Veterans & First Responders

Your story is the medicine.

Warriorside helps veterans and first responders reconnect with the Self and the Community through Conscious Storytelling Coaching, and the courage of taking the stage.

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Watch our mission statement: Conscious Storytelling, Life-saving Connection.

Coming Up

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NOV 6–8 2026

Training

Storytelling Training: Los Angeles

November 6–8, 2026

Los Angeles, CA

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DEC 5 2026

Fundraiser

Warriorside Storytelling Ceremony & Fundraiser

Saturday, December 5, 2026 · 6:30 PM PST

UCSD Park & Market · San Diego, CA 92101

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Mission

Connection Is the Most Powerful Medicine on Earth

Warriorside is the sacred setting for veterans and first responders to reconnect with the Self through the process of Conscious Storytelling Coaching. By taking the stage to share these narratives, our participants transform individual experience into collective medicine by reconnecting the Warrior to the Community.

These heroes are not dying from their experiences on the battlefield or in the streets. They are dying from disconnection from the Self and from the Community.

Warriorside is a direct affront to this epidemic. Through the power of Conscious Storytelling, our participants forge the path back to connection.

140,000+

Since September 11, 2001, over 140,000 veterans have died by suicide.

Source: Veteran's Administration

Training

The Art of Empowered Storytelling

Through the path of Conscious Awareness, veterans and first responders confront the stories they have told themselves for a lifetime. They discover the distortions and narratives of shame, fear, and isolation were never in alignment with the Truth.

Warriorside provides our participants the sovereign power to rewrite these narratives by aligning their stories with who they truly are.

Warriorside storytellers find a new frequency of balance, power, and resilience. They realize their history is not a cage, but the kindling to rediscovering their strength. From our programs they emerge knowing that it is through their stories they can come to connect with the essence of who they are as humans.

Upcoming Trainings

Results

Cutting-edge training. Undeniable results.

Of all the Warriorside cohort graduate survey respondents to date:

100%

Report acquiring better functional storytelling skills

100%

Report gaining greater confidence in public speaking

100%

Report feeling more connected to community by telling their stories

Coaching

Meet the Warriorside coaches

Diego Ugalde

Coaching Warriors on the Path to Healing

Looking back through the dusty, war cloud of my career as a civilian paramedic and Navy SEAL, I feel deep gratitude for the last 50+ years of my life's journey. My path has been shaped by setbacks, failures, broken bones, abandonment, loss, rejection, hard lessons, growth, healing, and transcendence. Through these experiences, I have learned to access a profound peace even in the midst of life's chaos.

Since retiring from the military in 2018, I have been a public speaker, published author, and leadership and integration coach, guiding leaders, executives, athletes, mental health clinicians, and veterans as they navigate their own life paths, uncover resilience, and embrace the power of their story.

As Executive Director of Warriorside, I lead a program that transforms the lives of Veterans and First Responders by helping them reconnect to self and community through their strength, courage, and humanity.

Apply to Become a Warriorside Storyteller

John K Bates

Coaching Leaders to Speak, Inspire, and Lead with Impact

John Bates helps leaders become more effective communicators and inspiring leaders by sharpening their high-level messaging, refining their delivery, and aligning their approach so that what they mean to say is exactly what their audience hears. When leaders go through his coaching, the results are dramatic. When entire teams participate, the results multiply exponentially.

John has worked with top-tier leaders from organizations such as Intuit, Google, NASA, U.S. Navy Special Operations, Boston Scientific, the U.S. Air Force, and many other global enterprises. His training blends principles from neuroscience and evolutionary biology, giving leaders not only proven communication techniques, but also the science behind why they work.

Respected by many of his clients as one of the world's best executive speaking and presentation coaches, John's mission is to help leaders speak with clarity, lead with authenticity, and inspire action — all while staying true to their own unique style.

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Speakers Bureau

Extraordinary voices for your stage

The Warriorside Speakers Bureau connects audiences with extraordinary voices—veterans, first responders, and frontline professionals whose lived experiences redefine courage, resilience, and connection. Each Warriorside graduate has undergone intensive storytelling training that transforms personal hardship into powerful, purposeful communication.

Whether addressing corporate leadership retreats, wellness and mental health conferences, universities, or psychedelic science summits, these speakers bring authenticity and emotional intelligence that can't be taught in classrooms. Their stories don't just inspire; they bridge worlds—between service and civilian life, between trauma and transformation, between isolation and belonging.

The Warriorside Speakers Bureau exists to amplify these voices globally, reminding audiences everywhere that your story is the medicine.

Book a Warriorside Speaker

Testimonials

Hear it from our storytellers

All Testimonials

Noah Galloway

Sam Juan

Ben Durbin

Testimonial Compilation

We Need Your Support

At Warriorside, we know that it is our story that forges us into the powerful resilient humans that we are.

Let's talk over fire.

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