A Texas native, Casey Sherrod joined the Army ROTC at the University of Houston, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in human development and family studies. A year after graduating, she deployed to Afghanistan as a platoon leader, later becoming an executive officer, then a commander of the largest U.S. Army recruiting company on the West Coast. But she felt a strong desire to return to Houston and decided to pursue her MBA at Rice Business while on active duty.

During the pandemic, Casey and her wife, Amanda, began partnering with animal rescues in Houston and elsewhere to foster animals in need, including dogs, cats, goats, pigs and calves. Casey started a TikTok account (@caseyriveter) to document their animal rescue journey and she now has 1.9 million followers.

Casey and David talk about what drew her to serve in the military, her impressive career with the Army, the parallels between business school and the Army, and how she got into the world of TikTok.

Episode Quotes:
Parallels between business school and the Army

12:54 - Consulting is a huge thing in business school. We constantly are reading case studies. We're constantly saying like, hey, there's this problem, how do we fix it? Or how do we come up with some type of solution to help? And I think as leaders in the military we're constantly faced with problems, we're constantly going into new organizations and trying to fix what might be broken or just to make things better than they were when you got there.

One thing you learned at Rice that has helped you become a leader

14:51 - One thing that I learned in business school that has helped me as a leader is having this climate that enforces innovation. And I think that if people that worked for you are afraid to make mistakes and take risks, then you're never going to move forward. And that's something that a lot of startup companies and a lot of just businesses period have to understand as leaders, like there are certain risks that are ok. Because yes, it might set us back, but if you take this risk, you might also get five steps ahead of where you were before.

On her new viral TikTok fame

22:24 - I think it's important to use your platform to try to spread awareness and to just share with the world like, hey,  this is how great it can be to foster or to volunteer at shelters or to consider adopting a dog from a shelter or a rescue before maybe buying one.

Show Links:

• Episode Transcript 

Guest Profile:

• Casey Sherrod on TikTok
• Casey Sherrod on LinkedIn
• Casey Sherron on Twitter
• Casey Sherrod on Instagram