Lessons Learned for Vets
Lessons Learned for Vets
Embracing Life's Post-Military Adventures with Gennaro Mazzeo
Gennaro "Pirate" Mazzeo turned his military transition into an adventure – and it changed everything. After retiring from the Marine Corps during COVID after 22 years of service, he embarked on an unexpected journey that led him from ROTC instructor to bartender to federal employee with Naval Criminal Investigative Services.
What makes Gennaro's story so compelling is his refreshingly positive mindset about military transition. Rather than viewing this major life change as an inherently difficult struggle (as many do), he approached it with the same openness and sense of discovery that characterized his military deployments. "Every time I got on a plane to go on a training expedition, I didn't know where it was going to take me," he explains. "I wanted to approach the next part of my life with that same kind of openness."
His perspective challenges conventional wisdom about veteran career paths in several important ways. First, he deliberately chose not to pursue leadership roles despite retiring as a First Sergeant. "Leadership comes with a cost," he shares, whether human, physical, or monetary. Instead, he prioritized being present for his family – something he missed during years of deployments and field training.
Perhaps most thought-provoking is his view that jobs don't need to fulfill a higher purpose or passion. "Having a job is just okay," Gennaro insists. "It's okay just to go to work and come home. It's okay just to provide for your family." This perspective freed him from the pressure many veterans feel to find work that matches their previous status.
A recent heart attack at age 44 further crystallized these priorities. In those critical moments, he wasn't thinking about career advancement or financial obligations – only his faith, family, and relationships mattered. This powerful wake-up call reinforced that our professional identities should not define our entire existence.
Are you approaching your military transition with dread or anticipation? Listen to this episode to discover how changing your mindset might be the most important preparation you can make. Subscribe, share, and join the conversation about creating a post-military life aligned with your true priorities.
You can connect with Gennaro Mazzeo on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gennaromazzeo8999/
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The Lessons Learned for Vets Podcast is sponsored by Seek Now and their Drive Academy. Seek Now is the property inspection industry's leading business and they created Drive Academy DoD SkillBridge and CSP internships to teach transitioning military service members and veterans skills that prepare them for lucrative and rewarding careers in the property inspection and insurance industries. You can learn more and apply today at www.internwithdrive.com.
Welcome to the Lessons Learned for Vets podcast, your military transition debrief. I'm your host, lori Norris, and I've helped thousands of military service members successfully transition out of the military since 2005. Thanks for tuning in to hear the after action reports and real stories of your fellow veterans, who are here to help guide, educate and inform you as you navigate your own military transition. By the way, if you find value from today's episode, please share it with others, leave us a review and post about us on social media. Well, on today's episode of the Lessons Learned for Vets podcast, I am really excited to welcome Gennaro Mazio.
Speaker 1:Gennaro retired from the US Marine Corps, right in the midst of COVID, right in the midst of the shutdown. Since his retirement, he's held several roles, ranging from high school ROTC instructor to bartender, to working for the federal government in the Naval Criminal Investigative Services. He recently had a health scare that has completely shifted his perspective and he's here today to share some of his I guess we'll call them hard one lessons. So, gennaro, welcome, thank you, I got your name right. I saw you give me the thumbs up.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that I know you go by pirate, but I think it'd be weird if I called you pirate.
Speaker 1:I don't know, Well, I appreciate you being here. It was really great to meet you and I know we have a lot of friends in common, but it's been really fun getting to know you. So you know we always start this show with the transition, right? That's what the show is all about is the military transition, and I really like that. You told me you approached your transition like an adventure, Right? So what inspired you to kind of take that mindset and just tell me a little bit about how that impacted your military transition?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I've always been known. I mean, I'm always, I've always considered myself kind of an adventurer, you know, kind of want to get out there and see what, see the world and see what next do is next. You know, I spent 22 years in the Marine Corps. So during my transition I kind of knew I wanted to get out. You know, and God knows my last two years I was pretty much already out, mentally.
Speaker 2:I was, I was done, I was tired and I was ready, I was ready to move on and I knew that there was this world of things that I would see outside of the military and all these things that I could do and all these opportunities, you know. And then, as, when you're a Marine, you know opportunities, you know. And then, as when you're a Marine, you know, or you're in the service in particular, that's your focus. But I saw all these opportunities out there on the outside and I and it was always the things that could be, you know. So in the back of my mind I kind of looked at this as like I don't know where this is going to take me. When I went on deployment I didn't know where it was going to take me.
