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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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[00:00:00.320] - Steven Kuhn
Urgency, getting it done no matter what. Those two things. If you have urgency and getting it done no matter what in business, you will be head and shoulders above 99% of all the schleps out there. Because most people. I'll do it tomorrow. Hey, write me an email, send me a message. Hey, yeah, sure thing. We'll get in touch. Yeah, thanks for talking. I'll call you next week. No, now.
[00:00:23.360] - John S. Berry
Welcome to Veteran Light. Today's guest is Steven Kuhn.
[00:00:25.960] - Steven Kuhn
Stephen.
[00:00:26.350] - John S. Berry
Steve is the author of Unleash youh Humble Alpha and the co founder of Nova Scale Partners. Welcome to Veteran led. Steven, thank you so much.
[00:00:34.910] - Steven Kuhn
Appreciate it.
[00:00:35.790] - John S. Berry
Now you are also a Bronze Star recipient and a Gulf War veteran. A non commissioned officer, not an officer. We do the work. I love that. So let's start with. You have done quite a bit, worked with some stars, you've worked with some huge companies, small companies. You've done a ton of work helping people turn around businesses, turn around their lives. Tell us a little bit about what you do.
[00:01:03.830] - Steven Kuhn
Oh, well, you know, it's, it's morphed throughout the years. When I first got out of the military, I opened up a few cocktail bars in Berlin, Germany. I was stationed in Europe. Got out, stayed at a European out. And then through that I met a lot of people who then brought me into the corporate world where I ran large corporation, a NASDAQ listed company, a British listed company, a South African listed company. I was operations, development, you know, sales, all those kind of things. But at the executive level where I had no business being actually it was just sort of like how did I get here? But it was always through the attitude that I picked up in the military was like, there is no, no right. We have to make it happen. So that morphed into a book, into movies, into TV appearances, and a couple bestsellers in Germany and internationally. And then I got into of course, M and A mergers and acquisitions, started acquiring companies and selling them or acquiring pieces of companies and then exiting those, helping them grow and scale and at the same time coaching the founders until to this day where we raise funds for founders, for companies growing and scaling and pre IPO.
[00:02:04.380] - Steven Kuhn
IPO. This year so far we've signed 1.71 billion in deals, meaning that they are in the DD phase now, the due diligence phase. That'll go to funding within the next three to six months.
[00:02:16.010] - John S. Berry
And we're only in Q2 right now. So already over a billion dollars.
[00:02:19.530] - Steven Kuhn
That's right. That's right. And that's in an economy where everyone says pencils are dropped and no one's investing right now in this economy, there are a lot of family offices that aren't investing. They're sort of sitting on their money. And then there's ones who are smart and saying, let's invest in assets so that we can secure those funds.
[00:02:34.730] - John S. Berry
Absolutely. And yeah, I was just. Berkshire Hathaway was just in Omaha this week, and I brought, brought a friend from a special forces guy. He wanted to come see it, got up early, got in line, and it's the Warren Buffet. Someone asked him, does he still believe that when people are greedy, be afraid, and when people are afraid, be greedy? And he said, absolutely. So, Stephen, I want to get into your book. What is a humble Alpha? It almost sounds like an oxymoron. So what is a humble Alpha?
[00:03:04.180] - Steven Kuhn
Well, here's a book. It's actually been so successful, it's been put into college curriculum in about 10 universities in America. Humble Alpha is real simple. You know those people that walk into a room and you're. Let's say you're. Say you're with friends and all of a sudden you feel a presence. They walk into a room, they don't say anything, they don't need to do anything, beat their chest. People just look. Who's that? That's basically a humble alpha. They're Alpha on the inside, humble on the outside. And that energy and that resonance the nuclear power plant we call right here, that just resonates throughout the whole room. That's a humble alpha, in my opinion, in the way we describe it.
[00:03:35.630] - John S. Berry
And when you talk about becoming a humble alpha, there's, I believe in your book there's five stages.
[00:03:40.180] - Steven Kuhn
Right.
[00:03:40.380] - John S. Berry
And tell us about those five stages.
[00:03:42.740] - Steven Kuhn
Right, okay. So, you know, we can go through all of them, but let's just start with the most important one, and that is identity. Who am I? If you ask somebody who they are, typically they'll say, I'm the CEO, I'm the father, I'm, you know, a partner. That's not who you are, that's what you do. Right. Who are you really? What's your identity? As far as your description goes? What's your identity statement? What's your. What we call in our workbook called the two word moniker. And the two word moniker describes exactly who you are in life. And for instance, my two word moniker, when I did it back in the day was, was powerful connector. And when I decided, okay, well, that's who I am, well, then let me just do that. And I started powerfully Connecting people, meaning injecting power into the both. Both of the parties that I introduced, making sure that everyone gets what they want, that each party is doing what they're supposed to. And that turned into massive profit, massive business, because I focused on who I was and I can be authentic. Authenticity allows you to dictate your market value.
[00:04:30.620] - Steven Kuhn
And so that's, that's sort of what that first chapter is all about. Then it moves over to. To purpose. And of course, your purpose, once it's aligned with your identity, it amplifies your identity, creating that presence. And presence create certainty. Certainty allows you to let go of all in any way, of how you're going to do anything because certain. Because you're certain that you're going to do it anyway. So you don't have to worry about how it sounds. Quite simple, it's quite difficult. Each chapter has a workbook. At the end, you can actually go through every single step to come to the point of you have your own identity statement, you have your purpose and everything through it. And that's why I went into the university. It's quite quick.
[00:05:03.800] - John S. Berry
And of course a big part of it is habits as well. Yeah, if you could. And I guess we haven't got through all five stages, but as you go through those, how important are habits? Especially the habits you learn in the military. Which ones did you keep and which ones did you have to dump to be successful?
