Scott Schimmel (00:00)
All right. We are back for another episode of the Vector Accelerator podcast. I'm your host, Scott Schiml. I'm here with Diego. Diego, you and I met, I don't know, when the heck did you transition? When did you go through the Honor Foundation? Seriously? That was...
Diego Ugalde (00:10)
2017 is when we met. Yep.
Scott Schimmel (00:15)
a long time ago. had, yeah, I mean, you were what do you remember what group you were?
Diego Ugalde (00:22)
Yes, I was cohort 11.
Scott Schimmel (00:25)
yeah, dude, you're an OG. So that's when I was still...
Diego Ugalde (00:28)
You know, we actually
met in 2016 at the end before we even started. Yep.
Scott Schimmel (00:33)
No way.
You and me? Did you, how did we meet?
Diego Ugalde (00:40)
This is one of the things that I love about you so much. One, one of the things.
Scott Schimmel (00:45)
My bad memory.
Diego Ugalde (00:50)
You gave a speech. It's one of the few speeches I've ever listened to, especially back then when I was never really capable of being real present, know, ADD, squirrels going everywhere. But you broke through all that and you gave a speech that I have never forgotten. And it was your talk about your experience from color blindness to receiving the gift of the glasses, the color-seeming glasses, and that whole process.
Scott Schimmel (01:16)
Yeah, yeah.
Diego Ugalde (01:20)
And you said...
six words at a count amount. We live in a glowing planet and I was like, this is, I don't care what he's doing. I want to be right next to him wherever he goes. This guy is amazing. And we've been kind of like this, so, you know, ever since then, but for sure we haven't drifted far apart.
Scott Schimmel (01:26)
Yeah.
You
Yeah.
Yeah. Well, well, you're making me feel good. So that's, that's at least the point of this episode. boost my ego a little bit. yeah. So we were, we were fast friends and you stood out to me. So back in those days, I was often in the classroom with the honor foundation, its first campus, which was in San Diego. And so I got to spend a lot of time, you know, six, six to eight sessions, three to four hours each. It's a lot of time and
Diego Ugalde (01:54)
You
Scott Schimmel (02:14)
And I know I got to build a lot of relationships with folks, but you stood out, I think because of your eagerness to really do transition well. And I care about all transitioning veterans, but it's especially invigorating for me when someone's so engaged and that you were a gift to me out of the gates as well. So it's certainly a mutual thing, but I appreciate the kind words. And I love to hear.
Can you just give us a little backdrop? We don't need to know the full ins and outs of your entire history, but I'd love to hear a bit of a flyover so people can kind of get the context of who you are.
Diego Ugalde (02:51)
Yeah, oh, of who I am. I am all that is. Okay, nevermind. Let's see. Who am I? So it takes most people two years to become the SEAL. It took me 10, lots of failure and broken bones and things like that. I finally made it. I ended up spending 15 years in the SEAL community and then I retired in 2018. And then in 2017, as we mentioned, I found the Honor Foundation.
Scott Schimmel (02:53)
Yeah. Where am I?
Diego Ugalde (03:21)
And I didn't know what I was going to do, but I didn't feel lost at the same time. Like I didn't feel afraid, mostly probably because ignorance is bliss. know, you know, whatever paychecks are stopping, who cares? It'll figure itself out. But yeah, I had no, no clue. I'd kind of grown up in the Navy and I was a civilian paramedic for a while. And I went back in the Navy. Then. Yeah, just no clue.
Scott Schimmel (03:32)
Yeah.
Diego Ugalde (03:50)
Honor Foundation opened my eyes up to all of these corporate possibilities, know, Google, LinkedIn, all these, all these people and all this potential. And still at the end of the day, what felt right to me was to start my own company. And I went to the Honor Foundation. said, Hey, I want to do this. Can you help? And they said, absolutely. Yes. So we started the Trident approach, which was,
executive coaching program sharing the best of what we learned in the SEAL teams combined with our deepest insights from elevated states of consciousness. And yeah, we've been doing that for a while. And then I found my way into psychedelic integration coaching with veterans, taking them down to Peru, helping them process through post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, addiction, depression, all of the things. yeah, and then I found myself.
where I'm at now, which through all that process, the one thing even more powerful than psychedelics, more powerful than therapy, more powerful than all the medications that we have that I know of is connection, connecting to the deep self and connecting to the community around as far as the most powerful medicine we have available to us. And this is a whole other story, but the idea of
finding that connection through the power of storytelling just became impossible to ignore. And so we started WarriorSide, which helps veterans not only learn how to tell stories, but be very, very careful and very deliberate on the stories that they're telling. Because there are many veterans who have been through so much intense experience and they get so many accolades from telling their story.
