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A production by and for veterans to learn how to help one another task a bite out of veteran suicide. We take with veterans about their service, things they would have done different, and what advice they would give their younger self. We also highlight community resources for veterans and provide an opportunity to connect veterans with community projects to help seniors and children.
Ed Bejarana: Welcome to the
Veterans Club, a production for
and by veterans and first
responders. Each week we gather
as a community to share stories,
laugh, and build friendships
that can stand the test of time.
Together, we can help prevent
veteran suicide, one cup of
coffee at a time. Welcome to the
Veterans Club podcast, where we
empower our listeners to make a
difference in their communities
and focus on a healthful future.
Today, we have a guest with
proven leadership experience and
a heart for service. Sergeant
Major Roy Lewis is a retired
Army combat veteran with 36
years experience. His leadership
roles have varied from executing
Special Operations missions in
Iraq, to training 1000s of new
recruits as a drill instructor
at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.
He is a 2017 graduate of the
United States Sergeant Major
Academy in El Paso, Texas. After
the army, Sergeant Roy became a
sought after leadership
development expert hired to
teach intentional leadership
skills to corporate and
nonprofit organizations as well
as individuals. As a
motivational speaker, author and
corporate trainer, Sergeant Roy
has helped 1000s of people reach
their full potential as leaders.
Today we'll talk with Sergeant
Roy about intentional
leadership, and how we as
veterans can make a difference
in our community, Sergeant Roy,
thank you for joining the
Veterans Club today.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: Hey, thank
you. And I am so glad to be here
today. Thank you
Ed Bejarana: know, went all the
way from South Carolina. I mean,
I'm recording this in the wee
hours of the morning here on the
west coast. But it's got to be
lunchtime there for you, right.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: Oh,
actually. Yeah. Well, I think
we're, I think we're three hours
ahead of you. So yeah, we're
getting ready right there. And,
you know, I mean, time is going
really fast. It is. I
Ed Bejarana: mean, it's in a
moment. It's June already. If I
was just opening Christmas
presents yesterday, it seems
like
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: oh, gosh,
yeah, right. I don't even want
to hear a Christmas cow right
now. Well,
Ed Bejarana: no, because I have
three new great grandbabies. So
Christmas just got more
expensive activations.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: Wow, you
gotta you gotta stay on point.
Ed Bejarana: That's it so well.
Today, we're diving into a
crucial topic, community
leadership, and the vital role
veterans can play in shaping the
community conversation. Now,
veterans possessed unique skills
and experiences that make them
exceptional leaders, from
teamwork and discipline to
strategic thinking and
resilience. These qualities are
invaluable in fostering strong,
cohesive communities. Our
service members have faced
challenges that require quick
thinking, adaptability, and a
deep sense of responsibility,
traits that are essential for
effective leadership in any
community. Today, I'd like us to
explore how veterans can
leverage their leadership skills
to address local issues, drive
positive change, and well
inspire others to take action.
We'll discuss practical ways to
get involved from participating
in local government and
nonprofit organizations to
mentoring the next generation of
leaders. We believe that
veterans have the power to lead
by example, showing what it
means to serve with integrity,
honor, and commitment to the
greater good. By stepping up and
engaging in community
leadership. Veterans can help
shape a future that is
inclusive, supportive, and
resilient. Roy, how would you
define community leadership?
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: Well,
that's that's a great question.
And I think it's a very
significant question because
community leadership, a lot of
times you can look into a
community and communities
defined by its leaders. I've had
the opportunity so so have you
to travel in our military
careers to be go to different
parts of the of the United
States and also the world? And a
lot of times when I go to
community, I can, I can, I'm
pretty much nine out of 10%
times correct. When I see that
it's a bad community. It was
gone. It's got bad leaders, you
know, it's reflective of its
leaders. So So community leaders
are vital. They're a vital part
of every community of every city
town. Met a nation is defined by
its leaders. And and we really
have to put an emphasis on that
because it's also generational.
Well, if we don't stay on top of
things, you know, I was working
with a kid the other day last
week and his mom, he's doing
really well in school he's
getting he's getting on a on a
roll and everything. But
however, he's developing this
bad habit of lying. And, and as
little kids are, the funny thing
is he's, he's 12 years old. But
when kids get at that age, they
don't. In their minds, they
don't think it's lying. They
just consider it as just staying
out of trouble. Right? Right. As
a leader, as I'm being a
mentoring this young man, I'm
telling him that, hey, this is
what a lie is. If you don't
address that, if we don't
address that, right now, you're
going to be an adult one day,
and you're going to continue to
lie. So you're going to be a
little kid right now you're a
little kid, 12 year olds, 12
years old, lying, when you're
gonna be a 22 year old, I don't
want you to be a 22 year old, or
a 32 year old is continuing to
lie. So that that, that's just
kind of putting the pillars of
that idea into that young man's
head. And that's what leaders do
in the community, the leaders
are supposed to, to contribute
to that community, because one
of the important factors that I
teach in my program is that
leaders produce leaders. We're
not done. I know that just to
expound on that thought, I
remember when I was a drill
sergeant, and we graduate, our,
our platoon. And you know, these
kids are so excited, they're
pumped up, they're worked up,
and you get some of the some of
the guys they're a little cocky,
they hate Joe sorry, I can run
faster to you. It goes on I, I
can do this. And you know, and
they respect me to kind of, you
know, they kind of just flex on
me a little bit. And I would
just turn it into my said, Well,
I hope so I hope so you can run
faster to me. But I hope that
you can jump faster to me. And
they said they look at me with
this puzzled look. And he said
why I said that? Because if you
not if you have had exceeded my
expectations or my standards, we
gotta I gotta recycle. You gotta
go back in here and retrain you.
What a great point. That's it.
Yeah. Son, my son's in the
active duty right now. I
explained to him, I sat him down
one day, and I told him, I said,
Hey, my job is not to compete
with you. But I given you some
marching orders. And he said,
What's that you have to go
further? To me, that's how you
honor me, is to go further. And
that's the job of every leader,
you me and all the vets. Because
especially veterans, we were
kind of a unique lot. Because
one of the things I learned
about leadership when I was
especially when I was born in an
overseas in Iraq, that the
United States we teach
leadership from the bottom up a
lot of countries they teach
leadership from the from the top
down. That's why we you saw the
first, you know, Iraqi war, they
you take out the leaders and
their soldiers are confused.
They don't know what to do. You
know, that's why they were
surrendering the camera crews.
Ed Bejarana: Yeah. They were
doing the wave, the
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: Yeah, they
don't know what to do, because
and then I had the I was on a
special ops team or me and my
captain had to put a Leadership
Academy together. And we was
playing to some of the Iraqi
officers. Hey, you, you got some
guys sharp guys out here. We're
trying to set up an NCO Academy
for Leadership Academy. And we
say this guy is pretty good. You
got a couple of guys out here,
that would be great leaders for
you. Well, long story short, we
they show up the next day with
their cousins and their nephews.
They didn't have any of the guys
that we picked out. Because
their culture and I understand
it's a cultural thing. They're
very tribal. But the I love
about the American fighting
force, which I believe is the
best fighting force in the
world. We teach leadership,
leadership is at every level of
our American forces, you know,
leadership is taught from the
bottom up, you know, so
Ed Bejarana: So let me ask you
this. Let me because you kicked
off your your discussion with,
you know, a, you look at a city
and if it's a bad city, it's got
bad leaders. And yet we know
that is 18 and a half million
veterans living in the United
States. We have veterans with
good leadership skills scattered
all over this great nation, and
many of them live in those
cities that are plagued with bad
leadership. What would you say
to them, who are sitting on the
sidelines saying I'm not gonna
get involved in that mess?
That's just crazy thought. But
what would you say to that
veteran?
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: Well, I
will say to veterans, we've been
given you look at a lot of our
history with the veterans. And
when you say veterans or some
people that's it's a bad stigma
that veterans are just kind of
out there. After that. don't
want service, they're
expendable, they can just kind
of thrown to the wind. But, you
know, part of my, my mission is
to go around in details, just
that you'd be the civilian
world, you would not believe a
world of experience in the
veteran, the veteran that you
have in your cities on your jobs
and your companies, these
individuals, these men and
women, that have been, you know,
tested, they've been trained and
tested and met the task. And I
will say, these individuals,
veterans have to understand that
they can't believe that because
it's when you hang up your
uniform. I mean, I tried 2019.
And it was a surprise to me,
because I thought I was gonna
stay there forever. I love the
military. To me, I don't care i
However, when you're older than
the colonel, you know, it's
something that's got to
understand that, you know,
there's going to come a time
where, you know, some people
will stay two years, some people
in my case, I say, 36 years, but
the military, that is put such
an impression, so much, I think
the cost of I saw the slide
presentation, I think the dollar
amount of investing to soldiers,
maybe 10 to $15,000, I think, in
dollars per soldier, but so much
has been invested in you as, as
a as a soldier, as a Marine as a
sailor, you know, Midshipman?
The thing is that it's not over,
you're not done. Now, I know. A
lot of vets will agree with me,
I know our culture is that it's,
you know, we're we have our own
culture. It's kind of a cocoon
society. But however, now, you
need, I say to the vets now,
sorry, for you to approach. Take
the next step. You're not done
yet. Right. Right. Now you're
going into new areas. I know
it's different. They don't speak
the same language. They don't do
the same things. They don't have
formations. You don't have
officers, however, to the
veterans that you're in, you're
coming into a place where you're
going to make a huge impact on
that company on that community
that you've never even dreamed
up.
Ed Bejarana: Right. Well, let's
talk. Let's talk about let's
talk about Sergeant Major Roy
Lewis, what give us kind of a
little background, you know,
when you enlisted, while you
enlisted, what you what was your
MOS? You give us kind of a
background on your military
history.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: All right.
I don't want to scare you. But
what I did, I did a couple of
years of college, believe it or
not I and bit of trivia, I am
from a little town called
Highland Falls, New York.
Nobody's never heard of it.
However, those out there that
have ever if you ever been to
West Point, visit West Point
Military Academy on the Hudson,
is a little town called Harlem
falls that you have to go before
you go through the gate to go
into West Point. That's where I
live. All the residents that
live there in that town,
including my parents work at on
the work at the academy. So I
grew up around the academy saw
the cadets and everything. And
that was my first impression of
the military. And I remember we
went to go pick my dad up one
day for work. And I remember a
busload of freshmen got off the
bus, and they're sending out
their their luggage. And I saw
these all these upperclassmen
come out of nowhere. And these
kids were like, shaking in their
boots, and I'm just like, oh my
gosh, shoot, whatever sign up
for this is crazy. I would never
do this. So that was my
impression in the military. So
if you would ask me back when I
was like in my 20s and stuff, do
what I joined the military. No
way, Jose. I'm not sad for me.
However, I did go to college, at
a school in Massachusetts Dean
College, where I met my
beautiful wife Wendy. And I went
from music. I know you're a
musician. So I wanted to I
wanted to be a musician. I want
to be the theater. I loved all
that stuff. And I after I
graduated and went to New York
City and tried this is before
American Idol and the voice and
all this stuff. And you know how
hard it was back in those days?
Oh, my heavens. Yes. Yeah, you
had to do the work back then.
I'll say they didn't
Ed Bejarana: have auto tuners.
Right. Right. Right. You know,
we actually had to sing in tune.
Right. You didn't have
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: a click
track way. I went to New York
tried it. And I remember I was
walking down Broadway one
afternoon, and I know it just
hit me. I said, I don't want to
do this anymore. I was going to
a lot of auditions. I was doing
this. And not that I couldn't do
it. I just realized that. Again,
we didn't have social media back
that back then I said, Gosh,
I'll probably be by the time I
get a break. I'll probably my
40s or something like that. And
you can't have a car and you
can't have a golf and I turned
to my wife. I said nah I said
I'm gonna go down to the
recruiters office and check this
out. That's all I remember I was
on a bus headed to Fort Dix.
