Scott Schimmel (00:00.344)
This is the best. This is the this is the vibe I got when I was working with Bob Goff so much where it's just like, you want to do this? He's like, Sure. I'm like, all right.
Joe Lara (00:04.908)
Really?
Joe Lara (00:10.156)
It's the best. Hey, you wanna fly this plane? Sure. You not fly? Nah, it's okay. It's okay, we'll figure it out.
Scott Schimmel (00:10.99)
No, no, no, no, no, no,
Joe Lara (00:19.822)
Wait, pulling back means we go up. Scott, always love, love, love our conversations, even just connecting, just it's so good. But we've been working at this vector idea for, gosh, now it's a concept, it feels like it. And it's sometimes it's the simple things, it's the simple questions of like, hey, how are we describing vector to veterans, to people that maybe.
Scott Schimmel (00:33.794)
Cheers.
Yeah.
Joe Lara (00:47.714)
have a son or daughter that's in the military and that could find usefulness for it. What are some of the ways you describe what vector is?
Scott Schimmel (00:56.436)
Usually poorly, I'll say things that are like for real buzzwords and concepts like purpose and find clarity and self-awareness. And I think I'm being clear when I say that because I've experienced it. I've tasted, I've seen it. But I think I realize what happens is typically when I share it like that conceptually, someone is like, that sounds awesome.
And then they walk away. And if that person were to describe what it actually is, it's like it's completely gone. Yeah. I remember I heard this phrase once when you're not clear speaking and communicating. What is it? If it's fog in the pulpit, it's mist in the pew, which essentially means like if it's fuzzy here. so this is my confessional. I'm often very fuzzy about wood vectorus.
Joe Lara (01:29.568)
It's lost.
Joe Lara (01:49.324)
Yeah. Yeah. What I love about the language that we've been adding to how we describe it now. And it's a message that I've heard a million times from veterans working with them. We're in the room, right? And there's 40 special operators at the Honor Foundation. And there's this hand creeps up from a gentleman who served 30 something years because they're a crusty warrant officer. And they're like, I don't know what I want to be when I grow up. And it's so funny because we had a conversation about that and we're like,
Scott Schimmel (02:10.766)
You
Joe Lara (02:19.47)
Maybe we just start describing that because for some reason, I think even civilians, anybody would understand that concept of what do you want to be when you grow up? Especially if you had a long career. This happens even for people that are in industry and business that want a complete 180 career change. They've been a doctor for 30 years and they've been in the ER and now they want to do a career change. They might even ask themselves, huh, what I want to be when I grew up now that I want to do something.
Scott Schimmel (02:41.89)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (02:46.958)
It's like simple language sometimes is where it's at. Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (02:50.84)
Yeah. And I think that connects viscerally. And I have learned that when someone is going through transition, whether that's a 17 year old kid who's getting peppered with these questions about what are you going to do when you graduate or someone transition for the military, there's just like one, there's a lot of competing voices and there's a mixture of like what I should do, what people expect me to do, where the jobs are, what will make
X, and Z proud. So that's part of the confusion or the complexity. And I think the other part is inherent in transition is some danger, some risk. it's, I think for most people, it taps into some survival instincts, which means like, I going to be okay? Are we going to have enough? Whenever, whatever it is, enough time, enough money. And when that happens,
the part of our brains that turns off is the thinking part. It's the part that helps see patterns and see things clearly and remember our values and principles. Like that actually gets shut off for a lot of folks when it's like, I have to go interview or I have to go find a job. And another reason why it's, when you ask, what do you want to do when you grow up? A lot of people have a deer in the headlights look because of the competing voices and the danger of maybe this doesn't work out the way I thought.
Joe Lara (04:19.074)
you just described, what's really cool is we've learned a lot inside the Honor Foundation for 10 years, working with you, working with great organizations like Gallup and even Simon Sinek and something that Simon writes is this concept of the brain and the limbic and the neocortex and how our thoughts and our fight or flight kind of reactions come from. And you're right, the neocortex outer part where language resides and where logic resides, I need a job, I need a salary.
