The Change Catalyst Podcast

Kyle McQueen has spent nearly his entire adult life answering the call to serve—as a police officer, EMT, volunteer firefighter, and Army National Guard veteran. But after years of responding to other people’s worst days, Kyle eventually had to confront what those experiences were doing to him.In this episode of The Change Catalyst Podcast, Kyle opens up about growing up in a divided household, finding his calling in emergency services at just 16 years old, serving as an Infantryman in the New Jersey Army National Guard, and experiencing traumatic events both overseas and back home.Years of military service, EMS calls, and law enforcement took a cumulative toll. Like many first responders, Kyle became an expert at taking care of everyone around him while ignoring what was happening inside himself.Then, in October 2024, everything changed.Kyle was involved in an officer-involved shooting—an experience that became both one of the darkest moments of his life and the catalyst that forced him to finally address his own mental health. He talks about stepping away from work, asking for help, rebuilding himself, strengthening his marriage, becoming more present as a father, and realizing that vulnerability and strength aren’t opposites.That experience eventually became a new mission.In 2026, Kyle and fellow first responder Chris O’Leary co-founded The Human Behind the Uniform, a peer-to-peer mental health organization dedicated to reminding first responders of something that can easily get lost in the job: before the badge, helmet, radio, or uniform, there is a human being underneath it.This conversation is about cumulative trauma, identity, family, healing, and what happens when the person who is always helping everyone else finally realizes that he needs help too.Sometimes the hardest chapter of your life doesn’t have to be the end of your story. Sometimes, it becomes the reason you help someone else rewrite theirs.Please visit our website to get more information: ChangeCatalystPodcast.comSocial Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/changecatalyst_podcast✅About The Change Catalyst Podcast:This podcast ain’t for the weak or the fake. Hosted by TJ Webb, The Change Catalyst is where you’ll hear wild-ass stories of real adversity, from real people who’ve been through hell and came out the other side swinging. We’re talking everyday legends ,not celebrities, not influencers , real f***ing people who’ve battled life, taken hits most couldn’t survive, and still chose to change everything.No fluff. No fake positivity. Just unfiltered conversations about pain, rock bottoms, hard choices, and the kind of grit it takes to turn your life around when most people would just tap out.If you're tired of surface-level “motivation” and want to hear what it actually takes to evolve, level up, and change, this is your spot.You want inspiration? Earn it.This is The Change Catalyst. Let’s get to work.For Business inquiries, please use the contact information below:📩 Email: [email protected]

Daniel Herrera is a 16-year law enforcement veteran whose career has included road patrol, street crimes investigations, and his current roles as a School Resource Officer, Crisis/Hostage Negotiator, and instructor. Before entering law enforcement, Daniel spent five years as a school teacher and a decade coaching youth baseball.

Daniel is also the author of the children’s school-safety book Officer Danny Always Keeps Us SAFE! and is passionate about leadership, communication, resilience, mental and physical health, and overcoming adversity. A Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, husband, and father of three, Daniel credits his faith, family, service, and commitment to lifelong growth as the foundation of who he is.

After joining the NYPD, Dan became a first responder at Ground Zero during the September 11 attacks and went on to serve in some of the department’s most demanding assignments, including the NYPD SCUBA Team and Emergency Service Unit. He retired in 2020 after a career spent responding to situations most people will never experience.Through those years, Dan also witnessed the toll the profession can take on mental health, including the devastating number of law enforcement officers lost to suicide. Those experiences helped fuel his commitment to mental health awareness and inspired his song “Hold On,” written for those struggling through their darkest moments.In this episode of The Change Catalyst Podcast, Dan sits down with TJ Webb to talk about life inside the NYPD, responding to 9/11, serving in special operations, the realities of mental health in law enforcement, and ultimately making the transition from police officer to Nashville recording artist.

In Episode 052 of the Change Catalyst Podcast, I sit down with Tyler Bales, a former Anne Arundel County, Maryland firefighter, paramedic, and Emergency Services Special Operations member.Tyler spent years running toward danger and showing up when people needed help most. But behind the uniform, the calls, and the years of service, he was fighting battles of his own.In this raw and deeply personal conversation, Tyler opens up about PTSD, a traumatic brain injury (TBI) he suffered in an accident while firefighting, and the mental health struggles that followed. The combination of physical injury, accumulated trauma, and the demands of the job eventually pushed him to a place where he experienced multiple suicidal incidents.Tyler also talks openly about what it felt like to reach that point—and the frustration of feeling like the agency he dedicated his life to serving wasn't there for him when he needed support the most.But this isn't just a story about what went wrong.It's a story about survival, rebuilding, family, purpose, and finding a new mission after losing the identity that once defined you.Today, Tyler operates a farm with his family and runs Hope's House, a nonprofit dedicated to helping first responders who are struggling.This episode tackles the side of the fire service that doesn't always get talked about—the injuries you can't see, the calls you can't forget, the damage that follows you home, and what happens when the hero everyone depends on finally realizes he needs someone to save him too.If you're a first responder, a family member, or someone battling their own demons, this conversation is a reminder that your career doesn't define your worth, your worst day doesn't define your future, and asking for help isn't weakness.Sometimes surviving the job means learning how to build a life after it.Please visit our website to get more information: ChangeCatalystPodcast.comSocial Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/changecatalyst_podcast✅About The Change Catalyst Podcast:This podcast ain’t for the weak or the fake. Hosted by TJ Webb, The Change Catalyst is where you’ll hear wild-ass stories of real adversity, from real people who’ve been through hell and came out the other side swinging. We’re talking everyday legends ,not celebrities, not influencers , real f***ing people who’ve battled life, taken hits most couldn’t survive, and still chose to change everything.No fluff. No fake positivity. Just unfiltered conversations about pain, rock bottoms, hard choices, and the kind of grit it takes to turn your life around when most people would just tap out.If you're tired of surface-level “motivation” and want to hear what it actually takes to evolve, level up, and change, this is your spot.You want inspiration? Earn it.This is The Change Catalyst. Let’s get to work.For Business inquiries, please use the contact information below:📩 Email: [email protected]

What happens when the person everyone depends on reaches the point where he doesn't want to keep going?In Episode 052 of the Change Catalyst Podcast, I sit down with Matt Griffin, a former U.S. Navy Search and Rescue Swimmer, former undercover narcotics detective, bestselling author, and filmmaker. Matt spent years running toward danger, working undercover, and carrying the weight of things most people will never see.But eventually, the trauma caught up with him.Matt opens up about PTSD, depression, the cumulative effects of a career in law enforcement, the loss of a fellow officer and mentor, the collapse of his marriage, and the darkness that brought him to a point where he had planned his own suicide.This isn't a conversation about pretending everything is okay.It's about what happens when you finally admit that you're not okay.Matt shares the story behind his book, The Journey to Midnight, and the path that took him from the darkest point of his life toward recovery, purpose, and a mission to help other first responders who are silently struggling.We also get into his work as a filmmaker and his documentary, The Journey to Ibogaine: Midnight to Medicine, which explores his experience with ibogaine treatment and asks some difficult questions about how we approach trauma, PTSD, and recovery in the first-responder community.This episode gets real about suicide, PTSD, addiction, trauma, identity, alternative treatment, faith, recovery, and finding a reason to keep moving forward when you feel like you've got nothing left.For every cop, firefighter, paramedic, veteran, dispatcher, or family member who has ever wondered what happens when the uniform comes off and the memories don't...This conversation is for you.Please visit our website to get more information: ChangeCatalystPodcast.comSocial Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/changecatalyst_podcast✅About The Change Catalyst Podcast:This podcast ain’t for the weak or the fake. Hosted by TJ Webb, The Change Catalyst is where you’ll hear wild-ass stories of real adversity, from real people who’ve been through hell and came out the other side swinging. We’re talking everyday legends ,not celebrities, not influencers , real f***ing people who’ve battled life, taken hits most couldn’t survive, and still chose to change everything.No fluff. No fake positivity. Just unfiltered conversations about pain, rock bottoms, hard choices, and the kind of grit it takes to turn your life around when most people would just tap out.If you're tired of surface-level “motivation” and want to hear what it actually takes to evolve, level up, and change, this is your spot.You want inspiration? Earn it.This is The Change Catalyst. Let’s get to work.For Business inquiries, please use the contact information below:📩 Email: [email protected]

Patrick Apoian spent years serving as an Atlanta Police Department detective, but one call in 2011 nearly ended his life. After responding to a suspicious-person call, Patrick was run over by a suspect attempting to escape. Lying seriously injured at the scene, Patrick believed he was going to die. He called his wife and his seven-year-old son to say goodbye. What followed was five weeks in the hospital, 14 medical procedures, and a long, painful road back.

But Patrick didn't just survive—he went back to work.His story doesn't end there. Years earlier, Patrick founded Humble Heroes, a nonprofit dedicated to helping first responders when they are the ones who need help. He later helped establish Atlanta's peer support program, working to give officers a place to deal with the trauma, stress, and emotional weight that comes with the job.Patrick also shares the deeply personal story of how responding to a five-year-old child living in horrific foster-care conditions ultimately led him and his wife to adopt their daughter.And in a fitting final chapter to his law enforcement career, Patrick's last call as an officer resulted in him saving the life of a firefighter.

