#127 Early Advice For the Incoming Naval Academy Class Of 2030

The question I hear every year sounds innocent but it can quietly wreck your Plebe Summer mindset: “How do I become the best plebe in my company?” I’m sharing a different path for the Naval Academy Class of 2030 and the families walking alongside them, rooted in what I saw across every company as Plebe Summer regimental commander and what I’ve learned since as a graduate trying to give back. 

We start with something most candidates don’t talk about out loud: your “why.” Some of you have dreamed of serving since you were a kid. Some of you chose USNA because it’s an incredible school and an unmatched opportunity. Some were recruited for Division I sports. Some feel legacy or family pressure. Whatever brought you here, it’s your reason, and you should be proud of it. When you own that, you stop feeding imposter syndrome and you can actually focus on the daily work of becoming a better leader. 

Then we tackle the real standard for success at Annapolis: being a great teammate. Plebe Year is not an individual contest. I break down what it looks like to know your role, embrace it, and excel in it, and why the “best plebe” obsession clashes with the values of teamwork and selflessness. We talk humility in practical terms, the idea of thinking about yourself less, and how service-first habits can help you thrive not only at the Naval Academy but later in the fleet and in life. 

If this helps, subscribe, share it with a Class of 2030 candidate or parent, and leave a review or comment with the biggest question you have right now.

The Vermeer Group is a residential real company matching military families with trusted real estate teams across the country.  If you have any real estate questions at all, please text Grant at (650) 282-1964 or email grant@thevermeergroup.com

To stay most up to date with Grant, Naval Academy updates, and real estate insights, follow him on LinkedIn

The mission of Academy Insider is to guide, serve, and support Midshipmen, future Midshipmen, and their families.

This podcast is independently produced and reflects the views and opinions of its creators. It is not officially affiliated with, endorsed by, or representative of the United States Naval Academy or its affiliates.

Grant Vermeer your host is the person who started it all.  He is the founder of Academy Insider and the host of The Academy Insider podcast. He was a recruited athlete which brought him to Annapolis where he was a four year member of the varsity basketball team. He was a cyber operations major and commissioned into the Cryptologic Warfare Community. He was stationed at Fort Meade and supported the Subsurface Direct Support mission.

He separated from the Navy in 2023 and now owns The Vermeer Group, a residential real estate company that matches service academy families with trusted real estate teams all across the country.  Text (650) 282-1964 with any real estate questions.

