Scott Schimmel (00:00.285)
to prep and that's that's by design. We just want this. The title would be like fireside chat. So we really intend to have like a thoughtful conversation that's as real as if we're just actually talking. So that's the point. And I think when people like prep and rehearse, then it actually dilutes that sense, that vibe. Small, small little tips like again, if you see any Internet latency, don't worry. Just keep going. And then
A real simple tip is actually to look at your camera, not the faces.
Scott Schimmel (00:36.643)
I know. And then do you have any questions?
Sean Nakao (00:36.692)
You
Sean Nakao (00:41.14)
Uh, no, no, hopefully what I sent you helps and, uh, sorry, it was a little bit late. I looked at the form, but I was more focused on the tech aspects of things. And then I was like, Oh, need for me. I was like, yeah.
Scott Schimmel (00:48.867)
Mmm.
Yeah, no worries. That's actually helpful feedback so we know to make to call it out.
Sean Nakao (00:56.243)
Yeah, I was just looking at the tech stuff and I didn't keep going down.
Scott Schimmel (01:01.676)
Here we go. All right, Sean, first of all, nice to have you here on the Vector Accelerator podcast. And I first saw you, heard about you when I went to the graduation for the Honor Foundation's Group 100, which was super cool to see you up there. And for me to be in the room, Joe, I can't remember if you were there. I don't think you were, but it felt like you were because we've, know.
Sean Nakao (01:02.546)
Okay.
Scott Schimmel (01:25.954)
You and I have been around the Honor Foundation since the beginning. So 100 groups, now there's like 105, 106 groups that have graduated. That's thousands of people that have been through this. And I got to hear you speak and I was not just impressed by your background and who you are, but also the kind of person that you are. And we got to chat a little bit after that. So it was like, we got to get Sean on the show. so one, welcome, greetings. And I'd love to just kickstart by hearing from you, Sean, like.
highs and lows of transition. You're going through it currently. Just love to know like what's top of mind for you? What sucks about transition and what's so far pretty awesome.
Sean Nakao (02:03.038)
Yeah, it's a calm like wounds and scars, right? You get scars over time, but you have current wounds. have a current wound. I found out yesterday that I did not get selected for the first job I applied for. So I retire, like I my ceremony here in a couple of weeks, paychecks will end in a couple of months. And so, you know, aggressively looking for jobs and.
Scott Schimmel (02:16.896)
yeah.
Sean Nakao (02:30.111)
did all my research, everything I learned about, had some inside baseball, and it was with a big defense contractor. And I was excited to be a part of it. And I went through the process and it was lengthy, about a month long process. And I just got the email yesterday saying, we picked somebody else. That hurt, that hurt, like they hit me right in the chest and.
Scott Schimmel (02:50.539)
Ugh.
Joe Lara (02:51.437)
man.
Sean Nakao (02:57.609)
I'm still feeling it today. It's bit of a wound. My initial reaction was, okay, that sucks, move on. But in reality, what I did was I need to clear my head. So I like, I just decided to hop on the tonal behind me and do a little workout. Turns out I did too much of a workout and I laid on the ground for about an hour and cold. Throw up. I was like, I haven't I haven't thrown up after workout and
Joe Lara (03:18.67)
Hahaha
Joe Lara (03:22.201)
no.
Sean Nakao (03:26.246)
in years and I was like, what did I just do? So subconsciously, like I was punishing myself. And so I sat and thought about it for a while after that. And I was like, you know what? This is really the first time in my professional career that I've been rejected. Everything I've ever tried to do in my career, in my life. mean, even 1994 applying for Sam Goody, you know, the music store, I got accepted, you know.
Joe Lara (03:27.277)
Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (03:32.898)
Hmm.
Joe Lara (03:43.34)
Hmm.
Scott Schimmel (03:52.45)
Goody got it.
Joe Lara (03:52.771)
wow.
Sean Nakao (03:54.321)
you know, joining the Marine Corps, I got the job. and then everything in the Marine Corps, I always got the job, always got the promotion. and so, this one hurt or this one's this, this one's stung, and it still does. so I'm just trying to go back to, you know, the stuff that I learned through the Honor Foundation about the process, and, and took some notes and like, what can I learn from it? So before we started this podcast, I...
shot a note to the hiring manager and all the people I interviewed with and thank them for the opportunity and said, hey, I'm a constant learner. So if you can give me any critiques about things you didn't like in my resume or things that I can expand upon or details that are missing or just the interview process, how did I do? Give me some feedback. And I'm open to critical feedback as well because the next interview that I do, I want it to be better.
