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Last Updated: September 2, 2024

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159: "Care like I care." How Cyle Adair Builds An Amazing Company Culture

How much do you think one's background, like growing up in a military family and living in multiple countries, influences their approach to entrepreneurship and leadership? We find out with the Founder and CEO of Transcend Translation and The Rosie Network Alumni Cyle Adair.

Jen Amos speaks with Cyle to hear about his experiences living in various places around the world due to his military background. When he served in the Army and was deployed to Iraq, he helped manage interpreters and developed skills to communicate cross-culturally - not realizing how this short-term assignment would lead to something greater later on. After leaving the military, he worked for various companies before getting into the language translation industry. He was a co-owner of a translation company. Then, he eventually leaves to start Transcend Translation. Reflecting the fast growth of his two-year-old company, Cyle emphasizes building a strong company culture where employees feel that they contribute and care about the work.

This interview is also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/urOL2gXubOw

Connect with Cyle Adair

• https://www.facebook.com/cyle.adair
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/cyleadair/
• Website: https://transcendtranslation.com/

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Jen Amos 0:01

All right, cool. All right. Well, with that said, let's go ahead and welcome on Kyle, eight air. Eight errors. I said it correctly eight air. Okay, cool. Awesome. So, so So today we have Kyle eight air with us, Kyle, welcome to hold down the fort. Well, thank

Unknown Speaker 0:16

you very much. Glad to be here.

Jen Amos 0:18

Yes. I always like to open up now at least since even season seven with an icebreaker question. So I have a deck of cards in front of me and I'm just going to pull out one question for you. And I think this will be a fun way to kind of kick us off. No, so let me know where we stop. Yeah, okay, perfect. Oh, no. See this one. I already asked him on this. Let me just kind of here. So go again. I'm gonna keep my stop. Okay. Okay. Okay. Here's a question for you. Kyle. Were you popular in school? And if so, explain and if not explain

Speaker 1 0:53

Yeah. Yes, yes. I was. It seems like weird to like say like, are you pocket just goes like, Oh, yeah. But yes, I was actually our, with our my high school is Lawton, Lawton High School, which is near Fort Sill, Oklahoma. And he artillery people ever made it around those neck of the woods. In the army, they would know about that, or Marines also go there as well, too. But yeah, I went to a lot in high school. And I was actually Mr. lhhs. And so there's a lot of different things. It was basically a beauty show for guys. Jokingly, but there's like a talent portion to get to the top. I think it was eight or 10 people you have to like do fundraising and some other things as well, too. And all of that, wow, you know, a different to whoever you like I was, let's see, there's the junior class that I got, like, represented by but it was like soccer team football team, everybody had a person that they had as a representative they selected and then that person would try to raise funds for them. And then if you were one of the top eight or 10 I can't remember. Then you went on to like the talent show the all the other riggin Maru stuff that you go along with it. So yeah, I would say I would say so a little bit.

Jen Amos 2:08

So that was like pageantry for men. Yeah,

Speaker 1 2:12

that sounds really bad. But you had you know, Ryan breeze or Johnny Football star, you know, kind of thing. You had lots of other people in it from all over. And so yeah, it was it was a whole rhythm ru, which I don't know, it's just, it was a fun time. Actually, it was really, really, it was fun preparing for it and getting ready for it and just built a great friendship with those people that were all involved with it.

Jen Amos 2:36

Yeah. Well, I'm glad I asked that question. Because I feel like I would have obviously would have never known that about you. But like, you know, having talked to you. In these recent weeks, I would say I kind of feel like that makes a lot of sense that you seem very personable and sociable and being able to. So being able to explain this part of your past is like, okay, I can see that I can do that for Kyle. Yeah. All right. Well, Kyle, I'm incredibly excited to speak with you today. For our listeners that are joining us for the first time holding down the fort for season seven has partnered up with the Rosi network to you know, feature cohort members from services SEO and you know, people who are who have generally been involved with the road network. And so I'm really grateful to be speaking with Kyle today who I think I think your journey is incredibly impressive. Your last two years of your life have been amazing. The fact that you've been able to run a very successful business to the point where you get to travel, you get to play golf, like you live a pretty you know what, let me just have you share this. Why don't you share like the last two weeks of your life? Like if you want to give us a snapshot of what's been going on with you like, like, tell our audience about this.

