 Welcome to Adventures in Small Business, a collaboration between the United States Small Business Administration Hawaii District Office and its resource partners. My name is Dennis Kwok. I'm the director of the Veterans Business Outreach Center of the Pacific. We have a very special guest today. His name is James Alden and he is special because he's not only, we only not only saw him as a student, but he's actually progressed into a graduate and of the Booster Business Program and now a small business owner, a successful one at that. So James, thanks for having us, having, coming on to the show and being here. Dennis, thanks for having me. Yeah. So, you know, before each of the, every show, I like to ask some personal questions. So, and I know the story of your past, but maybe you can share with the audience how you came, how you went into the military and, you know, what that journey was for you. Well, how far back do you want me to go? Well, I can go back to, up into my junior year in high school and the last thing I was going to do is join the military. Yeah. So, I was an athlete in high school. I played multiple sports and then I had a chance to go play football at the United States Military Academy at West Point. So, living in Atlanta, I thought going to New England area, up to New York to get an education would be quite an adventure. So, I signed up, not really knowing what the army was about, but knowing that I wanted to play Division I football. Did you come from a military family? I did not. My father was a fireman for 29 years in Atlanta and my mother was a career teacher. Oh, wow. Okay. So, I was in the house and as well as a, you know, disciplinary, yeah, both were disciplinarians, but both loved all of us very much. I had two older brothers, so I was the youngest. And your experiences at West Point, how was that, I mean, was it overall, and I know that you don't want to, you know, talk about smear your alma mater, but. No, not at all. Yeah, no, it was great. It allowed an 18-year-old to kind of figure out what was important and how to manage multiple tasks at one time. They really taught me about responsibility and how to take responsibility for my actions. That was one of the biggest lessons that I learned early on. It was very difficult to go through those four years, but if I was 18-year-old, if I could talk to my 18-year-old self, I would tell him, you need to make that decision and do it. I would do it all over again. And at West Point, was that where you kind of grew, you know, up to as a man and you got all these skill sets, did it transfer well into when you're a career in the military? It absolutely developed me and prepared me for my time as a second lieutenant in the United States Army. So I would say every day, I'd probably learn a little bit more about myself, that's kind of just how I like to live my life. I had a story of, I could tell you a little story about the night before graduation. So we spent four years at the United States Military Academy and I had a roommate during the time and it was a night before graduation. When you're in an area, you get really close when you're in the school with all of your classmates. One of the mottos is cooperate and graduate. And so the relationships, the team atmosphere, helping each other out was really, I was fortunate to have friends around me that did that for me while we were at the academy. So my roommate the night before graduation, I asked him, are you excited? I was thrilled. I couldn't even sleep. And he said, actually, I'm scared. Why are you scared? This is going to be the best day of our lives. We've been waiting for this day for four years. I didn't, personally, I didn't think I was ever going to make it. And now here we are the night before graduation, the night before throwing our hats up into the air. It was just going to be great. And he told me, he said, I've been wanting to do this my entire life. Ever since he was eight years old, he wanted to be a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point. And he said, that's been my entire goal my entire life. I don't know what I'm going to do the day after tomorrow. And so that was a realization to me that I don't ever want to be in that position. Well, there's not, there's not a goal that you achieve. And then you don't know what's next, but to always continue to grow and always continue to strive and kind of lean towards expansion of both your knowledge base as well as experiences. So that's what I really learned. And that was the night before graduation, listening to my roommate. And that, I mean, that's a very good lesson. Just life all, you know, life general lesson that you can take away from. So you know, after West Point, what was your career like in the military? It was, it was great. I didn't always like it. I didn't always enjoy it. But it was, I started off, I had a pretty unique career. My idea going into the military was that I was going to get after, get out after my first, you owe back five to six years after graduation to the military. And so I went in thinking that I was going to get out after five or six years. So I was going to do my commitment. I was going to get out and go get a MBA and go work in a Fortune 500 company. And I was an economics major at West Point. And so I decided based on advice from mentors, I talked to five mentors before graduation. And I asked them what branch in the army as you pick infantry or armor branch or field artillery or aviation or logistics, quartermaster. So four of them told me, they said, well, I would, I would pick quartermaster, logistics because you're going to bring those skills and they're going to be beneficial to the civilian sector when you transition out in the military. And then one out of the five, it will go be a signal officer and learn about communication. And so based on that advice, I just took the law of averages and said, hey, four out of five, agree. So I branched a quartermaster officer and I was going to get out. So I started my military career as a quartermaster officer and a logistician. And then through my career, I was fortunate to meet my wife of 20 years who was also a classmate of mine. And so we graduated together, but I knew who she was, but she didn't know who I was. It's always the case that way. Right. Right. And so she was also a quartermaster officer. So we were both at Fort Lee, Virginia together in the officer basic course. And so that's when we started to date and get to know each other. And she went off to Fort Bragg for her first duty assignment. And I went to Fort Stewart, Georgia, being a boy from Atlanta. Sure. I wanted to get back to Georgia. And when did you come to Hawaii? So I came to Hawaii in 2007. But that was after I obviously decided to stay in beyond five years. My wife decided to get out. We started our family. And we knew that both of us weren't going to stay in. And she knew that both of us weren't going to get out. And so I stayed in. And at that point I made the decision to go to Special Forces Selection to do something different. I was going to spend 20 years in the military. I wanted to be around, not that they're not professionals across the entire U.S. Army. But I wanted to do something a little bit different. I wanted to have a little different adventure. So I went to Special Forces Selection and was lucky enough to make it through and be selected. And then went off to my career as a Green Beret and third Special Forces Group at Fort Bragg. And then from that, after multiple deployments to Afghanistan, then we headed out to Hawaii. And that brought us out here in 2007. That's a very great career in the military. And when did you retire exactly? I retired in 2017. So it's only been a couple of years. Just two years. Just two years. Yeah. After retiring, I mean, you've come a long ways too. And that's why we're here, really talking about your business. But it's always important to kind of go back and see where you came from. It's always fascinating to me, as a host, to really kind of understand the journey up to the point and see that transition. And talking about transition, how was that transition from the military into civilian life for you? Well, for me, I was fortunate that I had quite a few mentors going to help me along the way. I knew about a year out that the transition was going to happen. So I started preparing myself a little early. And I'm fortunate to have a wonderful wife and a wonderful family who just kind of helped me through the whole process. I think the strength of our family at home was really what allowed me to, that made it such a smooth transition. One of the pieces of advice that I received from a mentor that I think had helped tremendously was the idea of ensuring that you're able to provide for the family. Because as a military family, it's pretty financially, it's a safe and secure kind of, you know that the paychecks coming in, you get used to that every two weeks. And then as you transition into the civilian sector, you hear the stories about where the status of the economy and then the risks of being an entrepreneur. And so all of those thoughts and ideas, they start to perpetuate or just kind of float around in the household. Like what are we going to do? How are we going to continue to provide for our family? And so the advice that he gave me, one of my mentors gave me was to start saving money not for your retirement, but to start saving money for the transition. And very wise words. It was wonderful because what it allowed us to do was start putting away money just for the transition. And then it gave me the freedom to not settle for the first opportunity that came up. I mean having a very distinguished military career like yourself, retiring as Lieutenant Colonel, you know, you probably had a lot of opportunities to, you know, find employment elsewhere. Am I correct? Yes. And how hard was that decision to switch between employment and, you know, self-employment? Well, the financial situation that we put ourselves in 12 months before retirement gave me that, helped me mitigate that risk. So it allowed us to kind of sit and wait for either the right opportunity, and then in parallel while waiting for the right opportunity, start to build something and grow the seed of entrepreneurship or the idea of a business and try to get that going. Very cool. Yes, I don't want to cut you off, but we're going to take a short break and then we'll be back in a minute. Thanks. Hi, I'm Rusty Komori, host of Beyond the Lines on Think Tech, Hawaii. My show is based on my book also titled Beyond the Lines, and it's about creating a superior culture of excellence, leadership, and finding greatness. I interview guests who are successful in business, sports, and life, which is sure to inspire you in finding your greatness. Join me every Monday as we go Beyond the Lines at 11 a.m., Aloha. I'm Stan Osterman, a host here on Think Tech, Hawaii, a digital media company serving the people of Hawaii. We provide a video platform for citizen journalists to raise public awareness here on the island. We are a Hawaiian non-profit that depends on the generosity of its supporters to keep on going. We'd be grateful if you go to thinktechhawaii.com and make