The Communication Edge: How Great Leaders Build Trust, Influence, and Lasting Impact with Chad Eaves

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Speaker 1: Hey, what's going on? This is rad your host. I just got my wiggles out and it's another episode of soft Rep Radio. It'swer all the cool sound effects. Callum, go.
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Speaker 2: Lute force. If it doesn't work, you're just not using enough. You're listening to softw Web Radio, special operations, military nails and straight talk with the guys in the community.
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Speaker 1: All right, And with that, I want to say thanks to Callum, who is my producer, who wraps all of these episodes together after I finish them, listens to them all dictates them out there for you to listen, to read and observe. And so thanks so much, Callum. I just want to say, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being my producer. To Brandon Webb, who gives me this job, thanks so much for believing in me. Now what I do is the merch store. Okay, we have soft Rep dot com forward slash merch You go check out the merch shop. They just got a whole bunch of new stuff in stock. Things that you can put on your keychain, something you can drink out of, maybe where feel good in. Go check out the soft Rep merch Store. Okay and tag me soft Rep mafia. Okay, hashtag soft Rep mafia. All right. The next thing is if you're a regular and you've listened often, you know I'm going to talk about the book club. If you're new to the show. First of all, check out the merch store. Second, the book club soft rep dot com forward slash book hyphen Club. That's a book hyphen club. Go check it out again. As I mentioned, Brandon Webb, the others behind the scenes guy, all those folks back there, the general they're all picking out these books for our library for you to use, because the library is a gym for your brain. All right. Your brain is a muscle. We need to grow that. So go read a book and read something cool that these guys think you would like to read. Now, I have a cool guest. Okay, he's a Navy guy and we're a Navy website. Let's just be real. Okay, Navy seal runs the place. He's happy to have a Navy guy on the show. I'm sure of it. Chad Eves, Welcome to the show.
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Speaker 3: Thank you, Raed, thank you very much for having me.
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Speaker 1: Yes, and I'm going to read just a little bit off of your website about you to give my listeners, my viewers, a little bit about what we're going to get into. Sound good, Let's go with it. Better be because it's out there. You wrote this, Here we go.
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Speaker 3: Chat Eve.
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Speaker 1: Chad Eves, communication expert, Navy veteran, author and speaker. After service to the United States Navy, Chad embarked on a three decade career dedicated to helping people communicate effectively in order to achieve their desired outcomes at both individual and organizational levels. During this period, Chad served as a consultant with Price waterhouse Coopers on a global IT initiative, founded three businesses and work with clients including Price waterhouse Coopers, dardened restaurants such as Red Lobster and Olive Garden. The US General Services Administration are also known as GSA, the Export Import Bank of the United States, the Saint John's River Water Management District of Florida, Northwestern University, and numerous other organizations. Communication gaps affecting veterans and the negative outcomes that follow are not new in the workplace. With each new wave of service members transition to civilian life, the same challenges re emerge. Direct highly efficient communication styles that are valued in the military context often fail to land as intended in corporate environments. Through decades of study, experience, adaptation, and ultimately mastery, Chad our guest has developed a structured system to help veterans like you overcome barriers created by this mismatch in communication norms and expectations. Did I read that? Okay? Did that sound good? That's it right on the money, right, And I found that at chadeves dot com. Just to throw that out there in the beginning, that's and that's at Chad, Chad, and it's EA v S Is that right dot com?
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Speaker 3: So this ead giving that correct.
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Speaker 1: You're welcome, and so I want you to type that into Google or go search it on your browser bar and just check out what Chad has to offer and listen to the show as we're going to get into it now. Chad, Welcome aboard SOFTWAREP Radio. Glad to have you here.
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Speaker 3: Thank you very much for having me rad. You know, this this is a you know, one of the things I think we all experienced and see in different ways, you know, after we get out and just finding, you know, different ways to connect with the other veterans, and that's that's one of the awesome things about the Internet nowadays. I'm in the Chicago area, you're in Youtubetah and able to connect and talk with each other, and uh, you know that's I grew up an Air Force brat. My dad's career Air Force Armie brat.
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Speaker 1: Yep.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, but we didn't have Facebook, and if you didn't write stuff like you know, postcards or letters, you never got to stay in touch with people. So I can only imagine how different that is for people nowadays, and how much easier it is for people to stay in connect you know, in contact with each other. It's a you know, this is just a great opportunity to stay in touch and also to meet new connections, to make new friends.
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Speaker 1: Exactly where people can get together and just have a conversation. So let me just kind of, you know, expound on what you're talking about here. Let's just go back to set it to two thousand and nine, Afghanistan. My friend has shipped to Afghanistan. He is with the one hundred and seventy third. They're forward observing, you know, calling in air support for aircraft on the ground. And it's two in the morning. I'm playing counter Strike, a video game on my PC at home. And my MSN messenger blurbs up, Hey, rad, it's newt you guys. I get to talk. I'm like, dude, you're in Afghanistan right now, you know, I'm like, how you doing, buddy. He's like, oh, you know, just wanted to say hi. I wish I was there with you guys doing war games. And that was like an immediate you know, fixed to his brain for what he needed right then and there where back in the day. You know, let's let's go back to World War Two. You write a letter, my dear Cynthia. I'm in the front line of the trenches. I hope this letter receives you in two to six months, I love you. And then somewhere between that two and six months, maybe the war is over or he died and she gets that letter after thinking he's fine, you know, and then you go to Vietnam, and now we have photographers a little more faster in the process. You know, people are there, they're embedded. You know, you start getting news articles out within a week or two from the incident, like Hamburger Hill or q Son. It might have happened two weeks prior or a week, but it's starting to make the news quicker, and people are starting to get their letters faster. And now today bro past desert storm into global war on terror. We have all this communication just like like I said, I was talking to my buddy in nine while he's literally somewhere.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's real time. It's it's basically real time nowadays, exactly right from you know, op sex and com sect and stuff like that, you know, and from a morale perspective, that's amazing, you know.
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Speaker 1: One hundred percent. And so the boost that the veterans getting right there is Okay, Rats here, he says, he supports me. I'm good, good night, I'm out. Okay, cool, I'm gonna go maintain or whatever was just going on that was really bad that day. He just saw my little thing online MS Messenger back in the day, it's like rads onlinecause I was about to go to bed, you know, and he's like, hey, Rad, how you doing. And that's not the first you know, veteran or friend that's reached out through real time to have conversations with me Instagram. You know, they've reached out to me on their like knife edge of life. They're like hey, Rad, I'm like, who's this guy? How you doing. You know, oh, I'm just wondering how you're doing. And it goes back and forth, and you're there for the support system, right for these veterans, for people, right, because we're all just at the end of the day, a person, a human being that has feelings. Veteran are not a veteran. I've reached I've had reached out. I guess you just hit it on the head with that whole you know, it's immediate to talk to each other and you don't.
