Hey there, listener! Thank you for checking out our older seasons! We're adding this note on the top of the show notes to keep you up-to-date with the show. Connect with Jen Amos and get bonus content when you subscribe to our private podcast show, Inside the Fort by US VetWealth, at http://insidethefort.com/

Last Updated: September 2, 2024

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203: Scott R. Tucker and Mike Wallace Feature Partnerships and Programs Designed to Serve Military Retirees

Also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yBONz1al6H8

Jen Amos takes a break from hosting on Thursdays to introduce replays of her husband's live show, "Take A Knee" Tuesdays.

Continuing from episode 201, US VetWealth Founder and CEO Scott R. Tucker is joined by Blue Water Advisors (BWA) CEO Mike Wallace to discuss the Military Retirement Blueprint and the War Chest Strategy. They also discuss the "10-Year Financial Planning" strategy, challenges with the military mindset, and their shared passion to support transitioning service members.

Notes About Thursday Replays of "Take A Knee" Live Show

• The show was formally titled after Scott's latest book, "Don't Forget Your War Chest," which is available for purchase at: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B08HJVPW1M/allbooks
• Mentioned events and updates may be outdated. The intent of sharing the replays is to (1) get a glimpse into Jen and Scott's ever-evolving entrepreneurial journey, and (2) to discuss career progression for military retirees seeking employment in post-military.
• Recommended to watch via video - If possible, we recommend that you watch this episode on our YouTube channel as the hosts may reference visuals. Each episode will provide a direct link to the YouTube video in the show notes for your convenience. Or subscribe now at: https://www.youtube.com/@holdingdownthefortpodcast
• To stay up-to-date with "Take A Knee" Tuesdays, please subscribe to US VetWealth's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@usvwtv

Resources Mentioned

• Connect with US VetWealth Founder and CEO Scott R. Tucker on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottrtucker/
• Connect with Blue Water Advisors CEO Mike Wallace on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-s-wallace1/
• Learn more about Blue Water Advisors: https://www.bluewater-advisors.com/

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Read our Monday, December 2nd, 2024 newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/98c0c4a5850e/holdingdownthefort

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Access our FREE PORTAL for bonus content, including a FREE subscription to the "Inside the Fort" podcast: https://holdingdownthefortpodcast.com/portal

Do you want to do more than “follow orders,” think outside of the box, and manifest your dreams? Then you’ve come to the right show! The award-winning podcast, Holding Down the Fort by US VetWealth, returns for Season 8 to highlight motivational stories of personal growth, financial awareness, and autonomy in our military community. The show is hosted by Jen Amos, a Gold Star daughter, Veteran Spouse, and Entrepreneur.

Our show continues its partnership with The Rosie Network by featuring Service2CEO Graduates every Monday! Read more - https://issuu.com/therosienetwork/docs/2024notablesmemag/24

We're also excited to be featuring replays of the "Take A Knee" Live Show with US VetWealth Founder & CEO Scott R. Tucker and Blue Water Advisors CEO Mike Wallace, which discusses career progression for military retirees. Tune in every Thursday!

Our main sponsor, US VetWealth, proudly offers Life Insurance and Annuity Strategies for The High-Income Military Retiree. Let's help you capitalize on your above-average health and substantial income-earning potential for post-military life. For a free consultation, https://usvetwealth.com/

In the Fall of 2023, Jen Amos was sought after by InDependent to co-host the 8th annual InDependent Wellness Summit™. In August 2022, Jen Amos' work on the podcast was recognized by Disney Institute and she was hand-selected as the only non-Disney employee to moderate the first Military Spouse Employment panel for the Veterans Institute Summit. March 2022, former co-host Jenny Lynne has voted the 2022 Naval Station Norfolk Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year. November 2020, Jen Amos was awarded “Media Professional of the Year” at The Rosie Network Entrepreneur Awards! The show continued to collect award nominations in the following years. In September 2021, the show made the Final Slate in the 16th Annual People's Choice Podcast Awards for the Government & Organizations category. In November 2021, the show was an Award Finalist for the 5th Annual National Veteran & Military Spouse Entrepreneur Awards. December 2021, the show was a Golden Crane Podcast Awards Nominee. September 2022, the show was a Finalist for the 13th Annual Plutus Awards presented by Capital Group for “Best Military Personal Finance Content.”

