[00:00:00] Kevin Schmiegel: We saw in the private sector with nonprofits that paint the broken veteran narrative, illicit sympathy and pity to raise money. and, we just got sick and tired of it.

[00:00:10] Kevin Schmiegel: I got sick and tired of it, and I think this is the greatest threat to the veteran community and our families is the broken veteran narrative. So. We started ZeroMils because we also got sick of nonprofits competing with each other and not working together to create greater change.

[00:00:41] Lloyd Knight: Welcome to Top Talks. First Sergeant talks with real veterans with real stories, unedited and unscripted. And today we have a something rare. We have somebody who connects the dots better than I do, and somebody who’s, very connected, uh, Marine Corps veteran, a, uh, founder of a, bunch of different things, which we’re gonna talk about, Marine Corps, sun Marine Corps, uh, retired Lieutenant Colonel and, uh, no better friend to a, uh, veterans out there. Welcome to, uh, Tango Tango, Kevin.

[00:01:13] Kevin Schmiegel: Yeah, thanks for having me, Lloyd. It’s great to be here, on a, a cold Thursday in Iron 

[00:01:19] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, so Iron Mountain, Michigan. We were just talking. He said he had a couple inches of ice and, uh, you can’t see it right now, but I’m in, I’m in short pants. It’s 85 degrees in, in the, uh, hot Atlanta. So the, uh, we’ll get, to the story how you ended up in Iron Mountain, Michigan, and, and, and soon to be Wisconsin.

[00:01:36] Lloyd Knight: But let’s take it all the way back to your childhood. your dad is a, uh, a marine veteran. So what, enlisted officer and what was it like to grow up in a Marine family, Kevin?

[00:01:47] Kevin Schmiegel: Yeah, my dad served in the sixties, so he’s a Vietnam era veteran. went to Hofstra University and went through the, the PLS program, so didn’t have a scholarship. Uh, one day decided as a junior in college that he wanted to be a Marine. His dad was in the Army Air Corps, uh, immigrated from Germany in, 1919, uh, as a teenager, and in 1929 joined the Army and served for almost 30 years, retired as a master sergeant in the Army Air Corps.

[00:02:16] Kevin Schmiegel: I grew up in Tom River, New Jersey, one of six kids. And. I don’t know, but I think the, the biggest reason I became a Marine myself was not because my dad encouraged me. I think it’s quite the contrary. I think selfishly, his father is, my son is a Marine too, my son Carl. So we have three generations. But my dad never said, Hey, I want you to be a Marine.

[00:02:37] Kevin Schmiegel: But I noticed whenever he would be on the phone, with one of the Marines he served with in the sixties, or a friend of his named Marty Brennan, who was a Bronze Star recipient in Vietnam, my dad would be a different person. He would just light up. And I think that just by osmosis, I, I realized that that really helped him, um, get to the point in his life where he was a leader.

[00:02:58] Kevin Schmiegel: The other thing is, in, in the Easter season, I think it’s appropriate to mention my mother. I grew up in a big Catholic family. Uh, she instilled in me the value of service, uh, treating my neighbors the way I would want to be treated, serving other people, the golden rules, right? And, . Growing up as an altar boy in the Catholic church, volunteering at the community, at food banks, I think my mother had just as much to do in inspiring me to serve as my 

[00:03:21] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. that’s that’s awesome. So, and you definitely have lived a life of service in and out of uniform, but let’s, let’s, what did, what did your childhood look like? I mean, were you in Tom’s River? Were you, uh. Were you out at the beach? Were you, were you playing runs? Uh, you know, were you into sports or was it all that?

[00:03:41] Kevin Schmiegel: No, I was a big surfer. Um, and I played tennis and I wrestled in high school, so kind of a, a jack of all trades I think growing up. I went to high school from 1981 to 1985. It was a time of, in America where you played all sports, you really didn’t specialize in one, one sport or the other. So I was out there every season, basketball, football, baseball.

[00:04:06] Kevin Schmiegel: Playing in an empty lot near my house growing up. And, you know, even today when I play sports with my kids, I can do just about anything. So I think we had a very balanced childhood. It was a little bit crazy having five brothers and sisters is a little bit manic. There’s 23 years between the oldest and the youngest.

[00:04:21] Kevin Schmiegel: so we always had a full house of kids and, I think it was a great, it was a great life. I always look back at it fondly. I was just back there seeing my mom and dad and, and some of em, some of my brothers and sisters a couple weeks ago.

[00:04:33] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. Nice. I, so we’re, we’re about the same age I graduated high school in, uh, 1987. I wrestled as well. What weight classes did you wrestle?

[00:04:41] Kevin Schmiegel: Well, they made me wrestle at 1 29, the first three years. And then, uh, then I wrestled at 

[00:04:47] Lloyd Knight: I’ll say, I, I, I’m, I was six foot tall. I’m, I’m a little taller now, but I wrestled 1 38, so I was the skinny, lanky guy, but I was, I was losing a bunch of weight ’cause I couldn’t handle the, uh, upper weight classes. So what did you know? I, I think wrestling, develops more character than any other sports ’cause it’s supposedly a team sport.

[00:05:10] Lloyd Knight: But when you’re, as I always said, when I was laying on my back, counting the lights, you know, you have no one to blame but yourself. 

[00:05:17] Kevin Schmiegel: I think it’s one of those character builders that you, you never forget, uh, just the discipline around it. I also had an experience in college where I boxed, which I actually think boxing is a, is a much more difficult sport. again, you’re out there by yourself for, in, in that case, three rounds, and you’re sparring generally against people who.

[00:05:35] Kevin Schmiegel: Are pretty good at what they do. And it was a, a good preparation for the Marine Corps. I think in both cases.

[00:05:42] Lloyd Knight: So the, uh, yeah. Let’s, uh, let’s, uh, go into your Marine Corps. So you graduated high school and you were, where’d you go to college at?

[00:05:48] Kevin Schmiegel: I went to a small Jesuit college called college of the Holy Cross in Worcester, 

[00:05:52] Kevin Schmiegel: Massachusetts. about 3000 students at the most. I studied English literature, and I had a scholarship through, the ROTC program. it’s a funny story actually. I, I went to, well to see the recruiter and where I, where I grew up in Toms River.

[00:06:07] Kevin Schmiegel: There, they all share an office. So that day, the marine officer who was responsible for the ROTC program wasn’t there, and the Navy officer was, and I actually signed up for the scholarship and he convinced me that, no, you just signed up for the Navy scholarship and you become a Marine later when that’s not actually the process.

[00:06:25] Kevin Schmiegel: So. I went to Holy Cross and it was on a Navy ROTC scholarship, but you have to declare as a marine option. So I had to go through a selection process again my freshman year at Holy Cross. had a really successful time. I was a, a drill team captain. I wound up being the exo of the battalion there, and I was actually commissioned, believe it or not, by then, major Joe Dunford, who became our commandant, and also became the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

[00:06:52] Kevin Schmiegel: the same story. I’ll share one, one quick story. My dad and mom came up with my grandparents and my dad administered the oath. Well, about two sentences in. He literally would, you know, break, broke down and cried like a baby. And General Dunford said, Mr. Smigel, I got this, sir. And he, you know, major Dunford raised his right hand and he read me, uh, administered the oath to me.

