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One hundred and twenty-three kilos, The Russian Nightmare, Nikita Kolob. Now, The Devil's Nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Welcome back to another episode of The Man Up Show. Why? Because it is time to man up.

And today, today who is manning up is none other than Don Brown. Don, welcome to The Man Up Show. Nikita, I'm so blessed to be with you. Thanks for having me. We're going to have a good time. I admire you, the great work you're doing. I admire your show.

So, ready to rock and roll. Well, I appreciate you. Or maybe I should have said Don Brown Esquire. Would that have been more appropriate? Well, I was trying to get some friends out there. I normally don't always broadcast the fact that I'm a lawyer, at least not at first, because I'm trying to get some friends. But you just shot me off the saddle right out of the gate there, brother.

But hey, I'll try to get back on the best I can. Hey, don't toot out just because I said Don Brown Esquire. Stay tuned because we've got a big announcement later on in the show, so you're going to want to stick around just to find out what all Don Brown is up to.

But speaking of that, for our listeners, I know you're a North Carolina native, but give our folks a little back story on who Don Brown is, besides being an attorney. Well, thank you, Nikita. First off, I'm a believer and some say a soldier in the army of our Lord Jesus Christ, but I'm a Navy guy, so I like to say sailor. But first and foremost, all the credit and all the glory goes to him for anything good that happened in my life, and I'll take the blame for the false.

And so that's what I would say first. I live in Charlotte, actually have moved over into Union County as of recent, which is next door to Charlotte, but have been practicing law in the Charlotte area since I got out of the Navy in the early 90s. Spent 16 years in the Navy as a JAG officer and five active and another 11 in reserves. You don't do as much in reserves as you do active, so that is kind of like my immediate past. Three wonderful kids, two daughters who are in the greater Charlotte area, and then I have a son who's in the United States military stationed abroad overseas who's in my prayers all the time, who is a paratrooper.

He spent almost a year in Afghanistan. So I would say I'm a family guy, God's family and country in that order, and that sort of defines, I would say, my core philosophy. And have many, many great friends, been blessed with so many great friends, such as yourself and others, who have been peers and mentors. And I am a UNC Tar Heel fan because I went to school there, but I also had one daughter that went to NC State, one went to the University of South Carolina.

And so my son went to the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, so I'm an equal opportunity, I wouldn't say employer, but check stroker to all those places. You've had to divide your loyalty up among many, many Carolina colleges, I'm hearing. That's exactly right. That's a lot of fun.

That's kind of me in a nutshell. Yeah, and I know you have really a fascinating, I find it anyway, a fascinating story. Let me just go back to the Tar Heel fan for a moment, because you mentioned we do have a number of mutual friends, one of whom is a former Tar Heel, Al Wood, right? Al Wood is one of the greatest shooters in Carolina history, a mutual good friend, played for the legendary Dean Smith. He should have won the national championship in 1981 against Indiana, but a couple of bad calls against his teammates, James Worley and Sam Perkins, took them out of the game and still almost won the game.

Al Wood, known for the great 39-point explosion against the University of Virginia in the semifinals that year, so yes, I know Al will. And he is a good friend and a great man, and his testimony is powerful. If you ever get him on the show, maybe you have had him, but he will just move you to tears with his victory in the Lord, but he's just a great guy. Yeah, and like you said, like yourself, a Christ follower and quite an evangelist.

He was quite the basketball player, and he's become quite the evangelist as well. And I appreciate some of your story, of course, sharing with the family, and let me just say too, just kind of upfront, thank you for serving our nation. Thank you for your time in the U.S. Navy there. You know, you mentioned JAG officer, and correct me if I'm wrong, you served in the Pentagon, right, where you provided, I guess, legal advice for the Secretary of the Navy and some other roles there as well?