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Transcript

Welcome And Who This Helps

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Welcome back to the Academy Insider Podcast. Today's episode is gonna be a couple of words of encouragement and some advice for the incoming class of 2030 and their families. I know this is still early on and the class of 2030 is not yet fully finalized and solidified, but I wanted to get these words out early to start to let them settle. And so if you're in the class of 2030 or a family member and you know someone else who's in the class and may not have heard this information, then please share it with them. Again, I really look forward to hopefully being a part of your journey and sharing my insight and perspective in a way that supports the incredible support systems and families of midshipmen at the Naval Academy. So check out the episode. Let me know if you have any questions, and I hope you enjoy this episode. Before we get started, I want to make a quick disclaimer to make sure that everyone knows Academy Insider and myself, Grant Premier, are in no ways official representatives of the United States Naval Academy, the Navy, andor the Department of War. What I'm doing here again is just trying to provide a little bit of context perspective and understanding for the Naval Academy journey. But my use of the Naval Academy and conversation about them does not imply endorsement from the institution. If you ever have any questions directly for the Naval Academy, I encourage you to reach out to them directly and the public affairs office. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. And I hope you have a great listen to the episode. All right, we're breaking out the notebook again today. I just want to make sure that I don't forget anything that I that I wanted to say and bring up. And I just did some journaling and overall thoughts in this because one uh one of the things that I'm most grateful for during my time at the academy was the really freaking cool opportunity to be the regimental commander of pleep summer. And while it really doesn't matter, what it did do for me is it gave me a wide swath of experiences that I could see people having in pleep summer. When you're a plebe, you live your own experience. If you're a detailer of a company, you really only see the plebs who are in your company, who are going through the same thing together. And what I was most grateful for as the regimental commander was the ability to see all of the companies go through pleep summer, see every single plebe in these different experiences, different environment, different silo during pleep summer and how they embrace it, experienced it, and just kind of dealt with all of the polar highs and the polar lows of the experiences in Annapolis and specifically during plebe summer. And so as a result of that, I feel like, you know, I've I've had the ability to have some true perspective and insight into commonalities of what things cause certain midshipmen to really excel during pleep summer, what causes others to struggle, what causes some people to love it and others to hate it. And so we're gonna go through and we're gonna talk a little bit about that today, um and and how that may impact your life and your journey, and then give myself an opportunity, hopefully, just to share my thoughts on what will make this a great experience and over and an overall successful experience through all this stuff. And the first piece that I want to touch on is this idea of being proud of your why. Uh, I think imposter syndrome in the world is a very significant thing, it's a very present thing. And that can happen a lot in Annapolis. It happened very personally with me, which was I felt like I didn't belong at the academy because my reason for being there was different than what people were saying it was supposed to be. I think you'll hear a lot, like if you're going to the Naval Academy because for any reason other than like you want to serve your country, it's been your dream to serve your country, then you're wrong. Um, I don't agree with that necessarily. I think it's the mission of the Naval Academy to develop really successful, really high-performing young men and women and to imbue them with the ideals of duty, honor, and loyalty uh in order to graduate leaders who are committed to a career of naval service and to a career of overall service and citizenship and government. And your reason for why you got there or how you got to the Naval Academy is just your reason. It is your reason. There's no right reason, there is no wrong reason, it is your reason, and it is gonna help frame your experience, and it's gonna be the foundation of your journey in Annapolis. And there's not one right way to do it, there's not one wrong way to do it. It's just your experience. And you need to be proud of the reason that brought you to the Naval Academy. I think you're gonna see people who it's been their lifelong dream to go to the Naval Academy. They've wanted to be a Marine or they wanted to be a Navy SEAL or they wanted to be a jet pilot since like literally before they could walk. And that's awesome. I'm so glad we have people like that at the Naval Academy in a part of your class. Then you're gonna find some people who were like, it was the best school that I got into and it was free. Like it is the best life opportunity for me. And so I'm going to go through it because I know this will be a phenomenal thing for my life. I think you're also gonna have people who, quite frankly, were recruited to play a sport and probably didn't know much about the Naval Academy until they started to get recruited. And again, a big factor in their decision to go to Annapolis is to play a Division I sport. That's my background. That's my story. If it wasn't for basketball, there is a 0% chance I would have been a midshipman at the Naval Academy. And then I think you're gonna have some people quite literally who feel implicit pressure, or sometimes even like not implicit, like very explicit, like very real pressure to go to the Naval Academy for reasons of parental influence, for reasons of legacy, for reasons um, whatever they may be. And as a result, you are going to have a ton of different people who are around you going through the exact same experience who are there for different reasons. I think it's so important to understand that even though you are a plebe class, even though that you are all going through the same experience, that it is gonna be basically 1100 unique individuals, unique people with their own personal reasons, with their own unique personal stories and their reasons for being there. And as a result, there should be no imposter syndrome because at the end of the day, you are there for your reason. And what really matters is what you choose to do with this opportunity that has been given to you to be a midshipman at the Naval Academy. Your attitude that you choose to bring every day, your actions, the effort that you give to investing in the process, to allowing the system to do what it does to help you grow and develop and become a leader in the United States Navy or Marine Corps, someone who is ready to go lead human beings, sailors and marines, in combat, in war. Right? And so um just don't self-select out. Don't feel this feeling of imposter syndrome because your reason, your motivation is different than the person to the right of yours. I just I encourage you to be proud of your reason, to be proud of your reason. Now, what that's really gonna lead to, just like everyone has their own unique reason for being there, everyone is gonna have their own experience in Annapolis. You're gonna discover that some people are going to love it. I I kid you not, there are people who love pleep summer. They're like, ah, this is like exactly what I was expecting. This is what I wanted out of it. This is like, I know it's hard and I know it's tough, but like I love it. You're gonna have people who hate it. You're gonna have people who are freaking miserable. That was me. I was one of those people early on, right? And then you're gonna have people who are just wildly indifferent. They're just like, yeah, this is part of the process. I know I gotta do it. Kind of sucks, kind of enjoy it sometimes, like, whatever. Like okay, yeah, fine. And then it's on a spectrum. There's everything in between. And so as a result, you're gonna have people who have vastly different experiences than you. Some people love it, some people hate it, some people are indifferent. There's just gonna be a wide breadth of experiences. And as a result, there are going to be different lessons to be learned by the different people during pleep summer. Because your different experience, your unique personal experience is gonna determine what role you need to play during pleep summer. At the end of the day, like if you love pleep summer, your role is gonna be different than someone who hates pleep summer. And the if you're a person who's indifferent to pleep summer, your role is gonna be different than the other two knuckleheads. And at the end of the day, the most important thing that you are going to discover is that you need to embrace the idea of being a team player. The ideal team player, a great teammate. Great teammates is what plebe year is all about. And to me, that's really important because this idea of roles, we're talking about roles, like my definition of a great team player is someone who knows their role, embraces their role, and then excels in their role. And why that's so important is because like knowing your role is a critical component of self-awareness to realizing that it is not about you, it is about the mission and the benefit of the team. What is my contribution going to do to support the mission and support the team? Like, that is such a critical concept that I want everyone to understand. And that's gonna lead me to like this piece, because I think this is the most important piece of uh of Pleep Summer, of whatever the case is. And uh again, as a result of being the regimental commander, as a result of doing Academy Insider, uh, I've heard almost again, multiple variations of this exact question for like eight, nine years now. Everybody asks it. Everybody asks this question. I kid you not. Like, yeah, this is not a unique thing, this is not a one-off thing. Every class we have people who ask this question. Grant, how do I become the best plebe in my company? Or again, some kind of variation. What can I do to earn the best plebe summer evaluation? What can I do to be the best? How do I be the best? And I I understand. I understand, right? I would ask the same question. It's crazy to assume people wouldn't ask that question. Um, people are hand selected to attend the Naval Academy. They're high achievers, they've always been the best. So why would you not continue to strive to be the best, to be the most highly rated, to be the like the number one midshipman, right? And uh like I get it. Like that's what we've been trained to do. Um so I just want to start by saying I understand. And if you ask that question, it's totally okay because I get it. But also what I'm about to say, I don't want this to hurt your feelings. Um I just think now, with perspective, I think it's the most insane and absurd question a person could possibly ask. Genuinely. And hear me out on this again. How can I become the best plebe in my company, or how can I earn the best plebe summer evaluation? Is the most absurd question you could possibly ask because it is self-intentioned and it is self-centered. It is self-intentioned and it is self-centered. The underpinnings of the question are juxtaposed to the values of selflessness and teamwork. It is in direct contrast to what we are trying to teach people about being a team player, about knowing your role, embracing your role, and excelling your role in being a piece of the cog and being a part of the team to support the overall mission. If I'm concerned about being the best, or I want to be the best, that is a self-intentioned or self-centered question. And it is direct contrast to the idea of selflessness and the idea of teamwork. And so hear me out about like how this adjusts or changes, right? And this is gonna be a weird feeling because again, we're high performers, we're all high achievers. But that's what's special about this experience. Because that question is distinctly different to what I think the question should be, which is what can I do to make the company better? What can I do to make the platoon better? What contributions can I make to support the mission and support the team? This is not me about the uh this is not about me being the highestly, the most highest evaluated. This is not me about being the best. This is about how can I come from a place of contribution, a place of service to the overall mission of the team. That is what is important. And I've seen it play out in so many cases over my career, right? Like in the military, during pleaf summer, at the Naval Academy, people are so concerned about being the number one EP, about again, number one EP is like early promote. Like that is like the highest evaluated amongst your peer group. Everyone is concerned. Again, at the Naval Academy, we have the Cooper, which is like the Naval Academy. You have your order of merit. You are being evaluated the whole time. And because you're being evaluated, because we're high achievers, people are always on this quest to be number one, to be the best. But I think if you're shooting for that, you are misintentioned. Like you are not actually going to arrive there because you are missing the whole point of this experience. Again, I just like we shouldn't be surprised. Like, this is this is the innateness of the individuals we choose to be a part of the system, is that they are so high performing. They've been excellent their entire life. They have been the highest performing individual contributor. But it's not about being an individual contributor now, it's about being a great teammate. And I know, like, again, it's it's just it's wild, right? And so, like the question itself of how I can be the best, it's it's a crazy question to me. But again, it's a question I would have asked. So please don't feel bad for feeling that way. I just want you to like start to grasp this. And this is why we're putting it out two months before I day. Like, let this sink in, let this settle. Because at the end of the day, it doesn't necessarily have an answer. It's paradoxical at a certain point of like, how do I be the best? How do I do this stuff? I think if you reframe the question much back uh again earlier to what we were talking about of like, what can I do to make the company better? That is the right question that we should be asking that leads to overall good performance. Because at the end of the day, like in my opinion, the first step is to stop worrying about it. Stop worrying about how you can be the best. Stop filling your mind with thought and intention of how you can be the best. Just start from a place of contribution, commit to the team, commit to the