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Speaker 3: And that's one of the things I think is just as human beings and also as veterans. I've had, you know, similar interactions with people on LinkedIn, and I was not anticipating that, like you know, you think LinkedIn is about business blah blah. And I had some communications with this one fella who have to be down in Texas and just like whoa. It's like, I wasn't expecting that kind of reach out. But it's also like, okay, what can I you know, someone just looking and say hey, I got this question or I'm thinking this or something like that, and you know, like just acknowledging people because you know, they like just talking about communication. Things have gotten so fast, so real time to where you know, people can have a difficulty and how do we respond, how do we react to that? What's the right right way to do? Because we didn't think that far ahead, because we didn't think we were going to be in that kind of situation. And you know, the best thing I think that people can do is, you know, we be we be people and realize that it's another person. I think that's a you know, a big thing in our country right nowadays is we tend to forget the other people around us. You know, there are other people and like this pedicide, Okay, we agree, we disagree with whatever, we can talk about that. But we're all Americans, right, and it's like, you know, we we can disagree and be Americans and you know some things we're not going to agree on. Something we might be closer than we think. But instead of just making these stamp judgments, it's like, you know, it's you know, keeping that humanity you know between us, and you know it's it's easy for people, all of us, you know, we get overwhelmed what's going on in a world, what's going on in a life? What's our priorities today? And we we lose touch with that.
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Speaker 1: Well, so let me let me let me dive into you a little bit. Okay, So let's let's I like to do this with all my guests. I had let my listener learn a little bit. How old were you when you decided that the Navy was the right idea for you.
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Speaker 3: I was a little bit of a late bloomer. I joined when I was twenty one, Okay, So I mean you figure the average person in you know, boot camp was like eighteen eighteen nineteen something like that. So I was a little older than the average bearer. When I decided to join. I was in college, I had been an RTC. My intent was become an officer, and my father had a heart attack, and so it kind of impacted money and stuff like that, and I wanted to do my part, you know, and so my my plan at the time was to join, get a commit you know, go in and listed, which my father did. He was enlisted and then got commissioned in the Air Force was basically follow a similar type track that, you know, my path being ended up being very different to that. But so I had been in college for a little bit and then that happened, and that was kind of the triggering event that altered the way I was going to do it.
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Speaker 1: Were you already in during when nine to eleven happened?
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Speaker 3: No, I had already been out. I was in the early nineties. I was in that gap between go for one and go for two.
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Speaker 1: Oh, you just see me younger to me, I've just letting you know. I thought you might be a younger two thousands year in nineties enlisted.
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Speaker 3: Huh yeah, I went in in ninety two.
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Speaker 1: Oh okay, all right.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, so just after I guess like a year or so, maybe eighteen months after, we were still getting the National Defense Medal or whatever at that point just for joining. But uh, yeah, I was right soon after the first go for.
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Speaker 1: That was like the Clinton era after Bush Clinton.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, Clintonton, Yeah, Clinton was President Clinton Clinton.
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Speaker 1: Huh yeah, that's right, because he was back to back, you know. And so so that was really like Bosnia Kosovo, you know, just ending the Desert Storm, Desert Shield era salute tall veterans that were in that. Okay, let's not forget that happened. And then so what was your uh in the military, there's an MS right Military Occupation Specialty. Is that the same in the Navy.
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Speaker 3: Part in the Navy, it's called a rating race. It's essentially the same thing. But my reign was a nuclear electricians mate.
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Speaker 1: Oh so would you work on? So I was.
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Speaker 3: I was in a school and basically tech school to become an electricians mate in the nuclear power pipeline. And I got ill and so I ended up separating a little under a year and a half. I had some issues that didn't they really wanted someone running a reactor. At that point, I gotten hit with a rifle, was on the rifle team, and so that had kind of led cascaded to that path of events for me.
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Speaker 1: Yeah. MTB board Medical Evaluation board, getting separated. You know, they're like, oh, hey, you know traumatic brain injury existed prior to enlistment.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not. It was nothing that traumatic. And that's one thing I don't usually talk about it much, to be quite honest, because it's something that I deal with, something that happened. But you know, you look at all of our you know, our fellows, shipmates and and you know, you know, colleagues and everything like that, and you know what so many people are dealing with. You know, it's a it's not something that I I it's right, it's not.
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Speaker 1: It's okay. It's called a spectrum, okay, and you're at this part of the spectrum, and then there's a really advanced part of the spectrum. All right, It's okay to be somewhere on the spectrum. We're all there, okay, in one way or another. And so we all have our stories that go with us that, you know, we want to swallow and just kind of hide away. You know, some of some folks, some veterans I talk to, you don't want to go to the VA. They don't want to rehash what they went through already and just like have it all just every time they go to the VA, it's like, oh, okay, well this this and this, this, this and this, it's always the same, you know, triage from a different doctor or anything like that, because the VA never really has like a consistent doc doctor situation. It's always by the time you go to your next appointment, it's like this new doctor that's going to be looking at you and trying to assess you. And so I guess what I'm saying is for our veterans out there, you all have a special story. The fact that you raised your arm in a ninety degree fashion. Somewhere it said, I do that's what matters to me, okay.
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Speaker 3: And that's actually really one of the positive things that I've learned is, you know, working and because I do work with veterans one on one in the comm's area and stuff like that. And I'm a member of some groups here in the Chicago area. And it's exactly what you said, Rand. You know, it's you know, once you once you join, what path happens, who knows, but it's that you did take that oath and you know that that's something that's important, you know, to recognize.
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Speaker 1: So uh And one thing I learned about everybody is that you don't have to lie to kick it, okay, because you're cool as you are. If you're already hanging out, you don't have to embellish anything. You don't say. You just have to be you. And I if you just say you, it just be you. It's just gonna free you and be you and just be you. So I just we have this thing, you know, you don't have to lie to kick it, okay. Because there's people who are like green Berets who have done so much valor, but they embellish on top of that and then get outed and then everything they've ever done is thrown out the window, even though they're already a green beret okay, or a Navy seal you know who's just like added an extra thing on their rack that somebody picked up on. They're like, hey, that guy wasn't combat scooba. I could have sworn he never went combats, but he's got it on his retired you know, things like that bragget so you just you know, you're already cool, bro, Just be yourself, just be real well.
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Speaker 3: And that's that's one of the things I think that you know, especially like from things that you know, I've seen in different workplace experiences where people feel like either you know, whether it's an embellishment or they have to change you know, who they are, how they represent themselves. And you know that should never be a part of a veteran experience. You know, it's you know, how we work, how we communicate, you know that stuff. You know, we we adapt to that, and that's that's a lot of what I work with people. But you never, you know, change the core who you are. And you know, because you know the first thing you got to do is you know, be exactly what you were just talking about, right, You gotta be honest with yourself. You got to be comfortable with yourself. Now, that's at we don't all have, you know, insecurities or like uh, you know something like that. That's that's part of being human. I think that's also what a lot of people and veterans, you know, we kind of struggle with sometimes, Like you're kind of bread to be Superman, super Trooper, you know, no flaws, and it's like we all have laws.
