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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199: Scott R. Tucker and Mike Wallace Talk About How to Approach Military Transition Assistance

Also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ZHnHKepp8Dg

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

US VetWealth Founder and CEO Scott R. Tucker is joined by Blue Water Advisors (BWA) CEO Mike Wallace to discuss military retirement planning and career progression for retirees. They address the challenges with the terms "transition" and "assistance" for military retirees. They encourage setting personal goals such as understanding one's mission, vision, and priorities before focusing on compensation or job fit. Lastly, Scott and Mike address what it means to pursue risky investments for building retirement savings, and the benefits of professional networking.

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• Mentioned events and updates may be outdated.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, September 16th, 2024 newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/4823cbefda7d/holdingdownthefort

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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/me_mag_2023/16

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.”

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Scott R. Tucker 0:00

Good, man. It's been an exciting. Last couple of days. I have a lot of travel just happened and gonna happen. It sounds like Jen just got back from DC she was up there doing a Spartan Race. Oh.

Speaker 1 0:15

So she got back get into DC next week. So yeah, it'll be good. Well,

Scott R. Tucker 0:19

right, What day are you going?

Speaker 1 0:21

So quickly go up the day prior. So next week, that'll be a Tuesday departure for us arrive up there just to kind of make sure everything is set for our day long cohort on Wednesday. Okay, gotcha. And, yeah, we'll spend the day up there knocking you know, that content out with our new members. And then on Thursday, I think you knew we're headed to the Naval Academy, Annapolis, right. And we're gonna check out the Alumni Association's new building chance to check out their conference room and to see if there's really a way for the Alumni Association, blue water maybe to come together and you know, offer some more executive services right for their senior leaders.

Scott R. Tucker 1:06

Yeah, and partnership is what it's all about. And that's kind of you know, what I was getting at is I might be going to DC now on Monday to, to the Rosie network, is I think launching a new program or cohort. And since I went through one of their very initial programs back in San Diego, and we're huge fans of the Rosie network, and that for Jen's podcasts holding down the fort that's in collaboration with the rose network we interviewed as well as interviewing you. And like Toby, we also interviewed current cohort members from various Rosi network, they have programs on bases across the country. So that's cool. So I might be going up to DC on that one in and then I have another program, I can't quite announce exactly what's going on yet. But I might be going to Seattle, Boston, Chicago, Denver. So some cool travel plans coming up, I would like to, I'll be going there to give a presentation I've been asked to give for a veterans organization. But I'd like to maybe set up meetups and stuff, or maybe give some other presentations, or while we're traveling. So that's because somebody found the YouTube channel and somebody found us online. So I think that same kind of thing can work for you, Mike, the more that we see your insights out there, whether it's the Naval Academy Alumni Association, which I'll I'll nudge any Academy grads to call the element Association, right? I

Speaker 1 2:27

mean, it's a Bible message just like you know, your academy grad, right? I mean, who's got Air Force? I'm also Scattegories, right? They all participate in, what's their big jump for the sack event, right. And blue water, this is a great precursor event for all senior leaders, before they would ever, you know, step into an environment like that, right? We help them with the knowledge and the insight on how to navigate looks like.

Scott R. Tucker 2:52

And I think that's what brings us to today's theme is what are the dream outcomes. And I'm going to give me a few minutes here to kind of caveat and couch to this, to frame kind of the story here. Because

Speaker 1 3:06

with the listeners, you know, or whoever is gonna be watching this, Scott said, he's got some pop up questions for me. So I have no idea what he's going to ask me. So I'm, well, I told him, I'm actually excited about this. So you know, I'll do my best to fill these notice questions. Wow,

