1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,580
Hello and welcome to the Recruiting Solutions Podcast.
2
00:00:03,030 --> 00:00:06,600
I'm your host, James Welch, the founder and CEO of recruiting solutions.
3
00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:12,000
And with me is my friend and colleague, command Sergeant, major retired Steven Sibley, Sergeant Major.
4
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:13,920
How are you today? Okay.
5
00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:15,090
I am doing outstanding, sir.
6
00:00:15,090 --> 00:00:17,310
How are you? I'm fantastic, man.
7
00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:18,590
I'm loving the retired life.
8
00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:24,320
I'll tell you every time we do these, I just think about how blessed we are to be what we are and just to be able to.
9
00:00:24,695 --> 00:00:26,405
Just jump on here and have a conversation.
10
00:00:26,405 --> 00:00:27,845
I mean, it's great.
11
00:00:28,710 --> 00:00:29,880
I'm so grateful for it.
12
00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:33,400
I was thinking earlier today you were the hardest working man I knew in the Army.
13
00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,630
And, even though you're retired, you're still the hardest working man I know now in retirement.
14
00:00:36,660 --> 00:00:39,580
So how's all your ventures going? I'll take that.
15
00:00:39,610 --> 00:00:44,710
Sir, I, I know you've probably met way more hard work than people, than me, but it's actually, it's a different hard work though.
16
00:00:44,710 --> 00:00:49,930
You know, the army, hard work in the army doesn't correlate to hard work in the, civilian sector, in my opinion.
17
00:00:50,140 --> 00:00:51,310
And I don't know why that is.
18
00:00:51,310 --> 00:00:55,570
And I don't know if it's just because our duty is to get up and do what we did every day, but now we kind of have a choice.
19
00:00:55,930 --> 00:00:59,910
So we just choose the hard work But yeah, I find myself just trying to stay as busy as possible.
20
00:01:00,010 --> 00:01:00,820
Business is good.
21
00:01:00,820 --> 00:01:06,090
You know, I got some things going on right now with consulting that are, starting to pick up a little bit and I'm excited about that.
22
00:01:06,090 --> 00:01:08,850
I won't, talk a lot about it, but things are moving forward.
23
00:01:08,850 --> 00:01:15,940
So I think, as we talk about being busy, I think some of the crazy busy will stop and I'll just have one direction to move in for at least the near future.
24
00:01:15,940 --> 00:01:16,990
So I'm excited about that.
25
00:01:16,990 --> 00:01:17,260
But.
26
00:01:17,615 --> 00:01:20,935
Other than that, I appreciate the compliment, but, you're the hardest working person I know.
27
00:01:21,115 --> 00:01:24,685
So what the heck are you doing? How's the, how's the business over there? It's great, man.
28
00:01:24,835 --> 00:01:28,485
You know, working on getting this second book finished.
29
00:01:28,975 --> 00:01:32,245
You know, it's a lot about recruiting experiences, but really focused on leadership.
30
00:01:32,885 --> 00:01:35,555
I then started a, a new program for recruiting solutions.
31
00:01:35,945 --> 00:01:39,125
I think you saw it's the recruiting, executive mentorship program.
32
00:01:39,515 --> 00:01:39,755
Oh, yeah.
33
00:01:39,755 --> 00:01:41,525
And that's for recruiting leaders across.
34
00:01:42,020 --> 00:01:43,040
The armed forces.
35
00:01:43,070 --> 00:01:44,630
So just got that off the ground today.
36
00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:45,680
So things going well.
37
00:01:46,370 --> 00:01:46,640
Cool.
38
00:01:46,850 --> 00:01:47,630
Well, I'm rooting for you.
39
00:01:47,630 --> 00:01:53,740
I hope, I hope that picks up and if anybody's listening to this, when we all think we know everything, I can tell you this, take advantage of that mentorship program.
40
00:01:53,740 --> 00:01:55,270
I took a look at what you were doing and I was like.
41
00:01:55,690 --> 00:01:57,010
That could help a lot of people out there.
42
00:01:57,010 --> 00:02:04,150
I mean, I know these podcasts get launched and I'd probably be on the other side of that too, like, ah, I don't have time to listen to a podcast, or, you know, whatever the case may be.
43
00:02:04,150 --> 00:02:06,190
But I'll tell you that there's some nuggets in here.
44
00:02:06,190 --> 00:02:07,900
So I hope people are starting to pick these things up.
45
00:02:07,900 --> 00:02:12,670
I listen to the ones you do when you go solo and there's nuggets being thrown around everywhere.
46
00:02:12,670 --> 00:02:16,510
That's, I call it free chicken, that I can tell you people should take advantage of.
47
00:02:16,510 --> 00:02:18,980
So I hope that, there's some leaders out there in positions that, you know.
48
00:02:19,530 --> 00:02:24,050
Just have questions, don't know who to ask and can take advantage of, the knowledge that you bring to the table, sir.
49
00:02:24,050 --> 00:02:27,480
So, good luck with that and I, and I hope that people actually, indulge.
50
00:02:28,050 --> 00:02:29,100
Yeah, no, I appreciate it.
51
00:02:29,100 --> 00:02:40,500
And that's obviously the reason, I do it, is to help people out, try to share a little bit of the hard lessons I learned and while we're doing this podcast too, so today we're gonna talk about future soldier losses and what we can do now.
52
00:02:41,115 --> 00:02:44,455
To prevent those, deluge of losses in the summer.
53
00:02:44,975 --> 00:02:56,405
And it took me a long time to understand that if you react in the summer is too late, you've gotta prepare in March so that you don't take losses in the summer.
54
00:02:56,865 --> 00:02:58,515
And I learned that lesson the hard way.
55
00:02:58,515 --> 00:03:01,335
But why, why is that? And just overall, sorry, major.
56
00:03:01,335 --> 00:03:08,055
Why is March so important for recruiters and recruiting leaders? Well we've hit that turn is, is what I'll tell you.
57
00:03:08,055 --> 00:03:18,315
And then what happens is, there's a couple reasons, right? A lot of kids that join the army and, you know, you and I are given our knowledge from things that we saw when we were in, right? So I wanna caveat by saying maybe things have changed a little bit.
58
00:03:18,315 --> 00:03:20,175
I'm not out there, I don't wear boots every day.
59
00:03:20,415 --> 00:03:24,855
So, you know, for those listening things have changed a little bit, you know, carry on with that.
60
00:03:25,005 --> 00:03:34,365
But I'll tell you that, in our experience, which is pretty lengthy in, in recruiting, we start with seniors, right? But seniors aren't the only ones that, you know, we need to start keeping an eye on as we come into the summer months.
61
00:03:34,365 --> 00:03:35,715
And I think everybody knows that because.
62
00:03:36,180 --> 00:03:41,870
A lot of these college kids, a lot of these graduates that were like, Hey, I don't wanna leave until summer.
63
00:03:41,870 --> 00:03:46,160
We get that a lot in recruiting that, Hey, I, I can go, but I wanna leave in the summer.
64
00:03:46,250 --> 00:03:48,350
I wanna go when it's warm, whatever the case may be.
65
00:03:48,500 --> 00:03:49,610
But we'll start with seniors.
66
00:03:49,610 --> 00:03:56,390
And one of the most important things for people to think about is like, is my high school senior going to graduate this year? And I know that sounds.
67
00:03:57,005 --> 00:03:58,325
You know, low level.
68
00:03:58,325 --> 00:04:07,985
But I will tell you that I found it in my entire career from the time I became a recruiter to the time I retired as a command sergeant major, that in this business, those things don't change.
69
00:04:08,075 --> 00:04:16,415
And, uh, and if we don't check on these seniors right now, and we don't go get those will grad letters, and every single commander listening to this doesn't order.
70
00:04:16,700 --> 00:04:27,860
His troops to go out right now, no matter what branch you're recruiting in and say, Hey, go into the high school and I want to see the letters right? I wanna know that that high school kid is on track to graduate.
71
00:04:27,860 --> 00:04:31,460
And that is kind of as baseline as it goes with your high school seniors.
72
00:04:32,180 --> 00:04:36,175
But you know, kids that have been in a dip.
73
00:04:38,030 --> 00:04:41,180
Aren't high school seniors, right? They, they may have been doing whatever on their health.
74
00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:52,970
Have we checked on their height and weights? Have we checked on the things that are gonna prevent them from potentially, um, wanting to still ship or being physically able to ship in the summertime? So I, I'll pause there, sir.
75
00:04:52,970 --> 00:04:53,540
Pass it back to you.
76
00:04:53,540 --> 00:04:56,515
But that's, that's what I think about when I think about marches.
77
00:04:56,515 --> 00:04:57,980
Like, Hey, we just hit that curve.
78
00:04:58,070 --> 00:05:03,860
We're out of the winter and I gotta start checking on all my depths, no matter from what range, senior to college to in between.
79
00:05:04,190 --> 00:05:10,250
And, and it's regardless of, you know, the military branch or the component, right? Mm-hmm.
80
00:05:10,820 --> 00:05:12,080
Everyone has to do this.
81
00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:16,520
And what I learned is that, you know, started with seniors that you mentioned.
82
00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:20,480
It's, it's important to trust, but verify everything.
83
00:05:21,110 --> 00:05:27,980
And my first year in recruiting, yeah, I was making sure we were just asking kids, Hey, you on track to graduate? Everything good? Yeah, we're all good.
84
00:05:28,340 --> 00:05:33,590
And then what happens? You roll around to June and all of a sudden you get a handful of kids that didn't graduate.
85
00:05:33,980 --> 00:05:38,720
Another handful that, you know, they're gonna have to have summer school, so that pushes back their ship date.
86
00:05:39,170 --> 00:05:45,230
Uh, and then like you said, others, they had some changes in, in their life, relationships, health issues, whatever.
87
00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:49,590
So if you don't get on top of that in March, you can't take actions.
88
00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:59,160
And, and you made a great point in terms of going to the schools and getting what we call a will grad or a will graduate letter from the guidance counselor.
89
00:06:00,060 --> 00:06:00,720
I think that's.
90
00:06:01,485 --> 00:06:11,745
Number one, hopefully that's not the first time the recruiter or the company commander has gone out to the school and is having this conversation with the guidance counselor.
91
00:06:12,795 --> 00:06:14,655
But you go there and you kinda explain to 'em what you need.
92
00:06:14,655 --> 00:06:26,655
Just a memorandum stating that yes, you know, Jimmy Welch is on track to graduate, or no, we'll graduate with summer school or not gonna graduate at all.
93
00:06:27,085 --> 00:06:28,705
And then once you have that information.
94
00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:39,010
It has to be shared with the chain of command, right? They, they gotta know that, alright, this guy's, he's supposed to ship on the 2nd of June, he's not gonna graduate high school.
95
00:06:39,100 --> 00:06:45,760
So we either take him as loss now, or we plan to win, we're gonna take him as loss or we're, we're not caught off guard at the last minute.
96
00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:51,400
But that's, that's the most important thing I would tell anyone listening is that's the first thing you do.
97
00:06:52,030 --> 00:06:55,570
You list out all of your future service members or debts.
98
00:06:57,370 --> 00:07:02,110
Find those that are high school seniors and then begin to acquire those will graduate letters.
99
00:07:02,110 --> 00:07:09,700
And that's what I always, what I started doing as a battalion and brigade commander, you know, I think you remember this, our major is, you know, I called it March Madness.
100
00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:17,740
You know, that's a, what I need to happen in March is that every single death is accounted for with a will graduate letter.
101
00:07:18,940 --> 00:07:22,270
And then we move on to okay, interviewing every single one of them.
102
00:07:22,690 --> 00:07:26,770
And then we broaden that perspective to all the summer shippers after that.
103
00:07:26,770 --> 00:07:26,980
But.
104
00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:34,660
Like you said, it, it identifies any risk early, allows us to prioritize if they're gonna be a loss, and when do we take it.
105
00:07:35,220 --> 00:07:37,590
And then the bottom line is it prevents those surprises.
106
00:07:38,370 --> 00:07:53,220
Because what I found is, is that if you don't do that, if you take their word for it and you don't check, invariably you're gonna have someone who you're expected to ship on ship Day and they don't have a high school graduation.
107
00:07:53,775 --> 00:07:56,325
Yeah, they felt, you know, it's gonna happen.
108
00:07:56,325 --> 00:07:59,235
So that's the biggest thing I would mention.
109
00:08:00,165 --> 00:08:09,075
And of course, you wait till May or June, you don't give the command team time to respond proactively or to put measures in place.
110
00:08:09,075 --> 00:08:10,665
'cause there's certain, you know, there's things you can do.
111
00:08:10,665 --> 00:08:15,825
You can put you out the ship date to accommodate summer school, uh, if you're not gonna be a loss, et cetera, et cetera.
112
00:08:15,825 --> 00:08:18,975
And likewise with all the other issues that you mentioned as well.
113
00:08:18,975 --> 00:08:19,035
So.
114
00:08:20,025 --> 00:08:26,805
Anything else to add about those will grad letters or any nuggets from, from your time in recruiting? No, I think that's it.
115
00:08:26,805 --> 00:08:29,985
I just think that most, most company commanders just go down to their level.
116
00:08:29,985 --> 00:08:34,755
I mean, battalion and brigade commanders are gonna be hyper-focused on it, but they're not gonna do the legwork.
117
00:08:35,175 --> 00:08:37,665
Company commanders, depending on your footprint.
118
00:08:37,665 --> 00:08:43,155
But for the majority of company commanders, they should have and they should be able to build into their schedule.
119
00:08:43,620 --> 00:08:45,090
The visits with the recruiters needed.
120
00:08:45,090 --> 00:08:54,180
If they want to get super engaged in their future soldier program because it's their program, uh, then they could probably find time to go out there with the recruiters, say, Hey, I wanna go and be on ground with you when you do this.
121
00:08:54,180 --> 00:08:56,855
I mean, we had company commanders when we worked at, at the brigade.
122
00:08:56,875 --> 00:09:03,780
We, we knew the company commanders down, you know, in the Southeast, that were gonna go in and physically do that because they were that passionate about debt losses.
123
00:09:04,110 --> 00:09:08,220
And the last thing I'll add on this is the three types, the three things you're looking for in March for any.
124
00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:16,480
Anybody in your future? Soldier pool is the three major debt loss types, right? Decline enlistments medical, and fail to graduate.
125
00:09:16,690 --> 00:09:22,300
Those three used to be the top three of these are the three that you're gonna take losses in, right? And what you're trying to prevent.
126
00:09:22,300 --> 00:09:31,600
For the majority, the, if we're being honest, everybody's trying to prevent that 30 day debt loss, right? Anybody inside of 30 days is what we're trying to prevent.
127
00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:34,900
So as when you're looking at March and you're looking at the ship dates.
128
00:09:35,695 --> 00:09:36,715
Just do the math.
129
00:09:36,895 --> 00:09:40,465
Who's shipping from March until August within the 30 days.
130
00:09:40,735 --> 00:09:41,035
Alright.
131
00:09:41,035 --> 00:09:42,625
And then go through those three areas.
132
00:09:42,625 --> 00:09:45,505
The who's gonna decline enlistment, they're not mo motivated no more.
133
00:09:45,655 --> 00:09:48,205
And those could also be high school seniors that are gonna graduate.
134
00:09:48,475 --> 00:09:56,335
So are you gonna engage the influencers and then talk to the influencers involved in that senior's life and say, Hey, is this kid ready to go still? So start talking to the influencers.
135
00:09:56,605 --> 00:10:01,505
Even if you do get the will grad letter, right? I would tell you that it's just that important to talk to them.
