Doing It The Right Way

When I visited the American Indian Museum, I noticed a lot of things there to where if things could have been just done a little bit differently, if there could have been just a little bit more respect for both sides, we probably wouldn't have had some of the mistakes that were made.

When I looked at it, I realized that we just need to pick up where we're at now and we need to respect each other. We need to get to a situation where we're helping each other, and we're trying to build a community that is all encompassing. We need to do it in a right way!

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Transcript

[00:00:00] VACI: If you are a veteran and have filed a VA disability claim, have been denied, have received a low rating, or you're unsure of how to get started, reach out to us. Go to docontheroad.com linked in our show notes and take advantage of a free VA claims discovery call. Learn what you've been missing so you can finally get the disability rating and compensation you deserve.

[00:00:31] Dr. John: Hello my brothers and sisters of the uniform. Yes, it's time again for Doc on the Road. I had an interesting weekend. I went to a couple places that not too far from me that I actually think a lot of people should go ahead and visit. I actually went to Washington DC, got to see the Lincoln Memorial, and then also the Washington Memorial.

And a couple other sites. But I went to the war memorials there. The World War Two Memorial. Also saw a memorial for women [00:01:00] in war. I also saw statue. For a number of different things, but just walking around that. And of course when you're there, you've got the Vietnam Memorial, the names on the wall.

And that's a hollowing type of thing to walk through and actually take a look at and Also talk to veterans that are right there. You get some really cool stories. You get to share with veterans of lost ones and stuff like that. But now as I did this I was walking around and I actually got to see that sometimes we take for granted these type of situations.

I noticed a lot of people that were visiting United States and visiting Washington DC but took the time to go ahead and pay their respects there. And also walk around and even talk to veterans and. When you hear the different languages and you hear the different accents and all that kind of stuff, it makes you really feel proud that, hey, look, even if they, lived somewhere else or they were here just to [00:02:00] visit, they made sure to take the time to go look at these historical sites and look at this stuff but also ask questions. 

That's why I started thinking like, sometimes we take advantage of this because we don't really look at it as much as we should, in my opinion. We should be able to, do a lot more about this. And while I was talking to a gentleman there, found out that Kansas City, Missouri actually has a huge world war one memorial.

And I'm like going, wow, I didn't even know especially with all my buddies from Kansas City there that are here with me at VA Claims Insider. But then I was going to go through a lot of the Smithsonian museums and stuff like that. But what kind of caught my eye?

The American Indian Museum. So I walked through there and I actually, got to pick up on number of different things. And like I always told, or like I always had relatives, Hey, there's always two sides to the story. In here you actually get to see both sides of the story, but you also get to see [00:03:00] one side where there was more call for peace during hostile type of situations. And there was a lot of what they termed as treaties. 

Now the treaty aspect has always been big with the American Indian nations. They've had treaties with themselves and stuff like that. And then when the influx from Europe came they had treaties there too.

Now some the treaties obviously, as throughout history. We're never had a consequence for the end of it. In other words, if you did this this is what I expect to happen. It was never anything like that in the treaties. It was more of kind like the old handshake and I trust you, you trust me, type of thing.

And when I see that there, there's a lot of things that I saw that just didn't really make sense to me because I was like, I know some of those treaties were violated. Some of the treaties were for the lack of a better term, just wadded up and thrown to the [00:04:00] wayside for one side to advance and the other side not to advance as much as they could have.

But now when I look at that I equate that to the VA and I think about, claims and stuff like that. There's always two sides to the story. And I know we've got a number of podcasts out there, a number of different things. We have VSOs, we have all kinds of different situations involved in this whole process of doing claims and trying to get compensation, or trying to get recognized by the VA for certain conditions that we have had since the military, ourselves. And it brings to light, the thing with the treaties and stuff like that you know, that we had a contract with the military.

I'm gonna join the military. I'm gonna do the best I can while I'm in but I need you to take care of me if something happens Now, when we're looking at those situations today, it's not as clear cut as you would think it was. We have these conditions that happen to us veterans.

We [00:05:00] have a number of different situations that create other problems that we have going throughout life with other conditions that are related to the main conditions. And we're stuck in a situation or a bureaucracy type of thing to where we have to go ahead and prove that yes, we suffer from this.

And yes this is where it started. So part of our contract, treaty, whatever you wanna call it, also gets walked upon sometimes. And so sometimes we have to fight for it. We have to jump in there and we have to do things that help the other side to see the other side of the story and see what we're talking about.

And sometimes takes place. Now, all claims are valuable claims. All claims, whether it's a body claim, whether it's a respiratory claim, whether it's a mental health claim, no matter what you want, what kind of claim it is, they're all valuable to the veteran. However, the VA doesn't look at it like that. [00:06:00] Sometimes the VA rates things very low.

And it just doesn't make sense, but that's why you wanna make sure that you're going about this in the right way. Like I always say, put that puzzle piece together, put those puzzles pieces together to make an informed picture so the VA can actually see it. Sometimes these claims that we have that we want to go for.