Scott R. Tucker 3:20

I wanted to, you know, kind of put you on the spot. Because, you know, we weren't able to grab a kind of last minute guest. And unfortunately, since we're rescheduling this I was last minute, I gotta give you more of a heads up in the future. But But either way, I'll just kind of ask you to go back to you how you felt when you're getting out of the military. And obviously, you can glean from the Gosh, hundreds of conversations you've probably had in these last three years since starting Bluewater. So, you know, you answer however you want, but I just we would be good to kind of have someone on the hot seat so to speak. But you know, given that a lot of the military transition process, and let's call it transition assistance programs, yeah. And I'm a big language guy. And I think your transition is not a good word. You say it's not a good word. Because you that's why you use career progression. Transition is just uncertainty. You know, I agree. You didn't like, yeah, assistance. It's like, oh, what are you going to do for me? And that doesn't really help. And this is a you know, what's the biggest problem you run into people have that you guys don't know what they want to do say, hey, what do you want? What do you want to do? And you know, programs just like a bunch of checkboxes, therefore, it's going to work out and it's like, well, it doesn't necessarily work work out that way. And I think we should actually change the A, from assistance to avoidance, like, when we're going through these cookie cutter programs, we're actually avoiding the transition. The whole point of getting out of the military is to stop following the orders to go find your own path. And so it takes a little bit more, because it's not just a next duty station. These aren't PCs orders. We treat it that way because that's the easy button and that's what we're comfortable.

Speaker 1 4:55

What we're wired to do, that's our Roach, right? And

Scott R. Tucker 4:59

Speaker 1 9:28

you're hitting on really those first two topics that we spend time with individuals going through, right and we get a little bit of the eye roll on occasion, because the very first thing we want to talk to you about is what's your strategy, what are your personal mission vision priorities? Because I think initially most of us that step into transition, it is a financial thing right away, right? In other words, we all I think we're going to starve. And I think for those officers that are, you know, in a retirement window 20 to 30 years, or plus, we don't fully understand the value of our own retirement, right, we don't understand what that wealth is, or what kind of a parachute that really is for us. The second thing is, you know, all of our pursuits, not always, but often are geared towards the compensation, right, we want to look and we want to zero in on compensation. And I'll even take that a little bit of a step further, a lot of our members, not all, but many of them don't understand the total compensation benefit. In other words, they just are focused on like a base pay. In other words, how much am I getting an hour? How much am I getting a year? What am I getting a month, and that's all I'm concerned about. And there, we educate many of our members on, there's all kinds of direct and indirect forms of compensation that are out there that are going to build quality of life for you. So that's typically the first approach that we see. Right, and it has to do a lot with my, we don't fully understand, you know, our tax shelter in our uniformed life, although we talk about it, many people address that with us. But, you know, we build us up in our mind, right? That, hey, this is what I'm worth here today. Therefore, some companies gotta gotta pay me that in the future, and part of the education process is, that's the wrong answer to the question that our members need. And the question that they need answered is, first and foremost, what are the big rocks in your life? What are the your personal mission, vision priorities, what's important to you, in feeling fulfilled in life, and you got to put a fence around. And that's your first step, you got to understand what that is. And people are like, Well, Mike, I don't know what it is, I don't want to want to do where I grew up, or whatever. Well, we have a methodology for your to help you figure out what this is. But the point is, for the sake of this conversation, once you figure it out, you got to put a fence around it, then you go and pursue these opportunities that you're going to come across that you may think are good fits for you. And you can't approach it. This is what I was worth when I was wearing a uniform, therefore, you have to pay me this much now. And you've seen all the math and people will want this much tax shelter, whatever, and I'm worth this much money. The question our members need to understand what they want to answer. It is not necessarily what you think you're worth, because I look them all in the eye, Scott, and I say, Hey, you're worth one gajillion dollars a year. And I believe that in my heart, they are they move mountains, there's nothing that they can do. But the question they want to answer is, how much can this company compensate you in this area for doing this job? That's what you need the answer to and then you have a decision to make Either that helps you preserve your big rocks and your personal mission vision priorities, or it doesn't. And if it doesn't help you, then that's a misaligned strategy and market analysis, right. And something's got to give you what you're protecting has got to change, or what you're pursuing. So that's the first kind of real is real approach. And I'll stop there.

