Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hey guys, welcome back to the Eager to Motivate podcast. I'm always excited about all my guests, so I know I say that every time. We're just blessed to have really cool people come on and I'm super thankful for that. And today I'm super, super thankful because this is military defender related type things and I'm always excited about that. You guys know I'm a 21 year veteran of the army. So I'm always excited about anything that's good for service members or their families or anything related to the military, law enforcement, any of that stuff. I'm super excited about it. So Today I have Ms. Carol Watanabe.
So. Hi Carol.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Hello.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: I'm gonna do a quick intro of you and let you talk more about yourself.
So Carol is the founder of Defenders Gateway app.
Carol is from St. Louis native. She has an extensive history serving military families. Her technology company released the first and final version of Defenders Gateway app in April of this year. The Defenders Gateway app was created to honor and support our nation's defenders and their families. The platform is a community built exclusively for them. So Carol, I want to hear more about. So first and foremost I will tell you anything that's, you know, a resource for service members, their families, law enforcement, anything that's a resource. I love talking about it because one thing I saw in the military is how many people don't know what they actually have access to, what things people like you, really smart people have built to help us out. And so I would love for you to talk a little bit more about Defenders Gateway and kind of how you got it started, the background on it. You can talk as long as you want.
[00:01:52] Speaker C: Well, I should start out with my actual. My story, you know, my story. I won't get into a lot of detail about that because there's a video out there if people go to our Facebook page. I know about a month ago it was published on there. If you just scroll down, you can find that and also on YouTube, it's available. So this goes back actually about eight years ago now.
We have been in, in the technology building mode for six solid years.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: Yes. But before that, just two years before that, I was going through a personal crisis myself. Health crisis. Right. I probably was in terrible shape. That started the whole ball rolling, you know, physically.
I hadn't been exercising or anything else, but I had a lot of issues and I ended up having 10 surgeries within a 12 year period.
And, and out of that.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:02:47] Speaker C: During my last surgery.
And I'm going to tell you my age, because I don't have a problem with it.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:02:53] Speaker C: You know, when. When. Kind of when you. When you live through miracles in your life, you don't have to worry about sharing your age on. On any media.
I was 66 at the time when I was going through all of this. Okay. So.
So I woke up one morning after I had been in the hospital. It was about 72 hours later.
I was no longer on pain medication because I'm always off of that. I got off of that immediately every time I had a surgery, because I just don't believe in staying on it. My oldest daughter from New York City was in town being my nurse, and she's. You know how older kids can be. Very bossy.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: I
[00:03:30] Speaker C: woke
[00:03:30] Speaker B: up.
[00:03:31] Speaker C: She's awesome, though. I woke up with Defenders Gateway on my mind.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: And it just came and I. And I dreamt about it. And I. I know I had been, you know, deliberating back and forth because a little bit about my past, at that time, my charity was about, oh, 16 years old, something like that.
I have Little Patriots embraced as my charity. I. I'm the founder of it. It's now almost 23 years old. We have served over 109,000 military children since we started, and we are all volunteers out of St. Louis and we have served nationwide.
So with that background in mind, that charity was on my mind all the time. The fact that I couldn't be there. I couldn't be, you know, volunteering as the founder and. And participating in the things. We would travel different bases and put on programs that we design specifically for military kids.
So we were well into it, and we had a lot of wonderful programs. And my daughter thought I was. I was asking for my iPad for that purpose, and I said no. I said, I have to write some things down before I forget.
It is something else. And so that morning started this whole thing.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:04:40] Speaker C: I woke up with it, and I consider it a gift. And I've described it as a gift. And I don't want to give away the whole story. I want people to go find that YouTube video. It is the Defenders Gateway story, and watch the video, and it tells you more about it. But, you know, as God would have it, I mean, I. Believe me, when I first received this gift, I wanted nothing to do with technology, Jeff. I mean, technology. Wait a minute. My husband hogs the remote control. I can't get a hold of that.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: I
[00:05:13] Speaker C: can't even control that.
So I know I don't have a. I didn't Have a technology background, then
[00:05:19] Speaker B: wow.
