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Tactical Wealth is the podcast built to empower the military and veteran community to take control of their financial future.
From navigating the military to civilian life transition, to launching businesses, growing your income, and building long-term wealth, each episode brings you real stories and actionable insights from those whoβve gone from boots on the ground to building lasting wealth.
Hosted by Kaj Larsen, former Navy SEAL, award-winning journalist, and mission-driven entrepreneur. Kaj successfully co-founded a financial technology company and sold the company in 2024. The podcast features hard truth conversations with successful veteran entrepreneurs, CEOs, and top financial experts.
Whether you're still in uniform or already charting your next chapter, this podcast gives you the tactical tools to lead with impact in your finances and beyond. Letβs get tactical.
Tactical Wealth is a Gebbia Media production, brought to you by Siebert.Valor, a military-focused initiative from Siebert Financial. The Tactical Wealth podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Siebert Financial. This podcast does not constitute investment advice, an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy any securities. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Listeners should consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.
For more information and disclosures, please visit siebert.com/disclosures.
00;00;04;07 - 00;00;39;13
Unknown
So when I was 17, I was like, I want to raise my right hand. I want to test myself. I want to see if I've got what it takes. I found myself for the first time in my life where I was failed. We've got to figure something out. Nobody's coming to help us. It's on us. We've got to get off the X or we're going to be wiped out.
00;00;39;15 - 00;01;01;19
Unknown
Some people wait for others. Fight for it. Welcome to Tactical Wealth. The show were disciplined service and real world experience become pathways to financial power. I'm your host Kaj Larsen. On each episode, we bring you the stories and the wisdom of those who have gone from boots on the ground to successful careers, from military to wealth, and how they've done it.
00;01;01;19 - 00;01;12;02
Unknown
So you can apply those insights to your own mission and your own life. This is tactical wealth, from military to money.
00;01;12;04 - 00;01;48;10
Unknown
Welcome back to another episode of Tactical Wealth. I am super excited today because I have brought the army to me. I have 22 year retired lieutenant colonel, Army veteran Carl Churchill. Carl is an Intel officer and after that transitioned, spent some time in the corporate world and started became the co-founder of Alpha Coffee, which is a multi-million dollar coffee brand and donates 10% of its profits to the grounds for good program.
00;01;48;13 - 00;02;10;28
Unknown
That's really exciting. I want to hear all about it. Welcome to the show. Thanks. Great to have you. It's awesome to be here. Yeah, yeah. So we were talking before, like me, you entered the military service at 17 years old. Yeah. Yeah, 17. You know, I grew up on military bases. Army brat. Army brat? Yeah, my mom's German.
00;02;10;28 - 00;02;43;27
Unknown
My dad was Army and my stepdad, Army Ranger from Vietnam, grew up with, you know, Army Rangers, Green Berets that were my coaches, my teachers. And so when I was 17, I was like, I want to raise my right hand. I want to test myself. I want to see if I've got what it takes. And yeah. And then from there, my NCOs pulled me aside and said, hey, you're pretty smart, kid.
00;02;43;27 - 00;03;08;01
Unknown
You ought to apply for this green for gold scholarship. And I did that, got it, and then went to the dark side in commission. Yeah. Trust me, I know all about it. Yeah. So, yeah, it's it really is wild to enter the service at 17 at the time. Like, you think I'm ready for this. Like, now looking back in our, you know, with all of this wisdom that we've accumulated, you're like, oh man.
00;03;08;01 - 00;03;34;04
Unknown
I was like, yeah, totally a kid. I mean, yeah. And I came in a few years after the Vietnam War had ended. It was a transition. A lot of the guys, you know, my bunk made in the reception station had just gotten out of prison and had, you know, was sent to to the judge and the judge said, Army or, you know, military or prison, apocryphal story.
00;03;34;05 - 00;03;54;19
Unknown
Like, Guy gets in trouble and the judges like, you got two choices like that actually happened. That actually happened. Yeah. And so, you know, it was it was eye opening for me going in, but I it was it was amazing. I grew up quickly and I wouldn't say I loved every minute of it, but I loved it. Yeah.
00;03;54;20 - 00;04;05;07
Unknown
Amazing. And when you entered the service, did you know that you were going to do your 20 and retire? No, actually, you know, I wanted to to go in, prove myself, save
00;04;05;07 - 00;04;24;21
Unknown
some money for college. And, you know, at 17, you don't really know. You're thinking like in three, four, five year blocks of time. And, you know, just over time, it just it just felt right to stay in.
00;04;24;22 - 00;04;51;13
Unknown
There was one more hill to climb, one more thing to do. And yeah, amazing. And now. So you entered the service when like in 1979. What? Yeah. Yeah, I turned 64 last week. So I'm an old dude. Wait, is the Army got, like, some secret reverse aging anti Benjamin Button program? Yeah. Oh, coffee? No I mean yeah. Thanks.
00;04;51;14 - 00;05;17;16
Unknown
I, I think that what's really important in life is to just, you know, stay young, to keep sharp, keep physically fit. And and that's the solution. Yeah. Well, especially when you're building a business, you have little choice, right? That's right. Yeah. Yeah. There's there's no days off. Yeah. That is so true. Awesome. So tell me about your service a little bit.
00;05;17;17 - 00;05;42;14
Unknown
What were some of the highlights, some of the lowlights of your, your. Yeah. You know I, I actually so the green to gold program you go through ROTC. So I went I applied to four different schools. My my NCO said you have your smart kid. You need to apply to an Ivy League school. So I applied to Princeton, got accepted, thought about it.
00;05;42;14 - 00;06;07;20
Unknown
Back then there was no internet, so I went to the library. I'm like, Princeton's in New Jersey. I don't want to go to new Jersey. So I ended up going to the University of Utah. Never regretted that decision. Mountains. Desert. Red Rock. Loved it. Was a distinguished military grad there. Had some amazing NCOs and officers that that were my instructors, and they have a pretty robust ROTC program there.
00;06;07;21 - 00;06;33;20
Unknown
They do. Yeah. Yeah. It's and you know, we did things like, you know, we we did mountaineering winter survival like that sort of outdoor lifestyle I really loved. But I, I think like you, I was a poly sci undergrad, you know poly side of fly. Yeah. That's it. And I ended up going. Am I, I, I really enjoyed military intelligence.
00;06;33;20 - 00;07;05;02
Unknown
I was but I stayed muddy boots most of the time. I was like ninth Infantry, third Infantry, first armor and then SOCOM or SOCEUR and and yeah, I mean, probably the highlight of my time in the military was as I was a Lierse company commander back when they had long range surveillance teams down at division level. And that's a series infantry officer position.
00;07;05;02 - 00;07;23;25
Unknown
But as an MI guy, they let me do it. And if I could have stayed in that job my whole career, I would have been a happy man. Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. And, you know, I talk about this all the time. The, you know, we'll get into to your co-founder and the genesis of your company. But my co-founder was a Navy intelligence officer.
00;07;24;01 - 00;07;44;08
Unknown
And so we always talk about this fusion between Intel and operations, how they operate hand in glove. And that template I don't know, tell me if this is true for you, but for me, that template kind of like set the tone for my company, right? Trying to be smart and then trying to execute. Yeah, yeah. No, 100%. I mean, it's the yin and the yang, you know?
00;07;44;09 - 00;08;06;06
Unknown
I mean, you really need to you need to be intentional. You need to think about it. I like to begin with the end in mind and, you know, do the research, figure it out and then execute. So you can do too much of one plan, plan, plan. We say, I tell my my leaders in the company, ready, fire!
00;08;06;07 - 00;08;33;15
Unknown
Aim. You know, because if you if you're like ready, ready, ready. You know aim, aim, aim. You have to pull the trigger. You have to do it. Adjust fire, figure out where you're going. But it's it's a little bit of both. Yeah. Yeah I want to get into the the entrepreneur ship speak. But yeah I'm constantly like translating my military experience which is like, oh walk rounds onto target, you know, ready, fire.
