Kevin: All right, ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special guest today. We've got Katie Molley, a Navy veteran, former cryptologic linguist, Afghanistan veteran, manager of individual philanthropy and Warrior Scholar Project. Welcome to the show, Katie. Well, at ease, paratroopers and welcome back to the enduring mindset podcast. I'm your host, retired army staff sergeant, Kevin Kidder. This episode is supported by Drake Uplinger of Uplinger tax services. Drake is a CPA and CFP helping individuals and businesses navigate tax strategy and financial clarity. You can find more out at uplingerts.taxdome.com. That's Okay, I'm not gonna lie, that was hands down one of the best and one of my favorite conversations of season one so far. Katie, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show and share your story and provide just amazing, tremendous insight. For listeners, if there's one thing I hope you take away from this conversation, it's this. You are not just what you did in the military. That chapter matters, it shaped you.
Kaedy Molley: Thanks so much for having me, Kevin. I'm excited to be here and chat with you today.
Kevin: I am too. think we have a pretty cool maybe parallel when it comes to pursuing education after the military. I've told the story a couple of times. I was an abhorrent student after high school. I managed an immaculate 0.8 GPA my first year of college. Yeah, that took. Right, it's impressive like it took a lot of effort to not do the right thing, and that's how you know you end up in the military. n-g-e-r-t-s dot t-a-x-d-o-m-e dot com. but it's not the end of your story. It's the foundation for what comes next. know, Katie said it best, don't self-select. Don't talk yourself out of growth. Don't assume you're not capable. And don't you dare stay stuck in an identity that no longer serves you. Look, there are resources out there. There are people who want to help. And there's a version of you on the other side of this transition that is stronger, sharper, and more aligned than ever. I'm living this right now.
Kaedy Molley: Wow. That's actually impressive. Yeah. Right, exactly.
Kevin: ⁓ but before we get into everything, ⁓ I like to start with one question that we haven't really talked about, just that full, ⁓ completely transparent, honest question. And it comes from the book 365 questions to get to know yourself and your team better. It's by Brett Leadbetter, who's a mental performance coach. I'd met him, ⁓ at a conference in Los Angeles last April. And I love the book and his concept was whenever you meet with clients. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with another veteran, someone in transition, anybody who needs to hear it. And if you're ready to take that next step, go check out Warrior Scholar Project. might just change your life the way it changed so many others. you know, instead of the usual awkward icebreakers, open my book, ask them a question. I've taken that and made it my own with the podcast and you have picked number 24 and much of Brett's questions are two parts and you get to experience that as well. So the first one is what's the best lesson you've learned from the last decade of your life? Today's conversation is about something every veteran faces but not enough talk about honestly, which is what happens after the uniform comes off. You know, we're told the military prepares us for everything. The truth is, transitioning can feel like starting over, know, a new identity, new environment, new expectations. And if you're not careful, you can either hold on too tightly to who you were or feel completely lost trying to figure out who you are now. Thank you again to Drake Uplinger, founder of Uplinger Tax Services for supporting this episode. Drake is a CPA and CFP helping individuals and businesses navigate tax strategy and financial clarity. You can find him at uplingerts.taxdome.com. If this episode resonated with you, you're not alone. Transition is hard, identity shifts are hard, healing.
Kaedy Molley: Okay. Ooh, love this question. Best lesson learned from the last decade of my life. ⁓ gosh, that's a big one. I would have to say that things work out for a reason. And I know that sounds so cliche, but in the last decade of my life, I have transitioned out of the military, transitioned into higher ed. I've worked in private equity. I've been a non-traditional student at a top school. I've ⁓ pivoted into the nonprofit sector. I've gotten divorced. I've relocated.
Kevin: My guest today, Katie Molley, has lived that journey at a very high level. She's a Navy veteran, a former cryptologic linguist, an Afghanistan veteran, and now works with the Warrior Scholar Project, helping enlisted service members successfully transition into higher education and beyond. And that's awesome, but that's not what makes this conversation powerful. What is, is how she talks about ⁓ reinvention without losing your roots. is hard, none of that has to be done in isolation. Reach out, make sure the person you're reaching out to is a fountain, someone that pours into you and that they're not a drain. Initiate or have that tough conversation. Take the first step. Be the leader in your own life. If you found value in today's episode, please consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review or sending it to another veteran or leader who might need to hear it. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, threads, X, YouTube.
Kaedy Molley: from the suburbs into the city of Chicago. I've lost dogs. I've, you know, become distanced from friends that were once a big part of my life in the military. So there's so many things that can cause you to really rethink how's everything gonna look versus how I thought it would look. So I think understanding that things work out for a reason, everything is a series of decisions and chance that come together for all the right reasons. And just having kind of
Kevin: letting go of entitlement and rebuilding from scratch, and why growth requires discomfort every single time. If you're a veteran navigating a transition, if you're someone trying to figure out your next chapter, this one's going to hit home. Here's my conversation with Katie. Let's get to it. and Amazon Music at enduring underscore mindset underscore enterprise. Check out the website, www.enduringmindsetenterprise.com. You can find out more about the business, the book, our new nonprofit arm, the enduring mindset foundation. And hey, check it out. The book is out for preorder. You can find the invisible veteran on the ballast books website. That's my publisher, ⁓ Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Walmart. Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: an understanding and a faith in yourself that you can pick yourself up and a lot of your path is up to you. It's the decisions you make, the connections you make, and how you decide to show up every day.
Kevin: Man, I love that. You already answered the second part, which is what experience taught you that. Ladies and gentlemen, buckle up, because this is going to be a good one. We're already getting good tidbits right off the bat. Before we dive into the meat and potatoes, let's get to know Katie a little bit. Would you mind sharing where you're from and what shaped you growing up? Pre-sales, pre-orders, they help more than people know. We've had a pretty strong response so far and if you pre-order the book, us a DM. We're doing something special for early supporters.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah.
Kevin: This has been the enduring mindset podcast reminding you that your past may shape you, but it does not have to define you. Until next time, onward, forward, fall out.
Kaedy Molley: Absolutely. So I grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, known as the rocket city, a lot of NASA, Johnson Space Flight Center. There's all kinds of cool stuff there to be involved with. And my dad was a project manager for a defense contracting company and he was also a Naval reservist and he did some of the Navy stuff when I was a kid. He did 30 years, 10 active and 20, 20 reserve. Yeah. So he would go off and drill in Atlanta. I have two brothers, an older brother and younger brother, and we all played sports growing up and we were not the most serious students. Obviously we, you know, I've got an interesting journey and so do they, but yeah, we were really raised to what's Southern standards, right? To be polite and be grateful.
Kevin: Wow.
Kaedy Molley: and show up. My dad was very, ⁓ very much. a supporter of us participating in team sports, which I think was super salient to my upbringing, just learning how to be on a team, collaborate, deal with disappointment, et cetera. ⁓ Went off to college after graduation. I graduated high school with a 3.4, putting in very little effort. It just was really into the sports and the social life. And went and started playing lacrosse at Auburn University, one of the big SEC schools. But I partied my way right on out of there very quickly. I just wasn't emotionally mature enough for school at that point.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. ⁓ wow.
Kaedy Molley: So I ended up working in the luxury beauty industry for quite a few years. I worked in retail. I did a lot of various odds and ends types jobs and was working in the luxury beauty industry in 2009 when the 2008-2009 economy crashed. Great financial crisis housing bubble and I was just working dead-end jobs. I lost my big job because retail took a big hit and I thought I've got a recruit. What am I gonna do? And I ended up walking into a Navy recruiter's office and listing in the RCD.
Kevin: ⁓ wow. So the family background is that kind of what pulled you to the Navy as opposed to a different branch?
Kaedy Molley: Absolutely, yeah, I grew up as a competitive swimmer and I thought well if I'm gonna, you know, be in the military might as well if I fall off a boat or a ship I can swim. Ironically, I never ended up on a ship, I was aircrewed. But yeah, it was always Navy or bust for me.
Kevin: Okay, that's funny. I didn't have a lot of military ⁓ connections growing up. I never thought I would be in the military and it ended up being the best thing for me. My stepdad was in the army and it's kind of funny how those familial ties ⁓ are the ones that get you to where you want to go. ⁓ Besides the familiar tie, did you know what you wanted to do in the Navy?
Kaedy Molley: I really didn't. had this generic idea of working in the Intel field because my dad had been an Intel officer. But you know how then, how, and I don't know, you're familiar with how listing works specifically, but it's all aptitude test-based. And I scored really high on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, the ASVAB. And they were trying to push me to be a nuclear engineer. And I was like, you guys don't know me at all. That would not be a good fit. I can't math. But ⁓ I ended up flipping through a book of types of opportunities for ratings or jobs in the Navy. And I came across linguists and I'd always been really good at doing accents and picking
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: up dialects and ⁓ language learning. So I thought that might be a good fit. And then I took the defense language aptitude battery and scored really well on that and ended up becoming an Arabic linguist. So the path kind of guided me as opposed to me guiding it. And that was one of those instances I kind of talked about where sometimes it's luck, sometimes it's decisions. And sometimes you just go with the flow and see where it takes you.
Kevin: Wow, that's funny. So we do only audio at this point, but ⁓ listeners, Katie is a very attractive blonde woman, white woman. Like she looks like the typical Southern Belle you see at Auburn in Alabama on college game day. ⁓
Kaedy Molley: Okay, hype man, I'm gonna start having you carry a boombox in my entourage. Thank you for that.
Kevin: right? I want to be the what's his name? ⁓ James whatever the English guy he was the heightmate with Adele on his show and he's like I just want to walk around and scream yeah during one of her songs. ⁓ How surprised were people when they saw you and versus when they heard you?
Kaedy Molley: Yes, yes. What do you mean as opposed to like at what point in my life, I guess?
Kevin: ⁓ when it comes to the Arabic dialect.
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ yeah, this is something that actually is apropos to my daily life in Chicago, hopping in Ubers where a lot of Uber drivers actually are transplanted. You know, they've immigrated from elsewhere and speak Arabic and they're always shocked when I, I'll catch an accent through a brief interaction and I'll say something like, ⁓ in Arabic, I'll ask them if they speak Arabic and they'll kind of look in the rear view mirror like, wait, what? And then I'll take a minute to explain like, yeah, I learned Arabic, you know, back in the day in school and it's something I've been interested in and they just love it. So I think it is shocking for people.
Kevin: Okay.
Kaedy Molley: to look at someone like me who does look like I belong in a dress at an Alabama football game on game day with my sorority sisters. ⁓ And people find out, ⁓ wow, there's a little more depth there. And then to find out I'm a veteran, I think is another shock point, which is interesting. But I've spoken with other female veterans about how people don't always look at us initially. there's not an immediate assumption that we were in service or are veterans.
Kevin: You Yeah, I've had a couple of my friends, my wife's friends who both served, one in the Navy, one in the Army, and they've alluded to that same ⁓ stereotype or being overlooked. ⁓ And then it's frustrating because some of the best leaders I had, the best platoon sergeant I had, one of the best commanders I had, they were women. And I just, I hate that. ⁓ I have an incredibly strong wife. My daughter is fiercely independent. Like I hope she can continue to... find role models such as yourself that open doors and refuse to let stereotypes ⁓ weigh them down.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah. Yeah, I love that. And I think women have had sort of this, not a luxury, but a privilege of being able to exist with our emotions. And I think that does create a good leader, being able to experience empathy and sympathy and express those in really healthy ways. I mean, I know the military is very much about rigidity and discipline and kind of towing a line, but to be a good leader, think having a good emotional intelligence is very important. So you can relate to those who are working for you with and above you. So I love that women, think women leaders tend to be really excellent at that.
Kevin: ⁓ Absolutely. I've learned a lot, especially the last few years, especially in the emotional quotient area. ⁓ Did you do ⁓ Pashtun or Dari or just... Okay.
Kaedy Molley: Yes. No, just Arabic and it was modern standard Arabic and then I did do a short course on Levantine Arabic but the ironic part was I ended up going to Afghanistan for deployment where they don't even speak Arabic and I was working in signals Intel and it's an interesting journey you go on. I did do some deployments to the Med and North Africa area but I don't know that the missions I was working were super high action at that point in my career.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Okay, and you say, Levantine, is that like Lebanon, Lebanese?
Kaedy Molley: Yes, yeah, the Levant is an area of the Middle East surrounding Lebanon and so the dialects in that region are very similar and they call it Levantine. It's very French influenced.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah, ⁓ the best restaurant in Detroit is a place called Layla's and it's Lebanese food and is hands down my favorite restaurant. I've taken my mom there for Mother's Day. My wife and I go. ⁓ I can't wait. We're moving back to Michigan this summer and I can't wait to go. ⁓ Let's get. ⁓ yeah, beautiful. ⁓ Let's get back on topic because I'm straying here. You know what do you remember mostly almost clearly about your service?
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ how exciting. Yeah, I love that. Great, great food, great culture. Yeah.
Kevin: ⁓ and whatever parts or facets you'd like to share.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, I know this answer tends to be a little bit of the low hanging fruit, but the people I served with were just incredible. And I'm talking about my enlisted folks that I served with, my fellow air crewmen, my fellow sailors, my fellow linguists. I also had the opportunity to go be an instructor up at Great Lakes at the end of my career and working with the new incoming junior sailors was really cool. And some of the other jobs and ratings, like the surface ratings that I hadn't had much opportunity to work with. I think the people we work with, we are exposed to every background, every walk of life. Some people come from lower socioeconomic classes. Some people are there because they're super patriotic. Some people are in the military because it's generational for them. It was just always something they were gonna do. So you've got these various reasons why people end up there, but we all end up working on the same missions and fighting for the same things and giving up a good bit of our personal agency to support. know, military operations on behalf of the US. And I think it's great to be able to learn and grow and struggle and be uncomfortable with other people because you help each other grow and certainly come across challenging personalities. And that's always an opportunity for growth. Learn how to deal with them and also learn what not to model as you move up the ranks of leadership.
Kevin: Yeah, that's such a wonderful point. It's easy to look back at the leaders and mentors that we loved, or even teachers if you're a kid, ⁓ and take away the things that you like. But I think one of the most powerful things is I don't wanna be like that person, or I don't want to do that thing. That was one of the hardest lessons I had to learn during my growth journey.
Kaedy Molley: Right. Yeah, learning what you do not want your legacy to look like versus what you hope it does look like.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. What was it like being an instructor? That's something I missed out on or not missed. I didn't take advantage of, but I can see just how teaching others can change your perspective on leadership and responsibility and influence.