[00:05:20] Speaker C: And imagine that immediately. And so imagine what. What the message is. When I told my husband about it, and he said, you are talking about starting a technology company at your age and with your background. And I said, yes, because I have to.
And really, that's what it boils down to.
A lot of this, I know, came to me from having my charity and serving military families for so long, and especially the children. And then also we had many, many times. Times where we've had emergency situations with these families, young children that have cancer, that we're helping them come into St. Louis for cancer treatment and other things. So it was. It was a background of, you know, constantly wondering, what else can I do for the families?
[00:06:04] Speaker B: Love them.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: There's got to be something else. And Defenders Gateway. Is that something else?
And not only that, God convinced me to go forward because he said that you're doing this in honor of your father who served in the army, by the way.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:06:17] Speaker C: My. My dad was army, his brother was army, my nephew army, and my wonderful new ambassador, she was in the army, so.
And I felt like I didn't needed to do it, so I started moving forward with it. And I. The story on the video will tell you more about it, but I had an appointment set up to work with a technology company to build this app and this whole platform, because it wasn't just an app that I was writing down on my iPad for a solid year, designing what it should do, designing how it should work, and developing something that's never been done before, a virtual ID and verification system that has never been done.
Don't ask me. It just came.
[00:07:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:03] Speaker C: And. And I put it down, and I wrote everything down. I was meeting with a technology company, as I said, on a Friday.
On that Wednesday previous to that, somebody out of the blue just said, called me up, said, can you speak at my networking event? I need somebody. And I said, well, I'll do it for the charity, of course. So I went, I spoke about my golf tournament and the fundraiser I was having for that, and a stranger walked up to me and asked me, what else are you doing? And I said, well, I'm doing a special project, but I haven't released that yet.
And I'm not talking about it yet. And he said, well, I heard that you were developing an app.
Somebody had told
[00:07:39] Speaker B: him.
[00:07:40] Speaker C: So I know who that was. It was my tech developer, my tech guy, because nobody else knew about it.
[00:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah,
[00:07:45] Speaker C: But. But anyway, so at the time, I had some. Been working with somebody just on the, you know, designing. What are we going to do with it?
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:54] Speaker C: I ended up not working with that individual because I did meet a phenomenal person. He's a gold star family.
His brother gave his life in the military for our country.
His name is Jason and he has been with me on this project and is still with me. Still.
He, he is wonderful. And I, and that whole story about how I met Jason, I really hope your people that are listening in, they'll go watch that video
[00:08:18] Speaker B: because
[00:08:19] Speaker C: they'll learn more about him. He's a very special person.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: Carol, what we'll do when we share this, we'll also put the link to that YouTube video. When we share our content on YouTube, we'll put wonderful video. Wonderful. So if you look down below somewhere in the comments, you'll see that link. Okay.
[00:08:36] Speaker C: Wonderful, wonderful. So one thing led to another. Jason and I came to an agreement. Jason at the time, of course, was a single dad with little kids at home. He had a full time job at a technology company that's very well known at the time.
He, he pro. He said, I only have weekends and nights. He said, but I would love to give it to you because I feel compelled to do this in honor of my brother.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:09:02] Speaker C: So we, we started working on it. It was seven years ago and seven years ago we only remember we only had nights and weekends. And I was willing to sacrifice that time. And let me tell you, it's not easy to sacrifice that time when you know, when you have this compelling feeling that you need to push this, you need to get it out for these people.
And that's what I kept feeling every single day.
And I knew that it needed to be done, but I also knew that I needed to do it with Jason. So it took us a while to get there. But he is working full time on it now and doing some updates that are going to be phenomenal. As far as getting into the app, I want to encourage all of your people out there. If you are a defender, defender means active military, a veteran law enforcement, firefighter, ems, emergency dispatchers, Gold star families. You know, all of these people can download the app. And also their spouses and their kids who have cell phones, they can download the app.
[00:10:05] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:10:06] Speaker C: So. But you will have to go through verification to do that.
