How a Military Veteran Turned Stories Into Legacy

and you constantly have somebody telling you what to do, and you constantly have deadlines to me. It's not like you're like, "Ah, I think I'm going to sleep in today," or, "Yeah, I'll get to it."

“It's like, "No, no, no, you should be your toughest boss."”

If you start your own business, and you're not your toughest boss, you won't make it. I don't want to do a lot of the things I do in life. But I know that if I don't do it, who's going to do it for me if it's my life? Steven Manchini is a military veteran, filmmaker, and award-winning podcast host dedicated to telling stories with depth and purpose.

As the CEO of Steven Manchini Productions, he creates films and podcasts that preserve history,

spotlight human experiences, and give powerful stories the platform they deserve.

Let's not pretend when you start a business and want to make money. Nobody says, "I want to start a business, but I really don't want to make money, because it's not a good thing to do." So now you start weighing, "Okay, I want to start a business, I want to make money, but I don't want to be greedy."

I don't want to live for the material things of this world. So how do I balance that? I said, "Well, what kind of movies are my making? Am I making movies that are kids can't watch or am I making movies that are something that's going to benefit humanity?"

And I chose the latter, and as a result, now I don't feel so bad if I'm successful, because I know in my heart, I'm just trying to do the right thing.

“Do you feel like being someone that has served and now is an entrepreneur?”

Do you feel like you have an advantage because your brain is just, you know, ticking differently? Oh, great question. I'll tell you what it is. So... It spans the globe. Like a super high school, internet Elvis.

Today, Apple is going to reinvent the fall. It's not over, I'll tell how we're... The living your legacy podcast for those who live to leave a legacy.

So welcome back to another amazing episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast.

Joining me today is quite a science project of you will, but I'm in safe hands because I am in the sights of another operation CEO. Steven Monsini, did I get that nice Italian player in there for you, sir? Very, I'm saddened, but I figured you'd get it right, but at the same time, you did it just the way every other American does it. So good for you, my friend.

How does a proper Italian say your wonderful names, sir? Monsini. Monsini. That's promising. If I try and change it now, people think I changed my name, so I'm like, "Eh, man, see, it's just blame it on me." People even blame it on me. So welcome, man. I got to say, how did you feel filming your episode,

seeing your first episode live going from phone call, audition, interview, editorial to now your episodes live on the platform?

So this is one of the first, we've always done the podcast before from here.

So what does it feel like, man? No, great question. I'll tell you what, it's kind of awesome to be honest. Shout out to the editorial folks, the post-production guy. Because I have a production company. That's kind of my speel. Is that I make their documentaries. So from a post-production, like, I get it. I get all the, you know, a little nuts and bolts

that got to go in to make it something come out. When I saw it, I was like, "Wow, these guys freaking nailed it." And the trailers were awesome. And I got a lot of compliments. So truth me told, I don't want to see more of the face on TV, but thanks to you all, it's not so bad. So, uh, all right on, right on. Yeah, I had nothing to do with it. I was just there at the very beginning when it was just rooting me, rooting eye in the ground level,

and now we're so proud that we scale so quickly, and now we're entering to our second season of production. Operation CO is essentially such a such, I would say, an evolution of the brand and platform. There's so many stories when you look at entrepreneurs, you look at CEOs, you look at their track records, or their KDA as gamers like to see, say, they're very similar. The brain pattern not heartbeat pattern is very similar to someone that's in the trenches and the CEO. Do you feel

like being someone that has served and now is an entrepreneur? Do you feel like you have an advantage because your brain is just, you know, ticking differently? Oh, great question. I'll tell you what it is. So, in the military, no matter what rank you are, you start out at the bottom and you constantly have somebody telling you what to do and you constantly have deadlines to me. It's not like you're like, I think I'm going to sleep in today or yeah, I'll get to it. It's like, no,

no, you're going to get up very soon early and you're going to get this done. And what that