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Speaker 1: Correct, correct. Growing up with a dad who was a Green Beret, you know, he slipped on the basketball court and jacked up his hip, you know what I'm saying during his year during active duty, and that sucked. That's real, you know. And he's also like a baseball coach, and he was also the guy in church and he was also the neighbor that helped shovel the snow. But then when he got called to do his job, dad was gone for like three to six months. That was a normal thing for me. It's like, oh, okay, you know, it's just you know, you don't have to think you're on a pedestal, you know, I think I think everybody's on a pedestal. I guess just equalize it. Just say, hey, nobody's better than anybody. If anybody can be the president, then you're good enough. Okay, that's all I got to say. If you can, just if you want to. You know, I don't know how else to put it. What am I trying to say? Chad, You're just good enough. Everybody's good enough as they are, right, That's right.
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Speaker 3: It's it's in you know everybody. You know, we all make mistakes, and you know, it's how do we minimize the impact? You know, hopefully you don't make big mistakes. We won't try to minimize them as much as possible. But it's like, what do we do for that next step? You know, what do we do next? And you know, I think it can be tempting to let stuff kind of multiply and pile up on people, and uh, you know that that's that's one of the things that I see some some veterans of you know, doing the workplaces where they feel like, okay, I screwed up.
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Speaker 1: I did this.
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Speaker 3: You know, maybe they came off a little too strong, you know, or something like that, and then like, okay, I need to like learn from what I did and do something different, you know a little differently, and then it's like, well, I think one of the challenges a lot, you know, a factor of you know, what we do and how long you know a person's in the service. My dad was in their first twenty four years and he was enlisted for about six years. He was in Vietnam. He was there during tet and then he got a commission and he was in the logistics and procurement and so he was involved in buying a cruise missile to be one, worked on the F one to eleven, stuff like that, and it was just it's the different path. It's what you do, and you know, how do you contribute and how do you you know, understand that you know, careers are not a straight line, and you know there might be the setbacks, that might be the dips in the in the in the increases. But one of the challenges that a lot of people encounter is and my dad worked with civilian companies a lot, so he had kind of that advantage over someone that was more in a traditional military role. I see is still you communicate differently, and you interact with people differently, and you know, coming to the kind of the the acknowledgment of like, Okay, I did this because that's what was required or you know, trained with me to talk in a certain lingo, to interact with people, to be kurt, to be directive, and then you go and you take that outside and that doesn't work. Now, there's exceptions, and there's some people that get out and they have zero, you know, transition issues. You know, there are people out there that don't have those issues at all. But a lot of times it could be one or two things, and it's kind of understanding. Like like we talked about, you know, there's a lot of its tend to fall into one or two extremes. Talking about spectrum, you have the quiet professional on one side, and then you have like the hill charger on the other side. And so you get, you know, someone who's like, I'm going to rely on my work speaking volumes for me, I'm going to do a good job. I'm going to to count on my boss. Because in the military, the system kind of looks out, Okay, what's the progress that someone's making, what's the job that they're doing. You know, when it comes up to the boards and evaluations and stuff, like that. It might not be like that in the civilian company. You know, you might be doing a great job and then nobody knows about it because you're not sharing it. And then on the other side, you got to he'll charge I wants to prove him or herself. I'm going to do a great job. I'm going to go above and beyond. But then that person inadvertently isolates their coworkers by you know, they might feel like they're not doing a good enough job, or this guy's trying to do too good showing them up. Leaders, managers don't know what to do with that person. And so you get these two ends of the spectrum. And then you know, you kind of want to be Goldilocks, you know, kind of in the middle. And sometimes that can be a real struggle for people because I would probably say that most vets, like when it comes to advocating and you know, upselling yourself, it's kind of like ef yeah, you know, like I don't want to sell myself. You know, it's like I'm doing a good job. Well, you're not going to do that, but all your rivals, i e. Or peers, they're doing that because you're shooting for the same promotion, you're shooting for the same races, and if people don't know about it, then that's one of the ways that vets can kind of get you know, left behind by you know, through not having those communication approaches. And like the book you mentioned earlier that I did most of it, you know in this book is mindset. You know, how we communicate. You know, it's understanding that you know, you could be the quiet professional, you could be the hill charter, but you need to have elements of both. And you know, another thing, too, rad is when someone you know is going into civilian workplaces, you know, making that mental transition of okay, it's no longer mission first, it's no longer team first, it's self first. And getting comfortable with that and that can that can be a big hurdle and also impact how you're communicating. Are you letting people know what you do in a way that's going to help you be visible, you know, for promotions, for raises, and understanding that's not dirty, that you're not betraying something.
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Speaker 1: Almost like when the flight attendant is like, you know, please put your mask on first before you put it on anybody else. Because if you can't self care for you first, how can you help anybody else? You know, so you have to have some a little selfishness to yourself. I mean it is you, you know, you're you. You have to hit that oxygen and then you can help the others around you to put theirs on.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, you can. You can be selfish and it can be ethical, yes, and it can be moral. You know, it's like anything else, and a lot of times that gets branded in our society of ooh, you're selfish, that's bad, versus like, yeah, you're right. I'm looking out for the career that I want to have, you know, I want to achieve this for me and my family. You know, if we kind of look at the things that motivate people, it's you know, compensation, taking care of the people you love, and self fulfillment. To some degree. It's similar in the service. It's similar in you know after we get out, but you know they can change in you know how they rank. But it's kind of acknowledging that and being like, you know what, I do want this for myself and especially for vets. You know, we've made the commitments the sacrifices that most people don't. I mean there's about sixteen million vets in the country out of three hundred million plus, and there's two hundred thousand people that separate every year. Roughly, we're different, We're not normal just by numbers, and that's a good thing. And it's like, how do you embrace that and then go a little bit further, and.
00:23:46
Speaker 1: How do you explain to that veteran who's running around separating, you know, on their you know, honorable did everything fine? And they're running around getting all these document signs to separate out from Hey, will you say that I was really good on the rifle range? And it's like, well, well, how do you transition all of that good boy from the military to the civilian world when it doesn't maybe even apply, you know, to that civilian sector. And so your book, which we were just talking about, is called seven Veteran Business Communication Transition Transformations for Veterans Navigating the jump from military competence to civilian credibility. Just to kind of make sure that we're all on the same page of what we're talking about here, which is that leap from you know, doing your job, waking up at zero five hundred, standing information for two hours, going and moving on and you know, making sure your shoes are shined. And that was in the nineties. Okay, I know they don't shine shoes anymore. I don't think they do. Like they got tan boots that are swayed. I don't know if they have to brush them. But you know, how do you say, oh, hey, I can really shine my boots to you know, the local radio station. You know. It's like you want to go be a DJ? Now? He's like, hey, you know, I've been sitting inside of this you know, army life, and all I've been thinking about is my music and how I could write good music and I could get out and be a musician or a DJ. It's like, how do I transition into that career field, you know, while I'm an infantryman. You know, it's like, oh, I've got this infantry or I've been working on a nuclear sub for the last six years underwater, you know, in a team environment. How do I bring that credible, valuable work on the job training to the job without like being like, you know, I'm on a submarine all the time. You know.