[00:10:09] Speaker B: Now. I love that. Now, you know, that's something that I was super excited about for my app is getting the discounts and things in place for service members and their families. So that was a big deal to me. So I went through another company to get the verification done. But I love how you already thought through that at the beginning. So I will ask you a couple of questions here. Carol. To start out, a lot of people watch podcasts and people, you know, of course, watch my podcasts that are my. My clients and people that just are in my, you know, my network.
I do want you, if you had to do an elevator pitch of what Defenders Gateway is, if I met you in the elevator and I had on my served in Iraq hat and you wanted to tell me about what you do, what would you do in that ride from the 10th floor to the bottom floor? Tell me exactly what I can get from Defenders Gateway.
[00:11:03] Speaker C: I would tell them that I have built a community for them.
This is so much more than just an app with resources on it, our discounts on it.
This is an entire community that we're building nationwide. It is a place where they can connect directly with others, other Defenders. We have a live chat that they can open up chat rooms and chat with others that are on board. Defenders Gateway. You know, we really encourage them to download this because this is a community.
That's what I want to get across to everyone. You know, there are so many apps out there, they have discounts on them. There are so many apps out there with resources that. Well, really mainly websites with resources.
And as far as our verification system, there is nothing out there that compares to this verification system.
I don't want to mention any names of any, any brands, and I won't. But I can tell you that they not only sell, but they lease out, they license out their lists with all of your information on it. And I built this, and I want people to know this. I built this verification system so that everyone out there understands we don't keep your information.
We don't share your information. Now, others will tell you that. They'll publish that out there and then come to find out.
There's a lot of news, most recently about that, about one particular company.
But we do not sell your. Your contact information. Our system actually shreds it. When you upload proof of who you are, it's shredded, you're approved for life, and we only keep your name, your status of whether you're military or first responder or a family member or a business owner, they can get on.
And so we keep that. So in case you get off the app, we can help you get back on. That's it.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: I love it. You know, Carol, one of the things that I've learned is, you know, after retiring and, you know, changing from being in the military for over 20 years. And being in the civilian world, a lot of us veterans, we don't realize how the community of being around other veterans or being around other service members while we're serving is something that helped us. You know, when it's time for us to ETS or retire or whatever, and we're. We go. In the civilian world, it's not the same. Most people do their 9 to 5 or whatever it is, work remote, and they don't. It's just a job. They work and they get done and they go home. The military, we become a family like you. You get to know the people in your unit, in your company, in your battalion, in your brigade. You get to know people and you see them every day. You see them on deployments and you form community because you have a shared experience. We're all going to deploy together. We're all going to do PT together. And so that community piece is one thing that I think as soon as we ETS or retire, a lot of veterans lose. And we don't realize how important that is for our mental health just to have that community stay connected to other veterans that understand what we're doing, what we're going through. So when you talked about community, that really got me going. So can you kind of touch again on how people are interacting in that community, how many people you have on there so far, things like that? Because that's a beautiful. That's. First of all, kudos to you, Carol, for. And, and thank God for you to have that vision to want to do it, because this is something that I, I was so excited about talking about, because I feel like a lot of veterans, former military retirees, families of military gold star families, they need this community. So please share more about that.
[00:14:40] Speaker C: They do. And I want to add to that that our first responders, our law enforcement and our firefighters, it's the same thing. They're looking for that community.
And we are that community for all of you. And I want everyone to know that the number one mission for me was to build a community where all of our defenders were welcome. All of them. Right.
And as part of that community, we are, we have. Now, just recently, again, you were asking about the app itself. We just released our final version of the app April 26th.
[00:15:13] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:15:14] Speaker C: Yeah. We have over 10,000 people on it now that are utilizing it. We are growing every single day. We're about ready to release a national marketing campaign. So 2027, we are going to go nationwide with this marketing campaign. I'm now Working on the financial part of that, being able to, you know, produce those. That kind of money, be able to do a national campaign. It's a big deal. It's enough that of the investment into the app and into the community and into everything we built. We didn't just build this app, we built a command center. The command center is unbelievable. We'll be starting to get our newsletter out from that command center. There's all kinds of things, functionalities that we can do there.