[00:07:15] Kevin Schmiegel: He didn’t read it. He knew it, obviously knew it cold and um. The last part of the story is when my son, uh, went to bootcamp at Paris Island in 2014. I’m just sitting in the audience and you see thousands of Marines raising their right hand. And, they’re, they’re administering the oath to them. And just like my dad cried, like, you watch your son and you have this completely emotional experience, which I never thought I would do.

[00:07:40] Kevin Schmiegel: I’m a retired colonel. I’ve seen enlistment ceremonies over and over again. But when it’s your own son, it’s a little 

[00:07:46] Kevin Schmiegel: bit different. 

[00:07:46] Lloyd Knight: I, I cried like a baby a, uh, my retirement ceremony, talking about my, my, my late wife and, and, and my kids and everything they sacrificed. And one of my favorite pictures I have is my late wife and me, uh, with a, uh, chairman, joint chief of Staff Dunford a, uh, the, uh, just

[00:08:05] Kevin Schmiegel: Oh wow. 

[00:08:06] Lloyd Knight: five or six years ago, I guess.

[00:08:08] Kevin Schmiegel: What a great, what a great leader. 

[00:08:10] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, absolutely. So you, so you decide to join the Marines. So it’s, it’s not a shock to anybody. It’s, it was your trajectory or you’re planning for it, although with an English degree, I think you probably should have gone in the Air Force, but that’s okay. The, so you become a, uh, an artillery officer. Was that by choice or was that something that was selected for you?

[00:08:33] Kevin Schmiegel: Yeah, it was actually by choice. I remember at the basic school doing, uh, a call for fire, a, a very small range with these pneumatic mortars, watching stuff blow up. I thought that was kind of cool. in the Marine Corps we have something called the basic school, and they actually divide you up in thirds.

[00:08:50] Kevin Schmiegel: And everything you do is measured everything. you know, written test, land nav, firing the rifle, the pistol patrolling leadership. Everything you do and then they rank you and they call it quality spread. So the person who finishes number one, number 71 and number 141, pick in that order. Then number two, number 72, number 142.

[00:09:15] Kevin Schmiegel: So they divide it in third so that there’s a quality spread across military occupational specialties. I finished in the, in the top third and I was the first person to pick artillery. So then I became the class leader at Fort Sill when we went to the basic artillery school.

[00:09:31] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, very cool. I, I spent a, uh, some time in Fort Sill and, uh, actually more time in Alphas Air Force Base. We used to go to Fort Sill for fun. That’s how bad.

[00:09:41] Kevin Schmiegel: Oh, really? Well, we used to go to Dallas for fun. Lloyd, we.

[00:09:47] Lloyd Knight: The, uh, yeah, I was a poor Airman basic in flight school. I couldn’t afford Dallas. so, uh, what was your first assignment, Kevin?

[00:09:53] Kevin Schmiegel: My first assignment was at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Um, I showed up probably in August, early August, and by December we were deploying, in support of Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. So I had two, I had, well, three really great jobs. I was the fire direction officer. So in my opinion, during a time of war in the firing battery for a young lieutenant, being the fire direction officer was kind of in my mind the best job you could have.

[00:10:19] Kevin Schmiegel: I was the headquarters platoon commander, responsible for 60 Marines. We were doing split battery ops, so there’s 120 Marines in Echo battery, second battalion tent, Marines. But here’s the hardest job I had. I was the embarkation officer for my battery. So I arrive in August, we get the call and I have to literally box up the entire, uh, artillery battery on top of being a headquarters battery commander or headquarters platoon commander.

[00:10:46] Kevin Schmiegel: And, uh. And also being responsible for the ftc. So it was a pretty, a pretty trying 

[00:10:52] Lloyd Knight: Did you, uh, fly or did you go by ship?

[00:10:53] Kevin Schmiegel: No, we flew over, uh, we flew through Shannon and back through Shannon, you know, that last, that last Guinness before you, before you have to go down range.

[00:11:04] Kevin Schmiegel: And we, we, we showed up in our green, our green cammies. We went to the base camp in Saudi Arabia. And a bunch of my friends who were from Camp Pendleton, they were all in their, in their desert cammies.

[00:11:16] Kevin Schmiegel: We looked so green, literally green until we got the, until we got the full issue. But you know what’s funny? the one thing I remember about being there the first time was how cold I was like. I could not ever get warm. ’cause you would have these, you know, 70, 80 degree days and then it would drop, you know, 20, 30 degrees at night in the desert.

[00:11:37] Kevin Schmiegel: And we didn’t have the same gear. There was no Gore-Tex. Right. We just had 

[00:11:40] Kevin Schmiegel: like 

[00:11:41] Kevin Schmiegel: this, everything was

[00:11:42] Lloyd Knight: the gear is much better now.

[00:11:44] Kevin Schmiegel: Yeah, for sure, for sure.

[00:11:46] Lloyd Knight: I, I remember being cold in the desert. I, I, I tell a story, the coldest I’ve ever was, I was, so I was an aircraft load master, and then I, uh, I was in a mobile command and control unit and, uh, one time I was working in Mombasa, Kenya, and it was an 80 degree day and I was supervising downloading of a commercial airplane, and it was pouring the heaviest rain I’ve ever seen. And I swear I got hypothermia on an 80 degree day because it was just wet.

[00:12:13] Kevin Schmiegel: I, I can see that.

[00:12:14] Kevin Schmiegel: I went to Mombasa, Mombasa two when I was, with NATO and, and US European command. And it’s actually the sickest I ever got, I think partly because of the change in weather and, your body just has to adjust to those climates all the time.

[00:12:28] Lloyd Knight: So being a crew member, I was always adjusting to the client, you know,

[00:12:32] Lloyd Knight: different climates and everything like that. So, let’s, uh, get into

[00:12:35] Lloyd Knight: your desert storm. I mean, what, what did that look like? Were you a, uh, were you, um, were you at a base your whole time or did you actually a, uh, uh, were you mobile and, and saw action?

[00:12:48] Kevin Schmiegel: yeah, we were mobile. Um, we were in direct support of six Marines, uh, another second marine division unit. we were actually right on the border, or at least the, uh, area of responsibility with an army unit and a British unit. I mean, it was a very chaotic space, a very big space. we went, had to go through the minefield in MT four.

[00:13:09] Lloyd Knight: In mop four.

[00:13:10] Kevin Schmiegel: I was up for 72 hours for loading targets into the BCS, the, the system we used to target different, um, high value targets. And we had hundreds of them to put in. So I was literally like falling asleep as we were going through the breach. And, it went very fast. we were very effective at what we did.

[00:13:28] Kevin Schmiegel: We were very well trained. and it wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it was gonna be. I mean, four days is not a long time. I think it was the wait afterwards that it kind of really sucked the most. Like, and, and you know, the log train didn’t keep up. We, we, I didn’t have a shower at one point for 45 days, like no joke.

