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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: 2020
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.
Oct 19, 2020
Why Listen:
In episode #367 I interviewed John Wayne Troxell, who talked about his transition journey after serving as Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and his nearly 40 years of military service. After our interview, he mentioned his friend Anthony, and I jumped at the opportunity to have a similar conversation. Anthony served in the Marine Corps for 35 years, serving most recently as a Command Senior Enlisted Leader, Sergeant Major. We talk about his career journey, his work serving on multiple boards, a long list of resources he would recommend to listeners, and, most importantly, the vital role that curiosity plays in one’s life and career
 
About Anthony:
Anthony is a leadership consultant, strategist and Veterans advocate. He is the former Command Senior Enlisted Leader (Sergeant Major), USINDOPACOM, having served in the Marine Corps for 35 years. He serves as the Vice President and Director of Development & Special Projects at the Robert Irvine Foundation, the Vice President of Training for 5th Principle, a Consultant at BeaverFit North America, and serves on multiple boards including Emory Healthcare Veterans Program, FourBlock, Youth Impact Program, and Advisor Board Chairman for FITOPS.
Oct 5, 2020
Why Listen:
In addition to having an extremely rich career in marketing at multiple brands that you will have heard of, my guest today, Tom Kent is distinguished for another reason. And that is that after nearly a decade of being Chief Marketing Officer and VP of Marketing etc. he started his own company called CareerNerds. And it was really born out of his own experience of having difficulty in job searches, explaining his backgrounds, interviewing, and landing the job of his dreams. And so what he's done with CareerNerds over the last several years, is help hundreds of other people and Veterans craft their online persona polish up their LinkedIn profile figure out how to explain their story in an interview and communicate it in a resume. And there is so much rich tactical advice in what Tom presents today. In fact immediately after our interview I reached out to him to work with him in polishing up my LinkedIn presence for my own company. And, you know, I've been doing sales for over 10 years as an entrepreneur i've landed deals with 35 different fortune 500 companies - I'm pretty good at it. And some of the stuff that Tom mentions here about reaching out to people to network, I'd never heard before. It's really shifted my own thinking in how to approach some of this stuff. 
 
About Tom
Tom Kent is the Founder & CEO of CareerNerds, which has held over 200 executives advance their careers with personal branding and networking. A 1995 graduate of West Point, Tom served as a Military Intelligence Officer for five years. Since his military service, Tom has had a prolific career in marketing, with work at Intel, IBM, Expedia, Vayama, Avast and ZenMate, holding roles including Chief Marketing Officer, VP of Marketing, Director of Marketing and more.
Sep 28, 2020

We are hard at work getting our next series of brand new episodes ready. But, in the meantime, I’ve got a question for you: are you looking for a side hustle? Are you looking to build up social media and marketing skills?

If so, check out www.BeyondTheUniform.org/captivate

I’m in the midst of launching my next company and looking for members of the military community (and their families) to help. We pay by the project and will teach you all you need to know as you go.

See you next week with a new episode and I hope to see your application!

Sep 14, 2020

Subscribe on: iTunes | Stitcher | Google Play            Enjoy the episode? Review us on iTunes!

In this episode, I share thoughts about five books every Veteran should read, which are:

  • Slight Edge

  • So Good They Can’t Ignore You

  • Positive Intelligence

  • Mindset - growth vs. fixed mindset

  • Extreme Ownership

  •  

  • Our Sponsor: 

  • StoryBox- People trust each other more than advertising. StoryBox provides the tools and supports businesses need to take the best things customers say about them, and use them to drive more sales and referrals. StoryBox offers a 10% discount to companies employing veterans of the US Armed Forces.

