012 with Zach Page & Wyatt Fraser - The American Legacy Project - Share Your Experiences to Connect

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We all have a story to share experiences, to learn from things

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we wish somebody else would have told us that we had to learn along the way.

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So if you learn how to package your story, you can find ways to share

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with others, bring value to the world.

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And bring connections to yourself to improve your own opportunities.

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Hi, I'm Scott Tucker and welcome back to Veteran Wealth Secrets and

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that aspect of the reality of our own experience, regardless of what it

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has to do with, might have to do with our military career might not, but.

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Is it not true that you've learned a few things along the way in that you

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might be able to share it with someone else coming behind you that can help

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them improve speed up their time.

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Do things cheaper, do things a little bit better.

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That's what value creation is.

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And in modern times, everybody can do it.

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We've never had a better time in all of human history to

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bring that value to the world.

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That's what entrepreneurship is.

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That's what living a life of purpose meaning is.

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So if we don't learn the skill sets and how to do that, then

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we're leaving so much on the table.

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Number risk, having no regrets that would never truly.

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And.

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I got lucky we had about seven or eight years after I got out of the military.

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When I was really struggling with my identity.

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I didn't have it integrity with the way financial services works.

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And the way I was told this is how it's always done, and you should

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just keep doing it that way.

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And I thought back to myself, when I was getting out of the military,

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when I was entering the financial services industry in knowing

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everything I knew later, I was pissed.

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I said how was it?

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You?

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I went to West point.

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I had these mentors or these people in the industry, certified

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financial planners that have been in the industry 10, 20, 30 years.

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And yet none of them told me the reality or the truth about how this stuff works.

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They just were going through the motions.

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And so that's why I ended up writing my first book one that.

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I've never really even promoted, but I wrote it for myself because I realized,

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what is it that the Scott Tucker of 10, 15 years ago wanted to hear because.

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At that time.

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I knew I didn't want to go out and get a job.

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I did a resume, but I never really sent it around anybody.

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I was in Europe when I was getting out.

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So there wasn't the, there wasn't LinkedIn, there, wasn't all this stuff

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going on about, how to get a job.

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I could have joined one of the recurrent recruiting firms, but they

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would've had me go back to the States and I needed to stay in Germany.

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But I, I w I knew I was looking for something different for something outside

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the box, but there was no pathway.

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There was no guidance.

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There was no, here's what I did.

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And here's what to avoid.

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And it was frustrating.

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Now, I didn't recognize that frustration until many years later.

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And, that's why I wanted to write the book.

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I was like, I needed to get it out of my head, all the stuff I wish somebody

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had told me and somebodies fault, but my own, that's the whole point.

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That's my whole message.

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Behind Veteran Wealth Secrets is I wasn't taking responsibility

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of myself at the time.

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I was just going to the next duty station, go into the next, booth

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and the out-processing station.

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And that wasn't fair to me.

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No, that wasn't fair to those whom I ended up serving or

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getting as clients as my head.

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Wasn't right.

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I didn't truly understand what my job was.

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My career was I thought, cause I got certifications.

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I got licenses.

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I had a label.

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I was associated with a firm I was associated with.

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Financial strategies are basically just products that I was a salesman for.

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Nobody ever told me I was a salesman.

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They don't tell any veterans when they're getting into the financial service

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industry, their salesman, they tell them, Oh, you're going to be your own business.

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It's not true.

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In fact, some of these firms, when they're at the Veteran job fairs, they act like

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they're hiring them, giving them a job.

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We have jobs for you at such and such financial company.

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It's no, they don't.

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You're not making any money.

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Unless you make a commission.

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That's not a job now.

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It gives you more freedom, but it's misleading.

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And I find it disingenuous.

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So that's why I'm so open and honest with sharing my experiences,

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because I don't want any other Veteran entering this industry.

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And unfortunately I see them on LinkedIn and they're making all the

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same mistakes where we're in a suit.

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Standard profile.

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I represent this firm.

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We've been around 150 years.

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It's you're just commodity because if you don't make it, which 95% of the

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people of new people in the industry, don't, they're going to be happy.

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They had you a call, all your friends and family and bugged the hell out of them.

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You messaged everybody you connected with on LinkedIn and.

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You've have gotten some of them in the door.

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You'll barely made enough money to survive.

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And that's probably why you ended up quitting, but they've

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got the client at the firm.

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It's not your client.

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So that really frustrates me.

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And the cool thing is it doesn't have to be that way anymore.

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It used to be, that was the only way to enter this industry.

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But now things are changing.

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You don't need to have the series six series seven.

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I see new financial advisors posting on LinkedIn that I've

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just passed this new license.

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The four required financial advisor licenses.

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It's like there aren't, there are no required financial advisor

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licensee who made up that crap.

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There's financial coaches all over the internet.

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They don't have any licenses.

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They don't have any responsibility.

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You can get or give advice from anybody you want.

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Now, the question is, should you be getting advice from someone just

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because they have a license, the license is only there because it allows

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you based on government rules to get paid for selling financial products.

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It has nothing to do with your competency as a financial advisor.

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And that's why.

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Through my experience.

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I've learned that financial advice has very little to do with budgeting or your

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stock portfolio or planning out for some retirement 30, 40 years from now because

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everything's going to change tomorrow.

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No, it was that way always, but it's very much the case now in today's economy.

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So instead, why not employ a strategy of flexibility, a strategy of education,

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a strategy of personal branding, strategy of skillset development,

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that's Wealth, that's financial advice.

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And so I continue to share my experiences and packaged them into books.

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It led to this podcast that led to YouTube.

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It led to a website led to blogs, that to speaking engagements, When I started down

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this path I had, when I wrote that book to myself that I didn't really promote

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again, didn't expect anybody to read it.

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I just needed to get it out of my head.

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What is it I have to share?

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And it's led to all this continued ability to bring value

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to those whom I meant to serve.

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So I ask you, are you going to package your experiences?

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Define the expertise, the knowledge, the thought leadership that you have in spin,

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maybe in an industry or in a field that you're currently familiar with, maybe

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it's something you're interested in.