“teaches you to your point now is, you should be your toughest boss. If you start your role,”

yes, and you're not your toughest boss, you won't make it. So what happens in the military is because they, I want to say this kind of jokingly, but kind of not jokingly, they beat you down

for your out, you know, so you kind of tough it out. So what happens is you're not afraid to ride yourself because you're like, I'm used to somebody yelling at me. So instead of a decreasing man looking in the mirror, you're yelling at you, you're at least, you know, you know, motivated enough to get my ass up early. You know, I got to get busy on these tasks. I'm going to take care of stuff. So the mindset is there because one one hand, when you're the military, someone else telling

you, when you're running your own business, you're so used to being told what to do, that when you're the boss, you're kind of riding yourself as if it's a third, you know, another person,

“and you have to do it if you want to be successful. Oh, absolutely. People think you're crazy,”

you just constantly talking to yourself. And then when you're talking to yourself, you're not

giving yourself, you know, you're never like, good job at waking at six in a morning and you're going

for that six mile, good job, pal. It's like, no, do it again and fashion while you're in flames and prep yourself, that mentality because you're designed to just bull those through walls. And it's just like, it's comfort. It's all about causing a great willing to lose. That's exactly what it is because, you know, you can say, look at how it wants to get up early and exercise on their own. Like, you're, you are so people that can get up early and go workout, in my opinion, are the

people that are going to be successful. Because that means, oh, yeah, you'll break the comfort of your nice warm cozy bed, you know, you're tired, you might be a Mr. Sam man, I realize, and you're you know, you're like, no, I got to do this because if I want to go to shape, if I want to do this, I got to do it. So you do what you've got to do. And that's disappointing. And, you know, like, I said, I don't want to do a lot of those things I do in life. But I know that if I don't do it,

who's going to do it for me if it's my life? And people don't think like, oh, for sure. They just, they're just content to not do it. It's like, well, you know, at some point, I said this in the show, I said, look, we all have an expiration date. And at some point, your expiration date is going to come. And I think deep down, when we, you know, when we naturally kind of get older, there's a point where we all reflect, you're, you're going to reflect, right? One day, you're going to look back,

you know, and what was my life like? What's to put it kind of bluntly, what was my legacy? So, that's, that's kind of why like what you guys are doing because you're giving a lot of people the opportunity, you know, whether their famous or not so famous, just start not, and you're saying, hey, I'm going to give you a chance to go from the microphone. The world's going to meet you.

And, and basically, you know, what's the legacy that you want to leave behind? Because

these videos are going to last me on me. But at the same time, you're going to go back to my thought, when you're older and you're reflecting, I'm telling you what's as, oh, you're going to wish you spent more time with your family, you should do, oh, the code of what it should

“is or gone, where if you want to spend time with your family, you're not, is it relevant?”

Where do you want to get better shaped as a relevant? So, if you don't do it now, when are you going to do it? Because, I mean, I know this is crazy, but I love this line and rocking. You mean, you cannot go wrong, quoting Rocky. I want to just go on with it. I'm really, I worked with Stellan. We worked with this team, yeah. We helped them launch the button, but we helped them launch the store outside. Yeah, I'm sorry. Oh, no, no, because because

Rocky three, you know, when you guys look, there is no tomorrow. And that's so true. Like, you like, like, what are you waiting for? You don't know that this is your last day on Earth or not. You don't say, but it doesn't mean you look like a fool, but it means it's like, listen, I was good Lord, gave me whatever he gave me. And today, I'm supposed to live right now and not worry about tomorrow. Because because I don't know what's going to get in that

problems today. So let me do what I'm doing. Let me get my ass up. Let me get to the gym. You know, let me get over, let me take care of this business. Let me get on that call. Let me do this and at the end of the day, you sit back and you look at me, oh man, I got all I should done that. Now you're tired. Oh no, you know, 100 years remaining, nobody cares. But you know what, I don't have a people think about you 100 years. It's going to be about what you think about you

right now. And you know, they don't waste it. When it's same time, I'll sit around picking your nose, do enough and you know, otherwise, you know, what are you doing? Yeah, dude, because that energy of just that that slot, or everyone that's the new term AI slot. And I'm like, what do you talk about? Slop has been everywhere. You go to a grocery store and it's like, what shade of macaroni would you like the the pink ones or the blue ones? You know, like that's Slop of like the

human comfort is a dichotomy. And you can see it in Americans. And it's not because, look at this guy shooting at us, like, no, I've got my weight, but now I also got a little bit of capital in the first thing I did was, I got myself a treadmill. Because that six hour morning

“when I'm up and on, up and at I'm going, why am I pacing around the house and have all this energy?”

