Joe Lara (00:00.55)
Yeah.
Halty (00:01.721)
Sorry about that. So we do a rolling start. Brendan, that way it just keeps it nice and flowing and easy and we're just having a conversation. And then I work intros and outros and all that and secondary. So yeah, we're just having a conversation. It's not a big deal.
Brendan (00:19.864)
sick let's do it
Halty (00:21.773)
Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Lara (00:25.256)
So ready to things off?
Halty (00:26.997)
Absolutely.
Joe Lara (00:28.924)
All right. Hey, Brandon, so grateful to meet you today and just want to run by a couple of questions because first of all, I'm pretty sure you have an amazing story. And especially when it comes to career transition, which is really something that I think most veterans, they know it's coming, but they don't give it enough attention. I think that's really what we're trying to.
really get to in this whole conversation with folks. so, Brendan, if you don't mind, tell us a little bit about you and then also how you got connected to the podcast.
Brendan (01:08.366)
For sure. I have a story. I don't know how amazing it is, but I guess your listeners can be the judge of that. I am originally from Baltimore. I was born and raised there. Went to the Naval Academy for undergrad. I think like a lot of folks in my generation were just motivated to serve after 9-11. And after the academy, I branched Marine Corps. I was an infantry officer for six years, which was a lot of laughs. I was just talking to Halty right before this about Southern California and telling him a story about, was stationed out on the West coast.
with one math the whole time I was out there. And I was telling him a story about how I was living in Carlsbad. I moved across the 78, I think it is, that divides Carlsbad from Oceanside. Got robbed and immediately moved back. So we were connecting. Talking about the West Coast Marine Corps. I had an amazing, I had such an amazing experience. The robbery aside, I loved San Diego. I you guys are both out in San Diego.
Halty (01:49.049)
Yep.
Joe Lara (01:51.631)
What?
Joe Lara (01:56.168)
Dude.
Brendan (02:05.23)
But I had such an amazing experience in the Marine Corps, mean, highs and lows like anyone else. A couple of deployments overseas, did one to Asia, kind of bounced around Thailand, Okinawa, mainland Japan. And then I did one of the advisor deployments to Iraq in 2016. That was when we were fighting against ISIS and they control like most of the Euphrates River Valley. So interesting time to be there. You know, we're mostly working on like strike cell targeting type work at the time.
Halty (02:27.917)
Wow. Yeah.
Brendan (02:34.21)
came home, I got out of the Marine Corps and went through an MBA program, got an MBA at Wharton. I did a couple of internships in finance. I kind of figured I would end up in finance. When I was coming out of the Marine Corps, I studied like quantitative economics in undergrad, always kind of like math. My dad always used to say when I was a kid is, know, study money. He's like, study the flow of money and you'll always do well in your profession. And so I tried to take that to heart. I got an internship at
Halty (02:57.465)
Mmm.
Brendan (03:03.598)
Goldman up in New York in the healthcare group on my way out of the Marine Corps. And then liked it so much I went back for the summer between my first and second year. I must've been a glutton for punishment. I don't know. Those jobs are like intense. They're like, it's a lot of hours, but good experience. Definitely learned a lot. And then, you know, when I was at business school,
Halty (03:15.481)
I've heard that's not easy. Yeah.
Halty (03:21.645)
Hmm.
Brendan (03:29.07)
In my, this was like my first month on campus. So was fresh out of the Marine Corps. I didn't know shit about anything. I couldn't even spell revenue. Still can't, but that's just cause I'm a Marine. but, but I mean, so I just got on campus and my dad passed away very unexpectedly. which was awful. you know, he was not like sick for a long time. he had some struggles of his own for sure, but, know, that really changed the trajectory of my life. I looked at him and I was like, man.
Halty (03:37.601)
Hahaha
Halty (03:45.497)
you
Halty (03:56.249)
Yeah.
Brendan (03:58.998)
If I live as long as him, I've got like 30 years left. So that is not a lot of time. And I had this belief that at some point in the future, I would be an entrepreneur. would start something on my own.
And most of my professors in B-school were telling me like, hey, if you're going to do it, do it now. Like do it before you get the golden handcuffs, do it before you become risk averse, you got family, got mouths to feed. And, you know, I wasn't sure what kind of business I would start. And, but that, but his passing really taught me like, hey, like we don't have that much time. If you're going to do it, you know, better to do it now because my hypothesis was like,
Halty (04:19.033)
Hmm.
Brendan (04:41.152)
If the first one doesn't work out, you'll probably learn some stuff you can apply to the second one. Second one doesn't work out, you'll learn some more stuff that you can apply to the third one. And to me, felt like this, like if I could build the skillset, I could build the relevant network, but over time, something would kind of stick and something would work. And that's a hypothesis that has ended up being true, like all things in life too soon to tell. So ask me in like 25 years if this is a good choice, but so far so good. My first startup was an art company, makes exactly
Halty (04:55.629)
Mm-hmm.
Halty (05:03.314)
Okay.
Brendan (05:09.602)
Doesn't make a ton of sense for a Marine Infantry officer who can barely doodle.
Joe Lara (05:13.128)
and marines and crayons kind of go hand in hand so
Halty (05:17.705)
I'm super excited about it now. I really want to know the story behind this. Like that is a leap.
Brendan (05:17.858)
That was the thought process.
Brendan (05:22.99)
At least we'll be well fed, right? Yeah, I mean, I started it with a couple other veterans who were also like in various stages of transition. I mean, I learned so much from those two guys. One of them was transitioning out of the Marine Corps. He's kind of in a similar boat to me. Guy I had known since I was like a kid, just like a really wonderful guy. He'd bring a smile to anyone's face. And the other one was a dude named Eric Katani who...
Also, a Naval Academy guy, he had played football in the NFL for like five years and was an artist. He's actually like a terrific artist. Eric had a couple of businesses and always encouraged us to focus on sales, which ended up being one of the key takeaways from that experience was like, I can figure out almost anything as it pertains to scaling a business, the operations, the technology, raising capital, et cetera, but you got to know how to sell. Like you must. You got to either be able to build or sell and selling is the skillset that will get you from zero to
Joe Lara (05:52.68)
Wow. Wow.
Halty (06:10.905)
you
Brendan (06:18.19)
So, you know, we raised a little bit of capital for that business, but ended up running out of runway. Had to figure out something else to do with my life. And that was an emotional, it was a difficult experience. And I started interviewing around for jobs and I was like, you know what? Still got a little bit of juice left in the tank. I feel like I kind of want to go out on my own still. I ended up teaming up with a guy named Tim Shaw. We had reconnected. He was a mentor to me through my own transition out of Marine Corps.
This might be a little longer than you guys were looking for, but I'm giving you the full rundown.
Halty (06:50.861)
No, no, send it.
Joe Lara (06:51.24)
Is Tim Shaw a civilian or he military person?
Brendan (06:56.046)
He's an army guy. So I don't know how you would categorize that, no joke society. He's a, he's a terrific. Yeah. He was an army veteran. It was a joke. It wasn't very funny joke, but you know, we try. but, yeah, Tim was an army guy, army infantry guy, got out of the army. and it started a business after he went through school as well. And he had started this nonprofit called service to school.