Kaedy Molley: Absolutely. And I think what was really special for me was I had come from such a small community within the Navy. I think the linguists are like maybe 1 % of the Navy community. And I was an aircrew linguist, which made it an even smaller group of people that I had worked with for the previous, you know, six, seven years. So getting to go up to Great Lakes, I had to get permission to leave my career field, but I had sort of reached my maximum off-temple, right? I had deployed as much as I could really. And so it was a great time for shore duty and my options were go be where they're like an NSA, you know, ⁓ or try to find something unique. And I was digging through the computer when it was my time to negotiate orders and I found a billet for a female. They only required that you be a female. And I thought this is interesting and I could go to Chicagoland and be an instructor and just try something new, make a big pivot. And it was really amazing getting to work with junior sailors, especially ones who came from different backgrounds than the folks I was working with in the linguist community. ⁓ who ended up like I said before in the Navy for various reasons, a lot of reasons that people enlist are socioeconomic survival, travel, education benefits, ⁓ health insurance, know, tons of reasons why people end up there. But being able to help kind of shape the futures of junior folks in the military who are just starting their journey, I think was an incredible opportunity. And there's a lot of struggle there. And there's a lot of mental health counseling required when you're an instructor. And it was also ⁓ the other side of that coin, an interesting experience for me to be surrounded by all the other ratings in the Navy, the other job types, because I think there's this misunderstanding sometimes between some of the clearance-related jobs, like we work in SCIFs, the secret compartment and information facilities, and we're kind of locked away sometimes, and people tend to think of us as like nerds or weirdos and kind of separate, and I first heard the word twidget from... I had never heard that because
Kevin: Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: I was always, I guess, surrounded by fellow twidgets. So being kind of welcomed there in a very weird way as like, what are you doing here? It was fascinating. But I think it was great for me to be able to bridge some of that gap and say, no, I'm just like you guys. I'm a sailor trying to lead and get promoted and have good evals and do all the collateral duties to the best of my ability and just think about my future and doing your sailor. So I think it was great for building bridges and learning a lot.
Kevin: Yeah, you hit on some amazing things. I love that you talked about, you know, religion, race, background, socioeconomic standards, you know, all walks of life. But then even within the military itself, you have your different environments. So you're coming from one going to another. It's so cool that you see this growth and an opportunity to learn and provide a positive impact because a lot of people can't recognize that as an opportunity and it becomes a fear or something they don't want to do because they're not ready to step out of their comfort zone.
Kaedy Molley: Yes, I think you just touched on one of my favorite topics in the world, which is we're not going to become better people or grow if we're not willing to sit through the discomfort and not even just sit through it, like welcome it, be present with it, talk about it, share it, because I am not even like who I was before I joined the military is a fraction of the human I am now. And I feel like I've become so much of a better person through all the challenges I face. And some of them were quite, quite tough.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: You know, there are definitely moments of service I think we can all relate to for those who have served or anyone who's gone through periods of struggle or periods of big transition. The thing we can share is that, God, it's hard sometimes, but we just got to keep our head up and understand this is a great learning opportunity and keep trudging forward and find resources and people to connect to that will help you on that journey. Yeah, that was a big part of my instructor duty. It was challenging. I had some tough leadership there, some not so great, some great. Made some great friendships and connections, but I think overall being able to help junior sailors on their path was really rewarding.
Kevin: Absolutely. Was there a moment during your service where you realized you had grown significantly as a person?
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ I mean, there were so many inflection points where I feel like I had those realizations. But for me, a big moment came when I had actually found the nonprofit I now work for, the Warrior Scholar Project. I have to touch on it. I'm not trying to just bring it up all the time, but.
Kevin: Please do, no, please, please share.
Kaedy Molley: So I was a couple years out from getting out of the military. I was in my instructor duty, right? I was up there in my Aguila and my uniforms instructing junior sailors. And I felt like I didn't see a future for myself beyond that tour of duty in the military anymore. And I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. I just felt like maybe I'd reached my intellectual ceiling for myself. I'm not saying the military is not a place where one can grow intellectually. I'm just saying for me, it didn't seem like the path. Thank And I had stumbled upon a Facebook post about this thing called the Warrior Scholar Project, and in a nutshell for the listeners, we offer ⁓ academic boot camps for enlisted veterans or service members who are transitioning out in order to become more informed consumers of higher ed. And we give you confidence and community and academic skills through ⁓ partnerships with schools. So we have host institutions that will host us for a week or two in the summer. And we've got, you know, classroom full of veterans or transitioning folks who are thinking about how to use their GI Bill in a really meaningful way and get a degree that's of value to them. A lot of vets end up going to like University of Phoenix and some of those for-profit institutions. And even though you do learn and get a degree, those degrees are not very valuable in the workplace because they are for-profit. And so the whole goal here is to let veterans know you can aim as high as you want. And there are incredible schools out there. So some of our host institutions include
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Caltech, University of Chicago, Notre Dame, Loyola. I mean, like there's a bunch of great ones. University of Illinois, Urbana, Champaign, UIUC. So we've got these incredible host schools and our model is other alumni of the program. So former enlisted veterans who have gone through one of our boot camps can come back in the summer as a training fellow and pay it forward. And I remember I showed up at that week. I convinced my command to give me a free week of admin.
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: I like highlighted some things in the instructions that was like, this will be good for everyone. And so I managed to sneak in a free week of leave and get myself up to Syracuse University and did this week long. It's basically a simulated finals week at a tough school. And there was a moment where I was, it was halfway through the week and I was sitting on the quad and it was like a bright green, beautifully manicured quad lawn. It was like a memorial bench behind me and big trees and it was sunny and it was like June. And I was reading a
Kevin: Mm.
Kaedy Molley: Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America as part of our assignment for the week. And we were grinding. I'm talking like sunup to sundown. We were working on projects and reading and discussing and writing. And I had taken a moment on my lunch to continue reading and I felt so alive. Like a buzz of energy was trickling through me because I felt like my intellectual capacity was being challenged and stretched and filled. And I really wanted to feel more of that. And so I left that week with this new fire under me. Like I've changed.
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: that it's time for me to use that GI Bill and take a big pivot and see what my own potential is. And so that was a salient moment for me and I went back and immediately enrolled in community college.
Kevin: That's awesome. You know, and you mentioned Syracuse. did their Boots to Business program. They have the IVMF. Excuse me. They are like, I don't know if there's any other educational institutions that are really leaning heavy into the veteran arena as much as Syracuse is. My cousin, he graduated law school from there. As I'm looking to find other ways to help, everything just keeps pointing back to your organization. Excuse me.
Kaedy Molley: Yes.
Kevin: and Syracuse and Utah.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, and Syracuse, sorry to interrupt you. They're not even one of our partner schools now, but they've built such a robust veteran program and veteran presence on campus that they are doing so much in-house. Some of the schools we're currently partnered with are wanting to grow their veteran populations. I mean, these are schools where veterans represent less than 1 % of the student body. And we've been changing the game. This is our 15th anniversary. And in 15 years, we will have served just over 3,100 veterans on these campuses. those numbers go up and we're seeing the impact. I mean places like University were paving the way. I just saw an article about the University of Tennessee is now listed as like a gold campus for vets and I mean there's a bunch. I wish I could give them all credit but yeah the goal is we have a lot to offer on campus communities and those communities have a lot to offer us.
Kevin: Yeah. Yeah, what a fantastic organization. can't wait to get into it more. You talk about this emotion you had in the quad and I want to tie it to linguistics if I can, because if I remember correctly, the first time linguistics was officially recognized as like a science was during the Unibomber trial when they had Ted Kaczynski because when he was teaching at the University of Michigan, they found the way that he wrote things. in ⁓ the bombing letters and then what he had written as ⁓ a professor, the FBI was able to tie those together. And it was very, I mean, it was very circumstantial evidence at the time, but now it's become an applied science. Is that, are you familiar with that at all?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah. No, you might have just taught me something. of course now being the analytical nerd that I am, I'm going to end up down a wormhole later today after this. ⁓ I mean, in general, linguistics is one of the oldest parts of humanity. It's something that shapes how we think, how we form connections, how we build the world around us, how we understand events around us. I mean, I can tell you some really cool things I learned at the University of Chicago, taking some linguistics courses. ⁓ You know, we talked about language and technology, which is mind blowing.
Kevin: Hahaha.
Kaedy Molley: I highly recommend you look into some of that the the linguistics behind technology usage and communication is wild and people dissect human language interactions down to the most Analytical level I'm talking scientific papers that are almost out of my like for sure out of my depth But it's really neat because you know, it's related to observation data collection secret meaning ⁓ It's a sub like you can build whole subcultures around language. I mean look at how ⁓
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: speak has evolved and emojis. And so I think for me, the use of language in Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, which is, know, he's an old French aristocrat from like hundreds of years ago, who was observing democracy in America and making these really astute observations. And I think something about how he was describing concepts I felt, but not really spent time contemplating was really important to me and really lit something in me like
Kevin: Mm. Mm.
Kaedy Molley: I'm great at language. I'm great at communication. It shaped my military career. It shapes defense. shapes so many things. Education, a lot of it has to do with healthcare. mean, so many things touch within linguistics and language that I think it was a big part of what drew my interest outside of the military as well.
Kevin: Mmm. That's so poignant. I taught high school English for a year. It was as a means to be able to coach the varsity baseball team. ⁓ But I loved teaching English. I told my kids, said, I'm the most important class you're gonna have because without my class, none of the other classes make sense. You can't go to biology or chemistry. You can't go to math class. You can't do any of other classes. You can't read and understand the words on the paper. I had no business teaching. I don't have an English degree. I have a master's in criminal justice, but.
Kaedy Molley: you That's cool. Ooh.
Kevin: You know, it's what I love about private schools. They can make it work. And I had a passion for teaching. As you began, once you realized, okay, you my time in the military is coming up. Was there a part of your identity that, you know, maybe held onto and then struggled to let go of?
Kaedy Molley: This is such an exceptional question, Kevin, and I think it's pertinent for every single veteran going through transition and every veteran is going to have a very different experience. So as you can tell, I'm an analytical geek nerd. seek resources. I seek information. It just is what drives me as a human. I'm infinitely curious. And fortunately for me, that curiosity led me to a bunch of incredible transition resources prior to my transition. So I found Warrior Scholar Project two years out and you know, that lit a under me for education. Then I found some other great organizations like 4Block, which is a career transition program for veterans. There's American Corporate Partners where they can partner you. Yeah, ACP, they partner you with an actual mentor in an industry you're interested in. There was, I did a program called Tuck transition, Chuck Next Step, transition of business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. This is cool. Half the cohort was Olympic athletes who were retiring and half the cohort was like elite veterans and somehow I stuck my way in with some good
Kevin: ⁓ I just found them, wow.
Kaedy Molley: essays. ⁓ But it was an incredible two-week program where you get like a mini MBA crash course. So I found myself just finding resource after resource and applying and just saying I belong here, I want you to let me come to this. And I got so much out of it that by the time my actual transition came, I was so well prepared. You know, I had already been accepted to my dream school, the University of Chicago. And I was, by the way, I think this is a really good opportunity to toot my horn. That was the first year. So in 2019 was the very first year that at the University of Chicago, down in Hyde Park. ⁓ had their very first ever cohort of undergrad veterans as part of the college. And I was the first female, only female that year, out of 14 enlisted veterans admitted to the school. And it was an incredible journey. And I graduated with a degree from one of the greatest schools in the world and got to represent veterans and got to represent women veterans. And it was really cool. But so getting into my dream school, trying all of these other nonprofits. And I realized very quickly that education was going to be the number one door I needed to unlock before I pursued any further careers and whatnot for me. Now, if I had a job in the military, that was something I wanted to continue as my path. Like if I had a very technical job, you can always go into contracting or you can, if you're a tank mechanic, there's lots of great opportunities out there to do like make, make a trucking. you know, there's tons of opportunities for those technically specific jobs, but I didn't want to go be a contracting DOD linguist. I just knew I wanted to do something else and learn something else. And so. For me, education was step one, and then I knew that that would open the door for all these other things. So I felt really prepared in my transition as a human, but I was nervous about going to school as a very non-traditional student. I was the oldest undergrad. I was the only female veteran undergrad that first year. And I, you know, as a veteran, a disabled veteran, all of those different kinds of identities, a woman from the South, et cetera, I'm also an outspoken woman, all of those different inner
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: intersectionalities, right, of my identity were going to be a part of who I was. I just had to figure out when to step up and into each of them and when to step back. And I think what was really valuable for me in my transition was not wearing the veteran chip on my shoulder. It was going into every experience thinking I am not in any way superior to anyone because I served. I served and that's a part of my identity, but it's not the whole. And I would love other people to teach me about their identities and teach me even about
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: Aspects of my own identity I wasn't fully aware of and that was just the most incredible thing for my transition it Formed friendships with traditional students professors other veterans on campus just other humans I would interact with on a daily basis being open to their experience and their identities and And being open to answer questions about mine was so incredible and I highly recommend any veteran Really really look at that when they're transitioning. Don't just think of yourself as a veteran or a combat veteran, think of yourself as a Rubik's Cube and you have a billion different blocks to fill in as you go along.
Kevin: The listeners can't see us, but I have the biggest smile on my face right now because you just hit probably the most important thing that I've experienced. ⁓ One, I want to go back real quick. I love how you talked about your curiosity led you to find all these resources. My favorite TV show is Ted Lasso and be curious, not judgmental. Like if you're just a little bit curious, man, like that's, I found that ⁓
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ my god, it's so good. So good. Yes, always a French with curiosity.
Kevin: probably a year and half, two years after I got out. And it's been a great mantra when I'm feeling stuck or, you know, woe is me. Well, stop feeling sorry for yourself. Be curious, start looking for stuff. Get a little analytical. ⁓ The Rubik's Cube, you know, I've had a career ⁓ in security. I've had a career in education, in coaching, finance, and now I'm kind of doing what I'm doing now, which is trying to be an author and a veteran advocate. And I love
Kaedy Molley: Yes.
Kevin: the image of a Rubik's Cube. It's multi-sided, multi-colored. It can move up, down, left, right, and different parts can intersect with different parts, and that's.
Kaedy Molley: And for most people, it's really hard to solve. And I think that's a really good analogy. mean, some people are great at doing that and just like some humans have a clear idea of what they want to be, who they are and a life path. But for me, I don't think I'll ever solve my Rubik's cube. I almost hope I don't. want to keep being able to try and keeping challenged by it. But, but some people just think of themselves as just a veteran. And I think that's detrimental when we're transitioning out. It's valuable to hold those experiences, but also understand
Kevin: Right. Right.
Kaedy Molley: more than just this one thing.
Kevin: Yeah, and it's a message I'm trying to repeat over and over. It's a message in my book. The first thing I did when I bought my house after the divorce, after I got out of the military, is I put up my love me wall. I had my shadow box, my plaques, all that stuff, because I was so scared that if it wasn't up, people wouldn't know. And that's all I knew. I had wrapped so much of my identity in that. And my wife is incredible, and she's helped me peel back down and say, you know, that's just a small part of who you are, it's a long time, but it's a small part. And I thank her for that. And I'm just, thank you for helping remind that it's not the end all be all. And the chip on your shoulder, man, we're so bad about, I wore the uniform and we can be a little cocky and arrogant and condescending with our service. ⁓ I think part of that's twofold. At least I was told, man, you were in the military, you deployed, have all these awards and skills like.
Kaedy Molley: Sorry.
Kevin: You're just gonna be a hot commodity when you walk out and that was pretty far from the truth.
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ Kevin, this is such a ⁓ critical point is we do have lot of veterans who for some reason think when they get out, they're going to be entitled to things. And I cannot convey enough that that is far from the truth. You really have to earn your spot almost more sometimes out there in the civilian world because you have been absent from the civilian going ons in the traditional way. You've been doing something else that we can't always fully be transparent about or
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: experiences or what we've done, but you're going to have to show them that yes, you've done all these incredible things, but how do those carry over into what we need you to do now and where you belong?
