• 47:42
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
veteran transition, private sector, Vets to Industry, resource library, mentorship program, networking events, imposter syndrome, resume building, mental health, military spouses, entrepreneurship program, Signal Health Group, volunteer opportunities, job placement, cybersecurity training
SPEAKERS
Damon Pistulka, Brian Arrington
Damon Pistulka 00:01
All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I am your host, Damon pistulka, and I’m so excited, so excited because we’ve got none other than Brian Arrington in the house today, from vets to industry V to I we’re going to be talking about hiring veterans transitioning into the private sector. Thanks for being here today. Brian, oh,
Brian Arrington 00:24
it’s my pleasure. It’s great to come back and and talk to you guys. It’s been, it’s been way too long, but a lot of great things happened in that time.
Damon Pistulka 00:32
I know I’m so excited. It has been too long, but I can’t wait to share, let you share how it’s going. Because when we talk a while ago, it’s a couple years or three years ago, something like that. We talked you were just, you know, you were a working guy. You started vets to industry to help veterans transition into the private sector. You, you had a lot of juice. You were getting things going. But let, I’m not even going to share the secret. I’m going to let you do that, but Brian, why don’t you share your journey and how you ended up doing what you’re doing today in vets to industry, helping those veterans transition out of the military into the private sector?
Brian Arrington 01:14
Yeah, I’m excited to talk about it. So I served 20 years one month and 12 days in the Air Force. I was I was a military cop, so don’t hold that against me, and everyone just started tuning out. But in my last year on active duty, I learned that there was over 45,000 veteran service organizations nationwide that provided free resources for us and our families, but nobody freaking tells us about it while we’re serving. We don’t. The DoD doesn’t tell us about it because they’re a war fighting machine. They’re not a transition machine. And when we go to tap, they don’t tell us about veteran service organizations either. So it’s all you know, kind of accidental that we find out, like I found out about LinkedIn by accident, you know, the beginning of my last year on active duty, and that’s where I started learning a lot about the veteran service organizations that were out there for us. And so I said, Well, there’s got to be, you know, a single site repository where all the free resources were co located. Because I got really, like, I was pissed off finding out that there’s 45,000 of these veteran service organizations. Service organizations that I had never known about. And here I am a senior NCO e7 you know, supposed to know everything about everything to pass on to the troops. And all I could think about was how many airmen had I look at of the military without setting them up for success on the outside, due to my own ignorance on the existence of all these free resources, and I it hit me hard. I actually started crying, thinking how many of those airmen have become part of the 44 that have killed themselves a day or unemployed or underemployed or substance abuse or divorced or homeless or incarcerated, all because I Brian Arrington, master on Arrington, did not tell them about a free resource I could have given them hope, leaving the military and kept them alive. Yeah, so I went online. I was looking, I couldn’t find a single site repository where all these 45,000 resources that people were telling me, and you know, veteran influencers were telling me, were were available. So I my last six months on active duty, I found some volunteers, and we did a post that kind of went really viral, about 654,000 views on it, and was talking about transitioning and people getting employment. And we had companies responding to that post, pushing their job opportunities in there, and we were connecting service members and transitioning service members and veterans with companies in different threads for four weeks, and I realized towards the end, a lot of veteran influencers and mentors were reaching out to the people on those threads and saying, Hey, have you heard about four block or bunker labs or Syracuse IBM F program or a canter full and the same answer came from everybody. What’s that? Like? I don’t know. I use this, like, I’ve been out for two years. Can I use ivmf? Like, what, you know, what? I’m a homeless vet. Like, is there something for me? And I realized these people couldn’t wait any longer, so I got some volunteers together during that that huge viral post, and we started up vets to industry as a free resource library. We uploaded 72 resources that I had vetted myself, and now we’ve gained over 1000 free resources on the website. We have a ton more in the queue that we’re vetting and going through 1000s more in the queue right now, but we, like those are gonna be coming very shortly. In the next, probably couple months, we’re gonna have a large number, large quantity, pushing, pushing onto the website. Nice. Um, who are in the final stages of vetting them? Yeah, and so things are great.
05:06
Very, no, very cool.
Brian Arrington 05:07
I think we have 105 or 106,000 followers on LinkedIn. I’ve got 26,000 followers myself on LinkedIn. I’ve been mentoring, coaching, you know, all sorts of things for for service members and businesses and stuff. So it’s been great.
