We had two brand-new faces join us this week, a full report from the QRF Up event in Iowa, and one of those calls where you can feel the momentum building on multiple fronts at once.

Nicole Bryan (founder and CEO of Empower Virtually, a virtual assistant agency; nicolebryan@empowervirtually.com; empowervirtually.com) was calling in at 8:00 at night local time from the UK, where she is stationed with her husband, who is active-duty Air Force — Chris Flowers gets credit for the introduction. She built the agency because she needed a career that could move when the family moved, and about 90% of her VAs are military spouses. Joseph Abboud, J.D. (Co-Founder & Executive Director of DreamLoad Ventures, a 501(c)(3) supporting women and underrepresented founders, and VP of QRF Up; abboudjaa@gmail.com) jumped in — his business solutions company has clients looking for VAs constantly and would rather keep that work domestic, so he asked her for time on her calendar right there. Joseph also mentioned he recently joined a mergers and acquisitions firm, which gives him a deal portal he can open up to this group — mostly unglamorous, cash-flowing businesses whose owners are retiring, plus some e-commerce and land. Frank is working the same angle in Pennsylvania, and Joseph asked me to introduce him to Gina Chen.
 

Heather Kline (Military Engagement and Growth Leader at CSA; heather.m.kline@csaassociates.com; csaassociates.com) was our other first-timer. Navy veteran, 22 years — she likes to say she graduated from the Navy rather than retired from it — and now a proud Army spouse about six months out from her second transition. CSA is a mid-sized firm owned by a fellow sailor, heavy in IT, cyber, and logistics, and beyond filling requisitions Heather runs a real mentorship program on the side. My favorite line of hers all night: there is the family you are born into, and the family you are sworn into. Our two-way job board lands right after the course platform, and between her and Nicole we already have two strong reasons to build it fast.
 

On the Iowa front, Mark Spenelli (natures.edge.glampground@gmail.com) was there in person for the QRF Up event and said the photos genuinely don’t do the horse farm justice — huge and beautiful in a way pictures can’t capture. He photographed every table and booth and sent them my way, which gives us a real list to work from. Joseph mentioned they’d already met at the H7 event in Nashville, so that made for a nice reunion on screen. Rameses “Ram” Yebra (founder of QRF Up; rameses@qrfup.org) filled the rest of us in from Iowa itself — three days, a ton of connections, video from the third day still coming. The big one: they’ve finally figured out how to get people in through VR&E for the programs, with Deb Plennert (deb@pwhbk.com) structuring the education side so it can go to the board of education and let VR&E fall in behind it. There’s also a farming piece moving with the veteran coalition and USDA, allocating communities and land by region — GB, they’re working your part hard. All of it launches September 11. Ram also introduced Deb to Lt. Col. Perry Blackburn of 7th Group, who commanded the horse soldiers into Afghanistan and was Ram’s own commander; he’ll be joining us soon too. Deb herself called in before heading to the airport, pointed everyone toward Vet Head brand and Operation Anti Fragile, and mentioned she may have found us someone for medical billing and coding who wants the experience — timely on my end. Two things I learned about Deb this week: she can code, and she can apparently say no. She wanted that on the record.

