“I think many of us served because we love this country and love what it stands for. I think - like many people - I'm frustrated that our representatives are not as good as the country they represent. They've allowed the American Dream to fade; they've allowed money to become the dominant influence over politics; they've failed to address some of the defining issues of our time like climate change. And I think that our democracy is our inheritance as citizens and that as citizens we deserve better. And I think that veterans have that love of country that can motivate us to run into the breach and I think we have a lot to offer."
– Sean Barney
Sean Barney is a public defender. He started out at Swarthmore College, after which he served for five years as a Machine Gunner in the 25th Marine Regiment, where he was awarded the Purple Heart. Since transitioning from the Marines, Sean has worked at the Think Tank, Third Way. He has also been extremely active in politics - one of the main things we’ll talk about today - his experience here is extensive but a few highlights are serving as both the Campaign Manager and then Policy Director for Governor Jack Markell and a Candidate for Congress. Sean holds a Master of Arts from Columbia University, a Masters of Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School of government, and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
“He said, 'This is where you see what you're made of. This is either where you fold up and die, or you push through and figure [stuff] out and make it happen.' And so luckily I was able to keep working through it and keep pushing things forward incrementally, and then recognize that there were some strategic things that we needed to do to fix it. That's what created Next Oncology, which transitioned a $3 Million a year revenue business to a $7-8 million a year business."
– Mark Frank
Mark Frank is the CEO and Co-Founder of Sondermind, a startup that is focused on making mental health services more accessible and accepted for everyone. He started out West Point and served as an Logistics Officer in the Army for five years. After the Army, Mark earned both his MBA and Masters of Engineering Management at Northwestern University. After grad school, he an Associate Investment Banker at Morgan Stanley for two years before serving as Founder & CEO at Next Oncology. After six years at Next Oncology, he sold the company in a deal that brought a 12X return to investors. In addition to founding Sondermind and Next Oncology, Mark has also started SafeImageMD and TermScout, as well as served as the Managing Director of the investment company, Goldwing Capital.
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“I'll never forget my fiance and I at the time were going to visit some relatives, and I pulled over before we got the house and said, 'Hey I'm about to spend a bunch of money on an idea to start this drink called Kill Cliff and I might not get anything out of it, but at least I can say that I tried and I did it.' And you told me, 'You're going to be great - you're going to do awesome. You'll make more money if we lose the money.' Having her support me at that moment in time was incredible, and so I moved forward with it."
– Todd Ehrlich
Todd is the Founder of Kill Cliff, maker of the recovery drink with the same name. Kill Cliff has about 40 employees and makes continuous donations to the Navy SEAL Foundation. Todd also serves as the CEO at BAM Worldwide, the leading provider of cash management technology for small to medium transportation companies. He is also the Founder & Chairman of Triserv Appraisal Management Solutions, a real estate appraisal management company. Todd started out in the Navy, where he served as a SEAL for four years. After his transition from the military, he held a variety of positions at Kroll Associates, United Rentals, and Jacobs Private Equity.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
“There's a lot of weird stress things that come from all of this attention. But being able to take my wife to the Oscars... and being able to take my interpreter and give her somethign like that. That's one of the most unadultered good feelings I've ever had."
– Hank Hughes
Henry Hughes is an Oscar nominated writer and director who spent five years as a paratrooper in the 173rd Airborne, conducting two combat tours in Afghanistan. His unit was featured in The Outpost by Jake Tapper. Henry was featured in ABC News’ Standing Up For Heroes with Bob Woodruff where he was paired with George Lucas as a part of American Corporate Partner’s National Mentoring Program. He earned a MFA in Directing at the American Film Institute, where he received the Gary Winick Scholarship. His work has played at Telluride, AFI Fest, Mill Valley, and Cannes among others. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
“I didn’t start it with being a company in mind. I knew it was possible to make money but I didn’t know how or how much. My goal was to make my $125 back. My goal beyond that was to have date money - maybe $100 a month to take my wife out to a nice dinner. And it took seven months to make my first $100… and then after that it just took off. And I’d say that within two years I had replicated by day job income."
– Ryan Guina
Ryan is the Founder of Cash Money Life & The Military Wallet - two websites that focus on helping people better manage their finances by offering informational articles, tips, tutorials, and product and service reviews. He has run these sites for over nine years and been featured on publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and LifeHacker. He started out in the Air Force, where he served for six and a half years as an Electrical-Environmental Specialist. After transitioning from the military, he worked at BearingPoint as a Management Analyst and then at the Computer Sciences Corporation as a Business Process Modeler. In addition to running his websites, Ryan currently serves in the Illinois Air National Guard.
