Vet Tribe & Warrior Council
For some veterans like Marshall Terrin who served in the Marine Corps, entrepreneurship is just a way of life. Having recently taken over the 16,000+ member Facebook group called the Vetpreneur Tribe and its related mastermind group the Warrior Council, Marshall has big plans for how he and others can help assist and guide other veterans on their entrepreneur journey.
Battle Buddy Podcast Guest Links:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/vetpreneur
https://www.vetpreneurtribe.com/
https://www.vetpreneurtribe.com/warrior-council
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marshallterrin/
Marshall's Numa Numa Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60HISY-Sn9M
Transcript from Episode 67 with Marshall Terrin:
Keith McKeever
Welcome to the battle buddy podcast with Keith McKeever. And here I've got an awesome guest with me today, Marshall Taran from the intrapreneur tribe and the word counsel on Facebook. If you're a veteran entrepreneur and you're not aware of it, you're missing a good opportunity. 16,000 I think plus members in this group, great warrior councils mastermind group beyond it. Before I bring Marshall into just wanna say Mr. Hit that like and subscribe button and follow us. And if you're an entrepreneur stuff, you're definitely going to want to follow Marshall and his journey there. So, Marshall, welcome to the podcast.
Marshall Terrin
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Keith McKeever
Yeah. Glad to have you here. So tell us a bit about your story. Who was young Marshall, what do you do in the military? This kind of things?
Marshall Terrin
Yeah, I'll make it pretty brief. I was born and raised in Las Vegas, you know, the typical kid that you know, gotten a little bit of trouble. wasn't the best student but it's not because I wasn't smart. It's just that I lacked discipline. end up joining the Marine Corps at 17
Keith McKeever
got a big ghost.
Marshall Terrin
Yeah, yeah. You know, and my military experience summed up as you know, I just happened to be a jarhead and Ramadi during the Anbar awakening, and 2007. That's is a big part of my I was a year over there. So it was a big part of my my time. I ended up getting out shortly after that. I did a shortly after that. Went back into the reserves for a year with her dang Lakota, California, and then decided to hang it up completely. I just became a dad. And my daughter was, I think a couple months old when the unit was taking volunteers for Afghanistan. This is right after I got back from Ramadi. And when I realized that I wasn't willing to volunteer or I was conflicted and not sure about volunteering. That's when I was like, You know what, that's that's all I need to know about myself, it's time to just hang it up completely. So I ended up getting out officially in 2010, like completely done with the reserves as well. And then got into a couple different odd jobs. And I was like a food runner on the Las Vegas Strip. I sold cars for a little bit for a Chevy dealership, you know, just the typical veteran story of just feeling lost, trying to find my place. And this honestly, is a new world, right? Like the military experience versus the civilian experience is completely different. You know, I ended up landing in the retail business, which is something that I still do today. Over the past was it 12 years now. It's been evolving into different areas, you know, started off in the mall kiosk industry. So those annoying people that stop you and are walking by the mall. There's actually some pretty good money in it. And that's where I kind of got started. And it's grown today to where I currently own six oxygen bars on the Las Vegas Strip. There's three was soon to be four in Orlando, right currently reside in Orlando. So total 10 Oxygen bars, which is a combination between online store spaces and common area I wouldn't call them kiosks, but a common area structures and shopping centers like the Venetian fashion show mall and Las Vegas, here at icon Park in Orlando with the big wheels, we have a store. So still a combination of common area, I guess you can say kiosk operations and inland stores. And we also take products that we sell out of those stores and we take them and we we take them on the road and we sell them at different home shows state fairs are a big one. Any kind of activation, any kind of large events.
Keith McKeever
That's interesting. Just before you continue that I'm just curious, what is an oxygen bar? Because I knew that was only one gonna ask, you know, nor the bar has been a few of those. But
Marshall Terrin
he's like so an oxygen bar is a concept that is very similar to think of it like a modern Express, spa and OA so we don't employ massage therapists but we do use over the counter methods to get a very fast and efficient I guess release or relief or relaxation as possible. And one of those products is the actual oxygen station. So a person sits down for about 15 to 20 minutes are the sessions. You get hooked up to a nasal cannula, just like in the hospital and you breathe in 90% Oxygen. This is very good for headaches, hangover jetlag fatigue. Overall, you feel a sense like you just woke up from a nap. So like for example in Orlando, we spent all day in the Disney theme parks a universal theme park and you remember that you made dinner reservations at 730 or eight and you're exhausted from the heat old They, you know, like, oh my god, between the kids and the family and like, I'm not going to make it to dinner, we are a very good option for you to kind of, you know, 1520 minutes before dinner, or starting the night, essentially kind of feeling like refreshed, like you're ready to carry on with the rest of the day. On top of that, we have water massage machines that are not like the ones that the gyms where they spray up, but they actually spray down and there are a lot, there's a lot more pressure. And you can basically get a massage for 15 minutes and these water massage machines that you don't get wet all by the way, there's like a waterproof barrier. But you can get a massage within 15 minutes, that's equivalent to about 40 to 45 minutes worth of worth of work with when an actual massage therapist would, would do the work. Aside from that, there's all different kinds of wellness products, you know, we got into, you know, like healthy vapes like it'd be 12 vape, or melatonin vape different massagers different muscle therapy, massage guns, it's we got an interesting product mix, but it's all related to, you know, over the counter, you know, wellness, pain relief, things like that.
Keith McKeever
Refresh, recharge that kind of thing.
Marshall Terrin
Yes, sir. Yeah.
Keith McKeever
It's interesting. So what other, get other business ventures that you've been involved in outside of that, or? Yeah, so
Marshall Terrin
before I really pushed, well, so a little bit of a story. So I was in retail. For a while I was very tradeshow heavy, I had an opportunity to be a partner and a Florida solar company, where I was a part of a it's called Golden solar in Florida for about three years, where I handled all of the in house sales and the sales process and the marketing side of the company, because the company was very reliant on else. And outside sales organizations are what we call I'll call them a prime contractor, because they're not really a contractor. But essentially, outside entities that were sales and marketing organizations just give us contracts and deals, there's a lot of quality control issues that kind of came up with that, and frustrations. So I had an opportunity to kind of go on board and and build more of an inside sales team for more control. And the company ended up doing very, very well, I ended up leaving and resigning in 2020 Largely because of the opportunity of the oxygen bars came up to where that was a a company that I knew of, but actually bought it in late 2019. And I knew that even though it was already an existing running business, that there I was conflicted to where I knew that more of my future was going to be growing the auction of our business. And then, as we all know, COVID hit, I had an interesting, you know, COVID story, I think needs to be said I, as I resigned from Golden solar in terms of on an executive position. I at the same time, started our built a new store out in Las Vegas, it was the first store expansion since buying the company. And I actually ended up taking a cash out refinance and my primary residence to fund it. So we opened about keep in mind this a 1700 square foot store, it's what we would call a flagship store, double the size of the auction bar double the size of the of the Aqua massage beds that we typically have. And we opened March 1, and then march 20, I think 1817 Something along those lines COVID hit in Las Vegas strip or shut down everywhere shut down, right. So that was a very scary time to navigate. As time went on through COVID This is something that is I think a lot of people can take with them or mindset that people need to really understand in business is there's a warren buffett quote, that stuck in the back of my mind. And that was when everybody when everybody else are the I'm gonna butcher it here. But it's like when the masses are fearful, be greedy. When the masses are greedy, then be fearful. And I that was in the back of my mind when I saw COVID playing out and I saw as a retailer. And I'm sure you've noticed, like if you've ever been shopping like during the like right after COVID Reopenings. There's a lot of empty storefronts. There was a lot of businesses that were retailers that kind of just they quit, they want to go on other stuff or they couldn't sustain for whatever reason. So I saw locations here in Orlando, that I could never even dream of getting into before COVID Let like forget the concept that I had but even just real estate space in general for commercial leasing. So what We did is when everything was very unsure that then initial reopening of 2020, we ended up expanding and was able to grow in Orlando through COVID. When and we knew that like, like, we might lose a little bit of money or we might, breakeven, let's just try our best even the breakeven for the next year or two until things get back to normal again, like we knew it would pay off eventually, when things get, you know, quote, unquote, back to normal. And that ended up snowballing to where we, we expanded into the icon Park Rolando, then we expanded into the international premium outlet centres here, which is our huge international hubs for tourism here. So through COVID, when a lot of people there's a lot of uncertainty, like, Yes, we had an uncertainty at first. But after the reopening started happening, we actually became very aggressive expanding, because we knew that was a prime opportunity to do so because so many other retailers were, you know, they were actually closing,
Keith McKeever
I noticed a lot in my area, it wasn't just retailers, it was restaurants, to businesses that have been in business for 2030 4050 years, and it just wasn't outdoors. You know, when everybody's stuck at home and ordering their groceries, nobody's going out to eat, everybody's buying on Amazon is set to go to the small business. Yep. You know,
David Pere
that was hard. You know, what I have seen probably in the last year, I've seen more restaurants come in, and more places open up, and people taking that step and saying, Hey, I'm gonna start a business now. There's all these storefronts that are still open in some places. So you know, take take that gamble, put your foot on the gas when you can. So
Marshall Terrin
you have to I mean, that's, that's essentially entrepreneurship, right, it's just throwing crap against the wall and seeing what sticks. And I call it my jarhead terminology, you know, like zeroing in a rifle, you know, making sure you get a tight grouping, and then you just adjust, you know, on target, as long as you're grouping solid, and you just keep adjusting and shoot, adjust, shoot, adjust until you're zeroed in. I mean, that's really all businesses, right? It's, it's a, there's always an element of not exactly knowing how it's going to work out. But you can just take the information of trying and then adjust and, and keep pressing forward,
Keith McKeever
I think all you can do is just plan and fail, and adjust and keep moving on and just keep trying other stuff, you know, via the feeling is a big part of it. And, I mean, it's talked about a lot of different different places that you have to embrace failure. I mean, you don't want to fail, but you have to, you have to fail enough to learn and continue to grow. But
Marshall Terrin
we call it the we call it the cost of tuition failure, you know, and it's financial related as an entrepreneurs, that's, that's our Constitution. You know, for me, I never I dropped out of college on the way to the degree path. And I just, I there was too much opportunity in the entrepreneurial world at the time for me to justify finishing it from a time perspective. But now I just know, like, whenever I fail or something, there's a setback is just the Constitution. It's no different than someone paying, you know, six figures for a medical degree. Right? Yep. You know, but, you know, on that point, man, I, I'm very blessed and very lucky, the way that I structured my company, my business, I've got a phenomenal partner in my company who handles more of the operational side now. I am blessed with very good management. That is, I was able to build through, you know, relationships. And so I'm at a point now to where I have a lot of time to work on the business versus in the business. And that's where I've kind of pivoted towards the veteran, the veteran, newer tribe that we talked about, that's more of more of a passion project, because I think that my transition experience was a lot harder than it needed to be. And not from like, Well, yeah, I mean, it's all really a personal growth and business growth is actually related. But there's so many lessons learned from from my transitioning from 2008 instinct, being in the reserves, and being finally done 2010. To now that the internet and social media and online communities were not existed back then, like if I would have had the network of people at my fingertips that I have today. Back then I could have saved me a ton of time, stress. You know, money like the whole nine. So the vet printer tribe is, is an online community of veteran entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs. It started on Facebook by somebody else, and it's kind of changed hands twice since then. And it's something that I'm very passionate about, because as veterans, we have a very unique place in our society. And we knew all of the benefits of joining the military and serving for what it would give us you know, and in terms of experience or opportunities, things like that. But there's not a lot of understanding of how you do, how do you take that into the goals and dreams that you have. And one things that I've noticed is that a lot of veterans, you know, we were very proud, right? We're also very lost at times, because not only are you growing as an as a human being, let's just be honest, like just getting older, and these and going through the different phases of life, regardless of military experience is already hard enough to navigate, then you compound your individual military experience, it can add another layer of complexity. And as veterans, we're very, we're very initially distressing. But once we have each other's trust, then will will bend over backwards for each other, right? But there's that initial distrust because I think the we've learned that being a veteran really doesn't mean as much as we thought it would. We've learned the hard way, because we've had maybe experiences that we've been let down or disappointed by certain figures. And that's just a result of the community being so big and diverse, the veteran communities that are a reflection of the country, it's it is big, yes, it's small compared to the population, but it's still a lot of people as a lot of diverse people and different paths of life, different beliefs, things like that. It's
Keith McKeever
almost like, I think I saw stat somewhere about 19 million veterans give or take. Yeah, that's, that's a lot. That's a lot of people. 10% are women something like that? You know, it's, it's, yeah, a lot of a lot of different things brought to the table there. Yeah,
Marshall Terrin
absolutely. And for me, I really, I love to see, and I want to see veterans thrive and whatever goals that they are. And one thing I love is nobody, nobody has the same goals like, and a lot of them are very humble, where they don't, you know, some civilian side, aspiring entrepreneurs, they just all they see as dollar signs, they want to be flashy, they want to have money, things like this. And on the veteran side, I see that's a lot more, they just want to be happy, or they just want to have, you know, security in their business, you know, things like that. So a lot of them and their heart's in the right place. But the the biggest thing I'm trying to break down the veteran community is that as we need to be treating our veteran service or military service as an alumni group, like if I go to college, and I join any kind of association, or fraternity, or even just graduate from the specific university, and I get a cold message in LinkedIn, from someone who has an alumni from the same school, and there's going to be an insane amount of trust, especially if they're in the same fraternity, there's, and I don't see that same level of cooperation with each other than in other professional groups like that. And that's something that I really want to see change. And part of that change comes from more open and honest dialogue and being more vulnerable with each other about the issues that we may face. Because from my position, and when I when I know, when I network, when I talk to veterans from all over the space, and even not even just veterans, but people that are in NGOs that are trying to help, you know, veteran causes. It's a lot of it's a recurring theme. And that is there, the identity that you have of the military is something that is a reflection of your past and not of your future. So a lot of a lot of people need to understand that you really have to mentally grow and shed that military skin and not stay within that the confines or the box of being a veteran, because it actually holds you back more. When you are when you associate the military as you're a big part of your identity. And you only want to have your social circles or business networking done within the veteran community. You are holding your back for you're holding yourself back from like so much more opportunity. And honestly a lot more happiness, in my opinion, part of the beauty of, of this human condition that we all suffer from is experiencing things that we're not used to, or that we are trying to find the right words, you know, just just overall putting ourselves out there and being more open to new things that we might be afraid of, or have anxiety of thinking about pursuing. You know, I have conversations all the time that are unpopular. I like you want to talk like for example we'll talk about the Made in China stuff like I talked to veterans that will all the time and they're like oh products made in China screw that I'm gonna buy 100% America and I'm like, I agree with that to a certain extent, to a certain extent, but the reality is that Because of the internet, we live in a global economy.
Keith McKeever
Yeah, it's been a global
Marshall Terrin
economy. You can you can, you can fight economics, all you want because of your pride in principle or you can learn to benefit from it and take the extra margin that you could get from Chinese products and funnel it into either gainful employment from a veteran or veteran causes, there's a lot of ways that you can benefit from it. Like, you know, I had a conversation with someone who was talking about virtual assistants. And I have a virtual assistant team in the Philippines that I found shortly after reading The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, which is a phenomenal read, by the way. And they completely changed my life, I got so much of my time back when I started outsourcing, you know, recurring tasks to virtual assistants, and I had the conversation with someone about like, oh, but you're, you're sending money overseas to the Philippines. I'm like, number one, this team works harder than most Americans that I've that I've been involved with, I've very, very seldom disappointed. And when I am they have immense guilts when they make a mistake,
Keith McKeever
and they're people to they deserve to make their people to age, you know,
Marshall Terrin
and they're not American people. And I've watched this person, the main the main manager now of the team, I've watched this person go from living in like, almost third world conditions, you know, bathing their baby with a bucket of water to living in, like what's the equivalent of like middle class or upper class to Davao City, in a gated community in a real house. So it's almost like I've sponsored or that I've, I've actually made a huge difference in someone's life. And it works well. But you know, it's that's the biggest thing that I see. I see so many veterans holding on to so many aspects of their identity or ways of thinking because of the military experience. And they think that it's a it's a positive. And there are certain things about it, that's a positive, but you get you have to have the self awareness to know what aspects to shed, given the the world that we live in. I mean, it constantly changes, constantly changes here, I know I'm ranting, but I mean, even from a marketing standpoint, or a branding standpoint, you know, whatever I weekly i I'm like get off of Facebook, the community has to go the discord or telegram or we need to be more active on other platforms Facebook is dying, is becoming the platform for old people. I hate to say that because I started off on Facebook, it took me forever to get active on Instagram. But as as especially our you know, our oh if you know OEF generation and older like we were so big on set in our ways of on Facebook, but I watch so many different industries. And Facebook is like one of the worst. I mean, it's just you can't there's so many other ways. I mean, every young person is on Tik Tok. I know we joke about it and laugh about it, but it's true. Depends on your target and target demographic. And if you look, the most successful people out there that are at least doing an online based business or even even brick and mortar with some brands, they're on Tik Tok, or even they're on Twitch, I never even I heard the word Twitch like a year ago. And I was like, okay, whatever. And then I finally in the past two months, it's opened my eyes to how big of a deal Twitch is when it comes to exposure. Like it's like Twitch and tick tock right now we're like the last few platforms you can get, like real organic growth without paying for it. Right. So
Keith McKeever
yeah, a lot of people have a problem with being on video. There's a lot of forever, a really hard time.
Marshall Terrin
I was I was the same way like I really, I really, for many years, struggled with maintaining that that concept of being a silent professional. And I'm putting myself out there like me a year ago would not be doing this podcast, like I was terrified of being on video. But there's a saying like the obstacle is the way if something makes you uncomfortable, you need to understand it's for a reason. And there's growth that happens from it, period, like
Keith McKeever
veterans. I mean, we all go through basic training boot camp, whatever your branch calls it, but there's obstacles right and the whole thing is to break you down and build you up and make you uncomfortable all the time. And what's what's it do makes it sharper.
Marshall Terrin
I agree. But I think that there's I can't obviously no one can speak for all veterans right but I I know for me in my experiences that I knew that at joining the military at such a young age I joined at 17 that it was gonna set me up for success and a lot of different ways a lot of different avenues and that I would leave the service a step ahead a lot of my peers which I did but what is not talked about in the recruiting you know, the recruiting side or even wouldn't active duty is because frankly they just don't know is what you do with after that time, is so pivotable. Like, if so pivotal, excuse me, like I was just last week was the DoD Warrior Games here in Orlando. I invested in a company called signs by veterans, Justin Meyers, the pirate, the infamous pirate Hunter. He's he runs the day to day. And he came out and we sponsored an athlete. And we went to the games, and we watched it, we even at worked a little bit, we ended up having dinner with this, I'm not going to name names, because he's he's an E nine and 29 years in the Navy. I mean, he's very high up there. And we had a conversation at dinner, that blew my mind, because even someone who's been in the service that long is that much military experience, still is lost on what to expect of transitioning or getting out, they still have the same unknowns that let's say a four years and getting out. So like people that are currently active duty, like they're still living the active duty life, they don't, they really can't speak on, you know, how to properly set someone up the transition. And the longer they've
Keith McKeever
been in the harder is going to be to I've mentioned this many times on this podcast that if you've been here for 2025 30 years, but even if you've been at 20 years, and you joined a team, that's literally half your life is in that military system,
Marshall Terrin
that's all you know, in the military. Exactly.
Keith McKeever
So you don't know civilian life at all, at least if you get out at 2223 25, whatever. You're you're young enough to, to have no say less problems, but you potentially have less problems and transition. Because you weren't.
Marshall Terrin
Yeah, no, that's that's absolutely true. And you know, there's that period when you get out, that is so important. Because you when you're in you, as long as you're not a dirtbag, right, you actually care about picking up rank, you actually care about contributing to the unit and the mission readiness. And so you actually spend, even if it's four years, like I was one of the few that it was able to get E five within four years, largely because it was a combat environment, like the Iraq days, like promotions were easier. But I still was able to get E five within four years of leaving after duty. And it's something that is not easy, you work hard for that, you know, those kinds of things. And then you get these accomplishments in the military, and then you get out. And then it's almost like you have to like start from scratch again, like you're like you're literally restarting. And you just spent four years going through crazy amounts of ups and downs and, and hard work, just to feel like you have to figure it all out again. But the difference is that you don't have an NCO that can mentor you, as you get acclimated or get used to, or charted out the path that you want in your life. When you check into your unit and active duty, you have an NCO in charge of you to kind of hold your hand and hold you accountable and keep you on the straight and narrow, you don't you don't have that when you get out. So all these people that get drawn in the military for a lot of different reasons. Some of them is just the for self improvement, the serve and for self improvement, they don't have that. So it's from my perspective, I'm trying to get as many young veterans and even active duty that are leaving soon to participate and get involved in our community. Because I want to be able to have that for them. I want guys like me guys, like you guys that have walked this path. And to learn from our lessons learned. That way, some of the same mistakes are not repeated. So that's that's the overall goal of the of the veterinary tribe. You know, the the Facebook community is, you know, about 16,800. Now, we're trying to move to and, you know, other methods, we have the warrior Council, which is a mastermind group that meets every Wednesday, that still every Thursday, excuse me on a zoom call. And that's still very much in its infancy stage. And I My goal is to really take veteran or tribe to a level that it's almost an official Association, nationally or even globally, that it's, it's something that I think everyone that I speak to sees the potential in it and they are surprised that it's not done yet. But it just creates it takes people coming together. Like how many like Keith, how many people do you know I hear that? It seems like we're all saying the same thing or messages are very similar, but there's not a lot of collaboration. That's like so many people are doing the same. Well,
Keith McKeever
if you really look at the nonprofit space not to pick on them. Yeah. a lot in the nonprofit space. There's a lot of people that are in I'm not knocking it, but there's a lot of people, equine therapy, there's a lot of people and outdoor adventures, you know, food pantries and homelessness and all this stuff. And in some cases, I see a lot of collaboration. But in a lot of it's like, no, this is the way I do it. And that's how they do it. And that's how they do it. And it's great to have those things all over the place. But, you know, when when the goal is to end homelessness, suicide and substance abuse, among our ranks, sharing and collaborating is the best way to, to do that. Yeah.
Marshall Terrin
Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I, you know, I'm not extremely well versed in the in the nonprofit space. But I can tell you part of part of the homelessness, and part of these issues that come up is, is that gap of getting out and not having that community anymore. Right. And, like, even in the even in the veterinary tribe, like if someone comes in, they want to start a business, and they fail, which happens, most businesses fail, right? And for my opinion, you either win or you learn, there is no failure until you quit. So it's good point, yeah. If if they fail, because I my first business failed, my first kiosk failed horribly, I closed it in a month and a half. And they need to get a job to regroup. And they need to, like save saving money again, right, you know, regroup, educate themselves more, like, there's nothing wrong with that. And that event can be very depressing, failing in your first business can create, like an insane amount of depression. Because you can beat yourself up, you can get discouraged. And some, you know, that could lead with that and not in the right community that could lead down the road of of not a good, you know, not a good life if they're not in the right support system. Right, I think you can
Keith McKeever
almost make the argument that too much success too early. And also set people up to get one big failure. And it's not really kind of catastrophic, but they view it as because they've had all the success.
Marshall Terrin
That is true. Like if you get to be honest, some people get a little lucky. And then they don't know how to navigate to the ups and the downs. Yeah,
Keith McKeever
yeah, they hit they hit one speed bump. And it's just a little speed bump. But it just derails everything because they haven't they haven't had any problems to have to overcome yet. But anyway, I've seen seen both of those play out in the five. I've been in the tribe for about five years, I've been in the water council for about two now. So people fail, come and go. You know what, I think that each one of those scenarios is played out at least once or twice.
Marshall Terrin
I think you're absolutely right. And I think a lot of veterans that are in the in the entrepreneur space, you have to realize that it's these are harsh words, but it was like, but we're not special. Like we have a common identity, we have a common, we have something in common because our military experience, but we're not like, we're not so special. That we because of our military experience, we're going to excel and anything that we touch, there's certain traits that we have that become more natural, natural, and my opinion, there's a lot of it's based on what your rank was, or what your role was or what your job was, like if, if I meet someone and they say, Oh, I did four years active, and I never made it higher than II three. I'm gonna like, I'm not gonna immediately judge them. But I'm gonna ask questions of like, okay, what was your job? You know, what would you do? But if I met someone else, and they're like, oh, yeah, I got out as an e4. You know, within four years, even though it's one rank difference, there's a huge difference in responsibility. And well, depending on the branch, you know, responsibility and what the expectations was and what they did, you know, you just kind of like you can kind of tell where someone's at, because at the end of the day, we're still you know, we're all humans and depending on the length of our military service is actually a small percentage of overall life. If you're right, so and guys that get out and then females to, you know, you did it for you, unless young and get out early like, hell, you're still you still learning how to be a man or a woman, let alone like, like, all the other side, like, just to be honest, like, you're still growing up, like, I look back at myself in my 20s. Like, and I thought I was so grown up already, because of my military experience. And almost it was almost like a false confidence. Like I my work ethic was crazy. And it was there's a lot of good traits that came from that. But I was like, so like mentally in a different place. And I think that I am now largely because of, I've had more time since the military experience, and I've really learned to, to appreciate my military experience for what for what it is, but it's still at the end of the day. It's something that you cannot attach your identity to. And most guys, they fail to get out of the circumstances that they're in or they fail to get past the disappointments that they have in their life. because they are not mentally shedding that that military skin, right? Like the only when I walk around in town or I'm out, nobody can tell that I'm a military veteran. Unless they look at my tags like my like my license plate. Like it's just that's the way that it kind of should be to be honest with you because I think the veteran, if you're not careful, broadcasting that you're a veteran, just like I said before they limit you. But depending on your demeanor, your communication skills, everything like that it could actually kind of put you even worse in a box within your community because they're going to be nice to you because you're the veteran but they might not they might not be as comfortable with you. If you if you give off that like disgruntled veteran energy, you know what I mean?
