Unarmored Talk

Beyond the Uniform: Transition with Purpose, Build a Meaningful Life

• Mario P. Fields - Sergeant Major (Ret.) • Episode 143

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What happens when your transition plan falls apart?

For Marine veteran Matthew Askren, failure wasn’t fatal—it was fuel. From abandoned business dreams to unexpected detours in flooring sales and food manufacturing, each step became a building block toward his success as a CEO leading multiple companies. 

In this episode of Beyond the Uniform: Transition with Purpose, Build a Meaningful Life, Matthew shares how resilience turns setbacks into growth and why his mission now is to help veterans and first responders strengthen their mental health for life’s toughest battles. 💪

👉 Connect with Matthew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-askren-mba/
👉 Learn more about his work at https://mindfulme.care/

 ▶️ Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/r_KiNHxuUGU

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Mario P. Fields:

Welcome back to Unarmored Talk Podcast. Thank you so much for listening and watching each episode and continue, please, 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 an awesome show. And you can connect to all of my social media on the parade deck Just look in the show notes. Media on the parade deck just look in the 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 from Marine to CEO in some years I'm talking. He was like early 30s.

Mario P. Fields:

Welcome to the Unarmored Talk podcast. I'm your host, mario P Fields. If this is your first time listening or watching on the YouTube channel, welcome. And if you have been listening or watching since 1800s no, I'm just joking since 2020,. Thanks for your continued support and loyalty. Today I have a fellow Marine brother. His name is Matthew Askren and you guys heard me say you know he's still a Marine but transitioned out, went to be become a CEO at about 33 in a major grocery industry and has developed a lot of discipline I won't even say developed, but enhanced his discipline, growth and resilience and more in his transition journey. He's here on the show and we're going to remove some armor and talk about that transition journey, matthew, what's up, my friend?

Matthew Askren:

Good morning, good afternoon. Whichever it is, I'm one of those people that have watched since about 2020.

Mario P. Fields:

So tell me in that group man, I appreciate it and it's for charity, so everything I do it goes to still serving, incorporating my nonprofit that just celebrated seven years. So thank you, because even if you watched one episode that generated a penny and you know what A penny will make a difference in someone's life Do me a favor, man. Can you tell the listeners and viewers a little bit about you?

Matthew Askren:

Sure, I am a United States Marine, a little bit older, not quite as lean, although I still try pretty hard at that. I poorly run endurance races and marathons and ultra races still. But I got a gray beard, so I guess not a Marine like people think of anymore. But I did transition into the business world, into the private sector. I'm a proud father of two sons, One just turned 12, one nine. I've got a beautiful wife. We've been married almost a year. She's from the Bayou of Louisiana and I have moved her around twice already in a year. So pray for her.

Matthew Askren:

But, I come from a strong family with a strong faith and proud to be amongst great men like yourself Likewise and congratulations on your year with the lovely bride.

Mario P. Fields:

I know she's the CEO of your house, right companies man. This guy probably had an easy transition. I don't think that's the case. Talk to me, let's talk. How was it when you got out and you went into the private sector?

Matthew Askren:

my friend, Well, I definitely didn't have an easy transition and that's one of the reasons why I have helped people in transition a little bit last, the last few years, but I've helped people in transition really ever since I got it right. When I got out about 14 years ago there was very little structure for people that were getting out, especially for careerists, and I know people say well, you only did two enlistments, you're not a careerist. Well, once you get, mario understands that once you do the first enlistment and raise right hand again, you're considered a careerist. And if you happen to be a high performer and I hope I don't sound arrogant, although at the end of the day I really don't care, I was a high performer, check my fitness reports, check my career Nobody believes you when you say you're getting out.

Matthew Askren:

So the whole time on that second enlistment, you can be telling people hey, in a few years I'm getting out. Hey, second enlistment, you can be telling people, hey, in a few years I'm getting out. Hey, and however long I'm getting out, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, it doesn't matter. Nobody believes you, all the way to the point when you're actually getting out, and they're saying hey, when you check out with the CO, don't say X, y and Z and you go well, why that's what I'm doing? And they say so. That's part of why it's hard or was hard. The other reason why it is and was hard is that the transition process, especially for GWAT veterans, has become a lot more streamlined in that last 10 to 12, 13, 14 years. That's a good thing. So blessed to see how it's come these days. No, you're right. Yeah, let's bless to see how it's coming these days.