Todd is the Founder of Kill Cliff, maker of the recovery drink with the same name. Kill Cliff has about 40 employees and makes continuous donations to the Navy SEAL Foundation. Todd also serves as the CEO at BAM Worldwide, the leading provider of cash management technology for small to medium transportation companies. He is also the Founder & Chairman of Triserv Appraisal Management Solutions, a real estate appraisal management company. Todd started out in the Navy, where he served as a SEAL for four years. After his transition from the military, he held a variety of positions at Kroll Associates, United Rentals, and Jacobs Private Equity.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
“I thought the corporate world was going to be the answer, and what I found out was yeah the corporation didn't control me as much as Uncle Sam did when I was in uniform. But the reality was that the rules changed all the time and they never changed in my favor in the corporate world. In the military, at least you knew what to expect with Uncle Sam. So I started to do some stuff on the side, because I wanted to have more control over our future. A buddy of mine from church mentioned one Sunday that his daughters and he had a gum ball business, and they were doing things together as a family and making money. And so initially I started out just selling gum balls."
– Matt Miller
Matt Miller is the President and Founder of School Spirit Vending, a Hassle-Free, Year-Round Fundraising company for Schools that he started over nine years ago. He is also the Host of the School Zone Podcast, a podcast resource for educators, school volunteers and the fundraising companies that serve them and their schools. And he is also the Owner of Sticker Swarm Media, a publishing company for children’s books. And also the President & Co-Founder of School News Guru - a newsletter program. He started out at the Air Force Academy, after which he served as a pilot in the Air Force for nearly nine years. After the Air Force he served in a variety of sales roles, first at the Hospital & Health Care industry with Abbott, and then with the Marketing & Advertising space with Valassis.
The top three reasons to listen to today’s episode
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“It was literally something that we started over our garage, and over the course of a few years grew to a few different offices. It was one of those situations where it became - to some degree - all consuming. My wife and I have two children and it was a situation where we always felt like we had this third child - our business, Wedgewood Group. And it probably came to every dinner conversation and every car ride and Wedgewood was just there. I think the point where I realized, 'Oh my gosh, this thing is really real' is when our payroll hit $100k every two weeks, I realized, 'what did I get myself into!'"
– Patrick Leddin, Ph.D.
Dr. Patrick Leddin is a Professor at Vanderbilt University’s Managerial Studies Program, where he teaches both Corporate Strategy and Principles of Marketing. He started out in the Army, where he served for over six years with the 82nd Airborne Division as a Platoon Leader, Staff Officer, and Company Commander. After transitioning from the Army, he worked as a Senior Consultant at KPMG. He then started his own consulting firm, the Wedgewood Consulting Group, and served as Managing Director. In 2011 Inc Magazine named Wedgwood one of the fastest growing private companies in America, and they were acquired in 2012. Patrick holds a PhD in Communication from the University of Kentucky, and has also worked as a Director & Senior Consultant at Franklin Covey for nearly 16 years.
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“There is still maybe a stigma in the community. There's an idea that veterans are viewed in one of three ways. They're either a victim, this broken winged bird that needs to be nursed back to life. Or they're a villain, they're this crazy combat vet who is about to explode at any moment. Or they're seen as some sort of mythic hero. And none of those are true. No veteran I've ever known wants to be treated like a victim. Being labeled a villain could make them more aggressive. and most will resist being called a hero. And so there are these archetypes that the community sees, but in reality we're really a combination of all of them."
– Duane France
Duane France serves as the Program Director for the Colorado Veteran Health and Wellness Agency, as well as the Director of Veteran Services for the Family Care Center, and also as a Clinical Mental Health Counselor. He started out as a Noncommissioned officer in the Army, where he served for 22 years with five combat and operational deployments. Since leaving the Army he has established himself as a Veteran Mental Health Thought Leader, being listed by LinkedIn as one of the top five most influential veterans on LinkedIn. You can find him online at his website www.veteranmentalhealth.com and on Twitter as ThCounselingVet
The top two reasons to listen to today’s episode
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<liLearned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life - combats Learned Helplessness and keeps us from remaining pessimists
“One [aspect of startups] is the uncertainty. I mean that in the macro level in the sense that at any moment the company could die. And I mean that at a more micro level in that you don't always know what to do. You don't know, should I spend the next 15 minutes calling back a customer, or should I spend it talking to a developer about the next product release, or should I spend it strategizing the next investor fundraising meeting. And there's almost never an obvious answer. And so to say that you're in a world of uncertainty is probably an understatement."
– Alex Pedersen
Alex Pedersen is the COO of POLCO - an early stage startup that is a political participation platform for local governments. He started out at the Air Force Academy, after which he received his Masters of Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He served for seven years as an Air Force Officer, before transitioning directly to Google where he worked on Strategy, Planning & Analysis.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
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“Frankly it was never anticipated, I certainly never expected to be the head of PepsiCo. That was not my aspiration. I say that because i think that it's important for people to take positions and work in places that they really enjoy what they're doing, not that they're doing something in order to just be prepared for the big job somewhere down the road. The problem with that is: first of all you won't enjoy it. And second of all, if you're not happy in doing it, likely the people around you won't be happy with you doing it either. And therefore you'll probably never get to that top position."
