Leadership Beyond the Uniform: Rob Campbell's Journey from Military Service to Entrepreneurship

When the uniform comes off and the echoes of a disciplined military life fade into the background, what's left? For Rob Campbell, it's a wealth of leadership prowess and a true passion for guiding others. We're honored to have Rob, a 27-year military vet turned author, coach, and entrepreneur, join us to unpack his exceptional journey from the basketball courts of college to the esteemed ranks of the 101st Airborne Division. His engaging conversation not only highlights the valuable lessons he's carried from his service into civilian life, but also the rich tapestry of experiences that led to his books, including "It's Personal, Not Personnel," aimed at helping veterans transition smoothly into their next chapters.

Embarking on a new venture can be daunting, but Rob's leap into entrepreneurship with All About Blinds is a testament to the adaptability and growth that comes from embracing change. This episode peels back the curtain on how military principles can be brilliantly translated into business strategies, a topic Rob elaborates on in his forthcoming book. He and his wife Leslie's community involvement, with her artistic talents blooming through Raven Artwork, further illustrates how personal and professional worlds can harmoniously intertwine. Join us for an immersive discussion that promises to leave you equipped with insights on transformation, purpose, and the art of leadership in every aspect of life.

To help you to navigate the home buying and mortgage process, Jonathan & Steve are currently licensed in Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia, contact us today at 423-491-5405 or visit www.jonathanandsteve.com. 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:19

One do and awesome local businesses. And on this show you'll find out why people are dying to move to Northeast Tennessee. And on the way we'll have discussions about mortgages and we'll interview people in the real estate industry. It's what we do. This is Benchmark Happenings brought to you by Benchmark Home Loans. And now your host, christine Reed. And now your host, christine Reed.

Speaker 2 0:46

Welcome back everybody to another great episode of Benchmark Happenings, and we are so excited today. The star of our show is Rob Campbell, and Rob is a military veteran. We're going to talk a lot about that today. I don't think there's anything that you don't do. Rob he's an entrepreneur, he's a business owner, and those of you that listen to our podcast we love our veterans. They are near and dear to our heart. We're the number one VA lender in the country and we love helping our veterans. So, Rob, we met several years ago when you moved to the area, you and your beautiful wife, Leslie. And so, Rob, not only are you an entrepreneur, opened up a business, you are a professional coach.

Speaker 3 1:35

Yep.

Speaker 2 1:36

And also you've written two books. You have a third one Getting Ready. We're going to talk about those books. Yeah third one Getting Ready. We're going to talk about those books and just an amazing 27-year career in the Army that you never thought you would ever do right, Right Never. So welcome Rob.

Speaker 3 1:56

Thank you, christy, it's great to be here.

Speaker 2 1:57

Well, it is great to have you and it really is a privilege, and I know you are so busy with your business and everything, but thank you for taking that time just to be with us today. Happy to do it. And you know we, everybody we love the military, and you know I I said I want you to explain to us what a brigade command colonel is. You're 27 years in the military, so do you mind to just kind of tell us a little bit about that career, how?

Speaker 3 2:25

it started. I will. Yeah, listen, it's great to be here and this is the first time in our lives. Leslie and I in I guess 20, over 20 moves that we're calling this area home and all the stuff you talked about in the intro of this program.

Speaker 3 2:43

I feel that every day and that's a serious statement from a guy like me and my wife, because we have seen a lot of communities and our critics and you were among the first I met and Steve and it was because of that and so much else that we're like okay, this is home for us, all right, so I'm going to take you back to college.

Speaker 2 3:03

Okay, we're going to go back, maybe just a little bit.

Speaker 3 3:06

That's where the story starts, yeah, but so I was a basketball fanatic.

Speaker 3 3:11

It's all I did in high school, started in college, didn't make the team because they didn't have any left hand. I didn't realize you needed a left hand to play basketball. So I got cut from the team Best thing that ever happened to me, because there goes that passion right out the door. So I was looking for something else and I found the military, quite by accident. I was out of money. They offered tuition. It's like I'll give this a shot, join the National Guard. Well, I found out it was something I really loved when I got into it the challenge, the leadership, just everything about it and I was like okay, I'm in, I want to do this. So I graduated in 1990 and took off. 27 years I was an Army infantry officer, paratrooper, ranger, did all that crazy stuff jumping out of airplanes and sliding down ropes out of helicopters, you name it.