Joe Lara (07:00.742)
Nice, it's elementary.
Joe Lara (07:07.528)
the
Halty (07:07.661)
I got it, I got it, I was there.
Brendan (07:24.472)
which has helped thousands of vets matriculate and hire at, they're great. We love service to school. I had worked with him there and he was sort of a mentor throughout my own transition. He had actually written a very small angel check for my first startup. And in the interim, he had started a venture fund. He started hosting this conference called the Military Veteran Startup Conference in San Francisco. And we reconnected, he was one of my investors. So was kind of like constantly asking him for advice and then reconnected in person at that event.
Halty (07:25.113)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Lara (07:36.7)
Wow.
Brendan (07:54.318)
and decided to launch a company together. So we started this company called the Military Veteran, which has very catchy branding. You can tell we did not agonize over like the name and the brand and it's just never been a strong suit. I'm a creative person. But so we started this company together. We do essentially executive search. So we saw a gap in the market for like, you know, we think veterans are can be tremendous business professionals.
Halty (08:05.241)
Done. Moving on.
Joe Lara (08:06.002)
So original.
Brendan (08:23.63)
There are a lot of firms that sort of focus on like transitioning technicians or maybe junior officers, stuff like that. But we thought to ourselves, like, where is there a market opportunity? Where do veterans really thrive? What are they good at? And decided to focus on private equity operations. So because these are roles that are at essentially the intersection of these white collar investors and more of a blue collar workforce. And so there's a skill set there that veterans have.
Joe Lara (08:31.676)
Yep. Yep.
Brendan (08:53.006)
that is extremely valuable. we started that this company have been scaling it for the last three years. It's really wild. mean, we was literally just me. Tim was working on some sales stuff. This we just now finished. did an offsite last week in D.C. for our like 10, 11 employees. And it's like surreal, you know, it's like weird. But we've assembled like the highest performing team I've ever been on.
Halty (09:11.651)
saw that.
Brendan (09:21.262)
And the work that we do is just like super fun. mean, like we get paid to like host happy hours around the country to help put veterans into life-changing roles and just to be an advocate for our community. you know, so started that company over the last three years. I've also worked as an investor at the fund context ventures, which does seed and pre-seed investments for military veteran founders, industry agnostic, although Tim really likes fintech. So a lot of our companies have sort of like a financial technology kind of flavor to them.
Joe Lara (09:36.136)
Thank you.
Joe Lara (09:48.828)
Yeah.
Brendan (09:51.374)
And then in process of launching a new venture in the new year, which can be a private equity fund that's focused on national security. So that's a 30,000 foot overview of my life. I mean, I've spent a lot of time out on the West coast and back on the East coast now. Just got engaged at the beginning of the summer. So now you're fully caught up.
Joe Lara (10:09.425)
nice. Congratulations.
Halty (10:09.847)
Yeah, that's super cool.
Brendan (10:12.238)
Thank you.
Joe Lara (10:13.938)
Dude, I have quite a few questions and directions I wanna go and Halti, I'm kinda curious to see, you know, we can go a couple of ways, but I really like to talk about the transition piece for you, but also maybe here's some of the potential wins that you've had, in putting veterans, helping veterans make that connection, right? So maybe like from your perspective, what have you witnessed? What's working, what's not working?
Halty (10:23.182)
Mm-hmm.
Halty (10:27.171)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (10:43.464)
Maybe if, you in your position, Brandon, you and your team looking at veterans, realizing that they may not know what they don't know, right? And so what could be the key things that they should be aware of, mindful of? So actually let's kind of start there if you don't mind. Like, I'm sure you've witnessed some stuff, right? But then I also want to revert back to your story a little bit later on if we have time.
Halty (10:43.47)
Hmm.
Brendan (11:07.794)
Yeah, for sure. I'm the least interesting topic that we'll cover. let's cover how we can be helpful to our community. I mean, like, you know, I think I'll try and give like generalizable advice, man. I'm going to sound like a broken record for anyone that listens to our podcast, like, I thought you said like the number one piece of advice that I think I would have if you're transitioning out of the service is like, it's going to seem maybe like a, like dumb advice on the surface, but we're going to drill down. promise it'll be useful.
Joe Lara (11:10.8)
No, I don't know.
Halty (11:22.851)
That's okay.
Brendan (11:36.888)
So in the military, there's this like concept that networking is like really transactional and dirty and gross. It just feels like odd, but that is not the case in the business world. And so this is like the number one thing that I think we need to help folks understand is like, what does that term mean and why is it useful? So if you guys think about your military careers, your like package was briefed on a promotion board. It's guaranteed.
Halty (11:53.133)
Mm.
Brendan (12:01.74)
Like there's going to be a room of folks that meet and they're going to discuss like you as a person, what you bring to the fight, like should you be promoted to the next rank? Are you ready for it? What are your fit reps look like? What does your PT scores look like, et cetera, et cetera. But you're going to be briefed on that board and it doesn't matter how well connected you are. I'm sure it does help on the margins, right? Cause it's like people like to help the people that they know and like, but like either way you're going to get that shot. When the civilian world, like that's not a guarantee. You're not going to.
Joe Lara (12:08.712)
Mm-hmm.
Halty (12:30.105)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (12:31.136)
If I'm hiring for a role, I can only hire someone that I know. Like if I don't know that you exist, I can't hire you for the role. If you apply, then sure, right? There's a chance that we're going to come across you and figure out, hey, this person's the bee's knees and we should bring him on board. But in reality, networking is how you create opportunities for yourself. networking is not transactional. It's not something that you do in order to get something from someone.
Halty (12:39.417)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (13:00.588)
You're not doing it. doesn't have to be this like sleazy, weird thing. It's about making friends. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like if you're, if you guys are serving in the special operations community and you know, you need like air support, like sure, you're to get air support that checks on. But if you've got like a, a forward air controller or J tech in your unit, who you're like buddies with, like it's good to know those people. Or if you need, if you know the logistics guy, like it's good to know that person. So some MREs could fall off the back of a Humvee or something like that. Like it's just like.
Halty (13:05.953)
Right. Yep.
Halty (13:23.907)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (13:30.072)
people helping people. And so the civilian world is the same way. It's like making friends, trying to provide them with value. My general thought process around networking is like, how can I just give, give, give, give, give? And I know that like, you know, hopefully that will be helpful to enough people and they will keep an ear to the ground for how they can be helpful to me. And I'll be open to accepting their help because life and business are plenty hard and like we can use all the help that we can get. So anyway.
Halty (13:37.433)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (13:55.218)
That's awesome. If we're in a military classroom, I'd be stomping my foot three times. As you said, networking, relationships, huge. Basically keep preaching because that is so good. And that's actually in Vector. We have a huge portion on networking in Vector Accelerator because we realize we've done this numerous times, Salty. We've transitioned ourselves just like you, Brendan. We have our own story. We've witnessed hundreds of veterans transition.
