Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
Eric Brown’s Green Beret Approach to Business Success
In this inspiring episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero welcomes Eric Brown, a retired Green Beret and founder of Imperio Consulting, to discuss his remarkable journey from a 25-year career in Special Forces to becoming a successful entrepreneur. Eric opens up about the challenges of transitioning to civilian life, the power of networking, and the importance of mentorship in building a business.
Eric shares insights from his book, The Green Beret Approach, which outlines how military leadership principles can drive success in entrepreneurship. With a focus on personal development, wellness, and maintaining a positive mindset, this episode is packed with actionable advice for veterans and anyone looking to turn their military experience into a thriving career.
Join the conversation to learn how to turn your military expertise into business success! Don’t forget to follow, share, like, and subscribe on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
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Chapters
00:00 Transitioning from Military to Civilian Life
06:02 Overcoming Challenges in Entrepreneurship
12:00 Networking and Learning from Others
17:57 Finding Purpose After Service
24:06 The Importance of Mentorship
29:51 Finding Wins in Entrepreneurship
35:49 The Green Beret Approach to Leadership
40:58 Connecting with Eric and Imperial Consulting
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Follow Eric on LinkedIn, on social media and check out Imperio Consulting today!
LinkedIn: Eric Brown
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-brown-imperio/
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YouTube: @imperio-consulting
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Instagram: imperiogreenberet
https://www.instagram.com/imperiogreenberet/
Website: imperio-consulting.com
https://www.imperio-consulting.com/
Produced by Security Halt Media
Security Odd Podcast. Let's go the only podcast that's purpose-built from the ground up to support you Not just you, but the wider audience, everybody. Authentic, impactful and insightful conversations that serve a purpose to help you. And the quality has gone up. It's decent and it's hosted by me, danny Caballero. It's decent. It's hosted by me, denny Caballero. Eric Brown welcome. How are you?
Speaker 2:doing today man Good. How are you, denny?
Speaker 1:Doing well, brother, it's good to have you on. When it comes to the world of pivoting from the military to civilian world, it's great to see individuals such as yourself that have gone off and, uh, you know, gone into the unknown, not settled for just, uh, the mediocre existence, but gone on to do some daring and, uh, sometimes scary things. Uh, you know, you, uh, you definitely set the standard for going after big things and getting it done. Got a book that just came out a few months back and, uh, when we talked briefly over email, you know you're uh redesigned your website, imperial Consulting. Moving on to some great things, how are you doing, man? What's Eric up to today?
Speaker 2:Well, first I appreciate you having me on your show man. I've seen it grow over the past year. You're doing great things and getting good information out there for folks. It's always good to have positive vibes coming out in the Internet space, because it's not always positive out there.
Speaker 1:No, it is not.
Speaker 2:Appreciate what you're doing. For myself, you know, I transitioned out of the Special Forces about two years ago now. Uh went on to undertake of starting up Imperial Consulting uh, where we pair Green Berets with the private sector to help them uh overcome their challenges and achieve success. Very similar to what you and I did back in the in our days on the uh Green Berets and our teams Uh, and today I'm just trying to help as many people as we can uh and show how we can work by, with and through them and achieve what they're trying to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. I often hear guys undersell themselves and they, they get into this, this pit of disparity when it comes to transition. They say to themselves and it becomes this mantra they repeat to themselves I didn't do anything big enough, I wasn't that. They repeat to themselves I didn't do anything big enough, I wasn't that great of a leader, I don't have anything to offer the civilian world. I'm going to struggle, it's going to be horrible, but there's a lot of things that we learned as Green Berets in the military, as senior NCOs, as warrant officers, officers that do translate into the civilian world. And I kind of want to dive into your journey. As you were going through your transition, did you always know that you were going to go into this space, or was it something that took a little bit of poking and developing? And you know, as we like to say, maybe you have to take a security halt, take a knee, to figure out what you were going to venture into.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure, definitely didn't see myself stopping after 25 years and special forces and starting my own company. I've always been an entrepreneur, did a lot of different things, especially in the real estate sector, which essentially started that entrepreneurial itch of what to do. Started that entrepreneurial itch of what to do. But really, what helped me make my decision is going through the Honor Foundation, a nonprofit that helps specifically special operations, soldiers figure out what they're going to do afterwards. Right, because it's lacking what's available to us in the community, no matter what service, as you transition back into the private sector. Honor Foundation had a great program Open your eyes up about what's out there, yeah, and especially with the mentor that you get with that program, right? So I got paired up with a great guy named Guy Hart, ceo of Blessed Out the Partners, to help me navigate and figure out. You know, what am I going to do with the skill sets I have? And you're right, a lot of people uh, hey, I don't have anything to do in the private sector, I have no idea. Uh, I always joke around like, hey, we're the most committed people on the planet. We went in at 18 years old, signed up on the dotted line and stayed 25 years and it's hard to flip that switch off because, uh, yeah, and there's nothing wrong with that. You just got to find your fit, find your passion. As long as you're doing what you love to do and is doing good in the world, that's where you need to be at.
