Speaker 1: After years of work, Ryan Pavel had finally landed his
Speaker 1: dream job with the Warrior Scholar Project. He was a
Speaker 1: military veteran turned lawyer who dreamed of working with other veterans.
Speaker 1: The Warrior Scholar Project had just received a huge grant
Speaker 1: that would allow them to bring him on as executive director,
Speaker 1: but right before he was supposed to begin, his boss
Speaker 1: suddenly left the organization.
Speaker 2: So I came on board. And I had this really
Speaker 2: small team of people who believed in the thing, like
Speaker 2: a few people, and we had enough money in the
Speaker 2: bank to be able to pay the bills. But the
Speaker 2: organization sustainability really depended on it grant. I didn't realize
Speaker 2: how much depended on it until I actually got a
Speaker 2: look at the.
Speaker 3: Full on financials.
Speaker 2: I also didn't realize that we were only in phase
Speaker 2: one of this big grant application.
Speaker 1: Okay, let me just make sure I have this right.
Speaker 1: You come on board on spec. You don't know how
Speaker 1: on spec it is. You desperately need this grant way
Speaker 1: more than you realize. You desperately need this grant, and
Speaker 1: it's a little further away than you sort of were
Speaker 1: led to believe. Yeah shit, all right, Yeah, welcome to
Speaker 1: The Unshakeables from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio from iHeartMedia.
Speaker 1: I'm Ben Walter, CEO of Chase for Business.
Speaker 4: And I'm Tanya Nebo, a lawyer and consultant for business owners.
Speaker 1: On The Unshakeables, we're sharing the daring stories of small
Speaker 1: business owners facing their crisis points and telling the stories
Speaker 1: of how they got through it. And today I want
Speaker 1: to introduce you to someone special who will be joining
Speaker 1: us on this episode. Mark Elliott is Managing Director and
Speaker 1: Global head of Military and Veteran Affairs for JP Morgan Chase,
Speaker 1: where I work, and we're excited to have him join
Speaker 1: us today. Hi. Mark, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Ben, Thank you for having me and thank you for
Speaker 4: hosting this. I think this is important for not just
Speaker 4: the veteran community, but the entire small business community.
Speaker 1: We're fortunate enough to be colleagues, but JP Morgan Chase
Speaker 1: is a really big place, So why don't you tell
Speaker 1: everyone what it is you do for the firm.
Speaker 4: I do lead our military invention affairs here at JP
Speaker 4: Morgan Chase. I pinch myself every day just to know
Speaker 4: that I get to do this. It's a way to
Speaker 4: give back to a community that I spent twenty eight
Speaker 4: years serving alongside.
Speaker 1: So Mark, hopefully you know what our show is all about,
Speaker 1: and I think you've heard a couple episodes, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to have you join us today because you are
Speaker 1: a veteran and just like Ryan, you work with veterans
Speaker 1: all the time as they transition from military life into
Speaker 1: civilian life.
Speaker 4: Well, Ben, thank you for shedding a light on this community.
Speaker 4: I think they are a treasure that we should be
Speaker 4: proud of and make sure we're helping them be successful.
Speaker 1: On today's episode, the Warrior Scholar Project from Washington, d C. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, I just want to say, in front
Speaker 1: of everyone, I say thank you for your service.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your support. It's actually really
Speaker 2: interesting even that question about how veterans respond to that
Speaker 2: question of thank you for your service. That's really topical
Speaker 2: in the veteran community. There's a school of people that
Speaker 2: really reject that as like something that people don't like
Speaker 2: being thanked for their service. There's a whole lot of
Speaker 2: conversation about it, and it took me years before I
Speaker 2: heard somebody else say to do you didn't at all? No,
Speaker 2: but but put to that point, right, that that my
Speaker 2: response to that is actually what I found that is
Speaker 2: the most comfortable that you say thank you for your service,
Speaker 2: and then I always respond, you know, thank you for
Speaker 2: your support.
Speaker 1: Ryan, as you'll hear throughout this episode, has a complicated
Speaker 1: relationship with the military, but one thing is crystal clear.
Speaker 1: His support for veterans is unwavering. To understand how Ryan
Speaker 1: got to the Warrior Scholar project, we have to go
Speaker 1: back to the beginning.
Speaker 2: I grew up in a upper middle class suburb, very privileged,
Speaker 2: upbringing only child.
Speaker 3: Very very fortunate in that regard.
Speaker 2: And since I grew up outside Chicago, with the school
Speaker 2: everybody wanted to go to was University of Illinois, and
Speaker 2: I got rejected, and rightly so. I was not a
Speaker 2: particularly compelling candidate. I was not achieving my potential. My
Speaker 2: extracurriculars were track and cross country and getting last in
Speaker 2: a lot of those races.
Speaker 1: After that rejection, he didn't know where to turn. Then
Speaker 1: he spoke with a recruiter from the Marine Corps.