Speaker 1 3:51

Last two weeks of my life, you mentioned golf. Yeah, we chatted last it was I was down in St. George Utah. Visiting some family down there had a cousin's wedding that I was down there for but went out golfing with my dad had a good time. Got back from that, and that first Monday and then was in a another golf tournament that I had to it makes me laugh because I say it's like, you know, makes it sound like I'm on like a PGA Tour or whatever. But I liked your job. And I like to get out when I can. And especially when it has an opportunity for networking, getting to know other business owners, other founders. It's always a great time because there's lots to learn from each other in that aspect. So I had that but the past month has just been a whirlwind. We my wife and I went to Alaska. We went to St. George, we went to Wyoming. I feel like there's somewhere else that I'm missing. But yeah, I've been traveling quite a bit. I'm actually looking forward to not traveling. Two weeks from now I'll be in Zions national park with some people and we're going to be doing some hiking so that should be really fun. But I'm glad to say that it'll be the last My like, True Ventures, at least for the summertime, but Summer's almost done, get the kids back in school and get hopefully back to a little bit of normal life.

Jen Amos 5:08

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's amazing. I feel like the only people who don't like traveling are the ones who like travel too much like my husband or not my husband, my best friend, he travels for a living. And he's all like, I don't wish it upon anyone, because you're just gone all the time. And then you have to deal with jetlag, and all the things but obviously, you're you were doing it out of like leisure, and it sounds like networking and all that. And now you're kind of like, okay, I'm just ready to take it easy. I'm ready to take it easy. And you know, as as a military, like having grown up as a military kid myself, I never really had like the travel bug. And I think it's because we moved around a lot when I was a kid. But you know, maybe later in life, I'll consider it.

Speaker 1 5:45

Yeah, I mean, my, like I mentioned to you, my dad, he was in the Marines for 24 years. And so we grew up literally all over the world. And I've seen a lot, and I enjoy to keep on going and keep traveling things. But there's some avid travelers that are like, I gotta get out, I gotta fly this, I gotta do that. I'm hopefully going to live for many, many more moons. And so, you know, we're just taking it easy enjoying it, we've got three kids, somewhat little kids. And so we're just trying to give them great experiences and enjoy the journey.

Jen Amos 6:15

Yeah, I think that's amazing what you're doing for them. And I think that, you know, your life and even the last month, feels very fitting for what you do in your business. Trans transcend translation, I gotta tell you, it's hard to say that five times fast.

Speaker 1 6:31

We sometimes just call ourselves T T, you know, there

Jen Amos 6:34

you go. Yeah, and, um, and so, you know, considering that you have this history of having traveled around a lot, like, you know, being raised in the military to, you know, where you're at today and having served yourself. And I think it seems very a fitting, you know, your lifestyle matched with, you know, this business you have created. And I know that it again, it fascinates me how you have been running this for the last two years to the point where it's really grown successfully to the point where you can have this dream lifestyle, as we're talking about. And so I'd love to backtrack a little bit, because I know that you served in the military. And there was one particular role that you had in your service that you didn't really think would actually help you to what you're doing today. So tell us a little bit about that story. And how that translated to your civilian to what you do now?

Speaker 1 7:27

Yeah, so I went through Army ROTC ended up being an officer in the army. My dad forgave me because he was in the Marines. So it all worked out. He said, Okay, they you, they're giving you free college. I don't have to pay for anything. Okay, I'm good with it, you know, quick to forgive in that aspect. But ultimately, yeah, so I was a second lieutenant, and reached my first duty station in Fort Hood, Texas. And then it was part of the first cab and we were getting ready. I mean, I showed up and then it was like, hurry, we're leaving in about three, almost four months on a deployment. So get going, you know, that. The odd thing is I was a field artillery officer, I was put in charge of an infantry platoon, and a scout unit, which was, again, there's a lot of odd things going on there. Anyways, we go on our first deployment, we're in the Cook Iraq area, going on missions are like that, but pretty quickly, my my commander, and everybody else, I lived down in Argentina for a couple years, obviously picked up Spanish, and I'm still fluent in Spanish today. And so I love talking, there's plenty of people in the military that are fluent in Spanish, you know, wherever they came from, or maybe just their parents are of Hispanic descent, and so they speak Spanish in their homes. And so I love talking with my soldiers, other soldiers, anybody in Spanish keep trying to keep up with my Spanish a little bit more as well, too. And my commander, kind of recognize that and among all the other little hats, I was the CQRS, the Quick Reaction Force Leader. Also, we were mortar platoon unit as well on top of that, had that and then I had a fifth team, so fire support team as well too. So there's lots of different hats that I was carrying over and among other smaller jobs, but then one of the things that came up was he said, Hey, someone's got to you know, help all our interpreters that go out on all these missions and we had about 18 different interpreters assigned to us. And they said, Hey, we want you you're good with languages I mean sure, I guess maybe languages Why don't you be in charge of with all the interpreters so I said, Okay, great. Had some great friendships there I got to know them very well got to understand their skill sets a little bit more. And who who personality wise who skill wise matches up with the right platoon leaders in the missions that they're doing and things like that, so got to help out with that which was kind of fun and and truly manage interpreters over in a combat situation.

