Veteran Influencer Podcast

Robert Woods transitioned from the Air Force using the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill to earn an education and launch his career. He is now the founder of Banneret Career Consulting, focused on helping other veterans do the same.

He also hosts his own podcast called The Knight's Tale Podcast where he interviews other veterans, employers, and talks about how companies can work with veterans to create on the job training programs.

We discuss how he was able to increase his income by relocating, earning more education to advance his career, and network in a major city. Robert also shares his ambitions about impacting veteran housing, based largely on his experiences during transition trying to find a place to live in a major city while attending school.

Robert's recommendations:

Listen: GaryVee's Podcast

Read: The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone

Anthony DeToto's career is in private wealth management and in today's conversation we hear about his transition as an Army officer, but the reason why we were introduced and the focus of this podcast is on 1836Veterans, an organization he founded to help veterans in the Houston area create small businesses in the lower-middle market.

His group at 1836 believes that veterans have a competitive advantage in business due to their leadership, work-ethic, and character and that they have a natural inclination to feel comfortable with risk while creating performative teams that operate successfully in dynamic environments with incomplete information. They strive to offer a strong local network, mentorship, and experienced legal, financial and operations resources to help Houston-area veterans build successful companies.

In this conversation we discuss this program, how he's looking forward to the future of veterans in business, and his advice for others looking to start their own entrepreneurship journey.

Bill Kieffer is the President and Chief Advisor for Kieffer & Associates, LTD. He is also a TEDx speaker, former U.S. Army officer, and Ohio native. His career has focused on training, leading, and shaping organizations from within the talent management and human capital department of the companies he has worked for. I was excited to have Bill on to talk about how decisions are made at the front lines of talent management in corporate America as it relates to hiring, training, and retaining veterans.

Bill's experience during his own transition and career offers a unique and complete perspective from both sides of the uniform and civilian hiring process. I was really struck with how often we agree about the topics discussed during our conversation, areas like interview readiness, asking questions during the hiring courtship process, and managing money and negotiating compensation. In this conversation, we cover best practices for a job seeker leaving the service and trying to peel back the psychology behind how companies think about their workforce and strategic talent acquisition programs.

If you're interested in learning more about Bill's work with Veterans, Executive Coaching, and Strategic Talent Management check out some of the articles in the links below!

1. Where Do You Want to Go? The Key Question for Those in Transition
2. What Do You Mean I'm Not Your Top Priority?
3. NOWwork, NEWwork, NETwork
4. Four Aces of Transition Success

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Josh Duntz is a Navy EOD Master Technician experienced in leading small, high performing and dynamic teams of special operations personnel. Josh has done seemingly everything possible to engage proactively with his military-to-civilian transition. Over the last couple of years he has finished his bachelor's degree, completed the 6-month transition fellowship with The Honor Foundation, worked with Elite Meet to network with other veterans, and is jumping into a DoD SkillBridge internship with a company on the west coast he was introduced to through Shift.org. Josh is also a founder and member of the leadership team at the Navy Special Operations Foundation, a not-for-profit organization which ensures Special Operations personnel and their families have the tools needed to overcome the challenges they face.

I wanted to talk to a currently transitioning service member like Josh because his perspective is based on a very modern, holistic approach to leveraging transition resources. During the last couple of years Josh has been deliberate about his planning and preparation for a career after the military which has positioned him ideally to get a job that he's excited about that will allow him and his wife to relocate back home to Tampa in a work-from home business development role.

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Today's conversation is with John Boerstler CEO of Combined Arms, an organization helping veterans transition to Houston and the greater Texas market after their military service.

John and I discuss how he is approaching this mission and the unique way his team is creating a bridge for service members looking to network, go back to school, and generally get connected to the Texas economy after their service. We also discuss briefly how the lessons learned developing regional resources like combined arms are being shared around the world with other countries.

We talk about how putting former military members back to work in gainful employment is not only the right thing to do, but also a stabilizing force on countries that have been at war or recently experienced conflict and have not yet discovered how to re-deploy their service members into society. Without overstating the point, Combined Arms' mission is helping to address a challenge not only in the Houston and U.S. economies, but also around the globe in developing nations as well.

Check out the Combined Arms website here to learn more about their mission and get access to their resources.

Today's conversation is with Naval Academy graduate and former nuclear-trained naval officer Tom Schwab. Tom transitioned to corporate America after his service and leads a media marketing business called Interview Valet. His focus is on making introductions between guests and podcasters to help clients tell their story and share their ideas with new audiences in a popular, high-converting medium. Their slogan is, "You are the guest, we take care of the rest."

