Leveraging LinkedIN and Connections
Maybe its that first job post military or the tenth, one thing is for certain the job search process can be a pain. Navy veteran Joshua Prado, founder of the VETD Talent Network, discusses how to leverage personal and professional connections and LinkedIN to not only make the job search process easier but to down right dominate it. As a military and veteran IT talent acquisition and training manager, Joshua knows the best steps to get noticed and land a dream job quickly both in and out of the tech space. As the founder of the VETD Talent Network his website is full of all sorts of useful information for veterans so be sure to check it out!
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http://www.vetdtalentnetwork.co/
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Transcript from Episode 42 with Joshua Prado:
Keith McKeever 0:06
Buddy with Keith McKeever. Hey, welcome back to another episode of the battle buddy podcast. I got an awesome guest today if you are in the tech space or you're looking for a job or you're looking to get a bit more out of LinkedIn, this is, this is the episode you're gonna want to check out. So without further ado, I'll bring our guest in today, Joshua Prado. So Joshua gun tell us a little bit about yourself What was your What was your military journey
Joshua Prado 0:35
10 years in the Navy was the active duty then reserve post 911 spend most of my time in air wing squadron units though on the aviation side and working with comnav weapon systems on FAA teams and on some some halos here and there. So pretty much sums it up on the 10 years worth of Navy time.
Keith McKeever 0:59
Awesome. So you are in the tech space. It's your exact recruiter right is basically is what your what your title is something simple along those lines,
Joshua Prado 1:13
in summarization, mostly talent acquisition program management. So recruiters technically are matchmakers for job openings, talent acquisition more deals with the strategy of creating pipelines, retention, both sourcing screening and making sure that the the workforce is molded where it needs to be, especially with the military recruiting program. So I was down, I was just in management, more so than recruiting. But it's a great episode for the recruiters those that want to get into that space, because there's a great need for talent in the especially in the tech workforce, obviously, clear talent, not included talent for the commercial sector.
Keith McKeever 1:55
So exactly why I wanted to ask that just to kind of clarify for people who listen to or watch in the future, and to kind of know exactly where you sit in that space. Because I know, obviously not everybody's on in the hiring pipeline for jobs and stuff like that. But one of the things I wanted to ask you was, you know, some of the top top resume tips, just in general. And then is there anything for those people who are looking at somewhere in the tech space?
Joshua Prado 2:25
Yeah, absolutely. I think the biggest thing in regards to resumes is to reference the job that you're applying for, and making sure that you create a targeted resume for this specific job. Imagine you're going to a party, and you don't know if it's a black tie events, or it's a casual thing. So every single resume should be tailored to that specific job. It takes a lot more work, but it's better to have, you know, a tailored and targeted resume for three jobs than a you know, blanket resume for 20 jobs that you're applying for. So you know, the more the customers fit to your standard, and the company that you're trying to add value to. Also, you know, resumes are, like I said, reflective of yourself towards a specific position. marketing yourself in general is going to be a lot more broad than that. That's why we use LinkedIn. That's why personal branding is huge. So not just the resume focus, maybe 20% on the resume, you know, and I'd say maybe 30%, you know, more on your LinkedIn and your network, both the people that you know, the people that you should know, that's that's kind of like my, my bid on, on, you know, recruiting and resumes, LinkedIn.
Keith McKeever 3:33
Absolutely, I'm gonna dig way back here a little bit, and kind of go back to my college days. And think about the resumes and HR classes and stuff that I had. You should be to get the targeted resume, you should be finding that job description of pulling, correct me if I'm wrong keywords out of there for that they put those recruiters or whoever's putting those job descriptions together, is using those for a reason? Correct?
Joshua Prado 4:00
Absolutely, yeah. There's not like, you're writing resumes in college, you get in trouble for plagiarism. But if you're doing resumes for a job, you know, if you put the exact words and keywords and things in there, essentially, that's actually a good thing that's actually gonna catch the eye of the recruiters or the hiring managers that you actually have exactly what they need, you know, writing an essay, so you do get to do that when it comes to resumes. You know, you want to be the, essentially one of the perfect matches for what they're looking for. Either 90% or more qualified for the position that you're applying for. That's the kind of general rule of thumb I would say that goes across the board.