Scott Schimmel (05:45)
Yeah.
Diego Ugalde (05:46)
And you know, is when you're telling stories, you know, you have to memorize certain things. And if you're telling something to yourself over and over again, and it's misaligned with truth, it's like drinking little teaspoons of poison every time you tell it. And so I didn't want any part of that with Warrior sites where we're being very, very careful of what veterans, what the stories they're telling. And so yeah, that's where we're at now. Super excited.
Scott Schimmel (06:13)
You're well, you're in it and you've been in it. When I say it, you're going there with like talking about everything, all the human side of transition where I think a lot of times, obviously, for the reason that the Honor Foundation exists, Spectre Accelerator exists, Warrior side exists is too often. This is the stuff that is missed. You get right to interview skills, LinkedIn resumes, that sort of like transactional stuff that lives on the surface.
And it's really hard to do that stuff. I would say, and I know you would say, when you've got stories that are inside you that prevent you from clarity, confidence, and hope for the future. I'm just curious your thoughts on that because obviously you know the darker side of what happens when those things aren't addressed.
Diego Ugalde (07:03)
Yes. And as far as I can tell, I don't know anybody who's immune from it. don't know anybody who grew up without proper preparation and training and development in that who escaped all that. Essentially what we're really talking about is just limiting thoughts and limiting beliefs. And on the surface for people who just refuse to look more deeply into it, that's all it is. I think this way and so I can't or something. But when you really, really do
the cleaning out the debridement to try to get the infection out of whatever that is. Those stories go deep, super deep, like to the core of not loving the self. mean real, real deep. And so these surface things when, and we don't force this on anybody, but when people are really, really looking to really, really transcend past these things, you're right.
It gets real dark, real fast. And the good news is that's where you find the light. That's where you find the actual transformation is through the darkest scariest. So that's what I love so much about this path that I'm walking in this life right now. It's just like where you want to go, because I'll be right there with you. don't care how bad it gets. And that's really where the biggest returns come from.
Scott Schimmel (08:29)
What are the stakes do you think? Like not doing this?
Diego Ugalde (08:31)
Life.
100%. Life. One way or the other. Living a confined life, meaning living short of potential, which I don't think any, I think people would spontaneously combust if they started to step into the true potential of what we are capable of doing. But there's, you know, there's levels. There are people who believe that there are
Scott Schimmel (08:54)
you
Diego Ugalde (09:01)
supposed to do what their parents tell them to do all the way, even after their parents pass away and didn't want to do this. And there are people who are on a track that of their own doing that they wish they didn't do, but they don't feel like they have the ability to simply lead it and just be on another track. They, they, for all the reasons, there's no judgment here. they feel like their life can be on the line and
Scott Schimmel (09:03)
Yeah.
Diego Ugalde (09:29)
So what that is is living a confined life, there is only, there can only be suffering. It doesn't mean that you cannot experience happiness. It doesn't mean that you can't experience moments of fulfillment or anything. But what it means is if you remain in this confined state, which we're not meant to be, I don't believe at all in this lifetime, there's just this constant.
pressure that's building up of like, am so much more than all of this that exists. But it's, it's clenched down. And I also mean life because sometimes it can hit others differently and they don't feel like they have any other way out other than through a suicide or, or, you know, accidental things.
Scott Schimmel (10:24)
Mm.
Diego Ugalde (10:25)
And again, there's no judgment here. There really is not. But those are the stakes. It's as big as it gets.