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: So I think it's very important for veterans to understand nothing's going to be handed to you. Just like you have to work on your hard evals and the competition for ⁓ promotions in the military, you're going to have to do the same thing out in the real world. And there's a lot of there are a lot of hungry veterans. They really want to better themselves. And as these resources grow and as our presence grows in different spaces, the competition is increasing. So I'm not trying to stress anyone out. I'm just saying all you got to do is make sure you are being curious, taking the steps you need to take and understand that nothing will be given to you. Nobody's gonna celebrate you and roll off the red carpet and say, ⁓ great, we've got an immediate job and salary for you. You're gonna have to work for all of it.
Kevin: Yeah, that boy that is a tough pill to swallow. Because you're being it's the blind leading the blind in the military when it comes to getting out. You have people who are in uniform, never been out of uniform trying to tell you what it's like, what life is like outside of the uniform.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, and I will add that just what's so great about being a veteran right now, and I've spoken, I've been on quite a few different podcasts with veterans, and I think I love that veterans are really trying to explore this together as a community and within a larger conversation of civic engagement. But I will say that, ⁓ I just talked myself out of what I was going to say. ⁓ Sorry, I lost track. I went on a side quest. ⁓ I was going to say that ⁓ there are great resources now.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. No, no worries.
Kaedy Molley: Now is the best time to be a transitioning veteran because there were decades before, were generations before that did not have anyone welcome them with anything. There were no resources. There was no warrior scholar project. There was no four block. There was no ACP. There were not these things. And so for veterans losing their military community and finding another one felt so isolating and hopeless and, and, like it wasn't there because it wasn't. And now it's all there. And we have immediate access through social media, through these great resources.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: If there's something you want to do, there are at least three veteran organizations out there dedicated to helping you. Now, even if it's education, there might be three different types of education nonprofits. Like nobody's doing what Warrior Scholar Project's doing, but you have other entities that are helping you actually apply for schools. You've got other entities that are helping you with grad school. There are so many incredible organizations out there to help you. It's built for you to succeed if you just seek it out and do what's asked of you and make the effort.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. I'm glad you said seek it out because that's one thing that the structure of the military doesn't prepare you for is the work you're gonna have to do on the front end to find the organizations. You have to be curious, you have to be willing to fail at the beginning to find what works and what doesn't. ⁓ I I hated LinkedIn with white hot intensity for a while. But I've really grown to love it the last year because I found there's kind of like an Avengers assemble mentality of we refuse to gatekeep how hard it is to get out of the military. know, we, these bumps and bruises and lessons we've learned and people are sharing it and they're writing white papers and they're, making a community much stronger and I've connected with a few people and I would, I would like to ask your opinion on maybe what would you say are some encouraging ⁓ words, tones and phrases and some red flags that when you know that veteran is looking for the next phase of their life, what should they be on the lookout for both good and bad?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, that's such an interesting question. Nobody's ever asked me that, I think, looking at like keywords and phrases. You're going to see it. And I like that you brought up LinkedIn because I have mixed feelings about it at times. Sometimes it feels a little performative. You know, you see jokes online about like, I'm honored to share blank. And I've done that, too. Like, I have been honored to share the things I'm doing. I think it's great to be proud of ourselves and share that. But also some people try to turn LinkedIn into like their income, their identity by publishing things. And it almost feels
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: like an an echo-y sounding board. I would say when you're thinking about transition, look for people who are humble but seeking to help others. I don't know that I have the keywords off the top of my head but ⁓ transition assistance itself is a great keyword. If you look for that online, someone will have something to say about it. I think community is a big word. If you find veteran resources out there that talk about community, community building, reach out to them. That is that is one of the most important words I think in transition. ⁓ I think anything that helps you build your confidence or find your peace, those are all really great. ⁓ As far as things to look out for, I don't know, I would say... Don't have the mentality that just because you did X job in the military doesn't devalue your service. You do see a lot of people, because media portrays the most glamorous and ugliest parts of service. So you get the tropes, right? You see the Navy SEALs, the Green Braves, the badasses being hyped up, which they should. They did very difficult work. A lot of them sacrificed their lives. Their family sacrificed a lot. I mean, that's no joke.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: But a lot of their work had a trickle down chain of people that they relied on even down to logistics, even down to communications, even down to someone serving food at wherever they were. Like every little bit of the military chain plays a role in each in the other like links in the chain. And I think don't ever undersell your service or think, well, I was just, I've heard veterans say, ⁓ I was just this job. And I'm very quick to remind them, no, you weren't just that. That's an incredibly important job. matter what it is or they or it wouldn't exist. And you learned a lot and you helped empower other people. We couldn't get our flights off the ground if it wasn't for the folks working on our avionics or our mechanics or you know if there's like a chips light going off, they got to figure out what's going on and they're saving lives. But I think people in general tend to overlook that. The other side of the coin is you see portrayals of veterans who are just maxed out on PTSD and this is a very real thing. I urge people to read TRIGUE by
Kevin: Thank
Kaedy Molley: Sebastian Younger. It's an incredible book. talks a lot about how maybe sometimes PTSD doesn't necessarily come just from being exposed to horrible things, but coming back to a community of people who can't relate to it, don't understand what you've been through, don't acknowledge it. And so there's a lot of reading you can do to help empower yourself. Some great books by anthropologists, by fellow veterans. think listening to veteran podcasts exactly like this one is a huge step in being proactive for yourself.
Kevin: Mmm. Thank you.
Kaedy Molley: People who want to share the stories, want to explore it and let other veterans know we're here for each other. You know, just reach out. So community is a big one, a big keyword. And for the positive mantras, I would say think about everything you've got through in the military, even starting with your first night of enlisted boot camp or officer candidate school. Think of every brutal time you were like standing in a field in a ceremony for hours, like just hoping you don't pass out in the sun. I mean, think about the
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: worst night hunkered down in a bunker. I think about the time you lost friends in a horrible, you know, VBID. And I mean, I don't want to go down that path, but there's lots of trauma that we have survived. So transitioning with all the great resources and the help and the people that are there to actually want you to show your individual empowerment and curiosity, like we all want you to succeed. You just got to want it for yourself and have confidence in yourself. I hope that I hope that answered your question. I don't have a lot of
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓ yeah.
Kaedy Molley: I read flags that look, Thor, I just be careful of people who just want you to hear them talk and not share what's helpful. I think just looking for the people who want to build community and offer that helping hand is huge.
Kevin: Yeah, no, you absolutely crushed it. You knocked it out of the park. Some of the things I found are if people call themselves family at a business run, and if they say fast pace, that just means they're going to work into the dirt. They have absolutely no respect for your time. ⁓
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, Yeah, like long hours are great, but long hours without a balance or without feeling fulfilled in your work might not be worth it. I do know quite a few veterans who have transitioned into high powered jobs in finance that they thought would be great. Then after a year, they're worn down and it's just like military part due, you know? So I think it's important to find what you love to pursue so that your long hours are going to at least fill you with some level of fulfillment.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. ⁓ So a lot of enlisted folks especially, you know, they joined the military because they couldn't get into college or they weren't ready, whatever. ⁓ Maybe they're not pursuing education while they're enlisted. If one of those people are listening and says, you know, I don't think college is for me, what would you say to them?
Kaedy Molley: I would say, boy, have we got the resource for you. So Warrior Scholar Project, as I said, changed my life. And yes, I now work there full time. And I work in fundraising. Our mission relies on the generosity of other people on the public to give us donations. It costs a good chunk of change to have our participants come spend a week at a campus, live in the dorms, eat in the dining halls, have professors come. I mean, it's an incredible experience, but it's costly. And it's a nonprofit. everything is really going towards making sure the impact is there and we're changing the socioeconomic outcomes for veterans through higher ed. I would say that I went to college out of high school and I failed out. I mean, I didn't necessarily fully fail out. withdrew because I just was not emotionally mature and I stopped going to class and I partied too hard. And that's a hard admission to make as a now successful, responsible person. But my confidence was down. And when I did try to go back to school here and there once or
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: twice. I just psyched myself out of it. I thought you failed at this before. Your GPA sucks. Like, ⁓ my god. But this is the common shared experience among so many of our Warrior Scholar Project alumni is that they came in that week just terrified that they were going to be the dumbest person in the room or the weakest link or the least able to succeed in college. And we show them, no, you've been telling yourself something that is a false narrative all along. You're self-defeating and self-selecting. You end up in a room with other enlisted veterans who have the same apprehensive imposter syndrome
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: thoughts as you about college. I don't think I'm capable or cut out for it. But at the end of a week where you're putting in effort, we're not grading you. You have little assignments that are like graded, but nobody's putting those grades anywhere that matters. It's just for you to gauge which ones you need to work on. But you've got writing tutors. We have STEM program. We have a business program and we have a
Kevin: Right.
Kaedy Molley: Like it was our core one, but it's essentially like your college readiness. It's going to be more humanities type based. But you've got all these different folks in each arena that you're interested in helping you that week figure out how to work through problems, teaching you about academic skills that are helpful, teaching you about office hours, teaching you about, hey, it's okay to start in community college and like grease the wheels a little bit, right? And then when you're ready to take the training wheels off, you can transfer to a really great school of your dreams. You are capable.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: If you can get through everything you did in the military, can get through academics, especially because academics are also designed for you to succeed. Campuses have resources. Professors want you to come to office hours. Other students want to have study groups. I mean, you have got the tools. We just need to show you you have them and how to use them. And that's really what our program is amazing for is the confidence, the community building. also have a great alumni community. Once you complete our course, you are
Kevin: Right.
Kaedy Molley: part of a lifelong alumni community where people share job postings. We share with other veterans like what are great resources on this campus. If you want to go to that campus, we'll find you a veteran we know there and we'll connect you with them. So you are joining a family of people who want you to succeed. And so you're not ever going to be alone on that college journey. You'll always have someone to reach out to. So don't self-select. Don't tell yourself you can't do it. If you can get through enlisted military, you can make it through college and you can do really well there.
Kevin: Mmm. Yeah, absolutely. And I love they said don't select. ⁓ For those of you that are listening that maybe didn't serve when someone goes to a ranger school, special forces assessment selection, if they go to buds, the cadre will tell you the very first day, let us evaluate you don't self select meaning, ⁓ you think you performed at a specific evolution you did terrible or you think you excelled. It's moment to moment evolution by evolution. Do not Overthink or over process what you've done. Don't self select. Don't kick yourself out. Give yourself a fighting chance. Allow the people to help you. And one of the hardest lessons I've learned ⁓ is it's not what you know, it's who you know. And networking is such a vital part of ⁓ corporate America and really the quote unquote real world today. And having a veteran network through such a wonderful organization like Warrior Scholar Project. It's like having the private news network back again in the military. ⁓ yo, what was Fort Campbell like? Tell me about Great Lakes. What was 29 Palms like? Like it's the same thing. It's just instead of duty stations, you're talking about college campuses. That's awesome. You're getting an Intel dump and getting the hookup because of it. It's fantastic. I love it.
Kaedy Molley: It's awesome. And the more I got deeper into my college campus experience, I realized that even within other campuses, veterans are wanting to reach out and help one another. So you've got chapters of veteran undergrad organizations that are trying to team up and work on things together. And it's really, really beautiful. I think the average veteran who's questioning their ability to succeed in higher ed would be absolutely mad at themselves if they miss out on an opportunity.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: opportunity to at least give it a shot. And it's a no-stakes shot. You just take a week of your time and our programming is free for the participant. They just have to get themselves there. And I will add that we also offer virtual programs. We've had veterans in Iraq. like attending our courses virtually. And so all you gotta do is try it. You know, my favorite, I love hockey. I'm a big Blackhawks fan and Wayne Gretzky said it best, you you miss 100 % of the shots you don't take. Just take it. And if you miss, that's okay. There'll be other shots to take later. You just don't want to have regrets because you talked yourself out of it.
Kevin: Mmm. Yeah, I've learned that as I try to put my book tour together, ⁓ what is the saying? If you knew you would get your first yes after 50 no's, how excited would you be to get the first no? Like from September until late February, no, no, nothing. And then I got that first yes and it's been all downhill from there and it's phenomenal. ⁓ You and I are making college sound awesome, which it is and learning is fun.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah. It is.
Kevin: But what do veterans often underestimate about the college life?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, I think they underestimate that unlike the military where a lot of what we learn is sort of memorization based, right? Like when you go to do a warfare pin, right? When you go to earn one of those or you're in a qualification, a lot of it is a book that guides you and you go through the motions of learning it all. And then you regurgitate it out of board, which is great. You learn a lot, but school is different. And like, especially some of these top universities, like, you know, great for your institutions are really going to challenge you. not just
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Mm. Yeah.
Kaedy Molley: regurgitation. It's active learning and critical thinking. And so I do think some veterans might take a community college class and be like, ⁓ that was easy. I can do great at college. And then they choose to go to Harvard. And then they're absolutely shocked when they get there and they realize that Harvard is not community college. And so I do recommend that veterans really understand it will be rigorous. But if I can get through a math class at the University of literally anyone can. It's just a matter of putting in the work, just like in the military. You could only do so many push-ups, but the more you keep trying and practicing, the better it'll get. And it's the same thing with academic, intellectual muscle memory, right? ⁓ It's going to be rigorous, but use your resources. Be willing to put in the work. Learn ahead of time about time management and balancing out. Do some things that give you time and happiness or you will burn out. So that's a big one. I also think, as we talked about before, some veterans go with the mindset of, ⁓ people will respect me and look up to
Kevin: Ugh.
Kaedy Molley: in the classroom because I'm a veteran. And that's not always the case. You're not necessarily a subject matter expert on anything you're going to study in college, even war. I took a class on the embodiment of war and I tell you it was one of the most life-changing experiences of my life. I'm still friends with the postdoc student who taught the course. In fact, you should have her on as a guest. You would
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Kaedy Molley: Absolutely love her. She's a civilian. worked with She studied for a while as an anthropologist with like canine based units and she's just an incredible human I should absolutely hook you up with her but some of the texts she introduced me to in her course Were things related to a bore that I had never touched on that I had never spent time thinking about and there were moments of catharsis where I'm learning I was the only veteran in that class and luckily it was a seminar class. So I'm getting the opportunity to hear these
Kevin: Wow. Awesome. Mm-hmm. ⁓
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ young folks or traditional students share their opinions of what it means to be a perpetrator of war and operate a drone as a remote drone strike operator. And there were things they taught me. And there were also moments where I could say, yeah, I see that point of view. I don't know that I agree with it. And here's some color to add to the discussion from my experience. But there were beautiful connections being made by not, by understanding that just because I am a veteran doesn't mean I'm a veteran or war or military expert.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: So I think understanding that going to campus as a veteran and an older student does not entitle you to anything or make you an expert on anything. In fact, it almost means you have a little more catching up to do in terms of academic campus life. ⁓ But don't let that scare you. Just be open and be kind and be interested in other people and they will be interested in you. And you can really share and teach them things you learned from the military and they can teach you things they learned by being exceptional college kids.
Kevin: Yep.
Kaedy Molley: and getting into top schools at the age of 18 when there's like a 5 % admissions rate out of like 30,000 applications. Like you're going to meet some really intelligent people and just because their path is different doesn't mean anyone's is better.
