AllegiantVETS: Empowering Today's Heroes | Becoming Tomorrow's Leaders - The Mark Haney Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Mark Haney (00:14):
And now from the Marquee Media Studio
inside Mark Tank.
It's the Mark Haney.

Marcus Haney (00:21):
Show.

Mark Haney (00:30):
Today is the Marine Corps birthday, so it's
only befitting that we bring on a Marine,
once Marine, always Marine.
We brought on Marcus Haney and we're going
to be talking about Allegiant Vets and the
work he is doing.
He is the CEO of Allegiant Giving and
Allegiant Vets and he's building this

(00:50):
incredible business, but they're doing
impactful work, so we're going to talk
about that today.
But I think today is going to be more fun
because I got a chance to sort of reminisce
a bit with Marcus, because some of you may
not know this, but Marcus actually helped

(01:11):
me launch the show back in the day, and so
I want to take a little trip down memory
lane with my son, marcus, who was really
the driving force behind launching this
thing, and so we'll get to talk a little
bit about that as well.
But just a reminder to anybody who's
listening this really is about winning.

(01:32):
This is around winning an entrepreneurship.
We're building the backyard advantage,
which is the most connected community in
the world for local entrepreneurs, and it's
centered around a culture of love, helping
one another.
Engineering wins, and through our show, you
get access to people that can inspire,
educate and connect you, and so if these

(01:57):
people are people that you want to support,
then you need to subscribe to our podcast,
subscribe to YouTube and really be a part
of this community.
Get involved.
We live here, and I think it's incumbent on
us, as people that believe in
entrepreneurship, to support this kind of
cause, support one another and get involved,

(02:18):
and so I'm inviting you to be a part of
this journey with me.
But now, with no further ado, let me
introduce to you my son, the Marine, my
hero, marcus Annie.
Welcome, marcus man, you're getting pretty
good at this.
I've been practicing, I've been failing for
like seven years?
I don't think so.

I think you've been doing a lot of great
stuff Shoot well I appreciate it.

Mark Haney (02:40):
Well, as I mentioned, I wouldn't be doing
this without you.
I can remember when we first started the
show how nervous I was and we sat 15 feet
over there at my table and we knew that our
first guest was going to be Uriah Faber.
And I was like, oh wow, Uriah's come on the
show.
He's a buddy of mine, but still I'd never

(03:01):
been on the radio before and how do I?
We were on Sports 1140, KHTK at the time
and I knew I was going to have to cut, to
break and do commercials and there was all
this logistics.
It wasn't just getting on here and
bullshitting with the buddy or talking to
somebody I care about and telling stories.
It was scary.

(03:22):
And so you, I remember rehearsing.
We do no rehearsal now.
I don't even have show notes right now for
this show.
This is like off the cuff, but I was so
nervous.
Of course I overprepared to the point where
I needed to rehearse.
You were my rehearsal partner.
You were Uriah Faber.
I didn't have the good hair, though, and I

(03:42):
remember you doing your impressions of
Uriah Faber right there.
So you're impersonating Uriah and I'm
impersonating what's supposed to be a radio
guy, and you helped me get through a lot of
that.

So you were there.
Look how far you have come.
Now we don't have to go down to the Sports
1140 studios on Saturday mornings.
God it's so.
How fun was that.

Mark Haney (04:01):
You know what it was at nine o'clock in the
morning and I can remember driving down
there nervous, so I had to put on music.
You knew my playlist.
That got me in the right mode, got over my
nervousness, got me psyched up to do the
show and so I walked into the studio, still
a little nervous.
We had our little pregame rap and all that.
Now it's just me and Scott and we just wing

(04:21):
it and we rock and roll.

He actually helps me prepare a little bit.
I listened to the song Sentries before I
came up here, just to get myself in the
headspace.
That's right, that was the intro music back
in those days until we got hit with a
little bit of SEC stuff over there, you're
gonna bring a tear to your eyes.
Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely.

Mark Haney (04:39):
Okay, so enough about me and my show,
because this is really our show and, even
more than that, it's our community show and
you are doing so much for our community and
so I want to talk about that.
So much for our country and so much for the
people who really are the heroes of our

(04:59):
country through Allegiant Vets.
You are helping Allegiant Vets no excuse me,
you are helping the veterans of America.
I'm really transition to that next part of
life and so maybe share with us a little
bit about the work that you're doing and
what inspires you to do this work.

