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00:00 Justin Nassiri: Welcome back to Beyond the Uniform. I'm Justin Nassiri and each week, I interview military veterans about their civilian career. Today's episode number 60 with Matt Miller.
00:09 Matt Miller: Thought the corporate world was gonna be the answer and what I found out was, yeah, the corporation didn't control me as much Uncle Sam did while I was in uniform but the reality is, the rules changed the all the time and they never changed in my favor in the corporate world. At least you knew what to expect with Uncle Sam for the most part, right? So anyway, I started doing some stuff on the side because I wanted to really have more control over our future and had a buddy of mine from church one Sunday mentioned the fact that he and his young daughters had some gumball machines and they were doing some stuff together as a family and making some money and I remembered that. And so, initially, I started off just selling gumballs.
00:50 JN: So I have to admit that after this interview, I was ready to sign up as the President of the Matt Miller Unofficial Fan Club. This is a energy shot of jet fuel for those of you who are considering starting your business or excited to forge your own way after the military. The top three reasons to listen to today's episode are: Number one, empire. Matt went from being turned down for a payday loan to work in nights and weekends on his side project to running an empire of franchises. And he's done it completely solo for the first eight of the last nine years. Provides tactical advice on how you could do the same. Number two, personal growth. Matt has some great advice about allocating 10% of your budget for personal growth and development, and provides tons of very specific recommendations on things to take advantage of with this budget. The show notes are chockfull of links to things I plan to check out and would encourage you too, as well at beyondtheuniform.io. Number three, creating the life you want. Matt burned his ships. He turned down opportunities necessary for promotion in the Air Force in order to have the time to devote to developing his own company.
01:55 JN: He talks about how he has constructed the life he wants for him and his family and it is very, very cool. As always, at beyondtheuniform.io, there are other episodes, show notes, and resources. So check it out and sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date on the latest resources for veterans. And with that, let's dive in to my interview with Matt Miller.
02:18 JN: Well, joining me today, normally in Stephenville, Texas, but today in Buffalo, New York, is Matt Miller. Matt, welcome to Beyond the Uniform.
02:26 MM: Hey, Justin. Thanks for having me on, man. I'd literally just picked up some takeout at the place... It's called 'The Anchor Bar'. It was the home of the very first Buffalo chicken wings in the country.
02:40 JN: Oh wow.
02:41 MM: And so we were in Buffalo and we'd figure we had to come and give this place a try so we could say we had been there, done that. So [chuckle] thanks for accommodating, man.
02:52 JN: That place is probably accountable for taking a year off my life with all the wings I've eaten in my days.
02:57 MM: Oh, dude. No doubt. No doubt.
[chuckle]
03:01 JN: Well, I guess, to start off, I'm wondering, how did you first go about starting School Spirit Vending?
03:10 MM: It's crazy. I got out of the military. I was an Air Force pilot, an Air Force Academy grad, and I got out back in '98. Thought the corporate world was gonna be the answer. And what I found out was, yeah, the corporation didn't control me as much as Uncle Sam did while I was in uniform, but the reality is the rules changed all the time and they never changed in my favor in the corporate world. At least you knew what to expect with Uncle Sam for the most part, right? So anyway, I started doing some stuff on the side because I wanted to really have more control over our future. There had been some financial decisions made with the companies that I worked for that had really put us on a bad financial spot. And had a buddy of mine from church one Sunday mentioned the fact that he and his young daughters had some gumball machines and they were doing some stuff together as a family and making some money and I remembered that. And so, initially, I started off just selling gumballs and I found a used candy and gumball machine on eBay, and went about figuring out vending. Well, fast-forward a couple years, I kinda learned that industry had about a 120-plus locations around Houston where we lived at the time. And then '07 and '08 hit, and the market tanked, and less people were frequenting the businesses that I had equipment in and I was frustrated.
