Hi everyone,
 

This week’s VOB Roundtable covered a lot of ground — veteran recognition, franchising, AI, prison reentry, crisis intervention, precious metals, and a few strong collaboration opportunities.

We started light, with Mark Salmon EA (income tax expert, Enrolled Agent, and NTPI Fellow; mark@marksalmon.tax) talking about ultra-long-range flights, which led me into a quick story about flying home from Sydney to Honolulu on Halloween and landing back in Hawaii while it was still Halloween.
 

As everyone settled in, Wayne Murray (veteran founder of A-1 VA Ratings West and veteran benefits coach; wayne@employwellnow.com) recapped the National Social Media Awards event. Wayne shared that he and Bill Haase were there, along with Scotty of Honor Box Studios, Tom, and Darwin — all veterans we know through the network. Wayne said the veteran community showed up strong, with both veterans and active-duty attendees present, and that the event had a lot of recognition, connection, and veteran support.
 

Lisa Linkowsky (Founder and Certified Franchise Consultant at Milestone Franchising; lisa@milestonefranchising.com; www.milestonefranchising.com) introduced herself and shared how broad the franchise world really is. Most people think fast food first, but Lisa reminded us there are franchise models across trades, services, campgrounds, and hundreds of other categories.
 

Mike Verret (pitch and presentation strategist helping business owners explain what they do clearly) shared his core message: your first 10 seconds should make someone say, “Tell me more.” He also invited the group to his free Business Pitch Spectacular, where people pitch for one minute and he rewrites the pitch in three.
 

Kelvin Ching (Hawaii-based financial advisor and Executive Managing Director at Mod Financial, focused on tax-free retirement strategies) added that he had attended Mike’s first event and found it fun and effective.
 

Bill then shared more from the National Social Media Awards event, including connecting with Wayne there and meeting people in the veteran community. He also brought up Roll Call Chicago Land, a group supporting veterans and transitioning service members, which led into a bigger discussion about VOB’s need for a vetted directory of veteran services that actually answer, respond, and do what they say they do.
 

Brian Cate (working capital and government contract financing resource with SouthStar Capital / Acuitist Capital Advisory; atlantictf@gmail.com; www.southstar.com) was also with us as the group settled in.
 

Aslyn Bonds (22-year military veteran and founder of JA&E Veterans Staffing, JA&E Veterans Support Center, and Hearts for Veterans) joined from her phone early in the call. Her phone displayed as Galaxy S25+, so her name did not come through cleanly in the transcript, but she was present with us.
 

Heather Di Rocco (Founder of Insurebot Solutions and AI consultant helping small businesses implement practical AI systems; heather@insurebotsolutions.ai; https://insurebotsolutions.ai) introduced herself and explained that she helps people move from “I wish AI could do this for me” into actual implementation. That opened a useful AI discussion around accuracy, guardrails, and using prompts like “critique and do due diligence” to make AI outputs more reliable.
 

Joseph Wexler (AOD Resource Group community builder with a background in technical sales and ecosystem development) shared that he is exhibiting at an AI Epidemic conference this Thursday and invited veteran-owned businesses to reach out if they want visibility at his virtual booth. 
 

Sandy Dupleich (Career Ownership Coach with The Entrepreneur’s Source, helping professionals explore business and franchise ownership; sdupleich@esourcecoach.com; https://sdupleich.esourcecoach.com/) introduced herself and explained that her work starts with determining whether business ownership is actually right for someone. She and Lisa both emphasized responsible franchising, including making sure people have the financial cushion and support needed before taking the leap. 
 

Bill then gave a bigger update on his prison reentry program. Indiana originally wanted one pilot, but that has expanded to four pilots on a much faster timeline, and nine more states have already expressed interest. His program is designed to help people prepare for reentry with a life plan, financial plan, and connection to meaningful work.
 

Deb Plennert (Gold Star widow and founder of Precision With Honor Bookkeeping, supporting military families, veterans, first responders, and mission-driven small businesses; deb@pwhbk.com) suggested connecting Bill with Jim Mills for background screening as the program grows. She also raised the possibility of connecting the program to TAPS, SkillBridge, GI Bill-approved certification paths, and other veteran education funding routes.
 

Tom Lundell (Honolulu-based gold and silver savings consultant with SoundMoney / 7k Metals; https://sound.money/pololei20) shared why he helps people understand physical gold and silver savings. His focus is helping people diversify and start where they are, even if that means saving $1 at a time.
 

Deb also shared updates around Project 24/7, Sentinel Veteran AI, SSD Consulting, and the crisis-intervention work forming around VOB. The larger goal is to connect people, tools, clinicians, training, and technology that can help troops and veterans in crisis. Her ask was simple: when we see someone carrying an unaddressed wound, help point them toward the resources being built.

That led into a broader reminder that VOB is more than a business incubator. We are a network. Whether someone needs business formation, funding, mental health support, service dog resources, equine therapy, publishing help, background screening, or something else, the goal is to recognize the need and connect them to the right people.
 

Meade Kincke (veteran, executive advisor, and founder of The Recalibrator / Imperfektus, helping leaders operate with clarity and authenticity) added perspective throughout the conversation and brought some well-timed humor to the discussion.
 

Near the end, Joe introduced his guest, Micah (networking, entrepreneurship, and Bitcoin/crypto background). Micah shared a bit about his experience with Bitcoin going back to 2012 and talked about Bitcoin as on-chain value rather than simply something to convert back into dollars.

We closed with a fun idea: possibly holding a future event on the USS Missouri here on Oahu. I mentioned that the Missouri can be rented for events, and Bill immediately started thinking about sponsorship and launch possibilities.
 

A few good follow-up threads came out of this week’s call: Mike’s Business Pitch Spectacular, Joe’s offer to highlight veteran-owned businesses at his virtual AI event booth, Bill’s need for strong local leaders as his prison and military-transition program expands, Deb’s crisis-intervention resource work, and our continued effort to build a trusted VOB resource directory of veteran services that actually respond and deliver.
 

Thanks again to everyone who showed up, shared resources, and kept building this network in real time.