Yeah, great question.
Appreciate the opportunity.
The mission started back in the day when I
was actually active duty in the Marine
Corps right and you have just sold your
businesses and started Allegiant Giving and
our original mission was to help out my
friends actually ones who were severely
wounded in action and weren't good fits for
prosthetics and we went out and found

(05:42):
solutions that helped give them some
freedom so they didn't go down the negative
path of taking their own life or something
like that Right, these people that had lost
their limbs and they needed to be in
wheelchairs Helped.
Yeah, they needed some help.
Right, they needed somebody to feel like
they could lean on.
Fast forward, I transitioned out of the

(06:02):
military Marine Corps, URA Happy Birthday
Marines With a bullet in my leg and I
didn't know what I was going to do.
Luckily I had a nice landing back here in
home in Sacramento.
But not most veterans have that opportunity,
and so I put a little pin in my transition
story for myself.

(06:22):
And actually my first job out of the
Marines was working at a technology and
staffing company, learned a new business,
had to parlay my skills like I teach my
skill bridgers weekly to use what they
learned in the military and help parlay
that into the next phase.
I didn't really have much to parlay.
I was an infantry guy.
I could shoot guns well, blow stuff up

(06:43):
pretty good.
You know, people break things, I was all
right at that stuff, but I needed to get
into the business world and luckily I had
the opportunity to work over at Direct
Technology Rick Nelson, also a fellow
veteran, veteran-owned company, great
organization here locally and they gave me
an opportunity to jump back in to the
veteran network and we started helping

(07:03):
Microsoft and other large organizations
identify veterans who were a good fit for
their training programs.
And so I spent a few years in building out
that infrastructure for them and help them
attract veterans into Microsoft training
programs.
And then I saw what transpired from that
was not a lot of hires from these training

(07:25):
programs and it really made me upset that I
was putting in all this effort and
promising these service members all this
opportunity.
They got an interview, no doubt, and
Microsoft held their end of the bargain in
that regard, so no negative.
I just thought there was a better way, and
so I, with my entrepreneurial mindset right
being your son, I guess I decided to come

(07:47):
to you and the board of directors and say I
think that we could change the direction of
the way Allegiant Giving is going and I see
an opportunity out there and it's called
the Skill Bridge Program, and for those of
you that don't know Skill Bridge.
It is a DOD approved program that allows
active duty service members to spend their

(08:07):
last three to six months really gathering
themselves to get out into the civilian
workforce.
And so we started out in 2016 with our
first Skill Bridger and, as of today, we've
scaled it to around 950 active Skill
Bridgers.
We'll end up helping about 2,500 service
members transition out of the military this

(08:28):
year about the scale to 2024, around 5,000
will end up coming through our program and
we're building a community.
I've got a fantastic team behind me that's
rallied around all these service members.
A lot of them are actually products of our
Skill Bridge Program.
They raise their hand deering their program
and say I see what you're doing, I
understand the mission and I wanna jump in
and help, and they've helped me take it to

(08:51):
where we are today.

Mark Haney (08:52):
Okay, so let's talk about that in a little
more detail.
So let's say I'm an active duty military
person, I'm about to get out, I've done my
four years or my 20 years or whatever it is,
and now I'm on the last three to six months
and I haven't decided what I want to do.
Or I'm in the process of deciding what I

(09:13):
want to do and I'm still in the military,
and that's when I enter the Allegiant
Program, correct?

Yeah, so we try to get folks that are
looking at transitioning at least a year
out Okay, because it's a process, right,
and when it the day hits that you're
getting out, it is an oh shit moment.
What am I gonna do now?
Did I prepare?
What is my next opportunity?
Where am I gonna live?
All these things start coming at you really
fast, and so we try to prepare them as

(09:43):
early as possible.
You know we start off by providing them
with a transition workbook so they can set
goals and look at what their transition is
going to look like.
It is our goal for them to think about it
and plan ahead of time, right, accordingly,
so that they can leave the military with
success.
So, yeah, we try to get them as early in
the active duty process as possible so they

(10:03):
can start thinking about who they wanna be
when they get older.

Mark Haney (10:06):
Well, you think about it reminds me a
little bit of the Brock Purdy story, a
little bit, you know.
I like to say be ready, don't get ready.
And Brock Purdy as we know, I'm wearing my
nine-or shirt.

This is a shirt.

