In this episode, your host Grant Vermeer speaks with United States Marine Corps officer Jon Bangsal '15 about his experiences and struggles to get into the academy and his lessons learned in Annapolis.
Jon while serving in the Marine Corps in Southern California founded the brand B3 EXCELLENT in which the concept comes from the United States Naval Academy and many of the lessons learned from the inspirational leaders he encountered there. Jon explains it stands for yourself, others and community. The more that you can better yourself, the better you can take care of other people and your community.
One of the many leaders he learned from was Rear Admiral William Byrne, also known as "King Byrne". By at that time, Commandant Captain Bryne, Jon was challenged to "be excellent" by reflecting often and becoming a stronger leader to best serve future sailors and marines in the fleet upon graduation.
Grant and Jon each reflect on the tremendous example of leadership Admiral Byrne left with them at his time at the academy and beyond.
Jon incorporated his passion for fitness and service into the concept of challenging yourself to set the example for others in the community. With his background in the United States Marine Corps and in sports such as basketball, volleyball, and track and field, he created an active lifestyle brand that embodies service to inspire and empower.
Grant and Jon offer advice for plebes thinking about how to approach plebe summer and tell some hilarious stories about their time at the academy.
Follow and reach out to Jon at info@b3excellent.com, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jonbangsal/?hl=en or subscribe to his YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGXv9HfK-QUQE9yanTqKKhg/about.
Be sure to review and follow The Academy Insider with Grant Vermeer podcast on Apple Podcasts or where you listen to podcasts.
Follow the
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast and the USNA Property Network Podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a boutique residential real estate company that specializes in serving the United States Naval Academy community PCSing to California & Texas.
We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.
Connect with Grant on Linkedin
Academy Insider Website
Academy Insider Facebook Page
If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast, have an idea, question or topic you would like to see covered, reach out: podcast@academyinsider.com.
In this episode, your host Grant Vermeer speaks with United States Marine Corps officer Jon Bangsal '15 about his experiences and struggles to get into the academy and his lessons learned in Annapolis.
Jon while serving in the Marine Corps in Southern California founded the brand B3 EXCELLENT in which the concept comes from the United States Naval Academy and many of the lessons learned from the inspirational leaders he encountered there. Jon explains it stands for yourself, others and community. The more that you can better yourself, the better you can take care of other people and your community.
One of the many leaders he learned from was Rear Admiral William Byrne, also known as "King Byrne". By at that time, Commandant Captain Bryne, Jon was challenged to "be excellent" by reflecting often and becoming a stronger leader to best serve future sailors and marines in the fleet upon graduation.
Grant and Jon each reflect on the tremendous example of leadership Admiral Byrne left with them at his time at the academy and beyond.
Jon incorporated his passion for fitness and service into the concept of challenging yourself to set the example for others in the community. With his background in the United States Marine Corps and in sports such as basketball, volleyball, and track and field, he created an active lifestyle brand that embodies service to inspire and empower.
Grant and Jon offer advice for plebes thinking about how to approach plebe summer and tell some hilarious stories about their time at the academy.
Follow and reach out to Jon at info@b3excellent.com, on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/jonbangsal/?hl=en or subscribe to his YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGXv9HfK-QUQE9yanTqKKhg/about.
Be sure to review and follow The Academy Insider with Grant Vermeer podcast on Apple Podcasts or where you listen to podcasts.
Follow the
The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.
Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all. He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast and the USNA Property Network Podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.
He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a boutique residential real estate company that specializes in serving the United States Naval Academy community PCSing to California & Texas.
We are here to be your guide through the USNA experience.
Connect with Grant on Linkedin
Academy Insider Website
Academy Insider Facebook Page
If you are interested in sponsoring the podcast, have an idea, question or topic you would like to see covered, reach out: podcast@academyinsider.com.
This is your host Grant Vermeer Naval Academy class of 2017 and on your academy insider. It's my goal to be your guide through the Naval Academy experience by sharing my stories and providing you insight information into the life of a midshipman. Academy insider is in no way officially affiliated with the United States Naval Academy. All of the content on academy insider is my own and does not reflect the views of the United States Naval Academy, the United States Navy, nor the Department of Defense. Welcome to the academy insider podcast and today I'm extremely lucky to be joined by Jon Bank, soul and Naval Academy class of 15 graduate. Currently Jon is stationed out in sunny southern California, serving in the United States Marine Corps. Today we're going to be talking about the plebe summer experience and this is a great episode filled with tons of fun story and valuable information. We discuss his battle to get admitted to the naval academy and multiple stories of perseverance and grit that have made Jon who he is today. This is a must listen to episode filled with tons of great information and it's extremely valuable. So make sure to join me as we talked to Jon. Hey Jon, thanks so much for coming on the podcast. Appreciate it. Hey, thanks Greg. Happy to be here, man. Definitely. All right. Before we get started today, again, just for everyone's situation, whereas we're going to be talking about the plebe summer experience here, but before we get there, just tell us a little bit about yourself, where you came from, where he grew up, how you got to the academy, and then when you're at academy company Major. Just a little bit of background about yourself, just for everyone listening.