Scott Schimmel (04:42.786)
Good for you.
Sean Nakao (04:50.581)
But at the same time, I'm pursuing other options. So, you know, big picture wise, this isn't the only thing that I'm ever gonna do. That wasn't the one thing on the plate. But I had to kind of realize that this isn't it. Okay, move on to the next thing. And my wife is the one that's probably a little bit more stressed out than I am. She's thinking about, you know, paychecks, some other things, and we have a great quality life, you know, and a great family.
And she just wants to make sure we can maintain that. And I was like, we can, easy day. I've got a great financial planner. But it's hard because she saw that I had applied for one thing and I hadn't applied anywhere else. I hadn't had put a single application. And she was like, you're putting all your eggs in one basket. And what I told her is that I'm a commitment person. I committed to you, right? When we started dating and I wasn't dating around and I could never juggle girlfriends.
Even when I was single, was like, I don't know how to do this. Apply it one place and apply it another place and bounce back and forth. I'm kind of an all in person and I'm committed. So now I'm moving on to the next thing and moving on the next thing from there. So I am branching out a bit more now and exploring different opportunities and seeing what's out there and going back to my network and expanding my network.
Scott Schimmel (05:50.274)
you
Sean Nakao (06:17.98)
It's good. Just yesterday, like after I got up off the floor and threw up, I got a text from a Colonel who's retiring. was like, hey Sean, me your resume. I got a guy at this company who I've been talking to. He's looking for a guy like you. I'm like, great, I'll send you my resume. But can you put me in contact with him? Because I like to talk to him. And we'll just have a chat and see what's going on from there. So it's good. I'm trying to use the lessons that I've learned.
Joe Lara (06:39.363)
Yeah.
Sean Nakao (06:46.973)
Yeah, it's still a wound right now. But I still feel a little pit in the back of my throat, in my chest, from rejection.
Scott Schimmel (06:51.201)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (06:55.726)
Scott, when I met, worked with Sean and the group of veterans inside the Honor Foundation, maybe it was a couple of months ago, and we talked about scars and wounds. And so for those that are, it's kind of self-described, but it's obvious. However, when we look at our past, and that's part of the work inside Vector Accelerators, reflecting, looking at your past, there might be some things that are scars, meaning events that occurred in your life.
You never want to have them happen again, but you look back and there were lessons learned. Maybe it's resilience. Maybe it's you realize a strength of talent that you didn't have until that thing occurred. Maybe you saw a characteristic trait show up in your own life that mimics somebody that you admire, like a grandfather or somebody who raised you or something like that. those are scars. And then there's wounds. And these are things that
you're still recovering from. You're still trying to figure out the feeling and address it and you're not quite sure what to do. And so you may jump on rigorous workout and make yourself puke at the end, know? I don't know, but it's challenging. And so first of all, Sean, dude, thank you for sharing that, because I know exactly what that feels like. Scott, I don't know if you ever replied and...
Scott Schimmel (08:18.402)
I've been fired like seven times. So I don't know if that's better or worse, but I can relate.
Sean Nakao (08:20.52)
Ha ha ha ha.
Joe Lara (08:24.152)
We've all felt some sort of rejection and so Sean, if this is your first, wow. Welcome to the club. But it's a real thing. how you recover though, I mean, it sounds like you're already starting to think about how to move forward, how to get past it. So good on you, man.
Scott Schimmel (08:28.704)
Yeah. Welcome to the club.
Sean Nakao (08:44.661)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a fine balance between like what I've learned over the, you know, last couple years, years and years is how we feel and how we act and how we think are different. and so, my actions don't necessarily match my feelings right now. So, I'm taking further on steps. I can rationalize what's going on and move on. feelings wise, did I really want to send an email to some people who just rejected me? No, I didn't want to send an email to them, but logically I needed to.
cause I need to continue to learn. and that was one job in one business that has, you know, I think they have fit 30,000 employees, right? there's other opportunities there. So let's not be, let's go full scorched earth and my feelings, and say, screw you guys and moving on. so, it's just the balancing of those. Like what, what am I feeling? What am I thinking? And what am I going to do? So, and acknowledging the feelings and, owning it.
hopefully not through stupid workouts, but owning it and moving on.
