Beyond the Uniform

Why Listen: Well, normally this show is hosted by Justin. But I came to him with an idea. I talk to a lot of transitioning service members, and its eye opening how many of them – regardless of branch – have never heard of the various credentialing programs that are offered. Today is part 1 in a series where I'll be interviewing each branch's credentialing program manager to get the facts on credentialing assistance in an effort to spread awareness to the servicemembers who can use them.

Credentialing Assistance is a great way to leverage the transition tools and resources available to service members to accelerate their post-military careers. Certifications add professional capability and credibility and help you stand out to a hiring manager.

We'll start with the Army, so if you're a Soldier, listen up. Today, we'll talk with Sophia Sweeney, the Program Manager for Army Credentialing Assistance (CA) and Credentialing Opportunities On Line (COOL).

Why Listen: Special thanks to Jim Sinai for making the intro to Michael. While Michael had a full career in the Marine Corps, with over 21 years of service, he didn't let either what he did in the Marines, or how successful he was at doing it get in the way of his going on to have a truly exemplary tech career as a Chief Information Officer at some truly incredible companies. Here are a few things to look for in this interview:

• How Michael is always dreaming of what is next, and then working his tail off to be proactive and bridge any skill gaps in his next career move
• How Michael is always learning, always pushing himself forward and NEVER playing it safe
• How Michael uses his network - not just to find a job, but to sharpen his skills and be the best he can be in his current position
• How Michael "paints the target" to determine what he wants to do, and then doesn't allow himself to lose sight of the bullseye

At the end of this episode, Michael rattles off a whole host of books and frameworks. Don't worry, we've listed them all at BeyondTheUniform.org. While you're there, if you've got 400 hours free, be sure to check out over 381 other episodes hand crafted to help you crush your post-military career. About Michael: Michael Hansen is the Chief Information Officer at Procore Technologies, a company with nearly 2,000 employees that provides cloud-based construction software to clients across the globe. He started out in the Marine Corps, where he served for 21 years as an IT Security Architect. His career has included 2 years in Guantanamo Bay Cuba as the CIO, 2 years as a Cloud Architect for the Federal Government, and 5 years as CISO and then CIO of Mindbody both pre and post IPO.

Why Listen: Special thanks to Steve Bane for making this interview happen. My guest today, Justin LeHew, is many things. He earned the Navy Cross for his heroic actions in Iraq in 2003, he has an obstacle at Parris Island named after him: LeHew's Challenge, he achieved the rank of Sergeant Major in the Marine Corps. Yet its not merely these accomplishments that set him apart - it is the way that he focuses on others rather than broadcasting his significant achievements. We talk a lot about that in this interview, as well as his work at History Flight, a private MIA search and recovery organization, responsible for locating and repatriating over 365 missing American servicemen to date. In the show notes for this episode at BeyondTheUniform.org there is an incredible, one-minute YouTube video about this - I highly recommend checking that out, as well as our 380 other episodes just like this one. About Justin LeHew Justin LeHew is the Chief Operating Officer at History Flight, the world's most successful, private MIA search and recovery organization, responsible for locating and repatriating 365 missing American servicemen to date. Justin has his own Wikipedia page, so here are a few highlights:

• He served in the Marine Corps for over 25 years, achieving the rank of Sergeant Major
• Parris Island has an obstacle named in his honor. "LeHew's Challenge" is an 8 ft high suspended log supported by two pedestals that is part of the famed 54-hour crucible event which culminates the basic training of a United States Marine
• He was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic actions in Iraq in March of 2003

Most notably, none of this information you'll find on his LInkedIn Page, and I'm guessing none of it would come up if you were at a bar with Justin. We traded emails about this, but I wanted to start off our conversation here - in an era where self-promotion is at an all-time high, you seem to be an example of someone who is not broadcasting his merits, is not touting the unbelievable achievements you've accomplished... what advice do you have for listeners about this. Resources:

• WWII Marine's Remains Found - YouTube
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-lehew-080aa94b/
• https://historyflight.com/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_LeHew
• https://jockopodcast.com/2020/08/12/242-there-are-things-bigger-than-you-do-whatever-it-takes-to-establish-a-winning-mentality-not-just-for-yourself-w-marine-gunnery-sgt-justin-lehew/
• https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/i-am-where-im-supposed-to-be-historyflights-sgtmaj-justin-lehew/
• https://valor.militarytimes.com/hero/3634