Sometimes they just don't work at the particular time that we're going for it at beginning, because sometimes we have to build up on one claim and then go ahead and try to attach that other claim to it which was what we call secondaries. So the interesting part of this, and like I said, when I went back and I was walking around, seeing these treaties, seeing these different situations where yes we had an agreement when we first started.

When we raised our right hand and we went ahead and took the pledge and did, and honor and served honorably. We did our part. And then sometimes it seems like we have to do double our [00:07:00] part just so we can be recognized for the claims that we're doing.

But like I said, all claims are valuable claims. It really depends on how you want to do it. And how you wanna put it together. And yes, sometimes we need help when we're doing this. And if we don't get the help, we just stay stagnant and nothing really happens because when we do it on our own things just don't work out all the time.

Now sometimes they do, sometimes some veterans can actually go through this process and mail out each one of their claims in a way to where they get 'em rated. And they also get compensation and recognized for 'em. But then there's a lot of other veterans such as myself, we needed a little extra help.

We needed something that's a little bit different. And there's times where I've gotten word on a particular claim and it's only been a very short time for the conversation. The conversation goes pretty quick. But the thing is I still learned [00:08:00] about that claim and gained knowledge that I didn't have before and actually helped me get the claim adjudicated and also to where I'm recognized for that claim now.

And I think a lot of us veterans get caught up in that only took, five minutes or that only took 10 minutes. Doesn't matter how long it took, it take two weeks. The situation that we need to look at there is we gain the information so we can move forward.

That's the most important part. Sometimes a lot of these things, once you know how the system works a lot of these things can go pretty quick. Going away to where everything goes a lot smoother and a lot quicker. I know we have veterans that actually work at VA Claims Insider that didn't use VA Claims Insider.

They were on their own. And it took 'em years to get to a certain point. Now with the VA speeding up, recognizing a lot more and with help from those [00:09:00] that have studied this process and looked at it, things do go a little bit quicker sometimes. I know I've seen a number of cases and worked with a number of veterans where we've had maybe just a few conversations, but we did it in the right manner and it all worked out.

And it was only just a few months. It was less than a year. And they got what they deserve. Everything worked just fine because the picture was good enough so that the VA could actually look at it and go like, all right, I get the point. And yes, all your paperwork's in line here all the different things from doctors, all your medical evidence, all this is perfect.

Yeah, so it worked out. But then we also get to the situation where some veterans will look at that and go that was too easy. If it was too easy, you would've done it in the first place. Okay. It's not that it was too easy, it was just that you're dealing with people that know what they're doing.

So when you come to VA Claims Insider and you're actually getting involved with a coach, you're going to end up [00:10:00] learning a lot about the process and also educated on that particular condition or conditions that you're looking at. There's a number of different ways to do this. Yes. But. When you're working with a professional that actually knows what they're doing, it's gonna be a much faster process and it's also gonna be a lot easier for you to get through.

So I think sometimes we look at this in a light that isn't exactly the truth. Like there's two sides to one story type of thing. So you really have to look at that and you really have to make sure that you do your due diligence to go through this. And as I'm walking around DC and I see all these things and all this stuff is popping into my head and I keep looking at it, not only as a veteran, but also looking at it as somebody that's not from here would look at it.

And would also, sympathize and kind of have empathy for the veteran that actually went through [00:11:00] something very traumatic. I think all of us need to take light of that and maybe slow the process down just a little bit. So we take recognition of. Hey, yeah, this gentleman did help me or this young lady did help me and just because of something they said became inspirational or something they said became easier for me to understand it so I could explain it to a practitioner.

This is what I go through. This is how I'm affected by this one condition. I think that we need to concentrate more on those type of situations and get away from that whole other stuff where there's negativity involved. When negativity is brought in, into, say, something is complicated is going for VA claims.

Not only does it get muddy it gets to a point too where you might run against the wall or two and not go anywhere. So you really need to make sure that you're paying attention, educating yourself, and you're doing [00:12:00] the work to go ahead and move forward right along with your coach, as your coach has given you advice about try this, let's do this.

I think this claim is a better one to go forward at this time. And it all fall into place sooner or later because things do come together once you've got one or two or what they call, say, a high value claim. Once those are good and once those have taken place sometimes it becomes a lot easier to get some of these lesser rated areas taken care of as well.

I know there's one rating that I have my 10% for tinnitus. Now tinnitus drives me crazy, daily. I can almost say hourly because that ringing in my ear and just the, it is like an air pressure type thing that happens to me. It drives me nuts, but it's only rated at 10%.

But if done in the right manner, other things can actually be connected to that tinnitus. Be it [00:13:00] migraines, be it mental health, be it a number of different situations that actually rate higher. So that's important to do this in a proper manner. That's a prime example of why you want to make sure that you're working with somebody that actually knows what they're doing here.