[00:13:46] Kevin Schmiegel: And we got one, you know, cut two canteens of water. You were brushing your teeth and shaving with that. It was. Those are true stories. And there were people, I had marines whose chams literally disintegrated on their legs by the time, by the time we burned them. Right. 

[00:14:01] Lloyd Knight: That’s a,

[00:14:01] Lloyd Knight: Marine Corps recruiting commercial right there.

[00:14:03] Kevin Schmiegel: it was not a pretty site.

[00:14:05] Kevin Schmiegel: And we were hot racking and sleeping bags and it was not, but all in all, like if you think about being a young person, and you feel almost immortal, it was scary, especially because of the nerve agents and the things that we were, we were most concerned about. So at the end of the day, like we were welcomed home as heroes.

[00:14:23] Kevin Schmiegel: Like there was a parade in Tom’s, there were parades everywhere, right? for me, it was a little bit much to do about nothing. Like we did our job, we did it very well. We were very effective and we were all worried about what could happen. None of it did. And we all made it home, right? It wasn’t, it wasn’t a high casualty war for us.

[00:14:41] Kevin Schmiegel: yeah, we saw some things that you would see in combat, like, all in all, it wasn’t nearly like Iraq and Afghanistan and, and, and the post nine 11 conflicts.

[00:14:50] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, absolutely. I, I remember, I, I spent a lot of time flying back and forth it was, challenging, but it’s what we had been trained for, so we were equipped for, So you came home a, uh, back to North Carolina, or did you have another assignment shortly after that?

[00:15:06] Kevin Schmiegel: It’s 35 years ago. Yeah. And, um, I was really, I, I loved being a Marine, a young lieutenant, so I immediately volunteered to be part of Marine Expeditionary unit and deploy. Again. I was actually the target information officer for amu. working directly under, general or then Colonel Jim Jones, who became a commandant too.

[00:15:27] Kevin Schmiegel: I was a second lieutenant. He actually promoted me to First Lieutenant, actually later promoted me to Major and then Lieutenant Colonel. So, had a really strong relationship, had a great time on imu. It wasn’t like a deployment that you would normally see. we basically were responsible for the Mediterranean for six months in the Black Sea, and we stopped in Pomo, DECA, Spain for Christmas camp to Ken Jos, France.

[00:15:48] Kevin Schmiegel: we went to Monte Carlo, we went to Paris. So we would work, hard in these training exercises. We went to Israel train with, um, the Israelis and Haifa, but then we would get to enjoy, you know, uh, time, Liberty, uh, in all these great places. Italy, Greece, all over the place.

[00:16:06] Kevin Schmiegel: even in the Black Sea. So. That six months went very fast. I went back, I actually started training up for another deployment and, um, that one didn’t happen. I was training to go to Mountain Leaders Course. you think about all the money that the, the military invest in young people, I talk about this all the time.

[00:16:23] Kevin Schmiegel: Like, we are constantly seeking self-improvement, right? Because we’re empowered through all these different trainings and sort of, I jumped out of airplanes before I became a Marine when I was at Holy Cross. I consider that a life skill. Like it wasn’t, it wasn’t like someone thinks about it, but think about the things you have to do in that three week course down in Fort Benning.

[00:16:44] Kevin Schmiegel: All those things contribute to your leadership and your ability to adapt and overcome things. So I had a great first tour and then I got, uh, stationed in London, believe it or not, London, England. After that.

[00:16:56] Lloyd Knight: as an artillery guy in London.

[00:16:58] Kevin Schmiegel: Yeah, so it’s kind of a, it’s kind of a funny story too. I got to the end of my three years, I had met a young English girl on deployment in the Mediterranean. She was in Spain on vacation, and we kept in contact, I visited there, she visited North Carolina, which was a complete culture shock for her. and then I requested orders to London.

[00:17:24] Kevin Schmiegel: You get to pick three things, and I was one of 161 first lieutenants that put that as their first choice. And I got selected largely because my battery commanderat the time knew the detail of that was, that got that literally horse traded for the job with the infantry monitor. And I wound up going, I was.

[00:17:45] Kevin Schmiegel: I was the first artillery officer to get that assignment. US usually went to an infantry 

[00:17:49] Lloyd Knight: And what was the actual assignment?

[00:17:50] Kevin Schmiegel: so, uh, I was the executive officer of the Marine Corps Security Force Company in London. So a lot of people don’t know this, that the naval headquarters for Europe is actually in Naples, Italy now. It used to be in London and we had 450 civilian employees and there was a, a ready response force of 80 Marines that guarded the building just adjacent to the embassy.

[00:18:13] Kevin Schmiegel: So I was the executive officer and then for a time I actually served as the commanding officer. It was a pretty, pretty good, good tour of duty. My first two sons were born there. Um, so they’re, they’re dual citizens I, I love going back there. Um, I’m not married to my, uh, ex-wife anymore. Obviously I’m married to Laura now, but, we’re still close and it was a great place to be.

[00:18:35] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, very cool. And, you later on went to do, uh, some NATO assignments.

[00:18:41] Kevin Schmiegel: Yeah, so I was fortunate to get my graduate degree. I got very involved in the manpower. I, I describe my Marine time as a Marine in three parts. An artillery officer,somewhat of a subject matter expert in, in manpower. Uh, I, I did two tours there, and then I did two tours, with a very high level person named Jim Jones.

[00:19:00] Kevin Schmiegel: I was his aid to camp when he was the US European Commander and Sac Yor, which is the NATO commander. I, I shadowed him. I, I went to every country in Europe, half the countries in Africa, and obviously NATO was taking over the training mission in Iraq. We were taking over PRTs in, Afghanistan.

[00:19:18] Kevin Schmiegel: We were still busy in Kosovo and Bosnia. So we, we never were home in Belgium where my ex-wife and, at that 0.3 kids. ’cause I had our, we had our third son. I, I was deployed 278 days out of the year for, for two years with General Jones. So

[00:19:37] Kevin Schmiegel: it was, it was a remarkable tour. And then I ran enlisted assignments and retention for the Marine Corps.

[00:19:42] Kevin Schmiegel: And then I was, uh, stationed with him again, at the State Department. I did a year long deployment to the Middle East. I worked on the peace process between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

[00:19:52] Lloyd Knight: yeah.

[00:19:53] Lloyd Knight: Which had to be this crazy challenging. Uh, if you look at what everything we’re going through right now, uh, oh my gosh. The, uh, tell me a little about, a little bit about the, that challenges of that assignment.

[00:20:05] Kevin Schmiegel: well, it’s funny story. I would say that the, the assignment with Jim Jones at NATO was the most rewarding and probably the, the duty station that set me up for the most success in leaving the military. The way I described the tour at the State Department when he was the special envoy for Middle East regional security under President Bush was, I really was not a subject matter expert on, on the Middle East.

