Veterans Be Real

Army Veteran Delsina West

Army Veteran Delisina West started in the army as a preventive medicine specialist. She has spent 26 years combined as active duty, reserved, enlisted officer, air national guard. In her time in the army,  she got involved in bodybuilding as means to be active and in good shape. After service, she continued to have an active lifestyle but she experience her body shutting down and had multiple injuries. Despite these roadblocks, she was continued to find ways to be in shape and have an active...

Air Force Veteran Amanda Huffman

Air Force Veteran Amanda Huffman was a Civil Engineer in the Air Force. She was an officer and managed all the civil engineer troops during this time. While in the Air Force, she was deployed in Afghanistan and worked with the Army as part of the provincial reconstruction team. After that, she worked in an Air Force headquarters in Ohio, then eventually decided to transition out of the military life to be a stay-at-home mom. As with any veteran, the transition to civilian life is always cha...

Navy Veteran Danique Masingill

Navy Veteran Danique Masingill served the Navy from 2002 to 2007. In 2007, She found herself with an administrative discharge due to bad leadership, ending her Navy career abruptly. She basically has to fight for her Veteran's Rights. Like most vets, her transition to civilian life wasn’t entirely smooth. She moved from state to state, enrolled in multiple schools, and jumping careers. She eventually got into the veteran service dog space, which led to the founding of Leashes of Valor- a nat...

Army Veteran Andrea Overend

Army Veteran Andrea Overend has served the US Army for 11 years. She joined at the early age of 16 essentially grew up in the Army. During her service, she went the finance route and then became a part of the 82nd Airborne Division. She always saw herself as a lifer, but she started other businesses and entrepreneurial endeavors as an alternate revenue stream later in her service. Her hunger for success has made her focus on her businesses and retire from service. Though she was financially ...

Army Veteran Sabrina Young

Army Veteran Sabrina Young has served in the US Army as a Military Police Officer from 2005 to 2009. Shortly after service, she found herself working in a Hospice nursing home. It is here where she found her calling as a Funeral Director. She is also an Embalmer, Certified Celebrant, and Funeral Insurance agent. She is the Service Officer and a Lifetime Member of the VFW Post #1820. Sabrina is a member of the Temple Chamber of Commerce, founding member of the Temple-Belton Ladies Lions Club,...

Navy Veteran Jose Alaniz Jr

Navy Veteran Jose Alaniz Jr has served the US Navy from 1990 to 2005. After service, Jose has struggled a few years with getting and keeping jobs. Jumping from job to job every couple of years. Then on a trip to Sydney, Australia he encountered a small wooden shack that served one of the best coffee that he tasted. This has inspired him to make great coffee. A few later his passion and enthusiasm towards coffee has led him to establish his business Third Day Coffee Seguin a Christian-based V...

Army Veteran Scott Zipp

Army Veteran Scott Zipp has served in the Army for over sixteen years. He has spent most of his career under 74Delta as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High Yield Explosive Specialist. He has an extensive background in Organizational Development, Personnel Management, and Policy Implementation. His experience in the Military gave him extensive knowledge in Strategic Planning, Budget Management, and Training and Development. He started his entrepreneurial journey a few mont...

Air Force Veteran Desmon Farris

Air Force Veteran Desmon Farris served in US Air Force for eight years. He served in the USAF Security Forces from March of 2003 to October 2011 and was medically retired for PTSD. After military service, he returned to school to pursue his passion and get his bachelor’s degree in Audio Production at The Art Institute of Washington and a master’s degree in Audio Technology at American University. Since then, his work involved audio engineering/production and he eventually founded his own com...

Navy Veteran Ron Suzuki

Navy Veteran Ron Suzuki served in the Navy for 15 years as an Aviation Electronics Technician.  During his time at the Navy, a mate introduced him to photography. He became a full-time photographer shortly after being honorably discharged. His photography business was doing great, but sales eventually slowed down, forcing him to work for a 9 to 5 job. During this time, he further developed his photography and videography skills and founded White Box Media- a company that aims to grow small b...

Army Veteran Richard Kaufman

Army Veteran Richard Kaufman has served the Army and National Guard for 23 years. During this time, regardless of whether he's deployed or not, he was always active in the health and fitness industry and had a job in GNC. After service, Richard went full time in the health and fitness industry and has worked with people on MLB, NFL, NBA, MMA, Professional Boxing, and more. After that, he worked in a general nutrition company and helped increase the annual revenue from 500k to 1.3m in just th...

