July 12, 2023 • 37 mins
Transitioning from a military career to civilian life can be challenging, but Lester Lombad, a veteran Air Force and current President of the Southern Nevada Chamber of Commerce, has navigated this journey with impressive success. How did his security clearance and background play a significant role in helping him find a job? Listen in as we delve into his unique experiences as a military spouse and entrepreneur, and how his involvement with the Southern Nevada Veterans Chamber of Commerce has been pivotal in providing resources to veterans and military families.
The Chamber's various programs and partnerships, such as the Emerging Vets and Players (MVP) Program, have made a considerable impact in the veteran community. But what challenges do veterans face in finding the right resources to meet their needs? Lester shares his insights on the importance of raising community-wide visibility for veteran nonprofits and state-sponsored programs, and how the Chamber's efforts have helped bridge the gap between veterans and employers.
Finally, we shed light on the often under recognized veteran populations in places like Hawaii and Las Vegas, and the role the West Coast plays in military outreach. As we explore the support provided by the Southern Nevada Chamber of Commerce, Lester offers valuable advice for other veterans looking to succeed in their personal and professional lives. Don't miss this insightful conversation with a true champion for the veteran community.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
But there are people in the community obviously in
our veteran community thatstruggle with certain things,
having issues you know, ordealing with certain issues in
their life where they reallyneeded a program that could help
them.
they shouldn't be finding outabout those programs or those
resources just because theyhappen to know the right person.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Warriors fall in.
It's time for formation.
Today, i'm joined with an AirForce veteran originally from
Southern California butcurrently resides in Sin City,
las Vegas, where he operates asthe president of the Southern
Nevada Chamber of Commerce,which is an organization that is
100% committed to partneringwith local businesses and the
veteran advocacy groups to raisecommunity wide visibility of
(00:45):
veteran nonprofits and statesponsored programs for our very
own military veterans and theirfamilies.
Our guest today is none otherthan the Lester Lombad.
I want to thank you for joiningus early on the Morning
Formation podcast, and I alsowant to say congratulations on
your most recent achievement ofgetting a brown belt and
(01:06):
presenting Jiu Jitsu Hey KP.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me here onthe Morning Formation podcast
and thanks for the shoutout onthe brown belt.
That was a big step for me,thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
A lot of people really don't understand the
amount of work, the amount ofblood, sweat, tears, injuries
that it takes to get to thatlevel.
That is a very elite level andmy hat's off to you, man.
One of these days I'm going tobring my gi to Vegas and I'm
going to let you whoop up on mefor a little bit and humble me
out.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Man, air Force versus Army Yeah, i'm sure it'll
probably be the other way around, but, like you said, it did
take a lot of time to get tothat point.
I'm just excited to just keepworking at things and keep
improving.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Right on, man.
Yeah, we always improve, evenafter we get out of service and
we get older in our age.
Always improving is definitelythe right direction to be going
in.
I was checking you out onLinkedIn, man.
I see you spent about six yearsin the Air Force and then you
spent some additional timeworking on the civilian side.
What was your career transitionlike and did it inspire you to
(02:20):
do what you're currently doingtoday with the Chamber of
Commerce?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So, yeah, it was about six, six and a half years
or so and I went to go work as adefense contractor out in
Washington DC almost immediatelyafter I left active duty.
My transition went verysmoothly, very quickly.
It took me about I think I wasunemployed for about four days
(02:45):
when I left service.
But a lot of that just kind ofcame from me knowing pretty far
in advance beforehand that I wasgoing to be transitioning out.
So I put in quite a bit of timeresearching and contacting
different employers and justlooking at different
opportunities in the space thatI wanted to be in at the time,
(03:07):
which was the tech space.
I wanted to see how that wouldtranslate out into the civilian
sector.
Luckily, at the time when I wastransitioning out, the last
unit and organization that I waswith it was with the National
Air and Space IntelligenceCenter over at Wright Patterson
Air Force Base, which me takingthat position.
It required me to allow for anSSBI investigation to take place
(03:33):
which granted me a TS topsecret SEI clearance and that
helped me in my transition a lot.
But it's really very separatefrom what I'm doing now with the
Southern Nevada VeteransChamber of Commerce.
A big reason for that, i guess,is there was a gap in time where
(03:57):
and this isn't really mentionedon my LinkedIn profile, but it
is a big part of my story where,when I transitioned out my wife
we were newly married at thetime my wife had just joined the
military for the purpose offinishing school.
She was applying for medicalschool at the time, and that was
(04:18):
a big reason why we moved toWashington DC.
So I immediately fell into theactive, dependent military
spells role.
I didn't really realize whatthat was about, or if that was
even a thing.
I just thought it was a funnything to tell my friends about
(04:38):
that.
I had just left active dutyfrom, i had just left my active
duty ID card and then three dayslater I'm going over to
Bethesda, maryland, to get adependent ID card.
I got this big smile on my faceon my picture, but that was
about it.
But then, seven years later, iresigned from my job from
Raytheon and we moved overseasto Yakota Air Base, japan.
(04:59):
That's when I realized that themilitary spells role was a
significant thing.
It was something that involveda lot of sacrifices.
It had to give up my role withwhat I was doing in the civilian
sector.
So anyway, long story short, thereason why I bring all of that
(05:20):
up is because once we left thedifferent overseas locations
that we were at six years laterbetween Japan and England, we
came back to the States and mytop secret SCI clearance was
expired.
I could no longer use it.
So when we got here to LasVegas, i was just trying to
think of things that made sensefor me because of our family
(05:42):
situation.
We have four children all ofthem are young and two parents
with a nine to five just doesn'twork schedule-wise.
So entrepreneurship was thething that made the most sense
to me, to give me theflexibility to still do my part
for my family but explore otherthings.
So that's what caused me toexplore other things and that's
(06:03):
kind of what brought me to whereI'm at right now.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Man, you are so multi-sided.
You're an Air Force veteran.
You also understand what it'slike to be a military spouse,
not just a military spouse herein the States, but a military
spouse in a foreign country,which that's truly being far
away from home.
You're having to learn how todo all the military spouse
(06:28):
things that a lot of people kindof take for granted.
You mentioned Wright PattersonAir Force Base.
I went to college at WrightState University.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I remember you mentioned that to me in one of
our past conversations.
I actually literally rightacross the street from Wright
State, off of Colonel GlennHighway.
I could walk into the campusfrom my apartment at that time.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
What year was that?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
That was from 2003 to 2005.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, so 2003 was when I graduated.
We probably could have went toSemeron and had some parties,
probably so.
Yeah, it's funny how pathscross like that man.
Yeah, so you're so multi-sat.
You're literally a veteran,literally military spouse.
Your wife is a professional aswell.
So you have four kids.
You're into Brazilian jitsu Wow, you have so many things going
(07:21):
on for you And you do such ameaningful job being the
president of the Southern NevadaChamber of Commerce.
Would you mind talking to usabout what the Chamber of
Commerce is, about the impactthat they provide for Southern
Nevada's veterans and militarycommunity?
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So with the Southern Nevada Veterans Chamber of
Commerce, again, it started outreally from a place of personal
need because at the time when wefirst moved here, i personally
experienced a lot of thestruggles that come along with
small business andentrepreneurship and figuring
out that if you're not pluggedinto the right resources, if
you're not plugged into theright people, you don't have a
(07:58):
network in your community, thenthings can be really really
challenging from a businessstandpoint.
