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Beyond the Uniform

Beyond the Uniform is a show to help military veterans navigate their civilian career. Each week, I meet with different veterans to learn more about their civilian career, how they got there, and what advice they'd give to other military personnel. www.beyondtheuniform.org
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Now displaying: Page 4
Jun 7, 2021

Why Listen:

I just wrapped up my conversation with Shawn, and it was so enjoyable. There were a couple of things that stood out to me. One was his great quote about always being ready for opportunities and embracing the right thing. His story is so incredible, from this perspective, starting with his unexpected medical discharge from the military, to a winding road through consulting and startups, and ultimately back to startups and starting his own company. It just really shows you the power of resilience, but also the power of being open to unexpected deviations in your career, which will inevitably happen.

Second of all, we talk a lot about networking. He gives a couple of really poignant examples where 10 to 20 years after meeting someone, he and people in his network, reconnect in a way that alters their career. It really gets away from this transactional thought of networking and moves toward something that veterans excel at, which is genuinely meeting people, enjoying them, and being generous.

To that point, immediately after recording, Shawn asked me, “How can I help you with your company Captivate.ai?” It was just so powerful to see him immediately and genuinely putting to use his principle - approaching networking from a generous and giving standpoint.

We talk about grad school, he gives an example of a friend who sold his company for $240 million and then went to business school. He underscores this thought by showing that there is no “one right size fits all” approach to education and your career journey. It's about learning and serendipity.

Finally, we talk about his own startup journey and the milestones achieved along the way as he created and continues to build his company. I did something for the first time in this interview, which is a kind of live mentorship where I asked him a specific question about my company Captivate.ai. I think his answer will benefit anyone interested in entrepreneurship.

As always at BeyondTheUniform.org. You'll find a lot of great resources all for free, over 395 episodes, just like this one, and we've got episodes lined up for every single week going forward. So I'm really excited about that. So with that, let's dive into my conversation with Shawn Olds at boodleAI.

About Shawn:

Shawn Olds is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at boodleAI, which specializes in Enriched Analytics for sales, marketing and fundraising teams. boodleAI is on a mission to democratize data, making it faster and easier for ALL organizations to locate their best leads and prospects in any contact list. By using advanced data enrichment and predictive insight analytics, boodleAI clients have already experienced significant lifts in conversion, engagement, and retention rates. boodleAI has over 30 employees, has raised $3M in funding, and is located in Tysons, VA. Shawn holds a B.S. from West Point, an MBA from Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, and a JD from Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law.

May 31, 2021

Why Listen:

I just wrapped up recording this episode, and it will cost me about

$60 in books, or maybe $5 in late fees from the library because there were so many great books that Joe recommended. Here are a couple things that stood out to me from this interview. And first of all, make sure you check out the show notes for this episode at BeyondTheUniform.org. In addition to a link to Joe's company, HigherEchelon, there are also links to all of the books he describes, as well as an interview we did with Taylor justice years ago, who you'll learn was one of the founding members of the HigherEchelon team and has gone on to found UniteUS, which has exploded, absolutely exploded as a company.

So a couple of things that I really liked from this interview, the first one is that Joe has a great perspective on entrepreneurship. And he and his other two co-founders started by only investing $1,000 into this company, and they made the commitment that they would not join the company full time until it could pay their salary, you know, at a competitive rate. And it took three or four years to get there. And I feel like this is so contrary to what I would call bad advice I so often see of "burning bridges", "jumping off", Carpe Diem, seize the moment to start the company, all of these things that I think are potentially really harmful for aspiring entrepreneurs. That's one thing that I think is great. The second though, is that HigherEchelon is a company that is all about enhancing company and individual performance. And Joe gives a lot of great frameworks that are applicable to your career in life, no matter what that lifestyle is, whatever that career path is. He talks about things like people process and technology, and constantly learning about which one to focus on in your life or organization. He talks about the values that drive his companies, which I'm going to start borrowing, which is learn grow, adapt, and lead and why that's so important. He does a lot of work with transition assistance and talks about mindsets that he sees in military veterans.