Speaker 3: Some things clicked for me.
Speaker 2: The path that I thought that I was going to do,
Speaker 2: the path that seemed easy, is not the path that
Speaker 2: I'm actually going to follow. Of just going to school
Speaker 2: and taking a major and studying something for the sake
Speaker 2: of studying something. It seemed like a really good way
Speaker 2: to be able to wipe the slate clean, at least
Speaker 2: of the junior ranks the military. It's a true meritocracy.
Speaker 2: All that matters is can you do this number of
Speaker 2: pull ups? Doesn't matter where you came from or anything
Speaker 2: else like that. I like that a lot service of
Speaker 2: country and a lot of pride, something that I could
Speaker 2: take a lot of pride ownership over.
Speaker 1: So Ryan he joined up. He went to basic training
Speaker 1: and took a series of aptitude tests to see what
Speaker 1: career he would be best suited for. His testing indicated
Speaker 1: he would excel in languages. So he set out learning
Speaker 1: Arabic all day.
Speaker 3: Every day. You're learning from native speakers.
Speaker 1: It's a tough language too, it's not a Roman alphabet
Speaker 1: the whole thing.
Speaker 2: Right, And you're not just a college student either, right,
Speaker 2: Like the Marine Corps still owns you, right, And so
Speaker 2: you are doing all the formations and all the training
Speaker 2: for the Marine Corps. But then you know your job
Speaker 2: is really to be able to actually learn that language.
Speaker 3: And how that go well, ups and downs?
Speaker 2: Right, It was not a particularly easy language right for
Speaker 2: me to learn, and so I needed some additional tutoring
Speaker 2: and I ended up doing okay. But the thing about
Speaker 2: it is that it all that matters is one test
Speaker 2: at the end.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 2: But you have to hit a certain line and you
Speaker 2: can either be a linguist or you can't. And I
Speaker 2: failed basically everybody around me passed it, and so it's
Speaker 2: sort of this series of failures. It's like, okay, well,
Speaker 2: I'm seventeen years old. I get rejected from you know,
Speaker 2: via Like okay, well, now I'm going to be an
Speaker 2: Arabic linguist. I tell everybody for a year and a
Speaker 2: half between boot camp and all these things, but I'm
Speaker 2: moving towards this thing, and I take this test. Well wait,
Speaker 2: now I failed this thing too.
Speaker 1: Ryan was given an option. He could either find another
Speaker 1: specialty or he could double down, work harder, and retake
Speaker 1: the test in eight weeks. Ryan decided to focus and
Speaker 1: go for it.
Speaker 2: I learned probably more Arabic in those eight weeks than
Speaker 2: and the rest of the sixty three weeks combined. Wow,
Speaker 2: And so I took it again and I passed, and
Speaker 2: so then I was able to leave that duty station
Speaker 2: went at North Carolina, and I went back and forth
Speaker 2: to a Rock from there a couple times between two
Speaker 2: thousand and twenty ten.
Speaker 1: During his time in the military, Ryan worked as an
Speaker 1: Arabic translator.
Speaker 2: You are working in a secure environment and you are
Speaker 2: translating whatever comes across your desk. We lived in a bunker,
Speaker 2: just kind of buried into a dune on the side
Speaker 2: of a base. I worked the night shift, so it's
Speaker 2: twelve hours on, twelve hours off for seven months, for
Speaker 2: seven days a week. So you get kind of weird, right,
Speaker 2: you know. Imagine that the folks that you're with, like
Speaker 2: you get real close in real weird ways. We were
Speaker 2: attached to an infantry unit and a human intelligence unit.
Speaker 1: He wasn't only in the bunker though. On his second tour,
Speaker 1: he went out into the field.
Speaker 2: A lot of my memories from Irock are those ones
Speaker 2: when we were out in the field and actually translating
Speaker 2: and meeting people from the communities. I grew up a
Speaker 2: lot like just being able to be around different cultures
Speaker 2: effectively kicked me into high gear in a way that
Speaker 2: I was not feeling when I was seventeen.
Speaker 1: At that point, Ryan had been in for five years,
Speaker 1: but he had never stopped wanting to go to school.
Speaker 2: Two thirds of enlisted service members are first gen college students,
Speaker 2: and so I was in the minority that I was
Speaker 2: not a first gen college student, which means that I
Speaker 2: had this familial support to be able to say, hey, like,
Speaker 2: college is a thing that you should be doing, but
Speaker 2: there still are these challenges in terms of what that
Speaker 2: transition can look like for me.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure many of you have heard of the
Speaker 1: GI Bill, which was first introduced after World War Two
Speaker 1: and provided veterans with a host of benefits, one of
Speaker 1: the best known being tuition coverage for a service member
Speaker 1: looking to attend college or vocational school. What we have
Speaker 1: now is a little different, and it was passed in
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. This bill, the one Ryan would
Speaker 1: have access to, covered the cost of tuition for any
Speaker 1: university in the veterans' home state. One critique about the
Speaker 1: implementation of that bill is that there's low awareness among
Speaker 1: service members about the options that are available to them
Speaker 1: as they transition out of the military. Many veterans end
Speaker 1: up going to the college or university that advertises the
Speaker 1: most to them, rather than the institution that might be
Speaker 1: the best fit for their academic goals and needs as
Speaker 1: a student. In twenty ten, Ryan was in the same boat.
