Mentors Never Retire: Interview with V2I's Vice President Bruce Thompson

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The 20 a day is a serious thing. And if we can help with that transition to make it a more informed, smoother process, then we improve on the ability for others to get jobs and live, grow and not fall into that depression that man, I tell you that depression is keep up one year, and once it grabs you, it really doesn't want to let go. And there's so many of us that deal with the PTSD and the mental health issues in service and post service. So everything we can do to help you know that community and help change that number. We're all about that.

Welcome to the Morning formation, everyone. Thank you for joining us today, we have a very special guest, Mr. Bruce Batman Thompson, who is best to industry's vice president. He's also a 23 year Marine Corps Veteran with an MBA from Columbia Southern University. Bruce is guilty of holding multiple national certifications, as well as being a skilled mentor, team builder in a career coach. Bruce, thank you for joining us today on the show. Oh, it's my pleasure, Bruce, let's get right into it. Man, you have a very impressive background, very impressive resume as well. You know, I've joined you many times in clubhouse. And when you're not there, people are literally summoning you asking you to come in and you know, share some of your knowledge and experiences. But can you tell us tell us the story of where it all originally started from? And what was your upbringing like? Well, growing up in the Marine Corps, you definitely learn to value others higher than you value yourself, but never devalue yourself and live in that lifestyle for 23 plus years. It it just develops who you are. And, you know, we're leading, we're coaching or mentoring, we're teaching and learning every single day. So that just becomes part of your, your core part of who you are. And when I transitioned, and I'm one of those ones, I transitioned into six figure jobs, left it after a month for another job that was more in line with what I wanted to be doing. And I just found my passion was to continue to serve, who better than to serve, then, you know, those that are serving our veterans, our military spouses or military families. And it just became a natural

Department of Labor three day employment workshop facilitator. And I did that for two and a half years, and I absolutely loved the job. Now, I'll tell you, the material isn't what we all wish it would be. But I love the fact that I was able to each week, reach out between 30 to 50 individuals that were in the transition space, and provide them guidance and, you know, answer questions that they had. And we all have a million questions in the transition. The problem is a lot of us don't know what questions to ask because we haven't figured that out yet. So you know, I left the DLL position, I started doing better, ATI, working with a couple different nonprofits that work in the veteran space. And then I run to this Brian Arrington guy Oh, and we talked before and I started seeing his name while with LinkedIn and, and heard about vets to industry and, you know, I scheduled a veteran a session with them, so I could ask how I could be a part of it. And, you know, it's kind of funny when he answered, we get through the, you know, the hellos. He's like, brother, I've been trying to figure out how to ask you to be part of this for like, two months now. And I'm like, well, hell, this is what I call it about is how I can get involved. So we did a quick high five, and we were off and running with fetch to industry. Yeah, it says an absolutely amazing story. It's funny how people run into each other like that and have that automatic chemistry and they're clicking together. So let's take it back to the very beginning. from your childhood and where you grew up, and where you're originally from. I want to try to find out where did it all start for you as far as your as far as your motivation to help others where did you grow up? And what was your upbringing like? So I was born in West Virginia raised by a single dad spent time with my grandparents who are just two of the most amazing individuals will ever know. You know, they were all about you know, family reunions. Family means everything. help those you can, you know, and and community be part of your community. And we left West Virginia when I was eight, moved out to Southern California, not the nice Southern California at the beaches, the Southern California in the middle of the desert. Where he saw a beach It was a, it was just an illusion is a mirage? Yeah, it was mirage. And there it, it was a small farming community. It wasn't a whole lot of places to go or whole lot things to do. So you just kind of, you know, got into sports, you know, hung out with your friends. And, you know, it was the I was the youngest. So I had all the brothers that got into all the trouble. And I learned how to have a really good, you know, teenage life without parents harassing me, it's just kind of work there. And as a junior in high school, I chose to join the Marine Corps. And at that point, it was just, Hey, I wasn't ready for college yet. I didn't want to waste anybody's money, I definitely wanted to get out of, you know, the hometown area. And so I signed up, it always Bootcamp, it changes your life in three months. It definitely did, you know, completely new perspective. You know, it really helped bring out your core values of what really meant the most to you and who you really are underneath it all. And it, it got me where I where I am today and took some bumps and bruises, some broken bones. But, you know, I'm not as physically fit as I once was. But I definitely am mentally strong. And I'd love sharing what I know with those that are in a position where they, they need to hear it, they need to know what what's actually happening, not only as they prepare for transition are in transition, but once they get that first roll, as we all know, many individuals leave that first role within the first year. And it jumps into the 60% that leave a role after the first two years. So when we talk about we help those in transition, we mean the first transition from military service to I won't say the civilian world, because we always move into the veteran space because we never quite lose that, that knowledge of who we are and how we grew up. But we have people that we assist that are 2530 plus years out of service, but they're still in transition, they're still military veteran, and that's what we want to do is we just want to help people, you know, find a better life for you, the 20 a day is a serious thing. And if we can help with that transition to make it a more informed, smoother process, then we improve on the ability for others to get jobs, you know, be able to live, you know, grow and not fall into that depression that man, I tell you that depression does creep up one year, and once it grabs you, it really doesn't want to let go. And there's so many of us that deal with the the PTSD and the mental health issues in service and post service. So everything we can do to help you know that community and help change that number, you know, or we're all

