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Last Updated: September 2, 2024

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090: Empowering Veterans and their families with computers, skills, IT workforce training, and strategies to transition from military to civilian life with Mark Casper & Lisa Houston

Husband, Father, Grandpa, Veteran & Executive Director of Tech For Troops Mark Casper joins his good friend Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zencouragement Coaching LLC and Transformational Life Coach Lisa Houston to talk about their mission to serve veterans and their families. Mark shares the backstory and the mission of Tech for Troops, which is to empower veterans with computers, skills, and Information Technology (IT) workforce training. Lisa shares how she was inspired to help veterans with proven, reliable and repeatable strategies to overcome trauma and gain self-confidence – which prepares them for the dramatic changes in their lives when transitioning from military to civilian life.

Mark Casper https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-casper-b2b4896/

Website https://techfortroops.org/

Lisa Houston https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-houston-2458791/

Website: http://www.zencouragementcoaching.com/

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Jen Amos 0:00

Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the award winning podcast show holding down the fort. I am your co host Jen emos, also a veteran spouse and goldstar daughter. And of course, as always, I have with me my co host, Jenny Lynch Drew, who is a mental health advocate, a seasoned military spouse as well as mom of two gentlemen, welcome to the show. Hey, thanks

Unknown Speaker 0:18

for having me. Glad to be here

Unknown Speaker 0:20

today.

Jen Amos 0:20

Yes, yes. And I can't wait as the days get closer of you to come over here to Virginia, finally be reunited.

Unknown Speaker 0:28

Life friends. And so yeah,

Jen Amos 0:30

yeah, real life friends, for sure. For sure. Yeah. Although I feel like it was normal back in the day, like I used to have like online friends. But anyway, that's a conversation for another time. We're really excited because I feel like the more I do the show, the more I represent Virginia, because we are very much in Virginia today. Let me go ahead and bring on my guests, starting with Mark Casper, who is a veteran and executive director of tech for troops. Also a proud grandpa of two beautiful girls, I think he felt like it was very important to mention that. So I had to mention it because it was in the notes. And his joy in life is to spend time with his wife and best friend of 35 years, to be quite honest. I'm not even 35 years old. So that is incredible to be with someone for that long. So congratulations, Mark, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1 1:12

Thank you glad to be here. And I deeply appreciate all that a lot of fun.

Jen Amos 1:16

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And of course, we also have with us a longtime friend of 20 years, Lisa Houston, who is the founder and chief executive officer at Zen courage meant coaching, also a co author and a transformational life coach serving veterans and their families. So Lisa, welcome to the show.

Unknown Speaker 1:32

Thank you very much. It's great to be here with you.

Jen Amos 1:35

Yeah, I know that we talked on the phone like probably weeks, if not months ago, at this point. I just thought like, after a while, I was contemplating about like how I talked to you too, individually, and just how highly, you spoke about each other. And so I felt like, hey, let's bring them both on the show. Because you know, you two are longtime friends as well as and you also are collaborating together to do good work for our veterans and their families. So Mark, let's go ahead and start with you. For people that are hearing about tech for troops for the first time. What is this amazing nonprofit about? And yeah, tell us a little bit about the nonprofit and what you do there.

Speaker 1 2:11

Sure. So right now we're based in Richmond, Virginia, looking to expand across the nation to help more veterans. And what we do is we receive computers use tech, and we refurbish it, and we give it to an inmate veteran in the family. So we support that male or female that make a difference. And the life the spouse so they can get a job or help support that as well as the child, it makes perfect sense to do the whole family because of one person, I've had this issue where the the one person who owns the computer has to schedule time to be able to do their schoolwork, or get their stuff done. And then the kids get to do their stuff. So of course, the mother that was a mom was going to bed much later than she really shouldn't have been. So it made perfect sense to give her a couple of computers to get her kids online so they can finish your schoolwork. So we do that we help out with computers. And then we also recycle, we recycle almost 480 tons in five years to go on six years now. It's important because as you mentioned the granddad I want to leave the world a better place for my grandkids and future grandkids and everybody else's grandkids right their kids. So we do that as well.

Jen Amos 3:11

Yeah, I really like that you also help the family because I think for me my initial assumption you know was focusing on the veteran specifically but one thing I like to advocate for on the show are the families you know, the our silent warriors. So I just love that is already included, you know in what you do.