Speaker 1: Unsure of where to turn. He did what millions of
Speaker 1: people do every day when they're looking for answers.
Speaker 2: I went to Google, and I typed in on Arabic
Speaker 2: college and veteran and I applied to the schools that
Speaker 2: popped up. So not like the most sophisticated, you know,
Speaker 2: University of Michigan popped up at top of that list.
Speaker 2: So many Arab Americans live in that area that they
Speaker 2: have a phenomenal Arabic program at University of Michigan. So
Speaker 2: I applied and was promptly rejected.
Speaker 1: It was the University of Illinois all over again. But
Speaker 1: unlike seventeen year old Ryan, who pivoted former Marine, Ryan
Speaker 1: didn't back down.
Speaker 2: I called the admission's office and said, hey, I was
Speaker 2: very interested in your institution. Could you give me any
Speaker 2: sort of input on what led to that rejection. They
Speaker 2: connected me to somebody who'd actual viewed my application, and
Speaker 2: she was very blunt about it. She's like, you got
Speaker 2: some good things you want for you, but you haven't
Speaker 2: shown you can be a good student, which is fair, right,
Speaker 2: Michigan requires people to be good to studies.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Ryan knew he could study. He shown himself that during
Speaker 1: his Arabic courses. So he enrolled at the community college
Speaker 1: near his base in North Carolina.
Speaker 2: While I was still active DUTEY in my last couple
Speaker 2: of months, just whatever the classes were that were available,
Speaker 2: which is a really common path for a lot of
Speaker 2: veterans using community college.
Speaker 1: It's one of the most underappreciated assets we have in
Speaker 1: this country. It's a whole separate podcaste. We agreed completely
Speaker 1: under valued, underfunded, underappreciated all across the board.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And I was able to transfer to University of Michigan.
Speaker 2: I was there for two years, took as many courses
Speaker 2: as I possibly could to get my degree as quickly
Speaker 2: as I could, which is not the way that I
Speaker 2: advise veterans to go about getting undergraduate digression degree in
Speaker 2: international relations.
Speaker 1: So Mark, this is usually the part in our story
Speaker 1: where we take a moment and talk about what we've
Speaker 1: just heard. When I first met Ryan, we were introduced
Speaker 1: and I said it's nice to meet you. Thank you
Speaker 1: for your service, and he said thank you for your support.
Speaker 1: And then we got into a discussion. He said that
Speaker 1: there are a number of veterans who are very uncomfortable
Speaker 1: with the phrase thank you for your service, and I
Speaker 1: just wanted to understand that a bit more because I've
Speaker 1: always felt, as a patriot so very proud to say
Speaker 1: thank you, because I genuinely am grateful for people who
Speaker 1: make the sacrifice to serve our country. Where where does
Speaker 1: that come from?
Speaker 4: Different veterans are going to feel different about that type
Speaker 4: of thank you. How that's manifested, I think is really
Speaker 4: what Ryan was probably trying to say. How is that
Speaker 4: mana infested in the actions of your organization, the actions
Speaker 4: of your community, the actions of you maybe as an individual,
Speaker 4: I think is where maybe the friction into that comes.
Speaker 4: I always say, thank you for your service is important
Speaker 4: to me, but let's see how does your organization actually
Speaker 4: do that on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1: So that's really helpful because I'm educating myself now. Ryan
Speaker 1: went to school, but many service members don't take that path.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about other transitions out of the military.
Speaker 4: Some people say I'm going to stay four or five
Speaker 4: years and I'm going to get out. I was one
Speaker 4: of those, and then some say I'm going to stay
Speaker 4: thirty years and they get out at five and so
Speaker 4: you just never know. Assignments happen every two to three years,
Speaker 4: and so you know there's a transition opportunity every two
Speaker 4: or three years. It just may not be a transition
Speaker 4: out of the military.
Speaker 1: So when you talk to veter into a transitioning from
Speaker 1: active duty into the private sector in some form, how
Speaker 1: do you tell them to think about figuring out that transition.
Speaker 4: It's all about prepping yourself. And to me, that's what
Speaker 4: this is all about. This is what helping service members
Speaker 4: transition is all about, is making sure they are prepared.