Holding Down the Fort has also been featured in multiple media outlets including Military Entrepreneur (M.E.) Magazine, MOAA’s Never Stop Learning Podcast, The Leadership Void Podcast, Lessons Learned for Vets Podcast, Sisters in Service Podcast, Get 2 Vet, Blue Star Families of Dayton & Southwestern Ohio, Legacy Magazine, U.S. Veterans Magazine, The American MilSpouse, VeteranCrowd Network, It's a Military Life, VirtForce, Military Veteran Dad Podcast, and much more.

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Scott R. Tucker 0:00

All right, well, we are alive. Again, give it a minute here to register on on the social medias. And we are just running full steam man. And now you are as well. But I'm real excited with a bunch of stuff that we're about to launch and get into. I try not to go off on a tangent and explain it all today, but well, because it's like, I'm trying to get a cup of coffee,

Unknown Speaker 0:24

so I can handle it. Right? Yeah, so I got

Scott R. Tucker 0:27

mine as well, I just made a made a latte. No, because, you know, as we've been doing this, like we've been, you know, building the opportunity of building the relationship you have between you and I in our in what we're working on. But since our missions and align, and obviously those whom we're meant to serve allied a lot, you were trying to figure out different ways to be more useful to be more valuable to an audience. And, you know, my way of doing that is, hey, you know, it's educate, you know, the best thing you do is educate, share new ideas, share perspectives you've learned or you've learned through working with others. And since both of us have, at this point, we're both in the hundreds of conversations we've had with military retirees, you're more from a how do I get my next job perspective and get paid the right amount? Mine is more from what do I do with that money when I'm getting paid the right amount? And by the way, am I wasting money on these military benefits that are really not benefits are really features? Sure. And that's the better reframe, is that their features, not benefits, not bad, just you don't necessarily need all the features, so you don't have to pay cash. So you will have been

Speaker 1 1:37

Scott R. Tucker 4:41

Unknown Speaker 8:26

I mean, it's just for a second, right? Yeah, please.

Scott R. Tucker 8:29

That

Speaker 1 8:30

absolutely is, you know, a recurring message that we hear you remember what it's like, right? Think of the pedigree of the individuals that we're talking about, think of the selfless dedication that they have. Think of the service before self, right, we you know, we all are these a type personalities, right? And we are not going to let anything fail right on our watch. Right? That's just who we are. Right? That's, you know, this is what America gets from the 18. Right, we're in doing our j ob till the bitter end. And again, it just if the listeners will, excuse me for the, the parallel that I'll draw, but almost to a fault, right? Because the one thing that all of us failed to recognize until really the bitter end in most cases is that in my case, the United States Navy was not going to stop, you know, its mission or fail at it because Mike Wallace, was it 30 years and it's time for me to seek something else in life, right? Whether I made that decision on my own or it was just the end of the road for me and whatever the case may be, and uh, usually it's at that point in time, everybody, you know, takes a breath of, you know, a deep breath and they go oh my gosh, like they realize they look at this checklist you're laying out and they go they tried to do it all right. All 36 months or however you got to broke down it and they go man, I'm just And I'm slipping on a terminal leave next week, and I've done nothing. And and you know, so I recognize this recurring theme, right. And the requirements for individuals to do things is not going to be the same from person to person. And you've heard us talk about this, right? Some networking requirements may be, you know, longer and farther than others, you'll laugh out loud at this, but I was just talking to a member who signed up for our cohort last one of the year. And this is what two months out still, it's gonna go, it's gonna fill so but he had a vision, you know, I start talking to him, I go, What do you want to do? He goes, Well, I'm looking at Amazon, I really like to go to Amazon really like to go to Amazon, and come to find out at the end of the conversation, he goes, Well, my brother works at Amazon, I go, Well, that's a good thing. That's part of your network. And I go, what does he do? And he's like, a, you know, an executive vice president at level 10 at Amazon. And I go, like, Okay, I'm pretty sure in the world of networking, right, like, you know, that contact is going to be able to turn some wheels for you. And you know, if not, you can go grab your mom and bring her down on your brother, who's this l 10. At, you know, Amazon and say, hey, look, the wheel, right. But the point is, in this case, his networking bridge may not be as long as somebody else who has no connections there. Yet, they didn't have time to build these bridges, because we're all obsessed with our day job when we're wearing the uniform. And that's just who we are. But that's the great thing about Blue Water to all of our members. You're welcome. You are welcome. We're building the network for you. Right? It won't be all encompassing, but it'll be a cash shot into your networking experience, to wherever it is you want to go. And that's the great thing about what we're trying to build and preserve here blue water with your help at us about wealth, right? It's all about networking. Right? So I love the product that you built there. Sarens.

