Episode 70: From Marine Machine Gunner to Corporate Executive with Tony Goins

Posted by John Berry on 05/21/2024

Description

Tony Goins, a former Marine Sergeant, corporate executive, entrepreneur, and public servant, shares his journey from being a security guard at American Express to becoming a successful leader in the corporate world. He emphasizes the importance of opportunities, preparation, and leading by example. Tony also discusses the significance of relationships, both in business and personal life, and the impact of having a supportive partner. Tony’s commitment to giving back is evident through his mentorship and the creation of Capital Cigar Lounge, a space for young professionals to share their experiences.

Check out Tony’s cigar lounge at capitalcigar.com.

Transcript

Tony Goins: Getting out of the Marine Corps in 1986. It wasn’t like it was now it was no Veterans Outreach to try to help you assimilate. You know, I had a ragtag resume. So I applied for a job at American Express, I thought I could be a phone rep. And I remember the human resources representative said to me, you got it this country, we think you’d be great at guarding this front desk. So they made me a security guard.

John Berry: Welcome back to Veteran Led. Today’s guest is Tony Goins, former Marine Sergeant, corporate executive, entrepreneur, and public servant. Welcome to the show, Tony.

Tony Goins: John, it’s an honor to be here. But before we start chatting, I want to give a huge shout out to Berry Law firm. And John, your leadership. I’m a Berry Law firm client, shout out to Seth Chambers for all of the support he’s given me and helping me to get my benefits, and also the Camp LeJeune waters scenario. But what you all have done in the in the veteran community, John, is absolutely unparalleled and unmatched. So, I want to thank you for your leadership. I want to thank Berry Law firm, you guys are the best.

John Berry: Well, thank you. If it wasn’t for veterans like you, we wouldn’t be doing this. And the reality is you have done what many veterans aspire to do. You made your post service history bigger than your military history. And we all know the guys that get out and they live in their museum. And they and they don’t do anything else. They think, well, I served and that’s it. But you have done so much more. Now we know that you were a sergeant Marine Corps, I want to take you through the time when you got out of the Marine Corps, I did try to find a job.

Tony Goins: Couldn’t do it. You know, I got a Marine Corps. I went to Marine Corps in 198 July 6 To be specific. My MOS, I was an M60 machine gunner, which is 0331. And then I have secondary MOS of an 0121. So I worked in in the office as a battalion, legal chief and legal clerk, while also helping out machine guns in the field. And when I got out, I didn’t have any skills. And you know, getting out of the Marine Corps in 1986. It wasn’t like it was now there was nobody saying thank you for your service, there was no Veterans Outreach to try to help you assimilate. You know, I had a ragtag resume. And, and really no, no gear, no suits, no, no clothes and didn’t know what to do. So, I applied for a job at American Express. I thought I could be a phone rep. And I remember the human resources representative said to me, you guarded this country, we think you’d be great at guarding this front desk. So they made me a security guard. Sure did. And that was in. That was in 1986. Yeah, late 1986.

John Berry: Now, at some point, you apply to become a loan officer. And you’re told no.

Tony Goins: Yeah, yeah. Well, what happened was, you know, you, John, you know, being in the military, you always want to look good in your uniform. And so in my security guard uniform I took and I had my aunt that kind of tailored it for me and, and made it fit, like my dress blues. And then I always had very polished shoes, when I went to work. So, there was a director at American Express Malcolm Mitchell. And he would interact with me almost every day, 6000 people in this building, but Malcolm would take the time to interact with a little security guard. And one day he asked me says, you think you do anything else other than guard this front desk, and I said, Malcolm, I’m married, 2 kids, and I’m making $6 and one penny an hour right now. And I’m unloading trucks at night, just to be able to make ends meet. All I need is an opportunity. So this guy takes me upstairs. And he allows me to shadow a credit authorizer slash loan officer. And I remember I took very copious notes, and in two hours and went back in his office, and I regurgitate it the job, the mission, the goals, and he said you learned all that in two hours. I said, yes, sir. So next day, he goes to human resources, and he says, I’m gonna have a security guard to be a credit authorizer. And they, they put up significant resistance. And his guy said to the head of human resources, this is my choice. I believe in his 23 year old kid, and I’m gonna give him you know, he’s, I’m gonna hire him. That’s what he did. He hired me with no experience, no background, no, no post-secondary education. Malcolm Mitchell gave me that opportunity.