Halty (14:01.111)
Yeah. Yeah.
Halty (14:12.205)
Yeah.
Halty (14:18.093)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (14:23.548)
And the value of relationships and the network is so valuable. If you do not network, good luck. Good luck. You're not increasing the chances of landing well. You might get something. Yeah.
Brendan (14:32.942)
Yeah, it's trouble.
Halty (14:33.037)
Yeah. Yeah.
Halty (14:38.711)
And please don't, don't take that as a challenge either. That's not your opportunity to prove somebody wrong. That's your, if that's what you heard, you're hearing it wrong. Well, you should be hearing is, is make up community, right? Maybe not even just a network, but a community of folks that you provide value to. And then at some point someone goes, Hey, I know this guy, Brendan, I know you got this opening Joe. I know this guy, Brendan, I should introduce the two of you. Cause I think he would be a really good fit in your company.
Joe Lara (14:42.92)
DUUUU
Yes.
Yeah, team guys, relax.
Brendan (14:48.258)
Yeah, that's right.
You
Joe Lara (14:53.959)
Yes.
Halty (15:07.673)
Like that is what we've seen happen more often than not. I would say like 85, 87.5 % of the time, that's how people find these great opportunities.
Joe Lara (15:18.983)
Yeah, but-
Brendan (15:19.032)
Well, that is a fact, Halty. Like 90 % of jobs are filled through someone's network. So it's just like a straight up fact. I think people are reticent to do it because it's like for a reasons. First, people don't want to ask for help, right? You're at this vulnerable point in time and you're like, man, I've done all this like amazing stuff. Like, man, I went to this career conference and was talking to like a bunch of jet pilots who were like landing on the back of carriers that are like pitching and rolling in the sea at night.
Halty (15:21.336)
Yeah.
Halty (15:31.928)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (15:31.954)
Sure.
Brendan (15:47.256)
And I've never seen so many high performing people with such sweaty palms, you know? And it's like, it's just this like uniquely vulnerable time. You don't want to ask for help. and I think that's, that's just the wrong move. Cause like people want to help you. They just don't know that you exist. So help them know. And then the other piece is like, have nothing to give you at this point because I'm like just transitioning out. And so I feel weird about asking for your time, but like people want to help you, like let them do so ask for their time and then ask good questions and keep in touch with them.
Halty (15:50.937)
you
Halty (16:00.089)
Mm-hmm.
Halty (16:04.395)
Yeah.
Halty (16:08.365)
Yeah.
Halty (16:14.339)
So we, think Joe and I have heard that at least a million times, right? Like, I feel like I'm not providing any value. All's I want to do is provide value. Do you have any tactics, techniques or tips just around that little piece?
Brendan (16:18.541)
I believe it.
Brendan (16:27.714)
I guess just, don't, mean, like, look, like, the value that you can provide is to go off and like do awesome things in your business career, be like an advocate for our community, and then put the ladder down behind you as you climb. But like when you're first transitioning, maybe you don't have as much, but I'll tell just a quick story that hopefully will help folks maybe feel more comfortable with this. Like when I was transitioning out of Marine Corps, I asked a lot of people for advice about my applications to school. And I was just like, I need the help like.
Halty (16:39.224)
Yes.
Brendan (16:56.686)
I'm sorry to impose on you. And they were also pumped to hear from me. They're like, this is awesome. Congrats. Good luck. Like we're rooting for your success. All these positive interactions. and I had nothing to give in return. And if you fast forward, now it's been eight years, I've put a bunch of those guys into awesome roles. Like I've, and I've gone to bat for them. I'm like, this person is the type of person that will help other people when they have nothing to gain from it. And they didn't help me because they were like, man, maybe eight years from now, Brendan will start this really niche business. They'll have some, it's like,
Halty (17:13.207)
Whoa.
Halty (17:23.629)
Right? Yeah.
Joe Lara (17:24.572)
Nope, that's not how is.
Brendan (17:26.19)
You know, they just did it because they were just trying to be helpful, but you will be helpful to those people going forward because that is in our nature is to try and help our brothers and sisters. And so you might not have something today, but, hopefully we're all going to be swimming in these parallel swim lanes for the next like 30 years and can be helpful to each other. So, yeah, maybe that'll help folks get over some of the awkwardness.
Halty (17:28.665)
Yeah.
Halty (17:41.592)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (17:47.186)
Definitely inside our conversations at the Honor Foundation, inside Vector Accelerator with the veterans that go through some of the work that we have them do is, and this is a challenge, 50 cups of coffee with 50 unique people. And we throw it down and we see whoever gets there. Now there's no repeat coffees. Now you can always have a repeat, but that doesn't count as part of the 50. So we wanna have 50 unique conversations.
Halty (18:02.425)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (18:16.232)
And yes, the first couple of conversations are strange. What do I say? It's almost like, wait, do I swing my arms with my legs as I walk? how do, you know, it's, so, it's so, it feels so weird. I've heard the term gross. I've heard the term awkward. Yes, a hundred percent. I felt it. In fact, you're probably going to stumble on your words a little bit, but that's why I like, I encourage you, you know,
Brendan (18:28.084)
Yeah
Halty (18:34.957)
No.
Joe Lara (18:46.15)
It sounded like you started with familiar voices, meaning maybe not somebody that you know, it could be somebody you know, but just being in the military is a familiar voice, the language, the understanding, the lexicon, the empathy, it's all there. And so that could be a safe cup of coffee. And through that initial first few cups, that can lead to non-military connections, right? And so it's seven degrees of Kevin Bacon, it just starts growing and growing and growing as well as your confidence, right?
Brendan (18:55.992)
Yes.
Halty (18:59.894)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (19:02.499)
Yes.
Brendan (19:09.101)
Yes.
Brendan (19:12.536)
Yes.
100%. When I was trying to get a job at Goldman, I went to LinkedIn. I sorted and filtered people by their current employer was Goldman. Their previous employer was Marine Corps. And then I looked for folks that also went to the same undergrad school that I went to. And this is how I picture a network is in these concentric circles and in this Venn diagram kind of way. So it's like, I can find someone who went to, for me, right, for me personally, if I can find someone who wants to enable Academy,
Halty (19:31.361)
Yup, yup.
Brendan (19:44.044)
was a Marine Corps infantry officer, went to the same MBA program that I went to and worked at X, Y, and Z, whatever, that is the center, center, center of the bullseye. Right. And then we can start relaxing some of those criteria out from there. It's like, okay, well, they didn't have to serve in the Marine Corps. Maybe they served in the Navy or the Marine Corps, but they still went to the other schools. And then, you know, expanding out from there. And eventually I'm reaching out to veterans who maybe I don't have too much in common with. They were an Air Force veteran. They had a different experience. They were in at a different time, but like either way, we've got this one unique shared thing.
Halty (19:54.147)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Brendan (20:13.9)
And so that's how I encourage people to think about it is like, go to the center of your bullseye, work your way out from there. like, like you said, like start with a warm audience. Like who are the people that know you the best? Also, it doesn't hurt to just like rehearse some of this stuff, get into an empty Zoom room, hit record on you telling your story, like your elevator pitch about yourself, you know, do it for like aim for 90 seconds to two minutes, two and a half minutes, something like that. And then watch the footage, watch the game film.