Yeah, why? No, no, I mean, because that's all irrelevant, because now think about now Now, this is just a draft slide, thinking about the timeline for the various things people talk to me about. Yeah, this isn't even talking about VA disability or, you know, job hunting stuff. Now, here's the real problem, why this slides relevant. Think about the perspective of the retiree going through the program, what happens? They end up asking their buddies, and when a few months, a few years before, what did you do about it? What did you do about us, but we're forgetting, when did that person first find out about that same problem. And so we're just making this general assumption as we do in the military, that, you know, all the context is always going to be the same. And of course, that's not true. So what what I want to do through our program, at least on the financial side of things, a essentially a version of like a nine line, military retiree pay and benefits, check, check it checkup, we're an audit or something like that, trying to come up with the name with it, I'm going to run it by you asterism guinea pigs to run some stuff. That's another presentation. But for what we're doing, talking about thinking about network again, because it you know, really the right word is positioning. And the reason I say positioning is because in corporates, not just Hey, I gotta put myself out there and get to know a bunch of people. It's like, what purpose and I, you know, you know, I don't like the word compete, I don't like to think about competition in that way. But just understanding that there's a lot of other variables and people's intentions and goals in that. And that's why just being clear about where you're trying to position yourself at this market, whatever job you're trying to get, whether it's, or start a business or anything, we're gonna, you know, end up doing this stuff. Anyway. That's

the important starting point. And again, often with our members, and you've set in several events with us. And when they come and spend the day with us, and they realize the first thing we want to talk to him about is, Hey, what is your personal mission, vision and priorities? Like, you know, what are the big rocks in your life that you want to preserve, make sure that you've been wearing the uniform and you know, and you've been saying, hey, you know, when the time is right, I'm going to set aside some time so I can pay it back, or whatever it happens for you, you know, I'm going to value my time monetarily more or appropriately, and I'm going to secure this. So you know, we call those the big rocks when you're making your own personal strategy, right? What's the mission vision? And what are the priorities along the way? Right. And you know, there's a little bit of eye rolling back into it. Sometimes, you know, people go, Oh, my God, really, this is what we're going to talk about. And then the short answer was like, yeah, the short answer is yes. Right, because it has to start. But it quickly segues into just exactly what you said, now, what do you want to pursue what is going to be a good fit that and again, that is going to preserve those big rocks that you just set aside, hey, this is important to me in life. So I now need to find my next success that's going to allow me to protect these things. And maybe as BPS in there, maybe to a thrift savings plan or the war chest right, maybe that all that is in there and you got to figure out a way to preserve that. You know, and then as you're assessing these companies and industries that you're going to pursue, some may do this well enough or some may not support that at all. But the point is, you have to have a strategy to know if you're on track or not right? It for everybody out there, it kind of comes out of nowhere and hits you abruptly. You have no and dependent on what your services but you have no placement officer, you have no detail. You have no community manager, if you're a Marine, you have no monitor, right? You know, what's army assignments officer, you don't have any of that anymore. There's no buddy that's assessing the terrain for you and telling you this is where we want and need you. And this is where you're going. And we've mapped out this for you 100% of all of that now rests on your shoulders. Yeah. And our relationship, you know, the war chest and understanding the timeline. And when do I need to think about certain things. That's key, Scott, and I love what you put together here. That's legit, right? I mean,

there's Yeah, because what derails you know that search of opportunity is prioritizing you why you want it's it's these problems. Yeah, financially, right, or problems that either derail it, because it's just another stressor or more, the other what happens is people don't know about something and leave opportunity on the table. Yeah, that's kind of why the books called Don't forget your war chest.

