Explore every episode of the podcast The Veteran (Semi) Professional
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ep. 256: Working With Hollywood Stars, Growing Up with No TV, and Making Movies with Darrill Fannin | 15 Oct 2025 | 00:46:03 | |
| Ep. 255: Leading an Education Company That Teaches Tech Skills to Veterans | 15 Oct 2025 | 00:47:47 | |
| Ep. 254: How a Former Marine and Monk Wants You to Think about Money | 04 Oct 2025 | 00:32:50 | |
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 guide readers on a journey to financial health and personal growth. | |||
| Ep. 253: What Does a Clinical Psychiatrist Have to Say About Psychedelics for Veterans? | 02 Oct 2025 | 00:42:02 | |
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 Sep 2025 | 00:47:33 | |
| Ep. 251: Fighter Pilot to Franchise Owner with Vivek Shah | 22 Sep 2025 | 00:46:57 | |
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 Sep 2025 | 00:48:43 | |
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 Aug 2025 | 00:48:39 | |
| Ep. 248: Creating a Safety Product from Scratch to a $30 Million Exit with Zach Greene | 21 Aug 2025 | 00:41:15 | |
| Ep. 248: Military to Law Enforcement to Owning a Home Inspection Franchise with Shawn Degan | 18 Aug 2025 | 00:35:57 | |
| Ep. 247: How Finds Can Find their Next Career with Bryan Dyer | 15 Aug 2025 | 00:45:43 | |
| Ep. 246: Supporting the Military After Serving In It and Continued Leadership with Former Marine John Dailey | 10 Jul 2025 | 00:35:25 | |
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 Jul 2025 | 00:39:13 | |
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 Jun 2025 | 00:49:39 | |
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.
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| Ep. 243: Fleeing Iran to America, Serving in Special Operations, and IT Leadership After the Military with Nick Berg | 12 Jun 2025 | 00:34:56 | |
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 Jun 2025 | 00:39:40 | |
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 for franchises". It's a super impressive product, much needed, and he is the guy to do it. Tune in to learn more from this very smart entrepreneur. | |||
| Ep. 241: From Enlisted Marine to Corporate M&A with Robert Sterling | 22 May 2025 | 00:51:21 | |
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 May 2025 | 00:42:01 | |
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 building Oply. Here is the pitch: "Just like your car tells you when to change the oil, Oply uses intelligent technology to tell you what your home needs next. Your Oply Home Score tracks the health of every major system—giving you predictive insights and helping you fix issues early with vetted pros, all in a tap. Oply thinks, predicts, and acts for you—so you can enjoy your home with peace of mind." | |||
| Ep. 239: SBA Loans and Why Banks Like Working with Veterans with Lisa Forrest from Live Oak Bank | 24 Apr 2025 | 00:51:47 | |
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 Apr 2025 | 00:41:54 | |
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 Mar 2025 | 00:37:52 | |
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 getting to work. Listen in to hear how. | |||
| Ep. 236: Early Career Pivots After HBS and Being OK With Leadership with Jack Ambridge | 19 Mar 2025 | 00:40:45 | |
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 Mar 2025 | 00:24:09 | |
| Ep. 235: Improving the Veteran Transition Experience through Data and Corporate Insights with Jason Anderson from PreVeteran | 13 Mar 2025 | 00:51:19 | |
Jason Anderson is a former Air Force O-6 who retired from the military and started what looked like was his dream job.