136
00:10:02,045 --> 00:10:13,085
Grads, college kids, influencers play a part and, but not those of you guys start talking about their medical, are they still motivated personally? And you're gonna do that through your future soldier training program.
137
00:10:13,085 --> 00:10:14,165
And I know we're gonna talk about that.
138
00:10:14,165 --> 00:10:17,000
So I just wanted to add that we're trying to keep those 30 day debt losses.
139
00:10:18,290 --> 00:10:20,030
To a minimum or to zero.
140
00:10:20,150 --> 00:10:22,730
And for company commanders, that's what you should be hyper-focused on.
141
00:10:22,730 --> 00:10:35,340
So look at that and then start figuring out a plan right now between March and the summer, how are you gonna prevent those losses? Yeah, that's, those are great points with the involve, particularly with the involvement of the influencers for those high schoolers.
142
00:10:35,830 --> 00:10:44,380
But moving on to the next piece is, you know, how do we identify some of those other issues that may be out there? And, and that's a personal interview.
143
00:10:44,500 --> 00:10:45,790
You know, in the army we called it.
144
00:10:46,360 --> 00:11:00,370
An FSAI and essentially a list of questions that, you know, make sure they're still on track to graduate, make sure they're still passionate about shipping, and see if there's any big life changes that may have taken place.
145
00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:10,990
And one of the things I learned is that, you know, I, I began to mandate, just like you said, that company commanders get personally involved and conduct these interviews in addition.
146
00:11:11,470 --> 00:11:13,015
To the recruiter having done so.
147
00:11:13,435 --> 00:11:23,995
Uh, and the reason I did that is because if you do that, if you have both the recruiter and the company commander doing it, they may un unveil something that they didn't talk about with the recruiter.
148
00:11:25,015 --> 00:11:32,185
It's just another person that can either get that information out of them, or even just sense with the body language, Hey, there's something afoot here.
149
00:11:32,185 --> 00:11:37,195
This person doesn't seem like they're really being honest and they can draw it out of 'em.
150
00:11:38,455 --> 00:11:40,435
And in my opinion, I think it's gotta be done in person.
151
00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:41,800
For that very reason.
152
00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:49,660
So you can lay eyes on them, read that body language and be better, understand what might be going on with this person.
153
00:11:49,720 --> 00:12:04,360
Well, what are your thoughts on that? So, you know, the question was, you know, how do you try to prevent these things? And I'll tell you that, you know, anybody listening that knows me and knew when I was in recruiting, right? One thing I was really good at and I wasn't good at much.
154
00:12:05,065 --> 00:12:18,055
IPR, right? The IPR, right? That happens daily within your organization, right? Where you are communicating with your people to talk about a million things, right? One section of that IPR that has never changed is the future soldier section.
155
00:12:18,055 --> 00:12:31,525
And I'll tell you that, you know, if you're IPR on daily and commanders are IPR on daily, then they know that they have a duty to check on these future soldiers, and there's a system in place for the most part, I imagine, across all branches.
156
00:12:31,870 --> 00:12:36,310
Where you can talk to yourself through the system about each future soldier and what needs to happen.
157
00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:51,460
So even if recruiters are seeing them in person, company commanders, leaders need to be talking to these individuals either in person if they can't or no matter what, at a minimum on the phone, right? To reinforce the commitment at, if nothing else, not to just check on 'em.
158
00:12:51,460 --> 00:12:54,220
I'm just reinforcing your commitment to to ship and so.
159
00:12:54,925 --> 00:13:12,655
People, some people don't like to over communicate, and I'll tell you that one thing that is detrimental to a future soldier program is lack of communication at all levels, right? No matter what type of debt loss you're gonna take, more than likely you're gonna take more debt losses with the people you didn't communicate with than that you did.
160
00:13:13,015 --> 00:13:16,975
So the key to success here is communication at all levels is communicate.
161
00:13:17,125 --> 00:13:19,135
We let these kids go and we don't talk to them.
162
00:13:19,495 --> 00:13:20,755
Commanders don't talk to them.
163
00:13:21,265 --> 00:13:22,525
Recruiters don't check on 'em.
164
00:13:22,555 --> 00:13:26,005
I mean, if these guys are just, Hey, you enlisted, I'll see you in four months.
165
00:13:26,005 --> 00:13:28,825
When it's time for you to ship, or at the end of the school year that kid's.
166
00:13:29,635 --> 00:13:30,895
I ca, I don't know the percentages.
167
00:13:30,895 --> 00:13:33,745
I'd be lying, but more than likely that person's not gonna ship.
168
00:13:33,835 --> 00:13:37,375
There's gonna be a small percent that are so motivated, they don't need you.
169
00:13:37,375 --> 00:13:38,425
They're gonna ship anyway.
170
00:13:38,575 --> 00:13:41,395
But even them, you still have to stay in contact with constantly.
171
00:13:41,395 --> 00:13:48,505
So over-communicating doesn't exist in the Future Soldier Program, and it needs to happen weekly, daily, monthly.
172
00:13:49,850 --> 00:13:54,715
And how each team in the, in any branch decides to do that is up to you.
173
00:13:55,420 --> 00:13:58,690
But if you're not doing it, you're gonna just prepare yourself for a long summer.
174
00:13:58,690 --> 00:14:07,450
Because I will say that it's way harder to put people in the army now than when we were in, especially when I was an actual, like on the boots, on ground recruiter.
175
00:14:07,780 --> 00:14:09,310
It's way harder now than it was then.
176
00:14:09,310 --> 00:14:18,130
Why would you invest all that time and work and to putting somebody in the army to stop communicating with them? Stop checking on them, stop caring about them, and then let them just debt lost.
177
00:14:18,535 --> 00:14:19,555
You're back to square one.
178
00:14:19,555 --> 00:14:29,875
So it always blew my mind why we don't put as much emphasis, we put emphasis on it, but we don't put a lot of energy into it down at the station and company level as we should.
179
00:14:29,905 --> 00:14:32,755
Not everybody, but collectively.
180
00:14:33,115 --> 00:14:35,635
I think we, uh, we need to get real good at that real quick.
181
00:14:35,635 --> 00:14:39,445
Especially now that we've hit this corner before summer to make sure our future soldiers are ready to go.
182
00:14:40,285 --> 00:14:40,585
Yeah.
183
00:14:40,645 --> 00:14:41,455
Over communication.
184
00:14:41,455 --> 00:14:42,475
I was just making that note.
185
00:14:42,475 --> 00:14:42,895
That's.
186
00:14:43,435 --> 00:14:44,755
Absolutely critical.
187
00:14:45,775 --> 00:14:51,235
Uh, I caught myself, I used the, the, uh, acronym earlier, FSAI, it's Future Soldier Asset Inventory.
188
00:14:51,235 --> 00:14:52,405
That's what we use in the Army.
189
00:14:53,125 --> 00:14:57,235
Uh, and again, it kind of has a list of questions, uh, and some of those different topics.
190
00:14:57,235 --> 00:15:09,635
You know, we talk about you know, any changes to the job status, right? If, if all of a sudden this kid's got a, a new high paying job that might influence the relationship or not and it changes to the relationship.
191
00:15:10,055 --> 00:15:17,510
Are are they getting married? Is the, is the girlfriend, you know, gonna have a baby? All those sorts of things that may enter into the equation as well.
192
00:15:18,140 --> 00:15:19,610
We already talked about academic issues.
193
00:15:19,610 --> 00:15:26,030
Any physical readiness I've seen plenty of times where you have a, a motivated young man or woman, they want a ship.
194
00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:32,990
Oh, but they had a car wreck, you know, a couple of months ago and had to have knee surgery and you never got that accounted for.
195
00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:37,610
That's something that's male show up to ship at meps that's gonna hinder their ability to ship.
196
00:15:38,150 --> 00:15:39,260
You gotta address that.
197
00:15:40,250 --> 00:15:41,930
And then lastly, just the motivation.
198
00:15:41,930 --> 00:15:48,110
Just point blank asking them, are you still motivated to ship out as scheduled? Right.
199
00:15:48,110 --> 00:15:51,590
And then there's other things in there, like any kinda tattoos, that sort of stuff.
200
00:15:51,590 --> 00:16:00,560
But the bottom line is just like you said, Sonny, just going through and over-communicating all those things and then annotating it and the contact history.
201
00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:03,710
So now we have it on paper, we've communicated to 'em.
202
00:16:03,740 --> 00:16:08,180
And just as you mentioned over-communicating with the future service member.
203
00:16:09,275 --> 00:16:12,635
Now communicating the information to the chain of command so they can take action.
204
00:16:13,025 --> 00:16:14,435
Otherwise, it's not gonna do any good.
205
00:16:17,825 --> 00:16:21,695
I, I'll tell you this and, and last thing about over-communicating.
206
00:16:21,815 --> 00:16:33,125
When I walked away from the Army and retired, all of our companies had company XOs, right? The Army had issued us a bunch of lieutenants, right? And so one thing that changed from back.
207
00:16:33,770 --> 00:16:41,960
Years and years ago to more recent years within recruiting is lieutenants were available to come out and serve in XO positions in, uh, recruiting.
208
00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:59,480
And what blew me away, and, and I, I'll send this to my old company commanders and they know I love 'em, right? But what blew me away is how they wouldn't just, it's a commander's program, but your executive officer sits right next to you and has plenty of time on their hands to call these individuals and talk to them.
209
00:17:00,455 --> 00:17:04,715
In, in, in your absence just to kind of help you communicate if that's what it takes.
210
00:17:04,925 --> 00:17:19,535
But man, the amount of times that I took a debt loss as a CSM on ship date just to peel back, and every branch is realizing this, every leader out there right now at any level that's listening to this can say, yes, I've seen that recently.
211
00:17:19,925 --> 00:17:24,935
And you're like, how? And it's 'cause the system's in place, the IPR R'S broke the system's in place.
212
00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:27,110
Aren't, aren't correct.
213
00:17:27,140 --> 00:17:28,640
So put some energy right now.
214
00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:39,050
Commanders, leaders, recruiters, anybody, put some energy into right now developing process to make sure you're not missing something with these guys and FSIS and all these things.
215
00:17:39,050 --> 00:17:44,665
They used to do that, but even though we had these tools readily available, sometimes we just refuse to use them because.
216
00:17:45,530 --> 00:17:46,670
Not over complacency.
217
00:17:46,670 --> 00:18:02,480
We just, we just thought the kid was gonna ship and if we would've just checked on the good ones as much as we checked on the, the ones we were worried about, right? Red, green, amber is how we used to code future soldiers, right? Based on their propensity to ship and based on flags and everything else.
218
00:18:02,810 --> 00:18:06,740
Check on a green shipper just as much as you're checking on a red or amber shipper.
219
00:18:07,100 --> 00:18:14,480
And listen, if it's a red shipper and there's, you know, that red shipper isn't gonna ever get back to green for whatever reason.
220
00:18:15,725 --> 00:18:22,665
Holding onto is just gonna prolong the inevitable and it's gonna potentially ruin the training seat for somebody else that's ready to ship right now.
221
00:18:22,665 --> 00:18:24,525
So just take hard looks at that.
222
00:18:24,795 --> 00:18:31,305
You know, we know mission tends to dictate when we punch the future soldier losses out and all this, you know, system stuff.
223
00:18:31,305 --> 00:18:31,875
We get it.
224
00:18:32,145 --> 00:18:35,895
But, uh, start figuring out right now what kind of summer you're gonna have.
225
00:18:35,895 --> 00:18:36,555
I'll say it again.
226
00:18:37,455 --> 00:18:38,505
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
227
00:18:38,505 --> 00:18:38,995
And, and.
228
00:18:39,510 --> 00:18:40,980
You know, I looked at my notes here.
229
00:18:41,610 --> 00:18:48,840
You know, I was thinking through some of the, those common mistakes that we see, you know, from this time period up until summer.
230
00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:53,830
And that's both for recruiters, station commanders company commanders, all of 'em.
231
00:18:54,190 --> 00:18:55,990
But there's, there's a few things I had here.
232
00:18:56,230 --> 00:18:57,700
Number one, we've already talked about it.
233
00:18:57,700 --> 00:18:59,500
It's assuming they're gonna graduate.
234
00:19:00,100 --> 00:19:04,510
Um, it might even be a, a kid that's a pretty good student, or maybe they're missing a credit.
235
00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:08,290
I mean, like you said, otherwise they're green, but you gotta check every single one.
236
00:19:08,665 --> 00:19:23,725
Just to make sure not conducting face-to-face interviews, ignoring the parental influence, which is another big one because plenty of times we've seen that where the parents, particularly for a high schooler, they're gonna play critical role.
237
00:19:23,725 --> 00:19:28,105
So, like you said, bringing them in the process makes a huge difference.
238
00:19:28,585 --> 00:19:31,015
Um, waiting to report problems.
239
00:19:31,015 --> 00:19:37,165
You, you just mentioned that you have to, and there's plenty of times too, where we've taken a loss, I saw this.
240
00:19:37,570 --> 00:19:52,960
At each level of my command in recruiting, where I was always a hands-on commander, even even as a brigade commander with future soldier losses and every single one, I'd go back into the our computer system and look at all the contact history of when they talked to a recruiter.
241
00:19:53,860 --> 00:20:03,760
And there were many times where the recruiter actually identified this person will be a loss for whatever reason, and then it just never made it up to the chain.
242
00:20:05,050 --> 00:20:09,250
So making sure that yes, you've identified it, but you gotta report.
243
00:20:09,250 --> 00:20:11,410
You can't wait to report that issue.
244
00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:32,650
Uh, and then of course, the other thing is, this always tends to happen, but focusing on the prospecting and putting new people in the army and forgetting about the people you've already put in, I mean, that was a wonderful point you made earlier, is you invest all this time and energy to find this person, get 'em into the military.
245
00:20:32,655 --> 00:20:32,935
Mm-hmm.
246
00:20:33,815 --> 00:20:34,930
Then you forget about 'em.
247
00:20:35,710 --> 00:20:35,860
Yeah.
248
00:20:35,980 --> 00:20:44,470
You know, it's like you're, you're just wasting all that, all that effort because unless you're communicating with 'em, they could become a loss and not ship out or go to another service.
249
00:20:44,530 --> 00:20:44,800
Right.
250
00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:45,580
I've seen that happen.
251
00:20:46,450 --> 00:20:57,370
What am I missing? What is, what are some of those other things that a recruiter listening right now needs to think through or mistakes that they could possibly make between now and, and this summer? I mean, I think we hit a lot of them.
252
00:20:57,880 --> 00:20:58,690
I think that, excuse me.
253
00:20:58,690 --> 00:21:15,070
I think that we could, what else? What else we need to focus on? If I was a recruiter right now, is how motivated are my soldiers or my future soldiers at the training? Are we conducting weekly training like we supposed to, or, because the mission dictates, oh, I gotta be on the road and I'm in charge of training today, so I'm gonna cancel training.
254
00:21:15,435 --> 00:21:49,900
You know, are we, how adamant are we about making sure that that training is conducted on a weekly basis? What's the percentage of people that actually show up? Is it a hundred percent of my future soldiers, right? How engaged am I in their future in regards to promotions? Right? Am I focusing on how can I get all these future soldiers promoted? Am I teaching them how to get promoted? Am I asking them for referrals at every single event that they come to on a weekly basis? How involved am I making them be? With the Army, right? I used to see people get extra caught up in like making them call 'em Sergeant and, and making them, uh, treat 'em like soldiers.
