Richard Kaufman, known as The Comeback Coach and host of the Vertical Momentum Resiliency Podcast 2.0, sits down with Marcus Aurelius Anderson to talk about what happens when the identity you built your whole life around is taken away. Richard shares how he went from being thrown out of the military for addiction to being named Soldier of the Year, and how losing his vision and his uniform in 2012 left him asking who he was without it. He opens up about the moment his six-month-old daughter pulled him back from the edge on Labor Day 2012, the lunch with Gary Vaynerchuk that launched his podcast, and the Ed Mylett lesson that everything in his life happened for him. Together they talk about why nobody is coming to save you, how success leaves clues, and why taking full responsibility for your life is where living begins.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

13:50: Richard shares how a lunch with Gary Vaynerchuk led to the push to start a podcast and write a book before he had any social media following at all.

18:37: Richard explains that the biggest revelation from 14 years of therapy is that nobody is coming to save you, and how Ed Mylett taught him that nothing happened to him, it all happened for him.

22:34: Richard describes how losing his military ID and his identity as Sergeant Kaufman left him asking who he was, and why so many veterans and first responders struggle after taking off the uniform.

25:53: Richard describes how a George Strait song about a father seeing his daughter for the first time came on the radio seconds before he planned to end his life, and how thinking of his own daughter saved him.

Richard Kaufman, known as The Comeback Coach, is a military veteran, author, speaker and host of the Vertical Momentum Resiliency Podcast 2.0, which has passed 1,400 episodes and nearly five million downloads. After being discharged in 1988 for drug and alcohol use, he fought his way back into the Pennsylvania National Guard, was named Soldier of the Year and served more than 20 years before his medical retirement in 2012. Richard has been sober since 1989 and is the author of A Hero's Journey From Darkness to Light, a book about recovery, addiction and depression, and The Podcast Blueprint, a guide to starting and sustaining a podcast. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three kids.

Learn more about the gift of Adversity and my mission to help my fellow humans create a better world by heading to www.marcusaureliusanderson.com. There you can take action by joining my ANV inner circle to get exclusive content and information.