So ultimately, eventually I wasled to seeking out resources
for myself and I wasn't able tolocate anything that resembled
the Chamber of Commerce out here.
And one thing led to another.
(08:21):
I just started doing a littlebit of research, started talking
to some people, started pickingup some ideas from different
conversations about differentresources, and it just made a
lot of sense for me or somebodyto start what would be
eventually becoming the SouthernNevada Veterans Chamber of
Commerce.
(08:41):
But outside of the businessdevelopment aspect of it, again
it's more about awareness andvisibility of available
resources.
And I think at the time, like Ithink originally, i met you
through this app calledClubhouse, which was at the
height of the pandemic.
(09:01):
It was really really active andit was really really useful to
me in terms of conversationsthat I was having with a lot of
people from different parts ofthe country, some different
parts of the world.
But the reason why I bring thatup is because during that time,
while I was using Clubhouse, iwould end up having all these
conversations with these peoplefrom different parts of the
(09:22):
country doing different things.
Now I would learn aboutresources like Bunker Labs which
is the hoodie that I'm wearingright now groups like that's the
industry, groups like ACP,warrior Rising.
I learned about all thesedifferent things.
I started talking to these VSOsjust in live conversation And
(09:43):
these were things that I wasn'tplugged into or aware of at all,
mainly because, again, kind ofgoing back to the whole concept
of me being having transitionedout in 05 and then not really
focused on any veteran resourcesafter I immediately
transitioned out, because reallyI was just focused on being out
(10:04):
and moving on with my life.
And then we moved overseas forsix years and I'm a military
spouse at that point.
I'm not paying attention to anyof those things.
I'm not thinking about veteranemployment, i'm not thinking
about entrepreneurship resources.
I'm not thinking about any ofthose things We're thinking
about.
What's the next thing we'regoing to do in Japan, what's the
next country we're going tovisit when we're living in
(10:25):
England, kind of thing.
And then when we eventually gothere to Las Vegas, came back
stateside.
That's when the awareness ofdifferent resources really
started to hit me, and throughconversations with other people
So anyway, long explanationshort I just started to become
aware of a lot of the resourcesthat I didn't know about And I
(10:48):
figured one.
I knew that when I left service.
I didn't know about these thingsand I probably should have.
And now, at that point a coupleof years ago, if I'm actively
researching these things that Ifelt like I should have known
about, then I also felt likeanother person in the community
(11:08):
who wasn't as actively lookingfor these things and probably
needed them more than I did,should have a way to locate,
identify and navigate thoseresources.
And that's kind of where thelong explanation on how the
thought process went.
But again it all kind ofstepped back to my own personal
(11:30):
need for really business andentrepreneurship resources.
But then the other area ofresources when it comes to
veteran employment, transition,career skills, transition,
educational benefits andresources, veteran advocacy
resources, there's this entireidea of an ecosystem that I felt
(11:52):
like those resources could betied together if we could create
one singular brand thatveterans in the community could
connect with, which eventuallydeveloped in my mind to be that
brand being the Southern NevadaVeterans Chamber of Commerce.
Branding Just make it easier.
That's kind of how I work mybrain, at least.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Right.
No, it was definitely a longjourney and very similar to my
own.
I got out and I started workingfor a big company and I tried
my best to shed my skin ofanything military related, was
ready to move on with myself,got another job, quit my first
job after a year, like 80% ofveterans do, and I always tell
(12:36):
people I got out in 2007.
The sexiest thing online backthen was my space right, and we
didn't have LinkedIn.
We didn't have these thingsthat are fingertips like we do
today.
I really think at times thatthis entire market is a little
saturated and it's important forour military veterans, our
(12:58):
military families, to pick outand align themselves with the
best network out there, and Ireally feel like the Southern
Nevada Chamber of Commerce andyourself, just knowing you from
Clubhouse, you're definitely oneof those Titans out there that
can really, really efficientlyand effectively help someone out
, and I'm not just saying that.
(13:19):
Going back to what you talkedabout with Clubhouse now, some
of the deepest relationshipsthat I created Was over that
audio app, which is strangebecause it's all audio.
There's no video.
You don't know what people looklike.
You see a picture of them.
That's it, right.
But even to this day, like Istill remain in contact with a
lot of the people that Used tocome to the military mix-up
(13:40):
which I used to host on Fridaynights, which that damn thing
lasted for two to three hours attimes.
It kept it kept rolling, butlike you said, man, it was, it
was a.
It was a great time to connect,a great time to network.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, i agree.
Yeah, same with me.
Like I still, i still keep inpretty regular contact with a
lot of those people that I buildrelationships with.
There's actually one guy whowas just here in Las Vegas less
than a week ago.
He's one of my chamber members.
He doesn't even live in LasVegas, he was in Salt Lake City
but he has his business Parts tobe set up here in Nevada, so he
(14:12):
travels into Las Vegas prettyfrequently.
But I met him on Clubhouse.
His name is Eric ranks.
He, over the vodka line, called22 salute and You know it's.
It's funny.
I met him on Clubhouse andthere's several other people.
That's the clubhouse wasActually where I first heard of
bunker labs and then Ieventually ended walking through
one of the bunker labs cohortshere in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
So, um, yeah, yeah, the times it was the same with
me man I was.
I was in one of the rooms onenight and I was just talking and
Ran into Jay Salters from ActNow Education now and he he
contacted me and said, hey,let's talk offline.
And next thing, you know, likeI'm volunteering for Act Now
Education and I had an interviewwith him The whole nine yards
(14:55):
here I am now serving as a boardmember for the organization.
So, yeah, some of the deepestrelationships, most meaningful
relationships, were created onan audio app, out of all things
right.
And so you've been working insouthern Nevada and as far as
the state of Nevada itself, iknow some states are are very
veteran friendly, some statesare lesser veteran friendly when
(15:16):
it comes to the benefits andthings like that.
But as far as like, throughyour research and everything,
what benefits do you think arethe most unknown or lesser known
benefits That our veterans inNevada would find quite
interesting to to gain thatknowledge today?
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Um, i mean to be honest, like I don't know if
there's any one specific benefitthat I that comes to mind for
me.
I just, i just know that,whether you're talking about
benefits or you're talking aboutactual programs, or You know
initiatives or resources thatare in that are available in the
community It's you know a lotof them are, are not visible
(15:59):
enough and not, you know, peopleare not made aware enough to
know that these things areavailable, unless you're really
really digging or if someoneelse is, you just happen to know
the right person, right?
One example is one of myfavorite programs in the
community.
It's called the emerging vetsand players program, mvp.
(16:20):
I Love that.
I love that program.
Amazing community, amazingpeople.
The culture in that program isphenomenal.
I ran into that program sort ofby accident Because, again, you
know, like you brought upearlier in the beginning of this
interview, brazilian jiu-jitsutraining and competing in
jiu-jitsu has been a major partof my life personally for the
(16:41):
last 10 plus years, and The MVPchapter here in Las Vegas.
They meet at extreme couture,which is owned by Randy couture
for the UFC, so it's an MMA gymand the program is geared toward
one professional athletes andtwo veterans, right.
So When I first found out aboutthat program, i Saw those two
(17:05):
elements that were to thenecessary elements to you know.
You know as far as backgroundand area of interest martial
arts or jiu-jitsu and militarybackground, and I had both of
those things and I had neverheard about this program until
somebody who I just happened toknow, who was also a veteran but
didn't really have a backgroundin jiu-jitsu or an interest in
(17:26):
it, just brought me there.
You know, and It's those typesof things that even though you
know and I say that with MVPalso having a massive Marketing
budget, a lot of people did knowwho they were.
They see their commercials onthe NFL, you know, during NFL
Sundays, and I just completely,you know, went over my head
apparently.
(17:46):
So so I never knew about ituntil I actually went.
And you know, the thing thatkind of struck me about that was
, i think, generally speaking,you know, like I'm doing, okay,
you know like I'm, i don't, youknow, have too many mental
struggle.
You know mental healthstruggles or anything right, or
(18:07):
you know, but there are peoplein the community, obviously in
our veteran community, that thatstruggle with certain things
and if a person was to be Havingissues you know, or dealing
with certain issues in theirlife Where they really needed a
program that could help them.
They shouldn't be finding outabout those programs or those
(18:27):
resources just because theyhappen to know the right person.
You know, and right, that'skind of how.
So.
Anyway, i just bring up thatexample because you know, as as
amazing as that program is, iwould have never have found out
about it If I just didn't happento know that right person.
So, um, so again I'm going backto your question about Programs
(18:50):
or or benefits that that areavailable to all of us.
I think that there's.
It really just kind of dependson the person, right, and what
they're in, what their needs areand what can help them.
Right, because there's so many,especially in a community like
Las Vegas, there's, there's anabundance of resources here that
a lot of people just don't knowabout.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, no, i agree 100%.
I mean there are a ton ofprograms, a ton of nonprofits
out there, a ton of you knowpartnering, i Guess, entities
out there that help out theveteran community.
But the challenge is ismarketing, getting the
information out there and thenfolks understanding, because a
(19:29):
lot of times, even when Imentioned my own nonprofit that
I'm a part of, peopleautomatically wrap their arms
around their VA education and gonot, you're not getting my VA
education And I'm like no, no,no, like this does not involve
any VA education at all.
People don't realize thatthere's Programs out there that
(19:49):
are completely free to veteransand spouses that don't even
touch The the VA education stuff.
It's just based off the factthat you are part of the
military community.
That allows you access to it.
So just the overall sheerIgnorance and knowledge is a
(20:11):
challenge to get out sometimeswhen I'm talking to people
one-on-one about Even thenonprofit that I'm part.
So I can't imagine what that'slike for you.
And since you've been Workingfor the Chamber of Commerce
there in southern I don't wantto say Las Vegas, because Las
Vegas isn't southern of odd It'syou know.
So Nevada does have other areastoo.
It's mostly right.
(20:31):
It's kind of like talking aboutChicago and Illinois.
Right, chicago is Illinois, butYou know, overall, the
partnering, the partnering thatyou've been doing, what has that
been like for you since youstarted working for the Chamber
of Commerce there in southernNevada?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
So, as far as community partnerships, i Feel
like that that's definitely oneof the areas that have went most
successfully Since, sinceeverything started, at this
point we're sitting at aboutsomewhere around 70, 75
different community partnershipswith different veteran
nonprofits That function indifferent areas.
(21:07):
So really there's there's fourareas I call them our mission
cornerstones and There's fourcornerstones that that that I
personally identified in thevery beginning, which were
veteran employment, veteranentrepreneurship, veteran
education and veteran advocacy.
So within those four areas, onenumber one priority was to not
(21:29):
reinvent anything that exists inone of those areas, because
there's not a need to recreatesomething That already, that
already exists.
I think that that's That's abig problem actually, and a lot,
and not only here in this localcommunity but in Probably all
communities where you knowsomebody has an idea and they're
like, oh, let me go start anonprofit, you know, but there's
probably four or five or sixother groups that are that have
(21:53):
already thought about them, thatare doing it, so Just
contribute to it instead,instead of trying to reinvent or
recreate it.
So that was kind of the numberone priority was to identify as
many programs as possible andBuild a relationship with them
that then make sure that theywere legitimate and then, on
that, once that was done,continue that relationship
(22:13):
building process, so that way,you know, it would be clear that
nothing needed to be reinvented, and so that that's kind of how
it's went.
You know like being able toidentify a lot of existing
programs.
Most of them are local, but alot of them have a national
presence again, like MVP beingone of them.
Act now education That was aprogram that I learned about a
while back, also on clubhouse.
(22:34):
And then you know like findingout about all the different
resources that was availablethrough them.
And then here locally, thelocal SVA chapter, student
veterans of America.
They have a strong chapter overa UNLV called the UNLV rebel
vets program.
Which is a strongcommunity-based group over, you
know, on campus of made up ofveterans and veteran connected
(22:57):
people that that are doing greatthings academically, you know,
and so You know just kind ofgoing to your question about How
, how that's looked as far asCommunity partnerships and
everything you know like that'sreally been a major focus was to
create those partnershipsbecause, ultimately, one of the
(23:18):
biggest goals was to to promoteresource collaboration and we
needed partnerships in order todo that, you know, to be able to
to form the rightcollaborations around the
community.
So so that's kind of why we'vewent in that direction was to a,
you know, to ultimately get tothat point where we can promote
maximum collaboration.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
No doubt, networking with the right people Is
definitely something over theyears that I've learned as well.
Like even even your circle,your personal circle, right?
They always say that if you'rehanging out with four idiots,
then that makes you the fifthidiot, right?
I think it's also.
It's the same thing with likewith me and podcasting.
I want to make sure that Iconnect with people that are
authentic and genuine in theirown word On what their
(23:59):
intentions are.
I think the veteran community isvery guarded.
We always feel like we're gonnaget sold the, the, the used car
.
That's a lemon that's sittingright off a base there, right?
So I think that's a.
That's a big barrier for us tobreak down.
And partnering is somethingthat I think that's why
Clubhouse was so successful todevelop those deep relationships
(24:22):
, because it wasn't so muchabout visual.
It was more about listening tothe soul, listening to where
people were coming from, howauthentic were they, were they
willing to stay in The pocketand actually explain who they
are Versus us being tricked byby visuals and things like that.
So You know, i, i my hats offto you, man.
(24:42):
It's, it's been greatconnecting with you And it's
been great talking to you againover the span of the last couple
years or so.
It's been great getting to knowyou as well.
Over the horizon, what do youthink Are some of the big plans
coming up for the SouthernNevada Chamber of Commerce?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Um, i mean, you know, on a local level, the the goal
is to just continue to pushforward, continue to grow the
Brand awareness of the chamber,you know, mainly again because
the larger that our brand growsin my mind, the more that we're
able to grow collaboration amongall the groups that are
(25:20):
connected to our brand, and thenthat's really the goal is.
I mean to simplify it andexplanation as much as I can.
It's basically a resource hub,right, that we're trying to
create, and so the more that wecan promote what we're doing,
the better that we can promotewhat everybody else is doing
That's connected to us, butoutside of the local area, some
(25:42):
of the other areas that make themost logical sense would be
communities like San Diego,hawaii, where, again, strong
veteran presence in communitieslike that.
But I don't know how muchecosystem presence there is in
cities like that, because Idon't think it really matters
(26:05):
where you're at, unless there'ssomething that's going to bring
everything together, especiallywith certain anchor groups like
the different VFW posts that aredoing certain things, like the
USO, or you know newer programslike MVP, bunker Labs, you know,
that are well known.