Why Listen: I'm so excited to start off 2021 with an interview that was so much fun to do. Back in 2017, and Episode 95, I interviewed Andrew watts, who was military veteran who became a full time author. And we reconnected for today's interview, I'm adding in Jason Casper, and a couple things that I loved about this interview. So just for context, Andrew, is a writer who is still a writer, but now also started a publishing company, the Severn river river publishing company, and he publishes over 20 different authors now. So we talk about that journey since our last interview three years ago. And Jason is a another military veteran, best selling author, and now works with Andrew and Andrew publishes his books, although this is a story of maybe would call it the arts of people becoming veterans becoming published authors and extremely successful ones at that. What I really appreciated, comparing it to my own background in entrepreneurship is the number of parallels this has for any form of entrepreneurship, of paving one's own way of taking, making a bet on oneself, of really learning to craft. And I think that that's an element that will come through for listeners with both Jason and Andrew, is how much each of them have devoted themselves to perfecting their art and their craft and how much they use persistence and discipline to succeed in their chosen vocation. And so regardless of your career interest, whether or not you're interested in entrepreneurship, or writing or whatever else, I think there is an element here to learn about that discipline about that constant sharpening of one's toolkit to get better. So, as always, at beyond the uniform.org, you'll find show notes with this. With all the things that we discuss in this interview. I do want to give a plug in there is no financial incentive for me to do so. But I really just enjoyed meeting Jason. He has a new book coming out on January 15 2021, called the enemies of my country. I will put a link to that in the show notes, but I'd encourage you to check it out whether it's on Kindle, whether it's on Audible, whether it's in a physical book. And with that, let's dive in to my conversation with Jason and Andrew. About Jason: Jason Kasper is a former Army Special Forces officer and a USA Today bestselling author. His new book, THE ENEMIES OF MY COUNTRY, releases on January 15, 2021. About Andrew: Andrew Watts is the USA TODAY bestselling author and founder of Severn River Publishing. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2003 and served as a naval officer and helicopter pilot until 2013.

Why Listen Vincent's story is pretty much the opposite of the standard entrepreneurial success story you hear. Yes - he has experienced incredible success - his company, VisitPay, now has over 100 employees, 3 of his 7 C-Suite executives are Service Academy graduates, and he has received over $26M in funding from some of the best investors in the world, like Norwest. However, where his story differs is that this didn't happen overnight. Vincent has been at this for nearly 12 years. His success didn't come all at once, it came through a sustained effort over a decade. What I love most about Vincent's story is how he elegantly merged two vital aspects of entrepreneurship that - to me - often seem to be complete opposite skill sets - that of rapidly iterating (building, learning, and reacting as quickly as possible to feedback from customers), and at an opposite extreme, building for scale (slowing down to build things properly so that it can sustain the load of a massive influx of customers). I learned so much from my conversation with Vincent and hope you will too. Vincent Vincent Martino is the Co-Founder of VisitPay, a company he started nearly 12 years ago that now has over 100 employees and has raised $26M in funding from top notch investors like Norwest. 3 of his 7 C-Suite executives are Service Academy Grads. His journey started at the Naval Academy, included five years in the Marine Corps, followed by an MBA at the Wharton School, and includes work at Dynamicsoft, Capital One, COO at Balihoo and co-authoring the book, The Marine Corps Way.

Why Listen: For today's guest, Chris Hsu, I could have spent a full episode on six incredible positions he held since his time in the Army - his work as an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company, as Managing Director at KKR, as Senior Vice President at HP, as CEO at Micro Focus, and as an Advisory Partner at Andreessen Horowitz - each of those blow my mind. While we touch on this briefly, we spend the bulk of our time on his current role as CEO and Co-Founder of Zibo, which blends real estate, financial services, and software. I view this interview more as a personal mentorship call, where I soaked up as much of Chris 20+ years of experience as possible. Whether you are interested in entrepreneurship, developing a side hustle into a full-time job, consulting, finance, or tech, this interview will have a wealth of knowledge for you. About Chris: Chris Hsu is the CEO & Co-Founder of Zibo, a company he started nearly 2 years ago to radically improve financial services for independent landlords. Chris has raised over $10M in venture capital and LinkedIn shows over 20 employees. His path to this point started at West Point, included over 5 years in the Army in tanks, and has included work at General Mills, Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company, Managing Director at KKR, Senior Vice President at HP, CEO at Micro Focus, and Advisory Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.