Speaker 2:So, really, for me it came into just looking into what I like to do and where I can add value through my time within the Green Berets and that I always found I liked helping other folks. I really helped figuring out different challenges and I get a lot of self fulfillment from the accomplishments of others. Right, cause, by the time you get off a team, your only job is is to make sure the teams keep being successful. Right, only job is is to make sure the teams keep being successful, right, yeah, so that's how, coming out of starting imperio because everyone says they're an expert, right, there's quite a few special operators out there, uh, and other professions saying they're expert in something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, and it's a tall feat to say. But I'll look at what do we do really well and what sets us apart than everyone else. We work on small, elite teams and we did that our whole life and every time we left uh the team room to go on a mission, it was always something different. It wasn't the same thing all the time Uh. So you gotta always adapt uh and overcome, and you know work with others, so that's what we do with uh, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's it's we we have to understand too. Like, being an entrepreneur doesn't always come with a very easy to follow instructions manual. There's there's, a lot of unknowns and a lot of variables, which we tend to forget. That's the environment we work with. That's the environment that we're always found ourselves in. We know. Very rarely do you go on a mission where everything's just absolutely developed for you and in fact I will. I will say this it's, it's not the standard, and you never got, no one ever handed you the mission Well planned, with everything done. You had to develop everything, but for some reason, guys hear the word entrepreneur A lot of times, they think, oh no, that's way too much. When you first started pulling that string, did you? Did you see it as like, okay, this is what I'm cut for? Or did you have a lot of fears as well?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm no doubt. Uh, you got the fear right. Uh, cause if anyone thinks they're gonna, you know that's always there's a meme about it, I'm sure all over Instagram and whatever other platform. You know I'm going to go to work for myself, so you know I can set my own hours and do what I want. And then you find out you work seven days a week, you know, and the work never stops.
Speaker 2:Um, but yeah, when I looked at, I like how you put that right. Every mission you got was always something different. That I like how you put that right. Every mission you got was always something different. And what was the most successful or the most fulfilling missions you had within your teams are the ones that you fought for. You developed and made them your own right, that's the best.
Speaker 2:And, uh, that's how we're, I think, programmed as green braids is like hey, don't tell me how to do it, just tell me what needs to get done, I'll figure it out. And and then that's the cool thing about being an entrepreneur there's no one way to do anything. And it's always a challenge. Right, we strive off overcoming challenge and that's why you know, every day is something different, right, it's always.
Speaker 2:I can always laugh at my daughter. Ask, hey, what'd you do today? And it's like I can never. Always laugh at my daughter. Ask, hey, what'd you do today? And it's like I don't know over my computer and just try to make something happen. Uh, cause, uh, unless you do it and you know, no one else is going to do it, uh, so I really, I really enjoy that, and there's always a new, new challenge to overcome. Uh, but it is. It is a scary thing, right, because you're taking that freedom and uh, but with that, you know you have to set your own path and there's no one there's no one there to uh pay the bills if you're not successful. I do miss being on sf team or in in the army. Uh, when I run out of budget in the army, I was asked for more money and I always got it. Uh, I don't you know if there's some theory out there that can re-up my bank account.
Speaker 2:I always appreciate it. But yeah, you always ask for my money and the government. You get it Out here in the world not so much.
Speaker 1:No, there's. Yeah, the budget isn't as forgiving in the subventing world, I tell people.
Speaker 2:I can do whatever I want. I went from having the army as my master, telling me what I can do and what I can't do, to now the bank account tells me what I can do and can't do. Not necessarily can't. It just limits how fast I can do things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's funny, we don't hear enough of the pain, the pain points we see in it, in that social media. Again, it's it's a wonderful thing to getting exposure and seeing how other people have done uh, great, impossible things, but it always comes with the, the varnished look of like yeah, I was just. It looks like you were just successful. From the very beginning, I had this idea, had this concept, and now look at me 17 million followers and the business is thriving. But the reality is it's not that easy. It takes a lot of work and with your initial idea, how long was it before, from start to finish, before you had this like, oh shit.