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You want to learn more about and you want to put your own spin on it.

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that's the opportunity we have.

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And I really hope.

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You find a way to take it.

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If you want to learn more about how to do that, make sure you pick up a copy of my

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book, Veteran Wealth Secrets on Amazon, or you can get the first three chapters for

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free at Veteran Wealth Secrets dot com.

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But got an interview today about the idea of sharing experiences

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with Zach page and why a page.

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Two young officers who created the American legacy project.

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So very interesting stuff.

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Love it.

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When people have a passion and want to create something young while

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they're still in the military.

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So hope you enjoy the interview.

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Make sure you subscribe to the podcast.

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Leave a review, share with a friend, , check out our YouTube

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channel Veteran Wealth Secrets, and we will see you on the next episode.

Scott Tucker: 00:10:29

Hey everybody, Scott Tucker here again with Veteran Wealth Secrets, we're this

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show is for those looking for something different or they want something else

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in their lives or their understanding that we're in a new economy and new age

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and whether we're still active duty.

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We're getting out of the military already out.

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We want to take advantage of the new technologies and the new opportunities

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and new connections, new way of finding, meaning, let alone meaningful income.

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And so that's what my book's all about a Veteran Wealth Secrets.

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You can get that on amazon.com now released last week but

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getting great feedback on it.

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So that's exciting.

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And but it's even more exciting.

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To talk to to young active duty officers white Frazier and Zach Paige who are

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doing some pretty cool things out there.

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And I was just really excited to have them want to come on the show

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from very different parts of the globe, but we'll get into that.

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Thanks for coming on.

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Really excited to hear about.

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Like your mission, how you came up with it..

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Thanks for having us on Scott.

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We're really excited to share a little bit about what we're doing.

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So yeah I'm up here in Anchorage, Alaska.

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So I'm a 10 times zones apart from where Zach's at over in balm holder.

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But we are we graduated from West point together in 2017.

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We were both economics majors.

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So that's how we became friends.

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And that's how we got to know each other, kept talking after graduation.

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And I'm a medical service Corps officer in an airborne brigade up here in Alaska.

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And Zach, I'll let him introduce himself a little bit more second,

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but yeah we we started in the army.

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Personally me myself after leaving West point, I wanted to still stay engaged with

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something beyond I guess the army teaches you how to operate within a system, which

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is a very valuable skill, teaches you how to figure out what the system is asking of

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you and how to apply a very specific task.

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It's not entrepreneurial.

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It's not supposed to be, it.

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Couldn't be really you couldn't have.

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No, 3 million people in the department of defense, all freewheeling, but we

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both felt like, Hey, there's, know, there's gotta be some way that we can be

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creative and that we can flex that muscle that we did flex a lot at West point.

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You had, whether it was, figuring out assignments, figuring out

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what you're supposed to do.

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But when there not an AR or.

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Emmanuel, in the army it's, what should I do?

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Oh the men, there's an AR for that, right?

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Reference this, you go there you read it and it spells out,

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exactly how you're supposed to run.

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This is fire drill, run this live fire, how you're supposed to deliver

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this shipment, whatever it might be.

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And we both wanted something where, How do you do this?

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I don't know, right?

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Professor YouTube or go to someone else's blog and figure that out.

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And that's a skill that we, I think really felt like we we saw atrophying.

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So that's kinda what led us to start thinking of things.

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And that's what brought us to.

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Found this nonprofit, the American legacy project.

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And before we go on, I'll let Zach tell his side of the story, what he saw.

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Yeah.

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So your defense artillery officer.

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Bondholder, Germany.

Zach Page: 00:13:22

But why don't I, we met at West point, but he actually joined my class

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after two years doing his LDS mission.

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So it was just one of those circumstances where you meet somebody new, you're

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going to be lifelong friends.

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We always knew we wanted to do something together.

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And we thought about making a podcast or telling stories in some way.

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Our, the Genesis of the American legacy project actually started with wine.

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So he could probably tell that story a little bit better, but we both

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noticed that like with podcasting people are seeking value in new ways.

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And storytelling is a powerful way and the long form conversations is a way to.

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Bring out the nuance in life that people are creating.

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And that's one of the aspects of the American legacy project that

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appeals to not only veterans, but the population at large.

Zach Page: 00:14:15

Yeah.

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That's what I was looking at your website and saying, okay, this is

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more than just a Veteran thing.

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A couple of things I wanted to ask you guys about specifically, cause.

Zach Page: 00:14:24

It sounds like the typical thing coming out of West point is all right.

Zach Page: 00:14:28

I gotta, I'm doing all these things about being a platoon leader and that's the

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only thing I'm allowed to worry about.

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But I don't know if this is because you guys are economics

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guys or just your personalities.

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Wouldn't be more creative or.

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Or honestly, if your mission work, might've had a lot to do with it.

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Why?

Zach Page: 00:14:44

Because I know from having traveled around the world, it was always

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about language and culture.

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That helped me.

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I was a portrait he's major West point.

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And so I traveled a lot.

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I always thought that was a bit of a joke.

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Just because at that place sucked, I wanted to have some fun.

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But yeah, I ended up realizing that, Traveling and stuff, helped me think

Zach Page: 00:15:03

outside the box and it basically helped me become a better entrepreneur.

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So what was the catalyst for you guys?

Zach Page: 00:15:09

Had you read a rich dad, poor dad or something like that, or just Hey,

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we gotta be figured something out.

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Or, w what causes.

Zach Page: 00:15:15

YouTube, it'll just say, listen, I don't know what we're going to do yet, but

Zach Page: 00:15:19

we're going to figure something out.

Zach Page: 00:15:21

But then we'll come back to talk more about the storytelling because that's

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a huge topic I want to get into.

Zach Page: 00:15:26

But what was the thing that made you want to say, Hey we were still active

Zach Page: 00:15:31

duty, but we want to go try something.

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So let's figure, it's figure out a project here and now if

Zach Page: 00:15:37

people are willing to do that.

Zach Page: 00:15:38

Yeah.