– Steve Reinemund
Steve Reinemund was CEO of PepsiCo from 2001 to 2006, during which time:
Steve started out at the Naval Academy, after which he served for 5 years as an officer in the Marine Corps. After the military, Steven joined IBM as a Sales Rep, and then earning his MBA at the Darden School of Business. After Business School, Steven joined the Marriott, Roy Rogers division, before moving on to PepsiCo’s Pizza Hut division, where after two years he became President & CEO of Pizza Hut. During his time as CEO, he introduced home-delivery as a distribution method, overtaking market share of rival Domino's Pizza within 2 years. Steve then moved to PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay division as President & CEO, and then promoted to PepsiCo president and COO before being named to CEO two years later. After his tenure at Pepsi as CEO, Steven served as the Dean of the Calloway School of Business and Accountancy and Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University for six years. Steven has served on multiple boards, including:
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
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“Even getting my foot in the door at Google, once I had my foot in the door I had so many opportunities open. I was able to network, meet other veterans and learn about what they're doing. And that's why after one year I was in a role that I liked. It wasn't a perfect match - I was able to get into a role that I really like and it feels like a role I can do for the next five years."
– Ashley Snyder
Ashley Snyder is the Global Process Manager, Finance Operations at Google. She started out at the US Air Force Academy, where she studied Operations Research and was a Distinguished Grad. After the Air Force Academy she went on to MIT, where she earned her Masters in Operations Research, while also serving at Draper Laboratories as a Operations Research Analyst. She then served for five years in the Air Force in a variety of capacities as part of the Medical Services corps, including positions as
She went directly from the Air Force to Google, starting out as an Operations Manager in the Global Sales Operations group.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
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“I think that the biggest thing is don't sell yourself short. I see too many people getting out - on both the officer and enlisted side - that look at these really simple programs. They’re great programs that may have transition assistance to get you into certain career fields, or take that first available job, or do something - if you’re working in logistics - to go right back into logistics. But all too often people do it because it’s convenient, rather than because it’s what they want to do. And I think that by really realizing that you’re capable of looking at a lot of different things, and that you’re capable of working at a lot of different places - figure out what you want to do rather than what’s easily available."
– Ben Vickery
Ben Vickery works at Google as a Finance Associate. He is also pursuing his MBA at Berkeley while full time at Google. He started out as Sergeant in the Marine Corps and served for nearly five years, including time as an Afghan Pashto Cryptologic Linguist at 1st Radio Battalion. After the Marines, he went to Columbia University and then on to Google. He also works as an Associate Instructor at Four Block, an organization that equips high potential veterans to achieve great careers at our nation’s top companies.
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“From the process of going through West Point and then being an officer and then deciding where you're going to next, one of the first things that is told to you is that you can go do whatever you want; you can write your own path. I think I took that to heart. If I can do whatever I want, this is what I want to do. It was a thing where I picked up a camera and started photographing a few things, and really, really enjoyed it. It was very intuitive and I liked that. It was the closest thing I had found to playing sports, where I was building muscle memory and then let that instinctive ability take over and get lost in the flow of what's going on. And I really wanted to keep doing that - if I got to choose what I would do, that's what I wanted to do. Then just dove neck deep in it and tried to figure it out."
– Chris Pestel
Chris Pestel is the Founder of Pestel Photography, and has worked as a freelance photographer for ESPN for nearly 9 years now. He started out at West Point after which he served as an Army Officer for five years. After his transition he started out as a photographer at Carolina Sports, before moving on to Playboy Enterprises as a Junior Designer & Photo Editor. He’s also served as the Director of Public Relations for his high school alma matter, Montini Catholic. Chris has run his company - Pestel Photography - for over 9 years, making him on the verge of the 4% of entrepreneurs who keep their company running for 10 years.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
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“I've been retired for 6.5 years now and some of the things that I've learned are that it's different after you leave active duty; the people are different and your motivations are different. One of the things you need to figure out how to do is relax, because most things just aren't as important as they were when you were wearing a uniform. And that's ok. It's ok to relax."
– Robert Underwood
Robert Underwood served as an Officer in the Marine Corps for 25 years, retiring as a Colonel and works as a Business Development Manager in the Electronic Manufacturing Industry at Eaton.
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“I know that sounds really broad, but that's what people in academia are doing - it's knowledge production. It's not just sitting around sitting on a beach chair reading and thinking 'I love foreign policy' it's actually reading some of the dry stuff, engaging with others, writing, thinking and seeing whether or not you agree with the way we see things now and if you don't, do you know ways to change the way we look at things."
– Aileen Teague
Aileen Teague is a Ph.D. Candidate at Vanderbilt University, where she studies, U.S. and Latin American History. She will finish her doctoral studies next summer and move toward her ambition of being a history professor. She teaches history at both Vanderbilt University and Nashville State Community College. She serves as an assistant coach on the marksmanship teach of the Nashville all boy's school Montgomery Bell Academy.
She started out at Boston University where she studied History and participated in the NROTC program. After this she served for 4 years active duty and then 4 years as a reservist as an officer in the US Marine Corps. After leaving the Marine Corps, she earned a Masters of Arts in History at Vanderbilt, and received a Fulbright Scholarship that took her to Mexico City to conduct research on Mexico's experience with the U.S. war on drugs over the course of 10 months. Since returning from Mexico Aileen has published various opinion pieces on her research and continues to write her dissertation, which focuses on the effects of U.S. drug control policies in 1970s Mexico.
In this conversation, we cover a lot of topics, including:
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