Welcome to Season 2 Episode 2 of the "Militarily Speaking" podcast with Tom McLean and Jodi Vickery
In this episode of the Militarily Speaking podcast, we sit down with Brandon Eldridge, Executive Director of the Pike’s Peak Small Business Development Center (SBDC). Brandon shares how small businesses – especially veteran-owned and military spouse small businesses – can access the tools, funding, and financial education they need to thrive. Learn about the upcoming 18th Annual Veteran Small Business Conference, the impact of AI in business strategy, and the importance of a well-thought-out business plan.
“Militarily Speaking” is a podcast produced by Armed Forces Bank that is dedicated to the military lifestyle and all the things that makes the military community who they are.
Military to Millionaire! How Veterans Are Launching Thriving Small Businesses - with Brandon Eldridge of Pikes Peak SBDC
With over 25 years of management experience in technology, banking, and retail, Brandon has dedicated his career to helping entrepreneurs succeed. Since becoming Executive Director in 2023, he has worked tirelessly to strengthen the Colorado Springs business community. Under his leadership, the Pike’s Peak SBDC continues to empower veteran-owned businesses and local entrepreneurs with free consulting, workshops, and access to small business loans and funding programs.
Supporting Veteran-Owned Small Business Growth
As Brandon explains, the Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) serve as vital partners for entrepreneurs seeking to start or expand their businesses. From developing business plans and marketing strategies to finding loans for veteran-owned businesses, these centers help transform ideas into sustainable enterprises.
The conversation then turns to one of the most common challenges faced by small business owners – access to capital. Brandon outlines how entrepreneurs can leverage veteran business funding programs, community partnerships, and financial institutions like Armed Forces Bank, which supports military banking solutions tailored to business needs.
Technology, AI, and Cybersecurity in Business
Brandon also shares insights into the growing role of AI and cybersecurity in today’s business environment. He explains how emerging technologies can streamline operations, improve data security, and enhance decision-making. These tools, he notes, are particularly valuable for small businesses looking to scale efficiently – an essential step toward long-term financial stability and independence.
Empowering Veteran Entrepreneurs and Military Spouses
With Colorado Springs’ strong military presence, the Pike’s Peak SBDC proudly serves veteran entrepreneurs and military spouses pursuing small business ownership. Brandon discusses their upcoming Veterans Small Business Conference, designed to connect veterans with mentorship, networking opportunities, and resources for business growth. These programs often highlight veteran business funding options and practical ways to secure small business loans for veterans looking to build or expand their ventures.
For military spouses, Brandon emphasizes the importance of flexibility and resilience, acknowledging how frequent relocations can make traditional careers challenging. Programs like those offered by the SBDC help military families achieve economic empowerment through entrepreneurship.
The Future of Veteran Owned Small Business Development
As the conversation wraps up, Brandon offers his perspective on the evolving landscape of small business ownership. He encourages aspiring business owners to seek out trusted advisors, explore military banking resources, and stay proactive about financial literacy – key elements for sustained business success.
To learn more about small business resources, upcoming events, and how to get involved, visit the Pike’s Peak SBDC website.
Military Minute
The Military Minute giveaway offers listeners like you a chance to show off your military and life knowledge. Winners receive $50 for themselves and a charity of their choice!
For giveaway details or to enter, visit the Mil
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Militarily Speaking, season two,episode two, Pike's Peak Small
(00:05):
Business Development Center.
This episode we talk with BrandonEldridge, with Pike's Peak Small
Business Development Center.
Say that
five times.
I know it's gonna I, I'm glad you have thePopper device on your microphone today.
(00:29):
Welcome to Militarily Speaking.
Brought to you by Armed Forces Bank.
This is Tom McLean.
Tmac and Jody Vickery, j Vick.
Should we do that or not?
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
'cause we're cool enough to do that.
I,
I'm the military retail executivefor Armed Forces Bank, and Jody
is our Chief Digital Officer.
All right.
We get Brandon Eldridge.
(00:50):
Yes.
Welcome to the
show, Brandon.
We're excited to have you listening.
How excited to haveour audience listening.
Hopefully Brandon listens alittle bit, but yeah, I might do
some listening
too, what you say, or youcould just talk about whatever.
Yeah, sure.
But we're excited that our audience istuned in and listening and learning all
about, about you and your organization.
I do wanna take just a second though, and,and tell them just a little bit about you.
(01:13):
No new information.
I hope for you about yourselfhere, but, um, it's all
made up so you better, Tommay have taken fact check it.
Tom may have taken
liberties.
Don't believe everythingyou hear about me here.
It's, it's weird.
It starts with BrandonEldridge, lifelong Cubs fan.
So I, I don't, no.
Oh no.
That may or may not be Tom takingeditorial privilege, but, and
Buffalo, bill and Baltimore Raven Pan.
(01:34):
Yes.
Because he doesn't like the Chiefs.
So nice.
I'm sorry,
Brandon, don't hang up.
Brandon Eldridge was named theexecutive Director for the Pike's Peak
Small Business Development Center,SBDC, for short in April, 2023.
He plays a key role in supporting smallbusinesses in the Pike's Peak region
as they launch, grow, and create jobs.
(01:54):
Brandon is a champion of the ColoradoSprings business community and has
nearly 25 years of management experiencethat spans various sectors including
technology, banking, and retail.
What was that middle one?
Banking?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're in good company here.
I'm a recovering banker.
They're trying to make me a bankerso we can have a support group.
Eldridge has worked as market directorof underline, and spent time working
(02:18):
at both Chase and Vectra Bank.
Since moving to Colorado Springs in 1998,he has been actively involved in the
community and served as the President ofLeadership Pikes Peak and president of
the Council of Neighborhood Organizations.
He graduated from Colorado TechnicalUniversity with a Bachelor of
Science in Business Administration.
Welcome, Brandon.
It is.
It's an honor to have you on the show.
(02:38):
I'm grateful that you came here, eventhough you've met Tom previously, so he
still said yes.
Good job
being brave.
Yeah.
Tell our audience a littlebit about your Hikes.
Peak Small Business Development Center.
And let, let's kick it off there.
Well, thank you guys somuch for having me on.
I know that there's gonna be a lot of sBDCs across the country that'll listen
to this, and so I hope I do as justice.
(02:59):
But you will.
Here at the Pikes Peak region, Iactually only cover two counties
in the whole state of Colorado.
So what's neat is we have 14offices that cover the entire state.
My office covers Colorado Springs,Woodland Park, so a little bit of
the up, up the mountain, but mostlyin, in El Paso County, which is
(03:19):
the largest county in the state.
So we have some really awesome impact.
Last year we served 694 businesses withat least three hours or more of impact.
So when we work with clients, we'redoing one-on-one free consulting, kind
of talking about your business plan, yourmarketing strategies, how to integrate AI
into your business, and all of the greatthings that help a business run properly.
(03:43):
So
that's great.
That's a good, good overview.
And now we're about to pepperyou with a billion questions.
Okay.
What's going?
It's two and a half hours ofthis, of Jodie, which is powerful.
So we, we met for the first time.
We certainly did a prepwork call with you, Brandon.
We've also been involved with your comp,your annual conference that's coming up.
(04:04):
I got firsthand knowledge of howgreat you are and how great your
organization is based on what you toldour audience at the conference about
45 days ago in, in Your Backyard.
But let's talk about sortof that career, right?
You said you were a recovered banker.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
And but what led you tobe in the role today?
We talked about your bio, we talkedabout why you're so qualified and
(04:27):
experienced to take on this job,but how'd you get there and why?
Yeah.
So real quickly, I know you guys wereteasing me about my sports affiliations,
but I was an army brat growing up, andso I, I was a big chiefs fan moving
to Colorado in the late nineties.
And I got into sports retail early in mycareer and I really enjoyed doing that.
(04:49):
But I always felt like one dayI was gonna run my own business.
So back around 2010, a great time forbanks and mortgages, but I got recruited
over to Chase Bank and I was a branchmanager for them for almost nine years.
While I was with Chase, I, I startedthere because I thought, well, I
better understand how money worksif I'm gonna own my own business.
And I got hooked and Istayed there for a long time.
(05:12):
And I just loved, I lovedwhat I got to do every day.
And what really made it specialwas the community impact that I
was starting to, to lean into.
I always felt like as a banker,it was our obligation to make
sure we made community impact.
So I started working with ournonprofits in the community and finding
ways to just engage in ways that.
Was more than just providing financialservices that led me to V Bank in 2018,
(05:39):
where obviously gave me a little runwaybefore the pandemic hit and while the PPP
loans were being administered at our bank.
The SBDC was also doing what wecall the idle loans, the EIDL.
So those are the disaster relief loans.
So I'm doing PPP, the SBD C's, doing idleloans, and we just found this really great
synergy of like, we were doing town halls,virtual town halls with our chambers,
(06:04):
and we were working with business ownersacross the board, helping them get capital
in this really, really challenging time.
And so I personally did 269PPP loans for Zion's Bancorp.
I set a personal record there,and so they gave me a little
trophy that said I did so.
And you still have it?
You still have it?
Of course.
Where is the trophy today?
Of course.
(06:24):
Yeah.
It'd be funny if you had like whippedaround and pulled it out from behind it.
Oh yeah.
No, no, it's in my office.
But I, I, I appreciated that because itdemonstrated the work that my team did
to, to get us through that period of time.
But as you know, uh, we built a reallygood relationship with SBDC and I realized
that I had an aptitude working withentrepreneurs, helping people understand
(06:46):
how to see the forest through the treesand just get their business plan in a
really great place where they're gonnabe profitable and help them excel.
So having some of that.
Business acumen, having an understandingof p and ls and balance sheets and
the underwriting process, and thenalso just being a community member.
It's really been a great marriageof my career to come to SBDC
(07:07):
and support entrepreneurship.
If it were that easy, anyone could do it.
Right?
That path, that path seemedjust perfect for him.
He made, he made it sound easy.
So as, as companies come to you, asthey're trying to get underway, what are
some of the most common services thatthey are seeking out and that you're
finding you're able to, to match up with?
And kind of along those lines, are there,are there certain industries or sectors,
(07:30):
if you will, that are sort of drawn to theservices that your organization provides?
Or is it all across the board different?
It's definitely across the board.
I mean, we can help you withcybersecurity, we can help you
with HR practices or buildinga great company culture.
But most of the time people are comingto us because, well, number one, they,
they don't know what they don't know.
(07:51):
And so they're seeking help, but a lotof times it's because they need capital.
And so they're looking for what arethe streams of, of money out there?
How would they go into a, a businessloan or get a VC for that matter.
And so people seek us out because they'relooking for that support to find capital.
And sometimes it's notalways about the money.
Sometimes they just need more clients.
(08:12):
And so understanding their branding,their marketing, how to get more clients
through their business is obviouslyanother key element to growing.
So people come to us all the time.
They're.
How do I use this AI to createa really great marketing plan?
Or how do I put together a p and land balance sheet so that the bank
feels confident with my loan package?
(08:32):
And we walk through that in a verysystematic way with our advisors.
So that's a big reason.
But lately, I can tell you guys,I talk about AI almost daily.
I'll bet.
I mean, it's just beendominating the workflows.
It's been dominatingsoftware that people use.
And I think it's interesting becauseI run the SBDC like a small business,
and so I use some of the same tools,like we use QuickBooks, I use Canva for
(08:56):
my marketing flyers, and we're findingthat a lot of these tools that we're
already using are starting to embed.