Why Listen My conversation today is with two different Veterans senior in the tech industry. In addition to talking about their long and successful career including operations, program management, product management and more, we talk about the ideal team player (based on their experience hiring hundreds of people), the difference between a good boss and a bad boss, differences in leadership out of the military, and more. This interview brings over 20 years of hard earned experience that is a wealth of knowledge regardless of your desired career path. About Mike Sedgwick Mr. Sedgwick is Vice President of Defense and Aerospace Products for SCI Technology, Inc. (SCI), a Sanmina company, in Huntsville, Alabama. Mike is responsible for oversight of SCI's Aircraft and Tactical product organizations including the FireComm® and TOCNET® product lines. He has extensive expertise in wide-ranging areas including Strategic Planning, Defense & Aerospace Contract Management, P&L Accountability, Business Development, Project Management, Contracts, Budgeting, Scheduling, and Logistics. Mike previous held the titles of Senior Program Manager and Director of Aircraft Systems with SCI. Prior to his latest move to SCI, Mr. Sedgwick served as General Manager of AAR Integrated Technologies and Business Director for the Hypersonic Design and System Integration segment at i3. Mike has managed organizations and teams that include Program Management, Engineering, Contracts, Quality, Manufacturing, HR and Supply Chain to ensure the seamless production of sophisticated defense and aerospace hardware. Beyond his impressive business credentials, he served honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces. He currently serves in the U.S. Army Reserve as a Military Intelligence Officer. Previously, Mike served as Battalion Intelligence Officer (S-2) with 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and as a Company Executive Officer with the 82nd Airborne Division. Mr. Sedgwick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. About Peter Cianfaglione Peter Cianfaglione is Vice President of Operations at SCI Technology, Inc., a Sanmina Company, in Huntsville, Alabama. Peter is responsible for SCI's manufacturing operations to include production, manufacturing, quality engineering, and supply chain. Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada, Peter completed an Electrical Engineering degree at the University of Ottawa in the Regular Officer Training Program (the Canadian equivalent to ROTC). During and upon completion of his degree, he served in the Canadian Army as a Combat Engineer and Infantry Officer (including service with the Commando in the Canadian Airborne Regiment). In 1993, Peter joined Motorola while transitioning to reserve service. He moved to the United States in 1997 with Motorola while continuing his service as a Canadian Army Reservist including exchange postings with 82nd Abn, 36th ID (Texas National Guard) and 4th ID. In addition to these roles, he also supported the sharing of information between the Canadian and United States militaries on lessons learned in IED awareness from both the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns. Shortly after becoming a U.S. citizen in 2005, he was mobilized in support of recovery operations following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Following a move to Huntsville, Alabama, in 2006, Peter took on various capacities with Benchmark Electronics in electronics manufacturing while both continuing his role with the Canadian Army Reserves as well as completing a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering. Peter returned to his home town of Ottawa, Canada from 2009-2011 to work for General Dynamics while commanding a reserve Engineer Battalion. While in Ottawa, he completed his third and final deployment. Upon his return to the United States in 2011, he resumed work with Benchmark Electronics in various capacities, including General Manager and Vice President - Global Accounts. Peter is a graduate of the Canadian Army Command and Staff Course, New Zealand Grade 2 Staff Course and Canadian Joint Command and Staff Programme. He joined SCI in 2020 and is currently working towards completion of a PHD in Engineering. He and his wife of 25 years have seven children, two of which are presently serving in the U.S. military.

In so many of the 375 interviews I've done, Veterans talk about their journey to find a new purpose in life. That's come up in countless conversations with friends of mine who didn't serve in the military - I think it's a pretty fundamental part of what makes us human. That's why - as many of you know - earlier this year I teamed up with Craig Filek to co-lead a program called Purpose Mapping - to help people in the military as well as military veterans and military family members identify their current purpose in life. That's a pretty lofty mission, and I'm humbled to say that - two cohorts of this group later - we are delivering on that promise. For today's episode, I invited two people from our latest cohort onto the show to talk about their own journey to uncover their life's purpose. I'm so grateful that they were both willing to do so - it is obviously deeply personal work, and so I admire their courage and willingness to talk about this. I love both of today's guests. They represent two very different perspectives - one on Active Duty for many years to come, the other several years out of the military. They are siblings as well, which made for a really incredible experience. I just wrapped up spending 12 weeks with them and the rest of the group and greatly admire and respect both of them and so am honored to have them share their stories on the show. If you are interested in this - it is something I deeply believe in and am committed to continuing to do. If you're listening to the show in real-time, on November 18th at 6pm Pacific we'll be hosting a free 90 minute webinar where you can experience this first-hand. Do not wait to reserve your spot - go to BeyondTheUniform.org/puprose to get more info and claim your free spot. that is BeyondTheUniform.org/purpose -I'd love to see you there, I'd love the chance to work with you, and I would LOVE to get this work in front of more members of the military community. So please help me in spreading the word - again that is BeyondTheUniform.org/purpose.