Damon Pistulka 05:26
That’s awesome. That’s awesome to hear. Now, the other thing I want to say, that I think is super cool, dude, is that you started this while you’re, you know, in the military. You found it. You started. You were doing it while you’re working. Now. Tell us what happened recently, a year or so ago, you were able to,
Brian Arrington 05:49
yeah, start. So actually, as of June 1, I was able to start working full time for vets industry. So I was able to leave the chains of corporate America and now and all because of signal Health Group, franchise senior healthcare organization, just loves the veteran population. They’re amazing. People need to check out signal Health Group. But they they basically came in and saw what we were doing and said, you know, you could be doing so much more if you weren’t working, you know, 7am to 7pm Monday through Friday, because I was just doing nights and weekends for vest industry. You can’t get on business calls during the day when you’re working for a Wells Fargo or something like that. Yeah. And so they, they fronted and paid for my year salary to work for best industry for the first year. And that’s what I’m doing. And nice I’m I’m free to do a lot more than I’ve ever been able to do, and we’ve been growing services like nonstop. I can’t wait to talk to you guys about tonight. And we have so much more on the plate coming out that I can’t mention yet, because they’re not like, officially announced, but man, you gotta stick stay tuned for B to I and what, and follow us and watch what’s coming down.
Damon Pistulka 07:20
We will. We definitely will. Now I want to say we got Bill polifka in the house today, a combat veteran, Army guy. You need to connect with Bill. Awesome individual. I mean, stand up person. I just gotta say thanks for stopping by. Bill has a comment in here. We have to make sure your knowledge gets indexed into this project. He’s working on tons of cool stuff. Yeah, I’ll connect you guys after this, because you
Brian Arrington 07:48
mentioned, I say something to Bill. Bill, I’m doing a new series called vets industry battle stories, starting the beginning of October. I’m looking for combat vets that want to tell their story and get it recorded and and, you know, go on live with me. So people can come on. They can they can watch it. They can learn the story. You can honor those in the battlefield with you. And we can save it for future generations, put it on the veterans or YouTube channel, and also raise as a fundraiser of raise some money for vests industry so we can give it back to the veteran population that that need these services. So I would absolutely love to have you on the show. If you are willing to
Damon Pistulka 08:28
do you see what he just said. He said, Sign me up.
Brian Arrington 08:32
Yeah, my first episode beginning of October.
Damon Pistulka 08:35
Yeah, you can get rolling on that one, but I will make the introductions after off, because Bill is a stand up gentleman, like I said. So we got Maria stopping by. She said, That’s awesome. Love what you’re doing here, what you did here. We also, she said, Congratulations. Santos is stopping by and said, great people make great companies and tremendous environments. And he said, also, Santos says, thanks for your service. And if I didn’t tell you that already, I want to say it once again. Thanks for your service. Bill you as well. It’s just an honor. It’s an honor. Thank
Brian Arrington 09:07
you. Yeah, I can’t wait to share everything with you all that are watching. If you’ve never heard of vets, two industry this has to be in your in your repertoire of tools that pass on to all the veterans and service members and military spouses that are serving, because we are going to help so many more people, the more people that know about us.
Damon Pistulka 09:27
Yes, now you’ve helped 100 and some 1000, 150 plus 1000 veterans transition. You’re helping them today, and it’s just like you’re going to help a lot more. I just want you know, go to the vets, to industry. It’s vets, two industry.org. Check it out. Connect with connect with Brian, and we will. He’ll get you set up there. But Brian, let’s start talking about some of these programs. Because you, you and I were talking about some some special things that are coming up. Have some new programs that you guys are kicking off. What’s going on?
Brian Arrington 10:03
Well, first, I like to give a little background about vest industry. Look what our mission is, vision, if that’s okay, that is awesome. So So at vest industry, our mission is simple but powerful. We exist to establish meaningful connections, share knowledge and identify opportunities for veterans transitioning service members and their families, we recognize the unique challenges that come with transitioning from the military to civilian life, and we’re dedicated to supporting our community every step of the way. So our vision is to become the most comprehensive online information library of free resources and benefits available to the military community, and by consolidating these resources into a single, easily accessible platform, we strive to eliminate the confusion and isolation that can come with the transitioning process. So that’s that’s us. We have about 112 volunteers globally that are all service members, veterans or military spouses that guide, mentor and coach anyone who reaches out to us needing, you know, assistance in all different categories, financial assistance, mental health resources, housing, health care, just, just need a scholarship. We have over 300 scholarships on the website for service members and their family members. So if you have children that you’re you know you want to get them into college and you like, you’re not sure how to pay for it all, or maybe they couldn’t transfer over the eligibility benefits. We have 300 scholarships on the website for them to check out. Just so much.