Then once you bring thoseprograms together, then it
(26:28):
becomes very easy to attract theother programs that may not be
as well known in any city.
So, like if we were to takethis template that have been
focused on for the past almosttwo years year and a half, two
years, you know and apply it inother cities like San Diego,
hawaii or other places, then,yeah, then we would want to
(26:52):
accomplish the same thing, andthat's really what I'm looking
at eventually is to be able toget to that point and do that.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, most definitely .
I really feel like living hereon the West Coast as well.
I feel like we get kind of leftout.
Sometimes Everything is allabout Eastern Time Zone, you
know, dc Virginia area That'sall I ever hear about.
I guess out here we're a littlemore spread out, but we do have
a huge presence, i mean just onthe island of Oahu and then
(27:21):
Southern California.
You've got Pendleton out here,you know, and you got several
bases out here too.
So the West Coast is definitelyimportant and we definitely
need to have that outreach outhere as well.
So I can attest to that forsure.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
And when you I mean especially like using a place
like Hawaii as an example, right, and I think it's very
comparable to a place like LasVegas, even though, obviously,
las Vegas is not an island the9th island not for people from
Hawaii.
But you know, when you look atOahu, you know all branches of
the military exist there, right?
(27:58):
So as a result of that, there'sgoing to be a big veteran
population.
But when you think of Hawaii,nobody thinks about that fact.
You know about the fact thatthere is a large military
presence there, that allbranches of the service exist
there.
They think of it being Hawaii,just like they do with Vegas,
right?
They don't think of Vegas beinga significant military
(28:18):
community, which it is.
It's about 10 to 11% of thetotal population out here in
Clark County is comprised ofveteran connected people.
So that's, you know, 10% or 11%of the population is roughly
about 270,000 people here inSouthern Nevada that are veteran
connected, and that's a lot ofpeople.
But people don't think aboutthat.
(28:40):
They think about what Las Vegasis famous for, which is, you
know, hospitality, gaming,entertainment, all the things
Vegas is known for.
But you know, that's a bigthing that I'm trying to help
promote is the fact that Vegasand Southern Nevada you know
Nevada as a state is asignificant military state,
(29:00):
military community And there's alot of resources that are
available for our militarycommunity too.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, no doubt I can tell you this much that when I
got out of the Army I had thehardest time because I was
stationed in Scofield Barracksin Hawaii at the time.
Anytime I had a interview or Ihad a follow up interview for a
civilian employer or aprospective civilian employer, i
(29:28):
would get some of the mostridiculous requests.
Like literally, i was activeduty, full time captain in the
Army, working in the S3, and Iwould get a phone call from
Johnson, johnson or just somecompany And they would say, hey,
we want to do a follow upinterview, we need you in Baton
Rouge tomorrow.
You know, can you be there?
(29:49):
And I'm like I got to be inBaton Rouge tomorrow.
Like I live in Hawaii.
It takes me six hours just tofly over the ocean to get to the
mainland And then I got to jumpon another flight to get to
Baton Rouge.
Like it's going to take andyou're telling me today to be
there tomorrow.
Like it's not that easy.
And you would think that in 2007that we would have a general
(30:10):
understanding of thegeographical location, of where
the islands are.
But I guess because they cut itout and they stick it down to
the next, to the Baja of Mexicoor Baja of California.
A lot of people think it's likeright there And it's totally
not dude.
It's like and I missed out on alot of opportunities because of
my geographical location, ofbeing stationed in Hawaii a lot,
(30:32):
and I was really at adisadvantage for being there at
the time.
There were a few companies thatunderstood, but for the most
part, you know, a lot of themdidn't.
They didn't know how to workwith that, with my geographical
location.
So if there's anything you knowout of this interview, lester,
that you'd like for people toknow about the Southern Nevada
Chamber of Commerce, what wouldit be?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Again, i think it's just a.
The priority is awareness,resource awareness.
For us, like again, our focus,it's kind of two-fold as far as
our mission goes, because we area Chamber of Commerce, so we
focus on business developmentand veteran entrepreneurs,
military spouse entrepreneurs,and also our membership base is
(31:19):
open to veteran supporters aswell.
We have non-veteran connectedbusinesses in our membership
base too, just because it's myopinion that you don't have to
be a veteran to support theveteran community.
So that should be a communitywide effort.
But anyway, outside of us beinga Chamber in the community and
(31:40):
doing the things that we do as aChamber, it's about providing
greater awareness of resourcesthat aren't necessarily
business-related or careerskills-related, but quality of
life-related overall.
And I think that the more thateverybody in the community can
(32:00):
become aware of what's going on,so what some of the issues
actually are in the veterancommunity, and then the
resources and the solutions thatare available in the veteran
community, and pair those thingstogether, then that's really
what I would like to see moreand more and more over time with
(32:20):
our organization.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Right, yeah, it's all about awareness, right, and
just to final out the episodetoday, it's been great hearing
all about your background, whereyou come from.
We have a very, very similarjourney.
It's so funny how we literallycross paths there in Dayton Ohio
, right across the street.
We were probably at the pub atthe same time at some point
(32:45):
having a beer, and we justdidn't know it.
What piece of advice would youhave for veterans out there who
are not currently takingadvantage of any benefits And
are yet unhappy with theircurrent situation?
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Oh man.
Well, hopefully, if we'retalking about this area
geographically, hopefully we'llbe able to gain some reach to
help educate people that are inthat situation.
But with folks who are aware ofwhat their available resources
are if they're veterans and theyknow what's out there, they're
(33:23):
just not bettering their ownsituation then you've got to use
what's available.
We all have to use what'savailable to us The benefits
that are available to us, yourVA home loan, understanding why
that's so important, why that asa financial tool, why that's so
powerful.
Your educational benefits, yourGI bill plus 9-11 GI bill, why
(33:44):
all those things are so uniquelypowerful to our community to
help us move forward bothindividually and as a community,
are super important.
But yeah, i would say just kindof knowing what's out there and
taking full advantage of it.
There's too many resources outthere to not take advantage of.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Yeah, knowledge is power.
Definitely, knowledge is power.
And, if anything else, at leastcontact someone like Lester.
if you're in the southernNevada area, contact Lester,
connect with him on LinkedIn,connect with him on Instagram,
facebook and ask, say, hey, thisis my current situation, this
is my goals, these are thethings I want to do.
(34:32):
Let him know, because maybethere's a connection out there
that he can help you out with.
And, with that being said,lester, how can our listeners
contact you to follow up onanything that we mentioned on
the show today?
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, so you can always go to our website, which
is wwwSNVCCorg That'ssierranancyvictorcharlycharlyorg
.
You can also email me atlesterlumbad at snvccorg, and I
will definitely respond to youremail and try to get you plugged
(35:03):
into what you need.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
So if you're watching this on YouTube, check out the
description.
I'm going to make sure I putthose links down there in the
description.
If you're listening to this ona podcast, scroll down to the
show notes.
You can see the links that hejust mentioned down there as
well.
Connect with Lester and see ifthe Southern Nevada Chamber of
Commerce can do something foryou, because at the end of the
day, it's all about reachingback and helping out our
(35:28):
community that needs that muchneeded help transitioning out of
the military, or even if you'remaking that midlife transition.
maybe you've been doingsomething for a number of years
and you're a veteran, or you'rea military spouse and you want
to do something else.
There's a lot of options outthere.
So please connect, network withfolks within our community that
are interested in helping you.
(35:48):
resource Lester.