Mark Haney (10:19):
I threw this on just because for you,
because this is the shirt that I wore, I
think, on our first show together, and it's
a nine-or, it's a red nine-or shirt.
But when it comes to being ready, think
about Brock Purdy, right, the last guy
picked in the draft, mr Irrelevant.
Mr Irrelevant, not expecting to play all

(10:40):
that.
Probably didn't know quite what he was
gonna do when he, if and when he got in,
probably wasn't even expecting to get in.
Or was he Because he got in and he sure
looked ready.
He sure looked like he had prepped himself.
He looked like he had gone through Skill
Bridge and came out ready to rock when the
moment was called for him to get in the

(11:02):
game.
But I mean, I'm thinking about after
selling my companies.
I didn't know what I was gonna do.
I was not expecting to leave.
I had time to prepare, but not time to
really craft a career for myself, right?
Because it's more like, well, I guess I'm
gonna be trying some stuff.
Didn't know quite how that was gonna play

(11:24):
out, but it's sure a heck of a lot better
when you've already gotten yourself, at
least at Compass.
At least you know the direction you're
going, and sometimes a program like Skill
Bridge.
It can't tell you everything about how to
be an employee at Microsoft, but it can
make it make it.
It can help you decide whether it's I wanna

(11:47):
go to work for a big company like Microsoft,
whether I even wanna go to work for a tech
company, or maybe it's something completely
different and until you've gone through
some training and some processes to help
put you in that position, you don't even
know which direction you're going.

You don't even know where the opportunity
lives, right.
Opportunity is all around you, and when
you're in the military, every day is told
when you're gonna wake up, what time Chow
is where your job is, what time you're off.
There's no room for creativity, right, and
so that's what we try to embark in our
Skill Bridge program is try to break off

(12:24):
some of that rust right, and say, look, you
guys need to maybe open up your mind
Remember back when you could make whatever
decisions that you wanted to do.
Exactly right, and so that's the reality,
and I think that plagues veterans when
they're not.

Mark Haney (12:34):
There's almost like more freedom.

Right, it's like you have to.
That's challenging, though, right?
Imagine spending 20 years building a
company.
You get out transition time.
What am I gonna do?
Right?
It's the same scenario like oh man, I only
know what I'm good at, I only know this
uniform, I only know this rank, I only know
this sort of protocols, and now I have to
learn an entire new set of issues and
problems and I have to navigate them in a

(12:58):
short amount of time.
And it's really challenging for folks and
they don't have any other program like ours.
There's other folks who have Skill Bridge
programs, but ours is an employment skills
training Skill Bridge.
So we don't expect folks to come in day one
knowing what they wanna be.
We give them the opportunity to decide on
12 different training tracks, from IT to

(13:20):
human resources, on what they want to learn,
who they want to be, what tools they wanna
put in their tool belt when they get out,
and we give them that opportunity and what
we really give them is the opportunity for,
like you said before, that freedom, the
autonomy to try to decide that it is okay
to be something different than what they
thought they were before, and that becomes

(13:40):
scary, but with the community behind you
that we've created with thousands of other
service members that have gone down the
same walk of life.
It becomes a lot less daunting.
Take it one bite at a time, one day at a
time, and that's what we really try to
provide for these folks is an opportunity
to see that.
See the opportunity is there and then look
at it on the forefront of how they are

(14:02):
going to attack Right.
And I don't try to let this time be for our
service members a time where they let off
the gas, because I think this is time where
they need to push on the gas, shift into
that next gear and decide what they want to
do and how they're going to do it with a
plan Right, write down that plan, revisit
it and put it into action on a daily basis.

(14:24):
And this is the time there they probably
need to accelerate into an opportunity to
catch up with the rest of the group, right?
So if you can accelerate like you're
getting on the freeway, you got to
accelerate when you're, when you're getting
on the freeway a little bit.
So I tell people take your time, parlay and
learn how to accelerate into something new.
And last month, 100 jobs were created out
of our program.
So, wow, we're having a lot of impact and a

(14:45):
lot of great results.