[00:05:20.210] - Steven Kuhn
Well, pessimism is one. Get rid of it. Right? Negativity. Get rid of it. There's nothing if you can't change it, don't worry about it, right? Move forward and change what you can impact what you can change. Look, habits and routines are two things that are super important. There's habit stacking. Anybody who's run or who's read. James Clear, Atomic habits. Everyone knows all about that book. But, you know, everything starts with a push. So I need to make a change. You make it. You want to make a change. First it's that it's an active act, and then it turns into sort of a routine. And a routine you can, you can make yourself writing it down, calendar reminders, until it becomes a habit. And when it comes to habit, it's second nature. When it comes second nature, that's when you start putting it into space. But I gotta say, I gotta tell you this, it's gotta be constantly changing and evolving. The only way that I've made it through, where I've made it, look how I'm. I'm a kid, came from a mobile home, right? And I'm talking. I've worked all the way up to the top presidents and prime ministers and rock stars, and you name it.
[00:06:14.930] - Steven Kuhn
And I had no business. If you look at who I am, from where I came from, I had no business being there. But because I'm always adapting, I'm always improvising, I'm always finding a way to solve a problem. Because in the end, we control one thing in our life. That's our intention. I can't control the outcome, I can't control the surroundings. I can control my intention of adding value by solving problems. And you do that for everybody that you work with, everybody that you meet. You're going to be a person that people are going to turn back to when they need something.
[00:06:39.670] - John S. Berry
And so, so, so using those habits and using the. Working you through the five stages, how, tell us who is, who is your ideal client? Who are you serving? Because you've served a wide variety from, from large organizations to small organizations to celebrities. Who is your avatar? Who's that person you want to serve that you want to provide value to?
[00:07:00.390] - Steven Kuhn
Well, that's evolving as well because what happens is, is after you work with. So I've worked with over 800 veterans. For instance, when I first started this online back, which led me to be the number one American influencer, military influencer, all this kind of stuff that I didn't even know existed. And then I went on stage at Mark Cuban's event and, you know, was opened up for Jocko, which was strange because he's like, who the hell are you? And, you know, that all came, I think, because of the fact that I don't. There's no borders, there's no. I don't measure myself against anybody. I don't say, okay, I gotta be like this person or like that person. I just be who I am and more authentic as possible. I totally forgot the question what you asked. But if you ask me again, your.
[00:07:38.010] - John S. Berry
Idea, your ideal client that you're working with.
[00:07:39.930] - Steven Kuhn
Ideal client, yeah. So right now the ideal client is a business owner that's looking to grow or scale possibly into the ipo, pre IPO phase. And those business owners are people that are. They know they can do more. They're just not sure, and they're just not sure how. So we take them, we coach and we consult them and advise them to get them to the next, next level. And a lot of times it has to do with urgency, taking the first step before anyone else does and things like that. It's really simple. And again, it ties Back to the military like it really does. And there's not a day that goes by. I'm 58 years old at the end of this month. I got out when I was 27. And there's not a day that went by to this day that I don't think about the military, things that I've learned and how can I implement it. And it's become second nature, third nature, fourth nature, if you will. And it always comes down to that thing, urgency, getting it done no matter what. Those two things. If you have urgency and getting it done no matter what in business, you will be head and shoulders above 99% of all the schleps out there.
[00:08:37.110] - Steven Kuhn
Because most people. I'll do it tomorrow. Hey, write me an email, send me a message. Hey, yeah, sure thing. We'll get in touch. Yeah, thanks for talking. I'll call you next week. No, now.
[00:08:47.120] - John S. Berry
Yep.
[00:08:47.640] - Steven Kuhn
Right. That's the key. That is literally the key to success. And that's why we've been able to fund so many deals in such a short period of time. Because we push the clients as well as we push the funding partners.
[00:08:57.440] - John S. Berry
Yeah, I mean that sense of urgency that starts at boot camp or basic training stays with you. You do not want to miss your sp time. You do not want to be late. And you know that first sergeant's going to make sure you, you're not late. And there's just something about, you don't see the importance in the civilian world. You see people starting meetings late, you see somebody out, I'll get back to you tomorrow. They don't get back. They get back in a few days. And for me that's a non starter. And actually when I wrote better and led, that's when my first, I think it was the third chapter is move with a sense of urgency because it is so critical to get opportunities. I mean the opportunities, it's like that 50 meter target. It pops up and then bam, it pops down. If you don't pull the trigger, you're, it's done.
[00:09:38.520] - Steven Kuhn
If you're in competition, if you're in competition, let's say for instance, you're, you're, you're, you're pitching your services along five other people. You will win just because of urgency.
[00:09:46.840] - John S. Berry
Absolutely. I mean we've, we've looked at so many where we're a law firm, we look at the studies. When someone has an emergency, if they don't, if they can't get ahold of a lawyer, they're going to the next one and the next One and the next one. So our, you know, our intake slash sales team, they are. We.
[00:10:00.680] - Steven Kuhn
It's.
[00:10:01.160] - John S. Berry
No, urgency is the most important. We're looking for that character trait, right, that, that, that personality trait that you are going to respond immed. You understand how important this is because we live in this world of, I think, instant gratification. So how do you pair that with. As you know, you bring this up in, in your book. You have to do the work, and it takes. It takes some time. There's five stages. How do you have the. If you will, the strategic, tactical, and operational patience and yet still understand that you have to move with a sense of urgency. How do you, how do you pair that in your mind? Because this is something I always screw up.
[00:10:34.740] - Steven Kuhn
Well, it's simple for me. Daily goals. It's. It literally, it's daily. What can I do today that's going to make me feel accomplished and whether that's connected. For instance, I was on a call just earlier and I was talking to one of my clients, and something popped into my head about an investor that I know. I said, let me get up. So I called him on the phone while we were on Zoom. I said, hey, can you jump on zoom? He said, yeah, Boom on this. And we did a deal in like three minutes. Wow. Right? So that's accomplished. Like, that's what I search for every day. Where can I inject what I didn't plan? What can I do with the sense of urgency that I can have right now a success? It doesn't matter how big it is. It can be anything. How can I have that sense of success? By getting something done right now. And you can't give up because it's not only one thing most of the time, throughout the day, and you know this, especially being in your industry, you, Things pop up in front of you all the time.