I just want to thank you forjoining us today on the Morning
Formation podcast.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
No, thank you for having me man.
It was a pleasure, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Hey, the honor is all mine, man.
Thank you for getting up earlyon this Sunday morning and
spending some time with me andletting our audience know all
about you.
For everyone else out there, asalways, i want you to stay
tuned, stay focused and staymotivated.
Warriors fall out.
We are the company We like todo beating.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
And we like to do beating Push up, stand up, push
up, stand up.
But there are people in the community obviously in
our veteran community thatstruggle with certain things,
having issues you know, ordealing with certain issues in
their life where they reallyneeded a program that could help
them.
they shouldn't be finding outabout those programs or those
resources just because theyhappen to know the right person.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Warriors fall in.
It's time for formation.
Today, i'm joined with an AirForce veteran originally from
Southern California butcurrently resides in Sin City,
las Vegas, where he operates asthe president of the Southern
Nevada Chamber of Commerce,which is an organization that is
100% committed to partneringwith local businesses and the
veteran advocacy groups to raisecommunity wide visibility of
(00:45):
veteran nonprofits and statesponsored programs for our very
own military veterans and theirfamilies.
Our guest today is none otherthan the Lester Lombad.
I want to thank you for joiningus early on the Morning
Formation podcast, and I alsowant to say congratulations on
your most recent achievement ofgetting a brown belt and
(01:06):
presenting Jiu Jitsu Hey KP.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me here onthe Morning Formation podcast
and thanks for the shoutout onthe brown belt.
That was a big step for me,thank you.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
A lot of people really don't understand the
amount of work, the amount ofblood, sweat, tears, injuries
that it takes to get to thatlevel.
That is a very elite level andmy hat's off to you, man.
One of these days I'm going tobring my gi to Vegas and I'm
going to let you whoop up on mefor a little bit and humble me
out.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Man, air Force versus Army Yeah, i'm sure it'll
probably be the other way around, but, like you said, it did
take a lot of time to get tothat point.
I'm just excited to just keepworking at things and keep
improving.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Right on, man.
Yeah, we always improve, evenafter we get out of service and
we get older in our age.
Always improving is definitelythe right direction to be going
in.
I was checking you out onLinkedIn, man.
I see you spent about six yearsin the Air Force and then you
spent some additional timeworking on the civilian side.
What was your career transitionlike and did it inspire you to
(02:20):
do what you're currently doingtoday with the Chamber of
Commerce?
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So, yeah, it was about six, six and a half years
or so and I went to go work as adefense contractor out in
Washington DC almost immediatelyafter I left active duty.
My transition went verysmoothly, very quickly.
It took me about I think I wasunemployed for about four days
(02:45):
when I left service.
But a lot of that just kind ofcame from me knowing pretty far
in advance beforehand that I wasgoing to be transitioning out.
So I put in quite a bit of timeresearching and contacting
different employers and justlooking at different
opportunities in the space thatI wanted to be in at the time,
(03:07):
which was the tech space.
I wanted to see how that wouldtranslate out into the civilian
sector.
Luckily, at the time when I wastransitioning out, the last
unit and organization that I waswith it was with the National
Air and Space IntelligenceCenter over at Wright Patterson
Air Force Base, which me takingthat position.
It required me to allow for anSSBI investigation to take place
(03:33):
which granted me a TS topsecret SEI clearance and that
helped me in my transition a lot.
But it's really very separatefrom what I'm doing now with the
Southern Nevada VeteransChamber of Commerce.
A big reason for that, i guess,is there was a gap in time where
(03:57):
and this isn't really mentionedon my LinkedIn profile, but it
is a big part of my story where,when I transitioned out my wife
we were newly married at thetime my wife had just joined the
military for the purpose offinishing school.
She was applying for medicalschool at the time, and that was
(04:18):
a big reason why we moved toWashington DC.
So I immediately fell into theactive, dependent military
spells role.
I didn't really realize whatthat was about, or if that was
even a thing.
I just thought it was a funnything to tell my friends about
(04:38):
that.
I had just left active dutyfrom, i had just left my active
duty ID card and then three dayslater I'm going over to
Bethesda, maryland, to get adependent ID card.
I got this big smile on my faceon my picture, but that was
about it.
But then, seven years later, iresigned from my job from
Raytheon and we moved overseasto Yakota Air Base, japan.
(04:59):
That's when I realized that themilitary spells role was a
significant thing.
It was something that involveda lot of sacrifices.
It had to give up my role withwhat I was doing in the civilian
sector.
So anyway, long story short, thereason why I bring all of that
(05:20):
up is because once we left thedifferent overseas locations
that we were at six years laterbetween Japan and England, we
came back to the States and mytop secret SCI clearance was
expired.
I could no longer use it.
So when we got here to LasVegas, i was just trying to
think of things that made sensefor me because of our family
(05:42):
situation.
We have four children all ofthem are young and two parents
with a nine to five just doesn'twork schedule-wise.
So entrepreneurship was thething that made the most sense
to me, to give me theflexibility to still do my part
for my family but explore otherthings.
So that's what caused me toexplore other things and that's
(06:03):
kind of what brought me to whereI'm at right now.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Man, you are so multi-sided.
You're an Air Force veteran.
You also understand what it'slike to be a military spouse,
not just a military spouse herein the States, but a military
spouse in a foreign country,which that's truly being far
away from home.
You're having to learn how todo all the military spouse
(06:28):
things that a lot of people kindof take for granted.
You mentioned Wright PattersonAir Force Base.
I went to college at WrightState University.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
I remember you mentioned that to me in one of
our past conversations.
I actually literally rightacross the street from Wright
State, off of Colonel GlennHighway.
I could walk into the campusfrom my apartment at that time.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
What year was that?
Speaker 1 (06:52):
That was from 2003 to 2005.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yeah, so 2003 was when I graduated.
We probably could have went toSemeron and had some parties,
probably so.
Yeah, it's funny how pathscross like that man.
Yeah, so you're so multi-sat.
You're literally a veteran,literally military spouse.
Your wife is a professional aswell.
So you have four kids.
You're into Brazilian jitsu Wow, you have so many things going
(07:21):
on for you And you do such ameaningful job being the
president of the Southern NevadaChamber of Commerce.
Would you mind talking to usabout what the Chamber of
Commerce is, about the impactthat they provide for Southern
Nevada's veterans and militarycommunity?
Yeah, sure.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
So with the Southern Nevada Veterans Chamber of
Commerce, again, it started outreally from a place of personal
need because at the time when wefirst moved here, i personally
experienced a lot of thestruggles that come along with
small business andentrepreneurship and figuring
out that if you're not pluggedinto the right resources, if
you're not plugged into theright people, you don't have a
(07:58):
network in your community, thenthings can be really really
challenging from a businessstandpoint.
So ultimately, eventually I wasled to seeking out resources
for myself and I wasn't able tolocate anything that resembled
the Chamber of Commerce out here.
And one thing led to another.
(08:21):
I just started doing a littlebit of research, started talking
to some people, started pickingup some ideas from different
conversations about differentresources, and it just made a
lot of sense for me or somebodyto start what would be
eventually becoming the SouthernNevada Veterans Chamber of
Commerce.
(08:41):
But outside of the businessdevelopment aspect of it, again
it's more about awareness andvisibility of available
resources.
And I think at the time, like Ithink originally, i met you
through this app calledClubhouse, which was at the
height of the pandemic.