Marine Veteran Frank Manteau

Marine Veteran Frank Manteau is the owner of Kamikaze Wood Works and Co-Founder of Crayons Ready-to-Eat. Frank has spent seven and a half years in the Marine Corps. In service, he suffered a back injury which eventually led to his exit. Post-service, he went through challenges and hurdles; he worked through it and worked in corporate companies to provide for his kids and eventually lead him to the world of entrepreneurship.    Now Frank handles two businesses: Kamikaze Wood Werks and Crayo...

Army Veteran Gene Lumsden

Army Veteran Gene Lumsden, Founder & CEO at Lumsden ENT. LLC Consulting Services began his career at age 12 as a competitive trap shooter. Over the years, he won multiple major shooting events in the country. This led the US Army shooting team to recruit him. He represented the Country and US Army, winning multiple prestigious national and international sporting events during this time. After shooting, he became a road salesman and worked his way up to his first management job eventually bec...

Army Veteran Lisa Peranzo

Army Veteran Lisa Peranzo, Fitness Coach, President, and CEO of A Healthful Life, enlisted in The Army via ROTC. During training, she got a severe injury that put her on the sideline for years. She underwent multiple surgeries and months of physical therapies. The Army allowed her as much time as she needed to rehabilitate and put herself in shape for the physical requirements and re-enlist.  She did recover from her injuries, but unfortunately, she couldn't re-enlist because it will expose ...

Navy Veteran Tammi Moses

Navy Veteran Tammi Moses is the Founder and CEO of Homes Are For Living LLC and The Hoarding Solutions. She enlisted in the Navy when she was in senior high school. Mostly to leave her town and get the opportunity to work and travel in many different places. Tammi was stationed in USS Niagara Falls; a ship homeported in Guam. After service, she worked full-time for a state agency, went back to college, and got her bachelor's degree. She got invited into a women's veteran conference, which le...

Army Veteran Sistah Soldier

Army Veteran Sistah Soldier is the founder and creator of She Vet Media, a company that provides digital media content for veteran military women. To help them transition from service, reinvent themselves, be creative, and use digital media as a platform to help them find their voice. Sistah is a former Army HR manager, stationed all over the US and worldwide, fell in love with helping people to service, and eventually found her niche as an army recruiter. Sistah is now using her expertise t...

Army Veteran Travis Arnold

Army Veteran Travis Arnold is an Experienced Business Development and Technical Sales Manager with a history of working in the Defense & Law Enforcement industries. Prior to his service in the United States Army, Travis is now leading the effort to expand the MilDef brand throughout the United States as a leader in rugged electronics. He is also the Founder and Owner of Caisson Shaving Company that specializes in premium shaving soaps and supplies. In this episode, Sgt. BeReal talks to Tra...

Marine Veteran George Council

Marine Veteran George Council is an Experienced Senior Level Executive with a diverse business background that includes Commercial/Corporate Real Estate, Strategic Sourcing/Supply Chain, Sales, Operations, and Finance. He has an extensive background in Public, Private, Non-Profit, and For-Profit Organizations from start-ups through multi-billion dollar fortune 100 companies. He also has proven success in Operational, Corporate, Consultative, and Cross-Functional leadership roles in both cent...

Army Veteran Wally Carmichael

Army Veteran Wally Carmichael is a Profit Acceleration Strategist and International Business Strategist. He is the Owner and Founder of Business Owner Growth, the Business and Life Strategist at Abundance & Prosperity Mastery, and the Podcast Host of Men of Abundance. As a Business Strategist, Wally shows business owners how to uncover hidden profits without spending more money and time in their business so they can finally find relief of financial stress and live their life of abundance & ...

Army Veteran Jedidah James Smith

Army Veteran Jedidah Smith is a former Special Forces Non-commissioned officer at 5th Special Forces Group. He is a Christian, a Husband, Dad, an Entrepreneur, and a Change Maker. In this episode, Sgt. Be Real talks to Jedidah about his experiences in and out of the Military. They will discuss how veterans lose their sense of self and the spirit of camaraderie. They also talked about how important it is to know how to manage, not just lead. Join us in this episode of the Veterans Be Real p...

