From Navy SEAL to Manufacturing CEO: Bill Berrien on Leadership, Lifelong Upskilling, and Free Agency in Wisconsin

Free Agent Podcast with Meg Schmitz – Guest: Bill Berrien – Manufacturing CEO & Former Navy SEAL

Meg

Hello. Everyone, and welcome to or welcome back to.

If you’re returning to my podcast, it’s called the Free Agent. I am Meg Schmitz and the discussion here is all about free agency and taking control over your financial future. The mission of my show is to share inspiring conversations with real people who took the leap into self employment, business ownership, sometimes franchising, but financial freedom.

From corporate refugees and executives tired of the desk job, to entrepreneurs and investors looking to share camaraderie and inspiration through their own business journey. My podcast seems a spotlight on real people who stepped into the unknown, took control over their destiny and became their own boss.

And truly the epitome of a free agent. My guest today is Bill Berrian, who is a businessman in the great city of Milwaukee. And I’ve been, I’ve been wanting you on this podcast more or less since I met you, Bill.

So thank you for making time for me today,

Bill
Meg. It is awesome.

I’m glad we were on the podcast and it’s been such a great pleasure getting to know you over all these years. So really looking forward to our discussion. Thank you.

Meg
Thank you.

Meg
So the, the first time I met you and Betsy was at an event in Lake Geneva.

And we were standing in the check in line and the two of you were standing in front of Pete, my husband and me. And so at one point you turned around, I think you were looking for someone, and they are staring me in the face is your Navy SEAL pin.

And I looked up at you like, oh my gosh, how great to run into someone who has served our country. And then we sat and had dinner together before the event started. And that was such an, an inspiration for me.

This gentleman right here is my grandfather. I love it is the only one of us who in the family who served in the military. And so I’ve got a real heart and compassion for people like you who have served our great country.

And thank you for that. That was my first introduction to you.

And so what I’d like for you as truly a free agent, you, you want, you’ve carved your own path. But start with what, what brought you to the military, then to the Navy SEAL program. And then we’ll talk about the impact that has had on your civilian life. 

Bill
Great, great.

So I grew up in, in New York City.

I grew up in Manhattan. You know, my father had a long career on, on Wall street. And you know, and it’s interesting, I went to great schools, private schools there in Manhattan and, and all of that, and then went to a great college and when I’m in college, you know, I’m orienting myself towards the, towards Wall street because it’s sort of where I had my internships and, and, you know, just knew, knew a lot about it grow, growing up.

And I always had this thought in the back of my mind that growing up in pretty privileged circumstances years down the road, the success I would have. Is that due to me or is that due to great circumstances?

And senior year of college, I’m about to do interviews for investment banking and I’m at school and I have beers with a buddy one night and I find out he is trying to go to OCS and then into the SEAL teams.

And I, it instantly sort of all clicked for me that that’s the path I wanted to, wanted to pursue because the beauty of time in the SEAL team, so going through the training and the selection process is no one cares where you grew up, who you knew, where you went to school, any of that. No one asks. No one cares.

And it’s, it seemed to me at the time, and it proved out to be this super pure effort, pure endeavor of what you’re made of and how you can get through it and how you can excel, you know, as a seal, as a leader and all of that.

And that was very appealing. And so that was the, the path I pursued. I ditched the investment banking interviews. I ended up applying to go to OCS.

And the seals probably four or five times, got rejected each time because at the time, 1989, 1990, the seals were getting, it was the backside of the Berlin Wall coming down, all of that peace.

They were getting enough officers from the Academy and ROTC, so they didn’t need anyone coming through OCS. So that ended up after about 18 months of applying, ended up getting accepted, went to the training and then served about nine years of active duty and loved it, loved it. 91 to 99.

Meg
Any particular challenging moments that you can share? Because that’s, that’s one heck of a program to number one get accepted to number two to pass.

Bill
Right, right. Yeah. I mean, our class started out with 121 and graduated 21.

So over, over 80% attrition. You know, everyone has their, has their challenges. You know, I didn’t, I didn’t quit at any time. You know, kept, kept plugging through.

