 and I'm coming to you from Atlantic City for the 2023 DAB and Auxiliary National Convention. Leading up to convention, we've also hosted a Patriot Boot Camp Accelerator, which is what we're here to talk about today. I'm joined by Patriot Boot Camp Director Nick Brophy, an award-winning entrepreneur, Larry Brotton. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. Thank you both for being here. Larry, if you could talk a little bit about what the past two days have been like and kind of the approach to this accelerator. Well, honestly, it's pretty emotional to be honest with you. We came in here with 15 entrepreneurs, veteran entrepreneurs, who are powerful just in and of themselves, but they get these people who are like building world-changing organizations together in one room where they're supporting each other. Nick was there for part of it, and it got emotional from time to time, didn't it? It did. Because people were here just trying to build their business, expand their horizons, impact the world through their businesses. In some cases, change in this multi-generational curse of poverty that some people have had in their lives. It's just really powerful to see these people who want to make a difference in the world and then to see them come together. And instead of being competitive that we oftentimes see in the entrepreneurial space, it was collaborative. People wanted to help each other out. It's what I love about the veteran spaces. Not only do they build businesses that rate four times greater than the general population and see more success, they're willing to serve and support each other. It's transformational for me. I feel proud of these guys who invited me in to actually do this. It's awesome. So Nick, UDAV has hosted several Patriot Boot Camp events. I've been part of a few of those. Tell me what was special about this and what's special about this taking place at convention in the same week and space? Well, I'll tackle the second question first. What's special about being a convention is the energy. There's a lot of members here. There's a lot of constituents here. It's a great place for entrepreneurs to come and market themselves. Larry, his presence in the space, he's a supporter of DAV. There's just an atmosphere that is cultivating feel to it. And as an entrepreneur, that's what we're doing. We're cultivating whether it's a new idea, a new business, a new relationship, education material, whatever the case may be. That's what I think is special about the conventions. I should mention also we have two Army veterans here. Larry, can you talk about how your military service helped you in your entrepreneurship journey? Yeah, that's a great question. I had kind of a unique military career and I spent about nine years in the Army. Most of those were on Special Forces A teams. So it's the unconventional Army. Sorry, Nick. Unconventional is better. But no, what it taught me was the power of small elite teams who subscribe to the same vision, the same mission when we subordinate our own personal goals and agendas for the success of the team. When you apply that to the business arena, it's powerful, right? And when we remember to serve our team members, serve our clients first, too many entrepreneurs who don't have this background as veterans think that it's all about them, the owner, you know, the entrepreneur. But most veteran entrepreneurs understand that it's service first, right? So there's that. There are a couple of techniques that I oftentimes find that veterans apply to business that make them really successful. One is one thing that all bets know about, and that's an after-action review. How many times did we talk about after-action reviews, Nick, in business over the last couple of days? What do we do right? What do we do wrong? How can we improve the next time? Really simple. And then contingency plans, right? How often are we doing five-point contingency plans in the military? Well, before we ever do a marketing plan, before we ever do a merger and acquisition, what's the contingency plan going to be? When I talk about this stuff to the civilian market, their minds are blown. And for us, it's basic stuff. So I would encourage folks that are in the military, considering transitioning, and maybe you're an 11th Bravo in the army, what am I going to do? Well, think about what skills have you learned that you can apply to the entrepreneurial space that might be an open horizon, an open battle. Go for it, man. Nick, can you talk about who Patriot Boot Camp is for? Who can take part in this? Yeah, I mean, Patriot Boot Camp is really intended for any veteran, any spouse of a veteran. Hopefully a tandem veteran spouse duo who is really kind of more in the early stage. So they're not necessarily a startup, or maybe they are, but they're also in business, struggling with business, shifting their business. It's not necessarily for the mature business yet, but that's where we hope to go. We want to serve all veterans, all stages of business, hands down. But right now, it's for those people who are really just getting feedback. And we know that events like this can't happen without folks like Larry, mentors, speakers, donating their time in a lot of cases. Can you talk about kind of what this program needs to sustain itself and how people can help? Absolutely. I mean, if you are first and foremost, if you're a veteran entrepreneur who has some experience, who's been down this path like Larry has many times over, and you want to give back, this is a very easy way to do that. And I think you'll find that when doing so, it's very rewarding as well. I mean, this is the thing that people come here for. They get education. We can teach and teach and teach, but that networking, that the element of being able to interact with somebody and draw from their experiences and share your experiences, and as Larry alluded to, very powerful, emotional connections in here, that's really the thing that people walk away from here and on the survey say, we love the mentorship component. So if you're looking to get involved, that's what we need you for. If you have something to share, even if it's just one element of business, you will help a veteran in that capacity. Larry, programs like this accelerator, what's the ultimate hope in terms of the impact it has? Well, as I think a lot of that, even if you love a sports team, what's it all about? You're wearing the hat, you're wearing the army shirt. We're talking about our heritage. Where did we come from? Right? That's an easy thing to do. But the accelerator talks more about what's the legacy we're going to be leaving in the future. Who can we impact moving forward? Is it our families? Is it our clients? Right? Because boy, when we die, when we go away, oftentimes it's 50 years later and nobody knows who we were. So this is the way for a lot of entrepreneurs to leave their fingerprints on society, on an industry, or set something up so it becomes a multi-generational impact in the world. That's not much more powerful than that. Larry, thank you so much. Nick, thank you for those watching. Make sure you follow us on social media all week for updates from convention and learn more about Patriot Boot Camp at www.patreotbootcamp.org.