All across America and around the world, this
is Veterans Radio. This is Veterans Radio. Good
day. I'm Jim Fossone. I'm the Officer of the
Deck today here on Veterans Radio and thanks
for joining us. We've got some interesting stories
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or your tablet, but listen in to Veterans Radio
podcast. We post something new every week and
you're going to find it informative. We want
to welcome back, I should say, to Veterans Radio,
Shelly Rood. She has been with us before, talking
about her transition from the military into civilian
life. She was with the U .S. Army Reserves for
about, I don't know, 15 years or something as
an intelligence officer. Shelly, welcome back.
It feels like home. Thanks for having me back,
Jim. Glad to have you. So Mission Ambition is
LLC, is the current life coaching and performance
coaching that you're doing, leadership training.
So before we get into that, we always like folks
to on Veterans Radio kind of understand your
military background of our guests so that they
know they're hearing from somebody who's kind
of the real deal. So why don't you tell us a
little recap for us a little bit, your military
career. Well, the real deal, I'm not sure I'm
going to measure up to that, even though I have
been told that I am that I do. I do like to think
of myself as the least of these when it comes
to interacting with my veteran brothers and sisters.
I did have a wonderful career in the Army Reserves.
I had a little bit of active duty time in there
and I've served overseas. I have been to South
Korea and some other incredible duty stations.
But I'm, you know, I'm not a combat veteran and
I don't pretend to be, and I love to be able
to raise awareness for the fact that support
comes in all shapes and sizes. programs that
we run that are funded even by the government
recognize veteran in a way that's different from
the federal definition of veteran you know so
for those of our guardies and our reservists
that haven't hit that retirement mark and don't
qualify for a lot of the veterans benefits once
you get out to me it doesn't matter if you've
served one day that means that you've served
Yeah, one of the things we've bumped into is
people who have maybe not been at the pointy
end of the spear in combat in Afghanistan or
Iraq, sort of a reluctance to recognize their
service and their veteran status. And, you know,
it takes nine people to support the one person
who's at the tip of the spear. So you really
I think we're fighting uphill on this a little
bit because of the way cultural media, TV, movies
kind of portray who's a veteran. You know, you're
going to be battle scarred. So I think it's good
to get across that. No, there's a whole lot of
work that's done by a whole lot of people to
protect the nation's security. And they don't
have to be at the pointy end of the spear. I
think that's what you're referring to. Absolutely.
And you know, in the support world as well, it's
in the veteran world, it's a giant. butt sniffing
contest if you will. Like if we're all dogs and
we just stare at each other's uniforms and we
try to size each other up and at the end of the
day we're not doing each other any favors as
human beings. We're losing a lot of that interpersonal
connection because we're just judging each other.
And while that was a necessity when we were in
service, when we look at our lives out of the
uniform, It's taking its toll and we're seeing
that in the mental wellness numbers that are
about our nation's military in a very negative
way. So definitely appreciate the ability to
even open the conversation about let's just talk
about what your service time was and you tell
me your experiences. I'm not here to judge you
or to minimize how you did serve, but you also
shouldn't be doing that about yourself. So let's
talk about one other issue before we get into
mission ambition a little bit Okay, military
intelligence Now somebody out there listening
right now and veteran radio land is making a
joke about that being an oxymoron So explain
to folks what somebody who was in the Army Reserves
did in the field of military intelligence I will
I absolutely will and the answer is not very
much. No, I'm just kidding Um, so, you know,
my experience was on the officer side. So as
a tactical all source Intel officer, I did do
a lot of briefings and my position is really
one of a team. And so I would have specialists
that would be working in human and Mazant and
Emmet, um, kind of analyzing the data at the
raw data points. And then I had the opportunity
to bring all the data together and help tell
a story through that data. And then the story
is what I'm able to then bring to the decision
maker so that the decision maker can really say,
let's go with course of action one, two, or three.