[00:20:28] Kevin Schmiegel: I was actually sitting at my desk leading enlisted assignments, the monitors and General Jones called me up. I mean, he was already outta the Marine Corps, called me up and said what I’d like, to be his mill Ssec for this special role that he got. And I said, sir, I, I don’t know anything about the Middle East.

[00:20:43] Kevin Schmiegel: I’m, I’m, I’m exactly the wrong person. And he said, no, you’re exactly the right person because you have no bias. So we’re gonna send you a bunch of books and materials to read and I’d really like you to go. And even though General Jones and I spent a lot of time in Iraq and Afghanistan and we, we were all over the, the world, I felt a little bit of an obligation because I didn’t do a long tour duty like my brothers and sisters who spent six months or nine months, or a year or even 15 months with some army units in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[00:21:12] Kevin Schmiegel: So, you know, I went home that night. I, I told my ex-wife and, and my three sons what I was doing. And three weeks later on my, my son’s birthday, my oldest son’s birthday, my ex-wife drove me to the airport. I got on a plane it was a really, really unique experience. I was in plain clothes all the time.

[00:21:28] Kevin Schmiegel: We were attached to, uh, U-S-A-I-D-I would spend time at the embassy in Tel Aviv. I would spend time at the consulate in, in Jerusalem. I was going inside the West Bank. I got to go to Jordan. I got to go to Egypt. So, you know, all in all I learned. A heck of a lot about the region. I really have a deeper understanding, as to why that, that discord exists, right?

[00:21:53] Kevin Schmiegel: And it, this is born over centuries and it’s not something that I believe would ever, uh, that we would ever be able to bring peace to the region just based on centuries of deep rooted hate. Like, I think, I think there’s a divide there that it’s really hard to, to close and there were lots of obstacles to that, but I learned a lot and I would never trade that experience.

[00:22:16] Kevin Schmiegel: I remember coming back, uh, in October of 2008, so it was most of that year, and we were getting ready to give a report to Condi Rice, to Secretary Rice, and I’m walking down the hallway with General Jones, um, in the State Department. He said, so where are you going next? And I said, what do you mean? Where am I going next?

[00:22:36] Kevin Schmiegel: I’m, I’m getting out. And he is like, no way. I’m like, yeah. He called me later that afternoon after he went back to the chamber. ’cause he was working at the US Chamber of Commerce. And he said, Hey, I want you to come meet someone tomorrow at the chamber. I’m like, what? What? What’s the chamber? So he told me.

[00:22:52] Kevin Schmiegel: So I went over to the US Chamber of Commerce and I sat down with 90 minutes with, uh, the president and CEO Tom Donahue. And literally the next day, or probably within the next week, I got an offer, uh, from Tom Donahue to be kind of his right hand man. I used to call it the Chief of Staff on the road, but essentially I was a vi, made a vice president at the chamber.

[00:23:12] Kevin Schmiegel: I was literally walking down the hallway again with General Jim Jones and Condi Rice for the, the, the final report. And um, and the next day I was wearing a suit. I can’t explain it. I’m wearing my office one day in a suit the next day walking in the halls of the chambers. So, but I, I think, I think all the things in my life, I had a very unique career and I think I was very fortunate and blessed to have those tours because it basically has started assimilating me into a more of a civilian role before my peers.

[00:23:42] Kevin Schmiegel: Like if you’re at nato. Yeah. If you’re at NATO and you’re deploying to 50 countries with a, a high level general with heads of state and then you’re at the chamber and you’re wearing a suit and you’re going to all these meetings, you just, in Israel, then going there, it was just an easy transition for me.

[00:23:58] Lloyd Knight: Yeah. My,

[00:23:59] Lloyd Knight: all my time in the Middle East and a, uh, as a, in the, the deployable command and control, and then as a, a, a load master went on to serve me very well at UPS. And when I find myself back in the

[00:24:11] Kevin Schmiegel: Middle East and Dubai every three months and, and, and know that I have to sit down and have tea with somebody and talk about the weather and talk about their family long before you’d ever talk about business, it’s funny because when we met, or when we talked in person in Atlanta last time I think a lot of the reason you, me, Tommy Jones, I think a lot of the reason we do this work is because we were fortunate and blessed to have these experiences that set us up for success in different ways.

[00:24:41] Kevin Schmiegel: And we wanna give back to our community. We want, we want to help younger soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marine thrive in, in the work that they do 

[00:24:50] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, that motivates me. I mean, I, I, uh, I, I spent so long in the business side of UPS. And, you know, I was making real money and getting bonuses and paying off my house and taking real vacations. But what, what motivated me was all that volunteering I was doing, when I would get a call go, Hey, that mock interview you did for, uh, for me, it, it helped.

[00:25:11] Lloyd Knight: I landed the job a Hey, you you got me a mentor through America Corporate Partners. You got me a resume through Hire Heroes. The, uh, thanks. I mean it, you changed my star. So I think the, the group of I’m honored to be in, uh, you mentioned in those names ’cause it’s a, uh, it’s an amazing group, but a absolutely.

[00:25:28] Lloyd Knight: So, I, I really want to dig into what you did at a, um, a couple things. Actually three things. I want to dig into what you did at the chamber. cause I think wow, uh, you changed the space on what would become hiring our heroes then the insanity, the leave, like at the top of your game. I mean, like you, you’re, you became a legend and we’re doing these big things and you stepped away and, and what that painful transition looked like.

[00:25:55] Lloyd Knight: And then what, what you’re doing with a, um, with your, your organization now, ZeroMils. So let’s talk about the, so you got hired to be the vice president, you’re the traveling chief of staff. How did that develop into what would eventually become the hiring or heroes and, and everything with the Skill bridge program and the fellowships and everything like that?

[00:26:16] Kevin Schmiegel: it’s a great question ’cause I can remember it like it was yesterday. it’s great to reminisce about coming home from Desert Storm 35 years ago and then hiring our heroes was founded 15 years ago last week. So it’s good timing on this Lloyd. when I got to the Chamber, basically think about shadowing someone for two years.

[00:26:35] Kevin Schmiegel: It’s the same thing as being in aid Deam. So I was with Tom Donahue at every meeting with every CEO, every internal meeting at the chamber, every trip that he went to India, China, Brazil, Columbia. So I got to see 40 more countries with Tom Donahue all over the world, and basically a crash course in what the business community prioritizes.

[00:26:56] Kevin Schmiegel: So I’m sitting side by side with him at all these meetings with CEOs like Jamie Diamond. literally in front of Jamie Diamond’s desk. And without exception, these CEOs, Tom would lead with a story about how I was shadowing him as a Marine. He used to have an active duty marine for a year at a time.

[00:27:13] Kevin Schmiegel: It was the first time he hired a retired marine. And without exception, Lloyd, every single CEO to include Jamie Diamond would say, we love veterans in our company. We wanna hire more veterans. And when you do a job like that at the end of your two years, ’cause that was my commitment, you always get asked what you wanna do next.

