What If It Did Work?
What If It Did Work?
Life Planning After Service
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The hardest part of military service can start after the last day in uniform. Retired Army Colonel David Howe joins us to talk about leadership under real pressure, the shock of losing structure and community, and why so many veterans struggle with identity, direction, and isolation when they come home. We get honest about the gap between how civilians imagine the military and what service members actually carry, especially when the mission ends but the weight does not.
From there, we go deep on a surprisingly simple tool with massive upside: a written life plan. David breaks down why companies obsess over strategic planning while individuals rarely write down goals for their health, family, career, finances, and purpose. We talk about the research he shares, the discipline it takes to review and revise your plan, and how building accountability around you can turn good intentions into real progress. If you care about veteran transition, employee engagement, or building a healthier workplace culture, this part will hit home.
We also unpack David’s partnership with Ken Rusk, author of Blue Collar Cash, and the work they do through the Comfort, Peace, and Freedom Foundation. That includes practical guidance on choosing college or skilled trades with clear eyes, plus the difference between their self-paced course and hands-on workshops that can help teams align personal goals with corporate goals. The conversation closes with a direct, urgent message for anyone who is struggling: you are not alone, and help is closer than you think.
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Cold Open And Guest Setup
SPEAKER_00I've never done one back in my whole life. I've been holding back every time. Oh my god, don't fucking do what it's a hero.
SPEAKER_01All right, everybody, another day, another dollar, another one of my favorite episodes of my favorite podcast. What if it did work? Gotta say, I'm super excited to have this guest. He's all around the hero. He's a person in service completely. And today's guest is a man who didn't just serve his country. He's still serving it just on a different battlefield. We're talking about retired Army Colonel David Howe, leader of over 30 years in the U.S. Army, including elite level experience, and another 30 years in high-level professional services and consultant. But here's where it gets real. He's now on a mission, a real mission to help veterans and service members navigate one of the toughest transitions in life. Not combat but coming home through his work with the Comfort Peace and Freedom Foundation. Alongside Ken Rusk, David is tackling one of the most urgent issues facing our military community today: suicide, identity, loss, and lack of direction. After service, this conversation isn't just about leadership, it's about life planning, purpose, and making sure the people who protected freedom don't lose their own. So buckle up because this one hits deep. Here
What Military Leadership Really Means
SPEAKER_01we go. How's it going, sir?
SPEAKER_04Fantastic. Thank you very much for this great opportunity to talk to your network uh about a whole host of topics. Uh uh, and that was a wonderful introduction uh to certainly get us uh started this evening.
SPEAKER_01And I gotta say, man, you're highly decorated. Now you spent 30 years serving this country. What did that chapter teach you about leadership? That a lot of people, especially civilians, they just don't understand.
SPEAKER_04Well, uh leadership is really the core value that uh has allowed the United States military to be the force that we see, unfortunately, on every news uh station uh 24-7 these days with what's going on around the world. And to do that kind of performance on a sustained basis, leadership is the central pillar that allows all of these young Americans that we bring in to be able to do these very complex, very dangerous jobs. Um, because you have to lead people to do those kinds of things. Uh sometimes people have this image of uh military leadership is you just order people to do stuff and they just snap to it. But when you're ordering people to do dangerous things, taking hills that have a lot of uh bad guys on them with machine guns and stuff, um, they're gonna follow you up that hill. They're not gonna have you push them up that hill. And so that's why leadership has been so critical throughout my uh military career. And then I I was able to leverage uh that skill set very effectively in the parallel civilian career that I've been able to enjoy uh since I left the active army uh a number of years ago.
SPEAKER_01Well, also, too, a business leader, when a mistake happens, it's a decision. Yes, it might be a setback that costs like a quarter, a little bit of revenue. Maybe they have to pivot. You essentially no one's lives are at stake. But a military leader, I mean, literally, not only is freedom involved, but people's not only their livelihood, their souls, their you know, their existence. And and another thing is a lot of times we just I I know not only I I I'm a history, one of my degrees is in history, but also we had this warp perspective just based on movies and on the media, or even on simple things. I mean, I I remember I'm an I was an introvert, only a child. I thought military was just like reading Sergeant Rock comic books in the 70s and 80s. That it was like, you know, okay, what's the next mission? Let's mow down everybody, and then you know, let's let's hit repeat next month. And it's it's certainly nothing like that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, it's uh you you highlight uh one of the most common misperceptions about military, military leadership, um, and the kinds of things that are really central to the success of the United States uh military is um we we are far more normal in some ways when people have that uh caricature impression of what we are uh like. Um we we actually are uh people that uh can be a good next door neighbor, can you know be a good coach on your children's soccer teams, uh all kinds of ways we can be just plain normal while we're doing uh what we do for uh gotten country.