John Berry: And we all if we get that opportunity, it’s just the opportunity because for you, that was just the beginning.

Tony Goins: It was the beginning because it did you have to deliver. So 90 days of credit authorization loan officer class, I graduated in the top percentile of the class, and then it’s time to go to the floor and perform. You got to do your job now. And, you know, in less than a year, I was in the top percentile of credit authorizers across American Express, and in nine years had significant promotions there. So I went from being a security guard to a Senior Manager in the ops area, and it was a good run. Yeah, sure was. Wouldn’t have happened if Malcolm hadn’t given me that opportunity. And if I hadn’t presented myself in a way that said, I think this young man has some potential.

John Berry: And that’s and it took off from there.

Tony Goins: It took off.

John Berry: At some point you’re at USAA Yeah. So how did you get there?

Tony Goins: Yeah, well, a few steps in before that, you know, I followed Malcolm very briefly to QVC. And then I was recruited to Cleveland, Ohio, my very first banking job was Key Bank, Cleveland, Ohio. And then I did a nine year stint with Ford Motor Company, on the credit side of the business, led large operations ended up in Las Vegas, Nevada. And then I get the call from USAA. And I’d always respected USAA, because of his military origins, its dominance in the Customer Service arena. Everybody knew USAA. And it was a platinum standard. And I wanted to understand, you know, part of what I think is really key, John, you know, you talk about hip pocket training, hip pocket training. At the end of the day, you can never stop learning. And you must always aspire to learn more. And USAA has something that I wanted to learn and what was the secret to being able to create that level of trust with the consumer, and that level of customer service and the level of profitability. And so I did, I took a job at USAA I relocated to San Antonio, Texas. It was a great run, a great run. It was it was so funny, because I joined USAA in 2007. And General Joe Robles was the CEO at the time. And he called all of his military veterans, he still call us by our rank. So I hadn’t been in the Marine Corps since 1986. But six, but Joe Joe still call me Sergeant Goins. He’s an incredible leader Commander’s Intent. This guy, former three star general in the army, would spend hours on top of hours every month with all of his senior leaders at American Express, ensuring that we understood the commander’s intent. It all starts starts with a member, you create trust in the member, you treat the member with the highest level of respect. And when you do that the member trusts you. And that creates a level of profitability because it’s not just about one product. It’s about insurance product, car insurance to banking products, just an incredible leader. Great experience.

John Berry: And that’s not where your career didn’t. You gotta call after that.

Tony Goins: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Jamie Dimon was always a leader that I had followed. You know, I follow Jamie Dimon. I remember when I was a security guard at American Express. And AMEX had a star studded board. So, you had Henry Kissinger on the board, you had Gerald Ford on the board. You had Sandy Weill, who was a part of the Shearson Lehman organization. And all these guys that came down for a board meeting. And because you had the former president or boy, he had secret service. And I remember signing these guys in as a security guard and us and I saw Jamie Dimon come in, it was something that resonated with me. And I follow his career from Citibank to bank one. And then the acquisition merging conglomerate of JP Morgan Chase. I said, I want to work in that guy’s organization. And a lot of times when you speak something, you never know, how it’s gonna turn out, because then I got a phone call. And it was an opportunity to go work for JPMorgan Chase. So, I went through 33 interviews. My last two interviews, Charlie Scharf, who’s now the chairman, president, CEO, of Wells Fargo, and Frank Bisignano, who is now the chairman, president, CEO of my current organization, Fiserv. They were my last two interviews. And I was hired as the global head of operations for the automotive and student business side teams in Manila, Cebu, small teams in India, Mexico, and across all of North America.

John Berry: And so you have these teams and things are going well. And then financial crisis hits.

Tony Goins: Financial crisis hits. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 2008.

