 Welcome to Keys to Success which is live on the ThinkTech live streaming network series weekly on Thursdays at 11 a.m. We are your hosts. My name is Danelia D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the other half of the duo, John Newman. Welcome to today's show. The goal of this show is to provide professional and personal development tools and profound insights on how to achieve success in life, career and or business. Dolores Presley, International Keynote, Motivational Speaker and Executive Life Coach was our guest on our last show and her words of wisdom can be accessed on Newman Consulting Services website, NewmanConsultingServices.com or our landing page, Danelia.org. Our topic today is Keys to a Smooth Military Transition. Military members in Hawaii account for an estimated 20% of the population. So this transitioning subject is very important for our state. Joining us today as our honored guest is Vanessa Perez, CEO of S3 Career Consulting. Thank you for joining us today, Vanessa. Thanks, John. Great to see you, Vanessa. It's great to be back. Thank you so much for inviting me. Well, I'll just piggyback on what you said. You were here before and we had such a wonderful time. We had to bring you back again. Oh, thanks so much. All right. Vanessa, please share with our viewers if you would. A little about S3 and what prompted you to start that career? What was the pivoting moment in that? I started S3, S3 Career Consulting, I just call it S3. I started about three years ago and one of the key reasons I did that is because I wanted to provide my knowledge and experience in helping veterans prepare for successful transition. So it's a great topic that you've got me into talk about today. It's a show that's only 20 minutes I can talk for hours. But you understand that I'm a vet. I do, I know. I retired that. Thank you for your service today. So I've been where you are and I was a part of it. This is a topic that's dear to me. Yes. Okay. And dear to me. Yes, absolutely. Well, because you were in the military as well, right in Australia. I was back in Australia. I served 23 years in the Australian Defence Force, Army specifically. And for 19 of those years I served within Special Operations Command which makes some of the things that I do a little bit unconventional sometimes, but they work. So Vanessa, it's funny because you and I, we've become friends. And to see you now, and then I saw a picture of you when you were in uniform. I thought, whoa, you're a tough broad. I don't know about that. I mean, I know it's a term. Down in Australia, broad is okay. But if you call a person broad here in America, it's not true. Uh-oh. Sorry about that. Even though I've lived here 35 years, I'm still using Australian terminology. And when I'm around other Australians, it just blows right out. That's right. But you get around other Australians. It takes me a week to understand. So how difficult was it to transition into the civil sector for you? I suppose I come from a bit of a unique position. The majority of the service that I provided to the military in Australia, I was a reservist. So for 17 of those 23 years I was a reservist. I had my own career. So transitioning really wasn't an issue. I had my military career and I had my civilian career. And for my primary civilian career, I employed people. I recruited, I hired, I managed, I trained people. And I was a recruiter for Won Kamano Regiment for 15 years. So I recruited special forces operators. And some of the best in Australia actually. And so, but when I did come to transition, I was actually serving six years active duty. We call it full-time Australia. So the last six years I was full-time. So that transition, unique again because for me, it was packing up, renting out the house and moving to another whole country. So I suppose the... So it's not a traditional kind of transition that we would see most times where people serve 15 or, you know, 10 or 20 years and then they transition into a new career. So I suppose I was always part of the civilian community, the civilian workforce. And that's the expertise that I bring to the table now in preparing veterans for successful transition because I know what I want to see as an employer. I know how I want people to be presented. And I use that knowledge to prepare veterans now. That's great. And one of the key things, you, veterans, we open up to veterans. And you can understand where they're coming from. And you can share with them. And they're willing to listen because you've been there. And that's one of the key things that helps to make a transition. And one of the things that the military, I'm pretty sure they're working on now, you know, 27 years ago, almost 30 years ago, when I was there, the transition process was, thank you very much. Probably non-existent, right? Well, it was there. But, you know, it was, you had a wonderful career and we wish you the best, you know. Yeah, easy discharge paperwork see you later. And give you the salute. And the thing is, what you're doing is so profound because the military and the civilian sector is like day and night. But one of the key things is when you go through the military, you learn so much. And you have so much to bring to the table. It's just how you present it. And presentation is one of the key things here. It is, it really is. And the translation. And the translation. So working with military to civilian transition trainers will move right into that. Share with us some of the challenges that you experience, you know, with the personnel making that transition from the military into the civilian sector, if you will. Thanks. So I was actually a military to civilian career transition trainer. And that was really my first job in the US. And so soon after I got here, we started our family and were, you know, thrilled that we had Henry. And then my first job once he was moving into preschool was this job. And I worked, it was a contracting job for the Department of Labor transition readiness program. Essentially we call TAP or GPS program. And I delivered that across pretty much all of the bases in Hawaii. And I loved it. I like talk about finding a dream job, you know, for me to be able to share, you know, this insight and this skills and the things that veterans need