Taking the First ‘STEP’ to Financial Independence

Welcome to the "Militarily Speaking" podcast with Tom McLean and Jodi Vickery.

 

In this episode of “Militarily Speaking,” Tom and Jodi sit down with Tony Teravainen, CEO and co-founder of Support the Enlisted Project (STEP), to discuss the crucial work being done to assist young military families and transitioning veterans. Tony shares his extensive background and the journey of STEP since its inception in 2012, highlighting its mission to create financial wellness through counseling, education, and financial support.

“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.

 

Ep. 79 – Taking the First ‘STEP’ to Financial Independence

 

Support the Enlisted Project (STEP) is a beacon of hope for military families across the United States. The organization was born out of the recognition that many existing services were merely helping military families survive rather than thrive. From its inception in 2012, STEP sought to fill this gap by focusing on financial wellness, using financial counseling as a tool to empower families to make their financial crises their last. Tony and his team emphasize behavioral change as the key to sustainable financial independence.

 

Innovative Programs and Results

 

At the heart of STEP's success is its robust Emergency Financial Assistance Program (EFA), which boasts a 90% effectiveness rate. This program goes beyond merely providing financial aid; it focuses on changing financial behaviors through intensive counseling, allowing families to turn their crises into pivotal moments of change. Each program is tailored specifically to the needs and histories of the families involved, ensuring personalized support that addresses unique challenges faced by military communities.

 

Not only does STEP help families avoid evictions or maintain utilities, but it also restores hope and instills a sense of possibility for a better future. The focus is on teaching financial independence and resolving behavioral roadblocks to achieve healthier financial habits.

 

Building a Supportive Community

 

STEP's reach and effectiveness have been made possible by building a community of support from various. stakeholders. Through impressive partnerships with community organizations, corporations, and individual volunteers, STEP has been able to expand its programs and impact. Programs like the Back-to-School and holiday drives serve as entry points for community engagement, allowing STEP to connect with more military families and spread its message of empowerment and financial literacy

 

The Impact of Leadership

 

A defining feature of STEP's success is its dynamic leadership. Tony Teravainen shares insights into his strategic, process-oriented approach, intertwining it with his personal experiences as a child of a military family himself. His leadership style emphasizes facilitating his team's success, fostering a culture of respect and support that extends outward to the families STEP serves. This culture not only strengthens the organization internally but also builds trust externally, making families feel valued and supported.

 

Future Plans and How to Help

 

Looking ahead, STEP aims to expand nationally, scaling its services to address financial wellness challenges across the United States. Their Vision 2032 outlines this ambitious expansion, aiming to offer their unique services to more military communities, including those geographically isolated.

 

Interested individuals and organizations can get involved in STEP's mission by visiting their website at teamstepusa.org. There, supporters can learn more about volunteer opportunities, donate, and help spread awareness of STEP's mission. Businesses and individuals alike are invited to explore ways to collaborate and lend their support to this impactful cause.

 

With a focus on behavioral change and financial education, STEP continues to lead the way in creating lasting solutions for families in financial crises. Through community involvement and strategic leadership, STEP is poised to make an even greater national impact, ensuring that military families receive the support they need to succeed and thrive long-term.

 

Military Minute

Jodi introduces the Mi

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Militarily Speaking, episode 79.
Support the Enlisted Project.
We'll call it Step.
Yes, yes.
This episode we talk with TonyTaran, CEO, and co-founder of
Support, the Enlisted Project.

(00:25):
Welcome to Militarily Speaking,brought to you by Armed Forces Bank.
I'm Tom McLean, and I'm withhere with my, probably the
best cohost one could ever ask.
Wow.
And that's,
are we, are we not recording?
Oh, is that what's going on?
No,
it's, it's Jody Vickery.
Okay.
So yeah.
Jody Vickery.
I'm the military retail exec for ArmedForces Bank, and Jody, executive Vice
President and Chief Digital Officer.

(00:46):
How about that for a title?
Tony, chief Digital Officer.
We haven't figured out what it meansyet in the, in the banking business too.
Sounds fancy.
I know.
Again, welcome to our show.
We're excited to have you listeningand learning all about our guests,
Tony Taran, and Tony, I wanna takejust a minute and share a little
bit of your bio with our audience.
This all, all, not new information toyou of course, but I want them to have

(01:06):
a little bit of your background beforewe jump in and start talking about Step.
Tony's been a vocal advocate for thepublic support of our military community.
He's assumed his position as presidentand CEO in February of 2014, after
serving as a board chairman, director,and volunteer since the 2012 formation of
STEP as CEO, he oversees the positioningof STEP as a successful, trusted,

(01:27):
and viable partner to young militaryfamilies and transitioning veterans.
Under that guidance step was created inSouthern California and is now serving
families from across the country ashe works to fill Steps Vision 2032.
That's a. That's a long way off a,but it'll probably be here quickly.
Folsome
vision, which I hope we'll hearabout today with a national presence
step has positively impacted morethan 250,000 military and veteran

(01:50):
family members, including 7,800families in financial crisis.
Moved to self-sufficiency through hisfinancial counseling intervention and $2.6
million in grants, and I think importantto say with the 90% effectiveness rate.
A little bit about Tony's personalbackground, son of a career Air
Force father, and having his USNavy submarine career abruptly
ended with a medical condition.

(02:12):
Tony knows firsthand the hardshipsyoung military families endure.
Mr. Tarveen left his consultingposition at Booz Allen Hamilton to
become step's full-time CEO, wherefor five years he consulted on
strategy and process improvement.
And prior to that, he spent sevenyears running his portfolio of small
businesses, 12 in manufacturingleadership at Sony Electronics, and
eight years in the operations repairin project management areas of the US

(02:35):
Navy submarine Nuclear power program.
What that means is he is probablysmarter than the two of us.
Goodbye and, and a littlebit more accomplished.
Yes, yes, yes.
I, that is not on my LinkedIn, Tom,
but I can steal it andput it on my LinkedIn.
You could
put it on your LinkedIn and everybody
would, one out of every threedoesn't have the right inform on
there anyway, everybody that you are
not in fact equipped towork on a nuclear sub.
In addition to serving as a commissioneron San Diego Citizens Equal Opportunity

(02:59):
Commission, he also serves on theSan Diego North Business Chamber.
Economic development and advocacyAdvisory Council, San Diego Regional
Chamber of Commerce Defense Veteranand Military Committee, and sits as
past chairman of San Diego County'smilitary and Veteran Advisory Council.
So very well tapped in obviously tothe community that you serve, and
among other leadership positions.

(03:19):
He's chaired the San Diego CoastGuard City Committee and is an adjunct
professor at the University of San Diego.
He holds undergrad degrees inbusiness management and nuclear
engineering, a master's in executiveleadership from University of San
Diego and a BD with his PhD inpublic policy at Liberty University.
That has to be the end of it that in fact
seals the deal about my commentsabout him being smarter than us.