SPEAKER_01And and it's funny, just just a couple days ago uh I was out of town and um the movie, I think it was a few good men, the one with uh Jack Nicholson. You know, you need me on that wall. And it's like, you know, how dramatic. But I mean, I've got plenty of fraternity brothers that were lifeless, and they're like the military. I mean, whenever it's their birthday or whatnot, I always thank them for being on that wall, and they always smirk because I mean, yes, I I know there's you know, there's that's far from reality, all these movies, but you know, movie drama sells, so clearly you need as much toxicity, as much drama, as much tension that you can put in a movie. So, yes, uh, you know, everybody feels especially like my age of Platoon, Oliver Stone, Vietnam. There, there was no movies on Iraq because it was going on at the moment. So all we could do is like, oh wow, you know, and the glory. You can either have the glory or you you can have the nightmare, or sometimes both. But yes, I I would have to admit, also the military, there's there's discipline. So being being a leader, you you have that because a lot of times in corporate America, sometimes we give leadership or role to a person that either longevity that should not be there, or we we're like, oh, that guy's that guy should be our sales manager. But why is he a great no because he sells the most? That's why we put but that's not a leader, right? You're you're taking him out of something that he's good, you don't even know if he wants it. A lot of times, too, in the real world, when it comes to athletes or when it comes to people that excel one thing, they can't relate because and that's why you know the they're always like, Oh, why does the Wayne Gretskys and the Willie Mays and all these amazing athletes never could transition to an amazing manager? Well, Ted Williams, to him, everybody should hit 400 or high 300s, and that's the same thing in corporate America. How's the guy that's you know, your top sales guys like, how is he gonna relate to someone that's fearful? So, yes, that that's that's I I would have to say, you know, the people when when I was an entrepreneur, any military uh what even if it was ROTC or someone that came out of the service, definitely, because they not only leadership, but like what you said, people's lives are at stake. So it's not, you know, they they just walk differently. And that to me, that that's what you want in corporate America, not not only on the battlefield.
SPEAKER_04Well, and and the point that you're bringing up about uh, you know, just because you're best at a certain skill set doesn't automatically mean that you're great at all skill sets that the organization needs. So one of the subcomponents of the leadership is they're always evaluating and building that team that you're gonna need. And just like in the NFL, you don't need the top 11 quarterbacks on the team. You need a good quarterback and then the rest of the team to wrap around that person, or you're not gonna be successful. You can have the best draft pick. Uh and I live in Chicago, so I've seen a lot of top quarterbacks get drafted and they don't do well at the Bears. You make the line and do great other places, but you know, we have a uh you know a stack of bodies of uh quarterbacks that didn't quite make it. And it wasn't really uh it was the organization wasn't there to support them uh and the kind of game that they were capable of playing. So you gotta you gotta make sure that you're evaluating and getting the the right people on the field and the right jobs.
SPEAKER_01Well, when I look at the military, an organization, if I have to compare it to a sports team, it would be like the St. Louis Cardinals, or it would be like the Dodgers or the Yankees that are always there. People don't understand the reason why there's the Browns and there's the Lions, the Bears, unfortunately, Miami Dolphins here, you know, yes a million years ago, but 40, 50, 60 years is of dysfunction. Why is that? Because top to bottom, you have it organization. If the top isn't right, you like what you said, you you you could have Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr and you know Newt Rodney and and the whole nine yards, the four horsemen, and it it doesn't matter because everything starts from the leadership. And if there's dysfunction, if there's if things aren't aligned, especially when it comes to a mission and especially you know, leadership leaders need to lead. Sometimes people don't understand the difference between being a leader and being a boss, because it's it's like what you said, yeah. When you're like it's not like okay, I'll just take this fill. I don't care how many people. Can you imagine that? Like how how some bosses just do it as I say, uh if you know a major pivotal moment, like in D-Day, they're like, just do it. Who cares? I don't care if if people die, it's to be expected. We just need it done. But that that's how a lot of people run their organizations, and it's like, holy smokes, no wonder you guys have like a revolving door.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01Now that highlights another no, no,
From Uniform To Civilian Life
SPEAKER_01sorry. I was just gonna say, was it really hard though for a transition for you, just the personal transition for from being in the military, and then all of a sudden, after 30 years, just becoming a civilian?
SPEAKER_04Actually, I was blessed in that uh my specialty was essentially hospital administration in the military. So, you know, movies like MASH and things, those were the kind of units that I ran. You know, I started in the 82nd, you know, with a smaller version of that, and then just worked my way up to uh, you know, essentially a 300-bed combat uh drama hospital. Um and the wonderful taxpayers uh during the first Gulf War um sent me to get my master's in healthcare administration. Uh literally, I had just signed in, the course had just started, and uh the Iraqis invaded Kuwait. And I even went to the course director and I said, you know, I really had to be over there. That's what I've been training for my whole life. The guy came back uh with a very wise response, which is, How I think we can win this one without you. That's your lane, and uh, you know, just stay in that. And and um obviously uh it was an interesting thing for me to watch it on television and air conditioned, safe, uh, comfort, while everybody that I had just been working with uh uh were overseas uh doing it for real.