a donation to support us now. Mahalo. All right. Welcome back to Adventures in Small Business. We have Mr. James Alden here from Long Gray Line. James, we're going to just jump right in, and maybe we can talk a little bit about that transition and why you chose to go into the specific industry that you chose. Okay. Well, because I was an economics major at West Point, and my idea was that I was going to get out after five years and get my MBA, I still had that dream in the back of my head. So that, after my 20-year career in the military, that dream didn't go away. I still wanted to maybe get an MBA, go become a middle manager in the Fortune 500 company and work my way up, and maybe get into the tech industry or something new and something unique and just challenge myself in that way. I had a growing up in Atlanta, familiar with the Waffle House restaurant. And so I was one of those Waffle Houses one day with my father-in-law, actually, was in there with me, and he was a key mentor as I transitioned out. And I was telling him this story. He asked me, what do you want to do? What are you planning on doing? And I was telling him this idea of getting my MBA and going to work for a Fortune 500 company and work my way up. And he knew that his daughter wanted to stay in Hawaii. He said, well, how are you going to do that from the middle of the Pacific Ocean? How many Fortune 500 companies are out there would be willing to bring you on board and not to their corporate headquarters? And then, but I kind of shrugged off that comment and continued to explain my reasoning and how great it's going to be and how I'm going to shake the dust of the military off of my boots. And I was going to move out and do some great things in the business world. And he continued to listen patiently and finish his breakfast and his cup of coffee, and then he asked me one question. He said, really, one word. Why? And I sat back and said, why is that your plan? And then he went on to tell me about my 24 years in the military, including my four years at West Point and the relationships that I built and the experiences that I gained, and the deployments that I'd been on and the relationships really that I built across the Pacific region because I'd been out in the Pacific since 2007. So 10 years at this time, half of my career working in the Pacific and all the relationships that I had built from India to Japan and that network of friendships, relationships, acquaintances and the time that I put in and the knowledge base that I'd built. And he just asked me, why don't you leverage that? All of the business ideas and concepts and growth and excitement is going to be out there. It's not going to go anywhere. Why don't you transition into something that you already know so you're not starting over? Every time in your military career you get to a new rank, you get to a new unit, you start over, you have to prove yourself again. He said, you've proven yourself for 24 years. Why don't you use those relationships the best way you can? I think that was great advice because working with veteran entrepreneurs myself, I see a lot of veterans that are transitioning out totally change the course of what they did in the military and go into totally different kind of industries. They might have been an officer or they might have been listed, whatever it is that a lot of them choose to go into food and beverage, lifestyle businesses, poor companies, construction. Very different from their career in the military. You're one of the few actually stays kind of on course, not exactly the same, but still utilizing all the resources that you gained throughout the years in the military service, in your military service, using that to your advantage. So that's kind of going into your company, Long Gray Line. Maybe you can tell the audience a little bit about your company, what it does, how it started. I'm sure it's a training and education company that really leverages the relationships that we have out in the Pacific region to provide services for different universities and different education entities. So growing up in a family with an educator, you really learn the value of education and the value of expanding your knowledge base. So I've always enjoyed teaching, mentoring, and watching people grow and change and think of something new. The biggest joy that I receive is when someone hears an idea or concept and says, I really didn't think about it that way. And so that's what I wanted to do. So as Special Forces Officer in our Special Forces mission, I mean, that's what we do. We go into foreign countries, we learn the language, we learn the culture, and we help train them and support them in accomplishing their objectives. So having a career within that unit and that organization and doing that around the world, it just kind of helps. It helps, not really helps, but it... It was a very easy transition for us. Yeah, it helped in the transition for me to go from that mindset and that focus and then take it into a training and education company that helps solve problems. That was another big piece of advice, was not to look at the product that you want to provide, but look at the problems that you want to solve and find those solutions and be a problem solver. And so being in the military, you see a lot of problems and that you want to solve. And so depending on your position, authority, responsibilities, you give recommendations or you make decisions on how to solve those problems. And so during my transition, I just took all of those skills and attributes that I developed over my time in the military and said, okay, what