(03:42):
Yes, I have pH, nothing after my name.
He's received lots of awards andrecognition for all of its good work
to serve the community, including afew here that will name Spirit of Hope
Award from the Secretary of Defense,nonprofit Executive of the Year,
veteran of the Year, top 50 influentialveteran business leaders, top 500
influential people, top 50 COVID leaders.
That's an award wenever thought we'd have.

(04:03):
Right?
Veteran nonprofit, CEO of the year.
He holds lots of license professionallyand Six Sigma had a Six Sigma
black belt once upon a blue moonago, project management and change
management, and holds one US patent.
He's a TED speaker.
That's probably somethingyou aspire to Tom,
so yeah.
What is a TEDx?
It's TEDx, right?
Yeah, that's, yeah.
Like a

(04:23):
TED Talk?
Yes.
Yeah.
The local versions of TED Talk.
See, you get, you sell yourself short.
You are pretty smart.
Yeah.
I'm not a nuclear sub submariner,but most recently he led Step to Earn
Nonprofit of the year, which is awesome.
At the San Diego BusinessJournal Citizenship Awards.
He's married to Jacelyn with twodaughters and a son, so you got your
hands full in all sorts of places hereto, he resides in the Highland Valley

(04:44):
area of San Diego County, where weestablished before we started recording
that is 82 degrees today, which is notthe case where we are in Kansas City.
Yeah.
So you're a busy guy is whatI just, what I just read
when he tells us, when Tony says, Idon't have time for March Madness.
I, I,
I appreciate that
he's doing stuff that matters.
Yes.
Right?
Yes.

(05:05):
It all
matters, right?
Keep everything in perspective.
Just to give J, it's Jacquelineright Just to give back.
Oh, did
I say that wrong?
I'm sorry
Jacqueline.
We gotta give her credit.
She's gonna listen to this and she'splay apologies back for him all the time.
My apologies.
Yes, right.
We got that outta the way.
Yes, he is far busier than either of us.
And Jody, I would say youdid a fantastic job reading.
A very substantive bio and a very,as I said earlier, accomplished.

(05:26):
Well, thanks.
So we've got our accomplishedguest who does impressive things
on nuclear subs, and you'recomplimenting me on my reading skills,
which is, they, they, they're right.
They're in lockstep, aren't they?
Yes.
Yes.
Wait till, talk
about Tony's Orchards.
Okay.
Level playing.
Field level.
Playing field.
So Tony, it is an honorto have you on your show.
I'm gonna try and raise this up out ofwhere, wherever we were just headed.

(05:46):
I wanna say thank you for being withus and before we pepper you with all
kinds of questions, I'd love to haveyou just give our audience sort of
that big picture view of step and, andwhat Step is and what it represents.
And then I know Tom and I both haveseveral questions for you today.
Great.
So yeah, work to create step supportthe enlisted project in 2012.
And it's really born out of thisidea that we weren't, we weren't

(06:10):
doing the hard work as a community.
There's this gap in this area,and there was a lot of agencies
in San Diego that were helpingnonprofits and veterans just survive.
There was a lot of hardship.
10% of the military is stationedin San Diego County, so it is the
most densely populated county inAmerica, military county in America.
And the community appreciates itsmilitary and it does stuff for it.

(06:30):
And in that, what I saw in 2012 was this.
A lot of people helpingthese families survive.
And a lot of this looked like handouts.
I got in a position where I wasvolunteering and I, and I saw this
happening and I thought it was great.
I grew up in a military family.
I, I, I know the lifestyle.
I was the young submarine myself, andthat is a challenging environment,

(06:53):
especially for families and personal life.
So I get it.
It's like, these are my people.
I understand what these people are doing.
But in my time after the military,it really worked to become
through a lot of that stuff.
You read what you could consider tobe a professional problem solver.
And so I'm staring at me, my family,my past, my heritage, but the

(07:13):
other side of my head is like, howis this helping move the needle?
And really that that wasthe starting point for step.
It's like, and a. To starta nonprofit to do something.
And I said, if we're gonna do it,we need to fill this other gap.
And this gap was how do youhelp these families move
past these lines of survival?
How do you make them so theydon't have to come back?

(07:34):
And that kind of morphed intomake it better financially.
And then eventually I got to this pointwhere it's like, let's help 'em through
a financial crisis, but do it in away that makes this their last crisis.
Mm-hmm.
And really that was theframing of the problem.
I actually came up with somemetrics to measure that.
And then I had to go out andbuild a program to do it,
and focusing on my strategy.

(07:57):
You know, I'm a strategy and processperson, and I'm all still a lot of work
in change management, which is behaviors.
So if I can make a bunch of governmentemployees think it's a good idea to
move outta offices, back to cubicles,
it makes you a magic magician, I think.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Those are cultural, cultural, behavioralchanges that once institutionalized.

(08:18):
Shift the trajectory of thatemployee group or that corporation.
So it's like following that concept.
Can we do something like thataround financial behaviors?
I got with some social workers, I'mlike, who does this for a living?
And I figured out socialworkers did this for a living,
help people change behaviors.
And I went to 'em and I said, look,you've spent your life helping people
change behaviors around addiction abuse.

(08:42):
Homelessness, obesity, all these otherissues, these chronic self-destructive
behaviors that humans gather so easily,you help them change what they do.
Will this work for financial behaviors?
And the answer is yes.
And we work to put together essentiallybehavioral innovation intervention
program where we can bring peoplein in a financial crisis using

(09:03):
that crisis, kind of a step one ofchange their burning platform, their
reason to change, and we can helpinspire them that they can change.
We can them create a path toachieve a future state that they
originally thought was unimaginable.
And we can help.
We can resolve, restore, retain thebasic necessities along the way with
our checkbook if we have to, and wecan walk with them for that year after.

(09:27):
To help them recognize thatthey're making these small wins.
These small wins are becoming bigwins while they institutionalize
those behaviors, and that'sessentially what Step does.
Our mission statement now isto create financial wellness.
So we've always done the same thing.
It's like how we express it's different.
We're on this term financial wellness now,which really it's this bigger concept.
It's an academic concept of, yes,you can meet your needs, but also

(09:50):
how you feel about your financialsituation because you too.
You two, Jody can be in the same financialposition, but it could be eating away
at one person more than the other.
Right?
Chronic financial stress just ravagesthe human mind, body and soul.
So, yep, yep.
How do we measure that?
How do we help people get through that?
So, improve financialwellness, and this is combat.

(10:11):
So this concept of financial wellnesshas been correlated to be the leading,
one of the leading factors in foodinsecurity, homelessness, 25, mental
and physical health conditions, andthe leading catalyst for suicide.
Yeah, I believe that.
Yep.
And we do that through counselingeducation and financial support.
And we do that through our young militaryand transitioning veteran families.