Mark Haney (14:46):
When you think about that.
I'm going to touch on what you just said a
little bit, but you guys are building
America's finest workforce.
You think about the people.
For any employer out there that has a lot
of employees or maybe you only have a few
Some of the best employees teammates that
you can have are people coming out of the
military.
You look at the team that you've built,

(15:08):
marcus.
These are people that have been in the
military and these are the finest teammates
that that one would want to have, and so
you're building 100 of the America's finest,
which is really interesting.
But one of the things that you mentioned is
you're getting on your on ramp and I think

(15:29):
this is kind of an interesting metaphor
because you use the term scary and
confidence is fragile If you're afraid to
get on the freeway.
You're stopping and starting as you're
going to the gas, You're like ah right,
you're not going to be a super successful
getting on the freeway and that confidence

(15:51):
is so fragile.
You might have it one day and the next day
you don't seem to have it as much.
But if you have a plan and you're working
with a compass, you at least know whether
you're going towards San Francisco or
you're going toward Reno right, you know
I'm going east or west right, and you, you
can work toward a plan, knowing that you
might not have everything figured out yet,

(16:13):
but you can get yourself in the game.
And that confidence, really, because now
you're on the freeway, now you're in the
game, now you're able to create
opportunities and bring the best you to a
job and really create.
Now you're working on creating a new set of
freedom for yourself, yeah, courage is
contagious, right.

And then, when we have our community, see
other people winning and they're like, oh
man, john can do it, I can do it, mary's
winning, I can win.
And that creates an interesting intangible
thing that's brewing in our midst every day.
We have a discord channel where our
community gets on and talks to each other

(16:54):
and there is just so many back and forth.
Let me help you.
I'm from your same town, we're doing the
same thing.
Let's get together and collaborate and,
honestly, that's not something I envisioned
happening for a lot longer, right.
But the community is just all bought in for
each other and that's what the military
represents.
They step into the breach because they feel

(17:14):
like they're doing the right thing for the
person to their left and the right, just
like they were in the military.
So this is the best case scenario for a lot
of folks getting out, and the testimonials
that we get and the wins of the week we
celebrate are are robust and really
exciting to hear about.

Mark Haney (17:28):
Whereas as a civilian I look at all
military people as heroes and appreciate
your service and its Veterans Day weekend,
so thank you.
But I've often been around you and other
military people and I hear the Marine Corps
people jabbing at the people in the army or

(17:50):
the Air Force or these jabbing and stuff.
But you're talking about this community
coming together, regardless of whether
you're in the Navy or the Air Force or the
Marine Corps or what have you.
It's like, hey look, we're all brothers and
sisters that have done some sacrificing.
When we're all kind of in the same boat
trying to make that transition to the new

(18:11):
thing, let's just help each other.

Absolutely, and it's all good and fun.
You know, call the names.
And I even got sent a package anonymously
yesterday in the mail and they say that
Marines are dumb, that we eat crayons.
So I got this package yesterday of edible
crayons and guess what?
I ate them All right.

Mark Haney (18:29):
I tried it out.

I gave it a chance and it was not bad.
I ate red.
It wasn't like the active duty crayons.
I got the.
But yeah, the community comes together, no
matter the banter, no matter the thing.
We always tell everybody drop your rank at
the door.

Mark Haney (18:42):
Oh, drop your rank to right because you
have people that are coming in there, maybe
like Capri or Colonel, okay, or you have
grunts or people that are maybe four years
in infantry.
Yeah, no, high school education, Right.

So there's levels of this thing are so
obfuscated, right, there's too many people
that are in the same rank and then there's
a lot lower level people, and those
individuals have to be able to communicate
and be on the same wavelength and be able
to realize that person, whether they may be
done four years and you did 20 can still
support you.
You guys can still be in the same community.

(19:13):
And so, yeah, drop your rank at the door,
kind of keep your pride to the side a
little bit.
That doesn't matter.
In the next phase and getting into the out
of the military, nobody really knows, like
you said, as a civilian, what the
difference between a Colonel or a corporal
or a sergeant really is.
Right.
So if you just come into the world as
somebody who's eager to jump into their

(19:34):
next opportunity with, with vigor, right,
if you have the grit and the intensity to
jump into something, that's really what the
corporate world wants to see.
As somebody who's willing just to come in
and be a team player and not need to flex
who they've been in the past, because it
doesn't really matter.

Mark Haney (19:51):
Yeah well, you've called it first Civ Div.
I've never heard that term until you have
brought that up to me.
Describe with that.
Okay, how did you?
What is that a common term in the military?