John Berry: So tell us about that.

Tony Goins: Well, you learn more during the crisis than you do during Great times. And you know, at the time, Elizabeth Warren had created this organization called the CFPB, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, you had the Office of the Comptroller of currency, which was the OCC, you had JP Morgan Chase, which came to the rescue to somewhat save the financial system by purchasing Bear Stearns after the fall of a number of large financial institutions. And then also Washington, Washington Mutual. So, you had the government that was doing significant bailouts. JP Morgan Chase didn’t need the bailout. But, you know, everybody took the money. You had the automotive company. It was a perfect storm. It was it was a significant what I call compound risk is high unemployment, financial institutions running out of money, just a perfect storm, and it was very intense. I mean, John, you’re talking 16 14 16 hour days, seven days a week. It did not stop. It was extremely challenging. And this was after this was all triggered by Lehman Brothers going under. So I didn’t have to watch the movie.

John Berry: You lived it.

Tony Goins:  I lived it. Absolutely. Sure did.

John Berry: And at some point too you know, as a lawyer, we, we love to take depositions. But you’ve been on the other side during that, and it’s it’s not it’s not a pleasurable experience.

Tony Goins: It’s not it’s not it’s not when you, we have to sit in front of the OCC, or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. And atone for things that may have not happened on your watch, you know, a lot of the challenges that we had to explain and remediate were based on acquisitions. So you get this Washington Mutual portfolio. I mean, that was a challenging portfolio, and they had some significant issues in terms of the way they had managed their customers. But once you acquire it, you own it. So you explain it, you got to fix it. And through that scenario, I started to really understand the essence of enterprise risk management, and the essence of having a pristine controlled environment and how you use those levers to help grow your firm, great learning experience.

John Berry: And through all this, you’re moving through all these great corporate opportunities. Yeah. How do you find yourself and entrepreneur?

Tony Goins: Which is a great question, man. I I’ve enjoyed cigars for boy well over 35 years, but ironically, I had connected with then Governor Pete Ricketts, and I remember I asked him, did he enjoy cigars? And he says, no, my father enjoys cigars, but I really enjoy scotch. What’s your favorite scotch? You said, well, Oban 14, but on special occasions, I’ll have Oban 18. Bingo. And so I went and bought a bottle of Oban 18 for him. I did a handwritten thank you note. And I dropped it off at the Capitol. And about a day later, I get a call from his his handler and says, you know, Governor Ricketts is can’t believe you took the time to do a handwritten thank you note. And you gave him a bottle of Oban 18. He wants you to come to the governor’s mansion. I

John Berry: Thought he’s gonna say he can’t believe he gave this thank you know, and I was it because the handler took the Scotch right.

Tony Goins: He said he’d liked you to come to the governor’s mansion wants to spend some time with you. So as he said, I would like you to bring Tim Clare with you, who is an attorney of a Rembolt Ludtke so Tim and I went to the governor’s mansion. And for about two and a half hours. We spent time with then Governor Pete Ricketts, who was no conversation about politics. We talked about faith family. And it was a wonderful bonding experience not knowing that years later, after I so we so kept the Cabela’s bank Capital One that Pete Ricketts will call and asked me to join his cabinet. Well, that’s how I found it. That’s how our relationship started. Yeah.

John Berry: And while you’re doing that, you’re this this comes into fruition comes into a Capital Cigar Lounge.

Tony Goins: 2018 After we sold Capital One, sold Cabella Capital One, I met my partner Austin Hillis and Austin owned the Capital Cigar store. But John is you know, it really comes down to relationships that sign says sit with winners, because the conversation is different. Hashtag relationships matter. And there was no real place where people could congregate and have real conversation and enjoy great cigars and, and great cocktails or scotches, bourbons. And so, when it doesn’t exist, you have to create it. So, I said Austin and said, we’re going to do something really special here in Lincoln. And we found this location hired a designer, we wrote the values of this business in the dirt. So our mission statement is we create many vacations for our friends, our values are treat customers, like friends, because relationships matter, create an unparallel experience with every visit. We wanted to hire a team that was professional while having fun. And we operate for the greater good of the community. We did all that in the dirt.