(10:32):
We started, like you said, in 2012,and it took three years to figure
out if we were gonna keep doing this,and the answer was yes, three more
years to go, the business stable.
And then we started looking at thenext steps and we started to see if we
could answer the calls from across thecountry that we're starting to get.
So in 2020, I set up my operation inWashington State as a trial expansion.

(10:52):
Can I, can I perform this counselingprogram remotely into a state
that hasn't watched us grow up?
And at the same time, I was gettingcalls from across the country, like I
said, and I said, well, I'm tired ofsaying, no, it's not building my brand.
It's not, it's not helping megrow the trust and relationship
I need by saying no.
So after a few very pointedconversations with clients who

(11:14):
called my cell phone asking for help.
Me saying no.
I'm like, that's enough.
So I built a process at the same time.
If they call me passively from across thecountry, how can I help them through their
crisis, through through their crises?
And we've been successful at that.
And basically, based on that success,our ability to fundraise privately and
fund all this without government supportand inter board voted right at our

(11:35):
10 year point, but our next 10 years,over our next 10 years in a responsible
manner crossed across the nation to tobring it to all our military families.
Is that part, Tony?
Is that part of that V Vision 2032?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That, that is it.
Yeah.
It's like we really follow thisconcept of let's do one thing
and let's do it really good.
Yeah.
All that other stuff.
Let's rely on, on partnersas well to do that.

(11:57):
So, uh, the one program we have and ourreason for existence is to propagate this
emergency financial assistance program,this counseling program, and that's
what we wanna grow across the country.
We wanna be able to get in frontas many people as possible.
And I didn't know anything about thenonprofit sector when I came into it.

(12:18):
I was the strategy guy.
I had started a lot ofbusinesses, but never a nonprofit.
I had to learn a lot about thenonprofit world just to start
this kind of regional nonprofit.
I had to learn a lot howscaling a regional nonprofit
was completely different on thekind of that test expansion.
And now as I, as I end embark on this.

(12:38):
We're two years into it.
So the framework, the foundation andthe operations team, and everything's in
place that we need, and now we're readyto roll out this bigger marketing plan.
It's, it's a lot of learning too.
It's like growing something national inan existing, an existing market space
where I'm not set up to be competitive.
I'm a complimentary service.
There's nobody else that has my program,and I can partner with everybody out there

(13:02):
who has other supportive programs, butit takes trust, it takes relationship.
I'm finding it takes a lot of bandwidth.
Hmm.
But it seems like the trajectorysince 2012 is nothing but up.
Right?
Yeah.
It just, you keep advancing the missionand you keep advancing the support
and the recognition and the brandingand, and the programs that you make

(13:25):
that are really important for people.
So kudos to you.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Yeah.
I wrote down something he, Ihelped them through their crisis
and make it their last crisis.
I like that very much.
Well, we, we were on a brandingworkshop yesterday with our Association
of Military Banks of America, and wespent 30 minutes on whether or not it's
resiliency, wellness readiness, what isthe right buzzword for either getting

(13:48):
over a crisis or being financially?
I. Stable and I, it's a struggle.
And you talked about all thethings about mental health or
homelessness or food insecurity.
Those are the things that veteransare facing and service members and
families, and you're tackling it head on.
So you're doing good work.
And my question, Tony, wasgonna be about the emergency

(14:08):
financial assistance program.
Is there anything elseyou want to add about eap?
If we're gonna throw out acronyms today?
I mean, yeah, it's.
It's a program that we createdto, to serve a specific purpose.
And we had that purpose in mind.
We had our metrics in mind.
As soon as we started getting enoughdata, we could analyze our metrics

(14:28):
and we actually went back into theprogram to adjust it and, and we had
to work and we continued to work everyday to achieve that 90% success rate.
And, and I think that's one of the biggesttestimonies, I think, to the validity of
the program and why we need to expand it.
So you figure this is not themilitary's problem, right?
This is America's problem.

(14:49):
America has poor financial habitsand they're developed before
people turn 10 years old and thepre-teen years, they learn how to
operationalize those financial beliefs.
So you've got a country wherethree outta five Americans spend
their entire paycheck or more.
I think now it's up to 60% of lessthan $400 from our plan emergency.
And I believe it's still around70% have less than a thousand

(15:09):
dollars total on assets.
And the retiree populationtoo, Tony, right?
I mean, you think about what they're.
That nest egg looks like, or how much dothey have in an emergency savings account?
It's, the numbers are not pretty.
They're not pretty.
And again, we've donethis to ourself, right?
I mean, we've put policiesand procedures in place.
We put safety net programsinto place that have.

(15:29):
Allowed people to not do that, and we'veactually created a culture where people
don't need to take care of themselves.
I think sometimes they don't evenrealize what it means to take care of.
I mean, like if you ask people, right?
Yeah.
How much money do you need tohave put away so that you can
retire and live and just transact?
You don't have to live an abundant,like crazy spending frivolous lifestyle.
But how?
How much do you need to put away to liveat least the standard that you're, I

(15:51):
mean, people probably don't even know.
Yeah.
So it's a bigger issue.
But in the military families.
Every year, what is it like point, like a10th of a percent of 18, 24 year olds from
that pool of Americans with poor financialhabits on average join the military.
And we put them in, in, ina very stressful situation.
We put them in a situation that hashigher family stress, higher financial

(16:15):
stress, and higher work stressthan than the rest of Americans.
And it's, you could argue anything but.
The first thing we do to thesepeople is rip 'em outta that home
environment, and that's what wasgonna keep them solvent, right?
That network, their high schoolbuddies, their friends, brothers,
sisters, family members in thecountry every two or three years.
So there's whatever, two to $5,000of unreimbursable costs per move that

(16:36):
puts the spouse in a 50% unemploymentunderemployment rate that locks 'em into
that low income wage that 60% of ourservice members earn, or HUD standards.
You deploy that service member betweenwhat, a third and a quarter of the time.
So if you started with two parents,you can go back and forth between one
and two parent household, but I think20% of the military is single parents.
So they gotta find an aunt and anuncle to take care of their kids.

(16:58):
The military is still thethird most deadly occupation.
So over the last 40 years, more servicemembers have died from work-related
accidents than any other cause is theprofession with the highest divorce rate.
And you're gonna actually tietheir ability to maintain their
security clearance and getgood performance evaluations on
their ability to manage money.
And keep that chaos outta theirlife and it's just, it makes
it much more of a struggle.

(17:19):
It's like the ultimatecircular reference, I think.
'cause it all sort of feeds on itself.
So I mean, I I I think you'rereally good at guessing what
our questions are gonna be.
I know, I was actuallygonna ask about that.
So you've got the pockets that youguys, you guys cover and help people
understand how all this interrelateswith the food insecurity, the
homelessness, the mental health issues.