Jen Amos 9:54

Yeah, I mean, that's, that's pretty incredible stuff. And you know, when you had tried transition out of the military, I know that you mentioned that you were already kind of in business for yourself and in the civilian world for about eight years, I think before you started your business, so, so what, what led you to even starting this company to begin with?

Yeah, if you don't mind, I'm gonna go back just a little bit more, because maybe it might resonate with some people as well, too, if they're thinking about it, or trying to understand like, how that transition from the military, so I'll start. So my dad was in the Marines, we lived all over, I lived in Japan for three years. I through my church, we went on a mission down to Argentina for two years. That's how I picked up Spanish. And then on deployments went on to different deployments over Iraq for about a year P a piece, and so a couple of years there. So I kind of been in a sense all over the world, very different cultures, very different languages. And I really enjoyed those experiences. When I transitioned from the military sort of working for a fortune 500 company as a, what they call an advanced management partner. And so started doing that we had a lot of success, things went very, very well, some great leadership that I had, which was fantastic. But also I knew I was definitely contributed to the team and got promoted. And that's what I eventually moved us out here to Salt Lake City, Utah, we're still at after some time, I just realized it was not the company that I wanted to work for hours kept on getting longer and longer, 5560 hours a week kind of stuff. And I just thought, this isn't what I imagined. You know, they're paying me decently. But at the same time, I want to be around my kids, I want to be around my family. So I wanted to make a career change and say, Okay, I'm going to do something else. And one of my friends said, Hey, you talked my other friend, I think you guys really get along. Well, his other friend happened to own and start started a language translation company. And so anyways, I wasn't like super interested, I just kind of talked to them. And then he was very eager, saying, hey, come run our sales department, come do this come to this company. So finally, I just said, okay, great, but you got to make me a partner. He said, Okay, we'll make it happen. So anyways, we did that, and, and then I got into the translation space. At that point, it was probably six months into working there. Like, I'll never forget the epiphany that I had that one, I realized, I don't hate my job. In fact, I've been here all six months, and usually, you know, new jobs you get really excited about but it wears off. It wasn't wearing off, I was really enjoying it learning some different skill sets as well to on top of that. And just to give you people an idea, you know, when we say language translation, everything's like, Oh, you do translation yourself, I don't, I can't even pass our translation test, I'm bilingual. It's a very different skill to be a translator or an interpreter, very hard to skill sets in that in that aspect. But ultimately, I work with companies that need support need help to translate into who knows how many different languages, you know, one company that I worked with, indeed, which I think most people know, like, the job search company, we're doing 96 different languages, and so quite a bit. So I helped those organizations. But I realized, you know, six months into it, I'm going wait a second, like, I enjoy going to work every day, when I was in the military and not to knock it maybe other people have had different experiences me. Yeah, towards, you know, when I decided, Hey, I was gonna get out. There's probably usually three days a week that I was like, Man, I don't want to be doing. I liked the PT. I liked the camaraderie. I sometimes like the work, but there's just too much kind of politics and other fun stuff going on. And so for me, it was it. That's when I recognized that need to transition. And then on the other side, I realized I was like, with my experience of living all over the world, very different cultures, understanding that understanding that communication is so pivotal, and so key, especially during my time in Iraq, if an interpreter messed up on interpreting something, it can literally be a life or death situation. And so I realized all these things had led up to being in this industry that I thought, yeah, like, I'm, I'm built for this, this is what I, you know, and so that kind of epiphany, really just like took over at that point. And I've just thoroughly enjoyed the industry. The companies that I worked for, it was a great company where I was at, but decided my partner, I had some differences of of opinions on some things. And I ended up deciding to leave and then do consulting work for other language translation companies. And then when I realized, why aren't these companies implementing more of what I'm saying? I said, Forget it. Why don't I just create my own company and go make it happen? And so that really helped me kind of take that next step to go do that. And it wasn't so much of hey, I'm right. And they're wrong. Yeah, more along the lines of Actually, I wanted to start my own company at some point. In fact, I the reason why I started doing consulting work was because I was like, I don't Want to work full time I want to figure out and like, figure out how I'm going to do my company and do all sort of stuff. And then on a spiritual note, I felt like I got an answer from God. I don't need to start a company. And so I was like, Okay, and so at that point, I actually took on a VP of sales role for another language translation company there for about nine months. And I'll never forget just sitting at my desk, and felt like, I heard God speak to me and just say, hey, it's time. Time for time started that company, that translation company, I'm like, Rick, but like nine months ago, and yeah, Nope, it's time. So