00;08;33;16 - 00;09;01;04
Unknown
Aim right. Recalibrate, get you know, get back on paper. Right. And in the entrepreneurial world, we'd say like iterate, iterate, iterate, you know, and continue to pivot. That's crazy. But, you know, it's the same thing. I mean, those principles work for a reason, right? Exactly. I mean, look, that's the thesis of of why we're here, right? Is that those, those foundational things that we do in the service can inform us later in life and help us climb and be successful.
00;09;01;06 - 00;09;29;17
Unknown
So. All right. So when do you when did you transition out of service. So you were tired out of the army after. Yeah. So so I actually I was in I was in Europe, I was stationed over there at soccer. Yeah. No actually I was with third Infantry. Okay. Decided to get out. I was deploying a lot. I had gotten frustrated with the military where, you know, you had to stand in line and wait to be.
00;09;29;24 - 00;10;02;10
Unknown
I was getting promoted below the zone, but still, like, after a 20 year career, somebody who went in five years ahead of you is still going to be ahead of you. And so I got out, moved to San Diego. Best city in America. It is a cool place to live for sure. Yeah. And, you know, I was I was selling surgical instruments to, to like neurosurgeons and I was I made a ton of money, but I just, I didn't have a sense of purpose.
00;10;02;10 - 00;10;25;10
Unknown
And so I got a call from soccer, said, hey, would you come back in for a, a short tour? Did that. The Balkans were happening back then. I went back in, did that, and then kind of the rose colored glasses came off like I missed. I missed the camaraderie. I missed the sense of mission. But I got back in.
00;10;25;10 - 00;10;49;08
Unknown
I'm like, it's the big green machine again. And so I decided that I was going to not go back on active duty, but I was going to go into the reserves. So I actually finished my career in the reserves, did a lot of cool things, loved it. So my transition was this sort of 12 years of halfway in, halfway out.
00;10;49;10 - 00;11;09;01
Unknown
I got picked up for Colonel like Full Bird, and they branch called me and said, hey, here's what the next five years like, we're going to send you to War College, you're going to be on a joint staff, blah, blah, blah. And I looked at my wife and I was like, I'm never going to lead troops again. It's all politics from here.
00;11;09;02 - 00;11;29;13
Unknown
I'm like, but you know, that 17 year old E-1 really wants to pin the the bird on. Yeah. And she's like, well, women, you know, my wife is way smarter than I am. She just looked at me and she said, you you achieved it. Whether you pin it on or don't pin it on, you were picked up by the board.
00;11;29;13 - 00;11;57;09
Unknown
Your career meant something. Like you always said. It was about the money. It was about retirement. And so next day I resigned and, you know, and that's that was that was my career. Well, it's funny, you're hinting at something that I always say, like, half in jest, right? Like, you know, I transitioned out after Lieutenant Commander after. Oh, for partially because I was looked at the career glide path and, you know, same thing.
00;11;57;09 - 00;12;26;10
Unknown
I said, listen, if I'm going to be mid-level management somewhere, I'm going to be mid-level management at Goldman Sachs. Yeah. Which you did. Right. Like yeah. Yeah. So you and then so then ultimately you transitioned out now. But you were always kind of working for the man, not working for yourself even right after you retired. Yeah. So when I first got out, like I was drawn to startup companies because it felt like the military, a small team trying to achieve a difficult mission.
00;12;26;12 - 00;12;50;19
Unknown
And I love that world. You know, before tech there was telecom. So I was in the telecom in the tech industry, and I ended up with a startup company. You know, we went from 12 employees to 150. We had a $10 million offer for it. The founder, you know, my wife and I had bought into some ownership in there.
00;12;50;21 - 00;13;18;13
Unknown
The founder had the majority stake in it, and he turned the offer down. This was 2009, and we did software for the construction mortgage industry. So, you know, this story ends badly. So we went from, you know, thinking like, hey, we've got a nice chunk of change to start our next thing to slightly less than zero. You know, we were bankrupt six months, Great Recession started.
00;13;18;13 - 00;13;40;15
Unknown
Six months later, we were bankrupt. So that's where Lori and I found ourselves. And we were we were literally drinking some coffee that my brother in law had roasted. Lori's from Washington state. I met her when I was up at Fort Lewis. Now JB and yeah, and drinking some of Josh's great coffee. And I said, hey, have this crazy idea.