That's what makes sense, right? But the limbic brain, that's the feelings and emotions, which we a lot of times suppress. push down because who cares? Suck it up and just get a job. Just get a job. Just pick. But if we suppress that too much, we don't really understand our true desire to contribute to the world. And unfortunately, if we let that external need override that internal need, we might choose the wrong team.
Scott Schimmel (04:57.155)
Right.
Joe Lara (05:16.418)
We might choose the the wrong organization. And yes, this, then we're, we have what's called the golden handcuffs, right? We've talked about that in the past where shoot, I had this amazing salary now and we had this great lifestyle, but I'm miserable for a third of my life, but you know what? well, Hey, I'm, I'm just going to live in my neocortex brain.
Scott Schimmel (05:16.61)
Yeah, right.
Scott Schimmel (05:36.64)
Yeah. So when people ask what is inside vector, I've learned to kind of break it down even more clearly. One side of it's these abstract concepts, but really if you were to click on start the program, what you would see on your computer screen or on your phone would be a bunch of chapters, 10 chapters. And inside every chapter, there's a video. And in that video, it's
probably you and me and a couple other people. And we're explaining why this particular area of your life is really important to look at. And then we're actually showing you what it looks like to do that from our lives, from our experience. And that's a bulk of it. And then the next part is, so what do you think? And that's where literally in the course, it's to look at a workbook with open-ended questions and pick up a pen or type and start actually processing.
Joe Lara (06:16.995)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Schimmel (06:33.646)
and reflecting and journaling your thoughts. that's so videos, journaling. And then kind of the third part is talking, talking out loud. And there's a couple of ways to do that. One is finding an advisor, someone that you trust, that you can text at the beginning of the program and say, hey, dude, I'm going to go through this thing to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. Do you mind if we meet up a couple of times as I go through this over the next month and just
share some stuff out loud, maybe even read what I'm writing. And 99 out of 100 times that person who gets that text says, yeah, sure, of course, happy to. And if you then go and do it, then you might have it on Zoom. You might meet up at a coffee shop or a bar or on a walk and just say, all right, let me just kind of process this stuff out loud. And something happens. And I don't, I, that sounds like I'm being conceptual again. Clarity comes when
you go through that process of watching someone else talk and share, doing your own thinking by writing or by typing, and then talking out loud. in, you know, with 10 chapters, and that's the, you just kind of see this lapse around the track, there's different perspectives, different angles. And by the end of it, you're able to answer these questions very clearly. Who are you? What's most important to you? What do you value? What do you want to do next? Who are the people around you? And when you have cleared those questions,
Joe Lara (07:49.848)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Schimmel (07:58.516)
a lot of that limbic stuff turns off and a lot of the good stuff turns back on.
Joe Lara (08:03.478)
It is literally the algorithm. Like we've tested it for 10 years inside the Honor Foundation. I remember going through the Honor Foundation, having the same process, the same questions, and then journaling, so uncomfortable. And then the first conversation was with my wife who was so perplexed, like, where, why are you talking so much? You've never said this much in your entire life, So that was then, and now she can't shut me up, right?
Scott Schimmel (08:16.685)
Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (08:23.874)
Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Lara (08:29.592)
But that is the algorithm. It's watch this content just, and the reason why we know this works is like, cause we've been there and done that. We've witnessed it hundreds of times with different people from different walks of life and it works and it's pretty remarkable. And what's neat is you and I have been talking recently about like, how do, cause there's a lot of people that'll go to the honor foundation and even go to vector. And there's some that,
maybe they just kind of dip their toe in the water and they're not maybe fully immersed into it. They see the value and they're like, wow, this is actually different. There's some.
Scott Schimmel (09:03.458)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They love the concepts like, yeah, sure. Cool. Yeah. I need to figure out what I want to do and what I want to Yeah.
Joe Lara (09:09.336)
They're like, I kind of get it, right? But I don't know if I fully believe, right? And so I understand that. But then there's folks that just go all in, deep end, they're doing cannonball flips into it. And...
Scott Schimmel (09:15.042)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
And what is it about those people? What do they, what have you noticed?