Speaker 2:Every time I got on a plane to go on a training expedition, I didn't know where it was going to take me. Every country I went to, I didn't know where it was going to take me my whole career. If you would have asked me at 18 years old, I'd be a first sergeant working in the Pentagon doing this. I would have told you you were crazy. So I wanted to approach the next part of my life with that same kind of openness, adventure see what was out there, see the different things that could, you know, that could come to me, and kind of be open to all these different experiences. You know, not just kind of be closed off. I just want to do this or I want to do that. You know, and every day I have the same heartache as the next person. But every day I woke up kind of excited about looking for that next job, or excited looking for that next email to see if someone was going to say yes or no, or excited to you know, excited to meet that next person where my opportunity, you know, could be. And I just kind of kept my you know, my horizons open and for me it was an adventure, you know. I got to travel and go to again and go to different, go to different interviews and meet different people and different types of jobs and hear all their lingo and the way they talked. And I just tried to keep an open mind, you know. So I didn't drive myself crazy in the back of my mind thinking, oh my goodness, you know I'm not going to have a job, I've got to make money, I've got to take care of my family. You know I wanted to look at it in a different approach and you know, to your, to your question, I would tell it.
Speaker 2:You know, other transitioning members. You know, try to keep an open mind, try to go into this in a positive aspect. Look at this as something you know, something new. You're not going back, they're not letting you back in the military, right? So you can't, you can't backtrack. This is the only way you got to go, you know. So you know, just be excited about it. Go into this happy, excited, looking for what else is out there. You know, again, if you would have told me I would have taught ROTC, you know I would have told you you were wrong. If you would have told me I was going to be working at NCIS. That was a funny one and that's a whole nother story. But you know I got approached, know we got a job for you at ncis. I'm like I'm not in a million years, but that's an adventure, part of it. You know that I I didn't see, I didn't see coming and was what's kind of kept me on my toes all these years. You know as I, as I continue to navigate.
Speaker 1:You know about four and a half years now out of transition I think that, um, like, the feeling of excitement and the feeling of stress are not really all that different. It's about the like, how we see it. Right, it's all about your mind and all about the attitude that you approach it with Correct, and I think that is. I really like that approach because, like you've already had, you know, if you're retiring from the military, like you did, like you had a pretty cool 22-year adventure. Right, there were some good, there were some bad, there were some ugly, but you know, you got to do a lot of really interesting things. And who's to say, like, why did the next 22 years of your career, or however long you work, why do they have to be any different?
Speaker 2:right. Why do they? You can do, and I mean this. Why do they? And I mean, this is America and that's why we went out and thought and that's why we did what we did and that's why we serve. So it can be a new adventure, so we can do whatever we want to do, you know.
Speaker 2:So why come into this? With heartache and disparity and meeting people that can see it on your face yeah, you know, employers can see it on your face. When you come in there in desperation and you hate this and you're making comments that are negative about this and that it's like, yeah, welcome, it's called life, you know. So you have two ways. You have two ways to. You have two ways to attack this. We can blame transition, we can blame the you know this that or we can come into and go hey, this is about to happen, let's go and just jump right into it it was like that attitude and approach to transition that really like I've been connected with you for a while and or at least we have so many connections in common.
Speaker 1:I thought I was connected with you and I saw a post that you wrote that like you know, like the military transition doesn't have to be a struggle, like you know, that's kind of a popular narrative out there, right, that it's always hard, and I feel like you've been really vocal about just letting others know that you don't have to struggle. Like why do you think some veterans find it harder than others? And like how did that mindset kind of change that for you?
Speaker 2:yeah, um, I think I'm going to say what every senior leader would say right preparation yeah preparation. You Not necessarily need to know what you get into. And I also know there's timelines, I get it. I mean, skill bridges have a certain amount of time and you have to retire and then people are going to hire within so many months and that's completely. You know. All of that is completely understandable, I think.
Speaker 1:sorry, I lost my train of thought. Y'all do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that, going into it, you know you got to be prepared. You got to pay attention to what you want to do. You got to get these things you know done prior. And I know that I did and I kind of looked at it, that you know you still want to give to the military but at the same time you've got to understand that you're getting out and I'm here to tell you and every other person that's told you you're retired is going to tell you the same thing Like the military is going to go on without you and it's just Okay, you know.
Speaker 2:So if you, if you already know that you want to go to college, I mean start pursuing classes, if you know that you want to go in a specific job or if you need to get a certification, you know prepare for that, you know be reading up on it prior. You're you know if you got to go to the VA, you know you're claiming things at the VA. You have to do this stuff prior and you've got to research and you've got to pay attention and you've got to understand you know when you're getting to that. You know when you're getting to that in that milestone of getting out the more of the stuff you have complete, the more that you've read, the more knowledge that you know, the more information that you know. Your heart's not going to be as heavy when you're walking out the door because you're already going to know look, it's going to be difficult. Okay, I'm feeling the same thing that these other millions of people I've read about over the two years are feeling. You know, you know that you're coming into this, but I think I think it all has to do with preparation and I do believe this narrative.