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 into the veteran transition process and really started to appreciate the MASSIVE jump that someone needed to make to have a successful transition. Through this journey, he founded PreVeteran. They run highly professional courses that help you go through the journey from military to civilian, backed by data and corporate learnings. It's the real deal. Listen in to hear Jason's story and what makes PreVeteran unique. | |||
| Ep. 234: Focused Career Prep For $100k+ Jobs for Veterans with Bobby Payne from Shift Group | 05 Mar 2025 | 00:41:37 | |
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 Shift Group. Here is why:
And the stat that sealed this for me, they have <5% attrition compared to an industry average of 35%. They are just REALLY good at placing people in the right job. | |||
| Ep. 233: What Happens When You Buy a Business and It Fails? Real Talk on Failing with Air Force Veteran Jed Morris | 26 Feb 2025 | 01:11:47 | |
I have had a lot of guests on the show to talk about buying a small business. From lenders, buyers, and investors- everyone seems to be saying, "Go buy a business! You will make a ton of money and can't go wrong!" Well, today's guest is a story of what happens when it does go wrong. Jed Morris is an Air Force veteran who bought a landscaping business and then quickly bought another. He did a lot of things right:
But after a few months, the wheels started to come off and Jed ended up going bankrupt on the deal. Despite this, he is still optimistic on buying small businesses. His is a great story of resilience, grit, and how to think about risk. | |||
| Ep. 232: Combat Games by Combat Veterans and Veterans of the Video Game Industry with Old Glory Studios | 20 Feb 2025 | 00:45:12 | |
Gaming culture is huge in the military. Video games are a way to blow off steam on a deployment, stay connected with friends around the world, and just have fun. So I'm really excited to bring this episode to you about two combat veterans who are starting their own video game studio, Old Glory Studios. Lewis and Matt served early in the GMOT. Lewis was a combat engineer in the 82nd Airborne and Matt fought out of a Bradley in Iraq with 3rd ID. They both went on to work on big-name games like Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy's The Division 1 & 2, Dying Light 2, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodhunt, Exoborne, and more. Now they are working on their own studio, which you can even invest in here. "Founded by combat veterans and seasoned game developers Lewis Manalo and Matt Patak, Old Glory Studios brings over 25 years of experience in the gaming industry. Our founders have worked on some of the most popular tactical shooters in the world, bringing their real-life experiences into game development. Old Glory's goal is to make combat games that are easy to pick up, but hard to master. Backed by a talented network of developers, writers, and artists, our mission is to deliver games that are accessible to everyone while staying true to the authentic combat experiences of our founders. " Note: I am not a registered investment broker and am offering this as information purposes only. | |||
| Ep. 231: Using Military Experience and Veteran Status to Buy Logistics Companies with Donte McGaughy | 07 Feb 2025 | 00:40:04 | |
Donte McGaughy is a seasoned entrepreneur, former government employee, and a United States Air Force service-disabled veteran. As the Founder and CEO of Selenius Holdings, an Atlanta-based freight forwarding and truck hauling company, Donte is dedicated to driving growth through strategic acquisitions. His vision is to establish the largest minority-certified logistics firm in the United States. | |||
| Ep. 230: WeWork, Buying 2x HVAC Businesses, and Recruiting Veterans for Small Business Leadership Roles with Nathan Lenahan | 23 Jan 2025 | 00:40:05 | |
I really like Nate. He's just...a good dude. | |||
| Ep. 229: Using AI to Get $100 million to Veterans at Vetclaims.ai with Lukas Simianer | 16 Jan 2025 | 00:45:08 | |
Lukas is a previous guest and we talk about the VC-backed startup from our first episode that he shut down.
Listen in to hear why and how Lukas started this and be sure to check out Vetclaims.ai for your own needs. | |||
| Ep 228: A Deep Dive on the VA Home Loan with Mortgage Expert Chris Wesson | 09 Jan 2025 | 00:31:04 | |
Today we have a conversation going into all the ins and out of the VA home loan with former Marine and mortgage expert, Chris Wesson. | |||
| Ep. 227: Rich Routines for Business, Family, and Wealth with Steve Houghton | 14 Nov 2024 | 00:44:26 | |
