Lessons Learned for Vets

Send us Fan Mail We are back this week for Part 2 with Tyrone Hewitt. This is where Tyrone’s in-depth knowledge truly shines, in the topic of veteran benefits.  There are thousands of Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) and a diverse array of veteran benefits. Much like a Las Vegas buffet, where you likely won’t eat one of everything, you don’t need to use all the resources that are available to...

Send us Fan Mail Tyrone Hewitt retired from the US Navy after a career that was primarily focused in aviation maintenance. He knew when he left the Navy, he wanted to change directions. He started planning, researching, doing informational interviews and job shadowing early in his planning process. He soon found out that elementary education was not the right path for him. He recommends taking tim...

Send us Fan Mail Although Kasie Valenti originally intended to make a career of the military, but after 8 years of service as an officer in the US Army, her career focus changed as her life changed. This focus of a long-term career in the military took her away from even thinking about or planning for a private sector career after the military.  She worked right up until the end of her military ca...

Send us Fan Mail Michael Hunter served 26 years in the US Army and just retired at the end of 2021. He now works as a Military Liaison for Aligned Education Foundation, a 501(c)3 that educates and supports active duty military, veterans, spouses and real estate agents in the VA home loan benefit. Though Mike initially intended to pursue a high-salary career, it was a conversation with someone abou...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever looked at someone’s military transition success and thought to yourself, they are so lucky? After retiring from the USAF as a Chief Master Sergeant, Rich Pelletier seemingly had an easy transition.  In his own words, from the outside it looks like he rode a unicorn over a rainbow and landed in a pot of gold in a field of four leaf clovers. In reality, he really put i...

Send us Fan Mail Misty Moreno, you may remember from Episode 15 of Season 1 of the show. She retired from the Air Force as a Senior Master Sergeant and went right into the private sector by masterfully leveraging her network on LinkedIn. Misty starts the conversation by discussing the similarities and differences in the human resources career field from the military to the private sector. There ar...

Send us Fan Mail Benjie Manibog served 15 years in the United States Marine Corps in the Special Operations Command. His career came to an abrupt halt due to his wife’s illness so he found himself in the midst of a transition 5 years before he expected. Benjie, who often has blue hair and loves skateboarding is not your typical Marine Raider, but it is this love of skateboarding and a dedication t...

Send us Fan Mail Surprise! I know I said that last week was our final episode of the season, but we had so much fun recapping the highlights of the last year, that I invited Bob Newlin and Jonathan Fisher to join me to share their favorite episodes. We highlight Episode 2 with Keith Forte, Episode 8 with Ben Killoy, Episode 15 with Misty Moreno, Episode 16 and 17 with Herb Thompson and we look at...

Send us Fan Mail We are welcoming back our friend and, now three-time guest, Chris Dreisbach to recap his favorite episodes from the last year. We are so grateful to have you as our listener and want to thank you for tuning in to all the episodes. These recaps will wrap up our Season 1 of the show. Be on the lookout for Season 2 in early January 2022. More details to come!

Send us Fan Mail Lakeydra Houston is currently going through her transition process as she retires from the United States Air Force. She is in the SkillBridge program and offers some insight on what the inside of the program looks like. In addition, Lakeydra talks about her experience with sexual assault in the Air Force and how her avoidance of that experience and other personal tragedies led her...

Send us Fan Mail After retiring from the US Marine Corps, Charles Wells had an easy transition. He quickly landed a good job in the private sector through networking. Within a few months, he was able to secure a position with the federal government, where he gets to continue making a difference for military service members. He attributes his "easy" transition to his mindset. Charlie is k...

Send us Fan Mail Cheryl Mason is the Chairman of the Board of Veterans' Appeals. As a military spouse of a former USAF officer and the daughter of a veteran, Cheryl understands the veteran benefits process, both from a leadership perspective and a personal viewpoint. Cheryl gives input on navigating the benefits process, both as you transition and throughout your life as your needs change. Ho...