00;13;40;19 - 00;13;59;10
Unknown
What if we got Josh to roast for us and we, you know, started a coffee company? Could do it out of the basement. We could break every child labor law there is, you know, let our kids help us build this business. And she's like, hey, I've held your hand and jumped off the high dive so many times in our relationship.
00;13;59;12 - 00;14;23;18
Unknown
Let's do it. Wow. Now, that sounds like an epic co-founder. Okay, before we get into the the beginning stages of your company call, I'm going to call it training timeout like Tito, because you said something really fascinating there in the beginning of your story, in the beginning of your origin story. And it was this sort of failure that, you know, you were subsumed by larger events, right?
00;14;23;19 - 00;14;50;06
Unknown
Like, no idea is born before its time, but no idea can either also escape its time. The great financial crisis comes. The company that you're at, it's done. But there's also like os in in hubris there. Right. Because there was there was money on the table. And this is why would say contrarian entrepreneurial advice. But when I talk to entrepreneurs, I always say it's almost never bad to wring the cash register, even if it's early.
00;14;50;07 - 00;15;16;24
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely honored. Because that exit, that exit that was on the table, yeah. May not have been $100 million exit or $500 million exit, but it's still a life changing exit, right? Especially at that time for sure. Yeah, I'll tell you that. Before that one, there were two others. I mean, we we started a company, me and two other guys.
00;15;16;24 - 00;15;42;12
Unknown
We raised 3 million in angel investment capital, started a internet telephone company back in the day when you still paid for long distance. And we were trying to break that model and we, you know, we went to Cisco and pitched them and they. I'll never forget that day after we pitched them, they were like, yeah, you know, go ahead and have a seat in the lobby.
00;15;42;14 - 00;16;03;27
Unknown
You know, they have this big room. Everybody's sitting in it. They call us back in. They say we're in for 50 million and we're like, not that it matters, but was that one 5 or 5 zero? They're like, no, 50 million. But here's the deal. You raise 3 million will match it with six. You get started as you raise more capital will match it.
00;16;03;27 - 00;16;30;09
Unknown
Match it. This was in you know.com days early days. And that ended badly as well. You know and I mean you just my definition of an entrepreneur is somebody who goes from one setback to the next with no loss of enthusiasm. It's like you just have to be that guy who's, you know, November Foxtrot, Quebec never freaking quit and just keep it going.
00;16;30;11 - 00;16;50;08
Unknown
Yeah, I mean, I do also. Yeah. Like, look, we share the same DNA because I, you know, I'm always just, like, never ring the bell as option of it. Never ring that bell. But that doesn't mean that like, you charge like straight through walls, sometimes you have to learn how to go around walls, over walls, under walls. You just you got to get through no matter what.
00;16;50;09 - 00;17;14;20
Unknown
So this is fascinating. And I think it's something that we haven't really talked about a lot, quite often in the rearview mirror of success. Right now we drive these fancy EVs, right. But if we look, it wasn't always driving fancy EVs. If you look in the rearview mirror, there's a a string of what people would call failures prior to that, but those are really the building blocks of future success.
00;17;14;21 - 00;17;41;09
Unknown
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, in the military, we study successes and failures. For that reason. In the Army, we did the AR, the after action review. And, you know, it's like what went well, what didn't go well. And I've learned so much from the failures. And yeah, and you control what you can and you let go of what you can't and you just adjust and you know, keep pushing forward.
00;17;41;09 - 00;18;09;13
Unknown
So so you have these you have several companies that are like right at the two yard line. And then because of the macro environment, whether it's the.com bust or the great financial crisis, those go to zero. What then makes you identify the the niche or the opportunity for the for the company that you started there? Yeah, yeah. It's interesting.
00;18;09;14 - 00;18;32;28
Unknown
I mean, at that point, Lori and I sat down and we said, you know, we wanted like we were in a financial crisis. Luckily, we had put some money away in an emergency fund, but we, you know, sold the BMW. You know, we had to we were in a situation where I couldn't find a job. A lot of people don't remember that.