Kevin: Right. There's a lot of talk that AI is going to take jobs and everyone should go to the trades. And I'm not against that at all, but I do like education and I want to play kind of devil's advocate to something. ⁓ cause I agree with everything you've said, but just for that person, you know, when you tell them to do something, they do the opposite. So think of this, you're going to a new environment with people who are subject matter experts in their field. Professors are not
Kaedy Molley: Man. you
Kevin: randomly chosen people don't throw a dart at a board and be like, okay, let's pick Timmy like these are sought out professionals experts in the and they want to be there and More than likely they're probably well compensated for it ⁓ Like, you know, there's a reason why? ⁓ Selections for green braids is held at Fort Bragg. There's a reason there's a reason why Ranger school is in Fort Benning There's a reason why buds is how held where it is. There's a reason why the PJs are held where it is Take that same mentality. If you want to be part of a specific group, an environment, an educational institution, look forward to the challenge that's going to be presented to you. Don't self-select, but understand anything worth doing should be hard. It should be taxing. It should take you out of your comfort zone and force you to grow and evolve. it's not always... A board in the military is great for learning how to interview for a job. College is not regurgitating information, it's learning information. And I would challenge you to learn what your learning style is, and I hate to break it to you guys, it's more than just the three they taught us in the military. There's 12 different learning styles, and they're probably a combination of three to five of them. And if you have ADHD, figure it out, because that just makes learning that much harder.
Kaedy Molley: Yes, as a person with ADHD, I can tell you, oh boy. I honestly learned so much from the traditional students, from like great study habits, tools to use. Like I started using an iPad and I was like, oh, I can highlight on this and store things and all these notes apps. Like meanwhile, I was up here scribbling in a notebook, like what? So I recommend that you...
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yes. Right? Everything we were told was cheating as kids is now commonplace.
Kaedy Molley: Yes, I mean like there's so many great ways out there to help you tackle it and and utilize your best learning style. So I love what you said about that being aware that there are many different styles. Try them out, right?
Kevin: Yeah, I mean, YouTube is probably the greatest free research tool on the planet. I could go hours on that, just get learn how to search. Yeah.
Kaedy Molley: Khan Academy. Khan Academy is massive. It's like a free, you can get basically a free up to college education through that. It's incredible.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kaedy Molley: And yeah, there's tutorials for everything. And then now we've got AI. Like I can go into Grok or chat GBT and just be like, give me an overview of this topic so that I can at least have the basics so that then you can deepen your own understanding of it. But I do want to make sure that that's something they can just lean into AI for everything. And I wouldn't recommend you do that. You're going to be dulling your brain instead of growing those cognitive connections.
Kevin: Right. Mm-hmm. I like to use chat as, I call him Jarvis, like from Iron Man, and I use it as my personal assistant. I'm like, okay, here's what I'm thinking, talk to me. ⁓ And then like you said, it's a great way, like give me an overview of this, teach it to me like I'm five years old so I have a basic understanding, and then I can be a human being. ⁓ As we talk about college and education and growing, was there ever a part of you that felt guilty for evolving?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah.
Kevin: beyond who you were in the uniform.
Kaedy Molley: You mean guilt related specifically to like my service as someone who had signed up to be on that military team or as in a general human who had a life change because of their personal growth?
Kevin: ⁓ either and both, whatever.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, I will say there were moments in the military where I felt not ostracized, but like if you say, hey, I know we're doing things this way, but we seem to keep having issues with it. What if we tried this? There was always pushback. And I think there's something about, yeah, military tradition, bureaucracy, status quo could get very frustrating if you're someone who's learned how to think outside the box or innovatively or critically, because not everyone, you get a lot of human things like pride and ego that can get in the way when it comes to that.
Kevin: The way we've always done it. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: And that became frustrating because in... ⁓ Someone who's intellectually growing is more willing to do a self inventory and be self aware and say, Ooh, here's something I've been doing poorly that I could work on. Or here's an interaction I didn't handle well that I need to change. Or here's where my responsibility and accountability is in this thing that happened. And sometimes you have people who have such fragile egos or too prideful. They've just never had to look inward and they just don't want to. It's too uncomfortable for them. And that can be frustrating because you'll just hit a brick wall and you have to remember sometimes it isn't you it's them and Sometimes like they need to understand it's them not everyone else So that's been that was a little bit of a challenging thing I encountered some of that at instructor duty some folks who weren't as interested in education and self-growth and self-awareness and You just kind of end up at a stalemate. Well, I'm sorry you want to keep having a failed outcome We could try something new and see what happens and that's just part of life
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: I would say the in my personal life, something that I felt was a bummer. And I'd actually talked to other undergrad vets at school with me who had issues, our relationships with our loved ones. Sometimes we're going through these big transitions and big moments and these big milestones and catalysts for growth and change. And the loved ones in your life are not going through that with you necessarily. And they can't fully understand it. And, you know, I feel like my marriage to be forthcoming kind of ends
Kevin: Mm. Yeah.
Kaedy Molley: with us diverging a bit, not because he's not a lovely human who's doing his own form of growth and has a lot to offer and learn, but just because I felt like my trajectory had a rocket launched into a deeper curiosity for other things. And we just saw the differences at that point. And other veterans have had to mention some things like that. had made a joke. I'm hesitant to say it, but they made a joke about ⁓ going to like a really hard school can be a relationship graveyard if you're a veteran. And I think it was a joke we have with each other because we've gone through enough changes to maybe see that there was room for more happiness and fulfillment. ⁓ And that's just another part of life in general. It's not specific to being a veteran and transitioning to higher ed. It's just the more you learn and educate yourself and learn how to grow through discomfort, you're gonna sometimes outgrow people in different ways. Not in a better way or superior way. You're just gonna end up on different paths with different interests and that's part of
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: Thanks.
Kevin: Yeah, I often, so I grew up in some not so cool places. You know, people throw their shoes up on the wires before they leave. ⁓ I live in Scottsdale right now, but I work at a school in a very non-affluent part of Phoenix, ⁓ the barrio, if you will. ⁓
Kaedy Molley: I'm weirdly familiar with Phoenix and Scottsdale from working in private equity. had some properties. Yeah.
Kevin: ⁓ I bet. ⁓ What if what would you say to somebody? And it can be from the enlisted side, the officer side, the warrant side. If they're worried about forgetting their roots, like I was in the military, even if I leave and I don't carry that torch forward, I'm letting down the military family. I'm laying down the veteran brotherhood by excelling or reaching for these big dreams that they have.
Kaedy Molley: Oh, I have a great answer for that. And it's very apropos because I was just meeting with an undergrad vet buddy of mine who's a dear friend a few days ago. We were catching up over Zoom because he graduated with me from New Chicago. He came from absolutely difficult life circumstances. talking like everything you mentioned, know, tough, tough life where, where he did not have access to any opportunities, like just underserved, right? And he's gone through his journey
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: through the military and leveraged it into higher ed and got a degree in economics from the University of Chicago and went and worked in banking and has done all this cool stuff. And now he's creating his own nonprofit to give back to the communities of people that he came from.
Kevin: That's awesome.
Kaedy Molley: So I say that instead of feeling like you're leaving your roots behind, it enables you to go back and make an impact where your roots are growing and, you know, create better soil conditions for those trees to go big and strong and create this beautiful landscape of empowerment for people. ⁓ Don't ever feel like you're leaving someone behind and don't ever feel like.
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: something you should be proud of is something that will embarrass someone else. You can utilize the things you pursue and grow from and succeed at to go be the hand that reaches out to someone who needs a helping hand. And that's the coolest thing I'm seeing in the veteran community on a large scale is you see so many vets who, yeah, we leave service, we want to do something high powered and creative and many are succeeding at it. But then having access to those socioeconomic means and those networks and those resources enables you to go really give back and meaningful impactful way. You know, the CEO of Warrior Scholar Project is also an enlisted linguist veteran who went to law school and did Teach for America and did all these great things. you know, he's genuinely changing the lives of like thousands of veterans through higher ed empowerment. And that's what my friend Tyler, who I was talking to the other day, is doing. He's going to also be changing so many lives that come, that are modeled after the kind of life he had, Underserved, underprivileged. And now he's going to be able to help bring them up to where he's got.
Kevin: Mm.
Kaedy Molley: and it's cool. It's like climbing a ladder and then helping someone else below you by reaching hand down and helping them get to the top. Or in military when you have to scale a wall with two people or three people and you're climbing over each other, you figure it out and that's kind of the best metaphor I can think of.
Kevin: That's awesome. And you've done such a wonderful job talking about everybody else. What is Katie do? What does life look like now? What do you hope it looks like down the road?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, you know, I'm living in my Q department in Chicago with my two dogs. I go to a lot of Blackhawks games because I really enjoy that. And I'm also working with a friend to build more community about around women's sports fans engagement. So spaces and places for female fans to gather and share their sports them and feel included and make friends. So that's something I'm passionate about as like a side project. But Warrior Scholar Project is where I started on my transition. I came back as a fellow when I was in undergrad. I always stayed involved with feel in my community. And now I work, yes, in fundraising, but I'm trying to keep our mission alive. So I hope that we're successful. It's our 15th anniversary. We have a big fundraising dinner coming up in October. I highly encourage any listeners who care to make an impact or pay it forward, go and check out our website. And if you can donate, donate or share it with someone who you think could benefit from the program. I'm really passionate for Katie about paying it forward to this thing that gave me, I would argue, nearly everything. You know, that one week I spent at our academic bootcamp sent me on this path that has enabled me to be sitting here with you today talking about how successful my life is becoming and other lives are becoming. And I just really, really think it's important to pay that back as much as I can. I also care greatly about animals and about humans. And I just hope we can all remember to do the best we can to be the positive change and the positive influence out there in our immediate communities. So if you see someone and there's something about them you want to compliment, pay the compliment. If there's someone who looks like they're struggling, offer a little help, you know, just be the good you want to see in the world. I know that's cliche, but I feel like that the karmic energy is a real thing. What you put out, you'll get back and you'll get it back in space.
Kevin: Yeah, and it costs $0 to be a decent human being, you know.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, yeah, I just want to keep doing. Oh, and I really want to get much better at golf. That's my number one fun thing is I just started it and it's so hard and so challenging, but it's really fun and also a lot of community there. And also there are veteran organizations out there. If you want to get involved with golf, you can check out veteran golf association. It's pretty cool. And they've got chapters all over the place.
Kevin: Okay. That's awesome. What a humbling game.
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ my gosh, yes. If you're ever feeling ego driven or like you can't do any more great things than you've done, just try golf. It'll humble you real quick.
Kevin: So you and I. Yeah. Yeah. Or if you spend a hundred bucks, go to Topgolf for an hour, you'll save the walk and you can have a lot of fun. ⁓ So you and I both, we've had kind of different avenues before we've settled in after our military career. ⁓ What does that taught you about reinvention and identity for yourself?
Kaedy Molley: Exactly. Yeah, I hope that for me, I never stop kind of adding to my intersectional identities. I hope I become and do more things. I don't ever want to let one branch of a tree die or another branch of a tree die because I was too scared to choose a branch and lose the other ones. ⁓ You know.
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: I really hope I keep being hungry and curious and helping others and being willing to pivot when it feels like in my gut I need to pivot. And I hope I never become scared of discomfort or growth or... ⁓ outreach. I want to help always connect other people and uplift them because it feels good, selfishly it feels good for me to do that and I hope that for other people but yeah I think I just want to keep adding to my different stickers on my Rubik's Cube.
Kevin: I love that. So what would you say to the young man or woman who's getting ready to transit or they're making the decision to get out of the military or maybe they've been out for a little bit or even five or 10 years, but they have that kind of overwhelming sense of uncertainty. What would you tell them?
Kaedy Molley: Uncertainty is absolutely normal. And if you're not feeling it, it means you're not trying to grow. It means you're not asking yourself, could I be doing more, better, different something? Things are going to be hard, but that's a sign that you are a sentient, caring being who wants to do more and be better and grow. So don't be scared of uncertainty. Embrace it and use it to be the fire that fuels, you know, or the fuel that, for your fire, if you will, that makes you go out and seek resources and seek connection.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: and take the shots so you don't miss them. Just take the shots, be brave, you got this, you can do this, and being uncertain is a good sign. It should indicate to you that you are capable of growth and that you are gonna make things happen. You just gotta be willing to do it. Just one foot in front of the other, baby steps.
Kevin: Love that. Last question. I hate that the conversation is coming to an end because this has been phenomenal. At the end of the day, we're all going to die. And at some point, hopefully someone stands up there and talks about us at our funerals. When you look back, what do you want your legacy to be? What do want people to say about you?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, great one. Love it. ⁓ man, she was brave, she was ⁓ caring, she was passionate, and she was kind. I think those are all the things. I want people to know me as being brave, passionate, kind, and caring, yeah. and just always wanting to connect and help people. want people to think. I don't want people to be left with any feeling that I didn't do something nice or make them feel good or help them when I could. I mean, I'm human. I struggle too, right? Sometimes I need to ask for help. ⁓ But I hope people just think of me as a good, brave, kind person.
Kevin: I love it. since you're a hockey fan, I'll use my hockey analogy instead of my baseball one. 30 shots on goal, 30 saves. Nobody's come on the show and said, I want to be known for money, titles, cars, anything. It's all about.
Kaedy Molley: I mean, it would be great if I could be known as being super wealthy, but that's also half a joke. But then I could empower even more people if I were. But yeah, I love that people are coming on and really like, are, if you don't mind me real quick asking, what are some of the other things people say?
Kevin: You ⁓ Most of them have revolved around their family, their spouse and their children, knowing that they were loved, and then just somehow making a positive impact on the life of others. No one has talked about, when I die, I want people to say, ⁓ he or she was wealthy, or they had 50 cars. It's substantial.
Kaedy Molley: Good. Yeah, I love it. And like I said before, I think it's incredible that you're even having a podcast like this to create these discussions and building that you're building the community. You're helping people with their identities. You're helping find meaning where sometimes we struggle to find it. So I want to give you huge props for your curiosity and your growth and your willingness to share and connect with others. think it's what we desperately need more of in this world.
Kevin: Well, thank you. if as we recap, what are the organizations and websites that people can go to if they do get curious?
Kaedy Molley: Yes, warrior scholar, warrior-scholar.org. It was my game changer. I literally want something on my headstone to be like WSP fan girl because it changed my life so much and it's changing so many lives. It's incredible. And we rely on public donations. So anyone out there who even wants to get a little bit of money, we, you know, we've got recurring donors, et cetera, but you're helping change socioeconomic outcomes. Every vet that goes to a good four year school is going have a better outcome than when they went into the military enlisted. So you're really changing lives for the long term. Also, if people want resources for ⁓ Work career transitions for block is great American corporate partners is great if you want to take up golf the veteran golf Association is cool. If you want to take a poppy there's Google veteran hockey orgs. I think we've got warrior hockey in Chicago ⁓ I'm not brave enough yet to do that, but I will one day yeah, if you go on to grock or chat GBT and you look for veteran resource for X you type in whatever it is you want you will find multiple ones. And if you have questions about it, send me an email. My contact info can be found on our website, warrior-scholar.org. And you can find me on LinkedIn, Katie Molly. You can find me on Instagram. I'm all over the place and I'm always willing to help or connect you with someone who can. So please, please take this step and do something good for yourself and check out all the great resources, especially Warrior Scholar Project.