255
00:21:49,900 --> 00:21:51,100
And I get that and that's okay.
256
00:21:51,130 --> 00:21:53,435
Right? That's part of the Future Soldier program is getting 'em ready, but.
257
00:21:54,520 --> 00:22:06,460
More so how often are they attending the events that they're supposed to be attending? And do we do anything else with them? Do we do any future soldier events with them other than just the station? You know, physical training.
258
00:22:06,460 --> 00:22:14,680
I mean, what are we doing in our program outside of the normal? Just, Hey, are you good? Are you still ready to ship? And then hang up the phone, like start looking at that.
259
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:21,400
And commanders need to start looking at that and understand that like future soldier programs are so important, not just because we need them to ship.
260
00:22:21,805 --> 00:22:35,725
And we need them to go to training, but they just can provide so more, so many more opportunities for referrals and more enlistments if we just manage the program right, and we incentivize future soldiers.
261
00:22:36,430 --> 00:22:40,570
As much as we incentivize our recruiters, right? It not just, and now these things matter.
262
00:22:40,570 --> 00:22:42,610
They want to be part of the community.
263
00:22:42,790 --> 00:22:45,190
They want to feel like, hey, this is a good decision that I make.
264
00:22:45,190 --> 00:22:53,050
So are you making them warm and fuzzy about their decision, the entire process? Or like I said, are we just forgetting about 'em? So just start thinking about that.
265
00:22:53,050 --> 00:22:58,030
Like, am I checking their height and weights I like I'm supposed to while they're here? Or if I'm just like, nah, that kid's good.
266
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:06,460
So do you have a strict policy? Do you have standards in place? That are non-negotiable on a weekly, monthly basis.
267
00:23:06,460 --> 00:23:14,260
And then are we executing it properly, just like anything else that we do in the military? And if we're not, we need to do some assessments and then we need to rethink what we're doing.
268
00:23:14,260 --> 00:23:32,470
So, I mean, other than that, I think we've hit pretty much the majority of things to start looking for some of the steps that you can take, you know, to start trying to ensure that your summer is better than others because your kids are gonna ship, but then also, how can we start capitalizing on some of these opportunities with future soldiers is just as important.
269
00:23:32,470 --> 00:23:34,450
I think so, yeah.
270
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:34,900
Yeah.
271
00:23:34,930 --> 00:23:39,460
The attendance and the, the engagement piece, absolutely critical.
272
00:23:39,550 --> 00:23:44,920
Right? Keeping them motivated to ship out, fill out, they're part of the team.
273
00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:47,010
I was just on my notes here.
274
00:23:47,670 --> 00:23:52,980
Look at some of the things that I have seen successfully executed by commanders and recruiters.
275
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:55,200
Many in, in years past.
276
00:23:55,830 --> 00:24:04,620
And, um, while these are good anytime of year, what I'm about to talk about is these things are really good for engagement between March and the summer.
277
00:24:05,340 --> 00:24:06,690
Uh, and there's a few ways to do that.
278
00:24:06,690 --> 00:24:20,710
So number one is that if you are close to a basic training, installation, again, regardless of service, it's really powerful to take those future service members to a graduation ceremony.
279
00:24:20,785 --> 00:24:26,575
Yeah, so they can see, wow, this is what it's gonna look like at the end of basic training.
280
00:24:27,085 --> 00:24:41,725
Because there's always a lot of hesitation and, and, and fear because you're, a lot of these kids are going into the unknown, you know, they don't know how many parents it served, but if they can see a graduation ceremony and know, wow, that's what it's gonna look like, I think that's very powerful.
281
00:24:43,105 --> 00:24:45,765
Second one is training events of any kind.
282
00:24:45,765 --> 00:24:48,135
So I, you know, this is not uncommon.
283
00:24:48,135 --> 00:24:49,455
I did this as a company commander.
284
00:24:49,860 --> 00:24:52,740
But we would bring the, you know, a bunch of kids together.
285
00:24:53,250 --> 00:24:57,180
We, you know, have some food for 'em, but we would do just different athletic events.
286
00:24:57,300 --> 00:25:05,290
Uh, maybe we might have a, a military more oriented like pull-ups or you know, carrying people on a, on a litter.
287
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,410
But typically it was just like some athletic events.
288
00:25:08,530 --> 00:25:13,000
We might recognize somebody that, uh, you know, referred a lot of people to join the army.
289
00:25:13,030 --> 00:25:13,900
All those sorts of things.
290
00:25:13,900 --> 00:25:16,540
It was almost like a, an involvement.
291
00:25:17,815 --> 00:25:20,470
And the third one, that probably my, my favorite.
292
00:25:20,830 --> 00:25:28,410
It takes a lot of legwork for commanders, but it is a a very more formalized recognition program.
293
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:33,180
And I saw this a long time ago and it, it was just was fantastic.
294
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,350
Having a formal event where the recruiters show up in their blues.
295
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:45,450
Obviously the commander's there, it's almost like a, a mini, you know, formal or dining out where you have the future soldiers come.
296
00:25:46,050 --> 00:25:48,480
Maybe they can bring a girlfriend or a parent or two.
297
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:48,870
Mm-hmm.
298
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:53,790
But it really celebrates their commitment to enlist and ship out.
299
00:25:54,270 --> 00:26:05,100
Uh, and then if you can, like, if you get some that earned a promotion before basic training, getting them on stage in front of their girlfriend or boyfriend in front of the parents, and recognizing them.
300
00:26:05,100 --> 00:26:12,030
And the reason I say this, what I, what I begin to notice is that when they are recognized.
301
00:26:12,990 --> 00:26:17,940
And from the people they care about family and friends, they're far less likely to quit.
302
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:20,370
'cause now they, they get some skin of the game.
303
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:20,940
Yeah.
304
00:26:20,940 --> 00:26:27,840
They've shown that, Hey, I'm, I'm part of this and now if I could quit, I gotta go tell my girlfriend, Hey, I, I'm not, I can't do it.
305
00:26:27,930 --> 00:26:28,470
I'm weak.
306
00:26:28,830 --> 00:26:30,450
So that's just my 2 cents.
307
00:26:30,450 --> 00:26:34,980
Those are some the things that I would suggest that company commanders think about.
308
00:26:34,980 --> 00:26:42,405
So first of all, what do you, what do you think about those, and then are there any other kind of things that they could do to increase that engagement and that recognition? Nope.
309
00:26:42,405 --> 00:26:43,875
I I think you hit that spot on.
310
00:26:43,875 --> 00:26:55,845
I'm gonna tell you as I was laughing to myself when you said the whole like, 'cause again, we think that it's so, like, it's such a big deal to like take these soldiers or future soldiers onto these installations and things like that and it's really not.
311
00:26:56,205 --> 00:27:04,695
And uh, I remember my age, right? I joined the Army initially in 1999 and I remember my recruiter taking me to Fort Lee.
312
00:27:05,205 --> 00:27:07,395
So he had, he had something going on in four League.
313
00:27:07,395 --> 00:27:09,075
He took four future soldiers with them.
314
00:27:09,345 --> 00:27:20,085
I couldn't tell you their names, but we all went and then we, next thing you know, we went to the PX and he showed us the px, and then we walked around the PX and he showed us all this stuff, right? And in 1999, right, we're all broke.
315
00:27:20,085 --> 00:27:22,245
Trying to just get out of our current situations.
316
00:27:22,530 --> 00:27:27,360
And this guy's just buying this thing and buying that thing, right? And he is like, Hey, I'm gonna take you all to the gym.
317
00:27:27,540 --> 00:27:30,810
We went and played basketball at the gym and then he came back and picked us up an hour later.
318
00:27:30,810 --> 00:27:33,510
I don't know what he did in that hour, but he probably put somebody else in the army.
319
00:27:33,510 --> 00:27:40,500
But you know, I just remember like being able to be somewhere as a 19-year-old kid and just see people in uniform.
320
00:27:40,500 --> 00:27:43,890
You know, you see the TVs when you're young and so do these future soldiers.
321
00:27:43,890 --> 00:27:47,790
They only see what's on TV and they might know their recruiters in the area, and that's it.
322
00:27:48,025 --> 00:27:54,370
You take 'em on an installation and get 'em a little excited about the life, show 'em what the barracks look like, show 'em what they're, where they're gonna live.
323
00:27:54,370 --> 00:28:00,010
When you start doing that kind of stuff like we did in 1999, it still will resonate today with these kids.
324
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:00,970
You just have to do it.
325
00:28:01,330 --> 00:28:06,640
And uh, and, and it's all about the energy, right? It goes back to where these recruiters are putting their energy and, and so.
326
00:28:07,050 --> 00:28:08,850
For the commanders out there, you know, figure it out.
327
00:28:08,910 --> 00:28:13,950
You know, there's ways to get this kind of stuff done without impacting the mission, you know? Crazy.
328
00:28:14,010 --> 00:28:14,490
Right.
329
00:28:14,610 --> 00:28:17,640
And that's just about time management and how they, I won't tell 'em how to do that.
330
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,730
That's up to them, but it's, uh, it's impactful.
331
00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:24,360
And right now we're talking about future soldiers, and these are things that you just brought up.
332
00:28:24,360 --> 00:28:26,520
That 100% could help.
333
00:28:27,030 --> 00:28:28,440
Prevent future soldier losses.
334
00:28:28,470 --> 00:28:30,960
It's just how you determine, you know, decide to execute 'em.
335
00:28:30,990 --> 00:28:34,920
And so I won't go down the rabbit holes about future soldier events and stuff like that.
336
00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:39,840
But yeah, all these things matter and uh, and it's just giving a damn, it's just being a leader.
337
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:43,950
And even though they're not one in the uniform yet, it's just caring about them and caring about their future.
338
00:28:43,980 --> 00:28:45,000
'cause that's what we're here to do.
339
00:28:45,450 --> 00:28:45,720
Okay.
340
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:47,310
Go put some, invest in them a little bit.
341
00:28:47,310 --> 00:28:53,975
So again, just seems really hard to put people in the army nowadays, and I don't know why you would do it just to let 'em debt lost nowadays it's, it's.
342
00:28:54,885 --> 00:28:55,635
It's crazy.
343
00:28:56,295 --> 00:28:57,345
I agree with you a hundred percent.
344
00:28:57,345 --> 00:29:06,735
And you know, and you make a great point, sunny, is that it, it doesn't have to be extravagant, right? It could be as easy as is just taking 'em on the installation.
345
00:29:06,735 --> 00:29:16,365
Or if you're not near an installation, work with the local reserve unit and maybe show 'em some vehicles, you know, expose them to a little bit about the military.
346
00:29:16,755 --> 00:29:18,705
Uh, it can go really far.
347
00:29:19,185 --> 00:29:19,305
Yeah.
348
00:29:19,405 --> 00:29:20,275
But it's gotta be done.
349
00:29:21,385 --> 00:29:21,685
I agree.
350
00:29:21,925 --> 00:29:23,515
The thing about the commanders too is.
351
00:29:24,820 --> 00:29:26,980
You previously said the company commanders own the program.
352
00:29:26,980 --> 00:29:27,490
They do.
353
00:29:27,700 --> 00:29:33,670
Right? I, I, I would even argue that commanders at every echelon have to own 'em and part of that program.
354
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:33,970
Mm-hmm.
355
00:29:34,220 --> 00:29:35,870
But it involves everybody.
356
00:29:36,260 --> 00:29:39,350
The recruiter, station commander, first Sergeant we're all taking part in this.
357
00:29:39,980 --> 00:29:45,530
But what I found as a commander to track it properly, I'd had to have a system.
358
00:29:45,530 --> 00:29:52,700
And when you mentioned systems, you know that, that resonated with me because until I developed a formal system.
359
00:29:53,240 --> 00:30:00,740
To track all of these future soldiers and to review that with my subordinate commanders and leaders.
360
00:30:01,250 --> 00:30:02,480
I, I wasn't that effective.
361
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:10,040
Right? And what really helped me is, I guess I was in battalion command and we were taking some losses.
362
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:15,020
So finally we instituted a weekly meeting for future soldier tracking.
363
00:30:16,025 --> 00:30:20,585
Uh, every Friday at the same time, you know, we we're never gonna miss it.
364
00:30:21,155 --> 00:30:24,275
And we walked the dog on every shipper that we had.
365
00:30:24,275 --> 00:30:24,365
Mm-hmm.
366
00:30:25,595 --> 00:30:26,885
Going out six months now.
367
00:30:26,885 --> 00:30:28,535
We didn't cover our guys out six months.
368
00:30:28,535 --> 00:30:31,835
We focused on the next three months, that 90 day period.
369
00:30:32,810 --> 00:30:46,590
And we looked at, you know, everything from, you know, graduation verification, physical status any parental concerns you know, if there were any comments in the future soldier contact history that, you know, we needed to be aware of all that sort of stuff.
370
00:30:46,590 --> 00:30:50,700
And then of course, the red, Amber Green status to see where they were.
371
00:30:51,540 --> 00:30:55,860
And what I would do is, yeah, you know, I had the sergeant major was in the room with me.
372
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,530
We had our ops folks in there, but.
373
00:30:58,890 --> 00:31:03,030
I made the company commander brief us on each of those people.
374
00:31:03,030 --> 00:31:03,780
Mm-hmm.
375
00:31:04,650 --> 00:31:12,300
And tell us, Hey, what's going on with this Now we already had the information 'cause my ops guys already pulled it all and we knew, hey, who were questionable people.
376
00:31:12,630 --> 00:31:13,860
But it was very powerful.
377
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:25,080
Week after week after week after week of doing this, we all began to know, even if we had never laid eyes on them, who these kids were, when they were shipping, and any issues they might be having.
378
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:27,260
And then of course, like you said, we can plan for it.
379
00:31:27,260 --> 00:31:30,200
Okay, we know this guy's red, now he's gonna be a loss.
380
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:47,300
So when do we take that loss? Or is there something we can do to help this kid to mitigate the circumstances so they can still ship out his scheduled? But I say all that to say is that if you don't have his system in place to track that, and you don't have the subordinate leaders and commanders actively involved.
381
00:31:48,365 --> 00:31:50,405
You're gonna take some losses that you don't expect.
382
00:31:50,645 --> 00:32:01,265
So what, so what are your thoughts on that? And, and then in addition to the commanders, you know, how were you involved as a, as a senior non-commissioned officer in this process? So, I, so two things.
383
00:32:01,625 --> 00:32:08,955
We'll go back to the, the what did I call it? So one right, tactful confrontation.
384
00:32:08,955 --> 00:32:12,915
We talked about this is a place where a non-commissioned officer needs to have a little tactful confrontation, and here's why.
385
00:32:12,915 --> 00:32:13,545
I'll tell you why.
386
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:14,880
What you just mentioned.
387
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:15,660
We already know, sir.
388
00:32:15,660 --> 00:32:26,580
There, there's, there's systems in place, especially within Army recruiting, right? I'm assume all branches do, and I know some do, they're all a little different, uh, and have nuances, right? But ours is bulletproof, in my opinion.
389
00:32:26,580 --> 00:32:27,990
If you use it correctly.
390
00:32:28,380 --> 00:32:30,570
And I'll tell you, this is where leaders listen.
391
00:32:31,020 --> 00:32:32,190
Listening to this right now will fail.
392
00:32:32,970 --> 00:32:41,340
There's a great, there's a good percentage of leaders out there, which you just said, oh shucks, my brigade commander wants to have a call and he wants to know about future soldiers.
393
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:48,565
So, hey, first Sergeant, right? We're talking about coming, pull this roster, send it out to the stations.