Speaker 2:I think the narrative of going two years out and start to prepare is huge. I think that's huge. I think that's a. I think that's a positive time to prepare. If you're going to retire, adjust accordingly. But preparation is huge. I mean, it's everything we used in the military. Why would we change that in execution, getting out, and I think that makes it just a lot easier on people to be able to embrace that transition and not have any hiccups. That transition, you know, and not have any hiccups. It's still going to be tough. You're still going to ride the wave with the rest of us, but I think you know wholeheartedly, you'll kind of understand more what you're going into you know with that preparation I feel like, um, hard situations.
Speaker 1:like you can prepare for it, right, you can know it's coming, um, but it's still the, the actuality of it is going to be difficult. I honestly started thinking about when my dad was dying, you know, and I knew it was coming. He he had brain cancer. Like it's going to happen, right, I watched it happen before my eyes and I tried to start mentally preparing myself for that happening. And when it happened it was still devastating and hard.
Speaker 1:But I feel like you know, knowing it's coming, and starting to, like you know, mentally prepare for it is such a big part of being ready for the hard right exactly yeah, there's gonna be some tough times, there's gonna be some challenges, there's gonna be some bumps, and like that's really why I started this show, honestly, is just to help people like know that they're, they're possibly out there. You know, it's like I call the curves a head sign, right, so I can't change that. Those bumps are going to be there. But like the sooner you start preparing for them mentally, I think, the better you're going to navigate them and I really feel like for you, the mindset piece, what you're offering, and and like helping people start to change their opinion of it.
Speaker 1:I think it's really important. Well, why don't we? I think it's really important.
Speaker 2:Well, why don't we quit telling people it's hard and start telling them you know it's easy, you just got to be prepared for it. You know why? Set people up for the mentality of being, you know, fear mongered all the way until they get out, Of course, they're going to feel like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. You know, and or even just saying like it's challenging, but there are tools that you can use to get through it there are strategies you can put in place. It's like you know, if you think about, like your hardest day in the Marine Corps yeah, how long did you prepare for that, that day, that hardest day that you experienced.
Speaker 1:You had trained and prepared for that for years, right, experienced, you had trained and prepared for that for years, and so why would we think that getting out of the military should be any different, right? So it's a great point. Okay, you know, you and I talked about the fact that, well, and even you said I never saw myself working for ncis, right? So, um, you tell me, you told me that you know, a job doesn't have to be a passion, doesn't have to fill a higher purpose, and we've talked about a lot that, a lot on the show with it.
Speaker 1:Sometimes your job just funds your passion, which I know for you, is riding your harley yeah and uh, so, um, like tell me a little bit more about how you came to that realization like, oh, I don't have to absolutely love what I do.
Speaker 2:Why do?
Speaker 1:you think it's important.
Speaker 2:All right, Absolutely, I think, for your mental health first. I think it's. I think it's important, Right? You know, we're not looking at the Joneses and we're not looking at the LinkedIn's and all those kind of things, right, where everyone's getting six figure jobs and they just walked into their dream job and they're passionate and all these things are happening. It's not. It's not. It's not happening for everybody, it's not. I would like to believe that we can all strive to get to those positions and things that make us happy and we feel fulfilled in our jobs, but the reality is, you know that it's not happening like that for everybody. Like, look at everybody else that's struggling and trying to find a job and trying to do these things.
Speaker 2:When I say just have a job, I understand we all also come from different backgrounds. Income is coming from different places. You know. Some not at all. Others are just income streams. So all of our situations are going to be different, Right.
Speaker 2:But just having a job is OK. We just have to eat, we just need a roof to live in and we just need a car, and for many of us, we just need to take care of our families, Right? So I might not be the happiest person living my passion every single day. But I'm definitely doing what I need to do to take care of the bare essentials, to take care of me and my family, pay bills and do all those types of things. You know, hopefully you can build a passion, whatever you know you go into and what's new, and I would I like to see that for everybody. But having a job is just okay. It's okay just to go to work and come home. It's okay just to provide for your family. You know your whole identity is not your job. My whole identity is not what I do for a living. You know that was my military life. You know my military life, my identity and my job were everything you know. So here I don't feel the same way. You know, what I do for a living is not Gennaro Mazza, it's not pirate, it's not how I live my life, it's not how my kids know me, it's how they have a roof over their head. You know, take care of Do I like it every day? No, absolutely not. I don't. You know I could. I would love to see myself doing many more things where I was happier going in, but I'm also living in a world of reality, where, if I will walk down the street and ask you know the next thousand people if they were happy in their job, I can almost tell you what most of them are going to say it pays the bills, you know. So continue to. You know, my thought process is continue to strive for what you want to do. And I hope you know, I hope everybody gets the opportunity to walk into a job that they're getting paid for, that they absolutely love, Right?