Speaker 1 3:27

Yeah, I look at it this way that if the warfighter is going away, and they're leaving for six months, and there's only one computer in mind, probably do one thing and if it breaks down, oh my god, they're in a world of hurt. And they might not be able to afford to buy a new computer Sofia two in the house. If you have three in the house, you were able to do a whole lot more and work a whole lot better than if you didn't have those extra computers extra you see my air quotes, extra computers in there.

Jen Amos 3:52

Yeah, absolutely. Let me know how have people been able to come across tech for troops? I imagine now it's kind of become like a word of mouth. And I know that you know, you are involved in synapse as well. But maybe talk about like the early stages or when you got involved with like, how do you create awareness of this because I think that more veterans and families should know about this.

Speaker 1 4:10

Jen Amos 6:04

thank you for sharing that mark. Really good to know, you know, Mark, I imagine like on the surface, it's like, yes, this is what you do. Like we offer, you know, these refurbished computers to these families and the veterans, and we give them IT skills, and we help give them opportunities. I mean, I think it's very common knowledge that veterans when they transition out, it's a hard time, it's a really difficult time. And so tell me maybe about the impact of working, you know, with these veterans and families and helping them, you know, kind of reinvent themselves.

Speaker 1 6:32

Jen Amos 8:53

that's just so powerful, you know, taking these veterans, you know, from a place of almost hopelessness, you know, for lack of better term to a place of being hopeful and wanting to live a life of purpose and everything. So that's just such a beautiful story. And I'm sure that's one of many stories that you have to share those

Speaker 1 9:09

but here's the one I mean, literally I got a text from like, Mark I'm on a car and I'm like yes, yeah, happy right. I just didn't want to like throw any expletives out or anything.

Unknown Speaker 9:21

Military Friendly show.

Speaker 1 9:23

It's very military friendly show. But at the same time, there's probably a child out there listening.

Jen Amos 9:28

Yeah, that'd be funny if we had like, I mean, I'd be very pleasantly surprised if a child was listening to the show. I just feel like kids don't know about podcasting yet. Like I really don't know. But you never know. You never know. Never know. Yeah, yeah. I do Mark every episode as explicit though, so people know. You know, like, if any, if anyone slips a word of sorts, it's like, Hey, I

Speaker 1 9:48

can see both Jenny and Lisa dropping on now. They're just gonna be going to town.

Unknown Speaker 9:53

My husband is a sailor.

Unknown Speaker 9:55

Yeah, I was a marine. I gotta be.

Unknown Speaker 9:59

I really I love that. Thank

you for sharing that.

That story was so heartwarming. And I guess my question is, you're based in Richmond, which I don't think many people would think of as a like, vet centric area, you know, I work for a military nonprofit, too. And we are, you know, housed in San Diego, because there are bases here, and also many veterans. So like, how did it come about in Central Virginia to you know, get this tech for troops off the ground.

So the founder son had a friend who went to Afghanistan, he was a Marine, and he came back and he couldn't find a job. So he's sleeping on the couch. And that literally was the impetus to getting him a computer so we could find a job. And that started from there, you know, the garage, the kitchen table, the garage, storage unit. And then now we had 750 square foot when I started now we have 7000. And that's why we're looking for expansion across the nation. I do want San Diego eventually. But you know, it'll be Dallas and then Tampa, St. Pete, etc, all those places that there are strong veteran communities.

Yeah, I thought I'd just check in with Lisa. Lisa has been patiently waiting to speak up. So I was just curious if you had any thoughts to say about tech for troops, or just how amazing mark is in general.