394
00:32:49,770 --> 00:32:52,740
Let the stations update the the roster on the spreadsheet.
395
00:32:52,830 --> 00:33:10,135
Send me the spreadsheet back, and that's what I'm gonna brief my commander, right? Versus a company commander who's been taught the exact same system, right? An XO who's been taught the exact same system, pulling the roster themselves, and then going through and seeing their own updates on these kids because they've already talked to 'em.
396
00:33:10,395 --> 00:33:14,935
So what I found that I worked in two different brigades as ops and before I was even a C sm.
397
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:24,240
And what I would find is when we would get these rosters pulled down and we would have to get in, sit on the briefs, we'd be like, these commanders have no idea who these kids are.
398
00:33:24,630 --> 00:33:28,200
All they know is what Sergeant Welch told them.
399
00:33:28,205 --> 00:33:28,545
That's right.
400
00:33:28,725 --> 00:33:30,660
And that's the problem for those listening.
401
00:33:30,660 --> 00:33:31,620
That's the problem.
402
00:33:31,830 --> 00:33:35,520
How engaged are you in that? And back to the ca, the tactful confrontation.
403
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:35,880
Right.
404
00:33:36,300 --> 00:33:43,290
For the stations that are receiving this spreadsheet, it's okay if your recruiters are doing the right things and putting their comments in.
405
00:33:43,965 --> 00:33:52,035
To go back to that leader and say, sir, ma'am, I would recommend that you contact these individuals because that's your job.
406
00:33:52,365 --> 00:33:58,005
Uh, you are supposed to contact them just as much as we are and, uh, and get your, get your own update.
407
00:33:58,335 --> 00:34:00,975
Now again, how that gets delivered is, is here or there.
408
00:34:01,155 --> 00:34:04,245
It's just a matter of saying, Hey, look, if you know you have a leader.
409
00:34:05,010 --> 00:34:09,240
That they're not doing their job and they're not taking responsibility for their future soldier program.
410
00:34:09,390 --> 00:34:12,360
You already have enough stuff to do and enough stuff on your plate.
411
00:34:12,690 --> 00:34:16,545
You don't need to be doing their updates for them so they can go take a call from their boss.
412
00:34:17,445 --> 00:34:20,025
So I've seen it a million times.
413
00:34:20,445 --> 00:34:31,815
I remember getting on our, on our battalion calls, and I would know which company commanders spoke to their future soldiers and which ones just got updates from the recruiter who already had updates in the system.
414
00:34:32,055 --> 00:34:38,565
So that's, that could be fixed immediately at any echelon, at any branch of service.
415
00:34:38,700 --> 00:34:45,525
If you can fix that problem, then you'll, you're gonna force the engagement that's necessary by leaders to future soldiers to ensure.
416
00:34:45,765 --> 00:34:47,310
They have a better chance of shipping.
417
00:34:47,310 --> 00:34:51,270
Doesn't mean a hundred percent are gonna ship, but when you said that, it triggered me a little bit.
418
00:34:51,270 --> 00:35:02,220
'cause I was like, yeah, at in all my years of recruiting, I remember even getting that list from a commander as a sergeant and saying, Hey, I need you to update your future soldiers and give 'em to the commander.
419
00:35:02,220 --> 00:35:05,670
And that was 2000 8, 9, 10, like come on.
420
00:35:05,970 --> 00:35:07,140
And it's still the same today.
421
00:35:07,140 --> 00:35:09,180
So yeah, I got a little triggered by that one.
422
00:35:09,180 --> 00:35:09,960
But yeah, you're right.
423
00:35:10,350 --> 00:35:12,240
Put the system's already there, just use it.
424
00:35:12,390 --> 00:35:15,480
And I was hell bent on teaching everybody how to use it at all levels.
425
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:21,840
No matter your rank, greater position, everybody needs to know how to use the system effectively to help keep you in check.
426
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:26,790
And, uh, some, some, some agree, some disagree, and, uh, to each their own.
427
00:35:27,180 --> 00:35:30,025
But, uh, yeah, I found a lot easier to use the system.
428
00:35:30,750 --> 00:35:31,470
I agree with you.
429
00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:37,225
You know what, it's, and you might recall this, uh, as a brigade commander, whenever we took a, a loss.
430
00:35:38,525 --> 00:35:49,055
You know, some of 'em, I, I didn't make the call if it was like a, a legitimate reason, but more often than not for a questionable future soldier loss, uh, I'm calling the future soldier and I'm calling the company commander.
431
00:35:49,715 --> 00:35:55,835
And I could, like you said, I could always tell, and the company commanders, well, I've sent me a form that says, here's the reason we took this loss.
432
00:35:55,835 --> 00:35:56,675
Here's what they said.
433
00:35:57,005 --> 00:35:57,245
Yeah.
434
00:35:58,235 --> 00:35:59,495
And then I'll call the future soldier.
435
00:35:59,495 --> 00:36:00,125
That's not shipping.
436
00:36:00,125 --> 00:36:02,050
I say, Hey, did you talk to Captain Smith? No.
437
00:36:02,690 --> 00:36:03,980
No, I, I didn't talk to Captain Smith.
438
00:36:05,210 --> 00:36:06,470
I talked to Sergeant Smith.
439
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:07,010
That's right.
440
00:36:07,100 --> 00:36:13,850
It just, you know, so, you know, but, but my notes here that you were talking about, obviously the personal involvement of the leaders Yeah.
441
00:36:13,850 --> 00:36:15,440
Is what makes that system work.
442
00:36:15,740 --> 00:36:15,890
Yeah.
443
00:36:15,990 --> 00:36:17,550
But it's gonna prevent surprises.
444
00:36:18,180 --> 00:36:20,040
It's gonna allow you to make some mitigation plans.
445
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:27,240
Uh, but it's all about accountability for everybody involved, especially the leaders who are responsible for this.
446
00:36:27,750 --> 00:36:29,790
So it's very powerful if it's done right.
447
00:36:30,825 --> 00:36:37,065
But I think, uh, you know, those, those are all like the nuts and bolts and the things that I've seen to be most effective.
448
00:36:37,425 --> 00:36:49,275
And I'll, and I'll, I'll end with this part is, you know, I'd always heard, you know, throughout my army career in recruiting, Hey, as long as you got a, a loss rate of 10% or less, you're good.
449
00:36:49,755 --> 00:36:55,785
Uh, and then I had the commander say, well, you know, 5%, that's really no more than a 5% loss rate.
450
00:36:56,115 --> 00:36:57,765
And then I began to realize, if you take these.
451
00:36:58,245 --> 00:37:02,205
All these efforts, you can get that loss rate to two or 3%.
452
00:37:02,475 --> 00:37:04,245
You're gonna take some losses, right? Yeah.
453
00:37:04,695 --> 00:37:06,435
Car accidents, pregnancies, all that sort of stuff.
454
00:37:06,435 --> 00:37:08,715
Some stuff you just can't, you can't worry about.
455
00:37:09,525 --> 00:37:18,705
But if you do everything we're talking about today, you can get that loss rate down so low and then you multiply that with your, uh, additional prospecting efforts.
456
00:37:18,705 --> 00:37:22,185
You're gonna make your mission because you're not gonna lose as many people.
457
00:37:22,575 --> 00:37:22,995
Mm-hmm.
458
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:25,440
So I just leave that for all the commanders out there.
459
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:27,570
Get that loss rate down to two or 3%.
460
00:37:27,570 --> 00:37:28,710
It is achievable.
461
00:37:28,770 --> 00:37:29,580
You can do that.
462
00:37:30,300 --> 00:37:50,730
But Sergeant Major, if you had, if you had one message for recruiters, uh, and leaders out there about the importance of March and how powerful it is for the summer, what, what would that message be? Um, I, I think just take everything that we just said, roll it up and then put in perspective your current situation, your current future soldier pool.
463
00:37:51,150 --> 00:37:57,330
Take away from what we said, what you can that may help you like, oh, I didn't think about that, but at the end of the day, just know they're coming.
464
00:37:57,570 --> 00:37:59,100
Let's, I'll just leave you with that.
465
00:37:59,310 --> 00:38:16,410
Future soldier losses are coming and some of them are preventable, and that's what matters is that there are some that are preventable and you need to identify right now within your pool in March, no matter what grade level they are, no matter you know exactly what ship dates coming up in the next 30, 60, 90 days.
466
00:38:16,725 --> 00:38:23,685
You know, 120 days, but find out which ones can be prevented and which ones are gonna be un unpreventable and start figuring it out right now.
467
00:38:23,685 --> 00:38:30,885
Because if you just wait, then you're gonna get slapped in the face at the end of the, uh, year, and nobody wants to see that.
468
00:38:30,885 --> 00:38:35,835
So, you know, just take, take ownership of your program starting at recruiter level with their pool.
469
00:38:36,345 --> 00:38:40,035
Then station, then company and above and say, Hey, let's look at our pool.
470
00:38:40,215 --> 00:38:43,005
Let's take some time to invest in our future soldiers real quick.
471
00:38:43,395 --> 00:38:52,065
And uh, and let's just prevent the ones we can prevent and know that some are gonna be un unpreventable and it's gonna be what it is, but, and keep 'em outside of 30 days if that's still a thing.
472
00:38:52,065 --> 00:38:52,695
I think it is.
473
00:38:52,695 --> 00:38:54,305
But, keep 'em outside of that 30 days.
474
00:38:54,305 --> 00:38:55,175
If you got some.
475
00:38:55,385 --> 00:39:00,395
Don't wait because you know, you think you're gonna make mission with that one future soldier that's gonna lose.
476
00:39:00,785 --> 00:39:01,385
Don't wait.
477
00:39:01,565 --> 00:39:03,635
Just get rid of 'em, replace 'em and keep it moving.
478
00:39:04,025 --> 00:39:05,405
And I stopped doing all this dang work.
479
00:39:05,405 --> 00:39:09,495
It's hard to put people in the army nowadays, just to take future soldier losses 'cause we don't pay attention.
480
00:39:09,495 --> 00:39:10,725
So I'll leave with that.
481
00:39:11,235 --> 00:39:13,335
No, that's a, that's a great message.
482
00:39:13,515 --> 00:39:19,515
And just to recap some of the things we talked about verifying the graduation status in March.
483
00:39:20,505 --> 00:39:27,855
Commanders personally interviewing every shipper, regardless of whether they're high school or not, everyone needs to be interviewed.
484
00:39:28,285 --> 00:39:29,935
And again, you mentioned over-communicating.
485
00:39:30,025 --> 00:39:31,555
That's, that's the important lesson there.
486
00:39:32,380 --> 00:39:40,810
We identify and report any issues that we see as early as possible, allowing us to make those decisions or to mitigate them as best we can.
487
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:48,430
Publicly recognizing future soldiers, making sure they're engaged, getting them involved with events to keep them motivated.
488
00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:57,275
And then lastly, commanders having a system in place all year long, but particularly between now and the summer.
489
00:39:57,905 --> 00:40:04,505
To identify those issues and monitor red, amber, green status of all the shippers that are coming up.
490
00:40:04,505 --> 00:40:11,615
I think if you do all those things that we talked about, now you're in a, an anticipation mode instead of a reaction mode.
491
00:40:11,945 --> 00:40:20,495
And that's the challenge I see for a lot of people that're so busy with other things, they don't do this and then now they're reacting to it in the summer.
492
00:40:20,885 --> 00:40:20,945
Yeah.
493
00:40:20,975 --> 00:40:24,845
So I think they can get ahead of it, but this is a great conversation, Sergeant Major.
494
00:40:25,500 --> 00:40:28,840
Anything else before we close out? No.
495
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:30,220
Last thing I'll say, I'll plug it.
496
00:40:30,220 --> 00:40:32,530
I won't put the name out there yet because, we're, we're almost there.
497
00:40:32,530 --> 00:40:42,700
But I'll tell you if you're listening to this and you're interested in the new, wave of how soldiers are gonna start transitioning out of the military properly in regards to being, underemployed or unemployed.
498
00:40:43,030 --> 00:40:44,650
DME look me up on LinkedIn.
499
00:40:44,650 --> 00:40:45,670
We got some things coming.
500
00:40:45,670 --> 00:40:47,440
If you're interested in learning more about it, let me know.
501
00:40:47,930 --> 00:40:52,300
Because we got some big things coming up soon, and I'll share maybe next time we, get on a podcast, but, nope.
502
00:40:52,330 --> 00:40:53,020
I'm good sir.
503
00:40:53,020 --> 00:40:54,340
I appreciate you inviting me to come.
504
00:40:54,340 --> 00:40:56,350
Just have conversations with you every now and then.
505
00:40:56,350 --> 00:40:58,750
Hopefully it's, useful again for everybody out there.
506
00:40:58,750 --> 00:41:01,480
Look, we're just two old dogs that done it for a while.
507
00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:04,260
We know a little bit about something he's paying for it.
508
00:41:04,260 --> 00:41:07,890
I'm not getting paid, but he's paying for all this software just to give y'all some free chicken.
509
00:41:08,100 --> 00:41:10,390
So I would, take, as many lessons as you can from this.
510
00:41:10,990 --> 00:41:14,710
And from, somebody like Colonel Welch retired who's done it right the whole time.
511
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:16,550
So, again, sir, appreciate the invite.
512
00:41:16,550 --> 00:41:22,610
I don't mind coming on anytime so hopefully it, benefits somebody out there if it benefits one person, I guess is a win, right? That's right.
513
00:41:22,610 --> 00:41:23,360
It's a big win.
514
00:41:23,450 --> 00:41:24,500
But thank you, Sergeant Major.
515
00:41:24,500 --> 00:41:32,420
And, as you mentioned earlier on in the episode, recruiting Solutions is available for all consulting and training for units and organizations.
516
00:41:32,420 --> 00:41:33,570
But our new program.
517
00:41:34,695 --> 00:41:39,615
For commanders and leaders in recruiting is the recruiting executive membership program.
518
00:41:39,915 --> 00:41:49,215
And that's some one-on-one time with me and my team, to talk about some of the challenges that you're having offer advice on how, maybe how to get past some of those challenges.
519
00:41:49,455 --> 00:41:51,225
And this not to circumvent the chain of command.
520
00:41:51,225 --> 00:41:52,755
Certainly would never wanna do that.
521
00:41:53,130 --> 00:42:03,930
But it's just an outside perspective that's confidential and an opportunity to, share what's going on and maybe get some feedback so please, if you're interested in that, you can DM me on LinkedIn for more information.
522
00:42:03,930 --> 00:42:11,220
And then for more information about our training and consulting programs, you can visit recruiting solutions llc.com.
523
00:42:11,700 --> 00:42:14,400
That's recruiting solutions llc.com.
524
00:42:14,985 --> 00:42:15,885
Again, thanks again.
525
00:42:15,885 --> 00:42:16,845
Sorry Major for being here.
526
00:42:16,845 --> 00:42:26,715
I appreciate you and I appreciate your friendship, and for everyone out there, wish you the best of luck, and here's to less stress and more success on the recruiting battlefield
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,580
Hello and welcome to the Recruiting Solutions Podcast.
2
00:00:03,030 --> 00:00:06,600
I'm your host, James Welch, the founder and CEO of recruiting solutions.
3
00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:12,000
And with me is my friend and colleague, command Sergeant, major retired Steven Sibley, Sergeant Major.
4
00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:13,920
How are you today? Okay.
5
00:00:13,920 --> 00:00:15,090
I am doing outstanding, sir.
6
00:00:15,090 --> 00:00:17,310
How are you? I'm fantastic, man.
