Return to Base: Steve Weintraub on VetTix & Post-Service Impact

Welcome back to Return to Base, where we talk with leaders shaping the military and veteran space, people who didn't stop serving when they took off the uniform. I'm your host, Cliff VanRickley. Today's guest is someone who's turned service in the impact for millions of veterans and their families. Steve Weintraub is a former Marine and the Chief Strategy Officer at VetTix, the largest veteran-focused nonprofit in the United States, with more than 2.6 million verified members. VetTix provides tickets to sporting events, concerts, performing arts, and family experiences that reduce stress, strengthen bonds, and keep veterans connected to their communities, and recently even sent veterans and their guests to the Super Bowl. Steve, welcome to Return to Base. Great to have you. Thanks for having me, Cliff. It's really an honor to be on Return to Base and to be your guest. So excited to be here. Yeah, so let's just dive right in. So, you know, I always like to start with, maybe it's your villain story, maybe your hero story, who knows? What first pulled you towards the Marine Corps? Like, where did you grow up and what drew you to serve in the United States Marine Corps? I mean, I grew up in Arizona. I went to high school and college in Arizona, went to Arizona State. You know, it sounds corny. All right, well, let me set the timeline. You know, I graduated from high school forever ago in 1983, so I'm that old, and, you know, went to college. You know, that was the Reagan years. Things were different. Soviet Union. So it sounds corny, but I wanted to join the military because I want to serve my country and give back the, you know, the cliche being, you know, being a part of something bigger than yourself. So, but I wanted to fly. I thought I wanted to be a pilot, be an aviator. And the Marine Corps, my father was a Marine veteran and he wasn't a career guy. He never said, hey, this is what you're going to do. But hearing about his stories and things like that, it really drew me to the Marine Corps. So I enlisted in the reserves while I was in college. And I was a combat engineer when I was enlisted and then applied for the Marine officer program. So I went to two summers of officer candidate school while I was in the reserves, while I was in college, and then graduated, got my commission in 1989. I had my, you know, my ticket to go to flight school. And I got down there and I realized that I wanted to lead Marines on the ground more than I wanted to fly. As much as I wanted to be a pilot, the leadership opportunities as a ground officer was more appealing to me. So that was like really the toughest decision I really had to make in my life was to walk away from the aviation program and be a ground officer. And honestly, no regrets since, since I did that. And it's nothing against the aviation community. I've got a lot of friends that are aviators or that were aviators, all branches, but very fulfilling as a, as a ground officer. Oh, awesome. Yeah. I mean, that does seem, I mean, you couldn't probably get any different than a ground officer versus an aviator in the Marine Corps, right? A whole different lifestyle, a whole different outcome. I suppose you liked getting dirty, getting in, getting in the trenches. Were you branched as an infantry officer? I don't understand how the Marine Corps officers work, but is, is, is that kind of where, where they put you? Well, and so how the Marine Corps works in the officer program, I mean, every Marine, there's, you know, every Marine is a rifleman. So whether you're enlisted or an officer, you go through some basic infantry training. And in the Marine Corps, once you, when you go through the basic school, which is like the Army's equivalent of OBC, which is six months long, it's very infantry laden. So you, you learn a lot about infantry tactics, things like that, but you learn all other aspects of the Marine Corps because you don't know what your military occupational specialty is going to be unless you're uniquely qualified in maybe law, public affairs, a few other things, or obviously aviation. So you get a, you get a, you know, a real grounding of what it is to be an infantry officer. So you learn how to call for fire, patrol orders, all that stuff. I actually, I had a flight contract going through the basic school, so I didn't have to like worry about that. Then I got down to flight school and I made the decision when I left flight school to be a logistics officer. And as a logistics officer, you know, my experience, the things I did, I was, you know, very tied to the infantry. I wasn't in an infantry battalion or on the infantry side of things, but the, the units I supported were on the infantry sides. Definitely got a, got a taste of, you know, what that was. And again, every, every job in the Marine Corps is to support the warfighter, the grunt. So it doesn't matter if you're a cook, baker, or candlestick maker, everything you do is to support the warfighter, which is the infantry. Awesome. And so to this day, I assume you consider yourself a Marine, but how long did you do? When did you transition out of the Marine Corps? Yeah. So I, you know, I enlisted in 1987. I retired in 2019. So I did about 32 years, math for Marines. Yeah. It's about 32. And so I retired in 2019 and I was a hybrid because I did, you know, I did my active duty time and then I got, got