In this episode, Brock speaks with Nolan Gore. Nolan operates a landscaping company that's going to do over 5 million in revenue this year, which is more than 2x Since he bought the company back in 2017. In this conversation, you'll learn why work life balance doesn't exist and why if you're an entrepreneur striving for work, life integration is much more effective. You'll learn how to have difficult conversations with customers and why positioning really is everything. And you'll also hear about his Leadership Development Academy where he takes D1 athletes and students with master's degree and puts them to work mowing lawns, and reading all the entrepreneurship books that made us. It's really an impressive program and inspiring to hear Nolan's love to foster young people coming up in the world.

Episode Resources:

Nolan on Twitter

Leadership Academy

Show Notes:

Introduction to this week’s episode. 0:00

What’s going on in his life right now. 1:45

How to use adversity as a rallying cry to motivate your team. 7:48

The importance of being vulnerable in business. 9:59

His background and what he has learned about business from his parents. 14:19

What was the final release for you of getting out of the shadow? 19:00

My wife and I grew up together, which is not something most people an replicate. 24:11

You may not always be passionate about what you’re doing, but there’s an intangible thing you are optimizing for personally. 28:52

The decision to get out of the marines. 32:07

The decision to put someone else on top of the business. 37:10

The importance of getting a verbal agreement, not just a verbal Agreement. 43:50

Have you incubated any other service lines? 46:30

The importance of leadership and stability in the company. 52:02

How do you balance unit growth and charging aggressive pricing? 55:25

The origin story of the Leadership Academy. 1:00:37

Why you need to taste small business before you buy. 1:05:31

Finding the right fit for every person. 1:08:01

What is the reaction and how does the integration work with the people who are in the business? 1:13:22

--

The Scuttlebutt Podcast - The podcast for service members and veterans building a life outside the military.

The Scuttlebutt Podcast features discussions on lifestyle, careers, business, and resources for service members. Show host, Brock Briggs, talks with a special guest from the community committed to helping military members build a successful life, inside and outside the service.

Every week, we send out in depth breakdowns of episodes, resources and content not featured, and free swag.

Follow along:    

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• Send me an email: [email protected]

• Episodes & transcripts

In this episode, Brock speaks with Ryan Kilkenny. Ryan is the founder and CEO of Atomic Planning, a virtual retirement planning financial services company. Ryan is former Marine Corps and after a few years learning financial advising at Edward Jones started his own practice with a focus on retirement planning specifically. Expect to learn the must dos for your money while in the service, the differences between financial services companies like Edward Jones and starting your own practice, and how to use content as a way to differentiate yourself and your business.

Episode Resources:

Atomic Planning

Atomic Retirement Podcast

Notes:

(01:10) - Becoming a dad for the first time

The Scuttlebutt Podcast features discussions on lifestyle, careers, business, and resources for service members. Show host, Brock Briggs, talks with a special guest from the community committed to helping military members build a successful life, inside and outside the service.

Every week, we send out in depth breakdowns of episodes, ⁠⁠resources and content not featured, and free swag⁠⁠.

Follow along:    

• ⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠

• ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠

• Send me an email: [email protected]

• ⁠⁠Episodes & transcripts

In this episode, Brock speaks with Mike Jones. In this conversation, Mike talks about how to do targeted networking with a particular focus on raising money for a business, as well as running effective meetings with people. We talked about him launching one of the first Crossfit gyms in Minneapolis back in 2009. And how we use learnings from that to co found his own fitness company, Alchemy 365, a boutique fitness brand. Mike also talks about EOS or Entrepreneurial Operating System, why it's a valuable back into any business and how to implement it in your own company.

Episode Resources:

Mike on LinkedIn

Alchemy 365

Notes:

(01:20) - How to have a good meeting or networking call

The Scuttlebutt Podcast features discussions on lifestyle, careers, business, and resources for service members. Show host, Brock Briggs, talks with a special guest from the community committed to helping military members build a successful life, inside and outside the service.