7
00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:18,590
I'm loving the retired life.
8
00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:24,320
I'll tell you every time we do these, I just think about how blessed we are to be what we are and just to be able to.
9
00:00:24,695 --> 00:00:26,405
Just jump on here and have a conversation.
10
00:00:26,405 --> 00:00:27,845
I mean, it's great.
11
00:00:28,710 --> 00:00:29,880
I'm so grateful for it.
12
00:00:29,880 --> 00:00:33,400
I was thinking earlier today you were the hardest working man I knew in the Army.
13
00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,630
And, even though you're retired, you're still the hardest working man I know now in retirement.
14
00:00:36,660 --> 00:00:39,580
So how's all your ventures going? I'll take that.
15
00:00:39,610 --> 00:00:44,710
Sir, I, I know you've probably met way more hard work than people, than me, but it's actually, it's a different hard work though.
16
00:00:44,710 --> 00:00:49,930
You know, the army, hard work in the army doesn't correlate to hard work in the, civilian sector, in my opinion.
17
00:00:50,140 --> 00:00:51,310
And I don't know why that is.
18
00:00:51,310 --> 00:00:55,570
And I don't know if it's just because our duty is to get up and do what we did every day, but now we kind of have a choice.
19
00:00:55,930 --> 00:00:59,910
So we just choose the hard work But yeah, I find myself just trying to stay as busy as possible.
20
00:01:00,010 --> 00:01:00,820
Business is good.
21
00:01:00,820 --> 00:01:06,090
You know, I got some things going on right now with consulting that are, starting to pick up a little bit and I'm excited about that.
22
00:01:06,090 --> 00:01:08,850
I won't, talk a lot about it, but things are moving forward.
23
00:01:08,850 --> 00:01:15,940
So I think, as we talk about being busy, I think some of the crazy busy will stop and I'll just have one direction to move in for at least the near future.
24
00:01:15,940 --> 00:01:16,990
So I'm excited about that.
25
00:01:16,990 --> 00:01:17,260
But.
26
00:01:17,615 --> 00:01:20,935
Other than that, I appreciate the compliment, but, you're the hardest working person I know.
27
00:01:21,115 --> 00:01:24,685
So what the heck are you doing? How's the, how's the business over there? It's great, man.
28
00:01:24,835 --> 00:01:28,485
You know, working on getting this second book finished.
29
00:01:28,975 --> 00:01:32,245
You know, it's a lot about recruiting experiences, but really focused on leadership.
30
00:01:32,885 --> 00:01:35,555
I then started a, a new program for recruiting solutions.
31
00:01:35,945 --> 00:01:39,125
I think you saw it's the recruiting, executive mentorship program.
32
00:01:39,515 --> 00:01:39,755
Oh, yeah.
33
00:01:39,755 --> 00:01:41,525
And that's for recruiting leaders across.
34
00:01:42,020 --> 00:01:43,040
The armed forces.
35
00:01:43,070 --> 00:01:44,630
So just got that off the ground today.
36
00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:45,680
So things going well.
37
00:01:46,370 --> 00:01:46,640
Cool.
38
00:01:46,850 --> 00:01:47,630
Well, I'm rooting for you.
39
00:01:47,630 --> 00:01:53,740
I hope, I hope that picks up and if anybody's listening to this, when we all think we know everything, I can tell you this, take advantage of that mentorship program.
40
00:01:53,740 --> 00:01:55,270
I took a look at what you were doing and I was like.
41
00:01:55,690 --> 00:01:57,010
That could help a lot of people out there.
42
00:01:57,010 --> 00:02:04,150
I mean, I know these podcasts get launched and I'd probably be on the other side of that too, like, ah, I don't have time to listen to a podcast, or, you know, whatever the case may be.
43
00:02:04,150 --> 00:02:06,190
But I'll tell you that there's some nuggets in here.
44
00:02:06,190 --> 00:02:07,900
So I hope people are starting to pick these things up.
45
00:02:07,900 --> 00:02:12,670
I listen to the ones you do when you go solo and there's nuggets being thrown around everywhere.
46
00:02:12,670 --> 00:02:16,510
That's, I call it free chicken, that I can tell you people should take advantage of.
47
00:02:16,510 --> 00:02:18,980
So I hope that, there's some leaders out there in positions that, you know.
48
00:02:19,530 --> 00:02:24,050
Just have questions, don't know who to ask and can take advantage of, the knowledge that you bring to the table, sir.
49
00:02:24,050 --> 00:02:27,480
So, good luck with that and I, and I hope that people actually, indulge.
50
00:02:28,050 --> 00:02:29,100
Yeah, no, I appreciate it.
51
00:02:29,100 --> 00:02:40,500
And that's obviously the reason, I do it, is to help people out, try to share a little bit of the hard lessons I learned and while we're doing this podcast too, so today we're gonna talk about future soldier losses and what we can do now.
52
00:02:41,115 --> 00:02:44,455
To prevent those, deluge of losses in the summer.
53
00:02:44,975 --> 00:02:56,405
And it took me a long time to understand that if you react in the summer is too late, you've gotta prepare in March so that you don't take losses in the summer.
54
00:02:56,865 --> 00:02:58,515
And I learned that lesson the hard way.
55
00:02:58,515 --> 00:03:01,335
But why, why is that? And just overall, sorry, major.
56
00:03:01,335 --> 00:03:08,055
Why is March so important for recruiters and recruiting leaders? Well we've hit that turn is, is what I'll tell you.
57
00:03:08,055 --> 00:03:18,315
And then what happens is, there's a couple reasons, right? A lot of kids that join the army and, you know, you and I are given our knowledge from things that we saw when we were in, right? So I wanna caveat by saying maybe things have changed a little bit.
58
00:03:18,315 --> 00:03:20,175
I'm not out there, I don't wear boots every day.
59
00:03:20,415 --> 00:03:24,855
So, you know, for those listening things have changed a little bit, you know, carry on with that.
60
00:03:25,005 --> 00:03:34,365
But I'll tell you that, in our experience, which is pretty lengthy in, in recruiting, we start with seniors, right? But seniors aren't the only ones that, you know, we need to start keeping an eye on as we come into the summer months.
61
00:03:34,365 --> 00:03:35,715
And I think everybody knows that because.
62
00:03:36,180 --> 00:03:41,870
A lot of these college kids, a lot of these graduates that were like, Hey, I don't wanna leave until summer.
63
00:03:41,870 --> 00:03:46,160
We get that a lot in recruiting that, Hey, I, I can go, but I wanna leave in the summer.
64
00:03:46,250 --> 00:03:48,350
I wanna go when it's warm, whatever the case may be.
65
00:03:48,500 --> 00:03:49,610
But we'll start with seniors.
66
00:03:49,610 --> 00:03:56,390
And one of the most important things for people to think about is like, is my high school senior going to graduate this year? And I know that sounds.
67
00:03:57,005 --> 00:03:58,325
You know, low level.
68
00:03:58,325 --> 00:04:07,985
But I will tell you that I found it in my entire career from the time I became a recruiter to the time I retired as a command sergeant major, that in this business, those things don't change.
69
00:04:08,075 --> 00:04:16,415
And, uh, and if we don't check on these seniors right now, and we don't go get those will grad letters, and every single commander listening to this doesn't order.
70
00:04:16,700 --> 00:04:27,860
His troops to go out right now, no matter what branch you're recruiting in and say, Hey, go into the high school and I want to see the letters right? I wanna know that that high school kid is on track to graduate.
71
00:04:27,860 --> 00:04:31,460
And that is kind of as baseline as it goes with your high school seniors.
72
00:04:32,180 --> 00:04:36,175
But you know, kids that have been in a dip.
73
00:04:38,030 --> 00:04:41,180
Aren't high school seniors, right? They, they may have been doing whatever on their health.
74
00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:52,970
Have we checked on their height and weights? Have we checked on the things that are gonna prevent them from potentially, um, wanting to still ship or being physically able to ship in the summertime? So I, I'll pause there, sir.
75
00:04:52,970 --> 00:04:53,540
Pass it back to you.
76
00:04:53,540 --> 00:04:56,515
But that's, that's what I think about when I think about marches.
77
00:04:56,515 --> 00:04:57,980
Like, Hey, we just hit that curve.
78
00:04:58,070 --> 00:05:03,860
We're out of the winter and I gotta start checking on all my depths, no matter from what range, senior to college to in between.
79
00:05:04,190 --> 00:05:10,250
And, and it's regardless of, you know, the military branch or the component, right? Mm-hmm.
80
00:05:10,820 --> 00:05:12,080
Everyone has to do this.
81
00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:16,520
And what I learned is that, you know, started with seniors that you mentioned.
82
00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:20,480
It's, it's important to trust, but verify everything.
83
00:05:21,110 --> 00:05:27,980
And my first year in recruiting, yeah, I was making sure we were just asking kids, Hey, you on track to graduate? Everything good? Yeah, we're all good.
84
00:05:28,340 --> 00:05:33,590
And then what happens? You roll around to June and all of a sudden you get a handful of kids that didn't graduate.
85
00:05:33,980 --> 00:05:38,720
Another handful that, you know, they're gonna have to have summer school, so that pushes back their ship date.
86
00:05:39,170 --> 00:05:45,230
Uh, and then like you said, others, they had some changes in, in their life, relationships, health issues, whatever.
87
00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:49,590
So if you don't get on top of that in March, you can't take actions.
88
00:05:49,800 --> 00:05:59,160
And, and you made a great point in terms of going to the schools and getting what we call a will grad or a will graduate letter from the guidance counselor.
89
00:06:00,060 --> 00:06:00,720
I think that's.
90
00:06:01,485 --> 00:06:11,745
Number one, hopefully that's not the first time the recruiter or the company commander has gone out to the school and is having this conversation with the guidance counselor.
91
00:06:12,795 --> 00:06:14,655
But you go there and you kinda explain to 'em what you need.
92
00:06:14,655 --> 00:06:26,655
Just a memorandum stating that yes, you know, Jimmy Welch is on track to graduate, or no, we'll graduate with summer school or not gonna graduate at all.
93
00:06:27,085 --> 00:06:28,705
And then once you have that information.
94
00:06:29,800 --> 00:06:39,010
It has to be shared with the chain of command, right? They, they gotta know that, alright, this guy's, he's supposed to ship on the 2nd of June, he's not gonna graduate high school.
95
00:06:39,100 --> 00:06:45,760
So we either take him as loss now, or we plan to win, we're gonna take him as loss or we're, we're not caught off guard at the last minute.
96
00:06:46,840 --> 00:06:51,400
But that's, that's the most important thing I would tell anyone listening is that's the first thing you do.
97
00:06:52,030 --> 00:06:55,570
You list out all of your future service members or debts.
98
00:06:57,370 --> 00:07:02,110
Find those that are high school seniors and then begin to acquire those will graduate letters.
99
00:07:02,110 --> 00:07:09,700
And that's what I always, what I started doing as a battalion and brigade commander, you know, I think you remember this, our major is, you know, I called it March Madness.
100
00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:17,740
You know, that's a, what I need to happen in March is that every single death is accounted for with a will graduate letter.
101
00:07:18,940 --> 00:07:22,270
And then we move on to okay, interviewing every single one of them.
102
00:07:22,690 --> 00:07:26,770
And then we broaden that perspective to all the summer shippers after that.
103
00:07:26,770 --> 00:07:26,980
But.
104
00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:34,660
Like you said, it, it identifies any risk early, allows us to prioritize if they're gonna be a loss, and when do we take it.
105
00:07:35,220 --> 00:07:37,590
And then the bottom line is it prevents those surprises.
106
00:07:38,370 --> 00:07:53,220
Because what I found is, is that if you don't do that, if you take their word for it and you don't check, invariably you're gonna have someone who you're expected to ship on ship Day and they don't have a high school graduation.
107
00:07:53,775 --> 00:07:56,325
Yeah, they felt, you know, it's gonna happen.
108
00:07:56,325 --> 00:07:59,235
So that's the biggest thing I would mention.
109
00:08:00,165 --> 00:08:09,075
And of course, you wait till May or June, you don't give the command team time to respond proactively or to put measures in place.
110
00:08:09,075 --> 00:08:10,665
'cause there's certain, you know, there's things you can do.
111
00:08:10,665 --> 00:08:15,825
You can put you out the ship date to accommodate summer school, uh, if you're not gonna be a loss, et cetera, et cetera.
112
00:08:15,825 --> 00:08:18,975
And likewise with all the other issues that you mentioned as well.
113
00:08:18,975 --> 00:08:19,035
So.
114
00:08:20,025 --> 00:08:26,805
Anything else to add about those will grad letters or any nuggets from, from your time in recruiting? No, I think that's it.
115
00:08:26,805 --> 00:08:29,985
I just think that most, most company commanders just go down to their level.
116
00:08:29,985 --> 00:08:34,755
I mean, battalion and brigade commanders are gonna be hyper-focused on it, but they're not gonna do the legwork.
117
00:08:35,175 --> 00:08:37,665
Company commanders, depending on your footprint.
118
00:08:37,665 --> 00:08:43,155
But for the majority of company commanders, they should have and they should be able to build into their schedule.
119
00:08:43,620 --> 00:08:45,090
The visits with the recruiters needed.
120
00:08:45,090 --> 00:08:54,180
If they want to get super engaged in their future soldier program because it's their program, uh, then they could probably find time to go out there with the recruiters, say, Hey, I wanna go and be on ground with you when you do this.
121
00:08:54,180 --> 00:08:56,855
I mean, we had company commanders when we worked at, at the brigade.
122
00:08:56,875 --> 00:09:03,780
We, we knew the company commanders down, you know, in the Southeast, that were gonna go in and physically do that because they were that passionate about debt losses.
123
00:09:04,110 --> 00:09:08,220
And the last thing I'll add on this is the three types, the three things you're looking for in March for any.
124
00:09:08,640 --> 00:09:16,480
Anybody in your future? Soldier pool is the three major debt loss types, right? Decline enlistments medical, and fail to graduate.
125
00:09:16,690 --> 00:09:22,300
Those three used to be the top three of these are the three that you're gonna take losses in, right? And what you're trying to prevent.
126
00:09:22,300 --> 00:09:31,600
For the majority, the, if we're being honest, everybody's trying to prevent that 30 day debt loss, right? Anybody inside of 30 days is what we're trying to prevent.
127
00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:34,900
So as when you're looking at March and you're looking at the ship dates.
128
00:09:35,695 --> 00:09:36,715
Just do the math.
129
00:09:36,895 --> 00:09:40,465
Who's shipping from March until August within the 30 days.
130
00:09:40,735 --> 00:09:41,035
Alright.
131
00:09:41,035 --> 00:09:42,625
And then go through those three areas.
132
00:09:42,625 --> 00:09:45,505
The who's gonna decline enlistment, they're not mo motivated no more.
133
00:09:45,655 --> 00:09:48,205
And those could also be high school seniors that are gonna graduate.
134
00:09:48,475 --> 00:09:56,335
So are you gonna engage the influencers and then talk to the influencers involved in that senior's life and say, Hey, is this kid ready to go still? So start talking to the influencers.
135
00:09:56,605 --> 00:10:01,505
Even if you do get the will grad letter, right? I would tell you that it's just that important to talk to them.
136
00:10:02,045 --> 00:10:13,085
Grads, college kids, influencers play a part and, but not those of you guys start talking about their medical, are they still motivated personally? And you're gonna do that through your future soldier training program.
137
00:10:13,085 --> 00:10:14,165
And I know we're gonna talk about that.