AI into the software, and so people areusing AI more than they already realize.
But we just ran a big AI summithere in Colorado Springs about
a month ago, back in August.
And uh, we had 200 people, eightkeynote speakers throughout the day.
(09:19):
And boy, I'll tell you, the, thestuff we're talking about in AI
is just really, really cool stuff.
Yeah, I don't think people, I knowI, I don't even scratch the surface
of understanding what it can do.
I mean,
we don't, yeah.
Yeah.
It regularly that we go through a bunchof hoops to do something in a way that
we've always done it, and then somebodyhas the brilliant idea to say, Hey, did
(09:39):
you, did you try chat GPT or co-pilotor, or whatever the case may be.
Then you do that and then you'relike, oh, it did it in five
minutes and it took me five hours.
And then you try not to be,try not to be mad about it.
That's right.
Yeah.
We, we came up with a mantra.
So we work with our local BBB andJonathan Liebert and I, we have a
mantra as busy as the enemy of strategy.
(10:01):
Mm-hmm.
So if you get bogged down by busywork because you're not using ai,
then it's removing your ability to dostrategic planning and to really think.
I think big picture about your business.
So we're, we're talking aboutAI in ways that help alleviate
that, just that busy work.
Yep.
I'm writing that down.
That might go on my whiteboard downstairs.
I'll erase it.
(10:22):
You have a pretty big shop there though.
I know.
You, you got regions around the country,over a thousand s BDCs and Yeah.
You've also got, you talked about legalservices that you, you, AI I know is
in, in big demand, but in cybersecurityis a big issue for businesses, but
legal support you provide right.
A little bit.
So s BDCs, you gotta thinkabout us as we're kind of the
(10:44):
king of the DIYers, right?
We're gonna help, we're gonnateach you how to do it yourself.
And while if you come to us and you needa marketing strategy, we're not going to.
Make the marketing strategy foryou, we're gonna teach you how to
really be intentional about that.
It's the same thing with legal.
We're not going to give you legal advice.
We're not gonna represent you in courtif you're getting sued or if you're,
(11:06):
if you're having a legal debate.
But what we will do is with our.
Claim of lawyers is they'll tellyou what you can and can't do in
the state of Colorado and what istechnically legal in, in our community.
So in some ways it's a support,but in other ways it's not exactly
seeking out a free lawyer torepresent you in in the court of law.
(11:27):
Yeah, that makes sense.
And, and you've kind of talked about itwith some of, some of the other answers,
but I wonder if there are other, otherservices or resources, either by coming
to see you or going to your website,
which I don't
know
that we've mentioned yet,waiting for him to mention it.
'cause he's, he's got17 different websites.
Oh.
There'll be a listing of websites,
(11:47):
hashtag eggs.
Yeah.
If, if there are other resourcesor things that you bring to the
table or your what if, yeah.
Businesses that come to youand say, I have an idea.
I don't even have a business yet.
Yeah, and so you need to kind ofbring them a business in a box so
they, they can put the framework ofthe puzzle on the table with you and
then go away and fill out the pieces.
How does that work?
Yeah, I was doing a militarypodcast last year leading up to
(12:09):
our veterans conference, and theguy said, oh, it's interesting.
You guys really have a processto start and scale a business.
And I said, yeah.
And he goes, military folks reallylike that because they come from a
world of s SOPs and a lot of structure.
Mm-hmm.
So while being an entrepreneur, Ithink by my definition of being an
entrepreneur, means you're thinkingoutside of the box and you're invested
(12:33):
into a, a, growing a business.
You also can follow a very scriptedprocess that's gonna help you do that.
And at my office we have a startup day.
Once a month we've got online curriculum.
And then as you mentioned,I've got a good team.
So we've got 41 advisors currentlyon my team that will meet one-on-one
(12:54):
in a private confidential settingand talk through those things that
you maybe don't know and you'remaybe embarrassed to ask unless you
know that it's gonna be private.
So that's kind of the model of SBDC.
So.
Going up on a, on our, like a federallevel, we all know SBA because they
back a lot of our loans that weunderwrite and the SBA and as part of
(13:15):
their effort to ensure that the federalgovernment is getting US-based small
business contracts through procurement.
They help fund operations likeSBDC score, vbo C, so that's the
Veteran Business Outreach Center.
Yep.
And then of course,women Resource Partners.
So those are all in thatfamily of federal resources.
And you might find that Vbo C andSBDC are closely aligned in many
(13:40):
ways, and one might serve a betterfirst purpose for your business.
Over the other.
And then when you drill down tolocal, like I get some grants
through the state of Colorado thatallows us to do childcare services.
We get some funding through our countythat helps us do some scaling classes.
So I'm looking for differentrevenue streams that help me
(14:00):
provide curriculum and contentto our businesses at all levels.
Federal, state, county, city, I mean,we find partnerships across the board
and then we, we can reach across.
To the DOD side, we have Apex acceleratorsthat's, you know, across the country.
And then these accelerators, man, we'vegot some awesome accelerators in the Pike
Speed community, but most communitiesthat are mature probably have some sort
(14:23):
of tech accelerator that are helpingquote unquote founders and helping
scale up some of that technology stuff.
Sort of like incubatorstuff out there too, right?
Mm-hmm.
You know, the, yeah, I think of AltCap, which is a company in that, just
in our backyard too, that is sortof, that, not a VC particular, but
maybe just a, a resource of fundsavailable for startup businesses too.
(14:44):
So I'm sure there's more than justthat one company around this country
that are there to provide for thatinitial funding or initial capital
investment they need to get off theground too, and could be sizable.
It could be just a, a smallamount that they need.
Well, a lot of CDFIs outthere will run accelerators.
Yep.
And that sometimes is their gateway drug.
(15:04):
To get your capital, you'll gothrough a 10 week accelerator and at
the end you get your, your capital.
So there's CDFIs, there's cs,and then there's nonprofits.
Like in our community we haveone called Exponential Impact.
And what they do is they, they managethese revolving loan funds and they teach
you some really foundational skills.
(15:26):
They lend you at a really low,I mean, our, our revolving loan
fund, I think it's 0% interest thefirst year, 1% the second year.
But you have to have it paidback in those 36 months.
So it's almost like free money, butyou have to do a little work to get it.
So, and we partner with alot of those folks as well.
We ought to give everybodyBrandon's cell number for that.
(15:46):
0% financing for, so it's five.
It's 5, 5, 5.
Yeah.
Five.
You know what's funny?
A movie switch, that 5,5, 5 number never works.
Yeah.
No, but 8 6 7 5 3 0 9 does
always.
But
can you say it without singing it?
Jenny?
Jenny?
Nope.
Please don't sing them.
Oh boy.
(16:07):
So the, I bet every day'sdifferent for you, right, Brandon?
So when you get different walk-intraffic, different leadership roles, you
play different communication different.
People that are looking for services, butSo if you had to break it down percentage
wise, do you think it's new business?
Do you think it's people coming insaying, I'm ready for the next stage of
my business, I need ways to grow, or isit people that are winding down their
(16:30):
business and transferring 'em to theirfamily members or looking to sell and
I'm sure it's everything, all the above.
And then you've got all theseconnections you have either in
Colorado Springs or in the region.
That you can, that you've partnered, thatyou've made connections, you network.
You're a great networker, but so ifyou had to break it down by percentage,
what would a normal day, week, ormonth or year look like as far as
(16:52):
businesses coming in to see you?
Or reaching out to you.
Well, and thank you for that question,and I will tell you one of the most
awesome parts of my job is there'sno two days that are the same.
That's why she and I love what we do too.
Yes, yes, yes.
And Dale.
And Dale,
yeah,
of course.
So I, I'm industry agnostic, so I don'tnecessarily serve one industry, but like
(17:17):
today, I'm at a manufacturing summit.
We're, we're supporting ourmanufacturers in the community.
When people come in, generallythey're coming to us because they have
little to no resources, and resourcestranslates to capital or money, right?
So they don't have anymoney to hire somebody yet.
They don't have any moneyto pay an accountant.
They don't have any money.
(17:37):
To start a capital campaign ora marketing campaign come to us
because we're a free resource.
And so of course most of our clientsare in that pre-revenue or that startup
phase, and I like to break entrepreneursinto four phases pre-revenue.
But you have an idea.
You're just, you'restill kind of forming it.
You're looking for that MVP,that minimum viable product.
(17:59):
You might be in that second phase,which is startup, and you've already
started selling your product, but you'restill going through growing pains and
you're figuring out what is it like.
The third scale is your maturebusinesses who have started to scale up.
Maybe they've got more than 10employees by this point, and
they're, they're systems, they, theyprobably have SOPs at that point.
(18:20):
They probably have systems in place.
And then you have yourlegacy business owners.
Who are on that three to five year trackto either merge or sell their business.
An interesting stat is about 50% ofbusinesses will close because they
didn't have an exit strategy, meaningthey didn't plan for that merger or
to sell it off, and that's hard tokinda work through that, especially.
(18:42):
When an entrepreneur and the identityof the business are synonymous, and
so what we do is we try and pull thosethings apart so that your business
can be an independent teenager that'sgrowing and and building out, and you
can kick 'em outta the house one day.
And that's the goal is that you don't havethe same identity as your business, but.
(19:03):
To directly answer your question,most of our businesses are in that
pre-flight or in that startup phase,but we love working with those scaling
businesses, especially our exit planners.
We love working with them.
It's just, it, it's less of it becauseof the nature of, of resources.
Yeah.
Well, we are a military podcast, solet's talk about the veterans or the
(19:25):
military spouses in particular too, right?
You've got, you've gotthe Army connection.
You found your true passion.
Are you seeing startups as theytransition outta the military?
'cause they have, they have the skills,the portable skills that are transferrable
in that leadership environment.
Like you said, theirstructure, they love SOPs.
They love logistics, they love a templatewhere it just makes sense to them.
(19:47):
But what, what kind of, I guess,guidelines or best practices would
you give someone that has that idea?
Yeah, so anybody who has a DDtwo 14 probably sat through some
sort of TAP program, so Yep, yep.
Transitioning out and what we do here inour community, because we do have five
military installations, and just as alittle caveat, 44% of the economy in the
(20:10):
Pikes Peak region is tied to aerospace anddefense, and we have space, space Force.
We have the, for Carson, which is.
Geographically, one of the largestmilitary BA installations in the country.
Obviously the Air Force Academy, whichmost people know, and norad, which is kind
of a novelty in some ways, but obviouslydoing really, really important work.
(20:32):
And even though Space Command ismoving to Huntsville, I will tell
you a lot of that command is stillgonna be centralized in the Pikes Peak
Community and Golden Dome initiativesand things like that are gonna be really
critically important to to mission.
With that being said, our soldiersand our troops that are transitioning
out, they oftentimes will.
(20:54):
It, it we're a transientcommunity because of that.
And so what we're doing is we're likegiving them that pre-flight idea so
that if they're gonna stay in thePikes Peak region or move back home,
whatever that looks like, we're gonnahave them with a really structured idea
of what a business plan is and helpthem kind of work through their idea.
They bring so many great skills asveterans to be entrepreneurs, and what
(21:16):
I love about this demographic, if youwill, is they understand government.
And so this is a great place for themto lean into government contracting.
