182: Melissa Purnell - Crafting Sweet Success with Sweet Blooms Confectionery

Scott R. Tucker 0:00

All right, welcome to Don't forget your war chest. I'm Scott Tucker here with Mike Wallace. I'll do a quick intro to Mike here in a minute. Just want to kind of remind people what we're doing here. So if you're watching this recording, we're going to be doing these discussions mostly on a weekly basis when we can to talk about all things military retirement. Obviously, what I focus on SPP and tsp stuff might come up a little bit, but when we have Mike, join us, we want to dive in or deep dive with blue water advisors See what I did there. But honestly, deep dive, like the most relevant information when it comes to money for a military retiree is, how do I get that first job next job, pay raise, increase, negotiate, you know, what do I say? What do I do? What do I want to be when I grow up? That's what I always hear. So no one better to talk to the mic. But before we get into it a little bit, just to remind everybody named of the show, get the book, Mike wrote the foreword to the book, by the way, why can I build this up where you get the book, don't forget, we're just remember, we have multiple versions of it. And I got the different ranks up here and the green ones. And that's just to show different kinds of case studies, different numbers available is available in hardcover, but you can get it on Amazon. But if you log into our website at us vault.com, click the book lake up there somewhere. And you can join our portal and access it for free, which is a place our military retirement blueprint portal, which is where we have our more inside discussion, additional knowledge, and I think we're going to be doing is maybe offered some exclusive stuff that Bluewater does a little bit down the road as we're figuring out the technology behind all this. But for now, obviously, a lot of our audience is on LinkedIn. So if you're on LinkedIn, you probably already do know about Mike Wallace and Bluewater advisors, but out of the Hampton Roads area, just providing that extra career progression, your insight, the current credible and relevant, they get the three of them right again, and you gotta go. Because, you know, Mike's a bit out in the corporate world. I mean, he's got the stories of his time at Amazon, but then also in this is really kind of what I wanted to get into today. It's the dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, at this point of other stories of success from himself, his colleagues, his friends over the years, and now his graduates coming out of Blue Water advisors. It's just a powerful resource to see what you can learn from that, you know, what do we do in the military lessons learned, you know, pass it along. And so it can work in this capacity, he's filled a gap that has been missing, let's face it, you know, the same reason I, you know, talk about what I do in this book, it's the senior military retirees officer or enlisted, tend to kind of get ignored in the big picture of, you know, what happens after the military. And even though you're

Speaker 1 2:58

too scared, you're, you're filling that gap, right? I mean, right. It's that the insight, the key insight that you bring to the table is just not historically been available, right to see your leadership for us to make an informed decision. And that's what I appreciate about what you and Jen do. And with, you know, don't forget your war chest, you bring all that insight to the table so we can make, you know, you've heard me say this before that mathematical decision, you know, yeah, really listen to a one or zero in my best interest or not. And let's, let's sit down and have our look at that. And that was just an insight that I would just never personally was made available. To me, it was a rushed decision. I didn't appreciate it. And I would just not want that for my members that are coming through. And that's why we love partnering with you and having you a part of what bluewaters doing. You're a great resource, because not my swim lane is not my ever expertise, but to have a trusted relationship with somebody like yourself, where I can honestly say, hey, members, you know, if you've got questions in this regard, Scott's been with us almost since day one. If you think back, right, I mean, you've been part of this. He's almost three years now. Scott, right. I came into the was that the first cohort? Yeah, it was like, all the way back in January, February of 21. Right? Well, I mean, it's very different. Yeah. So we've come a long way since that, right, but just love having that. That trust relationship. So Right. No, I

Scott R. Tucker 4:18

thank you for the kind words because what I saw that since that first day of walking in the room, there was something I hadn't seen in the military retirement space. And I've been in this space for over a decade, you know, just talking to military retirees, what are the resources? How did you get hired, you know, all that kind of stuff. And you know, everybody kind of had to fight their own path. And by sitting in that room that day, I was like, Oh, this is gonna be different and you know, clearly that has worked out in your favor, but your expertise is the knowledge and sharing that with the others in the room. It's not doing all his dog and pony show stuff that I do. So we My goal is, you know, with the military Ira blueprint is that I want to bring the Bluewater message to the bigger military, you know, the bigger audience of military retirees who can benefit from it you one way or the other, because that's what we're all trying to do is just kind of pay it forward. Right. And so, you know, that's, that's a, I want to get Mike Wallace out there more one, you know, to let people know, you know how to get in touch with you and a benefit from your services, but also to, you know, to kind of share the knowledge, like I said, but Well, we love Yeah, and then of course, the key is always is at the end of the day is is always about money. How long do I serve? Do I try to get promoted? You know, do I want to get more paycheck? You know, what's my retirement benefit going to be? How much VA disability am I going to have? And then when I go to my new job, what's my income and salary gonna be benefits package? You know, you know, it's it really is all about money. But in the military? Yeah, you can maybe get a job you like by somebody and no, but the pays the pay, you know, the item, maybe in the very, very senior ranks. It's all political, if