Speaker 2:Sure. So I was in a second company first that I'm from the Philippines. I was actually born there. I grew up in the bay area of Milpitas to be specific. Yeah. How did I get into the academy? So this is interesting. Here's a little story. Growing up I actually wanted to be an NBA player. You know, he, you aspire to be an NBA player. That's where I got my work ethic from. But in high school, my freshman year, I saw a bunch of kids on the track field, you know, running around the track and doing some cadences and I thought it was another PE class I was and I thought to myself, you know what, that's something that I should probably get into because it will probably help me in my career to be an NBA player in the future. And so I joined this class. Little did I know, I was popping into attention saying, sir, yes sir. Or ma'am, yes, Bam. And it was a jr ROTC course that was offered in my high school. And so I got stuck in that class, found out more about the military. I ended up liking it. And long story short, that got me to the Naval Academy. So I found out about the military a little bit and I applied my junior year to the naval academy, got rejected because my act scores and weren't so high. My Gpa, I don't know, we got recruited. Your grades are pretty hot med, so I don't know. I struggled. Yeah. So I applied after my high school didn't get in. I went to a Northwestern preparatory school. Okay, so prep school, it's not like naps. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But was it a part of the Naval Academy, like foundation program is one of the ones that are like sponsored by the Naval Academy or was it just completely separate?
Speaker 2:Don't quote me on that. I think it was one of the foundation. Okay. Schools because uh, some of the students that were there had a foundation scholarship meeting. As soon as they finish that preparatory school, they would get in automatically. Okay. Got It. Got It. For me, I was a free agent man. I didn't get the scholarship. I applied. Yeah. How did we go pay like eight grand in order to get into this prep school? So it was a little daunting for me. It was hesitant, but it was definitely one of the best investments I've ever made. Anyhow, I applied after high school going to get in, went to this prep school, did that for a year. So it's a two part program. Northwestern preparatory school. You'd go to the pep program in San Bernardino for about four months and then you can do a semester at college. I did that whole program, applied to the Naval Academy again. And guess what happened bro? Got It. Nope, no. Rejected. My sats, act scores improved, but it wasn't good enough. As you know, it's pretty competitive to get into the naval academy man. I was definitely not athletic or not scholarly competitive yet. This is what I actually have in my backyard. We see all those letters. Yep.
Speaker 1:That's like my rejection letter number one, two, three. And this is just a gift from my uh, CEO at the Academy of Second Company. That's really cool. So for everyone who's listening, he literally has framed up on his wall, his rejection letters and then leading up literally to a picture from his company officer. That's the motivation right there. I love that. What, I mean, talk about a great work ethic and just continue to push and persevere through adversity when you have something that you really want. I mean, that's cool. Consider me impressed. Thanks brother. Yeah. So, so you're saying that you were interested in the academy, but how much did you actually know about the academy? Like what did you know about the academy when you were applying? Did you just like know about the idea of it and you wanted to go or did you like know what you were going into, do what you wanted to do after graduation and all that? Explain the knowledge you had before you went.
Speaker 2:So at this time, by the time I got into the academy, like I knew a lot because I had to go apply multiple times. Like I got rejected multiple times. I got rejected four times to be exact. So I did a lot of research air after here. I knew this is the place where I wanted to go, especially because my parents wouldn't have been able to afford to send me to an Ivy League school for instance, and pay for that college. I didn't want to go that route. I wanted to make sure I go in debt free so I can help out my family financially. As far as my knowledge goes, I say a lot. I had a good friend of mine, April dela Cruz, she's a captain in the Marine Corps right now and we graduated the same year. The only differences after we both applied, she got in. I didn't, and uh, I kept in touch with her asking her all these questions like, hey, how's this, how's that? So I got an inside scoop as far as, you know, what, this is what I could expect by the time I get in, it was just a matter of time for me and not if, so I believed in myself and I made it happen. Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So for all the people that are listening, they pretty much know that. Like I didn't really know what the heck I was getting myself into, especially when it came to ida and, and as a result, like I had a pretty bad, I day, like I got wrecked and I was like, Oh man, like I kid you not like six hours into police somewhere. I was like, what did I just get myself into? Like, oh my gosh, but since this was something that you are interested in and like knew what you wanted and you really persevered and got through, what was it like for you and kind of what was your experience like? Did your family come out with you? Like where are they super proud? Like give me the whole rundown of heading out to id.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so have done JRTC I kind of knew what to expect. Proper protocols as far as calling him ma'am, ma'am. Or Sir, sir. I had that professionalism already, but I was so scared. Bed. Like I like it a lie. My parents actually worth there. Uh, flew solo and uh, I remember getting on a bus and I think we had bags with us. We started putting this stuff in. It got really heavy. We've got our haircuts all pair buzz and everything else. But yeah, it was actually a big blur. I don't really remember much besides just, you know, what, this is what you always wanted to do. Get after it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. All right, cool. So with that, I guess let's just kind of jump in to talking a little bit about plebe summer and some of the experiences he had. And we always start with the positives first. So, uh, what was your favorite memory from a plebe summer? You have one that looked like really sticks out and sticks with you to this day.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you'd be, tend to remember things that are painful or funny, right? Absolutely. So one of the funniest things that I remember from plebe summer, it was one of my buddies, a named Jon Fry. You know how we would, uh, I think it was early in the morning, we'd have to form up in the hall, you know, Chop Square corners, scream, uh, go navy, Serbian army sir and all that stuff. Yes. Sound option to mate. Here we go. Yeah. So we had a time hack, essentially by the time they sounded the colors in order to get us in the hallway in the attention and whatnot. Well, I made it to the hallways and attention already. People are still struggling along. One of my buddies, Jon Fry, he was brushing right. And I think he might've woke up late or something, but he still had shaving cream all over his face as he was screaming sir. And here I am. And like the bulkhead, that's what they call it. Right? Yeah. And I'm like, Oh my God, this guy's he about to be eaten alive.