  • Audible is offering one FREE audio book to Beyond the Uniform listeners. You can claim this offer here, and see a list of books recommended by my guests at BeyondTheUniform.io/books

 

Sep 7, 2020
Why Listen: 
There’s so much I loved about my conversation with Andrew. For those of you wanting a mental image of Andrew - picture Dwayne Johnson with hair… that’s Andrew. After five years in the Air Force, Andrew served in the CIA for seven years. Since then, he has taken the lessons he learned in the CIA and used them - for himself and his clients - to get the most out of life. If you’re interested in the CIA or entrepreneurship, there’s something in this episode for you. But no matter what your intended career path, I love two things in particular that we riff on. The first is, the sense of bringing awareness to the assumptions we make in life. For example, in that intro audio clip, Andrew is speaking to how often we assume one needs to work 9-5, Monday through Friday. When you realize that is just a myth, it gives you a considerable competitive advantage that you can exploit in your career. Andrew has all sorts of incredible mental hacks that I LOVED hearing. Second, I find that there are often judgments about people who leave the military, people who leave public service like the CIA and go on to do something different that is right for them and their family. We talk about this head on, and I believe nearly all Veterans will benefit from this part of our conversation.
 
If you enjoy this episode, be sure to check out BTU #337 - Entrepreneurship and Self Knowledge (Khemit Bailey) (https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-337-entrepreneurship-and-self-knowledge-khemit-bailey?rq=khemit) and BTU #328 - Struggle is What Gives Us Value (Micah Fink - Heroes & Horses) (https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-328-struggle-is-what-gives-us-value-micah-fink-heroes-horses?rq=micah%20fink), which have similar elements to this episode. both of those will be linked in the show notes. 
 
And, I’m sorry to say, this is the final episode made possible by financial support from the Carlson School of Management. They gave us resources for 10 brand new episodes, and we’re very grateful. We’re hitting the pavement to find our next sponsor so we can bust out our 371st episode soon! Here’s more information about our sponsor - again, I’m grateful for their financial support and the freedom to pick and choose the episodes we produced with their support. This episode is sponsored by the Carlson School of Management. Whether you're transitioning to a civilian career or continuing military service, an MBA from Carlson at the University of Minnesota prepares you for a high-impact career in business. Carlson is committed to the veteran community and provides the benefits, experiential learning, and network to accelerate your career. In addition to a resident tuition waiver, all admitted full-time MBA military candidates receive generous scholarships and stipends to cover expenses that may not be eligible for the GI Bill.  E-mail mba@umn.edu to learn more. That's mba@umn.edu.
Aug 31, 2020

Why Listen:
I reached out to Charles about six months ago, and am so happy that I was finally able to get him on the show. In this interview, we talk a lot about building up specific skills in one’s career. In Charle’s case, he learned skills at business school and then in private equity which both were in line with his eventual career goal: entrepreneurship. And we talk about a form of entrepreneurship you’ve probably never heard about - search funds. So many Veterans want to run a company, but don’t know where to start. A search fund is a way to buy an existing business and then build and grow it. Actually, for most of my time at Stanford Business School, I thought I would do a Search Fund, and I still believe it’s an incredible career path for many Veterans. As I mentioned, I reached out to Charles 6 months ago based on his background… I don’t really think I realized how incredibly smart and capable he is until we had this conversation… as an entrepreneur myself, I’m blown away by the moves this guy has, and on his ability to explain them to our audience. If you do like this episode, check out
BTU #117: Jim Vesterman: Marine Corps to Search Funds and Buying a Company to Run (https://beyondtheuniform.org/blog/btu-84-jim-vesterman-marine-corps-to-search-funds-and-buying-a-company-to-run?rq=search%20funds) which I’ll list in the show notes for this episode at BeyondTheUniform.org.

And, of course, this interview was only made possible due to the financial support of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, and I want to share a little bit more about them. Whether you're transitioning to a civilian career or continuing military service, an MBA from Carlson, at the University of Minnesota prepares you for a high impact career in business. Carlson is committed to the veteran community and provides the benefits, experiential learning, and network to accelerate your career. In addition to a resident tuition waiver, all admitted full time MBA military candidates receive generous scholarships and stipends to cover expenses that may not be eligible for the GI Bill. To learn more, you can visit the show notes at BeyondTheUniform.org for this episode, or you can email MBA@UMN.edu.

About Charles:
Charles Mullenger is the CEO of President of Ethos Preparedness, which has been building the most trusted brands in preparedness, starting with Med Sled®, since 2004. A 2010 graduate of West Point, Charles served as a Field Artillery officer in the Army for 5 years, before obtaining his MBA at Chicago’s Booth School of Business. He has served on the board of directors for Purity Zinc Metals, and founded Steel Tree Capital, which led to his ownership of Ethos Preparedness.

