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All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.

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This is Veterans Radio.

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Welcome to Veterans Radio.

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I am Jim Fausone.

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I'm the officer of the deck today.

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We've got some great programs for you.

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I think you'll find very interesting.

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We always want to remind you you can find more about Veterans Radio at its Facebook site

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or at the web.

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VeteransRadio.org is our new URL, VeteransRadio.org.

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Where we're on the web 24-7, you can find a lot of our podcasts there as well.

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We post new ones every Tuesday, so you can get a new story, a new interview, something

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you didn't know before by going to VeteransRadio.org.

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And before we get started, we want to thank our sponsors.

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First up, we want to thank National Veteran Business Development Council, NVBDC.org.

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It was established to certify both service disabled and veteran owned businesses.

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You'll find out how they can help your business by going to NVBDC.org.

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We want to thank Legal Help for Veterans.

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Legal Help for Veterans fights for veterans disability rights all across the nation.

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You can reach them at 800-693-4800 or on the web at LegalHelpForVeterans.com.

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We want to welcome to VeteransRadio today Jason Van Camp.

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Now we've got him on because of a group called Warrior Rising that he's going to tell us

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about.

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But before we get there, I'm going to tell you a little bit about Jason.

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He's a decorated U.S. Special Forces officer, Green Beret.

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Grew up in the Washington, D.C. area, went to the United States Military Academy at West

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Point.

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Actually played a linebacker for the Army Black Knights football team.

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He earned his Ranger Tab in 2002.

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His Green Beret, coveted Green Beret in 2006 and did numerous combat rotations as a Special

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Forces commander in the Middle East and Africa.

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Went on in 2013 to earn his MBA from Brigham Young University and developed a passion for

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entrepreneurship.

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That's where we're going to talk about a little bit here because he's the founder and executive

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director of Warrior Rising as well as CEO of Mission 6-0.

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Jason, welcome to VeteransRadio.

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Jim, thanks for having me on.

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It's a pleasure to be here.

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Excited to get after it.

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Now a guy who grew up in Washington, D.C. area in Springfield, Virginia, was the Military

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Academy always something you were focused on?

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No, no, absolutely not.

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I was not focused on that at all.

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Even when I was at the Military Academy, I was not focused on it.

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I grew up in the D.C. area like you said.

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There's a huge military community there.

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My father was in the Army during the Vietnam War and he was a civilian that worked at the

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Pentagon for a long time.

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That's what he did with his career.

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Most of my friends, grown up there, had fathers or mothers that were in the military in some

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capacity.

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I was the only one that was normal to understand the military.

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Army-Navy game was a big thing in the community.

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You kind of looked at it like this.

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The enemy at the time in the 1980s where I was growing up, it was very clearly the Russians

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and the Dallas Cowboys.

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Well, let's talk about the Russians because one of the interesting things you did along

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the way was a two-year LDS Mormon mission in Russia.

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How did that affect your view of the world?

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As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ, a LDS Mormon, you are given an opportunity

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when you're 18 years old to serve a two-year mission, a religious mission for your church.

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At the time, it wasn't forced upon you, but it was sort of expected.

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I had looked forward to that since I was young.

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I was like, I'm going to go on a mission, I'm going to do this, it'll be a great time

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and what to expect.

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You kind of think about what is going to happen, but until you do it, you really have no idea.

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When you go overseas and you live essentially on your own in a foreign country where you

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have to learn another language and you're required to do a job and speak that language

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every single day.

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On top of that, you're essentially trying to sell religion.

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On top of that, you're in Russia where former Soviet Union, where religion was suppressed

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for such a long time.

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There are so many non-believers and atheists there.

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It was a very difficult time, but I enjoyed it.

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I loved every second of it.

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The people there were wonderful to me.

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It was a time where communism had fallen just a few years prior.

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People were working jobs and not getting paid and somehow surviving.

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People were living in these circumstances which were unfathomable to an 18, 19-year-old

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kid in the United States.

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We talked to the Russians and they would say things like, man, I feel so bad for you as

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an American.

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I'm like, why do you feel bad for me?

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Well, we hear how you guys live and you guys live in poverty and your streets aren't paved

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and people are walking around with guns on their hips and you're shooting each other.

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There's Indians.

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I'm like, are you describing the Wild West from the 1800s?

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You see how propaganda creeps into each country, each group's psyche and you can see how those

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governments can control your mindset on certain things.

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So, long story short, I really enjoyed my time.

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Well, it was a lot for an 18-year-old to 20-year-old to open your mind to see a different world,

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to have a different understanding.

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You come back and finish up your service commitment.

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When did you get out?

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I know you went in in 1995 into the Military Academy.

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So I retired in 2015.

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And along the way you earned your MBA and got into the world of business and thinking

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about that.

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How did those experiences all sort of blend themselves into your passion for entrepreneurship?

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Yeah, so my mother used to tell me when I was younger, she said, show me your friends

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and I'll show you your future.

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And so what that means to me is if you want to be a starter on the football team, you

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hang around the starters.

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At the same time, if you want to be a loser or if you find yourself hanging around people

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that are slinging dope on the street corner or at a gas station, chances are you'll probably

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do that yourself.

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And so I looked around at what my friends were doing post-notary career or if they never

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served what they were doing.

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And a lot of them had started businesses and they were very successful.

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And I thought to myself, man, when I get out, I think that's the route I want to go.

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As a Green Beret, you sort of adopt this unconventional mindset.

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And I found that going to get my master's in business administration, my MBA, I found

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that the same mindset was the mindset of an entrepreneur.

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And so I said, wow, this fits perfectly for me and my personality and my experiences in

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life and my mindset.

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And so I want to pursue business as an opportunity to be creative and to be successful.

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And so that's what I did.

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And one of the ways in which you wanted to be an action leader, not just a thought leader,

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was how do I help other military veterans kind of start or accelerate their businesses?

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So talk to us about Warrior Rising.

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There are so many quote unquote thought leaders out there.

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And you're kind of like, some of them have credentials and some don't.

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Some of them say really interesting things and most don't, I would say.

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And I thought to myself, if I'm going to go into this space, I don't want to be a thought

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leader.

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I want to be an action leader.

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I don't want to be a guru.

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I want to be a do-roo.

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I want to do things.

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I want to take action.

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And so I created Warrior Rising.

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It's a nonprofit organization of 501c3.

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We help veterans in the most altruistic way I know how is to help them help themselves.

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And we do that by helping veterans and intermediate family members start or accelerate their own

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businesses.

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We started that in 2015, the same year that I retired from the military.

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We helped six veterans in year one.

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And last year, we helped over 10,000 veterans start, I think just under 10,000, 9,405 veterans

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in 2023.

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We helped start in that year alone.

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This year will be well over 10,000.

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We're about a $5 million a year organization, you know, is what we get in through donations

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and so forth.

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And we're extremely proud of the fact that we give over 82% of every dollar raised back

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to the veteran, you know, and we have a phenomenal board, a phenomenal staff, and we have exciting

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events all throughout the country.

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The events that we help these veterans are called business showers, and we have a few

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of them coming up.

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Well, before we get there, that's what I want to back you up to because you talk about helping

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veterans and family members start their businesses.

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What do you mean by helping?

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Well, it means that we don't do it for them, you know?

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I think there are a lot of people out there that are saying, give me money, do this for

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me and build me a home or things like that.

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It's like, no, I'm not going to do any of that stuff.

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I'm not going to give you a fish.

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I'm going to teach you how to fish.

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So once you know, you're not going to come back to me again and again and again with

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your handout and asking for help.

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We're going to teach you how to do it.

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And once you got it, we expect you to do it yourself.

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And on top of that, we expect you to help other people.

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And I feel like the veteran mindset resonates with that statement.

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People join for a reason.

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They're patriotic.

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They want to do more with their lives.

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They want to serve other people.

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And there's too many people right now serving them.

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And I feel like the people that are trying to serve the veterans, they have good intentions,

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they want to help, but they're not doing it the right way because they're not asking

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the veterans, what do you want?

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And so that's how Warrior Rising was started by asking these veterans, what do you guys

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want?

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They saw what I was doing.

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They saw what other people in our community were doing with business.

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And they said, we want that.

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And we said, okay, we want to help you get that.

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And we're talking to Jason Van Camp.

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Jason, talk to us about what Warrior Academy is and what Warrior University is.

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Sure thing.

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So Jim, Warrior Academy is a 40 video curriculum.

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It's a virtual curriculum.

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It translates the military decision making process, the operations order into a business

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model.

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So for veterans and immediate family members of veterans that have never taken a business

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class in their lives, but they understand military speak, they can attend the Warrior

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Academy at their own pace.

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So it's a self-paced curriculum and it's free.

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It's free and it always will be free.

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They can go through that and understand holistically how to start a business.

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Now as you go through the Warrior Academy, we give our participants an opportunity to

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attend a monthly coaching call where if they're confused about something or they just want

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to talk to somebody about something in business, they'll attend this call and sort of an open

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form if you ask any question you want.

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And we also have a master class every month where if you want to hear something about

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an expert in some specific industry talk for about 30 minutes and then take Q&A, you can

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do so.

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As you complete the Warrior Academy, you get an opportunity to attend the Warrior University.

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And that is an eight week online course, again free.

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Everything we do at Warrior Rising is free for the veterans and their immediate family

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members.

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The Warrior University is in collaboration with Grand Valley State University.

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And so it's an eight week virtual live course that you go through.

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And at the conclusion of the Warrior University, you can submit for an opportunity to compete

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and attend a business shower.

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And one of the keys here, I think, and why your reach is so vast is you don't have to

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be in Washington, D.C. and come to D.C. to do this or go to Utah where I think your head

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quarter.

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Most of this is virtual, isn't it?

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Yeah.

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So in the beginning, I guess in 2015, everything was done in person.

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And so it was very time consuming.

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And we quickly realized that we couldn't scale our business if we were to go continue going

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in this direction.

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So I did something that really no other nonprofit is doing or have done, created our own curriculum

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and turned it into a virtual curriculum.

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And so we did that.

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We created it with the help of several university level business professors and one of my partners

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and some lawyers and subject matter experts.

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And we feel really strongly that what we teach and what we offer is highly beneficial to

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the veteran.

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And so that's out there.

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And we add to that curriculum as time goes by and things develop and things change.

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And we feel that we're getting great feedback from Warrior Academy.

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So that's the first gate in the process of becoming a successful veteran.

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Oh, it's a great concept and it's a great way to scale it.

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And certainly post pandemic, all of us are real comfortable with this virtual format.

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So great, great idea.

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Now you mentioned earlier something called business showers.

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Can you explain that?

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So a business shower is a is an in person event where our supporters, our sponsors,

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our donors, they come together and they shower our veterans with everything they could possibly

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need to succeed in business.

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So similar to a bridal shower or a baby shower, we give these veterans things that they need

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to win in life and their business.

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And so, for example, we offer custom offerings for each individual veteran.

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It could be things like custom business suits, websites, laptops, professionally done marketing

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videos.

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Everybody gets a grant, so everybody gets money to get going, introductions to potential

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clients, introductions to potential investors, opening up our network to them and helping

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them speak and work with each other in a way.

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People helping people.

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And that's sort of how it all goes down at a business shower.

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So what happens is the veterans come in at no cost to them, we fly them in, we give them

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a nice hotel.

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They show up in the lobby, we give them a really stellar welcome bag.

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We introduce them to usually a bank where we do a sort of round robin speed date pitch

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practice and then give everybody a chance to meet and mingle and get to know each other

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a little bit better.