to do now to be prepared and marketable in this career marketplace was a fantastic job. But one of the things that I started to realize after I did it for two years, but I was really realizing that as much as we invest in that program and as much as people who work with it are committed to it and work their hardest, it's out of date. The reality is the program is 10 years old. And my view is unconventional as it is that the program is preparing our veterans for a job market that doesn't exist anymore. So the pivot point... Wait a minute. What you just said was very profound. A job market that doesn't exist anymore. Can you expand that, please? Well, and this is where I bring in a little bit of unconventional thought here. And I know what I do works because it's worked for, you know, the thousands of veterans that I've worked with or trained or coached. We are placing a lot of emphasis on paper resumes and veterans having to write them themselves and trolling through online job boards. You know, I come in with a different perspective altogether. You know, the conversation of branding and marketing needs to happen if we're to prepare our military veterans for successful transition or any job seeker, to be honest. We need to start thinking about how we present ourselves, how we brand and market ourselves. How do we differentiate ourselves from the other competition in the market, from the other 350 veterans, 350,000 veterans who are transitioning this year? How do I make myself different stand out? How do I make myself and my expertise appealing to a civilian employer? And how do they understand what it is that I have to offer? How do they get the value of that? And that's part of the translation and how important that is. So I flip it all together and I start talking to people about branding and marketing. I want veterans to have business cards now. I want them to have a pocket of business cards 12 months before they transition and they start professionally networking with everybody. Every contractor in the office that they work with, they should know who they are, who they work for, what are they doing, right? And growing their network now, 12 months before they... That's so critical, Vanessa, because when John retired, too, just getting the focus of, look, you won't be in the military anymore. We've got to start thinking now about, what are we going to do? We already had a business set up, so it wasn't a challenge, but it's just all the little things that you think about. Military personnel are basically told what to wear, right down to the underwear. And so even slight change of getting out and having to change the daily routine, it's very, very stressful, let alone a job and where am I going to live and am I going to buy a house or am I not? And I haven't thought about buying a house yet. All of those come into play. So what you're offering is just so critical to reduce, to help with that whole stress level that you go through retiring. And you're right, when veterans transition, they're not just changing jobs. They're changing states, countries, homes. They have no source of income once they leave, for many, when we talk junior enlisted. And the reality is that, once we get to senior levels, we usually have about 12 months to 18 months to actually prepare for that transition. For a lot of junior enlisted, and this is when I started my business, we had the draw down a couple of years ago, we have 40 people in a class, junior Marines sometimes, who had less than three months before they had no job, no salary, no home, no financial fat in the bank. Yeah, they're not preparing. So true. It was a time where I thought, I know how to bridge the gap here between what they're learning and what they actually need. And that's one of the main reasons for my business, and it does make a difference when people look at it in a different way. And what we need to do, well, what the military, my humble opinion, you're taught so well, the training is the best in the world, you can't get any better training. But the focus should be not only on your job in the military, it's when you leave the military. They need to focus on it a little sooner. That's where if I had to add anything to the pie, it's how soon you do it. Because as you said, three months before you get out, it's not enough time to think about a successful transition in the civil sector. So I was fortunate because I had a lot of older individuals that I dealt with taught me and said, hey, look, this is just a chapter in your life. Once this chapter is over, there's a book you're about to start. So you need to start transitioning. We started transitioning maybe three, four years before I got out of the military. And that made it so easy. It was like sticking your finger in a bucket of water and taking it out. Boom, it was nothing. It was no riffle and things. The only challenge I had as to know you were saying this, I wore a blue shirt and blue pair pants, light blue shirt, dark blue pants. And I just didn't know what to put on. I would come out with a green shirt. You're stylish. My son would say, dad, you can't wear that. You've got to change that. I say, if it's comfortable, I'm wearing it. Well, for most military personnel, the career transition process is as much about self-education as it is about finding a job. So approximately 50% of the people who live in the military to pursue civilian employment end up working for companies as unknown to them when their search began and they accept positions from companies that they know very little about. And part of that is because they're only just leaving three months to kind of get out and they're panicking and grabbing whatever comes along, which can really affect them even more for the rest of their lives, right? It's critical. Planning, it's all about planning. We are such great planners in the military, but we've failed to actually think strategically about our career change. It's interesting that you said three to four years out. I believe now in recruit courses, they're starting to plant the seed now to start thinking about your transition now. What are you going to do once you leave, whether it's four years or eight years time? And my strategy is always for active duty now to get prepared three and four years before it. So