Zach Page: 00:15:39

I I think, it comes down to.

Zach Page: 00:15:41

Tom, Zach and I always talked about time management.

Zach Page: 00:15:43

I'm not, we're not saying that we don't watch TV every once in a while or that

Zach Page: 00:15:47

we don't have, social lives or anything, but there's definitely an element of,

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you just want to prioritize and to us there's a not a personal mentor or

Zach Page: 00:15:54

anything, but an intellectual mentor.

Zach Page: 00:15:56

Nepal, Rubicon always says, find the thing that seems boring or tedious to

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someone else and make it fun to you.

Zach Page: 00:16:02

You're doing the same.

Zach Page: 00:16:03

He always says, you're doing the same amount of work when

Zach Page: 00:16:04

you're playing call of duty.

Zach Page: 00:16:05

You're working, but you're getting a reward.

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So if you can make a, building a business or doing something, probably like

Zach Page: 00:16:12

what you've experienced yourself with Veteran Wealth Secrets, if you can find

Zach Page: 00:16:15

something, build it and make it fun.

Zach Page: 00:16:18

So that's what we were always after was trying to find something

Zach Page: 00:16:20

that could mesh, being productive.

Zach Page: 00:16:21

I had, I did, I do still have a mentor.

Zach Page: 00:16:23

He's a graduate as well as . He's been an entrepreneur and he would tell

Zach Page: 00:16:26

me he was a professor at West point.

Zach Page: 00:16:28

And then he went to grad school in the city and I kept a relationship with

Zach Page: 00:16:31

him and he would always talk about how, when he was a Lieutenant, he

Zach Page: 00:16:36

would, he made a rugby ball company, drop shipping type stuff, really

Zach Page: 00:16:40

minor entrepreneurial ventures, but he would just see what he could do.

Zach Page: 00:16:45

And when I graduated, I was like, Hey, I want to see, maybe

Zach Page: 00:16:48

I could do stuff like that.

Zach Page: 00:16:50

There are definitely times in the army where you're busy.

Zach Page: 00:16:53

You do not have any at a time.

Zach Page: 00:16:54

When you're deployed or when you are at NTC or JRTC, there's no

Zach Page: 00:16:59

time to be running a business.

Zach Page: 00:17:00

Like you're totally occupied with that.

Zach Page: 00:17:03

So Zach and I were always trying to figure out, what can we do that?

Zach Page: 00:17:07

Would allow us to stay active creatively, but also would allow us the ability

Zach Page: 00:17:15

to maintain our commitment to our job.

Zach Page: 00:17:16

Cause that is, we are army officers first and this is combination of

Zach Page: 00:17:20

a passion project with something that we actually want to build up.

Zach Page: 00:17:23

Acknowledging yeah.

Zach Page: 00:17:24

That, our jobs come first.

Zach Page: 00:17:25

That's what we are doing right now.

Zach Page: 00:17:27

But really the entire impetus really started when I was talking to my platoon

Zach Page: 00:17:31

Sergeant, my very first platoon Sergeant.

Zach Page: 00:17:33

I get back for, I get done with airborne school, getting into

Zach Page: 00:17:36

Bullock show up at my unit, and I'm immediately in the platoon leader slot.

Zach Page: 00:17:40

And I have this 19 year old 19 year NCO Sergeant first class Marquez.

Zach Page: 00:17:46

And he's always, he's just telling me so many stories all the time.

Zach Page: 00:17:50

Yeah.

Zach Page: 00:17:51

As someone that's served from 2000 now to 2020, he's seen the entire.

Zach Page: 00:17:57

And he joined before nine 11.

Zach Page: 00:17:58

Wow.

Zach Page: 00:17:59

All these stories.

Zach Page: 00:18:01

And I was like, have you ever written these down?

Zach Page: 00:18:02

Do you record these, do you journal?

Zach Page: 00:18:04

And he's no, I don't think I ever have.

Zach Page: 00:18:07

And he played them down.

Zach Page: 00:18:08

My stories, aren't that cool.

Zach Page: 00:18:09

I'm just starting to Marquez.

Zach Page: 00:18:10

I haven't done anything.

Zach Page: 00:18:12

I was like, no, I think they're cool.

Zach Page: 00:18:13

I think you should write them down.

Zach Page: 00:18:15

And so he's yeah.

Zach Page: 00:18:16

And so then I thought why don't I help you write?

Zach Page: 00:18:18

You're about to retire.

Zach Page: 00:18:18

You've really helped me as a mentor.

Zach Page: 00:18:20

As a new officer, so I'll come over and I'll record your stuff and make

Zach Page: 00:18:23

this for you, as a retirement present.

Zach Page: 00:18:26

So I did that and I talked to Zach and we were both like, Hey,

Zach Page: 00:18:28

we could do this for more people.

Zach Page: 00:18:29

If this is one in CEO's experience, I'm sure there are a lot of NCO and officers.

Zach Page: 00:18:34

And whether you serve five years or 35 your time in service teaches you so much.

Zach Page: 00:18:40

And I think a lot of us really downplay, for whatever reason, maybe it's a,

Zach Page: 00:18:44

survivor's guilt for some people, feeling my buddy that I knew his story

Zach Page: 00:18:48

was cooler than mine or whether it's just this feeling of like I'm out of

Zach Page: 00:18:51

Greenbrae I, my story is not cool.

Zach Page: 00:18:54

All I did was this right.

Zach Page: 00:18:56

But the more you talk to people, the more stories are ready to

Zach Page: 00:19:00

be told and need to be told.

Zach Page: 00:19:02

And for a lot of these people, they don't realize the worth that their

Zach Page: 00:19:05

own life and story has until they sit down and tell it, we're shy to talk to

Zach Page: 00:19:10

ourselves, we're shy to, to introspect.

Zach Page: 00:19:12

So that was the impetus for starting what's now become the Americans.

Zach Page: 00:19:18

I love that.

Zach Page: 00:19:19

And you make a great point.

Zach Page: 00:19:21

I also think that storytelling while definitely cathartic and meaningful

Zach Page: 00:19:26

for those who want to tell the story, ultimately he's telling the story

Zach Page: 00:19:30

to you, the young platoon leader.

