From U.S. Military Academy West Point to Creating Jobs in America through Authentic Apparel

What if the shirt on your back could help create jobs in America?

Veteran entrepreneur Dean Wegner, Founder and CEO at Authentically American, shares his unique journey from United States Military Academy West Point to launching a 100% American-made apparel brand.

Discover the story behind this driven veteran, his unwavering dedication to family, country, and God, and his passion for American manufacturing. Wegner invites you to join his mission - support American jobs and wear your patriotism on your sleeve with Authentically American apparel. Expect a spirited conversation on entrepreneurship, faith, and the importance of making clothing choices that support the United States of America.

Guest Links:
➡LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deanwegner93/
➡Authentically American: https://www.authenticallyamerican.us/
➡United States Military Academy West Point: https://www.westpoint.edu/

Transcript

Mario P. Fields: 0:00

Welcome back to unarmor talk podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue pleased to share with your friends and family members and colleagues, and don't forget to leave a rating or review if you feel this is a awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the parade deck Just look in a show notes or you can put in the search engine Mario P Fields parade deck and get all access To my social media. Well, let's get ready to interview another guest who is willing to remove their armor to help other people. Hello everybody, welcome back to unarmor talk podcast. I'm your host.

Mario P. Fields: 0:41

Mario P Feels good to if you guys watch me again on YouTube. It's always I wish I could see you guys, but hopefully it's good for you to see me and, of course, if you're on audio. Again, another amazing episode. Another guest who's willing to remove their armor to help people develop a accurate way of thinking if Life happens which you know will and they will be potentially emotional, but at least you can think through things, develop that strategy and help people. Dean Wagner, what's going on, my friend?

Dean Wegner: 1:12

Well, mario is so great to see you, I can see you, and you and I've got to know each other quite well after just a few short calls and looking forward to Digging a little bit deeper and having a great discussion.

Mario P. Fields: 1:23

Now same here, dean, what you guys, what you guys don't know is is Some of you guys follow me on social media is when, snoopy, you know, our amazing dog that we had almost 16 years passed away, deans, deans, lovely puppy named Snickers, have passed away right before where they had to. You know, we had to make a decision and so, believe it or not, when we're doing our discovery phase, dean actually helped me and Nicole get through the loss of our fur baby. So, dean, again, thank you so much. And having that kind of unfortunate but shared experience at that moment, my friend.

Dean Wegner: 1:58

Well, fantastic, let's dig in and looking forward to it, mario.

Mario P. Fields: 2:01

Yeah, let's, let's get into it. So you guys know the deal before we get into our wonderful guests. I get to the professional part. Again I'm gonna say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. A lot of times we take things for granted I can only speak for me but to be able to wake up and breathe and just be able to see and have the Functions of faculty working where we could come on this, this podcast, develop a discussion framework as to living human beings, it's always a blessing, so I would never take it for granted. Everyone who's been supporting this podcast for almost three years about three years now Thank you, thank you and thank you. So now here we go. We have Dean Wagner. He is a veteran. He is the founder of Authentically American. He does a lot more, but I'm gonna allow him to tell you guys a little bit about himself so we can get into this discussion. Dean, over to you, my friend.

Dean Wegner: 2:52

All right, mario. Well, I always love to share a little bit personally about me up front so that way anyone's tuning in knows who I am. A little bit about me personally and I tell everybody I'm a veteran and an entrepreneur, but priorities for me alive with God, family and country, I mean that is ultimately what's important and it starts with my Christian faith. And just four days ago, mario, my amazing wife Kelly and I celebrated 29 years. So I'm a lot to put up with.

Dean Wegner: 3:22

So I'm thankful for an amazing wife and we've got four incredible kids. We have two daughters, 25 and 22. We have a 19 year old son and a 13 year old son we adopted from Ethiopia. So family is incredibly important to me and, from a country standpoint, had the privilege of attending and was very fortunate graduate from the United States Military Academy at West Point, went to flight school learn how to fly helicopters and then had a unique opportunity after flight school went to the Army Special Forces Ranger School and serve seven years active duty. So that's like a little bit of a background on me before we dig into authentically American.