(17:40):
I mean, I think you just.
Summed it up really well because whilethis stuff happens in just society
as a whole, all the things that youjust articulated are the things that I
think a lot of people don't realize areunique impacts to military families.
Yeah.
And it exacerbates everything that, ora quote unquote normal family not in
the military is gonna be going through.

(18:02):
By some multiple.
I don't even know what thatmultiple would be, but certainly
Tony does have the operationalanalytical data set about him.
Yeah.
So he's probably got a lot of numbersand studies that he, you probably,
you probably stay up late at nightlooking at studies, don't you?
And data you're just, well, you know,
he is not up late filling out his breath.
They call him a, theycall him a quant jock.

(18:22):
And I bet
though if he filled out a bracket, he'dbe the one perfect bracket standing.
I
know.
And Warren Buffet would'veto pay him for that.
Yeah.
Yes.
New fundraising idea.
New fundraising idea,
but talk, yeah, talk a little bitmore about the data side of the house
too, because do you, do you just needreinforcement that these things are,
or because you live it every day, youknow what issues are facing our, our

(18:44):
military population and community?
Yeah.
I mean, we see it, so we're servingjust over a hundred, a hundred
cases a month right now to figure1200 cases a year and growing.
We're seeing familiesfrom across the country.
It's about.
70% of what we do is in SanDiego and Southern California.
About 15% is in Washington andabout 15% in 38 other states.

(19:07):
Okay?
And it's the same issues,but different issues.
Most of the people, we ask 'em howthey found us, and 90 plus, 95% plus
are from these personal referrals.
And what we've been able to establish isthis brand value that we're the place to
go when you're really in a financial mess.
65% of our referrals come from on base.

(19:28):
Friends, coworkers, neighbors,military supervisors.
And then the agencies that they goto on base, they'll roll into one of
these relief agencies or the financialcounselors there, and they're like,
you know, you just need to go tostep, you know, we can do this part,
this part, but you need to go to stepand off base, 35% just in San Diego.

(19:49):
It's about 140 referral partners.
And there.
Other nonprofits that focuson military and non-military.
They're big and small nonprofits,their city agencies, there are
county agencies there, churches,there's colleges, community groups.
One guy running, there'ssomebody to help me change my
tire on the side of the highway.
It's like they get them in this moment,and what I need to do is get my, my

(20:11):
value proposition into somebody's headin a way they actually believe it.
So when themselves or somebody aroundthem is suffering from this crisis,
and it's not like, oh man, it's.
It's just times are, times are tough andthis is a problem and this happened and
this happened and, and this guy screwedme over and this guy screwed me over.
And it's like, by the time theyget to us, those stories are done.

(20:32):
And in my, in my TED Talk, I used thisexample of this marine that came into our
office and we were in our first location.
So it's a thousand square feetevery knew when somebody came in
the front door and you walked inon a Friday afternoon at four 30.
And he was, he was actually giant,like walked out the sun from the door.
He's the size of like a linebacker.
And this social worker walks up tohim with this big smile and she's

(20:56):
maybe four foot 11 and a half, andshe's peering up at him with this big
smile, and he's looking down with justthis, it's just a blank expression,
say I can recognize it anywhere.
And he pulled his cover off andhe literally shrunk in front of
her so much so that the room gotlighter as he led in more light.
And he said.
Again, the stories are gone.

(21:17):
And all he said was, I don't haveenough food for my kids tonight.
He told me you could help.
And I'm tired of this.
Wow.
I mean, that's like all he had left.
He didn't just figure out on four30 and Friday night that he didn't
have enough food for the weekend.
Right.
He's known all day, probably known allweek, and he's been trying and trying
and trying and trying and spinning thetail just isn't gonna work anymore.

(21:39):
And when he came to us, he said thosewords, but the social worker heard.
I want to change.
I want your help and I wanna do it now.
And her job is to grab that tiny threadof hope that he's whispering, that things
can be different, and start pullingit and get him up to the top of his.

(21:59):
And she's going to inspirehim that it can be actually
different and that he can do it.
That he makes enough money to meet hisgoals, that he can paint a financial
picture for the future and start toreally shift his thinking so that
money is not a tool for survival.
Money is a tool to achieve yourfuture fullest potential and
your future dreams and desires.

(22:20):
That's what has to happen, and thewhole first part of the counseling
that they're working on is tohelp get them there to that change
moment where they plant that flag.
Our social workers, they areour financial counselors.
They're one in the same andthey perform the same function,
but it's not about the money.
It was about the money.
An Excel spreadsheet would work.
You could give everybody anExcel spreadsheet and just tell
'em how to spend their money.

(22:41):
And it would just work.
I could tell you to quitsmoking, eat better, stop kicking
the dog, yell at the kids.
You would just do it because that'sthe right thing to do, right?
But our behaviors get in theway of this and our habits.
So what has to happen is here they haveto be able to help them overcome their
personal challenges and the reasons youknow that probably now 9,000 families

(23:03):
that have gotten into these financialcrisis that showed up on our doorstep,
there's 9,000 different reasons.
There's probably 18,000 because thespouse had one reason and the other
spouse had the other reason, and theycame together and created a third reason.
And it's like everybody'sgot their financial baggage.
Everybody's got their emotionalhistory, their the different
environments that they grew up in.

(23:23):
It's like they come to these financialcrises, they might look the same very
quickly, as in they're getting evicted.
You can't afford to get the car, thetransmission shop, their car's getting
towed and repoed, electricity's off.
That's the same.
But what got 'em there is different.
And so we don't wanna go into theirhistory and judge them, but what the
social worker needs to do is see whatproblems they're presenting as challenges

(23:44):
for them to shift their thinking.
So our social workers, theyhave a social worker degree.
Most of 'em have a master'sdegree in social work.
They all come from a, whatwe call shared experiences.
So they all been in the military somehow.
They're a militaryspouse, they're a veteran.
They grew up in a military family.
They get military life.
Military life should not be.
Why your finances look the way they look.

(24:05):
That's just the environment you're in.
You should be able to overcome thatenvironment and still drive your
behavior and desires through them.
And I send my social workers off whenthey come on board to get certified
to be financial counselors so theycan legally talk about the money.
We get additional certifications and theybecome certified financial social workers.
They get a lot more training in crisisresponse and suicide response and other

(24:27):
types of issues that we deal with.
But 90% of the discussion is this.
Is this about the behaviors and whatthey want from money and how they
see money and how they're what, likewhat they bring to this problem needs
to be solved so the social workercan help them work through that.
And when they're looking at theirbudget, if they feel obliged to pay
their parents' cell phone bill or theirparents' heating oil bill in Chicago

(24:49):
in the winter, or pay their youngestbrother's college tuition because they're
the oldest and that's their cultural duty.
It's having that conversationis not for a banker, right?
It's not for a financial planner,but that is the roadblock.
Why this person can't figureout how to get their arms around
their financial dreams, desires,and, and where their money goes.
So we empower them that it can bedifferent and they use a lot of these

(25:11):
different social work modalities tohelp them understand they have all
the skills and talents they need, thatthey can do it, that it can be done.
Once they commit to that, the socialworker then is gonna walk them through the
process to build this plan for the future.
It's not our plan forthe future, it's theirs.
So they have to say what they want,they have to figure that out, and that's
gonna come in shape of these goals.
And of course they'relike, I don't have goals.

