Today Veterans represent just 1% of the population of the United States, and yet they have an outsized impact on society as a whole as well as the private industry roles they go on to. And so what better topic to discuss on Veterans’ Day 2021, than leadership.

In this special Veteran’s Day livestream, produced in partnership with Vets2Industry, Host Scott Luton was joined by three amazing leaders from the Veteran community. Marina Rabinek is a 24-year veteran of the Navy and Founder of the Military Women’s Collective (MWC). Rod Lee put in 23 years of active duty in the Air Force, and Jermaine Cohen served 4 years in the Army, which included a tour in Iraq. Today, Rod and Jermaine both work with PRJKT (Project) Vet, a Disabled Veteran, Black-owned product marketing and consulting company.

In this conversation, Marina, Rod, and Jermaine share their unique perspectives on:

• The top Veteran-related topic that they each believe is worthy of more attention and discussion than it currently receives
• Why it is important for specific groups of Veterans, like women or minorities, to connect inside of the larger Veteran community
• The rich array of resources available to Veterans, whether they need casual support, assistance with mental health concerns, or help transitioning into private industry.

Scott Luton (00:02):

Welcome to veteran voices, a podcast 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 taught 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. Hey, good afternoon everybody. Good morning. Good evening. Wherever you are. Scott Luton, Rodley and marina rabbinate with you right here on supply chain now. Welcome marina, rod. How are we doing?

Marina Rabinek (00:52):

Morning? I am doing awesome. It is 9:00 AM on the west coast. I feel like I feel like a television presenter. Good morning. And it’s 9:00 AM on the west coast. How are you today?

Scott Luton (01:06):

Covering the west coast beat, like do on your front lawn. Hey rod. How about you? How you doing? Doing great.

Rod Lee (01:13):

I’m only an hour behind, so I’m not as, it’s not as early, but you know, the day got started pretty early here.

Scott Luton (01:20):

Well, as if these two don’t bring enough, uh, energy and know-how to the conversation, we’re going to swish in one more additional, late addition to the conversation. Germane Cohen wants to join us. Hey, Hey Jermaine. How are you doing? Hey Scott, thanks for having me. Well, great to see you here. Uh, and, and I’m going to formally introduce each of y’all and just a second folks. We’ve got a veteran voices takeover here today on supply chain now. So welcome to a very special live stream as we celebrate and recognize veteran veterans day 2021. Okay. So rod marina and Jermaine, lemme, let me share with y’all who these repeat guests are we great to have them back here own a supply chain now? So we’ll start with marina rabbinic, who is founder and director of the military. Women’s collective. We’re gonna learn more about that momentarily.

Scott Luton (02:09):

Uh, we also have Rodley and Jermaine Cohen, both are co-founders of project vet, which we’re going to talk about that and the veteran’s bowl. There we go. Uh, 20, 21 soon. It’s a great to have all of y’all back, uh, looking forward to diving into what you’re thinking about today, what you’re up to, at least a couple of things you’re up to all of y’all are juggling. Like we all are these days, uh, but excited to have you back. So we’re going to get to a fun, warm up question, marina, rod, and germane in just a second, but Hey, let’s pay a few bills first. Y’all get to that. Oh yeah. Bills. Absolutely. Always. Yeah, the bills don’t go away. Do they? Um, but Hey folks, check out this upcoming webinar on November 18th, we’re partnering up with our friends at Manhattan associates. We’re gonna be talking about TMS, right?

Scott Luton (02:53):

Transportation management systems, all the rage these days, and a cloud native TMS to boot. So y’all join us for free 12 noon on November 18th. And then secondly, we’ve been fortunate to have rod marina and Jermaine marina on a live stream with us, uh, and rod and Jermaine own veteran voices, right? Uh, I think we’re roughly 50 episodes deep in this gift forward programming, where we want to amplify the thought leadership and perspective and experiences of our veteran community. So check this one out. So this was Justin C. Pearson has got a pretty unique title, proper Patriots are leaders, not shouters. You got to get creative sometimes with these podcast titles, but check it out. You can listen and subscribe to veteran voices, wherever you get your podcasts from, if we can and big thanks to Amanda and Jayda behind the scenes, helping us to make the production happen. If we drop a link to this episode in the comments, please that’d be great. Okay. With no further ado before we get to the heavy hitting stuff, rod, marina and Jermaine, I want to ask each of, y’all kind of a fun warm up question based on kind of your, your unique journey. And I’m going to stick the same order. So marina you’re like the Otis Nixon today, or the Jorge Solaire today of our world champion Atlanta Braves, the lead off hitter.

Marina Rabinek (04:09):

I was going to say, I don’t know what you’re saying to me because I don’t play sports. I don’t follow sports balls. Yes. I’m going to call it sports ball the whole time. So, but whatever you said sounds good. Yeah.

Scott Luton (04:21):

Wonderful. Those are lead-off hitters, uh, at various, uh, genres of the Atlanta Braves of course are your, you’re an all of ours, uh, world champions, uh, for major league baseball. Okay. So marina, you’re a big fan. We hear of road trips, not just here in the states, but internationally. So tell us, give us one of your favorite road trips.

Marina Rabinek (04:41):

I would say my favorite road trip is going from where I live near Yokosuka Naval base, driving to Mount Fuji around it, basically kind of underneath a, another mountain to get to the lake, which is called a COA, got Chico and absolutely amazing. I can’t even, I can’t even explain that, that I got to see it’s something called there’s something called the diamond Fuji where there’s a certain time of year where the sun comes up and it’s, and it sits right on the very top kind of like you got up here, you know, with my, with my thing up there, my rebel, it would be the sun sitting right on the very top of Fuji and just like shining like a diamond. And it was so gorgeous.

Scott Luton (05:30):

Wow. We’ve got to get some pictures. You paint such a great, pretty visual. We’re going to get some pictures from you.

Marina Rabinek (05:36):

I mean, I’ve got a bunch of, a lot of the things I’ve got behind me are a lot of, of Japanese Fuji type pictures.