off active duty. I got purged after Desert Storm. So yeah, I'm that old. So they had the big drawdown after Desert Storm and a lot of, you know, personnel, all branches got, you know, got basically when you fulfilled your contract, you couldn't stay on active duties. That was in 95. And I, I went into the reserves immediately after I got off active duty. I stayed in the reserves ever since. So I lived a double life as a reserve Marine and in the civilian world, but my total time on active duty to include three mobilizations, two to Iraq is about, about 10 years. And then the other 22 on the reserve side, again, as a hybrid, as a reserve, you know, Marine, you know, I lived obviously a lot of time on active duty, but on the civilian side too. So I was kind of, you know, a chameleon because, you know, as a reservist or national guard or whatever, you live that double life. So you're, you're exposed to both of them. Yeah. Yeah. It's very interesting how all the calculations are going and, and certainly interesting what happened in, in the, in the early to mid nineties. So just moving along here, I'm curious, every Marine is a little bit quirky in my experience. There's, there's something definitely unique about Marines. So I guess my first question is what is your favorite flavor of crayon? Oh, it's gotta be great. Yeah. And you don't, don't knock it till you try it. And look, Hey, I was embedded with the Army. I was with 18th Airborne Corps and Third Corps in Iraq. So that was a great education about the Army. And I understand why they do what they do, how they do what they do. And they got, they learned from me a little bit what it's like to be a Marine and, you know, the nuances and the differences, but yeah, don't, don't look past those great crayons. Right. And that's, that's pretty funny though. The kind of mixing of services as it were in, in some of our operations that we ended up doing, there's definitely a difference between services. So let's talk about after your service, right? So you, again, I, it sounds like you were a bit of a chameleon. Were in the civilian world, you were still a Marine Corps reserve officer, various deployment or mobilizations, as you called it. Let's, let's talk about how you navigated that transition. And then was there a difference between when you were kind of in both worlds versus you had to transition entirely for good? Yeah. Yeah. That's a great question because, you know, as, as a reservist or, you know, in, in the guard, you know, and maybe you're not like in the guard full time, whatever, but you know, you, you, you walk that tightrope because when you're doing your reserve duty or guard or weekend or whatever, you're, you're focused. I mean, you know, you're locked in, you, you're in the zone and then, you know, come Sunday evening or whatever, you gotta, you know, you gotta click it off and be that, I say normal person again, right? But you gotta be a civilian because depending on what your civilian job is, and I worked in the corporate world and things like that. And sometimes it was hard for me to, to revert back to being a civilian. And cause you know, you're, you know, that's, that's who we are, our personalities, right? And sometimes our service identifies us, but when we're in the private sector, you know, you can't walk around saying, Oh, well, Hey, it's, you know, let's, you know, let's have a meeting at, you know, zero nine 30 or 1430 or, you know, whatever. Cause your civilian counterparts look at you like you're, you know, like you need to be, you know, wheeled off in a, in a wheelchair somewhere. So, you know, it's that chameleon thing. And, and I've seen a lot of my counterparts in different services where they just couldn't, they couldn't adjust. They couldn't make that transition or they had challenges with it, even in the private sector that can be, you know, that can be a detriment to your career progression, depending on what your job is. Yeah, for sure. When you fully transitioned from the military, were you already employed with the, the company that you ended up working with in your transition period? Not necessarily already vet techs, but was there something lined up and something that you fell into easily, or did you, do you have time, a period where you were struggling with your own identity? Yeah, I mean, to a degree, and that's where, you know, as a logistics officer in the Marine Corps, when I got off active duty in the reserves, I had jobs in the, in the logistics supply chain field, cause it was a natural fit. And I actually networked my way out of that. And I found myself in the nonprofit space again, by networking and networking is so important in our space, in the veteran space, in the military space. And so I got a job by networking who I knew, things like that. And so when I retired, you know, from the Marine Corps in 2019, I was already employed by vet techs and which was a really, you know, great opportunity. I networked into vet techs, but, you know, again, whether you're, you know, and, and even when you transition out, if it was, you, you did four years or, you know, 10 plus or whatever, you know, and I, and obviously you did 20, so you get it. It's, you know, brushing off that, you know, that military piece. And, and again, it's like, you know, don't let that define you, right. Because you've got to transition back into the private world and you don't want to be perceived as this