Scott Schimmel (09:47.596)
Did you write in that email by the way? Like, hey, PS, give me that guy's address, the guy that beat me up.
Sean Nakao (09:51.54)
No.
Scott Schimmel (09:54.391)
Well, what you're what you're modeling, I think, is a bunch of things, obviously, vulnerability, humility. But we have this kind of broader framework that's informed, certainly vector accelerator. It's this idea of the concept of hope and hope being more than just like being optimistic, which you are optimistic from what it sounds like. Like tomorrow is going to be better and it's going to be OK. Like that's optimism. But hope and there's there's great research and science behind it.
That hope is the sense that tomorrow will be better and I am going to make it better. Like I'm going to do things. And I wonder if you can speak to your experience in the Honor Foundation. I think you already are. But the things that you've been learning already in this transition process to do like the prime example is you wrote that email and you don't know what that yields. Hopefully that just yields positive relationships with them. Hopefully there's maybe some insight that you have your next interview.
but it might also down the road for the next few years yield great relationships that turn into a job that's even better. talk to me about like what you're learning about how to kind of navigate when you get these roadblocks setbacks like, and how have you learned that inside the Honor Foundation?
Sean Nakao (11:10.29)
Yeah. So, I thought for a while that, and I still believe it, that the first phase, phase one, right. Discovering you, which is really a vector accelerators about right is, was, was the thing that was the most transformative for me. and I don't say things like things are life changing lately, but it truly did. being introspective and thinking about me, truly helped, not being selfish about it, but.
We say we, we don't say I, we don't give ourselves credit for things. And I think it was with Chris Lord in one of the sessions he did with him, you know, we did some stuff in a homework assignment and wrote some stuff down in our book. And, you he asked a simple question. He's like, okay. He's like, what roles do you play? I think it was the questions like what roles do you play? And he asked the question of the group was like, how many of you wrote down roles that were who you were in the military?
and didn't write down anything else. And I was like, okay, I wrote down father and husband on mine, but they were the last things that I wrote because I was still thinking. But I wrote down, you know, leader, change agent, guy who gets shit done. And it was all about work. And so he, yeah, he just brought it up. And he was like, is that you, right? Or is that the role that you played at work?
Joe Lara (12:27.746)
Yeah.
It's all military speak, yeah, military talk.
Sean Nakao (12:40.169)
So it of forced me to kind of go back and think about me. And actually Joe, one of the things that you did, one of the questions you asked us or the tasks you gave us during your session, you asked us to call friends, family members and ask them what they love about us. And extremely awkward to do.
Joe Lara (13:01.703)
It is, right? It's like, yeah.
Sean Nakao (13:04.946)
Yep, so I cheated and I called the guy who had done THF before, he's an alum, and I called him and I said, hey, what, I think you called me last year and asked me this question, I don't quite remember, I was like, but I'm gonna ask you this question, he was like, I know exactly what you're talking about, and he just laid it on me. And then some other guys that I asked who hadn't gone through the program yet, and I told them, like, trust me, this is gonna be more awkward for me than it is for you.
Scott Schimmel (13:22.242)
You
Joe Lara (13:25.934)
this.
Scott Schimmel (13:27.554)
You
Scott Schimmel (13:31.787)
Yeah
Sean Nakao (13:32.853)
And I tried to them as much face to face as I could. was like, tell me what you love about me. I'm sitting with a notebook. Like, yep. And what that did for me was it helped me identify some of my strengths that I didn't necessarily see in myself. It wasn't that that wasn't there and I recognize it, but it really explained it to me.
Joe Lara (13:39.394)
Look me in the eyes as you say it.
Sean Nakao (14:02.462)
you know, in their colloquial terms, like I'm a homer for the team. It's like, I'm committed, I'm all in for the team. And I made my teammates feel like family. I'm like, yeah, I like, like I build relationships. That's, that's me, right? A legacy together, silly tattoos, right? Those types of things we all did together. And I was like, okay, that's, that's part of me and helped me develop my why. So, so that exercise and you know, Chris Lord, you know, forcing us to think about ourselves and
Scott Schimmel (14:20.258)
.