Keith McKeever
Oh, man, that's. I see a lot of that. Yeah. Yeah, like, I've got my battle buddy podcast t shirt on. But I very rarely sometimes wear my hats. But most time, I'm wearing a dress shirt. So I'm not walking around with a hat on my plate, same thing, but I don't put bumper stickers on my car, I don't cover with it. I'm pretty open about my service and stuff. With this podcast, I kind of openly talk about that and what my mission is, but some of those disgruntled people, man, it's it's, it's sad. It's like, you know, you got to your whole life. Like you said, no matter how long you serve. If you serve 20 years, you get out at 3840 years old, you still have another 2025, maybe 30 years retirement. That is a whole career left as a whole massive chapter of your life, and yet retirement and whatnot. But nothing you kind of mentioned earlier that I feel like I need to hit on is you kind of mentioned, you know, ribbon and ribbons and ranks, right? The moment you get out, nobody cares about that. Civilians don't know what any of them means. care less. They really don't care. And that's how you identify people when you're a man is you give them respect based on that rank. Maybe even more respect on the person if they're a good person. Yeah, and what they've accomplished, but outside of it, it doesn't freakin matter. It doesn't matter. You know? That retire general is the man or woman just like you did put their clothes on the same way.
Marshall Terrin
So funny story real quick at that dinner I was telling you about as with Justin Meyers, and the active duty Navy gentleman, and the 29 years 89 And we're talking we're talking about awards for a second, like the politics involved in the award system. And I was like, Hey, guys, question I got a random like message a couple years ago from a friend of mine saying that like hey, check your check your records because we just got a new award and I've been out forever. Like, okay, I was like, you guys know what a NOC is? Or like, like, Is that significant? And both of them look at me and they're like, that's a really big deal like a navy Unit Commendation Medals, a really big deal. Like you guys got a knock. I was like, yeah, it was just so funny to see you guys. Like, like their face or like, what they thought of it, you know, but like, just head on your point, like I've been out for so long. Like, it literally means nothing. Like there's no it doesn't change my life, or there's no impact on it.
Keith McKeever
What's that mean? Yeah, they don't care. The difference between they don't know what the difference is between a combination metal and achieving metal, bronze star Silver Star, they don't know. I mean, they probably know a water is but there's not that many people walking around with those. So they don't really care. Like the civilian population is here to support us. But they're not going to give us too much extra. Like surely it's a do too much.
Marshall Terrin
Brother. It's a social courtesy at this point, like I've in the truth of matter is that like we talk about like the dysfunctional veteran side. We need to have firmer, harsher conversations. We still need to be polite and gentlemen about the conversation, obviously. But we need to not be so afraid to walk on eggshells. Because it affects us all if we're all going to say that we're have a bad experience with another veteran affects the overall community and how they deal with another veteran. Right so like, maybe it's the marine me but like Marine Corps was very strict on like how you represented the Marine Corps and you know how you weren't allowed to wear your your fatigues outside of the base like you were not. There is very big on how like because they say you've represented the entire corps and like that's why I kind of view being a veteran is like I take it very seriously if I interact with someone who's never really been around a veteran, especially when they're fascinated by my Iraq experience. I actually try even harder to be more charming more of a gentleman more than just a normal human being or downplay or be humble about my military experience because they might have If somebody else they could maybe not make it not so much of a pleasant experience. And like some of the, like some of the dysfunctional side that we see, like I personally, I call them that flakes is a term that I've heard before I stole from somebody, I get it, but it's true. Like, it's just, you know, if you're, if you're whining about how you should get something for free, or that the country or the world owes you something, just because you made a personal decision to join the military, which let's be honest, sometimes it's because of their circumstances, just call it what it is. There's nothing wrong with that. But you made that personal decision, like the world doesn't owe you anything after that. Like, or the country doesn't owe you. They owe you courtesy and respect and my opinion, but I mean, should you be feel some kind of way because you don't get a discount at a certain business? Or should you? I mean, I can go on and on, and
David Pere
on and on about some of the discounts, especially on Veterans Day, there's a reason to take advantage of it. I mean, I think I've been to Little Caesars a couple times, because you know, went out for lunch, but a lot of businesses just run those promotions just for one day to give themselves a big pat on the back. Like, look at us, we support veterans.
Marshall Terrin
Yeah, absolutely, man. And it's like the, the more that we're stuck in this box of trying to support each other, instead of supporting each other, like supporting each other within the communities that have supporting each other to thrive outside of the community, we just end up putting ourselves more locked in that box, where all of our civilian competition which is the world's of market, there's there's competition and everything. If you're single, you're you're there's competition for for a potential wife, and how you are with other single males. There's competition in your industry, in your in your business. There's, it's the world is just a competitive place, right. So the more you're stuck in this veteran box, and you're not adapting to our environment, the more you're getting surpassed like this. This has been a huge for me in the past year that have really opened my eyes like I used to, for example, talk about social media platforms. I used to despise Instagram, I used to never I used to laugh. Whenever I see like a girl taking a picture like her boyfriend's taking a picture or whatever. And I took a personal branding course last year that completely opened up my eyes to how ignorant I was. Like, I was so ignorant, like like prideful ignorance over something that was so important. I'll because partly because of some of the, you know, the things I carried from the military experience that I had to shed. But like, it's an I see it like constantly, constantly, constantly, but like, overall, that's that's some one thing I'm really big on and it's very unpopular. You know, that's it's something when it does these topics do come up in the military community. But I don't care anymore. It needs to be said and needs to be shared and needs to be adopted. And people that may be listening right now and either man, this guy's probably a real jerk. But really think, you know, if you're, if you think that you're holding on to the military experience too much. Or if you think that it's you're holding on too much of excuse me, if that makes up too much more of your identity. You probably need to do some soul searching and get comfortable with with being uncomfortable again.