Aug 24, 2020
Why Listen:
Today’s episode is a must-listen. Here’s my top three reasons. One - entrepreneurship. Joe and his brother started Feltman’s of Coney Island and is a self-proclaimed hotdog slinger. Seriously… do you need another reason? Ok, fine - reason #2: selflessness. The impetus for starting Feltman’s was the loss of Joe’s brother on September 11th. The way in which Joe and his brother honor their deceased brother is touching to say the least. Third - mindset. Joe is the Executive Director of Headstrong, which provides best-in-class therapy for Veterans. Its an incredible organization. We also talk about how often we as Veterans can mask our own internal struggle by looking to help others - there’s some really good insights there. So, those are my top three reason for listening to this episode, but honestly, wouldn’t this have been easier for all of us if you would have just taken my word on this one. And, of course, this interview was only made possible due to the financial support of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, and I want to share a little bit more about them, whether you're transitioning to a civilian career or continuing military service, an MBA from Carlson, at the University at the University of Minnesota prepares you for a high impact career in business. Carlson is committed to the veteran community and provides the benefits experiential learning and network to accelerate your career. In addition to a resident tuition waiver all admitted full time MBA military candidates receive generous scholarships and stipends to cover expenses that may not be eligible for the GI Bill. To learn more, you can visit the show notes at beyond uniform.org for this episode, or you can email MBA@UMN.edu.
Aug 17, 2020
Why Listen:
I just wrapped up my conversation with John and i put this in a rare category of interviews where I just started taking notes for myself during the conversation. And john, as you'll hear, is such a wealth of wisdom about career success in in any arena. And so I found myself I've got a half a page to a page of notes for my own career advice that I got from him about achieving what you want to achieve in your in your professional life. JOHN, as you'll hear about worked his way up to the pinnacle of service in the military, but more impressively after 30 you know, nearly 40 years of service he just powered through to continue to find purpose to find a calling that pulled him towards it, and keeping more than busy with many different things but giving back continuing to give back after the Military. So I appreciated John's example not only in terms of his example of what a high performing extremely high achieving individual looks like and and what it takes to do that, but also someone who continues to redefine purpose in his life. So I imagine this interview will be extremely applicable to all of our listeners. We also at the very end, we touch on something that is so powerful about what I would call the subconscious bias that we have, for most people who serve I would imagine this bias and and opinions and beliefs about officer and enlisted on both sides. And I think that our conversation at the end is really worthwhile about challenging those assumptions. And I hope you stick around till the very end because we talked about that. It's one of the last things we talked about.
 
Of course, this interview was only made possible due to the financial support of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. Back when I interviewed Matt Hussey in Episode 358, that was a similarly energizing conversation. And what I said to him this man, we were fortunate enough to receive sponsorship from the Carlson School of Management. We've got a few more interviews we can do. I'll talk to anyone you would recommend. And john is who he recommended. And so thank you to the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management for making this possible. I want to get provide you with a little bit more information about an organization that's putting their money where their mouth is and supporting our mission at beyond the uniform. So whether you're a transition, transitioning to a civilian career or continuing your military service, an MBA from Carlson at the University of Minnesota prepares you for a high impact career in business. Carlson is committed to the veteran community and provides the benefits experiential learning and network to accelerate your career. In addition to a resident tuition waiver, all admitted full time MBA military candidates receive generous scholarships and stipends to cover expenses that may not be eligible for the GI Bill. To learn more, you can visit the show notes at beyond the uniform.org for this episode, or you can email MBA@umn.edu.
 
About John Wayne Troxell
Before his retirement in December 2019, Troxell advised the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of Defense for four years on all matters involving joint and combined total force integration, utilization, health of the force and joint development for enlisted personnel. Troxell enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1982.
 