So at our veterans conference thatwe'll have on November 7th, we'll
have 15 workshops that day, andmany of them are, are tailor made to
how to work with government or howto get that certification of that
(21:38):
VOSB, which is that veteran-ownedcertified business, small business.
So we, we really lean into that withthese soldiers and these airmen that
are retiring because they bring,they bring a lot of transferrable
skills into entrepreneurship.
Sure.
Do
you wanna mention that date again?
'cause I think we're gonna have toget at least 25 plugs from you for a
conference coming up and what is it?
(21:59):
November?
What was it again?
November 7th, 2025.
Where's it being held?
It'll be at Great WolfLodge in Colorado Springs.
It is a family friendly event, sowe have a really great room block.
So if you're flying into town, if yougo to pikes peak sbdc.org, you can
find all of the information about theevent, including our room block details.
It's 99 bucks and you get fivewaterpark tickets for the event.
(22:22):
So bring your kids.
That's a really good deal.
Dale, did you hear that?
Did you hear that?
Yeah.
I'll tell you guys.
This is a day whereveterans find their tribe.
I mean, if you wanna find a placewhere you're doing networking,
getting plugged into resources, andlearning about how to be a veteran
entrepreneur, this is the event.
We'll have 70 tables, 15 workshops,three keynote speakers, and
(22:47):
one Santa Claus at this event.
Oh.
Dale, did you hear that?
Dale's signing up as we speak.
You can't see him, but he's overhere hammering on the keyboard,
getting out a credit card.
It's
not just a conference.
'cause it sounds like this is an eventand it'll be fun for everybody, so.
Oh yeah.
Thanks for putting yourheart and soul around it.
'cause after it's the 18th annual,you better get it right by now.
(23:08):
Yeah.
Don't you think
you've had you,
you've had 17 attempts.
Lucky for me, this is only mythird attempt at it, but All
right, we'll edit that out.
All right.
Yeah, thanks.
I think they say
the third time's the charm.
Yeah.
Hey everyone.
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family on a vacation, tackle thathome renovation, or just get through
(23:32):
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(23:56):
so we understand your unique needs.
We've been supporting military familiesfor over a hundred years, and we're here
to help you take control of your finances,
whether you're active duty.
A veteran or a reservist, we'recommitted to offering you flexible
terms and competitive rates, makingsure you get a loan that fits your life.
So if you're ready to take thatnext step, head over to af bank.com
(24:18):
or visit a branch near you.
Armed Forces Bank, serving those who serve
member FDIC, subject to credit approvalorigination fee applies direct deposit.
Relationship required loanterms are based on loan amount.
No, we'll, we'll have400 people at this event.
Guys, it's a really an awesome wayto invest in your business, and we
(24:40):
love that it's a regional event.
It's not just for folksin the Pikes Peak region.
We're flying in one of ourkeynotes from Tampa Bay.
His son's actually cadetat the Air Force Academy.
His name is Christian Crumple.
He was one of the producers of theBlair Witch Project, and he now
does documentaries for soldiersacross the country, and he is
staunch advocate for veterans.
(25:01):
And then our lunchkeynote is John Register.
He actually is a Paralympian, buthe served in as a combat vet and
he's just an inspiration to all.
So.
Really great day.
Sounds like a great day.
And if you've ever stayed at Great WolfLodge, you know that $99 is a great price.
That's correct.
Yeah.
You
(25:22):
remember that when we were together,you showed me videos of you like
going around Colorado Springs.
Yes.
What were you doing?
Because I thought thatwas pretty innovative.
And I want you to tell our audiencebecause they, they should steal that
idea from you 'cause it was so cool.
Well, the SBDC has a day.
We actually have a holiday sometime inMarch, and so it's SBDC day and it's
(25:44):
honestly a way for my office to giveback to our advisors and give back to our
stakeholders, and we have a lot of peoplethat support our mission financially.
So this year I created a box that.
Kinda looks like a happy meal, right?
It's not a happy meal.
So to be clear, McDonald's,but disclaimer too.
Yeah, we were giving out boxes of joy thatday and we went to a lot of our banks, a
(26:07):
lot of our stakeholders, and we droppedoff little packages for everybody and,
and did a little social media campaign.
So if you're, if you're followingon LinkedIn or Facebook, look
us up for the Colorado SBDCserving the Pikes Peak region.
And kick back to March of this yearand you'll see our video series.
So I wanna talk about howyou might partner with other
(26:30):
s BDCs across the country.
There are thousands of them.
How do you, how do youcollaborate with those peers?
Are there learnings that you'veexperienced that are, are worth
sharing here, both in your leadershipcapacity and just as you might have?
I don't know if businesses transitionand so you hand off, I don't, I don't
know how that works, but how might youcollaborate with them across the country?
Yeah, so as you mentioned, there'sabout a thousand s BDCs and each state
(26:54):
or sub-state has kind of a network.
So the Colorado network is just one.
I think California has two or three,but we have an annual training
event that we go to every year.
So we were just in Orlandolast month in September.
And we have a big training eventwhere it's three days and we do
a lot of workshops and a lot ofcross pollination, if you will.
(27:17):
Yeah.
Amongst other SB d. C centers.
And so I get a, it's a greatopportunity for me to meet others,
learn what they're doing, andkind of take some best practices.
And then I'm part of three interestgroups as part of our larger network.
So my office does cybersecurity, soI'm in a cybersecurity interest group.
If you're interested inanything cybersecurity,
check out our Delaware SBDC.
(27:39):
They've managed something calledNorth Star and that, or work
with a company called North Starand they're doing fantastic work
helping entrepreneurs fortify theirbusiness through cybersecurity.
Awesome.
And they get there.
Is there a certain site where theyshould go, or should they just go to
the global SBDC site and find Delaware?
No, Google.
I would Google or go in your chat andjust say, find me the Delaware SBDC.
(28:01):
Okay.
Yeah, I, I don't know that the As,so it's the As SBDC, so the America's
SBDC, I don't know if their databaseplugs into all of the networks, but the
Delaware SBDC site's very easy to find.
You
know, Brandon's throwingout a lot of acronyms.
Like he's a military guy or a banker.
Yes.
Right?
Yes.
Or he's been in the military.
(28:22):
That's, I mentioned that earlier.
I know they have a lot of acronyms too.
More than banking or the same.
Hmm.
Close.
Maybe more?
Yeah,
maybe more.
Yeah.
We'll
make up some for us.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I'm also part of a VeteransInterest group, and our veterans
interest group includes some Vbo C folks.
So VBAC is the Veteran Business OutreachCenter, and we meet on a monthly basis,
(28:44):
and we just talk about how our s BDCs.
Intentionally servingveteran entrepreneurs.
And so it's, it's a great way for me to,as I mentioned, to do cross pollination.
We meet, you know, across the country,there's folks involved in this.
And what's great is, like oneof my peers in Huntsville,
she's in that group as well.
And I just think the collaborationbetween SBDC, it's at the
(29:06):
core of our mission, right?
Like to help find resources,connect you, and, and uplift others.
So it's very easy task for us.
I'm not gonna ask this nextquestion like I normally would.
Okay, so I'm just gonna,I'm gonna put it more, I
have no idea where's going.
I'm gonna put it more plainly.
I'm okay.
I'm gonna talk about your impactto the economic development,
all that, blah, blah, blah.
(29:27):
Right?
You self-assess a lot.
I, it seems like you're the kindof guy that would do that, right?
And so what's, what's the scorecard looklike or what does success look like?
And, and I know you offer greatservices out there, but at some
point you have to measure yourimpact or measure the success.
Or get feedback or the BBB givesyou feedback or your people that
(29:49):
put Google ratings out there andtalk about how great you are.
But what, what is that scorecard?
Because you probably just go through,like we talked about earlier, every day
is something new, but when do you go?
When do you just sit back and say,wow, this is what we've done in
my third year here and I'm makingsequential progress in, in how we're
impacting lives and businesses.
Well, as I mentioned, I'm prettycompetitive, so I definitely keep track of
(30:13):
numbers and as a recovering banker I like,I like to look at those numbers, but.
The country's divided into10 regions with the SBA.
So I'm in region eight, sowe were actually the region
eight winner this year.
So we were in the top 10 SBDCs in the country for 2025.
So number one, that's a great metrics forme to feel pretty proud about for my team.
(30:36):
But you know, every year we doimpact reporting, and this is
required of the SBA, but it'salso needed for our stakeholders.
So when we're measuring success, we'retalking about how many businesses
started with our support, how manyjobs did we help create and retain,
how much capital our businessesgetting because of the work we do.
Last year, we had almost $30 millionin capital gain because of our work.
(31:01):
And you know, we do a lot ofgovernment contracting with some of
our clients, so that that's, thatmakes a big impact pretty quick, right?
But these numbers that we track help us.
Measure that economicgrowth for the state.
So if you go to the Colorado SBDC landingpage, we have our impact report and
you can see all of the metrics that wemeasure every single year and what kind of
(31:23):
economic impact the SBDC has to the state.
And I will tell you, it's tremendous.
I think That's awesome.
Congratulations to your team.
Excellent.
On that recognition.
I think it's nice to have thatkind of outward recognition.
I mean, you know, I'm sure you guys feellike, yeah, this is, this is humming
along and we're doing a great job.
But it's always cool to have, haveyour team recognized that way.
You probably got
the social media ideaof the year award too.
(31:44):
You probably did.
For box.
Box.
Box of joy.
Box of joy, yeah.
Box of joy.
Yeah.
No, I've been told I'm a very creativedirector, but I think that's part of
entrepreneurship is we have to thinkoutside of the box exactly on the way
that we are gonna serve the community.
You won't find a commercial duringa football game showing SBDC.
(32:07):
It's through word of mouthand through the work we do.
And so because of that, we have toreally be creative in our partnerships.
So I'm actually a member of nine differentchambers in the Pikes Peak region.
And it's like they, a lot ofbreakfast meetings, a lot of
ribbon cutting ceremonies canhave eggs every day of the week.
Let me tell you.
So a lot of event facingthings that support businesses.
(32:30):
We just did a health expo with,I think it was 170 vendors that
we were at that event with.
So we're always looking for opportunitiesto partner in the community because
that's who's really, you know,communicating and, and getting
involved with our business community.
So partnerships are key to our success.
I love that.
What are, what are some of the, the big,I mean we talked about AI and, and that's
(32:54):
come up on another podcast that we'vedone and cybersecurity is a big deal.
Cyber cybersecurity for sure.
I mean, those are twokey hot button topics.
Are there other trends that you arecautioning business owners or encouraging
business owners that are coming yourway to really lean into beyond those
that we've talked about already?
Yeah, I mean, obviously tariffswould be something that Oh, yeah.
People wanna talk about, you know, AI getsin the conversation so much and I'll, I'll
(33:17):
get back to tariffs here a moment, in amoment, but, you know, AI is this trend
where there's some folks out there thatare saying, oh, I'm gonna wait and see.
I, I.
Would encourage you not to waitand see at, at the very least, get
a $20 GPT account and start usingit so you're familiar with it.
The workforce is demanding that, thatpeople know how to use these tools and so.
(33:41):
Just don't fall behind too quicklywhen it comes to just finding at
least one software that you feellike you can use, whether it's
Perplexity or Chat, GBT or Gronk.
I don't care what it is.
Just use one of those tools andstart like figuring out how it works.
Cybersecurity is interesting.