[00:11:20.640] - Steven Kuhn
Those targets you're talking about, not just 50 meters. I'm talking 20, 10, 5 and 1. Right. So are you ready to take them out with urgency? And that's what I look for every single day. Like, I'm receiving, receiving, receiving, receiving. Okay. Oh, take it out. Boom, there it is. Okay, let's go. Move to the next one. Boom. Next one. And it's every day with this urgency. And the way I'm talking right now, this is how I talk all day. Every day I wake up like this. I go to bed like this, and my wife's like, where do you get the energy? You're 58 years old. It's impossible. It's because I love what I do, and I love finding the best version of myself to bring out there to the world and staying authentic. And it's. It's. You know, people say all the time, how can you stand in front of Bill Clinton and talk like you do when you're standing in front of your wife? Because I don't give a. What people think about me. I'm there for one thing, my intention, to add value by solving problems and making their life better. And. And I get paid for it.
[00:12:04.930] - Steven Kuhn
Simple.
[00:12:05.730] - John S. Berry
And that is something you bring up in the book about being the humble alpha, what you are on the outside and what you're on the inside, but part of it is also leading your family and leading that family life that you want to live, and that wasn't always easy for you. So. So. So take us through that, through that journey, because people see you now and they say, oh, well, look at this guy. You know, Stephen Coon, the guy. The guy's a huge success. He. He's trained celebrities, he's been with the presidents. He's done it all. But it wasn't always that way.
[00:12:30.250] - Steven Kuhn
No, no, no, it wasn't like that way. And it keeps not being that way. So, you know, because of the risks that I take and because of the chances that I take and the lengths that I go to to make things happen, I've lived in 10 countries, been married three times, right? And now I'm in Turkey. I'm literally sitting right on the Mediterranean. We have a beautiful view of the entire Mediterranean. It isn't like an inlet. It's the literal Mediterranean 100 meters in front of me. And I've only gotten here because of that, because of the failures that I have. Everyone says you learn from your failures, but you really do. I had a suic. In 2008. I ended up calling a friend, saying, if you don't come get me, I'm not going to make it. He came, got me, put me into a monastery in the mountains of Austria, where I spent eight months with Benedictine monks, learning how to meditate and pray at the same time, which was a new experience for me. And it turned out to be the best blessing of my life. And I built myself back up again, got married, had kids, and she left and divorced.
[00:13:23.430] - Steven Kuhn
And then I'm back up again. So it's not an easy thing. But I never felt sorry for myself, you know, and all those times, I can't say never the last time, there was a couple days there where I was like, you know, but, you know, I always I always look back and go, God dang, you know, if this is bad right now, that means something amazing is coming. We were looking for an apartment, my wife and I, and there was this beautiful apartment she loved. And we went in there and we're like, oh, we want it. And the guy's like, oh, we just sold it. And she was really upset. I said, baby, this is great news. It means something better is coming down the line. And then we got this place. It was two days later, we got this place. And I said, see, when something bad happens, that's, that's just a massive door opening. Like, get ready because the real deal's coming. That's how, that's how I think. You have to think that way, otherwise you'll be laying on the floor every day.
[00:14:09.790] - John S. Berry
And I think there's, there's one distinction maker. So one thing that I have always struggled with is, you know, hey, look, if it's my own self inflicted wounds and I, and I, I'm very good at taking accountability, responsibility for what I do. If I caused a problem, I can live with that, no matter what, you know, no matter what the consequences are, I'm okay with that. But there are things that happen in life where we as leaders always train. You know, it's kind of that extreme ownership method. I'm responsible for everything in my world, but let's face it, there are some things in your world that you are not responsible for. You have zero power over. And then when it hits, you're like, oh my gosh, I can't. Just like, you know, they say point the finger, you know, you give up the power, point the thumb, you get the power. But there are some things you say, it's my, it's my fault. Then you look at, you're like, wait a minute, I had no control. This thing just fell apart. I've got to pick up the pieces. But how do you deal with that as a leader and not feel, you know, kind of like, oh my gosh, I, you, you, you search your brain to try to find how you're responsible for it.
[00:15:00.800] - John S. Berry
And then everybody externally is going, dude, there's nothing you could have done. But you still want to be responsible or be at fault so that you can have power over fixing it and sometimes you just can't. How do you deal with that?
[00:15:11.480] - Steven Kuhn
Yeah, and it's about accepting that, you know, what can you. Like I said, if you, if you have no influence on it and you can't fix it, why worry about it? It's like saying it's raining. I hate the rainbow. Good for you. But you can't stop it, so why even say that? That's the way I think. For real. But I don't shy away from fixing things. That's what I'm known for. People call me when they're in deep, right? Because, like, for some reason, I have this, like, very basic line of thought in my brain. You know, I'm the guy that goes into the office when everybody's freaking out about calling the technician because the computer doesn't work. And I plug it in, you know, it's like, oh, it wasn't plugged in. You know? And so that's sort of how I think. I keep it really simple. I never overcomplicate. If I start thinking too much, I stop myself and go, okay, wait. You're making this too complicated. What's the solution that we can find? What's a better way? What's a different way? Is there any way we can fix this? Is there any way we can patch this up or at least move forward with a little limp until we get rolling again?
[00:15:59.770] - Steven Kuhn
And so, like, for me, there is no end. There is no stop. There is no nothing. And this isn't just talk, John. I'm telling you, like, this is literally how I might drive my wife crazy, because I'm just like, no, okay, let's go. Okay, next. Let's go. Next. Let's go. And it's just. It's something, I think, that's inside of me because I always want to be the one that fixes something, that makes it better for everyone around me. Like you said, providership and security. It's just who we are. That's who we are. That's who we're built to be. And we've learned in the military to be that one that takes responsibility for everything. But you can't let it bring you down when you can't get it done. Find a way to get a piece of it done. Find a way to make it better, patch it up. You know, put a spare on it, and let's roll. You know, that's sort of how I look at it.
[00:16:41.000] - John S. Berry
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I think that sometimes when it's other individuals in our lives, it's like, well, hey, we can't fix them. We got to cut them. If they're toxic, we got to cut them out. We got to move on. But I'm unable to fix this person, but I can fix the problem. And I think sometimes we get too caught up in that.
[00:16:55.880] - Steven Kuhn
No, no. I mean, I Thought I was tough when it comes to cutting out those in my life that are negative until I met my wife, and then she brought me to a whole new level, you know? So it's like. It's like, nope, that person's not doing you any good. They're. They're contra. They're negative. Gone. Sorry. You know, and not in a rude way, but look, let's part ways. If we come back together in the future, fine. Other than that, we're out. And focus. Because this is the deal. Without you in your world, your world does not exist. So who's number one? You're number one. And if you're not taking care of yourself or you're not ensuring that you're on the best platform that you can be, that you have an operating system for where you can go in every direction when you need to be, then what's the freaking point, right? So if you don't put yourself first, if you don't put you and your family first, you're not going to be first, period. And like I said, without you and your world, your world doesn't exist. So why even bother trying to please everybody until you're in a place when you're square, your world's square.
[00:17:49.200] - Steven Kuhn
If it's out there, it's in here.
[00:17:50.680] - John S. Berry
Absolutely. And so can you walk us through one of your most successful business turnarounds? If you. If you can share that information, and I understand you might not be able to give specifics, but talk, tell. Tell some of the stories of. Of a turnaround that you were able to get in somebody's head and, And. And fix it.
[00:18:07.180] - Steven Kuhn
There's so many. Let me just give you a few. A few quick examples. So I had two clients. They're veterans, they live in Florida. And they came to me like, we have this marketing company we're trying to grow, and we're behind, and we're in sort of financial difficulty. And I said, who's your client? They showed me their client. We talked to the client. And I said, okay, we're going to do this. You're going to. The guy's like, oh, you guys are too expensive. I can't afford your marketing company. And I said, well, how much too much is it? And he told us. I said, okay, we'll take that, but we also want 20% equity in your company. That'll allow us to actually be a partner with you and grow your company, not only with the marketing, but also with the operational skills that I have. And he said, okay. And within one meeting, my Clients who were in financial problems had a new client and they had 20% equity in the company that we were going to help grow and scale. And that was one meeting. And this is, this is normal. This is my everyday life.
[00:18:52.060] - Steven Kuhn
We find. So I had a guy today, like I said, got him on the call, boom, boom, bang, done. It isn't about, oh, I'm the genius and I know all the answers. No, it's about being flexible enough and open enough to, when you're in a situation to say, okay, what's the normal solution that everyone looks for? Let me look for another one. What's attracting me right now? Who do I know in my network of 50,000 people that can actually solve this problem for them? Because people think they have to know all the answers. They don't. I need to know the answers or I need to know somebody who knows the answers, or I need to know somebody who knows somebody who knows the answers. And that's a network of, you know, couple hundred thousand people right there. And if I can't find a solution, then I'm in trouble, I can tell you that. And I've never not been able to find a solution.
[00:19:30.590] - John S. Berry
So the next question is, how does, how does a veteran go out and build a network like yours?
[00:19:35.230] - Steven Kuhn
Yeah, you have to like, like I said, you have to be the one that doesn't talk about yourself. When I go into a room, I don't talk about myself. I ask a question. I'm going around, like when, when I walk into a room, I'll stop at the door, I'll survey the room. What's the most, most, you know, exciting area to go to? Where are people? Wallflowers. Where are people? Together? I will walk straight with a beam right to those people, say, how you doing? I'm Steven Coon. Nice to meet you. And if I see something that sticks out, I'm going to say like, oh, I love your glasses. I have a glass fetish too. I have these, I have these, you know, like all these different glasses. I'll get into a conversation just like that and then it's about them. Because this 30 second pitch or the elevator pitch and all this kind of bs, it's, it's, it's PPR Problem, Product resolution. What problem do I solve? What's the product solves that problem. And here's the resolution. That's all I need to say. It takes 10 seconds and I'm back to them. What did you say you do again?
[00:20:23.270] - Steven Kuhn
Because at the end of the conversation, when they've spoken for 30 minutes and you for 30. For 10 seconds, they're going to say, man, you're great to talk to. There you go. There was one contact right there. They want to talk to you again because you listened to them. No one wants to hear your story. No one wants to hear your story. They don't care. They care about them. So that's the first step. Second step is, now I'm there, I have these contacts. How do I add value to them? By solving their problems. And people like, well, I'm a lawyer. I can only do lawyer stuff. Well, don't you have clients in every sector in the world? Well, why wouldn't you take this problem, show it to that client and cash in on that? That's how it works. That's a network. A network is leveraging both sides. They say your network is your net worth, whatever you want to call it, but it's leveraging both sides. So both parties are happy. Simple.
[00:21:07.860] - John S. Berry
That's networking outstanding. And so, yeah, just shut up, listen, and then. And then figure out how you can provide value.
[00:21:15.660] - Steven Kuhn
Exactly. For real value. Not nice words. And er. But, hey, let me. Hey, you know what? I was just talking to this guy over here. Let me introduce you to John. John over here. He's. He does this, this and that. You got to meet this guy. And boom. Then you walk away. Go to the next one. They do their thing. They go, hey, where's Steve? Did he introduce. Yes, go back to Steve. Next thing you know, you have like 10 people around you. Like, who's this guy? Steven? Who's this guy introducing everybody? I don't know anybody when I walked in this room, but now I know everybody. Why? Because they're always talking about, who's this guy introducing everybody? And it's. You don't do it. With the mission of, I'm gonna go network now. It's like I truly care about finding the one thing that they need fixed, and I want to find somebody to fix it for. Like, I really care. It's like a mission in my life for some reason.