I sort of had the attitude of, you’re going to have to drag my cold, wet, dead body out of this surf zone because I’m not going to quit.

I did get rolled back for not successfully completing the first time, this pool competency, evolution. So it’s after hell week, it’s actually in second dive phase. You know, so everyone’s got their, their, their failures in life and that, you know, all, all things considered, that turned out to be, you know, a great opportunity to recover from failure.

Failure because I rolled in the next class which was decimated. Their leadership team, all the senior petty officers, the officers all got, you know, injured, rolled back to other classes.

So we rolled into a class that was decimated by winter hell week and you know, had a great leadership opportunity, you know, jumping in with, you know, four other four other folks into this decimated class, this you know, challenge class and you know, working with them and being part of, you know, a nice journey through graduation.

So you know, you know, a bunch of good stories there. You know, you all, you always face your, your demons, your failures, but it’s how you bounce back from them. That’s very telling.

Meg
And so obviously nine years put you through your paces and.

Bill
Did yeah, you know, deployed globally, spent a lot of time down in South America. I was in 3 Seal Platoon. I was an officer leading 3 Seal Platoons and an Army SF ODA, you know, operate Operational Attachment Alpha which is the Green Beret unit with that group unit.

We’re down in Columbia for three months. So all of those leadership adventures and then my last 18 months I was the aide de camp to the commanding general of the Joint Special Operations Command JSOC and love that.

And then left active duty 99 and used business school as a reset point to move into the private sector.

Meg
Was there an acclimation period for you that we read so much about here? I talked to exiting military about the return to civilian life. Did you have an adjustment period?

Bill
You know, for me, business school was a, was a nice pivot point because the beauty of business schools is that you can come in under one career path and over the course of those two years you can pivot over into a variety of other career paths.

And I went to Harvard Business School, hbs and not only were there, I think it was six other seals in the class thousand, but there was a co cohort of transitioning military members, probably you know, 100 plus. So there were a lot going through that same journey.

I went in older than most business school students. So I went in as a 29, 30 year old.

Went there with a one year old. No, I started out with a four month old daughter. You know, so that puts you in a different category than a lot of others going to, going to business School.

So. But, you know, there, without a doubt, there is.

There is a transition because there’s a, there’s an adage in the SEAL teams that once you leave the seals, you spend the rest of your life trying to recreate the seals and in culture.

In your cohort, you know who you’re, who your friend groups are professional and friend. Straight. Straight friend groups. What your sense of mission is, what you’re out pursuing.

So, yeah, I mean, and it’s a journey trying to recreate that in different ways, and it doesn’t come right away, but that is one of the challenges in transitioning.

Meg
Well, and you said you were older, and you were older when you went into the military. You weren’t 18 years old. You wasn’t your only avenue to see the world. You had many other opportunities.

But this, this experience, this summary, as you just said it, I can see, I can see now, as I have gotten to know you, how, how what You.

You were just talking about recreating that cohort. That’s a, that’s not a thread. That’s a rope that runs around your life. This is really the fiber of who you are is recreating excellence in challenging circumstances.

There are two in particular that I can think of.

One, you bought a business. I want to talk about that. And two, you threw your hat in the ring for the 2026 gubernatorial race. And that has now shifted as things do. But let’s talk about your.

Because buying a business is not an easy thing. And so walk my audience through your decision process to, to acquire a business. And then what was it like to step into an existing operation?

Bill
Right. So great, great question.

Just to put it into context, coming out of. I’ve got this, a piece of advice that I often give folks coming out of educational institutions or the military. I always say go blue chip early.

So, you know, try to find a bigger company. Training programs, rotation, investing in you, things like that.

It might not be forever, but, you know, just to get that, that exposure to that.

So I followed my own advice. Coming to business school, I went to GE Healthcare for three years. I was a Six Sigma black belt, very operational, almost like an internal consultant. That was great.

I realized within those three years that the big company life was not going to be for me, that I wanted something more closer to the SEAL teams that was more entrepreneurial, unconventional, things like that.