Scott Schimmel (10:36)
Yeah. I don't mean to make light of this, but I brought my son. He's 18 to an event you hosted recently. And right. We were pulling in. He's like, who's this friend of yours, Diego? And I think he said he's like a Navy SEAL or something. And I was like, oh, let me. was like, whatever is in your mind about who Diego is when you hear when you think about the movies, you're going to be you're going to be surprised. And then sure enough, we turn the corner and there you are.
wearing some kind of bright color shirt and a big huge bear hug, a kiss on the cheek. And I'm saying that because you're so delightfully unique. And I mean, I'd love to know at some point, like, how'd you how'd you get this way? Because what you're saying, I guess I sit on the edge of my seat of like, what, where, where is this coming from? And my question in that one of the things we tried to do through vector accelerator through the curriculum,
Diego Ugalde (11:09)
haha
Scott Schimmel (11:33)
is help a transitioning veterans see their life through the lens of a story to consider the experiences that they've had almost like episodes. And then to try to see what is, what are the threads, the through lines, the themes that have shaped who they are. And ultimately to be able to see into the future of what, that story could possibly be. And then what I find is oftentimes the context though, back to what we were originally saying is I need to get a job.
And it becomes like, I don't know, it's, there's, there's a lot that, that are, you know, is at odds with each other. And I'm curious, maybe your advice about that, your thoughts on that, because many of the people starting Vector are like, I need to get a job now. They're very, whether it's motivated or kind of in survival mode, then, you know, that's their focus. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on, I don't know, your advice or your wisdom there.
Diego Ugalde (12:34)
So I'd appreciate, I am appreciating a little leeway here and some grace. This is gonna, so we live in a three dimensional existence. As far as science can tell, we have anywhere from eight to 30 more dimensions going on all around us all the time.
And these dimensions aren't through wormholes or you don't have to go other places. They're all happening right here. We just can't see them with our three dimensional tools of the thinking mind. The thinking mind is an incredible, it is a genius tool for navigating this three dimensional world, but it is for the three dimensional world. One of the ways that I used to explain this is sometimes I go to Peru and we'll be in the jungle.
And we talk in with veterans as they're moving through all their stuff and we're talking about really big things. But every once in a while, everyone will just completely stop talking. And the reason why is this amazing blue morphous butterfly that's just floating by. And this thing is like electric neon blue. It's a showstopper. And everybody just no matter what we're talking, we're talking about demons or we're talking about God or we're talking about whatever, everything stops as we just watch this.
parade of one going by. And then when it goes out of sight, we refocus on each other and start the conversation. Now, there are scientists who believe that butterflies cannot see how beautiful they are because of the placement of their eyes with respect to their wings. It is just amazing the idea that this beautiful creature has no clue how beautiful it is. But that doesn't mean that it's
Scott Schimmel (13:58)
Huh.
Yeah.
Diego Ugalde (14:24)
not beautiful. doesn't mean that those wings don't exist. It just can't perceive them. So they're
That's the equivalent of our ability to perceive these eight to 30 other dimensions that we can't see through the three dimensional plane.
Scott Schimmel (14:43)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Diego Ugalde (14:50)
What quantum physics is capable of proving is that everything is energy. We're all connected by energy. This can of soda that I'm drinking about, drinking that all of everything is made of energy.
Scott Schimmel (15:06)
.
Diego Ugalde (15:07)
And
when we are navigating the world through the limitations, as if the only thing that exists is this three-dimensional plane, we're shutting out awareness, receiving all the things of all these other possibilities that are happening all the time. So somebody, and of course, who would blame them, who would blame them, but somebody who's afraid of not being able to find a job doesn't understand.
These other dimensions at work and it is just energy in Other words if the person who was transitioning says I know that life is always happening for me All I have to do is trust that Everything is going to be as it always has been and jobs will come I will find I will connect with it will happen as long as I lean into this positive vibrational
Scott Schimmel (15:59)
Mm-hmm.
Diego Ugalde (16:05)
state. Like that's the vibration that I'm emanating out because vibration follows vibration.
If they admit the vibration of, am receiving, I am in this space, I am leaning in towards my highest good, that's the vibration that returns to them. You can't typically have these conversations with just anybody. So you usually have to do like, yeah, man, that really sucks, bro.