Speaker 1 6:02

you bring a good point, right. And, you know, I know, we're gonna spend a bunch of topics here today, but you know, you just kind of threw out, hey, it's all about money. And this is, you know, a lot of it is right. And, you know, the majority of our members, you know, when they seek out Bluewater and when the time is right, and we make that connection, there are a number of earning years left, right, whether it's typically members, you know, come to us at the oh five, or oh six, which is the majority, some o sevens now, which is a majority of our membership, you know, that's a 48 to 55 ish window. And so there is some finite a period of time, and I know that works into your calculus as well to on SBP. And looking at some of those options. But your point is, it just made me think about this, you know, and you said this earlier, networking is net worth net worth is networking, right? I mean, that's really what it comes down to. I mean, we've been, hey, I want to generate some more income, right. And I want to do that through networking, which is going to transfer into your net worth, right. And so the question that people come to us, or the approach that often members will make is they'll step in and they go, Hey, Mike, I know what I'm worth, this is what I was getting paid in the service, and you can make that tax adjustment algorithm and hey, so I'm not working for a penny less than this amount. And what we spent a lot of time talking to members about is that's not the question that you that you need the answer to what you are seeking the answer to, really is got you and I've had this conversation before, it's like, what can this company compensate you for doing this role or responsibility in this geographic area? That's what you want to know the answer to, because not every company has the ability to compensate individuals, perhaps at the level that they deem that they are worthy. And in that case, then members have a decision to make Either you know, you're going to adjust your strategy and your personal mission vision priorities, or you're going to pursue this company at a level that they can't compensate you or you're going to start looking for another company, right, that's going to compensate you more. But you know, members quickly realize in this new phase, this career progression, it doesn't all have to be about money. It's about fit, it's about quality of life, there are other things that are out there that you want to hold near and dear right to your strategy that you're unwilling to budge on and money may only be part of it, right can be an important part. But it doesn't have to be the sole part about that. And I know you and your vision on this and how they approach SBP and some of these other things that plays a big part into that. So that just helps translate for members when they're pursuing this, right. It doesn't all have to be about this. But as they come here, often they will start the conversation. I'm not working for penny less than this much. And I'm like, no, no, don't start the conversation there. What do you want to pursue? What company is going to be a good fit for you what what company is going to or industry is going to support the strategy that you built? You know, for example, individuals come to us and they say, Hey, you know, I've got kids in school, I don't want to leave the Hampton Roads area, I have to stay here for at least three or four years. And so the answer that I put together has to be here. And I'm not willing to go work for less than a penny less than $375,000. A year, right? And I'm like, Ooh, okay, not to say that you can't make that kind of compensation. But are you going to find it step one, and the Hampton Roads area? You know, statistically and analytically, what we see is that's probably, you know, not statistically in your favor to make that comment, say, are you willing to move to Seattle? Are you willing to move to San Francisco? Are you willing to move to Los Angeles or New York or some of these are willing to go overseas? Are you willing to do this kind of work for companies that look like this? And this and this? Well, no, I'm not well, so then we're going to go back and say, Hey, your strategy maybe doesn't support right the execution. So either what you're pursuing needs to change or your strategy needs to change, but you've got some kind of misalignment there. And these are great conversation. She's we love having with our members, right. And as they're trying to bring into focus, you know that next step and you play a big part into that to Scott right. And it just, you know, our members, right, I'll say that Horrell are the beneficiaries of a lot of the insight we bring to the table. I think they really appreciate it. Right. It helps them navigate that space. Yeah. And so

Scott R. Tucker: 10:19

the first step that I think you're introduced them to is kind of a little a little bit into the theme of today's topic, you hit on a little bit, the net work, and that's, that's what I was getting that as well, you know, the net worth equals the net work well, net worth is more than just money. He really, you know, wealth is about how you spend your time, you know, how are you fulfilling, you know, are you do you feel them for lunch? Do you feel meaningful, you know, what you're doing? And that might mean, you know, a certain paycheck or whatever on the chart, but you're gonna find out that it's not about that we kind of get used to that on the active duty, you just look at the page chart, what is it this is year? So you know, now's the opportunity to kind of get away from that. But the networking part of this comes in, you know, the obvious one is, well, how do you find the guy who's going to get you the job, but I think what you hit on in recent conversations we've had that I hadn't thought about, it's just about not just knowing the guy who knows all the guys, but knowing that people who are staying in touch with the people who are recently going through something, kind of give you these insights. And not everybody is set up to share their insights all the time. And what they've learned, hey, they got a new job. They're focused on it. Right. But to be able to be the the core place for folks to come back to and kind of share what their salary package was or how the hiring process? Well, I think that's a part of networking, that we don't think about coming out of the military, like, why are people not aware of this and have these unrealistic expectations for salaries and where they can work and all that? Because we have not tuned in? We're not networking with people out civilian world, veterans or otherwise? And that's same thing all the time. All right, how do I do this? Where do I get started getting on LinkedIn. So Mike was hoping you could share some of the best insights and tips or successes you've seen from people going from, you know, I either don't know how to network, or I don't want to network into holy cow, I made a good connection here that I wasn't expecting. Now,