he was preparing you he was carrying.

And I realized to what did I learn in that nine months, you know, I think, you know, again, being a religious person, a Christian that, for me, it just really came down to there's things to learn. And I understand a little bit more my, my ambitions of starting a company before were more based around like, hey, I want to go make a bunch of money, I want to be in charge, all these things that I think most people think of. And by that point, nine months later, I realized my ambitions were very different. I wanted to create an amazing coal company culture, that people thoroughly enjoyed being there, and they're like, Great, I'm how I felt like, I'm looking forward to the challenges today, that's gonna be some hard work. And but I get to build relationships get to know people get to help people, this is great. And so I wanted to build an amazing culture like that. On the other side, I wanted to pay our employees at a very fair share compared to the industry, we're able to do as well, too. And so it was more of a giving mindset that I had, I feel like compared to I want this stuff, it was, I want to be able to share somehow, and I feel like in a lot of different ways with our businesses, than able to do that just recently, was able to give a pay raise to one of our employees, able to do a pay raise a little while ago with another employee. So for me, I want to share and give as much as I can with the organization because our success is their success as well, too. It's not just sold online. So, so long story with that. But I feel like as I look at my whole kind of history, and what led up to it, that very makes very much makes sense of where we're at and what's going on too.

Yeah, I think it's great that you, you know, stayed in the VP of Sales for a couple of months until God was like, Okay, we're ready to, you're ready, you're ready to start this company. And you had, and you started it all for the right reasons you started it with, you know, that, that heart of service and knowing that you want to create this, you know, very fun, enjoyable company culture. And it's just very interesting to think about, like, like, for me, I kind of want to go back to when when you transition out of the military and got it and you were an employee for a number of years, because, you know, it takes a certain mental shift, you know, to go from having worked at a fortune 500 company to, you know, running your own company. So, I'm curious, like, if we can just go back there really quick. And, and what was what was your transition story? If you can recall, like, you know, from getting out of the military to getting into that job? Did you jump into that job right away? Or what was that process for you