Scott Luton (05:42):

I love it. I love it. And I love that you’re a rebel and that symbols from star wars, where have I been? My head’s been in a hole somewhere evidently, but all right. So I want to get to rod and germane here momentarily. You know what we’ve forgotten to do? We forgot to say the, to some of the folks that dropped in, we do that. So Kindle is tuned in via Colorado via LinkedIn. Great to see you here today. Kendall Joseph Maretta also, uh, he doing some great podcasts work up in the Northeast. Great to see here, Joseph doing some also some great things in supply chain, clay, diesel, Phillips diesel, because that engine is always running. Great to see it here today. Clay and Ahmad is tuned in via LinkedIn and good morning. Tell us, tell us everybody where you are tuning in from a specifically, we love the pickle and towns we learned this morning, uh, before marina joined us that Athens, Texas lays claim to being to founding or creating the hamburger had no idea. So speaking of Athens, Jermaine, you’re in Athens, Texas now, right? Absolutely. So rather than ask you about hamburgers, because folks, we could probably talk for a couple hours right. About food, but let’s talk about Texas state university, right? You were an alum of Texas state. Tell us about your favorite part of the Bobcat.

Jermaine Cohen (06:54):

Bobcat. So my favorite part is a little bit outside of the curriculum. The Texas state is notorious for, you know, just having a good time, right. But it’s a good school. Don’t get me wrong. There’s a river that goes right through the town. And anyone who’s been in San Marcus knows about Don’s river. It’s a river where everyone floats you get your tubes. Uh, you know, some, some beverages, whatever you like and you float down the river and Don is this guy, uh, his skin looks like leather. If you ever go down there, I mean, he wears these suspenders with no cert course. And it literally, his skin looks like leather and I hope he’s still around. Cause he was pretty old. This is back in 2008. But um, yeah. So my, my favorite part is his river. It is it’s Dobbs river. So it is property. You go down there, you pay $20. You float all the way down and it was it’s the best time you’ll ever have.

Scott Luton (07:53):

I love it. I love it. Hey, we’re gonna have to, let’s see if we can grab Don for a future interview, but he’s got some stories to tell, but thanks for sharing germane to floating is the best it is. It is easier. Ease one of the best sports ball activities you can do for sure. Rod, I’m coming to you next, but really quick. I want to say hello to all. I

Jermaine Cohen (08:12):

See what you did there.

Scott Luton (08:14):

Michael aver. Great to have you here today. Championship city here in ATL, you are right about that. Clay loves the sports ball that Marina’s talking about eight. She says, that’s what it’s called. Mohib good morning. We drive. And he’s in Wichita, the air capital of the world. We drive one hour to a new town around Wichita to find some burgers, burger junkie in Arkansas city. I bet that’s our Kansas city in Kansas. He says that is the best Sylvia. Hey, appreciate that. And these three folks here, uh, we’re all very proud veterans. And we appreciate all the gratitude on days like this. Charles Walker, speaking of special veterans, like the three of y’all Charles is a dynamo. You got to follow all these three folks, but especially Charles to own LinkedIn, a lot of good stuff, Sylvia. I am a hamburger. The real deal. I think she’s from Hamburg, Germany. So I was

Marina Rabinek (09:08):

Hoping you understood what the flagman like

Scott Luton (09:12):

A lot of good luck, too much fun. We’re having this morning. One more Daniel says good morning and happy. Veteran’s day from Summerville, South Carolina, feeling 10 south caca Lackey is, uh, in the house here. Okay. So let’s come to you now. Now rod, uh, before we get to the heavy lifting, I want to ask you a little warmup question here. Let’s talk about, uh, your international travel cause the air force sent you to, I think, a variety of places. What was your favorite place?

Rod Lee (09:38):

Um, let’s take it back to Japan. It was my first duty station. I was stationed in Okinawa for two years. Some good memories, some, some not so good memories, but great culture. Probably one of the things that I’ll take away is is the food, uh, love Japanese food. And I was so excited to hear that Frisco, Texas is getting a, uh, cocoa ichi banya, which is a Curry house, my favorite Curry house all the time, straight up. And I know there’s one in Hawaii, but it’s probably not the same as the one in Okinawa, but yeah, great times in Japan.

Scott Luton (10:12):

Love it, love it.

Marina Rabinek (10:15):

I’m making face to Scott because my husband loves Curry, but I’m one of those ones that, that absolutely does not like the Japanese guy at all. So I was doing that. I was doing the Japanese. This means no, go like you can’t come here. Don’t do it in Japanese is like no in a big way everyday.

Scott Luton (10:39):

That’s right. Well, we’ll have to dive in. I think, I think there is a dedicated conversation we have to have around Curry, but rod congratulations of the local establishment being set up there, you have to send some pictures to us. I want to go back to Don’s river comment because Michael Eva says, it sounds like some spots around here on the Chattahoochee with

Marina Rabinek (10:59):

That makes me want to sing way down, yonder on the Chattahoochee.

Scott Luton (11:04):

Nice, uh, marina. Okay. We’ve got, we’re having so much fun, but we got to move to a little more serious stuff. Right? All three of y’all served in our country’s armed forces. I want to kind of go around, uh, around the horn and uh, kind of understand what branch and kind of the gist of what you did in uniform and marinas. Keep the, let’s keep your rotation. W uh, what branch did you serve in what’d you do?

Marina Rabinek (11:27):

So I am a 24 year veteran of the us Navy. What did I do? You know, the first part of it, I did more electronics type things, but the stuff that I love the most was the stuff that I did the last seven years or so of my, of my career, which was the equal opportunity work that really stoked a fire in me of, of really wanting inclusiveness and belonging and wanting to take that into my veteran hood veterans ship. Is that a word I’m not sure, but yeah, I made it up.

Scott Luton (12:09):

I love that. I love that you found, you know, after doing probably some really complex higher than my payroll work in the army in the Navy, sorry for the first, what was at 17 years, it’s really cool to hear that you spent your last seven before you retired and joined the private sector, kind of finding what did stir your passions. And, and I would assume marina is that, and we’re going to learn more about, uh, the military women’s collective a little later on, but is that tied into what you’re doing now

Marina Rabinek (12:36):

Know nobody’s ever asked me that question, Scott, so thank you for that. It is because I feel that women veterans, okay, so veterans as a whole, what are we 1% of the entire us, right? That, that serve women, veterans is an even smaller percentage of that already small percentage, right? And there’s not as many resources out there for, for women. And so I, I wanted to, you know, add myself in there as somewhere where people could come and be able to, you know, to feel less invisible and to feel empowered and to know that they have a voice. And that’s really what military women’s collective.

Scott Luton (13:20):

I love that very important work. And we’re going to circle back to that and dive a little bit deeper here momentarily. Same question though. I like level setting, right. I think as, as marina just pointed out how important it is to kind of understand what, what we all do and uniform and Jermaine coming to you next, what did you do? What branch?

Jermaine Cohen (13:37):

Uh, I was in the army. I did four years in the army, one tour in Iraq, OIF one, uh, with the fourth infantry division. I was a radio concept, uh, repair, which, you know, just, uh, we, I was a part of force 21, which was all the new equipment for the army. So we really couldn’t work on a whole lot of stuff cause it’s all in the warranty. So I became more of an operator where I was our guests, the SMI to how to use, you know, all the new equipment that the, the army was adopting and bringing them on to all of their tactical vehicles. And so kind of like marina in, in some ways I use that to kind of catapult into my next career after the army, which is, I worked at the contractor, uh, thereafter,

Scott Luton (14:22):

And we’re going to talk about project vet, but understand the T on the F on the end of project is for technology. So I’m assuming you’re leveraging some of your background and what you do with the army. Gosh, what can you not do? Or what can you do without a secure communications in the military? So I imagine you’re parlaying that into some of y’all’s work now.

Jermaine Cohen (14:42):

Yeah, absolutely. And Ronnie and I are both, you know, it’s kind of funny is our backgrounds are very similar. Uh, it’s highly technical. Uh, Rodney’s uh, more of a geek that may not be that a negative way, but you know, he just, when it comes to technology, I send everything to him and he just knows how to do it. I’m like, I’m a pretender. Right. I, I can see the big picture and, you know, I, I liked the, the top level things, but what we definitely wanted to incorporate technology into our service and what we do. And so we really pushed things like blockchain technology, uh, and just the integration into how we can help veterans and, and push that forward.

Scott Luton (15:23):

All right. So rod, he’s calling you out a little bit. Sounds like all three of y’all were a lot better at math than I was, but tell us what branch did you serve in rod and what’d you do?

Rod Lee (15:32):

Uh, yeah, so I spent 12 years active, uh, in the greatest air power in the world. The us air force. I was a nerd, you know, they called us pointy heads. Uh, I was an avionics technician for the first eight years of my life, uh, working on F fifteens, uh, for the most part, that’s what took me to Japan and Kadena air base. And then I transitioned, we were getting ready to, um, shut down the training base in Florida. And I had a decision to make either go to mountain home Idaho, or, you know, choose a new career field. So I chose to become a training manager. Education is something that I’ve always had a passion for. And I got to give service back to those that were coming in new airmen, trying to learn. So that was great opportunity to transition out of the military and keep serving

Scott Luton (16:22):

That so well, what was wrong with Idaho that wasn’t didn’t appeal to you?

Rod Lee (16:27):

It wasn’t one of my top places to go. I’ll say that

Scott Luton (16:35):

I’ve heard that, Hey, we’re not, and we’re gonna have a little fun. We’re not picking on anybody from Idaho, right. We all, um,

Marina Rabinek (16:41):

I’m waiting for the comments to me like Idaho, where I’m just waiting for,

Scott Luton (16:47):

Oh man, did Idaho move down? It sounds like that was in the Gulf coast Marine. And that was quite the accent.

Marina Rabinek (16:55):

I don’t know where that came from. That was just like, you know, I’ve got this voice and then I, whenever I try to pretend

Scott Luton (17:01):

I’m someone

Marina Rabinek (17:03):

Else I do

Scott Luton (17:04):

Channeling Don from the river, then let’s keep driving. Yeah. Don’s going to be the theme throughout the conversation here today. The common thread I want to in Ronald’s stick with you here. Uh, I want each of y’all, if you would, to pick one veteran related issue right. Directly or indirectly that you believe, uh, more folks should know about. So rod let’s stick with you here. What, what would be your one before?

Rod Lee (17:31):

For me, it’s really the transition. If you’re not as fortunate as I believe myself and marina to find something that you love doing while you’re in the military, if you’re in a job where, you know, obviously a cop’s going to relate to a cop on the outside, but there are a lot of jobs in the military that don’t really transition into anything in the civilian world. And I think that’s the biggest issue. And, you know, that’s one of the things that project that we try to do, we try to help counsel and, and refine resumes for some of these people to actually kind of enforce what they did and highlight some of the skills that they possess from the work that they did in the military. Even if the job itself doesn’t relate to anything that they want to do.

Scott Luton (18:12):

Excellent point. And, you know, it seems like to me, uh, generally speaking that corporate America, that the global business community has made some strides in terms of, of supporting transition. But as I was just talking to someone last week, I’m sure you all talked to plenty of folks. There are still underemployment is still a raging issue. Right. And, and I would attribute some of that to rod what you’re talking about, where there’s not a perfectly relatable, you know, position on the private side for, for what someone did the military. So, uh, transition, we’ll be talking about transition and, uh, hopefully not long, but, uh, and told the job really gets done. Jermaine. What is one topic that you believe should get more air time,

Jermaine Cohen (18:53):

Mental health awareness? Uh, yes. And that’s my, uh, my biggest, uh, staple there. And, and I, you know, I, I believe that people often talk about the things in life that they struggle the most with. And so my, my whole push for all of this has always been to just take away some of the stigma, the negative stigmas away from, you know, seeking mental health treatment and, and, and going to these facilities and getting help, like in, when I got out of the military. And even, even before I went into the military, right? Like no one was talking about mental health and there’s just a lot of layers there. And so for me that that’s been the largest place. We partner with a lot of great organizations, like the Cohen veterans network worries, resources, too. We’ve had conversations with NAMI. We’re just, we want to bring together these resources so that veterans know where they can go to get help.

Jermaine Cohen (19:46):

And, and, you know, just, you don’t have to be ashamed about it, right? Like for years, you know, I was kind of saying, cause we look at, you know, being mentally when you’re physically weak or get injured, we go to the doctor or we find ways to improve. But when we’re having these mental struggles, I, no one says like, we should be treating it the same way, but we don’t. And so right now that’s, that’s, that’s my whole mission in life period is it’s to improve, uh, you know, my mental wellbeing and those around me.

Scott Luton (20:16):

I love that. And I would argue that, you know, despite how all the loss and the hurt that the pandemic has brought across the globe, I think one of the silver linings to speaking of mental health is we’re at a very least acknowledging it more and acknowledging the need more. We’ve got a long way to go, but I think that’s one of the silver linings. All right. So marina, these are gosh, rod and Jermaine. We could dedicate lots of conversation and action on both of those. What would be your one thing, marina? I just

Marina Rabinek (20:47):

Want to say to Jermaine like you and I should talk offline. Cause I, I went through a, I went through a program that really helped me. It was a mindfulness type of thing. And I really, I mean, there’s a couple that I’ve done theirs. Am I allowed to say names Scott? Yeah. Okay. Like I went through something called eMindful. I also went through, um, something with, uh, Dr. Theresa Larson and John McCaskill it’s movement and mindfulness together. Like I said, we, you and I will con like the greenest and talk offline and, and let’s let’s connect because I, that, okay. So I segwayed connection for me, connection and belonging is something that I feel like we don’t talk enough about. I feel that part of the reason that we use lead lose, not use lose the 22 is because they lose that, that connection with their brother and sisterhood.

Marina Rabinek (21:48):

Right? You, you, you have these people that you are, you know, for the army, uh, maybe it’s tense for the air force. And probably also tends to, you know, for me it was on a ship, right. You’ve got these people that you’re living with in, in these small areas and you just get close to them like family. And then all of a sudden it’s gone and you’re like, well, now what do I do? I need to, I need a new tribe. I need a new family. I need a new community. And a lot of people, they, they don’t reach out and they, don’t sorry, I’m thinking they don’t reach out. And then, and then we lose them. Right. And that makes me sad because I had a friend that I was stationed with. And I, and I found out that, that, you know, that he committed suicide.

Marina Rabinek (22:38):

And I feel so strongly about the fact that I, I think it’s because we just, we don’t set people up for success in, in that regard of, okay, you’ve been with this family of all these people, and now we’re just going to throw you out to the wolves. Like, no, you give me, give me resources. So that of, of places I can go, like, like women veteran network for me. Okay. Like, that’s the industry that you were talking about, you know, that’s what I I’m, I’m trying to have military women’s collective be is to be a place that people can come to and just know that they have a, a tribe at, sorry. Okay. I’m done,

Scott Luton (23:22):

Uh, very powerful perspective you shared and, and, um, um, we’re all hate to hear about your loss, but unfortunately to your point, you know, 22 lives lost a day is what is estimated to, uh, suicide, uh, in the veteran community. And we just, we can not seemingly bridge that tragic gap. We’ve got to find a way I think most veterans can, unfortunately, and sadly, it’s terrible, uh, can share a similar store to what marina shared there and, you know, you feel guilty, right? Cause you, you don’t know if, if there’s something that we all could’ve done, make a phone call, you know, get someone help, but that’s, that’s, that’s, what’s at stake. So, uh, marina, I appreciate you sharing that. And, and I would say that what you just shared marina is very related to what Jermaine and rod shared because your, your career, whether it’s successful or unsuccessful, you’re over employed, unemployed, whatever can really factor in your, your sense of wellbeing and to germane, of course your, your mental health, which you know, is a huge factor as well.

Scott Luton (24:26):

So thank you all three of you all for sharing. I’ll share just a couple of quick comments here. Yeah. I’ll echo that whether Amanda or Jadah shared this, all three of these veterans here continue to give back and give forward and continue to serve after their years of serving the country. And I admire that about all three of y’all. Stephanie, really appreciate that. I hope this finds you well, wherever you are via LinkedIn and Charlotte. That’s right. Say it again, transition, you know, to, to all three, I was point I’ll say, if we can get our, we can wrap our arms around transition and make that more successful to your point, marina, man, I think we solve a lot of the things that we see, unfortunately. So a lot of good stuff there. Okay. So I want to move right along because I want to, um, I want to better understand what your take is. You know, we’ve talked about how important transition is. Uh, we all know how important it is to hire veterans and, and provide them an environment. They don’t just, aren’t, aren’t just employed, but they can thrive and advance, right. And, and have that sense of belonging marina and, and being fulfilled. So germane, I’ll start with you, this, this go round. What do you believe if for any of our companies that they’re trying to get better at hiring and providing advancement opportunities for veterans, what’s something you see. Good, great companies at that doing.

Jermaine Cohen (25:42):

So a lot of, a lot of great companies are that are reaching out to veterans. Like I know Rodney and I, we use the, I guess this was years ago, but there was a service called Bradley Morris. I really liked their model of how they did it. Uh, they, you know, they reached out to veterans and you would go to this conference and they would con to, they would kind of mold or, or they will look at your resume and give you a selection of different jobs that you can kind of choose from. And that you would go down in the interview form that way. There’s a lot of, there’s a lot of companies out there that actually want to help veterans in similar ways, but they’re hard to find. And, and I’m kind of segwaying here, Scott, but for project vet, for us, part of this whole transition thing, and it kind of second, what you said, marina, is that we want to provide these networks for these veterans, these communities, to where we can provide these resources.

Jermaine Cohen (26:40):

A big thing for project vet for us is kind of being that arm that says, Hey, look at all these resources that are out there when it comes to nonprofits and these organizations, so many of them want to give back to veterans, but there’s not a whole lot of marketing, right? People don’t have marketing dollars to spend for nonprofits. So what we’re trying to do based on the network that we have, and the recent we have is we also want to promote these businesses and organizations like yours, marina on our platform to say, Hey, this is where you can get these resources, you know, check out our website, check out what we’re doing. And also, you know, look at these people that can help you as well.

Scott Luton (27:23):

I love that. And one of the things I heard you say there, and man, the here Bradley Morris really took me back. I’m not sure if they’re still around or not, and that’s no slight on anybody.

Marina Rabinek (27:31):

So they are. And if Jayda or, or Amanda can put the one, the comment that I just put, I’m telling you what it’s called. Now, there you go. So Bradley Morris, his military arm is called recruit military. So that’s the, I mean, Brandon Morris is still around, but they have one of the biggest job boards ever. I mean, they’re, they help millions of veterans. So it’s definitely a place to look

Jermaine Cohen (28:01):

Real quick. And the Dallas career Institute, sorry, we’re partnering with them also. So you guys Dallas create suit that org they’ll actually be at our game or at the licensed game Friday. We can talk about that later, but, uh, they’re one of our partners as well, if you’re in the wonderful,

Scott Luton (28:16):

Wonderful. All right. So really quick. So companies leaders, hiring managers, listening, part of what Jermaine and marina both spoke to is find those firms that can help you effectively engage a veteran community, right. And maybe even help give you advice on how to structure certain roles and, um, you know, advancement, uh, programming so that you can’t just, again, it’s not just about hiring veterans, it’s about making sure they’re set up for success as everyone here has spoken to. Okay. Ron will come to you next. What would be one piece of advice you’d have I say,

Rod Lee (28:48):

Listen to your veterans. I think that’s really one of the big things that, um, that the good companies do, right? Leaning on their veterans, because there’s so much more than just a business and helping it run. It’s really about the experiences and the people that make up your business and to plug another company that I worked for of saw, I worked for the global cyber Alliance. Uh, they’re also a nonprofit focused on cybersecurity and we work with Craig Newmark, who is the founder of Craigslist, and he has a veteran internship. We’re actually currently looking for a veterans scholar to join a global cyber Alliance. So if you’re a veteran interested in cyber security, learning more, please, uh, hit me up or go to, to GCA and plug yourself in love that. But I, I love the fact that, you know, we’ve, we’ve got a few veterans in our company, uh, army Marine, and we actually have a Royal air force, a member as well. Uh, who’s an active pilot. She’s an awesome individual that I got to meet because of this opportunity. And that’s one thing that I appreciate about the company is that they listened to their veterans, give veteran ideas and what we could be doing more for the veteran community. So

Scott Luton (29:58):

I love that market research is so applicable almost in anything, anywhere you go to voice of the veteran VOV, right? You hear about the voice to customer all the time, voice of veterans, an important concept, broad, uh, and, and the global cybersecurity. What was that name again? Global

Rod Lee (30:14):

Cyber Alliance or GCA. So if you look up GCA, uh, you should be able to find, or follow me, he’ll look on my profile and you can see global.

Scott Luton (30:23):

Awesome. Hey, really quick for a come to the marina. I want to share. Omar says never try to transition alone. So true. Such a great point. And Sylvia says, Hey, thank you for the lead I’m reaching out today. Um, uh, Sylvia, who is, uh, does a lot of work in the port of Charleston. She’s based in Charleston, the holy city, some call it, uh, she’s looking for a logistics specialist to join my team in Charleston, what Sylvia hasn’t mentioned. And she’s, she’s also the queen of jam. Uh, if you ever get, uh, a batch of jam from Sylvia, you’ve done something really nicely. So Sylvia, great to have you here today. All right. So marina, you’re the, you’re the cleanup hitter today? Uh, at least for this question. So what’s one piece of advice you’d give to company leaders or hiring managers,

Marina Rabinek (31:08):

Another sports fall reference. I see. Okay. I see how you are, you know, what Ron and Jermaine were talking about. So I’m just going to say something to rod real quick. Before I answer rod, you have got to check out the cyber futures foundation that is, uh, you know, do you know Leah and okay, I’m going to have to connect you with Leah and, uh, and Paul coming. So Leah’s not her last name is not coming, but, uh, but Leah and Paul, I had them on, on the warrior women Wednesday, uh, show that I run through the military women’s collective page. And they’re very much into cyber and tech, um, and a whole, a whole human cyber initiative is something that Paul goes, uh, and does as well. I really would love to connect you, um, with, with them. Absolutely. And now, Scott, to answer your question, listen, really. I mean, you’ve got, there’s so many things that you can do. You can create military hiring pipelines that are specific to, to military personnel or TCS or TSMs, transport, transitioning service members, right. Or veterans create a, an ERG, an employee resource group within your company where people can find that connection with other people. Like, I feel, I feel so happy to be sitting here with four people. Like we got cheer force, we got army, you know, and you all didn’t put up my go Navy beat army.

Marina Rabinek (32:46):

You didn’t. I saw you skip it. Okay. Don’t know. Don’t think I didn’t see that. But, um, but no, that’s, I just want people to know that they, that they belong there is life after the military, like the military, especially like the army you guys got that the army keeps rolling along song. Right. Y’all know it’s going to keep going, even after your you’re gone. Right. Even after you’ve you’ve left and moved on to something else, it’s still gonna be there going on without you. So no, that, that was an amazing part of your life. And today, you know, I celebrate that. I did 24 years of, of service to my country, you know? And I’m proud of that. Yes. I had to sacrifice, you know, I was away from my family and things like that, but I’m proud of that. And I, and I want other people to know that, that they have a tribe of people that they can always reach out to. Yeah.

Scott Luton (33:50):

I love that. And I think one of the power, most powerful things you shared there is when you exit the military, whether you like it or not, to some degree you’re starting over, right. You’re you, you gotta be ready for that next chapter. And for the employers, Marine was talking about is, is to make sure your veteran engagement approaches are different and they’re based on, on what you’re hearing. And when you’re, when you truly sit down to listen to the veteran community that you’re looking to engage and hire and, and promote you name it. So I love that the voice of the veteran again is gonna be another theme here on, I appreciate all of y’all taking a stab at that question. Okay. What I’d like to do is talk about your initiatives, your company’s projects, you name it, and marina we’ll start, I’ll take a little deeper dive.

Scott Luton (34:38):

You shared things thematically. And to some degree about the new military women’s collective, which we’re really excited about your, I think you’re waiting if I can share you’re waiting on the official 5 0 1 C3, which is, is, is a process to get through. I know, but tell us what does, what does, and so I used to volunteer on a board that was, had the nonprofit designation and gosh, the paperwork and some of the audits and all that stuff. It can be quite a headache. Anyway, that’s enough marina. Tell us about the military. Women’s collective look deeper and, and what it’s going to do, what it does, how it’s going to help.

Marina Rabinek (35:14):

Thank you. First of all, for, for, for asking me that misery women’s collected, like I said, a little earlier is really about, but listening to women, veterans, transitioning service members and active duty women, and knowing that they have a voice and, and bringing that voice forward, because sometimes women in the military can feel a little invisible because it’s, it’s such a huge percentage of, of the military. That is, that is, you know, men. And I just, I want women to know that they have some place to, you know, to, to have that voice heard. And so actually let’s see what’s today, today’s Thursday, right? The 11th. Okay. So Saturday the 20th for anyone that is in the, so Cal San Diego, Riverside county area, I’m having a get together a meetup for military women’s collective and, uh, that’s industry, which was a, uh, which is another nonprofit that I, um, that I volunteer with.

Marina Rabinek (36:20):

We’re having a get together to, you know, to just have that, that connection that we keep talking about. Right. It’s, it’s something that, that just is, is so like, I don’t know, heavy on my soul that, that we just need people to understand that there are there people that are out there that want to mentor. There are people that out there that want to coach, and that’s something that I, that I do all the time. Like I love to be a veteran mentor if people don’t know about Veta Rottie and or American corporate partners, both of them are mentorship. What I’m going to, I just to say mentorship, uh, places I’m, that’s not the word I was looking for, but thank you, resources, mentorship, resources for those that are, that are transitioning out. And I don’t know, I just, I really want, I want those, those women veterans that, that didn’t feel heard while they were in to know that there is someone there for them. And that is, that’s what I, what’s what I am I’m, I’m that listening ear I’m that shoulder

Scott Luton (37:29):

And that, that will undoubtedly fuel their success in this next chapter. Right. Um, uh, the, the support, uh, the folks that can relate, um, you know, confidence builders, for sure. I w we, we w we draw from our networks, uh, in, in a lot of what we do out there professionally. So I love that marina and let us know, so we can celebrate with you when the nonprofit certification comes through. So that’s awesome. Um, and appreciate what you do with vets to ensure we’re gonna touch on them, uh, here, towards, in the state’s conversation. Okay. So rod and Jermaine, we’ve both of, y’all spoken a little bit around project vet, right. And what, um, what that organization does. I want to kind of focus in on this veteran’s bowl. This is, this is really cool. I used to, uh, what you don’t know, um, I’m going to completely nerd out here, but back in the day is me and my brother clay, and my two cousins, Derek and John, when Madden first came out, I think we ran seven Luton football league seasons using the mat, you know, the various earliest stage Madden games. And we kept all of our records on notebooks, all this crazy stuff. I want to have those championships. That, that was hard fought night. My brother, if he’s listening, didn’t want to play. How about that? I’m just kidding. Love you. All right. So Jermaine, just

Rod Lee (38:45):

Saying like, you

Marina Rabinek (38:46):

Throw him under the bus, the bus is like,

Scott Luton (38:50):

I wish, you know, we’re going to try to find those hand kept records. We had some trophies were, it was such a, it was so fun. It was such big nerds, but anyway, Jermaine, um, that this is games these days, as we all know, e-sports, they are mainstream. I mean, folks are professional gamers making big bucks, and I love how you are using the veterans bowl. I believe as a way of engaging the veterans, a better community, and kind of touched on some of the needs, all three of y’all have spoken to, but Hey, that’s enough of me talking Robin stick would start with you. What is the veterans bowl?

Rod Lee (39:23):

Yeah. So it’s exactly what you said. It’s, it’s a, a Madden tournament, uh, that we’re hosting annually. This is our second we’ll be playing on PS4 [inaudible]. And the idea is to focus on mental health and bring in some players from both the veteran and civilian community. We want, we want to build this as big as possible, but the focus is on, on mental health for everyone, and how gaming can assist with that. You know, again, to marinas said exactly what I wanted to say it in terms of losing that community, that tribe. And we’re trying to bring that back. So gamers w we’re a big community, but I’m not sure about veteran gamers. So there are a lot of, uh, new e-sports teams for each one of the branches. And it’s, it’s great to see that and, and using that as a tool with mental health awareness. Uh,

Scott Luton (40:14):

I love it. I’m going to come to you next remain maybe for a little bit more commentary on, I want to share this. Uh, so Dr. Sorrows with us, Dr. Latoya sizer, uh, great to have you here. I love that initiative, and she’s talking to think about the women’s military collective we’ll to share it with her context in California. Hey, love that. Appreciate that Dr. Sizer, thanks for tuning in, uh, Josh was also with us here today. He’s representing and supporting the veterans to tech movement. I love that movement for really smart men out there. All right. So rod kinda set the set of table a bit with the veterans bowl. Jermaine, what else would you add how this is just really cool. I think anybody can is eligible, right?

Jermaine Cohen (40:54):

Absolutely. And again, back to Marina’s point is the reason that we started this entire system are gaining for mental health initiative. It’s essentially what it is. And it had to do with building those communities back up. Like you mentioned earlier, when I got out of the military, one of the things I missed the most was that, uh, that brotherhood, I mean, we’ve all seen those movies, like band of brothers and where you, you just whip these guys for such a long amount of time. And that first group of guys that I was with when I was in the army, like, we, we still have like a group text to this day that, you know, we go back and forth in outside of that, when I got into the civilian workforce, there was none of that, you know what I mean? And so part of the initiative was to figure out how to bridge those gaps. And we did further research, you know, with some Johns Hopkins research actually, uh, confirms that the effects of mental health in gaming, right? Like building these communities for morale building, you know, within these different veteran groups. And so that was essentially, you know, the, the, uh, the goal. And that’s what we’re aiming for.

Scott Luton (42:03):

I love it. Okay. I want to share a couple of links here. So I believe we have got Amanda and Jayda in the private chat. I think we’ve got a project vets link. We’ve got the military women’s collective.org link. And then we also have more to the veterans bowl. Uh, I think we’ve got the main landing page to learn more about the veterans bullets, that what, uh, that one is rod and Jermaine.

Jermaine Cohen (42:25):

Absolutely. And that goes a little bit further and I get this, I want to drop this in there. Cause it’s we partner with this company, uh, award pool, and it allows veterans and whoever to engage and ask them, answer questions and, and earn points and, and also, uh, eventually earn NFTs and even buy in inequities at some point, which is a totally different conversation. But this is the tech part that we want to integrate into what we’re doing.

Scott Luton (42:54):

I got to tell ya, I don’t know why we had to leave just the three button console for they get Genesis. I dominated. I think now we’re at like 27 button.

Marina Rabinek (43:05):

You just dated yourself so bad. That’s like, oh, back in my Texas instruments, you know, like, God,

Scott Luton (43:16):

You can do so many things now. I mean, you see the hot routes back in the day, right? One of the little things you could have a call, a post off a curl, whatever, nowadays, man, you can have like this defensive linemen do this and this blitz from this. I mean, it’s just amazing where we’ve gone. So I love what you are doing. I live off what all three of y’all are doing, but let’s make sure folks, Hey, vet veterans bowl 2021. I think this is this, the second one is that right? Okay. And a little sweetener here. Kevin L. Jackson, one of our favorites around here also us Navy, veteran marina. I used to fly. He used to play, uh, he used to be a Naval aviator amongst other things, a brilliant individual. Um, he and I are going to be live streaming from the championship day. I think December 11th, right? When one month from now that’s the championship, right? Absolutely. I’m going to be able to relive those Luton football league days. Folks watch out. I might have to join myself.

Jermaine Cohen (44:13):

Demolish.

Marina Rabinek (44:15):

I’m curious if there’s like PC ones to Rodan germane because I’m not really in first of all, how did you get a PS five? My first question. And then, okay. And then second. Yeah. Do you have any better PC related? Cause I’m more of a, a PC gamer rather than a, than a, you know, something, one of the other ones X-Box PS, whatever. Right.

Rod Lee (44:38):

Yeah. So, uh, you know, talked about trying to integrate as many people as possible. The problem is, is that a lot of these games don’t support cross, cross platform integrations and whatnot, but there are other games that we want to tackle later this year. One of them being called a duty, a war zone, and they’ve just released final fantasy 14. They’ve uh, they’ve got the new Vanguard and I think that works across all, all platforms. So that’s what we’ll, uh, we’ll look at doing next. Awesome.

Marina Rabinek (45:12):

You’re saying I have to get call of duty. I understand.

Scott Luton (45:16):

Yeah. I only played that during one stretch. I spent, uh, 45 days at Algebar air base in Kuwait. And that was my only time I took Tanya because you had all the off time on your hands. I think we were working 12 at the time. And for that 45 days, I found out just, uh, if I didn’t already know just how useless I was in, in, uh, all the hunting and, and team and all the, you know, sniping and stuff, but, uh, it’s amazing where the industry has come and just how, how you can connect to Marina’s point all y’all’s point, uh, with folks around the world, uh, via, uh, modern day. Okay. So, uh, we’ve got the links

Marina Rabinek (45:58):

One that my husband got me. It’s it’s pretty, isn’t it look at how funny it is. I kept pretty colors anyway. I’m sorry, Scott. I didn’t mean

Scott Luton (46:06):

Good. We’ve got links in the comments. We’ve got links on the banner at the bottom. I want to, before we leave here today, we’re going to make sure folks know how to connect with all of y’all. Uh, but marina, we, we do want to brag about our friends at bets to industry, right? We partner with Brian and the whole team, uh, own our veteran voices programming. So how would you, if you had to explain in a nutshell what bets to industry does and why veterans and, uh, other, even non veterans should go check it out? What, what would you share?

Marina Rabinek (46:35):

Well, this industry’s kind of two-pronged. So what I would say is that it is probably one of the best resource libraries out there for veteran, for veterans and military and spouses and families for resources, for them to, to, to use. And gentlemen, uh, like I said, I’m gonna need to talk offline so we can get the project vet on there. If it isn’t already on there, I’d have to, I’d have to look. But if it’s not, let’s talk about, about getting you on the website. The other part of it is networking events. So that’s, the industry is really well-known for doing virtual networking events, where you do breakout rooms and you’re going to have all these amazing recruiters and veterans service organizations and just, and supporters, transitioning service members, recruiters altogether in one place where they can all learn from one another. They can be educated on different things. Um, we’ve had some amazing guests, uh, guest speakers, keynote speakers, our next one, Jason van camp from warrior rising also from a deliberate discomfort, you know, mission six, zero. This is going to be really amazing. So, and that is going to be on December. Wait a minute. What Saturday is that? December 4th.

Scott Luton (48:06):

December 4th.

Marina Rabinek (48:07):

Okay, good. Right? Yes. December 4th. It is. So for west coasters, it goes 11 to 4:11 AM to 4:00 PM for east coasters. It’s 2:00 PM to 7:00 PM. You do not have to stay the whole time. If you’ve got stuff you need to do on Saturdays, you come and go as you please, but just know that once you come, you’re going to get addicted and you’re going to want to come every single time. And there is specific military spouse mixers that happen at quarterly. We just had the last one on November 6th and it, you know, they happen. Like I said, they haven’t quarterly. So it’s, it’s about giving military members, transitioning service members, veterans, you know, gold star families and spouses. And it’s about giving that whole community hope

Scott Luton (49:05):

Well said. And they do it by the truckload. I mean, it’s amazing all they accomplish Brian and marina and the whole, the whole volunteer leadership team, vets to industry.org, I believe is a URL and the networking events, you know, people swear by, uh, you know, it helps to connect, right? W we all have these blind spots, especially as transitioning veterans. You know, I certainly didn’t know when I transitioned back in oh two, all the things that were out there. And I love the work that vets to industry does in a connecting need with a resource in such a powerful way. So a big thanks to all our friends there, vets to industry.org, Hey, Donald born is whether it’s, Hey, Donald, I hope this finds you. Well, he says, sorry, I’m late. But he is adding project vet.com I guess, to vets, to industry has pretty cool.

Scott Luton (49:56):

Let’s see someone in and folks, when we get this here, it just means you’ve got a little, you haven’t allowed your LinkedIn profile. There’s a little privacy setting. That’s why we’re not sure exactly who shares this, but I love the comments. I’m gonna share it in a way that SU industry is awesome. Their networking events are so necessary. He or she says is helped me tremendously. Marina is absolutely correct. Thank you. And they, yes, December 4th, December 4th. And he, or she says time flies. I stay the entire time. How about that? And that, oh, that’s Yolanda. Yolanda. Appreciate you. Uh, and your comments here today. Okay. So folks, there’s so much more to talk about an hour. Never does justice, but I want to wrap with this. Let’s make sure folks know we’ve got your URL there, uh, on, on constant wraparound, but how can folks connect with you, right. Um, marina, let’s start with you URL beyond your URL. Where should folks connect with the one only marina rabbinic?

Marina Rabinek (50:55):

Ooh. Who the one and only, Hey girl, you know, y’all, this is me. I’m sort of like the teal hail or heroin. All I, I, I give no, you know, what’s, uh, when it comes to like, I’m just, I’m silly. That’s just fine. Um, but if you want to get ahold of me, there is of course the website, like you said, and then LinkedIn, I don’t really use any of the other social medias other than clubhouse. When I do the warrior women, Wednesdays, it’s streams, both to LinkedIn live, you know, like, like you’re doing be a stream yard. And then also we do it on clubhouse at the same time. So those are really the only two places you can find me. I think I’m the only marina rabbinic on LinkedIn.

Scott Luton (51:40):

So I called you the one and only, yeah,

Marina Rabinek (51:42):

Because like, it’s, it’s my husband’s fault. That name is Matt ferry. I was the same name as my, my maiden name. It’s the same name as those, those shoes that we all had to wear Bates. Right. Whenever those baits boots y’all I know you do see rods, like I’m comfortable as hell anyway, but yeah, that’s, that’s really it. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can find me on my, my website and then my email marina dot rabbinic at military women’s collective.org.

Scott Luton (52:13):

Great

Marina Rabinek (52:15):

Email address. Yeah.

Scott Luton (52:16):

Yeah. Wait, wait, make sure you’re tuning and make sure you connect, especially with marina on LinkedIn, she has a wonderful connection. A wonderful follow. I love you. And a colleague did a did something, uh, like a resume session. Um, oh Laurie. Yeah. Lord is great work too.

Marina Rabinek (52:32):

Oh my goodness. Lori. So Lori is, is amazing. She actually helped me with my resume and I’m so thankful to her. I mean, the changes that she made got me, like interviews out the wazoo. I was going to say a different word that I’m glad I didn’t. Yeah, she is fantastic. She just, that was her very first ever stream yard, LinkedIn live. And she was like, marina, can you please come out? Cause high. And I’ve never done this before. And I’m like, hell yeah. At first I can. And yeah. So we’re hoping that she’s going to do that monthly or quarterly, something like that, but I’m really excited for her because she gives so much back to the community. You know, she’s a volunteer, but that’s the industry as well. And yeah. Love Laurie to death. She’s one of my wonder women tribe.

Scott Luton (53:17):

Love it. Well, a lot of good work there. I appreciate you sharing. All right. So rod and Jermaine rod, let’s start with you. How can folks with you project vet veterans bowl, you name it?

Rod Lee (53:28):

Uh, yeah, the easiest way. LinkedIn, of course, we’re going to share all the links for any and everything on LinkedIn and then emails, pretty simple rod@project-v.com. So if you see me on LinkedIn, you should see my email, send me a direct message on LinkedIn and I’ll get you all the information you need.

Scott Luton (53:48):

I love it. Okay. And you might, might be willing to talk a little, uh, university of Texas football

Rod Lee (53:54):

Chest all day and tomorrow.

Scott Luton (53:56):

Okay. All right. Jermaine, same question might be the same answer, but uh, how can folks connect with you?

Jermaine Cohen (54:02):

Uh, LinkedIn, uh, email is very similar to Jermaine at project that it’s project best fit, uh, dot com. And also, um, if you’re in the north Texas area, come check us out. Uh, we have a partnership with the Texas legends. That’s the Dallas Mavericks G league basketball team. And we have tickets for veterans, uh, and we’ll, we’ll even be kind of raffling off court side seats for, you know, for, for veterans each game. And also if you’re a vendor in the area and you want to promote your nonprofit organization, we can get you a table set up to pass out literature and materials. Uh, and we have, uh, a platinum lounge area where you can come and bring your family. So come check us out. We’re we’re, we’re trying to grow and, and, and expand our reach.

Scott Luton (54:50):

I love it. I love it. Uh, we look forward to live streaming again, the championship day, we’re crowning the champion of veterans bowl. So stay tuned for that December 11th marina. Got it.

Marina Rabinek (55:00):

I have a question for Jermaine and Ron are, y’all connected with the Texas veterans commission like Paul, Paul, Julio. And they’re a bunch of,

Rod Lee (55:11):

Uh, I’m connected with Christina. Mortel, we’re actually trying to do some of evangelizing through them. Uh, another podcast with them. They have a podcast as well. So Texas veterans commission has been, you know, uh, helpful from day one, uh, prior to project vet. So I can’t thank them

Jermaine Cohen (55:27):

And don’t forget to sign up on our on our widget they’ll we’re pull link, uh, sign up for the tournament there.

Scott Luton (55:34):

Awesome. And we got that in the show notes, uh, and, and especially connect with rod and remain on LinkedIn as well and marina. All right, folks, the hour has flown past. It is wonderful to reconnect with each of y’all. I know we gotta, we gotta go do some work now, marina, right. But folks a be sure to connect with each of these folks. One big, thanks to Rodley and Jermaine Cohen, both with project vet and marina rabbinic with the military. Women’s collective great conversation. Hope y’all have a wonderful rest of your week to our listeners, whether you’re listening to this or watching a live stream or listening to the podcast replay, make sure you connect with rod marina and Jermaine in their respective initiatives, uh, across social or at their URL. Hey, be sure to, if you liked this conversation, be sure to find veteran voices, wherever you get your podcasts from subscribes, you’ll miss a single thing, but most importantly, folks as a, I’m not speaking for our, all of our veterans here, speaking just for me, we appreciate your gratitude, but more importantly, deeds not words. Take action, right? A veteran community needs your help, uh, while they’re serving in, in special, after they serve, find a way to support the veteran community really appreciate. Everybody’s great kind words today. Uh, we’re gonna start on for now. Big, thanks to Jayda, Amanda and Allie behind the scenes helping to make production happen. Scott Luton signing off for the supply chain, our team do good. Give forward, be the changes needed. And on that note, we’ll see you next time. Right back here on supply chain now. Thanks for budding.