John Berry: Yeah, and while this is going on, you’re mentoring an MBA student who is now a Berry Law team member. He’s working on his MBA and we got to meet you got to meet Tony Goins is my mentor he’s going to so so we meet there and it’s got to come to this the cigar bar Yeah. And what I found What’s so special about it is that you know, anybody can go to a bar and hang out and drink with the same people. But that’s you kind of wasting your life away as you’re developed community where business leaders come to meet with other business leaders to have a cigar to talk there’s always plenty of nonalcoholic drinks as well. That’s right and then they come here and hang out and it’s amazing a come into the lounge and you never know who you’ll meet.

Tony Goins: Oh, you know, I’ll tell you, you know, so we have a public lounge, but the private lounge was really created for what you just said John. To create a note another level of intimacy so there could be some conversation about business. And I can tell you, in the six years this Lounge has been here, north of $20 million with a B2B, member to member has occurred right back here in his private lounge. Very intentional.

John Berry: Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of times when we get those cold calls or someone wants to meet in our office, it’s pretty stuffy and people are on guard, and you don’t really get to know that person that you’re going to do business with. And take the time to get to know them. And I’m sure that I’ve been burned by a lot of vendors, I’m sure you have to take the time to get to know them, especially find out there are veterans here that I didn’t know, I knew him from the business community. But then we sit down, we start talking, it turns out that they serve in the Army, the Navy and we develop that common bond, develop some trust, I always say I want to work with a company that they want me to be their best customer, they want me to be the person that that you know, when people think of their company, they think this is the type of customer they have, because they care about my success and and you have done a marvelous job of inviting those people to into your organization into into the end of the lounge and saying, hey, you know, this is about relationships. It’s about relationships. You come in and you mentor people and this is what I really like is he come in here and a for Tony for the for the price of a cigar, sometimes a drink, you’ll get a business lesson, you’ll get mentored, and I can remember one time I reached out to you about some. And you said Well, have you found your new coo yet? Can I help you? What can I do? And it’s always there’s this service first type of as far as you’re gonna take care of us. And I I love I love the story where you’re serving in the Marine Corps. And and you get to hear from Ronald Reagan. Take us to that moment.

Tony Goins: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it was right after the Beirut Lebanon scenario. 243 million Marines, and sailors as I can remember is October of 1983, they were killed in Beirut, Lebanon and President Reagan came to Camp Lejeune. I knew at that point, once President Reagan came to Camp Lejeune, clearly I was going to to, you know not to be political. But President Reagan was my commander in chief. And I say to this day, I’m a Reagan Republican. Because his leadership and his empathy, and we were the way, you know, we were his Marines. We felt like we were President Reagan’s Marines. And so significant impact, to see the President of United States come and share words after such a tragic incident in the history of the United States Marine Corps in the United States Navy, and this country. Yeah.

John Berry: And that’s where he said, your lives matter. What you do matters to this country.

Tony Goins: He did say that. That’s right. That’s right. I think it gave I think every Marine at that point in time, had a sense of pride and a sense of dignity, and a greater sense of respect in terms of our service to the country and what we needed to do to Defend. Defend our freedoms. It was amazing, John, it

John Berry: Because you know, we hear since the post-Vietnam military, right, we hear all the bad things, but this was this. This was a great moment.

Tony Goins: It was an amazing moment, an amazing moment.

John Berry: I want to take it to the After Action Review, the three examples of great leadership you experienced, three examples of horrible leadership.

Tony Goins: Wow. You know, I would say I would say, three examples of great leadership. I would say, first and foremost, I think back to Malcolm Mitchell, I mean, here’s a guy, I think great leadership, you have to, somehow you got to recognize talent. And talent doesn’t always come in this type of package that you think it’s going to come in. And that is having the ability to be able to connect with someone and almost see that person’s soul and be able to say, you know what, I see something here and be able to help that flourish. I also go back to preparation. Preparation I have I have what I call six Tonyisms; preparation is number one. Because at the end of the day, your ability to prepare. To understand what you’re about to get into. Study. Know your material. Know exactly what the script is going to be. That level of preparation, what it does is it minimizes the probability for failure, and it increases your confidence. And so that automatically increases the opportunity for success. If you do not prepare, then you increase your opportunity for failure. So, the best leaders that I’ve been around the preparation is, is maniacal, Pete Ricketts I mean I did numerous trade missions with the Governor Ricketts at the time from Germany to a number of trade missions to Japan. And I would see him take an entire binder and you’re talking currency conversions, you’re talking local nuances and literally memorize all of that information, without looking at one sheet of paper in front of him. That level of preparation, so that you perform with excellence. And when you’re around people that prepare to that extent, then it inspires you and it takes your game up. And then number three, I would say, you got to lead by example. Like, like you have to lead by example. You got to be out front. And, you know, I’ll tell you, I mean, I, I think my current CEO, Frank Bisignano. I mean, when you look at what Fiserv has been able to do over the last five years, you know, since the merger of the first data data, Fiserv, Frank has been that constant leader, that constant motivator, you know, he talks to clients, he’ll give clients his phone number. He’s a driver, don’t get me wrong. And execution and operational excellence is top of agenda. But but this this guy gets in, he gets in there and he pushes, and he leads he leads from the front.

John Berry: And he understands the value of veterans and in fact, us he had a great initiative this past. I think it was November.

Tony Goins: That’s right. About that. Yeah, well, Fiserv was voted the number one veterans organization by one of the military magazines. Frank, last year, around November, Frank said, I want you guys to hire in Nebraska 100 veterans in 30 days. And of course, he gives us these missions that we think we can’t accomplish. But it was all hands on deck, John, all hands on deck. And right here, in the state of Nebraska, Fiserv hired 100 veterans in 30 days, created this veteran’s military program to wherein we acclimated them to Fiserv, we had a chance to understand their skills, and we matched them with the appropriate position in Fiserv because we believe that the values and the leadership that you learn when you serve this country are applicable to corporate America, specifically in the FinTech space..

John Berry: Awesome. Yes. Now, the bad examples.

Tony Goins: Boy, bad examples. You know, I won’t call names, and I won’t call places, but I will say, you know, bad examples, I think, first and foremost, lack of lack of communication. Because when you’re not when you don’t communicate, then you have lots of misalignment. You know, alignment is, you know, John, when we march, we march, we marching straight line 30 in step. And still, you know, you it sounds sick to the rear six area sounds like one boot, and those that don’t have been around leaders that are very poor communicators, and that misalignment tends to hinder the organization from being able to succeed. So, I’d say first lack of communication. Secondly, it’s always about leaders that it’s always about them. When you hear a leader that says, me, me, me, me, me. John, you and I know we don’t do nothing without a team, without the people that are around us that make us great. When you look at Berry Law, I look at all of your teammates, they represent your brand, which is your name, in a pristine manner. So, leaders that are always about themselves, they always call their names first. It’s about me, it’s about me. That that does not. That hasn’t worked out well. You know, I will tell you right now, I sit here today because of the people that I’ve worked with the teammates that I’ve had the mentors in my life, and my family that has supported me throughout my career. Without that I don’t sit here. This is not about Tony Goins. So, leaders that always about me, that’s poor. And then third leaders that can execute. Like I, you know, I used to be so funny, John, because there was this one leader. She had the best PowerPoint presentations. I mean, the PowerPoint presentations were absolutely amazing. And she was a great presenter, great communicator, but couldn’t execute her way out of a paper bag. So I say, Listen, it’s great to have these great PowerPoint presentations with the screens moving around and graphics. But can you go from the boardroom to the field, and execute and deliver, and leaders that are really good at PowerPoint presentations, but can’t execute? Very poor. Those are my three poor examples. And that’s

John Berry: The noncommissioned officer. I mean, you want to execute, you have the noncommissioned officer get it done. And we used to say officers plan, NCOs execute NCOs execute it, and it’s so true. And I’ve seen officers completely fail in the field, they may have taken all the time to write this beautiful op order. But you know what, they didn’t communicate it well enough to their NCOs. They didn’t involve the NCOs in the planning process. They didn’t take the NCOs to the rehearsals, right. And then they can’t they can’t actually well, of course, you can’t execute it. That’s right. You didn’t involve the backbone of the military in the execution. You can’t do it by yourself. You can’t.

