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How to Leverage Your Military Experience to Build a Strong Personal Brand

How to Leverage Your Military Experience to Build a Strong Personal Brand
“Personal Branding” | Created by The Zen Veteran with Midjourney

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“Your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

– Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon

Transitioning from military service to civilian life can be a daunting prospect for professionally ambitious veterans like yourself. You may have built a strong identity around your military experience, and it can be challenging to figure out how to translate that experience into a personal brand that will help you succeed in the civilian world. But fear not, because your military experience can be a significant asset in building a strong personal brand that will help you stand out in your job search and career development.

However, military service alone is not enough to make you stick out. You must know how to package yourself. This process of packaging yourself is the part of the game when it comes to building your personal brand with intent.

I know from experience.

When I got out in 2010, no one mentioned building a personal brand to me. I was all too happy to accept my DD-214 and peace out from the Corps. Unfortunately, that meant the next 5 years of my life would be spent wandering aimlessly through career purgatory. Because I had not developed my personal brand, I did not have any ability to determine what type of job I wanted. I was only able to accept jobs that were available. As you might imagine, those jobs were typically very low paying and stressful. If I had appropriately packaged my military skills for the purpose of building my personal brand, a lot of heartaches could have been avoided.

You do not need to suffer the same fate as me. To help you avoid that fate, this article will look at the following:

  1. 5 Tips on Leveraging Your Military Experience
  2. A Titan Mission to Get You Started

I highly recommend you sit down and take the time to actually do the homework assignment. Remember, you are trying to become a Titan of business. It is far too easy for intelligent people to say “ya ya, I know that already” without ever sitting down and putting pen to paper or stylus to tablet. This planning process is what helps you transition successfully. Not doing the work means you are not truly engaging with the process. This mindset will lead you down the path to Transition Purgatory.

With that said, here are some tips on how to leverage your military experience to build a strong personal brand.

5 Tips on Leveraging Your Military Experience

Tip 1: Identify your strengths and values

The first step in building a strong personal brand is to identify your strengths and values. Take some time to reflect on the skills and values that you developed during your military service. Were you a team player? Did you demonstrate leadership skills? Did you develop a strong sense of discipline and work ethic? These are all strengths that can be translated into your personal brand.

Tip 2: Translate your military experience

Once you have identified your strengths and values, it’s time to translate them into civilian terms. This can be challenging because military jargon and terminology may not be familiar to civilians. However, by breaking down your experience into civilian terms, you can help potential employers understand how your military experience is relevant to the civilian job market. For example, if you were in charge of a team of soldiers, you could describe your experience as managing a team of individuals with diverse skills and backgrounds.

Tip 3: Develop your elevator pitch

An elevator pitch is a short, concise statement that summarizes who you are, what you do, and what you bring to the table. It’s called an elevator pitch because it should be short enough to deliver during an elevator ride. Your elevator pitch should be tailored to your personal brand and highlight your strengths and values. Practice delivering your elevator pitch until it feels natural and authentic.

Tip 4: Build your online presence

Your online presence is an essential component of your personal brand. Building a strong online presence can help you connect with potential employers, showcase your skills and experience, and demonstrate your professionalism. Be sure to create a professional-looking LinkedIn profile that highlights your military experience and your civilian career goals. Use social media to network with other professionals in your field and to share content that demonstrates your expertise.

Tip 5: Leverage your network

Finally, don’t underestimate the power of your network. Your military experience has likely given you a network of contacts that can be valuable in building your personal brand. Reach out to former colleagues and superiors for advice and introductions. Attend networking events and join professional organizations that align with your career goals. Building relationships with other professionals can help you stay up-to-date on industry trends and opportunities.