Bill
And so I had mentors through life who had acquired businesses fairly earlier in their careers and had grown them and, you know, acquired one or multiple things like that. And, you know, they would share their advice with me.

And one of the big challenges when you want to be entrepreneurial is both acquiring the skill set to do it successfully and acquiring the capital to make it possible. And leaving GE, I felt I needed to acquire the skill set to ultimately buy and run run small businesses.

So I left GE to join the, the leadership team of in succession two private equity backed companies at a senior level that gave me, you know, really great skills, operating skills for running smaller. I mean these were, you know, $100 million Billion dollar businesses and I wasn’t the sole owner, I was just part of the leadership team.

You know the first one, I was a COO for a nationwide healthcare services company. But great, great skills, you know, working with financials, working with cash flow, all of that.

And I had equity stakes in those two companies and as they turned out well, those equity stakes gave me the opportunity, gave me the, the second part of that equation which was the financial piece to you know, go into business ownership from there.

So that was GE, then those two private equity backed companies and then in 2010 made the decision to leave the second of those companies to go on the hunt to acquire a company and went did a two year acquisition search self funded and all in the Milwaukee area.

I was looking for manufacturing companies in Milwaukee, higher unit volume because I had a skill set from my six Sigma black belt time on operational improvement. Ideally looking for a family owned business that was, looking for someone in the next generation was not going to take it over.

So they were looking for another opportunity and looked about 120 companies, 30 of them in detail. I was a contender on six and one pops out the other side.

So that was my, my sort of waterfall journey there.

Meg
Wow, you’re, you’re a man of numbers and survival.

I work with so many people who want to acquire a business. They want to acquire revenue, they want to go in concern, they don’t want bumps and warts. They want something that like what you’re talking about, they can step into.

And what was it, what was that entree like for you? You had all this great grooming professionally and in the military.

Did you run into some unexpected, any unexpected either interactions with staff, your new employee base, any turnover there, any, any left hooks out of nowhere operationally that, that took you by surprise?

Bill
Sure. I mean so I acquired a 65 year old manufacturing company. Okay. The business was contract machining.

So what that basically means is larger manufacturers, let’s take like SpaceX design big things but they don’t want to make all the Components that go into those big things. So they contract out for others to make that, make those components.

Whether it’s machining, which we do, or maybe it’s printed circuit boards, someone else does injection molds, molding, you know, a variety of different technologies.

And so the business I acquired was contract machining basically, you know, offering machining as a service in a way.

So our, you know, I, a 65 year old business, I acquired it from the second generation owner, you know, under that owner’s prior owner’s leadership, the business is moving in one direction.

They’ve got, you know, what their model was of under his leadership they wanted to do. Well my coming in, I wanted to be much more growth oriented. New customers, new parts, new technology, you know, real wanted to make real investments in the training of the team to master that technology.

And so I wasn’t going to head in direction A, I wanted to go in direction B. And you know, over when you set that dynamic in motion, not everyone on the team heading in direction A wants to go in direction B.

And so there’s a, you know, there’s a, you know, a fallout over time. You know, maybe they’re leaving, maybe they’re being asked to leave, you know, things, things like that, that it’s just not a fit for moving in direction B.

And so there was, there was leadership turnover, we, there was even machinist turnover, although, although not a lot of the machinist front.

You know, we were, they saw the vision, they wanted to be part of that journey of our investing technology, our training them to master that technology.

You know, and what we’ve seen with that path has been those closest to, those team members, closest to the automation have, in whom we have invested have seen their wages double, if not triple over 10 years because they, that technology, that automation has allowed them to create more value and in turn through their wage growth has allowed them to capture more value.

And that’s very compelling. And you know, that can, that was sort of a central plank in my, my governor run because I really saw an opportunity for Wisconsin to benefit from the re industrialization going on, you know, this decade.

So that was to answer your question, we did, we’d have turnover but we also, you know, I, I, in Navy analogy, I equate it to a, a fast turning ship.

You know, with a fast turning ship you have centripetal force. You know, some people might slide off the side, some people might slide into a new seat and then some people come up from below decks and some people parachute on to, you know, be part of that, be part of that go forward journey.