SEAC (R) John Wayne Troxell

John Wayne Troxell is a retired United States Army senior non-commissioned officer who served as the third Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This position made him the most senior enlisted member of the United States Armed Forces. He is the owner and founder of PME Hard Consulting, LLC. He is also the Personal Brand Ambassador of Hiring Our Heroes, the Brand Ambassador of Veteran’s Lending Group, the Brand Endorser of ESS, the Strategic Consultant of Alph...

Army Veteran Boone Cutler

Army Veteran Boone Cutler is an author, columnist, music video director, and Warfighter Rights leader. He holds the distinguished honor of being the first nationally recognized radio talk show personality who is also a combat veteran from the current war. Boone began writing his Iraq War-inspired autobiographical account of what he experienced, Voodoo in Sadr City, during his combat tour in Iraq, and completed it during his two-year recovery from wartime injuries at Walter Reed Army Medical...

Army Veteran Sandra Hardy

Sandra Hardy has over 20 years of Human Resource Management Experience, MBA Human Resource Management, Retired Military Veteran, Public Speaker, and over 20 years of career development experience. She brings not only an educational experience but life experience to the table. Her passion is helping women to reach their full potential in life, and empowering women to become victorious in their journey is her life's goal. As a human resource in the Military, she's the one in charge of all the...

Army Veteran Dave Poist

United States Army Sergeant Major Dave Poist is a charismatic Head Coach with a demonstrated history of working in the military industry. Skilled in Microsoft Word, Operational Planning, English, Management, and Training. He is a strong professional with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) focused on Sports Business MGMT from Saint Leo University. He has been in the Army for 30 years and wants to be a full-time dad and husband after he retires. He is also into coaching little league k...

Army Veteran April Lewis

April Lewis is an Army veteran and a dynamic speaker and Mental Fitness Coach. As a teacher of healthy living, happiness, and high-performance she can help you, or your team, de-clutter mindsets to get the results you want. She teaches proven principles to improve the performance of an organization's greatest asset - the people. She also teaches the "how" when motivation wears off and equip you with tools you can use when "life" happens.   She was the one who called the Military at the age...

Army Veteran James McNeil

Army veteran James McNeil is an experienced motivational speaker and author as well as the founder and owner of the Inspirational Connection, bringing you the best patriotic and inspirational products. James is the author of Finding Your Personal Mission, it chronicles the obstacles people face when they have suicidal thoughts. In this episode, Sgt BeReal and James will talk about the suicidal minds of veterans. James explains the reasons why many people commit or attempt suicide and can p...

Army Veteran Denny Katona

Denny Katona enlisted in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard in 1993.  After serving seven years as an Armor crewman, he became an active-duty Army National Guard recruiter in 2000. In 2002, Denny transferred to the Regular Army as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Non-Commissioned Officer.  Denny deployed in 2003 for the Invasion of Iraq and again in 2005 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also deployed in 2011 to Japan in support of Operation Tomadachi, provi...

Army Veteran Matt Hesse

Matt Hesse is the Founder and CEO of FIT OPS, an innovative health and wellness company. With a background ranging from athletics to the military, as well as owning and operating a chain of nutritional retail outlets. Matt has combined his lifelong passion for health and nutrition education with savvy marketing platforms to launch successful, pioneering brands such as PERFORMIX, Training Day, and ORB Wellness. Matt leads FIT OPS and its brands with a determination to evolve the wellness sp...

Army Veteran Rolande Sumner

Rolande Sumner is the creator of the Triple-A Approach veteran retention and engagement designed to help organizations retain their good veteran hires after they’ve been recruited. LASTCo's CEO and Veteran Employment Retention Consultant, Rolande Sumner, is a US Army Retiree, Business Development Consultant, Author, Speaker, and Trainer with 24 years of Leadership, Management, Human Resources, Administration, Coaching, and Consulting expertise. Rolande is also a best-selling author of Behin...

Army Veteran Lane Belone

Lane Belone is the Co-Founder at Quality Of Life Enterprises and Founder at Increase Freedom. He helps others do more of what they really want in life. Lane is the lead on high-performance training and Implementer of the HIT and QOL movement. He also trains entrepreneurs to develop a “flow state” to perform their best in business. Lane is applying the Special Forces mindset to business to dominate their industry and extract individual purpose to then express fundamental purpose via business...

