I’m recording this episode of BBTU a few days early, because as we speak I’m camping in Death Valley as part of the final weekend of the yearlong men’s program I’ve been doing with John Wineland. I’m very excited to be unplugged - to be 100% off my phone and off the internet for 5 days - that in and of itself will be incredible. But, I’m also very much looking forward to seeing this group, doing some incredible work together in the desert, and bringing this program to a conclusion.

I have 5 items to cover today, all of them of the professional nature.

First of all, Donations. Steve and I are working on a lot of ideas to expand our impact at Beyond the Uniform. We’ve offered three webinars in October, and have another six more lined up for the remainder of 2019. We’re playing around with the idea of a digital library, where short articles and videos from our 300+ episodes will be available for free, in addition to articles written and contributed by other Veterans. We have ideas for video courses to also make all the information we’ve learned more accessible to Veterans. All of this takes time and money. We’re putting a sponsorship program in place - where we can get financial support from organizations that like what we’re doing. That takes time. In the interim, if you’d like to support us and our mission, I’ve added back a Support tab in the top right hand of the BeyondTheUniform.org website, where you can donate to help us grow our efforts. Introductions to companies that could support us financially are greatly appreciated, as are any and all feedback on how we can broaden our footprint. 

Second - events. Thank you to all of you who attended our free webinars in October - Networking 101, Veterans in Consulting, and our Town Hall. We have received rave reviews, helpful feedback on how to improve, and suggestions for follow-on events. We have incorporated much of this into six additional events in November and December. You do not want to miss out - they are free, if you cannot attend them live you’ll get a video copy of the presentation mailed to you, so you can review it at your leisure. 

each of these events is listed on our Events page at BeyondTheUniform.org. They are Sales 101 - Building Consensus with Tyler Johnston. Veterans in Finance. Discovering your values. Interviewing 101. And Veterans at the Big Three, which is a sort of Part 2 to our consulting webinar.

There is information on each of these events on the website. The one thing i will say is to act fast for the Discovering your Values workshop. My wife, Rebecca, is an executive coach. CEOs, Vice Presidents of Sales, and other executives pay her a lot of money because she is very good at her work. She has also worked at a discount to help many military Veterans. This is the most powerful work I can think of for those of you deciding your next career transition. Values - alignment - understanding one’s self - these are three of the most important things guests on BTU have mentioned when it comes to making a career transition. And each of these - values - alignment - understanding - can be exceptionally difficult to uncover in isolation. We’re doing this live seminar for free and with a capped classroom size of 6 people. Rebecca will work with each person individually, helping you identify and uncover your values. If that excites you and you want to participate - sign up. If you’re not wanting to put yourself out there and uncover the values driving your career decisions - best to sit this one out.

Lastly, I’d like to cover three interviews that will be released later in November. Overall for November and December we’re taking a step back from our normal format of career overviews. Instead, we are focusing on skills episodes - episodes designed to help our audience build a concrete skill set that will help you throughout your career, regardless of whatever that career path may be. 

The primary exception to that is this coming Monday’s episode. Dan Cnossen. Episode #322 - Navy SEAL to Paralympic Gold Medalist (Dan Cnossen). Coming out Monday.

I don’t really know what to say about Dan Cnossen’s interview. If you listened to Episode #268 - How the Outdoors Saved my Life, with Stacy Bare. An episode where Stacy - seconds in to our phone call, before I even started the episode, shared that a close friend of his had just died in the outdoors. We talked about delaying the interview - of waiting for a better time. We hit record instead. It’s one of my favorite conversations to date - it’s real, vulnerable, and pertinent.

 

Dan’s interview is of the same caliber. Dan is a classmate of mine from the Naval Academy. I didn’t know him really well while I was there, but I knew of him. This interview really makes me wish I would have had the chance to got to know him better while we were in school together. We recorded this interview, and there were some technical difficulties and we got started a bit late, and I had another meeting right after it. It was actually a video conference that I have with my men’s group each week. So I hung up with Dan and went straight into this men’s group meeting. And we always start off these calls with a round the room check-in - each of the seven guys in my group takes five minutes to share what’s going on in their life. And I just knew I’d be picked to go first. And I was. And I was just coming from my conversation with Dan and the whole weight of our conversation hit me. And I got pretty emotional. 

 

Dan made an enormous sacrifice in the service of our country. He paid a price for his choosing to keep our country safe. And he faced an incomprehensible recovery from that sacrifice - one in which he faced uncertainty, loss, and obstacles that it’s really hard for me to get my head around. And he approached this with a moment-by-moment presence that really shows the man he is. He came back from this loss to win the gold medal at theParalympics - he made history in doing so. And through it all he maintains himself with such humility, such candor, and such honesty - it really made me feel humbled and honored to have him on the show, and to count him as a classmate. He has been hesitant to stand in the spotlight, to speak publicly about his experience.

 

That is Episode #322 - Navy SEAL to Paralympic Gold Medalist (Dan Cnossen). Coming out Monday.

Episode #323 - Conscious Leadership (Floyd Carlson). Floyd starts our interview, talking about how, in inspecting a POW while in Iraq, he overlooked a hidden explosive device. When he pulled it from the POWs pocket and heard it engage, he knew he was going to die. What happened next changed his outlook on life, forever.

That is Episode #323 - Conscious Leadership (Floyd Carlson), coming out November 7th.

Lastly, Episode #326 - not coming out until November 18th. Episode #326 is Loving What Is (Byron Katie). This was one of the highlights of my time at Beyond the Uniform. I did cold outreach to Byron Katie using the techniques I just taught in Networking 101 - they work. Byron said yes. Byron is a best selling author, she has been interviewed Oprah half a dozen times. It’s worth sharing part of her story.

43 years old, after a 10-year struggle with rage, anxiety and depression, she woke up knowing that she only suffered, if she believed her own thoughts. If she didn’t, there was no suffering. What’s left is joy and gratitude to be alive, and she’s been teaching that ever since.

She’s taught the process, which she calls “The Work” to millions of people over the past three decades. In our interview she talks about this work - and the work she has done with military Veterans. She talks about the four questions that - if you can build the habit of asking them - can change your life. I read her book years and years ago - I still think about these four questions.

It is an interview where you will learn: