The Commander's Brief

First, if you have not already, you definitely need to sign up for my upcoming webinar with Shift Group.

Last week, I interviewed Bobby Payne, the Senior Vice President for Veteran Strategy at Shift.

I’ve been talking about Shift a lot lately, and now is your chance to hear directly from Bobby and talk to him yourself.

When is it? Mar 26, 2025 07:00 PM EST

You can sign up here.

As a reminder, Shift Group is a recruiting firm focused on former elite athletes and veterans. But they don’t just throw you in a job like most recruiters do. You go through a self-guided learning course first, and then they help you put together a digital resume to really stand out to employers. I’ve been running The Veteran Professional for 5 years and they are the only veteran recruiter I’ve agreed to work with in a meaningful way.

That’s how much I like them.

Veteran Business of the Week

Ok, time for some shameless self-promotion here.

If you like my writing, my ability to consolidate information, and you are interested in learning about new tech, then you are going to like my new newsletter, Tech Stacks. 

Each week, I’m going to break down the tech tools that successful founders, creators, and digital entrepreneurs use to build and run their business.

It’s a great way to learn about new technology and uncover a better, faster, way to create and grow.

You can sign up for it here. It’s free.

Resource of The Week

A lot of people carry pain and trauma from the military. Even if you never saw combat, you could have had pre-existing issues made worse by the stress of being in a war zone, you could have lost a friend from another unit, or been a victim of sexual assault.

Many of us carry some weight and need someone to talk to.

For veterans, I recommend you start with Headstrong.

Here is how they describe themselves:

“The Headstrong Project is a non-profit mental health organization providing confidential, barrier-free, and stigma-free PTSD treatment to our veterans, service members, and family connected to their care.

Our goal is to help our clients “Triumph Over Trauma.” by providing them with effective mental health treatment.

Headstrong’s network of trauma-informed clinical partners provide individualized, evidence-based outpatient care to our clients.”

Full disclosure, I worked with a therapist for a few months from Headstrong and was really happy with my them. My experience was nothing but great.

If you are a veteran feeling like you need someone to let some worries out to, give them a shout.

Business Idea

I’ve been podcasting for almost 5 years now and have had a lot of podcast booking agencies contact me. Someone pays them to get them booked onto a podcast.

But here is the thing.

They pretty much all suck.

I get emails weekly that sound like this:

“Hey, Mark! Wow, your episode with John was great. I learned so much about (insert name of episode) and it really got me thinking: I think Susie (their client) would be a great guest because of her experience in (something which is not related at all to the podcast they referenced or my podcast)”

Occasionally they bring me someone who is a good fit and I have them on the show. But the agencies do a TERRIBLE job. They give me the podcast host little to no information about their client. They do no prep work with their client to make sure they will be a good guest. They do no follow-up.

It’s very transactional and just not good business.

So start an agency and do it better.

New Stuff

Jason Anderson is a former Air Force O-6 who retired from the military and started what looked like was his dream job.

• Business development in a sector of the Air Force he knew

• Got to live in Japan

• Making GREAT money

But he realized he didn't feel like he was really going to succeed in the role and was not getting the feeling he wanted from his work.

So he started looking into the veteran transition process and really started to appreciate the MASSIVE jump that someone needed to make to have a successful transition.

Through this journey, he founded PreVeteran. They run highly professional courses that help you go through the journey from military to civilian, backed by data and corporate learnings. It's the real deal.

Listen in to hear Jason's story and what makes PreVeteran unique.

From the Archives

Go crush it,

Mark

Is this role of interest? Respond back to let me know. Christian is a friend.

Interested in joining a special community just for other high-performing veterans looking to build wealth and their careers? Check out my friend’s Alex’s community, Master the Military HERE.

P.S. This email may have affiliate links.