Right. You'll see like, man, I really stumbled here. I didn't really, this one didn't land how I thought it would. so get some reps and then just rehearse, you know, just go like, do it a bunch. You will make mistakes for sure. You will sound awkward at times. I still sound awkward all the time. but like, you know, you're going to get better through the reps. So you kind of got to get them in.
Halty (21:02.297)
Reps and sets is how we all grow. Yeah, no, I totally agree. And I love how you're echoing like every piece of advice I think Joe and I have been giving for the last six plus years, right? And then beautifully in your own, like giving your own Venn diagram, I love that. Like that's like, I can instantly picture it. then, I mean, that's exactly it. If you just jump on LinkedIn and go look for veterans, just go look for veterans, because what veteran's gonna tell you no?
They're gonna be like, hey, I got you brother or hey, I got you sister. Like, yeah, yeah, just give me like, I'm busy right now, but let me get back to you. Or there might be a big break because they just don't get on LinkedIn much. Don't take personal. When they, when they circle around, they jump back on LinkedIn. They'll be like, Hey Joe, yeah, I saw your message. What, what are you looking for? How can I help you? Yeah. Yeah.
Brendan (21:40.93)
Yeah, totally.
Brendan (21:47.63)
It's never personal and follow up with people. Like I, this is, think where people feel the most awkward is like, I don't want to like nose the shit out of this person. I had, someone at Goldman who ended up being such a close mentor of mine and got me into the firm, got me into the firm the second time, got me my full-time offer. Who like, man, I had to him up like three or four times before he responded. And finally he was like, okay, like, let's do it. And I felt like such a shmuck. And we got on the phone and he told me, he's like, you know, I never responded to people's first message.
Halty (21:54.744)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (22:11.314)
you
Brendan (22:14.126)
He's like, get hundreds of these. I'm like, if someone's, if someone's not going to follow up with me, like I just, it must not be that important to them. so that's like maybe like a little bit of a cynical kind of, you know, whatever, but like, but it is true. So don't be afraid to follow up with people. People will tell you to shove off and pound sand if, if they don't want to talk to you and it's their loss, you know, or they're just too busy and they just can't do it. And it's like, Hey, like, you know, I'd love to circle back in a year and, know, see if we can make something happen.
Halty (22:15.104)
wow.
Halty (22:20.931)
Yeah.
Halty (22:31.363)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (22:35.976)
Thank
Joe Lara (22:44.291)
Brandon, what if I don't do social media? Like I don't, you know what? That's not, that's not my thing. I don't know about LinkedIn. I don't like putting myself out there. I've never done it before. What do you say to that?
Halty (22:47.449)
Mmm.
Halty (22:57.262)
Mmm.
Brendan (22:58.51)
I spend zero time on social media in terms of receive mode because there's an algorithm that's trying to manipulate your brain and yada, yada, yada. It's just bad for you. So I don't consume like social media content. think it can be really, really, especially during a time when you're like mental health is like something that you have to prioritize. But I do think LinkedIn is really valuable. I think it's helpful. I mean, I don't know, my whole business kind of runs on the back of LinkedIn. So it's like, of course I think that.
But yeah, mean like, dude, million and one ways to get in touch with folks, like go to your university's alumni directory or reach out to your buddies. Like one of the best tactics, like obviously if we've got all these connections in common, like that's helpful for me to get a conversation with you, but the best way to get a conversation with someone is a warm intro. So put your networking connections to work. Like one of the last questions you ask in a networking call is like, hey, is there anyone else that you would recommend that I speak to when I'm at this stage of my journey? You know?
Joe Lara (23:29.469)
Yeah.
Halty (23:42.115)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (23:51.714)
And it's like, boom, you're going to get some additional intros. So, and then just figure out a way to keep track of these different folks, keep them posted on your progress. I would say probably of all the people that I connect with, maybe only 5 % of people will follow up with me six months down the road, a year down the road to tell me how things ended up. and that's just like so powerful because I love hearing it. I'm always like, man, I'm so grateful for someone. Let me know. Cause otherwise it's just a shot in the dark. but yeah, I guess you don't have to have social media. would say LinkedIn is pretty helpful.
Halty (24:07.053)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Halty (24:23.139)
It's almost the number one tool in some ways, just because of how many veterans are on there and how many different organizations from the military veteran to vector accelerator to you name them, that's one of the first things they're going to say, hey, like this is what you should do. And so there's a good number of us on there. believe LinkedIn is currently reporting somewhere north of 2 million and some change of just veterans, right? So that is 2 million potential.
Joe Lara (24:23.334)
Yeah, the
Halty (24:50.797)
connections where you can create a community and get into something crazy that seems so far out of reach right now, like a Goldman Sachs, like how do I figure out how to even do my application for Wharton, SpaceX, you name it, whatever that thing is that you're looking for. Like that this is such a great way to do it. Yeah.
Brendan (24:51.875)
Yeah.
Brendan (25:10.518)
It is super helpful.
Joe Lara (25:12.082)
Yeah, the funny thing is with, know, is it social? Yes, with the business twist, right? So it is for purpose. I have a younger son who's in the entertainment industry, music industry, and so he's on LinkedIn, but for his method of connecting is via Instagram direct message. And so he had to adapt to the business. And I think that's really, I guess, the message that I want to leave in people's minds is
if you're going for a traditional type business role or maybe even curious about going towards academia or nonprofit, maybe LinkedIn is a good place to kind of do some initial research. One of the ways that we encourage veterans to take a dive towards networking or even looking at LinkedIn is to, you put it, Brendan, like lead with curiosity. Yeah, you don't have a...
You don't have anything to really offer right now in the early stages at least. You're the one that's looking for a job. So it feels like, what am I doing here? Why am I even trying to reach out? I feel so vulnerable. If you leave with curiosity, so kind of how you laid out, like look for people to build that Venn diagram. The other thing I like to encourage veterans to do is out of all the job descriptions that maybe you're going through on Monster or whatever the website, Indeed, whatever.
Look at the titles of those jobs and drop that into LinkedIn and see who's currently doing that job. Actually see who's doing it. And then just see the list of names and then start doing your search and filter down to veteran and kind of build the Venn diagram from there. I did that for my first attempt at LinkedIn. I did that. There was a job that was actually at Disney and it was in like global war.
Brendan (26:46.274)
Hmm, that's a great piece of advice.
Halty (26:46.489)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Halty (26:57.667)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (27:08.264)
Global terrorism cell or something like that. It was basically like an intel gathering piece for the Disney brand. I thought it was awesome. It's fascinating The person who had the job was like not there on LinkedIn that I could find but the vice president that ran that cell was so I reach out to them and connected and I Felt like you Brandon. I felt ghosted like for three months Until they said man, dude. I'm so sorry
I've been out of the country, I've been off email, I didn't know, let's connect on a phone call and we did. you just never know, man. think you got it, there's a little bit of risk, right? You gotta lean into that unknown and take a chance.
