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Veterans know how to lead. The lessons we learned in the military form the foundation for bigger successes in business, entrepreneurship and community.
Host John S Berry, CEO of Berry Law, served as an active-duty Infantry Officer in the U.S. Army, finishing his military career with two deployments and retiring as a Battalion Commander in the National Guard. Today, his veteran led team at Berry Law, helps their clients fight some of the most important battles of their lives. Leading successful teams in the courtroom, the boardroom, and beyond, veteran leadership drives the firm’s rapid growth and business excellence.
Whether building teams, synchronizing operations, or refining tactics, we share our experiences, good and bad, to help you survive, thrive and dominate.
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**(0:02 - 0:14)**
**Blake Stilwell:** There's a lot out there for veterans. There's so much, almost anything you want to do, it's practically free for you to become it. People who've reached out to me online on LinkedIn, I've gotten them into chemistry programs for free.
**(0:14 - 0:21)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I've gotten them into aircraft piloting programs for free. I've gotten them into electrician programs for free. But there are so many great programs out there that are free.
**(0:22 - 0:31)**
**Blake Stilwell:** They have job placement that will teach you how to interview. If they don't have job placement, they get you jobs that are well above the American median income. And will never, ever touch your GI Bill.
**(0:34 - 0:44)**
**John S. Berry:** Welcome to Veteran Led. Today's guest is Blake Stilwell. From Air Force combat photographer to editor-in-chief of We Are The Mighty, Blake's going to take us on his journey.
**(0:45 - 0:56)**
**John S. Berry:** Welcome to the show, Blake.
**Blake Stilwell:** Hey, thanks a lot. It's great to be here. I'm glad we got to squeeze in some time.
**John S. Berry:** Yeah, we are here at the Military Influencer Conference in Atlanta. And actually his parent company, Recurrent Ventures, is his boss.
**(0:56 - 1:05)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Yeah.
**John S. Berry:** For veterans that aren't familiar with We Are The Mighty, although I can't imagine there are many, tell us what it is.
**Blake Stilwell:** We Are The Mighty is a lifestyle publication.
**(1:05 - 1:27)**
**Blake Stilwell:** We do, you know, we can't do news because who can keep up with big media, right? Or even, you know, the smaller niche media.
**John S. Berry:** Who wants to keep up with big media is my question.
**Blake Stilwell:** Everybody's trying. Everybody's got their own angle, right? But what we do is geared toward the other parts of life. You can go anywhere to find news stories. AP, Fox News, CNN, that's everywhere.
**(1:27 - 1:37)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And it's not, it doesn't always leave you feeling good about life. It doesn't leave you with a good outlook about your day. But what We Are The Mighty does is everything around that.
**(1:37 - 1:44)**
**Blake Stilwell:** You know, sports, video games. We comment on the news from a veteran's perspective. Family stuff, milspouse stuff.
**(1:45 - 1:58)**
**Blake Stilwell:** You know, it's everything that goes into being a member of the military or being a veteran. The important things that go on in your personal life. That's what the kind of thing we cover and comment on and, you know, try to keep up with day to day.
**(1:59 - 2:15)**
**John S. Berry:** And I noticed the slant is much more towards history and patriotism and a lot of information that maybe we need to know about our country that we don't know.
**Blake Stilwell:** Yeah, so I like to think of that part as a celebration of military service. And it's not just American military service either.
**(2:15 - 2:24)**
**Blake Stilwell:** It's Western allies, Canadians. We even talk about things that American enemies have done that were, you know, incredible.
**(2:25 - 2:37)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Given enough time that passed, you know. But like everyone is a patriot of their own country. And who's to say, like, they're wrong just because, you know, I mean, they came up with the same beliefs about their country that we did. But yeah, it is Americentric.
**(2:37 - 2:47)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And we do enjoy patriotism. Who in the military joins and isn't a patriot in some way, shape or form? And I think there's a lot of pride there. There's a lot of pride in service.
**(2:47 - 2:56)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And there's a lot of pride in your service branch. And we like to celebrate that feeling because too often it gets lost in the politics. And it gets lost in the media.
**(2:56 - 3:04)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And it gets lost in criticism. And those things are all valid and they're a way of life. But, you know, again, that can leave you feeling really low.
**(3:04 - 3:18)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And it can leave you feeling drained. But that's not all there is either. I don't want people to think that serving in the military is just running through the woods and training to kill the enemy and all those things.
**(3:18 - 3:23)**
**Blake Stilwell:** It's so much more. It's a lifestyle. That's why people on the outside can't really understand it.
**(3:24 - 3:46)**
**Blake Stilwell:** But the most important thing that I like, I want military or, excuse me, I'll explain that later. I want We Are The Mighty to be is a bridge. I want people who have never served, people who have served, people who are currently in, to be able to go to We Are The Mighty and learn about another area of military life and service that maybe they didn't know before or maybe didn't entirely understand.
**(3:47 - 4:00)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I wanted us to explain what military life and service is and what it means to those who do it.
**John S. Berry:** Yeah, I think that's a great point that We Are The Mighty is for more than just a military and veteran community. And there are a lot of people out there with a military affinity.
**(4:00 - 4:11)**
**John S. Berry:** At Barry Law, we have a lot of people come to us and say, well, are you a veteran? Well, no, but we just wanted to hire you for this injury accident case because you are veterans. We know you do veterans disability appeals. And because we saw that you do injury stuff, too.
**(4:11 - 4:22)**
**John S. Berry:** We're not veterans, but we trust you and we believe in your mission and we want to be a part of it. And so, yes, I want you to be my lawyer because you support and defend the Constitution, which I think is what protects my legal rights.
**Blake Stilwell:** Yes, that's what it does.
**(4:23 - 4:33)**
**John S. Berry:** So I want to go to your journey. So you are an 18-year-old kid. You apply to, well, you enlist in the Air Force and you become what was called then a combat videographer.
**(4:34 - 4:55)**
**John S. Berry:** And now up to the point where we are now, where you are the editor-in-chief of We Are The Mighty, you have an amazing career. And I think what a lot of people don't understand about how we get places is that you've done some pretty big things with some pretty big organizations that you wouldn't, you know, sometimes you forget about. And I think about one of your friends, Mark Harper, he followed a very similar trajectory.
**(4:55 - 5:08)**
**John S. Berry:** So take us through that journey.
**Blake Stilwell:** So I, the important thing to know about me and my career is that I've always pursued my interests. I, you know, I'm from a small town in Ohio, Springfield, where we do not eat the dogs and the cats of the people who live there.
**(5:08 - 5:17)**
**Blake Stilwell:** That's a throwback to the election year. Springfield, Ohio. And, you know, I just didn't know what the future held and I didn't really know what was beyond my hometown.
**(5:18 - 5:32)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I think we're all that way. I think even kids from New York may not even feel like they know what's outside the barriers of New York City. So I just wanted to make sure that I always took the opportunity, no matter how hard it was or like how much work it took.
**(5:32 - 5:41)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I just wanted to go out and experience all I could. So, yes, I did join the military at 18. I became the title.
**(5:41 - 5:51)**
**Blake Stilwell:** The official title in the Air Force was Visual Information Production and Documentation. Yeah. And I got Charleston Air Force Base 1st Combat Camera.
**(5:51 - 5:57)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Well, I started out the 437th Communications Squadron. Shout out. And then I moved over to 1st Combat Camera.
**(5:57 - 6:05)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I spent the rest of my career there and it was a great experience. When I got out, I didn't really know what I wanted to do. But that's like the theme of my young life.
**(6:05 - 6:12)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I didn't know what I wanted to do when I turned 18. I didn't know what I wanted to do after 9-11. I joined because, you know, it was the thing to do.
**(6:12 - 6:26)**
**Blake Stilwell:** It was a time to serve. And I could figure out what I wanted to do for the next 40 years, 60 years, 90 years along the way. So I went to Syracuse University and I got a master's degree in television, radio, film.
**(6:26 - 6:43)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And that led to a great internship at ABC News in New York and a great internship doing the Beijing Olympics in 2008 for NBC. And after that, I went to work for HBO Sports and I did a great show called 24/7. Followed documentary show, followed around boxers.
**(6:43 - 6:50)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I got to meet Manny Pacquiao. Like his brother made me dinner. Like it was a crazy world for this kid from Ohio.
**(6:50 - 7:02)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And then, you know, the housing crisis kind of like killed media, the 2007 financial economic crisis, whatever they call it nowadays. We all know what I'm talking about. And so like I was out of work for a little while.
**(7:03 - 7:08)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I tried my hand at being a Hollywood assistant. Didn't work out. But then I got a job working at the White House.
**(7:09 - 7:15)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Obama had just taken office. And I was doing video work for the White House. And it was an amazing time.
**(7:15 - 7:25)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And I had a great time doing it. I had a great time serving. I do believe that just apolitically, if you get a chance to work at the White House, you should do it.
**(7:25 - 7:30)**
**Blake Stilwell:** No matter who is off, whether you agree with it or not. You know, do it for a little while. Find out.