Speaker 2:Like like here's the income, here's, here's the revenue, I've got something going I mean, I'm still pushing to have that feeling of I got it made. Uh, I don't think I'll ever have that uh, but I would say, going into um 2025, we've definitely grown over. I mean, uh, as you say, people think it just happens overnight. I mean, we're going on being four years old and I still feel like it's almost the first year. Yeah, you know, yeah, I think it just when you finally figure out why you have the offer and your value added and how you can get that to the people, I think that's your uh, one of your goals there. Uh, and if you're doing good things and you have something that people want, it'll happen. You just gotta keep keep driving for it and uh, and not quit Um. But you're right, the overnight success you see, an overnight success is 15 years in the making.
Speaker 1:Um, so frigging true, yeah, you see, an overnight success is 15 years in the making um so freaking, true, yeah, because I have my uh.
Speaker 2:Sorry to interrupt you, but thinking about, uh, uh, my friend diego, who is uh with the trident approach uh former navy seal.
Speaker 2:I remember when I was starting uh, imperio, I was like man, I'm gonna have this figured out. You know, in no time I'm gonna have this and that. And he's like homeboy, it's going to take you at least three to six years to figure out what to turn lights on, as he was six years into the journey I think he was. He was super right, still just figuring it out and and. But, like I said, just don't quit. Be value added. Do the right thing and good things will happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's. It's understanding the space that you're operating into. It's a lot of people don't don't realize that, yes, you have a great idea and you have a great concept, but you have to open up the aperture. Look at your customer base, look who you're working for, look who you're trying to go after and see who's already out there, which means you might have to have those again something that's great from the Honor Foundation those virtual cups of coffee. Be willing to be a constant learner. Be willing to reach out to people. I've realized in this endeavor more often than not, like if you reach out to somebody when you have a question where you want to know something, you want to learn, reach out to other human beings. Be willing to connect. It's not that scary and people are willing to connect with you and give you some of their lessons learned.
Speaker 2:Yeah, especially in a transition period. I tell people, in a transition period, that is your time when anyone in the world will pretty much talk to you Because you're transitioning, you're trying to learn new. Uh, because you're transitioning, you're trying to learn new things. Uh, but you're right, if you want to do something, find somebody that's already doing it and and and talk to them and you might be yep, that is what I wanted to do. Or, oh man, no, that is not what I thought that was. Um, there's just out there. You got to talk to folks and during that transition period it's great. I'll tell you after being out for a little while.
Speaker 2:It takes a little bit more to get people on the phone. They actually talk about things like that, especially when you own a business, cause they think you're trying to, even if you're not trying to sell them something, they think you're trying to sell something. But, yeah, my people are great for the most part and if you call them like, hey, I want to do this, how'd you do it, they'll help you out. I've not turned down a person yet that's reached out to me via whatever platform to ask my thoughts on something, be it good or bad, and I'll tell them hey, if you're going into the space of trying to be a consultant, one figure out what kind of consultant you want to be, because that's like trying to say you want to be in the army with our 200 and some jobs I don't even know how many different types of consultants there are, so you might have to figure that one out first and just see what's out there.
Speaker 1:Let's dive into that, because that's a space where it's almost like that's a word that somebody hangs on to right as they're going out. It's like I'll just be a consultant, uh. And it's like, oh yeah, I heard about this guy. He works for this company, deloitte. I'll just be a consultant. It's like, hey, guy, pause, pump the brakes. There's a little bit more to it. Like what got you excited about the consultancy space? Like what was the thing that you were like okay, this is because we tend to think that it's such an easy thing. You see the headlines on LinkedIn, for example, and you see people that you may have served with they're doing that. You're like, ah, how hard could it be? And I would imagine that there is. There is some work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely Well work one. You know. Like I said, figure out what you're going to be and what you're especially in change management leadership, whatever it's going to be. I was drawn to it because I don't like doing the same thing over and over and over. I like new challenges, new problems, new ideas, and that's what you get. Every new client is a new challenge and something to help them figure out. Uh, so that's what drew me to the space and also, uh, starting my own company gave me the you know the leeway to attack it how I wanted to. Yeah, I didn't want to go from big army into the next big corporation, uh, just to follow into however they do it. I wanted to do it. You know the way uh, we do it here at imperio. So that's what was the big draw.