Mario P. Fields:

No, you're right. And for the listeners and viewers who are not military, the GWOD stands for Global War on Terrorism. Those are the folks who served in the armed forces during that period. So here it is. Folks, don't believe you. You got this vision and you know if you're a Marine listening or watching this audience. Matthew is accurate. If you are a high performer, they're going to ride you like that wild horse Like this is a rodeo. Well, a horse won't be in that rodeo. We'll get with something else in the rodeo here Bad reference, mario. But if it's like a race man, they're going to ride you. So now you get out. And what was one of your first major challenges.

Matthew Askren:

Well, the biggest one was that I had planned for a long time to franchise at 7-Eleven. I was all the way at the finish line of the process. My theory was I'm going to get out and I'm going to go right into ownership. I don't want to start at the back of the line. I've been leading people. My first MOS was as an armorer, which, for those that understand that world, you literally are in charge of somebody. As a PFC, you have an armory custodian who you're over. So I had been in leadership from literally the day I got out of MOS school, and so the idea that I was going to get out and I was going to be a private sector schmuckatelli just didn't go for me. My last duty station was as an MOS school instructor at the comm school. So I've got 54 students or whatever it was Like. Going from 54 students to acting like I can't lead isn't going to cut it. So franchising a 7-Eleven was ultimately the route that I chose. Unfortunately, I get out.

Matthew Askren:

I had just gotten married to my first wife, we had just bought a property and the loan market was atrocious. You've got to think about it. That's right after the bubble burst, and so I would have had to work for free for one year, franchise 7-Eleven. The second year I probably would have made $5,000 or $10,000, just based on getting a loan and then trying to refi with some sort of a balloon a year or two later. All this stuff, when I was in, nobody told me didn't make sense. To be honest, even the people in the franchise stuff didn't really say it, because they told you well, go find your own financing. So that was the big hurdle, and I remember waking up in the middle of the night one night and saying I can't do this.

Mario P. Fields:

You know, matthew, and that that that is critical for you to come to realization and not let your pride become a barrier in your transition journey and going. It is OK to go. I can't. I got to try something different and I applaud you for that, because there's so many folks that I've seen that transition. They're so stubborn, you're like all right, you need to try something else. We got to have a couple of different options here. So when you made that mental change, what was option number two?

Matthew Askren:

Option number two is I better find something quickly, because I was so. That was already actually option number two. There had been another entrepreneurial journey prior to that, so this was really option number three, and so what I ultimately did was I found a job. I there was a flooring chain in Chicago called Century Tile it no longer exists, but they were a retail chain with 12 stores. They hired me and told me that they were gonna make me a manager. Ultimately, that wasn't true. They just wanted me to work on commission, which was actually a tremendous experience for me. I say that that has helped me so much in my career. God works in mysterious ways. The other option I had was a local truck stop was going to hire me to run their entire operation for a whopping $12 an hour. I'm making that up, which, on its face, might have been a better opportunity, except $12 an hour. So you know, like I said, I had just gotten married and just bought a property. $12 an hour wasn't going to cut it with no benefits.

Matthew Askren:

I think, if I remember right at the time, or very little benefits. So I took that route and then I started looking for a career simultaneously and I sort of haphazardly found my way into food manufacturing. From there, about nine months later, I got a job with the company that makes pretty much all of the hamburger and hot dog buns in the Chicago area you know anything about Chicago Hot dogs are a huge thing and that's Alpha Baking Company, and the brand that they're known for is S Rosen's hot dog and hamburger buns.

Mario P. Fields:

You know and at the beginning of the show I mentioned resilience, growth and discipline and some other soft skills that are transferable, and everyone did he, matthew, he had a choice. He could just lay down like a sheep and just say just eat me up life and and listen to the, the, the constant. I'm not going to give up, I'm going to have resilience, and then I am going to go into an industry that I may not even have a clue about. And then look what happened. Now you're in this industry, you don't? You're like well, how did I get to this point? When, when, when, when did you start to realize? I think, I think this is for me Very early on.