Speaker 4: If we can build relationship with service members while they're
Speaker 4: still serving, to help them tap into skills that they
Speaker 4: didn't know they had, help them develop skills that they
Speaker 4: didn't know were dormant. You're not sure about how do
Speaker 4: I value at You're not sure what you bring to
Speaker 4: the table, and we're going to point you to some
Speaker 4: resources that can help you think through that. Do you
Speaker 4: want to go to school? If you want to go
Speaker 4: to school, now, let us help you. Warrior Scholar Project
Speaker 4: is one of those organizations that can help you as
Speaker 4: a transition service member into college. How do you become successful.
Speaker 4: How do you build the right relationships network You may
Speaker 4: be working because you actually have a family now that
Speaker 4: you took out of the military with you. Let's let
Speaker 4: us help you think through how do you do all
Speaker 4: of those things.
Speaker 1: Back to Ryan, he got his degree in two years,
Speaker 1: which is not something he would advise people to do,
Speaker 1: by the way, but at the time he just didn't
Speaker 1: know better. It was just one of a few challenges
Speaker 1: he never anticipated about returning to civilian life as a
Speaker 1: college student.
Speaker 2: One of the big challenges is, particularly when you're junior enlisted,
Speaker 2: the question of why is not acceptable. Like if you
Speaker 2: were to take it to the extreme example of a
Speaker 2: boot camp of a drones Starctter says, you know, do
Speaker 2: fifty push ups and you say.
Speaker 3: Why, it's not going to go over well right.
Speaker 2: In the college environment, if you don't ask why, then
Speaker 2: you're missing a huge part of it. If you don't
Speaker 2: understand a concept, really understanding why going to office hours
Speaker 2: doing those things.
Speaker 3: So there's a big.
Speaker 2: Challenge there in terms of the difference of community and
Speaker 2: in terms of what the culture expects of you in
Speaker 2: one environment versus another. You can short circuit that if
Speaker 2: you really directly ask the question of what's your response
Speaker 2: the first time that somebody asks you if you've killed anybody?
Speaker 3: Right? Like, that's a very stark question.
Speaker 2: But you should think about your answer to that question
Speaker 2: before somebody asks it. It's a crazy thing to ask somebody,
Speaker 2: it is, but it happens. How do you have these
Speaker 2: sorts of discussions, How do you join student groups? How
Speaker 2: do you go to these meetings? How do you embrace
Speaker 2: everything that this college campus and this college unity has
Speaker 2: to offer. But I needed some fellow veterans to walk
Speaker 2: me through that.
Speaker 1: Ryan's identity as a veteran stayed with him as a
Speaker 1: student and then as he transitioned into the workforce.
Speaker 2: So I wanted to continue to serve. So I actually
Speaker 2: taught with Teach for America for a couple of years
Speaker 2: in Detroit. My taught high school hardest job I've ever
Speaker 2: had by some margin. I was not cut out for
Speaker 2: that work. I committed to doing two years and there
Speaker 2: was no chance that I was going to quit. But
Speaker 2: it was not the best application of my skill set.
Speaker 2: So I went to law school. And around that time
Speaker 2: that I was going from finishing up my teaching requirement
Speaker 2: to go to law school, I've heard about Warrior Scholar Project.
Speaker 1: We've heard this name, the Warrior Scholar Project a few
Speaker 1: times now, but let's talk about what it is. The
Speaker 1: Warrior Scholar Project is a national nonprofit five oh one
Speaker 1: c three that equips enlisted veterans to succeed in higher
Speaker 1: education classrooms and beyond. It was founded in twenty twelve
Speaker 1: by Christopher Howell. Howell wanted to go to school when
Speaker 1: he got out of the military, but he wasn't sure
Speaker 1: he'd be able to To help him, Howell's brother designed
Speaker 1: a crash course curriculum in student life that prepared Howell
Speaker 1: to apply for university programs. Christopher went on to study
Speaker 1: at Yale and that crash course went on to become
Speaker 1: the Warrior Scholar Project's curriculum. He started this program to
Speaker 1: help service members with two friends also students, and that's
Speaker 1: the program Ryan came across while he was at the
Speaker 1: University of Michigan. This is something I want to underscore
Speaker 1: about this episode. Unlike the other folks we've spoken to
Speaker 1: here on the Unshakables, Ryan was not the singular founder
Speaker 1: of the Warrior Scholar Project, but he did found the
Speaker 1: first chapter. Outside of its original incarnation at Yale.
Speaker 2: The first branch that they allowed us to really be
Speaker 2: able to franchise what they were doing at Yale. That
Speaker 2: was a very easy decision for me to be able
Speaker 2: to do that because they were doing something at Yale
Speaker 2: in this Warrior Scholar Project classroom that was unlike any
Speaker 2: other transition program, any other classroom environment that I had
Speaker 2: been a part of.
Speaker 3: It was this like intoxicating thing.
Speaker 1: The Warrior Scholar curricul KALEM creates a highly structured environment
Speaker 1: where enlisted service members feel confident to prepare them for
Speaker 1: academic life.