Your Titan Mission

I’m sure you’re reading this saying, “come on Carson, I’ve heard all of this before. So what?” Well now comes the fun part. Putting it all to work. Now that you understand some of the high-level theories of what you need to do to develop your personal brand, it’s time to make yourself sit down and actually start doing the work. Here’s your Titan mission:

  1. Identify your strengths and values: Set a 10-minute timer. Use this time to brain vomit the skills and values that you developed during your military service. The goal is to identify your top five strengths and values that you believe will be relevant to your personal brand. But don’t write 5 and stop. Write as many as you can think of and edit the list once your brain is out of vomit.
  2. Translate your military experience: Break down your military experience into civilian terms. Write down your job responsibilities and accomplishments in a way that a civilian employer would understand. If you’re not sure how to get started with that then DVNF has a good tool to help you get started. However, be wary of your use of this tool. This tool will spit out civilian jobs that are related to your military job. If you are not looking to duplicate your military employment in the civilian world then this tool will have limited value. But it does give you useful section headers and skills written in civilian language that you can adapt for your purposes.
  3. Develop your elevator pitch: Write a short, concise statement that summarizes who you are, what you do, and what you bring to the table. Practice delivering your elevator pitch until it feels natural and authentic. For the uninitiated here is a drill to develop your elevator pitch:
    1. Write down the key points you want to convey: Start by writing down the key points you want to convey in your elevator pitch. This might include your name, your profession, your unique selling points, and your career goals. Keep it short and to the point. One to two sentences is ideal.
    2. Time yourself: Set a timer for 30 seconds and practice delivering your elevator pitch. This will help you refine your message and ensure that you can deliver it within the time constraints of an elevator ride.
    3. Get feedback: Ask a friend or colleague to listen to your elevator pitch and provide feedback. Did they understand your message? Was it clear and concise? Did they feel motivated to learn more about you?
    4. Refine your message: Based on the feedback you receive, refine your message to make it more effective. Eliminate any unnecessary information and focus on the key points that will make you stand out.
    5. Practice, practice, practice: Practice your elevator pitch until it feels natural and authentic. The more you practice, the more comfortable you will be delivering it in a real-life situation.
  4. Build your online presence: Create a professional-looking LinkedIn profile that highlights your military experience and your civilian career goals. Connect with other professionals in your field and share content that demonstrates your expertise. Also, create a personal website that showcases your skills and experience, and share your website link on your LinkedIn profile. The personal website is not essential, but over time I highly recommend it. At a minimum, you should purchase your domain name. For example, I own carsonhoneycutt.com. I use this domain name to create a Google account that uses my domain name instead of “@gmail.com” so my emails are taken seriously and not filtered out as SPAM.
  5. Leverage your network: Reach out to former colleagues and superiors for advice and introductions. Attend networking events and join professional organizations that align with your career goals. Use your network to stay up-to-date on industry trends and opportunities. If you’re not sure how to put this into action here’s a drill for you:
    1. Identify your network: Set a timer for 10 minutes. Brain Vomit out a list of people in your network who can help you achieve your career goals. This may include former colleagues, classmates, mentors, and industry contacts.
    2. Schedule time to connect: Schedule time to connect with each person on your list. This could be in the form of a coffee meeting, a phone call, or a virtual chat.
    3. Prepare for the conversation: Before you connect with each person, prepare some questions to ask. This will help you learn more about their career paths, their experiences, and any advice they have to offer. Also, be prepared to share your own career goals and ask for any help or advice they can offer.
    4. Follow up: After each conversation, be sure to follow up with a thank-you note or email. This will show that you appreciate their time and help you build a stronger relationship with them.
    5. Keep in touch: Don’t just reach out to your network when you need something. Stay in touch regularly by sending updates on your career progress, sharing interesting articles, and congratulating them on their own achievements.
    6. Offer value: When you connect with your network, be sure to offer value in return. This could be in the form of introductions to other people in your network, sharing your own expertise on a particular topic, or volunteering your time to help with a project.
  6. Put your plan into action: Set a timeline for yourself to complete each of the above steps. Start with the step that seems easiest to you and build momentum from there. Remember to be patient with yourself, building a strong personal brand takes time. Even accomplishing one of the steps a month is FAR beyond what many people are doing to manage their personal brands.
  7. Review and refine: Once you have completed the above steps, review and refine your personal brand action plan. Adjust as needed based on feedback from your network, and new information you have learned.