not start to plan your transition a year out, but three years out. It's interesting that you would say that most people would transition and have ever heard of the company they work for. I did a little bit of searching. And there are about 28 million businesses in the US alone, right? So nobody could ever know all of the businesses. So consider now the career marketplace is a global environment. You can connect with, engage with and shape opportunities across the globe now. So you span for opportunities massively, and really if people start being strategic about their career change or their job search, they should start growing their networks broadly. They can grow their networks based on location, find all the chief executives within the commute radius of where you want to live or connect with chief executives within organizations or industries that appeal to you or interest you. And it's really fascinating that the world becomes your oyster when you start thinking about this. We've got to take a break. This is Keys to Success on the ThinkTech live streaming network series. We're talking with Vanessa Perez, CEO of S3 Career Consulting. I'm Danelia D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And I'm the laugh of the duo, John Newman. Please stay tuned because we'll be back in a minute. Have a great day. Aloha. My name is John Wahee. And I used to be a part of all the things that you might be angry at. I served in government here and may have made decisions that affects you. So I want to invite you in. I want to invite you in to Talk Story with me and some very special guests every other Monday here at Talk Story with John Wahee. Come on in, join us, express your opinion, learn more about your state, and then do something about it. Aloha. Welcome back. This is Keys to Success on the ThinkTech live streaming network series. We encourage you to call our hotline at 415-871-2474 to join our conversation or tweet us at thinktechhi if you have any questions or comments. We've been talking with Vanessa Perez, CEO of S3 Career Consulting about Keys to Smooth Military Transition. My name is Danelia D-A-N-E-L-I-A. And as I said, I'm the laugh of the duo, John Newman. Welcome back to the show. And welcome back, Vanessa. Thanks, John. We've got to take the breaks. You just need to say, just be quiet. Okay, Vanessa. We mentioned earlier that our military personnel is about 20% an estimated 20% of our population here on our islands. So, in your opinion, how do you feel that transition affects the economy here on in Hawaii? You know, it's a great point to bring up. And we know that our little magical islands quite unique in the scheme of the military. We have all services represented, all within like a short drive distance, which is very unique. We have probably around about 130, 140,000 active duty on the island. And non-serving military community, we have more than 100,000. You know, it's a significant percentage of our environment here. I'm working with some really phenomenal innovative military veterans who have recently transitioned and realized that they really feel ready for what we need to undertake. So they've created this really innovative council, they call Master Seats, the Military Aloha State Economic and Retention Council. And they appeared on Reg Baker's fantastic cutting edge stuff. And they've come up with these numbers that are really significant. I don't think they've ever been captured before. When we compare veterans in transition on the mainland, on average 33% of those veterans are retained within the state. So that they stay, they settle down once they leave and then they contribute to the business economy of that state. The numbers here, like we always knew that the majority of veterans will leave and go back to the mainland. Many want to go and see their families, many want to return and go to businesses over there, but when I talk to veterans about would they like to stay most, a large percentage would like to stay here if they felt confident that they would transition into a successful, meaningful job that allows them to afford the cost of living here for their families. So at the moment Hawaii retains 3% of our veteran population. There's so much potential to shape the opportunity to give the veterans the confidence to be able to transition into swiftly transition into meaningful employment and then bolster this economy here. So the great thing about the master council is that they have started those conversations now with industry leaders, with businesses, with the community, the veteran service organizations and with the community leaders and it's really exciting to see what's happening and we'd like to see Hawaii retaining 33% of veterans to help with our economy. It certainly would give more skilled employees for businesses here because we're looking for skilled individuals. There's something else. There's an elephant sitting in the room here. Is that a fat joke? No. It could be. I don't think so. This is a serious joke. Sorry. We have such a thing as called the brain drain here. The young kids that go away to college, I mean the smart kids, they can't come back here and get a job because it's not only about being able to take a job and do a job, the jobs have to be here. And the jobs on here, our son as when he's a computer engineer, he's in Manhattan, he couldn't come back here and start his computer software business. Let me introduce him to a few people. There are a lot of people that will love him but the salary that he's earning in Manhattan is not the salary that he's going to be earning here and as you said the cost of living. So that transition from the military into the civil sector is a major one and what you're doing is something that's going to be profound and making things happen. But the jobs and learning how to take your military training to match the jobs out there and that's why we talked about this needs to happen three to four years before you get out. This is not something that is going to be overnight and that's something that you're working on. And it's all about planning. It's planning. Professional networking. There are some really fantastic tech organizations starting down here and we really do see that there's this they're having a hard time finding people and I think that