Kevin: Awesome. Katie, thank you so much for coming on. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed this conversation just as much as I did.
Kaedy Molley: Thanks so much, Kevin.
Kaedy Molley: Thanks so much for having me, Kevin. I'm excited to be here and chat with you today.
Kevin: I am too. think we have a pretty cool maybe parallel when it comes to pursuing education after the military. I've told the story a couple of times. I was an abhorrent student after high school. I managed an immaculate 0.8 GPA my first year of college. Yeah, that took. Right, it's impressive like it took a lot of effort to not do the right thing, and that's how you know you end up in the military. n-g-e-r-t-s dot t-a-x-d-o-m-e dot com. but it's not the end of your story. It's the foundation for what comes next. know, Katie said it best, don't self-select. Don't talk yourself out of growth. Don't assume you're not capable. And don't you dare stay stuck in an identity that no longer serves you. Look, there are resources out there. There are people who want to help. And there's a version of you on the other side of this transition that is stronger, sharper, and more aligned than ever. I'm living this right now.
Kaedy Molley: Wow. That's actually impressive. Yeah. Right, exactly.
Kevin: ⁓ but before we get into everything, ⁓ I like to start with one question that we haven't really talked about, just that full, ⁓ completely transparent, honest question. And it comes from the book 365 questions to get to know yourself and your team better. It's by Brett Leadbetter, who's a mental performance coach. I'd met him, ⁓ at a conference in Los Angeles last April. And I love the book and his concept was whenever you meet with clients. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with another veteran, someone in transition, anybody who needs to hear it. And if you're ready to take that next step, go check out Warrior Scholar Project. might just change your life the way it changed so many others. you know, instead of the usual awkward icebreakers, open my book, ask them a question. I've taken that and made it my own with the podcast and you have picked number 24 and much of Brett's questions are two parts and you get to experience that as well. So the first one is what's the best lesson you've learned from the last decade of your life? Today's conversation is about something every veteran faces but not enough talk about honestly, which is what happens after the uniform comes off. You know, we're told the military prepares us for everything. The truth is, transitioning can feel like starting over, know, a new identity, new environment, new expectations. And if you're not careful, you can either hold on too tightly to who you were or feel completely lost trying to figure out who you are now. Thank you again to Drake Uplinger, founder of Uplinger Tax Services for supporting this episode. Drake is a CPA and CFP helping individuals and businesses navigate tax strategy and financial clarity. You can find him at uplingerts.taxdome.com. If this episode resonated with you, you're not alone. Transition is hard, identity shifts are hard, healing.
Kaedy Molley: Okay. Ooh, love this question. Best lesson learned from the last decade of my life. ⁓ gosh, that's a big one. I would have to say that things work out for a reason. And I know that sounds so cliche, but in the last decade of my life, I have transitioned out of the military, transitioned into higher ed. I've worked in private equity. I've been a non-traditional student at a top school. I've ⁓ pivoted into the nonprofit sector. I've gotten divorced. I've relocated.
Kevin: My guest today, Katie Molley, has lived that journey at a very high level. She's a Navy veteran, a former cryptologic linguist, an Afghanistan veteran, and now works with the Warrior Scholar Project, helping enlisted service members successfully transition into higher education and beyond. And that's awesome, but that's not what makes this conversation powerful. What is, is how she talks about ⁓ reinvention without losing your roots. is hard, none of that has to be done in isolation. Reach out, make sure the person you're reaching out to is a fountain, someone that pours into you and that they're not a drain. Initiate or have that tough conversation. Take the first step. Be the leader in your own life. If you found value in today's episode, please consider sharing it with a friend, leaving a review or sending it to another veteran or leader who might need to hear it. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, threads, X, YouTube.
Kaedy Molley: from the suburbs into the city of Chicago. I've lost dogs. I've, you know, become distanced from friends that were once a big part of my life in the military. So there's so many things that can cause you to really rethink how's everything gonna look versus how I thought it would look. So I think understanding that things work out for a reason, everything is a series of decisions and chance that come together for all the right reasons. And just having kind of
Kevin: letting go of entitlement and rebuilding from scratch, and why growth requires discomfort every single time. If you're a veteran navigating a transition, if you're someone trying to figure out your next chapter, this one's going to hit home. Here's my conversation with Katie. Let's get to it. and Amazon Music at enduring underscore mindset underscore enterprise. Check out the website, www.enduringmindsetenterprise.com. You can find out more about the business, the book, our new nonprofit arm, the enduring mindset foundation. And hey, check it out. The book is out for preorder. You can find the invisible veteran on the ballast books website. That's my publisher, ⁓ Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Walmart. Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: an understanding and a faith in yourself that you can pick yourself up and a lot of your path is up to you. It's the decisions you make, the connections you make, and how you decide to show up every day.
Kevin: Man, I love that. You already answered the second part, which is what experience taught you that. Ladies and gentlemen, buckle up, because this is going to be a good one. We're already getting good tidbits right off the bat. Before we dive into the meat and potatoes, let's get to know Katie a little bit. Would you mind sharing where you're from and what shaped you growing up? Pre-sales, pre-orders, they help more than people know. We've had a pretty strong response so far and if you pre-order the book, us a DM. We're doing something special for early supporters.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah.
Kevin: This has been the enduring mindset podcast reminding you that your past may shape you, but it does not have to define you. Until next time, onward, forward, fall out.
Kaedy Molley: Absolutely. So I grew up in Huntsville, Alabama, known as the rocket city, a lot of NASA, Johnson Space Flight Center. There's all kinds of cool stuff there to be involved with. And my dad was a project manager for a defense contracting company and he was also a Naval reservist and he did some of the Navy stuff when I was a kid. He did 30 years, 10 active and 20, 20 reserve. Yeah. So he would go off and drill in Atlanta. I have two brothers, an older brother and younger brother, and we all played sports growing up and we were not the most serious students. Obviously we, you know, I've got an interesting journey and so do they, but yeah, we were really raised to what's Southern standards, right? To be polite and be grateful.
Kevin: Wow.
Kaedy Molley: and show up. My dad was very, ⁓ very much. a supporter of us participating in team sports, which I think was super salient to my upbringing, just learning how to be on a team, collaborate, deal with disappointment, et cetera. ⁓ Went off to college after graduation. I graduated high school with a 3.4, putting in very little effort. It just was really into the sports and the social life. And went and started playing lacrosse at Auburn University, one of the big SEC schools. But I partied my way right on out of there very quickly. I just wasn't emotionally mature enough for school at that point.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. ⁓ wow.
Kaedy Molley: So I ended up working in the luxury beauty industry for quite a few years. I worked in retail. I did a lot of various odds and ends types jobs and was working in the luxury beauty industry in 2009 when the 2008-2009 economy crashed. Great financial crisis housing bubble and I was just working dead-end jobs. I lost my big job because retail took a big hit and I thought I've got a recruit. What am I gonna do? And I ended up walking into a Navy recruiter's office and listing in the RCD.
Kevin: ⁓ wow. So the family background is that kind of what pulled you to the Navy as opposed to a different branch?
Kaedy Molley: Absolutely, yeah, I grew up as a competitive swimmer and I thought well if I'm gonna, you know, be in the military might as well if I fall off a boat or a ship I can swim. Ironically, I never ended up on a ship, I was aircrewed. But yeah, it was always Navy or bust for me.
Kevin: Okay, that's funny. I didn't have a lot of military ⁓ connections growing up. I never thought I would be in the military and it ended up being the best thing for me. My stepdad was in the army and it's kind of funny how those familial ties ⁓ are the ones that get you to where you want to go. ⁓ Besides the familiar tie, did you know what you wanted to do in the Navy?
Kaedy Molley: I really didn't. had this generic idea of working in the Intel field because my dad had been an Intel officer. But you know how then, how, and I don't know, you're familiar with how listing works specifically, but it's all aptitude test-based. And I scored really high on the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, the ASVAB. And they were trying to push me to be a nuclear engineer. And I was like, you guys don't know me at all. That would not be a good fit. I can't math. But ⁓ I ended up flipping through a book of types of opportunities for ratings or jobs in the Navy. And I came across linguists and I'd always been really good at doing accents and picking
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: up dialects and ⁓ language learning. So I thought that might be a good fit. And then I took the defense language aptitude battery and scored really well on that and ended up becoming an Arabic linguist. So the path kind of guided me as opposed to me guiding it. And that was one of those instances I kind of talked about where sometimes it's luck, sometimes it's decisions. And sometimes you just go with the flow and see where it takes you.
Kevin: Wow, that's funny. So we do only audio at this point, but ⁓ listeners, Katie is a very attractive blonde woman, white woman. Like she looks like the typical Southern Belle you see at Auburn in Alabama on college game day. ⁓
Kaedy Molley: Okay, hype man, I'm gonna start having you carry a boombox in my entourage. Thank you for that.
Kevin: right? I want to be the what's his name? ⁓ James whatever the English guy he was the heightmate with Adele on his show and he's like I just want to walk around and scream yeah during one of her songs. ⁓ How surprised were people when they saw you and versus when they heard you?
Kaedy Molley: Yes, yes. What do you mean as opposed to like at what point in my life, I guess?
Kevin: ⁓ when it comes to the Arabic dialect.
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ yeah, this is something that actually is apropos to my daily life in Chicago, hopping in Ubers where a lot of Uber drivers actually are transplanted. You know, they've immigrated from elsewhere and speak Arabic and they're always shocked when I, I'll catch an accent through a brief interaction and I'll say something like, ⁓ in Arabic, I'll ask them if they speak Arabic and they'll kind of look in the rear view mirror like, wait, what? And then I'll take a minute to explain like, yeah, I learned Arabic, you know, back in the day in school and it's something I've been interested in and they just love it. So I think it is shocking for people.
Kevin: Okay.
Kaedy Molley: to look at someone like me who does look like I belong in a dress at an Alabama football game on game day with my sorority sisters. ⁓ And people find out, ⁓ wow, there's a little more depth there. And then to find out I'm a veteran, I think is another shock point, which is interesting. But I've spoken with other female veterans about how people don't always look at us initially. there's not an immediate assumption that we were in service or are veterans.
Kevin: You Yeah, I've had a couple of my friends, my wife's friends who both served, one in the Navy, one in the Army, and they've alluded to that same ⁓ stereotype or being overlooked. ⁓ And then it's frustrating because some of the best leaders I had, the best platoon sergeant I had, one of the best commanders I had, they were women. And I just, I hate that. ⁓ I have an incredibly strong wife. My daughter is fiercely independent. Like I hope she can continue to... find role models such as yourself that open doors and refuse to let stereotypes ⁓ weigh them down.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah. Yeah, I love that. And I think women have had sort of this, not a luxury, but a privilege of being able to exist with our emotions. And I think that does create a good leader, being able to experience empathy and sympathy and express those in really healthy ways. I mean, I know the military is very much about rigidity and discipline and kind of towing a line, but to be a good leader, think having a good emotional intelligence is very important. So you can relate to those who are working for you with and above you. So I love that women, think women leaders tend to be really excellent at that.
Kevin: ⁓ Absolutely. I've learned a lot, especially the last few years, especially in the emotional quotient area. ⁓ Did you do ⁓ Pashtun or Dari or just... Okay.
Kaedy Molley: Yes. No, just Arabic and it was modern standard Arabic and then I did do a short course on Levantine Arabic but the ironic part was I ended up going to Afghanistan for deployment where they don't even speak Arabic and I was working in signals Intel and it's an interesting journey you go on. I did do some deployments to the Med and North Africa area but I don't know that the missions I was working were super high action at that point in my career.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Okay, and you say, Levantine, is that like Lebanon, Lebanese?
Kaedy Molley: Yes, yeah, the Levant is an area of the Middle East surrounding Lebanon and so the dialects in that region are very similar and they call it Levantine. It's very French influenced.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah, ⁓ the best restaurant in Detroit is a place called Layla's and it's Lebanese food and is hands down my favorite restaurant. I've taken my mom there for Mother's Day. My wife and I go. ⁓ I can't wait. We're moving back to Michigan this summer and I can't wait to go. ⁓ Let's get. ⁓ yeah, beautiful. ⁓ Let's get back on topic because I'm straying here. You know what do you remember mostly almost clearly about your service?
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ how exciting. Yeah, I love that. Great, great food, great culture. Yeah.
Kevin: ⁓ and whatever parts or facets you'd like to share.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, I know this answer tends to be a little bit of the low hanging fruit, but the people I served with were just incredible. And I'm talking about my enlisted folks that I served with, my fellow air crewmen, my fellow sailors, my fellow linguists. I also had the opportunity to go be an instructor up at Great Lakes at the end of my career and working with the new incoming junior sailors was really cool. And some of the other jobs and ratings, like the surface ratings that I hadn't had much opportunity to work with. I think the people we work with, we are exposed to every background, every walk of life. Some people come from lower socioeconomic classes. Some people are there because they're super patriotic. Some people are in the military because it's generational for them. It was just always something they were gonna do. So you've got these various reasons why people end up there, but we all end up working on the same missions and fighting for the same things and giving up a good bit of our personal agency to support. know, military operations on behalf of the US. And I think it's great to be able to learn and grow and struggle and be uncomfortable with other people because you help each other grow and certainly come across challenging personalities. And that's always an opportunity for growth. Learn how to deal with them and also learn what not to model as you move up the ranks of leadership.
Kevin: Yeah, that's such a wonderful point. It's easy to look back at the leaders and mentors that we loved, or even teachers if you're a kid, ⁓ and take away the things that you like. But I think one of the most powerful things is I don't wanna be like that person, or I don't want to do that thing. That was one of the hardest lessons I had to learn during my growth journey.
Kaedy Molley: Right. Yeah, learning what you do not want your legacy to look like versus what you hope it does look like.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. What was it like being an instructor? That's something I missed out on or not missed. I didn't take advantage of, but I can see just how teaching others can change your perspective on leadership and responsibility and influence.
Kaedy Molley: Absolutely. And I think what was really special for me was I had come from such a small community within the Navy. I think the linguists are like maybe 1 % of the Navy community. And I was an aircrew linguist, which made it an even smaller group of people that I had worked with for the previous, you know, six, seven years. So getting to go up to Great Lakes, I had to get permission to leave my career field, but I had sort of reached my maximum off-temple, right? I had deployed as much as I could really. And so it was a great time for shore duty and my options were go be where they're like an NSA, you know, ⁓ or try to find something unique. And I was digging through the computer when it was my time to negotiate orders and I found a billet for a female. They only required that you be a female. And I thought this is interesting and I could go to Chicagoland and be an instructor and just try something new, make a big pivot. And it was really amazing getting to work with junior sailors, especially ones who came from different backgrounds than the folks I was working with in the linguist community. ⁓ who ended up like I said before in the Navy for various reasons, a lot of reasons that people enlist are socioeconomic survival, travel, education benefits, ⁓ health insurance, know, tons of reasons why people end up there. But being able to help kind of shape the futures of junior folks in the military who are just starting their journey, I think was an incredible opportunity. And there's a lot of struggle there. And there's a lot of mental health counseling required when you're an instructor. And it was also ⁓ the other side of that coin, an interesting experience for me to be surrounded by all the other ratings in the Navy, the other job types, because I think there's this misunderstanding sometimes between some of the clearance-related jobs, like we work in SCIFs, the secret compartment and information facilities, and we're kind of locked away sometimes, and people tend to think of us as like nerds or weirdos and kind of separate, and I first heard the word twidget from... I had never heard that because
Kevin: Mmm. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: I was always, I guess, surrounded by fellow twidgets. So being kind of welcomed there in a very weird way as like, what are you doing here? It was fascinating. But I think it was great for me to be able to bridge some of that gap and say, no, I'm just like you guys. I'm a sailor trying to lead and get promoted and have good evals and do all the collateral duties to the best of my ability and just think about my future and doing your sailor. So I think it was great for building bridges and learning a lot.