Damon Pistulka 11:41
Yeah, yeah. And I love how it is. I mean, I love the passion in your voice, and I love what you’re doing, because there is, as you said, and and as as we, as we all, all need to remember, we, these people, have done a lot for us, and we need to help them transition in the private sector and their families, because it’s that’s don’t, let’s don’t forget them as well, because it’s a hard transition for all of them. Absolutely,
Brian Arrington 12:07
the family members. You know, actually military spouses have it even harder than service members. Believe the stats are like, 26% are unemployed and even more underemployed. And it’s just, it’s really it’s really sad, and most of them are more well educated than their civilian counterparts. So I mean, we really need to do what we can. And so we have something coming up called a v2 i She boss to help women veterans and military spouses to really overcome those those hurdles and to provide support and more transitioning opportunities and employment. And one thing that we do is every month, we host these virtual networking events called the vesting industry, virtual networking circuit event. And what we do is we have companies from around the country, come on on a zoom, it’s all free, and they provide opportunities that are at their companies. And we have companies like we’ve had Amazon and Google and Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin and FEMA and Hyundai and CSA New York Life. You know, just there’s tons of companies. Come on, and we have service members transitioning, service members, veterans and military spouses. Come on who are career seeking. And it’s not a career fair, it’s a networking event. So you’re building professional relationships with everybody that’s on the call. But we have breakout rooms where we individualize eight to 11 people per room. It’s all randomized. You get to meet people, you get to hear from recruiters. You get veteran service organizations. So if you’re a veteran service organization or charity that provides help or service members in the military at all, you are more than welcome. Actually, I beg you to come to our virtual networking events and talk about the free services that you offer and provide. And we’ll get you, get you time to talk during the events. Our next one is actually this Saturday, the 21st of September 2024 so if you guys are watching this three years from now, do you know when your time works? And it starts at 2pm Eastern. If you go to vetstoindustry.org and you click on our events, you’ll go to where it says network events, click on that, and you can register for the event, and you’ll come. It’s a five hour event, but it’s come and go as you please. So we have it that long so that people from overseas and West Coast and East Coast and Midwest can all come on at the same time or at different times. If you got a soccer game and you gotta miss an hour of it, no big deal. It’s going to be there. You’re going to continue to be able to get value from it. So want to invite everybody this Saturday. Today to come and participate, especially if you’re a transition service member or veteran or middle spouse. Yeah, I
Damon Pistulka 15:05
tell you what I’m going to do right now too, because I’ve got it pulled up on another screen here. I’m going to flip it up because you guys, you guys, I believe you have a QR code here for it. We do, well, I don’t know if I’m fancy, but let’s see if I can do this. Because I was just like, well, maybe I can get it done. We’ll see if I can. If I can, we’ll pull it up here in just a second. But you know, the the thing that’s so cool about this, and I love, love talking with you about this, is we are setting here at a time of we can’t hire the right people we need in the private sector. It’s a hard thing for us to do that, and we’re, we’re trying to figure out, what are we where’s that next hire going to come from? Oh, look at that. I got it. I got
Brian Arrington 15:49
it. Yeah, we look, we look fancy. I have an amazing marketing team, dude. Yeah, all volunteers. They’re phenomenal. My events team rocks, Matthew we Gabriel Leon, got to give it up to them. Joel Stewart,
Damon Pistulka 16:03
let’s get this a little bigger. So hopefully, if that doesn’t show through, they can always reach out to Bill Arrington on LinkedIn. Or Brian, excuse me, I’m thinking, I’m looking at Bill polifka’s picture, and I’m talking to you because I know Bill too. He’s merging us now. Yeah, merging, merging. Because you guys should get together, that’s why it is. But yeah, if you don’t, if you, if you can’t do the QR code from this, just let us know. We’ll get we’ll get something else to you. But hey, get in these network events. Meet these people, like you said, if you’re a service organization helping veterans, if you’re somebody that wants to hire veterans, you should get in there and start talking to people and find your way around. Because this is the place to do it. I mean, you guys get a lot of participation in these and it’s a great place to meet service members before they transition out. You won’t talk the police
Brian Arrington 16:54
at least a year out. If you can try to try to catch us a year to two years out, you’re not too early to come on. It’s never too early to build your professional relationship so that by the time you’re ready to get out, you’ve already established relationships with the recruiters. Excuse me about that. You’re able to establish the relationships with recruiters and veteran mentors and just create an environment that helps you succeed. And then, of course, passing on the knowledge to your fellow service members and your troops is more rewarding than anything, especially when they come back to tell you, thank you. You saved my life, and that’s happened so many times to me and to my volunteers, we actually just had a new hire as well. Our first hire after me. Carmen White is our chief operating officer, and she’s doing amazing work behind the scenes that you guys never see because I’m the face, but she’s the workhorse, and got to give it up to Carmen and the team. That’s
Damon Pistulka 18:05
great, man. And like you said, you’re building this again. You said two years out, and people go, Oh, that might be too long, but if you really want to build a successful transition, you need to know, you need to find the right people, and you need to group a group of people that can help you. Not only if you’re looking to go to school, you’re looking to find work, you’re looking to you know, whatever you’re trying to do, trying to get your family transition, trying to find the best, even if you’re trying to figure out where to go, there’s so much of this that you could do in your events and meet the right people to help. Oh, I want to go to Dallas, or I want to go to wherever in Chicago, just pick it, and you’re going to meet people and be able to network your way and meet a bunch of people that can help you really make that transition better. I love it. Yeah,
Brian Arrington 18:49
yeah, good. I mean, I definitely want to talk about some of the new or the, say, the resources that we have available for people and some of the new things we have coming up.