Zach Page: 00:19:31

This is the kind of stuff they should be teaching at West point.

Zach Page: 00:19:34

And in my mind, I wish they would have thought, versus nuclear

Zach Page: 00:19:37

engineering that like that didn't help.

Zach Page: 00:19:39

But I would have loved to have heard lots of stories from.

Zach Page: 00:19:43

Platoon sergeants like that.

Zach Page: 00:19:44

Cause I, I think in this day and age with the ability to mass communicate, anybody

Zach Page: 00:19:49

can have a book up on Amazon in 90 days.

Zach Page: 00:19:51

Anybody can start a channel just like we're doing right now, radio podcast.

Zach Page: 00:19:56

And why wouldn't they, if what they have to teach and say could help

Zach Page: 00:20:00

somebody else come coming along.

Zach Page: 00:20:02

That's our opportunity.

Zach Page: 00:20:03

I'd like to see more veterans.

Zach Page: 00:20:05

Getting out there telling their stories.

Zach Page: 00:20:07

Cause I'm a big, you ever heard of StoryBrand by Donald Miller?

Zach Page: 00:20:11

Yeah.

Zach Page: 00:20:12

Building a StoryBrand.

Zach Page: 00:20:13

I think you guys really enjoy that book and see how it might apply

Zach Page: 00:20:18

to your mission as well as it's a branding, here's how to brand and

Zach Page: 00:20:22

market your your business and stuff.

Zach Page: 00:20:23

But so Zach what what'd you think when Wyatt.

Zach Page: 00:20:27

Okay.

Zach Page: 00:20:28

And see with this idea of or how did you guys manifest this into what

Zach Page: 00:20:31

became the Marion legacy project?

Zach Page: 00:20:34

Yeah, so I had actually just gotten back or was just leaving to a mission and in

Zach Page: 00:20:40

Europe and he approached me with the idea and he had developed it a little bit.

Zach Page: 00:20:46

So he had gotten the original domain I think it was USA legacies.

Zach Page: 00:20:50

And then he had that whitewash book cover with his concept of how we would display

Zach Page: 00:20:56

these stories for the service members.

Zach Page: 00:20:59

I immediately thought that there was a correlation between the humans

Zach Page: 00:21:04

in New York type of storytelling.

Zach Page: 00:21:05

And sharing people's heuristics that they develop throughout their lives and

Zach Page: 00:21:10

highlighting different veterans that to the general public, they don't realize

Zach Page: 00:21:16

that not every veteran has PTSD or not.

Zach Page: 00:21:19

Every veteran is a man or not.

Zach Page: 00:21:21

Every veteran is even there's not every Veteran is in the combat arms.

Zach Page: 00:21:26

We just want to highlight that the insights that each person has and

Zach Page: 00:21:33

something that's unique about the military services and adds pressure to your life.

Zach Page: 00:21:39

And you're dealing with the same social forces.

Zach Page: 00:21:41

That your civilian counterparts are so looping this back to how humans

Zach Page: 00:21:46

in New York tell their stories.

Zach Page: 00:21:48

We are able to take snippets of our legacies and share them

Zach Page: 00:21:52

across our social media platforms.

Zach Page: 00:21:55

And some future vendors that we're doing is getting into the education space.

Zach Page: 00:22:00

We actually have a program on our website now, but we're going to develop it further

Zach Page: 00:22:07

to get into classrooms so people can share these stories and add them to one

Zach Page: 00:22:12

another and just generate discussion.

Zach Page: 00:22:14

When, why I brought the project to me in short, I thought it'd be a great way to

Zach Page: 00:22:19

bring the community at large together, regardless of if they're military or not.

Zach Page: 00:22:24

Now.

Zach Page: 00:22:24

Awesome.

Zach Page: 00:22:25

So how comes to work?

Zach Page: 00:22:27

What, cause you, you want people to hear the story, you gotta

Zach Page: 00:22:30

be able to have people to.

Zach Page: 00:22:31

Tell the story, I think, when you start it on profit, most, a lot of folks

Zach Page: 00:22:35

don't understand that not for profit business, this is still a business.

Zach Page: 00:22:39

And so there's gotta be some version of funding.

Zach Page: 00:22:43

There's gotta be some level of organization.

Zach Page: 00:22:45

You are, you're a solo preneur, or you do need employees, so tell me

Zach Page: 00:22:49

more about kind of the mechanics.

Zach Page: 00:22:51

Because sometimes people, a lot of people will start getting into nonprofits.

Zach Page: 00:22:55

When they shouldn't have, that was me.

Zach Page: 00:22:56

I did one of those.

Zach Page: 00:22:57

I just looked at those raising, doing an annual golf outing and they're like,

Zach Page: 00:23:01

nah, that's probably, for the 10,000 we'll raise, it's not worth the effort.

Zach Page: 00:23:05

But I also want to, make people cautious that how do you know whether or not to do

Zach Page: 00:23:09

a non-profit versus a for-profit as well.

Zach Page: 00:23:12

So yeah.

Zach Page: 00:23:12

Tell us more about kinda how you guys made those big decisions.

Zach Page: 00:23:16

Yeah.

Zach Page: 00:23:17

Oh yeah.

Zach Page: 00:23:19

The first part I can talk about the process.

Zach Page: 00:23:21

Sure.

Zach Page: 00:23:21

Yeah.

Zach Page: 00:23:22

Do you want to talk about the process?

Zach Page: 00:23:23

So if you want to answer the question about the nonprofit space, I can talk

Zach Page: 00:23:26

about the process of how we capture the interviews probably afterwards.

Zach Page: 00:23:30

Yeah.

Zach Page: 00:23:30

Let's do that.

Zach Page: 00:23:31

The.

Zach Page: 00:23:31

The thing was like, like you identified, right?

Zach Page: 00:23:34

Like your job first when you're in the military is, as you remember it's hectic.

Zach Page: 00:23:38

We didn't feel we have a couple things on the side that we've done.

Zach Page: 00:23:42

That aren't like major businesses.

Zach Page: 00:23:45

So we were like, okay, maybe we, everyone thinks about drop

Zach Page: 00:23:47

shipping or stuff like that.

Zach Page: 00:23:49

Yeah.

Zach Page: 00:23:49

You could do like little things like that.

Zach Page: 00:23:51

That don't take too much time, but like building a business while you're in

Zach Page: 00:23:54

the military, we were like, there's no, there's no way we're going to build a

Zach Page: 00:23:57

business that we could scale get funding.

Zach Page: 00:23:59

It's just not, it just didn't seem possible with the kind of battle

Zach Page: 00:24:03

rhythm that you have as a BCT.

Zach Page: 00:24:05

And Zach over in an air defense battalion.

Zach Page: 00:24:09

So we were like, what do we do?

Zach Page: 00:24:10

That can like we said, remain flexible, but also engages

Zach Page: 00:24:13

a lot of those same muscles.

Zach Page: 00:24:15

And like you identified a nonprofit doesn't mean everything's free.

Zach Page: 00:24:19

There's obviously a lot of we've discovered that there's a lot of ways to

Zach Page: 00:24:22

reduce costs, but things are still, you can definitely, you can ask, accountants

Zach Page: 00:24:27

and attorneys to do things at cost because since you're a non-profit,

Zach Page: 00:24:30

they can discount that But they're still going to charge you a little

Zach Page: 00:24:32

bit, they're still going to be a cost.

Zach Page: 00:24:34

Certain companies, Google, we found Google ads.

Zach Page: 00:24:36

If you're a nonprofit gives you $10,000 a month.

Zach Page: 00:24:39

But there's still a lot, there's still overhead that you have to cover.

Zach Page: 00:24:43

So we wanted to identify, you know what's a way that we can do this.

Zach Page: 00:24:46

So primarily what we found is that donations from friends, families, and

Zach Page: 00:24:50

other people, that are supportive.

Zach Page: 00:24:51

To cover that overhead.

Zach Page: 00:24:52

And then with each book, we have two tiers of books and Zach will go into that.

Zach Page: 00:24:55

One of them is paid and the other one we do give no cost to the veterans.

Zach Page: 00:24:59

And most of the veterans we serve will donate back to the project.

Zach Page: 00:25:03

So it doesn't come as a they, they realize, I'm paying this

Zach Page: 00:25:06

forward to some other veterans.

Zach Page: 00:25:08

But with the non, yeah, with the, with nonprofits you do have to

Zach Page: 00:25:11

realize that there is an element of you can't have equity in the company.

Zach Page: 00:25:14

You're not going to sell it to someone.

Zach Page: 00:25:15

But you have to stay afloat.

Zach Page: 00:25:17

There's still business decisions.

Zach Page: 00:25:18

You have to keep books.

Zach Page: 00:25:18

You have to make sure that you have a, a treasurer that's able to take account.

Zach Page: 00:25:22

You have to file your taxes.

Zach Page: 00:25:24

You have to go through all the legal processes, which can sometimes be,

Zach Page: 00:25:26

pretty arduous it's owning a business.

Zach Page: 00:25:28

You're just not owning the business.

Zach Page: 00:25:31

And we haven't gotten to the point we're not big enough to

Zach Page: 00:25:33

take revenue for ourselves.

Zach Page: 00:25:34

We're not doing this right now to make money for ourselves, but certainly you

Zach Page: 00:25:37

have to be honest with yourself that if you're going to run a nonprofit if it

Zach Page: 00:25:41

got big enough, and if you were spending enough time, you can justify that, to

Zach Page: 00:25:44

your board into your other volunteers.

Zach Page: 00:25:47

Thus far, we've found a lot of success in finding motivated volunteers and

Zach Page: 00:25:50

having a team approach, having a hierarchy where you have, a CEO and

Zach Page: 00:25:56

then a VP and then a director, and then, employees below that it doesn't

Zach Page: 00:25:59

work as well when you have volunteers.

Zach Page: 00:26:01

Because what if someone, all of a sudden has something to do, right?

Zach Page: 00:26:04

So we've found having, a team-based approach where

Zach Page: 00:26:06

everyone kind of shares ideas.

Zach Page: 00:26:08

And that way, if one person has to extract themselves, there's a rest of the

Zach Page: 00:26:11

team that still knows what's going on.

Zach Page: 00:26:14

So running a normal business, you want to have, a decision makers at each tier.

Zach Page: 00:26:18

We've tried to make it to the culture inside of what we're

Zach Page: 00:26:21

doing is much more collaborative.

Zach Page: 00:26:23

So that way no one feels like, Oh, I can't, I, if I extract myself

Zach Page: 00:26:27

the whole thing crumbles making sure that works is difficult, but

Zach Page: 00:26:30

we've found some good volunteers.

Zach Page: 00:26:32

We found some programs.

Zach Page: 00:26:33

There's a portal called Benevity.

Zach Page: 00:26:35

If anyone else out there is thinking about non-profits it matches you

Zach Page: 00:26:37

with corporations who are trying to encourage their employees to volunteer.

Zach Page: 00:26:42

So we've found interviewers, transcribers other people that are professionals at

Zach Page: 00:26:45

places like Humana, United healthcare that are getting paid by their companies

Zach Page: 00:26:51

to do work for us, which is really cool.

Zach Page: 00:26:53

Cause they know they're companies, Humana United healthcare Rakuten.

Zach Page: 00:26:57

Microsoft.

Zach Page: 00:26:58

They'll say, Hey look, our company is telling us, one, one day, a

Zach Page: 00:27:01

month or whatever, to take the afternoon off and do charity work.

Zach Page: 00:27:04

So what, yeah, what's that called a man we've worked with so many organizations

Zach Page: 00:27:08

in the Veteran service space.

Zach Page: 00:27:10

I don't think DOD skill bridge typically works unless someone's

Zach Page: 00:27:14

going to work for a major non-profit.

Zach Page: 00:27:17

But maybe that'd be some cool ways to.