military veterans are a good a good source. A very good source. Now Vanessa what do you feel are the top three keys to a smooth transition? That's a good question. Get ready and be ready. Get ready and stay ready. So and what I mean by that is get your branding and your marketing ready. Make sure everything's up to date. Make sure you have a pocket full of business cards whenever you go out because you never know when you're going to meet your next boss or a business opportunity right. So get ready and stay ready. Get on LinkedIn. I can't believe we've been talking for this long and haven't even said LinkedIn yet. We gave you a chance. Now you're here. You know I'm an absolute staunch advocate of the very essential need for people to get on LinkedIn. Explain LinkedIn to people like old people like ourselves. Excuse me. I didn't go that far. When we are preparing for this job market that doesn't exist and what you actually need now LinkedIn is one of the critical branding and marketing tools that any professional in the global workforce today needs to be on whether you're a job seeker or not. It's about it's the most important professional networking platform on the planet. With over 450 million professionals engaged on it. This is how people are finding work and this is how companies are finding talent. This is how people are doing business. See the thing is when I say explain LinkedIn not only are you looking the companies are looking. LinkedIn lets the companies go out and search as well as you. That's when I say can you explain LinkedIn what you just said now is very key. It's not a one sided thing. The companies are looking at LinkedIn and looking for staff looking for wonderful people to bring it over. The best telephone on the planet. The goal of LinkedIn, the mission of LinkedIn is to connect talent with opportunity at massive scale. It's about doing business and it's about professional credibility and here's where I'm going to be a little bit unconventional. I would say to veterans today if you are preparing for transition and you are working with anybody to support that transition and they are not on LinkedIn and they are not leveraging it and they can't teach you why you need to be on it and why you need to be using it well and connecting you with opportunities out of the room. Don't work with them because they are not up to date with the current global career marketplace and I see it all too often. I was very upset to walk into an office very recently that is supporting unemployed and veterans who are unemployed and to see computers that don't have Wi-Fi access people who are unemployed trying to find jobs and they are not only a dinner at LinkedIn and I still see newspapers hanging on a wooden rack at the front door. It's out of date and it needs to be shaken up and things need to change if we are going to make a difference. Number three. I know I forgot that too. You were into it and I didn't want to budge I mean you were doing it. Professional networking so let people know what you are looking for. The minute you say to people hey I'm getting out in the next six months and I'm really interested to stay here in Hawaii and I really want to put my feelers out to people who are working in the IT industry and before you know it people go man why didn't you tell me that before my brothers just started an IT company so ask, be confident and start thinking strategically about finding your next boss or finding your next company. So you know one of the things that my research I saw was that the unemployment rate for female veterans was higher than the unemployment rate for male veterans and so why do you think that is? Sad isn't it? I was shocked actually when I started reading about this and doing research I thought my goodness me. But one of the reasons is there are more male veterans than female veterans. You have to bring that into the equation too. Oh that's a good point. I mean when you start talking about 80,000 individuals maybe 20,000 women. Women are 14% of the military so you're right. We don't have a huge footprint. That statistic can be screwed. Statistics can make things look good or make things look bad. But you still have a point. You know the unemployment numbers in the country allow me to make me sad. When I see that there's a correlation with high unemployment that makes me sad. And then women veterans unemployed. Specifically about female veterans the high numbers of them being unemployed is you know I don't know the answers and Washington don't know the answers sadly. I was thinking it's all well and good for the first lady to say we're not quite sure why we have such high unemployment numbers for female veterans. Get a bunch of them in a room and ask. Do a study so that we learn. I would hazard a guess that some of the reasons that I think contribute to it are that we are the parents sometimes. Women veterans are looking after family responsibilities so you're not choosing to work or it's hard to actually find jobs that fit within school drop off and pick up. Hate to say it. Childcare requirements and childcare is actually quite high. So often we're looking at the cost of childcare being more than your income sadly. So it's been half an hour already. We're really quick. I've just been told you've got to wrap it up. Wait a minute. He's getting bumped under the table. I'm saying this can't be true. We're out of time. We'll have to wrap it up. John would you like to share your quote of the day? Yes I will. And the quote of the day fits right into what we were talking about and the quote of the day is from Ed McManon which says perfecting your presentation is the most important work you can do. So true. Vanessa Perez's Words of Wisdom with regards to Keys to Success can be found on Newman Consulting Services webpage and landing page denilia.org Thank you Vanessa for joining us today and sharing your insights to Keys to Military Transitioning Keys to Success. So true. And Think Tech Keys to Success will be back Thursday at 11am we ask that you please tune in again and ask your friends and family to do so as well. My name is Denilia D-A-N-E-L-I-A and I'm now the half of the duo, John Newman and we'd like to thank you for being here with us and we'd like to wish you a prosperous and happy new year. Aloha