Kevin: Yeah, you hit on some amazing things. I love that you talked about, you know, religion, race, background, socioeconomic standards, you know, all walks of life. But then even within the military itself, you have your different environments. So you're coming from one going to another. It's so cool that you see this growth and an opportunity to learn and provide a positive impact because a lot of people can't recognize that as an opportunity and it becomes a fear or something they don't want to do because they're not ready to step out of their comfort zone.
Kaedy Molley: Yes, I think you just touched on one of my favorite topics in the world, which is we're not going to become better people or grow if we're not willing to sit through the discomfort and not even just sit through it, like welcome it, be present with it, talk about it, share it, because I am not even like who I was before I joined the military is a fraction of the human I am now. And I feel like I've become so much of a better person through all the challenges I face. And some of them were quite, quite tough.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: You know, there are definitely moments of service I think we can all relate to for those who have served or anyone who's gone through periods of struggle or periods of big transition. The thing we can share is that, God, it's hard sometimes, but we just got to keep our head up and understand this is a great learning opportunity and keep trudging forward and find resources and people to connect to that will help you on that journey. Yeah, that was a big part of my instructor duty. It was challenging. I had some tough leadership there, some not so great, some great. Made some great friendships and connections, but I think overall being able to help junior sailors on their path was really rewarding.
Kevin: Absolutely. Was there a moment during your service where you realized you had grown significantly as a person?
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ I mean, there were so many inflection points where I feel like I had those realizations. But for me, a big moment came when I had actually found the nonprofit I now work for, the Warrior Scholar Project. I have to touch on it. I'm not trying to just bring it up all the time, but.
Kevin: Please do, no, please, please share.
Kaedy Molley: So I was a couple years out from getting out of the military. I was in my instructor duty, right? I was up there in my Aguila and my uniforms instructing junior sailors. And I felt like I didn't see a future for myself beyond that tour of duty in the military anymore. And I couldn't quite put my finger on what it was. I just felt like maybe I'd reached my intellectual ceiling for myself. I'm not saying the military is not a place where one can grow intellectually. I'm just saying for me, it didn't seem like the path. Thank And I had stumbled upon a Facebook post about this thing called the Warrior Scholar Project, and in a nutshell for the listeners, we offer ⁓ academic boot camps for enlisted veterans or service members who are transitioning out in order to become more informed consumers of higher ed. And we give you confidence and community and academic skills through ⁓ partnerships with schools. So we have host institutions that will host us for a week or two in the summer. And we've got, you know, classroom full of veterans or transitioning folks who are thinking about how to use their GI Bill in a really meaningful way and get a degree that's of value to them. A lot of vets end up going to like University of Phoenix and some of those for-profit institutions. And even though you do learn and get a degree, those degrees are not very valuable in the workplace because they are for-profit. And so the whole goal here is to let veterans know you can aim as high as you want. And there are incredible schools out there. So some of our host institutions include
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, Caltech, University of Chicago, Notre Dame, Loyola. I mean, like there's a bunch of great ones. University of Illinois, Urbana, Champaign, UIUC. So we've got these incredible host schools and our model is other alumni of the program. So former enlisted veterans who have gone through one of our boot camps can come back in the summer as a training fellow and pay it forward. And I remember I showed up at that week. I convinced my command to give me a free week of admin.
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: I like highlighted some things in the instructions that was like, this will be good for everyone. And so I managed to sneak in a free week of leave and get myself up to Syracuse University and did this week long. It's basically a simulated finals week at a tough school. And there was a moment where I was, it was halfway through the week and I was sitting on the quad and it was like a bright green, beautifully manicured quad lawn. It was like a memorial bench behind me and big trees and it was sunny and it was like June. And I was reading a
Kevin: Mm.
Kaedy Molley: Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America as part of our assignment for the week. And we were grinding. I'm talking like sunup to sundown. We were working on projects and reading and discussing and writing. And I had taken a moment on my lunch to continue reading and I felt so alive. Like a buzz of energy was trickling through me because I felt like my intellectual capacity was being challenged and stretched and filled. And I really wanted to feel more of that. And so I left that week with this new fire under me. Like I've changed.
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: that it's time for me to use that GI Bill and take a big pivot and see what my own potential is. And so that was a salient moment for me and I went back and immediately enrolled in community college.
Kevin: That's awesome. You know, and you mentioned Syracuse. did their Boots to Business program. They have the IVMF. Excuse me. They are like, I don't know if there's any other educational institutions that are really leaning heavy into the veteran arena as much as Syracuse is. My cousin, he graduated law school from there. As I'm looking to find other ways to help, everything just keeps pointing back to your organization. Excuse me.
Kaedy Molley: Yes.
Kevin: and Syracuse and Utah.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, and Syracuse, sorry to interrupt you. They're not even one of our partner schools now, but they've built such a robust veteran program and veteran presence on campus that they are doing so much in-house. Some of the schools we're currently partnered with are wanting to grow their veteran populations. I mean, these are schools where veterans represent less than 1 % of the student body. And we've been changing the game. This is our 15th anniversary. And in 15 years, we will have served just over 3,100 veterans on these campuses. those numbers go up and we're seeing the impact. I mean places like University were paving the way. I just saw an article about the University of Tennessee is now listed as like a gold campus for vets and I mean there's a bunch. I wish I could give them all credit but yeah the goal is we have a lot to offer on campus communities and those communities have a lot to offer us.
Kevin: Yeah. Yeah, what a fantastic organization. can't wait to get into it more. You talk about this emotion you had in the quad and I want to tie it to linguistics if I can, because if I remember correctly, the first time linguistics was officially recognized as like a science was during the Unibomber trial when they had Ted Kaczynski because when he was teaching at the University of Michigan, they found the way that he wrote things. in ⁓ the bombing letters and then what he had written as ⁓ a professor, the FBI was able to tie those together. And it was very, I mean, it was very circumstantial evidence at the time, but now it's become an applied science. Is that, are you familiar with that at all?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah. No, you might have just taught me something. of course now being the analytical nerd that I am, I'm going to end up down a wormhole later today after this. ⁓ I mean, in general, linguistics is one of the oldest parts of humanity. It's something that shapes how we think, how we form connections, how we build the world around us, how we understand events around us. I mean, I can tell you some really cool things I learned at the University of Chicago, taking some linguistics courses. ⁓ You know, we talked about language and technology, which is mind blowing.
Kevin: Hahaha.
Kaedy Molley: I highly recommend you look into some of that the the linguistics behind technology usage and communication is wild and people dissect human language interactions down to the most Analytical level I'm talking scientific papers that are almost out of my like for sure out of my depth But it's really neat because you know, it's related to observation data collection secret meaning ⁓ It's a sub like you can build whole subcultures around language. I mean look at how ⁓
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: speak has evolved and emojis. And so I think for me, the use of language in Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America, which is, know, he's an old French aristocrat from like hundreds of years ago, who was observing democracy in America and making these really astute observations. And I think something about how he was describing concepts I felt, but not really spent time contemplating was really important to me and really lit something in me like
Kevin: Mm. Mm.
Kaedy Molley: I'm great at language. I'm great at communication. It shaped my military career. It shapes defense. shapes so many things. Education, a lot of it has to do with healthcare. mean, so many things touch within linguistics and language that I think it was a big part of what drew my interest outside of the military as well.
Kevin: Mmm. That's so poignant. I taught high school English for a year. It was as a means to be able to coach the varsity baseball team. ⁓ But I loved teaching English. I told my kids, said, I'm the most important class you're gonna have because without my class, none of the other classes make sense. You can't go to biology or chemistry. You can't go to math class. You can't do any of other classes. You can't read and understand the words on the paper. I had no business teaching. I don't have an English degree. I have a master's in criminal justice, but.
Kaedy Molley: you That's cool. Ooh.
Kevin: You know, it's what I love about private schools. They can make it work. And I had a passion for teaching. As you began, once you realized, okay, you my time in the military is coming up. Was there a part of your identity that, you know, maybe held onto and then struggled to let go of?
Kaedy Molley: This is such an exceptional question, Kevin, and I think it's pertinent for every single veteran going through transition and every veteran is going to have a very different experience. So as you can tell, I'm an analytical geek nerd. seek resources. I seek information. It just is what drives me as a human. I'm infinitely curious. And fortunately for me, that curiosity led me to a bunch of incredible transition resources prior to my transition. So I found Warrior Scholar Project two years out and you know, that lit a under me for education. Then I found some other great organizations like 4Block, which is a career transition program for veterans. There's American Corporate Partners where they can partner you. Yeah, ACP, they partner you with an actual mentor in an industry you're interested in. There was, I did a program called Tuck transition, Chuck Next Step, transition of business at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. This is cool. Half the cohort was Olympic athletes who were retiring and half the cohort was like elite veterans and somehow I stuck my way in with some good
Kevin: ⁓ I just found them, wow.
Kaedy Molley: essays. ⁓ But it was an incredible two-week program where you get like a mini MBA crash course. So I found myself just finding resource after resource and applying and just saying I belong here, I want you to let me come to this. And I got so much out of it that by the time my actual transition came, I was so well prepared. You know, I had already been accepted to my dream school, the University of Chicago. And I was, by the way, I think this is a really good opportunity to toot my horn. That was the first year. So in 2019 was the very first year that at the University of Chicago, down in Hyde Park. ⁓ had their very first ever cohort of undergrad veterans as part of the college. And I was the first female, only female that year, out of 14 enlisted veterans admitted to the school. And it was an incredible journey. And I graduated with a degree from one of the greatest schools in the world and got to represent veterans and got to represent women veterans. And it was really cool. But so getting into my dream school, trying all of these other nonprofits. And I realized very quickly that education was going to be the number one door I needed to unlock before I pursued any further careers and whatnot for me. Now, if I had a job in the military, that was something I wanted to continue as my path. Like if I had a very technical job, you can always go into contracting or you can, if you're a tank mechanic, there's lots of great opportunities out there to do like make, make a trucking. you know, there's tons of opportunities for those technically specific jobs, but I didn't want to go be a contracting DOD linguist. I just knew I wanted to do something else and learn something else. And so. For me, education was step one, and then I knew that that would open the door for all these other things. So I felt really prepared in my transition as a human, but I was nervous about going to school as a very non-traditional student. I was the oldest undergrad. I was the only female veteran undergrad that first year. And I, you know, as a veteran, a disabled veteran, all of those different kinds of identities, a woman from the South, et cetera, I'm also an outspoken woman, all of those different inner
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: intersectionalities, right, of my identity were going to be a part of who I was. I just had to figure out when to step up and into each of them and when to step back. And I think what was really valuable for me in my transition was not wearing the veteran chip on my shoulder. It was going into every experience thinking I am not in any way superior to anyone because I served. I served and that's a part of my identity, but it's not the whole. And I would love other people to teach me about their identities and teach me even about
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: Aspects of my own identity I wasn't fully aware of and that was just the most incredible thing for my transition it Formed friendships with traditional students professors other veterans on campus just other humans I would interact with on a daily basis being open to their experience and their identities and And being open to answer questions about mine was so incredible and I highly recommend any veteran Really really look at that when they're transitioning. Don't just think of yourself as a veteran or a combat veteran, think of yourself as a Rubik's Cube and you have a billion different blocks to fill in as you go along.
Kevin: The listeners can't see us, but I have the biggest smile on my face right now because you just hit probably the most important thing that I've experienced. ⁓ One, I want to go back real quick. I love how you talked about your curiosity led you to find all these resources. My favorite TV show is Ted Lasso and be curious, not judgmental. Like if you're just a little bit curious, man, like that's, I found that ⁓
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ my god, it's so good. So good. Yes, always a French with curiosity.
Kevin: probably a year and half, two years after I got out. And it's been a great mantra when I'm feeling stuck or, you know, woe is me. Well, stop feeling sorry for yourself. Be curious, start looking for stuff. Get a little analytical. ⁓ The Rubik's Cube, you know, I've had a career ⁓ in security. I've had a career in education, in coaching, finance, and now I'm kind of doing what I'm doing now, which is trying to be an author and a veteran advocate. And I love
Kaedy Molley: Yes.
Kevin: the image of a Rubik's Cube. It's multi-sided, multi-colored. It can move up, down, left, right, and different parts can intersect with different parts, and that's.
Kaedy Molley: And for most people, it's really hard to solve. And I think that's a really good analogy. mean, some people are great at doing that and just like some humans have a clear idea of what they want to be, who they are and a life path. But for me, I don't think I'll ever solve my Rubik's cube. I almost hope I don't. want to keep being able to try and keeping challenged by it. But, but some people just think of themselves as just a veteran. And I think that's detrimental when we're transitioning out. It's valuable to hold those experiences, but also understand
Kevin: Right. Right.
Kaedy Molley: more than just this one thing.
Kevin: Yeah, and it's a message I'm trying to repeat over and over. It's a message in my book. The first thing I did when I bought my house after the divorce, after I got out of the military, is I put up my love me wall. I had my shadow box, my plaques, all that stuff, because I was so scared that if it wasn't up, people wouldn't know. And that's all I knew. I had wrapped so much of my identity in that. And my wife is incredible, and she's helped me peel back down and say, you know, that's just a small part of who you are, it's a long time, but it's a small part. And I thank her for that. And I'm just, thank you for helping remind that it's not the end all be all. And the chip on your shoulder, man, we're so bad about, I wore the uniform and we can be a little cocky and arrogant and condescending with our service. ⁓ I think part of that's twofold. At least I was told, man, you were in the military, you deployed, have all these awards and skills like.
Kaedy Molley: Sorry.
Kevin: You're just gonna be a hot commodity when you walk out and that was pretty far from the truth.
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ Kevin, this is such a ⁓ critical point is we do have lot of veterans who for some reason think when they get out, they're going to be entitled to things. And I cannot convey enough that that is far from the truth. You really have to earn your spot almost more sometimes out there in the civilian world because you have been absent from the civilian going ons in the traditional way. You've been doing something else that we can't always fully be transparent about or
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: experiences or what we've done, but you're going to have to show them that yes, you've done all these incredible things, but how do those carry over into what we need you to do now and where you belong?
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: So I think it's very important for veterans to understand nothing's going to be handed to you. Just like you have to work on your hard evals and the competition for ⁓ promotions in the military, you're going to have to do the same thing out in the real world. And there's a lot of there are a lot of hungry veterans. They really want to better themselves. And as these resources grow and as our presence grows in different spaces, the competition is increasing. So I'm not trying to stress anyone out. I'm just saying all you got to do is make sure you are being curious, taking the steps you need to take and understand that nothing will be given to you. Nobody's gonna celebrate you and roll off the red carpet and say, ⁓ great, we've got an immediate job and salary for you. You're gonna have to work for all of it.