Well, I guess it was for me.
I would say most military members when you
are getting out.
It's a joke, if you will, where were you
going to be?
Oh, I'm going to be in the first civilian
division, so I'm going to be out in the
civilian world doing my thing.
So everybody that gets out of the military
kind of rolls into this new division.
Right, it's not the first battalion seventh

(20:23):
Marines like I was in right, it's the first
Civ Div, so that's sort of the transition
world in which folks roll into through our
program.
And I even write a newsletter weekly on
LinkedIn helping folks to get a couple tips
and tricks and use some shout outs and
things like that.
But it's called the the first Civ Div

(20:43):
safety brief, because every week in the
military your commanding officer gets in
front of you and gives you a weekly wrap up
for the weekends.
Don't do anything stupid this weekend.
You know it's Veterans Day, right, happy
birthday, marines, but don't go out and get
a DUI and make us look bad.
So this is my way of continuing that sort
of way of communicating with my teammates

(21:08):
out in the world and bringing a little
humor to it.
Right, because when stuff gets tough, in my
opinion a little humor there now and then
is good for the soul, right?
And then it gives me the opportunity to
realize that it's not so serious, right,
you're gonna get through it.
There is trough of sorrow, just like being
an entrepreneur, just like any transition,
but with a little bit of humility and a

(21:29):
little bit of humor, I think that can go a
lot of way to helping you be successful.
Well, what are you?

Mark Haney (21:34):
seeing out there on the landscape of
opportunity.
What are the biggest opportunities now for
people entering the workforce?
Obviously, I'm focused on TAC, for the most
part, small business and startups and
technology companies, and that's one kind

(21:54):
of job and but what other?
What are the good jobs out there that
you're seeing?
What are the openings?
Where are people leaning?
Artificial intelligence oh, over the place.

AI is obviously a new frontier in which
everybody's sort of interested in.
I think a lot of people that come into our
program we have 12 training verticals and
are too.
Largest are cybersecurity and project
management.
So I think that there's a lot of people who
want to evolve themselves into a technology
professional and cybersecurity seems to be

(22:24):
a really robust job market.
Our program got a young lady with zero
cybersecurity experience had a six month
skill bridge program with us and ended up
getting a junior level cybersecurity job at
Lidos, which is a really large company.
So from zero to job, cybersecurity that's
what we kind of offer, and so we see the

(22:46):
opportunities out.
There are the ones that our veterans want
to go attack right, because everybody's
moving to a new state, a new county, a new
situation and maybe it's not what they did
in the military.
So it's tough for us to go identify exactly
where the opportunity is for every
individual.
But what we do go out and do is talk to

(23:07):
companies and say, hey, if you have racks
or if you have openings that maybe align
with our veteran community, come and talk
to them.
So we host virtual career fairs for these
companies to come in and present their
opportunities to our veterans and we see a
lot of good jobs coming out of that, and a
lot of our folks, interestingly enough,

(23:27):
have been asking, and so I delivered.
We now have a entrepreneurship program in
our skill bridge.
It's not a skill bridge track, but it's a
group that we started, so I am teaching
entrepreneurship yes, sir, the
Entrepreneurs Club.
That happens Tuesday in our skill bridge,
and so we were talking about Ikegai last
week and creating a big, hairy, audacious

(23:49):
goal and all the different things that I've
learned throughout this and throughout my
business career right Of building
businesses and being on here and learning
from all the people that have come through
the Marconi show.

Mark Haney (24:00):
Yeah, that's interesting.
So you've been on this show.
So, going back in the memory lane thing, so
you sat on so for our audience, marcus
helped me launch the show from behind the
scenes and then I'd say, a year or two in,
you took on you and I started doing the
show together.

(24:21):
Yeah, and then you found some other
opportunities and you abandoned me.
You got too good for me and you went on to
do some other things.
But you, we even have a book always by your
side and because you had it was written by
Richard Bakken but it's a story, told
through your eyes, of what it was like to

(24:43):
help launch this show and using kind of
your memory of being in the military, your
experience of the military, and kind of
comparing and contrasting what it was like
to be you in the military and seeing the
heroic journeys of a lot of the guests on

(25:03):
the show, so you were able to, I guess,
digest from the best and the brightest in
Sacramento and help.
I mean, it's been almost like getting a
master's degree in entrepreneurship just
being a part of this show 100%.

I say that all the time and at the time I
was building my own business right.
So I was hearing, listening, implementing,
changing, hearing, listening, tweaking
right, and I think that that's the
entrepreneurial spirit is continuously
growing and looking for that next
opportunity.
But I would say that the guests that have
been on this show that I reflect on all the
time are like the Dell Carlson's of the

(25:37):
world and just his total impact and his
humility and the ability for him to reflect
into somebody like myself of what it's like
to be an entrepreneur and what it's like to
win right.
And he does it with such grace and what's
such humility that it's like man.