Matthew Askren:

Actually, that company was a family owned company and for those that have worked in family owned companies, you understand that that isn't all rosy all the time.

Matthew Askren:

Um but one of the things about that for for this multi, a hundred million dollar a year family company, um, that I that I got was access. Um, they wanted people in in in meetings, they wanted people to be cross-trained, they wanted people to have information, and because of that I had an opportunity to be in front of things that if I had been at a Fortune 500 company, I never would have experienced. And so here I am, the first six months or a year that I'm in this career and I'm already getting this information and this intelligence, if you will, that I never would have had otherwise. And so very early on I realized, man, like I'm getting a skill set here that's legit and quickly.

Matthew Askren:

I had started doing some networking, started picking people's brains, joined LinkedIn and from all that I realized, hey, I probably need to move on. For a couple of reasons One, I was unbeknownst to me, severely underpaid, but two, the other reason was because I needed to kind of have a more diverse skill set, and so that company was a very laborious process, company very hand heavy. I started looking for companies that did more with automation or technology, because if I'm going to be who I think I'm going to be, I need to be able to talk about automation and engineering processes the same way that I talk about human capital management, and so I, kind of early on, started piling up this vision and ways to execute it.

Mario P. Fields:

Your approach to looking at this. You know any opportunity to develop and grow. I hope that at least one listener and viewer adopt that mindset to go. You know what? This may not be what I envisioned. This is not the 7-Eleven franchise. However, there's some soft skills here. There's some skills that I'm getting that's invaluable and access, access to real life experience, wisdom. You know that you can't get into. You know there's no university of wisdom, it's just real life stuff. If you had to give yourself advice when you are EASing, if you can go back and you can sit next to yourself when you're EASing, what would you tell yourself today?

Mario P. Fields:

I would say you can take your time because I know if someone asked me that question I'd be like man. I need 10 minutes and go get me a beverage.

Matthew Askren:

The biggest thing is God's got you and as long as you put in the effort with a plan plan and as long as you have a network that you cultivate, you're going to be OK. And I have. I have had many ups and downs, you know. If you look at my career on a PowerPoint, maybe it looks like a linear arrow and that's cool, I'll take that, I'm not going to complain. But the truth is, you know, I have had failures. I've fallen on my face. But I've also taken those times where I've fallen on my face, or those failures, and I have A learned from them. But two I've even found ways to actually use them to propel myself forward, and I know a lot of folks.

Matthew Askren:

That's going to sound crazy, but once you've done it it's not as crazy as you think, because we learn a lot more and I wish it wasn't true. But Marines, you know, I was in Afghanistan with a Lieutenant named Lieutenant Porter who told me once he was a prior enlisted Navy guy and guy, and he told me once I'm a Marine. So for better or worse, I typically learn things the hard way and I wish that weren't true. I pray sometimes that it's not true. The reality is that we've got to fall on our face. Sometimes We've got to have some level of failure, even if it's not your fault, and to figure out okay, where am I actually supposed to be? How am I actually supposed to navigate this?

Mario P. Fields:

Matthew, the brilliancy of going okay, I'm going to embrace failure so I can learn, like you said. And I used to have this mindset, I mean years ago, when I was like right now I'm 95 years old, no, I'm just joking but years ago when I would be like man, I don't want to fail, I can't fail, I can't fail, and it was a bad thing in my mindset, my belief system. We're now listening to you and even myself going no, it's, it's okay to fail, because there's so much learning, learning opportunities, and in all your failures that you, you know, you say, hey, you know, I kind of failed. And failing doesn't mean I did a previous episode a couple of months ago. It doesn't mean giving up All right, but you never have.

Matthew Askren:

Of all the things I've done, that is one that I've never. I've been laid off Right. I've been embarrassed, I've had people take advantage of me. I've never given up.