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So the next day we have the competition and so it's a pitch competition and we'll select

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three finalists from the first round of judging and then those three finalists will pitch

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again to a different panel of judges and then the judges will determine who the champion

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is of that particular city.

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Then that night we'll have a big gala.

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Usually it's a dinner, a plate of dinner.

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Between 300 and 2500 people will show up.

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Wow.

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So we'll give them a chance to give an event and we'll have some entertainment.

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We'll do a live auction.

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We're talking to Jason Van Camp who is the head guru of Warriors Rising, really about

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vet entrepreneurs.

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Jason, you've explained a lot of this to us, but how does a veteran get involved with

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Warrior Rising and start taking the classes and move forward?

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That's a great question.

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So thanks for that, Jim.

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It's pretty simple.

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When you hear about Warrior Rising on social media, you see it on the VN newsletter, you

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learn about it wherever and you want to sign up.

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First step is just go to the Warrior Rising website, warriorrising.org and you'll see

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a call to action button which will allow you to gain immediate access into the Warrior

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Academy.

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So there is a sign up where we collect data from you.

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We're not going to use that or give that to anybody else.

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We just want to vet you to make sure you are who you say you are.

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There are some questions that we ask you and once you get through that, you get immediate

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access to the Warrior Academy platform.

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It's soon to be published on our smartphone app, so just a few weeks away from that.

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But right now you can just get it online and use it and like I said before, it's free.

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It's a self-paced program so it takes you seven hours or if it takes you seven years,

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it's fine with us.

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It's all for you.

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It's to help you create or accelerate your own business.

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Well, and it just gives, I think, a veteran that confidence of, hey, I don't really know

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how to start a business, but these guys have put together the recipe book, the standard

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operating procedures that I can follow and it really helps in that networking, doesn't

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it?

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That's correct.

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So saying that you don't know how to do it is no longer an excuse because here it is.

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Here's how you do it.

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But the same token, we're not going to give you a business.

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You have to come up with the idea yourself and once you have that business, we're not

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going to run it for you.

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We're not going to sell for you.

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We're not going to fundraise for you.

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We're not going to do any of that.

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You do it on your own.

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We're going to help you.

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I'm going to, on commercial warfare, how I operate as a special forces commander, as

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a Green Beret.

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We'll train the indigenous forces to kick the door down for us and then we'll follow

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in as instructors, as leaders, as observers sort of thing.

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Anybody in business knows you got to put in the work and one of the things veterans generally

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are known for is you're willing to put in the work even when it sucks.

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You embrace the suck.

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So you're training them up, you're showing them how, and then you're saying, hey, get

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out there and do the work.

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But you also do some supporting of them.

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We talked about that, but you have some upcoming events that kind of highlight this too.

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You have a Michigan range day coming up and a Detroit business shower.

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Talk to us about those.

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That's correct.

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So it's all about having that deliberate discomfort mindset.

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So getting comfortable, being uncomfortable.

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Everybody can start something when you're fresh and when you're new, when you're excited,

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but it's hard when things aren't as exciting, when things start to be difficult, and that's

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when you find out who you really are and if you really want to do what you're doing.

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We're an event-heavy organization, and so we have a number of events left this year.

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Our next event is going to be between September 19th and 21st in Detroit, Michigan.

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It's a business shower, and I explained what that is earlier in the conversation.

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Part of that event is a range day, so we have a number of lanes set up, a number of weapon

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systems, rifles, pistols, you name it.

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We have it there, and we are going to shoot some guns.

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We have a food truck.

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We're going to do a mantis class.

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We're going to do a stop the bleed class.

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We're just going to have a lot of fun, super casual, informal, and that'll be an option

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for our veteran community to go out there and meet us and see what we're all about,

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learn what we're doing.

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We do have the ammo covered, so we'd love to see you there.

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The next day, we're going to be at the Marriott Renaissance Detroit, so that's downtown.

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We'll be there for the business shower.