Speaker 2:I also sit back sometimes and wonder how people you know look for jobs for eight months a year, 15 months. I mean I'm searching for jobs. There's jobs out there. There's a ton of jobs out there. I mean I'm a great example, right, there's tons of jobs out there. You can get them. You just might not want to do them.
Speaker 2:You might feel as if you should be in a certain job because of your education, because of this, as as, as on, as on. You know, awesome as it might, as it might be to have, you know, it might be the best title in the world or whatever it is, but at least there's something there. You know that you're able to, you're able to bridge that gap, and I know when I say that sometimes it ruffles some feathers and people are like I went to college for 15 years, Like I it right, but what's the you know? At what point do you say I'm just here to have a job, I'm just here to take care of my family right now, and when I can get back to the next one, or I can, you know, I can go to the one that I really want to be in, then you get there. I don't see anything wrong with it.
Speaker 1:I agree. I think you know you've got to. Sometimes you got to do what's available to you, right. And I really like you know I talk about what Misty Moreno says. She's like just manage your life one year at a time, Like stop trying to worry about the next 20 years and let's just say, like what are we going to do for the next year? And then you know, figure it out. And so I totally agree with you. There are times where you got to do what's working for you and bringing the money in the door that you need to feed that family, keep that roof over your head, keep you on a motorcycle. You know all those important things.
Speaker 1:So keep keeping a smile on your face yeah, and I think that, um, there's nothing wrong with going and working and getting money so that you can have fun with your family in the evenings or take them on vacation or whatever the case may be Like. I don't want anybody being abused at work.
Speaker 2:Oh no.
Speaker 1:But I think sometimes it's all about again. We go back to, that mindset is like are we grateful for it, right, or are we hating it because it's not fulfilling right? So it's a matter of like. Sometimes, when I'm overloaded and I've got a lot going on, I should be thankful for that, because that means that my business is going well, and so sometimes I have to stop myself and just say, like, okay, but this is what I built, this is what I wanted, right. This is what I wanted right. This is what I need to keep my family going. And so I think it's a matter of how you approach it.
Speaker 2:Exactly, it's right on, you know, and we've discussed this and I I don't know if we're going to get into it, but I'll kind of bring it up. You know, I've had, I've held a few, I've held three different, well, two different, positions since I left the military. You know, my, my, my, my newest one being I work at Naval Criminal Investigative Service. I'm a management program analyst for them, you know, and I'm caught up in the same thing. Everybody else is caught up with the rifts and the questioning and the jobs, right. So you know, and they're being hired back on and they're riffing people again. So I'm right in the middle of it. So all the federal workers out there, I feel you, I see you and I understand. But I also don't have 12 months to wait around for this and I also have a mortgage that's due on the first day of every month and I have four children that have bills and braces and all these other kinds of things. So where did I find myself the next day?
Speaker 2:I have an individual here in town that owns a bar and I started bartending, right. So there's got to be money that's brought into this house. For me. Unemployment is not going to cut it. I have to work more and I have to bring in more of an income until I find something else. So that's where I find myself right now, in that dichotomy of working in NCIS, having a government job right, you know I got a cool position and all this cool stuff is going on over here, right, but you know, if I need to provide and I need to take care of my family, I'll do whatever it takes. You know, it just happens to be that there's a bar that I can walk into and start bartending, which is fun. I like to talk to people and communicate, which is fun. But you know, for me, I'm going to do whatever it takes to take care of my family.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't. I don't have a long time, I don't have time to sit around with as a full-time job, putting in resumes. I don't see how people do that. I don't have time for any of that. Like, I have to bring in, I have to bring in an income. So again, you know, it just kind of goes back to. I guess it goes back to what you're. You know how you're, you know what's going on in your life, how you know your income streams, how you're taking care of yourself, what you need and all those kinds of stuff, and all of our, all of our situations are going to look, look a lot different. But right now, just like our last conversation, I just have a job.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't like working at three, three, 30 in the morning. I don't like missing my, my daughters, when they come home from school and I usually see them walk right through this door and sit on my lap. I don't, I don't like that. I don't like, you know, I don't like getting a dollar tip after I've served someone for, you know, three hours, you know, while they're drinking. I don't like any of that, um, but I understand it, I understand the people that are out there doing it and I understand why having just a job man, a job to get you to level up, to go to the next place, is completely okay. And I don't care if you are a first sergeant, an executive, a commanding officer, and I don't care who you are. I don't think you should be humbled to do some work to take care of you and your family, if that's what you need to do.