So right, yeah, so it sounds like priority is put food on the table, just make it sure compensations coming in? And I understand it, how are they thinking about it around that 10 year timeframe? Or are they thinking about that? Or should they be thinking, Hey, what is you're talking about career progression? Well, you know, if you're gonna get into this, what are we looking forward to, that's, that's what I, you know, in the industry I'm in, you could kind of see, hey, here's how you grow your business. When you get this amount of clients, you sell these types of products or whatever, you can kind of calculate what the math is going to be and it gets excited. Whoo, you know, oh, this is what the law, this is why I'm in it for the long term. I'm not just trying to get that, you know, quick. So from a compensation standpoint, on really, given that there is so much uncertainty on what I'm worth and all that, is it really about a maintaining lifestyle versus an increasing lifestyle? You know, what is it kind of a purpose of the money? You know, that's, that's an important question to ask as well.

Yeah. You know, as members venture through this, and they ultimately land somewhere, then the realization starts to kind of come out and they're like, Okay, you know, I have this, this retirement for those who are eligible coming in at this point, but I'm now also generating this additional revenue, right. It's like the divert from taking a math problem and go into the whiteboard, but then going out and living, you know, this real life example and watching it, you know, come to reality in front of your eyes. You now see, okay, I am able to generate a fair amount of wealth and, and for this period of time, as long as I have this employment and this opportunity, wow, what am I going to do with this wealth and what does that mean to me and I think, you know, whether it's, you know, post landing by four or five, six months, whatever it is, members start to understand they're like, Okay, they have an ability and accelerated ability now to supersede right. I mean, you're, you're generating another income, basically, right on top of your retirement. And in many instances, it can really, you know, put your investment strategy or your saving strategy, or whatever it is you happen to be involved with, you know, on steroids, right, and you watch this wealth accumulation happen very quickly. And it's kind of at that point where, you know, people live that environment, and then they go, okay, and they start to refocus back on fit. In other words, what is generating fulfilment in my life? Is it what I thought it was? Wow, I just thought if I had a lot more revenue, I was gonna sleep a lot easier in life, and things were gonna be great. Well, now I have that I can see it, I see what the what the longevity looks like. Is that really what I was in pursuit of? Well, the answer, in most cases is no, what you really were pursuing was freedom, right in your execution to pursue those things that were going to be fulfilling to you, right, these big rocks over here that you put aside, but not necessarily tied to generation of an income. In other words, it was going to, you're going to put some away for some period of time. And now if you want to go out and start your own business, now you want to go out and go, Hey, I want to turn my hobby into work or work into a hobby or whatever it happens to be, hey, I want to open up a guide serves I want to open up, you know, I've always wanted to get into real estate business, right. But I just didn't think you know, what fun things or do you want to give back in the case of you know, my own example coming back from Amazon, Seattle. Right? Okay, great. Came back here. All right, at some point, more is just more, what do we want to do, we want to build a structure. And I want to help individuals step through career progression, especially those senior leaders who are the largest underserved demographic out there. And we want to remove the fog of war and make that easier for them. And we want to do it in an environment that makes them feel comfortable that they can be a part of, and ultimately, we can build this together. That is what I wanted to pursue. But yet I had to go through corporate life for a period of time and then contract and consulting work here on the East Coast for a time, and then it kind of hits you, hey, this is going to work out. We're okay. Now what do I want to pursue? Right?

Well, let me ask you this before you joined Amazon and went that path, obviously, you were planning you're doing Blue Water visors at that time in heck, Amazon, you know, that whole experience is is part of what what allowed you to do that? Did you have any inkling of hey, one day, I'd like to start a business. I've had some ideas in my back pocket. I might have even tried some things in the past. Were you open mind open to that at all? A just just to be prepared for it just in case? And if not, how would have things changed for the way Bluewater manifested maybe? Had you kind of just thought about it a few years earlier? Just to you know, maybe one day I'll tap out and go on my own? I don't know. Were you thinking that way at all? Would you think that was going to come even the consulting thing? No, I did not even blue one, just to be in you know, call it. I call it income independence. Like you don't need to work for somebody else. Unless you want to go be a contractor. Maybe you take a job for a couple years. But you know, that's what being retired is. But you didn't want to stop, you know, right until you found the thing. Blue water that came out of nowhere, right? Yeah.