Every week, we send out in depth breakdowns of episodes, ⁠resources and content not featured, and free swag⁠.

Follow along:    

• ⁠Twitter⁠

• ⁠Instagram⁠

• Send me an email: [email protected]

• ⁠Episodes & transcripts

In this episode, Brock speaks with Rodney Adams. Rodney is a former Marine Corps infantry, both enlisted and officer and is now the CEO and founder of Mr. Home Repair of Tulsa. We get into why the title of veteran means different things to different people and the good and bad application of it in the workplace. We talk about his journey from his time working at Goldman Sachs Investment Management arm to becoming an entrepreneur. We also get into what it takes to succeed operating a small and medium business and some very potent advice for young men pursuing a similar path.

Episode Resources:

Mr Home Repair of Tulsa

Rodney on Twitter

Handyman Checklist on Gumroad

Notes:

(01:17) - Is the veteran space played out?

The Scuttlebutt Podcast features discussions on lifestyle, careers, business, and resources for service members. Show host, Brock Briggs, talks with a special guest from the community committed to helping military members build a successful life, inside and outside the service.

Every week, we send out in depth breakdowns of episodes, resources and content not featured, and free swag.

Follow along:    

• Twitter

• Instagram

• Send me an email: [email protected]

• Episodes & transcripts

In this episode, Brock speaks with Jeremy McCool. Jeremy is a former Army infantry officer, and currently the founder and CEO of HEVO, a wireless electric vehicle charging company. We talked through Jeremy's inspiration for HEVO, a story recounting restoring power to a village in Iraq while deployed. He explains the barriers to wireless charging and how they're combating both the innovation and distribution challenges, their recent partnership with Stellantis, and advice for young entrepreneurs raising money. Jeremy is the type of person that when you listen to them talk about the future. It's exciting. He also tells a story of how he was explaining his idea for wireless charging when he was started back in 2011 to Exxon executives, just three years after Tesla released its first roadster considering how far they come, it's difficult to not to be optimistic about that future.

Episode Resources:

Jeremy on LinkedIn

Jeremy on Twitter

HEVO

HEVO Demo Video

Notes:

(01:52) - Jeremy's entrepreneurship roots

The Scuttlebutt Podcast - The podcast for service members and veterans building a life outside the military.

The Scuttlebutt Podcast features discussions on lifestyle, careers, business, and resources for service members. Show host, Brock Briggs, talks with a special guest from the community committed to helping military members build a successful life, inside and outside the service.

Every week, we send out in depth breakdowns of episodes, resources and content not featured, and free swag.

Follow along:    

• Twitter   

• Instagram

• Send me an email: [email protected]

• Episodes & transcripts

In this episode, Brock speaks with Doug Pugliese. Doug is a former naval aviator and translator as well as the former managing director at Bear Stearns, where he rode through the dot com bubble and the GFC. Today he is head of 1042 QRP strategies at Alpha Architect. In this conversation we start with a bit about Doug's time in the Navy. Doug was a translator for an admiral and the president of Paraguay in the late 80s. He gives a bit of a history lesson about the US as involvement in South America during that time, and share some photos of him with some very notable figures, including the general who staged a coup and overthrew that President. We also hear what Doug learned about risk in financial markets working through a few of the most notable time periods in financial history. And we also learned about ESOP's or employee stock ownership programs, what they are, why they're important, and what Alpha Architect is doing in this world today.

Episode Resources:

⁠Alpha Architect website⁠

Notes:

(01:56) - What Doug is most proud of

The Scuttlebutt Podcast - The podcast for service members and veterans building a life outside the military.

The Scuttlebutt Podcast features discussions on lifestyle, careers, business, and resources for service members. Show host, Brock Briggs, talks with a special guest from the community committed to helping military members build a successful life, inside and outside the service.

Get a weekly episode breakdown, a sneak peek of the next episode and other resources in your inbox for free at ⁠⁠⁠https://scuttlebutt.substack.com/⁠⁠⁠.