I just read a report thismorning about how AI is helping
and herding cybersecuritybecause it's helping fraudsters.
(34:04):
Do a lot of data research for them.
Oh, I'm sure.
Mm-hmm.
And that's not a good thing.
Right.
And I also see the evolutionof quantum computing.
Yeah.
Really being an X factorin the next couple years.
Once quantum computing is available,you know, open source, it's gonna
really change the game for encryption.
So I think banks need to be reallyattentive and ahead of like.
(34:27):
Encryption will not be your fail safe inthe future when it comes to cybersecurity.
And so you've gotta find thesequantum methods that will
help combat some of that.
I mean, the, the quantum computingcan do things a thousand times
faster than you could ever dream.
So next year's AI summit, if,and by the way, your listeners,
if you wanna Google Blaze.
(34:48):
Ai.
We have a landing page spun upwith all eight speech speakers
from our AI summit this year.
Oh, great.
And I hope you'll visit the site, checkout some of the resources we spun up.
That's really good info.
Yeah.
Who knows?
Next year maybe we'll haveBlaze ai, cyber Quantum Summit.
I, I mean, I don't think I'm smartenough to go to Summit called that.
(35:09):
That's multi-syllabic
too.
Yes.
It's interesting because the intersectof AI and these other two, these other
two topics, obviously cyber and, andquantum it, it's starting to converge
and people don't always know that they'reeven using AI anymore, and so, and.
I'm just really curious to seewhere we go over the next two
(35:30):
years for, for small business.
But yeah, check out theAI Summit next year.
We're gonna evolve it and make it evenbigger and badder than ever before.
Awesome.
The jury's still out about quantumcomputing, but they some, some recently
said five years, it'll be a thing.
Some people said 10.
But the way people, every daythat goes by, it's like, okay,
quantum computing's here.
In about a year.
(35:50):
It just feels like it's going so fast.
I, I think we're muchcloser than five years.
I can tell you that there's atleast three or or four possibly.
Quantum computers in Coloradoalone that we know of.
The problem is we don't even knowof all the quantum computers that
are out there because they'refederal and we're in a race.
(36:11):
We're a race against our, our,our foes across the world.
And we're in a race to make surethat we get ahead of this for,
for security and for growth and.
Quantum is, is around the corner.
My friends, I, I don't thinkyou, I, I think five years
is far too far down the line.
Well, you're in a, yousaid you were a competitor.
(36:33):
It's, you said it, yousaid the correct way.
Can hear in his, I canhear it in his voice.
I know.
Beat, beat your foes, but alsobe ahead of your allies too.
Yeah, because you wannabe the leader in this.
Sometimes being a fast follower isokay too, but it's, it's gonna be an
ever-changing dynamic game out there too.
So we're gonna Thank you.
How's the, how's the weatherout there today, by the way?
Well, I'm outside.
It's lovely.
(36:54):
Colorado Springs gets 360 daysof sunlight a year, actually.
Actually.
Wow.
Is that a, do I need toGoogle that or is that true?
Is that true?
Go for it.
Give it a shot.
That's like a box of joy right there.
That is a box of joy.
That's a box of joy.
I did skip over tariffs
and Oh yeah, definitely.
I'm curious what you haveto say on that topic.
(37:15):
So
I'm talking with a lot of folks thatdo manufacturing and you know, the
big push right now at the SBA is totransition away from international
trade to US manufacturing.
Now with that being said, our businessesthat I'm supporting are having to go
back to their manufacturers and India andChina, in Honduras, in Mexico and Canada,
(37:39):
and they're looking at them saying.
You know, there's somethingcalled like the cost per stitch.
What is the cost per stitchin Honduras versus India?
And I can tell you that it'sstill half as much as it is in
most cases in the United States.
And so having the capacity to havethe machinery and the talent in the
United States to, to bring thosemanufacturing jobs here, it takes years.
(38:04):
We actually have a local designshop called Creative Consortium.
They ordered a printing machinefive years ago from Sweden.
They just got it.
Oh, wow.
And boy, this, thismachine is super cool guys.
When they print stickers, they'retexturized, they're printing them
on huge a hundred foot yard sheets.
It took 'em five years to havethat machine designed, built
(38:27):
and shipped to the United Statesjust so that they can manufacture
that here in the United States.
That's crazy.
So I think there will be some painpoints and I think our businesses.
Need to be prudent with those decisions.
And I, I respect anyone who's goingthrough that and I, I hope you're
going through some really toughnegotiations with your manufacturers
abroad, but do what you can to helpkeep that cost from passing off to
(38:48):
your clients as long as you can.
Now, that doesn't mean thattariffs aren't a real thing.
They are.
And I think people need to be sensitiveto that, especially when you see the
cost of something go up as a consumer, wejust need to be aware that our businesses
that are serving in these spaces.
Or are trying really hard not topass it off as much as possible.
Alright, final question.
(39:10):
You ready?
Yes.
He might be a liar.
He sometimes has follow-ups.
To follow
ups.
Is there a game show thatsays that Final question?
No, here's your, alright,here's your final question.
Ready?
So, okay, I don't know ifit should be one, a one word
answer or a one sentence answer.
If you had to give one piece ofadvice because you're the knower
of all about how to successfullyrun a business, what would it be?
(39:33):
I think if you decide to be anentrepreneur that you need to recognize
there are seasons to entrepreneurship.
You're in your early phase,epiphany phase, or you're in your,
your late phase, whatever seasonyou're in, acknowledge that.
Embrace it, and know that everyseason comes with challenges.
I think it's like anything in life, youknow, if you have young kids, you're
(39:55):
in a season of raising young kids.
If you're.
Have elderly parents in your home,you're in a season of caring for them.
And the same can be trueof entrepreneurship.
I I, I don't think that it's a glamorousthing, but it, and it's very hard
work, but it can be very rewardingand I think it's something that can
lead to independent financial success.
(40:16):
I believe that there's threeways to financial freedom.
It's.
Real estate building a great retirementportfolio and entrepreneurship, and if
you do that entrepreneurship thing reallywell and pour into it and really put
in the hard work, it's very rewarding.
So that's my advice.
That's a
great
answer.
That's a soundbite right there that,
(40:37):
and I literally am writing business.
Busy is the enemy of strategy on my board.
So,
yeah.
Well, that just means you're gonna haveto find some more AI tools to help.
I know.
I know.
I have to do it on mynon-work computer, though.
I think we're on lockdown.
I think we're on lockdown.
Well, this is, by the
way, if we're talking acronyms,I'm gonna call him a sme.
Sme.
(40:58):
Oh, an s
an S-M-B-S-M.
No, it's too much.
You're
welcome.
Put it on a T-shirt.
Yes.
Put it on your business card.
Yeah.
That's three
new business opportunities thatcame outta your mouth today.
I know.
I'm gonna
just trademark everythingthat comes outta my mouth.
Broadcast.
Yeah.
That was really good.
Ooh.
A podcast that was accidental for,
for our fraud team, broadcast,
broadcast.
(41:18):
Now Brandon's gonna take it.
I'll charge royalties.
I'll charge royalties.
Oh my goodness.
Is it time?
It is time.
So Brandon, this has been awesomeand we'd love to have you stick
around for just a couple more minutesto play Military Minute with us.
I promise.
I promise it'll be a great time.
Brandon, what is Mil?
What is Military Minute?
Do you have any idea?
He is tearful.
(41:38):
I'm guessing it's like minute to win it.
You know?
How many coat hangers can Ihang at at once, by the way,
by the way.
Just came to me.
You know when that game show?
It says final answer.
No, it's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Oh yeah.
Remember?
Final answer.
Final
answer.
Final answer.
And what was the movie that wasabout Who wants to be a millionaire?
Oh, slump slum dog.
Slum dog millionaire.
Yeah.
(41:58):
One of the best movies of, at at leastone of the top 5,000 movies I've seen.
That's far too much
downtime is what I'm hearing.
Yes.
You need to, you need to dosome of these things that we
learned about from Brandon today.
Maybe
if you just remember what you did.
Yes, I know I had for
breakfast this morning.
It's a problem.
Yeah, but
we're gonna play a military minute.
(42:20):
We've got two questions today, Brandon.
The first question isfrom our last episode.
So if you happen to know this randomthing then you, you can participate.
Last week's Military Minute wasabout podcast 'cause it was the
first episode of our second season.
I was gonna say that, Tom, youdidn't have to interrupt me.
And we're competitive with LaceyLangford 'cause she's got like
(42:40):
eight times more than we do.
She's, she's got
more.
So we're not actually competitivethan is what that tells me.
That's a
great point, Jody.
So anyway, the question last timewas, what was the name of the podcast
with the most episodes publishedand how many episodes are there?
I was gonna say were there, but are there.
Because it's probably still active.
So the name of the podcast withthe most episodes published and
(43:00):
how many episodes is that in the
history of podcasts, the number oflisteners and the number of episodes
are up there, and feel free to fact
check McLean on this one too, ifyou would like and Jody Vickery
and file a complaint if he's wrong.
But if you are in our audienceand you answered the podcast,
name two, beautiful to live with.
6,643 episodes.
One, you probably have a lot of freetime to Google things like that,
(43:23):
but two, watch for your name to bedropped as, and they did that in three
days.
The lucky
winner of $50 for you and $50to a charity of your choice.
So the next one you can't answer.
You might know it too'cause you are a smart guy.
We've established that.
But this one's for our audience thisweek, this week's military minute is a
question about veteran owned businesses.
According.
(43:43):
I know.
Very appropriate.
Well played.
It ties right back to it, doesn't it?
It's amazing.
According to the SBAs Office of Advocacy,how many veteran-owned business?
It's sba.
Oac.
Oh my gosh.
Or oa.
According to the SBAs Office of Advocacy.
How many veteran owned businesses arethere in the United States in 2024?
(44:05):
Am I allowed to answer?
No, not at all.
No.
Okay.
You'll be, I know the answer.
I'll tell you offline.
Spoiler alert.
Brandon knows.
Once we stop recording,he can blurt it out.
Yeah.
So, but if you're in ouraudience, go find this answer.
If you aren't as smart as Brandonand already know the answer
and when this podcast drops youcan, he does it for a living.
Drop the answer in our comments, andif you are right first, and then if
(44:26):
you are selected second, you too couldbe the recipient of $50 for yourself
and $50 to a charity of your choice.
That's all I got to say about that.
Good job.
I don't know if anybody's evergotten the prior podcast one.
No, I think Brandon well played,sir. He, he is a thought leader
and he is well beyond most.
It's like it gets allthose trophies, normal IQs.
(44:46):
It's like gets all those trophies.
You like
some trouble,
bring it home.
McLean?
Yes.
If you enjoyed today's episodein 360 OUTTA 365 sunny Days in
Colorado Springs like Brandon
did, and if you like boxes of joy
and Yes.
And if you want to go to somecybersecurity, I. Website
and go to some sort of
(45:06):
Blaze ai, AI
con Blaze AI conference.
Yep.
Or if you want to go to, what's thisconference coming up again in November?
What is it?
One more time?
Yep.
November 7th set.
November 7th, 18th.
Annual veteran small business conferenceat Great Wolf Lodge in Colorado Springs.
You can go to Pikes Peak.
SB dc.org to find out more.
Awesome.
And the good thing, the good thingis this is being published on
(45:27):
November 8th, so it'll be perfect.
Oh man.
Kind
of an added bonus.
