Beyond the Uniform

I’m recording this episode of BBTU a few days early, because as we speak I’m camping in Death Valley as part of the final weekend of the yearlong men’s program I’ve been doing with John Wineland. I’m very excited to be unplugged - to be 100% off my phone and off the internet for 5 days - that in and of itself will be incredible. But, I’m also very much looking forward to seeing this group, doing some incredible work together in the desert, and bringing this program to a conclusion. I have 5 items to cover today, all of them of the professional nature. First of all, Donations. Steve and I are working on a lot of ideas to expand our impact at Beyond the Uniform. We’ve offered three webinars in October, and have another six more lined up for the remainder of 2019. We’re playing around with the idea of a digital library, where short articles and videos from our 300+ episodes will be available for free, in addition to articles written and contributed by other Veterans. We have ideas for video courses to also make all the information we’ve learned more accessible to Veterans. All of this takes time and money. We’re putting a sponsorship program in place - where we can get financial support from organizations that like what we’re doing. That takes time. In the interim, if you’d like to support us and our mission, I’ve added back a Support tab in the top right hand of the BeyondTheUniform.org website, where you can donate to help us grow our efforts. Introductions to companies that could support us financially are greatly appreciated, as are any and all feedback on how we can broaden our footprint.  Second - events. Thank you to all of you who attended our free webinars in October - Networking 101, Veterans in Consulting, and our Town Hall. We have received rave reviews, helpful feedback on how to improve, and suggestions for follow-on events. We have incorporated much of this into six additional events in November and December. You do not want to miss out - they are free, if you cannot attend them live you’ll get a video copy of the presentation mailed to you, so you can review it at your leisure.  each of these events is listed on our Events page at BeyondTheUniform.org. They are Sales 101 - Building Consensus with Tyler Johnston. Veterans in Finance. Discovering your values. Interviewing 101. And Veterans at the Big Three, which is a sort of Part 2 to our consulting webinar. There is information on each of these events on the website. The one thing i will say is to act fast for the Discovering your Values workshop. My wife, Rebecca, is an executive coach. CEOs, Vice Presidents of Sales, and other executives pay her a lot of money because she is very good at her work. She has also worked at a discount to help many military Veterans. This is the most powerful work I can think of for those of you deciding your next career transition. Values - alignment - understanding one’s self - these are three of the most important things guests on BTU have mentioned when it comes to making a career transition. And each of these - values - alignment - understanding - can be exceptionally difficult to uncover in isolation. We’re doing this live seminar for free and with a capped classroom size of 6 people. Rebecca will work with each person individually, helping you identify and uncover your values. If that excites you and you want to participate - sign up. If you’re not wanting to put yourself out there and uncover the values driving your career decisions - best to sit this one out. Lastly, I’d like to cover three interviews that will be released later in November. Overall for November and December we’re taking a step back from our normal format of career overviews. Instead, we are focusing on skills episodes - episodes designed to help our audience build a concrete skill set that will help you throughout your career, regardless of whatever that career path may be.  The primary exception to that is this coming Monday’s episode. Dan Cnossen. Episode #322 - Navy SEAL to Paralympic Gold Medalist (Dan Cnossen). Coming out Monday. I don’t really know what to say about Dan Cnossen’s interview. If you listened to Episode #268 - How the Outdoors Saved my Life, with Stacy Bare. An episode where Stacy - seconds in to our phone call, before I even started the episode, shared that a close friend of his had just died in the outdoors. We talked about delaying the interview - of waiting for a better time. We hit record instead. It’s one of my favorite conversations to date - it’s real, vulnerable, and pertinent.   Dan’s interview is of the same caliber. Dan is a classmate of mine from the Naval Academy. I didn’t know him really well while I was there, but I knew of him. This interview really makes me wish I would have had the chance to got to know him better while we were in school together. We recorded this interview, and there were some technical difficulties and we got started a bit late, and I had another meeting right after it. It was actually a video conference that I have with my men’s group each week. So I hung up with Dan and went straight into this men’s group meeting. And we always start off these calls with a round the room check-in - each of the seven guys in my group takes five minutes to share what’s going on in their life. And I just knew I’d be picked to go first. And I was. And I was just coming from my conversation with Dan and the whole weight of our conversation hit me. And I got pretty emotional.    Dan made an enormous sacrifice in the service of our country. He paid a price for his choosing to keep our country safe. And he faced an incomprehensible recovery from that sacrifice - one in which he faced uncertainty, loss, and obstacles that it’s really hard for me to get my head around. And he approached this with a moment-by-moment presence that really shows the man he is. He came back from this loss to win the gold medal at theParalympics - he made history in doing so. And through it all he maintains himself with such humility, such candor, and such honesty - it really made me feel humbled and honored to have him on the show, and to count him as a classmate. He has been hesitant to stand in the spotlight, to speak publicly about his experience.   That is Episode #322 - Navy SEAL to Paralympic Gold Medalist (Dan Cnossen). Coming out Monday. Episode #323 - Conscious Leadership (Floyd Carlson). Floyd starts our interview, talking about how, in inspecting a POW while in Iraq, he overlooked a hidden explosive device. When he pulled it from the POWs pocket and heard it engage, he knew he was going to die. What happened next changed his outlook on life, forever. Floyd was a sales executive for 16 years at Cisco. He worked in Belgium. He obtained his career through networking. We don’t discuss any of that on our call. Floyd works as an executive and team coach with major companies now. We don’t talk about that either. Part of Floyd’s work is working with members of the military about their marriages. We talk about that a lot. Members of the military face unique challenges in relationship - often times one or both partners are taken from their home, deployed for months, and then re-inserted back into their home. This introduces challenges. we talk about tactics to use to improve your marriage, your office relationships, your friendships and family relationships. I’m also in the process of lining up a webinar with Floyd as well - he’s fantastic. That is Episode #323 - Conscious Leadership (Floyd Carlson), coming out November 7th. Lastly, Episode #326 - not coming out until November 18th. Episode #326 is Loving What Is (Byron Katie). This was one of the highlights of my time at Beyond the Uniform. I did cold outreach to Byron Katie using the techniques I just taught in Networking 101 - they work. Byron said yes. Byron is a best selling author, she has been interviewed Oprah half a dozen times. It’s worth sharing part of her story. 43 years old, after a 10-year struggle with rage, anxiety and depression, she woke up knowing that she only suffered, if she believed her own thoughts. If she didn’t, there was no suffering. What’s left is joy and gratitude to be alive, and she’s been teaching that ever since. She’s taught the process, which she calls “The Work” to millions of people over the past three decades. In our interview she talks about this work - and the work she has done with military Veterans. She talks about the four questions that - if you can build the habit of asking them - can change your life. I read her book years and years ago - I still think about these four questions. It is an interview where you will learn:

