A Marine officer, professional MMA fighter, and jiu-jitsu practitioner came home from his third combat deployment in Mosul and sat down at a table with a loaded Glock. His mother called his phone at the exact second he began to pull the trigger.
Joe De Sena sits down with Lee Stuckey, founder of America's Heroes Enjoying Recreation Outdoors (AHERO), a nonprofit that has served over 13,000 veterans and stopped more than 600 suicides in 16 years. Lee breaks down how he rebuilt after nearly taking his own life, why he swapped every toxic relationship in his circle for someone healthy, and how a four-pillar framework became the structure that holds his life together.
Things You Will Learn:
- Why controlling your environment and your circle changes your trajectory faster than willpower alone.
- The four-pillar framework Lee Stuckey uses to audit his physical, financial, emotional, and spiritual health every week.
- What a one-for-one relationship swap looks like and why it forces accountability into your daily life.
Tools & Frameworks Covered:
- One-for-One Swap: Remove one parasitic or toxic relationship and deliberately replace it with someone who helps you grow across four pillars.
- Four-Pillar Weekly Audit: Physical, financial, emotional, spiritual. Sit down weekly with your family or team and assess each one. Get 1% better daily with a deliberate plan.
- CEO Family Meeting: Block your calendar for family first. Let your spouse fill priority dates before anyone else gets access. Structure your household like a mission.
If this episode moved you, do not just listen. Do something about it. Sign up. Show up. Do the work. Spartan.com. No more excuses.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro: Marine, MMA fighter, and the man behind A Hero
01:35 Military school, Staff Sergeant Sutton, and enlisting as a machine gunner
04:24 How Lee reconciled faith with combat
06:12 Why suicide permanently destroys the family left behind
09:23 Controlling your environment: the VA nurse and the one-for-one swap
12:15 Jiu-jitsu mat or the bar
13:57 Third deployment, a loaded Glock, and the phone call that stopped the trigger
18:31 AHERO Records: veterans turning trauma into three-minute songs
20:21 The four-pillar framework and CEO family meetings
22:45 How to find A Hero and get involved
Lee Stuckey went from a mischievous kid facing juvenile detention to a Marine infantry machine gunner, commissioned officer, professional MMA fighter, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt under Carlos Machado. After three combat deployments, he came home carrying injuries, insomnia, and alcohol dependence that nearly ended his life.
In August 2009, a phone call from his mother stopped him at the moment he began pulling the trigger. That night became the foundation of AHERO America's Heroes Enjoying Recreation Outdoors a nonprofit that has served over 13,000 veterans, stopped more than 600 suicides, placed 62 people into treatment, and launched AHERO Records, a label where veterans turn trauma into songs with Grammy-winning songwriters.
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