In this episode, we get brutally honest about what the badge can do to a person, what happens when first responders refuse to ask for help, the impact the job can have on marriages and families, and why isolation, substance abuse, and untreated trauma can become deadly.This is a conversation about survival, fatherhood, trauma, resilience, mental health, and finding purpose after the badge.You don't have to be invincible. You just have to be willing to ask for help.Please visit our website to get more information: ChangeCatalystPodcast.comSocial Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/changecatalyst_podcast✅About The Change Catalyst Podcast:This podcast ain’t for the weak or the fake. Hosted by TJ Webb, The Change Catalyst is where you’ll hear wild-ass stories of real adversity, from real people who’ve been through hell and came out the other side swinging. We’re talking everyday legends ,not celebrities, not influencers , real f***ing people who’ve battled life, taken hits most couldn’t survive, and still chose to change everything.No fluff. No fake positivity. Just unfiltered conversations about pain, rock bottoms, hard choices, and the kind of grit it takes to turn your life around when most people would just tap out.If you're tired of surface-level “motivation” and want to hear what it actually takes to evolve, level up, and change, this is your spot.You want inspiration? Earn it.This is The Change Catalyst. Let’s get to work.For Business inquiries, please use the contact information below:📩 Email: [email protected]

Director Steve Jawn is back on The Change Catalyst Podcast!

After first joining us on Episode 015, Steve returns to talk about his latest venture — bringing the first annual Delaware Beaches Songwriters Festival to the Delaware coast.

Over four days, the festival will bring together an incredible lineup of artists, songwriters, and music lovers for performances at multiple venues throughout the Delaware Beaches. Steve takes us behind the scenes of what it takes to bring an event like this to life, why he chose this area, and his vision for turning the festival into something special for both the artists and the local community.

We also catch up on Steve’s continued career in the music industry, including his role as Director and co-host of Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast, where he sits down with some of the biggest names and rising talent in country music.

From directing and podcasting to bringing a brand-new music festival to the Delaware Beaches, Steve continues to create opportunities, connect people, and bet on big ideas.

On this episode of The Change Catalyst Podcast, I sit down with Robert Ledogar, a former Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal whose career spans more than three decades of military and federal law enforcement.From serving as a U.S. Navy Master-at-Arms to hunting some of America’s most dangerous fugitives with the U.S. Marshals Service, Robert shares what life was really like behind one of the most respected badges in law enforcement. We discuss the high-risk operations, the relentless pursuit of violent offenders, transporting notorious criminals, and the leadership required to supervise one of the nation’s busiest fugitive task forces.But Robert’s story doesn’t end there.After standing up for what he believed was right and reporting misconduct within the agency, he found himself at the center of a years-long battle that would ultimately cost him the career he dedicated his life to. He opens up about integrity, loyalty, sacrifice, the personal toll of becoming a whistleblower, and what it means to stay true to your values when everything is on the line.This is a powerful conversation about courage—not just on the streets, but in the moments when doing the right thing comes at the highest personal cost.Please visit our website to get more information: ChangeCatalystPodcast.comSocial Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/changecatalyst_podcast✅About The Change Catalyst Podcast:This podcast ain’t for the weak or the fake. Hosted by TJ Webb, The Change Catalyst is where you’ll hear wild-ass stories of real adversity, from real people who’ve been through hell and came out the other side swinging. We’re talking everyday legends ,not celebrities, not influencers , real f***ing people who’ve battled life, taken hits most couldn’t survive, and still chose to change everything.No fluff. No fake positivity. Just unfiltered conversations about pain, rock bottoms, hard choices, and the kind of grit it takes to turn your life around when most people would just tap out.If you're tired of surface-level “motivation” and want to hear what it actually takes to evolve, level up, and change, this is your spot.You want inspiration? Earn it.This is The Change Catalyst. Let’s get to work.For Business inquiries, please use the contact information below:📩 Email: [email protected]: @TheatreProtectives   @lifemedinstitute ​