Yeah, yeah, that's like, really hope you really, really work hard and you really, find your job, you know, but you have to meet people where they are, you know, some people just are not, they don't have any interest in hearing all of that. And I don't blame them.
Scott Schimmel (16:51)
Yeah.
When you look back, back to 2017, 2016, 2017, curious if I would ask you what your leadership, not leadership, like failure or mistake or regret through your transition, does anything come to mind?
Diego Ugalde (17:18)
Now, at the time, what I would have said was I should have researched more. Like for example, the Honor Foundation took us on this trek to Silicon Valley where we got backstage passes to everybody, you name it. They're Airbnb, Google, everybody. And we would go to these campuses and we'd have conversations with some of the highest of the highest people there.
And a lot of us left thinking like, man, that was cool. But still, I have no idea what I would do or what I wouldn't do there. What I would have said back then is, you know, I should have done more research knowing that we were going to Google. I should have done research on what kind of jobs. But knowing what I know now, there's a reason why I didn't do it. wasn't where I was going to be anyway. So let's just let it be as it is. Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (18:03)
Yeah.
Can you imagine?
Diego Ugalde (18:18)
Well, I could in a way. I ended up training and coaching a lot of folks from Google X, like their Think Tank branch, and unbelievable, amazing, loving people.
Like the whole leadership, like we are actual loving friends. Amazing people. If I happen to end up at Google X or Moonshot Labs, I mean, I'm sure I wouldn't be miserable. I'd probably be doing this. Honestly, I'd probably be doing, they would probably let me do what I'm doing now, you know, just so everything is good.
Scott Schimmel (18:51)
That's right.
You
Diego Ugalde (18:59)
But let me, you're asking too, like, where does that come from? I know where, I think I know where it comes from and where I think it comes from, like how I, this, whatever it is that you're experiencing for me is, is when I was growing up, I didn't receive love the way I always wanted to receive love. And so I felt like I had to extend myself out into the world in a way that I received it somehow, you know, in some way.
And so my ego learned, continue acting like this, and you'll receive this. And then I went through this whole process of really scraping my self-awareness down to nothing. Or of sorts. I don't know if that's true or not, but it kind of feels like that. And...
And then I had the amazing opportunity to ask myself almost like in the Honor Foundation, if I could do anything in the world I want to do, what would I want to do? But in this way is if I could show up to the world in any way that I want, if I can show up as as I am, how is that? And that's a very, very different thing. the funny thing is I'm showing up
Kind of the same way I was always showing up as a child, but it's not out of lack. It's not out of fear. Now I am showing up as I am because it just is. It's light years away and you would never know by looking at me from the outside. I like, oh, he's always been that way. Like, no, no, no. A very different person than I was when I was eight. That's for sure.
Scott Schimmel (20:28)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Diego Ugalde (20:55)
So yeah.
Scott Schimmel (20:58)
Sounds like you're catching glimpses in the mirror. Back to that butterfly analogy. You're catching glimpses of your true nature, your true beauty.
Diego Ugalde (21:12)
Yes, and hopefully those glimpses are becoming wider and wider and longer and longer. And who knows, maybe one day in this life, I'll live a full day that way. Maybe not, I don't know. But yeah.
Scott Schimmel (21:26)
As you're trying to help other veterans do that through WarriorSide, I know you have an event coming up and it's one of many that you're intending to do. Can you tell us about
Diego Ugalde (21:40)
Yes. So I talked a little bit about it earlier about just taking great care and understanding the story that they're telling. And so we have a program to bring them through so they're not just spouting out this story that they may not even realize is hurting them.
Once we get to sort of a core messaging in alignment with our best understanding of truth, then that's when we start the story.
where we start the story creation process. And...
So we obviously, we go real deep in the beginning and then the rest is, I think really just joyful understandings of different techniques to tell really amazing stories. So things like stakes and suspense and surprise and comedy and cliffhangers and foreshadowing and all that stuff. The arc of the story, you you start, we call it with the crash, you you start a sealed mission with a crash. And I used to always start my,
stories with, you know, I was born in England and all of sudden I lost everybody, like instantly lost everybody. Yeah, yeah, totally. And I think it's all, they want to know that I was born in England. Like, no, they don't give a shit, Yeah. then, I've said bad words. Anyway, yeah, yeah, bleep that one out. then, and then we have a day of training for stage presence.