Speaker 1:Oh absolutely. You hate to laugh at other people's pain, but there moments peep somewhere you're just staring across the, across the POA and you're like, Oh man, this guy's really bad to get it. I'm just glad it's not me. Yeah. Just for the listeners. So we use the term bulkhead, that's like what we referred to as a wall at the academy. So literally a wall as a bulkhead. And then the p way just stands for passageway, which is basically just the hallway. And so just a couple of terms there. But man, that's funny. And it's crazy like during plebe summer how you just, you lose like so much common sense. Like just to run out in the hallway with shaving cream. Like, there's just so much stuff going on and it's so crazy that like you forget, I kid you not. There's a kid in my company that ran out in the hallway with two pairs of ooze liaison, so are oozing. Those are like our blue PT shorts and we were doing uniform racist. So he was going from his NW use the navy working in a form like the camouflage ones to PT gear cause we're doing uniform races where you just try and change as fast as possible. And he didn't realize he was already wearing a pair of says so he just threw on a second pair who says without thinking, just ran to the hallway and he's standing there in our detailed walks by and he's like, Yo, are you wearing two pairs of[inaudible] right now? And he's like, sir, no sir. And he's like, I'm telling you, I'm looking right now. I see two pair, I see two SNAs on your leg. And he's like, he's like, sorry, I have no idea how that happened. And that's like half of the stories during plebe summer. It's like people have no idea how it happens. It just happens because this please suburbs, eh,
Speaker 2:there's a lot of things going on. Right. There's a lot of factors are telling you to hurry up. A lot of people are yelling at you and you don't want to be the last one. So it's like little things, basic things as far as washing off and make sure your shave, it was a little things that you can completely like easily forget cause there's just so many things that you have to meet as far as time hat goes. Definitely.
Speaker 1:All right, next question. Well we get a lot of stuff from parents and family asking what did I enjoy getting in the mail? Would I enjoy getting care packages? So I just want to ask the same question to you. Were there things that you really enjoyed and you found beneficial that you got in the mail or in care packages? Kind of what, what were some of the things that you appreciated getting during plebe summer?
Speaker 2:Just letters from my family really. And my brother, he would keep in touch with me cause there's no way for us to communicate via cell phone or technology. No Facebook, no Instagram or anything like that. So letters from my brother letting him know like just hearing from him how the family's doing because this is really for the most part when people go with the plebe summer, it's probably their first time away from
Speaker 1:the family. Tell me about it. That was me. I was extremely homesick. One that had never been away from my family. So
Speaker 2:yeah. So just hearing how my brother do and my mom is doing, my dad is doing, it's just, it's hard to describe but it's just like, you know, I miss my family. It makes you appreciate them that much more just because you haven't been in touch with them for a while. Definitely. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And were there certain things that you appreciated? What you got letters from them? Like did you want to know about what was going on in their life? Did you just want to hear and I love you so proud of you. Keep going. Like what was kind of some of the content that you appreciate, uh, when you're going through it? During the summer
Speaker 2:pictures really of just my family, seeing my mom and my dad happy. They'd be out in San Diego by the zoo or just doing a normal thing. It's just because when you're at that academy for plebe summer you're like, you're seeing things that are not really normal. A lot of people yelling a lot of stress factors that are here and their left and right, like your mind's all over the place and just to see pictures of like my family, it was just very comforting. I didn't really need any thing that would kind of ease my pain or the struggles that we go through there. And plebe summer it was just more so like hearing from my, cause we are secluded from communication with them.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And for everyone. We on our desks at the academy, we actually have a cork board, and on that Cork board you're allowed to put up all the pictures that you get sent during plebe summer. So you don't have to worry about if you send a picture one that it would get taken or two that they won't be able to look at it very often. Like you're able to pin it up on your cork board and you can look at it every time you go in your room. So that definitely is a really, really beneficial thing. All right, moving on now. So as we talk about plebe summer, a lot of the times, even more than the experiences that stick with us, it's the people that stick with us, plebes and detailers alike. So I guess my main question for you is who made the biggest impact on you during plebe summer? Kind of who was the person that really motivated you and kind of sparked either a little bit of change or development or whatever it may be?