That's correct. I did spend time at the Pentagon, and I was an action officer providing advice to the Secretary of the Navy. Of course, there are others also providing advice to the Secretary, so it wasn't like the Secretary and I were hanging out and popping popcorn and watching the Tar Heel game or whatever after our working session was over. But yes, I was there, and it was quite the experience working at the Pentagon. I got to see the inside of how the military works, both the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was an invaluable experience, so I wouldn't really trade that experience for anything. The thing that's amazing, Nikita, is that, and you think about, but for the grace of God, there go I. Several years later after I left, my office that I had at the Pentagon was destroyed on 9-11, and you think you're impenetrable. But had I been there, I wouldn't be speaking with you right now.

I'd be with the Lord, which wouldn't be a bad switch. I love being with you too, but it makes you think because my office, the entire side over by Arlington Cemetery was destroyed on 9-11, and so many people lost their lives. And that led me really – that's one of the things that – I didn't mention this, but I'm also an author. I have 15 books that have been published, and they're all in the military genre, one way or the other. But the thing that led me to write in many ways was that what if it had been me type of situation. I had several books released through Zondervan contemplating the notion of radical Islamic infiltration within the US military as a result of that. So I had so many friends up in the DC area. Of course, I have to be honest with you. When I was there, Nikita, there was a – I used to be in great shape like you, never like you, but you get paid to stay in shape where you used to when I was in the military.

I don't know what they're doing, this woke stuff now. But I had this little five-mile run. I would run, leave the Pentagon, run across Memorial Bridge, coming right in front of the Lincoln Memorial and run down to the Washington Monument in the back. We run back across the bridge. You're seeing all the graves in Arlington Cemetery, and it was a moving experience. But in recent years going back, it's just you feel this heaviness there that wasn't there before, and I think our nation is in big trouble.

But we know who's the solution for that, but it was a great experience. I'm grateful for the experience, grateful to be able to wear the uniform. I'm honored to be able to wear the uniform, but people are gracious to me. They'll say thank you for your service, and I appreciate that, but we all serve.

Whether it's in uniform or otherwise, not one is greater than the other, and we all have a role. We all are given a sphere of influence, and I think it's important for us all to understand that. I had a wonderful pastor friend who passed away. He was a Baptist pastor, actually, who passed away last year, and we were friends for many, many years, and he used to call me and kind of keep me on a straight and narrow. I would call him too, but usually it was him keeping me more on the straight and narrow, but we had a verse that was Deuteronomy 6.18, which essentially is boiled down to do what is right in front of the Lord or to do the right thing. Deuteronomy 6.18, we all have a sphere of influence, whether it's in the military or whether it's in front of 100,000 cheering fans in a worldwide wrestling championship match.

Somebody said, I speak a lot, and somebody said, well, I just feel frustrated. I don't have a platform, and I'm thinking, well, think of the platform Billy Graham's mother had. Think of that platform. It isn't numbers. It's power. It's truth, power, the power of God, and prayer, but I appreciate your comments, and all of us have a role to play for the glory of God. We do, and you bring up actually a very interesting point, because as I'm listening to even you share some of your story and share your heart, and I think already our listeners, I'm sensing picking up on the sensitivity of your heart and your love for the Lord, is you enlisted, here's what comes to mind.

You enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and so you served, wore the uniform, served in the U.S. Navy, but for everyone out there in Listening Land, a lot of people listen to the Man Up show. My hope is every single person, individual listening or tuning in or dialing into the show has a personal relationship with the Lord, but the reality is many of them may not, but that's my heart for doing this show, Don, is that through your story or through my story or the inspirational stories they hear week in and week out, that if they don't have that personal relationship, something you say today may touch or grip their heart and lead them to the foot of the cross, and I say all that to say, even if you were to never enlist into the U.S. military, all of us, every single one of us have the opportunity to enlist into the army of God. You made reference to it earlier, right?

Into the army of God, and so at the end of the day, that's my inspiration, my motivation for doing the show and for interviewing guys like Don Brown. Now, you mentioned author. I actually had that on my list of things to talk to you about, so you jumped the gun on me there, but that's okay.

There's no pun intended there, I guess. But I'm reading, so you talk about authoring 15 books, but one of the things I was reading was in your free time, so not that you have a lot of free time, because now some, even though they're hearing your voice, you've been out there on camera as well. Now, maybe you hadn't been in a squared circle, but you have made yourself known out there in the public circles, and we're going to get to that in a moment about what you're getting ready to embark on here in 2024. But before we get there, so it says in your free time, you write legal and military thrillers about the Navy.