Speaker 1:Oh, I hope some people hear that because I think that is such an important message and I just think that we let it affect who we are that we had to do something in the moment to get through a rough patch, and there is nothing wrong with that. We will all face those in our lives. Um, I remember like back in 2008,. There was terrible. We had a bad recession and here in Arizona construction dried up. My husband's a civil engineer and he could not find a job in his industry. He got laid off, went two years without an opportunity coming in the door and he went to work for the census. He was making less than half what he was making, but at least he was making some money.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And it was, you know, decent work, got some overtime, like did what he had to do, and that's, you know, like doesn't mean that he's any less of an engineer than he was in before he got laid off, right it, just there weren't roles and he had to do what he had to do, and I think that we all have those situations.
Speaker 2:So I had a senior leader years ago that proposed a statement to me. Um, it was more of a statement than a question, um, and he just kind of said are you the senior leader that'll take the trash out when you need to? Always stuck with me, always stuck with me yeah, yep, I agree.
Speaker 1:I think that is something that you know. We need to talk about this, because I know you consciously decided not to be a leader in the private sector. You said I don't want management roles, Like even though you were you retired as a senior enlisted leader, Like I think that leadership in the military obviously is different than leadership in the private sector. But I think as a leader, you have to be willing to do what you ask people to do if you want to be a good leader, Right. So how many? Like? How did you navigate that process of like coming out with all these leadership skills? And if you look at your, you know your quote unquote resume it's, it's leadership. How did you navigate that process of saying I don't want to be a leader anymore?
Speaker 2:This is easy. Again. I was tired, you know, and my expectations coming into this next chapter of life looked a lot different than most other people's did. I'm sure it did Right, and I guess those are all fueled by experiences and what they experienced in life, what their, their, what their relationship is, their family, what they need for their family, all these types of things.
Speaker 2:For me, you know the reason I, one of the big reasons I served over 20 years in the military, is so I could offset the cost of retiring over 40 years old and going out into the workforce, right, kind of offsets that cost a little bit Right. So I kind of knew already. You know, leadership comes with a cost, right, it always does. Whether that's a human cost, a physical cost, a monetary cost, whatever that cost is, leadership comes with this cost. And observing my friends that were in leadership positions, that were chasing a title or a dollar or whatever it was, they're like man.
Speaker 2:I feel like I work more now than I did when I was in the military. You know I'm at work. I'm up at four in the morning. I'm doing this. I got to be there, I got. You know, everybody else goes home. I'm at work, I'm working, on the weekends, I'm traveling, I'm away from my family, and I heard all this for years and I watched my friends do it and I was like, wow, that's not what I want. You know, I tell you what I want, or what I wanted. I wanted to lay with my wife in bed every night. You know, when I was out in the field freezing or sitting in Iraq or Afghanistan, you know I wanted to hold my kids. I wanted to watch them walk in and out of the door every day. I wanted to be able to show up to events at school. Um, I, I wanted to be you, you know, financially taken care of. Um, you know, there's things that I want, but the things that I wanted were very, um, they're not, they weren't tangible. They weren't tangible things that I were looking for. These were things that I didn't have, or I you know that I missed for so long and I couldn't get back.
Speaker 2:So when I walked into the workforce, you know, I knew, I knew, you know I'm gonna somebody's gonna ask well, you know, we don't have a, we don't have a job for you like that. Well, that's great, cause I just want to stock the shelves, or that's great, because I just want to be the administration guy you know, because you know when it's time to clock out, janera wants to go home. I want to go be with my wife and kids when it's time to clock out. I want to go be with my wife on the weekends. I don't want to be worried about what trips are going to come up down the road. And I see it today, where I'm done working, the day is over, and I look over at my buddy. I was like, man, I can't get off work today. I just got to work tonight. I'll be home around eight o'clock. My wife's going to be angry or whatever that looks like for somebody. We're like, hey, man, let's go on this trip, let's go do this motorcycle thing that I want to do. Man, I'm going to be traveling that weekend.
Speaker 2:I already knew that's not what I wanted to do. I already knew I was going to take a financial kick for that and I, you know, I shifted to ensure that I financially, you know, was able to hit the mark that I needed to make but also not take these jobs. And I am. I'm happy, I'm so happy I get to see my wife, my kids every day. I walk them out to the car. You know, I bring them food, I show up to their events. I'm so happy I did that. I'm so happy I have the flexibility not to have that much leadership on my shoulders where I'm worrying about so many other people other than myself. Gennaro's I'm chasing to be able to take care of my you know, my family. I'm not trying to chase the median dollar out the door in this big name, but, you know, I think it's that kind of seesaw effect of where you know, where do you, where do you want to live? What do you want your life to look like? How do you want it to feel? You know all those things. So that's, that's kind of where that's kind of where I am, you know.