: 12:23

it's a fair ask, and it's a good call out, right. So what we spent a lot of time talking to members about is, you know, our members approach us and I just want to be really clear here, you know, our members are incredibly talented, educated, you know, the pedigree of the individuals that they are, you know, these individuals move mountains, right, there's nothing that they can't do, they've delivered results in some really arduous circumstances, right. And they just do that masterfully well, but the point that I want to make is their counterpart, who never wore the cloth of the nation who's been out in some industry, you fill in the blank for 2025 30 years, they have the network, Scott, in that industry, in and around those companies that make up that industry. And they've been earning trust with it for 25 or 30 years, our member coming out service, equally talented, equally educated, in, in many instances, far and above, just with those soft skills and hard skills with this individual their counterpart may have, but the one thing they don't have is what is the network you with me. And so and

Scott R. Tucker: 13:31

the trust other than the assume trust of having more than the uniform, and that's strictly

: 13:35

is a word that we kind of throw around, we just kind of, say, network and network, and you know, you gotta meet people, but let's not forget what your network is. Your network is people, you know, and people are strange animals, right? I mean, you have to earn trust with individuals, you know, and we put out to our members, you know, they often come to us and they go, Hey, Mike, how soon Should I step into take, you know, the blue water, your career progression course. And I'm like, sooner is always better, right? Because the long pole in the tent is going to be building your network. Now, the benefit of Blue Water is we build a network. And we have been building that since day one, and we track it and we massage this network. So we know members who are immersed into the heavy lift of their job, you know, coming out of the military, that they are likely not to have had time to kind of build a robust network that's going to support their needs. And that's okay, we've built the network come to blue water, we're going to plug you into that network, but it doesn't stop there. Scott, you know, you have to reach a tipping point. If you're going to pursue an industry in a company, you know, you might need 456789 10 points of contact right in that industry in several companies that you're pursuing until you reach that density that that tipping point to where all of a sudden conversations are happening on the inside about you. Right you with me? And that's where the magic starts. happen, right? And that's how you get movement and people reaching out saying, Hey, Scott, I'm interested in you, right? We've had a couple of conversations. I know you had a conversation with a couple of my peers, and we'd like to talk to you about an opportunity. Are you interested? Right? That's how this happens. Right? What I see our members come to the table is they want one connection, and they go great. I've now met somebody new who's in a company, let's just say I was talking medical earlier with the gentleman who called them but let's just say I've now met one person in Johnson and Johnson. Okay, great. That's a great start. Now they just wait and they go, why is a job opportunity not coming for me. And I'm like, You are not done. You have to keep network. Now, Bluewater continue to introduce you to people. But at some point in time, Scott, we want to empower our members to pursue building their network on their own. And we absolutely have some great products that we put on our website to walk individuals through how to do this. This is this is a master full targeted networking approach. And surprisingly, very few people know how to utilize LinkedIn and a targeted networking search. And if you'll allow me, I'll just talk you through one example. Sure, comfortable listeners who are on LinkedIn, you can follow me through this or if you're interested in looking at the video tutorial that we put together, I'm happy to kind of give you insight into right our website and you can look at it for yourself. But on LinkedIn, if you will go to your networking tab. And if you pull this down, and let's say for example, you're going to search a company that you might be interested in. Let's say you want to look at Shell Oil. And so you're going to type Shell oil into the Networking tab and you're going to hit Enter why don't I

Scott R. Tucker: 16:45

share my screen? And I'll I'll do it. And then yeah, absolutely. It's like we can make this this isn't you know, this is meant to be kind of informal workshop. Yes. Yeah, well, that's, that's us right now live. It's a crazy. And let me do this at