Normally on the show, I interview a military Veteran about their civilian career – what they do, how they got there, and advice for other Veterans seeking to do the same. This episode is a little bit different. Last week I was fortunate to be part of a panel called "Off The Page: Navigating the Military to Civilian Career Transition Webinar". This episode is that webinar – I had a blast, and loved the insights of both the moderator and the other two guests. Let me give you some context. First of all, this webinar was recorded during one of Kogan Page's Off The Page Digital Events. It was to promote a new book called Success After Service, by Lida Citreon. (Lee-duh, Sit-Trow-en) Long-time listeners will remember Lida from Episode #273 – Your Personal Brand (https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-273-personal-branding-lida-citroen?rq=lida). Pretty wild – that was literally exactly 100 episodes ago. I consider Lida a dear friend, we've grabbed breakfast and lunch a number of times, as she's here in Denver. I say this on the panel, but I'll say it here: Lida's heart is in the right place. No one does work in the Veteran space to get rich. Lida has had a very successful career and her work and this book are in the spirit of giving back. So it is an honor to help out a friend who is doing great work to help our community. Second, Kevin and Chris who were on the panel with me, are total bad asses. Lida will give you info about their bios, but I learned a lot from their perspectives. All three of us have had very different journeys, and I think our listeners will appreciate each of these vantage points. We only had 60 minutes for the webinar but – as you'll see – I wish we had 3-4 hours. So, strap in for a lot of information that will help you in your career. Lastly, Lida's book comes is available @ https://www.koganpage.com/product/success-after-service-9781789665932?utm_source=beyondtheuniform&utm_medium=otpaudio&utm_campaign=skills_careers&utm_content=successafterservice

Why Listen: I just finished up my conversation with Alan and a couple things stand out to me. First of all, it's it's pretty surprising to me that it's taken 374 other episodes, to get to the point of interviewing someone in the aerospace and defense industry. And, you know, it's it's surprising, first of all, because so many veterans go into this space. But more importantly, I feel like Alan, in our conversation, we really flipped the script on my understanding of this industry. And what I mean by that is, nearly all of the people I've interviewed on beyond the uniform talk about purpose, and mission, after military service. And Alan kind of surprised me when I was asking him to explain what he does for a living, he immediately went to that spot of, he's continuing to support the military communities continuing to support his brothers and sisters who are still in uniform. And throughout our conversation that came through, like, wow, this is actually a really good fit for so many veterans, especially those who want to continue a similar sense of purpose that they felt that they likely felt in the military. A second thing that really stood out to me with this conversation is we went deep down the rabbit hole on Alan's role, which is business development. And I know we've done a couple interviews on sales related topics. But I think that you will really benefit from Alan's story, he has over 20 years of experience in business development. And I love so much of what comes through in this. But let's just say in a nutshell, it's not what you expect from a sales related role. And the way that Alan comes across just as a human being, as well as how he explains why veterans are so well suited to this, it really goes against most of the stereotypes that I have of sales people. And it comes down to listening to others, being curious about them, and figuring out how you can help them and deliver value. And even if you're not interested in the defense industry or business development in particular, it's still worth listening because, you know, in my experience, every every role that you will have has some element of quote unquote, sales, and the relational things that Alan talks about this interview, are I'm sure going to help you in your career. As always, at BeyondTheUniform.org you'll find Show Notes for this episode, you'll find links to everything we discussed, as well as a link and information about SCI. We haven't done a lot of coverage of companies in this space. But I appreciate Alan's perspective and want to give some some notes there about the company he works for. So with that, let's dive in to my conversation with Alan About Alan: Alan is responsible for the Global Business Development for the IMS business segment within SCI, which includes customer relations, program performance, and the acquisition of new and follow-on business. Alan brings more than 20 years of experience in the Integrated Manufacturing industry. During this period, Mr. Hislop has held positions at PIVC, LLC, STMicroelectronics and Sanmina-SCI. Alan served on active duty with the U.S. Army, with the U.S. Army Reserves in New York and with the Alabama National Guard in Huntsville. Alan graduated from the US Army Officer Infantry School in Fort Benning, GA. Mr. Hislop holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering Degree from University of Alabama Huntsville, and an Associate of Applied Arts and Sciences from Clinton Community College. He and his wife, Olga, have 6 boys.