Keith McKeever 4:40
Okay, that's interesting. 90% or more qualified, so if somebody is out there looking at a job description, and they're thinking they maybe I qualify, maybe I don't they should maybe look at that and say, if there's 10 things on there if I'm like, legitimately qualified at nine Oh, my I have a pretty good shot at it. Maybe Applying for this point in the resume. If it's only 50%, maybe you should look a different direction.
Joshua Prado 5:07
Absolutely. I think a lot of folks say this term like I'm overqualified for this role, but I mean, technically have, how's that person? Or do they do the work to actually take a job description, potentially break it down into a scorecard? Meaning that like, if there you know, it says, required to have a bachelor's degree, do I have that and if that's worth 10 points, you know what, I get those 10 points. So you know, when somebody says, Oh, I'm overqualified for this, or I'm qualified for that. A lot of times, they actually haven't done the work to actually break that down into metric system and truly say, Hey, I'm actually the top 10%. For this position. Sometimes that's just a general rule of thumb. They think that, you know, a job is above or below their qualifications. But, you know, that's the science of talent acquisition, and recruiting is actually breaking that down and saying, yeah, these are my top three candidates, based on you know, here's a report that shows that this is my top three, because it's difficult. There's a lot of qualified folks that are out there. And what are the key differentiators between your top two or three candidates?
Keith McKeever 6:06
You actually just said a word in there that I want to pinpoint. You said science. And I am definitely no resume expert. No, not an interviewing expert. But that's what I've picked up over time is that it says science, like you need to pick it apart. And you need to be very strategic and tactical with exactly what you're putting in your resume. And you just can't just go It can't just go on your computer on Word and just slap something together and hope it's going to work. You're not going to have much of a chance to success with without, without put a little bit of thought into it. Kind of a scientific method, I guess. With resumes, is there. Is there anything in particular for people focus on the tech space? Because that's where you're at? Is there certain things that that are generally going to be a really big bonus for people to have on the resume?
Joshua Prado 7:00
Yes, I mean, absolutely industry recognized credentials make a big difference, especially for DOD contracting, if you are, you know, you might do a Udemy or even a LinkedIn learning course for security plus, which is like mandatory DOD, you know, type certification for it. You want to get naturally industry recognized ones, for example, CompTIA is recognized as like a college credit, it's also recognized as an industry certification. So even though you might have, you know, some training in that you want to leverage especially for US veterans, or transitioning military leverage, or your you know, VA benefits of any kind to make sure that you have the credentials that match for those, especially for those IT roles. So, you know, they're for specifically tack, there's CompTIA EC Council, a number of different industry certifications, obviously, for our program and project managers, there's PMI PMP certifications that are industry recognized, that actually increase your kind of market value, and are also recognized in the industry, not just as, like free stuff. I mean, there's plenty of information you can glean from YouTube and from free services, but to get the industry specific stuff, we have, at our advantage, a lot of VA resources to get, you know, to pay and get the legitimate, you know, certifications that we need.
Keith McKeever 8:25
That's a good point tie in a VA GI Bill stuff, or what's the other one off the top my head, the vocational rehab, or think because nothing else now, but I think everybody knows what I'm talking about.
Joshua Prado 8:37
We are VR and he
Keith McKeever 8:44
cares about that we don't do politically correct, we're veterans. But you know, hey, like, yeah, use your benefits and go back and get some of those because I think that, you know, if you really look at the education benefits, you can get pretty creative with some of those things. I don't know, in real estate like you can, at least the state of Illinois, you can use your GI Bill benefits to go to a real estate school and do the pre licensing stuff to go get your license. So you know, I'm sure that a lot of those different courses that you mentioned, you know, there's some way to pay for it other than forking money out of your own out of your wallet. So good stuff to look into. Another thing I wanted to talk to you about the you had mentioned before we talk was being the top 10% that shortlist Is there anything like outside of qualifications and other things? To help somebody get in that 10 in that top 10% You know, other than, you know, hey, they've got this class, they've got that class, they got these qualifications.
Joshua Prado 9:46
Absolutely, that's gonna be there's three things that I tie in to my transition strategy. I've, you know, specifically made it a point to to drive veteran employment and initiatives across the US and different companies, especially within tech. And I have three specific areas that I always say to work on. One is the people, two is the products and three is the process. So this would be your industry certifications, your product knowledge, how you're going to build value, technically, the other way to tilt the scale would be in the people area. So people I mean, once again, who you know, does matter, because especially if somebody is referred to me, through somebody, I know, let's say you send somebody over, you know, that gives me a reason to potentially look at something, or look into something a little deeper than I normally would, if I'm specifically trying to nail that position. So the, you know, it's it is who you know, and especially with the military recruiting space, we built programs to specifically recruit veterans for specific jobs. So we want them to be there, how to kind of tip the scale and move that the machine in your direction would be to get to know who those military recruiters and programs and resources and and start to find the people that you need to know, whether it's for tech, or for real estate, or any industry kind of the same formula applies.
Keith McKeever 11:14
That make sense. I actually just, ironically, last night, just finished up Darren Hardy's book, the compound effect. And he actually had a chapter in there, where he kind of talked about that is like, if you're going to look for a job, you need to research everybody in that company, not just the people in HR, you need to know, everything you possibly can about the CEO, the CFO, you know, all the leadership, the Board of Directors, you need to walk in there with all that knowledge in the back of your mind, you need to know who they are, what their qualifications are, how they got to their job, should at least research that stuff. And get a better idea that tells you the culture and how people got in their positions. And then if you can connect with those people on LinkedIn, which is, you know, the next topic I kinda want to talk about was, you know, you might be able to get that that personal connection, you know, you might realize that you got a second, you know, what is the second or third or whatever connection, whatever they call it on LinkedIn, right? Where you see somebody, you're like, oh, it's cool, I got five different connections with them.
Joshua Prado 12:11
I mean, whether it's right or wrong, I mean, if you go to a restaurant, and you know, the chef and the GM, and the servers, and you're friends with, you know, the multiple people on the staff, I mean, there's a slight chance that you had a different experience than if you don't know anybody at the restaurant, right. So, um, it's kind of a, you know, I think real world analogy for you know, why it's good to connect via LinkedIn, or build those relationships over time is, you know, is the same thing, whether it's a, you know, restaurant analogy, or a sports analogy, I think that that kind of sums it up for, you know, you get treated well, you know, you know, the shop, and you know, the server, and you know, the host and the bartender, and it's a much different experience than it's the first time and you're just like, you know, you come into the restaurant, you and you want to get meal.
Keith McKeever 12:53
So that's a good way of putting it, you know, if you if you know, a couple people there, you know, might get a couple extra breadsticks or a little bit extra wine in your glass or something like that. I mean, there's, there's a lot of truth to it, it's a lot of a lot of it's who you know, so. But one of the best places to, to get known, or to make these connections is LinkedIn. And I was certainly hope that a lot of my listeners are familiar with LinkedIn. I use it all the time for this podcast, specifically, actually, every guest that I've ever had on. I've looked up on LinkedIn, I will say all of them have been on there. But it's helpful resource for me, just for my guests to understand what their history is, their education, what their current position is, things like that. And I just, I mean, I look at it from research perspective. So I know if I'm using it, hiring managers using it, everybody's using it. There's a lot of conversations going on all the time. So. But one thing I've noticed, I'm sure you've probably seen this. Some people are just really bad about filling out their LinkedIn profiles. They've got one, they've got no photo, they've got no background image, they've got hardly any background information. What do you think, are the best ways to stand out on LinkedIn?
Joshua Prado 14:05
Absolutely, I mean, number one is going to be a statics. So you know, this is a rare case that happens to be Saturday in sunny San Diego. So I'm not in a suit and tie or 511 tactical year and a shout out or veteran owned businesses there. But I'm over here at my office and in downtown. But technically, I mean, if you find somebody on LinkedIn, especially now in the remote world that we live in, the first thing that's going to catch your eyes, you know, I may not have a chance to uphold your resume, I may not have a chance to look into there. But there's a number of resources and the fact that we've got great amazing iPhones and you know, cameras nowadays it should be pretty, pretty easy to get make sure that you got a suit and tie headshot set up there for the guys and you know, formal attire for the girls as well on LinkedIn, so headshots also there's a big amount of real estate when it comes to the like background wallpaper type thing you can set up there that you do have freedom to kind of change that as you want, whether using it kind of like as a backdrop for information, or maybe just kind of a cool sunset from the city that you live in, for whatever reason, you know, that's that's another, you know, you know, customizable branding that you can add to your profile, you know, so once again, it's when you present yourself online, digital, you know, in the LinkedIn template, you can always, you know, have a very complete or a non complete profile. On the flip side. So just working on it constantly, you know, I think that LinkedIn has done great to not have a, you know, a general, like, this is the standard, you have to do it, there is some gray area and some wiggle room, which I kind of liked, because it allows you to be yourself and project the image versus, you know, staring at a black and white resume. It says, you know, John Smith, whenever you see black and white, that's it. But when you go to LinkedIn, I'd be like, okay, this person likes the companies that I like, they got some similar interests, you know, they present themselves well, you know, obviously, for military guys, make sure you're not in your military uniform, because that does not apply anymore in the civilian, you know, workspace, even though, you know, we do recognize as you know, veteran, myself and fellow veterans, we recognize the work that you did in the service, when you're, you know, your job is provide value as a human being, not necessarily based on your, you know, your rank and rate structure. So, you know, I get the ability to, you know, it's a blessing to be able to work with retired, you know, Green Berets, Navy SEALs, you know, captains, all these these people with great accolades, all the way down to someone who's done a four year, you know, enlistment and, you know, was a infantry guy, or cook or, or whatever, and we're all the same in this space. Now, you know, doesn't, you know, whether you and I were a different branch or rate rank, or anything like that, at this point, you know, we're just, in an amazing way, we're brothers and sisters, and we look out for each other and, and that's, you know, that's it, you know, our job is to serve the community, after you know, our time in uniform, and I love what you're doing. And anybody that's, that's like you, because it's, it gives you that sense of purpose that you need on top of whatever you're doing careers.
Keith McKeever 17:14
You hydrate, it's like a, it's a reset, you know, whatever your rank was your title, any, that's, it doesn't really matter. Once you leave the service, you are on your own, you're back in the civilian world. Like I like to say, how you join the cool kids club, welcome to the veteran club, where we're all in this together, you know, 1000s of millions of veterans have come before you and gone through this same process, so anybody can do it, but you have to eliminate
Joshua Prado 17:43
barrier and eliminates the barrier, which, you know, good and bad, you know, there's still you know, there's the, you know, you got the Chiefs mess in the Navy, you've got the soft community, you've got like Annapolis, you know, Academy guys, you got all those, those different kinds of clubs and communities in the military, which which are growing, and, you know, just for camaraderie and everything, but that actually comes down when you when you're now you're entering the civilian workforce, you know, obviously, you might be like, hey, that guy's Navy, and I'm Navy, or this guy's marine Marine, or That guy's recon, and I'm, you know, this and that. So you might have a familiarity with them. But at the same time, you know, like I said, we say, anyone who signed a contract and, and sort of, you know, I think that, from the citizen perspective, we treat each other and try and serve each other exactly the same.
Keith McKeever 18:30
Absolutely, because most time you don't even know, I mean,
Joshua Prado 18:33
yeah. There's a bunch, there's a bunch of e4 Mafia out there. And there's a bunch of, you know, Annapolis grabs all that stuff. But essentially, you know, if you're, if you got the right credentials, and you do meet those qualifications, whether hard skills or there's a ton of soft skills that we bring, obviously, then, then you're going to be, you know, in the same category when it comes to where you stand in military recruitment eyes, at least in my eyes.
Keith McKeever 18:58
Absolutely. So with with the LinkedIn, like, what are some of the best ways that you see people utilizing that, beyond just, you know, having their profile look, aesthetically pleasing? Have you seen anybody like really, in practice really utilizing LinkedIn to their advantage to get a job?
Joshua Prado 19:15
Yeah, one of the first things I asked when I'm having conversation with any of the transitioning or, or, you know, upskilling candidates is, do you have the LinkedIn app on your phone, like, I mean, you're probably on Gmail, and Instagram and all this other stuff. But I mean, if you're using something, you have quick access to it. So one, get the LinkedIn app on their phone. So you can, you know, use it readily and you can start doing connections. You know, if you're actually actively networking, you know, out of top out and say, hey, you know, there's 100 connections that I can connect to per week, which means that's 20 a day for, you know, five days of the week and you know, whether it's I like that company there let me connect to their whole recruiting team or maybe this is these are some people I need to know and, you know, drop down the list. If you're not hitting the cap on that, you know, on a weekly basis. Then you can't really say, man, I've done everything that I can to get a job and all that stuff. And, you know, my question would be like, have you? Well, I mean, what is the cat? What's the ceiling on that visit? How many people on LinkedIn, you're connecting to how many jobs you apply to? And once again, I'd say quality over quantity. If somebody says, I applied to 100 jobs, I'm not getting any response, then the conversation I have, you know, then leads to? Well, let's take a look at that and see maybe particularly Why, oh, you don't have a headshot? Or oh, no, LinkedIn is not complete, or, you know, there's, there's, there's something going on, rather than the fact that you're applying for the jobs. That's, that's, you know, that's one thing.
Keith McKeever 20:37
Yeah, I think if somebody says that they've applied for 100 jobs that are and I haven't any success, we all have skills, every single one of us has skills. And with the great resignation, or whatever, whatever it's been called here has happened over the last couple years, there's jobs out there, there's plenty of jobs out there, you just got to be able to find that right one and have your skills match up, and you just have everything online, and just stop throwing, you know, don't go to Staples, and have 100 copies of your resume, maybe just toss them in the wind and hope somebody picks it up and hires you. Because it's not going to
Joshua Prado 21:10
work. And in the digital space that we're in, allows you to create a personal brand for yourself to where you may not be, like, that's all about timing as well. If a job is open, and you see a posting and you're applying for the job, I mean, most likely is that something that they hire for multiple times throughout the year, you know, there's there's the timing of everything is important, because you might not be that you have all the skills for a job that just opened today, and you're the top candidate and everything lines up within that week's time. So to get in, there's an active and a passive pipeline for, you know, recruiting and jobs and careers and all those things. So to be in the passive pipeline, I mean, you may need to connect to that person that's going to open the job six months from now, for you. So, you know, it's not like you only apply when the you know, that you only go to the store when the store is open, you know, from eight to five, you know, you want to be actively engaged there with the person or the organization, not just when, you know, when the doors are open.
Keith McKeever 22:09
Yeah, makes, that makes a lot of sense. Because you just never know when that opportunity is gonna knock. And you better be able to kick in the door when you got to when the opportunities there. And that's something I have not been in the, in the job seeking phase for for many, many years now. But something I really didn't think about, honestly, was the fact that you've got jobs that are trying to be filled right now. And then you have other jobs that are like, well, we always want to have a pool here to choose from because we have high turnover, or we're expecting it or something, or maybe a new facility come online, we got to start ramping up. It's just like the military, I mean, you can have that vacancy right now, that's mission essential, like you got to fill that. Yeah, you're counting parliament of three people and two of them have left the company, you have an immediate need to fill two accounting spots, like you need that immediately. You know, but if they're all full, and somebody is getting ready to retire, you know, maybe six months or a year, a couple years before they need something. So they put it out there to attract interest, just in case trying to paint you know, paint a good picture there. So last question I had here and I'm gonna throw before we do, I'm going to throw your your link up at the bottom to your website. It's that D talent network.co. And you've got a ton of resources on there. So everybody should definitely go check that out on a variety of different resources, which
Joshua Prado 23:37
forum voted so
Keith McKeever 23:41
the listeners would know. Yeah. They might might put an E in there somewhere.
Joshua Prado 23:48
Sure. True. And there was another organization by that same name different different outputs, but But yeah, it's Victor echo Tango delta. So you can see it there on the drop down. And what that represents is that I have put together an initiative to create like a platform for transitioning veterans and and, you know, retired and members out there that's looking for resources. I'm constantly doing collaborations with multiple organizations and and kind of shortlisting just like I would candidates, my favorites and not only just ones that have a high output. Like if you go to podcast section we're gonna see battle buddy podcasts on there. You'll see Jocko podcast and some of the other familiar resources when it comes to what should I listen to? Who should I connect to, you know, what, what different resources I might need, you know, so it's not a, you know, a storefront for everything, anything in everything. The purpose is to be more of a shortlist. Always taking recommendations and collaborations with different partners as an ongoing thing, because the landscape is changing. You know, there's a ton of different new resources that come out that change the game, even technologically. So for, you know, 10 years ago, get out of the military We know I came out of active duty, originally in 2007, I don't think we had a better variety. We didn't have this online digital mentorship platform that pours through your LinkedIn. Maybe, I mean, there might have been some other obviously mentorship resources, but there's something that kind of changed the game. And so I'm always on the lookout for that. But um, you know, I built it based off of the problem statement of, of something like myself, when I got out of the military at the time, you know, no degree enlisted, you know, no real skill set, aside from the electronics hard skill background from a military. Now, what's my next step? You know, where can I go? So I built the platform and the organization based on that profile, which is many, you know, getting out looking for the next step, they, you know, they're looking for, who do I connect to? What program? Should I select? What resources what is the strategy, because at the upper echelon of what we're doing in town acquisition, or training or employment, you know, we're we're trying to be strategic, obviously, your operational