: 17:03

all right. So go open your search field up in the upper left hand side there, and just for the heck of it, just type Shell Oil up there. And so this assumes that you've got some interest in the energy industry, right, and you want to kind of look at this. So you'll see that in the center screen there, a bunch of people jumped out there, you can scroll down, and you could probably see show oils, company page if you wanted. But scroll up a little bit. And I want you to click on see all people results down a little bit down there. There you go. See all people results. And so just right there, you've got 56,000 people, and you're probably saying, hey, like this completely unusable, right, I'm not going to go through 56,000 people to try to figure out somebody to have a conversation with. So if you notice that the wall clock position there where it says all filters in the upper right hand corner. Yeah, if you click all filters, and if you see the far right of the screen here, there are some means for you to filter these 56,000 results. So let's scroll down. And the first one I come to is location. So of the 56,000 people let's just say for this breakout, let's just say you want just the people in United States. So just click United States only because shows probably got people continue to scroll down. Okay, so current company, so this breakout probably has a lot of people that are at Shell Oil, but it probably also has a lot of people that were at Shotwell. So let's click on current company shell, because I just want to see the people that are there right now. Now, past company. Let's drill into this a little bit. Let's say a Scott, I know your army background, I'm Navy, but let's just say United States Navy, let's just say if you just type in US or the United States Navy, see what comes up. Okay, so the secretary go, okay, so you could go down and filter by a school, you could go down and filter it by some other, but let's just click on show results, and see what that works out to. Okay, so you shrink your search from 50. What was a 56,000 people down to 87. And now you could go back up to your all filters tab and pull it back down and go okay, instead of the United States. Let's just say I want to see people in Virginia, maybe add a location, just Virginia. Right. And then if I go down further, or you could show results there. Okay, you've got one in Virginia. So you maybe want to back that out a little bit. Maybe you can go Virginia and you could add maybe Houston and Virginia maybe those would be two good locations are your Houston Virginia CG get there. So you're down to 44. So not to take all our viewers and continue to filter this down. But I think you're starting to see that filters are a great way for you to filter this out. Now I love the school, right, you could put Naval Academy you can put US Naval War College, naval post grad school, like whatever you had in common with somebody there, you can filter it out. And now you're left until you get with a usable number there to where, okay, I can actually reach out to these individuals on what we call as a cold call message. And say, for example, you want to reach out to Brian there, or maybe Christine up at the top of your screen. And so you know, you could you could reach out to Christine, if you had a LinkedIn premium, you could send her an InMail. If you want to call up her profile, you can still send her a note, right? If you click on More, and then there should be a way to connect, no doubt one, there you go connect. And you would add note, now you get 300 characters here and say you would say Christine, your profile came up in a search of show oil executives, my name is Scott Tucker, I'm interested in learning more about Shell Oil in this region, blah, blah, blah, whatever your approach is, that's a cold call message. But you could also say, Christine, your search, you know, I see we have Navy background in common, we both shared interest in the oil industry, whenever those connections are Scott, I can't tell you how powerful this is. And I cannot tell you how many of our members pass on this opportunity. And again, on average, our career progression consultants, we track this, you get about a 20 to 30% response rate, meaning if you're gonna send 10 of these out, okay, you're gonna get somewhere between two and four responses, right. But the exciting thing about this is, is in that cold call networking realm, it's targeted, it's focused, and where you're making connections with individuals where they you have a lot in common with based on how you have filtered this data, you can yield some real results. That's right. And think about this, you can do this time and time and time, again, on any number of different industries, companies that are out there, etc. And we think it's really powerful. So it's a great networking approach got to really boost your targeted network, and we're big on that, right, I don't want you just to click on somebody and up your number of connections by one, inherently there may be a value to that. But I think he gets the point I'm trying to make, right, this is a very focused, targeted approach, we spent a lot of time talking to our members about it, but we just don't get a lot of members that fully understand the power of this right, it can be very, very powerful. And

Scott R. Tucker: 22:46

I think this is something I'm frustrated with in the whole military transition process space. And it's not even you something that you could even add to your repertoire, because you're getting hired in the in the corporate world, you have to go through that typical HR process. But I think we should be teaching sales and marketing skills, you know, because ultimately, that's what that's what this is, this is a sales and marketing problem, in the hardest problem of sales and marketing is getting to know or accepting rejection, and even know what's really happening on LinkedIn, is that people that aren't responding or you either overwhelmed or don't pay attention to LinkedIn anymore, so there can't there's a lot of truth to that. Yeah, we can't take it all. Personally, I do too. I've gotten and so so didn't respond. It's like who knows if they don't really watch on LinkedIn anymore. I don't look at Facebook anymore. If people write me all the time, I feel bad sometimes. But what we're

: 23:42

building a blue water right attacks this on a couple of fronts, right? Not only do we really espouse the targeted approach of this, right, but it's organically also the network that we are building, you know, from past current and future members that are going to be part of the Bluewater ecosystem, right, all of our members come through, they will eventually land and be someplace and they are now an active part of our network. And you know, and just hold your thought there just for a second, like when we started this off, back, you and I had this conversation. I'm like, What the heck, you know, January, February of 2020 2021. You know, it's like, Are you kidding me? We've got 10 People in the network. We've got 20 people and you're just like, man, I was questioned, is this really gonna, you know, turn into something, but you get six months into this, you get 12 months into this, you get two years into this. You get three years into this. And now the network and the keen insights across hundreds of companies and industries, hundreds of the pedigree of individuals that come through our door got that's powerful, right, and it grows month over month over month,