SPEAKER_01Well, you you're gonna laugh, but it's it's not your fault. I mean, the media, everybody portrayed desert shield would become desert storm, and it would literally I I guess the prediction was wrong because what was supposed to be you know the the last desert, uh the that the last Iraqi confrontation. That's what I mean. I was 18, senior in high school. People were because they're like 10,000 dead every month. Looks like we might have to uh do the draft again. And you know, all of a sudden, all these patriotic people, you know, all of a sudden, I guess, had bone spurs, or you know, we're thinking thinking Canada and whatnot. So I I clearly hear you. Me, I was just like, holy smokes, man. I at that time I'd never been to Vegas. I'm like, well, I I guess it's it, you know, you always I I'm assuming the Middle East is like, you know, Arizona, maybe.
SPEAKER_04So to answer your question directly, my transition was much easier than a very transferable skill and and plenty of time to plan for that. There are many others that uh do not have such an easy transition, either because they're having difficulty translating what it means to be an infantryman or an artilleryman, which they have a wonderful skill set, but it's being able to talk about the discipline, the ability to stay focused on mission, you know, the things that made them successful in the military are almost the same skills that are gonna make them successful in the civilian world. But if you can't translate those concepts that the way you describe that, people are gonna look at you like you're you're not gonna be a good fit for the organization.
SPEAKER_01So do you think a lot of times what happened with a lot of these servicemen is they didn't real that no one just took took the time and said, hey, it's the same skill set. Because you always hear these stories, oh my God, you know, I I I felt like I was in a different world. I felt like I was out of place. I I remember uh the first uh just a couple years uh a couple years to me, you know, you can tell our age, I after you know, people were done with their one tour or two tours of Iraq, you know, coming back. And I remember somebody because there was uh an argument like in a restaurant or whatnot, and he turns to me and he's like, if he knew, if they knew how it was in Iraq, they would just shut the F up, man. It's like and I I get it, it's it's like it it's hard to uh it it I guess what we should have done is just saying, you know what, you guys are you you guys are rock stars out in Fallujah and all those other places. You were meant to be rock stars here too, back at home.
SPEAKER_04Actually, I'm pitching the military uh to use this life planning approach as people go through their uh transitioning process out of the military so that they leave with a holistic, personalized plan for how they're going to continue to have a joyful life. And they can replace the relationships and the structure and the things that uh made their military experience positive as they make that jump to being in the civilian world rather than that. Some of them do get out and they've and they they've lost their network of friends, they've lost, they're in a different, they have to leave posts, so they've lost all of that community. Uh some people really find that uh they're they're almost like lost wandering in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01And that's awesome. There
Why A Written Life Plan Wins
SPEAKER_01you said it best, life planning, because I I see on the show notes that your producer, your publicist said, and it's one of your core topics. When you say life planning is a missing link to the puzzle, what does that actually mean to you?
SPEAKER_04Well, in a corporate sense, everybody understands and believes there's a great return on investment for doing corporate planning, whether you call it a strategic plan or any other business planning. You know, corporate America, regardless of the size of the organization, has some kind of plan. And people would think they were nuts if they didn't have some kind of plan. Conversely, individuals, there's only 1% of us that have a written plan that holistically lays out the major facets that we want to pursue to have a joyful journey through uh the remaining days that we have on this earth. And another interesting statistic, and possibly the most important thing that people may hear today as to why they should pursue something like this and why corporations should help their employees pursue something like this, is those that do have that 1% that do have that written plan that they periodically review and update and revise, they are nine times more successful. And that's based on a number of studies over many, many, many years at different universities and other places that have analyzed this. So think about as an individual, you can guarantee it almost a nine times fold better journey through life if you just commit to putting down some goals and objectives and commit holding yourself accountable for pursuing that. And then in the corporate setting, by facilitating your employees getting those plans, well, part of that plan is, you know, how to get promoted, how to get a bigger bonus, you know, their corporate part. And by having those things then last into the corporate planning process where you're making sure you're meeting the employees' expectations of the organization, well, there's a natural synergy that comes from that. You'll start seeing people show up uh to work earlier, stay later, more weekends. And I'm not trying to rip people away from their home or their other lives, but by having a well-oiled plan, a well-balanced plan, you can put more effective hours in at work, gaining the benefit there while simultaneously seeing an even better use of your time when you're not at work. So that's why I'm I'm so passionate about uh bringing life planning to you know members of the military, the veteran community, uh, kids coming out of high school. You know, my kids have gone through this as they were moving on to uh college a couple of years ago, um, and they find it useful. Hell, my daughter's uh boyfriend right now, he did the program and he's been putting his fraternity brothers through it uh because of the value that he sees in having something like this to make sure that you really are going in the right direction uh as early as you can in life.
SPEAKER_01Now, sir, do you think the reason why companies beer from that is because the lack of it's not leadership, it's just we live in scarcity. It's like, well, people start writing down goals and they start writing down their dreams, they're gonna be they're gonna leave me. They're they're they're they're they're gonna have actual real goals, man. And they don't want to be lifers here. And to me, I I always said, well, that's a great thing. Because that means you have people excelling, hitting at a higher clip, and not just dead weight that are like, I'm here uh to like for the next 20-30 years, I'm just gonna coast. And yeah, that that's a good problem to have. And usually if if you if the levels keep on rising, the goals rise, production rises, everything rises. And and it's a fact of life. People, you know, we all have to leave a company eventually. Not that's not only in sports, but you know, I you know, something, you know, God, Jesus, they're they're calling eventually, St. Peter, you know, where I I haven't met that 200-year-old person that's like, yes, I've been with with ATT, you know, since the beginning, since since the telegraph. That's right.