about that. Now, I noticed judging from your LinkedIn that you actually went to college while you were enlisted in the Marines, you successfully earned your bachelor's degree and then you went on to get your MBA and human resources, what motivated you to enroll and earn those college degrees? Because many times it's very difficult to get folks to kind of see the bigger picture and value education, but what was your motivation?

Well, it came down to reality of seeing individuals retire or leave service that didn't have their education, they didn't really have that. What next mentality and so as I was talking to them, and I always kind of was put in positions of higher rank than I actually were at the time. And so that gave me access to a lot of senior individuals and ask them you know, if you could go back 10 years what would you be doing differently and almost everybody said, you know, the Education The preparing myself for the the post service career. And I got that and like I said, coming straight out of high school, I wasn't ready for college. But after about a decade in the Marine Corps, it was the Okay, I'm ready now. So went out there and I got a couple associates from two different schools. Then I went on to my bachelor's and then you know, my my MBA program, and I was completing school while I was for deployed in Iraq. Afghanistan. Yeah, I would be traveling on business in, you know, I have my government laptop and my personal laptop and, you know, I was doing all the events and meetings and follow up for work. And then in the evening time I pop up my college work and I'd be doing my college work. It takes a commitment, it takes away from family time. But in the end, you're making yourself valuable for that, that transition space and employable. Right now I'm not telling everybody to run out and get their MBA, because sometimes the MBA scares people away, because they think they got to pay you extra and and yes, that is a good thing. However, that's you have to make sure that you're putting yourself in that right position. Right. And I talked a lot of people and we talked about this last week in a clubhouse session with the mill pack, you know, degree versus certification. So in human resource management, where I have my degrees in it, it's one of those ones, the first thing people ask, is, are you PHR? sphr? You know, it's not that Oh, great. We seem to have an MBA in human resource management. It's the Have you passed the industry certification, that tells us you actually know what you're doing, vise, hey, he went to school and did well enough to earn a degree. Right? You know, so it's always that balance.

Right. And you described earlier, you talked about your transition, when you left the Marine Corps being less than ideal. Looking back now at how your transition played out? If you could go back, what would you do differently?

Well, one, I definitely would take it a little more serious than I did. And that's not to say that I didn't take it seriously. But during my transition time, I had a lot of medical issues that I had to deal with. So instead of really pushing forward and looking at employment opportunities, and getting those certifications and, and improving things of that nature, you know, I was really spending a lot of time at the doctor's whatever surgeries procedures, trying to figure out what was wrong here or there. And so that really took precedence over finding employment post service.

So throughout your entire career and all the accomplishments that you have, what would you say are your top three biggest wins, career wise?