jumped into it, it was just a military recruiting service, you know. And so I just said, Hey, I'm going to be transitioning out of the military, for me probably one of the light bulbs that turned on for me when I was in the military. There was definitely good reasons to stay. But there's also good reasons to leave. And one of the things that actually comes to mind. In fact, I was just talking, had just a bunch of people on our street over and a new family that moved in, and he's former military as well, former Army. And so we were just sitting there around the campfire, roasting marshmallows, and just all chatting with the family and the kids. It was great time last night. But it reminded me of the story of why I got out because I asked him why did you get out and he asked the same thing. And for me, I'll never forget when my my s3 So our major, he said, Hey, Kyle, I need to you know, I need you to do this assignment. It's going to take like two months or something like that. I'm going, sir, I've got to read. I'm already wearing like five hats like no pipette. And you got Captain Mohammed over here, started named dropped him if he if he's actually listening to it over here. And I'm a first lieutenant at the time. So Captain Mohammed tiring. He's got one job. And that's like one of the easiest jobs like, just have him do it. I'm swamped. He's like, Yeah, I can't do that. Like Captain Mohammed. He's incompetent. And you're extremely competent. And that's why I want you to do it. Because I know I don't have to think about it. I don't have to double check your work. I don't have to do anything. Like you're just gonna get it done. And I love that. That's why I love working with you, Kyle. And I was like, Thanks, but it's still just adding on more work. And just really hit me in my mind that I'm like, wait a minute, if I'm going to do all this stuff and do a really good job, and people trust me and they want to work with me like, I think I should get paid for it. Like I was literally thinking Captain wahama gets paid more money than I do. But he has less responsibility, just because he, you know, I wouldn't say Dum Dum, but it's just like, people don't want his work, you know, they don't want his work, they want my work. And so that that really like rang true to me. One more reason of why I was like, Yeah, I think it's better that I transition from the military and go into the civilian world. And so and then had that recruiting service. And then it's kind of a funny story itself, but I'll move on from that, but and then that's how I found out and I had a couple, I had, like four different job offers, and decided to take that one, it was a company called sin toss, which is a fortune 500. Company, and, and, and decided to go that direction, and then ended up being there for two years. At that point, I was never thinking about starting a company. Yeah, it wasn't until I think, for me, is I realized the night and day difference, because I had worked in government with you know, the military had worked in a big fortune 500 company, and they have what they call your policies, the lines, the rules that you have to follow. And I always have to get exception for some some of the rules, we ended up being the number one office in the country, and they're going, how are you doing it? And I'm like, well, there's some of the policies that aren't really great. And so I have to get exceptions to those and go do and they're like, okay, but don't tell anybody else I'm going, well, if it's working, why wouldn't we want to tell anybody else, I realized that I was fighting a lot of red tape won in the military. And then also the same thing in Fortune 500. It wasn't until I got to a small medium sized business that I realized, like, there's less right red tape, you have more, my partner and I, you know, he was just like, just go make it happen. Like, I don't even care how you do it. Like, just go make you want to go hop on a flight tomorrow, go hop on a flight tomorrow, if you want to go do this, go do that. If you think this campaign will work out, go make it happen, you know. And so we worked very well on that aspect of different ideas and just trying to implement and go make things happen. And I realized, man, I got a lot of flexibility to do, in a sense what I want. And sometimes those things worked out. And sometimes they didn't, you know, it's not like I got the Midas golden touch. But I think getting into small medium sized business really helped me understand like, Hey, you could probably create something like this. Yeah, I still wasn't quite there yet. I thought I was gonna stay there for a long time, I would say probably to this day, I would still be there. If it wasn't for the difference of opinion that myself or my partner had that ultimately led me to go, Yeah, I think I need to move on.

Yeah. So you know, talking about your military experience and how you were taking on more work than, you know, your rank. And you know, especially for the person higher than you and how they were taken on less work than you were to, you know, this first job you got out of the military to the job, you worked out for about two years. And it seems like in all of those situations you were learning about, you're really, you were really observing, like what company culture look like, in all these different aspects. And so I imagine that with transcend translation, you must have like an international team, right? Because I imagine that all these interpreters have to work with you. They're probably not all in your physical office. And so tell us about what that company culture looks like, now that you are here running your own company. Yeah,