Mark Haney (25:51):
I wanna be like that guy, yeah, yeah well,
you're making an impact in a really
interesting way in a niche where, I mean,
one of the things that we've talked about
over the years is narrowing your niche, and
you're focused on military excuse me, I
call them veterans military service

(26:12):
personnel that are still in the military.
So it is really a niche and we've talked
about narrowing your niche so you can be
number one and I think right now your
program ranks at the top or among the top
of people who are focused in this niche.
You're damn right.

Yeah, I mean, we self say that.
Right, there's no scoreboard out there
except for that.
We have the name of our organization being
touted to every branch of service, every
base in the country, every base in the
world.
We have folks transitioning from South
Korea and Germany and Japan and we just see

(26:56):
ourselves as the only people out there that
are looking to change the transition.
Entirely right, because this our skill
bridge is one byproduct of our organization.
Right, it's our training platform to help
people get out, but ultimately, we're a
transition success program.
Right, we want to help folks get out with

(27:16):
success.
If they choose to come to our skill bridge
and through our modules, great, we love
that.
But only about 30% of the transitioning
service members actually get authorized a
skill bridge.
So out of the 200 that get out 200,000
every year that get out of the military
only 30% of those people get authorized to
a skill bridge.
So there's an entire group of people that
we are looking to affect that don't even

(27:39):
come through our doors in a skill bridge
capacity, but they are the ones, in my
opinion, that need the most support.
So that is what our daily conversations as
a company and an organization are Is how do
we go touch those people.
How do we get out there?
And that has turned into us going out to
these bases and getting in front of
everybody.
And hey, we're here.
We are here to help you, so use us as you

(28:02):
see fit.
If you are 12 months, 18 months out from
getting out of the military and you need a
community to roll into, look at Allegiant.
Allegiant Vets is here for you and we are
here to stay.
And ultimately, it is our goal to create
the gold standard of veteran success
programs for the future generations.
Right, you say it a lot with future

(28:23):
generations in mind.
This is I'm out of the military, the people
in my skill bridge, they're going to be
done, but the reason why we are here is
because there are going to be 200,000
individuals that get out of the military
every single year, year in and year out,
and we need to be there for them.
We are here to step in the breach for those
folks.

Mark Haney (28:42):
Yeah, you think about the people that get
out, let's say, without a plan, right, and
it's easy to lose confidence.
We talked about it being fragile, but maybe
never even get the confidence and maybe
feel pretty lonely.

I mean, that's how I felt when I got out.

Mark Haney (29:04):
Right.

There was no community for me and I was
wounded weird right.
Move back my hometown had some friends,
great, but still long for that veteran
camaraderie.
Try to go to the American Legion.
They're doing great stuff but not my fit.

Mark Haney (29:21):
They're trying to go to the American
Legion's older bond by and large is
probably not my demographic.

Not saying they're doing anything bad,
there's not where I wanted to spend my time
VFW, same thing and went around trying to
identify my community and I came up short
time and again and that is ultimately what
spawned me to say we need to do something
different.
There is a opportunity to create a

(29:47):
community for my age, my mindset, my kind
of people.
Right, where are my people?
I don't know.
We're all looking for each other.
We're all looking internally.
And so I took it upon myself to say I'm
going to put foot ass in this regard and
it's paid off in dividends and, yeah, we're
building something great here and honestly,
it's it's legacy at this point.

(30:07):
So it gives me the chills to think about
because it's sort of something that is out
there running on its own In the world and
the ether and we're just trying to make it
the best thing possible for every service
member.
And that's our, that's our day in and day
out goal right Is to do the right thing by
every service member bring them the right
resources, provide them with the right

(30:28):
connections and really give them the time
and space to be successful.
And really that's, that's what they're
looking for when they get out.

Mark Haney (30:34):
And anything that I say or refer to that,
about any organization, whether it be the
VFW, american Legion, northrop Grumman or
whatever.
Everybody's got an agenda and they're all
doing something in their best interest and
for positive reasons.
But this community piece I talked about it

(30:55):
a second ago narrowing the niche, I mean
this, this market, if you will, you know,
in terms of thinking about it as business,
this niche it's.
It's been underserved for forever.
Okay, well it's.
You're solving a huge problem and you're
not varying into all these other things
like a lot of people are.

(31:16):
You're still, you're focused on that group
of people.
These people that are still in the military,
getting out, need a compass and have to
make some tough decisions in our life and
which direction they're going to take it.