By completing these action steps, you will be on your way to leveraging your military experience to build a strong personal brand that will help you succeed in the civilian world. But don’t stop here. Continue to revise and refine what you did today. You are going to learn things about yourself in this process that you didn’t consider during your initial brain vomit. Add those into the applicable section and debrief yourself whenever possible. Don’t let good ideas go to waste by not immortalizing them in some place you can quickly reference them later.

Remember, personal branding is one of the few elements of business that can’t be hacked or bypassed. You must be in control of your brand at all times. If you aren’t, then someone else will control your brand for you. And that is how you end up where I was after 2010. 

Don’t do that to yourself. 

Headshot of Carson Honeycutt

Carson Honeycutt

Founder – Veteran Mentor and Career Coach

No veteran should feel like civilian life is purgatory. It’s my job to help professionally ambitious post-9/11 veterans avoid entrapment in transition purgatory by challenging the B.S. of Conventional Transition Wisdom.

I challenge the B.S. of Conventional Transition Wisdom by breaking down the mindsets, strategies, and tactics of world-class experts (Titans) to help veterans compress the transition learning curve.

Learning directly from Titans helps veterans escape entrapment by avoiding the costly mistakes encouraged by Conventional Transition Wisdom.

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Beyond Money: Rethinking the Resources That Truly Matter in Life and Business

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“The things that matter most in our lives are not the things we can buy, but the things we can create, the relationships we can build, and the positive impact we can have on the world around us.”

– Tom Rath

Money is often considered the most important resource in our lives. We strive to make more money to buy the things we need, and even the things we want. This mindset is what Conventional Transition Wisdom preaches. Yet, your ability to earn and access money will be limited if you don’t prioritize the accumulation of other resources first. Acquiring these other resources first makes your ability to earn and access money an almost foregone conclusion.

You need to know how to tap into these alternative resources in order to scale your business and career. Especially if you are looking to own your own company or enter the ranks of high-level leadership within an organization.

In this article, we will discuss why time, information, water, food, shelter, sleep, health, family, reputation/brand, friends, allies, favors, and sex are all more important than money. We will also look at how you can leverage this hierarchy to validate business ideas before dumping a bunch of time and money into an idea with no market, or bad positioning.

By understanding this hierarchy you will prevent chasing the almighty dollar down the rabbit hole and wondering why none of your business ventures ever succeed. [Read more…] about Beyond Money: Rethinking the Resources That Truly Matter in Life and Business

Lesson Learned: Why Micro-Business is the Best Way for You to Dip Your Toes into Entrepreneurial Waters

Microbusiness Model
MicroBusiness Model | Created by The Zen Veteran

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“A business has to be involving, it has to be fun, and it has to exercise your creative instincts. Start small, think big. Don’t worry about too many things at once. Take a handful of simple things to begin with, and then progress to more complex ones. Think about not just tomorrow, but the future. Put a ding in the universe.”

– Richard Branson

While I try not to regret mistakes, I wish I had done one thing completely different as I transitioned out of the military. I wish I had spent more time prototyping business models by starting micro businesses to get comfortable with the whole business process. Instead, I wanted to swing for the fences right out of the gate, but I had no idea how to close the gap between where I was, and where I wanted to be. 

This is where business prototyping, or micro businesses as I call them, would have been a lifesaver when I was starting out. 

Embarking on an entrepreneurial journey can be both thrilling and intimidating, especially if you’re new to the world of business. Micro-businesses, small ventures typically employing fewer than ten people, offer the perfect starting point for aspiring entrepreneurs like you. In this article, we’ll explore the advantages of micro-businesses and why they serve as the ideal testing ground for your future business endeavors. This article will look at the following:

  1. Minimized Financial Risk
  2. Agility and Flexibility
  3. Faster Decision Making
  4. Personal Growth and Skill Development
  5. Building Your Network

These benefits ultimately compound on top of one another and will position you to do much bigger business in the future. As you read through this, I want you to think of this as business prototyping. IT will save you a lot of heartache and wasted time.