By 2020, Troxell joined forces with FitOps to lead the Foundation’s strategic advisory board, working closely with Matt Hesse and the team to help prevent and end veteran suicide. Troxell’s primary focus will be helping FitOps reach service members who plan to separate from the military and equip them with training prior, so that when they hit the ground as a civilian, they are equipped to immediately serve their communities again, this time as personal trainers and coaches.
Aug 10, 2020

Why Listen:

Normally I start with a nice quote, reasons to listen to the episode. I’m not doing that today. Today is a conversation I should have had 300 episodes ago - its a conversation I wish more people were having more candidly. Today I chat with Natasha Sistrunk Robinson, where we spend the bulk of our time discussing race and gender and the role it plays in the military. It is an open, honest, and very imperfect conversation, and something I sincerely hope you take the time to listen to. With that let’s dive in to my conversation

About Natasha:

Natasha is an international speaker, leadership consultant, mentoring coach, and the visionary founder of the nonprofit Leadership LINKS, Inc. A graduate of the US Naval Academy and a former Marine Corps officer, she is the author of Mentor for Life and Hope for Us.

Aug 3, 2020

Why Listen:
When Carlson’s School of Management came to us with an offer for financial sponsorship, Steve and I were like kids in a candy store. We had the resources to do any interview we’d like… that’s like a dream come true. As I was thinking through who I wanted to reach out to, I started thinking about purpose - purpose is something that comes up time and time again in my interviews. So, I wanted to find a company that is purpose driven. A company that is doing something pretty different. And that is how I view Impossible Foods. They are re-envisioning how we eat and driven by a deep desire to help us take better care of our planet. Not only that, but they have become a massive sensation - according to LinkedIn there are now over 500 employees at Impossible, and according to Crunchbase they have raised over $1.2B… that’s right - $1.2B… the amount of money a villain in a James Bond movie would demand to avoid destroying the world.

Here’s what I love about today’s interview. First of all, I’m joined by TWO incredible Veterans with TWO incredible career paths. We talk about innovation and sales, two very different career paths, and their perspectives on what it’s like to work at Impossible. While we do talk a lot about Impossible, we cover a lot of ground about general career advice.

If you enjoy this episode, check out the show notes for this episode, where I link to a few interviews I’ve done in the Cyrpto space - that seems to share the same purpose-driven culture that I felt in this interview.

And, of course, this interview was only made possible due to the financial support of the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, and I want to share a little bit more about them, whether you're transitioning to a civilian career or continuing military service, an MBA from Carlson, at the University at the University of Minnesota prepares you for a high impact career in business. Carlson is committed to the veteran community and provides the benefits experiential learning and network to accelerate your career. In addition to a resident tuition waiver all admitted full time MBA military candidates receive generous scholarships and stipends to cover expenses that may not be eligible for the GI Bill. To learn more, you can visit the show notes at beyond uniform.org for this episode, or you can email MBA@UMN.edu.

About Ryan & Dan:
Dan Greene is a SVP of US Sales and Growth. He started out at the Naval Academy and served over 10 years as a Navy fighter pilot and director of operations for multiple aviation units. Dan served as Chief Revenue Officer for a conversational artificial intelligence startup, and served as an executive consultant with other early-stage software companies. Prior to that, Dan spent 11 years overseeing large teams and revenue-generating business units at Google and Twitter.

Ryan Fisher is the Director of New Product Innovation. He served in the US Army for over four years as an Explosive Ordinance Disposal Officer. He has worked in global supply at both Apple and Uber. He holds an MBA from the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Jul 27, 2020

Why Listen:
Craig is a serial entrepreneur who’s current company - Veteran Tax Credits - is relevant to all of our listeners. First of all, if you are a Veteran seeking a job, Craig talks about how the government provides tax credits for any employer who hires you. This is a financial benefit to employers that could play a deciding role in your next job offer, so it is worthy of your attention. Second, if you’re an employer, Craig talks about a tax incentive surprisingly few businesses know about. He’ll walk you through what you need to do to take full advantage of this benefit. In addition, we talk about entrepreneurship, partnerships and more. Lastly, one thing I really appreciated in this interview is the sense that when Veterans raise awareness of this sort of tax incentive, not only are they helping themselves, but they’re helping other members of the military community who may benefit from these tax incentives in the future. Many thanks to Craig for the work he is doing to help our military community, and for his sponsorship of this episode to help Beyond the Uniform further our work.