And I found that really helpful as well. There's a lot of goodness here. And so be sure to to check out this episode. As always at beyond the uniform.org. You'll find a lot of great resources all for free, over 394 episodes, just like this one, and we've got episodes lined up for every single week going forward. So really excited about that. So with that, let's dive in to my conversation with Joe Ross at HigherEchelon

 

About Joe:

Dr. Joe Ross is the President and Co-Founder of HigherEchelon, a service-disabled veteran-owned, human and organizational performance consulting firm that works with both public and private sector clients to enhance performance. HigherEchelon has over 150 employees in 25 different states with the corporate office in Arlington, VA, but Headquarters in Huntsville, AL. Joe started HigherEchelon over 10 years ago with his business partner, Paul Maggiano. Joe holds a B.S. from West Point, a Masters of Education in Psychology and Athletic Consulting from Springfield College, and a Ph.D. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Walden University. Amidst all of this, he also found the time to serv as the Assistant Football Coach at West Point from 2009-2012.

May 10, 2021
Brian Reese is a leading expert on and advocate for U.S. veterans’ benefits. A former active-duty Air Force officer, he deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal. He is a Distinguished Graduate of Management from the United States Air Force Academy and earned his MBA as a National Honor Scholar from the Spears School of Business at Oklahoma State University. Brian is the Founder & CEO of VA Claims Insider, a Coaching and Consulting company whose mission is to educate and empower veterans to get the VA disability benefits they’ve earned for their honorable service.
May 3, 2021

Jason Van Camp is the author of the book, Deliberate Discomfort, which is both a Wall Street Journal and 2x #1 Amazon Best Selling book. For the last 10+ years, he has run the consulting firm, Mission Six Zero, which dramatically improve sales performance, reduces costs, and wins by providing their client's teams with a new way of solving organizational problems. He is also the Executive Director of the 501-3c organization, Warrior Rising. He is a graduate of West Point, as well as Brigham Young University's Business School, and is a 14-year Veteran of the US Army, where he served in the Green Beret.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-van-camp-076a5339/
https://www.amazon.com/Deliberate-Discomfort-Operations-Comfortable-Uncomfortable/dp/1733428011
https://missionsixzero.com/
https://www.warriorrising.org/

Apr 8, 2021

Thanks for your support, BTU community! I got two emails this week I wanted to share with all of you.

Apr 5, 2021
Today's episode is entirely different than our other 390 episodes.
 
A while back, Jeff Maleski and Jeff Bubulz reached out to us and asked to have me and Steve Bane on their podcast - The Agile Wire - where they discuss adventures and misadventures on their continuing journey towards Agility.
 
Steve and I both had a blast being on the other side of the microphone, as we both shared our perspectives on what we've learned from Beyond the Uniform, why Veterans are more flexible in the workplace than you'd think, and more.
Mar 29, 2021

I loved my interview with Jason Santamaria. Special thanks to Vincent Martino for making this connection. They became good friends in business school and co-authored a book. Two things you should pay attention to for this interview:

1 - alignment. There's very few people I can think of in the last 390 interviews that are as aligned as Jason is with his career. The way that he speaks, the way that he thinks, the way that he processes information... he found the right career for him. And it's so refreshing to see that.

2 - Maybe even more important is that as we unwrap his story, I think you'll realize that that was not clear to him when he was in the Marine Corps, or when he left the Marine Corps. It wasn't like he had his sights set on a career in transformational company work. And I think that that should hopefully be refreshing for all of you listening to this to see how his story unfolds to see that he found a career path that really resonates with him. But it wasn't a master plan, it was taking the next best step every step of the way, and thinking about what he wanted.

 

Mar 22, 2021
About this Episode:
After serving in the Army for 6.5 years, Christian founded an advisory and technology firm focused on helping High-Growth Technology Companies build, manage, and certify their Security, Privacy, and Compliance programs. He has quickly grown his company - risk3sixty - to over 20 employees and it seems like they are just getting started. In this interview we talk about character, we talk about being a steward of a company, we talk about the differences in leadership in and out of uniform, about long-term thinking, finding a co-founder and much more.
 
About Christian:
Christian White is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of risk3sixty, an advisory and technology firm focused on helping High-Growth Technology Companies build, manage, and certify their Security, Privacy, and Compliance programs. He is a graduate of West Point, and a 6.5 year Army veteran, most recently serving as Company Commander in Fort Campbell. He holds an MBA from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Mar 8, 2021

Why Listen:

This is the third installment in our series where we are taking a deep dive into each branch’s credentialing assistance program.
Today we talk with Mike and Cristy from Coast Guard COOL. This is a relatively new program that was stood up in January 2020, but it already has over 1,500 credentials available for Coast Guardsmen.