Can you elaborate a little bit on that? Thrillers. What exactly does that mean, Don? Well, you're looking at probably a biographical snippet from an earlier point in time, because I have 15 books that are out, and they are all military related one way or the other, and the last four are non-fiction. The first 11 were fiction, or geopolitical thrillers, as they were called. So going back, for example, to my story about my office having been later blown up on 9-11 at the Pentagon, I began to think, well, what's all this about?

What's all this radical jihad stuff about? So, you know, I mean, I began to write a little bit, and somebody told me I should go up to a writers' conference at Ridgecrest near Asheville. And I went up, and they found out I'd been a JAG officer. One thing led to another, so Zarnovan gave me a contract for a series called the Navy Justice Series, which are geo-contemporary thrillers about radical Islamic infiltration in the military. And the first book, Treason, features a young JAG officer named Zach Brewer, who winds up prosecuting three Islamic chaplains for treason. And so the book goes into what the chaplains are doing, how they're sowing seeds of discord, how they're discovered, how they're prosecuted. There's a lot of shoot-'em-up, bang-up in there. That's why it's called a geo-political thriller. The thing about Treason, though, was the very first novel that I had released with Zarnovan was released in 2005, and Nikita kind of... Zarnovan wanted to publish it because at the time there was a show on television, you may remember what it's called, JAG, J-A-G, and it was the most popular show on television at the time.

And Zarnovan, you know, they were real heavy into what they call Christian fiction. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Nikita Kolov here, and I am excited. Did you hear the huge announcement, the big announcement? Well, maybe it's a minor announcement.

Anyway, Facebook. Go look up my new fan page, Nikita Kolov Fans, and like it and follow today. Many people often ask me, is Nikita Kolov your real name?

Well, I have news for you. Now you can get the whole story on my audiobook, Nikita, A Tale of the Ring of Redemption, narrated in my own voice, gaining all perspective and insight into my whole life, including my redemption. If you would like to support Kolov for Christ Ministries, for a gift of $25, Nikita will send you his two CDs, Adoration and Declaration. For a gift of $50, Nikita will include his book, Wrestling with Success. And for a gift of $100 or more, Nikita will include a signed copy of his newly updated life story, A Tale of the Ring and Redemption.

Go to www.kolov.net and donate today. Around the World. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. And we're hoping to, most Christian fiction readers are women, and at least that was the case since time probably still is the case, and they were hoping to spread their marketplace out to bring some guys in, and JAG was such a popular TV show, and I had a decent proposal I suppose for the storyline, so I wound up with a three book contract, the first one being Treason. Well, Treason comes out, and the book is released to a lot of fans here, and then you get kind of frustrated because they bring the book into Barnes & Noble, but they put it in the Christian fiction section, where they should be putting it out beside the Tom Clancy novels, but they put it in a Christian fiction section, and so therefore most of the people who are seeing it are still women, so the book kind of flounders.

Well then one day, this is a true story Nikita, it's November, it was a Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2009. I have this little pinger on Google, like if something comes up on Nikita Kolov, I have a little binger thing, just in case something came up on my books, there was a little binger bell, and I hit the link, went to the newspaper link to the Kansas City Star, and it was showing the international bestsellers for fiction and nonfiction. At the time, the nonfiction bestseller was a book called Going Rogue by Sarah Palin. I look over, and the number one international bestseller in the world, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2009, was Treason by Don Brown.

I'm going, what in the world? I mean, I couldn't believe it, I had to look at it, and there were actually three of my books were there, and so I called my agent and said, what's going on here? Well here's what happened, and talk about the hand of God.

Zondervan, which is located in Michigan, had hired a marketing VP from General Motors, which is in Detroit. This is right about the time the Kindle rage began. This guy had read the book, and read several of my books, and he said, why aren't these things on Kindle? So he ordered Zondervan to put Treason on Kindle. Well Treason had a storyline in it that some say predicted the Fort Hood massacre.