00:25:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you know there's a lot of emphasis about that translation that how do you transfer the you know, how you explain it. And my perspective that's a little bit different and that it's looking at from a business perspective is you need to be able to relate that. But the most important thing is in business is who's your customer? And your customer is anybody who's cutting your check.
00:25:58
Speaker 1: That's correct.
00:25:58
Speaker 3: It could be your employer, could be a you might have your own business, you might be an entrepreneur. Uh and you're you know, having external customers whoever like that. And the way to look at that is what is going to present them with the value that they're looking at is to understand that and then kind of stepping backwards. Okay, so I've got to you know, maybe write a piece of software. I want to you know, write a song, or I want to become a producer or something like that. Okay, I want to do that. And then, you know, so many of the traits that we have as veterans, they're super valuable. That's why people want to hire vets. You know, we're reliable, we're disciplined. You know, we're conscientious. You know, we have a stronger sense of right and wrong generally, stuff like that. You know, presentation, you know, it's you know, that could be one of those things where like you know, it changes over time, but those are all core things. Like we can generally get a pretty good idea when we meet somebody and we start talking to somebody, it's like I think you're a vet. You know a lot of times there's kind of like that underlying behavior or you know how someone stands, you know, something like that. But it's going backwards from what is going to be valuable to your customer and then filling in the gaps from there. So if you are an infantry soldier, okay, so and you're working for maybe you're a sales guy or a sales girl and you want to you know, you're selling software. Okay, what are the things that I did there that's going to help me be successful? Here, they get it on time, they get it, you know, on cost, they can contact me, I'm accessible, and those are things that you can take and then convert. Okay, this is how it's going to help me be successful in delivering the value so that I win. And that's something I really emphasize with people is what's going to help you win at what you want to have. It's not just checking the box. It's like you've invested in yourself, your country, You've made sacrifices. Now it's your time. It's your time to be successful whatever it is you want to do.
00:28:02
Speaker 1: And what do you say to the veteran that just falls out of the military, gets out, separates and then stumbles a little bit and just goes to the police department, You know what I mean? It's just like from one uniform to another, from one regiment to another regiment. You know, I always find that or some kind of security you know detail, you know, and I'm not saying that's anything wrong with that, but it just seems to be like this pattern that you can there is a pattern, it really is.
00:28:31
Speaker 3: Well there's that and also defense industries. You know, that's a that's a you know, one one person I was working with is a senior chief in the Navy for twenty plus and you know, he got out and he was kind of trying to figure out what he wanted to do. And my father, when he got out, he went worked into the defence industry primarily, you know, in the contracts and stuff like that is what his experience was. So you want to leverage what you've done, you know, that makes sense, absolutely but also so I try and encourage people of you know, also think just beyond what could be other potentials. You know, it's you know, there's definitely can be a fear element of it, like this is what I know, this is what I'm good at, But also are you potentially leaving an experience on the table that you're kind of short circuiting and that respect, and it's it's one of those you know, people have to make their own decisions. But it's kind of like I have a family that lives in California, okay, and we're the oldest of our generator of our cousin generation, my wife and I, and we'll get the questions of like, oh, well, I can't afford to live somewhere. I'm still living at home, stuff like that, what do I do? And I'm like, there's forty nine other states. You know, try something. If you don't like it, you can go back. You don't own property yet if you wanted to. Yeah, And I think it's kind of a you know, we you know a lot of people kind of roll the dice when they decide is a join they go and do something different, and it's how do you kind of tune back into that same mindset of like, Okay, I'm kind of got a new opportunity. What am I going to do here? Do I you know, do I want to leverage it? Do I want to stay in that environment?
00:30:16
Speaker 1: Or you know what?
00:30:17
Speaker 3: I want to be an artist?
00:30:19
Speaker 1: Yeah?
00:30:19
Speaker 3: I want to you know, become a dinal.
00:30:23
Speaker 1: Train operator in Hawaii. Yeah, I learn how to drive run a crane because maybe you have heavy machinery operations from the military and all these certificates, but nobody's driving a hemmet as a civilian. No one's driving something like that. But you understand, you know what it takes to maybe work on a crane because you've handled other equipment like that and you're in Iowa. But the job is in Hawaii for sixty five seventy five, one hundred dollars an hour because Hawaii has such a demand for you know, crane operators. Dude. Even the pizza hut driver makes like thirty bucks an hour in Hawaii because it's so crazy over there.
00:30:57
Speaker 3: Oh yeah it is. And Hawaii is one of those places. I never haven't been to Hawaii, but the folks in front, you know, people I knew that had been stationed there. It was one of those places like, oh I love Hawaii or I hate Hawaii. Yeah, it was like there was very little middle ground.
00:31:10
Speaker 1: I think if you're stationed there, you probably love it. If you have to live there, you probably are, like, you know, you're you're on an island. You can probably you know, you can probably marathon it, okay, per se, you know, I mean really, so those jobs are in demand in those types of places, and so you know, if you're a veteran and you're like, hey, I think I never thought about a crane operator, it's like, well boom. You know. I remember my high school coach would tell us about crane operating in Hawaii. He's like, what you guys need to do is just graduate and then get your crane certificate. Go to Hawaii. It's like thirty bucks an hour. So I always just embellished the hourly these days. But I bet if you looked into it, you know there are hardcore jobs over there that are needed that will pay to bring you over there. Again, you're on LinkedIn, I'm also on LinkedIn. It's a good source for trying to find, you know, a job market out there and see what's higher. You know, I just have a hard time with like a lot of this, like sending out resumes, and there's I heard there's bots out there that can send out a resume as soon as a job is posted on these different websites, so you're competing with you know, like, how would the veteran I guess my advice is, like, you know, how do they just go and apply themselves? Just walk into the store and say, hey, what's up. I'm looking for a job. My name is Rad and you know, I'm really good at doing sales. I'm a people person, you know, and behind the scenes I did what I was in the Air Force. You know, that was a piece of me at the time. You know, you were in the Navy. That was a piece of you at the time. It's not today. You know, I'm totally out of regulations. I've been lost in the woods of Afghanistans for twenty seven years looking like this. Okay, that's that's how you know, So you got and also you got to play your cards. You know, you got to look you know, if the part looks the part, you gotta kind of look the part. I don't know who would want to hire me looking like Tommy Chong Okay.
00:32:56
Speaker 3: Well, it's also you know, you know, like we're talkingout earlier things have changed, you know, like when I started working in the IT world, it was ties back then. Yeah, and it's just like, you know, I've not never been a big fan of that or the tattoos. You know, it used to be tattoos were foreboding. Now tattoos have a lot more acceptance, you know.
00:33:14
Speaker 1: Face tattoos. People are like, oh, we're so used to post malone and like post malone, so.