Scott R. Tucker: 24:50

and I think the real catalyst is what's gonna happen is when guys hit their two to three or four year mark and want to jump to the next position. and kind of, you know, start to want to get pay raises and move around, you know, when you start having your network introduce people, because once they start becoming someone of influence, they're like, hey, now I'm hiring people, who am I going to hire? So here's that I was just thinking a second ago, we were just doing the search feature. So what I do on LinkedIn, and this is what I want to do, if you saw my battle rhythm that I posted, I want to do a LinkedIn Power Hour. And I was gonna get Fridays at lunchtime, kind of just open invite, we're gonna do a private inside the portal, but we'll talk like inside inside baseball on LinkedIn strategies, and there's, there's no right or wrong. Sometimes you got to do the direct outreach approach and doing the filters and stuff. Sometimes there's some other stuff that you can do. But what I was thinking just now is, well, why not? If what if you could create either a, I don't know if it would be a certificate, we'd have to have to look at the LinkedIn platform. But quite frankly, you could just say that anybody who went through your program is a Bluewater graduate and add them and they could add that to their experience on their profile. Or maybe you make you have an added as a school. So now, when you tell your new students coming in, the first thing they add as a search is Bluewater graduate wonders. Yeah, yeah. sudden, something along those lines, because Because sooner or later, you're gonna have over 1000 people. Well, you know, we're

: 26:23

really excited about this. So that's a great segue. Stay tuned. Right. For members, Bluewater digital, we're working hard to make that a reality right? In turn that platform with our IT partners here locally, we're pursuing a lot of those options. So we're not just sitting back and just you know, letting our members just be the recipient of just a message or content or whatever. And we are pushing the edge of this envelope, we're taking full advantage of our members, right where they're at their keen insights. Third landing reports their insight on just how they found success specifically at a particular company or within an industry, right, that's the power of blue water, right. And we're just excited to continue to build that, you know, month over month over month. And we've reached a point, right, as we start getting close to starting our fourth year, numbers start to kind of mean something, right? I mean, the numbers and the volume of individuals that are through who have found success, who are now part of the expanded network, who are waiting right for new members to plug in with them so that they can have an opportunity to assist those new members and finding their success, right, that's truly at the heart of what it is we're trying to build.

Scott R. Tucker: 27:36

Well, actually, Greg just asked us a question. And this kind of, again, also segues into what we were talking about, like, Hey, if you're already, you know, at a job, but how do we, how do we do this networking thing, while while we're still employed? So I'll just read Greg's question, Greg is here in the local area, a West Point grad as well, 2001 Grad, I do had a good starter civilian jobs he got out a couple years ago, out of network in the specialty, but that's not being supported by the company and ready to move on in the network. But you're still employed on LinkedIn. You know, I kind of think here, you know, LinkedIn is a networking event in and of itself, it's 24/7. And you're allowed to have a conversation with somebody at all times. And you know, how you reach out, you know, whether doing one on one or being official about it, you know, that's one of the things I think that's underutilized on LinkedIn is building out the kind of personal brand and not making it about your specialty, but making it more about your personality. That way people kind of just get to know you for other reasons. And then eventually, they kind of go, what are you doing? What do you what do you like to do now that takes more time takes more dedication, you don't always have the ability to kind of do that when you have a full time job as well. But those are my two cents. I just wanted to see Mike, if this has come up at all, for you yet. And your and your graduates, you know, two things

: 28:58

come to mind. Right? And I'm not sure you know, I'd love to talk to Greg offline and kind of get his specifics. But you know, one of the tendencies that we see with our members, when they do land at their first success, the first thing they want to do is just dropped the PAC I've got a job. I'm done, right. I mean, that's kind of their mindset. Yeah,

Scott R. Tucker: 29:16

I've arrived and I'm done. And that's the people that stop stop being active on LinkedIn. Yeah,