Follow along:    

In this episode, Brock speaks with Wes Gray. Wes is a former Marine intel officer and currently the founder and CEO of alpha architect. This episode might double as an intro to financial markets. We talk about what quantitative investing is, and how that differs from the famous stock pickers, like Warren Buffett. We talk about systems based thinking, where and why that's relevant. And we also talk about the future of investing and how to use our strengths to best play into that.

Episode Resources:

Alpha Architect website

Notes:

(01:21) - What Wes is most proud of

The Scuttlebutt Podcast - The podcast for service members and veterans building a life outside the military.

The Scuttlebutt Podcast features discussions on lifestyle, careers, business, and resources for service members. Show host, Brock Briggs, talks with a special guest from the community committed to helping military members build a successful life, inside and outside the service.

Get a weekly episode breakdown, a sneak peek of the next episode and other resources in your inbox for free at ⁠⁠https://scuttlebutt.substack.com/⁠⁠.

Follow along:    

In this episode, Brock speaks with JD Modrak. JD is currently a director at Kasa and is as close to a VA loan expert as I've found. We talk about MBAs and how the value of an MBA could be offset with drive and experience, his time stacking VA loans and why now may be the best time to use a VA loan despite where interest rates are, and the state of short term rentals - why or why not they may be worthwhile.

Episode Resources:

JD on Twitter

Notes:

(01:15) - Why JD doesn't want to talk about the Navy

The Scuttlebutt Podcast - The podcast for service members and veterans building a life outside the military.

The Scuttlebutt Podcast features discussions on lifestyle, careers, business, and resources for service members. Show host, Brock Briggs, talks with a special guest from the community committed to helping military members build a successful life, inside and outside the service.

Get a weekly episode breakdown, a sneak peek of the next episode and other resources in your inbox for free at ⁠⁠https://scuttlebutt.substack.com/⁠⁠.

Follow along:    

In this episode, Brock speaks with Christian Ruf. Christian is a former Army helicopter pilot and now operating a home services business. We talk about what we can take from aviation and how to apply that in our lives. We talk about why ETA or entrepreneurship through acquisition may not be as sexy as most make it out to be. And we talk about an interesting business he's starting, jumbo mail, a new take on direct mail.

Episode Resources:

Jumbo Mail Marketing

Christian Ruf

Notes:

(01:48) - Hot yoga, a quick trip to Iraq, and finding what you're capable of

The Scuttlebutt Podcast - The podcast for service members and veterans building a life outside the military.

The Scuttlebutt Podcast features discussions on lifestyle, careers, business, and resources for service members. Show host, Brock Briggs, talks with a special guest from the community committed to helping military members build a successful life, inside and outside the service.

Get a weekly episode breakdown, a sneak peek of the next episode and other resources in your inbox for free at ⁠⁠https://scuttlebutt.substack.com/⁠⁠.

Follow along:    

In this episode, Brock speaks with Joe Parker. Joe is a former Army officer worked as the head of capital markets at USAA, a product manager at Amazon and now is the COO at positive some of venture stage investment fund. In this conversation, we talk about how you can lead from the front by willing to get dirty and how that drives retention and greater buy in from your employees. We talk about the business of the military and the unique challenges it faces when it comes to developing the people who run it, and why many high achievers choose to exit. We also discuss the shortcuts to finding what you're good at, whether you're the right person to change the world, and finding the jobs that align with those key features of who you are.

Episode Resources:

Positive Sum

Notes:

(02:36) - Joe's introduction and how the Army was and wasn't what he thought it would be

The Scuttlebutt Podcast - The podcast for service members and veterans building a life outside the military.

The Scuttlebutt Podcast features discussions on lifestyle, careers, business, and resources for service members. Show host, Brock Briggs, talks with a special guest from the community committed to helping military members build a successful life, inside and outside the service.

Get a weekly episode breakdown, a sneak peek of the next episode and other resources in your inbox for free at ⁠https://scuttlebutt.substack.com/⁠.

Follow along: