We have to have violence because we live in a world where people will abuse and take advantage of people that don't have the ability to defend themselves.
-John Renken, CEO of Sales Platoon
Episode Summary
The difference between violence and competition is the willing participation – or not – of the people involved. When UFC fighters step into the ring, that is a competition. Everyone is a willing participant, which makes it a sport. Unfortunately, there will always be abusive people in the world who will take advantage of people who are not willing participants in the fight, and because of that we need violence – and a well-trained military.
John Renken is the CEO of Sales Platoon. He spent three years in the Army, and was a member of the national Taekwondo team, ranked third in the nation. He then spent 20 years training Special Forces in hand-to-hand combat. Today he helps transitioning Veterans apply their skills to a different kind of combat: sales.
In this interview, John speaks with host Mary Kate Soliva about:
• The added challenge of transitioning out of the Army during a time of low public awareness and understanding about the value of military training
• How he connected with the team at Sales Platoon and became their CEO
• His advice for transitioning Veterans that are wondering whether they have the characteristics to be successful in sales
Episode Transcript
Intro/Outro (00:02):
Welcome to Veteran Voices, a podcast that dedicated to giving a voice to those that have served in the United States. Armed Forces on this series, jointly presented by Supply Chain now and Vets to Industry. We sit down with a wide variety of veterans and veteran advocates to gain their insights, perspective, and stories from serving. We talk with many individuals about their challenging transition from active duty to the private sector, and we discuss some of the most vital issues facing veterans today. Join us for this episode of Veteran Voices.
Mary Kate Soliva (00:41):
Hi everyone. Uh, thank you for coming and joining us today on Veteran Voices. I’m the host today, Mary Kate Soliva, and we have a great guest teed up. So stay tuned. I’m just gonna do a quick, uh, programming note here. Uh, veteran Voices is part of the supply chain now family. We’re in partnership with the Guam Human Rights Initiative, and you can check out what they’re doing@guamhri.org and that great nonprofit as well as in partnership with a nonprofit. Near and dear to our hearts, the Military Women’s Collective, started by Marina Rabbinic Navy veteran. So you can check out what they’re doing at military women’s collective.org and just seeing the great things that they’re doing. Um, big shout out to Marina and her team. Um, and now, so without further ado, again, here on Veteran Voices, we interview veterans who are serving beyond the uniform and who are doing great things and continuing their service. Uh, so we have here with us today, uh, John Renken. John, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank
John Renken (01:45):
You for having me on.
Mary Kate Soliva (01:46):
Super excited. This has been a long time coming, uh, to get you on here. I see you out there on LinkedIn just crushing it, and I know that that’s just the, the tip of the iceberg for all the things that you’re really doing out there in the world. Uh, so, you know, I was hoping that you’d be able to kick us off our episode today with some motivation. Get us all pumped up, wondering if you could share a motivational quote with us today. Sure.
John Renken (02:10):
Uh, people, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand by ready to do violence.
Mary Kate Soliva (02:19):
Oh, yes. George Orwell, this is George Orwell and pretty, pretty motivational you to a s me <laugh>. So,
John Renken (02:28):
Yeah,
Mary Kate Soliva (02:28):
They’ll sleep with one eye open.
John Renken (02:30):
Yeah, it just, it, it so speaks to what, what we’re talking about and helping veterans, um, these are our tribe.
Mary Kate Soliva (02:39):
Absolutely. And, um, and, and to go with that, that’s one thing I love about being a veteran as the, the community that we have. Right. And just regardless of what we’re going through and knowing that those, there’s good men and women that are abroad and at home that have signed up to, to protect us, keep us safe at night. So just thank you again for being on here and really want to take our episode a bit back and talk about where you grew up. So if you could share with us where, where, where did you grow up?
John Renken (03:12):
Everywhere. Um, starting everywhere in Illinois. Uh, lived there for, uh, basically from first to sixth grade, then moved to Texas. Um, spent four or five years in Texas, then moved back to Illinois, then joined the Army and came to Kentucky. Um, served three years in Kentucky, then got out and went to college in Minnesota, then came back to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and I’ve been here, oh goodness, I think 23 years now. Something like that.
Mary Kate Soliva (03:41):
Do you have, did you grow up in a military family? When you say that you grew up everywhere?
John Renken (03:45):
Well, no, uh, a lot of my family served in the military, but I didn’t move that much because of the military. Uh, my dad was a factory worker and in the early eighties, um, with kind of like what was happening around the country, there was a lot of moving around.
Mary Kate Soliva (04:03):
Right. Wow. So, yeah, that’s, well, and as far as your upbringing goes, did you grow up in like, in a, when it was everywhere? Do you have a big family, siblings?
John Renken (04:14):
No, I have two siblings. Uh, uh, a younger brother and a younger sister. Um, just one cousin. Uh, I mean, I have a couple more, but only one cousin that I was close with. Um, so pretty, pretty small family, so.
Mary Kate Soliva (04:28):
Well, that’s one thing that I, you know, I found with the veteran community, I didn’t grow up with any brothers, so I feel like as soon as I joined the army, like I got like instant so many brothers <laugh>. Right. And so I, I definitely want to, to hear a bit about, um, some of kind of those, those, uh, lessons learned. Like what, what was it that led you to say, I want to join the military? Like, do you remember that, that moment or experience?
John Renken (04:53):
Yeah, so for me, when I was younger, I was quite the, um, quite the aggressive, rambunctious young person. And I actually joined the Army in the early nineties because I wanted to kill somebody. So not a great, oh my goodness. Time in my life, uh, came out of a real abusive background and, um, that, that ended up becoming my outlet, which never ended up happening. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But that was my motivation for joining. And then my family’s pretty patriotic. Everybody. Um, my, all my uncles served, my cousins served, you know, so that was kind of my, well, uncles on both sides served. So it was kind of a normal path for my family.
Mary Kate Soliva (05:36):
Was that something they were cool with you joining when you told them? Or was it kind of like, no, stay, stay away, go the other
John Renken (05:42):
Direction? Yeah, no, my, my entire family was very pro-military. My grandfather Oh, nice. Actually cried when I told him I joined <laugh>,
Mary Kate Soliva (05:50):
So. Oh, that’s awesome.
John Renken (05:51):
Yeah.
Mary Kate Soliva (05:52):
That’s pretty awesome. And, um, so yo, how, so how old were you then when you, when you went in?
John Renken (05:58):
So I was 20, I was a little bit older. Um, okay. And the reason I was a little bit older is cuz I actually joined the Air Force when I was in high school on the delayed entry program. And then they found something in my blood work that’s actually spelled like a terminal disease that would’ve killed me. But I don’t have the terminal version, I have the other version. And so the Air Force like kicked me out before I ever came in. And then the Army got a waiver and got me in <laugh>. So,
Mary Kate Soliva (06:27):
You know, I keep, I jokingly say that, I was like, oh, you’re missing an eye, you’re missing a toe, don’t worry, the Army will take shoes.
John Renken (06:34):
Yeah, that’s right. <laugh>.
Mary Kate Soliva (06:36):
So, well the Air Force is like you, or they’ll be like, oh, the, the Army broke you, they’ll keep you, we don’t want you as the Air Force. Yeah. And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had guests on this show too, where they’re like, oh yeah, I thought about the Air Force first, but the, the door was closed or they were on a extended lunch and, uh, no one at the recruiting office. So right across the hall and the Army’s like, welcoming me with open arms. Here you go. Right
John Renken (07:01):
Here’s some
Mary Kate Soliva (07:01):
Go. So I didn’t love that. Now as far as the, the job goes, did you have like a plethora of choices that you were choosing from as far as like what you wanna do? Were you initially like, I wanna be infantry? Yeah,
John Renken (07:14):
So I actually did, I scored, uh, pretty high on my, on my asvab. Uh, my GT was like 1 23 or something like that, 1 24. Nice. So they gave me an assortment of, uh, positions to pick for. And all I wanted was Airborne Ranger. Um, of course they tried to talk me out of it and they tried to tell me it wasn’t available. Then I said Airborne school, airborne school wasn’t available. And no matter what I did, they just would not, uh, and I didn’t know any better at that time. I should have just walked out. Uh, cuz I would’ve gone to Ranger regiment with my score. I was in great physical shape. I, I mean, I came into the Army at a 300 PT score. Um, wow. So, um, they finally said, Hey, we can get you jumping outta helicopters and, uh, repelling outta helicopters. I was like, great, sign me up. Um, and so I, that’s why I went to Fort Campbell.
Mary Kate Soliva (08:06):
So definitely more the excitement right off the bat. Just like the recruitment videos.
John Renken (08:12):
Yep, yep. Adrenaline and, uh, adventure. My drugs.
Mary Kate Soliva (08:16):
Oh gosh. Well, did you end up, um, well at that time, at the, did you have, uh, did you get to go anywhere? You said you were at, started out at Campbell. Did you have to never you never
John Renken (08:27):
Got, I never gotta go anywhere. So, um, I missed, oh goodness, Cini by a couple of months. They, they went in January. I got to the unit or they went in like April May timeframe. I got there in August. Uh, I missed Scotland. They went like the next year, but picked one of the other companies. Uh, I missed the Gulf War completely. Uh, and it wasn’t until I got out of the army that I started traveling. I got out of the Army in January and was was in, um, sorry about the laughter. Um, no, please. Was in Guatemala within a couple of months, uh, as a civilian in their middle of their revolutionary war. Um Wow. Then went,
Mary Kate Soliva (09:08):
You’re like finally some action as a civilian.
John Renken (09:12):
Yeah, but then I didn’t have a gun, so it wasn’t the action animal. Oh,
Mary Kate Soliva (09:15):
Goodness, <laugh>. Oh no. Well, I ask for the, the best way as far as like, I, I mean even if we don’t go anywhere, cuz we have so many brothers and sisters at arms that end up not going anywhere, so to speak or overseas. But we definitely have have mentors, right. And just great leaders that we end up emulating or even the bad ones that we never forget that they’re just ingrained in our heads and we’re like, don’t be like that guy. Um, so yeah, for sure. You know, this is a, I’d love to hear your, from you about, um, some mentors or anybody that you wanna give a shout out to and, and probably a highlight story of what made them so great.
John Renken (09:52):
Yeah, so my squad leader was actually from Ranger Regiment, which is why I ended up getting into ranger school in the first place. Was a great leader, took me under his wing, um, really invested in me so that as a private in the army, I I actually graduated from Ranger school. Um, and it was funny because you brought up both bad and, and good. So my squad leader was the, the kind of like highlight reel of what you wanted to be in the inventory. And my platoon sergeant hadn’t done any of that, had hadn’t, didn’t have anything. So I got to see both sides of that equation. And my squad leader was amazing.
Mary Kate Soliva (10:35):
Oh, I love that. And is it, is it as far as the, in the sense of they really took you under their wing when you were or in or in what way?
John Renken (10:42):
Well, I mean in every way. So he was taking me to church, he was training me. Oh, nice. He actually got me started in mixed martial arts. I mean, everything that my career has been, I can really point to him as the stardom.
Mary Kate Soliva (10:56):
Isn’t that incredible? I think that’s why you just like to show about that, um, leadership, servant leadership, especially of just having your subordinates and how much they look up to you and how they care for the, to some extent about what you say or what you, what you think about them and what they’re doing. So I love that he was there for you at that time. Yep. And h how many years total did you end up serving in the Army? So I
John Renken (11:21):
Did three years, um mm-hmm. <affirmative> in the Army as active duty. And then as a civilian I did 20 years with fifth Special Forces group as their combatives instructor.
Mary Kate Soliva (11:33):
No, that’s pretty cool. How does one end up, how, okay, now I gotta know the pathway. What made you say I wanna be a Combatives instructor? So you like got the beating for the three years in the Army and you’re like, let me be a glu, I’m glutton for punishment, I’m gonna continue on.
John Renken (11:49):
Yeah, so I’ve been in martial arts since I was a kid. Um mm-hmm. <affirmative> started when I was 15. Um, right before I joined the Army, I made the national TaeKwonDo team. I was ranked third in the nation and that would’ve been, would’ve been 80, let me see here. 90, 91, something like that. Um, 90 or 91, I was ranked third in the nation in TaeKwonDo. Um, and then he started training me in judo. And then the first UFC came out in 1993 and I got to watch the first ufc and then I started professionally fighting when I got out of the army. Had 70 pro fights, six world titles. So when I moved back to, uh, Fort Campbell, I was invited over to help those guys train and I went over and started training with them and um, they put me in with this just behemoth of a guy and I ended up knocking him out and then I knocked out another guy. They said, Hey, you want a job? And I was like, sure, uh, I’ll take a job. And that’s, that’s really how it started.
Mary Kate Soliva (12:53):
Oh gosh. Well I I’d love to hear your thoughts cuz you some folks that are thinking like, okay, what, what is, um, you know, they may see it as like a very violent sport, um, very aggressive and, and not really in a positive light, but what, what has, have you seen with like martial arts, TaeKwonDo and whatnot as far as how that helps people? Like in, in life? Yeah. Like some of the positives that come out of it.
John Renken (13:16):
Well, the, the first and most obvious positive is self-confidence and discipline. You know, I’m, I’m, I’m 50 years old now and I’ve never been in a street fight since I started doing combatives and training and those kind of things. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, I mean, my last fight outside the cage was when I was a kid. I mean 16 years old. Um, and I was jumped. So I didn’t start that fight. Um, and uh, to the, to the kind of nomenclature that it’s violent, well, football’s violent, I mean mm-hmm. <affirmative> hell, we’ve got jokes about hockey that I went to a fight in a hockey game broke out. It’s violent, right? So, and I disagree with the, the characterization of violence simply because violence is what we do to others that are unwilling participants. It’s actually the definition is to violate, uh, it’s a sport. And me and you get in a ring and we say, Hey, we’re gonna go to blows and the best man winner, now we have women fighters. So the best woman wins and it’s competition, pure and simple. Um, now from a military perspective, it’s the single greatest way economically, physically, and mentally to prepare military members for the rigors of war period. If that’s violent, so be it. But we have to have that thing because we live in a violent world where people will abuse and take advantage of people that don’t have the ability to defend themselves. To me, that’s honorable.
Mary Kate Soliva (14:49):
Do you, do you have um, sort of a success story that you’ve seen, um, like you said about the confidence piece, which I think is huge cause it’s not something that gets issued to you when you join the military and we get a lot of folks that are wet behind the ears. They don’t even have facial hair yet, you know, they’re still like Yeah, very, very, you know, they’re scared and then now you’re giving them a weapon and they’re still learning how to use it and just have, have you seen a success story of that with any of the, the folks in special forces group or over you’ve worked with that you, that you wanna, do you have one in particular that, that you could share? Yeah,
John Renken (15:23):
So I, I won’t use his name, but I, I have a, uh, a really good friend of mine who was a part of the initial invasion in both Afghanistan and Iraq in the two thousands. And he actually double laed and then rear naked, choked the number two bad guy in all of Iraq and captured him instead of killing him, uh, through the training that he received through combatants. He’s a great guy. Great story. Um, would have he been able to do that if that, if that altercation had happened in 99 instead of 2003 or four? Probably not. Wow.
Mary Kate Soliva (16:00):
No. And and just like, I think you said, like being able to do that in a way that doesn’t actually kill the individual. Um, that’s right. You know, it’s just also just a, a very, very powerful skill. Um, so I really appreciate you sharing on that one. And then just, you know, I really want, you know, I was so excited to bring you on today to talk about your organization and, and just some of the things that led up to that. Um, but I do wanna touch on when you transitioned and ended up becoming an instructor. I, I know for a fact like based on like timeline that there was probably nothing in existence. There was no duty skill bridge program, there weren’t internships, nothing, there wasn’t leadership sitting you down to say, did you do your disability claim? So nothing, what, what was your transition like for you? Even though I can probably guess horrible.
John Renken (16:47):
Yeah, so I’ll just give you a couple of examples. So first of all, I didn’t even know about disability. I fell 60 feet out of a helicopter in 1994 and they gave me nothing. Um, oh my gosh. As a matter of fact, my squad leader pulled me off the objective and uh, said, get in your car and drive yourself to the hospital because we were in the middle of a training exercise, <laugh>. Um, so I mean, uh, in hindsight I wish that I had known the things that I know now because it could have made a lot of my life a lot easy. Um, so, but it wasn’t, uh, the other thing is because I did Airborne school and I did ranger school and I did all these leadership schools, I thought, because everybody told me that when you get out of the army with everything you’ve done, you’ll, you’ll have jobs lining up for you. And I remember doing my resume and ranger school and Airborne school and talking about all the two things I did and getting to my first job interview and the interviewer looking at my resume and going, so what park did you serve in? And I, and I remember looking at him going, what park? What do you mean? Says, well, it says here you’re a ranger. What, what national park were you?
Mary Kate Soliva (17:59):
No.
John Renken (18:00):
Yeah, it’s a true story. And I was like, oh
Mary Kate Soliva (18:03):
My goodness.
John Renken (18:04):
I was like, everybody in the army lied to me. Like none of what I’ve done makes a difference to anybody.
Mary Kate Soliva (18:10):
Be done. You could have been a ranger at a ra at a national park. Yeah.
John Renken (18:16):
Yeah. So
Mary Kate Soliva (18:17):
Probably like one of the most elite things that you can do, go be a ranger and they’re thinking National park
John Renken (18:21):
And they thought National National Park. Yeah. Now this is in, you know, 1996, right? Um, you know, so we didn’t have a 20 year war at that time. I mean, even though our culture was positive towards military at this point, right. Unlike some of our, our previous veterans from the Vietnam era, you know, they still were mostly uneducated about what the military does
Mary Kate Soliva (18:44):
Right now. So with regards to that, like now, now like you say, you summed up your transition in one word as as horrible now when I went through my transitions during the pandemic, so I wouldn’t quite see it was horrible in the sense of it was still limited access to resources at that time. Sure. But at least we, we’ve got, uh, light years ahead right. With what’s available. And so just with this, um, with, would love to hear now about, um, your advice to those that are going through transition. Cuz we still have so many thousands of service members transitioning every year from all different components, active guard reserves, and would love to hear your your thoughts for them. We may even have some listeners, uh, tuned in that are transitioning now.
John Renken (19:29):
So first thing is document, document, document. Um, you know, the, the bottom line is, is that military service, even if it was in the chair force, you know, there are probably injuries that they cause to you. And you should document all that and, and get really what’s owed to you, not just for you, but for your family. Because there’s educational benefits that can be passed on to your kids to alleviate the burden financially of what it takes to put a kid through college. So document everything. And even though you’re probably younger now when you’re 50, you’re going to pay for what the military did to you. I promise you. There’s mornings I wake up and my body hurts and it’s because of, of what the military did, you know? And I don’t, uh, that’s not said in a negative light. It’s just the bottom line is, is when we’re young men and women, we don’t feel the same way.
John Renken (20:20):
So document those things now. Take advantage of it now. And I say take advantage in a positive way, not a negative way. Um, so document, document and document. The other thing I would say is to have a clear path to where you want to be in the next five years. Um, transitioning is crazy. Uh, the world is changing at a very rapid pace. Covid accelerated some of that change in some areas and delayed it in others. Um, so have a clear pathway forward of what things are gonna look like for you so that you can make educated decisions now on where you’re going to go five years from now.
Mary Kate Soliva (20:58):
No, absolutely. I think that’s such an important, uh, note to make because you said five years, there’s so much we, we kind of put ourselves on this timeline that we need to have it figured out. So we get our DD two 14 in hand and the next day Yep. Come Monday we gotta figure it out. But as we know that, and, and so much research has been done on this that we end up leaving our first job or even our having a second job within the first couple years. Uh, so to, to know that you can, it’s still okay and it’s normal that people are still transitioning even the, the years following tr the actual transition. That’s right. So appreciate that a lot. And, and now I know that you are helping folks who are in transition and, um, great segue to your organization now. C could you tell us a bit about how, how Thao got started and how what you got involved with that? Yeah,
John Renken (21:51):
Really funny. So Covid ended my 20 year career at Fifth Group as the Combatives instructor. And I started looking at the market and you know, I’d been so specialized for so long. There were not really a ton of opportunities for me. I was either too qualified or not qualified in the realm of civilian stuff and Right. Um, I was getting job offers for $12 an hour after running, uh, arguably the largest combatives program in all of the Army. And, um, I just wouldn’t accept that. And so, um, started sales coaching cuz I’ve been in sales my whole life. And then in May of last year, Fort Campbell reached out to me and asked me to look into starting a skill program because a skill bridge program, because a lot of the veterans were getting offered $28 $30 an hour to be on top of Ruth to be underneath the floor or to patrolling the highways as law enforcement.
John Renken (22:48):
And I was like, well, let me look at it. They didn’t have that when I was in, I don’t even know anything about it. And I looked at it and I came back and I was like, hill, no, I am not taking two years of red tape to start this program without pay. I was like, there’s no way. Right? Um, I said, but what I’ll tell you what I’ll do is I’ll find somebody else who’s already doing it. I’ll bring ’em to Fort Campbell, I’ll network them in with you and then let you guys do your thing. So I ended up finding Sales Platoon, uh, which was already existing. Uh, the founder, Raleigh Wilkins, uh, was in charge at that point, brought him to Fort Campbell, got him introduced to everybody. And unfortunately, like what happens a lot of times in our tribe is he ended up taking his life, um, and uh, kind of put the kibosh to sales platoon.
John Renken (23:35):
And I reached out and um, w was communicating with, uh, the silent partner of the company, Jim LaFell. And, uh, just, Hey, if you need anything, let me know. Um, just stayed in touch. And then he told me they were looking at, uh, offloading sales platoon and I said, well, if you’re gonna do that, I’d like to throw my name in the hat. And in, uh, October last year I got named the interim c e o and then in January as we moved through Pro of eight, I got announced as the, the full-time c e o of the company. Um, and what we do is, oh, congratulations to that. Yeah. It’s a pretty, pretty crazy story. Right? Um, so what we do is we take transitioning active duty members, we teach them how to do sales, and then we get them placed in companies that have B D R S D R account executive roles or commission only roles. Cause some people are more geared for that and want that challenge. Um, some of the companies we’re working with is like Verizon, T-Mobile, United Rentals, um, and some other great companies, Toshiba, where right now trying to figure out a pathway into Toshiba. Uh, we’ve been meeting with their national recruiter, uh, you know, and so these, these, uh, young men and women will get out of the military and they’ll have an opportunity to have a great bass play plus commission and make between 37 and to 50 to $60 an hour.
Mary Kate Soliva (24:58):
Wow. I mean, and, and to know that that resource is there for them because you’re, you are there as a mentor, as a guide, and you have a team of folks that have sort of have been there done that. So I think that that’s really commendable and, and huge to be able to teach them that skillset. And when you say transition, is this like their last hundred 80 days? So you have them Yep. Their last six months coming in?
John Renken (25:22):
Yeah, we have between their last three to three to six months, whatever they end up getting.
Mary Kate Soliva (25:27):
That’s great. And you have folks that are, are coming in from wanting to relocate anywhere in the world? Just mainly. Yep. Us. That’s amazing.
John Renken (25:37):
Uh, I’ve got one gentleman right now coming from Germany, so I mean pretty much from everywhere.
Mary Kate Soliva (25:42):
And how long’s that the training take is, is it really 12 weeks? Especially depending what route? 12 weeks, 12 for everybody, no matter which route they they’re going. Okay. Yep.
John Renken (25:50):
And then, uh, if they intern, so if they get six months, which is more the Navy and the Air Force that are doing that than they intern with me and I actually take them and show them how to sell ’em multiple venues that I’m selling in. So they now these, these
Mary Kate Soliva (26:05):
They
John Renken (26:05):
Intern directly with me.
Mary Kate Soliva (26:07):
Oh, wow. Well that’s great to have that, that one-on-one as well. Do they, you have pretty big class sizes?
John Renken (26:13):
Uh, we keep on about 20 to 30 people max. We do it three times a year.
Mary Kate Soliva (26:18):
And what would you say sort of makes a, a great salesperson? Like are you able to tell kind of right off the bat which ones are gonna be s really successful?
John Renken (26:27):
Yep. They have to be self-starters motivated, disciplined ability to work on their own with nobody micromanaging them, and they have to be hungry for more in life. They, they really, you know, this is one of my other favorite quotes. I was not meant I was not born to grow up pay bills and die. That is not who I was meant to be. And I don’t think that’s who many of our tribe were ever meant to be, but we have a system in place in our education and the way that we train people to where that’s what ends up being a lot of people’s lives. And so if you are a person who, who fights against that and you know that you are meant for way more than that, sales is probably for you.
Mary Kate Soliva (27:07):
No, I think that, like you said, being that self-starter, being driven, being hungry for more and it’s so timely. Right. With, especially with the pandemic. A lot of companies have moved online, they’re not planning to go back into an office anymore. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So like you’re completely changing that or shifting that way of sales as well has, has evolved. Right. And Yep. I think like the old school door to door, uh, sales salesman with this, the products and the trunk of their car, but now, you know, we’re way beyond that now. So I, and I do, do you find as far as like industry goes, I know you mentioned to some of the companies that you’re working with, but is this all across all different industries?
John Renken (27:44):
Across all, all industries? Everything from construction to HR to recruiting,
Mary Kate Soliva (27:50):
Which goes to show that you can apply those skills anywhere. Right. Which I think is really what our, um, our service members are looking for, um, right now. So it’s great, especially because we tend to to move around a lot. So is there something right now that as far as the way that we can help you or any of our listeners on the call, you know, we’d be able to to support you all? Yeah.
John Renken (28:14):
If you’re in a sales role, would love to talk to your company. If you’re hiring salespeople, if you’re not in a sales role and, you know, transitioning veterans connect us, uh, I’m super easy to find. I’ve got a pretty big, uh, digital footprint. If go to my sales platoon.com, that’s our website or you can just find me on LinkedIn.
Mary Kate Soliva (28:34):
I know, I I really love that. And, uh, as far as with the, you mentioned active duty now, are you, are you planning to grow it out more for like spouses as well and including
John Renken (28:44):
Everybody? Yeah, we we’re fully any, if you’re a veteran and you served or you were a dependent, you can come
Mary Kate Soliva (28:51):
Oh, dependents as well. Oh, great. Yes. So talk a little. Oh, I love that. Do you have any, um, as far as like success stories now with the spouses? I just wanna give them a special shout out too. Sure. Because we often, we tend to leave them out and we shouldn’t because they’re taking care of the home front and I’ll and doing so many great things. So we’d love to hear about what you’re doing with the spouses. Yeah,
John Renken (29:13):
So I have, uh, one spouse in our cohort right now, um mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and she wants the freedom to raise her children while still making a great income. She is a veteran and a, I don’t know how that works, who’s the defendant, but they’re, they’re both active duty, but she’s already gotten out. Um, yeah, so we have one right now and um, I would love for her to be, um, successful here in the next couple months, which she’s really super sharp, so I think she will be, and then I can share that story when it happens.
Mary Kate Soliva (29:44):
That’s fantastic. And, um, a and are they getting, are they getting a specific certification or floral certifications?
John Renken (29:52):
Yeah, so everyone that comes through our course gets, uh, Salesforce, HubSpot and project management certified as well as 140 other hours of certifications.
Mary Kate Soliva (30:03):
That is a lot in 12 weeks. Yep. Goodness.
John Renken (30:07):
Full-time <laugh>
Mary Kate Soliva (30:09):
Full-time. So, um, a I really, I really love that and appreciate that. Um, you know, and I I just want to say, you know, to our listeners know that you’re, you’re not alone in this if, if you’re even doing a career pivot, right? So John, it sounds like you did scoop these people up as long as they have some of those things, the self starter, that drive, they could have come from Absolutely. A non-sale background, uh, wanting to do a career pivot and they can just hop right in. Um, so John, could you, uh, remind us again about how they could get ahold of you directly in your team?
John Renken (30:43):
Yep. Just go to my sales platoon.com, you can fill out the form there or send me a message directly through the website.
Mary Kate Soliva (30:50):
Oh, great. And that was Sales Platoon. So really appreciate John, um, your time today. Was there anything that you would like to say to our audience that I may have missed?
John Renken (31:00):
Yeah, you’re worth more than you think. Don’t settle.
Mary Kate Soliva (31:04):
Don’t settle. You’re worth more than you think. Don’t settle. I love that you can still be in transition <laugh>. So, um, yes, absolutely. And John, thank you so much for your time today and for sharing your story, uh, how you came in into the army of all branches. I’m a little biased. We’re talking about the best branch here, but, uh, yeah, go Army. Um, but thank you again so much for <laugh>. I know we should have been decked out in our, our Army gear today. Um, but thank you so much again for sharing more about Sales Platoon and, and as c e o, the direction that you’re taking, uh, the organization and being there for Veterans Service members and their families at such a critical time. Uh, I know that they’re dealing with so much so it’s so important that they know that they’re not alone and that we’ve got their back. Uh, so again, thank you so much and thank you to our listeners. Uh, you can tune into Veteran Voices wherever you get your podcast from. Uh, and today’s episode is in partnership with, uh, G Guam Human Rights Initiative and the Military Women’s Collective, and we are part of the supply chain now Family of programming. So again, without further ado, we hope to see you all next time here on Veteran Voices. I’m Mary Kate Saliva, your host, and I’ll see you all next time. Be good and be the change that’s needed.
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John Renken is the CEO of Sales Platoon.He has spent the last 30 years in business and sales. He is a Veteran and spent 20 years training Special Forces in hand-to-hand combat. He is looking to spread the word about Sales Platoon and the opportunities out there for our transitioning military members in a sales career. He believes he would connect with your audience and be able to offer a lot of value to them. One of the things he would share about Sales Platoon is the similarities between sales and Special Forces, or whatever you feel would bring value to your audience. In return, he would be happy to share your podcast with his audience of over 30,000 on our social media platforms. Here are just a few of the media outlets he has been on and just a few of his accomplishments: the New York Times, Fox and Friends Megan Kelly Show, Fight Church (Documentary), and The Saint (Documentary). He is a 6 time MMA world champion with over 60 pro fights and a 1st-degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was Awarded the Honorary Title of Kentucky Colonel. Connect with John on LinkedIn.
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