Well, there's 22 veterans a day that take
their own life, which is a terrible
statistic, and I have friends,
unfortunately, that have fallen into that
path, and I think that this time, this
transition time, it's a small window of
time, it's not something they can get back,
and I think that this is where the rubber
meets the road, and I think that if we put

(31:48):
the right resources, the right oomph behind
these folks getting out of the military the
same amount of oomph as it took to get them
in Then we can eliminate the veteran
suicide rate.
And that is the overall goal.
For me is to not get another phone call
saying that one of my friends took their
lives, or knowing that one of my people is

(32:10):
suffering and hurting, and that, to me, is
unsatisfactory, and so that is what keeps
me up at night, that's what wakes me up in
the morning to drive and make sure that we
are stepping in the breach for everybody.
That's why we are doing the things we're
doing and the team we have.
They're all sacrificing other opportunities.
I'm sure they could all get bigger and

(32:31):
better jobs somewhere else, but they're
here for the mission.
Our team is all dedicated for the people
that are stepping into this program and I'm
so grateful.
My heart is full of gratitude just knowing
that what we are doing is impactful.
But there are other people behind me that
believe in what we're doing as well, and
that's why we've gotten to where we are

(32:53):
today, and that's why I know that this team
can help us get to the next phase of our
life as a business as well, because we do
have a lot of work to do.
We have a big project to accomplish, and
it's going to take a lot of work and it's
going to take a lot of support, and we are
the group of people that have signed up to
do it, and I don't think there's any, but
that's going to stop us.

Mark Haney (33:14):
Well, you talked about your team a little
bit and kind of having that why behind what
you do, it's not necessarily for the
paycheck.
Tom and Danny and Oscar and Tanisha and
Stephanie and Garrett and all of them.
But you think about why they're doing it,
why you are doing it, and I think that's an

(33:35):
important part of so.
Anybody listening out there that is maybe
where I was after selling my company or
maybe you're a skill bridge, or somebody
getting out of the military, I should say,
or somebody getting out of college or out
of high school and you're trying to decide
what you want to be when you grow up or
what you want to do at that next part of

(33:56):
your life, I think, doing something that
ties to why you want to be on this earth,
what's important to you.
You know that's purpose driven.
I mean, if that can be part of your compass,
think about what's important to you and why.
That can sometimes you to nail down exactly

(34:16):
what you want to do while you're still in
the military.
Might be, you know, might be, you know, it
might be possible for some, probably not
possible for most, but if you can at least
begin to decide what's important to you,
why you might want to do what you want to
do, and if it is all about the money, well
great, okay, no problem.
There's nothing wrong with doing it for the
money, but really take inside what's

(34:39):
important to you, and it might not be all
about the money.
It might be doing something that's right
for our world and feels like the right
thing to do.

It feels good to do the right thing right,
and I I love my job right, and I get the
opportunity to talk to service members
every day and hear what they're going
through, and then we position ourselves to
make sure that the next guy doesn't go
through that same issue, and so we're
constantly putting out fires.
But, yeah, like, the mission for us is the

(35:11):
most important thing, right, and as we ends
this show, right, we always talk about our.
Our mantra, right is going out to the
masses in the military.
Right, our always by your side mantra is
something that I live by.
I told it to you.
We end the show with it every time, right,
or you do now.

(35:31):
That is what I put into every day into this
organization, so that these veterans know
that there is a group behind them.
There is a person, a group, a persona that
is there.
It's not the American Legion, which is a
big name, like you said, doing great things,
but sometimes you need a person that can
talk to you, somebody who will pick up the

(35:51):
phone, somebody that will return a text,
somebody that will just take the extra
little second to do that, and that's what
our team personifies day in and day out.

Mark Haney (36:01):
One of the things, too, that I want to make
sure that we remind ourselves and remind
all our listeners.
I deal a lot with startups and you're
dealing with, you're working with people
who want to be entrepreneurs and become
employees and build businesses.
I think you should expect to pivot.
So every company I've invested into

(36:23):
everything, every business I've launched, I
come in thinking this is how it's going to
be, and, lo and behold, it doesn't go that
way.
Right, it always is more difficult, doesn't
work the way I thought it was going to work,
whatever, and I end up needing to pivot,
need to attack from a different direction,
as we like to say, and so I think you can

(36:45):
expect that.
But if we wait to begin to get on the
freeway if you will, then we'll never know
what it's like.
And so, just to everybody out there that's
thinking about what I want to do, there's
probably not a wrong answer.
It's get in, get a compass, get in, make