one dimensional person that can't, can't make that, that transition. And again, I've seen some cats and dogs that, you know, really struggle with that. But again, I was fortunate because when I, I retired from the reserves, I had that vet techs job. Again, even today, it's not that I, it's hard for me, but you know, you gotta be a civilian and people that don't have military experience or whatever, they don't always really appreciate what we did or the military stories or the vernacular, the jargon, the mannerisms and things like that, because we're civilians now living in their world and we can't make them live in our world of being veterans or post-military or change the organizational culture to be more like the military. It doesn't work that way. I hear what you're saying there, Steve. And I think that that's an important thing for veterans to learn. But I think that there's, there's probably, probably a lot of skills and attributes that do bleed over and make you a hot commodity. Can you talk about, you know, one or two things that maybe some of your colleagues in the corporate world would look at Steve and say, oh, you know what? He's a Marine. He's got this. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And there's, that's a great question because there is that perception that, hey, as a veteran, you're, you know, you're squared away, you're on top of things, you know, and, and that's, you know, 99% of the time, that's the case, right? Because the, the private sector looks at us veterans as, you know, we're, we're movers and shakers and we get things done. You only have to tell us once, so on and so forth. And so for me, you know, the Marine Corps has, you know, teaches us officer enlisted, there's leadership traits and leadership principles. And so the Marine Corps has 11 leadership principles. And the one that I've always applied to me is know yourself and seek self-improvement. Right. And sometimes, you know, you got to look inwards and it's like, you know, again, we're, we're, we're taught in the military that we're, you know, we're waterwalkers and, but you always have to look at yourself and critique yourself. And it's like, you know, am I, you know, am I performing at where I should be or where my boss thinks I should be or things like that? So it's really knowing what your capabilities are, not being overconfident, but it's like, Hey, you know, we're always learning things. So seeking that self-improvement is what can I do better? That's a great answer. And I think when what it comes down to is you carried with you those leadership principles and applied it to your regular life as almost a mantra. And I think that's a great thing. After retiring from the army, the toughest moments weren't overseas. They were at the kitchen table talking bills and budgets. Navy federal credit union is helping members dominate debt with the platinum card, transfer your balance within your first 60 days and get a 0% intro APR for 12 months. Our members could save thousands over the promo period. Learn more at navyfederal.org slash platinum Navy federal credit union. Our members are the mission Navy federal is federally insured by NCUA. So let's, let's just talk a little bit more and dive in deep about that takes, right? So a little background for me is I've known what that takes is for a long time. I live here outside of Nashville and there's actually a pretty good advertisement in, in the terminal that I'm probably like a 20 foot wide kind of wall or thing. And every time I pass it, I remember fondly an opportunity to go to a sporting event, thanks to that ticks. So that was many years ago. I unfortunately with my schedule, I haven't had an opportunity to use that takes a whole lot, but I know people who have and certainly I have before. So tell us about that takes. It's not just about free tickets. It's about connection. How'd you get involved? I know you mentioned it's starting to get involved in the nonprofit sector. And then tell us, you know, what the mission is and what that means to you. Yeah. So how I got involved was like that takes popped up on my radar when it was like still a startup. And so it was created in 2008. And I was like, let me check this out. And I looked at the website and I saw what the mission is. Give something to those who gave. And I, it really resonated with me because, you know, it's like, Hey, you know, what we do is we distribute free event tickets to veterans, service members, first responders on the first tick side and their families as a way to, you know, thank them for their service and sacrifice because, you know, both you and I, and a lot of you, your viewers and listeners, you know, there was times where we missed family events. We, we missed birthdays, anniversaries, holidays away from our family. So if we can send our members to these events with their family and friends to make up for that lost time and rebuild those relationships, that's our mission. That's what we do. That's all we do. And so I, I, I met with the leadership because it's based in Arizona here in Tempe. I reached out to him and I said, Hey, I really love what you guys do. I love your mission. You know, I'm in the military. I'm in the reserves. If I can use, if I can help you guys with my networks and you know, in the veteran space and you know, the military to help build the organization, you know, please let me know. So we would have those conversations. So