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Hiding in Plain Sight: Why You Should Use Your Underground Fight Club Network to Stack the Career Deck in Your Favor

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Hiding in Plain Sight | Created by The Zen Veteran with Midjourney

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As we navigate the ever-evolving job market, it can often feel like we’re constantly playing a game of chance. Despite our best efforts, it can be challenging to make meaningful connections and secure the jobs we want. However, there’s a secret weapon that many veterans have been using to stack the career deck in their favor: their underground fight club network. [Read more…] about Hiding in Plain Sight: Why You Should Use Your Underground Fight Club Network to Stack the Career Deck in Your Favor

What the Hell am I Watching?

Carson Honeycutt: Founder | Veteran Mentor & Career Coach | Veteran Hype Man

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“The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.”

– Carl Jung

“What the hell am I watching?” These words ran through my head when I recently attended a Veterans’ Transition Webinar. Why? Because I had just witnessed one of the worst pieces of transition “mentoring,” from one of the “top voices” in the transition industry.

So what happened? I’ll tell you.

During this webinar, a group of leaders from a well-known organization provided a webinar where they field questions from transitioning service members after giving a presentation. The idea was to allow service members to ask sticky questions regarding their transition back to the civilian world of employment.

What I witnessed, instead, was a travesty. Here’s how it went down.

At one point, the presenters came to an individual who had questions about securing informational interviews. For those who are unfamiliar with informational interviews know that they are essential to career transitions but tricky if you’ve never done them. Most service members must be up to speed on interviewing someone for information. Any transition member worth their salt should know that. Our service member was no exception.

So the line of questioning from the three moderators begins, and it looked something like this:

Service Member: I’m really struggling with informational interviews because I don’t know who to ask, how to ask them, and what to ask when I get one scheduled.

Moderator 1: What industries are you looking at?

Service Member: I don’t really care about the industry; I just want to make sure I end up in a productive role.

Moderator 2: What job titles have you evaluated?

Service Member: I’ve evaluated a few, but I’m not really sure what I’m looking for.

Moderator 1: Ok, well, what would you like to do?

Service Member: I just want to help people.

Moderator 3: EHHHHH WRONG. You need to have a list of industries with specific job titles that you want to evaluate before you can even begin asking for informational interviews. What you’re saying is not specific enough…(Long-winded explanation with no action steps commences)… Sorry, I’m not trying to be mean here, but you have a lot more homework you need to do.

Service Member: Oh, ok. Well, thank you, everyone, for your help.

Moderators: You’re welcome.

(Moderators move on to the next questions)

I was so pissed off that I had to walk away from my computer. I can tell you from experience that when someone says I’m struggling with confusion and they are at the beginning of their transition process, a diagnostic line of questioning is necessary. Where they missed, specifically Moderator 3, is when they got to the question, “what do you want to do” and the service member said, “I want to help people.”

This answer is the EXACT answer I pray for when someone comes to me looking for mentorship. This EXACT answer makes me devote so much time to helping service members transition back to civilian life. You hear that very rarely outside of the veteran population. I wait for that answer with bated breath because if they give me that answer, I have found another rockstar mentee who will do the work. I know, without a doubt, that their “why” will be strong enough to make them a Titan.

These Moderators, however, shit all over it. They took the exact answer any mentor begs for, ripped it up, spit it out, and then gave a half-assed apology for being idiots. Instead of going down that rabbit hole with the service member, they told the service member you don’t know shit, you’re doing it wrong already, and you are so far off we have to get aggressive with you.

So the question remains: what the hell was I watching?

What I was watching is what I have watched repeatedly during my time as a transition mentor. Well-intentioned zealots (WIZOTs) spewing Conventional Transition Wisdom (CONTRADOM) in the form of canned one-size-fits-all advice dispersed across a broad swath of service members with no actionable insight, no follow-up and no tact.