Here's the program in a nutshell:
•CG COOL funds enlisted members only (active and selected reservists) and can help pay for exam, application, state licensing, membership and renewal fees.
•The exam has to be related to service member’s rating, out-of-rate assignment, collateral duty, or academic degree.
•There is no dollar amount cap on the cost of credential.
•CG COOL only funds one exam attempt per credential and service members can only have one approved funding request per FY.
•There is no additional duty service requirement for utilizing this resource and there is no recoupment if the service member fails exam.

Mike and Cristy rattle off a plethora of resources, so be sure to check out our show notes where I’ve linked to everything mentioned.

If you’re in the Army, you can find your deep dive in Episode #383 and if you’re in the Navy, you can find yours in episode #387.

About Mike:
Mike Reynolds served in the Navy Reserves for 4 years as a Seabee and then 11 years in the Army in telecommunications. Notably, he served in the Pentagon and the White House during the Clinton and Bush administrations, separating in 2002. Mike has been with the federal government since 2008, working for both the Air Force and Army in educational roles. He has been with the Coast Guard since 2019 and serves as the Coast Guard's COOL Project Manager. He holds a Masters in Education in Teaching and Learning from Liberty University.

About Cristy:
Since January 2020, Cristy Minshew has been a Team Lead for the Coast Guard credentialing program, managing daily operations, metrics, funding and execution. Prior to working for the Coast Guard, Cristy spent 12 years serving in a variety of roles with the Navy's Voluntary Education Program. Additionally, she's a former Army MilSpouse and holds a BS in Education from Old Dominion University.

Feb 22, 2021

Why Listen:
Today’s interview is the 2nd installment in a series where we take a deep dive into each branch’s respective credentialing service.

Credentialing Assistance is a great way to leverage the transition tools and resources available to service members to accelerate their post-military careers. Certifications add professional capability and credibility and help you stand out to a hiring manager.

In this conversation, we talk with Mike Talley – the Director of Navy COOL, and he breaks down all the nuances of the program. Additionally, Mike offers insight into the DoD Civilian COOL program.

In short, Navy COOL covers credentialing exam fees for all Sailors, regardless of rank or compo for anywhere between 1,400 and 1,600 credentials. Navy COOL has its yearly budget and its first come, first serve. Sailors can utilize funding for as many credentialing exams as they want, but can only pursue one exam at a time on the Navy’s dime. Navy COOL will only fund one exam attempt per credential. Furthermore, Navy COOL will help pay for continuing education units to help Sailors maintain their credential once obtained.

If you’re in the Army, you can find your deep dive in Episode #383. Interviews for the Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard are in the works.

About Mike:
Mike served as a Hospital Corpsman in the Navy, retiring after 20 years of service. After transition, Mike held various customer support and managerial positions with AT&T, Gap, and Old Navy before returning to the U.S. Navy as a civilian employee. Today, Mike is the Director of Navy COOL for the Navy’s Credentialing Programs Office. He holds a Bachelor’s in Workforce Education and Development from Southern Illinois University.

Feb 15, 2021

Why Listen:

I loved hearing John's unique approach to entrepreneurship and life. After 20 years of military service, John was drawn into starting his own business. While starting any company requires sales, John's approach to sales is to simply be curious about whoever he is speaking with, and learn about their pain points. This is such great advice for so many different career paths. I also appreciate how John has constructed his life to have a fulfilling family life, outside of work life, and professional life.

About John:

John Schmitt is a retired Army Lieutenant Colonel who served 20+ years as an Aviator and Acquisition Corps officer. Upon leaving the Army, John started his own consulting firm with a focus on biotech, advanced manufacturing and marketing projects. Additionally, he serves as a board member for multiple local non-profits. John holds a BS in Biological Sciences from UC-Davis and an MS in Microbiology and Immunology from Vanderbilt Univ.

Feb 8, 2021
Why Listen:
In 380 episodes, my guest today - Jess Swanson - is the strongest person I've met. I say that amidst a backdrop of Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, NFL players, UFC Champions and more. At 6 months old, Jess oldest daughter experienced epileptic seizures - usually 8 a day - and shortly after was diagnosed with autism. Rather than letting this derail her life, Jess used it to pave a new path that has helped not only her family, but countless others as well.
 
She pursued a graduate degree to better understand how to help others like her daughter, became an activist who influenced legislation in congress that helped others like her daughter, and started a company to help other families in her situation.
 