00:33:21
Speaker 3: Stuff like that has changed. I think the thing when you know, you know, your people are talking about where they want to make, you know, the transitions into and stuff like that, it gets back to really understanding, you know what what would it mean for you to feel like you're winning at what you're doing and then working backwards from that and from a communication perspective, it's okay, what is what are the what's the rules? You know, because you know the rules changed by different industry. You know, if you're in construction, if you're writing software, if you're in Wall Street, if you're a doctor, whatever else it is. And so it's not just a military to transit to civilian transition. It could also be you know, you move companies, and different companies have different styles in different expectations and understanding like you know, okay, this is going to change, and it's not a bad thing. It's just I need to learn what the what the kind of the guide rails are. And I have worked with some people there. The one senior chief I had mentioned he was like deathly he ended up staying and going getting in a federal job on civilian on the civil service side, because he was just like, I can't I he was just so hesitant to go something else in the civilian sector, which you know is the right call for him, but also just just to keep the possibilities, you know, open, and you know it's yeah, you know, it's like you know, the you know, if you're willing to go to that next step, or when you're still kind of you know, holding on as you're like getting dragged off base and you're just like, ah, I don't want to let go. Well, you know, what point are you harming yourself?
00:35:03
Speaker 1: You know? Yeah? I like when you said customer service earlier in our conversation about you know, you know they the employer hires you, Okay, you're the veteran or you're you're you're Chad. You come in, you apply for me, and I'm like, okay, you're hired, and so now I'm paying you for customer service to me. Okay as the employer, and some people on the team might say, oh, hey, this new guy just came in. He's just totally kissing butt and he's always just like, here's your spreadsheet, rad and like here's this, and here's that, and oh yeah, cool, no problem, and it just continues to be that way and in making the others look bad. But that's not the fault of the person going above and beyond. That's providing customer service for your rate. Okay, because you hired me, I said, I'm a professional. I'm going to roll in here at the rate that we agreed on and give you everything I got for that. And so the other guys may be laxa daisical, or just you know, like they're used to the system of their job and they're like, god, dude, if you keep doing like all this work, we're gonna have to do all this work. Do you not understand? And it's like, well, if we do more work, we make more money. Right, Like the company as a whole rises. You know, all boats rise with the tide, et cetera. So you know, you shouldn't fear being the guy on the team or in the unit or in the squadron who is always just yes, sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am, no, ma'am, whatever you need. You know, I already threw the trash away why, well, because it was full, but I didn't ask you to. Well, you didn't need to because I realized it was full. So I threw the trash away for you. Ma'am. Oh, you're not kissing my butt. You're just doing your job. Yeah, exactly, But everybody else in the unit's gonna be like, oh, row, you're just kissing the majors but trying to clear out the trash. It's like, nah, I just I want to be on point. I want to have the coolest gear, and so therefore if I want that stuff on the mission, I should probably help the mission director. Yeah, just outside the not be told what to do, right, and military personnel are really good at doing, you know, their job, and so I've learned, like you just like take the collar off, let them go, you know, have a good dog whistle, blow it and when they come back, just say here, here's the new orders. Go do your job. Okay, you can't. You can't like keep a Green Beret teen thumb down, dude. They won't even at first allow that second themselves. They're like, whole mission is to free the oppressed, so let alone put a thumb on them. You gotta say, hey, SF team, here's your mission. Okay, thanks, we'll take the mission. Have a nice day. And then they'll go over everything that needs to be done finite and then the commander's like, hey, I need to call and just cancel the mission. They're like, okay, cool, got you cancel the mission. So you know, you don't sit there and like tell them how to go and load the round into the chamber. You let them do their gig. You don't tell them how to stitch the wounded. I was talking to a commander of a C seventeen globe Master the other day and he said he was a young captain. He was the first time in command of his aircraft, and he was watching these load masters load his cargo okay, and he's just like walk he's Air Force. He's just walking around looking around. He goes over to me, he's like, guys, got you guys. You guys know what you're doing. You guys got all this good? Go And then the chief load master just kind of grabs him and pins them up against the inside of the area of the plane and says, listen, I don't need you walking around my guys saying are you guys good? Are you guys doing this correctly? He's like, we're doing this correctly. Do I come up there and tell you? Are you flipping switches and dropping flaps correctly? No, So don't ever do that again. And he said at that moment, he's like, I stop giving orders. He's like, I'm not the order guy, rad I'm just like, you know what, I'm a pilot. I fly, I flip switches, I drop flaps. The load masters are load masters, and I should trust in them to load the aircraft per se. Right, So, you know, just letting the team do the job, letting the guys do the job, letting their leadership take control. And so going from veteran or going from you know, military to civilian, it was tough on me as well. You know, I dedicated myself to the military, you know, sworn an oath. I was out with a medical as well, and so it's like you get out, You're like, well, I guess you know a lot of people say, oh, the military gave me a direction. It was like straight and forward or right into the left, and mine was like a U turn. It's like you're gonna go back and start over. I was like, wait, okay, cool, So here I am today. You know, I have some experience under my belt from I'm happy to salute people I liked and salute people I didn't like. But at the end of the day, I had to salute the rank, right, And so I understand that concept of saluting the rank and understanding the chain of command exists for a reason. And what have I done as a civilian? I have implemented a chain of command in my own life with my businesses and my war games. And you know, it just makes sense to have Hey, you don't go to me if you want me to cover your shift, I will cover your shift. However, is there not a manager above you that you can go to to cover your shift? And if your manager can't cover your shift, then they'll come to me and say, hey, rad you know, I've tried everybody on the roster to cover the shift, but it's either going to be me or you, And I'm like, okay, well then I guess have you worked all your hours this week? Bro? Do you want the extra hours? If not, then I'll I'll take over, you know what I mean. So there has to be that chain of command where everybody kind of goes up through it and goes and you know, gives their what I'm trying to say, oh, it starts at the word d delegate orders delegate, you have to delegate out. So I have to delegate to my manager say hey, you know, make sure that there's always guys working Saturdays and Sundays. Don't hire anybody that cannot work on Saturday or Sunday. If they tell you they can work a Saturday or Sunday and then they call that same week and say they can't work that Saturday or Sunday because they got something else to do. They don't need to be here. That's what I've said. These are conversations. So you know, make sure that when you do commit to something that you go out and apply for that you commit to it, you follow through with it, and you keep that until something else pans out for you. Because if you say, oh, I can't make Saturdays and Sundays. But you got hired on specifically Saturday Sundays. Bro, You're gonna have a hard time, right, So you know everybody wants that weekend whatever. But I'm like, you ain't got nothing to do. You got work. You can do something Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, you know, or whatever you're off. There's you's got to follow through.
00:41:20
Speaker 3: It comes into it comes into the expectations part.
00:41:24
Speaker 1: You know.