So I tell you, when I met Mark, about 20 years ago, he was just a really nice guy. And we worked at the same company. And we hung out here and there. And I thought he was a great guy to begin with. And then when he started working with tech for troops, I realized the depth of his compassion. And we talked about it a couple of times when he was starting there. And, you know, it was a little rough at first, but he had a passion to make this something real and huge. I mean, as you can tell, he's grown it quite a bit. And also, because of his passion for helping veterans, he ended up getting me involved, because of the fact that, you know, I had a very traumatic horseback riding accident. And at the beginning, I was in a wheelchair, and I was really feeling sorry for myself. And so he helped support me through some of that. And also, he asked me, if I wanted to volunteer, and I was all wrapped up in my stuff, you know, my pain and things like that. And he got me out to Lonesome Dove Equestrian Center, which is equine therapy for veterans, because I know about courses and I tell him, I don't know anything about veterans. He said, That's okay. They need people to help with horses. And when I got there, I was so humbled, working with the veterans, I love their energy, and they were just so bold about everything, you know, and they weren't feeling sorry for themselves, even if they had really traumatic injuries. And that taught me a lot, you know, because here I was sitting at home feeling sorry for myself thinking, you know, what am I going to do for the rest of my life, and so that being able to go there and help them just, you know, the little bit that I could do at that time, was so humbling to me, and just open up my heart to really the veterans, and how strong they were. And I just wanted to spend more time with that. And they kept thanking me for being there and volunteering. And I was thanking them for helping me overcome my trauma. And they were just so selfless and supportive, you know, as Mark has been to me, and I was just so hooked on it, you know, I just loved it. I love spending time with them. I love hearing some of their stories and how they overcame these, you know, huge obstacles. And so it really sparked in me a passion to help people. The job that I was in at the time, I wasn't really thrilled with however, there were some great things that I liked about it. So I sat down and thought okay, so you know, what is it about my job that I really enjoy, and it was helping people, and that's how I ended up getting into coaching. And because of my passion to help veterans, that's how I ended up you know, taking this path and helping check for troops and partnering with them.

Yeah, Mark, how does it feel to hear all that

that ever?

Yeah, that.

Honestly, and I'm sort of glad we're not on video because we're not gonna be doing that. We're not being Yes, we are recorded. Jen. Yeah, I

promise. I promise No.

Lisa has been a true friend through the last 20 years. You know, there are times that I'd fallen into the depths of special When I first was at Tech for troops, and I had no idea which way was up, because there was no money, there was no nothing. I had no idea what to do. I mean, it's a nonprofit, but she always had good words to say and support and all of that. And, you know, that coupled with my family, my wife and my two daughters, always bullied me always brought me back up to the top or the middle of the river that I can breathe again. And there were some seriously deep times deep, deep times where I never thought I'd make it and that was figuratively and literally, because of I was putting in, especially in the beginning, so untold story here and you from the beginning, when I started, December 17, when I was hired 2015. I truly started in February, because I was on my own company, and I'm shutting it down. I'm doing all those things that the people have to do. But then the first week, I was there, my mom died. Now I'm very lucky in that I got to say goodbye to her. I saw her the weekend before she passed, I was able to get by a loving mom. Thursday, she passed. So Friday morning, I'm flying up Dallas, and I spent a couple of weeks and my dad so really, I didn't start until March. And then come late April until we're out of money, we're gonna shut down. And I'm like, Oh, no, a couple of choice words there. And the founder, I mean, not in a bad way, not like publicly and all that kind of stuff. But it was just like, I was working 18 hour days plus just for every dime, nickel and Penny, you know, we made it September. She said you can take it over, shut it down. I said I'm taking it over and an extremely aggressive pathway to assuming control. She made it in a month instead of a six month timeframe. It was a month. And I don't know why gut level feeling is I didn't think I could do it. The other part was, I can't even hypothesize. But October 6, everything was done. It was in my name. And from then on, we've been jumping. I mean, it's just been growing. And we're at 7000 square feet from 2017 to 2020. I mean, that is miraculous in and of itself. So when Lisa says what she says about me I appreciate I owe you oh you that's not the

way friendship works, Mark, but I

know that

she always says up last month No, no, I did not. You did not an idea

about who's gonna pay for lunch when?

I was gonna say like, Michael give you a check later, Lisa. Wow, what a beautiful story. And thank you, Mark for sharing that. I think the most established nonprofits come from just so much conviction or even a place from pain, you know, and just learning to reach handle that for something good. And despite your tragic loss, it's like, you came back and you came back strong. You know, that sounds like a really epic year for you to say the least.

It was it was probably the most trying year in my life. It was when I said finger table literally that didn't always gonna make it. That was a physically I had, I was up to probably 97% loss of energy. I mean, it was I was it was brutal. It was brutal not get up in the morning to do it again. Happy, happy. And you know, keep going. But there were times I really thought I wouldn't be here right now.

Yeah, yeah. I just thought I'd check in with anyone. Any thoughts?