Army Veteran Chris McPhee

Chris McPhee is a Retired U.S. Army Veteran, and Green Beret turned professional photographer and project manager. He now helps businesses and organizations promote their message/story through photo and video production. He has 21 years of experience leading teams in challenging work environments; including over 10 years of video and photography knowledge. Chris is a project management professional (PMP) exam preparation instructor, which he had helped 100+ aspiring project management profe...

Army Veteran Andrew Nelson

Army Veteran Andrew Nelson is a former Weapons Squad Leader at 2nd Battalion, 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment. He studied Political Science and History at the University of Washington and Intellectual Property at McGeorge School of Law. He is a Partner at Fortis LLP. A legacy of his service as an infantryman and paratrooper, he knows the challenges of veterans, including the things that keep them up at night. Andrew helps business owners with the trademarks that they want to use are avai...

Marine Veteran Jared Ledbetter

Jared Ledbetter is the CEO and Web Developer of Carbon Digital. He is a highly motivated Marine Veteran and front-end web developer with more than a decade of experience. He has worked with several large and small brands and is always up for a good challenge. For every web project that he has done, his focus has been on creating the best user experience possible, his portfolio can back it up. In this episode, Sgt. BeReal talks to Jared about his transition from the Military to a civilian....

Army Veteran Timothy Stroud

Army Veteran Timothy Stroud is the CEO of Stroud Marketing Group. Learning from his mentor, Paul J. Meyer, he set specific GOALS in his life. Paul helped him focus his energy and showed him the values of being a Servant Leader. After his honorable service as a Combat Medic in the United States Army, he quickly learned that others were not able to transition into a civilian workforce and that a better system needed to be created. By networking and learning about the 40,000+ Veteran Service...

Navy Veteran Bryan Jacobs

Navy Veteran Bryan Jacobs learned many of his kitchen skills growing up cooking alongside his grandfather, a former chef in World War II. They spent most of their summers together and in the mornings over coffee, hot chocolate, and cornflakes, they pondered the most important question of the day, which was what to make for dinner. They were practicing farm-to-table well before it became a modern-day trend. During high school he took busboy and dishwasher positions. One day the sauté chef di...

Air Force Veteran Dr. Rob Garcia

Air Force Veteran Dr. Rob Garcia is a Warrior Strategist. He is also a champion undeterred by circumstance, station in life, or obstacles. He grew up up in a low-income family and failed out of high school and college. He set out on a path to inspire and lead from the front. He loves helping people to realize their purpose and to achieve far past what they thought possible. After 8 books, 135+ interviews, starting a magazine, and winning a business award, he realized that anything is possi...

Navy Veteran Michael Rannigan

Navy Veteran Michael Rannigan is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the human resources industry. He's a strong business development professional skilled in Negotiation, Business Planning, Operations Management, Coaching, and Sales. In this episode, Sgt. BeReal talks to Michael about his experiences during and after Military life. Michael almost lost his wife and kids to divorce but bounced back. He found his first moment of clarity on his first...

Army Veteran Chris Ellenburg

Army Veteran Chris Ellenburg is a North Georgia native, born and raised in the Appalachian Mountains. He joined the Army directly out of high school and served until December 2012, when he left the military with one goal in mind: to continue serving his country, by supporting our Armed Forces. This is how Over the Edge Outdoors was born. As someone who grew up surrounded by the outdoors, Chris took his passion for nature and turned it into a way for our servicemen and women to build relatio...

Army Veteran Steven Kuhn

Steven Kuhn is a global business adviser, political consultant, and decorated U.S. Military veteran with a proven track record of success. Influential business and military leader, he has worked with businesses, politicians, and celebrities across the U.S. and Europe to help them harness the power of their influence. He believes in combining transformational business tactics with the powerful guiding principles of Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency (H.I.T.) to help people get more from wh...

Navy Veteran Jose Palacios

Navy veteran Jose Palacios served as a damage control man in the Navy which is the equivalent of firefighters in the civilian world. He served abroad, stationed overseas in Japan, used to pick up Marines from Okinawa then drop them off in jungles. He also did 1 tour in the Middle East for 9 months. In this episode, Sgt BeReal and Jose talked about how challenging it is to transition from the Military duty to civilian life. They also discussed that when you work overseas or get deployed over...

Marine Veteran Trace Johannesen

Marine Veteran Trace Johannesen was elected to Rockwall City Council in 2018. He and his wife Amy live in Stone Creek Estates with their three children. Trace works in business strategy and technology consulting for a purpose-driven consulting firm called Slalom. Prior to joining Slalom, Trace worked for technology professional services firms in varying leadership roles. Before City Council, Trace served on Rockwall’s Architectural Review Board. He also proudly serves Rockwall in varying ca...

