Mark

The Veteran (Semi) Professional

Business EN ↓ 261 episodes

Honesty and advice to help veterans crush it at grad school, in entrepreneurship, and in professional careers. Humor and language often not as professional.

Author

Mark

Episodes

Ep. 255: Leading an Education Company That Teaches Tech Skills to Veterans 15.10.2025 47:47

Send us Fan Mail

Ep. 256: Working With Hollywood Stars, Growing Up with No TV, and Making Movies with Darrill Fannin 15.10.2025 46:03

Send us Fan Mail

Ep. 254: How a Former Marine and Monk Wants You to Think about Money 04.10.2025 32:50

Send us Fan Mail Finance expert Doug Lynam offers a groundbreaking exploration of our complex relationship with money, budgeting, and finances through the transformative lens of the Enneagram. Confront financial fears, engage with money habits and behaviors, and develop a personal understanding of how the mind and personality affect money decisions. With compassion, wisdom, and humor, Lynam will g...

Ep. 253: What Does a Clinical Psychiatrist Have to Say About Psychedelics for Veterans? 02.10.2025 42:02

Send us Fan Mail Will Van Derveer, MD is a leader in the adoption of integrative psychiatry practices globally. After discovering that his conventional psychiatric training was inadequate to answer many of the challenges facing his patients, Dr. Van Derveer began to learn how to resolve the root causes of common psychiatric problems such as depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

Ep. 252: Working at Big Tech and Find Ways to Help Veterans with Dan Goldenberg 25.09.2025 47:33

Send us Fan Mail

Ep. 251: Fighter Pilot to Franchise Owner with Vivek Shah 22.09.2025 46:57

Send us Fan Mail Vivek took his kids to a Sharky's Hair Cuts and thought, "Wow, this place is awesome." So he bought a few with the help of some investors. He learned a ton and made a bunch of mistakes, but glad he did it.

Ep. 250: Law School and Ignoring the Noise to Do What Makes you Happy with Sharif Gray 17.09.2025 48:43

Send us Fan Mail Sharif is a good friend and I've enjoyed watching his career. He had a job at a prestigious law firm and was there 3 months before he looked around and realized that was not where he wanted to be. So he quit and does his own legal work, taking on big corporations. And he loves it.

Ep. 249: Gut Health, Veterans, and Creating Clean Protein that Doesn't Give You Gas 29.08.2025 48:39

Send us Fan Mail

Ep. 248: Creating a Safety Product from Scratch to a $30 Million Exit with Zach Greene 21.08.2025 41:15

Send us Fan Mail

Ep. 248: Military to Law Enforcement to Owning a Home Inspection Franchise with Shawn Degan 18.08.2025 35:57

Send us Fan Mail

Ep. 247: How Finds Can Find their Next Career with Bryan Dyer 15.08.2025 45:43

Send us Fan Mail

Ep. 246: Supporting the Military After Serving In It and Continued Leadership with Former Marine John Dailey 10.07.2025 35:25

Send us Fan Mail John is a former MARSOC operator and we talk about his new book and leadership after the military.

Ep. 245: Writing, Editing and Serving In the Same Unit After Uniform with Dan Pace 03.07.2025 39:13

Send us Fan Mail Dan retired from Special Forces and went into working in support of his same unit, as a contractor We also talk about his upcoming book.

Ep. 244: The Startup NCO- Dancing Into Stanford and Why Startups Need Veterans with William Treseder 27.06.2025 49:39

Send us Fan Mail William is a former enlisted Marine who hustled his way into Stanford (danced, actually….it’s a whole story) and then started a business that is doing super well. He is a truly smart guy and very plugged into the veteran entrepreneurial community. He took everything he has learned about startups and why he thinks prior enlisted are especially great in them into a new book, Startup...

Ep. 243: Fleeing Iran to America, Serving in Special Operations, and IT Leadership After the Military with Nick Berg 12.06.2025 34:56

Send us Fan Mail Nick is a fascinating guy. He was born in Iran and had an American dad, then fled the country during the Islamic Revolution. He came to the US and had along career in Special Operations. Since then, he has worked in IT consulting.