And I'll be honest with you blue water, you know, in execution, right. It was literally individuals seeking, you know, me out or my partner's out. It was just this unending stream. And COVID Perhaps exacerbated this. Right. But individuals, I mean, we didn't set out to have this, this effort, right, this startup and but nonetheless, got people kept coming. I mean, they were coming to us, Hey, who do you know, at this company? Hey, could you take a look at this resume? Hey, and I I've had actually a fair for, you know, so it was just a stream of people in need, that just never went away? Until right? Finally, you know, had to really sit down hard and go, Yeah, this is a strong enough leading indicator that there's a need that's not being met here. And what are we going to do about right, this is an opportunity for us.

And that's I think one of the things I think most retirees could be more open to is that over time, when you start to notice the thing that people are asking you for advice for, like, hey, maybe that's the thing that you can be useful in a way whether that's to to find a new job or to go and be more independent. So you know, prior to retirement when you were thinking the 10 year mark, what did we What did you think 10 years after military retirement? What did you think life was going to look like? Were you still going to be working? Or were you poor? You plan on doing the hard, you know, five years save Elia? What was your original kind of thoughts?

Well, I mean, for me, and I can't say this is the same for everybody. But sure, you know, for me, I was going to step into this career progression time, I was going to do everything in my power to find and identify a good fit, and then I was going to, you know, generate that income. And I think you're wise to look at this 10 year period of time, that's kind of what most people zero in on because it's an opportunity to accelerate you know, your war chest, right? I mean, that those are your words, right? You know, well, it's a great opportunity to do that I can continue to meet need, I can continue to preserve everything in my life, that everything that I can generate above that line, there's a period of time that I'm going to sink into the war chest, right. And most people zero in because most senior oh five Jr. Oh, sixes, right. And that's a large part of our demographic zero in on, all right, um, you know, 48 to 52, whatever that is, okay, I've got about 10 years of some earning potential in front of me, the reality is, you know, as well as I did, if you wanted to earn beyond those years, you absolutely could, you know, our demographic, very healthy, maybe they want to do that, but it's a good one to initially set your sights on. And that's what a lot of them feel comfortable having that conversation and that tenure. But something happens along that path, right, depending on what job you step into, and how fast you're able to accelerate, you know, your earning potential, right. All of a sudden, you wake up one day, and you go, and I'm living in the house that I always wanted to live at. And I have no house payment. My wife is driving a new car, I've got my car, I have no car payments. Kids are already through school. I don't have any bills. I don't have anything. And now what right? I mean, you're like, how big do I need my box? And really, how big do I need the war chest to supplement and secure this lifestyle as I go forward? And I think that might be a unique conversation for all members. You know, I don't think there's no two answers that are going to be the same but in general, right? I think along that that first track of about 10 years people realize, Okay, I've maybe got more flexibility in my life than what I thought right? I'm gonna talk to smart guys like Scott, you're gonna reassure me that going through these plans and these options with SPP are not SBB or what do I do with this? Okay, the war chest is built and not you're going to be fine. But I bring you all the way back to the very first thing what's the fit that you're seeking for? In other words, there's something in life that's going to bring you fulfillment and I would make the argument it's not just the war chest right the war chest and and as a thing, right that that thing is not going to be what brings you fulfillment in life it's going to be what frees you up exactly you know with flexibility in life for you to go pursue the thing that's going to bring you fulfillment and it's that and that all happens in that you know, you land at a new career and somewhere down in the first number of months you know, you mature in that thinking and it now becomes clearer you can see it you go okay I get this this is how big my box needs to be this is what it looks like I can do this at this point. I'm going to have the flexibility for me to do whatever it is that that's going to fulfill you know my buck right yeah,