What am I doing? You better start, because that's your body going. It's time to transform with a fucker. No, that's exactly right. You were given some and you can either waste it or use it. And believe me, I love, by the way, I love running and I'm like, like, running and people think, like, what's the matter with you? Are you crazy? I'm like, yeah, I'm crazy. Anyway, next question.

Rudy's always running. Rudy is always running. Rudy is always on the road. You'll catch it.

But he looks like he's, you know. Oh, yeah, but I met him when he was double the Rudy and now he's just stood still. It's just like, good for him. I use that as my north star, much. If the red

There is a dichotomy in the comfort of, you know, clicked by dopamine high. You know,

“actually, that's what I do. And now you and I are kind of looking back going, we grow up on”

movies, we grow up on books, common books, we grow up on heroes that have been warning us. And now we have devices with these clowns and these fake heroes that are trying to tell us what it's like to do this. They're they're charging us. These are astronomical amount of money to be in a room with them and tell us, listen how it works. How do you come back that, especially someone that works in media. So someone that is very this, you are knows, hey, hey, this is going to be a funnel

because the six G on 10 other come in and video or came video is going to be that that zoom in another six months. So you know what I'm spot that is a great that is absolutely the 64,000 question. And I think there's a couple of pieces to that. One of the problems with a lot and you nailed it that touched dopamine high and off we go, we become so intellectually lazy. I'm not asking everybody to be afraid to PhD engineer, but man, do some thinking, you know, do some research before

you just look at the headline, you know, drum eight six kittens today. Oh my god, I hate six kittens, just kidding. You're right. I mean, I'm just using that as an example. Like, but no, but I'm saying he bite them to it. He'll just throw it out and be like, look how ridiculous you all. Yeah, exactly. You're going to think deeper. Like, you don't don't think like politicians. This is just about a fucker. That's exactly right. They're not going to watch this asshole win. He will

“watch and do it. And he did that. Sorry. No, no, no, no, you're right. But that's what people are”

doing. You talked about these people that are getting their room. So when I left the government, I was actually going to work for Homeland Security. But don't worry, I was on the side or side. It wasn't on the enforcement side. My sister's married to one of one of the homies on the border. So I used to say, when these government officials would leave their jobs. And he's like, oh, so it was the director of XYZ and I'm like, Kevin, did they actually do a good job? And that's

the problem. You, like you said, you get people in a room saying, oh, you know, I was the, I was the, you know, the coach of the, I don't know, the Cleveland Brown. It's like Cleveland's stunk. You're not exactly somebody I want to take advice from. And I think that problem as people are looking at these, quote, people that did it. But what they're not seeing is, but did you do it well? And I think that's the question. Just because the name is out there doesn't mean it's

“somebody I want to take advice from. Mind if you gave me some great advice years ago. He said,”

I never take advice from someone who's not in a place. I don't want to be. Not thought I'm in. So

if the person you're listening to hasn't actually done something that you could look at and go, man, they did that. Well, that's, I want to know more about the verses to your point. Hey, I'm, you know, I hate my own vomit on social media. Now I've got a million followers. And now tell me, does that mean you feel something? Like, like, like and subscribe and to feel your fire, I'm like, Operation CEO, there's a new war out there. And I'm just like, well, we have to

turn into these bigger-than-life characters, especially on social media. Or as I like to tell it, social theater. To gain attention, but it's not negative attention to feed them throw into the fire. So it's like more than ever, folks like yourself that are preaching, that have their own personal, like ministry called Operation CEO, you have your media company. Let's talk positivity here. Like, what are some mountains you're shifting? What are some stories? Tell me, will you move