That's all I remember. And part
of that other part of that story
is my best friend. We at that
time, I think the army still
offers it, but they had the
buddy system. And me and my best
friend was we were gonna go on
the buddy system. And that
Turkey man, I mean, he backed
out the last minute, I'm, I was
so mad. I was so mad. And I
Ed Bejarana: signed up on the
buddy system, although, you
know, I changed my MOS while I
was waiting to ship out I went,
I signed up as an MP. But then I
decided, you know, I'm gonna do
music. Well, that pushed my
start date back. So my friend
Dan, he, he went off to, I think
it was Fort Hood. I don't
remember where he went. But it
was summer and hot. And then I
waited till October and went to
Fort Dix. I'm not sure which one
of us got the better end of
summer at Fort Hood or winter at
Fort Dix.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: You guys
were supposed to go train
together, right? We were
supposed
Ed Bejarana: to go to basic
training, but then I delayed my
my start because of my MOS. So
let's talk about some of the
challenges. And, you know, I'm a
Solutions guy, the solutions and
community leadership. Let's,
first what are some of the
common challenges faced by
community leaders,
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: civilian
community leaders, I think
whether it is civilian,
community leaders, I think it
all put in my mind and poses
this big question, how do you
get people to do to work
together? How do you get people
to work together, and I'd still
I go to him, every which is
tomorrow, I go to a Saturday
morning, men's prayer breakfast
every Saturday morning. And I'm
in that group are business
owners and and guys that are
have, have their own business
and their managers and this and
that, and and the talk that I
keep hearing over and over
again, is trying to find quality
people, quality leaders quality
people that are committed to
their work can be looking for
leaders. And I listened to them.
And however, they do say that
there, it does come out in
conversation that their best
leaders are veterans. And
Ed Bejarana: why is that? Why is
injured? Yeah, I
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: had one
manager asked me he asked, he
said, Why is it Why are you guys
like that? And I said, That's a
great question. Because I said
you got to understand that we
are taught responsibility and
accountability. Day one in the
army, you remember that? Well,
you come through the door. It's,
you know, I can't tell you how
many times I got in trouble. You
know, the whole platoon got in
trouble if one guy got in
trouble, everybody. And we
learned accountability at day
one. And I said the reason why
these these individuals, these
men and women are great workers
is because we're you give us a
task, we take ownership of it
immediately. It's not and if we
and we by taking ownership, we
take responsibility pass or
fail. go no go we take
responsibility for it. And we
take that, that responsibility
very seriously. And that's what
you're getting. You're getting a
an individual who's kind of
who's trained to think that way.
Who's not? You at anytime, you
can take a bit and point aside
and say, Hey, what are you doing
and they can they can tell you
the you know, they can tell you
what you're doing and why
they're doing it. They're very
resourceful. They don't wait to
be told to do things they kind
of that's that's how, how we
roll. You know, and
Ed Bejarana: that's a great
point. Because I do remember in
basic training, I mean, I was a
musician in the army. So after
basic, I didn't do any
soldiering. It was all music
stuff. But in basic, I do
distinctly remember, the lessons
were used to save your life to
save your buddies life. This is
life or death, you make a
mistake on the battlefield,
you're dead. And the kids coming
out of college today that are
being trained for you know, city
leadership, city management, you
know, there are leadership type
courses that that come out of
that. It's I haven't gone
through the classes, but I have
to imagine that the result of
their failure is presented a lot
different than the result of a
veterans failure of the result
of a soldier's failure. Yeah,
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: well, I
have to kind of stop you there.
And and we you said you're a
musician, but I remember you
just dropped my memory when I
was a DI, drill instructor. And
I had every once awhile to get a
musician in my company, and that
didn't matter what your MOS was.
And you just said you just
alluded to it a few seconds ago.
Oh, it's because that I that was
my one of my taglines with my
with two and I said, Hey, I My
job is to teach you to survive
in the modern day Bible
battlefield. So, you know, I
don't care if you and I, you
boy, you saw me with my head, I
got it right here, my drill
sergeant and I can keep it up on
the wall. And I don't care if
you're a nurse, I don't care if
you spin wrenches. That's what
that's the beauty of our I'm a
veteran. Everybody's taught to
shoot, communicate and move in.