Speaker 1:And always just talking to different folks and helping different people, uh, but whatever their, their challenge is, because there's always something different yeah, in the army we are gifted and blessed with five million acronyms, uh frameworks to solve, you know, impossible problems in your day-to-day life. Have you been able to take some of those concepts and frameworks and sort of retool them, reshape them to help you work with these giant civilian customers?
Speaker 2:uh, we're still working to get a giant.
Speaker 2:So let's not say we're the giants yet but yeah, man, if you look at what we did, you know we work a lot in the Army, especially in Special Forces, on leadership and team development. How can you be a better leader? What I found in the private sector they don't. They focus more on how well you can do your job. Yeah, uh, and if you really get your job, they default you'll be a good leader, which is not necessarily you know, true, um, but on where we look at you look at, uh, the military decision making process, mbmp.
Speaker 2:Uh, we definitely take things out of that to translate into the similar, the private sector's SWOT, with the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats. But we did that and we take from our hard-earned experience through all our deployments and years working not only on teams, but people forget we also have to run the organization. So we take all those lessons learned and that's why we put it into the Green Beret approach of working by, with and through, and we have our own four-step processes that you can actually remember and apply to every day of where we, you know, tell folks and identify your challenge right, identify what you're trying to solve for, define your environment of what entails that and define your risk and define a way forward. There's a lot of sub-steps underneath that, but just those four steps right there. If you frame it that way, it's a really good starting point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it speaks to. I mean. All those are just leadership. That's a really good starting point. Yeah, and it speaks to. I mean. All those are just leadership. That's just mentorship. That's everything that you have developed over 25 years of service. You've cultivated this over and over and over again and I would imagine, and feel free to let me know, did this sort of help you in your transition, being able to dive into something that was already uniquely part of who you were? Did it help you sort of like bypass the identity, the loss of purpose, loss of mission, because it was always within you and you've rebuilt it and reinculcated to the fact that it's like this is who I am, I'm a leader, I'm a consultant now, but it's still just at the end of the day, it's still Eric. Did it help you at all with those issues that a lot of us see ourselves falling on the wayward side dealing with?
Speaker 2:No, no, a hundred percent. If you're losing your identity, right, because you said you did that job for, I'd say, two decades on a green beret, right, every day you get up, you talk to the teams and then, if, if, no one's told anyone a day after you retire, you're not that anymore. They're not going to call you on the phone. It's a big machine and it keeps moving. The second you step away from it.
Speaker 2:What you have to figure out is, like you said, what made you who you are, and that is who you are the finding the purpose. I found my purpose by continuing to help others, right? So I put all my focus and energy into how do I build Imperial to help other folks. So that's where I found my purpose. But, yeah, for a little bit, after getting out, man, it's really hard of being down and out and be like, ah, man, what am I going to do now? You know, is that all I ever were going to be? What's my next success? Right? And then you still get your.
Speaker 2:Most obviously, when you get out, you got some kind of family to take care of, some kind of, you know, kids and this, that and the other. So you just got to figure it out. So my biggest advice from that would yeah, find what drives you, uh, and then just pour it into it and good things will come from it. And don't disconnect from um, your, your small circle there, right, keep talking to them, uh, stay in touch. But also, in the same breath, uh don't limit yourself to that, that one circle that you've already known, right, cause we can sit around and talk about how great we were for the end of time. Every weekend, you could go to the barbecue and hang out with a bunch of team guys and we'll have all these great stories and we'll keep telling them and we're awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you're not. You know you need a little bit of growth from that. So get out there and meet new people that do different things, and just you're learning a lot more from that. Uh, and that helps a lot, right, because you're like you don't know what you don't know. So it's like you're getting out there and, um, keep trying to meet new people and learn new things that's so true man that it's.
Speaker 1:I think one of the biggest things, like we need to realize, is anybody that's pivoting out of the military and going into the great and scary civilian world is you have to establish a network. It can include people that are still in it, it can include some of your older friends, but you have to be willing to get involved in your local community. You have to be willing to get outside and get into that place of being vulnerable and meeting new people, because those are going to be your best friends. They're going to have access and placement to resources that you're going to need. Building something from the ground up is not easy and there are millions of people out there that didn't serve that. They went into this and they've done it and they've got so many insights and lessons learned.