I think it's really based around respect to one another, and their professionalism. We didn't hire them, because they don't know what they're doing all the way. I think it's that just going, we know these people will be successful. The very first thing that I talk about in any of our interviews, and the very first thing that's really, really clear, is a mantra that I have that I've kind of created since then, it's care, like, I care. And I want every single employee here at transcend, to be able to say that and they are able to say that very clearly, and, and be able to say exactly what it is, it might mean nothing to anybody else. But care like I care is, is kind of what you think, I want you to care as much about your fellow co workers, I want you to care about our clients, I want you to care about our different vendors, I want you to care about the office environment, I want you to care about the culture as much as I do. I get you're not the CEO, but you need to own it just as much as I do. And if people aren't okay with that if they're like, but that's your job that's I'm just here to work. I already know it's not going to be a good situation because for me I'm not looking for someone to punch in and then punch out and just be like I did my time you know kind of thing. I don't work very well with those people. I you know, in my years past I realized people would bug it sometimes the same situation happened with two different people. And on one person it would bug the tar out of me and well why in the world is this bugging me so much and then another person seems to situation doesn't bother me at all. And I'm going, what is the difference? And that's what I realized. And that's why it came with a mantra is the person that cared about it that said, Ooh, I made a mistake, this is what I'm going to do to correct it. Shit. If I do this, I don't think that will happen in the future people that care about it that way, I can work with people that bugged me, or I made a mistake, everybody makes mistake doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Doesn't really matter doesn't it doesn't matter to me, like, it doesn't matter. I'm just gonna go home, you know, it's, I'm done for the day. Yeah, that bugs me. I'm not I'm not okay with that. And so very competent, very good people, people that really care I work extremely well with. And I think that's why our clients and that's I once I don't think I know, that's what our clients see a major differences is because we care, and we're truly there to help them. And that doesn't mean you work a million hours a week. In fact, I'm very happy. I was actually before this messaging to a bunch of team members saying, Hey, if you're down for the day, get off. And we're talking, I mean, everybody else is listening right now. Maybe they're listening at night, or whatever. But it's, it's two o'clock in the afternoon, I'm all for people get off, go, go be with your families, there's gonna be busy times, and there's gonna be slow times, no one's watching the clock here. Everybody's just like, hey, let's go get our jobs done. Let's communicate, well, let's make things happen.

Yeah, I appreciate that kind of environment. Because I think even for me, being a self employed person you have, part of the freedom of being self employed is you, you can actively choose who you surround yourself with. And so when I, when I tend to be when I tend to run into those types of people who are, let's say more about complaining, or not taking responsibility for certain things, or just, you know, having that very, nine to five, like clock in clock out mindset, it's really, you know, it's hard for me to spend a lot of time, I think, with those types of people, because I just like, like, I love my life, I think my life is vibrant, and alive and exciting and purposeful. And I feel like to be around that. And then I'm sure in your company to have that in your company as almost like a cancer like it just it just wouldn't, it just doesn't help the overall company morale. And, and I'm sure it would reflect with your, you know, with your clients.

Yeah, yeah. And I, again, I'm just a big culture person, because no one wants to stay at a job where they're not feeling like they contribute, or that they just really matter. And I want to make sure the employees know that they all matter. And I know that they feel it. And that's the big thing we actually just launched transcend your community, which is so transcend translation, name our company, but transcend your community. You know, we're giving resources time, and we want everybody to be created to go see how they can help the community, whether that's you need some time off to go serve in a food kitchen, or whether you have a neighbor or a widow in your neighborhood that needs some help, even financial help, we're open to all these different things. And so we just barely launched this. And we're very excited to see kind of what different employees come back with how they're helping in their own communities. Because we have people literally all over the globe working all over. And it's very different of how they can help their community. And so I think that's better than you know, everybody gets a little bonus or something like that. It's more important, because people want one substance in their life. And it's not about money, and the people that we're hiring, obviously, money is important to most people, you know, but they know it's not everything they know that they want. A better life is a life that you serve, and you help other people, and you get a lot more happiest that way, then, you know, a new car all the time, or whatever it is.

Yeah, yeah. Funny how you mentioned that I was just watching a video about happiness before this call. And part of part of happiness is doing something purposeful, and part of purpose is helping other people. So I really think it's amazing how you have incorporated that in your company to you know, have your have your employees, like, give back to the community? Yeah, yeah. So I have to ask you, I mean, clearly, like, you know, company, culture is really important to you. And, you know, we mentioned that this company has been going on for about two years now. But there's a whole backstory that you know, led to it. And one thing that I have learned about you is that you are a continuous student of life, you are a continuous student of your journey. And I know part of your journey as an entrepreneur was being part of the cohort program for the Rosen network. So can you tell us a little bit about what that experience was like for you?