that was like maybe 2009, 10, maybe. And then in 2016, you know, my boss, our founder CEO, he was like, Hey, we're looking for a strategy guy. Are you interested? And that was like, that was an easy answer, right? So, I mean, that's our mission. We're the largest veteran service organization in the United States. We have over 2.6 million verified members and we've distributed over 35 million tickets since we started in 2008. We average about 22,000 a day. We distribute about 22,000 a day. So for us every day is Veterans Day and obviously that's nationwide. And so we've really grown into what we've become. And even when I started back in 2016, even though we were eight years old, I think we were still pretty much a startup because shortly after I came aboard, we had achieved the milestone of distributing our 3 millionth ticket, which was huge. I don't like two and a half, three weeks ago, we eclipsed 35 million and it was just kind of like, okay, another million, you know, in the books. So, but again, we do it because we want to give back and it's so important. It's not just going to these events, right? It's going to these events with your family and friends, but it's reintegration. Okay. Whether you're still in or not, it's reintegrating with your community and with society. And the cool thing about our mission is a lot of times the tickets that we receive that are claimed, you're in the same section, row, block as other Veterans service members and first responders, whether you realize it or not, you're sitting among your tribe, right? So you may not be rooting for the same team or whatever, but you've all, you know, worn the same cloth, so to speak. What that helps with again, is the reintegration it's building relationships and we've got data that backs it up that, you know, this is very healthy for the, you know, the wellbeing of, you know, of our members of our society. So, and which was a unintended consequence of our mission. Great answer. And it's great to have an organization like VetSix out there thinking, thinking a little bit outside of the box. You know, there's so many folks who focus on physical health, actual mental health, helping us develop relationships with our friends and families and in a event setting is pretty, pretty cool. So you said over 30 million tickets have been distributed. That's quite phenomenal. I wonder, you also mentioned, you know, the last, when it rolled over to the next million, it's kind of, oh, it's another million, right? But I wonder if there's a couple stories where you guys connected some vets with tickets that stand out to you because it's, you know, once you reach a certain amount, it's easy for the, you know, the three to become the fours, if you will. Yeah. And that's where, you know, part of our process is, is that we get thank you testimonials. And so after you go to an event or we've changed the process a little bit, but you can submit a thank you testimonial and you can upload that in the phone app here. And Cliff, you definitely need to download that app because I noticed that you don't have it installed yet, but that's another story. But anyway, so you upload a thank you and a photo of yourself, maybe you and your friends, family, whatever. And, you know, hey, thanks to vet ticks and, you know, Nashville predators. We had a great time, so on and so forth. So you get incentivized for doing that. But what we do is we share these thank yous with the donors, right? So if it's a Nashville predators or, you know, some other, you know, sports or concerts, live nation, it's our largest donor. They, they see those thank yous, our donors see those thank yous. So they see the impact of their generosity and their, their currency is tickets, right? You know, thank you for your service. What does that mean? Well, you know, very broad, right? But our donors, their currency is tickets and whether you can afford tickets to an event or not, our donors are like, we want to host you with our tickets. So a lot of people are like, oh, well, I can afford my own tickets. I don't need vet ticks, whatever. That's not what it's about. So one of my favorite thank you testimonials is from this gentleman, army veteran, young guy. So he retired probably like you after 20 years. And he's like, look my, I got tickets to a NASCAR race in Martinsville and they were donated by NASCAR hall of fame champ, Kurt Busch. He used to donate a hundred tickets for every race that he drove in. So these tickets, Kurt was the donor and he says, Hey, I was going to bring my son to the race. He got Buffaloed with homework, but my buddy, who's a fellow vet, he's not firing off all cylinders. He's going through some personal stuff, divorce, custody issues, things like that. I brought him to the race. We sat with other veterans, had a good time on the drive home. He said, Hey, thanks for bringing me to the race today and sitting with other veterans. This was, you know, this was a fun day. He said, if you didn't do this, my plan for the day was to kill myself. So yeah, no joke. So the guy writing the testimonials, like just dropped them off at a mental treatment facility on our way home. He just called me and said, thank you again for doing this. This has had such an impact on my life that it's changed my trajectory and I want to live and enjoy life. So that's a, you know, it was a long testimonial, but that's a paraphrase, but, and that's not a one-off. I