Jess' story of (1) lessons versus losses, (2) her advice about finding something to appreciate even in areas you might initially deem them a tragedy, and (3) her perspective on controlling what you can and letting go of the rest, these are all incredible lessons borne from enduring unbelievable hardships but choosing to press on for those she loves and to benefit the world around her.
 
About Jess:
Jessica Swanson is the Executive Director and Owner of Summit Health Services, an Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) company serving the Monterey Bay and San Diego areas in California. They are an in network Tricare-West provider proudly serving active duty families.  She is a military spouse, her husband having served in the Army for nearly 17 years.
 
This episode is brought to you by PassLife. Serving in the military is inherently dangerous - are your affairs in order? The grief a service member's family feels upon learning of their passing is difficult enough, but the days, weeks, and months that follow are filled with stressful decisions. PassLife is a single solution, secure cloud-based platform where Funeral Preparations, Last Wishes, Will Information, Financial Assets, Business Continuation Information, Social Media Account info, etc., can be uploaded to recipients of the user's choosing. PassLife allows you to alleviate the stress and lift the fog for your loved ones, preeminently, by giving them a vital trove of information in multiple areas. 
 
Listeners can save 10% by using the code "BTU” at checkout.
 
Learn more at Pass-Life.com.
Feb 1, 2021

Why Listen:
I was riding a high after my conversation with Jeff for days - I appreciate his strength, vulnerability, and authenticity in this conversation. You can view this interview in two parts - the first part we discuss his transition from the Marine Corps into law enforcement, including work in prisons, on patrol, and with the SWAT teams. In the second half, we both talk about our experience with therapy and mental health. Jeff talks candidly about PTSD and depression, and we both open up about the positive impact therapy has had on our lives.

If this latter topic resonates with you, there are so many great resources out there to support you. The one that comes immediately to mind i learned about in episdoe #368 with Joe Quinn, where he talked about Headstrong - at GetHeadStrong.org - you take a 60 second survey and as a veteran get paired with a best-in-class clinician for unlimited therapy.

But - as we talk about in this interview - I don't want to spin this as a - if you're contemplating suicide, get help. I'm a big believer that therapy is a preventative maintenance - that it is similar to olympic athletes working with an elite coach - it's a great way to deepen as a human being, understand yourself more, and ensure you're operating at your peak capacity.

About Jeff
Jeff McDonald is a Safe School Specialist at the University of Montana. His Career started in the Marine Corps, where he served for four years with two combat deployments and has included work in Law Enforcement and as a SWAT officer.

Our Sponsor
This episode is brought to you by PassLife. Serving in the military is inherently dangerous - are your affairs in order? The grief a service member's family feels upon learning of their passing is difficult enough, but the days, weeks, and months that follow are filled with stressful decisions. PassLife is a single solution, secure cloud-based platform where Funeral Preparations, Last Wishes, Will Information, Financial Assets, Business Continuation Information, Social Media Account info, etc., can be uploaded to recipients of the user's choosing. PassLife allows you to alleviate the stress and lift the fog for your loved ones, preeminently, by giving them a vital trove of information in multiple areas. 

Listeners can save 10% by using the code "BTU” at checkout.

Learn more at Pass-Life.com. That's pass dash life.com. PassLife, pass your loved ones a lifeline.

Jan 28, 2021
After three years of tireless volunteering support for Beyond the Uniform, our Editor, Kathleen Dillon, is moving on to other things. THANK YOU, KATHLEEN for your unbelievable support of Beyond the Uniform.
 
Kathleen is wrapping up school in six months and hopes to enter the sports industry in a strategy or business analytics role . If you have any connections in these areas, drop her a note on LinkedIn - she is a rockstar worthy of support!
 
 
Jan 25, 2021

Why Listen: Well, normally this show is hosted by Justin. But I came to him with an idea. I talk to a lot of transitioning service members, and its eye opening how many of them – regardless of branch – have never heard of the various credentialing programs that are offered.

Today is part 1 in a series where I’ll be interviewing each branch’s credentialing program manager to get the facts on credentialing assistance in an effort to spread awareness to the servicemembers who can use them.

Credentialing Assistance is a great way to leverage the transition tools and resources available to service members to accelerate their post-military careers. Certifications add professional capability and credibility and help you stand out to a hiring manager.

We’ll start with the Army, so if you’re a Soldier, listen up. Today, we’ll talk with Sophia Sweeney, the Program Manager for Army Credentialing Assistance (CA) and Credentialing Opportunities On Line (COOL).