Yeah, it was just great timing. I was just thinking, I know the military has different resources when it comes to starting company. That was a little bit different than a lot of people that were in my, my rosy network class, for this the CEO, and because most of them were transitioning from the military, trying to start their business right out of the military. I was I think I was the only one in our class that I'm like, Hey, I've been in the civilian world for like, eight years, you know? Yeah. So that was a little bit different. But I realized like, I need to do Some business fundamentals that I think I'm doing, but maybe I'm not. So anyways, I found out about that program. And I thought, hey, this is great. It was great, because we went through the basics. And those all definitely helped out. But there's also some other things of just thinking through my plan a little bit more, having a presentation, being able to actually present that the people have a really clear mission and goal of what we're looking for, and who we're wanting to work with. And really clear on the the clients that we want to work with as well, too. So all those things played a great factor. Still stay in contact with many of the people actually today, I had a phone call, probably about three weeks ago with one of the graduates as well, too. And we stay in contact, he does. Ai stuff. And so anyway, it was just a really great, just like anything else in the middle of military, the camaraderie is is you know, it can't be beat and a lot of ways.

Yeah, yeah. What an interesting experience for you to join the Rosi network eight years after having served and kind of being the the quote unquote, old person in the group, you know, it's like, it's like, like a parent who decided to go back to school and like they're in a class with like, all these 20 year old kids, you know, and, and so what, in that experience, whether in addition to the camaraderie you felt, was there anything else familiar that you experienced, like being around these transit, transitioning service members? And I imagine military spouses who were trying to get their business off the ground for post military life?

Yeah. That's a good question.

Yeah, like a feeling of like, oh, this is this is familiar or like, like, it's like a pleasant familiarity. You know what I mean?

It was just fun to hear, you know, military, I say, you know, lingo and acronyms and things like that. And just, again, because where I live in Salt Lake City, I mean, we got Hill Air Force Base, that's about 45 minutes away. But other than that, like, you don't hear it as much, unless I'm talking to my old comrades in the military, you know that. So it's just nice to hear that familiarity. Definitely. There's a handful of people that they grew up in the military as well, too. So similar backgrounds, similar stories. It was funny, I will, I'll actually say I was probably one of the younger people in our in our group, actually. And I thought, man, just just so anybody that's listening genuine was was here, like, it's not too late to start up a company, it's not too late to figure it out. Because I thought, oh, man, I'm about to turn 40 and 41. Now, you know, like, employee, what am I doing? I'm starting my own company. Like, for me, it just came down to I was like, Well, I want to go learn and grow. And it's not always about money. So let's go on this venture. Let's see what happens. And there was many people in that rosy class with me rose in our class that were older, and I were in there trying to figure out like, they actually were retiring from the military, and they were still trying to figure out what is best for them. And they decided to go start their own companies, or do contracting work, or whatever else they're gonna be doing.

Yeah, I appreciate that drive for you to continue to want to grow and learn and, you know, like, live a life of purpose. And I'm sure a lot of that has to do with your with being Christian. And as a fellow Christian myself, I can sense this like duty for, you know, a sense of duty and a sense of like, you know, you are here on this world for a reason, kind of thing. So it obviously shows, you know, not just in your history and everything you shared with me, but I imagine it shows in your work. And I can tell in just our conversation, like how you are a very present, purposeful, joyful person. And so it's just really nice to speak with someone like you, it just, you know, it makes my Friday, I think, is what I'm saying. Yeah, so

you've got a, you've got a great personality, a great light about you. So I appreciate that. That's one of the reasons why we first started kind of connecting together that I'd like to talk to him a bit more. So

thanks. It's the ring light. Trying to like not get in my glasses. But anyway, you know, Kyle, as we start to wrap up here, you know, our community or our show is really speaking to our military retirees, our career service members, like basically the people that are, you know, two to three years away from transitioning into the civilian world to those who just got out. And, you know, looking back, like looking back at your journey in your life and where you're at today. Is there is there any, any like lessons that you want to share with our community, whether whether they become an entrepreneur or not?