Halty (27:39.065)
Mm-hmm.
Halty (27:53.581)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (27:53.614)
It is the kind of thing that like, if you were going to place a bet or like try and model this as like a financial instrument of some sort, you would be like, okay, the downside risk is essentially zero. Like the worst thing that happens is someone tells me, okay, just like, go fuck yourself. I don't want to talk to you, which is like, that's not going to happen. I mean, and if it does, then your ego is going to get over it. You know, you'll be told no a lot, like in life and business for sure.
Halty (28:09.623)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (28:19.096)
But like the upside potential is that you make a connection and someone ends up landing you a job that you never anticipated that ends up putting you on a different path in life. Like, dude, there's so much upside potential. So it's like, it feels like sort of a no brainer to just put in some time to doing it. The other thing I would say is like, I think people are sort of reticent to do it because they're not sure what the ROI is going to be. And it's, think this is like a time when it can maybe be a little bit difficult to describe, but like,
When more people know that you exist and they know what you're capable of and they want to help you, you're just increasing the surface area of your ability to get lucky. people will think about you for things that they otherwise wouldn't. And so I can't tell you how many times, I can't tell you that the next person you reach out to on LinkedIn is going to be the person that changes your life. What I can tell you is that I have seen literally hundreds and hundreds of veterans tell me,
Halty (28:55.351)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (29:10.318)
man, I just connected with this dude super randomly at a happy hour. I hit him up for a phone call the next week. He introduced me to his cousin who is running this company. Now I'm the COO at that company. It's like, dude, what? And so again, it's like, and I would say two other things that are applicable to this networking conversation. One is like quality is your friend. Like you want good, high quality interactions. don't just want, you want to like make a real impression with someone and then you want to follow up with them and build like an authentic relationship over time.
Halty (29:20.184)
Yes.
Brendan (29:39.63)
But the other thing that I would say is that quantity has its own quality about it. There is a quality aspect of doing a lot. So the more connections that you can make that are authentic and real, et cetera, et cetera, the more opportunity that you'll have. For someone that has 25 cups of coffee, the person that has 50 cups of coffee will have double the amount of luck, with air quotes here, that the person that has 25 conversations will have.
Halty (29:44.697)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (30:06.054)
your message gets so refined as well, right? We talk about branding sometimes and branding sounds like you're a product, but if you think about it, the words you use, how you present yourself, even what you wear, all those things, it's first impressions. That is something that captures people's minds. And then the follow-up, Brandon, like when you make that connection,
Brendan (30:09.154)
Yeah, you get better at it.
Halty (30:09.185)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (30:34.308)
Even if it feels like there was nothing transactional that came out of it, like a tangible result, like, man, I got this awesome lead, I got this thing, it can maybe just be sort of, I know you exist, you now know I exist, you know what I'm looking for, I know what you're looking for, if it comes across my network, I'll definitely think of you. And that's it. Still following up matters. Is that something that sounds like you're nodding your head? Yeah, right.
Halty (30:56.91)
Mm.
Brendan (31:00.046)
I am. Yes, follow up with people, please. So I have a thank you note afterwards. It's gonna take, it's like, I mean, like seriously, like it's gonna take you an extra 30 seconds. It's inconsequential amount of time. Like just say, follow up with an email, say thank you so much for your time. I know you're very busy. I really enjoyed this specific thing that you mentioned. Would love to keep in touch over time and then follow back up with them in three months, six months or a year, whatever it is. I will say over the last like four or five years, I've gotten probably like,
Halty (31:03.225)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (31:04.413)
Please.
Joe Lara (31:09.074)
Right?
Halty (31:09.261)
Yeah, yeah.
Halty (31:18.275)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (31:28.652)
three or four handwritten thank you notes for either interns that we've had at our company or for folks that have come to one of our career conferences and just made an impression or happy hour, something like that. Just a handful of them. I can name every single person that's written me one of those. That's like so next level. You don't have to do that, but if you are looking to make a huge impression, that handwritten note just can't beat it.
Joe Lara (31:31.656)
Hmm.
Halty (31:31.693)
Hmm.
Halty (31:51.649)
Yeah, and that is the immediate value you can provide. Just even thank you for a connection. Like if we were if the three of us were at a networking event together or I just randomly connected with you, kind like the story earlier, randomly connected to one of you and you're like, hey, you need to talk to Joe Laura. Go talk to this guy because I think he's going to help you with that thing that we were talking about. Just follow up and say, hey, Brendan, thank you for the connection to Joe Laura. We had a great conversation and we're moving forward with the project or.
Brendan (32:17.676)
Yes.
Halty (32:19.733)
It didn't really work out, I still really appreciate the fact that you extended your network to me. And that's instant value that you just talked about though is rare. It is so rare that you hear even just a quick little note in LinkedIn, a follow-up.
Joe Lara (32:35.984)
OK, so I kind of want to go back to your story, Brendan, if you don't mind. And something you said, you said a phrase, said golden handcuffs. I wrote it down and I circled it. Can you describe the fear or what that is in a little bit more detail?
Halty (32:40.003)
Mm-hmm.
Halty (32:46.509)
Yeah, dude, right?
Brendan (32:58.082)
Yes, I talked to a vice president at a bank. This was when I was transitioning out. I was trying to figure it out the next step.
talked to this VP at a bank who's like, you know, he's probably five to seven years into his finance career. He's like, pretty senior, dude. It only doesn't get that much more senior than where he was at. I mean, you can become a managing director or there's various levels, whatever. anyway, he's like five to seven years in. I was, I called him because I'm looking for a job. And so I'm like, I'm trying to have one of these networking calls, but I've got this ulterior motive. Of course, it's like, I'm looking for job. And I asked him, I was like, so how do you like investment banking? Like what?
know, what do you like about it?" And he was like, listen to me very carefully. He's like, don't do this. I was like, what? He's like,
Halty (33:39.203)
Yes.
Joe Lara (33:40.434)
HAHAHAHA
Brendan (33:43.342)
He's like do something different. I was like, what makes you say that? in my back of my head. and so he goes on to tell me he's like, well, like look like I live in Manhattan I've got two kids in private schools. I can't transfer them out of these private schools. Like they got to get their good education I've got this country club that I got to go to that my wife like all of her friends are there You know, we've got our apartment whatever he's like I couldn't leave this job even if I wanted to he's like I'm just I'm stuck here because I got these bills and this lifestyle inflation
Joe Lara (33:47.163)
About face.
Halty (33:47.297)
haha
Brendan (34:12.472)
That's one aspect of golden handcuffs. on the call, was kind of like, I'm trying to get into this job here and like, what am supposed to do with this? You know, retrospect, it's like one of those things is like a good flag, right? But that's one aspect of golden handcuffs. The other one I would say is more like structurally, you'll see, we come across this, a lot of our business, the value that we provide is helping companies poach passive talent. So people that are really doing well where they're at.