00;18;32;28 - 00;18;57;17
Unknown
The Great Recession, it was like over 10% unemployment. You know, 1 in 10 people were not working, and a lot of people lost their homes, lost their businesses. And we were I found myself for the first time in my life where I was failed, you know, I mean, I had been working since I was 12 years old. I was a paper boy back when they used to put the news on print and throw it on people's porches.
00;18;57;17 - 00;19;20;28
Unknown
And, you know, I, I just I didn't know what to do. I kept applying for jobs. They were hiring freeze I would get people would bring me in, say, hey, we're going to give you an offer next week. And then they're like, there's a hiring freeze. So we we burn through our emergency savings like quicker than we thought we would.
00;19;21;06 - 00;19;53;06
Unknown
30 K didn't go very far. And and so I was like, hey, we've got to we've got to figure something out. Nobody's coming to help us. It's on us. We got to get off the X or we're going to be wiped out. And so, you know, we loved coffee and we said, if we're going to do something new, we're going to do something that we love, and and we're going to do it in a way where we can give back, you know, where we can, we can we can have it be meaningful, have a mission.
00;19;53;06 - 00;20;20;15
Unknown
And so, yeah, coffee we we'd been in Europe. We'd love cafe culture over there. And Lori's from the Pacific Northwest, you know, the birthplace of great coffee in America. And yeah. So we just we didn't know what we didn't know. So you're like, I married a mini Howard Schultz. Like, let's build a coffee company. Now, when you looked at the market, though, when you analyze the market.
00;20;20;15 - 00;20;40;15
Unknown
Because I know you're an analytical guy, right? Your Intel background comes into play. Did you say this is a saturated market? But we can find a niche that we can compete in. Yeah. You know what's interesting? So that we started coffee is a crowded space, right? Everything's crowded, but coffee is particularly crowded, particularly crowded. And it's gotten more crowded since we started.
00;20;40;16 - 00;21;11;21
Unknown
I mean, we were September 11th, 2010 was when we started the company. And and at the time there weren't, you know, a million military coffee companies. And, you know, we started out as online only, and that was those. I mean, I remember when Amazon was a discount bookseller, you know, and so I was we were a little early in terms of people subscribing food and beverage.
00;21;11;21 - 00;21;43;11
Unknown
Back then. It was I was going on YouTube and learning HTML code to build our first website, you know. So so what I'm hearing is that you found, like, even in a crowded marketplace, you found something unique, which was like a niche that the military space. Right? So you sort of a military brand within a crowded marketplace. And then you also found something unique in that you're kind of like early stage military and then early stage e-com.
00;21;43;13 - 00;22;05;23
Unknown
Yeah. So yeah, exactly. Of like you're able to like, separate the wheat from the chaff in this crowded marketplace with these kind of innovative approaches. Yeah. And, you know, initially we were like, we knew that people wanted better coffee. You know, Starbucks is Starbucks is Starbucks, but people wanted better quality coffee. And so they were seeking out their local coffee shops.
00;22;05;23 - 00;22;37;26
Unknown
And I said, babe, what if we became the local coffee for the military? But then we what we found out after we got into it is the military is like, you know, the vast majority of his 18 to like 26 and they're drinking reports and Celsius. You know, it's it's like we we and the people that really were in the coffee, they were finding their local coffee shops and their local roasters.
00;22;37;26 - 00;23;08;13
Unknown
But what we found was that our giveback program, which we did, because every time I deployed, I drank terrible coffee and I wanted to change that for the boys and girls downrange. They their parents really appreciated that. We had sent their kids coffee at some combat outpost in Afghanistan or during the surge in Iraq, and they would then buy our coffee and they'd tell everybody.
00;23;08;13 - 00;23;32;10
Unknown
And so we really grew because of our give back program. That's not why we wanted, you know, why we did it. We did it because we believed in it. And that's how we started to grow. And then, you know, six years in and, you know, full disclosure, about two years in, the plane wasn't getting lift in, the runway was coming fast.