Yes, I

think the military veteran spirit is strong. That's what I heard in your story. You know, being an active duty military family member myself, I completely know that your drive and determination comes from your time in the service, as I've watched, you know, my own husband and friends just give it all they've gotten, continue to go, this is the season, but this season seems to last all 20 years of service. And then some, you know, and I appreciate your candidness on talking about how difficult it was, you know, like I said earlier, I work for a military nonprofit, and which was founded on really good principles of getting people the mental health help they need. And the reason I do what I do is because I have that same level of drive about military families, because my military family has benefited from really good mental health care that was really needed in our house. And so, you know, thank you for your stick to it and stick to itiveness.

Sore today.

I'm a writer, make that up. Right. You know, thank you for that, you know, to see the mission through for folks that really do benefit from your services. I mean, it is needed. And I guess I want to ask, like, my assumption is, but I don't want to assume that without asking is, do you guys also, I mean, I know you're a veteran, but do you employ other veterans now to help with the services?

Absolutely. So we have a couple of non veterans. We get in a lot of stuff, a lot of electronics. There's four things we don't accept, but a bunch of stuff we do accept. And a lot of it's, we flip it as a we've put it on online sales so we can support ourselves, right because as I'm sure you know, and working with a veteran, nonprofit Or I'm Elisa nose through Lonesome Dove. And Jen, I'm sure you've been affiliated with a nonprofit as well. There's a lot of people love to say, yeah, y'all support that, absolutely. And then the moment they turn their back, not that they turn their back, they forget. or the like, yeah, didn't really mean that. But I'm just going to go my own way. So we have to support ourselves in some way. And so we use online sales to do that. And there's all that stuff that comes in has to be triage. So we got a couple of folks who help out that I'm not bad. But mainly it is that in our goal is to hire vets, get them the skill sets that they need for it, support, work in it, and then gently fire them with a job. So I know a bunch of companies, and I'll send resumes, I'm like, hey, this guy, this guy, this guy, this gal, they need jobs, and how can we get them a job and I try to push them out to get them a job. And we're pretty successful with that. One of my guys is at the Pentagon now. And other ones have been network operation center, Fort Lee, and another one's at an international insurance company called marquel. So you know, and then there's others who I try, and there's just nothing you can do for them. They don't have that drive to make it. But I do the best I can. And I want to give every bet the opportunity. And if I'm on LinkedIn, or other social l do a whole lot of other social media, in some ways, like a vet looking for a job, or flip them to somebody, like I saw a guy today. He's almost constant about looking for a job. Um, I know people out there, boom, send them up to those folks. Right? Did I do it? Not really did I have I just had a small part to play. So I look at it that way that we're we're a brotherhood and a sisterhood. And it comes from because my wife's a military spouse, right? We got married at 85. And she went with me the last two years in the Marine Corps. So yeah, I was I'm old 8580 when I started when the civil war time was right before World War One is when I joined. But she served and she calls herself a military spouse because she was with me for two years. And let's Yeah, let's take care of the family first before I worry about everything else that's out there, because I'll help others. But my brothers and sisters in the families come first. Wow.

Thank you. Thank you, Mark, for sharing all that. I know, again, Lisa's been patiently sitting there and waiting for her time to shine. So I want to transition over to you, Lisa and talk about sort of what what your friendship has fostered into, which is essentially this partnership to continue to serve veterans and their families. And for you, you do it in a very unique way you do it as a transformational life. Coach. Tell us about that.