(09:01):
It was really really active andit was really really useful to
me in terms of conversationsthat I was having with a lot of
people from different parts ofthe country, some different
parts of the world.
But the reason why I bring thatup is because during that time,
while I was using Clubhouse, iwould end up having all these
conversations with these peoplefrom different parts of the
(09:22):
country doing different things.
Now I would learn aboutresources like Bunker Labs which
is the hoodie that I'm wearingright now groups like that's the
industry, groups like ACP,warrior Rising.
I learned about all thesedifferent things.
I started talking to these VSOsjust in live conversation And
(09:43):
these were things that I wasn'tplugged into or aware of at all,
mainly because, again, kind ofgoing back to the whole concept
of me being having transitionedout in 05 and then not really
focused on any veteran resourcesafter I immediately
transitioned out, because reallyI was just focused on being out
(10:04):
and moving on with my life.
And then we moved overseas forsix years and I'm a military
spouse at that point.
I'm not paying attention to anyof those things.
I'm not thinking about veteranemployment, i'm not thinking
about entrepreneurship resources.
I'm not thinking about any ofthose things We're thinking
about.
What's the next thing we'regoing to do in Japan, what's the
next country we're going tovisit when we're living in
(10:25):
England, kind of thing.
And then when we eventually gothere to Las Vegas, came back
stateside.
That's when the awareness ofdifferent resources really
started to hit me, and throughconversations with other people
So anyway, long explanationshort I just started to become
aware of a lot of the resourcesthat I didn't know about And I
(10:48):
figured one.
I knew that when I left service.
I didn't know about these thingsand I probably should have.
And now, at that point a coupleof years ago, if I'm actively
researching these things that Ifelt like I should have known
about, then I also felt likeanother person in the community
(11:08):
who wasn't as actively lookingfor these things and probably
needed them more than I did,should have a way to locate,
identify and navigate thoseresources.
And that's kind of where thelong explanation on how the
thought process went.
But again it all kind ofstepped back to my own personal
(11:30):
need for really business andentrepreneurship resources.
But then the other area ofresources when it comes to
veteran employment, transition,career skills, transition,
educational benefits andresources, veteran advocacy
resources, there's this entireidea of an ecosystem that I felt
(11:52):
like those resources could betied together if we could create
one singular brand thatveterans in the community could
connect with, which eventuallydeveloped in my mind to be that
brand being the Southern NevadaVeterans Chamber of Commerce.
Branding Just make it easier.
That's kind of how I work mybrain, at least.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Right.
No, it was definitely a longjourney and very similar to my
own.
I got out and I started workingfor a big company and I tried
my best to shed my skin ofanything military related, was
ready to move on with myself,got another job, quit my first
job after a year, like 80% ofveterans do, and I always tell
(12:36):
people I got out in 2007.
The sexiest thing online backthen was my space right, and we
didn't have LinkedIn.
We didn't have these thingsthat are fingertips like we do
today.
I really think at times thatthis entire market is a little
saturated and it's important forour military veterans, our
(12:58):
military families, to pick outand align themselves with the
best network out there, and Ireally feel like the Southern
Nevada Chamber of Commerce andyourself, just knowing you from
Clubhouse, you're definitely oneof those Titans out there that
can really, really efficientlyand effectively help someone out
, and I'm not just saying that.
(13:19):
Going back to what you talkedabout with Clubhouse now, some
of the deepest relationshipsthat I created Was over that
audio app, which is strangebecause it's all audio.
There's no video.
You don't know what people looklike.
You see a picture of them.
That's it, right.
But even to this day, like Istill remain in contact with a
lot of the people that Used tocome to the military mix-up
(13:40):
which I used to host on Fridaynights, which that damn thing
lasted for two to three hours attimes.
It kept it kept rolling, butlike you said, man, it was, it
was a.
It was a great time to connect,a great time to network.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
Yeah, i agree.
Yeah, same with me.
Like I still, i still keep inpretty regular contact with a
lot of those people that I buildrelationships with.
There's actually one guy whowas just here in Las Vegas less
than a week ago.
He's one of my chamber members.
He doesn't even live in LasVegas, he was in Salt Lake City
but he has his business Parts tobe set up here in Nevada, so he
(14:12):
travels into Las Vegas prettyfrequently.
But I met him on Clubhouse.
His name is Eric ranks.
He, over the vodka line, called22 salute and You know it's.
It's funny.
I met him on Clubhouse andthere's several other people.
That's the clubhouse wasActually where I first heard of
bunker labs and then Ieventually ended walking through
one of the bunker labs cohortshere in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
So, um, yeah, yeah, the times it was the same with
me man I was.
I was in one of the rooms onenight and I was just talking and
Ran into Jay Salters from ActNow Education now and he he
contacted me and said, hey,let's talk offline.
And next thing, you know, likeI'm volunteering for Act Now
Education and I had an interviewwith him The whole nine yards
(14:55):
here I am now serving as a boardmember for the organization.
So, yeah, some of the deepestrelationships, most meaningful
relationships, were created onan audio app, out of all things
right.
And so you've been working insouthern Nevada and as far as
the state of Nevada itself, iknow some states are are very
veteran friendly, some statesare lesser veteran friendly when
(15:16):
it comes to the benefits andthings like that.
But as far as like, throughyour research and everything,
what benefits do you think arethe most unknown or lesser known
benefits That our veterans inNevada would find quite
interesting to to gain thatknowledge today?
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Um, i mean to be honest, like I don't know if
there's any one specific benefitthat I that comes to mind for
me.
I just, i just know that,whether you're talking about
benefits or you're talking aboutactual programs, or You know
initiatives or resources thatare in that are available in the
community It's you know a lotof them are, are not visible
(15:59):
enough and not, you know, peopleare not made aware enough to
know that these things areavailable, unless you're really
really digging or if someoneelse is, you just happen to know
the right person, right?
One example is one of myfavorite programs in the
community.
It's called the emerging vetsand players program, mvp.
(16:20):
I Love that.
I love that program.
Amazing community, amazingpeople.
The culture in that program isphenomenal.
I ran into that program sort ofby accident Because, again, you
know, like you brought upearlier in the beginning of this
interview, brazilian jiu-jitsutraining and competing in
jiu-jitsu has been a major partof my life personally for the
(16:41):
last 10 plus years, and The MVPchapter here in Las Vegas.
They meet at extreme couture,which is owned by Randy couture
for the UFC, so it's an MMA gymand the program is geared toward
one professional athletes andtwo veterans, right.
So When I first found out aboutthat program, i Saw those two
(17:05):
elements that were to thenecessary elements to you know.
You know as far as backgroundand area of interest martial
arts or jiu-jitsu and militarybackground, and I had both of
those things and I had neverheard about this program until
somebody who I just happened toknow, who was also a veteran but
didn't really have a backgroundin jiu-jitsu or an interest in
(17:26):
it, just brought me there.
You know, and It's those typesof things that even though you
know and I say that with MVPalso having a massive Marketing
budget, a lot of people did knowwho they were.
They see their commercials onthe NFL, you know, during NFL
Sundays, and I just completely,you know, went over my head
apparently.
(17:46):
So so I never knew about ituntil I actually went.
And you know, the thing thatkind of struck me about that was
, i think, generally speaking,you know, like I'm doing, okay,
you know like I'm, i don't, youknow, have too many mental
struggle.