So it’s been, you know, been a good journey and 13 years in.

Meg
Well, it was great to visit your office. And as I was waiting just briefly for you to, to leave one meeting and meet with me, you have the book, the Navy SEAL book, coffee table book sitting there.

And I was paging through that. It’s so obvious that how, how ingrained what you learned, what the skills that you acquired and mastered now have benefited in your business.

You can’t be afraid to turn the ship, but you have to know, just like the centrifugal force. I think that’s a great analogy.

There’s going to be fallout or you’re going to get people shifting from one seat to another. Maybe new opportunities opened up. You cannot be afraid to let people go.

You, you need to create openings for growth.

Bill
That’s right. That’s right. And, you know, going back to that original theme of once you leave the seals, trying to recreate the seals, I, you know, came into this, you know, wonderful industry, this contract machine in this advanced manufacturing, where I just found these terrific parallels between advanced manufacturing and the special operations community and really the military writ large.

That both industries, military and advanced manufacturing, are all about small, highly cohesive, highly trained teams enabled by advanced technology, trying to punch above their weight, you know, accomplish outsized things.

Because you think of the military, what a SEAL platoon can do with training, communications, weapons, that would rival what a brigade or division would be doing in decades and decades ago.

You know, World War II, you know, that time, that sort of time frame, you’re just the capability that you can bring to the battlefield.

And in turn, advanced manufacturing. What a machinist trained and enabled by a advanced CNC machine can, the value that they can create in an. At, in an hour of production would rival what a, you know, teams of machinists with very manual technology would be able to create decades ago.

So, you know, and I find if you work with your advanced manufacturing team with the same principles of that you get in the SEAL teams of investing in them, you know, trusting their training, trusting their initiative, rewarding initiative, and, you know, always pushing to accomplish more, you get similar results to what you get in, in the SEAL teams because that’s, you know, very much a, a culture there around, you know, individual initiative, drive, coordination, accomplishment.

Which is, you know, it’s to have found that, that solution to the. How do you recreate the.

Get out of the seals and recreate the seals in the civilian world?

Meg
Well, and then you saw an opportunity for the state of Wisconsin and betterment, improvement. Not just in manufacturing or in business, but you have a lot of other values that run deep.

And for a guy who’s not been in, in politics previously, you threw your hat into the big ring, skipping all the other steps. So you’re not a career politician.

You, you are a lifelong improvement process. Improvement, everything improvement guy. You saw this future for the state of Wisconsin.

So please talk about your decision, the family decision as well to. Because this is, as I talk about my three pillars.

Your wife, your life and your money. Yep, they’re working already. Let’s make sure that they continue to work.

Well, this was like an 800 pound gorilla that you invited into your life always. Yeah, so let’s talk about that because so many of us were excited about you taking this work ethic and personal ethic and applying it to the improvement of everything in the state of Wisconsin and you made the decision to do it.

Bill
So. Yep. Walk my audience through what that journey, how it started, how did it start? What caused you to even consider doing it? And then where you are now?

Bill
Well, I would say my governor run journey was another example of, of free agency.

Not coming from that industry, not being beholden to it, thinking differently, pulling together an amazing team, getting my family on board and really having a vision for Wisconsin being the manufacturing powerhouse to the world again.

And it has a 125-year-old manufacturing ecosystem. It has a highly trained, highly trainable workforce. And with the reindustrialization of the country going on right now, nowhere should that land more solidly than in Wisconsin.

And that again, as we saw with Pindell, the manufacturing opportunity providing a path for upskilling, for investments in technology, for, for again that upskilling, investment in the workforce that leads to the workforce, you know, Wisconsin Heights being able to create more value, capture more value, you know, try to, you know, work to double their wage every 10 years.

And I think that’s very, very, very powerful and, and empowering, you know, but, you know, you know, with politics, you know, I, I realized along that journey that, you know, politics can be almost as dangerous as the military, you know, because you, you go into this and you take shots from all sides and are you the right fit and, and all that.