A month after high school, he joined the Air Force and deployed to Iraq twice before most people even find their direction. When that chapter ended, he went straight into law enforcement with the City of Buffalo—stepping into a career that would expose him to the absolute worst of humanity.From foot chases to fatal accidents, suicides to homicides—he saw it all. Moments most people could never process became part of his everyday life. He responded to scenes involving dead children, survived multiple officer-involved shootings, and lived through tragedies that shook an entire city—including fires that claimed the lives of three of Buffalo’s Bravest.But the job didn’t stay at work.Behind the badge, his personal life was unraveling. Two divorces. Decisions he takes full accountability for. A relationship that began on the job. And the quiet weight of three miscarriages while trying to hold everything together.The pressure, the trauma, the consequences—it all adds up.In this conversation, he opens up about what that life really does to a person. The mental toll, the mistakes, and the moments that force you to look in the mirror and take ownership of who you’ve become.But this isn’t just about the سقوط.It’s about what comes after.As his career came to an end, he began rebuilding—strengthening his faith, finding purpose beyond the chaos, and working to become a better man than the one shaped by years of war and policing.This episode is about accountability, pain, resilience, and redemption.If you’ve ever wondered what the job really costs… this is itPlease visit our website to get more information: ChangeCatalystPodcast.comSocial Links:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/changecatalyst_podcast✅About The Change Catalyst Podcast:This podcast ain’t for the weak or the fake. Hosted by TJ Webb, The Change Catalyst is where you’ll hear wild-ass stories of real adversity, from real people who’ve been through hell and came out the other side swinging. We’re talking everyday legends ,not celebrities, not influencers , real f***ing people who’ve battled life, taken hits most couldn’t survive, and still chose to change everything.No fluff. No fake positivity. Just unfiltered conversations about pain, rock bottoms, hard choices, and the kind of grit it takes to turn your life around when most people would just tap out.If you're tired of surface-level “motivation” and want to hear what it actually takes to evolve, level up, and change, this is your spot.You want inspiration? Earn it.This is The Change Catalyst. Let’s get to work.For Business inquiries, please use the contact information below:📩 Email: [email protected]: @TheatreProtectives   @lifemedinstitute ​

This episode is raw, intense, and unlike anything we’vereleased before.

Shay Mattera spent over a decade living a lie—11 yearsundercover, fully immersed in extremist movements, cutting off his realidentity, and operating in a world where one mistake could cost him his life.But what people don’t see is what that kind of life does to a man behind thescenes.

From the streets of Washington D.C. working narcotics,to high-level federal investigations, to deploying to Iraq where his team wasambushed, Shay has lived through chaos, violence, and pressure at the highestlevels. He later went on to achieve what most would consider impossible—earninghis Green Beret at 39 years old after earlier setbacks and self-doubt.

But the real story is what happened internally.

After years of living undercover, constant stress, andcarrying the weight of everything he had seen and done, Shay found himself in aplace few people ever talk about. At his lowest point, he was battling his ownmind—questioning everything, struggling with identity, purpose, and thepsychological toll of the job. It got so dark that he put a gun in his mouth.

And he’s not the only one.

This conversation dives into the mental health strugglesthat come with careers in law enforcement, military service, and undercoverwork—the part no one prepares you for. The identity loss, the isolation, theaftermath when the mission ends but your mind doesn’t shut off.

We talk about resilience, redemption, and what it reallytakes to come back from the edge.

This is more than a story about operations andaccolades—this is about survival, mentally and emotionally.

If you’ve ever struggled, felt lost, or questioned your purpose… thisepisode hits different.

This episode is raw, intense, and unlike anything we’vereleased before.

Shay Mattera spent over a decade living a lie—11 yearsundercover, fully immersed in extremist movements, cutting off his realidentity, and operating in a world where one mistake could cost him his life.But what people don’t see is what that kind of life does to a man behind thescenes.

From the streets of Washington D.C. working narcotics,to high-level federal investigations, to deploying to Iraq where his team wasambushed, Shay has lived through chaos, violence, and pressure at the highestlevels. He later went on to achieve what most would consider impossible—earninghis Green Beret at 39 years old after earlier setbacks and self-doubt.

But the real story is what happened internally.

After years of living undercover, constant stress, andcarrying the weight of everything he had seen and done, Shay found himself in aplace few people ever talk about. At his lowest point, he was battling his ownmind—questioning everything, struggling with identity, purpose, and thepsychological toll of the job. It got so dark that he put a gun in his mouth.

And he’s not the only one.

This conversation dives into the mental health strugglesthat come with careers in law enforcement, military service, and undercoverwork—the part no one prepares you for. The identity loss, the isolation, theaftermath when the mission ends but your mind doesn’t shut off.

We talk about resilience, redemption, and what it reallytakes to come back from the edge.

This is more than a story about operations andaccolades—this is about survival, mentally and emotionally.

If you’ve ever struggled, felt lost, or questioned your purpose… thisepisode hits different.