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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: August, 2020
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.

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