[00:21:55.230] - John S. Berry
Yeah, absolutely. And I think that the value is in solving the problem. And a lot of times we can't solve our own problems even then because it's not obvious to us because we're in it. And forest for trees.
[00:22:05.830] - Steven Kuhn
Exactly, yeah.
[00:22:06.990] - John S. Berry
Now let's talk about. I want to kind of transition a little bit to, you know, kind of the corporate chaos you've dealt with. I mean, coming from a world where generally we see a military as a place where we do precision planning. Where we're going to have these great timeline where we're going to do our backwards planning, we're going to have contingency plans, we're going to. You know, then you get into the corporate world, and a lot of that isn't there. So how do you. How do you apply it?
[00:22:28.250] - Steven Kuhn
Yeah, well, it's funny you say that, because when I did get into the corporate world, I'm like, what is this? Why is everybody sitting on their asses and not doing nothing? It's, like moving. So. So like a snail. Well, I took a Corporation from the UK Like I said, 3,500 employees, 87 locations in 10 countries, and they said, you're in charge of. Make it happen. I was like, what? I have no idea what I'm doing, man. So I just said, okay, how would I deal with this if I was in the military? First thing I thought of was this. I said, when people get out of the military, what do they say? I'm a veteran. When. When guys get out of the Marines, what do they say? I'm a Marine. How do you instill that esprit de corps in a civilian company so that when they leave or when they're leaving or when they're in there, they feel like a part of something bigger? That's what I focused on. So how did I get those people aligned? It's in my book. And I went through. I said, okay, the first thing I need to do when I go into this company is create a disruption.
[00:23:14.070] - Steven Kuhn
And this disruption has to be a complete disruption. Space and mind. So I would go into these companies one at a time. Even though I took over all of those, I had to go in one at a time. And I would make sure that when we went in there, everyone who sat where they sat had to change places, change offices, paint the office. You know, we have to. You name it, clean up, had to be dressed, right? Dress everything. If something was on your desk, it didn't belong, I threw it away. I don't care. What was it, a cell phone or a printer? It didn't matter to me, right? That was sort of how I did it. And I did it in a way that was clearly. And everybody sort of looked at this and said, wow, this is a change. Then you start working on the culture, the mindset, the mission, the vision, the value proposition of them, aligning that with the company's mission, vision, and value proposition. That's how I did it. I rolled it out one by one, and then that turned into this, like, massive, you know, Family of people that are like, I love working for this company.
[00:24:04.640] - Steven Kuhn
It's like, I feel like I'm really part of something bigger. And to this day, that was started back in 1999, and to this day, I got people still calling me, saying, that was the best time of my life, Stephen. The best job I ever had, the best time I ever had working with somebody. And it wasn't because of me. It was because it was a team. It was people that had one mission and one vision. And we all worked toward that, whether it was private or professional. And so, you know, and that was a. That was a massive, massive. Like I said, we were listed on the British stock market, and we had stock shares, the whole works. It was amazing.
[00:24:30.300] - John S. Berry
Yeah, it's amazing. You take a little bit of clutter out of a personal space, and then it starts to declutter the entire organization and, And. And to streamline those operations. I think, you know, it's. It's a lot easier said than. Than done. And you. And you figured out ways to do that time and time again, and then you found your purpose, and this is what you do.
[00:24:49.510] - Steven Kuhn
Your purpose develops, doesn't it? So I think in those times, people always said to me, you know, the CEO of the company, we had a meeting. There was 136 directors there, and they'd been in the company for 20 years. And I was there for, like, six months. And the CEO stood up in this big meeting and said, if anyone taught us anything, it's Stephen. And I was like, you know, and it's because everybody gets in this, okay? It's a corporate world. This is how it works. These are the steps. These are the rules. This is the sops. This is the job description. That's how it works. That's a guide, right? What are you there for? You're there to win. You're there for profitability, but you're not there to gut the people. And that's what I was always about. I'm there for the people first. The people are the ones that make the difference. If you have somebody that's highly talented but not motivated, that talent doesn't mean anything. So when you focus on the people and get them fired up, ready to go, and seeing that mission and understanding that everything that they do has an impact on that bottom line, on the next mission, dude, they're all in.
[00:25:41.870] - Steven Kuhn
And it is amazing when you. When you have accolades. I always sweat in the office. This space here, it's a negative free zone. There's no negativity. You want Negativity. You come with me, we go outside on the balcony or wherever we go and we talk about it, get it done, move forward, come back in here with positive. And that's how we lived, man. That's how we lived in every single one of those places. Ian Burke, the ex CEO of Rank Xerox, saw me giving a meeting one time and he said, who is this freaking guy? What are you doing? I said, this is. What do you mean what I do? I do this every day. Did you do. Was that a show for me? I said, no, I do this every day. He goes, I want you to do this. And day every relocation, you know, it's like it, it. It blew me away because for me, that's the military, man. That's normal, right?
[00:26:17.940] - John S. Berry
Yeah, absolutely. So let's talk about this then. What do you tell veterans that are struggling to find their purpose? Obviously, the military helped you find your purpose, but what about. What about those of us that are still looking?
[00:26:27.780] - Steven Kuhn
You might have to step away from that identity of being a soldier, a marine, an airman, or, you know, Air Force. What do you call Air Force or whatever's left. Navy. What?
[00:26:36.260] - John S. Berry
Sailor.
[00:26:37.220] - Steven Kuhn
Sailor. There you go. So you got to step away from that, guys and gals. I got to tell you, the one thing that I see with veterans is they can't let go of that identity. And it's obvious why, because it's the first time in most of our lives that we had purpose and we had real meaning and we felt valued. So to go from that to being a nobody, I mean, I got to tell you a story. I was sergeant, you know, golf, war veteran, bronze star, blah, blah, blah, all this kind of stuff. And then I got out, I was a doorman at a club, and this 14 year old comes up to me and says, get a real job, old man. You know? And I was like, oh, that. In that moment, I said, holy. I have no idea who I am. I have no. Because in the military, you see my name, you see my rank, you see my awards, you see my combat patch, you see how long I've been in, how many hashes. I have, all that stuff, I don't have to say a word. You know who I am, right?