In fact, it's very eerily similar, and Fort Hood had just happened. They put that book on Kindle, and it exploded, and so things quite well went from there. So the first 11 deal with military issues that are in the fiction arena, but they're geo-contemporary. So for example, there's one book that I wrote later on called Fire of the Raging Dragon. It deals with a Chinese dictator who wants a military dictatorship for China, one of the most powerful nations in the world.

Then President Xi becomes president. So these are geo-contemporary thrillers that are dealing with contemporary issues, but from the fictional standpoint, in part to educate folks about what we're dealing with. And then the last four were non-fiction, and a couple of those have hit it pretty, you know, have garnered some national attention that you mentioned earlier. Right.

With Fox and Hannity and those sort of things. So that's kind of like my writing journey nutshell, but it's just all a hand of God that has been there. And I guess I write okay. I'm not a Hemingway or, you know, I consider myself to be a brilliant writer, but I've learned important lessons from my daddy, from my spiritual father, from my heavenly father, my real father, that the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. So you just kind of, my daddy said the best ability is stickability, and I've applied that to these books, both fiction and non-fiction. And it's been a blessing to be able to write because I've learned so much myself, probably have gotten more out of it than other people who have read my works.

But I appreciate you bringing it up and giving me an opportunity to chat for a second. Well, and certainly I think you've piqued the interest, especially for avid book readers out there, you've certainly piqued the interest. Of course, Amazon is probably one of the main sources where they can go and find all these books you're referring to, I'm guessing, right? Yep, Amazon.com. My author website is DonBrownBooks.com. Okay. You can go to Google.

DonBrownBooks.com as well. And so, all right, so let me shift gears just slightly here. So you're a trial lawyer in Charlotte, North Carolina, very successful. You've been involved in some very complex cases and you've had a lot of success, a very successful record. And I guess take a minute and first just share just very briefly about what inspired you to become a lawyer. You're a book author, but what inspired you to become a lawyer? Take a minute and tell us that.

That's a good question. I wanted to be a wrestling champ at one time. I realized I didn't have the talent for that.

Then I wanted to be an astronaut and I didn't have the talent for that. So the thing that really got me interested, believe it or not, was years ago watching Sam Ervin, the former senator of North Carolina at the Senate Watergate committee hearings, Sam Ervin and Howard Baker. I had watched those hearings and was fascinated by it. Sam Ervin was a guy who was a Democrat from North Carolina, but not like any modern Democrat.

He's actually a conservative Democrat, but a guy who was a master of the United States Constitution. I remember watching those hearings in 1974 and just was fascinated by those. One thing led to another. I wanted to be an attorney early on. Then when I got into college, I was kind of flailing around a little bit and decided I wanted to go to the Navy, me and A. Wasser. So I applied for the OCS test, actually the AOCS, Aviation Officer Candidate School, and the OCS test. I passed the test, but at the time, the Navy was only taking engineering graduates. So they said, look, you passed, but we're looking for technical degrees only. So they didn't pick me up at first. So I applied to a law school, still wanted to be a naval officer, and applied for the JAG program, which is a Navy lawyer.

I got picked up by that. And then the interesting thing is at the end of my first year of law school, the Navy came back and said, hey, if you still want to go to flight school, you can go to flight school, but you've got to leave law school and leave the JAG program. And so I'm at one of these crossroad points, you know, and I did not have 20-20 uncorrected vision. I was close.

I was like 20-30. They said, you can't be a pilot because they didn't have lasik surgery back in the day. You can't be a pilot without uncorrected 20-20. You've got to sit in the back seat. So I said, okay, well, stay in the JAG program.

And that's kind of how it happened. I consider myself a naval officer first and a lawyer second, but, you know, it is a way to earn a living. And my hope has been and continues to be that whatever gifting the Lord has given me in the legal field, I use his glory, not just to make money or anything like that.

But I do have a love for the Constitution. I have a love, hopefully, for what's right. And that's driven me to a large degree, I guess, to maybe where I am today. Well, your love for the Lord is, to me, in the time I've gotten to know you, is evident.