: 29:21

exactly. And I'm saying no, no, no. And and I say, you think building your network that assisted you and achieving and helping find success was time consuming, or this time tried building it, not touching it for three years, and then trying to go back to it. You know, your, again, your network is people right? And people don't forget that right and earning trust and maintaining trust and confidence with your network. You have to invest into it. And so I'm not sure if that was, you know, where Greg landed there or not, we'd love to talk to him about it. But you know, it sounded like he had built a little bit of a network in there and now he's going to be pursuing something new perhaps ABS is what it sounds like maybe not exactly, you know, in alignment with where he's at right now, Greg, I would just encourage you to start doing what we refer to as your market analysis phase, like, what are those industries and companies that are out there that you're interested in. And you got to do a little bit of due diligence in those areas. First, once you start to narrow that down and find those good fits that align with your personal mission, vision and priorities, right, then you get busy at, you know, the big game hunting, right? You're setting your sights on companies like that. And then that's when you could reach out to an organization like blue water, you'd say, Hey, Mike, and do we know anybody at Deloitte or Ernst and Young, I really want to get into, you know, consulting advisory company like this. And as wonder if you might be able to make some introductions? The answer is, yes, we have a lot of members there, we're happy to kind of make those initial connections. But members can also, as we just walked through, Scott can help themselves out in that regard, right, by deep diving, those companies looking for individuals for those things, that you can filter out that you have things in common with those individuals, right, and you can pursue conversations out there. And one of the keys to networking is in you get this and people that have done this, realize that a lot of our members aren't experienced networking, you know, while you know, you get smiles on their faces while they're looking for their next success. And while they are looking for their next J. OB, you never asked for one, right? And that's the that's the hat trick and networking, right. I mean, you work so hard to build a relationship and, and, and have a conversation with somebody, you know, it's almost backwards. It's almost ironic that the key to and success in networking is you're never asking for anything, you're almost looking for an opportunity to do something, or a window of opportunity to demonstrate your level of understanding or an assessment of the skills that you have, that may be a good fit here. But you're not going to say hey, what job do you have? And I really want to talk to you about getting hired. And people are defensive animals at that point, right. But you want to get your foot in the door, and really get them to talk about themselves. Right. And that is your that is oh,

Scott R. Tucker: 32:11

let me ask you this, because I've always been curious about this as a strategy that knocks on this is again, when it comes into learning sales and marketing skill sets, persuade me it's all about communication, sure you communicating well enough, your your skills, your values, what you even want, or you communicate with yourself what you even want. And I think that's the thing we forget to do often, you know, coming out of the military. Again, back to that question, you know, what do I want to do I grew up also means you know, what's even available, given you know, what I did in the military. And when we we aren't quite sure if we've got the right certifications to do the thing we either want to do whether we get paid well for as part of the research, I always thought a neat idea would be to just do interviews, like literally nobody like we're doing right now and showcase the individuals at those companies. Now the trick would be on LinkedIn is trying to figure out who wants to talk about themselves at that company. surance Oh, going in without any pretense that you're even employable. Just say, Hey, I noticed your posts on LinkedIn. I like what you talk about sounds like you do good work. And you like hiring veterans, you know, whatever. I'm doing research about all sorts of different companies. I'm going through my own retirement myself, would you be interested in doing a quick interview, I can showcase you on the platform? It oh, by the way, you know, this is how I do and, you know, be honest about it. Sure. And, and I know that would work because nobody does it. Nobody would do it. They think I don't like being on camera, or you know, nobody would pay attention or watch and stuff. It's like, Hey, you got to realize that some of those individuals want to what the practice to come on and be interviewed and in a low stakes environment, think about the the people at the job fairs sit behind the booths, interview all those people you know, they want to their job is to showcase their company and make them look good, right. And so what better thing to do. Anyways, I thought that was a good idea. Most people could do