Speaker 2:Sure. Easy. His name is Matt Jones. He's a navy seal now and he's just the type of person that would a struggle with us. He was not the type of person that will just certain things because of his rank. He would actually like set the example and a PT with us, which I really appreciated. There's not a hypocrite at all. And I just looked up to this guy just because he really cared about us and that was the biggest thing.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And so,
Speaker 1:oh is he, was he your squad leader? Platoon commander. We previously on a previous episode talked about the police summer organizations. So I kind of explained to all my viewers about the different organizations from squad leader, platoon commander to company commander, what all of them are in their different roles and responsibilities. So if you don't mind just kind of laying out what he was.
Speaker 2:Oh, sure. So he was a platoon commander. Okay. Whenever we go out to the parade deck, he would drill us and uh, he's very passionate about that.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah. Awesome. Here's what this, all throughout the way. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's super important. And so as you talk to your future pleads or whatever it may be, man, your squad leaders and your platoon commanders, those are the people that really make an impact on your life. Those are the people that are going through it with you on a daily basis. Right? They are with you the entire time. So those are the ones who just make a lasting impact. So definitely you would constantly hear stories about squad leaders and platoon commanders for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Man, that was actually a, a platoon commander for peak summer when I became a detailed,
Speaker 1:where are you? How was that? Tell us about that. Yeah. What were some of the main acts? Yeah. Tell us about your time as a platoon commander. Let's just let you go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man. So that was probably the best experience that I've ever had at the academy. You know, a lot of first sees are upcoming for sees when they get pleased on my slide. Aw, man, I don't want to deal with that. I'm going to go wake up early in the morning again and through the whole training, it's like bootcamp all over again. But, uh, actually it was one of the most satisfying experiences that I had just cause you had the opportunity to go really influence the new plebes coming on board. And for me to be in the position that I was in as a platoon commander where the person that I looked up to as a plebe summer like, Hey, I'm just that guy and I can call these cadences and drilled them and have that impact. I wish I was able to do that. And till this day, man, I keep in touch with people that, uh, that were my plebes, uh, when I was a detailer. So it's just good to hear from. Some of them are flying planes now, some of in the marine corps, it's just like hearing from the NBA, Hey, you had the biggest impact on me as far as joining the naval academy and so and so. And if it wasn't for you, I probably would've just like quit or something like that. So it's good man
Speaker 1:fans. That's a special experience. Let me ask you a couple more questions about that. So let's go big first. What was the most important lesson that you were trying to instill in the plebes when you were a platoon commander, right? You'd work with them so much. Well, what was the, what may be one or a couple of things that you're like, man, if these bleeds learn anything coming out of the summer, I want it to be this.
Speaker 2:It'd be about persistence because that's really what I'm all about. You get knocked down. What do you do? You can control what you can't control and you can just disregard what you cannot control and you're going to fail. Definitely. A lot of times at the Naval Academy, you might be thinking you're hot stuff. You know, you probably had a 4.0 you're a varsity athlete coming into the Naval Academy, but guess what? You're going to be surrounded by so many other people that are just as competitive and you're no longer going to be that one number one girl, number one guy, and you're going to fail at something. I'll try to instill, you know what? Whatever happens, just be able to control what you can control, which is your attitude, your emotions. How you show up the next day and just be persistent, man. I always think about, well, what could I do better? You know what? I failed. This is what I did wrong. All right, what am I going to do now in order to do make sure I don't make that same mistake? So just persistence given up, being able to control, we can control.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I really appreciate that answer. That, that's really cool. Yeah. Yeah. So sweet. That's great answer. I mean, persistence is such a big thing, and especially coming from your store in your experience, I'm sure the authenticity do taught that lesson with and really instilled into them with just made it really powerful. So that's awesome. But all right, enough of your time as a detailer here. Let's move on back to plebe year. Now we're, we're getting back to it. So yeah. Rumor on the street, Jon, was that you were roommates with the commandant's kid during plebe summer, the commandant's kid. So for all of you are listening again, the calm, not like he's the boss, right? Like that is your boss. He rubbed, basically runs the school. He's like the principal, he's the dean, whatever you want to call. He's the head man in charge in the naval academy looking inwards. What? What was that like living in the comment as a kid? Was it good? Was it bad? Like did you get advantages or privileges that people leave you alone or was it like extra attention on you guys in that room?