I mean vi you can just set it better the purpose of what the war chest is for it's it's to give options and flexibility with without the risk and uncertainty that already has a military transition entering the civilian world is usually scary enough when but the good news is a as a military retiree, you got a lot going for you you got the network's you got the pension you got the VA disability, you got the pat on the back, like let's keep you know whether or not you can translate your skills or not like you don't read directly into the next job. You know, what I've seen is there's really a couple different types of people might not catch everybody here but for those who don't have that kind of just you know again that hey, I like the 10 year I can give myself a good another 10 years I'd like to have it figured out whatever that means around that 10 year mark those don't have it it seems to me their intention is just simply make numbers bigger a you know so I can buy more car more house and that's how I end up with all the McMansions around DC right it's just all right you know I don't really have to do much am I gonna get a government job I'm 70 years old and they're still paying me good so I'll keep going in and there's no real plan to ever actually use the money it's more kind of you know ego based which Hey, it's fine obviously they're employed so if if their selves are not here take it somebody else's more useful job away from you know from another veteran but then the 10 year guys it just seemed to either you know, find that position in a company where now they're you know, I don't know executive level the other doing something more whether they're feel like their decision maker again, and control that might be you know, more stressful but me Maybe though they were that kind of a military person, they just got to be working, you know, all the time. And then there's those who just kind of figure out, hey, how do I want to spend my time and they, they find a way to maximize it, where they actually are doing more of the things they like to do. Usually, that means, you know, friends and family, right hobbies and stuff more,

you project it on this. It's different for everybody, right? And I'm kind of going back what I said earlier, and I don't want our audience to misunderstand what I'm saying, if what brings you fulfillment in life is to seek a sweet sweet position, or a senior directorship in a major defense industry company, then pursue that, if that's what brings you happiness. Yeah. But, you know, what I was trying to convey was, you don't have to pursue that if, you know, at some point in time, as you

don't assume that that work. It's not like military where it's just like, here's your career path, because of the rank structure. Like, it's not that at all, we got to be more open to different ways of just being useful because your executive as a man, you're making more money, you know, then then being in a different, it's all depends, there's a lot of ways to make a lot of money without a lot of responsibility.

You know, it really does come back about those, those big rocks we talked about, right? Let's talk about quality of life, you we have a lot of members, you know, they'll come to you, they go, Hey, I've done 11 deployments, you know, I've been married for 34 years together for about seven, and you don't want to live my life like that anymore. And I want to pay it back to the family. And I've done all these things. I go, Hey, those are great big rocks to secure here. And then they turn right around, they go, Alright, I'm seeking senior director, you know, at blah, blah, blah. And you know, I'm gonna be burned at both ends. And hey, but it's great cop, Mike. And this is awesome. But I'm like, yeah, like, wait a minute, like, this is what you said, and this is what you're pursuing. And again, it's not for me to say one is right or wrong. I point out the misalignment of those discussions. And it's usually something has to change, either what you're pursuing is gotta change, or, Hey, this isn't as important to us what you thought it was. Yeah, right. It makes sense. Yeah. Oh,

absolutely. Because I was just talking to a buddy of mine Navy, oh, five, he's just like, I got my next duty station list. It's either way over here in the middle of nowhere way over there, or it's this job I don't like. And you always think of the negatives of the potential duty stations you're going to get assigned to. And again, this is the point where you can, again, stop following orders and create your own. So you need to reverse it and make your priorities and stick to it. You know, don't follow the carrots just because all right, Mike, as we close up, we'll do a little fire around with it. So So quick answers here. But this is the second part of the question. This is the second part of the the main question. Okay. First part, well, again, was, hey, if we're having this conversation, 10 years from now, what would have had to happen for you to feel good about confident about the success both personally and professionally. And then usually, that means I'm getting paid? Well, I'm doing something I enjoy doing. I'm spending more time with my family, that kind of stuff. And you mentioned the rocks. And so that's part of this. So you've probably already hit on it. But the next part of the question is more specifically in those next 10 years, what dangers might pop up, that would derail that 10 year strategy, you know, that success? What opportunities might pop up to enhance that success? And then what are your strengths that you can lean into something and you know, one or two quick answers, you know, what's the main danger that pops up for retiree that derails this whole it's called that 10 year strategy. 10 year war chest, just be like, Alright, I'm gonna work, try to find something meaningful, in the meantime, sock a lot of money away, and eventually, you know, be done, whatever that means, you know, 10 or so years from now? What's the one thing that derails all that? Do you think ego?