Halty (34:26.307)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (34:43.19)
We see this with our candidates is like, yeah, I would love to pursue something different, but I've got this equity package that's vesting over a four-year period. And if I stay for another year, then I hit this huge cliff and it'll be like, can your employer do 200K to catch me up and make me whole? Because that's the amount of money I'm about to leave on the table if I jump. it's like, man, this person's really chained to that job. So it just becomes more expensive potentially to move as you get more senior, depending on what the comp structure looks like.
Joe Lara (35:06.033)
Right.
Joe Lara (35:14.63)
Yeah, so one of our board members for Vector Accelerator, Greg, who's also my mentor, I want to say he refers to it as the loop of doom. so there's a lot of people. Gallup does research on this every year and it's employee engagement, just to kind of test the waters and see how much people are really enthralled in their work, like really enjoy the work. So engaged and disengaged. They measure every single year and
one out of three people are engaged, which means two out of three are disengaged. They're in that loop of doom. Maybe if they're fortunate enough, they have a golden handcuff. they're actually, at least they're golden, right? At least there's a happy note there, but does money really buy happiness? That's a whole nother conversation which we're not going to go into. But there's a lot of people that just settle. And what I want to
Brendan (35:57.27)
Yeah. Right.
Halty (36:03.929)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (36:12.23)
get through with that, and we're not talking about military veterans, we're talking about just people in general. They go to high school, if they're lucky enough to choose a career path, and they think they know how to get there, they go to college if they're lucky enough. They pick a degree, how many people do you know that went to college and changed their majors, right? And then they graduated, maybe, and then landed in a job not related to their degree.
Halty (36:16.749)
Mm-hmm.
Halty (36:24.535)
Mm-hmm.
Halty (36:30.936)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (36:41.076)
And why? Because they just needed to start adulting, air quote here, and earn money and just do the thing and buy the house and all the stuff. And then you realize, I might as well do this thing because it pays. I'm decent at it. And I'll be fine. And I'll just suck it up. Veterans, we don't want that for you. I think that's something that all of us on this call are here
Halty (36:44.909)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (37:10.788)
advocating is you could do that. You could land a job, but is it the job? And are you going to settle or do you think maybe this is a stepping stone or a bridge to something greater? I think that's kind what we all want for all veterans. That's really what we're all about here.
Halty (37:17.219)
Yes.
Brendan (37:33.624)
Yeah, I mean, these are good flags. know that you guys have your like five pillars that you teach folks are like, these are the five things that, you know, will lead to satisfaction in a career. That's terrific. I love that framework. I don't make me, you know, spit it from the cup because I'm not as like well rehearsed as you guys, but one of them is money. And so, you know, the problem of having golden handcuffs is a good problem to have in some ways means you get paid enough, right? Money is important, like full stop.
Halty (37:42.937)
Let's do it.
Brendan (37:58.606)
in the military, people don't ask about it. People don't ask for a raise for obvious reasons. We know what each other gets paid. it's very important in a career because you're, again, you have like 4,000 weeks on this earth. By the time you're transitioning out of the military, you've got, you know, 3000 hopefully left and like, you're trading some of that for money because you got to live and eat and you got a family that you got to feed. So money's very important. Better to do higher ROI work, all else being equal. Right. But.
Halty (38:04.985)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (38:26.606)
To your point, finding a great fit is like super, super important. I guess I have like a little bit of a hot take on the topic, which is I read a book. I pretended to read a book rather. I'm a Marine after all. I read the intro and got most of the gist from it. Okay. Or the back cover or something. there's a book called, I think it's called So Good They Can't Ignore You.
Halty (38:33.411)
Get it?
Joe Lara (38:44.728)
was it upside down the whole time.
Halty (38:53.379)
Yeah.
Brendan (38:55.982)
The book's hypothesis is like, told this whole generation of people, do what you're passionate about and then you'll never work a day in your life. And he thought that that was a little bit backwards. And what he actually thought brought people passion was rather that if you do something and you can become good at it and you stick with it until you are good at it, then by virtue of being good at it, you will win more often, which will make you want to work harder, which will make you get better and better at that particular job or role, which will...
Halty (39:02.265)
Hmm.
Brendan (39:24.802)
you it's like a virtuous cycle, right? So you get better at it, you win more, et cetera, et cetera. And so what I would say to folks is like, if you're transitioning out, you're not really sure what you're going to do and you get into your first job, like there's a high likelihood, I think in the first six months, you'd be like, you know, this probably isn't the one like, man, but I am a fan of telling people like, Hey, like think about being patient. Are there skillsets that you're going to build in the interim? That could be valuable to you. If you absolutely know that it's just like not the right one and you got to pop smoke, then of course do your thing. But, I do think that sometimes
Halty (39:39.554)
Hmm.
Brendan (39:53.774)
We have these like rosy ideas of what a career or a job might be like, and it's like, dude, they're all hard. Like, there's probably plenty of parts of being in the military that you guys disliked. and so, you know, try and find what I, what I try and tell people is like, find the nature of work that you can, can be good at. Like for me, like I have like very few skills among them are like, I'm actually like decent at math. That hasn't been super valuable for me, to be honest, but like,
Halty (40:03.128)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (40:22.434)
talking to people on the phone. I'm like, I love doing that. I would do it for free. I do it all day, every day. Like I love that. And I think I'm like, I'm decent at it. Sales, I love sales. I really like the cadence of like closing a deal and like the thrill of the hunt. Like I love that. And like if I was in a job where I was just making spreadsheets or PowerPoints all day, dude, I would be getting killed. And I would just be, I would be so miserable doing it. But I've
Halty (40:38.777)
Hmm.
Brendan (40:49.102)
I found a role in a couple of roles that are at the intersection of sales, relationship management. so for me, it's just like, is such a good weapon to target match.
Joe Lara (41:01.224)
Man, you said a lot of great things there. So you talked about the money piece. And so in reference, there's chapter one right out the gate, things that people are looking for in their careers. And we ask you, there's this exercise, we ask you to really think about it and also share with your spouse. If you have a spouse or significant other, make sure you're on the same page. But then eventually it gets to the...
Halty (41:03.192)
As you
Halty (41:19.033)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (41:25.818)
a portion where we want you to define your values and we're talking about values that you actually live out, not aspire to. So live out would mean maybe loyalty is a thing, maybe camaraderie, who knows? Maybe you're a constant learner and you're always in taking information and reading. But then we also want to look at your strengths. And so we ask you to sort of identify your strengths and talents. And Brandon, you're talking about
Halty (41:36.857)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (41:52.018)
sort of the social aspect to you. You're really good with people and going back and forth. But if we put you in an environment where you're in a cubicle with spreadsheets, you'd probably go crazy. And so, yeah. But there's a veteran out there, as a prior cryptologist and signals intelligence guy, that's heaven. so what's funny is that we're all wired differently. And so to your point,
Brendan (42:01.646)
It would be horrible.
Literally the worst employee on the block.