Mario P. Fields:

That's the one that I've never done so in all your experience of, let's just say, failure for this show. If you had to pick one thing that was invaluable to you that you learned from them and I know these are tough questions, because not even tough we're discussing, because I would talk to you all day, that's every guest, but you all know the deal, I can't If you had to pick one thing, what would it be that you've learned from the failing moments?

Matthew Askren:

It's that we have this ability, and it's not a good one to infuse our ego into our reality. And I don't think I'm a big ego guy. I have an ego, but I honestly, I believe, am at least somewhat humble and have humility as an asset. But even I will infuse my ego into situations and think, well, I can't do X, or if that happens, I won't be able to recover or I won't be. And then life has taught me no, you sure will Just wait, you sure will Be patient, you'll figure out a way. You sure will Be patient, you'll get creative.

Matthew Askren:

And here's the other crazy part, mario you can do it while maintaining your ethics. You can do it while maintaining your integrity. You can do it while standing on your own two feet and being a the man or woman that you were created to be, that you were hopefully raised to be. Not everybody was blessed enough to be raised that way, but for those of us that were and so that's the part my ego has often said well, that can't happen to me, because I wouldn't be able to recover. Guess what? I was wrong.

Mario P. Fields:

Any new things on the horizon for you?

Matthew Askren:

Yes, so recently I have invested in and am now the CEO of a company called MindfulMeCare. Technically the company is MindfulMeCare, but it's stylized on the Internet as MindfulMeCare. So if you go to your Internet, you watch this and type in MindfulMe Care, it will come right up. And mindfulmecare it will come right up. But it's an AI tool, ai company that is focused on mental health. It's a companion tool with a language model which is a lot of jibber-jabber to say that it's here to help you in your mental health and it will even talk back to you. It's got actual psychologists and clinical social workers involved with it. It's intended not to be just a sole one-stop shop. It's intended to accompany the rest of the things that you're doing in your life to make you better.

Matthew Askren:

But you, I'm sure, heard a couple of years ago about a former instructor friend of mine, staff Sergeant Linnell Springs, who took his own life on Camp Pendleton. He went live on Facebook right before that happened. I was actually on that live with him trying to talk him off the ledge. He and I stayed in contact after. We were instructors together when he was on recruiting duty. I got to know his in-laws a little bit when I was with XLency Bakeries and we did a lot of business in Vegas where he was from.

Matthew Askren:

So he and I were friends to the end unfortunately, literally to the end, and I don't want anybody to go through that again and not on my side military reserve veteran, veteran family first responders to get them to adopt and adapt to this tool so that on a daily basis if you were, we know Mario's probably a six or a seven, because Mario's motivated Matthew is pretty good too, so maybe he's a five, but but we want to be. Instead of being a four or five every day, we want to be a six or seven, so that on the worst day of our life, instead of going down to zero, we go down to two, because if we're a two on the worst day of our life, we're going to live to see tomorrow and unfortunately then then we have stories like the one that I just shared.

Mario P. Fields:

Well, matthew, before I let you go, I want to say, first of all, I'll continue to pray for you and anyone that was impacted by that unfortunate suicide that was broadcasted. And two, thank you for your new. You know the things you're doing that's on the horizon to save at least one life and everyone. You heard it. Transition is not a linear journey and you guys heard some amazing some. One of my belief is amazing wisdom and experience from Matthew, and so, if you are currently on active duty, you are about to transition, transition or you have transitioned and still kind of struggling. Definitely, I hope you learned something, something, something from this episode and you can connect with Matthew on LinkedIn and I will make sure all of his links are in the show notes. It's been wonderful to have you on a show, matthew, and I would love to keep you on a little bit longer, maybe go downstairs and put something on the grill and virtually give you a hamburger, but I enjoyed you.

Matthew Askren:

I appreciate you, mario, and uh, it's been a pleasure knowing you these years. And uh, let's uh keep connecting, and and uh keep engaging.

Mario P. Fields:

Yeah, absolutely when everyone again? Uh, I'll see you guys, or you can either see me on YouTube or hear me on that audio platform in about a week or so, but until next time, I will continue to pray that may God continue to bless you, the listener and viewers, your friends and families and all living beings around you. Thank you for listening to this most recent episode 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 is 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.

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