Damon Pistulka 19:01
What do you got coming up? Bless us here. All
Brian Arrington 19:04
right, so we offer a wide array of services that support our mission. Through our resource library, we provide free access to 1000s of resources and benefits, from education and career services to financial assistance and mental health support our mentorship program, which is new, and it’s coming out really, really soon, and you guys are going to be like, floored by it. Pairs veterans and military spouses with experienced professionals who can provide guidance and insight on career transitions and personal development. So also talking about our b2 i She boss, we also offer specialized services for military spouses and women veterans, recognizing that their challenges are can be distinct, and we are dedicated to providing tailored support to meet their needs, whether it’s job placement assistance, career counseling services or networking opportunities. We’re committed to ensuring that our military community is. Equipped to succeed in their civilian careers, and at the heart of what we do is a belief that no veteran should ever feel alone in their transition. So by fostering a community of support, sharing vital knowledge and helping to identify opportunities, best industry is building a stronger, more connected future for our veterans and their families, we’re going to be doing like, free meal drives and things to to veterans during Thanksgiving every year, through signal Health Group and through vest industry, donating at least 400 meals each year for them. Yeah, and you know, we have a entrepreneurship program that’s coming up, coming live very so best industry partners with single health group, and they have an exciting entrepreneurship program that offers franchising like no other organization. And I like to encourage those interested to reach out to Joel Stewart, who I’ll be able to get that, get that email over to to you. Joel.stewart@bestindustry.org to get to reach out to we have some great stuff happening.
Damon Pistulka 21:12
Well, let’s talk about some of this. Because I think, I think I just love this. This, you thought of this when you’re in the military getting out and to see it come to fruition. Now you gotta just see, I mean, like a kid that’s going just like you’re like, playing on the playground all day long,
Brian Arrington 21:31
I get to do a passion all day long. Like, how many people in this world can say their full time job is literally their passion? Yeah, like they’re literally saving people’s lives every single day, or saving families, you know, from, yeah, falling apart. You know, it just like, Yeah, dude, I’m in I’m in heaven. There’s nothing. There’s nothing greater. I don’t ever want to stop like this. I don’t want another corporate job. I just want to be president invested industry for the rest of my life. And that’s just,
Damon Pistulka 21:59
there you go good stuff. Well, we got Diane buyer stopping by today, and want to say hello. Diane just saw her earlier day. Mentorship. So important, awesome. Diane, I believe, is out of Philly. Hey, good stuff happening there, and she said, inspiring building community and support. Yep, that’s what best industry does to help those veterans transitioning into the private sector, because, you know, we talked about this, and the sad fact is, 44 day don’t see tomorrow. Yes, sir, doesn’t have to be that way.