Speaker 2 3:56

Yeah, daredevil adrenaline rush.

Speaker 3 3:58

Yeah, all that. It was an amazing opportunity. It lived all over the world and I just kept showing up, uh, doing my best, going the extra mile, um, trying to impress my boss and and be a teammate and all those things that good soldiers do, and rose to the rank of colonel, um, which is is a pretty big deal. I I never would have imagined achieving that rank early on because I just looked at these guys like, oh, these are dinosaurs, you know, yeah, where do they find these people? But certainly I just kept going and made that rank so colonel.

Speaker 3 4:34

There's three kind of groups of rank in the Army. You've got company-grade officers, lieutenants and captains, and they're very tactical at the bottom rung of the officer ranks. And then you've got field grade officers majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels. And you've got general officers. Those guys and gals wear the stars. I traveled all the way up through the field grade ranks to the rank of colonel and along those ways you get to command. You get selected for, compete for a certain level of command. A colonel's command is typically called a brigade, and a brigade ranges anywhere from 3,500 to just around 5,000 service members.

Speaker 2 5:16

Wow, quite a yeah large organization that is a lot.

Speaker 3 5:19

Yeah, a bunch of separate, smaller units in there. So, I was fortunate to achieve not only the rank but then get selected to commander brigade, the 101st airborne division. So large enterprise, you know. Think of it as a CEO and tie in on top of a large company, you know, with a lot of depth there.

Speaker 2 5:38

Wow yeah, and you took so much from that career and have applied it to life and to help you to continue, and this first book that you wrote At Ease about the transition. So I'm just going to hold this up so those of you that's watching on YouTube, you can see this. So this was your first book, Rob.

Speaker 3 6:03

That one there was. This was yeah, it's personal, was that's the first one I wrote, and then that one shortly after cause, I was deeper into the transition journey. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 6:13

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 6:14

But same experience provides the same books.

Speaker 2 6:18

Yes, so tell us about this book.

Speaker 3 6:20

Yeah, so the title of that is it's personal, not personnel. So in the army we have this large enterprise called the Human Resources Command. It's a behemoth, it's this massive, but it manages all the people but it's far removed from the people and so, unfortunately, what happens a lot is they see people as numbers. I'm going to move your name, christine, over to this, which represents a move across the country, maybe across the world, with you and your family and all that goes with it. But then we're going to move one of my soldiers in the month of February Not unusual, we're used to that kind of stuff. He is going to go across the country. Well, it's the month of February. He's got a daughter who's a senior in high school. He's got a mortgage. He's got a daughter who's a senior in high school. He's got a mortgage. He's got a wife that works with a job, full time. So what do you think happens to a guy in February when he has to move? He goes by himself.

Speaker 3 7:12

And what kind of soldier shows up at that new location serving an organization which really didn't take into account his family? So I was on the phone with these people at Human Resource Command. I said, look, this stuff is personal, it's not personnel, right? If you'd ask this guy hey, we're going to move you in February. What does that do? Well, it does a lot. Okay, why don't we move you in May? Would that help? Yes, gets my kid through school. I get time to sell the house, blah, blah, blah. That was the gist of it, but this is where I share the lessons.

Speaker 3 7:47

I call from the battlefield to the boardroom of my personal or people-centric approach to leadership. And what it resulted in was the number one brigade in the Army for human resource performance, a lot of different metrics associated with that and retention. People wanted to stay in that organization. So I was like, okay, early after my transition in 2017, I was like, well, this would be useful to private businesses because they don't have the good fortune of leadership training and education that we get in the military. So I put it together in the book and and there I went, and that was really the first business idea. I said, okay, I could start a business doing this. That was book number one.

Speaker 2 8:23

That's amazing. Yeah, yeah that you know you and you rose in the ranks and were able to take care of people where a lot of military professionals probably.