Joe Lara (42:20.53)
how you're wired matters. And that could also lend itself to finding fulfillment in the job. But also to your earlier point, there's some value in saying yes to the job to meet the needs of, the paycheck, because you're gaining skill sets. You're gaining invaluable repetitions on something that you've probably never done that is transferable to all sorts of businesses and areas of contribution, right? So man, man, you're
Halty (42:36.27)
you
Halty (42:47.553)
Yeah. Yeah.
Brendan (42:48.077)
Yes.
Joe Lara (42:50.386)
You're dropping some good wisdom right here. Appreciate it.
Halty (42:52.121)
And if I can, I would just say that, you know, largely we've, we've placed the most of this conversation in the, the, the, one, one whole half of the listener group is active duty, right? And so it's kind of intuitive for everyone active duty and then like, okay, I should probably go do a LinkedIn and TMV sounds like a really good organization. What was that called? yeah. The military veteran. I'm gonna go check them out. Yes, go do that. And then do this 50 crazy 50 cups of coffee thing and then check out vector maybe and get the love who you work with, love what you do live where you work.
work reasonable hours, make good money and how that fits your life and talk to your significant other about it. But, but, but, the other half we're hoping of the folks listening to this are veterans who are in a job right now and just self-identified. Holy I have the golden handcuffs on my mortgage, the things that my significant other is up to and a couple of other factors are the reason I'm still here at this job X.
Brendan (43:40.472)
Mm.
Halty (43:51.193)
my God, don't freak out. Because everything that we're talking about is applicable to you too. You've done the hardest transition you'll ever do. Now, come through Vector Accelerator, get some structure, and use the exact same skills and tools that we're talking about right now so that you can snap those golden handcuffs and move on, new transition to something else. All you have to do is go back and reignite that community, that network.
that you used a while ago and get it going again and figure out your next step. Don't stay stuck miserable somewhere. Had to throw that in.
Brendan (44:31.106)
Yes, it's just great advice. also always encourage folks to take a really long-term view. You really just can't accomplish whatever. We all have lofty goals for ourselves and ambitions and dreams, and you just can't accomplish them over a short time horizon. It's just not how it works. Can't be a Master Chief in the Navy on your second month in the service, right? All of these things take time.
Halty (44:37.41)
Mm-hmm.
Halty (44:46.646)
Mm-hmm.
Halty (44:53.465)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (44:56.302)
And so when I talk to transitioning veterans, sometimes I'll get asked, like, how do I get into like venture investing or something like that? And I'm like, I, it's one of the hard, it's a hard career path to break into. There's no obvious, like, I can tell you just do this, this and this, and you'll be there. So it's a really difficult question to answer. And I always tell people like, I believe that you can get into this career path. If you are, if it's your goal for the next 20 years, I'm like, I have no doubt that you'll be successful with that. Whether or not you can land that job as like your first job or your next job out of the military that I'm like less sure of just cause like there's a,
Halty (45:24.515)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (45:25.74)
I don't know, I can't promise that, but over a long time horizon, like you can move some mountains. I mean, it just takes a lot of consistent effort.
Halty (45:32.718)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (45:34.088)
What I appreciate about that, and I think we've said it before on other recordings, is you can't compare your chapter one to somebody else's chapter 10. And there are no linear paths to what you're looking at today as far as success. So some of the things that we do inside Vector Accelerators try to help veterans, they themselves define what success looks like. Maybe it's an individual, maybe it's you, Brandon, are the success, the mark of success for somebody.
Brendan (45:44.652)
Yeah, totally.
Joe Lara (46:04.328)
But just like to what? But but to your But to your point like you didn't get where you are directly like an linear path there's so many learnings and ups and downs and and education paths and conversations and people that that Now granny you're driving so you got there based off of a lot of merit, but there's so many variables to get where you are
Brendan (46:04.558)
I should have bigger dreams than that for sure.
Halty (46:07.725)
just got scary.
Halty (46:13.016)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (46:29.704)
And so as a veteran that looks at somebody that maybe appears to be successful in their eyes, you can't say, want that, give it to me now. What you can say is, I want that. What are some of the things I need to consider? Ask questions, get curious, interview people. What are your recommended things I should be reading? Who should I be talking to? What certifications should I get? And just, it's Intel gathering. That's kind of the approach that I take is, man, you're just collecting Intel right now.
Halty (46:46.841)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (46:59.919)
and be curious.
Brendan (47:01.262)
100 % 100 % being curious is critical. I would also encourage folks to Gauge their success not by the outcomes Because there's just a lot of different variables that play into it, but rather by the inputs, right? So like if I'm if my goal is to win the World Series of poker dude if I sit down and I get dealt, know four aces in my hand every time I'm obviously you could tell I'm like a terrible poker player because that's not how they actually do it. But you know if I
Halty (47:13.433)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (47:14.258)
Nice.
Brendan (47:25.838)
If I get an amazing hand every single time, I'm probably going to win a lot, right? Because you're getting the hands. life and business are not finite games. They're infinite games where players will come and go at all times. People start with different chip amounts, You might have a trust fund with a lot, and I'm coming from a more difficult situation.
Halty (47:40.185)
Hmm.
Halty (47:44.611)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (47:50.39)
The rules and the scoreboard are ambiguous. Who actually knows what the real scoreboard is? It's not money. Is it happiness? Like, I don't even know. We have no definition for it. And so they're not finite games. They're infinite games. And so you cannot measure yourself based on something that has so many of these exogenous shocks that are possible. Meaning like, okay, like I'm in financial services. I'm killing it. I'm doing really well. But then like the 08 financial crisis happens and my firm is like Lehman Brothers and it goes out of business. It's like, dude, like
Halty (48:17.133)
Yeah.
Brendan (48:18.828)
made all the right decisions, did all the things, built the skillset and still now I'm at this spot where I got to start over. So, but like if you measure success based on the level of effort that you're putting in, your learnings and your own personal development, then over a really long time horizon, like it is going to.
Halty (48:36.792)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (48:36.998)
Yeah, love that call out to Simon Sinek, Infinite Game. I think that's something that, least I personally have come to realize, is even though I'm in a job that I love and I'm surrounded by people that love me back and I love them and I found my tribes, I say tribes plural, I still haven't arrived. I am still playing the game. And I think that's encouraging. It's this ongoing thing.
this growth mindset, again, Carol DeWitt, something else, another good book. There's so many ways to approach this that veterans, it almost feels linear if you're active duty. I just need to get a job, linear, boom, check in the box. It's not. think if that's probably, you had to summarize this conversation, it's not linear.
Halty (49:27.127)
Mm. Mm-hmm.
Brendan (49:28.27)
Civilian careers are very non-linear. The military, again, I had a major in the Marine Corps tell me, if you show up right time, right place, right uniform, 70 % of the time, you're probably going to make major in the Marine Corps. I was like, all right, that's like, you know, feels underwhelming. Like, there should be more to it, but okay. But like, but like in the, the civilian world, it's not like that. Like sometimes you'll take a job and it'll be like a bad fit. And like, you're not growing as much as you thought you would and they hire someone above you. And you're like, damn, like I thought that promotion was going to be mine.
Joe Lara (49:43.132)
Yes! Pop my fist!