Speaker 1:And what are we as Green Berets or service members? But lifelong learners. We have to be willing to do that PDSS of going into your local community and sitting down for a cup of coffee and saying, hey, man, you've been a leader within the local community, you've started several businesses. Can I just bug you for a cup of coffee and get some insight? Because it's not always easy and we don't have all the answers. I know for a lot of us we tend to think we have all the answers, but those guys and gals are out there that built those businesses from the ground up. They have a lot of valuable insight and in Northwest Florida there are so many people that are just absolutely willing to just sit down with you over breakfast, over a coffee, and just give you everything, nearly hand you the keys of the kingdom when it comes to building a small business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it goes back to how we what are we as Green Berets? You know? We go out and work with the people and figure it out by with and through. And hey, they do it, not the. Don't do it our way. Let's see how you do it and we'll just go from there. Why doesn't that? That translates back into when you get out of the Army. You're going into your new way of life. Find the people that are doing it, see how they do it. You'll pick up some things that'll apply to you. Other things won't Take the good and just keep moving, man.
Speaker 2:Just keep talking to people and I think that's one thing that sets us apart as Green Berets is because if you didn't figure it out on a team and you didn't stay on a team very long, your network's super important and you're not gonna go to another country and tell people how how to do what they do oh yeah, right. So once you get over yourself and can do that in your own uh private life, uh it'll go really well for you yeah yeah, because I thought I had all the answers when I got out, for sure, yeah, we, a lot of us tend to do.
Speaker 1:When you, uh, when you started going through and building out your, your business plan, what are, what were, some of the other resources to utilize? I know we both benefited greatly from the honor foundation. Uh, and if you go to episode description once this goes on live, you'll see a link there. I highly recommend it because I know how valuable and how just powerful it is to go through that program. It really, really truly helped me. It's helped Eric. So please, once you're done listening to this, or even now, just pause, go to the episode description, click the link and check out the Honor Foundation. But there are so many other resources out there. Did you find yourself utilizing anything in the local area or online to help you with, you know, becoming an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, um, online, uh, like you said, mentioned before on LinkedIn, of looking at what other people are doing. Uh, I rely heavily on finding a mentor Right. So, and I have both of both worlds right, I'm a mentor, a guy heart in the private sector, you know, revealing to him like hey, what I'm trying to do.
Speaker 2:And then aaron bush, who I worked with, and no, no way this is right, yeah, still a mentor and still connected of, uh, you know, just balancing stuff off them. So, uh, one big thing when you're getting out, find yourself a mentor or two or three that you can bring ideas off of and get you know real feedback, not sugar-coated feedback, uh, because sometimes you'll have bad ideas and it's better to work that out before you run headlong into something. And I found some success right of starting off there in Northwest Florida, in Icefield, of working in the local community and going to different business owners and talking to them and those things know and those things, and getting out there and if you can find events to go to, be it a trade show or something that's involved in what you want to do, go out there and see it man, see it firsthand, and you'll get a lot from that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. It's important to remember that no matter how big the dream is, how scary it seems, it's doable. You can. With the right resources, with the right attitude, mentality, you can accomplish this dream of being a small business owner. You can do it, and I think it's very well suited for our service members, especially our Green Berets. So I always tell people I'd be willing to look at every possible opportunity. Yes, getting a job right after you get out is very important, but don't discount maybe going into it, into your own business, creating something from the ground up. But it does come with some heavy work. It does come come with some stressors and we have to talk about the things we can do in order to maintain a good headspace, because I would imagine that there were probably a lot of late nights and a lot of uh episodes of eric being very frustrated yeah, man still are still, are man it's like, uh, I tell people it's like a roller coaster, it's like things are going great and then, oh my, what happened?
Speaker 2:And it keeps going up and down. But yeah, as long as there's more good coming at me than bad, then I'm all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what are some things that you lean on to this day to help keep you in that right mindset?
Speaker 2:Just make sure keeping the right mindset is, just keep looking inward on myself to make sure what I'm doing is it's value added and it's positive. Right, make sure it's out there and it has a purpose. Uh, more so than just bringing a paycheck in. Right, obviously we're capitalists and we we have to make money to provide for ourselves and we want, like you know, higher standard living. Right, you want your kid to be better off than what you are. Right, keep building up in life, but find some purpose that underneath. That is what we call a double bottom line. Right, what you're doing on top to make the money.
Speaker 2:But what's the goodness, the foundation and the positive and the good that you're putting back into the world? Yeah, the positive and the good that you're putting back into the world. For me, keeping around it, you know, I keep my network of uh small friends to keep bouncing off them and talking to them. Um, that's, that's the main thing I do is make sure I'm uh being back and trying to stay positive and uh, take care of yourself, man, make sure you, make sure you go to doc and everything you're supposed to do, uh, cause you can lose focus on that real quick.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one of the things that's really biting all of us in the ass. Is that the staying healthy, staying fit? Um, cause, we, we all do it. I did it.