Speaker 2 8:33

Well, that's just the way it is you're gonna move in, but you took it to a new level and you personalized it and and you, you know, what I hear is that you have so much empathy, you know, knowing that it's much better to transition, if you can, you know, with your wife, your job, your child and all those things, instead of the guy moving across the world by himself with so much to worry about and leaving the family behind to take care of all that there's a story there, right?

Speaker 3 9:06

I mean, I see you as Christine, but you have a family, you have demands on you, you've got ups and downs, successes and failures, and I want to know all those things, not to pry into your personal life or the life of any other, but just so that I can lead you better. And it goes back to this point of hey, we want to move you. Okay, I know that's coming. What would be best, what's going on in your life? And so it's a very people-centric approach, a very personal approach to leadership. It's personal.

Speaker 2 9:36

It is.

Speaker 3 9:37

It is.

Speaker 2 9:37

Great, that is fantastic. So let's talk about this other one.

Speaker 3 9:41

Yes.

Speaker 2 9:41

The at ease.

Speaker 3 9:44

So the transition.

Speaker 2 9:46

So how was your transition from 27 years in the military? To civilian life, because I know you give pearls in this book.

Speaker 3 9:55

So how much time do we have?

Speaker 2 9:59

Because that's really an issue right.

Speaker 3 10:01

Yeah, it's very very difficult. It is traumatic, christine I can't, there's no other word that describes it when you, you know, when you back up now you join the military you sign a blank check to your nation paper. With your life you join a band of brothers and sisters serving a cause greater than yourself. Think about it In your professional life. Who do you know that would take a bullet for you.

Speaker 2 10:25

Nobody.

Speaker 3 10:26

Exactly In the military. You're surrounded by people like that. It's intoxicating. And then, almost overnight, you're thrust back into a society, a society that, quite frankly, is affluent, selfish, polarized. You see all the stuff that's happening and that's akin to being in a foreign country without an interpreter.

Speaker 2 10:47

And nobody has your back. It's dog, eat dog. I'm out for me number one where you worked as a team together.

Speaker 1 10:57

Right.

Speaker 2 10:58

Because if you didn't take care of each other, you didn't have anything.

Speaker 3 11:02

No lives were at stake.

Speaker 2 11:03

Yeah.

Speaker 3 11:04

Right. So you think about those two environments and that's why it's so traumatic to make that shift. I didn't have any plan to write a bunch of books. I wrote the first one and then it's like, okay, I got this down. But writing at ease was in many ways very therapeutic, because what I talk about is the journey, because I was institutionalized in military service. It's all I knew. I could certainly function on the outside.

Speaker 3 11:28

I wasn't totally inept, but I was institutionalized. So how do you make that leap after 27 years into something completely different? And that's what the book describes. I'm probably three or four years deep into the transition when I began to write that and it was wonderful, it just poured out of me and it's not one of those how-to books, step-by-step books, it's really just a perspective among a bunch of different things how to make the decision to leave, making some bold moves. When you get out your spouse, how is he or she impacted by this right, all of that. So I described that perspective to offer something, because that was a void for me as I was about to step out of uniform. Okay, who's done this before and what did they learn doing it? There were some I could talk to, but it really wasn't a book. That kind of walked me through that. So that's where that is, and I've just seen so many things that veterans get wrong as they transition. We can touch on those.

Speaker 1 12:31

But that's what.

Speaker 3 12:31

Ed Ease was all about. It's been a lot of fun sharing that, not only with veterans who are transitioning, but those that want to know more about veterans like yourself.

Speaker 2 12:40

Absolutely Yep. And so now you're working on your third book.

Speaker 3 12:45

Yes.

Speaker 2 12:45

It will be.

Speaker 3 12:51

It is called Left and Right of the Boom, the Art of Leadership Before, during and After Crisis. So, as you know, in Iraq and Afghanistan, the IED, a provides explosive device, became the major killer of service members, and that really took its toll. Early on, we took note, the military did, and said, okay, we've got to do something about this. So thus the concept of left and right of the boom Left of the boom is all of those things you do to prevent getting hit, to avoid it altogether, to degrade the network, all these things you do to harden yourselves for when you do get hit.