(25:33):
Those are for rich people.
And the social worker can say, ah, but Iheard you say they've got all their case
notes and they're professional listenersand they're just, you know, we're
never allowed to tell 'em what to do.
It's always about asking the questions.
This is a solution-focused approach.
We're trying to getthem to their solution.
So they might have said theywish they had $1,500 in the bank.

(25:53):
They wish they could fly on for Christmas'cause they haven't been there in three
years because they couldn't afford it.
They wish they wish.
These are their goals.
So we get them thinking about their goals.
We can present them withthe situation as well.
It's now, let's look at yourcurrent money situation.
It looks like from what youput down, you're spending $700
a month more than you make.
And when you put it on paper, sometimesthat's, sometimes it's all takes, right?

(26:17):
And then it's like, and now theyneed to address this, so give them
the space and time to do it andwe can't tell 'em how to fix it.
We can't even tell 'em it's wrong.
If they don't say anything, then you'regoing to, you might, we might nudge
'em and say, is that sustainable?
Or for how long?
Is that sustainable?

(26:38):
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(27:21):
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(27:46):
And it's like, thenhow can you correct it?
And it's like, well, I guessI could make more money.
Is there a way you could make more money?
Do you have ideas?
Do you have options?
And if the answer's no,then what else can you do?
And they need to say thatit's, you probably spend less
like, all right, can you.
What can you cut on?
But they have to get themselves toa cashflow positive budget somehow.
We have their debt portfolio as well.

(28:06):
So once they get themselves to thiscashflow positive budget, this,
by this point, they're committed,the relationship is built.
They feel like they finally havesomebody that they can trust that's in
their corner to talk about finances.
So now they can start having nextlevel conversations about why they
spend their money, where they spend it.
They can have conversations aboutnot being able to talk to their

(28:27):
spouse about money without fighting.
So again, the social worker mightoffer some tips and, and techniques
to talk to spouses about money.
They might offer them tips totalk to parents or other people
involved with the situation.
They can help 'em with these, thebigger questions and issues they have,
and ultimately they get themselvesto a cashflow positive budget.
They have the surplus and they canfigure out how much of their money goes

(28:50):
towards debt, how much of the moneygoes through their goals, and it's
really based on the time they have.
We can fund the restoration of anybasic necessities during this process.
And then really withthat is the discussion.
They might call us up initially andthey're like, what's an unlawful detainer?
It's like's your court date.
It's like, how do youknow your court date?
Because we know what anunlawful detainer is.

(29:10):
Now.
It's like tomorrow, like you need to bethere or you need to call your landlord.
If you called your landlord, no, why not?
He's a jerk.
He may be, but he's themost important person.
Like we need them tostop filing legal papers.
We need the commission to say youcan stay there for another week.
Whatever it takes.
They don't know how to do it.
They're too afraid.
They don't know what to say, so thesocial worker might go, they might start

(29:31):
doing some role playing with them, right?
If you were the landlord and I oweyou money, what would you want?
So really help 'em solve thisthrough a hands-on process.
Inevitably, we're probably on thephone with the landlord with them,
but they are learning and they'recontributing to this process.
Once we get 'em all the way throughthe process, we launch 'em outta
the nest and we've gone throughthe first five steps of, of John

(29:53):
Kotter's change model at this point.
And what's left is you need to, youneed to start getting these small
wins and recognize you're gettingsmall wins, and then those will
snowball into these bigger wins.
And then you need to institutionalizethose behaviors and we, we execute.
Those last three steps havechanged in the 12 months after they
finish that counseling session.
Then they move to, we follow up atone month, two months, and three

(30:13):
months, six months to 12 months.
And we see the largest gainsin financial wellness scores
during those first two months.
At the first checkup, it's a disaster.
They're very negative.
They're very glass half empty.
This is never gonna work.
And the social worker can go backto their notes and say, well, let's
look at what your priorities were.
Let's see how bad it was.
And you said the most important thingwas that your kids ate every meal.

(30:35):
Do they eat every meal?
Well, guess they did.
All right.
Well that's something.
'cause that wasn't happening before.
The next most important thingwas this, this, and this.
Did you meet all your goals?
Did you go into automatic overdraft?
These are the thingsyou said were important.
Did you do all those?
Yes.
All right.
Well those are all pluses.
Now, did you save all themoney you're supposed to save?
No, I only saved, you know, $6, not $25.

(30:57):
Okay.
Did you pay all the debts?
Well, I paid this credit card a littlebit and that credit card a little bit,
and I didn't pay you on that one all.
So as compared to last month,did you do better or worse?
So I'll go through this wholething, help them understand
that they are getting better.
They may had another setback that they hadto readjust for, but you know, financial
challenges are gonna continue to.

(31:17):
We have to teach them how to overcomethese issues on their own, and they'll
get that through that first two months.
They recognize they're making a headway.
They recognize it's hard work.
They recognize it's their plan andthey can adjust it as they see fit.
And then we continue to help themanswer the questions, still be their,
be their financial friend in thisprocess, and really get them to the
point where they don't need us anymoreand we hope to never see 'em again.

(31:40):
And 97% we never see again.
So making it their last crisis is whatwe want, and that 3% do come back.
Those are, those are using some prettycrazy stories, and that's a much deeper
discussion because we've got all the casenotes from when they came to us, whether
it was months before or years before.
So yeah, that's the, that, I mean, that'sthe inside workings of the program.

(32:00):
It's high touch.
It's 20 hours or so at counseling perfamily, but you can't fix this without
fixing each person's thing that'skeeping them from being successful.
So we have to figure out what'skeeping them from being successful,
help them come up with a solution, andthen help them start to live out that
solution and then see the benefits.

(32:20):
And then it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
They're just off on their own.
Because now, now that'swhat they wanna do.
They realize they can do it, andtheir life is actually getting better.
And with, hey, with a 90% effective rate.
Yeah.
They're, I mean, theygot the right formula.
Well, I mean, they're
internalizing, I mean, you're, the waythat you're approaching it, you're causing
them to internalize the, the, how theprocess works versus just, like you said,
giving you, you don't wanna just givethem the answer because then that would

(32:42):
be really destined to, to fail, I think.
But
yeah,
teaching them, that's, that's,
I, we
see that as kind
of the easy way out.
Yeah.
And a lot of people do that, right?
I mean, if you don't have a house,you just give somebody a house.
They don't, they don't understandthe value of that house.
Right?
Right.
They don't understand thevalue of that rent payment.
And we'll have a number of clients that,that aren't willing to do work, and they

(33:03):
might drop out and call us back next monthand drop out and call us back next month.
They're just trying to get,they're trying to get as easy as
possible, and it's not, it's not,they're trying to work the system.
They're scared.
Right.
They don't wanna get evicted.
You got some single mom yellingat you on the phone that blaming
you to, that you're gonna put themand their babies on the street.
It's.
We're not gonna put you in the street.