Yeah, one thing that just comes to mind as you're just saying that I just say, figure out that good balance in your life. I mean, I got I've got three kids got a wife. Gotta make time for them. But I've always enjoyed having what a lot of people might call like a side hustle. It doesn't have to generate money, but it's something that you're learning and growing from so I do real estate investing as well on the side. It's been a little bit less Sorry, my company because I didn't know like six months into me working. I'll never forget, like at the end of like basically graduating from the Rosi network, I was like, man, we are not making much money like, I don't know. What did I get myself into a little bit? Listen to a video from Elon Musk that like talked about like, Yeah, usually like month four or five is like where the depression kicks in? Like, what would I do our products not as good not telling us as well as we thought, there's all these other things. And so there's kind of that like gut check time. And it was nice, because I was doing a little bit of real estate investing, and then ultimately, transcend I was just working really, really hard at it. And then ultimately, who it just started blowing up. And I'm hiring people. And we're just like, go, go, go go. And yeah, and everything's been working out. I just feel really blessed in that way. And I think it was all part of the Lord's timing. And beginning I like that he wants to drive us through some hard times, which are really did that make us more resilient, the military does a great job of teaching you resilience. So as people will look at transitioning on from the military and doing that, like, you've got a lot more grit, you got a lot more resilient than you think. So, go for it, go figure out something that you want to do that makes you feel happy, that makes you feel fulfilled, whether it is attached to money or not, go do those things. Because ultimately, whether you find a job that you transition to, and it might not be everything you want. I know a lot of people that are very fulfilled that they go, Yeah, my job is okay. But I really liked doing this. And I like spending my extra time doing that or thinking about that stuff. And I think that's very, very important. Ultimately, you have to provide for your family and provide for your needs. And my hope is that you can find the balance of finding a job that pays you to do that. But if you can't stay engaged, stay, have something active going on there that you're learning and growing from.

Yeah, I think that's great advice. I've definitely had projects in the past where they were not making money at all. And, you know, they get to a point where I sort of feel bad about it. But then I think, well, I'm learning something from this. And if anything, it's giving me a creative outlet to eventually, you know, whatever I learned from it, I can apply it into the business I have today or whatever else comes my way. So I do appreciate you sharing that detail. And, you know, hopefully anyone hearing that doesn't feel bad about whatever hobby they've had going on for a while and not monetizing it, you know, but it's still feeding into something.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I do want to add one other thing was because we had this conversation about mortgages did is mentioning Yeah, please, because, you know, we're looking at moving actually down to Southern Utah, and St. George Utah. And, and plug for Utah, Utah is an awesome state for business wise. And then we got five national parks here, it's fantastic. But we're looking at moving down there. And it's been a really funny thing. So if you know some of the people in your audience that are looking at, like, Oh, I'm going to start my own company, and then we're going to move and we're going to do all this other stuff. You don't realize what a W two job does, you know of hiring on from another company. And you know, and the tax world they call it a W two, how important that is. Because ultimately, if right now, our company is just two years old, but I don't have two years of tax records for the for the company yet. I can't go to a bank, I can't go to any bank, it doesn't matter how much money I made last year, a bank does not care about that at all, unless you're just buying the house with cash, which we're not going to be doing that. But you if you're an entrepreneur, if you started your own company, and you do not have w two income, tax wise, banks are not going to lend out to you. So as you think about that, either go find that home first and show Hey, I got a W two job and yeah, I'm getting paid this much. And yeah, you might be transitioning the next month or two or whatever, three. That's something to keep in mind. On the other side, if you're going, Oh, I'm gonna go start my own company, get comfy, wherever you're at, go rent go wherever you need to go to do that. Because it's going to be at least two years until the bank will qualify you to be able to get a mortgage. So something to keep in mind. And that's one thing that we're going through is waiting for this calendar year 2023 to be done with to have our tax records and then potentially move here in the future.

Awesome. So if you're gonna start a business venture, stay put for at least two years and make profit for at least two years before you consider moving or buying a home. Exactly. Well, Kyle, it's been an absolute pleasure having you here on the on hold. And on the fourth, I want to thank you again, so much for your time. Any final final thing you want to share? I just want to make sure that you have said everything you wanted to say on our show today.

I think that's about it. I think ultimately, I just want to encourage your audience. I mean, as they're going through transition life again, just want to reiterate, they have skills, they have talent, you have so much to offer. It's just figuring out what what do you want to go do and I just encourage everybody to go do that. You're gonna make a big difference in the world, if you want to do that. And if I can be of any support or any help I know right here on our little podcasting, it just has my first name. But Kyle eight air ad AR find me on LinkedIn, find me on social media, I would love to be a support a cheerleader for that any way that I can.

Wonderful. Well, Kyle, thank you. Thank you so much again for your time. And to our listeners. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm going to have like an outro part here where I talk about how people can contact you and stuff. So with that said, thank you all for listening, and we'll chat with you in the next episode. Till next time. Thanks, man. Give me one second here.