Speaker 2: It is primarily a series of academic boot camps where
Speaker 2: you are taking enlisted service members who want to be
Speaker 2: able to pursue their undergraduate studies, and we put them
Speaker 2: in a safe, but ungraded, unaccredited environment that is really demanding.
Speaker 2: We mean it when we call it a boot camp.
Speaker 2: It's about seventy five hours of work per week, and
Speaker 2: they are on these college campuses experiencing what it's like
Speaker 2: to succeed at Columbia, at University of Chicago, at Yale,
Speaker 2: at University of Michigan, at schools like this, and they
Speaker 2: come out the other end of that ready to go
Speaker 2: wherever they come out.
Speaker 1: Of that with do this while they're already in school
Speaker 1: or in prep to go to school.
Speaker 2: It's a mix. They cannot yet have a bachelor's degree.
Speaker 2: For most of them, they're saying either I want to
Speaker 2: make a change. I'm currently pursuing my studies and I
Speaker 2: want to make a change, or they're people that are
Speaker 2: just saying, Hey, I'm about to get out of the military.
Speaker 2: I want to pursue my undergraduate studies. How do I
Speaker 2: do this? So it's very much about confidence. It's about
Speaker 2: saying no, you actually do have what it takes that Yale,
Speaker 2: there was this legendary professor Charles Hill. They're reading Alexis
Speaker 2: to Tookeville's Democracy in America and at the time there
Speaker 2: were twelve veterans that were in the classroom, tatted at
Speaker 2: vets and they're going toe to toe with this professor
Speaker 2: on tokfille. It's a quality of conditions argument and they're engaging.
Speaker 2: They've all clearly done the reading. It's just like what again,
Speaker 2: Like what universe?
Speaker 3: What is this?
Speaker 2: I asked afterwards, is this just like what classes are
Speaker 2: like at Yale? And the press was like, no, this
Speaker 2: is this is not your average class. There's something going
Speaker 2: on here, and it was really about veterans respond really
Speaker 2: well when you throw it on the gauntlet and you
Speaker 2: challenge them.
Speaker 1: Ryan loved working with WSP. He finished his own studies
Speaker 1: at the University of Michigan and went on to law
Speaker 1: school at the University of Virginia. I want to take
Speaker 1: a moment here. This is someone who didn't get into
Speaker 1: college the first time he applied, and now he's going
Speaker 1: to one of the best law schools in the country.
Speaker 1: Anything is possible.
Speaker 2: For five years, that was my part time involvement, was
Speaker 2: going back every summer and doing this program.
Speaker 1: While Ryan was part time, the program wanted him full time.
Speaker 2: Right before law school, I had this would go I'm
Speaker 2: get to my second program the second time I had
Speaker 2: run it, they offered me the position to come on
Speaker 2: board and to become the executive director. The founder was
Speaker 2: leaving and they wanted to be able to grow it.
Speaker 2: And even though I felt so strongly about this thing,
Speaker 2: I said no. And I wondered for years if that
Speaker 2: was like the greatest professional mistake of my life, was
Speaker 2: saying no to this thing that I really believed in.
Speaker 1: That little feeling that tickled his brain to enlist in
Speaker 1: the Marines was also tickling him again. He wanted to
Speaker 1: work with the Warrior Scholar Project, but he knew he
Speaker 1: wasn't quite ready.
Speaker 2: I couldn't really identify it when I turned down that
Speaker 2: job to become the Warrior Scholar Project executive director back
Speaker 2: in twenty fourteen. I couldn't have really told you here
Speaker 2: are the seven things that I need to be able
Speaker 2: to learn before I would feel qualified for it.
Speaker 1: He worked with WSP in the summers, graduated law school,
Speaker 1: and went on to start at a large firm.
Speaker 2: I intended to be there for a few years, build
Speaker 2: the connections, work a lot, make some money, and then
Speaker 2: figure out what's next.
Speaker 1: For him, what was next was a federal clerkship, then
Speaker 1: going back to public service. He still kept in touch
Speaker 1: with the Warrior Scholar founders and would meet up with
Speaker 1: them socially. One day, they were all out to lunch.
Speaker 2: And I talked about that moment of when they offered
Speaker 2: me that position, that executive directorship in twenty fourteen, and
Speaker 2: I said, you know, I always think like, if only
Speaker 2: there was a way I could work for WSP full
Speaker 2: time now, And you just said, well, what if there
Speaker 2: was the.
Speaker 1: Warrior Scholar Project had just received a large grant that
Speaker 1: would allow them to expand the team. They wanted Ryan
Speaker 1: to come on board a COO working under the executive
Speaker 1: director for the company. Ryan was over the moon. He
Speaker 1: accepted the position in August, and he was winding down
Speaker 1: his last case with his law firm. As he was
Speaker 1: getting up to speed on WSP. In September, we.