Zach Page: 00:27:19

Get access to veterans at like Amazon volunteer.

Zach Page: 00:27:23

And I see a whole PR man, that's a whole nother project.

Zach Page: 00:27:26

Number two for you guys.

Zach Page: 00:27:27

You're.

Zach Page: 00:27:27

You're being creative, but it's all Benevity.

Zach Page: 00:27:30

So B E N E V I T Y.

Zach Page: 00:27:33

And the Benevity portal.

Zach Page: 00:27:35

So we enter our stuff.

Zach Page: 00:27:36

It's free for the nonprofits and.

Zach Page: 00:27:39

We register, you put job ads up.

Zach Page: 00:27:41

We were not sure how successful it would be.

Zach Page: 00:27:43

We were like, okay, let's put up a few ads and we've gotten some

Zach Page: 00:27:46

really dedicated volunteers.

Zach Page: 00:27:47

None of whom actually are veterans themselves or have

Zach Page: 00:27:50

veterans in their family.

Zach Page: 00:27:51

They're all people that said, look, I'm, I want to give back to veterans, know, I

Zach Page: 00:27:56

want to say thank you for your service.

Zach Page: 00:27:58

So they've interviewed veterans, they've transcribed the interviews

Zach Page: 00:28:01

and it's been a really cool experience for them connecting.

Zach Page: 00:28:04

With veterans, but yeah, the Benevity portal has been super useful for us.

Zach Page: 00:28:08

And for anyone else, thinking about doing a nonprofit, if you own a

Zach Page: 00:28:11

company, you can sign up for it.

Zach Page: 00:28:12

To encourage charitable giving and charitable activity

Zach Page: 00:28:15

through your employees.

Zach Page: 00:28:17

And yeah, in the future, we'd hope to be at the point where we can, whether

Zach Page: 00:28:21

it's, selling merchandise or grants where we could scale up and have, at

Zach Page: 00:28:26

some point you have to have employees.

Zach Page: 00:28:28

If you want to be able to have someone working 20 to 30 hours a

Zach Page: 00:28:32

week, that's not realistic, ask someone to volunteer that much.

Zach Page: 00:28:35

Unless they're just an extraordinary person.

Zach Page: 00:28:37

So at some point you're going to have payroll in a nonprofit, and we're not

Zach Page: 00:28:41

quite there yet, but that is definitely something that we see in short to

Zach Page: 00:28:45

midterm that we're going to need.

Zach Page: 00:28:48

So that's a consideration for nonprofits.

Zach Page: 00:28:50

You're not going to get, it's certain incentives, you can present the

Zach Page: 00:28:52

people, but for the most part, you need to have monetary incentives

Zach Page: 00:28:57

to make it worth someone's time.

Zach Page: 00:28:59

Yeah.

Zach Page: 00:29:00

So even the U S army needs needs funding.

Zach Page: 00:29:02

Hey Zach, why don't you tell us a little bit more than about the process who, whom

Zach Page: 00:29:08

do you serve and how are you serving them?

Zach Page: 00:29:11

Yeah, so we serve any active duty reservist or Veteran of any branch.

Zach Page: 00:29:18

So the services that we offer on the civilian side, Typically costs anywhere

Zach Page: 00:29:24

from a thousand to 4,000 to even $10,000.

Zach Page: 00:29:28

Wow.

Zach Page: 00:29:29

Because with a civilian company that, that doesn't interview a

Zach Page: 00:29:32

custom curated narrative and then placing, their custom photos in a

Zach Page: 00:29:38

book it takes time and why wouldn't I learn at the beginning is getting

Zach Page: 00:29:42

that minimum viable product into a.

Zach Page: 00:29:45

A robust product takes time and expertise that we just didn't have.

Zach Page: 00:29:49

So we were lucky enough to get volunteers who were designers to help us with

Zach Page: 00:29:53

InDesign, to make a really sleek template.

Zach Page: 00:29:57

And then we found some software solutions online to drive down the

Zach Page: 00:30:01

cost of transcription and the cost of.

Zach Page: 00:30:04

Creating a curated book.

Zach Page: 00:30:06

So the way it works is anybody can connect with one of our volunteers

Zach Page: 00:30:12

to, to set up an interview.

Zach Page: 00:30:13

They can do an interview at home, they can do a monologue.

Zach Page: 00:30:17

But after that interview, they would send the audio file into our organization and

Zach Page: 00:30:23

we would kick it to our AI to transcribe.

Zach Page: 00:30:26

And from there, one of our volunteers would.

Zach Page: 00:30:29

Look for any minor errors and create a narrative from the service member's story.

Zach Page: 00:30:35

One thing I failed to mention was the pre-interview guides are on our website.

Zach Page: 00:30:41

The American legacy project.com.

Zach Page: 00:30:43

Eric that'll work.

Zach Page: 00:30:44

And the, these guide, the Veteran through introspection, and once they

Zach Page: 00:30:51

fill out the form, they'll submit it to the person interviewing them.

Zach Page: 00:30:54

And from there that would guide the discussion that occurs in the

Zach Page: 00:31:01

120 minute to 90 minute interview.

Zach Page: 00:31:04

So once we have the transcription complete.

Zach Page: 00:31:08

We asked the Veteran to send 40 to 60 photos for their book.

Zach Page: 00:31:14

And once we tailor the narrative and it's okay.

Zach Page: 00:31:18

We will either kick that transcription to our partners at the porch swing stories.

Zach Page: 00:31:26

It's a for-profit company that does the.

Zach Page: 00:31:29

Process behind our classic legacy books.

Zach Page: 00:31:32

And then we also have a premium legacy book that is more curated

Zach Page: 00:31:36

and we hire designers to help custom curate that book so that one comes

Zach Page: 00:31:41

at cost, but it's significantly reduced to what the market cost is.

Zach Page: 00:31:46

So the cool thing about the classic book with porch swing story is.

Zach Page: 00:31:52

That the Veteran can go into their portal and build their own book

Zach Page: 00:31:57

and make chapters themselves.

Zach Page: 00:31:59

And then when they're ready, they can click print and print.