Army Veteran Annette M Whittenberger

U.S. Army (RET) MAJ. Annette M. Whittenberger understands the challenge of veteran transition and development as she is a Retired Combat Veteran, an Army Spouse, and a mother. Annette has a B.A in Psychology and an MS in Environmental Management.  Because she understands the difficulty of transitioning out of the military as a female, she can talk through the steps, make a plan, and offer resources to fulfill your passion. She focuses on coaching others through PTSD, anxiety, and depression...

Army Veteran Zack Knight

Zack Knight is currently an Infantry Lieutenant and platoon leader in the United States Army Georgia National Guard. His time spent in the Army has involved extensive training in risk assessment and mitigation techniques that have been proven in the most intense environments.   From the streets of metro-Atlanta as a police officer and SWAT Operator, to the mountains of Afghanistan as an Infantry leader, Zack has been tested on his crime and risk mitigation expertise as well as his leadersh...

Navy Veteran Thomas McConnell

Navy Diver Veteran Thomas McConnell was raised in Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana and he is the owner of 15 Fathoms Deep Sea Apparel. He used to swim competitively as a freestyle swimmer and it was really the one sport that he gravitated to. He found out about the Navy diver program and knew that’s what he wanted to do. It took him about seven months to get in shape for it, but he put in the work and got into shape. When he showed up to dive school, they let them know that they would weed h...

Navy Veteran Shadeed Eleazer

US Navy veteran Shadeed Eleazer is a Keynote speaker, 5x Author, and a Certified Business Mentor. He is also Baltimore’s leading Small Business Advisor. He served overseas on the USS Kitty Hawks He was born into an entrepreneurial family, he joined the Military after working in his uncle’s business who is a Sgt. First Class in the Army because he didn’t want to be the kid who will be stuck in a dead-end job and a minimum wage. His first exposure to the Military life and culture was when he ...

Marine Veteran Kyle Page

Disabled Marine Corps Veteran turned Realtor, Kyle Page has the skills, knowledge, and cutting edge tech and takes pride in representing his clients' best interest in what could be the largest transaction of their lives. After high school, Kyle Page enrolled in Anthropology at the University of Alabama and dropped out to join the Marine Corps. He started as a mechanic in the Marine. He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2012 and experienced losing a couple of good guys out there because of IED...

Marine Veteran Joseph Gibbons

Capt. Joseph Gibbons was born and raised in Alaska and moved out of state when he joined the Marines at the age of 18. He always wanted to be a Marine since he was 7 years old, had an adolescence rebellion and moved out at the age of 17 and lived with a girlfriend who became his wife in 2011. He was in the Marines for 5 years and was a Plane Captain on Cobra and Huey helicopters. He inspected them and performed maintenance to make sure that they were safe for flight so that our pilots could ...

Army Veteran Chas Sampson

Chas L. Sampson is Iraq war Veteran whom served in the U.S. Army for 5 years. After his military service he served as a Decision Officer (Rater) for the Board of Veteran Appeals at U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs in Washington, D.C., followed by service as a Human Resources Executive for Department of Defense at the Pentagon and at Andrews Air Force Base, MD. Chas, a former mayoral candidate for Spring Lake, NC received his bachelor’s degree in business psychology from Washington State Un...

Navy Veteran Samantha "Fergie" Fergus

Navy Veteran Samantha "Fergie" Fergus is a UX/UI Designer and Artist. Her creative journey began in the supply chain as a chef which later turned into a pastry chef for the United States Navy. For those 7 years, she learned and grew her skill to collaborated and cultivated new ways to explain her design and creative process. Now as a multidisciplinary designer, she brings to the table her leadership skills, cross-team collaboration, and an innovative approach to the design thinking process,...

Navy Veteran Samantha "Fergi" Fergus

Black Lives Matter

In this episode, Sgt. BeREal gives his perspective about the George Floyd incident. He urges the veterans to stand up and do something about this thing. Sgt. BeReal thinks that veterans should have a presence in their own communities and should have a sit down with the City Council, City Mayor, The Chief of Police and the Police Union to know/adjust/change the rules of engagement of our Police Officers. He stated that veterans fought for our country's freedom so our country can be free -- f...