Category design pioneer Christopher Lochhead stopped by the MCC Live studio at Military Creator Con 2026 in Arlington, TX, and didn't hold back.

This conversation covers why military service is the ultimate entrepreneurial foundation, how veterans can channel pain and purpose into mission-driven work, and why AI may be the greatest value creation tool of our lifetime.

Christopher Lochhead is the co-author of Play Bigger, host of the Follow Your Different podcast, and co-founder of the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases, a nonprofit using AI to solve cold case murders.

Military Creator Con is the premier event for veteran and military-connected content creators. Learn more at militarycreatorcon.com.

I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy.

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I'm not worthy.

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Look at your sexy.

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You got the sexy head Yes, you are

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It takes turtle wax.

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I use turtle wax.

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And a nice shaver every couple days.

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uh

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Christopher Lockhead, welcome to our Ecamm session.

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Thank you for joining me.

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So you started us off this morning and the energy in the crowd was just electric.

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We were excited that you came here and presented to us.

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What was it like looking out in the crowd and seeing all of us veteran creators, you know,

really peeing into what you were doing and leading us off?

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So let me tell you, the first night after I got here, I was on the phone with my wife,

Carrie.

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And I said, the way I feel in the military and veteran community is different than I feel

anywhere else.

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ah I'm grateful.

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ah I'm not confused.

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I know that the only reason I'm alive is because of our all volunteer military.

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I am an immigrant to this country and I appreciate that America is the greatest place in

the world.

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ah I've been able to create a legendary life for myself and my family, with my family.

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And that's all because every morning when I wake up, nothing bad happens to me.

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And the reason nothing bad happens to me is because of our military.

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And to be with people who have that level of commitment

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to country and to service that level of courage.

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I just love our vets and I love our military.

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And so ah it means the world to me to be here, especially as a non-vet, right?

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ah And as an immigrant who chose to come to America at a very young age, I understand, you

know, my grandfather served in World War II against the Nazis.

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My 95 year old father-in-law, Phil, was a Marine during the Korean conflict.

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ah I just love these folks, I really do.

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And to look out at all these military creators and entrepreneurs, I believe that our vets

are arguably our most under-tapped entrepreneurial resource.

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Yeah, because the things that make you legendary in the military are the things that make

you legendary in being a creator capitalist and an entrepreneur.

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Massive commitment, uh willingness to do the absolutely unreasonable, the ability to stay

in the fight no matter what.

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uh And the truth is, what legendary creators do is they create different futures.

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They move the world from the way it was

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to a new and different way.

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One of the things we teach people in the category design world is everything is the way

that it is because somebody legendary changed the way that it was.

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So if you think about our military, our military's job is to create a different future.

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A future around freedom, a future around liberty, a future around opportunity.

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That's exactly what entrepreneurs do.

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And so I think the more we can tap into the entrepreneurial

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uh spirit, the creator capitalist spirit of our vets and of our military folks.

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I think it's a massively underutilized resource as a country.

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And I know because I'm friends with so many who when they transition and they become an

entrepreneur and they create value out of nothing that what they're able to do for their

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families is extraordinary.

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But here's the big thing.

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When one creator, one entrepreneur stands up

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She doesn't just take herself or her family with her.

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She often takes a community and sometimes a whole country with her.

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We can win together.

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we can absolutely win together and entrepreneurship and creator capitalism is about

creating abundance one of the biggest uh...

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one of the biggest lenses that is as broken in our country is a scarcity mentality and

here's the a-ha if we fight over the existing bananas we kill each other when we fight

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over scarcity we kill each other

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and when humans collaborate to create abundance we get Artemis too right and so the uh

worldwide GDP in seventeen hundred was about a trillion I think today it's about seven

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hundred trillion somebody needs to check me on that it's materially large right right and

all of that value got created by humans and

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People with a military background, whether they realize it or not, are value creators, are

people who create different futures.

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And that's what a legendary entrepreneur is, somebody who starts with nothing and creates

something that is insanely valuable and makes a difference to other people.

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So just one question, I know you're asking Mike, you gotta get moving, but so many of my

fellow veterans are like on the sideline, like should I put myself out there?