[00:27:20.360] - Steven Kuhn
And then you're in a civilian world, it's like, damn. So what do veterans do? We hang on to that. We wear the T shirt, right? Just, you know, disgruntled veteran or, you know, disabled veteran. You wear your shirt, the hat, the stickers, the bumper stickers, the patches, the flags, everything we do Which I love. I have my own I love me wall as well. But that doesn't help you move on and so finding your true identity. Honest to God. Grab the book, read the first chapter. Hell, I'll send you the PDF. You know what I mean? Like, whatever, you know, just, just. I, I really think that veterans have so much value to add. If they could get out of their own head, they could get out of their own head saying I was, I was. And look, I was. And I have, I have some veterans that talk to me like I was a sergeant major. Good. But you know, I, I've consulted, believe it or not, I coached a two star general, retired. And he said, you should have been an officer. I'm like, I tried. It didn't work.
[00:28:11.580] - John S. Berry
No, I, I think that that's such a great, a great point. And years ago, Vinnie Rocco Vargas spoke at, we had a, because we're about, at the time we were over almost 40% veteran. We had had him come speak. We had a dining out around, around the holiday season. And he came in and he said, look, you know, he gave a speech, he said, look, nobody cares that I was an army Ranger. It's just like nobody cares that you were the high school quarterback. You know, that part of your life is that people only care about how you're going to serve their organization, how you can help them. And I think you nailed it. We get so caught up in what we earned and it's like, yeah, you got to go back to zero. And I've seen a lot of military officers struggle in the legal field especially, you know, hey, they were getting paid this as a captain or whatever. Now they're a brand new baby lawyer. It's great that you, you know, you command a company here, you did this. But guess what? You're new just like everybody else and you have to learn just like everybody else.
[00:29:05.950] - John S. Berry
And I know that's a blow to a lot of our egos when we have to start over, but it's, it's necessary.
[00:29:11.230] - Steven Kuhn
Think about that. I did the same thing. I, I was a doorman. I was leading men and then I was a doorman. But I knew that was my, I knew I had to do something right. So the one thing I did, I said, how can I meet as many people as possible? So I did doorman, health club, cocktail bars. You know, it's like that's what I did. That's how I saw, it's how I made my network. Because I'm in my comfort zone when I'm at the Door. I'm in my comfort zone. When I'm at my bar, I'm in my comfort zone. When I'm in my health club, they're in my gym sweating their ass off. So the mayor of Berlin comes in, he's sweaty, he's in my comfort zone. I don't have to go, sir, hello, I'm Stephen Kuhn. They're talking to me like that. And so that's how I built my sort of, you know, network in, in Germany, which got to be very huge. But I was at MTV vj. I did the news, all kinds of crazy stuff. I had no business. It was crazy, man. I was on German tv. Hello, Stephen Cohen.
[00:29:57.530] - Steven Kuhn
It was crazy, crazy. So, you know, and I wrote a book, it only came out in Germany and it was, it was nuts. But it all came because I was always in my comfort zone. I provided services where I can meet the most people possible. And if you're standing on a door of a club and people are drunk, people trying to come in or whatever, and you get to talk to them and you get to make their night better. I always said that when you're in a service industry, you have the opportunity, every single person you meet, to make their day better. Always leave a person in a better place when they leave you than when they met you. And if you do that, you'll never be forgotten, man. Because you know how, you know the old saying, right? People remember how you feel, how you made them feel. So it's, you know, it's a long story, but it's a, it's a fun and it was an exciting story that I lived so far.
[00:30:37.830] - John S. Berry
Yeah, outstanding. And now we move to that. One of the companies you founded, Novascale. What's the biggest thing you're doing at Nova scale right now?
[00:30:45.270] - Steven Kuhn
$1.5 billion hydrogen plant deal in Greece where it was supposed to be a billion. And then we spoke to the funding partners and we were looking for the closest port. Well, that port's closed. So now we're acquiring, they're acquiring that port as well, turning it into a special port for hydrogen. And this is a plant that produces hydrogen at 80% less than the market rate right now. So we've already got off take agreements with the European Union and all kinds of stuff lined up. It's, it's about a five year project in total. We have a refinery in Canada working on. We have a, an energy drink in the States that's just went to CIM today. So, yeah, we're moving along pretty good. We Have a bunch of other deals, a bunch of other deals as well. But this is the deal. They come to us. And we're not the bank. Right. It's just through our connections, my partner and I, through our connections of the people that we've served and added value to for the last years and years and years, they are more than happy to jump on a call. Like I said before, I had an investor jump on a call within two seconds and then close a deal on the call instantly.
[00:31:48.320] - Steven Kuhn
Why? Because we've been adding value for so many years, we just decided to make a company out of it and actually start making some real money from it.
[00:31:54.520] - John S. Berry
How do you build that trust that you can close those deals so quickly?
[00:31:58.120] - Steven Kuhn
How do we build the trust? It's intrinsic, you know, the certainty that we have. And you hear I'm talking, you don't hear me going, you know, well, it's certainty in who I am. Certainty allows you to let go of how you do anything because you know you're going to do it it right. So when someone talks to me and I know inside my feeling that I have right here, my, my intuition says, dude, you got this. That's where I speak from. And they go, okay, he's not, he's not bull. Plus our track record, that helps, you know, and so some very few people want to see your track record. Like everyone says, you know, well, you got to have a degree. You know, I have degrees. I have an MBA from the second oldest business school in the world in the uk. No one's ever asked me, ever, not one time about NBA ever, what a waste of money that was. So it's about the certainty that you have in your abilities to deploy your genius in any given situation. And when someone comes to me with a situation, I don't care if there's a hurricane, if some SWAT team bucks in right now, I know that I can deal with it.