Well, lasting 23 plus years in the Marine Corps, attaining you EA. Being able to do the things I did is probably the number one like, well thing, well look back at accomplishments and things that I can say I really did that. Let's be honest, not too many people can or do. And I'll say I took over as the Executive Director for Vets for Vets movement here in Jacksonville, Florida. Just six months after I arrived, and you missed the largest reoccurring gathering of veterans in the state of Florida. We took over a 17,000 seat, basketball hockey rink, arena, and we filled that thing with better resources, veteran service organizations, military veterans, the families, and we ran speaker program, we help people find employment, we help people find the resources they needed for where they were at. And of course, no introduce them to a lot of different veteran service organizations that they could be a part of, and find that camaraderie that that most of us lose once we transition. And as far as the third one, I'll tell you right now, I absolutely love what I'm doing with vets to industry. We were out there in every three weeks for doing these virtual events that's bringing, you know, on average about 380 people together. Recruiters, veteran service organizations, veteran advocates, those that just want to give back and do great things with our veterans military service member or transitioning servicemembers, reserves, guards, military families, military spouses, and I tell you the energy and just the way everybody comes together, it is amazing. And our favorite part and we just we wave this flag all the time. We're in competition with no one if you're doing something great. We want to advertise you. We want you to come in and tell us what you're doing great we want to put you in a resource library. You know there's plenty of people are out there saying hey this is my piece of land and you know we don't have our flag stuck in the ground saying this is us and you can't do anything that we do. know we're out there saying if you do something great, we don't want to do it. We want to make sure people know that you're doing it right and and that's that you know, non competitive motion that we have it, it's just a great space to be in. And when no one's worried about, you know, who gets to pat in the back, or whose names on the marquee or any of that, things actually come together and happen. And, and that's what we love is we host events. But we've got individuals that we have that go into these events and talk to one another and talk to you in those networking groups in our breakout rooms. And we're not talking VTi and selling ourselves in those breakout rooms, we're making sure that everybody in there has a chance to give their professional introduction, figure out, you know, what, what they're looking for how, how they're going to do that next thing. And we have people that join us that have no idea what transition means, no idea what they want to do next. And then we have people are like, I'm looking for the job with Amazon at this location. And this role. Yeah, connect me, connect me to the Amazon guru, that that's on here. And, you know, we're like, Hey, no problem, we're gonna get you in that room with, you know, Billy Susie, or Sally. And you guys can talk about that, you know, and that's where it is. It's sharing the information resources, making connections and introducing people to the right ones that opened doors form. And it's just a space that once you get into, I said, it's a passion. So it's not like it's a job where you're having to work. It's just one of those ones of, you know, how can we pay it forward? How can we help? And if I can't be that person, let me introduce you to someone who can. And I just absolutely love it, we've got a great team, we're all volunteers. And it just makes the ultimate difference. Yeah, when you just get everybody working towards a single cost, which is to help others.

Yeah, it's less about, like you said, the marquee and all about the number one goal, which is to help the military community level themselves up. And I do also believe that the 22 a day that you mentioned earlier, is tied to the frustration of the transition from military to civilian, you know, a lot of guys that I know, that got out, they went through a phase of feeling like, you know, that the world, career wise, had left them behind, and didn't really know what to do or how to transfer those skills over. And so it's awesome to see, you know, best to industry help build that bridge for the military community. And, you know, I just want to say what's, what do you think is the number one thing that motivates you to reach back and help others because I can't emphasize enough. And maybe you know, the number because I know, your literati mentor, how many people within the military community have you helped out? Or how many hours have you spent?

Well, you know, as far as that never goes, we have no idea. You know, I do talks with individuals like yourself to put out information veter ATI, I've got 700 plus hours that I've spent mentoring others, right. This industry, we're our next virtual networking event, it's gonna be our 22nd. And we have, you know, I said about 375 is kind of our, our average we're going with, and I've been on every single one of them. So who knows what that number is, yeah. And investigation, we also have all these different workshops, and our military spouse quarterly gatherings. And I've been on those as well. So we're talking another like,

we're talking 1000s. I mean, you've helped literally 1000s of veterans or people within the military community.

Yeah. And I put it in the 10s of 1000s. And again, you know, it's just me sharing my knowledge, my information, my story. And, and one of the biggest ones that, you know, I have combat PTSD. I have learned to be comfortable telling my story. And if I can tell that story, and it helps one person, we're great that that's, that's amazing. And I got into the deep depression, I didn't want leave the house COVID has been hard for me. You know, I'm gonna get out of the house, like interview, integrate with people, you know, networking, social events, and I really don't do a ton of that. Recently, we've had a couple local networking events, and we got out, get out to a couple of them and I just absolutely love them. The energy is right there. Everybody wants to get back out wants to be around each other again. And for a lot of us, you know, COVID really, really put us especially with the isolation, the lack of physical contact with others. put us in a Bad space. And so now people are having to break out of that. And I tell you, like I said earlier, most of depression gets a hold of you, it has way of just pulling you down. And, you know, one thing follows another and you just, you know, you end up giving up. And that's where a lot of the 20 a day comes from. So, you know, we talk about buddy checks, that's serious, you know, reaching out and asking, Hey, how are you doing? And not, you know, that we're walking by each other and say, Hey, what's up? And no, it's stopping and listening and hearing, you know, how someone's doing, listening to see if someone's struggling. And there's just, there's never enough of that, because if there wasn't enough of that, we wouldn't be talking about veteran suicide, you know, and it's not just veteran suicide, you know, suicide is a pandemic across the entire United States, if not, if not the world. But it's, it's our community. So we're all about committing to, to helping our own community. And if we can solve suicide issues for military and veterans, we can push that into the non military side and really start making impacts on all of America.

Right? Yeah. And, you know, I think it all starts with investing in yourself when you're in the military as well. And so what's your best advice for someone who's currently serving the military, and they can't see the bigger picture and the importance of gaining education and investing in themselves while serving in the military. So

I offered this advice to everybody that works with me and for me, yeah, the whole time, while you're in service, you have to be working towards two goals. One goal is staying in service, as long as you want to, not as long as they'll let you, as long as you personally want to stay in service, you know, making sure you're doing the right thing to get promoted, make sure you're learning the right skills, and you're going through your progressions to get that higher rank those higher positions. But at the same time, we all get out of the service at some point, you know, it's you have to understand, it might be a four year career, it might be an eight, it might be a 20, it might be a 30. You know, maybe you get into those general ranks, and you're out there for 40 plus years. But it all ends for some for all of us at some point. So what you have to do is, prepare yourself to be the best service member. And the best veteran, you can be education, certifications, community service, understanding what you want to be what you want to do, you know, go out there and volunteer, you know, now we got the D o t skilled bridge program. And when it's your time to go, take advantage of that d o t, skill bridge, you know, getting to go for three to six months, at the end of your career, and learn as a an intern, go at a company in an industry that you're interested in being part of, I mean, I wish that was there. For me, when I was getting out school bridge was nothing more than, hey, you can go to these vocational training programs. You know, and it was great if you wanted to the farm or a couple of other opportunities, but it wasn't what it is today, where you basically go out, find any company that you're looking at, help them create a school Bridge Program, and then go out there and work for them for three, six months. And they don't always lead to employment. But hopefully it does. And if it doesn't, you've got that three to six months of civilian experience on your resume. So you're not just coming stressed from the military. So and we can talk about onward opportunity with Syracuse University, we can talk about act now education, you know, and of course, programs that they're connected with. And the list can go on and on and on for all the great resources and programs that are out there for us. But you don't know about them. If you do not go and ask and participate. You come to the some of these clubhouse events where, you know, we're talking all things military and transition. And there's military spouse ones. There's one about VA disabilities, you name it, you know, it's on clubhouse, just like if you want to find something, you just go out to YouTube. And you just Google how to whatever. clubhouse has a lot of those, how to transition benefits, you know, and you have to put yourself out there, this isn't a go tell people that you're transitioning and magically all the doors in the world are going to open up and people are going to be begging for you right. Now if you got a couple certifications or clearances or something like that, you know it could be the case, but you got to make sure that you put in the work and you make sure that you are the most employable. Individual that's out there makes you the best candidate.

Right? And there's so many great programs out there and so many great volunteer organizations out there that you just mentioned. So can you talk a little more detail about vets to industry and what their number one mission is?

So that's the industry. Our number one mission is to help have a largest free resource library in existence. Our founder and president Brian Arrington, when he was retiring out of the Air Force. He went to the transition workshops, and one of the facilitators said, hey, there's 40,000 plus military veteran resources out there. And Brian's like, excited guy. You've never met Brian, he gets you excited. And he's like, Where's the website? How do I find him? And then they kind of looked at it was like, well, it doesn't exist, no one has them. Brian's like, hold my iPad, I gotta go take care of this. But he said, I'm gonna go take care of this, I'm gonna create it. And without knowing it, he started Vesta industry. Right, then it was the Okay, I'm gonna put out a request for for assistance, see if I can find some it people, some researchers, you know, just a smart group. And there's that core five or six individuals that have been there since the start. Myself, I came in February, March of 2020. So as we're getting ready for that first in person event, and southwest Atlanta, where Brian loose, you know, and COVID came and said, Nope, you're shut down, you can't do it. And we, we said, well, we're gonna do something. So we're gonna figure out this virtual thing. And within two weeks, we had our very first virtual networking event. of be honest, we had about 120 130 people on this zoom call with us, we did not really have a format. I can't say that we really knew what we were doing. But we knew we wanted to get a bunch of people together and talk all things transition veterans resources. And I'll tell you, we get down with that call. The energy the the buzz that was going on after that was, okay, when are we going to do this again, because we're gonna keep doing this. Everything we do is free. We don't charge individuals to join us, make sure you're following vets to industry. And that's FETs. The number two industry.org. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram,

the outreach that you have, the reason I mentioned the hours in the numbers earlier was because it's absolutely amazing the outreach that Vesta industry has, and folks like you, within, VESA industry, it's constantly I I'm just from word of mouth, hearing all types of people who pop into the military mix up on Friday evenings, and they're brand new, they're in a situation where they're transitioning out of the military, or they're still in service, and they get in touch with you, or they get in touch with someone from beds to industry, or act now or somewhere. And then they come back a few weeks later, and they're like, Wow, thank you so much. I literally had hundreds of, and that feedback and hearing those results is what I mean, it's an absolutely amazing to me. And so I just wanted to know, Bruce, like, what would you say is the number one contributor to this to industry's overall success?

It is the team. I mean, you know, I said we're all volunteers. majority of us are active duty veterans, military spouses, we have some that have not served, but you'd never know it with, with their passion to to help us out, right. Again, you know, we have amazing board members. It, it's, it's really incredible to, to realize this the talent we have on our board. You know, we have just not yet spent a penny on marketing. And, you know, we're creeping up on 50,000 followers on LinkedIn. And it's all word of mouth. It's, we do everything we can to assist and help others. And again, you know, our two hashtags are, you know, how can I help and pay it forward? And that's completely what we're doing. We're not asking for anything in return. And we tell people if you attend to our events, and this is part of our marketing, but we like to pretend our events, take a picture and posted on LinkedIn or Facebook or something and you tag us. We'll get the team to go out there and show you love.

Yeah. I love how it's more About the results and less about the egos, and you know not so much about like, who's doing what it's many times when you speak, you don't have to mention that you're from a certain group or whatever the value of your words will get people to follow you. And that's, that's what VTi is all about. And I love that part about the actual organization itself. And I'll make sure that I link all of the v2 eyes and also link your LinkedIn. Or I'll put your LinkedIn onto the show notes as well, this podcast, but is there anything that you'd like to finalize or, or summarize at the end of this podcast to let everyone know or inspire everyone to get that assistance from bti?