: 34:10

more. Now it's a it's a great call out right. And it just kind of made me think of a couple of things. There's there's two things that when I see our members pursuing this that I just just makes me take a knee the first thing is, you know, there's little banners people put around their name, you know, it says open to the world, or, you know, hey, hey, look at me, I need help. Right? I can't you know, it's like a fallen I can't get up that kind of thing. You know, we've actually done a little research on that right. And for the pedigree of individuals that come through Bluewater, we highly encourage individuals not to put that banner up. Right. And it for a couple of reasons. One primarily is that yeah, it may garner some attention from the ocean of goodwill that it's out there nine times out of 10 it's it's not the type of attention that the members are looking for. Right I mean, it's it's the pursuit that they're looking for that's that's not who's going Come knockin. And the fact of the matter is we want our members to take charge part of our process is I think you're really good. This is a targeted approach. We're going to do your homework and your you're going to track you're going to find it's like hunting big game. I mean, this is what this is, right? And you're going to do this, you know, again, the other thing that just makes me take a knee, it just, it just breaks my heart is like I hear individuals go, Well, I'm gonna go to some job fair or whatever. And I'm going to walk in, and I'm going to stand here until somebody likes me, right? And it's like a third grader going out on recess on the playground, and he's going to wait to be picked for kickball, and they go, Oh, you like me? I like you, okay, I'll be on your team. And we tell our members don't give away your decision making authority. Like, you know, I'm not saying that that may not be a good opportunity. If you go to a job fair. And all of a sudden, some company, let's just say a company like Microsoft comes up and they're nice to you. And they invite you over to their booth. And they they really liked me. And I'm not saying that may not be a great opportunity. Absolutely. Very well may be what we espouse is I want you to prove it to yourself, prove to yourself that it's a good fit, does it fit with your personal mission, vision priorities, does it fit with all those things that you're looking to hold dear in this next phase in your life and your career progression, and if it is a good fit, then pursue it. And if it's not, then don't look at it as a shiny object that you're going to be drawn off, stay on target, right? Hunt the big game, the outcome that you want. And we just see, you know, the ocean of goodwill, and the approach can just be desperation, you're just going to stand there and wait for somebody to pick you. And the statistics, you know, the statistics often, right, it is not a good fit. And the one thing we look at our membership, and the one thing if I could stereotypically say, we know our members, we understand who our members are, the fact that matter is if it is a bad fit, and they are unfulfilled, and they're not happy there, they will leave, you will thrust yourself back out into this career progression time. And while I can't guarantee that your first choice is going to be the best choice, I want to be very clear about this. Make no mistake about it. This is the goal, right? That's the goal, I want you to pick wisely and arrive at a good fit right from the get go. And in the event that you do leave later, that's your decision. You weren't thrust out of this because you hated it. And it was a horrible fit, right? I want you to do that legwork upfront, and I want you to arrive at a good fit right and know that it's a good fit. And we can help with that. Right. And and largely that comes back to the networking side, Scott, you know, you're gonna understand it's a good fit, you're gonna have a lot of conversations, not just one, not just two, and then a job offers come in, right? I mean, every place that I found employment, whether or not that was an Amazon or I came back and did consulting, or I did some contract work at you know, some government contracting companies, right? Like your network into whatever your pursuit is 56789 10 People you cannot be networked. There's not a point where you say, Oh, you're over network, that is not a thing. Alright, more people that you know, and who know you, right? That's what it's about. Right? That's what networking is all about.

Scott R. Tucker: 38:11

I was thinking while you were talking there, because you kept you said it a couple of times taken me, I want to do a segment where it's called take a knee with Mike Wallace. I encourage YC to come in. And just like, honestly, we should do like your top 10 Like things where you just like fellas, like, here's, here's the way it works. And you know, because it's like going to those networking events, you that's what I say, if you're just on LinkedIn, and you're not posting or commenting. Because that's the easiest way to engage with people is comment on their posts, don't send them a message, be a frequent comment on their post. If you're going to reach out to the person on shell reach out to the person that shell who posts a lot. Yeah, do them a favor. Understand that LinkedIn is about doing favors for each other when you comment and like people's post, it boosts their posts so that then they feel they have a brand. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I

: 39:00

just wanted to say just two things. You just made me think about this, right? And, you know, take a knee right, I get it right. You know, there are so many things that we feel we have to repeat, but I go all the way back to when I used to be an instructor in the F 14 And I would fly sometimes with students maybe it was their third or fourth flight or fifth You know that very few hours in it. And inherently you almost I won't say almost do you knew the mistakes they were gonna make before they ever did. Like you were that far out in front, whether it's you forgot to lower the gear or maybe you didn't raise the gear or maybe you didn't do something you knew the mistakes and while that's a frustration to an instructor who does this day in and day out for years of their life, it's that person's first time they've made us. So while we do take a knee and while it is frustration, we have that allegiance to our members that I get it I go That's the first time you're hearing it, or that's the first time you now understand why you don't do it this way. But that will be the 100 and 50th time, you know that we're sharing that insight. And so I think it's important for me and the rest of our career progression consultants like Jim Webb and Steve Wieman, and Brian herd lick and Dave Wade lick, and all these guys, now, John Malfitano is with us. And these guys are coming to us, probably some important for us to keep in mind, like, Hey, we're gonna see these mistakes over and over and over again. But we need to understand that our members are just seeing it for the first time, you know, largely right, if that makes sense, right? No,

Scott R. Tucker: 40:36

absolutely. And ultimately, that's why you're the guy to know because, you know, not just the other people to know, inside these organizations and to build out that network. I mean, that's the secret behind all this. Everybody who's listening is that Bluewater has set it up for you, you know, I kind of jokingly call it an old old boys network, you know, want to be all inclusive, but you know, you get the pun. And so we just really appreciate you setting this up and, you know, offer the insights. And so yeah, I think, you know, do it and take a knee every Tuesday with Mike just to kind of share, like, maybe we just go a little bit deeper into a particular thing, tell a story. And then and then answer questions as they come up, you know, I love you. And we can go 15 minutes or two hours, you know, whatever. It just depends on on how deep questions go, but