It’s total bullshit.

I hear you asking: ok, smart guy, what would you have done? I’ll tell you.

The moderators should have helped the service member tease out who exactly they want to help. So instead of “EHHHH WRONG!” They could have done the following:

Service Member: I just want to help people.

Moderator: What people do you want to help?

Service Member: (Answer that probably lists a few different types of people they would like to help)

Moderator: What’s the significance for you in helping people like that?

Service Member: (Answer that probably discusses the desire to continue serving out of uniform, but on their terms)

Moderator: Where can you find people like that?

Service Member: (Answer that probably includes a geographic location)

Moderator: What industries and organizations serve those people?

Service Member: (Answer that probably says “I’m not sure”)

Moderator: How would you go about looking?

Service Member: (Answer that probably says “I’m not sure.”)

Moderator: Who have you spoken to about this besides me?

Service Member: (Answer that probably says “no one.”)

Moderator: Ok. We’re off to a good start. We know you want to help ____ people. We understand why you want to help them. We know where these people are. What we need to know is where to find employment related to that. Here’s your homework:

  1. Using LinkedIn. Find 5-10 Organizations serving those individuals (take 1-2 hours)
  2. What industries are those organizations in? Use your best guess; if you aren’t sure, we can follow up, and I’ll help you figure that out.
  3. Find five people at each organization whose roles sound interesting to you or that stand out in some way. Take 1-2 hours to do this.
  4. Put all of this information into the spreadsheet I will email you after this webinar.
  5. Use this link for 30 minutes on my calendar 1-2 weeks from now so we can download it.

Can you see the difference? The webinar I saw grilled that service member and likely embarrassed them in front of their peers with no foreseeable help in the future. The service member was defeated.

Using the model I recommend above, we can teach service members how to empower themselves and dominate their transitions instead of waiting for crumbs to be distributed to them by the almighty LinkedIn influencers.

So why don’t more “transition” organizations take this approach? Because it’s sticky, it’s philosophical, and time-consuming, and no vanity metrics are associated with my recommended method. These larger organizations are also obsessed with efficiency over effectiveness.

Think about that the next time you allow an expert to take up room in your head. There’s a cost associated with hearing bad advice. If you’re a transitioning service member or a veteran, do not let the B.S. of CONTRADOM spewed by WIZOTs bog you down. Be careful about what the hell you’re watching.

Headshot of Carson Honeycutt

Carson Honeycutt

Founder – Veteran Mentor and Career Coach

No veteran should feel like civilian life is purgatory. It’s my job to help professionally ambitious post-9/11 veterans avoid entrapment in transition purgatory by challenging the B.S. of Conventional Transition Wisdom.

I challenge the B.S. of Conventional Transition Wisdom by breaking down the mindsets, strategies, and tactics of world-class experts (Titans) to help veterans compress the transition learning curve.

Learning directly from Titans helps veterans escape entrapment by avoiding the costly mistakes encouraged by Conventional Transition Wisdom.

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“Nah man, it’s a Cran.”

–Rob Rens

Hello there, and welcome to Episode 2 of “Bullshit Sessions: Stupid Conversations for Smart People,” where our job is to bring you groundbreaking insight on inane topics purely for your entertainment. This shows where all topics are poorly researched, logical fallacies are encouraged, and laughs matter most.

This week we are discussing:

  1. Songs you wish would get played at dinner parties
  2. Where are the worst drivers in the world?
  3. Words that should be pronounced differently
  4. Cool shit happening in space

To help me with all of this, we have:

  • Co-Host and our resident thespian/comedian: J Kay Weldon
  • Co-Host and muscle junkie: Evan Anderson
  • Co-Host and noticeably absent insurance agent: Rob Rens (played by a potato)
  • Host and general dead weight: Carson Honeycutt

Remember, life can’t be all business all the time, and the only bullshit you should listen to is bullshit that brings you glee. So stick around and enjoy the show.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Apple Podcast
Spotify Podcast
Stitcher Podcast

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