Absolutely. And here's the other thing to it, you know, these individuals, you know, again, if they pick wrong, and they fast track through all this stuff, they go like, Mike, I don't want to do that I want to do anything, I just want to grab the brass ring. And I want to go here, careful, careful, because why? Because we've been doing this long enough. Because we know if if you pick poorly, and you step into that environment, you hate getting out of bed in the morning, it doesn't secure your big rocks for you, it's not a good fit, you know, and you just totally, you know, fast hands in the cockpit to use that old phrase, and you you landed there and you're miserable. What do we know about our membership, they are secure enough in who they are that if they are miserable, they will get up and they will leave, they will not stay. And you now just added more time required to find our best. So don't skip these steps, right? I mean, don't skip, right, you have to go through this process. You don't have to live in these worlds. But man, you got to go through a little bit and give it a little bit of thought just so you kind of have a hey, I'm on track or I'm not

right. And so what I want to identify these are, again, are some of the financial priorities. But for our kind of, you know, this positioning, you know, from from that perspective, you know, Mike view and I can kind of work together offline, I'd like to get your thoughts on, you know, what would be some of the problems that come up for that? And then likewise, what are the mistakes that cause those problems? You know, from, from a lot of the financial standpoint, it really what it comes down to is we're in a limited knowledge bubble when it comes to finances, because what is military finance all about? Financial readiness, that's the word what's craziness about deployment, they're not gonna care what your accounts do. They just want to make sure you can deploy

your status, your medical says, Hey, you're not gonna fall over dead here, grab this thing and go this correct, right? Yeah, go through the

same. Same thing with networking. Yeah. How are you trying to position yourself like you can only control how well you're going to get promoted or what next job, you're going to do so much. But with positioning, you have full control. So all this background to say, well, what if we just had our own one page worksheet that allows everybody to kind of from a more, you know, heady standpoint, it wasn't to sit down and be like, alright, we were having this conversation, five years from now, 10 years from now, whatever, whatever kind of general timeframe we're looking at, as we're figuring out what we want to do with ourselves, what grew up, what would have to happen for us to feel good about our success, both personally and professionally. And, you know, these are the things that seem to come up from my perspective. And what I thought Mike is with this kind of networking, masterclass idea that we've been bounced around that we'd put together like, what if we, you know, I don't know if it'd be a weekly or BI BI, we I kind of think by week, usually these groups I've been in every couple of weeks, people come in check in practice introducing themselves a little bit. And then, you know, maybe we have a presentation on a particular topic, or we have a guest speaker and I've got tons of people that I know, I got a guy who I just never birth through one of my mastermind groups, he's about to buy a business, retired out of the military and in now just a government contracting business. So it's like, he came out of the corporate world after the military, and, and it's not like he's getting loans and all that. So it's like, you know, eventually, you know, people might want to learn kind of stuff like that. How would you buy it?

Yes, speaker right. Yeah, exactly. So just go out and start businesses as well, too. That's a unique discussion.

And guess what those guys look for people to hire, and a lot of them are visionaries like me they need an operator. Yeah, they need someone to just come in and be like, Hey, I'm gonna learn and figure out as we go, I don't you know, even if I don't get paid right away, you know if you're in a position to do that financially, you know, that day or is that those are the types of things I can come out of this. The point of this is to ask those questions that are going to be relevant and try to figure out the kind of, you know, the tie your own individual timelines, this is to truly personalize the what comes up? Who do you know, do you need to know? Do you have a plan to get there? Do you know some strategy, you want to learn some strategy? So we can teach some hacks? Little things? You know, we and here's the cool thing. I'm still learning. I would like to keep learning I have my own version of this. Yeah, absolutely. You know, this will be more relevant for the the active retiree going through the process going through your program, but doesn't have to be a Bluewater thing, or US vet wealth thing. This is just a, I think, a useful tool that I would have found helpful, you know, remind yourself of your health. And so maybe each each episode, we could talk about a different section a little more depth, but also get people's feedback. Hey, tell us what tell us what you think your talent stack is that you're bringing to the table? That's not just your What did I do in the army? You know what I mean? Absolutely. Because like, for me, I think my talent stack is, hey, I'm, I'm decent at a couple languages. And I can travel on a whim, like, that's a random talent stack, you know, that you some people just aren't comfortable with, you know, so I want to add that into my thing. I don't know, we're, it's gonna become useful. But you know, in random situations, sometimes it kind of comes up, I want to identify those types of things that are essentially my strengths. And instead of trying to fix my weaknesses, I just want to keep leaning into my strengths. Because if you build the right relationships, those people will help you with their weaknesses, or solve those problems, too. So anyways, now obviously, I didn't talk about this, but this is the general idea. I