Joe Lara (09:29.262)
There's three things specifically and and I've I thought about it for years and then I heard one of the greatest at least self-renowned or I don't know self-proclaimed executive coach in the world Marsha Goldsmith he talks about these three things for successful people and I realized those same three things apply to successful graduates of vector and It's it's so simple, but it's When applied man, it works
So the first thing is humility. And first of all, I of want to get your definition of humility. Like when I say humility, what do you think, what comes to mind?
Scott Schimmel (10:10.284)
Yeah, there's a at first there's a sort of a maybe negative connotation of like, I've done something wrong. confessional contrite, like, been humbled, I think is like, I think of that, like, I've been humbled. My, my humanity has has popped out and I got caught. Yeah, yeah.
Joe Lara (10:15.266)
Yeah, yeah.
Joe Lara (10:30.124)
Right. Head down, kicking the dirt. Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, that does kind of come to mind, I think, and that's probably a Western perspective of humility. I'd be kind of curious what it is like for the rest of the world. But in the way I look at it and the way it's been defined for success for vector folks, it's just realizing that something's missing.
Scott Schimmel (10:41.041)
huh. Yes.
Joe Lara (10:59.438)
in my own plan to move forward. And in this case, it's career transition. So they might be thinking of the checklist of write a resume, go to the job fair, build a LinkedIn profile, build a Facebook profile, start being, you know, look on Indeed and all that. That's the checklist. But there's a sense that, man, I sound...
Scott Schimmel (11:10.477)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Schimmel (11:19.907)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (11:24.876)
weird when I talk to civilians, get nervous and I'm kind of shaking my voice. I start sweating. My palms are like, I sound like Eminem right now with the lyrics. Palms are sweaty. But it's this sense like, dang, something's missing. I'm not quite there. I need to work on something, right? So it's a sense of humility. And then the second thing is courage, which the courage comes in the form of asking for help. And so it could be...
Scott Schimmel (11:32.876)
Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (11:45.197)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (11:53.986)
honey, I'm nervous about transitioning, right? And so that's a sign of asking for help, of letting somebody know, something's missing, I'm nervous, how do I cross this bridge? Vector is that source of help. When you click, yes, take the quiz, you've just went through the first two stages of humility, I don't know what I don't know, and courage.
Scott Schimmel (12:05.528)
Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (12:15.821)
Ha
Scott Schimmel (12:19.896)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (12:23.032)
click yes, take this quiz and get some feedback.
Scott Schimmel (12:23.894)
Yeah. Yeah. In that, think the courage part, I remember when I would first go into THF, maybe even before you were there, I would put people in the spot on the first night and say, tell me about yourself. We're just going to go around and do introductions. And as a as an introvert, I hate that. I truly hate introducing myself. It's gone poorly every single time my entire life.
But what I would find is that would actually help prove the point that you ought to be humble if you're not, because it didn't go well. Never does that really go well. When I'm talking to a veteran in transition and they haven't gone through this process yet, and I say, tell me about yourself. But by the end of it, it's pretty simple to be like, yo, you know, we both know that didn't go well. And in addition to that, then to be able to like actually reach out to people.
As we're talking about cups of coffee, we're asking an advisor to come into my life. I feel this as well. I don't want to do that because I don't want to. I don't know. I don't want to monopolize someone's time. I don't want to be needy. I don't want to bother somebody. I don't want people to think that I think I'm the center of the universe. Like there's just a variety of reasons why I don't want to do it. So it does actually take courage to trust that when I ask.
I won't be perceived that way. When I start talking about myself out loud, that someone won't rush to give me advice or tell me it's gonna be okay, like all this stuff I don't need. So it actually requires courage in addition to humility, just to put myself out there.
Joe Lara (14:08.186)
100%. One of the questions on the intake to get into the Honor Foundation is how are you with asking for help? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I used to love that interview question. And I'm sitting across the table from another veteran who's trying to get in on a foundation. And they're like, I like to solve problems myself. like to, you know, get it. Of course you do. I know, because I was the same person. I think the same way. And then and then the more we start talking, they realize
Scott Schimmel (14:16.589)
really?