Speaker 1:As soon as you get out, you sort of lick your wounds, you, you start getting your VA appointments and you know, working out falls to the wayside. You stop working out, you stop being active, and then everything else kind of takes a hit too. I didn't realize it until, you know, I got to the point where I'm like, oh wait, like I'm prioritizing everything else but my physical well-being, I'm prioritizing everything else but my fitness. And it really takes having that green beret or that friend that says, hey, man, let's get back in the gym, let's get back to working out. And we have a mutual friend.
Speaker 1:I'm going to give a shout out to Terry Wilson, because it really does take having that friend that's willing to say, hey, man, let's get back to the gym, let's get back to eating healthy, let's get back to feeling good. Cause when you feel better, you actually put a little more effort into what you're doing. And uh, dude, it took me sitting down with Terry and and lining out like, hey, when are you going to sleep again? Like, what times are you going to sleep? It's like, fuck, you're right, like I, I haven't been going to sleep on time, I haven't been eating right, I haven't been working out and uh, I mean, what better friend to have in that space and somebody lives, lives and breathes it. Man, terry gets after it every single day, but the the reason why he's able to do that is because he prioritizes his sleep. He prioritizes, uh, being able to eat and that's like again, uh, that's one of the great things of being plugged into your green beret network, or you're just your veteran network, your friends.
Speaker 2:Uh, because man, you can do it anytime you want.
Speaker 2:You don't have to do it at five o'clock in the morning yes, you can do it eight o'clock at night if you want to, uh, and if it's not a gym, uh, it could be outside hiking, it could be riding a bike, whatever, just you know and be active, right, and it's a good time to let off some of that stress and clear your head. And whatever it is right, whatever it is that gets you active, gets you moving. Just picking up heavy things and putting it back down Awesome. Just running really fast or running really slow outside Awesome, just do something. Just running really fast or running really slow outside Awesome, just do something, cause you get this routine of just staring at problems all day.
Speaker 1:It'll get get to you after a while. Oh, dude, a hundred percent man, like it can get. Uh, it can get really depressing really fast If you let it, if you let it, if you focus on all the bad. That's why I tell people that are in the space I think there's, especially if you're by yourself there's a lot of individuals out there that are doing something where there isn't a huge team, where maybe it's just you or one other person, and it's understanding that you have to have, before you close out the lights in the office, before you end it for the day, you have to have a win, even if it's you checked your emails and you knocked them down from 100 down to 50, you got to give yourself a win for the day.
Speaker 1:You're doing something that doesn't come often enough with instructions. Being willing to give yourself that checklist. That includes at least saying like, hey, I had one win today, or two wins. Leave your office with a win. Don't go into the next day or don't go into bed thinking that you're a failure as an entrepreneur. Like dude, you're doing something that requires a lot of freaking work and oftentimes you don't have an executive assistant. You don't have somebody to make the phone calls, it's just you, like, when you're in those hard days, eric, what are some of the things that you constantly reflect on to keep you moving forward?
Speaker 2:One is a little tongue in cheek. I always think, no matter how bad it gets, no one's shooting at me. So true, as I'm driving my car down the road, I don't have to worry about it blowing up on an IED. But yeah, so, no matter how bad it gets, no one's shooting at me. So you figure it out right. Uh, take a breath. Uh, step back, dissect the you know that challenges whatever's in front of you to try to figure it out. And if you need help, don't be scared to ask for help, like somebody will give you their either good two cents or bad two cents, but it'll get your head right.
Speaker 2:I did that I'm believe it or not, yesterday of trying to figure out a a problem. I called another green, former green, beret, jesse drake uh, who's doing in a different space than I'm at? And I'm like, hey, man, how are you doing it in your space? How are you doing x? He's like, well, I do it like this. I was like, man, that's kind of how I'm doing it. Oh, okay, I am doing it the right way.