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Should I take this idea I have and do it?

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And how do I get them to get in this incubation, this system, and believe in themselves?

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Yeah.

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The first question is, why wouldn't you?

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Right, thank you, yes.

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Look, our veterans, if they've already come out and are transitioning or have

transitioned, already made a legendary commitment to do something that the vast majority

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of human beings in this country won't do.

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Right?

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So you already did it.

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Yes, I have.

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And the risk of being an entrepreneur, yes, is it risky?

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Absolutely.

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But unless you're in a bad part of the country, you're probably not going to get shot

doing it.

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Right.

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And so put yourself out there.

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And here's the thing.

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The world needs our vets.

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The future needs you.

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There's too many people who are afraid of AI.

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There's too many people who are afraid of the future.

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We're living at the greatest time in the

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in history of humanity to be alive.

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is the greatest technology for value creation that's ever been.

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And one person can create the value of 30 to 50 people with AI.

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Why wouldn't you figure out you're different, figure out what's the different problem that

you want to solve, what's the new category you can own, and then leverage AI to take your

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own intellectual capital, your own thinking, and convert that into products and services

that make a difference for others at scale.

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And if you do that, you can become a category of one.

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You can become the company or the person that people go to in your area of expertise for

the problem that you solve.

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And vets have more intellectual capital than they know.

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Your experience is intellectual capital.

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Even if you've had horrible things happen to you.

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Listen, one of my best friends, a guy I consider a brother, six and a half years ago was

murdered.

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in a 3 a.m.

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home invasion robbery, kidnap, torture.

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I have PTSD about that.

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You know what I've done?

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The first thing I did, there was four guys who killed my brother from another mother.

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All of them, guilty, murder one, life without parole.

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That took 2,353 days.

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And then here's what my wife Carrie and I decided to do, to channel that anger and that

pain and that PTSD.

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We had four murder trials.

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In 13 months, we spent 19 weeks in murder trials.

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It could crush a person.

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It almost crushed me.

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And you know we did with all that anger and pain?

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channeled it powerfully into community projects improving our community and with the

legendary Morgan Wright who's got a 35-year career in law enforcement we've started a

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non-profit called the National Center for Open and Unsolved Cases.

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There's 250,000 unsolved murders in our country and there's 2 million unsolved rapes.

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We're building a non-profit AI startup to go get all of those bastards.

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and we're working with law enforcement to do it.

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So what's my point?

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Even if you're a veteran who has PTSD like I do, who has pain and suffering, who has maybe

even wanted to die like I did after they murdered my friend Tushar, there's a way out of

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that and there's a way to channel any anger and pain into something legendary.

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And that legendary is creating a different future.

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With the National Center for Open Unsolved Cases, we're creating a different future.

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We're already catching cold cases from the 1960s.

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Murder.

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And it's with the AI.

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And it's free to law enforcement because we have funded it.

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And we've raised money.

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It's a non-profit.

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Anyway, my point is that even if you're a vet in pain with PTSD,

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channel that.

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The greatest entrepreneurs and creators are mission-driven and even if you have horrible

things that have happened to you, that gives you a unique place to stand.

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I stand in a different place when you want to talk about murder, when you want to talk

about gun violence, when you want to talk about law enforcement, when you want to talk

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about uh laws that are pro-criminal.

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I stand in a different place and I wish I didn't have to go through that and I really wish

we never lost Tushar.

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but it happened.

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And so we can use positive things or horrible things as motivation to do legendary things.

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Speaking of legendary, it's just been a legendary experience sitting with you, Chris, and

hearing you talk this morning, seeing your interjection.

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I appreciate you coming by.

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I can't wait for the future.

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And again, thank you for coming.

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Travis, I want you to know I'm not confused.

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You're the reason I'm alive, you and your sisters and brothers.

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So thank you for my life and thank you for the incredible opportunity that the United

States is.

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And I will tell you, if you're somebody who put your life on the line for the opportunity

that is America, go get that opportunity for yourself because the future needs you.

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Be legendary.

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Be legendary.

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Chris, thank you.

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God bless you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you so much.

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Thank you for my life.

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military creator

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you're on your own.