Mario P. Fields: 4:00

Dean, thank you and congratulations. 29 years of the commanding general of the Wegener family putting up with. We salute yes, oh my goodness, and the wonderful kids and family and and just your focus. I get it. You know so. You've done a lot of things in your life. They were choices to not only. You know what I believe is America's most precious, precious jewel called freedom, and you chose and protected. But then you, you got out and now you're doing even more Through your entrepreneurship and your business owner and business mindset. Let's talk about what that is.

Dean Wegner: 4:42

So, mario, one of the things that really drives me is this insatiable desire to know that I'm making a difference, and that's really at the heart of what authentically American is all about. We're an apparel brand, we've got amazing product, but it's all made here in the US. Nice, you get an idea how rare American made is. When I graduated from West Point, 93, over 50% was made in the US.

Mario P. Fields: 5:06

Today it's three Wait a minute Percent is all that's made here, so 93 is about 50% of things made in America.

Dean Wegner: 5:16

All apparel purchased in the US and now 3%. Wow and Mario, it is a shocking statistic. And that statistic gave birth to our tagline Where's Yours Made? And it's designed to be provocative, like, hey, mario, great looking polo, Where's yours made, right? Most people look at me like do you not have no idea? And they're shocked when they look at the tag and see Made in China, made in Vietnam. And the heart of our mission is our passion for creating American jobs. We just happen to be in the apparel business, right?

Mario P. Fields: 5:51

Yeah. And so when you start at this vision, when this vision, you're a founder. When this vision popped in your brain and you conceptualize it and made it become reality, was there any time where you're like am I doing the right thing, or what is right thing?

Dean Wegner: 6:13

I will tell you, mario. In July we celebrated six years and in 2017, we were a blank sheet of paper Was very clear on the vision to build this iconic American brand with the same brand recognition Think of a Nike Polo, under Armour, north Face brand like that. But all American made. And I have to tell you I'm exhausted. It is the most challenging, most difficult thing I've ever done. I've been having flashbacks to Ranger School, but I will tell you as exhausted as I am even more energized because truly feel like I have an opportunity to make a difference. And it's been challenging. There's been an incredible amount of minefields we've had to navigate through, but things are really starting to take it off and there's just a number of lessons learned on that journey. But I'm excited. But there have been many, many points on that journey. To your question like what was I doing?

Mario P. Fields: 7:09

Yeah, right.

Dean Wegner: 7:10

I do it not right, but God's been faith-providing. We are really starting to take off now.

Mario P. Fields: 7:16

And it's amazing too Just my belief when you've got that spiritual foundation and you allow the chairman, god, to lead you and not yourself. So here it is again, 2017, blank piece of paper. You had the ups and downs If you can think of one thing that you are emotional about but you thought, you said but let me research and strategize and think through this. What did you do? Can you talk to me about that thinking process?

Dean Wegner: 7:46

Well, let me tell you one thing that's been a big surprise and it's really changed our whole business philosophy and our whole approach. Because, back to that 3% number. I thought everyone was like you. I thought everyone was like me, like most of your listeners or those who are tuning into the podcast, where they're patriotic, they love our country.

Dean Wegner: 8:07

I'm sure many of them are veterans, first responders, and the thinking was Mario, everybody is just going to love our brand just because the fact that it's American made you know what I found out, as most people don't know, but there's a large percentage who just don't care.

Mario P. Fields: 8:23

Wow.

Dean Wegner: 8:23

They just don't care. And initially I was upset. I'm like how can you not care about that? Right, and the whole philosophy used to be that we're going to be all things to all people. I thought, well, mario woke up today and put a shirt on, so did his neighbor right next to him, so did that guy down the street Unless you live in a nudist colony, I mean, everybody makes a choice and thought, well, isn't this wonderful Apparel is a massive $300 billion industry, and I thought we can literally almost touch everybody.