I got connected with Steve from a guy on X (formerly, Twitter). Steve has been INCREDIBLY successful and was very gracious with his time to discuss his new book: Rich Routines: Simple Habits That Enrich Every Area of Your Life
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| Ep. 226: Living Abroad, Running Online Businesses, and Building a Great Life with Family with Alex Lisot | 02 Oct 2024 | 00:36:55 | |
Alex went from flying fighter jets to running an e-commerce company, living abroad, and investing in real estate. | |||
| Ep. 225: Starting a CBD Company, Finding a Purposeful Career, and Enlisted to MBA with Alexander Mikhailovsky | 05 Sep 2024 | 00:40:45 | |
Alex is a first-year MBA student and founder of Organic Grit, a CBD company. Outdoor Education Adventures & Wilderness Programs | Outward Bound | Outward Bound Leading Veteran CBD Company. One Farm | One Strain | Organic Grit Team-Based MBA Admissions Consulting | Stratus Admissions (stratusadmissionscounseling.com) | |||
| Ep. 224: Running a $700 Million Company That Helps Business Owners Build Wealth with Mike Stone from CertaPro Painters | 30 Aug 2024 | 00:37:14 | |
I've had a number of franchisees and business owners on the show, but Mike is the first from the side of a franchisor (think: corporate). He is the CEO of CertaPro Painting, where he gets to see how locations across the country perform inside their $700 million business. | |||
| Ep. 223: Heading to Medical School After the Military with Air Force Veteran Austin Almand | 23 Aug 2024 | 00:52:24 | |
First- Austin would be on my short list for Most Interesting Man in the World. | |||
| Ep. 222: Owning a Home Inspection Franchise after a Career in the Military and Law Enforcement with Shawn Degan | 01 Aug 2024 | 00:35:57 | |
Shawn spent time in law enforcement and retired from the Navy and then decided he wanted to own his own business. He partnered with WIN Home Inspections and has been loving every bit of it. | |||
| Ep. 221: Using Surfing To Heal Veterans with Stephanie Dasher from Warrior Surf | 30 May 2024 | 00:31:11 | |
Today's guest is Stephanie Dasher, executive director of Warrior Surf Foundation (WSF), a Charleston nonprofit founded in May 2015. WSF works to provide free surf therapy, yoga, wellness classes and community to Veterans struggling with PTSD and other mental health challenges. Stephanie is a Veteran herself, having served in the U.S. Navy for five years, and would love to speak to you about the unique challenges that Veterans face and why they need our support now more than ever. WSF’s 12-week Surf Therapy program strives to enhance the psychological and physical well-being of Veterans, active duty service members and their families, and teaches resiliency, positive psychology and goal setting. Stephanie has also been instrumental in organizing countless community-building and fundraising events, including a Golf Classic that raised over $310k this past spring. Last year, WSF provided over 2,545 hours of direct support. To date, WSF has served more than 700 Veterans. | |||
| Ep. 220: Running a Financial Services Business to Connect with Your Community and Contribute to Veterans with Brian McCarver | 29 Mar 2024 | 00:41:22 | |
Brian left the army and moved back home, eventually buying a small financial services firm and growing it. We talk about how that helps tie him into his local community and how he uses his network and business to give back to other veterans. DOD SkillBridge Program (osd.mil) Veterans Outreach of Pennsylvania | Harrisburg PA (veteransoutreachofpa.org) Tunnel to Towers Foundation (t2t.org) | |||
| Ep. 219: Using Military Experience to Consult with F500 Companies and Build in Private Equity with Afterburner, Inc. Founder and Chairman Jim Murphy | 15 Mar 2024 | 00:40:34 | |
Through his leadership, Afterburner has landed on Inc. Magazine's "Inc. 500 List" twice. Murph has been regularly featured in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine, Newsweek, Meetings & Conventions Magazine and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, and Bloomberg news to name a few. He has also been named as one of Atlanta's top 50 entrepreneurs by Catalyst Magazine. To date, the Afterburner team of elite military professionals has led over 1 million executives, sales professionals, and business people from every industry through Afterburner's Flawless Execution Model, and its unique, high-energy programs. Afterburner notable clients include the Who's Who of the Global 1000 list of companies. Murph's groundbreaking book Business Is Combat, is now in its third printing, and his latest book Flawless Execution was released May 1st, 2005 by Harper Collins publishing. Murph has spoken at the world’s notable business schools to include Harvard, Wharton, Cornell, Emory, and Duke. | |||