Brian Arrington 22:40
We, you know, there’s 19 million veterans out there. There’s 240 to 270,000 transitioning service members a year, plus their families invest. Industry is only touching the surface of about maybe 200,000 of them. So we need your help. We’re looking for volunteers, more people to join the vets industry mission. We’re more like a movement now than even a nonprofit. We’re global. We’re doing amazing things, and it doesn’t matter where you live in the US. Everything is virtual. If you want to spread the word about vets to industry and be an official volunteer with us. Please go to our website and and, and go and and click on volunteering. And,
Damon Pistulka 23:31
nice, nice. Well, you know, it is every time, every time we talk Brian, I get really excited about this, and I love what you’re doing and the way you’re helping veterans, it just, you know, you can’t, in the way that you’ve been able to put together some of these partnerships and the things that we’re doing, you know, your resource library, I mean, how many, how many research I mean, if you just had to guess, how many resources do you have in your resource library? I
Brian Arrington 23:55
probably have about 1100 or 1200 right? Yeah. But we have, literally, we we have, so we, God, we have probably three to 4000 in the queue that, like, we have a list of them, and we’re almost completely done vetting them all. So there’s going to be a, like, huge lump upload shortly, nice on the website. So we’re going to have three to 5000 maybe even more, resources uploaded on there. It’s going to be so massive.
Damon Pistulka 24:30
Can’t wait. So what are some of the things now we’re sitting here talking about, you’re helping veterans transition in the private sector. What are some of the things that people in the private sector can do to help make it easier for a veteran to transition?
Brian Arrington 24:44
Well, there’s a lot of things. First, honestly, supporting vets to industry is one really key thing. We we live off of sponsorships and donations, but we don’t get many donations. People, people don’t, don’t donate. We’re looking for recurring donors, and also companies that want to be listed on our website, showcasing that they’re supporting vets industry and the veteran community. We have something called v2 i plus, that we just created, and we’re looking to list companies, local, regional, national companies that want to get their name out there to to the veterans that you’re on their products and services. It’s going to be $100 a month to be be listed on there, but you’re going to get tons of exposure to all the clicks that we get a month on the website. So if you’re interested, that’s one way you can support vest industry. You could be a sponsor for one of our events and become a premier sponsor. You get five minutes to talk about what you all provide and services and the products. But we do vet everyone before they come on to make sure that they don’t take advantage of service members. So if you, if you think you’re going to get on and and talk a game, and, you know, do some multi level marketing, that’s not going to happen. But for any, any legit company out there that that you know, you offer, especially discounts to veterans, and you want to get that word out to them and and get a national network of veterans using your products and services you might want to just steal, cough up 100 bucks a month. It’s a donation, so it’s tax deductible too. It’s a marketing dollars. So you know you’re going to spend it anyway, once you spend it to get in in front of, you know, 105,000 followers and X amount of 1000s of of visitors a month. So, and then we have something that I’m really proud of. Last month was our first time. It was our annual networking conference at sea. We did a crew Wow. We did a cruise, and we had 53 veterans and their families from all over the country come together in Florida. We went on a Carnival Magic cruise seven days to supposed to go to Puerto Rico, Dominican Republican Turks and Caicos. Puerto Rico got hurricane out, but went to Nassau, and we it was we had seminars where we did stuff on a networking conference, like a networking seminar. We did family relationships and building. We did on AI. We did it on mental health. Alfredo Torres, who’s my vice president of best industry, did a phenomenal mental health class, super powerful. And then we had, you know, we were playing dominoes, you know, with each other, and we were going on excursions together, you know, all the ports. And we just became like, super close friends, all these people who never met each other before left there as like best friends, and so we’re doing it every year. We already have it registered a book for next year. July 2025, is our next cruise. Everybody is invited, everybody’s invited, and we have the information on our website. If you go to the networking conference, click on that, you’ll see the information about the cruise. We have our very own travel agent that books it at a discount rate. We gave shirts, T shirts, and swag, and we gave lanyards and, you know, we gave special collector item coins for the annual net conference. We just had a blast. And so our next one is eight days to we’re going to Aruba Baner and Curacao for eight days on Carnival horizon. So if you want to check that ship out, go on YouTube and check out their full walkthrough. It’s amazing. And we’re looking for more people that want to sign up and just cruise with us? Yeah, we’ll
Damon Pistulka 29:03
hit this here, because I think this is it, right? Your networking cruise,
29:07
yep, yep. It is not that. So
Damon Pistulka 29:09
if anybody’s interested, take a look at that on their website. It is like said, it’s under, under the events, and you can check it out there, your cruise engine like that. Reach out to
Brian Arrington 29:19