[00:32:53.210] - Steven Kuhn
And that's the energy, that's the presence, and that's a certainty that you carry when you become a humble alpha. It's honest to God, this is a step by step guide. No kidding. Look, we make like 50 cents a book, whatever. So I'm not selling the book. Given you the opportunity to take a look at this and become a version of yourself you didn't even know could exist.
[00:33:12.550] - John S. Berry
And so becoming a humble alpha is ultimately becoming a leader, Becoming an even better leader. So let's go to the after action review where we talk about your three examples of great leadership that you've observed or been a Part of and the three examples of horrible leadership. Let's start with the great.
[00:33:27.030] - Steven Kuhn
I say the greatest example of leadership I have was a guy named Alton B. Eckert. Command Sergeant Major Alton B. Eckert, who I served with in the Gulf War. He saved me from myself when I was out in the desert there. And he was a sort of empathetic, caring, hard ass. He was a Vietnam veteran. You know, he did 45 days in the jungle and out. All he did was ambushes. The guy never smiled in his life. But he was a father figure to me. He really was. He treated me like a son. But he took no for me either. He saved me from myself in the desert. I think the second best leadership I had a guy was a guy named Mark Minter. Mark Minter was a CEO of this company that was working. That was the British company. And when he brought me on after two weeks, I said, dude, I don't even know what I'm doing here. I'm done. It was like summer. The air conditioner was broken. I was sweating. I was wearing a tie. I wasn't used to it, you know, that kind of stuff. And I said, dude, I'm done.
[00:34:12.720] - Steven Kuhn
I'm out. He said, stephen, shut up. And I'll tell you why. Because if I see it in you, all you need to do is accept it and move. And I was like, you see it in me? And he goes, yeah. I'm like, holy sh. And from that point on, dude, I exploded. I exploded because I said, if someone sees something in me, that must mean it's there. All I need to do is embrace it. So he taught me that to this day. And so that's when I stand on TV and I'm talking to, like, new news reporters, or I'm doing all this political commentary, and people ask me questions. I'm talking like prime ministers asking me a question about Obama or Trump or what's going. And I'm saying, if they're asking me that question, obviously I have the answer. So I give them an answer that comes from intuition. And it's funny as it always hits, you know what I mean? So it's almost like giving myself to God or to the universe and saying, okay, if you say I got it, then give it to me, you know? And so I'd say that's the biggest lesson I had when it comes to civilian leadership.
[00:35:07.540] - Steven Kuhn
I don't really have a third one. I think, you know, family leadership is a huge thing. You know, my. My. My wife does a great deal in with our Sons, how she ensures that they understand the difference between leadership and passive leadership and what that means as a family unit and how that works together. I think that's a great example of family leadership. That's. That's the foundation of everything that we do anyway and why we do what we do. Right. Bad leadership, why even get into it? But, you know, you know, I've seen people scream and yell and, you know, all that kind of stuff, it just. It bounces off me. I think if someone yells at me, I'm gone. I had one guy grab me by the throat one time, and it's just like, wrong answer. You know, it's just. It's just when you're as passionate as I am, and I can tell you're high strung too. Like, high, because we're. We're both at this level right here. Talking at the speed. When you're at that level, there's not many people that can hold. Hold you. But if you meet somebody at that level, sometimes it can get heated.
[00:36:00.730] - Steven Kuhn
And it did get heated at that time, and he grabbed me by the throat and I took him out. So, you know, wasn't a good thing.
[00:36:09.050] - John S. Berry
Yeah, I think that shows a lot of times when the screaming, yelling, getting physical, the loss of control. Right. As a leader. And that's. That's. That's a horrible leadership. But we've all. We've all been there where we've been stressed out or we've been in. It's like, hey, you know, sometimes we get pushed a little bit too far. And I think that's something that we recognize and we try to fix in the future. But as leaders, you know, sometimes you're gonna. You're gonna go too far.
[00:36:28.510] - Steven Kuhn
We learned that in the military, didn't we? When I was in the military, they used to punch you in the back of the head and throw you down in the mud and all kinds of stuff. You know, the Jewel story, that was nothing, you know, so when I got out of the military, I was in my first civilian. So I'm yelling at people and they're like, dude, you're in Germany. You can't yell at people here. I'm like, what do you mean? You're not supposed to do a job? Like, I'm sick. And they were going sick leave. And you're like, like, can they do that? Yeah, like, damn, I need to change my way. So I had to learn how to not yell. I had to listen and I had to, like, hear what they mean and actually what they're saying as compared to what they actually mean. Because seldom it's the same thing when you're in a job. Right? So it was a long learning curve. And I read like nobody's. This is before Internet. This is back in 1993, 4, 5, 6, where I was just reading and reading and reading and trying to figure out what do I get from this hard ass drill sergeant type.
[00:37:17.420] - Steven Kuhn
I wasn't a drill Sergeant, but that type of attitude to empathetic, but still firm. And I got it to the point where all these companies knew me as the General. They all called me the General because of the way I spoke. Zero compromise, unapologetically moving forward, but never personal. Right? So it never got personal. I never got mad at you personally. It was always about. About your performance or the lack thereof. So plus or plus. Nice. And I didn't do that on purpose, I don't think. But I always thought, okay, how do I want to be treated? I don't want to be attacked personally. If I screw up, tell me how I screwed up and I'll fix it. And so that's what I did. They started calling me the General because I was like, nope, we're doing it this way and that's it. Okay, you didn't do it that way. This is how it should be done. Do you understand? Yes, I understand. Okay, good. Feedback is good. All right, Boom. Let's go. Off you go. People like, damn, okay. It's like military, you know. So it ended up being they call me the General.