you inspired? Well, I appreciate that question because that's kind of the whole point of what I do. Yes, sir. What I try and do is give a voice to what I'll call the voiceless. So last couple of documentaries, I found they were international. And I interviewed a lot of family members of former prisoners from the Second World War. And, and in this last, we'll actually interviewed survivors from the war. And, you know, and I'll give you the most reasons why I didn't

chant the innocent ones. It's kind of out, kind of not out. I'm still working some post-production on it. But I interviewed some some family or some members that were alive during the war.

These people in their mid-90s. And some cases, they've never told anyone this story. So

they were literally crying in some cases because they wanted just somebody to listen to. And now when they die and I have to say it, you know, they're in their mid-90s. I mean, you know, the clocks will really close. Now they're going to be remembered. And now someone will be able to hear their stories. And the stories are, you know, we talked about that comfort thing. You know, these are stories about people where it wasn't succum for it. And now they look back and those

kind of people that appreciate the little things in life. The promise, I don't want everyone to go. I have to go through it. Hell. But at the other hand, if you can't get out of your comfort zone, just for a little bit, you're not going to appreciate your comfort zone. And I'll give you a good story. One of the ladies I entered, I think he's like 95 years old. She was 12 years old when the

and they took him off to a mine to go work. He escapes the mine and comes back. The Germans find him.

They beat him up. Now they're pissed off. So they're going to punish the whole family. So they're going to blow up the house. One of the German soldiers grabs the three-year-old sister and throws her into the house before they blow it up. A different German soldier was actually a Polish because a lot of them kind of got forced into the German army. He sees it saves the little girl and then the Germans blow up the house. Now, think if you're 12 or 13 years old, you go through

something like that. Are you going to complain about shoveling the snow? I don't want everybody to have to go through that. But you asked about the pause that the pause that it is now. She is now 90 something years old and she's going to be able to say like, I got that off my chest.

“I told that story and you know, people are going to remember, you know, I want them to remember what”

I went through and that's the true magic here is that nobody, nobody wants to die alone. I'm sure like crazy. Nobody wants to die alone and the truth be told is nobody wants to die for gotten. You know, people can say, I don't care. I don't care. People don't show the truth that it deep down in your heart. Nobody wants to go out like that. And so these folks now know that again, steal your all's line. They have a legacy now. They remember. You know, that's huge,

man. That's huge to me. It's awesome that, you know, where a lie when it comes to where we are in our lives. You know, what are some things that we're going to learn about you for folks that are listening or watching to this podcast before they jump on board and watch episode? A couple of things is one. I was one of those kind of young, dumb person that joined the military very young. I literally had the appearance permission to sign and I shipped off right after 18 and I actually spent almost

six straight years overseas. So when I was over, I was over, it was funny. I was overseas so long and you know, this is in the 90s and the funny that you asked about social media stuff because when

you're overseas, you basically get one channel for a new, at that time in the 90s or was no internet.

So your news was coming from one news source and at that time it was CNN and that was it. If you watch one news channel, one out of three weeks, you're already, you're going to be biased by the end of it. And too, since news only focuses on the, if it bleeds, it leads, it leaves. Absolutely. The thing you see is going to be bad. And if you're away from America to your point, like you kind of even talking before the show start, people are like, what's going on in

America? And I'm in the military going, oh my god, are we about to break out in civil? What this is the 90s? And I'm thinking, are we, what the hell am I going back to? It was after almost six years ago, back. And I'm like, I'll come waiting for like, you know, the blue and the gray battle fields and came. Oh, sure. Should you run back and you like the same old crap? Yeah. And that was,