Oh, you know, I mean, it's the biggest danger, you're making me think hard here. So, you know, I think it's that lake trout, right? syndrome, you know, some shiny object, right? You know, for some individuals, it might be a pursuit of a little bit more risky of a venture than really what they're knowledgeable on pursuing. You know, we have some members that are excited about private equity, venture capital, a lot of that kind of stuff can look really sexy on the outside and in execution, right. When you get in there, don't miss read me, it can be life changing, but it can also take a lot of time and result in you know, sometimes, you know, not a lot of return. And that can be you know, potentially a risk to your war chest. Right. The other thing you that might be a risk or a threat to your war chest, is you don't acknowledge it and you don't define it enough. And you think you're on old term, we use glide slope, and now all of a sudden, I realize, oh, wait a minute. This isn't a 10 year plan. It's actually you know, an 18 year plan. And I miscalculated, right? And we're a situation like that. Now you're gonna ask me what would that look like? And I'm going to tell all the listeners in the members here, go talk to Scott, he'll tell you what that is right where you may, you know, have not really thought about everything that plays into this. And that's conversations that they would have, you know, with a trained individual, like yourself that can bring clarity to some of those threats, if that makes sense, right. And most of all of those things got, you know, as well as I do, you just got to do a little bit of thinking about it, right? You don't have to obsess about it, you have to drop a cake or in these worlds, that you do just have to have a little bit of awareness about it. And mostly, it's about thought it's about what do you want your life to look like? I use the vernacular, how big do you want your box? You know, if you want to refrigerator box, man, maybe that strategy is going to be a little bit different. But if you're happy living in the box you're living in right now, it may not be that much of a stretch for you. Right?

Yeah, I mean, what comes to mind, the way you kind of mentioned the especially that chasing shiny object syndrome, you know, that's what I have, of course, but you know, I'm an I'm an all in entrepreneur, in the sense that, you know, I have to make the, you know, income by Theo through, you know, finding a customer. But in so the opportunity for a military retiree to make a lot of little mistakes, just trying to have experiences without what what ends up happening is because for a lot of sales organizations, and I don't know if private equity is always like this, but a lot of that is just go gather funds, it's kind of like raising funding for a nonprofit, or for a colleague, or being a fundraiser. You You're you're trying to, so you got to learn those. That's what I always talk about, hey, why don't we learn in sales and marketing skills or the military transition programs, because yeah, it can be lucrative, but that's where you have to truly understand the idea of controlling the source of income, that you are 100% responsible, you know, for making a deal workout. So rather than jumping all in, there's ways in you gotta go explore this, this is where the curiosity comes in, how are the ways I can, you know, try it and not make big sometimes you got to throw some skin in the game. And but as if you're thinking of it as a learning experience, rather pay this is the tuition, you know, maybe I invest a little bit of time into a course to learn a new skill or some way I'm involved, you know, getting involved in a business, or maybe I'm trying out private equity, but not going all in, you know, having a job, a regular job getting into real estate or financial professional world, like I would never tell anybody go in all in like I did, because it's too uncertain is especially in this economy. I mean, you might be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but there's just way too many variables right now.

There's another risk that we talk about in our cohort. And you know, we're all a type personalities, we're stepping up to this time in our life. And you know, as well as I do, everybody just wants to go, let's just move out, and let's get going in this direction. And while I absolutely applaud that self motivated, go get them kind of attitude, you need to have the little bit of a pause. And it needs to be centered around you identifying that good fit. Because if I could generalize and stereotype, our membership, the one thing you know, I know for sure. And again, we tell them, we're going to look, I can't promise you that the first thing you pick and where you land will be the best fit for you. But I also look everybody in the eye and I say Make no mistake about it. That's the goal, right? I mean, I want you to take the time, I want you to understand what's going to be a great fit for you. And then I want you to big game hunted, pursue it and landed, if you understand the pedigree of the member that walk through our door, if they land someplace, there is one thing that is absolutely clear, in my mind, they will not stay if they are not fulfilled, they will not spend a day longer there if they're miserable. And that individual wakes up every morning and hates what they're doing. Because it's not fulfilling to them, they will leave they will find something else. And I kind of couch that into a little bit of your words like what's a danger, what's a threat out there? Because that's time, that's time that you're going to thrust yourself back out, you're going to go back through the career progression process again, you're going to have to reassess what you're, you know, mission vision priorities, you're going to reassess good fits, and then you've got to pursue it and land it. We have some really interesting data and I can tell you how much time I think on average that's going to take you but you know, if you just went through it, and it was 120 150 days, right, and then you're there for six months and you go I hate this and now you're gonna thrust yourself back out into it again to go through that process again. That's time that's time that you're not pumping into the war chest right and that if you skimp out on doing the steps and and really putting your shoulder into understanding what's a good fit for you, you run the risk of doing that. And again, it's not enormous there's no one way doors in this New World. But the fact of the matter is it does remove time from your calculus and time as you know, right in execution is key to building the war chest. Right. So yeah,