SPEAKER_04And actually, what you're talking about, uh, Ken Rust, who's the the founder of the foundation and and the guy who wrote the book where he lays out all of the steps needed to create a life plan, he's been doing this in his company for more than 30 years. That's how we got the idea to to write a book about it. Um, and so he uses it at work. And so that leaving park, this is one of the ways he keeps the back door not locked, or nobody can get out, that they're trapped. It's that nobody wants to go out the back door. They want to do a career with him, and he's doing tough work. I mean, his his day job uh are things like uh ride-proofing basements and things like that, manual labor out in the heat and the cold and stuff. You know, he's not you know kicked back, you know, jamming with his headphones on, writing code or something in an air-conditioned office with, you know, donuts and and whatever the goodies of the day happen to be. I mean, he's he's he's still doing real hard work. And and his track record, they even post their goals in the in the office space and celebrate when somebody gets, you know, they have a new child or they get married or they have a they wanted to get a new truck or you know, whatever, you know, the the immediate goal. Is it that somebody's pursuing, they celebrate, and that's the kind of thing that really makes uh this kind of planning uh that much more effective and successful.
SPEAKER_01Well, what you're you're gonna laugh at this one. I thought originally it was the typo, uh because I went to Ken Rust.com and I'm like, because I'm I'm expecting like a guru, yeah. You know, all of them, and and you know, the the bespoken custom suit. I expected to see the rah-rah rah, invite me over to your corporate office, and I'm gonna have everybody. And I'm like, did I get it right? And then I I look at at your name, I look at what the publicist said, and I'm like it because it was like, no, it's gotta be wrong, because you know, Ken Ross is blue-collar, you have David Howe here, and it it's it's
Blue Collar Cash And The Trades
SPEAKER_01crazy. How how did you uh partner up with Ken Ross? Because he he's he's like the type of guy that should be on the uh there was a show on CNBC called Blue Collar Millionaires, because you know, core uh all of us are raised that the only way to be make a lot of money is to work at Wall Street. You know, you have to uh have the white collar, you have to go to Vanderbilt, you have to have connections, but you know, it's it's the furthest thing from the truth.
SPEAKER_04Well, and that that's one reason why Ken wrote the book, also. He basically his book, Blue Collar Cash, has really two main themes. The obvious one is in the title, which is The Virtues of Blue Collar Work. And that's exactly the point you're making, which is you know, nowadays, because of the supply and demand, where you know, there's way more people leaving the trades than are coming into them. So most people that are becoming carpenters or welders or whatever, they're they're quickly making six figures if they know which end of the hammer to use. And you can you you contrast that with people who have been forced on the college prep track. So you the same 18-year-old, rather than becoming a welder, you know, goes and goes into college for four years, runs up, you know, a quarter of a million dollars or more of debt, misses out on almost a quarter of a million or more in money. So you're looking at a net deficit of a half a million to three quarters of a million dollars. And obviously, if you want to be a doctor or an accountant or something like that, yes, yes, you know, that and Ken's not anti-college at all, but have a plan as to why the hell you're gonna do that and make that investment and make sure that it's gonna have it's a business plan that it's gonna pay off. You know, you want to be a finance guy and and you know be on Wall Street, okay. Well, then you're gonna have to check the box, do the certifications, and you know, go go forth and do great things.
SPEAKER_01But you don't know what you're gonna do. It's crazy though that we've never uh academia still pumps that story because that was the story I was led to believe. Oh, yeah. That if I didn't go to college, if I didn't have a degree, that I would be under the bridge homeless with a bunch of drug addicts.
SPEAKER_04And and right now, I I would say there's probably a higher uh uh dropout burnout rate for people that got into college and realized, what in the hell am I doing here?
SPEAKER_01Because I'm looking at the standards and I'm looking at the I thought they were high back when I went in the early 90s, and I've I've got a sophomore in college, and I got another one, senior high school, and it's like holy smokes, these standards and all that, and this is just for a normal degree, and and they still specialize in a thousand worthless, and I can say it, people, because I've got two one in history and one in journalism. You don't need it, and and it's you're gonna laugh at this story. So I I graduate my my two degrees in journalism. The girl next to me, we we get a job, she helps me get a job, she tells them I speak six languages, which is I barely can speak to Spanish, barely Spanish and English. And we start working with other people, maybe a year or two older, went to LSU as well, and then we realize that there's plenty of people there making even more money. And they didn't go to LSU, they don't have a degree in journalism. What's going on here? Does HR know? And it's funny because you would think and I after that it hit me. I'm like, oh my gosh, and you know, I see all these commercials for tech schools, and hey, yeah, you can make right off the bat uh learn how to fix ACs, be an electrician, but it still gets drowned out by if you don't have a degree, you will start. It should be like instead of dare, marijuana is the gateway drug. It's like not having a college degree will be the gateway to hell before you know it, you'll be living 40, 50 years, and it's like that. And
Design Your Life Then Your Career
SPEAKER_01I'm uh I I'm a geeky guy. I I I did read the blue-collar cache, and what you and him are aligned with completely is this design your life first, then reverse engineer your career. That that's the main thing, and that and that's what you're saying. The basis is right it's like you and I were like, okay, we want to go we want to do a road trip from New York City, somewhere East Coast, uh, to Los Angeles, LA. We don't have a map, we don't know how to get you there's no plan, you know. It could take us a week, it take it could take us a month, we could blow through all the money, we could do 20 pit stops. We don't know. We're just going way west. And we don't even wind up in LA. We we wind up in in Scottsdale, Arizona, and then we're damning ourselves because we didn't write down how we wanted it to look. And and people laugh because I I always ask them, I'm like, Did you write down your goal, your short-term, midterm, long-term goal? And they're like, Oh, okay. Uh you know, they'll they'll call me whatever guru, and it's like, no, it's just common sense. I know common sense isn't more isn't common. It's like, yes, but you didn't charge me ten thousand dollars for a three-day course in common sense, and I I mean that's what I love about you. You just said it. Uh, I mean, you that that's in anything in life. Your success rate will go way higher. I I mean, I've done everything from being an entrepreneur from being in sales. You know, you have to write down a goal because if if not, how do you know that that's like, oh, I want to lose weight? Yeah, I really need to lose 60, 7 or 70, 80 pounds. I don't know how, and or you know, give a specific time frame, but you lost a half a pound, so technically you are successful, right? Yeah, absolutely. But how did you now how did you align with I mean, you guys are partners, and and yeah, basically, it it's a crazy story for me.
The Snail Mail Partnership Story
SPEAKER_04Um, my wife was actually watching uh one of the news channels, and Ken was being inner because he's he's on you know the cable shows, you know, with some frequency. And my wife happened to see him and he was talking about this life planning program. Well, decades ago, I had an epiphany, which is uh I was at Deloitte Consulting at the time, and we were doing all this high-speed, you know, a thousand bucks an hour billing rate kind of, you know, uh like you alluded to earlier, you know, where we're charging people a lot of money to, you know, tell them uh that you know, you got to have goals and some of the basic building blocks of having a successful operation. And I'm sitting there while one of my partners is is doing uh his thing, and I'm thinking, you know, here I'm being paid a lot of money to do all this planning stuff, but I don't do this in my own life. And and so I literally was like, I gotta sit down and come up with my own vision, mission, goals, objective, and I created my own life plan. Well, fast forward 25 years, I I see Ken talking about this, and I'm like, I wonder if he could use some help bringing this. Because I immediately saw that it would it would be critical for the military, both the people that are in uniform and as we've already talked about people transitioning out of the military. So I wrote him a good old-fashioned, typed up, signed with ink letter, and I mailed it to him. So he gets his snail mail thing from this colonel, you know, in Chicago area, going, Hey, would you be interested in, you know, uh talking about how we might be able to work together on this? And we've been together now going on almost three years, bringing this uh people, fine-tuning it, uh, the workshops that we're uh now providing, uh, one of which is to leverage the planning for the employees as step one to lead into the corporate planning so that everybody's literally operating off of the same sheet of music and everybody's expectations are well known rather than, you know, somebody thinks you're gonna get the next promotion, and the boss is like, there's no way he's gonna get that job. And if you have that conversation early, you may be able to find a way to repurpose where rather than that person's on a track to get that job, there's another position that they're much better suited to, and then everybody has a win-win rather than you know, somebody uh ends up with a pink slip because you know it's up or out. So uh it was almost divine intervention that brought Ken and uh me together, and and it's been uh a wonderful relationship ever since.
SPEAKER_01But also what brought you is you took action. It's always no until you ask. You could have been like, oh, you know, he's uh what most people do is they always go for the worst case scenario. Absolutely. Like, he's not gonna, he's not gonna even want to talk to me, much less partner up, or who am I? I'm not gonna send and you went the extra mile. Yeah, it's not like you just you sent him an email, and you you literally sent him a snail mail. He was probably like, Holy smokes, I haven't received one of these letters in like 12, 14, 15 years. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And I thought that would be the that would be the way to really either make this go one way or the other. You know, he'd be like, this guy sent a dinosaur, he's still using, you know, things that have stamps on them. You know, no, he's not gonna, he's just he's not up to the game. But it was that thing that's sort of like, hey, you know, this is different than somebody just lobbing me, you know, an email or a text.
SPEAKER_01Because how many pitches we all get pitched a hundred times a day, yeah. You you went the extra mile and you you stood up by doing something completely it, yes, is it old fashioned, but it it works. He was like blown away because you put that extra doing the extra work and anything shows commitment to me, shows discipline. You weren't half-assing it, you weren't it wasn't like you know, hieroglyphics, or you know, you're like, ah, just uh, you know, we're I'll make you a million dollars, I'll make you a billionaire, like what a lot of people pitch. No, you uh and three years later, he's got the book. Uh now there's there's courses and workshops.