Sean Nakao (14:30.581)
you know, Halty saying, you know, you got to dive in. I've never done anything half-assed in my life. So this was just another thing I'm going to dive fully into and, and it felt good. And then moving on to those tangible things that you do with that information in phase two and phase three, know, developing your toolbox and then, you know, exercising it. That's really where, you know, Hey, I do have to send this email back out and I do have to do my research.
And things like networking the last line on my email was like hey while this didn't work out for this opportunity I hope that I you will consider me part of your network now will reach out to me if you ever need anything for me or my network So I'm trying to offer something back to them even though they just told me no again thinking and feelings aren't the same thing But my actions were the right thing so It was it was a maturing process, but it was also
Okay, I'm moving on to this next step. And while I have a board of directors that I can lean on and talk to about anything, starting with my wife to my dad and my friends, I can talk them about anything and they'll provide some good advice, some bad advice, but at the same time I can lean on them, it's up to me. And I have to take the action and I feel like I got the tools to do that. So.
Scott Schimmel (15:42.722)
you
Sean Nakao (15:57.973)
It truly was transformative and every little thing that happened during those things was great. Scott, I interrupted you at the reception, you know, when we did the holiday party after the graduation, you were talking to a guy who had done our entrepreneur panel. And he said something that, I mean, it was a one-liner that stuck with me. It was leading with influence, vice leading with authority. And I was like, whew.
And I thought about it for days and days after that, I wrote it down. just kept staring at this thing in my notebook. didn't write anything. I just kept staring at it. I was like, leading with influence versus leading with authority. Man, Dave, who's never served in the military, does he think that the military only leads with authority? And that's not the case, right? He was just saying that there's people who believe that military lead with authority only.
As an enlisted man a joke and you know relate to this as an enlisted man I don't get to make the final decision a lot of times get to make you know decisions a fair amount but as a listen man, I had to provide recommendations So I had to influence I was like I've been leading with influence my entire life It didn't not just when I was in e1, right all the way up to e9 like that entire time of believe influence my kids
I don't care how many times I tell them to do something. It's not my authority. It's, you know, because their bathroom is still dirty. I just saw it. But like, how can I influence them to do the right things? So that really hit me. again, I apologize, Scott, for interrupting you at the graduation. You're having a good conversation with him. But I just had to tell him that. Like, that really stuck with me. There was so many of those little things throughout that three months that
Scott Schimmel (17:25.881)
You
Scott Schimmel (17:36.276)
Not at all.
Sean Nakao (17:48.585)
I mean, I filled up a notebook and a half of just my own thoughts and you know, somebody wrote something or said something that they might not have thought was impactful, but hit me and the rest of my cohort members as well. We talked about things all the time. Like, do you hear what he said? Like, Ooh, Ooh, that's good. So yeah, that was, those were my experiences and it was, it was great. And it's helped me in like, while I'm just beginning my
my process, like I'm right on that cusp of becoming a civilian. It's, I'm putting those things into practice now and I couldn't be more thankful for that opportunity. And it was, it was fantastic.
Scott Schimmel (18:30.626)
besides not getting the job, the first job, can you think of something that's been, that you categorize as a failure of yours through transition so far? Or is there something that if you hadn't gone through the Honor Foundation, that you would have just stumbled at? We're kind of like fascinated by transition fails and failures.
Sean Nakao (18:52.309)
Yeah, it was a clear failure for me about a month ago. There was a chief warrant officer that's retiring right around the same time I am actually retired two weeks ago. And he came by and he was like, Hey man, I was like, how's your how's your stuff going? He was like, I'm doing good. I just finished my final physical. And I'm like, final physical. I was like, what else are you doing?
And he's telling me about all the things that he needed to do to get out of the Marine Corps. And I was focused on what I was going to do after the Marine Corps. So I was on my 78th cup of coffee, I think at the time, I'm talking to people. Yeah. I'm like, I'm all over the place thinking about what's, what's going to happen after the Marine Corps and functionally, I just didn't do some of the things that needed to actually the Marine Corps.
Joe Lara (19:34.286)
78.
Scott Schimmel (19:44.802)
Whoops.
Joe Lara (19:46.872)
Whoops.
