Veteran Influencer Podcast

Matt Hesse is the Chairman and Founder of the FitOps Foundation, helping veterans find purpose and community through fitness. Matt transitioned from the Army in July of 2000 and began a career in the fitness and nutrition industry, ultimately launching his own brand in 2008 manufacturing and marketing health and wellness products. He launched FitOps almost four years ago to give veterans a physical mission and career skills to enable entrepreneurial success, as well as to offer themselves in service to others as a coach and trainer.

We discuss how Matt's program addresses the biggest risk to veterans in transition, their loss of purpose. For those still, "thawing out," from time in a combat zone, FitOps helps identify and short-circuit self-sabotage behaviors common among returning service members, deliberately seeking mental and emotional breakthroughs during the early weeks of the program. Matt's team works to replicate the camaraderie inherent in the military, creating a supportive environment that rebuilds participants once they've broken down those barriers in the first weeks.

His program takes a holisitic approach to beginning a fitness career, not just certifying trainers. The curriculum addresses common failure points for people starting out in the industry and offers elements of business management as a part of the training. This mentorship doesn't end when veterans leave camp, but rather continues on into their careers in the industry with a network of fellow alumni and successful fitness professionals. With the new facility they're building in Arkansas, Matt hopes to continue expanding their mission and scaling the team to offer the program to more veterans each year.

Zach Thomas is an entrepreneur, author, coach, and speaker. In this episode, we discuss his journey from TRADOC to Seminary to Chick-Fil-A, leading and motivating people with a sense of purpose at every step of the way.

Veterans make great franchise owners, leading small to medium sized teams in fast-paced operations where seamless execution is critical to success. They also serve well in roles oriented around process improvement and LEAN methodology, looking for efficiencies and cost-savings within an organization or process. Zach has cultivated a culture of process improvement within his franchise, and spearheaded the launch of the Lean6Ninja program.

Zach's career combines these disciplines of leadership and process improvement and highlights the value that military leaders bring to organizations in the form of employee development and empowerment.

Check out Zach's website to get your FREE copy of Leader Farming: Growing Leaders to Grow Your Business, just pay shipping. Also take his Leadership-Style quiz and find out what kind of leadership style you trend towards. Are you a command-and-control style or passive leader? Find out HERE!

Marco Nelson transitioned from the military to a career in technology through a blend of active duty academic pursuits, a hobbyist interest in mobile app development, part-time real estate investing, and eventually additional academics immediately after his transition. He knew early on in his Navy career that he had a strong pull to develop and build mobile device applications, and pursued a path that led him to a place where he's using software to solve real-world problems he encountered as a real estate investor.

His story is a great example of extracurricular skills training and academic accomplishment while still in uniform, blending relevant career milestones with personal interests to set a foundation that positioned him well to transition to entrepreneurship. He's also a tech founder launching a startup from New Orleans, LA far from the software engineering talent mecca of Silicon Valley. We discuss the challenges this poses and how his team has grown despite being located in a city not usually known for its technology workforce.

For those considering a career in application development, real-estate, or entrepreneurship this episode is for you.

Follow Marco's company on LinkedIn HERE or learn more at their website GetRentCheck.com

Tom Wolfe joins me for the 50th episode of the podcast to discuss his book Out of Uniform: Your Guide to a Successful Military-to-Civilian Career Transition.

Tom and I share a lot in common, we're both Naval Academy graduates who served as Surface Warfare Officers aboard ships and subsequently transitioned to careers in military placement and talent strategy. Tom and his firm Career Development, where he was a Principal for 29 years, became a part of Bradley-Morris in 2007. During that time, Tom produced a variety of written and video content that was in use throughout the candidate preparation pipeline when I was a candidate from 2011 to early 2012.

His Career College for Candidates video series shaped my early understanding of the process as a candidate, and later became the foundation of my advisory practice when I became a Candidate Recruiter in early 2012. Tom's knowledge and insight into military-to-civilian transition provides a sound model for making career decisions during transition from active duty, as well as throughout your career beyond transition.

I was glad to mark the 50th episode of the podcast by having someone on whose advice is not only meaningful in a general sense, but personally meaningful to me throughout my career. Check out more from Tom at Out-of-Uniform.com or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Steve Hawley is a Loan Officer with Southern Trust Mortgage, and the brother of one of my recent guests John Hawley. John recommended we connect to try to get to the bottom of why he and I keep getting so much junk mail about our VA loans.

Steve is an expert in residential mortgage lending and was gracious to lend about an hour of his time to answer my questions about the VA Loan program, and how veterans are marketed to and why.

We discuss:

• The role of a mortgage broker in the process of purchasing a home.
• Misconceptions regarding mortgages
• When to check your credit and understand your financial picture (before you transition!)

Steve and I also discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the VA loan program, as well as the pros and cons of home ownership versus renting for Active Duty and Transitioning military personnel.

My hope with this conversation was to have a really simple explanation of some of the basics around using the VA Loan and avoiding some of the potential sales pitches you might receive once you own a home.