Course, Workshops, And Culture Fixes
SPEAKER_01Right now, what are the differences between the course and the workshop then?
SPEAKER_04Well, the course is focused on the life planning. So individuals can, you know, you don't have to be a rocket scientist or a strategic planner with a PhD to create a life plan. In fact, now that they that people have heard the idea, they can do what I did, which is to just go and you know figure out some format and put goals and objectives together. The key is to get it on paper, commit to it, build a net worth around yourself of your friends, family, coworkers, whatever, to help hold yourself accountable. Because otherwise they'll end up being something that you did once. It sits on the shelf, collects dust, and six months later you've totally forgotten that you did it. And that's not going to get you the nine times return on the investment that you're looking for by putting yourself through this process.
SPEAKER_01So then it's not for those people that are seminar junkies that go for the dopamine hit that go week, you know, spend and then they might get a certificate from Kinkos or I don't even know if they're around anymore, Office Max, Office Depot. It's forgotten. They don't implement anything. No.
SPEAKER_04And it costs a whopping $179 for those people that you were talking about earlier. That if that's if they're not spending $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 on it, well, then it can't be worthwhile. You know, it's got to be inferior product. No. Uh Ken's doing this to pay pay back for the great success he has. He's got wonderful boats and all the other toys, uh, you know, race cars. I mean, he's not trying to make another 10 million bucks uh uh through these things. All the money he he gets on the for-profit side goes into fund the uh the Comfort, Peace, and Freedom Foundation, which is providing the course and other ways to serve our veterans. Um for example, I in the last 48 hours I've been in communication with uh uh the Ohio National Guard, uh their service members, the crew members uh from that tanker that crashed uh last week are home today. So we offer this free of charge to those families. And it's obviously if they elect to pursue it, we will be there and help walk them through it in whatever pace and whatever way best works for them. Um, but everybody else, you can do the online thing. It's written in Ken's book, uh Blue Collar Cast, so you can literally just follow those chapters right along, and you'll end up in the same place with a written plan that uh is very achievable. Um if you need that touchy-feely stuff, uh it that's where it blends in and becomes one of the workshops where uh we've talked to companies that have brought Ken in uh to either be keynote speakers to get the ball rolling, or uh we're available to stick around longer for a pretty reasonable price for considering what you're getting, uh, to actually coach people through it. And then ultimately the workshop then becomes where we take the individual plans and and uh help people uh at the corporate level start blending those uh individual employees' desires and wants into how their uh corporation is going to provide those kind of opportunities. And then there are a number of other opportunities uh through the workshops. Ken's set up an ESOP, which I think is a great thing uh for any organization to get buy-in and to close that back door, people leaving um and to get better buy-in and higher productivity, et cetera. Um, Ken's come up with this concept of uh chief culture officer, because if your culture stinks, everything else can be great, including salary and so on. But a lot of your best people are gonna be like, I just don't like coming to work. You know, what I do, I like, and not necessarily loving the fact that I got to be in this building or you know, whatever. Um, and so they'll they'll start looking for something else. And the and the good ones are the ones that are able to leave, the ones that you are like, ah, they left that, not so big a deal. But uh uh the ones that you really want to keep, you really want to make sure you're keeping those folks around. And and culture is one of the things, even more so than money, uh, to keep your your top performers uh engaged.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but a lot of times too, if it's horrible, the the culture is lousy, the pay is not there either.
SPEAKER_04It tends to be you're in a death spiral, usually.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I I I treat everybody horrible, but the pay is great. No, usually it's in complete alignment that you know the dysfunction, toxicity, horrible pay, horrible culture. It you know, at least it's consistent, clear clear across the board on that.
SPEAKER_04Yep, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01But what I like too is uh it uh blue collar cash and and the workshop yes, 179, which is nowadays it's just like going out to dinner. Yeah, unfortunately it is. Unfortunately, yes. I'm not saying go Ruth Chris or Smith and Wolinski were probably pushing three four hundred dollars now. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, so the cost of a dinner and what I love about it is it's simple. It's it he's it's not about a get rich quick scheme because that's what a lot of people, a lot of people, I mean, society is all about. Let's cut corners, let's become millionaires just by waking up, let's lose weight by uh giving ourselves a shot. Who cares about the drawbacks? Who cares about everything? Who cares if I lose all my hair and I gain it all back after I, you know, we're all looking. But uh it's about freedom. If you had the clarity, you do the work, you do the work on a consistent basis, and you're not gonna hit pay dirt, you're not gonna hit it today, you're not gonna hit it tomorrow. It's like investing. Everybody's looking for you know the a 1,000 return on like the dot-com, but it's not gonna happen. But if you do the work on a consistent basis, uh you will have the freedom. And and and that that requires discipline, uh which hey the military teaches. And what we we all most people lack discipline, and it's funny, you yeah, the once you know, you know how usually gurus do it, Dave? They're like, it's free. We have this for we have this free whenever you hear that from a like, oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_04Oh, yeah, that's gonna cost a lot of money.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that the the this free is gonna equal like twenty thousand dollars in no time. So you do the free event or whatnot, and then before you know it, it's an emotional sale. It's like selling timeshare, and you're like, Oh, yes, this is it. This is gonna put this is gonna put my company over the top. I'm gonna become a leader because I just paid someone twenty thousand dollars that has never really owned a corporation, and especially in my field, but I'm I feel it because I'm gonna be in that room and I'm gonna be walking on fire, I'm gonna do a 10x, I'm gonna do all this stuff. Then when I go home, I'm not gonna implement anything. And then, you know, maybe after I pay off everything, I'll go back and do another one.