00:41:24
Speaker 3: It's like you know that you know from a workers expected you know people agree to. And that's where I think a lot of people also kind of you know stumble and you know their jobs is you know, it's a two way street, you know, is that are you a fit for that organization? Is that organization a fit for you? Right? And a lot of times people will not think in those terms or where I've also seen veterans kind of get tripped up in workplaces is where you know, sometimes will be taken advantage of like oh I need need you to you know, go to you know, do this extra, do that extra all the time. And the concept of the boundary. It's like, okay, yes I'm doing this, this isn't that. But also you know, this is what I need to do for myself, and so whether there's a mutual acceptance and recognition of that and also understanding stuff happens. But you know, it's you know, having that having that fit, and also understanding like, hey, you know, if something's not working, if it is the wrong situation for somebody. I've been in those, it's like, Okay, I need to find something else. And what I think a lot of people can trip up too, is when they go into a job, is Okay, I'm planning on being here for two years or three years, is to have an exit plan. That exit plan might be I want to get promoted to the next level, I want to transfer divisions, or I'm going to do something else. Because when we frame stuff in that sense, it's a lot easier to deal with stuff you don't want to do, which we all have to do at some point when you've kind of got that end point, you know in your mind. So it's like, Okay, I took this job because I know it's weekends, and I've committed to it, and I'm going to commit this to this for like two years, three years something that's reasonable. It's a lot easier to manage that instead of like every week's of battle. I gotta do the weekend again. I gotta do that. Well, no, I committed to this.
00:43:26
Speaker 1: That is now my life. The weekend is. This is what I've committed to. It's like, hey, I said, yes, I wanted the gig. I want the experience of that job. And you don't know if that weekend job is just a test to get you into something more streamlined where they're like, hey, you know you work like weekends for the last six months. We know that, and now we've hired someone else to take on those weekends that you were doing. And I know that you wanted like a Monday through Friday kind of set gig. So now we have that built for you, and I have a new guy coming in. You just have to help uptrain him or her on the weekends for a few weeks so that they get the whole, you know, situation under control, and then we're going to transition you to that growth you know, not scalable, a scalability of you as a as a as a person, as an employee, as a potential entrepreneur. I think everybody's working for themselves period, which is an entrepreneur. Second, I think a lot of people are working to become that I'm in charge. This is my life, you know, But then I do know that like you know, for example, my lovely father in law who just passed a former marine. He got out of the Marine Corps and just really became truck driver, you know, just was doing you know, thirty thirty something years with a local trucking company, driving around Utah doing local deliveries with big trucks. Hearing stories about him losing breaks, coming down canyons and stuff. You know, you might joke about that, but that's you know, he's he's providing, he's working. He transitioned from an infantry men in the Marine Corps from Vietnam to you know, truck driver. Right, that's a skill. There's a special license that you have to have to drive those. It's not just like anybody can drive a commercial you know rig So you know though he but he understood the mission and he all he asked for it were Sundays off because he's very religious and just didn't want to work on Sunday. So he changed one job that was driving truck that wanted him to work on Sundays to a different company who was willing to keep him on board giving him those Sundays off, but he kind of had to suck it up for the first year or two of that transition and drive on Sundays, which he really didn't want to do. He was like, no, i don't want to work on Sundays. I'm faithful. As a lot of people can understand that are listening that I have faith. They don't want to work on a Sunday because that's when God rested, was on a Sunday, So that's when they deserve to rest and go celebrate their faith. So you know, there's nothing wrong with driving truck, you know, or anything. But eventually I was like, I asked my wife, why did he ever just get his own truck? You know? Well, it was just regimented because the company was like, here's your truck we provided to you, you show up, you commit. But he understood that because he probably could have got his own truck or two, you know what I mean.
00:46:12
Speaker 3: And I think another part of it too is understanding you know, what is what is your you know, your winning condition. My father in law he passed last year, but he was a doctor and he him and my mother in law came over from the Philippines and he had to repeat his intern his residency and then he worked. He had his own practice for like thirty years, but his last fifteen years he sold it and all he wanted to do was go in and work for a clinic. He didn't want to have to manage all the you know, the overhead and all the other stuff. But that's what made him happy at that point. And it's like understanding, like Okay, I want I want to do this, and I think the other thing too, where there's a struggle in the workplace it's been this way for about fifteen years, is where people think they're going to come in and they want to be the boss. I can't tell you how many people I've interviewed for clients that they graduated college three months ago and they want to be the department head with a cut of the car and all that other stuff. And it's just like, hang on a second. It's like, right, you're you're not quite there yet, is you know, pending in that experience, but also understanding that you know you say you have you know, this is this is your wind block, this is what you want to be happy. Well, in realistic you're probably going to get eighty percent of stuff. If you get eighty percent of what you want, that's pretty good. You know, rarely are you going to get one hundred percent of stuff. And just kind of having that, you know, that that awareness and you know the other thing I was thinking about that we're you're you know, we're talking about the people who come in that are super motivated and stuff like that is where I've seen vets especially excel at stuff. It's like, Okay, yeah, we need to take care of this. Number one is understanding what's urgent, what's really a crisis. Because you tell a like this is a crisis, we need to fix it. You know a lot of people start thinking, okay, I gotta work nights, weekend, whatever else.
00:48:04
Speaker 1: We got to fix it.
00:48:06
Speaker 3: In that company's culture, it might be thirty days. You know, that's a crisis, right, doesn't understand anything of that. But also, okay, I need help. Doing this is bringing people with you, you know, because then you start kind of taking the sharp corners off of yourself. It's like I'm going to be the bull in the china shop fixing all these problems. It's like, well, we need to fix this.
00:48:27
Speaker 1: I need help.
00:48:28
Speaker 3: Can you help? Me do this, and then you start bringing people with you, and then you start kind of building those relationships. You're not this outlier anymore. You're someone that they can like relate to and work with and count on, you know, in a different way. And you know it can be it can be difficult to kind of see over that hill, you know sometimes when you know, again that problem solving focus, it's like must fix problem, must fix problem. It's not like, Okay, I need to fix the problem a little differently because like in the in the military, you know, there's great leaders that ask you, okay, what do I think, especially when we started talking about like kind of higher performance type jobs. You know, you're talking like special ops or you know, stuff that you know is a little less regimented. But you also always know like kind of over the top of it is now shall do this eventually?
00:49:20
Speaker 1: Yeah?
00:49:20
Speaker 3: You know, you know in the civilian workplace, you know, there's three ways you can lead. You can inspire somebody, you can prompt someone to do something, or you can compel. Well, once you get out of the service, unless you're you know, law enforcement or something like that compels gone. You know, how you're going to inspire and prompt people to do stuff that you want to do. And that's one you know, I think that's one of the transitions that when when vets can see that around that corner site, Okay, how do I bring someone with me?
00:49:49
Speaker 1: How do I share it? Smile? Smile more often, you know, come in Hey.
00:49:52
Speaker 3: Sharing It's like, yea, not the bilget. I mean, you know, there are people that are like, oh my god, you're a VET. You're gonna have PTSD, You're going to shoot.