Zach Page: 00:32:02

But our volunteers, if the veteran does want to do that, our volunteers will go

Zach Page: 00:32:06

in and build a book for the book for them.

Zach Page: 00:32:08

And the way that's all private for the Veteran in their family.

Zach Page: 00:32:14

But we also offer our public legacy listing.

Zach Page: 00:32:16

So in that stage where we're curating the narrative, we'll ask the Veteran,

Zach Page: 00:32:22

if there's any portions of the store they'd want to omit, or if they were

Zach Page: 00:32:27

open to sharing most of their photos and their story on the site so that we can

Zach Page: 00:32:31

share their unique experiences with the.

Zach Page: 00:32:33

The broader public and we've found most people are happy to share, and we're glad

Zach Page: 00:32:41

to have their stories out there because we think they provide tremendous value.

Zach Page: 00:32:45

But in, in all the whole process is very dependent on the service

Zach Page: 00:32:51

members participation, because if we're done with the narrative that

Zach Page: 00:32:55

goes back to them and they have to.

Zach Page: 00:32:57

Okay.

Zach Page: 00:32:57

And We so far have captured about 35 legacies.

Zach Page: 00:33:02

Since really, since March, we had a couple before that, but it's

Zach Page: 00:33:07

been an awesome learning process.

Zach Page: 00:33:09

And I think everybody interviewers to transcribers that have had nothing to

Zach Page: 00:33:14

do with the interview or the designers everybody's gotten value out of this.

Zach Page: 00:33:18

And wanted to come back and serve some more.

Zach Page: 00:33:20

So it's been awesome so far.

Zach Page: 00:33:22

Man, guys, granulations on that and put together so quickly.

Zach Page: 00:33:26

How, when did this all start?

Zach Page: 00:33:29

When was that we incorporated officially which is a process.

Zach Page: 00:33:34

As, as a business owner, the IRS is not, it's not easy to work with

Zach Page: 00:33:38

per se registering regulations.

Zach Page: 00:33:40

It started officially in March.

Zach Page: 00:33:42

But we've really been at this for two, two years and some change.

Zach Page: 00:33:47

Okay.

Zach Page: 00:33:48

Putting the systems and the team together, it's either way I know nonprofits that.

Zach Page: 00:33:52

Have, a military transition program and they've wow, we've

Zach Page: 00:33:56

been at this for a few years.

Zach Page: 00:33:57

We've actually only brought like a couple people through, it's, to bring 35 people

Zach Page: 00:34:01

through it already, obviously you're testing and learning along the way.

Zach Page: 00:34:05

But I think you said it right there at the end.

Zach Page: 00:34:08

If I find this in my business, people can come to you and say, Oh, I want

Zach Page: 00:34:12

to do the thing that you offer.

Zach Page: 00:34:14

Yeah, something gets in the way that, you know, and it just it's

Zach Page: 00:34:17

no, do you really want to do this?

Zach Page: 00:34:20

And other than, getting there maybe stories in, on paper for further for

Zach Page: 00:34:25

their kids or grandkids, what's the other, reason I have my thoughts,

Zach Page: 00:34:31

but they, you think it's important for service members and veterans.

Zach Page: 00:34:35

To share their story.

Zach Page: 00:34:37

It's we've got a couple minutes left, so I thought that'd be

Zach Page: 00:34:39

a great way to wrap us up.

Zach Page: 00:34:42

Like why do we need to tell our stories from the individual perspective?

Zach Page: 00:34:47

Yeah, I think, yeah, you want to comment.

Zach Page: 00:34:52

Yeah I'll just share two things that, that and then I'll pass it off to Zach.

Zach Page: 00:34:56

The first is just the ability when you can talk to yourself and when you can

Zach Page: 00:35:01

examine yourself, it's super valuable.

Zach Page: 00:35:03

And like I said, a lot of people, life happens fast.

Zach Page: 00:35:06

You're busy, there's no, it's not a normal thing to sit and introspect.

Zach Page: 00:35:11

And whatever form that might take.

Zach Page: 00:35:13

Different people you need to be doing that, and this is an opportunity that the

Zach Page: 00:35:17

people that we've done, it's only an hour and a half interview, but midway through

Zach Page: 00:35:20

the interview, you'll notice Yeah they'll start to get lost in their own thoughts.

Zach Page: 00:35:23

You notice they're not talking to you anymore, and that's a

Zach Page: 00:35:26

huge benefit they'll finish.

Zach Page: 00:35:27

And they're like, Oh my gosh, I know I learned something

Zach Page: 00:35:31

as I was telling that story.

Zach Page: 00:35:33

I realized the lesson that I sh that I've learned, 10 years later.

Zach Page: 00:35:36

And the hope is that you continue to introspect and that's, the

Zach Page: 00:35:39

catalyst for something more.

Zach Page: 00:35:40

The second thing is, th the empathy factor, between civilians and military,

Zach Page: 00:35:46

we always ask, as veterans ourselves, we always joke about, thank you for your

Zach Page: 00:35:49

service, you're welcome for my service.

Zach Page: 00:35:51

What does that mean?

Zach Page: 00:35:51

And, when you don't even know what the service is, and I think that empathy

Zach Page: 00:35:55

that you can develop is so crucial, just understanding what's going on.

Zach Page: 00:36:00

And understanding what that life is like.

Zach Page: 00:36:02

So when it says, Hey, thank you for my service, thank you for your service.

Zach Page: 00:36:05

Excuse me.

Zach Page: 00:36:05

When you know that the person looking and thinking, you knows what

Zach Page: 00:36:08

you're doing, it's not so weird.

Zach Page: 00:36:10

It's Hey, yeah, you're welcome.

Zach Page: 00:36:11

Whatever that means for you.

Zach Page: 00:36:12

I think there's a lot of resentment towards that phrase when it's

Zach Page: 00:36:14

you don't even know what I did.

Zach Page: 00:36:15

Like whether I was the owner, whether I, sexual pleasure sat in the training

Zach Page: 00:36:21

area at Fort Richardson, but everything, it's diff different discussion for

Zach Page: 00:36:24

the time, but when you can increase that empathy and then just show people

Zach Page: 00:36:28

the people like you are doing things that maybe you didn't think of before.