[00:27:33] Kevin Schmiegel: And when Tom asked me what I wanna do next, I connected. What happened to me when I was in charge of enlisted assignments, when I was talking to young Marines who were leaving the Marine Corps, we actually were responsible for Reenlisting Marines too. And we’d go around the world trying to get the top quarter of first Termers, the top 25% to reenlist.

[00:27:54] Kevin Schmiegel: The other 75%, which we let go as a cycle, like the Marine Corps literally keeps a very young force. They had no earthly idea what they wanted to do next with their lives after leaving the military. So when Tom asked me, I said, I think the US Chamber of Commerce should take this one day event that they do every year in November around Veterans Day called Hiring our Heroes where they have panels and keynotes and turn that into a real employment program.

[00:28:22] Kevin Schmiegel: That helped solve a huge problem in 2011, veteran unemployment was 10%. There were a million unemployed veterans who had come back from Iraq and Afghanistan, veterans under the age of 24. The unemployment rate was 30%. So when I’m talking to Tom on this plane ride back from wherever we were in the United States, and I told him I wanna do that, he said, no, we’re not doing that.

[00:28:43] Kevin Schmiegel: We’re not the Department of Labor, we’re not the va, we’re not DOD, we’re not the 

[00:28:46] Kevin Schmiegel: government. I 

[00:28:47] Lloyd Knight: that’s exactly right. 

[00:28:49] Kevin Schmiegel: you’re. You’re damn right, right? I said, no, we’re just the largest business federation in the world, and we, we, the private sector can solve this problem where the government can’t and we have a responsibility.

[00:29:02] Kevin Schmiegel: So to Tom’s credit, he, allowed me to start the program. I actually had a second job that I had to do because the Chamber wasn’t bought in. I had an eight by eight office, no windows, no staff, no budget. And I just started going around the country, one by one, by one, doing large events, hiring fairs, which we know aren’t, not the best way to get people hired.

[00:29:24] Kevin Schmiegel: But we created a movement and we had this incredible opportunity, I think it was like number 11, number 10 or 11 to work with veterans on Wall Street in, in New York City. They were doing a networking event and a mentoring event on the USS Intrepid. They had seen what I had done in Chicago and Hartford and all these other places, and they invited me out.

[00:29:47] Kevin Schmiegel: The five banks invited me out and we put up a tent outside the intrepid and we had a hundred employers, a thousand veterans come through that day. But we were covered by every network. We were like, and not just local networks in New York, the national networks. I was on M-S-N-B-C-C-N-B-C and then the word got out the very next month to, uh, stand up a hiring fair in Sony Studios in LA where Prince William and Kate were visiting.

[00:30:14] Kevin Schmiegel: And then we were covered by a hundred networks, uh, a reach of a billion people across the world, not just across America, but across the world. And a philanthropist in Minneapolis named, uh, Lee Anderson saw me on the news. he had a connection with Ambassador Nicholson, who was an advisor at the Chamber.

[00:30:33] Kevin Schmiegel: I got a meeting with Lee Anderson and Ambassador Nicholson, secretary Nicholson. Some people know him as who, who ran the va who had a close relationship with Tom. At the time, I wasn’t allowed to raise money. I wasn’t given that authority. I would raise money locally just to cover the cost of the events.

[00:30:49] Kevin Schmiegel: So I came with a deck, even though I wasn’t allowed to raise money. And at the end of the meeting, Lee Anderson committed $3 million and then something really big happened. So in the start of hiring our heroes, I went to 25 of the biggest employers in America and I said, Hey, we’re gonna do all these events.

[00:31:03] Kevin Schmiegel: I just want you to come and be part of it and, and hire veterans. So after I went home, uh, to DC and I told Tom that we raised $3 million, he said, okay, well now you can go after this because you have the resources. I hired seven people. Ross Cohen, Laura, then Laura Dempsey, now Laura Schmiegal my wife. no O’Neal, Brian gto, Kathy Poin and Zoe Rand, who was my ea and they were the core founding team.

[00:31:29] Kevin Schmiegel: In my mind, they, ‘ cause we had only done 12 and I had committed to doing a hundred in a year, and we were already six months in. So we hired a team and I reached out to the 25 companies and within nine days I had asked them to join this Veteran’s Employment Advisory Council, which still exists today.

[00:31:45] Kevin Schmiegel: Within nine days. We raised $1.8 million more capital, and then we could grow our team more. We could host bigger events, we could go after it. And then it just, it just built momentum. We, we created resume engines, for both veterans and military spouses that Toyota sponsored, capital One committed to a, a big campaign called Hiring 500,000 Heroes.

[00:32:06] Kevin Schmiegel: they, they dedicated $4.5 million in capital. the Cohen family who had a son who was a Marine. It was just. It was just rapid growth. And our team grew to 30 people in the first year and we committed to those a hundred events. We did them the next year we did 400 events, but at the same time, we were building some of the same programs.

[00:32:25] Kevin Schmiegel: Like we had a program called Fast Track, which mapped BLS data and showed where the next, uh, skills gaps are gonna be and where young veterans should be considering going to work to get high paying jobs. and, and, and we just grew it. And I guess I’m a builder and a starter, but to be honest, those were probably the busiest three years of my life.

[00:32:45] Kevin Schmiegel: I worked 80 or 90 hours a week. And the same story that you told Lloyd at that very first hiring fair in Chicago on March 24th, 2011, a young marine sergeant who was 23, came up to me and said, sir, you changed my life today. I got a job. I went in the corner and I, I was bawling, I was bawling. I, I called my ex-wife and my kids and I said, I did it.

[00:33:07] Kevin Schmiegel: I did it like we changed someone’s life. And it’s like a, it’s like this addiction, like it you, when you, especially with a job, when you help someone get a job, when you help them find their purpose again, this kid had been out of work for a year. He was an infantryman in the United States Marine Corps, had deployed to theater, right.

[00:33:30] Kevin Schmiegel: Fought for our country. And everyone told him he could only be a security guard and he just wouldn’t do it. And he got, he got a great job that day with Aon. And, you know, I, I never met the kid again because we were doing big things, trying to create a movement. It, this was the military friendly movement and.

[00:33:51] Kevin Schmiegel: To be honest, I worked myself to the point of a nervous breakdown. I was exhausted physically, mentally, emotionally. I was essentially deployed for my kids. I, I was on the road 180 days at hiring events, at networking events with presidents, with head, you know, with heads of state like William and Kate, like, so I burned myself out completely and I left in the summer of 2013, I don’t know, end of July, beginning of August.

[00:34:21] Kevin Schmiegel: Um, in some ways to try to save my first marriage to get reconnected with my kids, it was the worst thing I ever 

[00:34:28] Lloyd Knight: I was gonna ask you what, what, knowing now, you know a lot more now, right? You, you, what would you do differently if you, if you could live that over again? And I, I know it’s a BS question, but I’m just curious. What would you do to.

[00:34:41] Kevin Schmiegel: yeah. I, I go back to the first part of being a Catholic and believing everything happens for a reason and we’re faded. I think to myself that I did what I’m really good at, which is building and growing things very quickly and then handing it off for someone to sustain it and to grow it more modestly and put other programs.