00:49:59
Speaker 1: Up the office, Like, no, you want me there, you want me there? In case of that, that's what they're gonna say, No, you need me if you go in smiling and showing this demeanor and positivity because it's infectious, right, And nobody wants to work in in in a troll shop. No one wants to work in like a you know, slave labor type environment where everyone's just like get it done, do it now, hurry up, hurry up. Although those places exist, and if you find yourself doing that, you applied there, okay, and you have to understand the culture. And if you didn't, you know, then you have I guess you can get out all right, You can do whatever you want because you're you, and so.
00:50:37
Speaker 3: You have the flexibility decide, you know what, this isn't a fit versus feeling like there's some commitment that you've got to stay. Now, you know, if you switch jobs every year for five years, that's not going to look too hot. But if it's like, you know, you've got your red line, whatever it is, it's Sunday's or it's like I can't treat people like this or whatever it is it is, it's like, okay, that's my red line. But you know you got to also understand, you know, it said eighty eighty percent type thing. You know, what are you willing to tolerate? But also understanding that, you know what, I can pull the trigger. And you know, an awful lot of us, you know, after we get out, the last thing we want to do is work for somebody else. And it's like, how do we, you know, make that transition. And you get into a whole conversation about how many entrepreneurs are veterans nowadays compared to after World War Two, and that numbers dropped, you know, pretty so now it's a different level of veteran population, you know, compared to after World War Two?
00:51:32
Speaker 1: Right, But well, and after World War Two. Let's be clear, like all the women were working in the jobs that the men had left behind, and when they came home, they said, we can't have that. The men need a job. But the men are shell shocked. The men were traumatized. The men were staring into themselves in the mirror, running late for work because of what they'd just gone through while their wife had just been doing the job, and like, just let me go to work, you know, because Rosie the riveter, you know, that whole mindset. It's like, you know, so now you have the global war on time, including Desert Shield desert story. We still have Vietnam vets still around, you know, and and how do they transition the same thing. It's like they've been away, they've been doing this whole entire job for this whole lifetime, and they come home and it's like, hey, I'm just I'm you know, I'm just out of the Marine Corps. What do I do I have? You know? And then you got Rambo. All right, so I'm jumping around here because you got Rambo. Now he's like he's out of the military. He's walking through town. The Sheriff's like, what are you doing here? What are you doing here with your double bag. He's like, I'm just looking for some food. And he's like, not my town, mister, you know, go on to go on the outside of town and he's just like, I'm just gonna walk through town, you know. And how do you get that guy to like, you know, he's looking for a job and for something to eat. I mean, it's really a transition, dude. You know, there's I taught. I know there's a lot of Rambos out there listening to our show. You know, they all exist. They're all just trying to keep to themselves and you know, keep moving forward and compartmentalize all the stuff they've dealt with. But yet still maintain this. I have to have a job. And I find that being out of work makes you an entrepreneur because even though Rambo didn't have a job, he was still trying to take care of himself by finding something to eat, going to you know, doing his own thing. Taking care of himself is what an entrepreneur is. It's really the definition of joblessness, okay, because it's like, how do I take care of myself and my family? Well, I gotta do something. Maybe I'll start selling on eBay, I'll sell some used goods. I'll go to the thrift store and I'll start buying used goods, and oh, I have an eye for fashion. I didn't know I had an eye for fashion. Well, maybe I can make my own fashion. Oh. Next thing, you know, you go from selling used goods thinking like, oh hey, cool, if I've put some stitching along the caller, it'd be cool, to selling your own designs and then having them worn at the oscars. So you can really go, you know, from selling on eBay through a which is entrepreneurship. If you ever want to, If you want to try entrepreneurship, list an item on eBay and have someone reply to you and say, hey, dear owner of your business, I have not received my item yet. You're gonna be like, oh crap, where's the tracking number. They're gonna be like, oh, let me reply quickly and kindly, and let me make sure that you guys are happy with this item, you know, and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out because I want a positive, five star review. And then you do another one, and then another one, and pretty soon you've got entrepreneurship right there. Just selling goods on an eBay marketplace.
00:54:16
Speaker 3: But you know what that was such a critical part of that though, Rent is understanding that we don't know everything and being open to learning what we need to do to make it happen. I actually just watched an interview with Steve Jobs yesterday. It was on YouTube, and they asked him how do you know how to run a company? And he was like, I just kept asking why are we doing it this way? Like why is it done this way? It's like, oh, that's the way we've always done it. Why like figuring out, Okay, why are we doing it? Is there a better way to do it? And then whether it's selling something on eBay or coming up with your own product. You know, I think there's a losso a lot of smoke and mirrors, especially you talk about like the tech world or stuff like that, where you get these thirty and or thirty and whatever else, and what's the success is? You know, most businesses don't survive past five years. And you know the ones that do a lot of times are the ones that are doing something a little differently. You know, the ones that say, Okay, I'm gonna do this, but I'm gonna I wouldstead of you know, instead of selling orange cars. You know what, it's something just telling me like I think there's something about green right now, right, you know, and then you know, maybe it strikes and maybe it works. You know, it's like using that experience you have kind of rekindling Like, Okay, I'm probably more comfortable taking risk just by virtue of having joined the military, because you put yourself in a risky situation by default. Okay, how do I how do I embrace that today?
00:55:44
Speaker 1: Right?
00:55:45
Speaker 3: And you know, invest in myself, like gamble on myself well, and.
00:55:50
Speaker 1: And just jump in on that. You know, a business license, you know, things like that, they do cost some money. Okay, so you do have to have money. But there's also this thing that I'm a big believer in called sweatquity. Okay, And sweat equity is what I put into it myself, my whole heart. Everything that I have to do. I feel passionate about what I do. I still do to this day, twenty years later of running my businesses after leaving big Tech. Okay, so you know, I had to make a step where it's like do I step off of a controlled paycheck insurance is coming in and going to the void of I'm running my own business because now my business demands that i'm there more often. It's like my business demands that i'm there. I've ran this business while working at business a okay, while I was getting their paycheck and still giving them, you know, answering all these different things and emails and everything, while growing my wargame business on the side. And then that side became bigger than my job, and so I had to say, okay, well, today's day that I got to separate from that secure job, a secure job, to say, okay, I'm going to do this on my own and get a couple of retail stores. And twenty years later, you know, I have a tank okay, and like you know, you know, mobile vehicle to go out to war games with equipment for sale now and all these different types of things have grown just by hustling and staying, you know, with my head in the ground and just moving forward and just gaining ground every single time I step. It's like, you're right, Steve Jobs is like, why do we do it this way? My business Partner's like, well why, I'm like, well, that's the way it's done. And he's like, but why, And I'm like why are you why in me so much? Bro?
00:57:26
Speaker 3: There's some things like you don't want to be reinventing the wheel all the time, you know, I mean you want to take what's you know, proven and basics and stuff like that. And you know, also you know there's you know, there's people who are comfortable in the corporate world a full time job, and then there's those who are comfortable in the entrepreneur world. And we need both. If everybody was an entrepreneur, it'd be a bunch of cats running all over the planet.