Speaker 2:Well, well, nevermind then, Good to go, but just getting that check right, finding somebody and just calling me, how do you do this? All right, cool, cause I found a lot of times you don't think you're doing the right things but you are, but there's no one there to tell you you're doing it right, right, and a lot of us are like too proud or whatever it is to ask of us, are like too proud or whatever it is to ask. Uh, it just takes time, right, we're, we're used to, you know, in the military, if you get a mission plan for it, prep for it, execute next mission and out here in the our space. Now it just takes a little longer for things to to move along, uh, so I just gotta be happy, like you said, get, get those small wins until they add up to the big one that's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, you're the GFC man and I tell guys all the times okay, maybe you didn't have that rotation where you were a team sergeant, maybe you didn't get that, that feeling like you had the ball. You're making the calls, but now you are. Now that's, you're the guy in charge. But the guy in charge has a lot of mentors. The guy in charge has a lot of people that he leans on for support. Be willing to be that guy also means you have to be willing to ask for help. Be willing to go online and search for those courses.
Speaker 1:Syracuse University has an entrepreneurial course. There are grants you can use for startup funds. You don't have to open a high interest rate credit card to launch your business. You don't have to. But when we are looking inward, when we're only focused on just us and our own thought process, we only see few opportunities. Be willing to open up the aperture. Be willing to reach out to people who've done it before you, and you'll find out that there are programs that, hey, you can get. You know you can get funding, you can get resources. You are not alone in this. Now more than ever, it's a great time to be a business owner If you're willing to take on the work and you're excited about doing something that has a lot of ambiguity in it, yeah, I mean you, and you have to start.
Speaker 2:You know the next new thing, man? It's a big push right now of uh, buying into existing businesses. Yeah, yeah, Look at the big, sexy ones, Look at the ones that are always there. They'll always make money. Plumbing Air, uh, HVAC companies, your plumbing companies, um, HVAC companies, your plumbing companies, those type of things. They're not going anywhere. And the folks that are twilighting out, some of them don't have families they can give it over to or they just don't want to deal with it anymore. So it's an opportunity to, if you wanted to be a business owner, step into an existing business and into a space, figure it out. So I mean, you can start from scratch. There's nothing wrong with that. Awesome, do it. But there's other opportunities out there, too where you can step into existing businesses and do it that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, that's something that's great. I'm seeing that there's a few Green Berets that are getting out and they're doing exactly what you just said they're going into HVAC, they're going into HVAC, they're going into you know, they're putting together a team and buying a company that is that's being ran by somebody that wants to get out, that wants to retire. And you're right, like, not a lot of people want to be a plumber but not a lot of people know how to unclog their own pipes, how to do their own plumbing.
Speaker 2:And you don't have to be the plumber, you just have to be the guy that can run run the plumbers exactly. You know when you're uh the sf team leader. He doesn't know how to. You know, he's not the same as the 18 bravo weapon sergeant or the 18 charlie engineer, but he's a leader, he can manage those folks. So there's nothing you can't. Uh, you might have a little bit of knowledge about a space. If you can manage people and and uh be able to think through problems and overcome them, hey, get out there absolutely now, before we run out of time.
Speaker 1:I do want to dive into your book, man, the green beret approach. Uh, that is. It's something I always tell guys like don't discount what you've learned throughout your especially our senior warrant officers and senior NCOs. Like you guys have done a shitload in the past 20 years. You guys were getting after it and you've developed an understanding and framework for how to make highly successful teams. We always focus on the general officers. We always focus on those larger than life personalities and yes, that they can be credited for a lot of wins personalities and yes, they can be credited for a lot of wins. But on the ground, where it really matters, it's those tactical level leaders that did so much and we're not hearing their stories and we're not hearing their lessons learned. So when I see somebody like yourself that writes a book that gives somebody a practical guide for leadership and how to go after things, I definitely want to hear about it. When, how did you? When did this first come into fruition?
Speaker 2:When did you think to yourself like, okay, I'm going to write this book? Uh, it came to and you know, you're, you're out there and you're, you're doing things. And uh, mine came down to a couple of other folks in my close personal space put out their own books and I was like, man, I'm lazy and why, why haven't I done that yet when I can? And I reached out to a Greenbrae, way before us that is an author and very successful author. I was like, hey, how did you, how did you write a book? Man? He's like hey, did you write a book? Man? He's like, hey, one word at a time. Uh, and I took that.
Speaker 2:I was like all right, and wrote a little bit by a little bit, meant to turn into something. Uh, you know, what are you gonna write a book about? I was like, well, uh, people try to make everything super complex, so let's just do something. You know, practical approach, leadership of going into those, um, the values that we preach here in period of simplicity, adapt, adaptability and collaboration, and just go through that, share that and put some aspects of you know what we did in Special Forces and then some examples of business that ties together to give you know some kind of framework out there for folks to look at. So, yeah, man, it's a thing to for me an accomplishment to to do it. Uh, it's a little while, but you know, having to do it, it's out there and, um, it helps too when, uh, you're out there with a new client of like, hey, you know, yeah, all this is in your head. Well, it's also in his book and you have a copy of it.