Keith McKeever
Yeah, don't don't be the I'm the veteran who happens to do this for a job and be the person who does this, who happens to be a veteran.
Marshall Terrin
exact words. That's perfect.
Keith McKeever
And you know, if you're talking about this stuff, I can't help. But to ask, you took over the entrepreneur, tribe and aware counsel from Steven Kuhn and lean blown and they wrote the book, unleash your humble Mo, have you read that book?
Marshall Terrin
I have not to be honest with you definitely
Keith McKeever
need to read that book. Because I always got from Stephen that he kind of felt very similar, that we need to end the stigma and the perception of veterans to counterparts. We need to change the narrative that we're not all broken down, beat down leeches of the system, you know that we're useless. We're just old discarded and useless, that we can go achieve great things. I mean, look at what's his name? Vincent Vargas. He's on the Sons of Anarchy spin off show the Mayans he's an actor Rob Riggle is a marine. You know, like, there are super successful people who've served. Yeah, you know, they break that stigma. We're not all just a bunch of broken down. People live in living off the government and needing handouts and stuff like that and some people need that some people are on hard times but you shouldn't even lines block it's it was very eye opening.
Marshall Terrin
I've had some conversations with Stephen and obviously a very you know, well aware of him we see eye to eye on a lot of stuff. I just haven't gotten a time to to read it. You know, but see if
Keith McKeever
you just listen to it like I did.
Marshall Terrin
Your point you out. Yeah. Stephens a great example of I mean, at his age and where he's at, like, he really, he really walks the walk, right? You know, because I think I can get, we're getting on time, but I mean, I, when you pursue the entrepreneur or military or not, you tend to get so wrapped up and chasing the money because of how stressful it is. And you can only handle so much mentally and that in the problem solving process of making money or growing a business, but you still you tend to forget the the mental and spiritual side, which sounds like I used to hear these these messages. And I used to be like, Yeah, whatever. Or be very cliche at times, depending on who it's coming from. But it's something that is very, very true. That's why Stephen really preaches like a lot of the fitness stuff. Like, because it's true, like I was, like, 50 pounds heavier. But as recent as like, two years ago, and I'm still like, I still got, you know, about 15 pounds to go. But you're it's amazing how how much correlation there is between everything between money, your mental, you know, your, your physical health and your mental health and even your spiritual health. So, which it's, it's, it's something that I ignored for too many years, that is very, very important to an overall happy life. Because what's the point of being a veteran entrepreneur or an entrepreneur? If you get to that point, and you say, what was it all for?
Keith McKeever
I couldn't agree more. I've been kind of on a similar journey myself. Now, the, the physical part of it, I haven't done a great job of, I must admit, but I've been into that mindset, just put yourself in a better mindset. Be in a mindset to grow, to learn, to work harder to push harder, but also take care of your family quality lifetime. But you know, what, I guess, say, hacks, you know, what can you do in your life to make your job easier, smoother, faster, more efficient, you know, and, you know, like, I started taking focus factor, as pills. Seems to work, I don't know, maybe it's a placebo effect. You know, but it's like, okay, that my joint issues, alright, so I take some supplements for that, maybe that'll help you No, need to get out there and walk more. Try. And I only drink water and coffee. For the most part. Occasionally I'll have a soda, if I'm out and about at a restaurant or something like that. So it's like, little changes just to make yourself better physically, mentally, spiritually. There's a lot of things you can do spiritual, that doesn't have to be like, within the church, right? It doesn't have to be religious, that is good way of putting it. You know, you can do yoga, even the VA offers that through their whole health program, you can do yoga and tai chi ethic. So, like, there's options out there that are free, and you can do with other vets? Yeah. So
Marshall Terrin
it's very, it's depending on what stage you're at, in your in your journey. Like, you don't wanna hear this stuff. And I get it, because there's times in my journey where I didn't want to hear this stuff, either. I was like, okay, yeah, whatever hippie, like, but it's true.
Keith McKeever
Oh, of some of the people in our circles, I would be willing to bet with your counsel, I bet if I put a poll out there, I bet whoever responds to it an overwhelming majority, have put a focus into one or more of those categories, physical, spiritual, mental, mental, you know, if not all of them. But the majorities to so I wouldn't be surprised. But you know, I know some of them are. So
Marshall Terrin
yeah, it's very, very true. But
Keith McKeever
for those that don't want to hear it, you heard it here.
Marshall Terrin
Take it from us. That's that's that's walked the walk and didn't have the same support system online as, as you guys do. It's It blows my mind how much resources are at anybody's fingertips today to be successful? It is like, I don't know about you, man. But when I got out 2008, I was so committed to like, I had such a problem with authority, which is ironic because I was able to 85 and four years but I have such a problem with authority. Like I didn't want to get a job. I didn't want to stay in a job for very long after I got out. Like I went and I went to the bookstore. And my GI Bill housing allowance just hit and I went and I bought every single rich dad or Robert Kiyosaki book and all of his rich dad advisor books about the entire collection. And I read like, because this was back then like, there wasn't online communities, there wasn't like online coaching. There wasn't like, like, it's just too easy. Now, like I can, yeah, reading reading books are important. But there's so many, when I say this with a caveat, but there's so many resources, and even coaching programs that you can buy from other people that are credible. And I say this with a caveat because you got to make sure you get it from a credible source. But like, you know, like anything that you want, is really at your fingertips to learn about. And even if you're like me, and you only retain or can find useful 10 or 15% of what the content was. It's still viable because it still makes you A more wise business person or a wise person in general. You know, like, they didn't have that back then, like, Yeah,
Keith McKeever
you didn't have YouTube in its current state. I mean, it was around, but about that time when I got out 2010, I think, but not to that. So, you know, it's 2012 2013, I think is when I started, you know, discovering Gary Vaynerchuk videos. Yeah. You know, so, he had been around for a few years, but he's only exploded in popularity since then. And there's other people out there, and YouTube University is free. All you got to do is just let your fingers do the do the searching.