tactical mindset is what I need to do to, you know, survive today and pay the rent and, and, you know, get a job and all that good stuff. But when it's, in terms of the upper echelon of what we do is try and think strategically, you know, how do I have an optimal experience after the military in my next chapter, in a fulfilled career, with the right resources with the right people with the right community? You know, I think that Reddit town network serves as a resource for that. So you can go to the website, you can go to the Facebook and Instagram, more likely, you know, engage with, with me personally, either on LinkedIn, through the website, or for the post 911 crowd. And, you know, the the next generation, you're on Instagram and those types of things, but so we're across most platforms, but by either way, my extension of what I felt is a need in the market and a need for the veteran community is to stay engaged in always possible to help support a smooth transition from military to civilian life is the best way I can summarize that
Keith McKeever 27:11
was a key thing that I've done, I have noticed over the years is meaningful employment, employment, that pays enough for you to take care of whatever household bills and financial obligations that you've got, and be able to provide you, you know, a chance of success. The picture is different for everybody, but something good enough. And I think when it's not there, that is one of those factors that can lead to veterans going down, you know, to homelessness, substance abuse issues, or, you know, even worse, unfortunately, suicide, you know, it's just one of those things that can go wrong, that can cause that. So, you know, that's, that's good stuff that you've got out there. It's a great resource, everybody needs to go check it out. Have no fear, if you're listening or watching, it's in the show notes. It'll be there. All of Joshua's stuff will be there. So you know, the only thing I had to you know, that I kind of had a note to ask you about was the power of connections. Is there any places because you mentioned Verratti, that's a really good one. I don't know if you're gonna, if you can go this way or not. But any place any places out there other than LinkedIn, that are great for making those kind of connections.
Joshua Prado 28:22
As far as in person, we can shout out the you know, one example of an initiative that was just started by a group of guys just like me, and you was the veterans Bureau club spread. I got some here in San Diego. I've got some great mentors, where they found it a shout out to Phil Kenjiro Kevin Cortez and Brian Greiner and the whole gang there they, they started a networking event at local breweries, and it created a you know, chapters nationwide where once a month, you can get together and meet in person with other veterans at local breweries and connect for resources and employments and just camaraderie. So it's a simple concept. And usually those those simple concepts are the best when it comes to how can you engage with with people in person, you know, I think hiring fairs have kind of taken a hit with COVID and everything like that. So you've got virtual events, I would say virtual events, you know, two of the great really good ones that I see going on, shout out to 50 strong and candy Tillman with a you know, promoting this skill rich stuff there. As well as kind of one of the newer in the last couple years initiatives with Brian Arrington invest to industry doing virtual events. Um, so that's some really good things. I think the key mentors that's that's that's a great one as well, so that there's a lot that you can tap into, you know, one way that you can stay in tune with those upcoming in person and virtual events is through my website. There's a virtual and in person Event tab there and so if you've got something going on, let me know so I can help market it to my network because I think that you know, whether I promoted on Instagram, to those followers are promoted through Facebook and Facebook groups and LinkedIn in groups and my LinkedIn network, which I've been building over the years, to practice, what I preach is, you know, I think, you know, I look to the left and right, and we see the programs that they're doing at Google and Amazon with O'Higgins, and generals Cortes and Microsoft military, you know, those are the folks that are trying to, you know, create a talent strategy and an optimal program for military transitioning into tech. And I know that for other industries are doing the same thing. You know, so it's the same process of, you know, how do we create a seamless transition of these guys have amazing skill sets, you know, X pilots x, this and that in the military, you know, Navy SEALs, and all these guys, how do they become, you know, meaningful and purposeful in the employment sector, or even as an entrepreneur, you know, shout out to bunker labs, you know, they got a great program for starter startups, for veterans, and I'm one of their San Diego national ambassadors as well. So, you know, we're, you know, we're constantly just, this is the next mission. The next mission is how do we serve the community? How do we serve our sales based on the resources that we have, and those, those entitlements that we had benefits that we receive through the VA and looking at those as an asset that we, you know, may need to liquidate for, you know, for rent, or for buying a house or, you know, numerous things, you know, that's something that, you know, can still be tribal knowledge kind of, across the board, so, but the more of us that are together, if I know that tribal knowledge, and you know, it and we all know it, and we've got platforms, then less and less becomes tribal knowledge, at least to, you know, our brothers and sisters, right?