Money, Time, And A Joyful Life
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I've I've created through my hard work a lot of millionaires. So I have a pretty good idea, uh, a path to becoming very wealthy. Um, the other thing I would say is most people can be very healthy, uh, enjoy uh a well-balanced life without becoming a multimillionaire. Nothing wrong with that goal. Um, but if you have a balanced plan for your life, you are going to have a more joyful time than just because of the size of your bank account. So uh we we can we can help get you there uh if if money is uh currently at the top of the priority list. Um, but uh most people very quickly start seeing that there's a lot of other things that exactly if you go to the end of your life, yeah.
SPEAKER_05How much money you have in the bank doesn't get you uh another day, it doesn't get you a better feeling.
SPEAKER_01You can you can be the wealthiest man, and when when you know it your time is up, it's not like you you're like, quick, honey, give me the checkbook so I can show the Grim Reaper, I can show St. Peter, I can show Jesus. Look at look at these numbers, it's not my time yet.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, can't buy yourself uh more time. No, no, every other resource you can you can probably find a way to make more of it to include money, but also I'm not gonna get more time.
SPEAKER_01Speaking from experience and from anybody, when you chase money and you hit that goal, it's like okay, because there was nothing, there's more, there's way more to life, and and and the money thing too is created really by mass and avenue. Because I mean, growing up, no, the husband and the wife didn't have to work these hard jobs so we can buy Lexus's and it was it was this thing that consumerism. And that's why we chase the money. And then if we go, I remember with my ex-partner, which is my ex-wife, we went to Fiji and there was like the happiest people on earth, and it's the poorest. And you're like, but why don't they know they need the new seven series?
SPEAKER_04Absolutely. That's why again, I start uh every one of the planning sessions with imagine you're on your deathbed. Are you feeling that you accomplished what you wanted to? Or did you achieve the things that make you feel like you lived a life that was worth living and that you really don't have any regrets? There may have been things that you didn't get done, but they were low on your bucket list, as opposed to, you know, you got a broken home, you know, your kids, you know, failed, nobody's coming to your funeral, you know. Uh, but you got you know, a hundred million dollars in net uh wealth. Okay. Um, that to me doesn't sound like a good trade. Maybe somebody thinks that's the right deal.
SPEAKER_01Buys them a great coffin, man.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know, the top of the line one.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. I mean, I guess you can't take it with you by having it lined in, you know, by a gold coffin. But you know, I don't know if that's really gonna do much uh after you've breathed your last breath.
SPEAKER_01Well, my my mom always said this to me. What what do you you're not nobody's an Egyptian, you're not gonna be buried in it. What are they gonna do? Write a check and throw it inside your coffin. Uh and that's that that's typically, and that's why it I mean, I I laugh when people discuss how much well, anybody can make money blue collar, white collar. If you're disciplined and you know, you don't have this fear of missing out that you need to buy this shiny item right now, and you invest and you keep on working and keep on stacking assets. Yes, it's there, there's and everybody's waiting for that book to the the the new Dave Ramsey, the new something that it's like everything I always tell people we're already programmed, we already know the answer. You're you're overweight. Well, maybe the eating the two pizzas and drinking the six pack of coke. Yeah, maybe maybe I don't know, maybe there'll be a new book that you're waiting for, or you know, everybody's well, I need a new relationship book. Of of course, because you know being selfish and not communicating that uh I don't know, but yeah, it's and that's uh I I got it. I have to tell people two things definitely to follow you guys. Uh and I've done every course, and just read reading the book, it was like wow, because it usually somebody there's there's no fluff. A lot of times we we fill books with bullshit to either make it more sellable or to put uh uh I'm a journalist, so I can only write at an eighth grade, I can only communicate with one or two syllable words, but people throw in like you know these three, four, five syllable words to make themselves look like I I have the answers. So I'm the guru now. So if you want success, and it's nothing like that. Uh it's affordable and it go all the money, all the all the proceeds go to veterans. Which I mean in case people don't really everybody's patriotic and everybody loves the hero until they come home and they're like, Oh, yeah, every oh, what do they want? You know, do they do they need do they need assistance? Do they need this? Yeah, well, you know, they they did fight for your freedom. They were they were out there uh on that wall. So it's like, yeah, why not?
SPEAKER_02Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01So man, we we've been talking about everything from the military, we even threw Jack Nicholson and a few good men in there. Now and and the one thing you the Rusk method, blue-collar cash, just clarity, man. It can create better employees, better morale, better business outcomes, better outcomes in general, correct?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
What Winning The Day Looks Like
SPEAKER_02Now, what does winning the day to you look like?