Marshall Terrin
That's true. It is there's almost information overload at times. But it is true. There's never been a time where you have this much, you know, resources at your fingertips like you used to have it. But back in the day, like internet, the internet was full of cat videos. But now that's really, you know, it's really evolved to where there's any topic under the sun is there and funny irony about YouTube is I do remember back in the day, the Numa Numa videos with a guy that was so hard to remember that I had a digital camera. When I was in Iraq, and a buddy of mine recorded me like I was bored as hell sitting in a Humvee. And I was, I did like the new maneuver dance. We were playing it on the speaker. I uploaded it to YouTube in the early days of YouTube. And back then, I think I was like 400,000 views or at or 200,000 I don't know what it was, but it was like it was a lot for back then. Yeah, I actually got an email when I was like, about to leave Iraq from the YouTube saying, asking me the test pilot, their influencer program, because of the impressions that I had on my page, and I literally is it could, there's chances to get monetization. I looked at it and I'm like, 21 years old, and I like this email. I'm like, okay, yeah, whatever.
Keith McKeever
Looks like a scam.
Marshall Terrin
I'm looking at Jake Paul, and all these other these YouTubers and shit. I'm just like, Oh, man. Yeah, Nigerian
Keith McKeever
prince right there. Yeah. In the flesh. Man. It'd be crazy that that was back in the day. Those things were like, really viral. Yeah, yes. Now some something goes viral. And it seems like it's gone tomorrow or next week. It's like the Numa Numa that some of those memes that were floating around about 1012 years ago, like they were they were reused and used everywhere, forever. For years.
Marshall Terrin
If you want a good laugh, just just Google marine Numa Numa. And I'll pop up. So
Keith McKeever
might look it up and it might make it in the show notes. might just do that. So man. All right, Marshall, I appreciate you stopping by. There's a lot of good nuggets in there. And sharing, you know, with some of your vision is with the tribe and aware Council, I'll have those linked in the show notes too. So people can find it. I highly suggest anybody who's really serious about their business to consider joining as a lawyer counsel. I did it about two years ago, the connections into networks. While I'm in real estate there and totally other businesses. We don't really collaborate much, but just to learn, just to hear other people's issues, you know, inventory issues. I mean, okay, there's real estate inventory issues now. But you know, during the pandemic, things get stopped on shipping containers come in through things I would never think of in my business, it would never really affect my business. It was very interesting to hear about it's it's free education. There's always people willing to be sometimes way too blunt. And tell you what you what you really need to hear, but you don't want to hear it. I've heard that a few times. Shout out to Travis Johnson, he's given me plenty of those. But, you know, it's great for people who want to take their business and be serious about it and be connected with other like minded people. So yeah, it's
Marshall Terrin
amazing what you can learn from not a direct collaborative, like collaboration or doing business with each other, but just what you can take from someone else's industry or business and you could actually modify it and apply it to yours. You know, for example, I know we're ending here, but um, you know, early on, I was lucky enough to be at a dinner with some commercial real estate agents. And I know agents, excuse me landlords, and one of them was talking about how he likes to invest money into the restaurant pad that's on his property. So he can actually be an investor into the restaurant that is going to be on his commercial property, because that is the biggest square footage or the biggest footprint because he has an influence to make sure that the rent check comes because he's essentially paying himself so it's a way that he he's always a minority position, or or majority position but a bit of passive way. And it's a it was a way for him to guarantee that that rent check comes in from his Biggest, you know, plot of or space on his on his commercial properties and I thought that was genius and I've actually applied some of that to my how I structured my retail business. So it was a perfect example of how you completely different industry from just a conversation I was able to pick up and and kind of modify and apply and ended up being a pivotal thing that I learned and how I structured my company to where the reason why I have so much freedom of schedule that I do.
Keith McKeever
Absolutely, yes, that's a great example. And I think there's a lot of stuff that goes in there. But once again, I appreciate you stopping by and sharing so any any last words for
Marshall Terrin
just if you're a veteran entrepreneur, go to vet printer tribe.com or search us on Facebook. And if you if you'd like to talk with me a member I'm very much an open book. The best way to contact me is gonna be on Instagram. It's just Marshall Taryn on Instagram. And you can find me shoot me a DM and I'd love to chat with you.
Keith McKeever
Awesome. Thanks for being here, Marshall.
Marshall Terrin
Yep, take care.
Keith McKeever
All right, there you have it folks. Remember my websites got all kinds of resources on their battle buddy podcast.net If there's something that's not on there that you think should be go make sure you email me battle buddy podcast at Gmail, national suicide hotline number if you are struggling or know somebody struggling the numbers now 988 press one or you can text 838255