Keith McKeever 31:38
Absolutely. So, once again, I appreciate you coming on here, I've got the, your website's still down there at the bottom. So people go check them out, follow on, on social platforms, all that'd be on there, that, in fact, I'll go through and I'll, I'll put some links to all those other organizations, especially the veteran beer club, I still need to check that outside, you got to figure out what I got to do to get one here in Peoria, Illinois, we have we do have a nice brewery here. So I'm gonna have to figure that out.
Joshua Prado 32:06
Once a chapter out there, you know, I took there, I took an example of kind of an initiative from there, I said, Hey, these, these, these local guys, these mentors, to me can start something like that, you know, I can build a organization and a platform, you know, based on on things that I've seen them do, you know, creating a leadership team. And so I started an event series for veteran entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders called buddy check in does, which are my local events, or I'll do kind of a twist, which is a birth to boardrooms, which is like just workshops locally, so any of you know that, you know, we work in small teams that are very efficient. So you know, if you're local, their state, you can, you got to work on, you know, a local, state, city, county level before you work on a national and, and all these things require putting your heads together, but just like what started out, you know, you need a small team of people with some great skill sets, and you can get things done just like, you know, in the sum of 50 years ago, like three or four people that can can essentially, you know, get things done in a short amount of time and more efficiently. So, so kind of using those skill sets and be like, you know, use those tactical skill sets that you might have used from the military, and in your experience, and apply them to business, apply them to education, apply them to, you know, creating a nonprofit, or, or, you know, volunteering with a nonprofit, that's a huge thing, too. You know, a lot of us are plugged in, I know that you've been recognized for your efforts in the, in the veteran advocacy space. And, you know, we're in here locally, I was, you know, nominated for and receive the Veteran of the Year for San Diego County, in December, and I'm really honored to kind of to lead the charge and say, hey, you know, I saw these guys do it, I saw Keith do it, I can, I can do something, you know, to move the needle, you know, one, it's just, uh, you know, little little drops in the bucket, but you know, that that's what obviously creates a ripple effect nationwide. So if somebody can tap into what I'm doing and say, Hey, like, you know, whether it's LinkedIn and optimization, you know, I needed help with that or you need to you know, do a create a startup or you want to get into tech or whatever it may be, you know, I might not be you know, I might be a start. So, I'd love to have out anybody individually or as an organization, advocate recruiter, I get a chance to work with all these different groups. That's what I love to do it you know, it's not boring, because people are getting out of military every single day. So, you know, it makes my life pretty, pretty packed when it comes to the schedule. But like I said, I get to work on the level of the program management for talent acquisition all the way down to the individual who wants to, you know, doesn't know which way to go which I was in the same boat many years ago and I got GI bill now I just got out of it or know what it you know, what am I going to do next? You know, what should I do my disability I don't know, blah, blah. You know, finding out your next step. I think there's there's multiple people that have very Giving hearts for their time and their resources. And I know that what you're doing even with this podcast is, you know, shareable media. That's a huge thing. You know, so what I'm saying I wanted to make sure that it's not specific too much to one organization or resource, because, you know, the strategy that we're talking about here is going to apply for many years to come. LinkedIn is not going anywhere, you know, all the social media marketing is not going anywhere, personal branding is not going anywhere. So if that's what you need help with for yourself or your organization, I love to be a resource to you and anyone that you know,
Keith McKeever 35:33
awesome. Yeah, personal branding. I mean, that's, that's actually relatively kind of a new phenomenon, I would say, I got out 10 years ago, probably eight years ago, or so kind of heard about Gary Vaynerchuk, he's been really talking about that he has one heck of a personal brand, just as one person but you know, he's he's put a lot of work into building his personal brand. And if you know who he is, you know exactly who he is, and what he stands for. And I've seen that vo really become a big thing in the last couple years. And I think, tying this all in with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is just yet another way where your name can pop up on a Google search. Don't be offended that I guess good if you need a job, or somebody needs, you know, somebody wants to verify who you are what you're about. It's, it's like a big poster of, hey, here's who I am, here's what I've done. Here's what I've learned, here's what I do all these different things. So
Joshua Prado 36:27
it's a great way to validate who you are and what you bring to the table. And I think that our collective group is veterans, we, we know who we are, we know what we stand for. And and now we just want to show other people, you know, what we can do or, and that's a great way to do that is to create a personal brand, for yourself for your hiring, you know, strategies and for your, your future. You know, people want to know, hey, who's Keith, what does he do? You know, where does he come from, and you can find a lot of those things just in seconds, right, just by pulling up the LinkedIn. So whether it's just your profile, which is kind of like your interchangeable thing, or the things that you post, you can, you know, share resources, if you got to see a post and you like it, share it, put it out there and then at work to the people that you know, and so that's going to constantly create a ripple effect across the, to somebody, may somebody somewhere, I'm like, Hey, how did you hear about me, it's like, somebody tagged me in the comments, and this and that, and like, so eventually, like you never know, like, who you're going to connect to and what you may come across. And hopefully, like I said, it routes right up to the same resources, and they connect with other people, and the resources that they need for themselves individually.