**(7:30 - 7:35)**
**Blake Stilwell:** See what it's like. It's insane. But also really fun.
**(7:35 - 7:44)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And you're like there for history, no matter what kind of history it is. And, you know, but burnout is real. And after two years of that, I just wanted to change.
**(7:45 - 7:50)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I was like, I'm out of media. I'm done. So I went back to Syracuse.
**(7:50 - 7:59)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I went to a program called Public Diplomacy. It's a dual international relations and public relations master's program. I did that for two years.
**(7:59 - 8:10)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And then I got a gig at the Near East Foundation, which is America's oldest international development nonprofit. And it's a wonderful organization. It was founded in 1915.
**(8:10 - 8:38)**
**Blake Stilwell:** So I got to be there for the 100th anniversary of the organization. And they still do a lot of work in Armenia and Palestine and Mali and Syria and Egypt and all these places where they utilize locals to help develop economic infrastructure. I was based in Nablus, Palestine, and we were working with Israeli olive farmers and Palestinian olive farmers to create a unique product, a blend of their olive oils to create economic cross-border cooperation.
**(8:38 - 8:49)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And it's a program that works. So this organization creates real programs that facilitate peace, which although technically they're not allowed to say that. USAID doesn't exist anymore.
**(8:49 - 8:52)**
**Blake Stilwell:** It's fine. Yeah. It facilitates cross-border understanding.
**(8:52 - 8:57)**
**Blake Stilwell:** It gets money in people's pockets. That's the secret to peace. Having jobs and having money.
**(8:57 - 9:11)**
**Blake Stilwell:** So I did that for two years. And then Mark Harper, as you mentioned, started We Are The Mighty with David Gale, and he needed people to write stuff for the website. And he reached out to me and said, hey, I can't really pay you right now, but I need this.
**(9:11 - 9:16)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Will you help a brother out? And I was like, yeah, sure. So I would write stories for him. And it was cool to see my name published.
**(9:16 - 9:29)**
**Blake Stilwell:** But I didn't really think that was my future, especially when you're over in the Middle East doing an entirely different kind of work. So I did that. And people liked my writing.
**(9:29 - 9:37)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Who'd have thought? And they liked my writing. And so they offered me a job to come out and do some work. And I was like, yeah, I could be a writer for a little while.
**(9:37 - 9:50)**
**Blake Stilwell:** So I learned on the fly. But it turns out I accidentally became a writer because I was there until 2019. And then I moved to Military.com after that until this year when We Are The Mighty hired me back to run it.
**(9:51 - 9:57)**
**Blake Stilwell:** The inmate runs the asylum now. So, yeah, long journey. Sorry that was a lot of words.
**(9:57 - 10:03)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I hope people are still listening.
**John S. Berry:** So you go from Military.com to We Are The Mighty. Now you're the editor-in-chief.
**(10:03 - 10:27)**
**John S. Berry:** What are your plans or what's your vision for the future for We Are The Mighty?
**Blake Stilwell:** Well, ultimately, my goal is to be the arbiter of good taste for the veteran community. I want, you know, at Military.com, my first job was the restoring of veteran jobs vertical for them. And my focus on doing that was education, employment, and entrepreneurship because I thought it was an underreported area.
**(10:27 - 10:33)**
**Blake Stilwell:** It was something that other publications did when something special happened. But there's a lot out there for veterans. There's so much.
**(10:34 - 10:46)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Almost anything you want to do, it's practically free for you to become it. People who've reached out to me online on LinkedIn, I've gotten them into chemistry programs for free. I've gotten them into aircraft piloting programs for free.
**(10:46 - 10:54)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I've gotten them into electrician programs for free. And that's just something that I've done personally because somebody asked. But there are so many great programs out there that are free.
**(10:54 - 11:08)**
**Blake Stilwell:** They have job placement that will teach you how to interview. If they don't have job placement, they get you jobs that are well above the American median income and will never, ever touch your GI Bill.
**(11:08 - 11:13)**
**John S. Berry:** And I think of Syracuse University. They have the D'Aniello Institute. Yes.
**(11:13 - 11:20)**
**John S. Berry:** And that is where IVMF comes from. And that's CEO Circle, Bunker Labs.
**Blake Stilwell:** And I've been there in this program for two years now. And it's absolutely free.
**(11:20 - 11:36)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I wanted to give a shout out to Syracuse University real quick. Not just because I'm an alumni, but they were there before it was a thing. When I went to Syracuse University in 2007, when I first started my master's program there, they had a veteran center.
**(11:36 - 11:44)**
**Blake Stilwell:** They didn't have a name for it. And it sure wasn't what it is now. The D'Aniello Institute was a parking lot when I first started going there.
**(11:45 - 11:57)**
**Blake Stilwell:** But they still had people there for veterans. And they had an area where veterans could study. And this is before veteran employment and Yellow Ribbon programs and institutes like D'Aniello were such a big deal.
**(11:58 - 12:16)**
**Blake Stilwell:** But they still had those things in place. And moreover, they not only did everything I needed to do for my Yellow Ribbon program, for my GI Bill, they also helped me with my veteran, my VA compensation disability claim. That's an incredible thing for a university to take on.
**(12:16 - 12:21)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And they did it for free. I didn't have to pay extra for it. I didn't have to wait for it.
**(12:22 - 12:28)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I just turned in my paperwork and they're like, you'll hear from us in a couple weeks. We got the VA down the street. That's amazing.
**(12:28 - 12:42)**
**Blake Stilwell:** So shout out to Syracuse University for always being on the front line of where veterans need them the most. I'm so happy I went there. And I'm so happy that so many other schools have taken a cue from what they've done.
**(12:42 - 12:50)**
**John S. Berry:** Now I want to get you to the After Action Review, the examples of great leadership and poor leadership. Whether military or civilian. You don't have to name names.
**(12:50 - 13:01)**
**John S. Berry:** Let's start with the great leadership.
**Blake Stilwell:** Oh, well, you know, before the show, we were talking. I think that great leadership is something that you don't really notice because, you know, that's the way it's supposed to be.
**(13:01 - 13:05)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Right. Great leadership. I'll name this name.
**(13:05 - 13:15)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Amy Bushatz at Military.com. She's not with Military.com anymore. She went on to do local journalism at her home in Alaska. But she took me in.
**(13:15 - 13:26)**
**Blake Stilwell:** She trained me. She shepherded me through my early years at Military.com, which was vastly different from any other kind of writing and journalism I ever did. She was patient.
**(13:26 - 13:36)**
**Blake Stilwell:** She was kind. Even with my neuroses about, you know, working for like the number one name in military journalism at the time. She was like, yeah, don't sweat it.
**(13:36 - 13:46)**
**Blake Stilwell:** If I was talking to somebody big and important, she'd be like, they need you more than you need them. Don't worry about it. And when I turned stuff in, it was just professional.
**(13:46 - 13:52)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Everything was just edited. No commentary. No, you know, why are you doing this? Your time.
**(13:52 - 13:57)**
**Blake Stilwell:** You seem to think that your time is more valuable than mine. None of that. She was just like, OK, great.
**(13:57 - 14:00)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Here it is. Just learn as you go. Just absorb that.
**(14:00 - 14:10)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And I tried to bring that her vibe into everything that I do with other writers, everything that I edit. So shout out to Amy Bushatz. That to me is great leadership.
**(14:10 - 14:21)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And I didn't even realize it until, you know, we were sitting there talking about what great leadership is. You don't know it because that's just how the way it is supposed to work. You know? It's like IT.
**(14:21 - 14:27)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Nobody knows it until it stops working. And so you get bad leadership when you see it.
**John S. Berry:** So give us an example of that.
**(14:28 - 14:31)**
**Blake Stilwell:** OK. I won't name bad leadership. My bad leadership example.
**(14:31 - 14:45)**
**Blake Stilwell:** But I think we're all familiar with someone who can't take personal responsibility. And I've seen that more than once. You know, it's just that you blame your subordinates for things that are clearly your fault.
**(14:45 - 15:01)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I get that, you know, life is stressful, especially as you go up the chain, either in the military or in the civilian world. And if you're running your own business, I'm starting a bar. Trust me, I know just how hard it can be to be the guy who needs all the answers and all the money.
**(15:02 - 15:11)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I get it. But, you know, if something is clearly your fault, you know, don't take it out on your subordinates.
**(15:12 - 15:19)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Your subordinates will lose respect for you and they won't work as hard for you. And it's just going to make your life harder from here on out. I ended up leaving that job not long after. And I think I was pretty good at it.
**(15:21 - 15:32)**
**Blake Stilwell:** So I think that, yeah, I think it's just shooting yourself in the foot if you can't take personal responsibility for your missteps. I don't even call them failures. Failures are great.
**(15:32 - 15:40)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Failures are how we learn. It's certainly how I learned. And you just can't take it too hard and you can't take it out on your people.
**(15:40 - 15:55)**
**John S. Berry:** And I think that's where leadership becomes so difficult in practice. Because what you want to say is, oh, I'm the leader, extreme ownership, I own every problem. But the truth is, if you don't assign responsibility and you put everything on your, oh, that's my fault, that's my fault, that's my fault.
**(15:55 - 16:02)**
**John S. Berry:** Then you just took someone's job away from them. And guess what? They'll never take it back. And then what ends up happening is you as a leader break down and burn out.
**(16:02 - 16:09)**
**John S. Berry:** And so I think it's easy for us to talk about here. You know what? Take responsibility. But when it's obvious, it's obvious.
**(16:09 - 16:23)**
**John S. Berry:** But a lot of times it's not. Oh, did I not do a good job of delegating? Or did the person just not do what they're supposed to do? And hindsight is 20/20. And in the heat of the moment, you're like, well, you got to make a decision, right?
**(16:24 - 16:28)**
**John S. Berry:** Do I hold them accountable? Do I just own this? Because you can't go back and you can apologize. But once you own it, you own it. And they will expect you to own it forever.
**Blake Stilwell:** Yeah.
**(16:28 - 16:33)**
**Blake Stilwell:** So no shade to Jocko. I love Jocko. I don't like the phrase extreme ownership.
**(16:33 - 16:41)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Extreme anything. We don't need to live in the extreme world. Maybe that's a marketing term he came up with to get noticed. But ownership is good.
**(16:41 - 16:47)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Extreme ownership is not good. No one person can handle any organization.
**(16:48 - 16:57)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And nor should they. A great organization is a team. And you should delegate certain things to your knowledge experts.
**(16:58 - 17:09)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I'm sure you're an excellent lawyer, right? Do you know how to handle your own books? Do you know how to do your own marketing?
**John S. Berry:** Absolutely not.
**Blake Stilwell:** And that's the thing is we want to be subject matter experts. We have to focus.
**(17:09 - 17:16)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And then we dilute our focus and we try to do everything.
**John S. Berry:** Right.
**Blake Stilwell:** And so you're a better lawyer for your clients when you're focused.
**(17:16 - 17:27)**
**Blake Stilwell:** You shouldn't be focused on your books. You shouldn't be focused on, I don't know if you have commercials, but you just shouldn't be focused on that stuff. Your reputation is what you do.
**(17:27 - 17:30)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Everything else is around your reputation. That's your job.
**John S. Berry:** Right.
**(17:30 - 17:44)**
**Blake Stilwell:** And that's how I feel about We Are The Mighty. My reputation, the website's reputation, I can help bolster that day in and day out with the meaningful steps that I take every day.
**(17:44 - 17:52)**
**Blake Stilwell:** But I can't control my social media. I can't control my company's SEO team.
**(17:52 - 18:11)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I can't control the ads that come on my website. That's just out of my hands. I can complain about it later and make it part of my job, but I'm not going to go yelling at the guy who does our programmatic ads because what good does that do? Or the guy who hosts our website. Like he's just going to, at best, he's just going to be indifferent.
**(18:11 - 18:15)**
**Blake Stilwell:** At worst, he's going to shoot me in the foot. Right? Yeah. I never liked that guy anyway.
**(18:15 - 18:20)**
**John S. Berry:** Yeah.
**John S. Berry:** You definitely don't want any subversion.
**Blake Stilwell:** Subversion, that's a good one. Yes.
**(18:20 - 18:32)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Okay.
**John S. Berry:** So where could veterans learn more about We Are The Mighty, and where can they learn more about you, Blake Stilwell?
**(18:32 - 18:52)**
**Blake Stilwell:** Oh, well, We Are The Mighty, just come on the website. Come on and find something you like. If you love history, we got it. If you love sarcasm, we got that in spades. I want everything to be humorous and fun and accurate, and one day I want it to be a website where if you need something in your post-military life, or even your active duty life, or even if you're just curious about military life, I want to be the destination for you.
**(18:53 - 19:00)**
**Blake Stilwell:** So, yeah, just come visit WeAreTheMighty.com and take a look around.
**(19:01 - 19:11)**
**Blake Stilwell:** If you want to know more, you can reach out to me personally. My email is all over that place. If you Google Blake Stilwell, I am the first one who comes up.
**(19:11 - 19:35)**
**Blake Stilwell:** I am super easy to get a hold of. I do have a website, but, like, I'm not the interesting part. The interesting part is We Are The Mighty, and that's really where I shine.
**John S. Berry:** Thank you for joining us today on Veteran Led, where we seek to help veterans build an even bigger, better future after military service.
**(19:35 - 19:39)**
**John S. Berry:** Unfortunately for some of our veterans, the roadblock to a better future is that they are not receiving all of the benefits that they earned. If you need help appealing a VA disability decision, contact Barry Law.