If Dale comes, you could say,and you get to meet Dale.
I mean, that could, thatcould be added to your website
and now the participationlevel went in the tank.
Alright, so yes.
If you enjoyed today's episode asmuch as Hunter did, go out to af
bank.com and subscribe to the show.
Also, make sure to rateus, leave us a comment.
(45:50):
On your favorite podcast platform,which happens to be Brandon Apple
Podcast, Spotify, and YouTube.
So awesome.
More pub for you and peoplewill certainly gonna benefit
if they go to the conference.
Wonderful.
Can't wait for that to happen.
'cause it sounds like it'ssomething that's gonna be memorable
and worth every minute of it.
End dollar.
We, we certainly will make your value.
(46:12):
Awesome.
Well it was a, it was apleasure to meet you today and
we appreciate you joining us.
Awesome.
Thank you guys.
I appreciate you.
You got it.
Thank you.
Enjoy the rest of the conference.
Thank you.
See you.
Copyright Armed Forces BankMember, FDIC, equal Housing Lender.
All non Armed Forces bank owned apps,websites, company names, and product
(46:32):
names are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of their respective owners.
They're mentioned does not implyany affiliation with or endorsement
by Armed Forces Bank of themor their products and services.
They're merely used as examples of themany available apps, companies, and
websites that offer similar services.
Before using any app or website, youshould carefully review the terms
of use data collection and privacypolicy apps may have an initial cost
or in application purchase features.
This information is generalnature and is not intended to be
legal, tax, or financial advice.
Although Armed Forces Bank believesthis information to be accurate, it
(46:54):
cannot ensure that it could change.
Statements or opinions of individualsreferenced herein are their own
not Armed Forces Bank consultant.
Appropriate professional concerningyour specific situation and respective
governing bodies for applicable lawssuch as irs.gov for current tax law.
Armed Forces Bank, the ArmedForces Bank logo and the Militarily
Speaking logo are registered.
Trademarks of Armed Forces.
Militarily Speaking, season two,episode two, Pike's Peak Small
(00:05):
Business Development Center.
This episode we talk with BrandonEldridge, with Pike's Peak Small
Business Development Center.
Say that
five times.
I know it's gonna I, I'm glad you have thePopper device on your microphone today.
(00:29):
Welcome to Militarily Speaking.
Brought to you by Armed Forces Bank.
This is Tom McLean.
Tmac and Jody Vickery, j Vick.
Should we do that or not?
Oh, sure.
Yeah.
'cause we're cool enough to do that.
I,
I'm the military retail executivefor Armed Forces Bank, and Jody
is our Chief Digital Officer.
All right.
We get Brandon Eldridge.
(00:50):
Yes.
Welcome to the
show, Brandon.
We're excited to have you listening.
How excited to haveour audience listening.
Hopefully Brandon listens alittle bit, but yeah, I might do
some listening
too, what you say, or youcould just talk about whatever.
Yeah, sure.
But we're excited that our audience istuned in and listening and learning all
about, about you and your organization.
I do wanna take just a second though, and,and tell them just a little bit about you.
(01:13):
No new information.
I hope for you about yourselfhere, but, um, it's all
made up so you better, Tommay have taken fact check it.
Tom may have taken
liberties.
Don't believe everythingyou hear about me here.
It's, it's weird.
It starts with BrandonEldridge, lifelong Cubs fan.
So I, I don't, no.
Oh no.
That may or may not be Tom takingeditorial privilege, but, and
Buffalo, bill and Baltimore Raven Pan.
(01:34):
Yes.
Because he doesn't like the Chiefs.
So nice.
I'm sorry,
Brandon, don't hang up.
Brandon Eldridge was named theexecutive Director for the Pike's Peak
Small Business Development Center,SBDC, for short in April, 2023.
He plays a key role in supporting smallbusinesses in the Pike's Peak region
as they launch, grow, and create jobs.
(01:54):
Brandon is a champion of the ColoradoSprings business community and has
nearly 25 years of management experiencethat spans various sectors including
technology, banking, and retail.
What was that middle one?
Banking?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
We're in good company here.
I'm a recovering banker.
They're trying to make me a bankerso we can have a support group.
Eldridge has worked as market directorof underline, and spent time working
(02:18):
at both Chase and Vectra Bank.
Since moving to Colorado Springs in 1998,he has been actively involved in the
community and served as the President ofLeadership Pikes Peak and president of
the Council of Neighborhood Organizations.
He graduated from Colorado TechnicalUniversity with a Bachelor of
Science in Business Administration.
Welcome, Brandon.
It is.
It's an honor to have you on the show.
(02:38):
I'm grateful that you came here, eventhough you've met Tom previously, so he
still said yes.
Good job
being brave.
Yeah.
Tell our audience a littlebit about your Hikes.
Peak Small Business Development Center.
And let, let's kick it off there.
Well, thank you guys somuch for having me on.
I know that there's gonna be a lot of sBDCs across the country that'll listen
to this, and so I hope I do as justice.
(02:59):
But you will.
Here at the Pikes Peak region, Iactually only cover two counties
in the whole state of Colorado.
So what's neat is we have 14offices that cover the entire state.
My office covers Colorado Springs,Woodland Park, so a little bit of
the up, up the mountain, but mostlyin, in El Paso County, which is
(03:19):
the largest county in the state.
So we have some really awesome impact.
Last year we served 694 businesses withat least three hours or more of impact.
So when we work with clients, we'redoing one-on-one free consulting, kind
of talking about your business plan, yourmarketing strategies, how to integrate AI
into your business, and all of the greatthings that help a business run properly.
(03:43):
So
that's great.
That's a good, good overview.
And now we're about to pepperyou with a billion questions.
Okay.
What's going?
It's two and a half hours ofthis, of Jodie, which is powerful.
So we, we met for the first time.
We certainly did a prepwork call with you, Brandon.
We've also been involved with your comp,your annual conference that's coming up.
(04:04):
I got firsthand knowledge of howgreat you are and how great your
organization is based on what you toldour audience at the conference about
45 days ago in, in Your Backyard.
But let's talk about sortof that career, right?
You said you were a recovered banker.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's right.
And but what led you tobe in the role today?
We talked about your bio, we talkedabout why you're so qualified and
(04:27):
experienced to take on this job,but how'd you get there and why?
Yeah.
So real quickly, I know you guys wereteasing me about my sports affiliations,
but I was an army brat growing up, andso I, I was a big chiefs fan moving
to Colorado in the late nineties.
And I got into sports retail early in mycareer and I really enjoyed doing that.
(04:49):
But I always felt like one dayI was gonna run my own business.
So back around 2010, a great time forbanks and mortgages, but I got recruited
over to Chase Bank and I was a branchmanager for them for almost nine years.
While I was with Chase, I, I startedthere because I thought, well, I
better understand how money worksif I'm gonna own my own business.
And I got hooked and Istayed there for a long time.
(05:12):
And I just loved, I lovedwhat I got to do every day.
And what really made it specialwas the community impact that I
was starting to, to lean into.
I always felt like as a banker,it was our obligation to make
sure we made community impact.
So I started working with ournonprofits in the community and finding
ways to just engage in ways that.
Was more than just providing financialservices that led me to V Bank in 2018,
(05:39):
where obviously gave me a little runwaybefore the pandemic hit and while the PPP
loans were being administered at our bank.
The SBDC was also doing what wecall the idle loans, the EIDL.
So those are the disaster relief loans.
So I'm doing PPP, the SBD C's, doing idleloans, and we just found this really great
synergy of like, we were doing town halls,virtual town halls with our chambers,
(06:04):
and we were working with business ownersacross the board, helping them get capital
in this really, really challenging time.
And so I personally did 269PPP loans for Zion's Bancorp.
I set a personal record there,and so they gave me a little
trophy that said I did so.
And you still have it?
You still have it?
Of course.
Where is the trophy today?
Of course.
(06:24):
Yeah.
It'd be funny if you had like whippedaround and pulled it out from behind it.
Oh yeah.
No, no, it's in my office.
But I, I, I appreciated that because itdemonstrated the work that my team did
to, to get us through that period of time.
But as you know, uh, we built a reallygood relationship with SBDC and I realized
that I had an aptitude working withentrepreneurs, helping people understand
(06:46):
how to see the forest through the treesand just get their business plan in a
really great place where they're gonnabe profitable and help them excel.
So having some of that.
Business acumen, having an understandingof p and ls and balance sheets and
the underwriting process, and thenalso just being a community member.
It's really been a great marriageof my career to come to SBDC
(07:07):
and support entrepreneurship.
If it were that easy, anyone could do it.
Right?
That path, that path seemedjust perfect for him.
He made, he made it sound easy.
So as, as companies come to you, asthey're trying to get underway, what are
some of the most common services thatthey are seeking out and that you're
finding you're able to, to match up with?
And kind of along those lines, are there,are there certain industries or sectors,
(07:30):
if you will, that are sort of drawn to theservices that your organization provides?
Or is it all across the board different?
It's definitely across the board.
I mean, we can help you withcybersecurity, we can help you
with HR practices or buildinga great company culture.
But most of the time people are comingto us because, well, number one, they,
they don't know what they don't know.
(07:51):
And so they're seeking help, but a lotof times it's because they need capital.
And so they're looking for what arethe streams of, of money out there?
How would they go into a, a businessloan or get a VC for that matter.
And so people seek us out because they'relooking for that support to find capital.
And sometimes it's notalways about the money.
Sometimes they just need more clients.
(08:12):
And so understanding their branding,their marketing, how to get more clients
through their business is obviouslyanother key element to growing.
So people come to us all the time.
They're.
How do I use this AI to createa really great marketing plan?
Or how do I put together a p and land balance sheet so that the bank
feels confident with my loan package?
(08:32):
And we walk through that in a verysystematic way with our advisors.
So that's a big reason.
But lately, I can tell you guys,I talk about AI almost daily.
I'll bet.
I mean, it's just beendominating the workflows.
It's been dominatingsoftware that people use.
And I think it's interesting becauseI run the SBDC like a small business,
and so I use some of the same tools,like we use QuickBooks, I use Canva for
(08:56):
my marketing flyers, and we're findingthat a lot of these tools that we're
already using are starting to embed.
AI into the software, and so people areusing AI more than they already realize.
But we just ran a big AI summithere in Colorado Springs about
a month ago, back in August.
And uh, we had 200 people, eightkeynote speakers throughout the day.
(09:19):
And boy, I'll tell you, the, thestuff we're talking about in AI
is just really, really cool stuff.
Yeah, I don't think people, I knowI, I don't even scratch the surface
of understanding what it can do.
I mean,
we don't, yeah.
Yeah.
It regularly that we go through a bunchof hoops to do something in a way that
we've always done it, and then somebodyhas the brilliant idea to say, Hey, did
(09:39):
you, did you try chat GPT or co-pilotor, or whatever the case may be.
Then you do that and then you'relike, oh, it did it in five
minutes and it took me five hours.
And then you try not to be,try not to be mad about it.
That's right.
Yeah.
We, we came up with a mantra.
So we work with our local BBB andJonathan Liebert and I, we have a
mantra as busy as the enemy of strategy.
(10:01):
Mm-hmm.
So if you get bogged down by busywork because you're not using ai,
then it's removing your ability to dostrategic planning and to really think.
I think big picture about your business.
So we're, we're talking aboutAI in ways that help alleviate
that, just that busy work.