And by working with somebody, like a coach at VA Claims Insider, that's gonna help out a lot. Because there's so many different trends that happen in a monthly basis or daily basis, really with the VA. And as long as you have a coach that's staying abreast of this stuff and also Hey, look, I've had numerous types of veterans come to me with this same problem. 

This is what we did and this is how we were successful. That is actually how you do it. That is how the process becomes a lot easier. Now there's also some veterans like I said in last week's episode that believe it should be just given to me.

Just because I say something happened. Everybody should [00:14:00] believe me. To a certain point I can understand that veterans thought, cuz I've had that thought myself too. But I also know that sometimes you have to prove it. You have to come up with different methods of proving that this took place because there are bad actors.

There are people that get involved and we'll say highly negative things or will make mistakes on this type of thing, and then they just start pointing fingers. They can't, they don't take any responsibility for themselves whatsoever. There are bad actors for that, so yes. When the VA needs more information, you better be ready to give them more information.

And you need to make sure that you're painting that picture so they can actually see it. And also you need to be respectful of the situation. Especially anybody that's really, truly trying to help you, that really knows what's going on. Because that's how this all worked.

This is how it all gels together. That's how VA Claims Insider had [00:15:00] so much success with this. I've had numerous coaches help veterans and get to a situation to where they start helping other veterans. That's what this whole community is all about. So it all builds to this, the big community.

Now of course there's things when I think about what I said, I went through that American Indian or Native American museum, I noticed a lot of things there to where if things could have been just said differently, if things could have been just done a little bit differently, if there could have been just a little bit more respect for both sides, we probably wouldn't have had some of the mistakes that were made.

And I think that when I look at that and it's humbling when I see that and I go you know what? I wish this would've went a different way. I'm sure a lot of people do. I'm sure a lot of people do and I'm sure a lot of the Indian nations would've loved it to go a different way on some aspects of that.

But then we have to look at it too like, [00:16:00] Hey, look, we just need to pick up where we're at now. We need to respect each other. We need to get to a situation of where we're helping each other, and we're trying to build a community that is all encompassing. We don't have those situations to where just because your skin color is different than mine, or you believe in a different religion than I do, or you have different thoughts about politics and stuff like that are different than mine, that I need to go ahead and just be negative and come back at you and just not help you.

That doesn't make sense at all. Now because when we were warriors, we all fought with different people with different ideologies and stuff like that, but we did it as a team. And that's where we need to be at. And we need to make sure that we don't make the same mistakes as we made way back where we're not listening to each other, we're not respecting each other, we're not getting to a situation to where one side wins mainly and the other side doesn't. [00:17:00] 

So by thinking of that, I think that this is the main point that I wanted to get across today. Let's just come together, let's work together, build this community, and actually help everybody that needs help in the manner that they need help. Some people want to go to the a hundred percent, some don't.

Some want to go to 30% or 50%. That's cool, but just tell me what you want and tell me where you need to be. And my mindset as a coach is, okay, now we have a goal. Now we know where we want to go. Let's go ahead and check out what's going on with the conditions. Let's check out which way is the better path to go and get you to where you need to be much quicker than say something that's happened in the past.

And More efficient. I think when we get to that point and we're actually helping each other in that manner and we're listening to each other, we're respecting each other and know that not everything's gonna go perfect. There are gonna [00:18:00] be times where we actually do have to back up for a second, put our heads together and come back at the fight with a different game plan or a different strategy.

Sometimes that happens. But the thing is, we've gotta keep fighting for each other. We gotta keep fighting for a stronger nation, a community. And I think once we get to that mindset and we can stay in that mindset on a more consistent basis, we're gonna do a lot better. And I think that I know when I've done this for many years that I've done it, I have really got great stories from this.

But I've also gained a lot of friendships, a lot of people that I respect. A lot of things that actually I know if I ran into a problem, I'm gonna be able to say, Hey, look, I might need some help here. I don't understand how this works and there's gonna be somebody that's gonna be able to help me as long as they're open to it, but as long as I am [00:19:00] open to it I think that's the most important part of that.

Like I said I had a lot of fun in DC. I've got a lot more other trips planned and man, this weekend was an eye opener for me for a lot of different things. And I think there's a lot of things that I need to take inventory of and take a look at what's really important to me.

What do I need so I can keep moving on and keep spreading the word to build this community, to keep building the situations around me to be more positive. So hopefully you guys get to the same point. Hopefully you get with a coach at VA Claims Insider and they can help you get to where you want to be.

Love you guys, hang in there, keep the fight and let's do it the right way. With respect and honor. This is doc out.

[00:19:49] VACI: The VA claims process is a pain. Many veterans [00:20:00] struggle for years trying to increase their ratings or even getting rated at all. Most are not getting the compensation they deserve. Here at VA Claims Insider, we've supported and educated more than 25,000 veterans to win their claims and increase their rating.

Now it's your turn. Schedule your free VA claim discovery call today by going to docontheroad.com linked in our show notes. You'll learn what gaps you need to fill in, how to increase your rating.