Jan 18, 2021
Why Listen:
Special thanks to Jim Sinai for making the intro to Michael. While Michael had a full career in the Marine Corps, with over 21 years of service, he didn't let either what he did in the Marines, or how successful he was at doing it get in the way of his going on to have a truly exemplary tech career as a Chief Information Officer at some truly incredible companies. Here are a few things to look for in this interview:
  • How Michael is always dreaming of what is next, and then working his tail off to be proactive and bridge any skill gaps in his next career move
  • How Michael is always learning, always pushing himself forward and NEVER playing it safe
  • How Michael uses his network - not just to find a job, but to sharpen his skills and be the best he can be in his current position
  • How Michael "paints the target" to determine what he wants to do, and then doesn't allow himself to lose sight of the bullseye
 
At the end of this episode, Michael rattles off a whole host of books and frameworks. Don't worry, we've listed them all at BeyondTheUniform.org. While you're there, if you've got 400 hours free, be sure to check out over 381 other episodes hand crafted to help you crush your post-military career.
 
About Michael:
Michael Hansen is the Chief Information Officer at Procore Technologies, a company with nearly 2,000 employees that provides cloud-based construction software to clients across the globe. He started out in the Marine Corps, where he served for 21 years as an IT Security Architect. His career has included 2 years in Guantanamo Bay Cuba as the CIO, 2 years as a Cloud Architect for the Federal Government, and   5 years as CISO and then CIO of Mindbody both pre and post IPO.
Jan 11, 2021
Why Listen:
Special thanks to Steve Bane for making this interview happen. My guest today, Justin LeHew, is many things. He earned the Navy Cross for his heroic actions in Iraq in 2003, he has an obstacle at Parris Island named after him: LeHew's Challenge, he achieved the rank of Sergeant Major in the Marine Corps. Yet its not merely these accomplishments that set him apart - it is the way that he focuses on others rather than broadcasting his significant achievements. We talk a lot about that in this interview, as well as his work at History Flight, a private MIA search and recovery organization, responsible for locating and repatriating over 365 missing American servicemen to date. In the show notes for this episode at BeyondTheUniform.org there is an incredible, one-minute YouTube video about this - I highly recommend checking that out, as well as our 380 other episodes just like this one.
 
About Justin LeHew
Justin LeHew is the Chief Operating Officer at History Flight, the world's most successful, private MIA search and recovery organization, responsible for locating and repatriating 365 missing American servicemen to date. Justin has his own Wikipedia page, so here are a few highlights:
  • He served in the Marine Corps for over 25 years, achieving the rank of Sergeant Major
  • Parris Island has an obstacle named in his honor. "LeHew's Challenge" is an 8 ft high suspended log supported by two pedestals that is part of the famed 54-hour crucible event which culminates the basic training of a United States Marine
  • He was awarded the Navy Cross for his heroic actions in Iraq in March of 2003
Most notably, none of this information you'll find on his LInkedIn Page, and I'm guessing none of it would come up if you were at a bar with Justin. We traded emails about this, but I wanted to start off our conversation here - in an era where self-promotion is at an all-time high, you seem to be an example of someone who is not broadcasting his merits, is not touting the unbelievable achievements you've accomplished... what advice do you have for listeners about this.
 
Resources:
Jan 4, 2021
Why Listen:
I'm so excited to start off 2021 with an interview that was so much fun to do. Back in 2017, and Episode 95, I interviewed Andrew watts, who was military veteran who became a full time author. And we reconnected for today's interview, I'm adding in Jason Casper, and a couple things that I loved about this interview. So just for context, Andrew, is a writer who is still a writer, but now also started a publishing company, the Severn river river publishing company, and he publishes over 20 different authors now. So we talk about that journey since our last interview three years ago. And Jason is a another military veteran, best selling author, and now works with Andrew and Andrew publishes his books, although this is a story of maybe would call it the arts of people becoming veterans becoming published authors and extremely successful ones at that. What I really appreciated, comparing it to my own background in entrepreneurship is the number of parallels this has for any form of entrepreneurship, of paving one's own way of taking, making a bet on oneself, of really learning to craft. And I think that that's an element that will come through for listeners with both Jason and Andrew, is how much each of them have devoted themselves to perfecting their art and their craft and how much they use persistence and discipline to succeed in their chosen vocation. And so regardless of your career interest, whether or not you're interested in entrepreneurship, or writing or whatever else, I think there is an element here to learn about that discipline about that constant sharpening of one's toolkit to get better. So, as always, at beyond the uniform.org, you'll find show notes with this. With all the things that we discuss in this interview. I do want to give a plug in there is no financial incentive for me to do so. But I really just enjoyed meeting Jason. He has a new book coming out on January 15 2021, called the enemies of my country. I will put a link to that in the show notes, but I'd encourage you to check it out whether it's on Kindle, whether it's on Audible, whether it's in a physical book. And with that, let's dive in to my conversation with Jason and Andrew.
 