Yep.
I'm writing that down.
That might go on my whiteboard downstairs.
I'll erase it.
(10:22):
You have a pretty big shop there though.
I know.
You, you got regions around the country,over a thousand s BDCs and Yeah.
You've also got, you talked about legalservices that you, you, AI I know is
in, in big demand, but in cybersecurityis a big issue for businesses, but
legal support you provide right.
A little bit.
So s BDCs, you gotta thinkabout us as we're kind of the
(10:44):
king of the DIYers, right?
We're gonna help, we're gonnateach you how to do it yourself.
And while if you come to us and you needa marketing strategy, we're not going to.
Make the marketing strategy foryou, we're gonna teach you how to
really be intentional about that.
It's the same thing with legal.
We're not going to give you legal advice.
We're not gonna represent you in courtif you're getting sued or if you're,
(11:06):
if you're having a legal debate.
But what we will do is with our.
Claim of lawyers is they'll tellyou what you can and can't do in
the state of Colorado and what istechnically legal in, in our community.
So in some ways it's a support,but in other ways it's not exactly
seeking out a free lawyer torepresent you in in the court of law.
(11:27):
Yeah, that makes sense.
And, and you've kind of talked about itwith some of, some of the other answers,
but I wonder if there are other, otherservices or resources, either by coming
to see you or going to your website,
which I don't
know
that we've mentioned yet,waiting for him to mention it.
'cause he's, he's got17 different websites.
Oh.
There'll be a listing of websites,
(11:47):
hashtag eggs.
Yeah.
If, if there are other resourcesor things that you bring to the
table or your what if, yeah.
Businesses that come to youand say, I have an idea.
I don't even have a business yet.
Yeah, and so you need to kind ofbring them a business in a box so
they, they can put the framework ofthe puzzle on the table with you and
then go away and fill out the pieces.
How does that work?
Yeah, I was doing a militarypodcast last year leading up to
(12:09):
our veterans conference, and theguy said, oh, it's interesting.
You guys really have a processto start and scale a business.
And I said, yeah.
And he goes, military folks reallylike that because they come from a
world of s SOPs and a lot of structure.
Mm-hmm.
So while being an entrepreneur, Ithink by my definition of being an
entrepreneur, means you're thinkingoutside of the box and you're invested
(12:33):
into a, a, growing a business.
You also can follow a very scriptedprocess that's gonna help you do that.
And at my office we have a startup day.
Once a month we've got online curriculum.
And then as you mentioned,I've got a good team.
So we've got 41 advisors currentlyon my team that will meet one-on-one
(12:54):
in a private confidential settingand talk through those things that
you maybe don't know and you'remaybe embarrassed to ask unless you
know that it's gonna be private.
So that's kind of the model of SBDC.
So.
Going up on a, on our, like a federallevel, we all know SBA because they
back a lot of our loans that weunderwrite and the SBA and as part of
(13:15):
their effort to ensure that the federalgovernment is getting US-based small
business contracts through procurement.
They help fund operations likeSBDC score, vbo C, so that's the
Veteran Business Outreach Center.
Yep.
And then of course,women Resource Partners.
So those are all in thatfamily of federal resources.
And you might find that Vbo C andSBDC are closely aligned in many
(13:40):
ways, and one might serve a betterfirst purpose for your business.
Over the other.
And then when you drill down tolocal, like I get some grants
through the state of Colorado thatallows us to do childcare services.
We get some funding through our countythat helps us do some scaling classes.
So I'm looking for differentrevenue streams that help me
(14:00):
provide curriculum and contentto our businesses at all levels.
Federal, state, county, city, I mean,we find partnerships across the board
and then we, we can reach across.
To the DOD side, we have Apex acceleratorsthat's, you know, across the country.
And then these accelerators, man, we'vegot some awesome accelerators in the Pike
Speed community, but most communitiesthat are mature probably have some sort
(14:23):
of tech accelerator that are helpingquote unquote founders and helping
scale up some of that technology stuff.
Sort of like incubatorstuff out there too, right?
Mm-hmm.
You know, the, yeah, I think of AltCap, which is a company in that, just
in our backyard too, that is sortof, that, not a VC particular, but
maybe just a, a resource of fundsavailable for startup businesses too.
(14:44):
So I'm sure there's more than justthat one company around this country
that are there to provide for thatinitial funding or initial capital
investment they need to get off theground too, and could be sizable.
It could be just a, a smallamount that they need.
Well, a lot of CDFIs outthere will run accelerators.
Yep.
And that sometimes is their gateway drug.
(15:04):
To get your capital, you'll gothrough a 10 week accelerator and at
the end you get your, your capital.
So there's CDFIs, there's cs,and then there's nonprofits.
Like in our community we haveone called Exponential Impact.
And what they do is they, they managethese revolving loan funds and they teach
you some really foundational skills.
(15:26):
They lend you at a really low,I mean, our, our revolving loan
fund, I think it's 0% interest thefirst year, 1% the second year.
But you have to have it paidback in those 36 months.
So it's almost like free money, butyou have to do a little work to get it.
So, and we partner with alot of those folks as well.
We ought to give everybodyBrandon's cell number for that.
(15:46):
0% financing for, so it's five.
It's 5, 5, 5.
Yeah.
Five.
You know what's funny?
A movie switch, that 5,5, 5 number never works.
Yeah.
No, but 8 6 7 5 3 0 9 does
always.
But
can you say it without singing it?
Jenny?
Jenny?
Nope.
Please don't sing them.
Oh boy.
(16:07):
So the, I bet every day'sdifferent for you, right, Brandon?
So when you get different walk-intraffic, different leadership roles, you
play different communication different.
People that are looking for services, butSo if you had to break it down percentage
wise, do you think it's new business?
Do you think it's people coming insaying, I'm ready for the next stage of
my business, I need ways to grow, or isit people that are winding down their
(16:30):
business and transferring 'em to theirfamily members or looking to sell and
I'm sure it's everything, all the above.
And then you've got all theseconnections you have either in
Colorado Springs or in the region.
That you can, that you've partnered, thatyou've made connections, you network.
You're a great networker, but so ifyou had to break it down by percentage,
what would a normal day, week, ormonth or year look like as far as
(16:52):
businesses coming in to see you?
Or reaching out to you.
Well, and thank you for that question,and I will tell you one of the most
awesome parts of my job is there'sno two days that are the same.
That's why she and I love what we do too.
Yes, yes, yes.
And Dale.
And Dale,
yeah,
of course.
So I, I'm industry agnostic, so I don'tnecessarily serve one industry, but like
(17:17):
today, I'm at a manufacturing summit.
We're, we're supporting ourmanufacturers in the community.
When people come in, generallythey're coming to us because they have
little to no resources, and resourcestranslates to capital or money, right?
So they don't have anymoney to hire somebody yet.
They don't have any moneyto pay an accountant.
They don't have any money.
(17:37):
To start a capital campaign ora marketing campaign come to us
because we're a free resource.
And so of course most of our clientsare in that pre-revenue or that startup
phase, and I like to break entrepreneursinto four phases pre-revenue.
But you have an idea.
You're just, you'restill kind of forming it.
You're looking for that MVP,that minimum viable product.
(17:59):
You might be in that second phase,which is startup, and you've already
started selling your product, but you'restill going through growing pains and
you're figuring out what is it like.
The third scale is your maturebusinesses who have started to scale up.
Maybe they've got more than 10employees by this point, and
they're, they're systems, they, theyprobably have SOPs at that point.
(18:20):
They probably have systems in place.
And then you have yourlegacy business owners.
Who are on that three to five year trackto either merge or sell their business.
An interesting stat is about 50% ofbusinesses will close because they
didn't have an exit strategy, meaningthey didn't plan for that merger or
to sell it off, and that's hard tokinda work through that, especially.
(18:42):
When an entrepreneur and the identityof the business are synonymous, and
so what we do is we try and pull thosethings apart so that your business
can be an independent teenager that'sgrowing and and building out, and you
can kick 'em outta the house one day.
And that's the goal is that you don't havethe same identity as your business, but.
(19:03):
To directly answer your question,most of our businesses are in that
pre-flight or in that startup phase,but we love working with those scaling
businesses, especially our exit planners.
We love working with them.
It's just, it, it's less of it becauseof the nature of, of resources.
Yeah.
Well, we are a military podcast, solet's talk about the veterans or the
(19:25):
military spouses in particular too, right?
You've got, you've gotthe Army connection.
You found your true passion.
Are you seeing startups as theytransition outta the military?
'cause they have, they have the skills,the portable skills that are transferrable
in that leadership environment.
Like you said, theirstructure, they love SOPs.
They love logistics, they love a templatewhere it just makes sense to them.
(19:47):
But what, what kind of, I guess,guidelines or best practices would
you give someone that has that idea?
Yeah, so anybody who has a DDtwo 14 probably sat through some
sort of TAP program, so Yep, yep.
Transitioning out and what we do here inour community, because we do have five
military installations, and just as alittle caveat, 44% of the economy in the
(20:10):
Pikes Peak region is tied to aerospace anddefense, and we have space, space Force.
We have the, for Carson, which is.
Geographically, one of the largestmilitary BA installations in the country.
Obviously the Air Force Academy, whichmost people know, and norad, which is kind
of a novelty in some ways, but obviouslydoing really, really important work.
(20:32):
And even though Space Command ismoving to Huntsville, I will tell
you a lot of that command is stillgonna be centralized in the Pikes Peak
Community and Golden Dome initiativesand things like that are gonna be really
critically important to to mission.
With that being said, our soldiersand our troops that are transitioning
out, they oftentimes will.
(20:54):
It, it we're a transientcommunity because of that.
And so what we're doing is we're likegiving them that pre-flight idea so
that if they're gonna stay in thePikes Peak region or move back home,
whatever that looks like, we're gonnahave them with a really structured idea
of what a business plan is and helpthem kind of work through their idea.
They bring so many great skills asveterans to be entrepreneurs, and what
(21:16):
I love about this demographic, if youwill, is they understand government.
And so this is a great place for themto lean into government contracting.
So at our veterans conference thatwe'll have on November 7th, we'll
have 15 workshops that day, andmany of them are, are tailor made to
how to work with government or howto get that certification of that
(21:38):
VOSB, which is that veteran-ownedcertified business, small business.
So we, we really lean into that withthese soldiers and these airmen that
are retiring because they bring,they bring a lot of transferrable
skills into entrepreneurship.
Sure.
Do
you wanna mention that date again?
'cause I think we're gonna have toget at least 25 plugs from you for a
conference coming up and what is it?
(21:59):
November?
What was it again?
November 7th, 2025.
Where's it being held?
It'll be at Great WolfLodge in Colorado Springs.
It is a family friendly event, sowe have a really great room block.
So if you're flying into town, if yougo to pikes peak sbdc.org, you can
find all of the information about theevent, including our room block details.
It's 99 bucks and you get fivewaterpark tickets for the event.
(22:22):
So bring your kids.
That's a really good deal.
Dale, did you hear that?
Did you hear that?
Yeah.
I'll tell you guys.
This is a day whereveterans find their tribe.
I mean, if you wanna find a placewhere you're doing networking,
getting plugged into resources, andlearning about how to be a veteran
entrepreneur, this is the event.
We'll have 70 tables, 15 workshops,three keynote speakers, and
(22:47):
one Santa Claus at this event.
Oh.