Yeah, as I said, we like to joke as oxymoron,
but it's absolutely necessary part of the planning
process before you can point somebody or something
in a direction. Folks, you may have heard in
Shelley's earlier discussion this recognition
of, hey, I wasn't the most important person in
wearing a uniform. And that goes a little bit
to one of your slogans with mission ambition,
which is others over self, which I think tells
us a lot right there. But talk to us about that.
catchphrase, that cornerstone that the company
has a touch base. So we landed on others over
self as we were out in the community teaching
personal and professional development and we
recognized that it wasn't enough to just shout
the word values like a lot of the military does
and a lot of individuals do. We wanted to say
if we're going to be out here coaching people
to embrace something. What does that look like?
And part of my military career towards the end,
I always say I'm the intelligence officer that
knows too much. I made a choice at the very end
of my career to work on a branch transfer out
of military intelligence and into the chaplain
corps, because I truly recognized that what our
nation didn't need was one more intel officer.
there was a national shortage of chaplains and
there still is. And so I followed that path to
move away from learning data for data's sake
and really getting into the hearts of the people
around me. And because of that chaplain desire
and that chaplain heart, it really feels natural
to put others over yourself. And a lot of that
does come from my followings of Christianity,
which I didn't get into until I was nearly 30
years old. So we can talk about that. But please
don't think that I'm some church baby. I did
not follow any of that until I was well, well
grown. And others over self has become, like
you said, the cornerstone for what we teach.
It's not. Just a phrase that we throw out there.
It's something that we embody very, very deeply.
And we even established a framework for how we
teach others overself. And so like you'd mostly
do in the military, we deconstruct it backwards,
right? So to reverse engineer others overself,
we teach it in three phases. And the three phases
are self, over others. And so you really cannot
go out into the community and make a significant
impact if you don't know who you are at your
core. And that is really where it all starts.
It is the idea of putting on your own oxygen
mask before you can help those around you. And
what I see happens a lot of times with military
people is we're so quick to jump into the others.
We're so quick to say, sacrifice me, send me,
I'll be the one that we forget about the self
and the self tends to disappear over time and
at some point you have to bring it back around
or you're going to go down a very very dark and
scary path. I should mention to veteran radio
listeners, since we've talked to Shelly Root
a number of times, I skipped some of the normal
intro that I do but she has a bachelors from
Western Michigan University where she participated
in Army ROTC. We've done a number of programs
recently on Western Michigan University's ROTC
program. I think they just celebrated their 75th
year, so we got a chance to talk to them about
that history. You were on the marksmanship team
there, which is interesting. But you went on
much later in life and picked up a master's in
ministry studies in 2022 so that you could make
this transition you were doing from Intel to
the Chaplaincy Corps. So there's a bunch of study
that goes on besides just talking about it. You
have to do the work to get yourself in a position
to be of assistance to people. And along the
way, you've picked up some really good partners
in this mission ambition. Talk to us about some
of the other military leaders and coaches and
trainers that are participating in this effort.
Absolutely. So Others Over Self is a collaboration
of military first responders, frontliners that
believe in the mindset and want to instruct.
We have it deep in our bloods. We know what we're
doing. A lot of military people come to me and
they say, Shelly, just put me in front of a group
and I would love to teach some content. So we've
been able to be approached by General Doug Slocum,
OD, for those of you that know him. He's one
of the garrison commanders from Selfridge Air
National Guard Base. We also have Laverne Santangelo,
who's a retired major from the Army. We have
Colonel Nancy Dakin. She's now retired. She was
the 127th Wing Commander, female A -10 fighter
pilot, like doesn't get any cooler than that.