Send us Fan Mail Jonathan Fisher is preparing to transition from a career in the US Army in aviation maintenance into the IT and cybersecurity career fields. He has taken charge of his transition and been very active, perhaps too active as we will discuss in the episode. He comes on to ask me questions about transition burnout, pursuing SkillBridge opportunities, how often and what to post on Link...

Send us Fan Mail Jason Willett retired from the US Army as a Command Sergeant Major. He went from deployed overseas to retired in a very short period. That abrupt "full stop" caused some bumps in his transition. After he focused his efforts on the where he wanted to live and what he wanted to do, his networking efforts helped him land a great job with the State of Washington. However, he...

Send us Fan Mail Retired US Air Force officer Don Gleason knew exactly what he wanted to do with his career from a very young age. He had a successful military career and then a smooth transition to the private sector. However, his focus changed several years ago and he found a new purpose as a career coach and in serving veterans in transition . He walks you through his process of discovering you...

Send us Fan Mail Retiring Army officer Darwin Maull gets the chance to ask Lori some of his important questions about the military transition. This episode touches on topics such as the most common pitfalls of the transition process, when and how to use a "master" resume, how to learn to translate military terminology and "speak civilian," as well as tips for international job...

Send us Fan Mail Matt Scherer retired from the Air Force after a career in public affairs. After completing his degree, he had a successful public relations career in the private sector. Today, Matt focuses his efforts on teaching LinkedIn profile creation and how to leverage your profile once it is created. He is the author of several books, including LinkedIn for Military: Your Interactive Trans...

Send us Fan Mail Quincy Harper landed and quit 4 jobs before he found the right position after he retired from the United States Air Force. Now, as a Military Recruiting Talent Lead with Accenture Federal Services, he shares some job seeker best practices and advice. We talk about how it felt, as a veteran who is naturally loyal, to quit those jobs and whether or not he regrets the path his transi...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Vincent Soto retired from the US Navy as a hospital corpsman. He knew his passion was teaching and training, but he took the safe path and took a well-paying job in the healthcare industry. Though he stuck it out for 7 months, he knew from his first day that this was not the right path for him. Vince talks about how he used networking to land a role as a traveling Transition A...

Send us Fan Mail Retired US Marine Corps officer Beau Higgins is a senior manager on Amazon’s Military Affairs team. He oversees a team of recruiters dedicated to educating, recruiting, hiring and retaining veteran talent and currently manages 30K job openings. After retiring in 2014, Beau attributes landing both of his post-military jobs to networking and making connections. As someone who has hi...

Send us Fan Mail With the events that have been unfolding this week in Afghanistan, I made the decision to hit the pause button on new episodes regarding transition. I want you to take this as your opportunity to remember that it is okay to take a break and hit pause on your transition efforts to take care of yourself and your family. Please take a minute to hear my message of gratitude and encour...

Send us Fan Mail After a USAF career that started in IT and telecommunications, Ryan Thuyns retired as a Command Chief. Ryan leaned into mentorship and accepted Lori's challenge to grow his LinkedIn network from <100 to 500+ in 6 weeks. In the episode, he not only shares his strategies for doing this, he also talks about how he landed a leadership role at Amazon, which they are holding for...

Send us Fan Mail After serving 4 years in the US Army and being recognized as the 2020 NCO of the Year, Peter Cline made the decision to separate from the military and pursue his education. Along the way, he co-founded Boots to Books, a non-profit that is making a huge impact to service members in all facets of their transition - including college admission, certifications and trainings, grants an...

Send us Fan Mail Lisa Ceron asks some great questions as she prepares for her retirement from the US Navy. Listen in as we discuss the mental health stigma that veterans may face, whether or not you should reveal your true personality in the job search process and some of the "common denominators" that I have seen in the lessons other guests have shared with me about the  military transi...

Send us Fan Mail You may remember USAF veteran Chris Dreisbach from Episode 25, who left his first post-military role within just 3 months. Chris is back to give us an update on what he did in the 4 months since he left that job and how he approached the next job search in a much more methodical way in order to ensure he was in control the second time around. He changed his approach to interviewin...