are the problems out there? And one of the problems that we're trying to solve is training and education and helping a partner get to where they want to be. And it's very rewarding. So Long Green Line has been maybe... It's a very young company. A year, maybe 18 months. Yeah, you had your first full year recently and very surprising enough. You're doing very well, profitable, which is very, very hard to do in the first year for a lot of small businesses. But where do you see Long Green Line in five years? Where do you want to be? Do you still want to concentrate just on the Pacific or do you want to have more of a global presence? That's where I want to be in five years. I've thought about that a lot. And what I keep coming back to is, I want to be happy in five years. I want to maintain my time. To me, that's a limiting factor. I retired so I could make breakfast for my sons. So I could make lunch for my sons. So I could make dinner for my family at night. I could take the kids to school. Being an entrepreneur allows me that flexibility and that time, but it also gives me the creative outlet. And I see Long Green Line being still existing, still providing training and education opportunities for our partners in the Pacific. Maybe we become a pretty significant subcontractor for prime contractors out in the Pacific. Maybe we venture into commercial training and education. But it's all going to be tempered with my family time, my time, and kind of getting that, maintaining the balance that for so long was very difficult to maintain. And now having that freedom is really what my focus is. So I'll take it moment by moment and just try to make the appropriate decision in every moment that presents itself. Yeah, I mean, that's a great way to look at things. Success is a double-edged sword because you do have time allocations and what's important to you. And your vision of success is not only the thriving of your business, but your personal life, which heavily involves your kids and your wife. Nice to hear. You know, we're almost out of time, but one more question I kind of want to ask you is being a career officer in the Army, just do you have any advice, words of advice for people that are service members coming out of the military, transitioning and thinking about starting a small business? I mean, what kind of words of advice do you have? Hmm. Well, I would first tell them to, I would advise them to find the mentor, find somebody that's been there, that's been where they want to go and build a, don't just call them and try to build a relationship with them, try to build a friendship with them as much as you can and build that network and begin with people that you know. Right. And then go from there. Yeah. And because they're gonna introduce you and tell them what your dreams, tell them what you're thinking about and don't ever turn down a coffee or a lunch because you don't think that that person has something to provide you. And I would also recommend that they don't go looking for a job. I had a mentor tell me, that don't go looking for a job because you will get advice. They'd go looking for advice and you will get a job. Right, cool. And so that was really great advice. And it changed my perspective on how I talked with possible bosses or opportunities or business to business opportunities. It changed my entire approach. Right. I would also recommend that they get out of their comfort zone. It's okay. You want to dream big but get out of your comfort zone and surround yourself with different the people that are maybe in the industry that you're interested in going in and try it out. You don't have to jump in with both feet and you can try it out. Have a start a part-time business. Have a full-time job and start a part-time business. Because for me, Long Gray Lions has part-time. So we have multiple part-time partners. I'm not full-time on anything. So that allows a lot of flexibility and allows or maximizes our creativity of how we want to solve those problems. Right, cool. So I would just say that find a mentor and get out of your comfort zone. Maybe lean into different experiences. That's advice that I would give to those. Very good advice. I also forgot to say that actually James is a Boots to Business graduate which is our core program. And he's taking the course and now he's actually a mentor in our program. I've taken it twice. You've taken it twice. I forgot, yeah. You took it twice. And the experiences that you had from Boots to Business, you gained a lot, you started a business and we invited James back as a mentor for our program which has worked out really well. He comes to our classes and the military installations and he teaches Boots to Business and Workshops along with our program. So I really want to thank you for being a mentor in our program and we hope that relationship continues and maybe in a couple of years you can come back on the show and tell us about your new adventures. Yeah, I would love to. Thank you for having me and thank you for accepting me in the Boots to Business team. It's a thrill for me to go and just talk with transitioning military and to let them know that it's not as daunting a task and don't settle for the first thing that comes along. You have a lot of strengths that you bring to the table and you're a highly valued commodity in the civilian sector. So give them that confidence. Yeah, and it's worked out really well and thank you for that. And thank you for joining us on Adventures in Small Business. My name is Dennis Kwok. And thank you Jamie for coming on the show. My pleasure. Thank you for having me.