Scott Schimmel (14:26.414)
Sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Lara (14:36.748)
I'm actually coming to the Honor Foundation for help, or in this case, I'm coming to Vector for help, because there's something that's needed and I don't have it. And so that humility and the courage. And then the third thing, Scott, which it basically separates successful people with not so successful people. And it's the tough one, right? So it's not motivation, because a lot of people are motivated to go run a marathon or...
Scott Schimmel (14:39.406)
Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Lara (15:05.198)
go get an advanced degree or whatever, right? Like get a cool tattoo, like, oh man, I'm so hyped. It's the discipline. It's the discipline. And discipline is doing the things that are gonna be tough, that are hard, that are sometimes very much unpleasant, but you do it anyway. And why do you do it? Why are you doing something that's...
Scott Schimmel (15:26.296)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Lara (15:32.898)
Maybe physically unpleasant, mentally unpleasant, but you keep doing it intentionally. And it's because you know it's good at the end.
Scott Schimmel (15:41.006)
so good and people will start the Honor Foundation and we know they will start Vector and not stick with it. And I remember there's a guy, we're still friends, he I think was in your cohort, your group with with THF and he dropped out or at least we didn't see him much and it turned out he got a job. So that's a great, that's a great reason. He was like, all right, I was here for a job. I got a job. So I'm going to kind of short circuit the rest of this self discovery. But
Joe Lara (15:54.499)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (15:59.641)
Right?
Joe Lara (16:03.79)
Good reason.
Scott Schimmel (16:11.112)
That's the only one I could think of where that's happened. Everyone else pulls back and maybe stops logging in because to your point, it gets hard and it's hard. You might be motivated upfront in a moment of like panic or recognized helplessness. I need some help, but it's actually hard work and it requires brain calories and you don't just do it once. You don't just journal once and think all of life's questions are going to be answered. I actually think that's what we most most of us do think that and it doesn't happen.
Joe Lara (16:30.414)
Mhm.
Scott Schimmel (16:40.246)
It requires multiple laps around the track. It requires multiple conversations. And in fact, how many cups of coffee do you recommend?
Joe Lara (16:47.278)
50.
Scott Schimmel (16:48.59)
50, mean like five cups of coffee is actually a lot of cups of coffee. 10 is a lot. 20 is a lot of meetings and conversations. But when you talk about 50, I don't think you're being hyperbolic. I don't think you're being exaggerating. I think you're actually mean. It takes that many times. It takes that much discipline. Having similar conversations with different people over and over and over again. Picking up the pen to the same question you thought you answered two weeks ago.
Joe Lara (16:53.464)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (16:58.744)
Yes.
Joe Lara (17:04.686)
Mm-hmm.
Scott Schimmel (17:18.444)
and giving it another shot. Like that's, that is a unique individual who's willing to put in that discipline. But if you do, what happens?
Joe Lara (17:29.23)
It's incredible. It's, we call it transformation. It's a perspective. So what happens typically in these conversations too is you don't know what you don't know. You've raised your hand saying, hey, I'm going to be humble here. I don't know what I don't know. I'm going to go log into Vector. I'm going to make that courageous move, step into it, start doing the work, watching the videos, being disciplined.
fill it out. Scott and Joe are saying keep writing, keep writing. man, now I need to reach out to people. Again, an act of courage. You're taking a high risk move. When you think about it, it's not really that risky because these are people just like you and I and you kind of get over that fear the more cups of coffee you have, right? The first ones I get though, nerve-racking. My first were nerve-racking as well.