Sean Nakao (19:47.637)
Like turns out you need to do stuff to get your DD-214. And I had kind of just been like blindsided by it. So while it seems linear as a process, you know, from the day you joined to the day you get out, it seems linear. Like there's going to be a day after day after day. There's like branches that kind of keep going, you know, parallel to those things. And, and even though, you know, the fanciest charts and spreadsheets in the world will show you all these things, but I didn't see it.
Joe Lara (19:51.128)
Yeah.
Sean Nakao (20:16.244)
I didn't see it until the thrust of my face and I thank that chief warrant officer every day for telling me about that. Funny enough, he was our personnel officer who's also from Hawaii, so that's why we were just chatting and I'm like, hey, you should have told me about that earlier. But that was on me. And so that was failure. And then I've had to scramble the last like 20 some odd working days in between Christmas and New Year's.
to get things done like my final physical and get the paperwork done, turn in any last minute equipment I have and check out with people and get all the paperwork I need so I can go get my D214 at the end of the month. And I'm just now at the phase right now where I'm like, okay, all that stuff is good. Next week is working on some final things for my organization. And then, you know,
doing the final planning for the retirement ceremony, making the plans for who's getting picked up at the airport and when, and who's going to drive what cars and how they're getting on base. And I can work on those things now, but yeah, that was a failure of mine. I was so focused on what I was going to do after the Marine Corps that I wasn't focused on what I need to do to actually leave the Marine Corps. But on a good note, the reason why I was able to focus on life after the Marine Corps was my command was phenomenal, is phenomenal.
I did a little bit of the planning to set this up. So my replacement came in in the summertime. so we kind of, you know, sat side by side for a bit. and you know, I was always available to him to help him out with whatever he needed, but I was able to focus on my transition. so I took control of that to a degree, but my command gave me time. And because of that time and nobody was hounding me on things, that's when I was thinking what's going to happen in the spring.
You know, what's going to, and I have an easy thing. I'm not moving. So I'm staying in Southern California. I don't have to move houses. So like that stress is gone, but because that stress was gone, I didn't think about anything else except for life after the Marine Corps. So, um, yeah, that, that, that, uh, that would hit me in the face, uh, just before Christmas. So I had to scramble a little bit.
Scott Schimmel (22:28.865)
haha
Scott Schimmel (22:35.853)
Tell me, so you're obviously someone who goes all in and you said that about transition. I'd love to hear, think about someone that's listening that maybe they transition already and they're still kind of feeling like a little bit, a little bit lost or a little bit like I haven't totally found my way yet or someone's listening who's like going through it right now. And this idea of you talking about first phase for THF being all about you and the self discovery, that's what Vector
is all about. It's all essentially the first phase of THF, just repackaged to be a self-guided course online. What's your kind of your case for that? The doing the introspective work. And you might even think about someone who's like, I just don't think that's necessary. So why would you say it's important?
Sean Nakao (23:28.164)
there's a lot of people in the military, that felt like they had no control over their life. I didn't feel that way. felt like I had complete control of my life in the military. I say complete most, most control of my life. And I took initiative to do what I wanted to do. nobody had to tell me, you know, what my built description was and what job I was going to take. Cause I was going to show up there and I was going to do what I thought needed to get done. that took years to develop, but there's a lot of people that, know, in the service felt like.
and feel like that they're an employee. They're, you know, they bought into the culture and some other things and they got to be, they're going to be told what to do and that's who they are. And I have a friend who's, who's been retired for about a year and he's working in a job that he does not like. And he complains about it every single day. And he had a soft background. I told him like, dude, you need to go to the like.
still try to sign up for THF. You can still do that. And then, and then once I heard about Vector, I'm like, go sign up for Vector. And what I told him was you're obviously not happy, but you don't know why you're not happy. Other than you saying things like, hate people. I was like, if you actually hate people, maybe you shouldn't work in a thing that causes like work in a business that requires you to have eight zoom meetings a day with people you don't like. So.
So he hasn't really identified what he likes and dislikes yet and what motivates him and what drives him to get out of bed in the morning. And because when he was in the Marine Corps, he was 100 % all in. And I wanna see him successful. On the flip side of that, I mean, that guy retired with like 20 some odd years of service. On the flip side of that, young Marines that are getting out and they're gonna use their GI bill and go to college.
