The Veteran (Semi) Professional

Mar 23 2025 241 ep. 46 mins 12

The Veteran (Semi) Professional Podcast artwork

Honesty and advice to help veterans crush it at grad school, in entrepreneurship, and in professional careers. Humor and language often not as professional.

Business Education

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Ep. 237: How To Leverage Your Network and Veteran Status to Buy Small Businesses with Rob Kirila

Mar 23 2025 37 mins

Send us a text Rob retired from the Army as a Special Forces officer and then spent time working with a veteran transition nonprofit. He was often the one raising money and that put me in contact with a lot of high-net-worth individuals. After a bit, they started to ask him "Do you think you can do what we did? Buy businesses?" He said yes, got his first investors, and started gett

Ep. 236: Early Career Pivots After HBS and Being OK With Leadership with Jack Ambridge

Mar 19 2025 40 mins

Send us a text Jack is an Air Force veteran who went to HBS. He was told "everyone thinks of veterans as "leaders" but don't let that define you" Turns out, Jack liked leading people. He liked being labeled a "leader." So he made some career pivots and ended up managing a $500 million business for a PE fund. Listen in to hear his story.

Ep. 198: Starting a Brand to Save Veteran Lives with Community Supporter Will Highland

Mar 17 2025 24 mins

Ep. 235: Improving the Veteran Transition Experience through Data and Corporate Insights with Jason Anderson from PreVeteran

Mar 13 2025 51 mins

Send us a text Jason Anderson is a former Air Force O-6 who retired from the military and started what looked like was his dream job. Business development in a sector of the Air Force he knewGot to live in JapanMaking GREAT money But he realized he didn't feel like he was really going to succeed in the role and was not getting the feeling he wanted from his work. So he started look

Ep. 234: Focused Career Prep For $100k+ Jobs for Veterans with Bobby Payne from Shift Group

Mar 05 2025 41 mins

Send us a text Today's guest is Bobby Payne from Shift Group. He is an Air Force veteran and a really awesome guy who I've gotten to know a lot more recently. Since starting The Veteran Professional in 2019, I have been contacted by a number of veteran-focused recruiting companies. I even worked for one for a bit. The only one I have decided to partner with in a meaningful way is S

Ep. 233: What Happens When You Buy a Business and It Fails? Real Talk on Failing with Air Force Veteran Jed Morris

Feb 26 2025 71 mins

Send us a text I have had a lot of guests on the show to talk about buying a small business. From lenders, buyers, and investors- everyone seems to be saying, "Go buy a business! You will make a ton of money and can't go wrong!" Well, today's guest is a story of what happens when it does go wrong. Jed Morris is an Air Force veteran who bought a landscaping business and then quickly

Ep. 232: Combat Games by Combat Veterans and Veterans of the Video Game Industry with Old Glory Studios

Feb 20 2025 45 mins

Send us a text Gaming culture is huge in the military. Video games are a way to blow off steam on a deployment, stay connected with friends around the world, and just have fun. So I'm really excited to bring this episode to you about two combat veterans who are starting their own video game studio, Old Glory Studios. Lewis and Matt served early in the GMOT. Lewis was a combat engin

Ep. 231: Using Military Experience and Veteran Status to Buy Logistics Companies with Donte McGaughy

Feb 07 2025 40 mins

Send us a text Donte McGaughy is a seasoned entrepreneur, former government employee, and a United States Air Force service-disabled veteran. As the Founder and CEO of Selenius Holdings, an Atlanta-based freight forwarding and truck hauling company, Donte is dedicated to driving growth through strategic acquisitions. His vision is to establish the largest minority-certified logisti

Ep. 230: WeWork, Buying 2x HVAC Businesses, and Recruiting Veterans for Small Business Leadership Roles with Nathan Lenahan

Jan 23 2025 40 mins

Send us a text I really like Nate. He's just...a good dude. He's got some serious business chops, too. He led $200 million in projects for WeWork and was a VP for a whole region. Then he dove into the world of buying small businesses and acquired two HVAC companies. AND he runs Smooth Operator, which places veterans in leadership positions in small businesses. I like him a lot and

Ep. 229: Using AI to Get $100 million to Veterans at Vetclaims.ai with Lukas Simianer

Jan 16 2025 45 mins

Send us a text Lukas is a previous guest and we talk about the VC-backed startup from our first episode that he shut down. But his new project, Vetclaims.ai , is pretty awesome. They use AI to look over your records and find discrepancies in your VA claim. What is their impact? $694,962 Average Lifetime Earnings Increase$111M Overall Economic Impact100% Veteran FeedbackListen in to