We had a great mix of familiar faces and brand-new ones on the Roundtable this week, and it felt like the energy of the group just keeps building as our platform grows. I want to give an extra warm welcome to our first-time attendees this week: Matt Spaid, Joshua Wood, and Shalisha Wood — great to have you all with us.
 

Matt Spaid (founder, Operation Antifragile — coaching, care packages, and retreat programs for veterans, first responders, and tactical professionals; spaid@operationantifragile.com; operationantifragile.com) joined us for the first time, connected through Mark and his wife in Iowa. Matt's a Marine combat veteran who served with 3rd Battalion, 4th Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he's built Operation Antifragile into something already making a real impact after just a couple of years. He shared that he applied for Progressive's Keys to Progress Sprinter van program and is still waiting to hear back — a good reminder that there's a lot of private funding out there that never shows up in our Benefits-Matcher reports because it's not publicly indexed. Matt had to duck out early but promised to make more Roundtables going forward.
 

I introduced Matt to Laura Cross (Air Force veteran; founder, White Sands Premier Travel and White Sands Self-Care; host, Mindful Mondays with Laura Cross; whitesandsselfcare@gmail.com; whitesandsselfcare.com), who shared her AO voice scan service — a 10-second voice analysis that identifies inflammation and dysfunction in the body — along with her work producing Keith McNally's (Marine Corps veteran; founder, Trail to Transformation; drkeithmcnally@gmail.com; drkeithmcnally.com) show. Keith joined us from Virginia in triple-digit heat, working on his Appalachian Trail thru-hike attempt and his media and wellness program.
 

Shalisha Wood and her husband Joshua Wood (Certified Franchise Consultant, New Leaf Franchise; joshua@newleaffranchise.com; newleaffranchise.com) introduced themselves as business and franchise consultants who've spent the past eight months focused on helping veterans transition from active duty into civilian careers and business ownership, working complimentary and across the U.S. and into Canada. Shalisha also shared that she's a fractional COO who works well with blue-collar owners — no coincidence, she said, that's actually how she met GB. Between the two of them, they cover a lot of ground: franchise ownership, business coaching, and operations support for owners who'd rather swing a hammer than do paperwork.
 

Vincent Lindenmeyer (retired U.S. Army Colonel; PhD in adult education; principal, Beacon 4sight Group; vince@beacon4today.com; beacon4today.com) gave us a great rundown of his work helping people start and sustain nonprofits — he's helped launch organizations in all 50 states and runs a low-cost weekly accountability community for small business and nonprofit leaders. He's also got a son playing tight end for Nebraska this season, so if you're watching college football, keep an eye out for #44.
 

Bill Haase (financial literacy educator; author, “Our Mindset on Money”; Money Mindset Media; moneymindsetmedia.com) gave us an update on our planned live event, now looking more like spring 2027 given how quickly it's growing — potentially closer to 1,000 attendees instead of the original 2–300. Bill's been deep in conversations about pulling in entertainment and connections for the Oahu event, including bringing on Van Morris and a possible stage/sound setup. He also shared that his book just got approved for sale at Harvard's bookstore, and that his prison financial literacy program has caught the attention of a private company running 92 prisons nationwide.
 

Alex Snyder (partner, Kaplan Family Financial; Army veteran) reconnected after finally getting time with Kelvin, and offered up a connection to a friend who runs a free nonprofit spotlight digital magazine called The Greater Good for anyone looking for exposure. He's also got real corrections experience if that's useful to anyone in that world.
 

Kelvin Ching (Kelvin Ching and Associates; Mod Financial; kchingandassociates@gmail.com) and I caught up on the USDA feral hog grant pilot program — Hawaii is one of 15 states in the pilot, and VOB qualifies as one of the nonprofits eligible to apply. We're looking at it as a possible training and land-stewardship opportunity for veterans.
 

Gb De Leon (retired Army officer; independent health and life insurance broker, USA Benefits Group; gdeleon@usabg.net) shared how his insurance work fuels his bigger mission of building a regenerative ranch where veterans can transition into farming and ranching.
 

Deb Plennert (founder, Precision With Honor Bookkeeping; deb@pwhbk.com) had a full plate of asks this week: sponsorship for an ARCA race car driven by Josh White, a Marine and the first 100% disabled NASCAR driver, who's rebuilding his car ahead of a September 12 race in Salem, Indiana that will relaunch QRFup with an all-veteran driver and pit crew lineup. She's also trying to find airline miles to help Michelle Cleveland, founder of Project 24/7, get from Arizona to an event in Georgia.
 

Mark Spenelli shared that he's been working the phones trying to build out that all-veteran pit crew for the September 12 race, hitting some frustrating gatekeeping trying to reach ARCA leadership directly. We offered to reach out as VOB and see if that carries any extra weight. Jim Mills (co-owner, EnCompass Background Screening Solutions; jmills@encompass411.com; encompass411.com; one of our founding VOB board members) offered to connect Mark with his daughter, who works for USAC Racing in Indianapolis and might know people in the racing world who can help.
 

I also want to give a shout-out to Mark Miracle (USMC veteran and founder of Miracle Sales Advisory, a fractional sales leadership firm (via Sales Xceleration) helping B2B companies build repeatable, sustainable sales growth. founder, Miracle Sales Advisory) — I saw you were on with us this week, and I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to call on you before you had to drop off. Would love to catch up with you soon.

Jim also shared his background in pre-hire assessments and skills testing, which sparked a good conversation about how AI-written resumes are now getting filtered out by AI-screening tools on the other end, effectively canceling each other out — a real problem for people job hunting right now.

On the VOB front: our course-hosting feature launched last week, so if you've got an existing course, we can link out to it, and if you don't, we've built a place for you to set one up. Our next big platform addition is a two-way job board, coming within three to four weeks, connecting people who have staffing needs with veterans who are job hunting or not quite ready to start a business yet.
 

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 🍍🇺🇸