SPEAKER_04I'll answer it uh with two answers. One uh on a personal level is uh that my family had a real good day, you know. Um that uh particularly my two kids who uh are now in college, so I don't get to see them, you know, anytime I want. Um you know, but they're they're living their lives based on their plans that they they are gonna graduate. My daughter's graduating on time. How often do you see that happen these days? And with a degree that you know she will be able to support herself as opposed to she's moving back in, you know, in May. Um, you know, so and and my son is definitely doing great uh in his freshman year, and there's no reason why he won't continue uh on the same path that uh his sister has set up. So personally, that's that's uh my idea of a great day. And then professionally, it's to see people that embrace the idea that it is a value-added use of their time to commit to uh the few hours that it really is going to take to put together your first draft plan. It's not like it's gonna take you a three-day seminar or you know, a month of extensive work. You know, you can you can start uh you know, get just get a few, you know, goals down, get it get a little bit of your vision. You know, what's the number one thing you want to be known for uh when you get to be uh retired? And you start with those and you can flesh out because the plan is you can update anytime you want, and uh and you need to. So seeing people commit to that process and then organizations that actually are willing to put the bill to bring us in, which is again not gonna be on the kind of rack rates you're talking about, um, to get to get their employees started with their pathway to a joyful life. And then that's gonna have a cascading positive effect and uh and a great return on the investment that the company's making in the time, money, and resources committed to such a project when they uh see the results coming in on their revised strategic uh approach to uh uh the next fiscal year.
How To Donate And Get Help
SPEAKER_02Now, David, how do people it's a multifold question?
SPEAKER_01How do they donate to the Comfort Peace and Freedom Foundation?
SPEAKER_04That's why Comfort Peace and Freedom Foundation does have a uh separate uh website. Um it's available at veteransuccess.org. So if you type that into your search, uh you should end up uh looking at Ken's uh happy smiling face, and then uh you can get access to the course, you can get access to uh just making a straightforward donation. Um if people want to contact me directly, uh that's one of the other hats that I wear for Ken. Uh and I'm available at David Howe or Dave Howe at Kenrust.com. And then uh you can find the find the book uh the way you did, which is to search out uh kenrusk.com, and that'll also get you there. And I I I'm 99% sure there is a link to go from there to the donation uh to the foundation.
SPEAKER_01And these courses, I know the course, but how about that person that's like, well, you know, I I need that touchy feely, I need to take the the the workshop. How do they do, how do they find out how to just hop on to the next workshop?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and actually let me clarify my the the the email that for the course as well as for everything else, the best email to use is just simply dhow at kenrust.com. So that'll get you to anything, anything you want. You want to donate, you want uh to get the and the book is easy, just go wherever you find books and you should be able to find a copy of blue collar cash. Um, this is what it looks like. Uh nice, pretty blue collar. So it's very easy to uh keep that in your memory. Uh that it's about blue collar uh opportunities. Um but basically anybody who wants to uh get more information on any of the things that we talked about, uh just D how at kenrust.com and we'll get the conversation started from there.
SPEAKER_01Then
A Direct Message On Suicide
SPEAKER_01just one final question, David, especially with the veterans out there. You don't even have to be a veteran. If someone out there is struggling right now, what would you tell them?
SPEAKER_04Don't let the enemy do through your hand what they couldn't do on the battlefield. So if you're not feeling good about yourself, there is someone in this world that does. Maybe your current circle of friends you don't think are there for you, or it's too late, or you know, whatever. Um, there is a reason why you're still here. There's a reason you didn't die in combat. Please call, you can find a suicide hotline in less time than it took me to say that. They're all over the place. There's ones that are tied to the veterans that'll get you immediately into the VA system. Um, but please do not do the enemy's job by taking your life. And for that matter, even if you're not quite suicidal yet, there's no reason to live, you know, a depressed, you know, I'm I'm a failure. You know, there's no reason for anybody to go through that kind of pain. Um, because if if you just take a little bit of time and put together at least one or two goals that are achievable, you'll start gaining some success. And then a little success gets more success. And the next thing you know is you're like, I can't believe I ever really uh had those kinds of thoughts. You know, you're living, you're living your dreams. There's no reason why everybody can't do that. But it does require discipline, a plan, and commitment to executing on that plan.
SPEAKER_01And what I have to say is it's easy, it's simple to me. Just just pay the it's one night out, nice dinner, where you can sacrifice sacrifice the weekend so you can create the life that you were always meant to be living, uh, and that you do deserve to live. And it is an amazing book. I read it. Uh uh it's uh completely aligned. Uh all three of us are like-minded souls, and I gotta say thank you, David. Thank God and thank Ken for me for being in service. Because at the end of the day, you guys want to see positive change in everybody, and there's no scarcity because usually when somebody finds success, it they can be the ebonese or screen, I don't nobody helped me. You know, I'm here because I'm self-made or whatever story that they love to say. But but you guys aren't that. Thank you for the time. Thank you for the opportunity. I want you to have an amazing rest of your night. And God blessed.
Final Thanks And Sign Off
SPEAKER_04God bless you. Great conversation. All the best to you and your network. Thanks for this opportunity.