Yes. So I love working with veterans. And Mark has opened my eyes to so many needs within that community. And so one of the things that Mark and I had started working on is military, transitioning to civilian life. And so we are taking on transitioning military and, and life coaching them, if you want to call it that. I don't know, I don't really call it coaching. I just feel like it's a really great conversation. I asked them questions, things that they don't normally think about, like one guy that I worked with recently, when he was getting out coming into civilian life, there was just a big fear of what do I do now. And that's one of the things that we have noticed is this guy was in the military for 30 years. And so what does he do now? You know, he doesn't know what to do with his life. And his path, when he first came to me was, I got to get a job, I got to keep working, you know, got to do something, got to do something. And through talking to him about how this was gonna affect his family, his finances, and everything else in his life, he decided that that wasn't really his primary thought, his primary path, because he slowed down for a few minutes and realize that there are other things that he could do, like volunteering and helping out nonprofits and finding more joy in his life. He's done his service, right? He's worked just like anybody else who will work for 30 years, once you retire, you get to kind of, you know, figure out what you like in your life, what you'd love to do for the rest of your life. And so it was really awesome to be able to change his perspective from I got to do this, I got to do this too. Well, I don't really I can find something I really enjoy doing, you know, find something in life that I love doing. Mm hmm. And so that was huge. And I worked with him for about four or five weeks. And no, he's even said that it was such a turnaround of his thought process from when he first came to me until, you know, we ended our program because I do have a program that I use That, you know, has been used for many, many years, it's the company that I got certified with. It's about a 12 week program, and I kind of mesh it down to about four or five weeks. And you know, so there's certain things that are really great to think about when you're making a transition in your life, whether it is military or not. And this program has worked really well for military transitioning to civilian life. So Mark and I are going to expand this program, we've added some other areas, because, you know, our biggest goal is to get that 22 number down, we'd love to be zero, and we're working in that path. And one thing that was really, really important that we noticed was support and education. So you know, we're working on putting a program together for financial soft skills, career counseling, and other education, so that they have a good start from when they step out into civilian life, it gives them a really good start. And then it's really up to them, right, because like Mark was saying, some people have that drive, and some people don't, and at least we're giving them someplace to go to, we're giving them some support, we're giving them some education. And we are really hoping that we can, you know, get a bunch of different military bases to support these veterans as they're coming out of military into civilian life. And another thing that we noticed was, it's so important with the family. And that's one thing that I really hadn't even thought about originally. And since I met you, Jen,

and you're welcome. I don't know.

I mean, you have a great program yourself, and getting the education out to others. And just some people that you've introduced me to also has really opened my eyes to the need of supporting the family also. Because what I was saying to the guy that I had just been working with, every decision that you're making, as you come out into the civilian mind is going to affect your family. So the family needs support, too. And so I just feel like, you know, my eyes have been open to so many different areas that needs support. And you really want to bridge that gap, you know, so that when they're coming out of the military, they'll have something to focus on, they'll have somebody to support them and to help educate them and their families.

Mm hmm.

Well, I feel pretty proud of myself, just bringing more light to the family as a whole. So, Pat, on my back for that. I like that you focus on helping make this mindset shift, right? Because when you think about transition, you think about the taps program, and it's all about like, oh, how do I get the next job? How do I transition? How do I, you know, replace that paycheck. But there has to be a mindset shift and all that process, right. And so I don't know where they're at right now with the whole transition program that the government provides. But until then, it is great to have people such as yourself, offering something like this, and even helping them in, you know, like four to six weeks. Like I think sometimes we need something that condensed, just like boot camp, I imagine, to really just make that pivot into the civilian

life. Like you, I'm just really happy to hear about like the whole family unit support, again, military family member, you know, there are programs making strides to include spouses as part of like taps and different things. And also, it's a really hard time, like, I have several friends who are either getting ready to transition out or have recently transitioned out, and especially on the family side, I mean, you're leaving a whole lifestyle to whether or not you've ever put on a uniform, you're leaving a community and a lifestyle and a way of life. And it's all very different. And so to be able to provide support, not only to the veteran, but the to the family is a really great thing, I think for the larger community as a whole and not just the military community, but bridging that gap between military and civilian, because it is very different. And as a military spouse, we tend to straddle that gap, because we're technically civilians with a military ID. And so to be able to provide support there to help everyone transition, I think, you know, only makes everybody stronger, and everybody's going to succeed, right? Like everybody's going to succeed if they're all getting the support and literally everybody benefits civilian military and the community that those people return to. And I think that's the bigger thing is, we kind of forget that like people don't retire and stay in San Diego because that was their last duty station like people retire and go back to Richmond, Virginia or Milwaukee, Wisconsin or wherever and being able to have those skills and return to or move to wherever it is they go is really helpful.

Huge

kudos to you guys.

Jenny is exactly right. I mean, and of course, what Lisa said is exactly right, it's support for the future, it doesn't guarantee success. But if you understand where you can go to get help, or to have how help before you got out, you have a better chance of success. And that's for you and your spouse and your children all the way through, and you're right, Johnny moving to Milwaukee, or moving to St. Wherever you're going to go to, you can take that with you. Education never leaves you.