Speaker 2: Had a case that was in trial in the Northern
Speaker 2: District of Illinois. So going back and forth to the
Speaker 2: courthouse from there, as I'm starting to field everything that
Speaker 2: happens on the inflow of my ramp up to WSP,
Speaker 2: the executive director where I was supposed to be working under,
Speaker 2: left right.
Speaker 1: Then, as often happens in businesses, there are moving parts
Speaker 1: that not everyone may be privy to. The executive director
Speaker 1: that Ryan was supposed to be working with, learning from
Speaker 1: and jumping into the organization with he was gone. He
Speaker 1: was on his own.
Speaker 2: So I came on board, and I had this really
Speaker 2: small team of people who believed in the thing right
Speaker 2: like a few people, but the organizations sustainability really depended
Speaker 2: on it grant. I didn't realize how much depended on
Speaker 2: it until I actually got a look at the like
Speaker 2: full on financials. I also didn't realize that we were
Speaker 2: only in phase one of this big grant application.
Speaker 1: The grant that WSP had gotten, the very grant that
Speaker 1: allowed them to bring Ryan on board full time, wasn't
Speaker 1: actually theirs. And it's not just that the money hadn't
Speaker 1: come through, that had only just submitted the application. And
Speaker 1: to make things worse, the application it wasn't great.
Speaker 2: I've never written a grant application in my life. I've
Speaker 2: never run operations for aniche. You can read, I can read.
Speaker 2: And here's the thing. The thing that I had going
Speaker 2: for me in spades is that I knew the core deliverable.
Speaker 2: I knew the thing that we did on a visceral level.
Speaker 1: Ryan brand New, relatively unsupported new hire a WSP had
Speaker 1: to make the call. He had to find a way
Speaker 1: to fix the grant to save both his future with WSP,
Speaker 1: but also the future of the organization itself.
Speaker 2: One of the first calls that I had was just
Speaker 2: to the program officer and just basically it's said to them, like, hey, like,
Speaker 2: I'm the new guy. Here's the challenges that I'm up against.
Speaker 2: Like I've never run a nonprofit. I believe in the thing.
Speaker 2: I know what we do. I know that this thing
Speaker 2: can work, and I know this grant application isn't really
Speaker 2: going to get us there. I read that the bridge
Speaker 2: band due diligence, this is not where it needs to be,
Speaker 2: and they said, yeah, you're you're right.
Speaker 1: There will never be an alternate universe where Ryan doesn't
Speaker 1: make that call. We'll never know what would have happened
Speaker 1: if he didn't speak up and say, hey, guys, this
Speaker 1: isn't going to cut it. We've got to do it again.
Speaker 1: But that's what it means to be unshakable. It's to
Speaker 1: be able to see a problem, tackle it head on,
Speaker 1: and be brave enough to step in whatever is waiting.
Speaker 2: For you, being very real and being able to be
Speaker 2: vulnerable in that moment. I know that it was as
Speaker 2: a game changer. You know, I'm not going to rewrite
Speaker 2: this application by myself, right like, I need the buy
Speaker 2: in from everybody that's on the team, and so I
Speaker 2: need everybody to be able to contribute to the thing.
Speaker 2: And I need to have regular communication with this large
Speaker 2: granted and to be able to say, hey, you know,
Speaker 2: here's the deadlines, here's that we're going to be able
Speaker 2: to get you, and that ultimately allowed us to be
Speaker 2: able to get that.
Speaker 1: Grant Ryan was promoted to CEO in twenty nineteen.
Speaker 2: I was both very concerned and very honored by that.
Speaker 2: There is a deeply embedded notion of feeling like an impostor,
Speaker 2: like I don't have the chops to be the CEO
Speaker 2: of this organization. I'm not a fundraiser. Right then you
Speaker 2: have six or seven months later you have the pandemic
Speaker 2: that hits, and so I'm start to get my I
Speaker 2: start to get myself a little bit more in the
Speaker 2: zone of running an organization, and then that happens. Same
Speaker 2: sort of thing of digging deep and relying on the
Speaker 2: team that's around you. We were able to pivot during that.
Speaker 2: We made it through and converted all of our programs
Speaker 2: to being virtual and made it work. I love talking
Speaker 2: about the metrics for where we are today, but so
Speaker 2: much of that is because we have people that have
Speaker 2: been here for years that we have that institutional knowledge,
Speaker 2: because it takes so much longer to rebuild that institutional
Speaker 2: knowledge if people are just coming in and out of
Speaker 2: the organization.
Speaker 1: Today, the Warrior Scholar Project has served twenty five hundred
Speaker 1: people through their academic boot camps. Ninety nine percent of
Speaker 1: participants go on to recommend the program to others.
Speaker 2: The percent of students that complete their degrees within six
Speaker 2: years for all veterans is about forty seven percent. For
Speaker 2: our students, it's about ninety percent. Wow, that will persist
Speaker 2: and will actually complete their degrees. Different and importantly even
Speaker 2: for the ten percent. So long as that's an informed choice.