04:40 MM: And I had four young kids come knocking on my door in a span of a couple of weeks selling me stuff for the local school fundraisers. And I didn't know the kids so they were coming to strangers' doors essentially selling to raise money for the school. And I thought, "Man, maybe there's a way I can tie what I'm doing in vending into school fundraising, shelter us a little bit from the ups and downs in the market and what's going on in the economy, and also get some kids off the street." And so, the whole idea of custom Spirit stickers for schools, it was kinda born out of those kids knocking on my door and my frustration with what was happening in the economy. And because I was in the advertising world at the time and print advertising was my speciality, being able to get stickers printed was not that complicated a thing. And so, came up with this idea, had a good buddy of mine who was an elementary PE teacher and he got me into his school down in West Columbia Elementary about an hour and a half south of Houston, and we were off to the races from there, man. It was pretty crazy.
[chuckle]
05:54 JN: And when you were doing that initial vending machine business, you were still working full-time. This was just kind of a side project that you were taking on?
06:02 MM: Oh yeah. Nights and weekends, I was wanting to put something together on a part-time basis that would help solidify our financial position as a family, and ultimately, the goal was, if possible, to be able to walk away from the corporate gig altogether and be able to do our own thing. That took a number of years to get there, but the cool thing about vending is, you put a machine out there and you see what it makes, and you add another machine the next week or the next month, and you know what that makes, and over time you can run the numbers very easily to figure out, "Okay, how many of these locations do I need to have in order to make the impact financially I need for my family?"
06:45 MM: And so, I just systematically got busy with finding locations anywhere that I could in the area that would take our equipment. So it was pretty wild. Initially with gumballs and all, you're talking a quarter at a time, but we were in a place where I needed to see a return pretty much right away. And so, I put that very first candy and gumball machine in, in a karate studio in Kingwood, Texas, which is on the northeast side of Houston, one of the suburbs where we lived at the time, went back after a couple weeks, because I was just wondering, "Okay, does this vending thing really work?" Because my kids had never used vending machines before. Went back on a Thursday night, the karate studio is packed with kids and they're [07:37] ____ that machine up and quarters spilled out all over the place.
[chuckle]
07:41 MM: And I was like, "Holy smokes, I think I found my answer." And of course, we slowly built things up from there as we had the money to where today we're a national franchise with a business in about 40 states. We've been in the Toronto area here in the last few days exploring the idea of franchising in Canada beginning next year, and it's crazy how we've been blessed and what's transpired since then.
08:12 JN: And one of the things I'm really impressed with is, from an outsider's standpoint, it looks like you run multiple organizations, all of which seem to feed into each other. For listeners, could you provide an overview of the different entities you formed and basically what they do?
08:29 MM: Yeah. So there's several things that we do. First off is obviously, SSV franchising or School Spirit Vending itself. We set up and teach people how to do what we do in our industry and help schools raise money with our program, and help families develop passive income streams as franchisees. We also own a company called 'Sticker Swarm' which is our supply company. We manufacture and provide stickers for not only our team, but make them available, custom stickers to businesses and organizations all over the country. I started a comic book company a couple of years ago, because I was inspired to read comics as a kid and saw the stuff that was available to kids today, most of it with adult themes and that type of thing, and wanted to start to provide something in conjunction with our machines in the schools that would allow us to hopefully inspire some kids to read as well. And so, all those things kind of worked together and complement each other really well in all that we do.
09:47 JN: One of the things I love about the life that you've created for yourself out of the Air Force is you've built a business that not only benefits you and your family financially, but it has a greater impact on the franchisees families, it has an impact on the children, and it has an impact on the schools, and it's just really cool to see a company that's creating value in so many different ways for so many different constituents.
10:10 MM: I've always believed Zig Ziglar's quote about, "You help enough other people get what they want and you will be taken care of." So our focus, especially now that we finally have gotten ourselves out of the financial hole that we were in for years is to make sure that those that we work with are taken care of in the best way we know how and that we're providing the absolute best program for our schools, for our franchisees, and for the kids that are our customers as possible. And in doing so, the rest takes care of itself. And by keeping that focus on others, it keeps our priorities straight, it keeps us humble, and it's so cool to see families all across the country that are learning entrepreneurship, learning how to build a business together, and to see them go, many of them, from never having any business background at all, to now owning a successful franchise with our company.
