FORWARD with Derek Herrera

This week, I was honored to have a conversation with my good friend Tom Sauer, entrepreneur, owner, and leader of Miramar Recovery, an addiction recovery and counseling business, and former US Navy l Officer. We talked about how he was able to find purpose, meaning, harmony, and alignment from his life experiences. We go through his time in the U.S. Navy as an Explosive Ordinance Disposal Officer, how he completed the MBA program at UCLA, and how his life came full circle when he found himself as an entrepreneur helping people with addiction recovery and mental health, inspired by the trauma he experienced  when his father passed away after battling with addiction when he was in high school.  

Learn More About Miramar Recovery:

https://miramaraddictionandrehabcenters.com/

Find Us On Social:

www.instagram.com/derekherrera

www.derekherrera.com

In this week’s, I was lucky enough to sit down with Roy Tuscany, founder of the non-profit organization High Fives Foundation.

Roy started High Fives after seeing from his own personal spinal cord injury experience, how devastating and challenging it was for him to move forward and find meaning and purpose in life after injury. We talk about the great lessons he learned through the network of mentors and advisors who helped guide him in his recovery to live his life to it’s fullest potential and how this inspired him to want to replicate and scale that peer mentorship ethos to be there for anyone else in the US suffering from a spinal cord injury so they are not alone and dealing with this very challenging circumstance by themselves.

highfivesfoundation.org

Find Us On Social:

www.instagram.com/derekherrera

www.derekherrera.com

On this week’s episode, I was honored to sit down with Alana Nichols, Paraplegic, mother, and one of the most decorated Paralympic athletes of all time, becoming the first person to ever medal in both a winter and summer Olympic Games.

We talk about the amazing lessons she learned after sustaining a life changing injury while she was in high school and  how, through those lessons, she was able to find passion and purpose through her love of sport again, in an adaptive and modified way.

In this week’s episode I had the pleasure of talking to Jake, former U.S. marine and current non-profit leader, entrepreneur, and a truly inspirational human being who is working tirelessly to create change for all of us. We talk about Jake's time as a marine and how what he witnessed on the battfield propelled him to set out on a mission to eradicate extreme poverty around the world. This led him to found his non-profit organization, Nuru International where he spent almost a decade developing the situation and delivering results in places like Kenya, Ethiopia, and other places in Africa. We also discuss Jake's new mission with his organization, More Perfect Union, where he is trying to help stop the divide between people in the U.S. by bringing people together, while leveraging the network of veterans and special operators he knows, to rally behind the cause to save America and dismantle the current political landscape. 

Learn More About Jake: 

Instagram: @jakeharriman 

More Perfect Union Website: www.mpu.us 

Instagram: @moreperfectunion.us Nuru International 

Website: https://nuruinternational.org/ 

Instagram: @nuruinternational

Hello and welcome to another episode of Forward With Derek Herrera. Today we talk with Jeff Gum, Jeff is incredible man, he is a former Navy SEAL and now entrepreneur in the swimwear industry.  We discuss  his journey and trials and tribulations are going through SEALS training and failing and having to repeat hell week multiple times before receiving the title of Navy SEAL. We talked about his time serving overseas and injuries he sustained that prevented him from continuing to serve as a Navy SEAL and how he found meaning and purpose moving forward as an entrepreneur.

You can find out more about Jeff and his ventures below:

www.sungalife.com 

www.forceblueteam.org 

www.honor.org

http://www.adaptivetrainingfoundation.org

Instagram: @jeffgum, @sunga.life, @forceblueteam

Welcome to another episode of forward. Paul Grand is former venture capitalist, and then started a non profit called MedTech Innovation which is the largest incubator and accelerator for any early stage medical technology and device company in the world. Paul is incredibly energetic, positive and has a phenomenal attitude which has allowed him to be successful as an entrepreneur, investor, and CEO of Non Profit.

Welcome to Forward with Derek Herrera. Today we talk with Elliot Ackerman. Elliot is a former marine officer and served as a Marine raider before transitioning to the CIA. He is an award winning author of many works including his new book 2034:A Novel of the Next World War. We talk about his days in the Marine Corp and the founding days of the Marine Special Operations command, what it was like to transition to the CIA, and when he decided to leave that position to become an author.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Forward with Derek Herrera. Today we are joined by Dave Alberga. Dave is a very successful entrepreneur, and military veteran. David was a product manager for Procter and Gamble, selling maxi pads out of the trunk of his car and grew to be the leader of the startup active.com growing revenue from $75,000 to half a billion dollars in annual revenue. We discuss the stress of running a company like active.com took on him, what drives him and inspires action of helping others, and how he now gives back as an advisor, investor and board member for a variety of non profits and startups in the fitness space like Peloton, The Honor Foundation and more.

Welcome to another episode of Forward with Derek Herrera. This week I was honored to speak to General Peter Chiarelli, former Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army (the second highest ranking officer in the service), who served for over 40 years.  As Vice Chief,General Chiarelli was inspired by a chart showcasing how Traumatic Brain Injury and Concussions were the leading causes of injury amongst servicemen, he was determined to change the way these injuries were diagnosed and treated, a cause he continued to pursue post-army. In this episode, we discuss General Chiarelli's time in the Army, his inspiration to enlist, and his position on brain health practices within and outside of the army, including the struggles of making change within the health care system. We also talk heavily about his ventures after leaving the service, including his involvement in the non-profit brain health organization One Mind and his current endeavor with NightWare, a prescription digital therapeutic system for the reduction of sleep disturbance related to Nightmare Disorders or nightmares from post-traumatic stress disorder. General Chirarelli's approach has always been servicemen, veterans, and  patients first. 

 www.nightware.com 

www.onemind.org

Welcome to Forward with Derek Herrera and Martha Raddatz. Martha is an extraordinary person. She is an award winning journalist who has had a phenomenal career. Martha has covered politics, government, military operations across the globe. We discussed her perspective of combat operations and military operations and gain insight on what service members and leadership are doing and corresponding with government officials to uncover knowledge and share the stories of our service members. Martha was the moderator of the 2016 presidential debate between candidates Trump and Clinton.