“that was kind of one eye opener. But I think they're also going to learn that, you know,”

a lot of years in the military retired and this whole, this whole business as I started, really did start on a simple conversation with, again, with an older gentleman who has passed away and he mentioned a little story about some, you know, called Italian prisoners in Pennsylvania and then shortly thereafter he died. I'm like, well, what that's about? And the next thing you know, I'm an Italy filming a documentary interviewing family members of the prisoners. I mean,

it was like, he died in December. And by, I think it was Mayor June, we were in Milan filming. And I was like, holy cow. So it was crazy. It was crazy. Well, you know, a lot of folks, I just recently learned that some people don't have an intermodologue. And that's their bizarre to me. It's it's very interesting how folks interpret life, you know, some folks are colorblind and they see green as blue or blue as red, et cetera, et cetera. With with with your knowledge

and your training, you know, how, how do you know you're on the right path? Is it a voice? Is it a manifestation? Is it numerology? Like, I apologize to get a little new age here with you.

“But I almost, I'm curious, as a, someone that has served, you must see the patterns and”

reality. You must see how markets react, how production flows, how they call it algorithms this B-day. But it's really the intuition. You know, Rocky was very, very aware of how that works when he was bothered to moving. How do you translate your energy into knowing that you're on your path? So that, actually, that's a very interesting question because over the last few years, I've

really, really embraced my faith. I've always, I'm a cradle Catholic. Like, all of it Catholics,

you were good. If you went to church every Sunday, went to confession once a year, congratulations, you're a good Catholic. But then in the last few years, I sort of learned there was more to it than that. And as a result of that, I have been, you know, now kind of praying or flexing, you know, reading different scripture and saying to your point now saying,

you know, ultimately, let's not, let's not pretend. When you start a business, you want to make money.

“Nobody says, listen, I want to start a business, but I really don't want to make money because”

it's not a good thing to do. So now you start weighing, well, okay, I want to start a business, I want to make money, but I don't want to be greedy. I don't want to live for the material things of this world. So how do I balance that? And you asked a great question, how do I know I want

a good path? Well, I said, well, what kind of movies are my making? Am I making, you know, movies that

are, you know, kids can't watch or am I making movies that are something that's going to kind of benefit humanity. And I chose the latter and as a result, now I don't feel so bad if I'm successful

“because I know in my heart, I'm just trying to do the right thing. And that's what makes me”

feel like I'm on the right path because I'm saying, you know what, I'm not trying to screw anybody over. You know, I won't do anything for a buck. You know, after 20 years of military seeing a lot of bad things, you're like, you know, I've seen the worst of humanity. And you know, I don't want to be, I don't want to be in that and that categorized like that. So I'm going to do the right thing on a treat people right, you know. And that's what makes me feel like I'm on the right path.

Right on brother. Well, what are the coolest and quickest ways people can learn more about you, you know, after they watch your episode, listen to this podcast. Is our website social media

“and what's the best way people can access you? I do got social media, but I'll tell you what the best way”

to go is just go Steven Manceini Productions dot com. That's Steve Manceini Productions dot com. Steve, I got to do my lower radio voice. Steve Manceini Productions dot com. Steve Manceini for PHE and I mean, in trying to mention him and see I and I, but you can do it. Just go back. Back in the days, that would be, that wouldn't be called a radio ID, right? Yes, one. Yeah, and you had a great voice for radio. I'm glad we did this also for videos. So we both have nice mugs for a video as well.

Yeah, but I can sit here for another hour and just shoot the shit with you. But I really appreciate your time and energy. I, I, I, I appreciate you taking the, the patience while we got all this together to create a remote experience that is almost as you know what, I would have congratulated all of you on. And I know the sounds cliche, but it's not, congratulations to all of you guys on all the success. Because I know there's a lot of people signing up for it. I know there's a lot

of what. And she for it. I was only a third call. I saw a lot of other veterans on there. I've seen

the other success at the end of the day. You guys doing some good work. And you know, you ought to be congratulated for that. And I appreciate being able to be a part of. Right on, brother, I appreciate that. I'm going to use that a little bit as a testimony on the show that's where they're, where they're taking it for. You know, we're here in. Yeah, I'm going to sleep. You well. And Steven Muncini,