me directly, and I’ll, I’ll get you the the information to to book with us, because you gotta book with our with our travel agent to be part of the group, so their group rate, and you’ll be able to be a part of our events. And we had a gala to the last night. Francis mentioned that. So we had an awesome Gala. We have videos and testimonials that we are uploading to the to the to the website here, probably in the next month. So all the all the pictures of the cruise and, yeah, just the fellowship was just amazing. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 29:56
yeah. So as you’re as you’re looking at. This, and you you talk about, and we’re talking today about veterans transitioning in the private sector. What are some of the common things that you hear veterans say that are their challenges transitioning? What are the challenges they’re having? Biggest
Brian Arrington 30:18
one, honestly, and they might they don’t even realize it is imposter syndrome. It’s, it’s feeling that they are not worthy or not good enough to get a civilian job because they don’t believe they have the necessary skills to because they don’t know what those skills should be. So it’s, it’s their lack of ability to articulate their value proposition, which is where finding a mentor, often and early is super important. Somebody who’s been through the transition, who’s been in corporate America or public sector or federal and can sit down with you, look at your EPRs, your OPR, your ncurs, and and help guide you to say, Okay, this is what you done. Do you realize what this means in the civilian world? This is what it is. Let’s look at creating a resume that that highlights this like a main resume, where you will, you throw up everything that you’ve ever done in your life, and then you start out of that making tailored resumes towards the job description of the companies that in the roles that you’re interested in, by taking the pieces off of those, those that resume that you’ve already trans translated into civilian ease and and then utilizing that to help and getting the more mentors you have that are in different industries, that are different job roles, that have seen different things, that know the different you Know, the quantification of man hours or of time efficiencies created or, or, you know, the decrease in in lack of funding, and things of that nature, things that you you’ve made better. Those are the things that you need to input into those resumes to really stand you out, because a resume is not there designed to get you a job. Resume is designed to get you the interview. But job boards you have a 4% chance of even getting an interview with something like indeed or monster. It’s who you know. It’s the relationships that you build with the corporate recruiters and the hiring managers that will get you your employment. They are the ones that will get you those interviews, but you gotta give them something. So you gotta give them a resume that talks specifically towards the job role that you’re doing and what you’ve done and accomplished in the past. So imposter syndrome is probably one of the biggest things, because that when you can get over imposter syndrome. Your confidence increases, your hope increases. You it, it shows you know, you exhume this, this, exude this, like glow and and you know your discipline, your patient, your you work as a team member, you don’t do drugs. I mean, these are, like the bare basics that companies are looking for, and you already meet that walking out the door, you just need to be able to articulate that, because a lot of companies don’t understand how you fit into their company. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 33:32
yeah. So you talk about this, I know resume building. A friend of mine, Scott Valenti, talks about the resume, the job description is a problem they have, and your resume needs to see how you solve that problem. You know exactly working that, and it works real well. And I love your idea of putting everything on one and then picking it and customizing it for those those opportunities, and like you said, building that relationship with those corporate recruiters as much as you can, or the someone in the industry that can help you in that and understand it’s a great way to do it. And and you guys are putting those things together with these mentors.
Brian Arrington 34:07
Yeah, we’re going to have that mentorship program is going to be huge, and we are going to have 1000s of mentors on there. We’re going to be connecting you with all different kind of industries to help you out. It’s really going to be stellar. And I do want to mention kind of a plug from Best industry. We through signal Health Group, we had Ted Danson his his show, advancements reach out, and we are going to be interviewed September 27 for an episode of advancements, which has about a million viewers per episode, and so that’s gonna be aired this fall, where it’s gonna talk about signal health group and what they’re doing, advancements, wise, for senior health care, and also vests to industry, and what we’re what we’re doing and providing for the. Sure of of our veterans. So we’re Ted, we’re going to be out of tedious in the show. And that’s cool, interviewed, yeah. So me, Carmen and Joel Stewart going to be interviewed for for that. So it’s going to be awesome. That’ll
Damon Pistulka 35:17
be awesome. It will be man. I’m so happy for you on that. And Diane buyer says something. She says, the manufacturing industry is always looking for employees, and that is I’m going to tell you, if there’s not a lot of manufacturers looking at your events and doing that. So what I’m saying, I’m telling you, if you’re a manufacturer, listeners, you need to go to vets, to industry, get all these events. Because, listen, people in the military understand process, following a process, and doing things in order, and that is the foundation of great manufacturing, is understanding we’re going to do this the way it needs to be done, over and over, and
35:57
quality control and quality
Damon Pistulka 35:58
control, yeah, yeah, because it’s just, it’s just an awesome fit when I’ve seen that, I’ve been, I’ve been blessed to be able to work with other service members in the manufacturing industry. And my goodness, is that a great thing to do.