time, the time can sneak up on you. And but you know, that's why we just try to you share the awareness of hey, what are and that's kind of get to the last part of the question, we're gonna roll through this real quick, you know, what is the opportunity, you know, we've hit on it so often, the opportunity is that more opportunities will present themselves if you allow that if you give yourself the awareness, stay in the network, you know, that's why you keep the network so you can learn what isn't happening, like you're gonna find it, you're like, Wait, you're doing what now? I didn't know that was a career, I didn't know you could. It's just that that's why networking is so valuable. Just learn what other people are up to. That's why doing meatball anyways, the last thing, the strengths. Part of this is that network and the fact that if you learn the skills, and you understand what it means to get value, you'll give value and be be curious and genuinely be helpful and be well connected. So that you can easily introduce people to people they're looking for. You know, that's the strength of your having served in the military, because we just get that nice little thing we can reference all the time. So if we want to get you know, that opportunity to build a war chest, you could maybe retire early. Like if you want to truly maximize your military service. Sure, you can avoid paying for SPP and all that. But the real maximization isn't just your pension. It's, you know, how was serving in the military going to get me to that next phase alive. So I could ride off into the sunset and feel like, Hey, I did it serve my country, and I was a good old American. And, you know, in, now

you're looking through and happens, whatever is going to your bucket, right? You're gonna find that, yeah, so we're cool. And we're happy that you're there to kind of answer all the hard questions, you do the math and public scouting, you walk them through what, what they

are, and putting together a new version of our program. And I mean, this year has really been just kind of a, you know, update on what we're about to launch. You know, this year has been a big test. And obviously, we had the book come out in our membership platform. But in presenting and designing our app, our solution, we've kind of, you know, upgraded what our solution is and you know, the war chest, you know, how do we describe that in a way that can be more useful. So I learned a lot from our seminar a few weeks ago, I've totally revamped, you know, got a different approach all that stuff. It's always good content, like I'm always gonna use the slides, you know, to present and we're gonna just keep doing more and more videos, whether on the portal or here on LinkedIn, and YouTube. So we've got a bunch of, you know, financial topics that we're going to start rolling out and doing micro lessons and webinars and stuff. So that'll be the same. Yeah, we'll have it hosted and let people know, you know how to find it. But cool. Anything else to announce for now?

Yeah, I'll probably miss you next Tuesday. Just a mental note. Yeah, absolutely. Right. So keep your fingers crossed, we're going to knock out another career progression cohort with our DC, our newest DC members, right?

RMM. I'm about to jump, we're going to do a live training inside our portal. Just let people know, that's what we do inside the military retirement blueprint. It's a platform for additional education. I'm going to do one right at 4pm today, but you can always go in and watch recordings at military term blueprint.com. And that's what we'll also be hosting once we get it launched. But the networking accelerator program that I want to I want to work on with with Mike to how do we what are the four pillars of networking so that we can take advantage of you know, all those benefits. We just talked about a military retiree, I need to network so I can get my name out there, but also learn what else is out there to do. You know, that's the advantages of it. Um, you can strategize it, how you do it. So I'm excited to add that value to your members to my clients to other people out there. It's like, no brainer

alone. For sure your partnership. It's awesome. We love it, sir. All right. All right. Take care. Okay.