11:18 MM: When I was an Air Force instructor pilot for the first five years after pilot training, I loved seeing a student pilot come into my and sit down at my desk as one of my students not knowing anything about the T-38, which was the airplane that I flew. And within a month and a half, they were going solo. Four and a half months later, they had their wings as full-fledged pilots in the Air Force. And when I left the Air Force, and left being an IP, I lost that kick that being an instructor brought, and I've got that back today with what we do with SSV because so many of the people on our team have never owned a business before or have definitely never done anything in vending before. So to be able to teach them and then watch them put things together at their own pace, to watch their kids get excited and learn a business because they're doing something with their mom and dad, is just a huge rush today.
12:20 JN: That's really incredible. And for veterans listening, I think it always helps for them to get that visceral feel for what your life looks like. What does a typical day look like for you between these four organizations that you've built?
12:36 MM: Well, what's cool with today's economy is the fact that most everything you can do today can be virtual. I was a solopreneur up until 18 months ago. I did and ran it all. Today, we've got multiple contractors that work for us. We've got our first employee part time and we're about to hire some others. But most of our organization is decentralized literally all over the country and in some cases, around the world. So I run all of our companies out of a office that we built off of our house, and I've got some local help for some things that we do locally. But otherwise, it's all managed with video conferencing and of course, all the different tools that are available on the web today. And so, believe it or not, it doesn't take nearly as much time as what people might think just because the technology that's available out there and the possibilities that that brings.
13:45 JN: And where do you go right now to learn? I'm thinking of a veteran listening who just really admires where you're at and wants to follow in your footsteps, where would you point them in terms of books, websites, podcasts, communities? What will help them learn what they need to do to follow in your footsteps?
14:06 MM: The biggest thing is you are the sum total of the books you read and the people that you hang out with. And you look who your friends are and that's gonna kinda determine your future. And one of the best decisions I made was, several years ago, I hired a guy as a coach, a guy by the name of Aaron Walker. And I'm an introvert normally. I like to kinda do my own thing, be in my own space, not really like to be bothered a whole lot. And Aaron encouraged me to start getting out to conferences and start getting to know people, develop relationships, and that type of thing. And so, for the last several years, the biggest thing I've done is I've made a point of making sure that I attend at least a couple of events a year. A couple of years ago, Aaron said, "Matt you need to go to Social Media Marketing World in San Diego. I'm going, why don't you come with me?" And I was like, "Okay, I don't know why I would go because, yeah, I got a Facebook page that I use personally, you know, with friends and family and I'd just gotten a LinkedIn profile but that really didn't have a whole lot on it. He said, "Why don't you just come with me and let's just go hang out?"
15:23 MM: So I ended up going to the conference not really knowing why but in the process I got the opportunity to meet a bunch of amazing people. I also learned the power of podcasting at that event. And within a couple of months, a guy by the name of Cliff Ravenscraft who's kind of the Granddaddy of Podcasting at least as far as audio quality is concerned. I ended up taking his Podcasting A to Z Course and became a podcaster myself. And then of course, I also started being a guest on a multitude of shows as well as an opportunity to kinda spread the word about what we do and the benefits of it, and to share some of the success principles and that type of thing that I found it to be beneficial for us along the way, similar to what we're doing now. I've attended several Seth Godin events. I don't know if you're familiar with Seth. He's kind of the marketing guru online and has been for years. I've attended several Dave Ramsey events. His EntreLeadership Program is incredible. And so, just making that decision, and every year not necessarily knowing where I'm gonna go, just committing to go. Darren Hardy who's a well known guy in the online space.