Speaker 3 13:29

All that stuff on the left side before, because the boom is coming, you couldn't avoid them, we couldn't shut off IEDs. And then how do you leave when the boom goes off? And then what do you do on the right side of it, where many of us just want to shut that off, shut that off and move on to something else and forget about it. Well, this is where you go back and examine what happened, you learn from it and you adapt, because you're about to enter the left side of the boom again. Crisis is coming. It's not a matter of if it's when Right. And so what I did is I applied that concept of left and right of the boom to private business and that's what I wrote it for, as businesses that will, you know, experience a crisis. It was born in the pandemic when the pandemic hit.

Speaker 2 14:13

I was thinking when you were talking about this, I thought what a perfect segue from the pandemic. We're just coming out of that crisis. We're going into a financial crisis.

Speaker 3 14:25

Yes.

Speaker 2 14:26

We're getting ready to walk into a military world, possibly crisis.

Speaker 3 14:31

It's there, right, it's coming, and so this kind of helps the leaders see it, the art of it and how they can kind of manage it better. Because when the pandemic hit I was like, okay, I've got something to share here. I've been down this road before. It's really a global pandemic, but I've been through a crisis before, so I'm excited. We're hoping June to have that out. We're on the final stretches now, so it's getting close.

Speaker 2 15:00

Well, and before the show is over, we definitely need to let people know where they can get your books.

Speaker 3 15:04

Yes.

Speaker 2 15:06

And also now let's talk a little bit about your coaching career. So I know you're doing a lot of speaking engagements. You're working with businesses, working with leaders, so tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 3 15:18

Yeah, Well, it was born when I wrote the first book it's personal and I was like okay, I could sell this, I could coach, teach, speak and all these things that. I feel, that I'm equipped to do. I like to speak and I like to coach the most, because I tell a lot of leaders look, there's not a single leadership challenge that you'll face that I haven't already screwed up a dozen times and learned from and I love your humility and that's what I, that's one thing I love about you.

Speaker 2 15:47

You are a leader. You're brave, you're strong, you're courageous, but you have humility.

Speaker 3 15:53

Yes, you have to as a leader and, frankly, that's what I try and teach in my coaching, and it's not for everybody. It's for those that are awakened enough to know that they need some help.

Speaker 1 16:04

I have a coach.

Speaker 3 16:05

I'm awakened enough to know that yeah, I don't know if it all figured out.

Speaker 1 16:08

Or.

Speaker 3 16:09

I'm brave enough to say I don't know. And so what coaching is is it's at least a three-month process. Six is optimal because it's like working out in a gym it's going to hurt for a while, you're not going to see any changes in your body, but over time it starts to take hold and that's how you do leadership. And so we spend a week, an hour a week, together and we set some goals. At the beginning I do some self-awareness where I get to know the person on a deeper level. We form some trust so we can have some trusted conversations. And then we go on a journey of learning and you know I can offer plays for them to practice on the field. They can share with me what's weighing them down and at the end of it they will have achieved some things and they'll be on a path of growth as a leader, because it's so important. So it's a lot of fun. I've got some great clients.

Speaker 2 16:59

It's not an arranged marriage kind of thing, it's got to be somebody that's bought into it Absolutely I really do enjoy it Absolutely and that person's motivated and understands that it is. You know you're in it for the long haul. Yep, and we all I think we all perform better when we have a coach, when we have a mentor, because it challenges us, it brings out the better part, and you see our blind side.

Speaker 3 17:23

Yeah, yeah. I shed light on things that you can't see for yourself. Best athletes in the world have a coach. Absolutely Everybody needs one.

Speaker 2 17:32

Yes, yes, no matter what you're doing. I love the example you used about the training weight training and stuff because I started doing that in July, so I understand that journey you have to stick with it, it is a journey. And also you send out some great emails too, little coaching tips and leadership tips as well, yeah. I'm an artist.

Speaker 3 18:03

I am, and Leslie helped me realize that I am an artist. I do it not through the brush, but through the keyboard.

