 Yeah, let me know when you're ready. I will look right at the camera Okay, so ready ready to do this there comes a time in any career I think when you get to a certain point you take a look around and you're like, you know what I Think I'm done. You just feel like you know, I've done a lot. I have accomplished a lot Met some great people made some great connections Felt like I've actually contributed something to the world and you know, just just kind of feeling like I've got nothing left to prove Here and there's no further that I want to take this. I've had this experience in my life before in a couple different situations So I used to run a modern classical music series in Baltimore Did that for five years started very small and we actually ended up growing it into something that was quite successful We got a lot of great press won a national award for adventurous programming I loved doing it. It was fun. But after five years I kind of got to the point where I was I was ready to move on So I did had that same sort of situation during my days as a bicycle racer Race for almost 10 years. I was a cat one, which is the top level you can achieve in amateur cycling Want some races time trials? That was my thing Loved racing for the team and using my skills to help set the other guys up for success But it kind of wore on me after a while, you know to to be competitive at that level was a full-time commitment And I remember the day the exact moment And exactly where I was Uh, it was just after the racing season ended. I was just out for like a nothing ride I was going up this little hill I slumped over my handlebars and I said I can't do this anymore. So you might think that After putting so much time and work and effort into both of those things that I might feel some regret about leaving or You know, at the very least have some kind of doubts about whether or not I was making the right decision But I'll tell you that in both of those situations When I made that decision, uh, I had absolutely no regrets. In fact, I actually felt like a huge weight Had been lifted off my shoulders I honestly felt free And genuinely excited for whatever the next thing was going to be So it just so happened that the next thing for me after the music series and bicycle racing was he spoke style Uh, it was the fall of 2012 when I stopped doing the music series and retired from racing Uh, and then I launched he spoke style very first post was february 17th 2013 And we'll get back to that post. But first you may have noticed that, um We just kind of passed a 10 year anniversary and there was nothing to market nothing here on the channel Nothing on the website nothing on social And that's what I want to talk about because I've been having those those feelings again that I talked about at the beginning of this video Um, I've accomplished a lot made some great connections. I felt like I contributed something to the world Nothing more to prove ready to move on to the next thing. So that's why I have decided to retire from the army Yes, that's right. Now some of you probably know that I have been and and currently still am don't want the beard fool you An active duty soldier in the united states army, but for those of you who are like What? Let me let me just get you up to speed. So for the last almost 20 years I've served as a member of the united states army field band from washington dc Played the saxophone with the group and and I know some of you have come to the channel and asked Hey, are you that same guy in those army field band videos? Yes, that's me and and proud to have been in a couple of the most popular videos that the army field band ever made Playing the saxophone was not the only thing I did with the army field band I was also very involved for the last 10 years or so in public affairs and strategic communications For a long time. I was a go-to spokesperson for the group. So I do interviews, you know Anything from newspaper online radio podcast television. I did it over the past few years I've been training our people to do that So love doing those sorts of things as well I also worked a lot to get media coverage for the group A few of the things that I'm most proud of was a huge story That we had on ap news as well as national coverage on the cbs evening news with norah o'Donnell And abc nightly news with lester holt in addition to that I was also the announcer for the group for a number of years. Absolutely love that role So much fun to be in front of an audience connect with them And you know pretty much like set the conditions for them to enjoy the show I mean, I did other little things too. Those were kind of the big things in the span of my career And it was great and there were a lot of things that I truly loved about it I loved playing music for people and honestly I got to the point where I didn't care where I played who I was playing for or what I was playing As long as those people were entertained inspired or moved in some way, which which I know happened every single concert I loved working with such amazing musicians and people You know some of the people I won't miss as much as others But you know, I guess I guess that's how it goes anywhere been all 50 states overseas a few times It was a really great career, but it was time to leave the schedule for the group is challenging Typically on the road about 100 days of the year If any of you have ever served in the military, you know, your daily schedule can be very unpredictable That was fine for a while, but you know, you just sort of roll with it But it gets kind of stressful over time And you know as you move through a career in the military You transition into something other than what you were hired to do specifically And that's usually a managerial type of role I love mentoring people, but you know, there there were elements of upper level management that weren't really my my favorite thing to deal with especially in a highly corporate environment where It's more like steering an aircraft than driving a Ferrari. So that that was that was very frustrating to me Overall though my decision to retire from the army after 20 years two months and 29 days Was for two very big reasons The first was to be home and to be able to spend more time with robin and my family It's it's really hard to be away from home for so long And I just didn't want to do that anymore And the second reason is to finally be able to devote 100 of my time to he spoke style So when I started this, you know 10 years ago, it was kind of easier to keep up with I didn't have quite as many responsibilities in my army career As I've had the last three four or five years and it really has gotten incredibly difficult to balance So instead of spending 100 percent of 10 percent of my time on hss It will be 100 percent of 100 percent of my time and also Rob is actually retiring from the army too. He's right there behind the camera right now So I know that we are both looking forward to making this a full-time thing So my actual retirement date my last day in the army is October 31st of this year My retirement ceremony is May 10th There's a lot involved in retiring and and boxes that you need to make sure you check So there is a bit of a transition period I'm using that time now Which is why you may notice a little bit of a lull in our content creation at this point To do some things that are really going to set us up for success growth and and really being able to scale Into the future right now. We are working with a consultant to map all of our processes develop SOPs for everything And that'll help with hiring training in the future and to really dig into our project management refine that process And implement some things in our software is that we used to make the whole thing just much more streamlined and efficient It's something I probably should have done a long time ago But you know I was doing the best that I could so in addition to Really getting dialed in here on the channel. The other big news Is that the hss website and shop will be getting a complete makeover We just signed a contract with an incredible web design and development agency to make that happen It's probably going to be in the four month range for the entire product start to finish But the experience both on the editorial side and the commerce side Is going to be absolutely amazing from a personal point of view Having started he spoke style originally as a website I'm really looking forward to kind of getting back to basics in terms of that part of how we tell stories and reach people There'll be a lot of synergy between the channel the website and the shop. So speaking of the website Earlier in the video I mentioned the very first post that I ever did on he spoke style and I want to come back to that right now So one of the things that I'm most proud of having done this now for 10 years Is that the message has remained consistent in this whole influencer world? You see people kind of jumping from one thing to the next and you just kind of wonder like You know, what do they really stand for that's really never been my thing For for me. It's always been about the journey and helping people on their own journey to understand the transformational power of dressing well and As evidence here is a little bit of what I wrote in that very first post It seems easy enough, but can certainly be overwhelming with so many choices options and opinions It can definitely be difficult to know where to start what to do and how to do it But like anything investing little thought and time pays big dividends I started this blog to offer style inspiration tips advice and answers to common as well as detail oriented menswear and grooming questions And as a starting point for guys interested in developing a menswear collection or refining their personal style It should be fun And quote it should be fun and it will be fun And I thank you for all the support over the years that has made he spoke style what it is today So more good things to come Stay tuned