Speaker 2:I know that it took a lot of pressure off my shoulders, you know, being a first sergeant and leaving, and there's nothing wrong with that man. There's nothing wrong with taking a step back, you know, and letting and letting other dogs run. You know, and hold, and hold those positions. You know we're not all when we leave the service. We're not all going to do the same things. We aren't all the same people. We all have different values and different things that we're looking at in our lives that are important to us. You know whatever that looks like for you, you know whether that's. You know whether it's being with your family, whether it's taking a pay cut like just do it, do it, man, be able to take care of yourself and then really be able to take care of yourself. You know, and that's that's kind of where I sit today.
Speaker 1:You know two things like first and foremost, I love your. Like. Leadership comes at a cost, right. I think we sometimes forget that right. Like, a six-figure job comes with six-figure responsibilities and stress and expectations, and so I think that's really important.
Speaker 1:And I think you know also, as we look at it, you know making that decision, like you said, that two years of preparation is really important, because I think if, like two years ago, you made that decision like you know what I don't want to do leadership roles anymore. I'm not shooting for a six figure job, I want to, you know, meet what I'm making today, and so you can start financially preparing for that too. You know, in two years years you can make a really big difference in your finances if you really focus on it and know what you're going for right and so and the other thing I want to say is, like individual contributors can still make some pretty good money oh yeah so you don't have to be a leader to hit the salary goals that you have.
Speaker 1:Do your research and figure out how you can. If you want to step away from leadership, how can you do that? So absolutely, yeah, there's a.
Speaker 2:I think there's a lot of leeway there. There's a lot of jobs you can do. There's a lot of good money to be made, you know, and I think the billet, the money, all that kind of stuff just really contributes to your lifestyle. You know how you want to live, what you're looking at, trying to do, and I think balancing that super important, you know.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1:Well, let's, let's talk about it, cause we mentioned it earlier, you recently faced a pretty serious health scare and that really made you rethink your priorities, right, and so tell us about the experience and kind of how it influenced your perspective and how it's kind of changed what you're going to do going forward.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. Yeah, january 12th I had a heart attack. I woke up in the morning, just like every other day. I woke up at 4.30. I was getting up with my wife, I was going to cook breakfast for the kids, all the things. But I took two steps and I remember just having a huge pain in my chest and I woke up in the hospital and I found out that I had a heart attack, which is awfully pretty shocking at 44 years old. You know that I didn't see that one coming. I'm not the pinnacle of health, but I'm also not. Yeah, I just didn't see that one coming.
Speaker 2:But yeah, this isn't the first time in my life. You know I've experienced a situation like this and I always think about this in the back of my mind, just like a lot of veterans out there. And I was wounded in Iraq and you know I watched, watched a lot of things when it came to my health rack. And you know I watched, watched a lot of things, um, when it came to my health. You know, those health scares which could have not, you know, had me come home, um, I think about those a lot, um, but just like everything, that's kind of fade in the back of your mind and you kind of forget about them, you know, and then you're, you're faced with a situation like mine, with a heart attack. You know I, I wasn't thinking about my, I wasn't thinking about my car note. I could give a damn about my job. Um, he's not. None of this stuff was going through my mind during his heart attack. It wasn't like how am I going to pay this medical bill? None of that, it's not what came into my mind. Um, my faith came into my mind. Um, my wife and my children, you know, came into my mind. Um, things you learn as you, as things happen in your life, and you, you know who's going to show up for you when something like this happens. Right, it's always not the people that you expect. Um, you know who showed up for me when these things happened?
Speaker 2:Um, but at in those moments and for the weeks after, and even now, you know, I definitely in my mind just kind of reprioritize what's important. You know, the things that are important the job, the work and the long hours, the weekends, you know, and it seems to only happen when it hits you full circle, when it's real in your life, you know, but one of the things I'm trying not to do this time is forget it. I'm trying not to forget it, trying not to forget how I felt in those weeks and those thoughts that were going through my mind, you know about, like, how can I mitigate X, y or Z, so this? You know, I could just be with my wife. I'd mitigate, you know. Okay, you know this happens and I lose my job and I get to get a smaller house. That's fine, but at least I'm with my family.