And you do take, you know, political hits that, you know, you know, tell, you know, odd aspects of the story, you know, in, you know, political ways that, you know, just make you think, like, okay, this is not, this is not my, this is not my right. Time for the run.

We’re gonna step out, support others and you know, keep our, keep our powder dry for possible future opportunity, but at the very least work on those same themes re industrialization and the upskilling of the workforce just as a, as a private citizen. Yes.

Meg
And so I talked to Betsy about this a little bit at the Navy SEAL foundation recognition dinner.

The, the personal cost to lost privacy, but also the, the assassination attempt. Not, not real, but character assassination. Right.

I loved your clarity in your write up to your supporters about why you’re stepping out of the race.

Meg
And one of the most meaningful aspects to me was your openness about following the lifestyles, following listening to different podcasts, reading different books, following different people, influencers who are questionable, who are controversial, but represent a point of view that if you were going to represent the state of Wisconsin as our governor, you felt it was important to understand a multitude of different points of view.

And most of those, you know.

Bill
So I was indicted in this article in essence, for broadly following different writers on a text only social media happening a medium that is not images, it’s not videos, it’s just text articles.

And yeah, it was sort of fascinating that reading too broadly could be, you know, could be condemned by a newspaper, you know, one of the ultimate ironies, you know.

And as that, you know, sort of article and all that unfolded, you know, to get a text from my daughter on day one going, hi dad. Always knew you were widely read.

Hahaha, you know, very, very, very endearing.

Meg
Yeah.

Bill
And yet, you know, it was, it was a, that article was weaponized to purposely separate me from current and potential supporters.

You know, just that, not, not, not being in sync and you know, with the, with the, with the culture and the politics today and what you’re reading, what you’re following, you know, all of that.

So you know, you take, take it what it is.

Meg
You just say, you know, this isn’t my, this isn’t my, my lane is closed out and we’re gonna, you know, pursue no return to the private sector and pursue change there.

Meg
And so now that the decision has been made, what steps towards what, what steps are you taking towards that end?

And as, as someone who follows you and I have a strong conviction about trade programs and getting, we need more tradespeople.

So if you want to start an initiative, I’ll jump on board with that.

But yeah, so where are you going now that you’ve left the race?

You’re, you’re staying with Pindell. You’ve got, you’ve got such great impact. So how can you use your voice and the rest of us can get behind you. Yep.

Bill
So, you know, great, great question.

During this 13 year journey of manufacturing leadership, I have come across this sort of fallacy, this mistaken belief that we seem to have as a society that what you learn in the first 25 years of life is going to last you for the rest of your life, for, let’s just say the next 50.

And look, 50 years ago, 80 years ago, you know, quite possibly, you know, what you learn through high school, maybe through college, if you go to college. Yeah, that was gonna, that was gonna last you for your working life. You know, when working lives went to like age 40 or something like that. But they don’t, they go, they go a whole lot longer these days.

And technology is changing, industry needs are changing, personal interests are changing. And yet as a society, we don’t have a mechanism to encourage, support, embrace lifelong learning. Lifelong upskilling.

It is, you know, all of our attention is put on those first 25 years of life. And, but, and yet people want to stay in the fight for opportunity.

You know, when they are working in a given profession and that profession starts to close out because technology is moving or it starts to change, they want to be, start, they want to be, they want to be part of that journey. They don’t want to be dead ended.

And so one of the initiatives that I’m working on is a concept called Forward Skilling. So forward Wisconsin motto since the 1850s. Forward skilling is about applying a shared economy model to incumbent workforce upskilling.

So to those who are already out in the workforce, whether they are 35, 45, 55, 65, whatever it is, how can we support industry to continuously upskill them?

And what it comes down to is, you know, when I was at GE is all the resources in the world to continuously upskill their, their people, their, their company. You know, Fortune 10 at the time, you know, all of that.

The military, you know, the military is big enough to continuously upskill their people. You never hear about someone joining the military at age, you know, mid career, age 40, you know, and going into a mid career, they come in, come in at the low level and they’re trained all the way through retirement.