And, you know, Jim, these people are so unbelievably
incredible when you get into their life stories,
the decisions that they make, what goes into
their day -to -day lives. And it's easy to gloss
over that because we look at rank and we look
at, you know, maybe paychecks or what they're
doing as civilians now. But if you can really
take the time to get to know them and to really
understand where they're at in life, you'll find
that they have so much to teach us. I could talk
to you about my team all day long, because all
I wanna do is put a microphone in front of my
team and let them talk. Well, and they all have
life experiences, different life experiences,
from men and women, intel officers to fighter
pilots, just a whole variety of life experiences,
and families and kids. That all goes into making
somebody comfortable that, hey, I want to have
a leadership program with you, or I'm a business
owner and I'm kind of burnt out. I need somebody
to talk to. So talk to us about that audience
that you guys serve. We are a leadership and
development training company. We have clients
that are civilian. We have clients that are organizations.
county -level clients and we also have state
-level clients. So one example of the organization
or the people that we serve through the Michigan
Department of Health and Human Services, we specifically
focus on women veterans. So these are women who
have served in the military in any capacity and
the service that we provide on behalf of the
state is peer support services. And so it is
literally about getting women veterans to be
able to support each other. And the reason for
that is because of the negative mental wellness
issues that come with the veteran community.
And so it is proven that peer support is one
of the social ways that we can enhance our lives.
And it bleeds off into other areas. And it's
clinical without being clinical. It's the preventative
measure before the scales start to tip into we
need some type of crisis management or critical
care. So it's really been just an absolute awakening
since we started that type of work back in 2019.
of what do veterans need, particularly veteran
women, to be able to be healthy, to be able to
lean into each other and not trigger each other.
That's something that I've really noticed. And
we've done a lot of work on that, of why are
women veterans triggering each other when we're
gathering as groups? We're like lone wolves,
and you can't put a bunch of lone wolves in a
room and tell them to play nice. It just doesn't
happen. Well and you're trying to, if I understand
it right, you're trying to do this work before
it's crisis time. Absolutely, absolutely. And
we do, you know, offer those resources. Of course,
if you need help paying your rent, we've got
some answers and some phone numbers, but that's
not what we're here for, right? Like you're not,
if you think of your grandmother or like some
great aunt that just like deeply, deeply loved
you, you're not going to call her at 2 a .m.
to pull your car out of the ditch. It doesn't
mean she doesn't love you. It just means that
that's not her purpose in your life. It's all
about the right tool for the right job. It absolutely
is. You've used a phrase a couple of times and
it's obviously meaningful in what you're doing.
I want to have you expound on this phrase, mental
wellness. You don't use mental health, use mental
wellness. Why is that? You know, we need to get
rid of the stigma. Truly. We literally are all
mental. If you have served one day in the military,
congratulations, you've got some mental wellness
issues. And the more that we can just say that
out loud and have it be part of our normal day
-to -day conversation, the less stigma is going
to come with that. Yeah. And again, it's one
of those things I'm not sure veterans, military
folks are. are necessarily trained up at a young
age to reach out for help. Is that one of the
things you keep bumping yourself into? It absolutely
is. And what we see is there's a change in gender
even. If you're a male, then you tend to self
-medicate through substance use and abuse. If
you're a female, then you do tend to reach out
for help, but your symptoms show up more like
depression and anxiety. And so just having the
data and the knowledge to see what these patterns
can look like in different types of the veteran
community positions us as a group. at the large
level to be able to make some actual change.
And that really is something that our company
has dug into over the last few years. Yes, we
do have the peer support program, and yes, we
are serving those women, but I don't think we've
been doing it good enough, Jim. And so just this
year... We kind of went into hiding last year
and focused on the strategy. And I'm so excited
to be able to announce to Veterans Radio today
what is coming over the next year, specifically
for our women veterans, because it is changing
the landscape of how we're able to communicate
with each other and how we're able to shift our
landscape. So tell us what is coming. When you
think of what's available to women veterans you
think the traditional red white and blue patriotic
and eagles and what I have found is that a lot
of women veterans don't hate that, but they also
don't love it. So we did a lot of research and
tried to figure out what was something that they
did love. And we came up with the idea of wildflowers.
Wildflowers are not planted, they just grow.