That's right. Yep. So and as a
drill instructor, I will yell at
you, I will have a young soldier
say, Oh, I'm a musician, or I'm
a musician, or I'm a nurse or
I'm at this. I said bull butter.
Because they say, I said, Hey,
the battlefield we used to teach
at the battlefield, the
battlefield was linear. Good
guys over here, bad guys over
here. Now we teach the
battlefield circular. Anything
can jump off at any time. And
I'm proud to say and I've seen
it with my own two eyes, it's a
soldier uniform, that when the
bad guys come and try to hit
that medical unit, or that unit
of musician, from the band or
whatever, and they're out there
in the field, they know how to
lock and load, you know how to
let go. They do. That makes me
feel good. That makes me feel.
Ed Bejarana: So let's talk about
some strategies for overcoming
the challenges that our
communities face, and how
veterans should purposely
engage. And I want to want to
I'm kind of gradually moving
over to your concept of
intentional leadership. But I
want to save that for the next
segment, let's, let's talk
specifically about the
identifiable challenges in
community leadership, and how
veterans can start to integrate
into becoming a solution.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: One of the
things I noticed in my
experience that in the, in the
civilian world versus the
military world, when you say
leadership is two different
types of terminology, of
understanding what that is. And
I know that in the community
leaders, you're trying to get
people, like, give me an
example. Like even like, faith
based organizations who I work
with, sometimes they will stick
people, a guy or gal will come
in, and they seem like they've
got a great personality, they
seem like they're pretty well
liked or whatever. And they'll
stick him in a leadership
position in a leadership role.
However, that person doesn't
have the leadership skills to
lead people, they may appear to
be a good leader, but they don't
have the skills or the skill
sets. They know how to deal with
problem resolution, how to deal
with conflicts, how to deal with
getting people to do what they
need to do, how to take, how to
understand that success. It's
not about being perfect, it's
knowing what to do when things
go wrong. You know, stuff like
doo doo doo respond to
management, how to what to give
upper level management, what
you're looking for. So those
things are not taught at that
level. However, when you
contrast that with the military,
we're taught that we're taught
that day one, I learned when I
made II five that when I walked
in the gate, my company
commander a problem, I couldn't
just go in and tell her him,
this is the problem and then
walk out. That's not going to
happen. Yeah,
Ed Bejarana: you gotta come with
a solution as well. Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: Because
when you bring it up, they want
to know and and then I realized
when I became a senior leader,
that why they did that I
understood why they did that is
because everybody assumes like,
the president, their senators,
the these big leaders make these
they sit in the office and go,
Okay, they make these decisions.
No, that's that's not true. They
rely, it's even biblical. They
rely on a group of counselors.
They rely on secondary leaders
and stuff like that, to bring
the the pros and the cons and
get them to think out the box
and provide them with all the
information so that they can
make a decision because at the
end of the day, their name is on
the product. So that's why when
I became a senior NCO, I told I
told my commander, I said, I got
your back. My job is to protect
you, and to support your
leadership. So I have I have to
do outs, I have to give my my
leaders to do that. Then as
compared to the community of the
civilian world, they don't do
that. They just say they want to
they pick people that might
appear talented or might have
the skill set for it. And it's
kind of they throw them in there
and it's either sink or swim.