So forward skilling is about how do we think in an innovative fashion of how to support small, medium sized businesses to upskill their workforce to meet the needs, to master new technologies, new business practices, all of that.

And that’s one of the initiatives that as a private citizen, as a manufacturing CEO, I’m going to try to be driving across Wisconsin.

It’s it’s not a money making venture. It’s, you know, probably, you know, take the form of a nonprofit, possibly, you know, a franchise like model of.

You know, working on these ways to support industry to upskill its workforce.

Meg
Would it be like a chapter? Probably because you’ve got, you know, the two elements for, for the model is one, there’s a clearinghouse function which is there are a whole lot of upskilling courses already out there.

You know, whether it’s the Learn Excel or you know, you know, manufacturing companies offering their own training where you, you want to simply provide visibility into the courses and the instruction that’s already out there.

But then there’s a coordination aspect that really needs to be almost like at a chapter or a local level because you are understanding what are the skilling needs within your chapter, within your geography, you are creatively coordinating training for those chapter members.

Bill
You know, in our case, we’re piloting courses around CNC Swiss Production Machinist. So not to dive into it, but you know, CNC Swiss is a type of machine technology that is very advanced, requires a high skill level.

It’s concentrated in the Midwest and it can create a tremendous amount of value. So how do we help businesses train their teams and team members who might not be machinists, they might be, you know, we’ve trained material handlers, we’ve trained, you know, janitorial custodians, you know, who are cleaning the bathrooms, you know, emptying the trash.

All of that.

We’ve upskilled them to this skill set that allows them to capture a lot more value. And that’s part of that journey of doubling a wage every 10 years, right?

Meg
Yeah.

Your journey have a name?

Is it, is there? Are you organized yet?

Bill
It will, it will be under that, that sort of forward skilling brand. Brand. Okay.

You know, we’ve, we’ve done the, you know, the, the service mark registration on that and you know, we’ll be giving that extra, extra umph.

You know, as governor, that was something that I was going to give for free. You know, just, you know, give, give, you know, you know, give all of the, you know, the rights of it, you know, to, to the state.

We can, we could, we could drive it, drive it as governor there, but that’s not going to happen. So we’re going to, you know, execute it as a, as a nonprofit, you know, as a private citizen.

Meg
Do you have a website? I know you have the trait, but do you have, do you have a social presence yet.

And I’m thinking really for Pete and myself to support this. As you know, we’ve got tall grass restoration. One of our big challenges.

The, the earth is what it is. But artificial intelligence is stepping into advanced technology for and where our people aren’t upskilling. Yep.

Or the, the, our future employees. You’re right, we haven’t met them yet, but we’re running into some of the same issue with.

Bill
Yep, yep. We, we need to be figuring out this, this upskilling approach that we need to be returning to investing in trade schools, in you know, industrial shop.

Shop classes in high schools. Yeah. You know, in the lifelong, lifelong learning.

I will know we are succeeding when we start to see mid career apprenticeships in the trades.

So that someone who might be 15 years in retail, maybe that opportunity is closing out for them. But they see all of this opportunity of being an electrician or a plumber or industrial maintenance and how do you keep them in the fight as a 35, 40 year old who now wants to be part of a mid career apprenticeship.

So that, that needs to be, that needs to be part of that journey and we need to, we need to be figuring this out to your point, around, around the trades, around physical, physical skills.

Because we need to figure out that model for when AI starts to sweep through, you know, more administrative and white collar professions.

Because you know, we want AI to be in just like automation is a, an enabler, an augmenter in manufacturing for manufacturing worker.

We want AI to be an augmenter for an office worker.

The old adage, you’re not, your job’s not going to be get taken by AI. It’s going to be taken by someone that uses AI. We want our people to be the ones using AI.

Meg
Yeah. So that’s, that’s part of that, that, that power there.

I, you brought up high school and like shop class, I loved all that stuff. I loved the automotive class and the, I know that I know my tools.

I have really great tools. I know how to use all of them. And I’m 62 and happy to get underneath the hood of a car or chassis of a truck or whatever it might be.