Brian Arrington 36:13
And we understand OSHA, you know, requirements as well. So these are all things that you’re getting right out the door that you don’t have to train somebody, or I should say you should be able to train them in the locally based on what you do, but you won’t have to pay extra money to get certified, certifications and things of that nature, because they’re already familiar with the process.
Damon Pistulka 36:33
There’s so much of it that you’re ahead and and it is you, you like you said. People come out of the military, they might have imposter syndrome, but there’s a lot of strengths there, and those strengths are really understanding we have an SOP, we have an operating procedure. We follow it. That’s the way we do it. And when you come into a manufacturing setting, that is one of the things that a lot of people have trouble doing, is they they don’t follow all the steps. They follow three out of five, or they follow two out of five, or maybe they follow five every once in a while, you know. And then that’s the thing that you can really bring to that. And as Diane says, it’s always looking for many people in manufacturing, and I’m that’s just one industry we’re talking about today. But the the thing with manufacturing, I believe, and I’ve seen firsthand, is it’s an industry you can be in for a lifetime, because it’s not one of those things that I have to have an MD to be or, you know, to go so high, or I have to do this, or have a, you know, a graduate level degree from a named school to be really, really successful in these things and do six figure, solid, solid, six figure wages every year with it. So it’s a good certifications are
Brian Arrington 37:46
more important than degrees. Now, yeah, companies are looking for not just getting a certification, but do you have any experience doing the actual work? So if you have any experience, and you can get that through DoD skill bridge. For those of you don’t know what skill bridge is, in the last six months of being on active duty, you can apply and do an internship with a company learning a trade or skill that you’re interested in doing full time. And you know, sometimes you can go through to training schools, like there’s a great organization called rapid ascent that does cybersecurity training, and you know, they take three and a half months of your GI Bill, and 17 weeks later, you’ve got skill sets in all sorts of cyber related threat assessment, vulnerability assessments. You know, hacking, ethical hacking, and other things. So it’s like there’s just so much out there that we just don’t know exists. And I would like to ask Diane, do you you said, Bill submarines.com Do you have a POC for them? Because I’d love to reach out and get them onto our networking events, or any other manufacturing companies or stuff that you have get. Let’s get them on Saturday. If, if, if they can do that quick turnaround,
Damon Pistulka 39:10
we will, we will talk. I’ll connect you to Diane after that, because she, she could be a very good resource for you. Because this is, this are, this is some of the things that we can, we can help to do as a community, a community on LinkedIn, community of people that know each other and and the other thing is, is that you guys are located, located in Georgia, with it, with your your business, that’s where that’s at, but you’re doing it.
Brian Arrington 39:35
We actually moved technically. Our location is, is in Wyoming now, oh, I live in Atlanta. That’s really just where we’re, yeah, where the corporate, corporate like location is, yeah, but we don’t have a physical location yet. What we’re also doing, and I’ll mention it, is, we’re coming up with vet. Resource centers that we want to build in locations where there’s Chamber of Commerces and work to help build up local resource centers to highlight all the local resources for veterans and things. So on top of putting that on a website, we also want to have regional centers, and we’re looking for businesses that might want to be involved and be naming founders of those in, you know, per region. Like I want to get one set up in Atlanta. We want to do San Antonio, we want to do Philadelphia, you know, all, all over the place, yeah, so another thing that we’re working on as well. So what a cool thing. Yeah,
Damon Pistulka 40:42
it is Brian. Say
Brian Arrington 40:44
that yet, but, oh well.
Damon Pistulka 40:47
I mean, you got, you got plans. You’re going places with vets to industry. You’re, you’re helping these veterans transition. You’re helping make that transition smoother. You’re networking events, like you’re having this weekend, you know, 2pm Eastern. Get on their website. Check it out. Get signed up if you’re a company that might want to network with veterans. If you’re a veteran that wants to look at different opportunities, if you’re a veteran support organization, get on there and start talking to them and meeting people doing the things with vets the industry. Because you guys have been at it a while. You’ve been helping these veterans. You’ve helped 1000s and 1000s of veterans and putting them and allowing them to transition out into the private sectors successfully. And I just love what you’re doing. So before we wrap up today, Brian, what is one thing that you would like to tell somebody out there today that A is transitioning, and then one thing to tell somebody that would like to get involved. So
Brian Arrington 41:50
biggest thing about transitioning is making sure you document everything before you get out. You know when you do your BDD claim, make sure that you have your mental health and your physical ailments all documented. I made that mistake, not doing enough, and I didn’t get civilian life insurance before I got out and I became nearly impossible for me to get civilian life insurance took. Took four years for me to get life insurance. I just finally got it last year. Make sure you are doing these things before you get your disability rating. But you got to make sure everything is documented. Use Dav Wounded Warrior Project. They’re phenomenal at getting you. You know, the highest percentage you possibly can find mentors as soon as possible, get on these networking events. Just you gotta do it. You gotta do it for yourself, and procrastination is gonna kill you. And you go, Yeah, I’ll get to it. I’ll get to it. And you won’t. You really won’t. And so if you’re thinking about it now, just make the leap. Make the sacrifice of a couple hours on a Saturday, and it will change your trajectory of life. I swear to you, it will.