16:46 MM: He said something to the effect that his goal is to spend 10% of the money he makes every year on self development. And so, I began to really try to do that very thing for myself and just to make it a part of what I budget every year and the travel that I do so that I can continue to get out there and continue to be challenged, not only in thought process but also to get a chance to meet some amazing people whose relationships have really helped propel us forward in a lot of ways.
17:24 JN: That's great. And for listeners I'll add links to all those amazing resources he referenced there in the show notes. And after the military, when you got out of the Air Force, you started out in sales. Is that a path you'd recommend to other veterans? And how much does that play the role in your success as an entrepreneur?
17:44 MM: I think being in sales can provide a huge amount of experience just for life in general. A book that I read years ago, Dale Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' was the one book that really got me headed down that path. And when I first heard the book, saw the title, I was like, "Man, I don't... " I thought it was about manipulating people and all that. And that couldn't be further from the truth. It's just about learning how to relate to people and how to develop relationships. And as an example, he talks in that book the power of someone's name. In fact, that's the most important word in the English language to anybody out there is their name. So the importance of learning their name, remembering it and then calling them by their name on a regular basis. The fact that people don't wanna hear about you, they wanna tell you about them and being willing to be a good listener instead of just throwing up all over everybody that we run into with everything about us, little things like that, made a huge difference, and then just getting out and learning how to make them work in life and in business has been invaluable.
19:09 MM: It's no rocket science at all and a lot of people would think, "Well, I'm not a salesperson." That couldn't be further from the truth. We all are salespeople in our own way and it's not a... It's a learned skill. It's not something that you're born with because like I said earlier, I'm an introvert. I really prefer not to be out there, but I can do it for a period of time and then I go back to my hole for a while and kinda regenerate before I come back out again.
19:40 JN: That's awesome. And you've been running your own company for nearly 10 years now. That puts you in the 1% of companies that are able to do that. I'm just wondering, if you were to have gone back in time to when you just got out of the Air Force, could you have started this right out or what were the skills that you needed to acquire before going out on your own and starting your own company?
20:10 MM: I probably could have started something... I could have started a vending business, no doubt about it. But I'm a firm believer, Justin, that God puts in our path challenges along the way because we've got stuff that we've gotta learn. And the only way we will learn is by being put through some junk sometimes. And 12 years ago, we were in a really, really, really, really bad financial place. I got turned down for a payday loan at one point. Here I am, Air Force Academy graduate, former Air Force pilot and instructor pilot, getting turned down for a couple of 100 bucks. But we were in a bad place financially and I know now that I had to go through that and figure out how to work through it, figure out how to live in that place for a while and continue to provide for my family as I was figuring it out, because today, I can empathize with folks that I come in contact with and give them hope because if they're in a similar situation, I've been able to work out of it. And if I can do it, they can do it, too. If I hadn't gone through that, I probably would be an arrogant jerk and people, number one, wouldn't care to listen, but number two, I couldn't help people with something that I hadn't done and been through myself.
21:35 JN: That's incredible. That's really, really awesome. And if a veteran is listening right now and I believe a quarter of veterans if not more aspire to start their own company, what advice would you give to them on how to do that? How to make that dream come true?
21:54 MM: Well, there's a couple of different things you can look at. You can look at being an innovator and creating something from scratch, or you can find an entity out there that's already successful and just choose to duplicate that system that's already in place. Either path will work. It just really is up to the person and how they feel that they're wired. But the key is this, I think, more than anything, its thought process, it's realizing that... You and I were kinda taught in the military that Uncle Sam... It's gonna be difficult to survive without Uncle Sam taking care of our every need. And so because of that, I've seen person after person after person who's decided to stay on, who had abilities far beyond what they were doing in the military because of that fear of the unknown. The benefits and the healthcare and all those kind of things. And what I've learned, it's not that big a deal.