138
00:10:14,165 --> 00:10:17,000
So I just wanted to add that we're trying to keep those 30 day debt losses.
139
00:10:18,290 --> 00:10:20,030
To a minimum or to zero.
140
00:10:20,150 --> 00:10:22,730
And for company commanders, that's what you should be hyper-focused on.
141
00:10:22,730 --> 00:10:35,340
So look at that and then start figuring out a plan right now between March and the summer, how are you gonna prevent those losses? Yeah, that's, those are great points with the involve, particularly with the involvement of the influencers for those high schoolers.
142
00:10:35,830 --> 00:10:44,380
But moving on to the next piece is, you know, how do we identify some of those other issues that may be out there? And, and that's a personal interview.
143
00:10:44,500 --> 00:10:45,790
You know, in the army we called it.
144
00:10:46,360 --> 00:11:00,370
An FSAI and essentially a list of questions that, you know, make sure they're still on track to graduate, make sure they're still passionate about shipping, and see if there's any big life changes that may have taken place.
145
00:11:01,000 --> 00:11:10,990
And one of the things I learned is that, you know, I, I began to mandate, just like you said, that company commanders get personally involved and conduct these interviews in addition.
146
00:11:11,470 --> 00:11:13,015
To the recruiter having done so.
147
00:11:13,435 --> 00:11:23,995
Uh, and the reason I did that is because if you do that, if you have both the recruiter and the company commander doing it, they may un unveil something that they didn't talk about with the recruiter.
148
00:11:25,015 --> 00:11:32,185
It's just another person that can either get that information out of them, or even just sense with the body language, Hey, there's something afoot here.
149
00:11:32,185 --> 00:11:37,195
This person doesn't seem like they're really being honest and they can draw it out of 'em.
150
00:11:38,455 --> 00:11:40,435
And in my opinion, I think it's gotta be done in person.
151
00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:41,800
For that very reason.
152
00:11:42,280 --> 00:11:49,660
So you can lay eyes on them, read that body language and be better, understand what might be going on with this person.
153
00:11:49,720 --> 00:12:04,360
Well, what are your thoughts on that? So, you know, the question was, you know, how do you try to prevent these things? And I'll tell you that, you know, anybody listening that knows me and knew when I was in recruiting, right? One thing I was really good at and I wasn't good at much.
154
00:12:05,065 --> 00:12:18,055
IPR, right? The IPR, right? That happens daily within your organization, right? Where you are communicating with your people to talk about a million things, right? One section of that IPR that has never changed is the future soldier section.
155
00:12:18,055 --> 00:12:31,525
And I'll tell you that, you know, if you're IPR on daily and commanders are IPR on daily, then they know that they have a duty to check on these future soldiers, and there's a system in place for the most part, I imagine, across all branches.
156
00:12:31,870 --> 00:12:36,310
Where you can talk to yourself through the system about each future soldier and what needs to happen.
157
00:12:36,520 --> 00:12:51,460
So even if recruiters are seeing them in person, company commanders, leaders need to be talking to these individuals either in person if they can't or no matter what, at a minimum on the phone, right? To reinforce the commitment at, if nothing else, not to just check on 'em.
158
00:12:51,460 --> 00:12:54,220
I'm just reinforcing your commitment to to ship and so.
159
00:12:54,925 --> 00:13:12,655
People, some people don't like to over communicate, and I'll tell you that one thing that is detrimental to a future soldier program is lack of communication at all levels, right? No matter what type of debt loss you're gonna take, more than likely you're gonna take more debt losses with the people you didn't communicate with than that you did.
160
00:13:13,015 --> 00:13:16,975
So the key to success here is communication at all levels is communicate.
161
00:13:17,125 --> 00:13:19,135
We let these kids go and we don't talk to them.
162
00:13:19,495 --> 00:13:20,755
Commanders don't talk to them.
163
00:13:21,265 --> 00:13:22,525
Recruiters don't check on 'em.
164
00:13:22,555 --> 00:13:26,005
I mean, if these guys are just, Hey, you enlisted, I'll see you in four months.
165
00:13:26,005 --> 00:13:28,825
When it's time for you to ship, or at the end of the school year that kid's.
166
00:13:29,635 --> 00:13:30,895
I ca, I don't know the percentages.
167
00:13:30,895 --> 00:13:33,745
I'd be lying, but more than likely that person's not gonna ship.
168
00:13:33,835 --> 00:13:37,375
There's gonna be a small percent that are so motivated, they don't need you.
169
00:13:37,375 --> 00:13:38,425
They're gonna ship anyway.
170
00:13:38,575 --> 00:13:41,395
But even them, you still have to stay in contact with constantly.
171
00:13:41,395 --> 00:13:48,505
So over-communicating doesn't exist in the Future Soldier Program, and it needs to happen weekly, daily, monthly.
172
00:13:49,850 --> 00:13:54,715
And how each team in the, in any branch decides to do that is up to you.
173
00:13:55,420 --> 00:13:58,690
But if you're not doing it, you're gonna just prepare yourself for a long summer.
174
00:13:58,690 --> 00:14:07,450
Because I will say that it's way harder to put people in the army now than when we were in, especially when I was an actual, like on the boots, on ground recruiter.
175
00:14:07,780 --> 00:14:09,310
It's way harder now than it was then.
176
00:14:09,310 --> 00:14:18,130
Why would you invest all that time and work and to putting somebody in the army to stop communicating with them? Stop checking on them, stop caring about them, and then let them just debt lost.
177
00:14:18,535 --> 00:14:19,555
You're back to square one.
178
00:14:19,555 --> 00:14:29,875
So it always blew my mind why we don't put as much emphasis, we put emphasis on it, but we don't put a lot of energy into it down at the station and company level as we should.
179
00:14:29,905 --> 00:14:32,755
Not everybody, but collectively.
180
00:14:33,115 --> 00:14:35,635
I think we, uh, we need to get real good at that real quick.
181
00:14:35,635 --> 00:14:39,445
Especially now that we've hit this corner before summer to make sure our future soldiers are ready to go.
182
00:14:40,285 --> 00:14:40,585
Yeah.
183
00:14:40,645 --> 00:14:41,455
Over communication.
184
00:14:41,455 --> 00:14:42,475
I was just making that note.
185
00:14:42,475 --> 00:14:42,895
That's.
186
00:14:43,435 --> 00:14:44,755
Absolutely critical.
187
00:14:45,775 --> 00:14:51,235
Uh, I caught myself, I used the, the, uh, acronym earlier, FSAI, it's Future Soldier Asset Inventory.
188
00:14:51,235 --> 00:14:52,405
That's what we use in the Army.
189
00:14:53,125 --> 00:14:57,235
Uh, and again, it kind of has a list of questions, uh, and some of those different topics.
190
00:14:57,235 --> 00:15:09,635
You know, we talk about you know, any changes to the job status, right? If, if all of a sudden this kid's got a, a new high paying job that might influence the relationship or not and it changes to the relationship.
191
00:15:10,055 --> 00:15:17,510
Are are they getting married? Is the, is the girlfriend, you know, gonna have a baby? All those sorts of things that may enter into the equation as well.
192
00:15:18,140 --> 00:15:19,610
We already talked about academic issues.
193
00:15:19,610 --> 00:15:26,030
Any physical readiness I've seen plenty of times where you have a, a motivated young man or woman, they want a ship.
194
00:15:26,480 --> 00:15:32,990
Oh, but they had a car wreck, you know, a couple of months ago and had to have knee surgery and you never got that accounted for.
195
00:15:33,560 --> 00:15:37,610
That's something that's male show up to ship at meps that's gonna hinder their ability to ship.
196
00:15:38,150 --> 00:15:39,260
You gotta address that.
197
00:15:40,250 --> 00:15:41,930
And then lastly, just the motivation.
198
00:15:41,930 --> 00:15:48,110
Just point blank asking them, are you still motivated to ship out as scheduled? Right.
199
00:15:48,110 --> 00:15:51,590
And then there's other things in there, like any kinda tattoos, that sort of stuff.
200
00:15:51,590 --> 00:16:00,560
But the bottom line is just like you said, Sonny, just going through and over-communicating all those things and then annotating it and the contact history.
201
00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:03,710
So now we have it on paper, we've communicated to 'em.
202
00:16:03,740 --> 00:16:08,180
And just as you mentioned over-communicating with the future service member.
203
00:16:09,275 --> 00:16:12,635
Now communicating the information to the chain of command so they can take action.
204
00:16:13,025 --> 00:16:14,435
Otherwise, it's not gonna do any good.
205
00:16:17,825 --> 00:16:21,695
I, I'll tell you this and, and last thing about over-communicating.
206
00:16:21,815 --> 00:16:33,125
When I walked away from the Army and retired, all of our companies had company XOs, right? The Army had issued us a bunch of lieutenants, right? And so one thing that changed from back.
207
00:16:33,770 --> 00:16:41,960
Years and years ago to more recent years within recruiting is lieutenants were available to come out and serve in XO positions in, uh, recruiting.
208
00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:59,480
And what blew me away, and, and I, I'll send this to my old company commanders and they know I love 'em, right? But what blew me away is how they wouldn't just, it's a commander's program, but your executive officer sits right next to you and has plenty of time on their hands to call these individuals and talk to them.
209
00:17:00,455 --> 00:17:04,715
In, in, in your absence just to kind of help you communicate if that's what it takes.
210
00:17:04,925 --> 00:17:19,535
But man, the amount of times that I took a debt loss as a CSM on ship date just to peel back, and every branch is realizing this, every leader out there right now at any level that's listening to this can say, yes, I've seen that recently.
211
00:17:19,925 --> 00:17:24,935
And you're like, how? And it's 'cause the system's in place, the IPR R'S broke the system's in place.
212
00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:27,110
Aren't, aren't correct.
213
00:17:27,140 --> 00:17:28,640
So put some energy right now.
214
00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:39,050
Commanders, leaders, recruiters, anybody, put some energy into right now developing process to make sure you're not missing something with these guys and FSIS and all these things.
215
00:17:39,050 --> 00:17:44,665
They used to do that, but even though we had these tools readily available, sometimes we just refuse to use them because.
216
00:17:45,530 --> 00:17:46,670
Not over complacency.
217
00:17:46,670 --> 00:18:02,480
We just, we just thought the kid was gonna ship and if we would've just checked on the good ones as much as we checked on the, the ones we were worried about, right? Red, green, amber is how we used to code future soldiers, right? Based on their propensity to ship and based on flags and everything else.
218
00:18:02,810 --> 00:18:06,740
Check on a green shipper just as much as you're checking on a red or amber shipper.
219
00:18:07,100 --> 00:18:14,480
And listen, if it's a red shipper and there's, you know, that red shipper isn't gonna ever get back to green for whatever reason.
220
00:18:15,725 --> 00:18:22,665
Holding onto is just gonna prolong the inevitable and it's gonna potentially ruin the training seat for somebody else that's ready to ship right now.
221
00:18:22,665 --> 00:18:24,525
So just take hard looks at that.
222
00:18:24,795 --> 00:18:31,305
You know, we know mission tends to dictate when we punch the future soldier losses out and all this, you know, system stuff.
223
00:18:31,305 --> 00:18:31,875
We get it.
224
00:18:32,145 --> 00:18:35,895
But, uh, start figuring out right now what kind of summer you're gonna have.
225
00:18:35,895 --> 00:18:36,555
I'll say it again.
226
00:18:37,455 --> 00:18:38,505
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
227
00:18:38,505 --> 00:18:38,995
And, and.
228
00:18:39,510 --> 00:18:40,980
You know, I looked at my notes here.
229
00:18:41,610 --> 00:18:48,840
You know, I was thinking through some of the, those common mistakes that we see, you know, from this time period up until summer.
230
00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:53,830
And that's both for recruiters, station commanders company commanders, all of 'em.
231
00:18:54,190 --> 00:18:55,990
But there's, there's a few things I had here.
232
00:18:56,230 --> 00:18:57,700
Number one, we've already talked about it.
233
00:18:57,700 --> 00:18:59,500
It's assuming they're gonna graduate.
234
00:19:00,100 --> 00:19:04,510
Um, it might even be a, a kid that's a pretty good student, or maybe they're missing a credit.
235
00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:08,290
I mean, like you said, otherwise they're green, but you gotta check every single one.
236
00:19:08,665 --> 00:19:23,725
Just to make sure not conducting face-to-face interviews, ignoring the parental influence, which is another big one because plenty of times we've seen that where the parents, particularly for a high schooler, they're gonna play critical role.
237
00:19:23,725 --> 00:19:28,105
So, like you said, bringing them in the process makes a huge difference.
238
00:19:28,585 --> 00:19:31,015
Um, waiting to report problems.
239
00:19:31,015 --> 00:19:37,165
You, you just mentioned that you have to, and there's plenty of times too, where we've taken a loss, I saw this.
240
00:19:37,570 --> 00:19:52,960
At each level of my command in recruiting, where I was always a hands-on commander, even even as a brigade commander with future soldier losses and every single one, I'd go back into the our computer system and look at all the contact history of when they talked to a recruiter.
241
00:19:53,860 --> 00:20:03,760
And there were many times where the recruiter actually identified this person will be a loss for whatever reason, and then it just never made it up to the chain.
242
00:20:05,050 --> 00:20:09,250
So making sure that yes, you've identified it, but you gotta report.
243
00:20:09,250 --> 00:20:11,410
You can't wait to report that issue.
244
00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:32,650
Uh, and then of course, the other thing is, this always tends to happen, but focusing on the prospecting and putting new people in the army and forgetting about the people you've already put in, I mean, that was a wonderful point you made earlier, is you invest all this time and energy to find this person, get 'em into the military.
245
00:20:32,655 --> 00:20:32,935
Mm-hmm.
246
00:20:33,815 --> 00:20:34,930
Then you forget about 'em.
247
00:20:35,710 --> 00:20:35,860
Yeah.
248
00:20:35,980 --> 00:20:44,470
You know, it's like you're, you're just wasting all that, all that effort because unless you're communicating with 'em, they could become a loss and not ship out or go to another service.
249
00:20:44,530 --> 00:20:44,800
Right.
250
00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:45,580
I've seen that happen.
251
00:20:46,450 --> 00:20:57,370
What am I missing? What is, what are some of those other things that a recruiter listening right now needs to think through or mistakes that they could possibly make between now and, and this summer? I mean, I think we hit a lot of them.
252
00:20:57,880 --> 00:20:58,690
I think that, excuse me.
253
00:20:58,690 --> 00:21:15,070
I think that we could, what else? What else we need to focus on? If I was a recruiter right now, is how motivated are my soldiers or my future soldiers at the training? Are we conducting weekly training like we supposed to, or, because the mission dictates, oh, I gotta be on the road and I'm in charge of training today, so I'm gonna cancel training.
254
00:21:15,435 --> 00:21:49,900
You know, are we, how adamant are we about making sure that that training is conducted on a weekly basis? What's the percentage of people that actually show up? Is it a hundred percent of my future soldiers, right? How engaged am I in their future in regards to promotions? Right? Am I focusing on how can I get all these future soldiers promoted? Am I teaching them how to get promoted? Am I asking them for referrals at every single event that they come to on a weekly basis? How involved am I making them be? With the Army, right? I used to see people get extra caught up in like making them call 'em Sergeant and, and making them, uh, treat 'em like soldiers.
255
00:21:49,900 --> 00:21:51,100
And I get that and that's okay.
256
00:21:51,130 --> 00:21:53,435
Right? That's part of the Future Soldier program is getting 'em ready, but.