Scott Schimmel (22:54)
Yeah, totally. Boring.
Yeah. Sorry.
Please.
Diego Ugalde (23:18)
And, you know, just managing ego, the whole idea of anxiety, why anybody would be anxious standing in front of people talking anyway, all of those things, hand gestures, annunciation, speaking pitch and tone, all of that. And then they have an opportunity to refine that over there as much as possible over the course of a month or so. then, and then for us.
You know, that happened a couple of weekends ago and then March 29th at the House of Blues in San Diego. People that have gone through our storytelling training. You're all going to get up on stage and tell their stories.
Scott Schimmel (23:58)
Yeah. How do you, are there tickets available? I'm setting you up here.
Diego Ugalde (24:04)
thank you. Thanks for setting me up. And this is my book.
Scott Schimmel (24:05)
I
forgot. Thank you. Perfect. You set me up. Ask you the question.
Diego Ugalde (24:17)
Yeah, so if you go to warriorside.org, we have an events tab that you can click and right there you'll be able to purchase tickets for our show. And dinner starts at six and the storytellers will be out there breaking bread with everybody and then the show starts at seven. And then after the show people are gonna get an opportunity to come hang out as well.
We're super excited.
Scott Schimmel (24:44)
And you have a book? Is that what you said?
Diego Ugalde (24:47)
did I say that? It's so weird because I have it right here. It's just right here. It's so funny. It'll be backwards, right? Yeah. So it's leading from the deep and then a Navy SEAL psychedelic approach to conscious leadership. is it? Okay, good.
Scott Schimmel (24:48)
A book you say?
What is its name?
No, it's perfect. It's not backwards. Yeah. Well, we will link
it in the show notes. Anyone who's never listened or watched a podcast before there's notes and there's links there. We're to have it there. I would love to hear, could you, could you close us with you're talking to a veteran who hasn't started. They're not in the honor foundation. They haven't started vector accelerator yet. Somehow they found this.
Diego Ugalde (25:13)
Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (25:34)
episode and they're on the verge. on they're they're at a crossroads and I'd just love to hear what would you say to that person?
Diego Ugalde (25:45)
I will listen. Everyone is so different. And me opening my mouth, telling them what I think they should know is crazy. you started talking to me about butterflies in Peru when I was coming out, I was like, what the heck is this guy talking about? And it's no idea, but by listening and hearing where they are and, and
almost always the limitations that are in their state of being in their subconscious awareness are very, very apparent. Then I can gently start asking questions and, and helping them to challenge some of these beliefs that they have that they can find out on their own are not so. And so listening number one, and then asking questions number two is what I would do.
Scott Schimmel (26:35)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, that's brilliant. It's perfect. It's true to who you are. And it's embedded into the Vector Accelerator curriculum. So what is the curriculum? It's a series of questions. And I think we would say it's the right questions to help you think through and process your life and what you've been through and the stories you've taken on. And then there's a place to be heard. There's a place for other folks like Diego.
We have these asthma chats right now three times a week. Eventually, I think we'll have them every day, if not a couple of times a day where you can just pop in and process out loud what you're thinking about in terms of your life. And there is something profound that happens to me. I know it's happened to you where as you're sharing out loud, even if you were absolutely certain before you started talking, all of a sudden things stop making sense as you start sharing them. And then someone looks at you kind of funny and they're like, huh?
And then you realize that's not reality, that's not truth. And it's in their questions, it's in the look on their face that you start actually connecting different thoughts. And that's when the moment of insight can happen. So we invite you to that. We invite you to participate and experience that. No promises, but I know just like you were back in the Honor Foundation, Group 11, if you're engaged like Diego, if you're leaning forward, if you're listening, I know.
I know the universe is speaking to you. that's the pitch from Diego and Scott of why you should jump in and get started. Diego, love you. I just love being on the journey with you and can't wait to be at your event and wish all the best. And I know we'll see each other again soon.
Diego Ugalde (28:16)
I love you too.
You're the best,
Scott Schimmel (28:26)
See
ya.
Diego Ugalde (28:30)
See you.