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If you're interested in learning more about that, we're going to have Nate Lavery and

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James Dixon as our guest speakers.

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We imagine about 350 people in attendance, and you can go on our website, warriorrising.org,

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look for our classy page for Detroit, and you can sign up and register for that.

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Following that, we'll be in Atlanta for the Military Influencer Conference.

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We're going to take that over shortly at Warrior Rising.

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We've got John Stewart and some amazing speakers there.

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I've managed about 3,000 people will be down there.

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That's September 30th to October 2nd.

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We're going to be in Salt Lake City, Utah for our biggest event of the year.

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It's going to be on Thursday, November 21st.

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That's going to be at the Eccles Theater downtown.

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We have a comedian, Nate Bargatze there.

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Imagine 2,500 people will be there, Pac Stadium.

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Really exciting.

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Our last event of the year is going to be in Washington, D.C.

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That's going to be on Thursday, December 12th.

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We'll be at the Skyler Hotel, which is downtown Washington, D.C., not too far from the White

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House.

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We've got a surprise guest speaker.

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I don't want to let the cat out of the bag, but she is amazing.

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That event is just for women veteran entrepreneurs, the D.C. events for women only.

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We're really proud about that.

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Then we'll go to the Army, Navy, Football, Game in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, December

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14th.

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That's great.

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As you can see, a lot of action packed, a lot of camaraderie, a lot of networking.

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If you're in the business world as a veteran, you want to get into these events.

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Give us the website again, Jason.

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Sure thing.

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WarriorRising.org.

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Org.

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WarriorRising.org.

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If I was a business out there or a donor out there and I said, hey, this sounds like

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a project or an entity that I want to get behind, how does somebody do that?

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Well, there's a couple ways.

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If you're interested in donating, we welcome it, we can only exist because of your donations.

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They're tax deductible.

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You can write it off and they help veterans.

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82% of every dollar that we raise goes back to the veteran community that we support.

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Go to the website, warriorrising.org.

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There's a donate now button there.

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There's a few different options that you can see the donate section.

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It all directs you to the same place and you can donate through that.

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Or if you're interested in more of a corporate or a foundational donation, a bigger donation

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and you want to get some recognition or something like that, just email us directly.

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Ken, Ken at warriorrising.org and we'll get you taken care of.

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Well we really appreciate the time that you've given us today to put this information out

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to the veteran community.

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We think it's really important for veterans as they transition.

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Many of them just don't want to be an employee.

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They got a little more get up and go and want to get after maybe a business idea.

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This is a great way to get comfortable doing that.

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Jason, keep up the good work with warriorrising and thanks for the time you've devoted to Veterans

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Radio today.

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My pleasure Jim.

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Thanks for having me on.

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I want to thank everybody for listening to Veterans Radio today.

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I am Jim Fossone.

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It's been a pleasure to be your host.

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I'm a Veterans Disability Lawyer at Legal Help for Veterans and you can reach us at

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800-693-4800 or legalhelpforveterans.com on the web.

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You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and listen to its podcasts and internet radio

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shows by visiting us at veteransradio.org.

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That's veteransradio.org.

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And until next time, you are dismissed.

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If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for

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00:25:48,960 --> 00:25:53,200
Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.

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They're experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

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Their number again, 1-800-693-4800.

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00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:06,760
We again want to thank our national sponsors, the National Veterans Business Development

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00:26:06,760 --> 00:26:15,160
Council, NVBDC.org, VA Ann Arbor Health Care System, the Vietnam Veterans of America,

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00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:23,000
the America Charles S. Kettles Chapter, Ann Arbor, Michigan, VFW Graff O'Hara Post 423

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in Ann Arbor, and the American Legion Press Corn Post 46 also in Ann Arbor.

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We appreciate all your support.

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00:26:32,120 --> 00:26:39,520
You can go to veteransradio.net, click on the sponsor level and continue to support keeping

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Veterans Radio on the air.

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And until next time, you are dismissed.