And it depends on the territory, the terrain
that they're in, how and when they bloom. And
so if you think of a military woman, she is extremely
unique, right? You don't just decide as a woman
to wake up. day and join the military. Somehow
you have been uniquely chosen for that purpose
and so if first of all if we can get the women
to love themselves for being a wildflower and
then get her to understand where and when she
blooms the best, meaning when she feels like
she really is just rocking out life, then she's
going to love herself a lot more. And you know
what happens? You're married, Jim. You know what
happens to a woman who loves herself? She loves
others a lot better. I really think that that
right there can change the landscape for the
mental wellness of all of our veterans. One of
the challenges for any Buddy is a continuous
source of funding right in business. And the
area in which you're working is so dominated
by state funding, federal funding, non -profit
funding, and particularly for support of women
veterans. We've seen programs announced and then
they collapse. We won't pick on anybody in particular
where that happened last year. But how do you...
How do you keep the momentum going forward when
the funding landscape is challenging? I'm going
to make that deeply personal and I'm going to
tell you that when I got my fine I got discharge
orders from the military because I hit time and
grade and they told me just re -enlist straight
into the chaplain corps and I tried and you know
what Jim I don't medically qualify for re -enlistment
it was it's like a joke right like are you kidding
so for four years for four years I did everything
I possibly could to get that wave and get back
in the military. And I finally got like the definitive
no at the highest level. And I remember being
in my car at a stoplight and tears started falling.
And I heard a voice inside of my head that said,
Shelly, do you need to be a soldier to serve
the soldiers? No, I don't I don't need to be
a soldier to serve the soldiers and that right
there is the mindset that Carries me through
every year. We've never had a negative year What
funding source do we use? The answer is yes If
somebody wants to donate we've got a 501 c3 partner
if somebody what I have checks for a thousand
dollars that just show up in our mailbox because
they believe in what we're doing, right? And
so if you can be smart with your money and make
sure that you're doing things legally, have really
good partners that can handle the finance side
of things, if you just can really believe in
your heart that what you're doing is absolutely
the best way that you can focus on that one mission,
I really believe that God is going to provide.
And I think that our, well, I know that our company
has been a living testimony to that. And you
have a new affiliated project, a podcast of your
own that you're doing. And before we run out
of too much time, I want to talk about that weekly
podcast, Hardcore at Ease. Tell us about the
concept, what you're trying to accomplish, those
sorts of things. Yeah, so what do we want our
listeners to become? We want them to be hardcore
and we want them to be at ease. And so hardcore
and at ease is a series of interviews and guests
that are hardcore in some area of their life,
something that they're deeply passionate to and
dedicated to. We've had professional golfers
on, we've had New York Times bestseller Donald
Miller on, we've had obviously some veterans
on, but there has to be something that you are
intensely dedicated to to qualify as a guest
on our podcast, but that's not enough. because
you also need to be a phenomenal person. And
that's where the whole idea of be at ease comes
in, because we need to learn the secrets of how
these people can stay grounded while being incredibly
dedicated towards something. So that's hardcore
and at ease. What audience are you shooting for
with that podcast? There's so many of us podcasters
out there now. What's the niche you're shooting
for? That's so interesting and the people find
me right if you identify with the word hardcore
you like yeah You get it you automatically get
it and if you don't then it's probably not for
you Okay And and this is a new project a Little
under a year old I think so as you look forward
what? How do how does that integrate into what
mission ambition is doing? Great question. So
it's all part of a master plan because I am an
Intel officer. So what we're doing is we are
writing books and we are backing our way into
the books. So what we do, the books are on women
veterans specifically this year. Next year we
will expand into something else. But for this
year we are focused on our one thing, Gary Keller's
one thing, and the one thing is encouraging healthy
female friendships. for women veterans. So we're
writing two books this year. One of them is about
the wilderness, and we define the wilderness
in different ways. You have to have three out
of the five requirements for what is the wilderness,
but essentially it's something where you've either
never been there before, you never thought you
would be there before, nobody has a training
manual for where you are, or there is like a
moral quandary, right? It's a no -win situation.