About Jason:
Jason Kasper is a former Army Special Forces officer and a USA Today bestselling author.  His new book, THE ENEMIES OF MY COUNTRY, releases on January 15, 2021.  
 
About Andrew:
Andrew Watts is the USA TODAY bestselling author and founder of Severn River Publishing. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2003 and served as a naval officer and helicopter pilot until 2013.
Dec 14, 2020
Why Listen
Vincent's story is pretty much the opposite of the standard entrepreneurial success story you hear. Yes - he has experienced incredible success - his company, VisitPay, now has over 100 employees, 3 of his 7 C-Suite executives are Service Academy graduates, and he has received over $26M in funding from some of the best investors in the world, like Norwest. However, where his story differs is that this didn't happen overnight.  Vincent has been at this for nearly 12 years. His success didn't come all at once, it came through a sustained effort over a decade. What I love most about Vincent's story is how he elegantly merged two vital aspects of entrepreneurship that - to me - often seem to be complete opposite skill sets - that of rapidly iterating (building, learning, and reacting as quickly as possible to feedback from customers), and at an opposite extreme, building for scale (slowing down to build things properly so that it can sustain the load of a massive influx of customers). I learned so much from my conversation with Vincent and hope you will too.
 
Vincent
Vincent Martino is the Co-Founder of VisitPay, a company he started nearly 12 years ago that now has over 100 employees and has raised $26M in funding from top notch investors like Norwest. 3 of his 7 C-Suite executives are Service Academy Grads. His journey started at the Naval Academy, included five years in the Marine Corps, followed by an MBA at the Wharton School, and includes work at Dynamicsoft, Capital One, COO at Balihoo and co-authoring the book, The Marine Corps Way.
Dec 7, 2020
Why Listen:
For today’s guest, Chris Hsu, I could have spent a full episode on six incredible positions he held since his time in the Army - his work as an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company, as Managing Director at KKR, as Senior Vice President at HP, as CEO at Micro Focus, and as an Advisory Partner at Andreessen Horowitz - each of those blow my mind. While we touch on this briefly, we spend the bulk of our time on his current role as CEO and Co-Founder of Zibo, which blends real estate, financial services, and software. I view this interview more as a personal mentorship call, where I soaked up as much of Chris 20+ years of experience as possible. Whether you are interested in entrepreneurship, developing a side hustle into a full-time job, consulting, finance, or tech, this interview will have a wealth of knowledge for you.
 