00;23;32;10 - 00;23;57;04
Unknown
And so I was like, I need to get a daytime job to help this. And that's when I went to work for Goldman Sachs in their 10,000 Small Businesses program. I was a business advisor teaching other entrepreneurs how to build their businesses, how to grow them. And yeah. So yeah, and I think this is the other like the entrepreneurial path is not a straight line.
00;23;57;10 - 00;24;21;07
Unknown
Right. Like and a lot of businesses these days are built where you have a 9 to 5 and then you build your business 5 to 9. In fact, it's often can be a really excellent approach. Absolutely. You sometimes like there's always this like apocryphal story, like you go all in, you burn the boats or whatever. But the truth is, if you do that you like, you have to eat, you have to have a roof over your head.
00;24;21;08 - 00;24;43;15
Unknown
So you have to pay yourself, even if it's a little bit of money and every dollar comes out of the business. If you're doing that's exactly probably pouring like as much money into the business as you could. Yeah, we I always tell people do not do what we did. I mean, we, we like cashed in our 401, paid the, the penalties, you know, the taxes, all that stuff.
00;24;43;15 - 00;25;06;06
Unknown
But we didn't have an option. And you're right. I mean, we did burn the boats on the shore, but then, you know, we had to I had to figure out a way that we were going to fund this. As the money started to dwindle and it worked out like seven years in, we kept having people saying, hey, I'm coming out to Utah to ski.
00;25;06;08 - 00;25;28;25
Unknown
I love your coffee. I'd love to come by and meet you guys in person. And we were like, well, you know, it's the basement. Like, we can't, we can't have people coming to our house. And so my wife said, I want the house back. It smells amazing, you know, 400 pounds of freshly roasted coffee. But we need to we need to get out out of the basement.
00;25;28;25 - 00;25;55;20
Unknown
So two blocks from our house, we found a location where we could open our first coffee shop. And that was a little bit of a pivot for us. And you know, we took out $150,000 small business loan, bought all the equipment, did it, paid ourselves $12 an hour plus tips, became baristas and shipped out of the back. And then that just started to grow.
00;25;55;20 - 00;26;17;23
Unknown
And, you know, now we've got online wholesale, two coffee shops, 38 employees. That's fascinating. Fascinating story. So there was a point where you felt like the business was sputtering like, or you're at a real. Yeah, we had we had sort of like we'd sort of topped out, you know, we the online just wasn't growing further than we thought it would.
00;26;17;24 - 00;26;41;27
Unknown
And, and this is like what, circa 2014 or 2000. Let's see what 2017 to 20 1617. So in a sort of counterintuitive way, you started at E-comm, but it wasn't until you launched your brick and mortar, yeah, that you really started to achieve liftoff. Yeah. And part of that was we're right at the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon.
00;26;41;27 - 00;27;07;24
Unknown
There's four world class ski resorts. Like, we're we're the last coffee stop on the way. And, you know, people would. And we've got the two highest rated Google rated coffee shops in Salt Lake because we you know, for us it's like drink good, do good. That's our tagline. So we have a really good amazing coffee. We buy the best beans, we roast them to perfection.
00;27;07;24 - 00;27;35;12
Unknown
It's fresh. We send it out, we serve it to our customers. And then my wife trains all the baristas and they are like world class. They, you know, baristas that leave Alpha and go work other places. Their coffee shop owners call us and say, I just got to tell you, thank you. Like, you know, so, you know, for us it's about like really high quality, really great experience.
00;27;35;12 - 00;27;59;05
Unknown
So our our mission statement is awesome. Coffee. Be a warrior, have fun and give back. So you have to have a simple mission statement, you know 3 to 4 bullet points. And and that's what we do. And then we have our rules of engagement, you know, yet after the mission statement then what's the ROE. You know, so our very Chad comes in, brings the row.
00;27;59;10 - 00;28;26;23
Unknown
Exactly. Yeah. You're the Jag. Yeah. You're the officer and the Jag in this case. Okay. Yeah. As an entrepreneur, you're everything right, you know? Yeah. So true. And how would you describe what's a snapshot of the business today? Today we are doing really well. You know, we we multi-million dollar were profitable. We do. We've decided that at this point we really want to take care of our team.