Kevin: Yeah, that boy that is a tough pill to swallow. Because you're being it's the blind leading the blind in the military when it comes to getting out. You have people who are in uniform, never been out of uniform trying to tell you what it's like, what life is like outside of the uniform.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, and I will add that just what's so great about being a veteran right now, and I've spoken, I've been on quite a few different podcasts with veterans, and I think I love that veterans are really trying to explore this together as a community and within a larger conversation of civic engagement. But I will say that, ⁓ I just talked myself out of what I was going to say. ⁓ Sorry, I lost track. I went on a side quest. ⁓ I was going to say that ⁓ there are great resources now.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. No, no worries.
Kaedy Molley: Now is the best time to be a transitioning veteran because there were decades before, were generations before that did not have anyone welcome them with anything. There were no resources. There was no warrior scholar project. There was no four block. There was no ACP. There were not these things. And so for veterans losing their military community and finding another one felt so isolating and hopeless and, and, like it wasn't there because it wasn't. And now it's all there. And we have immediate access through social media, through these great resources.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: If there's something you want to do, there are at least three veteran organizations out there dedicated to helping you. Now, even if it's education, there might be three different types of education nonprofits. Like nobody's doing what Warrior Scholar Project's doing, but you have other entities that are helping you actually apply for schools. You've got other entities that are helping you with grad school. There are so many incredible organizations out there to help you. It's built for you to succeed if you just seek it out and do what's asked of you and make the effort.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. I'm glad you said seek it out because that's one thing that the structure of the military doesn't prepare you for is the work you're gonna have to do on the front end to find the organizations. You have to be curious, you have to be willing to fail at the beginning to find what works and what doesn't. ⁓ I I hated LinkedIn with white hot intensity for a while. But I've really grown to love it the last year because I found there's kind of like an Avengers assemble mentality of we refuse to gatekeep how hard it is to get out of the military. know, we, these bumps and bruises and lessons we've learned and people are sharing it and they're writing white papers and they're, making a community much stronger and I've connected with a few people and I would, I would like to ask your opinion on maybe what would you say are some encouraging ⁓ words, tones and phrases and some red flags that when you know that veteran is looking for the next phase of their life, what should they be on the lookout for both good and bad?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, that's such an interesting question. Nobody's ever asked me that, I think, looking at like keywords and phrases. You're going to see it. And I like that you brought up LinkedIn because I have mixed feelings about it at times. Sometimes it feels a little performative. You know, you see jokes online about like, I'm honored to share blank. And I've done that, too. Like, I have been honored to share the things I'm doing. I think it's great to be proud of ourselves and share that. But also some people try to turn LinkedIn into like their income, their identity by publishing things. And it almost feels
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: like an an echo-y sounding board. I would say when you're thinking about transition, look for people who are humble but seeking to help others. I don't know that I have the keywords off the top of my head but ⁓ transition assistance itself is a great keyword. If you look for that online, someone will have something to say about it. I think community is a big word. If you find veteran resources out there that talk about community, community building, reach out to them. That is that is one of the most important words I think in transition. ⁓ I think anything that helps you build your confidence or find your peace, those are all really great. ⁓ As far as things to look out for, I don't know, I would say... Don't have the mentality that just because you did X job in the military doesn't devalue your service. You do see a lot of people, because media portrays the most glamorous and ugliest parts of service. So you get the tropes, right? You see the Navy SEALs, the Green Braves, the badasses being hyped up, which they should. They did very difficult work. A lot of them sacrificed their lives. Their family sacrificed a lot. I mean, that's no joke.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: But a lot of their work had a trickle down chain of people that they relied on even down to logistics, even down to communications, even down to someone serving food at wherever they were. Like every little bit of the military chain plays a role in each in the other like links in the chain. And I think don't ever undersell your service or think, well, I was just, I've heard veterans say, ⁓ I was just this job. And I'm very quick to remind them, no, you weren't just that. That's an incredibly important job. matter what it is or they or it wouldn't exist. And you learned a lot and you helped empower other people. We couldn't get our flights off the ground if it wasn't for the folks working on our avionics or our mechanics or you know if there's like a chips light going off, they got to figure out what's going on and they're saving lives. But I think people in general tend to overlook that. The other side of the coin is you see portrayals of veterans who are just maxed out on PTSD and this is a very real thing. I urge people to read TRIGUE by
Kevin: Thank
Kaedy Molley: Sebastian Younger. It's an incredible book. talks a lot about how maybe sometimes PTSD doesn't necessarily come just from being exposed to horrible things, but coming back to a community of people who can't relate to it, don't understand what you've been through, don't acknowledge it. And so there's a lot of reading you can do to help empower yourself. Some great books by anthropologists, by fellow veterans. think listening to veteran podcasts exactly like this one is a huge step in being proactive for yourself.
Kevin: Mmm. Thank you.
Kaedy Molley: People who want to share the stories, want to explore it and let other veterans know we're here for each other. You know, just reach out. So community is a big one, a big keyword. And for the positive mantras, I would say think about everything you've got through in the military, even starting with your first night of enlisted boot camp or officer candidate school. Think of every brutal time you were like standing in a field in a ceremony for hours, like just hoping you don't pass out in the sun. I mean, think about the
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: worst night hunkered down in a bunker. I think about the time you lost friends in a horrible, you know, VBID. And I mean, I don't want to go down that path, but there's lots of trauma that we have survived. So transitioning with all the great resources and the help and the people that are there to actually want you to show your individual empowerment and curiosity, like we all want you to succeed. You just got to want it for yourself and have confidence in yourself. I hope that I hope that answered your question. I don't have a lot of
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓ yeah.
Kaedy Molley: I read flags that look, Thor, I just be careful of people who just want you to hear them talk and not share what's helpful. I think just looking for the people who want to build community and offer that helping hand is huge.
Kevin: Yeah, no, you absolutely crushed it. You knocked it out of the park. Some of the things I found are if people call themselves family at a business run, and if they say fast pace, that just means they're going to work into the dirt. They have absolutely no respect for your time. ⁓
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, Yeah, like long hours are great, but long hours without a balance or without feeling fulfilled in your work might not be worth it. I do know quite a few veterans who have transitioned into high powered jobs in finance that they thought would be great. Then after a year, they're worn down and it's just like military part due, you know? So I think it's important to find what you love to pursue so that your long hours are going to at least fill you with some level of fulfillment.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. ⁓ So a lot of enlisted folks especially, you know, they joined the military because they couldn't get into college or they weren't ready, whatever. ⁓ Maybe they're not pursuing education while they're enlisted. If one of those people are listening and says, you know, I don't think college is for me, what would you say to them?
Kaedy Molley: I would say, boy, have we got the resource for you. So Warrior Scholar Project, as I said, changed my life. And yes, I now work there full time. And I work in fundraising. Our mission relies on the generosity of other people on the public to give us donations. It costs a good chunk of change to have our participants come spend a week at a campus, live in the dorms, eat in the dining halls, have professors come. I mean, it's an incredible experience, but it's costly. And it's a nonprofit. everything is really going towards making sure the impact is there and we're changing the socioeconomic outcomes for veterans through higher ed. I would say that I went to college out of high school and I failed out. I mean, I didn't necessarily fully fail out. withdrew because I just was not emotionally mature and I stopped going to class and I partied too hard. And that's a hard admission to make as a now successful, responsible person. But my confidence was down. And when I did try to go back to school here and there once or
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: twice. I just psyched myself out of it. I thought you failed at this before. Your GPA sucks. Like, ⁓ my god. But this is the common shared experience among so many of our Warrior Scholar Project alumni is that they came in that week just terrified that they were going to be the dumbest person in the room or the weakest link or the least able to succeed in college. And we show them, no, you've been telling yourself something that is a false narrative all along. You're self-defeating and self-selecting. You end up in a room with other enlisted veterans who have the same apprehensive imposter syndrome
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: thoughts as you about college. I don't think I'm capable or cut out for it. But at the end of a week where you're putting in effort, we're not grading you. You have little assignments that are like graded, but nobody's putting those grades anywhere that matters. It's just for you to gauge which ones you need to work on. But you've got writing tutors. We have STEM program. We have a business program and we have a
Kevin: Right.
Kaedy Molley: Like it was our core one, but it's essentially like your college readiness. It's going to be more humanities type based. But you've got all these different folks in each arena that you're interested in helping you that week figure out how to work through problems, teaching you about academic skills that are helpful, teaching you about office hours, teaching you about, hey, it's okay to start in community college and like grease the wheels a little bit, right? And then when you're ready to take the training wheels off, you can transfer to a really great school of your dreams. You are capable.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: If you can get through everything you did in the military, can get through academics, especially because academics are also designed for you to succeed. Campuses have resources. Professors want you to come to office hours. Other students want to have study groups. I mean, you have got the tools. We just need to show you you have them and how to use them. And that's really what our program is amazing for is the confidence, the community building. also have a great alumni community. Once you complete our course, you are
Kevin: Right.
Kaedy Molley: part of a lifelong alumni community where people share job postings. We share with other veterans like what are great resources on this campus. If you want to go to that campus, we'll find you a veteran we know there and we'll connect you with them. So you are joining a family of people who want you to succeed. And so you're not ever going to be alone on that college journey. You'll always have someone to reach out to. So don't self-select. Don't tell yourself you can't do it. If you can get through enlisted military, you can make it through college and you can do really well there.
Kevin: Mmm. Yeah, absolutely. And I love they said don't select. ⁓ For those of you that are listening that maybe didn't serve when someone goes to a ranger school, special forces assessment selection, if they go to buds, the cadre will tell you the very first day, let us evaluate you don't self select meaning, ⁓ you think you performed at a specific evolution you did terrible or you think you excelled. It's moment to moment evolution by evolution. Do not Overthink or over process what you've done. Don't self select. Don't kick yourself out. Give yourself a fighting chance. Allow the people to help you. And one of the hardest lessons I've learned ⁓ is it's not what you know, it's who you know. And networking is such a vital part of ⁓ corporate America and really the quote unquote real world today. And having a veteran network through such a wonderful organization like Warrior Scholar Project. It's like having the private news network back again in the military. ⁓ yo, what was Fort Campbell like? Tell me about Great Lakes. What was 29 Palms like? Like it's the same thing. It's just instead of duty stations, you're talking about college campuses. That's awesome. You're getting an Intel dump and getting the hookup because of it. It's fantastic. I love it.
Kaedy Molley: It's awesome. And the more I got deeper into my college campus experience, I realized that even within other campuses, veterans are wanting to reach out and help one another. So you've got chapters of veteran undergrad organizations that are trying to team up and work on things together. And it's really, really beautiful. I think the average veteran who's questioning their ability to succeed in higher ed would be absolutely mad at themselves if they miss out on an opportunity.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: opportunity to at least give it a shot. And it's a no-stakes shot. You just take a week of your time and our programming is free for the participant. They just have to get themselves there. And I will add that we also offer virtual programs. We've had veterans in Iraq. like attending our courses virtually. And so all you gotta do is try it. You know, my favorite, I love hockey. I'm a big Blackhawks fan and Wayne Gretzky said it best, you you miss 100 % of the shots you don't take. Just take it. And if you miss, that's okay. There'll be other shots to take later. You just don't want to have regrets because you talked yourself out of it.
Kevin: Mmm. Yeah, I've learned that as I try to put my book tour together, ⁓ what is the saying? If you knew you would get your first yes after 50 no's, how excited would you be to get the first no? Like from September until late February, no, no, nothing. And then I got that first yes and it's been all downhill from there and it's phenomenal. ⁓ You and I are making college sound awesome, which it is and learning is fun.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah. It is.
Kevin: But what do veterans often underestimate about the college life?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, I think they underestimate that unlike the military where a lot of what we learn is sort of memorization based, right? Like when you go to do a warfare pin, right? When you go to earn one of those or you're in a qualification, a lot of it is a book that guides you and you go through the motions of learning it all. And then you regurgitate it out of board, which is great. You learn a lot, but school is different. And like, especially some of these top universities, like, you know, great for your institutions are really going to challenge you. not just
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Mm. Yeah.
Kaedy Molley: regurgitation. It's active learning and critical thinking. And so I do think some veterans might take a community college class and be like, ⁓ that was easy. I can do great at college. And then they choose to go to Harvard. And then they're absolutely shocked when they get there and they realize that Harvard is not community college. And so I do recommend that veterans really understand it will be rigorous. But if I can get through a math class at the University of literally anyone can. It's just a matter of putting in the work, just like in the military. You could only do so many push-ups, but the more you keep trying and practicing, the better it'll get. And it's the same thing with academic, intellectual muscle memory, right? ⁓ It's going to be rigorous, but use your resources. Be willing to put in the work. Learn ahead of time about time management and balancing out. Do some things that give you time and happiness or you will burn out. So that's a big one. I also think, as we talked about before, some veterans go with the mindset of, ⁓ people will respect me and look up to
Kevin: Ugh.
Kaedy Molley: in the classroom because I'm a veteran. And that's not always the case. You're not necessarily a subject matter expert on anything you're going to study in college, even war. I took a class on the embodiment of war and I tell you it was one of the most life-changing experiences of my life. I'm still friends with the postdoc student who taught the course. In fact, you should have her on as a guest. You would
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yep.
Kaedy Molley: Absolutely love her. She's a civilian. worked with She studied for a while as an anthropologist with like canine based units and she's just an incredible human I should absolutely hook you up with her but some of the texts she introduced me to in her course Were things related to a bore that I had never touched on that I had never spent time thinking about and there were moments of catharsis where I'm learning I was the only veteran in that class and luckily it was a seminar class. So I'm getting the opportunity to hear these
Kevin: Wow. Awesome. Mm-hmm. ⁓
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ young folks or traditional students share their opinions of what it means to be a perpetrator of war and operate a drone as a remote drone strike operator. And there were things they taught me. And there were also moments where I could say, yeah, I see that point of view. I don't know that I agree with it. And here's some color to add to the discussion from my experience. But there were beautiful connections being made by not, by understanding that just because I am a veteran doesn't mean I'm a veteran or war or military expert.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: So I think understanding that going to campus as a veteran and an older student does not entitle you to anything or make you an expert on anything. In fact, it almost means you have a little more catching up to do in terms of academic campus life. ⁓ But don't let that scare you. Just be open and be kind and be interested in other people and they will be interested in you. And you can really share and teach them things you learned from the military and they can teach you things they learned by being exceptional college kids.
Kevin: Yep.
Kaedy Molley: and getting into top schools at the age of 18 when there's like a 5 % admissions rate out of like 30,000 applications. Like you're going to meet some really intelligent people and just because their path is different doesn't mean anyone's is better.