About Chris:
Chris Hsu is the CEO & Co-Founder of Zibo, a company he started nearly 2 years ago to radically improve financial services for independent landlords. Chris has raised over $10M in venture capital and LinkedIn shows over 20 employees. His path to this point started at West Point, included over 5 years in the Army in tanks, and has included work at General Mills, Associate Principal at McKinsey & Company, Managing Director at KKR, Senior Vice President at HP, CEO at Micro Focus, and Advisory Partner at Andreessen Horowitz. He holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. 
Nov 16, 2020
Why Listen
My conversation today is with two different Veterans senior in the tech industry. In addition to talking about their long and successful career including operations, program management, product management and more, we talk about the ideal team player (based on their experience hiring hundreds of people), the difference between a good boss and a bad boss, differences in leadership out of the military, and more. This interview brings over 20 years of hard earned experience that is a wealth of knowledge regardless of your desired career path. 
About Mike Sedgwick
Mr. Sedgwick is Vice President of Defense and Aerospace Products for SCI Technology, Inc. (SCI), a Sanmina company, in Huntsville, Alabama. Mike is responsible for oversight of SCI’s Aircraft and Tactical product organizations including the FireComm® and TOCNET® product lines. He has extensive expertise in wide-ranging areas including Strategic Planning, Defense & Aerospace Contract Management, P&L Accountability, Business Development, Project Management, Contracts, Budgeting, Scheduling, and Logistics.
Mike previous held the titles of Senior Program Manager and Director of Aircraft Systems with SCI.
Prior to his latest move to SCI, Mr. Sedgwick served as General Manager of AAR Integrated Technologies and Business Director for the Hypersonic Design and System Integration segment at i3. Mike has managed organizations and teams that include Program Management, Engineering, Contracts, Quality, Manufacturing, HR and Supply Chain to ensure the seamless production of sophisticated defense and aerospace hardware.
Beyond his impressive business credentials, he served honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces. He currently serves in the U.S. Army Reserve as a Military Intelligence Officer. Previously, Mike served as Battalion Intelligence Officer (S-2) with 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne) and as a Company Executive Officer with the 82nd Airborne Division.
Mr. Sedgwick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Manufacturing Engineering from Brigham Young University and an MBA from the University of Phoenix.
About Peter Cianfaglione
Peter Cianfaglione is Vice President of Operations at SCI Technology, Inc., a Sanmina Company, in Huntsville, Alabama. Peter is responsible for SCI’s manufacturing operations to include production, manufacturing, quality engineering, and supply chain.
Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada, Peter completed an Electrical Engineering degree at the University of Ottawa in the Regular Officer Training Program (the Canadian equivalent to ROTC). During and upon completion of his degree, he served in the Canadian Army as a Combat Engineer and Infantry Officer (including service with the Commando in the Canadian Airborne Regiment).
In 1993, Peter joined Motorola while transitioning to reserve service. He moved to the United States in 1997 with Motorola while continuing his service as a Canadian Army Reservist including exchange postings with 82nd Abn, 36th ID (Texas National Guard) and 4th ID. In addition to these roles, he also supported the sharing of information between the Canadian and United States militaries on lessons learned in IED awareness from both the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns.
Shortly after becoming a U.S. citizen in 2005, he was mobilized in support of recovery operations following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Following a move to Huntsville, Alabama, in 2006, Peter took on various capacities with Benchmark Electronics in electronics manufacturing while both continuing his role with the Canadian Army Reserves as well as completing a Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering.
Peter returned to his home town of Ottawa, Canada from 2009-2011 to work for General Dynamics while commanding a reserve Engineer Battalion. While in Ottawa, he completed his third and final deployment. Upon his return to the United States in 2011, he resumed work with Benchmark Electronics in various capacities, including General Manager and Vice President - Global Accounts.
Peter is a graduate of the Canadian Army Command and Staff Course, New Zealand Grade 2 Staff Course and Canadian Joint Command and Staff Programme. He joined SCI in 2020 and is currently working towards completion of a PHD in Engineering. He and his wife of 25 years have seven children, two of which are presently serving in the U.S. military.
Nov 9, 2020
In so many of the 375 interviews I’ve done, Veterans talk about their journey to find a new purpose in life. That’s come up in countless conversations with friends of mine who didn’t serve in the military - I think it’s a pretty fundamental part of what makes us human. That’s why - as many of you know - earlier this year I teamed up with Craig Filek to co-lead a program called Purpose Mapping - to help people in the military as well as military veterans and military family members identify their current purpose in life. That’s a pretty lofty mission, and I’m humbled to say that - two cohorts of this group later - we are delivering on that promise. 
 
For today’s episode, I invited two people from our latest cohort onto the show to talk about their own journey to uncover their life’s purpose. I’m so grateful that they were both willing to do so - it is obviously deeply personal work, and so I admire their courage and willingness to talk about this.
 
I love both of today’s guests. They represent two very different perspectives - one on Active Duty for many years to come, the other several years out of the military. They are siblings as well, which made for a really incredible experience. I just wrapped up spending 12 weeks with them and the rest of the group and greatly admire and respect both of them and so am honored to have them share their stories on the show.
 
If you are interested in this - it is something I deeply believe in and am committed to continuing to do. If you’re listening to the show in real-time, on November 18th at 6pm Pacific we’ll be hosting a free 90 minute webinar where you can experience this first-hand. Do not wait to reserve your spot - go to BeyondTheUniform.org/puprose to get more info and claim your free spot. that is BeyondTheUniform.org/purpose -I’d love to see you there, I’d love the chance to work with you, and I would LOVE to get this work in front of more members of the military community. So please help me in spreading the word - again that is BeyondTheUniform.org/purpose. 
Nov 2, 2020
Normally on the show, I interview a military Veteran about their civilian career – what they do, how they got there, and advice for other Veterans seeking to do the same. This episode is a little bit different. Last week I was fortunate to be part of a panel called “Off The Page: Navigating the Military to Civilian Career Transition Webinar”. This episode is that webinar – I had a blast, and loved the insights of both the moderator and the other two guests.
 