(37:07):
the adjustments.
If it's not for you, don't feel bad about
changing.
It's tough to make some of those decisions.
For example, I see you wearing your shirt
right now says Allegiant Vets.
When your mother and I launched the
organization right, you mentioned it
earlier it was Allegiant Giving, which the
parent company name is Allegiant Giving,

(37:27):
and we didn't know exactly how it would
play out.
But we wanted to do something.
We had a general purpose for what we wanted
to do, but how to turn it into a business
that could be sustainable.
We didn't know that until you came on and
it began changing the way that we attacked,
and so you've recently changed the name to

(37:50):
Allegiant Vets, which I think is a better
name Allegiant Giving.
It's like what the heck is that?
I've always thought I like the word
Allegiant, but the Giving piece always
sounded like what?
And it didn't really tie to veterans.
It didn't tie to the work we're doing.
It's almost like I'm asking for something.

(38:10):
Now that you're saying Allegiant Vets,
that's like that's bad ass, right.
That's telling me where I'm focused and who
I'm about helping.

Yeah, clarity of mission, right?
Yes, what a good pivot.
Well, it took a long time.
Luckily, we had some great marketing ladies
to help us out at the Porter Co Marketing
company down there.
They actually work out of our building, so
shout out to them.
But it took a lot of brainstorming and
figuring out who we were and who we wanted
to be and who we are for the future.

(38:40):
And I think Allegiant Vets stands with
clarity, it stands bold and it stands with
a personification of who we're affecting.
And I think when people hear that name Vice
Allegiant Giving they're like okay, I know
what that is, I know what you're trying to
do, and that makes it easier for us to
communicate, obviously, and, like you said,
it's a little bit more badass as well.

(39:00):
So we got some swag.
We got a swag shop up on the new website,
allegiantvetsorg, if you're interested in
checking that out.
But yeah, we're over here trying to change
the world for veterans, one day at a time.

Mark Haney (39:11):
Yeah now, allegiant Vets.
Obviously we know what a veteran is, but
it's also an acronym that I don't know.
If people understand the acronym that,
v-e-t-s.
What is?

Yeah, veterans, employment, training and
Success is what VET stands for for me, and
so obviously, veterans oftentimes get
called VETs, but what we do and what we
provide is a community.
We provide skills and we provide the
opportunity to be a part of something.
So veteran employment, training and success,
and so that's what we really stand for
Ultimately it's about that success?

Mark Haney (39:44):
huh, Absolutely.
Well, it's Veterans Day, Veterans Day
weekend, it's the Marine Corps birthday
today, November 10th.
Yeah, you know just, I don't know what I
didn't ask you, but maybe just let you have
the last word on the show.
What did I not ask you?
What would you like to communicate out
there to the world about what you're

(40:08):
working on or what the world needs from the
veteran community?

Just happy to be here back in the saddle,
love chatting with you, love the
opportunity to get asked questions.
I'm probably doing a lot of that question
asking in my daily job, so I like getting
the opportunity to really really say about
what we're up to.
And what I would say is there are people
out there that are not sure what they want
to do and, as you alluded to, everybody's

(40:37):
gone through that and that's okay.
And if you are going through something that
is challenging in your life and you need to
reach out to an organization that's got
your back and you are a veteran, a spouse,
a family member of a service member, reach
out to us.
We want to talk to you.
And if you're looking to kick names and

(40:57):
take some ass out there in the world and
you want to change the world, like Steve
Jobs says, the ones who are crazy enough to
think that they can change the world are
the ones that actually do.
And that's what we are doing on a daily
basis at Allegiant Vets and if you're
interested in being a part of that ride,
then look us up.

Mark Haney (41:15):
I love it.
I love, cassaney.
Love what you're doing.
My only word for today is gratitude.
Thank you to you personally for what you've
sacrificed.
Thank you for helping me launch a show and
launch my new career when I was trying to
figure out what I wanted to do, and thank
you for how you're impacting the people
that make business possible for any of us.

(41:37):
I mean to all those out there fighting the
good fight for our freedom, our security
and our way of life right.
Never above you, never below you, always by
your side.
This segment includes the personal
knowledge, experiences and opinions about
angel investing by seasoned angel investors.
This content is for informational purposes
only and should not be considered as legal,
tax, investment or financial advice.
Nothing in this segment constitutes a

(41:57):
solicitation, recommendation or endorsement.

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