Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Manny Rodriguez. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Manny, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, what’s an important lesson you learned at a prior job?

In my previous job, I served as a soldier in the United States Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom. After being injured, I was prescribed narcotic painkillers to help me complete the remainder of my deployment. Those prescriptions continued for four and a half years, despite my repeated efforts to shift the focus from pain management to actual healing.

One morning, I woke up and noticed that my entire body had turned yellow. My skin and eyes had completely changed color. It was a clear sign that my liver and other vital organs were beginning to shut down. In that moment, I realized that if I didn’t take immediate responsibility for my recovery, I wouldn’t survive.

So, I made the difficult decision to aggressively self-detox from all prescription narcotics. The withdrawal process almost killed me, but it marked the turning point in my recovery. For the first time, I was no longer just managing symptoms… I was finally able to reclaim my life and start healing my wounds.

Lesson Learned:
Believe in the power that exists within yourself when everything begins to crumble. Trust your intuition. Trust your strength. Trust your resolve. Finding solutions from within can be the difference between continued decline and true transformation, in life and in business.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Originally from Dallas, Texas, I arrived at Fort Carson, Colorado in 2006. After being injured during military service, it took nearly two decades to heal my physical and mental wounds enough to start functioning normally again.

During my recovery, I learned valuable, life-changing lessons that I realized could help others overcome life’s obstacles. Those lessons led me to create my company, Tactical Calm.

At Tactical Calm, I focus on two primary objectives:
1. Speaking to audiences about the power of hope and how to use it to build internal strength.
2. Instructing small and large groups on the importance of establishing a breathing baseline, and how to use tactical breathing and relaxation techniques to stay calm during stressful events, confident in the face of fear, and in control when everything begins to crumble.

The problems I solve are simple:
Overwhelm at the office, stress at home, lack of confidence in the power of you. By combining tactical breathing with the power of internally created hope, it is possible for any person out there to change how they respond under pressure and take back control when everything begins to crumble.

What sets me apart from others?
My methods are different from most breath instructors. I use simulated stress drills to activate the nervous system, then work through the reaction using tactical breathing and relaxation exercises. With continued practice, these techniques help people build real-time calm-confidence during adrenaline spikes and high-pressure moments.

In my most recent workshop, A Breath Forward, I combine tactical breath instruction with a three-part theatrical monologue performance. Inspired by my journey from deployment through recovery, it gives audiences a firsthand look at how these techniques were applied in real time, while keeping everything practical and relevant for people with high-stress lives.

What am I most proud of?
After almost 19 grueling years of aggressively healing my injured brain and rehabilitating my broken body, life was still extremely difficult, despite all the progress I had made.

In August of 2025, right when I thought I had exhausted all possible healing options, I found two cutting-edge treatments that changed my life forever. In just five months, I was able to eliminate almost all my physical pain and heal my brain enough to significantly improve my communication and cognitive functioning. This level of recovery was both miraculous and completely unexpected.

Now that I can walk and talk like a normal person again, I’m most proud of the resolve, determination, and commitment that got me to this point.

The main thing I want potential clients/followers/fans to know about me/my brand/my work:
My breathing techniques are backed by science and proven in combat. I built this program because every single technique I teach helped me heal my nervous system, regain full control of my body and mind, and build physical and internal confidence under stress. These skills are effective and easy to learn, and I invest 100% effort into ensuring my clients leave with all the tools to navigate stress, manage pressure, and show up as their strongest, most capable self in any situation.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

One of the most exhausting limitations I’ve had to overcome is communication—specifically converting thoughts into words. After years of cognitive therapy, I was diagnosed with aphasia, a communication disorder that complicates both speaking and writing. I can’t even begin to explain the frustration when a sentence or phrase flows perfectly in my head, but I can’t get it out of my mouth…or onto paper.

It’s at this point in the story that most people ask—WHY DID YOU CHOOSE GROUP COACHING AND PUBLIC SPEAKING???

Well, after spending almost 40% of my life recovering from combat-related injuries, I knew I had valuable lessons to share. Since I didn’t possess any advanced or current skills outside of healing my body and mind for two decades, I needed to find a way to leverage my story of recovery. The only way I could do that was to improve my communication skills enough to deliver an effective message.

So I did everything in my power to succeed in that mission—working with coaches, mentors, and instructors. Taking full advantage of my GI Bill, I enrolled in college as a communications and theatre double major. Between acting on stage and giving speeches in my public speaking classes, I developed a rehearsal strategy that allows my brain to retain most of the information I need to access. With extensive preparation and repetition, I found a way to communicate my message.

But something still wasn’t right. Despite the progress I had made, I was frozen stiff every time I stepped on stage. The nerves, the sweat, the shaking…my goodness, I couldn’t even remember the titles of my speeches when I first started speaking.

Eventually, I realized my nervous system was locked in a constant state of trauma. I had made so much progress healing my brain that I completely overlooked one of the most important systems in my body—the nervous system.

“Pushing through” wasn’t an option. The harder I tried, the worse my stress response became.

Thankfully, after I thought I had exhausted all healing options, I was introduced to two cutting-edge treatments that not only helped regulate my nervous system, but also improved my communication struggles. After 40 treatments of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and 36 sessions of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), I realized my body no longer responded to stress the way it used to. Things were completely different, and for the first time, I felt like I had a level of control I hadn’t experienced since before my injury.

Even though I still face challenges with communication, healing my nervous system was the missing piece that finally allowed me to use the tools I had already worked so hard to build.

Fighting through a TBI and aphasia taught me that resilience comes down to recognizing when something isn’t working and having the discipline to change it.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

My wife, Jen, is my business partner and she played a huge role in my recovery. A couple weeks after I initiated the aggressive self-detox, my neck was hurting so bad that I desperately needed a pillow with better support. So, I headed to the Sleep Number store at Park Meadows Mall. Jen was the first representative to greet me, and once she learned about my situation, she began educating me on natural healing modalities and how to safely detoxify harmful chemicals from the body.

Jen was in Manhattan on September 11th and survived the toxic exposure that lingered throughout the city for months. She took the knowledge that helped save her life and shared it with me. After a couple months of working with Jen, my body finally started to heal in ways I never thought possible. Hope was finally becoming tangible.

Four months after we met, we decided to get married. It’s been 14 solid years, and we haven’t looked back once.

Jen is a board-certified consulting hypnotist through the National Guild of Hypnotists, and together we teach simple, effective calming solutions to a wide variety of clients. We also speak to audiences about our recovery journeys and how to find hope and resilience from within.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.TacticalCalm.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manny-tactical-calm?utm_source=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=member_ios

Image Credits

All photos were taken by me and my wife, Jen.