So we're writing a book on the wilderness, and
then we're also writing a book on the wildflowers.
And the wildflowers are eight very specific personalities
of women veterans. And so what the plan is is
to write about the wilderness, write about the
wildflowers, and it starts with the podcast.
So we're interviewing and collecting all of this
incredible content. Then that gets turned into
our sub stack, which is our newsletter. If you're
on sub stack, you can just look up Shelly Rood
sub stack and you'll be able to get a hold of
our newsletter. It's called Mission Wildflower.
And then through the sub stack, you can also
get into. a new launch. This is very cutting
edge and I can't believe that we're doing it,
but we are. And we are launching a bot and it
is literally digital Shelley. So come the end
of March, the world is going to be able to have
24 seven access to digital Shelley, which is
a collection of all of my team's goodness. It's
like if you were sitting in the boardroom with
me and my team and all the resources that we
have. and you could have a conversation with
us. She can be your best friend. She can be your
business mentor. She can help plan your veterans
event that's coming up. And so that's launching
at the end of March. Oh, that's exciting. That
is good and breaking news. You know, through
your military career and the way it exited and
didn't go the way you had hoped it'd go, I think
it kind of leads maybe to this final question.
Do you probably get asked by folks? Hey, my daughter's
my niece is thinking about Going into the military.
I just can't you know, I can't fathom that You
probably get asked to talk him out of it or talk
him into it What what kind of questions along
that lines do you get and what kind of advice
do you give? Yes, exactly that and I I was just
approached by someone when I used to work in
broadcast television And he said, you know, my
son's of the age and he's talking about it and
I don't even know what questions to ask him And
my first answer question might what I told him
was Rick, you know You really need to have a
heart -to -heart with him. Like you really get
into what is attractive to them about the military
Because you need to know are they just spitting
out lines that the recruiter said to them which
is a lot of us You know or is it that they really
want that depth of meaning in their life, right?
And if that's the case if you have a young person
in front of you searching for meaning in their
life Please don't blow it off Look at what the
military can do the United States military can
do on so many positive levels for growth and
aspiration You know, we don't all join because
of this amazing patriotic reason that a lot of
people think we join. But there are some of us
that really do have that bug. And so I would
definitely say dig deeper and listen, absolutely
listen to their answers. And you might be surprised
at what they're saying. Now, opposite of that,
I have a son who's 16 right now and the military
is the last place that he wants to go. And he's
got some relationship parental issues associated
with that. Right. Mom went, I am not doing that
job. Well, and this kind of cycles back to what
we started with a bit, which is there are so
many opportunities. Not everybody's at the pointy
end of the sphere. So if you want to be a computer
programmer, you want to be in accounting, you
want a mechanic, you want to fly drones, you
want to, there's all kinds of support, logistics
roles that again, Hollywood doesn't portray,
but it's so important. And I think again, those
are great conversations. As you say, you have
to dig in and understand what your child might
be thinking about. Well, Shelly, tell folks where
they, you've mentioned a number of them, but
let's wrap it up with, tell folks where they
can find out more about what you're doing. Absolutely.
So the podcast, if you're a podcast listener,
hardcore and at ease. Shelly Rood, hardcore and
at ease. And if you want to get with me, go to
join .othersoverself .com. And that is my inner
circle. You can start messaging me and my team
right away. That's join .othersoverself .com.
Well, we appreciate you once again coming on
Veterans Radio and updating us on things that
you're doing. And we're going to have some more
conversations about how we can continue to work
together. Shelly, thanks for your time today.
It's my honor, Jim. And I want to thank everybody
for listening to Veterans Radio today. I am Jim
Fossone. It's been a pleasure to be your host.
I'm a Veterans disability lawyer at Legal Help
for Veterans. And you can reach us at 800. 693
-4800 or legalhelpforveterans .com on the web.
You can follow Veterans Radio on Facebook and
listen to its podcasts and internet radio shows
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