Speaker 2:And all these things are running through my mind and none of them had anything to do with LinkedIn, facebook. You know my income, like you know. These just weren't the things going through my house. You know I was thinking about love and family and faith and you know, and all these other things. You know, my friends, and that's other things, you know my friends, and that's really what you know what stuck with me and that's really what stuck with me all of this, and I'm trying to hold on to that and try to remember that going forward, I don't, I don't want to make any more decisions. You know where I feel that I didn't, when it is time for me to go, that I didn't do everything I possibly, could you know, to spend the amount of time that I want to spend with my family, and then I want to be present in the things that I want to do for them and ride my motorcycle, you know, or go and walk into the mountains or fishing or hunting or whatever it is that you do.
Speaker 2:You know that you see people only take 14 days off a year for really, like that's where we're at. Yeah, so that's what we, you know, prioritize things. For me. It's like when we talked about the job and we talked about all these, these things. So far, you know, my priority is like you got to be kidding me. You know you're only getting eight days off this year, like you have no sick days, like that's. You know getting eight days off this year and you have no sick days, like that's. You know when life, you know when the grim reaper is standing at the door.
Speaker 1:You know, hopefully we can take a step back and look at the bigger picture and hopefully we don't have to wait until the grim reaper is standing at the door right to assess those priorities. And like I really think, like you know how did you go about figuring out, like what your priorities were going to be after retirement? And I know that you've started doing this long ago, long before you had this health scare this year um, any like what advice can you give people to like really sit down and figure out, like, what am I going to focus on when?
Speaker 1:I am out of the military.
Speaker 2:You know our priorities change too right. I mean, I'm about the same guy. I was at 23 or 24. You know I wasn't married with kids and all those other things. I have clear different priorities today and you know things that I would say take it in a span you know, take it a few, three, four, five years at a time.
Speaker 2:What do I want to do right now, what do I want to do in this next two years, what do I want to do in this next five years? And kind of try to prioritize what's reasonably in control within the next year or two. If I do this or I get these certifications, I can do this or whatever it is. I would just try to prioritize it in smaller chunks, because two years ago I was teaching high school, you know. Then I worked at ncis. Now I'm, you know, now I'm limbo. Right now, you know, I'm working at a bar. I had a heart attack. So my priorities over the next three years are going to look a lot different than they did the last three years. Right, um, are completely different.
Speaker 2:What I'm looking for, my values, what I thought you, you know, life changing event. Something happened in my life, you know, and I, when I first was in CIS, I thought I was going to be in Quantico for the next 10 years and I was going to be a GS blah, blah, blah, blah, blah and sitting there and I was going to be the guru of all things government. You know, hr, but if you need a good martini tonight. I'm also your guy Right, so I didn't. I didn't see that coming. So you know, prioritize what you can look at. You know, look into small chunks of time, you know, two, three years at a time and see where you want to be at that point. Focus on it, you know, and dive into it. That's what I would, that's what I would think.
Speaker 1:And I go back to what you said early on in the episode is like you got to open your mind to the possibility, because if you don't open the door, those opportunities can't walk in.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I, first of all, I can't believe that we're like 170 plus episodes of this show. I'm not even sure how that happened, or that I even have a show, because I hate the sound of my own voice and I joke that like my youtube channel is like all the weird faces I make, like lined up in a row. I said to get over it, right. But if I hadn't just said like you know what, I don't care, I'm just moving forward it, it wouldn't be here. Who knew that I was going to learn how to speak military? Like I never saw that coming.
Speaker 1:I'll tell you the truth and I think that it's just sometimes you have to really, like you said, be open to the opportunity. That's the first step in all of this, and I think like we just need to name this like the mindset episode, because that's really what this has been about this entire time. So I appreciate you sharing that perspective, because I hope that we don't all have to go through that experience. I'm sorry that you had to go through that experience. I'm glad for what came out of the other side, but I hope not all of us have to do it in order to get that clarity. So exactly. Well, you've.
Speaker 2:You've alluded to it of us have to do it in order to get that clarity.
Speaker 1:So exactly, well, you've you've alluded to it, we've talked about it Like you currently are a federal employee for Navy and CIS, right, uh, so um, but you got part caught up in the whole riff that's going on in the government. Right now. You're kind of in limbo, like you said. You're getting paid but you're not working, and you told me you'd really like to find a new role. So tell us, like, what you want to do and that way, if anybody's listening may know somebody that knows somebody can connect you.
Speaker 2:Right? So back to my adventure, right? One of my thought processes in my mind is when I'm 70 years old, what do I want to say I did? You know what I want to say I did. Do I want to say that I worked in the federal government for X amount of years? Do I want to say I did this for so many years? The answer to that for me, was always no. I wanted to experience new things, right? Some people might call it job hopping to try to get more money. Well, clearly, we've already talked about that. I don't care about that too much, right? As long as I can make my median right. But I don't care.