[00:35:02] Kevin Schmiegel: Like I didn’t create the Skill Bridge program. I didn’t, I didn’t create the fellowship program. And I think, I think there are a lot of great programs that hiring our heroes implemented. Honestly, if I could do it again, I wouldn’t have had a lapse of purpose. I would’ve immediately got the rest I needed and then gone to another nonprofit and grew it and built it and scaled it because I needed purpose driven work.

[00:35:28] Kevin Schmiegel: So I took about four or five months off and I went back to the chamber. They were very gracious. They gave me a job as a vice president of development. Um. Yeah, but I was gone. I mean, I was lost. I had no purpose. I had no connection to my community. I isolated myself. I wasn’t sleeping again. I was self-medicating.

[00:35:51] Kevin Schmiegel: I wasn’t seeking self-improvement. So when you say, what would I do again? I, I don’t, I think it was inevitable that I had to leave. The chamber offered me a black car to come pick me up in Fredericksburg, like flying first class on planes, staying in the best hotels, like getting an apartment in dc. But I was running a nonprofit, like I wasn’t going to, to really discredit the community that I helped build the military and veteran nonprofit community.

[00:36:19] Kevin Schmiegel: And listen, if you look at, if you look at some of the nine nineties that exist right now, and you look at some of the salaries that people get paid and the, the revenue that nonprofits are getting and the lack of like, lower level people that are getting taken care of in those organizations, I don’t consider them nonprofits anymore.

[00:36:36] Kevin Schmiegel: Like, I don’t, I don’t think of it that way. But I got out, I got out of hiring our heroes for the right reasons at the right time. What I do regret is taking a job where I got paid a lot more money, was working less time, and lost everything that helped me thrive, which is part of the reason, the reason really that ZeroMils exists now.

[00:36:57] Lloyd Knight: So you, you struggled mightily, how’d you pull yourself out of it?

[00:37:01] Kevin Schmiegel: I struggled for four years mightily. Um, I wound up getting divorced. Um, I moved out of the house, felt guilty ’cause I left. my ex-wife and my three kids lived up in an apartment by myself. Still did that job. And one day in 2016, so this is three years later, I got an invite from a a, a marine veteran, a Vietnam veteran named Buzz Hefty, who was good friends with General Jones.

[00:37:27] Kevin Schmiegel: They knew each other from their service in Vietnam. He asked me to go to a Capitals game. On behalf of the Tragedy, uh, assistance program for survivors, Bonnie Carroll’s organization. Every year, the Capitals host this event, where we’re VIPs veterans who come and they give you this hat when you walk in.

[00:37:44] Kevin Schmiegel: It’s called a courage cap. And you know, it’s a baseball cap that has the word courage on it. anyway, when I’m at that event, buzz Hefty sees me across the room. He comes up to me and said, Hey, what’s, what’s bothering you? I’m like, ah, nothing’s bothering me. Nothing’s bothering me, buzz. He’s like, no, what’s wrong?

[00:38:00] Kevin Schmiegel: So I was sharing with him the struggles I was having, and he said, well, that’s easy. Just go back to nonprofit work. Literally, that’s what he said to me. He didn’t make a big deal about it. Just very, very matter of fact, I go to my net desk the next day at the Chamber. I’m sitting there, the courage cap’s sitting in the very corner, and literally that afternoon my phone rings and it’s Korn Ferry.

[00:38:20] Kevin Schmiegel: Uh, Kate Kohler is on the other line. And they’re, they’re headhunting someone for a job, uh, with an organization called Thanks, USA, a small scholarship foundation for military spouses and kids post-secondary need based scholarships. I had an interview the next week. I had an offer the next day, and, you know, two, three weeks later, I was the, the president of thanks USA.

[00:38:42] Kevin Schmiegel: It was a small organization. I grew it from 300 scholarships a year to a thousand. I did that for a year and a half, but I was still struggling. Like I didn’t feel fulfilled. started getting the right treatment, started feeling better, had Laura in my life, like she’s my soulmate. we share not everything, just everything in life, but we share everything in our work, like our passion.

[00:39:04] Kevin Schmiegel: She started Blue Star family. She was part of hiring her heroes. We found each other again, and, we wound up getting engaged, getting married, so everything was moving in the right direction. And then I got a call from a, a West coast, uh, headhunter who got me the job with Operation Gratitude. And I did that for four years.

[00:39:21] Kevin Schmiegel: And that was a big job. We had a million volunteers across the country. It was largely based in California with like remote volunteers. We started scaling to doing service projects in other communities. And we went from a $10 million organization to $23 million in three and a half years that I was the CEO.

[00:39:40] Kevin Schmiegel: Our team grew from 13 to 37, largely veterans and military spouses. We grew our impact from 250,000 deployed troops in veterans every year to 620,000 deployed troops, veterans, first responders, doctors and nurses. We got through COVID and we were a hands-on volunteer organization. So I I, I think of it as tour of duties like three years.

[00:40:04] Kevin Schmiegel: I go in, I, I address a problem that I think our community needs to address, then I go on to the next 

[00:40:11] Lloyd Knight: and then your next thing is, is ZeroMils. So the, uh, w was that a, uh, like, uh, like I get these great ideas sometime that just come out of the blue. Was it, was that one of those ideas or was that one that, that developed over time and you, you always had it in your hip pocket and wanted to build it?

[00:40:29] Kevin Schmiegel: there’s two answers to the question. One, it was, the idea was born in response to growing trends that we saw in the private sector with nonprofits that paint the broken veteran narrative, illicit sympathy and pity to raise money. and, we just got sick and tired of it.

[00:40:47] Kevin Schmiegel: I got sick and tired of it, and I think this is the greatest threat to the veteran community and our families is the broken veteran narrative. So. We started ZeroMils because we also got sick of nonprofits competing with each other and not working together to create greater change. We saw this whole idea of military friendliness, not just as blah and passe.

[00:41:10] Kevin Schmiegel: We saw it as disrespectful. Like I, I, I think being military friendly for a company is very, a good foundation. I’m not, I wouldn’t use the word disrespectful as much as like, okay, well that’s ordinary and the attraction of veterans to fill jobs is something that we’ve solved for. So we saw this opportunity to, to create a company that creates extraordinary cultures and communities.

[00:41:35] Kevin Schmiegel: And that’s the second part of the question. We did not coin the phrase military thriving until I think we were at the, at the year mark, we started talking about it, and it was Paul that started using the word thriving. And I was literally driving to my son’s wedding with Laura from DC. To Fredericksburg, and I called my team and I said, this is it.

[00:41:54] Kevin Schmiegel: And I wrote down these five things, meaningful employment purpose, a sense of purpose through continued service, connected community or tribe, health and wellbeing, physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and the kickback, constantly seeking self-improvement. Education, training, certification, being a mentor, being a mentee.