[00:38:03.180] - Steven Kuhn
So it was sort of a luck mix. It was probably also a little bit out of desperation because I didn't know what I was doing when I got to that corporate. I had no business running a corporation operation like that. But he saw something in me and he gave me the chance. So that's what I do now these days. I help people all the time that have they can't afford me or they can't work with me. I just say, let's do it. Let's see what we can do.
[00:38:23.670] - John S. Berry
Outstanding. And Steven, where can veterans learn more about or I should say, where is the best place for them to get your book? Unleash youh Humble Alpha.
[00:38:33.430] - Steven Kuhn
That's on Amazon or Audible. So the Audible is quite good. It's, it's. We had to do 97 interviews with 97 moderators to see which voice worked the best. And you know, Amazon. So it's a. It's, it's a fun. It's a fun read and people read it over and over and over again because there's so many steps in it that you can miss if you don't do it properly. So basically you read the whole book, then you go back and then you read the first chapter and do the steps, do the steps, do the steps.
[00:38:57.800] - John S. Berry
And so a lot of veteran business owners listen to this podcast. Where can they learn more about nova.
[00:39:03.160] - Steven Kuhn
Scale partners novascalepartners.com Real simple, if you want to see me on Instagram at Steven Eugene Cohn on Instagram and that's where I do my political commentary at the moment I started 75 days ago. It's got like, I don't know, 25 million views already. And I've got people like Steve Bannon share. How crazy everybody's sharing me and stuff because I, I talk like this. Simple, easy, straightforward, no fluff, just straightforward. It seems to be striking a nerve in the political climate as we are today. And plus, you know, we since 2004 of one of the co organizers of which became the AfD in Germany, which is the Alternatives for Germany party, which is now the, the polling as the strongest party in Germany and it won the second most votes in the last election last month. And now they're trying to ban it just like they are the rest of the conservative parties in Europe, like they did with Le Pen or Romania and things like that. And so we're in a battle for the life, for the survival of the party right now. So I'm a part of that as far as the commentary goes as well.
[00:40:03.890] - Steven Kuhn
So.
[00:40:04.090] - John S. Berry
And that's, that's one of the more fascinating things you've, you've done.
[00:40:06.570] - Steven Kuhn
Yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty crazy because I met this guy on a boat in Berlin. I was on a river cruise just checking out Berlin. I already lived there. I was with a friend who was visiting and I saw this guy sitting in the sun, sweating and reading the newspaper. I'm like, why isn't he sitting under the shade, right? So I walked by him like, hey, I'm getting a beer, you want one? He said, yeah. We became friends like that. Next thing you know, this guy's one of the royals and he introduced me to his girlfriend who they later became his wife. She's now the head of the party. He's chief strategist and he consults people like Bald Zanero from Brazil, the Chileanian president Steve Bannon Trump. All those guys. He does all those guys, right? And he comes to me every day, 15 times for my advice. Pretty crazy if you think about it.
[00:40:46.010] - John S. Berry
And so ending on advice, what Advice do you have for your fellow veterans that might want to start this journey but are worried about committing to the five stages? What advice do you have for him?
[00:41:00.910] - Steven Kuhn
You can either stay where you are or take the leap and move. You know, it's that simple. If you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to keep getting what you're getting. Everyone knows that. But remember this, the biggest problems in your life, if you zoom out. I tell my wife this when we argue. If you. It works great. If you zoom out, right? And look at your entire life, how much of an impact will this moment of stress have on your entire life? Zero. Right? Think about that. Every time you have stress, you have a problem. You can't think, you can't move forward. Zoom out and go, wait a second. In two years, think back two years. Think back three years, five years, 10 years. The problems you had, you can hardly remember them, right? So that's just another moment. So deal with it as, as you can and move forward positively and with power.
[00:41:44.930] - John S. Berry
Outstanding. Thank you so much for your wonderful advice, Stephen Kuhn. Look forward to referring more veterans to Unleash your humble alpha once again. I say again, like the mission statement, say it twice. Unleash your humble alpha. A lot of great lessons here, and there's a lot of stuff, too. We didn't even talk about plant medicine, some of the journeys and stuff you went on. But you know what? Get the book, read the book, learn the stuff. And yeah, for the Marines out there that can't. It's on. It's on audiobooks or for old guys like me that don't want to be seen wearing the birth control glasses, I could. I could listen to an audiobook and nobody knows I have to wear glasses. So it's a great read, an audiobook. And what I really love is in the beginning of that book, you talk about, you see something peek in the distance and this girl, she's a burn victim. And it's like, gee, I wish I could do something. And you really realize that you can do something. You give her a piece of candy. It's like that small gesture of kindness is all you can do in the moment, but that sends you on a trajectory to do what you're doing now.
[00:42:44.980] - John S. Berry
And so I just encourage our veteran listeners to look for that moment. And so leave us with this and we'll end the show after this. What has been that moment for you since that time with that girl in Iraq where you knew that maybe you couldn't do everything you wanted to do. But you could make a small difference.
[00:43:00.700] - Steven Kuhn
I think that's every day, isn't it? You know, I, I can't sit here and say there's one moment, there's times where, you know, I took a gun out of a guy's hand that was threatening somebody. I took a knife out of somebody's hand, it was threatening somebody. You know, I don't. You don't think in those moments, right? You act and that proactivity, creating as you go moving forward, you know, with, with purpose. That's sort of how I live every single day. And it doesn't matter if it's like a cashier at the register that needs $0.05 or whatever it is, it doesn't matter. You're just moving on that every single day. And when you get that attitude in who you are and what you're about and you have the certainty in your abilities to deploy your genius in any given situation, sky's the limit, brother.
[00:43:40.720] - John S. Berry
Thank you for joining us today on Veteran Led, where we pursue our mission of promoting veteran leadership in business, strengthening the veteran community, and getting veterans all of the benefits that they earned. If you know a leader who should be on the veteran led podcast, report to our online community by searching eteranled on your favorite social channels and posting in the comments. We want to hear how your military challenges prepared you to lead your industry or community and we will let the world know. And of course, hit subscribe and join me next time on Veteran Led.