I just want to say, as a military child who transitioned out, like at 10 years old, when we transitioned out after losing my dad, we transitioned to San Diego as if like nothing ever happened, you know, like, we didn't talk about dad, we didn't grieve, we didn't really, I mean, we did in our own way, like, I have a Catholic background, I'm born again, Christian today, in case anyone's wondering, but you know, we do the rosary, and you know, just kind of grieve in that kind of fashion. But it took me till later in life to kind of pick up the pieces of understanding what happened at that time. And it really took something such as a podcast like this, to know what resources are available to me. So I just really want to thank you all, you know, even even your genuine, you know, for the work that you're doing, and just your love and support for military families, because the ramifications of even losing a service member, it's like you think about losing the service member, but you don't think about what the family has lost and what they have to, you know, how they end up growing up, you know, me being in San Diego, where a lot of my I mean, I'm in Virginia Beach right now. But like having a lot of friends there who were born and raised there, went to school there and just want to leave San Diego by the time they're 18. Like, I couldn't understand that, like I couldn't understand having lifelong friends, you know, because I moved around a lot. And so for a lot of my young life, like I felt like an outsider, I kept to myself, you know, I actually got into online chatting because I actually experienced bullying when I was in middle school. And so I just thought the internet was like a safe space. For me. I guess that's why I thrive in it today. But anyway, even if just having that knowledge, like knowing that there is support, I'm glad for the way that I turned out. But I think I would have turned out a little bit differently. You know, had I known that there was some kind of support. And more importantly, my mom was willing to, you know, get that kind of support as well. So, so all in all, I just I'm just so appreciative of all of this. And part of why I do the show is I feel like I was like, oh, there's hope for our military families, there's hope for our veterans, there's hope, you know, and for the service members that are, you know, active duty today, including military spouses and families and those that transition out like I continue to, like do the show for them, you know, for them to know that they're not alone, you know. So real quickly with you, Mark, let us know, obviously, tech for troops is amazing. How can people get involved? And what are their options to get involved?

Let us know. So in the Virginia Richmond area, it's much easier Of course, because we're in Richmond, but I put out a video on LinkedIn the other day, it was yesterday, where a couple person in California sent me a box of cat five wiring, right? So it's just wire, everybody what they just put in the trash on a big deal. But it's not it is a big deal. Because the more we throw in the trash, the worst, you know, all that stuff, right? We'll talk about it. But this person took the time to send me that and we get boxes in the mail now more often than we ever did, I think partly because words getting out more like through your podcasts and others. But that's how partly you can help. The other part is, if you're in Richmond, come on by see the place I always want to give folks a tour. Yes, I'm proud. But I'm also I want them to see the impact we were making and how we're doing it and what we're doing and all that stuff that goes into running a company, but come volunteer, come let me know that you want to be a part of a family and open arms. And that's civilian and military. Right? Because it takes you can go back to the Hillary Clinton, it takes a village but it really takes something special to bring people together. And I hope temperatures can be in that place one day that folks want to come and volunteer like Lisa does, and that you don't have to be Daddy, Daddy warbucks if you guys even know who daddy warbucks there's but if your deep pockets, or you know somebody who is a veteran centric person who really wants to support them, they know what they're doing, they have money, right? I'd love to talk to them and see how we can open up other locations. Because I look at it this way. If we opened up in Dallas, we could probably serve the 2 million that's out there and at least 150,000 that would be in the surrounding areas, if not more. Right. And then there's Fort Hood and Austin. That corridor there is huge as well. And then of course San Antonio Houston Miami Bly just so many places and and I know it can be done because everything we do is replicable. We have a process. It's done. We're gonna just pick it up, cookie cutter. That kind of stuff. That's that's what we're looking for. And come on out and see us.

Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that. I shamefully have to admit that. I haven't toured the place yet.

We had a whole COVID thing last year. Right. That's

true. That's that's my excuse.

For some of us, we're still all in that I California

is better off than California. Right now,

I know Okay, I have to admit, I have to admit, like one thing I like, you know, for some time, I did resent Scott for bringing me out here. I was like, but California. And then as everything happened, I was like, I was like, thank you. And he and it's a very like bittersweet, thank you for him because like, I put him through a lot, you know, to, like, get to that place to say thank you for like, kind of seeing the vision ahead of us. And even though I didn't believe it, like now it's like, great, and I love it out here. But he had to put a lot or he had to put up with a lot with me. But anyway, it's paid off. So anyway, Lisa, let us know if people if it's our veterans and families want to reach out to you, what would that look like what that process looks like for you?