And it's the same discussion I have with my son. What do you want to do? What do you want to do with that? It's like, I'm going to go live with my parents and I'm going to go get a degree. I'm like, what are you going to study? Well, I don't know. I'm just going to do my gen ed stuff. I'm like that. Okay. Okay. And I know Scott's near dude, your heart with you school. I was like, but okay. How, what if you could do something to help you figure out what interests you? What, what drives you a little bit and you know, find that clarity.
Sean Nakao (25:48.637)
and you can pick the right studies. You spend a few weeks, five or so weeks, self-paced, going through Vector Accelerator or signing up for THF, you have solid background, going through those things to find a little bit of that clarity to help you write your own next chapter and vice feeling like the next chapter is I have to do this. I retired after 20 years in the military and I need to work defense contracting or something because I don't want to throw away.
20 years of experience. I mean, I've had those thoughts as well. But it's like, don't throw away that experience. It's like, I don't want to start over from scratch again. I mean, everybody's starting over from scratch in a way. But you're not starting over from scratch. You still have all those experiences, leadership experiences, managerial experiences, administrative, know, logistics, any of those things. I don't care what you did. You have experiences that can relate. I have a...
a young E3 who's getting out of the Marine Corps and I love the guy and I'm beating him up to do vector accelerator. I'm like, dude, you gotta get in here and you gotta do this thing because you're gonna go home, live with your parents and you're going to go to college. I want you to study the thing that interests you. Because if you study the thing that interests you, you'll actually be engaged in it. And then maybe that leads to a career and not just doing gap analysis of
Scott Schimmel (27:13.419)
Yeah.
Sean Nakao (27:14.356)
I want this job, so I have to do this class. I mean, that's a method. That's great. But why do you want that job? And I want them to know why they want that job and do some things. It took me 44 years of my life before I got a college degree. I was not interested in college, did not care about it. And then as I got close to retirement a few years ago, I had a friend who said, just get your degree so it's not a, it's.
Scott Schimmel (27:16.598)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Schimmel (27:30.198)
Hmm. Wow.
Sean Nakao (27:43.517)
It's not something that somebody can hold against you. And I kind of lucked into this degree path of studying organizational leadership. And I was like, this is awesome. This is like, I was enjoying, you know, going to class. was enjoying the studies. I was enjoying the writing. I was enjoying the journaling that was associated with it. I'm like, this is great. So much so that I kept going and did, you know, did a master's in strategic leadership because it was great. And I'm a problem to pursue.
I'll probably pursue a doctorate in it later. Not because I think I can get a job with it, because I enjoy it. And I stumbled upon that. And I don't want other people to stumble upon things, like be purposeful about it. And I give the other guy who told me to go to college and he went to the same college a ton of credit because he forced, guilt-tripped, peer-pressured me into it. But it was great. So I want other people to be purposeful in their actions.
Scott Schimmel (28:35.157)
Ha ha.
Sean Nakao (28:41.077)
and do things and it's the same thing with my children. My son's a senior in high school. He's getting ready to go to college. We spent a group of money on college applications and so admissions are slowly trickling in and I don't want him focused on if I go to this school with this degree, I can likely get this job and the differences. I mean, he literally told me this a couple days ago. If I go to this school with this degree and I get the same job as this school, this school has an average salary of $6,000 more a year.
I'm like, okay, that's a metric, but is that what you want to do? Like, so let's, let's, let's do some research on, that career. And is that what interests you? this weekend, cause I just got the book, strength based parenting. so he and my daughter will be taking tests on their Clifton strengths. and I'm going to guide them through their Clifton strengths so that my daughter who's a freshman in high school can kind of take a path. then my son.
Scott Schimmel (29:13.73)
Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (29:27.81)
Nice.
Scott Schimmel (29:36.673)
Awesome.
Sean Nakao (29:40.723)
as he's choosing what college he goes to and what he wants to do next, he has a, he's a better idea. And it's the same thing for veterans, right? Going from high school to college or high school to work, it's a transition. Leaving the military and joining the civilian sector is a transition. So I want my kids to achieve clarity and any service member deserves that clarity as well. And I guess that's my testimonial, like why I tell people to jump in with both feet.