[00:42:13] Kevin Schmiegel: Lloyd. Those are the things that we had in the military. We had those five things. We were thriving. It’s the most thriving time in my life. Paul and I had that together. ZeroMils was not born because we were successful entrepreneurs. And we were these, these people that said, thriving, is it? It was born out of pain, suffering, mental illness, depression, knowing that we lacked those five things in our lives, right?

[00:42:42] Kevin Schmiegel: And when I was at an all time high, I lifted Paul out. When I was at an all time low, Paul lifted me up. That’s what the veteran community can do together. That’s what we do every day for each other. We don’t need government, nonprofits, corporations to do that. We are thriving as a result of our service and not in spite of it.

[00:43:00] Lloyd Knight: When a, uh, I, I really want to dig in what you were saying about the, the nonprofits, and it’s a, um, I, I wouldn’t, I started Vet Atlanta with, with John Phillips a, uh, 14 years ago. I, I was naive and, and that naiveness created something very special. But, the other, the nonprofits that were out there beat us up.

[00:43:21] Lloyd Knight: They all saw us as a threat. And, and some of the big ones, and I, I won’t get nasty in name of the names, the, uh, one that sold a lot of t-shirts and I had a lot of, uh, people doing, uh, celebrities, doing commercials, but, uh, uh, we’re, we’re, um. Were so threatened about us, they, they would disparage us and trash us on social media.

[00:43:42] Lloyd Knight: And, and then the, the crazy thing is Atlanta is not even a nonprofit. We’re we’re, we’re a club and our, our charter says we can never take any money or give any money. We were there to connect the dots, to connect, uh, um, those nonprofits with, with the, uh, clients. ’cause they all have trouble finding clients and, and then connect them with donors and volunteers and connect ’em with our companies.

[00:44:08] Lloyd Knight: ’cause we were started from the who’s who of Fortune 100 companies and, and Atlanta. And, uh, wow. I, I saw so much nastiness a, uh, along the way. And then when they finally started trusting us, they wouldn’t work together. And, and I was like, you, you guys do something totally different. You, you need to compliment each other.

[00:44:30] Lloyd Knight: ’cause all of us are in here for the same re reason. We’re, we’re here to help veterans and their families. And we all agree with that. 

[00:44:37] Kevin Schmiegel: it’s something that we have to all think about as a community too, because we decide who we work for, we decide where we, where we live and run our small businesses, and we decide where we give our time, talent, and treasure to. So we say all the time, if a nonprofit is espousing the broken veteran narrative and you don’t agree with that, you don’t have to give them your time, your talent, or your treasure.

[00:44:58] Kevin Schmiegel: I think, I think people need to do a deeper dive on the word nonprofit and it’s a misnomer we use for purpose for impact. And, and, and it’s a frustration point for, for me because we could have started ZeroMils as a nonprofit. It’s a service disabled, veteran owned small business social impact advisory firm that is all about getting people to work together to make greater change for cultures and communities and listen the same disparagement, pot shots.

[00:45:26] Kevin Schmiegel: People saying, be careful. I’m not being careful. I know I was a nonprofit leader for 10 years. I saw the greatest of despair, and I am one of the only people that can do what I’m doing and say what I’m saying and I’m gonna say it and I’m gonna shout it from the rooftops. So in very simple terms, firms, there is a disparity and, and there is unfair access for nonprofits, with government agencies because there’s something bad about a for-profit.

[00:45:54] Kevin Schmiegel: I will tell you this, I’m not gonna say which nonprofits I’m not going to to go. I, I believe nonprofits that are running large organizations and they reach a certain amount of revenue, their employees should be paid well all the way from top to bottom. I will tell you this, at ZeroMils, and this is true, I make one seventh or one eighth of what the current leader of one of the nonprofits I led is making.

[00:46:18] Kevin Schmiegel: one quarter of what I made and another one of the nonprofits that I led. And about half of what I made at thanks USA. So at the end of the day, I chose to do this because I wanted organizations to work together. If I had made ZeroMils in military thriving a.org, everyone would think that I was competing with them.

[00:46:37] Kevin Schmiegel: And that is not what I wanted to do. I want everyone to work together. So there is this, misperception that a nonprofit doesn’t have to make a profit, and they do, they do in order to grow the impact that they’re making. So what I would encourage everyone to do that’s watching this is to do their due diligence to look at a nine 90 to actually go into a financial statement.

[00:47:00] Kevin Schmiegel: Make decisions about how they’re going to invest their money based on what they would if they were to invest in a stock for a company. It’s the same thing. And, and the last thing I’ll say is measure. What are people measuring? What do they say? Like, look at, look at their social media posts. Look at what they’re saying about the impact that they’re making.

[00:47:18] Kevin Schmiegel: ’cause you know, I’ve been to Atlanta events, before I, I’ve been invited to them. When I was at Operation Gratitude, you guys had me out there. it’s one of the most impactful events at a local level that anyone’s making. So why is that being disparaged, or why is, why is any for-profit company that gives services completely free to veterans being disparaged to, or not getting access that a nonprofit has in a, in a certain community, it makes no sense at all.

[00:47:46] Lloyd Knight: So I’m, I’m, I’m glad you’re out there. I love to see you out there. I, some people don’t, don’t like her, but the Elizabeth Hartman, what she’s doing, and they, uh, if you follow her on LinkedIn, if you don’t take a look, that kind of stuff is, is kind of needed some checks and balances that haven’t been there before.

[00:48:04] Kevin Schmiegel: I, I think, I think everyone has the ability to, um, dive deeper. I think companies have a responsibility, they call it corporate social responsibility. I think companies have a responsibility to dive deeper too and to look at these things as well. I was born, as a Marine, the first half of my professional career was spent in the government.

[00:48:25] Kevin Schmiegel: I was a nonprofit leader for 10 years, and I know a lot about that space. And now I am a, a proud. Veteran, small business owner, a social impact entrepreneur. I’ve helped 17 nonprofits raise $60 million in new revenue since I started ZeroMils. and arguably Lloyd, I’m making just as much, if not more of an impact on our community doing what I’m doing now than I did at hiring our heroes that I did at thanks USA and I did it.

[00:48:50] Lloyd Knight: Yeah, I, I believe it. And, and then what I’m always amazed is what some of these smaller organizations and, you know, to being a, a fellow bush collar a, uh, so you, you’ve been around that to see. Wow. What, what these smaller organizations that people are doing with a hundred thousand dollars, like right, and 

[00:49:10] Lloyd Knight: it’s, 

[00:49:11] Lloyd Knight: a, it’s, and it’s like, oh my gosh, look what you did,

[00:49:14] Lloyd Knight: but why can’t we get you a million dollars?

[00:49:17] Lloyd Knight: Like, why do the million dollars always have to go to the big guys who that million dollars having a less impact?

[00:49:23] Kevin Schmiegel: I wanna say thank you for teeing me up to tell you what I felt at the Presidential Leadership Scholars, and I’ve helped VL peers like Vernice Castillo, like Harrison Bernstein, realize their full potential and what, what Vernice has done at the Military Spouse Advocacy Network. What Harrison has done at Soldier Sidelines is what I wanna do with the rest of my life too, outside of ZeroMils.