So many things, including if we get a bad, a bad actor on this app, somehow I don't know how they'd ever get through my system, but if they ever did, one push of a button and they're locked, okay, that's how sophisticated this is.
This is not like anything out there that people, these companies are verifying online through lists. Lists, massive lists. Right.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:24] Speaker C: That's not us. You know, this is a real one on one verification system.
And as far as what we're doing, as far as bringing this community together, not only the chat, the chat is going to be something I think is going to be widely used. It's already being used a little bit, but people are just learning about it. But we also have added on our homepage, you can get to devotionals that we have on there. We also have communities. We've opened up communities, a list of communities you can join.
We're going to open up more communities, especially for women, because I just opened the four women section of the app and I'm so excited about that. We have so many women, especially in the law enforcement area, many women that are on board the app and they are very excited about this four women section. So that's another, another thing that you can get to, you know, on app. And we're just starting to add a lot of resources just specifically for women. Everything to do from transitioning. Okay. Whether they're a firefighter or a law enforcement person, transitioning or military, you know, and I understand exactly, Jeff, what you're saying because I have heard so many stories throughout these years of people like yourself. It's not an easy transition. You go from structure, you know, to what am I going to do next? Oh,
[00:17:40] Speaker B: yeah.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: And we, we have resources under our resource button that they're. They're divided by military veteran, first responder and chaplain resources. Because I went to a chaplain conference a couple of years ago and they begged us, please get some resources on there for us. We can help you load some of those that are fantastic and in training and things like that. So we have a lot on there, a lot on there for everyone. And I. And I want you to know we're not stopping anytime soon. You know, we have 365,000 listings across this country.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:18:17] Speaker C: On this app we are built for a million plus.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Okay.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: Okay, so. And we're going to continue that. But I think the community part of things is so important. We have a lot of under our resources, people will find organizations, their listings, so their websites and listings of organizations that we've partnered with. And we do our homework. We vet every organization that goes on. So we don't have, don't
[00:18:42] Speaker B: just
[00:18:42] Speaker C: have our other system. We vet the organizations. If they are really doing their mission, they're accepted on. Okay. No cost. No cost. We want them to be there.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: So, Carol, let me ask you a question. You know, as a, a guy that's had to build my own app and that took a long time to get it done. You know, a lot of people, and this is for any of, I have a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners and, you know, high level executives that watch on my podcast as well. Can you talk about some of your challenges getting this thing? Because you said it took, you know, many years of mental, you know, gymnastics to get the thing to where you have it at now.
[00:19:22] Speaker C: Talk
[00:19:22] Speaker B: about, you know, maybe one or two of your challenges and how you overcame it because I'm really big on that as well. There's, there's so many smart people out there solving problems and I like to have people talk about how they solve their problems. So some of these entrepreneurs and business leaders out there and be encouraged as well. So maybe one or two of your problems you solve.
[00:19:40] Speaker C: Well, I would say all throughout the building. And I consider us built now. Oh, sure, we're technology. We're going to be doing updates. We're going to be adding functionality and other things for our members. But throughout the entire six year period, I don't think there was a day without a challenge, not a day that a challenge didn't come up. And I don't think people really realize that, you know, there are apps out there and, you know, you can use a template for an app. This is not a template. This is a custom built project.
And that's why it took so many years to do it. And the challenges were there. We brought out an early version just to do a test market to see how we would be accepted. And we just got a lot of people interested and businesses interested.
So, you know, we have worked really hard on that. Probably one of the Biggest challenges for me.
Oh, it was about a year and a half ago.
My technology person that I absolutely love, and I could not have done this project without Jason.
He was up against the wall, and he was going to have to stop working.
We were right in the midst of the last version, version three, we were delayed about six months because he had to drop back because of his other job and other situations that he had. And that was probably one of the biggest challenges that I had.
I brought on someone else, which was a total disaster, to help.
And we ended up when Jason came back after six months, starting the last version all over.
[00:21:19] Speaker B: Sheesh.