Halty (49:49.113)
Brendan (49:58.124)
And then you go to the next job and it's just like a rocket ship and the company itself is like, there's a veteran who I know who lives in New York, went to work at a firm, which is a payments company. Like right when he got out in like a great role, when they were somewhat small team and the company was just a rocket ship. I mean, he hit it at the right time, kept showing up and like putting in the work and doing good work and making good relationships. And he ended up on this rocket ship trajectory. And it's like, he was right time, right place, man. so that one was.
Halty (50:24.483)
Mm-hmm.
Brendan (50:26.642)
a stepwise change in his career, but that's not always going to be the case.
Joe Lara (50:35.228)
Yeah. And then one more point before we land the plane here in this conversation. It's been a great conversation, and I appreciate it so much. One other point, too, for those that are veterans that are actually in jobs and maybe, like Altice said, you just like, my gosh, I just, I'm self-identifying now. I just realized.
Halty (50:41.389)
Yeah.
Brendan (50:42.926)
Thank you guys.
Halty (50:52.033)
I just realized, yeah.
Joe Lara (50:56.936)
There's older studies that kind of show that veterans are just kind of tolerating stuff for a while, but then eventually they punch out, but they don't know why they punched out. They just kind of left maybe even a sense of defeat like, man, I don't feel like I belong. I feel like I'm just going to leave my job. Vector can help with that. Another thing I would say that Vector can do is also sort of be this map to orient yourself and sort of take an inventory, meaning Vector can help you clarify
Halty (51:12.633)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (51:26.216)
your strengths, your values, because you're writing it. We're not telling you what they are. You're documenting it. You're writing it out and we guide you through that process. And then you can sit and look at the map, which is maybe the current role you're in and the company and the organization saying, you know what? This is a good place. I actually am not hitting on all cylinders though. I have been playing too reserved. I've been holding back. I think I need to maybe grow relationships within the organization and maybe expand on
Halty (51:48.898)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (51:55.888)
figuring out how I can contribute more, how I can be myself more and not just settle. So there's so many layers to this conversation and I don't want people or business people hearing, man, Vector's gonna make me lose my veterans. I don't want my veterans to take this course. No, no, no. It can actually help thrive and bring them some excitement and clarity. Yeah, yeah.
Halty (52:16.953)
100%.
Yeah. And so.
Brendan (52:19.982)
For sure. mean, it sounds like it's just such a terrific program you guys have put together. You should be very proud. It's amazing.
Joe Lara (52:23.794)
Thanks man.
Halty (52:24.921)
Thank you. Yeah. And so when you get done doing that, part of the reason we're having Brendan on is not only just have a great story, not only a veteran, like probably most of the listeners, but also the product that he's now provided the market has huge value. So if you can talk about some of ways you provide value through the military veteran, because if you just like luck into it, which we don't want anymore, we want you to go seek it out, like let them know, like all the different ways there's podcasts, there's newsletter and some of the things you're providing in there.
Brendan (52:55.502)
Yeah, I'm hopeful that we can be helpful to as many of the veterans that are listening as possible. We do a few things that I think are pretty high ROI. We do these in-person networking events across the country. So they range from like these smaller events where we're doing like happy hours, generally like 50 to 100 or 120 people. Great place to come meet some like-minded folks. Like come chop it up. I promise you'll have a good time. It's very difficult to have a bad time when you get like an awesome group of veterans in the same room. Like, you know, the deck is stacked in your favor.
Halty (53:24.249)
for sure.
Brendan (53:25.73)
So come to those events. You'll make some new friends, new connections in your hometown. We do them all across the country, East coast, West coast, everywhere in between. Come to the in-person happy hours. If you're interested in startups, we host the Military Veterans Startup Conference in San Francisco in conjunction with Context Ventures. That event draws like 450 or 500 folks every year. This year is February 5th and 6th. So you can check out milvets startups.com. It's also on our website at the milvet.org.
That's one of bigger events that we put on. draw like probably 80 % of the veteran venture capitalists in America come to that event. A bunch of unicorn founders all the way back to like folks like me who didn't really know what they were doing and had some ideas but needed some help. And then there's early stage operators, folks that are like looking for jobs, there are companies that are hiring, et cetera, et cetera. So the Military Veterans Startup Conference is terrific. You can check out our job board at the milvette.org slash careers. We have a bunch of roles. They're oftentimes a good fit for folks that are
maybe a little bit deeper into their business careers, have like, you know, two or three to like 20 or 30 years of experience. We do get some more entry level roles as well. So check them out. You can subscribe to the newsletter. That's kind of the best way to stay up to date on what we're doing, where we're going for the happy hours, what roles we have open. We put out a lot of content, try and be useful. I post a lot on LinkedIn. If you're off social media, good for you. Don't go back, especially not just for these posts. They're not that valuable. But like,
Halty (54:51.565)
Ha
Brendan (54:53.848)
So we put out LinkedIn posts. We have a podcast called the MilVette Podcast. We had Halty on it talking about the Honor Foundation, which that episode will drop in a couple of weeks here. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Other than that, if we can be of service to you in some way, please reach out. We'd love to be helpful.
Halty (55:11.427)
Yeah, and I'd also really like to highlight the newsletter. I was really impressed by the amount of just other goodness that's in there that helped me really kind of as I was thinking through, like putting myself back in the shoes of being a transitioning Marine, right? Soldier, sailor, Edmund Marine, it's all agnostic guardian. Don't want to forget those guys, guys and gals. There's a ton of value in there. So going over to the website real quick and just signing up for that newsletter is fully worth your time because then you're staying off social media, like if that's who you are.
and the goodness is coming into your inbox and there's great opportunities in
Brendan (55:44.846)
Thank you, Halty. Yeah, we try and include stuff just from around the community. So if there's an event we think is going be helpful for folks, we'll give it a plug. The more we can help people and provide value, the better for everybody.
Halty (55:49.027)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (55:52.689)
Thank
Halty (55:57.731)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (55:59.132)
Dude, that was awesome. Brandon, I feel like we could have done a Joe Rogan three hour probably with you, man. It just kept going and going and going. So easy to talk to you and just appreciate hearing your story. First of all, thank you for sharing that journey and then all about what you're doing in your current role with your current group, your current tribe. It's just been a pleasure. If there's anything we can do for you, just reach out and we'll pick up the phone for sure.
Halty (56:09.529)
Yeah.
Brendan (56:26.926)
Thank you. You guys keep doing the good work that you're doing. I'm such a fan of your organization. I'm really grateful for the work that you're doing. Like truly, my brother is a special operator. He's going to end up retiring after 20 years. Like, I'm just a fan. What can I say?
Joe Lara (56:39.346)
Awesome.
Halty (56:39.417)
Hell yeah. Great episode. All right, fellas, until next time.
Brendan (56:44.046)
Cool, thanks guys. See you.
Joe Lara (56:44.146)
Peace.
Halty (56:46.147)
Did it. Hell yeah.
Joe Lara (56:49.485)
he left.
Halty (56:50.361)
Okay, let me hit a stopper.