mean, there's so many others that resonate that kind of messaging and the impact of our mission and what we do. That's certainly powerful. I retired from the army in 2018 after serving multiple deployments. When the uniform came off, the mission didn't disappear. It shifted to my family, my kids, and protecting our financial future. Navy Federal Credit Union helps members do exactly that with the platinum card. When you transfer your credit card balance within your first 60 days, you get a 0% intro APR for 12 months. Our members could save thousands, real help for real life. Learn more at navyfederal.org slash platinum. Navy Federal Credit Union. Our members are the mission. Navy Federal is federally insured by NCUA. After the intro rate expires, variable APRs apply based on credit worthiness. Rates are subject to change. Fees may apply. Offer ends March 31st, 2026. Again, the cries for help come in in different forms and sometimes something like that ticks us there to thankfully help build that bridge to treatment. I've known several people, unfortunately, who have taken their own life after service. We all wish that something like that ticks or anything like this would have come between them and that decision. Transition a little bit here. Pretty cool. The premier event in the world is the Super Bowl, obviously. I have been told that recently you sent a few veterans to the Super Bowl, which I mean, pleasure of actually going to one Super Bowl. I was invited with my former unit, and it was a good time up in Indianapolis. Once in a lifetime experience because there's no way I could have afforded that ticket. Where do those tickets come from, and what is that experience like? That's so cool that you got to go to the Super Bowl for free. I'm sure it was an amazing experience because you were part of the unit in uniform. Obviously, the recognition that our service members get at big events like that, that's clearly a memory that you're never going to forget. It's probably top five or 10 other than family things. Our first Super Bowl tickets were back in 2019. We actually bought a pair from one of our NFL teams. We bought them from the team for face value, and we'll never buy tickets on the secondary market. Let me back up. VetTix, Live Nation Entertainment is our largest donor. They've donated over 5 million tickets to us. Our fourth largest donor is VetTix. That's where we spend money on buying tickets. That's where we bought a pair of tickets from one of our NFL team partners at face value. We had tickets to the Super Bowl in Atlanta back in 2019. It was so exciting. The cool thing is that a private donor actually donated a pair of tickets also. They had field access. They had a pregame buffet and all this other stuff. You never know. We were so geeked that for us, it was the brass ring to get Super Bowl tickets. Fast forward, this past Super Bowl, February 2026, we bought 10 tickets, five pairs, again, from our league partners at face value. Five VetTix members and their plus ones got to go to the Super Bowl for a nominal delivery fee of $16.97. You're going to pay more for that in parking. Again, it's how we can give back. These members were randomly selected. They didn't have to write a 500-word essay or some life event that we wanted to make a big deal out of. That's not how it works. They were randomly selected, and they got to go to the Super Bowl with a guest. We love to be able to do that. We're in a position now where John Wood, every year, will be able to provide Super Bowl tickets to our members. Did your team win? Yes. Great question. The Seahawks are one of our great partner donors. They're so good to us. I didn't have a dog in the fight, so to speak, but sentimentally, I was glad that the Seahawks won. Great. What's next for VetTix? As your position, I'm sure you have a lot of influence to look forward and say, Hey, you know what? We've sent a bunch of people to the Super Bowl. We've sent folks, I'm sure, to the Kentucky Derby, things like these premier events. What is the next milestone that VetTix is looking for? Yeah. We want to be the organization that veteran service organizations, military service organizations, even the military think of when they talk to their members or service members, troops, whatever, and say, Hey, you really need to join VetTix, because it's a great force multiplier for entertainment, for reintegration, all those other things. Our goal really is to be top of mind for these organizations to include in the military to be like, Hey, you know what? Your check-in sheet, boom, boom, boom, signed up for VetTix yet? That's what we want to be. We want to be that organization that's top of mind. The other part of that is for donors, for organizations that have tickets, even corporations that a lot of times they have corporate tickets that don't get used. They're for business development or whatever. We want to be top of mind where it's like, Hey, we're not going to use these tickets. We're going to donate them to VetTix. Same thing if you're a season ticket holder, season ticket holders, maybe to the symphony or to sporting events or whatever, and you're not going to use them. As a charity, as a 501c3, you get an in-kind tax form for the face value of those tickets, so you actually get to write those off. Our scan rate is over 92%. If you donate them to VetTix, they're going to get used. Not only are they going to get used, but