About Craig
Craig Washburn is the Founder & CEO of VTC Veteran Tax Credits. VTC helps Veterans get pre-certified and find gainful employment through our partnerships. We help companies’ find outstanding Veteran talent and collect valuable tax credits for employing them. Craig started out in the Navy as an Administrative Supervisor, where he served for four years. His civilian career includes work at HealthCare Dimensions, PacifCare Health Systems, as well as Owner of the Pivot Management Group.

Jul 20, 2020

Why Listen:

I'm so honored to have had time with Christian today I want to give a little bit of backstory that I give at the start of the interview but I think it's worth recapping here. So, as many of you know we were fortunate to receive financial sponsorship from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. It allowed us to do a new series of interviews and so as Steve Bane and I were talking about who we wanted to interview, I realized that we haven't talked to anyone in the drone industry, and I think it's an industry that has a lot of interest for veterans - it's growing rapidly, it's cool, it's high tech. And so I did a little bit of searching and Steve sent me some articles and we looked for Veterans in this space. And I came across Christian. He was the only person I emailed and I just sent a cold email explaining what I do with Beyond the Uniform and asking if you'd be willing to be on the show. And I just want to bring that up first of all to say like, I was so energized and inspired by this conversation. And it all came about because of simply writing an email to another veteran. And I just want to bookmark that for all of you listening because I think great things come when you get out of your head when you get out of your comfort zone when you get out of your office or home and talk to people. And that's a major theme in today's interview and Kristen has a really brilliant man I think that will come across in his, his advice to listeners, but he in 1998 got out of the military went into tech, when tech was just or that you know that is software programming, and that was just becoming a thing. And I think that you'll learn a lot from his story, although it's, it's one of entrepreneurship it's one about the drone industry. It's really advice relevant to every career path, because his story demonstrates, time and time again, the value that comes from pursuing one's passion, the value that comes when you put aside money. At least temporarily to focus on adding value and learning, and also a story of how, when you get out of your comfort zone when you talk to people when you circulate ideas, great things come about. So we cover a lot of ground we talk about minimum viable product we talk about customer development. We talked about why you should never have an NDA that's a non disclosure agreement. We talk about leadership on it was just really exhilarating conversation and so I'm really honored to have had Christian on the show.

About Christian:

Christian Sanz is the CEO and Founder of Skycatch, the leading industrial aerial data collection and analytics company, focused on indexing and extracting critical information from the physical world. He served in the Navy for 4 years, and his civilian career includes work as a software engineer for The Walt Disney Company, a Senior Software Engineer at LoopNet, the Senior Director of Engineering at Break Media, the CTO at Kin Community, the Founding CTO of Storify (acquired by Adobe), and the Founder of DroneGames. Over the last 7 years, Christian has grown Skycatch to have over 50 employees and $46M in funding.

Jul 13, 2020
Why Listen
Welcome back to beyond the uniform, I'm Justin Nassiri and my goal is to help the military community thrive in their civilian career. Today's episode number 362. Hope unseen part two, with Tiffany smiley. Two weeks ago I interviewed Scottie smiley for Episode 359. As soon as the interview is over I emailed Scotty his wife Tiffany to set up an interview, because it was clear from Scotty story how big of a role she played in scotties recovery and success. I'm so glad I did. Tiffany is an incredible woman, and this interview is such a powerful reminder of how military spouses are often the unsung heroes in our country. I was moved to tears in our conversation and hope you appreciate Tiffany's story of strength resilience and optimism. I'm very grateful because this episode was made possible through a financial sponsorship through the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, and I want to share a little bit more about them, whether you're transitioning to a civilian career or continuing military service, an MBA from Carlson, at the University at the University of Minnesota prepares you for a high impact career in business. Carlson is committed to the veteran community and provides the benefits experiential learning and network to accelerate your career. In addition to a resident tuition waiver all admitted full time MBA military candidates receive generous scholarships and stipends to cover expenses that may not be eligible for the GI Bill. To learn more, you can visit the show notes at beyond uniform.org for this episode, or you can email MBA at UVM in.edu to learn more. That's MBA@mnu.edu. So with that, let's dive in to my conversation with Tiffany.
 