Zach Page: 00:36:32

So whether that's, We have an interview.

Zach Page: 00:36:34

Graziella T-square and your Satoshi's on our site.

Zach Page: 00:36:37

She talks about being the only female in her navigation flight class.

Zach Page: 00:36:42

She never felt out of place.

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She never felt like she was discriminated against or anything.

Zach Page: 00:36:45

But she said, I think a lot of women don't do it.

Zach Page: 00:36:48

Not because it's a hostile environment.

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They just don't ever see anyone.

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If the only people that you see don't look anything like you don't

Zach Page: 00:36:55

have your background, then you might think, Oh, maybe that's not for me.

Zach Page: 00:36:57

And getting stories out there of people.

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That are, from all different backgrounds and showing that the

Zach Page: 00:37:02

military is a place that really takes all talents, all types of people.

Zach Page: 00:37:06

And again, increasing that understanding from civilians, I

Zach Page: 00:37:09

think that's been a huge effect.

Zach Page: 00:37:11

So Zach all, yeah, I think that a lot of the things that I was going

Zach Page: 00:37:17

to share, but I guess one of the last things that I would add to that is that.

Zach Page: 00:37:23

When you realize how diverse the military community is with the

Zach Page: 00:37:27

diversity of thought or background.

Zach Page: 00:37:29

Cause we're pulling people from all over the country and the U S

Zach Page: 00:37:32

territories and people that are trying to get in citizenship and you're

Zach Page: 00:37:37

throwing them on the same team and you're giving them a task to do.

Zach Page: 00:37:40

It's something special.

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And it's one of the last areas where some of the insidious.

Zach Page: 00:37:46

Nature of our culture right now, does it can see Ben, but it doesn't

Zach Page: 00:37:52

destroy what makes it valuable and what makes it valuable as a team and

Zach Page: 00:37:57

being able to look left and right.

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Recognize that people are different, but you're on a fan.

Zach Page: 00:38:02

You're a family and you're human and understanding yourself helps

Zach Page: 00:38:07

you get to that realization.

Zach Page: 00:38:09

But really being in that environment does yeah it's pretty special to share

Zach Page: 00:38:14

these stories with the problem now.

Zach Page: 00:38:16

I think you guys have a an amazing and a noble mission.

Zach Page: 00:38:19

And so I applaud you because I think the answer to that question, of what

Zach Page: 00:38:23

do I say if I don't say thank you two years after your service, because

Zach Page: 00:38:28

that's an end of a conversation, right?

Zach Page: 00:38:30

That's a thanks.

Zach Page: 00:38:31

Yeah, exactly.

Zach Page: 00:38:34

Okay.

Zach Page: 00:38:34

So it's awkward for everybody, we don't know what to say.

Zach Page: 00:38:36

They don't know what they're supposed to say.

Zach Page: 00:38:37

I always say, it's been, say, tell me about your service.

Zach Page: 00:38:41

Cause that starts the conversation.

Zach Page: 00:38:42

Then you can go, Oh you were this, Oh, you're just in the air force now.

Zach Page: 00:38:47

But it's like really?

Zach Page: 00:38:48

Yeah.

Zach Page: 00:38:48

But there's contexts, for everything.

Zach Page: 00:38:50

Oh you went through the Academy or were on the front lines.

Zach Page: 00:38:53

A very different stuff.

Zach Page: 00:38:55

And yeah, because these Wars have been ignored for a few years.

Zach Page: 00:38:59

I would say most of our communities aren't really quite paying attention other than.

Zach Page: 00:39:03

Yay.

Zach Page: 00:39:03

Thanks.

Zach Page: 00:39:04

We've been conditioned to assume all of the veterans are out there

Zach Page: 00:39:07

doing good stuff which they are, but we don't integrate it into society.

Zach Page: 00:39:10

If we don't actually understand what's going on.

Zach Page: 00:39:14

What did you do in the military?

Zach Page: 00:39:16

And likewise, Hey civilian.

Zach Page: 00:39:17

Tell me about your life too.

Zach Page: 00:39:18

Yeah, we need to hear those stories.

Zach Page: 00:39:21

So we're aware of that.

Zach Page: 00:39:22

It's not just us coming out of the military, all the cool stories, but

Zach Page: 00:39:26

Hey guys, thanks so much for coming.

Zach Page: 00:39:28

On this show.

Zach Page: 00:39:29

I know really looking forward to seeing where this goes here in a few years.

Zach Page: 00:39:34

And definitely looking forward to stay on here.

Zach Page: 00:39:37

After we go offline, I'd like to chat a little bit about how we can help you

Zach Page: 00:39:42

spread what you guys are doing and find the right people to tell those stories.

Zach Page: 00:39:46

Cause I can't say it enough.

Zach Page: 00:39:48

It's for me, it was cathartic to, to write my first book.

Zach Page: 00:39:51

It was just like, Oh one, I completed something that was just mine and it

Zach Page: 00:39:57

got so much stuff out of my head.

Zach Page: 00:39:58

It really helped me find my true identity of what I wanted to do next.

Zach Page: 00:40:04

So I think people who don't get that written down in some

Zach Page: 00:40:08

way, so they can reflect on it.

Zach Page: 00:40:10

Are missing out on a huge opportunity.

Zach Page: 00:40:12

So glad you guys are giving people an opportunity to do

Zach Page: 00:40:15

that at cost, if not cheaper.

Zach Page: 00:40:18

Cause you guys are doing it the non-profit way.

Zach Page: 00:40:20

And Hey veterans like stuff that's taken care of for him, that's for sure.

Zach Page: 00:40:23

So that's awesome.

Zach Page: 00:40:25

But all right guys we got to your website down there, the

Zach Page: 00:40:28

American legacy project.org.

Zach Page: 00:40:30

So please check it out and spread the word.

Zach Page: 00:40:33

And thanks again guys.

Zach Page: 00:40:34

And we will see you next time.