Tony Goins: You can’t, you can’t. So that’s why I’ve seen leadership fail. Those those those three things.

John Berry: Man, I almost want to like, end it right there. Because that’s, that’s awesome. Anything else you want to talk about Tony?

Tony Goins: You know, John, what I will say is I get back to, you know, this community and the leaders here and, you know, Berry Law firm, I mean, the position that you all have taken in this community and around the country to support veterans, you know, people just don’t understand if you have not worn a uniform, you have no clue as to what it’s really like to put yourself in a position where you have to protect your country and protect freedoms, and then when you leave, and you have to acclimate to the civilian world. My acclamation was a little challenging, you know, I didn’t have, you know, people to say, Hey, Tony, this is what you’re supposed to do. And, you know, we use a lot of profanity in the Marine Corps. But that doesn’t work too well, in corporate America, when you hit the floor, and we use this language, you know, portside starboard side, deck. When I got off Marine Corps, I was still marching, I still wore high and tight haircut. And I just didn’t initially acclimate to the civilian world. So the things that you guys do, and a lot, a lot of service people are the same way. But what I see your firm when I see Berry Law, what you do is you hire veterans, you help them get assimilated back into the civilian world. They maintain the same level of esprit de corps and the things that made them really great leaders in the military. But then there’s a level that they have to assimilate. And somehow, John, you all have been able to blend both, which is absolutely amazing.

John Berry: Well, thank you. And we have to credit that to the military. So take you back to your beginnings. Before you weren’t in the military. What was life like before you went into the military?

Tony Goins: Man, man? Well, you know, I was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. I was raised in a single single family home with my mother who was a phenomenal, phenomenal lady and my grandmother who was a phenomenally Laverne Goins and Mabel Davis. My mother was a was an educator. She taught in junior high high school and collegiate level. And she she was my role model. Laverne was a hard worker. And she is still some values in me, and I love my father. My father was around, but I was with my mother. And she was just a great lady, you know, became a teenage parent. You know, my daughter, Tony Goins Brockman was born when I was 17. And that was really the inspiration for me to join the Marine Corps because that young lady, that little baby needed, she needed benefits, you know, she needed she needed, she needed to be taken care of financially. And at the time, the Marine Corps gave that opportunity to me, I had wrestled in high school. So I was used to being in shape. And I was junior class president, senior class president. So, I had the beginnings of some leadership skills, but you know, becoming apparent at a young age. I had to make some quick adjustments to be able to make sure that she was taking care of.

John Berry: That’s a lot of growing up really quick. Become a parent go into the Marine Corps. Yeah. And then you come out and you start all over again.

Tony Goins: Start all over again. Yeah, yeah. So good, though grace of God, hard work, and good people around me. I have no complaints. No.

John Berry: Going back to the beginning, from being a Marine Corps sergeant to being a corporate executive and entrepreneur, a public servant. How do you how do you keep going because you gotta be at least 60. Yeah. So yeah. How do you keep that flame going that drive?

Tony Goins: Well, you know, I think I think, John, you I think first and foremost, it’s in your head. You know, I’ve got I still have a lot of gas in the tank. I still have tons of energy. So I think it starts with your mind. And then you know, heck, man, I’m in the gym every day. You know, I had hernia surgery here recently. And so I’ve been out of gym but other than that, I’m in the gym every day. And you know, I still get up at 4:15 4:30 in the morning. And it’s time to go to gym because you know, you got to be physically fit as long as you keep pushing that are, you know, these cufflinks My my, my youngest daughter Jayla bought me these cufflinks because at 59 I was a bench press 240 pounds. So it’s got 240 on these cufflinks, and I wear them with a lot of pride. So you just got to keep pushing on you got to keep your cardio up. You got to stay physically fit. And, and that’s the key. And and and, you know, if I may say there has to be some level of spirituality, you know, for me, you know, it’s about, you know, my faith and my wife Kim, who takes really great care of me and you know, it’s a good thing.