Kevin: Right. There's a lot of talk that AI is going to take jobs and everyone should go to the trades. And I'm not against that at all, but I do like education and I want to play kind of devil's advocate to something. ⁓ cause I agree with everything you've said, but just for that person, you know, when you tell them to do something, they do the opposite. So think of this, you're going to a new environment with people who are subject matter experts in their field. Professors are not
Kaedy Molley: Man. you
Kevin: randomly chosen people don't throw a dart at a board and be like, okay, let's pick Timmy like these are sought out professionals experts in the and they want to be there and More than likely they're probably well compensated for it ⁓ Like, you know, there's a reason why? ⁓ Selections for green braids is held at Fort Bragg. There's a reason there's a reason why Ranger school is in Fort Benning There's a reason why buds is how held where it is. There's a reason why the PJs are held where it is Take that same mentality. If you want to be part of a specific group, an environment, an educational institution, look forward to the challenge that's going to be presented to you. Don't self-select, but understand anything worth doing should be hard. It should be taxing. It should take you out of your comfort zone and force you to grow and evolve. it's not always... A board in the military is great for learning how to interview for a job. College is not regurgitating information, it's learning information. And I would challenge you to learn what your learning style is, and I hate to break it to you guys, it's more than just the three they taught us in the military. There's 12 different learning styles, and they're probably a combination of three to five of them. And if you have ADHD, figure it out, because that just makes learning that much harder.
Kaedy Molley: Yes, as a person with ADHD, I can tell you, oh boy. I honestly learned so much from the traditional students, from like great study habits, tools to use. Like I started using an iPad and I was like, oh, I can highlight on this and store things and all these notes apps. Like meanwhile, I was up here scribbling in a notebook, like what? So I recommend that you...
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yes. Right? Everything we were told was cheating as kids is now commonplace.
Kaedy Molley: Yes, I mean like there's so many great ways out there to help you tackle it and and utilize your best learning style. So I love what you said about that being aware that there are many different styles. Try them out, right?
Kevin: Yeah, I mean, YouTube is probably the greatest free research tool on the planet. I could go hours on that, just get learn how to search. Yeah.
Kaedy Molley: Khan Academy. Khan Academy is massive. It's like a free, you can get basically a free up to college education through that. It's incredible.
Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Kaedy Molley: And yeah, there's tutorials for everything. And then now we've got AI. Like I can go into Grok or chat GBT and just be like, give me an overview of this topic so that I can at least have the basics so that then you can deepen your own understanding of it. But I do want to make sure that that's something they can just lean into AI for everything. And I wouldn't recommend you do that. You're going to be dulling your brain instead of growing those cognitive connections.
Kevin: Right. Mm-hmm. I like to use chat as, I call him Jarvis, like from Iron Man, and I use it as my personal assistant. I'm like, okay, here's what I'm thinking, talk to me. ⁓ And then like you said, it's a great way, like give me an overview of this, teach it to me like I'm five years old so I have a basic understanding, and then I can be a human being. ⁓ As we talk about college and education and growing, was there ever a part of you that felt guilty for evolving?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah.
Kevin: beyond who you were in the uniform.
Kaedy Molley: You mean guilt related specifically to like my service as someone who had signed up to be on that military team or as in a general human who had a life change because of their personal growth?
Kevin: ⁓ either and both, whatever.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, I will say there were moments in the military where I felt not ostracized, but like if you say, hey, I know we're doing things this way, but we seem to keep having issues with it. What if we tried this? There was always pushback. And I think there's something about, yeah, military tradition, bureaucracy, status quo could get very frustrating if you're someone who's learned how to think outside the box or innovatively or critically, because not everyone, you get a lot of human things like pride and ego that can get in the way when it comes to that.
Kevin: The way we've always done it. Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: And that became frustrating because in... ⁓ Someone who's intellectually growing is more willing to do a self inventory and be self aware and say, Ooh, here's something I've been doing poorly that I could work on. Or here's an interaction I didn't handle well that I need to change. Or here's where my responsibility and accountability is in this thing that happened. And sometimes you have people who have such fragile egos or too prideful. They've just never had to look inward and they just don't want to. It's too uncomfortable for them. And that can be frustrating because you'll just hit a brick wall and you have to remember sometimes it isn't you it's them and Sometimes like they need to understand it's them not everyone else So that's been that was a little bit of a challenging thing I encountered some of that at instructor duty some folks who weren't as interested in education and self-growth and self-awareness and You just kind of end up at a stalemate. Well, I'm sorry you want to keep having a failed outcome We could try something new and see what happens and that's just part of life
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: I would say the in my personal life, something that I felt was a bummer. And I'd actually talked to other undergrad vets at school with me who had issues, our relationships with our loved ones. Sometimes we're going through these big transitions and big moments and these big milestones and catalysts for growth and change. And the loved ones in your life are not going through that with you necessarily. And they can't fully understand it. And, you know, I feel like my marriage to be forthcoming kind of ends
Kevin: Mm. Yeah.
Kaedy Molley: with us diverging a bit, not because he's not a lovely human who's doing his own form of growth and has a lot to offer and learn, but just because I felt like my trajectory had a rocket launched into a deeper curiosity for other things. And we just saw the differences at that point. And other veterans have had to mention some things like that. had made a joke. I'm hesitant to say it, but they made a joke about ⁓ going to like a really hard school can be a relationship graveyard if you're a veteran. And I think it was a joke we have with each other because we've gone through enough changes to maybe see that there was room for more happiness and fulfillment. ⁓ And that's just another part of life in general. It's not specific to being a veteran and transitioning to higher ed. It's just the more you learn and educate yourself and learn how to grow through discomfort, you're gonna sometimes outgrow people in different ways. Not in a better way or superior way. You're just gonna end up on different paths with different interests and that's part of
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: Thanks.
Kevin: Yeah, I often, so I grew up in some not so cool places. You know, people throw their shoes up on the wires before they leave. ⁓ I live in Scottsdale right now, but I work at a school in a very non-affluent part of Phoenix, ⁓ the barrio, if you will. ⁓
Kaedy Molley: I'm weirdly familiar with Phoenix and Scottsdale from working in private equity. had some properties. Yeah.
Kevin: ⁓ I bet. ⁓ What if what would you say to somebody? And it can be from the enlisted side, the officer side, the warrant side. If they're worried about forgetting their roots, like I was in the military, even if I leave and I don't carry that torch forward, I'm letting down the military family. I'm laying down the veteran brotherhood by excelling or reaching for these big dreams that they have.
Kaedy Molley: Oh, I have a great answer for that. And it's very apropos because I was just meeting with an undergrad vet buddy of mine who's a dear friend a few days ago. We were catching up over Zoom because he graduated with me from New Chicago. He came from absolutely difficult life circumstances. talking like everything you mentioned, know, tough, tough life where, where he did not have access to any opportunities, like just underserved, right? And he's gone through his journey
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: through the military and leveraged it into higher ed and got a degree in economics from the University of Chicago and went and worked in banking and has done all this cool stuff. And now he's creating his own nonprofit to give back to the communities of people that he came from.
Kevin: That's awesome.
Kaedy Molley: So I say that instead of feeling like you're leaving your roots behind, it enables you to go back and make an impact where your roots are growing and, you know, create better soil conditions for those trees to go big and strong and create this beautiful landscape of empowerment for people. ⁓ Don't ever feel like you're leaving someone behind and don't ever feel like.
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: something you should be proud of is something that will embarrass someone else. You can utilize the things you pursue and grow from and succeed at to go be the hand that reaches out to someone who needs a helping hand. And that's the coolest thing I'm seeing in the veteran community on a large scale is you see so many vets who, yeah, we leave service, we want to do something high powered and creative and many are succeeding at it. But then having access to those socioeconomic means and those networks and those resources enables you to go really give back and meaningful impactful way. You know, the CEO of Warrior Scholar Project is also an enlisted linguist veteran who went to law school and did Teach for America and did all these great things. you know, he's genuinely changing the lives of like thousands of veterans through higher ed empowerment. And that's what my friend Tyler, who I was talking to the other day, is doing. He's going to also be changing so many lives that come, that are modeled after the kind of life he had, Underserved, underprivileged. And now he's going to be able to help bring them up to where he's got.
Kevin: Mm.
Kaedy Molley: and it's cool. It's like climbing a ladder and then helping someone else below you by reaching hand down and helping them get to the top. Or in military when you have to scale a wall with two people or three people and you're climbing over each other, you figure it out and that's kind of the best metaphor I can think of.
Kevin: That's awesome. And you've done such a wonderful job talking about everybody else. What is Katie do? What does life look like now? What do you hope it looks like down the road?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, you know, I'm living in my Q department in Chicago with my two dogs. I go to a lot of Blackhawks games because I really enjoy that. And I'm also working with a friend to build more community about around women's sports fans engagement. So spaces and places for female fans to gather and share their sports them and feel included and make friends. So that's something I'm passionate about as like a side project. But Warrior Scholar Project is where I started on my transition. I came back as a fellow when I was in undergrad. I always stayed involved with feel in my community. And now I work, yes, in fundraising, but I'm trying to keep our mission alive. So I hope that we're successful. It's our 15th anniversary. We have a big fundraising dinner coming up in October. I highly encourage any listeners who care to make an impact or pay it forward, go and check out our website. And if you can donate, donate or share it with someone who you think could benefit from the program. I'm really passionate for Katie about paying it forward to this thing that gave me, I would argue, nearly everything. You know, that one week I spent at our academic bootcamp sent me on this path that has enabled me to be sitting here with you today talking about how successful my life is becoming and other lives are becoming. And I just really, really think it's important to pay that back as much as I can. I also care greatly about animals and about humans. And I just hope we can all remember to do the best we can to be the positive change and the positive influence out there in our immediate communities. So if you see someone and there's something about them you want to compliment, pay the compliment. If there's someone who looks like they're struggling, offer a little help, you know, just be the good you want to see in the world. I know that's cliche, but I feel like that the karmic energy is a real thing. What you put out, you'll get back and you'll get it back in space.
Kevin: Yeah, and it costs $0 to be a decent human being, you know.
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, yeah, I just want to keep doing. Oh, and I really want to get much better at golf. That's my number one fun thing is I just started it and it's so hard and so challenging, but it's really fun and also a lot of community there. And also there are veteran organizations out there. If you want to get involved with golf, you can check out veteran golf association. It's pretty cool. And they've got chapters all over the place.
Kevin: Okay. That's awesome. What a humbling game.
Kaedy Molley: ⁓ my gosh, yes. If you're ever feeling ego driven or like you can't do any more great things than you've done, just try golf. It'll humble you real quick.
Kevin: So you and I. Yeah. Yeah. Or if you spend a hundred bucks, go to Topgolf for an hour, you'll save the walk and you can have a lot of fun. ⁓ So you and I both, we've had kind of different avenues before we've settled in after our military career. ⁓ What does that taught you about reinvention and identity for yourself?
Kaedy Molley: Exactly. Yeah, I hope that for me, I never stop kind of adding to my intersectional identities. I hope I become and do more things. I don't ever want to let one branch of a tree die or another branch of a tree die because I was too scared to choose a branch and lose the other ones. ⁓ You know.
Kevin: Mmm.
Kaedy Molley: I really hope I keep being hungry and curious and helping others and being willing to pivot when it feels like in my gut I need to pivot. And I hope I never become scared of discomfort or growth or... ⁓ outreach. I want to help always connect other people and uplift them because it feels good, selfishly it feels good for me to do that and I hope that for other people but yeah I think I just want to keep adding to my different stickers on my Rubik's Cube.
Kevin: I love that. So what would you say to the young man or woman who's getting ready to transit or they're making the decision to get out of the military or maybe they've been out for a little bit or even five or 10 years, but they have that kind of overwhelming sense of uncertainty. What would you tell them?
Kaedy Molley: Uncertainty is absolutely normal. And if you're not feeling it, it means you're not trying to grow. It means you're not asking yourself, could I be doing more, better, different something? Things are going to be hard, but that's a sign that you are a sentient, caring being who wants to do more and be better and grow. So don't be scared of uncertainty. Embrace it and use it to be the fire that fuels, you know, or the fuel that, for your fire, if you will, that makes you go out and seek resources and seek connection.
Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Kaedy Molley: and take the shots so you don't miss them. Just take the shots, be brave, you got this, you can do this, and being uncertain is a good sign. It should indicate to you that you are capable of growth and that you are gonna make things happen. You just gotta be willing to do it. Just one foot in front of the other, baby steps.
Kevin: Love that. Last question. I hate that the conversation is coming to an end because this has been phenomenal. At the end of the day, we're all going to die. And at some point, hopefully someone stands up there and talks about us at our funerals. When you look back, what do you want your legacy to be? What do want people to say about you?
Kaedy Molley: Yeah, great one. Love it. ⁓ man, she was brave, she was ⁓ caring, she was passionate, and she was kind. I think those are all the things. I want people to know me as being brave, passionate, kind, and caring, yeah. and just always wanting to connect and help people. want people to think. I don't want people to be left with any feeling that I didn't do something nice or make them feel good or help them when I could. I mean, I'm human. I struggle too, right? Sometimes I need to ask for help. ⁓ But I hope people just think of me as a good, brave, kind person.
Kevin: I love it. since you're a hockey fan, I'll use my hockey analogy instead of my baseball one. 30 shots on goal, 30 saves. Nobody's come on the show and said, I want to be known for money, titles, cars, anything. It's all about.
Kaedy Molley: I mean, it would be great if I could be known as being super wealthy, but that's also half a joke. But then I could empower even more people if I were. But yeah, I love that people are coming on and really like, are, if you don't mind me real quick asking, what are some of the other things people say?
Kevin: You ⁓ Most of them have revolved around their family, their spouse and their children, knowing that they were loved, and then just somehow making a positive impact on the life of others. No one has talked about, when I die, I want people to say, ⁓ he or she was wealthy, or they had 50 cars. It's substantial.
Kaedy Molley: Good. Yeah, I love it. And like I said before, I think it's incredible that you're even having a podcast like this to create these discussions and building that you're building the community. You're helping people with their identities. You're helping find meaning where sometimes we struggle to find it. So I want to give you huge props for your curiosity and your growth and your willingness to share and connect with others. think it's what we desperately need more of in this world.
Kevin: Well, thank you. if as we recap, what are the organizations and websites that people can go to if they do get curious?
Kaedy Molley: Yes, warrior scholar, warrior-scholar.org. It was my game changer. I literally want something on my headstone to be like WSP fan girl because it changed my life so much and it's changing so many lives. It's incredible. And we rely on public donations. So anyone out there who even wants to get a little bit of money, we, you know, we've got recurring donors, et cetera, but you're helping change socioeconomic outcomes. Every vet that goes to a good four year school is going have a better outcome than when they went into the military enlisted. So you're really changing lives for the long term. Also, if people want resources for ⁓ Work career transitions for block is great American corporate partners is great if you want to take up golf the veteran golf Association is cool. If you want to take a poppy there's Google veteran hockey orgs. I think we've got warrior hockey in Chicago ⁓ I'm not brave enough yet to do that, but I will one day yeah, if you go on to grock or chat GBT and you look for veteran resource for X you type in whatever it is you want you will find multiple ones. And if you have questions about it, send me an email. My contact info can be found on our website, warrior-scholar.org. And you can find me on LinkedIn, Katie Molly. You can find me on Instagram. I'm all over the place and I'm always willing to help or connect you with someone who can. So please, please take this step and do something good for yourself and check out all the great resources, especially Warrior Scholar Project.
Kevin: Awesome. Katie, thank you so much for coming on. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you enjoyed this conversation just as much as I did.
Kaedy Molley: Thanks so much, Kevin.