Scott Schimmel (30:09.378)
Well, it's obviously easy for us to say that you're gonna be fine, but I think I can speak at least for me and Joe and probably every listener to this. You're not only easy resume, your gumption to keep going, your intelligence being well-spoken, but particularly your humility and the quest to discover who you are and what you want. Those are all ingredients that we trust, not just because we think those are nice ideas, but because we've trusted and seen that in
hundreds and hundreds of people have gone through THF in the first phase and gotten clarity. We've seen the fruit of that over the years. if you, over the next couple of days, you're just still kind of feeling that pit in your stomach. If you need to borrow any sort of hope or optimism from us, you've got it. So we've got it for you. And Joe, I just want to give you a chance. final words as we wrap up?
Joe Lara (31:01.614)
I think it's been awesome to hear Sean's story. I'm listening for themes now. And I think, I don't know when I started listening for themes, how many years now, but Sean, there are people that surround you and you didn't transition alone and you're still in the process of transitioning and figuring out what's next. But you talked about the sworn officer, you talked about your board of directors, you talked about the person you called.
to get another perspective of who you are and the best version of you. You weren't in a cubicle trying to think about a linear plan to transition and I'm gonna apply here and it's gonna be great and awesome. It's not a linear path. Your life was never a linear path. This isn't either. And you're having these frequent touch points with people. And I think that's where Vector Accelerator.
really thrives is it's self-reflective work. So you're looking sort of inward and then you're bouncing it off other people sharing it outward and then and then you're dreaming and leaning forward. It's pretty remarkable work. It's hard work, but I just want to say thank you for for trusting it and doing it and Encouraging others. I mean, I think that's that's really what we want is to help as many people as possible Scott's been on this journey for a lot longer than I have
Gosh, dude, I'm trying to catch up to you. I don't think I ever will, but it's just really cool. So thank you, Sean, for sharing that journey with us.
Sean Nakao (32:32.853)
Yeah, I mean, I've enrolled in Vector Accelerator as well. And one, for two reasons. The first reason is I don't want to tell anybody something that I haven't done or experienced. And while I did THF phase one, I want to see this program. And so I can articulate it better to people through my own experiences through that. So while I have experiences with THF and less far, they're so similar.
Scott Schimmel (32:36.706)
Nice.
Joe Lara (32:54.401)
Awesome.
Sean Nakao (33:01.14)
I'm like laughing, but I'm also answering questions differently. So the second part is how have I changed to like, you know, from phase one back in September to today, to, you know, January, 2025, like I'm, as I go through it, I'm thoughtfully writing things down and I'm going back to my other book afterwards. like, ooh, things have changed for me. I recognize the question, but my responses are different.
Scott Schimmel (33:24.93)
Good night.
Joe Lara (33:26.51)
Sean, guess what? I these questions for the first time in 2015. It's 10 years later. I've been baking for 10 years.
Sean Nakao (33:37.0)
Do it again. It's a fun journey. mean, mine's only a couple of months, but it's good. So like I'm enrolled right now. And it's fun. Like, yeah, it's been good.
Joe Lara (33:37.11)
I'm still cooking. It's a great journey.
Joe Lara (33:47.693)
Awesome.
Scott Schimmel (33:49.827)
Well, as you're listening, if you don't take Sean's word for it, don't take our word for it. We're biased. We think this is helpful and works. So here's my challenge for you. If you're like, hey dude, I don't need clarity. I just need a job or I don't need clarity because that sounds like really fluffy work to journal and talk about my feelings. And that's just not what I'm into. Here's the challenge. Go to vectoraccelerator.org and we have a transition readiness quiz. So you answer the questions honestly. And if you pass, you don't need vector accelerator and you get the stamp.
Go for it. You've got all the clarity you need. But, you know, if you answer them a little bit shaky about clarity, about what's important to you, what your interests are, what your priorities, all those sorts of things, then don't worry. Vector Accelerator won't cost you anything except for time, energy, and humility. But the yield is tremendous. If it can get you clarity now, you can save yourself a lot of time. So that's my pitch. Sean, thanks for being here. And we can't wait to kind of journey with you and see what...
what comes next for you.
Sean Nakao (34:51.188)
Thanks, Scott. Thanks, Joe.
Scott Schimmel (34:54.851)
Perf.