About Tiffany
Born and raised in Pasco, WA, Tiffany is married to her high school sweetheart, Scotty Smiley. The two met as teenagers and never looked back, even as Tiffany attended Whitworth University to become a nurse and Scotty attended the United States Military Academy.
In 2005, while Scotty was deployed in Iraq, he was injured by a suicide car bomb and lost his eyesight. Tiffany, who was working as a full time nurse at the time, left her job to care for him. Scotty and Tiffany founded Hope Unseen in 2010 in an effort to use their story to help and inspire others. They have appeared on Fox News, CBS, CNN, the Katie Couric show and multiple newspapers and magazines.
In 2016 Tiffany launched TiffanySmiley.com, a platform that she hoped would empower women to overcome whatever circumstances they were facing and to uncover true joy in their lives. Through her candid writings, the site reaches thousands of readers each month and has given Tiffany a platform to encourage women to be strong and join together for the good of those around them. She is in the process of planning Story by Faith, a conference dedicated to helping women share their journeys with confidence to impact and change their communities.
Jul 9, 2020

Why Listen: Purpose is one of the most cited things on this show. In 350 episodes, I cannot count the number of my guests who have talked about how they have struggled to find their next purpose once they leave the military. I experienced this... and I've experienced multiple times since I left the military over 10 years ago.

In this episode, I have Craig Filek back on the show to talk about his Purpose Mapping work. Craig and I just finished up a 10 week course with 5 veterans, and we share some of our takeaways from this work.

Be sure to sign up for our FREE 90-minute webinar, where you can start to uncover your purpose and mission in life @ https://beyondtheuniform.org/purpose-mapping-webinar

Jul 6, 2020

Why Listen:
Well, I just got done talking with Murph, and it's just such a great conversation and I wanted to just bookmark. A couple of things that we talked about in this interview because we cover quite a bit of ground. The first of all, I love Murphy's thinking around, expanding your thinking about what you're going to do in your career, and in his in his own story, and advice that he received along the way. He ended up doing things that he didn't initially plan when he got out of the military, out of the Marine Corps after 22 years of service, and it came from a conversation about expanding his thinking. He has great advice around never stopping your pursuit of your career, and there's stories, you'll hear about when he kind of backed off or thought he had a job and then it fell through, and I think is great advice for both career hiring, as well as sales. He works over at the University of Central Missouri and as their director of military and veteran services so he does have some great thoughts from his experience they're helping a lot of veterans. Talk about the value of education that keeps on coming up again and again and Murph story is the value that education has been to him to his Marines, his students, and whether that's after 20 years of service, or after three years of service, expanding one's horizons through education. We talked about the TV show that he's on called tough as nails and what it's like to be on a reality TV show and even though Murph is a giant of a man. He's a very you know gentle giant and very introverted and so he talks about what that experience was like being on the set, and what it was like and how that opportunity came about. And then I love He talks about a diploma being a certification of dedication I've never I've never heard that before but he talks about how rarely one's degree directly relates to what one does in their career, but it is beneficial for other reasons. We talked about Instagram and putting oneself out there, we talked about how his dream job was in the Marine Corps and a lot more. And so I think you'll really enjoy the show and check out the show notes, we've got a lot of links from today's episode, and check out CBS as tough as nails with him, it'll be launching. Shortly after this podcast goes live. I want to give a special thanks because the only reason we were able to record. Today's brand new episode is thanks to a sponsorship financial sponsorship from the Carlson School of Management and really can't express enough gratitude for how much I enjoy doing new episodes and how many people that benefits and this point were only really able to do that through financial sponsorship. So I wanted to share more about an organization that is putting your money where your mouth is and helping beyond uniform continue our operations. So whether you're transitioning to a civilian career or continuing military service, an MBA from Carlson at the University of Minnesota prepares you for a high impact career in business. Carlson is committed to the veteran community and provides the benefits experiential learning and network to accelerate your career. In addition to a resident tuition waiver all admitted full time MBA military candidates receive generous scholarships and a stipend to cover expenses that may not be eligible for the GI Bill. You can learn more in the show notes for this episode at beyond the uniform.org, or you can email, em, ba, actually, let's see if I can remember this, Mike Bravo alpha at uniform. Mike november.edu that's MBA at IU mn.edu to learn more. Thank you. And with that, lets dive into today's conversation with Murph .