Let me give you some context.
 
First of all, this webinar was recorded during one of Kogan Page’s Off The Page Digital Events. It was to promote a new book called Success After Service, by Lida Citreon. (Lee-duh, Sit-Trow-en) Long-time listeners will remember Lida from Episode #273 – Your Personal Brand (https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-273-personal-branding-lida-citroen?rq=lida). Pretty wild – that was literally exactly 100 episodes ago. I consider Lida a dear friend, we’ve grabbed breakfast and lunch a number of times, as she’s here in Denver. I say this on the panel, but I’ll say it here: Lida’s heart is in the right place. No one does work in the Veteran space to get rich. Lida has had a very successful career and her work and this book are in the spirit of giving back. So it is an honor to help out a friend who is doing great work to help our community.
 
Second, Kevin and Chris who were on the panel with me, are total bad asses. Lida will give you info about their bios, but I learned a lot from their perspectives. All three of us have had very different journeys, and I think our listeners will appreciate each of these vantage points. We only had 60 minutes for the webinar but – as you’ll see – I wish we had 3-4 hours. So, strap in for a lot of information that will help you in your career.
 
Lastly, Lida’s book comes is available @ https://www.koganpage.com/product/success-after-service-9781789665932?utm_source=beyondtheuniform&utm_medium=otpaudio&utm_campaign=skills_careers&utm_content=successafterservice
 
Oct 26, 2020
Why Listen:
I just finished up my conversation with Alan and a couple things stand out to me. First of all, it's it's pretty surprising to me that it's taken 374 other episodes, to get to the point of interviewing someone in the aerospace and defense industry. And, you know, it's it's surprising, first of all, because so many veterans go into this space. But more importantly, I feel like Alan, in our conversation, we really flipped the script on my understanding of this industry. And what I mean by that is, nearly all of the people I've interviewed on beyond the uniform talk about purpose, and mission, after military service. And Alan kind of surprised me when I was asking him to explain what he does for a living, he immediately went to that spot of, he's continuing to support the military communities continuing to support his brothers and sisters who are still in uniform. And throughout our conversation that came through, like, wow, this is actually a really good fit for so many veterans, especially those who want to continue a similar sense of purpose that they felt that they likely felt in the military. A second thing that really stood out to me with this conversation is we went deep down the rabbit hole on Alan's role, which is business development. And I know we've done a couple interviews on sales related topics. But I think that you will really benefit from Alan's story, he has over 20 years of experience in business development. And I love so much of what comes through in this. But let's just say in a nutshell, it's not what you expect from a sales related role. And the way that Alan comes across just as a human being, as well as how he explains why veterans are so well suited to this, it really goes against most of the stereotypes that I have of sales people. And it comes down to listening to others, being curious about them, and figuring out how you can help them and deliver value. And even if you're not interested in the defense industry or business development in particular, it's still worth listening because, you know, in my experience, every every role that you will have has some element of quote unquote, sales, and the relational things that Alan talks about this interview, are I'm sure going to help you in your career. As always, at BeyondTheUniform.org you'll find Show Notes for this episode, you'll find links to everything we discussed, as well as a link and information about SCI. We haven't done a lot of coverage of companies in this space. But I appreciate Alan's perspective and want to give some some notes there about the company he works for. So with that, let's dive in to my conversation with Alan
 
About Alan:
Alan is responsible for the Global Business Development for the IMS business segment within SCI, which includes customer relations, program performance, and the acquisition of new and follow-on business. Alan brings more than 20 years of experience in the Integrated Manufacturing industry. During this period, Mr. Hislop has held positions at PIVC, LLC, STMicroelectronics and Sanmina-SCI. Alan served on active duty with the U.S. Army, with the U.S. Army Reserves in New York and with the Alabama National Guard in Huntsville. Alan graduated from the US Army Officer Infantry School in Fort Benning, GA. Mr. Hislop holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering Degree from University of Alabama Huntsville, and an Associate of Applied Arts and Sciences from Clinton Community College. He and his wife, Olga, have 6 boys.
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