Speaker 3 18:11

And for me, it's word craft and it's so much fun. I I write, I blog twice a week, um, and I'll. I can send people to my website to find those. Um. Mondays and fridays I wake up at 5 am and I write those on my own and when I get up I have no idea what I'm going to write about. I have a scrolling list so I can scroll for a minute of catchy titles and I usually go back to that and I'll scroll through or I'll have something in mind from the night before and I just offer some thoughts on leadership and I hit send on those and it's a lot of fun. I get some really great feedback. There are people that get them. They're usually out by 730 Eastern and people will get them and share them with their teammates and talk about them real quick as they start their day. I mean it's wonderful.

Speaker 2 18:57

Absolutely. It's a ton of fun and I love having those little nuggets, you know, to start the day.

Speaker 3 19:03

Yes, absolutely.

Speaker 2 19:04

And.

Speaker 3 19:04

I try to keep it short, yes, but I want to deliver something.

Speaker 1 19:08

It's hey, think about this you know, maybe hit print and put it on the shelf. But you know, here hit print and put it on the shelf.

Speaker 3 19:11

But here's a thought, because we wrestle with this stuff every single day but we're not thinking about it much.

Speaker 2 19:16

And I think when we are operating in our passion, our God-given talents and our passions, those things come to us Like when you're getting up, you have that scrolling list you're putting that information out because you're doing things that is your passion your heart 100%, and that's amazing and that's where we all need to be.

Speaker 3 19:37

Right.

Speaker 2 19:38

And, unfortunately, a lot of us aren't.

Speaker 3 19:41

No, you're right, Christine, it's a huge issue Because I think of the system. I call it right. You know the parents, employees. They push us in these places, in these directions. They think we need to be going, but they don't always. I think out there there's a lot of job passion misalignment, which is sad. You know. I look to some cases. It's okay if you're working, you're doing fine. You find your passions outside of work. That's great. But yeah, there's a lot of that that's missing. But this is definitely my passion. After I'm done writing a blog, I'm levitating. This is definitely my passion After I'm done writing a blog.

Speaker 2 20:14

I'm levitating, I'm really at my best. That is great. So let's talk about being an entrepreneur and a business owner. So we really want to support your business. All About Blind, so tell us about that, Rob.

Entrepreneurship and Leadership Insights

Speaker 3 20:26

Yeah. So I started Rob Campbell Leadership, but it was just me and there was a void in my life. I wanted a team around me, I wanted to practice the things that I preach and I had learned a lot about running a business. From Rob Campbell leadership and some programs like vet to CEO that I took as a virtual entrepreneurship program really opened my aperture to buy existing franchise, startup and the different paths of entrepreneurship, and so it was a mountain I wanted to climb. I really didn't feel like an entrepreneur as a single business owner. So I started looking around. I was looking at the trades because they're pretty recession-proof they're doing really well right now and of course, I found this area and reached out to a broker. I said I'm looking. He said, well, I've got a blind business. Would you be interested in looking at that? I said sure.

Speaker 3 21:17

So I came down the hill one day and walked into All About Blinds. I met Gail and Randy Collins two wonderful people and first thing out of my mouth I said, hey, listen, I don't know much about window fashion and they laughed at me. I said, yeah, we didn't either, but I liked the business model, the cash flow model, the building was for sale, they were older and self-confessed. They didn't do a lot of growth and innovation. So there was a great opportunity for me to grow it and then, of course, build a team, and so we bought it and we closed on it in January of 22. We sell shutters, blinds and shades and drapery and, um and mainly Hunter Douglas products, which is a really nice brand to ride, you know it's a great brand.

Speaker 3 21:59

It is, yeah, it's the industry standard, so that makes it easy for me as a dealer of Hunter Douglas, you know, to go out and sell that stuff and it's just a lot of fun meeting people, um, but I saw the business and it was one of the first things I said was hey look, I will learn everything there is to learn about window fashions. But this business, for me, really is a vehicle to help me in my leadership business, to give back to the community, you know, to serve people, customers, to serve my own people, and so that's really what, to me, it represents. We just happen to do really good window fashions but at the end of the day, it's about giving back and helping people. So it's been a ton of fun.

Speaker 2 22:42

And what I love is that you are a practitioner.

Speaker 3 22:45

Yes.