Dean Wegner: 8:55

But I've got to tell you one of the shortcomings, one of my failures, was that lack of focus was not successful and what we really did is, you know, transform from all things to all people, to. My new mantra of Mario is the riches are in the niches and we're laser focused on who that target customer is and your reflection of that. You're a veteran, you're a business owner, and what we found is, although most people don't care where their shirt on their back is made, generally speaking the veteran does. So our focus is on the veteran, specifically veteran owned businesses and veteran focused charities. So, instead of a Nike, a Gildan shirt with your company logo on it that's made in China. You now have an opportunity to partner with Authentically American and I will tell you that has made all the difference in the world.

Mario P. Fields: 9:48

Yeah, no, dean, and I love how you had this vision, this belief that, like you said, you know, I believe that everyone's gonna want this. I mean, this is gonna be a wonderful discussion at the local coffee shop, come on. And then you found not everybody cares.

Mario P. Fields: 10:09

So I love how you thought through that. We're again here. You could have chosen to say you know what? You know what, mario, I think I'm gonna try something different, or I think I'm gonna go a different way. And you thought through that and researched it and then really narrowed down your target audience. If you're your customer, if you will, and I love it I love it. Now, as you started to really focus on folks like myself and other people who do care I mean, I care. Matter of fact, interviewing you is gonna make me be more intentional. Seriously, what has been the results now that you've kind of refocused and narrowed down your approach?

Dean Wegner: 10:49

Well, let me share with you some numbers and this will put a perspective how impactful that focus is and that mantra of the riches are in the niches. Because initially when I thought about veteran, I thought, well, that is too small. You know, when you think only 1% have served and a much smaller percent of that own a business, I thought, you know, that's too small of a focus. But when I did my due diligence and we as a team looked at you know how big that market is. The numbers are astounding. There's 400,000 veteran-owned businesses with 10 or more employees. Wow, 40,000 veteran-focused charities and we work with hundreds of both. But in a sense we're touching 1% of the market, our target customer. We're really reaching 1%. So think of the upside. So now, anything outbound, anything that we're doing from a you know, marketing, event-related, anything across the board. We're making an investment in time and energy. You know it's focused on the veteran community.

Mario P. Fields: 11:49

Wow, that is amazing and I didn't even know it was a 300, we'd say $300 billion industry 300 billion.

Dean Wegner: 11:56

it's astounding. So we only need a small little market share to have a large, successful brand.

Mario P. Fields: 12:04

Would they say, have the faith as small as the mustard seed. Amen. You guys are looking at Dean, who had faith as small as the mustard seed, and look where we are today and I will tell you Dean, you know again, ladies and gentlemen, everyone, of course we're recording this one before we produce it, but this is so important and what Dean is doing is passion for veterans, his passion for creating jobs in America and his passion for awareness. Dean, just so you know, I'm going to release this on Veterans Day. Oh, wow, I am. So everyone, even though we're recording this before Veterans Day, we're gonna say it. I'm gonna say happy Veterans Day to everybody. Dean, you've inspired me, motivated me so much. I'm gonna release this episode on Veterans Day.

Dean Wegner: 12:54

Well, Mario, I love that and your timing is impeccable because prior to launching Authentically American, I worked at big companies and big brands Procter and Gamble and Mars, for example, brands like Crest and Tide and M&Ms and we literally had Super Bowl ad budgets. Super Bowl ad budgets sell multi-million dollars and my marketing budget, being self-funded, is about this big. But one thing that we do have is this feel good American story. We're creating American jobs, we're veteran-owned, we're American-made and we've been blessed with some incredible earned media, some national TV exposure. We've been on Fox and Friends. Just last week we're on MSNBC and it's interesting, the timing on November 11th because the day prior, knock on wood saying my prayers hopefully holds true, we will be on Good Morning America.

Mario P. Fields: 13:52

That will be so cool, I tell ya. And if not know what I mean, dean, I've watched some of your interviews, most recent one, and I'm proud of you, your team, your executive director, you know one more. I know you're having fun and I wanna ask one more question. As we discuss and this is just awesome Reflecting back on all of your training, including when you were with the special forces, you became a pilot. If you could pick one or two soft skills or skills that you learned that really was transferable when you started, authentically American and especially dealing with the pandemic and other external factors.

