“We’re Not Broken.”<\/h1>\n

Chris Hoffmann\u2019s origin story isn\u2019t unique. The St. Louis native grew up with a tough upbringing in a broken home. Like many young men raised in similar difficult situations, he joined the United States Marine Corps\u2014what he calls <\/span>\u201cUncle Sam\u2019s Misguided Children.\u201d<\/span><\/i> He served for four years\u20142008 to 2012\u2014living a year and a half in Japan and serving in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the final year of his enlistment, he started thinking about having a family, and knew there was no path to that life as long as he was in the Marines. After his discharge, Hoffmann struggled to figure out how to live life post-military and found himself in five different careers in five different industries throughout the next five years. He started off like many military people do\u2014he got a job in security\u2014and eventually switched to specializing in fitness memberships, working for a large commercial gym, selling vacuums door-to-door, and marketing telecommunications.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt took me a while to kind of figure out who I was, what I wanted, and how to execute it,\u201d<\/span><\/i> Hoffmann says. <\/span>\u201cI was living in one of the highest cost-of-living cities in the United States\u2014San Diego, California\u2014just trying to figure out how to survive.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Hoffmann adds that by 2017, he was getting tired of working ten-hour days, seven days a week, and walking around in the rain and other inclement weather\u2014so he got an inside sales job and started climbing the corporate ladder. He became a mid-level manager with a marketing software company, developing a 30- to 45-day sales training onboarding program to help recent college graduates start selling the software products.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But that\u2019s when his story became more unique. Reflecting, he realized he was finally feeling successful, but it had taken him years to get there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I started getting stability, I looked back and wondered who else, as far as the veteran community, was getting out and realizing that career-readiness education, like resume writing and interview prep, has a shelf life,\u201d<\/span><\/i> he says. <\/span>\u201cJob fair education serves a purpose, but doesn\u2019t get down to the deeper wounds of what transitioning veterans actually have to go through from a personal-development standpoint. It takes a lot of veterans time to do that, because we\u2019re unconsciously in survival mode. That\u2019s how we\u2019re trained to be. We don\u2019t know how to thrive, really.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

That was the inception of the Ambitious VET Network\u2014and the <\/span>Ambitious VET Show<\/span><\/i> podcast\u2014which launched as a Facebook group that grew quickly and organically to 600 members. The podcast followed in 2018.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe learned from that Facebook group that there were conversations that needed to happen inside our community that weren\u2019t happening already,\u201d<\/span><\/i> Hoffmann says. <\/span>\u201cWhat better way to do that than podcasting? Our decision to launch a podcast was because we wanted to continue to build an audience, but also wanted to be positioned as an expert in the marketplace.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

With about 40,000-plus registered veteran service organizations, Hoffmann says veterans and active military tend to be skeptical about outsiders and organizations set on a mission to help them. <\/span>\u201cWe first sought an altruistic-like movement, because I had no business model at the very beginning,\u201d <\/span><\/i>he explains.<\/span> \u201cGuys and gals who were previous military members were just looking at us like another veteran service organization coming and trying to help out.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Through the Facebook and podcast interaction, though, Hoffmann says veterans started to realize the <\/span>Ambitious VET Show<\/span><\/i> really cared. <\/span>\u201cWe reach a high volume of veterans on a weekly and monthly basis from a download standpoint, but it\u2019s hard to get them to voice their opinions. They know they\u2019re in their own way. They deal with confidence issues,\u201d <\/span><\/i>he explains.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe all get out with an inferiority complex. We\u2019re just doing things for the bigger cause\u2014it\u2019s servant leadership\u2014that\u2019s what military are trained to do. But we don\u2019t know how to be individuals.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

To counter that, Hoffmann says veterans need emotional intelligence training, like building self and social awareness, and help building and nurturing relationships and habits around their purpose. <\/span>\u201cWe want to help them become unstoppable in the trenches of life post-military.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In the beginning, the podcast was very guest-centric. <\/span>\u201cI just wanted to give veterans a voice to share their story,\u201d<\/span><\/i> Hoffmann explains. <\/span>\u201cI wanted to have a veteran who was courageous enough to say they weren\u2019t OK\u2014and how they overcame not being OK\u2014to speak vulnerably into the community and see how that impacted the market.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Hoffmann says his biggest mission is to change the stigma that veterans are broken. <\/span>\u201cWe\u2019re not broken, and we\u2019re not charity cases,\u201d <\/span><\/i>he says. <\/span>\u201cThe podcast became a therapeutical vehicle for guests to share their stories and, hopefully, it would be like audio medicine for our listener.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Finally, Hoffmann says he just wants listeners to be encouraged by following the podcast. <\/span>\u201cWe share a golden wisdom each week, so they can walk away with one golden grenade that\u2019s going to help them blow through to new levels of success\u2014it\u2019s a mindset, a life hack\u2026 one practical tip they can apply to everyday life to make sure they\u2019re building their resilience.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

November \/ December 2022<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“We’re Not Broken.” Chris Hoffmann\u2019s origin story isn\u2019t unique. The St. Louis native grew up with a tough upbringing in a broken home. Like many young men raised in similar difficult situations, he joined the United States Marine Corps\u2014what he calls \u201cUncle Sam\u2019s Misguided Children.\u201d He served for four years\u20142008 to 2012\u2014living a year and a half in Japan and serving in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.\u00a0 In the final year of his enlistment, he started thinking about having a family, and knew there was no path to that life as long as he was in the Marines. After his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":13624,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4139,4140,4135,4137,4141,4066,361,4138,4133,4134,4143,4142,4136],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n