Well,
Ed Bejarana: and in some cases,
it's purpose setup. They
purposely want them to fail
because it might be a job that
they want. It's a cutthroat
behavior. Let's talk about your
concept of intentional
leadership. And then we're going
to bring it back to veterans
using intentional leadership to
engage in their community. Do
give us kind of the gist of what
you teach companies and
nonprofits as it relates to
intentional leadership. Oh,
yeah, sure.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: I teach
them to I broke it down into
like for an acronym called Lead
L, E, A D. and we go into the
thing like L leadership
direction, you know, II bracing
responsibility, a
accountability, and D
dependability. And kind of get
them to understand that those
are if you can master those, I'm
sure there's more. But if you
can master those four
components, you will be an
intentional leader. And they
say, Well, I'm a leader. Now,
what's the difference? Well, the
difference is between a leader
and intentional leader, a leader
will will lead on an attentional
leader will give you is more
engaged, it's more
unintentional, he's more engaged
when a decision is made that the
intentional leader to sit back
and tell you why they made that
decision and tell you all the
course of action, the COA is of
course of action, of what what,
what will be the course of
action if this happens versus if
this doesn't happen. Case in
point, I'll give you a quick
story, my wife, before she
retired, my wife was a greeting
card distributor. And she worked
for bath and beyond and all this
stuff she go in. And if you ever
need a greeting card, I still
got tons of them I got. So we
gauge our vacations on the
different holidays during the
year. So well, there was one
month where she accidentally
didn't order the cards and
didn't show up at one of our
stores or something. And she was
like, so worried, oh, my
marriage is gonna kill me, oh my
gosh, and oh, gosh, I just
screwed up. And I did this. And
I said, we calm down and said
you made a mistake. I said, but
if you go in there and explain
to your manager, what your
intent was, what your intent
was, you got a great track
record. And I said, you know,
and just own up to me, he made a
mistake. Watch how he response
while she went into her manager
talk to a manager and explained
their mistake and what what
happened and what was supposed
to happen. Or she came out
during the biggest smile on her
face. She said, Oh my gosh, you
you will write this. And I said,
I'm telling you, this is this is
easy. This is so easy. But as
compared to going in there and
not just saying oh somebody
else's fault or blaming somebody
else, or whatever the system, I
said, people are looking for
people like you, this is what
it's all about. So to be
intentional, is to your your you
don't wake up just to do a job
you waking up, you should be
able to tell me what you're
doing how you're doing that. And
then the also caveat to that is,
is that you should be discipling
use a Christian term called
discipleship or training, you
should be grooming the next
group, next group of leaders to
to move into place. Because one
of the things I learned when I
made first sergeant was that I
had to, I had to make sure
people, well, they got paid and
they got all that I had to make
sure people got promoted. So I
had to make sure that people
were moving. And I would tell my
NCOs I'm training you to take my
job. And I will at first when I
said that that was weird is
that? Yeah, that's gonna feel
weird at first. Yeah, I'm the
king of the hill, you're not
gonna knock me down. But I
understood why. And that's why I
love our culture, because it's
success driven. Right? We don't
like people sitting around. And
these community leaders I know,
they don't understand. But I
tried to tell them I said, when
you if you use these veterans
right now have these skill sets,
you're going to start talking
developing a culture, an
intentional culture.
Ed Bejarana: But let me let me
talk on that culture for just a
moment and give a plug for the
Veterans Club here. Because, you
know, I, I, having been a
political activist now for 35
years. Basically, when I got out
of the army, I saw what was
happening in America, especially
in California at the time, and I
said, Oh, my Lord, somebody's
got to do something. And I
jumped in there, the valiant
Trooper that I am and tried to
make a difference and just bam
fell flat on my face. Because I
was alone. I didn't try to build
an army. I went in and and
braved the bullets,
metaphorically speaking all by
myself. So here recently, just
this last nine months, I formed
an organization called the
Veterans Club, and that's where
you're listening to this podcast
now. And the intent of the
Veterans Club is to use hope, as
a weapon against fear. We've got
fear based activities taking
hold Old in every community,
across our nation. And as
veterans, I mean, we've got our
group of friends. And we've
developed that those
relationships over a very long
period of time. And while as we
get older, our friends are dying
off, I had to wake up each
morning, read the obituary just
to make sure my name is not on
it. But we we stop connecting
with other veterans in the
community. And I saw that hole.