Speaker 2:Like, uh, so uh, and right now we're in the process of um adapting. We have a a virtual platform where we do one-on-one consulting no way uh, but we're also looking of doing the um, a full sequence of uh, a leadership, uh. Course that'll tie into a virtual and in-person thing. So uh, that came out of the book. So that is, I appreciate you bringing it up and then go out there on Amazon and check it out.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Tell your kids you got a book on Amazon whether it's good book or bad book Got one.
Speaker 1:And the thing that I love too, it's it's not a book, where it's like, you know, oftentimes, and and we see it. I look back to the guys like John Stryker Meyer, the it. I look back to the guys like John Stryker Meyer, the guys that wrote stories about SOG. Those books, those stories got a lot of us interested in becoming a special operations warrior. Those books, those are great. But we need books that can be digested to help others within the business space. Help others when they're trying to understand how can I become a better leader.
Speaker 1:The SOG is great for influencing and helping us create the next generation of warriors. But you're not going to walk away with leadership principles. You're not going to walk away with ideas on how I can be a better manager. And with your book, it's very much that it's giving somebody ideas and a framework. Okay, I can do something better today that will help me and my organization be better and more profitable and that, like you said earlier, that ties in perfectly with Imperial. That ties in perfectly being able to give that that perspective customer. But hey, look like you want to get with us, like here's what we're about, here's a book and that's a perfect tool for that.
Speaker 2:We worry about that too. A lot of folks in the space are very theoretical and preach hey, all this really high level stuff that's not really like applicable that day, whereas we take more of an approach of using military language, a more tactical approach of like, hey, what are you doing? All right, let's look at it. All right, now take these steps and now you can go execute a solution. So we tell folks you work with us Wednesday, thursday and Friday. You can put into action what you learn on Monday, so getting after it and trying to come up with a solution that's executable as quickly as we can Not saying it's not, you can't still uh, tackle complex problems, but uh, you gotta get the ball moving. So that's how we look at it. Right, you can't, you can't finish something if you don't start something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you can't wait. Uh, two to three weeks then implement something you know People want, something they can start working on like right now Real tools that help and give and bring about real solutions. If people want to work with you, eric, where can they go and where can we find out more about your company?
Speaker 2:Best place now is the website at imperio-consultingcom. We got some of our success stories, um. We got some our success stories in there, what we do, how we do it, um, and you can get in touch with us there. Uh, the other main space um really active on is LinkedIn, whether the own personal page or the Imperial page. Uh, reach out and we'll get with you. You know we do everything from uh personality assessments like the hogan assessment, oh, nice neo inventory, one-on-one consulting, in person, virtual, whatever you need.
Speaker 1:We got a solution for it that's outstanding and do you guys have uh any additional social media uh assets?
Speaker 2:uh, yeah, but we're not successful like you on a man, but uh, we're figuring it out. The uh there's, there's some you know, out there on instagram and uh, x, uh, but still figuring out how to be in that space. That uh doesn't match what is normally, normally there perfect.
Speaker 1:Well, if you guys pause, go to episode description. You'll see all those links there. Please reach out to Eric. I'm telling you right now, if you go on LinkedIn and hit him up, he will respond back. There'll be a link to his LinkedIn and to Imperial's LinkedIn on the episode description. So please, take a moment and, as always, please, please, please. As soon as the episode drops, share it with your friends, share it with any individuals that might see added value. Work with Eric, because I'm telling you right now, he will not only improve your ability to be a better leader, but your organization. Eric, I can't thank you enough for being here, brother, and for being an amazing role model to all of us who are out there navigating the murky waters of being an entrepreneur man.
Speaker 2:No, I appreciate it. Thank you so much and keep doing good things man.
Speaker 1:No, I appreciate it. Thanks so much. And uh, keep doing good things, man. Thanks so much, Absolutely yeah, and to all y'all listening, thank you for tuning in and we'll see you all next time. Till then, take care. Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to like, follow, share, subscribe and review us on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to support us, head on over to buymeacoffeecom. Forward slash SecHawk podcast, Buy us a coffee, Connect with us on Instagram X or TikTok and share your thoughts or questions about today's episode. You can also visit securityhawkcom for exclusive content, resources and updates. And remember we get through this together. If you're still listening, the episode's over. Yeah, there's no more Tune in tomorrow or next week.