1. You can overcome stress by dissecting your thoughts with these four simple questions.
2. Give yourself more options to think differently by turning thoughts around.
3. You can’t change reality by being frustrated about it.

  I know that this is a softer skill set than we traditionally cover on Beyond the Uniform. There’s a reason for it - these skills will pay dividends in your career, in your relationships, in your life. If you dislike these episodes, you’ve got 320+ other episodes to choose from on our website - Beyond The Uniform.org   That is all for today. I will be returning from the desert next week. I’m excited to have Dan’s interview go live Monday, right when I’m getting back into cell service. We have an incredible November and December lined up. I would encourage you to be a part of it. Be a part of it by signing up and joining one of our free webinars - ask your questions, engage, get plugged in. If you know of a company that would financially sponsor the work we are doing in the world, please send them to our website. And if you have benefited and are in a position to donate - every bit counts. There’s a lot we want to do, and we need your support to make that happen.   Thank you - i’ll be back soon with more resources to help members of the military, veterans and their family thrive in their post-service career.

Why Listen Today is a skill episode, where I meet with an expert to learn a skill that will help any military Veteran in their civilian career. Today, I talk with Kerry Meyer about emotional intelligence. And Kerri makes some incredible statements about how - if you are going to pick one skill to learn - emotional intelligence is HANDS DOWN the one to pick, with a clear and direct impact on your earning potential AND very clear ways to start to improve your EQ, no matter where it is today. Often on Beyond the Uniform, my guests talk about how military Veterans are perceived in interviews and in the workplace as being harsh, abrasive, and and un-empathetic. We talk about how to avoid those stereotypes and - just in case they’re true - improve in each of those areas.    If you like this episode, be sure to check out  BTU #118 - Empathy & Non-violent communication (NVC) - https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/skills-1-empathy-non-violent-communication-nvc-btu-118?rq=nvc   You’ll find links to each of those episodes in the show notes for this episode at http://www.BeyondTheUniform.org, where you’ll also find over 300 other completely free episodes, a whole host of online events, webinars and more.   About Kerri Kerri Meyer is the CEO of Sync Learning. She has spent over 22 years in Corporate America, in Operations, Support and Learning & Development roles, including leading teams at Intuit, Symantec and Veritas Technologies, where she was most recently Director of Learning & Performance.