Speaker 2: If one of our students says, hey, I went to
Speaker 2: this boot camp and I actually don't want to do
Speaker 2: undergrad instead of want to pursue a trade or an apprenticeship,
Speaker 2: or it's just not for me right now, that's also
Speaker 2: a success. If you are making informed choices and you're
Speaker 2: not just going to school because you have these benefits,
Speaker 2: then that's.
Speaker 3: Also a success.
Speaker 2: This year will serve just shy of four hundred people
Speaker 2: thro those academic boot camps and about six hundred people
Speaker 2: through other services, through career services, through graduate school services,
Speaker 2: community college services, we have partnerships with community colleges, so
Speaker 2: we'll serve about one thousand people this year alone, and
Speaker 2: we have pretty aggressive plans to be able to grow
Speaker 2: and scale and next years. We have a five year
Speaker 2: strategic plan. We have twenty partner schools operating this summer.
Speaker 2: I still feel like an apostacy listening to this podcast
Speaker 2: on the way. I'm not an entrepreneur, right, so there's
Speaker 2: always been this sense of, you know, do I belong
Speaker 2: in this space? I feel strongly about what we do.
Speaker 2: We've had a lot of success in what we do,
Speaker 2: and that's one of the things that really helps me
Speaker 2: to be able to say, yeah, I'm the right guy
Speaker 2: for it.
Speaker 1: So talk to me a little bit, Mork then about
Speaker 1: let's break it down into two pieces if we could, so,
Speaker 1: you know, and for our listeners who you know, many
Speaker 1: of them may want to hire veterans just like we do,
Speaker 1: or they may be veterans themselves who are looking to
Speaker 1: start a business. What are the unique challenges of veterans
Speaker 1: and the transition from military service to civilian life in
Speaker 1: the private sector. And then the second part of my
Speaker 1: question is what are the unique attributes that are really
Speaker 1: special and powerful that veterans bring to the private sector
Speaker 1: that private techtor employers can really avail themselves into.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm transitioning. I'm leaving this thing called the
Speaker 4: military big organization, but it was actually my family. It's
Speaker 4: probably the only thing I've known. It's the thing that
Speaker 4: I've grown up with. It has a culture, and now
Speaker 4: I have to walk away from that. In the military,
Speaker 4: you had this thing called a mission. You knew what
Speaker 4: that meant, you knew what it took to deliver against
Speaker 4: that mission. You understood what the larger organization was trying
Speaker 4: to accomplish. And when you leave out of the military,
Speaker 4: you're not sure what the mission is. You're not sure
Speaker 4: what the major contribution that organization is trying to make.
Speaker 4: So sometimes that's a barrier for your success. And one
Speaker 4: of the other biggest barriers been is we tend to
Speaker 4: suffer in silence because we've been taught to solve problems.
Speaker 4: We've been taught to deliver what I don't having to
Speaker 4: constantly run back for instructions I want to deliver, So
Speaker 4: I'll suffer in silence. I'll study it, but I just
Speaker 4: don't know how to ask for help. So that's one
Speaker 4: of our biggest barriers. The cultures different. We believe we're
Speaker 4: impostors and we're afraid to ask for help because it's
Speaker 4: a sign of weakness, and we're taught not to be weak.
Speaker 4: And so now what do I bring to the table.
Speaker 4: I bring to the table. I'm adaptive. I do know
Speaker 4: how to problem solve. I know how to take large
Speaker 4: organizations and do amazing things with them. I know operating
Speaker 4: in cultures and countries that never imagine you'd ever find
Speaker 4: yourself in. And I do that on a regular basis.
Speaker 4: And I do that without a lot of guidance. And
Speaker 4: so what company wouldn't want somebody like that in their organization.
Speaker 4: It's just it's inherent in the culture and the military
Speaker 4: that you get it. How do companies tap into that,
Speaker 4: recognize us there, and then leverage it and then teach
Speaker 4: them all the other things you need them to know.
Speaker 1: Many of our listeners are either entrepreneurs, slash business owners,
Speaker 1: or aspiring business owners. Talk to the veterans who are
Speaker 1: listening today who are thinking about starting their own business
Speaker 1: and why that make such great entrepreneurs.
Speaker 4: As you think about a veteran, whether it's a young
Speaker 4: enlisted kid who's coming up, who becomes a squad leader,
Speaker 4: who's given a number of individuals that they're responsible for.
Speaker 4: That's a little small company that you're running, and you
Speaker 4: keep layering that to the platoon sergeant, the platoon leader,
Speaker 4: and that scope gets a little bit broader. They're literally
Speaker 4: running small businesses. They have equipment that they have to maintain,
Speaker 4: they have a product that they have to deliver. We're
Speaker 4: already small business owners, we just don't think of it
Speaker 4: that way. So the thing I'd say to a veteran,
Speaker 4: you've already learned some of the basic skills and principles
Speaker 4: of running a business. We just need to give you
Speaker 4: the more technical ways that the business world looks at
Speaker 4: that and maybe apply some of the financial literacy that
Speaker 4: you need to be more successful. But you have that
Speaker 4: in your DNA.