00;28;27;00 - 00;28;48;00
Unknown
So our first rule of engagement is we win as a team. You know that. I mean, it's like I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for team A team that had my back, you know, and and that is one of the biggest lessons coming out of the military is that you you know, you can't do it all yourself.
00;28;48;01 - 00;29;10;07
Unknown
You you have to hire people and have people on your team that help you succeed. So we do a matching 401 for our employees after they've been with us a year. It's 6% no vesting dollar for dollar. You walk out the door with it. We do health care reimbursement. We pay a livable wage. We just started doing profit sharing this year.
00;29;10;07 - 00;29;32;27
Unknown
Whenever I look at military or veteran owned companies or veterans, I think there are are plenty of reasons that we are behind the power curve when it comes to entrepreneurship. Some of it's just time, the function of time. A lot of us spend a decade in the military building our careers, while our civilian counterparts were like building relationships and even bankrolling some capital or or whatever.
00;29;33;03 - 00;29;51;21
Unknown
So there's all kinds of disadvantages, but I think one of the values and principles that has helped me in my business, and it sounds like it's helped you in your business, is that there's something about the nature of leadership in the military, where one of your first principles just take care of your people. Absolutely right. That is like drilled into us.
00;29;51;23 - 00;30;29;14
Unknown
Like even when I was a follower, when I was 17, when I joined the military, I saw my mentors and my senior officers. Really, for the most part, there's always bad apples, but for the most part, most of the military leadership cadre really, really like, does value and believe in taking care of their people. Yeah. I mean, if if I mean the first and that's a value you can export right from the service 100%, I think it's the value that like if you, you, you have to lead your company and the way you lead is what makes a difference makes the difference.
00;30;29;14 - 00;30;49;04
Unknown
And for me, you know, caring about your people, that's the very first that's the very first fundamental thing is that if you truly care about them, then they're going to respect you and follow you, you know. Yeah. And and and do hard things. Right. Because work is hard. It's a it's a grind. And I don't mean a coffee grind.
00;30;49;05 - 00;31;12;13
Unknown
Right. Like, you know you got to ask people to, to do, to do really hard things. And they'll only you're more apt to have that happen if, if you treat your people well and. Yeah, yeah. And generationally things have changed a lot. You know, you talk to anybody who's running a business now and you, you talk to them about quote unquote this generation.
00;31;12;13 - 00;31;35;00
Unknown
It's you know, it's not better, it's not worse. It's just different. And they were raised in a different way. They have a different sense of work ethic and work life balance and all that kind of stuff. But those fundamental principles still make the difference. Yeah. So we have this this section that we like to do. We call it rapid fire.
00;31;35;01 - 00;31;54;27
Unknown
Okay. It's like shooting steel. You get instant feedback or stream of consciousness. You know, we're on a couch, lay down on the couch and tell me the first thing that comes to your mind. Right. Good. So best investment you ever made. So I would say investing in myself, you know, I use my GI Bill to get my MBA.
00;31;54;29 - 00;32;17;08
Unknown
That was great. But in terms of actual true investment, buying Apple stock when it was way, way down, I just I'm I'm an Apple guy and I knew a lot of people were and I was like, yeah. So I jumped in pretty deep and wrote it and then recently sold it. You know, because pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered.
00;32;17;08 - 00;32;41;06
Unknown
So I'm, you know, I hear you look, even Warren Buffett is to vested just he had the when when when word was out I was out. Yeah yeah. Dummies financial mistake he ever made. Well, is probably early in my career. You know, we thought we were going to die fighting the Russians, you know, on the plains of Europe, and I did.
00;32;41;07 - 00;33;08;24
Unknown
I spent every paycheck. I buy drinks for the whole bar. And, you know, I learned very quickly, pay yourself first. Put that money away. Start to. Yeah. So the dumbest thing was just spending money like it didn't matter and there was no tomorrow. You know, I hear you. I say this in a bazillion different ways, but it's like there is something cultural call it, like focused on gunslinger and focused on war fight, like whatever you want to say.
00;33;08;25 - 00;33;33;11
Unknown
It's hard because you're so it's so drilled into you to be a war fighter or to be a warrior, that sometimes it's hard to look over the horizon and do just like a teensy as Monaco planning just a little. If we can do one thing on this damn show, it's just to nudge people to start early and. Yeah, and not do it.