Speaker 2:So secret no one went out to tell you is that if you were rooming with I comment on son, you can go inside the commandant's house and chill for a little bit. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. That's not true. There's really no special privileges to it, man. I didn't know that he was a cabin on sun until someone had mentioned it. And so it came to me at a surprise and it was actually surprising for me because I thought the confidant sign, you know God that's been brought up from I'm sure pretty well from a guy that's, you know, very discipline. His father teaches them how to do this and that kind of like a mentor all throughout his life. I thought he would be like a little nerdy to be honest. Yeah. Wesley Clark, that's my roommate by the way. Shout out to him if he ever sees this. He was not nerdy at all. He was just one of the guys. He played basketball, so he definitely mesh well together. So there's no disadvantages or advantages at all? No special privileges. There was this one time though that uh, I got to go inside the commandant's house. That was pretty, was that as well as after plebe summer? Ah, Ooh. I don't remember. I think he might've been youngster year after plebe summer or it might've been summer to be honest. I don't know. I remember, uh, I think we were in our PT clothes. You needed to go grab something. So we went inside. The house is on a weekend, so it was just like, you know what, we can go over there. I'll just going up and a, I think his brother Andy was in town and so I'll get to meet his brother. It got to see the, the house was two stories. It was really nice. I think upstairs I pass by one of the rooms and in this hallway I looked to my right or the left. I see the common aren't just on his laptop and he was just, it was just loud man just like this on his laptop. But you know what, that what that made me think, it made me think that he's just like us, like just like me and you, we like to hang out with, we'd like to chill back for us as plebes or youngsters at the time. It's kind of scary to see someone that's really high ranking, whether it be lieutenant commander, commander, someone with high brass, uh, you always want to keep your guard up, be professional. You don't want to disrespect them by any means. And so that was rare for me to be able to see someone just kind of laid back, see them, how they are outside of the uniform or outside of the working hours. And it just made me believe like, you know what? He puts his pants on just like I do. He's just like me. There's nothing different. I can be me and I can be successful as well.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And I'm just going to touch on that point. We talk about, they're running into the commandant in thinking the same thing, but when you're going through plebe summer for all the people that are listening that are bad's going to plebe summer, the same goes for your details, right? Like you may be intimidated by him, you may be scared by him, but at the end of the day, they're just humans. They're just individuals. They're just like you and they're still learning too, right? Like this whole plebe summer experiences to provide a defining leadership experience for them so they can learn who they are as a leader, right? And everything that they are doing is for the benefit of you. The whole purpose of everything they're doing is to try and make you the best version of yourself and the best plead that you can be. So that way you're ready to join the brigade right there doing nothing. Alan malintent there doing nothing out of malice or doing nothing just to mess with you. They're there to train you and they're there to develop you to be ready to become members of the brigade. So never take anything personally, never let it hit you deep and become emotional. Right. Cause at the end of the day, it is all about transforming you personally and professionally into a midshipman. That's where I did join the brigade, but that's just something that you need to keep in mind at all times.
Speaker 2:Hey, you're spot on man. I completely agree. They've been there for however long, three years or so. They're about to be seniors. They've been around the block so they know how things work and so their sole purpose is to train new, just to make sure that you could mold in. Well, it's going to challenge you, man. There's going to be a lot of things that are going to be thrown at you again. I mean, you're just going to be able to adjust again. You're going to fail a lot, but you just kinda have to keep on learning what you can control and just move on forward.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, man. Yeah. All right. What kind of last question before we switch to Tampa over here a little bit and it is a tough one, but what do you think the most important lesson was you learned as a result of plebe summer? Was there something that when you were there on parents weekend at the end of pleats summer that you're like, man, I really learned something about myself, about leadership, about life, whatever it may be as a result of plebe summer?
Speaker 2:I guess the biggest thing that was draining our minds are in plebe summer was that phrase. There's no I in team, right? It's just no longer about you. It's about the other people that are around you as well. Again, you might be the fastest guy, but that doesn't mean anything. If there's someone that's like behind or slacking in some sort, whether it be academics or physical fitness, you can't just think about yourself. You've got to think about other people and that's what the academy does a really good job of doing like graduating future officers by the time they hit the fleet. You know what? It's just they know that understanding that it's not about them, it's about the other people, the marines and sailors that are about to serve by the time they graduate. So that was the biggest thing that I learned and plebe summer and that I took away throughout my academy experience. Man. Absolutely. I can't harp on it enough. I always talk about
Speaker 1:humility in the aspect of teamwork, right? Like in order to be the ideal team player, in order to be someone who truly embraces team, you have to think less of yourself or not think less of yourself. You need to think of yourself less, right? Like you need to be confident, your abilities, but you need to put your focus and your main attention on the people around you because you usually going through plebe summer, your squad, your platoon, it's all about the team, right? No one cares if you are doing well, we care about the squad, we care about the platoon. And that's something that goes through the entire to hear military career.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And that goes without saying though, that you got to make sure you got, you can hold your own weight, you know, you gotta make sure you got to perform, you've got to do a lot of things. But also keep in mind that there's other people that you've got to look at or, and so it's just not about you anymore. Just make sure that you're doing things that are going to be successful if not only for yourself but for other people. Yeah, absolutely. I got a question for you, man. Yeah. What's up? I want to know what was your biggest challenge at the academy there in police summer?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so for me it was the emotional piece, right? You talked about it earlier, about being away from home for the first time, being a little home sick, all that stuff. So for me, that was the hardest piece is that I let my emotions control and dictate my circumstance rather than controlling my attitude and controlling my emotions in the situation. So I let my emotions consume me instead of controlling them. And so my homesickness, the fact that I was miserable, the fact that I was tired, the fact that I was sore and sweaty and uncomfortable all the time and let that take over and to the point where I gave up, right? I was miserable. So that was the hardest piece for me. That was the biggest challenge for me. It was overcoming the emotional piece. Like everyone talks about, oh, please don't. It's really hard physically, please. Summer's really hard. Mentally you have to learn all this stuff. For me, the hardest piece was the emotional piece, right? It's being away from home for the first time. I mean, I grew up in like a picture perfect. Like no adversity home growing up, white picket fence, American dream, everything, right? Like I face, no adversity growing up. And then I showed up and I was away from my family for the first time and I had people yelling at me, telling me I had no idea what I was doing. Right? And I'm sitting here, I'm like, oh my God. Like I've never done anything wrong in my life. Like what is happening right now? So that was by far the biggest challenge for me. And that is, that is the biggest lesson I gained out of plebe summer two was, hey, focus on the things that you can control, right? At the end of the day, the two things that control, you talked about this earlier, are your attitude and your effort, right? Those are the things that are in your control. Don't let your circumstances dictate your attitude and effort. You have to control those at all times. So I learned that lesson the hard way, but I'm extremely grateful for it. So that was kind of the biggest challenge I had during plebe summer. Yeah, man. Yeah. And like more than anything at the academy, it's just like you're surrounded by people that are excellent, right? And everything they do, they pursue excellence there. They uphold the standard of excellence. They're constantly do things to improve themselves personally and professionally. And I know that inspired you a little bit too. So tell the listeners a little bit about your company, be excellent. What's it all about? What was your motivation for it? What is it? Just tell the people a little bit about the excellent.
Speaker 2:Oh, of course. So be excellent is a slogan that comes from the Naval Academy. It was one of the other commandants and came aboard King Byrne King lives on!, right? AMMO ammo burn. Oh yeah. But he'd always bring us together and a big gymnasium in night. Always like talk about making sure that we're doing the right things. He talked to us and pretty much like ask us questions, are you doing the right thing today to make sure you're set up for success the next day? And just those questions like, hey, did you work out today? Did you go study hard today? Could you have done more? I started asking myself those questions and that kind of stuck with me all throughout, even after my graduation. And that's honestly the biggest takeaway that I got from the Naval Academy and just having that positive influence. And so what I did with that slogan is I incorporated that into my passion for fitness. I played club volleyball at the academy and ran track and field and that's in high school by the academy. I played club volleyball and I played JV basketball. So that was not a stud like you and I was a bench and bar. I practice player baby. Hey Man. But uh, I found it just clicked that slogan and that reflection that whenever with the admiral or captain at the time into fitness apparel, so be excellent, be three excellent is a fitness apparel brand that embodies that message. And the main thing is that the more that you better yourself, the better you can take care of other people that are around you as well. So it's taking that military thing, that concept that we've always been taught into a fitness apparel brand
Speaker 1:way. Cool way. Cool. All right. Tell the people a little bit about where they can go to find these things. People want to be extra. Sure. Cause I'm telling you guys right now, the, the shirts are awesome. I think they're really cool. I'm a big fan of be excellent. Not only for the message that he has but also for just like the pure aesthetic of the gears. So tell the people a little bit about where they can go to find some of this.
Speaker 2:The excellent appeared of course, man. So this is the plug I guess, right? So yeah, absolutely. www.bthreeexcellent.com so it's just, yeah, the slogan is be excellent, but it's spelled B three. Excellent. And you might be wondering, what does a three stand for? It stands for yourself, others and community. Again, the main messages, the more that you can better yourself, the better you can take care of other people and your community.
Speaker 1:That's all. Yeah, absolutely. I mean that cool stuff. So I love that. I love that you did that based on King Burn. Keen burn. I inspired me to, I mean, talk about a guy, right? Oh six to charge everything at the academy. Whenever he'd see me, I, he dap me up and give me a hug and he called me by name. Like he'd be like, grant, what's up brother? And I'm like, I mean, talk about the amount of humility. You have to have to be an o six and walk around and no one midshipman's name. Right. Just how involved he was. I mean, that's the guy. So I'm so glad that you're passing on his message. You're embracing his message. Now you're pushing it onto other people. Like that's a beautiful thing. Yeah. So good stuff. Again, that's be excellent. So it's literally be, and then a three and then x, c, e. L. L. E. N. T. That's be excellent. And I'll put that down in the show notes as well for everyone who's trying to get a look there. Solid. All right, so I appreciate it. I appreciate you talking a little bit about, be excellent. Again, I highly recommend that you go check that out, but let's finish it off here with, I was just a couple more questions. So for all my viewers, majority of whom are people who are interested in the academy are about to show up. So Jon, tell me now, what's one thing you wish someone would have told you prior to heading into the Naval Academy for plebe summer?