On the sales and financial side, Mark Miracle (owner of Miracle Sales Advisory and a fractional sales leader with Sales Xceleration, Aurora, Colorado; mmiracle@salesxceleration.com) helps small business owners build or fix their sales engines, and joined us dealing with wildfire smoke back home — Denver needs some rain badly. Kelvin Ching (Kelvin Ching and Associates, Oahu; kchingandassociates@gmail.com) offered himself up as a resource for business expansion and financing through private lenders, a one-page application with some deposit documentation — his best clients, he said, are often the ones the bank already turned down despite running a solid business with a real reason to grow. And Alex Snyder (financial advisor and partner at Capital and Family Financial, south of Boston; Army veteran, five years active duty; amsnyder@ft.newyorklife.com) joined with a two-week-old baby at home, in between working a pro bono case for an 82-year-old woman referred by his town’s council on aging. His focus is transition planning — structuring disability and retirement income so it actually lasts — and I’m going to connect him with Jake Droge, who does reverse mortgages with an all-veteran team and specializes in helping people stay in their homes. Alex also mentioned meeting a retired Air Force gov contracting officer who now helps businesses win government contracts, and before he could even get her name out, Wayne Murray and several of us beat him to it, Nikki Gianni. 😆 Surprised Alex hadn’t crossed paths with NiKki via VOB already. Nikki Gianni — retired USAF Major, former federal contracting officer who managed roughly $20B in government contracts, now runs The Small Business Architect / The GovCon Architect helping small (especially veteran-owned) businesses win government contracts. nikki.gianni@gmail.com

Wayne Murray (founder and CEO of A-1 VA Ratings West, which does free VA rating evaluations; a1vawest.com) was already primed for that Nikki moment, and it turns out he is up to more than I even realized — flight physical done, studying for his private pilot license, building out his Vesta Jets nonprofit to create a pipeline for veterans into aviation careers given the pilot shortage, brokering for Elysium Jets on the side, and still running A-1 and Employ Well. His own description was the best one of the night: he’s a concierge, so tell him what you need and he’ll plug you in. And Gilberto “Gb” De Leon (retired Army Cavalry officer and Airborne Ranger, insurance broker with USA Benefits Group under De León Valor & Virtue Legacy, and a Kentucky regenerative farmer; gdeleon@usabg.net) joined us from his truck instead of a tractor, having lost a cow that morning. He asked what help I need, which is exactly like him, and I’m already leaning on him as a squad leader once we get that structure sorted. He’s also hunting for a veteran who is a genuine GoHighLevel expert for the incubator and the network — his own LinkedIn search turned up forty messages from overseas agencies and nothing usable. If that’s you, or you know that person, speak up.

Bill Haase (founder of Money Mindset Media and author of Our Mindset on Money; bill@billhaase.com) had the news of the night: Harvard University is taking his book in. His first prison pilots start September 4th and 5th in Indiana — four programs, with a state contract the goal and eight or nine more states already lined up. His own framing is worth repeating: if you want to know where to put your money, talk to Alex; if you want to understand how money controls you and how to take that control back, talk to Bill.

On the VOB side, squad structure emails are going out now, starting with the oldest incubator contacts first, so the regulars here haven’t gotten theirs yet. A squad is twelve people broken into support elements of three, with a squad leader and a weekly check-in on where you are in your business. From conversations Nakisha, Deb, and I have been having in our Hawaii group, we’re broadening past straight B2B incubation, because everyone has other needs too — health and wellness, VA ratings that aren’t what they should be. We’re at about 50 people in the incubator now, all in the last year, with no advertising at all.

The site keeps moving too. Shankar has built directories searchable by city, state, and military base across veteran services, members, and business listings — things we wanted last year and couldn’t afford. You can already host your podcast there, I get a trial of the course program this week, and the job board follows right behind it. We’re also automating Community News so a member post pushes straight out to LinkedIn, Facebook, X and others with a headline, a hook, and a link back to the full article here.

And we’re planning live events. Bill wants to host one on the USS Missouri, which I think is just cool as hell — January is the target, though the ship books pretty far out and we don’t have a date or even a name for it yet. The idea is to showcase what this group brings to every level of the military community: active duty, veterans, wounded, Gold Star families, TAPS. Bill can bring a producer and crew to record it, and we’ve got at least three members with active TV shows right now — Laura Cross, Dr. Keith, and Nakisha. Lead-up events come first, and sponsors are the next piece to work out.

Everyone is encouraged to complete their free VOB member profile. I can see that several people have registered but haven’t yet finished setting theirs up. If you’re in the incubator and want a business listing, let me know. If anyone runs into difficulty completing a 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 🍍🇺🇸