love it. And can you go back one slide? So not sure if you can, if you can do that, or not? Probably mess you up there. Okay, stop here.

Yeah, I didn't make a formal presentation. I was just throwing some slides at my to share with you. So don't worry.

You, but the biggest problem, right? The group sake, right? And I find 95% of active duty military,

get fgli Everyone's overpaying. That's group thing. That's the difference.

But how often do we approach these problems? We've been indoctrinated in this, right, because we have the trust and confidence in our warfighting brethren out there. So we do groupthink, Hey, what did you do? You're reaching out in front of you? Hey, what do you think about this? And it's a potential misstep? Because that may not be the best answer for you just because in this juncture, right, just because the guy in front of you did this, that may not be. And the one thing that we put out in Blue Waters is I say, Don't get caught up in comparing and contrasting your career progression to anybody else's. Because everybody has a different set of big rocks. Everybody has a different mindset of mission, vision and priorities. Everybody is looking at different options. If you want to leave Department of Defense and work in government contracting, maybe that's less of a networking bridge that you will have to build than somebody who wants to go work for Xerox, right? As an example of a company, right? You can't compare and contrast those, you know, starting points and ending points because they're just different requirements. So I love how you just say, hey, you know, your problems, right group think it's not a one size fits. All right? It's it's unique, right? And you just have to approach it that way. But Scott, let me ask you a question here. I love this. And so hey, you know, we've got some pretty good friends down at Marathon right consulting, who are going to be our integral partners, as well bring in blue water digital online and doing some pretty cool, thanks. I wonder Scott, think about this. People that utilize this product, like 36 months out, 24 months out, you know, 12 months out, and then it's like, every two months, you know, 10 a, you know, six off, you know, all the way down to man, I'm out and I'm stepping into transition. I wonder if there'll be a way right that we could reach out to the audience and just say, you know, what are your milestone, you know, key points that you need in each of these blocks, and then have an IT way we're we're able to collect all these up you with me? I mean, I know exactly how to do it. Yes. And so now 50 People use this product, Hunter, people use it. Now. 1000 people have used this and let's condense this down into those big hey, here's some things because I love ideas like this. But even you said, Hey, there's things we're still learning. And you and I do we stumble through these things, and we do learn a lot and we'll go well, I think I know what some of these milestone achievements would need to be and when they would need to happen but that name may not be the same for everybody. Or maybe you know we've missed something right? I don't know, I love the idea. I love the concept, right? Well,

I mean, the best thing, the easiest that we could do is one, if you're watching this video, you'll comment below on your thoughts. Or if you want to, you know, give us any input on you're putting something together like this, you know, we're all yours. But we can also just do a survey and send it out to your group, just kind of a tangible, so why don't you and I think about no more than 10 questions, probably less have one or two open ended questions, a couple of but I've studied how to do surveys, you know, business audio, this kind of this kind of stuff. It's, there's different ways to do it. You're just throwing stuff up on LinkedIn, or whatever. But you'd be probably more tangible to get people's written thoughts, you know, if they're willing to share, and I think no,