: 41:26

about meeting the needs of our members, right and navigating with them to their next success. And so we're, you know, I'm just floored that, that the trust and competence that they bestow upon us to allow us to be a part of that, right. I never take that for granted. Right. And so we reciprocate that, that we put our members needs above all else, right? And we're very transparent about, you know, our approach to business, you know, how it is we're growing. Ultimately, we're customer obsessed, right? And sound familiar from a time when I was at Amazon, right? The number one thing that company was never lost sight of is they were customer obsessed. Well, this makes all the sense of the world, right? I mean, our members are what make us successful, why wouldn't I obsess over them? I want nothing more. And for each and every one of them to find their next success. And then for us to be able to preserve those key insights that they learned along the way. Right? It just makes sense. Right? It's an efficient approach. I mean, imagine if you and I could go back through a DOD, you know, Department of Labor, Department of Defense, Veteran Affairs, kind of multi headed, you know, program like tap. Could you imagine if tap tracked, everybody who had been through tap their specifics, their background, where they landed, the successes and challenges that they learned along the way? What company and industry they were with how they negotiated, you know, their offer, you know, what did the company extend to them? What did they negotiate? And ultimately, what did they arrive at, like, if you knew all of that, think of the data and the insight, you would have listened for everybody listening, that's at the heart of what we're trying to build here at Blue Water, and it's not a fit for everybody. I tell our members, right, hey, I hope you guys are excited about this. Welcome to the family. But if you are not a good mentor, and we have people, Hey, Mike, I'd really love these insights, I'd love a plug in, hey, you know what, I just don't think I'm a good mentor, I just don't really think I'd be interested in kind of helping the next gallon I go, You know what, this is probably not a good fit for you. That's not what we're building here, Scott, and you know, that right, this is a, we're building this program together, I want to build something that's going to be bigger than all of us, that's going to have these laser focus, keen insights. And at some point in time, you are just going to have to recognize the data and the insight that we have that you cannot, you know, deny that this is this is delivering results and changing people's lives, right. This is what it's about.

Scott R. Tucker: 43:58

Taking the lessons learned from those who went before is the smartest way to network, you know, to compound, the the lessons learned. So now you're definitely set it up. And I think, you know, the trust factor is there for you. Because you we can talk about your business model on another show, but you're not like a recruiting firm, or you're just trying to get people through to get hired by such a such firm, because they're gonna give you a kickback or whatever you're not tied in in that way at all. It's, it's truly you're almost doing a research project, I would say, by the data, you're gathering and taking your time to have only 10 people in a room, you know, plus or minus, to give, you know, very personal attention to everybody. And so it's only fair that I would think that people want to share their insights. And I think most people probably probably do, as well, because again, they're probably you know, whether it's, Hey, I'm ready to move on, or the company needs you to move on because they ran out of money and who gets laid off first. So we're aware of troubled economies ahead, right at least Hopefully are. Maybe that's another topic as well. But Well, cool, Mike, well, hey, I know you're busy. That's fun. But yeah, though, for those listening, the idea here is, you know, Mike and I just kind of want to chat and get an update what's been going on in our space, we're talking to just tons of military retirees, as senior leaders every day from Boolean what we do, it only makes sense to kind of have those conversations overlap a little bit. But I'm being honest, I said, Hey, Mike's message is the most valuable in the now my message is useful along the way. But hey, when it comes to what do you want to do after the military, I know that that's where your head and mindset is. So I want to I'm just glad that we can kind of give that platform to continue those conversations online. So we'll continue that inside our portal. And when you get logged in to get the book, you can get access to that. We've got a whole bunch of stuff in there, see live in there, but RMIT worked who will find you other than obviously, on LinkedIn.

: 45:58

Yeah, you know, you can find us on our website, right? It's on the worldwide web there Blue Water dash advisors.com. Right, we've got a great website. You know, if you're interested in attending a cohort, we highly encourage you to lead turn that right. In fact, I'm here to tell you, right, and we're already busy at scripting out our 2024 schedule. And so we got to get busy on that. We'll release that. Hopefully, as we get into q4 So

Scott R. Tucker: 46:28

yeah, I'm excited to kind of, you know, what's what's coming next there because I've been talking to people in Europe and California. And every time I met you, they're like, oh, you know what we're doing? So that's another reason my can't be everywhere. So another reason we want to, you know, get them on on these videos will want to get to Well, yeah, people can chime in and learn that way. But cool. Well, well, I look forward to announcing those dates on future episodes, but Jen chimed in to say we did. Yeah.

: 46:56

Hi. Thanks again. We appreciate it. Scott, you're a great host. Thanks for having me, man. I love doing these things with you. Now. I

Scott R. Tucker: 47:03

appreciate it. Alright, everybody. See y'all next time.

Unknown Speaker: 47:05

Good day, everybody.