Speaker 2 22:45

Because you really can't just be a coach, but you have a business where you're actually using all of your principles, your coaching principles, building that team around you and pouring into them and helping them to grow.

Speaker 3 23:00

I miss being Carl, though, because they're not soldiers. They don't snap to my orders like they used to. But listen, I love my people. I just adore them. They're the most wonderful people on the planet and we have a lot of fun and they wear me out some days. I just adore them.

Speaker 1 23:14

They're the most wonderful people on the planet and we have a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 23:15

And they wear me out some days. But bless their hearts, it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 23:21

And your beautiful wife Leslie, so we're going to bring her on too.

Speaker 3 23:25

Yes.

Speaker 2 23:25

Because she has an art studio, Raven Artwork.

Speaker 3 23:28

She's a real rock star.

Speaker 2 23:30

She is, you two just complement each other so well. But so let's kind of talk about advice that you would give someone.

Speaker 3 23:41

Rob.

Speaker 2 23:52

So let's, let's, let's think about the, you know, the military, or to be it, or maybe someone older that wants to dive into being an entrepreneur sure how would you help, mentor, coach, counsel that individual and yeah, that's a great question, um, a really great question.

Speaker 3 24:10

My default there is to is to know yourself. That's your start point. I use this a lot military transition because we're we're failing, I believe, or we're asking this question. Christine john, thanks for your service. What do you want to do next? The real question is who are you?

Speaker 3 24:28

because the military told you that. So, whether you're coming out of high school, you're older, you want to step into entrepreneurship. Who are you? What is it that you know? Are you introverted, extroverted? Are you more dominant, non-dominant? Are you typically an impatient person? Are you a rule follower, not a rule follower? All those things are important to know. And then, what really lights your fire? What's going to motivate you to get out of bed in the morning and then allow you to go to sleep at night fulfilled? There's simple ways. You can do that If you go back into your life and you just pick out five times where you really felt in it right.

Speaker 3 25:05

You just felt confident, it felt right, you were fired up and motivated. Just label them somehow you know, maybe it was a time on a sports team or sometime in high school or in a job somewhere and just put them down and get five of them on a sheet and then look back and see what they all have in common and that might tell you well, I was leading in all of these, or I was giving back in all of these, or I was around a team, and all Whatever that is. That can start to tell you. Okay, these are the things that make me tick. The other question is if you could wake up tomorrow and the money was not an issue Bills are paid, food's on the table, roof over your head what would you do? All right, think about that Now. If it's fishing or surfing, okay, that's cool.

Speaker 2 25:48

Yeah.

Speaker 3 25:52

But you know, tease it out a little bit and think about who you are, what you're truly passionate about, and try and get it more right than wrong, because if it is fishing or woodworking, well you might not make a big living at that right off the bat.

Speaker 3 26:01

Maybe you go get a job, but don't take your eye off of that real, true passion of yours and what it is you want to do. I didn't know that being an entrepreneur and a leadership speaker and coach was necessarily a passion of mine. I knew that that was my core purpose, but had I spent more time thinking through that, I might've been able to say okay, on the outside of the military, you probably want to pursue these things, so that, I think, is the most important thing for anybody. Stepping into a new space is okay. What is it I'm truly passionate about? That's going to fire me up to see this through, to climb this mountaintop, and if you get it close to that, you're going to be better off Instead of well, this job is available, so I'll go do that Well here's a business for sale, so I'll go do that.

Speaker 3 26:47

Well, here's a business for sale, so I'll go do that. All about blinds. Again, it's not about blinds, even though it's all about blinds, right, it's what that business represents for me. It could be anything, which is why I went in that direction, but it was fueled by my passion and it fills that cup for me. Often it's tough, but I think if you can spend some time on that, know yourself, find your playground and don't take your eye off of that you'll be better off.

Speaker 2 27:15

Right, and it is work.

Speaker 3 27:17

It is work.

Speaker 2 27:17

It is work getting to know ourselves and who we are and not allowing the influences of social media to tell us who we are, what we are. That's a whole other podcast.

Speaker 3 27:29

Yeah, no kidding, we'll bring you back A lot of distractors there.