I, someone was saying to me recently, I don’t remember who it was, but do yourself a favor, go back to a community college and take a handyman.

Bill
Right, right. Well, it’s funny you say that, you know, you, you had that exposure to shop classes and tools.

I can remember when my daughter and her friends first started driving, gathering them in a parking lot with their cars and having some of the basics, okay, this is how you jump a vehicle. This is how you change a tire.

This is how you diagnose, you know, certain problems. You know, those, those, you know, basic practical skills that aren’t, aren’t as common and, but you want your, you want your kids, you want everyone to, you know, grow up with a, a comfort for taking care of themselves and, you know, having that, having that assurance there.

Meg
Yes.

Well, maybe getting people to go back to a community college or a tech school and taking a handyman class would get them engaged in their brain to think there, there is another avenue for me, midlife, to step into something.

Hey, you know, I really like this plumbing stuff more than I thought. I really like just thinking outside the box to how do we get more people engaged in, in the trades and this forward upskilling that you’re talking about, I’m not too old to do it.

I spry and still looking. And there’s so many people with gas in the tank and they’re in industries that they’re not happy with their career choice law or whatever.

It might be plenty of people who are getting in and then stepping back out again.

But to go back to using your hands, there are a lot of things that AI is never going to replace. Artificial intelligence isn’t going to replace the human touch or ability to assess certain things.

I will say being, being a resistor, freely admit I resisted using Chat GPT. I refused to use it.

And so recently I need knee replacement. And on the same leg, I need surgery on my foot. And I can’t get any doctor to give me a concierge kind of explanation of what to do.

I put my X rays into Chat GPT and I started asking it basic questions. If you were me, would you chicken or the egg?

Which one? Which surgery would you do first?

And then I, I, I’m learning, Bill. It prompts me with doctor recommendation. Give me a doctor.

What would it, what would a surgeon tell me? What would a physical, physical therapist tell me?

I love it. And so now I’m an old dog, I’ve learned a new trick and I get it. And it what an eye opener.

Bill
So for people who are listening, if you’re about the same age as I am, go, go learn something new. Oh, totally.

And I’m, I’m, I’m working a little technical startup idea, you know, completely off to the side here.

And ChatGPT is a wonderful thought partner because I do not know all the technical details behind my idea. You know, it involves some programming, some hardware, things like that.

But it is a great, you know, advisor guide. Okay, read these articles in this order and then come back to me and we’re going to, you know, work on, you know, another set of learnings.

So I, yeah, I would agree, I agree with you. You just embrace it, use it as a thought partner, you know, explore the technologies because it is, it is really, you know, fascinating. So I’d concur there.

Yeah, well, as a couple of my doctors have said, use it or lose it. That includes your brain.

Bill
Yep, that’s it. Meg, I know where we need to wrap up in a few, but I do want to go back to one thought to share with your audience around free agency.

And as we discussed, my journey of the ultimate free agency, you know, owning your own business, which has been awesome, you know, to have a platform for, for growth, you know, economic as well as learning to have a, as I develop the team, they could run the business largely without me, which gave me the opportunity to, to run for governor and things, things like that.

So, you know, wonderful journey. I, and I took the path of searching for a one off business, you know, that I, you know, I looked at 120 of them and you know, I found they were all, they’re all one off businesses.

One of the challenges is when you look for and you acquire some, a one off business, you need to dive in and understand what’s the business model around that, what’s making it tick, you know, how, what are the processes. All of that.

I get referred to me all the time. Folks who want to also acquire a business, yeah, I always ask them the question, have you ever thought about franchises?

And the reason I try to encourage that idea, which I did not pursue, it wasn’t on my radar screen. In a lot of ways I should have pursued it with a franchise.

Someone else has figured out what is the operating model, what is the recipe that makes this business tick. And you can judge how effective that operating model, that recipe is by looking at other franchisees and talking with them and are they successful.

So you don’t need, as the owner, you don’t need to figure out what that recipe is.

You don’t need to change the recipe. You need to locate it well, lead it well, market it well.

And sometimes the marketing is already taken care of by others too, but it limits your, your variable.