If you'd like to know more about getting a mortgage in the Hampton Roads area, email Steve here

Today I had a great conversation with Mark Munger about the Marine for Life Network. Mark is the Regional Network Coordinator for the Southeast Region, one of the busiest and most engaged regions due to the high number of veterans that transition back to the southeast following transition.

We talked about how Mark got involved with Marine for Life, and what their mission is across the country. Mark and I also dive into how marines and their families can get access to the network both during their initial separation from active duty, as well as throughout their post-service careers.

I'm excited to share this episode a few days ahead of the U.S. Marine Corps' 244th birthday this Sunday November, 10th. Founded at Tun Tavern in 1775, the Marine Corps is one of the three original branches of the armed forces founded before America's independence. The Marine corps has a long tradition of service to our nation, and the team at Marine for Life cares deeply about continuing that tradition of service, even after Marines hang up the uniform.

Check out the official M4L LinkedIn Page or Facebook Page, or follow them on Twitter.

Jamie Desautels was a supply officer in the Navy who transitioned into a logistics role with a Fortune 100 company via their military officer hiring program. He is now the Sales Director for Glen-Gery Corporation, a manufacturing leader in masonry, brick, and stone construction materials.

In this episode, we talk about how his first job showed him that your military branch or MOS does not and should not predetermine what career you pursue when you get out. Jamie shares how flexible different service backgrounds really are, and the drastically different communities veterans come from in corporate hiring programs where they may share a job title.

This is an encouraging conversation because Jamie has clearly benefited enormously from the way companies view veteran leadership talent. He is also holding up his end of the bargain and the promise of veterans in corporate America, leading revenue-producing teams and pushing himself and the people around him to grow. That's only possible through the commitment his family has made along the way and throughout multiple major career transitions over the last 10 years. We touch on the impact that has had on their lives to get to the point where the hard work is finally paying off.

Dan Manning is the Founder of Firepower Concepts, a strategy practice that works with executives from business, non-profits, and government to use applied creativity to unlock ideas and solve tough problems. Dan creates what he calls a Designed Strategy, a roadmap for a strategic decision maker based on the principles of Design Thinking.

He is also the author of Stuck on Stuck Street : Unstick Your Creativity for a Better Business and a Better Life.

Dan retired from the U.S. Air Force where he flew the A-10 Warthog and served in diplomatic affairs and international security coordination. The second half of his career afforded him the opportunity to earn his PhD in Development Economics and International Development which drove the direction of his roles for the final 6 years of his active duty service, where he focused on foreign policy and leadership decision making.

In this episode, Dan shares his belief that austerity is the father of creativity, and how he carefully launched his business during his transition from the active duty to be able to hit the ground running as his career in the Air Force came to a close.

He now helps companies adapt their businesses and avoid being functionally fixed on a process but rather on pursuing opportunities in the market to produce customer value. We talk about the impact he makes with non-profits and small businesses, helping teams gain clarity on their strategic goals. Dan's approach is to be Specific, Concise, and Prioritized.

Check out more from Dan on his Applied Creativity Blog

John Wayne Mullins is an officer in the Coast Guard Reserve and the founder of JWM-Coaching LLC. His leadership coaching practice offers entrepreneurs and small business owners a formal process for actualizing structured goals. He writes frequently for LinkedIn about Employee Engagement, Succession Planning, and expanding your Comfort Zone.

We discuss his decision to start this business, gaining confidence from the support of his wife and his own personal business coach.

We also dive into how to avoid distractions and learn how to say "No" when you need to prioritize your time as an entrepreneur trying to grow a new business.

Check out more of John's writing on LinkedIn HERE

Bronchae Brown is a former Marine Corps aviator and the CEO of Zoomiee, a company tackling the challenge of providing photography on-demand for attendees at school events, sporting games, and live performances who want to get out from behind their smartphone and be present in the moment.

Bronchae left a lucrative career in computer science after graduating college to pursue his passion and goal of becoming an aviator in the military, accepting a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps where he served for 20 years before making the transition to civilian life and entrepreneurship in 2014. He opens up about the good and bad elements of his journey to becoming a CEO and Founder, and how his deliberate planning skills from the military gave him a solid foundation for a career in business.

He shares his advice for:

• Planning the transition from a financial perspective, including making a budget for a 6-month sabbatical to reset priorities and take a breather before jumping into the next chapter of your career.
• Translating your experience and titles to avoid the resume screening algorithms that disqualify many veterans before they ever get a chance to interview for a civilian job.
• Pivoting to a role in sales-leadership role to gain valuable selling experience when his first attempts at launching his own business revealed a weakness in his professional skillset.
• How he is building a team at his startup and the confidence gained by bringing in experienced people who believe in your vision and want to contribute.

Connect with Bronchae on LinkedIn

Bronchae recommends: The Startup Owner's Manual: The Step-By-Step Guide for Building a Great Company by Steve Blank and Bob Dorf