Well, before I do that, you did introduce me as Bruce Batman Thompson. So if you come on to clubhouse, you will find me as a picture of Batman, it is my alter ego. You know, it's one of those ones, no superpowers, but get a damn and put some stuff out there. And plus, you know, I'm Bruce as in Bruce Wayne, my initials are bat, and I'm a man. And more importantly, you've never seen me in Batman in the same room at the same time. That is an icebreaker I use on job interviews at different events. And, you know, I've had the nickname Batman since probably four or five years old. So that's where the Batman comes from. I was gonna make sure people know that. You know, if you've you're looking for Bruce Thompson on on clubhouse. Don't be afraid when you find me as a Batman picture. LinkedIn, yes, I back out there. But as far as best industry, everything we do, is about helping those that are in a transition. And when we say transition, maybe it's the very first time you do a PCs move. And we can talk about the PCs move and the processes and the what's and the don'ts. If you're just getting out of service, we can talk to you about figuring out what you're worth, you know, making sure your values there, making sure you find the right industry and type of position for you. certifications, college tracks, get you introduced to the right people at the right organizations. It and we're, we're there, except we don't care if you've been out for 3040 years. If you're making a transition from one spot to another, whether it's relocation whether that's changing companies changing careers, we can help you. We do not turn anybody away. I'll tell you right now, we don't ask for the DD 214. We don't ask for your military IDs. You show up. We're here to assist. And we focus on transitioning service members, veterans, military spouse, offices, Guard Reserve, but if you just need some help, we have incredible people doing incredible things, because it's about taking care of one another and Milton ferry service. That's what we're told to do. You know, it's make everybody better. The The situation is better than you found it. And if you can reach out and give a hand you reach out and give a hand. And that's what we're here for. We have incredible individuals. And KP I can't one. I can't thank you enough for allowing me to be on the show today. But I just need to the middle pack on clubhouse. I mean, that's my Friday night right there. Yeah, everybody's like, Well, you know, what's your schedule? I'm like, hey, Friday nights, I'm booked. You know, it's just an absolute pleasure to to see the individuals that Come on, to answer their questions, and just have that positive, safe place for individuals to come.

Now Bruce, listen, I really appreciate you giving me the time and I appreciate you being part of the circle for the military mix up as well. The honor is all mine. It's folks like you that actually make it happen. You're the big pillars that actually hold everything up. And like I said, I have been absolutely astounded by the feedback that we've gotten from folks who just pop into the military mix up and they connect with you know, guys like you and weeks later they come back and they're a static at the amount of information that they got and the free resources that were out there for them. I actually had someone login last week. It was a guy that worked with me while I was in the army and he recently got his his juris doctorate and he's like wow, I really wish I would have been online sooner with those guys because there was some programs that I wish I had considered, you know, taken advantage of, versus me paying for them myself. So So, yeah, it's never too late for you, if you're listening out there, whether you're just enlisted into the military, or whether you've been retired or whatever the case is everything in between, check out vets the industry, because there's something for you on there. And it's literally they support the whole family. So it's not just for a specific group of people at a certain timeframe within their career. It's for everyone. So I want to thank you today, I want to thank you for giving your time today. Bruce, I really appreciate it. It's an absolute honor to be in your circle. And I'm looking forward to our conversation tomorrow.

And again, yeah, Friday night, we're what's the topic you'll be picked out yet?

I did. So I just put it out. The topic for tomorrow is going to be somewhat controversial a little bit. I put the best military job with transferable skills. is.dot.so Alright, people are gonna be talking fun. Yeah, it's gonna be real fun. So and I think I you know, the real answer is, you know, I think just about every job out there has transferrable skills. But, you know, you know, I just want to get the discussion rolling to get the conversation rolling and knock down some of those myths.

Yeah, I can't wait for that. And again, it was my pleasure to be on here. And, yeah, this little dog is going crazy right now. All right, give him some attention. So it doesn't tear down my house. But it's a pleasure. I love being here. Anytime you need me. I'm here. Just let me know.

I appreciate Bruce and for everyone out there listening. Thank you for tuning in today. All the information for to get ahold of Bruce to join vets industry is going to be down in the show notes. So please check that out. Thank you for joining us for Batman and KP. We're out