Speaker 2:I want to see myself doing tons of different things. You know, so far I've rocked out as a high school teacher. You know government. You know bartending, doing all these kind of things. You know I don't. God knows where I'm going to be in 10 years. To me, it's exciting to think like that. Who knows where I'm going to be in 10 years? You know who knows, because I'm open to the. I'm open, I'm open to hear what people have to say and with that I am looking for a new role. I do not want to spend the rest of my, the next 10 years, in the government. It's not what I want to do, so I am looking for new roles.
Speaker 2:If I was to choose, if I was to choose a role, or if I, if I could, if I could say this is what I want to do, I mean I would, I would like to work with veterans. Um, you know, 20, 20 plus years of standing in front of veterans and shaking their hands and being side by side with them, um, it's super important to me. Um, I was wounded in Iraq in 07. You know I've laid in the hospital. I've I've been that guy. I've gone through those. You know, I've been the guy hurt and laying there wondering, questioning all these things about my life. I've looked to my right and left and see my friends wounded or have passed on. It became very personal as my career has continued to push forward there.
Speaker 2:Towards the end of my career, I worked at a wounded warrior battalion as one of the senior enlisted at the battalion and I did a lot of those things. I did a lot of. I did a lot of working with benefits, working with the VA, working with the nonprofits that were out there, making sure that the caseload, the cases that I was dealing with under me, you know, the Marines and sailors were getting the care that they needed to care, working with social security. So I have about, you know, I have many, many years of personal experience and then on-hand experience as a senior and leader working in those types of roles, um, you know. And then also doing the logistics for that as well. Um, you know, moving people around, making sure they're getting from point a to point b and they have the stuff and the gear that they want.
Speaker 2:Um, if I could see myself back in that space, if I could see myself advocating um, as a guy who's been there and done it knows what it feels like. Um, you know, I think that's the kind of passion that you know you want your dream job to be. You know, if I could sit there every day in front of people that I know exactly what they felt like and I'll work a few more hours, I'll work the weekends. You know what I'm saying. And now we're talking about a whole different spectrum of what Gennaro is willing to do, you know, to be part of something you know that he used to do every day and his same values with my family Right. So now we're, you know, we're right there where it all kind of feels like I should be, I should be doing this, I want to do this, and that's where I see myself side by side with veterans advocating for them, side-by-side with veterans advocating for them.
Speaker 2:You know, you know whether that's. You know whether that's um, you know, in some type of standing in front of somebody or working or some type of event, or whether that's. You know, helping people with. You know get their benefits through through the VA, or that's putting people on trips throughout the country or being a face for an organization, um, that's where I would like to be. That's definitely where my heart is. Um, you know, is is taking, is taking care of what was so important to me for so many years, um, and every time I try to get away from it. Right, I try to get away from it, like in the back of my mind, like I don't want to do that, but the reality is, is that's what I do? Um, I would like to see myself there, um, but again, you know, I'm a, I'm an opportunist. Um, I'm an opportunist. I could, you know, I can work for the federal government, other organizations as far as administrative and program management is concerned. So but yeah, that's kind of what I'm looking for right now. Yeah, I'm kind of in limbo, but I am a free agent at the same time and I definitely want to be in a new experience.
Speaker 2:I want a team. I work from home. I guess I should throw that out there. I would love to work with a team. I work from home. I rarely talk to anybody throughout the day. I get one phone call a day. Everything's on a computer team where I could actually see some money and I could shake their hand and look at them like a human being and talk to a human being. To me that's probably more important than anything because I haven't had that in about four years. So I would love that personal interaction. So you know everybody that doesn't want to go to work right now. I do.
Speaker 1:I do. I want to go to the office, yeah. So, that's a that's a personal choice. Yeah, absolutely, I think it some. It works for some and it doesn't for others.
Speaker 1:So um okay, well, I we will put your LinkedIn URL in the show notes and I will make sure that people can reach out to you if they want to get in touch with you for those kinds of opportunities, and I really appreciate you coming on and telling your story. I really loved all of what you said. I think it's really important and I hope that it makes an impact on the people out there listening.
Speaker 2:I hope so too. I hope whatever we have to talk about and your podcast, I mean, if it can help one person right, and then we've won.
Speaker 1:That is the goal. Thanks for listening to today's episode. My goal is to give you actionable strategies to help you learn to market your military skills and smooth your transition to the next phase of your career. If you learned something valuable today, share it. Subscribe to our podcast and our YouTube channel, leave us a review and write a post on social media about the lessons that helped you today from this episode.