Tom's career began in the early 90's in medical device sales where he quickly found his strength introducing people and helping create new conversations. This led him to develop a career in technology and conversation-based marketing strategies, ultimately found a business that gives him the ability to do what he loves while employing a team of 16 geographically-dispersed, remote-work marketing professionals.

Listen to this episode if you're curious about what it takes to make a start in the medical device sales industry, how that skill set and experience helped someone like Tom transition to small-business ownership, and eventually entrepreneurship as a founder and CEO.

If you're curious about how Tom and his team are helping companies meet and engage with new audiences through the medium of Podcast Interview Marketing, check out Interview Valet. You can download Tom's 9 Secrets to Getting Booked on Your First Podcast and his Ultimate Podcast Guest Checklist.

Jon Macaskill is a U.S. Navy SEAL, Mindfulness Practitioner, Expert Monotasker, and Certified Wrong Thinker. After 20+ years as both an enlisted sailor and a commissioned officer, he is transitioning out of the military and launching a mindfulness and emotional intelligence coaching company - Macaskill Consulting, aiming to bring meditation, mindfulness, and EQ to organizations and creating a strategic advantage within high-performing teams.

In this conversation Jon defines terms like meditation and mindfulness and discusses common misconceptions surrounding these practices, as well as shares his first encounters with the discipline and how it helped him both at home and at work in stressful situations. We also get into how he decided to create a business for himself as a part of his transition based on input from a trusted mentor.

This episode covers the financial planning that has gone into his transition strategy, how he has begun building his business in order to respect the DoD -- Civilian balance, and his long-awaited cross-country road trip in the family RV.

Claude Burns is the CEO and founder of Office Libations. After exiting the Navy following six years as an Information Professional Officer, Claude attended the MIT Sloan School of Management where he earned his MBA, taking the plunge directly into entrepreneurship after graduation. In 2014 he founded Noble Brewer by scaling-up specialty craft beer recipes created by homebrewers and delivered them by mail to consumers across the country in gift boxes. Although this business was showing signs of success, in 2018 he launched his current company which has grown to almost 20 employees while answering a clear demand signal from his customers.

For those of you considering entrepreneurship, this is a great example of how to pivot and adapt when you're receiving market signals, as well as a good example of a post-MBA career track that doesn't just lead into investment banking or consulting. We discuss how he's been tackling challenges, some of the lessons he's learned as an entrepreneur, and the best parts about launching a business and seeing a successful idea gain traction and begin to grow.

Connect with Claude on LinkedIn HERE

Check out Office Libations HERE

Do you live in San Diego and enjoy $.25 Beer?

John Cordle, Dr. Eng, leads a 12 person team at Huntington Ingalls Industries teaching Maintenance Management to over 12,000 U. S. Navy personnel, including all officer pipeline training across the waterfront.

He is the USNI Proceedings Author of the Year and Surface Navy Literary Award winner for 2018, having written about implementing a Circadian Rhythm watch rotation while serving as CO of the USS San Jacinto (CG-56). His crew was awarded the 2010 Vice Admiral Bulkeley Safety Award for improved watch stander resilience.

In our conversation, John shares what it was like when he transitioned to a role with Huntington Ingalls Industries in mid-2013 with the goal of remaining in the local area, where a high concentration of other senior officers with similar experiences were vying for jobs at a time when sequestration had disrupted the local job market.

We also cover how he made the decision to pursue additional academics as a civilian, and what led him to earn his Dr. Eng from ODU while also traveling extensively for work and leading a geographically dispersed team.

Finally, we talk about how he has found a way to give back to the Navy and is working to help veterans after transition deal with the impact of their service on their circadian rhythms, physiology, and overall well-being.

If you are an active-duty member of the U.S. Armed Forces with 12-18 months before the end of your service commitment, you have to check out this episode!

Today's conversation is with Tyler Bloecher, one of our newest Recruiting Managers and the first-ever DoD SkillBridge Fellow that we've had here at Bradley-Morris. This program is relatively new and is designed to connect active-duty service members with fellowship opportunities at companies during their final six months of service to expose them to new career skills and facilitate a smoother and more informed transition process. Tyler and I discuss how he first learned about SkillBridge, the steps he took to pave the way for approval with his chain of command, and what he's doing now to make sure as many service-members as possible are aware of this great DoD program.

Learn how you can test-drive your next role through a DoD SkillBridge fellowship by connecting to Tyler on LinkedIn or through email at [email protected].