And when I looked at all of the
other veteran organizations,
there's, there's a lot of really
great veteran based
organization, veteran focused
organizations, but they're all
top down. Our services provide
the solution. And I am saying,
you know, no, I, that's not the
only solution. I like, I like
your description from the bottom
up lead from the bottom up. We
just bring veterans together,
let veterans be veterans, and
magic will happen. But what we
do, what we needed to do, the
hole that I saw was, there's no
place where veterans can just
get together and just hang. I
mean, there's the VFW. There's
the American Legion, but they've
got membership requirements,
attendance requirements, and it
starts to become a hassle. And I
thought what veterans were
looking for, is kind of like
that low key, no stress, I just
want to show up when I want to
show up and have a good time. I
want to enjoy the time that I'm
having there. And that's what we
created. So we got this weekly
coffee meeting, we got 70
veterans that are involved, or,
you know, we got about 30 at a
time and in the room at any one
particular week. But man, we
have a great conversation. And
we're building relationships.
It's not about the coffee
meeting on Wednesday. It's about
the relationship after the
meeting, because now I've got a
team of people. And we're taking
on children's illiteracy,
tutoring senior loneliness, with
there's a whole bunch of things
that we can do when we're
together. And I think that
speaks directly to what you're
teaching Roy, in being an
intentional leader, know where
you want to go and start moving
in that direction.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: Right. I,
when I did get out of the
military, I got involved. I was
my MOS. I know you asked me that
early, but I, I was a supply guy
at first. And I went to school
at night and I got involved in
technology. I love technology.
And I don't want to contradict
myself. And I know that we're
seeing these, these, these
advances in artificial
intelligence and technology. And
I just ate that stuff up. When I
retired from Bank of America as
well. I was a software test
engineer. So my job was I just
break things as it was, you
know, programmers would write
things, I just break things. And
I tried programming, but I don't
think that way. But however,
technology is a wonderful,
wonderful tool. But I've come to
one resolution. And that is you
cannot this you can automate.
We've got great automation and
stuff going on the world, but
you cannot automate
relationship. There's no way
man, amen. There's no way it's
going to happen. And I'm okay
with that. Now, it took me years
to understand that. But, and and
if I had someone if I had a
critic challenging me that said,
Oh, no, no, you can't. I said,
you know, I can prove that
because a lot of times when I go
into a restaurant and I talked,
I stop and have a conversation
with the waitress, or I'm in the
grocery store, and I stop and
say hello to a friend. And you
might have noticed this as well,
people are so starved for
connection is they sit there and
he, you know, talking, talking
and I let them talk because I
know people really, it's just
the desire to be connected. And
that's how you reach people. I
mean, people want to be engaged
with people and i Another
example is that I needed
something printed. So I got onto
the website to Office Depot. But
in my request to get this
printed, printed off, I had to
go to the store, went to the
store, I walked into the store,
walked up to got my order I paid
for my order online before I got
there, got it, got it off the
shelf, scanned it in, walked out
didn't talk to a single person.
I haven't didn't talk to a
single person. Wow. No, not
gonna happen. And now and I was
at a meeting last week with a I
forget the term that that she
called it. There's a thing
that's happening in this
country. She called it as a
loneliness syndrome that's
slowly on the rise right now
because people that automate you
know, AI is great you get on you
can get a human voice on the
telephone. And people are
feeling lonely and disconnected.
So I think this is a great time
for the Veterans Club. I think
the mission is good Right,
because I think we're gonna
succeed because people are
looking to get connected vets
are looking to get connected. I
mean, that's why I can meet a
vet on the street, I'll sit on a
park bench and we will talk for
about an hour. You know, or this
enacts and, and, and my, my
Ed Bejarana: wife always
comments whenever I go to VA and
I'm waiting in the waiting room,
everybody in the waiting room
who's Yvette, we're in a
conversation. And it's like,
they come and call our name. He
had just a moment, let me
finish. And it's so my wife
always marbles. It's like you
guys know one another? Yeah.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: And that's
where I got from my friends
knows that too. I said, but the
reason why it is because we've
all had the same rite of
passage, we all went through the
same thing. So it doesn't really
matter what decade and what year
or how many years or whatever,
right? We all have that one
common thread, which is that
rite of passage where, you know,
hey, I, I remember my first PT
run, I called my wife, I was
crying. I said, I'm not a
runner. I'm a sprinter back
then. But I'm not a long
distance runner. I thought that
was something other people did.