Tony Goins: See, you know, John, I tell you this has been a great conversation, but I must say that we both married up. And I will tell you my wife, Kim Goins has just been just a wonderful supporter for me. She, she’s been my rock, she’s been in my corner. I can’t say enough about her. And I really appreciate her so much. And she’s she’s pretty tough too. And you know, you’re married to a tough woman yourself, man, Mallory, man, I love seeing her picture on the Billboard, and what she’s been able to accomplish in her career. But, you know, you just don’t accomplish thing unless you have a good woman behind you. And a good woman besides you, and sometimes a good woman in front of you. And Kim plays all three of those roles for me.

John Berry: We’re not just coming home, at the end of the day to someone who’s been sitting there, wait, we’re coming home to someone who has their own mission. That’s true. When you have someone who has a mission, you got a mission, it becomes so infectious. It’s you come home, you feel the energy, and it’s like, Hey, we got a mission. And another person hasn’t. But you know, nobody understands this right? And to until they’re in the arena, and we can talk about fair all day long. The only f word I won’t use, right, I just use it. I’ll bleep it out fair. But I got they understand that they understand. Because we’ve both been kicked in the face a couple times. Yeah. And sometimes it’s our fault. It’s our fault. To have somebody who knows what I’m there for you. But someone who understands this really understands and that’s why I think the veteran community is so poor, because we really understand, right? What I mean, Tony introduces me so he’s a man. He’s one of us, in front of us. He’s a veteran. He’s in business like he gets it. He’s been where we have been. And so when I you know, I think about you know, Kim and you it’s the same way Kim’s got she’s got her whole age, she’s got a whole life outside of Tony going she does. He’s planning to do without Tony but but but but having that synergy having when you get together, being able to share those experiences share that drive. I mean, there’s that energy feeds, right. Just as like you and I we can sit back. We have great conversations. That’s true. Come back, come feel energized. I said, you can go to a bar downtown somewhere and and drink and hang out people that don’t have a future that gossip about other people, you know, you come here we’re talking about doing doing big things. That’s right, and what’s our future look like? And we’re pushing each other. And I think when you come home to that to your whole life revolves around your future, not your past. But where you’re going. And you need a partner who wants to go the distance.

Tony Goins: You do. You do you do. And I have that in Kim Goins, and I appreciate her. And you have that in Mallory. So we married up, buddy.

John Berry: Sure, absolutely. Absolutely. And Tony, one other thing that you have done to give back to the community is Tuesday nights, young professionals, you’ll invite young professionals to come up to share their experiences. We’re talking about young CEOs in the tech industry in just about every industry to come in here and to share their story.

Tony Goins: Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. We’ve had wonderful see we’ve had you, John. hip pocket trading, baby hip hop, pocket trading. Oh, man, we’ve had our guys started huddle, David Graf, and John Wertz. We’ve had Jeff Norhook, who was one of the cofounders of Nelnet, we’ve had Jay Wilkinson who founded Fire Spring, we’ve had Joey, we’ve had Matt Klooster and his wife Natasha, who founded Bridgepoint Investment Bank. I mean, the list goes on. And on and on. I actually wrote a book called something in water story of Lincoln’s founders and builders. And a lot of the leaders that are in that book, have come here to the lounge and had a chance to share their stories and mentor and talk to young entrepreneurs about here’s the things that are necessary for you to continue to grow, and to create a bait a great operation and a great, great business. Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun.

John Berry: Thank you for joining us today on Veteran Led, where we pursue our mission of promoting veteran leadership in business, strengthening the veteran community, and getting veterans all of the benefits that they earned. If you are a leader who should be on the veteran lead podcast report to our online community by searching @veteranled on your favorite social channels and posting in the comments. We want to hear how your military challengers prepared you to lead your industry or community and we will let the world know and of course hit subscribe and join me next time on Veteran Led.