Why Listen: Shortly after leaving the Marine Corps, Mike traveled to Cambodia, where he worked to setup a cross fit gym. He went on to business school… in Malaysia. And then he became a National Outdoor Leadership School instructor, where he teaches civilians and members of the military about wilderness survival and leadership. Which is to say - Mike is a Veteran who is forging his own way, and thinking outside of the box. If you are interested in a non-traditional career path, or just a great story, this is the interview for you.   For those of you who enjoy this episode, be sure to check out: BTU #240 - Self Reliant Leadership (Jan Rutherford) - https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-240-self-reliant-leadership-jan-rutherford?rq=jan%20rutherford BTU #268 - How the Outdoors Saved My Life (Stacy Bare) - https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-268-how-the-outdoors-saved-my-life-stacy-bare?rq=stacy%20bare BTU #120 - Traveling the world for 4 years after Active Duty Navy (Tim Patterson) - https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-120-traveling-the-world-for-4-years-after-active-duty-navy-tim-patterson?rq=tim%20patterson   You’ll find links to each of those episodes in the show notes for this episode at http://www.BeyondTheUniform.org, where you’ll also find over 300 other completely free episodes, a whole host of online events, webinars and more.   About Mike Mike Titzer is a Field Instructor at the National Outdoor Leadership School, or NOLS. NOLS is a nonprofit global wilderness school that will help you step forward boldly as a leader. He served in the Marine Corps for six years. Since his military service, he opened aCrossFit gym in Cambodia, and went to business school in Malaysia. He holds an MBA from the Asia School of Business, a Masters in International Relations from American University, and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Naval Academy. 

Why to Listen: 

The Commit Foundation is a fantastic and free resource to help veterans get where they want to go… just a whole lot faster. They take a very individual approach with each veteran with whom the work, and tailor their approach to help instill veterans with information, confidence, and imagination. Having worked with so many veterans over the years, Anne Meree has some fantastic advice for listeners about interviews - it’s some of the best advice this subject I’ve had on the show.

About our Guest:

Anne Meree Craig is the Executive Director and Co-Founder, The COMMIT Foundation, which is changing the way highly talented veterans think about transition and creating serendipity for them by fostering mentorship, networking, and inspiration. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for Bunker Labs.

 

Why Listen: One aspect that I loved about my conversation with Dan is how his story exemplifies a middle road for Veterans. Often, I interview Veterans who take a wildly different career path after their military experience. I also interview many Veterans who take a career path that is directly related to their military experience. Dan found a way to split the difference. His career path utilized one piece of his military experience, while also allowing him to branch into an entirely different industry. We talk about how we made the switch from submarines into the clean energy space. We talk about the rapid growth occurring in this industry, and why mission-oriented Veterans might love this field. Dan also served during the time of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, and shares his experience of coming out to his wardroom. This aspect of my conversation helped me build empathy and understanding for someone who had the exact same military career path that I did, yet was impacted by a policy in a way that I never had to experience.    For listeners who enjoy this episode, check out these three episodes, which I’ll link to in our show notes at Beyond the Uniform;

1. BTU #186 - Army Veteran to Blockchain and Ethereum at ConsenSys (Donnie Benjamin) - https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-186-army-veteran-to-blockchain-and-ehterium-donnie-benjamin-consensys?rq=benjamin
2. BTU #221 - Navy Veteran to the Cannabis Industry @ CannaCraft (Cheriene Griffith) - https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-221-navy-veteran-to-the-cannabis-industry-cannacraft-cheriene-griffith?rq=cheri
3. BTU #213 - Navy Veteran to Cyber Security at FireEye (Lauren Burnell) - https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-213-navy-veteran-to-cyber-security-at-fireeye-lauren-burnell?rq=cyber

  While these three interviews are not about clean technology, they each share a commonality of covering industries that are new and rapidly growing. They are all also relatively new fields. This means that there aren’t a lot of people who have decades of experience in these fields, so a military Veteran who is a newcomer to the space doesn’t have as much ground to catch up on.   About Dan Dan Misch is the Federal Project Director with the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science. He is also a Senior Fellow of the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center and the Founder of the Veterans Advanced Energy Summit. He started out at the Naval Academy, after which he served on Submarines for five years, including three nuclear deterrent patrols. He is a member of the Truman National Security Project Defense Council and Energy Expert Group.

Why Listen: Well, normally on the show I interview military veterans about their civilian career, what they do, how they got there, and advice for other veterans seeking to do the same. Today, however, is a skills episode, where I meet with a world-class expert on a topic relevant to our listeners, regardless of your career path. And the topic may surprise you, because today is all about storytelling. We talk about why storytelling may make or break your success as a leader, interviewer, and even parent. We talk about how storytelling is one of the most efficient and lasting ways to influence people and organizations.    About Paul: Paul Smith is one of the world’s leading experts in business storytelling, one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers of 2018, a storytelling coach, and bestselling author of the books The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell, Lead with a Story, Sell with a Story, Parenting with a Story, and Four Days with Kenny Tedford.   His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, Forbes, Fast Company, The Washington Post, PR News, CIO Magazine, Investors Business Daily, Marketing Research Magazine, the American Banking Journal, and London’s Edge Magazine, among others.   In his 20 years with Procter & Gamble, Paul held leadership positions in both research and finance functions, and most recently served as director of consumer and communications research. Prior to P&G, Paul was a consultant for Arthur Andersen & Company.   His keynote speaking and training clients include international giants like Google, Hewlett Packard, Bayer Medical, Walmart, Kaiser Permanente, Ford Motor Company, Luxottica, and Procter & Gamble among dozens of others.   Paul holds a bachelors degree in economics, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives with his wife and two sons in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, Ohio.