And so I, I would love to encourage more individuals who are after free agency to look at the franchise model because I do think it’s powerful.

I think it’s, you have you know, across the country, different geographies that you can land in.

And with all of that, I think it’s particularly powerful for military members who are transitioning out of service, who are looking for, you know, that my, my, my advice there of go blue chip early big company, all of that, you know, that might or might not be appropriate for them, you know, depending on what they want to do.

Like, do I really. Do they really want to be a cog in a big company machine?

Yes, you might get the skills, all of that, but they got to judge that if they want that to be their first step.

But I just have a feeling most military members do not want the big company to be their last step.

And I think franchises could be a great solution for veterans that are transitioning.

Most of the franchises are between, you know, better, but, you know, between like two and 30 people, which is exactly, you know, the size that most military members are used to operating within.

It’s sort of, you know, military company level size. And below, again, someone else has figured out what the recipe is.

They get to jump in and lead at a very tactical level, which they’re.

They’ve spent. Been spending, you know, five to 30 years doing, you know, leading at that, at that tactical level.

And, you know, and I, and I think that can be a real path to independence, to wealth creation, to, you know, free agency that lets them accomplish goals, you know, financial community impact, all of that, while raising a family, while, you know, engaging community on other levels.

Meg
A better commercial could not have been written.

Thank you for your, your strong vote of confidence.

I have so many stories, I have so many placements. Yep. Who have past military experience.

And I’m telling you that I don’t need to tell you, you know, that, that upbringing, that camaraderie, that brotherhood, whatever you want to call it.

Yep. It’s. It’s glue. Yes.

I mean, think about if you were able to both encourage military members into franchise ownership, ownership, create a community among them who do go in, you know, giving each other advice, being that sounding board for tough leadership decisions, tough marketing decisions.

You know, might not be the same franchise, could be different franchises. That’s fine.

But how do you. Again, the biggest challenge when you leave the SEAL teams is recreating the SEAL teams.

And one of the core aspects of the SEAL teams is that sense of community, service, common purpose, all of that, which you can turn business ownership into.

You know, it creates an opportunity for leadership. It creates an opportunity for impact.

You know, servant, leader. Servant, servant to the community. You know, servant to your family.

You know, very, you know, empowering, empowering aspects.

So, again, not, not. Not running for governor, it would be great to figure out mechanisms to, you know, make make Wisconsin a powerful destination for, you know, transitioning veterans who are seeking, you know, free agency, franchise ownership, you know, all of that.

The beautiful thing right now, I don’t know if you and I know we need to go.

American corporate partners.

ACP has the Advisor Net program, which I participated and have for the last few years.

I had. My current mentee is from Wisconsin and he’s moving back to Wisconsin.

So he’s bringing his company. Zero Dark is the name of his company. He’s bringing it back to.

Back to. I’m not sure where he’s going to land, but he still has family here.

So my thinking this time around is I’m going to ask ACP to focus on Wisconsin. Good. Good for me, for my future mentees.

They’ve been all over the country, but.

Okay, Bill, I’m on board. I’m on board. Whatever you’re going to do, I’m on board.

Love it, Nick.

Bill
Thank you. Awesome. Same.

Let’s, let’s, let’s, let’s have some seminars up here in Milwaukee on highlighting the opportunity for veteran ownership, franchise ownership, free agency writ large. All of that would be great.

Meg
All right, well, thank you so much for your time today.

I’m so glad that you were able to carve it out for me as the title free Agent. I’ve been after you for a while, and this was. This was rich.

I can just hear my producer. I can hear her now saying, whoa. Love it. This was a really good one.

So thank you so much.

Bill
Meg. Thank you.

Great to be invited. I really appreciate it. And thank you for your friendship, you and Peter.

It is. It is my pleasure.

Meg
And say hello to Betsy. I will let you know when this is going to come out. It’ll probably still be this month. Love it. October.

So we’ll promote the heck out of. It and I’ll highlight it. Good.

All right. Thank you, Bill.

Bill
Thanks, Meg. All right. Bye. Bye.