Keith McKeever 37:33
I'm just gonna say, I guess just one more thing, maybe just to tie all of this stuff in with LinkedIn, I just thought of it. It's a lot like our ribbon racks in the military, if you want to think about it like that. When you're in and you go to a formal event, and you see everybody's wearing two ribbon racks, you know, who the guys who are got just had a basic training, they got one or two, you know, they haven't done anything, but you know, what they've done. And then you got, the guys have been in for 20 or 30 years, and they've got, you know, eight 910 different rows, you know, it's almost going over their shoulder at this point, you know, the guys have been in for 30 years, you know exactly who they are, you know, what they've done, you know, they've been successful. They, you know, they've been doing it for a long time. I'm not saying we should compare ourselves to that. But that's how civilians use LinkedIn. They can tell about you.
Joshua Prado 38:20
Yeah, and you can use the metric for who's on the LinkedIn voices for LinkedIn itself. And LinkedIn military's the one that actually is part of that as well, there's a stream for that. So you'll see personal branding experts like Mr. Michael Quinn, you can see he's a great person to look up to you when it comes to creating a personal brand and tips on recruitment and things like that. So I think many of the folks that I look look up to and have been able to work alongside of our within that list of LinkedIn top voices, and that's just a way of like, hey, multiple people, because you know, your message is not getting out to the five connections you have on LinkedIn, and it's getting it out there 50,000 That you have, and that means something if you're actually, you know, what you're saying, and what you're posting is actually a value. So put out the free value and share the free value. Because, essentially, you know, that's, that's, that's what people are gonna get to know you for. So, you know, it comes to not just employment opportunities, training opportunities, they see you know, post industry news and tips and tricks and different things, you know, and that allows you to, for people to follow you and essentially not just press the Follow button, but actually literally tune into your candle and say, Hey, what is this guy gonna, you know, give me next, you know, give me some nuggets. And, you know, I'll do that for my friends and brothers and sisters all day every day.
Keith McKeever 39:36
Absolutely. Well, once again, Joshua, I appreciate you stopping by and being on here and dropping the absolute ton of knowledge. For anybody out there who's looking to dust off the old resume, try and get themselves a job. So I appreciate you being by today.
Joshua Prado 39:49
Absolutely. You rock keep doing what you're doing looking forward to many more episodes that you're going to be doing with some of our great brothers and sisters out here and that civilian space. Yeah, once again, Thanks for Thanks for having me. Find me on LinkedIn, go to the site below. You know, there, we'll we'll drop all the links. If you're a young guy, you might go on Instagram, you can find vetted Talent Network on there, as well. So, yeah, yeah, let's, uh, thanks for having me, brother. You know, I was I was looking forward to being just a piece of what you're doing. And, you know, let's, let's, let's make it happen. Let's help some more vets.
Keith McKeever 40:24
Absolutely, man. It's all about these conversations, just two people as battle buddies, dropping some knowledge, helping some people out. So with uh, with that being said, you know, listeners, viewers, make sure you go follow up once again, all of that stuff will be in the show notes. As I play the outro here, if you are struggling with anything, please call the suicide number. Everybody else you know, please make sure that you like and follow the show, share this episode, share it with your network, then share it on LinkedIn, maybe that'd be good place to do it. And Facebook and all those other places but maybe on LinkedIn for sure. Get out there and share this share the other episodes because I do all of this just to provide value education information to the veteran space. So with that, everybody take it easy. Rock on