Well, right now we're standing up the program. And we are partnering with tech for troops. One of the needs we'd like to fulfill right now is to have a couple of people who are active military transitioning, maybe 18 months, 12 months out, to contact us and give us some ideas on how we can best serve them. Also, a couple of people who have transitioned,

what happened here, wait a minute, what does what just happened?

Like Jenny had a light bulb went off?

I know some fun. Okay. Okay.

All right. Lisa, go Go ahead. Sorry. I didn't mean to like, I was like, I feel like I missed out on some big and I just like thought in my peripheral. But okay, Lisa, continue.

We would also love to have a few people who are in the middle of transitioning and see how they feel about what's going on? And what do they need? How can we best support them, because we basically have a program that we think will best support service members transitioning, however, we want to make sure that we can have, you know, different ideas, because everybody has a different need. Right? Everybody has a different situation. And they're all individuals, and we want to know how we could best serve them.

So I was gonna say it's a holistic approach. Right? It's not just tap, transitioning out, check the box. And goodbye, because the military is no take this wrong way. If anybody's listening the Secretary General General, joint chiefs don't listen to what I'm saying. But you guys don't care. When the active duty guys get out? You don't because the next one's already in their place, taking their place. So it's just a continuous river rod, right? The river is always one of those, you don't look at the individual water particles. But you see, it's always back filled with another water particle, right? And that's the military, it has to be because we have to have a continuous flow. So we want to get in front of that and say, you need X, Y and Z or we think you need X, Y and Z like no. And that's not really because I already have like 27 houses that I flipped that $4 million in the bank, but I'm not really showing you my future. Lisa, come over here and do that. Right. So we want to be able to help flip the mindset and financial that they need financial and family help with what I have all of that stuff. It's gonna be a holistic look, not just one way. Awesome.

Well, I love that it takes a village, right. It takes a village to help all of us

takes a base set of a village there. Oh, yeah.

military terms. Yes.

I mean,

so it's all a community. Basically, it is all right. Yeah, yeah. No matter what branch you're from, or what your spouse is doing and what your family's doing. It's all a community. So we're here to support, we have a community that's here to support any community coming, you know, out of the military. eautiful. Just a big community.

All right, well, thank

you all on just kind of ending on this hopeful note here. And of course, for our listeners, we'll be sure to provide mark and Lisa's contact information in the show notes. Any final parting thoughts from anyone, Mark, anything from you are Lisa, just before we go

all the way to go first?

Well, I just want to thank you, Jen, and Jenny Lynn, for doing this and for helping other people become more aware of the situation that's out there right now with transitioning military, with their families, and the people that actually do need support, and for letting us come on and share that we're here to support them. me. I just think that's really, really important for us to bridge that gap. And you're doing an amazing job with your podcast. So thank you for Thank you during your time with us.

Yeah, thank you for saying that. You know, I think that there's a lot of us trying to do our doing good work out there. Sometimes we just need that extra help with getting it become more aware of giving it more exposure and if that's my role in all of this, and so be it. Well, thank you. I

totally agree. And even more so, it's been an honor to be on your podcast, and I'm gonna play marine right now. Alright, but anyways, you guys are the best amazing fantastic You know, really I can't say enough and anybody out there who's listening, support them suppose give give me a Bitcoin. But But whatever you got to do right there. You're hilarious

mark, I love it. I am just really happy to have both of you on for multiple reasons. But one that I noted on my sticky note down here that I was writing on is that you both have such a love for the veteran community. But you aren't both from that community. And I think that's really important for people to hear that a civilian came into the veteran world because you wanted to help. And a veteran is helping the veteran world because they are your people. And I just have a really great affection for that. So thank you both.

I don't know if you're about to cry there. Jalen,

but I was I heard. I feel like I know.

Thank you both. Again, Mark and Lisa for joining us. It was an absolute pleasure. I'm so glad I waited for a moment like this to bring you both on. I think it was a really awesome discussion. And of course genuine thank you for co hosting with me as always, of course.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you. Yeah.