23:01 MM: And if you're willing to work for it and to apply the discipline and the knowledge and the skills that you learned in the military, you have no idea what value those can have either working for a company out there corporately or in getting things and putting them together for yourself. The things that I've been willing to do, Justin, a lot of people around me think are nuts, but those are also people that never were in the military and never had to go through what you and I had to go through, whether it'd be in basic training or just some of the godforsaken places and situations we found ourselves in, overseas or what have you. You learn a mental toughness and you learn how to just kinda roll with the punches.
23:56 MM: And there's a lot of people out there that have never been through anything like that. So the minute something hard comes their way, they don't know what to do, and in many cases, they quit. Well, we were taught not to quit. We were taught to suck it up, to not make excuses, and to figure out a way, right? And everybody else who has worn the uniform, like you and me, has been in a very similar situation. In fact, many of you guys who spent time over in Iraq or Afghanistan or that type of thing, went through a heck of a lot more than I ever did being a pilot and flying in and out of those places with cargo and then being gone four hours later.
24:43 JN: I love that and I really echo your thoughts on that. And one thing I'm wondering, especially for someone who's listening who's maybe on active duty right now. If you were to give advice on one action that they could take today to take one step closer to that goal of starting their own company, do you have any thoughts on what they could do right now?
25:05 MM: If you're committed to do something on the outside, then start laying the foundation now for your success. You have time off on nights and weekends, just like most everybody else does, and especially with the web today, there's more opportunity to be learning and to be putting stuff in place while you're still on active duty. The other thing is, if you're truly committed, you gotta be willing to make some tough decisions. As an example, one of the things that we had to do in the Air Force in order to get promotion to Major, etcetera, is to go to something called 'Squadron Officer School', SOS. And everybody around me went to SOS. I turned down SOS multiple times at the risk of my future in the Air Force. But I had already decided that the minute my commitment was up, I was gone. So it made no sense for me to go spend a month and a half in Alabama, learning and going through this program like everybody else, if I had no desire to be promoted to Major and take that career path. So I burned my boats, I burned my ships, as the story goes, in relation to my career, once I knew that I was not gonna be the next General of the Air Force. And I didn't accept every last assignment that they wanted to throw my way.
26:38 MM: I didn't end up becoming an aircraft commander in the C-5, which is what I flew the last three years that I was in the Air Force. Everybody else around me became an AC. I told 'em, "You know what? I really don't want to do that." And they looked at me cross-eyed and wondered, "What the heck are you doing, dude? You're not gonna be able to go to the airlines or do anything if you're not an aircraft commander." Well, I had no plans to go to the airlines, and I had no plans of getting promoted. So why take that time? Why take on that responsibility? Why take on that stress, flying all over the planet and being responsible for an airplane and an entire crew when I could just be the guy sitting in the right seat, still doing my job, still saluting smartly, but not having all the responsibility because I had already decided that I was not gonna be a career guy. I wasn't gonna go to 20, I wasn't gonna retire, so why kid anybody including myself, why not do my job but not raise my hand for those extras? And because I didn't, I had more time to lay the foundation on nights and weekends, etcetera, to prepare for my getting out.
27:50 JN: I love that. I love that thought of just burning the ships and knowing what you want and going after that. I know that we're running short on time. I always like to leave the last question to be more open-ended for you, and I know I asked a lot of questions that I think would be helpful for our listeners, but knowing that you have an audience of active duty and veterans listening to this, what advice would you give to them? Or, what else would you want them to know about their personal life or professional life?
28:21 MM: You can be in control. You can live a life that you truly want to live. You can live a life where your family is the priority and can develop and build a life to where you don't have to be subject or at the whim of Uncle Sam or anybody else. I put my faith and my family front and center in all that I've done, and it's made it difficult at times, granted. But the reality is... I came across a guy in the mastermind group that I'm a part of. We had a retreat weekend here about a month ago outside of Nashville, and he got up in front of the group and was sharing a bunch of stuff, and he mentioned the fact that he was stuck. That Uncle Sam had control. He had already put in his 20, so he could get out at any time, but he felt stuck because of some injuries and some medical necessities that still required surgery and all that, and I told him, I said, "Dude, you don't have to be gone from your family all the time. You can change all of that. Trust me. It's all right on the outside and you'll be taken care of. And if your family is truly as important to you as you say it is, then, man, start living for them, not for what the next assignment is, or the next job. It puts you out there at risk.