Speaker 2:To not be afraid of heights and learn how to swim better. Okay. Yeah. Tell the people about swimming, why it's important to be ready to swim better? Oh Man. The biggest challenge that I had going through plebe summer was jumping off the 10 meter. This is something that I was required back in the day. I don't know if it's required now. Did you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had to jump off it. Yeah, you definitely still have to do, have the option to or the, did you know some people that backed out that didn't do it? That, that's a good question. I'll have to verify for the listeners. I mean I definitely had to, I think I had two, but maybe they're moving away from that. I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So that was one thing that I wish someone would've told me about to prepare for. So you jump off the time you get it right. It's just to simulate you jumping off the ship in the ship is going down for whatever reason. And so you got back in it. It's just training purposes for me. Uh, one, I'm not very good with heights and to, I'm not good with a water and that's something that I wish I would have prepared better for. I jumped, I know some of my classmates, their jump, I don't think it was required at that time for us, but I think it was a required for youngster year. So your sophomore year in order to get an a in the class you needed to switch up. But for plebe summer, I don't think it was required for me. I love challenges, right. I want to make sure that I get the most out of the experiences that I get. So I'd be sweating, man. Just thinking about jumping off this thing. Like I knew that something that had to go overcome. It was nice. I'd like knock out, just think about it. I have like nightmares. I kid you not man in my whole pause and my feet would get all sweaty. Just thinking about me going over this 10 years, uh, jumping off the 10 year. But uh, when it came to it, man, I've climbed a ladder. I had one of my buddies that was there with me, he was cheering me on and he was like, Nah, it's no biggie. So after your job you can't clamp all the way back up and he's cheering me on and it's just like, it's easy man, let's do it. And so he was like, hey, we're doing it like in like three seconds we'll do a count down. So as we're approaching the edge, we're about to go. And he went, I didn't go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I backed out like a big jump. The big jump, like classic. Absolutely classic.
Speaker 2:Eventually I ended up jumping off and it was for a quick second. What I remember from that experiences when I jumped, it was like the happiest moment of my life in mid air.[inaudible] but as soon as I hit the water, it was the worst moment of my life. You know why? Cause I fly now, I belly flopped
Speaker 1:belly. Oh no man been knocked out of me Bro. So are you the guy, there's a video out there. If someone basically being scared job off the 10 meter and belly flops. Is that you? I Dunno, I don't think anyone's got a video of me. But you know as soon as your job, you're supposed to Muckross across. Yeah. You had someone to back at you.
Speaker 2:No, I doggy paddled back to the closest like one. That was it. And I remember, I remember hearing a female, it was another Mitch Shipman a saying now that's why I did not jump out.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So that's funny because check it out guys. If you're scared to jump, like you really just need to jump. He goes, it's the people that like hesitate and are scared about it. That ended up doing something crazy that validate their fear of jumping because they belly flop. If you just jumped, it's all right. You just gotta go for it. But Oh God, don't worry a for everyone listening. You only got to do it one time. One time. All right, so before the show we were talking about amen. I think you've already accomplished this cause we were talking about wanting to provide value to our listeners about the plebe summer experience and I think you've done a tremendous job of that so far and I really appreciate it. But let's end it with one more question. What advice do you have for a Midshipman in summer? What is the best piece of advice you have for someone that is currently going through plebe summer?
Speaker 2:So I touched upon it already as far as being able to focus on what you can control, the vice, what you cannot control. I'll give you something else. A little practical tip that's kind of helped me out til this day. I would recommend just getting a journal, you know it's going to sound like cheesy or something like that, but definitely get a returnal. I'd call it a reflection journal just by the end of the day. Write down what's going on in your mind. And the main reason why I say that it's because you've got a lot of things on your mind and by being able to ride it, it kind of calms me down. I know specifically for me, it just lets me know, hey, these are the things that are on my mind. I'm self aware, most importantly as far as how I'm feeling. And you can identify, you know what? This is how I'm feeling. I could control this and I can't control that. So just being able to see something that I see physically, that definitely helps, especially for the midshipman. Going through the adversities during the summer and that house be Alice far as being goal oriented as well. Just having a reflection journal man, those those questions that we touched, the bond, that burn, it's like, Yo, what are you doing today? You join for a reason to embark on a journey to make sure that you can be the best version of yourself so you can serve future sailors and marines. You know, those are the questions that you need to ask. You know, are you doing your absolute best to better yourself so you can better serve at your sailors and Marines? If not, what are you going to do the next day? If you didn't do that, it's just like make sure you have the reflection journal. This is the biggest thing that I would strongly recommend. Absolutely. I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:All right, well that concludes the main ports of the interview I do with this with all of my listener or all my guests, so get ready. We're about to hit a lightning round of questions. Quick answers here. Just want some brief answers, but these are things people want to know, so we'll start off with what is your favorite spot on the yard? I favorite spot,
Speaker 2:Wesleyan Brown Field House, the gym over there. There's a lot of history that goes beyond that. I love that. Yeah,
Speaker 1:absolutely. That's a great answer. All right. What was your favorite meal in King Hall? Definitely Spaghetti on a Sunday when you had to go where your whites? Yeah, I dunno how many pairs of whites. I ruined with that, but I guarantee I spilled pasta sauce on my whites on at least 95% of the times we ate that. It was, hey, white's turn over day the day you switch for beer, your service dress blues to your whites, Pasta Sunday night guaranteed. I promise you it goes without fail. I swear they do it on purpose. It's a sick day. We could work on our like proper etiquette. A man on a serious note. It was bus shakes to be honest of chicks is yeah, that's a good one. Hey, Thursday for lunch, chick day campaigns. It all right. Next woman. Who is your biggest officer or senior enlisted mentor during your four years at the academy? Aside from captain
Speaker 2:burn at the time, it'd be a nice a major now captain Tyler,
Speaker 1:he's a major tire now. He's my company officer and uh, he just kept in touch with us. I still keep in touch with them until this day and I get a lot of advice from him just being able to talk to another marine officer and from his experience in just, it's nice for him to keep in touch with me and keep the relationship going, man. So he's had the biggest impact. Absolutely. That's awesome. All right, last question. If someone is thinking about attending the academy, we're talking to high schoolers now that it may be interested in attending the academy. What advice or thoughts should they consider before attending academy? Like what advice would you give to them slash what things should they consider before going to the academy?