[00:21:20] Speaker C: So. Oh, yes.
[00:21:21] Speaker B: I've been. I've been there, too.
[00:21:22] Speaker C: You understand. I know you understand, Jeff.
That means financially, what it means.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:21:29] Speaker C: And everything.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: So nothing's free.
[00:21:32] Speaker C: No, no. And you're looking at the investor right here. Okay. So I must. I must really love what I'm doing and the purpose
[00:21:41] Speaker B: behind it. I
[00:21:42] Speaker C: know. I love.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: You do. And that's why I'm glad I have you on, because this is the kind of. This is the kind of stuff that, you know, somebody decides that they're going to, you know, invest and fund and do all the hard work and deal with all the stress to create something that can help a lot of people. So, you know, Carol, kudos to you.
This is a beautiful thing you're doing.
[00:22:03] Speaker C: Well, it is beautiful, but it's not without its challenges. And our challenges now are to grow.
So we're growing not only our membership, and that would be through the national marketing campaign, but also the businesses we want to come on. And again, as I said, we vet every single one of them.
[00:22:18] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:22:19] Speaker C: I. I'm not mentioning names of brands, but there is a national brand that everyone knows the name. Everyone. There's not a person alive that doesn't know it.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Well,
[00:22:28] Speaker C: we turn down.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:22:30] Speaker C: Okay. You do not say bad things in public and on media about our military spouses.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Gotcha.
[00:22:40] Speaker C: And so we had to step away from that.
And that was a huge decision on my part, you know, biggest financial decision.
And so at this time, I'm looking for investor, slash partner, the right person.
And so I believe this will be a person versus, you know, a VC situation. I'm not really looking for that unless it would be a group, you know, of defender types or something like that. But I am looking for that partner now because we do need to launch this 2027 marketing campaign. It is going to be a game changer. And as my marketing company has told me, this is going to explode. So be ready for it.
So in our technology, we're ready for it?
[00:23:27] Speaker B: No, I love it. And I, I can, I can already see the. Because I'm excited about it. So I can already see the swell of people that are going to be excited to hop on when they see, you know, the community engagement, the benefits, the connections they can make. I think it's just huge. Okay, so I'll ask you my next thing. So where do you, where do you see. Because you talked about a little bit in your talk about your marketing campaign. Where do you want to see Defenders Gateway go? What's your big dream for the app, Carol?
[00:24:00] Speaker C: My dream is this, that every defender across this nation hears about this app and downloads it and joins our community because there is no other purpose that I dove in and built this. It is for them. It is free for them, for life. There's never any cost.
And we want them to be a part of this community and to reap the benefits from that, you know, and you were talking about the connections that can be made through this platform, you know, especially with our chat, with our chat that they can open up a chat with multiple people that are on the app. You know, and there are organizations. And this is another thing about your organization. I'm so excited about us partnering up because we need more health and fitness listings and information on this app that is, is relevant to our people. And, you know, I just wanted to mention I have a new national ambassador. She served in the army, okay, 13 years. Her name is Kelly.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: And
[00:25:02] Speaker C: I think the paper, the people watching this, they're going to hear more about Kelly because she's ready to do a challenge and she's going to do a challenge with your organization, with your fitness app.
[00:25:14] Speaker B: It's on the way.
[00:25:15] Speaker C: And she is. It's on the way. And she is ready to start this November 1st. And she is phenomenal today. She is a doctor, a single mom of three young kids, and she is also our national ambassador. And she's also working on strategic partnerships with me for the, for the app and the, in the platform. And, but this will be fun. I mean, she was amazing in her day. And you'll see it before. You're going to see a before picture, a current picture, and hopefully the after picture. And people will be able to, and people will be able to get on the app and they'll be able to click one banner and go right to the website and see everything on it to watch her progress and everything. So
[00:25:56] Speaker B: I'm excited about that because you Know, with doctors like Kelly, I've trained so many doctors over the years, and whenever there's a doctor that I get to train, I'm so excited about it because people don't understand, you know, what the life of a doctor is like. Some doctors
[00:26:11] Speaker C: work,
[00:26:11] Speaker B: you know, from sun up to sundown. They have high stress. They have to also be a mom or a dad and have different things in their lives. And so when you look at a doctor, you're like, well, you're a doctor. You should be healthy. You don't know what all they have to deal with, what's all. It's like, a lot of times people don't get the fact that sometimes a caregiver, you know, becomes a person that puts their own health on the back burner to take care of everyone else. And so whenever I can take care of anybody in the health and, you know, healthcare space, I'm excited about it. So I'm excited to work with Kelly, and I hope she'll bring us more of her doctor friends, too, because I love that. Taking care of those who take care of us.