30:05 MM: But he had been so indoctrinated for so long in service above self and above family, and above everything else, that he had kinda forgotten and gotten his priorities a bit mixed up, in my mind. And to be able to talk to him now and to see the change because of that weekend and some of the other conversations he had, and for him to really understand that he can build a life that is best for him and what makes him tick and his family and what their priorities are. We home-school our kids. We run our own business. We're pretty weird in the whole scheme of things. We don't fit in in a lot of places, but we put this life together for ourselves because it's what we felt was best for us.
31:01 MM: So don't be scared to begin to craft a life that is best for you and your family, because you live in the freest country in the world still today, with the most opportunity in the world, and too many people settle for what comes easy or what they think others expect them to do instead of what they really in their heart want to do. And I would just encourage them to follow their heart, to follow their passions, and figure out a way to follow them and make money in the process because it's possible. It's gonna take some work, but it's possible more today than ever before.
31:50 JN: That's great, man. That's a shot of motivation right there and I just love the... I love in both your story and in your personal life just this proactive nature of being able to make anything happen and being able to shape the life that you want, and it might not be the life that someone else wants, but it is the life that's right for you and your family. That's great.
32:12 MM: To give you an idea, Justin, I was in the Toronto area today. And my daughter, Rebecca, she's our youngest. She's 15. My two oldest kids are off in college. We have had our kids as part of our business since the beginning. So Becca has been around my businesses since she was three or four years old. Well, because we homeschool, she's got some flexibility in her schedule. So a couple weeks ago, I said to her mom, I said, "What do you think about me taking Becca to Canada? She's never been out of the country, it'd be an opportunity for she and I to do some father and daughter time together." So today, we met with a franchise attorney in Canada. We met with an accountant. We met with a machine supplier that we're probably gonna work with. Here she is, 15-year-old, sitting at a boardroom table of three different companies with her dad and other men talking business. And in all three cases, the guys were completely floored that she was there. They weren't upset by it, they were like, "This is the coolest thing I've ever seen."
33:20 JN: Yeah, guess who's bringing their kids to work tomorrow? All of those people, right? [chuckle] They're like, "I need to do this too."
33:27 MM: Yeah. But you know what? School was in session today, and no, it was not the standard curriculum that a high school student is "expected" by the educational establishment, but she learned more in the last couple of days being with dad and experiencing the real world of business than she'll learn in an entire year of school. And we had the ability to do that because we put a business together with the family as a foundation of it all, and have the ability to do things like that today, financially and time-wise, because we made some decisions, starting a decade ago, that now give us the freedom to come and go as we please, and to have our kids involved at a very, very early age.
34:20 MM: My son, Zane, who's a sophomore in college, he was our very first graphic designer at 10 years old for our company. At 10, he traded two hours of yard work in a good buddy of mine's yard who was a graphic designer in exchange for two hours of training in Photoshop and Illustrator. Today, he's done design now for hundreds of clients, thousands of jobs over the last 10 years. He recently was recognized at his school by the head of the school's marketing department. The guy called him into his office 'cause he had seen some of Zane's work around the school and he was like, "Where did you learn how to do this? 'Cause you're a sophomore." And Zane went on to tell him about the fact that he's been in the middle of his mom and dad's business starting at 10 years old. The guy hired him on the spot to begin to do marketing for the university starting next semester as a part-time job on top of his work load in school. Why?
35:29 JN: I'm realizing Matt, that you don't have four jobs, you have five, and the fifth one is an entrepreneur factory. You're just churning them out of your house. That's incredible.