Dale, did you hear that?
Dale's signing up as we speak.
You can't see him, but he's overhere hammering on the keyboard,
getting out a credit card.
It's
not just a conference.
'cause it sounds like this is an eventand it'll be fun for everybody, so.
Oh yeah.
Thanks for putting yourheart and soul around it.
'cause after it's the 18th annual,you better get it right by now.
(23:08):
Yeah.
Don't you think
you've had you,
you've had 17 attempts.
Lucky for me, this is only mythird attempt at it, but All
right, we'll edit that out.
All right.
Yeah, thanks.
I think they say
the third time's the charm.
Yeah.
Hey everyone.
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(23:32):
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No, we'll, we'll have400 people at this event.
Guys, it's a really an awesome wayto invest in your business, and we
(24:40):
love that it's a regional event.
It's not just for folksin the Pikes Peak region.
We're flying in one of ourkeynotes from Tampa Bay.
His son's actually cadetat the Air Force Academy.
His name is Christian Crumple.
He was one of the producers of theBlair Witch Project, and he now
does documentaries for soldiersacross the country, and he is
staunch advocate for veterans.
(25:01):
And then our lunchkeynote is John Register.
He actually is a Paralympian, buthe served in as a combat vet and
he's just an inspiration to all.
So.
Really great day.
Sounds like a great day.
And if you've ever stayed at Great WolfLodge, you know that $99 is a great price.
That's correct.
Yeah.
You
(25:22):
remember that when we were together,you showed me videos of you like
going around Colorado Springs.
Yes.
What were you doing?
Because I thought thatwas pretty innovative.
And I want you to tell our audiencebecause they, they should steal that
idea from you 'cause it was so cool.
Well, the SBDC has a day.
We actually have a holiday sometime inMarch, and so it's SBDC day and it's
(25:44):
honestly a way for my office to giveback to our advisors and give back to our
stakeholders, and we have a lot of peoplethat support our mission financially.
So this year I created a box that.
Kinda looks like a happy meal, right?
It's not a happy meal.
So to be clear, McDonald's,but disclaimer too.
Yeah, we were giving out boxes of joy thatday and we went to a lot of our banks, a
(26:07):
lot of our stakeholders, and we droppedoff little packages for everybody and,
and did a little social media campaign.
So if you're, if you're followingon LinkedIn or Facebook, look
us up for the Colorado SBDCserving the Pikes Peak region.
And kick back to March of this yearand you'll see our video series.
So I wanna talk about howyou might partner with other
(26:30):
s BDCs across the country.
There are thousands of them.
How do you, how do youcollaborate with those peers?
Are there learnings that you'veexperienced that are, are worth
sharing here, both in your leadershipcapacity and just as you might have?
I don't know if businesses transitionand so you hand off, I don't, I don't
know how that works, but how might youcollaborate with them across the country?
Yeah, so as you mentioned, there'sabout a thousand s BDCs and each state
(26:54):
or sub-state has kind of a network.
So the Colorado network is just one.
I think California has two or three,but we have an annual training
event that we go to every year.
So we were just in Orlandolast month in September.
And we have a big training eventwhere it's three days and we do
a lot of workshops and a lot ofcross pollination, if you will.
(27:17):
Yeah.
Amongst other SB d. C centers.
And so I get a, it's a greatopportunity for me to meet others,
learn what they're doing, andkind of take some best practices.
And then I'm part of three interestgroups as part of our larger network.
So my office does cybersecurity, soI'm in a cybersecurity interest group.
If you're interested inanything cybersecurity,
check out our Delaware SBDC.
(27:39):
They've managed something calledNorth Star and that, or work
with a company called North Starand they're doing fantastic work
helping entrepreneurs fortify theirbusiness through cybersecurity.
Awesome.
And they get there.
Is there a certain site where theyshould go, or should they just go to
the global SBDC site and find Delaware?
No, Google.
I would Google or go in your chat andjust say, find me the Delaware SBDC.
(28:01):
Okay.
Yeah, I, I don't know that the As,so it's the As SBDC, so the America's
SBDC, I don't know if their databaseplugs into all of the networks, but the
Delaware SBDC site's very easy to find.
You
know, Brandon's throwingout a lot of acronyms.
Like he's a military guy or a banker.
Yes.
Right?
Yes.
Or he's been in the military.
(28:22):
That's, I mentioned that earlier.
I know they have a lot of acronyms too.
More than banking or the same.
Hmm.
Close.
Maybe more?
Yeah,
maybe more.
Yeah.
We'll
make up some for us.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I'm also part of a VeteransInterest group, and our veterans
interest group includes some Vbo C folks.
So VBAC is the Veteran Business OutreachCenter, and we meet on a monthly basis,
(28:44):
and we just talk about how our s BDCs.
Intentionally servingveteran entrepreneurs.
And so it's, it's a great way for me to,as I mentioned, to do cross pollination.
We meet, you know, across the country,there's folks involved in this.
And what's great is, like oneof my peers in Huntsville,
she's in that group as well.
And I just think the collaborationbetween SBDC, it's at the
(29:06):
core of our mission, right?
Like to help find resources,connect you, and, and uplift others.
So it's very easy task for us.
I'm not gonna ask this nextquestion like I normally would.
Okay, so I'm just gonna,I'm gonna put it more, I
have no idea where's going.
I'm gonna put it more plainly.
I'm okay.
I'm gonna talk about your impactto the economic development,
all that, blah, blah, blah.
(29:27):
Right?
You self-assess a lot.
I, it seems like you're the kindof guy that would do that, right?
And so what's, what's the scorecard looklike or what does success look like?
And, and I know you offer greatservices out there, but at some
point you have to measure yourimpact or measure the success.
Or get feedback or the BBB givesyou feedback or your people that
(29:49):
put Google ratings out there andtalk about how great you are.
But what, what is that scorecard?
Because you probably just go through,like we talked about earlier, every day
is something new, but when do you go?
When do you just sit back and say,wow, this is what we've done in
my third year here and I'm makingsequential progress in, in how we're
impacting lives and businesses.
Well, as I mentioned, I'm prettycompetitive, so I definitely keep track of
(30:13):
numbers and as a recovering banker I like,I like to look at those numbers, but.
The country's divided into10 regions with the SBA.
So I'm in region eight, sowe were actually the region
eight winner this year.
So we were in the top 10 SBDCs in the country for 2025.
So number one, that's a great metrics forme to feel pretty proud about for my team.
(30:36):
But you know, every year we doimpact reporting, and this is
required of the SBA, but it'salso needed for our stakeholders.
So when we're measuring success, we'retalking about how many businesses
started with our support, how manyjobs did we help create and retain,
how much capital our businessesgetting because of the work we do.
Last year, we had almost $30 millionin capital gain because of our work.
(31:01):
And you know, we do a lot ofgovernment contracting with some of
our clients, so that that's, thatmakes a big impact pretty quick, right?
But these numbers that we track help us.
Measure that economicgrowth for the state.
So if you go to the Colorado SBDC landingpage, we have our impact report and
you can see all of the metrics that wemeasure every single year and what kind of
(31:23):
economic impact the SBDC has to the state.
And I will tell you, it's tremendous.
I think That's awesome.
Congratulations to your team.
Excellent.
On that recognition.
I think it's nice to have thatkind of outward recognition.
I mean, you know, I'm sure you guys feellike, yeah, this is, this is humming
along and we're doing a great job.
But it's always cool to have, haveyour team recognized that way.
You probably got
the social media ideaof the year award too.
(31:44):
You probably did.
For box.
Box.
Box of joy.
Box of joy, yeah.
Box of joy.
Yeah.
No, I've been told I'm a very creativedirector, but I think that's part of
entrepreneurship is we have to thinkoutside of the box exactly on the way
that we are gonna serve the community.
You won't find a commercial duringa football game showing SBDC.
(32:07):
It's through word of mouthand through the work we do.
And so because of that, we have toreally be creative in our partnerships.
So I'm actually a member of nine differentchambers in the Pikes Peak region.
And it's like they, a lot ofbreakfast meetings, a lot of
ribbon cutting ceremonies canhave eggs every day of the week.
Let me tell you.
So a lot of event facingthings that support businesses.
(32:30):
We just did a health expo with,I think it was 170 vendors that
we were at that event with.
So we're always looking for opportunitiesto partner in the community because
that's who's really, you know,communicating and, and getting
involved with our business community.
So partnerships are key to our success.
I love that.
What are, what are some of the, the big,I mean we talked about AI and, and that's
(32:54):
come up on another podcast that we'vedone and cybersecurity is a big deal.
Cyber cybersecurity for sure.
I mean, those are twokey hot button topics.
Are there other trends that you arecautioning business owners or encouraging
business owners that are coming yourway to really lean into beyond those
that we've talked about already?
Yeah, I mean, obviously tariffswould be something that Oh, yeah.
People wanna talk about, you know, AI getsin the conversation so much and I'll, I'll
(33:17):
get back to tariffs here a moment, in amoment, but, you know, AI is this trend
where there's some folks out there thatare saying, oh, I'm gonna wait and see.
I, I.
Would encourage you not to waitand see at, at the very least, get
a $20 GPT account and start usingit so you're familiar with it.
The workforce is demanding that, thatpeople know how to use these tools and so.
(33:41):
Just don't fall behind too quicklywhen it comes to just finding at
least one software that you feellike you can use, whether it's
Perplexity or Chat, GBT or Gronk.
I don't care what it is.
Just use one of those tools andstart like figuring out how it works.
Cybersecurity is interesting.
I just read a report thismorning about how AI is helping
and herding cybersecuritybecause it's helping fraudsters.
(34:04):
Do a lot of data research for them.
Oh, I'm sure.
Mm-hmm.
And that's not a good thing.
Right.
And I also see the evolutionof quantum computing.
Yeah.
Really being an X factorin the next couple years.
Once quantum computing is available,you know, open source, it's gonna
really change the game for encryption.
So I think banks need to be reallyattentive and ahead of like.
(34:27):
Encryption will not be your fail safe inthe future when it comes to cybersecurity.
And so you've gotta find thesequantum methods that will
help combat some of that.
I mean, the, the quantum computingcan do things a thousand times
faster than you could ever dream.
So next year's AI summit, if,and by the way, your listeners,
if you wanna Google Blaze.
(34:48):
Ai.
We have a landing page spun upwith all eight speech speakers
from our AI summit this year.
Oh, great.
And I hope you'll visit the site, checkout some of the resources we spun up.
That's really good info.
Yeah.
Who knows?
Next year maybe we'll haveBlaze ai, cyber Quantum Summit.
I, I mean, I don't think I'm smartenough to go to Summit called that.
(35:09):
That's multi-syllabic
too.
Yes.
It's interesting because the intersectof AI and these other two, these other
two topics, obviously cyber and, andquantum it, it's starting to converge
and people don't always know that they'reeven using AI anymore, and so, and.
I'm just really curious to seewhere we go over the next two
(35:30):
years for, for small business.
But yeah, check out theAI Summit next year.
We're gonna evolve it and make it evenbigger and badder than ever before.
Awesome.
The jury's still out about quantumcomputing, but they some, some recently
said five years, it'll be a thing.
Some people said 10.
But the way people, every daythat goes by, it's like, okay,
quantum computing's here.
In about a year.
(35:50):
It just feels like it's going so fast.
I, I think we're muchcloser than five years.