00:57:52
Speaker 1: And you know, you know, where's my cat? I'm like, where's my cat at right now? I want her on my lap for this episode.
00:58:00
Speaker 3: Again, we need that blend. But also you know, it's understanding of Okay, how do I get to where I want to be doing that? And that's one of the things I really try to try to strive. You Like on the communication part is it's like, how do you people don't want to learn how to communicate? To communicate, that's what I love doing, that's my passion. Most people don't want they want to get what they want to get. They want to have that level of success, they want to have that level of income, whatever it is of health, whatever it is, and.
00:58:24
Speaker 1: I want them to have it too, and how do they get there? Right exactly?
00:58:28
Speaker 3: That's that's what it's. It's it's it's it's it's a it's a tool to get to that point. And I think one of the things with with vets is given ourselves the grace to understand like, Okay, we got to kind of take a step back, take the lay of the land, what's changed, and what do I need? I can bring all the things that I've learned that's made me, you know, you know, the person who I am, and then leverage it because the one thing that's so disheartening is when I've I've talked to people like I've got to change who I am. It's like New Year's Oh, I'm on be the new me, you know your New Year's resolutions. No, there is no new you.
00:59:04
Speaker 1: You are you.
00:59:05
Speaker 3: You've brought everything with you that makes who you are. And then how do you what do you doing that next step? Instead of like, you know, I'm gonna throw everything away, even awful things that have happened with people, you know, dependency or you know, injuries and stuff like that. That that's that's part of who we are, and you know you want to learn from that, But then how do you go forward to that next step instead of just saying I'm going to be a brand new person because we're only here one time, at least in this time right now.
00:59:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, right now, it's like, what are you gonna do with it? You know, you can do the best I say, be the best steward with your life that you can. You know, you're the best. I can't I can't fix what happened two hundred years ago, but I can do the best I can today to not let whatever happened to you undred years ago happened today. That's that's That's how I kind of look at it. And and and and we use a lot of military acronyms at my company, and like, you know, I'll tell my business partner, Hey, I'm just doing some recon on a couple of buildings and I'll be in a little later, and he's like he understands what I'm saying. I'm like, I'm gonna go, you know, and that recom may be looking at competition, seeing who's out in there parking lot at two in the afternoon while we're open at two in the afternoon. Are they as busy as I am. You know, it's like you just got to go out there and just you know, do things to make sure that your business stays afloat. And that's the other thing, like, once you find the lane that you're passionate about, if you go and present that to me or to Chad and say, hey, this is my idea. I think it's really a great idea. I really want to do it. And I'm like, yeah, it's not really my idea. I don't know if it's gonna work. And Chad's like, yeah, I don't know if it's my idea. So we diss it and don't agree with it, but you still believe in it. It's probably the right idea for you to keep going with it. Okay, It's like it may not be my right idea, but then I'll see you be successful and be like, oh, hey, I'm proud of you, or I'm shocked and amazed that you got so far. You know, it's like you just have to just be the best you you can be.
01:00:57
Speaker 3: Go ahead, please, well even when it failed, if they if it fails, which we fail more often than we succeeds, you know, that's part of the process. And you know where people get so disillusioned, like, oh, this didn't work out well. Most of the time things don't work. If you think about when we were in the military, why did people kind of get you know, yelled at whatever else in doot camp and training whatever else. It was corrective. Now you don't do that in the civilian world. It doesn't work very well. But it's the reason why I share that is it was part of the learning process. It was try oops, it screwed up, try again. It worked, And you know it's bringing that Okay, I know that I've been through this process before. You know, it's no I made it through this, this, I made it through this, So I can use that because I know I can make it through that. And I think that's one of the biggest advantages that veterans bring to the table, is like we know that we've been through stuff. Maybe we questioned like, oh why did I do this or how did I end up here? But I got through it. I made it happen. Yeah, and I'm going to do the same thing here.
01:02:04
Speaker 1: That's cool, man, that's cool. And your book, your book is called seven Veteran Business Communication transformations for veterans navigating the jump from military competence to civilian credibility. And so is that out right now or are we doing a little Is it going to be launched? Is it already out?
01:02:20
Speaker 3: It's on Amazon, it's avabled there in a paperback and kindle.
01:02:24
Speaker 1: And kindle yep. And so please if you do pick up his book, which we encourage you to go check it out and read it. And you know, even if you glean just one bullet point out of the book, that's what matters. Okay, a lot of it. You may not. I have a hard time with reading comprehension, math comprehension. I get it, But if it sticks it in my mind, I'm like, hey, that made sense to me. You just go read a book. That's why we talked about at the beginning of the show reading a book power knowledge. Your brain's a muscle, right, you want to be the best you? So check out his book, right. What's what's the worst it could do is like just give you some inspiration to go be the best you and say, hey, you know I was dealing with this, you know number six of number seven reasons why you know? Oh that helped clear it up. But in order to learn that, you got to read the book. And that book is Seven Veteran Business Communication Transformations for veterans navigating the jump from military competence to civilian credibility. It's out right now. I want you to go check it out. I encourage you. We've had just a great, nice chat together. This is the first time Chat and I have ever really even had a conversation, and you know, I want you to know that. And we just have a normal conversation. We're not at each other's throats. We're just bouncing ideas back and forth or suggestions or ideas about business. And it's just like that. So if you find any positive information from this episode, please, you know, go check out his book and be the best you and just do you the best that you can. Okay, look in the mirror and say, hey, what's up. I'm the best, And you go out of the house that day and you just be the best.
01:03:53
Speaker 3: And I second all that. Thank you again very much, Rad for having me here today. And you know, you know it's another way for us to connect, like we said earlier, Yes, and you know, take advantage of that, and you know, especially when we work together as veterans and we leverage what we can do together that's even more powerful.
01:04:12
Speaker 1: Agreed, Agreed, And you know what, what a great way to wind down the show. You know, we've had you for an hour. I know you're super in demand and it's cool that you took time to come out here and come on the show. And thanks again for reaching out to be on the show and say rad soft reps. Listeners are who my listener are my people? And I love that and I was like, let's get you on the show right away. We strike fast around here. So thank you so much. And to my listener out there that's contemplating what to do with their life, best of luck. Okay, if you have any questions, hit me up on Instagram or wherever you can find me and I'll help bounce ideas back and forth. And don't forget that you're cared about and we love you and you know you're worth every ounce of energy that is inside your body. So continue to move forward, gain ground, and never give up, never quit. There's something out there for you, and if you've already fold on it, you know, share it with others and invite. Like what you're doing, Chad, you're sharing with others and so again, go check out his book and on behalf of Chadeves dot com. Go check out his website and you can find all this information there. Check them out and Google and again on behalf of all the folks that helped me to be here on this podcast, I want to say thanks again and to my lovely wife and everyone out there. I always say thank you, and you know, thanks for checking out the merch store and our book club at soft Rep. And this is rad On behalf of Chad saying peace.
01:05:49
Speaker 2: You've been listening to self Rep Ladia