About Murph:

Murph is the Director of Military and Veteran Services at the University of Central Missouri. He is also a competitor on CBS’s new show, Tough as Nails. TOUGH AS NAILS is a competition series that celebrates everyday Americans who roll up their sleeves and don’t think twice about working long hard hours and getting their hands dirty, in order to keep their country running. On the show, competitors compete in challenges that take place at real-world job sites. Murph served in the Marine Corps for 22 years. Since his military service, he has worked as an Adjunct Faculty member at Central Texas College and Columbia College and also worked at Lowe’s in their as a Human Resrouce and Training Manager.

Jun 29, 2020

About Scotty: 

Scotty is a graduate of the United States Military Academy (USMA). He began his career as an active duty officer. While leading his platoon overseas, Scotty came face-to-face with a suicide car bomber. That was the last thing that Scotty has seen. He woke up in the United States at Walter Reed Hospital blind and fighting for his life. Scotty not only had to learn how to live again, he also had to learn to lead. After fully recovering, Scotty became the military’s first active duty member to continue his service as a completely blind active duty officer. Scotty went on to receive a Master’s in Business Administration from Duke University and he has taught at USMA. Scotty commanded a 250-person company. In this role, he used his skills and abilities to lead his team through dire circumstances and adapt to much change. The Army Times named Scotty “Soldier of the Year” in 2007 and in 2008 he won an ESPY as the world’s Best Outdoor Athlete.  Scotty retired from active duty and now works in the financial industry at Drexel Hamilton.  He's written two books: Hope Unseen and Beatfeat.
 

 

Jun 22, 2020

Why Listen:
There is so much to love about today's interview. First of all on the professional side, Matt went from the Army National Guard and an unexpected departure into opening a series of nutrition supplement franchises that built up a skill set for him to then start his own performance supplement company, actually creating and selling many of these products, and then to his current role with company called Fit Ops which is doing absolutely unbelievable things in the military community training people physically, mentally, and emotionally,.

II just loved so much of what Matt had to share in this interview. We cover a lot of ground in this interview we talk about things like mentorship, finding clarity through, of all things daydreaming. Finding one's purpose through a combination of authenticity, excitement and discomfort. And we talk about letting your gut guide you in decisions. And I love in particular Matt's thoughts about not discounting yourself not counting yourself out from the dreams and aspirations that you have.

This is both an informative interview, but it's also a very inspirational conversation and I think you'll really enjoy this this episode.

I want to give a special thanks to the Carlson School of Management, whose financial sponsorship made this interview possible. I want to share a little bit more about them, because while many people talk about supporting the military community, the Carlson School of Management, put their money where their mouth was and literally gave us the funds to produce five or six new episodes which you'll see in the next couple of weeks. So whether you're transitioning to civilian career or continuing military service, an MBA from Carlson at the University of Minnesota prepares you for a high impact career in business. Carlson is committed to the veteran community and provides the benefits experiencial learning and network to accelerate your career. In addition to a resident tuition waiver all admitted full time MBA military candidates receive generous scholarships and stipends to cover expenses that may not be eligible for the GI Bill. If you're interested in learning more, you can email MBA at you. in.edu also in the show notes at beyond uniform.org I'll include this information as well. Thank you so much Carlson School of Management for your support. So with that, let's dive in to my conversation with Matt Hesse.

About Matt:

Matt Hesse is the Chairman & Founder of the FitOps, the CEO of Performix, and the Founder & CEO of COrr-Jensen. He also serves as an Advisory Council Member on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. He served in the Army and National Guard for nearly five years, and was a multi unit franchise store owner for GNC. 

 

Jun 15, 2020

In this episode, I share thoughts about freelance consulting work and why both Veterans and those on Active Duty should consider this sort of work, either as a side hustle or a full time career. 

 

Jun 13, 2020

A quick announcement about brand new episodes coming your way, courtesy of financial support from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

 

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