I can tell you that there's atleast three or or four possibly.
Quantum computers in Coloradoalone that we know of.
The problem is we don't even knowof all the quantum computers that
are out there because they'refederal and we're in a race.
(36:11):
We're a race against our, our,our foes across the world.
And we're in a race to make surethat we get ahead of this for,
for security and for growth and.
Quantum is, is around the corner.
My friends, I, I don't thinkyou, I, I think five years
is far too far down the line.
Well, you're in a, yousaid you were a competitor.
(36:33):
It's, you said it, yousaid the correct way.
Can hear in his, I canhear it in his voice.
I know.
Beat, beat your foes, but alsobe ahead of your allies too.
Yeah, because you wannabe the leader in this.
Sometimes being a fast follower isokay too, but it's, it's gonna be an
ever-changing dynamic game out there too.
So we're gonna Thank you.
How's the, how's the weatherout there today, by the way?
Well, I'm outside.
It's lovely.
(36:54):
Colorado Springs gets 360 daysof sunlight a year, actually.
Actually.
Wow.
Is that a, do I need toGoogle that or is that true?
Is that true?
Go for it.
Give it a shot.
That's like a box of joy right there.
That is a box of joy.
That's a box of joy.
I did skip over tariffs
and Oh yeah, definitely.
I'm curious what you haveto say on that topic.
(37:15):
So
I'm talking with a lot of folks thatdo manufacturing and you know, the
big push right now at the SBA is totransition away from international
trade to US manufacturing.
Now with that being said, our businessesthat I'm supporting are having to go
back to their manufacturers and India andChina, in Honduras, in Mexico and Canada,
(37:39):
and they're looking at them saying.
You know, there's somethingcalled like the cost per stitch.
What is the cost per stitchin Honduras versus India?
And I can tell you that it'sstill half as much as it is in
most cases in the United States.
And so having the capacity to havethe machinery and the talent in the
United States to, to bring thosemanufacturing jobs here, it takes years.
(38:04):
We actually have a local designshop called Creative Consortium.
They ordered a printing machinefive years ago from Sweden.
They just got it.
Oh, wow.
And boy, this, thismachine is super cool guys.
When they print stickers, they'retexturized, they're printing them
on huge a hundred foot yard sheets.
It took 'em five years to havethat machine designed, built
(38:27):
and shipped to the United Statesjust so that they can manufacture
that here in the United States.
That's crazy.
So I think there will be some painpoints and I think our businesses.
Need to be prudent with those decisions.
And I, I respect anyone who's goingthrough that and I, I hope you're
going through some really toughnegotiations with your manufacturers
abroad, but do what you can to helpkeep that cost from passing off to
(38:48):
your clients as long as you can.
Now, that doesn't mean thattariffs aren't a real thing.
They are.
And I think people need to be sensitiveto that, especially when you see the
cost of something go up as a consumer, wejust need to be aware that our businesses
that are serving in these spaces.
Or are trying really hard not topass it off as much as possible.
Alright, final question.
(39:10):
You ready?
Yes.
He might be a liar.
He sometimes has follow-ups.
To follow
ups.
Is there a game show thatsays that Final question?
No, here's your, alright,here's your final question.
Ready?
So, okay, I don't know ifit should be one, a one word
answer or a one sentence answer.
If you had to give one piece ofadvice because you're the knower
of all about how to successfullyrun a business, what would it be?
(39:33):
I think if you decide to be anentrepreneur that you need to recognize
there are seasons to entrepreneurship.
You're in your early phase,epiphany phase, or you're in your,
your late phase, whatever seasonyou're in, acknowledge that.
Embrace it, and know that everyseason comes with challenges.
I think it's like anything in life, youknow, if you have young kids, you're
(39:55):
in a season of raising young kids.
If you're.
Have elderly parents in your home,you're in a season of caring for them.
And the same can be trueof entrepreneurship.
I I, I don't think that it's a glamorousthing, but it, and it's very hard
work, but it can be very rewardingand I think it's something that can
lead to independent financial success.
(40:16):
I believe that there's threeways to financial freedom.
It's.
Real estate building a great retirementportfolio and entrepreneurship, and if
you do that entrepreneurship thing reallywell and pour into it and really put
in the hard work, it's very rewarding.
So that's my advice.
That's a
great
answer.
That's a soundbite right there that,
(40:37):
and I literally am writing business.
Busy is the enemy of strategy on my board.
So,
yeah.
Well, that just means you're gonna haveto find some more AI tools to help.
I know.
I know.
I have to do it on mynon-work computer, though.
I think we're on lockdown.
I think we're on lockdown.
Well, this is, by the
way, if we're talking acronyms,I'm gonna call him a sme.
Sme.
(40:58):
Oh, an s
an S-M-B-S-M.
No, it's too much.
You're
welcome.
Put it on a T-shirt.
Yes.
Put it on your business card.
Yeah.
That's three
new business opportunities thatcame outta your mouth today.
I know.
I'm gonna
just trademark everythingthat comes outta my mouth.
Broadcast.
Yeah.
That was really good.
Ooh.
A podcast that was accidental for,
for our fraud team, broadcast,
broadcast.
(41:18):
Now Brandon's gonna take it.
I'll charge royalties.
I'll charge royalties.
Oh my goodness.
Is it time?
It is time.
So Brandon, this has been awesomeand we'd love to have you stick
around for just a couple more minutesto play Military Minute with us.
I promise.
I promise it'll be a great time.
Brandon, what is Mil?
What is Military Minute?
Do you have any idea?
He is tearful.
(41:38):
I'm guessing it's like minute to win it.
You know?
How many coat hangers can Ihang at at once, by the way,
by the way.
Just came to me.
You know when that game show?
It says final answer.
No, it's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Oh yeah.
Remember?
Final answer.
Final
answer.
Final answer.
And what was the movie that wasabout Who wants to be a millionaire?
Oh, slump slum dog.
Slum dog millionaire.
Yeah.
(41:58):
One of the best movies of, at at leastone of the top 5,000 movies I've seen.
That's far too much
downtime is what I'm hearing.
Yes.
You need to, you need to dosome of these things that we
learned about from Brandon today.
Maybe
if you just remember what you did.
Yes, I know I had for
breakfast this morning.
It's a problem.
Yeah, but
we're gonna play a military minute.
(42:20):
We've got two questions today, Brandon.
The first question isfrom our last episode.
So if you happen to know this randomthing then you, you can participate.
Last week's Military Minute wasabout podcast 'cause it was the
first episode of our second season.
I was gonna say that, Tom, youdidn't have to interrupt me.
And we're competitive with LaceyLangford 'cause she's got like
(42:40):
eight times more than we do.
She's, she's got
more.
So we're not actually competitivethan is what that tells me.
That's a
great point, Jody.
So anyway, the question last timewas, what was the name of the podcast
with the most episodes publishedand how many episodes are there?
I was gonna say were there, but are there.
Because it's probably still active.
So the name of the podcast withthe most episodes published and
(43:00):
how many episodes is that in the
history of podcasts, the number oflisteners and the number of episodes
are up there, and feel free to fact
check McLean on this one too, ifyou would like and Jody Vickery
and file a complaint if he's wrong.
But if you are in our audienceand you answered the podcast,
name two, beautiful to live with.
6,643 episodes.
One, you probably have a lot of freetime to Google things like that,
(43:23):
but two, watch for your name to bedropped as, and they did that in three
days.
The lucky
winner of $50 for you and $50to a charity of your choice.
So the next one you can't answer.
You might know it too'cause you are a smart guy.
We've established that.
But this one's for our audience thisweek, this week's military minute is a
question about veteran owned businesses.
According.
(43:43):
I know.
Very appropriate.
Well played.
It ties right back to it, doesn't it?
It's amazing.
According to the SBAs Office of Advocacy,how many veteran-owned business?
It's sba.
Oac.
Oh my gosh.
Or oa.
According to the SBAs Office of Advocacy.
How many veteran owned businesses arethere in the United States in 2024?
(44:05):
Am I allowed to answer?
No, not at all.
No.
Okay.
You'll be, I know the answer.
I'll tell you offline.
Spoiler alert.
Brandon knows.
Once we stop recording,he can blurt it out.
Yeah.
So, but if you're in ouraudience, go find this answer.
If you aren't as smart as Brandonand already know the answer
and when this podcast drops youcan, he does it for a living.
Drop the answer in our comments, andif you are right first, and then if
(44:26):
you are selected second, you too couldbe the recipient of $50 for yourself
and $50 to a charity of your choice.
That's all I got to say about that.
Good job.
I don't know if anybody's evergotten the prior podcast one.
No, I think Brandon well played,sir. He, he is a thought leader
and he is well beyond most.
It's like it gets allthose trophies, normal IQs.
(44:46):
It's like gets all those trophies.
You like
some trouble,
bring it home.
McLean?
Yes.
If you enjoyed today's episodein 360 OUTTA 365 sunny Days in
Colorado Springs like Brandon
did, and if you like boxes of joy
and Yes.
And if you want to go to somecybersecurity, I. Website
and go to some sort of
(45:06):
Blaze ai, AI
con Blaze AI conference.
Yep.
Or if you want to go to, what's thisconference coming up again in November?
What is it?
One more time?
Yep.
November 7th set.
November 7th, 18th.
Annual veteran small business conferenceat Great Wolf Lodge in Colorado Springs.
You can go to Pikes Peak.
SB dc.org to find out more.
Awesome.
And the good thing, the good thingis this is being published on
(45:27):
November 8th, so it'll be perfect.
Oh man.
Kind
of an added bonus.
If Dale comes, you could say,and you get to meet Dale.
I mean, that could, thatcould be added to your website
and now the participationlevel went in the tank.
Alright, so yes.
If you enjoyed today's episode asmuch as Hunter did, go out to af
bank.com and subscribe to the show.
Also, make sure to rateus, leave us a comment.
(45:50):
On your favorite podcast platform,which happens to be Brandon Apple
Podcast, Spotify, and YouTube.
So awesome.
More pub for you and peoplewill certainly gonna benefit
if they go to the conference.
Wonderful.
Can't wait for that to happen.
'cause it sounds like it'ssomething that's gonna be memorable
and worth every minute of it.
End dollar.
We, we certainly will make your value.
(46:12):
Awesome.
Well it was a, it was apleasure to meet you today and
we appreciate you joining us.
Awesome.
Thank you guys.
I appreciate you.
You got it.
Thank you.
Enjoy the rest of the conference.
Thank you.
See you.
Copyright Armed Forces BankMember, FDIC, equal Housing Lender.
All non Armed Forces bank owned apps,websites, company names, and product
(46:32):
names are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of their respective owners.
They're mentioned does not implyany affiliation with or endorsement
by Armed Forces Bank of themor their products and services.
They're merely used as examples of themany available apps, companies, and
websites that offer similar services.
Before using any app or website, youshould carefully review the terms
of use data collection and privacypolicy apps may have an initial cost
or in application purchase features.
This information is generalnature and is not intended to be
legal, tax, or financial advice.
Although Armed Forces Bank believesthis information to be accurate, it
(46:54):
cannot ensure that it could change.
Statements or opinions of individualsreferenced herein are their own
not Armed Forces Bank consultant.
Appropriate professional concerningyour specific situation and respective
governing bodies for applicable lawssuch as irs.gov for current tax law.
Armed Forces Bank, the ArmedForces Bank logo and the Militarily
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