You know mental healthstruggles or anything right, or
(18:07):
you know, but there are peoplein the community, obviously in
our veteran community, that thatstruggle with certain things
and if a person was to be Havingissues you know, or dealing
with certain issues in theirlife Where they really needed a
program that could help them.
They shouldn't be finding outabout those programs or those
(18:27):
resources just because theyhappen to know the right person.
You know, and right, that'skind of how.
So.
Anyway, i just bring up thatexample because you know, as as
amazing as that program is, iwould have never have found out
about it If I just didn't happento know that right person.
So, um, so again I'm going backto your question about Programs
(18:50):
or or benefits that that areavailable to all of us.
I think that there's.
It really just kind of dependson the person, right, and what
they're in, what their needs areand what can help them.
Right, because there's so many,especially in a community like
Las Vegas, there's, there's anabundance of resources here that
a lot of people just don't knowabout.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Yeah, no, i agree 100%.
I mean there are a ton ofprograms, a ton of nonprofits
out there, a ton of you knowpartnering, i Guess, entities
out there that help out theveteran community.
But the challenge is ismarketing, getting the
information out there and thenfolks understanding, because a
(19:29):
lot of times, even when Imentioned my own nonprofit that
I'm a part of, peopleautomatically wrap their arms
around their VA education and gonot, you're not getting my VA
education And I'm like no, no,no, like this does not involve
any VA education at all.
People don't realize thatthere's Programs out there that
(19:49):
are completely free to veteransand spouses that don't even
touch The the VA education stuff.
It's just based off the factthat you are part of the
military community.
That allows you access to it.
So just the overall sheerIgnorance and knowledge is a
(20:11):
challenge to get out sometimeswhen I'm talking to people
one-on-one about Even thenonprofit that I'm part.
So I can't imagine what that'slike for you.
And since you've been Workingfor the Chamber of Commerce
there in southern I don't wantto say Las Vegas, because Las
Vegas isn't southern of odd It'syou know.
So Nevada does have other areastoo.
It's mostly right.
(20:31):
It's kind of like talking aboutChicago and Illinois.
Right, chicago is Illinois, butYou know, overall, the
partnering, the partnering thatyou've been doing, what has that
been like for you since youstarted working for the Chamber
of Commerce there in southernNevada?
Speaker 1 (20:47):
So, as far as community partnerships, i Feel
like that that's definitely oneof the areas that have went most
successfully Since, sinceeverything started, at this
point we're sitting at aboutsomewhere around 70, 75
different community partnershipswith different veteran
nonprofits That function indifferent areas.
(21:07):
So really there's there's fourareas I call them our mission
cornerstones and There's fourcornerstones that that that I
personally identified in thevery beginning, which were
veteran employment, veteranentrepreneurship, veteran
education and veteran advocacy.
So within those four areas, onenumber one priority was to not
(21:29):
reinvent anything that exists inone of those areas, because
there's not a need to recreatesomething That already, that
already exists.
I think that that's That's abig problem actually, and a lot,
and not only here in this localcommunity but in Probably all
communities where you knowsomebody has an idea and they're
like, oh, let me go start anonprofit, you know, but there's
probably four or five or sixother groups that are that have
(21:53):
already thought about them, thatare doing it, so Just
contribute to it instead,instead of trying to reinvent or
recreate it.
So that was kind of the numberone priority was to identify as
many programs as possible andBuild a relationship with them
that then make sure that theywere legitimate and then, on
that, once that was done,continue that relationship
(22:13):
building process, so that way,you know, it would be clear that
nothing needed to be reinvented, and so that that's kind of how
it's went.
You know like being able toidentify a lot of existing
programs.
Most of them are local, but alot of them have a national
presence again, like MVP beingone of them.
Act now education That was aprogram that I learned about a
while back, also on clubhouse.
(22:34):
And then you know like findingout about all the different
resources that was availablethrough them.
And then here locally, thelocal SVA chapter, student
veterans of America.
They have a strong chapter overa UNLV called the UNLV rebel
vets program.
Which is a strongcommunity-based group over, you
know, on campus of made up ofveterans and veteran connected
(22:57):
people that that are doing greatthings academically, you know,
and so You know just kind ofgoing to your question about How
, how that's looked as far asCommunity partnerships and
everything you know like that'sreally been a major focus was to
create those partnershipsbecause, ultimately, one of the
(23:18):
biggest goals was to to promoteresource collaboration and we
needed partnerships in order todo that, you know, to be able to
to form the rightcollaborations around the
community.
So so that's kind of why we'vewent in that direction was to a,
you know, to ultimately get tothat point where we can promote
maximum collaboration.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
No doubt, networking with the right people Is
definitely something over theyears that I've learned as well.
Like even even your circle,your personal circle, right?
They always say that if you'rehanging out with four idiots,
then that makes you the fifthidiot, right?
I think it's also.
It's the same thing with likewith me and podcasting.
I want to make sure that Iconnect with people that are
authentic and genuine in theirown word On what their
(23:59):
intentions are.
I think the veteran community isvery guarded.
We always feel like we're gonnaget sold the, the, the used car
.
That's a lemon that's sittingright off a base there, right?
So I think that's a.
That's a big barrier for us tobreak down.
And partnering is somethingthat I think that's why
Clubhouse was so successful todevelop those deep relationships
(24:22):
, because it wasn't so muchabout visual.
It was more about listening tothe soul, listening to where
people were coming from, howauthentic were they, were they
willing to stay in The pocketand actually explain who they
are Versus us being tricked byby visuals and things like that.
So You know, i, i my hats offto you, man.
(24:42):
It's, it's been greatconnecting with you And it's
been great talking to you againover the span of the last couple
years or so.
It's been great getting to knowyou as well.
Over the horizon, what do youthink Are some of the big plans
coming up for the SouthernNevada Chamber of Commerce?
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Um, i mean, you know, on a local level, the the goal
is to just continue to pushforward, continue to grow the
Brand awareness of the chamber,you know, mainly again because
the larger that our brand growsin my mind, the more that we're
able to grow collaboration amongall the groups that are
(25:20):
connected to our brand, and thenthat's really the goal is.
I mean to simplify it andexplanation as much as I can.
It's basically a resource hub,right, that we're trying to
create, and so the more that wecan promote what we're doing,
the better that we can promotewhat everybody else is doing
That's connected to us, butoutside of the local area, some
(25:42):
of the other areas that make themost logical sense would be
communities like San Diego,hawaii, where, again, strong
veteran presence in communitieslike that.
But I don't know how muchecosystem presence there is in
cities like that, because Idon't think it really matters
(26:05):
where you're at, unless there'ssomething that's going to bring
everything together, especiallywith certain anchor groups like
the different VFW posts that aredoing certain things, like the
USO, or you know newer programslike MVP, bunker Labs, you know,
that are well known.
Then once you bring thoseprograms together, then it
(26:28):
becomes very easy to attract theother programs that may not be
as well known in any city.
So, like if we were to takethis template that have been
focused on for the past almosttwo years year and a half, two
years, you know and apply it inother cities like San Diego,
hawaii or other places, then,yeah, then we would want to
(26:52):
accomplish the same thing, andthat's really what I'm looking
at eventually is to be able toget to that point and do that.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Yeah, most definitely .
I really feel like living hereon the West Coast as well.
I feel like we get kind of leftout.
Sometimes Everything is allabout Eastern Time Zone, you
know, dc Virginia area That'sall I ever hear about.