| Ep. 218: Former Marine to 22% Lifetime Returns Investing In Stocks with Erik Smolinski | 08 Feb 2024 | 00:53:22 | |
Erik is the first stock trader I've had on the podcast and he talks about how he got started in investing and why he loves this path for building wealth. esInvests | Investing without the BS Erik @esInvests (@esInvests) / X (twitter.com) | |||
| Ep. 217: Air Force Veteran Jon Stoddard on Buying Businesses | 19 Jan 2024 | 00:44:00 | |
Jon is a prominent voice in the business acquisition community and got his start in buying businesses after leaving the Air Force. Ep. 120: Army NCO to Business Owner by Acquiring a Small Business with John Hubbard (buzzsprout.com) Buy and Sell Online Businesses & Websites - Empire Flippers | |||
| Ep. 216: The Art of the Career Pivot with Kathy Borkoski (Ex- Stunt Performer, Big Tech, Gov, Con, and Navy EOD) | 12 Jan 2024 | 00:45:56 | |
Kathy has QUITE a story. She's bounced around from industry and industry and mastered the art of changing careers. Listen how this Navy EOD veteran went from the military to being a stunt performer to names like Facebook and Crossfit. | |||
| Ep. 215: Navy SEAL to Private Equity and Launching a Search Fund with Jack Ogden of Island Search | 21 Dec 2023 | 00:48:38 | |
I've had a lot of people on the show talk about buying businesses and have tangentially mentioned the traditional search fund model before, but Jack Ogden is the first guest on the show who is currently running a search fund. With Your Shield: A McMorrow Veterans Initiative | USC Military & Veterans Initiative FourBlock – Veteran Career Readiness | |||
| Ep. 214: Finding Common Ground through a Willingness to Learn and Investing in America with Jordan Blashek | 11 Dec 2023 | 00:48:18 | |
Jordan is using his love for our country to work with high-profile investors to invest in the American economy and defense. Christopher: 9780316423793: Amazon.com: Books Jordan Blashek — America’s Frontier Fund (americasfrontier.org) Jordan Blashek (@JordanBlashek) / X (twitter.com) | |||
| Ep. 213: Writing, Crowdfunding, and How Being Cheeky Can Get a Dream Job with Caleb Naysmith | 07 Dec 2023 | 00:32:25 | |
Caleb writes on equity crowdfunding. See how his side hustle turned into a dream job for him. Articles written by Caleb Naysmith - Benzinga Democratizing.finance | Equity Crowdfunding News & Education | |||
| Ep. 212: Army Diver (Yes, it's a thing) to ATMs and Auto Parts E-Commerce with Charles Masters Rodriguez | 05 Dec 2023 | 00:43:33 | |
Charles left the army and immediately launched himself into entrepreneurship. It wasn't all smooth sailing, but he found a way to his current niche and is finding a way to make it happen. | |||
| Ep. 211: Enlisted Cav Scout to Software Developer and Building a Venture-Backed Software Company with Purpose with Luke Simianer | 01 Dec 2023 | 00:46:34 | |
Luke's story of how he created Clusiv literally brought me to tears. You will want to hear it. Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark... by Napoleon Hill (amazon.com) Amazon.com: The Compound Effect: 9781593157241: Hardy, Darren: Books Homepage » Code Platoon | Code Camp for Veterans & Spouses Warrior Rising | Charitable Organization Empowering Veterans in Business Accelerate Your Success | Techstars Global Startup Network | |||
| Ep. 210: Building the Veteran Coffee Company That is Actually Different with Michael Klemmer of Aerial Resupply Coffee | 03 Nov 2023 | 01:00:06 | |
A veteran with a t-shirt or coffee company?! How original. AerialResupplyCoffee (@aerialresupplycoffee) • Instagram photos and videos The COMMIT Foundation | Veteran Transition Assistance DOD SkillBridge Program (osd.mil) | |||
| Ep. 209: Building a Business off of Having with Backyard Game Designer and Air Force Veteran Matt Butler | 30 Oct 2023 | 00:44:06 | |
Minnesota-native Matt Butler is the inventor of Rollors. The concept was first visualized on downtime between deployments overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan supporting combat operations. Upon return, Matt developed a prototype in his garage that was a hit at BBQs, parties, and other outdoor get-togethers. Around the time of the recession; Matt saw many local veterans out of work that had the resident wood working skills that helped spark the light bulb onto a means to help them. He then decided he wanted to employ local veterans to help construct the wooden disks and wooden, cone-shaped targets used in the game in their home workshops. Rollors has turned into an award-winning and unique game which is revolutionizing beach and backyard fun.
DOD SkillBridge Program (osd.mil) | |||