Damon Pistulka 43:12
That’s awesome. So those transitioning people, transitioning out of the military into the private sector, hey, you need to listen to that and go out and do it. And if you need some help, go to vet industry it. Look at their resource guide. If you need more help, connect with Brian, and he’ll get you set up there now,
Brian Arrington 43:30
yeah, by email. So they need to email support@bestindistinct.org because my email box in my my LinkedIn is going to a flood because of what you just said, and I can’t get to everyone. I’m telling you, I get so many messages a day, so please support
Damon Pistulka 43:47
now, let’s say it again. Email support
Brian Arrington 43:51
at vets. Two industry.org and that’s ETS the number two industry.org
Damon Pistulka 44:00
Alright, yeah, that’s the number two industry.org so support@bestindustry.org if you’re a transitioning service member and transitioning the private sector and then in the future, hey, reach out. Businesses
Brian Arrington 44:15
can reach out to me directly, if they want find me on on LinkedIn, or Brian dot Arrington at vets, two industry.org very simple, yeah,
Damon Pistulka 44:28
yeah. That. Just love having you on today, Brian, I’m so happy that we were able to make this happen. And I love it that you’ve been able to move out full time into vets to industry to help that many more people listen to these new programs you’re bringing on. You know, improving your resource library, you guys are going to quadruple your resource library. You got your mentoring programs kicking off. You got your entrepreneurship program coming on. You’ve got the the specialized service for Spouse. And you’ve got the, the, what’s it? The, the one for V to I, she boss,
Brian Arrington 45:09
yeah, that’s just the bonus name. Ever it is,
Damon Pistulka 45:13
it is. It’s so good. It’s so good. So Brian, one more time. Diane says, Can you give us your email address one more time.
Brian Arrington 45:21
So it’s Brian b r, I A N, dot Arrington, A R, R, I N, G, T O N, at vets, two industry.org,
Damon Pistulka 45:31
there you go. And I’m going to drop that in the comments when we get off here. I can’t do it from from streamyard here when I’m doing it, but I will when I’ll drop your your in the comments. And if people want to reach out to me, I can get it to you as well. So, Brian, thanks for being here today. Man, it’s so great to learn. I’ve never been excited to hear what vets industry is doing. And you know, I’m excited to hear how your things that you’re launching are coming off. It’s so cool that you guys had that cruise going on last year. Oh, Diane, put it in the comments. There we go. Diane, we got that going. And, yeah, I want to
Brian Arrington 46:07
see more people on the cruise. So guys, if you want to like it is such a good time, and you’re it’s so worth it. Bring your families. So July 19 to the 26th of July, come, come be with us. That’d
Damon Pistulka 46:24
be awesome, awesome stuff. Well, Brian, hang out for a minute. We’ll we’ll wrap up offline. I want to tell everyone else, if you came in, thank you so much for the comments. I want to say thank you for for Bill coming in. We’re going to get you connected up with Brian. Maria stopped by Santos. We have Joe burby, uh, a he got help from you guys, appreciative of it. And then we got Diane stopping by. What’s that about Joe? Yeah,
Brian Arrington 46:55
we got him some free suits.
Damon Pistulka 46:56
Yep, there you go. Get me good suits. There you go, man, you got to help these people get transitioned out the right way. I just want to say, if you came in late to this, go back to the beginning. You owe it to yourself to listen to Brian, hear what they’re doing at best industry get involved and help them. Help them get these veterans that are transitioning out of the military service into the private sector. Help them find great places to work. We have many great companies. They’re looking for great people. Let’s put them together.
Brian Arrington 47:26
Yeah, connected with me. As many as you can. I’ll take a million of them, just bring them to
Damon Pistulka 47:32
go. There we go. People. Well, let’s help Brian out here, and thanks for being here everyone. Brian, hang on. We’ll finish up offline and have some fun. Everyone. You.