(33:24):
We're giving you an option to beable to keep this, but you need
to, you need to work through it.
Yeah.
And eventually they, they either comethrough the program and they go through
it, or, you know, or they're not gonnachange and we're not able to help 'em.
Tony, I'm gonna wrap a couple questionstogether too about the private funding.
No government funding, but you'vegot fundraisers, you've got, I'm

(33:45):
assuming cams, the college is moreon the fundraising side, but you also
have the great golf event that youdo annually that, I mean, there's
a lot of household names that areout there that are supporting step.
At that golf event, but you've got alot of companies rallying around you and
kudos to you again for probably buildingthose relationships and showing the value

(34:07):
proposition of what Step does for people.
And I can't imagine all the different acssand FRGs and all these other organizations
inside the gates that you're collaboratingeither on a national level or local
level at these installations, but.
You've got a lot of national supportwith prominent companies and talk
about the fundraising side orthe programs that are helping you

(34:29):
drive money for your nonprofit.
Yeah.
I'd say going, we started this and wewere just getting nickels and dimes from
community members and we've been able tocontinue to grow it as we've been able
to show more outcomes, larger impacts,larger outcomes, and through this new
messaging with our, with our updated, youknow, mission statement that talks about
financial wellness, trying to think about.

(34:50):
What's the most important thing we do?
And recognize keeping somebodyin their house is great.
Getting electricity turned back on,feeding kids, giving 'em diapers, that's
all great, but it's like that's not,that's not what makes it sustainable.
What actually makes thissustainable is that feedback
that we get from that next level.
That client says, you saved my marriage.

(35:12):
I don't feel like a failureis a parent anymore.
I now have hope for the future.
Right?
We've caused.
Very significant change in that personand help really revitalize their
ideals about what America offers andthat they can actually be part of.
They can fulfill what they want to,they can reach their fullest potential.
They have dreams again for their kids.

(35:34):
They don't feel likethey're stuck in the system.
And I think that's the mostimportant thing we're doing.
And the more we're starting to sharethat, the more we're sharing that
we have the ability to manage thisprogram across a growing geography.
The more we're demonstrating we canhelp people in, in their communities
or in isolated communities acrossthe country, help them solve these.

(35:56):
I mean, these are the greatestsocietal ills that we're fixing
for our military families.
Having discussions with therecruiting generals about how
this affects retention, right?
How this affects re-enlistments.
I mean, the worst, the worstrecruiting poster we have are
all these homeless veteran ones.
Yeah.
All these, all these broken veteran ones.
And the transition.

(36:16):
People get out for a lot ofreasons, but quality of life
is one of the biggest ones.
Boost Our family does a greatsurvey on this every year, and it's
finances, it's quality of life, it'sstress, it's food insecurity, it's,
it's just, it's this living in thisconstant financial stress just really
makes the military life challenging.
And what we have to offer these familiesis a way to take away that stress,

(36:39):
put them back in the driver's seat.
Maybe they stay in longer, maybethey recommend it to their friends.
But at least while they'rein, they have a better life.
And then while they're out, they'regonna have this better life.
And the more we can share that messageacross the country and then say, who else
wants to help us serve more families?
It's like we've got, we're finally gettingall our stuff squared away enough that
we can go full tilt into this growth.

(37:01):
Um, last week we have our, our aOR was actually expanded across
California, Oregon, and Washington.
So we're officially three states coveringnow, and the rest is space available.
We'll be broadcasting that outwith this growth and we'll be
looking for more folks to help us.
It's not, I didn't wanna do thisas an extension of the government.
The government could have fixed this.
They would've, right.
Yeah.

(37:22):
So I don't need to come upwith this idea on how to do it.
That is, I'll say, sophisticated,and then have somebody come in
and say, yes, I'll fund you to dothat, but do it this way instead.
Right.
Here's all the red tape.
Yeah.
It's like, that doesn't,that doesn't work.
We don't have the time for it.
We don't have the bandwidth for it,and we run much leaner than that.
We're not trying to set this upas this, this giant enterprise

(37:44):
we're trying to create.
We just wanna get this program infront of people and keep our focus on
what we believe is the right thing.
So yeah, as we continue to scale acrossthe country, mount fundraising in Hawaii
right now, the Hawaii military leadershipwants us, and then I learned it's not
just Hawaii, it's all the Pacific Rim.
I'm like, ah, how did I forgetabout South Korea, right?

(38:05):
Japan, Alaska, Guam.
There's people living in a lotof hardships out there as well,
and they go on our program.
So in fact, the general's wife,army Pacific General's wife said,
where are you going after Hawaii?
And I said, ah, probably Colorado.
Or Texas.
And she said, keep goingwest before you go east.
I'm
we.
It's like, oh no.
Yeah.
Oh no, you're not.

(38:26):
So, yeah, that's my dream.
That's why I've stuck with this.
I was planning on being with Step.
Just to get it started.
And then I fell into the CEO slot aswell, and I said, well, I'll do this
for six or eight months and get it toa place that doesn't need me anymore.
And yeah, you can't, there'sno, there's no escape.
You're hooked, Tony.
You're hooked.
No escape.
Well, and what it looks like whenit doesn't need me anymore, it's
like it all just, it always neededto go to that next level plateau.

(38:48):
Yeah.
And so I just keep pushingthis rope and making it happen.
I guess it's like you've gota great team, very passionate
team, and great supporters.
And we're just really blessed to do this.
I was gonna ask a little bit aboutyour team, but before I do, I wanna
make sure that along the way, I don'tthink we've pointed out the website yet
today either, so it's, no, make sure we
got that right.
It's
www team step usa.org.

(39:10):
And so I think a lot of the information,hopefully, that people can find out there.
You, you have a, currently,you have an impressive staff.
They run the full gamut as you sharedtoday, from people with talents and gifts
and social work, military experience,nonprofit experience, you name it,
grant writing, grant
writing, marketing, all, all theskills that you need to execute on
the plans that you've laid out here asyou expand and go beyond, how do you.

(39:34):
How do you see maintaining that level of,of high quality, high caliber folks around
you to make sure that that's fulfilledwhen it's not right there and, and
close enough to touch on a daily basis?
Yeah, that's a really good question.
I have put a lot of thought intothat, and a lot of this comes
back to processes and procedures.
I mean, it's like we, we have thetop rating on the big three watchdog

(39:56):
agencies and people, people arelike, Tony, how did that happen?
I had a strategic goal to get the,get the top ratings, and I had to
figure out what they used to rank me.
And I went back in and I didall those things, which helped
me set up a good agency.
Those are all best practicesto begin with, and we did it.
So policies and procedures withthe people, but I follow, uh,

(40:20):
a servant leadership style.
My, my number one job is tofacilitate the success of my team,
and I think I say that enough that.
They joke about it.
They believe it though.
Yeah.
Means which means they believe it.
Yeah.
Right.
And I have, I have tolive up to my part of it.
So how do we continue togrow with this culture?
You know, the culture is themost important thing that I do.