Speaker 1: As a way of closing this out, Mark, can you
Speaker 1: talk about what JP Morgan Chase as a firm is
Speaker 1: doing to support veterans both in our own workforce and
Speaker 1: as entrepreneur And because I want to see it as
Speaker 1: many ideas out there as I can, so that a
Speaker 1: broader portion of the population gets behind this idea and
Speaker 1: comes up with their own ways of solving is challenged.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say, first, know that you're not out
Speaker 4: there by yourself, and know that JP Morgan Chase is
Speaker 4: just one avenue. We actually lead an organization called the
Speaker 4: Veterans job Mission, which is like minded Companies, something that
Speaker 4: started back in twenty eleven with eleven companies. Today is
Speaker 4: over three hundred and fifteen companies who are doing the
Speaker 4: same things that we're doing, trying to ensure veterans can
Speaker 4: be successful post their military career, whether it's in employment
Speaker 4: or whether it's in small business. And we do that
Speaker 4: not just for veterans, because we've used the phrase veterans,
Speaker 4: we're talking about military spouses as well, who I always
Speaker 4: say is the secret softas.
Speaker 3: To the military.
Speaker 4: And so organizations like that are ways that you can
Speaker 4: tap into it. But it's also organizations like the Institute
Speaker 4: for Veterans and Military Families IVMF, or Bunker Labs or
Speaker 4: some of the nonprofits that we work with that I
Speaker 4: would argue you are great places to start. When you're
Speaker 4: saying I want to start a business, Okay, let them
Speaker 4: help guide you in the early stages of that. Am
Speaker 4: I really ready to start a business? Do I have
Speaker 4: the right knowledge? Have I started to build a network
Speaker 4: and then understand that you don't have to know all
Speaker 4: the answers today? And that's to me, what JP, Morgan
Speaker 4: Chase and other companies are doing is to help point
Speaker 4: you to those answers so that you don't have to
Speaker 4: discover all of those things on your own.
Speaker 1: Well, it's a rich resource for a whole country in
Speaker 1: terms of our veteran Phillips call it our veteran families
Speaker 1: because it's veterans and their spouses and families. And I
Speaker 1: hope we take more advantage of it and help them,
Speaker 1: you know, lift themselves up as they as they transition
Speaker 1: into civilian life.
Speaker 4: Well, Ben, thank you for shedding a light on this community.
Speaker 4: I think they are a treasure that we should be
Speaker 4: proud of and make sure we're helping them be successful.
Speaker 1: Ryan, what advice do you have for aspiring business owners?
Speaker 1: And I accept that you don't give yourself as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: That's okay. You're running something, you're running something from small
Speaker 1: to large. Yeah, some of our listeners didn't start their businesses,
Speaker 1: they bought them, so it's kind of the same. And
Speaker 1: I'd like to know from you, you know, if you
Speaker 1: could impart a little bit of wisdom that you've learned
Speaker 1: along the way that you wish you'd known back when. Sure,
Speaker 1: what would that be?
Speaker 3: It is?
Speaker 2: Everything is about relationships. Everything is about relationships. To give
Speaker 2: you one quantifiable thing. Two years ago we got a
Speaker 2: five million dollar Mackenzie Scott grant or a five million
Speaker 2: dollar organization, So that is a huge transformative, transformative. I
Speaker 2: don't know which relationship triggered us getting on our radar,
Speaker 2: but it absolutely came down to a relationship. I think
Speaker 2: about like the reason that I'm at WSP to begin
Speaker 2: with in twenty eighteen, just connecting with one of the
Speaker 2: co founders and saying, hey, let's meet up. You know,
Speaker 2: there's no job that I would rather have than this one,
Speaker 2: And every single thing that we do comes down to
Speaker 2: the value of relationships, and that not just being something
Speaker 2: which is transactional. It's not like you and I'm meeting
Speaker 2: and saying what am I going to get out of
Speaker 2: this and what am I potentially going to give to you.
Speaker 2: It's much more about the longer term view of saying, hey,
Speaker 2: there's something to just being able to build that relationship
Speaker 2: and then to be able to trust each other and
Speaker 2: to build your network in a really authentic and meaningful way.
Speaker 2: You don't know where that goes, but holy cow, does
Speaker 2: that pay dividends if you really lean into it.
Speaker 1: Amazing advice for everyone. Ryan what an inspiring story. Thank
Speaker 1: you for sharing it, and thank you for being on
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to The Unshakeables. If you
Speaker 1: liked this episode, please rate and review it. It'll help
Speaker 1: our show find more listeners. I'm Ben Walter and this
Speaker 1: is The Unshakeables from Chase for Business and Ruby Studio
Speaker 1: from iHeartMedia.