and this is what I would say, for the listeners out there for the audience. Right. One of my most exciting things I get to do in the relationship that I have with Scott Ducker here is, he's an idea guy, right? I mean, you, you know, we're on the phone back and forth, right, you generate these thoughts, these ideas, and it's exciting, and it's energetic, and, you know, I just love having these conversations, you really are immersed into this, right? You're dedicated to it. And, you know, you come up with some really keen insights, right. And it just, you know, it just amazes me how you just, you know, think this stuff up, but must be on the yoga mascot, when you're doing this, right, and you hear the ideas just kind of hit you, right, but you've got a lot of good ones out there. And I just love you know, how you just kind of tease them out a little bit, because there's value in every single one of these things, right? Or the audience, depending on what side of the fence you're on, if you're trying to build a war chest and protect that, or how do I navigate this awkward time in my life, career progression transition, you know, and, you know, it is all about, you know, us trying to simplify a lot of the tools make it available for our members, so that we can ensure their outcome is easier and better. Right. And you've heard me say this before, you know, the fact of the matter is, in general, the demographic that lands with us have blue water, it's the largest underserved graphic, you know, the tribe had programs, you know, like from the Department of Labor, Department of Defense, right? Veterans Affairs, they all come together, and they put these institutionalized programs out there. But the fact of the matter is, right, the bulk of all the attention and probably rightfully so lies in that what would we say that IE four, maybe five window, I mean, the numbers wise, you know, per year, how many people step out of active duty, right, and, you know, move on to the next success. And the bulk of the numbers are that are membership are a sliver in comparison to those numbers. But I've never in my heart having lived it and done this, I've never interpreted that as need no help you with me. Like, you know, the powers that would be would come up to Oh, fours or fives or sixes give you a firm pat on the back saying, Hey, you're educated, you're smart, you're gonna figure this out, you're gonna be okay. While that may be true, it doesn't help the individual reduce the stress, it doesn't help them figure out these lessons that they need to figure out, right? It doesn't need to be that difficult. In the end, the point that I make, we don't have to live with that these programs that you know, have fallen short of meeting our needs and underserved us for so long, there's a better way. And we're a better way, right? We offer just like you do, and I love the partnership and go forward. And now that we've been doing this for three years, starting four years, hey, we've legitimately got analytics to talk about, here's the results that we've delivered, you can compare and contrast that to anybody else out there. I'm game for that, right, but we're making impact, you know, for our membership, and I just love that, right? We're bringing value there.

Yeah, and that's where I think, you know, get to the next step of value, bringing that membership you've already built back together for those that want to continue to network and increase those skill sets. You know, why not do that in you know, a bi weekly kind of zoom call environment, that's how all these are set up, you know, that it's that simple, cool, well all, um, you know, work to draft up kind of a program, how that would, you know, work will keep your lookup account and you want to talk about it, I'd love to know, for sure that I could show you some functionality on the play on the portal platform. And that's kind of the last thing I just wanted to show you real quick is a quick vision of I think how you know, we work together with some of our programs obviously, this is more from your my perspective. But when we you know when I never like to say in the financial advice if financial planning investment world, you know, whatever wealth insurance is Scott's a financial advisor or financial planner. Don't call me that I who am I to give you, you make your own decision like no. And that's been a struggle trying to position differently and just say, No, we're not doing that we're consulting high performing senior leaders retiring out of the military who got unique financial challenges, regardless of where they're at financially. They don't necessarily just want to keep doing things, you know, fall in the masses, right? So there's a better way to do it, whether it's how to get a job better, or how do you do the the military benefits decisions better? And we'll consult you on that. And between Mike's workshops, and his program, and he's coaching around that, as well, really, I like to consider you a high end consultant, right and executive consultant, you do workshops, and then people consult with you one on one. And that's kind of what I'm doing my books, I've written them as a consultation, right? Versus hey, here's really fluffy idea. It's more like, here's the problem. Here's how you solve it. Here's an example. And yeah, that's kind of how we can, you know, work together. And similarly, as well as talk about the audit you when it comes to that financial thing, whether you're thinking about your job, or you're thinking about your retirement plan, right, let's see where you're at today, you know, you did all the deployments, where are the dollars, so given that I've just done this hundreds of times, that's my free, like, I'll do this for anybody, you know, do an audit with you, because I know, you need to know this. And I know you're probably not on that timeline, in the right perspective, or just haven't thought about it. And since I've seen so many situations that allow, and obviously, some of your gonna be a good fit to work with us. We'll point that out, we'll discuss it, you know, I'm launching the war chest Academy, as a way to introduce this philosophy and training so that if people want to learn more than just, you know, how do I get insurance to solve SBP? Sure, we can just do that. That's the consulting thing. You want to get more into the coaching side of things. And so blue water fits right in there, essentially, through, I think we call it high caliber networking, or high caliber positioning ocean.