(40:42):
You know, beyond, I thinkfacilitating their success is
actually comes from this culture.
And I go to lunch with everyemployee at this point, every new
employee at their 45 day point.
And I want them to meet me.
'cause a lot of 'em don'tget to see me anymore.
'cause I travel a lot andthey are in different places.
I want them to understand why,what I want for this culture.

(41:03):
And then I also want, I want theirfeedback on how they're assimilated to
the agency, because soon they're gonnaget their 90 day performance evaluation,
which we tell them what we think of them.
But in that culture piece,I talk a lot about the early
days, why I did it, my story.
And when I started it, I didn'tknow anything about nonprofits.
And at the time, my mother was, Ithink she just retired or was getting

(41:24):
ready to retire as a college professor,an English college professor, and.
She would, I mean, my first annualreport was, was a, was a PowerPoint
slide deck, and we had to come up withgrant letters and we had to come up
with slick sheets and stuff like that.
None of us knew anything about thisstuff, so I was asking her questions
and of course, like a good collegeprofessor, she never had an answer.

(41:47):
We just mark the thing up and tellme what words, and she's like, what
did you think about the main points?
And I was like, oh my gosh.
Yeah.
My first speech writing, I usedher a lot, so she was very involved
and she would come out and visit.
And when she would come visit and she'dcome in the office, I would notice
there's this kind of reverence about her.
And she was a fer, soshe was the boss's mom.

(42:07):
And we liked the boss.
We'll just say that.
We'll assume that
it's Dr. Gordon, right?
So we don't know how to act aroundthis very intelligent, powerful woman.
But at 18 years old, she was also militaryspouse with one kid, and by 20 she
had two kids and her husband was goingback to Vietnam for the second time.

(42:27):
She grew up in Wichita, Kansas.
Now she's getting dropped off in Brooklyn,New York with this 150 person family.
And that's, that's the road she livedfor 20 years as a military spouse.
She didn't even start going toschool until after, after my
dad retired from the military.
So she gets it.
And really my point to my team is theway you treat her when she comes in the

(42:49):
office, the way everybody treated her.
That's the way we'regonna treat every family.
And I don't care how manycaps are in that email.
What that text looks like, howmuch they were screaming on the
voicemail they left, or what kindof circus comes in that front door.
You need to treat 'em alllike they're my mother.
Like you would treat my mom.
'cause this is where she came for 20years while she was trying to figure
out how to keep our family togetheras we traveled around the world,

(43:12):
supporting my dad and his circus.
And so that culture that we need themto feel like we're a safe place, that
we respect and honor their service.
We're not here to judge their past.
Their future.
Their future.
We're here to walk beside them.
Why they overcome these challengesthat they have with their money and
get them on a path that's shame freeand where they can actually achieve

(43:36):
the futures that they dreamed about.
Yeah,
that's so important.
I mean, I, I made a note in themargin on, on something you said
earlier, and as you were talking.
It's just you've built this placeof trust and with this, with this
group of individuals who are ofhigh character and, and strong
disposition, it's, it's hard sometimesfor them, I think, to ask for help.
And so to create that.

(43:56):
That place where it's comfortableand maybe not comfortable, but
safe to do that, like you said,in that judgment free zone.
I'll go, go back to, I'm just gonnaread a couple things to our audience
that there's a lot of innovation outthere from companies that are supporting
you, and there was like a sneakergiveaway from military kids that.
100 one-way tickets from SouthwestAirlines, crockpot donation by the

(44:18):
United Way Realtors running a fooddrive that resulted in 6.5 tons.
I think I read that correctly of items.
That's a lot of food.
And, and then you go back to all thethings that people say about step
two and knowing you have a four starrating from Charity Navigator is a, is
a testament to how you run your shop.
Tony.

(44:39):
And then.
If you look at some of the reviewsout there for step, having a positive
impact on military families, greatcustomer service and staff supportive
financial assistance programs,mission-driven, and employees describe
it as welcoming, positive withopportunities for growth and development.
So I think you can put a stamp.
What you talked about with theculture and talk about how people are

(45:01):
perceiving and receiving the servicesand and support that you provide.
And it just seems like everybody'sgravitating towards wanting to put
their best foot forward and helpstep, whether it's the companies,
whether it's the ideas, whetherit's, what can I do to help?
And people, Jody mentioned your website.
They can volunteer, they can donate,they can find out more, they can come

(45:24):
up with their own creative ideas to, ofways to help you on the fundraising side.
But that's a, I just wanted to capcapture some of the things that the.
Outside world says about you, but alsowhat the inside world says and how
great you've made a difference withorganizations that want to get behind you.
That question you ask is something weneed to ask as a bank and as volunteers

(45:46):
is you said, do you want to continueto help these military families?
Like why wouldn't you wannahelp these military families?
Right.
It's a, it's table stakes if you're,if you're a military bank or if
you're a nonprofit, or if you're a.
How do you say no to that?
That you can't get behind supportingmilitary families that need our help?
You mentioned homelessness.
You mentioned the wellness on the, on themental health and just food insecurity.

(46:09):
Things that feels like the governmentshould help, but organizations
like Step and A, a whole plethoraof organizations that are in the
space of helping military families.
You're just another.
Great example of, ofwork that's being done.
And I, for people that haven't heardof you, I'm glad we're doing the
podcast so people can hear about you.

(46:30):
But it sounds like you're doing apretty good job of getting the word
out there other than this podcast.
Yeah.
Keeping
himself very busy.
Is that the best place for eitherindividuals or if we've got companies or
business clients that are listening, teamstep usa.org, if they wanna connect with
you to do any or all of this in TER interms of support, is that the best avenue?
Yeah, that's the best place up in the top.

(46:51):
I think it's right hand corner.
Now at the top there's a button thatsays Apply for services, volunteer,
donate, and then they contact us as well.
So there's, we have info app, websitefor email address that you can get there.
My contact information's there.
They can send people there for services.
They can find out more what we do.
So that's the best kind ofthe clearinghouse for anybody.

(47:11):
Okay.
No, that's great.
You know, there was an earlier, therewas something we wanted to ask Tony,
and I'm gonna, I'm probably gonna getto the finish of this too, but there
was capacity building campaign and I didmention earlier about the chais, right?
I mean, if there's a, if there's a coupleprograms you wanna come to the finish line
with the audience, because you covereda lot of great ground with us today

(47:32):
that talking about any other programsthat you wanna bring to the forefront
or anything we wouldn't haveknown to even ask perhaps.
Yeah, I mean a lot of those otherprograms, when I started step, I said,
let's just do this counseling program.
We're not doing anything else.
We're not getting distracted, like at all.
But I couldn't stop the communityfrom giving me backpacks, food, and
Christmas gifts and stuff like that.
They just kept bringing it.