And I remember Joe sarton vegan?
vs. Yes, Joe Servius. And he sat
there and he. And he said, Okay,
who can run? I said, I raised my
hand. I gotten his line. But the
next day, I got the other line.
He's back in my group. Well, so
Ed Bejarana: let's, let's talk
about moving forward. You know,
we had discussed a few action
items for the listeners, a
uniform small veteran and first
responder groups like the, like
the Veterans Club is doing with
the Wednesday coffee meeting,
have become active in your local
chamber of commerce to form a
network of veteran based
business owners what, what other
calls to action would you say
veterans should be considering?
I
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: think
that's a lot to consider. If
you're part of a local church,
see where you can be, have a
conversation with your pastor,
where you can fit in, because I
know, I'm friends with several
pastors, and they love working
with vets, they'd love when vets
come through their doors, and
offer some type of assistance,
you know, you don't, you don't
have to be, they won't put you
in charge of. If you don't worry
about being in charge or
something, just just it'd be a
presence. You know, I can hear
men's group, you know, sharing
your experiences. Nothing is
that I I'm part of, they have a
website out there called meetup,
like Toastmasters or the Lions
Club is where you can link in
with these groups and share your
experiences, people will love to
hear your experiences, share
them, you know, with the high
schools, oh, man, I've been
invited to so many high schools
to go in there and tough to some
of these kids, which is like,
that's at the top of my list,
because there's like no
leadership role models for these
students younger generation. But
I cannot tell you how many times
like, I also didn't talk to
teenage kid and I look up just
like 20 kids around me
listening, you know, looking for
role models, and then looking
for real role models that are
not athletes that are not
singers and, and these people
that they that they're above
reproach or reach, they're
unreachable. But you have a well
I just want better understand,
you are not done yet. You are
not done yet. And you. I've
talked to some that it kind of
breaks my heart because some of
that's like, Oh, I just serve
two years. And I've served a
couple of years and I'm done.
No, you're not done. You're
really not done. And I think
you're doing yourself a
disservice if you're just
sitting on your hands just
thinking that nobody cares.
That's what the world wants you
to believe. That's not true.
Amen.
Ed Bejarana: Amen. So, Rory, I
can't thank you enough for
taking the time to do talk with
me today to talk with the
listeners of the Veterans Club.
Also, I can't thank you enough
for taking such an interest in
getting deeply involved with the
Veterans Club. And, you know,
we're looking at having you on
as a regular syndicated podcast
host awesome to share your
leadership, ideas, trainings,
expertise. 36 years of military
leadership background. Yeah,
that's got to be captured and
memorialize. So I thank you so
much for that time. How do
people learn more about you how
to, if somebody's looking for a
motivational speaker to come to
their company or their church?
How do they get in touch with
you?
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: Well, I
have a website out there called
Speak, Sergeant roid.com SPE ay
ay que Sgt. Roi all one word,
speak Sergeant roi.com. There's
all my contact information out
there. There's videos out there.
There's podcasts of the things
that I've done before. The
things that I'm talking about
and you can reach me out there
or just, it's even on a smaller
scale. You can reach out there,
there's a link out there. If you
want to talk to me individually.
I'll talk on the Any, any scale
because one of the things Edie
and I appreciate what your
organization is doing is just
getting, you know, I've been
really, you know, really excited
about what the Veterans Club is
doing. We need this. You know, I
got your back, man, I got your
your six. And I tell you, we
really need this because we got
started getting connected,
right? Because I think I'm
afraid, you know, especially
with the influx of AI, people
getting disconnected from each
other, just getting interested
in that means the vets are too,
so we have to connect it with
each other. We really do. So I'm
available. Like you said, I'll
be doing some stuff with the
Veterans Club and just to stay
engaged.
Ed Bejarana: Okay, so speak,
Sergeant roi.com. I'll include
that link in the show notes.
Roy, thank you so much for your
leadership, your friendship, and
your participation today.
Sgt Major Roy Lewis: Thank you.
Glad to be here.
Ed Bejarana: Thank you for
tuning in to the Veterans Club
podcast. Please click the
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Until next time, stay veteran
strong