay and Tony Gonzalez and Randy Couture and Michael
Strahan and Howie Long, you know, have a cameo and their Wiz Khalifa gave us an original
song.
Like that's crazy, you know, you didn't ask for nothing.
And Salon puts his name on it as an executive producer and Tom Arnold's in it and you know,
it's just like, goes on and on.
Dan Loria and our good friend Jared Bunch, he's a member and former NFL player.
Crazy.
people just sort of gave and gave and gave and then we got it done. Now it's out. You know
what Paramount Plus is going to do an additional promotion for it coming up here soon, which
is great but it's on Paramount Plus if you have that. If you don't you can rent it for four
bucks on Prime and Apple TV and all these other places. So it's definitely out there.
You can buy the DVD if you want. It's not hard to find. It's not hard to find and I just
really encourage people to watch that because it's a good way to learn about really
how we started. Of course it's a movie so it's like there are some creative liberties
but it's all based on real people and real stories. Most of that script was written just
from listening to people talking at MVP and you know and kind of hearing what that transition
is like and what they're kind of going through it. And it was just that yeah it was it was
it was one of the hardest things I've ever done but incredibly rewarding and I hope to
make it another one soon. Hey man you did a great job on that. I've seen it two or three times.
I've told numbers of people about it and we're going to get some more exposure on that film
because it's it's nicely done especially with the shoestring budget that you had and thanks
man. It's only the beginning sir. One other benefit I had by being a member of MVP was
that you introduced me to Mike Pereira from Fox, the rules analyst and that got me into
officiating high school football. I did F for four seasons and I was the first first
one in that that program to actually go on and work some games as a football official.
So yeah. I was one another another benefit that I had but just knowing eight boy or because
we get we get all these different connections we can make all these different connections
is by being a part of program because everybody wants to be involved in something that that
is going somewhere and something has true meaning and purpose behind it. So thanks again
for that. No thank you man. You're the inaugural battlefields to ball fields official. The
first official official. You know it and the thing about you know why I chose to do this
show is to encourage people to just be intentional. I came to you because I had a need. I was struggling
financially. I was on workers comp and I was like make a little more money to support my
family. So I came to you and I remember you saying I don't know how useful I can be but
I'll keep my ear so and I was like come on bro you're your Nate Boyer and you have influence.
I heard a guy that went and spoke to Colin Kaepernick when he was taking a knee on the field and
you've done so many different interviews you know nationwide. So I just like you know I
had a need so I wanted to make that need known so I came to you and you present this opportunity
to meet Mike at Fox. You know that's just been the stories going forward with with our
members is that we make connections and it's pretty awesome and it's just stressing the importance
of what can happen when you're intentional just like my journey's been here in Nashville being
intentional about keeping this program moving forward. But I wanted to ask you before we go
what is it for yourself personally what do you know that you need to be more intentional
about whether it's personally or especially. Yeah there's a lot of things of course but the number
one that sticks out to me and I always struggle with this is just being able to to say no and not
feeling bad about it not feeling guilty about it or just like when I'm tapped out letting people
just verbalizing that letting people know that you know like hey I need a day or I need a week or
I need a I need a minute here just to kind of recalibrate and because if you don't have you know this
as much as anybody because you give a lot of your time and your work is involved with service still
today. If you don't at least take some time for yourself and take care of yourself and refill your
cup like you got nothing to give and so like that's super important so I'm just because I have a lot
of things I'm interested in a lot of passions and I love to hustle and I love to I love to be busy
I like to take on a lot you know there is a point where it's too much and you're not doing something to
the best of your ability because you said yes too many times so it's like it's just doing it being
better at identifying the time and place to say no and not worry so much about missing out because I
get that FOMO thing you know and I'm just like we have it if I say no to this like what if it's
this incredible thing it's like well so what like someone else deserves to do it then you know
that can put more time into it so let them let them do it you know yeah I'm grateful to God that
he is allowed our paths to cross and I call you brother today also you know know that I'm thankful
that my God has given me some purpose in life and that purpose is to be of service to others
with the negative side of that as I can over commit I'm not God I can't be God and I've tried to be
like God to to the point where I've just burned myself out and so I just have to be mindful of that but
I'm committed to the furthering of this mission which is MVP and I'm happy to have you alongside me
trudging forward and and making it grow because there's so many veterans and athletes hopefully we
can give more participation for my athletes we're gonna keep working on that but um yes we will
I'm very fortunate blessed to know you brother and I appreciate you your life I appreciate you coming
on the show to let us know a little bit more about you you know you've been on a thousand different shows
before privileged to have you on this one to support me so thank you for that sir of course man thank
you for having me Thomas I love you too brother appreciate you yeah much love to you brother and God bless you right
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