So it is I think it's a good fit. And I'm appreciative of it, because I mean, you know, Scott, right. I mean, sometimes our members will venture into this discussion with us, right. And while we're happy to have that discussion, I just want to be really clear, I don't look at myself as having the depth of knowledge, like you do in these financial areas, right to have these conversations, right, and to bring a lot of what you've learned to the table and, and share that to the betterment of our members, right? That's just not me. And this just drives home the importance of having these valued trusted relationships, right. So I'm just not, you know, the person out, you know, to kind of do that I can share with you what I did what worked for me, but that may not be what's best for you. And and, Scott, that's where you come in, right? You've got that insight, right? So, yeah,

why not. And I also want to want to have the platform for us to share all the knowledge. And that's, that's what we mean by the military retirement blueprint, it's, you know, it's the space to come in and grab what you need, you know, as you're designing your own post military lifestyle, you might need some of it, you might need all of it, you know, whatever. It's our it's our back end platform. So we can lump in our networking group right in here with, with everything else. So you know, more on this to come. But you know, can preview it a little bit like even today's call, we had a scheduled inside here. So that's a lot. So we can do a similar thing for

so if I'm somebody who's listening right now and wants to go back and review some of the conversations on topics that we've had, like, on strategy, networking, can I do that through your platform connect,

it's all it's all here, Jen posts, everything that we've done, we read, here's the here's a full replay. I mean, it's slow to load right now. Yeah, but all of our previous clips and stuff, we put it out on social media, too. It's just this is also more of a our library, and we're building it out, you know, this is the back end. So you're seeing more than it's available, but I love it, you know?

Like what are you and Jen working on right now? What what are the next big things? You know, in US bet? Well, your life, it'd be

essentially the our next big project is getting this war chest Academy out, like starting our kind of daily show, you know, training program, because really, where things are going for us is other financial professionals leveraging our programs, whether our clients already working with somebody or someone's or even realtors or any independent business owner that that might be working with a military retiree or is a veteran, small business owner, you know, if we're talking that $250,000 annual income lifestyle, or AMI, which is you know, where we're going to be you know, whether we realize it or not for it in most cases, then you're that's tweaking things get interesting and the other financial professionals just don't know the nuances of these military retirement benefits. And a lot of them don't have unique insurance solutions the way we do with the war chest because they're in the stock market, the risky money approach. And then as the economy is crashing, people start to get worried and then they clients want to move their accounts out. This is the whole this is the back end of the financial industry where it's just you know, counts are up counts are down, you know, people are just moving back and forth thinking they're gonna get a better solution with a new person and It's just never the case, the better approach is to go the safe money. Yeah. And then you don't have to worry about it. But that happens in the times every 10 or 20 years, when the economy starts going haywire, people start to get worried. And so the financial professionals go, oh, well, what do I do for my clients? Well, I'll tell them about the war chest and a lot of them have their minds blown. They haven't heard this stuff.

I love the other thing, too. And just for the listeners out there, right, you know, you approach it in a 10 year block, right? I know, you're happy to strategize a one year plan or a 15. Year. Yeah, exactly. You're in but that 10 year block for most, if you kind of look at bluewaters members, right? We're about that 55 to 57%? Oh, six is right, we're about that. 25 to 27%, you know, oh fives, you know, and that demographic kind of when you're hitting, you know, that time period 10 years seems to kind of initially make sense to us. Because for many of us, you're starting to kind of approach your 50s. And you know, you're starting to get close to that 6062 number, and I can wrap my brain around 10 years, what does that look like? Right. And I think that's a great way to approach it. But although attractive in conversation, right, but again, for the listener, yield, script, whatever plan they want, right, eight, year, six, year, five year, 15, year, whatever you want to do, right? The numbers, you know, you can kind of work that out for him. So I love that too. So it's, it kind of makes sense. But we're kind of drawn to that 10 year block. Really, I think for most of us, right? It's