Ep. 242: Starting a VC-Backed Laundry Business and then Zillow for Franchises with Alex Smereczniak 06.06.2025 39:40

Send us Fan Mail Alex is one of the most impressive entrepreneurs I've had the chance to speak with. Before launching Franzy , Alex co-founded 2ULaundry and LaundroLab , where he helped scale the business from a college side hustle into a multi-unit franchise brand with over 100 franchise licenses sold and a rapidly growing network of stores. He then started Franzy, basically "Zillow f...

Ep. 241: From Enlisted Marine to Corporate M&A with Robert Sterling 22.05.2025 51:21

Send us Fan Mail Robert is a former Marine who found his way into corporate M&A through grit and bit of luck. He now runs a firm providing financial advisory services to small and medium-sized businesses.

Ep. 240: How to Start a Business With Your Spouse and Modernize the Home Services Industry with Gabe and Lindsey Chrismon of Oply 09.05.2025 42:01

Send us Fan Mail Gabe and Lindsey are both Army veterans with impressive backgrounds, he an infantry officer and she was one of the first women in the 160th. After leaving the Army, Gabe started a fire/water/mold remediation business, scaled it to $1 million in a few years and then sold it, while Lindsey is an MBA student at HBS. Oh, and they are married. Power couple. Right now, they are bui...

Ep. 239: SBA Loans and Why Banks Like Working with Veterans with Lisa Forrest from Live Oak Bank 24.04.2025 51:47

Send us Fan Mail Lisa is one of the few 2x guests on the show. She is the head of Search Fund lending at Live Oak Bank, one of the top SBA lenders in the country, and a premier expert on loans for buying small businesses. She also loves to work with veterans and I had her on the show to talk about why.

Ep. 238: High-Paying Careers for Veterans in Software Sales with Navy Veteran Matthew Dykes 18.04.2025 41:54

Send us Fan Mail Matthew talks about transitioning from the Navy to the VA and then ending up in software sales.

Ep. 237: How To Leverage Your Network and Veteran Status to Buy Small Businesses with Rob Kirila 23.03.2025 37:52

Send us Fan Mail Rob retired from the Army as a Special Forces officer and then spent time working with a veteran transition nonprofit. He was often the one raising money and that put me in contact with a lot of high-net-worth individuals. After a bit, they started to ask him "Do you think you can do what we did? Buy businesses?" He said yes, got his first investors, and started get...

Ep. 236: Early Career Pivots After HBS and Being OK With Leadership with Jack Ambridge 19.03.2025 40:45

Send us Fan Mail Jack is an Air Force veteran who went to HBS. He was told "everyone thinks of veterans as "leaders" but don't let that define you" Turns out, Jack liked leading people. He liked being labeled a "leader." So he made some career pivots and ended up managing a $500 million business for a PE fund. Listen in to hear his story.

Ep. 198: Starting a Brand to Save Veteran Lives with Community Supporter Will Highland 17.03.2025 24:09

Send us Fan Mail

Ep. 235: Improving the Veteran Transition Experience through Data and Corporate Insights with Jason Anderson from PreVeteran 13.03.2025 51:19

Send us Fan Mail Jason Anderson is a former Air Force O-6 who retired from the military and started what looked like was his dream job. Business development in a sector of the Air Force he knew Got to live in Japan Making GREAT money But he realized he didn't feel like he was really going to succeed in the role and was not getting the feeling he wanted from his work. So he started looking...

Ep. 234: Focused Career Prep For $100k+ Jobs for Veterans with Bobby Payne from Shift Group 05.03.2025 41:37

Send us Fan Mail Today's guest is Bobby Payne from Shift Group . He is an Air Force veteran and a really awesome guy who I've gotten to know a lot more recently. Since starting The Veteran Professional in 2019, I have been contacted by a number of veteran-focused recruiting companies. I even worked for one for a bit. The only one I have decided to partner with in a meaningful way is...