Speaker 2:Obviously it's going to be the most rewarding experience of your life. It's also going to be extremely challenging, but I tell you, it's something that you're going to look back and be like, you know what? It was all worth it. There's a quote or a saying, and I know you know this, it goes,
Speaker 1:it sucks to be at the academy at the time, but it's an amazing place to be from baby. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Sucks at the time. But it's an amazing place.
Speaker 1:Second bag. More true. Oh Man. And so forever and listening to like when we say it's sex to the academy, like we're talking like it's not the most fun place, right? Like you don't get the normal college experience, but, and that's kind of why it sucks. And like, you're just like, oh man, this is not necessarily fun, but I'm telling you when we talk about being from the academy, it's an unmatched experience. And then even when you're at the academy, the amount of mentors and the amount of amazing people that you're around that you can benefit from, make it absolutely worth it while you're still there too. Right? Like don't let this idea of like the academy stinks to be at like control your experience. Like, no, you can make the academy a great place to be at too. It just may not be the most fun place. Right? Like, I mean, that's Kinda how it is. But man, that's awesome advice. Yeah. What's up? Yeah, please. Absolutely.
Speaker 2:To add onto that man, like, yeah, you're not going to be drinking here. They're like, you're not being a part of a friend or anything like that. What typical college, it's, they call it not college. Right. But again, it's, it's a great experience because you meet people from all over the world. I have friends that are from New York, from Bahamas, or from, let's say, Missouri or from Texas. There are from all over the place. So I have connections and honestly, the friendships that you make at the academy or the last for a lifetime, I still keep in touch with the friends that I meet today. Oh. That I've made at the academy. And honestly there's some of the best friends I could ask for. My Buddy, my roommate, he was a navy seal right now. Badass. My other roommate is, he's aviator, so he's gonna be a flag Hilo soon. My other buddy, other roommate, he's from Bangladesh, like from another country. We had international students come and a go through the math and naval academy in. And that's something that I was able to experience. That was cool, man. Just being able to like learn from his experiences and hear from his accent and just getting shit for it. But uh, it's all good and nature. Bed schizo. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:All right. Thank you so much Jon. I really appreciate you coming on here and I hope for all the listeners out there, I hope you all learned a little bit about plebe summer through Jon's story. Again, I think one of the best ways we've learned about plebe summer is by just by sharing stories, because that's so much of what it is, is those stories that stick with us and those are the things that you remember. So again, Jon, thank you so much. Can you tell the people again one more time where they can find stuff for, be excellent? Sure. There's an Instagram for it. Just search B three and then excellent. E, x, t. E. L. L. E. N. T. Or you can, if you want to stay in touch with me, just search me up on Instagram. That's where I mainly go and reach out to people who want to know more about the academy or just things that I'm doing for entrepreneurship. Jon Banks Solid J. O. N. B. A. N. G. S. A. L. I'm there. All right. Hey, thank you so much. I had a great time. I hope you enjoyed it too. And again, you provided a tremendous amount of value for our listeners out there, so I really appreciate you coming on. Yeah, man. How pleasure is honored to be here. All right. Have a good one and it's all the listeners. Thanks so much for tuning in. Appreciate it. Thank you all so much for listening to the podcast today. With me and Jon, please make sure to leave a review on iTunes and subscribe to the academy insider podcast. If you want to know more about plebe summer, check out my video online course in which I go over in detail how someone should prepare for plebe summer, physically, mentally, emotionally, and logistically. You can find that and other articles about plebe summer on my webpage, www.academyandsaturday.com all the links discussed in today's episode are listed in the show notes. I'm grant for mere your academy insider and thank you so much for letting me be your guide to the Naval Academy.