35:39 MM: Well, a lot of it Justin, is just them being around a mom and dad who have a dream, and a mom and dad who are willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. And my kids saw me, at times, not at home much. There was a period of time where I was working full-time. I was building my traditional vending business, I was building my School Spirit Vending business, and I was delivering pizzas at Pizza Hut for 18 months 'cause I needed extra seed money to grow our business. And they've seen their mom and dad buckle down and delay gratification, and do what others around them probably would not be willing to do. And today, they're seeing the benefits of that. And of course, they've learned along the way many of those skills, and they're now getting to the age where they're being able to utilize them in the marketplace as well.
36:32 JN: I'm very jealous of them. I think that that's not only the business acumen that they're developing at such a young age, but what a cool way to spend time with their dad. Like just to be able to have that one on one time with you, that's just really cool, and I respect you for having built the life that you wanted for you and your family. That's really admirable.
36:55 MM: Appreciate it. It wasn't all work. We went and visited Niagara Falls a couple of days ago. We went ziplining by the falls. We did a bunch of that too. So it wasn't just purely work, but why not mix the two and get a chance to spend some time together in the process?
37:11 JN: That's great. Well, Matt, I know I'm keeping you from some amazing wings here.
[laughter]
37:16 JN: And I really appreciate your time speaking to me, and I think it's just a great example for the veteran community, and it's just very helpful to hear some tactical advice on how you got there.
37:26 MM: No, I appreciate it, Justin. Hey, if you wouldn't mind, I'd love to give something away for anybody that's interested in the audience. I wrote a short ebook, it's called 'Live Your Dreams: The Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Own a Vending Business'. And it just talks about some basics that I've learned in the last decade plus about vending that most professionals have never even thought of in relation to vending. And we've gotta page that they can go to specifically for your audience.
37:58 JN: Yeah. That would be great.
38:00 MM: Yeah. They can go to ssvbusiness.com/uniform, and they can download that for free if they like to learn a little bit more about vending if they want, or if they wanna talk more specifically about what we do with schools, I'd love to begin a dialogue either way. And I hope that our little bit of time tonight has been an inspiration for folks because there is so much opportunity out there today. You just gotta be willing to go grab it, and to realize that you've got more skills than you think you do that that are very, very, very, very valuable on the outside, if you're willing to figure it out, and to put those in play for yourself and your family.
38:43 JN: That's great, Matt. I really appreciate that offer as well, and for listeners, I'll add that into the show notes, so you can check that out, and make sure you grab a copy of that book. So Matt, thank you for your time. I appreciate your family letting us borrow you tonight, and have a great rest of the day.
39:00 MM: You too, Justin. Thanks, man. God bless.
[background conversation]
39:08 JN: Thanks for listening. As we wrap up, I wanted to share three quick but important announcements. First of all, if you haven't already, please sign up for my newsletter at beyondtheuniform.io. Although I publish on LinkedIn and Facebook, I'll be starting to use a newsletter as my primary means to share new articles, episodes and resources relevant to the veteran community. Second, I would love to hear from you. Sometimes I feel like I'm in a relationship where I do all of the talking. You can view me as your very own dedicated resource to help you and other veterans in your civilian career. Have feedback on what I can do differently? Let me know. Someone in particular you want me to track down for an interview? I'm all ears. Know of another way that I could help the veteran community? I'm dying to know. You can find me on LinkedIn, comment on any post at beyondtheuniform.io. Email me at justin@beyondtheuniform.io or if you're in the intel industry, I'm sure you can track me down in some super creepy way. However you do it, take me up on it. I thrive on feedback.
40:05 JN: Lastly, a quick plug for a few resources I think would benefit any veteran. American Corporate Partners and Service to School both provide free assistance to any veteran. American Corporate Partners pairs you with a mentor in your desired industry, and Service to School finds a mentor at a suitable undergrad or graduate school program to help you with your application. Check them out. As always, tons of great content and resources available at beyondtheuniform.io. I'm Justin Nassiri, and I'll be back soon with more great episodes.