[00:26:48] Speaker C: And I can. I can testify to that. I'm married to a doctor myself.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Okay, awesome.
[00:26:53] Speaker C: So he's. He's older. He's in his old age now, and he's, you know, semi retirement, but he won't retire because he loves his patients so much. He will not leave.
And so I keep working. He tells me, just keep doing what you're doing. We're not retiring yet, and I'm not looking to retire. I'm looking for the perfect CEO, and I'm hoping I find that individual by the end of this year. And I'm looking for also the partner to come in because I am getting older, you know, and there's a certain pace that you can keep up. Of course, if I ever joined your app, maybe I should do that and get on a fitness plan.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: I'm a. Listen, I'm gonna make sure you join. I got. I got a special. Special. You
[00:27:33] Speaker C: need to. You need to work that out for me because I need
[00:27:37] Speaker B: too much time
[00:27:37] Speaker C: sitting in front of a screen and at the desk. So
[00:27:41] Speaker B: consider, consider. Okay. So I am passionate about things like this. And I know, you know, a lot of my friends, my buddies, my military friends, and my military contacts, they're also excited. Am I law? I have tons of law enforcement. I want a gym here in Monroe, North Carolina, and I have pretty
[00:27:58] Speaker C: much
[00:27:59] Speaker B: the whole Monroe Police Department are members of my gym. So love law enforcement and, you know, EMS, etc. But I'm curious. So for folks that watch this, they watch this talk, they watch me and you talk about how great Defenders Gateway is and then they go download the app. How would you advise them? How would you tell them to spread the word? Because we can have the best thing ever. But if other people don't know about it, they don't get to access it and use it. So how do you recommend somebody that actually goes from, from here or discovers or whatever gets on Defenders Gateways? Like, man, this thing is amazing what Carol put together. How can they share and talk about it?
[00:28:40] Speaker C: I want to ask everyone that is seeing this podcast today to join the community. If you are eligible in your family, join the community and please share it today. Start sharing it on social media. Go to our Facebook page at Defenders Gateway, like our page. Follow our posts and share our posts that go out there. And we would love for you to do that because, face it, marketing is very expensive. And Jeff, I know, I know that you know that it's probably your biggest expense. It's my biggest, biggest expense that I'm looking at.
And, you know, it's hard because, you know, we are a small operation right now. You know, I have six people working with me. But, but we are a small operation and we really need for everyone to help us out. Go talk about it and invite your groups and your communities on board. You know, we just, I just talked with law enforcement here locally in the St. Louis area, all of the city of police chiefs and county police chiefs, we spoke there. They are downloading the app. We're also sharing some of their activities that are for fundraising for them. So we just started that, that was this past, just a couple days ago.
So we want to hear from you. And if you have something going on, we're happy to share that activity. If you've got something happening, let's put it on the discovery page so everyone can see it.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: Carol, that's great. I have a task, a call to action for my people that watch this. So so many of us have a connection to our rotc, to our old units,
[00:30:18] Speaker C: to,
[00:30:19] Speaker B: you know, my buddy Todd sitting beside me, he's a Ranger Regiment guy. So the Ranger Regiment guys stay connected. So if you, if you are in those kind of communities, if you are in any type of military affiliated unit and you have an email list or Facebook page or some type of chat that you do with your military buddies, whether you were a night stalker or you were in, you know, one of the SF groups or anything like that, or 82nd, all those different organizations, you know, if you were as part of a police force and that police force had an email, thread or chat, that's a great way to spread the word about Defenders Gateway. So if you go into those, those, those, those opportunities that you have, those networks and just share, because it's not something that's going to cost them money. It's free. So share about it, talk about it, because you're spreading the word to help more of your friends get the resources, the community that Carol's worked so hard to make, make. Make possible. So, so,
[00:31:18] Speaker C: Carol, so much. Thank you so much, Jeff. I appreciate that.