Dean Wegner: 14:32

Well, here's where I will tie back to Ranger School, and you know those who are not familiar, ranger School, it is a military doctrine. There's a lot of that in the course, but ultimately it's a leadership course. And what they do, mario, they deprive you of everything you need, everything you think you need to survive, namely food and sleep, and then put you in an incredibly stressful situation. So on day one there were 340 of us and if you make it straight through for 72 days in a row, you live on one meal a day and two to three hours sleep a night. Wow, one meal a day and two to three hours sleep a night. And at the end of that 72 days, we lost 80% and there were only 70 of us left.

Dean Wegner: 15:18

And, being a flight suit wearing an aviator, there was no reason for me to be there. And you know Army Special Forces Ranger School. But one of the reasons I was able to make it straight through, you know one was the sheer grace of God, but the second one was my Ranger Buddy and back then it was Marine Corps Infantry Sergeant Roy Backey. So you know, right in your family, you know being in the Marine Corps.

Dean Wegner: 15:40

But what the lesson taught me, mario, is life is hard, life can be challenging, and don't do it alone. If there's something you're going to do that's incredibly challenging, that's going to be incredibly difficult, you know, find that Ranger Buddy. You know, find that business partner, find that spouse and I'm an entrepreneur now and I believe that business is the ultimate team sport Even if you're a sole proprietor, you have to have a banker, you have to have an attorney, you have to have, you know, a CPA. So you've got all these members of your team. You know that are going to enable you to be successful. And that's one of the soft lessons I learned that you know invest in relationships. And you know, don't go it alone. Life is hard.

Mario P. Fields: 16:21

Yeah, thanks, dean. So much. You guys heard it from Dean. You know there's many, many choices you can make while living, but choose to do it with the team and don't make that choice to do it alone. Dean, how can the listeners and viewers find you, my friend? How can they go on your story, your website and purchase some of your apparel?

Dean Wegner: 16:43

So the best way, mario, is go to our website authenticallyamericanus. Authenticallyamericanus and that dot US was an intentional choice given the equity of our brand. So, if you remember, I told you a little bit about our sweat activated print innovation. I'll do you a quick demo. So this is me being an Army grad, a West Point grad, so printed it says go Army. But watch what happens when I spray this. You can see beat Navy magically appears, and you know I love the look on your face, mario. So the reason why, if you want to buy one of our individual consumer items whether it's West Point Naval Academy, air Force, vmi Citadel, so, or something like I'm wearing, that's authentically American branded, use an individual can go to our website.

Dean Wegner: 17:34

If you're tuning in, you say well, dean, I've got a business and I want American made. I thought I was resigned to Nike or Lanzan, something that's made in China. You can also have a contact with us there. If you're leading a charity, you know that's also the best way to go. And the only thing I would highlight from a charity standpoint, we have two pricing tiers. So if you're a Pepsi Comcast for profit business partner of ours, you're paying full price. If you're a charity and nonprofit doing amazing work. We're going to give it to you at cost and that difference between the Mario Mario allows our clients who are nonprofits to build their brand and raise some money in the process. So, authentically American dot us is the best place to go. Whether you're an individual consumer, you know a business or a charity.

Mario P. Fields: 18:19

Dean, thank you. We will be talking subsequently after this episode, but you guys heard it authentically American. Dot us again. I love that army, kind of get some sweat going beat Navy. That was cool. And you guys heard from Dean Dean Wett Wagner. I truly appreciate you. Please tell your family. We said hello and thank you again for appearing on the show, dean, thank you so much.

Dean Wegner: 18:43

My pleasure Don't be a guest and thankful to have a new friend, mario.

Mario P. Fields: 18:47

Absolutely, and I'll see you here, where everyone you guys know the deal. In a couple of weeks We'll see you with another amazing episode, with another guest who's willing to remove their armor to help people. But until then, god bless you, god bless your family and your friends. Be safe out there. We'll see you soon. Thank you for listening to this most recent episode and remember you can listen and watch all of the previous episodes on my YouTube channel. The best way to connect to me and all of my social media. Please follow me on the parade deck that is wwwparadecom, or you can click on the link in the show notes. I'll see you, guys, soon.