people around you, commit to the mission of what's happening, commit to being a team player. If you do that, you work hard, you try your best, you maintain a positive attitude, and you are constantly doing whatever you can to benefit the mission and benefit the people around you. You are coming from a place of service and you are acting as a great teammate, you are behaving as a great teammate, and you are motivated as a great teammate, then the rest will take care of itself. It just will. One of my favorite books, it's called The Go Giver. It's a it's an incredible thing. It's a business book, right? It's not necessarily about the military, it's a business book, but it continually talks about how like the more you give, the more you are coming from a place of contribution, a place of service, of how can I make a positive impact on someone's life? How can I serve someone else? How can I help someone else that that is what is best for you in the long run, and that will benefit you in the long run. It's a concept in the business world as well. Um, but I think it's so darn important here at the Naval Academy. And this is why I'm so grateful for my Naval Academy experience. I'm so grateful for everything that Annapolis taught me, because I think it taught me the true idea of humility. This idea of humility, there's a uh a C.S. Lewis quote, the way he chose to define humility, which I just think is so special, right? He talks about the idea of humility, that being humble, that humility is not the absence of ego, right? Like the idea of humility is not thinking less of yourself. It's not like, oh, I'm not good. Oh, I'm not this. Like, you need to have confidence of yourself. The idea of humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking about yourself less, less self-intentioned, less self-centered, less less self-absorbed, and more about contribution, more about service. How can I support the team? How can I support people around me? How can I support the mission? If you do that, if you are humble and you are hardworking, you will excel at the Naval Academy. It's really, I like I kid you not, it's really that simple. You we can go on for lessons and hours and all these different things about tactical things, about how to best prepare for bleep summer and doing this stuff and running and uh you know, studying your reef points and doing this stuff. Yes, there are certain things that may make the experience better, easier. You show up prepared, all this stuff, that's great. But if you are humble and you over-deliver, you will be wildly successful. If you think about yourself less and about the team more, and you work hard to support your contribution to the team, you will excel in Annapolis. You will excel in Annapolis. And so as we move forward into uh, you know, the months approaching the start of Pleep Summer and we get closer to I Day, we're gonna talk more. Um but I want you to hear that message. If you want to be the best, then you need to serve the most. You need to think about yourself the least. The people who will stand out, who will differentiate themselves in a very positive way, are the people who are going above and beyond to be a great teammate. Everybody loves a great teammate. Name a single time where you're like, oh darn, that guy's like so helpful and so nice and so kind and so empathetic, and he listens to me, he sees me, he understands me, and he takes action to help me in my world. When has that ever been a bad thing? When is that when have you ever again, if it's fake, yeah, and we all know, again, there has to be a level of authenticity to it. It's not a show, it's genuine. If you do that and you're a great team player, you serve the most, you give the most, you contribute the most to the team and to the mission, you're gonna excel. You're gonna excel. And that's something that I try to take to everything that I do in life nowadays, right? Like, again, my silly little world of real estate. Like, yes, I make money when I sell homes, but I genuinely believe what's best for my business in the long run is to actually advise people, to actually help people, to help build the team of people who are going to provide them with honest opinions, with real professional uh expertise and thought and insight so they make a good decision for themselves and not just force them into a sale or rush them into a sale because then I get paid. That's not what success looks like for me. Success looks like helping people buy the right home at the right time, at the right place for them, to a point where it actually feels like a dream coming true. And when I've done that, when I've approached this business. From a sense of contribution, from a sense of how to do that, like that all comes back to the Naval Academy, right? It all comes back to the Naval Academy and it's as simple as everything in your life. Like I do everything in my power, and I'm not perfect. I mess it up a lot. We're human. We're all selfish at a certain point. Like we're all just trying to survive and maximize and be the best. Right. Like, yeah, 100%. But I think the more reps you get at this, uh, it's just going to benefit you in the long run. Right. And so I hope that was helpful. I hope that resonates with somebody. If you have any questions or you want to talk about your unique ex unique experience or circumstances, please reach out. Um, I look forward to hopefully meeting as many of you as possible. Um, you know, again, I'm not uh I don't work at the academy. I'm not an official representative of the academy. Um, I'm just a grad who wants to give back and help provide context to this experience and help take my time uh, you know, as a naval officer for multiple years and as someone who is still married. Uh, you know, my wife is still on active duty. Um I just want to provide everything that I've seen and learned and went through uh in a way that supports the Naval Academy community. So uh I hope you enjoy it. That's why I love Academy Insider for everything that I just talked about on this episode, right? Like it's what I don't make money doing Academy Insider, dude. Uh I spend a lot of money to produce all this and and do all this. I just um I don't know. I feel like it's my role. I talk about my experience, like what I wish I would have done more at the academy was communicate to my family. I think I feel like I did a really poor job about explaining to my family what was going on in my life. And so this is my role now. My role now is to be the bridge that helps keep families connected to what's going on in their loved ones' life as they go through the Annapolis experience, and hopefully to help the midshipmen as well, uh, with a little bit of perspective and advice and all this different stuff. And um that's my role. I know that's my role. I've I've embraced that as my role, and I hope I continue to do everything in my power to excel as best as I can in that role. So um I look forward to it. Thank you all so much. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Reach out with any questions. Congratulations to anyone in the new incoming class of 2030. Talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Academy Insider Podcast. I really hope you liked it, enjoyed it, and learned something during this time. If you did, please feel free to like and subscribe or leave a comment about the episode. We really appreciate it to hear your feedback about everything and continue to make Academy Insider an amazing service that guides, serves, and supports midshipmen, future midshipmen, and their families. Thank you.