They're the ones that are going to make a difference. They will make a difference. Yeah.
[00:31:27] Speaker B: Big time. So. So, Carol, I want to get any kind of final thoughts before I close it out. Any kind of final thoughts or anything you want to say about Defenders. Get ready before I close it out.
[00:31:35] Speaker C: Well, we're getting ready for another update, which, you
[00:31:38] Speaker B: know,
[00:31:38] Speaker C: the regular things that we do. And this is going to be a great. Because we're going to make it easier for people when they do get into the Defenders Gateway app on the homepage. So if you download right now, you're going to see the homepage, you're going to see something different coming up in the next few weeks that is going to be very awesome because we are going to be able to. You're going to be able to go in and specifically state what you are looking for on this app, what interests you the most, and the app is going to be able to direct you every time you get back in it right there.
So we're adding more functionality for our users and, and we're really excited about it. There's just so much coming up and I can't wait for you all to meet Kelly. You're gonna love her.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: Yes, I'm excited about
[00:32:24] Speaker C: that. She's awesome.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: Well, Carol, first of all, I want to do a quick note to all of my E2M folks. My E2M family, Carol, will make a community for us, for the E2 and family within the app.
[00:32:36] Speaker C: So
[00:32:37] Speaker B: all of the service members, law enforcement, health folks that are doing the app, that are also a part of my family will have a place for you on the app as well. So super excited about that because that goes back to that community carryover I talked about. We have a big, strong community in E2M and so it's beautiful to see how now you can identify who is also in the other community of law enforcement or veterans or military family or gold star now you can be a part of both communities and have even more connections, because I. I'm a firm believer that, you know, the more connections, positive connections you have in your life, the more fruitful and enjoyable your life will be. So for me, I am excited about being a part of this movement that Carol is doing. I'm going to be spreading the word in all of my groups, everything that I'm associated with. Because. Because anything that helps service members, law enforcement, ems, things like that, those things. A lot of times people put a lot of work, blood, sweat and tears into it because they're doing it from a passionate place. I can already tell. And I'm going to speak for you on this one, Carol. I can already tell that you're doing it from a place of love for wanting to help versus trying to make financial gain. So anytime somebody is doing it from a place of love, I want to speak. Spread that from as far and wide as I can, because I know it's something that's going to help people, because that's how it started. So I hope you guys go and, and download Defenders Gateway right now. Don't wait, write a note, go do it. Once you get off the podcast, go do it right now. And if you are somebody who is not affiliated with the military or law enforcement, but you have family members, you have a co worker that was a veteran, you have a co worker that was in the police force. If you have people you know in your life, just copy the link, send them this podcast, or copy the. Copy the link for Defenders Gateway, or just send them this. You should download this free app, Defenders Gateway. So, Carol, any closing thoughts before I get off of here with you?
[00:34:39] Speaker C: No, we don't. Oh, we don't know them all, but we owe them all. And I've lived my life by that.
[00:34:44] Speaker B: I love it. Well, guys, I appreciate you watching today. Carol, I appreciate you joining. And also, again, I can't give more flowers than I'm trying to give right now. Now, people like you make a difference. We need more of it. And so I appreciate. Thank you so
[00:35:00] Speaker C: much.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: And I. I can't wait until that milestone of Defenders Gateway having 1 million subscribers.
[00:35:07] Speaker C: Well, it's 2027. Hold on to your seat.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: I love it. Well, hey, thanks again, guys. Hope to see you on the next Eager to Motivate podcast. Carol, you and I will be talking soon. Talking some more. For the rest of you guys, go download that app and I'll see you next time. Take care.
[00:35:23] Speaker C: Thank you.
