This week's Roundtable had that good mix of new faces, old friends, and the kind of cross-talk that makes these calls worth showing up for — two brand-new attendees, a live demo that turned into a real business conversation, and a solid stretch on how we're all building out our social media game.

We had one brand-new face this week Jerry Aranas (retired U.S. Army/California Army National Guard - jerry@i3lsc.com) walked us through the audit and governance platform he built out of his time managing the calibration program at Lam Research — it takes messy, oversized data sets and boils them down to a simple green/yellow/red dashboard so an executive can see what actually needs attention in a couple of minutes instead of a couple of hours. I asked how customizable it is and how fast he can stand it up for a new client; turns out if the data going in is clean, he can have something usable within a few hours. It's a sharp approach, and it maps well onto something I preach constantly in my own work — take a big, ugly data set and hand people the one-page version they can actually act on. Good to have David Mohammed (solutions.mo-blind.com; virtualmoha@gmail.com) back with us — a former Army combat medic who spent over two decades in cybersecurity before founding Mo-Blind Solutions, an AI transformation and process-optimization practice. He also volunteers across several veteran-serving organizations, so there's a lot of overlap with what we're building here.

On the numbers side, Dorothy Smith (dmsbizhelp.com; dorothy@dmsbizhelp.com), founder of DMS Bookkeeping, gave us an update on how the Digits platform is working out for her — she's sold enough on it that she's moving her whole client base over. That kicked off a good back-and-forth about how brutal it can be to onboard a new client whose books everyone assumed were clean and just weren't — a problem every bookkeeper and CFO in the room has lived through more than once.

Alicia Nordman (alicia.nordman@gmail.com) gave us a genuinely useful breakdown of how the social platforms' algorithms actually behave — original, unedited 4K footage over anything recycled, why guns and certain other content get suppressed even when the context is completely legitimate, and how to work around that by keeping the sensitive stuff off the main post and into the comments instead. Jake Droge, aka "The Flagman," picked up that thread talking about his upcoming half-marathons in Indiana and Ohio (state 23 and 24 on his goal to run one in every state carrying an American flag), and Alicia is looking to turn his footage into content. Bill Haase (moneymindsetmedia.com; info@moneymindsetmedia.com) asked about getting a VOB intro or trailer built for his show, Garage Talk — Frank and I are putting that together for him, along with the broader VOB Veteran Journey pathway material that's already in progress with Nikisha for her live event this week.

Frank DiBartolomeo (speakleadandsucceed.com; frank@speakleadandsucceed.com) is building out a communication and presentation-skills course aimed at engineers and technical professionals, and our course platform is ready for him whenever he wants to plug it in — pay-gated or free, his call. Ed Jarecki stopped by briefly before heading into another call, glad to have him.

Deb Plennert gave us the rundown on QRF Up, the crisis-intervention and suicide-prevention nonprofit she works with alongside Mark — their NASCAR "throttle therapy" program, the push to get a paralyzed veteran relocated from Arizona to Washington State, and the long-term vision for their "Hero Complex" property. Alex Snyder, who's on the board with Deb, gave us the rundown on Sentinel AI — an AI chatbot connected to a veteran's actual care team that flags when someone may be heading into crisis, drawing on his own background as a SWAT crisis negotiator. Alex is also a financial professional with Kaplan Family Financial and New York Life (kaplanfamilyfinancial.com; amsnyder@ft.newyorklife.com), and Sentinel is actively looking for a new CEO with medical and veteran/first-responder experience. Gb De Leon (usabg.com/gdeleon; gdeleon@usabg.net) closed things out talking ranch work and regenerative farming with Mark Spenelli (naturesedgeglampground.com; natures.edge.glampground@gmail.com), whose veteran-focused glampground and tiny-home community project is still moving forward — both of them tying their day jobs back into a shared mission of getting veterans outdoors and working with their hands.

One more thing on my end: keep thinking about 4K video and high-resolution photo content you can upload for our VOB social media campaign — the more raw footage we have coming in, the more Alicia and the team can work with. I also spoke with Shankar, our tech lead, and we're expecting a two-way job board section added to the site in the next two to three weeks — vets searching openings, employers searching qualified candidates.

Everyone is encouraged to complete their free VOB member profile. I can see that several people have registered but have not yet finished setting up their profiles. If anyone runs into difficulty completing their profile, adding a business listing, posting Community News, or navigating the site, please reach out — I'm happy to help.

Thanks again to everyone who joined, shared, asked, offered, and connected. This is exactly what we want the VOB Roundtable to be: veterans and supporters helping each other find the people, tools, services, and opportunities that move missions forward.

Mahalo, 

Kevin 🍍🇺🇸