257
00:21:54,520 --> 00:22:06,460
More so how often are they attending the events that they're supposed to be attending? And do we do anything else with them? Do we do any future soldier events with them other than just the station? You know, physical training.
258
00:22:06,460 --> 00:22:14,680
I mean, what are we doing in our program outside of the normal? Just, Hey, are you good? Are you still ready to ship? And then hang up the phone, like start looking at that.
259
00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:21,400
And commanders need to start looking at that and understand that like future soldier programs are so important, not just because we need them to ship.
260
00:22:21,805 --> 00:22:35,725
And we need them to go to training, but they just can provide so more, so many more opportunities for referrals and more enlistments if we just manage the program right, and we incentivize future soldiers.
261
00:22:36,430 --> 00:22:40,570
As much as we incentivize our recruiters, right? It not just, and now these things matter.
262
00:22:40,570 --> 00:22:42,610
They want to be part of the community.
263
00:22:42,790 --> 00:22:45,190
They want to feel like, hey, this is a good decision that I make.
264
00:22:45,190 --> 00:22:53,050
So are you making them warm and fuzzy about their decision, the entire process? Or like I said, are we just forgetting about 'em? So just start thinking about that.
265
00:22:53,050 --> 00:22:58,030
Like, am I checking their height and weights I like I'm supposed to while they're here? Or if I'm just like, nah, that kid's good.
266
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:06,460
So do you have a strict policy? Do you have standards in place? That are non-negotiable on a weekly, monthly basis.
267
00:23:06,460 --> 00:23:14,260
And then are we executing it properly, just like anything else that we do in the military? And if we're not, we need to do some assessments and then we need to rethink what we're doing.
268
00:23:14,260 --> 00:23:32,470
So, I mean, other than that, I think we've hit pretty much the majority of things to start looking for some of the steps that you can take, you know, to start trying to ensure that your summer is better than others because your kids are gonna ship, but then also, how can we start capitalizing on some of these opportunities with future soldiers is just as important.
269
00:23:32,470 --> 00:23:34,450
I think so, yeah.
270
00:23:34,480 --> 00:23:34,900
Yeah.
271
00:23:34,930 --> 00:23:39,460
The attendance and the, the engagement piece, absolutely critical.
272
00:23:39,550 --> 00:23:44,920
Right? Keeping them motivated to ship out, fill out, they're part of the team.
273
00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:47,010
I was just on my notes here.
274
00:23:47,670 --> 00:23:52,980
Look at some of the things that I have seen successfully executed by commanders and recruiters.
275
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:55,200
Many in, in years past.
276
00:23:55,830 --> 00:24:04,620
And, um, while these are good anytime of year, what I'm about to talk about is these things are really good for engagement between March and the summer.
277
00:24:05,340 --> 00:24:06,690
Uh, and there's a few ways to do that.
278
00:24:06,690 --> 00:24:20,710
So number one is that if you are close to a basic training, installation, again, regardless of service, it's really powerful to take those future service members to a graduation ceremony.
279
00:24:20,785 --> 00:24:26,575
Yeah, so they can see, wow, this is what it's gonna look like at the end of basic training.
280
00:24:27,085 --> 00:24:41,725
Because there's always a lot of hesitation and, and, and fear because you're, a lot of these kids are going into the unknown, you know, they don't know how many parents it served, but if they can see a graduation ceremony and know, wow, that's what it's gonna look like, I think that's very powerful.
281
00:24:43,105 --> 00:24:45,765
Second one is training events of any kind.
282
00:24:45,765 --> 00:24:48,135
So I, you know, this is not uncommon.
283
00:24:48,135 --> 00:24:49,455
I did this as a company commander.
284
00:24:49,860 --> 00:24:52,740
But we would bring the, you know, a bunch of kids together.
285
00:24:53,250 --> 00:24:57,180
We, you know, have some food for 'em, but we would do just different athletic events.
286
00:24:57,300 --> 00:25:05,290
Uh, maybe we might have a, a military more oriented like pull-ups or you know, carrying people on a, on a litter.
287
00:25:05,800 --> 00:25:08,410
But typically it was just like some athletic events.
288
00:25:08,530 --> 00:25:13,000
We might recognize somebody that, uh, you know, referred a lot of people to join the army.
289
00:25:13,030 --> 00:25:13,900
All those sorts of things.
290
00:25:13,900 --> 00:25:16,540
It was almost like a, an involvement.
291
00:25:17,815 --> 00:25:20,470
And the third one, that probably my, my favorite.
292
00:25:20,830 --> 00:25:28,410
It takes a lot of legwork for commanders, but it is a a very more formalized recognition program.
293
00:25:29,040 --> 00:25:33,180
And I saw this a long time ago and it, it was just was fantastic.
294
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:37,350
Having a formal event where the recruiters show up in their blues.
295
00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:45,450
Obviously the commander's there, it's almost like a, a mini, you know, formal or dining out where you have the future soldiers come.
296
00:25:46,050 --> 00:25:48,480
Maybe they can bring a girlfriend or a parent or two.
297
00:25:48,720 --> 00:25:48,870
Mm-hmm.
298
00:25:49,200 --> 00:25:53,790
But it really celebrates their commitment to enlist and ship out.
299
00:25:54,270 --> 00:26:05,100
Uh, and then if you can, like, if you get some that earned a promotion before basic training, getting them on stage in front of their girlfriend or boyfriend in front of the parents, and recognizing them.
300
00:26:05,100 --> 00:26:12,030
And the reason I say this, what I, what I begin to notice is that when they are recognized.
301
00:26:12,990 --> 00:26:17,940
And from the people they care about family and friends, they're far less likely to quit.
302
00:26:18,480 --> 00:26:20,370
'cause now they, they get some skin of the game.
303
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:20,940
Yeah.
304
00:26:20,940 --> 00:26:27,840
They've shown that, Hey, I'm, I'm part of this and now if I could quit, I gotta go tell my girlfriend, Hey, I, I'm not, I can't do it.
305
00:26:27,930 --> 00:26:28,470
I'm weak.
306
00:26:28,830 --> 00:26:30,450
So that's just my 2 cents.
307
00:26:30,450 --> 00:26:34,980
Those are some the things that I would suggest that company commanders think about.
308
00:26:34,980 --> 00:26:42,405
So first of all, what do you, what do you think about those, and then are there any other kind of things that they could do to increase that engagement and that recognition? Nope.
309
00:26:42,405 --> 00:26:43,875
I I think you hit that spot on.
310
00:26:43,875 --> 00:26:55,845
I'm gonna tell you as I was laughing to myself when you said the whole like, 'cause again, we think that it's so, like, it's such a big deal to like take these soldiers or future soldiers onto these installations and things like that and it's really not.
311
00:26:56,205 --> 00:27:04,695
And uh, I remember my age, right? I joined the Army initially in 1999 and I remember my recruiter taking me to Fort Lee.
312
00:27:05,205 --> 00:27:07,395
So he had, he had something going on in four League.
313
00:27:07,395 --> 00:27:09,075
He took four future soldiers with them.
314
00:27:09,345 --> 00:27:20,085
I couldn't tell you their names, but we all went and then we, next thing you know, we went to the PX and he showed us the px, and then we walked around the PX and he showed us all this stuff, right? And in 1999, right, we're all broke.
315
00:27:20,085 --> 00:27:22,245
Trying to just get out of our current situations.
316
00:27:22,530 --> 00:27:27,360
And this guy's just buying this thing and buying that thing, right? And he is like, Hey, I'm gonna take you all to the gym.
317
00:27:27,540 --> 00:27:30,810
We went and played basketball at the gym and then he came back and picked us up an hour later.
318
00:27:30,810 --> 00:27:33,510
I don't know what he did in that hour, but he probably put somebody else in the army.
319
00:27:33,510 --> 00:27:40,500
But you know, I just remember like being able to be somewhere as a 19-year-old kid and just see people in uniform.
320
00:27:40,500 --> 00:27:43,890
You know, you see the TVs when you're young and so do these future soldiers.
321
00:27:43,890 --> 00:27:47,790
They only see what's on TV and they might know their recruiters in the area, and that's it.
322
00:27:48,025 --> 00:27:54,370
You take 'em on an installation and get 'em a little excited about the life, show 'em what the barracks look like, show 'em what they're, where they're gonna live.
323
00:27:54,370 --> 00:28:00,010
When you start doing that kind of stuff like we did in 1999, it still will resonate today with these kids.
324
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:00,970
You just have to do it.
325
00:28:01,330 --> 00:28:06,640
And uh, and, and it's all about the energy, right? It goes back to where these recruiters are putting their energy and, and so.
326
00:28:07,050 --> 00:28:08,850
For the commanders out there, you know, figure it out.
327
00:28:08,910 --> 00:28:13,950
You know, there's ways to get this kind of stuff done without impacting the mission, you know? Crazy.
328
00:28:14,010 --> 00:28:14,490
Right.
329
00:28:14,610 --> 00:28:17,640
And that's just about time management and how they, I won't tell 'em how to do that.
330
00:28:17,640 --> 00:28:20,730
That's up to them, but it's, uh, it's impactful.
331
00:28:21,120 --> 00:28:24,360
And right now we're talking about future soldiers, and these are things that you just brought up.
332
00:28:24,360 --> 00:28:26,520
That 100% could help.
333
00:28:27,030 --> 00:28:28,440
Prevent future soldier losses.
334
00:28:28,470 --> 00:28:30,960
It's just how you determine, you know, decide to execute 'em.
335
00:28:30,990 --> 00:28:34,920
And so I won't go down the rabbit holes about future soldier events and stuff like that.
336
00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:39,840
But yeah, all these things matter and uh, and it's just giving a damn, it's just being a leader.
337
00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:43,950
And even though they're not one in the uniform yet, it's just caring about them and caring about their future.
338
00:28:43,980 --> 00:28:45,000
'cause that's what we're here to do.
339
00:28:45,450 --> 00:28:45,720
Okay.
340
00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:47,310
Go put some, invest in them a little bit.
341
00:28:47,310 --> 00:28:53,975
So again, just seems really hard to put people in the army nowadays, and I don't know why you would do it just to let 'em debt lost nowadays it's, it's.
342
00:28:54,885 --> 00:28:55,635
It's crazy.
343
00:28:56,295 --> 00:28:57,345
I agree with you a hundred percent.
344
00:28:57,345 --> 00:29:06,735
And you know, and you make a great point, sunny, is that it, it doesn't have to be extravagant, right? It could be as easy as is just taking 'em on the installation.
345
00:29:06,735 --> 00:29:16,365
Or if you're not near an installation, work with the local reserve unit and maybe show 'em some vehicles, you know, expose them to a little bit about the military.
346
00:29:16,755 --> 00:29:18,705
Uh, it can go really far.
347
00:29:19,185 --> 00:29:19,305
Yeah.
348
00:29:19,405 --> 00:29:20,275
But it's gotta be done.
349
00:29:21,385 --> 00:29:21,685
I agree.
350
00:29:21,925 --> 00:29:23,515
The thing about the commanders too is.
351
00:29:24,820 --> 00:29:26,980
You previously said the company commanders own the program.
352
00:29:26,980 --> 00:29:27,490
They do.
353
00:29:27,700 --> 00:29:33,670
Right? I, I, I would even argue that commanders at every echelon have to own 'em and part of that program.
354
00:29:33,880 --> 00:29:33,970
Mm-hmm.
355
00:29:34,220 --> 00:29:35,870
But it involves everybody.
356
00:29:36,260 --> 00:29:39,350
The recruiter, station commander, first Sergeant we're all taking part in this.
357
00:29:39,980 --> 00:29:45,530
But what I found as a commander to track it properly, I'd had to have a system.
358
00:29:45,530 --> 00:29:52,700
And when you mentioned systems, you know that, that resonated with me because until I developed a formal system.
359
00:29:53,240 --> 00:30:00,740
To track all of these future soldiers and to review that with my subordinate commanders and leaders.
360
00:30:01,250 --> 00:30:02,480
I, I wasn't that effective.
361
00:30:02,840 --> 00:30:10,040
Right? And what really helped me is, I guess I was in battalion command and we were taking some losses.
362
00:30:10,040 --> 00:30:15,020
So finally we instituted a weekly meeting for future soldier tracking.
363
00:30:16,025 --> 00:30:20,585
Uh, every Friday at the same time, you know, we we're never gonna miss it.
364
00:30:21,155 --> 00:30:24,275
And we walked the dog on every shipper that we had.
365
00:30:24,275 --> 00:30:24,365
Mm-hmm.
366
00:30:25,595 --> 00:30:26,885
Going out six months now.
367
00:30:26,885 --> 00:30:28,535
We didn't cover our guys out six months.
368
00:30:28,535 --> 00:30:31,835
We focused on the next three months, that 90 day period.
369
00:30:32,810 --> 00:30:46,590
And we looked at, you know, everything from, you know, graduation verification, physical status any parental concerns you know, if there were any comments in the future soldier contact history that, you know, we needed to be aware of all that sort of stuff.
370
00:30:46,590 --> 00:30:50,700
And then of course, the red, Amber Green status to see where they were.
371
00:30:51,540 --> 00:30:55,860
And what I would do is, yeah, you know, I had the sergeant major was in the room with me.
372
00:30:56,160 --> 00:30:58,530
We had our ops folks in there, but.
373
00:30:58,890 --> 00:31:03,030
I made the company commander brief us on each of those people.
374
00:31:03,030 --> 00:31:03,780
Mm-hmm.
375
00:31:04,650 --> 00:31:12,300
And tell us, Hey, what's going on with this Now we already had the information 'cause my ops guys already pulled it all and we knew, hey, who were questionable people.
376
00:31:12,630 --> 00:31:13,860
But it was very powerful.
377
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:25,080
Week after week after week after week of doing this, we all began to know, even if we had never laid eyes on them, who these kids were, when they were shipping, and any issues they might be having.
378
00:31:25,760 --> 00:31:27,260
And then of course, like you said, we can plan for it.
379
00:31:27,260 --> 00:31:30,200
Okay, we know this guy's red, now he's gonna be a loss.
380
00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:47,300
So when do we take that loss? Or is there something we can do to help this kid to mitigate the circumstances so they can still ship out his scheduled? But I say all that to say is that if you don't have his system in place to track that, and you don't have the subordinate leaders and commanders actively involved.
381
00:31:48,365 --> 00:31:50,405
You're gonna take some losses that you don't expect.
382
00:31:50,645 --> 00:32:01,265
So what, so what are your thoughts on that? And, and then in addition to the commanders, you know, how were you involved as a, as a senior non-commissioned officer in this process? So, I, so two things.
383
00:32:01,625 --> 00:32:08,955
We'll go back to the, the what did I call it? So one right, tactful confrontation.
384
00:32:08,955 --> 00:32:12,915
We talked about this is a place where a non-commissioned officer needs to have a little tactful confrontation, and here's why.
385
00:32:12,915 --> 00:32:13,545
I'll tell you why.
386
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:14,880
What you just mentioned.
387
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:15,660
We already know, sir.
388
00:32:15,660 --> 00:32:26,580
There, there's, there's systems in place, especially within Army recruiting, right? I'm assume all branches do, and I know some do, they're all a little different, uh, and have nuances, right? But ours is bulletproof, in my opinion.
389
00:32:26,580 --> 00:32:27,990
If you use it correctly.
390
00:32:28,380 --> 00:32:30,570
And I'll tell you, this is where leaders listen.
391
00:32:31,020 --> 00:32:32,190
Listening to this right now will fail.