Scott Schimmel (18:02.584)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (18:27.63)
And then this is what happens in those cups of coffee. Potential opportunities that you didn't know existed for your future. And it's not necessarily tied to just industry, but it's also groups and collective groups of teams and cultures and locations and just all of it. so through cups of coffee,
Scott Schimmel (18:36.43)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (18:55.29)
One of my cups of coffee, if you want to call it that, my definition of cup of coffee is a new conversation with somebody I've never had before. That's the definition of a cup of coffee. And sometimes there is a cup of coffee because you meet them in person. But sometimes it's just a back and forth question about, your job, what is it you do? What is it that excites you? How did you land in that job? And then just with curiosity, you're gathering intelligence and you're figuring out, wow, OK, that's kind of cool.
the aperture starts opening up of possibilities and it might even seem overwhelming at some point, especially when you get to cup of coffee number 20. You're like, my gosh, I think I can do anything in the world. You know, it starts getting that way, but what am I going to do now? Okay, here's a really good problem to have is what are you going to choose to do? So then you have more cups of coffee in more specific areas that are targeted. Now it's like, okay,
Scott Schimmel (19:36.29)
Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (19:42.222)
Yeah. Yeah.
Joe Lara (19:50.23)
all these industries or potential ways to go or pathways for success, whatever success looks like for you, some of these things don't pertain to me, I don't think. That doesn't feel right because I've done this deep work. It's good for other people, just not me. But these other options, these other possibilities, I want to go for it. I want to keep going down that rabbit hole and see what happens. And then the aperture starts to close in and get really crystal clear.
Scott Schimmel (20:03.15)
Yeah.
Joe Lara (20:18.326)
And then conversations start getting more richer, more engaging, more memorable. And your language, you don't even realize it. You're sounding very intelligent because you're more aware and in tune with those things that interest you. And it's more aligned and because the limbic brain is now matching the neocortex. Yeah.
Scott Schimmel (20:23.81)
Yeah, that's right.
Scott Schimmel (20:38.21)
Yeah, yeah, you're you mentioned the transition readiness quiz. That is to kind of gauge your humility and courage. What you're reminding me of is maybe like the transition discipline quiz. Like, let's check in with people halfway through, because I've never thought about this before. But if your cups of coffee are still awkward, confusing, overwhelming, uncomfortable, like just a drag, then you have not done it enough because it does get
Joe Lara (20:45.87)
Mm-hmm.
Joe Lara (20:51.246)
Mm.
Scott Schimmel (21:08.108)
I mean, you always have some weird nuts there, but it will get clear. It will get what you'll feel like you're actually seeing patterns and connections that are being made, even if this is a brand new person. But if you keep doing it. So that's that's the transition discipline quiz. Are you have you been doing it enough? When you journal, there actually is like insight. Have you had enough cups of coffee where it actually starts to make sense and you start to see things?
and you can start almost like seeing things conceptually as you're talking about where things fit and how you fit into that. So I know you are quoting someone else, but since you told me about humility, courage, discipline, I've probably 20 times been like my friend Joe, Joe Laura, that actually says that what's required. So I'm quoting you from now on. I don't care where you got it. You're your source document to me.
Joe Lara (22:00.527)
I'm pretty much convinced there's nothing original under the sun. We're just quoting somebody else, but whatever.
Scott Schimmel (22:03.116)
Yeah, that's true. So you're getting in this conversation. So we're wrapping up. What is Vector? Well, it's watching videos, it's doing some writing and thinking and it's talking. That's it. And it happens to be a self guided thing. It ought to take you about a month. But the real ingredients are what Joe's talking about. Have the humility to know that you need help. Have the courage to step into these uncomfortable, awkward things. And then by, you know, by all means, have the discipline to keep going until you get to clarity.
and transformation will come. I'm a product of it, you're a product of it, and the people that do it and do it with those three ingredients, we do see breakthroughs. We do see transformation and that's no joke. Yeah.
Joe Lara (22:44.458)
conversations. Those conversations are awesome. Talking to those folks who've done the work and you could tell they're like, they're driving, they're not just, you know, aimlessly, no, they're not sitting there in the corner waiting, they're actually moving forward. And there's a sense of confidence, which is all measured in that initial quiz. And now they score high. So it's pretty cool. Really cool.
Scott Schimmel (22:54.7)
waiting for something to happen.
Scott Schimmel (23:08.866)
Yeah. All right. So this was your pitch. If you're listening, you're watching. This was for you. We recorded this for you. OK. So VectorAccelerator.org. Take the quiz. Start the course. And we'll see if you've got what it takes to get that transformation you're looking for.