they're going to be used by a veteran, service member, or first responder. Our terms and conditions are very clear that if we find out that those tickets wind up on the secondary market, in essence, you're scalping them, your account is permanently suspended, no ifs, ands, or buts. That's good. Obviously, that market has kind of changed the landscape. Just the full buying tickets online thing. I just love what you guys are doing. I put a note here that I need to follow up and try to get involved myself. Can you go into that, how people can get involved if there's other than just donating tickets? Where do they go to donate tickets? How do we know if it's an event or something that would be a good fit for VetTix? Yeah. That's where, look, if you haven't signed up yet, vettix.org. It's that simple. Upper right-hand corner, create an account. Up in the right-hand corner, too, if you want to donate tickets, there's the link on how to donate. It's super easy. I've spoken to people, I was on the plane boarding and I was wearing my VetTix shirt. This gentleman, older gentleman, he's like, oh, VetTix, my buddy told me about you guys. I'm like, yeah, you need to sign up. He had his smartphone, whatever. Then when we landed, got off the plane and he was waiting for me at the gate. He's like, yeah, you know what? I signed up. I got verified before we even took off. It's that easy. Somebody older than me on their mobile device was able to sign up and get verified. The reason why we verify, we verify through id.me, which is a third-party verification. The VA uses them, USA uses them. We do that to make sure that you are verified as a veteran service member or first responder, so there's not like that stolen valor kind of thing where you try and get in under the wire to get these tickets. The whole process can take less than five minutes. We don't ask for your personal identifiable information. We don't hold onto that. There's a verification process through id.me, but once you're verified, boom, you're in. You get notifications about events in your local area. If you see something you like, you can select it. Again, there's a nominal delivery fee. Part of that is skin in the game because when you get something for free, you're not always likely to use it. If you pay a couple of bucks for something and it's that anecdote, your wife's like, hey, honey, the neighbor's having a barbecue on Saturday night, and you're like, well, hey, you know what? I paid the delivery fee for these tickets, so that takes for X, Y, Z, so we're going to that. Part of it is the delivery fee. The other part is that we're an over 99% charity, so less than 1% of that delivery fee goes to our operating expenses, admin, all that other stuff. That over 99% of that delivery fee goes to us buying more tickets to create more supply to meet demand, so we buy tickets from our donors. Even though they donate to us, we buy tickets from them, again, to create these experiences and, again, ensure that more people have the ability to attend these events. Awesome. Steve, it's been great having you on the Return to Base podcast. We're going to kind of transition to close here and kind of do like a lightning round. Knowing you're Marine, I'm going to spice these things up a little bit, okay? Morning person or night owl? Man, I'm more of a night owl, but I love the mornings because it's before the chaos, so morning, especially if I'm going skiing or something like that. Football or basketball? Man, gosh, I guess it depends on who's playing. It definitely depends on who's playing. All right. College or print? College. Yeah, college. All right. All right. Lastly, what is one word that defines your personal mission right now? Not just Ret-Tix, but yours as a veteran who's trying to give back, trying to educate other veterans. What's one word that would define your mission right now? It's hard to bring it down to one word, but I'd say resiliency because it's a broad term that can go in a lot of different directions. My own resiliency, but it's helping other people with theirs. Great. Well, Steve, it's been great once again to get to know you and to learn more about Ret-Tix. I will be downloading the app today. I didn't know that corporate would be spying on me, but- Big brother. Big brother. And look, based on where you are geographically, yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on in Nashville that there's the Opry. We have tickets to the Opry, Predators, all kinds of stuff. I appreciate you mentioning you saw the sign that said BNA because that's part of what I do. I always love when people send me photos of that, but yeah, you definitely need to hit a couple events with the family. Yeah, and I will for sure. So, Steve Weintraub, from Marine to strategist to impact builder, working at Ret-Tix just shows that your service hasn't stopped. It's been evolving. And what you're doing to reconnect veterans to family, community, and joy after services is phenomenal. And I appreciate it. Thank you for your service and thank you for what you're building. Thank you, Cliff. And thanks for the opportunity and thanks for all you do with Return to Base and for your service. Appreciate it. And to our listeners out there, if you've enjoyed this episode of Return to Base, make sure you subscribe, share it with somebody who's navigating their own transition. And until next time, we'll be out there looking out for each other. you