I guess out here we're a littlemore spread out, but we do have
a huge presence, i mean just onthe island of Oahu and then
(27:21):
Southern California.
You've got Pendleton out here,you know, and you got several
bases out here too.
So the West Coast is definitelyimportant and we definitely
need to have that outreach outhere as well.
So I can attest to that forsure.
Speaker 1 (27:36):
And when you I mean especially like using a place
like Hawaii as an example, right, and I think it's very
comparable to a place like LasVegas, even though, obviously,
las Vegas is not an island the9th island not for people from
Hawaii.
But you know, when you look atOahu, you know all branches of
the military exist there, right?
(27:58):
So as a result of that, there'sgoing to be a big veteran
population.
But when you think of Hawaii,nobody thinks about that fact.
You know about the fact thatthere is a large military
presence there, that allbranches of the service exist
there.
They think of it being Hawaii,just like they do with Vegas,
right?
They don't think of Vegas beinga significant military
(28:18):
community, which it is.
It's about 10 to 11% of thetotal population out here in
Clark County is comprised ofveteran connected people.
So that's, you know, 10% or 11%of the population is roughly
about 270,000 people here inSouthern Nevada that are veteran
connected, and that's a lot ofpeople.
But people don't think aboutthat.
(28:40):
They think about what Las Vegasis famous for, which is, you
know, hospitality, gaming,entertainment, all the things
Vegas is known for.
But you know, that's a bigthing that I'm trying to help
promote is the fact that Vegasand Southern Nevada you know
Nevada as a state is asignificant military state,
(29:00):
military community And there's alot of resources that are
available for our militarycommunity too.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
Yeah, no doubt I can tell you this much that when I
got out of the Army I had thehardest time because I was
stationed in Scofield Barracksin Hawaii at the time.
Anytime I had a interview or Ihad a follow up interview for a
civilian employer or aprospective civilian employer, i
(29:28):
would get some of the mostridiculous requests.
Like literally, i was activeduty, full time captain in the
Army, working in the S3, and Iwould get a phone call from
Johnson, johnson or just somecompany And they would say, hey,
we want to do a follow upinterview, we need you in Baton
Rouge tomorrow.
You know, can you be there?
(29:49):
And I'm like I got to be inBaton Rouge tomorrow.
Like I live in Hawaii.
It takes me six hours just tofly over the ocean to get to the
mainland And then I got to jumpon another flight to get to
Baton Rouge.
Like it's going to take andyou're telling me today to be
there tomorrow.
Like it's not that easy.
And you would think that in 2007that we would have a general
(30:10):
understanding of thegeographical location, of where
the islands are.
But I guess because they cut itout and they stick it down to
the next, to the Baja of Mexicoor Baja of California.
A lot of people think it's likeright there And it's totally
not dude.
It's like and I missed out on alot of opportunities because of
my geographical location, ofbeing stationed in Hawaii a lot,
(30:32):
and I was really at adisadvantage for being there at
the time.
There were a few companies thatunderstood, but for the most
part, you know, a lot of themdidn't.
They didn't know how to workwith that, with my geographical
location.
So if there's anything you knowout of this interview, lester,
that you'd like for people toknow about the Southern Nevada
Chamber of Commerce, what wouldit be?
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Again, i think it's just a.
The priority is awareness,resource awareness.
For us, like again, our focus,it's kind of two-fold as far as
our mission goes, because we area Chamber of Commerce, so we
focus on business developmentand veteran entrepreneurs,
military spouse entrepreneurs,and also our membership base is
(31:19):
open to veteran supporters aswell.
We have non-veteran connectedbusinesses in our membership
base too, just because it's myopinion that you don't have to
be a veteran to support theveteran community.
So that should be a communitywide effort.
But anyway, outside of us beinga Chamber in the community and
(31:40):
doing the things that we do as aChamber, it's about providing
greater awareness of resourcesthat aren't necessarily
business-related or careerskills-related, but quality of
life-related overall.
And I think that the more thateverybody in the community can
(32:00):
become aware of what's going on,so what some of the issues
actually are in the veterancommunity, and then the
resources and the solutions thatare available in the veteran
community, and pair those thingstogether, then that's really
what I would like to see moreand more and more over time with
(32:20):
our organization.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
Right, yeah, it's all about awareness, right, and
just to final out the episodetoday, it's been great hearing
all about your background, whereyou come from.
We have a very, very similarjourney.
It's so funny how we literallycross paths there in Dayton Ohio
, right across the street.
We were probably at the pub atthe same time at some point
(32:45):
having a beer, and we justdidn't know it.
What piece of advice would youhave for veterans out there who
are not currently takingadvantage of any benefits And
are yet unhappy with theircurrent situation?
Speaker 1 (33:00):
Oh man.
Well, hopefully, if we'retalking about this area
geographically, hopefully we'llbe able to gain some reach to
help educate people that are inthat situation.
But with folks who are aware ofwhat their available resources
are if they're veterans and theyknow what's out there, they're
(33:23):
just not bettering their ownsituation then you've got to use
what's available.
We all have to use what'savailable to us The benefits
that are available to us, yourVA home loan, understanding why
that's so important, why that asa financial tool, why that's so
powerful.
Your educational benefits, yourGI bill plus 9-11 GI bill, why
(33:44):
all those things are so uniquelypowerful to our community to
help us move forward bothindividually and as a community,
are super important.
But yeah, i would say just kindof knowing what's out there and
taking full advantage of it.
There's too many resources outthere to not take advantage of.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Yeah, knowledge is power.
Definitely, knowledge is power.
And, if anything else, at leastcontact someone like Lester.
if you're in the southernNevada area, contact Lester,
connect with him on LinkedIn,connect with him on Instagram,
facebook and ask, say, hey, thisis my current situation, this
is my goals, these are thethings I want to do.
(34:32):
Let him know, because maybethere's a connection out there
that he can help you out with.
And, with that being said,lester, how can our listeners
contact you to follow up onanything that we mentioned on
the show today?
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yeah, so you can always go to our website, which
is wwwSNVCCorg That'ssierranancyvictorcharlycharlyorg
.
You can also email me atlesterlumbad at snvccorg, and I
will definitely respond to youremail and try to get you plugged
(35:03):
into what you need.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
So if you're watching this on YouTube, check out the
description.
I'm going to make sure I putthose links down there in the
description.
If you're listening to this ona podcast, scroll down to the
show notes.
You can see the links that hejust mentioned down there as
well.
Connect with Lester and see ifthe Southern Nevada Chamber of
Commerce can do something foryou, because at the end of the
day, it's all about reachingback and helping out our
(35:28):
community that needs that muchneeded help transitioning out of
the military, or even if you'remaking that midlife transition.
maybe you've been doingsomething for a number of years
and you're a veteran, or you'rea military spouse and you want
to do something else.
There's a lot of options outthere.
So please connect, network withfolks within our community that
are interested in helping you.
(35:48):
resource Lester.
I just want to thank you forjoining us today on the Morning
Formation podcast.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
No, thank you for having me man.
It was a pleasure, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Hey, the honor is all mine, man.
Thank you for getting up earlyon this Sunday morning and
spending some time with me andletting our audience know all
about you.
For everyone else out there, asalways, i want you to stay
tuned, stay focused and staymotivated.
Warriors fall out.
We are the company We like todo beating.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
And we like to do beating Push up, stand up, push
up, stand up.
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