(47:53):
So I said, fine, you're gonna gimme this.
Let me figure out how touse it as a tool, right?
To promote, promote our greater mission.
And so what that's really becomehere in San Diego is it's the
big end of my funnel, right?
This is my brandingand marketing programs.
I meet a lot of community partnersthrough our Back to school program,
our Thanksgiving program, our Christmasprogram, we have an Easter program.

(48:16):
We have a warehouse full of donated goodsthat any military, family or veterans
can just take whatever they want.
We give out 200,000 pounds offood a year, 200,000 diapers.
We hand out, I think we're likeseven distributions a month now.
Geez.
Some are here, and then therest are on military bases
and throughout the community.
So this is, this is kind of, we'regonna get a bunch of stuff from the

(48:38):
community and that becomes the bigend of my funnel for meeting donors.
Mm-hmm.
And community members.
And then I can take that merchandise,it's about a million and a half dollars
a year at this point, and I can giveit to the military communities and
they become the big end of my funnelfrom my, for my, for my client side.
It's how they learn about step andthey learn about, you know, we start
to have, we have positive brandimpression and then we offset, provide

(49:00):
some economic value, offset a costor training or something like that.
So as we continue to grow a step,you know, Washington State has
started to develop its own programs.
I don't wanna put San Diego'sstep in Tacoma or Bremerton.
It needs to be theirs.
So they really like the back toschool program because we make it
an educational fair and we helppeople learn about op educational

(49:21):
opportunities as well as giving 'embackpacks and other stuff like that.
They really like.
At the same time they do thebackpack drive, they, a lot of
people want it to, like winter coatsand military boots or not like.
Snow boots and stuff likethat for military families.
So we let them do that.
But these are ways that the communityengages in the way they want to.
So we get about, I think, probably10,000 volunteer hours a year here

(49:43):
in San Diego for people that justcome into our warehouse and, and
manage these programs with us.
So they make that happen.
It helps definitely get the wordacross, grow the name, grow the brand.
And helps get that bigger messageout there that steps the place
you go when you're really in, whenyou're really in financial trouble.
I can imagine the distribution and allthe jobs related to inventory management.

(50:04):
My goodness.
Just the
logistics of it.
Yeah.
Yes.
Just keep coming.
You wanna go to, you wanna play the game?
I, well, yeah.
If, if he'll give us justa couple more minutes.
Wanna play a game?
I do.
I, I wanna play the military minute.
So this is a question that Tony,if you know the answer to, you're
welcome to answer this time.
The second question, because it wasthe last podcast, not so much, but this

(50:26):
first question was from our last podcast.
The average number of troopsdeployed at any given time.
What is the average number of,
he's so smart and he has all the degrees.
He may know.
Well, he's Googling
it at the same time, but yeah.
Yeah.
Step away from
Wikipedia.
What's the number you, you're using ai.
Yeah.
And if it's wrong, then I blame Tom.
'cause it's his answer.

(50:46):
Yeah.
So I would say you got what, 1.25 million.
So let's just say 10%, 125,000.
Oh, I told you he's a data
guy.
Yeah.
Math is matting on his end.
Don't, he's got the
margin of error in there,plus or minus, right?
Well, I don't know if you call likesomebody's in South Korea or Jerry.
Oh no, he's technical.
Yeah.
And I'm gonna put an, as Tom
doesn't think thingsthrough to that level.

(51:06):
I'm gonna put asterisk
next to the answer then
the, the number that that Tom was lookingfor was 150,000, but I was impressed with
the mathematical way he got to that one.
Yes.
Uh, I couldn't even
start.
So if you listen to the last podcast andyou hit 150,000 in the comments, please
watch for your name to be the one thatwas selected to win $50 for yourself
and $50 for a charity of your choice.

(51:28):
And now I, Tony, I'm going to apologizein advance for today's questions.
So this is one of
my favorite questions of all time.
Well, so
this is the first time we'veever had a three part question.
Second time, because Tomcan't control himself.
Second.
Oh, it's the second time.
Okay.
And you can't answer these,and it's probably best if
you don't anyway, because.
I right now.
I think you're a very smart person.
I know and I kind of, I kind of went downthe third grade level on this, right?

(51:48):
And
Tom took us down a whole different path.
But the theme is step, soyou'll hopefully at least enjoy.
I thought that
was pretty clever that
he tried really hard to be thematic today.
This week's military minute takesus to a question or questions
plural about music trivia.
So don't answer it isa three part question.
I wanna see if he can, Iwanna see his response.
Okay.
So
not if you know, because thenit'll make Tom feel better.

(52:09):
Yeah.
Which musical group sings the song?
Step by step.
I feel like I shouldsing these a little bit.
Pause,
step by step.
So that's question one.
Which musical group sings the song?
Gimme three steps.
So far we're getting nothing from Tony.
That's, I got no nods coming in hot
from Tony.
The third question is, whichmusical artist sings the song?
One, two Step.
Not to be confused with the Texastwo step, which is totally different.

(52:31):
Yeah.
We have a lot of arts,entertainment, culture.
We bring it all back tothe culture side of stuff.
These should all
be go Googleable word Googleable.
So if you are bored and you don'thave as much going on as Tony does.
On any given day, find outwho sings, step by step.
Gimme three steps and one, two step anddrop it in the comments when our podcast.

(52:51):
And, and did you know
the answers before you read those?
No.
Be well, I knew one of them, but
you, you, I know, but youcan sing them in your head.
I, I could sing two of the three.
Okay.
So anyway, post your bestanswer you guess if you need to.
And then if you guess right on all threequestions, then you too could be entered
for a chance to win $50 for yourselfand $50 to a charity of your choice.

(53:11):
And I did the three parter with.
STEP to keep people thinking about step.
Is that fair?
Well, I'll just say good job, Tom.
Okay.
I just, I just want to pat on the back.
That's all I know
you did.
If you enjoyed today's episode, goout to af bank.com and subscribe
to the show, and you can rate us.
You can leave us a comment about howmuch you enjoy Jodi's personality on

(53:32):
your favorite podcast platform on Apple.
Tony, we're on Apple, we're on Spotify.
We're on YouTube.
We're everywhere.
Yeah.
But thank you so much for beinghere, Tony, and telling our
audience and us all about step.
Appreciate your time.
Obviously you're a very busyguy, so appreciate the hour.
No, I'm glad we made it work.
Thank you for your service and thank youfor all that you're doing 25 hours a day.

(53:53):
Yes.
Thank you, Tony.
Yes, yes.
Thank you.
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