Speaker 2 27:32

We'll dive into that one. I think there would be some really great pearls of wisdom coming from that. So let's tell everybody about All About Blinds. Where are you? How can they get in touch with you? And we didn't even touch on All About Paint. Yeah, I know are you, how can?

Speaker 3 27:54

they get in touch with you. I know that, and we didn't even touch on all about paint. Yeah, that's another uh, the business that you have, right? Um, so tell us how we can get in touch with you. And yeah, so let's start with leadership. Um, rob campbell leadershipcom. Uh, is where is my website? And then I'm on linkedin at rob campbell leadership. You can find me there. I'm the guy with a half military uniform and half of a suit. That's kind of my brand. Those are the places to find me, find the blog, find my books, interact with me. You can do it on either place the website or or or LinkedIn and I'll respond if you want. You know, if you want to talk about something or wrestle with something, reach out in those places. And I leadership extends far beyond this region, for sure, because where there's a company and I've got a client in New Jersey, one in California and one in North Carolina, oh, wow.

Speaker 3 28:36

Yeah, all over the place, and that's my core thing, that's my gig and that's what I love doing All About Blinds. Right here in Johnson City, at 207 East Springbrook drive, we've got a website you go to all about blinds. If you type in blinds on the internet, we're so good that we'll pop up first that is awesome yeah and listen.

Speaker 3 28:57

If you're in this, you know market for window fashions. You gotta come by the showroom. I sent a bulk email out this morning that said you know you can buy a car online, but you really never should. You ought to test drive it sit in, it feel it.

Speaker 3 29:11

It's the same thing with Lundo Fashions when you come by the showroom you can see everything we have. It really opened your aperture. So we're proud of what we got going on. And then I did start all about painting in August, in part because I had a really bad experience trying to find a painter and I knew I could do it better. I just wanted to kind of get another stream of income. And again, it's about investing in people, which I do. I've got a nice young man that runs the paint company, very talented. We do interior, exterior, all surface painting. He says if there's a surface I can paint it. So it's all about painting. Uh, you can find us on the, on the website as well.

Speaker 3 29:49

um we've got our own website there and emily will answer the phone if you call there. She's wonderful. We, we practice this new thing, christine we answer phone calls and emails and we show up on time. Yeah, it's, it's a new thing we're trying out.

Speaker 2 30:04

Yeah love it. What a concept. That is awesome. Yeah, and following through.

Speaker 3 30:10

That's where you can find us and I pride myself in all the veteran and military spouse advocacy. I do in the region, and so if you're a veteran, you're listening to this and you're new, reach out to me through those means and let's connect, because my radar goes off when I hear okay, got a veteran in town, military spouse in town. Because of the journey I have traveled, I think I've got something to offer and, who knows, maybe put them to work, absolutely Yep.

Speaker 2 30:38

Well, Rob, will you come back for another episode?

Speaker 1 30:41

Absolutely.

Speaker 2 30:43

I've got all these thoughts just popping through my head.

Speaker 3 30:45

We've got a lot of important things to talk about. The things that we've talked about, yeah, and you have to come back. I will Count on it. It's too good, it is it's too good. Yeah.

Speaker 2 30:54

Well, rob Campbell, thank you Leader, speaker, coach, writer, author, entrepreneur, just the whole package and thank you for your service to our country and helping to make our country great.

Speaker 3 31:09

I appreciate it. God bless you and thank you. Thank you very much.

Speaker 1 31:13

This has been Benchmark Happenings Brought to you by Jonathan Tipton and Steve Reed from Benchmark Home Loans. Jonathan and Steve are residential mortgage lenders. They do home loans in northeast Tennessee and Steve are residential mortgage lenders.

Speaker 2 31:26

They do home loans in.

Speaker 1 31:27

Northeast Tennessee, and they're not only licensed in Tennessee but Florida, georgia, south Carolina and Virginia. We hope you've enjoyed the show. If you did make sure to like rate and review. Our passion is Northeast Tennessee, so if you have questions about mortgages, call us at 423-491-5405. And the website is wwwjonathanandstevecom. Thanks for being with us and we'll see you next time on Benchmark Happenings.

Speaker 2 32:01

All right, that was awesome.