the most useful because we've been thinking, I mean, that's what we're expecting you when you join the military, if you don't get out in the first five years, at the 10 year mark, you make a decision, am I doing 20? And then at that another another 10 years at 20? Mark, you're like, Am I doing more? Right? So it's fair, you know, if you're 40, and you're thinking, Alright, 10 years I can be I can be done at 50. And if you're about 50 years old, I'd be done at 60. Like, those are tangible, tangible goals. So that was the point anyways, yeah. Unfortunately, the pension wasn't enough, give it inflation. So you have to work another 10 years? Or

do your box right? That's that's what we say. How big do you need gearbox? Exactly? Well, it sounds like you guys are working on some exciting things. I know you've been tracking us, right. For the listeners out there. Right. We just knocked out our September Washington, DC cohort. Great audience up there, we had a chance to bring a few extra instructors up there. Scott, you know, we're working diligently hard on, you know, trying to get many of our instructors up to speed. Right. So we almost had a one to one touch point, you know, between the lunch roundtable, all the instructor base and and our members up there on that, but it was a great day up there. And we taught it at the Watergate facility. And it was just a great, it was just a great day, right really was we also had a couple of special guests joining us there was Mr. TJ Grady and Mr. Mike Lowe, individuals from the Naval Academy Alumni Association, right. So they were up laying a critical eye on us in the program and trying to understand a little bit more about what it is we're trying to build and bring together for members. We subsequently spent the following day after our cohort, you know, we went up to Annapolis right, and we toured the new Flugel center up there beautiful facility up there, the Naval Academy Alumni Association, really proud of that building up there, they've done a phenomenal job up there. But now they're vested into, you know, they've heard their members loud and clear, hey, we need a little bit more for members that have, you know, spent their time in service. And now what is the Alumni Center going to do for those individuals approaching their transition, and lo and behold, Blue Waters, a kind of a turnkey solution set for him. So we're excited that that's going in a positive direction, we'll just keep our fingers crossed so that we stay in conversations, and we've got some strong leading indicators to 2024 is going to be an exciting time. So more to follow on that. So that that worked out well. We've also got our local area networking event tomorrow, right? We support warriors tap out in color, and I'll be there his team over there. And it's a great networking event, not only just to come and have a beer on us, and just interface there, you know, just with everybody who shows up, but we take it a step further, as we require everybody or not require but we were appreciative of people that register. So we can put together a networking connection document. And if you haven't been to one of our events, if you go and register, you'll be the recipient. And you know, we'll we'll put that out. And so it really becomes an interactive, right, I participated in a networking event. Now I've got this document where everybody's email addresses on there, what company or business are with, you know, all of this information really kind of comes out and so we're excited about that. So that's coming up. So there's going to be some interesting engagements with seen app out in San Diego. We're continuing to work with the SA Maypoles six week team and the Naval Academy so I think the schedule is gonna you know, to potentially take us into this exciting directions and continuing to meet, you know, a greater need for more individuals right out there. So we're excited about so that's just a little bit of a snapshot on kind of what's going on with us. But I look forward to buying you beer tomorrow, sir.

I don't drink beer anymore, man.

Well, come on. Let me get a light beer or maybe well, you know, whatever you pick your beverage of choice. So

on the snakebites No.

approach with it. Or my, the

health kick, you know, it's like, no, I don't want to. Yeah,

it's awesome. You got to be lean and trim to you know, meet the needs of all our meal nights.

I've had my share of beer over the it's, I had to call it quits at some point. Anyways, no, no, great. We're gonna be able to be there tomorrow. We'll bring a few more copies of our book. If you show up early enough. I'll give you a copy until we run out by spies. Last, but cool, man. I love it. Look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Okay, half house to Virginia Beach. Yep, ended up on me up on LinkedIn, or visit a website us federal.com But obviously hit Mike and I up on LinkedIn if you got any questions about what we talked about today. And then eventually they'll have we are

still here to serve. So reach out as required. Thanks, Scott. All right. Take care. All right.