[00:49:46] Kevin Schmiegel: So, when I left PLS, I saw leaders just like Vernice and Harrison and Lydia, who went through the VLP program too. And I’m thinking to myself, how do I empower these leaders to grow just like I did with Vernice and Harrison? And with Laura’s help, ’cause she helps me with just about everything. I created a 10 week curriculum for emerging nonprofit leaders, and I’m going, I rolled out a program called The Service Project.

[00:50:14] Kevin Schmiegel: And I’m gonna be working with some pretty serious partners and funders to get nonprofit leaders who are the Davids compared to these Goliaths. And I’m going to prop them up, shine a spotlight on them with the service project, and I’m going to teach them everything that I know, everything that I learned experientially at hiring our heroes.

[00:50:34] Kevin Schmiegel: Thanks. USA and operation management. Not, not what you learn at a four year institution or when you’re getting your master’s in nonprofit management. No. Like how do you grow your organization with the private sector in mind with value and return on investment? How are you the chief storyteller? How do you run an organization with a vision that executes on the grassroots level and empower your team and, and not listen?

[00:51:00] Kevin Schmiegel: This has to be done at, at this point in our community. There are big nonprofits out there that are literally disparaging the smaller ones, saying that they should consolidate, saying they should be merged. Acquired, or they should go away, or they wanna subsume them and grow into these bigger Goliaths.

[00:51:18] Kevin Schmiegel: And you know what? That’s just plain wrong. So in the process, if there’s a nonprofit leader that comes to me and I think they should consider a merger or an acquisition, I will tell them straight up, Hey, I, I think that there’s a great organization doing this. You may want to consider doing it, but I will never discourage a ESE or a Harrison or a Lydia or any leader that you mentioned at VLP or I met at PLS.

[00:51:44] Kevin Schmiegel: I will never discourage them because they are the next big idea and they are fall. They are catching every single person that’s falling through the cracks at the local level that the big ones are not addressing because they’re too busy at podiums and at panels, and at big conferences and symposiums talking about the problems instead of being in the community and getting stuff 

[00:52:08] Lloyd Knight: Amen. 

[00:52:09] Kevin Schmiegel: That’s the difference. 

[00:52:10] Lloyd Knight: I’m loving it, so absolutely loving it. If I didn’t have more work to do at UPS in bet Atlanta, I would jump right on and say, hire me Kevin. But I, uh,

[00:52:19] Lloyd Knight: God’s got a plan for me, so.

[00:52:21] Kevin Schmiegel: well, I appreciate what you’re doing and giving me this, this opportunity to talk. Like I was saying to you in Atlanta, when we met at the military Influencer conference, it’s funny that we’ve been in this space for so long and that God had kind of intersects us at different times. And we’ve been looking for a time to do this podcast together.

[00:52:40] Kevin Schmiegel: And listen, I’m at the point in my life. I’m 58, and I wanna make a difference. I’m impatient. And it’s funny, at PLS, and you probably did this exercise at VLP, we did this thing based on Jim Collins book, good to Great. We drew these three circles on a piece of paper and we said, what brings me joy?

[00:52:57] Kevin Schmiegel: What am I good at, and what does my community need from me? Right? That’s ZeroMils, and that’s the service project, and I’m just going to create this perfect Venn diagram and do those three things, and that’s what you’re 

[00:53:07] Lloyd Knight: yeah. Well, I appreciate it. So the, uh, so, so love it. Love that, uh, that we’re intersecting. They had together. And, and, and man, we’re, we’re gonna, we’re gonna help a lot of veterans. The, uh, so we got some runway in front of

[00:53:19] Kevin Schmiegel: my, our dog, Jake wants to be on your podcast too, so

[00:53:23] Lloyd Knight: love, love, love that.

[00:53:24] Lloyd Knight: So my friend, what, what advice, uh, can you offer? Let’s, let’s give you, uh, an opportunity for two, a veteran that’s getting ready to transition and then a, uh, nonprofit that’s struggling.

[00:53:35] Kevin Schmiegel: Yeah. So I’ll end. I, I, I’ll say for the veteran, uh, the service member, the spouse, anyone that’s looking to transition wherever they are in their life, we’re always in transition. I had seven jobs as a Marine, seven duty stations. I’ve had seven jobs since I left the Marine Corps. Ask yourself those three questions.

[00:53:51] Kevin Schmiegel: What brings me joy? What’s my purpose? What am I good at and how can I make money or make a difference? What does my community need from me? And, and if you ask yourself those three questions in transition, all the other things that you’re getting at tap, great. Like take ’em on board. But ask yourself those three questions and demand that you answer it and try to create your own Venn diagram.

[00:54:12] Kevin Schmiegel: At the same time, ask yourself in transition demand of yourself. Don’t ask yourself, demand of yourself that you get those five things, meaningful employment, a sense of purpose, connection in tribe good health. Fill your kit bag up with those things you need to constantly seek self-improvement. If you answer those three questions, you demand those five things of the employer that you work with of yourself, you’re going to thrive.

[00:54:36] Kevin Schmiegel: And that’s all I want for them. And they can do it as long as they ask those three questions and demand those five things. And what was the second 

[00:54:43] Kevin Schmiegel: question? 

[00:54:44] Lloyd Knight: that, that’s struggling.

[00:54:46] Kevin Schmiegel: A nonprofit that I would love for them to 

[00:54:47] Kevin Schmiegel: work 

[00:54:47] Kevin Schmiegel: with. 

[00:54:48] Lloyd Knight: Well, well, they’re, they’re out there. They’re.

[00:54:50] Kevin Schmiegel: Oh, if they’re struggling, so, I’m gonna answer that question a little bit different. If they’re struggling, they can reach out to me in any of these five areas. Meaningful employment purpose through Service, connection, tribe Health, and kitbag. And I think there are excellent examples of all those.

[00:55:08] Kevin Schmiegel: If you look at the at the purpose one, uh, sense of purpose. Connection Tribe Health Soldiers to Sidelines is a great one. Travis Manion, foundation, team, RWB, team Rubicon. I’m all about the ones that are painting the picture about our community, showing us as champions. Like as leaders. Like if you think about the organizations I just named Soldiers to sidelines, Travis Manion, foundation, team Rubicon, team RWB, are they talking about broken veterans?

[00:55:36] Kevin Schmiegel: Uhuh? We’re on the move, we’re going after it. Right? So that would be my suggestion is find, find the organizations and if anyone out there is listening is struggling to find that one and, and, and those buckets, those five buckets, all they have to do is message me on LinkedIn and I will answer them within 24 

[00:55:54] Lloyd Knight: Awesome. Well, thanks Kevin. This has been a blast. It’s a, uh, I, I can’t wait till we have an opportunity to break bread together, so I, uh, maybe at the Military Influencers conference in, in Tampa, so it’s great 

[00:56:07] Lloyd Knight: great to spend time with you and for my listeners, we’ll close it like we always do. Be like, Kevin, be safe. Be kind, and be remarkable.