And hopefully our listeners, again, have picked up on that today. And, of course, that has, your law background has led you to run for office. So the big announcement, you're going to run for office in North Carolina. Take a minute and tell us about that decision.

That's right. Thank you, Nikita. Well, this is something that was never really on my radar, but our nation's on fire. You know, you look at what's going on in Congress, what's going on in Washington. So on the Thursday before Thanksgiving this year, after a lot of prayer and going back and forth and forth and back… … I did announce that I'm going to be a candidate and am a candidate for Congress for the 8th District of North Carolina. And I'll give you my website.

The campaign website is brown.com. And, you know, Nikita, it's something that, you know, people say, congratulations. And I say, well, thank you, because people are gracious.

And then you must be excited. So, really, I understand what I'm getting into. I've been involved, you know, President Trump pardoned one of my clients, a military officer named Clinton.

He's got a lot of national attention. I've been involved in these battles. And when you step into battle, you know, you do so with a sense of sobriety.

So I entered this race with a sense of sobriety there. So far, three other distinguished candidates involved in the primary. The primary is March the 5th, but we're involved. I think that the principal existential threat to our national security right now is a national debt at $33 trillion.

We don't get that in control, and nothing else is going to matter. So I'm running hard on hoping to hold Congress accountable. You know, Congress has only presented budgets in the appropriate manner four times in the last 50 years. And we are feeding the deep state with these continuing resolutions, basically giving them all the money they want. Churchill said that an appeaser is one who feeds the alligator last – alligator, hoping it will eat him last.

You can say the fool is one who feeds the alligator the crocodile, hoping it will eat him last. Congress has been feeding this deep state and just throwing money at it and throwing money at it and throwing money at it, and there's been no semblance of control over it. And I hope to be a part of joining some of my colleagues. They're only a small number on the Hill right now that are really battling to fight. I hope to join them and to give them a little support and see if we can kind of get this out of control budget under control a little bit and see if we can save our country before we fall off the precipice because we're close to there right now.

Well, and I appreciate your willingness to run and, so to speak, step into the game and make an impact and make a difference. I am more educated than I ever have been before on the things you just enlightened our audience to, and I'm going to encourage our audience out there, before we run out of time at the very least, I'm going to ask you to pray for Don Brown. Pray for our nation. If you're not doing that, pray for our nation. And he is, Don is correct, and if we don't get the budget under control, then really all will be lost.

And that sounds a little, I don't want to exaggerate that, but I truly believe that. So brown4nc.com, so keep Don in your prayers, brown4nc.com. Check out that site and how you might be able to support Don in addition to praying, how you might support him. If you need a good trial attorney in the Charlotte area or North or South Carolina, right Don? They can look you up.

Don Brown, Brown and Associates, they can look you up there. And if you want a good read, a thriller, a thriller, and a good book to read, then certainly go on Amazon or go on to donbrownbooks.com and pick up one of his books. It's been great to have you on the show today, Don. Oh, it's been a blessing to be here. Thank you, Nikita. I hope we get to do it again soon.

Well, and we'll have to have you back, we'll see the results of your run for Congress there and certainly support you in those efforts and see how things unfold in the primaries and beyond. And so always a pleasure to be with you and around you. And thank you for sharing, just thank you for sharing your faith today as well. It's my honor to do that. It's my honor to be with you and to God be the glory. And to all of you out there, hope you were in some way inspired by Don's story today. And so we just thank you each and every week for tuning in to the Man Up show. Why? Because it's time to man up.

And that's what Don Brown has emphasized today, manning up. Go out and live a God-filled, God-blessed day today. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts.

May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to Koloff.net and donate today. Go to Koloff.net and donate today.

Hi, Nikita Koloff. Be sure to check out the Man Up show, now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to MorningStarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings or better yet, download the Truth Network app today. If you are enjoying the Man Up show, would you help us spread the word? Tell your family, tell your friends, tell your neighbors to download, subscribe, and leave a comment. Nikita Koloff here.

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