00;33;33;12 - 00;34;00;06
Unknown
Yeah yeah yeah yeah. All right. Military skill that you think is most helpful in business? I think that team based approach and and I would say discipline to, you know, you you have to be disciplined. You have to just, you know, dig in, do the hard work, get it done. Is there a book that changed your mindset? You know, there's there's a ton of books out there that I love.
00;34;00;09 - 00;34;24;26
Unknown
I would say one that I really enjoy is Let My People Surf by Yvon Canard from Patagonia. Yeah, I really love that. And, you know, coming out of the military, you can't lead in the same way with civilians that you did in the military. And so obviously, like a commanding officer can still sentence somebody to rations of bread and water, right?
00;34;25;01 - 00;34;53;00
Unknown
Yeah. I've tried doing that with my employees. They like they rebel, you know, they don't like that. And especially I mean, our employees are 18, you know, they're that young age group. And you have to you have to motivate them. You have to explain why I've had to change my leadership style. And it's it's humbling to go from like, you know, I've led people in combat to like, here's why you need to clean the bathroom.
00;34;53;00 - 00;35;14;18
Unknown
Well, you know. Yeah, yeah. No. Like I feel this challenge. I also love that book, by the way. Yeah. As a lifelong surfer. Yeah, I, you know, whether I'm the top of the food chain or the bottom of the food chain, I think this is a good life, especially as to let your people share. Yeah. And morning routine first thing you do in the morning.
00;35;14;21 - 00;35;46;20
Unknown
So, you know, I every day I wake up, it's a, it's a great day, you know, so I, I believe in you know, gratitude. I wake up every morning and I think what is what am I grateful for this morning. And then right after that I hit the gym and hit it hard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I love when we have rhyming themes and so many of my guests now, partially like we've skewed a little frogman centric in this, so to be expected.
00;35;46;20 - 00;36;07;19
Unknown
But no, it's great to have Army representation, and it's great to hear some of the things that I believe were keys to my success were parallel to yours. And that idea of staying fit, the six pack CEO, staying young, keeping the knife sharp like that seems to be an essential ingredient to every successful entrepreneur that I've had on the show.
00;36;07;20 - 00;36;43;04
Unknown
Absolutely. I, you know, another great book is outlive. It is it's fantastic. And basically, Doctor Attia, you know, what he says is right. Yeah, exactly. He said, you know, the one thing you can do to live and to expand, extend your health span is, is physical activity. I mean, we as a species, you know, fought our way through the millennia, you know, and and so you have to be you have to be physically fit.
00;36;43;04 - 00;37;03;14
Unknown
It's just critical. Yeah. Well, Carl, thank you so much for coming on the show. Alpha coffee. You brought some Alpha coffee. That's something that's enjoying it. That is. That is epic. Yeah. I'm fake enjoying it because, you know, shockingly, I shouldn't admit this. I'm a tea drinker, not a coffee. That's. It's all good, but, like, I love my Alpha coffee mug.
00;37;03;15 - 00;37;26;25
Unknown
That's epic. Cool. Well, listen, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us. I think, like so many veterans like you lead with mission first, you lead with your values. It's so obvious that that is core to who you are and its core to the brand that you built. And I appreciate your hashtag still serving, continuing to serve our community.
00;37;26;25 - 00;37;46;04
Unknown
And thanks for coming on the show. Appreciate you. It was an honor. Yeah, yeah. To our listeners, thank you for walking in. I hope you're taking notes. But more importantly, I hope you're taking action. We'll be back with another guest in our next episode. And in the meantime, stay tactical and stay driven. All right. Thanks for walking in with us today.
00;37;46;06 - 00;38;08;17
Unknown
Shout out to Siebert Valor and Siebert Financial for supporting our journey. We'll be back next week with another powerhouse conversation. More founders, more builders and leaders who are playing offense in life and in business. Make sure you're subscribed to our YouTube channel for exclusive content and extended cuts of your favorite episodes. Until next week. Stay tactical. Stay driven.