392
00:32:32,970 --> 00:32:41,340
There's a great, there's a good percentage of leaders out there, which you just said, oh shucks, my brigade commander wants to have a call and he wants to know about future soldiers.
393
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:48,565
So, hey, first Sergeant, right? We're talking about coming, pull this roster, send it out to the stations.
394
00:32:49,770 --> 00:32:52,740
Let the stations update the the roster on the spreadsheet.
395
00:32:52,830 --> 00:33:10,135
Send me the spreadsheet back, and that's what I'm gonna brief my commander, right? Versus a company commander who's been taught the exact same system, right? An XO who's been taught the exact same system, pulling the roster themselves, and then going through and seeing their own updates on these kids because they've already talked to 'em.
396
00:33:10,395 --> 00:33:14,935
So what I found that I worked in two different brigades as ops and before I was even a C sm.
397
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:24,240
And what I would find is when we would get these rosters pulled down and we would have to get in, sit on the briefs, we'd be like, these commanders have no idea who these kids are.
398
00:33:24,630 --> 00:33:28,200
All they know is what Sergeant Welch told them.
399
00:33:28,205 --> 00:33:28,545
That's right.
400
00:33:28,725 --> 00:33:30,660
And that's the problem for those listening.
401
00:33:30,660 --> 00:33:31,620
That's the problem.
402
00:33:31,830 --> 00:33:35,520
How engaged are you in that? And back to the ca, the tactful confrontation.
403
00:33:35,520 --> 00:33:35,880
Right.
404
00:33:36,300 --> 00:33:43,290
For the stations that are receiving this spreadsheet, it's okay if your recruiters are doing the right things and putting their comments in.
405
00:33:43,965 --> 00:33:52,035
To go back to that leader and say, sir, ma'am, I would recommend that you contact these individuals because that's your job.
406
00:33:52,365 --> 00:33:58,005
Uh, you are supposed to contact them just as much as we are and, uh, and get your, get your own update.
407
00:33:58,335 --> 00:34:00,975
Now again, how that gets delivered is, is here or there.
408
00:34:01,155 --> 00:34:04,245
It's just a matter of saying, Hey, look, if you know you have a leader.
409
00:34:05,010 --> 00:34:09,240
That they're not doing their job and they're not taking responsibility for their future soldier program.
410
00:34:09,390 --> 00:34:12,360
You already have enough stuff to do and enough stuff on your plate.
411
00:34:12,690 --> 00:34:16,545
You don't need to be doing their updates for them so they can go take a call from their boss.
412
00:34:17,445 --> 00:34:20,025
So I've seen it a million times.
413
00:34:20,445 --> 00:34:31,815
I remember getting on our, on our battalion calls, and I would know which company commanders spoke to their future soldiers and which ones just got updates from the recruiter who already had updates in the system.
414
00:34:32,055 --> 00:34:38,565
So that's, that could be fixed immediately at any echelon, at any branch of service.
415
00:34:38,700 --> 00:34:45,525
If you can fix that problem, then you'll, you're gonna force the engagement that's necessary by leaders to future soldiers to ensure.
416
00:34:45,765 --> 00:34:47,310
They have a better chance of shipping.
417
00:34:47,310 --> 00:34:51,270
Doesn't mean a hundred percent are gonna ship, but when you said that, it triggered me a little bit.
418
00:34:51,270 --> 00:35:02,220
'cause I was like, yeah, at in all my years of recruiting, I remember even getting that list from a commander as a sergeant and saying, Hey, I need you to update your future soldiers and give 'em to the commander.
419
00:35:02,220 --> 00:35:05,670
And that was 2000 8, 9, 10, like come on.
420
00:35:05,970 --> 00:35:07,140
And it's still the same today.
421
00:35:07,140 --> 00:35:09,180
So yeah, I got a little triggered by that one.
422
00:35:09,180 --> 00:35:09,960
But yeah, you're right.
423
00:35:10,350 --> 00:35:12,240
Put the system's already there, just use it.
424
00:35:12,390 --> 00:35:15,480
And I was hell bent on teaching everybody how to use it at all levels.
425
00:35:15,840 --> 00:35:21,840
No matter your rank, greater position, everybody needs to know how to use the system effectively to help keep you in check.
426
00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:26,790
And, uh, some, some, some agree, some disagree, and, uh, to each their own.
427
00:35:27,180 --> 00:35:30,025
But, uh, yeah, I found a lot easier to use the system.
428
00:35:30,750 --> 00:35:31,470
I agree with you.
429
00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:37,225
You know what, it's, and you might recall this, uh, as a brigade commander, whenever we took a, a loss.
430
00:35:38,525 --> 00:35:49,055
You know, some of 'em, I, I didn't make the call if it was like a, a legitimate reason, but more often than not for a questionable future soldier loss, uh, I'm calling the future soldier and I'm calling the company commander.
431
00:35:49,715 --> 00:35:55,835
And I could, like you said, I could always tell, and the company commanders, well, I've sent me a form that says, here's the reason we took this loss.
432
00:35:55,835 --> 00:35:56,675
Here's what they said.
433
00:35:57,005 --> 00:35:57,245
Yeah.
434
00:35:58,235 --> 00:35:59,495
And then I'll call the future soldier.
435
00:35:59,495 --> 00:36:00,125
That's not shipping.
436
00:36:00,125 --> 00:36:02,050
I say, Hey, did you talk to Captain Smith? No.
437
00:36:02,690 --> 00:36:03,980
No, I, I didn't talk to Captain Smith.
438
00:36:05,210 --> 00:36:06,470
I talked to Sergeant Smith.
439
00:36:06,560 --> 00:36:07,010
That's right.
440
00:36:07,100 --> 00:36:13,850
It just, you know, so, you know, but, but my notes here that you were talking about, obviously the personal involvement of the leaders Yeah.
441
00:36:13,850 --> 00:36:15,440
Is what makes that system work.
442
00:36:15,740 --> 00:36:15,890
Yeah.
443
00:36:15,990 --> 00:36:17,550
But it's gonna prevent surprises.
444
00:36:18,180 --> 00:36:20,040
It's gonna allow you to make some mitigation plans.
445
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:27,240
Uh, but it's all about accountability for everybody involved, especially the leaders who are responsible for this.
446
00:36:27,750 --> 00:36:29,790
So it's very powerful if it's done right.
447
00:36:30,825 --> 00:36:37,065
But I think, uh, you know, those, those are all like the nuts and bolts and the things that I've seen to be most effective.
448
00:36:37,425 --> 00:36:49,275
And I'll, and I'll, I'll end with this part is, you know, I'd always heard, you know, throughout my army career in recruiting, Hey, as long as you got a, a loss rate of 10% or less, you're good.
449
00:36:49,755 --> 00:36:55,785
Uh, and then I had the commander say, well, you know, 5%, that's really no more than a 5% loss rate.
450
00:36:56,115 --> 00:36:57,765
And then I began to realize, if you take these.
451
00:36:58,245 --> 00:37:02,205
All these efforts, you can get that loss rate to two or 3%.
452
00:37:02,475 --> 00:37:04,245
You're gonna take some losses, right? Yeah.
453
00:37:04,695 --> 00:37:06,435
Car accidents, pregnancies, all that sort of stuff.
454
00:37:06,435 --> 00:37:08,715
Some stuff you just can't, you can't worry about.
455
00:37:09,525 --> 00:37:18,705
But if you do everything we're talking about today, you can get that loss rate down so low and then you multiply that with your, uh, additional prospecting efforts.
456
00:37:18,705 --> 00:37:22,185
You're gonna make your mission because you're not gonna lose as many people.
457
00:37:22,575 --> 00:37:22,995
Mm-hmm.
458
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:25,440
So I just leave that for all the commanders out there.
459
00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:27,570
Get that loss rate down to two or 3%.
460
00:37:27,570 --> 00:37:28,710
It is achievable.
461
00:37:28,770 --> 00:37:29,580
You can do that.
462
00:37:30,300 --> 00:37:50,730
But Sergeant Major, if you had, if you had one message for recruiters, uh, and leaders out there about the importance of March and how powerful it is for the summer, what, what would that message be? Um, I, I think just take everything that we just said, roll it up and then put in perspective your current situation, your current future soldier pool.
463
00:37:51,150 --> 00:37:57,330
Take away from what we said, what you can that may help you like, oh, I didn't think about that, but at the end of the day, just know they're coming.
464
00:37:57,570 --> 00:37:59,100
Let's, I'll just leave you with that.
465
00:37:59,310 --> 00:38:16,410
Future soldier losses are coming and some of them are preventable, and that's what matters is that there are some that are preventable and you need to identify right now within your pool in March, no matter what grade level they are, no matter you know exactly what ship dates coming up in the next 30, 60, 90 days.
466
00:38:16,725 --> 00:38:23,685
You know, 120 days, but find out which ones can be prevented and which ones are gonna be un unpreventable and start figuring it out right now.
467
00:38:23,685 --> 00:38:30,885
Because if you just wait, then you're gonna get slapped in the face at the end of the, uh, year, and nobody wants to see that.
468
00:38:30,885 --> 00:38:35,835
So, you know, just take, take ownership of your program starting at recruiter level with their pool.
469
00:38:36,345 --> 00:38:40,035
Then station, then company and above and say, Hey, let's look at our pool.
470
00:38:40,215 --> 00:38:43,005
Let's take some time to invest in our future soldiers real quick.
471
00:38:43,395 --> 00:38:52,065
And uh, and let's just prevent the ones we can prevent and know that some are gonna be un unpreventable and it's gonna be what it is, but, and keep 'em outside of 30 days if that's still a thing.
472
00:38:52,065 --> 00:38:52,695
I think it is.
473
00:38:52,695 --> 00:38:54,305
But, keep 'em outside of that 30 days.
474
00:38:54,305 --> 00:38:55,175
If you got some.
475
00:38:55,385 --> 00:39:00,395
Don't wait because you know, you think you're gonna make mission with that one future soldier that's gonna lose.
476
00:39:00,785 --> 00:39:01,385
Don't wait.
477
00:39:01,565 --> 00:39:03,635
Just get rid of 'em, replace 'em and keep it moving.
478
00:39:04,025 --> 00:39:05,405
And I stopped doing all this dang work.
479
00:39:05,405 --> 00:39:09,495
It's hard to put people in the army nowadays, just to take future soldier losses 'cause we don't pay attention.
480
00:39:09,495 --> 00:39:10,725
So I'll leave with that.
481
00:39:11,235 --> 00:39:13,335
No, that's a, that's a great message.
482
00:39:13,515 --> 00:39:19,515
And just to recap some of the things we talked about verifying the graduation status in March.
483
00:39:20,505 --> 00:39:27,855
Commanders personally interviewing every shipper, regardless of whether they're high school or not, everyone needs to be interviewed.
484
00:39:28,285 --> 00:39:29,935
And again, you mentioned over-communicating.
485
00:39:30,025 --> 00:39:31,555
That's, that's the important lesson there.
486
00:39:32,380 --> 00:39:40,810
We identify and report any issues that we see as early as possible, allowing us to make those decisions or to mitigate them as best we can.
487
00:39:41,560 --> 00:39:48,430
Publicly recognizing future soldiers, making sure they're engaged, getting them involved with events to keep them motivated.
488
00:39:49,040 --> 00:39:57,275
And then lastly, commanders having a system in place all year long, but particularly between now and the summer.
489
00:39:57,905 --> 00:40:04,505
To identify those issues and monitor red, amber, green status of all the shippers that are coming up.
490
00:40:04,505 --> 00:40:11,615
I think if you do all those things that we talked about, now you're in a, an anticipation mode instead of a reaction mode.
491
00:40:11,945 --> 00:40:20,495
And that's the challenge I see for a lot of people that're so busy with other things, they don't do this and then now they're reacting to it in the summer.
492
00:40:20,885 --> 00:40:20,945
Yeah.
493
00:40:20,975 --> 00:40:24,845
So I think they can get ahead of it, but this is a great conversation, Sergeant Major.
494
00:40:25,500 --> 00:40:28,840
Anything else before we close out? No.
495
00:40:28,840 --> 00:40:30,220
Last thing I'll say, I'll plug it.
496
00:40:30,220 --> 00:40:32,530
I won't put the name out there yet because, we're, we're almost there.
497
00:40:32,530 --> 00:40:42,700
But I'll tell you if you're listening to this and you're interested in the new, wave of how soldiers are gonna start transitioning out of the military properly in regards to being, underemployed or unemployed.
498
00:40:43,030 --> 00:40:44,650
DME look me up on LinkedIn.
499
00:40:44,650 --> 00:40:45,670
We got some things coming.
500
00:40:45,670 --> 00:40:47,440
If you're interested in learning more about it, let me know.
501
00:40:47,930 --> 00:40:52,300
Because we got some big things coming up soon, and I'll share maybe next time we, get on a podcast, but, nope.
502
00:40:52,330 --> 00:40:53,020
I'm good sir.
503
00:40:53,020 --> 00:40:54,340
I appreciate you inviting me to come.
504
00:40:54,340 --> 00:40:56,350
Just have conversations with you every now and then.
505
00:40:56,350 --> 00:40:58,750
Hopefully it's, useful again for everybody out there.
506
00:40:58,750 --> 00:41:01,480
Look, we're just two old dogs that done it for a while.
507
00:41:01,480 --> 00:41:04,260
We know a little bit about something he's paying for it.
508
00:41:04,260 --> 00:41:07,890
I'm not getting paid, but he's paying for all this software just to give y'all some free chicken.
509
00:41:08,100 --> 00:41:10,390
So I would, take, as many lessons as you can from this.
510
00:41:10,990 --> 00:41:14,710
And from, somebody like Colonel Welch retired who's done it right the whole time.
511
00:41:14,920 --> 00:41:16,550
So, again, sir, appreciate the invite.
512
00:41:16,550 --> 00:41:22,610
I don't mind coming on anytime so hopefully it, benefits somebody out there if it benefits one person, I guess is a win, right? That's right.
513
00:41:22,610 --> 00:41:23,360
It's a big win.
514
00:41:23,450 --> 00:41:24,500
But thank you, Sergeant Major.
515
00:41:24,500 --> 00:41:32,420
And, as you mentioned earlier on in the episode, recruiting Solutions is available for all consulting and training for units and organizations.
516
00:41:32,420 --> 00:41:33,570
But our new program.
517
00:41:34,695 --> 00:41:39,615
For commanders and leaders in recruiting is the recruiting executive membership program.
518
00:41:39,915 --> 00:41:49,215
And that's some one-on-one time with me and my team, to talk about some of the challenges that you're having offer advice on how, maybe how to get past some of those challenges.
519
00:41:49,455 --> 00:41:51,225
And this not to circumvent the chain of command.
520
00:41:51,225 --> 00:41:52,755
Certainly would never wanna do that.
521
00:41:53,130 --> 00:42:03,930
But it's just an outside perspective that's confidential and an opportunity to, share what's going on and maybe get some feedback so please, if you're interested in that, you can DM me on LinkedIn for more information.
522
00:42:03,930 --> 00:42:11,220
And then for more information about our training and consulting programs, you can visit recruiting solutions llc.com.
523
00:42:11,700 --> 00:42:14,400
That's recruiting solutions llc.com.
524
00:42:14,985 --> 00:42:15,885
Again, thanks again.
525
00:42:15,885 --> 00:42:16,845
Sorry Major for being here.
526
00:42:16,845 --> 00:42:26,715
I appreciate you and I appreciate your friendship, and for everyone out there, wish you the best of luck, and here's to less stress and more success on the recruiting battlefield
